Demon Human Gin

Bang—!!

A piercing gunshot mercilessly shattered the last trace of order in the restaurant.

The navy soldier who had been reporting let out a scream. A bloody blossom exploded across his back, and he crashed heavily to the floor.

The smell of gunpowder smoke instantly mixed with the aroma of food, assaulting everyone's nerves.

All eyes turned fearfully toward the entrance.

A man who looked like a walking corpse stood there.

He wore a tattered gray jacket. Beneath his headscarf were deeply sunken eye sockets, surrounded by heavy dark circles.

His lips were cracked and peeling, his cheeks hollow, and he was so thin that a gust of wind seemed capable of knocking him over.

Yet the smoking pistol in his hand, along with those beastlike eyes that still glinted fiercely despite his extreme weakness, made no one dare meet his gaze.

Demon Human Gin.

He dragged his heavy steps, inching into the restaurant one step at a time.

Every step seemed to tread upon everyone's heartstrings.

"Thud."

He reached the nearest table to the entrance and collapsed into a chair as though he had exhausted every ounce of strength.

He slammed the gun onto the pristine white tablecloth, his voice hoarse as sandpaper scraping against stone.

"Anything... hurry... bring me food..."

"Welcome—!! Sir!"

An overly booming voice rang out.

A chef built like a gorilla emerged from the direction of the kitchen.

He had two ridiculous little mustaches, his hands planted on his hips, and an excessively professional yet roguish ingratiating smile on his face.

It was Patty, Baratie's violent chef, infamous for his "terrible service attitude."

"I'll say it again..." Gin's finger weakly curled around the trigger, his gaze unfocused yet vicious. "Hurry... bring me food..."

Patty's smile grew even brighter. He leaned closer to Gin and rubbed his hands together as he asked,

"This guest seems to be in quite a hurry. But our restaurant has a rule—no credit. Do you have any money?"

"Money..."

Gin raised his gun with trembling hands, the dark muzzle aimed at Patty's huge head. Gritting his teeth, he said, "Do you want to... eat a bullet?"

At that moment, Ronan keenly sensed that Patty's aura had changed.

His former pretentious air of worldly greed and flattery was instantly torn away, replaced by the brutality of someone hardened by battle.

"Oh? No money, huh?"

Patty's voice abruptly turned cold, and the smile vanished from his face without a trace.

"Then you're not a customer!!!"

Boom—!

Patty did not waste a single word, nor did he give Gin a chance to fire.

His fist, as large as a clay pot, came whistling down from top to bottom and smashed viciously into Gin's head!

There was no technique behind that punch, only the pure monstrous strength of a chef!

"Pwah!"

How could Gin, already starving to the point of collapse, withstand such a blow?

He did not even manage a scream. His whole body, chair and all, was blasted backward and crashed heavily onto the floor, blood instantly staining the carpet red.

"S-So strong!" Usopp shrank beneath the table in terror. "Is he really a chef?"

Zoro watched with great interest. "Looks like the chefs at this place weren't exactly harmless in the past either."

Ronan nodded, thinking to himself, Baratie's chefs were originally a group of fighting chefs who could no longer make a living on the Great Sea.

Under Zeff's leadership, they were not only skilled at cooking, but fighting was practically second nature to them.

"If you can't pay for your meal, you're trash!"

Patty stepped forward, grabbed the half-dead Gin by the collar, and dragged him toward the entrance like a dead dog.

"Don't dirty our floor! Get out!"

Bang!

Gin was mercilessly thrown out the front door, landing hard on the cold deck.

The restaurant's guests applauded and cheered. To them, driving away such a vicious pirate was only natural.

Yet behind the noisy crowd, Ronan caught a detail.

The blond chef who had been showing off just moments ago—Sanji—silently glanced toward the entrance, then turned without a word and headed deeper into the kitchen.

His back looked somewhat desolate, yet it carried an unshakable resolve.

"That is..."

Luffy had clearly noticed too. His eyes darted about, and he immediately leaped from his chair and quietly followed after him.

"Hey, Luffy! Where are you going?" Usopp asked quietly.

Without looking back, Luffy lowered his voice, though he could not hide his excitement. "I'm going to find us a chef!"

Watching Luffy disappear around the kitchen corner, Ronan understood.

He knew what would happen next.

It was one of the most moving scenes from the early days of Pirate King—Absolute Justice in giving food to the hungry.

Looks like Sanji went to make food for that Demon Human Gin, Ronan sighed inwardly.

On this Great Sea where the strong preyed on the weak, Sanji's kindness seemed so out of place, yet so dazzling.

Ronan picked up his fork, speared a relatively intact piece of meat, and said to the somewhat worried Zoro and Nami,

"Let's keep eating. Don't worry, Luffy might seem unreliable most of the time, but when it comes to judging people, he's frighteningly accurate."

"Let's wait and see whether he can win that chef over."

Twenty minutes later.

Luffy returned to the table looking furious.

The moment he saw that more than half the dishes on the table were already empty, he panicked and pounced like a monkey guarding its food.

"Ahhh! You guys are too sneaky! Leave some for me! That meat on the bone is mine!"

Smiling, Ronan pushed a plate of fried rice that he had deliberately saved over to him. "Luffy, how did it go? Did you get him?"

Luffy stuffed food into his mouth frantically, his cheeks puffed out like a hamster's, and mumbled,

"Mmph... he hasn't agreed yet... gulp... but that Curly Eyebrows is a good guy!"

"He made food for that starving pirate! I like him even more now! I'll definitely convince him!"

"He cooked for a pirate?" Nami was somewhat surprised. "Even though that pirate had no money and pointed a gun at someone?"

"That's probably a chef's creed." Zoro took a sip of wine, his gaze deep. "To a chef, feeding someone who's hungry is more important than anything else."

Just then, another commotion rose from the restaurant hall.

Ronan looked up.

Sanji was carrying a bottle of red wine, weaving elegantly between the tables.

He came to the table of a fashionably dressed young woman and poured her wine with smooth, graceful movements. A gentleman's smile rested on his face as he spoke flattering words that made her blush, drawing a soft laugh from behind her hand.

"Tch, so he's just a womanizer." Zoro curled his lip.