General Warnings: Language, some violence, time travel
Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, it belongs to Oda-sensei (I will never be good enough to own it *cries). I only own some of the plot and any (or non) of my own original character/s.
No romantic non-canon pairings
Author's Notes:
So, I guess I uploaded a bit later than a week... but I said a week or so, so a few day later should be okay! Second chapter finally here! Hope you enjoy!
(Just in case if you are confused, the "~XXX-POV~" just serves like a miniature line break for a P.O.V chance, whether else just "~XXX~" means a time-skip or a miniature line break)
EDIT (23-4-2015): My beta, Black Night Wolf had helped me fix this chapter!
Chapter Two: Too. Much. Thinking.
Luffy woke up as he blinked weakly. The sun was just rising and the surroundings were still dark; the trees casting looming shadows. Still, some how, a beam of light shone right in his eye and he hated it. His head was pounding and he felt dizzy, like that time he drank with Shanks and woke up 2 days later with a massive hangover -Shanks was the only person that could make him feel so drunk. All he wanted to do was to crawl away from the light into the shade and sleep, but he pushed himself up with his arms. The grass beneath him tickled as he forced himself to sit up- not drop back down-, and he laughed, but that just sent another wave of pain through his mind.
He glanced at the environment around him. "Huh, this doesn't seem like where I was before. I wonder what-"
A roar cut him off mid-sentence. Luffy turned around to glare at the thing that had made the noise. A larger than usual lion stared down at him, growling fiercely. The beast was looking like it was ready to bite Luffy's head off, licking its sharp jaws, mouth drooling. It was a beast that would send normal grown men running, but Luffy wasn't normal.
"Oi! That was rude, you bastard." Luffy mumbled, clutching his head as a jolt of pain ran through him.
The lion licked its jaws for a final time before lunging at the seemly harmless young man. The only reaction of the young man who just woke up was to move his head to the side and the lion snapped at the air besides him. The beast was shocked that the puny human had somehow managed to dodge his attack and got ready to strike again.
Grumbling could be heard from Luffy's flat stomach. He looked down at his belly then back up at the lion. He smirked.
"It seems like you didn't hear me the first time." He said, eyes staring at the lion with obvious hunger in them.
The lion froze mid chomp, its eye going wide. He finally realized how stupid it had been to try to threaten the man. It shut its mouth and started to back away.
"Oh, trying to escape aren't you?"
The beast panicked and turned tail, planning to get away as fast as it could, away from the dangerous man that is emitting the aura of a predator. Before the lion could even take a single step, a sharp pain ran through its brain and it collapsed, the pain far too strong for it to take.
Luffy took a step closer to the downed animal and punched it on the head with one sharp blow, killing it effectively.
"Hmm, you were weak."
Luffy then glanced around, several birds that didn't escape from the area quickly enough had also dropped from the sky. He looked at them with pursed lips. "Sorry didn't mean to do that, seems like the headache was stronger than I thought, I couldn't control the haki properly."
He licked his lips and was suddenly much more cheerful. "But hey! I get more to eat!"
Ending on that happy note, he wandered around to collect some firewood to cook his meat (which also meant bulldozing down some of the trees due to his temporary discoordination). As he walked, he recognized a few of the trees and scenery, but for some reason he couldn't place his finger on where he was. He could also sense that this island was inhabited, which means he could go and ask the villagers for his whereabouts.
The Pirate King's stomach growled, reminding him that he was hungry. Ah, whatever, he could think about his placement over breakfast. He ran back to the dead carcass and started a fire with the wood he gathered. As the meat cooked (far too slowly, he reckoned), he started to try to solve the mystery of where he was. This place didn't seem like it was in the New World (the animals were too small, too weak, and the place has a strange sense of peace, even though he felt a prejudicial evil aura towards his far right.), and he didn't really want to bother the local villagers anyways. With his reputation as Pirate King, which comes with many false rumors, the villagers was more likely to run away and/or faint rather than to give him directions.
Smoke began to rise from his head as he raked through his brain to try and think of where he had seen this forest before. He had been to countless islands and had lost track of what was what and where was where (that was Nami's job anyways). When his head felt like it was going to split, he decided to stop. Meh, he would finish his meat before finding his way back to Raftel one way or another, there was no point trying to think about it.
After eating the lion and scraping the meat off the poor birds (both of which only took a few minutes. It was barely enough, but it did made his headache go away), he heard a rustling in the bushes that surrounded the clearing he was in. He directed his observation haki at the noise. To his delight, his senses told him it was a person, even though the presence felt very weak and small. Maybe this person could tell him where he was and how to get out!
Smiling widely -he didn't need to think about where he is anymore- he waited for the mystery person to come out into the clearing. He waited eagerly, leaning forward to due to the excitement of solving the mystery and meeting a new person who could possibly be a new friend.
To Luffy's surprise, a young boy came stumbling out into the clearing, looking like he was near death. The boy was bleeding and coated with blood, sweat and dirt. On a closer look, he looked starved and was only managing to walk out of sheer will power.
"Hey, are you okay?" Luffy asked, concern laced in his voice. He normally wouldn't show much concern to just anybody, but this kid somehow reminded him of his own childhood. The look in the boy's eyes showed pain and loneliness, just like how he felt before he met Shanks, Ace, and Sabo. The kid's unfocused gaze lifted to look at Luffy.
"H-help."
That was all the kid could mutter out before his knees gave out. Luffy caught the unconscious kid in both arms before the boy could hit the ground. The tired little round face along with the lithe body made the kid look like he was four or five years old, but Luffy couldn't be certain. He himself after all, was small for his age when he was a kid too.
He didn't know what the kid meant to him and why he felt the need to save him, but he knew it was going to make his life more complicated (not that it wasn't already). Whatever, he had hoped for the person in the bushes to be his friend and the boy sure looks like he needed one.
~XXX~
Luffy had never took care of someone younger than him, much less a kid, but he did know he had to do something about the bleeding. Chopper once told him that not everyone was like him and Zoro, and they would die if they lost too much blood. He wasn't sure how much was too much, but the kid was very pale and the amount of blood that was on the clothing looked like the kid already lost one-sixth of his blood. Most of the wounds on the kid's body stopped bleeding already and most of the blood was dry, but nonetheless he should wrap the wounds in something to make it better.
He also knew that he should clean up the boy, as Chopper said that unclean people will get sick, and he didn't want the boy that he could possibly be friends with, to die in his care. His devil fruit made it so that he couldn't wash the boy in the sea, (he couldn't smell any nearby salt water anyways), but using his Observation haki -a damn useful thing to know-, he found another clearing in the forest that had a small river and a small waterfall. It was okay for him to touch fresh water as he found out a while ago, so he proceeded to take off the boy's clothing and his own vest and captain's cloak; placing them on a flat rock and stepped into the water with the boy that was still unconscious in his arms. He wadded through the ankle deep clear water until he reached a slightly deeper part of the river, where he began to scrub the boy as gently as he could with his hands; trying his best not to drown the boy. The boy's hair gleamed a soft shiny black after he washed the hair that was matted with blood and dirt.
When Luffy deemed the kid clean enough, he carried the limp body back to the river bank and laid him down where the clothing was. He dried the boy with his own relatively clean vest and tore it up into strips to serve as a temporary bandage to put pressure on the wounds. Then he laid his cloak on top of the boy, just in case the boy was cold.
Noticing the boy's clothing that was quite (really) dirty, he picked them up and went back to the river to wash them. The boy needed something to wear when he woke up after all (not that Luffy cared if people were naked or not) and Luffy does know how to wash stuff (courtesy of Nami and other female's in his life). He dunked the clothing into the river before scrubbing madly at them.
While he tried to clean all the gunk that was on the boy's shirt and shorts, he noticed that there were a few creatures in the water trying to sneak up on him. Crocodiles with big jaws swam under the water's surface, hard to detect by anyone inexperienced. Luffy watched them swim closer to him. Perfect, he thought. He needed some meat after all this hard work.
~XXX-POV~
"Ah, you're awake?"
The little boy glanced around at his side and through his blurry vision he could see a human shaped blob next to him. Was he safe at last? Did he survive from the beast that was chasing him? Or was he in that place Gramps said was up in the clouds?
Wide eyes blinked again, and this time he could see the man more clearly. The guy looked much older than him and looked like he was smiling at him.
"W-what?" The young boy stuttered. His throat hurt and he was confused. He had never met this man before, was he the person who saved him? Something was thrusted in front of his face.
"Here, drink this!"
Even though he didn't know what the person offered him, he figured it couldn't hurt so he tilted his head back and opened his mouth. Cool, refreshing liquid ran down his sore throat.
Ah! It was water! He happily gulped down the water from the man's cupped hands, ignoring that some of it dripped down his chin. Once he was free from the pain, he took a better look at the stranger.
A straw hat on top of messy black hair, wide brown eyes, a scar on his left cheek, a 'X' shaped scar on his muscled chest, and most importantly, a 'D' shaped grin. He noticed that his apparent savior was shirtless, only wearing his blue shorts.
Glancing down at himself, he noticed red fabric was bandaged around his body, and red and gold fabric that covered his naked body. That seemed to be part of the stranger's outfit. His shirt and shorts was lying next to him so he wore his clothing and handed the cloak back to the stranger. The stranger grinned even wider when he took the cloak, and hung it from his shoulders, his scar shown proudly to the world. The man, the boy thought, looked cool in the outfit. He tried standing up, but he winced from pain before sitting down again.
"Who are you?" The young boy asked curiously when the straw-hatted man sat down and faced him eye to eye. He noticed the man and himself had similar eyes, but the man's were more narrower and sharper.
"Shishishi," the man laughed. "Not going to tell you yet." He stuck out his tongue childishly at the boy.
"Meanie!" The kid said, pouting.
"So who are you?" The stranger asked the kid's own question back at him.
"Me? Oh, I'm L-" The boy was cut short when a loud roaring sound came from the woods surrounding them. Crashes were heard and trees fell down as something moved across the forest ground towards them. A huge bear, many times bigger than either of them, came into the clearing.
"It's-it's him!" The boy yelled, his body stiffened with fear as his face paled.
"What's wrong?"
"We-we have to run! It's the bear that was chasing me before, it can fight on par to the Tiger Lord!" The boy picked himself up, only to fall back down. He could only watch in horror as the bear came closer and closer to them, it's eyes' glaring at the prey that had escaped him before. The man next to him wasn't running or panicking, only watching the bear out of the corner of his eyes.
What's wrong with him! Wasn't he scared that the bear would kill and eat both of them? Wasn't he scared of death?
Just as the bear was right above them, the man stood up and glared at the bear.
"Shut up! Can't you see you're interrupting my conversation here? This is the the second time already, -and people say I'm the rude one!" The man shouted, his face twisted into a frown.
What was the man doing? It would get him killed. The boy so desperately wanted to close his eyes, to turn away, to cover his face, to faint, to do something to not face the impending doom that was coming his way; but he couldn't.
Maybe it's because of the man, the stranger that was oozing out so much confidence. Maybe it's because the man seemed so brave. Whatever it was, for some reason, he knew that the man would defend him.
The bear's gaze switched over to the man, yet the man wasn't afraid. All of a sudden the bear swiped a large paw at the man, but the man didn't move, didn't seem startled.
"Watch out!" The boy cried out. The man turned to face him and grinned.
"It's okay. Don't worry, I can defeat it, it's weak." The man said nonchalantly, just before the bear's paw hit his body straight on.
But the man didn't fly away and didn't get smacked into the forest by the power of the blow.
The boy's eyes widened. The man was still standing there, as if he didn't get hit with a force that could knock down some of the biggest and thickest trees he knew.
The man's smirk widen, still facing him.
"See, I told you I would be okay." He said, before facing the bear and cocking his fist back.
"Now time to take care of this." His arm stretched further and further back.
"Gomu Gomu no Pistol!" The man shouted, fist zooming past his face and towards the beast. The fist hit its target with a satisfying crunch. The bear roared in pain before its eyes rolled to the back of its head and dropped down comically in a dead faint.
The boy's jaw dropped. The stranger defeated one of the forest's strongest animals with just one hit. S-s-so cool! Eyes turned to stars as he looked at the man with admiration.
The man turned around to smiled at him. "The bear is unconscious, it won't be waking up anytime soon."
The man sounded so awesome and strong! The little boy's fist clenched in determination, and silently made a promise. Alright, he will one day be as strong as this man! Even though he just met the man, the stranger had already became his idol. Now the question was, who or what is his new idol?
"W-who are-" The boy was cut short by a large grumbling noise that was -for once- not an animal. Both males looked down at their stomach and said the same same time.
"'I'm hungry."
~XXX-POV~
Luffy chuckled. He liked this kid already.
"Let's eat first, questions later!" He exclaimed, jabbing a thumb at the direction of the crocodile meat that should be done and ready to be eaten.
"Food!" All questions forgotten, the kid ran towards the crocodile, drooling from the mouth. Luffy ran after him.
"Oi!" He wasn't going to let the kid eat all the meat even though he offered it to him. Normally, he doesn't like to share his meat with people he just met (he wasn't a hero!), but for some reason he did. Maybe because the kid was hurt, and meat heals everything and he wanted the kid to heal faster? Or maybe because the kid looked like he was starved (and if Sanji was alive, he would kick Luffy's head in)? Or maybe it's because he wanted the kid to be his new friend. Luffy thinks it's a combination of all three.
The kid skidded to a sudden halt by the food and turned around to face Luffy. There was a hungry, desperate, pleading looking in the boy's eyes, as if begging for Luffy's permission to eat.
Blinking with surprise -he himself wouldn't pause and ask for permission- Luffy nodded, giving the boy the go-ahead to dig in.
Bits of meat flew everywhere as both of them tore apart the crocodile with their bare hands and began shoving the meat into their mouths. Occasionally, the kid would have trouble with a particular part of the crocodile, so Luffy would kindly stop for a few seconds to eat that part, in exchange for a piece of meat that he already tore off and was easier to chew. They ate almost in sync, dealing with the leathery skin easily.
When they were finished with their meal, Luffy was glad to see that his future friend was looking less bony and skinny and that his skin color looked more healthier. The crocodile was stripped to the bone and the mighty beasts that lived in the river was now gleaming shiny with saliva under the sun.
"So..."
There was a awkward silence, but neither Luffy or the kid noticed it.
"Yo!" Both of them lifted a hand to greet each other at the same time.
~XXX-POV~
The kid blinked.
"Shishishi. Your funny, kid!" The boy looked blankly at the man who was laughing, before scowling the best he could, which was more cute than imitating.
"Shut up! What's so funny!" The kid exclaimed, pointing a finger in the man's face. This only caused his idol to laugh even harder. He blushed, with anger and embarrassment.
"Nothing. Hey, do you want to be my nakama?"
"Huh? N-nakama?" The kid stared at the man dumbfounded. He thought that the man would hit him for being so rude (like his grandpa).
"Yeah, nakama! You know what is means, right? Nakama is-"
He cut the man off. "I know what it means. I'm not stupid! Makino told me!"
The man blinked as he registered his words. "Makino?"
"Yeah, what about it?" He wasn't about to forgive the man so easily for thinking he was dumb, idol or not.
"You know Makino? From Dawn island?" The man questioned.
"I do. She takes care of me whenever gramps isn't here," he replied. What was the man getting at? He narrowed his eyes. "Why?"
"Wait- so which island am I on right now?"
Was this man stupid, he didn't even know which island he was on. And the man dared to think he was stupid?
"On Dawn island, in East Blue, duh."
"Are you sure?"
Was the man questioning him? Ha, he'll show him!
"Yes! I have lived here my whole life, of course I'm sure."
The stranger then stood up and paced around the forest while muttering to himself. His face turned redder and redder, until smoke began rising out of his head. The kid watched him as he walked back and forth.
What's wrong, was the man angry at him? He didn't want that! He wants to be friends -nakama! Was the man going to withdraw his offer because he made him mad?
"So I traveled that far before I woke up, huh? This is exactly like what happened when Kuma hit me, except I know where I landed on now. But I don't remember flying for three days and nights, and besides, Franky fixed him and gave him to Dragon, so he shouldn't have attacked me. So it's a mystery force that sent me here! Maybe the mystery force and Kuma are related, li-like they are brothers or something! But that couldn't be the case, cause there's only one type of each devil fruit. Arghhh! This is so frustrating!"
The man let out a sudden roar and flopped down onto the floor. The boy jumped, before cautiously heading towards the fallen man.
Was he okay? He grabbed one of the man's hands to try and pull him off the floor. To his surprise, the man's arm stretched like a rubber band and the man's body was still lying on the ground like a dead fish.
"Ehh!" The kid yelped, dropping the man's hand as it flopped bonelessly onto the ground. "What!"
"Huh?" The man said, before he dug his feet into the ground and bent his body forward so he stood up straight again. "What are you panicking about?"
"Your-your arm! It stretched!" The boy shouted.
"I'm a rubber man, don't you know? I thought you saw me use the Gomu Gomu no Pistol on that bear earlier?" The man said with half lidded eyes, as if it was obvious.
The boy blushed as he turned his head away from the man. It was true that he saw the man's arm stretch in his attack, but back then he was too frightened of the bear to question it, and when there was food, he had quickly forgotten. He quickly searched his tiny mind for a comeback to the stranger.
"What the hell are you anyways?" (that was a feeble comeback)
"Oh, I'm a pirate." The man said cheerfully, as if that answered everything.
"That didn't answer anything!" The boy shouted, before the man's words working into his brain. "Wait, you're a pirate?"
When the man nodded, he asked again.
"Why? Gramps told me pirates are bad guys." This man didn't sound like any of the pirates that Gramps told him about and his new hero couldn't possibly be a bad guy.
The man reached towards his own head, lowering the straw hat so only his mouth could be seen.
"Because pirates are free, and I am the freest man in all the seas." He said, before lifting his head, smiling widely with his eyes closed.
"W-wow" The man was so cool... but... "Grandpa always told me if I see a pirate I should beat him up."
The man laughed.
"Your grandpa sounds pretty stupid." The man replied bluntly.
The boy nodded in agreement. Yeah his Gramps was dumb and a big jerk.
"He wants me to be a strong marine, but I don't want to join the marines, they don't sound fun. My gramps throws me into the forest for training all the time. I don't want to be a marine if it means training like that!"
"Shishishi" The man laughed his strange laugh.
"Your gramps sounds like my gramps. He also likes to throw me into the forest and ties me to balloons for training. I think they would be great friends if they met." As soon as he said that, the thought of something ran through his head and the man visibly shivered.
"Maybe they're already friends, after all, they came from the same island." The man muttered, sounding like he was in despair.
~XXX-POV~
Oh no! He was scared of his grandpa and the thought of two old men with bellowing laughs, eating doughnuts while hitting their grandsons on the head with twin Fist of Loves, being friends with each other was too much to take in.
Luffy blanked out for a while, thinking of all the horrors that could happen. But then... Luffy thought for a while before he eyed his new friend with suspicion for a second before asking,
"What's the name of your gramps?"
"O-oh, my Gramps is Monkey D. Garp." The boy said said, taken back at the sudden change in tone.
"Huh?" What? Luffy stared wide eyed at the little boy. Had he got a little brother or a relative of some sort he never heard of?
~XXX-POV~
The kid stared up at the man. The man looked like he was confused and seemed to be in deep thought. Does this man know his Gramps? Maybe he heard of him before? If they did know each other, should he introduce himself to the man? The man seemed friendly enough and he really, really wanted a friend. The only people that bothered to talk to him was Makino (a kind lady), and his Gramps (a mean old man), so he often felt oh-so lonely...
Alright! He will make the guy who saved his life (and gave him meat, something which he didn't eat for days) his new friend!
"Be my friend! I am Monkey D. Luffy!" The young boy said, smiling one of his 'D' shaped grins that was similar to his hero's (which were not cute, 'cause cute isn't manly!). He expected that the man would definitely jump at the chance to be his nakama, but the man just stood there; eyes wide and mouth agape.
Blinking, the young boy that was named Monkey D. Luffy walked up to the man and poked his arm. The man just stood there like a statue. Luffy giggled. This man is funny! Just before he was about to poke the man in the stomach to wake him from his stupor, the man let out a loud cry that chased away all of the forest life.
"EHHH!?"
End of Chapter Two
So... Luffy thinks more now, but he still gets headaches, poor Luffy. I like to think that he would think more now that he is older and would be better at thinking, but I guessed time travel messed up his mind more than it usually is (or he just didn't get much better)! One Monkey has also meet the other Monkey, and so there are two Monkey D. Luffys! Oh no, what happened? (Sarcasm used heavily. If you don't know, I would be disappointed). Luffy is also his own idol (Da dah daahh)!
I hope that the switching POV's wasn't too confusing.I hope I didn't make both Luffys too OOC. I hope there isn't too many noticeable grammar mistakes in my work, as I said, grammar is not my strong point. Looking for beta reader, so if you are interested, let me know. It's okay even if you just look at one chapter, I'll be glad for the help (EDIT: Black Night Wolf and PirateDragons121 agreed to beta!).
Since I hadn't written any parts of next chapter (I had written out some parts of this chapter before posting chapter one), it might take a week or two to upload, so yeah...
Thank you to all the followers and favouriters, and big thanks to Ashielle, Black Night Wolf and for reviewing, glad you liked the chapter. I didn't think my story was worth any of those things, eheheh.
This was a huge chapter (for me, at least), almost 5k, (my goal was actually 2-3k per chapter), so hope you enjoyed while long chapters last; next chapters will probably be shorter... Wow, this was a huge author note to go with the huge chapter.
Please follow, favourite and review for anyone who didn't, it will drive me to write faster! Bye, for now!
Breaking Penguin (B. Penge for short)
