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Coby

Coby was never going to be able to escape. The Alvida Pirates were just too strong and he was, to put it bluntly, the worst pirate in history. He had absolutely no way to defend himself. Coby had spent two years navigating and slaving away for the Alvida Pirates, and it was starting to look like a life sentence.

He had no hope for his future. With his years as a cabin boy for a pirate ship he would never be able to pass the background check and achieve his goal. No marine would ever accept a pirate like him even if it had never been his choice to join Alvida in the first place.

Then he met Monkey D. Luffy. And man was he an idiot.

When he first found that barrel, he knew that it would just give all of the pirates around him another excuse to take advantage of their unfortunate pink-haired cabin boy. They already made Coby work without rest and make a fool out of himself for their own amusement. The fact that the barrel probably was full of rum or some other type of alcohol only made the situation better for those scumbag Alvida Pirates.

Coby just hoped that he could get the barrel open before the pirates became too impatient and started throwing punches. Coby knew from his last two years with them that if the pirates were given a chance to start their abuse that they would only stop once they tried out. And that could take hours. But instead of rum, Coby found some kid probably around the same age as himself.

Luffy at this point had exploded out of that barrel and stormed right into Coby's life like the hurricane that he was. The idiot broke out of the barrel that he had been taking a nap in and decided to immediately have a quick snack. During a pirate attack. Like the fact that he was on a ship being attacked didn't even phase him.

"W-Who are you. You should be trying to escape. Don't you know that this ship is being attacked by pirates!" Coby was trying to give him time to escape; he didn't want to give Alvida the chance to capture the kid. No one deserved to be in the same position as he was. Coby knew that if the kid ran now he would probably have time to escape before Alvida's goons woke up. Or it could be even worse and Coby would be forced to watch the pirates kill another person. It would be just one more bloody death that Coby would be forced to live with. But the kid apparently barely noticed that he even existed. He was either completely oblivious or dumb enough to not even realize the danger that he would be in.

"My name is Monkey D. Luffy and I'm going to be King of the Pirates" yelled the idiot that had just ate three whole barrels of apples without even taking a breath. He had a wide grin splitting his face and what looked like a vacant look in his eyes.

With that response Coby starts leaning towards him being an idiot. Luffy probably had no idea what he was even saying. Coby doubted that he even knew what it meant to be the Pirate King. He just turned away and went back to eating. He was even eating the apples whole and about ten at a time. How was that even possible? He wasn't even choking. He just kept going shoveling more and more food into to his mouth.

"You can't be Pirate King! Don't you know how dangerous it is to even say that?"

That at least seemed to get his attention. Coby didn't even see Luffy move until his fist was already colliding with Coby's head. Luffy suddenly looked taller as he stood up from the ground and dusted off his shorts.

"I don't care. I will be the next Pirate King and have all the freedom I want!"

"Why would you even risk your life like that? You will be killed immediately!"

Coby saw a strong gleam in his eyes as he reached up a touched the straw hat perched on top of his head.

"Shishishishishi, I promised someone important that I would give this hat back to him next time we meet after I become King of the Pirates" Luffy looked determined. He wasn't stating what his dream for the future was. No, he was stating a fact. Luffy was going to be the next Pirate King to fulfill that promise. Listening to him talk like that, Coby even started to believe him. Well if Luffy could follow an impossible dream why couldn't Coby.

"Well, then I'm going to become a marine. I am going to follow my dreams and join the marines." Maybe if he went for his dreams with the same enthusiasm that Luffy had he could even become the Fleet Admiral one day.

He had, without even trying given Coby the encouragement he needed to follow his dreams.

In that moment Luffy changes Coby's life. Coby wouldn't realize it till years later while he was quickly climbing up the ranks. Even if it was Coby's own hard work that got him promotion after promotion, without Luffy he would never have been able to take that first step.

And soon, without even giving it much thought he was following Luffy's example telling Alvida exactly what he thought about her. He had absolutely no clue how Alvida got it in her head that she was the most beautiful pirate on the sea but…. Just NO.

"Alvida is an ugly whale. The ugliest pirate to ever sail the seas! I am leaving and I am going to join the marines where I can arrest pirates like you!" Coby yelled at Alvida while Luffy took advantage and fought off the rest of her crew.

Soon they were in Shell Town looking for that monster, Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro. Luffy might have gained a little respect by this point with his straight forward attitude and his amazing fighting skills, but what pirate in their right mind would invite a bounty to join their crew. Apparently Luffy would. The same Luffy that set off to sail by himself without knowing how to navigate. The same Luffy that can't swim but somehow managed to escape a whirlpool by jumping into a barrel. Oh well, at least this is better than being stuck with Alvida.