Chapter 25

"My name is Bob! Look how dumb my name sounds!"

"My name is Sanji! Literally means three! What's dumber than that!"

"H-he's an amazing cook! He can cook you a delicious meal every day!"

"This man is a beast! T-think about how vigorous he will be during the night!"

Rowan and Sanji continuously praised one another, trying to avoid the calamity called Nyaruko.

"Hmm... both traits are important! To see who's better, I will need to test both~" Nyaruko said with a smile while holding his/her(??) hands together like a maiden in love. "Cook competition to see who can satisfy me better, and... hehehe."

Those words felt like nuclear bombs to Rowan. He grabbed Sanji's collar and shook so hard. "YOU BASTARD, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!!!"

While being shook, Sanji was very pale with hollow eyes, as if he died. "I... I see a man with black clothes and a hat... he's gesturing me to come closer?" He whispered, before completely fainting.

Rowan has never felt more terrified in his life, not even when he was facing against Arlong! He looked at Sanji, who seemed almost unconscious.

"H-here. He's all yours. Please, spare me!!" Rowan gently placed Sanji on the wooden floor near Nyaruko, and slowly retreated. 'Forget the meal, I have to run!!'

"Lovovovovo!! Mommy, daddy, I am finally getting married at 45! Please bless me!!" Nyaruko said with sparkling eyes as his/her muscular arms grabbed onto the unconscious Sanji.

While looking at the scene in horror, Rowan quickly stuffed the first course in his mouth. "Psss Carina, are you done yet?" Rowan whispered while sweating with anxiety.

"Nope! We got 11 more to cover!" Carina said while sipping margarita.

"Hey, Sanji, what's taking you so long! The 2nd course for table 14 was prepared ages ago-" A buff chef stepped out with the white puffy chef hat on his head and white chef attires, with plates on his hands. "O-oh."

The buff chef quickly placed the dishes on Rowan and Carina's table before disappearing at a speed of light.

"My husbando!" Nyaruko said in a doting manner, while rubbing his/her face with Sanji's unconscious face. Turning away from the scene like a robot, Rowan swallowed the 2nd course or amuse-bouche, the onion garlic soup, not even being capable of tasting the flavor properly.

'W-wait, what is he... she doing?!!' Rowan's eyes widened when he saw Nyaruko taking out a dress from zir (gender neutral pronoun) purse. He didn't dare to look any further, and could only hope that Sanji would survive.

'Rest in peace, my friend...' Rowan let a lone tear fall out of his left eye, which earned a weird look from Carina.

"Hey, now isn't this a bit too extreme-" Carina said in an amused tone, but Rowan interrupted before she could finish her words.

"You are beautiful, Carina." Rowan said sincerely. "Only after I experienced hell, did I realize what kind of heaven I've been living within." Carina simply rolled her eyes at this.

"Alright, alright. Why don't we just continue our meal?"

____________

"Ah, that was a good meal!" Carina said in their ship, which was still tied to Baratie. Meanwhile, Rowan was sitting down on the nearby chair, as if he had no energy left in him.

"I don't even remember how the food tasted... I am just glad that I'm away from that monstrosity." Rowan sighed.

"What a shame. That's the waste of 13 thousand Beli! I wish I can taste those every day... say Rowan, how about we try to recruit the whole Baratie into our crew?"

"Ah yes. What a good idea. Let's go straight off to the head chef, Zeff, and tell him to join our crew, so that we can have the best meals everyday!" Rowan said sarcastically. "Remember, our goal at the current moment isn't to live a luxurious life, but to survive! Even if the food isn't as good as this, if one knows to distribute balanced diet for our crew, and can fight sufficiently, we are good to go."

Although Carina pouted for this, she nodded in an agreement.

"Realistically speaking, I don't think any of the chefs there will join us. Most of them are old, except for that Sanji dude. No way that I would be able to recruit him, after I handed him to that... thing. I won't be surprised if he hates me with all of his passion now.

Therefore, we have 2 options. We can put the thoughts, regarding the recruitment of chef , away for now. As long as we are in the East Blue, keeping our diet balanced is not too hard. We will recruit the other occupations first, before thinking about it again. The another option... is to have one of us learn the knowledge regarding this field."

Carina placed her hand on her chin hearing this. "Well, if one of us will have to learn cooking, definitely not me. Last thing I ever cooked was a burnt fish around 10 years ago."

"Well, damn." All Rowan knew how to cook were the instant noodles and fried eggs, from his past life. "Guess 1st option is more plausible then."

"Also, we have to find a way to earn more money. At this rate, we aren't that far away from becoming poor..." Carina mentioned with a sullen face, while flapping the thin stack of Belis in her hand. "If only you ate something else like Gold Gold fruit instead of Bounce Bounce fruit, we would've been rich by now!"

"Gold Gold fruit? Sounds like a fruit Gold Roger would've eaten. Maybe one piece is a chunk of 24 karat pure gold?" Rowan shrugged in disinterest. Thinking some more, Rowan seemed to have an idea. "Hey, I just realized, why don't we just go to my old fleet and demand some money from them?"

"From what I recall, it's now lead by Rowly the Death Sonata. Your two other division commanders and around five hundred men quit the fleet and no further news about them are heard. Still large, but not as influential anymore." Carina said in response to Rowan's suggestion. "Personally, I like it. However, it will reveal our whereabouts to the marines."

"Ugh, being a pirate is hard. I can't claim bounties for capturing other criminals. I can't work in any store, due to my face being well known. Do we really have to resort to pick-pocketing?"

"Well, in that regards I am an expert." Carina grinned. "From a glance, I am able to tell who's rich and who's poor. We can simply steal from few big fish, and we should be good to go for a while, enough to move around from island to island and find our potential crew mates."

"Alright. Unless you want to have bread sticks dipped in butter for three meals tomorrow, let's leave as soon as the night is over."