Disclaimer: I do not own any of the anime/manga/movies/etc. that I write about; otherwise I would be a millionaire NOT writing on fanfiction publishing my own ideas.
Chapter 7
"Alright!" Luffy cheered as he held up a black tarp, "Our pirate flag is done!" The tarp was shown to have what appeared to be a Jolly Roger if said Jolly Roger was drawn left handed by a right handed four year old. The rest of the Straw Hat Pirates stared at their captain incredulously.
"That…is our symbol?" Zoro asked warily.
"Calling our captain artistically challenged would be an understatement," Usopp commented while gawking at the poorly made flag.
"Maybe it's some kind of abstract art?" Nami asked thoughtfully though you can tell she didn't believe her own words.
"A pirate's flag should be a symbol of death but this…well I guess it is terrifying in a sense," Zoro deadpanned.
"So what do you guys think?" Luffy asked while giving a smile that threatened to split his face in two.
"You're beyond terrible," Usopp groaned, "Leave the drawing to me!"
Five minutes later both Zoro and Luffy were braining Usopp over the head for his 'design,' which was a Jolly Roger with Usopp's nose sticking out and had slingshots instead of the usual crossbones. After the moment of silliness was over Usopp made the finished project of the Straw-Hat's flag, which showed a grinning Jolly Roger with a Straw Hat on top. Coming to a unanimous agreement, the crew quickly decorated their ship with the new flag and also painted the symbol on the sails before setting sail.
The crew was busy relaxing after their little Martha Stewart moment before they heard the sound of canon fire. Looking up warily they noticed their captain by the ship's cannon and was aiming it at a random rock jutting out of the sea.
"What are you doing Luffy?" Zoro asked warily, seeing as his immature captain had somehow figured out how to operate firearms.
"I'm trying to get the cannon to work, 'cause it'd be a shame to not use it. I can't seem to get it to work right, though," Luffy sighed the last part as he stared off to the area he had been aiming to hit.
"Stand aside my amateur friend and watch how a pro does it!" Usopp boasted as he strutted over to his captain. After making a few adjustments to the cannon, Usopp was able to hit the rock on the first shot! This greatly impressed Luffy (and secretly Usopp as well) and he decided to make the liar the crews honorary sniper. Usopp agreed, on the condition that he becomes captain in the event that Luffy would want to step down, to which the chimera boy agreed to reluctantly.
The next half hour involved Luffy trying to convince his crew that their next member should be the musician, to which they all flatly denied. Before the crew could further discuss the next crewmember who should join they all heard a large crash on the upper decks. Luffy ran on deck and was confronted by a man wearing ray-ban sunglasses with a tattoo on one cheek and was wielding a machete-like sword. Before he knew it, Luffy was jumping over the man's wild swing before the hat wearing captain could even ask what the big idea was. Meanwhile, Zoro was asking Nami and Usopp to evaluate the situation while the swordsman got ready to help his captain if needed.
The assailant started screaming out that he'd defeated dozens of lowlife pirates before yet a no named pirate like Luffy was able to kill his partner, much to the Animal Man's confusion. Luffy quickly jumped over the man's wild swing before grabbing him by the head and flipping him over his shoulders, causing the man's face to be acquainted with the wall. Zoro then decided to see the aftermath of the incredibly one sided fight but was shocked to find that the assailant was someone he knew!
The man's name was Johnny, and he was a bounty hunter who did some work with Zoro from time to time along with his partner Yosaku. Zoro then asked the man, after he calmed down some both due to his beating and recognizing that there were friendlies on the ship, where Yosaku was and then the man started blubbering like a five year old on how his partner had apparently fallen ill. It had started a few days ago when the other bounty hunter's health took a rapid decline and they were resting on a small island to try and recover his strength before they were assaulted by cannon fire (Luffy and Usopp started freaking out at this little tidbit of information)!
Fortunately for the ailing bounty hunter, Nami quickly recognized his symptoms as signs of scurvy, and quickly had the two idiots…I mean Luffy and Usopp pour some lime juice down the man's throat while the navigator lectured everyone aboard on how they need to be better prepared while being out at sea, to which was largely ignored by the others who just thought she was some kind of miracle worker. The bounty hunter Yosaku was quickly able to recover (much to Nami's shock) and the duo went along to properly introduce themselves. Yosaku wore clothes slightly similar to his partner; however he had a shaved head with a metal-plated headband and lacked the tattoo and sunglasses.
After introductions were out of the way, Yosaku had another bout of illness before he was sent to rest and recover. This little scare led the Straw Hats to decide that their next member needed to be a chef, in order to provide them with proper food and nutrition. Johnny came by during this discussion and recommended that they head to a 'restaurant on the seas' that he'd heard about if they were looking for a chef. Zoro's attention was further peaked when Johnny mentioned that 'that man' was rumored to have been sighted there before. Soon, the crew was sailing off to see this acclaimed restaurant.
Time Skip
It had been a few days since the crew ran into Yosaku and Johnny, when suddenly Johnny announced that they had arrived. The Straw Hats looked in awe at the floating restaurant, which truly looked like a cross between a ship and a restaurant. The main body was shaped like a restaurant, yet it had masts and a fish headed bow of a ship. On the front it read "Restaurant – Baratie." Unfortunately for our heroes, a marine ship was anchored just off to the side of the Baratie!
Suddenly, a man came on deck at the marine vessel. The man was blond and wore a striped suit and had, curiously enough, brass knuckles that seemed to be screwed onto his hand (seriously, what is it with high-ranking marines and self-mutilation?). The man introduced himself as Lieutenant "Iron Fist" Fullbody, and mentioned that he had never seen that pirate flag before, and then he demanded to speak with the captain. Luffy stepped forward and introduced himself before claiming that they just finished the flag the day before yesterday, to which Yosaku and Johnny seemed to find funny because there was no way such strong pirates were just a bunch of rookies (aren't THEY in for a surprise!).
Fullbody then turned to the two bounty hunters and idly commented on how he'd seen the two at collection offices before and how the two seemed to be finally caught by pirates. The duo, not liking being looked down on like that, got ready to attack the preppy jerk. After what could only be considered a joke of a match, Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber found themselves flat on their backs with their faces a bloody pulp. The marine lieutenant then stated that the pirates were lucky he was on a break today to eat at the restaurant, but the next time they meet they should consider their lives forfeit.
Nami was momentarily distracted by a wanted poster that fell out of Johnny's pocket, when Usopp cried franticly that the marine ship was aiming their cannons at them! Luffy jumped in the way of the incoming projectile and cried out, "Leave everything to me!" before shifting to his monkey form and caught the ball bare handed, much to Yosaku, Johnny, and Usopp's shock. The Animal Man then used his momentum to swing the cannonball back in the marines' general direction with a cry of "Monkey Hammer Throw!" Unfortunately, Luffy overthrew the shot and ended up blowing up a portion of the Baratie's roof instead!
"WHO ARE YOU AIMING AT, IDIOT?!" Zoro shouted at his now human captain, who was in shock at how epically he failed at his counterattack.
Time Skip
Luffy was dragged into the head chef's office by two surely looking cooks and his reaction was instantaneous when he saw the man, who had apparently been wounded during the 'attack'. The chef, whose name was Zeff, was a sour looking man who had a braided mustache and a goatee, and had on an incredibly tall hat on his head and…
"WAAAH! I blew off your leg! I'm so SORRY!" Luffy screamed as he saw the man's peg leg, which had quite obviously been there for a while. After being told that the leg had been lost long ago, Luffy quickly relaxed a bit. This changed with what the head chef said next.
"ONE YEAR?!" Luffy blurted out after finding out the amount of time it would take for him to pay off the damages done to the restaurant, seeing as he had no money to speak of. The pirate captain tried to haggle with the surly chef, which just earned him a drop kick to the face. Luffy still proceeded to try lowering the amount of work to one week, but then Zeff got a dangerous look in his eyes.
"You know, there is a way you can leave here earlier," he said with a straight face before pulling out a hacksaw from…somewhere and said with a maniacal grin, "YOU JUST HAVE TO LEAVE ONE OF YOUR LEGS BEHIND!" and with that, the deranged lunatic jumped at the poor dimwit, causing the floor under them to give out. The two landed in the middle of the dining room, much to the inhabitants' shock.
After Zeff was able to pull himself out of the tangled mess of limbs he found himself in (and quickly blaming Luffy for the newly acquired hole in the ceiling, even if it was technically his own fault), he quickly went over to investigate a disturbance in the dining area. Apparently, the assistant head chef, Sanji, had been involved in a disagreement with the marine lieutenant the Straw Hats met earlier. And by 'disagreement', I mean he literally kicked the tar out of the man for wasting food and for generally being an unpleasant human being. Sanji was a man around Zoro's age with a crisp suit on and had blond hair that covered his left eye but showed his right that had a curiously swirly eyebrow, and he seemed to constantly have a lit cigarette in his mouth.
Another chef named Patty, who looked like a flaky version of Popeye, asked Zeff if he could reason with Sanji before he tried to kill another customer. Zeff, in an irritated manner, proceeded to kick both Sanji and Fullbody in the head for causing a scene. An argument quickly developed between the 3 cooks before a bloodied marine came barging in and saying, "Lieutenant Fullbody sir! Forgive me but the prisoner escaped!"
"This place is too noisy~" whined Luffy as he covered up his animal-enhanced ears.
Fullbody proceeded to spout off on how that was impossible, that the man who was a member of the Krieg Pirates was half dead when they caught him and hadn't eaten since then and blah, blah, blah. Suddenly, the bearer of bad news was struck from behind and a man calmly walked in and took a seat at a table. The man looked like he had seen better days, with baggy eyes, a scruffy beard, and dirtied clothes, he looked like he had one foot in the grave already but something about him screamed 'dangerous.' The man idly looked at the assembled chef's and demanded something to eat.
Patty suddenly came forward and said with a pleasant smile, "Welcome, you squid-faced moron!" much to the other customers' shock, "Excuse me, idiot, but do you happen to have any money?" to which the pirate pointed a pistol at the man's head and asked, "Do you take lead?"
Patty calmly said, "So you don't have money then?" before proceeding to punch the man straight through the table he was sitting at, much to the marine's shock and Zeff's ire, seeing as Patty broke another table.
The beefy looking chef then proceeded to kick the starved pirate out, saying that if he couldn't pay then he wasn't a customer, and the other restaurant patrons cheered while Sanji looked thoughtful.
Luffy later came upon an interesting scene; apparently Sanji had given the pirate food, despite his lack of funds. The chimera man gave a toothy grin, as he 'found a good cook.'
The newbie captain then joined in on the two and started a conversation. Luffy learned through Sanji that Zeff himself used to be a pirate before he opened the Baratie and the chefs that joined were as tough as any man you'd find on a pirate crew. It turns out the waiters had to quit a few days ago due to the constant brawls the chefs would get into with pirates. It was then Luffy's turn to ask Sanji if the blond would become a member of his crew, but the man denied his request saying that he had his reasons for staying with the restaurant, but Luffy ignored this and continued to pester him about joining his crew. The pirate, whose name was Gin of the Don Krieg Pirates, then butted into the heated argument, asking Luffy what his objective as a pirate is. Luffy answered with a large grin that he was going to the Grand Line to find One Piece and become the king of the pirates.
Gin gained a serious expression and stated, "Seeing as you don't have a cook yet, I'm guessing you don't have a large crew yet, huh?"
"Counting this guy there'll be 5 of us!" Luffy happily chirped while pointing to Sanji, much to the chef's chagrin.
"You seem like a decent enough guy so let me give you advice," Gin cut in before another argument between the two could ignite, "Give up on going to the Grand Line. You're still young, so there's no need to rush into things. The Grand Line is only one part of the ocean, there are plenty other places you can sail to." The sickly looking man said in all seriousness.
Luffy asked the man if he knew something about the Grand Line, to which he replied, "No…I don't know anything, and that's what makes it so terrifying," he said while trembling a little. Sanji then noted that for a member of the Krieg Pirates was acting like a scaredy cat and Luffy asked who Krieg was. Apparently, Don Krieg was considered one of the strongest pirates in the East Blue, and was reported to command 50 ships that housed over 5,000 men.
After chatting for a bit longer, Gin got into a small dingy and was getting ready to set sail, wishing Luffy luck on his voyage and gave his deepest gratitude to Sanji for saving his life. Suddenly, Zeff appeared on deck calling for them to get back to work and Sanji, after getting rid of the evidence of Gin's free meal, waved the man goodbye as he sailed off with his head bowed in thanks. Luffy then put on an apron and got ready to start his temporary career as an errand boy for the Baratie.
Little did he know, that things were about to get really interesting very soon!
AN: I won't make excuses, but hopefully with finals over and done with I'll have a bit more time to focus on my stories (whenever I'm not working, that is). So this was mainly a filler chapter, but it'll get much better next time with both the introduction of a certain swordsman and pirate captain next chapter. The fight will have some major improvements from canon I hope, and I also hope you enjoy my work so far! Please stay faithful, my loyal readers, as I hope to give you the best reading experience I can offer. Thanks so much to everyone who has favorited and followed my stories, as well as reviewed and PM'd me. Jealous Fox is up next on the agenda, so keep your eyes peeled! In the event I can't get another chapter up by Christmas, have a Holly Jolly one boys and girls! 'til next time my minions, please Read and Review!