Mikalzilla: Well here you go then, next chapter served up on a silver platter. XD

Hanashi: They are aren't they?

apocalyps24: I'm glad you like the first chapter, but as for hoping about Luffy eating a different devil fruit, I'm sorry but this chapter will dash those hopes. Again sorry, but since I first began thinking about what to do with this story I had already decided he'd keep his original devil fruit ability.

DonWar: Really? I haven't yet run across any time travel stories where they meet as children. Could you name a few so I could check them out? I'd really appreciate it. :)

F-ckthesystem125: Well thank you, I'm glad you like it.

Like I said, here's the second chapter. Before we get on with it though, I feel I have to better explain what I mean by 'infrequent updates'. You see when I say that my updates will be infrequent, that basically means I could update anytime, it just depends if I have a whole chapter down, if personal matters get in the way, or my internet goes down. With that said, I plan to release two or three chapters a month, however I could also only put out one chapter within a three month time frame, it just depends on what's going on around me at the time. Sometimes I can get updates out very fast, it really just depends.

There are two big things that really get me amped up and ready to write the next chapter though, the first being watching new episodes of One Piece, english dub, and, (initiate review begging mode), reviews! I love reading your reviews, whether they be praise, constructive criticism or just talking about what you enjoyed in the chapter and what you didn't. Hate flames though, but saying that won't stop them from coming in, now will it? Of course not. Anyway, on with the chapter.

Now then, please read, enjoy and review.

It had been an entire year since Luffy, Zoro, Nami and Nojiko met, and one year since Garp had left, leaving both his grandsons to fend for themselves in Fusha village...again.

The four children that met that day haven't left each other's sides very often, having become quite attached to each other. However it would be more accurate to say that Luffy, Nami and Zoro were the ones who were attached, for most of the time Nojiko was only around them so as to keep her younger sister from getting into too much trouble. That's not to say she didn't like them, no, in fact she liked them quite a bit.

While the three had indeed grown quite close, getting along was a completely different matter altogether. While Luffy and Nami got along well, just as Luffy and Zoro did, that wasn't the case with Nami and Zoro, for the two were almost always at each other's throats, bickering over this and that, getting into fights over any little thing. Nojiko on the other hand wasn't too friendly with either boy, however they didn't argue much either.

Luffy had yet to introduce them to Ace, much to the younger black haired boy's annoyance.

Nevertheless Luffy was happier than he had been in a long time, he hated being all alone, and that's exactly what he was before, alone. Shanks wouldn't acknowledge him, his Grandpa refused to allow him to follow in the path that he wanted to take, and Ace downright didn't seem to like him, always saying mean things and wandering off on his own, or at least he used too, lately he had been easing up on the mean words, but made up for it with increased wandering. It was a lot better than how he treated him when they first met at least, now that had been bad.

And the fact that Luffy was an outcast among the other children didn't help his feeling of loneliness one bit...

Nine months ago...

As both Nami and Zoro followed Luffy to his house, they noticed how anybody they came across who wasn't an adult avoided Luffy like some kind of disease. Luffy had told them that they were his only friends, but they both honestly thought it was because the young black haired boy just didn't play with the other kids. They never thought it was because everybody avoided him, which would forever confuse the hell out of them, this was because they had never met someone as nice, carefree and playful as Luffy. So they were baffled that the other kids were doing this, especially since it was in stark contrast to their parents, who seemed to like Luffy. Before either the swordsman trainee or navigator to be could think over this further, they were awoken from their thoughts by their friend's voice, "We're here."

The house was a modest one, with no paint and only a few windows. It was obvious that the house had been made right from a tree instead of going through the process to make the wood more suitable, milling the two children would later know it as, looking as if someone had chopped down a few trees and had used the wood almost haphazardly to make this house, when Nami asked her mother about this later she would shake her head and say, 'That's Garp for you.'

Luffy opened the door almost hesitantly, as if he just didn't want to enter the house. And once they were inside Nami and Zoro could understand why, it looked abandoned. It wasn't in bad shape, but it was empty. There were no pictures, no furniture, besides the one bed, there was hardly anything in the so called place of living. And judging by all the dust and cobwebs both young children could guess that Luffy didn't really spend any of his time here, not that they could blame him, just being in here could invoke the feeling of loneliness on someone.

As Luffy went to the bedroom to grab something, Zoro and Nami both glanced out the window closest to them and found that several kids were staring at them, or more specifically at the building they were in. "I can't find it! You guys go on without me, I'll catch up as soon as I find my fishing rod!"

Those words got their attention, and hesitantly they left after making sure that Luffy was alright with it.

However they didn't make it more than a dozen feet from Luffy's home, if you could even call it that, before two kids confronted them. One a boy, and the other a girl, both appearing to be a year older than Zoro. The boy was the one to speak, "What are you two doing?"

Nami was the one to respond, "What do you mean?"

"Why are you hanging out with that freak?"

That took both children back. Nami was confused as she asked, "Freak? You mean Luffy?"

The girl finally spoke, sneering as she did so, "You call him by name? What are you, friends?"

The tone she took was quickly angering both Zoro and Nami, however the latter was the one to reply, "Yeah we are, and what's so wrong with that?"

"Don't you know what he is?"

Zoro was the one to speak then, "Stop beating around the bush and tell us what you're going on about."

"He's a monster."

This caused the anger to drain from both the young green haired boy and the young orange haired girl, they were so taken back by this statement they just blinked their eyes in bewilderment, unsure of what to say. "He's a what?"

"A monster. A little over a year ago we tried to play with him but it ended with him breaking my brother's leg and he gave her brother a really bad concussion. We were all just trying to play soccer when he came and ruined everyone's day! He says he was just trying to play, but he ended up kicking my brothers leg along with the ball and broke the bone in two, and the ball he kicked hit her brother in the face so hard that he was in the hospital for over a month. He says it was an accident, but even if it was, nothing human is that strong."

The girl picked up where the boy left off, "Plus every time someone's tried to play with him, there was an 'accident' that ended with them being hurt, not one kid has managed to go near him without ending up in the hospital. Everyone he comes near gets hurt, if that's not what a monster is, I don't wanna know how bad real ones must be. Point is that he's a freak, and no one should ever even want to go near him."

Both Zoro and Nami had to fight the urge to deck the two kids in front of them...but in the end they failed and both the boy and girl were soon on the ground crying.

Nami, still angry even after hitting the girl, spoke, "What jerks!"

Zoro nodded in agreement, "You're right about that one."

Now though Luffy didn't feel so alone, not with Nami and Zoro around. All three of them knew what the other aspired to do, Luffy wanted to be a great pirate captain, Zoro wanted to be the greatest swordsman in the world, and Nami wanted to draw a map of the world, and the three supported each other's goals.

Although Nami was at first very against the idea of Luffy becoming a pirate, she never believed the crap about him being a monster. However it still took some convincing, but Nami eventually began to support Luffy with his goal as much as Zoro did, Nojiko however remained against the idea, or at least she refused to become a pirate herself that is.

Six months ago...

"But you can't be a pirate Luffy, you...you're too nice! And I don't want you to be a pirate!"

Nami was doing her best to hold in the tears that were threatening to spill out as she said these words.

Luffy was upset as well, though more angry and frustrated then sad. "But Nami, you've always known that I want to be a pirate! I told you that the first day we met!"

Nami began to sob at this point, "I know! I just tho-thought that you'd change your mind eventually! Like your Grandpa says, pirates are mean and nasty, I thought you'd realize that and quit wanting to be one! I like you, so I don't want you to become a pirate! Because...because if you do, then...then I can't be your navigator!"

Tears had finally begun to fall from Nami's eyes at that point.

Zoro was scowling at this scene, as was Nojiko, though for a different reason since she agreed with Nami, showing this by nodding her head.

Luffy took two quick steps towards the orange haired girl, before grabbing her by the shoulders and forcing her to look him in the eyes, even as tears threatened to spill out of said eyes. "No! Whether I become a marine, or a pirate, no matter what Nami, you will always be my Navigator!"

Nami gave a small gasp, before embracing Luffy tightly as she continued to cry.

Later that day after Bellemere and her daughters had finished eating dinner, while Nojiko washed the dishes Nami asked her mother if they could talk about something. Bellemere wasn't a hundred percent sure what Nami wanted to talk about, although she had a good hunch.

After she had agreed to hear her daughter out, Bellemere watched, amused, as her daughter got all shy and hesitant.

"Bellemere, what would you say if this boy I liked wanted to become a...a pirate, and I said that I...that I wanted to be his navigator when we got older?"

After she finished saying this she closed her eyes tightly, afraid of the verbal lashing she was sure she'd receive. She knew that her Mother used to be a marine and fought pirates, which was exactly why the young girl and her older sister disliked them so much.

Bellemere's amused smile grew even more after her daughter finished speaking. She knew exactly who Nami was talking about, Monkey D. Luffy, grandson of Monkey D. Garp. She had met him on several occasions, he was a sweet kid, although very wild, but so was Nami, she had also heard a lot about him from Makino, her co-worker since she now worked at Partys Bar as well. She knew how set on becoming a pirate he was, making it quite ironic that he was the grandson of a marine hero such as Garp. But all that aside she liked the kid, and she was pretty sure the two had little crushes on each other, even if they were still in the stage of youth where kissing someone would never even cross their minds. She found it adorable, and quite honestly if this was what Nami really wanted, then Bellemere wasn't going to say no.

"I'd say that if you really care about him, then there's no way I'll be able to stop you, now is there?"

Nami was not expecting that, so she was visibly taken back, her eyes now open and wide open at that. However soon she overcame her shock, before locking Bellemere in a tight hug, repeatedly exclaiming, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Bellemere couldn't help but chuckle as she hugged her daughter back, she was very pleased that she could make her so happy by saying something so simple.

Nojiko wouldn't tell either her sister or her mother, but she had heard everything they had said, which put most of her dislike for pirates to rest.

And that was set in motion because of the lingering tension from what happened two months before that...

Luffy was at his limit, he was out of ideas, he now had absolutely no way of convincing Shanks that he was tough enough to be on his crew, and that had him very upset. But that was when he realized something, what was one thing that almost everyone from Shanks's crew had in common? A battle scar of some kind, but what the young boy failed to realize was that most men were proud of their scars because it showed that they had survived a tough battle, not that they had proved just how much pain that they could endure like he thought.

And with that false realization the young black haired boy knew what to do.

The next day, while Shanks was busy partying it up with his crew, too busy to notice him, Nami and Nojiko were preoccupied talking with Makino, and Zoro had his back turned for a few moments to grab a hold of his orange juice, Luffy took action. He hopped off his stool and snuck over to an unsuspecting member of the red haired pirate's crew, and proceeded to steal their dagger from the holster on their left hip. Luffy looked at it for several moments, contemplating how he would do this, doing so without having any second thoughts at all.

Once the young boy knew where he wanted to do this at, he made his way back over to his seat, before climbing back up onto it, and then climbed up onto the counter itself. He then turned to everyone and shouted to get Shanks's attention, at the same time attracting everyone else's as well. "HEY SHANKS!"

With a smile still on his face, the red haired pirate turned to Luffy, wondering what he was up to now. However when he saw the dagger in the young boy's hands his eyes widened and his smile disappeared.

The intensity in Luffy's words was close to its max as he said, "I've tried everything I can think of to show you that I could be a great pirate, but no matter what I do you refuse to accept me as a crew member! This is the last option I have left! Watch this Shanks, let me show you just how tough I am!"

Everyone realized what Luffy was about to do a few seconds too late, because before anyone could stop him he drew the dagger back with both hands, before plunging it into his own face, just a few inches below his left eye. As blood splashed from the self inflicted wound Luffy's cry of pain was echoed by four voices.

Makino, "Luffy!"

Zoro, "What the hell!? You idiot!"

Nami, "Luffy no!"

Shanks, "You little fool!"

Shanks was the first one close enough to do anything, he immediately yanked the dagger out of Luffy's face, before throwing it across the room. "Makino get the first aid kit! We need to disinfect the wound and bandage it up so he doesn't get an infection!"

An hour later, after he had been bandaged up he received a lecture from Makino and Shanks, but what affected him the most was Nami's reaction. Her eyes were red and puffy, even as tears continued to fall from her face. Before the young boy could even get a word out Nami began to pound on the top of his head with both fists, beating him into the ground as she cried repeatedly, "Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, you're so stupid! Why would you do that!? You're such an idiot! Why hurt yourself over something like that!? Why!?"

Nami stopped hitting the black haired boy as she finished saying this, but no less then a second afterwards she locked him in a tight embrace before speaking once more. "Please don't ever do something like that again, okay?"

Luffy was speechless for several long moments as he hugged her back, but he eventually managed to find his voice, "Okay Nami."

From that day on Luffy decided that he would become a pirate without Shanks's help, he would be captain, have his own crew and his own adventures. Of course he was sure his two best friends would be by his side when that happened as two of his crew.

Current day...

Luffy had to fight the urge to slump down in his seat, as Shanks had just made another joke about him being a horrible swimmer. It wasn't as if he didn't try to learn, it was just no matter how hard he tried to get it, he just ended up sinking. Of course thanks to Nami and Zoro, he could now at least keep himself above the water, that didn't change the fact that he was still the worst swimmer in the entire village, bar none. And the red haired pirate just wouldn't let him forget it, no matter what.

The young boy was currently seated in the stool in between Zoro and Shanks, Nami and Nojiko sitting in the two stools to the left of the pirate. And all four of them were laughing about it, the joke that Shanks had made that is. They weren't the only ones either, the entire pirate crew, as well as Makino were laughing it up as well. Yep, Luffy really wanted to slump down in his seat, only problem with that being that it was a stool, which hadn't stopped the young boy before, but the last thing he wanted was Shanks making a joke about him falling down too.

Just then all attention was drawn away from Luffy, as the door to the bar was thrown open violently. The one responsible for opening the door that way entered, leading a group of men inside as he did. Judging by their appearances, they were mountain bandits.

Ignoring all the attention he had called to himself, the man looked around for a few moments, before speaking, "So these are the pirates we heard so much about? They all look like losers to me."

This garnered no reaction from Shanks or his crew, seeing that, the man opted to approach the counter, where Makino proceeded to smile at him politely as well as greet him. "Welcome. What can I do for you?"

The man could tell she was uneasy, so letting an arrogant smirk cross his face, he said, "Don't worry, just give us ten barrels of sake and we'll be on our way, no damage will be done to your bar if you do."

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid we're all out of sake at the moment."

The bandit quirked an eyebrow at that, "Is that so? Then what are all these pirates drinking then? Water?"

Makino answered, her polite smile changing into an apologetic one, "It's sake, but it's also the last our stock."

At those words Shanks, the only one who hadn't been watching the man since he entered the establishment, looked up from his drink and spoke, "Oh sorry, looks like we went and drank the place dry. There is still one bottle left that's unopened."

The red haired man then grabbed said bottle off the counter and offered it to the bandit, "It's yours, if you want it."

The bandit scowled at Shanks, before shattering the bottle, the drink it once contained splashing all over the red haired man and the bar. Luffy, Nami, Nojiko and Makino all gasped, while the mountain bandits began to laugh, the pirates on the other hand remained silent, watching their captain, who's head was down with his hat shadowing his eyes so they, as well as his face, couldn't be seen.

The bandit who broke the bottle, who was obviously the boss of the others, then spoke, "You don't know who your talking to, do you? You shouldn't take me lightly, I'm a wanted man with an eight million berry bounty on my head. I am the great mountain bandit, Higuma. One bottle won't be nearly enough for me, let alone my men."

As he said this he slammed his wanted poster onto the counter, using it almost like a business card. At that moment Luffy wished that Bellemere was working today, because if this guy had pulled this crap in front of her, she would've knocked him on his ass.

Everything was quiet after that for a moment or so, before Shanks broke the silence, casting Makino an apologetic glance as he did, "Now the floor's all wet. Sorry about that Makino."

As Shank's got out of his seat and knelt down to begin picking up the shards of glass, he asked, "Do you have a mop?'

Makino quickly came out from behind the counter, speaking as she did so, "Oh, no Captain, it's fine, I can manage it."

Before she could get to Shanks and the mess, Higuma drew his sword and proceeded to slash it along the bar, cutting a groove into the wood and sending everything on that particular section of the counter crashing to the floor to make an even bigger mess. Higuma sneered before speaking once more, "Well if you enjoy cleaning so much, now there's even more to clean up."

All Shank's did in return was stand up and lean back against the counter, not showing an ounce of emotion and keeping completely quiet as he did. And as the pirate captain did that, Higuma sheathed his blade before proclaiming, "No point in wasting our time here if there's no sake, let's go men!"

The mountain bandits were laughing even harder as they left, Higuma making one last remark before walking out the door with the rest of them, "Later, cowards."

With them now gone, Makino came over to Shanks and began to clean him up with a towel she had in her hand, "Are you hurt anywhere Captain?"

Shanks waved her off, a smile on his face as he said, "I'm fine, it's no problem."

Luffy had remained silent the whole time, doing his best to keep his temper in check, however now that the bandits were gone he could no longer keep himself from doing so. "Why did you just let them get away with that!? They insulted you and your whole crew, they ruined your drink, they caused trouble for Makino, and they spit on what it is to be a pirate, don't you care!?"

Shanks remained collected as he took his seat once more, though not looking at Luffy, and answered with, "Of course I do Luffy, but those guys were idiots, they weren't worth the effort. Besides all they did was spill a little booze on me, nothing to get worked up about, right men!?"

That's when the red haired man and his entire crew burst into laughter. And the crew proceeded to take it a step further, making fun of Shanks about how lame he just was.

Luffy, frustrated with the pirate captain's answer, and annoyed with him and his crew in general, reached for the weird looking purple fruit in the chest they had brought in. If he was going to be like that, then Luffy decided he'd just take the food he was saving and eat it himself to get back at him. Zoro didn't say anything as he did this, and Nami tried to whisper to him that it probably wasn't a very good idea, not that the dark haired boy cared. While Nojiko just shook her head back and forth. He even ate it despite it's bitter and all around nasty taste.

By the time Shanks looked back over at Luffy the boy had already stuffed the whole thing into his mouth and was busy chewing, his cheeks puffed out quite comically since his mouth was so full. This piqued the red haired man's curiosity, mainly because he hadn't ordered Luffy anything to eat, and Makino hadn't moved touched a plate in the past few minutes. That's when Shanks realized the small treasure box that was on the counter was empty, and it only took a second for the pirate captain to realize what happened. "Luffy, please tell me you didn't eat that strange looking fruit we brought in with us! You didn't right!?"

These words had Luffy's eyes widening real wide as he realized he had probably just made a mistake. He merely nodded, before accidentally swallowing the thing whole.

And then faster than the four children could see, Shanks was on his feet, holding Luffy upside down by his own feet and shaking him like crazy, a frantic expression on his face, and his voice full of anxiety. "Spit it out, spit it up, choke on it and cough it up, puke it up, I don't give a damn! Whatever you do, just get that thing outta your body you idiot!"

However no matter how hard and fast Shanks shook the six year old boy, none of those things happened. In fact at one point, Luffy's legs stretched, allowing the rest of his body to go down, causing him to hit his head on the floor. This shocked everyone there except for Shanks himself. "You little fool! Do you know what you've done!? You just ate a Devil Fruit Luffy, the Gum Gum Fruit, when someone eats one they gain a inhuman power, but in return they can never swim again! You may be made of rubber now, but how can you be a pirate if just falling overboard out on the sea is a guaranteed death sentence!? You just threw away your future!"

Zoro, Nami and Nojiko were still speechless because of shock.

Luffy's eyes were wide open, and they were locked onto Shanks's, even if he was upside down. His eyes said it all, Luffy knew Shanks wasn't exaggerating, what had just happened would change everything.

It had been a week since Luffy ate his devil fruit, the gum gum fruit, but not much had changed just yet, besides the fact that Luffy couldn't swim anymore that is. That didn't change the fact that things would be different eventually, they just didn't know how.

As to what Luffy, Zoro and Nami were all currently up to, they were seated beside each other inside of Partys Bar, talking to Makino as they drank their juice. It was a slow day, Shanks and his men were currently preparing to leave the village, for good. They had been here for two years, much too long for any pirate to stay in one place, but they had grown a soft spot not only for the village, but for Makino and Luffy in particular. Shanks especially.

They said they'd come back to visit eventually, but of course they had no idea when that might be. Luffy planned to see them off, in fact he was planning on heading to the docks in less than ten minutes, however not everything always goes how you plan it...

Not one of the young children turned to see who it was as people entered the bar. They didn't think anything of someone coming into the establishment, but that was before they heard a voice, "You smell that boys? That's the smell of fresh air without any pirate scum to stink it up with their lies and cowardice."

All three children knew who's voice that was, it was Higuma's. They wished he would keep his mouth shut, but despite that he continues to speak. "Hey wench, bring as all the rum, sake and liquor you own, we're here to drink!"

Luffy was currently gripping his glass quite tightly in an effort to keep himself calm, slowly cracking the glass in the process as he did so. Trying to keep calm was in vain however, as Higuma continued to run his mouth. "Can you believe their so called 'Captain'? He was such a pushover, I bet I could take the weakling with one hand tied behind my back! He was so pathetic!"

That was when Luffy's grip tightened to such a degree that the glass cup shattered in his hand, luckily he didn't get cut by this. But the noise of this drew Higuma's and his men's attention. "Shut up! Just shut your mouth!"

Luffy jumped off his bar stool before turning to the mountain bandits and continuing, "You don't know what your talking about! In fact you don't know anything! Shanks is a great man, and one of the best pirates to ever exist! A thousand of you couldn't compare to him!"

That effectively put scowls on all the bandits's faces, Higuma was the only one to speak though. "Your going to regret that you little brat."

The Bandit Leader took several steps forward, stopping just inches from where Luffy stood besides his bar stool, before back handing him with all his strength, knocking him to floor.

"Luffy!"

This cry was from both Nami and Makino.

Zoro scowled at what happened, before getting off his seat and calling attention to himself. "Hey stupid, why don't you try and hit me like that? See what happens."

Nami, true to her position as the voice of reason within their three person group, quickly tried to diffuse the situation, getting off her bar stool as well. "Zoro stop, we need to see if Luffy's okay."

As if that was his cue, Luffy got back to his feet, no visible marks on his face at all. Even he seemed confused by this, especially since it hadn't hurt. Nevertheless it didn't dowse any of his anger, "Is that all you got ya big jerk!?"

Higuma's scowl grew larger at those words.

Several villagers attention was caught as Luffy came flying out of Partys bar, going several more feet than he usually did, tumbling near the end until he was lying flat on his face.

Not even two moments later both Nami and Zoro came out of the establishment and rushed to their best friend's side. Only a moment later they were followed by Higuma and his bandits. And as Higuma slowly approached the three, a very smug smirk continued to grow on his face. "That's what happens when you mouth off to us kid."

With those words said, Zoro turned to face the bandits, his anger evident. "You're a swordsman right? Then draw your sword, because you'll need it!"

The swordsman trainee then drew his two bokken, gripping both tightly in each hand, before proceeding to try and rush the much older swordsman. This elicited a worried cry from Nami, "Zoro!"

The young boy did not even acknowledge her.

Higuma let out a few cocky chuckles, before asking, "Just what do you think you can do with those things? Their just puny wooden swords, they can't compare to the real thing."

"If you believe that then you're not a true swordsman! So just keep laughing your annoying laugh, while I pay you back for hurting my friend by painting you black and blue!"

This caused Higuma's chuckling to turn into full blown rowdy laughter, his underlings all following his lead and bursting into laughter as well.

As his anger grew, Zoro finished closing the gap between him and the bandits, before taking a swing at Higuma's midsection with both wooden swords, that he sidestepped. It was an error on his part however since he still hadn't drawn his sword, so Zoro merely took one step back, and put all the force he could into his right swing, slamming both bokken into the bandit leader's right side, causing the older man to wince in pain. Shocked by this, neither Higuma or his underlings moved fast enough to stop the young green haired boy from spinning almost three hundred sixty degrees to the left and slamming both his dull weapons into the older man's left side, causing him a lot more pain than he thought a child ever capable of inflicting upon him.

As Zoro drew his wooden blades back for another attack, Higuma lashed out with right hook, which he dodged, and then a kick, which he also dodged.

Gritting his teeth in annoyance Higuma decided to finally draw his blade from it's sheathe, doing so with his left hand since it was located on his right hip. "Alright brat, you asked for it. I won't show mercy on you."

Zoro responded by lunging at the older man, and he reacted by taking a swing at him with his sword, which the young green haired boy weaved out of the way from almost effortlessly, before punishing the older swordsman for his sloppy maneuver, doing so by slamming both of his bokken sideways into his lower abdomen, almost forcing a cry of pain from the bandit leader because of the force behind the attack.

A lot more villagers had gathered by now, and they were too shocked, just as the bandits were, to intervene. However both sides were snapped out of it when Higuma spoke up, "What the hell do you guys think you're doing!? Get this kid!"

With that order from their boss, three of them picked Zoro up, one holding him in a full nelson, the other two trying to wrangle his bokken away from him. They succeeded, but only barely. And as the young swordsman trainee continued to struggle and hurl every insult he knew at them, the villagers finally tried to intervene, but the other mountain bandits kept them at bay. Makino had already gone to get the mayor, so all the villagers hoped that he would be able to resolve this, but until then they could only watch. And as they did, more and more of their fellow villagers came to see what was going on.

Higuma sheathed his sword, wincing in pain as he did so, his lower abdomen and both of his sides still hurting from their meeting with the wooden blades. He then took a step closer to Zoro, being suspended in the air by one of his underlings, before he began pound on the young boy. "You think you can make a fool out of me!? I'll show you ya damn brat!"

Luffy was already on his feet at this point, Nami trying her best to make sure he was okay and wasn't bleeding anywhere. As she did this, the young raven haired boy kept the tears that wanted to come out at bay, their existence only coming into being because of how the young boy felt watching as Zoro did his best to fight the mountain bandits, only to have his weapons taken from him and the leader begin to hit him, again and again, not looking intent on stopping for a while.

Without giving Nami any warning, Luffy charged forward toward the mountain bandits, more specifically Higuma himself.

"Luffy don't!"

He didn't listen to her, which annoyed her to no end. Even if they could beat this guy, they couldn't take all of the other bandits on, surely they knew this? The young girl was able to answer her own question rather quick. "Of course they don't. Ugh, why do they have to be so stubborn!?"

The young orange haired girl watched Luffy as he got closer and closer to the mountain bandits, and as she did she sighed, "If it wasn't for me those two would never get anything done. I better go help."

The young pirate to be had gone unnoticed by the bandits as he quickly closed the distance between himself and them, that was of course before he jumped as high as he could and slammed his right fist into Higuma's left side.

This caused the pain in the bandit leader's side to flare up once more, this time it being worse than before. Higuma let out a grunt of pain, barely managing to keep it coming out as a cry, and ceased with his attack on Zoro, his attention now on Luffy. He snatched Luffy up by the collar of his shirt, but as he did this he failed to notice Nami, who was now right in front of him as she brought her right leg back as far as she could, before shooting it forward, kicking him as hard as she possibly could in the shin. "Let him go you big jerk!"

The mountain bandit leader proceeded to hiss in pain, but did not loosen his grip on the struggling raven haired boy. So Nami brought back her leg once more, before kicking upward, slamming her right foot into the man's crotch with all the force she could muster. "I said to let him go!"

This did get the bandit leader to cry out in pain, quite loudly as well.

All men within the vicinity, whether they be villager or bandit, all cringed in unison as this happened.

The agony Higuma was in forced him to drop Luffy as he fell to his knees, tears brought on by the severe pain threatening to come out. Nevertheless the mountain bandit leader's attention was now on Nami, and he quickly retaliated to the kick in the balls he had just received, "Why you little bitch!"

He backhanded the young navigator to be with all his strength, sending her to the ground, where her head took most of the impact, causing her to cry out in pain.

Nami's cry lit a fire within Luffy, and with more anger than he had ever felt before in his ridiculously short lifetime, he shot forward toward Higuma and rammed his right fist into the older man's face, punching him with all his might.

This happened as the mountain bandit leader was trying to get to his feet, so because of the unexpected attack, and all the strength behind it, he stumbled backwards as he got to his feet, hissing in pain once more.

As he did this, Luffy grabbed ahold of his necklace, which proved surprisingly strong as it held the young raven haired boy's weight.

Luffy held onto necklace tightly with his left hand, while repeatedly ramming his right fist into Higuma's face with all the strength he could summon, and as he did he cried, "Don't you hurt Nami!"

As this happened the bandits looked like they were going to help, after they got over their shock from it happening, but Zoro wasn't going to allow it. So as to keep them off of Luffy, the green haired eight year old kicked out with both of his legs as hard as he possibly could, hitting one of the bandits in the chest, causing him to stumble back. He then threw his head back, slamming it into the face of the guy who had him in the full nelson, this headbutt was just what he needed as the bandit let go of him. It was a short fall to the ground, so Zoro was able to land on his feet, however several bandits were upon him immediately and began to beat him mercilessly.

Higuma stumbled around for a dozen or so moments with the young raven haired boy wailing on his face, before eventually tripping and falling backwards, landing on his back on the ground. As this happened, his necklace gave and tore in two at the last moment, but at this point Luffy had given all he could give, he was panting, having put his all in the one handed beating he had put on that bastard's face.

Nami was now on her feet as well, a large bruise already apparent on her face and just a bit of blood trickling from the left side of her mouth.

When the young girl saw Luffy, she rushed over to see if he was okay. He was sitting on Higuma's chest, panting, so she wanted to check him for injuries, and then scold him for being so stupid and reckless.

However once she was close enough to do so, Higuma pushed her to the ground, before wrapping his right hand tightly around Luffy's throat. "My turn you fucking brat."

Zoro, Nami, Makino, Woop Slap and almost the entire village were standing around the mountain bandits as the leader, Higuma, held Luffy in the air by his throat, slowly cutting off his oxygen.

It hadn't even been ten minutes since the three children had fought back, and luckily the mountain bandits hadn't killed any of them yet. Although Higuma himself was in the process of trying to do so to Luffy.

The only reason Zoro and Nami weren't in the clutches of the bandits at this point was because while they were all focusing on Higuma and Luffy, some of the villagers grabbed the young green haired boy and the young orange haired girl, before putting several feet of distance between them and the bandits, despite their protests of wanting to stay with Luffy.

Mayor Woop Slap had already tried reasoning and bargaining with the bandits, but they refused to be swayed, they were going to kill Luffy no matter what the villagers said. However before they could make good on that Shanks and his crew happened upon the scene, "I was wondering why no one had come to see us off, now I know why."

"Shanks!"

This was called out by Luffy and Makino.

Everyone's attention was drawn to Shanks and his crew at that moment. The bandits then proceeded to insult them and ask how they could save this boy when they themselves were so weak. However they were soon forced to shut up, as the red haired pirate began to walk forward toward them. That's when one of them pulled out a pistol and aimed it at the straw hat wearing pirate, this did not have any effect on him though. In fact he was totally calm, a seriousness in his eye no one but his crew had seen before. "Are you willing to use that pistol?"

"What?"

"Now that you've drawn that pistol, are you willing to use it?"

Then, in the blink of an eye, the plumper member of Shanks's crew, Lucky Roux, appeared beside the man with a gun to his captain's head, a gun of his own now pressed to the would be shooter's head. And then, with no warning, Lucky pulled the trigger and blew the bandit's brains out, ending his life.

The pistol fell from his hand and hit the ground with a clank, before his body fell to the ground as well with a thud.

The fierceness in Shanks's eyes as he proceeded to speak scared the rest of the bandits, including Higuma, out of their minds. "Weapons are for action, not threats. Now I can be a very forgiving man, you can spill food on me, drench me in booze, hell you could even spit on me and all I'd do is laugh it off, but when you hurt a friend of mine, that is unforgivable...and you will die for it."

Out of the corner of his eye he could see the damage the bandits had done to both Zoro and Nami, bruises upon the bodies of both of them, the former being covered in them, and the latter only having one big one, and they were both bleeding as well. Zoro from the back of his head, both his nostrils from his broken nose, and some from both sides of his mouth. Nami just had some dribbling from the left side of her mouth. All the damage dealt to them had obviously come from them trying to defend Luffy.

At the same time he also noticed all the damage done to Higuma, to his face in particular. He had a busted lip, and several very familiar bruises, as well as blood sliding out of his nostrils, someone had done a number on his face, that was for sure. And the red haired pirate was a hundred percent sure that Luffy was the one who did it. This caused Shanks to think, "Looks like Luffy shares my sentiment about friends"

Yes, Shanks was more sure now than ever that Luffy would be a great man someday.

One of the bandits then muttered something about them fighting dirty, to which Yasopp set him straight and let him know that they were pirates, it was what they did.

Higuma then gave the order for all of them to attack, which they did, but were all quickly taken down by Ben Beckman, who used nothing but the butt of his rifle to take down every last one of them. This left Higuma in shock for several moments, before he pulled a smoke bomb and escaped, leaving everyone but Shanks and his crew dazed.

Higuma now stood on a small rinky-dink boat that could barely hold even one person, heading further away from the island. He figured that no one would think to look for a mountain bandit on the sea, and since that was the case he no longer needed Luffy and could kill him, just as he wanted to from the beginning. So he looked him in the eyes and said, "No one can help you out here you little fucking brat, so it's time to send you to your watery grave. And I'm going to enjoy watching as you drown for what you did to me."

Luffy had yet to stop struggling, "Let go of me you bastard!"

Higuma proceeded to then toss the young boy into the ocean, where he struggled with all his might to stay afloat, even though no matter what he would sink. But the mountain bandit could not watch this scene so as to enjoy it, this was because he heard something coming out of the water behind him, which by laying eyes on it he knew it was a sea king. He screamed in horror as it opened it's jaw and sprung forth towards him, and then in an instance the screaming was gone as the beast took the bandit into his maw and proceeded to swallow him and his tiny boat whole.

Luffy continued to struggle and cry for help, but that didn't matter as the sea king now had its sights set on him. The beast went below the surface, but the young boy knew it was still coming for him. As the sea king burst out of the water and towards Luffy he could do nothing but scream for help one more time.

In the blink of an eye Luffy felt himself pulled aside into a one armed embrace, and when the young boy opened his eyes, the sight he would see shocked him.

Shanks was clutching him close to himself with his right arm, he only used this arm because almost his entire left arm was gone, eaten by the sea king, and only a bloody stump was left. And yet shanks remained completely unfazed.

That was when the sea king turned around, intent on coming back for the rest of his meal, but Shanks met his eyes before speaking in a dangerous and commanding tone, "Get lost."

And just like that the beast was swimming away in horror.

Luffy was currently sobbing uncontrollably, his face buried in Shanks's shirt. Seeing this Shanks's tone became gentle once more, "Calm down Luffy, you're safe now, everything is okay."

Between broken sobs the boy spoke, "Bu-but Shanks, your arm!"

"It's okay, it's just an arm. Your life is more important than that."

The next day...

Luffy stood alone on the docks, as he watched the Red Hair Pirates pack up their ship for the final time. They were leaving for good this time, they wouldn't be back for a long time, if at all, and on top of that they said even if they did come back it would never be for this long again. Their departure was supposed to have happened yesterday, but with all the craziness their departure had been pushed back until today. Luffy was alone because everyone had already said their goodbyes to the lighthearted, good natured pirates.

Shanks approached the young boy to say goodbye, Ben Beckman, Lucky, and Yasopp by his side. When he was merely inches away he looked down into Luffy's eyes and spoke, "It's time for us to leave. Does this sadden you?"

Luffy nodded his head, "Yeah it makes me sad. But I won't ask you to take me with you, I already told you months ago that I'd make my own crew with Zoro and Nami. Even if I still wanted to join your crew, I wouldn't abandon them to do so."

It went unnoticed by Luffy but the spark of admiration that was born in Shanks's eyes yesterday grew at that statement. This boy reminded him of his old captain in so many ways...

A defiant look came into being within Luffy's eyes, as he stated proudly and loudly, "With Nami and Zoro by my side I'll gather a crew and a ship even better than yours! And then I'll find the One Piece and become king of the pirates!"

And then another gleam came to be inside Shanks's eyes, one that his crew recognized as him seeing something amazing. Which he had, after all what are the odds? The same person who reminded Shanks so much of his old captain had just claimed he wanted to follow in his footsteps, it had to be fate. "You're going to become better than us huh? And your going to become pirate king on top of that? Alright, hold onto this for me then."

As Shanks said these words he took off his straw hat and placed it upon Luffy's head. "This hat means a lot to me, promise me that you'll take good care of it and bring it back to me someday, when you become a great pirate."

Luffy nodded his head once more, barely managing to keep the tears in that wanted to come out. "I promise."

With that Shanks and his men turned and walked away, before getting on their ship and setting sail.

Once they were at a certain distance from the island, Ben spoke up, "That kid's really gonna make something of himself huh?"

Shanks didn't nod, but he did respond, "Yeah...he acts just like I did when I was a kid. And sometimes he does things that make him seem just like my old captain. He makes me want to see the next generation that is getting ever closer...and just perhaps he'll be the one to lead it."

Luffy continued to watch Shanks and his crew sail away from Dawn island, he would not take his eyes off their ship, even with the sun almost done setting, and the fact that the ship was nothing more than a dot on the horizon at this point.

Once the ship could no longer be seen by anyone, Luffy finally turned around and slowly began to make his way off the docks, promising something to himself as he did. "I swear when we see each other again Shanks, I'll be an even greater pirate than you, just you wait!"

To Be Continued...