Chapter 12: Gin's Resolve

Wish me luck; Finals are coming! Also, I was wrong about Krieg's bounty. It's 17 mil, not 30. I've gone back and fixed that, but otherwise the chapter didn't change. It's also longer.

Chapter 12:

Gin's Resolve

Zoro raised his now-single sword. "Luffy," he wheezed for all to hear. "I'm sorry. I've failed you. From this moment on, I will never lose again. Not until I am the strongest. Is that alright, King of the Pirates?!"

After the declaration, Luffy ordered Usopp, Johnny, Yosaku, and the wounded Zoro to follow Nami and the Merry. Coby had insisted on staying, saying that if Zoro couldn't fight, he'd have to take his place. Mihawk had vanished in the chaos after his and Zoro's fight, much to the Krieg Pirates' relief.

"Take that ship!" Krieg yelled. "Kill the geezer and take his logbook!"

The man's crew, their spirits lifted with the disappearance of the Warlord, complied and attacked. The cooks didn't seem to be a match for the pirates, their tools shattering under the onslaught of the pirates' superior weapons. Sanji, on the other hand, was a beast on the battlefield. He fought with only his feet, taking the pirates by surprise.

"Krieg!" Luffy yelled, stretching his arm to grab one of the masts of the sinking ship. His move shocked everyone with the exception of Coby and Zeff. "I don't like you, so I'm gonna kick your ass!"

"What the Hell is he?" Sanji asked himself as he watched the one who wanted him (Sanji) to become a pirate perform the inhuman act.

Krieg got over his shock quickly. "You've eaten a Devil Fruit, haven't you?" he growled.

"Yup. I'm a rubber-man."

"Either way, I'll still kill you, brat." Luffy and Krieg started fighting on the wrecked ship, Luffy jumping around like a monkey and Krieg trying to hit him. "Stay still you damn monkey!"

"That is my family name!" Luffy taunted.

On the fins of the Baratié, many of Krieg's men were still confused at what had just happened. Coby, in a showing of just how much of Luffy's personality had rubbed off on him, was running around and knocking pirates unconscious with his bokken. He was at the edge of the platform when a pirate finally tried to fight back.

"You little brat. What do you think you can do with a couple of sticks against a real sword?" The pirate brought his weapon down on the pink-haired boy who blocked it with a cross block.

"You'd be surprised how durable wood can be." He pulled back, smacking the man in the arm for good measure.

"You little shit-"

Coby cut him off by spinning both his bokken into reverse grips and bringing them up next to his head. "Bull Needle!" Using one of the first moves he'd learned from Zoro, Coby ran forward and slammed his wooden swords into the man's chest, flinging him out into the ocean. Coby smirked at the shocked pirates; they were nothing compared to his teacher.

Meanwhile, a new pirate had found his way onto the Baratié's fins. This man, with droopy black hair and an 'I'm better than you' expression, was covered in pearl and steel armor (complete with a matching hat). This was Pearl, the Invincible Wall.

"Do you know who I am?" he asked as Sanji challenged him. "I am the Invincible Wall, Pearl of the Krieg Pirates! I have fought in 61 battles and never lost even an ounce of my blood! You can never beat me!" He was cut off when Luffy, who had been hit with Krieg's spiked ball, fell onto his head, causing a nosebleed. Of course, Luffy being rubber, the younger pirate wasn't affected.

"Ow," Luffy complained as he stood and wiped his hat off. "That actually kinda hurt, you bastard."

"M-my blood," Pearl whispered in horror, his crewmates trying to convince him that it wasn't a battle wound without success. "These people are nuts!" He started banging his two giant shields together. "Danger! Danger! DANGER! FIRE PEARL!" His armor started burning blue and small pearls, also on fire, shot out and ignited the surrounding deck, pirates, and cooks indiscriminately. He shot six more pearls at the restaurant, but Zeff put them out with a single kick. Pearl was even more surprised when Sanji's leg met his face.

"B-but," he stammered, more blood dripping from his nose. "My fire scares away everyone! Why aren't you scared?!"

"If I was afraid of fire, I wouldn't be a cook." Just to add insult to injury, Sanji lit a cigarette with the fire around them.

"Danger! DANGER!" Pearl panicked.

"Pearl, stop!" Krieg yelled. "You're going to burn down my new ship!" Krieg sighed when the man didn't listen. He threw his spiked ball hoping to kill Sanji and knock Pearl unconscious, but Luffy intervened.

"Gum-Gum Bazooka!" Luffy shouted, throwing the weapon back. It crashed into the base of one of the masts which fell like a cut tree. Coincidentally, it landed on Pearl, knocking him out. Small fires raged on.

"STOP WHERE YOU ARE OR I KILL ZEFF!" Gin yelled, grabbing everyone's attention. He had exited the restaurant, knocked Zeff to the ground, and now had his flintlock pressed to the old man's temple.

"Do it!" Krieg roared. "With Zeff dead, the cooks will give up!"

"But Don Krieg!" Gin tried to protest, his sense of honor telling him to spare Zeff like Sanji had him. "We owe Zeff and Sanji our lives!"

"When I give you an order, you do it without question! Kill him!"

"No," Sanji argued, pulling Gin's attention to himself. "Point that gun at me. Leave the geezer out of this." Gin wrestled with himself again, but in the end, his hesitation took the decision from him. A blob of white and pink in the corner of his vision was all the warning the Man-Demon had before one bokken slammed into his face and another knocked the gun out of his hand.

"Sanji! Behind you!" the little swordsmen shouted as Gin began to recover. Coby's warning came in time, allowing the chef to turn, see a now-awake Pearl try to attack, and counter by roundhouse kicking him in the face. Pearl flew toward Gin who pulled out his weighted tonfa and knocked him aside with an attack strong enough to shatter the man's armor, rendering Pearl out cold for the remainder of the fight.

"You were in my way, Pearl," Gin commented emotionlessly as he started to spin his tonfa. Killing a defenseless Zeff was different than fighting an awake Sanji and his duty to Krieg hardened. "Sanji, I'm sorry it has to be this way, but you will die by my hand. Now." He lunged, swinging at the chef who cartwheeled out of the way. While on his hands, Sanji twisted his body and kicked his foe in the head. Gin collapsed at the unexpected attack, but was able to lash out with his right-hand weapon. The iron weight hit Sanji in the ribs, cracking two of them. The two fighters stumbled away from each other, clutching at whatever part of their body was struck. Both had blood dribbling from their mouths, but it seemed obvious that Sanji was worse off.

"Please, Sanji," Gin begged, righting himself. "I don't want to hurt you. If you'd just leave-"

"I will not leave until my debt to the old man is repaid!" the chef growled. Gin swung his right tonfa again, but the Sanji was able to stop it with the sole of his left foot. "Is that all you've got?" he questioned, slamming the weight into the fin and standing on it. The blonde brought his other leg up and kicked Gin in the chest, causing him to lose his hold on the weapon stuck in the wood.

Gin stood from where he'd landed several feet away and shifted his only weapon from his left hand to his right. He charged and swung vertically, but overextended (whether on purpose or on accident was debatable). Sanji responded by jumping up and locking both feet on either side of his foe's torso before spinning him so that Gin's head crushed the wood beneath them. Gin tried to get up and shrug the blow off, but he was too disoriented to stand.

"I'ma sorry, Don Krieg," he slurred. "'e's too much fer me."

"Too much?!" Krieg roared. "Too much?! Krieg pirates never have a 'too much'. I have no need for a worthless pirate that faces 'too much'! You're fired, Gin!"

"Bu' Don Krieg-"

"You're fired! Kill yourself now!"

"I... yesser." Gin crawled over to where his flintlock had fallen and raised it to his head, ready to pull the trigger, but before he could do so, Luffy's fist met his face. Gin fell unconscious and the gun tumbled from his relaxed grip.

"Oh no you don't," Luffy chastised. "I like you, so you aren't gonna die on my watch."

"That bastard couldn't even follow my last order," Krieg sighed. "Well, it doesn't matter; he'll die anyway. Men! Get your masks!"

"No!" shouted a pirate. "Not the HM5!" Krieg didn't listen. He lifted up the shield from his left shoulder and pointed it at the Baratié as the plates separated to point the barrel of the firing mechanism. The pirates scrambled to get gas masks from within their clothes and cooks dove into the sea. Luffy, worried for his crewmates (though Sanji wouldn't admit he was one) stretched his arms to a couple of pirates and ripped their masks off before tossing them to Coby and Sanji. The chef hurried to Gin's side, shuffled though the unconscious man's jacket, and placed his mask on his face. Krieg fired the poison bomb.

Luffy was surprised when a gas mask was shoved onto his own face, but he was too concerned to question it at the moment. Krieg laughed had he watched the purple poison cloud cover the fish-shaped ship. He was certain that Gin, the cook, and Straw Hat were dying from the gas, but when the smoke cleared, he did not see their lifeless corpses.

"No!" Luffy wailed, dropping his mask. "Coby!" Indeed, the mask that had saved Luffy had not come from nowhere. Zoro's student had dropped his wooden swords to catch the mask and had prioritized his captain's life over his own. The boy was on the ground, deathly pale with a sickly blue tint. He'd held his breath as long as he could, but the cloud had lasted far longer.

"Come on, Coby!" Luffy pleaded as Patty, Carne, and Zeff came back out of the restaurant where they'd been hiding from the gas. "Speak to me!"

"C-Captain," Coby wheezed. "Tell Zoro-sensei, I-I'm sorry."

"Oh no. Oh no no no. You are not dying here!"

"Patty! Carne! Get the kit!" Sanji ordered.

"But Sanji," Patty argued. "The kit's for food poisoning."

"It's his best chance!" Sanji ran over to the poisoned Coby and carried him to the doors where the other two chefs took him into the building. Luffy's eyes were shaded by his hat, a sign to anyone that knew him that someone had just pissed him off and royally screwed themselves over.

"Krieg." Luffy's voice was low, danger-filled and murderous. "You have just signed your death warrant. No one harms my nakama in front of me and lives. Sanji, hold my hat." He thrusted his straw hat at the cook and began taking slow, deliberate steps toward the older pirate. Krieg stayed where he was and formed his Battle Spear.

When Luffy was on the fallen mast, Krieg attacked. He struck the end of the mast with his spear which caused a large explosion. Luffy didn't even flinch. Using the momentum of his side of the mast being forced up like a giant pivot, he jumped into the air and put his feet together.

"Spear!" He thrusted his feet forward, kicking the pirate admiral in the face. Luffy's voice had lost the airy tone it usually held when he called out his attacks. Krieg went down as the teen landed, but Luffy didn't let up. He leapt forward and grabbed Krieg's shoulders, flipping and spinning as he did so. When his feet touched down, Krieg was lifted into the air. "Hammer!"

They wood splintered where Krieg landed and he coughed up blood. The wanted pirate pulled himself up and glared at the younger man. He pointed his right hand at the teen and unleashed his flamethrower, but Luffy only shifted out of the way. The teen's right arm shot out along the edge of the fire, blistering but not slowed.

"Pistol." The fist hit Krieg in the face. The older pirate was thrown to the edge of the wreckage, but Luffy wasn't done. He reached over, grabbing the man's spear, and chucked it as the armored pirate was just getting up, not giving Krieg any chance to dodge. There was an explosion where the spear hit him, just as the Battle Spear was designed to do. Krieg was flung out over the sea and splashed down.

"Ha!" Krieg laughed when he surfaced. "Now you can't attack me! Those with the powers of the devil can't swim!"

"How heavy is that armor?" Luffy questioned.

"What are you blabbering about now?!" Krieg yelled back.

"How heavy is your armor?" Luffy asked again. "You're pretty far out there and that armor must be heavy. How long can you tread water before you drown?"

"We could be here all day!" the other pirate shouted.

"Then how about this?" Luffy's arm reached over to the Baratié's fins and grabbed Gin's discarded tonfa. The weapon ripped through the wood as the rubber-man's arm snapped back. He threw his arm behind him before shooting it forward. "Gum-Gum LOADED PISTOL!" The weight on the end of the tonfa slammed into Krieg's face, breaking his nose, giving him a concussion, and leaving him unconscious in the middle of the ocean in heavy Wootz-Steel armor.

The cooks threw up a cheer. Their restaurant was saved and Krieg was powerless. Without him treading, the pirate Admiral's armor started to slowly drag him down into the watery depths. His opponent defeated, Luffy's worry about his youngest crewmember's wellbeing came back to the forefront of his mind.

"Coby!" Luffy dropped Gin's weapon and dashed to the doors of the Baratié, but he was stopped by Sanji and Zeff. "Let me through! I have to get to Coby!"

"He's fine," Zeff told him. "The runt's sleeping off the poison still in his system. We were lucky enough to get most of it out by using a gas mask to clear the air in his lungs, but he won't be able to move for at least 12 hours." Luffy calmed down. "On the bright side, he'll have a slight immunity to some poisons and toxins from the amount of damage the HM5 gas did."

"You really care for your crew, don't you?" Sanji asked, handing the pirate his hat.

"Of course," Luffy answered as he placed his treasure back on his head. "They're my nakama, my family. I'd never turn my back on them."

"I... I've made a decision," Sanji said. "I've decided to join you as your cook."

"Wonderful!" Luffy cheered as Zeff mumbled something like "It's about damn time". "What's your dream?"

"What?"

"Your dream. Everyone on my crew has to have a dream to chase. Mine is to be the Pirate King. Zoro's is to be the world's greatest swordsman. That sort of thing."

"Well... My dream is to find the All Blue, a place where fish from all four Blues swim together. It's only a legend, a rumor, but I'm going to find it."

"Welcome to the crew, Sanji. How's Gin?"

"He regained consciousness during your fight with Krieg," Zeff answered. "He's sitting inside rethinking his life choices."

"I want to talk to him."

"Why?" Sanji asked.

"I want him on my crew. He's a good guy."

Sanji smirked. "I can't disagree with you there." Luffy passed them by and entered the establishment. At the only table standing was Gin in a chair, his head in his hands. He made no motion as Luffy approached, but he did speak.

"Leave me alone," the Man-Demon moaned. "I have no purpose anymore."

"Then let me give you one."

Gin's head snapped up. "What?!"

"You heard me," Luffy stated, crossing his arms. "Join my crew." Gin floundered for several seconds.

"You... You want me on your crew? But I disobeyed my captain. I talked back to him."

"I don't have underlings. I have friends. We're all equal on my crew. You can refuse to follow anything but a specific captain's order and I will never order you to kill someone. Especially someone as nice as the old man."

"Do I know anyone? Are there any rules?"

"Sanji joined as our cook, but I'd have one condition."

"And what would that be?" Gin asked, the excitement that had appeared in his eyes slowly turning into fear.

"You'd have to find a dream to follow. A big one. Something you'd risk your life for."

Gin blinked in surprise. "I... I was only there for a short time, and that week was terrifying, but I want to sail on the Grand Line again. I can't explain it, but I want to. Not just for me, but also for all the friends I lost there. May I follow you, Don Luffy?"

Luffy smiled. "Welcome to the crew of the Straw Hat Pirates, Gin."

End of Chapter 12

Did anyone call that last bit? You know, the whole Krieg drowning and Gin joining stuff? No one Reviewed or PMed me with that guess, but yeah, Luffy actually killed him. Not with his own hands, but still;

Luffy's kills: 1.

Also, if you couldn't guess from the summary and the end of this chapter, there will be a bigger crew this time around. There will be five more members (including Coby and Gin) and a pet. All of them are mentioned in Canon at least. Bonus points go to anyone who can guess them before they join!

Read and Review!

-SwordOfTheGods