A waiter dressed in a simple chef's outfit came over to us and escorted us to a table by the spiral staircase. "Sorry," he said. "We don't mean to cause trouble for you."
"It's fine," I shrugged. "I've been in the middle of craziness worse than this before. In my opinion, this is just a good show. Well, other than the ceiling caving in. That freaked me out."
"That guy is from Don Krieg's ship," I heard a cook say.
Outside of our group, Lucy grinned. "A pirate, huh?"
The man with the pistol stumbled over to an empty table. He wore a white jacket with a red dragon embroidered on either side and a forest green shirt underneath that. His pants matched his jacket. A headband outlined his crown, and he was so thin you probably could've seen his bones if he'd take off his shirt.
I shook with anger. Having almost starved to death myself out on the streets of New York City last summer, I knew exactly what the man was feeling. I gritted my teeth, my face probably red with my rage. I wanted to kick that bastard Marine's ass for making that pirate go through all that. I mean sure he's a pirate, most of whom kill innocent people for the hell of it, but in my opinion, no one deserved starvation. It was just too cruel. You simply don't know what it's like to go for long without food until you've experienced it yourself.
"Another customer has arrived," Patty said, raising an eyebrow.
"He'd better not cause any trouble in my restaurant," said Zeff dangerously.
The pirate put a foot up on his table and hissed, "I don't care what dish you bring, just get me some food." He was bleeding out of a cut above his eye. The man was bruised up pretty badly, like he'd been on the wrong end of a bad fight. "This is a restaurant, isn't it?"
"No, it's a spa," I said quietly but sarcastically, earning me a hit from Nami.
"Welcome, you damn crook!" greeted Patty with a stupid smile that made his already not-too-good-looking face look uglier.
"I'll only say it once more, so listen up. Bring me some food."
Lieutenant Fullbody narrowed his eyes. "He's gonna kill that cook..."
"I'm sorry, Sir, but we'll be expecting you to pay for your meal here," Patty told him. "Do you have any money?"
The starving man cocked the hammer of a pistol and pointed it at Patty's forehead, murmuring, "Is a bullet enough?"
"So I take it that you don't have any money."
CRASH! Patty slammed his fists down and smashed the chair that the pirate had been sitting in just moments before, having just jumped out of the way in the nick of time. And he was reprimanding Sanji for beating up customers!
Head Chef Zeff was not impressed. "Why, that Patty bastard broke one of my chairs!"
"Wow, what power!" said Lucy, eyes wide.
Sanji smoked his cigar distastefully.
"If you can't pay up, you can't eat!" Patty sneered at the pirate, who was laying on the ground and clutching his stomach, a pained look on his face. Customers and cooks alike cheered him on, while I growled in anger. "Oh, your stomach's growling there, you filthy pirate!"
"That was a fart," said the pirate seriously.
I busted out laughing, attracting weird looks at our table from the rest of the crowd. Hey, the dude was funny! I appreciate good humor.
"You jerk, just hurry and get me something to eat," he continued.
Patty, however, was unamused. "YOU'RE NO CUSTOMER, SO GET THE HELL OUTTA HERE!"
Sanji walked off to the kitchen, and I smiled. I'd never liked Sanji too much because he was a perverted bastard who only cared about women, women, and women, but maybe he wasn't so bad in real life. Who knew?
Patty started beating up the starved man, and finally I'd had enough.
"Oi! Jerk Chef!" I called. Everyone in the vicinity looked at me, wondering what I could possibly be angry about. I continued, staring at the especially surprised chef with an even, unwavering glare. "That man is starving. Don't you have any humanity at all? Even if he is a pirate, so what? I'd say a good half, or at least a third of this world's population are pirates." I stood up sharply and slammed my fist against the table. Everyone in the joint jumped, except for the Straw Hats, who just stared up at me in surprise. "JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE PIRATES, IT DOESN'T MEAN YOU CAN TREAT 'EM LIKE DIRT!"
Fullbody, who'd been crawling away, looked at me, and a glimmer of recognition sparked in his eye. Maybe he remembered me from the cannonball incident? Anyway, when he recognized me, he immediately crawled away even faster. I mentally smirked.
"What are you going on about?" Patty growled at me.
"No one, whether they be citizen, pirate, or Marine, deserves to starve," I said, narrowing my eyes and beginning to step firmly over to him. I could see Nami panicking and trying to catch my eye, trying to keep me from doing anything rash, but I simply ignored her. "Starvation is a horror that nobody, no matter what their crime may be, should suffer. Until you've been through it yourself, you have no idea just how terrible it is."
Zeff and Sanji raised an eyebrow and blinked at each other. I could tell they had probably inferred by now that I knew this from experience.
"I don't understand," said the chef, crossing his arms and still rubbing his foot in the pirate's face. He frowned at me like I was a piece of gum stuck to the bottom of his shoe.
"Then I'll make you," I hissed.
"Oi, Yuril-chan, stop!" I heard Usopp cry.
I ignored him, too. As Christian as I was, I couldn't let Patty's insult go without a proper punishment, and he was just asking to get socked in the face. The large chef stepped off the pirate's face and drew up even with me. He was far taller than me, and I was at least five-foot-seven. He had a fair amount of bruises himself, but now that I was up closer, I could see in his eyes that he didn't usually act like this.
Okay, I decided. Guess I'll go easy on him, then.
Patty cracked his knuckles. "Lookin' for a fight, ya damn punk?"
"Bring it, ya damn chef," I returned evenly, cracking my own.
At that moment, it seemed that the restaurant itself held in a deep breath.
Then—
POW! With one clean punch, I sent the big guy flying into the wall, where he slammed to a halt and slid down, his nose trickling blood. Patty's eyes had rolled back in his head. He was clearly unconscious. My knuckles had red marks on them.
The Baratie was so silent you could hear a pin drop.
Suddenly, Lucy fell over laughing, breaking the thick tension. I cracked a smirk at her and turned to the customers, still stunned silent. I smiled, my angry expression now gone. "Alright everyone, please return to your meal!"
"Yuril, you idiot!" Nami shrieked with shark teeth and a tic-pulse.
I rolled my eyes. "Can it."
I picked up the pirate and carried him over my shoulder outside, the restaurant's customers murmuring and staring at me as I passed. Damn, was he heavy... I groaned in my head. I set him down gently on the deck and sat next to him, leaving the Straw Hats to wonder what the hell I was doing. The sound of the waves rolling in the background calmed me.
The pirate rolled over into a kneeling position and hissed, "D-Damn that chef..." Then he looked at me, confusion in his eyes. "Why did you save me?"
I opened my mouth to answer, but didn't get a chance to because Lucy appeared on the floor above us and said, "Hey, you're starving, aren't you?"
"Sh-Shut up. I'm n-not the least bit hungry..."
"You sure look and sound like it to me," I deadpanned.
His stomach growled, proving my point. I chuckled.
The door opened again to reveal Sanji with a plate of food that looked very... Japanese, including rice and seafood, as well as a glass of water to wash it down with. He set it down in front of the weak man and sat next to me on the railing, smoking another cigar.
"Eat it."
The pirate looked at the plate of food, eyes wide with desire. He gulped hungrily, but said, "Shut up! Go away! This is even worse. I won't accept charity." He looked to the side. "Take it away !"
"It's not charity," I said, shaking my head.
"Yeah. Don't be so tough, just eat it already," Sanji agreed. "To me, any hungry person's a customer."
"I... I can't pay for it."
—GRUMBLE GRUMBLE GROWL
"The vast ocean can be very cruel," the blonde began. "It's awful not to have any food or water. Just awful... I understand starving people more than just about anyone. I don't care if you wanna die with pride." He gave the pirate a small smile. "But if you eat up now, you'd be able to look forward to a new tomorrow as well as pride truly worth having, won't you?"
My smile grew wider. Sanji was pretty cool, actually.
The starved man's eyes went wide with awe, and then, as if a switch had been flipped, he grabbed the plate of food and started stuffing his face with it, literally crying in joy. "Delicious! It's so delicious! I thought I was gonna die! I thought I was a goner." He shoveled the rice-seafood dish into his mouth.
"When you haven't had a thing to eat in weeks, or even days, your next meal tastes like happiness on a plate, doesn't it?" I said. "Me and Sanji here, we know what it's like to starve."
The chef looked at me in surprise. "How'd you..."
"I'm a psychic," I cut him off.
His jaw dropped. "Eh!?"
"Yummy, so delicious!" the pirate cried happily. "I've never had such a good meal in my whole life!"
"Well, Sanji is the best cook on the seas," I shrugged. Sanji again looked startled, though this time it was probably because he thought Zeff was the best cook. Then he looked back at our friend and grinned.
"You like it, eh?" the teen said.
Above us, Lucy giggled. "Well, now I've found my cook!" And thus the Will of D enters into play. "Hey, aren't you lucky? If he hadn't given you something to eat, shishishi, it'd be all over for you by now! Hey, Mr. Cook, care to join us? You'll be the cook on our pirate ship!"
I raised an eyebrow and looked up at her. "...Why, exactly, are you laughing?" I blinked. "And wait, where did you come from, anyway?"
Sanji's eyes turned to hearts the moment he spotted Lucy... and all the respect I'd just built up for Sanji flew out the window.
"AH, MELLORINE!" he swooned, kneeling with one hand on his knee. "If I could go anywhere I wanted with you, I would, but alas I cannot! I'm afraid I can't leave this restaurant, this cursed Baratie that is the wall between our love!"
A tic mark pulsed on the back of my head and I stood up and glared at the cook. "OI! DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT, YOU ERO-COOK!"