HI guys, it's been a little while since the last chap. Life has been itself, started new work and moved to a new house, while I kept the story in the back of my head, I didn't find the time and motivation to work on it. But like you see I'm back and I will continue even if I'm not going to update as often as last summer.

Thanks again for reading or following this story. Enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: i DON'T OWN ONE PIECE OR DANMACHI

A PIRATE'S EVENING

The moon had replaced the sun, illuminating the labyrinth city with its pale light. The crowds of the day disappeared, leaving the streets free for the people who adventured into the night. The many pubs and the entertainment district were the destinations of many. For these places, the night was when the people and more importantly the money were plenty to come, and the Hostess of Fertility was no exception.

Patrons laughing, arguing and bragging, waitresses passing between tables, their hands heaving plates of food or bottles and chops, they rushed without disturbing or touching any of the patrons while their employer observed everything from her spot behind the bar . The pub was bursting with activity that night and that made the owner happy.

Mia Grand, former captain of the Freya familia and owner of the Hostess of Fertility was feeling content, the patrons were spending their money and weren't causing problems, her girls were working hard and Syr's rabbit had brought a reaaally good customer. Her gaze fell on a certain table where three members of the Hestia familia were seated.

Syr's rabbit and the red haired guy were talking, the rabbit apparently explaining something to his friend while making great gestures, maybe imitating combat moves while his audience was listening with rabid attention. But what really interested Mia was the third member of this little party.

When she met him earlier that day, the former adventurer immediately knew that the black haired new member of the Hestia familia wasn't your typical greenhorn. At first glance he looked innocent and harmless, but any seasoned adventurer worth their salt would recognise the pirate's attitude as confidence rather than innocence. Cocky adventurers who wanted recognition just because they were a little stronger than most would make a show of themselves, but the ones who really knew the hardships of battle and had confidence in their strength would only show it when necessary. This young pirate was a part of the second category, she could almost feel his strength when he was in front of her but only because she knew what someone with great strength really felt like. Most people would remain blissfully ignorants.

This little guy sure was interesting, and more importantly, he was already at his fifteenth plate despite arriving just an half-hour ago and showed no sign of slowing down. Like some of the patrons who looked at the tower of empty plates, she briefly wondered where he put all that food, but as long as he paid for it she wasn't going to complain.

"The reservation of eight is here nya!"

Anya Fromel, a brown haired girl and one of the two cat people working in the pub, called loudly, getting Mia out of her thoughts about the pirate.

Speaking of good customers, the executives of the Loki familia were dining here tonight. One of the top familias coming was always a good advertisement and even if they weren't going to eat as much as the little pirate, they would largely compensate with the booze.

The pub owner smirked, a good night indeed.

The cat girl not only caught the attention of her employer but all the patrons too.

"The Loki familia, they sure look powerful."

"So this is one of the two most powerful familia?"

"The Sword Princess is so gorgeous!"

Such whispers could be heard all around the pub as the group entered the pub and the different atmosphere was felt by a certain pirate who stopped his ravenous eating.

Luffy looked around, save for the whispers, the pub was almost quiet.

"Bell?"

Bell who himself looked at the Loki familia members or more exactly at the gorgeous blonde in the group, turned to Luffy.

"What is it, Luffy-san?"

"Why are the people all quiet now?"

"Ah that, it's because the group who entered are the Loki familia, one of the two most important Familias in Orario."

"I see, so they're strong.."

Welf put his hand on Luffy's shoulder and smirked at the pirate.

"You bet they are Luffy! Other than the goddess of course, all the people you see are level six. They aren't people you want to mess with, believe me."

"A-about that welf, on our way to the dungeon…"

As Bell was telling Welf about when Luffy met Bete and Tiona, the pirate himself was watching the Loki familia. The concept of leveling was still new to him and since his haki was blocked he couldn't feel their strength.. From the way Bell and Welf talked, level six was impressive and meant that you were one of the strongest, but Luffy wanted to compare with himself. Hestia had said that even if he was level one it didn't show his real strength so it was hard to understand. Maybe these people could help him understand?

The pirate stood up, took a chunk of meat from his plate and moved.

At the Loki familia's table..

A petite woman with vermillion hair, eyes that looked closed and had the body of a boy in his teens exclaimed loudly after taking a swing of the bottle she was holding.

"Puaah! Nothin' better than booze after a day of hard work!"

Her claim was immediately answered by a green haired elf with long hair and a beautiful thin face.

"Hard work? All I saw was you drowning bottles after bottles from start to the end of the meeting Loki."

"Maaa don't sweat the small things Mama, since you don't let me touch that royal body of yours I need to find an outlet! Speaking of outlets, have a drink Bete, or are you going to sulk until next week?"

At the other end of the table, everyone's favorite werewolf turned his head to look at his goddess.

"Leave me alone Loki, and I don't sulk."

"Sure you aren't, seriously what's with you today? You're late for the meeting and you're even grumpier than usual, got rejected by a girl or something?

"S-shut up! I'm just pissed at someone that's all, when I find that bastard I'll beat him to a pulp!"

The werewolf's complaint caught the attention of one of the two amazon sitting with them.

"Oh! You're talking about Argonaut-kun's friend, no?"

"You know about it Tiona? Argonaut? Ah you mean Itty bitty's kid!"

"Yeah, when I found Bete, he was with Argonaut-kun and another guy! A new member of their Familia, his name is Luffy and he's a funny guy, was totally messing with Bete too!"

The vermillion goddess tilted her head.

"Luffy? First time hearing it, maybe be a new adventurer... and crazy if he was messing with our pup."

"I heard that! No matter, next time I'll get him, the bastard took me for some dog performing tricks."

At this the amazoness had to put her hand on her mouth to prevent her laughter, seriously this was damn funny!

"Pffff totally! The guy looked at Bete and said "shake a paw"!"

Almost everyone on the table roared with laughter at Tiona's explanation. That Luffy guy must have big balls or was crazy to say that to their wild wolf. And the wolf himself was clearly not amused!

"Shut up! Like I said, when I found this Luffy I'll be sure to give him the paw!"

And then, a new voice cut in.

"Ah see? I knew you were a nice doggy!"

Everyone around the table stopped laughing to look at the person who talked. A black haired teen was standing just behind the angry wolf smiling and biting in a chunk of meat. How the hell was he doing those two things at the same time? Not even ouranos could answer that..

Bete stood up from his chair and turned to the teen.

"It seems I'm lucky tonight! We were talking about you just now?"

"Really?"

"Yeah, I was explaining to my familia how much I wanted to smash your face for looking down on me when we met earlier."

"Huh? But..." Luffy tilted his head at this, a confused expression on his face.

"But what? Don't tell me you're hoping that I will forgive you that easily?"

"No, it's just that you're taller than me so if I look down..."

A few snickers could be heard from the Loki familia before they recognised the wolf's glare who lost his composure.

"Bete don't…"

"Stop messing with me you bastard!" The wolf threw a hard punch to finally shut that idiot up. Flying a few tables away would make that guy understand where he stood in the food chain.

Only for Luffy to catch the incoming fist just before it reaches his face. The wolf and his Familia stood shocked for a few seconds before they saw a smirk made its way on the black haired teen.

"Hmm, not bad but it's lacking heaviness…" Luffy let go of the wolf's fist before taking a step back and turning to the rest of the Loki's Familia with his trademark smile on.

"Hi guys, name's Luffy, nice to meet you shishishi!"

The Loki Familia executives observed the exchange between Bete and the new member of Hestia Familia.

At first glance the guy looked like a normal young man under twenties, black hair, a friendly face with his big black eyes and kind smile. About Tiona's height, if not a little taller and a fit but slim body, nothing impressive really.

But what caught their attention was his attitude.

In this department, the guy was nothing like his captain Bell Cranell. He came to their table, butting in their conversation like he was in it from the start and immediately started to mess with their wolf. He was not aggressive or really insulting, just confident, unafraid of their status and purposely getting Bete riled up. Usually, new adventurers with a little brain would stay away from the aggressive wolf, so why did that one directly come to Bete? The Loki Familia got their answer when a fed up wolf tried to punch him.

The young adventurer, who was apparently named Luffy from what Tiona said, easily caught the incoming punch and smirked at the surprised wolf...

"Hmm, not bad but it's lacking heaviness…"

A test, that's what it was. This guy came to Bete already knowing that it would be easy to get the wolf to attack him. He wanted to have a feel of the strength of either a level six or an elite of the Loki Familia, for what purpose the executives didn't know.

In any case, the executives and their goddess immediately looked at the newcomer with more caution. Someone who stopped that kind of attack from a level six couldn't be your everyday's greenhorn. Then he turned to the rest of the Loki Familia.

"Hi guys, name's Luffy, nice to meet you shishishi!"

Deciding that it was time to introduce themselves, a smiling blond pallum coughed into his hand to get Luffy's attention.

"Nice to meet you Luffy-kun, I'm Finn Deimne and I am the captain of the Loki Familia and please call me Finn."

"Oh you must be like Lily, a pum?"

"Lily? You mean miss Arde? Then yes like her I am a "pallum.""

"Ah ok,nice to meet you Finn!"

Finn then proceeded to introduce everyone around the table.

"Luffy-kun, let me present to you our dignified goddess, Loki."

The petite woman with vermillion hair tied in a ponytail, wearing black sport vest and shorts raised her bottle while looking at Luffy through closed eyes.

"Nice to meet cha kiddo!"

"The royal mama of our Familia, Riveria Ljos Alf."

A beautiful elf with long, smooth green hair wearing a gold and white robe gave an annoyed glare at the speaker before turning to luffy and offered him a small smile.

"Don't listen to Finn, just call me Riveria."

"Our well-mannered, never drinking dwarf, Gareth Landrock."

Small but sturdy looking, brown shoulder length hair and a big beard of the same color, the rough faced dwarf still showed a friendly smile to the young pirate. He was wearing some sort of leather armor and was holding a chop who looked bigger than his head.

"You got some balls lad, come have a drink with me one of these days. Oh and screw you Finn!"

"The sword princess and heart breaker, Aiz Wallenstein."

The name caught the attention of our meat lover (not THAT kind of meat you perverts), since Hestia had mentioned to him that the sword princess was a very well-known figure.

Golden smooth long hair and equally golden eyes, she was wearing a sleeveless white and blue short dress. Aiz wallenstein was looking at Luffy with an expressionless face but he had the feeling that she was intently studying him.

"How did you get strong?"

"The amazon sisters, Tione and Tiona Hiryute, I heard that you already met Tiona though."

Luffy turned to the two amazons, Tiona was again giving him her trademark V sign while smiling. Seated next to her was a young woman who certainly shared some of Tiona's traits like a tanned skin, similar cute face, black hair and brown eyes. But it was still easy to recognise who was who since Tione's hairs were long and smooth while her...lungs capacity was way bigger than her sister.

"As long as you respect the captain we're good."

"Nice to see you again Luffy-kun! Not bad for a level one, so what's your secret?"

Everyone around the table raised an eyebrow at this information, if they were surprised before, now the Loki Familia executives were really interested in this young adventurer.

Finn Deimne showed a small smirk, after Bell Cranell and his incredibly fast progression, now the Hestia Familia possessed another member with great potential.

"And finally our wild wolf, B…"

"Bullshit!"

Everyone including Luffy turned to the wolf who stayed silent until now. After his punch was effortlessly caught, his eyes hadn't left Luffy for one second, a small frown present on his face like he was trying to understand just what in the gods had happened and who was that kid.

"You're lying, there's no way to have that kind of strength when you're a pitiful level one!"

"I'm not lying! I suck at lying, maybe I'm just that strong or you're that weak beeeh!"

Luffy ended his answer by sticking out his tongue to the wolf who felt his eyebrow twitch just from looking at that infuriating kid who looked playful one second and dangerous the other.

Fortunately Finn decided that while it was funny to see Bete being so uncomfortable, another spat would make Mia angry and an angry Mia was never a good thing...

"It's certainly surprising to see such strength coming from a new adventurer, I guess you were already adventuring or at least training before coming to the Hestia Familia no Luffy-kun?"

"Yeah I trained a lot! And I fought many strong guys while on the sea."

"On the sea? You're a sailor?

An almost challenging smirk made his way on the young adventurer's face while he leaned forward a little and locked his eyes with the Loki Familia captain. It was really strange how the atmosphere around him seemed to change with each of his expressions.

.

.

.

"I'm a pirate."

.

.

.

"Shishishi, see you around you guys, let's spar sometimes!"

And just like that the air around the table seemed to lighten. Luffy gave them a smile and made his way back to his table.

"Well, that was certainly interesting."

It was only after a few seconds that Finn talked and broke the contemplative atmosphere which took place on the table. Even then, most of the occupants were still looking at the pirate who seated himself and started eating again while his two friends looked at him with amused expressions.

Goddess Loki herself was wondering where her big boobed counterpart had found this pirate. .

"Yeah, Itty Bitty found herself a strange guy. I wonder where he came from, to take on Bete's attack like it was a friendly tap, he's not normal. And your thumb Finn, what does it say?"

"It didn't stop throbbing as long as he was here. I don't think he's a bad person but there is something about him…We should keep an eye on him still."

A chuckle from Tiona gained the goddess and her captain's attention.

"What is it Tiona?"

"Oh nothing, it's just that Luffy is funny, he came, scared the puppy. and got back to his table just like that hehe… I wonder how strong he really is..."

"That's something that I'm wondering too, but no need to worry, I have the feeling that we're gonna see him again soon enough. And remember, he said "let's spar sometimes", I think he's just as curious of us as we are of him."

Tiona turned from the captain to look at the pirate again. Luffy was still stuffing his face while the little Argonaut tried to talk to him and was totally ignored. The amazon couldn't help but smile at the picture, she felt that the pirate was like her in some ways. They hadn't talked to each other much, but she already knew he was funny, liked to annoy people, had a strong fighting spirit and after the stunt with Bete there was no doubt that he was strong.

In the end, Luffy felt a little like a kindred spirit.

And Tiona had no doubt that she and him would make great friends!

Aaaand done! I hope you liked that little meeting between Luffy and the Loki Familia's most important members. I know it may feel a little rushed or different from previous chaps but honestly I'm still searching how to present dialogues or describe things in a way that I like.

Thanks again to all the people who follow, favs, or left a review, you guys helped me to find the motivation to come back to this story.

Anyway I'll start to work on the next chap soon but I can't promise when I'll post it.

That was Cham here, UNTIL NEXT TIME!

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