The day they declare
Author's note: This story is a reimagine of the One piece story with an OP Luffy, a Smarter Luffy but deadlier enemies. This is my first attempt in writing stories so please be patient. Please give reviews. What did you like about it? What do you think needs to be improved? Any suggestions, everything is welcome.
Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or any of it's characters that rightfully belongs to Oda!
Thoughts 'example'.
Speech "example."
Memory *example*
Review comments:
NinjaFang1331: Thank you!
Vqv4a3612: I did purposely move the ages up, everything does still flow story-wise (ie. Kreig doesn't take the Baratie) but the story will still sort of stay the same until the grandline, it does take a fairly large change to canon.
A/N: Big shout out to Martin-di-Arcov and Tysonhousemovers on their advice and ideas to help me improve this story into one of my new favorite chapters. Please read and review!
Silence floats on the breeze as Zoro steels himself for a night watch shift "hmph, I could use a nice drink about now" Zoro thinks as he sits in the crows nest
*"What are you doing out so late at night?" the young girl with raven hair asked "I am here to ask for our 2001st battle, for this will be our last duel. Let us duel for the final time using real swords this time" a young Zoro asks, throwing one of the three swords to the young lady "you're not afraid are you Kuina?" Zoro asked jokingly "Fine!" Kuina said, standing up with the sword in hand. Zoro charges swipe after swipe only to be dodged or blocked by Kuina, neither gaining a foot but Zoro falling short on stamina huffs and puffs while Kuina chuckles "always wearing yourself out too fast" as she slashes upwards knocking the swords out of Zoro's hands and slashing downward stopping right at Zoro's face "2001 wins" she laughs out.*
Zoro shaking his head to rid himself of errant memories "bah" he said out to the breeze as he paced the crows nest 'she can't keep popping up forever' he thinks as he smacks his head on the mast, pulling out his Wado Ichimonji he says "I will become the greatest swordsman..for us" he said the last part as a whisper but down below Luffy can hear and see his torment as clear as day as he slowly climbs the crows nest he says "heya, Zoro" as he opens the door to the nest.
Walking through the door Luffy can feel the palpable tension in the air "wanna talk about it?" Luffy asked pulling a chair up "if your not comfortable I understand" and as he says that Zoro slightly deflates "it's nothing, just an old memory of a promise" Zoro said looking out over the sea "ah the promise of being the best" Luffy said as if it was a simple statement "well you are on your way" Luffy said while leaning forward he continued "if you do want to talk I am all ears" as Zoro nodded he slowly crept out of the nest and straight to the kitchen to grab a drink. He needed to numb the memories.
Several hours and a big breakfast courtesy of an over zealous Sanji swooning over the ladies later, Luffy said "Ok we are coming upon our next destination: Loguetown. This is the last stop before we hit the grand line therefore we need to do a couple of things beforehand. Firstly we need to re-supply everything from food to weapons and secondly there is a marine base just north of Loguetown that is responsible for the bribes for most of the pirates in the East Blue and I would like to rob and sink their base." Luffy said while pointing out the locations on the map of Loguetown and Branch 16 as if sinking a base was a simple act.
"WHAT?! You want to rob a marine base! That would be insane" Usopp. "I agree with Usopp, that's madness!" Kaya says in agreement.
"There are materials there that we could utilize, mainly the seastone they use to coat their ships. If we can take a large chunk of that we can craft tools that would make a fight against devil fruit users easier, plus revenge on the corrupt marines is always worth it" Luffy said. "I am in" Nojiko said while stepping forward "I remember having personally called them myself trying to get them to help us with Arlong just to be ignored time after time".
"Sounds good, I think we should split up and have a team with Zoro, Nami, Sanji and Kaya going to Loguetown while another team with Nojiko, Usopp and I all go and deal with the marine base" Luffy said while looking at the list of objectives written out. Usopp looking pale slowly nodded and noticing that Luffy slapped him gently on the back saying "don't worry I may need your sniping so if you want, staying on the ship for the most part will be safer, shishisi".
"The Loguetown team will take the smaller supply boat and take it to Loguetown while the marine base infiltration team will take The Bahamuts' Strength and load up as much treasure and seastone as possible." Luffy said while looking up at everyone.
"Zoro you need to update your swords with the best ones possible, Sanji we need to get as much supplies to last a while since we are unsure exactly which route we are going to take once we get there and we need to be prepared for anything, Kaya if possible could you pick up some medical books and supplies that we may need? Nami we need to get some clothing for different weathers and since you mentioned that you wanted to go shopping for yourself I thought maybe we can get some clothes for the rest of us as well? If you need help, maybe someone else could meet you at the clothes stores and help bring the clothes out?" Luffy said while thinking "Well we can take our time at Loguetown but once the base is raided we will need to hurry".
Luffy reaches for his small box and opens it to reveal a large amount of Beli. "Here we go" Luffy says while handing each person 500,000 Beli saying "This should be enough for our supplies" While handing 1,000,000 to Sanji "If possible get some updated equipment for the kitchen too" and handing Zoro another 2,000,000 Beli while saying "I also need you to get the best swords possible, get some staff as well for Nami and a close combats weapon for Nojiko" looking over to Nojiko "any preference in a weapon?" pausing for a moment, Nojiko replied, facing Zoro "something for punching maybe brass knuckles... I trust your judgement" as Zoro nods in understanding.
"We will meet here" Luffy said pointing to a section of the reverse mountain "there is a small protrusion from the mountain where you could tie off until The Bahamuts' Strength arrives. Does anyone have any issues or anything?" Luffy said while looking around at everyone. With a round of shakes from their heads Luffy continued with the meeting "the 3 of us will bring The Bahamuts' Strength to the outer wall of the marine base and I will sneak in and get to the Captain, once I have removed him from the situation you two will charge in and eliminate the soldiers from the outside in while I take out the soldiers from the inside out using a pincer formation." Everyone left Luffy's quarters while Zoro grumbles about having to miss the fun to get a bit of rest before the excitement.
Usopp rushes to his room to make a list of supplies he is going to need while the rest go back to their jobs.
"Are you sure it will be safe to attack a marine base?" Nojiko asks Luffy while walking on the deck of the ship. "Well on a normal marine base the captain stays in the headquarters and I plan to hit the headquarters hard and fast so most of their attention will be on me while you and Usopp will hit them while distracted, shishishi plus Captain Nezumi is a push over he is a weakling that uses his marines to impart his will." Luffy said to a relieved Nojiko "You're right we got this!" She said while jumping up and down.
The crew arrives at the destination "Alright guys, we're here. Does everyone have their objectives?" Seeing a nod from everyone Luffy continues "ok we will split up and meet here" pointing to the rendezvous point "in 8 hours, once we hit the marine base the time will be ticking until the marines are aware of our presence once the alarm is set we will be rushing to get passed the Marines out of Loguetown".
The teams separating Luffy, Nojiko and Usopp watch as Nami, Kaya, Sanji and Zoro board a small schooner toward Loguetown. Turning around Luffy says "let's get a pillaging, shishishi" as he chuckles Nojiko looks on with amusement 'he is always so carefree' she thinks as she mans the helm.
As they arrive near the base Luffy calls "Ok guys we are going to take this slow" Luffy says. The crew slowly arrives just outside of the marine base and Luffy walks up the Nojiko and Usopp "Well here we go, once I have raised the alarms everyone will be rushing for the headquarters where I am and you guys can then charge and you too can rush in an clean up the remaining marines". "Yes sir! We can handle that" Usopp said loudly with a small pitch to his voice.
Luffy takes Nojiko to the side "What is wrong?" Luffy asked seriously "Well I'm just worried for you, I know you're strong but this is the marines we are talking about what if they catch you in a trap?" Nojiko said while looking at the floor. Luffy leans forward and places a kiss on her head "you have nothing to fear, these marines are nothing compared to Arlong or even Krieg" Luffy commented while laughing.
"Keep the ship here until you hear the alarm and then you can bring it into the bay." Luffy then jumped over the wall and then pushed his foot into the ground creating a pillar to launch out of the ground launching him toward the base and with a bang Luffy hit the ground just outside the headquarters causing a wave of rocks to hit the building knocking a section of the wall down.
As marines rush out of the nearby buildings Luffy disappears into the headquarters searching for the captain quarters, knocking out marines in his way until he gets to the third floor where there's a large door with a rat drawn on it "Knock Knock" Luffy yells while making a large rock fist and slamming the door down "ahh don't kill me, you can take whatever you want just please don't kill me" Nezumi cried while cowering "easy enough, where is your store of seastone and where is your safe?" Luffy said while wielding two rock shortswords. "There there" Nezumi says rapidly while pointing to the wall against the right side of the room. "Great!" Luffy says while transforming his swords into handcuffs and latching them on onto Nezumi while dragging him to the safe and pushing his hand against the wall, having it reform to break the safe open "Ahh" Nezumi screamed as a section of the nearby wall breaks "awesome look at all this Beri, no doubt Arlongs money huh?" Luffy asked looking pointedly at Nezumi "I-I um, I don't know what you are talking about" Nezumi squeaked out looking away as Luffy grabs his duffle bag and fills it with the money in the safe and then looking back at Nezumi "ok last thing, where is the seastone being stored?" Luffy asked while pushing Nezumi against the wall "Fine fine fine, just don't hurt me, they are in the storage warehouse on the east side of the base" Nezumi says while crying.
"Great!" Luffy exclaimed while molding the wall to warp around Nezumi until he was all but submerged with only his head sticking out and then pushing a small amount of earth to cover his mouth "Just stay there, shishishi" Luffy said while laughing while knocking the wall down and jumping out.
Luffy slams back into the ground while a large amount of marines surround him "shishishi" Luffy laughs while putting his hands on the ground causing the ground to swallow the marines up to their heads. Luffy then looks up to see Nojiko and Usopp knocking marines aside to reach Luffy. "Hey, it looks like most of the marines are either knocked out or up to their heads in dirt! Mwahahaha" Usopp said laughing.
"Oh good" Nojiko said while wiping her brow "still underestimating me huh" Luffy asked while tossing her the duffle bag full of Beri "Whoo that's a lot of Beri" Nojiko exclaimed "well we can count it later but more importantly the warehouse of seastone is over there" Luffy pointed toward the east side of the base. They arrive at the warehouse knocking out the few guards remaining and busting the door open to reveal several large crates that, upon further investigating where either filled with swords or seastone so Luffy pushes on the ground to create a small earth wave that started to push the creates out and toward The Bahamuts' Strength.
As they load the crates into the ship they see a marine ship approaching in the distance "shoot! They're here faster than expected, ok guys lets take these 4 crates" pointing to the 4 Luffy had started to push up the ramp, "and let's get out of here" Luffy said while pushing the last crate into the cargo hold. Usopp then unfurls the sails and Nojiko gets to the helm while Luffy uses his power to push off the docks and away they go.
The crew spends a couple of hours leading the ship towards the rendezvous point taking the long way in the attempts of losing them, only to realize they are slowly gaining "well screw this game of cat and mouse! Usopp! Get the cannons ready and we will send some volleys toward them to try and slow them down" Luffy ordered while looking around thoughtfully "Hmm..." Usopp runs to the cannons and starts to send volleys of cannonballs. "Usopp I have an idea" Luffy said while running down to the cannons with Usopp "Aim the cannons for those cliffs, we are starting to get close and when we are closer we'll break some of the cliff off and if its large enough it will create a big wave that will push us further apart" Luffy suggested while pointing to the large overhang.
"You got it!" Usopp responded while aiming his cannons "ready… ready... ready..." Usopp murmured, waiting. Just as the Bahamut's Strength gets a fair distance away Luffy orders Usopp "Fire!" The cannonball hits just below the cliffs, relieving the mountain with a section of overhanging cliff causing the section of cliff to slam into the water, hitting near the marine ship and propelling it backwards while launching The Bahamut's Strength forward with a boost of speed, giving them some breathing room.
Luffy calls over for Usopp to man the crows nest and then Luffy turns to Nojiko "let's get a move on we need to meet the rest of the crew". "Luffy! They're back!" Usopp yells as Luffy looks to the stern he sees a billow of smoke propelling their ship forward "the captain must be Smoker from Loguetown" Luffy yelled back toward Usopp and Nojiko "he is a smoke logia user, we need to get ready!".
Luffy walks to the rear and as they get a bit closer Luffy can hear "Surrender pirates!"Observing the marine ship he notices a man wearing a large thick white and blue specialist marine jacket which he keeps open, with greenish fur lining the neck, wrists, and hem who was smoking 2 cigars at the same time. All of a sudden smoke starts filtering around the man getting darker until the man is then launched directly at them. Usopp starts firing only to have the pellets go straight through him as if he wasn't even there "Stop firing" Luffy shouts "He cannot be hurt by just pellets".
"Everyone stand down" Luffy says while summoning some rocks "I may not be proficient but I am enough" Luffy yells while shooting the blackened rocks at the smoke man "what?!" Smoker yelled "how is it possible you know haki in the east blue of all places!" Luffy starts chuckling and answers back: "I was trained to use haki by a pretty notorious pirate so yeah, I know haki". As the small rocks launch toward Smoker and he tries to dodge, it starts to get harder as the more the rocks hit him the more he has to retreat, leading him back to his ship.
The marine ship slows for a moment only to then lurch forward as smoke blows the ship forward quickly. As the marine ship gets closer and closer the smoke starts getting thicker in the air making it harder to see, Luffy using observation haki jumps backwards dodging a jitte. As the jitte gets closer Luffy is quite aware that there is seastone somewhere on the weapon. Kicking Smoker backwards Luffy looks around seeing Usopp down on the deck and Nojiko running toward him he pushes his foot down creating a wall that pushes Usopp and Nojiko into the room behind them "let us out" Nojiko screamed as Usopp tries to break off a small portion of the wall.
"Just you and me smokey" Luffy taunts as he gets into a fighting stance "you're either very brave or very stupid, soon my men will get to the ship and board and you will be surrounded" Smoker says pulling one of his cigars out of his mouth Luffy chuckles "the fight won't last that long" as Luffy hardens his hand he charges and with a quick kick Smoker steps back but in that instance he left his face vulnerable and Luffy then uses his haki infused fist to connect and toss Smoker back. Luffy then twisted his foot, cocooning Smoker in stone only to have Smoker turn intangible and escape, he then grabs his jitte from the ground and, in a split second flings it at Luffy managing to connect the tip into Luffy's side, which hits him and sticks him to the wall behind breaking a chunk of it off as Nojiko grabs Luffy "No! You're hurt!" she frantically says as Usopp sets forward and starts shooting small pellets that start connecting and pushing Smoker back in surprise.
"Seastone!" Usopp shouted as he grabbed a chunk that was laying on the ground and tossed it to an angry looking Nojiko who charged forward holding the chunk, she slammed her fist into Smoker exposing the seastone to his face. Smoker, getting frustrated notices that Luffy is standing back up and after looking around and seeing that his marines are still a bit away he turns to smoke and flees.
"Usopp! Let's use this opportunity to fire the cannons at their ship!" Luffy yelled as he pants for a second regaining his strength. Running to man the cannons Nojiko runs to the helm but as she passes Luffy she says "you and me will be having a discussion about that stunt" rubbing the back of his head he nods.
Firing the stern cannon Usopp hits the marine ship, pushing it towards the side of the mountain Luffy gets a spark in his eye as he rushes forward he tells Usopp to "keep them toward the mountain and when i say so pull the cannon back a bit away from the figurehead" looking a bit confused Usopp answered "eh… ok, you got it.".
As the cannon fires and the marine ship slowly edges closer and closer to the mountain Luffy starts swaying his hands and sliding his feet, as he does so the dragon figurehead slowly uncurls from the ship, pushing his hands out the dragon takes flight slamming into the marine ship and earning a cry of fear from the marines aboard as Smoker steams he yells "I will get you strawhat if its the last thing I'll do!"
As the dragon arrives back, a bit destroyed but as it curls back on the ship it slowly regains its shape. Now that the marine ship is stuck upon the mountain Luffy yells out "let's get outta here" looking toward Nojiko. As Nojiko calls out to pull the sail Usopp runs to oblige as Luffy sits on the ground he lays against it in exhaustion from the stress of lifting the dragon and attacking with it.
Getting a distance away they see a small schooner anchored near a sea stack. As they approach they see a worn down Zoro and Sanji as Kaya seemingly is attending to wounds from Sanji, jumping onto the schooner Luffy asked in rushed tones "what happened?".
Kaya, hoisting the anchor replies "well you see …."
A/N: A small cliffhanger, I wanted to split up the chapter for each team so this chapter is a bit shorter than our usual chapters.