Disclaimer: Nobody owns One Piece, but Oda-sama, we clear? All we have is the right to screw around with what he makes.
Chapter 3
"You're gonna become King of the Pirates? Right, you must be completely out of your rubbery mind," Zoro said, not convinced. "And you!" he directed at Yuuki remembering their earlier conversation. "This is your dream? To become King of the Pirates with him?"
"I'd technically be the Queen due to my gender, but basically, yeah."
"Do either of you have any idea what that means?"
"King of the Pirates means King of the Pirates, how can it mean anything other than that?" Luffy said with confidence.
"Of course. We're not stupid... well, I'm not stupid."
Everyone, Marines included, had halted upon hearing their declaration.
"Yeah, when they first told me it was shocking, but they're completely serious!" Coby added with admiration in his eyes. "That's how they are, I suppose. 'Cause they actually seem to have every intention of becoming the rulers of the pirates, and obtaining the world's ultimate treasure: The One Piece," he continued, seeming to encourage their goal. Yuuki smiled and Luffy grinned at this adding his signature laugh.
Zoro's eyes were just narrowed in disbelief.
"Here's what I promised you," Luffy took the three swords from his back and presented them to Zoro. "There's three. I couldn't tell which one was yours, so I just took all of them."
"All of them belong to me," he answered deeply. "I use the Santōryū; the Three Swords style," he explained to Luffy shifting a little, probably itching to take hold of them himself.
The rubber man paused before shoving the swords toward Zoro, smiling. "Take'em already. Just know that if you fight with us now, you'll be a government defying villain. So it's either that...or you're left out here killed by the marines excision-style," he cautioned simply.
"What are you, the son of the devil? It doesn't matter, because if I don't choose your side I'll just end up dead on these sticks. So, let's do it," Zoro said smirking at Luffy.
Luffy yelled in victory.
"Ha, ha! So you're finally gonna join my crew," the energetic teen pumped his hands in front of him, still holding the swords. "This is the best thing ever," Luffy laughed.
"You always get your way, don't you?" she murmured stepping forward to try and finish what she'd been doing before the Marines had gotten in the way.
Luffy may not have noticed, but they had more important things to do before rejoicing at the discovery of their first mate.
"Will you quit celebrating already and get these ropes off me!" the captive yelled, voicing one of the problems that slipped Luffy's never-planning mind.
Meanwhile, the government enforcers were still sore from Yuuki's attack and numb at the pirate pair's previous display. They pondered what happened, but came up with no answers until their superior informed them of the mysterious properties and power of the devil fruits.
"Come on, hurry," Coby rushed us them as Luffy tugged uselessly and Yuuki tried fruitlessly to undo the knots.
"They. Got. These. Things on here. Tight," Luffy grunted, pulling on the ropes.
"Come on, quit screwin' around," said the Swordsman, impatiently.
"They may be pests, but these marines sure know how to tie a knot," Yuuki admitted as she worked at the ropes.
As the Marine Captain had continued his lecture of those who possessed devil fruit powers, the uniforms only grew more apprehensive to fight them. However, thoughts of retreating were soon crushed as Morgan 'persuaded' them to fight with his completely nonthreatening command for them to attack, his easy talk of execution and the tall man raising his axe-hand forward. Suddenly the Marines charged, having gained back their 'courage' or rather their fear of their Captain.
Zoro, Coby and Yuuki stared at the mob alertly, while Luffy still had his attention on Zoro's bindings.
"That's funny, the knots got tighter instead of looser," Luffy scratched the back of his head in wonder when a light bulb went off in Yuuki's head. She stepped away from Zoro's bindings and turned to face the legion of marines. Resolutely, she sped off, charging the hoard without a word.
"Hey! Wait!" the Swordsman called after her, seeing the girl as the only capable one to untie him. The pink haired kid just wasn't strong enough and the her so-called 'Captain' was a completely clueless nimrod, but his words were lost in the mass of the uniform's yells. This was the second time she'd done something like this and, while he knew she wasn't abandoning him this time, he still had no idea what she was doing. Now that he thought about it, that tended to happen every time he saw her. "Gimme one of my damn swords now!" Zoro demanded frantically of Luffy.
They got closer and closer still, yelling in either spirit or fear, one couldn't quite tell. As they did, Yuuki bolted passed them so fast she went unnoticed by the army. Only did one single Marine acknowledge her passing. Although, it was kind of hard not to when she brought him with her, clotheslining him and then tackling him to the ground, knocking him unconscious in the process. However, unknown to her, she'd accidentally clobbered another man with her fist. With his sword raised in the air as he was hit, the weapon flew up into the air without its owner at great speeds.
Coby screamed, "Luffy! Look!" as he saw how close the Marines were.
"Hm?" Luffy looked up, surprised.
Coby screamed again.
In an instant, Zoro had rushed forward, having somehow been released by invisible hands. His back was turned to the law enforcers, while he held all three of his swords in his hands and mouth, poised to block their attacks.
"Roronoa Zoro," Morgan said, in shock at the man's power.
Coby stared in awe as Luffy was dazzled by how cool Zoro's actions were. Then a thought stuck the vision impaired boy. Wasn't Zoro still tied up when they charged? So how could he have gotten free if both his arms were still bound? Looking at the post where the pirate hunter had been, Coby saw a pile of cut ropes he assumed was the handy work of Zoro. Continuing his search Coby looked at the post and screamed at what he saw. A sword was lodged in the wooden cross of the horizontal log, very close to where one of Zoro's arms had been. And right next him! Wherever it came from it had only missed slicing the former cabin boy in half by less than a foot!
Coby's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he dropped to the ground numbly at the implications of where the the sword could have landed.
"Got it," Yuuki said, having stolen the sword of the marine she'd knocked down. "Hey guys! I got a sword to cut Zoro fre-" the Vice-Captain glanced back to where Coby and Luffy were, only to see Zoro gone. Scanning the field fairly confused, Yuuki spotted Zoro holding several marines at bay with his swords and stared for a few seconds, unblinking, as her mind processed. Finally her eyebrows knitted together in annoyance. "Fine," she huffed. "I see that you have things all under control. So I'm sure you guys can deal with this one yourselves," Yuuki dropped the sword in her hand and formed a storm cloud underneath her, lifting herself from the ground.
Riding over to the post Zoro had previously occupied, she stopped momentarily to yank out the sword she'd unknowingly caused to be lodged in the wood and threw it over her shoulder carelessly. She dispersed her clouds and dropped to sit on one of the arms leaning forward with crossed legs.
She'd thought, to hell with it, and decided to just sit back and watch the show.
The marines stared at the freed demon in fright as he glanced behind at them. "Make one move and you die," he cautioned, passed the sword in his mouth.
The marines cried at their predicament and whimpered. "He's scary."
He then turned to Luffy and glanced at Yuuki in the corner of his eye. "Today I officially become a criminal having fought the marines. So, I'll become a pirate. That I can promise you, but I want you to know one thing," he gave them both a steely look. "While I'm with you the only thing I dedicate myself to is fulfilling my ambition."
"Which is...?" Luffy inquired.
"To be nothing less than the Greatest Swordsman. If somewhere along the way I have to give that up, then I want you accept responsibility. After which you get to apologize to me," Zoro said narrowing his eyes.
"'The World's Greatest Swordsman.' Sounds pretty good," he thought.
Yuuki had finished steaming, but was still going to let the guys handle this. She stared at Zoro as if she was looking for something. "That's what you fight for, huh?" she asked rhetorically.
Zoro retorted anyway, "Yeah, is there a problem with that?"
"And you thought we were out of our minds," she muttered, poking at his earlier insult of their goal. "And here you are Mr. 'Future Greatest Swordsman in the World.' Sounds to me like you're a just as much of a dreamer as us."
Zoro inwardly admitted it was pretty hypocritical, but on the outside he held his ground, not once looking away, to show he would defend what he believed in.
The storm user smirked as if she knew he knew she was right, but lost it as she closing her eyes almost defiantly. And for a moment Zoro was expecting her to reject him as a part of their crew and argue with Luffy. "Well then, the Captain has spoken," she open her eyes. Moving to rest her chin on one drawn up knee, she gave the Swordsman a bright smile. "Welcome to the crew future Greatest Swordsman in the World. Just remember, there's no backing out now."
"I've never backed out of something once I decided to do it, and I'm not about the start now," he said, rising to her challenge.
"Let's hope not."
"The King and Queen of the Pirates wouldn't have any less then the best on their crew," Luffy pronounced.
"Big talker," he taunted. "From this point on, no matter if I'm a criminal or not, I will spread the name Zoro throughout the world," he proclaimed.
"What are you standing there frozen for? I want you to kill all of them right NOW!" Morgan shouted at his men making them all sweat fearfully.
"You might wanna duck," Luffy warned as he lifted his leg. "GUM-GUM WHIP!" he swung his leg out, sweeping the marines away as Zoro lowered himself to dodge the attack and prevent his swords from cutting his new Captain.
Morgan stared incredulously at his men sprawled out along the ground.
"Yes! You knocked them all down," Coby cheered. Yuuki leaned back nodding attentively, but not quite as enthusiastic as the wannabe marine.
"You wanna tell me exactly what you two are?" Zoro stood up, staring in the direction of the Captains.
"I'm just a guy who ate the Gum-Gum Fruit," Luffy moved his leg to make a rubbery sound.
"Storm-Storm fruit for me," a few dark clouds rose off her hand like smoke from a fire.
"Gum-Gum? Storm-Storm? What the hell kind of fruits did you two eat?" he asked through the sword still in his mouth.
"Just ones that ya give powers, nothing special," Yuuki said from her perch.
Zoro seemed to process this briefly before a certain axe hand's voice suddenly boomed throughout the area.
"This is a direct order: every marine that just spouted weakness pull your gun out and shoot yourself. I can't do anything with weak soldiers." Apparently some of the soldiers began to fear for their lives and started trying to persuade their superior to retreat. This didn't bode well with him.
"What babies. This will be easy," Zoro got into a fighting position, ready to fight.
It didn't take Luffy long to sprung forward at the speed of light with one target on his mind. At first, Coby seemed to have tried to stop the Pirate Captain, but exhibited a different tune as he yelled, "Bring those marines crumbling to their knees!"
As he said this, Yuuki glanced over at the big, pink headed scaredy cat, who'd looked to have gained a strength he didn't have before. The redhead observed with ease the fight between the two Captains on opposite sides of the law. Whenever Morgan swung his axe Luffy dodged and whenever Luffy attacked Morgan blocked. Of course a majority of these blocks were done with the use of the Marine Captain's face, but hey, a block was a block.
The axe handed man was now on his back with Luffy lifting him by the shirt. "Call yourself a Marine, but you destroyed my friend Coby's dream!" the blond again cleverly blocked Luffy's fist with his face. Luffy raised his arm again ready to finish it when-
"Straw Hat! Stop right there. Look at what I got!" Helmeppo yelled.
When she heard this Yuuki felt a hand on her arm begin to pull on her. Quickly, she grabbed the appendage and violently whipped the body it was attached to forward...and straight into an unsuspecting Coby. 'Oops,' Yuuki thought, sweating a bit, when she saw the results of her instinctual flipping of Helmeppo into poor Coby.
"Damn. You!" the younger blond directed at the Vice-Captain as he was sprawled on the ground on top of Coby. But after recovering he was soon aiming a gun to the head of a wannabe marine, who was torn between fear of getting shot and anger at being literally thrown into this situation by one of his so-called friends.
'Sorry,' Yuuki mentally apologized as she dropped from her seat on the post.
"Now stop before I blow his head off!" Helmeppo went on as if he hadn't just failed miserably to get a hostage and had to switch, because his first attempt had flipped him.
Luffy continued to pummel Morgan.
"Are you stupid or something! I said stop! Pay attention to me here! I have a hostage you might wanna look at!" he yelled louder.
"Helmeppo's crazy," a marine said.
"Hey," Zoro called Luffy.
"Hm?" Luffy finally took notice of Helmeppo.
"Oh, come on. There's no need for hostages or threats," Yuuki said as if talking to an upset four-year-old while she approached the two casually.
"You especially stay away or else!" he commanded.
"You're not still bitter about the the whole flipping you deal, are you? Or the punching you in the face? Or slapping you 'cause you were trying to hurt that little girl?" she guessed, only adding fuel to the fire.
"If you value your scrawny little friends life then you won't move a muscle! I'm serious! One move and I'll shoot him, I swear!"
The trembling boy looked from Luffy to Yuuki, and the girl finally stopped. The wannabe marine looked about ready to cry until Luffy shot him a smile that somehow tapped into the courage deep inside of Coby.
"Luffy listen! Don't let anything that happens to me stop you, no matter what. Even if I die!" he said confidently.
Luffy grinned. "Of course, you got it. You hear that you big idiot? Coby is ready to die by your hand," Luffy began walking towards the two, ready to attack.
Yuuki slowly crouched as if she were getting ready to run.
"Don't you move!" he warned, but Luffy didn't hesitate in his strides. "I said don't move or I'll shoot!" he yelled.
"GUM-GUM…" the vision impaired boy yelled to warn Luffy as Morgan lifted his axe behind him, intending to slice the pirate while his back was turned.
"Time's up! For I am fearless Marine Captain Axe-Hand Morgan!" Zoro shoved one of his swords back in his mouth as Helmeppo clutched his hostage tighter.
"FLASH…"
Helmeppo pointed the gun closer to Coby's head, "Daddy! Hurry up and kill him already!"
"PISTOL!"
"STORM!"
Luffy let his fist stretch forward as Yuuki's body burst into a storm and whipped passed a screaming Helmeppo, while Zoro shot forward with his swords in his hands and mouth. Coby's form disappeared from the mushroom heads grip before he was slammed in the face by Luffy's fist and Morgan's attack was cut short by Zoro's.
"Nice one," Luffy complimented Zoro as the Marine Captain's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell backwards to the ground, passed out.
Luffy retracted his arm and turned his head slightly to Zoro. "Thank you."
"I'm just doing my job, Captain," Zoro said, appearing to have accepted his new position with less reluctance and forced resignation than before.
Hearing this widened Luffy's grin.
"Are you okay, Coby?" she asked, switching her attention to the boy in her arms with concern.
"Yeah. I'm fine," he mumbled tersely as his eyes were covered by the glare on his glasses from the sun. He was now a cute shade of red from being held bridal style by a girl as well as from embarrassment.
Yuuki wasn't so sure about how sincere his answer was at seeing how red he was in the face. She supposed it must have been from his overdose of panic for the day along with the heat of the sun. The female pirate still felt a little bad about getting him into that situation, but if he was truly fine then she'd done her job.
Coby sighed in relief as he was set on the ground and at seeing the yard with all dangerous persons knocked out.
Zoro put his swords away as he faced the marines, "If there's anyone else who wants to step forward and fight us then do it now."
Yuuki had expected them to be running in fear, but instead they threw their hats and swords in the air, rejoicing...which, if you really think about it, wouldn't be the smartest thing to do since gravity would eventually take over, sending the sharp objects back down to the earth and possibly into somebody. Then as if the whole sword thing weren't unexpected enough, the law enforcers began celebrating like maniacs.
The redhead had her hands on her hips in confusion and sighed. More bizarre people.
"That's weird. Looks like they're all happy that their Captain was beaten," Luffy said watching them. His Vice-Captain couldn't agree more.
"They must have been afraid of him for a long time before we showed up," Coby deduced.
"Hey, thanks. You really saved our Captain there," Yuuki walked over and clamped her hand on Zoro's shoulder behind him in appreciation. Zoro then grunted loudly in pain, "Hey, are you-? Wah!"
Zoro suddenly fell backwards. Yuuki had tried to turn and get away, but wasn't quick enough and became pinned down by the larger teenager's body.
"Zoro! Are you okay! What's wrong!" Coby shouted in panic mode.
"Me? Oh, I'm fine, Coby. Probably just a cracked spine and maybe a broken rib or two. Not to mention that my lungs are being crushed as I speak. Don't you worry about me," Yuuki croaked out from underneath the fallen Swordsman. She supposed she deserved this. 'Payback's a bitch' never felt more true.
Zoro opened his eyes blearily. "I'm just…hungry," he wheezed weakly.
S
"Woo! Heh, heh, I am stuffed," Zoro laughed with a big smiling on his face.
They had brought him to Rika's mother's restaurant after Luffy and Coby had rolled him off of Yuuki's back, which soon recovered, allowing her to carry him there. He'd taken his bandanna off not too long after they'd reached the establishment, revealing his green hair. It surprised Yuuki at first, but oddly, the color fit him. As for Luffy, the scarred teenager hadn't batted an eye at his appearance and Coby...well, the boy had pink hair. He was in no position to be surprised. "Having not eating for three weeks, I was ready to gnaw through my boot straps," the Swordsman confessed.
Rika and Coby laughed happily at seeing this new, more carefree side of the Pirate Hunter,
"Heh, I can't believe you're finished. Light weight," Luffy, who was still eating, taunted his new crew mate.
Zoro looked, him a bit unnerved at the teen. "How the hell can you have a bigger appetite than a guy who hasn't eaten in weeks," he questioned, pointing to the plates that had been emptied by Luffy.
"I guess it tastes too good, I guess, right?" he turned to his other companions for support.
"Uh, yeah. It's great," Coby looked at the chef of their meal sheepishly. "Thanks for fixing it for us."
"My pleasure. After all you guys did save the town," she beamed at them gratefully. However, when she caught sight of Yuuki's plate, it slowly faded. "Aren't you going to have more than that? You didn't eat very much."
Although they had taken down the town terror, Rika's mother still saw the four as children. So her motherly instincts immediately kicked in when she saw that Yuuki had only gone through half of her first plate. She may have been over thinking it, but in contrast to her other two companions who'd eaten enough to make a mountain of dishes, it concerned her. Even Coby had had seconds.
Yuuki paused in braiding her hair and looked up at the mother. "No thank you. The food tasted good, but I'm full," she paused as she looked at her plate. "I probably won't be able to finish this."
"Are you sure? We've got plenty, it's no trouble at all." As a cook and a mother no one was going to go hungry on her watch.
"I appreciate the offer, but I'm stuffed," she told her. She paused to look at her plate and said, "Hey, Luffy. Eat this for me," holding the plate out behind her without looking.
"Okay," he said with a stuffed mouth and stretched his arm back to take it without his food leaving his sight.
"He may be a bottomless pit, but when Luffy's around, food never goes to waste," the Vice-Captain spoke as she finished with her hair.
"You're the most amazing man I've ever met," Rika decided as she gazed admirably at Luffy and his display of his rubber powers.
He smiled, food still in his mouth. "Yeah. I am, I know," he said without modesty. "And I'll be even more amazing when I'm King of the Pirates with Yuuki and we have the One Piece," he looked at Zoro. "Oh, and the best crew on the seas," he added.
"So, how many others have gathered for your crew besides me?" Zoro asked brightening at the topic.
Yuuki looked to Zoro curiously, as did Luffy.
"You guys told me that you were in the middle of gathering together the crew for your ship," he elaborated. "And if you're gonna be King and Queen of the Pirates I gotta assume you've got some waiting in the wings."
"Nope. Just you and Yuuki," Luffy answered.
"And I'm the Vice-Captain, so I may not technically count," Yuuki pondered aloud.
Zoro looked at the two in shock. "Just-" he pointed from Luffy to Yuuki to himself dumbly.
"Yep, it's just us," the straw hat wearing teen confirmed.
"So you, her and I are what amounts to an entire pirate crew?"
"Well, what's wrong with that? We're a couple of strong guys. Yuuki's pretty good too."
"We've only just started looking for our crew. Hell, we just left our island a few days ago. You can't expect us to be that far yet," Yuuki explained.
Zoro nodded, giving them that, and put his elbow on the table. "Kay~, but please tell me you guys have a ship," he asked hoping he had something to work with.
"Sure do, it's right there," Luffy pointed out the window to a small raft in the docks.
Zoro leaned against the window looking at it, hoping that his eyes were fooling him. But after much scrutiny he concluded he had perfect vision.
"You're kidding."
"Nope, but we'll have enormous one before long. Just you wait and see," Luffy said so sure of himself.
Zoro burst out laughing, which unnerved Yuuki since it made the former Pirate Hunter look like an escaped mental patient. "And how is that?" he challenged.
"With a great, big pirate flag on top," Luffy stared into space and Yuuki could already tell that they'd lost Luffy in la la land. "I can't wait," Luffy said excitedly, ignoring Zoro.
Zoro turned to Yuuki for help, but she just shrugged. "You're guess is as good as mine when it comes to what goes on in that head of his," she supplied.
"I think that Luffy was born without that part of the brain that allows the rest of us to plan out what we have to do," Coby mused as Zoro was palming his face in frustration.
"Oh, he can plan," Yuuki contradicted. "He just doesn't do it until he has to."
"Can't believe I let myself get suckered into having him as my Captain," Zoro muttered.
"This is what I meant when I said there was no backing out. You agreed to be a part of our crew without any idea of what you were getting yourself into. So now you're stuck with it," she said, unsympathetically. When Zoro looked like he was going to have a serious migraine from frustration she added, "Well, look on the bright side. This can't be as bad as being left to the marines and done away with, can it?" Yuuki offered.
"I guess," he grunted begrudgingly, but privately he was wondering if he should have weighed his options more back at the marine base.
"Hey, we'll have a ton more members in no time," Luffy consoled. This did nothing for the anxiety of his first mate.
"Speaking of unbelievable, just what the hell were you pulling when you escaped onto your little cloud back at the base when they were pointing guns at us?" he asked Yuuki. "How did you know your friend would get down there in time to bounce them back?" That was one little near-betrayal that had been on Zoro's mind for a bit.
Having the straw hat come in to save the day seemed like pure luck on their part, but before he even got there, Yuuki had, unknowingly to them at the time, shot into the sky, leaving them defenseless. It may have been a ploy on her part to bowl them over before anyone was shot, but did she risk their lives on a chance or did she actually have a plan? It's not like he didn't trust her or anything. After seeing both pirates fight he felt confident in their loyalty, but he was still curious.
"In all honestly, I was waiting for Luffy to show up. When I was stalling for time by egging metal jaw on, I trying to see if I could spot him. When I did he seemed ready to sling shot himself down and I made my getaway. As you might imagine, I'm not the best at blocking multiple bullets. So, I left that to Luffy and got in the air to get a better angle at all the marines. He may take a bullet better than me, but I can wipe out a crowd better than him. Putting it simply, we both did the things we were better at."
Zoro, paused, thinking her explanation through. That made sense. There was no way she'd be able to do anything about the bullets. And if she'd stayed on ground level, she'd have probably hit Luffy too, if he was in front of them all, protecting them from the gun shots.
"Also," she rubbed her neck, embarrassed. "I didn't want to get shot."
Zoro's jaw dropped at that and he stared at her. So she did risk all their lives!
"Luffy, where are you and your crew planning on traveling when you leave here?" Rika asked curiously as the new First Mate fumed with contained anger.
"You mean it's not obvious? We're headed straight for the Grand Line." Coby spit his drink out suddenly.
"No! Have you completely lost you're mind! You have three crew members! There's no way you're equipped to handle the Grand Line, Luffy!" Coby yelled.
"I've heard about it, but I didn't know it was such an awful place," Rika shared to Coby.
Coby then went on to explain the geography of the world and how, of the world's two oceans, there was one strip of land that cut across it called the Red Line and blah, blah, blah. Yuuki sort of tuned this stuff out as she'd already known the whole thing and reiterating this stuff annoyed her. He then went on about what a terrible place the Grand Line was and then caught the redhead's attention back when he talked about Gold Roger's legacy of conquering the Grand Line and hiding his treasure.
"I heard story about it from people passing through." Rika's mom said. "The customers say that no one who has ever entered the Grand Line come out of that place alive."
"Which is really too bad, 'cause that's where the One Piece is said to be and that's exactly where we're going," Luffy's voice held no room of argument.
Having now calmed down, Zoro said, "I guess we have to live with it." He then leaned back in his chair, shrugging off any sign of resistance.
"No! You can't agree! Yuuki back me up here," he turned to the female pirate in his last attempts at finding a voice of reason.
Yuuki rested her head on her fist thoughtfully. "I'm all for going Luffy. You know that, but we seriously need to look into getting more crew members before we go. There are just some essential players we don't have," she explained.
"Oh! Like a musician!"
"Or a real navigator for starters. I can get us around for the time being, but it's not my specialty."
"Listen to me!" the wannabe marine shouted.
"What do you care? You're not going with us, are you?" Zoro asked Coby, who's attitude deflated somewhat.
"No, but I still worry. Is it so wrong to care about you guys?" Coby said in concern. "Luffy, Yuuki and I haven't known each other for years or anything, but they're still my friends. Wouldn't you say?" he nearly pleaded with Yuuki and Luffy.
Luffy and Yuuki smiled reassuringly. "I thought we already covered this."
"Of course. We may have to part ways, but we'll always be friends," Luffy promised.
"We've had some good times together," Yuuki admitted. "And that will never change, no matter what," she told him resolutely.
Coby smiled and seemed to have his mind drawn to something else. "When I was just a little kid I never had any friends, much less anyone who would bother fighting on my behalf. So, I always tried my hardest to never fight for anything," he informed as Luffy, Zoro and Yuuki stared at him attentively. "But the three of you taught me a lesson that I could never learn on my own: how to live for what I believe in. So, I've decided to make my one childhood dream a reality, and I'm going to join the Marines," Coby said as he raised his head and clutched his hands in determination.
"Then don't you think you should be a little more concerned with your situation?" Zoro told him. Coby stared at the pirate in confusion. "I mean, you did spend two years on Alvida's pirate ship. Even if you were nothing but her cabin boy," Zoro continued.
The realization was starting to sink in for Coby.
"The Marines information gathering is top notch. They'll find out about your time with Alvida and you'll never join," Zoro informed him.
"I...never thought of that," Coby said in disappointment.
Suddenly the door to the restaurant opened dramatically. It was the marines.
"Hey, you there," one of the marines called walking in. "We heard that you people are actually pirates. Is this rumor true?" he asked.
"Right. And I just added the third member to my crew, so pretty much the whole thing just became official," Luffy answered with his trademark smile.
"We appreciate everything you did to save our town from that horrible tyrant, who terrorized us all for so long. However, now that we know that you're pirates, as marines, we cannot sit idly by and watch you go about your business," the marine declared dutifully. "Therefore, you and your crew will need to leave this town immediately. But out of respect for what you've done, we will not report you to headquarters," he allowed, not acting completely ungrateful.
The crowd of towns people suddenly broke out in outrage at the way the law enforcers were treating their saviors.
Luffy , Zoro and Yuuki stood up. "Welp, time to go. Thanks for the food lady."
"Hey, wait a second. You're leaving already?" Rika asked the crew in disappointment.
"Yeah," Luffy nodded, carrying a bag of food that they'd been given by Rika's mother.
"Sorry, but that's the way pirates are. Can't stay in one place too long, ya know?" Yuuki tied her white bandanna around her head before she joined her companions, who were already almost out the door.
Coby could only stand, frozen to his spot, as the friends he'd made in such little time walked by him with no guarantee he'd ever see them again.
"Aren't you part of the crew as well?" the marine asked Coby.
"Uh, well-, I-, uh-I" Coby stumbled in his words for an explanation.
Luffy paused, looking over his shoulder and then started again for the door.
"Hold it," the uniform commanded.
They did.
"Is he with you or what?"
Luffy turned to the dark skinned man and took a suspenseful pause.
...
"What we can tell you is what he's been busy doing up to this point," Luffy so helpfully supplied.
Yuuki sighed and as her Captain walked by she whispered, "I'm outta here. Get down to the docks as soon as you're done."
The straw hat made no indication that he heard her as he went about his speech of how Coby got mixed up with some pirates right in front of the Marines. Yuuki walked out the door, nodding to Zoro in acknowledgement, as she turned toward the sea, outside of the establishment. With the door was still open the girl was able to watch out the corner of her eye as Coby sucker punched Luffy in the face. She then smiled proudly at the horizon before her body was engulfed into a dark storm that soon vanished from sight.
S
"That was a thin act you put on back there," Zoro commented after they met Yuuki near the docks.
"Which is exactly why I didn't stick around to see it," muttered Yuuki.
"I wouldn't be surprise if they see right through it," he continued.
Luffy laughed. "Coby should be able to handle the rest on his own. I have faith in him."
"It is a fitting way to leave this place," Zoro supposed. "Unable to turn back as to everyone here hates us now. Very pirate-like," Zoro said with a hint of a smile.
"Well, performance is what pirates are all about," Yuuki teased sarcastically, lightly knocking the First Mate on the shoulder.
"Yeah," Luffy laughed as he released their boat. "It sure is," just which comment Luffy was referring to was unknown or whether he was being playful or serious. You could never really tell with the Captain sometimes.
"Luffy!"
"Hm?" said Luffy turned to see who it was and spotted Coby accompanied by Rika and her mom.
Coby saluted them respectfully. "I can never thank you enough! You've done more for me than anyone ever has!"
"I've never heard a Marine thanking a Pirate before. That's one for the history books," Zoro mused as Luffy's face brightened.
"Hey Coby! Catch!" the boy looked at Yuuki, whose hand shot out and he instinctively panicked. Fumbling with his hands to do as she told him, something hit him square in the forehead before he could react and he fell to the ground. Whatever it was seemed to have bounced off of his head and landed in his ready, but wobbly hands As he recovered from the head injury he looked in his hands to see a ring made of some smooth bright and dark green mineral. He recognized it as the one Yuuki wore and looked up at the redhead in confusion.
"As long as I'm with this guy," she stuck her thumb out at Luffy, "I'm bound to be thrown into some insane fights and that ring just won't be able to take the constant abuse. So, I want you to hang onto it for me for now," she explained. "You can give it back when we see you again and you've become a big, strong marine, okay?" Yuuki smiled confidently as did her companions at the promise.
Coby seemed to be stunned for a moment before he clutched the ring in his hands. Getting back on his feet, he saluted the pirate crew again, "You can count on me!"
With that done, the pirates set sail and headed to wherever the wind sent them.
"We'll meet again, Coby! Someday!" Luffy waved his arms in the air happily.
Behind the Marine's new cabin boy, the whole of the marine base stood to attention, saluting along with the boy.
"See~ ya~," Luffy yelled at them in farewell. Yuuki raised her gloved hand to give them a short, sloppy mock salute in return, grinning lazily, while Zoro chose to just look back coolly.
A fair distance from the island Luffy gazed forward at their course. He stood at the front of the boat with Yuuki, who sat on the front's edge, more cautious of the waters below. Zoro was leaned against the back side of their boat as all of them looked into the sunset.
"At last our pirate crew finally sets sail," Luffy announced, holding his hat in place to keep it from being blown away by the wind.
"I got the feeling some interesting adventures are waiting for us," predicted Zoro.
"I'll be King of the Pirates, I know it," Luffy said resolutely.
"The One Piece oughtta be something," Yuuki said definitely as she raised her hand to stare at where her ring used to be.
"You two seem more than obsessed with this King of the Pirates business. Is there some kind of story behind it or any kind of reason at all?" Zoro asked them curiously.
"No. No reason, it's just…" Luffy trailed, looking at Yuuki and she stared back. In that instance, Zoro felt that their gazes held something more that he could possibly imagine.
"Just what?" Zoro encouraged.
"I promised someone...a while back. I swore that I'd gather a crew, find the world's greatest treasure, and become King of the Pirates with Yuuki," Luffy revealed, now looking at the sea again. Zoro turned to the silent Vice-Captain in inquiry as well.
"Stick with Luffy, find the One Piece," the Storm Witch stated simply. "That's always been the plan."
"And this straw hat and Yuuki's bandanna know the whole story," Luffy finished.
Zoro looked at the two and smiled turning up to the sky. "I see," he said simply, not pressing for more.
"Now, let's go! It's time for us to set our heading," Luffy shouted to the sky. "For the Grand~ Line~!"
S
As a side note, I would like to say that I have no idea if the explanation for that whole thing about water in the human body making a person last longer than having food is true. It made sense to me, so I just came up with some BS info, but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
Also, if that whole outburst of Zoro toward Yuuki that led to the head butting seemed OOC, I apologize. I just really wanted it in there and I couldn't come up with anything better. But if you "demand an explanation dammit!" I can say that it reminded him so much of him and Kuina that he saw it as if Kuina had given up to him without a fight and he got just as pissed at her for that as he did about the whole gender thing...oh, and you can blame it on the fatal starvation, heat stroke or exhaustion. Take your pick.
Thank yous to my first reviewer: Evalyd Yamazaki