In Alton, the first town on Hasab Island, Luca and Vernon stood in the midst of a large crowd. Luca frowned. "Why is it so crowded?"
"It looks like someone has taken on the restaurants eating challenge," Vernon said, looking above the heads of people. "I can't see his face, but he's scarfing it down like no man's business."
"Done."
The restaurant owner and the customers at the Desert Foods restaurant clapped intrigued by his eating skill. The person in question was the captain of the Dragon Scale Pirates, the boy who failed to notice the crowd behind him.
"How deep is his stomach?" someone asked.
"No idea, but he'll pack on some weight."
"Excuse me," Elias asked the bartender, bringing out an old newspaper, pointing at a picture of Paolo when they saved Vulkan Island. "Has this boy come to this restaurant?"
The man shook his head. "Not that I know of."
Luca pushed through the crowd, recognizing Elias on sight. "You have some guts showing up here, Elias G. Fritz."
The whole restaurant reacted to the name; Elias more popular than anyone would expect.
"The strongest Manu Pirate is here."
"What is he doing here?"
Elias grinned, teeth flashing. "I just came for family."
.....
Once the crew had landed on the island, Paolo had suddenly disappeared much to their irritation. The crew decided to split up, Octavius put in charge of buying food, Aline in charge of looking for Paolo and Luna, Shinzo, and the royals in charge of getting clothes.
Octavius walked through the flea market, a large fish catching his attention. As he reached for it, so did another hand. He faced the person and both their eyes widened in recognition.
"It's you."
Noel of the Dragon Scale Pirates smiled at Octavius. "It's been a while."
Octavius laughed. "It truly has. I didn't think we'd meet here again."
"My captain forced us here because he wanted to see someone," he said. "Now he has disappeared."
Octavius sighed. "Ours vanished too."
"It's not easy living with idiots."
Noel smiled. "It really isn't." the pirate raised his hand to make a suggestion. "I haven't eaten in a while, why don't get lunch together as thanks for what your crew did for us last time?"
Octavius grinned. "Of course."
.....
Octavius and Noel settled at a table in the restaurant. The door to the kitchen pulled open, a girl in blonde twin tails held up by rose hairbands.
"Good day may I have you-"
She froze alongside Noel, the air tensing in the small restaurant. "You."
Octavius looked between the girl and Noel. "Do you guys know each other?"
The girl as if just noticing his presence stared at him, eyes widening as she covered her mouth. "I didn't know you had a kid."
Octavius' jaw ticked. "I'm nineteen and I don't want someone who isn't that much taller than me calling me a kid."
The girl scoffed, flipping her hair. "If you're calling me short, I'd like you to take that back… I am petite."
Octavius thought.
Noel sighed. "Just take our orders."
She scoffed again but took down what they wanted to eat and disappeared into the kitchen. Octavius turned to look at Noel. "So…"
"I can't tell you much, but we're what you call childhood acquaintances."
"Interesting."
A few minutes later, the girl came back with their meals. "I'm surprised to see you out here."
"Same for you," Noel told her. "Weren't you going to take over your family's restaurant?"
"I was until I had a little bit of an awakening," she said, pouring them a cup of water. "I'd rather not fill in my parents shoes, I want to surpass them. I'm planning to travel with the money I get from working here and improve my skills so I can become a world renowned chef."
Octavius smiled at that, feeling a sense of camaraderie. "That's a good goal…it's hard to move forward when you have your family name weighing down."
The girl nodded also smiling. "Life is just all that fulfilling when you show the world who you are by your own merit."
Noel stared between the two of them. "The both of you have a nice aura going on."
They both scrunched up their faces. "Ew, no!"
The door suddenly burst open, a group wearing suits and shades. Someone who appeared to be the boss stood in front, smoking a tobacco. The girl sighed. "Work calls."
She moved to attend to them while Octavius took a bite out of her food. "This is really good."
Noel smiled. "Cooking is the only thing that makes her approachable."
"You seem like more than just acquaintances," Octavius said, sipping his juice.
Noel stared at his own juice, different emotion stirring in his blue eyes. "It's… it's complicated."
Octavius decided to leave at that, paying attention to the meal in front of him. The sound of a plate clattering had all heads turning, the blonde girl frowning at the commotion.
The men in suits had spilled a plate of soup on the floor, the brown liquid swirling idly on the floor. The girl marched towards them, crouching in front of the broken plate.
"Is there a reason for this?" she asked, not looking at the customers.
One of them spat on the soup splattered on the ground. "The soup sucked."
"Sucked," she mumbled.
Octavius took a bite of his soup, frowning after. "The soup tastes fine."
Noel sighed. "They're just trouble makers."
She flexed the muscles in her finger. "So what exactly are you unsatisfied with dear customer."
"People have different tastes and I say the soup sucks."
She slammed her foot on the table, smashing it blistering pieces. Her green eyes flared with anger, the bottom of her off shoulder dress rising. "How dare you disrespect the cook that put all the love into that dish, how dare you waste the many ingredients used for that soup and most of all how dare you disrespect the dish."
The leader of the group stood up and towered over her, but she showed no signs of fear. She stared up at him, hands on her hips.
"Looks like the little missy is looking for a fight," he said. "I'll teach you a lesson for talking back to me, boys."
They men in suits moved to attack her, but she disappeared from their line of sight. Their eyes widened, searching everywhere for her. A hand tapped the shoulders of one of the men. He turned, only to receive a punch in the face.
He crashed backwards shocking his friends. Angry, they tumbled towards her to attack, but she moved at a speed no one there thought was possible. People gasped at the madness displayed before them, the girl smashing the head of one of the suited men into the ground.
A few seconds later, they were all defeated at her feet. She slammed her foot on the head of their leader, her green eyes glowing as she flipped her hair. "I'm Zara Mignon of the Lux Clan, don't forget it, scum."