Nami ran down the street, carrying a map. "Finally, I have it! A chart of the Grand Line!"
"Get back here and give us that map back, or else!"
"We stole that map, fair and square! It's our map!"
"Dammit! If we can't get that map back, we'll be shot dead!"
As if on cue, a loud cannon fired out. From the sky, a kid in a straw hat landed with a crash.
"Dammit, who decided to shoot a cannonball at me?" Luffy stood up and dusted off his clothing. "At least I'm safe now. And that was pretty awesome."
He was about to lament how hungry he was when some orange haired woman walked up to him. "Hey, boss! Thanks for showing up to save me! They're all yours!" She ran off, leaving just Luffy and some of the Buggy pirates.
Luffy wanted to ask them for food, but one of them suddenly walked up and punched him in the face. His straw hat was sent flying off of his head. Luffy sent a punch of his own flying at the man's face, knocking him back as Luffy caught the straw hat. "Hands off of the hat."
The other two pirates began rushing at him, knives in hand. Unfortunately for them, all it took was one quick punch each to send them flying.
The girl called out from a nearby rooftop. "Damn, you're strong!" She jumped down from the roof.
"You're the one who set me up! Who are you, anyways?"
"I'm Nami, a thief who steals strictly from pirates. Wanna team up?"
"Thanks, but I think I'll pass." Luffy started walking away.
Nami began chasing after him frantically. "Hey, wait! At least consider it!"
Luffy stopped, clutching his chest. "Damn, I'm still so hungry!"
Nami laughed. "Come with me, I'll find you something to eat."
Inside one of the village houses, Luffy sat, hunched over uncomfortably, and crammed a piece of bread down his throat. "So do you live here alone, then?"
Nami laughed. "No, this isn't my house. This is just where I'm staying for now. Everyone in town already left a while ago because of Buggy."
"So you're a petty thief."
"Hey, I only steal from people who deserve it, Pirates! I'm not just some lowlife petty thief!"
"A thief's a thief, it's still stealing."
"I just need to get 100 million berries, then I'm gonna buy an island. Thanks to this chart, I'll be able to steal from pirates in the Grand Line, which'll make things way easier."
"Wait, a chart? You're a navigator?"
"Yep! The most skilled one in the East Blue, and maybe even the world!"
"Perfect, I need a navigator for my pirate crew!"
"No!" Nami suddenly changed her attitude as soon as she heard the word 'pirate'.
Luffy was confused. "Why?"
"Pirates are the one thing I hate most in this world! All I like are money and oranges!"
"Come on, please?"
Nami thought for a second. It didn't look like he had much for her to steal, but maybe… "Alright, but on one condition."
"What is it?"
"You come with me to where Buggy is. That's it."
Luffy was quick to agree, and the two set off after Nami grabbed one more thing.
"So why did you need that rope?"
"Oh, it's just a rope. Don't worry about it."
The two continued walking for a minute.
"Alright, the place the pirates are at is right there. Hold still for a moment." In a brief second, Nami had tied Luffy's legs together, as that's all she could reliably reach.
"What the hell?"
Nami stayed silent, only smiling. She walked to where the Buggy pirates were, Luffy still easily able to walk behind her. The pirates around her gasped.
"Isn't she the one who stole the chart?"
"What's she doing here?"
She ignored them, walking straight to where Buggy was. She tried to push Luffy down, but he just stood there. He wasn't sure what she was doing, but he didn't really care if it meant getting a navigator. "I brought your chart back, Buggy. And a prisoner, my captain, as an apology." She handed the map to his outstretched glove.
"Much appreciated, but why the change of heart so suddenly?"
"I had a little disagreement with my captain, that's all. Actually, that's why I'm here. I'm fed up with my crewmates, I want to join your crew."
Buggy laughed maniacally. "Fed up, eh? You're sure as hell amusing. Why not, you can join my crew!" His crew could tell he was thinking a bit more, likely about her fleeting loyalty, but they trusted his judgment. And also they feared his fruit, that definitely played a role in their silent acceptance.
Nami simply smiled in return. 'How easy was that? These pirates are so braindead it's almost impressive.'
Two of Buggy's crew members grabbed the unmoving Luffy and threw him into a cage. Luffy sat, hunched so much his future chiropractor probably already felt the money pouring in. He barely fit in the space.
"To celebrate our flashy new navigator Nami, let's celebrate by killing your captain! Men, load the buggy ball!"
Buggy was interrupted by the man speaking into the chatter.
"Hey, big nose, you sailed with Shanks on Roger's ship, right?"
Buggy paled slightly. How could this nobody pirate in the east blue possibly know that?
If the marines found out, he was dead meat!
"Both shanks and baachan talk about it when they're drunk sometimes."
"You know that tomatoheaded bastard, I'll kill you twice for that! Wait, baachan? Who do you mean?"
"Don't insult shanks like that! My name is Monkey-Charlotte D. Luffy! You couldn't kill me if you tried!"
Buggy got significantly paler as he heard the surnames.
"F-fire the buggy ball!"
Nami's hand shook as she lowered the match toward the fuse. One of the pirates laughed drunkenly.
"If you can't lassie, I'll do it!" and with unsteady hands, he snatched the match from nami's grip and lit the fuse.
Nami gaped in horror as the fuse burned down and the cannonball fired at absurd speeds. Creating a cloud of dust that obscured view. She heard a laugh coming from the dust cloud, and as the haze cleared to nothing, she saw a now standing tall luffy towering over the entire crew, tossing the buggy ball as if it weighed nothing. In a dark tone, he threw back his head and laughed.
"ShiShiShi! My gramps throws harder than that. But I throw even harder." with that, he wound back his arm and sent the buggy ball in a path of absolute destruction, carving a perfectly circular hole through every building all the way to the buggy's pirate ship, which sank.
The crew was stunned in horror.
Buggy was muttering about how he had left the grand line to avoid these lunatics.
Nami had bluescreened after he caught the buggy ball
Zoro was climbing onto the deck, whining about reckless overpowered captains
Chopper was on the grand line, not being mentioned again until at the story hits at least 35k words
Luffy then evaluated his pitch.
"Not my strongest by half, but I was going for accuracy, not power. Plus I had my Kairoseki bracelet on."
Now most observers were wondering What the hell is kairoseki? But Buggy was thinking Kairoseki cuts off roughly 75% of a devil fruit user's total power as well as all fruit powers. Holy shit, I'm screwed."
Luffy then turned to buggy as his gaze darkened. Waves of pressure radiated off Luffy as his smile widened unnervingly.
"I feel like you should leave, don't you?"
"Bara Bara Emergency Escape!"
Buggy nodded frantically and detached every part of his body, then he picked up his feet and flew away, abandoning his crew to the vultures.
Zoro whistled in appreciation, respecting the hell out of the power that luffy had jut displayed.
"Damn, captain. You don't mess around, but next time leave some for me."
"Shishishi, of course, That clown bastard pissed me off is all. Nobody talks about uncle Shanks like that."
Zoro's mouth almost hit the floor.
"Sh-Shanks?! As in the yonko Red-Haired Shanks?!"
"Of course, we're not related by blood, but he drops by my home island from time to time. He's really nice!"
Nami was having a crisis, hearing one of the most feared pirates in the world was friendly and nice. Maybe he could be strong enough to defeat Arlong, after all.
Zoro was not entirely surprised, he had figured that luffy must have been trained by somebody absurdly strong if he could stand easily against a veteran pirate like buggy. Luffy laughed again and jumped off the high balcony of the bar, landing light as a feather on the ground making only the slight clinking of the beads hanging from his hat and woven into his coat.
"Come on Zoro, Nami."
Zoro jumped and impacted the ground with a clatter of sheaths and nami tucked into a roll, both ending up next to luffy. As they walked back to the shore, Luffy addressed Nami.
"I followed thorough on your condition. You are now officially the navigator working under Straw Hat Luffy, who is currently on assignment in east blue to assemble a crew before bringing them back to the new world."
Zoro and Nami were about to question the last part when ahead of them, they saw a dog in front of a pet store, wounded but standing as the obstinate defender of the pet store against a lion more than 10 times its size.
The lion made a quick swipe with its paw, laying a long slash against the dog's flank. The dog whimpered in pain, but stood strong, biting hard into the lion's tail. The lion roared and flicked the dog off his tail, going flying and slamming into the wall. The lion was about to pounce again when Luffy stepped in and sent the lion flying with a lightning-fast kick. The dog slammed into a house, knocking out a wall and kicking up a cloud of dust. A man with strange bear-like ears on his head ran over to the lion from the side street.
"Richie! You hurt my pet, who are you, bastard?!"
He looked over, and realized just how tall Luffy was. He saw the drawn sword and the heavily muscled chest, the crooked grin, and the small pulses of an unknown energy emanating from the titan of a man.
"And you are, bear ears?"
The small man bristled at the perceived insult and threw caution to the wind.
"I'm Moji the beast tamer of the buggy pirates, and you just attacked my pet! Apologize now or die!"
Luffy just laughed.
"Get him Richie!"
The lion twitched, but was still lying within the house, out cold.
"I see my lapse in observation. I apologize, large stranger."
With that, Moji the lion tamer, second mate of the buggy pirates, ran away with his tail between his legs.
Just then, an old man ran up in full armor and holding a spear.
"Wh-Who are you" gasped the man, out of breath.
"Shishishi! I'm Monkey-Charlotte D Luffy and I kicked Buggy's ass!"
At this, the man collapsed onto his knees, sobbing and repeatedly thanking luffy for what he did for the village.
"Stop groveling, it gets on my nerves."
The old man stopped and stood up.
"I can't thank you enough for the great service you've done for me and all of orange town. My name is Boodle, the mayor of this.. Somewhat destroyed municipality. What can I do to thank you?
"Shishi, just give me some provisions for my ship and crew, and we'll be right on our way."
"That we can do! Pardon, but are you a pirate?"
"Yep, but I have no interest in looting your town or any, for that matter. I can pay out of pocket what your entire town makes in a year!"
Luffy walked on while boodle picked his jaw up off the floor.
It was just then when his new navigator came running up to him, and saluted.
"The ship is ready for departure, captain!"
Luffy turned to the Navigator. "Got it Nami, just wait for me to load the provisions on and we can set sail!" Nami wanted to ask if he needed any help, but considering his size and ability to throw a god damn Buggy Ball, she decided it was unnecessary.
Luffy walked down the street to where Buggy had held the town's entire rations. He took about a month's worth of food and water (and some alcohol for his swordsman) and left behind some "pocket change" (more money than the entire town had seen in all their lives combined). After a brief walk across the island to his ship, he loaded up the storage. "Zoro, Nami! We're ready to set sail!"
"Well, it looks like the nearest village is due north from here, there we can rest for a bit and see if there's anyone to recruit." Nami sat, legs crossed, on the edge of the large ship. She had to sway against the boat to keep her balance, especially as the salty, humid air brushed against her face. She trailed off into details about how she'd make sure to steer the ship the right way.
"...Alright, that probably works!" Luffy, who only knew the bare minimum to get where he needed to be, had no clue what anything she said past "recruit" meant. Thank the gods he got a navigator on the crew when he did.