3/6

Vinno pricked the end of his finger with a lapel pin, grabbed a crystal wineglass from a passing waiter, ran his bleeding finger around the rim of the glass and then tipped the glass upside down. A rush of sinister, billowing red mist gushed out from the tipped glass and Zoro and Nami both smelled the scent of strong wine. A moment later nearly everyone in the dining room staggered, slumped, or passed out as though they were all suddenly extremely drunk. The only ones left somewhat stable were Zoro, Nami, and a few other random sailors, who were looking around the restaurant in confusion.

Vinno's red eyes began to sinisterly glow crimson red as he smiled an eerie smile and said, "My magic has always been a reflection of the wine I love. I can spell myself and others to be as sober or drunk as I want them to be - this is the equivalent of twenty glasses of wine and I can go even higher if you continue to resist. I've cast this spell over the entire restaurant so anyone in here is now too drunk to resist me going to your ship and taking that bird myself."

He turned on the ball of his foot - satisfied at his apparent success but flinched when he heard the sound of a sword drawn and out of the corner of his eye spotted a sword the instant he finished turning around.

"Do you really think twenty glasses of wine would be enough to cripple me?" Zoro asked with a heavy hint of malice shading his voice.

"Your plan wouldn't work anyway, you drunk moron. You would've still needed to get past both Ann and Dawn and neither of them would let you take Balloon without a fight either." Nami added though she was more concerned with making sure Medaka didn't have alcohol poisoning. Fortunately, the girl just seemed to be sleepy and buzzed from the strange spell and was just sleepily sucking on her empty pudding spoon.

Vinno blinked slowly once, a bead of sweat began to collect at his temple, and he nervously swallowed. He had been substituting consuming anything but wine and the energy of other people in order to extend the time he had left for nearly five years now. Wine was the water of life for him, after all. Since he had learned recently that his measures to magically extend his life were no longer working and he was going to die anyway, he might as well go out with a bang, right?

"Fight or die here. It's your choice. Did you know that wine is a corrosive substance?" Vinno faux-casually asked before he swiftly reached out a hand to cut his finger against the edge of Zoro's blade.

The expression of disbelief on Zoro's face when his unnamed sword corroded and brittled itself away like it was fast-forwarding through time was enough for Vinno to feel in control of the situation once again. Wine magic really was the best magic in the world.

The sailors who had been cheering Sanji on earlier - now uninhibited thanks to Vinno's power - rushed him and surged causing a drunken battle in the Baratie to begin.

Sanji was still trying to figure out a good way to get rid of the annoying, insane pirate Luffy when a slight shiver crawled up his spine. What was that foreboding feeling of dread he suddenly could feel? "Hey - insane pirate. Did you just feel that right now?"

"Feel what?" Luffy asked obliviously.

"Luffy! Blond cook! Jump as high as you can RIGHT NOW!"

Luffy jumped because he recognized Dawn's voice. Sanji jumped because it was a woman's voice asking him to do something for her.

Their quick response to Dawn's shout had them up and above the top of the Baratie, with Sanji a little higher up than Luffy, just in time to avoid the sinister-looking red cloud that burst through the doors leading to the kitchen where they had been standing. While they were at the highest points of their jumps both Balloon and one of Dawn's lures swooped down and caught them mid-air on their backs - Balloon catching Luffy and Dawn catching Sanji.

"How cool Dawn! How'd you get so big?" Luffy shouted, very impressed by the new size of Dawn's lure. He hadn't noticed it being made since he had been in the middle of a flag painting competition at the time and then had been focused on getting to the Baratie.

"It was Ann's idea - I made this lure as big as I could manage and she made it featherlight. I can fly with it and still carry heavy things instead of just food."

Though Dawn's lure was smaller than Balloon it was still a very big green seagull. When Sanji had the realization he was on the back of a giant green bird, he allowed himself a brief moment to wonder if insanity was contagious. When the green gull then began to speak to Luffy with the voice of the lovely lady that had called out to them earlier he decided even if he was insane he wouldn't be hallucinating THIS. The only explanation he could think of was that since Zeff always said the Grand Line had been a crazy place that maybe a little bit of the crazy was now leaking out of it now.

"Hey, Luffy! There's a guy with wine magic in the restaurant who wants to capture Balloon. Ann followed my lure and went inside to help since nearly everyone in there is drunker than a fish swimming in vodka." Dawn quickly explained the situation to Luffy.

Luffy scowled as and as he pet Balloon on his head said, "We won't let him get Balloon no matter what. Ann can take out that wine guy easily if he tries anything."

"Right. I'll keep an eye on- wait- what!? My new lure with Ann just stopped working. I just made that one a few minutes ago! What in the world is going on in there?" Dawn said, now sounding very frustrated.

"It's me that wants to know what the hell is going on!" Sanji shouted, having finally reached the limit to his patience, drawing everyone's attention over to him.

"Well only saving Luffy when you were standing right next to him would be what some might call a 'jerk move' so I thought I'd give you a lift too, cook." Dawn explained in a deadpan tone of voice.

"Oh right. Before I forget - Dawn, this is Sanji. He's gonna be the cook on our crew." Luffy said with a positively beaming grin.

"Well then, it's nice to meet you, Sanji. I'm sure you'll love my galley." Dawn greeted politely.

"I did NOT agree to join your crew." Sanji hotly refuted, nearly growling at Luffy. Not being able to bring himself to be rude to a lady (even if she was a bird), he continued to speak with Dawn in a more courteous tone of voice. "If something's going on down in the Baratie I need to be the one to fix it. If you would bring me down there right now, Miss Bird, I have some important work to do."

"I'll go with him too, Balloon! I want to watch Ann beat that guy!" Luffy said, pushing (carefully for him) the back of Balloon's head so his head pointed downwards towards the Baratie that was still spouting out a dense ominous red fog.

Ann, once she heard the magic-user in the restaurant was on the offensive against her nakama and the other innocent bystanders inside thanks to Dawn's new lure, worked as quickly as she could to think up a good way to counterattack. Once she sent Dawn up with Balloon to keep an eye on the outside of the restaurant she moved as quickly as she could back towards the entrance of the restaurant.

"~Feather - filament - filter ~ Canaries sing and save ~ Canaries sing and save ~ Canaries sing and save ~ Feather - filament - filter~" She whispered quietly, building up a simple spell as she wrapped a scarf around her lower face to shield her nose and mouth with a quick protective spell. Her scarf began to chirp sweetly like a canary and would only stop if the gas it was now filtering managed to pass through it somehow.

The dining room of the Baratie was undergoing a huge amount of chaos thanks to everyone inside being drunk and going into a drunken brawl, with most of the people unable to do anything, and of the ones still 'sober enough' to move around, only Nami and Zoro didn't seem to be panicking.

Zoro was down one sword and was grasping his remaining two in a white-knuckled protective grip. With an expression of pure loathing on his face, he warily stared down the man who now had constantly glowing red eyes, trying to decide when the best time to attack again would be. Medaka was over being a sleepy drunk and was now rearing up for a fight, wanting to charge in to attack the red-eyed man like many of the confused and angry sailors were attempting to do. Nami was trying to keep Medaka under control and out of harm's way and seemed to be moments away from smothering the smaller girl from the grip of her hold.

Ann could see that the red-eyed man was beginning to flag as he burned through his magic reserves quickly as he corroded away swords, pulled people into a further drunken state with a touch, and seemed to have the tips of his fingers lit with a blue fire (alcohol-fueled, it seemed). He staggered suddenly and seemed to be flagging into the last of his magic when he did something that Ann had only seen another magic-user do once before in her life.

"Water of Life - Siphon." The red-eyed man solemnly spoke his spell and pressed his hand against the forearm of an attacking sailor.

The unknown sailor immediately began to sweat laboriously and he appeared to be in great pain as he seemingly fast-forwarded into an extreme state of famine with a sunken face, thinning and weakening limbs and paper-like skin as if life itself was draining away from him. A minute later he collapsed and seemed to vanish away into a puff of red wine mist at the red-eyed man's feet before it swirled up and was seemingly inhaled by the red-eyed man.

The red-eyed man, on the other hand, seemed to become revitalized and energetic once again with a flushed face, a healthy glow to his skin, and less strained limbs. Even his voice seemed more energetic, "Ah - if a regular human can do this much, I can't wait to know how wonderful that bird could make me feel."

Ann, upon hearing his statement and seeing his horrible act, suddenly had all she needed to know about this magic-user. She had never done what she was about to do but she was a pirate now and the fastest way to get this resolved and keep her friends safe would be only one thing. She and the red-eyed man were both about to have a very bad day, but one of them would live and she was certain it would be herself.

"Pardon me, sir. You're ruining everyone's time out today and my captain's celebration of our emblem on top of that. Stop what you're doing right now or else there will be very unpleasant consequences for you." Ann said firmly as she marched herself towards the red-eyed man with determination in her stride.

The red-eyed man looked over to the young lady surrounded by the sound of chirping birds and gave her a smile as brittle as Zoro's ruined sword. "It's this or nothing for me, young lady. I will not go down without a fight, even though I'm nearing the end of my extended life. It will be a blaze of glory for everyone here to witness. They Will Remember Me - Not You."

He spoke his intended spell and then he made a circular motion with his hand and a web of red lights that only he and Ann could see connected to everyone in the dining room of the restaurant aside from Ann. His eyes seemed to shine a little brighter red for a moment before he said, "I've had many years of experience siphoning energy from multiple people at once. So if it's a magic battle you want then you'll have no chance against me, I'm afraid."

Instead of using magic right away to fight him though, Ann spoke once again.

"You've become lazy and complacent here. I'm sorry if this hurts but I'll only stop if you do the same." Ann said with a pained smile. This was going to hurt.

"What do you mean?" He asked, looking bemused by what she was saying.

"Let me make it clear enough for you to understand, wine wizard. The regular people here you've been using for years to fuel yourself and your magic are watered down pub grog and I'm a liter of 150 proof vodka." Ann grit her teeth together and deliberately stuck her hand out to grab hold of the magic web of light forcing it to magically drain herself instead of the people in the Baratie to keep them from suffering.

The reaction from Ann and the red-eyed man happened nearly instantaneously. The red-eyed man caught entirely on fire with blue flames as his wine magic tried to consume her own and Ann began to slowly waste away as her magic fed on his own too fast to be safe for either of them. The bird sounds from her scarf vanished completely first and then the spell causing everyone else to be in a false state of drunkenness lifted at the same moment.

It was the flashy sight that the red-eyed man was going through that drew the attention of everyone in the dining room.

"Oh shit, that guy caught on fire!" Someone shouted in alarm and he was converged upon as people tried to help him or douse the flames.

Zoro, Nami, and Medaka, in the meantime, were much more concerned with Ann who was beginning to rapidly waste away like the sailor from earlier.

"Is that guy doing this to you with magic?" Medaka asked, sounding worried.

"Want to explain what's going on right now?" Zoro questioned, adding onto Medaka's question and tensing more as Luffy and the blond cook, Sanji, burst in from the front of the restaurant and immediately went over to them.

"Not...to worry...his magic...is just trying to...eat mine..." Ann said in a halting voice as she concentrated on keeping the web from leeching onto anyone else.

"That sounds like a bad thing." Nami's concern over Ann's state was obvious as she glared furiously over the man who was still on fire. (The other Baratie cooks were now trying to put him out while the rest of the guests looked on in astonishment.)

"It's okay...he's burning out of magic...faster...he was dying already...and this would've happened...in a week or so...if he hadn't...pushed himself like this..." Ann explained and tried not to wince in pain. "I'll just need...a few days...to rest...so later on... I have enough magic...to keep you all...safe from the curse..."

"Curse? What curse are you talking about?" Nami asked, feeling alarmed.

"Any place...where a magic-user dies...is cursed to have misfortune...visit soon after...then the magic...is reborn in someone new...once the misfortune passes… Since I fought him like this though...the misfortune will...follow me instead... I'm sorry for causing you all... trouble but... this guy was trying to hurt Balloon...and all of you too... so I had to stop him...no matter what..."

There was a loud sizzling sound and a sudden pop from across the room - Ann dry heaved, gagged, and fainted in that succession - and one of the cooks shouted, "Woah! He just exploded!"

As soon as Ann collapsed Sanji was hovering over her side with concern over his face. "What's going on? I saw her earlier and she was glowing with good health and now...she'll need some nutritional broth, rice porridge and... never mind I'll take care of it. Get out of here for now and I'll make sure she gets it once everything is fixed up here."

Luffy's eyes seemed to be shadowed with his hat covering them as he clenched his fists. Zoro was glaring viciously at his ruined sword. Nami's arms were trembling and she forced them to be still. Medaka was trying very hard not to look like a wimp but couldn't hold back a few worried tears that she aggressively wiped from the corners of her eyes.

They easily moved Ann out of the way and back over to Dawn while everyone else in the room seemed to still be focused on the spectacle that had been, to them, a spontaneous human combustion incident occurring right in front of them with no warning. Because of the alcohol spell effect that had enchanted everyone in the Baratie though, everyone's story about what actually had happened was different from everyone else's.

Sanji finally became fed up enough over the bickering of the customers that he kicked the sailors out, wished the ladies well as he bid them warm farewells, and viciously tried to get the other cooks in line to listen to him and help him clean up the ashy, burnt mess that was the remains of the red-eyed man, but not a single one of the bastards listened to a word he said.

"I was only gone for half a day! When I said not to burn this place down while I was away it wasn't a challenge, you shitty little eggplant!"

And of course, now Zeff had come back from his quick midmorning supply run.

Sanji just knew he would now never be left in charge of the Baratie again until long after Zeff kneeled over and died (which would never happen) thanks to this mess.

Over on Dawn, everyone crowded around in the girl's cabin while Ann lay exhausted and worn looking in her bed while Balloon concernedly preened at her hair like a fussy mother hen. Fortunately for Ann's bedspace Mango-Tango seemed more concerned with smothering a worried Medaka with attention while Very-Berry crooned sleepily and managed to pull herself into Zoro's own lap for a nap, trying in her own way to soothe his agitated mental state. Mishell Greenbill simply snuggled into the blanket closer to Ann's covered feet, chuffing softly and preening the blanket by her toes.

"You look awful." Luffy bluntly stated, seeing that Ann was pale with sunken cheeks and somewhat glassy looking eyes. Despite her physical state though she gave him an amused smile.

Nami glared at him and said, "Luffy. You should be more positive."

"Sorry," Luffy said and turned to look Ann fully in the eyes and reworded his previous statement. "You look positively awful."

That caused Ann to let out a tired laugh, which only grew louder when Nami snapped and smacked Luffy in the back of his head, being mindful to avoid smacking his hat off of his (soft, rubbery) head.

"Do you think we should all get away from here?" Medaka asked, sounding as though she was worried. She hadn't liked feeling helpless earlier or not being able to help if it had been necessary.

Nami turned away from where she was attempting to strangle Luffy and with a serious and somewhat grim expression on her face agreed. "Yeah. You mentioned something about a curse and misfortune visiting this place, right Ann?"

Ann grimaced and sat up a little more to explain the situation better in a tired sounding voice. "That won't help. Like I said earlier, the curse is already waiting to activate. When a magic user dies the place or person who killed them will be cursed to either be damaged by an attack, threatened by the invasion of hostile forces, or there will be an attempt to destroy the place or person entirely. The curse can start anywhere from a day to a month after the magic user's death and will last anywhere from a day to a year afterward. It all depends on how strong the magic-user was. In the case of that red-eyed man, I'm guessing that the misfortune will be over within a week after it begins. Since I'm the one who technically killed him though, the curse will end up following us even if we do leave. I'm sorry for causing you all trouble."

After Ann finished speaking Dawn spoke into the room and said, "Sanji's just outside on the dock with some food and is asking permission to come on board."

Luffy seemed to brighten up as he said, "Of course! He's on the crew now so he doesn't need permission to come on board anyway! I'll go bring him in here!"

Luffy nearly flew out from the cabin in his enthusiasm, shouting loud enough to be heard through the door. "Sanji! You're here and you brought us food! You're amazing!"

"Oh? We have a cook now? That was fast." Ann said with a sleepy smile as she leaned back in her bed.

Zoro snorted and turned his face away to hide how hard he was trying not to laugh. Nami stared at her and very carefully asked, "You don't remember who Sanji is?"

"No, I was eating here on Dawn, remember? Why would I remember this Sanji person?" Ann asked in confusion.

There was a polite knock on the door of the cabin and Ann nearly shivered when she heard the voice of the (flirty!) cook from earlier. "A free delivery for the brave, beautiful, bluebell is here! Get off me shitty straw hat - this is for the spring angel, damn it!"

"Oh no..." Ann whispered and pulled a blanket over her head to hide herself away from sight. She had run away to Dawn earlier in order to avoid another embarrassing encounter with him in the first place. "Just tell him I died and then maybe he'll go away..."

"Too late for that," Medaka said with a wide grin and opened the door to the cabin to allow Luffy and Sanji to come inside.

Sanji had taken off his chef's jacket revealing that underneath he had been wearing a snappy black suit with a blue pinstripe shirt and black tie. He was carrying a waiter's platter with several dishes on it including a sweet-smelling rice porridge, a broth soup with noodles and vegetables in it, some grilled salmon dish, a plain rolled egg omelette, a small plate of spicy seafood pasta and a tall red smoothie.

Sanji, upon spotting the blanket covered person laying down next to the giant bird that Luffy had been riding earlier, and remembering how sensitive she had been earlier simply said, "I don't understand what it was that happened earlier in the Baratie, but I know you were hurt by it somehow, isn't that right? I wanted to thank you and provide you with a free meal."

Ann peeked out from under the blanket and upon seeing the food he had with him, she decided to give him another chance and so sat up and smiled politely. "That smells amazing! Thank you so much, I really did need to have something to eat. Maybe you aren't as bad as I thought."

Overwhelmed with how adorable she seemed in his eyes Sanji immediately began to swoon and said, "I will feed you every day as though I were giving offerings of tribute to a Goddess of Spring herself. I'd worship you as though you were the living avatar of Pomona herself."

Sanji didn't bother dodging the pillow Ann threw at his face with a shriek. "If you're giving me food just leave it here and get away from me! This is too embarrassing!"

Sanji obediently left the tray of food on the empty tableside beside her bed and turned around to walk across the room and stand next to Luffy, who was hunched over and laughing hysterically again over Ann's reaction. Nami and Zoro seemed to be equally amused but were at least a little quieter about it.

"Do you have any food for us too?" Medaka asked and blinked in surprise when Sanji produced three paper boxes and handed them out to Medaka, Zoro, and Nami.

Medaka opened hers and saw about two cups of her seared seafood and half her pudding in a separate smaller container. As she glanced at the others, she noted that Zoro had his sashimi and Nami had her half-eaten hen and about half a cup of cucumber salad.

"I boxed up your leftovers and brought them out for you to finish," Sanji explained and then handed a bulging envelope to Luffy. "Oh and here's your refund too since that shitty waiter forgot to give it to you when you left earlier."

Luffy shoved the money back into Sanji's hand and said, "Then I want to order everything again! It was tasty and I'm still hungry!"

Sanji shoved it back into Luffy's hand again and scowled at him. "The spring angel Ann obviously risked her life to save Baratie. I need to pay back that debt."

"I only just meant to save my friends..." Ann admitted quietly, still muffled by covering her face with her hands in order not to make any eye contact with Sanji, while she began working her way through eating all the food he had brought out to her.

"Yeah! Ann's right, so we don't need you to pay us back for that!" Luffy argued.

Before Luffy could once again shove the envelope of money back at Sanji, Nami snatched it from him and said, "If neither of you want the beris, I'll take them. I can't believe I'm surrounded by people who are so stupid about handling money."

"That should really go back into the crew fund then, don't you think, Nami?" Dawn suggested and Nami glared at the floorboards under her feet.

"What did you just say - you moronic floating vegetable!?"

"That's from the crew shore funds anyway, you know," Dawn said insistently and plucked the envelope from Nami's hand with a vine to her utter outrage. To placate her though she helpfully added on. "If you want your own spoils though there's plenty of ships here you can do a quick pirate pillage upon."

"I only steal from pirates you wooden-headed sloop!" Nami hissed back and nearly bit the vine Dawn used to spin her around to make her look out the cabin window. A small yacht with the name Margaux spelled out in curly lettering on its side, flying a flag with the emblem of a half-full wine glass crossed with a wine bottle was moored right beside them, bobbing innocently up and down in the water. Nami stopped fighting and stared for a moment before she said. "I'll be right back. Dawn - make something that can follow me and carry things and come with me."

"Can I come with you, too?" Medaka asked excitedly, after stuffing the last of her leftovers into her mouth and gulping it down in a manner reminiscent of Luffy.

Nami smiled over at the younger girl and said, "Of course you can. Just listen to me at all times and know that you'll only get one percent of what we find since I have more experience than you."

"Have fun you two. We're staying until Sanji leaves with us." Luffy said waving farewell to them.

"Then I guess you'll have to stay here forever then because I'm not leaving, you shitty straw hat," Sanji argued back.

Luffy didn't seem to be too concerned over Sanji's statement as he moved to be next to Ann and eyed her platter of food with undisguised envy. "Let me have a bite."

"Fine, have some pasta if you're still hungry. I really need to start working on a protection spell though if we're staying here for a while."

Sanji didn't hesitate to kick Luffy away from the pasta with a war cry. After catching the bowl Luffy dropped in the attack without spilling a single drop, gently pushed the bowl of pasta back into Ann's startled hands before she could duck away. He smiled gently at her and said, "I'll give you a good rule to live by, oh gentle lady of the spring sky. Never do anything on an empty stomach but eat!"

Ann had already finished up the soup, omelette, fish, and porridge and so took a bite of the pasta. When she had a taste of it she beamed and said, "Oh this is that good sauce from earlier!"

Sanji began to swoon again, "So you're the one who ordered my special dish! This really is a fated meeting under the moonlight, my lovely spring blossom!"

This time the tableside alarm clock struck Sanji in his head after Ann threw it at him and shouted, "It's the middle of the day, you ninny! Get out of this cabin right now! Out! Out!"

Sanji ducked away out the door with Luffy trailing after him, asking about more food and so the only company left for Ann were the birds and Zoro, who was still shaking with barely suppressed laughter.

Ann scowled and threw her last pillow at him (which he easily ducked his head under) and said, "You can get out too if you find this so funny."

Zoro stood up, stretched and with undisguised humor in his tone of voice said, "I'm going, I'm going. I'll make sure he doesn't come back in your cabin again if he starts making deliveries to the ship."

Ann huffed and watched Zoro leave the room while she finished up her pasta and then started in on her smoothie. Sanji really was something else but at least he was a good cook.

New customers after the lunch crowd from earlier had been driven away soon began coming in again so Sanji went back to work. To his ire though Luffy somehow kept getting into the kitchen to pester him about joining his crew.

It seemed now that these pirates were everywhere around the Baratie. The swordsman, Zoro, had just sat himself at the bar inside and was working his way through their entire stock of Shimotsuki soushu. The little girl, Medaka, had come back in and spent the afternoon ordering one pudding at a time using the 'spoils' from her excursion with Nami to pay for her snacks. The autumn lady, Nami, kept coming in every hour or so to order food on Ann's behalf and even though she had money to pay she kept flirting with the waiters in order to get a discount each time. Even with the significant discount that she was getting, Sanji was keeping track of the food being ordered by Nami, and each time he had the waiters hand the payments over to himself with plans to return it later to either Ann or Nami somehow.

This was extremely irritating to Zeff who heard Sanji's fights with Luffy to get him to leave the kitchen the entire afternoon and evening. Zeff also saw through his bluster as though he were made of sugar glass.

"Get your new annoying pirate friend out of my kitchen right now, you shitty little eggplant!" Zeff bellowed when he spotted the straw hat kid standing in the middle of the kitchen again.

"That shitty straw hat is NOT my friend, you crappy old geezer!" Sanji snarled back at Zeff but went to remove Luffy from the kitchen (again).

When he returned Zeff watched him take money from a waiter and again shouted, "And stop taking money from the waiters! We aren't running a charity here - this is my restaurant, you little bratty shithead!"

"Shut up you crappy geezer - you can't tell me how to absolve a debt! Just take it out of my paycheck if you're that uptight about this." Sanji said with a stubborn glint in his eyes.

"What paycheck, you shitty brat? Do you think you're entitled to make any decisions around here? How about this - you're fired!"

Sanji scowled at Zeff and said, "You can't fire me! I refuse! I'll stay here even if you don't want me here."

The day finally ended with Sanji removing Luffy completely from the premises one last time when the sky was dark and glittered with stars under a clear sky. "The Baratie is closed! Stay out and I better not see your shitty face here tomorrow!"

Sanji slammed the door to the Baratie shut and grit his teeth together. He was at the point of irritation now that his eyebrows were beginning to twitch and he hated that.

A little past midnight had him sitting all the way at the top level of the Baratie looking out at the starlit ocean, purposefully facing away from the gently rocking green ship still moored to the Baratie's dock far beneath him. How far up had he been in the sky when he was on the back of that giant green seagull earlier this afternoon? Then their red-eyed alcoholic regular had caught fire and exploded after he tried to drain the life out of everyone in the Baratie. It had been a really odd day.

He smoked his last cigarette of the day and was mentally writing out a list of all the food he had provided for Ann throughout the afternoon and evening. Even if she was in recovery the conclusion he reached for what was likely her necessary caloric intake had him chewing at the end of his cigarette long after it had gone out.

When Zeff joined him he was still looking out over the waters with a concerned frown on his face.

"Heavy thought's will drown you this late, shitty eggplant." Zeff gruffly spoke as he sat down next to Sanji.

"It looks like for a base daily amount she'll need to have at least three full large meals, two to three snacks, and three or four nutrient heavy drinks every day to avoid malnutrition and it will need to increase depending on her activity level during the day. I've never seen a person reach such a state of malnutrition like that so quickly." Sanji said as he bit into the filter of his cigarette with frustration.

"Sounds like the perfect crew for you to leave with, eggplant. The food you cook is shitty but you know what it takes to feed someone." Zeff gruffly said. (Of course, he really meant "You like taking care of people, eggplant, so go with them.")

"Hell no, you shitty old geezer. I'll leave this place when you die." Sanji ducked the kick Zeff aimed at his face but didn't dodge the follow-up heel to the back of his head, slamming him down onto the floor with a crash. (And of course, he really meant "You saved my life, old man. I'm indebted to you still.")

"I'll live a hundred more years you shitty little eggplant." Zeff said ("You'll waste your life if you stay here. Just go, you stubborn brat.") "Get off to bed, you brat. You know the rule of the Baratie. We open when the first customer comes to the door in the morning. I'll eat my hat if one of those annoying pirates isn't at the door by sun up."

The next day began Sanji's new routine of manhandling Luffy out from the Beratie's kitchen while the rest of the Straw Hat pirate crew made themselves visible but not as intrusive as their captain was. Ann was now energetic enough to get out of bed but spent herself busy onboard Dawn by caring for the birds on the ship and building up her energy more by eating and going through a few energy and stamina building stretches that Zoro decided she needed to have.

Medaka spent a lot of her time going from swimming around in the ocean to dripping around the Baratie dining room in order to spend her money on creme brulee, puddings, and smoothies. If the waiters tried to convince her to at least dry herself off before coming in and dripping saltwater everywhere she didn't pay any attention to them.

Nami was in the middle of still feeling a blissful mental high from the stash of cash she had ended up finding on the dead red-eyed man's ship. It wasn't sixty million beris but it did turn out to be ten million (actually she had 9,900,000 once she gave Medaka her promised one percent cut.) The yacht that they had raided had vanished sometime in the middle of the night which was nearly as mysterious as the red-eyed man's death. (If anyone had asked Dawn she might've admitted to having a midnight snack.)

Zoro spent the day napping, coaching Medaka through a morning sword lesson, drinking at the Baratie's bar, going through some of his own katas, and keeping a side-eye on Ann to make sure she wouldn't overexert herself on her first day going through the simple exercises he gave to her.

The day ended in the same manner as the previous one with Sanji booting Luffy out of the Baratie once it was closed and shouting at him to leave already. ("I'm never going to leave this place, damn it!" "I'll see you again tomorrow. You really will like it on my crew, Sanji!" "Go stick your head in an oven, you stupid straw hat!")