Chapter 24: Detour

"AH! Where's my hat!"

"Oh, guess he is awake now."

I let loose a sigh before flinching in pain from my cracked ribs. Despite being brutes, these cooks sure know to apply proper first aid. Even if a few of them were ogling at my boobs while doing so.

It has been about a day since the Krieg Pirates attacked the seafaring restaurant Baratie. Gin has remained on board while we captured and tied up all living remnants of the former Pirate Armada, storing them in an empty storeroom upstairs. The cooks are pretty uneasy about having the former Battle Commander walking freely among them, but Sen has assured them that he'll keep an eye on him for their sake.

Zeff has let us stayed onboard while we recover from the fight, allowing us to rest in the employee's breaks room. So far, Gord has been calling to the other ships in the East Traders in hopes of getting a pickup from one of them back to Temasek. Sen himself has been taking it easy on board himself.

And speaking of Sen…

"And here's ten tons no.5!"

"GAH!"

I let loose a cry of immense agony when my mentor dropped another sack over the pile of them pressing on my poor abused thighs. This has been my punishment for using my DF powers despite being told not to. In my defense, it was a life or death situation and I would have died if I hadn't used them. Not that Sen would care either way.

No wonder anime depicts just a thing as torture. It is!

"Sen, it has been six hours." Gord told him, "Isn't it already enough?"

"Only when I said it's enough then it's enough." He states while leaning on the pile and adding his weight to the already crushingly heavy pile.

By the gods, I think my knees are going to be crushed into ash at this rate!

"You really are…"

"By the way, any luck in getting any of the other ships to pick us up?"

"It's no good." The bald cook sighed, "Apparently, there has been a sudden massive movement of goods that they need all the vessels they can get to handle it. A big paying job, apparently. We are on our own."

"At least we are on safe waters, and dry." Sen pointed out, "We can always ask for a ride to Temasek from one of the cooks."

"Yeah, but it is quite a fair distance from here. And I don't think any of them are in any condition to go on such a long trip, especially with all the repairs they'll be doing."

"So we are stuck here."

"I'm afraid so. Unless you wish to steal a boat?"

"…"

"…You can't be serious."

"No, no, I'm just… weighing my options here."

"Speaking of weighing our options…" Gord turned to Gin, who is currently sitting on the beddings with his hair partially dyed in the red. He is currently wearing one of Sanji's spare suits minus the tie, "I still don't think this is a good idea."

"It can't be helped. I wanted to give him rainbow hair but they don't have any other colours-"

"That's not what I meant, and you know it." He groaned, "Gin is a wanted man with a bounty of at least several hundred thousand Beri. He's dangerous, not someone that the East Traders would willingly hire."

"Even so, Gin is a good person." I pointed out, before crying out in pain when Sen presses down on the pile again. Seriously, I think I can hear my bones cracking under the weight!

"Meal time! Come and get it!"

Thankfully, I was saved by the metaphorical bell when the infamous call of lunch echoes across the restaurant.

"Hm? What's going on?"

We entered the dining room of the restaurant to a pretty tense moment. Which got even tender when Gin entered after me. The ex-pirate flinched under their gaze before I patted him on the back to assure him.

Sanji is on the floor with Zeff standing over him, the floor is stained with broken plates and light brown puddles, and every other cook is standing and looking at the two founders of this place with surprised looks.

"Munch, munch."

All the while, Luffy is busy stuffing his face, looking completely lost about the whole thing.

"…Dammit!"

Sanji rushes out of the room, shoves past us and slams the door behind him.

Wait, isn't this the moment that Zeff tries to not-subtly get Sanji to leave the Baratie and pursue his dreams for the All-Blue? By getting everyone to think his food is subpar and not worthy of the Baratie standards before insulting his inexperience compared to his?

…did we just ruin the moment?

"…so, can someone explain things to us now?" Sen asked.

"Just some internal strife." Zeff stated, sitting down with a sigh, "It's nothing you need to be concerned about."

"Oh, okay. If you say so."

While still looking utterly confused, Sen nonchalantly shrugs his shoulders and we went on with our lunch. I decided to try the soup first, the consommé, I believed it's called. Sanji is one that made this, right?

To call it delicious is an understatement. Like, holy shit, how can one bowl of soup taste this good!?

"Whoa, this soup is amazing." Gord said in awe, "Who made it?"

"Sanji." One of the cooks tells us, "It is one of his best works."

"I'm going to get another bowl." Another cook stood up and went to pour himself some soup.

"As much as I hate to admit it, the bastard is probably one of the best cooks here." The Popeye cook grumbles, "Only the Head Chef is better than him."

"Then, why did you throw away his soup?" Luffy asked.

"We didn't have much choice. He is way too stubborn to listen to us if we didn't do this." Zeff then turns to the Straw Hat pirate, "Hey kid. Are you still looking for a cook for your pirate crew? If so, mind taking Sanji as your cook? The Grand Line has always been his dream too."

"Hm… no thanks."

"W-What!?"

"What do you mean 'no thanks'?" Zeff asked for the benefit of the shocked cooks, "I thought you really wanted him as your cook?"

"Well, yeah. But he said he wants to stay here." Luffy explained, "So even if you want me to take him, I can't."

"Ah, so he has to be one to choose to go, then?"

"Pretty much. Also, seconds please."

"Hm, that sounds just like him. But I highly doubt it will be easy to get him to do that. The kid's as stubborn as a mule."

"Um… is it alright for us to hear any of this?" Gord asked, "I mean, it sounds pretty personal and we aren't actually part of you guys…"

"Eh, it's fine. It's not like it's anything really confidential." The Popeye cook's partner told us.

"I-I see…"

I honestly just keep on chowing down on my meal, all the while anxiously waiting that one moment I knew was coming.

And as if on cue, something massive bursts through the wall and into the dining room. And as expected it was Yosaku.

What I did not expect was…

"Is that a fishman?"

"Did a fishman just swim all the way here from Fishman Island to eat at our restaurant?"

"K-Kris!?" I cried out in shock.

Standing by the now broken down doorway instead of a hole in a wall and right next to Sanji while carrying the bounty hunter, was Kris the moray eel fishman. What on earth is he doing here? Wasn't he supposed to be back with the Silver Fang?

"Yosaku! You bastard…!"

"Luffy, wait!" I got in front of Luffy just as he was reeling back for a Gum Gum Pistol, "This guy's friendly! Do not attack!"

"A-Ah… Big Bro Luffy…!" The bounty hunter weakly called out to him, "I've… found you…"

The cooks got Yosaku some towels to dry himself as well as a warm blanket to warm up. Kris got a scared glance from the bounty hunter and wary gazes from the cooks, which I quickly addressed.

"Kris may look scary, but he isn't some monster." I assured them.

Gord then asked the fishman in question, "Kris, what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be back at the Silver Fang?"

"Silvia sent me here." He tells us, "Says to lend you my strength if needed."

"We could have used that yesterday…"

"The currents were too strong; I've drifted off course a lot of times on my way here."

"Well that explains why you are here." I noted before pointing at Yosaku, "But why were you carrying that guy here?"

"Ah, I found him drowning and getting chewed on by a panda shark. I've managed to free him, but he was already unconscious. So I carry him with me to get help. I didn't expect that he'll wake up right as I reached here."

Huh, so the panda shark thing still happened but thanks to Kris interference, he was instead carried here by the fishman. Must have been a real shock for him, considering what their next destination is.

"Why are you alone, Yosaku?" Luffy asked, "Where're Nami and the others?"

"I wouldn't want to bore you with a long story, so I'll just say this." Yosaku tells the Straw Hat pirate, "I know where Big Sis might be heading to, but it is a very dangerous place. We'll need your powers for it, Big Bro Luffy."

"Hm… I don't really understand, but basically you need my help, right? Okay, let's go!"

"Wait." Sanji called out to him and said, "I'm coming too. Take me with you."

"Eh!? Sanji, you…"

The blonde cook ignored the surprised stunned cooks and addressed Luffy, "You want to be the Pirate King, right? Well, my dream of finding the All-Blue is just as crazy, so we fit each other perfectly. From now on, I'll pursue my dreams. I'll be your ship's cook. You got a problem with that, captain?"

"None at all!" Luffy cheered, "Welcome aboard!"

"This is great, Big Bro Luffy!"

"Yeah, yeah!"

As the two idiots cheered, I tuned out Sanji's conversation as an idea popped into my mind.

We don't know how long we have to wait for someone to come pick us up from here. And most of our wounds are mostly healed up, so we can't stay for long either. But if we follow Luffy and head to Cocoyashi, we might be able to circumvent the islands, the village is part of an archipelago if I remember my One Piece geography, and get a ship at another town NOT under Arlong's control yet and sail back to Temasek.

There's a very high chance we might encounter the Arlong Pirates or the corrupt Marines under Nezumi, but it's still better than freeloading at the Baratie until they eventually kick us out.

"Hey, mind if we come with you guys?"

The one who asked that wasn't me, but Sen of all people.

"Sen!?" Gord cried out, "What are you-"

"We need to get off this place sooner or later, sooner would be better as Zeff wouldn't like it if we freeloaded here while they repair the place."

"Damn right, I won't." Zeff gruffly agreed.

"And this way, I wouldn't have to steal one of their boats."

"You were still considering that!?"

"Theft is always an option."

"Since when!?"

"Since always."

I ignored their little back and forth on the moral of thievery and turned to Luffy, "So, mind letting us hitch a ride with you?"

"Oh, sure." Luffy nodded.

"Eh!?"

"Thank you for your understanding!"

Despite Gord grievances about hitchhiking with Luffy, we ended up boarding with them.

The vessel they provided for us is the same as in the manga, a small sailboat big enough to fit at least four people. It would be a tight squeeze for all seven of us, Kris states that he would remain in the water for the majority of the trip, but I think we can make it work.

All the cooks came out of the shattered Fin to see us off, although the one that they seeing off isn't here yet.

"He's late." Yosaku noted.

"He's probably just reminiscing about his time here." Sen pointed out, "It isn't easy to just leave home for the great beyond."

I would also point out that this isn't time he did this considering his actual familial ties, but that would be spoiling and exposing a very personal part of his history.

The guy has been through a lot. He deserves his privacy.

"I guess that's true…"

"Oh, here he comes."

Sanji walked up to the boat with a rucksack over his shoulder, not interacting with any of the cooks, not even looking at them.

"Payback time-Argh!"

And then the Popeye cook and his partner leaped out and attempted to take a potshot at the blonde cook, only for Sanji to kick their asses into submission without breaking a sweat, much to the annoyance and sympathy of everyone here.

"Seriously… you could never beat him then, why did you think you can beat him now?"

But to be fair, they could have at least get one hit if they hadn't announced their attack.

"Okay, let's go." He said to us.

"Not going to say goodbye?" Luffy asked.

"It doesn't really matter-"

"Sanji." Zeff called out from the second floor, a warm smile on his face, "Don't catch a cold now."

That last phrase unleashed the dam of emotions inside Sanji; tears welled up as he started to choke up, "You old geezer…!" He kneeled down towards the head cook, "Thank you, for everything you have ever done for me! I will never forget your kindness for the rest of my life!"

Moments later, all the cooks all started choking up in their tears as well and they all started shouted their tearful farewells to the blonde cook.

I couldn't keep some of my tears from welling up at the touching scene in front of me, and reminding me of the fact that I never had the chance to say farewell to my family before dying and ending up here.

Mom and dad must have been so devastated…

"Set sail!"

"Farewell, you idiots!"

With a last tearful goodbye, we set sail towards the next arc, and possibly face down a crew of racist fishman.

…

To be continued…

Hey, hey. Sorry for the long absence! My laptop is going on the fritz, so I've been writing this chapter on my phone. It hasn't been easy, but I did it!

This chapter is a bit on the short side, a bit of an intermission before we dive into the best arc of the East Blue saga. Just you wait, the Arlong Park arc is going to be amazing.

So yeah, Gin isn't dead or out in the sea as a pirate, but is following along with the gang until further notice. I know a few fics like to put Gin with the Straw Hats and you want me to do so, but considering how things played out here, I find that very unlikely to happen.

With that, I thank you all for reading this!