The world had become a blur of pain, a relentless symphony of crunching bone and bruised flesh. Sanji remained on his knees, his body a canvas for Pearl's brutish, gleeful assault. He took every blow—a shield bash to the ribs that sent a starburst of agony through his chest, a heavy fist to his jaw that filled his mouth with the coppery taste of blood—and he did not fight back.
He would not. He could not.
His gaze remained fixed, not on the man beating him, but on the gun still pressed firmly to Zeff's temple. This was his reality now. Every ounce of pain he endured was a coin paid to keep that trigger from being pulled.
'This is nothing,' he thought, his mind a strange, calm island in a sea of agony. 'This pain is a pittance. The old man… he endured seventy days of starvation. He gave up his own leg. His dream. He gave me all the food… he gave me my life.'
He coughed, a spray of red staining the wooden deck. 'My life for his restaurant. For his final treasure. It's a fair trade. The only payment I can possibly make.'
He had decided to die.
From a short distance away, Luffy watched, and he did not understand. He saw his friend, his chosen cook, a man of immense strength and pride, willingly allowing himself to be beaten to death. His fists were clenched so tightly his knuckles were white, his body trembling with a furious, helpless energy.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, SANJI?!" he finally roared, his voice cracking with rage and confusion. "FIGHT BACK, YOU IDIOT!"
"Shut up…" Sanji gasped, spitting a mouthful of blood. "This… has nothing to do with you."
"IT HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH ME!" Luffy shot back, taking a step forward. "YOU'RE GOING TO BE MY COOK! THAT OLD MAN GAVE UP HIS LEG SO YOU COULD LIVE AND CHASE YOUR DREAM OF FINDING THE ALL BLUE! IS THIS HOW YOU REPAY HIM?! BY DYING LIKE A DOG AND LETTING HIS DREAM DIE WITH YOU?!"
Luffy's words, a simple, brutal logic, struck Sanji harder than any of Pearl's punches. But his resolve did not waver. The debt was absolute. It could only be paid in full.
Seeing the stubborn, suicidal look in Sanji's eyes, Luffy's gaze darted around the battlefield. He looked at the gun pointed at Zeff's head. He looked at the unresisting Sanji. And then he looked at the floating platform of the Baratie itself—the very 'treasure' that was the source of this entire, insane standoff.
A desperate, destructive, and uniquely Luffy-like solution formed in his mind.
If the thing Sanji was dying for is the problem, then he would simply get rid of the thing.
He took a deep breath, ignoring the shouts of the other chefs. He crouched low, then leaped high into the air. His arms stretched upwards, grabbing onto the highest railing of the Baratie's main deck. Using his elasticity, he launched himself even higher, soaring into the sky above the entire battlefield.
He then stretched one leg straight down, aiming it like a massive, descending axe.
"Gomu Gomu no… ONO!" (Axe!)
His foot, now moving with incredible speed and the full, gravitational force of his recoiling body, slammed down onto the center of the wooden fin.
CRACK-KABOOM!
The impact was not a punch; it was an explosion. A single, devastating, focused blow that sent a spiderweb of massive cracks across the entire platform. With a great, groaning shriek, the battlefield they were all standing on shattered, collapsing into the churning sea in a cascade of splintered wood and frothing water.
"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?!" Sanji screamed, scrambling to stay on the remaining part of the wreckage. "YOU'RE DESTROYING THE OLD MAN'S TREASURE!"
"IT'S BETTER THAN LETTING YOU DIE FOR IT!" Luffy yelled back, landing on a stable piece of debris. "A PILE OF WOOD ISN'T WORTH YOUR LIFE! IF THIS RESTAURANT IS THE REASON YOU'RE TRYING TO DIE, THEN I'LL SINK IT MYSELF!"
Their philosophical clash, a battle of debt versus dreams, was now a screaming match amidst the wreckage.
Pearl, having resurfaced from the water sputtering and enraged, saw his chance. The two of them were distracted, screaming at each other. He roared and charged, his flaming fists aimed to incinerate them both.
But he never reached them.
A figure moved, a blur of motion faster than anything they had seen from him before.
It was Gin.
He intercepted Pearl, his steel-tipped tonfas a whirlwind of controlled, deadly force. He didn't just block. He annihilated. A single, devastating blow slammed into Pearl's armored chest. The pearl-studded steel, which had seemed invincible, crumpled like paper. Pearl's eyes went wide with shock before he was sent flying backwards, crashing into the wreckage of Krieg's ship, completely and utterly defeated.
The sheer power of the blow shocked everyone into silence.
Tears, hot and uncontrollable, began to stream down his face, a sight so unexpected from the feared "Man-Demon" that it seemed to bend reality itself.
He raised the pistol, but this time, he pointed it at Sanji.
His voice was a choked, heartbreaking whisper, thick with a conflict that was tearing him apart.
"I cannot… let Don Krieg be defeated here."
"But I also cannot repay your kindness with betrayal."
He looked at the cook who had saved his life.
"You were the first person… in my entire miserable life… to ever show me true kindness. You fed me when I was starving. You treated me like a human being."
The tears flowed freely now.
"That is why… I will be the one… to kill you myself.