(AUTHOR'S NOTE: Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy wassup. So let me start off by giving a lil shoutout to @Hon_Bear for seeming to be binge-reading this fic and voting on all the chapters, thank you Hon Bear! Also this chapter got a lil bit of *TEA* of the lore variety so I hope y'all enjoy that! Lastly I made this lil visual below so I hope you like it! That's about it, I hope you enjoy the chapter!)

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Chapter Fourteen:

" Terror Tales From The Grand Line"

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(NO POV)

"Ugh! We've been sitting around and twiddling our thumbs for four days now!" Usopp complained. "How long do you think we're gonna be here anyway?" He asked his 4 other crewmates, Zoro shrugged, "Who knows."  Usopp put his hands on his hips, "Luffy said he'd be a chore boy for a year, but I'm already so bored!" Nami looked at Usopp with a smile, "Quit your whining, This place is great! Plus, all the food here is free." She said. "Yeah, for you and Pinky it is," Zoro muttered. Usopp noticed Luffy exiting the restaurant with a big trash bag, "Hey Luffy!" he called out causing Luffy to look up at him, "What're we still doing here!? Come on let's just get out of this place!" 

"Just sit tight a little longer! I'm gonna try making another deal with the owner!" Luffy replied, "Well hurry up!" Usopp shouted. Meanwhile, Isaac was sitting off to the side at a table inside the Baratie, spending time with his new furry friend. "So you got a name girl?" He asked the dark-furred feline as he handed her a piece of fish, the cat went to consume the fish and then an idea popped into Isaac's head. "Meow twice if you don't have a name." He said, then the cat meowed twice in response. "Alright, then I guess I'll need to give you a name. How about..."

He paused, admittedly stumped for a bit, contemplating what to name his friend. Then he suddenly said, "Meteora?" Which made the cat rub her head against Isaac's hand as if agreeing with the name. "Well okay, Meteora it is! Though I have zero clue where I thought of that..." The sound of a glass then dropped and a man exclaimed, "It's them! They're here! The hourglasses mean our time is up!" 

"What are we gonna do now!? That flag means death!" Another customer cried, "There's no doubt, it belongs to the ruler of the East Blue...Don Kreig!" Customers started screaming and panicking, "Why!? Why are the Krieg pirates here!?" Isaac stood up from his seat and looked back at Meteora. "You gotta stay here, okay?" She then growled in response, causing Isaac to put his hands on his hips, "Well you can't come with me! It's dangerous for a cat!" Meteora then meowed as if insisting on going with him until Isaac sighed, giving up. "Fine, but you gotta stay with me. Come here." Isaac put his arms out and Meteora let him pick her up, going outside. 

(ISAAC'S POV)

"Guys don't panic but I think this is our cue to leave right now!" Usopp shouted fearfully, I stood at the dock watching the ship as it grew closer and closer to the restaurant. "Not sure we can, Usopp!" I called up to him and hearing such made Usopp cringe. As the ship came closer into view, the visible signs of serious damage became clearer and clearer, "What happened to their ship? It looks like they went through some kind of bad storm or worse..." I mumbled to myself. Then Meteora started hissing as a very tall figure stepped off the ship, it was the captain of the ship himself: Don Kreig. I immediately noticed the man from 4 days ago helping Don Kreig keep steady, and I stepped further away to stay out of their path. I stood in place, holding Meteora in silence, a bit too hesitant to look and find out what was happening inside. Minutes later large swarms of people were running out of the restaurant, getting on boats, and fleeing for their lives. 

"H-Hey...Wh-What the Hell is going on in there?" Usopp asked from the deck of the Merry, "I dunno, let's go inside and see." Zoro said which made Usopp look at him fearfully, "Are you serious!?" "Sure am. You scared?" "I'm not!" I groaned and shouted at them, "Are we going inside or not!?" Zoro and Usopp nodded and then made their way down from the Merry. "Nami, Johnny, Yosaku! Keep an eye on the ship!" Zoro said and the two bounty hunters saluted exclaiming, "Yes Sir, Big Bro!"

When Zoro and Usopp made it on the dock, Usopp looked at Meteora in my arms and scolded, "Did you seriously bring a cat!?" I glared at him defensively, "She made me bring her! And she's not just a cat, she's my new friend!" "The cat doesn't matter we gotta go!" Zoro shouted at us. I gently put Meteora down and said, "If you wanna come along you gotta walk on your own now and be careful!" Meteora meowed in affirmation and the three of us and Meteora made our way inside through the employee entrance in the back, going down the stairs just in time as Luffy had just pissed off Don Krieg and insisted on a fight. The three of us stood on the staircase, Zoro ready to unsheath his sword and Usopp was faking fearlessness despite his shaking legs. "Need a hand, Luffy?" Zoro said with a smirk, "I-If you don't need help that's okay too!" Usopp interjected.

"Oh hey guys. I appreciate the offer, but I can handle this clown." Luffy explained, "Aww, too bad. But if you say your fine who am I to argue? Us awesome fighters are just gonna sit this one out, so good luck!" Zoro then hit Usopp with one of his sheathed swords, knocking him down. "What'd you do that for, Zoro!?" "Shut up already you weirdo!" I sigh and facepalm. Don Krieg began laughing, "Are they supposed to be your crewmembers? That's a small group you got there!" He taunted Luffy. "Well that's not all, I got two more!" Luffy retorted causing Sanji who was on the side shout at him, "I'm not part of your crew!" Don Kreig was silent before tossing a sack over his shoulder, "I'll deal with you later, right now I'm going to go feed my men." He said as he turned to leave, "Those who don't want to die can abandon the restaurant and escape. The only things I'm after are the logbook and this ship. But if you still wish to stay and be slaughtered...I have no problem burying every last one of you at sea." He then fully exited the restaurant. 

The man I saw helping Don Krieg inside was on his knees, clutching his right shoulder and shaking. "I'm so sorry Sanji...I never thought it would be this way." He said, "That's not something you should apologize for, Sailor. Every cook at this restaurant just did what they felt was right. That's all there is to it." Chef Zeff explained shocking the other cooks as they began protesting and blaming Sanji for the whole incident. "Shut up, you idiots!" Zeff shouted, "Have you felt what it's like to be on the brink of starvation!? To have no food or water on the open ocean...Do you know how scary that is!? How hard it is!?" The cooks looked at their boss confused, "What do you mean, Cheff Zeff?" 

"The difference between Sanji and all of you is that Sanji knows," Zeff explained and the cooks talked amongst themselves trying to make sense of his words. I looked down at Sanji, eyes wide, 'So he knows what it's like to nearly starve? That's so sad...He seems like such a good guy and he had to go through all that...' I thought with a frown. "If you're all just going to stand there grumbling then you can all leave and never come back." Zeff said, "No, I'll stay and fight! I couldn't live with myself if I just gave up after being defeated!" Exclaimed one of them, rousing up the others who felt the same way. 

The man who was with Kreig looked at the chefs in horror, slamming his hands on the ground, "What do you think you're doing!? You saw how powerful Don is right!?" He protested. Sanji stood up and walked forward, "Hey Ghin, let me tell you something. Feeding someone who's hungry is my sacred moral duty. But those we'll be dealing with are plunderers with full bellies. I even won't let you complain when I beat up your fellow pirates. If someone tries to take over the restaurant, even if it's you, I'll kill them without hesitation!" He exclaimed with a serious look. "Got that?" The pirate, Ghin, gulped nervously. 

"See? This guy's awesome, huh?" Luffy said pointing in Sanji's direction, and I immediately nodded in agreement. "Who cares how cool he is!? We gotta get out of here now!" Usopp shouted, "Easy there, Luffy. It is Don Krieg but he's in pretty bad shape." Zoro said. Luffy then looked over at Ghin, "Hey, you said you didn't know anything about the Grand Line. But I thought you'd been there? That doesn't make any sense." A look of horror flashed on Ghin's face as if the memories of his experience seemed to have consumed his thoughts, "I still don't know. Nothing makes any sense now...Two horrible things happened on our last two days on the Grand Line. I don't know if they were dreams or reality...I still haven't been able to fully come to terms with it...On the 6th day of our journey, we saw a young woman with long green hair sitting on a large rock. When we tried to attack her she began to glow green and made underwater plants grow until she was able to throw all of our men on a single ship overboard...Some of them were apparently even poisoned before they were tossed. Then she made off with the ship...Most of our men who died of hunger were the ones who were poisoned."  I noticed Ghin look up at me, his eyes widening in shock. "You there...You have-You have the same marks on your cheeks as that woman did!" He shouted. Everyone looked at me and I put a hand to my cheek, remembering what Buggy had said after I had broken his hand:

"Those cheek marks! Why does this little pink-haired brat have those on his face!?"

"You idiot! Do you not realize what those cheekmarks mean!?"

I bit my bottom lip, my anxiety growing. There were more people out there with these cheek marks and I still had no clue what they were and what they meant...Ghin continued to share the rest of his story, "The 7th day was even worse because...The rest of our entire fleet...Was completely eradicated by a single man!" 

Everyone gasped and Usopp screamed in terror, "It all happened so fast...As soon as this man appeared, he began sinking our ships one after another...If that raging storm hadn't come upon us when it did, then that monster would've destroyed our main ship as well...I don't know if a single other ship made it out...It all seemed like a horrible nightmare that burned into my memory! I just want to forget!" Ghin seemed to tremble in fear from recalling the events, "That man's eyes...They were like a hawk's, sharp and murderous. His gaze alone felt like the cold hands of death!" I heard Zoro gasp and I turned to look at him, seeing a shocked expression on his face, which made me nervous. Zeff crossed his arms, "Well then...That can only be the one known as Hawk-Eye. Your description of his heartless gaze isn't proof in and of itself, but the way he so easily decimated your fleet confirms that without a doubt it's him." He explained.

I saw Zoro's hands shaking, or rather, his whole body seemed to shake. "Hawk-Eye Mihawk!" He exclaimed, Luffy looked up at him, "Huh? You know him Zoro?" He asked. Zoro calmed down a bit, "Yes, I do. He's the man I'm looking for, Hawk-Eye is the whole reason I set out to sea." He explained. "Could that man have some kind of score to settle with you guys?" Sanji asked Ghin, "We never did anything to him!" He cried out, "Perhaps you disturbed him during a nap..." Zeff hypothesized. Ghin glared and shouted at Zeff, "Stupid cook! Why would he destroy our entire fleet for something so meaningless!?" 

Zeff smirked, "Don't get so worked up, it's just an example. I'm just giving an example of what kind of place the Grand Line is." Usopp looked down at the cook fearfully, "What kind of place is that?" "It probably means that anything can happen," Zoro said. Usopp looked down at Luffy, "Luffy! We don't really have to go there, do we!? Luffy!" Usopp, Zoro, and I looked at our captain curiously as he stood in silence before laughing and shouting, "That's so awesome! This is gonna be such a blast!" He cheered. Usopp scolded him and all I could think of was the woman whom Ghin had described as having the same Z-shaped cheek marks as me, who glowed green like I glowed pink. I had so many questions... 

"Finally, my life's goal will be achieved on the Grand Line. My rival, he's out there somewhere and I'm gonna find him." Zoro said. "Are you that stupid? It's idiots like you guys who end up dead." Sanji commented, Zoro looked at Sanji crossing his arms, "That may be true but lay off the name-calling." Zoro replied. "I devoted my entire life to becoming the 'World's Greatest Swordsman'. I made my choice so the only one who gets to call me stupid is me." Luffy raised his arm, waving it around, "Hey! What about me?" Usopp nodded, "Me too! It only seems fair!" Zoro poked his head as a warning with his sheathed sword, "Shut up, Stupid."

I clench my fists and take a breath, "I guess I've got a goal for the Grand Line now too..." 

"Enough!" Chef Patty shouted, "Do any of you idiots understand the current situation!? That enormous galleon docked in front of our dear little restaurant is belongs to none other than Don Krieg! So why don't we check back into reality and deal with this!" Many sounds of warcry then came from outside the restaurant, "Hear that! They're gonna be here soon!" A cook exclaimed. "This is our restaurant and we'll protect it until the very end!" Another cried out, but very soon the loud sound of crashing ocean waves and the screams of the pirates outside rang throughout the restaurant, the waves causing the Baratie to shake. Zeff pointed to one of his chefs and shouted, "Raise the anchor! Or we'll be swallowed along with their ship!"

"This is bad! Nami, Yosaku, and Johnny are still on our ship out there!" Zoro exclaimed jumping over the staircase railing to go check on the others as Usopp and I went after him, "I hope we're not too late!" Usopp cried. As we all exited the restaurant we were shocked to see the huge amount of damage done to Don Krieg's ship. "Hey! Big Bro!" Shouted a voice, the four of us looked to see Johnny and Yosaku in the water, and immediately rushed over to where they were floating. "Are you two okay!? Where's Nami and the ship!?" I shouted at the two bounty hunters, "I'm sorry but...She's gone!" Yosaku replied. "Big Sis Nami..." Johnny whimpered, "She took all the treasure and ran off!" Yosaku finished.

"SHE DID WHAT!?" We all shouted in unison. I then noticed Zoro was shaking again as he looked out into the ocean, curious I looked over to see what he was looking at which was a single tall man sitting on a black boat. "It's him..." Zoro said, "He's here...Hawk-Eye!" 

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TO BE CONTINUED...