When Monkey D. Luffy and Roronoa Zoro met Mihawk, the moment Mihawk sliced through Clik's ship, a massive wave surged in every direction—
BOOM!
"What the hell is this wave?!"
The wave crashed all the way to where Nami's small boat was.
It pelted Nami, who was rowing, with spray so she was drenched in seawater.
"That's strange—it wasn't the kind of weather to whip up waves like this a moment ago."
"I'm exhausted from rowing, and now this annoying crap happens... I should've stolen the Merry right from the start, shouldn't I...?"
Right after saying that, Nami remembered the meal she had with her crewmates in the Baratie restaurant.
Luffy had his mouth stuffed with food, Usopp was laughing at him, and Zoro was drinking sake straight from the bottle.
"No, Nami, the Merry is the ship Kaya gave Usopp."
"We've already stolen over 100 million Berries, so there's no reason to hurt them anymore."
In her memory, Nami saw Sanji pouring wine into her glass at the Baratie, then smiling brightly as he held the glass.
"Everyone was so kind... I guess I'll never see any of them again, huh?"
Tears streamed down Nami's face as she recalled that time.
"I just want to be free already... Bellemere!"
****
"Who the hell decided you could take me away?!"
"Sanji."
Back in the present on the third floor of the Baratie, where Luffy and Zoro lay wounded.
Sanji had been shouting, and Luffy turned to Jeff and spoke:
"Mr. Jeff, if Sanji keeps refusing, he can't come with us."
"So try to persuade him."
"Did you hear that, Sanji? Come with us."
"No way! I'll work in this restaurant for the rest of my life until the Old Man dies!"
"I don't like that plan either."
"But... then what am I supposed to do for you...!"
"Do you remember the day we first met, Sanji?"
"...How could I forget?"
"Yeah, our first meeting was the worst."
As Jeff said this, the gazes of Luffy, Zoro, and the cooks turned to them.
In that moment, Jeff spoke again, recalling the same memory:
****
"Kid, are you awake?"
"A pirate...!"
Nine years ago, Sanji was ten years old.
The Jeff who Sanji saw when he got to his feet looked nothing like the white-capped, white-clothed chef he would become nine years later.
His short hair stuck up in every direction beneath an ornate coat, and Sanji asked him:
"What happened to the boat? And the people on it...!"
"We were caught in a typhoon and tossed by its rough waves. It's just you and me on this island."
"I searched the island until you woke up. There's no wildlife or fruit here."
"The cliffs at the edge of this island are too far from the sea to catch fish."
"Those torn timber fragments are the wreckage of the ship you were on and the remains of my crew's vessel."
"That storm must have been powerful enough to reach these high cliffs. Everyone on your ship and everyone on my ship is dead."
"...!"
The young Sanji looked at the scattered lumber and walked to the edge of the land before him.
Peering down, he realized it was a cliff hundreds of feet high. He turned away.
Seeing the far-off shore of the island, he gauged its size.
"It's all your fault! If you hadn't robbed my crew's ship, none of this would've happened!"
"The typhoon wasn't my doing. Still, I don't expect you to think what I did was justified."
"But I'm the one who saved you, right?"
"That...!"
Sanji remembered the torrential rain and wind, and waves that had tossed him overboard.
He remembered Jeff as the one who plunged into the sea to pull him to safety.
"Kid, this is food for you to eat."
"What is this? It's barely anything!"
Jeff tossed a sack beside Sanji, filled with bread, meat, and various foods.
On his shoulder, he carried a bag three times larger than the one he gave Sanji.
"This food was washed up along with us by the storm. Ration it carefully."
"It'd normally be five days' worth of food. If you ration it, it'll last longer."
"Wait! Your sack is bigger than mine!"
"Of course mine is. I'm bigger, so I need more to eat."
"In this situation, helping each other is how we'll survive."
"If you see a ship, come tell me. I'll do the same from the opposite cliff."
With that, Jeff hoisted the large sack on his shoulder and started walking away.
"I'll, I'll come if I see a ship!"
"Until then, we won't see each other again. No need to waste energy searching."
"Good luck, kid."
Jeff vanished toward the island's far side.
Sanji watched him go, then turned his gaze to the endless sea with no island in sight.
'The ocean is so vast... but if I wait a week, a ship should pass by.'
'I can't rely on five days' food—my life's at stake. I'll ration it for twenty days.'
'I see rainwater collected in the rock crevices around me. As long as I can drink that, water's no problem.'
'I can handle this, right?'
Three days into his ordeal.
"Not a single ship has passed... It's okay if I eat a little more today, right?"
Eight days in.
grumble...!
"Shut up, you damn stomach! Shut the hell up!"
Sanji punched his rumbling stomach.
"I have to hold out until a ship passes!"
Thirteen days in.
"Here! Look over here!"
Through the pouring rain, Sanji spotted a ship on the horizon and shouted.
"Light a fire to signal them... The rain's too heavy to ignite wood!"
As he tried to rub sticks together to make fire, the ship battling the storm drifted farther away.
Sanji called out to it:
"Wait! There's someone here!"
"Don't leave me! Please save me!!!"
Twenty-five days in.
"This is my last piece of bread, and it's moldy..."
Sanji, emaciated until his bones showed, held the blue-molded bread and recalled another memory.
He was surrounded by men in white coats, sitting at a table eating off plates as they spoke to him.
"You left a lot of food. What a waste."
"Yeah, and it tasted great, too."
"Sanji, want to eat some with us?"
"That's food left by customers! Why the hell would I eat that?!"
"The sea's unpredictable."
"If you fuss over scraps that aren't even rotten, you won't survive when something really bad happens."
As Sanji recalled that, a fierce wind blew.
"My bread...!"
The moldy loaf fell from his hand off the cliff's edge.
****
"Why are you here, kid?"
"..."
"Waiting for a ship?"
Jeff sat at the cliff's edge, staring out at the sea.
A small fire burned at his side, and the large sack lay on the ground.
Behind him stood the emaciated Sanji, clutching a dagger with both hands.
"Why did you come? Of course it's to steal food from me!"
"...Is that so?"
"If you're going to kill me, go ahead! I might as well die here of starvation or get killed!"
Sanji thrust his dagger into the big sack beside Jeff.
"I've been starving for a week, but you still have so much food... huh?"
Sanji slashed the sack with his dagger.
But out of it spilled coins, gems, and costly trinkets.
"What is this... treasure, not food!"
"The first sack was all treasure...!"
thud!
Sanji collapsed as he approached Jeff.
"Y-your... your leg...!"
"I told you we wouldn't meet until a ship came..."
"You... you ate your own leg?!"
Sanji looked at Jeff's right leg.
Unlike the left pant leg covering his black pants, nothing was there on the right side.
"So you gave me all the food?"
"It's ironic, isn't it? Having all that money and nothing to eat."
"They call you Red Leg Zeff... without your right leg, you can't properly sail as a pirate!"
"Indeed."
"But why...?"
"Do you remember? When my crewmates and I tried to board your passenger ship to rob it."
****
Jeff and Sanji recalled the memory from twenty-five days earlier.
Amidst the typhoon's torrential rain and wind on the ship's deck, Sanji lay beneath Jeff, holding two kitchen knives in both hands.
On one side of the deck, pirates who had boarded from their own ship looked on, and on the other were the well-dressed passengers and cooks.
"Stay still, kid! Don't make the pirates angry!"
"Hey, chefs! This boy's yours, figure something out!"
"Stop it, Sanji, please!"
As the passengers shouted, Jeff looked down at Sanji and spoke:
"Stop it, kid. If you return to them quietly now, you won't get hurt..."
"I can't die here. I'll survive and find it...!"
"I'll find the All Blue in the Grand Line...!"
...?!
****
"Yeah... I tried to kill you back then, so why did you save me when I was swept overboard?"
"Why did you give me all that food? WHY?!!!"
"Because you... shared the same dream as me."
"...!"
As Jeff said this, he slowly sat down on the ground.
Sanji, seeing this, looked down at Jeff with tears in his eyes.
"Why... why are you doing this? Don't die!"
"Haa... Whenever I was starving out on the sea, I thought..."
"I wish there was a restaurant right in the middle of the ocean."
"A restaurant?"
"That thought never left me."
"If I got off this island alive, I wanted to build such a restaurant."
"I'll help you! So you can't die now!"
"Please don't die!!!"
****
"Luckily, we were rescued by a Navy ship that passed nearby. Otherwise, I'd have died."
Jeff and Sanji, recalling that time, spoke together.
In front of them sat Sanji by Luffy's bedside, tears in his eyes; Luffy, Zoro, and Usopp lay on the bed with solemn expressions.
The chefs around them watched in shock.
"So that's what happened between them..."
"Patty, you knew about their past?"
"I only knew they'd met long ago."
"So that's why the cook lost his leg..."
"Because of me."
"Sanji, I'm not blaming you..."
"It's true. Even if he's fine, it's not something that was fine for me."
"That old man paid too high a price to save a single kid."
"So I have to survive and repay his kindness somehow..."
"Why do you think working in the restaurant is the only way to repay him?"
"What do you mean, Luffy?"
"There has to be another way, right? A way for people with the same dream to help each other."
Luffy looked at Sanji, or more precisely, at Jeff behind Sanji.
Jeff widened his eyes in surprise, then smiled.
"Right, why didn't I think of that...? It's the most certain way."
"To get stubborn Sanji to go, you need to give him a reason he can accept."
"Thank you, Straw Hat. You found the perfect reason to send Sanji off."
"You sure have a lot to thank me for after all I've done for you."
"You're preaching to the choir..."
"Why are you the only one responding to Luffy's words, Old Man?"
"Sanji, go to the Grand Line with the Straw Hat."
"No, I said I'm not going...!"
"Go find the All Blue."
"...!"
Sanji's eyes went wide at Jeff's words.
"O-Old Man... I thought you gave up on the All Blue?"
"If a dream breaks, you mend it and dream it again. If it disappears, you just dream a new one."
"But that doesn't mean you can't pursue your old dream again."
Jeff said this, raising one eyebrow at Luffy lying in the bed.
Luffy, looking at Jeff, also raised an eyebrow and grinned.
"I gave up once, Sanji. That's why I'm entrusting it to you."
"Old Man, I..."
"Few can survive alone in this ocean. Like Mihawk, only the strongest can. Most need companions."
"Straw Hat and Roronoa are both big-hearted. If you're heading out to sea, you should go with people like them."
"You don't dislike them, do you?"
"It's not that..."
"Good, Zoro. He likes us then."
"I'm still not sure, Luffy. What about you, Usopp?"
"I like them. But I wish they'd put fewer mushrooms in the food..."
"Shut up, all of you!"
Sanji shouted at Luffy and Zoro, and Jeff folded his arms, smirking.
"Sanji, are you actually scared?"
"What...?"
"Going to the Grand Line is tough and dangerous. It's nothing like working here."
"You talk about repaying kindness, but you're just scared of going to the Grand Line, aren't you?"
"I-Is that so?!"
Sanji stood up from Luffy's bed and shouted:
"I will find the All Blue!"
"If I find it, I'll take the Old Man with me!"
"...All right, that's enough."
As Sanji's shout drew everyone's attention, Jeff smiled and said:
****
"What, Usopp? Weren't you carrying all the money?"
"No... I thought we took it all, of course."
Inside the Going Merry, Luffy and Usopp were present.
Luffy sat in a wheeled chair with bandages over his body.
Usopp rummaged through a large bag next to him.
"How much is left?"
"Two million Berries. We originally had seven million, so we took five million."
"We only took five million then."
"It's not easy stealing. We were in a rush, so we couldn't grab it all."
"I guess..."
'In the original story, when Luffy fought Buggy, the town buildings were destroyed, so Luffy gave half of the treasure worth ten million Berries to the people of Orange Town.'
'In the original, Nami then stole the half-that-remained five million Berries and the Merry, bringing the total she stole to 100 million Berries in her life.'
'But since I didn't destroy any buildings in Orange Town, I only gave away three million Berries, so we had seven million left now.'
'But I didn't take all seven million. And I left the Merry behind.'
"What's with you, Luffy?"
"I just... it's been on my mind."
"If you're going to steal, why not take everything? Why leave some so I have more to think about?"
"Don't push me too hard."
"What are you talking about? Is half a million in candy money for you?"
"That's not what I mean... Ah, don't make me talk too much."
"Even breathing makes my insides hurt."
"How do you like this chair I made? In big cities, they're called wheelchairs."
"They're essential for seriously injured patients like you."
"Yeah, it's better to sit and move around in."
At that moment, Zoro poked his head through the door of Luffy's room.
"Luffy, the cook is ready to go."
"How did he pack so fast?"
"Zoro, do you need the wheelchair? I made another one."
"No thanks, Usopp. My legs are fine."
So Luffy left with Usopp wheeling him.
Usopp rolled the wheelchair next to Zoro, who had bandages on his upper body, and they faced the Baratie.
On the first floor stood all the cooks of the Baratie except Jeff, and Sanji stood at the entrance with his bag.
"Sanji, did you say your farewells?"
"I did. This is too embarrassing for farewells."
Sanji lit the cigarette in his mouth as he strode past the cooks.
As he exhaled smoke, he recalled a memory:
As a child, Sanji stood next to Jeff in front of the Baratie, and the young Sanji said:
"Old Man, is this our restaurant?"
"Yes. I built it with what was left after paying the Navy, even going into debt. We'll be busy paying it off for a while."
"It's okay. Because I'm by your side!"
Sanji strode toward the Going Merry moored before the Baratie, continuing the memory.
The child Sanji had a cigarette in his mouth:
"Berk, choke, cough!"
"Don't smoke, kid. It'll dull your taste and hurt your cooking."
"I'm not a kid! That's why I smoke like this!"
Exhaling smoke, Sanji then remembered a recent incident:
He grabbed Fullbody, the marine he beat up today, by the collar and said:
"Do you... know who I a-am?!"
"Should I?"
"If you ruin carefully prepared dish, you'll pay the price!"
Recalling those memories, Sanji stood at the very end of the Baratie deck.
He flicked the almost-smoked cigarette into the sea and lifted his foot into the air when:
"Hey, Sanji."
Jeff appeared at the Baratie entrance behind him and said:
"Don't catch a cold."
"Jeff... Chef...!"
Sanji, tears in his eyes, turned and knelt, placing his hands and head on the ground:
"I've been... indebted to you for so long!!!"
"I'll never forget this kindness for the rest of my life!!!"
Jeff, watching Sanji's tears wetting the ground, also shed tears.
The cooks around them, including Patty, also cried and spoke:
"We'll miss you, Sanji!"
"Stay safe!"
"Eat well and live well, you bastard!"
"These fools... men don't do farewells with all this noise."
After Jeff muttered quietly to the chefs, Sanji looked at them and said:
"Let's meet again someday, you bastards!!!"
With that, Sanji departed the Baratie aboard the Going Merry.