Death Pudding

Everyone around turned to look. After seeing the customer cough up blood and collapse, no matter how delicious the food before them was, they no longer wanted to lift a fork again.

The rest of the restaurant was one thing, but if there was a problem with the food, this restaurant would not be far from going under.

Well... the Straw Hat Pirates had gotten into trouble. Big trouble!

"What do we do, what do we do, what do we do?!" Usopp did not understand all those hidden complications, but after seeing the customer faint unconscious, he kept pacing in circles like an ant on a hot pan.

Aaron could not stand watching any longer. He stepped forward and patted Usopp's waist, consoling him. "Don't worry, Usopp. The customer will wake up... probably?"

"Even you only said probably?!" Usopp felt like he was about to break down.

"Uh... fine, I'll go take a look, okay?!" With that, Aaron ran over to the customer. First, he wiped the blood from the man's face clean. After staring for a while and tilting his head in thought, he pulled out a... a hamburger from his clothes.

He tore it into pieces and fed them bit by bit into the customer's mouth.

"What happened?!" Patty rushed out of the kitchen with a group of cooks. His eyes immediately landed on the collapsed customer, and he roared loudly.

"Ah?!" Aaron jumped in fright and looked at Patty in confusion. "I'm seeing whether I can save him. Can't you tell?" As he spoke, he pointed at the customer.

"Of course I can tell! I'm asking how you turned the customer into this!" Patty stepped forward, his huge frame making Aaron a little nervous.

"Wasn't... wasn't it you who told me to make pudding?" Aaron asked nervously.

"You call this pudding? This should be called a new kind of poison! Looks like you're asking for a beating!" As he spoke, he raised a fist the size of a clay pot, intending to smash it into Aaron's face.

Cough, cough! Cough, cough! At that moment, the customer's coughing abruptly stopped Patty's movement.

Patty looked down at the customer and saw him slowly open his eyes. He still looked somewhat dazed, staring blankly at Patty with unfocused eyes.

Slap! Patty flung Aaron aside without caring about the strange "splat" sound Aaron made when he hit the floor. Clasping his hands together, he put on his signature fawning grin. "Customer, how are you feeling?"

The customer stood there in a daze for several seconds, as though he had only just heard Patty's question. He mechanically raised himself up, staring at Patty like an idiot without saying a word.

Time seemed to freeze. Everyone stared at the customer, wondering what was wrong with him and what sort of compensation he wanted.

"...Customer?" Patty was about to lose his smile under that fixed stare when the customer suddenly snapped back to his senses. His eyes sparkled as he looked at Patty, then he abruptly raised a hand like a salted fish radiating a strange glow. "It was... unbelievably delicious!!"

Everyone: "...Huh?"

Shouldn't he have started cursing them out?

"It's true!" Seeing Patty's puzzled expression, the customer became anxious. "This dish gave me the wondrous pleasure of ascending to heaven!"

...No, no, you really almost went to heaven. Everyone silently complained.

"Uh... actually, customer..." Patty then explained what had happened earlier. Well, he had wanted to gloss over it, but too many people had seen it.

"I see... so I really did ascend to heaven just now..." After listening to Patty's explanation, the customer lowered his head and fell silent.

This calm before the storm made everyone uneasy, yet strangely expectant.

These noble gentlemen were so bored out of their minds that they desperately wanted to see more excitement.

"Then... then give me another serving! No! Give me five more servings! Hurry! Now! Immediately! This instant!" The customer raised his head, speaking faster and faster until his words became a rapid-fire barrage.

"...Huh?" Patty could not quite make sense of the situation. "Customer... are you sure?"

"You don't understand!" the customer said urgently. "I ascended to heaven just now. I saw God! At first, I thought it was only a hallucination, but now I'm certain. I truly saw God!"

"Who made this dish?" the customer asked anxiously.

"Uh..." Patty did not know what to say, but he still pointed at Aaron, who stood frozen nearby.

The customer followed Patty's finger and looked over. He froze for a moment, apparently not expecting the chef who had made such delicious poison to be so young. Without hesitation, he gave Aaron a deep bow. "Master, please make me another pudding!"

"...Huh?" Aaron was a little confused.

"Master, please make me another pudding!" Seeing that Aaron had not agreed, the customer became anxious. He bowed deeply again and pleaded urgently.

"Huh?"

"Master, please make me another—" "Stop, stop, stop! I get it, I get it!" Aaron hurriedly waved his hand and carried his plate back toward the kitchen, muttering as he walked, "...It really brought him back to life. Could my hamburgers actually cure poison?"

Everyone watched Aaron return to the kitchen. The dining hall was so quiet that they could hear one another breathing.

After a long while, someone hesitantly broke the silence. "...I'll have a pudding too. I want the one that kid made."

"I'll have one too. I want him to make it."

"Give me one too..."

"I want one too..."

"I..."

Like a fuse being lit, the dining hall instantly turned into a marketplace. Everyone wanted to taste this miraculous pudding.

"..." The Straw Hat Pirates, who had watched the entire scene from the side, were all dumbfounded.

That kind of trick actually worked?!

"Boss..." Johnny was the first to recover. Looking at Nami, he asked, "Can Aaron's hamburgers neutralize the poison in his own cooking?"

Nami shook her head, equally confused. "I don't know. After Zoro and the others ate his food, they only had diarrhea, coughed up a little blood, and turned blue. They got better after a few days. I really didn't know Aaron's hamburgers could cure his own poison... Now that I think about it, it was probably because Luffy and the others have unusually strong constitutions..."

"Boss, haven't you eaten Aaron's food?" Yosaku asked.

Nami shot Yosaku a look as if he were an idiot. "I already know it's poisonous, so why would I eat it?"

Johnny and Yosaku: "..." That made so much sense they could not refute it!

Nami's analysis was indeed correct.

Aaron tried serving a hamburger along with a pudding he had made, and specifically reminded the customer that after eating the pudding, he had to immediately eat the hamburger!

Sure enough, he did not die!

...And so, Baratie gained a new dish—Death Pudding.

After hearing about this dish that supposedly allowed people to see heaven, those noble gentlemen flocked here like sharks that had smelled blood, all saying they wanted to experience this heavenly delicacy.

Well, Baratie's customer traffic was now twice what it normally was.

...Rich people were impossible to understand.

A few days later.

Baratie's dining hall had turned into this sort of scene.

Inside the hall, people lounged about in disarray with blissful expressions. Every now and then, someone would suddenly cough up blood, but they did not panic. They would pick up a hamburger from beside them, take a bite, wait two or three seconds, then take a bite of the pudding on the other side before once again wearing an expression like they had just finished an extravagant massage.

...It was rather harmonious, actually.

"Look over there! Isn't that the Krieg Pirates' flag?!" Suddenly, a customer saw the scene outside the window and cried out in terror.

The diners, whose enjoyment of their extravagant massage—no, their food—had been interrupted, all looked up at the shouting man in annoyance. But upon hearing that dreadful name, they suddenly came to their senses and turned to look outside together.

"N-No mistake! The skull has an hourglass between its ribs to intimidate enemies. There's absolutely no mistake! It's the Krieg Pirates' ship!"

"Why is he here?!"

"See, Patty?! You're the one who brought him here!"

"Captain! Hurry and set sail! We don't want to die yet!"

"What a huge ship! Is that kid Gin coming to repay your kindness?"

Amid the noisy crowd, something strange had slipped in. Obviously, it was their captain, Luffy.

"No... I'm afraid that isn't it. But it's strange," Sanji said as he watched the pirate ship slowly approach, exhaling a ring of smoke. "That ship looks... a little battered."

Just as Sanji said, the ship looked utterly dilapidated. Even its most important pirate flag had become a rag. The decoration at the bow had been violently shattered, and the sails were in even worse condition, looking as though someone had simply hung a large dirty cloth from the mast.

Bang! The restaurant door was pushed open.

A burly figure appeared, supported by Gin as he slowly walked inside.

That expressionless face, that gleaming golden armor, and the fact that Gin had to support him into the restaurant all announced the newcomer's identity.

Pirate Commodore—Krieg!

Everyone held their breath and stared fearfully at the terrifying pirate, endlessly guessing what he intended to do.

"Do... do you have food? Anything will do. Please give me some food. Even leftovers are fine, please give me just a little food!" But Krieg's words left everyone stunned.

So... he was here to eat after all?

Well, everyone knew how despicable and shameless Krieg was, so there was no need to describe him in too much detail here.

Aaron finished making the pudding, then went over to the stove and made a hamburger as well. He placed them both on a plate and slowly walked out of the kitchen.

"Whoa! Sanji, why are you lying on the floor? It's dirty!" The moment Aaron stepped out, he saw Sanji lounging comfortably on the ground with a smile on his lips. "Your nose is bleeding... Did a beautiful woman hit you again?"

"When has a lady ever hit me, you brat?! Don't slander me so casually!" Sanji retorted unhappily.

...Come to think of it, despite being a pervert through and through, Sanji had never actually done anything lecherous... That was pretty strange too.

Aaron did not care what Sanji was thinking. After speaking, he withdrew his gaze, scanned the dining hall, and shouted:

"Customer number six! Customer number six, your pudding is ready! Number six..."

He had not called for long when Aaron felt a shadow completely cover him. Before he could react, his feet left the ground.

Krieg had lifted him up.

"Sir, did you order the pudding?" Seeing that ugly face slowly approach him, Aaron gave a wide smile and held out the pudding in his hand.

"..." Krieg looked at the pudding before him.

The fragrant combination of fruit and cream stirred Krieg's appetite again. He unconsciously took the pudding and devoured it in one bite.

"Not bad. Very good." The excellent taste even swept away the gloom that had plagued Krieg for the past few days. He stared at Aaron, then raised his head and swept his gaze over everyone. "I'll say it one more time. This ship, and everyone on this ship, belong to me from now on!"

Everyone was speechless, their expressions filled with shock as they looked at Krieg.

"Um... sir, you should eat the hamburger now." Aaron could no longer hold himself back. He poked Krieg's arm.

"Shut up! From now on, you will call me Chief. Call me Chief Krieg! You may only speak after calling me that!" Krieg glared at Aaron.

"But, sir..."

"Call me Chief!"

"Okay, Chief." Aaron nodded, then said solemnly, "Chief, you're about to faint."

"What?" Krieg froze for a moment, then looked at Aaron angrily and threw him aside. "You dare curse the invincible Chief Krieg to faint?! Once I take over this ship, I'll—"

Thud!

Then Krieg fainted without the slightest delay.

"Pat, pat!" Aaron got to his feet and brushed the dust from his body. Glancing at Krieg, whose eyes were tightly shut and whose face had turned blue, he pursed his lips in dissatisfaction. "...Honestly, why are there so many weird people? A few days ago, there was one who forced me to call her Queen, and today there's another forcing me to call him Chief."

Everyone: "..." This development was a little absurd!

Then Aaron tore the hamburger into pieces and fed them bit by bit into Krieg's mouth.

Everyone: "...!!"

Patty shouted frantically, "Don't feed him the hamburger!"

"Huh?" Aaron raised his head in confusion, but he had already put the hamburger into Krieg's mouth.

"It's too late..." Patty slapped his forehead fiercely and said regretfully.

Krieg abruptly opened his eyes and sprang to his feet. He looked at Aaron, veins bulging across his face. "You actually dared to poison the great Chief Krieg..."

He felt that everyone was laughing at him, laughing at how easily he had been poisoned and tricked. Shame gnawed at his heart, driving him nearly mad.

Krieg's eyes turned bloodshot. "Go die!!"

As he spoke, he threw open his cape. His dazzling golden armor nearly blinded Aaron, and dozens of holes suddenly appeared across it. Black gun barrels extended from those holes, all aimed at Aaron, who was rubbing his eyes.

Bang bang bang bang bang bang!

The gunshots thundered.