Chapter 30: The Storm of Fate — When the Red-Leg Met the Little Eggplant
The screen didn't jump to the starvation. Instead, it lingered on the high-tension standoff in the kitchen of the Orbit. A five-year-old Sanji, wearing a chef's hat twice the size of his head, was shaking but refusing to drop his knife as the Cook Pirates swarmed the ship.
"I'm not giving you my food!" Sanji shrieked. "I'm going to be the greatest chef in the world! I'm going to find the All Blue!"
The word "All Blue" echoed through the speakers, causing a ripple of laughter from the fodder pirates on the screen—and a dead silence in the Global Chat.
> [Scopper Gaban]: "All Blue? Now that's a name I haven't heard since the Captain's days. This brat was dreaming big before he could even reach the stove!"
> [Crocus]: "It's the dream of every cook, but most give up before they even set sail. To see a Vinsmoke child chasing a 'fairytale'... Judge must have been foaming at the mouth."
> [Judge Vinsmoke]: "ENOUGH! Stop showing this delusion! There is no such sea! It is a geographical impossibility!"
> [Sanji]: (In Sabaody, leaning against a tree, blowing a long trail of smoke) "Shut up, old man. Just because your eyes are too small to see it doesn't mean it isn't there."
>
On the screen, Zeff paused. He looked at the boy—not with pity, but with a strange, piercing recognition. He kicked a pirate who tried to grab Sanji. "Move, you idiots. I like this brat's eyes. They've got fire in 'em."
Suddenly, the sky on the screen turned a bruised purple. The "Great Orbit" began to tilt at a terrifying angle. A "Knock-Up Stream" or a massive rogue wave—it didn't matter what it was—the sea simply opened its mouth.
The ship snapped. Wood groaned like a dying beast. Sanji was launched into the air, his tiny scream lost in the roar of the wind. The world watched, breathless, as Zeff watched the boy vanish into the foam.
"BRAT!" Zeff roared, diving headfirst into the abyss.
The Underwater Sacrifice
The camera followed them under the waves. It was silent and terrifying. Zeff grabbed Sanji's collar, but a massive section of the Orbit's hull was sinking right on top of them. An anchor chain whipped around Zeff's leg like a snake, pinning him to the wreckage.
He was being dragged down. 10 meters. 20 meters. His lungs were burning. He looked at the unconscious boy in his arms, then at his trapped leg.
He grabbed a jagged piece of metal from the debris.
The screen went black for a split second, accompanied by a sickening CRUNCH.
When the light returned, the water was stained a deep, blooming crimson. Zeff was kicking toward the surface with his one remaining leg, his teeth gritted so hard they looked like they might shatter, holding Sanji above the waterline as they washed onto a jagged, needle-like rock.
The Global Chat: Total Chaos
> [Rocks D. Xebec]: (Singing in a frantic, high-pitched operetta) "♪ A LEG FOR A LIFE~ A LIMB FOR A DREAM~ THE PIRATE'S REDEMPTION~ IS LOUDER THAN A SCREAM! ♪"
> [Buggy the Clown]: "HE CUT IT OFF?! HONK! Just like that?! I've seen some crazy things, but Red-Leg is a certified lunatic! I'd rather stay in my cell than do that! HONK!"
> [Shanks]: "That's the price of a New Era, Buggy. Some of us give an arm... others give a leg. Zeff, you're a legend."
> [Edward Newgate]: "Gurarara! Look at the Navy's faces! They're realizing the 'Wings' of the Pirate King weren't born in a lab—they were forged in blood!"
> [Sengoku]: "SQUEAK! (The paperwork for this... the civilian outcry... SQUEAK! Why is the System showing such graphic heroism?! It's making the pirates look like saints! SQUEAK!)"
>
The Rock of Despair
The chapter ended with the two of them lying on the stone, coughing up saltwater. The sun began to rise, revealing the horrifying truth: the rock was hundreds of feet high, with no way down and not a single blade of grass.
Zeff stood up on one leg, leaning against the stone. He tossed a small bag of bread—the only thing he saved—at Sanji's feet.
"Listen, brat. That's all the food we have. I'm taking the big bag over there because I'm a big man. Stay on your side of the rock. If I see your face, I'll kill you."
The screen zoomed in on Sanji's small, shivering form clutching the bag of crackers, unaware that the "big bag" Zeff was guarding contained nothing but cold, inedible gold.
[System Note: The first day of 85. The hunger begins now.]