Luffy stood completely still.
No impatience.
No irritation.
Just quiet expectation.
Gin finished the last bite of food slowly, carefully, as if afraid the act itself might anger the world again. When the bowl was empty, he placed it down with deliberate respect, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and finally looked up.
Those eyes had seen hell.
Not metaphorical hell.
The Grand Line.
"You still haven't answered my question," Luffy said calmly, his voice slicing through the tension without effort.
Gin stiffened.
"I apologize," he said, bowing his head slightly. "My name is Gin. I am known as Gin the Man-Demon. I serve as the right hand of Admiral Don Krieg."
Pride flickered in his voice — thin, battered, but alive.
Luffy tilted his head.
"…Never heard of him."
The silence that followed was violent.
Sanji's cigarette slipped from his fingers.
Gin's eyes widened.
"What do you mean you've never heard of Don Krieg!?" Sanji snapped, half-shouting, half-disbelieving.
Gin nodded sharply. "Admiral Krieg commands the strongest pirate fleet in the East Blue!"
Luffy shrugged. "Then he picked the wrong ocean."
Both men stared.
"If he were strong," Luffy continued, voice unchanging, "I would've heard his name before I heard yours."
Gin clenched his fists.
Sanji opened his mouth to argue—
"Sanji."
The cook froze.
Luffy turned toward him. "That's your name, right?"
Sanji nodded cautiously.
"I want you on my crew."
The words landed like a cannonball.
Sanji barked a laugh. "You serious? I can't leave this place. I owe my life to the old man."
"I refuse your refusal."
Sanji's jaw dropped.
Before he could explode, Gin spoke again, quietly.
"…You're a pirate?"
Luffy nodded.
"What's your dream?"
Sanji frowned. That question didn't belong here.
Luffy answered without hesitation.
"Conquer the Grand Line. Find One Piece. Become the Pirate King."
Gin's expression cracked.
"Then listen to me," he said urgently. "Leave that sea. We entered with fifty ships. Fifty. We lasted one week before one man destroyed everything."
Luffy laughed.
Not mockingly.
Genuinely.
"Then you were weak," he said simply.
Gin flinched.
"Numbers don't matter. Weapons don't matter. Fleets don't matter," Luffy continued. "Only the strongest survive. I know that because I come from the Grand Line."
Gin stared.
"…You're from there?"
Luffy nodded once.
Gin exhaled slowly, defeated. "Then you'll understand soon."
Luffy turned away.
At the door, he paused.
"I'm not leaving this place without Sanji."
And then he was gone.
---
Four Hours Later
The restaurant had settled into uneasy normalcy.
Luffy's crew drank, laughed, talked — a strange island of calm in hostile waters.
Then the shadow fell.
A customer screamed.
"S-Saber Dreadnaught…! Don Krieg's ship!"
Panic exploded.
The doors slammed open.
Gin staggered in, half-carrying a man encased in shattered armor.
Don Krieg.
The tyrant of the East Blue.
Reduced to a corpse pretending to breathe.
"Food!" Gin begged. "Water! Please!"
Krieg collapsed.
Sanji turned toward the kitchen.
Patty refused.
The cooks shouted.
Krieg dropped to his knees.
Begged.
Sanji snapped.
"Move."
Patty flew.
Sanji placed food before Krieg.
Krieg devoured it like an animal.
Then punched Sanji.
Chaos erupted.
Luffy smiled.
"Move the ship," he told Nami calmly. "We're getting visitors."
The thunder came.
Krieg stood tall once more — golden armor unfolding, guns emerging.
"I'll take this ship," Krieg declared. "Feed my men."
"No," Patty screamed.
Zeff descended.
A sack of food.
"For your crew," Zeff said.
Krieg froze.
"…Red-Leg Zeff."
Zeff didn't deny it.
Krieg laughed.
"You survived the Grand Line."
"Yes," Zeff said. "But you didn't."
Krieg demanded the logbook.
Zeff refused.
Krieg ranted about ambition.
Then—
Luffy laughed.
Hard.
"That's hilarious," he said, stepping forward. "You think a book makes you strong?"
Krieg roared.
Luffy stopped him with one hand.
Slammed him down.
"He's yours," Luffy said calmly. "Hawk-Eye's coming."
Fear replaced arrogance.
Krieg fled.
Zeff smiled.
"Deal," he said when Luffy asked for Sanji.
---
One Hour Later
The sea split.
A coffin-shaped boat drifted forward.
The Saber Dreadnaught lay broken in two.
A man stood alone.
Yellow eyes.
Black blade.
"Long time no see, Luffy," Mihawk said.
Luffy grinned.
"Hawk-Eye.".