"You came to the Baratie alone?"
"Yeah."
Garp went on, "Which island did you come from?"
Lin Mo gave him a speechless look.
Was this guy conducting a background check?
Lin Mo kept drinking and ignored him.
Just then, a blond boy with several bandages on his face, looking as though he had just been beaten up, came over carrying two plates of food.
"Here's your food. Enjoy."
It was nine-year-old Sanji, the future Pirate King Luffy's cook and one of his main fighters.
After setting the dishes in front of Lin Mo,
Sanji turned to head back to the kitchen.
But the moment he turned around,
several voices that grated on his ears came from a nearby table.
"Why are there carrots in the fried rice? I hate carrots! Something this disgusting shouldn't even exist!"
"Oh, sweetheart, if you don't like them, just throw them away. We'll order another serving without carrots, all right?"
The speakers were a young woman in fine clothes and her ten-year-old son.
Sanji looked toward their table.
He wished he hadn't. The sight nearly made him explode.
The boy had dumped an entire plate of fried rice onto the table and was stirring it around with his spoon for fun. Bits of rice kept falling onto the floor.
Sanji had once come close to starving to death.
He could never forgive someone for treating food like that.
"Hey!" Sanji stormed toward the child wasting the food.
When the boy's mother saw Sanji approaching, she said at once, "Perfect timing. We want to order something else."
Sanji ignored her request. "Do you know how many people in the world are starving? How can you waste food like this?"
The young woman blinked, then frowned. "What on earth are you talking about? I paid for this food. I can waste it however I want. What's it to you?"
"Damn it! What good is all that money?" Sanji clenched his fists. "When you're somewhere with nothing to eat, can money fill your stomach?"
At the Floating Restaurant, Experience Won Out
In the vast dining hall,
at that moment,
most of the diners had stopped eating.
As though watching a show,
they focused on Sanji's argument with the customer.
The finely dressed woman looked around.
Seeing everyone watching them, she pursed her lips. Then an idea struck her, and she dumped the half plate of fried rice she still had onto the floor right in front of Sanji.
Sanji's eyes widened.
The woman stepped on the rice twice, then gave him a nasty smile. "You can't stand seeing people waste food, can you? Why don't you eat the rice off the floor? I paid for it, so consider it my treat. Help yourself."
"You..." Sanji shook with anger.
"Oh my," the woman said in mock surprise. "What's wrong? Are you all talk? How disappointing, saying one thing and doing another. Next time, don't ask others to do something you won't do yourself!"
A few people nearby laughed at her words.
Others thought she had gone too far, but none of them spoke up.
Sanji stared at the fried rice she had trampled. His clenched fists loosened, tightened, then loosened and tightened again.
At last, he took a deep breath. "If I eat the rice off the floor, you have to eat all the rice on the table."
The woman narrowed her eyes and stepped on the rice a few more times.
"Fine," she sneered. "Eat the rice off the floor, and I'll eat all the rice on the table!"
"Fine. You said it."
With that, Sanji crouched down, scooped up the trampled rice in his hands, put it in his mouth, and began to eat.
"Mom, is that guy stupid?" Her son pointed his spoon at Sanji and burst out laughing. "Hahaha! He's really eating rice off the floor! Is he a beggar? Hahaha..."
Just then,
some of the other diners began to talk.
"What kind of person bullies a child like that?"
"Wait, he's actually eating it? I thought he was joking."
"Hey, lady! He ate the rice off the floor. Time to keep your promise and eat what's on the table."
"That's right. Eat it."
The woman gritted her teeth as she listened to the other customers. Unable to bear it, she stood up, intending to take her son and leave.
"Seriously? She made the kid a promise and now she's breaking it? That's low."
"Exactly. And her son's right there. What a terrible example."
"Go on, eat it. That kid's eating rice you stepped on. You only have to eat what's on the table. You've got the better deal."
Their comments kept ringing in the woman's ears.
Furious, she looked at Sanji, who was still crouched on the floor eating the rice she had trampled.
She clenched her jaw.
Then she grabbed the rice her son had dumped on the table, swallowed it in a few bites, took his hand, and hurried away, muttering, "What a lousy restaurant. You little brat, you'll regret this!"
Meanwhile,
Lin Mo watched what was happening with Sanji as he drank and ate the two dishes he had ordered with his wine.
To many people, Sanji probably had no reason to argue with the woman over something so small.
He certainly had no reason to pick up the dirty rice and eat it.
But if Sanji had ignored it, he wouldn't have been Sanji.
After all, wasting food and hitting women were the two things he couldn't tolerate.
So Sanji's actions were exactly what Lin Mo had expected.
Just then,
Patty emerged from the kitchen grinning, a large tray piled with desserts in his hands. When he saw what was happening with Sanji,
his face darkened.
He hurried over to deliver Garp's desserts,
then came up behind Sanji, seized him by the back of his collar, and hauled him upright.
The mother and son who had wasted the food were already gone.
Patty didn't know exactly what had happened between Sanji and the customers.
But one look at the trampled rice on the floor and the grain still stuck to the corner of Sanji's mouth gave him a fair idea.
"Let go of me, you bastard, Patty!"
Sanji struggled hard.
At only nine years old, he couldn't match the burly Patty in height, build, or strength.
No matter how he thrashed, he couldn't break Patty's grip on his collar.
Patty brought his free fist down on Sanji's head. "You little brat! You argued with customers again, didn't you? How many have you driven away this month? Do you have any idea how much money your antics are costing us?"
Sanji protested, "Money, money, money! That's all you care about! Can money fill your stomach?"
Patty punched him squarely on the head again. "We run a restaurant to make money! Without money, how are we supposed to buy ingredients, idiot?"
Still lecturing Sanji, Patty dragged him toward the kitchen. "You little freeloader can't do anything right. Get in there and wash the dishes!"
"Shut up, you lousy cook!"
"Huh? A brat who wants to be a lousy cook has no right to call me one!"
Lin Mo silently watched Patty drag Sanji into the kitchen.
He had come here to complete his check-in progress task.
Clearly, the Baratie was a restaurant ship for diners, not a place that offered guest rooms.
Unless he stayed and worked here...
After a moment's thought, Lin Mo dismissed the idea.
Working for someone else was out of the question. He would never do it in this lifetime.
There was another option: talk to Zeff, the Baratie's captain and head chef.
Based on his experience in Shimotsuki Village,
talking to Zeff might even trigger a check-in progress task.
With that thought, Lin Mo finished the last bite on his plate and drained the last sip from his Wine Gourd.
He was about to get up and head upstairs to find Zeff.
Just then,
Garp, seated nearby, tossed a donut at him.
Lin Mo leaned aside, caught it easily, and gave Garp a speechless look.
"Hahaha!" Garp laughed. "Nice moves, Lin Mo, kid. How about joining the Marines?"
Huh?
He was inviting me to join the Marines out of nowhere?
Just like that?
"No!" Lin Mo refused outright and tossed the donut back.
Laughing, Garp caught it and took a bite. "Wasting food is against the rules at the Baratie, you know."
Lin Mo had no words.
You're the one who threw the donut first!
Garp kept laughing. "Hahaha! Don't decide so quickly, kid. Give it some thought."
Garp was a Vice Admiral whose strength surpassed that of an Admiral. He might usually act like a clown, but he had a keen eye for people.
The moment he saw Lin Mo, he had noticed there was something unusual about the quiet boy.
One thing that truly made Garp see Lin Mo in a new light was the wine he was drinking.
It didn't smell particularly strong, but its faint cherry-blossom fragrance and the distinctive scent of its specially blended grains told Garp that the boy had definitely visited the Isshin Dojo in Shimotsuki Village.
Garp had once traveled to Shimotsuki Village on official business and stayed at the Isshin Dojo for two days. Koshiro had treated him to wine brewed with those special methods and ingredients.
When Garp left, he had asked Koshiro for more, but Koshiro had refused to give him even one extra small flask.
Yet this boy had an entire gourd full of it.
Clearly, Koshiro thought highly of him.
The other thing that impressed Garp was the small sailboat moored outside, barely large enough for one or two people.
Its design was unique to Foosha Village. Garp had recognized it at a glance.
Before you continue