When he pushed the doors to the dining hall open, Sanji forced himself to look calm, even though he could feel his anger still radiating from him with enough force for anyone to see the flames shooting around him. However, his mood was heightened a bit as he looked around the dining hall, which seemed to get more and more crowded as time passed. At a table below the stairs to the second floor, a beautiful pink-haired woman was calling for his attention while casting cold glares towards the table where Usopp was entertaining Ace and Chopper with one of his tall tales.

Sanji walked up to the table where the pink-haired woman was sitting next to a thin older man, bowing lightly as he introduced himself as the head chef of the restaurant. Even though he was still concentrating hard to avoid letting his temper affect the guests and to keep balancing the two trays in his hands and the tray resting on top of his blond hair properly, he had no problems with finding words to compliment the woman's beauty.

"Oh love, how thou pains me by letting my humble eyes fall on such divine beauty. You, my lady, must be an angel sent to ease my aching heart-"

"Can't you do something about those men over there?" the woman demanded, apparently immune to Sanji's charm. "They are being awfully noisy."

A bit disappointed that he had been interrupted before he even had had the chance to start flattering the woman, Sanji put on a light smile and bowed once again, feeling his bad mood grow even worse than before. He was careful not to show it, though, figuring that he could always take out some of his frustration on Usopp - it had been a while since he had had the opportunity to do that.

"I will see to that immediately, my lady," he said courteously.

He turned away and calmly walked across the room towards the table where his nakama were enjoying themselves. Usopp seemed to be in the middle of telling another story, and was gesticulating wildly while he spoke. Ace and Chopper were keeping their eyes on the storyteller, apparently enjoying the story. Looking around, Sanji got the impression that some of the guests were listening to whatever tall tale Usopp was telling. When Sanji got closer to the table, Usopp's voice mentioning a certain name reached his ears over the buzz of other voices in the large room, and the chef slowed down his pace, strangely enough interested in the topic.

"…and then, when we were surrounded by at least five hundred enemies, I suddenly got an idea. I reached out my hand and said 'Luffy, take my hand!' He took it, and I started to spin around where I stood, pulling Luffy with me. When his arm started to stretch and he began moving closer to the circle of enemies, he understood what I was trying to do. So he braced himself as he flew into the circle of enemies, plowing through them like a hot knife through butter."

Usopp shrugged lightly and leaned back in his chair, looking very pleased with himself.

"That's how the Lusopp Carousel was invented. In a matter of minutes, all the enemies were wiped out by our combined strength."

Ace and Chopper started to laugh, and the reindeer even clapped his hooves together while trying to keep himself from falling backwards off the chair. Sanji smiled lightly as he wondered if Chopper still believed everything Usopp said without a single doubt.

"Oi, 'captain'," he said, putting down the trays with food on the table, both greeted and thanked by Chopper and Ace's cheerful voices (they sounded a bit muffled as they both tried to keep themselves from laughing in his face). "Are you finished?"

"Uh…" Usopp turned around, looking a bit confused. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Too bad, then I might just regret doing this…"

Sanji raised his right leg from the floor and let the hard heel of his shoe drop down hard onto Usopp's head, causing the marksman to crash head-first to the floor. Feeling some of his aggression fade away, the chef put his foot back on the floor and looked thoughtful (with some difficulty since the surprised look on Usopp's face made him want to laugh).

"Nope, I don't regret it. Keep it down now, you're disturbing my guests."

Usopp got up on his knees on the floor, rubbing his head and moving one of his hands in front of his face to see if he was bleeding. Then he glared darkly at Sanji.

"Damn Love Cook, don't tell me you listened to that snobby woman over there," he growled, slowly getting up from the floor. "She's known all over East Blue for her endless whining about everything she sees. It's a miracle that the old man she's with hasn't gone completely mental by now."

"I don't care," Sanji replied as coldly as he could. "As long as she or any other guest is aboard this restaurant, I will do anything to make sure that their stay here is as pleasant as possible. This would include getting rid of disturbing elements like you."

There was a dramatic change in Usopp's face as the he suddenly grinned widely. Sanji raised a curled eyebrow, wondering what the liar was up to this time.

"Well, since you've just served us our food, wouldn't that make us guests?" Usopp asked, the sly smile turning into a pleased smirk.

Sanji could barely hide a smile as he realized that there wasn't much he could do but to admit defeat. Usopp was right - they were his guests, just like the other people in the dining hall. Not that he was going to admit it to the others, but still... He pulled out a chair next to Usopp while glaring at the sniper.

"You're not paying customers," he muttered. "If I hadn't known you for ten years, you wouldn't see a single bread crumb without paying for it."

He smirked lightly and gestured for the plates with food on the table, slightly amazed that none of the three pirates had started eating yet.

"Now eat up, boys. There's plenty more where that came from."

As Usopp, Chopper and Ace reached out to grab a plate each, Sanji took off the pink apron and hanged it over the back of the chair he had pulled out. Then he sat down, contently watching the three pirates in front of him eat. The promise about there being more food hadn't been something he had planned to make, since he did remember the half-empty freezers and how very much like his younger brother Ace could be when it came to food. But as he watched the pirates, he got the feeling that Usopp and Chopper would consider going with him back to All Blue for supplies if he asked them. That would clearly make the journey more enjoyable, even if he would have preferred it to be Nami-san and Robin-chan instead of the two clowns in front of him.

Leaning back in his chair, Sanji fished up the packet of smokes from his pocket, opened it and stuck a cigarette in the corner of his mouth. Before he could reach for his box of matches or his lighter, the end of the cigarette suddenly burst into flames, causing the chef to blink in surprise. The fire quickly subsided to embers, and when Sanji looked up, Ace nodded once towards him and smiled before he returned to his breakfast. Sanji couldn't hold back a smile in return as he blew out a thin mist of smoke in the air.

"By the way…" he said after a few minutes and turned to look at Usopp, who just emptied the last plate of fried eggs. "That story you just told…"

"What about it?" Usopp asked as he pushed the empty plate away and leaned back in his chair with a content sigh. "Ahh… Thanks for the food, Sanji. It was the best meal I've eaten in years."

"Did you really meet Luffy, or was it just another story?" Sanji inquired, not quite sure why he was so eager to know the truth.

"I was wondering that myself," Ace chipped in, looking curiously at the rest of them over the stack of empty plates in front of him as he put down his fork. "I've been looking all over the oceans for my little brother, but I haven't been able to find him anywhere."

"No, the story I just told is actually true, and we really did meet him." Usopp said, accompanied by a nodding Chopper. "It was just when Chopper and I entered the Grand Line again after being in South Blue, about eight months ago. He was playing with Labun – that huge whale we met back when we first came to the Grand Line, if you remember him – down by the foot of Reverse Mountain and he asked if he could come with us for a while. Though he took off on his own after we visited two islands, saying that there was something he had to do, and I haven't seen him since then."

Sanji looked up as four of the guests walked past them, faintly praising the food and the service while casting nervous glances towards the pirates before they hurried out through the open doors.

"Thank you, and please come again next time we return to East Blue!" Sanji called after them, silently wondering if those guests ever would return. He then turned back towards Usopp, feeling what was left of his previous good mood slowly being drained from his body.

"So he took off alone in the middle of the Grand Line? Then it must have been something really important he had to do."

Usopp and Chopper shrugged simultaneously, and the long-nosed man reached up to the tiny skull-shaped pin by his shoulder, which held the brown cloak together around his neck.

"I guess so, but I don't really care," he said, releasing the pin from the cloth. "If he had wanted me to know what he was up to, he would have told me. All I know is that if he hadn't gone with us that time, I wouldn't be alive now."

Sanji's eyes widened slightly as Usopp removed the cloak from his shoulders, revealing the scars of four deep, even slashes running from the right shoulder to the left hip across his chest under the torn bright green overalls he was wearing. The chef found himself staring as hypnotized by the pale scars for a short moment, wondering to himself who –or what– could have caused such wounds. Even to Sanji's untrained eye, it was perfectly clear that if the gashes had been only a hair's-breadth deeper or less than a centimeter higher up, Usopp would probably have bled to death in a matter of seconds.

He wanted to ask Usopp what had happened, but just as he was about to open his mouth, he felt like he really didn't need to know. If Usopp was to tell him about it, he would listen, but the need to know that had flared up inside him had already faded away. However, just as Sanji decided not to ask about it, Usopp started telling the story.

"When we reached the first island on the route we chose, we happened to meet Captain Kuro, the bastard who threatened my village – I told you about him once, didn't I? Anyway, they had anchored on the opposite side of the island from where we landed, and while we were looking for food, we accidentally stepped right into the Kuroneko Clan's base camp."

Usopp made a pause to wrap the cloak around his shoulders again, a shadow flashing across his face as he put the little pin in its place. But when he looked up again, the shadow was gone, and he smiled cheerily, almost as if he was telling one of his old tall tales. Next to him, Chopper had stopped eating his pancakes and was listening intently to Usopp's words, looking almost as if he had never heard the story before or even been there when it happened. Usopp leaned forward against the table, almost as if he was to say something that was top secret.

"Apparently, Captain Kuro hadn't forgotten about us and he wanted revenge for what we had done to him. So before the three of us knew it, we were in the middle of a fight against Kuro and his clan. At first, it seemed to go pretty well for us, but that was only because Kuro himself didn't participate in the battle. But just as Chopper and Luffy took down the two best fighters in the clan, Kuro made a leap directly at me, the ten blades at the tips of his fingers gleaming as he reached out for me."

The sniper shivered lightly, as if the memory was too horrible to think of. Sanji caught himself having a hard time believing that the story Usopp was telling actually was true, but he kept quiet and waited for the sniper to continue. In the corner of his eye, he could see Ace leaning forward against the table, a concentrated look on his face as he also listened intently to the story.

"I just froze where I stood, watching that man coming towards me almost as if time suddenly had slowed down. It was almost like I could feel the blades cutting me before they even touched me, but then I felt someone grab hold of me, pulling me backwards and away from the danger. When I looked over my shoulder, I saw Luffy's hand holding a firm grip around the shoulder-straps of my overalls and his outstretched arm was pulling me back so that Kuro's claws couldn't cut me to shreds. But the bastard still got me quite good…"

The sniper added the last part with a lower, growling tone of voice, his eyes narrowing lightly as if he in his mind returned to the day he was injured. Then the dark expression on his face faded, and he seemed to realize that he was no longer on that island in the beginning of the Grand Line, but on the restaurant Sagatie with three of his nakama in front of him.

"Luffy defeated him again after that," Usopp finished, looking very proud as he said it. He reached out his hand and patted Chopper lightly on the shoulder. "And if it hadn't been for this guy, I could have died on that island. He patched me up really good and saved my life."

Chopper looked like he was about to protest loudly, but as he glanced over at the other guests in the room, he simply blushed heavily and stuffed what was left of his pancakes into his mouth and pretended like he hadn't heard what Usopp said. Usopp on the other hand chuckled happily, almost as if he had completely forgotten about the story he had just told.

"Aah, it's great having more people to talk to," he said with a wide grin. "Ne, Sanji, how about it? Do you want to join us and go back out to sea again?"

Sanji tapped the ashes off his cigarette and leaned back in his chair. It was tempting to accept the invitation, but he still had the Sagatie to take care of. Therefore, he gently shook his head, puffing out a ring of smoke in the air.

"Thanks, but no thanks," he said with a teasing smirk. "I wouldn't feel comfortable with you as my captain, Usopp."

"Alright," Usopp said with a shrug, looking very disappointed as he turned away from Sanji. "Just tell me if you change your mind. How about you, Ace? We could use someone with your strength."

The freckled pirate cackled cheerfully, almost startling Sanji by breaking the silence he had kept for the past minutes. Sanji had got the impression that Ace had fallen asleep once again by the relaxed way the pirate had been leaning against the table. Noticing that he was awake came therefore as a slight shock to the chef.

"I'm afraid that I have to decline as well," Ace said, pushing his orange hat to the back of his head. "But if you're planning on staying in East Blue a while, I wouldn't mind coming along until I find the man I'm looking for."

Sanji smiled as Usopp and Chopper cheered, wishing that he could join in their happiness. He didn't want his nakama to believe that he didn't want to be a pirate anymore, because that was as far from the truth as anyone could possibly come. No, a large part of him did want to be a pirate again, but his restaurant was far too important for him to just give it up. After all, it was the symbol of the goal he had finally reached, and the only thing that reminded him of the man who had taught him everything he knew.

"There's one thing I don't really get…" Ace said with delay as Usopp and Chopper had calmed down a little bit. He took off his hat and placed it on the table next to the large stack of empty plates. "I've been sitting here, watching the three of you talking to each other just like you used to do before, and I just can't figure out why your clan split up in the first place. I mean, I heard about it only a few months ago, and I couldn't believe it. I still can't believe it, actually."

A short moment of silence followed, where Ace watched the three former Straw Hat pirates warily.

"It wasn't because of my brother, was it?" he asked carefully to break the silence. "Did something happen to him that I haven't heard of?"

"No!" Usopp hurried to say, slamming his hands against the table. "No, no, nothing like that. I'm sure..."

He hesitated and smiled lightly, almost looking a little embarrassed.

"Actually, I'm not really sure why it happened, One day, Luffy gathered all of us – we were only about ten or eleven at that time, I think… Yeah it was on the first island we came to after Keira left for South Blue – and said that we were going take separate paths. He said 'I can't make you reach your goals, you have to do it on your own' or something like that. He let me have the ship, though. Said that he could always find another ship…"

Ace frowned and leaned forward against the table with his chin resting in his hand.

"Huh… That doesn't sound like my brother at all," he said confusedly. "The last time we met, I got the impression that he was going to keep the clan together forever no matter what happened."

As Usopp and Chopper started telling Ace about their own theories to why they split up, Sanji stopped listening to the rest of the conversation. He remembered the events that had led to the end of the Straw Hat clan all too well, and he was not in the mood to listen to Usopp and Chopper's awkward suggestions to what could have happened that made Luffy take such an uncharacteristic decision.

– e – e –

Outside Tomat Island, somewhere in the Grand Line, 12 months earlier.

"Sanji, what are you doing?"

The cook shut his eyes as the voice of his captain reached his ears. He was standing in the galley aboard the Going Merry, carefully packing his personal knives and other kitchen utensils into their boxes and putting them in a large bag on the floor. Of course, he had known that he would have to face Luffy sooner or later, but he felt that it would have been better if he had gotten the opportunity to choose the time and place himself. Preparing himself, Sanji sighed and turned around, meeting the questioning look in the captain's eyes. This was going to be much harder than he had thought.

"I'm leaving, Luffy."

There, he had said it. Now all he had to do was to await the captain's reaction. Sanji had never before been so glad that he had been left to guard the ship with Luffy while the other crewmembers were stocking up on fresh water and other things in the little town they had anchored by. The last thing he wanted was for someone else to step in while he was defending the path he had chosen.

"No, you're not." The answer was like a gunshot in the silence that had followed Sanji's announcement. Folding his arms across his chest in a determined gesture, he looked straight into the cook's eyes. Sanji met his eyes with an almost equally stubborn gaze.

"Yes, I am," he repeated, ready to do whatever it would take to get Luffy to understand that he had made up his mind. "I've already made preparations. I'm not going with you from this island. I'm going back to All Blue on my own."

The look in the black-haired man's eyes suddenly changed from determined to something Sanji couldn't quite catch.

"But why?" the captain demanded to know, still keeping eye-contact with Sanji. The cook sighed once more, but didn't take his eyes from Luffy's face.

"From the beginning, I joined you because I felt that I would be able to find All Blue if I did. And now, I've found it, thanks to you – thanks to everyone. But now that the old man is dead, I want to get my own floating restaurant, so that I can feed the ones who are hungry at sea."

"You can do that here," Luffy insisted, and Sanji caught the light, desperate tone in the captain's voice. "I won't eat the food, I promise."

"Your appetite is not why I'm leaving, Luffy," Sanji said powerlessly, knowing very well what a great sacrifice Luffy set up for himself by making such a promise. "And people won't come to a pirate ship, you know that as well as I do. Especially not the pirate ship that belongs to the Pirate King himself."

"Don't you like it here?"

"Of course I do. You know that I love this ship. It's just-" Sanji's voice trailed off, not really sure what he was going to say. The pleading look in the captain's dark eyes had mentally thrown him out of balance. "I'm destined to be a chef, Luffy, just like you were always destined to become the King of Pirates. I've never done anything to stand in your way, so why are you trying to stop me from fulfilling my dream?"

His words seemed to have a great impact on Luffy, because the pleading look in his eyes faded and was replaced by something Sanji interpreted as understanding. The captain turned around, making it clear that the discussion was over as he walked back towards the open door.

"But you'll stay until we set sail again?" Luffy asked, turning his head to look at Sanji once he reached the door.

"Yes, I'll stay on the island when you leave," Sanji said, nodding lightly. When the captain turned away again, the chef called out for him. "Luffy?"

"Huh?" Luffy turned towards Sanji again, a curious look in his eyes.

"I'm still your nakama, right? Even if we're not traveling together…"

"Yeah, of course!"

Luffy grinned widely, the previous gloominess gone without a trace. Then he walked out through the door to find something else to do, leaving Sanji to finish packing his things in the galley.

Later that day, when the rest of the crew had returned, the chiming sound of Luffy's voice calling them all to the galley echoed all over the harbor. Sanji was the third person to enter the galley, where Luffy, Usopp and Nami were already sitting around the table. After him, Kyle and Zoro tried to enter at the same time, causing a small but noisy fight that blocked the entire doorway. Groaning, Sanji found that he wasn't nearly annoyed enough to do something about the seaweed-head and the blue-haired surfer. Instead, he wandered off towards the kitchen area, where he swiftly prepared drinks for the ten crewmembers. When he was done and carried the tray to the table where the whole crew had finally gathered, Luffy, who was sitting cross-legged on a chair, spoke up as he reached out to take a glass.

"We're not going to sail together anymore," he said with a neutral voice, his usually bright face showing hardly any emotions at all.

A heavy silence fell in the room as everyone stared at the captain, wondering what he was talking about. Sanji sat down on an empty place on the bench, lighting what had to be his twenty-fifth cigarette that day. He wasn't really counting, but he was already on his third pack for the day, and if he kept up that pace, he would already have started on his fifth before nightfall.

"I've been thinking," the Pirate King continued with the same neutral voice. "And I think that I've done what I can for you now."

"What're ya talkin' 'bout, aniki?" Kyle asked, rubbing at the large blue bump in his forehead, the only trace of the fight he had had with Zoro earlier.

"I can't make you reach your goals. You have to reach them yourself." Luffy said, turning to look at Kyle with his round eyes almost completely blank. "I can't give you the best song in the world."

He turned his head to look at his crew, still talking as he let his eyes sweep over each and every one of them.

"I can't draw a map over the world; I don't know anything about medicine or about old glyph-things; I can't make anyone brave and I don't know how to build a flying ship. But you can, and you do. And I'm not gonna stand in your way, so I'm breaking up the clan now."

Sanji watched silently how most of the crew stood up, all of them loudly questioning the captain's decision. Except for two of them. To Sanji's right, Robin was studying the contents of the glass she was holding with a strange kind of bored interest, and across the table, Zoro looked like he was about to fall asleep at any minute. Resisting the sudden urge to kick the swordsman, Sanji got up from the bench. At the same moment he got up, Luffy put down his glass on the table and stood up, watching his crew with a serious look in his eyes.

"So, pack your things and leave when you want. I'm going to see the town now."

And with that, he had left the room, leaving his baffled crew in the galley without any explanation.

"He has to be joking," Nami said, laughing nervously as she poked at the small glass-sphere that was strapped to her wrist. "We're in the middle of the Grand Line, and this is the only Log Pose we've got."

Three or four of the other crewmembers agreed. Then Manti, the red-headed half of the musical duo, who was sitting on top of the table with his feet on the bench below, spoke up.

"You know, I think Luffy-aniki is right…" Noticing the glares the other crewmembers sent him, he continued talking. "I mean, some of us haven't got much closer to our goals since we joined the crew, and I was just thinking that maybe we would do better on our own..."

"I think it would be for the best if we were to discuss this before deciding what we'll do," Robin said calmly without taking her eyes from the glass in her hands. "Our captain seems to have made up his mind about this, and we should respect that. However, packing up to leave the ship right away without proper planning would be a very unwise thing to do."

"I think there's an inventor in town who knows how to create Log Poses," Usopp chipped in, nervously tugging at the ragged sash around his waist. "If we could get one each, I think we'd be much safer… I mean, if we decide to split up."

At that time, Sanji silently left the galley and headed off to the stern of the ship, where he leaned against the railing, silently smoking his cigarette while looking out over the ocean. He would never have expected that leaving the ship was going to trigger something like this. After all, he wasn't the first one to leave. Three of their nakama had already left for their own little adventures in search of their dreams, and Luffy had just waved after them, wishing them luck as their boats disappeared towards the horizon. So why was he acting so strange this time?

Snorting, Sanji flicked what was left of his cigarette out into the ocean. The memory of a drawing Luffy had made of him years earlier came to his mind – a messy scribble where you could almost make out the plate of meat, the form of Sanji's face, hair and the curled eyebrow if you tilted your head and squinted – and he remembered the text Usopp had added to it.

All-mighty Sanji, bringer of all that is meat.

Almost the whole crew had found that extremely funny by some weird reason Sanji couldn't understand. Of course, he had to admit that he hadn't been able to hide a light smile when he first laid eyes on the drawing that looked like someone around the age of four had made it. Somehow, when one started to get used to Luffy's drawingstyle and actually could make out what a drawing was supposed to be within the first three minutes, it was hard not to smile at it, no matter how stupid it was.

Maybe that was why Luffy was behaving so strangely. Because the one providing the meat was leaving. After all, meat was the thing that occupied the captain's mind during at least 95 percentof a normal day, when he wasn't looking for adventure or trying to persuade his crew to play with him. Stupid childish idiot. You'd think that the King of Pirates would act a little more mature, especially since he just had turned twenty-six. Then again, Sanji mused, it was thanks to Luffy's childish whims they had ended up finding the legendary treasure in the first place.

Sanji shook his head to clear it. Why was he thinking about that now? It didn't really matter anymore, did it? The clan was probably going to split up anyway, and for all he knew, it was his fault...

"Sanji?"

– e – e –

"Sanji? Hey, are you still there?"

Blinking in confusion, Sanji looked at Usopp, who was leaning over the table towards him. The marksman snapped his fingers right in front of Sanji's eyes, causing the chef to flinch lightly. He hadn't noticed that he had sunken so deep into his thoughts, and it made him feel a bit alarmed. Shaking his head, he blinked once more, trying to sort out where he was and what was going on.

"There you are," Usopp said cheerfully, looking relieved as he moved away from Sanji. "It looked like you fell asleep there for a minute. What happened?"

"Sorry…" Sanji muttered, feeling a throbbing headache beginning to grow in the area around his temples. Rubbing the left side of his head lightly, he looked around the table at the three pirates, meeting their lightly worried gaze. "Mental vacation …"

"Mental vacation?" Usopp asked, frowning as he looked warily at Sanji. "I haven't heard that expression in months. But I remember that Kyle used to say that."

Sanji groaned lightly. Great, so now he was channeling the shitty blue-haired musician? What else could happen that could probably be worse than that? He got a reply to that question quicker than he had expected when he suddenly felt a weight leaning heavily against his left side. Turning his head, he saw Chopper standing on a chair next to him while looking up at him with a concerned look in his dark eyes. As the reindeer put a hoof on Sanji's forehead, the chef subconsciously tried to move away, but was immediately admonished by Chopper.

"37,9 degrees…" Chopper muttered, a serious expression taking form on his graying face. "You have a fever, Sanji. Maybe you should rest a little."

Sanji gently pushed Chopper's hoof away from his face, not in the mood to be babied by anyone – and especially not the furry little doctor. He had never been sick a day in his life, and he sure didn't plan to get sick either. The headache was already fading away, just as the memory that had flashed through his mind only a minute earlier.

Wondering to himself how long he had been caught in his own thoughts, Sanji glanced up at the clock above the entrance, realizing that it was already way past nine in the morning. Jumping up from where he was sitting, he startled the other three to the point where Chopper fell off the chair he was standing on and Usopp and Ace both took a defensive stance.

"Sorry, but time flies," Sanji said with a light smile. "I have to see so that my chefs are getting everything ready for the lunch hours. Why are you looking at me like that, Chopper?" He added the last part as he helped the little doctor up from the floor.

Chopper was looking up at Sanji with a very serious expression on his silver-stained face. His gaze was making Sanji feel very uncomfortable.

"You seem very stressed, Sanji," Chopper said, brushing a little dust off his red pants. "What's wrong?"

When Sanji looked up, he saw Usopp nodding on the other side of the table. The marksman also had a very serious expression on his face.

"Yeah, I've never seen you so stressed out before. You weren't even this worked up that time when you had to cook for 24 hours straight to save that starving village in the Grand Line six years ago."

Sanji cursed silently, wondering if he really looked that stressed. Sure, he had been feeling a little stressed out since more and more people found out about his restaurant, but he hadn't thought much about it. After all, he had known that it was a whole different thing to be the head chef of a restaurant than being the cook aboard a pirate ship before he even bought the Sagatie. And the time he had helped feeding those starving villagers had definitely not been nearly as stressful as running a famous restaurant.

"I just didn't get much sleep last night with the mess that Kaji-kid made," he said, smirking reassuringly at Chopper. It wasn't a complete lie, since he hadn't slept more than three hours - more or less - that night. "Don't worry so much, I'm fine."

Unfortunately, it didn't seem like any of the three pirates believed him. As Sanji turned away and started to walk away from the table to, he could hear his nakama as they turned to each other over the table, saying in unison:

"He's faking it."

Closing his eyes, Sanji had to gather all his willpower to keep himself from walking straight back to that table and give the pirates a piece of his mind. Every fiber in his body was urging him to start a fight, which he knew would be just the thing he needed to keep his mood up for the rest of the day. But just as he was about to push the doors to the kitchen open, he could hear the footsteps of more guests arriving. Then, a very familiar female voice was heard from the entrance.

"You were right, they are open for guests. Now where is that inventor? I can swear that the ship out there carried his flag. Usopp, I know that you're here! Show yourself!"

Swiveling around where he stood, Sanji felt his head fluttering by the melodic sound of the voice. As he turned around and laid eyes on the orange-haired woman who stormed up to the table where the three pirates were sitting, Sanji felt an indescribable happiness flowing through him. The feeling was enhanced only seconds later when his eyes fell on the second woman who walked in through the door. Tall, dark and beautiful, her presence was enough to draw the attention of just about all the men in the dining hall.

The aching hole in Sanji's chest suddenly felt like it shrank to the size of a pea, and the chef hurried into the kitchen, several ideas for what kind of breakfast he was going to prepare for the women. His day was suddenly getting better and better.

A/N: Okay, I thought that I should include a small flashback in this chapter, to let everyone know what led to the dissolvement of the Straw Hat Clan. I don't know how well it turned out, or how much in character they are there, but there it is. I'm afraid that the chapters are turning out too much like pointless rambling, and if that's the case, please tell me so that I can try to fix it.

Digitaldreamer - You know, I want Luffy to appear as well. Patience is a virtue, but oh so painful at times... x-x

FieryKitsune - Surprises are indeed fun, I have to agree with that. I just hope that I can keep the rhythm in the story until the end. It would be bad if the chapters got worse and worse as it went on.

Kawari - Don't worry, I think your English is fine. I liked the last part of that chapter as well. It was fun to write Sanji's little speech about the loyalty to his captain. I'm glad you like my story, and I'll send you a mail as soon as I get this chapter uploaded.