Green Hair and Yellow Hair

The Shimotsuki Family really was full of talented people. And he had this skill, too?

Xia Nuo was somewhat surprised. He bent down, preparing to knock on the wooden leg to test its feel, but the moment he crouched, he found himself eye to eye with a certain blond, curly-eyebrowed brat.

"Xia... Big Brother Xia Nuo!"

Sanji was a little nervous. Stammering, he said, "Thank you! That old geezer already told me everything. If you hadn't arrived in time, the two of us would've starved to death on that deserted island!"

What an adorable voice... Was there a Chopper hiding inside him?

"I didn't do that much." Xia Nuo smiled and rubbed his little head. "The person you really need to thank for surviving is Uncle Zeff."

"I know."

Sanji nodded hard.

It was only after waking up in the clinic that morning that he understood what had happened. He had immediately hugged Zeff's severed leg and burst into floods of tears.

Yet Zeff had laughed as he comforted him, saying that he couldn't just stand by and watch a brat with the same dream starve to death. That only made Sanji cry even louder, and he didn't recover until just before they left.

"Uncle Zeff."

Xia Nuo squeezed the wooden leg and looked up at him. "It looks like your daily activities aren't affected, but what about fighting? Can you still use those kicking techniques from before?"

"Huh?" Zeff was stunned. "Benefactor, you... you knew about my former identity?"

"Of course I did." Xia Nuo clapped his hands and stood up. "The captain of the Chef Pirates, Red-Foot Zeff. You're pretty famous in the East Blue."

In fact, Zeff was more than just famous. After adventuring through the Grand Line for a year and returning to the East Blue in one piece, he was practically a hidden boss.

Xia Nuo had even seen his wanted poster in the newspaper: fifty million Berries. In the East Blue, that put him in a league of his own.

"Then why are you still so calm? I'm a pirate. Shouldn't you be afraid?"

"Are you the kind of person who repays kindness with ingratitude?" Xia Nuo looked at him strangely. "If not, why should I be afraid?"

Pirates did have a terrible reputation among the general public.

But Xia Nuo was a transmigrator who knew the story by heart. Naturally, he wasn't stupid enough to crudely judge everyone by their faction and condemn them all with a single stroke.

Having arrived in this turbulent Great Pirate Era, he could no longer strictly apply the moral standards of modern society from his previous life. He had a favorable impression of people on both the Marine and pirate sides, and Zeff was undoubtedly one of them.

"This..." Zeff froze for a moment. He suddenly realized that this young benefactor who had saved him didn't seem like a simple man either.

He looked around again.

Koshiro was still smiling warmly, as though Xia Nuo's words hadn't affected him in the slightest.

So none of them were ordinary people...? Zeff couldn't help bursting into laughter. The faint trace of restraint he had felt vanished completely in an instant.

"As for kicking techniques, I can still use them, barely. But their power has been greatly reduced!"

Zeff spoke cheerfully. "With the little skill this old man has left, I won't be able to make a living on the Grand Line. I can't go back to being a pirate anymore. But that's fine, too. At my age, I should rest for a while."

Yet Xia Nuo still saw a trace of gloom in his eyes. After pondering for a moment, he asked, "Do you have any plans for what comes next?"

"Well... this old man isn't sure either."

Zeff looked at the children training with loud cries in the dojo and suddenly said, "Say, Mr. Koshiro, does your dojo need a cook?"

"Hm?"

Koshiro was somewhat surprised. He shook his head. "Who could afford to hire a chef? Kuina and I used to take turns cooking. It was only in the past few years, as more and more children came to learn swordsmanship, that the old granny next door began helping us."

"How about letting this old man give it a try?"

Zeff gave a sly grin. "Everyone hasn't eaten breakfast yet, right? Then let this old man show you what he can do!"

"You're still recovering from your injuries. How would that be appropriate..."

Koshiro instinctively tried to dissuade him, but Zeff had already waved him off and strode toward the kitchen. Only after entering did his booming voice echo out again: "Curly Eyebrows, brat! Come give me a hand!"

"Coming!"

Sanji's eyes lit up, and he hurried over.

What was this supposed to be? How could they let an injured guest cook? Koshiro helplessly rubbed his forehead, then glanced into the dojo and instructed:

"Kuina, Zoro, you two go help out as well."

"Yes, Father."

Kuina nodded, set down her bamboo sword, and expressionlessly grabbed the ear of a certain green-haired brat who was struggling and shouting, "I don't wanna!" She dragged him toward the kitchen.

In the kitchen.

Zoro angrily chopped onions with a kitchen knife, his expression as if someone owed him fifty million Berries.

What the hell!

They had actually interrupted his training and made him come over to do this kind of menial work!

"Your name is Zoro, right?"

A small blond head suddenly appeared beside him. The boy was warm and friendly. "Nice to meet you. I'm Sanji. I've worked as a professional chef in the galley of a passenger ship. If there's anything you don't know, you can ask me."

"If there's anything you don't know, you can ask me~~"

Zoro repeated sarcastically, "Then there are way too many things I don't know. Not everyone likes soaking in a place like this all day."

"I do." Sanji scratched his head and beamed brightly. "Cooking is one of the most interesting things in the world. Don't you think so? Oh, right—"

He pointed at the onion Zoro had reduced to an unrecognizable mess.

"There is a technique to cutting onions, too. First remove the top and bottom roots, then slice across the middle and turn it over. That makes it easier..."

"Shut up!"

Zoro turned his head and shouted irritably, "I don't want to hear this nonsense! And why do I always feel like crying whenever I hear you talk?"

"That's because of the onion, not me..."

Sanji looked speechless as he stared at Zoro's tear-streaked face. "You can actually breathe slowly through your mouth. You can also put a bowl of water beside the cutting board while you cut..."

"I still don't want to hear it!"

Zoro snarled, baring his sharp teeth. "Are you a man or not? Or are you just a girl who recently cut her hair short? How can a man not train hard in swordsmanship, yet know so much about this kind of thing?"

"What?"

Sanji's eyes widened, and he flared up as well. "Who are you calling a girl? A guy who can't even cut an onion properly dares to swing a knife around? Aren't you afraid you'll slip and cut yourself to death?"

"You can feel proud just because you know how to cut an onion? I hate onions! All those rings and curls—they look just as nauseating as your eyebrows!"

"What did you say? You green-haired vegetable-brain who can't even tell salt from sugar in the kitchen!"

"Fancy-pants who swings a spatula ten times slower than I swing my sword!"

"Single-celled organism that thinks with its muscles!"

The two brats were practically pressing their faces together. They failed to notice the dangerous figure gradually approaching from behind.

"You two brats..."

Zeff gritted his teeth and grabbed one ear in each hand. "If you keep arguing in this old man's kitchen, I'll chop you both into pieces and make you today's main course! Do you hear me?"

Thud!

One minute later.

Zoro and Sanji obediently knelt in front of the faucet in the dogeza position, washing vegetables. A string of bumps had swollen across both their heads, wisps of green smoke slowly rising from them.