Talking Blues

By Chou

Chapter 1 – The Red Haired Gang

Shanks ran, one arm holding the bag of ill-gotten gains over his shoulder, the other keeping his trademark straw hat on his red-haired head. Behind him, the shouts of the long arm of the law were being drowned out by his laughter and the laughter of his crew. He knew bullets would follow the shouts, but he couldn't really say he cared. After all, Yasopp could outshoot anyone on earth, and if he couldn't, Ben Beckman could. So he laughed, and the bag of loot on his back jangled. It had been a good heist, with careful planning, almost no trouble, and a good haul. The police behind them were something that had just popped up, but in his eyes, that just made things more interesting.

Shots rang out behind him. He didn't flinch as he felt a bullet zip by his cheek. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Yasopp turn and fire with two pistols while running backwards. Shanks grinned; that was a cool trick. Up ahead, he saw Lucky Roo pull up with the get away car. Shanks loved the car, a 1926 Bentley, bright apple red in color. It was his pride and joy, from its gleaming fenders to the dragon's head hood ornament he had put on to make it look even cooler. Shanks and Yasopp dived into the car's waiting interior. Beckman jumped on the back, and provided cover fire with his shotgun as they sped away to freedom.


Party's Bar was roaring, which wasn't anything new. Jazz and swing had hit the East Blue like a hurricane, and every joint shook to it like a leaf in the wind. Shanks downed another shot of whiskey and laughed as Lucky tore up the dance floor with three fine dames. Lucky, with his massive girth, wasn't much of a runner, but he was a hell of a driver, fighter, dancer, and although Shanks didn't like to think about it much, a lover. Ben Beckman, his right hand, wailed on his sax with enough soul to fill Heaven. Shanks smiled at the irony of his quiet, dry witted right hand being so damned good at playing from the heart and soul.

"Another drink, big guy?" came a voice from in front of him. Makino jiggled a bottle of whiskey invitingly. Shanks smiled and raised both his hat and his glass.

"You know it, Makino. So, how's tricks?" he said. Makino was special to him, as special as a girl had ever been. Shanks wasn't a bad guy, outside of the whole robbery thing, but he was on the whole too easy going for most girls to like for more than a one-night thing. But Makino…if either of them had been the marrying type, they would've been hitched a long time ago. She was everything he liked in a gal and more stuff besides.

She laughed and refilled his glass. He raised it to his lips.
 
And that's when a human cannonball hit him with a yell of "SHANNNNNKS!"

Monkey D. Luffy was a newsboy, selling papers on the corner. He was an orphan who Shanks and the gang hadn't so much adopted, but had adopted them after Shanks had broken up some local bullies trying to get his hard won coin. The kid had tailed on him like a shadow afterwards, and the gang had adopted him, half because he was fun as hell to tease, and half because he was a good kid, really. Dense as a post sometimes, but a good kid. Besides, Luffy didn't have anyone else. His brother had hopped the first ship out and rumor had it was now the semi-legendary thug "Fiery" Portgas D. Ace.

"What'd ya bring me!? Is it jake? When can I join th' gang, huh? I'm big enough, an' I gotta punch like a bullet, I don't even need knuckle dusters, c'mon, let me join, pleasepleaseplease!" the kid was talking a mile a minute.

Shanks held up a hand and shook his head. "No way kiddo. You're way too young for this biz, and you got the sneaking around ability like a bull in a china shop, kid. No deal."

"Shucks, Shanks! That ain't no fair, y'know? I can learn how to sneak around so quiet, a mouse won't hear me!" Luffy pouted. Shanks winked at Makino and took the whiskey bottle from her, pouring some of the contents into his glass and sliding it to Luffy.

"Hey, someday kiddo, I'll let you, honest. Here, try this, um, juice. It'll put hair on your chest. Make ya a man." Before the words had left his mouth Luffy had tossed down the alcohol.

It's hard to tell what was louder, Shanks' laughter or Luffy's coughing and sputtering.

"Ptew! PTEW!  Shanks! Why are you tryin' ta poison me, huh!? That's too low down!" Luffy almost took a swing at his laughing straw hated idol.

"Hahahaha, ah, c'mon kiddo, that was nothing for a tough mug like you, right?" Shanks tousled the kid's already unruly black hair with his hand.

Luffy snorted "If you're gonna try ta poison me, I'm taking my biznext elsewhere!" he stomped off to the other crew members, who tried not to laugh at his story. Shanks barely resisted the urge to call "It's 'business', not 'biznext'" after him.

He turned to Makino, his silliest and most dashing grin on his face. "I love teasing that kid." and they both laughed.


Luffy slouched over to Ben Beckman, who had taken a break from bringing down the neighborhood with his sax. He sat there, smoking, his only concession to the exertion being the unbuttoning of his collar and ever so slight loosening of his tie.

"What's the good word, kid?" he said, giving a rare smile at Luffy through the smoke.

Luffy kicked at the floor. "Ah, Shanks won't let me join the gang."

Ben shrugged "Hey, good for him."

Luffy looked at him angrily. "It's not good, I wanna join!"

Ben stubbed his cigarette out on the sole of his shoe. "Listen, kid, I'll tell you why it's good. You may think this gang is all chases, money, and dames, but there's a lot of hard work involved in pulling a good heist. It's dangerous too, since you never know if you're going to get caught by the fuzz, the mob, whoever. Shanks, he just doesn't want you getting yourself killed when you're so young. Cut him a break."

Luffy scratched his nose as he thought about this.

"But I wanna join!" he said finally, throwing his hands up in the air, exasperated.

Ben sighed, and stubbed out his cigarette. This, he thought, was why he never had kids.


"Hey, who serves the drinks in this joint?" came a harsh voice from the door. Then they walked in, all pinstripes and hidden switchblades and grins like sharks.

"I do. What can I do you for, Mister…?" Makino said with forced nonchalance.

"Higuma. Name's Higuma. See, me and my boys, we're generous. We've moved into this town, see, and we're willing to offer you…protection. For a reasonable sum." their leader said with an unwholesome grin.

Makino's eyes narrowed slightly. "Protection from what?"

Shanks sighed inwardly. Better try to fix this situation, he thought.

"Hey gents" he said to the gangsters, giving them what he hoped was a disarming smile as he held up the whiskey bottle "how about you just have a drink, hey?" Shanks had a good nose for danger, and this situation stank. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that Luffy was watching, but he also saw that Ben had him protected. Good.

It also meant that Luffy was watching when Higuma pulled a gun and shot the bottle Shanks offered, shattering it and splashing it's contents all over Shanks. He lowered his head so his hat covered his eyes and breathed in, letting the anger fade before he lifted his head, regret written on his face. Makino rushed around the bar

"Damn it…" he said, wistfully "what a mess. Hey, Makino, got a mop? I'll clean this up, ok?"

He started to get up, but stopped at the feel of a gun against his head. His gang froze to the outward eye, but he knew that they were ready to go since the bastards had walked in. The gun against his head didn't mean jack to him. If it came to that, they'd cut this Higuma mug down before he pulled the trigger.

Either that, or they'd be around to avenge their boss.

He heard shots fired, and bottles breaking, Makino held back a scream next to him, and Luffy gasped. When the shooting stopped, Higuma lifted the gun from his head and walked his gang out.

"So, protection payments start next week. See you then." He called out over his shoulder, laughing and slamming the door on the way out.

Shanks lifted his hat and shook some of the whiskey off before shoving it back on his head. And then he laughed, and his gang joined him.

"Damn, boss, how could you waste good booze like that!" Yasopp was bent double with laughter.

Makino handed him a rag and he wiped his face before smiling at his gang. "Hahaha, don't worry about that, with the money we pulled in this time, we can buy more booze than God!"

Luffy ran up to him then. Shanks was mildly surprised by how angry the kid looked.

"What was that!? Those guys trashed the bar, and you didn't lift a finger! I thought you guys were tough!"

Shanks shrugged "He was just a two bit gangster, kid. Just trying to pull some protection racket. The fuzz'll pick him up before he can make good on it. Killing a guy over booze, that's not how we do things around here."

Luffy screwed up his face in an angry pout and ran off, yelling, "I'm too dismembered to stick around here!"

Shanks watched him go, amused, but not concerned at the fickle kid. He waited until Luffy had got the door open before shouting. "It's disillusioned, kid!" at the tiny form's retreating back.


Another week, a new heist, and another trip to Party's Bar. Shanks tried to tell himself it was a coincidence that he happened to show up on the two-bit gangster's collection day. Yeah. Pure coincidence. And that crowd gathered on the sidewalk outside Party's…that crowd of toughs wearing pinstripes. That was just coincidence too. Yeah.

Like hell.


Author's Notes:

Well, this shows the grifter take on Shanks and his gang, and even ends with a cliffhanger, although any OP fan worth their straw hats should know what the outcome is. Or do they? That's what I love about AU stories; that history can be screwed around with.

Hahaha, don't worry, what happens with Shanks will follow the main story.

Kinda.

Also, you may be wondering about Luffy's way of talking. The answer to this is that Luffy has even less of an education here than he did in One Piece, and the misuse of words comes from the fact that he sees a lot of newspaper articles with big words, and gets them mixed up.