So here it is the first chapter. The updates will be monthly as it works the best for me at the moment.
And for the crew, I need your input a bit.
Are there any good female characters who would be perfect to join? I do have a selection of six or seven potential female characters that could join. This would
Ain (Movie Z), Baby 5, Koala, Robin, Monet, Bonney and Perona.
Are there any more female characters who do seem to have a good evolution potential?
There are already three I am sure that I won't include the crew:
-Vivi (even if with her pirate side, I don't feel like she would really leave Alabasta)
-Shirahoshi (I tolerate her more than I enjoyed her..., so yeah no^^')
-Rebecca (same with Shirahoshi)
Also two I am not sure if should include them to the potential female members:
-Rejiu (I watch mostly the Anime, but I know some things from the Manga. Still I don't know enough about her, yet. So I'll keep this open)
-Nami (I am really conflicted about Nami if she would really be needed or not)
So, yeah that is just the female part. The male part is less hard as there are more interesting male characters who could join or maybe just be an ally. But this topic I leave for the next chapter ;)
Also, I should remark I do write the baselines on paper for the chapters. These chapters will change a bit when I type them in the word document. How much? I can never say as some ideas may change and also your comments will influence changes (depends on my mood, if I include an idea or just for the fun do the last thing you are expecting^^).
Aboffy: Thanks^^ I hope you will like the rest, too.
kyekye: Then let's see if I can make this work or not ;) I'm open for critic at nearly everything (except pairings, because that is something that can start wars, I feel).
Guest(15.05): mh~ does that now mean I should leave Nami in the crew or should I leave her out? To be true, I am conflicted about her, because well Bepo knows navigation. He may not be at Nami's level, but I don't know, yet. She will appear that much I will say, but if she joins, is still not sure.
black-empress22: That's nice to hear that you like the start. I do intend to continue. I have two more chapters done on paper, but I don't when I will type them and how much they will change. So monthly update to be safe. When I have a fixed date in my mind, I'll write it in my profile ;)
~Chapter 1 - The Stowaway ~
Luffy grinned brightly as he stood on the figurehead of their ship. The wind felt nice on his skin.
It was a good day to set finally sail for an adventure. He was only a little bit sad that there wasn't a jolly roger flying over their heads, yet.
Stupid promise.
But there had to be a very good reason because Ace and Law wouldn't have agreed. So he would follow the promise as best as he could. After all, a promise was a promise and it shouldn't be broken this easily.
Luffy felt his stomach rumble and jumped from the figure.
"Ace, Torao, I'm hungry", he shouted and ran into the kitchen, where his older brother and older step-brother were.
"You have eaten until the last minute before we got on board and we are only sailing for around ten minutes. I know you have a fast metabolism but how can you be hungry again?", Law said with a lifted eyebrow. "To be true, I am kinda hungry, too", Ace told them with a cheeky grin. "Bepo is probably hungry, too", Luffy added and topped his attack by using his ultimate one (against the older two): his puppy-look.
"What do you want me to do? I am a doctor, well more a surgeon, not a cook", Law said and crossed his arms. So his step-brother was being a meanie again. Luffy started to pout.
"Yeah, but you are the only one of us who is able to cook something without getting the kitchen on fire", Ace reminded Law. "Eat some bread. Then I don't have to deal with that disgusting thing. Also, you don't need to cook it", the surgeon argued.
Okay, Law needed more. Luffy deepened his pout a little bit and gave his best puppy-look to his step-brother. "But Torao's cooking tastes much better", he said with a whiny voice.
The surgeon stared at him. He pushed his lower lip a bit more forward deepening the pout more. Hoping this was the way to succeed.
"Come on, Law. Can your omega-mother-instincts really say no to this adorable face?", Ace asked and cuddled him. This made it quite hard for Luffy to remain his expression. Because getting cuddled by his big brother made him very happy and he wanted to smile to show it.
Law facepalmed before a sigh was heard from him. "Fine. But get out. Help, Bepo, until I am done."
With a cheer, Luffy jumped out of Ace's arms and hugged Law. He felt the other one tensed lightly. It made the boy smile more. It meant that Law was more accepting of physical contact. "Thank you, Torao", Luffy cheered and ran out to Bepo.
The polar bear mink studied the surrounding with a telescope.
"Ship sighted", Bepo said, as Luffy stood next to him.
This sentence alone made the boy excited. "Let me look, let me look", he said jumping lightly up and down. Luffy looked forward to meeting new people and making new friends. It was an adventure.
Ace then appeared next to them and made him stop jumping around.
"That looks like a pirate ship", his brother said, as they were able to see the outline of the other ship. A black flag flying on the high masts. "It looks like a duck. Do you think we can grill it and then it tastes like one?", Luffy asked innocently before he dodged a hit from his brother.
"Bepo, does the flag belongs to someone important?" "No, I haven't seen it in the papers, yet."
The other crew seemed to notice them because the duck ship was now sailing their way. "Looks like they want to party with us", Luffy suggested, but a cannonball hit the water in front of them. The water flew in the air and then they were soaked.
"It isn't bathing time, yet", Luffy grumbled. Ace didn't look happier. Especially when Bepo shook himself to get the water out of his fur. "Bepo!", his older brother growled. "I'm sorry." "Leave Bepo alone, it is some natural thing", Luffy pouted.
He could hear Ace grumbling while the older one picked up two pipes. "Luffy, Bepo, get ready to fight", his brother said and threw one pipe at him. The grey eyes were fixed on the duck ship.
Luffy grinned while he caught his pipe. A fight sounded better than party. Well, only if there was meat after the fight.
Out of the corner of his eyes, the black haired boy noticed that Bepo was preparing himself for the fight, too. The polar bear jumped into the air and kicked a cannonball into the water to protect their ship.
"Don't hurt Shippy, you stupid duck", Luffy said towards the other crew. "We haven't decided on a name, yet. And we won't call it Shippy", Ace grumbled.
The straw-hatted boy would have replayed to his older brother, but the others started to attack at that point.
Their opponents seemed to be only males and not at their level. Pity, Luffy thought this could have been a better training.
"Don't you dare to slack off", a female voice suddenly threatened the men.
Luffy kicked a man away before he looked around confused. There was no woman. Except for a fat person with an iron mace. This person was wearing female clothes.
"Ne, Ace, is that a man wearing female clothes like the one we saw on that heart island?", Luffy asked while blocking a slash with his pipe. "Luffy, that's an insult to all people who live there. This is just an ugly woman", Ace answered.
The enemies seemed shocked and the man-lady looked angry.
"How dare you to insult my beauty?!", she asked. Her voice sounded a bit deeper than Dadan's when Luffy thought about it. So it could have been a man, too.
"That was a simple opinion on your look. If you can't take critics, maybe you should lock yourself in a room", Law said as he came out of their kitchen.
The surgeon carried his sword, so he seemed ready for a fight, too.
"Men, show them what happened when people insult me!", the man-lady shouted and glared angrily at her men.
A matching grin appeared on Ace's and Luffy's face. This promised to be interesting, even if the men weren't strong.
Luffy dodged a slice and kicked the man's leg away. He noticed that someone tried to hit him from behind, but he didn't have to worry about it.
"Not attacks from behind!", Bepo said and kicked the man away.
"The bear can talk?!" Only shocked faces were seen.
"I'm sorry."
"You don't have to apologize to idiots", Ace said and swung his pipe against some shocked man to threw them off their ship.
"Don't just call Bepo a bear. He has a name and is cooler than you", Luffy said while headbutting an enemy.
"Stop talking and hurry. The food will be ready soon and don't use it", Law said clashing with one of the enemy's swordsman.
"Food", Luffy cheered with a grin and started to jump around the enemies like a monkey making them stumble over his pipe and hit themselves.
"Oi, Luffy, leave some for me, too", Ace said kicking a man against the duck ship.
"Idiots… everything has to be done by myself…", the man-lady mumbled and lifted her iron mace.
But it never touched their ship or Ace or Bepo or Luffy. It made contact with the woman's head knocking her out. The iron mace felt left and right from her on the ground.
"Captain Alivda!"
The crew of the man-lady seemed shocked that she was defeated that quickly. Also, they didn't seem to understand how she was defeated.
"Take your captain and disappear, before we decide to sink your ship", Law said with a dark glare towards the man.
Luffy laughed when they withdrew. "Oi, leave your proviant on our ship", Luffy said with a bright grin and laughed over the faces, they made.
"We are lucky that there weren't any other witnesses to this fight", Law said.
His little step-brother or little cousin (if following the family titles their grandfather's set up) tilted his head and looked confused at him while chewing on the meat.
Law sighed. Sometimes he wondered how the innocent and simple-heartedness of Luffy was still intact, even if the surgeon knew the boy could be quite the devil. But secretly Law would protect this sweet innocent part of the boy.
"You worry too much, Law. The marine wouldn't give us bounties for beating up some low-life pirates. I bet none of them had a bounty", Ace said and stuffed his mouth with meat.
"We are an unknown crew of four people being able to beat up a whole pirate crew including the captain with ease. That means if there were marine witnesses they would keep an eye on us or at least remember us which will lead to some questions I would like to avoid. Because that would lower our chances to lave the East Blue without breaking the promise", Law explained with a sigh. But one look told him that the two others didn't seem to care. So he had to use IT as a warning. "And I don't think you like to get a taste of the fist of love."
Both, Ace and Luffy, stopped in their movements. Then they shivered before they looked simultaneously behind them. Like Ace and Luffy expected to find Monkey D Garp behind them with a lifted fist.
A rare smile ghosted over Law's face. It was fun to scare his little step-brothers/cousins a bit. Bepo blinked a bit towards him but didn't say anything (luckily).
"Don't joke about shitty grandpa. Also, as long as we don't hoist a black flag everything will be fine", Ace said grumpily. "I want to hoist it finally. Shippy would look better with one", Luffy chirped.
"Stop calling our ship Shippy. It doesn't sound good. When we finally hoist the colour, I want our ship to have a cool name", Ace said and tried to hit Luffy.
"No fight at the table, when there is food on the table", Law slammed his hand on the table.
"But, Torao, I want to be a pirate finally and Ace is being a meanie", Luffy pouted and pointed at the other one.
"You… You are pirates?!", a scared voice screeched in a corner. Ruining the atmosphere and also stopping the fight.
They turned their heads to look at a small, slightly chubby boy with pink hair. He wore blue round-frame glasses and looked a bit timid.
When did the boy get on board?
"Who are you?", Luffy asked the obvious question. "Great, now we have a stowaway", Ace grumbled.
This made the boy shriek and he shrunk. Law had to concentrate to hear the next words. "I'm… Coby. I … I was… was forced to work on Alvida's ship and… well,… I thought I could get away from her finally…"
So the boy had slipped on their ship during the fight and now he found out that they intended to be pirates. This seemed to make Coby nervous and even timider when they confronted him. He looked like a lost puppy.
Law suppressed a groan. Damn, he hated this weird mother-complex-instincts. Why did he present as an Omega like Cora-san? Cora-san dealt way better with that if he had this, too, with them. Well, form the farewell, Law guessed Cora-san had them.
But that was beside the point. This damn instinct told him now not to hurt this chubby boy to make him talk or to stop him from mumbling. He seriously had to get some better suppressant. Maybe the instincts would be shut down a bit, too.
He sighed silently, for now, he couldn't ignore them.
"We are not going to hurt you as long as you don't give us a reason", Law said with a neutral voice. Maybe the timid boy would be calmer after that.
"You worked for Alvida? Who is that?", Luffy asked and tilted his head towards Ace. "The man-lady, I guess", the older one said. Luffy looked confused. Did he forget how the man-lady looked like?
"If you want to leave, then why didn't you just tell her and leave?"
Law noticed how Ace had to suppress a laugh. But this boy, Coby, looked shocked. Well, Luffy's logic was sometimes strange but mostly simple.
"It's not easy! She would have killed me … so when I got on board your. I looked for treasures so she would be in a better mood… Ow."
"Luffy!" His baby cousin/step-brother had hit the boy.
"What? He just accepted his fate without a fight and whines about it", Luffy said and crossed his arms.
Law massaged his temple. Luffy's reasons sounded right for someone like them who are able to fight. But for this chubby, timid boy the reasons were probably stupid or even dangerous.
"Luffy, not everyone is so reckless like you and also not everyone is able to fight for themselves. So you shouldn't compare Coby with us and especially not with you. Someone, who would die for his dream", Law said and made the black-haired boy sat down next to him again.
Coby looked even more shocked a Luffy now.
"What are we going to do with that stowaway?", Ace asked. This led to Coby being in a panic again. "Don't kill me. I swear, I will do everything. Just don't hurt me", the boy rambled.
Law closed his hand around the kitchen knife. Even with this stupid omega-mother-instinct. This was getting annoying.
"Law, no cutting people open at the moment", Ace reminded him with an amused grin. This made Coby shriek again.
"No killing, Torao", Luffy said and pouted.
He rolled his eyes. So his baby cousin/step-brother was allowed to hit the boy, but he wasn't allowed to cut him open to make him shut up.
"Fine", Law grumbled. "We let him work until we reach the next port and then leave him there." The surgeon crossed his arms. This discussion was ended for him
Coby was surprised about this crew.
It contained a talking polar bear, which was kinda creepy, a boy who acted like the captain and but didn't seem in charge, a young man who was the older brother of the boy and seemed very protective of his little brother, and a doctor, no, a surgeon who seemed to be a little to happy to think about cutting people open and was in charge.
He didn't know if it was good or bad that he came across them. They would drop him off at the next port.
This sounded nice. But the deal was, he would work on their ship until they reach the next port. What was when they thought he did a good job… they would make him stay and work forever on their ship.
"We won't make you stay. We don't need someone on board who isn't able to defend himself when we reach the Grand Line." The voice of surgeon made him shriek.
Coby turned around with a scared look on his face. "G-Grand Line? But this is called the pirates grave." "So. We are aiming for the New World. Then we can do what we want", the boy, Luffy, said with a bright grin.
Coby could just stare at him. How could the black-haired boy, who was only a year or two older, say something like this so easily with a grin on his face?
"You will mostly get killed before. The Grand Line is dangerous and … ow."
Luffy had hit him again.
"I don't care if I die for my dream or for my family. But I will work to accomplish my dream and to be strong enough to protect my family", the straw-hatted boy said. "Dream?", Coby asked unsurely as Luffy spoke with such a confidence that it made him feel small.
"When we reach the New World, we are allowed to hoist the colour and then we will chase after the One Piece, so I become the pirate king."
The bright grin on Luffy's face didn't vanish and he said this like it was a fact. Like he would really become the pirate king.
"But…"
"Are you going to say that my little brother is too stupid to realise the danger?`", the older black-haired brother said and stepped closer. The voice made Coby shiver. "Well, it may be true that it is going to be dangerous. But Luffy has Law, Bepo and me to help him and to kick the stupid bastards out of his way", Ace added with a grin.
Okay… these two brothers weren't alright.
"I hope we reach the New World quickly. I can't wait to show you Zou", the polar bear said.
Coby stopped his movements. The bear said something about reaching the New World. So this Zou would be there…
"Ne, Coby, are you planning to grow roots there? Don't you have any life goals?", Law asked and interrupted his thoughts.
"I … uhm…", Coby mumbled. How could he express his dream? He would never be able to reach it and also it wasn't a good option to say it in front of pirates, well future pirates.
"You have a dream, don't you?", Luffy looked at him with curiosity in this brown eyes. "I… I want to become a good marine to protect the innocent." Coby clenched his fist to control his shaking body.
There he had said. Now they are going to kill him because he intended to join the 'natural' enemy of pirates.
"Do you just want to become a good marine or will you become a good marine?", Luffy asked. This surprised him as none of the crew moved to attack him.
"I… I will become a good marine!"
For some reason, Coby didn't know, but he felt more confident at that moment. He couldn't really explain it.
"Then let's do our best to reach our dream", Luffy said with a chuckle.
Shock. He didn't know any other word to describe what he was feeling at this moment.
"Just because we intend to be pirates, doesn't mean we pick fights left and right and attack marines or those who desired to be one. There are three different reasons to pick a fight and at the moment you do not show us one of these reasons", Ace said.
"We are becoming too chatty with him. Maybe we should…", Law started, the tone scared Coby, but Luffy interrupted the surgeon: "No, I like Coby if he lost his crybaby attitude. Ne, Bepo, when do we reach the next island?" This topic change made the pink-haired boy gap lightly.
"It won't be much longer. But we have to be careful. Shells Town does have a marine base under the Marine Captain Morgan's command."
The faces of Law and Ace became grim and Coby wondered why.
If they didn't attack marines without a reason then they shouldn't have any problems. At least as long as they didn't say anything about their intention to become pirates. So why would they be worried about a Marine Captain?
Coby would be more worried about the other person that is rumoured to be in Shells Town.
So some ending notes~ I know there will be open questions sometime. I have a word-document with questions I can't answer, yet, because of well spoilers for later chapters.
But if you want, I will remind you of your question in the ending notes of the specific chapter, where you can find the answer or do you want it in the author notes at the start, this would be a bit of a spoiler?
Also, I am sorry if the story seems to start a bit slow. But well, I need to gather a few crew members and for my more interesting ideas, I need them on the Grand Line. So yeah, bear with me ;)
And until next time, have a nice day^^