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I was born in North Blue, I grew up there too. But my childhood really isn't all that important, just boring details really. The story that changed my life starts on Orbit, a pretty classy passenger ship. I was there as an apprentice chef to some older men who worked on board. I think I was about ten at the time, a pretty impressionable kid too. It was there that I learned about All Blue, a legendary sea where fish from all four oceans (North, South, East and West Blue) lived together! Obviously, this is a chef's dream! Can you imagine? I still get excited just thinking about it... being able to cook at a place that has any ingredient you could ever want. It's a real paradise! Of course, back then, I just got ridiculed by the other cooks on board... "How could such a place exist!" they'd say... I don't care what those shitty cooks thought, All Blue exists and I'm going to find it. I made that promise to myself and I refuse to break it.
Anyway, back on topic here... My last day on Orbit. I'll never forget it. The last thing I remember doing on that ship before the pirates attacked was scoffing at the other chefs for eating the leftover food from the passengers. I didn't realise at the time that any food is good food, even if it's "second-hand." The last thing I remember those guys telling me was that you never knew what the sea would bring you... it was a dangerous place. You could be without food any time. I'd soon find out how true those words were. Later on, Red Leg Zeff and his Cook Pirates boarded the Orbit and stole the money and other valubles from the passengers. I can tell you right now that I wasn't going to let myself be killed by a bunch of shitty pirates. I had a dream to live out, damnit! With two knives, I tried to attack some of the pirates and that old fart came along and kicked me pretty hard. No shitty kick was going to keep me down though... I crawled over to Zeff and bit his ankle, and I told him I wasn't going to die. Not when All Blue was waiting. The old fart kicked me off to the side again and that's when the tidal wave hit... washed me right off the boat. The most surprising thing was that he jumped in after me.
The details are pretty fuzzy after that... I was out cold for two days straight. The old man can kick pretty hard. When he saw that I was awake, he got straight to the point -- we were stranded on a rock in the middle of the ocean. No plants grew there and no animals lived there... I thought we could just fish but turns out that while going down the rock was alright, going back up was impossible, from how the rock was eroded. Sure picked one hell of a place to get stranded on. It happened almost ten years ago but every single day is so clear. It's burned into my mind. That day, that b*****d gave me the smaller of two bags. I was pissed... if he hadn't attacked us, we wouldn't have ended up in that situation. I was also pissed that he wanted to keep more food than me. He claimed he got more because he was an adult and had a larger stomach. Heh, right.
I may have been a novice at being a chef at the time, but I still had a pretty good knowledge of nutrition. I had five days worth of food... which I thought was enough. A boat would come sometime within five days. Just in case, however, I divided it all up into twenty days worth of portions. As if that'd damn well help. Five days later, during a raging storm, a ship did come but they couldn't hear me and I couldn't build a fire what with all the rain. Twenty-five days later, I ran out of food. The memory of those cooks back on Orbit, claiming that you couldn't waste any food at all on the cruel ocean came back to haunt me then. It was a real kick in the face, having that shitty memory... the last thing I ever did before those damn shitty pirates came was throwing out food. I was on that rock for eight-five shitty days! By the seventieth day, I was... well, a little worse for ware.
Out of that whole ordeal, the seventieth day sticks out in my mind the most. That was the day that I finally cracked. I remember thinking to myself that I'd kill that old fart and steal his food... I went over to him but he heard me and scolded me for leaving without seeing a ship. He still had that huge bag next to him too. When I cut into it though... all that came out was treasure. That's it. Gold, jewelry. He told me that he gave me all of the food.... and that's when I found out that he ate his own damn leg to stay alive. His leg! That which meant so much to him. It's his legs that gave him his name for cripe sake. He told me that he saved me because he had the same dream to find All Blue.... but he couldn't find it. He told me of a new dream he had too... one where, if he got off that god forsaken rock, he'd found a floating restaurant on the sea so that no one would ever get into a situation where they couldn't eat. He sounded like he was on his deathbed so I told him that I'd help him, if he didn't die.
Fortunately, we got off that rock. If I ever see that shitty thing again... I'll go @#)*ing nuts. Either way, we recovered, the old fart and I, and with all the money he had left over, he created Baratie. I became Assistant Head Chef... I remember when the other cooks started arriving. Patty and Carne were the first two. That pair was always fighting from the beginning to the end. Most days were spent learning how to become a better chef, learning more about... well, just about everything. Including the old man's fighting technique. I learned how to be the man with the strongest kick in East Blue. Life there was pretty good.
Something else happened, an event that'd change my life again. I would have never thought something like that would happen again but it did... and it all started when that Marine lieutenant came into Baratie with that gorgeous woman... Ah, what a prize, she deserved better than that pink haired a*****e. Especially when he tried to taint our soup... wasting food is unforgivable! Then Luffy showed up... The old man wanted to make him a waiter to repay his debt for the repairs that had to be done to the ship, thanks to him. He really sucked! Ha ha! Still, I'm glad he did come to Baratie that day... It was the first time I laid my eyes on the beautiful and precious Nami-san... Ahh... fond memories. Those other jerks were annoying but she... she's a rose amongst weeds.
I don't think it's possible for Luffy to go anywhere without trouble following... turns out that Marine had captured Don Kreig's first mate, Gin, who had escaped. He came onto Baratie and begged for food... I felt his pain even though the other cooks didn't, save for the old fart. I remember going out back and slipping the guy a dish. Hell if I'm going to let anyone walk away from that restaurant starving. What the hell would be the purpose of having a restaurant in the first place? Money, reputation... I don't give a s**t as long as no one walked away from that place hungry. I guess my good nature ended up getting us into some trouble, since Gin came back shortly with Don Kreig himself... only Zeff understood why I gave that crook something to eat. They were all surprised when he handed over food for a hundred men. It meant trouble for later but like me, he wasn't going to let anyone walk away starving.
Sure enough, s**t hit the fan once Kreig got his men the food. They came back to take over Baratie since their ship got trashed on their voyage through Grandline. Fortunately, Luffy was there... I couldn't take them all on and win by myself. I took a beating from that shitty Iron Wall guy, Pearl, who was pretty freaked out that I could stand the heat. What the hell he was thinking I don't know -- how could a cook call himself a cook if he couldn't stand a bit of heat? Then Gin stepped in, taking out Pearl and telling me that he'd be my opponent... turns out the b*****d couldn't kill me. I could have taken him no problem if it wasn't for the beating that Pearl gave me. I still can't believe that Luffy took on Kreig himself and won. It was surprising to find out that waiter boy wasn't the clumsy idiot I thought he was. After that ordeal was over, I shared my dream of finding All Blue with Luffy. I didn't plan on going with him to Grandline but I overheard that's what the old fart wanted me to do. Those bastards... trying to trick me by telling me my cooking sucked. It brings back fond memories... they just wanted to piss me off so I'd leave and fulfill my dream. That goodbye... it was hard. Really hard. I spent half my life with those guys and I couldn't even repay my debt to the old man... but he wanted me to go, he wanted me to do something that he couldn't do with a year's worth of searching Grandline -- he wanted me to find All Blue. So I said I'd go. And I did.
 DauntlessDot · Mon Feb 15, 2010 @ 08:58pm · 0 Comments |
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