Chapter 15: Don the destroyer
Summery: I may never know how it truly began, but I do know that I never truly had a choice in the events that led me here. I am in one piece now, and have unwillingly left my own world behind. That is all that matters, and all I need to know.
Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with any legal rights to one piece in any form, I do not own one piece or any part of the merchandising, gaming, manga, anime, characters, or anything of the sort. Please do not sue me as I do not have any money. The only things that I own from this fic are my own original characters.
Note: You can now look at artwork of the story by going to my profile and clicking on them.
'thoughts'
"Words"
(inner Kaede)
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The diaries of Kaede Tsuda Burnett, day -25
OK, I've only been working here two days, and I already can't stand the place.
After Lil got me stuck as the 'chore girl', I had to spend six hours trying to explain to the others that it really didn't matter because of the whole 'Don Krieg thing', which had both Nami and Usopp telling me I was nuts for even thinking that we should stick around if something like that was going to happen.
It doesn't really matter anyway, I'm stuck here until the Don Krieg event, so they can complain all they want.
While Luffy's annoyed with me, he doesn't seem to be that annoyed. I guess the idea of fighting a really strong guy kind of fixed whatever annoyance he has about waiting another month before we enter the Grandline.
And Nami found some of the wanted posters Johnny and Yosaku have, so I don't have to worry about screwing up the whole 'Arlong' thing.
Anyway, I'm writing this in the middle of my break, but if Zeff sees me, he'll beat the crap out of me for 'slacking off when I could be working'.
Signed, The diaries of a Mad Cat Woman.
Finishing up the last line, I quickly closed the journal and headed back into the kitchen, wishing I could some how get out of work.
It hadn't really been all that bad thanks to Sanji, who kept taking all the work I was given and trying to do it himself, which I hated and always forced him to let me do it on my own. While I hate doing the dishes with a passion, I hate it even more when people act as though I can't do something myself. He didn't mean any harm by it, but I still didn't like it.
But, Sanji was Sanji, so there wasn't anything I could do about it.
"Here, take this out to the trash boat out back." Zeff ordered, handing me the large bag of trash, causing me to growl at him in annoyance. "And drop the attitude." He added, hearing my growl.
Then again, as I am a cat girl, it was probably more of a snarling, roaring sound.
"Yes sir." I said, taking the bag and heading through the main room and to the deck, planing on it on the trash boat like I had been instructed.
We put the trash on the boat so that Patty could take it to one of the islands whenever he went to get the groceries for the week, which meant that the 'trash boat' and the 'Grocery boat' were the same thing.
Walking out onto the deck, if found that it was an unbelievably foggy day. I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face, or the bag that was in my arms.
'Great, it's foggy, just great.' I said, unable to understand why it was making me so edgy.
It wasn't until I was almost to the trash boat that I realized why the fog was making me so nervous.
"It's today!" I exclaimed in horror, realizing that Don Krieg had first arrived at the Baratie when it was foggy like it was now.
I also realized that irony of the situation. Luffy had been the on taking out the trash in the anime when Don Krieg showed up, and now that was exactly what I was doing.
Dropping the trash bag on the floor, I took off running, heading back to the entrance so that I could tell everyone what was about to happen, but sadly, I didn't get the chance.
Before I had even taken six steps, a huge ship appeared out of the fog. It was damaged beyond belief.
There were huge chunks of it missing and cuts all over it, like someone had put it through a woodcutter. It was hard to believe it was still able to sail, and I was half expecting it to sink into the ocean at any second.
"It's him!" I shouted, running around the ship as fast as I could and through the front door.
"What in blazes are ya shoutin 'bout?" Patty barked, demanding to know why I was yelling.
"It's Don Krieg!" A overly panicked woman next to the window yelled, causing just about every customer to head for the door, where I was standing.
"Hey! Hey! Stop shoving!" I shouted as I was slowly pushed back out through the door and promptly knocked over board.
"Kweh!"
It was Choco to the rescue. Choco appeared out of nowhere and promptly dove into the water after me, coming up under me and helping me back onto the Baratie now that everyone else had disappears.
"You-" I coughed happily, trying not to choke on the water that was still in my lungs. "Are getting the biggest bag of greens I can find." I said, hugging him happily.
Good birdy. Very good birdy.
"Kaede my sweet! Are you alright?" Sanji asked franticly with hearts in his eyes, his legs wiggling oddly.
How anyone could bend there legs in eight different places to make it look like a wiggling worm was beyond me.
"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks to my feather hero here." I said, giving Choco yet another hug.
"Kaede!" Usopp yelled in a panicked voice as he, Zoro, and Luffy all headed over to us on Johnny's and Yosaku's boat from the merry. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, Choco saved me." I said, causing Choco to Kweh happily.
"Why did you decided to go for a swim?" Lil asked as she came out of the Baratie, seeing that I was wet and looking at me in annoyance.
"I didn't decide to go swimming! The huge swarm of people shoved me in!" I said defensibly, starting to wander if I should trade Lil in for a dog.
"That's-!" Patty said, getting everybody's attention and causing us to turn to look back out at the fog. "That's the Don Krieg's ship!"
"Ge, ya think?" I asked sarcastically, not taking my eye off of the huge ass ship as it steadily got closer and closer. "Ge, do you think that's why all the customers took off like bats out of hell?"
Knowing Don Krieg's ship was coming, and seeing it were two different things. When I had simply known that it was going to come, I hadn't been that worried or scared because I knew that Luffy was going to take care of everything, but now that it was actually here, I was scared shitless.
It was like knowing that everything was going to be OK when you were planning for a earthquake, but completely forgetting that the moment it actually happened.
Just because I knew Luffy could handle it, that didn't mean I wasn't worried. I knew that everything could suddenly take a turn for the worst, and that thought didn't exactly calm me down.
"I told you! I knew those goons were gonna show up! Now are you gonna get rid of those guys or what?!" Carne demanded, dragging me out of my panicked thoughts as he continued to yell at Patty.
"This can't be real! He's got a whole fleet to command! Why would Don Krieg come here to take revenge for just one man?! I mean doesn't he have anything better to do?!" Patty exclaimed, clearly thinking that the cold hearted pirate, Don the Destroyer, had come to take revenge on him for mistreating one of his men.
"Does it matter?! He's here alright, we aren't imagining that ship!" Another cook shouted, this one named Alphonse, or Al for short.
"Guys! I think this is our cue to leave right now!" Usopp shouted in horror, wishing we weren't seeing what we were seeing.
"Look at the sheer size of that galleon!" Nami exclaimed, just as horrified as Usopp was.
"What a huge ship!" Luffy shouted in amazement, once again proving that he was clueless to what was going on around him. "Do you think there hungry?" He added, clearly thinking that they were customers for me and Sanji to take care of.
"Some how, I doubt that's why they're here." Sanji answered, still looking at the huge ship as well.
"Actually, as I psychic, I can honestly say that they are partly here because they're hungry." I said, causing all the chefs near me to turn and look at me as none of them had even heard about me being psychic. "They've been starving for a while, which means this is actually kind of Sanji's fault."
"Psychic?" Patty asked, unable to believe his ears.
"Yeah, it's why we stayed here for so long, we decided that we would fight them off for you." Usopp said, though he clearly wanted to take off running.
"Huh?" Carne asked, looking at me like I was crazy, only to get cut off by another chef.
"Hey, the ship looks like it's been through a battle recently." Al said, looking at all the damage on the Krieg pirate's ship as the fog finally started to clear a bit.
"What did they do, sail through a hurricane or something?" Luffy asked, seeing the damage as well.
"It's amazing it can even still sail, I'm surprised it hasn't sank into the ocean yet." Usopp added, clearly thinking the same thing as everyone else.
"It doesn't look like damage from cannon fire." Sanji said, stating the obvious. "In fact, it doesn't look man made at all."
"Maybe it was a tornado hurricane." Luffy said, not knowing that he had pretty much summed up most of the damage already.
Most of it was from hurricanes, but there was some damage that was from a certain hawk-eyed swordsman.
It was while everyone was talking about the damage that a man appeared out of the ship, supporting the weight of another man on his shoulders.
It was Ghin and Don Krieg.
As the two of them came down onto the ship, everybody that was already on the Baratie headed back inside the restaurant, trying to get as far away from them as possible.
The eerie feeling that filled the air as Krieg got closer and closer was almost palpable. It was as though his presence alone was enough to send a grown man screaming for his mother. He was just that scary.
Once the two Krieg pirates were through the front doors of the Baratie, everyone tensed, knowing that this probably wasn't going to be good.
Well, everyone but Sanji, Luffy, Zeff, and Zoro. They didn't seem to be worried at all.
"I beg you, I need food..." Krieg said, proving I had been right when I said that he wanted food, which I already knew. "Water." He said weakly, trying to get someone to listen to him. "We have money, lots of money. Please! It's been so long, I can't even remember the last time I had food- please sir!" he pleaded. "I need food and drink, I'm begging you-"
"This can't be..." Carne said, amazed that we weren't dead yet.
"Where's the death and the destruction? Can this really be thee Don Krieg, commodore of the grand pirate fleet?" Patty whispered, shocked that Krieg hadn't killed us all yet.
"Guess he's hungry..." Luffy said, stating the obvious as Sanji headed to the back of the room and into the kitchen.
When no one made a move to bring him some food, Don Krieg promptly fell over, though his little act wasn't completely convincing as his pain didn't quite reach his eyes.
"Captain!" Ghin said in horror, leaning down and trying to help Krieg up.
"Please! I'll take anything! I'll even take scraps! Please!" Krieg begged, putting on a very good show for everyone.
"Captain, your a king, you shouldn't lower yourself to a common beggar!" Ghin exclaimed before turning his attention to the rest of us. "Please help him! Our captain is on the brink of starvation! Please! If he doesn't get something to eat soon he'll die!"
The end of Ghin's begging was met by Patty's laughter. He clearly thought that everything he had just heard was hilarious, and a small part of me couldn't help but agree, but that was only because I had seen the episode and knew that Don Krieg was only half telling the truth. He was actually planning on forcing us to feed all his men, then kill us the moment that was done.
If it wasn't for the fact that I believe that starvation is something no one should ever have to feel, I would have laughed with him.
"Hahaha! That's got to be the greatest thing I've ever heard! Feed him? Ha! Ya right! Someone call the marines! Hahaha! Like we'd-" Patty said, stopping when I started talking over him.
"You might as well stop laughing," I said, cutting into his statement and causing everyone to turn and stare at me. "Sanji went to get Don Krieg some food, and Zeff went to get some food for the rest of Don's men."
The words had barely left my mouth when Sanji suddenly appeared out of nowhere, holding a large plate of food and a large bottle of wine out for Don to eat and drink.
"Here's something for your captain." Sanji said, setting the food and wine down in front of Don Krieg.
"Sanji?! What in blazes do you think you're doing?!" Patty demanded, taking a menacing step toward the tall blond man.
"Well, it kind of looks like he's serving him." I said plainly, keeping my face as straight as possible.
In the few days that I had worked at Baratie, I had figured out why Sanji liked to mess with Patty and Carne.
It was funny as shit.
"I can see that! What I want to know is why he's serving that cold blooded, murderess son of a bitch?!" Patty demanded, completely ignoring the fact that I had just said that chef Zeff had also gone to make some food for Krieg's crew.
"Sanji! Are ye mad?! Get that food away from him!" Carne demanded, stepping forward to do it himself, only for Krieg to suddenly stand up and send both him and Sanji flying.
"Ah! Sanji! Carne!" Patty shouted in horror as the two hit the ground hard.
I quickly ran over to them and helped them up, making sure they weren't hurt. When I saw the blood on Sanji, I froze in horror, thinking he was badly hurt.
"He's bleedin! Sanji?! Are you alright?" Patty asked, worried about him just as much as I was.
They might not get along, but they were kind of like family, and you always worry about family, even when you don't really like them.
"Sanji! Are you alright?" I asked stupidly, repeating Patty's question with out realizing it in my worried state.
My worry quickly disappeared, however, when I saw that all the blood was all coming from Sanji's nose.
"Pervert!" I said angrily, pulling my mallet out of nowhere and sending him flying through the air and into several chairs and tables.
"AH! Sanji!" All the chef's yelled in horror as Sanji flew through the air.
"What the hell ya do that for?" Carne demanded angrily, wanting to know why I had just hit an injured man.
"Because, the pervert was bleeding through his nose while looking at my top." I said angrily, standing up and walking back into the group of people that were opposite to Krieg. "Maybe now he'll actually be bleeding from somewhere else." I added, half hoping that Sanji had a few cuts and bruises on him after that hit.
"She's scary." one of the chef's whispered, praying that I wouldn't hear him.
I ignored his comment as I was more interested in what was happening with Krieg, though I was silently cursing Nami's makeover on me at the same time.
While I was happy that people finally realized that I was a girl, I wasn't to thrilled with the perverts that I seemed to attract.
It was like every guy that was drawn to me was a pervert, and all of them seemed to stare at me in a way I wasn't very comfortable with. If there was one thing I hated about the makeover more then anything else, it was the perverts. Way to many perverts, and Sanji was definitely one of them.
Don't get me wrong, I liked Sanji well enough and he was a nice guy, but I wasn't to thrilled with him doing that strange 'wiggle wiggle worm dance' thing with his legs every time me, or any other girl, walked by him. It was kind of creepy.
But, I was going to have to get used to it as Sanji was going to be on the crew soon and would be traveling with us for a long time.
Well, at least he wasn't as bad as Johnny and Yosaku, who for some reason never seemed to remember to knock before walking into the bathroom when Nami or I was in it, but could some how manage to remember to when it was one of the guys that were in it.
Strange, isn't it?
My attention was drawn back to the scene before me when Patty pulled out a huge fucking gun and aimed it at Don Krieg and Ghin.
"Shit!" I shouted, jumping out of the way and up onto the large spiraling stair case that was wrapped around a large pillar in the center of the room, which led up to the floors above.
I REALLY didn't want to get shot when Krieg retaliated as I was pretty sure that I wouldn't survive it, and that would suck monkey butts.
"Guy's! Get up here now!" I shouted, causing Usopp, Choco, and Lil to run to the stairs as fast as they could, while Zoro and Luffy simply walked over to them lazily.
They had learned not to argue with me when I was panicked, it usually lead to something bad happening.
"At a joint like this, pirate scumbags come and go all day," Patty said, holding up the gun and making sure his aim was accurate. "We're fully prepared to serve any kind of costumer." he said, smirking at Don Krieg. "I really hope you saved some room for desert, because I have a secret recipe that is truly to die for! Here comes the meat ball of doom!" He shouted, pulling the trigger and sending a huge ass bullet flying at Don Krieg.
The blast had a small downside that came with it. While it was definitely a powerfully attack, it also caused a bright flash of light and a huge cloud of smoke to appear, which completely blocked our view of Don Krieg.
The explosion from the bullet had also had a backlash, sending several of the chef's flying, including Sanji who had still been laying on the ground from my 'super pervert destroying mallet shot, mock 2' attack that I had hit him with.
What? Don't look at me like that! I had to name it something, didn't I?
"I might have broken the door, I sure hope Zeff wont yell at me again." Patty said, laughing slightly and thinking that he had just killed Don Krieg.
"He might go easy on ya, for saving the restaurant and all." Carne said, thinking the same thing as Patty was.
"Did he get him?" One of the other chefs asked, this one not as sure as Patty and Carne that Krieg was dead.
"Nope, Krieg's got a lot of armor on under his clothes, so it probably blocked the whole blast. He's probably still standing." I said in disappointment, shaking my head at him and causing several people to look up at me in horror, before turning their attentions back tot the cloud of smoke in front of them.
"Are you a chef, or a comedian" A voice called out through the smoke, causing several people to take a step back in horror. "Because your jokes are lame." The voice growled, causing even me to step back in horror.
Like I said, knowing something was going to happen, and seeing it happen were two very different things.
Knowing he was going to still be standing, and knowing he was going to say something menacing wasn't nearly as bad as seeing and hearing them in person.
"And that desert was terrible!" He shouted angrily as the smoke finally started to clear, allowing us to see that he wasn't hurt at all and that he was covered in gold colored armor. "The worst I've ever had!"
Two plates of armor on either shoulder opened up, revealing two large guns under each of them that looked more like cannons. The second they were open, two more armored plates on his sides opened, reveling even bigger guns under them, all of which were pointed at us.
Once all his weapon plates were open, Krieg then pulled out to large postals, holding one in either hand and aiming them at us as well.
Knowing that we would probably get killed if even one of those bullets hit one of us, I grabbed Lil, Choco, and Usopp and ran up the stairs and around the pillar, knowing that bullets were going to start flying at any second.
"He's got them everywhere!" Luffy said in amazement and slight horror, knowing that the chefs couldn't survive a bullet like he could.
"All those guns!" Sanji said in horror, finally getting up from his position on the ground where he had landed after Patty's gun blast.
While everyone was staring in horror at the guns, Usopp was busy doing his own complaining.
"Hey! I'm all for running away when the going gets tough, but do you really have to drag me by my nose?!" Usopp demanded, alerting me to the fact that the long thing in my hand wasn't his arm, which I already knew.
"Sh!" I said, knowing that we were going to be hearing gunshots in less then a second.
And I was right.
The moment the 'hush sound' left my lips, the sound of gunshots filled the room, making it impossible to hear anything else. It was amazing how so many shots could be heard firing from so few guns in less then a full ten seconds.
I would never have believed that all those shots had come from one person if it wasn't for the fact that I had already seen it with my own eyes when watching the anime, which hadn't really done a very good job showing the scene.
There were so many shots being fired, and I could see hundreds of bullets flying past the pillar, making me wander how in the world all the chefs managed to survive in the anime.
If this was my world, all of them would be dead and Krieg would be coming after me and Usopp next, though I think he would also go after Choco thinking that he would taste good when cocked over an open fire.
Kind of a creepy thought if you ask me.
When the sound of gun fire finally ended, I exhaled the breath that I hadn't even known I was holding in. I had never been a huge fan of guns, and it hadn't exactly helped that I had just been shot at.
At the rate things were going, I was going to have a panic attack every time someone fired a gun near me.
Which would suck considering that I was going to have to deal with Usopp and Franky being on the crew, and I was going to have to deal with being shot at by the marines.
Maybe I should start looking for an alternative occupation?
Taking a deep breath to steady myself, I did the stupid thing of sticking my head out from behind the pillar to see what was happening, and was lucky when no one started shooting at me.
A good way to get yourself killed in a gun fight is to stick your head out where the bad guys can see it.
Can you say easy target?
When I stuck my head out from behind the pillar, I was just in time to see that armored plates on Don Krieg's body close, hiding the guns that he had just fired at everyone. Once the guns were covered, he then took of one of the gray gloves that were covering his hands to reveal a gold colored metal glove under it. The glove was covered in diamonds. There was a large quarter size diamond on each knuckle as well as a huge ass fist sized one on the space over the back of his hand.
If Nami was there, she would have been proud of the huge dollar signs that my eyes turned into at the site of the diamonds.
Since I knew that Luffy was going to beat the shit out of Don Krieg, and I hadn't gotten payed for any of the work I had done at the restaurant, not to mention the fact that I was almost broke, I was sure no one was going to mind if I took those nice gloves off of Krieg when Luffy was done beating the shit out of him.
"Wow, that's one big ass diamond!" Lil exclaimed, sticking her head out from behind the pillar as well and staring in awe at the large gem stone on the back of Krieg's hand
"Wow! That things bigger then my fist!" Usopp said, stating the obvious as he to stuck his head out from behind the pillar along with Choco.
"Yeah," I whispered, not wanting anyone else to hear me. "And it's going to be all mine by the end of Luffy's fight with that Shit head."
"Huh?" Are you sure it's a good idea to steal from a guy like Don Krieg?" Usopp asked, thinking I was crazy for even considering it. "And besides, who says Luffy's gonna win, I say we should all just get back to the Merry and get going while the going's good."
"For once, I think I agree with long nose." Lil said, looking at me like I was crazy. "Just because he beat him in the-" She started, only to stop when she realized what she had almost said in front of Usopp. "I mean, you might have seen Luffy beat him in one of your visions, but we have seen things change from what you've seen to something much worse because of our attempts to change them." she said, being as criptic as her little kitty mind would let her.
"What?! You mean the things you see don't always come true?!" Usopp exclaimed, causing Choco to stick his wing over Usopp's mouth so that he couldn't start shouting again.
"SH!" I hushed, wishing he would use his brain before shouting like that. "What I see are possibilities. If I change something, then it changes the outcome." I lied, taking my explanation form one of my favorite scifi series, Andromeda.
"Possibilities?" he whispered once Choco removed his wing from over his mouth. "Oh! You mean we can always change something that happens in the future, like the visions are just warnings?" He asked, coming up with a way for me to cover my tracks without even knowing he was doing it.
"Exactly, so just because I saw Luffy beat Don Krieg, that doesn't mean he actually will, but I know he will. It's Luffy we're talking about, he isn't exactly known for giving up. He'll win, you'll see." I said smiling, knowing that Luffy was way to strong to loose to a looser like Krieg.
It was at the end of my statement that I was almost knocked down the stairs by a large bag of something that hit me in the back of the head.
"Hey, out of the way kid." a gruff voice said from behind me, a voice that I knew belonged to chef Zeff.
Looking behind me, I saw the Zeff was carrying a large bag in front of him, which was probably filled with food and drink for all of Krieg's men.
Not wanting to get knocked down the stares by mistake, I quickly moved out of the way and took Lil, Choco, and Usopp with me.
"Thanks." Zeff said as he moved past us and down the stairs, only to have to stop again and ask Luffy and Zoro to move once he got to them.
Once Zeff was past us, I turned my attention back to Don Krieg, who was now yelling at everyone for not doing as he told them.
"When I give you slime balls an order, you will follow it down to the last letter!" he shouted angrily, causing several people to take a step back in fear. "Don't you ever disobey me!"
It wasn't until Zeff dropped the large bag of food and drink down in front of Krieg that the large, armor covered man saw that he was there. The moment Krieg saw him, he froze in horror.
"This is about a hundred meals." Zeff started, though the look in his eyes said that he really wanted to kick Krieg's ass. "Now take it to your men right away."
"No! Owner Zeff!" All the chefs said in horror, unable to believe the Zeff was actually giving down the food that he was demanding, even though I had already told them that he had gone to get it.
"Watch where you're going with that," Luffy said, adjusting his had with a childish pout on his face. "I was standing there you know."
Everyone was to busy staring at Zeff to even hear Luffy's comment. Even Don Krieg was froze at the sight of him, though he was the only one that looked scared shitless of him.
"You're-" Krieg started in horror, unable to believe his own eyes. "Red Foot Zeff!"
The statement was barely above a whisper, but the entire place was so silent that everyone heard Krieg's comment. Some of the chefs were shocked to hear what was just said, while others weren't surprised at all.
It was as if the few people that had been working there for several years had figured that out a long time ago, while the new people, who had only been working their for two or three years, hadn't known at all.
The look the appeared on Ghin's face said that he knew that name as well, and wasn't to thrilled with finding out that they were now on the Red Foot Zeff's ship, and harassing his men.
Zeff didn't seem to ignore Krieg's comment as he turned around and started walking away.
He hadn't even taken six steps when his own crew started complaining, clearly surprised at the fact that he had actually given Krieg food for his crew.
"What are you doing?!" One of them called, unable to believe what he had just seen.
"Yeah! You can't be serious!" Another called, unable to understand why Zeff would feed people that were probably going to try to kill us as soon as they were done eating.
"If all of those pirates get their strength back, then the restaurant will be completely taken over!" A third man shouted, pleading with Zeff to rethink what he was doing.
"That would be true," Zeff started when he finally stopped walking, "if they still have the will to fight."
Everyone stared at him in silence, unable to understand what he was saying.
"Tell me," He continued as he turned around to face Krieg. "did your will survive defeat?"
"What? No way!" One of the chefs shouted, unable to believe what Zeff had just said.
"The great Don Krieg was defeated?" Another asked dumbly, just as unable to believe it as the one that had spoken before him.
"Wow, not even he could do it." Carne said, knowing that Zeff probably meant that Krieg was defeated in the Grandline. "A pirate fleet of fifty ships couldn't even make it on the Grandline..."
Everyones statements seemed to be having a bad effect on Ghin, who was now on the floor holding his head, as if trying to block at unwanted memories.
I almost felt bad for him. Well, almost.
"The Grandline?" Luffy asked in amazement, now wanting to hear everything he could about what happened to Krieg, knowing it would tell him more about the one place he wanted to go the most.
Don Krieg still wasn't answering anyone, still to busy staring wide-eyed at the blond mustached man in front of him. It was as if he was stuck in his own little world of horror and shock. It wasn't until I remembered about Zeff's log book that I realized why.
While there was some horror in them, Krieg's eyes were mostly filled with shook and surprise. As well as an unmistakable look of hunger. He was clearly happier then anything at the thought of getting Zeff's long book.
It was like a child had just been told that he could walk into any store he wanted, and buy everything he saw.
"It is you, isn't it?" He finally asked, his words sounding strange and more demanding then they should have. "You're Red Foot Zeff!"
Once the question had finally left his lips, the look on his face change. It changed as though he was no longer suffering from his shock and surprise, and now was only interested in the prize that was before him.
"So, you are alive." He stated plainly, his eyes narrowing at Zeff like a hyena that had just found it's next meal. "The unrivaled pirate captain that was also the ship's cook.
The looks on everyones faces changed dramatically as the conversation was brought back to that of chef Zeff's true identity. It was as if someone had thrown a switch and changed there looks from horror to astonishment.
"Yes, that's right. I'm still alive." Zeff said plainly, narrowing his own eyes at Krieg as if to say, 'don't fuck with me'. "But what does any of this got to do with you? I haven't been a pirate for many years now, I chose the life of a cook."
"Hahaha!" Krieg laughed, thinking that it was funny that Zeff was saying that he 'chose' the life of a cook. "Chose the life of a cook, that's rich!" He said mockingly, laughing again as though it was the funniest thing in the world. "Yeah right! You didn't have a choice, old man. You live your life as a cook because the only thing you can be now is a cook! You know, it really is a pity that you no longer have that precious leg of yours.
"I heard the story a long time ago." He continued, unable to stop talking as though he liked the sound of his own voice. "How unlucky for you to have such an accident at sea. Now that's your greatest weapon has been sacrificed to the sea, you're defenseless, completely unable to fight!"
"Calling it an accident is kind of off." I said boredly, drawing everyone's attention to myself. "Most people would call taring off your own leg to save a small boy a selfless act, but if calling it an accident gets you off... then whatever floats your boat, then again, I'm not even sure you know what the one 'selfless' means." I said, actually getting a few people to laugh.
Like I said before, when I don't like someone, I'm unable to keep myself from saying shit like that to them.
While everyone else thought my statement was funny or was horrified to hear it, Krieg it seemed had decided to simply ignore me for the time being, though it did seem as though he put me on his list of people to kill first.
"Red Foot, you're the man the sailed the perilous waters of the Grandline and came back unscathed, that's impressive." He stated, heading into the reason why Zeff's identity was so interesting to him without needing to be prompted. "There should be a log book detailing your tactics, a full year of your journey there. Give it to me! Now!" He demanded, causing Zeff's eyes to narrow further.
"Does that mean he was defeated?" One of the chefs asked, causing a huge flurry of whispers to break out.
"The Grandline didn't defeat me!" Krieg roared angrily, not liking the way people were talking about him.
"Really? Because from where I'm standing, it kind of looks like you got your ass kicked." I said frankly, nodding me head at hi as though I knew what I was talking about, and I kind of did.
My comment didn't seem to go over to well with him. In fact, it seemed to piss him off because the moment he heard what I had said, he stood up and roared at me angrily, clearly wanting to rip my snowy white covered head off.
Lucky for me, Zeff distracted him.
"My log book, heh. So that's what you're after." He said, causing Krieg's creepy ass eyes to snap away from me and onto him instead. "You're right, I do indeed have a record of my travels." He said, causing Krieg's smile to broaden at his words. "But I will never hand it over to you."
Krieg's smile vanished at his words, being replaced with would could only be described as a snarl.
"You ignorant brute, that log book is sacred to me!" Zeff said angrily, clearly furious at the fact that Krieg had demanded it from him. "It's the pride of the crewmen that I sailed with! It's far to important to give to you."
"Alright, I'll take it by force then!" Krieg said, balling up one of his fists and holding it in front of him threateningly. "Yes, it's true that the Grandline beat me, but still, I will never give up on it. I am Don Krieg! In the end, it's just another ocean! I had enough weapons, and men, and ambition, but regrettably, the only thing I lacked was information."
"This statement is untrue, if that was all you lacked, then you would have succeeded like Zeff had, as he had started off without knowing what was going on in the Grandline." I said, once again cutting into his statement and causing him to glare at me. "And besides, your fleet was half destroyed by a hurricane, and then was decimated by Mihawk."
While the early part of my statement had gotten a glare from him, the last part of it had gotten a look of shock out of him an Ghin, who had gasped at my statement as well.
"How the hell did you know that?!" Krieg demanded, wanting to know if there was a spy among his men.
"That's easy, she's my crew's psychic!" Luffy said happily, causing everyone to stare at him for a few seconds before turning their attentions to me.
OK, maybe I do need to learn when to shut up.
"A psychic huh?" Zeff asked, turning his attention to me as well, stroking his beard in thought. "Are you a Grandline psychic?"
His question nearly caused me to fall over. Of all the things I had been expecting, that wasn't one of them.
'There's real psychics here?' I thought in amazement, though I somehow managed to keep the look on my face normal.
I simply stared at him, unable to think of how to answer. I wasn't exactly from the Grandline, so that would be a no, but I wasn't exactly from anywhere else in this world either.
"Grandline psychic?" Krieg asked, and I really didn't like the tone in his voice.
His voice was clearly saying that I wasn't going to like whatever it was that was going though his head, though I had a feeling that, as long as Krieg didn't hear about the 'witch' thing, I would be OK.
But unfortunately, Luffy was an idiot and my luck sucks.
"Huh? They have witches in the Grandline?" Luffy asked before turning his attention to me. "Is that where you're from?"
"Witch?!" Everyone demanded, causing me to hang my head in horror.
"Luffy, you. Are. an. Idiot." I said, punctuating each word angrily as i brought my hand up to cover my face in annoyance.
Only Luffy could ask a question like that when it was clear that it wasn't a good time to mention it.
"A witch? Huh, I thought the world government killed all the witches in the world." Krieg said, his eyes lighting up in a way that made me very uncomfortable.
'Luffy, if we survive this, I'm going to kill you.' I thought, taking a step back at Krieg's look.
"With a witch under my control, I'll be able to find the one piece without a problem," Krieg said, the look in his eyes saying that he was thinking of all the power he could have at his disposal. "Then I'll be the ruler of this great pirate era!"
While I was still taking tentative steps backwards, Luffy walked straight forward, anger covering his face.
"Now hold on!" He demanded, pointing straight at Krieg in anger. "Kaede's on my crew and It's me that's going to be king of the pirates!"
'My hero!' I thought happily, happy that someone was coming to my deference. Even if it was partially his fault that I was in trouble to begin with.
Everyone stared at Luffy in silence, unable to believe his statement. The thing about me being part of his crew they could believe as they already knew that, but the part about him becoming the pirate king? Nope, couldn't believe that at all.
"Wait! Don't be such an idiot! You better back off before he kills you!" Patty said, causing me to wander why he hadn't said something like that any of the times I made my comments.
'You weren't that worried about me when I was talking...' I thought, deciding that I would have to get him back later for that little fact.
Krieg didn't seem to think Luffy was worth his time, and decided that he would deal with us later.
"I don't have time to deal with some punk kid's bull shit, Right now I'm going to go feed my men." He said calmly, picking up the large bag of food and heading for the door.
"Those of you who don't wish to die can leave the restaurant now and escape that fate. The only things I'm after are the log book, this ship and the witch." He said, stopping at the door to look back at all of us, though I had a feeling that his statement wasn't extended to me as well. "However, if you wish to stay and be slaughtered, I have no problem burying every last one of you at sea! Know that."
With the last of his statement finished, he walked out the front door and headed for his ship.
After a few seconds of sitting on the stares, which I had fallen on when I had been backing up, I stood up, heading down the stares, and walked over to Luffy.
"You idiot!" I shouted, pulling my mallet out of my froggy bag and bashing him over the head with it.
"Hey! What was the for?!" He demanded, rubbing the top of his now abused head and glaring up at me.
"GA! What part of 'don't tell the bad-guys things they don't need to know' don't you understand?!" I asked, though the real reason I was freaked out about was the fact that a psychopath now wanted to keep me as his own personal weapon.
It wasn't exactly a happy thought.
"I'm sorry Sanji!" Ghin said, getting everybody's attention. "I never thought it would be this way." he said, bowing in misery and apologizing to the man that had feed him for what he had done.
"You have nothing to apologize for sailor." Zeff said, surprising everyone, including me. "Every cook at this restaurant did what they thought was right. That's all there is to say about that."
"But boss!" Patty demanded, only to get cut off by me.
"Patty, shut up. If Sanji hadn't fed him, Zeff would have, and then who would you be blaming?" I asked, causing Zeff to smile at me.
Patty and the rest of the chefs looked back and forth between me and Zeff, unable to believe what I had just said.
"That's not true!" Carne finally said, trying as hard as he could to convince himself more then anyone else. "Is it boss?" he asked, turning his eyes to Zeff in question.
"Yeah, it's true." Zeff said plainly, not bothering to explain why.
"But why?" Patty asked, half demanding to know why Zeff would feed someone like Ghin.
"Because, no chef worth his crust would ever let a man starve." Zeff said. "None of you know what it's like to be on the brink of starvation. To have no food or water on the open ocean. There is no way you could possibly understand what a terrible prospect that is! It's the most difficult situation a man could ever face!"
"What? I don't know what your talking about chef Zeff." Patty said, wishing that he could understand what the older man was saying.
"The difference between all of you and Sanji, is that Sanji knows." Zeff said, not looking at any of them as he said this.
Everyone stared at Zeff before his words finally sank in. Sanji had nearly starved to death during some time in his life, and none of them had known that.
"If all you're going to do is stand around grumbling, then leave this place and never come back." Zeff said, getting everyone's attention again with those simple words.
"Huh?! I for one am gonna stay and fight!" Patty said, not willing to leave the place that was his home for so long. "I couldn't live with myself if I excepted defeat!"
"I'm staying to! After all, this is our restaurant, isn't it?!" Another chef said, raising a giant fork and holding it out in front of him menacingly.
"That's right! This place is all I've got to!" Another chef shouted, raising his own giant fork as well.
"Yeah! This is the Baratie! Home of the fighting chefs!" Carne shouted as he raised a huge ass knife into the air, causing everyone to start cheering.
All of them were staying. Not a single one of them was willing to leave the ship without a fight. If Krieg wanted the ship, then he was going to have to fight them for it.
"Are we gonna let them take our home from us?!" Patty called, giving everyone his own little pep talk.
"No!" Everyone shouted, raising various kitchenware.
"Are we gonna just sit here and let them walk all over us?!" Patty called out again.
"No!" Everyone shouted again, all of them ready for battle.
"Then let's show them what the fighting chefs of the Baratie can do!" Patty shouted, causing everyone to cheer and wave their 'cooking weapons' around in the air, all of them ready to protect their home with their lives.
"What are you doing?!" Ghin shouted, causing everyone to stop cheering and turn their attentions to him. "You saw how powerful Don is, didn't you?!"
"Ghin, listen up because I'm only going to say this once." Sanji said, standing up and walking over to a table. "Feeding someone that's hungry is my sacred moral duty, BUT-" He said, using one of his feet to flip a fallen table into the are and setting right side up with just one movement of his leg and sitting down on it. "Now that your crew is well fed, I have no obligation to you. With a clean conscience, I can beat every last one of them to a bloody pulp. If anyone tries to take the restaurant, I'll kill them without a moments hesitation."
Ghin swallowed hard at Sanji's words, knowing that he wasn't lying when he said he would kill them if they tried to take the restaurant.
"Ha!" Patty laughed, smirking at the words that had just left Sanji's mouth. "You're a real head case Sanji. Letting them live, then threatening to kill them?"
"Can it cook." Sanji said, looking away from him and ignoring him completely.
"This guy's awesome, huh?" Luffy said, looking up at Usopp and Zoro, who were still on the spiral staircase.
"Who cares if he's awe-" Usopp started, only to get cut off by a loud sound rang out through the air, coming from outside. "What the hell was that?!" He shouted in horror along with several other people.
The sound alone was enough to tell me what was happening. It sounded as though something very large was just cut in half and was now sinking very quickly into the sea.
"Their ship just got cut in half!" I exclaimed, heading for the door and out onto the deck of the Baratie, closely followed be the rest of the occupants of the Baratie.
"What the-?!" Luffy asked when he saw ship, completely surprised to find that it had indeed been cut in half and was now sinking to the bottom of the ocean at an alarming rate.
"What's going on?!" Krieg demanded, unable to understand why his ship was now in to pieces and sinking to the bottom of the ocean.
"The ship's been cut!" One of his men shouted in horror as he fell into the ocean, causing Don Krieg's eyes to widen in horror.
"It was cut?! What do you mean it was cut?! Something sliced through this galleon?! No way! That's impossible!!!" he shouted, unable to believe what had just happened.
"Raise the anchor or we'll sink along with it!" Zeff shouted as the Baratie started jerking around wildly, nearly getting dragged under by the force of Krieg's sinking ship.
Once the anchor was raised, the ship settled down, though that hadn't happened before I tossed my cookies.
"Ug, let's not do that again."I Said, holding onto Choco, who was the only reason why I hadn't gone over board with my upchucked lunch.
"Wait! Where the hell is our ship?!" Zoro demanded, unable to see the merry and thinking that it had gotten sliced up with Krieg's.
"Nami stole it." I said, wishing the ship would stop wobbling already. It might not be sinking anymore, but that didn't mean it was completely stable.
"WHAT?!" Usopp demanded, unable to believe that Nami had done such a thing, and pissed that she had done it to a ship that was given to us by Kaya.
"Hay! Big bro!" Johnny shouted from the water as he and Yosaku swam over to us.
"Man overboard!" Yosaku shouted, trying to get someone to help them out of the water.
Lucky for them, my upchuck had already gotten washed away by the waves in the water, so they didn't have to worry about swimming though it.
"Yosaku! Johnny!" Luffy shouted, running over to them and using his rubber arms to get them out of the water and onto the Baratie.
"What happened? Where's Nami? Did she really steal it?" Zoro demanded, wanting to get as much information as he could.
"Yeah! Big sis Nami-" Johnny started, tear steaks and snot running down his face.
"She took all the treasure-" Yosaku said, tear steaks and snot running down his face as well.
"And sailed away!" Johnny finished sadly, miserable about the fact that he had let her steal everything without being able to do anything to stop her.
"She did what?!" Usopp, Luffy, and Zoro demanded, causing me to glare at them.
"I told you she stole them, weren't you listening when I said it?" I asked angrily, still feeling like shit after having to upchuck my lunch over the edge of the ship.
"That man is-" Zeff started, catching all of our attentions and causing us to look up, only for us to see that the air was starting to clear up some.
All of us froze when we saw him, all of us unable to believe our eyes.
"No! That bastard! He followed us back!" Krieg shouted in horror when he finally saw who it was that had cut his ship in half.
"It's him, he's here-" Zoro said, unable to believe his eyes.
In the anime, it was Zoro's heat beat that you could hear, but it wasn't his heart that I was hearing now, it was my own. My own heart beat was pounding in my ears, cutting off all other sound and sending me into total silence.
It wasn't that it was Mihawk that had caused me to freeze, it was something else entirely. Something that I hadn't even considered. Something that was more confusing then anything else in the world, and something that somehow made more sense then it should have.
"Father..."
---------------------
Firstly: Sorry, but if you didn't figure out that Hawk-eye Mihawk was her father by the description of her eyes, then that's your fault, not mine.
Secondly: Should I give Kaede a bounty at the end of the Arlong ark like Luffy? After all, the whole 'Mihawk's kid' and the 'witch' thing would probably freak the marines out a bit. Not to mention I'm pretty sure that they wouldn't like the idea of someone that was psychic going around when that psychic wasn't on their side, she could start talking about stuff that they don't want people to know for all they know.
Oh, and I realized that all the characters in One piece name their attacks, so I decided I was going to have to start doing that as well.
Here's a List of Kaede's attacks so far:
Kitty Cuffs: Her tail is used to bind someone's hands,
- First used: One Patty
- Class: Cat attacks
- Level: 4/10 - Low
Cat Daggers: She digs her claws into someone
- First used: On Alvida
- Class: Cat attacks
- Level: 1/10 – Super Weak.
Super pervert destroying mallet shot, mock 1: sends perverts flying
- First used: Johnny and Yosaku
- Class: Normal Mallet attacks
- Level: 5/10 – average
Super pervert destroying mallet shot, mock 2: sends perverts flying
- First used: Sanji
- Class: Steel Mallet attacks
- Level: 7/10 – kind of strong
Super pervert destroying mallet shot, mock 2: sends perverts flying
- First used: Not yet seen
- Class: Impact and Cushion Mallet attacks
- Level: ??? - unknown
Note: You can now look at artwork for this story by going to my profile and clicking on the links.
read and review, ------------ (and check my profile for polls, there's always one up,)