Hey ya'll! *gets pelted with rotten vegetables and eggs by a hoard of angry screaming people*
*calmly runs away* So onto chapter 5! Yay! Thank you so much who have reviewed, favorited and followed and continued your support for this story! I'm sorry for being an ass and not having frequent updates but life sucks but I'm holidays now! So new chapters will be coming soon!
…Also, I'm back! Who misses me?! …*crickets in the background*
Ahem, onto the chapter!
Disclaimer: The story One Piece belongs to Oda-sensei. The treasure One Piece will belong to Luffy. I have no chance of owning either, if I tried Oda-sensei will sue me and Luffy will beat me up.
Well. Sanji shook out his wet hair. After that fight, saving that shitty swordsman, seeing the greatest swordsman disappearing with another explosion, Luffy stretching himself onto the boat and the nearly dying swordsman and longnose dude leave, the actual fight is finally going to begin…
Ugh.
"Hey, Old Man!" Luffy called out dangling upside down from the railing, some chefs were still staring at his arms in weirded out curiosity. Zeff looked down and gave a grunt in answer. "If I beat this guy up does that mean you'll let me off the hook and I pay back the rest of my debt?"
"Do what you please." Zeff snorted. "In fact it couldn't have made me happier. If I let you work at my restaurant for a year, it'll be in shambles."
Sanji paused in the middle of unsuccessfully trying to dry his hair and glared at Zeff. That is the understatement of understatements, you senile geezer.
"Great!" Luffy cheered, patting his hat out of habit.
"…Are you serious about becoming the Pirate King?" Zeff asked the young teen. Sanji gave a small snort and went back to get the worst of the water out of his hair, listening with half an ear.
"Yeah, of course!" Luffy answered within a heartbeat. "I WILL become the Pirate King."
Sanji wasn't sure whether to envy the complete confidence Luffy had in himself or think that the man was being stupid and delusional. Zeff seems to think the former.
"I've met a lot of people who bark more than they can bite." Zeff grinned slightly. "But it's rare to see someone with this much confidence in themselves."
"I heard you were a great pirate Old Man! Were you after the One Piece as well?" Luffy asked excitedly. Sanji halted in his actions and looked back at the geezer behind his fringe.
"I have long forgotten about the past." Zeff answered back, staring out to sea. "Right now I'm just the head chef of my own restaurant. That's good enough for me."
Liar. Sanji thought. You remember absolutely everything, don't you?
A sudden war cry from the remains of the destroyed ship caught the attention of the owners of Baratie. Sanji stared at the pirates lifting their various weapons in the air as a triumphant cry rang out. Clearly they gained their confidence back. Just peachy.
"We won't let you have this ship!" Patty and Carne cried out in unison, jumping into a contraption that was connected to the main ship. "No matter the cost we will never hand it over! ...How do you use this again?"
Sanji resisted the urge to face palm. Fucking idiots. At this rate the restaurant will become a battlefield.
Sanji brushed a hand against the wall of the Baratie and memories from the past replayed in his mind. A raging storm, the cruel and cold sea, the rock, the fear, the hunger.
'I was thinking about a restaurant on the sea… If I'm saved and I make it, I'm going to bet the rest of my life on a huge floating sea restaurant.'
"Go into the control room and open the 'Fin'." Sanji instructed one of the chefs.
"You… what- the 'Fin'… you want to give the enemy an area to fight?" The chef stuttered, confused by the sudden strange request from their usually mute sous-chef. Zeff stared straight ahead at Krieg.
"Where else do we fight?" Sanji asked rhetorically, patting the blue wall fondly. "We can't let the inside of the restaurant be ruined and turned into a battlefield. These are pirates, it's going to be a bloodbath."
"Plus, the Shitty Geezer will never shut up if we fight inside and make a mess." Sanji added quietly, his fringe shadowing half of his face.
"Said something, you little shit?" Zeff asked in monotone, obviously listening from the start.
"Yeah! I said you never shut up!" Sanji answered with fake annoyance before turning his attention back to the other chef. "Go."
Mumbling a small noise of confused understanding, the chef ran off towards the control room.
"AAAARGH!" Sanji turned at the noise of several screams. Luffy had already knocked out most of the underlings and the other chefs were cheering him on. Sanji smirked and tugged on his tie, loosening it.
They mess with the Baratie; they mess with me. Sanji thought and was about to join the fight when he was suddenly stopped.
"Wait, Eggplant."
Sanji looked over at Zeff with a questioning gaze. The old chef was observing the young pirate captain fight with a strange look in his eye. "I want you to observe how he fights."
The half-fishman raised an eyebrow with confusion but nonetheless watched Luffy fight. The guy seemed to be using his strange abilities to his advantage, using the long reach to knock out more targets.
Sanji shook his head, old habits die hard, huh? Not targets, enemies.
The blonde chef continued observing the fight. It looks like the guy uses normal fighting techniques with a strange twist with his stretching abilities that should look stupid but surprisingly effective. The guy already knocked the majority of the pirates into the water and destroyed more of the already in smithereens ship.
A slight creaking noise and the surprised cries of the pirates caught Sanji's attention as he waited patiently for the 'Fin' to lift up. It was stupid really, the name. The 'Fin' was just a hidden large platform used for days when the Baratie had to host huge events like parties and weddings. Since the Baratie itself was supposed to resemble a giant fish, little ten-year-old Sanji said the platforms resembled weird fins without thinking and the name stuck. A place that has a stupid name, held parties and happy memories is going to become a battlefield. How horrifyingly lovely.
With a final bang of the platforms locking into place Sanji walked onto the now much larger space and stared head on at the sneering face of Don Krieg. Sanji contemplated for a bit before shrugging and grinned full on, startling the pirates that were closer and could see his teeth in more detail.
"Why don't we fight to our heart's content, pirates?" Sanji asked, showing off every bit of his deadly whites. Sanji noted with some satisfaction a few pirates swimming away from him in fear. Don Krieg only smiled maliciously back.
"I see, so the restaurant won't be ruined." Krieg sneered with a dangerous glint in his eye. "How very convenient for us when we take it… I might take you along with the ship and journal, you'll make an interesting possession."
Sanji recoiled in disgust. Not the first time he met someone who had worse intentions then the usual hatred he got. Some want to sell him, some want to capture him for experiments and some… are just sick.
"You're not taking anything." One of the chefs growled. "Don't underestimate us! We're fighting cooks!"
As if right on que, there was another clanking sound and the fish head that once acted as the Baratie's figurehead, suddenly detached itself from the large ship and turned into a strange contraption that was shaped like a real fish. It looked ridiculously small compared to when it was attached to the Baratie, not to mention kind of dumb looking and not intimidating at all. Just like any other form of weapon the restaurant had. All with dumb names that was made up by ten-year-old Sanji.
"Get ready! Baratie's sea weapon 'Sabagashira No.1'!" Patty screamed out from within the fish.
"Those that are afraid to die grab your shoes and run!" Carne added.
Silence. So far the only one that was impressed at all was Luffy, but he doesn't count. Everyone else was just staring at the unintimidating fish. Sanji was silently kicking his ten-year-old self in his head for giving the weapon such a dumb name.
Well, at least it makes a satisfactory weapon.
"Fire!" Patty screamed and a sudden onslaught of booms and explosions were heard. Surprised screams tore themselves from their owners' throats as they were once again jostled around in the sea. The rest of the cooks were cheering as Patty and Carne continued firing at the pirates that were desperately swimming away from the crazy chefs of Baratie. Soon Patty and Carne were aiming at Don Krieg.
"Take this, Krieg!" Patty shouted. "Behold, the power of Baratie's sea weapon!"
Schick. Boom.
Three bazookas aimed and fired, hitting Krieg square on with a blinding flash of light and explosions. Silence filled the air. Did they get him?
"O-oi! What's going on? Why aren't we moving?" Carne voice called out franticly.
Oblivious to the two confused chefs, everyone else was just staring in amazed horrification. The reason why the fish-boat wasn't moving was because Don Krieg had managed to stop the ship with a single hand. Luffy gave a low whistle at the display of power.
"I am Don Krieg." Krieg growled, veins popping on his forehead. "The man who will conquer the world's sea!"
Sanji snorted. Like the Ocean will ever heed to the likes of you.
Krieg tightened his grip on the Sabagashira. "I don't have time for games!"
With a mighty roar of rage Krieg slowly starting lifting the boat that was at least twenty times bigger than him.
"What kind of strength is this?!" Patty screamed, getting a glimpse at what was causing sea weapon to stop moving. Kreig only gave a grunt as he threw the fish over his shoulder, like a child who has lost interest in his toy, the sea weapon flew uselessly in the air… straight towards the Baratie.
"The restaurant is going to be destroyed!" One of the chefs screamed in distress and terror.
Cries of shock were heard all around, with Sanji in the midst of it all. The blonde chef calmly took out new cigarette, lit it with a small snap of his zippo, took a deep breath and…
Smack.
The sound of steel enforced shoes hitting wood sliced through the air of shocked cries. As the chefs watched in relief while the Don Krieg Pirates watched in shock there was a stupefied observation of the strength that Sanji showed.
Sanji landed with a soft thump and blew out a cloud of smoke, the Sabagashira landing with a crash into the 'Fin' beside him. Sanji tched at the damage. Oh god just how out of practice was he? That was a pathetic kick. The Sabagashira was supposed to land in the water, not on the 'Fin'. They already had enough damage repair charges to pay, no need to add more. Sanji could literally feel the old man's eyes drilling into his head, absolutely unimpressed as well. He wasn't the only one.
"Sanji, you bastard!" Patty shouted angrily, jumping out from the debris along with an equally furious Carne. Oh looks like they're unharmed. Yay.
"Are you trying to kill us?!" Carne screamed.
Sanji gave a short monotone hum of agreement as an answer.
"Don't just hum at me! I'll fucking cook you like an octopus!" Patty threatened.
"You nearly cost us a powerful weapon, you Italian Spaghetti!" Carne poked a calloused finger in Sanji's direction.
Those insults make no sense… Sanji thought before sighing and finally face palming, pointing in the direction of the pirates that have boarded the 'Fin', silently giving a universal message of 'we don't have time for arguing'.
Patty and Carne glanced in the direction of the dripping pirates and nonchalantly grabbed a weapon each.
"Yeah, yeah, we get it" They grumbled before gesturing to the other chefs. "Take out the trash first."
The last comment obviously didn't sit well with the pirates as one immediately attacked. This created a chain reaction of battle cries, sound of destroyed weapons and a pained cry of someone meeting their target. However, after a few minutes most of the chefs were down, glaring defiantly back at the remaining pirates.
"In the end fighting cooks are still cooks, there's a large difference between us." One burly pirate sneered. "Go do your cooking in some kitchen on the mainland!"
"Oi, what's wrong with you guys? Why are you going down so easily?!" Patty asked franticly.
"These pirates are different! They're nothing like the ones we fought before!" a chef answered back, spitting out a mixture of blood and spit.
Sanji bit through his cigarette. They are the Don Krieg pirates. These ones are at complete different level of what the chefs were used to. It didn't stop the bitter taste in his mouth that has nothing to do with his chewed death stick. That last comment the burly pirate made purposely dug into a wound shared by most of the chefs of the Baratie.
Sanji remembered. Every single chef introduced themselves the same way. A loud bang of a door slamming open and a boisterous shout that should sound threatening… except to Zeff and Sanji.
Patty tightened his grip on the giant knife in his hands. "We've been chefs for ten years, been fired by three hundred restaurants for fighting."
"Until we found this place! Here we can fight and cook as much as we want!" Carne added, proud smile on his face and slammed the jut of his weapon on the ground. "And I'll be damned if we even let you step even one foot in here!"
With that Patty and Carne swung into action, their two weapons quickly finishing of most of the pirates and also giving the other chefs some recovery time. Soon most chefs were back up while the pirates were either injured or standing far off. Sanji huffed. About damn time.
Just as the blond chef was about join the fight himself, a splash caught Sanji's attention. Before he knew it, both Patty and Carne were flying and landed at his feet and he heard a happy cry from the pirates. Sanji glanced down at them before looking up. Standing there at the edge of the platform was a tall guy that had a…large orb on his head? What the hell is up the plate-like metal bits covering his body? The fuck?
Why are they all weirdos?
Either way this guy had a really obnoxious laugh. Sanji felt his eyebrow twitch at the obscenities spilling from the guy's mouth. Really? One of those? Those that really need to learn that it costs literally nothing to shut the fuck up? Really?
"Hey this is a nice knife, I'll take it." Sanji glanced over and noticed a pirate trying to take Patty's paring knife from his clenched fist. A click of steel shoes on wood. "Hey let go! It's not like you gonna use it again!"
"Here's something you should know." Sanji spoke, catching the attention of the pirate for a second. Note, a second.
Sanji slammed the heel of his shoe into the pirates face, the momentum of the flying pirate knocking out three other pirates. Probably also shattered his jaw too. Oops.
"A knife is a chef's soul, worthless scum like you aren't allowed to touch it." Sanji growled, catching Patty's airborne knife with careful hands.
Sanji crouched down and placed the knife into Patty's hands. Looks like that weirdo managed to break his nose. "Here Patty, I'll take care of the rest." The tightened grip on the knife's handle was all that Sanji needed.
"Ha! You? You're just some pretty boy chef!" one of the pirates laughed. "We'll take you down just like the others! Maybe even ruin that perfect little face of yours while we're at it!"
Sanji didn't answer to the taunts. He's used to people underestimating him. Instead he leaped and kicked the laughing pirate right in the face. Before any of the other pirates could react Sanji was already on his hands spinning, legs in a perfect split and giving Sanji the satisfying sound of crunching and snapping bones every time his steel shoes and enhanced legs hit a target. Soon all pirates were down and the only one left was the weird orb guy.
"Really? All of you got taken out by kick from that lanky blonde boy? What weaklings." the weirdo snorted and looked at Sanji in the eye. "What's with you? Only using your kicks? It is some policy of yours? You're even wearing gloves."
"A chef's hands are his life." Sanji answered, leg still raised ready for the next kick. Sanji could see the weirdo's eyes widen at the sight of his teeth. "He'll never use them in battle. That's why…"
Sanji kicked at the empty air, purposely showing the guy the sole of his foot. "I'll defeat you with these feet."
"Defeat me? Impossible." The weirdo boasted. "In my last sixty-one battles I have won them all COMPLETELY unharmed. I have never spilled a single drop of blood in battle. This just shows how strong I am. That's why people call me-"
As the weirdo kept rambling Sanji could feel himself drifting off. How vain can a guy get? Sanji was about ready himself to kick the guy in the face to shut him up when a flying object caught his attention. Said object completely knocked right into the weirdo's head, effectively shutting him up and Luffy landed beside Sanji with a soft tap on the ground.
"That surprised me!" The teen exclaimed, patting himself off.
"Oh no! Pearl's bleeding!" One the pirates suddenly cried out in fear. Sanji looked up and squinted. Right there, was the smallest nosebleed he's ever seen, it was even smaller than the time when Sanji knocked his head when he younger. Nevertheless, while the pirates were freaking out the chefs just stared at the huge guy in confusion.
"What's up with him?" Luffy asked, picking at his nose. "It's just a nosebleed."
Sanji felt inclined to agree but it doesn't seem to be the case for the Don Krieg Pirates. Many panicked cries were ringing out, all in vain attempt to calm down the huge guy. Sanji's gaze hardened. The guy was acting strange; his breathing was getting more erratic and his hands seems to be shaking.
"Stop it Pearl!" Kreig voice cried out. "Don't get mad over a nosebleed!"
Sanji eyes widened.
"BODILY HARM! BODILY HARM! BODILY HARM!" The weirdo started to bang the shields in his hands rapidly together, resembling a wild gorilla in rage. Sanji lifted one of his legs in caution.
Suddenly the guy burst into flames and it looked…ridiculous. The dude literally looked just like a human fireball and was doing more harm to himself than to his enemies. The weirdo –Pearl was it? – lifted his arms up, palms facing the restaurant. Sanji's eyes narrowed. There were smaller orbs in between the guy's fingers, suspiciously the perfect size for-
"FIRE PEARL! Special Flavour!"
Sanji swiftly dodged the flaming bullets and then immediately began berating himself for the consequences. Dodging the bullets meant it would hit something else and that something else was the highly flammable wood that was attached to the Baratie. Shit!
"Owner, watch out!" A horrified voice cried out.
Sanji relaxed at that. Shitty Geezer can handle it. Now, to deal with the flame bastard.
Several screams of pain pounded in Sanji's head. Pirates were running around like headless chickens and even Luffy was running around, unsuccessfully trying to put out the fire on his clothes. Sanji stared the running pirate teen. Running around like that is just going set more fire to – you know what, never mind.
Turning his attention back to the matter at hand, Sanji glared at the raging fires around him. Great, my suit's going to get dirty again, how many times is that this month? Three? Four? People honestly have no appreciation for fine tastes at all… ugh let's just get this over and done with.
With a simple crouch, Sanji once again launched himself into the air, gracefully arching his body over the flaming walls of fire, ignoring the horrified cries and swung his leg down, fully intending on breaking more of the weirdo's dumb face.
Well something did break. One of the guy's many shields. God damnit.
The weirdo seemed rather shaken though. His eyes were wide and he looked like he was in shock, freezing and completely not moving, staring at his shattered shield in horror. Sanji landed in front of the man with a soft tap and even then the guy didn't move. Sanji tilted his head before shrugging and kicking the guy in the face.
Bastard finally snapped to attention at least, with a now even more broken nose, he rolling around slightly like a turtle with that ridiculous protective outfit of his. After a few stumbles the guy finally stood up.
"W-what the hell is wrong with this cook? How is he not afraid of my flames?" The Pearl guy asked, holding his no profusely bleeding nose.
"Idiot, how can I call myself a chef if I'm afraid of fire?" Sanji asked rhetorically, holding out his cigarette. "Thanks for the light, by the way."
"Argh what an annoying guy!" The Pearl bastard exclaimed. "Why are you so persistent?!"
Sanji didn't answer. There was a much larger problem that had his attention. A problem that was an extremely large spikey most-likely-iron-ball that was hurtling towards the restaurant and…him. Shit.
Shit, shit, shit, shit, was the mantra in Sanji's head as he assessed whether he can kick back the ball or not. Obviously he can't, not be himself at least, maybe he can kick the Pearl Bastard into the ball to…
"Hot! Hot!" A familiar voice cried out beside Sanji, who was much too distracted with piecing a two second plan in his head to notice new company.
With a shout, Luffy jumped up, his rubber arms stretched back. "Gomu-Gomu no Bazooka!"
With his rubber arms stretched taut, Luffy's arms snapped forward and with his bare hands, hit the impeding spiked doom dead in the centre, sending the giant monstrosity back to where it flew from.
He shot that spiked ball back with his bare hands? Sanji watched in awe. The ball flew across the floating debris and crashed into a mast next to Krieg. Seeing the impending doom, Sanji and Luffy quickly sidestepped out of the way. Pearl didn't. He took the full blunt of the force, the mast landing with a healthy sounding gong on the man's dumb orb hat. The man slumped over, defeated.
"That guy's an idiot." Luffy stated the obvious, staring at the twitching unconscious form of the previously so called 'Iron Wall Pearl'.
Sanji flicked away a now spent cigarette and shrugged. Eh, the guy managed to soften the landing of the mast that could have destroyed more of the Baratie, so whatever. Plus, he's finally quiet.
A familiar grunt pricked at Sanji's ears. The blonde chef turned around slowly and was greeted with the site of Gin holding a menacingly large double pistol at the Geezer's head, foot pressing the old chef down to the ground. Sanji's face went blank.
Sanji took out his Zippo and a fresh cigarette. A small snap. A deep breath. An exhale of cloudy smoke.
"This should end everything right?" Gin asked, quiet voice ringing clearly in Sanji's head.
Oooh cliffhanger! Hahaha (please don't hurt me)
As answer to last chapter's quiz! Drumroll please…
Ping-Pong! The correct answer was:
Ma Chaton – My Kitten
Congratulations to those who got it right! To the others, great job guessing! I hope you had fun with this guessing game!
The reason why Sanji calls Nami my kitten, if you recall the first chapter whenever the other chefs had questioned where he was he always answered that he met a little cat, hence officially nicknaming Nami, My Kitten. I thought it was quite a suited nickname with Cat Burglar Nami but that's just me and my logic.
Also, even though Oda came up with the names in the first place, there's no way in hell that it wasn't little ten-year-old Sanji that named the Baratie weapons and features because he did. Like come on! The freaking little fish-boat's name literally means Mackerel Head.
Till next time!
-Kagu-chan