DarkPirateKing69: You my friend, are exactly right. If there was ZoLu in this story, I would have said so. I don't write ZoLu, I don't read ZoLu, I don't support ZoLu, so believe me, there will be no romantic relationship between the two. Hell, I'm still trying to decide a pairing for Zoro...if any as he doesn't have to have one, still leaning towards Tashigi though, but I'm not a hundred percent sure. While I wholeheartedly support LuNa, and believe it should be Cannon, when it comes to Zoro with a pairing...well...Tashigi is the only one that seems plausible and...well that relationship would be complicated, to say the least.
Sorry, no training montage I'm afraid, though that would have been cool to put in.
CosmicSynopsis: I'm glad that you're looking forward to it. :)
NinjaFang1331: Thank you! As for the Haki, well...you'll just have to see when he learns to use it.
midnightscar17: Well...such things aren't too far away from where we are...so, I'm afraid I'll have to keep silent on that, sorry.
Luna25684: I'm glad you thought so. As for Dragon, as I said last chapter, someone retrieved the three children from him, who it was I won't say yet, though the list of people who would is very short, and I will reveal what happened later on. And finally, Ace's fate...I can't reveal anything I'm afraid, as it would ruin the surprises I have coming. So will Ace die? Sorry, but you'll just have to wait and see for yourself.
Just letting you know, this chapter has a lot of Cannon material in it, so...yeah. Now then, please read, enjoy and review.
Luffy was running through the forest he had all but grew up in, making his way to Dadan's hut, any and all animals he came across as he did cowered away from him, knowing far too well how strong he was. Soon enough, he reached said destination, stopping less than half a dozen feet from the hideout of the Dadan Family.
It had been eight long years, so the boy was now much different than he had once been...at least from the outside perspective that is. He now stood at five eight, his build slim and lanky. As for his clothing, he wore short, blue trousers with cuffs, sandals, and a sleeveless red vest, as well as, of course, his most treasured straw hat. One thing that was exactly the same however, was his enormous grin, that split his face.
He walked a few feet forward, before poking his head around the corner of the doorway, where he saw all the mountain bandits, including Dadan, waiting for him, though the boss of said group had her back to him. "Hey guys! I'm going now! Aren't you coming to see me off?"
"Oh shut up!" Dadan said, not turning to face him even as she spoke. "Makino and the Mayor might not mind not mind us, since they actually know us, but we'd scare off all the other villagers if we came down from the mountain."
"Yeah, but..." Luffy started, looking a tad disappointed that they weren't coming down to the dock with him.
"Just get going already!" The large woman snapped, still not facing her adoptive son as she did.
Luffy sighed at that. "Oh, well, then guys..." He brightened up at this point, as nothing could kill his mood, not today. "...thanks for everything!"
Not one of them could hide the red in their faces at those words, "Oh, don't embarrass us." Dogra said with an awkward laugh. "There's no need for you to thank us!" He exclaimed quite happily and genuinely.
"Now, now, there's no need to delay your departure on our behalf, so get going." Magra added, rubbing the back of his head with one hand, while raising the other in farewell. "And take care!"
"Don't worry, I will!" Luffy's head disappeared, as he pulled back out and prepared to leave the clearing the hut was located in, but only a moment later his head could be seen sticking through the doorway once more. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot, Dadan, I hate mountain bandits."
That got the large woman to finally spin around and face her roughly sixteen and a half year old adopted son, as she snapped once more, her annoyance quite evident. "Shut up, you little brat!"
"But I like you guys!" He finally added.
Dadan gave a small gasp, before she hurriedly pulled out a handkerchief from her blouse, as she began to cry. "Don't say dumb things like that, and just get lost already, damn you!" All the other bandits merely smiled at that point.
"Dammit, why am I surrounded by such fools!?"
"Why are you crying?"
"I'm not crying!" The large woman denied vehemently to her son.
Luffy merely chuckled, before waving and bidding his final goodbye to them, turning and taking off after that, heading down to the village he had spent several years in before coming here.
In spite of the fact that the sixteen years and eight months old teenager had wanted to rush straight on to the docks, he couldn't help but come to a stop as he reached the house that had once belonged to Bellemere, Nami and Nojiko. He just stood there, staring at it for several moments, as memories of years ago played themselves in his mind. After a dozen long moments though, he managed to pry his eyes away from the small and humble building, before he continued on to the docks, greeting every villager he met along the way, which was most of them, as just about the entire village had come out to see the young boy...or rather man, off.
By the time he actually got to the docks, he was surrounded by people, all of them smiling, wishing him well on his journey as he passed by them. He stood at the edge of said docks, right by a small row boat that had nothing but two paddles and a barrel sitting in it, said wooden cylinder construct full of food, more specifically apples. Before he stepped into said tiny boat, he hugged Makino and bid her farewell personally, as out of everyone here at the moment, he was closest to her.
Now that he stood in the boat however, some people tried to talk him into taking some kind of other vessel...
"Hey, if you're going out to sea, you should take my old fishing boat Luffy. You'll sink right away if you take that thing." One man called to him.
"A row boat? Come on, you can't be serious." Another said.
"I'm fine with this." Luffy replied, before holding his arms out to his sides as far as he could without stretching them, "I'll start my journey here! My adventure begins now!"
Just as Luffy was about to turn around and face away from the village, his eyes caught sight of Dadan, Magra and Dogra all peeking their heads out from behind a building, and asall their eyes met with his, his smile managed to widen just a bit further, letting them know he was glad they were here.
Now facing the sea, the straw hat teenager then called out, "SABO! I'm finally setting out to sea! Watch over me!"
A determined look in his eyes, his voice fell in volume greatly, as he whispered to himself, "Sabo was first, Ace was second...and now I'm the third to go. But I won't lose!" His voice became loud once more, as he shouted, "Just you wait Ace, I'll catch up to you, and then, I'll surpass you! Same goes for you Shanks!"
His voice dropped once again then, "And finally..." However not a moment later, it rose to it's highest volume, as he cried out at the top of his lungs, "NAMI! ZORO! Just wait a little longer, I'll find you guys, and then we'll be together again!" As he did this, the memory of how he agreed with his two best friends that they would all set sail eight years to the day they left played itself in his mind.
"What are you doing Luffy?" One villager asked, while the rest of them looked at each other, completely lost as to what was going on. "Shouting and muttering to yourself like that, is it supposed to be like some kind of good luck charm?"
"That's not it!" He called back, turning around to face the village once more, his right fist held up proudly, "It's a vow!"
"Who's Ace?" Someone asked.
"No idea." Someone else answered.
"And what about this Sabo, anyone know him?" One villager questioned.
"I sure don't." Another villager remarked.
"Nami? Wasn't there a little girl who used to live here with that name?" A woman pondered.
"I think so, but I didn't see her much." Her husband said.
"Wasn't she the daughter of that woman who used to help Makino with the bar, what was her name...Bellemere, I think?" Another asked themselves, as well as the others.
"Didn't she leave like eight years ago?"Another village wondered.
"Yeah, she did. Same goes for that Zoro kid. I remember, because he wasn't wandering around the whole village the next day, like he usually did." One of the eldest of the villagers confirmed.
"Alright," Luffy called happily, interrupting them all, as he waved to them. "I'm going now! Goodbye everyone!"
The black haired teenager then untied the rope that kept his boat from drifting off, picked up the paddles, took a seat and began to row away from the tiny town of Fusha, all the villagers waving goodbye as he did.
Before the dark haired teen could make it too far from the shore though, a giant roar was heard coming from beneath the surface of the water, all the villagers beginning to scream in terror and fear as the sound echoed across the area, as the Sea King, the very same one who had taken Shank's left arm, burst out of the water, his eyes glowing red, and looking mighty hungry.
Luffy was now standing once again, his eyes covered by his downward tilted hat, "So, there you are, Lord of the Coast." A confident smirk crossed the young man's face, as he glanced up at the giant sea monster. "You don't who you're messing with. It's been ten years since that day, and I'm a lot stronger now, I can handle you myself."
The sixteen year old threw his right arm back then, it stretching a little, before shooting it forward, it stretching more this time so as to reach the beast, before nailing it in the face with a strong punch, hitting it's mark perfectly, the young man calling out the name of his attack as this happened, "GUM GUM PISTOL!"
The Sea King reeled in shock, knocked out of the water from the force of the blow, only a moment later though, it fell back into the water with humongous splash, almost causing a tidal wave.
"Learned your lesson yet, ya dumb fish?" Luffy spoke up smugly, just as all the villagers from the shore began shouting and whistling loudly in pride.
Only a moment later though, he turned back to face the ocean, the large wave that had been caused by the sea monster hitting the water pushing him out away from Fusha, as he tilted his hat back so he could look out at the ocean, and still see the clear, blue sky. "First I gotta find Nami and Zoro! Then I'll gather the rest of my crew! Counting my two best friends, I'd like to have about ten people! And then we'll need a pirate flag!" He beamed at the thought of it all. "Alright, here I come!" The straw hat teen then punched the air, as he shouted one more time at the top of his lungs, for the entire world to hear, "I'M GONNA BE KING OF THE PIRATES!"
Luffy was slumped over on his side, his stomach growling, a look of slight annoyance on his face as he gazed at the now empty barrel. It had only been a few days, but he was already out of food, and anyone who knew him knew that served a large problem, as he could eat several times his body weight, and as such it took a large amount of food just to get his stomach to shut up. More importantly, the hungrier he was, the weaker he was, and not being on top of your game is always a bad thing.
The raven haired teen continued to glare at the empty barrel, scrutinizing it, as if it was it's fault that he was out of food. However his gaze was pulled away from the wooden cylinder construct, as he heard the sound of a cannon firing. He quickly realized said cannon was aimed at him, but the cannon ball landed several feet to his left, plopping into the water with a splash. The ship that had just fired was one of the pirate persuasion, and it was a little on the modest size, big enough for twenty or so people, thirty if you did your best to squeeze everyone in. It was plain enough, a few cannons on each side, and even it's Jolly Roger was generic, looking like the textbook example of one. But, where there were people, there was food.
As another cannon ball was fired at him, missing again, he came to the conclusion that either they didn't see him and were just firing randomly, or their aim really sucked. It didn't matter either way, as he was sure there would be some kind of food on that ship, and was going over there anyway. Before he could use his ability to make his way over there though, they began sailing closer to him, so the sixteen year old decided to just let them come to him, hoping that they had enough food for him to make his hunger pains go away.
Moments later, another cannon ball was shot, this one missing the little boat of Luffy's only by centimeters, which meant the next shot would most likely hit. Since that was the case, despite the fact that the ship was still about twelve to thirteen feet out, he went ahead and brought his arms back, before shooting them forward, stretching them all the way over to the much larger boat than his, before snapping back towards his hands, his body sailing through the air all the way over to the boat. The ship rocked back and forth as Luffy slammed into it, his hands holding tightly to the edge of the deck, before he pulled himself up and onto the vessel.
All eyes were immediately on him as he stood up, as he did so he took notice of the fact that there were exactly fifteen people on deck, all of their eyes wide with shock at what they had just seen him do. Seemingly not taking notice of this, the excitable teenager gave a smile as he chirped, "Hi there! Got any food?"
At that, what appeared to be the captain stepped forward, "Y-yeah, we do. W-what's it to you?"
"Great! Can I have some?" He asked quite bluntly.
Everyone aboard gave him incredulous, bewildered looks, as their captain voiced exactly what they were thinking. "W-what!? NO! Why the hell would you ask Pirates for food!?"
The straw hat teen cocked his head to the side, a confused expression coming over his face, as he spoke, "Because I'm hungry." He said this as if they were the stupid ones for asking.
Many of them sweat dropped at that, while their captain grit his teeth as hard as he could, trying to withhold his anger. The person who was probably the first mate then asked, "Just who are you?"
His head returning to it's original position, Luffy smiled once more as he answered, "Me? I'm Luffy, and I'm a pirate."
At that the captain couldn't keep himself quiet anymore, as he screamed out at the top of his lungs, "YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS! WHAT KIND OF FUCKING PIRATE ARE YOU!?"
The dark haired sixteen year old didn't hesitate to answer that question, "The hungry kind." His smile got wider at his own words, showing just how genuine they were.
The captain now looked close to ripping his own hair out, his face beginning to turn red in his ever increasing frustration. He had a short temper as it was, and his tolerance for other people was low, so someone like Luffy drove him nuts in a matter of moments. "That's it! That is it! Get him boys!"
Following their captain's orders, all of them rushed the younger pirate, most of them ready to use their fists, a few of them cutlasses drawn.
However, with only a few attacks, everyone but the captain and first mate were on the ground unconscious, the latter of whom had several nasty bruises courtesy of the straw hat pirate. And as that was the case, the young teen looked back towards them, his smile even bigger now, as he said, "So, how about that food?"
The first mate nodded his head vigorously at that, "Of course! Right away!" He then ran through a door and down into the interior of the ship.
This of course left the now very nervous captain alone with the straw hat stranger, neither of them speaking a word for several long seconds. Finally, after an internal debate, the captain, who was more than ten years the sixteen year old's senior, pointed out to where Luffy had come from, as he yelled, "Hey look, someone's trying to steal your boat!"
"What!?" Luffy of course, being the honest and trusting person he was, whirled around to look out at the row boat he had been traveling in, his eyes running over it two or three times, saying this as he did, "But I don't see any-"
Before the rubber teenager could finish, the captain had bum rushed him from behind, and knocked him over the railing and off of the deck.
Luffy realized he was in trouble mid fall, so shot his arms out towards his tiny boat, them stretching to the point where he could grab ahold of the bench you sat on inside said little sea vessel, before snapping back towards it. He slammed into it, causing it to rock back and forth violently, nearly tipping over as it did. He let the boat calm before standing back up, looking back to the ship he had just been pushed off as he did, to see it sailing away. Seeing this, he called out as loud as he could, "WAIT! I FELL OFF!" They of course didn't stop, so he called out once more. "AT LEAST GIVE ME THAT FOOD YOU SAID I COULD HAVE BEFORE YOU LEAVE"
Despite his call, the ship continued to sail away. Since that was the case, he began to pout, as he really wanted something to eat. He continued to look down trodden for a dozen moments, before his smile returned, as he said to himself, "Oh well, at least the weather's nice." As he said that though, he began hearing a loud whirring sound, it growing louder every second, so turned around to see what it was.
The sight of a giant whirlpool greeted him, one big enough to sink a sailboat. It stretched out in all directions in a perfect circle, spiraling down to, most likely, the bottom of the ocean. The center of it was pitch black, which just raised the level of horror it could instill in a person. Monkey D. Luffy however, was far from normal. "Huh, on such a nice day like this, who would have thought I would get into such a disaster." He said with a note of humor in his voice.
"What a huge whirlpool, how careless of me." The teen said, acting far too calm for the kind of situation he was in. He looked around for a moment then, his eyes lingering on the retreating form of the pirate ship he had just been on, before going back to the vortex of death he was approaching. "There's no one around either, if only those guys had stuck around a little longer, I could have hitched a ride with them. Things will get really bad for me if this boat gets wrecked. And on top of that, I can't swim." He let out a long sigh at that. "If I don't do something, I'll die here."
The straw hat teen put his hand on his chin, as he began to think. He did this for several moments, before his eyes fell on the empty barrel he had with him. "That's it!" With that he wasted no time in opening the wooden construct, before jumping inside of it and closing it once more, just before his boat went under.
A little while later...
Three sailors stood above deck on a cruise ship, everyone else down in the ballroom, the captain included, dancing and having a good time. One was up in the crows nest, another was swabbing the deck, and the last wasn't really doing anything in particular. So it was the third one who was the first to look over the railing when he heard something hit the side of the ship, only to discover it was nothing more than a barrel. "A barrel? Out here in the middle of the ocean?" Nevertheless, he couldn't help but wonder what was inside of it, so went to get the equipment needed to retrieve it.
Five minutes and several unsuccessful attempts later, and the sailor who had been swabbing the deck, but had just finished, finally came over to help. "Sheesh, that's the eighth time you've missed. Buddy, hate to break it to ya, but you suck."
"Oh screw you."
The second sailor chuckled at that, before taking the equipment away from the first one and preparing to retrieve the wooden cylinder construct out from the ocean himself. "Let me show you how it's done."
The second sailor managed to hit the barrel, and pull it up on his first attempt. "And that my friend, is how you fish a barrel out of the sea."
As the third sailor took the object from him, he looked like he wanted to respond to his words, but the weight of the object almost caused him to fall to the floor, so as he brought it back up and stood straight,, he voiced his thoughts on it aloud, all but forgetting what he wanted to say to him before. "Geez, this is one heavy barrel. What the hell is in this thing?"
"Could be beer." The second sailor suggested.
A smirk crossed the third sailor's face at that, "Well if it is, it's our beer now."
Just as they were going to open it and see what was inside, their friend in the crows nest, the first sailor, cried out as loud as he could, while pointing to where he saw what he saw. "PIRATES! PIRATES OFF THE STARBOARD BOW! WE'VE GOT A PIRATE SHIP IN PURSUIT!"
The other two deckhands looked out to where their friend was pointing, to see a sight that caused them to begin freaking out, dropping the barrel as they did so.
The sight that caused them to panic so, was a pirate ship sneaking out from the cover of a nearby island, it was large and pink, with four sails, each with a pink heart , and two pink hearts on each side of said sea vessel. The figurehead of the ship looked like a duck, or it could have been a swan, it was quite hard to tell, and finally, the jolly roger they flew was a sideways skull with a heart.
Only moments after said pirates had been spotted, they began to open fire. And as the cannon balls that missed caused small waves that rocked the passenger boat, the barrel began to roll away, down into the lower decks.
The pirate ship was now close enough for the crew to board the passenger ship, so they began preparing to do so. Throwing ropes with hooks on the end of them and attaching them to the deck of the ship opposite to them, so that they could.
The Captain of the ship stepped forward then, putting themselves in front of all their subordinates. This person was female, stood six foot something, was very obese, had long wavy black hair and freckles on her cheeks. She wore a white cowgirl hat with a large red plume, a red neckerchief, a pink plaid shirt, and a blue captain's coat over it with the arms in the sleeves. As well as rings on her fingers, the long sharp fingernails of said fingers also had red polish. She also wore a purple sash with a flintlock pistol tucked in it. And finally, she wore graying pants and red shoes with gold buckles.
On her signal they would begin to invade the other ship, and they only had to wait another moment for it to arrive. "Here we go, time to show them the terror of Iron Club Alvida, lady pirate of the sea!" As she said this, she used one hand to swing her big spiked club through the air, for which she got her name from.
With that all of her men began to rush to the other, larger boat, some running along the ropes they had used to connect them, while others used ropes hanging from their ship's mast to swing over, all of them screaming and shouting as they did so.
Alvida watched until every last member of her crew was off her ship, all except one that is. She turned to address this one member, "Coby! What are you doing?"
This Coby in question, was a small, somewhat chubby, pink haired boy, who wore a white short sleeve shirt with blue trimming on the sleeves, black trousers, white and red sneakers, as well as round rimmed glasses. His fear was evident in his timid voice as he said, "I'm not...too good at this stuff."
The large woman began to move towards him as she replied to his words, "Huh, you're telling me. Maybe it's because you're too busy back talking me all the time."
The fear he felt rose as she drew closer to him, his voice becoming panicked as he spoke up once more, "Oh no, not the club, anything but the club, please!"
Coming to a stop right beside him, she answered his pleas. "Then get your ass in gear!" She proceeded to kick him quite hard in his ass as she said this, sending him flying over to the ship, the boy crying in pain all the way until he hit the wall of an above deck cabin face first, shutting him up as he slid down to the deck.
He sat up a moment later, holding his face in pain, as he willed himself to not shed tears. However his attention was on Alvida once more, as she had jumped over as well, and was now right above him, coming down club first as she yelled, "Move it ya brat!"
The boy quickly became paralyzed in fear, curling into a ball and using his arms to protect his head as he did. Luckily for him, the obese woman was off by about a foot, so slammed into the above deck cabin, breaking it apart as she did. It took him a moment to notice this, but as he did, he quickly scrambled to his feet and rushed to the stairs that led below deck, as the big woman was dazed for a moment, and took that as his chance to run and hide until she was not feeling so violent, that way she wouldn't hurt him so bad, like that would actually happen, but he hoped it would nevertheless.
"Um...hello?" Coby asked as he poked his head into the first room he found. He glanced around fearfully and timidly, hoping against hope no one was in here as he did.
After a few moments of this, he actually entered the room, muttering to himself as he did, "I sure hope no one's in here."
Another few seconds of looking around, and the pink haired boy was able to sigh in relief, his hand over his heart as he did so. "No one's in here, what a relief."
That's when he spotted a large barrel on it's side not five feet from him, "Wow." He said, still talking to himself as he took a few steps over to examine said wooden cylinder. "That's one big barrel, I wonder what's inside it?"
He began rolling it into the next room, so as to answer just that question, but once he had done so, before he could actually open it, a voice caught his attention, "Well, if it isn't our favorite coward."
The pink haired boy glanced up at who had said that, to see three of his 'fellow' pirates standing there. "Trying to hide in here and duck out on all the action again huh?" The first one snarled.
Coby quickly jumped back in fright, waving his hands back and forth frantically as he tried to explain that he was merely bringing this barrel of booze to them. They merely laughed at him, before the middle one made a suggestion, "Well then, why don't we lighten your load for ya? You go on about your business, and we'll enjoy this liquor while ya do."
"You can't!" Coby cried out in panic. "Lady Alvida would kill us if she ever found out!"
"She won't find out, at least as long as you keep your trap shut, right Coby?" Another one of them sneered.
"Yeah, right!" The boy squealed, looking read to agree with anything these men said to keep them happy, so as to keep himself unharmed.
The biggest of the three stepped forward to the barrel then, cracking his knuckles as he said, "Hold on boys, I'll open her the old fashioned way."
He brought his right fist up, so as to break the barrel open, but just before he could bring it down, something came bursting through the wood of the lid of the barrel, smashing it pieces, knocking out the pirate who had been ready to punch it, this something being someone wearing a straw hat, as he stretched out as he cried, "I slept so good!"
The three other people that were conscious in the room stared at him in complete shock, as he finished yawning and stretching, before taking notice of the scene he was in the middle of. He seemed confused for a moment, pointing to the unconscious pirate on the floor as he asked, "Who's that?" Still, the three were too stunned to speak, so the teen with black haired looked to the other two pirates, their mouths hanging open, as he spoke again. "And who the hell are you?"
"Who the hell are you!?" They screamed back at him.
Pointing to the only one who was unconscious in the room, the teen then said, "Your friend will catch a cold sleeping on the floor like that." He said this casually, as if he hadn't just knocked him out, also ignoring the question of who he was altogether.
"You're the one who knocked him out!" The two pirates screamed once more.
The braver of the two pulled his blade and pointed toward the guy who still stood in the barrel, speaking as he did so, "You're messing with us, aren't you? Don't you know who we are!? We're the merciless Alvida Pirates!"
The teen ignored him altogether, as he turned to Coby and said, "I'm starving. Got any food?"
"Hey, I'm talking to you!" The one who was pointing his sword at him yelled.
The other one, angered by this, brought his blade up as well, "You damn kid! Don't ignore us!" And tried to attack him.
Though before the blade could touch his skin, he had brought his right fist back, without looking behind him, as that was where he was being attacked from, and slammed the back of his hand and his knuckles into the pirate's face, knocking him to the ground hard, his sword falling from his hands and clanking onto the floor as he lost consciousness.
The straw hat teenager turned to face the one conscious, and the now two, unconscious pirates behind him, asking this as he did, "What is wrong with you guys? Can't you see how hungry I am?"
"J-just, wh-who are you?" The last conscious pirate managed to croak out, his eyes wide and sweat pouring down his face as he did.
"Me? I'm Monkey D. Luffy." He said happily, seemingly forgetting how annoyed he was with them a moment ago, as he crossed his arms and grinned. "Nice to meet ya."
The pirate couldn't help but begin screaming, as he grabbed his two friends and dragged them by their collars out of the room and away from this psychotic monster they had managed to find.
Coby, who had been cowering on his knees behind the barrel Luffy stood in, was now gawking up at him, as he peaked through his trembling fingers. "So ah...what just happened?" He asked, not understanding the situation in the slightest.
"Ya got me." Luffy said, shrugging his shoulders unconcernedly as he did.
Coby blinked at that, before he suddenly started to freak out, yelling this as he did, "Quick, you've got to run! If those guys come with their buddies, they'll kill you on the spot!"
"Like I care, now where's the food?" As he said this, he stepped out of the barrel and began sniffing the air like a dog, trying to find the closest source of sustenance for his all but bottomless pit of a stomach.
"How can you just blow this off like that!? There are hundreds of them up on the deck and they're waiting for an excuse to kill anything!"
The glasses wearing boy was ignored as the straw hat teen began heading to the nearest door. In an effort to stop him, the smaller boy grabbed a hold of his left arm, but that proved futile as only a moment later, he was slammed into the wall for his efforts, as the raven haired sixteen year old was on the trail of the scent of food, and wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention to the one trying to stop him.
Soon enough Luffy had found a storage room filled with food, and seeing as there was no meat, he settled for apples instead, beginning to dig in with gusto. He was so focused on filling his empty stomach, that he wasn't listening to a single word Coby was saying to him. Said pink haired boy was interrupted, as the older of the two suddenly asked, his mouth full of food as he did, "So is this a pirate ship or what?"
"No, we're on a passenger ship that's being raided by pirates." He explained quickly. "Pirates under the command of Lady Alvida."
"Ah, who cares?" Luffy asked, unconcerned as to who these pirates served under. "What I wanna know is if they're any boats on board."
After thinking it over for a moment, Coby answered him, "I think there are a few."
"Great, cause mine got sucked into some big whirlpool." The teenager explained.
"That big one outside!?" The pink haired boy cried out in disbelief. "No way! No one could've survived that!"
"Yeah, I gotta say it was a big surprise! Guess I just got lucky!" He laughed loudly, finally turning to look at the other boy in the room as he did.
The glasses wearing boy continued to just stare at the straw hat teenager, until he asked, "So are you one of the pirates, or one of the passengers?"
Coby flinched at those words, before hanging his head in shame, as he began to explain how he had been Alvida's prisoner for two years now, serving as her cabin boy and doing anything she and her crew told him so he could survive, and all because he mistakenly got onto a pirate boat, rather than the fishing boat he was supposed to get on.
"Damn, you're pretty stupid, you know that right?" Luffy asked Coby bluntly after he finished swallowing another mouthful of food.
"Geez, thanks for your honesty." The pink haired boy said pitifully.
"If you hate it here so much, then just leave." Luffy offered helpfully.
"Are you kidding!?" He shouted, as he shook his head vigorously from side to side. "No way! Na'ah! Not a chance! Just the thought of Alvida finding me scares me so bad I wanna throw up!"
"So you're an idiot and a coward!" He laughed after saying that. "I can't stand people like you!"
Coby began to ball his eyes out at those words. He did so for a few minutes, before he managed to suck it up enough to speak once more, "I know Luffy, you're right. If I had any actual courage, I could drift alone in a barrel and be rid of this place. I actually have my own dreams! And I so desperately want to live them all out one day!"
After opening up so much to the older boy, Coby was quiet for a while, before finally asking, "So, what about you Luffy? What was it that got you to set sail on these seas?"
"Me? Well, I'm gonna be King of the Pirates." He replied with a smile, looking as if he couldn't be happier he had been asked that.
As those words came out of the raven haired teen's mouth, the pink haired boy looked close to having a heart attack, as he had to fight back a panic attack at what he had just been told. Soon his mouth began to move, but his voice was gone, it was if he didn't know how to speak, soon enough though, he managed to squeak out, "The...King...?"
"Yep." Luffy said simply.
"You're serious?" The pink haired boy asked incredulously.
"Yeah." He responded cheerfully.
"But...but, that would mean...that you're a pirate too!" The glasses wearing boy hissed.
"Right." Luffy confirmed proudly.
"Your crew?" Coby continued to ask, shaking as he did, as if he was horrified of what the answer might be.
"Only two of them for right now. I'm actually on my way to get them, one of them I'm picking up from Cocoyashi village, and the other I'm picking up from Shimotsuki village. From there we'll look for the rest of our crew."
Coby seemed to freeze at this, remaining unmoving for several long moments, before he took a step back and began yelling, "King of the Pirates is a title given to the one who has attained everything this world has to offer! You're talking about seeking out the the great treasure that Gold Roger spoke of before he was executed! Wealth, fame, power! It is said one will have all these if they found it! The treasure you seek is the One Piece!"
"Yeah, that's about it." Luffy confirmed.
"Yeah, that's it? That's all you have to say!?" Coby demanded, sounding close to hysteria as he did. "Pirates from all over the world are looking for that treasure you know!"
"Yeah, so?"
"No way! It's impossible, impossible, impossible! There's no way someone like you could ever reach the top of this Great Pirate Era!" The pink haired boy yelled frantically, as he shook his head back and forth once more. His voice quickly began to grow in volume, almost screaming at the top of his lungs at this point, "There are just far too many pirates who're meaner and better and stronger, you'll-"
Before he could finish his little rant, Luffy bonked him on the head with his fist real hard, knocking him to the floor and shutting him up. He was only silence for a moment though, as he sat up he whined, "Ow! Why'd you hit me!?"
"Cause I felt like it." The sixteen year old answered honestly.
Rubbing his sore head, Coby said, "Oh well, I'm used to that stuff. My crewmates smack me around a lot. All the time in fact."
Luffy gently placed his right hand on his hat as he explained, "It's not about if I can. I'm doing it cause I want to do it. " Coby looked up at the raven haired teen as he took the straw hat off his head, and stared at it fondly. I decided long ago that I was gonna be King of the Pirates." As he said this, there wasn't even a single shred of doubt or hesitance or fear. "If I have to die fighting for that, then I die."
Coby didn't say a word, probably because he had been rendered speechless, he only continued to stare long and hard at the older boy in the room, as if seeing something he had never seen before. It took awhile before everything Luffy said had sunk in, and as the ink haired boy finished thinking the words over, he responded with, "I...I guess I never thought of it like that." The glasses wearing boy hesitate a moment before continuing to speak, "If I put my mind to it...if I'm prepared to die for it...could I do something like that? "
"Like what?" The straw hat teenager asked curiously.
"Do you think..." The boy hesitated once more, worried that he would be laughed at for his dream, before finally managing to get the words out. "Do you think I could ever join the Marines?"
"Marines?" Luffy repeated in surprise.
"Yes!" Coby yelled, shooting up to his feet, tears in his eyes as he did. "I've dreamt of being a Marine ever since I was a child!"
Finally, he managed to ask what he wanted to ask, "Do you think I can do it?"
"How would I know?" Luffy answered honestly with a short laugh.
"No, I know I can! I'm gonna do it!" He pumped his arms up as he said this. "I refuse to be stuck here as a cabin boy for the rest of my life! I'll escape, and then turn right around and catch Alvida myself!" He shouted, his confidence visibly growing.
Just as the last of those words came out of his mouth, the ceiling above him caved in, and Alvida came crashing through, kicking up a bunch of dust as she did, slamming onto the floor with a loud crash, causing the pink haired boy to scream in fright and jump back, all his confidence from before fleeing on sight.
"Who is it that you're planning on catching, Coby?" Demanded a harsh female voice. "And you actually think this twig is gonna help you?"
Coby shrank back into a corner, shaking in terror, as he covered his face with his hands, as if hoping that would successfully hide him. "Well?" The voice demanded again, just as the dust cleared enough for the woman to be seen. "Answer me!"
"Who are you going to catch!?" Alvida demanded for the third time, holding her big club, but was actually more like a mace, over her shoulders.
Suddenly, several swords came through the back wall, just missing Luffy's head on either side of him. Yet this didn't seem to bother the sixteen year old, he didn't even bother to glance at them. Alvida's attention however, went to him as her men failed to kill him, and looking him up and down for a few moments, she smirked as she said, "Well...my guess is that you're not Zoro the Pirate Hunter."
The straw hat teen's eyes widened slightly, "Zoro?"
But Alvida didn't go on despite the interest he had shown, as she glared back down at Coby. "Coby," She barked, causing him to jump in fright. "Who is the most beautiful of all on these seas?"
Before the pink haired boy could say anything to the obese woman, Luffy bluntly asked, "Hey Coby, who's the fat lady?"
There was stunned silence at those words from everyone, Coby and Alvida gaping at the teenager, while a few pirates poked their heads through the hole in the ceiling and stared in shock. One of them managed to find his voice as he croaked out, "Oh no!"
Alvida's face became red with rage as she brought her club back and screamed, "You little sunuva bitch!" Bringing it forward to slam down onto the black haired teen.
However he merely jumped out of the way, landing light as a feather next to Coby, the floor where he was just standing being smashed in, sending wooden shrapnel everywhere as it happened.
"Let's go!" Luffy said excitedly as he grabbed Coby by his arm, before jumping up and through the hole in the ceiling, getting them both out of that room and onto the deck above, the glasses wearing boy screaming in terror as they did.
The black haired sixteen year old let go of Coby, before beginning to go to town on the Alvida pirates, clobbering them all within moments, not even having to use his ability to beat them all down. While none of them were unconscious, all of them were bleeding and had bruises all over their bodies, they were also on the floor and didn't look like they were going to be getting up anytime soon.
Luffy was pouting at this point, looking over all of them as he said, "You guys are no fun, I barely even touched you, and you're already down for the count? I didn't even get to use my ability, just how weak can you be?" There was no malice behind his words, only disappointment. And as he said these words he stretched out his right cheek quite far, much farther than was humanly possible.
Coby took a few shaky steps towards Luff then, gawking at him with his jaw wide open, "Luffy...what are you?"
"Oh, yeah, forgot to tell you." Luffy said, letting his cheek snap back to it's original position, before speaking again. "I'm a Rubberman."
"So you're...made of rubber?" The pink haired boy repeated in disbelief, not noticing the fact that Alvida now stood behind him at this point. However that changed when she cleared her throat, causing the boy to squeal before running over to and hiding behind his black haired friend.
"So you've eaten one of the Devil Fruits, right?" Alvida asked, though she already knew the answer.
"Yeah, I ate the Gum Gum Fruit." He confirmed.
"I've heard rumors about them, but have never seen any proof of their existence before today." She said idly. "So, are you a bounty hunter, after my head?"
"No, I'm a pirate." Luffy corrected.
"Pirate?" Alvida scoffed, rolling her eyes as she did. "All by yourself on these waters?"
"No! I've got two friends who're joining up with me, all I've gotta do is pick'em up! As for the rest of my crew, I'll find them tomorrow! Or next week or something. I need, I dunno, like eight more guys. Yeah, that would make ten, so that's good."
Alvida laughed, before speaking once more. "Tell me, if we're both pirates and we're not under the same flag...then that makes us enemies, am I right?"
"Luffy, let's go." Coby whispered in fear, trying to get his older friend's attention.
"But why?" He asked in confusion.
"You saw how powerful her club is. And of all the villainous cheats in all these waters she's easily the most..." The pink haired boy suddenly stopped himself mid sentence, staring long and hard at Luffy for the second time that day.
"Go on, tell him." Alvida said with a nasty grin.
The glasses wearing boy began shaking then, his teeth grinding together as he fought to find the right words to say. Finally, after several long moments of internal debate, Coby looked over at the obese woman, and stared straight into her eyes as he shouted out, "You're the most...ugly thing on all of the seas!"
The large woman's eyes narrowed, glaring down at Coby with anger. who was shaking even more now, stunned by his own daring. "What did you just say!?" She screamed.
Thought it was clear that he was terrified, Coby didn't back down from her, not in the slightest, tears burning in his eyes. "I'm leaving your stupid crew and joining the Marines! Then I'm gonna spend the rest of my life beating up dirty pirates like you!"
"Do you have any idea what you're saying to me right now!?" She bellowed.
His courage reaching his peek, he continued to speak up. "Of course I do and I'm gonna do what I want and no one's going to stop me! And when I join the Marines, I'll work as hard as I can and be the best that I can be, and capture all the pirates I can!" Then finally, he screamed out at the top of his lungs, "And I'm gonna capture your nasty ass first!"
Alvida lost it completely at that, raising her 'infamous' iron club high into the air, "You're dead ya little bastard, dead!" Before bringing it down with all her might.
Coby's body froze up as he began screaming, fearing for his life, as he did so he of course failed to notice, that Luffy had stopped laughing, having begun after he called her nasty. "Well said." And with that, the rubberman moved to intercept the blow, taking the full brunt of the attack without any trouble at all.
Luffy's smile widened after he had been hit, the club resting on his head, leaving him completely unharmed, as he said, "That won't work." Causing the large woman's eyes to widen in disbelief as he knocked her club up and finished exlaining with, "Remember what I said? I'm rubber!"
The straw hat pirate then pulled his arm back, sending it back as far as it would stretch, causing it to leave the ship and go out over the ocean, before shooting it forward and ramming his fist into the Alvida's gut, sending her flying far off with a cry of, "Gum Gum...PISTOL!"
Everyone on deck gaped at Luffy, completely disbelieving of the fact that he had taken their captain out with a single hit. They were forced to snap out of it though, as he looked over at them and said, "Hey, one of you, go find a boat and give it to Coby. He's leaving to join the Marines, and none of you are gonna stop him!"
As a few of them got to their feet and scrambled off to do just that, said young pink haired teen was able to overcome his shock and disbelief long enough to thank the older teen. Before he could reply to the glasses wearing kid though, the sound of cannon fire filled the air and the ship was tossed about somewhat violently from the waves all the cannon balls were making, causing everyone to look out where they were coming from, to see that the Marines had finally arrived.
"Huh, talk about great timing." Luffy remarked, before looking to see that the boat he had told them to get was ready, and repared to jump into it and drop down into the sea. Just as he was going to do so, Coby threw himself in there as well, the wooden boat dropping down into the water only a moment later.
As they hit the ocean below, water splashed up everywhere, making it hard to see, and it was more difficult if you took in the fact of all the cannons going off and the extra water their ammo was splashing up. Nevertheless though, through it all, the straw hat pirate who was currently holding tightly on to said treasured item, so as to keep it from falling off his head or flying off his head, could have sworn he saw the distinct orange hair and brown eyes of Nami, even her face was distinctly Nami. She was in a boat similar to his, a large bag of something tied to said wooden sea vessel, and she was wearing black pants, a blue short sleeved shirt and a black bandanna, a sneaking outfit if you will. Their eyes met for just a moment, before the female of them went back to escaping, Coby doing the same for Luffy, causing him to lose sight of her within moments. But, in spite of the fact that he had only seen this person somewhat clearly for a mere moment or so, he couldn't figure out if it had been Nami, as there had been too much chaos at the time, and it wouldn't have been the first time he had seen someone who hadn't actually been there.
Nevertheless, the encounter left Luffy wondering, "Was that Nami I saw?"
To Be Continued...