Training for the future
By KuroKame

"Luffy, go to sleep."

"I am sleeping."

"No, you're not. You just gave yourself away by saying that."

The boy looked away from the item in his hands and peered through the darkness towards the other end of the small room. Then, he looked back at his newfound treasure and shook his head, almost as if he thought that Ace could see him through the blackness in the room.

"I can't sleep," he said simply.

He could see Ace moving at the other side of the room; the moonlight seeping in through the tiny window fell over the older boy as he reached for something on the table by his bed. There was a spark and then a warm yellow flare lit up the small room. Luffy sat up in his bed, still clutching the straw hat Shanks had given him earlier that evening and looked expectantly at Ace.

"Well, you better sleep, or you can't get up in the morning to start training," Ace said, looking at his younger brother over the flickering candle he held up in front of him. The warm, yellow light cast his shadow over the wall behind him as he put the candle down on his bedside table.

"Training?" Luffy blinked as he looked at Ace. Ace cackled softly, covering his mouth with his hand so that their parents wouldn't hear him.

"Well, yeah," he said, pointing at the hat in Luffy's hands. "I heard that you made a promise on that hat today. To become the greatest pirate, wasn't that what you promised Captain Shanks before he left?"

"Uh-huh," Luffy nodded swiftly and seemed to get even less sleepy by the mention of Shanks' name. "I'm going to find One Piece and become the King of Pirates. Then, I'll find Shanks and return his hat. So I can't lose it. I'm always going to have it with me."

Ace nodded in that wise, all-knowing, older-brotherly way he used when Luffy started to get too hyperactive. It was the easiest and often most effective way to calm Luffy down, since the younger brother usually fell silent to hear if Ace had something interesting to hear. He leaned back against the wall behind him and locked his arms around his knees.

"Well then, how are you going to become the greatest pirate if you don't train and get stronger first?" he asked. "All the pirates in the world are strong, and some of them might be even greater than Captain Shanks, so you'd better get a lot stronger than you are now if you want to find One Piece."

Thinking about this, Luffy looked down at his hat, tracing the edge of the brim with his fingers. He did understand that training would be necessary, so therefore he would train as hard as he could. Hugging the hat tightly before placing it at the foot of his bed, he lay down and snuggled into his pillow.

"Yosh, I'm going to train tomorrow. Good night, Ace."

"Good night, Luffy."

When Ace put out the candle and darkness fell again, Luffy opened his eyes again.

"Ace, do you think I'll find One Piece?"

Ace snorted and made a yawning sound. "No way. You're way too short to find it."

Frowning, Luffy was about to ask his brother ifbeing tall was an important part of being a pirate, when he heard the sound of snoring coming from the other side of the room. He sighed and wrapped his blanket tighter around him. Tomorrow was the day he would start his training. The training that would take him one step closer to his grand adventure.

After breakfast the following day, Luffy walked away from the village until he came to a small forest, in which he knew the bigger kids had built a secret hideout where they used to train and fight when they weren't in school. Ace had shown it to him a few weeks earlier, on his seventh birthday, and had also made him promise not to go there on his own. But he wasn't on his own, was he? Luffy patted the straw hat on his head, which still was a bit too big for him since it kept falling down over his eyes. Nope, he wasn't alone. Hat was with him, and that had to count as something.

Once he reached the secret hideout, he couldn't hold back an excited laugh. There were lots of fun and interesting things in the hideout, but he was only interested in the things the other kids used to train with. Like the big bag of hay hanging from a tree, which was painted to look like the school's only teacher, or the weights made from rocks and wooden sticks. But first, he reminded himself, he had to warm up. Ace had told him that if he didn't warm up before he trained, he could get badly injured, so therefore, Luffy tried to think of how he could warm up before training.

Looking down at his hands, he opened and closed them and smiled. He wondered how far he could stretch his arm. Up till now, he had basically only used his rubber body to amuse the other kids in the village or helping his mother with the chores, but he hadn't really tried if the stretching could be used in any other way.

Looking around, he found a good target to practice on. A large rock about fifteen meters away was the perfect thing to aim at. He clenched his fist and focused on the rock for a moment before he thrust his arm forward and let it fly towards the target. The arm stretched and stretched, and Luffy was really excited over how fast it flew forward, when his fist suddenly hit the rock dead on and ricocheted back towards him.

Eyes widening, Luffy didn't have the chance to duck, and was hit straight in the face by his own punch. As he lay on the ground and felt the world stop spinning around him, he could hear Shanks laughing all the way from his ship out on the ocean. Shaking his head, Luffy sat up and found his hat lying on the ground next to him. Putting it back on his head, he once again focused on the rock, but this time, he moved back a few meters.

Next time I see you, Shanks, you won't be laughing at me, he thought with a smile. Then my punch will really be like a pistol, and I'll be the King of Pirates.

Hee hee, another story written after midnight. This one has actually been gnawing at my brain for a few weeks, but I just haven't had any reason to write it.

Namibean - Same here, same here. I nearly cried when reading some parts of the recent arcs, actually. The kick-ass characters do get a lot of attention, which is one of the reasons to why it's so much fun to write about Usopp.

FieryKitsune - You thought it was realistic? Thank you for saying that.

Sulia Shincho - I also thought that there was no need for dialogue in that one. It was a bit more challenging to write what was being said from Zoro's line of thought instead, but I'm happy with how it turned out.

See Saw - You know, I can really see Zoro stitch up his own wounds. He's just the type of character who would do such a thing. -cringes- Needles, ew...

gothywolfie - I'll see what I can fo about a Gin filler. I've actually thought about writing something about him, so we'll see what will show up. And I know what you mean about the supporting characters. Johnny and Yosaku did a whole lot of things that were important for the whole storyline of One Piece. They led Luffy and his crew to the Baratie where they found Sanji, and later on, they did not only guide the crew to Cocoyashi, but they alsotried to fight Arlong andkept the villagers from attacking Arlong Park before Luffy and the rest could come and take care of the mermen. Still, they don't get that much credit... It's strange, really.

Raikku of the Darkness - I love your pen name... Anyway, I also like One real thing the best out of the two first stories.