The strawhats were still surrounded by the white light, as it started to dim they could hear the sound of light chatter and the clatter of dishes, almost as if they were in a diner. When their eyes finally adjusted they saw they were in a restaurant. The tables were circular with white cloths over them, a rather large crowd of patrons surrounded them, but ignored the confused Strawhats.
"Whe-where are we?" Chopper asked watching waiter bustle around ignoring their existence. Going up and down the spiral staircase in the center of the room. When the Nami reached out to tap on the waiters shoulder her hand merely went through. The panic that followed was immediate, Brook,Usopp, Franky and Chopper screamed they we're dead while hugging and crying. Nami was freaking out touching her face, arms and body as if to check it was there. Zoro merely stood there watching the chaos, while Robin had a contemplating look on her face, as if intrigued at the prospect of being a ghost.
"It would appear that there are two possible reasons we are like this." Robin calmly said. The group stopped panicking to look at her.
"Two options? What do you mean by that?" Franky asked raising his sunglasses to look at archeologist.
"Option one is we are dead and are in the after life." Robin gave a small chuckle at the end of the sentence
"STOP THAT ROBIN, YOU'RE BEING TOO SCARY!" the weakling trio and Brook exclaimed loudly.
The noiret merely smiled, "or we could be viewing a dream containing memories." The crew gave a puzzled look till, Nami realized why this place seemed so familiar.
"Is this-?" Nami asked a look of reconizon her face. Usopp and Zoro also gained similar looks when she had said those words. Before any of them could say anything a large bulky man stood up quickly and punched the waiter serving him. The strawhats had different levels of shock on their face, Zoro and Robin merely looked at the scene with shades eyes.
"You call this slop food? No way am I paying for this crap, in fact I demand to speak with the bastard who made this." He yelled before throwing the food at the poor wait staff who was trembling before running up the staircase screaming for the head-chef.
The strawhats watched the development, the part of the crew who had joined after Luffy sailed to the grandline(excluding Robin who had a knowing look on her face) shook their heads, thanking whatever stars that Sanji wasn't around to see this display. The East blue joined crewmates merely stood silently watching, if what Robin had said was true then this next part would confirm it.
"So is this the guy who had a problem with my food?" A very familiar voice suddenly interrupted the Strawhats musings and the bulky man's tantrum. As the owner of the voice slowly walked down the stairs, a trail of smoke followed due to the cigarette hanging from their lips. The crew gave an excited look, this was perfect they were now going to be down with one member.
"Sanji!" Chopper, Brook and the wano team (excluding Robin and Zoro) cheered. Nami stood back looking towards where Sanji would be, an uneasy expression on her face. This didn't go unnoticed by their ever observant Robin, who made a mental note to ask about that later. Sanji, for his part, hadn't acknowledged the sound of his friend's voices. As he stepped into the view of the crew and the restaurant the strawhats immediately knew something was wrong.
This version of the cook was younger and shorter than the one they knew. Who had a far thinner frame than that of his current self. A short almost Bob haircut with blonde hair that covered his left eye entirely. He was looking Coolly at the bulky man, almost an indifferent air to him, though the crew could sense his anger.
When the bulky man didn't answer Sanji took a step forward
"I'll ask again, are you the guy who insulted my cooking and my waiters?"
The bulky man shook out of whatever stupor he was in and stood to his full height, trying to intimidate the seemingly indifferent man. He looked the cook up and down,after a few seconds he seemed the cook weak ('what an idiot') the crew collectively thought.
"Yeah I did actually, it was utter shit, so I sent it back with the waiter." The man sneered down at sanji, who still seemed to have his cool. "I demand a refund and better food." He smirked waiting for sanji to back down and apologize, which Sanji would do neither.
"Is that all?" Sanji asked raising his eyebrows, the question more a challenge than a question. The idiot man merely laughed, taking it as a sign he had won.
"And maybe some of the money on board." He pulled out a pistol and waved it around haphazardly, causing an immediate panic to fill the room. The strawhats looked at the scene knowing how this will play out and we're looking forward to it, this jackass was about to get what's his.
Before the man could blink, sanji's leg lashed out and sent him flying into an empty table. As the man was just beginning to gain his senses, sanji kicked him up and sent him flying out the doors that some cooks, who had previously gone unnoticed, had opened.
"You think you can come into this restaurant demand what you want and waste food?" Sanji's voice showing the emotion for the first time, his barely controlled anger from before could be heard. The man scrambled up, fear in his eyes. Zoro rolled his eyes, he had forgotten how weak the crooks in East blue were.
"Yohoho, looks like this is turning out to be a one-sided fight." Brook interrupted the silence the crew previously had. As they watched Sanji literally kick the man's ass. They decided to discuss what was happening.
"As much fun as it is watching assholes like this get what for, what and why exactly are we seeing this?" Franky asked, eyes never leaving the "fight".
"I'd have to say we seem to be watching memories, more specifically, cook-san's." Robin replied enjoying the show.
"Why are we seeing this?" Usopp asked " I mean, we all know that Sanji is like this." he had a confused look on his face. "If this is a memory, when exactly is it?"
"For that I don't have an answer I'm afraid." Robin replied, looking to Nami and Zoro to perhaps shine some light on the situation.
After a minute of thinking it was surprisingly the swordsman who remembered. "Weren't they short on staff or something, I think I remember shit-cook bitching about that." but added " Not that he doesn't bitch now." A snarky smile appeared on his face. Nami just sighed and had an exasperated look on her face.
"Zoro, he's not even here, why are you even insulting him?" a hand on her forehead as if she had a headache.
Zoro merely crossed his arms. "Trust me he'll know." with a certain confident tone to his voice. Nami gives his wonderful confidence a hard punch to the head that has him on the ground in an instant. Brook, Chopper and Usopp coward away, hoping she doesn't turn her wrath on them. Forgetting as long as they don't add to the stupid they would be fine.
"Idiot." she hissed under her breath "But he's right, the Baratie was shorthanded when we came, so this is obvious this is before we came." she notices Zoro get up from her punch, having a sulky expression on his face. A satisfied look came on he face.
"Scary.'' Chopper whispered, still hugging on to his friends, thankfully out of her earshot.
"thats super to know sis, but that doesn't explain why." Franky added.
"maybe we're here to look for that 'Key' the hooded figure was talking about." Usopp piped up. The three cowards had finally stood up, realizing they were going to be ok. " I mean that's the only thing that would make sense."
"That seems to be the case, so I'm assuming we have to follow cook-san to fin said keys." the ever knowing Robin added to Usopp's previous statement.
"I know this would be helping Sanji-san but I just can't help but feel we are violating his mind." Brook spoke up having been relatively quiet up until that point. The other members of the crew looked at each other, almost all had the same thoughts but hadn't thought to say it out loud.
"As much as I hate to say it, Brook is right, Unfortunately if things are going to go the way as it seems, we will probably see things that are probably very personal to cook-san. " Robin looked at the memory Sanji, who was currently beating up the crew of the bulky man, who turned out to be a pirate. She usually was one to want to learn about the past, but she knew this was something no one should see, a person's memories were something no one should prod.
"There is nothing we can do, so we just have to try and find this key before we get too far in." Zoro told the now concerned crew. Nami bit her lip, she wasn't sure she could handle it.
"Zoro's right we'll find the key and save sanji." chopper added, feeling of confusion was pushed aside when the need to help his friend pushed his way into his chest. The rest of the crew gathered the resolve and looked back at sanji, who had finally finished beating up the crew and was now kicking them towards their boat.
"And don't come back shit-heads!" He yelled before turning on his heel to only to see the staff of waiters carrying suitcases, having tears in their eyes.
"Where the hell do you bastards think you're going? We don't pay you lazy bums to stand around"
"We have had enough sous-chef! This place is way too dangerous, day after day it's been one fight after another, with us getting the brunt of it." One explained in a hurried manner.
Sanji for his part looked at the group of 10ish men. The soon to be former waiters looked at sanji with fear in their eyes. Almost as if Sanji was going to turn his previous anger out on them. They were trembling and standing out of immediate kicking range. Sanji raised a curly eyebrow at the group, silently asking them for the rest of their reasons they decided to jump ship
"You don't help either, everyday It's a fight with you." That statement was enough to unleash the onslaught of comments from the group. The strawhats were pretty surprised with how many they had against him.
"You always use violence whenever you're angry."
"You tried to steal my girlfriend when she came to visit."
"You always think you're right."
"You have to be the cruelest boss, if not person I've ever worked for." The accusations just kept coming, seemingly trying to point out every flaw the cook of the crew had.
"This is rather mean spirited." Brook commenting on what most of the Strawhats were thinking. It was rather off putting to hear strangers tell of their friend.
Sanji just sighed and walked towards the group of men. They reared back in fear, but Sanji just walked right past them, the looks of confirmation on their faces was almost instant.
"That's fine with me, just don't bother coming back." Sanji told the men in a flat even tone. The group didn't need to be told twice, they seemed to have made the decision long ago, they had a boat ready to go. As they ran past the Strawhats, Robin heard one of the men mutter.
"Thought he'd put up a fight." That was interesting, a fight to what? Keep them, punish them? Robin was unsure and that made her feel uneasy, but she kept a straight face nonetheless. She turned her attention inside, where Sanji had already started helping guests. Taking up the role of server easily.
"I know sanji has a temper, but that was harsh." Usopp said looking at his friend. Sure those waiters were scared and that was understandable, but a lot of what they said just seemed unreasonable to blame Sanji for. Sanji was pretty lenient when it came to telling people what to do. Only ever really getting mad when people (Luffy) were stealing food, and the kick that eventually followed wasn't even that bad. Yep they had to be exaggerating Usopp decided.
"Exactly, Sanji-kun may flirt with taken woman, (or any woman), but he'd never intentionally sabotage a relationship." Nami agreed, feeling defensive of the fawning cook.
"That may be true, but can we really say those men are totally wrong?" Robin asked. She hated to admit but something about this past version, one she was never aware of, reminded her of how she was, guarded, almost as though he was intentional putting his qualities first.
"ROBIN!" Chopper exclaimed, "How can you say that? Sanji's our friend, we know him better then than anyone." He was slightly shocked Robin would say something like that. She was usually the perceptive one of the crew. Zoro walked over and patted Chopper's head to calm him down. It seemed to work as chopper's whole body loosened up.
"I hate to say it but chopper's right, shit cook is a pushover pansy." Before Robin could give an answer a gruff voice interrupted the relative peace.
"Why the hell aren't you in the kitchen?" The strawhats and Sanji, who was tending to patrons, looked up at the voice. There stood a rather intimidating figure, an old blond man with a wrinkled face. On that face was a twin braided, blond, mustache. He was wearing chefs whites and had a ridiculously tall chefs hat. The strangest part of all was his peg leg. He was looking at Sanji with his arms folded and a hard glare. Sanji gave a flat look back, not backing down.
"That's Sanji's old boss, I think his name was...jeff?" Usopp answered although It was more of a question.
"No you idiot it was Zeff." Zoro corrected him, before turning back to the argument in the making.
"Well shitty geezer, if you must know, All the shitty waiters decided to jump ship." Sanji replied, voice calm.
Zeff looked at Sanji, who if you didn't know him looked absolutely unfazed, the Strawhats and probably Zeff could see his little nervous habit of reaching in his pocket for a cigarette. Although he couldn't have one in the restaurant, you could see his hand.
"You know the rules, since you scared them off you're on wait duty." With that Zeff turned around to head to the stairs.
"Yeah." Sanji replied back, then for a split second they heard a waiver of sadness in his voice. Robin turned to Zeff and saw him pause at that. He must have heard it too.
"For what it's worth they weren't worth much anyway, yellow bellied idiots, so don't beat yourself up too hard." Zeff said, still walking up the stairs not looking at Sanji.
At that the room started to go black around the strawhats. They started to panic a bit till Nami told them
"Wait maybe this is what's supposed to happen." They looked at her confused so she elaborates "we're looking for a key right? Since it's in his memories somewhere we have to look through them, maybe this is the hint we get, it'll only show us scenes where the key might be."
"Wow sis, that was pretty super of you to figure out that fast." Franky compliments.
"I have to agree, it's the only solution that would make sense." Robin replied.
"So was there a key there?" Usopp asked, looking nervous at the prospect of failing already.
"No, I don't think so, nothing in that seemed to have a key." Chopper looked up at the group "I've been doing some thinking, maybe we aren't looking for an actual key, maybe we're supposed to find different things to make the key, but each piece is in a different memory." The group looked at chopper with surprise, even the girls hadn't thought of that solution, though it made sense.
"If that's true then we missed a piece." Zoro comments calmly.
"Nope" and with that chopper held up an apron, the one that the waiter who had food on him was wearing.
'' how did you get that?" The collective group asked the reindeer
" Well when those waiters were running past one of them threw their apron on where I was standing and instead of falling through me like it normally would it landed on top of my face. I figured since we usually can't touch anything it must be important." He explained.
"Well no wonder you figured it out so fast, good job." Nami gave him a quick high five and took the apron to look at it. "But why is this important?" Nami asked.
" Maybe because when they left Sanji-san didn't have any friends left." Brook added, he was being rather quiet. The strawhats looked at Brook so he elaborates "Sanji-san just seemed so lonely, if what I remember he grew up on this ship, so I'd imagine he wouldn't make many friends, and that waiter looked about his age, meaning perhaps when they left Sanji's friend left too, though I'm just guessing."
The group was quiet, they hadn't thought about it like that, even Zoro felt a pang of sympathy for the cook. That's a classic case of being lonely in a crowded room. Sanji was very social, he loved talking to anyone and everyone. Wherever you go shopping with him, he takes just as long as the girls to get his things. Mostly due to talk anyone's ear off. Perhaps it's a habit from being around people that constantly left.
Before anyone else could comment a blinding light came back.
"Get ready guys, the next part is coming up." Nami told them covering her eyes from the light, just before it over took them.
