The last chapter was boring, and I apologize that not much happened. This chapter is a bit longer than the ones I usually write. 15 pages at size 12, to be exact. Anyway, enjoy the chapter, and if there's anything that seems odd, don't fear to tell me.
When lunchtime came, Sanji noticed with delight that the stream of arriving guests wasn't getting thinner even as the former Straw Hat pirates stayed at the restaurant. He was even more delighted to notice that in addition to the twenty parties who had made lunch reservations, another forty guests arrived and wanted to have their lunch at the Sagatie. This meant that the chefs themselves had to help carrying out the food to the waiting guests as the waiters couldn't possibly take care of it all.
As Sanji carried four trays with food to a party of twelve, he saw many of the guests casting curious glances over at the pirates, who were making more and more noise as they finished their lunch. There were also some guests who dared to speak to the pirates, and they were soon pulled into the wild stories Usopp had in store for them while Ace and Robin amazed them by demonstrating their abilities. Sanji couldn't help but smiling at the whole thing. He had never seen his restaurant in such a lively state before, and would probably never see it like that ever again. Therefore, he decided to enjoy the moment for as long as it lasted.
"Sanji! Are you coming or what?"
Looking up, the head chef spotted Usopp, who had turned his chair away from the table to face a small group of children sitting on the floor in front of him. The pirate was leaning over the back of his chair, waving at Sanji to come to the table. Sighing, Sanji turned back to serving his guests, introducing himself and apologizing for the noisy pirates in the same breath.
"Oh, no," one of the guests, a large, balding man with a thick black beard assured Sanji while peering at him over the edge of the yellow sunglasses he was wearing. "Don't apologize. I've been to a lot of restaurants in my days, but the Sagatie has to be the only one where pirates are entertaining the guests like this. I tell you, young man, if your food is as good as the rumors say, you're sure to receive your five stars."
Sanji blinked, momentarily stunned. Five stars? The words echoed in his mind for a short moment, allowing his brain to fully take in their meaning.
"I'm sorry…" he managed to say once he regained the ability to speak. "I don't think I understand…"
"Mister Mange-Tout is a restaurant critic," a thin, black-haired woman sitting to the left of the large bearded man said with a slow voice. There was a distant look in her large brown eyes that made her seem very mysterious. Sanji felt how his gaze was drawn to those eyes like iron to a magnet.
"He's very famous." Sanji turned his eyes towards the girl to the right of Mister Mange-Tout. The girl's emeraldgreen eyes sparkled vividly under the wild locks of red hair that framed her face. This time, Sanji caught himself thinking that even if the girl was very beautiful, her beauty was pale compared to Nami or Robin's looks.
The bearded man laughed, affectionately putting an arm around the both girls and caused them both to giggle lightly.
"Well, I wouldn't say famous," he said, once again peering at Sanji over his glasses with slightly mischievous grin on his face. "'Infamous' is a better word. Now, son, if you would serve me my lunch, I'd be very happy."
"Oh."
Sanji suddenly realized that he was still carrying the last tray - which was loaded with three plates of food - on his head. If he had been the kind of person who was easily embarrassed, he would have blushed heavily and hid somewhere never to emerge again. However, Sanji wasn't that kind of person. Instead, he calmly apologized and placed out the plates in front of Mister Mange-Tout and the two ladies at his sides.
"Enjoy your meal," he said, winking at the women around the table. "Ladies, if you need anything, don't be afraid to call for me."
As Sanji walked away, Mister Mange-Tout's bellowing laughter echoed from behind him, and he could hear the large man's voice:
"A ha ha haaa, what a ladies' man, eh fellows? We better make sure that the girls get to order him around, don't you think? How's the food, Charlie?"
More laughter followed, and Sanji moved his focus from the restaurant critic to the pirates by the table next to the entrance. The noise in that area had faded a little bit since Ace and Robin had stopped displaying their abilities, but Usopp and Chopper were still being quite loud as they were entertaining a group of six children with some of the marksman's oldest stories. As Usopp told the story about the giant goldfish in South Blue and about the mighty giants from the land of Elbaf, the children's chiming laughter slowly made the other guests less intimidated by the well-known pirates. Sanji was feeling less bothered by letting his nakama eat all that food for free, since they were already repaying that by entertaining all the guests.
Coming up to the table, Sanji was once again reminded of the copious amounts of food Ace could devour. The stacks of empty plates that rose from the far side of the table were surprisingly tall considering that Ace already had eaten just about the same amount of food a few hours earlier at breakfast. However, Sanji told himself, he shouldn't be so surprised. After all, he had been aboard the Going Merry for ten years, cooking for a man whose appetite was even more amazing than Ace's. It was strange how fast he had forgotten about that. Thinking back to the days aboard the Going Merry, Sanji started picking up the numerous plates from the table and turned to Nami and Robin, who were discussing the route they should plan out for their continued trip to the island where the Poneglyph was said to be hidden.
"Did you enjoy your meal, Nami-san, Robin-chan?" he asked with a smile, reaching across the table for another ten plates and stacked them on top of the ones he was already balancing in one hand. "I can make you some dessert if you want."
"No, thank you, Sanji-kun," Nami smiled warmly. "The food was delicious, but I don't think I can eat any more right now."
"I'll pass as well," Robin added, also smiling towards Sanji, who slowly started to melt from the inside. "But thank you for asking, Chef-san."
"I'll make you a special dessert after dinner, then," Sanji promised, smiling so wide that his cheeks almost started to hurt. Making desserts for Nami and Robin was one of the things he had missed the most over the past year.
"For us as well?" Usopp chipped in with a hopeful look on his face. Sanji sighed, turning away from the table with two tall stacks of plates in his hands.
"Alright, keep entertaining my guests and we'll see about that."
Smiling at the cheerful cries of "Yay, desserts!" that came from the group of children behind him – which included Usopp and Chopper's voices as well as all six of the kids - Sanji walked away, leaving the pirates to entertain themselves and the guests. He would make sure that the children got desserts as well. After all, he had never forgotten to make snacks for everyone, even if the ones he enjoyed making the most were Nami's and Robin's.
As he looked over at the table where Mister Mange-Tout was sitting, he smiled wider as the bearded man turned around in his chair, made a thumb's-up and laughed. I thought a restaurant critic was supposed to keep as straight face… Sanji thought to himself. But this might be really good for the restaurant.
He carried the plates to the kitchen, where he made two of the apprentices – one of the cyan-haired twins and the bright green-haired boy – start doing the dishes. After putting the third boy to work with peeling more vegetables, Sanji walked around in the kitchen and up to the freezers and the pantry to calculate how much food was left in there. It seemed like the supplies were going to last only two or maybe three more days if the number of customers stayed the same or increased.
"Great…" Sanji shut the door to the pantry with a sharp snap, leaning his forehead against the door as he muttered: "Just what I need, another trip through the Grand Line…"
"When are we leaving?"
The head chef turned around, catching Carne glancing over at him from his counter. The longhaired man seemed to be busy preparing the Elephant Tuna-filet he had in front of him, but Sanji knew better. With over twenty years of experience, he could easily detect if someone was pretending to work or not. However, he also knew better than to start an argument in the kitchen. The chefs were fully capable of doing that themselves.
"We're leaving at the break of dawn in two days, Carne, as soon as Tajiyo returns with the supplies," he replied calmly as he lifted the lid to one of the large pans and inspected the contents with mild interest. The soup inside was thick and had a rich, delicious smell. Sanji looked up and glanced around in the kitchen, where the chefs seemed a bit stressed out over something.
"Calm down," he said, emphasizing the words carefully. "Which would you prefer? To be the best chef in the world or the fastest? There's no need to hurry, the food won't get done faster because you run around like that."
"But, Owner…" one of the younger chefs stammered weakly, pouring liquor over a dish to make it ready to be flambéed. "The man out there… the restaurant critic, he…"
"…Is just a customer, just like everyone else out there," Sanji finished in the same careful tone as before. "I don't want to see any of you putting extra care in his food or the service you offer him and his party, is that clear? And Pati…" he turned to the mintgreen-haired chef, who gruffly looked back at him. "Make sure that Mister Mange-Tout pays for his food. No one eats for free unless I say so."
"Alright," Pati growled, looking a bit less gruff than before as he passed by Sanji with a large bowl of soup in his hands. He stopped just in front of the silverdoors and turned around. "Sanji, about those guests of yours…"
"They're staying and they're not paying," Sanji said teasingly. Pati had been wrong about his nakama, but the head chef wasn't going to let the old man apologize that easily. An apology from Pati would be like putting an end to all the arguments they had ever had over the years, and where was the fun in doing that?
"If you say so, Owner," Pati muttered loudly before he vanished out through the doors into the dining hall. Sanji chuckled lightly, shook his head and turned to the soup on the stove in front of him.
"Make sure that you serve the dishes in the order they get done," he reminded his chefs as he put the lid back over the soup. "Don't risk spoiling one dish just because you wait for another to cook."
"Aye," the chefs in the kitchen replied without turning away from their counters and stoves. "Understood, Owner."
As he finished his round in the kitchen and some kind of calm settled in the room again, Sanji found that everything was in order and left the kitchen after checking up on his apprentices, who were still working with their vegetables and the huge mountains of dirty plates which only seemed to get higher and higher.
Entering the dining hall, he was immediately struck by the lack of noise in the room. There was no loud, nasal voice telling stories and no children laughing or applauding, just the mellow murmur of the guests talking to each other. As a matter of fact, when Sanji looked towards the table where his nakama were sitting, he noticed that both Usopp and Chopper were gone, along with the six children who had been listening to the marksman's stories earlier.
Sanji walked through the room, nodding to a party of regular guests as they entered the restaurant, and sank down on the empty chair between Nami and Robin. To his left, Nami was talking to Ace about a weather anomaly she had discovered in South Blue, and to his right, Robin was reading a book written in a language which Sanji assumed no one had spoken in hundreds of years. No one, except for his wonderful Robin-chan, of course, he thought to himself as his eyes gave shape to the joy and love he was feeling just by sitting between the two women.
"I hope that you're enjoying yourself," he said, smiling widely. He was very grateful that his voice wasn't sounding as strained as before.
"Of course," Nami replied, turning from Ace to Sanji. "It's always fun to see old friends. By the way, Usopp and Chopper went back to Meri Go and took the kids with them."
"I was wondering why the noise disappeared," Sanji said with a smile, leaning back with his hands behind his neck. After a second or two, his tired mind had processed the full meaning of Nami's words. Then the chef blinked and looked at Nami again. "Wait. Nami-san, did you just say that they took the kids to the ship?"
As Nami nodded, Sanji felt a faint throbbing make its way through his head again and moved one hand to his forehead. He wondered what that marksman could be thinking, bringing a group of kids aboard a pirate ship like that.
"Don't worry, Chef-san," Robin said without looking up from the pages of her book. "The parents agreed to let the children go along with them."
Robin's attention was suddenly pulled away from the book as an elderly man came up next to her and silently asked her if she knew about some archaeological findings in North Blue. Sanji silently wondered if her words were supposed to calm him down. As long as the kids and their parents were aboard his ship, their safety was ultimately his responsibility, and Sanji could still remember the daily explosions aboard the Going Merry. Who knew what kind of floating powder keg the Meri Go could be?
Shaking his head, Sanji sighed deeply and rubbed a throbbing point between his eyebrows. Around him, Ace and Nami were back to discussing weather and the navigation techniques required to sail in the Grand Line while Robin was deep in a conversation with the old man about the archaeological findings and what the discovery could mean to the rest of the world.
Feeling perfectly happy with just sitting there and listen to his nakama's voices, Sanji still couldn't help but feeling a bit stressed by the seemingly endless stream of guests that flowed in through the double doors. Soon, he'd have to leave East Blue and go back to All Blue. There was no way to run a restaurant without any food to cook, now was it? But the journey was long, and Sanji knew from experience that his chefs weren't the most fun crew to travel with. If only there was some way to convince Nami and Robin to go with them… At least for a while, so that he could show off his improved cooking abilities just like in the old days.
Sanji leaned further back in his chair, wondering where he would have been if he never had found All Blue. He felt his body already craving a cigarette, but chose to ignore the uncomfortable feeling. Nami had always asked him not to smoke next to her, and he wasn't going to let her think that he had forgotten about that. Instead, he tried to relax and to enjoy the moment of peace where his chefs and waiters took care of the guests on their own. He hardly noticed that he slowly drifted off to sleep.
– e – e –
It just wasn't fair.
Sanji leaned his forehead against the cold surface of the door to the small freezer on top of the refrigerator, barely keeping himself from slamming his head against it repeatedly. Behind him, Usopp was once again telling Kiera and Seraly about Zoro's final battle against Hawk-Eyes Mihawk. This time, the marksman did not only make almost perfect imitations of Zoro's and Mihawk's voices as he told the story, but he somehow managed to perform a very vivid rendering of the battle itself, in which he played both Zoro and Mihawk and made it appear as if he was fighting a battle to the death with himself there by the table in the galley. Without anything better to do at the moment, Sanji turned to see just what the hell was going on, the side of his head still pressed against the freezer.
"'You have fought well so far, young weakling,'" Usopp said with his Mihawk-voice, leaning a bit backwards as if he was carrying a large sword in his hands. "'But can you finish what you have started?'"
The marksman quickly made a leap to the side, turned around and took another stance, almost as if he was staring up at an invisible enemy. Leaning forward with his hands gripping the hilts of two invisible swords and his jaw tightly clenched, he appeared to be enduring a lot of injuries and pain. Narrowing his eyes, Usopp took a few deep breaths, making an even greater impression of being seriously wounded in the middle of a fight. Even Sanji had to admit – but not out loud, of course – that the marksman was making quite a good impression of the shitty swordsman's battle.
"'That's why I challenged you,'" Usopp said, his voice now deep and rough as he raised the imaginary swords in front of him. "'I will not lose to you again!'"
A series of wild flailing gestures followed, in which Sanji almost could make out the two characters fighting to the death. By the table, Kiera and Seraly were applauding the show and laughed happily at Usopp's final re-enactment of the attack that had felled the previously undefeated swordsmaster. As the marksman bowed and assured his audience that he wasn't worthy of all the praise, Sanji turned away and continued to prepare the late dinner.
The chef could hear the two girls leaving the galley as he tasted the soup he had been cooking since the break of dawn. However, the warm, salty taste of the soup didn't keep him from cringing as two other voices were heard. There they were, the only two idiots he despised more than Zoro, invading his space with all the stupidity that could possibly fit inside two human bodies.
"Yo, 'Sop, we've been lookin' all over for ya, man."
Glancing over his shoulder where he stood, still leaning over his soup, Sanji caught a glimpse of the two musicians entering the galley. He also caught the overjoyed look on Usopp's face as the marksman realized that he had got another chance to perform his version of the legendary battle.
"We need your expertise in a very important matter…" Manti said, folding his arms across his chest. From his place in the kitchen area, Sanji could see the strained look on the red-haired musician's face and he caught himself wondering what could be so damn important. Not that he cared, but if they needed Usopp's 'expertise', the chance of all three of them leaving the galley was pretty big.
"Ah, of course!" Usopp said happily, puffing out his chest while he folded his arms. "I, the great Captain Usopp can do anything. What can I do for you today?"
"Well, all the strings on Manti's guitar just snapped this mornin'," Kyle explained, almost causing Sanji to drop the soup ladle on the floor. The chef let out a light sigh, wondering to himself what he had expected from the musicians in the first place. But still… That was their 'important matter'? The urge to kick the blue-haired man into a wall grew stronger, but Sanji still held on to the hope that Usopp would take the two musicians out of the lounge.
"And we thought to ask you to fix it." Manti finished, spreading out his hands in a pleading gesture.
Usopp started laughing, still keeping his 'Great Captain Usopp'-stance.
"Ha haa, nothing else?" he cackled. "Of course I'll help you, boys. But first, did you hear about the battle this morning? I was there and saw the whole thing…"
That was it. Sanji couldn't take anymore. Slowly turning around towards the three numbskulls, he put on the most threatening expression he could muster.
"If you're going to perform that stupid play again, Usopp…" he growled, already aiming a kick that would send the three men flying out of the Grand Line if he put enough force behind it. However, he decided to give the idiots a chance to escape unharmed. "Then do so somewhere else! Get. Out. Of. My. Kitchen!"
"Aww…." Usopp turned around with a mischievous look on his face, apparently not affected by Sanji's raised voice. "Is Sanji-kun feeling a bit grumpy today? But why is that? Is it because Zoro beat you again by reaching his goal before you've reached yours? Could it be something as simple as that?"
Sanji's eyes darkened, and now he didn't bother to give the three idiots a head-start.
"I told you to GET OUT!" he yelled, turning to the left as he let his right leg fly in a wide circle towards Usopp and the two musicians. The three noisemakers quickly dodged the kick, but as Sanji glared at them over his outstretched leg, they fled out through the open door. Their cackling laughter could be heard long after Sanji slammed the door to the galley shut.
Muttering curses over the noisy marksman and musicians, Sanji returned to the stove, eyes widening as he saw the black smoke rising from the kettle.
"Oh shit…"
Darting forward, the chef grabbed the metal handles on both sides of the kettle and pulled it away from the stove. He grit his teeth as he felt the warm metal against the bare skin of his palms. What was he thinking, grabbing the kettle just like that without even remembering to protect his hands? Putting the kettle on the counter next to the stove, he coughed and waved one hand through the thick black smoke which was swirling around below the ceiling.
Reaching out to turn off the heater, he wondered when he had managed to turn it up so far that the soup was ruined. The palms of his burned hands stung as he touched the plastic handles, causing him to hiss between clenched teeth. It seemed like the kettle's handles had been hot enough to actually make light red lines appear across his palms.
"Just perfect…" Sanji muttered, feeling his day just getting worse and worse. "Better take care of that, then…"
Walking over to open the freezer, Sanji filled a small kitchen towel with ice cubes. He folded the towel around the ice and held it tightly between his burned hands while he moved to sit down by the table. In a matter of minutes, the makeshift ice pack caused his hands to go almost completely numb. The stinging feeling in his palms faded at the same pace as his skin reddened, but he was still just as annoyed as before.
Why he was so annoyed? Because it just wasn't fair. Around him, his nakama had either reached their goals or were getting really close to them. Even the shitty swordsman had reached the end of his long journey. But Sanji hadn't seen or heard anything that would show him if he was getting closer to All Blue or not. Maybe it had all been a stupid dream from the beginning. After all, there was no room for a fifth ocean, not even on the maps.
No! It wasn't a stupid dream. All Blue was real. It had to be real, and he was going to be the one who found it!
Sanji growled and got up from the bench he was sitting on. He threw the soaking wet towel with what was left of the ice in the sink and cast a glance towards the kettle on the counter. Luckily, there was no more smoke coming out of it, but Sanji knew that it would be a hell to get it clean later. Still, he realized that he would have to come up with something else to cook for dinner, and he had to do it fast. Luffy would start whining about how hungry he was in exactly twenty-seven minutes, and then it would be impossible to keep the captain out of the kitchen.
Sighing, Sanji went to the storage to seek inspiration.Twenty-six minutes laterdown in the men's quarters, Luffy was sitting on a barrel next to couch and the sleeping Zoro, waiting for the swordsman to wake up. As he yawned and stretched lightly, he felt the little rumble in his stomach that meant that he was getting hungry. For a shortmoment, he fought an inner struggle where one part of him wanted to go and tell Sanji to make dinner, while another told him to stay with Zoro in case the swordsman woke up. In the end, he compromised by wrapping his legs around the old couch on which Zoro was sleeping and stretched out his upper body so that he could stick up his head through the hatch in the main deck and tell Sanji to hurry up with the meat.
Later that evening, after putting Kyle and Manti to do the dishes and bringing the girls their after-dinner tea and coffee, Sanji wandered up to the prow, where he leaned against the railing and silently smoked his last cigarette for the day.
The sky was clear, slowly shifting from clear blue to orange and red as the sun slowly set over the anchored ship. And it was quiet, however strange that would appear. There were no other sounds than the splash of waves slapping against the creaking hull and the faint sound of voices coming from the galley, where the crew were still talking about Zoro's 'amazing battle'. The swordsman himself was still sleeping below deck, like he had done ever since he returned from the deserted island where he had faced Hawk-Eyes Mihawk before dawn - almost fourteen hours earlier.
Now, the island was hardly visible above the horizon along with all the negative thoughts the crew had had about the battle. The only memory of the island the crew still held on to was the image of Zoro standing over the fallen Mihawk with his eyes closed, his white katana held high in the air. Sanji didn't know if the rest of the crew had heard the words Zoro had said at the moment before the last of his strength had been drained, and the chef didn't really care. But for some reason, the words were stuck in his mind, playing over and over again.
"For the both of us… Quena…"
Not that it mattered, though. When it all came down to it, it was just Zoro…
Sanji puffed out rings of smoke as he once again fought a mental battle against the little annoying voice in his headwhich insisted on telling him that All Blue wasn't real, and that he was a fool who searched for something that wasn't there. He was just about to flick what was left of his cigarette into the ocean and go down into the men's quarters to get some sleep when a voice reached his ears.
"Whooa! Look at that fish! Omoshire!"
The loud voice made Sanji flinch involuntarily. He looked up at the figurehead, not until now taking notice of the figure perched on top of the wooden lamb's head. The chef let out a light sigh, thinking that he should have known that a quiet evening aboard the Going Merry was too good to be true. He just had to be grateful that he at least had got a few minutes of peace.
Luffy was sitting on top of Merry's figurehead, pointing down at something in the water below with one hand while he held on to his precious hat with the other.
"Sanji!" he said, turning his head almost 180 degrees to look at the chef with excitement. "Look at that fish, isn't it awesome? I bet it's tasty, do you think it's tasty? I'll catch it and you can cook it for me, what do you say?"
Knowing his captain, Sanji wasn't too keen on looking at whatever it was Luffy thought was awesome. After all, the captain was known to find awesomeness in the most uninteresting things, like frogs, an enemy's weapons, dust bunnies or strangely shaped rocks. But after Luffy once again urged him to look at the awesome fish –this time in a little more demanding tone – Sanji reluctantly leaned over the railing and looked down towards the water; not expecting to see anything of interest.
What he saw almost made him plunge head-first into the ocean out of surprise. Down by the prow of the anchored ship, glistening in the last rays of sunlight, a large white and green-speckled fish was jumping and swimming around, apparently trying to get the two humans to play with it. The fish had two large gold-colored eyes on each side of its head and a large, transparent fin running over its back from its nose to the tailfin. Sanji had only seen a fish like that on a photograph in one of the old ingredient-books he had been studying as a kid. He couldn't remember its name, but he was pretty sure that it was only supposed to exist in northern North Blue, not that far into the Grand Line.
"Whooooooa!" Luffy exclaimed, pulling Sanji's attention away from the fish. The captain was now pointing towards the horizon on the starboard side, laughing loudly. "Over there! Over there! Look, Sanji! Look, look, look, look! It's huuuge! Just like Labun! Look!"
Sanji was looking, alright. But the problem was that he couldn't bring himself to believe what he was seeing. In the direction Luffy was pointing, a huge shadow had risen from the depths, creating large waves that would rock the caravel only moments later. Sanji stared at the Island Whale, feeling his jaw dropping to the extent where his cigarette dropped to the deck and rolled away.
"Un- unbelievable…" he managed to force himself to say, mostly to assure himself that he wasn't imagining the whole scene which was displayed in front of him.
Taking his eyes from the whale, which was blowing out an enormous cascade of water before it dove back into the ocean again, Sanji smiled widely and leaned lightly against the railing to support himself as the waves created by the large animal finally reached the Going Merry. On top of the figurehead, Luffy was holding on to the wooden lamb's horn with one hand while the other was keeping his treasure securely pressed over his head. The captain was still laughing as he tried to spot more strange fish in the water. Once he spotted other fishes – among others a blue-finned Elephant Tuna which jumped out of the water and nearly swept the straw hat off Luffy's head as it passed over the captain's head – he called out to Sanji and pointed them out for him. Sanji, on the other hand, stood still by the railing and let his captain point out the different fishes. He felt a burning sensation in the corners of his eyes and closed them.
In the world, the ocean is divided into four oceans, he thought. East Blue, West Blue, North Blue, South Blue… But there's an ocean where all the fish from all four oceans lives. The legendary ocean, All Blue. I know it's real, and I will find it. No, I have found it! It's really here… That white fish from North Blue, blue-finned Elephant Tuna from South Blue… And Island Whales from West Blue… Okay, so whales aren't fish, but still…
As the sun slowly sank down below the horizon, Sanji looked at his captain and smiled at the younger man's newly invented song about the awesome fish he had seen and which Sanji was going to cook for him one day.
"Luffy," Sanji said before he turned to walk off towards the men's quarters, causing Luffy to fall silent in the sixth verse about the white and green fish with the cool fin.
"Huh?" Luffy said, turning his head to look at Sanji. "What is it?"
Sanji smiled lightly and glanced at the captain over his shoulder as he walked towards the stairs down to the main deck. There were no words that could express the gratitude he was feeling towards the man who had brought him all the way to the place he had been searching for. Therefore, he decided not to complicate the matter. After all, he was talking to Luffy, and he didn't want to destroy one of the happiest moments in his life by trying to explain something as trivial to his captain.
"Thank you, Pirate King."
– e – e –
A loud crash jerked Sanji out of his dreams, at first leaving him a bit disoriented as the surroundings were nothing like the prow deck of the Going Merry. When he finally recalled where he was, he noticed that all the conversations in the room had stopped and that everyone in the room was staring towards the entrance. Sanji turned around in his chair, wondering just what the hell was going on this time. Usopp had better not been showing the kids his Gunpowder Stars…
While Sanji turned his eyes towards the open doors, a few newly arrived guests were moving away from the entrance, all of them seemingly shocked by the sudden noise outside the restaurant.
The sound of footsteps coming from the outer terrace was heard. At the same time, the silence in the dining hall was broken by a scraping noise of chairs moving over the wooden floor as some of the guests tried to get a better view over what was happening. An annoyed and at the same time terrified voice drifted in through the open doors.
"Argh, let me go! Damn it, why did I have to come with you back here? I showed you the way so let me go!"
The person who was talking suddenly cried out in pain as he was flung forward through the open doors onto the floor. Sanji blinked once, still feeling a bit dazed after the short time he had been sleeping. He wasn't sure what was going on, but one thing was certain: the man lying sprawled in the middle of the dining hall floor was none other than Akatani Kaji. He was lying on the floor with his face down against the wooden planks, his red hair stained with blood.
In the corner of his eye, Sanji could see Ace getting up from his chair, donning his hat while he cast a cold glare towards the man in the floor. Then another voice was heard, apparently belonging to the person Kaji had been talking to. The voice caused Sanji to cringe involuntarily.
"Will you just shut up? You tried to steal my boat and now you're complaining even though I let you live? You ungrateful bastard."
Sanji covered his eyes with one hand. No, no, no, he thought. Of all the people in the world, why does he have to come here?
"Kaji!"
The strained voice made Sanji look up. Ace was standing in front of the table, staring down at the red-haired man on the floor. Curling his hands into fists, the Pirate King's older brother clenched his jaw as he tried to control his anger towards the nakama-murderer. The red-head looked up, his slanted eyes wide with fear. Sanji noticed that he had a hard time feeling sorry for the young pirate, and as he looked around at Nami and Robin, he thought he could see the same feeling in the women's eyes as well.
"I've been looking for you," Ace snarled as he walked up to Kaji, flames literally surrounding him. "You treacherous little…"
"Ah… Ace?"
Everyone's eyes were turned towards the green-haired man who had just entered the restaurant, dressed in black and dark green with a black bandana tied around his head. Three swords hanged by his side and clattered faintly when the swordsman moved.
"Ace, do you know this bastard?" Lolonoa Zoro asked, nodding towards the man on the floor.
"You could say that," Ace replied, glancing at Zoro before he turned back towards Kaji. "I'll tell you all about it, but I have to deal with this first… If I'm stealing the bounty from under your nose, I apologize, but I have a personal issue with this little rat."
Reaching out his hand, Ace grabbed the collar of Kaji's black jacket, easily lifting him from the floor. The captain of the Fire Clan turned his gaze away from the traitor in his grip, and looked towards Sanji and the other pirates around the table.
"I need to take care of this, but I'll try to get back here before you leave for your next destination, Sanji."
As Ace turned to walk out from the restaurant while pushing Kaji in front of him, Sanji caught a glimpse of Zoro over the black-haired man's shoulder. By the mentioning of Sanji's name, the swordsman's head jerked up in a strange way, as if someone had dumped a bucket boiling hot water over his green hair. The head chef managed to ignore the green-head and nodded towards Ace, who just passed by Zoro on his way out.
"Aa…" He got up from his chair, but avoided to move towards Ace. "We'll depart at dawn in two days. Give him what he deserves."
Sanji said the last part with a low, threatening voice and glared at the red-haired pirate, who stumbled out through the open double doors. Kaji seemed to have lost all his courage and cockiness by the sight of his former captain. As far as Sanji was concerned, Ace could let the kid roast over an open flame for the rest of eternity. A man who led his nakama to their death wasn't worth living among humans.
"Oi, what the hell are you three doing here?" The sound of the deep, rough voice made Sanji groan silently. Wasn't there some kind of law that decided how slow a person could be?
"It's my restaurant, Marimo, so go figure why I'm here," he snapped, sliding his hands into his pockets. "Nami-san and Robin-chan are here as my guests."
No matter how much he tried to deny it, Sanji had been itching for a good argument with Zoro for a long time. No one on his ship knew how to return an insult properly, and most of the chefs let him win the arguments because he was the head chef. Where was the fun in that?
"Hi, Zoro!" Nami said, interrupting Zoro, who was about to say something acid to Sanji. "This is starting to turn out to be quite the reunion. What are you doing in East Blue?"
"Yo, Nami." The swordsman turned his eyes from Sanji towards the table. "Robin. How's the treasure hunting?"
Robin smiled serenely, ignoring the treasure hunting- comment. The old man she had been discussing archaeology with was sitting on a chair to her right, looking a bit nervous as he seemed to realize that he was surrounded by four well-known former pirates.
"My search is going quite well, Swordsman-san," Robin's eyes dropped to the pages of her book as she continued: "What have you been doing all this time?"
Zoro glanced out through the open doors over his shoulder. Sanji followed his gaze towards Ace, who had already set out to sea with Kaji aboard his fire-powered boat.
"Well, I've been sailing around all over the place…" Zoro broke off and glared at Sanji, who hadn't been able to hold back a snort of laughter. "Do you want to say something, Curly-brow?"
Sanji had to force himself not to laugh any further. He knew perfectly well that Zoro hadn't been 'sailing around' just for the hell of it, but because the green-head simply couldn't find his way to any location he headed for. It took a whole lot of willpower, but the chef managed to send a cold glare towards the swordsman, who retuned it with badly hidden enthusiasm. That was the signal Sanji had been waiting for. Apparently, he wasn't the only on who had been dying for a good fight.
When Zoro walked over to the table where Nami and Robin were sitting, Sanji slowly followed. He didn't want anyone to think that he wanted to sit around the same table as the seaweed-head. The swordsman slid down on the empty chair Ace had left behind at the head of the table and leaned back with a deep sigh, rubbing his right temple lightly.
"What a week," he muttered, apparently mostly to himself. "First those bounty-hunters who decided to target me and chased me all over the Grand Line. Then I found myself in the Calm Belt where I ran into Luffy who was playing with the Sea Kings…"
"You've met Luffy? Nami asked excitedly just as Sanji walked around the table. Unfortunately, since the old man Robin once again was discussing old ruins and dead languages with had moved from his chair and was sitting between the two women, Sanji had to sit next to Zoro.
"Yeah," The swordsman clasped his hands behind his neck. "He joined me for a while as we went back towards the Grand Line. But a storm swept us into East Blue and we were separated."
Sanji snorted as he sat down, leaning his elbows against the table with his chin against the palm of his hand.
"There are no storms in the Calm Belt, moron. You probably got lost and ended up in East Blue long before the storm hit you."
Zoro growled and glared at Sanji.
"Shut up, Love Cook. At least I'm not stuck on some damn fish-shaped boat all day long."
"No," Sanji returned acidly, barley keeping his amusement hidden. It was fun to finally argue with someone who wouldn't back away to save his life. He also chose to let the insult aimed at his restaurant slide. "No, you're just stuck in whatever little boat you found, sailing aimlessly around the oceans because you can't find your way out of an open shoebox."
The moment Zoro's hand moved towards the katana by his side, Sanji leaned back in his chair. He lifted his right leg from the floor just in time for the hard sole of his shoe to meet the sharp edge of a white-hilted katana. Smirking, the head chef reached down into his pockets to retrieve a cigarette and matches without taking his eyes from Zoro. The swordsman, on the other hand, didn't move a muscle except when he put more pressure behind his sword.
As Sanji lit his cigarette, after glancing towards Nami and Robin to see if they would object, the sound of whispering voices reached his ears.
"The demon… the Pirate Hunter Zoro…"
"I thought he was dead…"
"Is it really him?"
"Look. Three swords, green hair - of course it's him."
Shaking the match to put out the fire, Sanji pushed himself forward with his right foot still pressed against the sword's edge. He had no intention to alarm his guests, no matter how much he wanted to start a fight with Zoro. After all, this was a restaurant, not a pirate ship.
"Put away the sword, shithead," he hissed, locking eyes with Zoro to point out how serious he was. "You're scaring my guests. Don't make me kick your ass instead of bringing you food."
"You – Kick my ass?" Zoro snorted, but removed the katana as he was asked and slid it back into its white sheathe. "I'd love to see you try, Stretch."
Sanji smirked and put his foot back on the floor. He was enjoying the situation far too much for his own good.
"I bet you would." he said calmly. "Ne, I guess I should be polite and offer you some lunch, even if I'd rather-"
He never got to finish his insult as a loud crash which sounded like porcelain breaking against the floor echoed through the dining hall, coming in the direction of the kitchen. The guests, who had just got back to their conversations after Zoro's arrival and Ace's departure, fell silent and turned towards the source of the noise.
Looking up, Sanji raised an eyebrow as the silverdoors to the kitchen were pushed wide open by Pati and Carne, who seemed to be both terrified and filled with fighting spirit at the same time.
"SANJI!" they cried in unison, not moving away from the door to the kitchen. "Owner Sanji!"
Sanji stretched his neck and looked at his chefs across the room, wondering what was going on this time. It sure was turning out to be a very eventful day. However, Pati and Carne were definitely not known to show any fear, no matter what dangers they faced. Therefore, the older men's terrified expressions were making Sanji's skin crawl uncomfortably.
"Oi, oi, what's with all the noise?" he said loudly.
"Sanji!" Pati cried out again, this time taking one step out into the dining hall. His eyes were wide open and his face was at least two shades paler than normal. "Pirates! Pirates are coming!"
Sanji frowned. It wasn't like his best chefs to get so worked up about pirates. He was just about to ask what the two men were talking about when Carne also took a step forward, pointing towards the entrance to the restaurant.
"Krieg! Don Krieg's pirate fleet is headed this way! The king of East Blue has returned from the Grand Line!"