Foosha village - east blue
Today was the day. Today was Luffy's seventeenth birthday and the day he was beginning his journey upon the open seas to become the king of the pirates.
Much had changed in the past ten years since the departure of the red hair pirates. Luffy was now six foot tall with a slim but athletic build. He was wearing; a pair of black trousers, black shoes, a bright red dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbow and the the top three buttons undone and his signature straw hat.
Completing his outfit was, draped over his shoulders, his brand new captains coat that had been given to him today by Makino for his birthday, Luffy loved his new coat as it looked the same as the one worn by Gold Roger except it was black instead of red. Strapped to his side was his sabre which had been a gift from his foster mother Dadan for his sixteenth birthday and while it was fairly low quality Luffy loved it all the same. Hidden from view strapped to his belt at the small of his back was a pair of new flintlock repeater pistols, these had been mailed back to Dawn island by Luffy's big brother Ace about a year ago. These pistols were of a new south blue design that allowed the user to fire six rounds before needing to be reloaded.
Standing on the dock about to get into his little dinghy Luffy reflected back on how far he has come since he last stood on this dock. True to his word the books Benn and the other red hair pirates had wrote for him hadn't made him a master pirate but what they did do was give him the tools he needed to become a great pirate. From the books he'd learned; basic navigation, basic nutritional information necessary for life at sea, first aid and the various treatments for common ailments when at sea, various swordplay and shooting tips and tricks, how to repair his equipment and ship.
However the last book was what was most most important and it was the one that had been written by Shanks. Within that book was a wealth of information on what for years Luffy could only refer to as a 'mystery power' and together with his older brother Ace, and before his death Sabo, they spent years trying to unlock this 'mystery power' and then another few years trying to master it. This 'mystery power' is called haki and it's something only strong pirates even know about however Luffy still enjoys occasionally referring to it as a mystery power because of the look on everyones faces when he says it.
The training that Ace and Luffy put themselves through not only strengthened their dream of becoming pirates but also helped Luffy master his devil fruit abilities. When Luffy first attempted to use his lightning abilities he couldn't so much as hit a tree in a forest with an attack, however now he not only has complete control over his lightning but has also created a few special attacks that he can use in a fight.
Taking a deep breath Luffy stepped into his dinghy and pushed off from the dock. He turned around to look at every villager gathered to see him off.
"Bye Luffy."
"Good luck out there."
"Make sure you come back with exciting stories."
As the various villagers that Luffy had come to know and love over the years of living on Dawn island were shouting their various goodbyes Luffy locked eyes with Makino and upon seeing the bright smile on her face he flashed his trademark face splitting grin. "I'm gunna be the king of the pirates!" Yelled Luffy at the top of his voice.
Before turning around he he cast one last look over the small town and he saw his foster mother Dadan trying to hide behind one of the houses. Dadan was a large women, easily over seven feet tall and with a bulk to match, with curly bright orange hair and a cigerette in her mouth. Seeing her beginning to tear up while trying to remain stoic he locked eyes with her and gave her a small smile.
Turning around in his little dinghy he once again faced the open ocean, however just a few minutes into his journey Luffy faced his first challenge as a small sea king, known locally as the Lord of the coast, rose up from beneath the waves. The Lord of the coast was a sea king that resembled a large eel, it as over 40 feet long with brown scales and teeth as long as Luffy's entire arm.
Seeing the appearance of the sea king that had eaten many local fishermen over the years the villagers ceased their goodbyes and suddenly fell silent. Luffy's reaction was different however as he simply stared at the sea king impassively. As the sea king reared its head back in preparation of a lunge at Luffy, Luffy just narrowed his eyes and focused on his 'mystery power' "get lost." Upon this command from Luffy the sea king froze in fear and slowly backed up, then all of a sudden and with all the speed it could manage it dove back beneath the waves.
Seeing the sea king fleeing Luffy raised his arms in the air and yelled out in victory. The villagers also saw the sea king retreat, they were complete clueless as to why thy just knew it had something to do with Luffy. Regardless of what caused it to flee every single villager present let out a massive cheer for Luffy's victory over the sea monster. Hearing the cheer Luffy turned around and acknowledged them with his typical face splitting grin.
That excitement was not to last however as nothing of note happened for another day. It was during the second day of his journey that Luffy suddenly woke up from his nap as he felt his dinghy rock suddenly. Looking over the side of his dinghy Luffy noticed that during his nap his little dinghy had drifted dangerously close to a whirlpool. Knowing that he was now too close to the whirlpool to row away and needing an option for survival he quickly scanned his surroundings.
About half a mile away Luffy spotted two ships, one was quite large but plain and obviously civilian as it had no cannons whatsoever. The other ship could only be described as a monstrosity, it was pink with love hearts decorating it and a swan with love hearts for eyes as the shops figurehead. The jolly Roger flying atop thr ship give the ship away as a pirate vessel.
Observing the two ships it was obvious the pirate ship was about to raid the civilian ship, so with this in mind Luffy utilised his devil fruit powers and transformed himself into lightning and teleported himself onto the pirate vessel. Appearing on the deck of the pink monstrosity every single pirate turned to look at the newcomer that had literally just appeared in a flash of lightning.
"Who are you? You don't look like the pirate hunter Roronoa Zoro to me!" Shouted a voice from the top deck of thr ship.
Luffy looked up to see the fattest and ugliest woman he'd ever seen, and he used to live Dadan a mountain bandit. She was wearing what could be loosely described as a cowgirl outfit and was wielding a large metal club.
"So, have you come for the bounty of 'iron mace' Alvida?" Asked the newly identified Alvida.
"Nope, didn't even know who you were you fat hag." Luffy responded in a bored tone. Upon the words 'fat' and 'hag' being said two things happened simultaneously, firstly every memeber of Alvida's crew froze in fear and began to tremble, and secondly Alvida grit her teeth in fury and a moment later launched herself at Luffy with her club in hand intentending on turning him into little more than a red smear on the deck of her ship.
Seeing the attck coming from a mile away and simply stepped to side to avoid it, coated his fist in haki then planted his fist into the back of Alvida's head. This single blow to the back of the head was enough to knock out Alvida and cause her to bounce off the deck of the ship ten feet into the air. Upon seeing their captain laid out the deck the rest of the crew took that as their signal to attck the straw hatted invader en mass.
For Luffy the next few minutes were highly enjoyable and he ducked and weaved the sloppy attacks from the pirate occasionally striking back with a fist covered in lightning. Unbeknownst to everyone while the fight was occuring an orange haired teen wearing; a short blue skirt, a blue striped white t-shirt with orange gladiator sandals, stealthily snuck aboard the ship and made her way below deck.
Within just a few short minutes all of the Alvida pirates lay strewn about the deck bleeding, unconscious and covered in various burns due to Luffy's lightning attacks. Noticing that the crew had been dealt with, at least for the time being Luffy quickly set about to work weighing in the anchor and unfurling the sails to get the ship away from the civilian ship and any possible marine ships that may be answering their distress signal.
Once the ship was a significant distance away Luffy began removing the crew of the Alvida pirates from his new ship and dumping them overboard, only pausing long enough to restrain Alvida with some rope that had been helpfully on the deck of the ship. It was once Luffy had finished this task that he came across a small pink haired young man wearing thick glasses cowering behind a crate on the deck.
"Who are you then?" Luffy asked in pure confusion.
"Erm, I'm Coby. I was brought aboard this ship to work as a cabin boy after i mistook a pirate dinghy for a fishing boat."
Luffy just stared at Coby giving him what many would describe as the stink eye before bursting out into boistrous laughter. "Hahaha that's the funniest thing i've heard in like forever, you've gotta be really dumb to mistake a pirate ship for a fishing one." After saying this he noticed that Coby seemed to shrink in on himself and became incredibly disheartened so he added "What you want to do now then?"
Coby paused for a minute before sighing and saying "I don't know."
"Well you got any dreams kid?" Luffy asked in genuine interest as he leant against a nearby crate.
"Wwwell...well I've always dreamed of becoming a marine admiral one day ever since i was a kid." There was a slight pause before Coby looked earnestly into Luffy's eyes. "Do you think I can do it?" Coby added the last part in little more than a whisper.
"How the hell should I know?" Luffy asked in a nonchalant tone before adding in an earnest voice "only you have the power to achieve your dreams, others can help you achieve them but if you don't fight for your own dream then they'll never come true."
"What about you what's your dream?" Coby asked.
"Me? I'm gunna be the king of the pirates." Luffy said with his usual grin in place. This however only served to make Coby incredibly nervous.
"You want to be the pirate king? Then that means you're going to sail the grand line and find the one piece" Coby managed to stutter out.
"Yeah I sure am." Luffy said with a bright smile.
There was a slight pause before Coby said with what appeared to be unusual conviction "no, no that's impossible, impossible I tell you..." that was as far as Coby got into his tirade before he was interrupted by a swift fist to the top of his head courtesy of Luffy. "What did you do that for?" Coby asked with tears in his eyes.
"I felt like it." Luffy said with a shrug. "Besides you said my dream was impossible, I don't care how dangerous it is it's my dream and I'd I die trying to reach it then that just means it wasn't meant to be."
Coby stared at Luffy in awe of the conviction he had just shown. "I'm going to do it I'm going to become a marine."
Luffy just chuckled. "Hey what did that fat hag say about that pirate hunter? Do you know anything about him?"
At this Coby's nervousness returned. "I've heard that Roronoa Zoro isn't even human, that he's just a demon in human skin." At seeing Luffy's interest in Zoro increasing with he's hearing Coby just let out a defeated sigh before asking "what do you want with Zoro anyway?"
"I'm gunna ask him to join my pirate crew of course," replied Luffy with his usual grin. "You know where I can find him?"
"I heard he was captured and imprisoned in the marine base in Shells Town, that's not too far from here you know."
"Great! Let's plot a course for Shells Town!" Luffy yelled in excitement, excitement that quickly interrupted when the orange haired teen that had snuck aboard earlier appeared on deck holding a bag of what seemed to be stolen treasure over her shoulder.
Realising that she's been spotted she froze as she attempted to formulate a decent escape plan.
"Is she one of Alvidas pirates?" Luffy whispered to Coby.
Upon hearing this the orange haired teen exploded in anger at Luffy's belief that she was a pirate. "Don't even call me one of them, I'd never stoop so low as to be a pirate."
Hearing this Luffy decided to change tactic slightly and approached her with a smile on his face and his hand outstretched as he said "I'm Monkey D. Luffy it's great to meet you!"
It was this precise time that Luffy sent a mental thank you to Shanks for one of the few things he taught him and as thr girl went to to take his hand to shake it he grasped it gently and brought it to his lips and placed and gentle kiss on her knuckles. "And just what might your name be?" Luffy asked.
Due to Luffy's act of kissing her knuckles the girl had blushed rather heavily but that did not stop her responding "Nami, my name's Nami."
Luffy's charm now dialed all the way up to eleven out of ten simply said "Nami, a beautiful name for a beautiful girl." Seeing her blush deepen he continued "tell me Nami what's in the bag?"
At his question Nami froze in fear, she had after all heard the fighting that had barely lasted any time and she now noticed that the entirety of Alvida's crew was now absent and therefore had been defeated by the young man in front of her, the same young man that didn't even have so much as a scratch on him. As Luffy had just fought against a group of pirates Nami beleieved Luffy to be somewhat anti pirate and she decided to take a gamble. "It's treasure. You see I'm a thief that steals exclusively from pirates." Nami said with a slight smirk.
Luffy simply smirked and said "is that so?" Looking her up and down and quickly analysing her to establish how much of a threat she could be he added "so where you headed Nami?" Luffy questioned in a light tone.
"Shells Town, I'm heading to Shells Town. There's something there I need to pick up."
"What a coincidence!" Luffy said beaming. "That's where we're heading too, you know you're welcome to hitch a ride with us if you want."
"Yeah that'd be appreciated." Nami said chuckling slightly. "Bye the way?"
"Yeah?" Asked Luffy.
"Can I erm...can I have my hand back?" Nami asked nervously with a blush still on her face.
"Oh sorry...my mistake." Luffy said but by the smile on his face it was obvious to Nami that the mistake was not genuine, something that only caused her blush to deepen. Turning to Coby Luffy said just pointed to the jolly roger of the Alvida pirates that was still flying atop the mast and said "it's an eyesore. Get rid of it." Once the jolly roger had been taken down and was now floating in the sea Luffy then shouted "onwards to Shells Town, and lets turn this world upside down." He then flashed his signature face splitting grin to the other two, this grin seemed to be infectious as it caused the other two to suddenly grin.