Chapter 64

64

"I'm going to check up on the ship," Nami said, she was holding one of tangerine flavored ice cream on her.

"Okay!"

"Hey, What is that?" Nami asked, pointing at the distance. She stopped her travel as the ship entered her view.

"It's Don Krieg!" a customer yelled, standing so quickly that his chair toppled. "Don Krieg is here!" The customers panicked and fled. Looking out the window, a great shape grew closer, a ragged ship tapping the fins of the seafaring restaurant. The panic ended as quickly as it began, leaving the ship empty of everyone but the chefs and the Straw Hats.

Luffy and his crew rose as the rhythmic, uneven thump thump thump of boots on wood announced the approach of unsteady people. A moment later, the front door flew open. At the entrance stood Gin once more, this time with a large man slung over his side.

"Please," the man begged, his voice raspy. "Help him. Please!"

"Yeah right!" Patty laughed. "This is a golden chance! Someone call the Marines right now!"

"No!" Gin cried. "If it's money ya want, we can pay this time! Just help him!"

"Like we'd help a man like Don Krieg," Carne scoffed. "The world would be better off without a man like him and all of his followers!"

"I promise I won't attack the restaurant," the man, who Luffy suspected was Krieg, vowed, "Just give me food." Don Krieg was an older man with short, gray hair, long sideburns, and a square face that was ragged and gaunt from hunger. His dress involved golden, fur-lined armor with his jolly roger on each shoulder covered by a floral t-shirt the jacket he was using as a cape. Under his chest plate was a gray shirt and dark pants hung on his waist. Bandages were wrapped around his head and various parts of his body.

"Don…" Gin cried. "Please help us."

Sanji walked through the space Patty had previously occupied, a plate of food coming to rest in front of the sickly villain. The older man forwent table manners and dug in with his hands, Gin thanking the chef profusely.

"What's so special about this guy?" Luffy asked. "He looks kinda weak."

"You don't know?!" Someone one yelled out. "Don't you know about anyone in the East Blue? 'Admiral' Don Krieg is a man wanted for 17 million Beris for unspeakable acts! Killing, raping, kidnapping every bad thing in the book."

"Eh… you said he did the unspeakable?," Luffy yawned. "Anyway, so he's one of those."

"Thank you," Krieg whispered, drawing Sanji in to take the empty plate away. When Sanji was close, however, Krieg surged upward, punching the blond man in the gut.

Only fell himself hitting rock-solid steel. The large man winched at his own pain, while Sanji just sighed.

Luffy frowned, was that tekkie? No it wasn't.

Gin could only watch as his captain struck the man who had saved them both.

"Don Krieg!" Gin shouted. "Why would do that?! He saved our lives! Ah only brought ya here because you'd promised not to attack!"

Sanji casually walked away joining the others, raising an eyebrow when Luffy was looking at him thoughtfully.

"Yes," he'd responded, drawing his gun. A gold shining on, pointed right at Gin's face shutting him up. "The food was delicious. Shut the fuck up and listen."

"Ah… Yes, Don." Gin could meet no one's eyes, only staring down at the floor in shame.

"This is a pretty nice ship. I think I'll take it."

"Don Krieg," Gin whispered. "Please." Krieg ignored him, "Sanji, I'm sorry. I-I didn't mean for th-this to happen."

"I have about a hundred men on my ship," Krieg continued, ignoring his subordinate. "All are weak with hunger. Feed them and leave, and I'll leave you alive." This time he took out his gun pointing it at Sanji

Sanji shrugged and began walking toward the kitchen.

"Sanji?" Patty asked. "Where are you going?"

"To the kitchen. I have a hundred meals to make."

"What?!" Every one of the cooks gathered around Sanji, the one named Patty stepping forward and punching the sous chef into the ground without resistance. Or at least tried to but he hurt his arm and Sanji didn't even move from the spot.

"Uh… you little shit?"

"Want me to handle this Captain?" Zoro asked, he was eager to test out his news skill.

"Nah… just let it play out." Luffy said, "And I gotta new crewmates to recruit."

"I don't care who was right and wrong all those times you fed the scumbags I'd thrown out of here," Patty hissed at the pain in his arm, "but this time you're just wrong, Sanji." Confirming the other chefs wouldn't let Sanji into the kitchen, Patty walked over to one wall that he slid open to reveal a hidden compartment.

Out of it, he pulled a lobster-shaped cannon. "I hope you saved room for dessert, Don Krieg, 'cause here's the Meatball of Doom!" He shot a cannonball at Krieg who took the shot head-on, filling the surrounding air with smoke. As it started to clear, the first thing many noticed were the ripped and broken hinges on the doorframe "Oops! Looks like I broke the doors."

The smoke cleared as the cooks laughed, revealing Krieg without a scratch.

"Was that supposed to hurt?" Krieg asked, shrugging off his ruined floral-pattern shirt. Light glinted off his golden, Wootz-steel armor. The grey-haired man shifted, activating his armor's weapons, twin gatling guns appearing from his shoulders.

"Get down!" a chef known as Carne yelled, himself.

Patty, and a half-dozen other chefs diving for cover. But Luffy gave the command, "Zoro cut them."