Chapter 6-The Adventure Begins! Meeting Old Soon-to-be Friends!
A/N: There is something different about this chapter! Spot it!
Luffy's small, fragile, badly beaten rowboat limped across the deep waters like a crippled dog. In the distance he saw the hull of a large cruise ship, cream coloured with three masts and a dolphin figurehead. He grinned profusely at the sight and the memories that came with it, but gulped when he saw that rowing wasn't having much of an effect on his movements. Only then did he remember the enormous whirlpool that was dragging his boat into itself, only about 4 minutes too late. He strained harder at the oars and may have escaped the vortex with sheer exertion if it wasn't for the boat, straining as the wood was pulled in two directions at once. After everything Luffy had subjected the pathetic dinghy to, it would certainly be utterly destroyed.
And it was. With a crunch barely audible above the roaring cyclone, the boat was torn into two parts. No longer held together and stable, those two halves were dragged in further and shredded. At that point, Luffy figured that staying in the boat was not his best course of action. He considered jumping into a barrel as he had done before, but decided against it. No point in doing something so helpless when this time, he was strong. As Buggy had shown him, flashy was always the way to go. Not to mention that Luffy had thrown the barrel at a REALLY loud seagull 5 minutes into the journey. That too.
Instead, Luffy leapt into the air, and grinned as an idea came to mind. Glancing down at the mess of planks that until recently was his mode of transport, and noting calmly that landing in the sea was not a good plan, there were no birds to ride on, and the nearest ship was not within stretching distance, Luffy shaped a blast of Haki into the whirlpool, scattering the bits of boat throughout the air.
He muttered to himself, "Prepare your butts, because this is gonna be badass.
...PUNS!"
And with that, the rubberman took off running. As easily as escaping from Shanks in 'speed training', Luffy hopped across the pieces of boat that were in the air, stepping off each with a light-footed sprint. As he came close to the last of the bits of wood in the air, he grinned and punched one with Armament so fast it made a giant splash, giving him just enough momentum to get the cruise ship within range.
"Gomu gomu no… ROCKET!" He shouted, grabbing the hull of the ship, catapulting himself towards the deck.
As he flew towards the ship, he noticed a distinct lack of anything next to it. Alvida was yet to begin her raid. So with time to spare, he decided to test out a new technique. He began tensing his muscles, activated Tekkai as his grandpa had so kindly demonstrated for him. To his delight, his arm was no longer contracting, but remained rigid instead. If he kept his grip, he could remain in the air, and even move by rotating around his hand. He stayed that was for a few minutes, enjoying the breeze and watching the waves. If his new technique was already this easy, the sea was nothing to him, as long as there was something solid nearby. He tried lowering himself to merely a few inches above the surface. It was so close, and yet farther than ever from taking his life. At that point, however, he began hearing the sounds of a rowdy pirate crew boarding, from the other side of the ship. And after that, the sound of a wimp flying through the air. A pink haired wimp, in fact.
"Coby!" Luffy grinned, remembering how weak and boring Coby had been the first time they met. He knew that it was his fault that Coby wasn't currently an admiral, and however hard he had to try, he was determined to make sure that Coby was able to fulfil his own dream once again. He thought about the Time Time fruit, as he had many times before.. It was vital that he didn't change time so much that Coby didn't get it again. In the hands of a more brutal member of the World Government, it would be more dangerous than a Buster could go back in time and physically wipe someone from existence. They could stop Gol D. Roger's birth. Luffy knew that in a way, the World Government had already got hold of the fruit through Coby, but the admiral had kept the fruit a secret from almost everyone, knowing how easily it could be abused. As a result, he had avoided water like the plague so no one would see if he sunk to his death. It was fairly easy to hide the fruit while fighting with it however, as he just appeared to be moving faster than other people, something the marines already accomplished with Soru. Only a select few knew about the fruit, causing Coby to known as as the only marine Admiral without a devil fruit. And for a time that was the case, as Coby HAD only discovered the fruit after his certainly did earn the respect that rumour gave him.
Anyway, Luffy mused, Coby's strong personal sense of justice was why he could be trusted with the potentially hugely destructive fruit. That meant there were two things Luffy had to do. Firstly, he had to make sure Coby STill developed his personal sense of justice, one which allowed for the possibility of good pirates and bad marines, as well as vice versa. The second thing was to make sure Coby still became an Admiral and obtained the Time Time Fruit, so that it could not fall into the hands of someone far worse.
Luffy ghosted downstairs into the kitchen, silent as a straw-hatted mouse, and saw Coby standing next to a barrel that, surprisingly, was actually full of alcohol. Luffy saw that he seemed to be having similar difficulty to last time, judging on the speed, and wondered what that said about him. A barrel of Luffy weighed the same as a barrel of wine. He supposed it was his intoxicating personality.
As Coby rolled the barrel around the corner, he was surrounded by three burly, angry men that looked like they wanted some wine. Luffy was pretty sure he'd heard them say something funny last time... There it was!
"Kid, as long as you don't tell Alvida-sama..." Luffy snorted and clamped a hand over his own mouth, "nobody will ever know. Now, let me punch this barrel open..." Luffy's eyes widened as he tried desperately not to burst out laughing. He hoped the pirate would do it, he SO hoped he would…
CRUNCH! Splash.
"BWAHAHAHAHAA!" The humiliated pirate glanced up to see a vaguely scary looking man wearing a straw hat, cackling furiously.
"He really punched it... he punched the barrel... WHY WOULD YOU PUNCH OPEN A WINE BARREL?!"
Luffy had tears running down his cheeks at this point. He didn't know why he found this so funny. It wasn't that hilarious... maybe it was the buildup from all his funny puns on the boat ride. It felt impolite to laugh at your own joke, even when there's nobody else there to do it for you.
The pirate, by this point, was furious. He glared at Luffy, but as he did, the Straw Hat composed himself, pulled his hat down to shadow his eyes, and strode purposefully towards the men. Each one fainted as he passed, leaving only the tiny Coby unscathed. He was understandably terrified and crawled backwards, trying to hide in a corner, as Luffy laughed.
"You're a wimp! I don't like you!" Coby flinched and then realised there wasn't actually a fist aiming for his face. He looked vaguely happy that he wasn't bound for the big coward-hole in the sky just yet, but somehow he felt like he'd let the behatted pirate down. There was anger in those eyes, and sorrow.
"Umm... Sorry?" Coby muttered hesitantly, not wanting to anger someone who could kill three men with his glare alone, "Why did you kill those guys for opening wine wrong? That's a bit mean. Not that I'm complaining no no PLEASE DONT HURT ME!"Luffy was surprised at how annoying Coby was back then… now. He had forgotten how whiny he could be, saying whatever he could to avoid a beating.
'SHUT UP!" Luffy yelled, feeling a migraine coming on."I only knocked them out. They'll be fine."
Coby, not wanting to anger the pirate further, muttered under his breath, "You're really strong."
"Of course!" Luffy grinned "I have to be, to become the Pirate King"
Coby leaped up and started furiously denying Luffy's chance of being Pirate King, his whiny, nasal voice crescendo-ing wildly as he attempted to save the life of this arrogant pirate.
"Impossible impossible impossible IMPOSSIBLE!"
This time Luffy's silent glare was all that was needed to shut him up. He didn't want to deal with Coby's 'we'll never accomplish anything' rant again.
"It doesn't matter if it's impossible." Luffy said, grinning "It's my dream, and I'll do it or die trying. That's what I'm living for. Now, we're leaving." Luffy didn't feel like he had time for theatrics; he'd arrived way later, when Coby was just getting the barrel, and he didn't want to get so behind schedule that Zoro died while he was being shouted at by Coby. How did this guy become an admiral before? Seriously?
As Luffy burst up through the floorboards he remembered his awesome plan. It was better to conceal his Haki for now, in case somebody reports it. He pulled off his bowling act just like last time as he knocked over 5 angry pirates with one of their own friends. He decided to mix things up after that, and instead of pretending to run away from the fresh horde of pirates, he ran around the mast a few times, wrapping one of his arms around it. The other he stretched out and solidified with Tekkai. When he let go of the wooden pole, the effect was beautiful. An instant clothesline for every pirate on deck. Except for two. One being Monkey D. Luffy, and the other a fat ugly cow that had so far stood back and let the others do the fighting.
"OY! WHAT DID YOU SAY?" The angry 'woman' yelled.
"Aw, I was narrating out loud again wasn't I?" Luffy grinned infuriatingly.
Coby, meanwhile, worked up the years of resentment he'd had being Alvida's slave, and yelled, "He's right! You are a FAT BITCH!"
Alvida raised her titular iron mace to strike Luffy in the head, but Luffy smiled.
"Lemme get that for ya." He leapt up and headbutted the mace with a Tekkai-reinforced head. 'How does that work' he wondered. 'Are there muscles in my head? Meh, whatever. It works, either way!' The mace shattered and Luffy saw three marine ships on the horizon. He picked Alvida up with finger and thumb and threw her all the way to the marine ships. One of them sank.
Coby's jaw dropped as Luffy placed a hand on his chin, deep in thought.
"She wasn't that heavy after all, Coby. Did she talk a lot?"
Coby, surprised at the sudden change in subject, answered. "Yes. why?"
Luffy grinned again. "She must have been full of hot air!"
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A/N: *bows* I thank you. I have returned from the breach! I hope y'all didn't miss me too much :) What do you think of the puns? Good? Great? OK then.
The thing you should have noticed is the increase in quality in this chapter… becauuseee…. I'VE GOT A BETA READER! Mr Monkey D. Funky spent an obscene amount of time reading this chapter, cutting it to shreds, and rearranging it into a readable piece of work. He seems to have something against my puns though… wonder why? Anyway, huge props to him, I enjoyed re-reading 'my own work' this time around, because it's as good as new! Go check out his Assassin Classroom/One Piece crossover if you're familiar with A-Cl. I'm not, but I still enjoyed reading it! Didn't really know what was going on, though.
Since we need to get each chapter beta-d before release, I'm going to change the post schedule to every two days. If I have wifi during my intensive cello course I may be able to post a few chapters, but the week after I'm completely free to write for hours on end!
Dark: No problem! I wanted to get one more out before Monday. I can't find the typo you mentioned, what chapter was it in?
Ash: Indeed! I'm glad you like my sense of humour, and I hope it's even more awesome now it's grammatically correct and aesthetically pleasing. Thanks for the cookie!
Clay: Thank you for the review! The size of the Going Merry can't change as it was just a boat Kaya had lying around. The Sunny may be bigger, or it may not. Spoilers! Luffy will definitely have to tell somebody on the crew, most likely Zoro. The others will learn… in time...
If you liked the chapter, review. If you didn't like the chapter, review and say why not.
If you liked the beta-ing, review and go give Monkey D. Funky some love.
You're all awesome, BYEE!