As he watched a superior officer sail head-first into the wall of the kitchen, Fullbody reacted with the professionalism of a veteran marine, putting up his fists and squaring up against the old chef. "I'm putting you under arrest!"

"FULLBODY," Luffy shouted as he peeled his face off of the wall. "The day I need you to defend my honour it will be a cold day in hell. Stand down."

"But sir!"

"We need him," was all the further explanation Luffy gave as he rolled his shoulders. "Even so though! Rude!" he complained at the old man. "I had other options, you know!"

"Well maybe you should've started with those instead of telling me to stop feeding people after I just told you not to do that. Marines these days sure are slow."

"Fullbody, spread the word to the others, quietly, we're staging Gin's getaway. My ship, yours, everyone needs to be on the same page we're letting him run. And we need to make it look good."

"Sir–"

"We have until Gin stops eating, Lieutenant, move!"

The pink-haired marine grudgingly left to carry out his orders, leaving Luffy alone with the head-chef and sous-chef.

"And these 'other options'?" Zeff prompted.

"You have no wait staff, right?" Luffy asked. "I mean if your sous-chef is waiting tables..."

"Yeah. Up and quit one day. Shitty crybabies," Sanji scoffed, lighting a cigarette.

"You're better off out there than in here, little Eggplant."

"Wouldn't know good food if you cooked it yourself, shitty geezer."

"Anyway," Luffy interrupted the argument as it flared up, "I could loan you some of my men to wait tables. That way they can step in if regular people end up in the line of fire."

Zeff shrugged. "Sure. Don't expect me to pay 'em though."

-(-)-

Gin couldn't believe it. How good food tasted! After so long with his guts tearing themselves to pieces, of his body devouring itself just to keep functioning, the simple sustenance of fried rice might as well have been fillet mignon with all the trimmings. Hell, even that might be doing it a disservice.

But...

As his hunger was finally, finally being satiated, as the torturous unfulfilled need finally abated, he took stock of his situation. It wasn't good.

Two marines were in the restaurant. Two ships were moored outside with many more marines crewing them. He wouldn't be imprisoned again. Not if he could help it. But he wasn't sure he could. He needed a way out.

His plate was nearly clear. One of the marines approached him. The woman. "Y'all ready tah come quietly now, Gin?" she asked impatiently as she pulled a pistol and levelled it at his head.

Amateur, he sneered in his own mind as he spun out of his chair and grabbed the gun, pointing it away from himself as she pulled the trigger, his plate shattering on the table. He tried to wrench the gun out of her hand but she held fast to it. Instead, he slammed a fist into her head, knocking her silly-looking ten gallon hat from her head and knocking her for six and crashing through another table.

The other marine tried to apprehend him but Gin could tell he was the faster fighter from the first exchange. Once again he demolished a marine and knocked him out. It felt so good to feel strong again!

"Give me a way off this boat!" Gin demanded of one of the chefs, a burly man of prominent facial and arm hair.

The chef squealed in fear. Yes! This was the proper reaction to the Krieg Pirates! "We have a paddle-boat below deck! We use it to get supplies and make deliveries! Please don't hurt me!" he begged, shielding his face.

Gin ignored the mewling creature as he ran through a side exit and into a stairwell leading below deck.

Soon after, Gin was paddling for his life. He felt a little stupid trying to make his getaway in a little paddleboat. But he had no choice and it was better than trying to steal a marine rowboat from right beneath their eyes. He could see one of the marine ships just around the side of the Baratie.

Muffled voices seemed to be floating on the air. Shouts, but the words escaped him from this distance.

They had spotted him.

But then, as if it was divine providence, he saw the flash of an explosion from one of the gun decks. They weren't firing on him. It was pointed entirely the wrong way. It didn't fire at all.

Could he really be that lucky? That their powder magazine might go up while he was making his getaway?

-(-)-

There was stunned silence in the restaurant.

"Ugh," Cassidy groaned. "Commander, next time the Cap orders we take a punch, can we punch him first?"

"If only, Warrant Officer," Bruno grumbled as he got to his feet.

"What the hell is going on!" Nami screamed at them.

Bruno blinked. He had forgotten the redhead was in the restaurant. "Oh. Sorry about that, Miss Nami. We're putting on a show for the pirate so he thinks he's gotten away."

"WHY?!"

"The Captain's plan seems to be, 'when an ant finds food, the colony will soon follow'."

Astonished at the non-answer, she stormed towards the kitchen. "If you're just gonna talk in proverbs I'll ask the dumbass myself!"

Slamming open the kitchen doors she entered the chefs' sanctuary to find the Captain cheerfully discussing food with them. Well... Rather, he the two chefs were discussing cooking techniques and ingredients and Luffy would interject with 'that sounds delicious'. Over and over again.

For anything.

Once, when they were discussing the merits of cake knives.

The sous-chef was the first to notice the visitor. "Oh, my eyes are cruel to bestow upon me such a vision of beauty that I hardly dare look upon it!" He twirled towards her, spinning as steam shot from his nostrils. "Dearest beautiful lady! Please tell me of your desire so that I, Sanji, may fulfil it! For such a beacon of loveliness I would cater to your every whim–!" The twirling was put to an abrupt end as she tripped him as she walked past.

"What the hell, Luffy!"

"Ah, hey Nami!" Luffy cheered. "Did you know there are knives made out of cake? That's pretty awesome, right?"

"No, that's not–" Zeff began, "Well, actually there was that one guy who was really into knives celebrating his birthday. He actually did want a cake knife. Or a knife cake. I sculpted the edge out of sugar. Pretty fun project. Hard to do proper layers when the final product has to be so thin. You could argue it ended up more like a wafer but I think–"

"I DON'T CARE!" Nami shouted at him.

"But you let him talk for so long–"

"OKAY I CARE A LITTLE, it was actually pretty interesting, BUT I'M MAD AT YOU!"

Luffy asked pointing at himself, "Why are you made at me?"

"Your stupid plan!"

"It's not stupid!"

"Your plan to let a pirate go to maybe get him to bring his crew back here? That's stupid!"

"Bet you it works."

"Bet you it doesn't!"

"Bet you his location it does."

"Wh-what?!" Nami recoiled as if slapped.

"That's half the reason I'm doing this," Luffy explained with a shrug. "You want me to fight someone really strong? Krieg is the second biggest fish in this ocean. If taking him down doesn't prove it to you I really don't know what will."

"... Fine!" Nami whirled and stormed out of the kitchen.

"You got a lot going on, don't you kid?" Zeff asked.

"I guess."

-(-)-

The trap was set. The Saul and the Pizza, as the battleship Fullbody had commandeered was named, sailed out from the Baratie that same day. Fullbody was transferred to the Saul on a temporary basis. His lady friend Moodie had apparently had more than enough adventure for her lifetime and wanted out. The Pizza would take her back to the nearest island where she could book passage elsewhere on Fullbody's expense.

To her displeasure, the mook pirates the Saul was carrying were transferred to the departing ship, seeing as they would be seeing a marine base sooner.

A few of the crew were left on the Baratie, taking the positions of wait staff. However, they had to be among those Gin had not seen to avoid tipping him off. Zoro, Coby and Cress were chosen. Barker was needed on the ship as the Master Gunner. Coby would never be thought of as a marine, Cress was given the duty of staying out of the way and getting the message out. Zoro was chosen... Basically because he fit in well with the fighting chefs.

They had felt like sensible choices.

Naturally things didn't quite go to plan.

When the Saul received the call for reinforcements they raced back to the restaurant with all speed. The scene they returned to was quite a bit different to the one they had left. For one, there was a new ship, though it seemed to have been cut in two. The Baratie seemed to have raised a 'fin' of some sort. Additional flooring where Krieg pirates and fighting chefs eyed each other off. But even as they squared up and readied to battle, they were distracted by the other battle already taking place.

Roronoa Zoro, out of uniform, having a duel of swordsmanship with "Dracule 'Hawk-Eyes' Mihawk!" Barker bellowed. "What in the ever-flying fuck is a Warlord doing here?!"

"Having a duel, looks like," Luffy answered.

"Permission to engage, Sir!"

"Denied," Luffy answered, even if it annoyed him. "Zoro's getting exactly what he wanted. Hell, I bet he even asked for it."

The crew of marines, recognising the situation for what it was and how implausible it would be for the Krieg Pirates to get away, watched one of their own battle it out with the famed greatest swordsman in the world. They watched as the recruit used every technique he had to no avail. They watched as Mihawk traded out his dagger for the famed Black Blade. They watched as Zoro came at the master swordsman with everything he had and came out with broken blades and a wounded pride.

And then they watched him get back up and face his opponent, to take his defeat like a man.

Luffy waited only so long as the blood started spraying from Zoro's chest before launching himself at the wooden platform the swordsmen had been fighting on, checking over his recruit.

"He was one of yours?" Mihawk asked, surprised but not concerned. "My apologies. He did not declare himself such."

"It's fine," Luffy answered with restrained heat, "It was a duel. Even so... Leave."

"Hmph." The greatest swordsman in the world turned and returned to his little gothic dinghy. "His wound is shallow. He will survive. Do you hear me, Roronoa Zoro?!" he yelled, suddenly. "If your ambition is to ascend the world then let it be as steadfast as your honour! Grow strong and surpass me, Roronoa Zoro!"

"C–" Zoro began, only to cough up a gout of blood. "Count on it."

"Mihawk!" A purple-haired pirate bellowed at the little boat floating away from the scene. "Aren't you trying to take my head?!"

"No, not really. I was just killing time," the swordsman answered. "I've lost interest in you. Besides, haven't you noticed?"

While the two were yelling at each other, Luffy had already dropped Zoro's bleeding body back on the Saul for treatment. Then, immediately got to work.

Krieg's head whipped around to see what Mihawk could be talking about, but only saw a read blur bouncing around, a white Marine greatcoat left behind to flutter on the ocean breeze.

There seemed to be little rhyme or reason to the red blur's movements. But wherever it went, the men of the Krieg Armada dropped where they stood.

On the Saul, Bruno whistled as he watched the bouncing blur wreak havoc on Krieg's forces. "Looks like the Captain was pretty pent up. Last time he got into a real fight was when we took on that sea king before coming to the East Blue."

"This is him in a real fight?" Nami asked as she watched a hundred pirates fall without even knowing the cause.

Bruno snorted. "No. But it is quite close to what he'd be doing in a real fight. This is maybe more of a... demonstration." He gave Nami a significant look out of the corner of his eye, before shrugging. "Or, as I say, maybe he's pent up and needed to bleed off some stress. Could be either one. Or both."

"A demonstration?"

Bruno hummed. "See, if his goal is to prove he's strong, that's easy. Lift a house, move faster than the eye can see, sure. He wasn't kidding when he said the problem with lifting a house was just leverage." He leaned on the railing of the ship and watched his Captain work. "But that's not what you were asking for, was it? Not really." The girl didn't answer, merely glancing at him before returning to watching the fight. "What you wanted was for someone to inspire you. You wanted someone to make you believe that Arlong could be beaten. No, not that it could happen, but that he would make it happen."

The blur approached Krieg himself and the man who liked to call himself the strongest man in the world recoiled, only for the blur to blow past him. Turning, Krieg was greeted by the back of a skinny but muscled teenager in a red vest, shirts and a marine-issue cap. "Don Krieg?" the figure asked in a tone that didn't seek any kind of response. "My name is Captain Monkey D. Luffy and I'm arresting you on behalf of the World Government for murder, assault, robbery, extortion, arson and piracy. And also for generally being a piece of human trash."

In response, Krieg opened his armour to reveal the multitude of guns hidden within it that began raining bullets on the marine. Luffy became a blur once more, Krieg's bullets only serving do tear up the floor. Luffy appeared once again on top of the mast of his own ship, his glowing red arms seen to stretch out as the boy's body carried on into the distance. "Gomu Gomu no..." the words barely audible to anyone present, "Jet Rocket!"

"Jet STAMP!" There didn't seem to be an instant where Luffy could be seen in motion. One second he was still on the mast, the next his foot had plowed so deeply and so hard into the supposed pirate admiral that not only did his armour break, the gun pods beneath it broke and tore off, the torso of the armour fractured, the man's torso seemed to collapse inwards and the force rocked his body so hard he bounced off of the deck, splintering it, and it sent the broken pirate skipping across the sea.

All was silent. Luffy's skin lost its red glow and he bellowed, "SOMEONE FIND HIS BODY." The boy launched himself back onto the deck of his ship and immediately approached the navigator staring at him with open astonishment and perhaps a healthy amount of fear. "So can we have that talk now?"

-(-)-

A/N: Short chapter. But let's be honest, it's Krieg. Nobody cares. The thing people cared about in that arc was certainly not the villain. I suppose even then I didn't exactly give Sanji much time to shine. Hm.

Yeah. There'll be more wrap up stuff next chapter and we'll set up the next arc.

Only 2500 words? Cut me some slack, I wrote 15000 this week. I just can't post most of it here because a small contingent of users on this site would send me death threats if I did. I don't need that hassle.

If you would like to support me directly, there is now a way you can do so through popular donation platform that I'm not allowed to say the name of on this site. You know the one. Please consider helping out. As long as I'm receiving even a single dollar from someone who thinks my writing is worthwhile, I guarantee at least a chapter of something a week.

Thanks for reading.