(Monkey D. Luffy : 17 years old)
(Monkey D. Shinji: 17 years old)
"Today's the day!" the rubber boy exclaimed happily, jumping on top of his brother to wake him up.
"Gah…baka…can't you see that I'm trying to…wait, what day is it today?" Shinji questioningly asked.
Luffy laughed, "Shishishishi, it's the day we go out to sea for the first time! Our first real journey starts today!"
Shinji slapped himself mentally, "Of course! Stupid brain!
The shield boy groaned and fell out of bed. He slowly picked himself up, and went to the bathroom to get dressed.
Luffy did so as well by buttoning his red vest, placing his straw hat over his head, and sliding his flip-flops on.
A few moments after entering, Shinji came out of the bathroom dressed in almost the same attire as Luffy, except his vest was blue instead of red, and he wasn't wearing a straw hat.
Luffy smiled and yelled out, "ADVENTURE! OFF TO THE GRAND LINE WE GO!"
Shinji cringed and covered his ears at his twin brother's screeching (You read correctly. They are twins).
"Do you have to be so loud, Luff?" Shinji asked
"Wari, wari, Shinji. I'm just too excited! We are going to be pirates!"
Shinji closed his eyes and sighed, smiling "Let's eat breakfast before we do. I want meat and some juice right now. How about you, Luffy?" As Shinji opened his eyes, he sighed again, realizing that Luffy was already eating, based on the loud noises from the kitchen.
The shield boy sprinted into the kitchen, sat down next to his brother, and ate his food at an incredible speed, finishing in close to 20 seconds flat.
Both boys let out a burp of delight and that was when Luffy noticed the note left by Dadan on the table.
"Dear Luffy and Shinji" Luffy read aloud, "Everybody is waiting down at the dock for you. Your canoe is ready."
Shinji rolled his eyes, "The hag finally had the decency to tell us where she is for once."
Luffy laughed, "Don't be like that, bro! We are probably never going to see her again…I hope."
The shield boy smiled at his brother, "Yeah…Let's get going. I wanna say goodbye to everybody."
The rubber boy nodded in agreement and stood up, and with that, they opened the door and left their home.
After 15 minutes of walking, Luffy and Shinji finally reached the dock, smiling at the faces of everyone in the village who came to see them off.
Makino ran over to the boys and hugged them tightly, with a smile. "It seems like only yesterday that you two ate those Devil Fruits and were going on little adventures all over the island.
Shinji grinned, "Yeah, if you call 9 years ago to be yesterday."
Makino giggled and hugged the boys again, "Stay safe, you two. Don't talk to any questionable strangers! Also, make sure to stay away from Garp."
With many goodbyes and blessings (even Dadan said goodbye…and gave Shinji and Luffy a whack on the head), Shinji and Luffy sat down in the canoe and were about to paddle, when all of a sudden, a sea king rose from underwater. Fortunately, Luffy and Shinji had a score to settle with this beast.
Shinji glared at the monster, "It's the same one that took away Shanks' arm!"
The monster managed to recognize the two boys, and leaped right at them, hoping to get the pray that he wanted to eat almost ten years ago.
Shinji rose his hands in the air, and yelled, "SHIELD FIELD!"
As if out of thin air, a force field was conjured around the canoe, and when the beast hit the protective field, all of the power that was going into its strike, was repelled backwards towards itself, causing it to contort and roar in pain.
Shinji smiled at his twin, "You finish him off, Luffy!"
Luffy stretched his fist out behind him, preparing a strong, yet rubbery punch, "Gum-Gum…. PISTOL!".
Quickly, the rubber boy's fist flew right at the Sea King, hitting it right in the gut, sending it flying back into the sea.
Dadan cheered, "Show that beast who's boss around here!" and suddenly started crying hysterically.
Dogra sweat-dropped, "She really is hard to understand, but Luffy and Shinji are even harder."
The boys had been rowing for hours, when finally, they decided to stop and take a break.
As they sat quietly, thinking about their next move, Shinji spotted two barrels, one on each side of the boat.
Luffy cocked his eyebrow as his brother inspected the barrels, "What are you thinking, bro?"
Shinji smiled, "Here's the plan. We ditch this canoe, and we sit in a barrel. You sit in the one on the left, and I will sit in the one on the right. Sounds good to you?"
Luffy thought for a moment, but came up with something to add on to it, "It sounds good, but I will wrap my arms around your barrel so we don't get separated from each other, alright?"
Shinji shrugged, "Works for me!". He lifted one of the barrels to the side of him and opened them both. The first barrel was completely empty, so Luffy climbed in first and closed the top of it up. When Shinji opened the second barrel, he found a skeleton and tossed it out angrily, thinking, "Who puts a skeleton in a goddamn barrel?! Probably someone who has some kind of a sexual death fetish." Shinji climbed in gingerly, and closed it as well.
"Luffy, wrap your pointer fingers around my barrel. That way, we won't get lost, and plus, your fingers would look like a giant rubber band. With that, we can fool the people who pick us both up."
Luffy stretched his two pointer fingers out, and wrapped them around his brother's barrel carefully so that they didn't get all tied up in a knot. After that, they just drifted for a while, until…
Up on the Marine ship
"Wait…Marcus, pull those barrels up here!" Fred exclaimed.
Marcus started swinging his rope into a lasso and threw it into the water, wrapping it around the barrels, pulling them up slowly. But then, a pink pirate ship in the distance shot several cannon balls at the cruise ship. The impact was so strong; in fact, it sent both barrels flying right into the kitchen of the ship.
Back to our heroes
Shinji let out a yell after both cannons were blasted into the kitchen, covering his mouth right after, his heart thumping like a gigantic drum.
"Phew, that was close! Good thing nobody heard my shout", Shinji thought with a little smile on his face.
"How you holding up, Luff?"
"Bad. My fingers feel like they. are. ON. FIRE. STUPID CANNON!" Luffy let out a loud yell right after.
"Shhhhh….Shut your mouth! Do you wanna get caught? Don't answer! Somebody is coming right now!"
Both teenagers shut their mouths as a shy, chubby boy walked into the kitchen to get the barrels for his captain, the ugly Alvida.
"I hope she doesn't hurt me even more…" The boy thought, sweating in fear.
As he was about to lift the barrels up, two strong men from Alvida's crew came into the kitchen, laughing at something completely unrelated to this story.
When they saw the boy trying to lift the barrels, they started laughing hysterically, clutching their sides.
"Coby", one of the men started to say, "what are you doing?"
"O-hh…I'm..umm…" The boy stuttered.
The other man next to the first said, "Why don't you let us take care of lifting the barrels, and go play with your toys?" still laughing.
Now, prior to the men coming into the room, Luffy had pulled his fingers back into the barrel, waiting for the right time to attack.
"Well, Joey, let's open these two up. There just might be some hard booze, or maybe some of that good old marijuana in here."
As each man reached for a barrel, they immediately let out a yelp as they were knocked out cold, each one getting hit in the head by a set of hands.
Meanwhile, the child stared, mouth-agape, at both of the freakishly strong boys who knocked out Joey and Pete easily. JOEY AND PETE NEVER, EVER WENT DOWN WITHOUT A FIGHT!
Shinji brushed some dust off his shoulder while Luffy rearranged his hat on his head, staying quiet so the boy could stop staring with his mouth open.
Finally, when the boy still would not stop staring, Luffy asked angrily, "Can you keep your mouth closed?!"
(To be Continued)