Chương 113: Part 11 - Sanji 8/21
Luffy's response was proportional to the insult he received:
"You see, girls, he's not part of our family; he's so pathetic, isn't he? Luffy smiled as he looked at the girls surrounding him and Condoriano.
"Indeed, pathetic. If he were part of your family, I'd be happy to talk to him one of them declared.
"And I even started to like him a bit, but since things are like this, there's nothing to be done, we'll have to forget about him another added fuel to the fire.
"If he doesn't want to join your family, it seems we'll all have to continue avoiding him" sighed a third sadly.
The charm of talented and experienced actresses is that they can convincingly portray any emotion. And right now, all the girls vividly expressed regret. It seemed they had always wanted, really wanted, to meet Sanji, but since he was not part of the family, there was nothing to be done. A few more phrases in the same vein and Sanji returned to his kneeling position, with tears soon following. The great woman-lover was completely defenseless against these very women. Otherwise, why would Luffy go to such lengths? Hiring such a large number of popular people costs a fortune!
And so, the rest of the day went on in a similar vein. By evening, each girl had expressed her opinion that Sanji was great, but until he joined Luffy's family, he would never be good enough for them. However, if he changed his mind, he would immediately become the best of all! A couple of times, the blonde couldn't withstand such pressure and would momentarily forget himself. However, before he could sign in blood on the contract Luffy had kindly presented — something about soul, body, and so on — Sanji managed to pull himself together. Legally, the contract meant nothing, but from the perspective of someone raised by a former pirate captain, it meant everything. A man's word was a man's bond! That's how old man Zeff raised Sanji. It was all quite foolish. Not the foolishness of keeping one's word, but the whole dramatic standoff between Sanji and Luffy. It was complete nonsense. The "confrontation" between Sanji and Luffy was nothing more than a regular game… or even less than a game, a result of their peculiar relationship. After all, Zoro also constantly tried to kill Luffy, and nothing came of it. And the point was that, like everything related to Luffy, nothing could be simple and straightforward.
Sanji loudly denied his affiliation with Luffy's family, mentally and aloud cursing the damned Monster, and vowed to kill him or at least take incredibly spiteful revenge. Luffy, in turn, loudly declared Sanji's belonging to his family, diligently playing the role of that very Monster who shamelessly mocked the unfortunate cook, and conspicuously tried to bind Sanji to his family in one way or another. This, in turn, did not prevent Sanji from occasionally letting slip, as in his conversation with Condoriano, and Luffy from training his cook. And no, it was not about physical training — useful as that might be, Sanji, by East Blue standards, was already quite strong without any additional training at the time of their first meeting. What interested Luffy much more was Sanji's strength as a cook, that is, his ability to cook delicious food. Luffy loved good food almost as much as adventures and visually pleasing chaos. Otherwise, why would he spend such a large amount of money on Zeff? Luffy was, of course, a spendthrift, loving to waste money almost as much as he loved earning it — and he earned it even more recklessly than he spent it — but simply throwing money away would be excessive even for him... unless it was to cause a riot because he was bored and bought himself popcorn. Nami's anger that day didn't save him from this excuse.
There were eighty thousand of them late in the evening, when the sun was about to set below the horizon, Usopp, still in character as Condoriano, was telling his 'story.' "Naturally, I wasn't scared at all. Why should I be afraid of them? I've been in worse situations in my life."
The event was happening at the "Fin." After all the girls and other visitors had departed, all extra tables, except for one, were put back into storage. It was at the remaining table that Sanji, Usopp, and Luffy were now seated. Sanji, understandably, was interested in how "Condoriano" managed to get into their family, so he was honored to hear "the whole truth" about the Brave Warrior of the Sea, known as Captain Condoriano.
"It was at that moment that I discovered Kuro's true plan" Usopp continued to build suspense. "Having eaten a fruit that allowed him to revive dead flesh, he, disguised as an ordinary butler, created an army of zombies all these years."
Like all his stories, Usopp invented everything on the fly. Given the impression Luffy had made on him, the guy didn't miss the chance to include the zombies that his captain so adored.
"And where did he hide such an army, where did he get the bodies, and why did most of them not rot?" Sanji skeptically raised an eyebrow.
Despite Usopp's confident tone, the blonde didn't really believe the story he was being told. The storyteller seemed like a blatant liar!
"You're forgetting that it's an army of the undead," Usopp said patronizingly. "He found a large enough cave where they all were hiding. Zombies don't need to eat, sleep, and since they're already dead, they can't die again, no matter how badly they're treated. Kuro stored them in that cave almost in stacks. And all the unfortunate souls who, for some reason, found themselves near the cave, were killed by zombies, after which Kuro added them to his army. Eventually, the cave was dubbed the 'Cave of Death.' Naturally, many initially thought the stories about the 'Cave of Death' were just nonsense, but when an entire platoon of the Marines disappeared while sent to investigate these rumors, no one dared to go near it again."
"So where did he get the bodies, and why didn't they rot?" Sanji persisted. "I seriously doubt that you could gather an eighty-thousand-strong army just from curious people who went to that cave."
"How impatient you are, I'll explain everything now" Condoriano shook his head disapprovingly after sipping from his mug. "The zombies didn't rot because of the fruit Kuro ate. If you thought about it even a little, it would be obvious. And he obtained the bodies through attacks on ships. Zombies being already dead, they could walk on the seafloor, which Kuro used during his ship raids.
"The sea floor?" Sanji immediately seized on the inconsistency. "The fruit's power doesn't work in water!"
Usopp's gaze wavered slightly.
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