Author's Note: WARNING: May contain OOCness and does have a few enemy-OCs, plus no pairings, only nakamaship 'cause let's be honest, nothing beats nakamaships. Also, there will be japanese stuff like "san" and "nakama", 'cause there is no english word that can describe nakama, and I can't imagine characters like Coby talking without adding "san" at the end at people's names... and I'd start laughing if I wrote "Mister Luffy" XD. My excuse for OOCness on Law's behalf is that in this story, he spends over three years with Luffy. Three. Years. With Luffy. That will change you, no matter how you try to deny it. The excuse for the few OCs who are enemies, well, Law would be the second strongest one in the Straw-Hat crew if he was in it, and it'd be an insult his power if I let him take on small fry, so first I thought about letting him take care of Sanji and Zoro's enemies at first to avoid OCs, but that'd be an insult to their power. Don't worry, the ones I'll use won't be love interests, just enemies, but they won't be completely dislikable either, I hope. The ones I'll use are the ones that I've taken a heck of a lot of time writing, so I hope you won't mind owo Also Law is nineteen here. I wanted to make him younger so the prologue and his connection with Luffy would make a tad more sense... or whatever. Anyways, here we go!
Prologue
In East Blue, three years prior to the One Piece timeline...
A young boy with raven hair practiced his punch at some rocks in the forest. He was really getting the hang of his rubber powers and he couldn't wait for his seventeenth birthday to come so he could get out on the seas to show them to Ace.
Ace.
The boy sighed. It had been four months since his brother left, and yet already it felt like an eternity. Mostly because the only ones he could talk to now were the bandits and, once in a while, Makino. As much as he'd like to deny it, he felt... sort of... lonely.
In that moment, he heard a sudden gurgling sound from the sea. 'Odd', the boy thought. 'It sounds as if somone's...'
"AAAAGHHHHHH I'M DROWNING!"
'... what he said. Wait, what? Oh no!'
"Don't worry! I'll save you!" the boy shouted as he ran to the edge of the forest where he could see the blue sea of East Blue. He could spot a fluffy, white mushroom hat floating on the waves beside a pair of desperately flailing hands. The boy merely managed to stop himself from jumping in, remembering that he couldn't swim, and stretched out an arm of elasticness to the hands instead. Unfortunately, as the arm retreated in its elastic glory, it managed to slam the body of the drowner into the arm's owner's face.
If the boy wasn't made of rubber, his face'd hurt so much.
i...i
The drowner panted heavily. "Thanks... for saving me..."
"You're welcome", the boy replied, panting as well after what seemed like hours of pumping out all the unwanted water from the drowner. "More importantly, what the hell were you doing at sea if you can't swim?"
"My ship sunk."
"Oh. What's your name?"
"What does it matter?"
"I saved your life so I'd at least want to know your name, you know."
"... Trafalgar Law. You?"
"Me?" The boy proudly put his hand on the straw hat on top of his tousled black hair and grinned widely. "I'm Monkey D. Luffy, the man who's going to become the Pirate King!"
"..."
"What? You don't believe me?"
"... You're hardly a man."
"Shut up! You're hardly a man either! What kind of way is that to talk to someone who just saved your life?!"
"More like a boy... you're, what, ten? Nine?"
"I'm fourteen. Wait! Listen to me, damn it!"
Chapter 1
~The Surgeon and The Monkey~
Law whistled, impressed, as Luffy's fist knocked out the infamous Lord of the Coast, the Sea King just outside Foosha Village.
"Well what d'ya know, you actually beat it", he said, leaning on the railing of the boat casually.
"Of course! I didn't train ten years for nothing!" Luffy grinned.
"Right, now sit down before the boat tips over", his mushroom-hatted companion warned. "We don't want our careers as pirates to end as quickly as it started."
He did as he was told and sat down, a frown taking place on his face. "Right, right. But you know, Law, I just have to ask you something..."
Said man opened one of his closed gray eyes. "What?"
"I'm the captain, right?"
A sigh. "Fine, fine. I'm gonna be more captain-like than you anyways. Just don't try to order me around."
A moment of confused silence. "... That means I'm the captain, right?"
"Yes, Luffy, yes it does." Law took a second to admire his own sanity and patience for still being whole after three years with that idiot.
i...i
Coby's eyes were about to pop out of his head as one of the barrels got smashed from the inside and a seventeen year old boy wearing a red vest and light blue, short trousers jumped out.
"WHAT A GREAT NAP!" the boy shouted, accidentally knocking out one of Alvida's pirates.
In the next moment, the lid to the bigger barrel opened and a man who looked to be around nineteen years old poked out his frowning face. "Oi, oi, Luffy! Don't act like nothing happened."
Coby took a moment to inspect the two with his eyes. They both were lightly tanned with black hair, but the man had a tad shorter and a tad tidier hair, fine sideburns, a hint of a goatee on his chin, faint shadows under his gray eyes and was slim and tall with a black-sleeved yellow hoodie covering his torso and a pair of jeans with odd dark markings similiar to the ones on his fluffy hat but darker. The boy was much shorter and seemed sort of, uh, "brighter" than the man in the barrel beside him, in spite of the scar with the two stitches under his left eye.
Nonetheless, Coby feared currently for both their lives and his own.
Looking slightly embarrassed, the mushroom-hatted man climbed out of the barrel and kicked it away nonchalantly, focusing his silver gaze at the red-vested boy. "We could've died because of your incompetence. Couldn't you have at least tried to avoid that whirlpool?"
The boy, apparantly named Luffy, turned to the man. "If it was so important, why didn't you try to avoid it, Traffy?"
That seemed to hit the spot. "Traffy" flinched and made an embarrassed grimace. "Well... at least I prepared two barrels for this kind of situation. So in a way I saved both of our lives. And how many times do I have to tell you not to call me Traffy! Just call me Law."
"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU TWO?!" the pirates from Alvida's crew, the two who were still conscious (Coby honestly did not know nor cared about their names), exclaimed.
Luffy turned to them, blinking innocently while Law glanced at them, showing no interest at all in them.
"Who the hell are you guys?" the straw-hatted teen queried in return. Law shrugged. "Don't know, don't care. However, this is a ship, so there should be boats-"
"Take us seriously!" the two pirates screamed angrily as they leapt at the other two with their swords drawn. Coby slammed his hands over his eyes and closed them.
There was a sound of metal splitting and a pair of astonished gasps. Slowly and cautiously, Coby lifted his hands away from his face and opened his eyes. Luffy and Law were both still fine, but the same couldn't be said about the pirates' swords. Both of the blades were split in two - Luffy seemed to have somehow broken one of them with his bare hands while Law had cut the other one with the nodachi* he had in his right hand.
The pirates stared at the strange duo, their jaws almost touching the floor. "You two... who the hell are you? What are you?!" they managed to press out.
"Hm? Me?" straw-hat asked. A grin spread across his face and he crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm Monkey D. Luffy. Nice to meet you!" He pointed at his mushroom-hatted companion. "And this is Tra-Trafalgy-Traffyguy-Tralalagarla- geh, Trafalgar Law, my first mate and doctor!"
Law rolled his eyes with a smirk. "You actually got my name right. That's a miracle. But I'm capable of introducing myself, you know."
"I finally get your stupidly hard-to-pronounce name right and all you do is complain. You're the worst, Law", Luffy pouted. Before Law could reply, the pirates gave a yell, grabbed the unconscious one and ran away as fast as they could. The duo stared after them with frowns of confusion.
"How disappointing. I was hoping to take that unconscious one's organs", said the doctor. The to-be-Pirate King and the pink-haired boy shuddered in disgust. "Please don't", they said simultaneously. The prior quickly recovered from the disgust though and turned to the latter who still was disgusted by the thought. "Anyhow, do you know where I can find some food? I'm starving!"
"That's the least of your troubles right now!" the pink-haired latter, now with eyes widened in shock, blurted out. "There's a lot more of them on deck and they're ready to kill anybody!" Unfortunately, his blurt-out was futile as the hungry prior's nose twitched as he sniffed the air for food.
"Hooray, there is food here! Come on Law!" he cheered in triumph, running off towards the cellar of the ship where the food was indeed held. Coby tried to hold him back and shouted for Law to help, but the doctor just shook his head. "Don't try to stop him when it's about food. He'd kick a whole crew of pirates' asses just to get a good chunk of meat", he said and followed Luffy into the cellar.
Once Coby stepped inside, he was greeted by an obnoxious noise of someone eating loudly and someone scolding the other for staining food on their pants.
After some seconds of preparing himself, Coby began to hesitatingly introduce himself to the strange duo. "Err... Hi, I'm Coby. You're Luffy and Law, right? What were you doing in a couple of barrels?"
"Our ship was dragged into a whirlpool, so we climbed into the barrels and hoped that we would survive", Law explained curtly, fixing his gaze on the apple in his hand. He took a bite from it before continuing to speak. "By the way, is this your ship or the ship of those three guys from before?"
"No, this ship is currently being attacked by Alvida's pirates. It's just a random passenger ship, really... wait... did you say whirlpool?!" the tiny boy with pink hair who looked like he was six years old although he was probably around Luffy's age. The duo nodded, chewing on their respective pieces of food. "Yep. It's all his fault. ... Hey!" They glared at each other for a while, but then shrugged and proceeded to eat.
"Anyways, are there any boats here?" the straw-hat wearing captain queried.
"There should be. This is a passenger ship, after all."
"Great! 'Cause, like we said, ours got dragged into a whirlpool and it's not in particular useful anymore", grinned Luffy.
Law rolled his eyes once again before fixing them on Coby. "Speaking of which, about the thing about this passenger ship being attacked by pirates, well, what are you? Are you a pirate as well or are you a passenger?"
The smile on Coby's lips vanished in a second at Law's question. He looked down at his hands, a sorrowful glint in his eyes. "About that... One... One day, or, That Day, I went aboard, with the intent to go fishing..." Law and Luffy leaned forward slightly in their sitting positions, intrigued by the hint that the story might be a good one because of seriousness in Coby's voice. "... But alas, the boat I was boarding was actually going-" a small pause for him to swallow "-to a pirate ship! For the past two years, I've been working like a slave so they wouldn't kill me, but... now, my dream is crushed, and I don't even hope for a rescue anymore..."
Two pairs of eyes stared at the pink-haired boy - one pair of black, one pair of gray. And then came the laughter. The loud laughter of the owner of the black eyes and the chuckles of the owner of the gray eyes.
"You're really stupid and useless, aren't you!" the black-eyed one cackled.
"You had me going there for a while", the gray-eyed one said between his muffled laughter. "You're making that human condom joke look smart!"
"Don't say that, please... also, human condom joke? What? I don't even..." Coby muttered sadly.
"You're sort of wimpy too. I don't like you!" owner-of-the-black-eyes said, grinning brightly, apparently not caring about being called a "human condom joke" or simply not getting it.
Coby barely managed to keep the tears inside, but an incredibly depressed expression lay upon his face. "Y-Yeah... you're right... if only I was brave enough... Wait, Luffy-san, Law-san, why are you sailing? Are you out fishing, too?" The last part was added with a bitterly humorous tone.
The grin which was now on Luffy's face was so wide that it looked like it hurt. "We're pirates. We're going to the Grand Line and I will become the Pirate King!"
Now Coby's jaw really was hitting the floor. His gaze turned to Law, hoping for him to say that the straw-hat wearing boy wasn't serious since he was the more serious one of them, but he was still leaning back casually with a confident smirk. When he noticed Coby staring at him, he gave a brief nod to confirm that they were indeed serious about that preposterous idea.
"Th-That's impossible!" he burst out. "There's no way that you could become King of Pirates! All the pirates of the world are out to become the exact same thing! You're talking about getting wealth, fame and power! What you're saying is that you're going to get the One Piece!"
Luffy smiled and Law let out an exasperated sigh. "Sounds about right. Your point?"
Coby winced. "You're going to die, you know... If you go out there, to the Grand Line, you'll die! There's so many pirates, so much stronger than you! They're ruthless and will kill you at si- oww!" A firm fist was slammed onto Coby's head. "W-Why did you hit me, Luffy-san...?" The response was as firm as the fist.
"'Cause I couldn't stand you!"
"Ah well, I'm used to being hit anyways. My shipmates bash me on the head all the time", Coby said pitifully.
Luffy took his hat off and smiled affectionately at it, ignoring Coby's wailing. "I'm not afraid of dying! Because it's my dream, it's what I want, so I'm ready to die for it!"
"W... won't mind dying for it...?" Coby stuttered, staring at him and then Law. "What about you, Law-san?"
"The title of Pirate King does not interest me, other than the fact of being on the top of the world", said man replied bluntly. "However, I stand by the same resolve as him. In fact -" he bared his teeth slightly in a grin "- I think I'm looking forward to being on the verge of death. A good doctor should at least know what their patients feel like when their lives lie on the line between life and death."
For some reason, he really gave Coby the creeps.
"Ano... Luffy-san... do you... do you think I could accomplish my dream too?" asked the boy with the glasses and the pink hair instead of declaring Law's creepiness out loud.
"What dream?"
"My dream... to... to become a marine! Since I was a kid (at this, Law arched an eyebrow in disbelief and muttered "you look like you're six"), I've always wanted to fight bad guys! Luffy-san, Law-san, I know that it would mean we would be enemies, but it has always been my dream! Do you think I could do it?"
"I wouldn't know!"
"If they take in people who look like they're six and acts like a sad puppy, perhaps..."
"I-I have to at least try! I'd rather die than stay here much longer! I'll leave, become a marine and capture Alvida!" The shy glasses-wearing boy flinched as he realized what he'd said. "Y-Yeah... I'll leave... and I'll capture Alvida!" he declared, loudly and more determined than he'd ever been in his entire life.
Suddenly, the ceiling crashed down, merely missing the two pirates and the marine-to-be.
"Who is it you're going to capture, Coby?!" shouted a female voice. The odd trio looked up to see an extremely fat, freckled woman at the top of the ceiling, glaring down at them. Coby shivered in fear at the sight of the woman who was currently his mistress. The woman, Alvida"-sama" caught sight of the two pirates and smirked. "The straw-hat isn't Zoro, at least... but what about you, fluffy hat?"
"It can't be him. Pirate Hunter Zoro is said to use three swords, not one", one of her underlings commented.
"Right, whatever. However, Coby, I must ask you something", she seethed. "Who is the most beautiful beautiful woman of all the seas?!"
"O-Oh... well... that is of course-" said boy began, but a certain doctor and straw-hatted captain interrupted him.
"I'm not an expert when it comes to the beauty of women, but I'll say Boa Hancock 'cause I read it in some book", the doctor said, as blunt as ever.
"Coby, who's this ugly hag?" the straw-hatted captain asked, as oblivious as ever.
Alvida, Coby and the rest of her crew all gaped at the duo. For a while, the place was incredibly silent. That is, until Alvida grinded her teeth and smashed her giant mace into the floor. "YOU LITTLE BRATS!" she screamed in the process.
The duo jumped out of the way, grabbing Coby with them. In the same instant as their feet touched the deck of the ship, the pirates of Alvida's crew charged at them. It appeared to be a mistake for them pirates, because Law raised his hands and uttered the word "Room". A blue orb appeared around them and they stopped dead in their tracks, wondering what was going on. While they were at it, Law drew his nodachi and cut through the air multiple times. Through some sort of strange magic or something, all the pirates were cut into pieces. Even stranger than that, the pirate doctor moved around his hands as he said "Shambles!" and the cut-up pirates were put their limbs, torsos and heads on each other's cut-up bodies.
The image which was created was more than just bizarre. Torsos were on top of other torsos. Legs for arms. Heads on nothing but feet. Arms for legs.
And just because this was apparently an experiment on just how bizarre things can get, the doctor's captain's arm stretched as he punched all the now-misshapened members of Alvida's crew. Speaking of Alvida, she and Coby were so weirded out that they were probably about to faint from the extremely bizarre scene in front of them. (Did I mention that the scene was bizarre? I mean seriously. Whatever Oda was on when he came up with these powers, I want it!)
"Luffy-san... Law-san... what are you?!" Coby gasped.
"He's a rubber boy, hence why he's a 'human condom joke' as I mentioned earlier, and I'm an operation man", the doctor explained, his shoulders slouching as he rested his nodachi on the left one. Luffy laughed while stretching out his cheeks. "No matter how many times I hear it, it still sounds so stupid, Law!" he giggled. Said man gritted his teeth in irritation. "Well, you're no better."
As Coby proceeded to gloat in disbelief, his captain stepped forward, causing the deck to shake a bit and he ran off to hide behind Luffy in fear ('cause he'd only be even more scared if he hid behind the strange doctor). The she-pirate glared at the two. "So, you ate the legendary Devil's Fruits, did you?"
"Yup, the Gomu Gomu No Mi and the Ope Ope No Mi ones", the red-vested pirate confirmed.
"Ah. I've heard rumors of them, but I never thought they'd actually exist. For such young men you sure are skilled. Tell me, are you marines or bounty hunters?" the fat lady questioned.
"We're pirates", the two replied at the same time.
"Pirates? With only the two of you? Ha! You won't last long", she taunted.
"Do you take a seed and expect it to be a tree the minute your plant it?" Law retorted calmly, still smirking. "Just because it's currently a small crew doesn't mean it won't get bigger."
Alvida was a bit appalled at his calm demeanor, but quickly smirked back. "Oh, metaphors. I see you're going to be a great pirate, 'cause what great pirate doesn't use pretty talk? Anyhow, since we're both pirates and you're not under my flag, that means we're enemies, right?"
Coby gulped nervously and glanced at the two pirates. "Luffy-san... Law-san... Run, this person is the number one..." Because it's my dream, it's what I want, so I'm ready to die for it!
"Well, Coby? What do you have to say about this?" Alvida queried smugly.
The boy gritted his teeth, shaking in fear of what might come, but determined to do what he was about to do no matter what. "THE NUMBER ONE STINKING OLD FAT HAG!"
Insert "Dan dan DAAAAN!" here.
It was so silent that the only sound they heard was the sound of waves lapping at the ships, an amused "heh" from a half-insane operation man and a rubber idiot's laughter.
Then, of course, the silence was broken by an angry fat hag-lady who screamed "COBYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY I'LL KILL YOUUUUUUUUUUUUU" and the rubber idiot who said "Well said!" to the wimpy, pink-haired to-be-marine and pushed himself in front of that to-be-marine. The ugly fat hag raised her mace high up in the air and then let it crash down on the rubber idiot's head. A surprised gasp escaped the to-be-marine. "Luffy-san!"
"Heh... that won't work on me!" declared the rubber idiot confidently. He swung his arm back, preparing to strike. "Law! Can you cut her into pieces and make her look even uglier before I punch her?" he added over his shoulder.
"No."
"So blunt! At least give it some thought!"
"Hmm... No."
"Aww... oh well. Gomu Gomu No... Pistol!" Luffy's fist came back and punched Alvida hard in the face, sending her flying across the vast ocean. Meanwhile, Law turned to the remaining crew. "Oi." They winced in fear. "We'll be needing a boat. You'll give it to us..." He pushed up his sword from the sheath slightly, revealing its shiny metallic surface only a bit, but enough for the crew to look all the more alarmed. "... won't you?"
"Ah! Y-Yes, of course, Operation Man-san!" they assured, running off to fix them a boat. Law smiled lop-sidedly and turned to the astonished Coby. "You're coming with us, right? So you can become a marine or whatever." Coby nodded. "Good. Luffy! They've got the boat ready." He glanced towards the horizon. "And marines are coming, so we better go."
i...i
Law, Luffy and Coby were now sailing peacefully on the ocean, far away from both marines and pirates. Law was resting his elbows and back on the railing of the boat, looking up at the sky quietly with his trademark smirk on as always. Luffy was sitting on the fore of the boat, staring aimlessly at the horizon before them. Coby was steering the boat, glad to be out of all the bizarreness which had just happened.
"They mentioned a Zoro-guy earlier... who's that?" asked Luffy suddenly.
Law looked away from the sky. "If I remember correctly, I think I've heard someone say he's an infamous bounty hunter..."
Coby nodded. "That's right. They say he's a demon in human form, and recently he got captured by the marines. He's held at a Marine Base nearby. Why do you ask, Luffy-san?"
"I'm going to ask him to join my crew", he grinned in response. "If he's a good guy!"
Law laughed. "That'll be interesting to see! A pirate hunter becoming a pirate, huh."
"Luffy-san, you can't! He's captured 'cause he's a bad guy! He gives me the cree-" Coby trailed off, looking at Law who blinked in confusion as he noticed the pink-haired boy looking at him. "... uh... Well, as I was saying, you can't make your crew much scarier than it already is!"
"What's that supposed to mean...?"
AN: There we go! I hope you enjoyed this chapter of Straw and Fluff! Please review, whether you liked it or not! I want to improve! I hope I didn't go too OOC on Law... For some reason he doesn't really seem like a "I want to be the Pirate King" kinda guy to me, even though he is after the One Piece. Anyone feel the same? Oh well, thanks so much for reading and don't forget to review!