Invisible
"How's that training going Luffy?" Makino questioned, fetching the teen a glass of cold juice. Windmill Village rarely saw rain, the island's geographical location from the grand line ensured it bore the full might of the sun. The days were usually warm but summer typically stretched those days longer.
During his last six years of training, he'd sometimes visit Makino's bar when the days felt long and the shadows stretched far. Today was one of those days where he'd take a break from his routine and allow himself the smallest of rewards for his effort.
"Thanks," he croaked. Cool liquid splashed down his dry throat as the boy greedily gulped it down. He set the glass down with a sigh of content. His eyes shone with childish excitement. He had grown a couple of inches over the last six years, there was more meat on his body, mainly muscle due to the boy's obsession with meat.
"Training is going great! I Made a lot of progress today! Now I'm dodging more and my punches are a lot stronger!" he exclaimed. Despite his rigid training routine, Luffy was still a child at heart, Nowadays due to his busy schedule he rarely got to let that part of him run wild. The teen had taken Shanks' advice to heart, he needed to get a lot stronger to fulfill his promise.
"That's nice!" she smiled back, the lingering concern she had for the giant bruise on the side of his head dissipating with his infectious excitement. Makino began to fix up the boy a meal.
The saloon doors flung open with a creak as a tall silhouette entered, followed by a group of bandits. Makino's previous expression replaced itself with an apprehensive smile as she recalled their visit a couple of years ago. Shaking the memory off she addressed the men.
"Welcome, what can I get for you gentlemen?"
"Fix us some grub, While you're at it give us some sake to wash the food down, the men are thirsty" Higuma, the bandit leader replied his men settled down in the bar and began to chatter. Luffy wordlessly grit his teeth as he remembered how they had humiliated Shanks. Makino silently obeyed as she turned and began preparing the food.
"This place sure is quite without those pirates!" Higuma grunted.
"Yea i remember them!" a bandit commented
"You see the looks on those pirates' faces?!" another exclaimed.
"He got covered in booze but didn't say a word!"
"Talk about pathetic!" With every slanderous comment Luffy's grip tightened around his glass.
"Pirates are just a bunch of wimps, They're nothing but talk"
Higuma's final comment seemed to have been the last straw as the glass in Luffy's hand shattered with a loud crunch. Despite the shards he didn't incur any cuts or pieces of glass in his hand. "STOP IT!"
The bandit leader raised a lazy eyebrow as the bar turned eerily quiet. All the eyes were now on him. "huh?"
Makino grabbed the boy's arm to prevent him from getting into further trouble.
"STOP MAKING FUN OF SHANK'S AND THE OTHERS!" He was now standing on top of the barstool. "THEY'RE NOT WIMPS!"
"Stop, Luffy!" Makino tried to salvage the situation, fearing what the bandits would do to luffy. But right now, words couldn't reach him as he had tunnel vision. As admirable as his loyalty was to his friends, right now it wasn't helping the situation get any better.
"STOP MAKING FUN OF SHANKS AND THE OTHERS! YOU STUPID BANDITS!"
Higuma halted as he shook with laughter, the arrogant bandit pausing his meal as he stood up and approached the teen. The bandit recognised a straw hat resting on the boy's head; the same one the pirate he had humiliated wore. Amusement danced in his eyes as the boy's familiar face rang a bell in his head.
"You're the brat who was there with him! What is it to you anyway? Did we offend you?" he laughed. His men laughed with him, Makino praying Luffy wouldn't make them angrier. "Now apologize for the insult kid and i can forget you called us stupid." Higuma threatened, still in amusement.
"Luffy just apologize!" Makino argues.
"Leave it to the adults to know how the world works"
"NO! HE SHOULD BE ONE APOLOGIZING FOR WHAT HE SAID ABOUT SH-"
A kick interrupted him as the boy lost all the air in his lungs, crashing through the saloon doors. Back in the bar Makino expresses her concern when she sees the boy crashing through the doors.
"Luffy!"
"Careful now, we wouldn't want anything to happen to you now, do we? The captain's just teaching him a lesson!" one of the bandits smirked, blocking Makino's path.
"Damn! That hurt!" the teen groaned, landing on the rough dirt outside the bar. He had been so worked up he wasn't able to use his observation Haki.
"Impressive! You're still conscious! Then again I want you to eat your words and feel the pain as I crush that spirit of yours!" Higuma states as he walks out of the bar, advancing towards Luffy.
"Now what was it that you said back there?" Luffy's senses are on high alert as he ignores the pain and focuses on the current situation.
"Something about stpuid bandits?" The bandit raises his foot back, prepared to deliver another kick to the boy's ribs. Taking sick pleasure in the situation as he grins.
"Care to remind me about what you said?" he challenges.
Luffy spreads out his senses, trying to anchor his focus on his enemy and surroundings. He shuts his eyes as he once again feels for an aura… a presence…
An outline of Higuma's presence presents itself in his mind, the bandit's leg extending into a kick, intending to hit Luffy in the chest this time. It's as if Higuma's body is informing Luffy of its next movements before his body carries it out. Now more familiar with his observation of Haki, Luffy's able to predict Higumas next attack, his intention being clear as day.
The boy rolls off the floor, jumping up and regaining his footing, just barely dodging Higuma's kick as the bandit contains his initial surprise. 'Another kick to the right, followed by a frustrated punch'. To his amazement his next attack does exactly that, Luffy evades the attacks effortlessly now that he's more familiar with his observation haki.
"STAY STILL BRAT!"
"Are you stupid?! Why would I do that?!" Luffy retorts, ducking the punch and putting some distance between them. The bandit's slightly faster than his thirteen year old body, Luffy's observation Haki and reflexes being the only reason he could keep up.
"Fine! Let's see you dodge this!" Higuma unsheathes his cutlass and charges him. Luffy's eyes widened as he saw the metal swinging towards him.
'SHIT,' now motivated more than ever to not let the attack touch him, He keeps his eyes locked on Higuma. 'A slash towards the head, Followed by a stab to the stomach!' The teen barely manages to evade the blade as it follows the intention of its wielder. 'I gotta end this quickly, I don't think I can keep dodging, I can feel my haki exhausting!'
"Where's that attitude of yours, Boy?" he taunts.
"Easy for you to say! You're the one with the sword! You dirty scumbag!" Luffy barks, wondering if this bandit knew how cowardly he looked for using a SWORD against a thirteen year old boy in a fight.
"SHUT UP KID! NO ONE ANGERS THE BANDIT HIGUMA AND LIVES TO TELL THE TALE! I'VE GOT A $8,000,000 BOUNTY ON MY HEAD!" His opponents' attacks got more aggressive and faster, Luffy had to finish this fight now.
Predicting the stab to his shoulder, he sidestepped the thrust as he closed the distance to launch his own counterattack. Clenching his fist as hard as he could, the teen threw a right hook to the bandit's tall frame mid attack.
"UMPH!" Higuma ate the punch head on, getting the wind knocked out of him. 'Why does the brat's punch hurt so much?!' His grip on the sword loosened as he bent over, his body beginning to register the pain. His stomach felt like it got rammed by a log. His eyes almost rolled back into his head from that blow. The punch itself wasn't that fast but the fist was as hard as iron, the bandit stumbled as he tried to anchor himself, Luffy gave him no chance of recovery as he launched one final hook to Higuma's cheek, announcing the end of the brawl.
His opponent's body fell to the ground with a sick thud. Luffy examined the fist he had used to deliver the final blow, looking at it in wonder as he saw traces of black coating disappear. Though he was used to long hours of training in the jungle, the exhaustion of using his observation Haki continuously and applying his armament for the first time in an actual fight had drained him. 'Food! Why do I feel so tired?!'
"STEP AWAY FORM THE BODY BRO!"
"YEAH! WE'LL TAKE CARE OF IT FROM HERE!"
Two men, eccentrically dressed against the weather, stepped out from the corner of Makino's Bar, Each with a cutlass resting on their hip and one dressed with sunglasses whilst the other wore a red headgear.
"Huh!?" Luffy was in no condition to fight so soon if the need arose, His Haki was almost depleted. Thankfully these men didn't feel hostile or threatening.
"Who are you weirdos?" One of them wasn't even wearing pants, just boxers, barely hidden by a long green coat.
"DID YOU HEAR THAT BIG BRO JOHNNY!?" Shouted the one with boxers.
"I HEARD THAT YOSAKU! THAT KID JUST CALLED US WEIRDOS!" the man in a blue shirt exclaimed, offended.
"WE'RE B-"
"BOUNTY HUNTERS!"
One of the bandits had come out of the bar assuming to see the sight of Luffy's dead or unconscious body on the dirt. The bandit was in shock and disbelief at what greeted him when he stepped out of the bar. Higuma's body lay inert on the ground, his sword on the floor reflecting the glare of the sun as two bounty hunters stood near his body along with the kid from the bar.
"THAT'S RIGHT! WE'VE COME FOR HIGUMA THE MOUNTAIN BANDIT, WORTH $8,000,000 BELLI!" Both men loudly declared. The bandit staggered back a few steps, his eyes screaming with fright.
"SHIT! SCRAM!" The bandit sprinted away from the two men in fear. If those guys were strong enough to beat their boss without using their blades they stood no chance! The other bandits inside the bar peeked out at the commotion and their eyes widened when they saw the new arrivals.
'These guys must be crazy strong if the bandit's don't even want to fight them. But I can't sense any haki from them!' Luffy pondered. Meanwhile the man with sunglasses, now known as Johnny, shivered in concealed fear.
'This kid managed to beat a grown man three times his size with a large bounty! We've got to be careful not to anger him in case he doesn't hand over the body!' Johnny's next words were spoken with a hint of dread and shaky knees. The teen would probably beat them to a pulp if he didn't like what they demanded.
"Give us the bandit so we can hand him to the marines kid!"
"Ye- yeah wh- what he said! You tell him big bro!" Yosaku had caught on just how strong the teen before them was, all previous signs of bravery gone. A pregnant pause dominated the atmosphere.
Both bounty hunters shuddered as they awaited a response.
"Ok!"
Luffy turned around and walked back inside the bar to finish his meal. With their leader gone the bandits had fled when they saw the two bounty hunters arrive outside the bar, Apparently they had assumed their boss was beaten by the bounty hunters instead of the young teen.
The two men's mouths hung in shock from Luffy's response, as they had not expected to obtain the bounty without any resistance.
Windmills spun as the calm wind gently swayed the large turbines, the sun dipped below the horizon, the wash of pink and streaks of orange bleeding into the surface of the water as a brilliant sunset announced the flickering of light inside houses within the island.
XxX
Author's note: Damn that was a long one. See i told you i keep my promises! Thank you guys for the 35 follows, i know it's just numbers but it's telling me maybe i'm doing something right. Now onto the more pressing matter. Luffy's devil fruit. I think I'll be giving him a devil fruit, I have some in mind I can choose from. The reason he's being given one so early on is so the fight scenes are easier to write for me, because believe it or not it's pretty hard to write haki in battle or combat without sounding repetitive and I don't want that so yea! Oh one more thing someone asked if luffy will use a weapon, and the answer to that is no. Sorry I can't see him being proficient with a weapon or using any for that matter, he was never one to rely on any except his devil fruit and haki. Last thing, The next update will probably be shorter than this one and will take a lot longer (probably a month or so, don't quote me on that) since i'll be pretty busy in the coming months.