WebNovels

Chapter 67 - Soup

The battle was over, but the air was still thick with the bitter taste of its aftermath. Gin, his body wracked with poison, struggled to his feet. With a strength born of pure, unwavering loyalty, he hoisted the unconscious form of Don Krieg over his shoulder.

"Stop, you fool!" Patty yelled, moving to block his path. "You're still full of poison! You'll be dead before you even reach your ship!"

"That is my fate to decide," Gin rasped, his breathing shallow. He looked at Sanji, his eyes filled with a profound, sorrowful respect. "Sanji-san… tell your captain for me… tell him I said, 'See you again in the Grand Line'."

It was a hopeful lie, a final prayer from a dying man.

Suddenly, he bent over, vomiting a spray of black, poisonous blood onto the deck. The poison was accelerating. He knew he didn't have much time.

"Two… maybe three hours left…" he muttered to himself. He let out a weak, bitter laugh. "How stupid… to accept an inevitable death." He then looked at the sea, a new, hard glint in his eyes, recalling the words of the man on his shoulder. If you decide something, do it without doubt.

"In the time I have left," Gin declared to no one in particular, "I will do as I please."

Sanji watched, his heart heavy. He would not let this man, who had shown him such a strange and tragic form of honor, die without a vessel.

"Patty. Carne," he said, his voice a low command. "Give him your shopping ship."

"What?!" Patty exclaimed. "No way! That's our personal boat!"

"Give it to him," Sanji repeated, his leg already lifting from the ground, his eyes glowing with a dangerous light. The two cooks, remembering the power of his kicks, reluctantly agreed.

Inside the relative calm of the Baratie's dining hall, Luffy's eyes fluttered open. He was lying in a makeshift bed of tablecloths. The first thing he did was frantically pat his own head.

"My hat! Where's my hat?!" he panicked.

"It's in your hand, you idiot," Sanji said, walking by with a tray. Luffy looked down and saw that he was, indeed, clutching his precious straw hat tightly in his sleep.

He sat up, his wounds bandaged. "Oh. Right." He then looked around. "Where are all the bad guys? Did we win?"

"They've gone," Sanji said, his voice flat. He briefly recounted Gin's final, desperate departure.

Luffy processed this for a moment. "So, Gin wants to meet you again, huh?"

Sanji just sighed at his captain's incredible density. He then watched as Luffy, now seemingly recovered, bounced to his feet.

"Great! So that's all settled!" Luffy declared cheerfully. "Which means there's nothing keeping you here anymore! Sanji! Be the cook on my crew!"

Sanji turned his back, lighting a cigarette. "I told you. I can't. I have to keep working here at the Baratie. The old geezer… he's finally recognized my skill as a cook. This place needs me."

His refusal, this time, felt different. It was firm, prideful. Final.

Luffy's usual, boisterous energy seemed to deflate. He looked genuinely disappointed. For the first time, he seemed to accept defeat. "Oh. Okay then."

Seeing his dejection, Sanji's expression softened slightly. "But I will go to the Grand Line. Someday," he said, a distant look in his eye. He turned back, a rare, genuine smile on his face. "Have you ever heard of the All Blue, Luffy?"

He began to describe his dream, his voice filled with a passion and joy that Luffy hadn't heard before. He spoke of a chef's paradise, a mythical sea where all the fish of the world converged. Zeff, watching silently from the kitchen doorway, saw the pure, unadulterated joy on his sous chef's face, and a quiet, resolute plan began to form in his own mind.

Later, during the staff's mealtime, the atmosphere in the mess hall was tense. All the cooks were seated, eating, but two chairs were conspicuously absent.

"Hey, where do we sit?" Luffy asked as he and Sanji entered.

"On the floor, chore boy," Patty grunted. 

They sat down, and Sanji ladled some of the soup of the day into a bowl for himself. He took a spoonful. Patty watched him like a hawk.

"So, who made the soup today?" Patty asked, a little too casually.

"I did," Sanji replied. "Why?"

Patty took a dramatic spoonful of his own soup, swirled it, and then spat it out onto the floor. "BLEGH! It's disgusting! Tastes like bilge water!"

Sanji's eyebrow twitched. "What did you say, you bastard?"

"He's right, it's terrible," Carne chimed in. One by one, every other cook in the room tasted the soup and voiced their agreement. "Yeah, this is awful." "Sanji, did you lose your touch?"

 Sanji was furious, his pride as a chef deeply wounded. Zeff walked over, took a bowl, and tasted the soup himself. He was silent for a long moment. Then he looked at Sanji. "It's the worst thing I've ever tasted," he said flatly.

That was the last straw. Sanji leaped to his feet and grabbed Zeff by the collar, his face a mask of pure rage. "HOW DARE YOU, YOU OLD GEEZER?! AFTER ALL THESE YEARS, YOU DARE INSULT MY COOKING?!"

Zeff didn't say a word. He simply drew back his fist and punched Sanji square in the jaw, sending him flying out of the mess hall and crashing onto the deck outside.

The room fell silent.

Luffy, who had been watching the whole spectacle with a confused expression, picked up Sanji's discarded bowl. He took a huge slurp.

And his face lit up.

"This is delicious!" he announced with a giant, happy grin.

Zeff sat down across from Luffy, a tired sigh escaping his lips. He explained the scenario.

"We all lied," he said quietly, as the other cooks looked on with grim expressions. "The soup was perfect. As always."

He looked towards the open door where Sanji was now sitting in the rain, bruised and bewildered. "But that idiot… his sense of gratitude is too strong. He feels he owes me his life, and he will never leave this restaurant as long as that debt hangs over him. He can't leave with a feeling of thankfulness."

Zeff's voice was a low growl, filled with a gruff, paternal love.

"He has to feel like he's not needed here. Like he's being kicked out. It's the only way that proud fool will ever be free to follow his own dream."

He looked at Luffy, a formal request from one captain to another.

"Take him with you, Straw Hat. Take that little eggplant to the Grand Line."

Outside, hidden by the sound of the falling rain, Sanji had heard every single word. He sat there, his shoulders shaking, as silent tears began to stream down his face.

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