To be The King

by TheShadowSwan

Luffy early on finds out what kind of danger being Monkey D. Dragon's child brings. She also takes proper steps. fem!Luffy smart!Luffy differentDF!Luffy bigger!crew MarcoLu in later chapters. Crossposted with Ao3 under the same title. Edited

10. The Logue Town

One Piece belongs to Oda-sensei and his publishers. Idea's mine

Betaed by SuspiciousKiwi o/

√ -√v-√ -√v—

The sun was shining brightly…

The wind was blowing just enough to lightly tent the sails…

The waves were calm…

In the air was only the sound of wood hitting skin as the Swordsmen of the crew helped the others to train their reflexes…

Schools of fish were swimming along and scattering before coming into contact with the Swift Hunter…

The only thing Luffy was doing was keeping one eye on the steering wheel and another on where the crew was training on Upper Deck and trying to Observe as much as possible with the Haki.

It was not an easy thing to do… but what training was easy?

That was after all what they were doing since they left Conomi Island - training reflexes, training their forms, training Haki, learning how to ignore Luffy's Fruit powers, learning each other's moves, learning each other's characters… learning, learning, learning…

It was a productive time, with quite a bit of progress.

Especially in the interpersonal plane of their small crew.

Somehow the addition of a big, scary Fishman balanced something in the crew and caused a relaxing of some kind of tension Luffy didn't even notice until it was gone. Where earlier everyone was almost ostentatiously focused on 'their own' part of the ship, now everyone was mingling and spending time together without it being an 'all crew' occasion.

Maybe adding an actual Grand Line Pirate to the crew gave them all some kind of security?

Maybe Arlong's unapologetic stance on who he was and what he would never compromise on, helped others establish those boundaries as well?

Maybe his very intense training routines that he insisted everyone ought to join for the crew survival in the Grand Line gave them all some kind of certainty? It definitely took a weight off Zoro's shoulders and helped him to relax by not being the only one to hound the others to train more.

Maybe, him cheerfully manhandling, throwing over shoulders and dragging Luffy to cuddle on the warm parts of the deck allowed others to also relax?

Or maybe Luffy still wasn't as good at relating to others as she'd like and the big, blue Fishman making fun of her occasional awkwardness helped them all connect to each other?

Or maybe she's overanalyzing and the time did its job when it came to smoothing corners of people by itself?

Who knew what the reason was?

It worked, that was the most important thing.

The distance between them was shrinking with every time Arlong soaked them all in seawater using Fishman Karate moves, with every time Gin dragged them all to make sure they have the same sailing knowledge, with every time they took their turn in the kitchen and caused Sanji to complain at their skills or lack thereof, with every time Zoro dragged them all by the scruff of their necks if needed to the joint strength and flexibility training (not that his own flexibility was great…) and with every time Luffy took on her fully fox-like form and demanded cuddles by whoever was the closest at the time.

They were growing as a crew and they were growing as individuals.

She even saw Zoro and Sanji having a conversation that was not half-growled out by any of them!

The other potentially volatile pair that is Usopp and Kuro, also started to work together… Not much, but Kuro helped with planning wholly different - capable of doing quite a lot of damage, ammunition. The One of Thousand Plans was still insisting that they needed an actual gun shooting sniper/gunner and Luffy found herself mentally agreeing with him. Yes, the pepper cloud ammunition and explosives for Usopp to lob at their opponents were great, but a high speed bullet was a classic for a reason.

…

Her thoughts were interrupted by a yell about News Coo bird flying towards them… and two quick yelps of Gin and Usopp when Zoro and Kuro used their distraction to nail them with wooden poles used in place of swords.

Sanji who's training with Red Leg Zed had to be really strict if the old Pirate let him go without any last minute lesson, avoided yet another of Arlong's swing and triumphant stepped away from what become a designated training area and went towards cawing News Coo seagull, while the Fishman turned to where Gin was avoiding most of Kuro's swings and upped the difficulty. Gin's tonfas would help him in a fight but lack of any kind of blade in his weapon forced him to rely on speed, strength and most of all momentum to knock out his opponents. Unlike most of them, he couldn't just cut them somewhere painful to defeat his opponents… she should probably buy them the same kind of small weights Mihawk had her use when just starting building her speed.

They will either be thankful or will cuss her out, but it'll help. As long as they won't take it off for the first time for a fight that is.

But that will happen later. In Ligue Town or farther along their journey in the Grand Line. For now she focused on the amusement that was almost bleeding out of Sanji, who was looking at something in the paper. As if feeling her eyes on him, the blonde raised his head and at her curious look called out to the rest of them.

"New bounties have been issued!"

"Something interesting?" Luffy asked, somewhat suspicious of the amount of glee she could sense from him.

"Well, there is a brand new bounty on one Strawhat Luffy" Sanji laughed and used a moment of their surprise to lunge for her and swing her around "Congratulations!"

"Bounty?" She laughed right with him, clinging to his shoulders, while he was swinging her around and avoiding the hands of others.

"Oh my… Marines are really hoping someone will murder you before you'll become trained enough to be dangerous." Kuro whistled softly, pulling the posters out of the News Coo.

And… yeah, she could see it. She's a third of the people Monkey D. Garp calls his grandchildren to turn to the piracy. Last she knew the barbarian and the almost-definitely-noble… That is 'FireFist' Portgas D. Ace and 'Gentleman' Sabo, who sailed out together and created their own Pirate Crew - Spade Pirates, joined Whitebeard Pirates, with FireFist becoming Commander of the Second Division… Poor Marco, needing to ride herd on those two… And both of them got surprisingly high bounties, for only being on the Seas for a short time especially as both bounties jumped up after becoming part of Whitebeards, 550 millions for The Firefist and 350 millions for The Gentleman. No that those bounties even held the candle to over 5 billions for Whitebeard and over a billion for Marco, but they were decent for Yonko's officers.

Her grandsire's other 'grandchildren' were one thing, her own bloodline was another. And the Hat was something else entirely. And all of those reasons would be known to the Marines. The question was whether they'd decide that she was dangerous enough to adjust her price for those.

Very well.

"How much do they offer for my head then?" She finally asked, honestly curious. She really hoped she'd be able to beat the current East Sea record - Firefist's 25 millions Beli while still in the Blue. For vindication, if nothing else, but she wouldn't be really surprised if her bounty would be rather low. After all actually illegal deeds of her, were… Not as numerous as she'd probably need for a nice bounty. Even dealing with that first crooked Marine was mostly legal. The only things they could nail on her were the raising of the Roger and attack on the last Marine Branch. Other than that she's squeaky clean in the eyes of law. Which won't stay like that for longer.

"There are five new bounty posters for the Strawhats." Kuro announced and waited for a dramatic pause, until Zoro finally growled and took a step towards him. "Demon Gin, going up to 15 million Beli wanted Alive with half of that for Dead, congratulations" they all cheered, while the brunet swapped a poster on top and continued "Kuro of Thousands Plan, up to 30 millions Beli, wanted Alive, with 20 millions for a definite proof of death. Ave me." He smirked and corrected his glasses, taking his own cheers and congratulations, before swapping the posters again. "Saw-tooth Arlong, up to 30 millions Beli, wanted Dead or Alive, not even playing at treating the Fishmen the same as humans I see…" He sniffed with disgust at the Government "Congratulations nonetheless." Kuro waited for the new wave of cheers and backslapping to quiet down before reading out from the next poster "Pirate Hunter Zoro, 30 millions Beli, wanted Alive, with 10 being offered for proof of death. Congratulations.." Zoro smirked predatorily and did something he'd forever insist was not preening, when they all cheered and whistled at the price at his head. "And of course our Captain," he waited a bit before Usopp obligingly beat out a rhythm of warbles "Strawhat Luffy, 50 million Alive and 15 millions Dead." the rest he continued over Luffy squeal and the loud cheering "They really want to execute you by themselves, Captain. Congratulations on your bounty"

…

They partied that day up to dusk in celebration of official acknowledgement of their choices. Sanji agreed to take out alcohol and some easy to throw together dishes for the celebration and Gin took care of the loose poles on deck, after all as Marine Occupational Safety and Health Administration in their pamphlets is always saying - Safety First.

There was drinking…

There was singing…

There were stories about the miracles and strangeness of The Grand Line. Starting at Skypiea and a White White Sea, going through Fishman Island and its Kraken, and ending at Legends of All Blue, courtesy of Sanji.

There were stories about more or less hilarious mishaps that happened to them or people around them. Other than stories from Fishman Island, definite prim led there Arlong's stories about young Luffy and Kuro's own stories about the more hilarious of Usopp's lies and people's reaction to those.

…

Finally, surprisingly sober Arlong claimed the watch and waved Luffy and Kuro to 'plot and scheme, thanks the Seas it's no longer his responsibility' after which the two named disappeared under the deck, with New Coo and stack of posters, chuckling quietly to themselves. As nice the revelry was, there was time to work or as Arlong called it 'plot and scheme'.

…

Zoro waited at them at the door to their little Strategy Room.

…

The room had a big table set by a wall with few chairs set to it and a separate desk with the The Grand Line map that they acquired in a roundabout way from Buggy pinned to it and put under sheet of glass, compass and a Log Pose Mihawk thrown to Luffy at Baratie, right next to it. Both labeled as what they are. The desk itself had a few more hollow spaces on the worktop in the shape and size of the Log Pose or a Vivre Card glass case. As the Poses always showed the way in straight line, theoretically if someone was good enough in both math and navigation, they could determine where they are on Grand Line by using only four or five Eternal Poses but still most people relied on good, old Log with the danger of coming to the same island few time by accident.

Kuro waved Luffy and Zoro to the table, put the News Coo there and set himself to putting up their new Posters on the wall where already were old posters of Kuro, Arlong and Gin hanging. He even already had a system! First in one cluster were loosely hung old posters, then in a new cluster he put up new ones. First Luffy's own poster, right next to it, Zoro's bounty, then Kuro's and Gin's at the end of it.

The bounties posters themself were pretty nice. Clearly done from Den Den Mushi but chosen to show the danger of the people.

In Luffy's own poster, she was standing in the middle of a circle made of Marine bodies. She was looking straight at the Den Den Mushi and was doing a 'come and get me' gesture, with her bloodied sword set on her shoulder. She remembered the exact moment she noticed that terrified Den Den and she was sure there were worse stills made of her in Marine possession. Clearly whoever chose the photos for the poster, decided to give her that one thing - a nice photo on the poster…

Now that she thinks… Are those Marines or the News Coo owner who decides what photos and name to show on the posters? She'll find out one day.

Zoro's bounty poster was a still of his face, with a katana in his mouth and the other two crossed underneath his chin… She had to give credit where it's due - the eyes on the photo were fearsome.

Arlong's bounty similarly had a closeup to his face and more specifically shark grin on it. Undoubtedly in their effort to show Fishmen as different and more barbaric than humans… Not that Tenryuubito and their little slave enterprises showed humans in a good light. Even News Coo wasn't able to do miracles there.

Kuro's bounty poster, just like Luffy's own, was with him in the middle of the circle of blooding bodies. Kuro, as always dressed in immaculate suit, was correcting his glasses, with blood dripping from all ten of his blades.

Gin on his poster was in the middle of motion, if Luffy was to bet on it, she'd say that he just landed an attack, his back was bowed a little back, jacket was flaring behind him, and on the first plan was kept in hand tonfa after which was flying a streak of blood…

Very fearsome, those.

Above the little Cluster he left a free place.

"For the article" The brunet explained at Luffy's raised eyebrow. "I'll get another copy in Logue Town for your Log, Captain"

"That's fine, for now I'll just describe our new bounties there" She smiled, still excited at the bounties, even if the longer she thought about the price on her own head, the more sure she was, that Kuro was right and the current Marine plan was to have her executed publicly. Probably with some self-important speech about how ancestry will always out and how Marines were doing only good by persecuting various demon' blooded people…

Ugh…

"If only it'd be possible to get a few copies delivered by one bird." Zoro muttered, mutinously crossing his arms.

"Whoever is an owner of News Coo has a 'one bird, one paper' rule." If Luffy remembered correctly, that wouldn't even be a World Government but one of Emperors of Underground. Collaborant, but formally separate from Tenryuubito and their rule.

"We could place an order for a few birds, but it's always a hit or miss if they'll even find the ship. Probably worse on the Grand Line than here in the Blue" Kuro mused in that serene calm he always affected while planning. Then unrolled the paper and got straight to the article about their Crew.

Both Luffy and Zoro quickly got to their feet and put their heads together to read the 'official' vision of their Crew.

Blood Soaked Strawhat against Marine Defense:

Strawhat Luffy, extremely violent rookie pirate that lately has been overusing leniency of Marines in East Blue is reported to be the one to destroy, in an unprecedented and unprovoked attack, Base of the 16th Branch of East Blue Marines.

In the brutal attack 100 Marines, of different Seamen rank, lost their lives in the brutal attack, with addition of three officers stationed at the branch. From official Marine communications, no survivors of the attack have been found. All information about the attack known, have been learned thanks to Monitoring Den-Den Mushi employed to all Marine bases in the Blues in the last security upgrade. As of right now there are no official information about reason of attack, thought your dearest journalists have heard some rumors about Marine Captain Nezu (in charge of 16th Branch) being corrupt, so one could theorize a doublecross of some kind to be one of the, if not the reason of the monstrous action.

For all that Strawhat Luffy just got issued her first official bounty, there are voices connecting her to the series of assaults and robberies in the Goa Kingdom, of which there was an uptick right after the fire that destroyed part of the settlement outside of the City Walls. The fire, we'd like to remind our readers, is currently attributed to the Firefist Ace. Is it a coincidence that two of the most dangerous East Blue pirates hail from one Island? We do not believe so.

So far we have managed to definitely confirm a few other victims of Strawhat Luffy's bloodlust. Currently discharged from command of 153th branch of East Blue Marines Captain Morgan and marines from that branch met her over a month ago, that 'meeting' ended with two dozen injuries and Commander Reapers field promotion in place of his commanding officer. Recently escaped from marine hold Unkillable Buggy the Clown was reportedly brought in as a bounty by her and Pirate Hunter Zoro to the office in Dras Leona. Legendary by now,` Kuro of Thousand Plans, who somehow managed to evade his lawful execution, in spite of reports from Captain Morgan of East Blue Marines, was reportedly defeated by her at Gecko Island when unnamed yet Strawhat Pirates collided with the Black Cat crew, as a result of that the ex-captain seems to join the Strawhat crew. We've also managed to confirm that Don Krieg, named by some 'ruler of the East Blue's pirates' met his defeat at her hands at East Blue's famous, floating restaurant called the Baratie.

We are still looking to confirm more victims of her bloodlust.

Anyone meeting Strawhat Pirates should be extremely cautious, as the entire crew is made out of extremely dangerous and bloodthirsty pirates. Should you dear readers ever meet the crew - do what they want, give them what they ask for and contact Marines for them to deal with the criminals.

Confirmed Strawhat crew includes previously mentioned in the article cold blooded Kuro of Thousand Plans himself and one of Don Krieg's officers, the Demon Gin (previous bounty of 8 000 000 Beli). In the recent attack we also confirmed that, feared by many, Saw-Tooth Arlong disbanded his own pirate crew and joined the crew under her rule. Her own first mate - Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro, previously acting as a bounty hunter, is incredibly dangerous and is widely recognised as the most dangerous swordsman of East Blue.

Some say that Strawhat herself crossed blades with Royal Shichibukai Hawk-eyes Dracule Mihawk and survived. We in the redaction have no doubt that this rookie pirate is extremely dangerous and should be avoided by everyone and left Marines to deal with.

Our contacts in the Marine organization warn us that Strawhat's crew is undoubtedly making their way to The Grand Line so dear reader, if you live in the Blues, you can sleep safely, but those close to the start of the Grand Line should be cautious.

Remember - do not provoke Strawhat's crew. If you ever spot them, do what you're told, get away from them and contact the Marines.

Be safe.

More on the attack on 16th Branch of East Blue Marines on page 5.

More on Royal Shichibukai and their strength on page 6.

More on ex-Captain Morgan's dismissal on page 7.

More on Kuro of Thousand Plans and his escape from justice on page 8.

More on Don Krieg's end of terror on page 10.

More on Saw-Tooth Arlong and Arlong Pirates on page 11.

More on Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro and his change of heart on page 12.

More on Buggy the Clown and his escape from just conviction on page 12.

…

Kuro finished reading first and took a few steps back just to come back with paper and pens by the time Luffy had also finished going through that article. She guessed it wasn't that bad, since they still tried to blame the fire of the Gray Terminal on Firefist and paint him as an unstable pyro, she wasn't entirely sure he wasn't. (To be fair he never gave her that impression back on Dawn Island, but it wasn't like she knew him well then, mostly being near him on those rare occasions Garp visited for tortu… that is training, and he could still become one in his travels. Not only did he finally learn Pirate freedom, but he also ate a Fruit, either a Logia or Paramecia, but the fiery fist on one of his earlier posters didn't leave any doubts to the Fruit general existence and… eating a Fruit changes you. Whether you want it or not.) But still… she felt a slow coals of indignation to start smoldering in her. 'Blood soaked Strawhat'… Hmph… as if she'd ever allow the Hat to be so ruined!

She fumed quietly until Zoro stopped reading the article, doing her best to keep the little sparks away from any flammable things and being absolutely grateful that the shipwrights on Syros made sure that their ship would not be completely flammable. She didn't care that it was a standard treatment for the ships built less than thousand years back, she was still grateful.

"That was…" Zoro started angrily, then took a deep breath and started to mutter what sounded like curses under his breath.

"Written specifically to send as many bounty hunters after us, as possible? Yes, it was." Luffy growled it out, if she had any of her Fruit-given fox-characteristics out, her ears would be so low, as to be almost glued to her head and the tails thrashing around her legs… But as it were, all those were hidden and the only signs of her indignation and anger were the growl, the sparks flying from her fingertips and the fox-like slitted pupil in her eyes.

"Will it succeed?" While she and even Zoro were coming to it from a bit of an emotional standpoint, Kuro was stone calm over the situation. Well if nothing else, he was used to being a target of a hunt. This one will be just as successful as the ones before.

"Probably. Even if the hunters would ignore the violence the News claim we do, then the prices would do it." Fair, there were people who tried to challenge one of the Yonko just for the price on their heads. "Though rather in the Grand Line I'd say. No one will consider an East Blue Pirate dangerous there."

"Whereas here, even dealing with Alvida would be considered a big achievement and proof of strength" Kuro followed that train of thought and frowned. "So for now we'd probably need to escape or defeat whoever is a captain of Logue Town Marines, I heard rumors that Marines set the strongest of the East Blue captains in there."

"Makes sense" Luffy nodded thoughtfully "Probably a Fruit User then" Just eating of a Fruit catapulted a person to the ranks of 'the most powerful' in the minds of East Blue citizens, while still not giving up a lot of Marine resources. They needed the actual most powerful as close to Mariejois as possible.

"So any traps will wait for us on the other side of the Red Line." Kuro summarized their potential little problem. "The question is, how soon after the Reverse Mountain will we be fighting for our lives"

"Kuro, darling…" Luffy purred at her Strategist "We will start fighting for our lives on the Reverse Mountain and the farther from it, the more dangerous it'll get" with a gesture she led them to the table with the map. There she pointed at the start of the Map, Red Line with Reverse Mountain marked. "Here, the Mountain is a place where the currents from all of the Four Blues are merging into one flowing into the Grand Line. The currents will be the most dangerous in this part of our journey. Once on the other side, there is a… not even a village, but a friendly hut where Crocus lives, previously a doctor of the Roger Pirates. As a reward for surviving the Mountain, Crocus makes sure that no one will be attacked at his patch of the Sea, so any ambush we'd meet would be on the way to or on one of those islands." She tapped various lines and islands shown on the map. "As you can see from Twin Cape as Crocus little abode is called, we have a choice of seven different routes, depending on how long we'd stay there our Pose would show a different route."

"So there we'd meet mostly scouts and generalized ambushes?" Kuro questioned and wrote it down on several small pieces of paper.

"Yes." She confirmed and continued over Kuro's taping up the paper with labels on the glass sheet over specific routes. "Those who sail there are just hunting rookies and not a specific crew. But once we'll dock to our first island, we will be locked onto a route and any of those tempted by the seemingly overinflated bounties on our heads will know where to find us."

"You say 'Those who hunt rookies'… I'm no longer quite familiar with the bounty scene, so… who do you think would find us?"

"Honestly? I've absolutely no idea. Bounty hunters will probably get tempted by the price itself. Marines will definitely do their best to murder us. Other rookies will definitely want to measure their strength off us. Shichibukai or two may be ordered to deal with us if we become enough of a menace. Those who'll recognise The Hat for what it is will either do their very best to take it off my cooling body or they'll decide that we're their ticket to safety and try to throw their lot with us. And who knows how the middling Paradise Pirates will react to the bounty?"

"Hmm… So we should try for a quick update of our bounties." He pushed his glasses up with a grimace "Marines raising it up quickly enough will scare away at least some of the bottom feeders of bounty hunting"

"And bring to us more of the weak crews trying to get something off us without committing obviously enough to become a Marine target" This time she grimaced. Yes, most of the Pirate Crews would not even think about binding alliances (or as much as any alliance between Pirates can be binding) before reaching The New World, but there were always those with eye for talent and willingness to use those talents as much as possible. Those people are the ones she'd like to honestly avoid.

"And probably interest the more dangerous hunters and some of the organizations" Zoro added slowly, standing up and scowling "A… maybe a year ago? Someone tried to recruit me into one of those. Not a guild, an organization" His scowl got stronger as he was searching his memory "They called themselves Baroque Works, I think… I sent them away but before that they told me the standard boasts… How they are the best and how the Marines didn't care if they'd break any laws. …and some of their structure. How the strongest ten were made from numbers and how if I'd work good then I'd be even allowed to meet the 'mysterious' Mr. Zero" He made a quoting gesture with another scowl.

"Doubt they told you where their headquarters were, or did they?"

"Nah. Just that they worked in the Grand Line."

"Hmph" Kuro looked critically at the map, then at Luffy, back at the map and back at her again, this time with narrowed eyes. "Tell us what you want to do in there"

"Of course I'll give you more basis for plotting" Luffy cooed at him teasingly and tapped Reverse Mountain, quickly losing her smile. "Before we'll reach Reverse Mountain though… We should reach the Logue Town in around 5 days, but seven days from now will be anniversary of Roger's death. I'd like us to be then there and to pay respect under His scaffold"

"Theatrical much?" Kuro smirked teasingly and with a gesture unrolled the East Blue map. He tapped the island and hummed low in his throat "We could sail into one of the lagoons and stay a day or two in one of the small villages. Gather as many supplies as possible there."

"Then finish buying delicate and or expensive things in the Logue Town itself and to the scaffold last?" She hummed thinking… they could do that. "We'd need to prepare lists for what we can and what we can't buy in the village and what will have to be acquired in the town."

"We'll do so." Zoro smiled self-satisfied to himself… More time on land means more time to train without danger of damaging their ship after all and they just discussed the new dangers to the crew.

"Then once we'll sail at the Grand Line we'll need to recruit a doctor. And probably a shipwright if not an entire new ship. Half of the ships in The Paradise and more importantly almost all of the ships in The New World are made out of Adam Wood, which is considered the only wood strong enough to survive all the terrors of the Seas."

"So we shouldn't get attached to the Swift Hunter, got it." Kuro muttered, but Luffy quickly turned to him.

"We really should get attached to Swift Hunter." She snapped, grimaced and took a deep breath to calm down. "Have you heard about Klabautermann?"

"It's just a legend" the brunette scoffed, but something in her posture had to make him doubt it, since the next thing from his mouth was the question "Right?"

"Nope." Granted, when the Redhairs told her the legends, she didn't believe them either. And she verified their claims of having a Klabautermann of their own with Mihawk, so maybe she should cut Kuro some slack… "Oro Jackson had, or has if it evaded fate of it's creator, a Klabautermann of their own. The Red Dawn, previous ship of the Redhair Shanks had a Klabautermann and as parts of Dawn were used to create the Red Force, the Klabautermann still stays with her crew. Moby Dick has one and I have suspicions about Buggy's Big Top." There was no way that a boy raised on Oro Jackson didn't care enough for his own ship to develop their own spirit. "The Ship is part of the crew, Klabautermann not only allows the crew to hug their own ship, but also, more practically helps keep the physical ship in as good shape as possible and sometimes warns the crew about incoming danger."

"You want us to try for the spirit" She couldn't blame Zoro for being skeptical about that new and frankly fantastical information, but…

"Hunter belongs to the Strawhat Pirates. Strawhat Pirates belong to Swift Hunter." Yes, some cynical part of her was thinking mostly about how useful the spirits were, but… She wanted to have her own Pirate Ship for so long… Luffy cared about their ship even without a Klabautermann to be an embodiment of that care.

"Fair enough" Kuro agreed with her words with something in his eyes… Luffy was not sure what exactly that something was. What she knew for sure was that it was a good thing.

"Back to my wants and caprices" she teased smiling "The Best ships in the Grand Line are created in Water 7 shipyards." She tapped on the island labeled as Water 7 on the map. "Outside of the Eternal Log Pose there, there are only two routes that stop on that specific island." Here, she traced both of the routes "Other than Water 7, surprisingly Fishman Island has a good shipyard. Tom, the creator of Oro Jackson was a Fishman taught there, so they have skills and reputation, but Fishman Island is a part of Whitebeard Territory. Their shipyards have a history of refusing service to pirate crews they considered disrespectful towards… anything really and laughing in their faces even before Whitebeards fell upon them." Thatch was delighting in telling Luffy those stories and even Marco added a few.

"Water 7 is also closer" Kuro murmured, studying the routes.

"I get why a ship and a shipwright, but why a doctor from there and not one from the Blue?" This time Zoro asked, also looking at the map.

"Remember when I was talking about different climates on the Grand Line?"

"Each island has its own, yes."

"Yes, and see here" she tapped at two very close islands "each of those can have a completely different climate. Plus viruses do not travel well in the Grand Line. It can happen that specific islands will have a virus that cannot be met anywhere else." Luffy explained.

"It's easier to find a doctor living in The Grand Line and willing to join a Pirate Crew than it is to find a doctor in the Blues willing and able to adapt to Grand Line behavior." Zoro summarized the issue with a grimace.

"Oh there are a lot of people willing to join a Pirate Crew in The Grand Line, the closer to Sabaody and so Mariejois and the stronger the specific Crew is, the more people are willing to join. The problem is always matching a person with a Pirate Crew." Luffy muttered ominously on purpose. Mihawk had told her stories about people trying to stow away at the Red Force, okay? She could bet Marco could tell just as many stories about people trying to get onto Moby especially with Whitebeard's known soft heart towards all kinds of escapees.

"Do you have a specific kind of doctor you'd like to get?"

"Umm… Drum Kingdom is known for having the very best medics in the entire Paradise and not a lot of places can compare in the New World as well."

"Drum?"

"Here," she tapped at the Drum Island she had already located on the map.

"It is on the route to the Water 7 as well" Kuro mentioned and raised an eyebrow at her grimace "what is wrong with that route?'

"Maybe not wrong per se" Luffy admitted and then tapped on few of the islands on that specific route "Little Garden, tropical climate, home to species long ago extinct everywhere else. Both animals and viruses. It takes a year to set log Pose further." Don't get her wrong, she'd love to see The Little Garden in all its glory, but… yeah, that lack of a crew doctor there would be deadly "this here is Skypiea, in White White Sea, that is ten thousand meters above this Sea level. There are knock-up streams of course, but those are taxing on the ships not made out of Adam Wood. I'm not quite sure, Hunter would be able to survive the road up and down from there." That may or may not be one of the reasons she's hoping for a Klabautermann, Hunter would have so much better chances then. "And the last problem on that specific route. Florian Triangle. Only about ten maybe fifteen percent of the ships that sail in are able to sail out of there. In his journal Gol D. Roger wrote that there were enormous creatures living there and a fog so dense they were able only to see the shapes and the eyes of creatures." She smiled wanly at their grimaces "yes, let's just say that there is a reason most people sail to and from Water 7 using Eternal Log Poses."

"But that's only one route. Are the others just as crazy? Or is that one just the hardest?" Kuro tapped at the other shown routes and while Luffy would like to give him that easier route through the Paradise… she had tales from Mihawk and Shanks and Marco…

"There is no such thing as an easier route unfortunately." She grimaced at just the thought of knowingly doing something just because it was easier… oh, she knew where Kuro was coming from. The things she said sounded terrifying to non-crazy Pirate from the Blues, but… knowing exactly what was waiting for them in The New World and what they all Dreamed about? It didn't sound that bad, really. "Let's see… there is Ogygia with its ten years of Log charge term and some kind of… drug I think? In the water that makes it so most people don't want to leave and those that do have to go through rather brutal withdrawal." She tapped on specific island on the route with the shortest charging term from Twin Capes, "It's beautiful but still most people go there with an Eternal Pose back or go further blind, which is a suicide in the Sea of Monsters, as this part is called" Here Luffy circled part of The Paradise she was talking about "The Sea here is full of Sea Kings feeding there from their nesting grounds in The Calm Belt." Quick tap to the Calm Belt right next to the route. "Aeaea" Luffy pointed to the island ending the Sea of Monsters "is an island where men lose control over their Zoan Fruits and there are stories about even those without a Fruit of their own changing into their beastly selves. What is curious is that whatever the fuck is happening there only works for men, crews with women Captains or just with a lot of women are semi-safe there."

"10 Beli on Zoro ending as a big canine, dog or maybe a wolf" Kuro smirked at their First Mate.

"And what will you become? A black panther? Or a kitty?" Zoro answered volleyed right back, smirking at the Strategist.

"On the same route is also Atlantis." Luffy smiled, as always happy at all signs of her crew getting along together. Especially since those two had a rocky start and completely opposing outlook at life. "It's set in the Deep Sea and it is separate from Fishman Island and its kingdom." She tapped a specific island and then at the notorious whirlpool used to slide down to the Deep Sea level. "Unlike Fishman Island, here you don't need to have your ship coated, you just need to sail down the whirlpool. Just like a knock-up stream, this is also an absolute murder on your ship."

"So we have at least two routes that will do their best to destroy the ship." Kuro murmured with a grimace. Luffy only smiled with pity at that. All of them will do their very best to destroy the ship. There was a reason the Grand Line was called the Pirate Graveyard in the Blues.

"This route has a Tir na Nóg Island" another tap on an island. This time on an entirely different route through the Paradise "to get to it you have to find a… for lack of better word… hole in the Sea and sail in an underwater tunnel, the same way has to be taken while leaving the island. A lot of people die on that route." If one would believe Thatch then those tunnels had a tendency to randomly collapse "Few islands later is the Brasil Island." Luffy tapped on the island representation on their map of the Grand Line. "It's always swathed in the fog with dangerous reefs around it. Many have wrecked their ships there and tried to swim to the island on their strength… not many survive the attempt, but from those who do, almost all find their way to other Pirate Crews." That was an excellent island to 'restock' so to speak for the crewmembers. Especially in non-specialist, sailor positions. "And here is the Argadnel Island" another tap to an island picture at the same route "this place has both reefs and quick currents. And if that wouldn't be enough to keep most crews away then the Sea King who nests there would fix that little problem. Especially as the islanders have various ceremonies ending with feeding the Sea King interlopers. Though Shishou said that the island is beautiful, silver buildings and all." She smiled wistfully and saw an answering want in her Strategist eyes. If one would ignore sacrifices to the Sea King, it did sound beautiful.

"Silver? Is it safe?" Zoro questioned with furrowed brows.

"The Sea King is convincing. As is the Defense Force known for recruiting Paramecia users. And if that didn't convince people to behave then the perspective of becoming Sea King food is convincing enough."

"Fair." The First Mate smirked.

"Next route… let me think a bit" she tapped yet another available route from Twin Capes… What did Roger write about this one? "Hmmm… Lanka is a fortress island, fully built upon by its people" she tapped at the Lanka Island on the map "it's defenses reach far in the sea and deep underwater. I do believe that they hold the current record for the most sunken ships of… disrespectful Pirates." She stopped for a moment to let them smirk in peace and found another… curious island on that specific route "Neverland." She tapped on the island representation on the map and shuddered… on the surface nothing was really wrong with it… it's just… "your Log Pose resets itself there after 3 hours since landing and after another hour it sets itself back on that island. The only way to set it back again is to sail outside of the Island magnetic field and sail in back again. There are entire cities made of those who came to the island and never left." Luffy smiled wanly and quickly tapped on another island on that route "Buyan Island is what is called a disappearing island. It appears when the tide should be low and disappears when the tide would be high. Many ships were wrecked when the island appeared when they were sailing over it." Shanks even said that the islanders left the prettiest crashes on display as some kind of morbid art.

"Theoretically the safest one yet."

"Just a really treacherous one." She answered without hesitation. Traditionally only the twistiest of the Pirates survived that route. And she had trust in Kuro's twistiness, really, she had… but was she twisty enough? She always thought of herself as a mostly straightforward person.

"From what you say Captain, all of them are treacherous." Zoro smirked at her and just raised an eyebrow at her agreeing shrug.

"Onogoro Island." Luffy tapped at an island representation in yet another route. This would be the fifth discussed. "The Sea around it is… muddy. The bigger ships or one with deeper hull have problems with sailing into it. And sailing out of it is even more troublesome. Usual way in is to send a lifeboat or a flying Fruit User with a Log Pose to the island to reset it. But even that is dangerous. Locals have a nasty, little habit of attempting to destroy the Log Pose and then slowly starve out the crew and take the rest of supplies. They succeeded many times. They even offer to sell those supplies to those crews they didn't manage to destroy the Log Pose of.." Even while sailing in the Paradise the only people a Pirate could trust are on the same Crew as them. Many of the unwary lost their lives to the islanders… And The New World was reportedly even worse. "This thing here is called Sympleglades. It is not as much an island as it is a pair of boulders in a strait. Don't ask why is there a strait on an open sea, I have absolutely no idea." She pointed to the strait on the map and tapped it "Sympleglades are the boulders who close whenever a ship is trying to cross the strait. The Log Pose resets only after crossing this one. Sailing around those doesn't work." Shanks said there is even a Cup for crossing it the fastest and in the best style. Which… to be honest it does actually sound like something Pirates would do. "And the Sirenium Scopuli" this time she tapped the island right after the strait "there is only a small town there but they have had the Uta Uta no Mi for generations. Whenever the user sings, they tempt the sailors to kill themselves. Either by drowning or by their own hands. And if someone is able to resist the song and dock, they have other Fruits with which they can show their displeasure. They have entire farms dedicated to different fruits in the hopes that the Fruits of the freshly drowned would spawn in their hands. No one is sure how many Fruits they have, it is only known that sometimes they sell their unwanted Fruits to trusted buyers."

"Okay, the boulders themselves sound terrifying, but two islands you cannot dock at in a row?" Kuro complained quietly, looking at the map with distaste.

"I know, right? This is terrible on a completely different scale than the others." Luffy whined, remembering her first reaction on reading about those in Roger's journal..

"Are the other two just as bad?" Zoro questioned drily tapping at said routes.

"Well one of them is called a Labyrinth island, it's a theoretically summer island, but the sun there is so strong it can burn through the sails or even the human skin. People live there in the system of various deep corridors and caves. They are very much not friendly. Next one is Serengeti Island where live animals, who can eat steel and right after that is the Avalon Island where all the weapons and a big part of the roads and buildings are coated in the Sea Stone." She tapped at mentioned islands. "The biggest problem on this route are treacherous currents where for most of your journey you can go through all the possible climates and the currents like to turn ships around there." She quickly explained.

"And the last one?" Zoro asked warily.

"The last route has the usual whirlpools and the storms and as for the islands… There is Satanazes guarded by the only known Sea King with hands and populated by cannibals." Quick tap to the island. "Stymphalia with the Sea around the island turned into a Swamp, no one knows why. And the flesh eating birds living there, with bronze beaks and sharp, metallic feathers and acidic dung which eats through sails, flesh, wood or metal." She pointed to Stymphalia's representation on the map and shuddered at the vision of what that would do to her poor Hunter. "And of course this route has a Chryse island on it. It's an island which has two problems. Namely it's in the Calm Belt so the only way there is if your ship is coated in Sea Stone and has an alternative means of movement. Or by using Conqueror Haki to force a Sea King to transport the ship through it. And the other big problem is that the island is sunken. So it's just a specific place you have to go and wait on the open Sea in the Calm Belt until your Log Pose will reset." She tapped the dot in the Calm Belt connected to the last route.

"Sounds appropriately terrible" Kuro grimaced at that and massaged his temples irritably.

"It does, doesn't it?" Zoro muttered right back. Then he turned to the other man in the room. "Do you want to have some time to think it through? We are not yet behind the Reverse Mountain. We don't need to make a decision yet."

"That's right. We don't need to decide anything yet. And a good night of sleep will definitely do us good." She nodded towards the notes, Kuro was scribbling the entire time she was describing the various routes and with as much cheer as she could at that hour, she decried. "Come on, put those notes down and let's go to bed"

√ -√v-√ -√v—

Two days later they docked to a small fishing dock in one of many villages with their own lagoons on the island. Luckily it was proven very quickly that this little village worked similarly to Foosha and more importantly thought similarly to Foosha. As long as they promised to not make any trouble for the village they were happy to let them stay until the Anniversary.

They were even happier to sell them supplies they wanted to buy.

…

And so they quickly prepared the lists of things they wanted to buy that could be acquired in places different than the Ligue Town itself.

Zoro took on arranging for wood planks and various pipes for the quick fixes in case the Hunter would need them.

Sanji was almost ready to fight them at the suggestion that someone else could pitch in and organize restocking of food and drinking supplies, so they left that to him.

Gin went to gather additional lines since apparently a ship could never have enough of those.

Kuro was happy to stock up on the ink and paper and then rumormonger with the villagers… Luffy won't be in the least surprised if by the time they'd leave the village there would be a new version of rumors about both the Marine Captain's they met. Much less flattering version for the Marines of course. And the rumors spread between the islands almost as fast as official Marine news.

Arlong and Usopp apparently decided to convince people that the crew was not as scary as the News made them out to be and went out on the dock. With Arlong napping in the nice patch of sunlight and Usopp drawing small drawings of the rest of the Strawhats, of the island and the village itself and of various, curious bratlings who came up to the 'scary fishman' and the drawing pirate. By the time Luffy finished talking with town Mayor' and the council of Elders kids were playing in 'scary fishman deeply sleeps' with Arlong waiting to the end of the song before jumping up and catching the kids and throwing them in the air before catching and setting them down. One can say whatever the hell they wanted, but Arlong and the rest of now-named Conomi Pirates knew how to play with human kids.

Luffy herself talked a bit with the Mayor, giving the very same assurances, she remembered hearing Shanks give and talking about how Marines treated small villages on the island. There may or may not be included implied offers to clean up the Marine base there as well.

Once that was done, she turned to the biggest errand she assigned to herself - to go to the Logue Town and rub Marine's noses in the proof of one of their captains' corruption and cruelty. That and maybe swipe some things from the Marine base. Regardless of what some people, namely Zoro and Kuro, thought, sending her into this specific Marine base was not as dangerous as it could be. She was a capable sneak after all. And she had those handy little cheats called 'Devil Fruit' and illusions and knowledge of Marine protocol thanks to Vice-Admiral granddaddy, or more specifically his right-hand - Boggart.

…

So she promised them that she'd be back before dusk, grabbed the prepared bag with the gathered papertrail and proof from their lately visited Marine base and remembering her childhood, found a trail across the mountain. She might be not as careful in the forest as Zoro or even Arlong would expect from her and had to jump above some roots in the last seconds, but… well she didn't have a lot of time to explore the forest itself.

Luckily Haki could be used to make one faster when running.

Once she started to hear and… ugh… smell the poorer neighborhood of the Logue Town she threw on an illusion of herself as a generic village boy as to better blend in. Locals definitely won't remember seeing a newly minted Pirate thanks to that… But they probably will remember seeing a young boy getting all red and stuttery when one of the scantily clothed women offered to make him sleep soundly that day.

Once she got into the city, she kept on her illusion for as long as she was in the crowd, sometimes ducking into an alley and changing what the illusion was showing. Especially after visiting a shop and buying or even liberating something from the owners.

She visited a cartographer shop as an ambitious young man claiming to be a fur-merchant wishing to go to the Grand Line and sell bear and tiger pelts as curiosities. She bought another Log Pose (there is no such thing as too many Poses) and an Eternal Pose to Alabasta - a known trading port, to Sabaody - where everyone finally lands, but also to other trading ports. The Agrabah, the Venice Kingdom, the Alderaan, the Esgaroth, the Arrakeen and the Hogsmeade. That way no matter which route they'd choose to go, they could still orient themselves and if needed change it to something else. In the same shop she might have lifted three Eternal Poses to the Drum Kingdom, Fishman Island and Wano, that she noticed were left gathering dust in the corner.

She didn't steal any of the strategic log poses… She didn't need to.

She was still set to visit Marine Headquarters after all.

Next shop she visited was an apothecary where she ordered a box of pills used in healing of both the hangover and the 'labyrinthus fewer' as the sailors called a problem with walking straight (or shipdeck-straight) after going through the Reverse Mountain… Something about quick changes of the air pressure?

Into the apothecary she went looking like one of the Marines she remembered working on Garp's ship - Bulldog.

Once she achieved both errands she agreed to run before her… is it heist if she's breaking in to leave something for the Marines and not take from them? Nevermind…

She made her way towards the Marine base, this time looking like a Marine Seaman coming back from food break. With every step towards the base, she was putting her Haki presence lower and lower, up to the moment when it was barely noticeable, which unfortunately almost destroyed her own sensing ability. At the same time she ducked into an alley she knew was outside of the monitored zone and put on herself an illusion of invisibility. She erased the sight and the smell of her. Unfortunately even years after eating the damn Fruit she still couldn't suppress a noise out of illusions anchored on a person or even a thing. So… sneaking. And being careful of touching the Sea Stone, as that was also the quickest way to lose any of her illusions.

Once invisible Luffy sneaked into the base… well… walked straight in after a squad of Marines, but still…

The best thing about Marine bases? They all had the very same layout.

Luffy quickly made her way straight to the office of a commanding officer and waited a while until a young boy with the insignia of a warrant officer walked out of the office with a stack of paperwork. The Pirate made use of the opened door and slid into the, luckily empty, office and with a quick and sneaky use of her own foot made sure the door would not get closed when the warrant officer just pushed the door towards the door frame.

Once, safely in the empty office, Luffy quickly cased the room and made sure there were no Monitoring Den Den Mushi, before carefully unloading all of the so called 'Captain Nezu' papertrail. Once everything was nicely set as a stack of documents on the Marine Captain's desk, she of course couldn't stop herself from going through the desk and checking all the available papers… She swiped the planned patrol routes in the Paradise that this Captain had for whatever reason and the stack of official memos from Marineford, which looked interesting enough for her. On the top page was a memo with confirmation of one Surgeon of Death being a survivor of a buster call of Flevance and the orders to not bother with detaining him alive but to once he's dead look for the closest strawberries and return his Fruit to the Headquarters.

She was sure there would be even more interesting memos in the swiped stack.

Once she stopped paying attention to the desk, Luffy sneaked out of the office, making the door look like it opened with the stronger gust of wind and leaving it there for the wind in the corridor to do with it what it wanted. Then she quickly walked to her last stop in this town without her crew nearby, straight to the quartermaster office. Then she decided to be nice and help all of the Marines who were still scared of the Grand Line… She packed up all of their Eternal Poses.

Then with a once more completely full bag she went through the same process to get back to the village the Swift Hunter was docked at - sneaking out of the Marine base, changing appearance in a few different alleys and walking through the forested mountain.

√ -√v-√ -√v—

Nevermind what she thought… Those memos weren't barely interesting, they were absolutely fascinating.

…

After Luffy got back from the Logue Town and she managed to pry Arlong from 'little humans' he was playing with, she waved to her both Kuro, who was charming the little, old lady florist in the village, and Zoro, who together with Gin were helping with repairs of one of the buildings.

Once they all got down to the Strategy Office or as they started to call it outside of Kuro's hearing - 'Kuro's hole', she took out the memos and gave them all to Zoro, before pouting at Arlong to help her to start setting and labeling their freshly acquired Eternal Poses in the holes in the desk made for them.

Sudden snort of laughter, caused her to raise head and look at the smirking Zoro and Kuro leaning in to look over his shoulder.

"Hmmm?" She raised her eyebrow at the matching smirks on those two.

"Apparently Arlong is human-hating Fishman and so all the Marines meeting us are encouraged to try and play it to turn him against you" Kuro somehow managed to keep his smirk, while talking in complete monotonne, Luffy was jealous… Wait, what?

"Am I?" Arlong shared her surprise before bursting with laughter "Shahahahaha!"

"Shishishishi… what else did you find?"

"Well, let's see what we have here…" Kuro drawled out, pulling another of the memo prints out. "Jewelry Boney has a Fruit capable of changing the age of a target. Promotion to a Commodore is offered to the one to bring the Fruit to the Marineford."

"Someone wants to be eternally young?" Luffy mocked out loud.

"Think the Fruit would go straight to Mariejois? Or would they deage their top Marines first?" Arlong asked mockingly and they all laughed at that but… that was actually a pretty good question.

"Probably depends on whether the powers that be care more about whining tenryuubito or about the power of their navy" Luffy answered after a bit of thought. For the Gorousei that could go either way, really.

"With a bit of luck Boney will be able to escape for a long time."

"Redhair Shanks took in a rookie worth 50 million Beli." Zoro read aloud another one of the memos.

"Admiral Aokiji went off the radar somewhere in the first half of the Grand Line. Upon spotting him, any Marine is expected to report that to the Marineford and remind him of his paperwork."

"Vice-admiral Garp is coming to East Blue. All bases - prepare rice crackers."

"Vice-admiral Onigumo ate the Fruit. All hail Justice "

"Rear Admiral Drake (North Blue) turned to piracy. Kill the traitor!"

"The polar bear in Trafalgar's crew is a Mink. Not a Zoan. Dangerous but half-trained. Kill it before it reaches Zou." They all grimaced at that. Yeah, the government and the Marines didn't even pretend to treat non-human equally to humans.

"Kidd Pirates massacred their 10th village. Upon meeting, go for the kill."

"Gold Roger's death anniversary incoming. Triple the patrols in all known pirate haunts."

"Crocodile is involved in Alabasta. Marines know nothing. If anything gets proven. Arrest him." Zoro read and raised his eyebrow at that. "Nice to know they care about what their leashed pets are doing."

"Hawkeye Risa sighed in South Blue. Brace for her."

"Dracule was seen in East Blue. Rumor is he trained Strawhat. Verify."

"Scratchmen Apoo is from a long arm tribe. Kill it." Kuro read and grimaced at that. "They don't even pretend to treat all the species the same, do they?"

√ -√v-√ -√v—

Then came the day of the Anniversary.

They slowly sailed into the Ligue Town with their Jolly Roger illusioned off for a time, docked peacefully on the other side of what looked suspiciously similar to the Big Top and efficiently divided still incomplete shopping lists between each other.

Arlong as visibly other would stay on the Swift Hunter as a guard, Zoro and Kuro would go to the smith they were in contact with and pay for their new blades, Sanji and Usopp would go and buy fresh meat and vegetables for their stock, Luffy would go and acquire some cloth for parachute to slow the ship on their way down the Mountain and Gin apart from getting his new tonfas was supposed to go and buy very specific bouquet of flowers.

…

Luckily breaking in the Marine's stores was not harder than sneaking into their main offices so the errand was quickly completed. Luffy just went in and out of the warehouse looking like a Marine chore boy. No one thought to stop and question her.

…

By the time everyone came back to the ship, Luffy had already brought back their new parachute and together with Arlong prepared the chute, attached it to the ship and helped him check the sails again. They both knew that even should the plan go out without a hitch, they would still need to get away quickly.

She was glad to notice that Zoro had three swords at his hip again, Kuro was carrying additional blades on his person as well and from the way Gin was caressing his tonfa with that silly silly smile, the next person to be hit by it would get a really nasty surprise… Good.

Sanji and Usopp have both managed to carry back provisions to the Swift Hunter, without getting side tracked by a pretty girl or a new slingshot or something. Though Luffy has noticed a new goggles on Usopp's head.

The bouquet Gin brought… White roses for reverence and humility and dark crimson ones for grief and sorrow. She… had wanted to get lilies as traditional funeral flowers but… Apparently their innocence would not fit the man Government was scared enough to name The King of Pirates.

The flowers were beautiful and more than fitting for the anniversary of His death…

She wanted to be The King, she will be The King… But… Sometimes she wondered…

What would He think about her? What would He think about her goal? Why did He set sail for the Grand Line? Would He like her reason for doing so? Would He approve of the way she lives her life? Or… Would He try to have a go at the granddaughter of the man famed for bringing Him in?

Not important…

They were at the cusp of going into the Grand Line…

Just one more stop to take.

First time Luffy would go out all official as a Pirate Captain.

…

They also should dress properly for the occasion.

She informed everyone what she wanted to do and among smirks agreed with Kuro that they would not have the chance to change before going through Reverse Mountain, so whatever they would wear, it had to allow for fighting and sailing.

With that agreement, Luffy pulled out the 'captain' set she completed at Yukiryuu: tight pants, burgundy dress shirt and leather cincher together with calf length leather shoes with a bit of a heel, her modified belts hidden under the burgundy sash and open coat, hiding her sword harness.

She even made up her face with the help of make-up… mostly in the hopes that her next bounty poster would have a nicer photo. But also for the occasion.

This day was the 22nd anniversary of Gol D. Roger's death. It was only right to look her best for Him. To do what every Pirate ought to do that very day.

Publicly kneel for the old King.

And it was only right that she would go pay her respect showing to all who knew how to look exactly the kind of being she aspires to be.

On a day like that there couldn't be any doubt as to who has inspired her. Not with her Jolly Roger's shape and not with her looking like that. There was not a Seafarer who would look at her and not see the shadow of the first man to ever believe in her. She was going to make Shanks proud.

And so would her crew.

She brought out the sashes only to see that everyone was dressed in dark colors, though Zoro was the only one to choose dark green rather than black or gray of the rest of the crew.

Luckily it didn't take a lot of effort to convince everyone to use the red sash as a crew detail.

Zoro took it without hesitation and bound it as a loose obi above his hakama.

Kuro only smirked at the matching color of the sash and his tie, but also bound it loosely enough to hide his weaponized gloves and try to show it as one sword on each side.

Usopp it seemed was forcibly clothed in black pants, gray shirt and what looked to Luffy's eyes metal enforced shoes, that luckily didn't look like they would fit on a clown.

Sanji exchanged his white dress shirt for a red one with loose black tie and somehow managed to tie the sash in a way that both suited the suit and was different from Kuro's.

Gin had metallic gray dress pants as well, his sash got tied to keep the tonfas on his person.

And Arlong… oh, Arlong. He abandoned that terrible yellow shirt and green shorts combo to wear black pants similar to the ones Fisher Tiger was wearing and an open, red shirt showing off his red sun tattoo. He even left out his hat and with a shark smile bound the sash in a way that let him take his serrated sword with him.

…

Luffy drew quiet breath at the view of The Scaffold, He died at. And wasn't that ironing? After all for the fame that the great Gol D. Roger had… His greatest achievement happened on that Scaffold. Where He was kneeling 'defeated'... Looking down at all the people coming to see the apparent triumph of the Marines. All the people He sent out into The Great Pirate Era.

The plaza was full of people…

Like on that day.

Some merchants, tourists, couriers running around with thei loads, just normal townsfolk chilling around in the cafes… Luffy's Haki pinged on the familiar presence of Buggy somewhere in the crowd…

And all those people… they have parted to let Straw Hats get under The Scaffold. Some unconsciously, just from the way Luffy and Arlong were broadcasting their Presences. Others took a look at her Crew and the way they fanned out behind her and hastily got out of their way… Their Voices full of fear at the brutality that the propaganda… that is the government curated news have said that Straw Hats displayed. Some… No doubt the Marine guards snapped at attention the second they walked into the Plaza and others… One really aggravated Voice followed by another started to come towards the Plaza… No doubt Marine Captain in charge of the base.

But… That wasn't important.

Not yet.

Later…

For now…

Luffy knelt right before the Scaffold and put the bouquet down. The flowers were not for her after all.

With her head bowed, eyes closed and The Hat, whose original owner died in that very place, put over her heart, she did something she hadn't done since learning about her blood father…

She prayed.

Not for Grandpa's safety, good weather and Makino's health as she did then. She's no longer a little girl who couldn't think of scarier things happening.

Not even for the success of her travel or her Nakama safety… Why would she? She will keep them safe. She will do it.

No…

She prayed for Roger's soul wherever he ended. She prayed for him to watch her journey… And maybe give her a little nudge now or then.

"The King is dead" She murmured under her breath. The King is dead, The Throne is empty, The New World is fragmented and no longer designated Pirate Sea…

"Long live The King" Zoro answered from where he stood behind her right shoulder.

That's right.

Long live The King.

Long live, huh?

She smirked and put The Hat back where it belonged. On the head of the future King. Now… Now it was time to claim her title, wasn't it?

In the back of her head she registered that the presence she pegged earlier as Marine Captain was already in The Plaza, but still did not start commotion yet. Buggy on the other hand was coming towards their party. His Presence dimmed a bit. Some of whom she thought to be his crew right behind him.

"Came to pay your respect Buggy?" She inquired when he came into speaking distance. In the corner of her eye, she noticed the muscled hand of her First Mate offering help and smiled gratefully taking it. It was always nice when he was making those little, supporting gestures.

Zoro took to being First Mate with enthusiasm that could be considered scary by other people. In Luffy's eyes it was simply precious. When they were still on the boats, he mostly observed, being a great, green, growling shadow that sometimes reached for his katanas to 'calm down' the rest of the crew. But… Since they got Swift Hunter, Zoro was determined to take on his share of duties. Especially smuggling unit cohesion training inside their Haki training, insisting on everyone familiarizing themselves with fighting styles of the others, as well as pushing everyone to train their individual styles everyday. He also sat himself, Usopp and Sanji for Gin to teach them about ropes, sails, winds and currents… Ałl the things that sailors should know.

"It is Anniversary." The more experienced Pirate Captain agreed subdued. Luffy nodded, solemn at the reminder that Buggy lost his Captain in this place. Listening to the Pain he was trying to hide by dimming his Presence, was moving the strings deep in her own soul.

That was a pain she was not going to subject her Nakama to.

She was not going to die captured.

Her own Nakama will not see her place of death being hailed as a Marine's triumph.

No.

"22 years already" She finally turned to who she knew was Buggy and found him under the cloak. That looked suspiciously similar to the cloaks people trying to encircle her Crew were wearing. At that… She could only raise an eyebrow, somehow disbelievingly.

Did he really come to try for revenge in THAT place?

No… That's not it…

So why would he…?

…

"Straw Hat Luffy, Buggy the Clown you're under arrest!"

That was how Marines were going to announce their presence? Fucking seriously? Could you even be more cliche?

Luffy and Buggy gave each other a long, hard look.

"I already acknowledged you, Straw Hat." He said low enough for Marines who tried to cordon them to not be able to hear their exchange.

So not his trap after all, huh?

"I heard the Captain in charge of this base is a Logia" She answered idly, her hand inching towards the handle of her claymore. Gratified when ex-Roger Pirate caught her hint and whistled sharply, causing the sea of cloaks around them to give her Crew enough space to fight.

"Not a problem" He finally drew his knives… His very black knives. That utter asshole did not take her seriously then at all, huh? As if hearing her thoughts he flashed her mocking grin. "You're good and all but I'm a New World Pirate girlie"

"Fuck you" She bit out unsheathing her sword and taking few steps to stand before her crew

"A bit too young for me"

"Asshole"

"Brat" He sounded… almost fond and she grinned at that as insolently as she could.

"You can continue your flirting in the cells." The big marine with captain insignia bit out with a scowl "I'll even put you next to each other." Big guy, white hair, jutta with one suspicious, green sheen at the end of it and two cigars in mouth… Really?

"50 Beli he can turn into smoke" She threw to Buggy, taking a few more steps with her Crew and standing a bit before Buggy Pirates in hopes that he would take her hint… She was the one going straight into the Grand Line. There was no need for Buggy to show his hand. He had a reason to stay in East Blue for as long as he did and it couldn't be only the Judgement of the candidates, not with the way others changed places in those years.

From the way his Presence on her Observation pinged it seemed like he understood her wordless offer.

"No flashy bet" Buggy snorted and started to give off quiet orders for his crew to run towards the Big Top. Somewhere in the crowd she could briefly hear someone demanding they kill Luffy before they were shushed by other Buggy Pirates. Which was strange but… No matter.

Her attention was split between the marine Captain before her and the monstrous Presence that just showed itself on the Island… Together with the strong wind bringing that storm Arlong warned her about.

They needed to make a break for it.

Soon.

"Listen you criminals…" The Marine snarled, only to be interrupted by a girl, also in Marine uniform, by his side.

"You! " She yelled out, pointing straight at Zoro's confused face "You're Roronoa Zoro! How dare you trick me into trusting you!"

Wait, what?

"You have terrible taste Zoro…" Luffy just couldn't stop herself… there was no way that her samurai-like First Mate has seduced the girl, but… playing at that should disarm the girl and her Swordsman should know better to give her something like that, by now. "Really? A Marine?" Luffy tilted her head to the right where said Swordsman stood, scowling and fighting down a blush (the ears got still red).

"How dare you to trick such a fair lady!" Their cook moved slightly and immediately froze at the painstakingly trained into him tone command.

"Sanji!"

"Ugh… It's not how it sounded, Captain" Zoro muttered, putting his hand on one of his katanas, scowling ferociously.

"Oh?" Luffy could just tell that whatever happened had to be hilarious. And the marine captain stood also waiting for the explanation, so… she could see only positives in that.

"She led Kuro and me to that weapon shop, where we were supposed to collect our weapons." Greenet explained, chagrined… and yeah, of course they needed a guide… why would that be…?

"So you've taken a Marine who couldn't recognise Kuro for who he is?" she continued questioning teasingly, waiting either for her slowly fuming First Mate or completely red marine girl to explain the entire thing.

"I have not… Captain…" he spluttered, finally just covering his eyes aggrieved "just kill me now"

"That can be arranged" up to then silent Marine Captain ground out, in his eyes murder…

"Shishishi…" Luffy giggled unconcerned by the marines surrounding them. One good thing Garp was for - explanation of expected power levels and achievements of specific ranks of marine officers. She knew that the Captain was the only one possible danger. "Alright, the wind's growing. Let's go back to the Hunter. There is no reason to stay on this Sea any longer" Not when all their Dreams would be possible only in the Grand Line.

"Roger"

"You're not going anywhere!" Marine growled out and moved his jutta into a guard position.

"Watch me" Luffy purred right out. If she was lucky, the Marine Captain would be really susceptible to her innate charm… if she wasn't that lucky then too bad, his reaction was priceless either way.

"Don't think you can take on Captain Smoker!" Smoker? A bit on the nose, wasn't it?

"Yeah! The White Chase will catch you!"

"Your journey is over, Strawhat!"

Surrounding them Marines were yelling out their encouragements and waving their sables… it looked really similar to the ones in the Shell's Town. They were also just standing behind their superior, waiting for the Captain to deal with the 'big, bad pirates'.

"Cute…" She snorted derisively. She was not going to be stopped there. She didn't even need to look at them to know that her boys were ready to jump into action, so the only thing she said was "We're not here to fight. Go straight to the Hunter" before slashing with a wind blade that pretty row Marines formed while standing. Like they wanted to make it easier for her…

Smoker took his elemental form, the girl next to him threw herself down with wide eyes… Some tried to block her attack, others stood there, not used to the way those with a bit more skill fought.

It should be enough to say that those who tried to block didn't succeed.

So when Smoker reformed into human form, it was just him and his second in command that were left unharmed. The rest of Marines had more or less deep cuts across their torsos, depending on the thickness of their uniforms… some went the whole way through.

She barely noticed Buggy's quiet whistle of appreciation before she threw herself at Smoker with the threatening swing of the Roar. Marine with another scowl deformed again and immediately went into pursuit when she didn't stop but rather went even faster, leading him away from that monstrous Presence she was sensing on the island.

She really didn't want to find out who or worse what that was.

Somewhere in the back of her mind she registered the way Arlong grabbed Zoro by the scruff of his neck and started to drag him and the rest towards the docks and their ship… Also making a circle around that Presence.

As well as Buggy Pirates running straight to where their ship had to be, Buggy himself hesitating a bit before throwing a black dagger into white smoke trying to surround her and joining his crew.

She was a bit too busy to notice anything else though, what with the way, the Logia was trying to box her in with his smoke and hit her with a materialized appendage thanks to his jutta. At least before the Haki-covered dagger hit, causing him to materialize back in with a violent curse and giving her that one perfect opening, she was not wasting.

So she used his desorientation, swung and with satisfaction watched the way blackened by Haki flat of her sword met the annoying Marine's face and instantly knocked him out. Then she quickly followed with a stab to his stomach. If his subordinates were competend then he'd survive to pass on the file she brought from Nezumi's office to his. If not… Well every Marine Captain should be able to read and pass on a file. Even a new one.

"Arrogant Logias are the first to go, huh?" She chuckled to herself before stiffening at the feel of the Presence she was so hard trying to avoid landing right behind her.

"So says the conventional wisdom of the Grand Line, yes" The gravelly voice behind her answered without a hitch. "Not even out of the Blues and you're already making waves Monkey D. Luffy"

"Didn't know my name is open knowledge already. One would think Marines wouldn't want to connect me and dear grandfather" She quipped, turning around. The man behind her, for with that posture he had to be a man, was hidden by a dark green cloak with a deep hood hiding in the shadow what would normally be seen from his face.

"I am no Marine"

"Hmm… Don't look the part, that's true… So? Who are you and what do you want from a rookie pirate 'not even out of the Blues'?"

The man stood in silence and just when Luffy thought he wouldn't answer her, he talked again.

"My name is Dragon"

A moment…

She bit down hysterical laughter… Of course Monkey D. Dragon would take notice of his blood daughter only after she got her own bounty poster…

"And? What does Revolutionary Dragon want from a rookie pirate in the East Blue?" She dug her heels in, refusing to give the asshole satisfaction of her recognition. He made the decision to stay the fuck away from her up till then, her only act of a dutiful daughter would be to honor it.

"Luffy… You grew up so much"

And of course he couldn't keep that distance when she wanted it. Could he? How dare he…?

"Yes" she seethed "that happens when one somehow manages to live to the ripe age of seventeen" there was no hiding bitter fury in her voice. She didn't even try to hide it. If the absolute bastard that sired her was going to try and communicate with her now… there were years of fearing for her very life she was ready to unload on the shortsighted idiot.

"Manages?" And the fucker had the gall to sound surprised. What gave him the right? "Garp was supposed to keep you safe!"

"Well, I'm so sorry if my definition of safety does not involve 'in easy reach of Marines'." She ironized and bared her teeth in something resembling a smile… if one would squint and tilt their head a bit. "Is there anything you want? I'm in a bit of a rush, you see…"

"Luffy…" he took a step towards her and stopped at the unconscious growl ripping itself from her throat "Why a pirate?"

Why a pirate? Now he fucking dared to question her fucking choices?! What fucking right that deadbeat bastard had? Fucking Major Woodslap was more of a family for her than any of other Monkeys!

"Whyever not?" she flippantly asked and started to slowly moving her sword… if she'd need to somehow fight her way out, fine, but there was no way she's going to stay and listen to fucking lecture by the winner of Shittiest Father of East Blue award.

"Is that it? You're throwing your life away for 'why not'?"

"Throwing my life?!" That absolute fucker! "Well you certainly know everything there is about throwing things away, don't you?!"

"What is that supposed to mean?" Now he even dared to become offended?

Fucker!

"What it means is that you have no say over what I will do with my life."

"And what will that be? Become a small-time pirate that they will hunt down and execute just because of who you're related to?"

Somewhere in the back of her mind she noticed a rise of surrounding them temperature, but… it didn't matter. What mattered was that waste of a sperm donor of her and the gall of him of all people daring to disparage her Dream!

She saw red…

"I will become The Pirate King." She snarled at him. How dare he?! "I will rule over the Seas. I will have my family with me all the way up there."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" it seemed like the jab found its target, now also the 'most dangerous man in the world' was raising his voice.

"I wonder…" Whatever could she mean by saying her family would be with her? It's a fucking mystery!

"You should be raised better than that!"

"If there is one person unable to complain about the way I grew up it would be the man who abandoned me"

"To keep you safe" Dragon growled out in that 'you don't understand my sacrifice' voice, she sometimes heard back in Edge Town on Dawn Island. Mostly among those well off people who paid no attention to their children… on second fucking thought maybe she shouldn't be surprised that theaster of not paying any attention to his only fucking child would use it.

"And how did it work out for you? Do tell what was your plan for when Marines would decide that Garp's service was not enough to keep me safe. Other than ignoring any danger you brought to the defenseless child?! Unlike you I learned from the hunt for the child of the previous 'most wanted man in the world'."

"What is that…"

"What did you think? That they wouldn't hurt me because of grandfather? Please… He gave his life to the Marines. I'm quite sure he would give mine."

"Luffy…"

"Fuck off!" She yelled, shouldered her way by him and ran straight to the Swift Hunter.

Luckily Dragon did not try to stop her again and so Straw Hat Pirates' way to the Reverse Mountain started with their Captain's mood matching the weather.

…

"Luffy?"

"It's nothing Arlong." She smiled wanly where she stood at the Quarterdeck of their ship and looking at the visible Red Line. "Just… 'daddy dearest' decided to come and see me off." She turned out from the Sea and did what she did when she was much younger and upset - hugged the Fishman and hid her face in his chest muscles. Even as a little girl, she knew that Arlong was not strong enough to protect her against the entire World, but his hugs still made her feel safe. It did so still.

"And how do we feel about it?" her Fishman friend asked, squeezing her in his arms.

"That was literally the first time I've seen his face outside of bounty poster."

"Are you alright?"

Is she…? Seriously?

She bent her back out to look at him, getting angry again…

"Fucker racked bounty of few billions and then gave me to be raised by Marine Vice-Admiral! And after 17 years of not caring if I'm still alive or if that man's idea of training finally have killed me, he comes up to me and expect me to fucking sit tight while he says that I will be a small time pirate executed just because of my blood?! It's his fucking fault that my blood is even ground for execution!" At the end of her rant, Luffy huffed furiously and face planted into the offered muscles again.

"Whoa… I'm sure you've already exploded at him so… careful with Haki?"

Oops… she took care to smooth her Presence and took a second to thank all the Sea Gods that she didn't have the bright idea to stomp her foot… there was no telling what kind of damage she'd do so angry.

"Sorry… Just… Let's just go to the Mountain?"

"Roger Captain" Arlong laughed and pushed her towards the stairs leading down. Between the two of them it would be better for the Fishman to steer the ship up the Mountain.

Back on the Upper Deck Luffy made her way towards the cluster of her crew mates looking up at the nearing Mountain.

They were looking at it with varying degrees of excitement and nervousness, though Gin especially was almost white with terror… well that wouldn't do.

"You alright there Gin?" she shuffled herself towards him and pressed her arm to his own. They might not yet be close enough for hugs and the likes, but she could bet half of their hold that grounding touch would do him good.

"Will be fine Captain." He muttered, keeping a white knuckled grip on the shipside.

"That's not what I'm asking about"

Only then did he tear his eyes from the Mountain to look at her. Somehow even with the terror and everything, his eyes still held concern for her. She could only smile helplessly and press further into his arm.

"Aren't you…?"

"Pissed off beyond belief? Yeah. So? You're not alright"

"It's just…" Gin waved his hand towards the Mountain. "Grand Line, you know?"

"I know." And she did so. For years she trained and waited for the day she'd make her way up that very Mountain. But even with that… since meeting Zoro and getting actual people for her crew and not just imagined personas… She was worried about how badly the Grand Line would chew them and if they would be able to make it bow to them. 'You sail or you die'. "It's alright… We're strong, we're smart and we have a Grand Line Pirate with us. We'll be alright"

And they were cheating as hell with that map stolen off Buggy and various Eternal Poses.

"And you were taught by Mihawk"

Well, okay, that was also an argument.

"And I've been taught by Mihawk, yeah."

They were close enough to see the sea current swimming up the mountain, though luckily they were not close enough yet for their course to be locked. They stopped talking and gave themselves a moment to see something that was considered a Natural Wonder of the Pirate World.

"Remember to be near a swimmer when we'll be going up the Mountain, Captain!" Zoro murmured coming to them and blocking her way away of the railing. Luffy gave him a curious smile, but as her Haki was sensing only determination and sense of giddyness-surprise from both him and Sanji, she let it pass with just a bit of sass.

"Zoro, you may be on the anchor duty then." she gave him a wink and turned back to the side, before leaning back on her First Mate.

"Anchor duty?" Gin questioned with a shaky laugh.

"Someone has to fish me out, should I fall overboard." What could she do? She ate the Fruit, she suffered the consequences of it.

"Is that how we're calling it, then?"

"Ugh… Shanks started calling me an Anchor when he utterly failed in teaching me how to swim." She explained aggravatedly, years later and she still stood by her words of Shanks being absolutely terrible at teaching others how to swim. It was not her fault, he didn't manage to pass the knowledge on. "Then I ate the Fruit and became an actual living anchor, so…"

"Noted." Gin somehow managed to get that one word out between peals of laughter and Luffy beamed. Even if he was laughing at her and her Swordsman was shaking from keeping back laughter at her back… well Gin was no longer scared, it was worth it.

Keeping them all not-scared was more than worth some laughter at her expense.

Thud!

Hearing the noise Zoro finally took a step back and let her turn around to see Sanji who brought out on the deck a barrel and some mugs he was in the middle of filling with beer.

"One last toast in the East Blue?" their cook raised an eyebrow at those of them still near the railing. One look back at the steering wheel showed that everything was stable enough for Arlong to leave it without full supervision and get down… at that she could only nod.

With a laugh she followed others to surround the barrel and reach for a mug for her as well.

They looked at each other with determination and one after another raised the mugs to touch the rest on a toast.

"shishishi… To be The Pirate King!"

"To be World's Greatest Swordsman!"

"To be Brave Warrior of The Seas!"

"To be too strong to be chased!"

"To find the All Blue!"

"To keep the Family safe!"

"To see the world where we're all children of the Sea"

All mugs were raised and the entire crew together made the toast everyone could agree to:

"To The Grand Line!"