Rolling My Way to Pirate King (One Piece Chaos Gacha) (Patreon)

Chapter 19: Grand Line Reject

My exclamation was met with silence as Sanji stared at me with wide eyes while Gin gave me a curious look as he finished his meal, making sure not to leave even a crumb behind.

“Tsk, don’t make decisions for me, dumbass.” Sanji eventually said as he rolled his eyes before taking another drag of his cigarette.

“So you’re a pirate as well.” Gin said as he joyfully sat back now that his plate was clean and relaxed with a content look. “What is your goal if you don’t mind me asking?”

“The One Piece of course.” I answered automatically without any hesitation. “Though I guess you could say my secondary objective is getting to experience all this world has to offer.” I looked up with a happy grin as I thought about it.

“Just imagine it boys. Getting to explore islands in the sky, meeting people with wings on their back, finding the island made up of all women, Amazon Lily. Traveling below the ocean and visiting Fish-Man Island, a paradise where beautiful mermaids are said to be found in every corner, the island of Giants, the island of Wano and who knows how many others are out there.” I muttered with a wistful look on my face.

Looking back down I saw a similar look on Sanji’s face, though his face also now had a giant perverted smile on it as he giggled to himself.

“Huhuhuhu, Mermaids~ Island of Women~ A true paradise!” Sanji exclaimed looking just as excited as me before his smile relaxed and became more real. “The All-Blue.”

While me and Sanji had happy expressions and were fantasizing about such adventures, Gin on the other hand started shaking and rubbing his hands with a haunted look on his face.

“I see, then that means your destination is the Grand Line.” Gin said with a grim look on his face before turning to us with a frown. “Given that you’re looking for a cook, it seems you only have a few members.”

“Yep, this guy here will be our sixth member.” I said with a smile as I pointed to Sanji with my thumb.

“Why are you counting me!?” Sanji yelled in reply with a pissed off look on his face that I ignored.

“Since you seem like a nice guy I’ll warn you, stay away from that place. The Grand Line is nothing but a graveyard. You’re still young, you don’t need to rush.”

Blinking at his words and reaction, I shrugged a moment later. “Meh, thanks I guess but the Grand Line is where my dreams are so that’s where I’ll go. I don’t mind risking my life for it even if it does turn out to be as dangerous as you said.”

“…Your dreams huh?” Sanji muttered quietly to himself with a nostalgic and longing look on his face before he shook it off.

“Well, I’ve said my piece. It’s up to you if you don’t want to heed my advice or not.” Gin said with a resigned sigh before turning to Sanji and bowing to him on his hands and knees.

“Thank you, Sanji-san for saving my life. That was the greatest meal I’ve ever had.” Gin declared honestly and humbly.

Before Sanji could wave away his worries, Zeff chose that moment to come out of the restaurant and immediately realized what had occurred.

“There you are, Eggplant.” Zeff said with a rough voice as his eyes traveled to the empty plate and glass of water with a blank look.

“Ah, sorry. You’re going to get yelled at, because you fed me for free, right?” Gin asked in a genuinely worried tone as he grabbed his head.

“Don’t worry about it Gin.” Sanji reassured him with a calm look before he blinked as a few coins landed on the ground causing all their attention to turn to me.

“What free meal?” I asked with a grin as I turned to Zeff. “That should be enough to cover it right, old man?”

“Hmph, hurry up Eggplant.” Zeff grunted with a gruff voice before turning to me. “And your food is ready, boy.” With that said he walked back inside the restaurant.

“Thank you.” Gin said once we were alone once more giving me a small bow of the head.

“Mah, don’t worry about it. Anyways, see ya. As you’ve heard, I got food waiting for me.” I said with a grin as I popped back onto my feet and walked back inside the restaurant.

Once inside, I quickly made my way back to my seat where I could see plenty of dishes already set down on the table as everyone else was already eating.

Without a word I retook my position between Nami and Tiche and felt a bit of drool on my lips at the aroma.

“How did your discussion go? I’m guessing you had a chat with the guy you want as our new cook?” Nami asked me curiously from the side as she happily dug into some kind of soup dish that looked delicious.

“Yep, and it went as well as I could have expected.” I said with a grin as I dug in myself and was hit with a wave of happiness at the notification that I only needed to sample nine more dishes for my curse to disappear.

“Meaning he rejected you but instead of taking that as a no, you’re already counting him as part of the crew?” Nami asked me with an amused raised eyebrow.

“Shishishi, you know me so well by now, Nami~” I laughed in response receiving an amused sigh from her while Usopp just blinked in confusion.

“Tsk, so he’s joining after all. At least the food is good.” Zoro said with a small scoff from the other side of the table.

“As expected of Luffy-sama.” Tiche said with a small nod as she served me another plate without saying anything once I was done with my current one as I gave her a thankful nod.

“Anyways, forget about that for a moment. Now that we finally have the time, let’s celebrate! To our new Ship and our future adventures!” I declared happily as I raised my glass of wine in a toast.

The others quickly smiled or smirked in happiness as well as they joined me in my toast and we dug into our food as our table became the center of attention due to our rowdiness.

My happiness became ten times more genuine when I finished my tenth meal and as I continued onto the next, I had to stop as flavors hit my tongue and senses like fireworks.

A plethora of flavors overwhelmed my tongue that I had to stop shoving food down my mouth as fast as possible, already used to doing such a thing due to not tasting anything before.

Apparently noticing my weird actions, Tiche immediately looked at me in concern also catching Nami’s attention who was the closest to us.

“What’s wrong, Luffy-sama? Was there something wrong with the food?” Tiche asked me with a small frown on her beautiful face as a dark look passed her eyes for a moment.

“Hmm, is something wrong Luffy?” Nami asked with a blink as she turned to me as well noticing that I had paused eating.

Getting myself together, I shook my head before a smile so happy I felt my cheeks stretch across my face as I responded.

“Nothing, this is just the most delicious food I’ve ever eaten in my life.” I said softly before resuming eating but in a more relaxed manner since unlike the original Luffy I wasn’t a bottomless blackhole when it came to food anymore.

Most of it had to do with the fact that the food before had tasted like ash in my mouth and the least amount of it I ate the better, but with my new Photosynthesis trait, I no longer even needed to eat as the sun itself would sustain me without any problems.

“I see, well you certainly seem happy.” Nami said with a teasing smile as she poked my cheek. “Can’t believe I would ever see the day you actually savored food instead of shoving everything down as fast as possible.”

Tiche, who knew of my curse, let a small happy smile grow on her face, one of her rare ones, as she realized the true meaning behind my words.

“I’m happy for you, Luffy-sama.”

“Less talking and more eating.” I declared with a grin before yelling for more food to the nearest cook.

=====

Several Days Later

Days quickly passed as I made good on my promise by almost eating them out of house and home. The chefs had mixed feelings of joy from all the money we were bringing in and despair from how many supplies I was going through.

After three days, I decided to take pity on them. Partly because I was starting to worry we would get kicked out and banned for overworking the cooks, but mostly because of Nami.

The looks she was sending my way after the first day were rather frightening, especially as the bill kept piling up. So I decided to stop.

During that time, Sanji spent a lot of time at our table, mostly trying to flirt with Nami and Tiche. He got harshly rejected by Tiche every time, while Nami used her charms to get free meals out of the sucker.

I never hesitated to invite Sanji to our crew whenever he joined us, and I could tell we were wearing him down. Each time I asked, his rejection became more reluctant.

It helped that, with the exception of Zoro and Tiche, the others treated him more like a friend than our future cook. Slowly, we got him to lower his guard.

One day, I joined him during one of his cigarette breaks, and he came clean about his dream.

“Have you ever heard of the All-Blue, Luffy?” Sanji asked me with an excited smile. His usual perverted grin was nowhere to be seen, nor were the scowls he usually gave me for bothering him.

“Only small tidbits here and there. Supposedly it’s a magical place where all the oceans meet.” I admitted with a happy smile of my own.

His smile grew even bigger as he started explaining it in more detail, completely unaware that Zeff was listening from the higher deck.

When he was done, I laughed happily and slapped him on the back good-naturedly.

“That’s more of a reason for you to join us, Sanji. We all have our own dreams we want to accomplish, so you’ll fit right in.” I declared with a big grin. He clicked his tongue in irritation, but I could tell I had his attention.

“I already told you, I want to find the One Piece. Zoro wants to become the world’s greatest swordsman, Nami wants to draw a map of the world, Usopp wants to become a brave warrior of the sea, and while Tiche might not have one yet, it’s only a matter of time.” I revealed, causing him to hum in curiosity before sighing in a melancholy manner.

“I already told you, I can’t leave this place until I repay the old man for everything he did for me.” Sanji repeated as he took a drag of his cigarette.

“Idiot, you’re looking at this all wrong.” I said with a shake of my head, causing him to turn to me with a raised eyebrow.

“You said that both of you share the same dream, right?” I asked with a pointed look, getting a confused nod from him.

“Then shouldn’t you go out to sea and find the All-Blue yourself while you still have the opportunity? That way, when you find it, you’ll be accomplishing both of your dreams. Staying here and wasting your life seems like a really shitty way to repay him, you know?” I explained with a roll of my eyes at how stubborn he was being.

I saw a complicated expression cross his face at my words before Zeff finally decided to make his presence known.

“He’s got a point, you know?” Zeff said with a gruff voice.

“Tsk, how long have you been there, geezer?” Sanji asked with a scoff as he shot him an irritated look and went back to smoking his cigarette.

“Enough to know that the brat is speaking the truth. You aren’t needed here anymore, so why don’t you leave already?” Zeff said in response with a shake of his head.

Before they could get into another argument, one of the many they’d had since we started staying here, I frowned as I felt a familiar presence along with a lot of other weak ones approaching us.

“Hate to interrupt, especially since Sanji is finally starting to see some sense, but it looks like you’re about to get visitors soon.” I spoke up calmly, looking out into the distance where I could already see the figure of a huge galleon approaching.

Both Zeff and Sanji stopped arguing and looked in the direction I was staring. Sanji pulled out a small spyglass and peered into the distance, his frown growing deeper.

“That Jolly Roger… that’s the Krieg Pirates, and their ship looks pretty roughed up.” Sanji said as he put the spyglass away before pulling out another cigarette. “Seems Gin returned with his captain and crew.”

“Isn’t Krieg known as a filthy backstabber? I would keep an eye out if I were you.” I said calmly as I stretched for a moment, then slapped Sanji once on the back before walking back inside.

“We’ll be leaving soon, within the next day, so I hope you have everything prepared, Sanji.” I declared with a grin that only got bigger as I heard his response.

“Stop making decisions for me, damn it!”

=====

Once back inside, I quickly gathered everyone and instructed Nami, Johnny, and Yosaku to move the ship. Trouble might be coming, and I didn’t want the Merry getting harmed during it.

They gave me curious looks, so I explained that the Krieg Pirates were approaching and a fight might break out due to Krieg’s reputation. They nodded in understanding.

Before long, a galleon in pretty bad shape docked outside the Baratie. Moments later, Gin and the battered, weakened form of Krieg walked into the restaurant and begged for food for his captain and the rest of the crew.

Even while claiming that they had money this time, no cook was willing to prepare anything for them. Sanji once more surprised everyone as he sat down a plate of food along with a bottle of wine.

“Don’t interfere yet.” I whispered to Zoro, Tiche, and Usopp beside me as we stood in a corner watching everything unfold.

True to his nature, as soon as Krieg finished his meal he sucker-punched Sanji, sending him flying back and causing Gin to look at his captain with clear betrayal.

Krieg then revealed his true plan as he threatened everyone to cook food for the rest of his crew under the pain of death, causing the regular customers to run away screaming in fright.

“D-Don’t tell me we’re going to pick a fight with the Krieg Pirates?” Usopp whisper-shouted at me with a panicked look on his face as realization slowly set in.

Raising an eyebrow at him, I nodded, causing him to slump forward in despair at my answer. “Of course we are. I already consider Sanji a part of the crew, and I won’t let anyone mess with his home and loved ones.” I declared seriously.

“Heh, this should be interesting.” Zoro huffed with a smirk as he grabbed his swords in excitement.

“Actually Zoro, I want you to leave this to Tiche and myself. You already had your fun with Kuro last time, and I want to stretch my legs too or I might get rusty.” I said with a smirk as Tiche nodded obediently beside me while Usopp let out a sigh of relief.

“Fine, I guess I can agree to that.” Zoro said a bit reluctantly.

“Oh, and Usopp,” I said, turning to him and causing him to wail in despair. “I want you to provide cover for the cooks here in case they need it.”

“I knew I wasn’t getting out of this! Why did I get my hopes up!?” Usopp yelled in despair as he grabbed his hair, but he didn’t say no, so I nodded in thanks.

As we focused on the commotion again, we saw Krieg getting ready to shoot the other cooks. I decided to get his attention while he was still spouting bullshit about being the strongest and the future King of the Pirates.

“Hey, you Grand Line reject!” I spoke up loudly, causing a heavy silence to fall over the restaurant as I grabbed everyone’s attention, especially the man in question, who now had angry veins bulging from his forehead.

“…What did you say?” Krieg asked in a furious tone as he leveled me with a death glare.

“I called you a Grand Line loser, or are you also deaf on top of being a coward and a weakling?” I asked with a mocking smirk, inwardly laughing at the face he was making.

‘Now that I look at him up close, he looks ridiculous with all that armor.’ I thought in amusement as I popped my neck.