Part 11 - Sanji 12/21

Clearly not expecting anything like this, Luffy involuntarily lowered his hand, staring in confusion at the spinning Sanji. The speed of the guy's spinning was so intense that he seemed to turn into a small black tornado, causing Usopp, still standing aside, to have his jaw slammed into the ground. Sanji continued to spin, while Luffy watched him now with unabashed curiosity.

It took Sanji about fifteen seconds before he stopped, and Usopp and Luffy were greeted with the stunning sight of Sanji's heated leg. It looked as if Sanji's leg was originally made of iron, and now it had been heated to a temperature close to melting, turning it a fiery bright white with a hint of red closer to his knee.

Adopting a boxing stance, Sanji bent and lifted his heated leg to chest level, standing on one leg:

"Diable Jambe… A fiery leg, heated from high-speed spinning… it rivals even the Devil's own leg in power," he pronounced very impressively.

With these words, Sanji, powerfully pushing off the ground with his leg, jumped forward directly at Luffy, who was now almost glowing with excitement. It was a strange attack. The jump and subsequent strike didn't seem fast, but they were lightning-fast. And the blow itself was powerful, devilishly powerful! As if Sanji had suddenly gained fifty or sixty tons of weight. And predictably, it was hot, devilishly hot!

The collision between Luffy's matte-black forearm and Sanji's blazing leg shook the entire area, and a real flame burst out in all directions from the point of impact. The preceding wave of air might have sent Usopp flying, but his jaw had sunk so deeply into the ground that he didn't even budge.

However, despite the strangeness of Sanji's attack, the only one who let out a real scream of frustration was Sanji himself:

"No... it can't be!!!" There was unabashed indignation, surprise, and even fear, real fear, in the boy's voice. "Wasn't that enough?!!" Along with his voice, Sanji's face was a wild mixture of indignation, surprise, and fear. "Is it even fair?!!" At this moment, ordinary hurt was added to Sanji's emotions, making his expression even stranger.

The reason for the boy's reaction lay in the effect of his attack on Luffy... or, to be honest, its complete absence. There was an effect, but it was not at all what the blonde cook had hoped for. Sanji certainly didn't expect to defeat Luffy with this new move — maybe only in his dreams, and even then not more than a couple of times! — but Luffy didn't even budge! Not even his damn hand moved!

"Your leg is on fire!" Luffy exclaimed, glowing with excitement no longer literally.

The boy now looked like a little child who had just received a long-awaited gift on his birthday. Sanji instantly realized that Luffy wasn't impressed by the power of his attack; what really mattered to Luffy was his blazing leg. This only added salt to Sanji's fresh wounds: he was now openly starting to hate that damn Haki! And Luffy! Hating Luffy was actually good for his health — Sanji had learned this from personal experience.

Sanji's leg returned to normal, and Luffy was immediately beside him. Crouching down next to the cook and gripping his chin with his fingers, the boy began to scrutinize Sanji's leg as if such scrutiny could explain something to him. However, Luffy did not stop at just looking. After grabbing Sanji's trouser leg — after making sure it wasn't scorched — he pulled it up, then examined Sanji's completely normal leg — not even the hairs on his leg had been burned! — and once again gripped his chin with his fingers, clearly deep in thought.

The result of his contemplation was that he straightened up to his full height, then raised his hand, clenched into a fist, to the level of his face and immediately covered it with Haki.

"Hmm... something like this... or not quite," Luffy muttered to himself, not taking his eyes off his matte-black hand. "Or maybe this way? No? Then like this... ah, got it," and with these words, the boy's fist burst into flames.

Sanji's jaw hit the ground with a loud thud, and his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. In turn, Usopp's jaw would have happily dropped too, but he simply didn't have time to lift it after everything he had just seen, so it continued to dig into the ground. Usopp's eyes had long since passed the back of his head and were now confidently moving toward his lower back. And even without exaggeration, Usopp's face was indeed an incredible sight. Meanwhile, Sanji's astonishment quickly turned into a kind of childlike resentment. The boy now looked like a child whose strict parents not only took away his favorite toy but also put him in the corner on his birthday, right in front of his friends. All that was left for Sanji was to loudly sniffle and shed a tear, and then the resemblance would have been perfect.

Luffy, seemingly — or was it really just seeming? — decided to further torment Sanji's feelings by playing around with his new ability. The flames on his fist first slowly enveloped his entire hand up to his elbow, then immediately gathered at the tips of his outstretched fingers. After admiring the five flickering flames for a while, Luffy wrapped his entire arm in fire again and began experimenting with the temperature, causing the color of the flames to change from red-yellow to bright white, almost blinding, and back.

Sanji was completely crushed.

It had taken him several months of intense training before the flames surrounding his leg reached such a temperature that they turned a blinding white. Luffy had achieved this in just a few minutes. Sanji didn't want to sound like a broken record, but seriously, was this even fair? Shouldn't there be some limits? Was the universe really that unfair? From his former fighting spirit, Sanji was left with nothing but a pitiful ember. Another duel with Luffy had ended on an even more dismal note than usual. Shuffling his feet in the dirt, Sanji, upset with the world, gloomily headed back to the boat — he no longer wanted to stay there.

The next few days passed in anticipation of the arrival of the rest of their family. Sanji, predictably, quickly recovered from the psychological blow — after all, he had known Luffy for almost two years — and, in anticipation of his Goddess's arrival, focused entirely on cooking. Luffy acted as the main taster. Given his experience and character, it was impossible to find a more demanding taster in the East Blue. Moreover, when it came to training anything, Luffy became completely merciless. So, whether family or not, he showed no mercy. Usually, this manifested during sparring sessions, but since Sanji was the cook, and his main duty was to prepare tasty food for the entire family, Luffy's malice showed itself most strongly in this aspect of Sanji's training. 

As a result, the egotistical boy rejected almost half of all the dishes presented to him, a significant portion was deemed "edible if you're really hungry," a small percentage was rated as "not bad" and "good," and only a couple of dishes were accepted with genuine enthusiasm. And no, we're not talking about meat dishes, but about one fish dish and one vegetable stew. All meat dishes, on the other hand, were mercilessly rejected because Luffy evaluated such dishes with particular bias and malice. Usopp, who was unspoiled by delicacies, liked absolutely everything. If it weren't for the speed and endurance training, which Luffy had no intention of canceling, the long-nosed cannoneer would have been gaining a couple of pounds a day, but as it was, all extra calories were burned off.

In the evenings, Luffy played Shogi or Go with the old man Zeff and ruthlessly won both. With such an Ego? Nothing surprising! If absolute inviolability of the family could be called Luffy's first principle, then "always win" could easily be called his second principle. If Luffy wasn't sure of his absolute victory, he wouldn't even bother to sit down to play.

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