Talking Blues
By Chou

Chapter 2 – Passing the Hat

Luffy saw stars when Higuma's shoe connected with his ribs.

"Stupid, kid. Real stupid, mouthing off like that." Higuma said in a mock disapproving voice.

"Fer…ferget you." Luffy mumbled through his puffed lips and few remaining baby teeth.

Higuma's highly witty response consisted of yet another kick to the ribs.

"What have you got to say now, kid? Sticking up for those gutless barflies…real stupid."

"Ta hell wit' ya! Stop insinuatin' Shanks!" Luffy scrambled to his feet and swung at Higuma, barely missing.

Higuma kicked him again in the ribs.

Luffy looked over to where Makino was being held against the wall of the bar, an angry bruise forming on her face in retaliation for kicking one of the goons in the family jewels. Hard. He tried to get up, before they hurt her, but he couldn't, he didn't have anything left in him.

"Ah. So this is why Luffy wasn't waiting on the steps. And by the way kid, it's "insulting" not "insinuating"." Luffy looked up in surprise at the voice that came from behind the crowd of gangsters.

Higuma looked up from the blood on his shoe in surprise, before smiling. "Oh, look. It's the barflies. Sorry, but your bar's closed."

Shanks stood there, Ben, Yasopp, and Lucky at his back. Shanks wore an unbuttoned black suit jacket over his white shirt for once, but his trademark straw hat and lack of tie stayed the same.

Shanks looked at Makino's face carefully. He saw the bruise, and his eyes narrowed.

Then he saw the bruised, battered mess that was Luffy.

"Your pet kid here, he started mouthing off to us for calling you lushes a bunch of gutless barflies. So we took him out and taught him a lesson." Shanks barely heard Higuma taunting voice.

Higuma tapped his foot impatiently. "Well? You just going to stand there, or have you got something you wanna say, barfly?"

One of Higuma's thugs pulled out a pistol and held it to Shanks head. "You listenin' to the boss, chump?"

Shanks' hat covered his eyes when he spoke. "You any good with that?"

The thug was taken aback "What?"

Shanks didn't look up, but kept talking "I'm asking…if you're any good with that gun. If you are…then let's bet with our lives."

"Shut up!" The thug yelled, and a gunshot cracked the air.

Yasopp blew the smoke off his gun barrel. The thug was dead before he hit the ground.

Higuma looked at the dead man, then incredulously at Shanks' gang. "What the hell!?"

Shanks threw his jacket off and rolled up his sleeves. Lucky dropped a lead pipe out of his sleeves, Yasopp drew another pistol, and Ben brought out a shotgun from God knows where. Shanks jerked a thumb at himself and spoke.

"Listen pal, you can wreck some bottles, spill booze on me, trash a bar…that's all jake. But when you hurt my friends, especially kids and gals…I won't let you off!"

Higuma and his thugs were stunned silent for a minute, before Higuma let out a forced laugh. "Nice speech, barfly…get 'em, boys!"

Shanks barely turned to his gang. "The creampuffs are yours, I'll get the ones holding Makino. Ben, get Luffy the hell out of here." His gang nodded.

Shanks drew a knife from somewhere inside his shirt and threw it at the man holding Makino against the wall. It caught him in the shoulder, and he let go of Makino with a yell of pain. Before he could draw a weapon, Shanks rushed over and planted a right hook across the man's jaw, dropping him like a stone.

"You okay, Makino?" he asked, one hand straightening his hat while the other held her by the shoulder.

"Fine, I'm fine…go get Luffy, he's worse off than me." She pointed behind Shanks. He smiled.

"That's what I love about you, lady…always looking out for others." He said before giving her a quick kiss on her uninjured cheek and rushing off to help the rest of his gang.

He saw that the fight was almost over. Ben had emptied two shells into the same amount of thugs and was now using his shotgun as a club, slowly working his way towards where Luffy was on the ground, looking up wide-eyed at the fight. Yasopp was empting his pistols into the thugs, while Lucky swung his pipe at any who got within striking distance, giving Yasopp time to reload.

Soon, there were no bandits left standing except Higuma. The only snag was that he was holding a gun to Luffy's head.

"Ok, the jig is up, barfly. One wrong move, and this kid's got a new hole in his head." Higuma gloated at them.

Shanks got ready to act as unobtrusively as possible. He forced a smile and spoke lightly to stall for time. "Hey, Luffy…thought you had a punch like a bullet, even without knuckle dusters?"

"Shut UP, ok? They caught me by surprise, is all!" Luffy shouted. Shanks almost winced at how few teeth the kid had left.

Higuma tightened his hold on Luffy's neck and cocked the hammer to the pistol. Shanks heard Yasopp click back the hammers of his own guns.

"Stay cool, Yasopp." Shanks said without turning.

There was a tense pause that seemed to last an hour. Then, with lightning speed, Shanks drew a knife and threw it at Higuma, who saw the movement, and shot at Shanks. The knife hit Higuma in the face, throwing his aim off enough so that the bullet slammed into Shanks' left shoulder. Higuma released Luffy and staggered into the street.

He only saw the truck coming at the last second. Shanks didn't bother to shout a warning.

Luffy ran to Shanks, who scooped him into his good arm. Shanks noticed the tears pouring out of the kid's eyes and smiled.

"Hey there, Luffy. It's ok. Really. You're gonna be ok." He said gently.

"But…Shanks!" Luffy choked out between sobs. Then he saw the arm that had been shot, the blood staining Shanks' white shirt. "Your arm!"

Shanks laughed gently and hugged Luffy closer. "It's nothing…as long as you're safe."


The following Tuesday, Shanks and his gang said goodbye to Party's for the last time. The police had tolerated Shanks' gang, since they weren't trouble makers and always robbed outside the city, and they were grateful for the dealing with of Higuma and his gang, but there had been dead men in the streets, so Shanks had best leave before the Feds came in.

Shanks had said goodnight to Makino the night before. They had drank, and laughed, and talked about old times in Makino's room above the bar, and as the sun rose, they made love. It wasn't a real goodbye…Shanks would be back someday when the heat died down, and he'd write…Makino was his girl, through and through, and he was her man.

The Red Haired gang drank on the house that night. They spent most of the time helping themselves to drinks and taking bets on what was going on between the bartender and their boss upstairs.

The hard part was saying goodbye to Luffy. He had recovered well enough, and new teeth were coming in, but it was going to break his heart to see his idols go, and Shanks knew it.

"You know you can't come with us, kiddo. We gotta skidoo out of town as soon as possible, unless we want the fuzz breathing down our necks. More so than usual, anyway." Shanks said as he and Luffy watched the gang load up the Bentley for traveling.

"Yeah, I knows that. I wouldn't ask you anyway. I'm gonna be my own man, and I'm gonna be a better thief than you, you just watch!" Luffy said in a boastful voice Shanks saw through in a second.

"Oh really? Nah, a guy like you? You can't sneak around for beans, kiddo." Shanks said, smiling.

Luffy turned, full of indignation. "Sez who!? You'll see…I'm gonna be the greatest thief that ever lived! Like that Gold Roger guy! And while I'm at it, I'm gonna find One Piece! Yeah! One Piece! I'll be the Thief King!" he shouted, causing the gang to turn in surprise and amusement.

Shanks laughed. "Hahaha, you don't say…well then…" he tugged his straw hat off and shoved it on Luffy's head. "Tell you what, kid. When you do that, return this hat to me? In the meantime, keep it safe, kiddo. That hat's worth more than any score to me."

The hat hid Luffy's tears as he nodded. Shanks nodded, and jumped into the now ready Bentley, giving Makino a wave as he did so. Then the Red Haired gang drove off, Lucky at the wheel. Makino and Luffy watched him go, and Luffy promised to himself that he'd make good on his vow…he was gonna be the Thief King, come Hell or high water


Ben lit a cigarette, despite Yasopp's complaints that they stunk up the car. "You know," he said with a glance to Shanks "that kid's going to make it big."

Shanks sighed and turned to Ben "Yeah, he reminds me of myself when I was his age." He paused. "Of course, I knew what words were what…"

And the gang laughed as they drove out of town.

Author's Notes:

Well, the stage is set, the romance is dawned…time to get to the actual story, huh?

Ok, you'll notice I let Shanks keep his arm. This is because:

A) A one armed pirate can deal with it, but a one armed thief is in a bit of trouble, huh?
B) You can't really have a giant sea monster in a pseudo New York setting…unless you count the alligators in the sewers :)

Oh, and this is the last chapter that I already had written on vacation, so after this, its all new to me, other than the general plot and some specifics :)

Next chapter: Luffy starts gathering his own gang for a daring heist!