First Mate

The crew was entertaining themselves in the home of angels when Robin approached Chopper with the kind of sneaky grace only someone with her past could be capable of: "Doctor, could you come with me? I'm told I'll need your medical expertise."

"Of course Robin!" the human-reindeer had been worried at first, but none of his senses reported anything amiss with the archeologist's health, so he had followed with curiosity in his mind, which eventually elaborated a possible answer to the odd request when it was clear that they were walking back towards the Going Merry. "Is this about Coby? He started behaving very oddly when it turned out we'd go into the sky, but while I can't really recommend fasting for any lengthened stretch of time, I cannot act against his explicit wishes, I cannot force him..."

"It is about Coby." Robin replied as the two finally climbed on board, "But..."

"Aaargh! We need a doctor!" upon spotting the slumped form of a strange man with what looked like drums held in an iron circle jutting out from his back in front of an imperturbable, still meditating Coby, his instincts went haywire! "Wait! I am a doctor!"

In less than a second, Chopper began the needed procedures to check upon the fallen man, only to immediately realize that there was nothing to do. The man was dead, and Coby gave no sign that he was aware of anything that was happening around him.

Robin's voice made Chopper act immediately: "He mentioned that he'd need you to 'snap out of it'."

A rumble ball was crushed between the human-reindeer teeth, and a familiar flat ring tied to a string was pulled out of the doctor's bag. In his Brain Point, Chopper processed everything that happened, and while the logic that ruled his thought process at the time balked at the idea, it was clear that Coby had planned for this precise set of events, that with the glass ball that he kept referring to as his 'crystal aide to scrutinize the aether', he had decided that putting himself under hypnosis would be the best course of action.

"Now," Chopper spoke with a serious, calm, and reassuring tone, temporarily pushing aside his curiosity in order accomplish what was needed instead: "I'll count from three to one, and when I say Jango, you'll be freed from the hypnosis."

The pink-haired pirate didn't move at all: it was like a machine that once accomplished its task, shut down, waiting for a set of orders that would never come. Maintaining his facade of cool professionalism, the doctor spoke: "Three, two, one... Jango!"

With the click of his hoove-like hand, Coby shuddered and with a jerky set of movements, he removed the blindfold, turning his unfocused eyes towards the blurry shapes of Robin and an incensed doctor, who did not appreciate arriving too late to save a life: "I think we're owed an explanation, yes?"

The pink-haired pirate simply smiled, turning briefly towards the fallen Enel, before throwing back his head and letting out a loud bout of laughter, sheer relief and joy overwhelming him now that the self-hypnosis had been cast aside by Chopper's intervention. The pink-haired man rose to his feet and began a little dancing gig before another voice rang on the deck, bringing a grimace to his face.

Sanji's expression was thunderous as he lit up a cigarette: "And it'd better be something good enough for me not to kick you off the sky, as I see you've used once more something as holy as food as a weapon!"

The pink-haired pirate resisted to urge to scoff in annoyance, and tilted his unfocused gaze towards the dark-haired beauty for a moment, before returning it to the inquisitive and peremptory Sanji: "I'm sure Robin can enlighten you about the merits of killing the one who ate the Goro Goro no Mi before he decided to annihilate the entire sky, and us along with it."

Whatever answer the three members of the Straw Hat Pirates might have been waiting for, it sure wasn't that, and the archeologist's frightened gasp, which lent weight to Coby's claim, was the only thing that stopped the cook from going on a well-deserved rampage on the unrepentant pink-haired man. Because someone who could and would trick and lie in order to plan out an assassination on that caliber no longer deserved to be treated with the indulgence one would reserve to a kid.

Sanji let out a pained grunt while he bit on his cigarette: his mind was fighting a war with his fiery spirit, only to come down to an impasse. Coby had, once again, used food to kill: it went against everything the cook believed in, it went against all he knew food was meant for, it was something that the pink-haired pirate understood, for there was no denying his joy in providing for the crew when working in the Galley under the directions of the blond slave-driver.

"The what?"


"Why did you kill him?"

Luffy wasn't happy, and it was clear in the heavy frown that seemed to summon a shadow between the brim of his hat and his eyes. He wasn't murderous, not even close, but he wasn't happy, and despite the angels of Skypeia celebrating to the best of their abilities, that we were all holding ourselves back from joining them was the meanest sign of how serious this thing was.

I simply shrugged, unrepentant: "He was evil, he planned to destroy the sky island we're currently standing on, and he could have killed any one of us."

Zoro, ignorant, suicidal Zoro, was annoyed because he didn't have the chance to cut down God, Usopp had accepted the news with barely a blink, having grown to trust the plans that I formulated to steer away from my 'predictions', while Mikita barely held back from cackling, and Nami didn't quite manage to hide her relief at the idea of no longer having to fight a Lightning Logia. Chopper was holding back on having a serious conversation about the merits of self-hypnotizing myself to trick gods into committing suicide, while Robin held back Sanji from attacking me with a simple 'well done'.

Monkey D. Luffy crossed his arms, unimpressed: "But if we don't fight, it doesn't count!"

"If we fought, we would have lost." oh, sure, I knew that my captain had been able to deal with Enel, but in the meantime I clearly remembered Robin getting charred, and the Going Merry was damaged even further. "We won against Crocodile because he had a lousy power, as far as Logia Devil Fruit go: this one was pure lightning. Has Zoro learned to cut it like he learned to cut stone, or steel? Are you faster than the tip of a bolt of lightning? Even if ambushed, he could have run circles around us: the weapon I used on Crocodile would have done nothing to someone capable of moving faster than I can think."

"But... why did you kill him without a fight?" Luffy's question, however, threw me for a loop, it was as if he hadn't listened to a single word of what I said, and I took a deep breath, holding myself back from snapping.

Nobody spoke: this was a matter between myself and the captain. Robin had already explained why that particular fruit was unreasonably powerful, she had recalled how it was deemed 'invincible', but of course, those thoughts didn't resist long in Luffy's mind. So I tried another way: "It's not that we haven't fought, it's more like we made a bet with our lives on the line: if he figured out what I was up to, he would have killed me, if he didn't, he would have died."

"The strongest opponent is meant for the captain to fight, everyone knows that." Luffy's gaze turned almost into a glare that I met without fear.

"You only told me to not butt in in your fights, captain." I reminded him of Alabasta, when I snuck in a debilitating low on Crocodile, "I won't apologize for protecting the crew, even from your warped sense of what is 'proper'."

That, seemed to pierce through his thick skull, and tension left his shoulders: "You thought he would have hurt our nakama."

"Yes." I held my chin high.

He nodded decisively, as if erasing that matter from his mind, only for another to pop in to take its place: "Why did you lie to us?"

It was my turn now to cross my arms and tilt my head in confusion: "Lie?"

"You told all that stuff about meeting God, and stopped eating, and became boring and silent, but you didn't tell anyone about what you knew and what you wanted to do."

"You told me to keep my predictions to myself, remember?" I could recall easily that particular moment, it had been not long before we met Zoro, "You forbade me from 'spoiling' your adventure."

"But you could have warned the others?" even as he spoke, he didn't seem sure of his answer, it was as if, while perfectly happy to die while following his dream, he never considered the thought of one of his companions dying. Which is fair, I've banked on his plot armor more than once, but he doesn't know about that.

"Besides Robin, and maybe Mikita," Coby tilted his head towards the blue-eyed, blond woman, "nobody in this crew can keep up an effective ruse, and I didn't know how far God could see or hear, even if while we talked, he told me he felt us arrive from the Blue Seas."

"You don't trust us." the accusation rang heavily across the deck, and I winced: it wasn't entirely incorrect. I trusted plot armor, that had been the only thing that pushed me to offer myself up as Sea-King bait back when I needed a way to draw the Giants to us. But in the canon story, besides Zoro and Luffy himself, everyone had survived or kept going despite debilitating injuries only tanks to the invisible hand of the author guiding their steps. That wasn't a reason to allow events unfold to have Usopp beaten within an inch of his own life by Franky's Family, or the Merry to be reduced to something so much lesser than what she was only to keep her around, as if she was a toy preserved out of wistfulness. Strong enough for it or not, Robin simply didn't deserve to be placed in a situation where she'd consider giving herself up for the only thing she'd ever come to consider a family. Ace didn't deserve to die for being Roger's son, and Luffy didn't deserve to see it happen in front of his eyes, just as he thought that he was saved.

Some of the situations that had yet to be, like Usopp's, were already addressed: our sniper held a veritable mountain of tricks under his sleeves now, and that was without even considering the fact that if push came to shove, he could simply bit off the limbs of his opponents. But I knew enough of how the octopus balloon worked to keep it going until Water 7, neatly avoiding Kuzan and the Foxy Pirates while I was at it. The Merry was in better condition than she would have been without my intervention or my helping Usopp with repairs, but I had no way to stop Kuma's intervention on Sabaondy, and I refused to let Ace throw himself between Akainu and Luffy only because the latter was so dumb to try and grab the first's Vivre Card when the battle was basically secured.

"I trust you to do your best once you're on the spot." I took a deep breath, "I trust Zoro to keep pushing himself, I trust Usopp to keep panning and preparing for every eventuality, and I even trust that Mikita doesn't want to feel powerless ever again." my gaze sharpened as it fell on the other members of the crew, "But I know that giving it your all only when it's time to fight, is bound to have some of us die at some point along the way, and so I try to prevent that."

Luffy stared at me oddly then, and he took a step back to sit on the bulwark of the Going Merry, his eyes never leaving mine as he grinned: "So, if we train and become stronger, you'll stop lying?" there was a pained tint to his voice, and I could tell that it was because it physically hurt when he got around to thinking.

I felt myself grinning as a new understanding blossomed between me and my captain. In hindsight, this was a chat we should have had a long time ago, maybe as far back as when we reached Drum. To the simple-minded, the world was a simple place, and what had been nagging at Luffy was apparently an inability to guess my reasons.

Zoro stopped standing next to the mast and walked to one side of the deck, slumping against the bulwark and closing his eyes, the hint of a smile tilting his lips while he closed his eyes and began breathing more slowly. "If we all do our best, all the time, then I can only look forward to those we'll crush on the way to the One Piece."

"Shishishi!" Luffy laughed while tilting back his head, holding his Straw Hat as his smile widened so much it closed his eyes: "Then it's fine, I trust you!"

Once more, it felt like he was the center of the room despite us being under the open sky, standing around on the Merry's deck, but this time, instead of being a mere spectator to it, I felt like I stood fully in that ethereal warmth.

It was then, that whatever remote thoughts and plans I had harbored in the depths of my mind about furhter guiding ahead the member of the crew like puppets, despite it being for their own good, vanished like mist under the sun. Maybe for the first time since I had tricked my way into sailing with Luffy, I felt truly part of the crew, and truly, for the first time, I felt like I could begin to deserve the title of First Mate.


AN

Okay, I've decided to at least get started with both the two different narratives I have in mind for this fic. Hence this story was re-titled Coby: the King's Shadow, while the other will be Coby: Thunder King. This follows closely canon, while the other, of course, will not. Still, while keeping up with the current style that alternates episode-like chapters like this one and jumps ahead with meaningful flashbacks to clarify the new elements, I hope that I'll manage to keep this fic interesting.

You'll see what I mean with the next three or four chapters: I want to get to Impel Down before I hit 50k words, so it will be a fast ride. With this chapter, I fully shackle the MC to Luffy's fate. I hope everyone enjoyed the characterization that I enforced here.

Still, besides the preference between a more canon-oriented fic and a more original one, let me know what you think!