Seeing how flustered Luffy was, Cain couldn't help but laugh.
"Relax, Luffy. The old man will still take a while to get here, we have more than enough time to throw a banquet."
"A BANQUET?! AWESOME! LET'S HAVE A BANQUET!"
The moment the magic word left Cain's lips, Luffy shouted in pure excitement and dashed straight out of Arlong Park, effortlessly abandoning Zoro and the others in the dust.
"Oh, right, Nami-san..." Cain turned to look at the navigator. "So, what are you going to choose now?"
"Just call me Nami. Since I already promised you, I guess I'll join this guy's pirate crew for now. But there are some things I need to say to the villagers first." Nami unconsciously turned slightly, her right hand quietly covering the Arlong Pirates tattoo on her left shoulder.
A fleeting fragility lingered in her eyes.
"Damn it... making Nami-san show an expression like that..." Sanji bit down on his handkerchief, his face full of grief and indignation.
"That's enough already, you perverted cook," Zoro snapped mercilessly while leaning heavily on Sanji for support.
"HAH?! SHUT UP, YOU DAMN MOSS-HEAD!"
Watching the two of them bicker nonstop, Cain chuckled inwardly.
'Their legendary feud had started this early.'
"BANQUET! BANQUET! BANQUET!"
Luffy, who had just run off, suddenly slingshotted back and shouted right in Cain's face.
"Where's the banquet?! Hurry up and take me there!"
"Why don't you welcome your new crewmate first?" Cain gestured toward Nami.
Only then did Luffy realize.
He immediately stretched out a rubbery hand toward her, speaking with his usual, blunt sincerity.
"Nami! Be my crewmate!"
That was just Luffy's style.
Once he decided on something, a herd of Sea Kings couldn't drag him back!
And since Nami had always been his chosen navigator, hearing that familiar invitation erased any lingering hesitation.
She raised her hand and firmly clasped his palm.
"Then please take care of me from now on, Captain." Her brows relaxed, and she smiled brightly.
...
Time slipped by quietly, and night soon fell over Cocoyasi Village.
The entire town erupted into a lively, joyous celebration.
At the banquet, Luffy stuffed himself with mountains of meat, while Usopp endlessly bragged to the villagers, drawing bursts of laughter from the crowd.
Zoro drank with Johnny and Yosaku, who had decided to give up bounty hunting and settle down in the village for good.
Cain sat in a quiet corner, leisurely peeling and eating oranges.
Sitting across from him, glaring daggers, was none other than Sanji.
"What are you doing over here?" Cain asked.
"Hmph. I'm keeping an eye on you. I'm not giving you a single chance to get close to Nami-san!" Sanji flicked his cigarette ash, glaring viciously.
After only a short time, the blonde chef had already decided this guy was his number one rival in love.
Cain had no romantic intentions towards Nami and grumbled inwardly.
'Keeping an eye on me? Nami is at Dr. Nako's clinic right now getting her tattoo changed. If anything, I'm the one protecting her from a creep like you!'
He decided to offer some seemingly kind advice. "You know, I hear girls don't like men who smoke. The smell is pretty off-putting."
That simple sentence rattled Sanji to his core.
He froze, staring at the fresh cigarette hovering uncertainly near his lips with a deeply conflicted expression.
"Pfft—Hahaha! I'm messing with you!" Cain burst out laughing. "If a girl really likes you, she won't care about something like that."
Cain walked over, shifted his throat slightly, and spat out a thumb-sized flame.
He condensed the fire at his fingertip and lifted his hand to light Sanji's cigarette.
"That said, if you want to play the knight in shining armor, you should still pay attention to hygiene. If you scoop a girl into your arms and the first thing she smells is an ashtray instead of masculine charm, that would be awkward."
Eyeing the flame dancing on Cain's finger, Sanji looked displeased but clamped the cigarette in his teeth anyway.
"You don't need to worry about that, When it comes to cleanliness, I am top-tier! I'm a chef after all. How could I ever serve dirty food?"
"Oh, right. I've got something for you." Cain dug into his coat and tossed Sanji a heavy bundle wrapped in cloth.
Sanji caught it curiously and unwrapped the package.
Inside rested a black, short-bladed kitchen knife with a strange, folded steel pattern that shimmered with a faint rainbow sheen.
It was the perfect size for prepping ingredients.
He gave it a few test swings, feeling the perfect balance, and nodded in satisfaction.
"Good knife. You're really giving this to me?"
"Yeah. I made it for practice before forging my own weapon, It's no use to me just sitting around, so you can have it."
Cain rubbed his nose.
The knife was made by folding and forging ordinary steel into a patterned blade.
Its dark color wasn't because it was a legendary Black Blade; it was simply the result of mixing different carbon steels.
He made sure not to use any Meito scrap material for it—using metal that had slain people to cook food felt wrong.
Cain had also casually forged a tiny, finger-length knife out of the leftover scraps, planning to give it to Zoro someday.
If, during the final battle for the title of World's Strongest Swordsman, when Zoro faced Dracule Mihawk and pulled out a pocketknife, and spoke with a deadpanned expression, "I don't have a smaller blade than this," the sheer irony would be incredible!
Just imagining the scene made Cain chuckle out loud.
Seeing the towering, pink-haired monster suddenly grinning evilly for no apparent reason, Sanji instinctively scooted his chair a little further back.
...
Early the next morning, Cain transplanted Bellemere's orange trees onto the Going Merry.
Luffy sat at the figurehead, waving goodbye to the cheering villagers.
Just like in the original story, Nami boarded last—sprinting through the crowd and swiping everyone's wallets on the way.
Though the villagers yelled complaints, their smiles showed they were sincerely happy for her.
Amid cheers and blessings, the Straw Hats set sail.
The voyage proceeded smoothly.
A day later, Cain found Usopp to apologize and explain his earlier actions at Arlong Park.
"NO WAY! ARE THE MONSTERS IN THE GRAND LINE REALLY THAT TERRIFYING?!" Usopp shrieked in horror, clutching his head.
"Of course. The strength I showed back there wasn't even one-tenth of what I can do. Taking out Luffy would be easy. I just wanted him to see clearly how far you all are from the truly powerful players in this world." Cain held up his hand, leaving a microscopic gap between his thumb and index finger to indicate the 'small' difference.
"Oh, right, Luffy," Cain called out, his expression turning serious.
He had business to discuss.
Luffy sat at the bow, leaning backward upside down to look at him. "What is it?"
"Your big brother might be a pirate now, but I don't have a crew or a flag yet. So, what are you planning to do?"
"Huh?" Luffy spun his head around a full three hundred and sixty degrees, looking blank.
"In the Grand Line, there are plenty of monsters like me. You might need—"
"No." Luffy cut him off flatly. "If I need you protecting me for everything, then what kind of Pirate King would I be?"
That short sentence left Cain speechless.
Nami and Usopp, who had just started feeling safe with a monstrous bodyguard on board, instantly wilted in despair.
But thinking about the dream Luffy always shouted about, they couldn't help but agree with their captain's pride.
Agreement was one thing, but Nami still grumbled about the danger.
Just then, a News Coo flew past the ship.
Nami flagged it down to buy a newspaper, and Cain took the opportunity to buy one as well.
While Nami argued with the bird over the sudden price increase, Cain noticed two wanted posters slip out from the folds of the paper.
A smirk spread across his face, and he handed them to Luffy.
"Well, looks like you don't have a choice about letting me on board now, my foolish little brother."
One poster showed Cain's cold side-profile, while the other showed Luffy mid-banquet, stuffing a massive chunk of meat into his face.
And on the back of Cain's wanted poster, printed clearly in the space designating his pirate crew affiliation, were three glaring words:
Straw Hat Pirates.