As she began to see what the situation might be, Makino's figure shook slightly and she replied with a stutter: "W-well, s-sir, they're drinking sake, but I'm sorry to say they bought the last of what I had in stock."
After placing a hand on the woman's shoulder and giving the waitress a brief smile, Shanks came to her aid. "Sorry!" he said, laughing. "My friends and I were so thirsty, it looks like we ran out!" Seeing the last bottle of sake on the bar, the redhead grabbed it and offered it to the man with a smile: "Looks like we have one last bottle! It's not much, but it's yours if you want it."
Seeing the bottle in front of him, Higuma grabbed it and turned, as if to leave. Just when the situation seemed resolved, the mountain bandit whirled around and smashed the unopened bottle at Shanks, knocking him down and leaving the floor a mess. Of the entire bar, only two people noticed the slight darkening of a small spot on his head where the bottle hit him. As soon as it would have been noticeable to most, it disappeared.
One of them was the Red-Haired Pirates' first mate, the gray-haired man smiling to himself. He didn't think anyone else was looking closely enough. Besides, Haki was standard practice in the Red Force. So, any crewmates who might have noticed wouldn't have cared. Yet, through his smile, he felt the urge to scold his captain, even though he knew he was just having fun. That kind of power wasn't supposed to exist in this part of the world.
The other one who noticed was a seven-year-old boy, who wondered what that curious black mark on the pirate captain's head was. Normally, Luffy would have quickly forgotten something so small, but for some reason, it stuck in his memory. He would have to talk to Shanks about it later. Right now, he could only restrain himself from yelling at the stupid bandit who had hit his role model.
"A measly bottle of sake isn't enough for us!" Higuma shouted as he glared at Shanks.
For a moment, no one knew what the pirate captain was doing sitting on the floor, his straw hat pulled down over his eyes. After remaining there for what seemed like an eternity to the rest of the bar, the man in the straw hat knelt down and began trying to pick up all the broken glass. "Sorry about the mess, Makino! You wouldn't happen to have any rags or anything to clean this up, would you?" he asked shyly, with a slight smile.
At this, all the pirates in the room breathed a sigh of relief. They knew how things could have ended.
"Shanks, please let me do that!" Makino replied sincerely. After all, it was her job.
"Nonsense! It's my fault the floor is so dirty! I should be the one cleaning it!" reasoned the redhead.
Against her better judgment, Makino agreed and stood behind the bar to get a rag for the handsome redhead. As soon as the rag reached her hand, Shanks began cleaning up the mess underneath.
Higuma continued to stare at the 'pathetic pirate' cleaning the floor with a frown. "Ah, so you like cleaning, huh? You like it so much you won't even let that barmaid clean it for you, eh?"
The moment the words left the man's mouth, Makino fled as fast as she could, tears streaming down her face. After the green-haired woman left, the bar seemed to freeze. The air around them felt heavy, as if it now carried a weight. Shanks's team had grown accustomed to that feeling; they knew what it was. But this time it felt a little different, even weaker, and no one understood why.
Higuma felt like he couldn't breathe. Air simply wouldn't flow into his lungs, and he began to sweat. Hearing heavy thumps behind him, he turned and found all his men unconscious on the ground. "Something's wrong ," Higuma thought. What on earth was happening to them all? Why couldn't he breathe? He felt like something was weighing him down, growing heavier with each passing second!
Shanks stood up, and his entire crew anticipated what was coming. The foolish mountain bandit had just made the final mistake of his life. No one insulted Shanks's friends. So, when Luffy stepped out from behind his captain and stood before him, the Red-Haired Pirates' crew was stunned.
With a grim expression, Luffy met Higuma's gaze: "Nobody hurts my friends." With each word the little boy spoke, the tension in the room grew heavier: "First, you break a bottle for Shanks, and then... YOU CALL MY OLDER SISTER THAT WORD?" Luffy's gaze was piercing, and his voice lowered, becoming even darker: "Leave. Right now."
Higuma, unable to resist Luffy's willpower, collapsed, blood streaming from his nose and ears. The silence that fell over the bar was deafening. No one spoke until the first bandits began to rise from the floor, shocked to find their leader lying in a small pool of his own blood.
"Take your leader's body and leave. If you ever return to this place, it won't be the child you'll have to worry about," the red-haired captain whispered, turning his gaze to the remaining men.
Although the bandits felt no power this time, the gaze seemed just as dangerous, if not more so. They quickly gathered Higuma's still-warm body and left as fast as they could, fear practically washing away from them in waves.
Once the door was closed and the pirates were alone, silence fell over the bar. A few seconds passed, then a soft sob broke the silence: "Shanks... what...? I... I didn't... what did I do...?"
"Luffy, how about you and I go out for a little while, huh?" Shanks asked in the lightest tone possible.
Not trusting her voice at that moment, the trembling boy simply nodded and the two proceeded to leave the bar, leaving a group of shocked pirates to clean up the aftermath.
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