20 Chapter 20

Third Person's PoV:

As the smiling Merry made it's way ever closer to the floating restaurant Baratie, on the deck were all members of the straw hat pirates, as well as Johnny, his partner Yosaku still in bed.

Everyone was excitedly discussing about the famous restaurant, when suddenly, a marine ship came up to them, startling most of them.

"I've never seen that flag before. I'm marine lieutenant Iron Fist Fullbody, who's the captain of this ship!?" From the railing of the marine vessel, an arrogant voice demanded, making everyone turn their heads that way.

From the shadows of the ship, out came a man in a peculiar suit, with iron bolts on his fists. The man's hair was a little less pink than Coby's, but pink nonetheless. His expression was one of sheer arrogance.

"I'm Luffy." The captain said, "I'm Usopp." The long nosed also replied. "This pirate flag was made not so long ago." Luffy also added, trying to outdo the sniper. "I'm the one who made it!" Usopp countered. Their bodies were inches apart from each other with Luffy growing a tick mark.

Fullbody ignored the two's little spat in favor of looking over the rest of the crew. When his eyes landed on the duo of bounty hunters, Yosaku seemingly appearing out of nowhere.

When the lieutenant recognized the two, he couldn't help but mock them.

This made the weakling bounty hunters furious as Johnny proudly threw all of the bounty posters he had on him.

When Nami saw Arlong's poster, her blood froze. With her face shadowed, the girl stared at the face of her most hated person in fury. This went unnoticed, except for by 3 people. The nearby Johnny and Yosaku, and the blonde standing by Zoro's side.

Fullbody got fed up with the lowly no-name pirates, with the urging of his beautiful girl, they left for the restaurant. This of course didn't happen without him giving the signal to sink the ship. After putting his thumbs down, the two made their way to a dingy, with a marine grunt rowing.

Soon after Fullbody left, the remaining marines prepared a cannon ball to shoot down the pirate ship.

With the unnecessarily loud sound of "Boooom..", the cannon was fired. The two ships were only a few meters away from each other, so one can imagine the deafening sound that followed.

Before Josh could actually warn Luffy to aim properly, it went just like canon and the ball was reflected straight through the roof of the Baratie.

'Well.. I guess this is fine. Luffy got to know Sanji through this way, and vice versa.' Josh thought.

He didn't like the fact that someone aimed at them, so he did the only thing that felt right to him.

Jumping off the Merry, Josh used the cloak to go a bit higher in the air. Under the amazed gazes of everyone, he swept his right leg vertically, forming an arc of blue wind blade.

"RANKYAKU!" Josh yelled out, loud enough to be heard by everyone in the vicinity. The Rokushiki master was careful to not harm the Merry in his attack.

The Rankyaku followed through and cut the ship right in the middle, causing the marines onboard to swim for their lives.

"D-Did you really have to sink them?" Usopp asked. Although he was now a pirate by all rights, he didn't like the idea of harming people just because one had the ability to.

"They attacked first." Josh scowled. This made Usopp take a step back. When he remembered that the marines had tried to sink them first, he conceded.

"Josh-Aniki!! You were so cool!" Johnny and Yosaku came up to him and danced around. They were happy that someone made the marines suffer for their treatment.

When the cooks of the Baratie came out to inquire the person behind the attack, without hesitation, Luffy made himself known and was dragged away.

"That stupidly honest idiot..." Nami sighed out.

As they waited for Luffy to resolve the situation, all they could do was stand around on the Merry.

"Why don't we go inside the restaurant?" Usopp proposed. This got a nod of agreement from all present. Johnny and Yosaku were made to wait on the ship.

As they were getting closer to the eatery, they suddenly heard a loud but familiar voice. "DON'T SCREW WITH ME!", followed by the sound of dishes being broken.

Usopp and Nami looked at each other in worry because there was no sound after that.

Opening the door to the restaurant, the four of them were slightly confused at the customer's silence. Following their line of sight, one could see a blonde man with an all black suit, a cigarette in his mouth, and unique eyebrows. His face was mostly shadowed. On his hand is someone they were too familiar with.

Marine lieutenant Iron Fist Fullbody was currently dangling off of Sanji's hand, with Sanji gripping his head tightly. Blood came out from several parts of his body. Everyone in the restaurant were horrified by Sanji's action.

Josh ignored all of that as he went over to an empty table, followed by Zoro. Nami and Usopp came stumbling along.

As they sat there patiently, an old man with the strangest mustache that is tied in a braid from both sides came out. With the surprised exclamations of "Owner Zeff" coming from the nearby cooks, everyone learned his identity.

"You shitty brat! Are you trying to make my restaurant run out of business?" The old man sternly shouted. Although he sounded harsh, Josh knew that it was just his usual way of talking and wasn't really concerned about Sanji beating up a marine lieutenant. He might even approve of it if he knew what the marine had done.

After a course of kicks from Zeff, Sanji was sent flying into the wall of the ship. Fullbody inwardly smirked at the "waiter's" misfortune and thanked his lucky stars. He was finally going to get his revenge, and maybe even get this restaurant in trouble....or so he thought.

Once Zeff was done with Sanji, he set his sights on the downed lieutenant. Without giving him even a chance to plead his case, the owner proceeded to kick Fullbody and told him to leave his property.

"What a crazy restaurant..." Zoro commented from the side. They had all just witnessed a marine lieutenant beaten not only once, but twice!

As Fullbody was about to cut his losses and high tail it out of the crazy restaurant, a soaking wet marine officer forcefully slammed the door open with panic in his steps.

"Lieutenant, sir! Our ship was sunk by the pirates and the prisoner esca-", He was cut off prematurely by a bullet that pierced his back, making him fall over. The normal civilians were gasping in fear at the progression of the situation.

From behind the fallen marine soldier, a soaking wet man can be seen with a smoking pistol in his hand. This man is wearing gray overalls, with alternating colors on his beanie. He looked unnatural thin and pale, with dangerous looking dark bags under his eyes.

The presumed prisoner sat down at an empty chair nearby. From then on, Josh stopped paying attention in favor of looking over the menu.

On the menu were a wide variety of dishes. Ranging from curry, pasta, fried rice, to even soup that Josh has never heard of. He was slightly excited to find out the taste of what the individual dishes would be like.

After getting out of his momentary state, which he decided to name "The Joichiro Trance", he looked back up to find everything already settled. The marines and Gin were no longer in sight. In Gin's previous location, all that remained was a broken table and chair.

He didn't worry though, as he knew that Gin was kicked out of the restaurant for not having money to pay for food. Sanji was probably out there right now, feeding Gin. This will, in turn, caused Luffy to want to recruit him into the crew. He smiled as everything was going the way it should.

After a few more minutes of idle waiting, Sanji came over to their table to get their orders. As soon as he saw Nami, his eyes turned into hearts, his legs mellowed out and he preformed his infamous and patented 'noodle dance'.

"Ugh.. I nearly forgot, he's the biggest pervert. Only second to the infamous Master Roshi...", black lines formed over Josh's head. He was contemplating whether to let him in the kitchen alongside himself once he joins...but when he thought about his position, Josh sighed as he realized there was no choice.

After they were done with their truly delicious meal, Luffy came over in envy. When he was dragged off by the staff, he found out that the cannon hit the roof of the owner's room, injuring him in the process. Luffy was forced to work off his debt as a chore boy because he didn't have the money to pay for the injury and damages.

"No fair. You guys get to eat while I have to work!" The childish teenager complained. Once he reached the table, he "sneakily" put a booger in Zoro's water, thinking he was unnoticed. After a fit of coughs from Luffy who was forced to drink his own dried nasal mucus, and laughters from the rest of the crew, Luffy carried on with his duties.

They waited for several days for Luffy to finally finish settling his debt when it suddenly happened. From the front entrance of the Baratie, in came a man who was there once before, and a much bigger man who is just as sickly looking as he was when he first arrived.

"Finally...some action." Josh muttered to himself silently, or so he thought. Zoro who is sitting beside him actually heard him, but made no indication of it as he also felt the same.