Chopper is one of the few nakama who know there's something wrong with Luffy from very early on. Years before the Marine's plan begin to unravel, when Luffy is caught right in the middle of the political power play of the century. He wasn't 'Sabaondy's Watch Dog' then, or a 'Marine Hero', or 'Dragon's Son' and certainly not 'Straw Hat' Luffy. After all, Chopper is Luffy's doctor.

Before he had been his star patient, he had first been a very ill-dressed kid (did he not see the snow around him? Were those sandals?!) who had tried to eat Chopper when he first saw him. A part of the young doctor cannot believe he actually considers it a fond memory. Life with Luffy can be weird like that. Though Chopper also remembers bleeding fingers and broken nails. Carrying Nami and Sanji up a cliffside, Luffy had not look like much a kid.

If any doubts regarding his conviction -or his ability to bring it to life remained, it fluttered off into the distance along Wapol. Chopper had never been a big fan of violence, but something in his chest just untied itself, and he hadn't even been aware of it.

Oiii, I'm going to kick your a–arrest you! I'm going to arrest you!

Chopper had wanted to be free, he'd wanted to accomplish Doctor Hiruluk's dreams... Luffy had promised to protect Chopper's dream, not even knowing what it was. His captain had only heard 'dream' and that had been enough to garner Chopper an invitation into his family, his nakama. And as Nami had later on helpfully pointed out, the marines certainly had the resources to help him grow as a medic. Besides, between Luffy, Zoro and Sanji, Chopper had gotten plenty of practice.

He realized how good a decision it had been when Luffy showed absolutely no recollection that Chopper was a doctor. Luffy didn't want Chopper because he was a doctor, he wanted him because of him –in all his monstruos glory.


Robin sees her captain and sometimes still needs to control the urge to pinch herself, because some days she still cannot believe he is real. She's a marine. A marine! Robin doesn't know how she agreed to it, she's pretty sure the World Government doesn't know how they agreed to it.

Robin had been the most wanted child in the world.

As she stood in Fleet Admiral Sengoku's office, in front of a man she had spent over two decades running away from, she almost feels a surprising level of kinship with the man. The fleet admiral had been rubbing the bridge of his nose, alternating between looking at God above and her, as if he still could not believe Robin was there. Neither could she, if they were being honest.

She's nakama, part of the deal.

Most of her was convinced that she would leave the office in chains. Luffy's plan, retold from his sickbed after a poignant confrontation against Crocodile, had never looked as ludicrous. It hadn't really mattered though, Robin had been so tired by then. Of running, of hiding, of betrayal... If Luffy betrayed her or failed... would it really be such a loss? And then...

If she betrays you, you can kill me.

When she'd seen rain fall upon Alabasta for the first time since she had step foot in the arid country, as all around soldiers dropped the fighting, and Luffy's amateurish companions somehow liberated an entire kingdom... She'd thought that Luffy, marine and all, was a man made for miracles.

Leaving the Fleet Admiral's office, free. Free in every sense of the word, her head very much worth nothing but what she made of it... That's when it crystallise in her mind that her musing was more than that. She sat down, or she might've fallen, and she could barely make out Luffy's smile through her tear, crouched down to her level, warm hand on her shoulder. Robin cried in the hallways of Marineford.

So, Robin, will you join my crew?


"I stole from you!" Franky had stressed again, in the face of the complete lack of animosity from the marine. He'd given CP9 one look before dismissing them with a 'Franky and I are friends, I've got this.' "That wasn't SUPER at all."

"You did it for your dream, shishishi!" From the first moment, Franky always felt a little odd around Monkey D. Luffy. Not uncomfortable or wrong. Luffy simply makes Franky see himself, really see himself. At first, Franky hadn't liked it. Nowadays, he appreciates having someone around who's always pushing him towards being a better man. "This ship you built with our money... Can it sail around the world?"

"Yes."

"Can it sustain fighting and adventures?"

"Obviously."

"Do you think it's a boat that can carry great dreams?" Luffy asked, and perhaps despite being the most abstract of his questions, Franky got the feeling it had been the most serious.

"Absolutely."

"Then we have a deal."

"Ye-EHHHH. What?" Franky had raised his sunglasses to look at this tiny marine of a man, his eyes had been absolutely glowing in excitement. "What deal?"

"We'll take the ship as payment." He says flippingly and before Franky could protest adds. "Join my crew and make sure your ship makes it around the world."

"..." Franky just hadn't had any words for that. "Join the marines?" The ideas sounded ridiculous.

"I could also arrest you for stealing and a-sauce." Franky figures he meant 'assault'.

"Aye, aye, Captain-Bro." What else would he do on land anyway?


Brook didn't even have the opportunity to get an impression on his captain before he joined the crew. Since they sailed in a non-standar marine vessel, he figured it was another group of unsuspecting pirates that would fall helplessly at Moria's hands. He couldn't have been more wrong.

"Luffy has been deployed to inspect Gecko Moria." Their navigator had explained as they closed in on Thriller Bark. "He also has to combat test him, make sure he's fit for duty and that kind of thing." Brook had tried to see how this young man could go toe to toe with Moria and failed, though he wouldn't have to imagine it by the end of their first adventure.

As Brook filled the crew in about Thriller Bark and his own story, their captain got uncharacteristically serious.

"Stealing people's freedom is a no-no for me and I am in the inspector. Shishishi." He'd stated, cracking his knuckles.

Soon after Thriller Bark happened, and it was certainly... thrilling. Brook felt more alive than he had in all the years since he'd found his skeletal body. He played the keys to an old sailor's song, much older than the captain he's been thinking to leave and follow in celebration. The young man's grin is upside down as he lays on the piano, not missing a single word. Luffy was clearly familiar with Bink's Sake, a wonderment in itself.

"Vice-admiral, I used to be a pirate long before I was musician." Brook answers the invitation to join Luffy as he plays the last few notes of the song.

"Shishishi, I think marines need way more of your jolly music than pirates do, wouldn't you say?" Oddly enough, for a moment there, it seemed almost like Luffy had been reaching to fix a hat. "Besides, we will definitely take you to see Laboon again!"

Brook still doesn't know if it had been the very real sadness in the young man's eyes or the promise to meet Laboon again that did it, but in two lives, Brook would never regret following Luffy -as a marine Vice-Admiral or as anything else. He would feel it a specially well-tuned decision when he was following the Pirate King.