More than three months had passed since Garp's departure when the Red Hair Pirates made their dramatic return to Windmill Village.
"HEY! WHERE'S THE BOSS OF THE BAMBOO STAFF BISTRO?! GET OUT HERE RIGHT NOW!"
Gustave was in the kitchen preparing orders for his regular customers when a menacing voice boomed through the dining room. Grabbing a kitchen knife instinctively, he rushed out to confront whatever fool had decided to cause trouble in his establishment.
Instead, he found a familiar figure terrorizing his staff—Shanks was looming over Luffy with an exaggerated scowl of intimidation.
"Listen here, brat!" Shanks growled theatrically. "Call your manager out immediately, or I'll tear this place apart board by board!"
Luffy cowered in the corner with masterful acting, trembling in apparent fear—though the barely suppressed grin tugging at his lips completely betrayed the performance.
The restaurant's regular patrons recognized Shanks immediately and understood this was friendly theater. However, several newer customers looked genuinely confused by the scene: the red-haired man seemed to be making threats, but why did the young waiter appear to be acting?
THUNK!
A solid blow to Shanks' head sent the Yonko crumpling to the floor, clutching his skull in exaggerated agony.
"Ow! Gustave, you have no honor! That was a complete sneak attack!" Shanks whined from his crouched position.
"Uncle Gustave!" Luffy protested, his frightened act evaporating instantly. "I was still playing pirates with Shanks! Why did you have to ruin our game?"
"Play, play, play—that's all you ever think about!" Gustave replied, delivering a swift kick to Luffy's posterior. "Get back to the kitchen and start serving those orders!"
"Damn it," Luffy muttered under his breath as he shuffled toward the kitchen. "When I become the greatest hero, you'll pay for this..."
"Excuse me?" Gustave's voice carried a dangerous edge.
Luffy's entire body went rigid with terror before he bolted into the kitchen at maximum speed.
"Alright, Shanks, stop the dramatics," Gustave said, patting the red-haired pirate's shoulder. "I barely tapped you just now."
"Has your strength increased again?" Shanks asked, still rubbing the impact site with genuine discomfort.
"Oh, now that you mention it, I suppose it has!" Gustave replied with an innocent smile. "I've grown considerably stronger these past few months. Thanks for the reminder!"
"You absolute bastard," Shanks said, recognizing the deliberate provocation. "You did that on purpose!"
"Guilty as charged!" Gustave laughed openly. "Can't say I'm sorry about it either!"
Shanks' face began darkening with mounting irritation, his temper building toward a proper explosion—
"By the way, where are Uta and the rest of your crew?" Gustave asked suddenly. "You're the only one here."
The question immediately deflated Shanks' carefully accumulated rage. "They're still looking for a decent place to anchor the Red Force. I came ahead to place our food order."
"Excellent! You know the drill—come see what catches your eye today."
Gustave led Shanks to the ingredient display, where the pirate captain began mentally cataloging dishes from previous visits.
"I want tomato scrambled eggs, stir-fried banana blossoms, braised meat..." Shanks proceeded to order more than thirty different dishes with confident enthusiasm.
"Got it all noted down," Gustave said, scribbling in his order book. "The main floor is full, so head upstairs and claim a private room. Ace will bring you some wine."
Shanks bounded up the stairs happily while Gustave headed toward the kitchen with a distinctly cunning expression.
That idiot's brain works exactly like Luffy's, Gustave thought with satisfaction. The moment I saw him getting angry, I changed the subject, and he fell for it completely! Sometimes simple misdirection is the most effective strategy.
Twenty minutes later, Uta's delighted voice rang through the Bamboo Staff Bistro.
"Po! Tom! I'm back!"
Hearing his beloved surrogate daughter's arrival, Shanks poked his head out from the second floor.
"Uta! Come upstairs! I've already ordered all your favorite dishes!"
But Uta completely ignored him, running straight to the kitchen to find her real priorities.
The Red Hair Pirates erupted in laughter at their captain's obvious abandonment.
"Look at that, Captain!" Yasopp called out. "She's completely forgotten about you!"
"Uta just hasn't seen Po and Tom for months," Shanks replied defensively. "Don't try to create drama between us!"
He snorted indignantly and slammed the private room window shut.
In the kitchen, Uta immediately threw her arms around Po, who was busy with food preparation.
"Uta," Po said gently, "I'll play with you this evening, I promise. Right now I need to finish cooking for our guests."
Uta reluctantly released her grip, pouting slightly. "Fine, but you definitely have to play with me tonight!"
Seeing this interaction, Gustave's eyes gleamed with mischievous inspiration.
"Uta, Po is busy cooking right now and can't play," he said with feigned sympathy. "But Tom is completely free—he's napping on the third floor. You should go wake him up!"
"Really?" Uta's eyes lit up with excitement.
"Absolutely! Tom has been hoping you'd come back to play with him!" Gustave replied with an expression of perfect innocence.
"I knew you were the best, Uncle Gustave!" Uta declared before racing toward the stairs.
"Gustave," Po said with an amused shake of his head, "you're becoming more devious every day."
"Tom has been getting incredibly lazy lately," Gustave explained with mock seriousness. "He won't help in the kitchen, refuses to play piano for guests, and just sleeps constantly. A little wake-up call from his favorite nemesis is exactly what he needs."
Almost immediately, Tom's anguished yowling echoed down from the third floor, followed by the sounds of an epic chase scene.
Gustave and Po exchanged satisfied grins as they continued their cooking preparations.
The following morning brought no routine training session. Instead, Gustave's crew gathered at the beach where Po and Shanks had held their first serious duel months earlier.
With Garp's intensive guidance, Po's mastery of Conqueror's Haki had reached entirely new levels. He wanted to test his current abilities against Shanks to gauge his true progress.
The two warriors faced each other across the sandy arena, then rushed forward simultaneously with perfect understanding—no testing or warm-up this time. From the first moment, both fighters unleashed their full power.
The collision shook the entire world around them. Thick storm clouds that had been gathering overhead split cleanly in half from the sheer force of their clash, allowing brilliant sunlight to illuminate the epic battle below.
"INCREDIBLE!" Luffy, Ace, and Uta shouted in unison, their eyes wide with amazement.
"Both the Captain and Po have grown exponentially stronger since their last encounter," Beckman observed with serious appreciation.
"They're both complete monsters," Lucky Roux said with a mixture of admiration and resignation. "The rest of us are just ordinary people trying to keep up with legends."
The memory of when Shanks had first recruited him stung—back then, their abilities had been roughly comparable. Now the gap felt insurmountable.
The battle raged for over two hours, displaying techniques and power levels that defied normal comprehension. When both fighters finally stepped back, breathing heavily but grinning with satisfaction, the result was officially declared a draw.
However, anyone who'd watched closely could see that Po had been on the defensive for most of the engagement. While his growth was remarkable, truly matching Shanks would require mastering Conqueror's Haki infusion—the ultimate technique that separated good fighters from the world's absolute elite.
"Not bad at all, Po," Shanks said with genuine respect. "Give it another year of training, and you might actually start winning these matches."
Po bowed gracefully. "Thank you for the excellent practice, Shanks. I learned more in two hours than I could from months of solo training."
As the group began walking back toward the village, Gustave reflected on how much his found family had grown. Between his own Rumble-Rumble Fruit development and Po's Haki mastery, they were becoming genuinely formidable.