Chapter 304: Meeting Kuina

Upon hearing this, Kuina was taken aback, he was kidnapped!? How can this be? When hunting down the Metal Pirates, the Marines had already confirmed that their captain was on the boat.
After chasing them all this way, the marine battleship fell behind a bit, and it is almost possible to see their situation from a long-distance…

“I swear… I’m saying the truth!” Looking at the disbelief in Kuina’s eyes, the pirate got worried and swore: “Just when the mast of our ship was broken, a young man appeared on board.
After slashing the captain, he carried him away… it only took him five or six seconds to do all of this… We didn’t even have time to react!”

Just now Kuina remembered that she saw the sudden collapse of their mast.
She first thought that a shell hit the mast, but now, it sounds like it is not the case!

So Kuina went over and checked the fallen mast.

Kuina looked at the fracture of the mast, her eyes instantly condensed… She could tell at a glance that it was chopped by a flying Slash.
It seems that this pirate is telling the truth.

She walked back immediately and asked again: “The person who took your captain, in which direction did he go?”

“Uh… over there!” The pirate pointed to the front.

Kuina followed his lead and looked ahead, only to see a strange big ship moored far ahead, which was the Baratie restaurant.

“Take them back to the warship and put them in custody!” Kuina immediately gave the order: “Let’s get back to our battleship, move toward that ship, we need to see what’s going on here!”

“Yes! Commander!” The soldiers on board suddenly stood upright and shouted.

’

Soon, the warship put up the anchor and started sailing.
Kuina stood on the deck and looked at Baratie in front.
She had already heard about a Sea Restaurant from some marine soldiers.

“Who is it, who dares to grab a Pirate under the nose of the marines!? Maybe when we get to the restaurant, we will know…” Kuina thought to herself.

……………………

By this time, Ian had already rowed his boat and returned to Baratie.

Dragging the poor captain, Ian walked into the restaurant.
After entering, Ian found that Zeff had already gathered around Sanji, Patty, and a bunch of chefs to wait for his arrival… then Ian threw the captain in front of Zeff and said: “Here… this will pay for my meal!”

Zeff was speechless, his restaurant was stained with a line of blood, but he couldn’t say anything.
With his peg leg, he kicked the captain, turned him over, and looked at him.

Patty was holding a pile of wanted posters in his hand.
He searched for this guy’s picture, then he opened his mouth and said to Zeff: “Boss, this guy is the captain of the Metal pirates, Rumsey, his bounty is 1.4 million Berries.
He’s a small pirate!”

Zeff nodded, raised his head to Ian, and said: “His bounty is a lot more than your bill!”

“Then remember…!” Ian didn’t feel generous enough to say that he didn’t need the change, more than one million Berries should be nothing to him, but he didn’t have any money with him, so how could he give up the change? After a moment, he said: “Convert the rest into delicious food, I will come after a while and get it!”

Then Ian smiled and said to Sanji: “You must be the one who cooks it… did you hear me!”

After returning to Master Koshiro in Frost Moon Village, Ian still needs to depart for Grand Line and go to Alabasta.
Then he can come back to Baratie on his way, let them prepare some food for him to eat on his road.
Sanji’s food was tasty, so he asked him to cook for him again.

’

Upon hearing this, Sanji got mad! So he yelled: “Hey you bastard, why do you always ask me to prepare your meal!?”

For Sanji, he only likes cooking for gorgeous ladies, then followed by hungry poor people, he gets happy by feeding them.
As for the rest, he only does it because it’s his job, however, this mysterious guy kept insisting and asked him personally to be his cook, which annoyed him.

The Metal captain’s bounty is 1.4 million Berries, and by deducting Ian’s previous bill, they will be left with 1.3 million, which is worth a lot of food… it is really troublesome!

Ian raised an eyebrow and didn’t talk… ‘You f*cker just blocked me at the entrance, belittled me many times, ran away in the middle of my order to greet a lady, then you ask why I only pick you!? Ian was very upset by his treatment, so he deliberately gave Sanji some trouble, even if it was just cooking!

Now seeing Sanji’s depressed face, Ian felt satisfied…

Noticing the smile on Ian’s face, he became more annoyed.
He was about to say something, but Zeff held his arm tight, and said: “Well, we’ll prepare you food worth 1.3 million at that time.
But let me tell you first, this guy named Rumsey, I won’t hand him over to the marines for his bounty!”

“Huh!?” Ian was a little surprised: “Do you want to let him go? Let him continue being a pirate?”

“No!” Zeff shook his head: “I will take him in, let him work here as a waiter or a chef.
After all, we used to be pirates, too, although we stopped chasing that path, It doesn’t make sense to hand over our comrades to the marines.”

“Okay, whatever you want!” Ian nodded.
“It’s up to you anyway.
He’s all yours.
I don’t mind what you do with him.
As long as it can cover my bill! However, I think they will be here in a minute, you can find a way to deal with them yourself!”

Zeff turned around, and said to Paddy: “Take him down, and treat him, Carne, clean up the blood!”

With that said, Zeff left, Patty picked up the fainted captain and went down, while Carne, wearing round sunglasses, asked the other chefs to bring in cleaning tools and started cleaning up the bloodstains.

’

Seeing that his affair was done here, Ian shrugged and planned to leave.
The warship that hunted the metal Pirates might be coming soon, and it sounds like they are from Loguetown Marine Base, so it’s very likely that someone would recognize him.
Ian doesn’t want to attract the attention of the world government intelligence agencies right now.

If they identity him, then going back to Frost Moon Village by himself will reveal the location of his hometown, and going to Alabasta looking for Nico Robin will make World Government aware of his occupation of a Poneglyph… No matter what, it’s a bad thing to be recognized now.

As for Hawkins or Zeff, it doesn’t matter if they knew who he was, they won’t tell.
As long as he hid from the world government or the Marines’ gazes, he will be fine.
But after finishing what he came for, it won’t matter then.

However, just as Ian was about to leave, Sanji appeared in front of him again, but this time, he just put his hands in his pants pocket, and he didn’t make any blocking movements.

“Now what?” Ian said in a funny tone: “Do you want to be a pirate, and leave with me?”

Despite this, Ian knew that Sanji won’t follow him.

Sure enough, Sanji shook his head, saying: “No, I am a chef of the Baratie restaurant, and I won’t leave this place!”

In order to repay Zeff’s kindness for saving him a long time ago.
Sanji stayed with him, and worked as one of his chefs, so he wouldn’t just leave as a pirate due to a word of a stranger.

However, Zeff didn’t want Sanji to spend his youth with such an old Man, he intended to let him free to chase his dream.
Logically speaking, Ian, the new Shichibukai, is a good opportunity, but the problem is that Zeff does not know Ian too well, so it is impossible to entrust Sanji to him.
Ian knows this well, so he just said it casually.

The reason Sanji stood in front of Ian was just to ask a question.

’

“You seems to be very powerful, and the Old Man didn’t allow me to fight you, he said that I can’t beat you…” He stared at Ian.
“But… why do you only name me to prepare your meals? Do you like my cooking this much?”

Ian didn’t lie to him, saying: “Hmm… Yeah, among my crew, there is also a great chef, his food is so delicious, just like yours!”

As a chef, there’s nothing that makes him happier than praising his craftsmanship, so Sanji’s feelings towards Ian got a little better.
After listening to his words, he became a little curious about Ian’s chef: “Really… I don’t know if we will meet again in the future, maybe then I can exchange recipes with him.”

“Maybe!” Ian laughed and waved his hand: “I’m leaving now.
I’ll come back soon to get my food.”

However, before Ian lifted his foot to leave, a bunch of marine soldiers rushed into the restaurant.

These marine soldiers were all carrying guns, which means that they couldn’t have come to eat in the restaurant.
Seeing this, Sanji couldn’t help shouting: “Hey, what are you doing here? Don’t disturb the guests of our restaurant!”

Of course, he was just pretending to be a fool.
Everyone knows that the marines are here for Rumsey, but since Zeff has agreed to take in that guy, Sanji had to help dealing with these marine soldiers.

Facing Sanji, the marine soldiers didn’t answer.
Just when Sanji started getting a little annoyed, a voice came and said, “Guests!? Do you treat injured pirates as guests in your restaurant?”

Following the voice, Kuina walked into the restaurant, holding the hilt of her sword.
As soon as she came in, her fierce eyes were locked at Sanji.

Hearing the arrival of the Marine soldiers, Ian wanted to sneak out from the back door, but just when he was about to open the door, he heard a familiar voice and couldn’t help but look back.

As a result, he was stunned.

“Tashigi?” Ian looked at the female lieutenant in amazement, mistakenly thinking it was Tashigi, but then he noticed that something is wrong: “No… it’s not Tashigi, where are her glasses!?”