7/7

The penguin in the tricorn hat looked over to Luffy and pantomimed for him to wait before, from the inside pocket of its vest, it produced a black slate and a stick of chalk. The penguin could write using its wing somehow. It scribbled something on the slate and held it up for Luffy to read.

{'We're just a flock of regular penguins passing by. We got lost when we entered the Calm Belt by mistake a few days ago.'}

Luffy was immediately disappointed. "Oh...it would have been better if you were pirates like I thought you were."

{'We surfaced because the storm stopped. Do you need a lift over to one of these ships?'} The penguin politely asked pointing a flipper at both Galley's ship and over at the Baratie.

"No I'm gonna punch that jerk-beard's face in again!" Luffy said and twisted around to glare at Galley.

"Sink that stupid thing Monkey is standing on right now!" Galley said, pointing a finger down at the fish submarine.

A cannon shot fired at his command - but the cannon ball bounced off the hull of the fish shaped submarine instead of damaging it!

Just as the gunner went to refill the cannon for another shot the 'regular' penguin passed his hat to the orange penduine in the striped shirt and dove down into the water. Not two seconds later there was a loud booming sound like a lightning strike - coming from the water instead of the sky - and the ship Galley was standing on quivered like a shaky leaf on an autumn tree.

The 'regular' penguin shot back out of the water and landed right on the spot where he dived from. The orange penguin returned the hat and the penguin scribbled {'No one orders Captain Manchot's ship to be sunk. I punched a hole in your keel in return from the cannonball.'}

Galley was shaking with anger. He took a shaky look over to his second-to-last ship, now docked at the Baratie, and putting a shaking hand up to his hat hissed "I'm going to kill everyone in that restaurant and sink it! Send me Over There!" and disappeared once again.

The storm had stopped but at the far edge of the battle Nami and Dawn were wrapping up the last piece.

"One ship is leaving the area and the other is staying by the Baratie!" Nami shouted as she pointed at the departing ship, "The one leaving hasn't been damaged at all yet! What are we going to do!?"

"I'll stop it myself!" Dawn shouted and adjusted her sails to be just right before moving practically at the speed of a torpedo straight towards the other ship.

She moved in so quickly to the other ship that Nami thought she was going to ram her prow straight into it to damage it. What happened instead was like something out of a nightmare - for Galley's crew that is.

Instead of a high knott speed collision occurring, the entire front of Dawn's prow began to lift up (and up) out of the water almost as though she were running aground. Her hull began to split apart from the front of the keel and the entire front half of her ship body bent up and backwards out from the water as though they were the grasping jaws of some kind of sea king instead of a ship. She crunched her newly formed jaws down hard on the outside of the other ship's hull, ripping a chunk out of the portside like a shark, and tearing through the entire ship, before nearly instantly resuming her original shape and turn to sail away from the now sinking ship back towards the Baratie. It was only by chance and due to the prior ferocity of the storm (and appearance of penguins) that no one outside of the sinking remains had seemed to notice Dawn's actions.

No one except for Nami that is.

"Well now there's just one ship from the fleet left." Dawn said matter-of-factly even as Nami's jaw was still hanging open in complete shock. If you listened underneath the rumble of thunder still up in the sky a repetitive grinding noise could be heard coming from somewhere below deck. Apparently Dawn could have a snack and talk at the same time.

"How did you do that!?" Nami asked, feeling as though she was in some kind of fever dream that couldn't be real.

"My mouth is in the center of my keel, how else was I supposed to rip into the other ship?"

"Why didn't you just use those vine things like how you did with the first ship!" Nami shouted in exasperation.

"That's a slower method and I try to be more careful when I don't need to do a rush job like this one. Earlier we were sitting there for a few minutes while so I was able to reach my feelers out to the Crimson Moon while we were next to it. The last ship is heading for the Baratie - we should meet Luffy and the other's there before the marines get there."

"What marines?" Nami asked.

"Isn't that a marine ship over there?" Nami watched as one of the ropes (or vine) hanging from the rigging pointed across the water over to where a marine ship was making its way over to the Baratie from the same direction Galley had originally come from. Even from here Nami could see they were collecting Galley's men out from the water as they closed the gap to the Baratie.

Nami sighed. Yes, that was indeed a marine ship. She hoped Luffy wouldn't get arrested. He was beginning to grow on her and she would hate to see him go once it would be time for her to leave.

"Penguin - take me to the Baratie! I need to stop him!" Sanji demanded once Galley had vanished from the deck of his ship once again.

"Yeah! We'll stop that jerk beard together!" Luffy agreed, punching his left fist into his right hand in excitement.

"I'll stop him myself, you stupid strawhat! If I have to sacrifice myself to save the Baratie I'm going to do it!" Sanji shouted back.

"You're gonna die for that ship? That's stupid!" Luffy said as he glared at Sanji.

"What!? Zeff saved my life! I need to repay that debt you stupid straw hat bastard!" Sanji snarled back, but Luffy grabbed the front of Sanji's suit and forcibly dragged him down to eye level, with a furious expression on his face.

"Getting yourself killed is no way to repay a debt! He didn't save your life so you could just throw it away! Only a coward would do that!"

"How else am I supposed to stop them, then!?"

"We'll just stop them together."

Sanji felt a wing slap his shoulder and was surprised by the weight behind it. The penguin was either heavier or stronger than it looked. It scribbled a message on its slate and held it up {'Did you say Zeff? Is that actually a real restaurant? If so I'll take you both over to that place.'}

Everyone in the Baratie, both the customers and the chefs alike, were completely aghast when they spotted the Straw Hats leaving and realized they were sailing straight towards Galley's flagship.

"Those pirates are forming an alliance with Galley!" One of the customers whimpered.

"We're really going to die now!" Another one yelled.

"No they aren't you jerks." Medaka yelled, "They're going over there to fight them!"

"Those idiots are gonna get all of us killed in the crossfire!" Patty bemoaned, not liking the news Medaka had provided.

"Maybe before they all die they'll at least take care of a few of the ships and then we can fend the rest of 'em off." Carne suggested.

Medaka took great offence to this and said, "At least they're gutsy enough to do something instead of just waiting to get attacked anyways."

"You sassy little brat! You don't understand the stakes here at all!" Patty growled at her.

She crossed her arms and said, "If no one fights off those Crescent Pirates we'll be sunk and killed anyway. I know you won't do anything but I'm not gonna hide in here. I'm going out to the dock and will help my crew even if I have to be all the way over here!"

Zeff put a hand on Medaka's shoulder and said, "Just you wait, shitty-capsicum brat. If you have any respect for your crew you'll stay in here as they wanted you to."

Medaka glared at Zeff but sat by a window and waited for thirty minutes while her friends fought outside. She spotted the pirate Orlop following a purple clothed man along the dock of the Baratie with the entire crew in tow and she turned to focus on the front of the restaurant.

Galley entered the restaurant with Orlop and forty of his men in tow with an expression of absolute contempt on his face.

"I'm going to kill you all here and now. First, bring the cooks to me so I can remove their heads one at a time." Galley said with such menace that it froze both the customers and the cooks from moving an inch.

Medaka, however, had been menaced by (to her own senses) a much scarier pirate for six months. Very calmly she lifted her revolver and shot Galley, hitting him in the right hand just as he was reaching for a sword at his side.

Galley stared at the bloody hole in the center of his right hand and turned his gaze to Medaka. She glared defiantly at him and said, "You can try."

With an incoherent scream he lunged at her - but was intercepted by Luffy and Sanji bursting through the doors accompanied with over a dozen colorful penguins in tow. In a very short order Luffy rounded on Galley and pummeled him into a bloody, bludgeoned mess while Sanji and the penguins managed to take care of the rest of the crew with no sacrifice necessary by anyone.

When the marines came in a few minutes later it was already over.

The marine commodore was a man of average height and average build who had long, light purple hair, that he wore in multiple ponytails along with a long goatee. Along with his standard uniform, he wore a long buttoned coat signifying his rank as well as a long green scarf that nearly reached the floor.

"Good afternoon, citizens. I am Commodore Pudding and I have come from the 77th Branch of the Marines. We are known far across the East Blue for our exceptional valor. When we received word that many pirate ships under the Crescent Pirate emblem were traveling towards this location we couldn't just ignore your peril. Worry not for we won't leave you defenseless!"

The customers and cooks of the Baratie gave a deadpan expression as they all glanced from the Marines, slowly over to the heap of Crescent Pirates still moaning in pain, and then slowly over to where Medaka was sitting with Luffy, Sanji, and the penguins.

"Great timing you guys." Patty said, just on the edge of being sarcastic. "The little girl was faster than you though."

"Take me away..." Galley was moaning pitifully as he clutched his injured hand to his chest, "please."

The Crescent Pirates were rounded up in short order and arrested, though Commodore Pudding did squint his eyes at Luffy, as though he was trying to place him.

He finally approached the group and as he gave Luffy a stern frown he said, "You're a pirate aren't you? Your picture doesn't match your bounty poster. For the sake of justice I'll need to arrest you here as well."

"Are you really gonna take Luffy away? But he stopped Galley's fleet from bombarding us and killing everyone here." Medaka said as she looked sorrowfully up at the commodore.

Commodore Pudding seemed uncomfortable as he watched Medaka's eyes glisten sadly and her bottom lip quiver. He coughed unto his long scarf, clearing his throat, and said, "Well there are a lot of Chandra Galley's crew here. Once we fill the brig with them if there's no room remaining I'll give lenience. Just this once though."

With the battle now over and upon catching his first real sight of Zeff, Captain Manchot became extra animated as he excitedly scribbled on his slate and rushed over to him to show him the writing. {'Is that you, Zeff? It's me, Francois Manchot.'}

"What the hell happened to you?" Zeff said with a bark of laughter, "I haven't seen you since the Grand Line and you come out of it looking like that?"

There was some hasty scribbling. {'My crew and I found a treasure on a winter island about five years ago but it turned out to be cursed. What happened to your leg?'}

"I was shipwrecked without food for three months - I had to survive somehow, right?" Zeff said with a blustery laugh, purposefully ignoring Sanji's guilty flinch.

There was more scribbling from the penguin. {'I thought you died since you never came back. This tub of yours must be something special if you haven't come back out to the Grand Line.'}

"Are you still looking for that crystal palace out in Paradise?"

{'Where do you think the cursed treasure was? At least my wings are still tough enough to cave in steel.'}

"What a pair we make. A punching penguin and a kicking amputee. Are you going back to Paradise?"

{'No. I lived my dream and now my loyal crew is cursed because of it. We all agreed now's the time to retire. We were heading out to Fishman Island to work as mascots at a mermaid cafe but got turned around and lost our pose in a storm.'}

Zeff grinned and said, "If that's the case Manchot, I have an offer for you and your crew."

Penguin waiters.

Sanji refused to be jealous over the amount of positive attention the penguins immediately received from all the lady guests of the Baratie. Even though they were very new, because of their appearance and charm every customer immediately approved of them. They were fast to pick up the skills they needed and would be efficient workers used to the rigors of life at sea, unlike the shore hired waiters that Zeff had previously hired.

As a bonus, the penguins were also tough enough to handle the rough customers and build camaraderie with the cooks as well. Since Captain Manchot respected Zeff so did the rest of his crew.

An impromptu party broke out amongst the Baratie staff, guests, and the Straw Hat pirates to celebrate the win against the Crescent Pirates. Commodore Pudding's ship brig was completely filled to capacity with Galley and his crew along with Pin Joker and so he decided he wouldn't have enough room to include Luffy and his crew as well into the mix.

He was gracious enough to leave with a warning to Luffy. "I'll return in three days and if you're still here I'm going to arrest you."

"Shishishishi! Thanks, Pudding-Pal, you're a neat guy!" Luffy said with a gut-deep laugh even as Commodore Pudding twitched at his disrespectful mannerisms and the rude nickname he had been given.

"Make that two days until I return." The Commodore amended with a glare directed at Luffy who pouted in disappointment.

Balloon with Ann and Zoro in tow landed on Dawn's deck right between the mainmast and foremast once the marine ship was out of sight.

Nami was nearly instantly at their side and said, "Where have you guys been? Why were you still up in the clouds when there was lightning!?"

Ann sighed and said, "The marines were here and I didn't want them to see Balloon."

"Why not?"

"Remember that wine guy? He was a civilian magic user. Magic users that work for the marines of the World Government are in a different league and I don't think I'm ready for that. I'd rather keep him secret for as long as possible before he's officially confirmed to be here with me." Ann said and ducked her head apologetically to avoid Nami's skeptical expression. "Let's go in, Balloon's really hungry already from the fight. I think I smell that good pasta from a few days ago."

"Sounds good to me." Zoro said, following behind Ann as she walked away with Balloon following beside him.

Nami nodded and followed them into the Baratie (Balloon was allowed access due to the 'bird' part of the exclusion sign now crossed out) to join the celebration of surviving the attack and the defeat of the Crescent Pirates.

It was later in the evening and the party had winded down, the relieved guests had trickled out and for the first time Sanji could ever remember, Zeff barred entry for the evening dinner crowd. Medaka was absolutely delighted with the Penguin pirates and they seemed to like her as well. She kept asking them to tell her about their undersea adventures. The orange first mate (who wrote his name out as Fiord) seemed to be happy to fulfill that role while most of the rest of the penguin crew celebrated and joined Nami and Zoro for a round of drinks. Balloon, Ann, and especially Luffy seemed to be happy enough to continue feasting on delicious food that the chefs of the Baratie kept switching out to go into the kitchen to make and come back to enjoy the festivities.

Sanji himself had done a switch and only moments after he came out both Ann and Luffy along with the rest of the chefs got a plate of pasta with a new but equally as tasty of a sauce as the one he made for the sous chef special nearly a week prior.

"Who made this pasta?" Patty asked as he slurped up a noodle.

Sanji's expression lit up his entire face as he said, "Oh I did! It's delicious, right? It's an especially good sauce-"

"It's terrible!" Patty interrupted Sanji with a disgusted expression before he tipped the plate upside down and let the pasta splatter onto the floor.

As first Sanji went white before he furrowed his eyebrows and snarled, "What?! Human food doesn't suit you, you crappy raccoon?"

"Hmph. It takes a special talent to make food taste that terrible. It makes me wanna puke - did you flavor it with dirty socks?"

Sanji's expression was completely furious as he said, "I'd stake my entire reputation on that sauce. Your palate is broken."

CRASH!

Ann and Luffy continued to eat but watched as in unison all the other cooks began making faces of disgust and dumping out Sanji's pasta onto the floor.

"It's no good!" Carne shouted, "Throw it out."

"Ptooie!"

"Disgusting! I can't eat this!"

Finally, Sanji's temper completely erupted as he shouted, "What's gotten into you apes!?"

"You're a phony chore boy acting like a sous chef."

"We're sick of being bullied by you all the time anyway!"

"If something tastes terrible I'm gonna say so!"

Sanji was steaming angry and was about to begin shouting again when there was another crash and when he looked over to begin shouting again he instead froze. Zeff had joined the other chefs and had dumped his plate of pasta onto the ground.

By this time this happened, the celebratory mood of the afternoon was completely over. Nami and Zoro along with their penguin drinking companions were now watching the drama from where they sat across the room, Medaka and Fiord had stopped their conversation, and Ann and Luffy still were wolfing their plates of food. Ann had stopped eating once the argument had started but Luffy continued to eat, seemingly unconcerned as ever.

"It was you that made this crap-awful muck!? Didn't I tell you to stay out of the kitchen? I'd never be able to serve a mess like this to our customers!" Zeff said with a firm scowl across his face.

Sanji rushed him and got right in Zeff's face as he shouted, "Cut it out, crap-geezer! How the hell's your sauce different from mine!? It's the exact same recipe!"

"My recipe?" Zeff said, sounding completely insulted. With a heavy crack he punched Sanji square in the face, knocking him to the ground.

The rest of the cooks gaped in shock - they hadn't expected this. "Chef - he punched him!"

"Instead of kicking, he punched him!"

Zeff stood over Sanji with his fist still clenched as he growled, "You sassy pup. You'll never be able to cook like me even with my recipe. I've cooked on all the oceans of the world!"

Sanji held the side of his face as he glared up at Zeff, but instead of continuing the fight he got up and slammed the door of the room behind him as he left the room.

"I don't get it. This is really good." Luffy said. He was licking the sauce off from the bottom of the plate.

"Yes, I think so too," Ann said, resuming in eating her own plate of pasta.

"We know." One of the chefs said with a grin.

"Man I was scared. That kid has a mean temper."

"We all know Sanji's a great chef."

"If we didn't do this he won't listen. So kid...that baby eggplant. Will you take him with you? The Grand Line is his dream." Zeff asked Luffy.

Just on the other side of the shut door Sanji sat slumped to the floor with his forehead resting on his knees.

"We all know that Sanji's a great chef but if we don't do something like this, he won't leave."

"That was a mean trick - I nearly sweated through my jacket!" Carne shouted.

"Your bad acting nearly gave it all away." Patty snarked back. "Gimme some more of that pasta."

'Idiots...I can still hear you crap jerks…'

"Take Sanji with us?" Luffy asked, slurping up a more sauce from the plate, not caring a bit for the mess he was causing, before deadpanning. "No way."

The jaws of the cooks nearly hit the floor as all of them shouted together, "What the hell!?"

Zeff just raised an eyebrow and asked, "Why not, boy? You've been pestering him for days to join your crew. Don't tell me you suddenly think he's not good enough for you."

"I'd love to have Sanji for our cook. But he keeps saying he wants to stay here. You can't decide for him, he has to do it. That's why we haven't kidnapped him." Luffy said as he slurped down the last of the sauce. "I can have seconds, right?"

"So you won't take him unless he agrees to go with you? Fair enough. Who knows when that crap kid will agree to leave though. He's stubborn."

"I'll go." Sanji said seemingly just to be contrary to Zeff, as he opened the door and stepped back into the room. "You're all the worst actors. Take me with you."

"What!? So suddenly!?" The cooks all shouted together again in shock.

Sanji took a long drag of his cigarette and said, "I've only got one life and it would be a crime to never go and find the All Blue. I won't back down anymore. We both have foolish dreams so I'll chase mine, too. I'll be the chef on your crew."

Sanji watched as Luffy for once just quietly looked at him and then said. "You okay with that, crappy captain?"

"Okay! This is the best!" Luffy said with an excited whoop as he punched his arms up. "Let's go everyone! We're going to the Grand Line!"

"We're too far south for my comfort for now, I'll chart a course northwest for a little while." Nami said with a smile. They needed to get further away from the Calm Belt and closer to the Conomi Islands for her long term goal to work. She still had a couple of weeks before Arlong would expect her to report back.

It only took an hour for Sanji to pack up his entire life. Half of that time was arranging for some staples of flour, sugar, and meat to be delivered over to Dawn while he actually packed his own things.

All of the Straw Hats were already onboard Dawn aside from Ann who was waiting a little ahead of him up the dock to Dawn with a handful of kindly donated penguin feathers curled into her hand.

"Come on, let's go." Sanji said as he walked up to her, not looking back at the gathered cooks and penguins. The sun was setting and was painting the sky with a beautiful shining light that made the clouds look like spun from golden fleece.

"Aren't you going to say goodbye?" Ann asked as she walked a little ahead of him.

"A goodbye between men is supposed to be unspoken." Sanji said, giving her a warm smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Hey, Sanji." Zeff called out suddenly from the second level. "Be sure to keep your feet dry."

Sanji's tough facade immediately broke.

"Chef Zeff! Thank you!" Tears were now dripping down his face as he turned and bowed in gratitude to Zeff all the way to the floor. "All these years I lived under your crap roof! I owe you my life and I'll never forget you! All of you, thank you so much!"

Patty and Carne loudly began to wail and together they shouted at Sanji, "You crap kid! We'll miss you, damn it!"

"Goodbye all you crusted crap jerks!" Sanji shouted and turned to face away from the Baratie and the man who raised him - the one he considered to be his father. It was time for him to go out into the world - this time with companions and maybe one day he would really see the All Blue with his own eyes!

To be continued…

Up next: A bird crew and a cat crew have a little argument over who gets to have a treasure. A cursed pirate will decide who has the ultimate victory.

Thank you to everyone for your patience while I wrote this chapter. I was stuck on whether to give Galley a devil fruit or not for a long time for the battle between the Straw Hats and Crescent Pirates. This one was also long because Sanji is stubborn and needed a lot of kicking in the head to finally get out of Zeff's nest.

I did some editing of the previous chapters a short while ago before posting this, but nothing story-wise changed aside from one thing in chapter two but otherwise, it was just fixing typography errors and any typos I could find.

Thank you for your continued support of this story. I'm having fun and I hope you are having as much fun along with me. May your life be filled with all the blessings and none of the cursings this world can offer. Until next time, good readers!

Post-Chapter Extra Below:

This is my first but definitely not the last self-made devil fruit power to appear in the story and most of my writer's block regarding this chapter was in deciding whether to give it to Galley or not. In the end, I decided that without it Galley wouldn't be much of a challenge for Luffy and the stakes would be too low for the end of chapter fight between Luffy's crew and Galley's crew. The fruit name and ability are listed below. Other fruits will show up in the Grand Line part of the story as well but I promise not to go too crazy with them. Like so many people say, it's not the power you wield that makes a person dangerous but how they use it!

Hatsu-Hatsu no Mi / Send-Send Fruit: User can teleport objects or themselves through the touch of a hand. The user can only move to a location that they can see that has a familiar object, item, or image that the user is able to completely focus on. As long as the user can touch themselves and concentrate they can teleport to them. To transport an object to themself they need to be able to see the object, be familiar with the object, and be completely concentrated on the object while they are teleporting it or it won't work.