Chapter 2:

Exploding Santoryu and The New Nakama

"ARLONG-SAN, ARLONG-SAN" screamed a man with the same tattoo as the previous thugs. He kept running until he reached a tall building, with a Shark logo on a flag, on the top of the building. This building was known as Arlong Park. Inside were about fifty men, with weapons all around. They noticed the man running inside.

"Where is –pant- Arlong-san" The man said trying to catch his breath

"Calm down aniki, what's the problem" said a tall looking man with a sword on his left waist.

"WE HAVE A HUGE PROBLEM" with a scarred expression on his face

"Oho, and what exactly would that be?"

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at the top of the building's stairs to see their leader sitting on a throne chair with three men next to him.

One had spiky hair and 8 swords on his back and was wearing a red and white striped shirt and sandals. Another had a black jujitsu uniform on and had his hair in a ponytail. He was very muscular and had a godlike physique. The last of the men was a blonde haired man, taller than the average man. His most distinctive feature was how long his lips stretched past his nose.

Finally, in the middle of them was a very tall man, wearing a white vest, with black stripped shark marks on it. He also had a snow hat on his head, and as wearing sandals. He smiled, showing his super pointy teeth that looked just like a sharks. The thing that scared everyone the most wasn't his enormous height, or his well built muscles, not even his monstrous teeth. It was his eyes. He had eyes that could pierce the deepest part of your soul and see the fear he caused.

The man from earlier that was screaming heavily before; bowed his head, and so did the rest of the men in the building.

"Arrrlong-san, we have an urgent problem" he said muttering his words

"Tell me what the matter is" Arlong said as he looked down to him

"Yes..sir..Apparently Ken and his group were defeated"

...Arlong's eyes widened a bit.

"Is this the truth" he said with a little anger in his voice

"Yes!" the man got up quickly as sweat was dripping from the side of his neck.

"That's surprising, I had assumed that their task was a relatively easy one, who knew there would be some fighters in that area" said the Jujitsu man

"I'm not surprised at all, I mean the area they were sent too was close to GLH." Said the long mouthed one.

"Ahahah¸they suck" said the spiky haired one laughing in the process

"Who were they defeated by? "Said Arlong as he got up from his chair

"That's the thing, when we arrived at the parking lot, there was no one there except Ken and his group unconscious on the ground." He said.

"However...we had noticed something else when we were there". He said with a troubling look on his face. "

"Tell me" Arlong said

"I talked to Ken, who was barely conscious at the time, and asked him the same question; but all he was able to do was mumble out something about Three Swords."

Everyone's eyes in the building became wide, including Arlong's

"Three Swords...you don't mean..." the jujitsu man said

"It couldn't be anyone else" the long mouthed one said

"Kuroobi...Chew...who are they talking about" the spiky haired one said with a confused look n his face

"You've never heard of the swordsman who uses three swords, Hatchi? "said Kuroobi

"NANI! Someone uses more than two swords other than me! "Screamed Hatchi

"Dumbass" Chew said

"Men!" Arlong screamed. All the men in the building looked towards Arlong

Hatchi, Kuroobi, and Chew, stopped talking to each other and turned to Arlong.

"I want you all to find this trouble making swordsman, and bring him back to me" Arlong said while his hands were in the air and he put his leg on top of the stair shaft.

"But...sir...this is Roronoa Zoro were talking about..." said one of the men in the back

"I heard he single handily took down one of the biggest gangs in the area, with over a hundred members, just because someone woke him up from his nap"

"There's no way we can take down someone like him..." one of thugs said with a depressing mood in his voice

Whispers and mummers started coming from everyone in the crew, and some even sat back down and continued talking about themselves.

"...So would you rather deal with me..." Arlong said with a blank expression

...Silence...

Everyone stood still, and ceased what they were doing...

After about a minute of silence...

"LETS KILL HIM" said everyone in the building

They all began picking up their weapons and ran out the door.

"Should we go along with them?" Kuroobi turned to his left, looking at Arlong

"There is no need, besides this is like a test for him, if he isn't able to defeat those weaklings, then he wouldn't stand a chance against any of us. "

"Shaaaahahaha" Arlong began laughing...

x.x.x.x.x

Luffy walked up to the front gate of the school. It had a metallic speaker on the side labelled "Identification Registration" on it. Luffy tilted his head towards it.

"Is this where I'm supposed to go to register"

He walked up to the gate; the gate responded by saying "Announce Your Name"

"Monkey D Luffy" Luffy said with a confused look on his face

The speaker started beeping all of a sudden, Luffy quickly jumped back "WOAH, IT"S BEEPING AWESOME"

"Monkey D Luffy...Recognized..." the speaker said

A square card popped out from the machine and it sent towards Luffy. He caught it by lifting his arm in the air, and glared at the ID card. It had a picture of Luffy smiling on it at the top right corner and read the following statistics:

Name: Monkey D Luffy

Age: 17 Years old

Birthday: May 5th, 1995

Hair Color: Raven

Eye Color: Black

Height: 5"7

Occupation: Student Fighter

Rank: D (lowest)

Homeroom: Class 2-A

Luffy's eyes widened completely "HOW THE HELL DOES THIS MACHINE KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT ME"

The gates of the school slowly began to open, and it became super bright from the shining gold statues in the middle of the courtyard. Luffy placed one of his arms to cover his eyes, so he wouldn't go blind. When Luffy thought it was safe to remove his eyes, he dropped the ID card, and his jaw dropped all the way down to his feet.

The school was ridiculously big, with buildings as far as the eye could see. Luffy saw gold statues everywhere, and students around either relaxing or sparring against one another. It was complete paradise for Luffy, as he always wanted to go to a place where he could fight and not get into trouble

As Luffy picked up his ID card and began walking inside the building, he noticed the biggest statue in the middle. It was a statue of the last King of Fighters, Gold. D. Roger. He stared at the statue for a few minutes, and then just smiled.

"That'll be me someday, I promise"

x.x.x.x.x

Luffy entered the hallways of the main building and saw no one in the halls

"That's strange..." Luffy thought

"I wonder where everyone is"

"Oi, you there!"

Luffy turned around and noticed a giant man running towards him.

"Why are you roaming the hallways, you should be in class by now"

"Class already started?" Luffy said with a shocked face

"What...oh you must be a new transfer student" the man said with a calm face

"Yea, just came in right now, the name's Luffy" he grinned

"Well welcome to Grand Line High, my name's Dalton, I'm the Vice-Captain of the Patrol squad"

"What's the Patrol Squad" Luffy questioned

"Basically, it's a squad that patrols the halls and streets of the school, to see if there are any students skipping, or if there are unregistered fights taking place"

"I see..." Luffy said

"Anyway, since you're new here, I won't mark you down; you should get to your class already, you don't want to miss orientation"

"But I don't know where to go" Luffy had a sad expression on his face

Dalton began chuckling

"I assume you have your ID card? "

"Uh..Yes I do"

"Just look on it, it should state where your homeroom class is"

Luffy took out the ID card and scanned it, to find the name of his Homeroom class on the right

"Class 2-A" he said

"Ah, so you're in Mr. Rayleigh's class" Dalton said with a smile

"You know him?" Luffy asked

"I've heard good things about him, anyhow his class is on the 2nd floor, just take those stairs to the next floor" he said pointing to a staircase on the left "And a right at the next intersection and keep walking until you see a door with those letters on it."

"Alright, thanks Dalton" Luffy smiled and started running

"See ya later" Luffy said while waving goodbye

Dalton waved goodbye at him

"There was something about that kid...something I liked" he said with a smile

x.x.x.x.x

Luffy had listened to what Dalton said and was at a door with the initials "2-A" on them

"This is it, time to meet some new friends" Luffy said with a huge grin and reached for the door

He opened the door wide up and screamed at the top of his lungs "WATS UP I"M LUFFY, AND I"M GOING TO BE KING OF THE FIGHTERS"

The entire class went silent and so did the teacher. Then after ten seconds of silence the entire room started giggling and laughing at him.

"Who's this looser?" said a guy in the back

"King of the Fighters...yea right" said another guy in the back

Luffy just wondered why they were all laughing, and began walking towards the teacher

The teacher was an old man with silver hair. He wore a pair of round glasses, and wore a black coat along with some sandals. He looked at Luffy with a shocked expression.

"Isn't he..." he said with a curious face

"Nice to meet ya, I'm Luffy" he said with a smile

The old man regained his composure and reached his hand out, "Glad to have you with us Luffy, my name is Silver's Rayleigh" but please call me Mr. Rayleigh.

"Ok, Rayleigh" as Luffy shook his hand

"Mr. Rayleigh" he said correcting him

"Ok, Rayleigh"

"You're a slow one aren't you?"

"Huh" Luffy said with his head tilted

"Never mind" Rayleigh sighed. He turned around to the entire class who was still laughing.

"BE QUIET" he yelled

The entire class stopped laughing in that instant and were facing forward.

"Now I would like to introduce a new transfer student, his name is Monkey D Luffy" Rayleigh said pointing to Luffy.

"The Future King of The Fighters" Luffy added with his hands on his hips and his head held high, while Rayleigh looked at Luffy with interest

Some of the students started giggling from his remark while others...

"What a cheeky bastard" said a muscular young man with Red hair, and goggles on his forehead. He looked at Luffy with a grin on his face and clenched his fist

"He's a funny one" said a man with a flur hat on his head with dots on it, and had a huge ass sword behind him. He began chuckling on how Luffy entered the class

The rest of the students just looked at him with some of the girls smiling at him, noticing how cute he was, while most of the guys continued laughing at him thinking that he was just another idiot.

"So where do I sit Rayleigh?" Luffy wondered

"It's Mr. Rayleigh...and you can sit wherever there is an open seat"

The room was arranged in rows of ten, with 30 students in total. Luffy looked around to find an open seat, but then noticed a familiar face sleeping next to the window. Luffy began running towards him with one hand in the air.

"OI Zoro" Luffy smiled as he waved to him

Zoro opened one of his eyes, hearing a familiar voice and peeked to see who was calling him. His eyes shot open and fell of his seat. Everyone started giggling, but Zoro gave them all a dirty look, which silenced everyone who giggled. Zoro sat back down in his seat and put his legs on the desk, and looked the other way.

Luffy finally reached where Zoro was sitting.

"Hey Zoro, I didn't know you were here" Luffy smiled and sat down next to him

"Why the hell are you even here? " Zoro asked

"Is that guy crazy! He has some sort of death wish if he talks to Zoro like that..." said a kid in the back of the room

"What an idiot, let him die it'll just show that he needs to learn his place around here" the red haired young man said while chuckling.

"Mind If I sit next to you buddy" Luffy asked while putting his arm around Zoro's shoulder

"Don't call me buddy, and I don't care where you sit just don't bother me" Zoro said brushing Luffy's hand off his shoulder.

"Don't be stingy now Zoro.." Luffy said in a pleading voice...

"Urusai!" Zoro screamed

Everyone in the room had their tongues sticking out of their mouths and screamed "EHHHHHH". They couldn't believe their eyes. The Lone Wolf, who never let anyone come within 2 feet near him, was having a conversation with him. The red haired young man just scowled and closed his eyes. The other man with the flur hat on his head just chuckled "That kid sure is interesting..."

Rayleigh was in shock as well. He had known Zoro only for about a year outside of school in the local dojo where he trained, and he had never seen Zoro acting friendly with anyone before (If that's what you call friendly). Rayleigh coughed and picked up a piece of chalk on the ledge.

"Alright that's enough chit-chat, now take out your text books and let's begin"

The class resumed

x.x.x.x.x

After class had finished, excluding Zoro and Luffy, all of the students had left the class.

"Aren't you coming Zoro" Luffy said with a worried face

"Just leave me alone" Zoro said in a low voice and opened the window and leaped out of it

He began running as fast as he could

"Hold on Apis, I'm coming" He said as he ran past the school gates

"Matte yo, Zoro!" Luffy tried to call him back, but Zoro was already long gone

"Damn it, I wanted to ask him to join my crew again." Luffy pouted

Luffy gathered his things and also jumped out the window. He felt something squishy and hard at the same time under his feet.

"Ow..."

"What the hell?" Luffy looked under his feet to a pink haired kid under him.

Luffy leaped off him and apologized "Sorry about that kid"

"Don't worry about..." The kid said as he got up with broken glasses, and red drips coming from his nose.

Luffy took a quick look at him, noticing how short he was. He also saw how nerdy he had looked from his glasses all the way down to his dorky shoes. Luffy ignored all of these things though.

"Oi, are you sure you're ok?'' Luffy brushed some dirt of the kid and picked up his books

"Yea I'm fine, just watch where your landing next time.."

Luffy began giggling nervously

"What's your name anyway" the kid asked

"Luffy" he smiled

"Well nice to meet you Luffy, I'm Coby". The kid said as he reached out his arm towards Luffy

"Ahaha, nice to meet you as well Coby" Luffy shook his hand

"Why did you jump out the window" Coby asked

"I was trying to follow a guy that I need to talk to." Luffy crossed his arms

"Oh I see...Wait a minute..." Coby said reluctantly as he came to a realization

"The one who jumped out the window, earlier...you mean you're looking for..." Coby barely getting the words out of his mouth.

"Yea, Zoro" Luffy said bluntly

"Wh-Wh-Wh-Why on earth would you be looking for that dangerous man" Coby said with fear in his eyes

"I want him to join my crew" Luffy grinned

"NANIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII" Coby screamed from Luffy's earlier comment

"What's your problem" Luffy asked while scratching his head

"Haven't you heard the rumours about him?" Coby started saying

"No, what are they"

"They say that, he is the son of the devil himself. He shows no remorse or mercy when he fights, and he'd kill you if you looked at him the wrong way. He also is a master swordsman, who was defeated every dojo in the school, and has been named The Lone Wolf."

"I see..." Luffy said calmly

"HOW CAN YOU NOT BE T-T-TERRIFIED AFTER HEARING THIS" Coby blurted out

"Why would I be, and Zoro isn't any of the things you just said, I've seen him fight before. He actually does show mercy to his opponents and is not as ruthless as you make him out to be."

Coby was speechless, how could someone who only met him a couple of hours ago, know what he was like.

"Well...if you say so, anyway it's getting late I have to hurry home now" He dusted himself one last time and began running in the opposite direction

"Bye Luffy, see you tomorrow" Coby waved at him

"Later" Luffy waved back

x.x.x.x.x

Luffy began heading home, he had some many things on his mind and wondered how we has going to gather his crew so that he could become # 1. He then heard a familiar voice on the street a couple of metres away from him. It belonged to the thug who Zoro cut down earlier. He had bandages on his chest and the rest of his crew had bruises and scratches. In front of them was Apis, the girl Zoro saved earlier cowering behind Zoro as the crew got closer to him.

"Wh-Wh-Wh-What do you guys want? Apis mumbled out as she hid behind Zoro

"You know what we want, stupid girl...revenge from earlier" Ken said as he was holding onto his chest

"Buzz off, you guys are becoming an eyesore" Zoro said with a smug look on his face

"You're going to regret messing with the Arlong Crew" Ken said as he took out his phone

Zoro looked, at him with confusion

"NOW MEN" Ken screamed into his phone. At that moment swarms of thugs started surrounding the area, appearing from dark alley ways, and from the sewers. In no time at all Zoro, had become surrounded by at least eighty men.

Zoro picked up Apis, and did a back flip onto the beach that was directly under the street.

"Go somewhere and hid, Apis" he said bending down to her

"B-B-But what about you?" Apis said with tears in her eyes

"I'll be fine, it wouldn't matter if there were a hundred of them, I won't lose to these guys".

Apis took Zoro's hand and held it tight.

"Please be safe, Zoro-ni-chan" she said with a worried look on her face

"ni-chan?" Zoro looked at her with a shocked and confused face and blushed a little bit, but then smiled and patted her head.

"Alright, imouto" Zoro said and gave her a little push towards a safe area

"LETS GET HIM" The rest of the gang said and jumped from the streets onto the beach.

Zoro unsheathed his three swords and tied his bandanna onto his head. He then took a stance and ran toward the enemy.

One after one, they fell. Zoro took down opponent after opponent, with little trouble. He then jumped into the air...

"Santoryu...Tatsu Maki! (Dragon Twister)" Zoro began spinning and suddenly a violent tornado started enveloping Zoro in it. This devastating tornado wiped out more than half of them. When Zoro regained his footing on the floor, he was attacked by four swordsmen who all jumped into the air and plunged their swords at him. Zoro noticed this and turned around..

"Santoryu... Hyakuhachi Pound Ho! (108 Pound Phoenix)" Zoro screamed and sliced the air around him, causing four wind slashes to emit from his sword and cut down all four of them. Another man appeared from behind Zoro, but he back flipped right behind him, and landed back to back. The thug was shitting bricks, and didn't know to react. He then started getting blurry, and a huge slash wound opened up from his back. Zoro looked around and saw all of them either running away or on the floor unconscious.

He was about to put his swords away until he heard...

"AHHH LET GO OF ME" screamed Apis, as Ken gripped her by the neck.

"APIS!" Zoro screamed as he rushed towards her.

"I don't think so, don't you take another step, unless you want this cute little girl to die." Ken said holding his hand up to her face, and heat started gathering around his hand.

Zoro grew in anger and stopped advancing

"That's more like it, now drop your swords" Ken said

Zoro tsked and dropped his three swords to the ground.

Ken began laughing "This is way too easy, who ever knew the great Lone Wolf, would fall so low as to save some worthless little bitch". Ken laughed even harder.

"I DONT CARE WHAT HAPPENS TO ME ZORO, JUST ATTACK HIM" Apis yelled

"Shut up you!" Ken punched Apis in the face which indeed shut her up

"Don't you dare touch her!" Zoro said as he moved a little further.

"Don't even think about it" as he wedged his hand closer to Apis

"Damn it..." Zoro said in anger

"Now that's a good little dog, now just stay there and get hit by my blasts"

Ken began building up energy again. This one was alot bigger than the one before.

"Fire Art: Giga kaen taihō! (Giga Flame Cannon)" he yelled, as a humongous flame vortex shot out of his hands and burned through Zoro.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH" Zoro screamed in agony

"ZORO-NI-CHAN-"Apis screamed in horror as she saw Zoro being hurt

Back on the streets, Luffy looked at the hurt Zoro, with a very serious and angry face. He dropped his school bag, and put his straw hat on his head and began making his way down

Zoro, who was had been severally burnt with black skin and barely standing, fell onto his knees in pain.

"A..p..i..s" he mumbled out as he reached his hand towards her

"On.i..Ch..an" Apis started crying as she also reached her hand towards him.

Ken began bursting out in laughter "Is this all you have to offer? You pathetic excuse for a swordsman!"

Ken lifted one of his arms in the air again and began gathering energy for another attack. Ignoring the straw hat boy who was closing the distance between himself and Zoro.

"By killing you, I can move ever so closer to Arlong-san and someday surpass him!" Ken smiled

"Fire Art: Giga kaen taihō! (Giga Flame Cannon)" he yelled as a huge flame torrents emitted from his hands. It began swirling and headed for the already injured Zoro.

"Run Away Zoro!" Apis screamed in despair

"It's too late for his ass" Ken began laughing

Zoro closed his eyes and waited for the impact, but it never came.

"Oi..."

He heard a familiar voice and slowly lifted his head up to see what had happened. Zoro froze still and couldn't believe what he saw. The kid he thought out to be as some weak idiot, was holding off the swirling flame torrent with one hand.

"L-L-L...uffy?" Zoro wondered how did Luffy know he was here.

"Shishishishishi" Luffy started grinning

"Yea...Rest easy now Zoro. I'll take care of this"

Zoro slowly got up from his knees and picked up his swords.

"Why are you here...I never asked for you to sa...

"Promise me"

Before Zoro could even finish his sentence, he was interrupted by Luffy staring at him.

"What" Zoro said with a shocked face.

"If I save Apis, will you then join my crew?" He said with a straight face

Zoro couldn't respond to what he just said. This kid was asking something as stupid as that, in the middle of a crisis.

Zoro then smirked and said "Alright...ONLY if you save her"

Luffy grinned widely

"Wagata".

Luffy then turned to Ken who's face was too priceless for words. "HOW IN THE BLUE HELL DID U STOP THAT ATTACK?" He screamed at the top of the lungs.

Luffy then smirked and raised his other first in the air.

"Don't get me wrong, it's not that your attack was weak in anyway".

Luffy then punched the Flame torrent, exploding it and charred sparks fell from the sky.

"I'm just way out of your league" Luffy smiled

The next moment Luffy was in front of Ken, with his hand on his stomach. Ken didn't even have time to react...

"Anyone who hurts, their own Nakama...are scum"

Luffy then raised his other arm and sent a devastating punch to Ken's stomach. Ken's face turned from ugly to outright hideous as he was sent flying two miles back, slamming right into the side of the beach. Luffy caught Apis and gently put her down. The dust cleared with Ken knocked out with a huge fist mark on his stomach. Zoro looked in amazement at how fast and strong he was, even losing sight of him in the split instant he got over there.

"Th-Thank you for saving me and Zoro" Apis said as she hugged Luffy

"Shishishishi" Luffy grinned "No problem, now shouldn't you be thanking Zoro?"

"Ah that's right!" Apis remembered as she sprinted to where Zoro was

Zoro sheathed his swords and laid on his ass, and Apis ran over and hugged him tightly

"Thank you so much Zoro-ni-chan –sniff-"she said with tears coming down her eyes

Zoro smiled

"Hey didn't I tell you to stop crying all time "Zoro patted her head gently and got up with her still clinging to him.

"Looks like my work is done" Luffy said while walking away

"Matte!" Zoro screamed as Luffy turned back to Zoro confused

Zoro put Apis to the side, and slowly walked over to Luffy

"I'm in" Zoro said bluntly

"What?" Luffy said as he tilted his head

"You said I needed to join your crew if you saved her, well I'm honouring that agreement".

Luffy looked confused "We had an agreement like that?"

A vein popped from Zoro's head as he grabbed Luffy's shirt "ARE YOU SERIOUSLY GOING TO TELL ME YOU FORGOT WHAT YOU SAID TO ME LESS THAN 2 MINUTES AGO" with shocked expression on his face.

Luffy nervously chuckled and his eyes lit up "OH, that promise you mean, yea just forget it happened"

Zoro and Apis both looked at him with shocked faces

"B-But you were so hell bent on getting me into your crew" Zoro said confused

"Yea but, that was different. I said that in the heat of the moment, but now that's it over I don't want to force you to join." Luffy then began walking away

"Matte!" Zoro said again and Luffy turned around only to be shocked at what he saw. Zoro was on the floor bowing his head.

"From this day forward I pledge my loyalty to you, Captain..." Zoro said with a smirk

Luffy then looked at Zoro, speechless.

Then began laughing "Well, If you're sure, Welcome Zoro".

Both Zoro and Luffy crossed arms with one another at their new friendship while Apis clapped for them

For this was the start of the Straw Hat Fighters Journey