The pirates and the cooks continued to look across at each other. The wind blew the sea air around the Baratie and the destroyed Don Krieg ship as the ocean waves remained calm and unaware of the coming storm. Rin let out a small breath as she tried to calm her nerves and focus on the single mission to protect Zeff's dream.
"All right!" Luffy exclaimed with pure excitement.
"Why are you hanging upside down?" Rin asked the Straw Hat.
"Huh?" Luffy answered in confusion. "I'm upside down." He looked had his legs attached to a small gate that was hooked to the restaurant and hung off the edge upside down. "That explains why they're upside down. But they do want to fight." He quickly sat up straight and grabbed onto the railing. "I'm getting fired up!" He turned his attention to Zeff and said, "Pops! You promised, okay? Once I drive them away, I'll quit doing chores. Okay?"
"Couldn't ask for more," Zeff answered to the teen. "If you do chores for a year, this place will get messed up."
Yeah. It would. Rin agreed as she flinched at the thought of all the broken plates that Luffy had already destroyed within his four days of being here.
"All right!" Luffy said as he placed a hand on his Straw Hat.
"You said you were going to be King of the Pirates," Zeff said to the young pirate with a smug look and something dancing within his old eyes. "Are you serious?"
"Yeah, of course! I'll definitely be King of the Pirates!" Luffy answered the chef.
Rin stared at the Straw Hat teen for a moment because he sounded sure of his destiny. That the dream of becoming Pirate King was the most important thing to him. There was something within Luffy's eyes that made the female believe that he was telling the truth and would become King of the Pirates within his lifetime.
She'd heard about the King of the Pirates dream before from a few people and none of them ever made it. No one could surpass Gold Roger. That pirate did the impossible and proved that a pirate crew could travel the Grand Line to reach the treasure. But living up to the first pirate king was always going to be tricky within this life because there could never be another Gold Roger. There had to be someone that could be like him but turn into someone greater.
So, a second Pirate King was always a tricky subject to think about.
"I've come across tons of roughnecks," Zeff explained. "But you're the first one in a long time who said that so clearly."
Rin smiled softly at the words.
Luffy kept his grin and asked with wonder dancing within his eyes that stayed on Zeff. "I heard that you were an incredibly strong pirate. Were you going to be King of the Pirates?"
"I forgot about the past," Zeff answered to the young pirate. "I'm the owner of a restaurant now and that's enough for me."
Sanji gave a small hum before pointing Rin in the arm. "Rin."
The blonde-haired female turned and looked at him. "Yes, Sanji."
"Your staff is still on the ground."
Rin looked to the ground and quickly picked up the weapon. She remembered dropping it when watching Mihawk and Zoro's fight. Only she had forgotten to pick it back up when the swordsman was done because her focus was on Luffy and Zeff's conversation.
"Oh, thank you," Rin said to Sanji with a small grin.
"Just stay behind me and the Straw Hat kid," the blonde-haired male explained.
Of course, Sanji would enter an overprotective brother mood, Rin thought bitterly.
She never did like it when Sanji got overprotective and quickly insisted, "I can help fight."
Sanji shook his head. "Stay near Zeff and Patty. I can handle most of them."
Rin frowned and scoffed at her brother's tone.
"Guys!" Don Krieg shouted as he pointed a glove finger in the restaurant's direction. "As long as we take that ship, the Grand Line is nothing to be scared of! We can get closer and make a surprise attack on enemy ships more effectively than pretending to be a Navy ship or raising the white flag of surrender. We can make a definite sneak attack."
What a veil man. Rin thought as she glared at Krieg.
"It's true that no one would think…" a Don pirate admits
"That pirates are on board such a silly-looking ship." Another pirate adds.
It's a restaurant. Not a silly-looking ship, Rin wanted to spit at the pirates because of the insult but she knew that would most likely cause the pirates to attack sooner or cause Don to start shooting.
"B-but, Don…Even if we enter the Grand Line again using that ship, if we come across someone like Hawk-Eye Mihawk again…" another pirate tried to explain his worries which seemed to only make Don furious.
Krieg's eyes went dark as he lifted a gun and shot the pirate that had spoken. The pirate fell backwards into the sea with a loud splash which caused several members of Don's crew to raise their hands in the air and whimper from the shocking event.
"Are you still afraid of someone like that?" Don asked his crew before turning the weapon to the right and pointed the weapon at a different crew member. "Huh?
"N-no…" a pirate whispered in fear.
"You think an ordinary human slices up a large sailing ship?" Don questioned his crew about Mihawk. "That's probably the power of a devil fruit. Although those with devil fruit powers are considered by society to be legends, the Grand Line is crawling with them. Mihawk must've used some strange power when he sliced up the ship. Even that straw hat brat is a mere pirate once he enters the Grand Line." He clutched his glove hand into a fist and glared at the cooks, Luffy, Sanji, and Rin before his eyes landed on Zeff. "But Red Foot Zeff traveled there for a year. I can't help but think that he had ways of confronting those monsters. And those methods must be written in his logbook. If we're lucky, so is information on the One Piece."
Rin stared at Don in shock at the declaration of information about the One Piece being found within the Logbook. Only the female knew for a fact that nothing of the sort would be inside the logbook because Zeff had never been interested in the treasure.
A pirate spoke, "I see…that's our Don Krieg!"
"So long as we have that ship and the logbooks, we'll find a way to the One Piece again!"
"Got that, guys?" Krieg shouts to his crew. "Let's go! We'll take over the restaurant."
The pirates lifted their weapons into the air with a loud cheer that went across the sea. "Yeah!"
"So, it begins," Rin admits as the pirate's war cries echoed around them.
Patty and another cook quickly leaped into action by landing in a small boat. Rin watched the two and nearly shook her head at the sight of what was about to happen.
Correction. The fight will start after Patty does something stupid. Rin thought rather bitterly.
"This ship belongs to us…to the cooks!" Patty declared.
"We can't let them have it… no matter what happens!" the cook that had joined Patty adds.
Both of the cooks put their feet on the mental petals within the small boat and looked around in confusion at the buttons because neither male knew how to operate the thing.
"N-now…what do we do to operate this again?" the cook asked Patty.
Rin turned her attention back to Sanji, who had moved forward with his cigarette, sending smoke up into the air as he turned to look at everyone gathered. He no longer seemed to care about the pirate's war cry as his eyes locked with Rin's for a moment before he removed his cigarette from his mouth to speak.
"As it stands, the restaurant will be a battlefield…" Sanji admits to everyone.
Rin paled at the words because even she knew the restaurant might not survive this. Only the words that Zeff explained to Sanji and her on that small piece of rock out in the middle of the sea echoed within her head.
"I wish there was a restaurant in the middle of the sea…I was thinking that if I could leave this place alive, I'd build a restaurant as my final purpose in life… A restaurant as my final purpose in life…"
Rin clutched her right hand around her staff tightly. We have to protect Zeff's dream.
Sanji turned his head toward a cook and said, "Go to the operating room and open up the fins."
"What? Open up the fins?" the cook answered in shock. "That's gonna give a foothold to the enemy!"
Sanji lifted a hand and kept a joyful look on his face. "That's fine. We can't make the inside of this restaurant a battlefield. If it becomes a battlefield, that damn geezer will complain."
Zeff gave Sanji a sideways glance and asked, "Did you say something, you damn brat?"
Sanji gritted his teeth and mumbled, "Yeah, I said you like to complain!"
Rin turned to the cook that Sanji asked to lower the Fins and said, "Please…go do the task." She really didn't want Zeff and Sanji to argue with each other.
"Yes, right away Rin." The cook said as he nodded his head and went off to do the task.
The pirates began to move with another war cry with their weapons raised in the air.
Luffy grinned. "Here they come! They're finally coming!" Then the Straw Hat kid pulled back his rubber arms and launched himself over the wooden railing at the pirates. "Gum-Gum Rocket!"
Don Krieg's pirates began to panic the moment they saw Luffy. "Uhg! He's flying over here!"
"Wait…they didn't expect him to do that," Rin said in shock. She had a feeling that Luffy would launch himself into the fight without a second thought because of how excited he sounded earlier.
"I guess so," Sanji mumbled.
"And Gum-Gum…" Luffy shouts as he expands his rubber arms out wide. "Giant Scythe!"
Half of Don Krieg's pirates get sent flying into the air and right into the ocean.
"Nice work, Luffy!" Rin shouts.
Don gritted his teeth together as he glared at the Straw Hat teen.
Luffy quickly grabbed onto the fallen mast of Don's destroyed ship and grinned happily. "Oof!"
"Hey, that chore boy is pretty good!" a cook exclaimed in a cheer.
Sanji stared at the scene in shock. "The Grand Line is crawling with guys like this?"
Rin gave a nod. "Yep. It's kinda amazing."
"It is not," her brother said with a frown.
"Come on," the female begged her brother. "Just admit you're impressed."
"If I do that then he'll never stop asking me to join his crew," Sanji explained.
"Sanji!" Zeff said.
The blonde-haired male looked at the older cook. "Hmm?"
"Watch carefully how he fights. Don't take your eyes off him until the moment this fight comes to an end." The owner of the Restaurant ordered.
Sanji stared at Zeff in shock with his mouth wide open, not sure how to answer the demand.
"Of course, sir," Rin said with a grin.
Sanji turned and looked at Rin in shock next. "Seriously, Rin. Let me decide."
"Come on. It could be interesting," the female encourages her brother.
Luffy had been interested in Sanji for a while and didn't seem to ever lose interest in him joining. Now it was Sanji's turn to take a similar interest in him. Rin wanted to see if Sanji wanted to join Luffy or not. Plus, she wanted to see how the fight goes with a Devil Fruit user on the field.
Sanji let out a small breath and mumbled, "Fine."
Rin turned before turning her attention back to the Straw hat boy.
Luffy turned his attention to pirates. "To think that you attack the restaurant after they gave you food…I'll beat up an ungrateful jerk like you!"
Don Krieg let out a deep laugh. "So, you actually want to fight on the water when there's little foothold? Those with devil fruit powers are helpless in the sea. I know that much. Anchor boy!"
"Huh?" Rin breathed as her brown eyes looked at Luffy before turning to the ocean. "Devil Fruit users are helpless in the sea." She didn't know anything about Devil Fruits, only that they had strange powers.
Luffy grinned. "Instead, I can stretch."
"Sanji!" the cook down by the Fins yelled. "The fins are gonna open up now!"
The noise of gears moving echoed around the area.
"Hmm?" Luffy hummed.
"What's going on?" Krieg demands.
Then the ocean water around the restaurant began to ripple as two wooden platforms began to rise from below the water and began to expand making a foothold into the middle of the ocean. Now two large wood platforms were connected to the restaurant making everyone look at the new part of the battlefield.
"Whoa!" Luffy exclaimed with his mouth falling open. "Check that out!"
Sanji walked forward onto the wooden platform with his hands in his pants pockets and declared, "We'll fight to the utmost, you damn pirates!"
"I see. You set up that battlefield so that the restaurant itself won't be damaged," Krieg explained because he seemed to figure out Sanji's intention. "That works out for us too, since that ship's gonna be ours. I want this ship all the more."
Seriously! It's like anything we show him will only make him want the restaurant more, Rin thought with a frown.
"We won't let you have this restaurant!" the cook's shout.
"That's right!" Patty shouts. "Don't make light of us!"
"We're battle cooks now!" another shouts.
Rin smiled at the words. "Oh, you guys."
Then the fish head of the Baratie began to move as Patty and another cook finally got that boat working.
"Take sail! The Baratie's sea battle weapon, Mackere! Head 1!" Patty shouts.
"If you don't wanna die, get out of here now!" a cook adds.
Rin paled. What are you idiots doing?
"What's that thing?" Krieg asked.
"That's so cool! I want it!" Luffy shouts with a smile.
"Paddle faster!" Patty ordered.
"I'm paddling as fast as I can!" the cook shouts back.
The small ship made it where the pirates were located and pointed their canons at them.
"Fire!" Patty shouts.
Three cannonballs hit the water making giant waves begin to push the pirates that Luffy hit into the water away from the restaurant. Only the blast had caused the broken-down ship to move in the water and nearly knocked Straw Hat into the ocean.
"I'm gonna sink!" Luffy shouts in terror.
Rin watched Luffy and would jump into the ocean to get him if he ended up falling into the water. Since Devil Fruits seemed to have problems with the sea. Plus, Krieg had called Luffy an Anchor... so Rin wondered if Luffy would sink to the bottom of the sea.
"All right! Good Job!" another cook cheered.
"Patty! Carne! Get them!" another adds.
"They're pretty good!" Luffy admits once the ocean begins to calm down.
Patty was cheerfully laughing with a grin on his face.
The cook-Carne- looked at Patty and said, "Don't look away! We're aiming at him!"
Him. Rin thought only to realize where the small ship was heading. They're aiming at Krieg.
"Krieg! Be prepared!" Patty shouts. "Watch how powerful the Sea Restaurant Baratie's sea battle weapon is!"
"Patty don't!" Rin warned but it was too late.
Three beams shot out at Krieg which caused a blinding bright light to stream through the air. A black smoke began to fill in the area where Krieg stood once the beams began to fade away. The smoke began to blow in the wind and Rin had a feeling that nothing had happened to Krieg which was quickly proven to be correct once the smoke cleared.
Krige stood covered in smoke but he was unharmed. The small ship crashed into the wood of the fallen ship where Krieg stood, but the pirate had an arm out at the ship.
"What? Did we bump into something?" Patty wandered.
"Hmm? We can't move!" Carne shouts.
"I'm Don Krieg!" the pirate shouts as he opens his eyes. Rin nearly flinched when she saw the blood vessels looking ready to burst from within because that attack from Patty and Carne made Don enraged. "I'm the man who will rule the world's oceans!"
"I told you that's gonna be me!" Luffy shouts at Krieg, furious.
"I don't have time for your games!" Krieg roars before gripping onto one of the small ships cannons and picking the sea vessel out of the water.
"What Herculean strength he has!" Patty exclaimed in shock.
Then the small boat was toasted into the air and sent straight toward the restaurant.
"Seriously!" Rin shouts.
A cook shouts, "It's coming right for us!"
"The restaurant will be destroyed!" a cook adds with wide eyes.
Sanji remained calm and grinned as he took out his cigarettes and held it in his hand. The blonde positioned his legs before leaping into the air and sent a strong kick into the side of the small boat and sent the sea vessel away from the restaurant.
"Sanji!" The cooks and Rin cheered.
"W-with his foot?!" Krieg shouts with his mouth open in shock.
Sanji landed back on the ship with his cigarette back in his mouth.
The small fish-like ship landed onto a wood platform which caused dust to be kicked up.
"Is Patty and Carne, okay?" Rin asked.
"They'll be fine," Sanji reassured.
"Wh-what strong legs!" one of Don's pirates exclaimed in shock.
Another Krieg pirate adds. "He kicked back that weird boat!"
Don Krieg narrowed his eyes and declared, "That foot technique is…"
Seems Don's figured it out, Rin realized.
"There goes! Sanji's kick!" a cook explained with a large grin.
"He's pretty good!" Luffy said with amazement.
"Yeah," Rin agreed as she felt pride run through her own veins at Sanji's technique. "My amazing older brother."
Suddenly the sound of wood being broken made Rin turn to look at the destroyed fish boat as Patty and Carne broke through the wood to get out of the ship.
"You son of a bitch, Sanji!" Patty shouts with fist in the air, furious.
"Are you trying to crush your allies?" Carne demands.
Sanji turned to them with hands in his pockets. "Yeah…"
"Don't 'yeah' us, you crazy stew!" Patty shouts.
Carne pointed a finger at Sanji and scolded, "You almost lost powerful assets, you stupid spaghetti!"
"Do you really think you have time to crack jokes, cooks?" a pirate shouts at the cooks.
Rin turned to look in front of the wood platforms and realized that the pirates of Don's crew had finally made their way over. The pirates stood in front of them with weapons ready for a fight.
"Let's get them!" a cook declared.
A group of cooks charged forward at the pirates to meet them in battle…the large wooden fork was cut in half by a sharp sword and wood splinted everywhere. The cooks were being sent flying backwards by the pirate's attacks.
Rin tried to move forward to help against the pirate to feel Sanji grabbed her arm and pulled her behind him. "Sanji…" she tried to protest.
"I told you to stay behind me," Sanji declared with a hard expression. "Remember?"
The blonde-haired female just stared at her brother in shock because she didn't expect him to go into over protective brother mode when they needed to defend the restaurant. "I can handle…" she tried to speak once again.
"No, the only time anyone harms you is if they get past me," Sanji continued to speak.
Rin could hear the clear emotion within her brother's voice because he was not going to allow her to join the fight unless he allowed it. She should've seen this coming the moment he said the words to her at the beginning of the fight.
"Overprotective fool," Rin mumbled to Sanji with a slight glare.
The blonde-haired male gave a soft chuckle, "Yes, I'm an overprotective fool of a brother that loves you."
"I know," she grumbled at him.
Rin knew that Sanji's overprotective streak was from his undying love to his only family that joined him on his journey. Even though Sanji originally didn't want her to come with him when they left home. Even though she could still remember during the time when they met Zeff years ago did Sanji admit that he might have led Rin to her own death when they were on that rock for forty-seven days.
She turned her brown eyes back to the fight as she kept a hard grip on her staff because the cooks had been defeated by the small group of pirates within a few seconds.
"Even with a weapon, a cook's a cook," a pirate mocked. "We're expert fighters who're in a whole other league from you. Now, be good little cooks and go find a land restaurant to cook for."
"Hey, you guys!" Carne shouts. "Why are you letting those guys beat you up so easily?"
Patty, who seemed shocked and terrified with sweat dripping off his face, shouted, "Do you still call yourselves fighting cooks?"
A bruise cook sat on the ground and said, "Well, they're strong! They're totally different from those we've fought before!"
"Don't lump us in with those average pirates," a Krieg pirate demanded at the cooks with an angry glare. "We're the Krieg Pirates, the rulers of the East Blue."
Krieg glared from his place and shouted, "Just decree to them…that the ship already belongs to the Krieg Pirates!'
Sanji smiled and looked at Krieg and gave a reply, "Don't be mistaken. We won't let you take even one step into the restaurant."
"He's exactly right!" a cook shouts in agreement.
"Yeah," Rin agreed with a nod.
"I've been a cook for more than ten years," Patty explained to the pirate and the other cooks. "I visited 300 restaurants. I got fired for causing a scuffle all the time and I lived a rough life."
Rin did expect that Patty had gotten fired from other restaurants in the past with how short tempered he was all the time in the cook and how he was toward certain customers, but this was the first time he ever did admit it out loud to anyone.
I guess this is his way of saying that he cares about the Baratie, Rin thought.
"This is the place we finally came to after going to restaurant after restaurant…" Carne explained.
Rin flinched at the memory of how she met Patty and Carne. Even though she barely said anything to them back in the day which made both cooks believe she was mute for some time. She did end up laughing when either of them did something stupid.
"Scuffles…cooking…we're allowed to do whatever we like," Patty exclaimed to the pirates with a wide grin. He held a large wooden fork in his hands.
Carne held a large wooden knife as he nodded his head in agreement. "There's no other restaurant as good as this."
"So, they say," Sanji admits before glaring at the pirate and shouts, "Got that, Krieg?"
"Committing ourselves to cooking every day is a fierce battle." Patty admits. "Compared to that, the pirates we're facing today are nothing!"
"He's exactly right!" a cook shouts.
Another adds, "Let's fight!"
"Yeah!"
"Protect Owner!" Patty shouts as he charges forward.
"Protect the restaurant!" Carne adds as he charged forward with Patty.
The pirates were quickly sent flying into the sea from the attack.
"Wow," Rin breathed in shock.
Then everything happened at once. The cooks were clashing with the pirates once more in the mess on the deck. Even as Rin's brown eyes watched from beside Zeff she couldn't see a chance to get past Sanji to join the fight.
She frowned as everyone seemed to be fighting but her.
Am I always going to be useless, Rin wondered only for her eyes to catch something shining within the water.
"Huh?" Rin whispered as she looked at the water at the shiny object that caught her eye. "Is that a pearl…"
But the pearl continued to move in the water and began to travel closer to the restaurant. Rin was positive that a pearl shouldn't be floating in the middle of the water or even travel in such a straight line toward the sea restaurant. As it got closer, she realized that the pearl object was a hat or a real pearl attracted to a hat of a pirate.
"Patty!" Rin shouts. "In the water…behind you…a Pearl Pirate!"
Patty turned and said, "A Pearl…what?"
Then the pirate that wore the pearl slammed a fist into Patty and sent the cook flying into the air which made the cook fall down onto the wood deck.
"Aaah, Patty," Rin cried with her mouth falling open.
Then the Pearl Pirate raised themselves from the water and fit Carne, sending the cook flying backwards. Sanji turned his attention to the new arrival with a glare while Zeff didn't seem phased by the pirate's arrival.
"Hmmm…" the Pearl Pirate said in a rather boring tone. "Just what're you guys doing?"
"What's with that guy?" Luffy mumbled from his spot-on Krieg's destroyed ship.
Rin just blinked at the sight of the new pirate and realized that the pearl Pirates look was completely ridiculous. The pirate wore two large iron plates covering his front and backside, as well as two small plates with large pearls.
"Who's this clown?" Rin asked, confused.
"Unassailable! Hence invincible!" the Pearl Pirate shouts. "When someone says; Pearl the Invincible Shield of the Krieg Pirates, they mean me!"
He's literally named Pearl because of the shields! Rin thought in shock.
"Hey, it's Pearl!" a Krieg pirate shouts.
"Patty! Carne!" Zeff shouts to the defeated cooks. "Are you all right?"
"They're not all right, because they took my killer punch; Pearl Surprise." Pearl explained to Zeff.
Sanji and Zeff gave the pirate a heated glare.
"Your moves are ridiculous," Rin mumbled under her breath. She was not going to take this pearl Pirate seriously in the slightest.
"Whoa!" a Krieg pirate said as he moved toward Patty. "This is a nice knife. I'll take it." The pirate tried to take the knife but the grip Patty kept on it was impossible to break. "Hmm? Hey, let go. Give it to me! Let it go, you damn loser!"
Sanji moved toward and the pirate that was trying to take the knife looked up. Then the blonde-haired cook left his right leg and kicked the pirate right in the head-this caused Rin to flinch at the impact from her brother's hit-the knife sailed upward into the air and began to spin. The pirate that Sanji kicked sailed backwards into four other pirates and they all landed on the Pearl's shield. While the knife came sailing back down and landed in Sanji's hands.
"He's really got some good kicks!" Luffy comments in awe. "I didn't come to like him for nothing!"
"A kitchen knife is a cooks' soul," Sanji explains to the pirates as he holds the weapon in his left hand. "Don't you amateurs carelessly put hands on it!"
"Sanji…" Patty chokes out in pain.
"Patty," Rin whispered even though she felt joy run through her veins the moment she realized he was okay. "You're okay."
Sanji turns in Patty's direction with the knife and demands, "Hold this tight and stay down there." Patty took back the knife before the blade haired cook turned his attention to the pirates. "I'll take care of them."
Several pirates charged before at Sanji with weapons raised. "We won't be beaten by a mere cook!"
Sanji moved faster than the eyes could see and quickly did a sharp spin of his legs which brought up a strong gust of air that blasted the pirates backwards the moment his feet hit their faces.
"A mere cook, you said?" Sanji asked furiously. "I'm gonna cut you in three, you bastards!"
Rin winced at her older brother's tone. The Krieg pirates had officially angered her usually well-mannered brother.
"Ha!" Pear laughed. "How impudent you are to beat them using only kicks. Is that your policy?"
Sanji glared as he kept his hands in his pants pockets. "To cooks, hands are most important. I can't have them hurt in battle," he explained to the pirate and lifted up his leg to show his black shoes. "I'll take you down with this leg as well."
"Take me down?" Pearl asked with a confused look as he mocked Sanji. "That's impossible. I'm an invincible man that won all 61 of my battles unharmed. I've never shed blood in battle, not even a drop." Sanji was not even phased by the words. "Winning unharmed is the very proof of my power." The pirate Pearl lifted his shields and banged them together as a metal sound traveled across the area. "I'm a shield man and a gentleman. I'm refined, aren't I?"
"Was that supposed to be a gag?" Luffy asked. "It wasn't funny at all."
"I agree," Rin admits to the Straw Hat teen.
"Hey, Straw Hat brat!" Don Krieg shouts as he swings a metal chain in the air. "If you're not paying attention, you'll get hurt!"
Then the pirate launched the metal chain that held a large spiked metal ball as it hit the wooden pillar and cut it off the ship. Rin's eyes went wide as the wooden pillar began to fall toward the sea only for Krieg to launch the metal weapon again in Luffy's direction and the metal spiked ball hit the Straw hat teen directly and sent the teenager flying toward the restaurant.
"Luffy!" Rin shouted.
"I'm okay," the Straw Hat teen shouts, even though no one could see him.
"Okay," the blonde-haired female answered back.
"Even battleship cannons don't work on me," Pearl explained. "I come out of any attack unharmed!"
Then Luffy game sailing back ended up hitting Pearl in the back of head-the one place where the Krieg pirate was not over in shields or pearls.
"Ah," Rin laughed with a smile on her face.
Sanji smirked at Luffy's action with a rather impressed look on his face.
"Boy," Luffy answered not even phased as he stood in front of blonde-haired siblings and began to dust dirty off his clothes. "That startled me. Good thing I didn't fall in the sea." Then he lifted his head and realized the man in front of him-Pearl.
The Don Krieg pirate that went by the name Pearl was bleeding from his nose. That one hit by Luffy was enough to make him drip blood in this battle-the first battle he ever lost blood in according to the way he talked.
"Wow," Rin whispered but she felt her heart beat fast within worry because she didn't know how this pirate would react.
Pearl noticed his nose with his right hand and pulled it away to look at the red on his fingers. "What?" he whispered in fear.
"Ahh…" Krieg breathed, looking annoyed. "This isn't good."
"Blood! Oh no!" a Krieg pirate shouts.
"Pearl, don't worry," another shouts.
"It's just a nosebleed!"
"It's not a wound from fighting!"
"Please calm down, Pearl."
Rin looked at the Don Krieg pirates and then back at Pearl. Every single member of Don's crew seemed to panic that Pearl was bleeding. It made the female wonder if Pearl fainted or did something when he did bleed.
"What's going on?" a cook asked.
"Th-th-th-these guys are dangerous!" Pearl cried.
"Huh?" Rin asked, rather confused.
Even Sanji was confused by Pearl's words. "What's with him? He's acting strange."
Luffy lifted a finger and back to pick his nose and asked, "What about his nose bleed?"
Pearl began to clink his metal shields together which caused the noise to once again echo around them.
"Stop it, Pearl!" Don Krieg ordered. "It's just a nosebleed! Don't lose your cool!"
Pearl continued to bang the metal shields together at a faster speed.
"What the heck is he about to do?" Sanji asked.
"No idea," Rin answered.
"Danger! Danger! Danger!" Pearl shirked into the open air. Then he pounded the metal together and suddenly blue fires sparked from his metal shields and the pearls.
"What is going on?" Rin asked in shock. One minute Pearl was banging his metal shields together and now the metal is on fire. What even is this?
"Oh no!" a Don Pirate shouts in terror. "It's started!"
"When Pearl get's upset, he catches fire!"
"How is that even possible?" Rin wondered out loud.
Luffy turned and looked at the pirates. "Oh…wait…what?"
Pearl's blue fire began to grow large and large into a fireball as he shouted, "Fire Pearls…special treat!" Then several pearl balls were sent flying at Luffy, Sanji, and Rin.
Luffy used his Devil Fruit power to starch out of the way.
Rin quickly spun around with her staff and blocked the three balls that headed her way, her blocking the attacks sent the pear balls flying at the Krieg pirates which ended up on fire from the attack.
Sanji just simply leaped out of the way, using his legs to kick up wind that blew the pearl fire balls away.
The fire had spread to the Krieg pirates that were shouting due to the flames hitting them on their hair, clothes, or skin. This seemed to only make the pirate panic as fire began to land on the wooden deck of the restaurant…starting small fires.
"Pearl! Please stop!" the pirates begged.
"Burn!" Pearl shouted. "With this flame and the flame shield, you have no idea how invincible I am!"
"That idiot!" Don Krieg roared over the flames and the chaos. "Is he going to burn down the ship that we're gonna take over?"
Luffy, who was running down because his pants had caught fire, shouted at the top of his lungs, "Ow, ow, ow, ow…"
Sanji looked furious at what was happening around them and cursed, "Damnit!"
"My butts on fire!" Luffy shouts as he kept running around.
Rin let out a small breath as she quickly grabbed a bucket from inside the restaurant and flung it at Luffy as water over the Straw Hat kid and put out the fire. "You okay, Luffy?"
"Yeah, thanks," he answered with a grin.
"We're going to need a lot of water to put this out," Rin admits as the flames seemed to burn hotter and harder than before.
"Crap! There's no escape from a sea of flames in the middle of the sea!" a pirate shouts.
"This isn't good!"
"The restaurant will catch fire!" a cook shouts.
Sanji had a heated glare dancing within his eyes before launching into the air at Pearl with a loud cry, "You son of a bitch!"
"Sanji!" Rin shouted the moment she turned her head away from Luffy and saw her brother jumping at Pearl, who was surrounded by flames. "Are you crazy?" Her brother was going to get burned.
"You idiot!" Patty shouted. "You'll get burned, Sanji!"
"I'm not just gonna let you…burn this restaurant down!" Sanji shouts as he brings down a hard kick which was blocked by a burning shield.
Rin froze as she saw the smoke rise and the flames seemed to get hotter around the leg Sanji brought down.
"He's so reckless!" a pirate shouts.
"Does he want to turn into a human torch?" a pirate wondered to his crew with wide eyes.
"Even fierce animals would stay away from Fire Pearls!" Pearl shouts at Sanji.
Sanji quickly landed on the ground in front of Pearl, standing tall and not even phased by the flames. He lifted up his hand that held his cigarette and declared. "You fool! I'd be unfit for a cook if I was afraid of flames!"
Pearl looked shocked at the blonde-haired cooks' words. "D-dammit! What a refined guy he is!"
"Here I come!" Sanji warned as he attacked once again with his legs.
Sanji raised his hands on the wooden deck and brought both his legs forward against the burning metal. The impact of the attack sent Pearl backwards across the deck.
"Ahh! That hit him good!" a pirate cried.
"He broke through invincible Pearl's wall!"
Pearl sat up with tears in his eyes and blood bleeding from his nose. "What's with this cook? He's really crazy."
That's my brother for you, Rin thought as the flames continued to fire harder.
"Y-y-y you son of bitch!" Pearl stuttered at Sanji. "Fire! I need more fire!" He brought his arms closer to his blue fire chest as the flames rose higher from his body. "I need to feed more Fire Pearls!" Then several objects launched from his body into the sky. "Ahh! The restaurant will catch fire!"
"Oh no," Rin shouts with wide eyes.
Pearl was actually going to burn down the Restaurant at this rate.
Sometimes Rin wished she could bend water…even now she went to bend it to put out the flames. Pity she was not born like her older siblings with their abilities.
"If the fire gets into the kitchen, the restaurant will be blown away!"
"Owner! Please get out of there! Owner!" a cook shouts.
Rin turned away from her spot beside Luffy and realized that Zeff was still standing at the entrance of the restaurant with his arms crossed and didn't seem phased by the flames, the pirates, or the attack heading his way.
The fireballs got closer to Zeff, who quickly moved his beg leg in the air and the fire disappeared by the single move as the metal balls fell to the ground not causing any damage to the restaurant.
"Whoa!" Everyone said in one voice.
"M-my Fire pearls…" Pearl winced with tears.
Zeff glared at Pearl and gave a blunt answer, "Something like that is child's play!"
"The gust from his kick put out the flames!" a cook explained in a cheer.
"What the hell?" a Don pirate shouted. "That's definitely a divine technique! So Red Foot Zeff is still strong?"
"Of course, he is," Rin answered with a smile. "Zeff is one of the strongest…"
One of the strongest people Rin had known. Of course, Zeff would've found a way to stop the attack. But that still didn't put out the large flames that were still dancing around Sanji and Pearl.
Luffy gave a cheerful grin on his face. "Pops is really cool! I'm impressed!"
"Now that it's come to this," Krieg admits. "I'll sink you all with the fins before the restaurant catches fire!"
Then the metal spike ball on the chain was sent flying toward the burning restaurant. Rin's eyes grew wide when she noticed that Krieg's weapon was heading in Sanji's direction.
"Sanji! Watch out!" Rin shouted over the flames.
Sanji looked up and saw the danger he was getting into, only he couldn't get away because the flames had become too high to jump over.
"Oh no!" Carne says. "He's surrounded by fire!"
"Luffy!" Rin shouts once she notices that the Straw Hat kid had run into the fire to get Sanji.
"Ow, ow, ow…" Luffy cried out from the heat.
"Chore boy!"
Luffy makes it over to Sanji's side and shouts, "Gum-Gum…Bazooka! He launched his rubber arms backwards before jumping into the air and hitting the metal weapon back in Don's direction. Then Luffy began to complain about the flames on his clothes once more. "Ow, ow, ow…"
"He hit that iron ball back!" Sanji exclaimed in disbelief.
"Nice work, Luffy!" Rin shouts to the pirate.
The metal weapon hit a wooden pillar and the broken-down part of the ship slowly came down in the direction of Pearl, Sanji and Luffy. Only Sanji and Luffy saw it coming and moved out of the way while Pearl, who was back was turned, didn't notice the wooden pillar until it hit him in the head and sent the pirate to the ground.
"Pearl is really down this time!" a pirate exclaimed in shock.
Yeah, thanks to Krieg's attack and Luffy blocking it, Rin realized because they had gotten lucky thanks to fast thinking.
"What the heck?" Sanji wondered at the sight of Pearl defeated.
"That guy sure is dumb," Luffy admits.
Don Krieg cranked his neck with an annoyed grimace dancing across his face and grumbled, "Geez…they're all… in the end, I can only count on myself…"
"Huh?" Rin breathed because it meant Krieg was going to join in the fight.
Suddenly Zeff gave a loud cry of pain causing everyone to turn to look at the entrance of the restaurant. Rin's brown eyes grew wide because everyone had let down their guard because a pirate of Don Krieg's crew had already been in the restaurant the whole time and was not making their move.
Zeff laid on the ground with a booted foot planted in his back. Rin gritted her teeth together at the sight as she glared at the Pirate.
"The battle ends here," the pirate declared.
Luffy let out a quiet gasp in shock.
"Gin," Rin whispered.
The Don Krieg pirate had been crying and begging for forgiveness early and now he was holding a pistol to Zeff's head. This happened when Rin never once considered Gin a threat…she guessed she was wrong.
"That's right! Shot Red Foot Zeff!" Don Krieg shouted to his crew member. "All we need to do is kill him. Then the restaurant will be ours!"
Rin stared at Gin with wide eyes the moment Krieg gave the order. Would Gin actually listen to his captain's order or disobey them?
"Gin!" Luffy shouted with rage filling his eyes even though his expression was full of confused shock from not seeing Gin joining in on the fight coming.
"No matter how incredible he was in the past, he's now a mere cook," Gin explained in a blunt tone without making eye contact with anyone. "It's easy to blow his brains out. You want to save this man, right, Sanji…Rin? Please, leave the ship without a fight. I don't want to kill either of you."
"Leave the ship?" Sanji asked as he put his cigarette back into his mouth before letting out a puff of white smoke before glare at Gin. "No Way!"
Gin let out a shocked gasp.
Rin gave a nod to Sanji. "Yeah." Even though she had a feeling that Gin was only doing this to stop the fight which meant he wouldn't shoot Zeff.
"Man, do you look stupid, you damn geezer," Sanji said in Zeff. "If you're like that, you can't set a good example for the fighting cooks."
Zeff smirked from his spot on the ground and replied, "Hmph! I don't need a lecture from a little brat."
"Where do you get off calling me 'little brat', you damn bastard?" Sanji wondered with a shout. "Quit treating me like a kid already!"
Rin shook her head. Even in a dangerous situation Sanji and Zeff still knew how to get under each other's skin.
"That darn Sanji…" a cook mumbled.
"He sure isn't gonna forsake Owner, is he?" a cook wondered.
"Gin! Point that gun at me," Sanji ordered.
"What?" Rin said to her brother as her mouth dropped to the ground the moment, she heard his words.
"Are you stupid?" Luffy wondered to the blonde-haired cook. "You'll die!"
If Gin does shoot the weapon, Rin thought with a flinch. Sure, Gin didn't need to hurt them but that didn't mean he wouldn't try to pull the trigger to prove a point.
"Maybe…" Sanji answered.
"Sanji…" Gin breathed as he stared at the cook with a question dancing within his eyes, "Why?"
Only Sanji didn't have time to answer as another voice rang out from behind them.
"If you want to die so bad, I'll kill you in a refined way…" Pearl declared as he stood up from the ground. "Don't move if you don't want your Owner's head blown off." Gin gritted his teeth together as Pearl moved a hand back and swung at Sanji, "The Absolutely Natural Pearl…Surprise!"
The hit made contact with Sanji's back which sent the cigarette flying out of his mouth as blood ran out of his mouth as the force of the hit sent Sanji flying into the wooden railing. The blonde-haired cook hit his back against the wood and landed on the ground with a groan.
"Sanji!" Rin and Luffy shouted.
"Why aren't you dodging?" Luffy asked a moment later.
Sanji didn't look at them even though he grimaced in pain, "If I did, that damn underling would pull the trigger."
"Why?" Gin asked Sanji. "If you abandon this restaurant, everyone's life will be saved. It's a no-brainer, isn't it?"
"This restaurant is that damn geezer's treasure!" Sanji declared, though the pain was ripping through his body. "I took everything away from that damn geezer…"
Rin paled at the words. That wasn't even true even though Sanji always blamed himself for what happened all those years ago on that giant rock in the middle. No…it started on the ship back when they first met Zeff during that storm.
"His power…" the blonde-haired cook continued
Rin could remember that cold water and the blood going down Zeff's leg when Sanji was endangered.
"His dream…" Sanji choked out as he slowly got back up to his feet. "So…I don't want that damn geezer to lose anything else!"
"Sanji! Watch out!" Patty cried.
Rin's eyes grew wide as Pearl moved at an impossible fast speed behind her brother and ready for another attack.
"Pearl…Cymbals!"
Then both metal shields slammed into Sanji's head as blood spilled out of the cook's nose, mouth, and ears in several streams.
"Sanji!" Rin shouts.
Even as the blonde-haired female watched in horror as her brother fell to his knees her mind wandered all the way back to where the story with Zeff began. Where the dream of the All Blue was Sanji's dream and all Rin wanted was to find a way in the world without their family.