HeliX: Hey everyone. It's me, HeliX Sol, and have I got a story for you. This is my first One Piece story, and it's special. It's special because it has a new storyline, a new Luffy, and a new crew! Some things will be the same as they are canonically, while several things are completely different. In order for later events to make sense, I'm going to have to show you the new Luffy's origin story, starting with the day that changed several lives forever. Will you do the honors and read the disclaimer, Roger?
Gol D. Roger: Sure! HeliX Sol does not own One Piece in any way, if he did, my son Ace would still be alive and the Straw Hats would have more crew members. Is it time for the opening that tells about the One Piece?
HeliX: Yep. Let's set sail for the Red Line!
A news reel starts playing, showing a man in a red jacket kneeling on a raised platform with two military soldiers standing on either side of him, swords ready for a public execution.
"Wealth. Fame. Power. Gold Roger, the King of the Pirates, obtained this and everything else the world had to offer. And his dying words drove countless souls to the seas." The narrator, Pandaman, spoke. Then the man in the jacket, now identified as Gold Roger, began to speak as well, a large grin plastered on his face as he awaited his death.
"You want my treasure? You can have it! I left everything I had in one piece! Now you just have to find it!"
The narrator started up again. "These words lured men to the Grand Line in search of dreams never imagined, this was known as the Great Pirate Era!"
[Red Line, inside Reverse Mountain.]
A man who looked to be in his early fifties was walking inside of an extremely large volcano on the Red Line known as Reverse Mountain with about thirty men following behind him, this man was Monkey D. Garp, a Marine Vice Admiral, and he was leading his men to the center of the lava pits of Reverse Mountain because they had received intel that there were Dragonmen living there. There orders were simple, find the Dragonmen, if there were any, and kill every last one of them. Now Garp never wanted to take this mission, for Dragonmen were known for being more powerful than giants, and immune to the negative effects of Devil Fruit, meaning that they could still swim if they ate one and could not be harmed by the more lethal fruits like Logia type fruits. Another reason Garp didn't want to do this mission was the fact that the Dragonmen were distant relatives of his, very distant relatives, but they were still relatives. Now you may be wondering how Garp could be related to the strange human dragon hybrids, and it's really quite simple, for they were both descendants of an ancient kingdom that was nearly wiped from existence, the Kingdom of D.
Garp looked at his men, who were all exhausted from hiking up the colossal volcano and in no shape to face foes as strong as Dragonmen, and decided to let his noble D heart take over. "Alright men! When we get there, all we're going to do is visit with the Dragonmen, if there are any, and when we return to HQ, we'll just lie and say we didn't find any Dragonmen. Understood?"
His soldiers all saluted in agreement. "Sir, yes, sir!"
Garp smiled at them, glad that he had such understanding men. They continued their trek until they came to a group of caves, caves in the shape of houses. It looked like a small town, and in the center of what they assumed was the town square was only a single Dragonman.
When they reached the center of town, they saw that most of the houses were crumbling, some were missing walls, some were missing roofs, all in all the place looked like a ghost town. After getting a closer look, they found the Dragonman was old and withered, meaning he must have been several thousand years old, maybe even a million. He wore a plain ash gray robe that covered all but his scaly hands and face, his scales were a sickly green color, but must have been a majestic emerald shade at one point, his eyes were amber and sad, he had a pair of pale yellow whiskers and two stumps on his forehead that used to be horns. To the Marines' surprise he also had hair, even though it was white and thinning tremendously.
He looked at them and seemed to lighten up a bit. He spoke to them in a weak and raspy yet noble and commanding voice. "Hello, Marines. I take it the World Government sent you to destroy whatever Dragonmen were here? Yes? I thought so. Well I can say that I am the only remaining Dragonman, unless you count my unborn grandson here."
He held up a rather small egg for a Dragonman, it was red in color and had a peculiar marking on the shell, which, unbeknownst to the Marines, was the Dragonman character for Uranus, an ancient super weapon that played a large role in the creation of the Devil Fruits. The old man spoke again, his voice sounding weaker, like it drained too much energy just to speak. "I don't have much time left, so I will give you the short version of the story. I am Ryujin D. Fulk, King of the Dragonmen, or at least I was. This was once the place where I ruled over all Dragonmen, until the day came when the World Government began to hunt us down with Devil Fruit users with fruit different from what we were immune to. They had a Devil Fruit that could cause diseases, diseases such Hellion's Disease, a disease with a high death rate that Dragonmen are especially vulnerable to, and Zoan Devil Fruits that allowed the ability to turn into dragons. They killed everyone, I was lucky enough to make it out with the egg of my son's unborn child before they could get to either of us. If you must kill me, then please, spare my grandson and raise him as if he were your own. No matter what, never tell him his heritage until he is at least sixteen years of age. He must not know until he is old enough to understand what it is he is meant to do. I know that he is the one who will find Roger's treasure and free the world from the World Government. His human name is Luffy, but I cannot tell you what his Dragonman birth name is, for it is a very powerful name. I'll also leave with you a scroll with the entire history of the Dragonmen, it tells of why Devil Fruits do not affect us the way they affect humans, as well as sacred techniques passed down through the Dragonman royal family for generations. Guard this, and my grandson, with your very life, for he is the one who fulfill the will of Joy Boy!"
And with that, Ryujin D. Fulk left the world of the living with a yellow-fanged grin, leaving the egg and scroll in Garp's capable hands. Garp looked at the egg and wondered how he was going to explain why he had a Dragonman egg to his son Monkey D. Dragon, let alone to his entire hometown. 'I know! I'll only tell Dragon the truth, and when it hatches we'll just say it's his son, they don't show any signs of being Dragonmen unless they choose to, and can remain in human form if they choose to live amongst humans. I just gotta make sure he never loses his temper, otherwise he'll go into the infamous Berserker Form and rampage out of control.
'Luffy, huh? That's the Dragonman word for savior. This kid is gonna do big things in this world, but I'm gonna make damned sure that he becomes a member of the World Government Military, or at least pretend to.'
So Garp and his men left the Red Line for Garp's hometown, where a great hero would be born. A hero named Monkey D. Luffy!
[7 years later: Dawn Island, Goa Kingdom, Foosha Village, butchery.]
A young boy with shaggy black hair was hiding behind a barrel with a bipedal toad that stood up to his calf, a small gray cat with two x-shaped scars on its eyes, and an owl sitting atop the boy's head watching the old butcher as he chopped up some meat, waiting for him to leave the room so they could steal the food. The boy, about six years of age, was wearing a white T-shirt with a blue collar and cuffs along with shorts and a pair of sandals, he is Luffy, and he has grown into quite the trouble maker. The three animals are his life long friends, the toad was named Gamagoro, the cat was named Neko D. Scratch, and the owl was simply called Hoots.
Luffy was grinning like a fool, revealing his sharper than normal canine teeth, thinking up a scheme that would surely get their asses kicked. 'If we can steal that meat, maybe then Shanks will let us be pirates! I've already shown him that my punch is as strong as a pistol thanks to the training Grandpa Garp put me through.'
The four of them found their chance to enact their plan when the butcher went to the restroom, so they walked to the counter, grabbed as much meat as they could carry and standing tiptoeing toward the door only for the butcher's dog to come walking in. They stopped when it looked at them, sweating bullets as it glared at them like the thieves they were. Luffy, in a last ditch effort to ensure escape, meekly said. "N-n-nice doggy."
The dog barked at them, causing them to dart out of there as the angry mongrel gave chase. They ran all over town until they reached Looth Bar, where Luffy saw the very man they were trying to impress. He called out to him as if the dog weren't there. "Hey! Shanks! Look, we brought some meat that we stole from the butcher!"
Shanks, a red-headed man wearing a white shirt with black pants and a pair of goggles atop his head, who was captain of a pirate crew, looked up to see Luffy and his animal pals running from the butcher's giant Doberman. His eyes widened as he scolded the boy from where he stood. "Luffy?! What the hell?! Are you trying to get yourself killed?! That dog killed a grizzly bear without so much as a scratch!"
Later, inside the bar, Shanks was yelling at Luffy for his stupidity. "What the hell is wrong with you?! You could have gotten yourself killed!"
Luffy just grinned like a madman. "But I didn't. Did I?" Shanks just stared at him like he grew a second head. "We stole the meat and survived that dog! So, can we be pirates now?!"
Shanks just ruffled the boy's hair with a brotherly smile. "Hell no, you still don't know how to swim, Hoots's just a normal owl, Gamagoro is a toad, a fresh water animal, all it takes is for him to fall in the water one time and he'll dry up like a prune, he could die out there. Not to mention that Scratch is a cat, cats don't do water. You're leading them to their deaths with your insanity! Now stop asking to be a pirate and just sit down!"
Luffy just hung his head, his bangs shadowing his eyes. He looked up at Shanks with a fierce glare, his pupils slits in his golden irises. "First off, I've been training in a raging river to learn how to swim; I can swim in even the choppiest waters. Second off, these guys chose to become pirates with me, they would follow me anywhere! And third off, I am not insane! I am perfectly capable of being a pirate, I'll prove it by showing you how tough I am!"
He grabbed a knife from the counter in the blink of an eye and stabbed himself under his left eye, blood spurted out all over the floor. Shanks spit out the sake he was drinking when the kid did that. Even the animals were surprised. Hoots started flying around the room shrieking his little owl lungs out, Gamagoro nearly choked on a slab of steak, and Scratch flung his tail in surprise and accidentally lobbed off the tip of his tail.
Gamagoro began yelling at Luffy for his stupidity. "Boss! Why the hell would you do that?! If you stabbed just a little higher, you would've ruined your eye! You build stuff for crying out loud! Not to mention you want to become the world's best pilot, you can't ride a bicycle with only one eye!"
Luffy just gave him a blank look. "Dude, I drove Gramps's motorcycle when I was only three years old. I couldn't even speak full sentences yet! And then there was that time when everyone saw me driving the garbage truck in my sleep! So don't give me that line of crap saying that I can't be a pilot with only one eye! I just showed that I'm tough enough to be a pirate, so let me become a pirate Shanks!"
"Are you kidding me?! How my times do I have to tell you no before you'll get it through your thick skull that I won't put you in danger?! You put yourself in enough danger just asking me to be a pirate; I don't want to begin to imagine the kind of danger you'd put yourself in if you were a pirate! You're like a brother to me, I don't want you to get hurt! Your grandfather would hunt me down personally if I let something happen to you if you were part of my crew! Now shut up while I stitch up your eye!" Shanks demanded as he stitched up Luffy's self-inflicted stab wound. The boy just sat there and moped; when Shanks was done and began a conversation with one of his crew members, Luffy just reached over to a box on the counter and pulled out the purple fruit inside.
'Damn Shanks not letting me be a pirate! I'll show him I can be a pirate! He keeps making up more excuses every time I prove him wrong. I'll show him! Damn! This fruit tastes like shit!' He looked at the fruit in disgust. Then, a dark-skinned man named Higuma burst in the door with his gang of mountain bandits.
He stormed up to the counter and demanded that the bartender, a girl named Makino give him a bottle of sake. When she told him that all the sake was given to the pirates, after which he walked up to Shanks and spat in his face. "Give me your sake you stupid pirate! Or am I gonna have to kill you to get it?"
Shanks simply looked at him while his crew was secretly snickering behind Higuma. He just handed the sake to him without a fight. "Here ya go, I didn't really want any anyhow. No need to go killing people over sake; all you had to do was ask nicely."
Higuma just looked at him like he grew a second head. "Are you mocking me, pirate? I sure hope not, because I'm Higuma, and my bounty is worth 8,000,000 berris. That's higher than the East Blue's average of 3,000,000. This bottle's half empty anyhow!"
Shanks's sniper Yassop just smirked at Higuma. "If your bounty's 8,000,000; then Shanks's bounty must be worth 80,000,000! I guess the World Government will give anybody a high bounty if they're comparatively stronger to most people around here."
Steam started shooting out of Higuma's ears as he glared at everyone in Shanks's crew. "You think you're real funny; don't ya? I'll kick your asses later!"
Higuma threw the sake Shanks had given him down on the floor, making a big mess of glass and liquor, storming out of the bar. Makino went to clean up the mess, but Luffy stopped her. "Don't worry, Makino, I'll clean up that bastard's mess. And then I'll go kick his ass for disrespecting you, Shanks, and his crew."
He took the broom from Makino's hand only for him to pull a little too hard, causing his arm, and the broom, to go flying behind him and hit Yassop in the back of the head, from three feet away. Everyone looked at Luffy's arm in surprise, causing Shanks to look at the empty box that Luffy took the fruit from. "Luffy."
Luffy looked at the red-head. "What?"
Yassop drew a picture of a purple fruit with swirls on it, the exact same fruit Luffy had eaten, and showed it to the wannabe pirate. "Did you eat this fruit?"
Luffy just looked at him, not seeing his point. "Yeah, I ate that fruit, it tasted like shit. Why does it matter? I don't understand why you would put it in a treasure chest either."
Shanks looked at him sadly, yet with relief. "That was the Gum-Gum Fruit, a Devil Fruit. Now you'll never be able to swim again. So you have no chance of being a pirate now more than ever."
Luffy's eyes started to well up with tears, he shook his head angrily and ran off. Shanks got up to stop him but he grabbed onto the doorframe and launched himself like a slingshot with his new rubbery body. 'Damn fruit! Why did I have to be so stupid?! Why couldn't I have just asked what it was before eating it?! Devil Fruit or not, I'm still gonna kick Higuma's ass and be a pirate! But first, I think I'll give names to the attacks I have a feeling I can use. Let's see, I ate the Gum-Gum Fruit, so my attacks will have Gum-Gum at the beginning of their names. Now, since my punch is as strong as a pistol, a rubber-stretched punch will be called Gum-Gum Pistol. Perfect, I'll name any other attacks I may have later. I'm off to kick Higuma's ass!'
Luffy was still flying until he spotted Higuma in an alley below. 'There's that bastard! How do I get down there? I know!' He cocked his arm back with enough force for it to fly ten feet behind him, and then thrust it forward, grabbing onto a rooftop and launching himself like a rocket. "Gum-Gum… Rocket! Shishishi! Great name!"
Higuma looked up in surprise to see Luffy flying down towards him. "What!? It's that stupid little shithead from the bar! How is he flying?!"
"Higuma you bastard! This is for how you treated my friends! Gum-Gum… Pistol!" Luffy yelled as he sent an extended punch aimed at Higuma's face, landing a direct hit. "Yeah! Take that you fucktard!"
Higuma's men ran to his aid as our hero landed safely on the ground. Higuma glared at the black-haired boy. "You little shit! Grab him, boys!"
Higuma's goons rushed at Luffy, intending to kill him. The boy smirked at them before he felt some kind of tingly sensation in the back of his mind. 'What the hell is this weird feeling? A punch to the head?"
He didn't have time to think about it as he leaned his head to the left right when one of Higuma's men threw a punch at his face, which he dodged at the precise moment he threw it. "What?! How did he dodge my punch?!"
'How did I dodge that? I doubt it would've hurt, but still. It's like I could sense what he wanted to do, and they all want to kill me!' It seemed he was right, as he kept dodging their attacks as soon as they were executed. He soon decided to end it by spinning around and kicking each goon in the head, knocking them all out. "Alright Higuma, you're next! Wait, where'd he go?"
As Luffy looked around for Higuma, the Red Hair Pirates arrived and saw what Luffy had done. When Shanks saw his brother figure standing in the middle of a circle of unconscious bodies. "Luffy? What happened? Did you do this?"
"Hell yeah I did! I took them all out on my own with the power of my Devil Fruit! I kicked them all in the head, but Higuma got away. I think I'll call that attack, Gum-Gum Whip!" He smiled and gave Shanks the thumbs up. Shanks gave a thumbs up of his own, and Luffy got that weird feeling again. 'There it is again. Now I can tell where Higuma is; he's…'
"Guys! He's at the docks, he just left shore! Follow me!" He grabbed the rooftops again and leaned back, ready to launch himself again. "Wait, actually, just grab onto me! Here we go! Gum-Gum Rocket!"
Once Shanks and his crew had firmly latched onto him, Luffy kicked off the ground and flew to the docks, landing on a small fishing boat. The fisherman who owned the boat was so freaked out he jumped overboard. Luffy glared straight at Higuma's location, crawling into a rowboat. "Higuma! You bastard! I'm gonna kick your ass!"
He jumped onto the docks and ran after Higuma, jumping into the rowboat before Shanks could even stop him. The force of his jump had sent the boat floating away, giving the Red Hair Pirates a reason to worry. "Luffy! Don't worry, I'm coming to save you!"
Luffy grabbed the mountain bandit and began to punch him repeatedly until Higuma managed to grab the rubber boy's arm and throw him into the sea. As soon as Luffy hit the water, Shanks began to panic, Higuma laughed, and Luffy was surprised to find himself just floating, somehow being able to tread the water, even though he shouldn't be able to. Then that strange sensation came back once more, but the approaching creature came from under the water, with an extreme intent to kill. What confused Luffy that it wasn't directed towards him, only Shanks and Higuma.
Just then, a large gray creature burst through the water's surface and devoured a screaming Higuma, this creature was a Sea King known as the Lord of the Coast. Shanks, thinking that it would go after Luffy next, swam to the troublesome boy frantically, only for the Lord of the Coast to completely ignore the boy that was literally three feet in front of it and go after the pirate captain instead. The beast lunged at Shanks, taking a large bite, severing the man's left arm. It was about to attack again when everyone present felt a cold chill run up and down their spines, then they heard Luffy let out a loud, menacing, bestial roar, causing the dread they all felt to intensify, prompting several people to pass out. To the surprise of every human who was still conscious, the Sea King stopped its attack and looked at Luffy in fear, as if it were apologizing, then it seemingly bowed to the boy who, to everyone's surprise, was swimming to help Shanks out of the water. Luffy held his hand out to the great beast, and it simply touched it with the tip of its muzzle, allowing the boy to pet it. "It's alright, you didn't know that Shanks was trying to help me, now get out of here before you cause a panic."
To everyone's, minus Luffy, surprise, the great Lord of the Coast obeyed the young boy and swam off. Shanks looked at him in wonder and shame, wonder because the boy had swam even though he had eaten a Devil Fruit and seemingly tamed a Sea King, and shame because he had doubted that the boy could handle himself. "Hey, Luffy. Come here."
Luffy gave Shanks a confused look, but did as he was told anyway. He looked up at the red-head for an answer, only for him to tell him to close his eyes for a surprise. Not wanting to upset the man he had come to respect as a brother, he closed his eyes and felt Shanks slide something onto his head. "Okay, you can open your eyes now."
He opened his eyes to see that Shanks wasn't wearing his red and gold aviator's goggles; he reached up and felt his own forehead and found that Shanks had given them to him. He looked at him with stars in his eyes, he had never seen Shanks take off those goggles, they were like a part of him. Shanks just chuckled and ruffled his messy black hair with his only hand. "I want you to return those to me when you become a great pirate, on your own. Think you can do that for me?"
Luffy grinned like an idiot. "You bet I can! I'll return them to you when I become King of the Pirates, and the best pilot in the world! Just you wait, I'll be the captain of a Super Ship, one that will blow away all others as the greatest Super Ship the world has ever seen!"
The two of them fist bumped as they made an everlasting promise. One that would be fulfilled no matter what.
Two weeks later, the Red Hair Pirates were preparing to leave Dawn Island, but Shanks and Yassop were saying their final goodbyes to the boy who they saw had such great potential. "Goodbye, Luffy. I look forward to the day when you become King of the Pirates."
Luffy gave Shanks a goodbye hug, when he was done he turned to Yassop. "See ya, Yassop. I can't wait to see you all again."
Yassop looked down at him, being reminded of his son, Ussop, who was about the same age as him. "Ya know, I have a son who's about your age, his name's Ussop. If you ever meet him, just ask him to join your crew. He needs to go on an adventure, make some friends, maybe even get a girlfriend."
Yassop chuckled at the thought of Luffy helping Ussop get a girlfriend, and imagined the two boys being the best of friends. One of Shanks's crew members called out to them, stating that the supplies were all loaded. So Shanks and Yassop boarded the ship and waved to Luffy one last time, prompting the boy to cry before turning to go back home to his animal pals. And boy did he have a story for them.
HeliX: Well, I guess that's a wrap. Please leave a review, tell me what you think, give me some advice, and maybe ask the characters a couple questions. Either way, I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter. What do you think, Roger?
Roger: I think that boy is going to bring a bigger storm than even I did when I sailed from the East Blue. But I didn't have a Super Ship, never saw the need. He'll definitely be an amazing pirate, and an even better person.
HeliX: Thank you, Roger. That was very nice, you may go back to the Spirit Realm if you'd like.
Roger: You kiddin'? I'd rather stay and help out, plus I wanna see the things that kid'll do.
HeliX: Oh, alright. You can stay. But all you readers better leave a review, our else the Lord of the Coast will devour you next time you swim. Just kidding. Or am I? See ya!
