Chapter 6 v2
Omen
Eli stayed in Fuschia Village for two years after Ace's departure. First, she wanted to save money to repay for Joku's kindness. After all, it was him who brought her to this new and wonderful life. The girl had also planned to save some money and buy herself a nice boat. Within the years spent in their company, it seemed that the two brothers' dream passed onto her; impatient, she wanted sail single-handed through East Blue.
Before leaving for her own adventures, Eli made a promise with Luffy; after his seventeenth birthday, they would meet again in Loguetown and she will join his crew.
The eighteen year old girl took her leave in January, from the very same coast where Ace had said his goodbye two years before. For the first time since her arrival on Fuschia, Eli sailed alone upon the waves, the island slowly shrinking in the horizon, and in her mind, she treasured the smiling faces of her friends, her family.
For months, Eli traveled through East Blue. Her sole purpose was the discovery of this new world, and so, the girl stopped at each passing island. She wanted to learn about their stories, their peoples and write her encounters in her book.
It was a new hobby of hers. Ever since she started her journey, the lone sailor wanted to write a book about her adventures. It wasn't really exciting, mainly sketches of the beautiful sceneries she went by, tales and legends she heard, or just a listing of her everyday life. But after all it was rather a warm up until her real adventure on Grand Line with Luffy would began.
Since she had not proclaimed herself as a pirate, neither the marines nor the bounty hunters chased the girl. In the end, the only ones that really bothered her were other pirates. Whenever she came by one of their ships, they almost always annoyed her into joining their crew or just 'having fun'. Fortunately, Eli's boat was faster, and so, she could get away from them rather quickly.
This once again happened about a year after she left Fuschia.
Eli was on her way to visit the Baratie. It was a restaurant famous from all over East Blue. The food there was said to be exquisite, but the thing that drawn the girl to the establishment was a different other and quite interesting fact; the owner was said to be a former pirate and so were all of his employees.
The Baratie was in sight and Eli's mouth was already drooling a little out of impatience as she imagined the delicious meal that would soon fill her hungry stomach, when the sole sailor heard cries from behind her.
Looking over her shoulder, she found herself rolling her eyes as she saw a pirate ship following her. With an annoyed sigh, Eli turned her gaze back to the floating restaurant. It was fairly large, and very colorful. The ship had a fish figurehead and overall, the establishment was very pretty and welcoming.
"Oi lass," the pirates yelled from behind her. "Don't ignore us !"
A heavy glare on her face, Eli turned around. "You're so annoying..."
"Are you sure it's a girl ?" one of the pirates asked his crewmates and already, Eli felt her annoyance turning into rage.
"Go to hell shitty pirates !" she snarled and disembarked briskly.
"Oi ! She insults us Captain !"
Tying her boat to the dock, Eli huffed scornfully; pirates could be so childish sometimes.
"Sink her tiny raft !" the captain ordered.
Upon hearing the threat, the girl's head snapped toward the ship. The pirates were loading a cannon and soon aimed for her little boat.
A loud explosion ran through the air and Eli jumped in the direction of the cannonball. With a swift kick, she deflected the projectile easily and landed on her boat with a thud. Disdain painted across her face, she blasted the pirates with a scornful glare .
Her assailants, however, weren't looking at her, and following their gazes, dread washed over the girl. Eli winced upon hearing a loud crashing sound as the cannonball crashed through the roof of the Baratie.
Damn...
As Eli scratched her head to find a solution to her dilemma, a nice solution popped in her mind; the pirates should pay for the damages, or a least face the owner of the restaurant. After all, it was their stupid cannonball.
The girl turned around and blinked rapidly as she watched the pirate ship. A tumult raising from its deck, she soon saw the gutless crew fleeing the crime scene.
"Sissies..." she muttered.
For a moment the girl wondered if she should do the same, but a responsible part of her caused guilt to grip on her guts and the girl found herself climbing on the restaurant's roof. Maybe the projectile had hurt someone and so she just couldn't flee like a coward.
Taking a closer look at the damages the cannonball had caused, Eli's chewed her bottom lip; the hole was huge, however, as she looked inside, her distress dispersed a little. It seemed that the ball had crashed in a bedroom and, fortunately, it was empty.
The girl let out a soft sigh of relief but had yet to taste her easement as a man entered the room. Heavy footfalls resonating in her ears as well as in the bedroom, Eli jumped inside to avoid chunks of wood fall from the hole.
The man came to a stop in front of her, anxiousness making Eli swallow hard though her tightened throat. He was an elderly looking man, but not decrepit. The first thing that caught the girl's attention was a very, very, tall chef cap. With a hat like this, Eli assumed that the man was the head chef of the restaurant. It was so tall that it almost brushed the ceiling... Snapping out of her daze of the towering headgear, she focused on his face; he had two braided blond mustaches which might have brought a smile to her lips if the man wasn't wearing a furious glare as he looked at the sheepish girl.
"You did this ?" the man asked angrily.
"Well... technically, I am not the cause of this..." Eli said, guilt hidden behind her composure.
The man narrowed his eyes, peering deeply in her green orbs.
"But I guess I did.. yes," she said obviously sorry and, inwardly, the girl cursed her lack of aiming abilities.
"Well young lady, you have to pay for the damages," he said harshly walking toward the girl.
With a swift and powerful kick, the chief threw the cannonball through hole and into the ocean. Her mouth slightly agape, Eli was impressed. That was then that she noticed; he had a wooden leg. He had a wooden leg and in spite of that, the man's aim was perfect and even though the cannonball was really heavy, he had shot it further that any cannon would have.
"I would, I really would," she said, taking a hold of herself. "But you see, I don't have money."
"Then you'll have to work here for a year." The chef folded his arms apparently not planning on taking back his 'offer'.
"A whole year ?" Eli whined. "I can't ! I made a promise to a friend that I'll meet with him again in six months."
With her words, the memory of her promise to Luffy came back in her mind. A smile on her face, she thought that, soon, she will see him again and then her real adventure would start.
The man cleared his throat loudly, snapping the girl out of her rêverie.
"We'll see," he said, his voice was more calm as he spoke. "If you work hard enough I could consider releasing you sooner."
Relieved, Eli grinned, the cook didn't seem so scary after all.
"Thank you very much, sir," she said and bowed briskly.
The man presented himself; his name was Zeff and, just as she thought, he was the owner of the restaurant. After a short introduction, he escorted her down the stairs to the kitchen and presented the girl to the rest of the staff. They were all former pirates. Rather large and muscular, they all wore the same white uniform and chef caps, much smaller ones than Zeff's, of course.
"Nice to met you all." Eli put a nice smile on her face as she looked at the cooks. "I'm Elisabeth but please call me Eli."
Zeff named the entire cook staff one by one; Patty, Ragia, Meco, Carne,... but his enumeration came to a stop as a young man made his way through the crowd. Eli looked at Zeff questioningly as she saw him rubbing his forehead, a frown of annoyance on his face.
"And this is Sanji..." said Zeff, irritation in his voice.
Eli turned her gaze to said man; he was young, around her own age maybe. Rather classy, he wore a black suit. A large lock of blond hair was hiding the left half of his face and he had the most swirly eyebrow she had ever seen.
As she was observing him silently, Eli saw that the young man was checking her out quite outrageously. His dark blue eye glided upon her body from hair to toes, really taking his time as he looked at her long legs.
Her brows going up on her forehead, the girl was slightly surprised at the young man's behavior. Never had she felt so scrutinized by a man's eyes, it almost felt as if he was undressing her in his mind.
"My dear Elisabeth !" Sanji finally said, taking the girl's hand in his. "I feel so lucky that such a goddess has crossed my path today."
His blue eyes were deeply looking into hers and Eli blinked rapidly. Goddess...? That was... new. The girl was used to being mistaken for a boy, but never had she been called a goddess before. The young man's eyes morphed into hearts and Eli found herself chuckling lightly.
This was going to be fun.
"Do you really mean it, Sanji ?" Eli sighed and looked away.
"But of course my lovely mademoiselle." He laid a soft kiss on her hand.
Eli let herself fall into his arms, obviously enjoying her little drama queen act. "Oh Sanji, take me with you. I'll follow you anywhere," she said, looking up at him with watery eyes.
Apparently, this was too much to cope up with for the womanizer. Sanji put the girl in the standing position and walked away dizzily. Eli and the kitchen's staff burst out in laughter as soon as he closed the door behind him.
Eli's job at the Baratie was quite different from working in the Party's Bar. The food was definitely more fancy and so were the clients. The waitress had to seat them, give them a hot towel, and be extremely polite no matter how disrespectful they might be. However, even though she managed to deal with tact and restraints with this sort of customers, behind her back, one of the cooks would always teach them a lesson before throwing them out of the establishment.
Behind their gruff manners, the former pirates had a soft and endearing side, and Eli got easily attach to them.
In their company, the days and weeks passed by rapidly. In the end, the lone sailor was really happy she had kicked that cannonball in the floating restaurant. The cooks were fun to hang with, the food was absolutely delicious, and free, and after only a few days of begging and whining the girl had managed to make Zeff agreeing into teaching her some kicking techniques.
One day after the night shift, the staff decided to play poker. Eli had seen them doing it occasionally. It was an amusing scene to watch. Even though not much money was at stake, they almost always end up fighting against each other.
This time, however, Eli decided to join the fun.
"Have you ever played poker, Elisabeth ?" Sanji asked looking at he girl with his famous loving eyes.
"I have, though I'm not very good" Eli sat herself at the table.
The cooks laughed, saying that any girl would be able to fleece Sanji and Carne dealt the cards to the players.
As she watched her hand, the joyous smile that was brightening her face faltered. Speechlessly, Eli stared at her cards, while an invisible hand clawed on her insides. Fear washing over her, the girl clutched the cards in her hands and ran outside of the restaurant, Sanji following her on the spot.
"What's wrong Elisabeth ?"
Fear thudding in her ears, Eli barely heard her friend. She was staring desperately at the ocean, as if she was looking for something in the distance, knowing all the while that what she was looking for was out of sight, out of reach.
"You'd better be okay Freckles..." she muttered.
Distress stirring in her jade eyes, the girl looked absently at the creased cards in her hands; she had a quad, four aces...
to be continued
This chapter has been revised.
The five first chapters will be entirely rewritten (some events will change) but it'll take a bit more time than a quick revision.
Since it was easier (and obviously needed) I took care of this one first :)