AN 2.0: I apologize for the text wall. I am still working on how to properly format everything. All reviews are helpful, and I hope to meet your standards of readability better in the future.
Special thanks to reviewer CaseyW, who gave me a good example of propeer formatting, and for directing me to his podcast, Fandom Flux, which you can find on YouTube. I highly recommend it to my fellow beginning authors, and professional writers as well. If you can sift through the parts where Ethan makes no sense, there are great tips to be found.
On an unrelated note, another reviewer, TheOnlyKing, brought up some interesting observations. First, he stated that Luffy was not being "Dark" enough to justify the description. What I meant by "Dark", is that he will be more stoic, and also willing to kill when the need arises. I don't think that dark and evil are synonymous in this context. If you think this is false advertising, please let me know and I will change the description. Secondly, I didn't kill Alvida, because she will be added to the Harem later. I also didn't have Luffy kill any of her men for the same reason you, as a normal person(a demographic I'm sure is quite large here on ) don't step on every single ant you come across. They are beneath him, and so pathetic as to not be worth killing.
I'd also like to take this opportunity to once again thank you all for your support, and I hope that you can endure these diffucult times at the beginning until I find my groove.
Wow! Almost 1000 views in one week. Thank you all for your support.
Special thanks to reviewer Kaiomaru for giving me a goal to work towards, and to my other reviewers for letting me know that the story isn't terrible.
I have a poll up on my profile to see if I should add some Zoro/Tashigi into the story as well.
Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece. If I did, Nami would admit she loves Luffy, and Usopp would have died of multiple spine fractures and internal hemorrhaging by now.
"No, grandpa please stop, oh god no!"
Flashback: 10 Years Ago
"Come on Luffy, if you're gonna be a strong Marine someday, you need to learn these techniques!" Garp shouted from the rock he was sitting on.
"You jerk, I've told you a million times, I don't want to be some stupid Marine, I want to be a pirate!" Luffy yelled. He was having trouble concentrating on his anger though, as he was currently being chased by a giant tiger.
"Don't talk to your grandpa like that, you brat. This is all that red-haired idiots fault for poisoning your mind with all his talk about 'adventure' and 'freedom'. Freedom doesn't mean doing whatever you want with no regard for the law, it means feeling safe to live as a proud member of society. Red-hair's 'freedom' is nothing but a justification for all his evil deeds."
"Don't you dare insult Shanks old man, he saved my life. No matter what you say, he's still a hero to me."
"One good deed doesn't make up for a lifetime of bad ones. I am thankful that he saved you, but he's still a criminal. Now stop yapping and start focusing. I showed you all of the Six Powers, so pick one and save yourself from that tiger."
Luffy just grunted, and turned his thoughts to what he had learned. 'Grandpa is right, if I don't focus on using one of the powers I'll be tiger food for sure', Luffy thought, not noticing that he had run straight off of a cliff.
'Odd' ,Garp thought, 'Moonwalk wouldn't have been my first choice, but oh well. At least he's finally taking this seriously.' "Good job boy, I knew you could do it."
"Huh? What are you talking about gramps?" Luffy asked before looking at whee he was. "Oh crap!" he screamed as he started falling to the ground below. Instinctively, he shot out his arm to try and grab on to something. 'Whew', he thought as his hand latched on to a tree trunk. Suddenly, the tree flew off the side of the ledge. Standing in it's place was a very stern-looking Garp.
"Today is about learning the Six Powers, so no using your devil fruit powers!" he yelled.
'Damnit', Luffy thought, 'that crazy old man is gonna get me killed. Okay, focus, you can do this.' As he fell, he felt his mind start to empty. As his head cleared he noticed something strange. He could sense things in the air, things that he could use as platforms to jump off of. Pollen, dust, air molecules. Then, as if by magic, he saw a path back to the top of the cliff. At this point, Luffy only had one thought, echoing throughout his entire being. 'Jump. Jump, jump, jump, jump, JUMP!' And just like that, he was standing back on the top of the cliff. "I did it!" he shouted triumphantly, "I made it!"
"That's a good start but can you do it again?" Garp asked, pushing Luffy back off the ledge.
"No, grandpa please stop, oh god no!"
End Flashback
"Luffy, snap out of it. Are you okay? Luffy!" Coby shouted, waking Luffy from his trance.
"What?" Luffy asked orienting himself to his surroundings. In the distance, he could see an island with a small port. "Where are we?"
"Thank god you're okay. I thought I lost you there for a second. Anyways, that island over there is the location of a Marine base. I heard they recently caught a very dangerous criminal, named Roronoa Zoro. He is said to be a demon in human form, a monster with no regard for human life at all."
"Sounds like a fun guy. I'm gonna go find him. Maybe I can get him to join my crew," Luffy said with a crazed grin.
"Did you listen to what I said at all? He is a cruel, ruthless man who won't let anything get in his way. You can't seriously expect someone like that to agree to work for you. It's insane to even think about it!"
"Well I want to meet him, so let's go."
'Whatever. There's no way I'm going to get him to see reason so here we go', Coby thought as he moored the boat.
As they walked down the main street, Luffy spotted a vendor selling food and realized he was hungry. He grabbed a pear and bit into it. He flipped the shopkeeper a berry, then asked, "Hey, do you know where I can find some guy named Zoro or something?" Everyone around him suddenly recoiled in fear at the mention of Zoro.
"Strange", Coby said, as he and Luffy continued towards the base. "Oh, by the way, I've heard that this Marine base is run by a man named Captain "Axe-Hand" Morgan." The people around them all recoiled in fear again. "I can understand why the people are afraid of a dangerous criminal like Zoro, but why are they scared when I say the name of the Marine captain?"
"Who cares?" Luffy asks, continuing on down the road.
Upon reaching the gates of the Marine base, Luffy senses a couple strange auras, just on the other side of the fence. "I'm going to look and see if I can find Zoro", Luffy says, climbing up to the top of the fence.
"They wouldn't leave a criminal like him out in the open. He'll be in the deepest cell the...", Coby argues, climbing up after Luffy. He stops suddenly, his jaw dropping, as he looks over the fence to see a man with a black bandana and a green haramaki tied to a post. "Th-that's him. Why would someone like him be out here?" Coby asks, an edge of terror in his voice. As they hang on the fence watching him, he looks up and glares in their direction.
"Move it you two, you're ruining the scenery", Zoro stated calmly. As Coby is panicing, a ladder appears and a little girl climbs up. She looks from side to side, shushes Coby, and then drops down into the yard.
"What do you want kid?" Zoro asks the girl.
"I thought you might be hungry, so I made you a couple rice balls."
"Just get out of here before I get really annoyed."
"Threatening children Zoro, tsk tsk. That's not very nice", a strange man in a purple suit says, walking in with two Marines behind him. "Those rice balls look pretty tasty", the weird guy says, biting into one. "Yuck", he shouts in disgust, throwing it to the ground and slapping the other one out of the girl's hands,"they're supposed to be made with salt you idiot, not sugar."
"But I thought sugar would make them taste better", she says, crying as the man stomps the rice balls into the dirt. "Why are you doing this? I worked really hard to make those."
"I guess you didn't see the notice saying that assisting criminals in anyway will result in execution. That is a direct order from my father, Captain Morgan." Turning to one of the men behind him, he says, "Toss this brat over the wall, or I'll tell my father you allowed her into the execution yard."
"Yes, sir", the man says, reluctantly. "Just curl up into a ball, okay?" he says before throwing her out. Luffy jumps out, stretching his arms towards the girl, then he gently lowers them to the ground with Moonwalk.
"Thank you, mister", the girl says to Luffy, as Coby comes running over to check on them.
Back inside the fence, the man in the purple suit is laughing maniacly. "You really think you can pull this off, don't you?" he asks Zoro.
"You're damn right I do. One month is nothing. I only have ten more days left."
"And you think you can make it ten more days? Good luck with that." The man turns around and walks away, still laughing. As soon as the gates close, Luffy is standing in the yard in front of Zoro.
"What do you want now? I thought I told you to get lost!" Zoro shouts at Luffy.
"I thought you were supposed to be some kind of strong, powerful demon, but here you are, tied up like some common criminal." Shut up you bastard! I've never called myself a demon."
"I'd probably starve in less than a week if I were you."
"Well that's because I am much more determined than you could even imagine. And I will survive this, no matter what."
" Whatever, crazy", Luffy says, turning to walk away.
"Wait a second", Zoro asks, "could you pick that up for me."
"The dirt ball?"
"Just shut up and let me eat it!"
"Okay,if you say so." Luffy picks up what's left of the rice ball andfeeds it to Zoro. As Zoro swallows it, he starts coughing. "I told you so."
"It was delicious. Best meal I've had in my entire life. Let the girl know." Luffy smiles as he walks away.
"Really?" the girl asked Luffy incredulously.
"Every last bite of it."
"That's fantastic."
"I wonder if Zoro is really as bad as people claim?" Coby wonders aloud.
"He isn't!" the girl shouts. "He's a nice person. He let himself be punished for protecting us."
"I don't follow. Who is us?" Luffy asks her.
"Right, sorry. This is all that stupid Helmeppo's fault. You see..."
Flashback
Helmeppo walks down the street with two Marines and a wolf. He enters a restaurant and the wolf begins to eat anything it can reach. The little girl is sweeping, then she takes her broom and starts hitting the wolf repeatedly, shouting, "Stop it."
"Is there a problem, little girl? What is my doggy doing wrong?" asks Helmeppo, mockingly.
"Rika, stop. We'll just get in trouble!" the woman working behind the counter yells at the girl. Suddenly, the wolf turns and lunges at Rika. But then, a stool flies across the room, hitting the wolf in the head, killing it.
"How dare you, you... Wait, you're Zoro the pirate hunter."
"What's your point."
"Why would someone like you go against the Marines?"
"Shut up. I'm trying to eat." With that, Helmeppo snaps, swinging a sword at Zoro. He dodges, kicks the sword into the ceiling, punches Helmeppo in the face, and draws his sword.
"You and your stupid dog are really starting to piss me off."
"You know, if I tell my father about this, the girl and her mother will be executed. So how about you and I make a bet. I imprison you for one month without food. Survive, and I'll even let you go free too. Deal?"
"One month? Deal", Zoro replies, dropping his sword.
End Flashback
"That was three weeks ago. Helmeppo will go and beat him up almost every day. It's not fair", Rika says, finishing her story.
"That sounds awful", Coby says, when all of the sudden they hear a commotion in the restaurant.
"Bring me your best meal, and don't bother charging me for it either", Helmeppo orders Rika's mother. "Bring me some wine too. Uh, this town is so boring. I need something fun to do. I know, I'll have Zoro executed!" he says,laughing, as Luffy walks in.
"Shave." Luffy instantly appears behind Helmeppo, and punches him into the wall. "People like you make me sick!" Luffy shouts as Coby tries to hold him back.
"How dare you hit me. I am the son of the great Captain 'Axe-Hand' Morgan."
"Who cares? Maybe I'll go beat him up too."
"You're insane. You'll be executed for this."
"Come on, fight like a man, you coward."
"Luffy, stop. Why are you pickin g a fight with the Marines here?" Coby pleads desperatly.
"Because, Zoro is joining my crew."
AN: Thank you for reading this story. Please feel free to send me any questions, comments, or concerns. Also, please tell me how much detail I should go into in these early chapters. Do you want every little interaction, or should I skim through the set up stuff that I don't change from canon? I look forward to continuing this story, and I hope you are looking forward to reading it.
-Fedora411