Um... Am I to understand that you didn't like the previous chapter by the lack of reviews? Oh well, then my hopes aren't up for this last chapter. Heh... But it doesn't matter. -drumroll- Here it is, the last chapter of The Seventh Guest...

Just a note: The man called Tajiyo is not one of my characters. He appears in one of the filler episodes of the anime, after the Alabasta arc, and is at the time an apprentice aboard a Marine ship. Thanks to Sanji, helearnshow to cook beef curry for the highest officers. Sanji helps himbecause they both have the same goal to find All Blue. Anyway, I thought he would be a good assistant head chef...

It was an exhausted assistant head chef who arrived at the Sagatie. It was just after midday, and he was happy to be back at the restaurant with the supplies he had been sent to buy at a nearby island. The bottom of the boat he moored to the side of the terrace was covered in sacks of rice, flour, sugar and beans; four barrels of fresh water and rum; flasks of oil and soy; jars with different kinds of pickled and dried fruit and vegetables and boxes filled with tin cans that would serve as emergency supplies. Once he was assured that the boat wasn't going to float away, he began to move the supplies from the boat onto the terrace.

It took a few minutes before he realized that he wasn't hearing any footsteps coming his way. He would have expected that at least someone would have greeted him, if only to tell him how late he was.

"Hello?" he called out, pushing one of the wooden boxes further up on the terrace and reaching for a bag of rice. Now he was really confused. Had he by any chance come to the wrong restaurant? No, he could clearly see the name 'Sagatie' painted with large letters all over the entrance to the ship. But still, the stillness was rather eerie.

Why was it so quiet, by the way? Now that he thought about it, he couldn't hear any voices at all. And another strange thing he just noticed was that there were no ships surrounding the restaurant. Of course, he had heard the news of the battle between the pirates with high bounties in the area near the restaurant while he was on the island, but the Sagatie couldn't possibly have been attacked? For starters, she wasn't even damaged - even the holes in the roof from the previous pirate attack had been mended - and he hadn't seen any evidence of a battle on his way there. But now he was standing there on the portside terrace with a boat full with supplies and wondered just what had happened.

Frowning, he pushed his round glasses further up over the bridge of his nose and squinted towards the closed double-doors on the other side of the terrace, where a white note was taped to the wood. Without dropping the bag of rice he had hauled up over his shoulder onto the deck, he walked closer to the doors to investigate the mystery further.

"Closed?" he said incredulously once he had read the notice on the door. "Why are we closed? It's in the middle of the week, for crying out loud!"

He reached into his pocket with his free hand to fish out the master key he always kept with him, and unlocked the door. Once it swung open and he stepped inside, he was met by a sight he had never expected to see in the middle of the day.

The chefs and waiters were sitting by the tables in the dining hall, some of them in casual wear and others in what seemed to be uniforms that hadn't been washed in a day or two. At a few of the tables, the men were playing cards or telling stories, and by one of them, Pati was giving the three young apprentice-boys a popquiz about different fish and where to find different species. Of course, it seemed as if the apprentices were answering 'All Blue' on every question about the habitats of fish, and Pati finally broke down laughing at them.

"What the heck is going on here?" the assistant head chef finally asked, making all the people in the room - including Pati and the three apprentices - to look up at him.

"Ah, you're back, Tajiyo," Pati said without getting up from his chair. "I was wonderin' if you'd make it back today or not."

"Why are we closed?" Tajiyo asked, brushing away a lock of his shoulder-long and bushy red hair from his eyes. "Where's Sanji-san, by the way?"

"No more food left, and Sanji's gone," Pati replied indifferently and turned back to the book placed on the table between the chef and the apprentices, pointing at a picture of a large green fish with orange spots. "How about this one? Name the fish, and two places in the world where you could find it."

"W-what do you mean, he's gone?" Tajiyo asked, the memory of the stories about the pirates clashing in the same area as the restaurant flashing through his mind.

"I mean that he's gone - split - he's outta here," Pati replied with some irritation in his voice. "Left with some pirates two days ago. We ran out of food yesterday, so we had no choice but to close, or we'd be starvin' on our way back to All Blue."

"Pirates?" Tajiyo blinked as he remembered the Owner's former profession. "Sanji-san…"

"Oh yeah," Pati said, snapping his fingers while he glanced at Tajiyo. "He said he left some papers for you in his room. That you should sign them or sumthin' like that."

Tajiyo frowned as he walked further into the restaurant towards the stairs to the second floor, dumping the sack of rice in the arms of one of the waiters and asking him and his card-playing colleagues to start carrying the supplies from the boat to the storages as he went.

When he came up the stairs to the second floor, he was immediately aware of the fact that someone was indeed missing. There was an unnatural silence over the second floor that Tajiyo wasn't used to. He walked quickly through the short corridor and entered Sanji's room, where he immediately saw the white envelope leaning against the emptied ashtray on the desk. Sitting down in the chair by the desk, he opened the letter and read it.

Tajiyo,

You've probably noticed by now that I'm not aboard the Sagatie anymore, and if you haven't noticed that yet, I'm sure Pati or Carne will be more than pleased to fill you in on the matter later.

You don't need to know where I am or why I've left, but if you desperately need to know, you can always ask the others. The important thing is that I've chosen you to take over the restaurant as its new owner. There is a pile of papers on the desk that I want you to read through and sign if you decide to become the head chef of the Sagatie.

In the desk drawers, you will find everything you need to run the restaurant. Maps over All Blue and the safest route to get there are in the bottom right drawer, while receipts and paid bills are in the top right one. I'm sure you'll work it out just fine

The three kids' papers are in the file cabinet out in the hall together with the rest of the staff's records, in case there should come a time when those will be needed.

I hope that you understand that Sagatie is not just a ship or a restaurant. Therefore, I trust in your ability to become a good owner, and that you'll keep the same standards I've tried to uphold. Just remember to do daily inventory lists and to keep the storages full, since you never know what kind of guests might show up.

Now get your asses back to All Blue and stock up, the customers are waiting!

/Sanji

PS. If I get news of the restaurant losing stars, I'll personally come all the way back from the Grand Line to kick your ass. Just thought I should warn you…

Tajiyo put down the letter after he had read it three more times. He couldn't shake the feeling that this was just a big joke someone was playing on him. But as he reached out for the stack of papers and saw the certificate announcing that the Sagatie now officially had been granted five stars, he didn't really care if it was a joke or not.

– e – e –

The sun had reached the horizon when Sanji emerged from the galley. He had spend the whole day trying to salvage what was left of the food they had brought from the Sagatie, and managed to cook three full meals with the two rations that had been left. It hadn't been much, but at least his nakama had been fed, and that meant that his work was done for the day. The only thing he had left to do was to hope that they would reach an island soon, and that no one would hear his stomach growling.

He hadn't eaten anything in a day and a half, to make sure that Nami and Robin wouldn't have to go hungry longer than necessary, and so that he wouldn't have to listen to Luffy, Usopp and Chopper whining about how hungry they were.

Sanji snorted as he walked down the stairs and across the main deck on his way towards the prow deck. There was one thing he at least could appreciate with Zoro, and that was that the swordsman never complained about being hungry. He could mention it from time to time, but during the times when there had been no more food on the ship, and the crew had been forced to go without anything to eat for days at a time, Zoro had simply resorted to sleeping all day, only waking up to tell the others that if they were so damn hungry, why didn't they try to catch some fish?

Sanji was convinced that if Zoro hadn't had that ability to ignore his hunger, he would have thrown the swordsman to the Sea Kings at least a million times over the years.

Digging in his pockets after the box of matches he knew was supposed to be there, he leaned against the wall outside the weapon storage at the prow of the ship. Once he had found them and struck fire to one of the matches to light his cigarette, he climbed the stairs to the upper prow deck, where he leaned his elbows against the portside railing and looked out over the orange-colored water.

He had promised Chopper not to smoke, but he figured that as long as the doctor didn't actually catch him with a cigarette in his mouth, there was no proof that he had smoked. Besides, it took away the empty feeling in his stomach, which wasn't such a bad side effect, and that alone made it easy to ignore the little Chopper- like voice in his head which told him to put away the cigarette until his injuries were healed.

"Here."

Sanji looked up as he heard the voice coming from right behind him. He had been so absorbed in the sunset and his own thoughts that he hadn't even noticed that Zoro had come up the stairs to stand right behind him, but Sanji was careful not to show it as he looked down at the swordsman's outstretched hand.

One of the buns from dinner was resting in the palm of Zoro's hand, and Sanji looked down at it, unsure if he would dare to take it or not. It wasn't because he was afraid of Zoro, but because he knew that one small piece of bread only would make him even hungrier later on.

"I saved it from Luffy," Zoro said when Sanji didn't move. "I don't know what you think you're doing, and I actually prefer to keep it that way, but if you keep starving yourself, you'll be useless if we get attacked."

"Better to have one useless fighter than seven," Sanji replied, still not making any attempt to take the bread.

"We already have Usopp," Zoro countered with a smirk, leaning his back against the rail next to Sanji with the bread in a firm grip in his hand.

"You know, you have a point there…" Sanji sighed and put out his cigarette against the wooden rail before he reached out for the bread. "Fine, I give up. Give it here."

Zoro opened his hand again and let Sanji take the bread. Then, he simply sat down with his back against the railing and his hands behind his neck. Sanji decided to ignore him, and began breaking little pieces from the bread, which he put in his mouth. It didn't taste bad at all (which wasn't really a surprise since he was the one who had made the bread), and he was careful not to take too big bites. That way, he could make his stomach think that he had eaten a bigger meal.

"Aren't you going to ask me?" Zoro said after a while.

"Ask you what?" Sanji replied, brushing a breadcrumb off his shirt without taking his eyes off the .

"What you've been dying to know the past two days," Zoro said without opening his eyes. "'What happened to Shanks?' That's what you want to know, right? So just ask, now that Luffy isn't here."

Sanji sighed again. He had been really curious about the pirate who Luffy had admired so much, but he hadn't wanted to as since no one seemed to want to talk about it. Had it really been that obvious what he was thinking?

"Fine," he said, sticking what was left of his cigarette in the corner of his mouth and pulling up his box of matches. "What happened to Shanks? I haven't even heard any rumors of his death."

"Well, the rumors say that he was killed during an attack in the middle of the Grand Line, and that he was the only one in the Red Hair pirate clan who died. That he died to protect his crew." Zoro paused and cracked one eye open to glance around the empty deck. He shrugged lightly. "But as I said back at the restaurant, the rumors are exaggerated, like rumors usually are."

"Then you know what really happened?"

"Of course I know, I was there, damn it!" Zoro snapped irritably.

"What really happened, then?"

"There was an attack. Luffy and I had been staying aboard Shanks' ship, since Luffy wanted to show Shanks how much stronger he really was, and we ended up fighting these pirates who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere." Zoro lowered his voice so that Sanji had to turn to look at him so that he wouldn't miss anything that was said. "Yasopp - you know, Usopp's old man - was aiming at the enemy captain with his gun, when someone - and no one knows who - pushed him so that he dropped the gun, which went off as it hit the floor, and the bullet hit Shanks straight between the eyes, killing him instantly in front of Luffy."

When Zoro fell silent, Sanji nodded thoughtfully. "I can see why Luffy doesn't want to talk about it," he said while tapping the ash off his re-lit cigarette.

"Actually, he just doesn't want Usopp to know about it," Zoro said, shifting to a more comfortable position. "So don't go telling anyone about this."

"I won't," Sanji promised. He could imagine how Usopp would react if he ever found out that it was the stray bullet fired by his own father's gun that had killed Red-haired Shanks.

He turned away from Zoro and continued watching the setting sun and the darkening ocean. It had been a long time since he had been able to watch the ocean without having to think about how he was going to make ends meet the following week, or worry about how many guests would show up the next time they stopped to open the restaurant.

There was, however, something that kept gnawing at the back of his mind, as if he had forgotten something he had to do. He was just about to go back below deck to see if he really hadn't forgotten anything important back at the Sagatie, when Zoro spoke up.

"You know, I was thinking…"

"You must be so proud, I guess there's a first for everything," Sanji said before he even had registered that Zoro had spoken to him.

"About what you said back at the restaurant," Zoro said, ignoring Sanji's comment. He opened one eye to look up at the chef. "I don't think you could beat me even if you tried. I think you've slacked off while staying at that cozy little restaurant of yours."

"Really?" Sanji wasn't late to accept the challenge, and he flicked the rest of his cigarette over the railing into the ocean. A thin trail of smoke slithered out from between his lips as he smirked towards Zoro. "Well then, you just have to prove your theory."

Zoro rose from the deck, his eyes glistening with fighting spirit.

"Come on then, old man," he said. "Show me what you've got."

As Sanji launched his first attack, Zoro drew two of his katana to block it before he countered with a series of short slashes. Sanji dodged them with ease, allowing Zoro to warm up. The pounding of his pulse in his ears was only increasing his will to fight, and he could hardly feel the light throbbing in his body anymore.

"'Old man'?" he asked, aiming at Zoro's head for his next kick. "I'm not even a year older than you, moldhead."

Their attacks grew fiercer as the fight continued. Eventually, the rest of the crew noticed their fight, and while Luffy and Usopp cheered and Chopper desperately tried to make Sanji stop fighting, Robin stood halfway up the stairs, leaning against the railing and watched with her usual serene smile on her face. Nami, on the other hand, cast one glance at the fighters, sighed and went back down the stairs to the small room where she kept all her maps.

Leaning back quickly as the edge of a katana cut through the bandages over his face all the way to his skin, Sanji laughed and spun around before he sent Zoro skidding backwards with a quick series of spin kicks. He didn't feel any pain when he moved, not even in his ribs, which he knew was still badly fractured, and he wouldn't waste such an opportunity for anything in the world.

The cut pieces of bandage fluttered to the fall as the fight continued. Sanji felt how Zoro's blades cut through his suit and slashed him several times, but it only increased his will to fight. This was something he had wanted to do for so long.

Zoro pulled back just as the edge of one of the katana was about to cut straight through Sanji's left wrist when the chef had made a careless movement to the side. Sanji quickly pulled back his hand, on which a thin shallow wound had appeared. Zoro looked triumphantly at him and smirked.

"You have been slacking off," he said. "You forget to watch my movements."

"I guess I am." Sanji slid his hands into his pockets and countered Zoro's next attacks while slowly moving to the right. When he saw his chance, he dodged a fierce slash from one katana and managed to move behind Zoro, giving him a light tap on the shoulder before the swordsman had turned around after him.

"And you forgot to watch your back," he said, just as triumphantly as Zoro while ducking and blocking Zoro's counterattack. "Now who's the slacker, oh greatest swordsman of the world?"

Three days earlier, Sanji would never have thought that he would ever set his foot on a pirate ship again. Thinking back, he couldn't remember feeling this alive in months, and it was all thanks to seven special guests.

The first guest had reawakened the pirate in him.

The second and third guest had made him long for adventure.

The fourth and fifth guest had given him back the happiness he thought he had lost a long time ago.

The sixth guest had filled him with fighting spirit, but it had been the seventh who had given him back his will to live.

-Owari-