Chapter 1 East Blue arc 'Romance Dawn'
I own nothing, all characters, places, and powers belong to their respective owners.
Well, this is my first fan-fiction; I finally gone and written down my thoughts into words and put it out to the public for everyone to judge. I've had this idea stuck in my head for the better part of a year and it's evolved and been refined over that time period.
I have all the way up to Loguetown outlined, just a few details here and there, and a few blanks to fill. I plan to have anywhere from 4k-6k words per chapter.
Published: 11/7/2016
Updated: 3/12/2017
Beta: Slip Slowly Into Madness
This tale begins with a small fishing boat. Roughly twenty feet long and seven feet wide, the wooden boat has but a single mast and sail with a small cabin behind the mast. There is a pile of rope with iron rods tied to the end on the bow of the deck. It and its passengers were sailing out to sea from Foosha Village with cheers, laughs, and wishes of good luck.
"There they go…" a waving pretty green-haired lady said with a large smile "…out to go and achieve his dream."
"Makino, I keep on saying that all they are going to accomplish is bringing shame onto this village." said a frowning gray-haired old man.
"Nonsense Mayor Woop Slap, they are going to make it big, and I know one thing. You're secretly cheering them on and are proud of what they are doing." Makino said as she started heading to the Party bar. She noticed with a smile that Dandan and her bandits waving at Luffy while trying to hide behind her bar.
Oblivious to the bandit's presence, Woop Slap continued with his rant, "Hmph, going to call that darned boyfriend of yours huh? I keep telling you that pirates are no good not only did you help raise a few but you're also dating one. You should just be happy running your bar, being involved with pirates is never good."
"You say that but I won't listen, now that Luffy is gone I can fulfill my promise I made to him." She said with a skip in her step as she ran to her bar.
"Hmph." Woop Slap scoffed at her retreating back before casting a long glance at the slowly fading silhouette in the distance, a slight, fond smile worked its way onto his wrinkled face as he whispered, "Good luck boy, you'll need it.", then headed back to his house to have a much-needed cup of tea after the day's excitement.
Out on the departing ship, a raven-haired boy with a worn straw hat on his head was the aforementioned Luffy, who was standing on the bow of the ship looking out into the waters with a large, beaming smile. With one last parting glance towards Dawn Island he said: "Sabo, I'm going."
"Ah" The girl behind him suddenly pointed to the port side, saying, in a soft monotone voice, "eel sea king."
A massive forest-green eel surfaced from the depths of the sea, swimming towards the small fishing vessel that the two were on with a ravenous gaze. With its immense sharp teeth, able to swallow half the boat in a single bite and red predatory eyes made it all the more intimidating.
With a pleased smirk, Luffy responded, "That's the Lord of the Coast. Someone I wanted to meet for a while now, I have a debt to repay after all."
"Ah…him, ok."
Widening his stance with his right arm back clenched in a fist, his muscles tensed in preparation as the Lord of the Coast drew closer. Just as the eel lunged forward in a burst of speed with his mouth open, Luffy thrust his fist forward punching the air in front of him. "Take my Tobu Ken Taiho"
Thinking that nothing was going to happen, the Lord of the Coast continued on before something peculiar occurred. A fist shaped indention formed on his left cheek deforming his face as it continued to drill forward. The Sea King's face and body were violently thrust back with the resounding crack of bones and teeth. Blood spurted out of the wounds caused by the attack and the Lord of the Coast howled in pain. With his senses muddled by the attack, he barely even noticed his body being dragged down. He struggled with all his might but he couldn't fight off his assailant and through the excruciating pain, he felt his body being torn apart as he sunk further and further down into his watery grave.
Back on the surface, a crouching Luffy was looking down with a harsh glare as the waters churned, red fluids slowly mixing in with the waters whipping up into a pink foam. With a whispered, "That's for Shanks", he turned away, grinning now that the debt was repaid and looking forward to the future adventure, he thrust his hands into the air yelling at the top of his lungs, "I'M GOING TO BE THE KING OF THE PIRATES!" Watching from behind him, a small smile formed on the girl's face.
Waves crashed against the hull of a cruise ship, swaying the gigantic ship in a relaxed gentle rocking. The motion spraying a mist up into the air, sending a pleasant salty scent to be breathed in, and the breeze soothingly caressing the body. It was greatly appreciated by a short heavyset man in a sailor suit while he was leaning against the railing of the cruise ship 'The Blue Dolphin'.
"What a beautiful day", thought Bob, gazing up into the sky. "Though it is quite boring...just the way I like it."
Over the muffled clinking of plates, glasses, and the joyous talks in the dining room, footsteps were heard approaching. Turning towards the sound, Bob saw his taller and fellow crewmate Andrew, walking up to him carrying a spyglass in his right hand.
"Whatcha' doing Andrew?" Bob greeted the man.
Andrew smiled at him and leaned over the railing with a searching gaze over the glistening waters. "I heard there was a whirlpool off the port bow and wanted to see it for myself."
"Oh."
Just as Andrew was going to take a look through his spyglass, he spotted something out in the distance.
"Why is there a fishing boat approaching us?"
"Hmmm?" Turning his head to the direction that Andrew was facing, Bob noticed a small boat that definitely wasn't meant to handle the type of sea like 'The Blue Dolphin'.
"That's strange… A boat like that shouldn't be out this far. They must've gotten lost."
Taking a closer look with his spyglass, Andrew informed his fellow sailor of what was on the ship, "Two people are on it; don't look like fishermen to me. There's no fishing net on the deck or over the side…odd. One of them is a beauty though... Hey Bob, how did you not notice them while you were staring out to sea?"
"I wasn't really paying attention to anything; it's too nice of a day for me to work."
"OI! Don't say that! What if instead of a fishing boat it was a pirate ship that approached, then we would be caught with our pants down because of your incompetence!"
Bob shrugged off Andrew's worries with a careless wave of his hand. "That's what the other eyes are for; we don't need everyone watching out for pirates."
Andrew ground his teeth in aggravation at seeing Bob's carefree demeanor. Didn't the fool know the dangers of pirates?!
While the two sailors were arguing and unknowingly capturing the attention of the surrounding crew members, the fishing boat sailed up to the port side of the cruise liner. The two occupants of the vessel, the boy and girl, in an amazing show of athleticism, jumped up to the deck and tied their boat to the railing.
Luffy looked to be in his late teens and was five foot seven inches tall with a sun-kissed tan from being outdoors. He was wearing an old straw hat with a red ribbon riding atop of messy black hair, a gruesome oddly shaped burn over his unseeing right eye; looking like a circle with a small triangle underneath pointing down, partially covered by his hair. Over his toned torso and arms was a red button up long sleeved shirt with three buttons undone, a pair of blue jeans clad his lower half, held up by a brown belt and brown boots covered his feet.
The girl, however, was the real eye catcher of the pair. Andrew's description of 'a beauty' fell short by a kilometer.
Just a tad shorter than the boy, her blue eyes were half-lidded and her silver hair was cut short at the bottom of her jaw. Her pale skin shone in the afternoon sunlight. She wore a light gray kimono with black edging. The neckline was wide, showing her shoulders and extended down to the obi showing the cleavage of her massive breasts. There were two chains, one holding the sides of the kimono from fully exposing her chest to the world, and the other extending down through her cleavage from a collar around her neck. Wrapped around her narrow waist was a black obi with the bow in the front, showing the curve of her wide hips. The kimono was cut off at the middle of the shins showing that her feet were clad in black flats with straps wound around her shins and calves, and her hands were covered by the large sleeves.
Andrew, who had noticed something in the corner of his eye turned away from the red-faced Bob and saw the two teenagers board their ship. His alarmed yell startled the others around him.
"Who are you people and why are you out here?"
In a soft monotone voice, the woman replied, "Ah….Akitsu."
The boy though was the complete opposite proclaiming in a loud, joyous voice, "I'm Monkey D. Luffy and I'm going to be th-"
Before he could finish, a cannon ball whistled overhead and landed in the ocean with a booming splash, throwing up water like a large geyser. With a clamorous cry, someone shouted, "PIRATES!"
Heads swung toward the starboard side, where a monstrous ship approached. The hull of the ship was painted a bright pink, and the bow-figure was a duck. The sails had a red heart painted on them, and, what most terrified the crew, was the flag it flew. A foreboding skull with a heart on the side of it with two bones crossed into an X behind it. This was a jolly roger, as strange as it may appear, the universal symbol of a pirate.
"PIRATES!"
On top of the crow's nest, Minato, the pirate was on the lookout for easy prey. Searching through his spyglass, he saw the Blue dolphin lazily sailing by a short distance from the small island they were hiding behind. Informing the crew, he yelled below, "Notify the captain, there be a cruise liner to the North!"
Cheers of celebration for future guaranteed plunder of gold, food, and Beri followed the announcement.
Shortly following his announcement, a rugged female voice bellowed out, "No need! Raise the anchors! Unfurl the sails! Load the cannons! Let's go get'em boys!"
"Aye-Aye Lady Alvida!"
With a satisfied smirk on her face, the female captain scanned her crew and narrowed her gaze at the shaking boy hiding behind one of the water barrels. "Coby! Who is the most beautiful in all the seas?"
"Y-you are Lady Alvida", replied the boy in a scared tone. Coby was on the short side with pink hair in a bowl cut with tanned skin, and wearing thick black rimmed glasses with a white shirt that had blue stripes on his shoulders. He also wore black pants and brown boots.
Turning away from the towering woman, Coby internally fumed as he went to help the rest of the crew members get ready for the boarding. "You ugly old whale."
Truly, she was in no way a beautiful woman. A whale was a more fitting description. As wide as she was tall, freckles dotted across her nose, and black wavy hair fell down to her shoulders.
She wore a white cowgirl hat with a red plume, a pink plaid shirt stretched tightly across her torso with a dark blue coat lined with gold colored buttons and trimmings over it, and white pants with a purple sash for a belt that contained more jewels, and a flintlock pistol. On her feet were a pair of red and gold shoes, and four jeweled rings were on her right hand in which she wielded a large iron mace. The widest part of the mace was as thick as a man's torso covered in large sharp spikes, and on the handle was a large ring.
"Damn right, I am." She sneered at the Coby's retreating figure before turning to face the bow of the ship watching as they approached the cruise liner while instructing her crew members to fire cannons and purposely miss to slow the ship down.
Unfortunately for a crewmate, she saw the dolphin figurehead of the cruiser liner be shattered with an impact from a cannon ball. "Who did that!?"
Knowing it was a death sentence to lie, the responsible man stepped forward with quivering legs. "I did Lady Alvida, I'm so sorry!"
Without a hint of hesitation, Alvida pulled back her right hand and swung at him before he could even react; stopping just as one of the sharp spikes started to pierce the skin of his head. In a menacing voice, she said "You're lucky that didn't hit the hull otherwise I wouldn't have stopped."
"EEEHHH!" As soon as she took her mace away and turned around, he collapsed and urinated in his pants.
Ignoring the humiliated man, Alvida turned towards the on looking crew members. "We're close boys, throw the hooks up and pull us to the side of the ship."
"Aye-Aye, Captain!" After that terrifying display, none of the crew wanted to get on their captain's bad side.
Yet, before a certain cabin boy could get away, Alvida spotted him. "Coby, you're up first." With a kick she launched Coby over the railing and onto the deck of the Blue Dolphin, following with a jump of her own, an amazing feat for someone of her figure.
"Ouch!" Landing on his face, Coby quickly rolled to the side, with a scream, to avoid the falling bulk of Alvida. However, unlike him, she tore through the deck and landed in the middle of the dining room where all the passengers and Captain were hiding at.
"All you landlubbers hand over all your valuables or face the wrath of me, 'Iron Mace' Alvida!"
"Yes ma'am, we shall comply..." stated the Captain as he stepped forward to greet her "...it will just take a moment to gather them all." Even if it hurt his pride, the Captain knew that compliance meant that there was less of a chance of injuries and deaths than if they fought back.
Alvida scoffed at the man's cowardice. "Don't bother, my men will do it just don't get in the wa-"
She was cut off by a boisterous voice saying, "Hey you fat old hag what are you doing? I got here first so I have first dibs!"
When they heard that, many of the passengers and pirates eyes bulged out of their sockets in shock. Jaws dropped to the floor, and fear spiked through everyone except the boy who yelled and his female companion. Turning to look at the voice, they saw a teen approaching them with a woman trailing behind to the right of him, and two fearful, shaking sailors slowly following them from behind.
Looking at the woman next to the boy, a few whispers of "beautiful" could not be stopped from being uttered. Hearing it, a single vein bulged on her forehead as Alvida yelled first to the boy "Who are you, calling me an old hag..." then to her crew "...and what did you just say?"
"T-t-t-that her beauty could not even compare to yours Lady Alvida!"
"N-n-n-n-nothing Lady Alvida!"
Setting his right hand on his hat, the boy proudly declared "This is Akitsu, my crewmate, and I am Monkey D. Luffy, pirate captain, and I'm going to be the King of the Pirates! Shishishi"
A stunned moment passed in silence before it was broken by a raucous laughter.
Alvida snickered mockingly, "You? King of the Pirates? Ha! You're not even gonna survive insulting me, let alone becoming the King of the Pirates. Boys go kill him!"
With a war cry, fifteen pirates raised their swords, axes, and maces as they charged towards the boy with the intent to kill him. It was better that than to face the wrath of their captain.
Before Luffy could do anything, Akitsu started walking passed him towards the rampaging pirates.
"She gonna get killed!"
"What?!"
"Is she stupid?"
"Why is he not try to stop her?"
These alarmed thoughts ran through the minds of those looking at what would become a one-sided slaughter.
Mid-way into her third step, when the pirates were just a few feet from reaching her, she disappeared from in front of the group and appeared behind the pirates with her arms extended to her sides.
The sounds of ripping flesh and clothes along with the thundering of blood splatter echoed throughout the dining hall as parallel slashes appeared on the chests, stomachs, and sides of the Alvida Pirates. Dripping with blood were five long white claws extending out of the sleeves of Akitsu's kimono.
In a cold monotone voice, she scorned the downed pirates, "You shall not touch Ashikabi-sama." Lowering her arms to her side, her white claws retracted into her sleeve disappearing from sight.
Shivers passed through the remaining crew and passengers of the Blue Dolphin at the brutality and ease that the, seemingly, weak woman possessed to defeat men twice her size. Alvida herself unconsciously sweated a little, before rage came over her actions at the defeat of her crew. Though she did vaguely notice that each one still drew breath.
"You!" Charging with a massive leap using her momentum, she swung her mace down upon Akitsu.
With a resounding crack, the custom solid, forged iron mace that Alvida was so proud of shattered against something.
As the shards of what was once her intimidating mace scattered across the hall, they cleared giving her a clear view of what had broken her mace. Eyes widening in disbelief at the sight before all of them, was Luffy with a fist raised above his straw hat covered head, only his large grin was visible under the shadows cast by his hat.
As she realized what just happened sweat started to pour down, what she considered, her beautiful skin. Backing up in fear of the grinning monstrosity before her, she pleaded "Hey no-BLURG!", before she could finish her plea of mercy she received a fist to the gut causing her great pain. She fell down with a boom and lost consciousness.
Awed silence followed what could only be described as a beat down. Slowly someone started clapping, then another, and another. Within a few seconds, everyone was celebrating in relief.
Holding up a hand to quiet the crowd, Luffy asked with a smirk, "What are you celebrating about? I'm a pirate! I just didn't want her taking my spoils. Gather six days worth of food for two people and all will be settled." He inclined his head to his female companion. "Akitsu, go and gather the treasure from the duck ship."
Once Akitsu disappeared, a silence spread to those gathered in the hall. Glancing at the carnage, they quickly went to do what they were told; realizing that though they have to pay, they still got off quite cheap.
Turning to the remaining person in the hall, Luffy faced the fearful looking Coby, who had hid behind the pirates. "What should I do with you?"
Shaking, Coby rose his hands in front of himself in surrender. "Eeek, I'm not with them please don't attack me."
Luffy rose an unimpressed brow. "What do you mean you're not with them? I watched you arrive with them. Though you did stay in the back while your nakama were being slaughtered, so maybe you're just a coward."
An imaginary arrow flew towards Coby piercing his chest upon its shaft was the word coward; causing him to fall on his hands and knees in depression.
Eventually, Coby found a small bit of courage to stand up with a not-so-intimidating glare, looking more like a scared stare, focused on Luffy.
"I'm not a part of her crew. It was a mistake that I ever boarded their ship…" His eyes glazed over in memory. "...Two years ago, I was going down to my village's docks to board a boat to go fish. I accidentally boarded the Alvida Pirates ship by mistake. Ever since then I was forced to be a chore boy and their navigator. I hated it being forced to do something I didn't want to like that. I would wait for the chance to escape from them, but I just couldn't gather the courage to escape."
"So not only are you a coward..." another arrow pierced Coby, "...You're an idiot too." A second arrow this time with idiot written on it stabbed him.
Enraged and humiliated, Coby barked back, "Like you're one to talk! Saying stupid things like 'I'm going to be the King of the Pirates'! Do you even know what that entails? It means that-"
"I need to head to the Grand Line, travel through it, conquer it, and find the One Piece." Luffy cut him off.
"YES, exactly do you know how many pirates die trying to do that?"
"N-"
Not giving him a chance to answer, Coby continued his rant, "Hundreds, thousands, maybe even tens or hundreds of thousands, of pirates have died trying to do just that and you want to do the same?"
In a voice full of confidence and determination Luffy replied, "No, I'm not going to be the same. I'm going to be different! I'm going to travel the whole of the Grand Line. I'm going to conquer it! I'm going to find the One Piece! I AM going to be the Pirate King!"
Taking off his straw hat, Luffy gazed fondly at it. "This hat is the symbol of the pledge that I swore to a dear friend. I would become the Pirate King, and if I die in the process, then I can die with no regrets knowing that I had the determination and the will to put in the effort to obtain my dream. That is what living as a pirate is; living free to make a choice, to follow a dream, and that is exactly what I shall do." He finished by placing his hat back on his head hiding all, but the wide captivating grin in the shadows that it cast.
Coby was struck speechless. He never thought someone would be willing to put their life on the line for a dream. After a moment of awed silence, he spoke in barely a whisper. "Do you think I could do it?"
"Do what?"
"Become a Marine, I've always wanted to be a marine, catching the bad guys, protecting the world. Do you think I could do it?"
Luffy shrugged. "I don't know. The only way to find out is by trying."
A fire of determination sparked to life behind Coby's dark eyes. "I'm going to do it! I'm going to be a marine! No, not just a marine... the Fleet Admiral! I'm going to become the Fleet Admiral and catch all the pirates!"
"Even me?"
Staring into Luffy's mirthful face, he replied with no fear, no hesitation. "Yes I would if you broke the law."
The two just stared at each other for a moment before breaking out into large grins.
"Ah…I'm back."
"Ack!"
Behind Luffy, carrying a large burlap sack over her left shoulder and a small chest under her right arm, Akitsu suddenly appeared frightening Coby.
"Hey, go ahead and put the treasure into the ship." With a blur of motion, Akitsu once again disappeared. Luffy followed after her with Coby trailing behind him.
When they arrived back on the deck, two sailors walked over to them carrying two large barrels. "Here is the food that you requested, sir."
"Thank you. Akitsu catch!" Picking up the barrels, Luffy threw them overboard to the awaiting Akitsu.
All of the sudden cannon balls started to hit the ocean around the three ships. Looking to the west, they saw three marine vessels sailing toward them.
With a laugh, Luffy threw Coby, who was frozen in fear, over his shoulder and jumped down to his boat.
"Ack! What are you doing, Luffy!?"
"Bringing you with me, of course! Let's go!"
Lieutenant Adams was pushing his three ships as fast as they could to their destination. He was responding to a distress call from the cruise liner, the Blue Dolphin that was under raid from a pirate ship. From the description of the Jolly Roger and the ship it could only be 'Iron Mace' Alvida of the Alvida Pirates, and their ship the 'Beautiful Swan'.
"How anyone could find that abomination of a ship fearsome at all is a mystery in and of itself. It's more disturbing than frightening. Though, it might be so disturbing that it frightens people. They should put it out of its misery and send it to the watery depths. I probably should go easy on the crew for any male that works on that is probably under constant mental torture or they're insane and can't be held accountable for their actions, or they were driven insane by being on that man card destroying demon."
As he approached the place where the navigator of the Blue Dolphin told them was their location he noticed that the Beautiful Swan- he couldn't repress the shudder that ran down his spine at the sight- was still tied to the Blue dolphin. "Maybe I can achieve my goal of sinking it."
"Fire the cannons as a warning to not escape, prepare the boarding parties, and gather the medical staff for emergency treatment", Adams commanded his troops.
Noticing that there was no returning fire, he smirked. "Decided that facing the marines was too risky eh? Good, that makes things a lot easier. I don't have to enforce 'absolute justice' which is always a good thing for the civilian casualty count."
As they drew closer to the 0Blue Dolphin, they noticed that it was quiet. Pulling up to it, they quickly boarded and were surprised to see the pirates laying on the ground with long slashes on their torsos and blood dripping from them soaking their clothes, pooling on the deck.
Spotting a hole in the deck, Adams peered down and was shocked to find more pirates and shards of metal spread around an unconscious clothed whale in what appeared to be the dining hall. At closer examination, he was stunned to discover it wasn't what it first appeared to be. "Oh wait... that's not a whale, her description just didn't do Alvida's size justice. Heh….justice."
Glancing around, Adam's saw that his soldiers were petrified in shock at the sight before them. Breaking them of their trance, he began to bark out instructions. "What are you standing around for? Start treating injuries and start shackling the pirates!"
"Aye-aye Lieutenant!"
As his crew ran past him, he approached a nearby sailor. "Who are you and what happened here?"
"My name is Bob. I work here on the Blue Dolphin. Well, this is what happened…" As Lieutenant Adams listened to the report of the events that had transpired, he felt surprised, shock, and worry. "…once you started to fire, he grabbed the boy and fled on his ship."
Frowning, the Lieutenant processed the information. "These new pirates seem dangerous...I'm gonna have to file a report on him." He sighed at the prospect. "More paperwork…"
Turning back to the sailor, Adam's asked, "Could you write down his description? Also, please record any strange abilities."
"Why do I have a bad feeling about them?"
Sailing out into the late afternoon sun, a small fishing boat with three people calmly transversed the watery horizon.
Seeing that the danger had passed, Coby deemed it a good time to start asking questions. "So where is the rest of your crew, Luffy?"
Luffy chuckled at the inquisitive boy. "It's just the four of us right now. We're in the recruitment phase. You've been out to sea for a few years, do you know of any strong people I can recruit?"
"The only one that Lady Alvida was wary of, that I know, was the pirate hunter, Zoro."
Luffy's eyes sparkled in interest at the name. "Do you know where he is?"
"Last I heard, he was in Shells…Town….Wait! You're not thinking of recruiting him are you!?" Coby gasped in shock at the idea.
"Only if he is strong. Shishishishi."
"Are you an idiot?! He is a pirate hunter! He'll kill you! Akitsu, please help me talk some sense into him." He turned toward the silent silverette with pleading eyes.
"Ah…is he strong?"
"Not you too! What is wrong with you people!?"
While he was laughing, Luffy swore he heard a faint yell of 'my treasure' in the distance but figured it was just in his imagination.
Akitsu spent 15 minutes looking around the ship for any signs of treasure. The only things that she found were a few scraps of food, an unconscious man in the hallway, and empty rooms. Even the captain's cabin was bare of anything of value except for the clothes which, while good quality, were way too big and worn to be useable.
When she was about to return and report a mission failure, she caught sight of a small dinghy out on the sea sailing away. Putting together some of the clues she found, she decided to check out the tiny boat to see if there was a thief that got to the ship before she did. Flying across the air to the boat with kamisori, she soon arrived at the sight of an orange haired teen girl sailing the ship with quite some skill, a bag, and a chest.
She was in an orange skirt with two golden rings on the side, a white shirt with a large blue stripe across the chest with a few thinner blue stripes around different parts of the shirt, and red leather boots. Noticing a hole in the bag, where the opening was tied, shone gold with the reflective light of the sun, she concluded that this was the treasure that she was told to retrieve. With a few quick adjustments, she grabbed the bag and the chest that was next to it and then sped off back to Luffy.
"I think I am far enough away now that I won't be caught", said the young girl as she glanced back at the two ships in the distance, now just little pinpricks on the horizon. "Well, I got a good haul from that at least 4,000,000 beri for my…treasure... MY TREASURE!"
Well, I hoped you like it. Congratulation to anyone who knows where Akitsu is from.
Translations-I am using Google translate so, hopefully, these are correct if they are not please notify me and I'll change them.
Tobu Ken Taiho - Flying fist cannon
Kamisori – Razor