The seafaring restaurant Baratie

In the little village of Foosha, seven years from now, three people would change the course of history.

Ace, whose capture would trigger the Paramount War, would become a turning point in the era.

Luffy, known as the Fifth Emperor of the Sea, was the chosen one destined to save history.

Sabo was the Revolutionary Army's second-in-command.

But for now, their legends had yet to begin.

Three years ago, Sabo had been shot by the Celestial Dragons and sent sinking into the sea. He had since been rescued by Luffy's father, Dragon.

The other two brothers, however, thought he was dead.

Luffy and Ace had yet to set sail, but they occasionally saw the news at the mountain bandits' home.

They naturally recognized Lofan's face, but they had never expected him to come in person to a backwater like the East Blue.

"Ain, are you leaving?"

Luffy held his straw hat, his brow furrowed with the sadness of parting as he clung reluctantly to Ain's hand.

Ace kept looking at Lofan. So this was a Marine Admiral?

Once he set sail, the Marines would inevitably pursue and surround him. Would he encounter this new legendary Admiral then?

Garp walked up behind the two children and patted their heads.

"This is the symbol of the Marines' justice today. You two should become Marine soldiers as strong as him."

Before Ace did anything, Luffy pried Garp's broad, thick hand away with his two little hands.

"I'm the man who's going to become the Pirate King!"

Then, with a thud, Luffy was embedded in the dirt beneath his feet, stars swimming before his eyes.

It really was the Fist of Love.

Lofan genuinely hadn't noticed Garp using Haki.

Yet Luffy, a rubber man, had indeed suffered a physical blow.

Ace said nothing. He wasn't about to argue with the old man and take a beating for nothing.

"Admiral Lofan, Ain reporting back for duty."

Lofan draped the Justice Coat he had prepared in advance over her slender shoulders.

"Welcome back, Ain."

The two smiled at each other. After more than a month apart, Ain seemed to have grown a little taller and developed quite a bit.

Ain, who should have become a great swordswoman, had instead received Garp's true teachings in hand-to-hand combat.

"I wonder if the name Iron Fist Ain will strike fear into pirates someday. I'm really looking forward to it."

At Lofan's teasing, Ain instinctively punched toward his chest.

But when she saw the bandages wrapped around him, she immediately reined in her strength, touching him as though playfully seeking affection.

"Vice Admiral Garp, my once gentle, lovely adjutant has now become a heroine who throws punches at an Admiral.

"She certainly lives up to being the Marine Hero's disciple."

Ain's face flushed red, but she had no idea how to vent her frustration. She could only listen to Admiral Garp roar with laughter and quietly fume.

After saying goodbye to Garp and the others, Lofan was in no hurry to leave the East Blue.

In the Sambas Sea, there was another place Lofan wanted to visit: the seafaring restaurant Baratie.

Its owner, Zeff, had once been a pirate. After a shipwreck, he had spent eighty-five days starving on a deserted island with a child who had also been stranded.

Tormented by hunger, Zeff had decided afterward to sell all his treasure and open a seafaring restaurant with that child.

It was for the dream of giving anyone who might be shipwrecked a chance to fill their stomach.

Baratie had become the most famous restaurant in the East Blue.

And that child was Sanji, one of Luffy's future companions.

Many people in the East Blue traveled vast distances specifically to taste Zeff's delicious cooking. Even plenty of Marines came because of its reputation.

Baratie was an enormous ship.

It had figureheads shaped like large white fish at both ends, and the entire ship could switch into battle mode at any time.

As a former pirate, Zeff knew the dangers of the sea all too well.

"Have you heard of Baratie too, Cloud Gull Grand Prize? Head chef Zeff's dishes really are superb."

Smoker pointed the way, surprised that this young Admiral had a fondness for fine food.

After all, during their days together, Lofan had always felt somewhat unreal to him.

He truly was as elusive as a cloud.

"Yes, I've heard of it. It's a unique place where food mustn't be wasted.

"They also provide free food to people at sea who have nothing to eat. I really wanted to meet someone with that kind of outlook."

The customers in the restaurant had spotted the colossal warship long before it arrived.

Some customers were already hurrying away as unobtrusively as possible.

They had never seen such a monstrous ship in the East Blue, but the seagull emblem on its sails marked their natural enemy.

Lofan treated all the soldiers to a meal, but the restaurant didn't have enough seats.

To avoid disturbing the other diners, he had Baratie's servers bring the prepared meals to a designated spot.

The soldiers then carried them back to the dining area aboard the ship.

After all, the warship's interior was classified, and civilians were not allowed inside to look around.

Little Sanji gazed at the warship, whose far end lay beyond his sight, awed by the Marines' immense power.

Zeff recognized Lofan, but he wasn't intimidated and displayed his exquisite skills as always.

To him, anyone who entered this restaurant was simply a customer who needed delicious food.

Patty, however, was a little distracted, instinctively watching what was happening for fear that his past as a pirate would be exposed.

"Patty, you bastard! Stop daydreaming and get cooking!"

A spatula flew straight at Patty's head, but he didn't dare rub the swelling on the back of his head. Instead, he desperately focused on his work.

They worked from morning until noon before barely managing to satisfy an entire ship's needs.

"We're rich! We're rich! Boss, this one order today is worth half a year's business!"

Lofan's ship was filled with elite Marine soldiers. After all, an Admiral's voyage required the proper entourage.

These men were not only powerful but also big eaters, especially when faced with delicious food.

Ain rested her arms on the railing outside the restaurant, chatting and laughing with Tashigi.

Having finally found a fellow woman close to her own age among her colleagues, she was naturally delighted, and they had endless shared feelings to discuss.

Smoker smoked a cigar as he digested his meal. Days when he could slack off like this were rare.

"Boss, your cooking would be good enough to make a name for yourself even on the Grand Line."

As he paid the bill, Lofan looked at the middle-aged man, whose chef's hat reached as high as Lofan himself stood, and felt quite moved.

He, too, had gone hungry. He had experienced times when he wanted to strip every scrap of bark from the trees and eat it all.

He remembered someone saying in a television drama in his previous life that disaster victims weren't human. Back then, he had understood that deeply.

For a single mouthful of food, he himself would become a beast.

Coming here to see this man, who had learned gentleness through suffering, was his way of showing respect.

"Just handling customers from the East Blue leaves me exhausted. I have no further ambitions."

Stroking his yellow braided mustache, he remembered the year he had once spent on the Grand Line.

But that place was a narrow bridge where only true monsters could realize their ambitions.

Lofan nodded and turned to leave, only for little Sanji to stop him, his eyes shining and his face full of anticipation.

He knew this was an Admiral from the Grand Line! Someone like him had to know about ALL BLUE!

"Admiral! Does ALL BLUE really exist?"

Though it was clearly a question, he spoke it as a statement.

Little Sanji believed that the place known as a chef's paradise had to be somewhere on the Grand Line.

This sacred place, hailed by chefs as paradise, was said to contain every ingredient from all four seas!

The other Baratie employees immediately grew extremely nervous, afraid he would anger this prominent figure.

Zeff, however, curled his lips into a smile. The existence of a dream could make a man throw all caution aside like this.