Inside the castle

"Yes, I sense a few people coming our way," jumped Luffy, scaring Perona who had decided to take a Beauty nap.

Luffy grabbed two bokken swords and some knives as he prepared to head outside. Luffy was still too young and unskilled to hold real swords. Though what counted as unskilled to Mihawk is unknown as Luffy could cause serious wounds with just his wooden swords. Perona also prepared by grabbing her umbrella and adjusting her crown.

The Humandrills did not like Perona but merely tolerated her presence because Luffy claimed her as a sister. And, well, his dad Hawk Eyes was the most fearsome creature they had ever seen, even their leader trembled at his sight. If they weren't so battle hungry they wouldn't even dare challenge Mihawk. But it was for this reason that they humored Perona when she came to tell them about the intruders. They liked playing with Luffy and would do anything to protect him and help him have his fun. The leader was especially taken with the young child, viewing him as a son. Just as Mihawk viewed Luffy.

Luffy and Perona walked outside and headed towards the forest where they sensed some presence. Perona double checked to make sure they were weak lest one of them hurt Luffy and all Hell break loose. The Humandrills sensed their power for they learned Haki as well, such frighteningly intelligent monkeys, and let them pass for Luffy to practice with. These were newer recruits so their power was comparatively weaker than the other members of the Red-Hair crew.

Perona took two pirates and Luffy the other two. "Shishshishi, finally I get to have some fun," exclaimed Lu, two swords in hand. In one fluid motion, he twisted both swords in the air and sent a twister of slashes towards his prey. Seeing a small child, the pirates did not think to run for cover or defend themselves which proved to be their undoing.

Meanwhile, Perona unleashed a few of her smaller hollows and distracted the pirates by lowering their morale. After, she let them explode causing a devastating effect on the new recruits.

"Aww, man, that was too easy, let's go find some others," Luffy whined. Perona, thinking the same, decided to humor Luffy. "Ok, let's see what we can find, my hollows inform me of a group down this way," she said pointing to the right.

Somewhere on the Island

Yassop was sweating, he was taking cover in some trees while he regrouped and thought out a plan. They were so surprised by the humandrills' (not that he knew they were called that) battle prowess that they were quickly overwhelmed and forced to retreat.

Meanwhile, the few humandrills that were grazed by the bullets, to the surprise of Yassop and the others, used spit to heal their wounds and their jaws dropped as it actually worked.

"Hey, that's an old sailor's tale, get out of here, no way that worked," yelled one of the Red-Hair pirates. The others yelled out in agreement.

"Ok, men, these are no ordinary beasts, we treat them like enemy pirates so it's time to get serious," shouted Yassop.

The humandrills meanwhile, grew in bloodlust as they sensed their prey getting serious.

Elsewhere on the island, Lucky Roo and his group were engaged in fierce battle with the humandrills. The humandrills strength rivaled that of Lucky Roo so it was like the Red-Hair pirates were fighting 3 Lucky Roos who also knew swordsmanship and from the likes of it were experts to boot.

Meanwhile, Rockstar paled as the ghosts began to explode creating large craters and decimating the surrounding trees. His group was thrown sky high and Rockstar yelled about poltergeists. He was from the West Blue, where future super rookie Basil Hawkins also hailed from, they were a superstitious lot.

The captain of the crew and first mate faced the Leader in all his glory. Shanks was engaging the huge beast in swordplay and he yelled, "Oi, Benn, does his sword look familiar to you? Or am I too drunk from last night?"

Benn said, "First off you mean early this morning, right? And yeah you're right, it looks like a certain shichibukai's sword." Benn adjusted his flintlock rifle and started firing at the great creature. Meanwhile, Shanks clashes with the leader could be felt throughout the island. Even though Shanks was small compared to the large leader, his strength could withstand several charges the beast took against him with his mighty sword that resembled the Yoru.

"I wonder what the story is here, Benn, this sword and this beast's technique remind me of Mihawk and well if I was blind I'd say I was possibly fighting Mihawk himself" shouted Shanks as the creature yelled out as one of Benn's bullets grazed him.

Luffy and Perona felt the clashes and both gasped, recognizing that whoever was fighting the leader of the humandrills was very powerful.

Luffy and Perona looked at each other and each yelled out different things at the same time "Awesome! ..Oh no I think we underestimated these fools!" You can guess who said what.

Perona wanted to turn around and call Mihawk on the den den mushi which she slapped her forehead and thought to herself why she didn't do that earlier.

Luffy was vibrating in excitement, "Perhaps we just got the runts of the group, I hope these next people bring more of a challenge" he told Perona. Luffy had inherited his dad's habit of challenging strong opponents, he often grew bored like Mihawk when he didn't have a good fight.

"Ugh, I hope not, we better go all out if their captain can go up against the leader," answered Perona.

Luffy ran ahead in excitement. He encountered Rockstar's group and saw them mostly beat up, patching each other up. They froze when they saw him. Rockstar yelled, "Are you a ghost child coming for revenge because of your death?"

Everyone turned to look at him and deadpanned, "Whaaaat?" "Oi, Rockstar you have a wild imagination, man, relax" one of his crew members laughed out.

Luffy started laughing, "You are all funny, shishishishishi. I'm afraid though," Luffy said, straightening up, "you are trespassing on private property and I will have to ask you to leave."

"Oi, kid, listen, we just stopped by because of a storm, our shipwrights are working on some minor repairs and we will be on our way," one of the Red-Hair pirates responded.

"Ah well, in that case I can use some training dummies, will you step in, I need some dummies that can react" Luffy asked.

"Ehhhh, excuse me, training dummies, hey kid, we don't attack children but have some respect at least, we're the Red-Hair Pirates, our captain is Red-Haired Shanks," said the pirate proudly, hands on his hips.

"Ehhh, who?" Luffy responded, picking his nose. Perona finally arrived at this point and heard the tail end of the conversation. Perona elbowed Luffy and said, "Lucky, ugghh why are you like this, don't you read the newspaper or the bounties at least? Shanks is really strong, he has one of the highest bounties" Perona answered whining.

"Ah. Who cares." Luffy responded and flicked his booger on the nearest pirate.

"Heyyyy, kid, that's disgusting!" yelled the pirate with the booger on his face. His crewmates laughed including Rockstar who had calmed down since there weren't any ghosts. "Hey, our crewmate is called Lucky too," yelled another member.

"Well, you have to leave. My dad isn't here and he doesn't like strange pirates on the island. My sister is also acting very uncool so you have to leave," Luffy said.

Perona yelled, "Hey, I'm not uncool, I'm the cutest Ghost Princess ever!"

"Ahh, ghost," yelled Rockstar again, running around like a chicken.

Perona, getting serious, said, "Sorry, but you'll have to go back to your ships now and leave. We don't take kindly to trespassers here." Perona extended her umbrella and transformed it into the bō it doubled as. The humandrills joined the melee as well after treating their wounds with spit. She engaged in combat with the pirates nearest her.

"Damn she's something else, who thought the lady in the fancy get-up would be this strong," said Rockstar wiping the sweat from his forehead.

After some time, Perona extended her hollows and scared Rockstar shitless again as they began to blow up once again. The explosions were so huge , the others further away saw the smoke rising from the forest and saw the trees knocked down from the force.

Meanwhile Luffy, while he looked like a child, had the strength of an adult. The pirates only saw a 7 year old so they humored him with the blunt end of their weapons. Luffy always angered at being underestimated, and retaliated by sending two haki infused slashes their way. To say it was overkill, would be putting it lightly. Rockstar was also caught in the blast as he had been too distracted by the ghosts and not paying attention to the small child. They were also hit with a mysterious gas by Perona.

"Round these men up and take them back to their ship. We'll have a party after they leave," Luffy directed towards the humandrills. The humandrills eager for a party happily complied with Lu.

"Hmm, well they were slightly stronger but it seems we keep being underestimated sister," Luffy said to Perona.

Perona was dressed in a very elaborate and fancy dress with many frills and lace. While Luffy was also dressed fancily, in gray silk trousers and a white long sleeve collared shirt with flower-patterns.

"They were beat up by the humandrills beforehand, Lu, you're the one the needs to stop underestimating the enemy," pointed out Perona.

" we beat them. I sense some stronger opponents though, so perhaps this Red-Hair crew wasn't all smoke " Luffy retorted.

" Hey, the Red-Hair pirates are strong, they say the captain might become an emperor like White Beard or Linlin" Perona said.

"Oh, strong like Linlin huh, I don't know Whitebeard but I hear he's strong too. Maybe these pirates will provide me a challenge," muttered Luffy to himself. Perona and Luffy kept walking towards the group that was gathering in the center of the forest.

Lucky Roo and his group met up with Yassop after beating their group of humandrills. They were pretty beat up but scrapped by with a win with multiple bruises and cuts to show for it. One unlucky fool had his arm broken by one of the humandrills, the ship's doctor was gonna be livid.

"Oi, you guys had trouble too it seems," yelled Yassop to Lucky Roo and the rest.

"Yeah, those monkeys are no joke,did yours heal with spit too?" "Eh yours did too," exclaimed another pirate.

"They're called Humandrills. They're highly intelligent monkeys capable of imitating humans so much that they will mimic any trait they witness," Perona yelled as she and Luffy reached the clearing.

Unbeknownst to the pirate crew, the humandrills had gathered and healed and learned from their enemies. They were getting ready for round 2 with these humans.

"Anyways, you only engaged a small part of their army, Horo-horo-horo-horo-horo!" she further added.

If Yassop and Lucky Roo were surprised by Perona's entrance they didn't show it. They noticed some debris and weapons on the two newcomers and surmised they might have met Rockstar's group who had been silent for far too long.

"Hey, by any chance did you meet any of our friends, one of them was called Rockstar. If you're in any trouble, we can help, these monkeys are strong, huh. " Yassop asked, mistakenly thinking they had also been attacked by the humandrills.

"Shishishishi, you guys are funny, the humandrills would never attack us. They help us, we help them. As for your friends, we sent them packing" answered Luffy.

"Like we told your friends, we don't like visitors, you should leave immediately" followed Perona.

"Well, now I usually don't attack young ladies like yourself but it looks like I'll have to make an exception" responded Yassop.

Lucky Roo was seen chewing on another drumstick and readied his bat with his other hand.

Perona encircled them with hollows and they grew in size and exploded. The ground shook in response to the multiple explosions.

The pirates quickly jumped away but some were still caught in the bomb that ghosts had created.

Luffy, not to be outdone by Perona, sent a combination of cuts to the left, center, and right cutting those who escaped Perona's hollows. Several weapons were rendered useless, cut to pieces by Luffy's slashes.

Yassop and Lucky Roo escaped the most of it, but were still caught by surprise by the level of skill of their opponents. They both thought that little boy had no business being this strong. And the girl was no joke either, those ghosts may seem funny but they're not useless.

Yassop countered with several warning shots towards Perona, but she deflected them all with her staff. Then came about a dozen humandrills. Lucky Roo almost choked on his chicken.

Lucky Roo turned to Yassop, "this isn't good. We were weaker than we thought after battling that storm and these humandrills took us by surprise and are strong as hell. These two ain't a joke either, I don't want to go all out against kids but it seems like we might have too. The crew members are already beat up."

Yassop answered, "Well Roo, let's give'em hell, aye!" Men gather your courage and let's show these people who the Red-Hair Pirates are!" 'Aye' responded the men, and launched their counter attack.

The humandrills having learned from the pirates, attacked them using their same techniques only with much stronger force. A group of them even seemed to have acquired drumsticks like Lucky Roo too.

Luffy laughed, "Shishishishi, thanks for the workout," as he jumped into the fray. Perona sent her hollows through several men and they quickly lost their will to live and their morales lowered.

At some point, Luffy lost his wooden swords and the pirates stopped fighting thinking they had him. beat. As they stopped, Luffy grabbed his knives and struck out with several kicks aiming for knees, guts, elbows. He swiped a few pirates with his knives, several crying out. "Oi Lu, that's enough for today, they are pretty strong, we should wrap this up quickly. You know what to do" yelled Perona.

Perona wanting to quickly end the fight sent several smoke bombs into the air, which were actually filled with sleeping sedatives. Luffy had already put his gas mask on, the humandrills had grown immune to the substance, since Perona used it all the time to escape from them in the past. The humandrills then took the sleeping humans back to their ship. Since the island was always covered in fog it looked as if the bodies of their crew had mysteriously appeared when the crew that stayed behind found Yassop and Lucky Roo's groups. They had been on the lookout ever since Rockstar and his group had been mysteriously dropped off as well, still knocked out from the sleeping gas.

Author's note: My longest chapter yet! I didn't think I would spend so much time writing about the past but here we are lol I go where my writing takes me. I hope you are enjoying the story! I decided to end it here since I was excited to post another chapter and got too tired to write more but still wanted to post. Thank you so much for the follows and favs, i'm loving all the love! As you can see Luffy loves a challenge maybe too much but meeting Shanks will mellow him out a bit and we will see more of a silly Luffy. Growing up with a serious Mihawk as its effects lol. Next chapter we will see Shanks & Benn battle it out with the leader of the humandrills and the fated meeting between Luffy and Shanks! Stay tuned! P.s yes they know Big Mom, I'm worldbuilding lol, that was a completely random addition but I like Katakuri and I want to tie him in somehow. Big Mom probably won't be as bloodthirsty meaning she won't be getting so angry she eats her kids lol. But we won't see much of that until later in the story.