In the early morning hours near the top of Mt. Colubo, all was still and silent. A rare occurrence, to be sure, and one that came into play for one of the most elaborate, and unnecessary plans of all time. Zoom in further, and in the very dense foliage that surrounded Mt. Colubo, there stood a fairly well-hidden treehouse among one tall, old, rugged tree. Inside this one tree, three yokai, all varying in size and appearance, all sat around the center floor, snickering as much was possible. One, was laughing far more than could possibly be necessary.
At first, one could consider the boy to be a small monkey, with a long, thin tail, small pointed ears on the top if his head, like a tanuki, small dark-colored wings, and the coloring pattern on its fur is more reminiscent of a leopard, with the base coloring being a dark brown. He was Monkey D. Luffy, a Fūseijou or Fūri, who currently resided in the forests of Mt. Colubo, along with his brothers, one of which silenced his wild and wicked laughter. "Luffy! The whole plan will be blown to bits with you laughing like that! Shh~!" The younger yokai protested, immediately quivering his lip at his scolding, "Wha~! But-" To which the third monster spoke up, not as loud as the other, "He's right, Luffy, we need to remember your brilliant plan." Luffy looked between the two, his pout still standing for another few quick moments before dropping it all together in place of his usual wide grin.
"Alright! Shishishishishishishi!" Luffy remarked, before diverting his attention to something near his feet. This left the other two to talk. As they were both older than Luffy, they had quite a bit more riding on their shoulders if their latest plan were to fall through. The two conversed quietly, already having agreed to Luffy's idea, they didn't want him to overhear their concerns. "Is everything alright on your end? Nothing holding you up?" The one who scolded Luffy earlier murmured, his body flickered nervously, as it tends to happen when one is made completely of fire. His scales seemed to mirror the pattern of his accelerated heartbeat. The other monster, another dragon nodded, "Yes, and I've made sure to tell Luffy where to run. Do you get the feeling that pranks were never this dangerous before we met Luffy?"
"You encourage him, Sabo" The fiery dragon, Ace, responded. Flames seeped out and around his nostrils as he breathed. Sabo kept the same motherly look in his eyes, tilting his head to Ace, "True." He stated nonchalantly, "But you encourage him through inhibition. Every time you say no, he takes it as a challenge." To this statement, Ace could do nothing but roll his eyes.
"Are you sure he knows where he's going?" Ace continued, pulling at Sabo's ear before he could leave, "Ah! I'm fairly sure he does! He's been in these forests just as long as we have!" Both dragons looked over to where their monkey brother had occupied himself trying to capture a small butterfly. They'd only met up here first instead of immediately enacting their plan to make sure that all involved parties knew what they were doing. Drilling the details of Luffy's plan over and over had made him burst into laughter over the specifics. And now that his mind was elsewhere, they could only assume that meant there was nothing left to be said.
Ace released Sabo's ear, allowing the dragon to make sure it was attached before moving over to Luffy. "I'm going to get this plan started. Oi, you know your cues, right?" Ignoring Sabo's sigh at his mothering, he waited until Luffy nodded before taking off. His body leaving small cinders and ash that eventually burned up behind him. "BY- Oh! I mean, bye~!" Luffy laughed, correcting his volume. Sabo sighed, "You're coming with me, Luffy?" Sabo asked. Luffy, nodded, jumping up as if gravity meant nothing to him and landed squarely onto Sabo's back, clinging to golden scales as much as he could.
Luffy was as ready as he could have ever been. He and Sabo had a very simple job in this plan, and that was to add to the pandemonium. To the untrained ear the silence of the forest continued, but to Luffy, and Sabo as well, there was a hushed excitement in the trees. They enlisted the help of a rather large collection of spirits around the mountain to help with their prank. Luffy could nearly taste the excitement on the various spirits and yokai like himself, who enjoy a good trick.
They were only planning to scare Luffy's current caretaker's, a "helpful" group of bandit humans that may or may not have been forced to take care of him under the threat of corporal punishment. Luffy found them well enough at whatever job it is they had to do, but often tried to get them to relax a bit, in the form of his harmless pranks. They'd laugh, he'd laugh, they'd relax, and all of them could go on about their day. However, it almost never went that way. More often than not, Luffy would end up in trouble with the bandits, and hide from them among the people. It wasn't hard to because of his size, but he didn't want to. He just wanted people to smile a bit more. Not that much of a head-turner.
Sabo was supposed to be keeping watch beside Luffy. His sight was far better than Luffy's own, and he would be watching for Ace's signal. They stood there for a few moments, the silence almost settling again. Until Sabo spoke up, head immediately lifting and nearly throwing Luffy off of his back, "There! The signal! Let's go, Luffy!"
The two yokai took off through the forest in the most interesting of fashions. Sabo made sure to weave through the forest just enough to knock on as many trees as he could. Luffy had snapped of a low-hanging tree branch, and raked it across as many trees as he could. The goal was to get as many people armed as he could. Armed with berries, berries that they'd be throwing… The plan begins to make sense the more it's put together.
Ace was coming towards his brothers from the opposite side of the forest, gathering as many yokai as he could to collect berries, they would be meeting up at the house of their foster family. As the three brothers approached the door, Luffy launched himself from the back of Sabo, landed shakily on his tail. "Atatata~!" he hissed, straightening his pose completely, before innocently opening the door, and yelling inside, "Dadan~! We brought you breakfast! Shishishishi!" He waited, leaning back outside the door before looking at his brothers, both of which immediately began gesturing to Luffy. "What? What- Oh!" Luffy pulled grass from the ground, and placed it delicately to his forehead. "Yo ho ho!" upon contact, the small monkey turned into a much taller boy, humanoid in features with the same dark brown fur forming over the back of his hands and around his face, mixing in with the black hair on his head. He now wore some short blue capris and a sleeveless red vest. Though he did retain his monkey-like tail.
The door opened wider just as Luffy's transformation finished, Sabo and Ace doing similar transformations behind him. All three boys looked innocent enough as their foster mother, a larger, rugged looking woman by the name of Dadan, stepped into the doorway. "What do you brats want?" she growled, it was early, and she had wondered where the boys had been up to… but it was something that she didn't give much thought too, as it usually ended up with her on her ass. Even if she did feel a bit hopeful that they'd brought her a no-strings attached breakfast.
Ace and Sabo had effectively blocked much of the outside from Dadan's sight, even if that meant standing on their tiptoes. The horde of one-hundred or more yokai behind readied themselves, each of them standing to attention, holding their varied berries. "Yep, Dadan, it's right outside. It was kind of a large haul" Ace stated, leaning on the doorframe. "We stopped by Windmill Village towards the bottom of the mountain and picked some stuff up." Sabo added, nodded slightly. Luffy could only snicker, seeing his brothers holding their hands behind their backs, readying their own berries to throw.
Ace and Sabo took this moment to step away, the secondary signal, gripping their own berries tightly and stepping back. Sabo even pulled Luffy back behind him, placing him out of the way. As Dadan stepped out of the doorway to see her breakfast, Luffy nearly screamed, "BON APPETITE~!" At that very moment, there was a flurry of what could only be described as "tropical" colors, and multitude of them. Wild laughter could be heard from all corners of the clearing in front of the house, much of it was the random spirits, but the loudest among them was Luffy. The boy almost didn't hear Sabo's voice as he pushed him further away from the house. "This is the part where we run, Luffy!" Both Ace and Sabo were already half-turning back in the chaos, the rain of fruit and the loud yelling provided adequate cover for them to disappear behind some trees nearby. "We've got a few minutes before she collects her thoughts and her weapons." Ace started, then turning to Sabo, "Take him to town. Luffy, I don't know your hiding spot, but we'll find you after the heat dies down, alright?"
"Yes!" Luffy managed through laughs, finally catching his breath, he grabbed onto Sabo, as the boy turned back into his golden dragon form. "We'll give it a few minutes, Luffy, we'll have to count to 300, alright?" Luffy scrunched up his nose for a moment, but nodded, still smiling widely, "I'll be at-"
"Atatata~! Don't tell me, stupid! Only Sabo needs to know." Ace growled, snapping his hand over Luffy's mouth. The ruckus behind them was quickly dying down, giving way to a much more terrifying roar. One that all three quickly recognized as Dadan. Without time for a goodbye, the three splits into two groups, Ace tearing up into the air and Sabo taking Luffy weaving through the trees.
Luffy howled in glee as they tore down the mountain, despite the situation, keeping count as the forest scenery turned into a green and brown blur. Soon enough, the blur broke into an open, and quaint little fishing village, marked at the edges by towering windmills, hence the name.
The two landed behind one of the massive windmills, closest to the edge of the town. Luffy hopped off Sabo's back, waiting for the dragon's golden form to melt away and making sure that no human saw them around the area. "I'm gonna go hide, alright?" he stated, still trying to keep the numbers going in his head, standing at around 210 and down. Sabo nodded, "Try not to give away your position until you hear me or Ace coming for you, yeah?" Luffy waved away Sabo's questions, giving another in a handful of playful smirks, before rushing off.
Luffy found his way in the middle of what he personally considered to be the greatest town of all time. With its quiet atmosphere, and the wonderful people who were mostly all friends of Luffy's. He knew most of them, and even chatted them up on most occasions. However, at this moment, Luffy's goal brought him to the front of one of his favorite watering holes, Partys Bar. There was a collection of barrels that had been there for a while, sitting outside of the bar, undisturbed. Luffy's hiding spot would be here, inside the barrels, until Sabo came and got him. Luffy looked around, ignoring the odd folk that walked past giving him a look. Without another hesitation, he lifted the top off one of the barrels, jumped inside and waited.
Sitting there for a few minutes, Luffy could only imagine the look on Dadan's face. He really wished he could've seen her face, covered in berries. He only hoped the other yokai were able to get out of there before she really blew her top. Dadan could be scarier than even the strongest yokai when she was mad. He actually found himself laughing at the thought. Luffy thought of his brothers, wondering if Ace managed to find an adequate hiding spot. Ace would probably be found first, just because he wasn't that good at stealth as Luffy or Sabo. Sabo was practically a ninja, and if Luffy really wanted, he could just become smaller. Ace was loud, and obvious, there weren't that many flaming dragon boys around here, even his human guise was obvious. "…I54…153…152…" Luffy continued his countdown
Caught up in his musings, Luffy didn't even notice the two burly men standing right in front of his barrel, conversating with the bartender of Partys, and friend of Luffy's, Makino. "Are you sure it's alright that we take these extra kegs off your hands?" one of the men asked, already sizing up the three barrels sitting outside the popular bar. "You'd be doing me a favor, honestly." Makino replied, "These barrels were just left here a week ago, by some sailors. I didn't want to just bring it in." The other guy laughed, taking two barrels under each of his hefty arms, "Yeah, we get it. Just leave the caution up to us pirates, yeah?" The men laughed, the one who first spoke taking up the barrel with Luffy inside with both hands. "Don't worry about it, Makino, we'll get these kegs out of your hair. Free's free, right?"
Regardless of what was free, Luffy was now sloshing around in his previously stationary hiding spot. The liquid splashed into his eyes and mouth, tasting of a strong and bitter ale. Luffy didn't dare make a squeak, only able to retch before accidently swallowing more ale. Beer that had gone bad! If that was even possible, but it had been quite a scorcher of a week. And, to add with the displeasure of his senses, he was still in his "human" guise, and was unfortunately cramped into this barrel, slamming into the side as he was carried to god knows where. The men were taking the barrels to one place where they could be properly respected, their pirate ship.
~Double Dragon~
The countdown from three-hundred had come and gone, leaving Sabo to emerge from his own hiding spot, though he stayed in human guise. A slightly empty part of Windmill Village, out closer to the mountain, so he could meet up with Ace and they could go find Luffy together. The boy sat down under a rather large and shady tree, talking with little wisps in the area. Looking to the mountain, he saw a bright red streak, tearing down the mountain just above the treetops. "That would be Ace." He mused, confusing the spirits around him, but shrugging it off to meet with his brother. "Ace! Ace!" Sabo called, running along the edge of the forest, and waving his arms, before simply turning back into his own majestic form in a burst of golden light. When he did, Ace seemed more aware of his presence, slowing his course, and fixing the trajectory so that he stopped nearby.
"Hey, did she catch you?" Sabo called, immediately seeing a huge red welt on his brother's face, practically changing the direction of many of the scales adorning his face. Sabo had to stifle a laughter as Ace directed a glare in his direction. "Yeth." He grumbed, sparks of fire flying from his eyes, "Yeth, she did." Sabo looked to the ground, nearly breaking into uncontrollable snorts, before waving it away, "That's… unfortunate." He managed, Ace rolling his eyes, "I had to thwitch tactiths, she wath going after you and Luffy, tho I created a dithtraction…" Sabo nodded, a taunting looking on his face, "And… uh, what happened to your face there, buddy?" Ace growled his initial response, before thwacking Sabo in the face with his tail, "I got smacked in the fathe, dumbath, bit my tongue in the proceth." Now nursing a sizeable bump of his own, Sabo still kept his taunting grin, "Oh yeah, Luffy's gonna love that. Let's go get him."
Both Sabo and Ace donned their human disguises and began to walk into town, "So, I'm guessing we're still in trouble?" Sabo asked, making sure to look Ace in the eyes so he couldn't avoid the question, "Not ath much trouble ath we would be in if I hadn't taken the brunt of it." Ace shrugged, and as more villagers came into view, his focus shifted, "Where'th Luffy hiding anyway?" Sabo took a quick look around, then took the lead in their trek, "You know those barres just sitting outside Partys, he inside of one of them." As they approached the bar, Sabo froze, the barrels were missing from their spot. Immediately he turned fully around to face Ace, "So yeah, we should probably-"
"The barrelth are mithing." Ace stated, giving a cautionary look, something that would often precedes the wild, random search for their brother. But Sabo wasn't sure he wanted to do that first. They also worried about Luffy's safety, every time, this time, they would be rational. Sabo pulled Ace's arm, walking around the bar to the back, and making sure there was no sign of Luffy or the barrels. "Wait, now we go see if he's inside."
"And if he'th not inthide the bar?" Ace mused, eyebrows raised as they looked at the empty area in front of the them Sabo sighed, he had the same feelings about this that Ace did, he just didn't want to show them. They tended to lose Luffy rather often, and they didn't do themselves any favors by not freaking out. "Let's just go check real quick. Okay? Then we can freak out as much as you want." Though Ace made a face of protest at the comment, he walked alongside Sabo. They hurried inside the bar, finding Makino talking with some patrons at the bar. "Hey! Makino!" Sabo spoke up, catching her attention while Ace hung back, "You haven't seen Luffy around today, have you?" Makino looked up from her work and acknowledge the yokai with a smile, "Hello Sabo, Ace! No, I actually haven't seen Luffy today yet. Others talked about seeing him in town though." Ace stared into the back of Sabo's head, prompting him into his next question with a slight cough, "…uh, h-have you seen those barrels that have been sitting outside at all?"
Makino took some thought on this question, then nodded, "Those old ale barrels, yeah. Some pirates on their last day in town asked me if they could take the barrels on their voyage. I said they could and that-" She immediately looked up from her work, her face holding the mix of concern and expectance. "Luffy was not in those barrels." Neither yokai spoke, Ace even averting his gaze to the floor, "He was, wasn't he? They could do nothing but nod. Makino hung her head, putting down a cup of ale, and walking around the counter. "Follow me." She said, motioning for the both of them to follow her.
As all three now stood outside, Makino sighed, "That ship left mere moments ago." Ace was the first to emote, "What? We need to get him!" Makino nodded, "Yeah, you should go, you'll be able to catch up to him without those disguises." Makino sighed, "I'm so sorry, I had no idea Luffy was in those barrels." Sabo shrugged it away with a small smile, "Don't worry about it. Luffy would be thrilled to know that his hiding spot was so good." Ace nodded, looking around before burning away his disguise and taking into the air, with only the quick rise in temperature to know he was there. "Hey, when we get back, we'll get drinks or something." Sabo offered, walking off a distance before taking his true form as well. He was guessing Dadan could yell at them later. Not saying she couldn't yell at them while they weren't there, but still.
~Monkey Boy~
Luffy had managed to pass out in between all the shaking and drinking of warm ale. Though he did wake up as much of a sick feeling as the one that put him to sleep. Dark, warm, and stinking of ale… the exact descriptive words Luffy never wanted to use in a complete thought. He hoped that maybe the part about his hiding spot moving wasn't true, but seeing that this was not the case, he sighed. His nose practically burned with the smell of ale, and he would most likely pass out if he stayed there much longer. With as much strength as he had, Luffy forced the top off of his barrel. Or rather, he tried to. He paused, the barrel's top not giving the slightest against his push. Luffy tried again, heaving against the barrel once more, to no avail. This is when he stopped, looking up at the top of the barrel pathetically.
"Oh, come on!" he muttered, ramming into the top of the barrel with as much of his shoulder as he could. He would have risked reverting back to his original smaller form, but he would have to tread ale if he did, and he'd be even weaker than he was right now, not at all suitable for busting out. Luffy groaned, what was even holding him in here? Luffy sought the answer to his own question by holding his head against the top of the barrel as best as he could. He heard the faintest grumblings, like someone snoring and gave up. Someone had to have fallen asleep on the barrel. And this someone was a bit of a beefcake, as well, his weight far exceeding what Luffy himself could lift. So, until this guy moved, Luffy was stuck in the barrel of beer.
It felt like hours passed, but maybe that's because Luffy was trying his hardest to keep himself above the liquid, especially in this squatting position, and he was getting tired. Which didn't entirely help when coupled with a secondary problem. He hadn't eaten since early that morning. He wanted the prank to be set for morning time, and Sabo promised they could go get something to eat later. However, since he'd been kidnapped, food was a non-negotiable, unless he maybe made his presence known to the ones who kidnapped him. Which may technically falter as well, since only a few humans minded yokai, and not many of them travelled the seas for a living. And Luffy was so obviously a yokai.
The rumbling in his stomach got louder the more he tried to ignore it. He was surprised that the guy sitting on the barrel didn't hear it, of course, these guys didn't hear the obviously more than solid object in their barrel of booze. Luffy snorted angrily, leaning his head against the side of the barrel. His head hurt, his stomach was scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of hunger, and he had no idea where his brothers were. Really turning into quite the crummy day. The day decided to take it a little bit easier on Luffy, as there was some loud talking outside of his temporary prison. And suddenly, the barrel seemed to creak, as if the weight was shifting off of it, Luffy smiled wide, nearly busting out, until the entire barrel flipped to its side, dousing Luffy once again in ale, and slamming his head into the side of the barrel.
"Oh~… what now?" Luffy gurgled through the ale that he was deep to his elbow in. The barrel swayed slightly, and seemed to be moving forward at the same time. They were moving the barrel, Luffy realized. Where to? He couldn't even begin to guess, he'd never been on a pirate ship before. As they marched on, however, he began to hear more noise, and it began to get louder. Even worse than that would be the smell of food. It was so good, and so strong, especially to heightened senses. Even stronger than the smell of ale riding on his fur. Luffy wanted to eat something, anything really at this point. Would they open the barrel? He could just burst out now… Luffy's brain had ceased functioning, nothing beyond the base need for food was reaching him, and certainly not the consequences.
The barrel was set down in the middle of all the noise and smells, upright, so Luffy was now sitting on his head. After several attempts to flip himself upright Luffy found himself contemplating how hard it would be for him to simply ask them to open the barrel, of course, blood was rushing to his head, so…
The only option as this moment was to once again sit and wait, difficult to do upside down, but it wasn't that much better right side up either. Luffy managed a groan, sending bubbles from his mouth. Again, he thought of turning to his true form, but risked losing the advantages his human form, until he returned to Ace and Sabo, anyway. He didn't really want to go that route.
Luckily, outside of his wooden prison, one of the various pirates sitting below deck caught a fistful from his crewmate, who returned in kind with another punch, which missed one pirate, but connected with another. And in no time, there was a full-scale brawl breaking out, and in this chaos, one of the many pirates took up on of the barrels (Luffy's) and tossed at into the nearest wall while trying to take out someone else. The barrel and its contents went sailing into the wall, and the former splintered as it made contact at full force. Finally, Luffy was free from his barrel prison, covered in ale with fur and hair sticking matted to his skin. He made a mental note, sitting there in the ruins of the barrel and amongst various brawlers that hiding in a barrel was not one of his best plans. He made a mental note right there to not repeat said mistake, and to consider going over his plans more thoroughly in the future. Maybe he could've just hidden in the bathroom.
Luffy found the will to sit up, look around, and immediately found his target. A mess where the dining table had to have been, tons of food still littering around the area, and certainly enough of it for Luffy to gorge himself on. Pushing past the unconscious bodies of drunken pirates, Luffy amassed a sizeable pile of food, sitting protectively in front of it while he chowed down. He was far too focused on taking in as much food as possible, so much so the even notice that the fighting died down as one by one, each pirate noticed the small stowaway.
Even as they began to stand around him, practically towering over him, Luffy's eyes stayed focused on the food he stuffed down his throat. It wasn't even until someone behind him spoke up that he even dared look away. With a slightly full stomach, and his most signature grin, Luffy looked up to the pirate calling his attention, still holding handfuls of various meats. "Hey!" he chirped, seeming wholly unaware of the danger. His tail twisted flippantly, even as he was picked up by the front of his shirt. "You're a yokai, right? Are you some kind of stupid?" Luffy wasn't really allowed a moment to answer before the pirate continued, shaking Luffy as his drunken anger redirected itself to the yokai. "How'd you get on our ship?"
Luffy couldn't really think of an answer, the fat happiness of food was beginning to agree with the damage he should've taken from his little tumble earlier. That is to say, he was practically out of it at this point. His silence and smug expression only managed to further the pirate's anger. "Alright, we're going to throw him overboard! Come on, men!" Luffy couldn't even really process what was going on, everything happening far too fast for him to catch up. As he was being carried away, Luffy saw exactly how far out they were.
The ocean stretched around them for miles, and looked to continue on forever. Nothing but sky and ocean, and the occasional flying animal or spirit in the sky, or even the odd shadowy figure under the ocean far in the distance. It was then that Luffy realized just how deep this whole situation had gotten, and exactly what his position in all of this was. If he didn't find a way out of here, he would be deep in water over his head.
The crew had taken their initial confusion, and turned it into the rioting voice that followed their friend to the broad side of the ship. The pirate held Luffy over the side, seeming to tease him as he was forced to look into the waters below. Luffy was beginning to wish he could answer them, however there was a slight problem. He was captured, and as a Fūseijou, when captured, he really couldn't do more than be embarrassed. In fact, he couldn't even speak, aside from the slightly nervous laughter that occasionally escaped his throat. Luffy began to try and call back happier memories, of hanging out with Ace and Sabo, and pranking Dadan, and eating with Makino…anything to take his mind away from the fact that he may very soon meet Death. The pirate holding him wound up his arm, and cast away. At that moment, Luffy remembered being thrown into the air, but instead of splashing into the ocean, or even being immediately eaten by some monster, force pulled him back, crashing onto the deck. And he wasn't the only one as the pirates around him began to tumble onto their knees as well.