One Bite
Makino the tavern-keeper had sharp ears and keen instincts for protecting her client's property. Despite the loud laughter of a bar full of pirates, she heard the shouts of the approaching bandits. She knew the voices of Higuma the Bear and his men; they had robbed her customers before. She scooped up the small treasure chest from the top of the bar and put it under the counter for safekeeping.
"We'll make two or three more voyages, and then we'll leave this village for good," said "Red-Haired" Shanks, the pirate captain.
"Ok then," said Monkey D. Luffy. "I'm gonna learn to swim before you leave. Then you'll have to let me be a pirate."
"Sure, learn to swim if you want," said Shanks. "But..."
Wham! Suddenly one of the swinging doors into the bar was kicked off its hinges. A horde of bandits swept in, just as Makino had anticipated.
"Make way for the scourge of the mountains!" shouted Higuma. He looked around the bar. "Hah! What a sorry-looking bunch. You call yourselves pirates?"
Higuma swaggered up to the bar and elbowed Shanks aside. "Don't worry, we're not here to wreck the place. We want ten barrels of grog. Serve us quick and there'll be no trouble."
"I'm sorry, we're fresh out," Makino answered calmly in spite of her fear.
"Then what are all these pirates drinking?" Higuma demanded.
"I'm sorry, we must have drunk it all up," Shanks put in. "But here's one bottle I haven't opened yet."
Higuma snatched the bottle and smashed it over Shanks' head. "You idiot, what use is one bottle to me?"
The whole bar went still as they waited for Shanks to react.
"Dear, dear, what a mess on the floor," Shanks said in a placid voice.
"Don't try anything," Higuma warned, pulling out his wanted poster. "See, I'm worth 8,000,000 berries. I've killed 56 men, so you'd better back off if you value your life"
Shanks knelt down on the floor and started picking up the broken glass. "Makino, do you have a cleaning rag I can use?"
Higuma sneered in disgust and used his sword to sweep Shanks' dinner plate to the floor. "If you like cleaning so much, here's more work for you!"
The bandits left with a final taunt, "Bye-bye, cowards."
When they were gone, the pirates burst out laughing. Shanks joined in.
"He got you good, didn't he Captain?" asked the fat pirate Lucky Roux.
"It's not funny!" Luffy shouted. "Why didn't you fight him? A real man wouldn't take that!"
"You're too young to understand," said Shanks. "It's just a little spilled grog. I don't need to fight over that to prove I'm a man."
Luffy turned to storm out. "Hmmph! I'm going to go find a better role-model"
Shanks grabbed Luffy's arm and turned the boy back to face him. "Listen, kid..."
Luffy ignored him and called, "Hey Makino, gimme the fruit you had up on the bar. I'll take it with me for dessert."
"You can't eat that," said Shanks. "It's a Devil's Fruit, and if you ate it you'd never be able to swim for the rest of your life! What would happen to your dream of being a pirate someday?"
"I'll be a pirate," said Luffy. "I'll be King of the Pirates. But not a wimp like you!"
With that Luffy pulled away from Shanks and ran out of the bar.
Luffy didn't see Shanks again until a few months later. He saw him from the ground, where he was pinned under the foot of Higuma the Bear. Luffy had tried to defend Shanks' honor when the bandit insulted him, but he was badly beaten and now Higuma was about to kill him.
"Luffy, I thought your punch was as powerful as a pistol," said Shanks.
"This is no time to talk about that!" said Luffy through clenched teeth.
"So the cowardly pirates are back," sneered Higuma. "Stay out of this or we'll kill you!"
Shanks continued to move forward until one of the bandits pointed a pistol at him head.
"You heard our leader," said the bandit. "Stop or I'll blow your head off."
"You risk your life when you point guns at people," said Shanks mildly.
"Huh? What do you mean?" asked the bandit.
"Pointing a gun doesn't magically make people stop. It starts a life-or-death fight you could well lose."
Lucky Roux moved so fast that nobody saw him coming. He shot the bandit point-blank in the head.
"Hey, no fair!" shouted another bandit.
"You expect pirates to be fair?" retorted Shanks.
"This isn't your fight!" shouted another bandit.
"It is," said Shanks. "You can spill drinks on me, even spit on me, and I'll laugh it off. But I never let anyone hurt my friends."
"A pretty speech," Higuma laughed. "But you wimpy pirates can't stand up to my mountain bandits. Kill them, men!"
First mate Ben Beckman said, "Allow me, Cap'n."
Using his rifle as a club, Beckman rapidly dispatched one bandit after another until only Higuma the Bear was left standing.
"If you want to fight us 'wimpy pirates' you'd better bring a battleship," said Beckman.
"B-but this is all a misunderstanding... The brat started it..." stuttered Higuma.
"You're a wanted man," said Shanks. "Anyone's allowed to go for the bounty on your head, right?"
Suddenly the desperate outlaw threw a smoke bomb. When the smoke cleared Luffy and the Bear were gone.
Higuma dragged Luffy to the shore and onto a small boat. Soon they were far from shore.
"Ha ha!" Higuma chuckled. "Nobody would think of looking for a mountain bandit at sea! Now I don't need you as a hostage anymore, so out you go!"
He kicked Luffy out of the boat. A moment later, the gigantic head of a Sea King emerged from the water and chomped down both the bandit and his boat.
The Sea King was still hungry. It came after Luffy, but suddenly there was Shanks, swimming to the rescue. As Shanks pushed Luffy out of the way of the chomping teeth, Luffy suddenly began to swim. Luffy grabbed Shanks and pulled him away from the crushing jaws of the monster. The teeth only grazed Shanks' left arm.
Shanks stared into the Sea King's eyes. "Beat it," he said. The monster saw the power in his eyes and was overcome with fear. It turned and swam away.
"Luffy, you learned to swim?" Shanks asked in surprise.
"Yep. I told you I would," Luffy said. "I got Makino to teach me."
"You saved my arm," said Shanks. "I owe you one, and Red-Haired Shanks always pays his debts. Would you like to come on a voyage with us? You can find out first-hand if the pirate life's for you."
"Oh boy, I sure would!" Luffy grinned.