The golden veil, as if a tree had sprouted from roots buried beneath the earth, was connected to the gold-hued energy flowing from Luffy's hand.
Luffy whipped his hand, surrounded by that golden aura, through the air, and the veil disappeared.
Then Luffy turned around and spoke to Sanji, who stood behind him.
"Satisfied?"
"What…?"
"That Marine took a bullet… frankly, he's just another man to me."
"But what about the other guests? They came here wanting to eat, just like that Clik fellow."
"No…"
"The cooks I work with are no different. To think their daily hard work could be repaid with bullets…"
Luffy, slightly taller by about ten centimeters, looked down at Sanji and said,
"Is this really what you wanted?"
"Luffy, I…"
Hearing Luffy's words, Sanji recalled his past.
The young Sanji back then wore tattered clothes like rags and was so emaciated that the bones in his arms and legs protruded.
In front of Sanji, Jeff—also clad in tattered rags and equally gaunt—lay on the ground and spoke.
"Whenever I went days without food while living a pirate's life at sea,"
"I thought how wonderful it would be if there were a restaurant out in the middle of the ocean."
As Sanji remembered that moment, Clik, who was standing behind them, spoke up.
"What the hell are you? What did you do?!"
Luffy spoke and turned his body, stepping towards Clik, who shouted after him.
"Y-you ate a Devil Fruit too or something? That's how you got the power to slice a ship like the Hawk's Eye…!"
"They threaten after getting a meal when they were about to starve… honestly, you pirates are all the same—pathetic."
Luffy's fierce expression melted into a gentle smile as he said,
But the bulging veins on his forehead betrayed how false that smile was.
"You're ahead of Cro in that sense… but even a beast would recognize the mercy of being spared."
"How dare you know who I am! And why do you speak of the Hawk's Eye—why are you interfering with me?!"
"I am Clik! I will conquer the Grand Line and become the Pirate King…!"
"If you act less than an animal…"
As Clik spoke, Luffy lightly swung his fist at Clik's ship,
Bang!
"That's what you are—'Disqualified as a Human'."
At that moment, Clik's figure vanished.
Luffy's grim expression returned as he looked at the restaurant entrance in the direction he'd sent Clik flying—it was shattered into a jagged circle.
Shards of the golden armor Clik had been wearing littered the floor, and a momentary silence fell upon the scene.
"What a mess."
"Old man…!"
"Chef!"
Jeff, who had appeared seemingly out of nowhere, descended the central staircase and said,
Upon reaching the bottom, he moved past the cooks, Sanji, and Luffy, and then spoke.
"I apologize to all of you, our guests."
Jeff said this and bowed deeply.
Seeing this, Sanji and the other cooks looked on in surprise as he continued,
"As the owner of this place, I failed to manage things properly and put our guests in danger."
"And that danger is far from over. The hungry pirates aboard that large ship across the way could turn their sights on this place at any moment."
"It may not be enough to atone for this, but I will not charge you for your meals. For your safety, please return to the vessels you came on and leave this place."
Terrified, the guests rose from their seats at Jeff's words.
As they filed out of the restaurant, Jeff called out to Luffy.
"Thank you, Garp's… no, Straw Hat."
"Don't mention it. I just did what I felt was right."
'In the original story, Jeff supplied enough food and water to feed Clik's hundred men.'
'But now he's thanking me for sending Clik flying. Is it because I acted so decisively in this version, unlike the original?'
'My actions diverged from the original, making the future unpredictable—but I don't mind.'
'This isn't my first life, but my second—so I might as well say what I want out loud.'
"And I owe you all an apology as well."
"W-why are you saying that, Chef!?"
"Right! This all happened because Sanji gave food to Clik…!"
"You all suspected it, didn't you?"
"Everything Sanji has done up to now was because I wanted him to."
"But that's…"
"The average bounty in East Blue is a mere three million Berries. Even before the Age of Pirates, it's been called the 'weakest sea' among pirates."
"Of course, that also makes it the best sea for ordinary folk to live in. The Marines call East Blue the symbol of peace."
"Since the Baratie was built, there have been pirate raids every year, but they were all small fry from the weakest sea. You could handle them without me or Sanji stepping in."
"But Clik earlier was different, and that's why you were nearly harmed."
Jeff sat down at a nearby table and continued.
"What happened today was a result of my life steeped in peace until now."
"I used to resent how I aged and grew weaker each year, but now I feel how much weaker I've grown in spirit."
"Who would see this pitiful version of me as a pirate returned from the Grand Line? My old crew who I lost to storms when I was young would all be laughing at me if they saw me now."
"Chef…"
The cooks, still seated, looked at Jeff and forced bitter smiles.
Unlike his usually robust presence, Jeff seemed unusually small today, making them feel sad.
Among those cooks, Sanji spoke up,
"Why are you apologizing, old man!?"
"Sanji…"
"Don't get the wrong idea! Everything that happened today wasn't your fault—it was because I did what I wanted!"
"You never once told me to do that so why…!"
"Why didn't you say anything?"
"Wh-what… what do you mean?"
"Why didn't you respond to what the Straw Hat just told you earlier?"
"…!"
"You're the type to beat a hasty retreat when a Marine says there's a fly in your food, without uttering a word."
"But just now, the Straw Hat spoke harshly about everything you've done with the same heart I share."
"Yet you couldn't bring yourself to say a single word."
"But that's…!"
"It's okay. I'm not blaming you."
Jeff rose from his seat and walked toward Sanji before continuing.
"It's just that our convictions crumbled today."
"Our dream for the future that drives us onward and our conviction to protect who we are now—if either is broken, we can fix it; if it's gone, we can build a new one."
"But no matter which path we choose, we have to acknowledge something to move forward."
He placed a hand on Sanji's shoulder and said,
"If someone—no matter who, even if they're scum—wants to eat, we make them food. That's our conviction, yours and mine."
"But because of that, we couldn't protect our guests and comrades. This was never the outcome we intended."
"Old man…"
"Sanji, we lost."
Jeff met Sanji's gaze and said,
Hearing Jeff's words, Sanji looked as though he was about to burst into tears.
The other chefs around them also gazed at them with mournful eyes, when suddenly—
"Gah! It's Clik! That guy's still alive!"
"Run for your lives!"
At that moment, screams rose from outside the restaurant.
Jeff, Sanji, Luffy, the other chefs, and then Zoro stepped out in quick succession.
On a small boat bobbing between the Baratie and Clik's hundred-meter-long ship stood Clik, blood smeared all over his mouth.
The guests who had just been dining on the Baratie scattered to either side to put distance between themselves and Clik and his ship.
"It's not over! A hundred starving men are still aboard my ship… gurggh…!"
As Clik shouted and spat blood, Luffy watched him calmly from the first-floor deck outside the Baratie.
'I was trying to hold back so as not to stain the restaurant with blood… did I go too easy on him?'
"Ev-everyone, rise, Clik Pirates!"
"Let's show them how fiercely one can fight when one is starved to death!"
"Waaaaaaah!!!"
At Clik's shout, over a hundred men raised their weapons and let out cries atop their ship.
Seeing this, the cooks on the Baratie's first-floor deck clenched their fists or drew makeshift weapons. Jeff then turned to Luffy and spoke,
"They're about to starve—what couldn't they do in that state… as someone who was once in the same situation, it's pitiful."
"They've met themselves a good captain, huh? If that were the case, they could have had at least one meal from you, Chef…"
As Luffy spoke, his eyes widened in surprise.
Jeff next to him also reacted the same way. They turned and, locking eyes, began to shout toward those around them.
"All cooks, grab onto the ship's railings anywhere!!!"
"Something dangerous is coming!!!"
At the sound of their warning, people nearby were startled, and then—
Clik's ship, over a hundred meters long, was cleaved in two.
"W-what is that!"
"C-captain! The ship is—aaaah!!!"
At the same time, a massive wave surged toward the Baratie.
The small boat Clik was on, the Baratie, and the guests' vessels fleeing from Clik all tilted violently.
As the cooks on the Baratie's deck stumbled, Luffy and Jeff leaned forward, grabbing the clothes of Zoro and Sanji respectively to steady them.
Clik's men threw themselves into the sea in the direction the broken ship was tilting, while Clik himself found his upper body propped atop the overturned small boat.
'Huff, huff... this can't be real.'
'Only someone capable of this kind of action...!'
Between the two halves of the cleaved ship, Clik saw another small boat barreling toward him and the Baratie.
"N-no way...!!!"
Seated on the central chair of that boat was a man whose face was framed by a thin layer of stubble. He wore a wide-brimmed hat that was black on the outside and deep purple within, along with a matching coat.
He also wore a small cross-shaped necklace around his neck and carried a greatsword over two meters in length, its blade jet-black.
His eyes resembled those of a bird of prey, golden irises ringed with black in the center, like a circular black line enclosing them.
"Thanks to the storm, you've run quite far," he remarked.
Clik stood on the small boat, one leg crossed over the other on its overturned side, and spoke to the man,
"[Hawk's Eye] Mihawk...!"