Chapter 7 – Loguetown

(3 days after Arlong's defeat)

The Straw Hat pirates and Cocoyasi villagers finally exhausted from the celebration of the Village's freedom were all sleeping in the centre of town, Nami and the town's doctor, Nako, being the only ones still awake.

"Get rid of it.' Nami said, 'I don't want this filthy mark anymore.'

"I know' Dr. Nako replied, 'do you want it replaced with anything?'

"Yeah, replace it with this' Nami said handing the doctor a piece of paper.

"Huh, good choice, no one deserves this honour more than them.'

(The following morning)

"All right Straw-Hats, time to get up! We're heading to Loguetown today!'

"What's that?' one of Luffy's crew asked, 'Guy's wake up! Something's wrong! The Captain got up early!'

"Hey! I'm not that lazy!' Luffy replied a little insulted.

"Yeah you're right about that Luffy' Sanji said, 'you're not Zoro after all.'

"What was that dartboard brow?!' Zoro said angrily.

"You heard me seaweed head!'

'Oh yeah?'

"Yeah!'

"Guys stop fighting, or you'll destroy the town we just saved.' Usopp said.

"He's right you know.' Ben said, 'You guys in the Core Crew are ridiculously over powered, or at least Zoro, Sanji and the Captain are.'

"Core Crew?' Usopp asked.

"It's what we call you guys that actually have designated positions in the crew,' Ben replied, 'First Mate, Cook, Navigator, Sniper or Battle Supervisor. You guys are the only ones with actual jobs, the rest of us are just grunts. The truth is most of us joined the Straw Hat crew after the Captain saved from one thing or another in the Grand Line, with the first of us coming from the New World.

He didn't even ask us to join; he was just helping us out on his way through. Nearly everyone here joined the Straw Hat crew by stowing away on the ship. And about half of us are former slaves. On his way back to Paradise from the New World he stopped by Sabody Archipelago to get a proper ship and just went crazy when he saw the Slave Market, luckily there were no Celestial Dragons there or even he would have been beaten, he just walked into the market and shattered all the collars with his haki. After everyone got out he brought that Auction House crashing to the ground. I doubt they have it rebuilt yet, from the amount of haki he released it seemed that anyone who stepped foot on that site for the next month would be knocked out just from the after effects. I came from the New World and I hadn't even heard of residual haki.

Anyway, before Zoro showed up I was the closest thing the crew had to a first mate, he saved me from one of the Yonkou just before we left the New World, I was about to be executed but he stopped it. And I just kept following him; eventually he let me stay to just to keep me out of trouble. When he first set out he only wanted about ten people on his crew and that's all he still wants. No matter what we do, or how loyal we are, he views us his family and friends but only those he accepts, does he view as his real crew.'

"Wow' Sanji said, 'I had no idea the crew went through so much just to actually be a crew member, especially when the crew is mostly just like a big party or goof most of the time. It makes me feel like a dick for refusing him the first time he asked me.'

"Yeah, me to.' Zoro said. 'He had to blackmail me to get me to join.'

"The captain saved all of us,' Ben said, 'We respect him and his strength, we are all loyal because he saved our lives. But he's not like Whitebeard who is more like father than a captain. He's more like Shanks, we may respect him and his strength but he's still just like a goofy kid. He's our brother, he protects all of us and expects nothing in return, and for that we give him everything, he would die for us, and so we would die for him.'

"Wow Ben,' Usopp said in a hushed tone, 'how can the crew act like it does and have all that behind them?'

"We have to act like that' Ben replied, 'We've all experienced Paradise and if we have to be saved from that, we have to do something to keep surviving it. So we have fun, and fight when we need to. It's a lot better than most that come out of the Grand Line, who either drink to forget or just continue to go back, over and over again each time losing to that Sea. So we keep strong for him, we train and get tougher to keep him safe, to stop him from dying to protect us. Even if he wasn't that strong, we would all still follow him, because we can't think of anyone else more deserving to be a captain.'

(Back onboard the Raijin)

"Huh, I wonder what Ben's saying to them.' Luffy said. 'Oh well, it's none of my business, let's move this boat back to the Merry.'

A couple of minutes later the Raijin pulled up out the front of Cocoyasi Village surprising the villagers and the newly acquired Straw-hats.

"Luffy! How can you sail that huge ship on your own?' Zoro asked while the others were still a little stunned.

"When I got the ship, I had enough money to get some improvements on Water 7. I got it modified to run on my electrical powers. I don't like doing that though; it feels like cheating the ocean for some reason.' Luffy said with a huge grin. 'Alright! Hitch up the Merry and let's get going to Loguetown. There's some stuff we need to pick up and someone I want to talk to there. Somebody find Nami and tell her we're leaving.'

After the 'heartfelt' farewells that included Nami stealing all her villager's wallets, the Raiden pirates made their way to Loguetown which meant that they had to split up again.

"All right guys, we're nearing Loguetown, unhitch the Merry and continue forward, we'll meet you just outside the Calm Belt. We'll see you there later tonight, be careful, if Smoker sends marines to do a perimeter search you might get caught and I do not want to have to save you all again, alright.

"Aye Captain.' Ben said, 'We'll see you later tonight.'

As the Merry docked in the port of Loguetown Usopp spoke up;

"Hey Luffy, why didn't we just bring the Raijin with us?'

"Because, the only people who come through here are tourists and pirates, with a ship that big we would have brought attention on ourselves a lot sooner. You guys go shopping for what you need; I need to go talk to someone.'

As Luffy was running off from the group the Marine HQ was making contact with Captain Smoker, the Logia captain of the Loguetown marine force.

"Why are you warning me about some snot nosed brat? Did your intelligence screw up again?' Smoker practically growled through the transponder snail, he hated being stuck here in the weakest Sea but he wasn't going to apologise for speaking his mind.

"No, Captain Smoker. Our intelligence corps did not screw up, this boy is worth 70 million berries and he appears to be able to use the Conquering King's haki so he might be able to use the others as well. You have done a fantastic job of keeping the pirates from going through Loguetown out of the Grand Line. But don't get cocky; you have after all been stationed in the weakest of the 4 Blues.'

"Yeah, I know. Alright if it will shut you up I'll be careful.'

"Good. If this kid gets past you, then you better have a damn good excuse or be dead.'

As Zoro was walking through town he saw a woman about to get attacked by some pirates, he was going to intervene until his Observation haki told him that the girl had it covered. And his haki proved to be right, as the two pirates attacked the girl unsheathed the sword she had been carrying and cut down the two men with a single slash. After which she promptly fell over and dropped her glasses.

Zoro bent down to pick them up, and accidently crushed them in shock at the sight of the girl's face.

'She could be Kuina's twin' Zoro thought before realising he had crushed the girl's glasses.

"Oh, sorry. Here's some money for new glasses.' Zoro said as he pulled out some of the money that he took out of the ship's stores.

"Thank you sir,' the girl said, 'see you later' she said as Zoro walked away.

"Well that was weird, they're almost identical and she's a swordsman too? What are the chances?' Zoro thought as he walked into the next weapon shop he saw, as he did his incredible instincts as a swordsman flowed together with his new observation haki and drew him over to a barrel next to the wall.

"Hey shopkeeper! What is this sword? It feels...violent.' Zoro asked. Slightly confused by this sense of malice coming from the blade.

"Put that down! I can't sell that to you!' The shopkeeper exclaimed suddenly a little worried.

"Why not? I have the money. Though why such an incredible sword is the cheap bin I have no idea.' As Zoro spoke he felt the sword twitch in his hand, as though it was trying to cut him. 'That's interesting, this sword is going to have to be broken in.' Zoro thought as he sent a small wave of haki through the blade, quelling it for now.

The sword was impressed; it sensed the pure, clear aura of the blade at the swordsman's hip, a calm but determined blade the sword thought. The swordsman's will was impressive, not many had stood against its bloodlust with such force before, but the sword would win, it always did -. The sword was shocked as it felt a wave of determination flow it through it, the drive of this swordsman, there was much pain in his will. But to use physical will this soon, the sword knew this swordsman would go far. The cut on the swordsman chest, it radiated the power of a master sword, in the hands of master swordsman. The sword was shocked, that this man was allowed to survive this attack - the master sword's wielder must have seen great potential. The sword wanted to cut again, to slice, to bleed, to be wielded in battle by the hands of a true swordsman and eventually to kill. But not yet, to go out into the world again. Yes that would be better than this dull store. The sword panicked as the swordsman tossed it into the air and held out his arm, it did not want to cut this swordsman, it tried to avoid cutting his arm, it would eventually turn on him but first it needed to go outside! The sword was relieved as it brushed past the swordsman arm and fell to the ground; this was good soon it would taste blood again. But there was something wrong, the swordsman was incomplete, this surprised the sword. Never had a swordsman been incomplete with two swords, unless this swordsman somehow used three swords, something was odd here.

The sword felt the arrogance of the other sword as the swordsman picked it up, one who was willing to work with the swordsman but never for him, the sword felt glad that this new sword's will could be trained by the swordsman, but it would never submit. As the swordsman placed the arrogant sword on his hip a sense of completeness washed through the swordsman to his swords, in that moment the sword gauged his new master's skill, it was impressive and unique. The sword was glad; this swordsman was still developing his skills. That meant that there would be some new techniques for the sword to experience. As the swordsman left the shop carrying the sword and the other arrogant one, the sword felt a stirring of fate in the air and was excited, soon it would taste blood.

Luffy walked down the stairs of the pub, smiling slightly at the dinged up sign Gold Roger Bar. As Luffy walked into the bar a grin appeared on the tiny, old barkeepers face.

"Well, well Monkey D. Luffy. I didn't expect to see you in here again so soon. Weren't you going to be King of the Pirates?'

"Hi Saul, it's good to see you too. I'm still going to be the Pirate King, I just came back to get some crew members before heading back to Paradise.' Luffy said.

"Paradise huh? Didn't get many folks calling the Grand Line that even before Roger's death, in fact only you and Red-Hair call it that around here. Ever since Smoker showed up no one's been getting through.' Raul said.

"I heard. But I'll get by I always do.'

"You do, don't you? So how's Shanks doing? And what was the New World like? Any good?' Saul asked.

"Shanks is fine, he's been talking to Whitebeard more often lately so the government's getting a little stirred up, but nothing major. He still has hangover from that party we threw when we came through here the first time though.'

"Hahaha, we always did have the best liquor for hangovers! Red-Hair might be able to hold his drink like a giant but he's worse than teenager when it comes to the next morning. What about you, did you start drinking yet? Hanging out with Red-Hair you must have developed some tolerance for alcohol by now.'

"No I didn't start drinking yet, I'm not going to either so put away the rum. If I started drinking while I was with Shanks I'd never leave the ship. Once you drink with that crew you become one of them whether you like it or not. I tell you it was hard at times, but I was never a Red Hair pirate, just an apprentice.'

"Yes I heard about your little trip around the Grand Line, you did a lot of quiet but big work in the two years after you left Shanks. You must have picked up at least a hundred men before you got back to the East Blue, not bad for someone who only wanted ten crewmates to begin with. I'm surprised that you managed to stay only a rumour for two years, given how loud you are.'

"I stayed quiet on purpose; I wanted to pick up my crew from the East Blue. I couldn't do that if I was being chased by marines the whole way. 'Luffy said with a smile.

"True, but you managed to keep 100 men off the government's radar for 2 years, with about 50 of them escaped slaves. The government's still trying to find them in the Grand Line, you know. For those bastards the "Celestial Dragons". For anyone to do that, that's impressive.' Saul said, a little miffed at his young friend. 'Not only that but as soon as you got back home you just went nuts, you decimated all of the East Blue pirates, got yourself a sizeable bounty for it to. 70 millions not too bad for first time bounty. The 'Demon' of Thunder, Raiden! Hahaha, that always made me laugh, you, such a scrawny little kid the 'terror' of the East Blue, the next Fisher Tiger, free-er of slaves and safe haven for any who comes to him. Hahaha! You're a legend out on the Grand Line, a whisper in the shadows.'

"Hey I didn't tell all those people join my crew, they just stayed on the boat after I helped them out. I didn't ask for them.' Luffy almost complained.

"But you got them anyway. It's quite an impressive crew even without the new additions you undoubtedly made. So what positions did you come back to fill? With a hundred crewmates already there can't be that many positions left unfilled.'

"Oh, I picked up a First Mate, a Navigator, a Cook and a Sniper.' Luffy said with that huge monkey grin on his face. 'Hey old man what's wrong?'

Saul just stared in shock, doing a perfect Imation of Coby when he found that Luffy was pirate.

"You mean you gathered 100 crewmembers and sailed from the New World back to the East Blue without a Navigator, Cook or First Mate?! How the hell did you do that?!' Saul was shocked at the little boy captain, what he did was practically impossible.

"Yeah, what's the big deal?' Luffy replied.

'And doesn't even realise why what he did is so impressive. Incredible' Saul thought, shaking his head and smiling. 'Nothing, Luffy.'

Luffy's haki picked up the sense of someone walking down the stairs to the bar.

"Hey Saul can leave through the back entrance? Someone's about to enter the bar and it wouldn't be good if they happened to be a marine, apparently I've got quite the bounty on my head at the moment.' Luffy said grinning.

"Yeah sure, just close the door on your way out. You're going to the platform again aren't you? And say hi to Shanks for me when you see him next.' Saul said grinning.

"Sure, Saul.'

Luffy left the Gold Roger Bar smiling, walking away a little bit before zapping away to the execution platform.

'Good to see Saul's still doing good' Luffy thought as he gazed up at the execution platform, 'it's been a while since I was up there' Luffy remembered climbing up to the top of the platform when he first came through Loguetown on his way to the Grand Line with Shanks. 'Man was Shanks mad. He did laugh his head off though.'

Luffy started to climb the execution platform, not teleporting there with his lightning powers. He felt that simply appearing on top of the platform would be insulting to the man who executed there.

"Hey you! Get down from there!' A town guard was yelling at Luffy to get off the platform. Luffy decided to have a little fun with him.

"Why?' He asked in a whiney voice.

"Because that platform is a historical relic, protected by the world government. If you don't come down I'm going to have to arrest y-!'

The guard cut off his speech as a large iron club was smashed into the side of his face.

"Well, well, well Monkey D. Luffy, it's been a long time.' A tall woman in a cloak said with dramatic flair.

BOOOM!

An explosion rocked the square as debris comprising of the remains of a fountain flew towards the woman, only for the pieces of rubble to slide around the woman and continue on to fly into the wall.

"Now Buggy, that was dangerous. I might have been hurt.'

"Sorry my dear, but I knew that your smooth-smooth skin would be fine. Cabaji! Close the stocks!'

Luffy sensed the acrobat before he actually showed up; he unsheathed his sword and held to Cabaji's throat before Buggy's swordsman had a chance to move.

"Too slow.' Luffy said in a low tone, freaking Cabaji out a little, the unlucky acrobat didn't even see the boy captain move. 'Well Cabaji, since your here that must mean that the Black Sheep of the Oro Jackson is here with us. Come on out, Big Nose Buggy!'

The rest of the Buggy Pirates in the square all jaw-dropped as Luffy signed his own death warrant while on an execution platform.

"WHAT!? WHAT WAS THAT YOU DAMN STRAW HAT?!' Buggy screamed, his pupils dilated so much as to be non-existent with his rage. 'THAT'S IT, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU, YOU DAMN BRAT!'

"You can certainly try, Big Nose. But since you lack haki, and can't use kairoseki due to your Devil Fruit, I'm fairly confident that I'm going to walk away from here alive and well. While you're going a pile of charred flesh on the ground as present to the Marines.' Luffy said all this with a big grin on face, never once did his sword lower from Cabaji's throat. 'Because, you see, I am returning to the Grand Line. Because,' Luffy stopped speaking to Buggy at that moment and seemed to address the entire world, 'I WILL BE THE PIRATE KING!'

His voice echoed across the square, and everyone felt the conviction of his words. They knew that nothing would stop this man from achieving his dream, and God help any who stood in his way. Of course there's always some idiot whose not paying attention.

"You'll find it pretty hard to be Pirate King after I kill you Straw Hat boy!' Buggy laughed, completely oblivious to the intense feeling of doom hanging over him. 'Men! Bring that tower down!'

Buggy's men half-heartedly charged toward the platform as Luffy sent a small amount of electricity from his blade to Cabaji's face, knocking him to the ground. Luffy took out the Haki Sphere Usopp had given him before they reached Cocoyasi Village.

"Now, how do these things work again? Oh right, channel Observation haki into the sphere so it only affects Buggy's crew and a little bit of King's haki so it knocks out everyone.' As Luffy channelled these two haki's into the sphere, the red liquid turned a dark black with streaks of gold running through it. 'Cool, it changes colour' Luffy said to himself as he threw the small ball onto the ground in front of the execution platform.

A large shockwave flashed through the crowd, blasting the square with a powerful wind against any within range. As the wind blew over the crowd, the members of Buggy's crew starting to froth at the mouth as collapsed.

"Nice try Straw Hat, but you're not strong enough to knock me out with haki. Hahaha –' Buggy cut off as the blast wave hit him, he trembled at the knees. 'What is this? I hung around Shanks and the Captain for years and when they fought they always used King's Disposition. I was never affected. How can this kid have more powerful haki than both Shanks and Gol D. Roger?' Buggy's last thoughts before he passed out was 'How?!'

Up above the crowd, Smoker sat in his office, watching the entire spectacle.

"Damn it! The kids got stronger haki than we thought. Marines! Fall back. I'll lead him away, you go and capture the Buggy Pirates before they wake up!'

Smoker jumped out the window as Luffy was running back to his ship.

"Raiden!' Smoker shouted as he landed in front of Luffy. 'You've done well keeping under my radar for so long. But here it stops, if you want to reach the Grand Line you have to go through me.'

"All right Captain, just let me get a message to my crew first.' Luffy then vanished in a bright flash and thunder tolled three times before a single streak of lightning flashed across the sky in a perfect straight line. The Straw Hats remaining in town knew this was the signal to return to the ship.

"There you are, Smoker. Now I'm ready to fight.' Luffy grinned like an idiot as he prepared to fight the Marine Captain.

'Why? He could have escaped just like that, but he came back to face me. Who is this Straw Hat?' Smoker was still lost in thought as the first haki punch knocked him on his arse. There wasn't enough power behind it to seriously hurt him though.

"What are you playing at Raiden? That punch was pathetic!' Smoker growled at the young pirate.

"I wasn't trying to hurt you Smokey. I just wanted to wake you up. You were off in La-La Land for a little bit. Hahahaha!' Luffy just laughed at the unlucky Captain.

"Damn brat! Fight me!' Smoker charged at Luffy, turning his arms into smoke to engulf the Lightning Man.

"Sorry Smokey, but that won't work on me!' Luffy zapped out of Smoker's grasp and delivered a haki infused kick to Smoker's face. 'Bye Smokey! I'll see you in the Grand Line!'

Luffy ran down the street, the heavy rain making it difficult for him to zap anywhere. As a mysterious and sombre figure watched him go, he smiled. (SPOLIER! We all know it's Dragon, right?)

"Pirate King? Let's see how far you go, Luffy.'

Luffy ran back to the Going Merry and jumped on board.

"All right! Nami, is everyone here?' Luffy asked.

"Almost we're just waiting for Zoro to get back.' Nami replied, 'But knowing his sense of direction that could be couple of hours away.'

"Damn it! I'll try to find him.' Luffy concentrated, fusing his haki and lightning abilities to locate Zoro. 'Shit! That bloody swordsman's back at the execution platform! I'll go get him. Start heading towards the Calm Belt I'll meet you there.'

Luffy jumped off the Merry and zapped himself into one of street lamps, he couldn't zap there himself, the rain could conduct him anywhere. He jumped from street lamp to street lamp all the way back to the Loguetown square.

"ZORO! You bloody idiot!' Luffy screamed into his friend's ear and whacked over the head. 'That's from Nami! Now cover yourself in haki, this is really going to hurt!'

Zoro barley covered his body before Luffy zapped them towards the harbour, unfortunately the rain did cause Luffy to lose control of their direction, stopping them about 300 meters above the harbour.

"Shit! Got to make this one count!' Luffy zapped again, this time landing just above the Going Merry.

"SHIIIIIITTT!' Luffy and Zoro screamed before they hit the deck and then landed in to cargo hold by plunging through the floor.

"Ow, that hurt. We really need a doctor on this crew. Hehehe!' Luffy chuckled while Zoro took a quick nap and concentrated on growing a large mushroom out of his head.

Back in Loguetown Captain Smoker was busy ignoring his superior's orders... again.

"Smoker! You let the kid escape?! You're going to get demoted for this.'

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Listen, send someone else down to Loguetown to stop pirates getting through. I'm going after Raiden.' Smoker growled at the transponder snail.

"No you're not! You are staying right there until a court marshal gets to Loguetown to bring you in!'

"Not gonna happen. If you want to court marshal me, that's fine. But not before I catch that little bastard. If you want to hunt me down look in the Grand Line, that's where I'll be.' Smoker disconnected the snail. 'Tashigi! Ready a boat, I'm heading to the Grand Line.'

The Going Merry caught up to Luffy's flagship just outside the calm belt and latched on with a connecting rope.

"All right everyone get on the Raijin we're about to cross the Calm Belt since the ship's too big to go up Reverse Mountain.'

"Uh, Luffy?'

"Yes Nami?'

"HOW THE HELL ARE WE SUPPOSED TO CROSS THE CALM BELT!?'

"I can't tell you. It's kind of like a crew initiation now that we've all been through it on the way into the East Blue. You guys have to go through it on the way back to Paradise.' Luffy said with grin. 'The crew's been placing bets on what'll happen in the Calm Belt for a couple of days now. According to the bookies there's a 30% chance that nothing will happen. '

"Why would nothing happen? I get that you can move the ship with your abilities so we don't need the sails. But what's stopping the Sea Kings?' Nami asked fearfully.

"Can't tell you. Secret. Hahahaha!'

"One day I am going to kill that kid.' Zoro said under his breath.

It did seem as though nothing would happen, the two ships made it about halfway across the Calm Belt when a Sea King showed up, and being a Calm Belt Sea King, it was gigantic. Once it poked it's head out of the water a flurry of money changing hands was seen on board the Raijin. None of the new recruits participated though and started screaming.

Whispers could be heard underneath the screaming. And it was all basically the same question.

'Haki or lightning?'

Luffy stood up and looked at the Sea King with an intense glare as he sent out such a shockwave of haki that even a few of his men passed out. The Sea King on the hand dove back under the water as fast as it could and hid at the bottom of the ocean for the next two days to make sure that the ship was gone.

Another flurry of money changing and...

"Damn, I over did it again!' Luffy whined.

The crew burst out laughing at their captain.

"Only you could be disappointed at scaring off a Sea King captain!' Ben chortled. As once more money changed hands.

The new Core Crew had just passed out on the deck of the ship when the Sea King showed up.

"Let them sleep, let's get out of this god forsaken piece of ocean.' Luffy said. 'I'm going down to the engine room to give us a little boost.

Luffy went down to the engine room, below the cargo hold and sent large amount of electricity into the electrical engine, making the Raijin practically jump out of the water with its speed, Luffy turned it off after they left the Belt.

Up on deck Nami, Usopp, Zoro and Sanji were still asleep.

'Let them be, come on boys! Let's take this ship around and say hi to Laboon before we head to Whiskey Peak!