AN: So for some reason a lot of this ended up being in Usopp's POV. I think I wanted to play with it, and whatever untruths he might try to pull. Please tell me if you like it!

The pirate lifted the gun to a mere inch away from Patty's forehead. "Would a bullet do?"

"So you don't have money, right?" Patty's tone changed to anger as he slammed his fists down on the chair where the pirate had been, mincing it into pure splinters.

Chapter 10: Trouble? No, of Course Not.

Later

Usopp's POV

While brave warriors of the sea face any and all danger, I, the great Captain Usopp, decided we had better come back later. To give the restaurant time to recover, of course.

We had commandeered a table for our meal when Luffy begged for the presence of the Great Captain Usopp. Nami called him up, "Hey, chore boy!"

"I hear you have to work for a year here!" I said.

"Is it ok if we redraw the symbol on the ship flag?" Zoro teased.

"Ahh…. You're eating yummy food without me?!" Luffy cried, he was devastated, the poor working man fated to starve amongst a crowd of diners. "How could you?!"

Zoro turned to face us, "That's our business, right guys?" he laughed. The poor working man was not to be ignored, he reached across the table, dropping a gargantuan booger into Zoro's water. Zoro was oblivious to this treachery, and rose the cup to his lips. "Well, it's true that the food here is good." He said, "I feel bad for you but…drink it yourself!" Zoro forced the water down Luffy's throat.

The chore boy, thwarted! I couldn't stop laughing. Our merry way was so contagious that soon chef's scrambled to meet me. "Oh, dear ocean!" Sanji suddenly proclaimed to Nami's side. He held a somehow sparkling rose out in front of her, "I thank you for today's encounter! Oh love, I can't bear this hardship, go ahead and laugh at me! I'm now prepared to be a lowly pirate or devil if I'm with you!" he dramatically exclaimed as he clutched his face in supposed agony. He suddenly surged upwards after giving her the flower, "However, how tragic it is! There's too great an obstacle between us!"

"That obstacle is me, right, Sanji?" the head chef asked.

"Damn geezer." Sanji muttered, effectively brought out of his obsessive flirting.

"This is a good opportunity. Why don't you become a pirate with them?" the head chef said. "You're no longer needed at this restaurant!"

Sanji faced, this head chef, as he had done so many times before, anger steaming out of his skin so that the entire restaurant began to stare. "Hey, you damn geezer! I'm the Sous Chef here. What do you mean you no longer need me?"

"You get in trouble with the customers. You flare your nostrils the second you see a girl. You can't even cook a decent meal, so you're dead weight to this restaurant."

"Say that again…." Sanji said, sparking laughter from cooks at the top of the stairs.

"Also the other cooks steer clear of you, so go be a pirate or whatever, and just leave this restaurant already!'

"Say what? If I keep quiet, you just shoot your mouth off, huh? You damn geezer! The rest I could overlook but I'm not just going to let you trash my cooking! No matter what you say, I'll stay here as a cook! And that's final!" Sanji yelled, grabbing the head chef by the collar.

"Just what's the meaning of you grabbing the owner by the collar?" he grabbed Sanji instead and seeing what was about to happen I grabbed my plate and backed off. "You idiot!" the head chef yelled, tossing Sanji into our table. THE FOOD! I, with my untold skills, saved our plates from certain death, drawing them away from the table. The others followed my lead, clearly acknowledging me as the true captain. It was alright, I would allow Luffy to believe he was captain for a little while longer.

"Quit screwing around…" Sanji muttered "No matter how hard you try to kick me out, I will continue to work here as a cook until you die."

The Head chef walked calmly away, "I won't die! I'll live 100 more years!"

"That's great!" Luffy grinned, clapping a hand on Sanji's shoulder, "Now you have permission to become a pirate!"

"No way!" Sanji yelled. Back to his earlier mode, Sanji reset the table, "Now, sorry about that." He said, setting a wide glass full of fruit in front of Nami, "I'd like to make up for it by serving you fruit Macedonia, my princess."

"Wow, thank you so much," Nami flirted back.

"Any time…"

This man dares not acknowledge me?! THE Great Captain Usopp?! "And no apology to us?!" I yelled angrily. "I'm gonna sue you, you stupid love cook!"

Levia's POV
Let me ask you a question. Is it really so hard to see a woman with white hair? I don't think so. Second question, does short hair make a woman manly? Oh hell no!

Sanji looked like he was about to say something, but he apparently heard my laugh because he froze mid anger mode to turn delightedly to the other woman he had not noticed before. "My deepest apologies my dear lady!" he zoomed to my side, "My eyes betook you but I did not believe such a radiant vision to be real!"

"So is that why you placed a mug in front of me, or did you simply think me a man?"

Zoro, who was still sitting by my side, snorted at the look on the cooks face at my comment. "Oh how could I ever consider such an angel as anything other than…" Sanji began.

"You can't save yourself now, cook." Zoro interceded.

Sanji didn't get the hint and instead insisted upon kissing my hand. Fortunately, Byrne chose that moment to hop from my shoulder to that very gloved hand. The supposedly manly love cook paused upon seeing the hawk. Seeing this, I instead pressed on, "I would not advise kissing Byrne, he does not appreciate most people getting close to him."

As if to emphasize my point, Byrne screeched. Sanji backed up with an excuse at hand, pulling another fruit Macedonia out from behind his back and placing it in front of me. This, of course, incensed Usopp. "Get him Zoro!" he yelled.

And Nami… of course… used this situation to her own advantage. "Please, don't fight over me!"

Rrriiiggghhhtttt, because that is completely what they were doing. No, Nami, it has nothing to do with the sexist treatment going on here. But of course, Nami was manipulating Sanji with an agenda on her mind, the same agenda she always has. Money. She manipulated Sanji into giving her the meal for free. "Of course I won't make you pay!" Sanji exclaimed, smiling widely as Nami pressed up against him in a hug. I swear he was about to drool. He turned to Zoro and Usopp, "You guys have to pay."

"I saw that coming." Zoro muttered into his tea.

Four Days Later

"How soon can we leave, do you think?"

"We have to count on Luffy getting out of this somehow. From what I've heard he's causing more trouble than he's worth." I said.

"We're not going to have to stay here for a whole year, are we?" Usopp asked.

"Why not?" Nami asked from the railing, "We've got free food, a cozy atmosphere."

"You're the only one." Zoro said,

Nami looked about ready to protest but I interrupted, "I'm no freeloader."

I could just see by the confusion painted over Nami's face that she could not comprehend what I just said, but luckily that was when Usopp spotted Luffy taking out the trash. Usopp was trying to get Luffy to negotiate with the Head Chef, but while we were talking one, long, piercing scream resonated through the surrounding area, shortly joined with the cacophony of panic. When I looked over to the source of the noise, the customers of the Baratie were all up from their seats, presumably at the other side of the restaurants. And then I saw it. The gigantic pirate ship that drifted from the opposite side of the restaurant, conveniently masked among the mist on an otherwise sunny day. It towered over the Baratie as it approached, and eventually the mist drew away from the terrifying form.

I did not expect it to get worse, but it was. Why? Because this freaking hulk of a ship, three times the size of the Baratie, was moments away from sinking into the ocean. The sails were in tatters, large chunks were missing, and the remaining wood was splintered and split. Whatever did this… was not something I particularly wanted to encounter. And apparently, the customers didn't particularly want to encounter whoever was left on the ship. Within moments, the crowds of customers pounded out of the restaurant, racing to their own boats. "What's going on in the restaurant?" Usopp asked.

"Let's check it out." Zoro suggested.

"What?! You serious?!"

"What's wrong, you scared?"

"We better go inside anyways, Luffy is in there." I said.

In the next moment, the Baratie shook with an explosion, the smoke billowing out of both ends of the restaurant. If that wasn't enough to confirm my point, gunshots rang out in a long series. Luffy was probably in the middle of all of that. With that in mind, Zoro, Byrne, and I began to leave for the ship, while Usopp decided to join to prove his bravery. Nami, instead, stayed behind to 'watch over the boat' with Johnny and Yosaku.

We entered from the opposite side that the other pirates would have entered from, and seeing a large crowd of chefs, we decided to climb the staircase in order to see what was happening. Once positioned, we could see that Luffy was standing in front of the gigantic pirate. On closer examination, I did not doubt that this man was Don Krieg, the leader of the Krieg pirates. He towered over anyone else in the vicinity, basically blocking the door. It didn't help that his bulk was added to with gold plated armor all over. His square head was bound, holding back purple hair. While we watched, Don Krieg's shoulder pads had lifted and guns hidden in his armor were aimed at Luffy. Not that they would do much good, if the experience with the cannon ball indicated anything. Seeing no immediate danger for my captain, I leaned back against the pillar holding up the stairs. Byrne decided to leave at that point, and perch on the railing next to Zoro, who stood on the lowest step, casually leaning against the staircase railing. Usopp tried to bravely stand across two steps. Worked about as well as when he tried to bluff to us, and now he was facing a much harsher type of pirate. My resolution to let Luffy handle whatever was going on was apparently not shared by the fight hungry Zoro. Zoro edged out his sword, the blade scraping slightly against the sheath in a sharp, metallic ring that drew everyone's attention. "Hey Luffy." He grinned, "Starting a brawl? Need a hand?"

"Y-y-you don't h-have t-to, y-you know." Usopp added.

Luffy looked over his shoulder, which he held with one hand in preparation of a punch, "Zoro! Usopp! Levia! Byrne! You dropped by! It's okay. Just sit and watch." Luffy said.

Zoro re-sheathed his sword and I stepped forward, I might have wanted a better view of this, after all. Usopp stuttered out another response, but honestly I wasn't listening enough to decipher what he actually said. As I came to stand next to Zoro the gigantic pirate began laughing, "Are those your men?" he asked, "are they all you've got with you?"

"What are you talking about?!" Luffy responded defiantly, "I've got two more!"

"Hey, why do you keep counting me in?" Sanji yelled from the bottom of the staircase.

The pirate's shoulder pads went back down, and he looked unamused once more. "I'll take care of you guys later. Right now, I need to feed my men. For those who don't wish to die, you better not be here when I return. The only things I want are the journal and the ship." He picked up the back and slung it over his shoulder, leaving. But he paused at the doorway, "However, if you really want to throw your lives away, I'll have to go out of my way, but I'll be happy to send you to the bottom of the ocean. Keep that in mind."

After the pirate left, his subordinate was still kneeling on the ground in front of the pirates. "Sorry Sanji-san." He said, "If I had known that this was going to happen…."

"I don't need an apology from the likes of you." The head chef said, "We are but cooks in this establishment. We'll feed anyone who comes along."

Patty, a big blue haired cook who had taken out this very same pirate a little less than a week before, spoke up. "Owner! Why are you siding with Sanji. What's going on here?"

"Yeah! This is all his fault!"

"He's going to destroy your precious restaurant!"

"Shut up you stupid eggplants! Have you ever had the experience of starving to death? Can you imagine how devastating it would be? Having no food and water in this vast ocean?"

"W-what do you mean owner?"

"The difference between all of you and Sanji is that he knows this feeling."

I looked down to see that Sanji now sat, calmly smoking as he waited for the owner to finish what he was saying. The cooks all looked among themselves and contemplated. "Rather than sitting there with petty talk you all better leave now." The owner pointed out the door.

The cooks, however, would have none of it. One by one they all picked up their arms, at which the subordinate yelled out slamming his hands onto the floor. "What are you doing?! Didn't you see how strong our leader is?"

"Hey Gin." Sanji said, getting up and walking towards him, placing a foot on a table leg. "Feeding the hungry is what being a cook is all about. However," He flipped the table over in one elegant move of his leg and leveled it with another swipe, sitting down. His hands, I noticed, were still in his pockets. "Now that your captain's all filled up he's nothing more than a plunderer. Whatever I do to your pals, don't come bitchin at me. I'll kill anyone who tries to take this restaurant, even you. Got it?" He finished.

Although I couldn't see it for myself, it was clear that Sanji was menacing enough to make Gin, the subordinate, swallow in fear. Yet Patty didn't seem to get the memo. "Hewh! You saved his life just to kill him off? You're so thoughtful, Sanji."

"Shut up, you fat ass cook."

"See, didn't I tell you he was something?" Luffy grinned, pointing.

"Yeah, and you're right." I grinned, folding my arms over the railing. Even if he could do with a little less womanizing…

"Who cares, let's just get the hell out of here!" Usopp yelled.

"Calm down, even though he's Krieg he's all battered up."

Luffy seemed to have remembered something at that point. "Hey Gin, you said that you didn't know anything about the Grand Line, but you have been there right?"

Gin gulped again, looking down, "The truth is that I don't know anything. What happened on the Grand Line on the seventh day, I don't know. It's still fresh on my mind. Just one man destroyed a whole fleet of 50 ships."

Usopp's POV
This is crazy, they are all crazy, I am with a bunch of crazy people!

WHAT?! 50 ships! 50! The Going Merry is tiny compared to that! MINISCULE! MICROSCOPIC!

"He showed up out of nowhere and started sinking our ships one after another. If a storm hadn't come along our maiden ship would have been destroyed too. I have no idea how many of my mate's ships survived. But it was too scary for me to accept it all. I don't even want to think about what happened. That man, his stare pierces through you, like the eyes of a hawk!"

Man! A man did this! Oh my god! We are not going to the Grand Line! We can be brave warriors of the sea elsewhere! Not there! But Zoro was too excited about this for my comfort… "What did you say?"

"That guy, he must be the man known as Hawk-eye" the owner said, "the fact that you noticed his eyes, leads me to believe that it was him. It all sounds like something he would do."

Oh shit, oh shit. Who was this man! "The Hawk eyes man!" Zoro yelled.

"You know him, Zoro?" Luffy asked.

This seemed to snap Zoro out of it, for he paused in mid though and then composed himself as he stepped back. "That's the man I've been looking for, I've sailed the oceans to find him."

Luffy's crazy? He wants to fight Don Krieg… Check! Zoro's crazy? He wants to fight a man who destroyed 50 ships. CHECK! Levia's crazy? Actually I don't know about that… NAMI! She's not crazy! Why oh why wasn't she here?! "Perhaps he had some sort of grudge to settle with you guys." Sanji noted.

"Not that I know of" Gin said.

"Perhaps you disturbed his nap."

This made Gin angry, understandably. "Shut the hell up! Why in the world would he destroy our fleet just for that?"

The owner laughed, "Don't get so worked up, I'm just making assumptions. Stuff like that happens at the Grand Line."

"Just what kind of place is that?" I muttered.

"A place where anything could happen."

No, no, nonononono. We are NOT going there. I tried convincing Luffy, but wait, he's crazy! He was just… shaking. "Gah! I'm so pumped up! I was hoping the Grand line would have all this!" Luffy exclaimed.

"Could you have more concern of your safety?!" I pleaded.

"But with all this talk, now my destination will really be the Grand Line." Zoro grinned. Oh god why did I join these people?! "That man, I can definitely meet him there."

Levia…. She might not be crazy… I turned to her in a last ditch attempt, but she just smiled right back at me. "So sorry." She apologized, "But it sounds like fun to me." Crazy? Check!

"You guys are morons." Sanji stated, looking away from us, "You must be those who are eager to die."

"That's right, but it's none of your business." Zoro said, "When I decided to become the greatest swordsman, I threw away the rest of my life. I'm the only one who can say that I'm an idiot."

"Me too, me too!" Luffy raised his hands.

Ok…. Ok… I am a brave warrior of the sea…. I am a brave warrior of the sea… I am a brave warrior of the sea! "M-me…"

Zoro hit me with the sheath of his sword, "Cut the lying."

"Fools." Sanji said.

"Hey, hey, do you bastards realize what's going on here? Don Krieg's ship is in front of our restaurant. Do the talking after we get out of this mess!"

On cue, a collective yell resounded from the gigantic ship outside. Great, just great. We weren't even going to survive to die in the Grand Line, because WE WERE GOING TO DIE RIGHT HERE! But no, I had this. I was to destroy Don Krieg with my unrivaled sharpshooting skills. I, the Great and True Captain Usopp, would save the Baratie! Nope, my knees didn't knock when hundreds of pirates called out a battle cry. I began the defensive line of fighting chefs! Everything was set… until the gigantic ship split cleanly into three and crashed into the sea. Waves fought against the restaurant as the gigantic ship started to displace water. Yells of the cooks were everywhere as they tried to save the restaurant from sinking just by the force of the wave. "This is bad!" Zoro yelled, "Nami, Yosaku, and Johnny still are on our ship!"

The Going Merry! It was the last thing I had of my home, and of Kaya! And our ship wasn't as securely anchored as the restaurant was. I ran outside, and once we all caught up with Luffy we paused at the sight of Krieg's ship sinking. Johnny and Yosaku, however, were yelling for us from the water. With no Going Merry in sight.

"Where's the ship?" Zoro asked.

"Where's Nami?" Levia asked.

"I'm sorry aniki! She left!"

"Nami-aniki she"

"She took off with all of the treasure!"

"What did you say!" we all yelled.

The cat burglar! I never trusted her. She left us, stealing all we had in the world besides the clothes off of our backs. She tricked Johnny and Yosaku, and worst of all, said that she was never really a part of the crew. She was just cooperating with us. In the middle of the indignation of the crew, Luffy stood on the railing looking out to spot the Going Merry. "Johnny, Yosaku! What happened to your boat?" he asked decisively.

"We still have it."

"Levia, Ussop, go in their boat and bring Nami back!"

"Never mind, let it go." Zoro said offhandedly. "There's no need to chase after that woman."

"I can't be without her as my navigator!" Luffy stated defiantly. Zoro and Luffy stared off for a few minutes before Zoro broke.

"Fine! Geez what a pain in the ass captain!"

"Zoro I think you're missing something." Levia said, "Luffy told Usopp and I to go, besides, we need the ship too. Can't exactly magically produce one in the middle of the ocean. We better get going then, Usopp." She said to me, still grinning at Zoro.

Johnny and Yosaku went to get the boat, and Luffy and Zoro remained while Usopp and I climbed onto the boat. I was distracted, however, by a pirate's yell. "Don Kreig! It's that man! The man who destroyed our fleet!"

Called to attention, everyone's gaze turned towards the remains of Don Krieg's ship where a coffin like boat was floating amidst the pieces. Sitting alone in the boat was a man, a man with a dark brimmed hat shading his eyes. His open black coat flowed down around him, starkly contrasted to the red floral sleeves. On his back was a gigantic sword! "That man is... The man I've been searching for. Hawk Eyes Mihawk, the strongest swordsman in the world." He was leaning earnestly over the railing, sweat pouring down his forehead. Great, so the crazy strong maniac had arrived to incite the craziness of my own crew.