Usopp glared at the horizon, the blockade of ships making its way towards their position. After about fifteen minutes of prep-time, he had hobbled together a plan - no, not even a plan. It was a deceitful scheme fit for someone who called himself the King of Liars, the Proud Warrior of the Seas that Once Deceived A Million-Man Army Into Submission, the God Of Sniping And All Things Courageous.

"How the hell did you convince the old man into letting this guy in charge?" Sanji asked the captain of the Straw Hats.

"He was the only one with the plan," Luffy shrugged. "I mean, even if it's… a scrappy plan at best."

Usopp heard them clearly. Right now, however, he was simply a guy way out of his depth, flying by the seat of his pants. The chefs were in position next to the giant buckets of oils, charcoal lighter fluids, and inflammable substances of all kinds.

"On my mark!" Usopp shouted, his voice only cracking once. Hah, take that, delayed puberty!

The chefs readied at his voice.

"TILT!" He shouted, and the chefs pushed the buckets and tanks of substance into the water, spilling it across and around the baratie in a crescent shape that spilled further and further away, creating a slick surface ripe for ignition.

The Don Krieg ship wasn't left behind, either. After evacuating the lethargic pirates from their sinking mother-ship, they decked it with flammables of all kind beforehand so it would burn much better.

The staff lit their torches one by one and waited for Usopp's order once again.

"Everybody light your torches!" Usopp said, for emphasis for the few that hadn't lit theirs yet. He waited a few seconds for the oil slick to spread nice and wide around the Baratie before hollering his order.

"Throw!"

The staff threw their torches at the water and the ensuing conflagration was rank with the smell of burning lipids and carbon monoxide. The ensuing smokescreen was black and impenetrable, completely blocking off their sight to the other ship.

The mother ship debris burned just as nicely, and created even more smoke before splitting apart due to the conflagration, spreading even further around.

At the obvious signal of rampant fire, the helmsman directed the Baratie away from the smoke at a set distance, setting the stage for phase two.

Usopp chuckled to himself. "Heheheh… I'll finally be able to pay off Nami's cooking fees."

000

Kuro wouldn't call himself a genius. Oh wait, he would, because of course he was. The point was, he knew his standing in the Straw Hat crew, and if something wouldn't change, they were sure to lose their edge on their pride and joy: their group dynamic.

Luffy had accepted him already, strangely enough. Of course he would, though. You didn't pet a snake unless you implicitly trusted it to not bite, though Kuro would rather have been a cat in this situation. Yes, you didn't pet a black cat if you didn't expect it not to scratch. Yes, he liked that analogy.

Luffy was firmly in his team. That was good. The next one was Zoro, of course, because while he, himself, may not approve of Kuro, he approved of Luffy, and that itself was enough. While Zoro wasn't firmly in the column of people that didn't want to see Kuro crucified, he was more or less accepting of him.

Nami was… a non-issue for the moment. Luffy, of course, still viewed her as a crew member, and contrary to Kuro's own disapproval of her for her betrayal, if Luffy approved of her, Kuro would just have to bite the bullet as well. Whether that feeling could be reciprocated was difficult to tell. Kuro was a people-person and knew that Nami fancied herself the rogue with a heart, and anyone with a decent enough moral compass would balk at having to forgive Kuro of his many, many atrocities.

Usopp? Kuro chuckled to himself mirthlessly, stirring the two bounty-hunters from whatever inane game they were playing into staring at him disconcertedly. Usopp was a no-brainer. If he loved Kaya just as much as he hated Kuro, then he'd never live down the teen's hatred. He, himself, would never live it down if someone else came for…

Kuro loved no one, so he couldn't relate with Usopp's hatred. Everyone that he ever had in his life either betrayed him or had already departed.

Did Kuro feel sorry for what he did to Kaya? Could he feel sorry at all? The feeling of remorse had long since been consumed by his narcissism and greed, and now that those two traits couldn't animate him any more than anything else could, it seemed that he was in for a mental storm.

Oh, when life was simple and you could kill whoever looked at you wrong. Hah, those were the times.

"Johnny, Yosaku," Kuro called for them. "Who do you think would win a fight between Arlong and I?"

"Uh, eh," Yosaku mumbled.

"Arlong," Johnny replied resolutely. "Arlong is a fishman, and even disregarding the sheer fact that fishmen are physically superior to us humans, and even more so under water, he's a monster even with fishman standards. The only reason why the Eastern Pirate Alliance and Krieg had the nuts to talk about their strength so much was chiefly because Arlong stays put in one island collecting droves of money through tributes. The Conomi archipelago is a mess because of him."

Kuro hummed understandingly. "Then we should get to training, shouldn't we?"

They both clutched at their swords, something which offended Kuro. Seriously: did they actually think he couldn't kill them?

"No, calm down," Kuro explained. "You too are joining the crew eventually, aren't you?" Kuro asked.

"No, we aren't," Johnny replied.

"I mean, if he asked us," Yosaku shrugged.

"Idiot," Johnny whispered.

Great. That meant he could have two people approving of him.

"Whether or not you want to join, Luffy will probably ask you, and by then, you'll have no choice. He's persuasive like that. I'm offering to spar with you two so that you may at the very least be prepared for Conomi."

Neither Yosaku nor Johnny bought it. "You're a sadist, Kuro." Yosaku said

Johnny followed "What makes you think we'll believe your little request for a spar?"

Kuro scowled darkly. "I've changed."

"Helluva change, that is," Johnny scoffed.

Instead of pursuing the issue, he simply left it at that. His mind went back to his past. Immediately after the destruction of Aube, he had spent days nearly starving to death in an island that was now functionally a desert of finely granulated minerals. There were natural potholes of water formed from the rain that provided a decent enough source of drink, allowing him to stay alive at least long enough to not die from starvation immediately.

After two months of avoiding irradiated water sources and spending most of his time not moving in order to preserve energy, a ship came by, a pirate ship known as the 'Black Cat', ferrying the 'Black Cat pirates'.

The captain was a cut-throat bastard that spent every waking moment harassing Kuro, and by the time he had turned fourteen, he ended the bastard's life and took over the crew, finding that sometimes, a correctly placed blade could solve all problems.

Seventeen years of marauding, plundering and pillaging later, Kuro had grown bored of the lifestyle and sought to once again attain his birthright, namely a noble status. To do so, he needed money, and once again, he decided to cozy up with the upper crust.

It was resoundingly successful, really, until it wasn't.

But in all those years, he didn't seek to become stronger, just strong enough to terrorize his unruly crewmates. That was literally just it. He felt his untapped potential and did nothing to unearth it, to…

To exhume his secrets.

He sat down on the front deck to think. Exhume his secrets. It was all in his mind, after all. The occasional dream pointed to that, obviously. If he could reach inside enough to find the information that would allow him to become strong enough to fight for his captain, Luffy… he'd be happy.

No, he needed more strength. The mentality of 'strong enough' got him nowhere when he, with all his myriad gifts, could have maybe even conquered the grand line as an infamous pirate worth several hundred million berries. Him being worth this paltry amount wasn't fair, not fair at all for all his potential.

Thus, in his meditation, he saw it, the secret of Shave. It was a door far away that he had to run to, but every few seconds, time would reset and he would be at a starting point. He needed to reach the door fast enough to reach the secret.

From there, he simply… tried his best.

000

"Just as planned," Usopp grinned deviously as the proceedings went on. The smaller fish-boats were strategically placed, cannons up to rain fire and fury upon the oncoming ships, but that wasn't even the intended main effect.

He was going to… well, you just had to see for yourself.

As the ships breached the black plume, the cannons fired once again. The ships suffered from the explosions, but what struck them the hardest was the explosions of flour that covered their entire upper decks. With another barrage of fire, the flour caught fire.

"HAHAHAHAH!" Usopp roared into laughter, intoxicated by the power he possessed.

A second barrage hit the water right in front of them, and another plume of black smoke rose to remove their visuals and maybe choke them out to the point that they'd be unfit for direct combat.

"Phase two complete," Usopp grinned. "Now that we've pushed them out of their balance, it's time to strike harder, strike inwards, and remove them entirely from the playing field!"

Behind him came several people, five of the kitchen staff's strongest, including Patty, Carne, Sanji and two others whom Usopp didn't know the name of, and Luffy of all people.

"Initiate phase three," Usopp cackled.

000

His plan was sound, Luffy thought with a grin. All they had to do was, while the fleet of ships recovered from getting their deck set on fire, get on inside and destabilize the ships from the inside.

It didn't require much stealth, either. After throwing up grappling hooks to the edges of the ships from the rafts, inside the cover of the black smoke, the kitchen staff and Luffy made their way up.

The moment they did, all hell broke loose.

"What's that?" One man approached the edge of the ship, only for Luffy to grab him by his collar and toss him overboard. Luffy jumped into the deck and punched a guy out, followed by another one, then another. Two approached him simultaneously, and with his immense strength, he bashed both their skulls together.

Carne, with his giant fork, and Patty, with a giant dining knife and giant fork were hurricanes as they cut through the majority of the pirates present. Sanji was a whirlwind of kicks, giving much, and getting practically nothing as he ducked in and out of battle acrobatically.

"Behind ya, straw hat!" Sanji warned as he whirled a kick at his foe. Luffy turned around and slashed his attacker's chest widely. He fell like a puppet with its strings cut.

"Thanks, Sanji!" Luffy replied as he dove once more into the fray.

Luffy broke into the captain's cabin. The man was ready with a saber. Two of his crewmates flanked him as well. Luffy removed his own knife and in a moment, all three sabers were embedded into the ceiling. The pirates were down with nasty wounds. He went for the nearest transponder snail and set it to 'broadcast'.

"There's an intruder!" Luffy shouted. "Fire at our ship!"

"WHICH ONE ARE YOU?!" came the frantic reply.

"JUST FIRE! AAAAH!" Luffy screamed, turning the transponder snail off momentarily. He heard cannon fire from the distance. More cannon fire followed. Eventually, what followed was a cacophony of cannon fire that left Luffy smirking at his antics.

He left the cabin and beheld the damage they had wrought. The ships at the distance fired blindly, their cannon-balls hitting nothing within the thick smoke layer that still obstructed their view.

Most of them that weren't beaten by them were on the deck, writhing in agony as burns marred their bodies. The ones that Usopp hadn't gotten were the lucky ones, it seemed.

But there were still fifty ships left. Luffy, in a burst of genius, decided to man the cannons and began firing at other ships.

The other chefs followed suit, sending a barrage of cannon-fire that incensed the whole fleet. While they fired, Luffy pulled the rope of a sail, directing it full speed ahead to the largest ship of the fleet.

The ship took heavy fire. The invasion-team headed to the lower deck where they were safe from most of the fire.

They collided with the battleship in short order, jerking ahead as they went.

"We're here," Luffy smirked. Resurfacing to the main deck, they were surrounded by pirates. One man, tall with a scruffy white beard glared at the invasion team hatefully.

"You shouldn't underestimate our intelligence network," he spat. "Don Krieg, the Grand Line reject: Where is he?"

"Dead," Luffy replied bluntly. "And you know what happens when someone dies: their bounties drop by 30%," Luffy shrugged. "Sorry."

The bearded man growled. "Where is he?"

"Why should I tell you?"

Guns cocked. They were surrounded by fire-arms ready to unleash a lead-filled hell at a moment's notice.

"Now that Krieg's gone," the man sneered, "I am the most powerful captain in the East Blue! Bow down to Captain Ahab of the White Whale Pirates!"

"De ja vu," Luffy rolled his eyes. "You know, you're not the first guy with delusions of grandeur that I've met in my journeys. You probably won't be the last either."

"What was that?" Ahab stepped forward furiously. Just then, an orb struck him on his head. He fell unconscious moments before the pellet exploded into a smoke-screen.

The surrounding gunners were neutralized swiftly, and without mercy. When the white smoke cleared, the Baratie was in sight, Usopp standing at the very top, his legs shivering as he drew his sling-shot taut.

Then, he began to shout. "WE DEFEATED THE LEADER OF YOUR ALLIANCE! RETREAT O-OR SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES!"

The fleet was in a bad shape. Some were even sinking, and others had decided that the best course of action was to fall back.

Usopp raised a fist in the air, and Luffy mirrored the action.

"WE DID IT!" They both shouted simultaneously. The Baratie erupted into a cacophony of celebration.

000

They had a field-day looting the pirate ships. The decision was an even split between the Baratie and the Straw hats, on account that while the kitchen staff provided the bulk of the manpower, it was the Straw Hat's intellect that saved the day.

The sun was setting and there was celebration in the air, with Usopp at the center, being thrown up by all the chefs repeatedly.

"WhoaHEY!" Usopp laughed merrily.

"Guys, the soup is ready!" A Chef brought out a large cauldron. "Cooked by our own Sanji!"

"Better believe it!" Sanji joined in the merriment.

As they poured bowls of soup to drink, one man spat his out in disgust.

"Tastes like toilet water," someone remarked.

"The hell is this, piss?"

"I can't drink this," they poured their soup back into the cauldron angrily. Sanji watched it with a growing amount of anger.

"You bitches don't know what you're talking about!" Sanji shouted.

"If you're such a bad chef, you shouldn't be here!"

Sanji stormed off, not intending to receive any more of their shit. Luffy, without anything better to do, simply opted to follow Sanji out.

"Whatchu thinking about?" Luffy asked nosily. "Is it about joining my crew?"

"Lay off, dumbass," Sanji chuckled. "Just thinking about how awesome the sea is."

A moment passed between the two before Sanji replied to that statement.

"Have you…" Sanji said as he looked at the ocean. He then looked into Luffy's eyes. "Have you ever heard of the All Blue?" Luffy shook his head. "It's a chef's paradise. Imagine all the fish from the East, West, North and South Blue as well as the Grand Line, all come together in a single stretch of ocean."

"A chef's paradise?" Luffy asked. Sanji began to nod with a bright smile, like a child sharing his trading card collection for the first time.

"All the fish in the world, as well as all the different aquatic vegetables, all gathered in one place!"

"Sounds pretty convenient," Luffy smiled. Sanji shook his head, more excitedly.

"No… it's more than just convenient. Say you want to cook a fish from both the West and the East Blue together, but seafood shelf life has always been notoriously short-lived. Procuring the ingredients would take so much time, the fish would have lost its initial flavour, texture and consistency. The All Blue overrides this. If every fish is in one spot, it doesn't even matter if one is from the Grand Line and another's from the North Blue. It's magical."

"You should find it," Luffy replied honestly. "Set out to sea. With me, of course," Luffy hastily added. "You can't let your dreams be dreams."

"They need me here," Sanji said quietly.

"You're holding yourself back," Luffy replied.

"Tch. I don't need this from you," Sanji left him, deciding to enter the main hall once more. Luffy followed after.

"Hey, wait," the dark-haired boy shouted, only to see Sanji's cigarette fall from his lips as tears streamed down his eyes.

He reached Sanji's side in short order and saw what he saw through the window of the main hall. The chefs were all hard at work enjoying the soup, praising Sanji's cookwork.

"If he keeps getting complimented by us, he's never gonna leave us alone," one man mentioned.

"He can't spend the rest of his life here. He's like the prodigal son or something. He needs to spread his wings."

"Couldn't agree more," Zeff spoke. "He's a stupid eggplant with more talent than brains. I wish he would just leave already."

Sanji's sniffles turned into a dry laughter. "So… so that's how it is, right?" He looked to Luffy. "Let me join your crew, then," he conceded. "These assholes… dammit!"

"Shishishishi," Luffy sniggered. "You're welcome!"

Sanji burst into the main hall, smiling. "Today is your lucky day, ya filthy fucks! I'm moving out!"

They could barely keep the happiness out of their faces.

"Hah," Zeff boomed. "Took ya long enough!"

While they bantered, Luffy watched fondly, happy that the situation had resolved itself.

Sanji began to pack the essentials while Luffy was brought away by Zeff to a private room.

"Hey, youngling," Zeff said, arms crossed. "You're planning on entering the Grand Line, yes?"

"Yep," Luffy beamed.

"Any chance my rusty old log book will do?" Zeff offered. "I'm sure that's what Krieg wanted from me after all. His humiliating defeat would give him a reason to."

Luffy shook his head. "I only asked Krieg for the basics because I was worried about certain death. Uncertain death, though? Not so much," he chuckled. "I won't accept your log book. These are experiences that I should go through on my own."

"I had a feeling you'd say that," Zeff sighed. "Do you have any questions, at least?"

"Your haki," Luffy pointed out. "How are you doing it?"

Zeff laughed. "Who the hell raised you to know what that was? You've got perceptive eyes, anyways. I didn't think someone like you could spot that so easily. Well… you should know that before I created my own pirate crew, I was actually the head chef of another, more famous pirate crew. They were strong enough to think they had a chance at challenging Whitebeard, another guy I guess you'd probably know, and we were, for the most part. My captain killed his fifth commander, and Whitebeard killed the captain and his first mate, navigator, quartermaster and head gunner. You know what he did to me? He looked at me and said this: "These dregs will die without a chef to feed them. To end your life is to end all their lives. I feel vindicated already, so there is no sense in adding to the bloodshed." I felt afraid for my life, and it was an event that undoubtedly made me ten times prouder to be a chef. He spared my life over it after all."

Luffy was sucked right into his story, listening intently.

"The second half of the Grand Line is hilariously dangerous. In fact, telling you about it won't scare you because no amount of words can inspire the ludicrously perilous nature of the place. Instead, I'll say this to you: they call the first half of the Grand Line 'Paradise' because comparatively, it is one. I spent a year circumnavigating the Grand Line as a whole, visiting various islands in both the second and first half, and learned of various secrets, one of them being haki. It's a skill that still takes a lot out of me, and it took me almost a decade to use it properly, but you can chalk that down to my weak spirit. If there's one way to teach it to you, it's to tell you to keep this phrase in mind: 'Fighting Spirit'. That's all I can tell you."

Luffy understood the value in his wisdom. There was a thing called qualia that prevented people from truly sharing their experiences because everyone experienced different flavours to them that no two people could truly share. If Luffy asked someone to describe to them, without using words such as sweet, sour or umami, how meat on a bone tasted to him, their descriptions would never match.

For now, Luffy could only keep himself busy with that phrase: Fighting Spirit.

"Wait," Zeff said before Luffy left. He offered him a pristine book with a brown cover and no markings. "Thought you'd appreciate this at least. The pages are moisture proof for the most part."

Luffy took the book and leafed through it. It was all empty. He grinned. "A Captain's log book?"

"Let's be frank: your life will be one helluva ride from now on," Zeff said with a smirk. "There's no way you could pass off the opportunity to at least record it."

"Heh, thanks old man!" Luffy hugged the chef. "This was just what I needed!"

000

On a whim, he decided to visit the lock-up rooms. They had moved Krieg over to the freezers to keep his corpse in a non-decaying state. Gin the Olive Demon was inside a dark room, unmoving.

"You'll never get anywhere brooding like an idiot," Luffy chided as he entered the room and closed the door behind him.

"Captain Krieg… he was the only person that ever truly believed in me," Gin said softly.

"Did it ever occur to you that he was manipulating you?" Luffy asked.

"Did it matter?"

"Yes," Luffy insisted. "Yes, it did. I see a lot of potential in you. You're strong and wilful, and you don't have Krieg's arrogant streak. Without him, you'd probably have hit it big."

Gin glared at Luffy. "Liar."

"I don't lie, especially not to someone I have no reason to lie to," Luffy retorted. "I feel bad that I had to leave things like this."

"You want me to join your crew?" Gin chuckled. "You think you'd last longer than him?"

Luffy went over and pulled him up by the collar of his shirt, onto his feet. "I know I would."

"What are you-"

Luffy punched him in the face. Enraged, Gin punched right back. Luffy punched again, only to miss. Gin, taking advantage of the opening, punched harder, causing Luffy to stagger.

"There's that fighting spirit!" Luffy exclaimed. "How do ya feel?"

"I feel like I want to beat you up," Gin hissed.

"Hahahah!" Luffy laughed uproariously. "You do have will."

"Who said I didn't?" he asked.

"So," Luffy asked. "What is your next move? Krieg is dead, and your crew is decimated. I heard you even lost some guy named Pearl who was supposed to be a strong fighter."

Gin's grin fell. "I… honestly don't know."

"Wanna find the One Piece?" Luffy asked.

"Tch yeah," Gin chuckled. "Which pirate am I gonna find crazy enough to do that again?"

"You're looking at him!" Luffy announced. "Join my crew and you can beat me up all you want, that is if you're strong enough to."

Gin fell on his knees and wept. "R-really? You'd do that?"

"Mhm!" Luffy nodded. "I'll even respect your wishes. I'll never order you to do something that conflicts with your principles and I'll always respect your input. You may be my crew-mate, but you're not my underling."

Gin's weeping did not stop. "This… this is too much!"

"Just say yes!"

"Y-yes….!"

000

A lengthy explanation to Zeff and the staff followed as to why they should let the Olive Demon free after the shit he had pulled, and there was much shouting involved.

Eventually, Luffy had his way, on the condition that he paid them with all the loot he had retrieved from the pirate ship he had raided.

It was a fair trade-off. Now, with Usopp and Zoro in the Merry, the kitchen staff of the Baratie watched as Sanji made his way out, just after foiling an assassination attempt by Carne and Patty, who were still unable to beat the blond sous-chef.

Before stepping onto the ramp, Zeff said just one thing.

"Don't catch a cold, kid."

Sanji teared up immediately, turned around and fell on his knees as he bowed to the head chef. "Thank you for taking care of an idiot like me all this time!"

Both Patty and Carne broke down. "You idiot! We'll miss you!"

"Hey, now," Zeff said through his subtle tears. "Men are supposed to say their goodbyes quietly."

Once Sanji finally stepped onto the ramp, he turned around to shout one last thing. "Till we meet again!"

"GOODBYE, SANJI!"