You Can't Cook If You Can't Cook!

The wind blew and the waves crashed, sifting away the sand in the great tide.

"Wow! What amazing weather!" Luffy stretched extravagantly, looking at the calm sea with a refreshed expression.

It was early morning, and Luffy's group had just awakened aboard the Going Merry.

The first thing Luffy had done was claim the Going Merry's figurehead as his own first-class cabin. He was currently sitting cross-legged on it, enjoying the breeze.

Roronoa Zoro had also consciously headed to the lookout room to train while keeping an eye out for enemies.

Nami was gazing up at the weather, using it to judge the day's conditions.

As for Usopp and Aaron...

Aaron was in the kitchen preparing hamburgers for the day, while Usopp, after hearing about the wonders of Aaron's bubble water, had been pestering him for a bottle to play with.

So Aaron gave him all of his stock, around a dozen bottles. It had left Usopp acting nervous and jumpy for days.

Because he thought the stuff must be incredibly precious.

So in later battles, he treated it like a trump card and developed all sorts of bubble techniques that even Aaron had to admire.

Well, when he learned that the stuff was merely Aaron's bodily fluid, he lost interest in that trump card instead.

Obviously, Usopp wanted to use bubble water as a regular technique, but Aaron wasn't about to squeeze out that much bodily fluid for him!

What did he think Aaron was, a dairy cow?!

"Ugh, I lost the shovel Master gave me right after setting sail. I wonder if he'll beat me up..." Aaron let out a long sigh, picked up a spatula, and nervously fried the meat patties.

Suddenly, Luffy ran into the kitchen, grabbed Aaron, and dragged him outside.

"Hey, hey, hey, Luffy, what are you doing?! My hamburgers aren't done yet! The patties! The patties! They're going to burn! Aaaah, my patties!!" Aaron screamed, both hands gripping the stove tightly even as Luffy dragged his body to the doorway. His ten fingers clung to the stove, but slowly, one by one, they slipped free.

When the final finger came loose—

Boing!

Like springs, Aaron's arms snapped back at high speed, and the tremendous recoil launched both Aaron and Luffy.

Whoosh! Splash!

They fell into the sea.

"Are you two idiots?!" Roronoa Zoro, Nami, and Usopp roared in unison.

After a chaotic rescue operation, Luffy's group finally gathered on the deck.

"Seriously! Luffy, what was that for?! My hamburgers weren't done! Now I have to make them all over again!" Aaron angrily chewed on seaweed he'd somehow picked up from the ocean, occasionally shooting Luffy dirty looks.

...Who knew how he'd even found it.

"Sorry, sorry! I'll have to trouble you to make them again, Aaron, but something more important has come up!" Luffy clasped his hands and repeatedly apologized to Aaron before immediately planting his hands on his hips. "Now that we have a pirate ship, shouldn't we decide on a pirate flag?"

"Oh!" Aaron cried out in realization, then rolled his eyes. "Can't you just decide that yourself? Aren't pirate flags usually decided by the captain? Seriously, I need to go back and start over!" As he spoke, he turned to continue making hamburgers, while Nami and the others also rolled their eyes and prepared to return to their respective duties.

"Shishishi! Actually, I've already drawn our pirate flag! Look!" Luffy flashed sixteen gleaming white teeth as he grinned brightly and unfolded a black flag.

Well, don't worry about when Luffy had gotten that black flag into his hands.

Hearing Luffy's shout, everyone turned to look.

...This was a flag with a soul.

It seemed to be screaming. The twisted skull face seemed to be weeping, lamenting its owner's injustice and the darkness of the world.

It was fucking ugly!

That was the first thought that flashed through everyone's minds.

They absolutely could not fly that flag!

That was the second thought in everyone's minds.

"Luffy! What you drew is way too ugly!" Usopp said first.

"Huh? I think it's pretty good." Luffy inspected it again carefully, then stated with absolute certainty.

"Your sense of aesthetics is probably the same as a beast's," Roronoa Zoro said coldly.

Sure enough, the person with the fewest words had the sharpest tongue.

"Luffy..." Aaron looked at Luffy. "If you fly that flag, we probably won't have to fight anyone. The enemy will laugh themselves to death the moment they see it, and then we can easily inherit their possessions."

...Well, sometimes idiots had sharp tongues too.

Before Luffy could share his thoughts, Nami smacked him on the head with a fist and knocked him to the ground. "It's too ugly, so we can't use it. Don't draw anymore!"

Yep, Nami was direct.

"This is where I come in!" Usopp rolled up his sleeves, looking ready to go all out.

"You can draw?" Nami looked at Usopp doubtfully.

"Heh heh! I am the great Usopp, known as a famous artist! Every painting I make has tens of thousands of people scrambling to buy it. I am—"

Bang! "Shut up and draw already!"

Nami's fist cut off Usopp's endless bragging, and Usopp obediently shut up and went to draw.

Before long, Usopp reappeared proudly holding a black flag. He stretched out his arms and unfurled it!

Well, it did look pretty good. It looked like a proper pirate flag.

It was just that the long nose and smile were a little creepy.

Bang! "This is my pirate crew!" Luffy punched Usopp to the ground again, and Usopp slunk off to redraw it.

Usopp finished another one.

This time, there were no tricks. It was simply a skull wearing a straw hat.

"This one's not bad! I didn't expect you to be this good at drawing!" Nami examined the flag carefully and praised him.

"Mine was good too!" Beast Luffy yelled unhappily from the side.

But no one agreed with him.

They quickly hung the pirate flag from the mast. Looking at it fluttering in the wind, their hearts swelled with excitement as a heated atmosphere spread around them.

Heated?

"...Do you guys smell burning wood?" Aaron sniffed and asked in confusion. Then, as though he had suddenly remembered something, his face went pale. He waved his arms like a madman and ran back to the kitchen. "Ahhh!!! My patties!!"

He had forgotten to turn off the stove.

And now the kitchen was on fire because of it.

After another round of chaos, Aaron finally put out the blaze in the kitchen by turning himself into a water sprayer.

Well, the kitchen could no longer be used.

And the food had all burned away too.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry!" Aaron bowed frantically in apology, tears welling in his eyes. "I forgot I hadn't turned off the heat. I'm really sorry!"

"It's fine," Usopp comforted him, looking at the charred kitchen. "It shouldn't take too long to repair the kitchen."

"Yeah, Aaron, don't take it to heart." Luffy heavily patted Aaron's shoulder. "Besides, can't you dive into the sea and catch fish for our food supplies? So everything will be fine!" Luffy gave Aaron his signature brilliant smile.

"Thanks, Luffy..." Aaron wiped away his tears. "Once the kitchen's fixed, I'll make you a meat-flavored hamburger!" He knew meat was Luffy's favorite.

But was meat really a flavor?

Day One.

"Ta-da! Shrimp-flavored hamburgers!" Aaron lifted the cover off the plate, and a huge steaming platter of hamburgers stirred everyone's appetite.

The group devoured the hamburgers like a whirlwind, and they vanished from the plate at a visible rate.

"Aaron, your cooking seems to have gotten even better!!" Luffy had practically grown up eating Aaron's hamburgers. Though he was thickheaded, he could still vaguely taste the improvement in Aaron's hamburger-making skills.

"Of course! Didn't I say I found a master in Orange Town? He taught me." Aaron said smugly, then seemed to remember something and glared at Luffy in dissatisfaction. "How many times have I told you, Luffy?! I'm a hamburger chef, a hamburger chef! I'm not a cook! I can't cook!"

...What the hell was a hamburger chef?

"Don't worry about it, don't worry about it. It's basically the same," Luffy said indistinctly, his mouth stuffed full of hamburger.

"It's completely different..." Aaron muttered unhappily.

Day Two.

"Meat-flavored hamburgers!" Aaron served steaming hamburgers onto the dining table.

"Oh!" Luffy shouted in delighted surprise.

"Meat-flavored? Aaron, where did you find meat patties?" Nami asked curiously.

"Heh heh!" Aaron smugly put his hands on his hips again. "These are actually made from shrimp I just caught in the sea, but they taste exactly like meat! This is a secret technique I learned from my master! Ordinary people aren't taught it. Basically, you..." Aaron then explained the secret technique that wasn't supposed to be passed on.

Day Three.

"Snake meat-flavored hamburgers!" Aaron brought the hamburgers to the table.

"Oh!" Luffy shouted in delighted surprise.

Day Four.

"Mantis-flavored hamburgers!" Aaron placed the hamburgers before everyone.

"Oh!" Luffy happily raised his hand.

Day Five.

Day Six.

Day Fifteen.

"Squid-flavored hamburgers." Aaron set the hamburgers on the table.

"Oh!" Luffy picked one up and was about to stuff it into his mouth.

Smack! Roronoa Zoro stopped Luffy.

"Huh? Roronoa Zoro, what are you doing?" Luffy looked at him unhappily.

"..." Roronoa Zoro said nothing. He looked sickly at Aaron, his eyes filled with helplessness and utter disbelief.

"...Can you only make hamburgers, Aaron?" Nami slumped weakly over the dining table and looked up at him.

"Yeah. Didn't I tell you from the start? I'm a hamburger chef. I can't cook. Didn't any of you hear me?" Aaron looked at everyone strangely.

"...Who knew that when you said you couldn't cook, you really meant you couldn't cook?" Usopp said feebly, rolling his eyes wildly afterward.

"If not being able to cook doesn't mean not being able to cook, then what does it mean? Being able to cook?" Aaron looked at Usopp as though he were looking at an idiot.

...Well, Aaron wasn't wrong.

But Aaron's hamburgers were so delicious that everyone had subconsciously assumed he couldn't be that bad at cooking, right?

Who knew Aaron was such a weirdo!

He couldn't make anything besides hamburgers!

"...You win." Usopp felt like he was about to vomit blood and die.

Smack!

Nami slammed her hand on the table and stood up. "No! We can't eat nothing but hamburgers. That'll cause nutritional imbalance!" She then looked at Luffy, who was happily eating a hamburger. "Luffy, should we find a cook?"

"Huh?" Luffy stopped eating and looked up at Nami. "Why? Don't we already have Aaron?"

"Aaron can only make hamburgers. Eating only hamburgers will cause nutritional imbalance..." Halfway through, Nami saw Luffy's blank expression and immediately changed her wording. "Won't you get tired of hamburgers? If we find a cook, you can eat different dishes every day."

"But Aaron's hamburgers are delicious," Luffy said. He then swallowed the hamburger in his hand in one bite. "Still, that does sound pretty good!"

He abruptly stood up and swept his gaze over everyone with a grin. "It's decided! We're going to find a cook!"