Zoro scoffed at Sanji's introduction, he liked to make big things out of nothing, Kuina just asked him for his name, Sanji scoffed inside the same moment Zoro did, he didn't like the green-haired man but there was nothing he could do to him, he was way stronger than him and Sanji wasn't someone who would throw his life away for no reason.
Johnny and Yosaku burped in unison from the good food they had then patted their bulged bellies, Kuina got directly to the important part without any other fanfare:
"Sanji-san, our bounty hunter crew is in a dire need of a cook, I think it might be a little bit presumptuous of me to ask you to join us since your restaurant is a little bit understaffed currently, but would you like to join us?"
Sanji's eyes started to form hearts again as he thought of living every day near such a good looking goddess-like Kuina but afterward, he shook his head and said:
"If that's what you want I cannot help you If this is all that you wanted to order I will get you the bill."
Zoro was happy inwardly he didn't want this guy on his ship anyways, better for him to stay in this restaurant, Kuina nodded her head at Sanji then said:
"I see, you don't want to leave your job, get us the bill then." Out of the upper rooms of the restaurant a blonde-haired man with a giant blonde braided mustache and hair who wore a chef outfit and a big chef hat, he also had a peg leg. The man walked towards Sanji and he hit him over the head with his peg-leg then said:
"You goddamn eggplant finally a good excuse for me to throw you out and you refuse!" Sanji immediately got angry at the man and shouted at him:
"You shitty old man Zeff, if I leave and you die who will take care of the restaurant? Don't you see you are one leg in the grave?" Zeff didn't like the leg analogy so he gave him another peg-leg over the head out of the corner of Sanji's eyes some tears could be seen seeping out as he muttered to himself:
"Goddamn old man, why do you have to hit me with the peg-leg every time." As if nothing could escape Zeff's ears he harrumphed and said:
"You damn eggplant if I hit you with my good leg you would certainly say goodbye!" Sanji shuddered as he seemingly recalled something from the past but then he steeled himself and said:
"Whatever old man, you can't get rid of me so easily, I'm going to run this restaurant till you die and even after!" Zeff scoffed at him and said:
"Eggplant I still have many more years in me, you might get bored of this restaurant one day and want to leave the world, but you will realize that you are too old then!" Sanji didn't say anything but his silence confirmed that he didn't want to leave with Kuina and Zoro, Kuina waved towards Zeff and said:
"Chef Zeff is it? You don't have to force Sanji to leave if he doesn't want to." Zeff snorted and he said:
"This goddamn kid is a problem for me, every time a woman comes in the restaurant he gives them free food, he will make my restaurant go bankrupt!" Sanji continued to keep mum as what Zeff said was true.
Sanji left towards the kitchen and came back a few seconds later with the bill which read on it ten thousand bellies, the food wasn't that expensive Kuina paid for the food but Sanji was ready to tell her to keep her money but a glare from Zeff shut him up as Zeff came forward and took the money instead.
Since Sanji didn't want to join them nothing was keeping them tied to Baratie anymore so they left. Johnny and Yosaku pulled up the anchor and unfurled the sails afterward they got back to their training, Zoro was back to his multi-tasking training while Kuina was looking at some wanted posters and the map she wasn't decided which pirate they should go for next, there were only a few high bounties currently in east-blue, Aarlong of the Aarlong pirates, Buggy of the Buggy pirates and the one with the lowest Bounty on the higher tier of bounties was Alvida the iron mace, they had respectively bounties of twenty million, fifteen million and five million if they could hunt these pirates down they wouldn't have money problems for quite a long while.
Unfortunately, these pirates had no last seen locations, these people either killed everyone that saw them making it impossible to locate them or did their crimes very stealthily which was very unlikely because they were pirates, Kuina would go with number one rather than number two. Most pirates were obnoxious and had delusions of grandeur, there were very few pirates who played it smart, one such pirate was Kuro of the thousand plans but it seemed he was captured a few months ago by a marine lieutenant.
To find this trio of pirates they would have to search high and low in the east-blue, fortunately, they wouldn't be bored as there was still small fry out there that they could catch. Even if it was a mosquito it was still meat.
After a while of reading the bounty posters and looking at the map to get their next destination, Kuina decided to get towards the nearest island where Baratie was resupplying, there weren't that many criminals on the island, the maximum bounty was one hundred thousand, but why would they leave one hundred thousand bellies slip through their fingers?
Kuina stopped Johnny and Yosaku's training and made them grab the rudder and navigate towards the Wet Dog island which was only one hundred kilometers away, it would take them only one day and a maximum of two with unfavorable conditions.
Zoro stopped his weights training and sat cross-legged on the deck of the ship while all three of his swords stood on his lap, his brows scrunched as his teeth gnashed then he suddenly opened his eyes, he looked at Kuina then said:
"How are you able to hear your sword talking, all I can hear from my swords is static, it's like trying to talk to a wall." Kuina shook her head then said with uncertainty:
"My sword is Wado Ichimonji and it was created Shimotsuki Kozaburo, it's one of the It is one of the great twenty one O Wazamono swords, maybe this is why I can communicate with it, while your swords' quality is above average but they are normal swords, It is also said that Kozaburo always breathed a bit of soul in every one of his creations," Kuina told Zoro that conversating with her sword helped her quite a bit in improving but her Observation Haki and her swords technique, unfortunately for him he had no named swords and it would be very hard to get some since most of them were in the hands of the world government or pirates, east-blue was also pretty scarce considering good swords.
Kuina started to think about where to get Zoro some new swords when she suddenly got an idea:
"Maybe we can find some good swords in the city of the beginning and the end, Logue Town! It's near the grand line so it should have some goods swords, even though it might not have named swords it should have some high-quality swords that would be better than yours." Zoro nodded his head at Kuina's words afterward Kuina continued:
"Firstly let's get enough money, we don't know how expensive named swords are so we should get at least two to three million bellies, we have one million right now so we need one or two more, let's get to the next island then we will do pitstops at the islands that are in the way to Logue town."
It seemed like a great plan to Zoro, as long as he got some goods swords he could care less on how many islands he had to stop and how many criminals he had to cut down. After a few days of traveling, they got near Wet Dog Island after a few more minutes of navigating they docked and immediately went to resupply and eliminate their targets, this time Kuina let Johnny and Yosaku do the work so they could get some combat experience, unfortunately, for them they became too strong for normal grunts with bounties below one hundred thousand so they easily took care of everyone and cashed in the bounties.
Afterward, they started to navigate from island to island cashing in bounties and resupplying along the way, as they navigated the seas they got closer and closer to Logue town, after one full month they made up to three million and five hundred thousand bellies which they thought was enough to get Zoro some good swords. Johnny and Yosaku were excited they finally got to see so many islands and cash in bounties, they felt like true bounty hunters, they were extremely grateful towards Zoro and Kuina for taking the both of them under their wings.
After a few more days they finally reached Logue town, the place was infested with pirate ships and the docks were full of pirates, most of them had bounties above one hundred thousand and some of them even reached up to four million bellies. Zoro licked his lips as he looked at the bounty posters then at the wanted criminals down near the docks, he would make sure he could buy himself some good swords, Zoro jumped down from the ship and the pirates looked at him then chuckled while showing their missing teeth, most of the pirates either had missing teeth a hook for a hand or some kind of eyepatch it was really cliche.
Zoro didn't even bother to say anything, he appeared in the midst of them and rotated one time while saying:
"Three sword style: Tornado!" a Tornado of flying swords engulfed all of the pirates and cut them down to the bone killing them instantly afterward Zoro decapitated them and took their heads in a bunch of cloth which was now always with him.
Out of nowhere, a green-ash haired man appeared as smoke escaped out of his legs he was smoking a cigarette, he wore a gray jacket with fur linings at the neck with the kanji of justice on his back, he also had Jitte made of a peculiar stone strapped to his back, the man narrowed his eyes as he saw the massacre, he thought that even Akainu would blush in inferiority to the way the green-haired man treated those pirates.
The coughed a bit to take Zoro's attention, when Zoro saw him he walked towards him, the aura that Zoro gave off made the man tense up but the words that Zoro said calmed the man down:
"Do you know where the marine base is, I want to cash the bounty for all of the pirates, also are there any more pirates with bounties in Logue Town?" The man responded with a serious tone:
"I'm the newly instated marine Captain Smoker, you can follow me to the base to get your bounty." Zoro nodded his head but didn't follow him as he thought about something, Smoker didn't know what to think about Zoro stopping he started to get nervous again, even though he had the smoke-smoke fruit which made him invincible in east-blue his instincts told him this man could somehow beat him.
Zoro opened his mouth and said:
"What about the treasures of the pirates and their ships?" Smoker inwardly stopped sweating then said:
"Since you are the one who defeated the pirates we marines can give you up to twenty percent of their treasures and the cash value of the resold or recycled ships, my lieutenant will come later to count what we owe you, will you come with me now?" Zoro nodded his head as he followed after Smoker, Kuina left the ship but Smoker didn't see her as he was too focused on Zoro.
Zoro followed Smoker through the winding streets of Logue town to get to the marine base where he would cash in his bounty of approximatively fifteen million!
Zoro was sure he now had enough money to get a decent sword, maybe even a named one!