The memory of that starving, sun-bleached rock still haunted Sanji's bones. Eighty-five days of nothing but hope and salt. He could still taste the phantom flavor of leather from chewing Zeff's boot, the old pirate's voice rasping through cracked lips.
*"You still believe in that fairy tale? The All Blue?"* young Sanji had spat, his hatred for pirates a fire in his hollow stomach.
Zeff, his own body a skeleton wrapped in skin, had looked out at the endless sea. *"A cook's dream isn't a fairy tale, brat. It's a compass. Mine led me here… to saving a stubborn, ungrateful little weed."* He'd turned, his one remaining leg trembling with effort. *"But a man without a crew… is a ship without a sail. If we live… I'm done. I'll plant my feet on land and build a restaurant. A real one."*
The miracle had come on the eighty-sixth morning. A sail on the horizon.
Now, in the shattered dining room of the Baratie, that same miracle was about to be extinguished.
Pearl's armored fist slammed into Sanji's ribs again. A sickening *crack* echoed. Sanji skidded across the splintered floor, blood painting his teeth red, but a serene smile touched his lips.
"Stop it, Sanji!" Luffy's roar was raw with confusion. He stood amidst the wreckage, his own body bruised from the battle. "How does dying help that old man? He saved you so you could *die*?"
Sanji pushed himself up, swaying. "He saved me so I could live *my way*," he coughed out. "This restaurant… it's his dream. His final voyage. I won't let pirates like you *or* them steal it. If it's the price for protecting it… then my life is a cheap one."
"You're an idiot!" Luffy shouted, his fists clenched. "Dreams aren't about dying for things! They're about *living* for them!"
In that moment, Luffy's eyes swept over the Baratie—the carved fish figurehead, the polished galley, the place Sanji was willing to become a martyr for. A wild, desperate logic sparked in his mind.
If the Baratie was the target… then remove the target.
"Fine!" Luffy yelled, his voice cutting through the chaos. "If this restaurant is what they want… then it doesn't need to be here!"
Before anyone could move, Luffy drew back his rubbery arm, stretching it far behind him. "GOMU GOMU NO…"
"Luffy, NO!" Sanji screamed, realization dawning.
"...PISTOL!"
The fist didn't aim for Pearl or the Krieg Pirates. It shot like a cannonball towards the central mast of the floating restaurant. The impact wasn't a punch; it was a demolition. Wood exploded. The great mast groaned, teetered, and with a catastrophic *SNAP*, began to topple, crashing through the upper decks in an avalanche of splinters and sailcloth.
The entire ship shuddered. Sanji stared, his world collapsing not metaphorically, but literally. "YOU MADMAN! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!"
"I'm saving you, you stubborn cook!" Luffy retorted, standing defiantly in the raining debris.
Their argument was a bubble of tension in the stunned silence. A bubble that was violently popped.
"ENOUGH!" bellowed Pearl, his vanity wounded at being ignored. He lunged, a glittering, spiked juggernaut aiming to crush both arguing youths.
A blur intercepted him.
*THWACK.*
A single, precise blow from a weighted tonfa caught Pearl square in the temple. The giant man's eyes rolled back, and he hit the deck like a felled tree, his armor clattering. Behind him stood Gin, "Man-Demon" Gin, his face an emotionless mask, his weapons dripping with the blood of his own crewmate.
"Your pointless sacrifice insults my captain's victory," Gin stated, his voice cold as deep-sea ice. He turned his dead-fish eyes to Sanji. "A life given freely has no value. I will take it from you. Properly. Personally. It will be my… courtesy."
A deadly quiet fell. Sanji merely lit a new cigarette, the flame trembling slightly in his fingers. "Courtesy? From a Krieg dog? Don't make me laugh."
Luffy stepped forward, placing himself slightly ahead of Sanji. "He's not dying today. And you're not killing him."
For the Krieg Pirates, this was the ultimate blasphemy. Two boys, standing in the ruins of their own home, dismissing the most feared armada in the East Blue? A wave of fury surged through them—a chorus of drawn blades and primed flintlocks.
"CRUSH THEM!"
"KILL THE BRATS!"
The wave broke before it could reach shore.
"SILENCE."
Don Krieg's voice, amplified by his golden armor, didn't shout. It commanded. The pirates froze. Their captain descended from his damaged flagship, each step a heavy *clang* of impending doom. He looked from Luffy, to his quivering crew, and a contemptuous smile spread behind his helmet.
"Why do you stir, my wolves?" Krieg boomed. "While your captain stands, you have no need to question *who is stronger*." He stopped, a mountain of metal and menace, and peered down at Luffy. "But you, boy. You seem confused. Let me ask you plainly. In this place, at this moment… who do you believe holds the power?"
Luffy didn't hesitate. He tilted his head up, meeting the gaze of the warlord who had conquered fifty ships. "Me."
The word was simple, absolute, and hung in the air like a challenge to the universe itself.
Krieg's laughter was a harsh, grating sound. "Ignorance is a cancer. And I have the perfect cure."
His massive arm shifted. With a sinister *hiss*, a compartment on his wrist opened. He raised it, not at Luffy, but at the heart of the still-crumbling Baratie. Mounted there was a canister, marked with a skull and a terrifying legend: **MH5**.
"Behold the pinnacle of power!" Krieg announced. "Not brute strength, but the intelligence to wield absolute annihilation. This is MH5—a poison gas that will liquefy your lungs in seconds. This is the difference between a brawler… and a king."
He fired.
The canister shot from his arm, not as a slow arc, but a streaking projectile aimed directly at the restaurant's main support beams. If it hit, the gas would engulf everyone—Sanji, Zeff, the wounded, everyone.
"NO!" Sanji screamed.
Luffy was already moving. "GUM-GUM BALLOON!" He inflated his chest, launching himself into the projectile's path. He wasn't going to punch it. He was going to catch it and bounce it harmlessly away, into the sea.
*SMACK.*
The canister hit his expanded rubber torso. But the sound was wrong. Not a metallic *thud*, but a sharp, piercing *shunk*.
Luffy's eyes went wide. The canister hadn't burst. Instead, a dozen razor-sharp, foot-long steel spikes *sprang* from its casing, embedding themselves deep into his rubber flesh with brutal efficiency. It wasn't a gas bomb at all.
It was a shuriken bomb.
Luffy gasped, the air driven from his lungs. He deflated, crashing to the deck, a pincushion of gleaming steel stakes protruding from his chest and stomach. Blood, shockingly red, began to pool beneath him.
Sanji's cigarette fell from his lips. "L-Luffy…?"
Don Krieg's laughter roared across the water. "FOOL! You think a king fights fair? You think power is honest? This… this is power!"
As Luffy lay impaled and motionless, Krieg leveled another, identical canister from his other arm. This one aimed directly at Sanji's head.
"Let's see if your chef can bounce this one back, boy."
The firing mechanism clicked.
**TO BE CONTINUED…**