Double upload part 2 :)
Wealth, Fame, Power…
Chapter 23: An Unexpected Offer
The three Straw Hat Pirates swung open the doors of the Baratie and stepped inside, only to find all of the chefs already piling into the dining room. Luffy immediately spotted Sanji and ran up to him, both of his crewmates close behind. "So you guys saw that huge ship too?"
"Yeah," the well dressed cook replied. "And I've got a bad feeling about this."
With so many chefs entering the room at once, soon even the guests were beginning to feel uneasy. The last employee to walk in from the kitchen was none other than Patty, and he was looking pretty nervous. Now the only person not present was Zeff, the owner of the Baratie.
"Crap!" One of the chefs squeaked as he looked out the window. The approaching ship had now almost reached the restaurant and it wasn't looking any smaller. "I knew I recognized that guy you threw out Patty! He was an officer on Admiral Krieg's pirate crew!"
"What!?" Patty yelled, not believing his fellow cook. "There's no way!"
"Come see for yourself you dumbass! I'm looking right at the Dreadnaught Sabre! Are you really gonna tell me that's not Don Krieg's ship!?"
As the mentioned ship got closer and closer, it became more visible in the thick fog. Patty finally decided to stop being stubborn and pressed his face to the window. What he saw almost made him shit himself. "N-no… That figurehead… It's a sabertooth tiger! We're all screwed!"
After that, the whole dining hall turned into complete panic. Not only from the chefs, but also the customers. It seemed that Patty's announcement had set everyone off. Well… Almost everyone. Luffy, Zoro and Sanji appeared to have their emotions under control. Usopp however, did not.
"Aw crap! I've gotta get this apron off!" Usopp proclaimed as he reached behind his back to untie the knot. "If those guys think I work here, then I'm dead too!"
Unfortunately for the poor sniper, this outburst brought on the attention of the sous chef. "Take that off and I'll double the amount that you owe us."
Stiffening up his posture like a board, Usopp quickly reached back and tied the apron on extra tight. You could never be too safe after all. "Phew! My mighty apron almost fell off by complete accident. Worry not my friends, for I Captain Usopp, will gladly stand toe to toe against Don Krieg!"
Luffy smiled at his friend, not knowing it was all bravado. "That's the spirit Usopp!"
"Haha! Yes, I shall face him… From behind the stairs!" He declared, disappearing from sight and bolting over to the main column of the ship and hiding behind the stairway.
"Coward," Zoro muttered
Throughout the panic that consumed the dining hall, every single guest that had come to the ship for breakfast had bailed. All of them scurried out the door and back on board the large ferry docked outside.
"Well damn, there go all of our customers," Sanji said boredly. Lighting up a cigarette and placing it in his mouth.
When the enormous pirate galleon dropped anchor at last, everyone was instantly aware of it. Not only because it could be seen outside of the open front doors, but also because of the way it was positioned. The ship docked in a way that made it parallel to the Baratie, successfully casting a huge shadow over the entire restaurant. Unsurprisingly, no one inside the dining room even considered making a sound, too afraid to break the enormous tension surrounding them.
Soon though, footsteps could be heard approaching the door. At this point most of the chefs were hugging each other in fear of what was to come. Some of them even jumped when a silhouette appeared in the windows leading to the main doors. As the figure moved sluggishly towards the entrance, Zoro and Sanji put on serious looks. In fact the only person in the room who wasn't either scared or serious was Luffy, who was absolutely bubbling in anticipation.
When the large shadow finally got to the open doorway, large gasps could be heard from all of the chefs in the room. Instead of seeing a proud and intimidating admiral who ruled over the East Blue, they saw something much less intimidating.
Limping into the Baratie was Don Krieg, but not by himself. He was clearly being heavily supported by the shoulder of his comrade, Gin. It was honestly a pathetic sight for such a vicious pirate. But before anyone in the restaurant could comprehend his weakness, the familiar face spoke up. "Please, the Don is about to starve. Help us, get some food quick!"
The apparently starving man had purple hair with a bandage on his forehead, presumably from an injury. He wore a big fur-lined coat with a leopard print vest underneath, along with purple slacks and black boots.
The plea took everyone in the room by total surprise. Seeing the pathetic state that the ruler of the East Blue was in, Patty instantly stopped cowering and got a cocky look on his face. "Haaah! Well how about this! Big bad Don Krieg is down for the count and needs us to help him!"
Sanji dropped his guard and shook his head in disgust at Patty's words, he knew what was about to happen. He needed to get to the kitchen fast, Krieg wasn't looking so good. In truth, the blonde man knew exactly how dangerous this pirate was. He'd heard some horrible stories about what the scumbag had done, but that didn't matter to him right now. What did matter, was the fact that a soul was starving, and he was about to fix that.
Luffy smiled as he watched the blonde cook walk up the stairs and into the kitchen, already knowing what he was going to do. No one else noticed him sneak away though, everyone was too focused on the surprise in front of them. In fact, most of the cooks had already conquered their fears and were now mocking the pirate duo.
"Do you really expect us to feed a ruthless pile of crap like you? How stupid do you thinK we are!? Someone get the marines on the phone, this is a perfect opportunity to catch this bastard," Patty ranted, ordering one of the chefs.
"W-what!? No, please! We promise to leave afterwards!" Gin pleaded.
"Yeah right! You're probably just say-"
"I swear on my life," The infamous pirate begged out of nowhere. Shaking loose of Gin's grip and falling to his knees. "I'm begging you, just one meal. I'll even take the scraps," he continued. Gin soon joined his captain by getting on his knees himself.
Completely ignoring the humble begging of the ruthless killers, all the chefs of the Baratie ganged up, preparing to try and subdue the two pirates.
"No amount of begging is gonna save you now!"
"Yeah, get ready to see the inside of Impel Down you scumbags!"
"Let's get em boys!"
But before any movements could be made, all of the cooks were asked something that they never thought they would hear. And of course… It had to come out of Luffy's mouth. "Hold on, who is this guy? And what makes him so bad?"
At the boy's inquiry, every single chef in the dining hall gaped in absolute astonishment. Who the hell had never heard of Don Krieg!? Even Gin looked at the teen in disgust, something about the kid just rubbed him the wrong way.
Eventually when the shock wore off, it was Patty who answered Luffy's braindead question. "You don't know who Don Krieg is!? He's the merciless pirate who rules over this part of the ocean!"
When the rubber man still looked lost, the other cooks began to pitch in as well.
"You know, the guy who kills anyone who looks at him funny!?"
"Or how about this, the guy who raises the white flag and then attacks when his opponents think they've won!"
"Yeah, and on top of that, he commands a fleet of fifty pirate ships! With a total of five-thousand men at his disposal!"
Luffy did his best to try and process all of the new information he was getting. By the sound of things, this Krieg guy was a pretty nasty dude. The only problem was, he didn't look all that tough to him. Was this really the same guy they were talking about?
However, before the straw hat teen could share his opinion on the man, Sanji returned, walking calmly down the stairs with a big plate of food. The dish seemed to be the same of what Gin got earlier, only in a much bigger portion. Right when the blonde man reached the bottom of the stairs, all eyes were on him as he made his way to the hungry pirate.
"Sanji! What the hell are you doing!?" Patty yelled, running up and roughly grabbing the man's shoulder.
The Blonde turned and gave his fellow chef a cold stare, not hesitating for a second to warn him. "Let go Patty."
But instead of giving up, the man gripped Sanji's shoulder even harder. "Shut the hell up. Every damn day you secretly feed all the rats and bums I throw out of this place. Well guess what? Not tod-"
The sous chef didn't even bother listening to the rest of his sentence, rapidly lifting up his leg and kicking the man across the face. It wasn't a hard blow by any means, but it still sent Patty stumbling back into the other chefs in quite a daze.
"Sanji," Gin breathed in disbelief. For him to strike one of his own men just to feed the Don. Now he knew he made the right choice in his request to his captain.
Without any more distractions, Sanji finished his trek to the starving man, Placing the big bowl of food right in front of him. "There you go, enjoy."
Don Krieg did not need any invitation to start inhaling the contents of the plate. Now whether or not he would be grateful or not, was still unclear. Either way, once the man was nearing the bottom of the bowl, Sanji prepared himself for anything. For all he knew, this guy could stand up and immediately attack him for no reason.
Fortunately for the sous chef though, Don Krieg stood up calmly after finishing his very needed meal. As the purple haired man towered over him, Sanji got another bad feeling in his gut. What is this bastard up to?
With the color slowly returning to his face, the pirate admiral grinned cockily down at his savior. "Gin, is this the one who saved you?"
"Yes Don," He replied simply. "Isn't he great? He can even fight! Did you see the swiftness to that kick!?"
"Yes I did," Krieg acknowledged. "Give me a moment to think about your suggestion. In the meantime though, I'm gonna need a hundred more meals. My whole crew is outside on my ship, and they are in the same condition I was just in. So hop to it!"
The chefs were all in utter disbelief. How could Sanji do something so incredibly stupid like this!? They simply couldn't process the mindset or the reasoning behind such a careless decision.
Krieg seemed to sense the hesitation in all of the cooks because his temper was beginning to show. "Did I stutter or something!? Go make me one-hundred meals right now! Don't test my patience you maggots. I may be in a merciful mood because of this blonde kid, but I'm not gonna stay that way if you don't start moving your asses."
"Quit your yammering would ya?"
The eyes of the whole room dotted around until they landed on the bearer of the new voice. Owner Zeff calmly walked down the spiral staircase, A huge white bag over his shoulder. "You young people are always rushing things. Just calm down, I have your food right here."
"What the hell!? How did you make those so fast!? I just asked for them!"
Limping over to the purple haired man, Zeff lowered the bag over his shoulder and onto the ground, presenting it. "Don't underestimate me, I knew why you were here the second I saw that tattered ship of yours approaching."
The other speechless cooks widened their eyes at their boss's observation. They were so scared before, that they never even noticed the condition of the giant vessel.
Patty was the one who eventually spoke the minds of all the confused chefs in the room. "Boss Zeff! What are you doing!? You can't give them food like that! It's gonna get us all killed!"
"Shut your mouth Patty! Have you ever been starving before!?" Zeff boiled.
Patty looked completely lost at the random question. "Well no, but I don't see how-"
"Then you don't understand the horrors of it," the old cook began. "Unlike any of you, I have been on the brink of starvation before. And so has Sanji. If any of you had been through what we had, you would feed anyone who was hungry, no matter what."
While all of the cooks were taught an important lesson of the culinary variety, Sanji couldn't help smiling as he exhaled some smoke. To actually hear your mentor acknowledge you like this was a high honor indeed, especially when it was someone like Zeff. But unfortunately, Sanji wasn't the only one who noticed the owner's fame. Because after he finished up with Patty, Don Krieg spoke up again.
"Wait… You're Red Foot Zeff! I can't believe it, do you know how big of a fan I am!? When I was a kid, you were who I wanted to be!" The purple haired man exclaimed, not even bothering to pick up the sack of food.
"Uhh, Don?" Gin asked oddly. It was weird to see his captain show so much emotion, especially if it was happiness over someone else.
Facing the pirate admiral again Zeff shook off his childlike curiosity. "Red Foot… I haven't heard that name in years. And as you can see, I'm no longer a pirate. I gave up that dream to start another, now I'm just a humble restaurant owner."
Across the room, Sanji visibly cringed at the mention of Zeff's old dream. That wasn't something he loved hearing about, especially given the circumstances.
Luffy on the other hand was bursting with excitement. What a pleasant surprise to find out that the old man was a pirate! Calming himself quickly, he listened back in.
"Ha! Don't give me that crap! You were a legend! A pirate Captain on a ship full of cooks. It was said that you never once used your hands once in combat. And that your incredibly powerful legs ran through enemies until your shoes were covered in blood. Wow that story gives me chills!" Don krieg complimented.
"Cool!" Luffy yelled from across the room.
"Alright alright, that's enough story time, go and feed all your men. They're suffering out there," Zeff grumbled.
"Hold on," Kreig lifted his hand as he eyed Sanji. "You, Gin told me about you. That was quite an agile kick you performed earlier. I take it you must be Zeff's apprentice."
The blonde man didn't answer the question, but the look of surprise on his face gave Don Krieg the answer he was looking for.
"Perfect," Krieg smirked cockily, picking up the bag of food and turning towards the entrance. "In respect of what happened here today, I'm going to spare all of you. It's not everyday that you get to meet a childhood hero, especially one as legendary as Red Foot Zeff, even if he's disabled now. In any case, you all have one hour to abandon this ship, my Chief Commander Gin will now explain the situation."
"Don, wait."
Before he was completely out the door, the purple haired man turned to his crewmate curiously. "What is it Gin, did you forget the plan?"
"No Don, I was just wondering if you approve of my request."
If it were even possible, Krieg's devious smile got even bigger. "I approve."
Gin soon matched his captain's smile as he gave him the go-ahead. Watching him walk out of the resturant and back onto the ship, the pirate turned around to face the dining hall once again.
Before the scary looking man could geta word out though, Patty was ready to give him an earful. "Hey! What the hell do you mean by one hour!? What about the Baratie!?"
"Listen up, and listen well. The Don showed you all mercy here today, so be grateful for that," Gin warned before continuing. "Now, here's what's going to happen. You are all going to leave this ship peacefully and quietly. Once the rest of the Krieg Pirates wake up, we'll be taking this ship off your hands."
"WHAT!?" All of the cooks yelled in unison. Zeff was the only one who didn't look shocked, he was clearly expecting this.
"Don't act so surprised, you saw the condition of our current ship, she's already dead."
"Cut the crap Gin!" Sanji raised his voice, walking closer to the man. "That's not gonna happen. I'm not just gonna leave, in fact, with how stubborn all these cooks are, we're all gonna stay and fight."
"Ahh, Sanji, the man who saved my life. Along with the life of his Captain."
"What?"
"You heard me, I begged Don Kreig to consider, and he accepted. He really seems to like you. So what do say Sanji, wanna join the future Pirate King?"