For Your Sake
Full Summary: Boa Hancock loves Monkey D. Luffy. But how far will she be willing to go for the sake of her love? And consequentially for the man she held so dear as well? She's willing to stand up against the World Government, just to save him from their clutches.
Main Pairings: Luffy and Hancock, albeit a bit later on.
Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece or any of its characters. They are the sole property of Eiichiro Oda.
Capture
Monkey D. Luffy and his crew had just set sail from the shore of Sabaody Archipelago. To him, everything felt perfect at this moment. His brother, Portgas D. Ace had been successfully saved from the hands of the Marines two years ago at the War of the Best, and was now back with his family, the Whitebeard Pirates. Even though their captain had sacrificed himself for the sake of his crew and had as a result of it lost his life, they couldn't be more proud of a father than they were of Whitebeard. He had given up his life to save one of his sons, and somehow Ace felt as if he would never be able to repay the old man for all that he had done for him. Thinking as to how Ace was probably enjoying himself with Marco, Vistar, Jozu and the rest of his crew, Luffy felt a small smile forming on his face.
He had also managed to be reunited with his crew, after two entire years of separation. Originally, he had planned to meet up with them after he had successfully escaped from MarineFord, but the first mate of the Roger Pirates, Silvers Rayleigh, had told him how it wouldn't be a good idea to meet up with them and set sail for the New World almost abruptly. When Luffy had gotten angry and protested why, as he had longed to see his crew ever since that day when they had all been split up by Bartholomew Kuma at Sabaody, Rayleigh informed him that how even though he had successfully managed to save Ace, he had done so with a hair's breadth and if it were not for the help of all the Whitebeard Pirates and their allies, he probably wouldn't have managed to save his brother. Luffy had opened his mouth to retaliate, but saw the reason in the man's words, and decided to listen to what he had to say next. Silvers then told him that it would probably be a good idea to train for a longer period of time, and then after that, they would be ready to set sail for the New World. Luffy then decided that Rayleigh's decision was the best, and decided to convey the same news to his crewmates. Now, after two whole years of separation, here they were again, joined together as the big family that they had been ever since the Strawhat Pirates had been formed.
Lastly, although he would not tell anyone this, was the fact that he had the life of his time in those two years on Amazon Lily. Not to say that he had not managed to enjoy himself before, but well Monkey D. Luffy was a sucker for anything that tended to give him a really good adventure. That , and the fact that he loved meat to the moon and back. Well, having said this, anyone that offered Luffy meat instantly became a real darling to him. And the Pirate Empress, Boa Hancock had certainly managed to fulfill this certain aspect. She pampered him with meat as much as possible between his training sessions with the Dark King, and Luffy his affection for the Warlord growing with each time that she appeared with her subordinates on the Island, carrying stack tones of meat. Seeing this daily made him feel a bit warmer and certainly did make him is able to go through the training sessions properly, even though Rayleigh himself was not an avid supporter of this idea. He preferred that Luffy himself make food of anything that was present on the island, but well, Luffy could be a bit stubborn sometimes. So in the end, Rayleigh had to resign his decision to be strict about Luffy's diet. Besides, it seemed to have no adverse effects on his diet, so it wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
Hancock herself had seen Luffy off at the Archipelago, expressing her desire to see him soon. She had also offered her hand in marriage to him, but Luffy had turned her down, saying that he was not interested in marriage himself. However, as he went away from the older woman, he waved back at her and promised that he would definitely stop by the island again to check up on her. This made Hancock's heart flutter, and suddenly her cheeks became a messy shade of red that ran all the way to her ears.
"Luffy, how on earth did you manage to meet someone as amazing as Boa Hancock, the Pirate Empress?"
Luffy's train of thoughts was cut off by the sound of his cook, Sanji, so he turned to face him, from his position on the mast of the ship. He had wanted to get a better look at their surroundings, his keen sense of adventure kicking in. A wide grin was already plastered to his face, and he placed his hands on his legs, and then said, "Well, when that bear-guy blasted us off Sabaody, he sent me to the island where I met Hancock. And we became friends!"
Leave it to Luffy to explain things in such an ambiguous manner.
Sanji felt the rage welling up in him, and comically, proceeded to grab the rubber man by the hem of his shirt and shook him violently, tears streaming down his eyes. He was still angry that Luffy had spent two years on the island of dreams for most of the men in the world, while he had to spend the last two years of his life fleeing from the advances of the Okama who were on Kamabakka Kingdom. Honestly, any one would feel enraged by this; however Luffy genuinely found the whole matter funny, so he could not hold in his laughter. Samji merely shook the rubber man vigorously, while repeating the words, "You lucky, lucky, shitty rubber!"
"So, Luffy, how was it there? Amazon Lily, I mean."
This was the voice of Luffy's navigator, Nami. She had gotten curious about the island after hearing about it from the archaeologist, Nico Robin. She did not know anything about any all-female islands, so this generally made her curious as to what kind of an island it was. Maybe it was a bit better than her own island of Cocoyashi, as she had no idea as to how a woman was able to be ruler of an entire island all by herself. Nami knew that Princess Vivi was someone in authority, but she really didn't do much to help govern Alabasta Kingdom, leaving it all to her dad, King Nefertari Cobra.
Luffy, who was still being shook by Sanji, shot a glance at his navigator, then said, '"It was fun! I had lots and lots of meat to eat! And the people there were really nice to me, but they kept on pulling my skin and even started a business where people had to pay to touch me! It was hilarious!" Nami's eyes widened in amusement, and then she found herself closing her eyes and chuckling a little to Luffy's story. Well, even though it wasn't exactly detailed as much as she wanted, she would have to go with Luffy's description, for now.
Roronoa Zoro, who was currently napping at the base of the sail, having exhausted himself prior to his trip here from Kuragaina Island, suddenly woke up with a start. Sanji and Luffy, who were still in the middle of their crazy antics, noticed the green-haired swordsman sudden wake, and Luffy asked him, "What's wrong, Zoro?" However, Luffy's gaze suddenly became more serious and alongside the cook next to him, the two of them stared into the distance, where there was a ship approaching them.
It was a Navy ship, evident as to the Jolly Roger that it sported, which had the Marine's symbol of an anchor and the familiar blue color of the anchor, plus the name "Marine", etched into the sail of the ship. Immediately, Sanji released Luffy, and the rubber man walked until the edge of the ship, preparing to encounter the new threat that had just imposed itself on them. It wasn't exactly surprising. Luffy's bounty had recently risen to 400 million berries, after his infiltration of Impel Down, and his participation in the war. However, he had not expected to meet enemies this early, as he and his crew had just resurfaced recently after two years of inactivity.
"What should we do Luffy? Should we attack?" Robin asked, having appeared behind Luffy to get a better view of their enemies.
"No. They probably won't pose much of a threat. I'll just shoot back all the cannon balls they shoot at us," Luffy replied to his crewmate, while adjusting his straw hat, preparing to end this feud as soon as possible.
However, unknown to the Strawhat pirates, the Marines on the ship were led by the fearsome Vice Admiral, Onigumo. The man, who was known by the men on his ship for his famous reputation as being a firm believer of Absolute Justice, was seated in the middle of the ship, a cigarette popping out of his mouth. One of his subordinates approached him, and then told him, "Sir, we have confirmed the presence of the Strawhat Pirates. They are in the direction of 12 o'clock, just ahead of us."
The Vice Admiral let out a puff of smoke, then an evil grin broke out on his face. Ever since his first encounter with the Strawhats two years ago, when he had met them on Enies Lobby after they had infiltrated the Government Island to save their comrade, Nico Robin, he had found his anger at the captain of the crew growing with each and each incident he found himself in. He had defeated the leader of the CP-9, Rob Lucci, and in doing so shamed the World Government, which had put so much pride in the investigation unit as being their strongest Cipher Pol unit. Luffy and his friends had also miraculously escaped the Buster Call, making them the first people to do so in the history since the practice had started, and thus smudged the government's name and pride even further.
In addition to that, the Strawhat Captain had also managed to save his brother, Fire Fist Ace, from the clutches of the Navy two years ago; while they had planned to use the infamous pirate to serve as an example that no one was able to escape the wrath of the marines. Onigumo himself had been the Vice Admiral who had been sent to Impel Down to fetch Ace and deliver him to his final resting place, in MarineFord. The Vice Admiral had never felt so insulted in his life, as he had been one of the people who had been summoned to MarineFord to deal with the Whitebeard Pirates, and yet they had failed in their prime task. As an enforcer of absolute justice, he could not let such atrocities pass before his eyes.
Therefore, he had made it his personal goal to capture the Strawhat Pirates Captain, Monkey D. Luffy. Even though he knew that he was probably acting outside orders, and that the newly appointed Fleet Admiral, Sakazuki, would probably punish him for acting out of order, he still had to capture the pirate, and, acting on information from one of his men who was currently on Sabaody, after having spotted Luffy strolling through the town nonchalantly, he had managed to pinpoint the position of their ship, as he knew that it had not departed too long ago from the island.
The broad man got up from his position on the chair, and then said to his subordinates, who were all positioned around him awaiting orders, "Ready the new equipment. We'll have that man down in a few minutes."
"Sir, yes sir!" The Marines shouted in unison, and they rushed to the base of the ship, where there lay a cart that was full of pistols. Next to the cart that was full of pistols, was a cart that had bullets in it. However, the bullets themselves were odd. They were each grey in color, and were quite lengthy, as opposed to the normal caliber bullets which they used in their day to day activities. The Marines quickly loaded the guns with the bullets, and within a matter of seconds, they had returned to the top of the ship, where their commander lay in wait. The sight of his men resurfacing had put him at ease, as he realized that they had no difficulties in loading the guns with the new ammunition that they had recently received.
Luffy, who was still standing at the top of the ship looking outwards at the ship of approaching Marines, found he yawning due to boredom. Around a minute had passed, and they still hadn't done anything. This was quite strange, since most times that they encountered a pirate ship; they tended not to hold back and released fire immediately. However, this time it seemed as if they were holding back intentionally, as if they were preparing for something.
As Luffy was about to turn to Usopp and give him the leeway to release fire on the ship, he saw the glint of something from the corner of his eye. Looking closer as to where the glint had come from, he saw that there were several guns that were pointed in the direction of the Thousand Sunny. The glint itself was caused by the reflection of the sunlight on the metallic surfaces that were on the pistols currently held by the Marines.
"Oh, so they decided to go with simpler tactics this time then?" An amused Zoro expressed from the base of the mast, where he had decided to rest himself since Luffy had decided to deal with the incoming menace himself. He had been so used to cutting through cannon balls in the numerous attacks that the crew had withstood ever since their reputation sky-rocketed two years ago, that he had forgotten the nostalgic feeling of having to cut through, evade and dodge several minute attacks from bullets that were aimed at him.
"Yohohohohoho! How scary!" This was the voice of the Srawhat Pirates musician, Brook, who was strumming his guitar while he looked at the ship that was in front of them. Knowing that bullets could not harm him as he was already dead, he threw away all caution to the wind and decided to engage in a song that would at least keep the crew entertained till their next island.
"Fire!" A distant order ensued, breaking the tension that was currently in the air between the two ships, and suddenly a rain of bullets descended on the Thousand Sunny.
"Gomu Gomu no….Fuusen!" Luffy shouted, and immediately his body swelled up to the size of a large balloon. He felt himself going higher and higher into the air, and laughed a little. Honestly, the feeling of flying was always amazing; no matter how many times he had used the move to defend against wide-range attacks, such as what was coming his way at the moment. While Luffy was well aware that his crew was capable of handling the attack, it was his duty as Captain to defend his crew, plus also his ship from possible damage caused by enemy fire.
He waited for the feel of the bullets bounce off his skin, but it never came. Instead, what came was pain. White-hot, searing pain, that he suddenly became aware of in all the nerves of his body. Looking down at his torso where most of the attacks had landed, he was shocked to see blood oozing from several points of his torso. This was certainly not something he had braced himself for, as he could not remember the last time when he felt the actual sting of bullets hitting his body. He felt himself deflate slowly, and realized that he was falling, falling, into the sea that lay below him and the ship's surface.
"Luffy!" The sound of his doctor, Tony Tony Chopper, managed to reach his ears, before everything suddenly turned black, and there was the sound of a splash as his body landed into the water
A/N: Well, there's chapter one of my new fanfic, titled "For Your Sake." I wasn't really sure about whether I should write a One Piece fanfic or not, but then I was like "Aaaah, to hell with it." So here it is. I hope it was a satisfying first chapter to read, and if you found it to be interesting, do make sure to leave a review. Cheers!