Chimera Luffy

by mellra

What if Luffy ate a different Devil's Fruit as a child? Not just any fruit, but the most powerful of the Zoan fruits, the Chimera-Chimera Fruit. It is a legendary Zoan fruit that allows the user to take on the forms of any Zoan fruit users, as well a true form as the mythical chimera. How will this change the course of the One Piece world? Pairing most likely Luffy/Boa Hancock, but

8. Chapter 8

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 8

"PIRATES!" was the shout that echoed through the Baratie a few days after Luffy became the chore boy for the sailing restaurant. Let's just say, that whoever thinks letting Monkey D. Luffy work any kind of stable job as a good idea should be dragged into the middle of the street and repeatedly hit with a trout. He broke dishes when asked to wash them, never got orders right as a server, lazed around until he was yelled at, etc. It was getting to the point where Chef Zeff was almost ready to start pulling his hair out and wonder if he'd be able to MAKE money by letting Luffy go. Meanwhile, the animal man had continuously begged the assistant head chef Sanji to join his crew, causing the blond smoker to send him flying back with a kick to the face every…single…time. Luffy did learn a good trick though: when none of the other chefs were looking, Luffy would transform himself into a little puppy (similar to ChouChou with black fur) and would beg for food at some of the tables before he was missed, earning himself plenty of pets and scraps of food from customers who commented how adorable the floating restaurant's pet was, much to the other chef's confusion.

Back to the present, the pirate Don Krieg's ship appeared in the distance. At first, the chefs and the customers were terrified at the idea of getting into a fight with Don Krieg. However, what they saw was anything but a dangerous pirate. The enormous ship looked like it had seen one too many storms and it looked ready to sink at any moment. The men on board were barely alive, looking thin and starved… and when Krieg finally appeared, he was too weak to stand on his own feet and had to be assisted by Gin.

Krieg was an enormous man with short cut gray hair and long sideburns, with a thick gauze wrapped around his head. The most notable aspect of Krieg's appearance is his golden wootz steel armor that was made up of a chest plate, shoulder guards, and elbow guards, and it all seemed to be fur-lined.

With a great effort, Krieg made it to the deck and began asking for food before he fell to the floor. Gin begged them all to help his Captain, but some members, like Patty, laughed at that. Gin continued to beg, saying that they could pay so they were customers. The rest of the cooks refused, knowing all about Krieg's dirty reputation. Krieg was then bowing his head and begging for food as well and Gin was trying to stop him, tears in his eyes.

But the Straw Hats, who were staying with their captain till he figured a way out of his dilemma (and to constantly make fun of him), all knew that there was someone who was listening. Sanji had come in with a large bowl of food and actually kicked Patty out of his way—who couldn't believe what he was doing. But as Krieg eats, another chef by the name of Carne told Sanji and the rest of them about all the horrible things that Krieg had done over the years.

And it was soon clear that he lived up to his reputation; for once Krieg had finished eating, he attacked Sanji and even Gin was shocked at what he was doing. Krieg even went as far to injure Gin's shoulder as the rest of the customers went screaming out of the restaurant in panic.

Krieg glanced around at the restaurant and stated that he liked it. He said that the second reason he had come here was so that they could take the restaurant. His old ship would soon sink and he wanted the Baratie as his new vessel. He then demanded that they serve food for the rest of his crew.

Predictably, they all refused and ready to fight. Krieg laughed as he yelled at them that he wasn't ordering anything—but that he was giving them all an order. And no one had ever disobeyed him before and lived to tell the tale.

Holding onto his hurt shoulder, Gin apologized to Sanji, saying that he didn't think that Krieg would do this.

Sanji stood up and was actually heading back to the kitchen and the rest of the cooks were horrified and shocked when he said that he was gonna start cooking. The cooks, who each had giant knives and forks, were now pointing their weapons at Sanji ready to fight him if he set foot in that kitchen. He then explained as to why he is giving them food, how he was a cook and it was his one job, but was then smashed to the ground by Patty, who then turned a cannon on Krieg and attacked—asking him if he wanted 'dessert'.

Krieg complained how awful the dessert was and then pulled out a private arsenal of weapons and began firing on them all as he screamed out why he was the strongest.

But before Krieg could get into another rant, Zeff almost knocked Luffy off the stairs as he had a giant sack with enough food for a hundred people, which shock the chefs. However, upon hearing Zeff's name, Krieg's jaw fell open in horror and he was gaping at Zeff.

Zeff turn and looked like he wanted to leave the room. The rest of the cooks were all demanding to know what he was thinking for feeding them… about how they'd lose their ship for sure if the pirates got their strength back.

"That would be true," Zeff answered coolly, but not sounding at all worried, "If they still had the will to fight," much to the other chefs' confusion. "Tell me…" Zeff went on as he looked back at Krieg. "Did your will survive defeat?"

The words slowly dawned on them all. That Don Krieg had run away from the Grand Line and now they were all staring up at him… his face replaced with a very ugly look. But he never stopped staring at Zeff as Gin cowered by his side.

Krieg then told the story about Red Leg Zeff: the once famous pirate who was both chef and captain, and that it was his ability to kick that gave him his name. How he could smash bedrock and even leave footprints on steel… the nickname 'Red Leg' or even just 'Red Foot' came from the blood of his enemies.

Krieg also stated that Zeff was supposed to have died in an accident years ago, but he realized that he had only lost a leg which made him unable to fight anymore and forced him to retire as a chef of a restaurant… how he was now defenseless.

But Zeff didn't show any fear as he continued to look at them with a bored expression.

"I don't need to fight anymore," he said coolly, as he held up his hands, "I'm a cook. As long as I have my two hands I'll be fine. Now enough chit-chat. What do you want from me?"

The restaurant and Zeff's logbook was what the villain wanted. Since Zeff once went in the Grand Line and returned safely, Krieg said that he wanted the journal written at that time. Naturally, Zeff refused. Krieg said that he'll then take it by force. He stated that Zeff's journal will give him the information he lacked when he first tried to enter the Grand Line, eventually making him the King, this leads to a funny scene with Luffy stating in front of everyone that he will be the one to be the Pirate King.

The other chefs told him to back off but Luffy wouldn't listen as Krieg snarled.

"This isn't a game," he said to him.

"Yeah, I know," Luffy said confidently, his eyes slightly becoming feral slits, "But still… I'm gonna conquer the Grand Line."

His words just seemed to tick Krieg off. "NO YOU WON'T! It's true we didn't have the information we needed but my fleet of five thousand men were wiped out in just seven days you brat! That place is a nightmare!"

Most of the people in the restaurant were stunned to hear that and when Krieg was about to fight, Zoro and Usopp made their presence known. Krieg saw them and mocked Luffy for having a tiny crew.

"Well, that's not all!" Luffy said, holding up two fingers as his eyes went back to normal. "I've got two more!"

"I'm not a part of your crew!" Sanji yelled in the background.

Krieg then took the food and went to go feed his crew, giving them all a choice. He was taking the restaurant one way or the other and their only options were to flee with their lives or to stay where they were and die. They had until they finished eating to make up their minds.

"I'm so sorry for this Sanji," Gin said, and he truly sounded like he meant it, "I never thought it would be this way."

"You have nothing to apologize for sailor," Zeff said in an unusually kind voice as everyone looked to him. "Every cook at this restaurant did what he thought was right," he finished. "That's all there is to say about that."

"But Boss!" Patty yelled, sounding outraged, "Why are you acting like you're taking Sanji's side? This mess is his fault!"

As the other cooks tried to speak up to that as well, Zeff lost his temper. "YOU FOOLS DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!"

Everyone was a little shocked at the sudden anger in his tone as he explained, "None of you have any idea 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 terrifying prospect that is. It's the most difficult situation a man can ever face."

"What?" Patty said, sounding lost. "I don't know what you're talking about Chef Zeff…"

Zeff looked over at them all, a strange expression in his eyes, "The difference between all of you and Sanji… is that Sanji knows…"

The chefs all looked completely lost at those words, but they weren't the only ones. The Straw Hats looked thoughtfully at the blond chef.

"If all you're gonna do is stand around grumbling," Zeff went on, a hard look on his face. "Then leave this place! And never come back!"

Not a single one of them moved. They all held up their weapons, ready to fight, they had decided to protect the Baratie, since it is the only place where they were accepted.

Gin screamed at them to please leave—that they had no idea who they were up against. But Sanji walked forwards, moving one of the tables up and explaining that now that he fed them, he can beat them all… and he said all this with a terrifying expression on his face.

"Hey Gin!" Luffy suddenly called out, "You said you don't know anything about the Grand Line! I thought you'd been there! Doesn't make any sense."

So Gin told them all what happened. How on the seventh day of their voyage through the Grand Line, their entire fleet was almost annihilated… he spoke it all as if reliving a terrifying nightmare.

"For that entire fifty ship fleet… to be completely eradicated by a single man…?" he gasped as everyone stared at him, choking in horror at what they were hearing.

Gin explained about how as soon as this man appeared he began to slice apart the entire fleet… and how, if not for a freak storm, the flagship would've been sunk as well. "It all seems like a terrible nightmare burned into my memory!" Gin cried out shaking in fear, his hands on his face, as if he hoped to claw out those images. "I just want to forget… his eyes… they were like a hawks! Sharp and murderous! His gaze alone felt like the cold hands of death!"

On the stairs, Zoro gripped the railing tightly as he stared at him, eyes wide.

"Well then," Zeff said as they all turned back to him. "That can only be the one known as Hawk-Eye." Gin looked fearful that Zeff recognized who it had been. "Your description of his heartless gaze isn't proof of his identify in and of itself… but the way he so easily decimated your fleet confirms without a doubt that it's him."

"Hawk-Eye Mihawk…" Zoro repeated softly.

Luffy looked up at him. "You know him Zoro?" he asked curiously.

Remembering the matter at hand, he took several calming breaths as he answered Luffy's question. "Yes, I do…" he admitted, "He's the man I've been looking for. He's the whole reason I set out to sea."

Luffy blinked up at him as Sanji asked Gin if Mihawk had some kind of a score to settle with them for him to go out and sink all his ships.

"We didn't do anything to him!" Gin cried back to him.

Zeff had an interesting suggestion. "Perhaps you disturbed him during a nap?"

"STUPID COOK!" Gin yelled in fury, "WHY WOULD HE DESTROY AN ENTIRE FLEET FOR SOMETHING SO TRIVIAL?!"

Zeff smirked at Gin's fear. "There's no reason to shout," he said coolly, as if telling a child to off for being too loud. "It's just an example. I thought you'd like a little friendly advice on what kind of place the Grand Line is."

Usopp gulped. "And what kind of place is that?" he asked in a croak.

Zoro was the one who answered, "He probably means that anything can happen there."

Usopp on the other hand now had tears of fear in his eyes. "HEY LUFFY! DO WE REALLY, REALLY HAVE TO GO THERE?" he yelled at Luffy who was shaking at the foot of the stairs. "Luffy?" he gasped.

But their Captain was smiling as he cried out, "THAT'S SO AWESOME! THIS IS GONNA BE SUCH A BLAST!"

"Don't you understand the concept of danger?!" Usopp demanded loudly.

"Finally," Zoro said softly. "My life's goal will be achieved on the Grand Line."

"What?" Usopp gasped up at him.

Zoro leaned up against the wall with a similar satisfied smirk. "My rival… is out there somewhere and I'm gonna find him."

Sanji looked up at him and asked, "Are you that stupid? It's idiots like you guys who end up dead."

"That may be true," Zoro said as Sanji looked back at him, "But lay off the name calling. I devoted my entire life to becoming the world's greatest swordsman. It was my choice so I'm the only one who gets to call me stupid."

Just then, outside they could hear the sounds of battle cries and knew that their time was up. The Krieg Pirates were all ready to go again. But then something happened… just when they start to attack the restaurant, the great galleon was suddenly cut in half creating a lot of disbelief on everyone's faces and even a mini tsunami. Everyone was rocked around inside the restaurant and they were all trying to find something to hold onto. Zeff ordered them to raise the anchor before the ship sank in the waves… while the three Straw Hats all went running outside to where Nami and the guys were on the Merry.

They followed them and they found Yosaku and Johnny floundering in the sea. They explained that Nami took the treasure and ship and left.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY!?" Luffy, Zoro, and Usopp yelled together in panic.

They heaved the two men onto deck as they told them the story of how Nami tricked them and took off with the Merry.

Then Zoro lost his temper. He punched the side of the restaurant. "Curse it!" he yelled, "She just had to make a bad situation worse!"

Usopp was looking angrier than they had seen him in a long time. "The heartless thief!" he yelled, "Kaya gave us that ship!"

Luffy jumped up onto the railing and searched over the sea to try and get a glimpse of the ship. "Wait!" he called, "I see a ship! It's the Going Merry!" He turned towards Yosaku and Johnny. "Tell me where your boat is!"

"We have it moored to the restaurant," Yosaku said at once.

"Zoro, Usopp, don't just stand there!" Luffy ordered, turning to them all, "Take their ship and go get Nami!"

"Calm down," Zoro stated, as if he could care less. "Let her keep the ship. Trust me, that woman's way more trouble than she's worth."

Luffy frowned at him. "She's the only one I'll accept as the ship's navigator," he said firmly, and it was clear from this tone that he wasn't going to change his mind.

Zoro threw Luffy an aggravated look. For a moment, there was a nasty moment of thinking that he would actually refuse… but he then sighed.

"Fine! I'll do it!" Zoro snapped in frustration, though it was clear that he wasn't happy about it. "You're one high maintenance Captain, you know that?"

"The ship's ready for action Big Bro Zoro!" Johnny and Yosaku yelled together; once again, showing that these two were really two peas in a pod.

"Hey, what about you?" Zoro asked, looking at Luffy.

"I should probably stick around here till I get things settled with the restaurant," Luffy said, jerking his thumb at the building, "You know what I mean?"

"Well, be careful," the swordsman warned, a slight trace of worry in his face, "The situation here could get really bad really fast."

Luffy nodded, "Yeah, got that right."

Just then they heard shouts coming from the floating pieces of the remains of Krieg's ship.

"Over there! It's that man!"

"He came back!"

"Don Krieg, the man who destroyed our fleet is back!" someone's voice screamed out above all the others, "What are we gonna do?!"

That got everyone, Zoro's especially, attention. They were all focused on a boat that was sailing towards them… as soon as they saw it, even Zeff's cool disappeared as he watched looked up, his eyes wide, "That man is…?"

And there, through the dust from the attack that destroyed the ship, the form of a single man slowly appeared. Zoro was shaking, sweat pouring down his face. On a small raft that was lit with several candles with eerily green flames—that looked as though something to fetch you from the netherworld. Some of them shivered at the sight of it… but their eyes were drawn directly to the man sitting in the boat.

He was a tall and lean man with a short beard, moustache and sideburns that point upwards. His clothing was made of a wide-brimmed black hat decorated with a large plume, and a long, open black coat with no shirt underneath, with red, flower-patterned sleeves and collar. There was a small, golden cross-shaped necklace hanging around his neck and a large, black sword on his back. It had a beautifully curved black blade, in the shape of a cross, and with a golden hand guard decorated by blue and green jewels, and a hilt wrapped in bandages, with a particularly big jewel at its edge.

But underneath the hat they could see his eyes… cold yellow eyes that resembled a hawk that was hunting its prey.

The Krieg Pirates were all so full of fear that they couldn't move and were shaking in their boots as Mihawk sailed by them.

"That psycho followed us back here!"

"He's gonna kill us all!"

Luffy stepped forward when he noticed that Zoro had frozen. "Zoro, who's that?" he asked him as he glanced towards Mihawk.

"The man I've been looking for," Zoro confessed as he watched his rival sail closer. "Hawk-Eye Mihawk…"

"So that's… Mihawk," Luffy said seriously. He could sense the power inside Mihawk…his animal instincts were screaming at him just how dangerous this man was.

"Yeah, the greatest swordsman," Zoro said as he kept his eyes trailed on him. Zeff, Patty, and Carne were only a little ways away and were talking about him as well.

"That's gotta be the guy who destroyed Krieg's fleet," Patty said nervously, "He sunk fifty battleships out on the Grand Line all by himself."

"Looks like he came back to finish the job," Carne said anxiously, "But is that all he wants?"

"Wait a minute," another chef said from behind them, "He looks like any ordinary man. He doesn't even look like he has any special weapons with him."

"He carries his weapon on his back," Zeff explained and they stared at him in disbelief.

"That's impossible!" Patty cried out in incredulity.

"He couldn't have destroyed a galleon like that using nothing but a sword!" Carne cried in agreement.

Zeff just stood there with his arms folded. "Hawk-Eye Mihawk is a true master. He is without a doubt the greatest swordsman in the world." Here, Zoro was looking nervous, but excited at the same time… a wild grin appeared as he put his hand on the white blade. He was gonna fight… he was willing to fight Mihawk for his title… or die trying…

"You… you monster!" one of the Krieg Pirates yelled in a trembling voice, "Why are you doing this to us?! What did we ever do to you!?"

Mihawk glanced up at him in uninterested away, as if speaking was a waste of energy, "Just killing time."

"Just killing time?!" another pirate cried out as he pulled out a pair of pistols and shot at him. But with the grace of a swan, he twisted his wrist very slightly… and just like that the two bullets were deflected and their courses were changed.

"W-what, I missed!?" the pirate cried out, not believing it, "But I aim straight for him!"

"He diverted it," said Zoro's voice, appearing behind the pirate and making him jump. "He changed the course of the bullet with the tip of his sword."

"That can't be!" the pirate said in disbelief as Zoro coolly walked passed them all, one hand on his swords, which caught the attention of the other pirates as the first demanded to know who Zoro was.

"He's got three swords! It couldn't be…?" another pirate gasped, looking up to his face.

But that Zoro didn't pay them any attention as he turned his full attention to Hawk-Eye. "I've never seen a sword handled so gently or with such grace," he said truthfully.

Hawk-Eye's eyes looked over at him without even turning his head as he casually replied, "There is no strength in swordplay based on force."

"Did you also use that sword to slice up this ship?" Zoro continued on, though it was clear from the wild, excited look on his face that he already knew the answer.

"I did," Mihawk answered, as if telling him that what he did was something that anyone could do.

"Then its true…" he asked, still looking like a child who was promised a big treat, "You're the best!"

He went to his black bandana and untied it from his arm. "I set sail for only one reason. To meet you."

"And what is your goal?" Mihawk asked with only a slight trace of curiosity in his tone.

"To beat you!" exclaimed Zoro, still grinning wildly as he tied his bandana on.

Mihawk smirked at him, "How foolish."

Zoro then out the white blade and declared, "You got spare time! So let's do this!"

The Krieg Pirates, as well as all the cooks, all suddenly realized who Zoro was.

Don Krieg was watching the two with great interest. "Really? It's the pirate hunter," he said gruffly—though they were still standing on the Baratie's edge with Sanji, he heard what he just said and Sanji was stunned by that.

Just then, Usopp was yelling at Luffy, telling him that they had to hurry or else they would lose sight of Nami and the Going Merry. But surprisingly, Luffy didn't even look at him as he watched Zoro and Mihawk size each other up. Or rather, Zoro size Mihawk up… Hawk-Eye didn't even seem troubled.

"A fight?" Mihawk asked him, with a tone that clearly said that he wanted to make sure that he heard right. "You're a weak, pitiful creature."

Before anyone could blink, the world's greatest was suddenly standing not 10 feet from the Straw Hat's first mate.

"If you are, in fact, a competent swordsman," Mihawk said in a skeptic tone as if he highly doubted it, "you should see the disparity in our abilities before we even cross swords."

"I must ask you, why have you challenged me?" Hawk-Eye went on, "Could it be your courage? Or, is it simply your ignorance?"

Zoro was grinning as he declared that it was his ambition that drove him to fight. And as he took out his swords he added, "Also I made a promise I intend to keep."

"There isn't a person alive who can beat Big Bro!" Yosaku yelled from the boat as he and Johnny began cheering. "He's already the best in the world!"

At the same time, Mihawk took the little golden cross that was around his neck and revealed that it was actually hiding a short knife that looked more like for cutting someone's toenails than fighting.

Zoro had already narrowed his eyes, realizing that he was being mocked when Mihawk held up the knife. "Funny. What do you think you're gonna do with that?" he demanded.

"It'll be more than enough; after all you wouldn't kill a fly with a cannon would you?" Mihawk asked him coolly, "You may have quite the reputation in the East Blue. But that doesn't mean much to me. This sea is by far the weakest of the four." He sighed a little before he said that he didn't carry any blades that were smaller than this—and it was like he was apologizing to him that this knife was too big for him to handle.

"I've had just enough of your attitude!" Zoro snarled and he actually bit down on the sword with such force that he ended up chipping off a piece of tooth. But he didn't care as he charged at him recklessly, "NOW YOU DIE!"

"You have no idea how big the world really is," Mihawk said almost forebodingly as he held up the little knife.

"Oni Giri!" Zoro yelled as he struck, but to everyone's amazement, Hawk-Eye didn't just catch the attack, but he stopped all three swords dead in mid-strike.

"W-what the…?" Zoro gasped when he tried to move forward—but nothing budged.

"Zoro!" Luffy yelled worriedly from where he stood, but didn't do anything else as he could only stand by and watch.

"What?! Big Bro's Oni Giri was stopped?!" Johnny yelled incredulously.

"But that's crazy!" Yosaku shouted, also in disbelief, "That attack's never fails to stop an enemy! What's going on here?!"

Finally, either through a sudden burst of strength, or Mihawk simply grew bored, Zoro broke free of the standstill.

"I am not that far behind the world's strongest!" he yelled as he attacked again, but this time no longer as calm or collective as he usually was in battle. It was here that they could fully see that Mihawk shook Zoro to the core.

He now began to swing at Hawk-Eye viciously with his swords. But Mihawk barely had to defend himself as he parried each swing or merely stepped lightly out of the way—so he didn't even get a scratch on him.

After a few moments of this, Mihawk stepped to the side and caused Zoro to fall to the deck, panting hard.

"You're just toying with him, right?!" Yosaku screamed, his eyes wide, "Fight for real Big Bro!"

"Big Bro!" added Johnny, sounding close to openly sobbing.

But it was clear from the look on Zoro's face that he was past listening. "You can't be that much better than me!" he yelled, shaking with rage—and seeing the expressionless look on Mihawk's face just seemed to even angrier.

Again, he got up and began to violently attack, there was no skill or plan here, just vicious slashes. Using the dagger to block another attack, Mihawk stated, "Such ferocious swordplay."

Using his mouth, Zoro moved his sword up to strike, but Hawk-Eye stopped it, creating a shockwave from the strength that both swordsmen created.

"How can he defend against Zoro's three-sword style with such a small knife!?" one of the Krieg Pirate yelled in astonishment.

"He's even more of a monster with a blade than even the great Zoro!" another cried, the swings were so quick that all they could see were flashes of light. As Zoro lunged forward, Mihawk moved and then hit the back of Zoro's neck with the side of his hand. They watched Zoro's eyes roll into the back of his head and they knew that he was fighting to stay conscious after an attack like that.

The green haired swords man slowly got back up, though now dazed from that last attack. He was exhausted as he marched forward, trying again, but he was so slow and worn-out that even a weak swordsman could've easily stepped out of the way. With nothing to hit, he fell forward again, gasping for air as he lay there—with Mihawk looking down at him—but there was something different in his gaze this time. Curiosity perhaps?

"What is it then?" Mihawk suddenly asked, "What weight do you carry upon your shoulders? Speak up, weakling!"

Johnny and Yosaku were both ready to defend Zoro for that insult.

"How dare you call him weakling?" Yosaku cried, his hand on his sword, "You'll pay for that!"

"We'll teach you a lesson!" Johnny added and with screams they jumped—ready to get in the fight but Luffy wouldn't allow it.

"NO!" he yelled, quickly grabbing them by the scruffs of their necks. "Yosaku! Johnny! Get back here!" he then held them both down as he commanded, "Just stay put!"

But Luffy was clearly just as upset as they were about it. His teeth were grit together and were slowly becoming fangs, his eyes were slitted, and fur and scales were popping up in random places before disappearing once more. Even Usopp noticed it as he glanced over at him. "Luffy…?" he began, but Zoro was up on his feet.

Zoro was still looking angry, although it was clear that he was far from giving up. "No, I won't lose!" he declared, "I refused to be defeated!"

Mihawk didn't say a word as he watched him cross his three blades. "Tiger…"

But Zoro barely finished finishing the attack when Mihawk rushed forward and impaled him with the small blade… just right above his heart. Despite the look of complete shock on his face, there was a steely eyed determination there as he refused to back away from the blade.

"You are defeated, yet won't step back. Why not?" Mihawk asked, as if wondering what he would do now.

"I don't know," Zoro answered honestly as blood trailed from his mouth and ran down the side of his face to stain his shirt. "But… I will not run. Even if I retreat a single step I'd be shattering the promises I made. I can't run. I would lose my honor. You see, without that there'd be nothing left for me here!"

"That's what defeat is," Mihawk stated simply.

But Zoro merely answered, "Then I won't accept defeat."

"Then you die," Mihawk pointed out coldly.

Looking at him dead in the hawk-like eyes Zoro said without a trace of hesitation or regret in his voice, "I RATHER DIE THAN GIVE UP!"

Hawk-Eye was now giving him a new look of respect as he pulled his knife out of his chest. He stepped back and re-sheathed it before he demanded Zoro's name.

Moving his swords into an almost triangle shape, he proclaimed, "I am… Roronoa Zoro!"

Mihawk reached behind his head to grab his black sword. "I'll remember it!" he informed him. "No one as strong as you has come around in quite some time. So as a swordsman courtesy," Mihawk finished, showing off the bright gleam of the sword as he brought it swinging around. "I'll use the world's strongest black sword to defeat you!"

"Thank you. I appreciate it," Zoro said as Johnny and Yosaku pleaded for him to stop, which he naturally ignored.

Spinning his swords, Zoro was ready to perform the strongest attack he knew back then, Mihawk charged. At first no one could see what happened, it looked as though Hawk-Eye merely ran past him—the two froze where they stood… and then…

Time seemed to slow as the two katanas in Zoro's hands suddenly shattered into pieces. Only the white sword in his mouth remained as Zoro fell to his knees in defeat. The Straw Hats couldn't believe it… they had never seen him lose in such a way… it wasn't even close.

Without saying a word, Zoro carefully put his last sword back in its sheath as Mihawk raised his blade up, to finish him off. But before he could finish the attack, Zoro spun around and stood up, his arms wide, and his white sword still in one hand.

Even Mihawk looked startled at that and asked him what he was doing.

Raising his head so that they could see the dark smile on his face; he answered simply, "Scars on the back are a swordsman's shame."

Hawk-Eye returned the grin. "Fine," he answered. And with a single slash, he cleaved open a massive diagonal cut across Zoro's entire chest, for a second there wasn't anything… but then blood cascaded out so that the Straw Hats all felt green at the sight of it. Unable to stand any longer, Zoro's body slowly fell backwards to the sea.

"ZORO!" Luffy screamed in horror.

"You shouldn't rush these things young man," Mihawk informed him coolly as Zoro's body fell.

"Zoro!" Usopp screamed out, unable to believe what he was seeing.

"BIG BRO!" both Johnny and Yosaku yelled, a fountain of tears falling from their eyes.

"NOOOOO!" Luffy screamed, tears also appearing in his eyes as he griped the side of the boat so tightly that it looked as if he would break it into pieces. Suddenly another voice sounded from right next to them.

"DON'T BE STUPID!" Sanji screamed out just as Zoro fell into the sea. "GIVE UP YOUR AMBITIONS AND LIVE!"

Luffy was shaking from where he stood. "Darn you!" he growled out, unable to sit still anymore. With a roar that sent miniature waves away from the Baratie, Luffy went into his Chimera form. However, the form he took looked even more feral than normal in his rage and he even looked bigger than normal at a staggering 20 feet tall packed with animal savagery, claws, fangs, and muscles. Two leathery bat-like wings burst from his back as he rocketed himself over to deal with Mihawk himself just as Johnny and Yosaku jumped in after Zoro. Seeing his powers for the first time, everyone was freaked out as they watched—even Sanji had dropped the cigarette from his mouth.

It looked as though Luffy was gonna slam into Mihawk as he came flying right at him, but the world's greatest swordsman simply moved out of the way just in time so that Luffy crashed into the side of the wreckage in his blind rage.

"Are you that young warrior's comrade?" Mihawk questioned calmly when Luffy got his head-horns stuck and was now attempting to pull them out. "I'm impressed with you for not interfering."

Luffy managed to pull his head out and fell on his back.

"There's nothing to be upset about," Hawk-Eye informed him calmly, "Your friend will live."

At his word however, Luffy's eyes lost their savagery as he sat bolt-upright at once and turned around to see that Johnny and Yosaku had already pulled Zoro out of the water.

"Big Bro! Say something please!" Yosaku begged as Zoro hung over their shoulders lifelessly for a moment.

"Zoro?" Luffy exclaimed anxiously, his voice slightly more bestial than it normally was in his chimera form. At hearing his name, Zoro suddenly came back to life and began to coughed up water and blood.

"Zoro!" Luffy called back again worriedly, shifting back to human as the two dragged Zoro back to their boat where Usopp was waiting for them. Together, they pulled him onboard and Usopp went to get some medicine for him.

"It's still far too early for you to die," Mihawk said as he folded his arms and proclaimed loudly. "My name is Dracule Mihawk! You're strong, but there is still much for you to learn! No matter how many years it takes I will hold this title as the greatest in the world and wait for you! Until that day you must hone your skills! Then, seek me out! Roronoa Zoro!"

Chef Zeff had stood there the whole time with that composed expression. "Not just anyone can earn the regards of Hawk-Eye Mihawk," he said, and there was also a tone of respect in his voice.

Mihawk turning to Luffy and asking him what his one goal was. Without any emotion in his face, Luffy answered with as little hesitation as Zoro showed, "To be the King."

Again, Mihawk smiled. "Your ambitions are even loftier than your friend's," he informed him. "That's quite the task. Even though you're strong, you both have a long way to go."

"Yeah, well you just let me worry about that," Luffy said defiantly, and even stuck his tongue out at him, letting him know just what he thought about that.

"He's alive!" Usopp's voice suddenly called out and they all looked to the boat. "He was just unconsciousness!" he declared as Zoro continued to cough up blood and seawater. Johnny and Yosaku were trying to get him to say something as Luffy called out his name worriedly.

Gasping for breath, Zoro proved that he was far from dead as he lifted his white katana into the air, the sun gleaming on the silver blade. "Luffy… can you hear me…?" he gasped out so hoarsely that they could hardly make out the words.

"Yeah!" Luffy shouted, and they were all wondering just what he was gonna say.

"I'm sorry for disappointing you," Zoro gasped out, breathing hard as if every word was painful. "I know you need nothing less than the greatest swordsman in the world."

Luffy's eyes widen and he stood there, completely taken aback by what Zoro was saying was saying. "I've let you down, please forgive me."

Zoro's was suddenly coughing up more blood and water as the three around him tried to get him to stop. But he kept going on, ignoring their advice as he declared for them all to hear, "I solemnly swear… from this moment forward… that I will never lose again!"

And to their amazement, he was sounding choked up—like he was crying.

"Until the day comes…" he went on, struggling for air, "When I defeat him and take his title."

Mihawk smirked at that, as if he was privately looking forward to seeing him try.

But then Zoro finally called out, "I will never, NEVER be defeated! Is that ok? KING OF THE PIRATES?!"

There was silence at that and a huge smile spread over Luffy's face, "Yep."

Mihawk seemed pleased also as he turned and headed back to his boat. "You're a good team. I hope to see you again… someday."

"Hey, Hawk-Eye!" Krieg yelled jumping down to face him.

"I was under the impression that you had come here to take my life," he said, sounding insulted, "Weren't you here to kill Don Krieg? Ruler of the East Blue?"

"The thought had crossed my mind," Hawk-Eye admitted, not even bothering to look at him, "But I've had enough fun for today so I'm going home to get some rest."

Krieg cracked his neck as he said with a grin, "I don't care if you've had enough… I haven't even gotten started." As Krieg's crew begged him to change his mind, Krieg suddenly revealed guns and miniature cannons from underneath his armor and attacked.

"He just won't learn will he?" Mihawk asked in a bored way as his hand went back to his sword—no one could see what happened to him, but when the smoke from the projectiles cleared Mihawk was gone, Luffy had jumped over and was hanging onto the Baratie, and the rest of the crew was on the tiny boat.

"USOPP!" Luffy cried out, towards everyone on the boat, "Go on ahead! I'll leave Nami to you!"

"Roger that!" Usopp cried back, waving the straw hat around, "Don't you worry about a thing! Zoro and I are gonna get her right back! Make sure you get the cook to join our crew! And then…!" he grinned wider as he threw the hat to him, "The five of us will set sail to the Grand Line!"

Luffy stretched out to grab the hat, and he was grinning from ear to ear. "YEAH! LET'S DO IT!"

The Krieg Pirates were getting ready to attack them again now that the threat was gone and Usopp took charge of sailing the boat after Nami.

"Hey Pops!" Luffy cried out, still hanging on the side of the Baratie. "Can I stop doing these chores if I get those pirates out of here?"

"Suit yourself," Zeff answered in a voice as if he couldn't care less.

Grinning from ear to ear, Luffy leaned up, to continue hanging from the railing as he looked at Zeff. "Ok Pops, you promised me remember?" he said, just making sure he understood everything, "If I run those pirates off then my debt to you is clear. No more chores."

"That's the deal," Zeff confirmed with a nod. "There's no telling how much more of my restaurant you'll screw up if you stick around."

Luffy laughed in agreement and bonked his own head—letting them know that he knew how clumsy he was.

"So kid," Zeff said in interest, "You said you were gonna be King of the Pirates. Were you serious?"

"Well yeah, of course," Luffy answered without a doubt in his mind, "I'm definitely gonna be King of the Pirates someday."

Zeff smirked. "I've seen a whole lot of pirates in my day… but you're the first to state your desire so clearly and without a doubt."

"I heard, that back in the day, you were a pretty awesome pirate yourself," Luffy said. "So did you wanna be King of the Pirates too?" Luffy finished asked curiously.

Zeff looked up at the sky to see a seagull soaring above and answered, "I do my best to forget about the past… I'm the owner of Baratie now and that's quite enough for me."

Krieg gave the command for the pirates to start attacking the Baratie. However, the chefs were ready to fight. Luffy launched himself over them and momentarily was lost from view. However, a huge shadow suddenly formed over the Krieg Pirates and they all looked up, causing them all to pale and quite a few to scream out, "HOLY CRAP!" before there was a cry of, "Blue Whale Belly-Flop!" With that, a huge blue whale (still wearing Luffy's hat on its head) crashed onto the pirates, heavily injuring most of them and knocking a large number out. The chefs cheered on their chore boy, which was quickly reduced to spluttering when the waves from the belly-flop splashed most of them right in the face.

"It's hard to believe. The Grand Line is crawling with guys like these?" Sanji asked, shaking his head, both in disbelief and to get the water out of his hair.

"Sanji," Zeff said, remarkably still dry, while staring ahead at the fight, but still addressing the Sanji standing next to him. "Pay special attention to how this one fights," he said, "Don't take your eyes off him for a moment… until this fight is over. Is that clear?"

Sanji gave a hesitant nod and went back to observing the fight.

Luffy, who transformed back and was now hanging from one of the broken masts, was looking down at the pirates calling out, "So let me see if I got this straight. You're attacking the restaurant that gave you food? I got no choice but to beat some manners into you!"

Krieg laughed, mocking him to fight on the water (which goes to show how stupid he actually is since he just saw Luffy plunge in and out of the water) as the whole restaurant began to shake. With a great rumbling noise, something was coming up from under the sea and some of them were screaming in fear.

There was a cry from the chefs of 'Raise the fins!' before dark wood broke through the surface. It turns out the 'fins' were actually a wooden deck for them to all stand on.

Suddenly, Patty and Carne pulled out a secret weapon that had been hidden in the fish head of the Baratie and declared that they were gonna use it to protect the ship no matter what. It turns out, however, that Krieg was more than just some armor and pistols. He was able to stop the weapon with his bare hands and had actually threw it back towards the chefs.

Thankfully Sanji took care of it when he jumped up and with a single kick, stopped it in its tracks. The fish head smashed into the fin and leaving the restaurant unscathed.

Bursting out from the wreckage, Patty and Carne were yelling at Sanji for almost killing them just as the (conscious) Krieg pirates jumped up to fight, boarding the fins and laughing. It started off as a stand-off, but the cooks rushed in to fight—but they were no match for their sheer numbers. However the worst part was listening to them brag at how strong they were. The cooks refused to take it… they said that this restaurant was their home and they weren't giving it up to them without a fight.

Patty and Carne were a lot stronger than the rest of them and were able to fight them off… at least until another one of Krieg's men appeared. He was a towering man, was dressed with two large iron plates covering his front and backside, as well as two small plates on his hands with large pearls embedded in them.

"I am Pearl! The invincible shield!" he cried out.

Pearl had taken out both Patty and Carne, but when the pirates tried to take Patty's knife from his hands, Sanji kicked them out, outraged that they would try to touch a kitchen knife… a chef's soul.

As the pirates charged him, he took them all out with a few kicks as Pearl mocked him about only fighting with his legs.

"I'm a cook remember?" Sanji demanded. "I couldn't do my job very well if I ruined my hands in battle." He held up a leg and finished, "So I'll be taking you down with my feet."

Pearl merely went on to explain that he won all sixty-one battles without a stretch… that he never shed of drop of blood in battle.

And no sooner were those words out of Pearls mouth when Krieg pulled out a spiked ball and swung it around, trying to take Luffy out with it. Luffy was sent flying through the air, but when he landed, he ended up hitting Pearl in the back of the head with such force he gave him a nosebleed.

As Pearl stared at the blood, his eyes were widening and he was shaking. The other Krieg pirates were all telling Pearl to stay calm, that it was only a nosebleed.

"These… these people aren't just mean… they're dangerous!" Pearl muttered, his face twitching horribly at that. The other pirates meanwhile were getting more and more frantic by the look on Pearl's face.

"So…" Sanji said slowly, looking around at everyone, "Wanna tell me why everyone's freaking out?"

Luffy, who was picking his nose, said, "They're worried about a nosebleed?"

Pearl was banging the two shields on his hands together, looking close to freaking out, screaming out, "Danger… Danger…"

"Gez, what is that guy doing?" Sanji yelled in annoyance.

Just then, Pearl set himself on fire.

Pearl set the ship and even his own crewmates on fire and as the blaze spread, it had created a sorta wall of fire around him to keep any potential attackers at bay.

Before you could blink the fire spread and soon the entire fin was now in flames.

Sanji couldn't take it anymore as he jumped high, over the wall of flames, landing a drop kick on Pearl's face.

After working off the minor concussion, Pearl looked horrified. "B-But these flames scare everyone away!" he screamed out, looking ready to cry.

"Well," Sanji answered, holding out his cigarette, looking like he didn't have a care in the world at that moment. "I wouldn't be much of a cook if I was afraid of fire!"

Pearl seemed to lose it completely as he shot out flaming pearls, aiming them directly at the restaurant—determined to set it on fire too. But Zeff was one step ahead of him, when the pearls neared him, he stood on his one good leg and used the peg leg to give a swift kick and the gust from that attack had actually put the fires out and caused them to drop to the deck harmlessly.

But with the fire still raging, Krieg had decided to take out the fin himself with the spiked ball. When he threw it, he aimed it directly over where Sanji and Pearl were fighting, but with them both trapped by the fire, they had nowhere to go. But just before it hit, Luffy came jumping through the fire and saved Sanji by transforming his arm into a muscular, scale covered claw in order to send the ball flying back towards Krieg with a hard punch.

"He tossed that thing right back!" Sanji gasped in shock as Luffy was now attempting to put out the fire on his backside. The spiked ball was flung into another broken mast, smashing it apart even further and when it fell, it ended up breaking on Pearl's head, knocking him out and put an end to the fire.

However the Krieg Pirates have not said their last word. While they were fighting, Gin had snuck up behind Zeff, and was now holding him a gunpoint.

With this, Sanji was asked to surrender. Gin demanded to have the ship then threatened to kill Zeff if Sanji fought back against Pearl who managed to get back to his feet. But Sanji wasn't moving and he even went as far as too mock Zeff for the state he was in. However the whole time, he tried to get Gin to come after him instead.

Pearl launched another attack, and without raising a leg to defend himself, Sanji was slammed into the side of the restaurant.

"Sanji!" Luffy screamed out as blood started dripping down from Sanji's face.

"Because…" Sanji hissed to Luffy, answering his question, "if I did that rat over there would've pulled the trigger on Zeff."

There was silence for a moment as that sunk in.

Gin tried to plead into just giving up the restaurant and that he wouldn't get hurt. But Sanji just couldn't… he couldn't give it up… and he knew what was gonna come up.

"This restaurant is that old man's life!" Sanji declared from where he lay, lowering his head in guilt as he confessed. "I've already took everything else that man holds dear…"

"His power… his dreams…? So while I'm around…" he then screamed out, "I'M NOT GONNA LET ANYTHING ELSE GET TAKEN FROM HIM!"

Seeing this behavior the other chefs asked Sanji what he meant by this before the blond cook was once again attacked by Pearl, who took the opportunity for some payback, and had slammed his shields into his head, and blood was now pouring out of his mouth and nose.

Sanji was able to raise his head and told the cooks everything. He explained that he owed Zeff his life. How that, nine years earlier, when he was a child, he was working as a ship's cook on a cruise ship in the North Blue. One night, the pirate Red Leg Zeff and his crew attacked the ship and pilfered it for anything valuable; however, both ships were caught in a sudden storm, and were destroyed. As they sank, Zeff managed to save them both from drowning, but had lost part of his leg in the process and the two were washed onto a rock outcropping, high above the sea.

Apparently the two of them were the only survivors—but despite living through the storm, the island they were on was like a slow and painful death sentence. There was little food for them: only a few rations had washed onto the rock with them, but there wasn't any trees or plants, no animals, and no way to reach the water to fish. Splitting up what little rations they had, Zeff ordered Sanji to sit at the other end of the island, and look for a ship.

Zeff had given Sanji enough food for five days, but he had been able to make it last for about twenty… and how he had nothing left but a moldy loaf of bread. But still no one ever came. Weeks passed and then months… finally it came to a point that it was like he had been trapped in a daze. He was stuck staring out at the sea for so long that he could no longer tell the difference between the sun rising or setting. After about three months, he was starved to within an inch of his life—hardly more than skin and bones. Emaciated and desperate for food, he decided to take a chance and kill Zeff for his food. But when he slashed open the old man's sack in a fit of rage; he discovered that there was only treasure inside. That was when he realized that, not only did Zeff give him all the food that they had, but Zeff had sacrificed his own leg for him as well.

Soon afterwards, a ship finally appeared, and they were spared from death. Because of this ordeal, Sanji pledged to never refuse food to a starving individual, no matter how evil or poor they may be.

The smoking chef was struggling to get back to his feet. His hand curling up into a fist he gasped out, "That old fart… gave up his leg so that I could live!"

Everyone in the area stared at him as he got to his feet and declared. "There's no way to repay the old geezer for his kindness unless I risk my life for him!"

However not everyone agreed. Luffy's eyes turned dark and was just looking at him as Gin asked Sanji why he got back up. Sanji smirked as he said, "'Fraid I can't do that. It's a little too much like giving up!"

The other cooks were trying to warn Sanji that he was gonna get himself killed; their words all feel on death ears because his eyes said that Sanji was ready to die for the Baratie. But then Luffy did something unexpected… he seemed to have lost it completely. With a dangerous look in his eyes, shaking in anger, he launched himself into the air before becoming incredibly large with a big snout and tough, grayish skin.

"NO DON'T!" Sanji screamed, understanding what was about to happen, "GIN'LL SHOT THE OLD MAN!"

But Luffy was no longer listening as he screamed out the top of his lung, "HIPPO…" and like that, his body came slamming down from the sky so that when he landed on the fin, it was instantly smashed to pieces. As Luffy hit the fin there was a dangerous, wild look in his, still human, eyes that was nothing his normal, cheerful self as he finished declaring his attack, "CANONBALL!"

The world seemed to shake as his body came down and with a great booming sound, the shrapnel went flying every which way and the ocean water came down like rain.

There was stunned silence for a moment as they tried to recover from what just happened. Luffy was smiling as he surfaced in human form—glad for what he did. But with fury on his face, Krieg ordered Gin to hurry and kill Zeff, except Gin seemed reluctant to do so.

"I don't see why you're all so upset," Luffy said as Sanji tried to tell him off for what he did to the Baratie, but as he got up Luffy finished, "But I will… I'm gonna sink it." And by looking at the look on his face, they could tell that he was deadly serious.

No one could seem to believe what they were hearing and Sanji even got right up in Luffy's face. "You moron that's what you're doing?" he demanded furiously, "You can't sink this ship!"

"But if the restaurant's gone then there's no reason to attack then is there?" Luffy retorted.

"NO!" Sanji screamed at him, "This ship saved my life! I owe everything to her! And you will not take that away!"

"You're gonna die for a dumb old restaurant?" Luffy asked him, and for the first time it sounded like he thought Sanji was the crazy one here. "Are you stupid?"

"What'd you say?" Sanji growled.

"Getting killed?!" Luffy yelled out as he grabbed Sanji by his jacket and pulled him right into his face. "That's how you're gonna repay your debt?! The old man didn't save you so you could kill yourself! He did it so that you could do something with your life! Not to die like a fool!"

"And so your big idea is to help them attack us?!" Sanji yelled back, the two almost nose to nose again, like how he and Zeff usually fight.

Meanwhile, Pearl was laughing, telling them all that they couldn't do anything so long as Zeff was their captive and that he was gonna kill them both himself. However before Pearl could strike Sanji and Luffy, Gin suddenly abandoned his duty of holding Zeff at gunpoint and dashed forward so that he quickly defeated him, shattering his 'invincible' shield in one blow with a pair of tonfas that had cannonballs welded to their ends.

Krieg was yelling at Gin, demanding to know what he was doing, but Gin stated that he will be the one to finish off Sanji—that he owed him this much. Here, the chefs found out that Gin was Krieg's Chef Commander, his second-in-command more or less. And the rest of the Krieg Pirates all agreed that he was strong and a merciless monster to them all.

"Sanji, look, I'm just following orders," Gin said, sounding remorseful, "I don't want to ruin this ship, but I think it's too late for that."

"Maybe," Sanji said to him darkly. "But… if you think you're gonna get to this restaurant without killing me then you got another thing coming. Perhaps in our next lives we'll be friends?"

"Sounds fair," Gin said, lifting his weapon on his shoulder, "Then it'll be an absolute pleasure to kill you… my good friend."

"Geez, that's comforting," Sanji said as he lit a cigarette, "Crap-face."

"You as well, chore boy," Gin added, looking over at Luffy.

"Geez, thanks," Luffy said indifferently, but he didn't seem worried at all, "But I'm not afraid of any Krieg Pirate."

Gin was looking annoyed as the rest of Krieg's crew were all angry and were shrieking out insults and death threats—just outraged he had the gall to say something like that.

"We are the Krieg Pirates, the strongest in East Blue!" one of the pirates declared without a doubt in his mind.

Luffy looked at them all, as if pitying them and said, "Only because you outnumbered the other pirates in the East Blue."

There was nothing but silence—all the pirates grinding their teeth, looking like they wanted to dismiss it, yet at the same time, they couldn't declare that was a lie.

"Oh boy," Sanji said, "Now you really ticked 'em off."

"Guess I was right," Luffy answered.

The Krieg Pirates saw this as unforgivable and they started to rush in, ready to try and prove themselves. However, they are immediately stopped by Krieg: telling Gin to hurry up and kill them.

The battle went on and soon it was Gin and Sanji going at each other. Though strong, there was no doubt in anyone's minds that Sanji could've beaten him if he hadn't been injured by Pearl. Gin was fast and able to keep up with him—as well as even breaking some of Sanji's ribs by the sounds of it—but in the end, the injuries were what was making it almost impossible for Sanji to attack without terrible pain. It ended when Gin managed to pin him down and have his weapon above his head.

With Sanji in pain, Luffy went after Krieg—but Krieg releases his armored and plan to kill Luffy there. He shoots Luffy with bombs and spears. Luffy was able to use his knife to deflect most of the spears and his animal-honed reflexes to jump over the others, however the bombs blew him far away from the armored pirate. Then, Luffy asks if Krieg is not serious to fight with him as he brushed himself off from the explosions like it was an everyday thing for him. So, Krieg answer if the important thing in fighting is strategy to kill the opponent. Krieg jeers Luffy is a monkey because he just attacks without strategy, causing Luffy to gain a mischievous grin.

With Luffy dealing with Krieg, something else happened. Just as Gin was about to land the final blow, Sanji found himself before a supposedly heartless pirate unable to kill him. Even with Krieg bellowing at him do it, Gin was crying, declaring that because of Sanji's previous kindness, he just couldn't bring himself to finish the job, he just can't forgive himself if he killed him.

Krieg was disappointed with Gin. Although, before that, Gin was the person he trusted the most. Krieg sees excess in Gin's personality that will win in the battlefield with anyway. Then, Gin said that he always followed every order that Krieg had ever given him and that he will always respect and admire him. But, Gin still cannot kill him and begs to let the Baratie's ship go. While this saved Sanji from being bludgeoned by Gin, it angered Krieg.

"You little brat!" Krieg yelled furiously as he stood up. "You think you can defy my orders and then tell me what to do?!"

Gin could say nothing as tears continued to flow down his face.

"It's pathetic. Morality, sympathy; weaknesses I never expected to see from you!" Krieg yelled.

"You are not my Chef Commander anymore!" Krieg continued to yell as he grabbed part of his armor and pointed it directly at the three of them. "Pirates?" he called to his crew, "Step aside." Just then, the skull on the shield opened its mouth to reveal the nozzle of a miniature cannon.

At the sight of it, Gin gasped in horror. "No, not the gas!" he cried.

All the other pirates freaked out as well. "He's gonna use the MH5!"

"We're all gonna die!"

"Where's my mask?"

"Just breathing it in can kill a normal person in just a few minutes to even a few hours!"

The pirates all fished masks out of nowhere and were covering their faces.

"The only thing that matters in a battle is who ends up winning," Krieg stated before he smirked, "Even if more have got to die! Poison Gas is just a means to an end. Victory is all that decides what's right and what's wrong! If you're dead, no one's gonna hear you complain anyway."

"When you don't hesitate to do unspeakable, horrible things…" Krieg stated, grinning ever wider, "that is true power."

Luffy's face was cold and they were all sickened at the thought.

"Might as well throw that gas mask away!" ordered Krieg as he saw Gin pulling out his mask, "You're no longer worthy to be a Krieg Pirate."

Luffy charged at Krieg, trying to make one last-ditch effort to stop him, and even proclaiming that he wasn't going to let him do it.

"You're wasting your time! CHORE BOY!" Krieg said as he punched the mast Luffy was running on, shattering it to pieces and causing him to lose his footing. In his desperation, Luffy dove into the water out of site. The military pirate seemed surprised and pleased at this turn of events, thinking that he'd won as he prepared to fire the MH5 thinking that now he only had to deal with two small annoyances, believing Luffy to have drowned. Suddenly, a hammerhead shark, wearing Luffy's straw hat, burst from the water and nailed Krieg right in the stomach with a cry of "Hammer Head-butt!"

Unfortunately the blow only knocked Krieg slightly off balance as he was still protected by his armor, and he was able to fire the gas bomb directly at the Baratie! Both pirates and cooks dove into the water as Patty and Carne took Zeff inside. But the two on the platform didn't have time to move anywhere. Thinking fast, Luffy dove back into the water to try and intercept the bomb but he knew it would be too late as the bomb landed on one of the platforms. A giant explosion rocked the area and a wave of purple gas filled the air, shrouding everything in front of them so that they couldn't see anything.

It was deadly silent… the only sound came from the cry of a seagull above them… but soon it fell from the sky—dead before it hit the water.

They waited… and waited… every minute feeling like it stretched on to an hour. But after a painful five minute wait, the gas finally started to clear for them to see just what happened. Luffy was safe as he hoped out of the water in human form, but the problem was Gin. Sanji yelling through his mask to get Gin off him, who was holding it there, making sure that he couldn't move.

"Gin are you ok?" Luffy gasped. Gin didn't answer him, but his skin was now a sickly, dark purple and he was struggling for breath, coughing up blood from his mouth and nose. Every single painful gasp was weaker than the last…

"It's your mask, you gave it to Sanji," Luffy whispered, staring at the mask on the blond cook's face, realizing what happened. Gin collapsed just as more blood erupted from his mouth.

"No!" Luffy yelled, heading towards them as Sanji quickly caught him and held him up as he fought for his breath.

But when Krieg started to laugh at it, Luffy stopped and turned to glare at him. "What a fool," Krieg said, having removed his own mask, and was now mocking Gin's condition. "You're paying for a plate of food with your life? Oh well… maybe you'll learn… when you're dead."

Sanji was still holding Gin, who was gasping out Krieg's name. Whether it was in anger or pleading, it was hard to say as he wheezed for air. "Gin…" Sanji whispered softly, "So it seems…" he glared up at Krieg with disgust, "that Don Krieg wasn't the right man for you to follow was he?"

Krieg just laughed, and the sound of it was making them long to hit him. "It figures that you would still feel for that pathetic scum," he said loudly.

"Scum!?" Sanji exclaimed in rage.

"That's right. Anyone who loses focus and betrays my ship is worthless to me," Krieg said as he grinned again. "He would almost certainly do it again. Putting him out of his misery is an act of mercy to keep him from dishonoring himself in the future and endangering my crew."

The Krieg Pirates, meanwhile, just couldn't believe that Krieg would kill Gin. No one was more loyal to Krieg than Gin and the chefs all learned that when they escaped from the Grand Line and were being pursued by Fullbody, Gin went out alone and masqueraded as Krieg. Gin always sacrificed himself to save Krieg and he did anything to win, that's why people called him "Demon".

Sanji turned to Patty and Carne and told them to get the kit used for food poisoning, as Zeff told him to put the mask on to detoxify the gas in his lungs and then to take him to the upper deck of the Baratie where the air was fresher. Krieg just laughed and claimed that because of the poison, Gin will die in one hour.

Luffy suddenly spoke again.

"Don't you dare die, Gin," he said—and though his words were quiet, everyone seemed to have heard it and turned to look at him. Even Gin raised his head a little to try and see him, though it was hard to tell with the mask over his face. "You can't let someone like him win," Luffy told him, his eyes as sharp and cold as Mihawk's had been as he glared at Krieg. "Stick around! Now I'm mad! You'll wanna see what I'm gonna do to him next!"

Gin, however, didn't believe that Luffy can defeat Krieg. Even Sanji tries to stop him too and yelled that he will be killed if he attacks him head on. To make everyone stop worrying, Luffy just said, "I'm not worried". And then he started his attack at Krieg's front. "GO AHEAD AND GIVE IT YOUR BEST SHOT!" he screamed as Krieg grinned cockily and Sanji cried for him not to do it.

But Luffy ignored him as he charged ahead, and they knew that he wasn't going to back down this time.

"You are only running towards one thing, Chore boy. And that is…" Krieg said as he threw several small bombs into the water, "Your funeral!"

"My funeral?" Luffy repeated scathingly. The bombs went off to both blind the animal man and to prevent him from jumping back into the water. The water splashed up around him and that was when Krieg took out his spike machine gun again and shot through the water. But Luffy still ran through it, and when he burst out of the waves the chefs noticed his body was covered in a shell-like material from the front of a turtle. Unfortunately this didn't stop several of the spikes from hitting Luffy's unprotected limbs. But Luffy ignored the pain as he neared Krieg. Reeling his arm back as scales started to cover it Luffy cried out, "Turtle…"

Realizing that he was going to try and attack, Krieg revealed a robe made of dangerous spikes to deter any attacks.

"Jab!" Luffy yelled, as he went and punched him right through the metal spikes, the spikes scraping against the scales on his hand, and managed to strike Krieg dead in the face.

Both pirates and cooks were staring in horror at what Luffy had just done. Someone then summed up all their thoughts by shouting out three words: "That's messed up!"

Luffy was standing there almost like a zombie for a moment before he went and began to pull the spikes out. It was then that everyone noticed that the cuts on Luffy's hands weren't much worse than paper cuts; most likely the worst of the damage was blocked due to the tough scales.

"So is this my funeral?" he asked as he pulled out the first spike and threw it to the ground and went on, "Or yours?" He went for another spike, "You can't kill me… with little spikes!" out came that one. "My funeral…" he threw out the last spike, "will take more than this!"

Breathing hard for a minute and biting back the pain, he went on, "You'll have to do better than that… if you wanna beat me!" He looked back up, grin wildly, "Cause I don't think it's time for me to die just yet!"

Sanji, who was nursing his wounds from Gin, was now looking over at him. "I know one thing, he's nuts," he said to Zeff.

Zeff smirked down at him before he said, "I've seen one or two like him before. Stubborn kids who rather die and have to turn away from a fight once it's started."

"He'll stay," Sanji said knowingly. "That's for sure."

"I'm glad he's with us cause guys like that are hell to fight," Zeff said conversationally.

"I don't care if he wins or loses," Zeff finished. "I consider it an honor just to be able to watch him."

"So boy… it's not your funeral yet is it? Too bad," Krieg snarled from where he lay and slowly began to lift himself up. "Because one of us has got to go. And since I'm here… I'd really like to pay my respects!" he charged Luffy and slammed one of his shields at point black, "DIE!" he screamed as he fired a miniature explosion.

But Luffy easily jumped to avoid it and even hooked his foot on Krieg's shoulder when he jumped over him—knocking him down twice in under a minute.

"You first!" Luffy shouted out as the bulky armor hit the platform with a resounding thud. Unnoticed by all was how dark hair was starting to creep up the chimera boy's limbs and the beginnings of a tail started to sprout from his spine.

Meanwhile, this creates severe anguish amongst his crew members, as Krieg has always came out of a battle unscathed. It was the first time they had ever seen Krieg being knocked down and they were all wondering that he wasn't invincible after all and his reputation would be destroyed if a kid was able to defeat him.

However, when one crewmate began to believe that Luffy might just be stronger than Krieg, that got his attention. "SHUT UP MAGGOTS! NEVER DOUBT ME!" Krieg screamed before combining his shoulder plates together to form his "Mighty Battle Spear", which he slams into the ground next to Luffy, creating an explosion.

The Krieg Pirates were finally rejoicing as they see Krieg's secret weapon, as he discards his cape and explained that it was stronger than the spikes he fired at Luffy earlier. While Luffy wondered out loud how the spear made an explosion as he hid behind a broken part of the ship, Krieg gave him an answer by bragging once again. "My mighty battle spear!" he boasted, "It's different from any other! When this thing hits you, you won't just be wounded and failing… YOU'LL BE BLOWN STRAIGHT INTO THE AFTERLIFE!"

Continuing the battle, the surrounding wreckage was eventually reduced to sunken rubble with both combatants having very little room to move on. Krieg swung it again, sending Luffy flying over the ocean, but after the swing was completed, Krieg couldn't see Luffy at all. Noticing that his spear felt heavier for some reason, the villainous pirate looked at the spear's end and was shocked to see Luffy hanging upside down from the head of the spear with a long brown tail wrapped around the shaft! Not just the tail, but Luffy's arms, legs, and part of his face were covered in dark hair while his feet had gained opposable thumbs, the pirate going for his Monkey-man form.

Seeing the cheerful grin on the straw hat wearing monkey boy, Krieg lost what little patience he had left and started swinging his spear like a baseball bat in order to throw off the annoyance. Luffy was able to easily flip off the spear before he was thrown, however, and landed gracefully several feet away from the larger man before slipping into a battle stance. "You said earlier that I fought like a monkey with no plan at all," Luffy chittered, "Well let me show you how a real monkey fights!"

Krieg gave a roar as he made several attempts at stabbing the agile monkey, all of which Luffy either dodged with ease with impressive acrobatic movements or was able to punch and kick the spear away before it could make contact. Krieg was looking slightly out of breath after 5 minutes of this and the Chimera Man's victory looked assured, but just then Luffy's one leg buckled leaving him kneeling and trying to catch his breath, a dark read starting to stain his fur from the wounds on his arms and legs.

"He's lost way too much blood," Sanji said, still holding onto his hurt ribs, "He can't fight for much longer. This better end quickly."

Krieg continues his assault on Luffy, who was now dodging for his life as the wounds started to take their toll. He jumped to the section of the ship Luffy was resting on and ended up blowing it up. On and on, Luffy was being attacked and was forced to only dodge until he found a way out of it. He was able to keep it up for a while before he finally lost his balance, which makes him wide open for an attack. However, just in the nick of time, Luffy grabbed the lance before it can hit him once more. Enraged, Krieg slams the spear into the ground, forcing Luffy to let go. Krieg proceeded to ram the spear at Luffy, who punched the tip, creating an explosion which sent him flying through the air.

But already, Luffy was forcing his wounded body to get back up. And like before, Krieg swung the spear at him, and again, Luffy punched the blade, making it explode a second time.

Krieg swung again, declaring that he was stronger than Luffy. Nonetheless, Luffy took each hit without budging an inch.

"Crap," Sanji hissed. "There's no way that Chore Boy can take much more of this. That spear is way too powerful."

"No, you're wrong," Zeff said to Sanji in disagreement, "Even with a hundred thousand more weapons, our Chore Boy can still bring him to his knees because he does not know fear."

Sanji looked up at Zeff in confusion as Krieg dished out another attack at Luffy, and of course Luffy met it head-on. Burnt black with his fur now smoldering, Luffy landed flat on his back on the wreckage, smoking lightly… Krieg smirked as he turned and walked away, sneering that it was too easy.

But at those words, Luffy began to push himself back up. Stopping dead in his tracks, Krieg turned to look as he raised the spear back up. "Now that's impressive," he muttered, but he was looking angry now.

"Stand or fall," Zeff went on, "Life or death… in a struggle for your very existence, you cannot have even the slightest bit of fear or you will be lost."

But Sanji didn't seem to understand as he asked him what he was talking about.

"That kid out there," Zeff answered impatiently, as if speaking to someone dumb, as Luffy charged again and took another blast to the face. "When he's fighting…" Zeff said as Luffy pushed himself back up through the broken boards with a grin. "He's not afraid of anything! Not even death!"

Still smiling, Luffy got up once again and went up for another blast to the face. "Is it all instinct?" Zeff asked suddenly, "Or all a plan?" He grinned, as if he figured it all out on his own. "We'll know soon… if he lives."

"What plan?" Sanji asked him. "Killing himself?"

Krieg was getting more annoyed, veins sticking out on his head as he snarled at Luffy, cursing him out. But Luffy just continued to grin as the chefs all cheered from the background.

"I told you!" Krieg yelled as he ran with his spear, "Today is your funeral!" Another boom went off, "I AM INVINCIBLE!"

Just then, Luffy threw himself back at Krieg one more time. Another boom sounded off and there was silence for a moment…

"There is no doubt that Krieg and his pirates are strong," Zeff continued one, "But Chore Boy has something they'll never have. Krieg may have more pirates at his command than anyone else before him… he may have terrible weapons of mass destruction to everything in his path… but he will never have that kid's heart."

Sanji was just watching it before his one visible eye suddenly widen in understanding.

No sooner did he say that did Luffy slam his foot into the deck, and the shockwave from that broke the tip of the spear, much to Krieg's confusion and horror.

"The Great Battle Spear!" Krieg yelled in disbelief. "What did you do boy!?"

Luffy grinned at him. "I just punched it in the head five times. It looks tired… maybe it needs a rest?" Luffy's eyes narrowed as he said, "Now it's my turn!"

"You ready for this? Because that was all I needed," Luffy said with a huge grin. "Now that your little toy's broken, you're nothing to me."

Krieg's eyes narrowed, "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, without the blade, it's just a bomb on a stick. And let's face it, that's pretty lame," Luffy stated.

Krieg smirked again before going in for another attack, but Luffy dodged it and jumps up to the mast, swinging around like how an actual monkey would from the tree. Then Krieg breaks the mast, missing Luffy completely as he threw the mast like a javelin back at him. But, Krieg destroyed it by shooting fire at it from a miniature flamethrower attached to his wrist.

Once they were on a stable platform Luffy ran forward to hit Krieg with a series of punches and kicks with his animalistic strength. Krieg's armor, however, withstood the attack. Finally angry, Luffy ran forward, becoming more muscular as his tail disappeared (his Gorilla Man form) and reared back his arm so that he could hit him once again… when his fist hit the armor they could hear the deep ringing noise like a bell when he hit.

Luffy kept going, but Krieg hit him with the remains of the spear and he was sent back across the deck. As Luffy was trying to recover, Krieg jumped to the top of the tallest remaining mast and sneered down at him, calling to him to get him to look up.

"You don't stand a chance boy!" he yelled down, "Real power comes from deadly weapons! They're the source of true strength!" he sneered, "See; only the strong are meant to live! And that's me! You're just a stupid, filthy animal!"

Krieg threw out bombs from his place on top the mast but Luffy chased in to try and stop him. The whole time, there was an evil grin still on his face, "Yeah?" he challenged, "That's what you think!"

He threw his muscular and hairy arms back when he got near enough to the cocky jerk. Krieg hit him with his weapon one more time—but it wasn't enough to stop the Gorilla Double Hammer! that came flying at him. Through the explosion and smoke, Luffy charged through and finished crying out his attack—Krieg screaming in shock. And that was when he was sent flying into the air, his bombs falling from his hands.

Something was wrong though, as there was a blank look in Luffy's eyes, smoke coming out of his mouth from that last detonation.

"That's it?!" Krieg bragged as he went flying backwards. "After all that big talk that's all you got?!"

But then he blinked in surprise to see that his golden arm was cracking apart and was then yelling in disbelief about it. However, his smirk was back soon when he noticed that Luffy still didn't move. To him, his destroyed armor was enough of a price for this victory…

But Sanji realized what those bombs were and screamed up at Luffy, "IT'S A TRAP! GET OUT!"

The bombs Krieg's dropped exploded and destroyed the rest of the battlefield. There wasn't anything left but splinters—the rocking waves put everyone in the water in danger and Sanji cried out over the noise in fear…

Once again, Luffy surprised them all, bursting through the smoke with his arms now changed into a bird's wings, Krieg screaming out in terror at the sight of his face—losing all his cool.

"What!?" Krieg screamed in utter shock.

Luffy quickly shifted his arms back to human and then once more into their gorilla form and gave another yell of "Gorilla Double Hammer!", and when this attack hit, it did the job. He destroyed the armor by shattered it to pieces and sent Krieg falling to the ocean.

"I TOTALLY WIN!" Luffy screamed out, his hands in the air in victory.

"THIS ISN'T OVER YET BOY!" Krieg screamed, and Luffy looked taken aback by the fact that he was still in it.

Krieg shot a steel net from the same arm that had the flamethrower and wrapped around Luffy. He was now trapped and Krieg was laughing as he pulled him to the sea, confident that Luffy would still get tangled up and drown in the net, believing he could only turn into larger animals. Krieg laughed in triumph as he as he pulled Luffy towards the sea. "You can't escape! This is a steel net!"

Luffy struggled in the net, as Krieg screamed out triumphantly, "It's over! That's the ocean down there! Looks like I'll be getting the last laugh after all, Chore Boy!"

But Luffy suddenly had an idea, transforming into a small humming bird and slipping right out of the net before going back to human, much to Krieg's shock and horror.

Falling towards Krieg at neck breaking speeds, Luffy laughed out, "I got that jerk right where I wanted him!"

Luffy began to grow bigger as his skin took on a greyish hue and his nose turned into a long trunk while sharp tusks poked through his mouth, turning him into an elephant. The straw hat wearing elephant wrapped his trunk around Krieg's head and spun around to trap him, spinning like a propeller as he aimed it right at the Baratie's fin. "Time for me to end this… right now! Elephant…" he cried out eagerly, the two were both screaming—but for different reasons.

"GIANT HAMMER!" And with that, Luffy slammed Krieg's head into the fin, shattering what was left of it, where Krieg finally lost and backed out.

Luffy, going back to his normal form, grinned before exhaustion took over. He was out cold before he even hit the water.

Scene Break

Luffy was sitting up in bed, looking around sleepily and realized that he wasn't alone. Sanji was sitting in the window, looking out at the sea. Luffy blinked a few times, and they could see that he had several bandages wrapped in the places where he pulled the spikes out as he put his hand on his head and screamed out in panic. "MY HAT! WHERE'S MY HAT?!"

"It's right there! Calm down!" Sanji said loudly. Luffy's hat was sitting on a shelf with things like cigarettes and even a picture of Sanji and Zeff when they first opened the restaurant.

Luffy sighed in relief and put it happily on his head.

"Have a good nap?" Sanji asked as Luffy looked around the room.

"Hey, those pirates…?" Luffy asked in confusion, and it was clear he was trying to figure out how he got here.

"They're gone now," Sanji answered, "All thanks to you."

"Me?" he asked in surprise.

"Yeah, though you're lucky. One of those spikes hit a vein and with you both jumping around and changing so much, it's a miracle you didn't bleed to death. You're one freaky guy, you know that right?" to which Luffy smiled sheepishly while scratching the back of his head. Sanji gave an amused chuckle before continuing, "Oh and before I forget, Gin asked me to tell you that he said he'll see you on the Grand Line," Sanji said, looking back out at the ocean.

"He did?" Luffy asked in surprise, "To you?"

"No! To you!" Sanji yelled back as he climbed out the window to the balcony and walked to the railing.

There was silence all around them for a moment before Luffy reminded him that he didn't have to be 'Chore Boy' anymore since he got Krieg out of here.

"That's the deal," Sanji confirmed for him.

"Hey, I was wondering…?" Luffy said but Sanji already guess what he was gonna say and beat him by telling him that his answer was still no, he wasn't going to become a pirate. That he was going to stay here at the Baratie until Zeff acknowledged him as a real cook.

Luffy sighed, his eyes overshadowed as he told him that he finally gave up. However, his words and his actions didn't match. His arm became scaly and reached out to grab hold of Sanji's collar like a snake and the blond chef was gasping at him to let go.

Sanji was telling Luffy that he couldn't leave just yet, but that he did promise himself that one day he would go to the Grand Line. Luffy beamed as he stretched out to join him on the balcony. "Well, let's go right now!" he said.

"It just isn't the right time. Not yet…" Sanji said. They continued to look out at the sea for a moment before he said, "There is one place…" And without another word, he turned back to Luffy and asked, his face suddenly lighting up with exhilaration as he asked, "Say have you ever heard of All Blue?"

"No," Luffy answered bluntly.

"You've got to be kidding me!?" Sanji asked, still never losing his smile. "That sea is a miracle!" Luffy's eyes widen as he went on and on about his dream of one day seeing the All Blue. "In the All Blue there are fish from the East Blue, the West Blue, the North Blue, and the South Blue," he said breathlessly, "That one stretch of ocean has it all! To us cooks it's a culinary dream come true! A place that fantastic has got to be on the Grand Line somewhere right?" Luffy was intrigued, because he'd talked to several fish by his island yet none mentioned anything like the All Blue. Of course, most fish aren't known for their attention spans.

This continued on for some time about Sanji's dreams of seeing the All Blue and what he would make once he got there. When Patty screamed out that lunch was served, the two decided to go down and get some as well. But they came before a surprising incident. First there wasn't any seating left and he and Luffy were forced to sit on the floor. Luffy decided to eat in dog form, since it was much more comfortable eating on the floor that way. That is until several chefs, including Sanji, whacked the clothed dog over the head, correctly guessing that he was the one playing the cute puppy act to win table scraps from the customers. Things settled back down as the chefs went back to their meals.

Soon though it got nasty when all the chefs kept going on about how they hated his food. It ended with a big fight with Zeff and Sanji before he went charging out.

The only one who didn't have something to say about Sanji's cooking was Luffy, who was gulping it all down. "What's all the fuss about?" he asked, ladling himself more and licking some off his muzzle, "This soup's totally awesome!"

"All of us know the soup is good," Zeff said and Luffy looked up in surprise.

"I know he's an outstanding chef. Everyone here on the Baratie does," Zeff said. Not a single one of the other cooks disagreed, all of them nodding the same way and told him what they all thought.

"But that thick-skulled idiot wouldn't listen to us if we tried to reason with him," he said. Luffy continued to enjoy the soup when Zeff made a surprising request. "Hey… listen. You were saying that you needed a cook for your ship right? Well, this isn't something I wanna be asking anyone but… would you mind taking that little brat along with ya? Take him to the Grand Line." He smiled, "That would be best for him. The Grand Line is his dream."

"Geez boss, you sure made us put on a heck of a show," Patty said, looking close to laughing.

"Oh man," Carne laughed, "I was worried he was gonna figure it out cause of your bad acting!"

Patty laughed, "Come on your acting was way worse than mine!"

But their fight was interrupted when Luffy said something that made them all almost fall over, "No way."

"But earlier you mentioned you needed a cook for your ship!" Zeff said loudly, and he was now sounding angry. "Just what are you trying to say? That he's suddenly not good enough for you?!"

"Oh, he's good," Luffy admitted, turning back to his food, "And I'd love it if he joined my crew and came with us." He swallowed and finished, "But it seems like he really wants to stay here and cook with all of you guys. You can ask me all you want but I'm just not gonna take him."

"So you're saying you can't agree to it unless he tells you himself," Zeff said, playing with his mustache. "Is that right?"

"That's right," Luffy said before he held out his plate in his mouth and asked for more food.

Zeff thought it over before he said, "Well, I suppose that's fair enough. But who knows if that hard-headed little brat will ever agree to join up with ya."

"Yeah," Patty added, "Once that guy makes up his mind there's nothing anybody can do to change it."

No sooner did he said that when something came with a CRASH right through the wall, causing Luffy to leap up into human form as he got into a battle stance.

Through the dust they saw that it was a large Panshark with Yosaku hanging from his mouth, and with Sanji underneath them.

After they pulled Yosaku out of the thing's mouth, it went back to the water and took off as they heard what happened. They had Yosaku with a blanket and he explained that though they weren't able to catch up to Nami, they figured out where she was heading. But Yosaku also added that he came back here to get Luffy, explaining that they needed his help because the place they were going to could mean certain death for them all.

"Alright," Luffy said, "I don't really get it… but I got it!"

Sanji was leaning against the railing outside as the two got up and walked past, going to get ready to leave. But as soon as Luffy walked past him, he said to wait. "You're dream is foolish," he said when Luffy did stop to listen, "But then again… so is mine."

Luffy didn't look at him as Sanji looked up to the sky. "Now's as good a time as any. Why not start my quest right now?"

"Sanji?" Luffy asked, turning his head slightly.

Pushing himself off the banister Sanji looked at him and said, "I'll be joining your little crew on your journey to be King of the Pirates."

Luffy turned to stare at him as Sanji finished up, "You hear me? I wanna be the cook on your ship!" they sized each other up as he finished, "Alright? Whadda say?"

A big grin appeared on his face and he screamed out, "YEAH! OF COURSE!" He and Yosaku were both jumping around, dancing and singing happily as Sanji looked up at the cooks.

"Are you guys happy now or what?" he asked grumpily, but he was smirking when he saw their sour expressions, "Sorry, really. I'll leave now."

Patty snorted and said that he wanted to throw him out himself for up and abandoning them.

"I'm especially sorry for making the lot of you resort to bad acting," Sanji told him.

"Hey wait!" Patty yelled, "How'd you know?"

"I heard everything, you bunch of jerks," Sanji answered, now turning to glare at Zeff. "Was stomping on my pride the best plan you could come up with? Was it? You old geezer."

"Every little thing has to be a fight with you!" Patty yelled, holding up a fist, "I'm sick-n-tired of it! Bring it on!"

But Zeff was holding Patty back as he looked to Sanji. "I have never liked children. As a matter of fact I hate children. There wasn't a day passed that I didn't regret letting a useless little brat like you live Sanji."

"Fine by me you rotten old man," Sanji smirked back, "Enjoy the rest of your miserable life."

With that, Sanji made to leave with Luffy and Yosaku. He told them that he was going to get his stuff and that he would meet up with them later. Later, as he was packing, Luffy got a surprise when Zeff had offered him his logbook. But Luffy had refused, and caused Zeff to smirk again and leave. Soon, with everyone on board, Luffy and Yosaku were waiting with all the other cooks outside on the fins—that was patched together rather sloppily.

Finally, Sanji appeared in the doorway with his knives in his case and a sack over his shoulder. He stood there for a minute in the doorway, as if realizing that this was all for real, he slowly walked forward. But Patty and Carne jumped him, ready to give him a beating… of course with two kicks, Sanji took them out.

"Really guys that was just dumb," a chef said to them as they bled on the deck and Sanji continued on as if no one interrupted him.

It was silent after that as Sanji walked with all the cooks on either side of him—only the sounds of his footsteps and the waves could be heard. It was as if he was about to leave for a dangerous war and might never come back. Though, thinking about it, that wasn't impossible. He reached the boat and said, without ever looking back, "Let's get going."

"You don't need to say goodbye?" Luffy asked a little surprise. But Sanji smiled as he said it was fine; and was about to get in when Zeff called out behind him.

"Sanji," he said from the upper balcony, "Take care of yourself ok?"

Sanji was standing there frozen at those words. Even after all this time, those words seemed to have echoed inside him. Though those simple words wouldn't mean much to others, to Sanji, those words meant so much… Zeff, a man who usually belittled him one way or another, asked him to take care of himself.

He was fighting the tears that threatened to come out but was quickly breaking down as an understanding smile appeared on Luffy's face.

"CHEF ZEEEEEFFFFFFF!" Sanji screamed out and to their astonishment he spun around and fell to his knees, his forehead touching the Baratie's deck. He was so completely moved by what Zeff said, that he just couldn't hold it in. "Thanks you geezer! I'll never forget your kindness! I owe my life to you old man… so thank you!"

Tears had also appeared in Zeff's eyes. Soon all the other chefs were crying as well, saying how much they were gonna miss him. There wasn't a dry eye around and Sanji was smiling through his tears.

"Stupid words," Zeff said, his eyes bloodshot as he rubbed them, "Real men should part without a word, let alone tears." Luffy stood grinning as they watched them all try and mop up their feelings and Sanji finally stepped onto the boat.

"LET'S GO! SET SAIL!" Luffy hollered and they pushed off, with Sanji waving to them all, still crying the whole way.

"I will see you again!" he promised them. "I'll come back someday!"

The whole time the chefs waved him off, yelling they wished him good luck and that they would miss him. With an emotional Baratie behind, they watched the three head off as the chefs waving him off even after he was out of their sights.

AN: Longest…chapter…EVER! Hopefully this'll make up for me not updating this for a while after giving you all a lackluster chapter last time. Of course, I couldn't have done this on my own. Big fat shout out to the awesome author RoseDragonWitch who gave me the rights to use parts of her great story "Warm Memories and Brotherly Bonds," which I highly recommend. I had to edit the chapter a fair deal but it's largely thanks to RoseDragonWitch that I was able to bring you this long chapter, and with her help I should be able to bring you longer chapters at a faster rate as well! I kept the fight between Mihawk and Zoro this time because I honestly felt it was a huge moment in One Piece history, as well as the interactions between Sanji and Gin. Normally I try just focusing on what's going on with Luffy but for now I'll make an exception.

The fight between Luffy and Krieg went differently because for one, a large portion of the canon fight was Krieg trying to knock Luffy into the water. I noticed that Krieg comes off as cocky and so sure that everything he plans will work without fail, so that's why he was so slow on the uptake that even though Luffy was a Devil's Fruit user, the ocean didn't have the same effect on him. Also, I hope my reasoning for why Luffy passed out after the fight was sound, as he wasn't as injured as he was in canon when the fight ended.

You'll also notice Luffy's main Chimera form changed when he got mad. Does this mean there are secrets to the Chimera Fruit that have yet to be revealed? Only the author knows for sure (evil cackle)! I honestly hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I'll get to work as soon as I can on Kid Kyubi (though all advice on the next chapter is welcome as I have no definite plans yet). More of this will hopefully come soon but in the meantime, please Read and Review!