The location for the upcoming "fight" was a small rocky platform where the Baratie had been stationed all day. In fact, the Baratie's appearance was linked to a similar rocky platform rising right in the middle of the sea. Without going into too much detail, about ten years ago, when old man Zeff was still not such an old man and quite an active Legend, the captain of a pirate crew, a storm occurred. A fateful storm.
On that fateful day, Zeff's crew, just back from their Grand Line journey, was raiding a passenger ship, on which a young Sanji was working as an ordinary cook's assistant. In the midst of the raid, a huge wave crashed onto the ships hooked together, smashing both vessels to pieces, and only two people survived — Zeff and Sanji. The two were washed up on the barren, lifeless platform rising in the middle of the sea. They spent several months on this platform, growing increasingly desperate each day, waiting for a rescue ship. Their already scarce food ran out quickly, so by the time they were rescued, both Zeff and Sanji were nearly dead from starvation. The irony was that when both ships sank, old Zeff had managed to grab a huge sack of gold. They had enough gold to buy an entire restaurant, but they still slowly starved to death. That was the irony. It was then that Zeff came up with the idea of a floating restaurant:
"It would be great if there were a real restaurant floating somewhere in this endless sea, able to feed anyone," he told Sanji when he was almost starving, just half an hour before their rescue.
Thus, the floating restaurant Baratie was soon established. Its route was chosen deliberately. For a little over two months, the restaurant slowly sailed from one barren rock to another, completing a large, uneven circle, and then starting the route over. Additionally, each rock had easily discoverable caches with a small amount of provisions and a large number of signal flares. In the ten years of the restaurant's existence, thanks to Zeff's and Sanji's foresight, well, from one side, only twelve people were, but from the other side twelve people avoided one of the most terrible deaths in the world. Few things in the world could compare to a prolonged and incredibly painful death from starvation.
"Come on, show me what you've come up with if you've become so confident," once they arrived at the rocky platform and faced each other, Luffy made a welcoming gesture with his hand. "Keep in mind, I'm expecting something impressive. And you, Condoriano, better stay back," he added, tilting his head towards Usopp.
Usopp, not wanting to be foolish, quickly moved away from the pair preparing for the "fight."
"To start, I suggest a light warm-up," Sanji, standing opposite Luffy at a distance of about five meters, proposed.
"Whatever's convenient for you," Luffy made an uncertain gesture with his hand.
It was clear that the guy wasn't taking the upcoming "fight" seriously… not without reason. Sanji knew this better than anyone, so he wasn't at all annoyed. Frankly, the blonde cook was looking forward to it. Sanji really wanted to see how effective his new technique would be against a monster of this caliber. However, Sanji began the sparring with a series of fairly ordinary kicks. He didn't plan to use his trump card right away; first, he wanted to assess how much his strength had increased in its normal state.
For a moment, Usopp, standing aside, thought Sanji had disappeared, so quickly did the blonde cook move. In one second, Sanji managed not only to cover the five meters separating him from Luffy but also to deliver several kicks. In fact, Sanji fought with nothing but his legs. As a cook, he was brought up with the belief that his hands were invaluable, as he couldn't cook without them, so in battle, like old man Zeff before him, he used only his legs. The "Red Leg" style, to be precise. The name came from the fact that the legs of a person fighting in this style would turn red with the blood of his enemies by the end of the fight. For the same reason, old Zeff was once nicknamed "Red Leg." It was clear that the old pirate had taught Sanji his fighting style, and the blonde had made significant progress in it… which didn't stop Luffy from completely avoiding the first two attacks and blocking the third.
"Your strength and speed have noticeably increased," Luffy nodded approvingly, brushing aside Sanji's intercepted leg. The blonde cook, undeterred or disheartened by his failure and the ease with which Luffy avoided all his attacks, immediately launched another assault. "You could take out Ryu and Yosaku in one go, but you're still far from Zoro, and there's nothing you can do about that," Luffy continued calmly, moving smoothly from side to side, sometimes using his hands, almost without noticeable effort, to avoid or block all of Sanji's attacks. "Until you master Observation Haki and Armament Haki, you won't be able to compare to him… or to me," he added, holding out his open palm.
One of Sanji's strongest kicks landed squarely in the center of Luffy's palm. However, despite the immense force behind the kick, the cook's boot came to a complete stop just a few centimeters from Luffy's hand, as if an invisible barrier lay between Luffy's hand and Sanji's leg. Nevertheless, the force behind the kick couldn't just vanish, so Sanji, along with small stones and sand beneath him, was abruptly thrown back, as if a sudden strong gust of wind had knocked him off his feet.
After spinning several times in the air, Sanji managed to twist and land on his feet, but he could only come to a complete stop after sliding another seven meters down the rocky surface beneath him. Once he stopped and regained his balance, Sanji looked up at his opponent. Luffy still stood with his palm facing forward, a slight smile on his face as he watched Sanji. As always, Luffy looked like he could be taken out with a single blow, but Sanji knew from experience that that outstretched hand could be as solid as a steel wall… Though, he had far better chances of breaking through a steel wall, than Luffy's Haki. Still, Sanji tried to stay positive. The most important thing was that there were chances, and everything else was secondary.
Even though Sanji had not yet mastered any type of Haki, he knew the theory perfectly. He understood that Observation Haki allowed a person to anticipate all of their opponent's actions. This was undoubtedly an amazing ability that greatly increased a person's combat potential. However, as amazing as it was, it also had drawbacks. For example, if one opponent was too fast, knowing their actions in advance was useless because even a person with Observation Haki couldn't react in time. In other words, a person could know exactly when their opponent was going to punch them in the face, but they still couldn't do anything about it—the predicted punch landed faster than a block could be set.
Armament Haki worked on similar principles. A person could cover their hand with Armament Haki—like Luffy had done a minute ago—but if the force of the attack was too great, the Haki could be pierced. In other words, a person with Armament Haki could easily stop a bullet but not a cannonball. In the first case, they wouldn't even get a scratch, but in the second, they could die, even if they used Haki in both cases. Naturally, this was just an example. In reality, if limits to Haki existed, no one knew them, and if someone did know, they weren't eager to share it with the world. This, in turn, meant that one person with Armament Haki couldn't stop a cannonball, while another, using the same Haki, might survive an attack capable of destroying an entire island without a scratch. This understanding formed the basis of… well, calling Sanji's scheme a "plan" might be a bit much. The guy just knew that Luffy's Armament Haki could be broken if the attack was strong enough. And, as Sanji hoped, he now had this "strong enough" attack in his arsenal. That's why he was so eager to fight Luffy. Maybe today was the day he could get revenge on this damn Monster for all his suffering? Sanji couldn't miss such a chance!
"I haven't noticed any special differences," Luffy teased his opponent slightly. "You promised me that today everything would be different, but so far, I don't see it. Your speed and strength have noticeably increased… just like they always did, from sparring to sparring, so there's no difference here."
"You want differences, you'll get differences," Sanji smiled, and then… started to spin on one leg.
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