One Piece: The Servant Who Will Rule the Seas

Hello everyone and welcome to my very first One Piece story! Now this one here is a request from fellow reader, redfang19, and shall be my first attempt at writing Luffy and some of his other crew, so let me know if some of the characterization is too off. And, obligatory advertisement, also feel free to check out my book, Plains Riders, on Amazon Kindle and Kindle Unlimited. Now obviously we don't have any review questions just yet so let's jump on into this new story!

The Butler on the Barrel

The Kingdom of Lulusia: The Castle of the Lulusian Royal Family

For many years, the island nation of Lulusia was a rather prosperous kingdom. It's affiliation with the World Government and the establishment of the nearby Marine Base, G-2, had originally helped with that endeavor. In more recent years, however, things had started to shift in an odd direction. The system of pirate warlords which had been used to keep order in the seas for some time was in question now thanks to the defeat of Crocodile, Gecko Moria, and Doflamingo, along with slightly less cooperation from the others in recent years.

Even more troubling was the death of one of the four emperors, Whitebeard, at the battle of Marineford where an army of pirates and the navy clashed over the execution of Portgas D. Ace. Funnily enough, the infamous pirate known as 'Fire Fist' by many had passed through part of Lulusia earlier on in his life looking for his former comrade, Blackbeard. Unfortunately, the man he'd been hoping for revenge on was now a new emperor and his forces had been growing in power for some time now. But that was a conflict that the Kingdom of Lulusia wanted to stay out of if at all possible, and it was one of the last things on the mind of the dark-haired woman currently strolling quickly through the islands largest structure, the royal castle.

She wasn't tall by any means but rather closer to average height wearing a blue short dress which connected to a white collar around her neck while also having a long red skirt on that reached down to just above her ankles. Her arms and shoulders were left exposed by the outfit along with a fair bit of her neck and front. She was further distinguished by the way she styled her long hair into pigtails which swayed along with her hips with each step she took. And while her steps weren't necessarily hurried it was still clear that she was walking with a purpose.

And the many guards and servants she passed along the way did as was dictated by their duty and stood aside to let her through. She was, after all, a princess and in this particular instance she was a princess with a bit of a temper. It didn't take her long to reach her destination, a wide pair of double doors which led into the throne room that the two guards opened to allow her entry too. Unsurprisingly, the throne room was a good size and was well-decorated with banners and other pieces that proudly displayed the symbol of the Lulusian Kingdom. And there, sitting on a large wooden throne at the opposite end of the room was a man that was unmistakably the king.

If the large dark cape and purple shirt with thick white collar he was wearing weren't enough of an indicator then the crown on his head and the dignified way he held himself would dispel any further doubt as to his station even despite his sharp teeth and pointed ears. Currently, he was reading through a list of the kingdom's available resources while adjusting the crown which sat on his well-combed, long, dark-blond hair. The sound of the Princess's hurried footsteps, however, was more than enough to draw his attention as he looked up to see his daughter in what was clearly a less than stellar mood. "Ah, Koname," he said, smiling in spite of the possible situation, "what seems to be the matter?"

"What's the matter you ask?" Said Koname as she stopped at the foot of the stairs leading up to the throne, "you should already know, father, that my head servant is quitting!"

"Oh, you're referring to dear Burgundy's retirement," said the King, glad it wasn't something he considered terribly serious, "yes I'm well aware of that. And he's not 'quitting', he's retiring because I ordered it."

"And why would you order him to retire?!" Questioned Komane, "Burgundy's been my head servant for years!"

"Indeed he has," said the King, "he's served our family faithfully for years and is more than a little advanced in age now. He's earned his retirement, according to the servants, and then some and since he can't move about like he used too it seemed only right that I let him head on so that we can get someone who can do the work. I've already got screening going for your new head servant."

"But who's going to be my head servant in the meantime?" Questioned Komane, "Burgundy knew what I wanted and needed better than anyone, he's irreplaceable!"

"Yes, he was like a grandfather too you all these years and all that," said the King somewhat dismissively, "and he'll most certainly be allowed to visit the castle in the future if you absolutely insist on it. He just won't be in a servant capacity anymore."

"And he won't be around to keep my other servants organized either," said Komane, "no one kept things better organized than Burgundy, so what am I going to do?!"

"Komane," said the King in a stern voice, "you are a princess and a grown woman now. You're not a little girl anymore and you can handle things being just the slightest bit out of sorts. You'll have too in order to lead this kingdom one day. You might not think so now but things will be back on track for you soon enough even without Burgundy here."

"So that's it?" She said in frustration, "just deal with it until everything is figured out?"

"What else can I tell you," Said the King with a shrug, "changes happen from time to time. Several changes have been happening recently that the world and this kingdom have had to adjust too. In comparison to that, you don't have much to worry about at all." The Princess didn't look convinced as she crossed her arms and pouted. "Now don't give me that look. If it really bothers you so much then why not go and get some fresh air in town. You've always enjoyed a good walk or a long shopping errand whenever you're feeling troubled."

"Fine," Komane said after a moment, "I'll do just that, and while I'm at it maybe I'll find a suitable replacement for Burgundy myself."

"If you really think you can," quipped the King, "just try not to bring home anyone too strange. Guards or no guards we'd still be in trouble if you brought in an enemy on accident."

"I'm pretty sure I can tell who is and isn't an enemy," said Komane dismissively as she turned and headed for the door, "now since you suggested it, I'm heading to town Father."

"Try to be back by dinner now dear," Called the King, "otherwise your mother will be cross with both of us."

"I'll buy something for her too then, just in case," said Komane, again waving dismissively, "see you later father." The large double doors closed noisily behind her as the King sighed and sank back into his chair a little. 'That girl really can be a headache sometimes,' he thought, 'what she really needs is a playmate or someone to help keep her mind off of minor annoyances. But I'll have to worry about that after finding a replacement for Burgundy. First things first, however, keeping the affairs of the kingdom in order.'

Later: Port Town Near the Castle

'No, no, no, no,' thought Komane as she walked around town with her two guards escorting her, 'not that one either.' Naturally, being royalty and not needing to draw attention she'd had to dress up in order to blend in better with the populace and was currently wearing a very large, rounded hat that covered her hair and some sunglasses that helped obscure her face. Her pair of escorting guards, also dressed in civilian clothing, were also doing their best to make it look like they were friends along to help with her shopping errand. A job they were doing with a marginal degree of success, not that Komane was worrying about their performances at the moment.

She was far more focused on how she was going to get back at her father. It wasn't so much that Komane was mad about her head servant being replaced but rather at the fact that she wasn't getting any say in who replaced him. She'd liked Burgundy for a long time and while the King meant well there was no way he'd actually be able to pick out someone of the same caliber. So, the Princess had decided that she'd make things a little livelier around the palace and bring in someone a little more unsuited to the job.

Sure her father would no doubt point out that it was her doing the poor decision making but when he did she'd simply reply that she was going by the same standards he'd used before, whatever those had been. Komane had to work to keep the smile off her face as she already had a copy of the job application the King had sent out. Now the main problem was finding someone suitably unsuited to the job, which was actually proving surprisingly difficult. It's not that they hadn't spotted any idiots along the way but what Komane really needed was someone who'd make an impression, an idiot among idiots.

But where in the world would she find someone like that in this kingdom? "Burt," she said to the guard on her left-hand side, "we've been looking for over an hour and I'm not seeing what I'm looking for."

"If I may be perfectly frank," said Burt, remembering at the last second not to say 'princess', "you said we were looking for an idiot but gave no further description."

"Because I figured it should be obvious," retorted Komane, "an idiot is someone who really stands out, who's got no idea how to hide the fact that they're an idiot. Someone you'd look at and immediately think 'wow what an idiot'!" The two guards glanced at each other, deciding rather instantly not to say what was on their mind before the other guard, Dugan, spoke.

"If we're going to find someone like that it'd be best if we looked over by the harbor," he said, "there's usually one person or another making a fool of themselves over there."

"Of course, the dumb tourists!" Exclaimed Komane, "then that's where we'll search next!" 'Why do you assume it's just the tourists that are dumb?' thought the two guards questioningly as they followed after her. Since the kingdom was on an island, there were several harbor towns and the one they were in happened to be the largest, meaning it didn't take too terribly long to reach said harbor. Once they arrived, the Princess's first idea was to wait wherever there was an arriving ship to see who was disembarking.

Dugan and Burt didn't bother and let their eyes wander wherever there was something that looked interesting at the harbor. Given all the ships of different trades and purposes coming and going, they figured there must be something going on that could occupy their attention for a bit. This would go on for several minutes with the princess not too discreetly going back and forth from one line of passengers to another as they got off the varying ships. When that didn't seem to be bearing any fruit she straight up started asking if there was an idiot among the passengers.

The guards were quick to drag her away before she got into any trouble with this line of questioning. Obviously no one would give Komane any actual trouble the moment they found out she was the princess, but it wouldn't do well for the King and Queen's image if their daughter was going around asking where she could find an idiot. More likely than not everyone would think she was off her rocker and question her ability to inherit the throne. So after a few minutes of reasoning with the blunt, straightforward royal the group was back to more discreetly looking for an incompetent fool.

Minutes would turn into hours as the sun moved across the sky, signaling the beginning of the evening. As the sun was starting to set, however, the Princess's frustration only seemed to rise. "Oh why," she seethed as they stood by a less crowded section of the harbor, "why aren't there any interesting idiots around here right now?!"

"You make it sound like we have a regular influx of standout morons," said Burt, "if you just need an incompetent person then we've seen plenty of them."

"Yes, plenty of 'regular' incompetent people," Komane pointed out, "but for this to work we can't just have an ordinary idiot. We need someone who'll absolutely make an impression, someone so memorable that Father will never forget what happened. And so far I haven't seen anyone like that around here!"

"Maybe you should just pick one at random," suggested Dugan, "you're just as likely to find a memorable person that way then you are to find a memorable person looking the way we are now."

"You make it sound like a blind date when you put it like that," said Komane, "and how would I even pick someone at random anyway? Throw my trash at the nearest crowd and see who it hits?" She emphasized this by crumpling up the wrapper of a pastry she'd just finished before tossing it into the waters of the harbor. Strangely enough, she heard a 'thunk' instead of a splash like she'd been expecting.

"Ow," came a quiet groan as the princess and two guards looked over the edge to see where the noise had come from. There, floating in the water below was an unfortunate soul on a large barrel, wearing short jean pants with sandals, a red long-sleeved shirt with the chest open and a straw hat. A very familiar straw hat. "That smelled like…food."

"Now that's more like it," said Komane with a grin, "what kind of screw up must you be to wind up floating on a barrel out in the ocean?"

"The, uh, unlucky kind," offered Dugan, "people actually get washed overboard more often than you think."

"When was the last time you met someone who got washed overboard," said Komane, "with an outfit like that he's clearly a sailor and a sailor that gets washed overboard is definitely not that bright."

"I don't think that's the biggest issue we have right now," said Burt as he looked closer, "I'm pretty sure I've seen this guy before, or at least his face."

"Where in the world would you have seen this person before?" Said Komane with a raised eyebrow, "though if he really did leave such an impression then that's good news for us."

"I'm not so sure about that," said Dugan, "the guy probably left a bad impression if Burt's able to remember him."

"All the better!" Said an excited Komane as she pointed to the stranger on the barrel, "go ahead and pull him up already!" The two guards glanced at each other and sighed before reaching down and pulling the still unconscious boy off of the barrel. It was then that they got a good look at his face and promptly dropped him on the ground.

"I knew it!" Exclaimed Burt as he pointed at the unfortunate sailor, "that's him, the one who led the pirates at Marineford before Whitebeard and the others showed up!"

"What, this guy," said Komane as she nudged him with her foot, noting his developed abs, "sure he's got some nice muscle on him but he doesn't look like much of a leader."

"But I know it's him, take a look at this," said Burt as he reached into one of his pockets where several rolled-up sheets of paper resided. He pulled out one and unrolled it to reveal a wanted poster depicting a boy with a straw hat who bared a striking resemblance to the one on the ground. "This has got to be him, we can even test and see if he has a rubber body."

"Rubber body?" said a confused Komane, "why in the world would we need to test for that?"

"Because the wanted poster says he's eaten the Gomu Gomu no Mi fruit," replied Dugan while skimming the information on the poster, "and there's some more recent information claiming that he can use haki too!" The Princess raised an eyebrow at this before shrugging and bending down to grab ahold of the boy's cheek. She gave it a good hard pull and found, to her astonishment, that it really did stretch like rubber.

"I don't believe it," said Komane as a look of surprise crossed her features, "he really is made of rubber. So this is really the famous pirate captain, Monkey D. Luffy?!" Both Dugan and Burt nodded their heads quickly in response, nervousness clear on their faces. Yet for some odd reason, a smile formed on the Princess's face.

"This is perfect," she said, "I came out here looking for an idiot or other memorable moron and now I've found something even better."

"But your highness," said Burt, "you can't possibly be considering taking this person back to the castle?! He's got a bounty on his head of over five hundred million berries! Your father would never agree to letting someone as dangerous as him anywhere near the kingdom let alone the castle!"

"Bah, you worry too much Burt," said Komane dismissively, "weren't you one of the ones who requested all of that sea stone material after we read the news about Marineford?"

"Yes, as much as we could afford," said Burt, "with the seas getting more dangerous we have to plan for the possibility of devil fruit users coming here to attack us."

"Well here's your chance to test them all out," said the Princess as she pointed to Luffy, "now let's hurry up and get him to the castle. If he wakes up now we'll never be able to keep him under control."

"I'm not sure we'll be able to keep him under control even with sea stone restraints," commented Dugan.

"If things get too hectic then we can always call Marine Base G-2," Komane pointed out, "now enough moping about and let's get to it!"

Some Time Later: Beneath Lulusia Castle

'Oh, what happened,' thought Luffy groggily as his eyes slowly opened. He'd been with his crew not too long ago, he thought, when a real nasty storm hit. That, in and of itself, wouldn't have been a problem for their ship, the Thousand Sunny, but someone had attacked them in the middle of it. His memory got fuzzy around that point. All he remembered about the apparent enemy was that they were strong or at least underhanded.

Some way somehow he'd been knocked overboard along with several barrels. Had this been two years ago he would've been completely immobilized by the sea water but thanks to his training under Silvers Rayleigh he'd been able to summon up the strength to cling to one of the barrels. He must've hung onto it for hours before finally passing out in the middle of nowhere with the only thing in sight being an island he didn't recognize. A fleeting thought told him that unknown island was probably where he was at right now but it and all other thoughts were quickly drowned out by one overwhelming desire: food.

"Hey," groaned Luffy as he tried to sit up, "hey, is there anyone here? And do you have any food?" His eyes eventually adjusted to the darkness as he looked around and discovered that he was laying on a bed in a cell of some kind. It was like a dungeon with stone walls and floors and bars like the type you'd find on a typical jail cell.

'Huh, I wonder why they'd throw me in here,' he thought as he got up slowly, feeling a bit of pain in his joints before reaching up to scratch his neck. That's when he discovered the collar that was around it. "Hey what gives? What in the world's going on here?!" He tried pulling at the collar with all of his strength which he quickly found was quite diminished.

The sound of footsteps caused him to jump a bit then as three figures came walking into the limited illumination of the apparent dungeon. "Now this is a sight I doubt anyone in this castle would've ever expected to see," said a dark-haired woman with a blue top and a long red skirt, "the famous Straw Hat Luffy sitting behind bars in one of our cells."

"Who are you guys supposed to be," asked Luffy with a confused tilt of his head, "are you the ones who put this dumb collar on my neck?"

"That dumb collar was expensive," said the apparent guard on the woman's right side, "a lighter weight but still very effective sea stone shackle." 'Though I won't mention it's for less dangerous devil fruit users.'

"Ah no way," said Luffy as he pulled at the collar, "I hate these things, they always take away my strength."

"That's kind of the point," said the guard on the woman's left, "we don't exactly want a massively dangerous pirate just wandering around the kingdom."

"You should put one of these on Zoro then," quipped Luffy, "he gets lost all the time."

"No it works by keeping you here not as a guide," said the first guard while rubbing his temple. Though the straw hat wearing pirate ignored him as another realization seemed to come to his mind.

"Wait, you guys haven't seen my other friends have you?" Asked Luffy as he started gesturing with his hands, "Zoro's the guy with three swords, then we got a small reindeer named Chopper, a robot guy named Frankie and we even got a skeleton named Brook."

"Yes we're well aware of who your crewmates are," said the Woman dismissively, "and no, we haven't seen a single one of them, just you."

"Well then you got to let me out of here!" Exclaimed Luffy as he gripped the bars, "we were in this big storm and got attacked by these other pirate guys who didn't like us for some reason and I got thrown overboard. If any of my other friends fell overboard they might've washed up here too or they're looking for me right now!"

"Maybe they are and maybe they aren't," said the Lead Woman, "but you're going to have to forget about them for now. After all, we haven't introduced ourselves yet. I am Komane, princess of the Kingdom of Lulusia, and these are my guards Burt and Dugan." The two men nodded but Luffy ignored them as he spoke again.

"Princess? Kingdom of Lulusia," said the Straw Hat captain with a tilt of his head, "never heard of ya."

"What do you mean you've never heard of me?!" Exclaimed Komane, "Lulusia kingdom might not be the biggest island on the map but we're not little either! Surely someone mentioned us if you managed to get yourself washed up on the island!"

"Nami might've," said Luffy as he thought for a moment, "she's the navigator. I was never all that good at reading maps." A sudden growl filled the room then as a look of slight pain crossed the pirate's face. "Oh yeah that reminds me, do you guys got anything to eat?"

"We have some of the finest chefs in this region," replied Komane, "and we'd be more than happy to feed you, on a few conditions."

"Conditions?" Said Luffy with a raised eyebrow, "sure I'll take some of those on my food."

"Those are condiments you're thinking of, moron," said Burt before looking at the other guard, "is this guy serious right now?"

"Well what are these condition things you're talking about anyway?" Asked Luffy.

"They're really quite simple," said Komane, "my head servant is being retired and daddy is going to take forever to find a new one. So starting tomorrow, you are going to be my new personal servant. One might even say a butler."

"Butler?" Said Luffy with a raised eyebrow, "why would I want to do something like that? My dream is way bigger than that." He clenched his fist in front of his face then with a look of sheer determination in his eyes. "I'm gonna be king of the pirates!"

"Sure you are," said Komane, "and I'm going to be queen one day. Oh wait, I actually am. And a queen needs a good servant, which you're far more likely to become than the King of the pirates."

"Ya think so," Said Luffy with a grin, "then let me out of here and I'll show you what I can do-GROOOOOOWL!" Once again the Captain's stomach growled, this time like a lion as he bent over and held his gut like it was in pain. "But before we do any of that, you said something about food?"

"I said I'll give you food if you agree to become my servant," said Komane while holding up one finger, "if you don't, well, you can always starve."

"Alright, alright, fine," he said in annoyance, "I'll be your servant or whatever, just give me some food!"

"That's more like it," said Komane with a 'friendly' smile, "Dugan, bring him along. Our new head servant is going to need something to eat." The guard nodded in understanding before moving over and opening the door. He signaled for Luffy to follow them as the group of four proceeded out of the dungeon.

'I've been in worse scrapes than this,' thought Luffy as they ascended some stairs, 'I'll just convince 'em to take this collar off of me then I'm out of here. After getting some food first. How hard could it be?' As it would turn out, much harder than he ever could've imagined.

And so ends the first chapter of my first One Piece story! I know it's a little short but the next chapters should be a bit longer once I get a feel for the story. And of course I always welcome a bit of constructive criticism so feel free to leave a comment or review about what you liked/disliked or if you've got any neat ideas for future chapters. Be sure to stop in next time as our hero enters the world of butlering, in his usual Straw Hat fashion. And be sure to check out my book, Plains Riders, on Amazon Kindle and Kindle Unlimited. 'Til then.