Hello again. I want to let you all know that from here on out most of the chapters will be about 2000 words. Doing chapters that have 4000 words is starting to test my patience. But don't worry, this chapter, though shorter, has something for every Luffy x Nami fan. Now that that's out of the way, let's get back the story shall we?

Turning Point of the Journey! Nami's Pain! Enter Sous Chef Sanji!

A few days later, the Straw Hat Pirates, accompanied by Johnny and Yosaku, were finally approaching the Baratie. There were many different levels of anticipation amongst them and each Straw Hat was thinking something different. Nami wondered if their new chef would be strong and Usopp was looking forward to meeting the chefs. Zoro was anxious to see if the man he was looking for would be there today while Luffy was just thinking about the food. Yosaku had fully recovered and he and Johnny addressed the four of them.

"Hey guys there's something I forgot to warn you about. This place is very close to the Grand Line so there's bound to be some crazy people there."

"That's fine. We might find more than one person to join our crew," Luffy said.

"Just how many people do you want to join Luffy," Usopp asked.

"I'd be satisfied with a crew of about ten people."

"Ten? Well here's hoping those we do recruit are good fighters," Nami said slightly shocked at Luffy's answer.

"Well here we are everyone," Johnny announced.

Everyone rushed to the front of the ship and saw that it was indeed a floating restaurant. It was a large ship with an oval shape and two normal masts. It had a fish head on its front and a fishtail rudder on its back. It also had three stories and a round bottom with many cannons in case there was a battle.

"Wow! It's a fish!" Luffy exclaimed.

Just then, they heard some noise from the side of the ship. They turned to see a marine ship pull up beside them.

"I smell trouble," Zoro remarked.

"You don't say," Luffy joked.

A man walked onto the deck of the marine ship and looked at them with a bored expression.

"I've never seen your mark before. I'm Marine Lt. 'Ironfist' Fullbody. Which one of you is the Captain?"

"I am," Luffy said. "My name is Monkey D. Luffy."

"You all seem like a bunch of morons to me. Although I have seen you two before," Fullbody said looking at Johnny and Yosaku. "Finally caught yourselves some pirates, eh? Took you long enough."

"What?! We're not some regular bounty hunters you jerk," Johnny protested. "Look at these wanted posters!"

He pulled out a ton of wanted posters and dropped them on the deck, but Fullbody just ignored them and turned to one of his men.

"This ship's an eyesore. Sink it."

"Yes sir."

"H-he just ignored us," Johnny muttered.

The marines fired a cannonball at the Straw Hats as Luffy prepared to intercept it. Out of instinct, he got front of the cannon ball and turned his arms and torso into water.

"Water-Water…" he began as the cannonball went into his right hand and through his torso.

"CANNON!"

The ball shot out of his left hand and flew past the marine ship into the horizon. While this was happening, Nami was holding one of the wanted posters that Johnny pulled out. Her bangs were covering her eyes and an aura of pure anger radiated off of her.

"Uh, Big sis," Yosaku said hesitantly.

Nami didn't answer as she walked into the cabin seemingly tuning out everything around her.

"What's up with her," Usopp wondered.

"I don't know. She looked like she was ready to snap," Zoro said.

"I'll go talk to her. Everyone stay out here," Luffy said as he had sensed the sudden change in Nami's mood and knew she had seen Arlong's wanted poster.

He walked into the cabin where he found Nami sitting down at the table with her back to the door. She was staring at the poster and trembling as she crumpled it up.

"Nami, are you okay?" Luffy asked.

Nami tensed up but didn't turn around or speak.

"You saw Arlong's wanted poster didn't you?"

"…Yes," Nami said quietly.

Luffy walked over to Nami, sat down and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Nami… please talk to me," he requested. "It's okay. You can tell me anything. I'm here for you."

His words touched Nami's heart. Never before had anyone been able to affect her like this. She felt all her defenses melt away as she realized she could no longer hold it in. With her eyes glued to the floor, she lifted up her left sleeve and showed Luffy her tattoo of Arlong's mark.

"Luffy… I know you saw my memories back in Orange Town, but seeing the pain is nothing compared to experiencing it."

"I know."

"For eight long years I've been working hard to collect money to free my village from that bastard, while putting up with all the abuse from him and his crew. But… even though he said he would free us when I got 100,000,000 berries, I can't help but think that he's lying. I've known that for a while, but I didn't know what else to do."

"Nami…"

By now, the tears were falling down Nami's cheeks.

"I wanted to wait for this until we got more crew members, but… I just can't. No one's ever been so willing to help me like you are."

Nami looked up at Luffy with her eyes releasing years of pent up tears.

"Luffy… help me."

Luffy now realized that Nami's pain was deeper than he thought, and that it took a lot for her to open up to him. He quickly pulled her into a tight hug and stroked to back of her head to sooth her.

"Of course I'll help. Leave it to me Nami. I'll free you from that jackass, and I'll make sure he pays."

T-thank you…" Nami muttered before crying harder.

"Shhh, it's okay. Everything will be okay," Luffy said soothingly.

After a while Nami calmed down and pulled away from the hug.

"Just let me recruit a cook and another person and we'll go straight to your village," Luffy said as he got up.

"Okay," Nami said as she wiped her eyes.

The two of them walked out of the cabin as the others looked at Luffy.

"Is she okay Luffy?" Usopp asked. "What was that about?"

"I'll tell you later," Luffy said. "But for now… LET'S GO EAT!"

With that Luffy ran towards the entrance with great zeal.

'Idiot,' everyone thought.


While all this was going on, Fullbody and his date had entered the Baratie with his date leading to many people commenting on a Marine Lt. being here. They were seated by a man with blonde hair that covered his left eye who also pour them wine.

"You're quiet popular it seems. Everyone's looking at you," the woman said.

"Nonsense, they're just admiring your beauty," Fullbody replied coolly as he lifted his glass. "To your beauty."

"Hmm, this taste," Fullbody said as he smelled the wine. "This fragrance…it's the fragrance of Mitqueo City in the north. This wine must be Wurzburger wine! Am I correct waiter?"

By now everyone was watching with bated breath.

"Not even close," the 'waiter' said as he placed two bowls of soup in front of Fullbody and his date. "The soup is getting cold. Please enjoy it before it gets cold."

He placed a spoon in the stunned Marine's hand and started to walk off before he said," By the way, I'm the Sous Chef Sanji, not a waiter. All of the waiters jumped ship after what happened yesterday."

By now Fullbody had lowered his head in embarrassment as the whole restaurant including his date were giggling softly. Most of them were trying not to laugh too loud for fear of Fullbody going ballistic.

"Discouraged? 'Cause of the wine?" the woman asked.

"A little bit. Guess my tongue's a bit numb," he tried to cover up his embarrassing act but his thought were far less innocent. 'What the hell's going on? I specifically asked the head chef for that wine.'

It was then that the front doors opened and the Straw Hats came in, with neither Luffy nor Nami showing any sign that the serious talk ever happened. Sanji, who was in the middle of pouring some wine for another woman, looked up at them and his eyes zoomed in at Nami. He immediately stopped pouring the wine, put the bottle back into the ice bucket on the table, and went over to them (or rather her).

"Ah my beautiful Goddess of the sea! Where have you been all my life," he said as he lowered himself to one knee and pulled out a rose to present her with. "My name is Sanji. How may I serve you?"

Nami was slightly caught off guard by this but quickly came up with a plan to use this to her advantage.

"We would like a table for four," Nami said.

"AND FOOD," Luffy yelled.

Bonk! Nami hit him on the head. "Do NOT yell in a restaurant, Luffy!" she scolded.

"Sorry," he muttered.

Once they were seated, Sani gave them menus and went to get them sake and wine when he was stopped by Fullbody.

"WAITER!" he yelled loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Didn't I say I'm not a waiter?" an annoyed Sanji said.

"Does this restaurant serve bugs in its food," Fullbody said, ignoring what Sanji said and pointing the fly he put in the soup.

"Bugs?"

"Yeah, what's this bug doing in my soup?"

'That should do it,' he thought. 'When word gets out that this restaurant served bugs in its food it'll get shut down for good.'

"I'm very sorry sir, but I don't know what it's doing there," Sanji said with a smirk. "But if I had to guess I'd say the backstroke."

This got everyone laughing as Sanji won the battle of wits. Fullbody was obviously not taking defeat very easily and was grinding his teeth together. He stayed like that for about a minute until…

"DON'T YOU MESS WITH ME WAITER!"

WHAM! Fullbody destroyed his table with his bare hands, knocking the soup onto the floor.

"What a jerk," Luffy said. "First he put a fly in his soup to get Sanji in trouble then he throws a tantrum 'cause it doesn't work."

"You know, if you had just taken the fly out it would've been edible," Sanji said in a low tone as he knelt down to the spilt soup. "It took three full days and nights to prepare that."

"I'M A PAYING CUSTOMER HERE! DON'T YOU DARE MOCK ME!"

"…Can money satisfy your hunger?"

"What?"

"I said 'Can money satisfy your hunger'," Sanji said as he stood up.

A few minutes later, the entire restaurant was left aghast at the sight before them. Sanji was holding Fullbody by the chin and Fullbody's whole upper body was drenched in blood.

Just then a rather large man with hair covering most of his arms, a rope around his head and an apron around his waist appeared from the back. His name was Patty, and he was currently pissed off.

"SANJI, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING TO OUR CUSTOMERS?!" he yelled.

"WHAT'S GOING ON DOWN THERE!?" another voice bellowed.

Down from the stairs came a man with a massive moustache and a very tall chef's hat. It was the head chef Zeff.

"ARE YOU BEATING UP MY CUSTOMERS AGAIN SANJI?!"

"He is. And a marine lieutenant no less," Patty confirmed.

"I don't care if he's a lieutenant or an admiral, he wasted food and insulted the cook to his face. As far as I'm concerned that's the same as signing you death warrant," Sanji said as he let go of Fullbody, who moaned in pain as he dropped to the floor.

"What kind of restaurant is this…Do you treat all your customers this way? Who do you think I am? I'll destroy this place. Just you wait," Fullbody muttered from his slumped position.

"Not of I kill you first," Sanji growled before Jeff put his hand on his shoulder.

"I'll handle this Sanji," he said before turning toward the downed marine. "GET OUT OF MY RESTAURANT!"

Zeff kicked Fullbody in the gut with his peg leg, putting the poor man in even greater pain.

'Even the owner is like this. These cook are just like Pirates,' he thought.

"Now then where was I?" Sanji said to himself.

"You were going to get us some wine and sake," Nami said

"Oh of course my dearest!"

But just then the door burst open and in came a very scared marine.

"Lieutenant Fullbody we have an emergency!"

"What is it?"

"Our prisoner has escaped! That man from Krieg's crew killed seven of us and escaped."

"EEEEEEK," some women yelled.

"The Krieg Pirates?!"

"They're the strongest pirates in the East Blue!"

"Impossible!" Fullbody exclaimed. "That man was nearly dead when we captured him three days ago, and he hasn't had anything to eat since!"

"I'm sorry sir! Forgive-"BLAM! "…me."

The marine was shot in the back and died instantly. As he fell, a shadowy man appeared behind him holding a smoking pistol.

"That… makes eight," he said.

Everyone in the room was thinking the same thing…Who the hell is this man!?

That's where I'll leave it for now. Since that chapters will be shorter, it's possible I can get them out faster since it won't as much mental energy to do it. I hope you like what I did with Luffy and Nami. Please read and review and I'll see you all next time.