Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece

Loyalty

An eerie silence filled the air as everyone looked at Gin who was holding Zeff at gunpoint. The elder man had his wooden peg broken, as he was face down on the ground with a pistol pointed to his head. Gin held the gun tightly as he said once more, "No one move, or else the old man gets it."

Sanji looked in complete shock as he saw Gin holding the man he considered a father to the ground; he was beyond afraid. He yelled at Gin, "Gin, why are you doing this? Let the old geezer go alone."

Gin looked at him with a dead look in his eyes, as he said, "Leave the boat to the Don, and I will let him go, or else he gets it."

Sanji then yelled, "Never!" the blond man then clenched his fist in frustration as he looked at Gin who was pushing the gun against Zeff's head, "Why are you doing this?"

Gin then simply said, "I already told you; Don is the strongest man alive so I'm just following my captain's orders. I simply want to help him become the pirate king. And if taking this boat helps him reach his goat then so be it." Sanji tried to move but Gin then yelled, "Don't even think about it."

Gin then looked at the ground with frustration as he said, "Why don't you go away, Sanji? I told you I don't anyone to be killed. Leave this boat, and take the old man with you. And I'm sure you can start your business somewhere else. Why risk everything against someone who is the strongest man in the world?"

Sanji didn't say anything, but he only looked down to the ground as he growled. He then said as he lit a cigarette, "I will not allow anyone to take this old man's dream." He then opened his arms, and said, "Aim your pistol at me."

Gin only looked sad, but he couldn't say anything as something then beat down on Sanji. They all looked and saw Pearl standing above the blond man, as he held a huge smug grin on his face. The man then yelled, "Since you love this restaurant so much. Why don't you die for it?" he then began to mumble, "To think that I felt threatened by you at some point."

The man then looked at Sanji who was on the ground bleeding from his forehead. He then said, "Stay down if you know what's good for you."

He then saw Sanji slowly standing up. The man smiled a little as he lifted his shields and smacked Sanji with them across the head causing the man to fall backward from pain. He then began laughing as he saw Sanji was downed and looked at Gin as he said, "Good work, Gin. Now when I kill the blond runt, you do your best to kill the old geezer. This way their resistance will falter, and we can get the boat without any trouble." The aforementioned man looked away from Pearl who was walking to Sanji.

Sanji raised his head from the ground only for Pearl to come, and kick him across the chin sending him sailing across the ground, as the armored man then said, "Not so funny now that the shoe is on the other foot."

Sanji growled as blood dripped from his face, "Shut up you bastard. I won't allow anyone to harm this man's dream as long as I can breathe…" he was then punched with a shield from Pearl who laughed smugly, "Yeah, yeah, sure. Keep saying this cause you're about to die in a couple of minutes. It would've been better if you ran away when you had the choice."

The chefs seeing that Sanji was being beaten without him doing anything to stop the abuse caused Patty to yell, "What are doing you, idiot? Stand up, and fight."

Sanji growled at Patty as he said, "Shut up, if I fight him, the old man will be killed. Go and try to free him, so I can beat this jerk, and protect this place."

Gin then yelled at the top of his lungs, "Why Sanji? Why are you making this so hard?"

The blond then looked at him and replied, "It's you who is making this unfair."

Gin bit his tears back, as he said, "Just do as I tell you, and leave. Everyone will be safe, and no one dies." He then heard Sanji wheeze as he said, "Never!" he looked and saw an expression of determination, "This boat is the geezer's pride, and joy, so I can't with a good conscience just go away and live you to do whatever you want with it."

Everyone was shocked at how Sanji was talking about Zeff, and some of the chefs began to whisper as they said, "But doesn't Sanji hate Zeff?" Other whispers began to echo as they were confused as to why Sanji was fighting so much for someone they thought he hated.

Sanji then said, "I already took everything from him." he then began to list the things he took from the old man, "His power. His dreams. His hope. His life, but at least I can protect this boat with everything I have."

Zeff who looked at Sanji with extreme concern in his eyes said hoping to force the man to move, "Stop spewing nonsense left and right, little eggplant."

The man then yelled at Zeff, "Shut up. I'm not some small child that you need to take care of, so stop treating me like one."

Patty then yelled, "Sanji, look out." Behind the blond man stood Pearl, as he lifted both his shields on both sides of Sanji's head as he yelled, "Pearl Cymbals… AHHHH." The man who was about to attack Sanji then began to scream in pain as two disembodied hands poked his eyes causing him to flail in pain.

Sanji looked only to hear a gunshot being launched. He looked behind him in fear to see that Gin was bent over by disembodied hands, and his gun was pointed to the sky, as he said, "Who is doing this? What in the world just happened?"

Sanji quickly then grabbed Zeff, and moved him to the side as he said echoing Gin's question, "What in the world just happened?" Zeff then looked at him as he said, "I think this is the work of a devil fruit." Sanji was confused; was this another ability of the rubber boy, but his thoughts were cut out when he saw Pearl run toward him.

The man then jumped high in the air as he avoided a hit from Pearl. He then twisted himself in the air, as he brought the heel of his foot onto Pearl. The man then brought up his shield as he protected himself, but he was sent away by the kick as he snarled in frustration yelling, "Who dared and stopped me from attacking him?"

Sanji then heard soft laughing, as he saw Robin come out from the door of the restaurant as she said, "Well, you seemed you're taking advantage of wailing on him, while the chef was being held hostage so I had to interfere for both accounts." She then looked at Sanji, "Sanji, I believe now that you are going to fight him, and protect your home. I believe you can do it."

As Sanji looked at Zeff, he then began to remember his story with him. He remembered how he was a small child on a cruise boat dreaming about finding a legendary sea named 'All Blue', he remembered how the other chefs in that boat used to tease him for his dream, he remembered how one night all hell broke loose when the cook pirates led by Zeff attacked them, he remembered how a storm hit both boats that night, how he tried to fight Zeff only for him to fall into the sea, how Zeff jumped to save him only for his leg to get caught by an anchor, how the man cut off his own leg to go and save him from death, how they both ended up on a stone in the middle of the ocean, how Zeff gave him a small amount of food while he took a large sack, how he was forced to ration his food so it won't run out, how one day he hit his breaking point and attacked Zeff to try and get the food in his huge sack, how he only food gold inside the bag, how he discovered that Zeff gave him all the food they had, how a rescue boat found them, how they opened the restaurant, and finally how Zeff taught him from the scratch up everything that he knows today from fighting to cooking. He was not going to fail Zeff

Sanji then adjusted his suit as he looked at Robin, and said, "Thank you for protecting him, Robin-sawn, but now I'll take care of this trash by myself." He said as he looked at Pearl who was foaming in anger.

He then ran at the man closing the distance as he jumped and delivered a devastating kick to the man's face causing blood to seep from his forehead, and Sanji said, "Listen here, you oversized pot, leave or be forced to."

The man angrily stood up as he said, "Danger! Danger!" he then once again erupted into flames, and sent flying flaming pearls toward Sanji who simply kicked them away as he said, "It seems you forgot that I'm a chef, so I'll remind once again I'm not afraid of your flames."

Pearl then laughed as he said, "You should be. Once I'm done with you. You'll be nothing, but a flaming corpse on this boat." The man then rushed toward Sanji as he lifted his flaming shield saying, "Flame Surprise"

Sanji ducked under the fist and moved to close the ranger between him and Pearl, as he kicked the shield making the flaming man back away. Sanji then ran quickly as Pearl tried to attack him once more, but Sanji weaved his blow away as he kicked him straight in the face causing the armored man to fall to the ground and snuffing out his flames.

This caused Krieg's men to whisper in fear of the man as they said, "No way, but did just defeat Pearl?"

"He can't just do that. Pearl is invincible."

Don Krieg from the other side of the fight looked at the downed form of Pearl, and he yelled, "Pearl, what the heck do you think you're doing?" the man then screamed louder, "Get the hell up right now, or else I'll consider this treason, and kick you from the crew for being such a useless piece of space."

Luffy then frowned as he looked at Krieg for the way he treated his men like they were some tools. It reminded him too much of Kuro, but Krieg was different in a way that his orders were absolute, and there was no talking back or else you committed treason. This was something Luffy didn't like.

He then looked and saw that Robin was still holding Gin in place, and he said, "Such a shame, we have to fight him. He seemed like he is a really nice guy if you asked me." he then heard laughter coming from Krieg. He looked at the man, and asked as he tilted his head in confusion, "What's so funny?"

The man then smirked as he said, "I'm laughing at your naive nature. How you are tricked by Gin's act. The man is nothing, but a murderous beast who has no problem taking down anyone. He lives and breathes murder. If anything, I reel him in." he then looked at the girl holding him, and said to Luffy, "You better hope that girl of yours knows what she's doing, or else she's going to an early grave."

The boy then looked back to the fight and then at the older pirate, so he also readied himself to fight Krieg, as he stretched his arm back, and hit the man's armor who scoffed taking the blow without a sign of stress on his face saying, "Weak" the man then opened his arsenal of guns on the boy saying, "Now meet true power."

Back with Sanji, he looked at Pearl who was slowly standing up and said, "I thought I kicked your butt so hard that you won't be coming up for seconds. What's wrong with your brain? I'm sure that by now you must know that I'm pretty much stronger than you."

Pearl then scoffed as he said, "You will never be able to defeat me. I, Pearl, will destroy you." The man then jumped into the air as he said, "Diving Pearl" the armored man then put his arms forward as he went sailing through the air toward Sanji, "Surprise"

Luckily for Sanji, he jumped away in time and delivered a kick to Pearl's face who began to whine like a child as he said, "Look at what you did to my beautiful face. You will pay for this."

Pearl then rushed toward the blond-haired man who did the same, and tried to punch with his shield only for Sanji to then kick his arm away, and kick him in the huge shield that protected his chest making him back off.

Sanji didn't give Pearl time to think as he jumped toward him delivering a kick to his neck making the man wheeze and cough. This caused the chefs to begin, and cheer for Sanji telling him to beat the armored idiot and destroy him completely, though Sanji preferred if they didn't talk to him at all.

He then looked and saw that Pearl is right in front of him, and trying to hit him with his shield, but rolled on the ground avoiding the strike, but this itself caused a moment of distraction as Pearl managed to outsmart him and rush quickly to Sanji before he can readjust himself, and hit him with his shield, causing the Krieg to cheer for him to finish Sanji off.

Sanji then ran and hit the armor on Pearl's chest multiple times as blood flew down his face, and he then jumped away before Pearl can hit him.

Pearl then said, "Why bother to kick my shield? You know you won't be able to put a dent on it."

Sanji smirked as he said, "Well, there's a first time for everything I suppose, and it's the best way to kick your butt out of this ship by first destroying that shield you have, so be ready cause it's about to go away from you."

Pearl then laughed, "Don't lie to yourself, you fighting a pointless war. You're tiring yourself out. I only have to wait till your legs give out, and after that, it's game over for you."

Sanji didn't reply as he threw the cigarette he had in his mouth, and replaced it with a new one, "I'd like to see you try that after I'm done with you." He then cracked his neck, "But in all seriousness playtime is over, and I want this to end quickly so prepare yourself to taste defeat."

The blond ran the distance between him and the armored man and kicked him in the chest armor, but unlike all the previous times, when Pearl was able to shrug off the pain this time he gasped as he felt some pain funnel through. He looked down in horror only to see that his precious armor was dented. He looked at Sanji who held a smug look on his face as he asked bewildered, "How were you able to dent it? This is pure metal. A bug like shouldn't be able to leave a scratch on it."

Sanji then took a puff of smoke from his cigarette as he said, "Years of training and kicking metal walls can do wonders for anyone." He pointed his cigarette at Pearl asking him, "DO you give up, or do I have to kick it from you?"

Reaching his max, Pearl roared in anger as he attacked Sanji who dodged under him and kicked him in the back of the neck causing the huge man to fall to the ground. He then stood up and wiped the blood that was falling from his face as he then tried to activate his fire mode, but Sanji beat him to the punch as he said, "Not happening"

The blond man then kicked him so hard in the chest that the armor had an imprint of his foot on it causing all the pirates to gape as they silently, "He was able to dent Pearl's armor?!"

"But how? No was able to even touch, let alone dent it in one go."

"This restaurant is full of monsters I tell you."

Meanwhile, Krieg was shocked that someone actually managed to leave a mark on Pearl's shield; plus, he was furious since that thing wasn't cheap to make or bring. He wanted to go there and end it as soon as possible, but a voice caught his attention, "Don't forget that I'm still here." Luffy side as he flung a punch toward Krieg managing to hit him in the face which made the man snarl in anger, "You'll pay for this." The man then returned to firing all the ammunition he had on Luffy who merely made it ricochet off his body.

Back with Sanji, Pearl stood up and yelled, "No one hits the iron wall Pearl, and lives to tell the tale." The man dashed quickly toward the blond, but by that point, Sanji decided to end the fight. The blond man met Pearl in the middle of the way as the latter tried to do an armored punch, but Sanji ducked and kicked him in the chest causing the armor to bend inwards. This was followed by another kick to the chest making Pearl gasp for breath as Sanji continued his assault on him. Sanji then kicked him in the face to disorient from, managing to launch a counter strike for his hits.

Finally, he gave a well-placed hard kick to the center of the armor, and then it happened. The sound of metal being shattered echoed through both boats. Everyone then looked as they watched Pearl's armor shattered into pieces as the man himself looked like he was about to lose it from shock.

Sanji merely stood there as he said, "How do you like your do? Do you want dessert with, or do you want to live another day?" he finished as he promptly kicked Pearl in the side of the head and made him fall.

He looked at the now terrified forms of the Krieg pirates who were trembling in fear of him. You didn't get the kick the butt of someone as strong as Pearl without having people getting afraid of you. Sanji then walked forward toward Zeff, and put out his hand, as he said in a calm voice, "See old man, I told you to stop treating like some child. I know what I'm doing out there." Zeff could only retort with a snort at the achievement of his pupil as he reattached the wooden peg.

Everything was going smooth till a gunshot echoed throughout the boat, and someone was dashing. Sanji only had a few moments to look only for Gin to appear right in front of him holding tonfas. But what shocked that the man didn't even try to attack him in the first place; he attacked Pearl who was still conscious though barely and tried to hit Sanji with the shields on his arms.

Everyone was shocked at the occurrence, especially the Krieg pirates. They just saw their second in command attack one of his allies and knock him out for good, but what they couldn't answer was why? They all gulped as they knew that their captain won't like this one bit

As if on cue, Krieg's voice echoed from the other side where he was still stuck in a stalemate with the rubber boy, "What's the meaning of this Gin? Why did you attack Pearl when he was about to finish this runt? And why didn't you finish off the girl when you managed to shot her?" and true to Krieg's word, Robin was the ground holding her injured shoulder that Gin managed to shoot. The man cleverly threw the gun from one hand to another when the girl was distracted by Sanji's apparent victory and managed to angle the gun in an angle that he was able to shoot her in the shoulder causing her to let go of the power holding him.

The man looked at his captain saying, "Captain, I only took down Pearl because he was causing too much damage to the boat, and I wanted to personally kill Sanji." He then looked back at Robin and said, "And as for her, I thought it was best to leave her fate for you to decide after you kill her lover."

The man looked at his second in command as he hummed a little, "Alright Gin, now go quickly and finish this runt, and don't you dare betray me."

The tanned man then nodded his head as he said, "I would never captain."

Every one of the chefs then recognized Gin as his weapon of choice. He was known as the 'man demon'. The guy was known for his blood lust when he fought his enemies always leaving them beaten half to death, if not beaten to death. They looked at Sanji who seemed worse for wear, and they prayed that the blond boy manages to pull off a miracle by winning the fight and not getting himself killed in the process.

Meanwhile, Sanji was beyond livid. He looked at Robin who was clutching her shoulder in pain, and he honestly could only see red. If there was one thing that he was actually grateful that the old-timer managed to kick there his head, it was respect toward women and not hurting them under any circumstances.

He looked at Gin, and yelled, "How could hurt a woman?"

Gin merely shrugged not getting the point as he explained, "She was in the way of me helping my captain, so I took her down," he went quiet for a moment and added, "Just like I'm going to take you down."

The two men then looked at each other. They stared for a moment or two as Gin weighed his tonfa in each hand, while Sanji tapped his feet into the ground readying himself for another fight.

Each of them had something to protect, the tanned man wanted to help his captain reach his goal, while the blond man wanted to protect the dream of someone he cherished dearly even if he didn't show it to the outside world.

Gin then said, "You know you could end this by giving up. I mean looking at this realistically; you're at a disadvantage. The previous fight must have worn you out while I'm still fresh."

Sanji snorted at the man's words as he replied back, "I can say the same thing about you honestly. You were hungry for days on end. On some level, you're not that much better than me."

The two men then quickly ran toward each other, and they began to fight. Gin tried to hit Sanji in the face only for the blond man to pry the hit away, and he himself try to land a kick to Gin's stomach, but the man backed away at the last moment. The tanned man then jumped into the air as he attempted to land a double hit on Sanji, but the blond man countered with a kick that blocked the attack.

Both combatants continued to trade blows with each other, but unknown to them, Krieg was smirking. Luffy saw this and couldn't help, but ask, "Why are you smiling yellow trashcan?"

The man felt his veins pop, but he chose to ignore the insult since the brat would be dead in a few. He looked at him, "You honestly still believe that you idiots stand a chance in victory." He then pointed toward Gin fighting Sanji saying, "That man right there will be your end. Gin will kill every single one of you when he's finished with that chef."

Luffy then said, "Nah, Sanji's gonna win. I know it. He has too much to lose here, unlike Gin who has nothing, but a failure of a captain."

This comment made Krieg angry as he ran toward the rubber boy with his fist raised to punch him, but once he did the rubber boy smiled before punching him once more in the face saying, "You don't learn, do you?"

The armored grimaced as he thought that this was going to take more than he thought to take the boy down for good.

Back with Sanji, the man was blocking and attacking as fast as he can, but there was a problem… exhaustion was hitting him hard. The constant pressure that the two tonfas were putting on his legs was causing them to weaken slowly add to that the pain he still had from fighting Pearl, and you get the perfect equation got defeat, but he wasn't going to back down, or lose.

He looked only to see Gin aiming an attack on his head. The man dodged but was shocked when Gin readjusted himself launching a hit to his side which the man was sure that have caused some muscles to tear, and some of his bones to break.

Not wanting to be behind, Sanji then delivered a vicious kick to the side of the head and slammed Gin's head into the ground making the man groan in pain, as he slowly lifted himself from the strike, and quickly dashed toward Sanji. The man jumped high in the air as he brought down his tonfa toward the blond who dodged. This was followed by a quick wave from the other tonfa which Sanji blocked before attempting to land a hit himself to which Gin blocked.

Gin then growled in sadness, "Why must you fight me, Sanji?" he then threw a hit, but Sanji blocked it.

The blond then laughed as he said, "I can ask you the same thing myself. Why are you fighting me, Gin? Is your captain really worth all this?" he then took out a new cigarette and began to smoke it, "Cause I'm sure he's not."

"Shut up. You don't know the don as I do. He's the greatest man ever." Gin clenched his fist hating where things have arrived as he added, "Don't you get it? He's going to be the pirate king. I have to support him all the way." He then shouted at the top of his lungs, "It's my job to make sure that everything happens according to what he wants."

Gin then ran toward Sanji attempting to hit him in the chest, but Sanji blocked it with his knee before delivering a hard hit to his chin causing the man to fall backward, but he soon regained his footing as he attacked once more. This time with more ferocity and managed to get a hit on the chest causing the blond to wheeze out of pain as the other chefs yelled out in concern for his life.

Gin then screamed, "See. You can't win against me, so just give up. I trying to save your life here. Why are so stubborn. I just don't anyone to die."

Sanji then retorted, "If you didn't want anyone to die, maybe you should've not come alone not with that guy with you."

The two then continued their dance, as foot met steel. But the problem was that Gin was steadily gaining ground on Sanji. The blond man was being forced onto the defensive as the tanned man attacked without stopping for a moment. The blond began to feel the bones in his legs begin to crack slowly as Gin continued with his assault.

He took a deep breath, and then kicked him in the gut making to man gasp for air, but he quickly replied by putting a tonfa behind Sanji's head and smashing him into the ground causing the already bloodied head to bleed more.

The last attack made Sanji feel a bit dizzy, but he quickly regained his senses in time to stop an attack from Gin. The attack was followed by another aimed at his neck, but he jumped out of the way avoiding it. Sanji then jumped in the air as he tried to do an ax kick at Gin's head, but the man protected himself with his weapon of choice.

Gin looked at Sanji and then hit him in the leg with his weapon causing the man to clutch the attacked area in pain. Not wanting his attack to stop, Gin then went and hit the blond chef with his weapon in his face causing blood to gush out of the already tried fighter.

Sanji then stood up and took a deep breath to try and stabilize himself. He couldn't lose. There was too much at risk here to lose. He looked at Gin who was holding a sad look on his face. It was one of sadness and disappointment. He then ran toward him and tried to kick him only for the man to sigh and block the attack that was a bit sloppy given the beat down that Sanji had with both Gin and Pearl.

Moments later, Gin attacked Sanji hitting him in the ribs with his tonfa, and then striking him in the back with his weapon making the man fall to the ground as he struggled to get up. Gin approached Sanji, but the man managed to kick him in the stomach as he jumped back up, though he was beaten pretty badly in both fights.

Gin quickly attacked him, and landed a hit on his leg, but Sanji also managed to land a hit against his other hand causing him to almost drop his weapon from his hand.

Gin then quickly decided to subdue Sanji who was struggling to stand. The man hit Sanji in the back of the head, before following it with a hit to his chest, and finally, he landed a final blow to his right knee causing Sanji to finally fall to the ground defeated.

The man known as man-demon stood above the blond cook. It would only take one hit to defeat him, but as he raised his weapon, he couldn't help, but remember the kindness that he was offered back when he was angry. Was he really that ungrateful that he was going to fight and kill that hand that reached out to him in his time of need?

Try as he may, but couldn't bring himself to lower the weapon, and kill Sanji. He was stuck in a standstill between his loyalty to his captain and his human side which was thought to be non-existent. He looked at the downed Sanji, but he knew that he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. He needed quickly to pick a side because he can't have both that he knew.

The man was startled out of his thoughts when Krieg yelled to him, "Go on Gin, what's the holdup. Kill the blond runt already, so we can get this show on the road." Gin looked at his captain with confusion etched in his eyebrows he was truly lost, and he didn't know what was the right choice, but he couldn't kill Sanji. He then reached a decision that knew may cost him greatly, but he didn't regret it one bit.

Gin lifted his tonfa, and brought it down on Sanji who closed his eyes. The blond man waited for the pain to come, but it didn't. He opened his eyes to see that the weapon was planted on the wooden floor beside him. Krieg then yelled, "Gin, what's the meaning of this? Why didn't you kill him as I told you?"

The tanned man looked at his captain, as he asked with a dry-throat hoping for the best, and wishing that things had played out differently, "Captain, let's leave this place. let's leave this boat, and let them keep it."

The pirate captain looked stunned. Did his second in command ask him to leave the boat? Did he just disobey a direct order from him? Doesn't he know that the man would tolerate everything, but disobedience which in his books meant betrayal? His shock then turned into anger, as he yelled at his second in command, "Gin, I'm only going to say this once; kill that runt, or else face the consequences of your actions."

Gin felt tears fill his eyes as he said, "But I can't kill him. He helped when I needed him the most. It just feels so wrong to kill him."

The captain looked at his subordinate with a disappointed look as he said, "You disappoint me, Gin. I always saw you as my most loyal follower, but today I discovered otherwise…"

"But Don, I just want…" Gin was cut off by Krieg who yelled, "If you are still loyal to me like you call; kill him otherwise this is considered uprising against your own captain, and you know how I feel how that."

Gin stood there in shock as he gulped not able to process what to do anymore. Krieg then looked at him as he said, "Men, going on forward. Gin isn't one of us anymore. He betrayed us and therefore is one of our enemies. Anyone who helps him will be treated the same."

The Krieg pirates were now in shock as they watched Gin betray their captain. He was known as the most loyal man to the captain who was willing to betray the captain. They knew that Gin was loyal to a fault so much that he personally took their captain's place when the marines attacked them, and let them take him away to give a chance for their captain to escape with his life, and become the pirate king.

Luffy, on the other hand, was shocked that Krieg just discarded Gin like this, so he yelled, "Hey, you can't treat your crewmate like that."

Krieg looked at him, and said with a sneer, "You're talking as if they're my equals. This is the pirate world kid, the men are supposed to give their utmost loyalty to their captain, and if they can't then they're good as dead."

Luffy angered by such a claim tried to punch Krieg who grabbed his hand and threw him into the sea. The boy screamed as he stretched his hands, and landed on the Baratie's fin with the others.

"That was a very close call." He then saw an injured Robin, and went to check up on her, "Are you alright, Robin?" the girl smiled saying, "Nothing that I can't handle Luffy." She then stood up as she saw a couple of grunts try to rush to where they were standing. She endured the pain as she crossed her arms saying, "Trenita Fleur: Strangle." The men were then captured by the arms as they were being strangled and were only dropped when the girl caused them to pass out.

By this point, Krieg had reached the end of his bearings, so he yelled, "Enough of this, I tried to give you all a chance to escape with your lives, but you only angered me further and fought me, so…" the man then opened one of the circular shields on the side of his armor, which caused his men to begin to panic, and beg him not to do it, "…it's time to bring out the heavy weapons."

The men began to beg, "Think about what you're doing captain. That gas could kill us all even after the effect."

"Yeah captain, don't do it."

Krieg shouted shutting up everyone as he said, "Everyone of you idiots, pull out the gas mask that I gave you when you joined the crew." The men pulled out the masks, and put them on their faces, as Krieg said, "Get ready for the 'MH-17' gas."

The chefs then panicked as they dragged themselves inside the restaurant, and closed it shut, while Sanji was still outside with Gin above him. The man pulled out his mask to put it over his face, but Krieg then shouted at him, "Drop the mask, Gin."

The man looked at him and gulped, as Krieg continued to explain, "You betrayed me Gin, so you deserve death to atone for your betrayal." The man then pointed to the mask as he added, "So drop the mask Gin, you don't get to use it."

The man slowly, but surely dropped the mask, while Sanji coughed, "What are… you… doing you idiot? Pick… up the mask… or else you'll… die."

Sanji then saw Gin's face which had a blank look, and the man told him, "He's right. I betrayed my captain. I'm supposed to die. Men like me don't deserve to live." He then picked up the mask slowly, "But you Sanji, you deserve to live." He then put the mask on Sanji's face who was struggling trying to get it off, so he can put it on Gin's face.

Krieg then shook his head as he said, "Showing kindness, Gin. Truly how the mighty have fallen, if only you have killed then you might have lived." The man grabbed a string, and said "Bombs away." And with that, the weapon was launched.

Luffy who was on the side began to panic as he looked around for something to use to protect him and Robin before the bomb exploded; he didn't have much time. He then saw a couple of pirates with masks on them. The boy stretched his arms and grabbed the masks causing the men to jump into the sea and dive into the water. He then gave Robin a mask and put one on his face.

Moments later, a huge purple gas erupted over the entire area and covered the battle fins. Everyone held their breaths waiting for the gas to be swept away by the air that was blowing. Finally, a couple of minutes later, the gas was being lifted by the air. Krieg stood there with a smug grin on his face as he removed his gas mask, thinking that he killed all of his enemies with one move. He looked as the gas finally was cleared only to be shocked by the scene.

In front of him, he saw that the straw hat runt and his girl each had a mask on their face, while Gin was standing over the blond-haired man pushing a mask on his face, while Gin himself also had a mask on his face being pushed by a disembodied hand a couple of steps away from him was a man gasping for air. The man growled as his ultimate move failed.

Gin then removed the mask from his face clenching his fists in anger letting Sanji remove his mask and take a gulp of air that he desperately needed, as he yelled at Robin, "Why did you save me? I betrayed my captain. I don't deserve to live I should die."

The girl shook her head saying, "Gin, you're a wonderful person, but you had the bad luck to follow the wrong person. You don't need to die for him. You have to live to do what you want with your life."

The restaurant doors were then opened as Zeff came out of it, and said, "Your plans are failing. Leave now."

Krieg then laughed as he said, "The gas bomb might have not worked, but I'm still Don Krieg the strongest man alive, and I'll not fall down so easily."

Luffy then smiled saying, "Finally, it's my turn, and without distractions."

He then saw the sail that connected both boats and ran on it toward Krieg who simply pulled out a gadget from his shield as he opened fire. Luffy then said, "I'm immune to bullets…AHH"

The boy looked at his arm, and he saw that he was impaled by a bunch of spears through his entire body, so Krieg then laughed, "You said you wanted to become the pirate king. Don't you see that I'm the strongest here? I'm known as the strongest pirate in the east blue; do you know why that is?"

Luffy scratched his head as he answered Krieg, "Because you have the biggest crew."

The man then fell forward shocked by the boy's answer, "No, you idiot. That's because I have the strongest weapons, and the most powerful armor ever to be made." He then pointed to his armor as he said, "This is power, so tell me brat. Who is the strongest, and who's going to become the pirate king?"

The boy tilted his head to the side as he said with confidence, "Me"

Everyone then seat-dropped at him, as he clearly didn't understand where Krieg was going with his question. The man then said, "Clearly, you don't understand what you're standing against." He then prepared another of his shields opening it to a similar to the gas bomb shield, so Luffy then smiled as he decided to kick it away, "How about I give you a taste?"

The bomb was then launched, and Luffy kicked it, but it exploded into metal stars that sliced his shoulder and leg adding more injuries to the areas where the spears were still stuck.

The man then said, "You saw my strength boy, so tell me; how is the strongest now?"

Luffy then chuckled as he began to remove the spears from his body. He first removed the one from his shoulder as he said, "Your strength is…" and then the one in his abdomen, "…in your weapons…" then the one in his leg, "...but take that away…" followed by removing the one in his thigh, "…and you're nothing but a weakling." He stood up and declared, "So I'm now even more sure that I'm stronger."

Don Krieg then gritted his teeth in annoyance, as he said "I'm going to kill you, brat."

The man then opened fire from his shield sending more spikes toward Luffy who jumped away, and stretched his leg backward as he launched it at Krieg saying, "Gum-Gum Whip"

The extended leg then hit the side of the armor and threw Krieg to the side making him growl in frustration that a lowly pirate who had no name managed to get some hits on him from the beginning.

He then stood up cracking his neck, as he looked at Luffy and said, "I'm done with your games. You're going to die and that's final."

Back on the boat with Sanji, he held Gin back from interfering with Luffy's fight as he said, "Clam down Gin. You're already injured as it is. Don't worsen your wounds."

"But I have to stop him from fighting the Don, or he'll die." He then heard laughter from beside him, and he looked at Robin who said, "I wouldn't be worried so much about Luffy. He's strong and able to take of himself when the time arises." She then looked in her lover's direction, "Don't worry about him. just watch him fight."

Zeff then walked to both of them and said, "Sanji, look at that boy right now." The blond man looked at his mentor wondering at what he was aiming, "Although that man is holding all the dangerous weapons and have in every pocket of his some sort of trick, that boy is the real danger here." This confused both Sanji and Gin, but Zeff then finished, "So I want you to watch him fight till the very end."

Luffy then ran to Krieg as he readied a punch, but the man pulled out some sort of spiked shield as he yelled at the boy, "Try to bypass this."

Luffy then punched him so hard impaling his hand during the process, but the man felt it from behind the shield. He then was launched away with blood running down his face.

Luffy chuckled to himself as he said, "I promise you that I won't die tonight."

Author's notes:

Welcome back to a new chapter of my fanfic, and in this chapter, we saw the continuation of the fight between Pearl and Sanji and also saw the fight between Sanji and Gin. We also saw Krieg using his gas bomb against the Baratie, and the beginning of the fight between both Luffy and Krieg. The next chapter will mostly be focused on Luffy fighting Krieg, Sanji joining the crew, and heading out to Nami's location.

As always please take care of yourselves, leave a review telling us your opinion about the current chapter, and put a comment about the arc you are most excited for.

And finally, I hope you enjoy my work and see you next time with a brand new chapter