The summer's sun was high in the clear blue sky, when the strange young man strolled right through the main gates of the busy shipyard and docking bay. With his head held high, he grinned and glanced around at everything and everyone.
The apprentice shipwrights, labourers and fishermen all stopped their work to watch him pass by, surprise shone on their faces; once out of ear shot, they began whispering amongst themselves.
The reason for their reaction was the appearance of the young man. He wore a simply red baggy vest, light blue jeans, which were tore up above his knees. On his feet were a cheap looking pair of sandals; upon his head was a well wore old straw-hat, with a red sash.
Seventeen year old, Monkey D Luffy was unlike any other high class customer, who normally would grace Goa Kingdom's finest Docks, in their best clothes. And who would not even look they way as walked through; if they did happen to looked upon the workers, it was never with a smile, always a look of disgust as those workers were rats; and if a worker were to walked across their path, then there would be trouble.
Luffy noticed some of the other customers giving him dirty looks, thinking he was a worker. A woman in a suit who lead the customers around, had a pained expression on her face; she wanted to ask him to leave but knew that, he too, was a paying customer; and because of this, there was nothing they could do to stop him from walking in.
Luffy just grinned, he found the whole thing funny; to add salt in the wound, Luffy tipped his hat to a few of the other customers, they glared his way before screaming at their guide.
Chuckling to himself Luffy just moved onwards, he noticed too, that some of the workers were trying not to laugh at his little display that annoyed the Nobles. This caused him to laugh out loud, not caring who heard.
Luffy came to a halt outside Shipyard Area Number One. The best of the best Shipwrights in the Kingdom were stationed here; Luffy walked straight in and headed for the main office. He was to meet up with the Master Shipwright, who had been building his little ship/boat.
As he walked through, he glanced around at the many ships that were being build. Some were just shells, others were half down done, while few were fully completed; short ones, tall ones, thin and fat, young and old in all sizes.
Luffy looked towards where the main offices was, and then back to the ships. Luffy grinned madly and chose to go on a little tour of the ships before heading there right away.
As he gazed at the ships all around, excitement gripped his heart. Luffy had been saving up for a ship since he was eight years of age. Or rather than saving, he was stealing; he stole off of the pirates that docked on his Island for the last nine years.
While he never gave much thought about if he wanted a crew or not, he thought long and hard about his ship. Luffy wanted a normal stranded ship, one that could ferry at least ten people.
When the time came for him to have to put in for planning permission, he heard from a very reliable source, that Shipyard Area Number One, had bought a shipment of the rare Adam Oak. Luffy knew that the Nobles of the Kingdom would come in their thousands all wanted a ship build from this legendary tree.
Luffy also wanted a piece of it.
Luffy's small dream of having a normal stranded ship changed; suddenly he had a wild dream of having a small well build ship, made from the Adam Oak.
So deciding this, he did something he would not normally do; Luffy pulled some strings. Luffy went to both his Grandfather and his older 'brother', Sabo.
Luffy's Grandfather was a Admiral for the Royal Navy of Goa Kingdom. Once upon a time, Monkey D Garp had been serving as Vice Admiral for the Marines, however his failure to capture Gold Roger on many occasions forced him into an early semi-retirement.
It was said that, after Garp left, Gold Roger would do outrageous things just to bring the old man out to 'play' with him. The Pirate King was not told that Garp was now working under the Royal Navy of his home Island, in fear he would leave the New World and come into East Blue waters.
After Garp semi-retirement seven years ago, he began more of a father to Luffy and more at ease with Luffy's choices in life. Such as Luffy wanted to become a pirate; just as long as he never became those pirates who murdered in cold blood. Luffy had promised his Grandfather that he would be just a travelling pirate, who would explore new lands.
Luffy's older 'brother' was a High Noble of the Goa Kingdom; the pair were not blood brother, but shared a childhood together. Through this bond they began 'brothers' by oath. Sabo worked in his family business, and was gaining many approval from some of the higher ups; Sabo however, had never flexed his muscles of his position, but was more than willing for Luffy's sake.
Both Garp and Sabo jumped at the change to help Luffy out, since he never wanted much from them, other then being called family.
With the two power houses on his side, Luffy had gotten an appointment. Many long and sometimes boring meetings Luffy had a designer draw up a ship blueprint based on everything he had talked about with them. Weeks later he was shown the design, and fell in love with his little ship/boat that was not yet made.
Luffy gave them the go ahead on the very same day they showed him the plans; the people were shocked by this, and on asking why, they told Luffy that most people send the plans back three or four times, even if they like the first one.
But because of Luffy's choices to go with the first plans straight away, his ship would be one of the first to be made; that was a year and a half ago.
"Master Luffy?!" A voice called out from no where, Luffy blinked and glanced around for the owner of the voice. "Master Luffy! Come down from there!" Luffy looked down and saw a tall man in a black suit running up the stairs, he was Luffy's guide: Sony.
Luffy sighed, which was followed by a pout, as he knew his little self tour was over. Still he had fun while it lasted.
"Master Luffy, you are meant to wait in the lobby for me to take you to the main office!" The suited man said a little breathless from running.
Luffy grinned at the man, "Yeah, I know. But this way was a lot more fun." Luffy laughed at the way Sony's dropped jaw.
"W..well, please come this way," Sony said shaking his head, and held out a hand to guide Luffy down the stairs, "And as you requested, we brought the Master Shipwright a lot as well. Though this is highly improper." Sony followed Luffy down the long flight of stairs, wondering if the young man heard anything he just said.
"Its fine, its fine." Luffy said with a large grin as he hurried down. "I'm looking forward to meeting him." Normally the Master Shipwright would never meet with customers, being the one who worked only behind the scenes of the ship's project; people like Sony who were paid to meet and greet the customers. But Luffy had insisted on meeting the person responsible for building his ship.
Luffy and Sony came up to the main office, outside there was a old man wearing overalls; as the pair neared him, he greeted them with a rough uneasy smile.
The Master Shipwright stepped forwards, "We were just talking about you..boy... Master Luffy." The last part was added quickly as Sony cleared his throat.
Few men were gathered around the outside of the main office, all openly watching Luffy, they were there to support their boss should this 'Master Luffy' do everything to him. It had been known in the past, that some people would have the Shipwrights in chance fired if the work was not to their liking.
Sony shot them a disapproved frown, before glaring hard at them, in hopes they would more away. They stood their ground.
Luffy was oblivious to the heated stares, and gave them a large toothy grin, before waving wildly at them. The men blinked, and unsure of what to do, sending awkward smiles back his way.
"Ready to see your ship?" The Master Shipwright asked with a more relaxed smile, because he seen Luffy's grinned, a warm one that held no disgust; also The Nobles would turn their noses up at the workers here, and yet this young man greeted them like humans.
"Yeah!" Luffy shouted suddenly, pumping his fists into the air, then bringing them back down with a loud laugh, his grin had taken over his face; this random act caused most around him to jump in fright.
"This way please, Master Luffy." Sony said being the first to recover, while trying to keep his professional smile on his face, but his left eye now had a twitch, and completely ruin the look.
Luffy laughed as he followed Sony and the old shipwright, his head turned in every direction. He kept running in front of them, and then to the rear; Luffy had seen most of the place when he entered, but never saw anything that could have been his ship. He could not get the grin off his face.
"Here we are." Sony said with a sigh of relief, he jested his hand forwards a large, closed off docking bay, which had water filled almost to the top. Luffy's grin just got bigger as he moved closer.
It was then Luffy noticed a tiny boat shape tied under a heavy looking cover, and froze in his place. The others who came with him, Sony, the Master Shipwright and some of the workers walked on over to it, confirming that this was it.
Luffy half walked, half run over to where they stood; he could barely contain his excitement as he started jogging on the spot and clapping his hands, even before he seen how the ship/boat came out.
The Master Shipwright walked over to the smallest 'ship' he had even made; grabbing hold of the heavy cover, he pulled and lifted. The old man could not help but smile at the reaction of the young man; Luffy was was all but screaming at the sight, fists tighten by his side, mouth open wide, eyes seemed to shine with joy.
"Oi! Oi! Oi!" Luffy shouted as he ran forwards, he began to bobbed up and down, and move left to right as he wanted to see everything at once, "Is this really mine!" Luffy cried out, turning to the Master Shipwright, "Its WAY~ better than the designs." Luffy suddenly had tears of happiness running down his cheeks, "THANK YOU SO MUCH!", he covered his arm over his face, as he tried to wipe the streams away.
The old shipwright also had tears in his eyes, this was the first time in his life that someone had thanked him for his work. "You are welcome." The old master said softy, but no one heard him.
The was small one man ship, was about the same size as an overly large bath tub. It's 'deck' was deep enough for Luffy to sit comfortable inside, his chest and shoulders would show if sited upright.
Inside, on neither side of the curves of the ship, were oars hooked along its length. Two larger hooks were folder on the underside, parallel to each other, these was where the oars would go when rowing; they twisted around with loose nuts when needed.
Its end was raised up; each side it came smoothly down into the 'ship' like a back rest. On moving this back rest downwards and across the length on the 'deck', two doors came into view; this was the storage space. Upon the top on the raised op part, three sliding doors could be made up. On long one closest to the 'deck', two square ones right at the back.
In the centre on this raised up part, was a tall mast, much taller than the boat itself; running through it were long poles, and ropes. They all connected at the base. At had two triangle sails, one large at the front, and a smaller one at the back.
It was the colour of bronze, with a thick silver lining. The figurehead was a bright bronze colour; the figurehead itself was a panda bear face with soft two shades of bronze and a heavy shape of silver. Its ears were long and pointy like an elf and coming from it. From the figurehead, and covering parts the sides, was crafted three butterflies shaped wings; six in total. However the detail into these wings were like a dragonfly or bee.
"So Master Luffy." The Master Shipwright said with a proud bold grin, "Have you thought of a name for her yet?"
"Yes I have!" Luffy said as he grinned at him; he turned back to his 'ship'. Slowly the straw-hat wearing youth walked over to the figurehead and placed his hand of top of its head. "Speeding Meruhen Gou! Nice to meet you, Meruhen Gou! From this moment on, I'll be in your care!"
Monkey D Luffy was about to start his life at sea, as a wandering lone pirate.