11. Baratie

A/N: Thanks to those who fav/followed the story, and all the anonymous readers! ^^

I'm sorry, I'm spacing out too much. I'm supposed to be uploading much faster but damn writer's block's in my way to inspiration.

There's a thing I wanted to warn you about, and it is that I'll change the summary (maybe) and the title (definitely) of my fic so as to be more fitting to its content. Just for you to know.

-FourthWallBreaker: Thanks! Gaimon's arc was sincerely more difficult to adapt, and the result still doesn't convince me in the slightest. Yeah, Koga also carries some pretty heavy weight on his shoulders, I'm afraid :'( You'll see, but not soon (I have to build up his relationship with the Straw Hats first). Hahaha, I totally agree with you, they're awesome! I think Oda should mention them or at least let us know what happened to them after the Time-Skip, just like with the CP9 members.

-alexc123: Yeah, poor Koga. Even I'm feeling pity for him, and I know ALL his story.

-Sujishi: Haha, thanks for your comment, it brought a huge smile to my face! ^^ Don't you worry, English is not my native language either. ^^

-Son of Whitebeard: Yeah, super sucky.

-Guest: Thanks! Here's another chapter!

Disclaimer: I own nothing of One Piece but my OC Koga and other Ocs that will appear in the future.

A brand new day, and the Straw Hat crew was deadly hungry. Again.

And thanks to that rubber-brained moron they had for captain. His bottomless stomach was going to kill them from starvation if they didn't lock the fridge or put traps in the kitchen. Or also, the person who kept watch that night (mainly Zoro or Koga) had to kick him out of the fridge before their meager provisions Gaimon had provided them with disappeared.

With nothing to do except watching the horizon in search of an island, Koga yawned out of boredom in his post in the crow's nest, a place he had been lately occupying more and more. Elbows against the railing and eyes barely open because of sleepiness, the chronicler was paying almost none attention to his surroundings.

That was why he almost jumped a few good feet in the air when suddenly, a loud booming noise startled him fully awake.

BOOM!

'What the...?' He looked around and frowned when he saw nothing that seemed to be attacking them. Then he averted his gaze at the deck, and an irk mark appeared on his forehead as he catched a glimpse of a certain rubber-brained idiot playing with the ship's cannon.

"Moron." He mumbled, breathing deeply to calm his momentarily rapid heartbeats. That cannonball had seriously startled him, and the blond reprimanded himself for letting his guard down.

"Oi, Luffy, what are you doing?" Zoro asked, approaching his captain.

"Oh, I'm testing out our cannon!" The captain answered with a cheeky smile.

A soft 'thud!' sounded behind the swordsman, and turned his head to see Koga standing to his feet after jumping from the crow's nest. The chronicler stiffled a yawn again, and for a moment, the green-haired teen wondered when was the last time his companion had a good night's sleep.

"And what are you aiming at, the air?" He managed to say through his yawn, mild sarcasm covering his voice.

"Of course not!" Luffy pouted, before pointing at a large rock in the distance, a good 200 meters away from the Merry. "That's my objective!"

The blond merely sighed and shook his head. Usopp, who previously had been daydreaming the whole day with one of his fairy-tale adventures (in which, of course, he was the main protagonist) quickly caught up with them.

"Step aside, Luffy." He boasted, taking the lighter from his captain's hand. "Watch a professional!"

BOOM!

Koga winced at the noise and picked his left ear, inwardly cursing both idiots. Just when he wanted a little silence and peace in that God forsaken ship...

"Tell me when those idiots are done." He told Zoro as his steps drove him to the kitchen in search of something for his growing headache.

He barely registered the swordsman's nod or Luffy and Usopp's surprised exclamations, deeply concentrated on keeping the pulses on his head at bay the best he could. Maybe a soft chamomile tea would do something for it. He had to remind his captain to go search for a doctor soon.

As he stepped on the kitchen, Nami looked up from her position at the table, maps spread on the wood, and with a cup of coffee.

"Hey." She softly greeted him.

They hadn't seen each other that morning at breakfast; the chronicler had purposefully skipped it, giving the excuse of not being hungry and that he was tired. Last night's conversation, the one that brought Koga's deceased friend to light, had left a cold sensation in the blond's heart, and he felt something close to anger towards the navigator. Of course, he tried to suppress it –because his whole human soul told him she wasn't to blame, as she didn't know anything about him– but nevertheless, he had practically avoided her.

"... Hey." His gruff greeting left his lips despite his silent anger.

Deciding to ignore her, Koga went to the kitchen, grabbing a small bag of chamomile and put water to boil. Not even five minutes later, he was sipping on a cup of hot chamomile tea that made wonders to his aching head, a relieved sigh leaving his lips.

"Um... Koga?" Nami's hesitant voice reached his ears, and he looked over his shoulder, indicating the navigator she had his attention. She was still seated surrounded by her maps, but a frown was darkening her face. "Look, I... I'm really sorry for what happened yesterday. With... your friend and all that."

"... Did you kill my friend or what?"

"What...? Of course not!"

"Then what are you apologizing for?"

An irk mark grew on her forehead, wiping away the frown instantly.

"Is that difficult to simply accept an apology? Here I was, worried of having wounded your feelings, and you simply...! Argh! You're so damn weird!"

He couldn't help but to draw a small smile on his lips.

"Yeah, I know." He simply answered, sipping again on his tea. "Don't worry. It's in the past now."

Whatever answer the navigator was going to give him, it went lost as Luffy, Usopp and Zoro stormed in the kitchen, hungry as starving wolves. His mood visibly lifted and his head considerably better, Koga smirked at Nami's shouts at the captain and long-nosed teen, blaming them –and mainly the former– for wiping away all their food. Shaking his head in mild amusement, the blond searched on the cupboards and threw some cheese at the starving captain, mostly to shut him up. But the navigator shouted at him for handing him a piece of food that quickly disappeared on the rubber-brained captain's stomach.

Luffy then told Nami and Koga –as they weren't present, and after surviving an attempt of strangling from his navigator– that Usopp was going to be from then on their sharpshooter, something that had been pretty evident from the chronicler's eyes.

"Okay, but if you ever chicken out on your duties, I'll be the captain." Usopp decided.

Other captains perhaps would have angered with such impertinence from the newly named sharpshooter's proclamation; hell, Koga had seen captains whipping their subordinates for less. But the time he had shared with the Straw Hat pirates taught him that Luffy was special.

"Okay." He nonchalantly accepted, shrugging. "Hey, I had an idea! There's still one more position we need to fill before entering the Grand Line!"

"Right, and we have such a nice kitchen." Nami commented, glancing at said kitchen.

"It's important personnel for any long trip." Zoro nodded.

"Right! It's one person that a pirate ship absolutely must have!" Luffy raised his finger and grinned like the moron he was. "A musician!"

"I knew it..." Koga grinned despite his captain's thick skull.

"Are you an idiot?!"

"What do you think sailing is?" The navigator demanded to know.

"I actually thought that you were going to say something smart for once." Usopp sweatdropped.

"That happens only once in his lifetime, I suppose." The chronicler shrugged.

Disappointed at his subordinates' refusal, Luffy whimpered something about a musician being necessary in every pirate crew, before Koga's intuition began tingling, making his smiling face somber abruptly. His head turned to the closed door just seconds before a loud shout came from outside:

"Come out you damn pirates!" A loud voice demanded, startling the others. "I'm going to slaughter all of you!"

'Well, too late for warnings I suppose.'

Loud bangs reached everyone's ears coming from the deck. Fearing someone was destroying their Merry, Luffy lunged towards the door and slammed it open, yelling, "Hey, just who are you?!"

Koga peered the situation from the rounded window, and saw a young man wearing a pair of sunglasses, light pants, blue jacket and a shirt underneath it. His skin had a darker tone than his own, and on his left cheek he had a tattoo, the kanji for 'Sea'. He was wielding a one-edged sword and was madly swinging it, only stopping when Luffy went out of the kitchen.

"Who am I? It doesn't matter..." The guy launched himself forward, his sword drawing an arc towards Luffy's head and breaking the railing on the deck as the captain jumped down. "Who I am!"

"How many opponents are there?" Zoro asked Koga, not moving from his spot leaning up against the wall, one leg laid on the ground, the other pulled up to his chest.

"Just one." He answered, while cocking his head to the side. 'But my intuition feels two. Odd. Where's the other one? And why it didn't work earlier?'

"Luffy can handle it himself." The swordsman decided before yawning.

Yeah. He was right. Even as if he was feeling another person's presence, Luffy was more than enough to take both of them down without anyone's assistance. Arms folded, his bicolored eyes never left the fight, with Usopp and Nami imitating him; he noticed the stranger's furious swings and angered shouts. He was surely a skilled swordsman –not as skillful as Zoro himself, but had great potential.

Not that he knew much about swordsmen and their techniques.

"... You killed my partner!"

That simple phrase, so familiar with one he had heard in his long buried deep past, perked his attention back to the fight. His heart began beating rapidly as he shook his head, trying to bury the memories once more –something he had practiced and mastered over the years.

"Partner?" Luffy kept dodging the guy's furious slashes. "What do you mean, partner? I don't know what's going on!" He then grabbed the man by the sides of his head "But, don't damage our ship!"

He picked him up, flinging him over his shoulder and slamming him into the wall. The stranger slid down it, collapsing onto the ground, while the rubber teen sat cross-legged not far from him.

"What were you talking about anyway?"

Zoro then walked out of the kitchen, opening the door and assessing the guy, as if trying to recognize him.

"Hey you. Aren't you Johnny?" He asked, brow furrowed.

"Who is it? Calling my name with no respect!" The guy launched himself to his feet, ready to fight, but stopped in his tracks as he noticed the green-haired swordsman. "Zoro-aniki! Is that really you?"

"Where's Yosaku, isn't he usually with you?"

Johnny's shock and surprise quickly changed to upset.

"He's... Yosaku is..."

"Sick!" Several voices exclaimed at once. Everyone, sans Koga, who simply arched an eyebrow.

Nami, Usopp and Koga had also emerged from the kitchen upon realizing Zoro knew the guy. Johnny was sitting on the deck, legs crossed and his face against his palm looking distressed. His partner, a man wearing a black shirt with a long green coat, red headger and plaid yellow shorts over unshaven legs –ew, was sprawled in front of him, looking sickly pale and with bloody bandages wrapped tightly around his stomach.

"He was perfectly fine up until a while ago..." Johnny weakly explained, while Zoro put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Then he grew pale and began losing consciousness. I have no clue why. I just don't know what to do anymore... I was trying to at least get him some rest on top of that rock... But all of a sudden, a ship fired a cannonball at us!"

'A cannonball?' The bicolor-eyed young man glanced at Usopp and Luffy, whose faces had instantly horrified looks as they realized what their reckless actions had triggered.

"I'm sorry!" Both of them bowed down and apologized.

"If all the problems could be solved with an apology, we wouldn't need the police! Isn't that right?" Johnny exclaimed, before turning his eyes to Zoro. "Aniki, is he... going to die?"

But the swordsman didn't know what to say, so he remained silent.

"Are you stupid?" Nami finally snapped with an exasperated huff, kneeling down in front of Yosaku.

"What?" Zoro demanded, turning his head to the navigator.

But she ignored him as her fingers pulled out Yosaku's tongue and checked his eye.

"What are you doing to my buddy?" Johnny exclaimed, spitting a bit and causing the ginger-heared girl to move away to avoid the saliva.

"Luffy, Usopp!" She called, mostly ignoring the guy's demandings. "There are some limes in the storage, aren't there?" At the lack of a response, her head turned sharply to shot an angry look at both of them, who jumped in fright. "Are you listening? Bring 'em to me, right now!"

Both captain and sharpshooter jumped with an "Aye, aye!" They ran at the door leading to the storage getting stuck on the doorframe in their desperation to not suffer Nami's rage. Once the two of them returned, they started to squeeze the limes onto Yosaku's face.

"So, is it scurvy?" Koga commented, glancing at Nami.

"Scurvy?" Johnny asked, confused and seemingly unfamiliar with the term.

"We've got him in time. He should recover in a few days." Nami assured him.

"Is that true Aneki? I am really grateful!" He thanked her and once again spat as he talked. Luffy and Usopp tried to make the unconscious Yosaku drink the lime juice.

"Stop spitting all over me, please. In the past, it was an incurable disease that plagued sailors. But now, it's just a minor problem caused by the lack of Vitamin C. In the past, ships couldn't carry enough fresh fruit to avoid it."

"Oi, he has to drink the juice, not swallow them whole." Koga commented to Usopp and Luffy, who were stuffing Yosaku's mouth full with lime. "You're going to choke him."

"Come on, drink up." Unsurprisingly, both of them ignored him, and the chronicler let out an exasperated sigh, being imitated by the navigator.

"He should be fine now." Satisfied, the long-nosed teen stepped back.

"You sure are something." Luffy looked up at his navigator and chronicler, impressed at their knowledge. "You're like doctors."

"That was common knowledge, you moron." Koga sweatdropped.

"You should have at the very least known what this was!" The girl snapped at them, growing shark-like teeth due to her anger. "It could happen to you sooner or later too, you know!"

Suddenly, Yosaku's skin recovered his usual color and sprang to his feet, seemingly healed. He and Johnny linked arms and began dancing merrily.

"It's working! He's recovering! Welcome back, partner!"

"YOU DON'T RECOVER THAT QUICKLY!" Nami snapped at the two, while Koga sighed and shook his head, mumbling "Idiots" under his breath. Both of them stopped dancing abruptly and faced the pirates, sitting down.

"Sorry for the late introductions. The name's Johnny."

"And I'm Yosaku. We're bounty hunters. Zoro-aniki used to be our companion in the past. Nice to meet you all!"

"Bounty hunters?" Koga arched an eyebrow. "Shouldn't you be trying to hunt us instead of introducing yourselves?"

"Yeah, but Zoro-aniki is with you, and we can't attack someone who used to be nakama." Explained Johnny to the chronicler. Whether he had noticed his strange eyes or not, he never mentioned it. "Though I'm surprised to see the Pirate Hunter become a pirate himself."

"I guess." He held up a hand to Johnny and hauled him to his feet, doing the same for Yosaku.

Thump!

"And down he goes again."

Koga's remark went unnoticed as Johnny cried out for his already passed out companion. It had been too soon for him to play around, and Nami had warned them.

The crew let Yosaku use the infirmary's bed, while they went back to the kitchen, with Johnny following.

"Let this be a lesson for all of us." Nami commented, with good reason.

"Yeah. These kind of things can happen on long trips." Zoro nodded, fully agreeing.

"He would've died for sure if he hadn't come across us." Usopp also stated. " We need someone to think about our diet and see to it that we stay healthy."

"Diet, huh? I get it!" Luffy exclaimed. "We need a sea cook!"

"Finally, some common sense in that rubbery brain." Koga thanked the heavens above.

"If you're looking for such a cook..." Everyone turned their heads towards Johnny, "I know where you could go."

"Yeah, yeah, that's the spirit! Where would that be?"

"But it's pretty close to the Grand Line. And the man that Aniki's been hunting for, Hawk-Eye, is around there too." Koga glanced at Zoro, who grinned in excitement as his hand gripped the hilt of one of his katana, the white one. "Its direction is... North-Northeast." Pointing at the direction with a finger, Johnny grinned as well as the others. "Our direction is... The Floating Restaurant, Baratie!"

"ALL RIGHT!" All of them sans Koga –again– shouted in excitement, pumping their fists in the air.

Two or three hours later, Johnny called for them upon seeing their destiny. They all got out from the kitchen and gawked at the odd-looking restaurant. Wasn't that like a... giant fish? Luffy seemed to agree with his thoughts, considering his droolings. Well, whatever it looked like, as long as he had some food on his stomach again, he didn't care.

While his companions, Johnny and a recently recovered Yosaku –this time for good– were making funny comments about the restaurant, Koga's intuition tingled softly in his mind. His head turned to the left as a giant ship emerged like an apparition at their side, the word 'MARINES' written produly across its sail.

"The Marines." Koga called out, making them turn.

"When did it...?" Luffy's mouth had a funny 'O' shape because of his surprise.

"They're not going to attack us, are they...?" Usopp stuttered, eyes wide as a pair of plates.

"Tch, I smell trouble." Zoro muttered.

"So do I." The chronicler agreed. "Someone's coming out."

And indeed, someone did come out. A pink-haired man, dressed in an expensive-looking suit, looked down on them in mild arrogance. His left eye had a scar underneath, and his hands iron knuckles with bolts attached to them.

"I've never seen your pirate flag before." He stated. "I'm Marine Lieutenant, Iron Fist Fullbody. Who is your captain? Show yourself!"

Both Luffy and Usopp stepped forward, the former presenting himself as the captain and the latter as the sniper. Koga smirked under his scarf at this.

"Our pirate mark was just made yesterday." Explained Luffy with a goofy smile on his face.

"I painted it on the sails!" Usopp added.

"What's with you people?" The Marine Lieutenant mocked them with a smirk on his own, before averting his eyes and noticing something hiding behind the storage room's door. "I've seen those two before, though. You claim to be pirate hunters, don't you?"

Both Johnny and Yosaku grew anger at his insult, stepping out of their corner indignantly.

'Five minutes of interaction with this guy and I already dislike him.' The chronicler groaned inwardly, eyeing Fullbody as he continued mocking the two pirate hunters. They both decided not to let his insults slide and jumped to defeat him, but they were defeated almost instantly.

"It was hair thin..." Koga heard them mutter under their breath.

"You two are really weak." Luffy commented plainly, sinking their morale even more.

"We'll get him easily." Grunted Johnny, a few papers scattered over the deck around him because of his fall.

"As usual, it was hair thin..."

"What's with you two?" Zoro sighed, sweatdropping at their idiocy.

A feminine voice called out to Fullbody, drawing his attention and setting their course to the Baratie. The Lieutenant agreed with his partner and, putting an arm over the woman's shoulders, ordered his subordinates to sink the Merry.

'How easily is to order someone else to kill a human being. How casual and simple, as if ordering a good wine or a delicious meal. Life is now so undervalued...'

When had he started to think that way? How depressive...

Leaving the Marines' problem to the others, Koga turned his head and noticed an eerily silent Nami crouched on the ground beside Johnny, a hand strongly gripping a sheet. Since her back was towards him, he couldn't see her face, but the slight tremors running throughout her body told him something was very wrong with her. Johnny and Yosaku seemed terrified at the face the girl was showing. His brow furrowed in mild worry, the blond approached her...

"Oi, the cannon is pointing at us!" Usopp yelled, hands gripping the sides of his face.

BOOM!

"Gomu gomu no..."

'Oh, shit, this is bad...'

Surely, the cannonball didn't damage the Going Merry or the crew... But it exploded against the top deck of the restaurant. Zoro and Nami (the latter having miraculously recovered from whatever had been happening to her while staring at that sheet) shouted at him with shark-like teeth and angry veins throbbing on their foreheads as Koga looked at the sky searching for some divine patience coming down from heavens.

Not even five minutes later, some brute-looking chefs arrived and demanded 'the presence of the responsible of such attack to their beloved restaurant'. When Luffy showed up with his goofy grin again on his face –seriously, he was such a thick-headed brat– the chefs grabbed him and disappeared with him inside the Baratie, to talk to the owner, to apologize and, maybe, to repay the damages.

And there they were, waiting for their captain in the Merry. But, as Zoro began napping again and Usopp looking at the restaurant wordlessly, Koga couldn't help but feel that something had changed in Nami. A subtle, but for his intuition notorious change in the navigator's demeanor; more guarded, with an edge full of hatred and sadness that worried him –though he refused to recognize it.

Remembering the possible cause of her change, Koga pushed himself off the railing and went looking for Johnny and Yosaku; he found them in the infirmary, sulking, both of them with angry looks on their faces. The chronicler knocked on the door to call their attention, them raising their heads to him in confusion.

"Koga-aniki?" Johnny tilted his head; the blond had never approached them willingly, preferring to watch in silence their interactions with the other members of the crew. "Is there a problem?"

"No." He nonchalantly lied. "But I've been wondering... Could I take a look at those wanted sheets?"

"Uh... Yeah, why not." Even more confused, Johnny shared a look with his partner before handing the sheets to Koga. The chronicler took them with a nod and began shuffling them, seemingly looking for something.

They were all pirates. Some of them had an elevated bounty on their heads, but others were fairly low; most of them had a red cross painted on their faces.

"Oh, that's..." Yosaku suddenly commented, making Koga stop and look at him with a raised eyebrow. The pirate hunter pointed at the sheet in his hand: 'Arlong, Wanted Dead or Alive; 20,000,000 Berri'. That was quite a huge bounty. The picture showed a gyojin with saw-shaped nose, a long angular jaw and thin, fierce eyes and a bloodthirsty smile on his face.

"Arlong? What about him?" Koga asked.

"When Nami-aneki looked at his picture, she had such a scary face..." Yosaku nodded at his partner's words, a shiver coming through his spine at the memory. "I mean, she's already scary when she's angry, but... You know, it seemed like she really wanted to kill Arlong."

"Hm... I've heard of him. He's the pirate with the highest bounty on the East Blue, isn't he? And he's a gyojin."

"Exactly! You know him too, Koga-aniki?"

"Not personally, but rumors travel fast. And he's an awfully famous topic." Koga evaluated Arlong's picture and reached a logical conclusion. "I don't like him. He's got that look on his face..."

Not finishing the sentence, the chronicler shook his head as the other two looked at him again confused.

On the deck, Nami called for them to come out and eat something at the Baratie. Everyone agreed with the idea, though Johnny and Yosaku told them they were good and decided to guard their ship.

Inside the restaurant, almost all the tables were already occupied, but the waiter that served them managed to get them a seat; when Usopp and Nami asked about what happened earlier, he explained that Luffy was going to have to work as a chore boy in the Baratie for a whole year to cover the bills on repairing the hole that the cannonball caused. In Koga's opinion, Fullbody was also to blame, but since he was a customer and that it was a pirate's word against a Marine's, it was pretty obvious who would win the discussion.

The meal was indeed delicious; in fact, the chronicler didn't remember having such a good spicy curry in his entire life. It was flavory, and spicy enough. And the fish was also excellent.

"Ahh, it's good to have proper food in my stomach once more!" Zoro exclaimed, his hand palming his full belly.

"Indeed." Koga replied, smiling under his scarf, putting down his fork, the plate polished clean.

Nami was also finishing her dishes with a satisfied smirk.

"I've never tasted anything so delicious before!" The orange-haired girl sipped on her glass of wine. "And their wine selection is also excellent."

"Do you think we'll get a cook from this restaurant?" The sniper asked his companions in excitement, still eating.

"Possibly, but first Luffy has to pay his debt to the restaurant's owner."

The chronicler hummed in agreement at the green-haired statement. A full year as the chore boy of the Baratie gave them plenty of time for recruiting a cook, but he was sincerely doubting his impatient captain was willing to work for that amount of time.

"Oi, guys!" A familiar voice called for them. He was wearing a white apron and was carrying a bucket full of water and a mop.

"Hello, chore boy." Grinned Nami as the stunned captain pirate approached them quickly.

"That's not fair guys!" He exclaimed, pointing an accusatory finger at them. "You eating while I'm slaving here, that's mean!"

"Who's the idiot that bounced the cannonball towards the Baratie's top deck?" Koga retorted with also a smirk on his face.

"That was an accident! And it wasn't completely my fault!"

"Chore boy, quiet over there!" A blonde waiter dressed in a black suit yelled while he was pouring wine for a woman in another table.

"Why shouldn't we enjoy our meal, Luffy? I mean, the food's not bad here." Zoro glanced casually away, the rubber-brained idiot taking advantage of his distraction and dropping a boogie into the swordsman's glass of water.

At this, Nami and Usopp started snickering and holding their laughter the best they could with hands over their mouths, while Koga simply shook his head with a smile at his captain's childish actions. Zoro, seemingly unaware of the 'contaminated' water, took the glass and held it close to his mouth.

"But I feel bad for you..." Just as everyone –sans Koga, because his intuition told him otherwise– thought he was going to drink that water, the swordsman grabbed Luffy's head and forced him to drink the water while yelling, "SO YOU DRINK IT!"

The navigator and the sniper roared in laughter as Luffy choked in the contaminated water; the green-haired teen, having achieved what he wanted, also laughed with them. Amidst the joy, the chronicler noticed that they were attracting a lot of attention because of the fuss they were making, and couldn't help but feel a bit uncomfortable.

Suddenly, a gush of wind went past him and right towards Nami, and he turned his head just in time to see the same blonde waiter practically over the red-haired girl, his only visible eye transformed in a beating heart and a stupid grin on his face.

'A womanizer, huh?' Koga sweatdropped.

Apart from that, the chronicler evaluated him, and noticed that he had a slim figure, with long legs; his blond hair –that was darker than his own hair, that seemed almost white– was brushed over the left side of his face, effectively covering his left grey-blue eye. His right eyebrow, much to Koga's amusement, formed a spiral at the outer end. His black suit had underneath an equally black tie and a dark blue shirt.

The guy was babbling something about him becoming a pirate if it meant sailing with her, but an obstacle was standing in his way, just when someone approached them again.

"And that obstacle would be me, right?"

He was an elderly-looking man with blonde-colored hair under a extra-long chef's hat, a mustache braided and tied with light blue ribbons on each end and a beard covering his jaw. He wore a chef's uniform, with a blue ascot and a white apron; he was missing his right leg, substituting it with a peg leg.

Koga looked at him with a mixture of disbelief and surprise. What in hell was he doing here? And what happened to him?

"You..." He muttered wide-eyed, earning a few confused stares from his companions and the chef himself. "You're Red-Leg Zeff..."

A/N: And that's it! Koga knows Zeff!

I'm not going to put much into this Author Note, except one tiny little thing... Please leave reviews to the hungry monster, or else I won't update anymore!... I mean it.