It took a few hours, but they had arrived at Shells Town. Luffy and Coby had gotten off and stared at the town while Nami tied up the boat. "Alright." she said as she glared at Luffy. "This is where we part ways pirate." She took her bag of treasure and stormed off, leaving them both to do whatever they wanted.

"She looked like she wanted to kill you when you said you're a pirate Luffy." Coby said as he watched Nami walk off. Luffy just laughed as he watched her leave.

"I like her." he said as he kept laughing.

"I still can't believe you wanted to come here." Coby said as they both started walking into town.

"You wanted to join the marines right?" Luffy asked as he was looking at a fruit vendor. "Well then here's your chance." he said as he bought a pear before taking a bite. Coby smiled at the thought of his dream coming true.

"Thanks Luffy." Coby said with gratitude in his voice. "But why did you want to come here as well?"

"I want to recruit Zoro as my first mate." Luffy said. As soon as he spoke Zoro's name, everyone in town backed away from him in fear. Luffy just grinned at everyone's reaction.

"Why would you want to recruit that guy?!" Coby yelled as they started walking again. "Haven't you heard what they said about that guy? He's a Pirate HUNTER. Know why they call him that? It's because he HUNTS PIRATES!"

"So?" Luffy asked with his pinky up his nose, leaving Coby to gape at his blatant stupidity of all this. "If he's strong, I want him in my crew. Besides, he sounds cool." he said before he looked forward again as he asked "Who runs the marine base here again? Moron?"

"No. It's Morgan." Coby said. Just like with Zoro, all the townsfolk backed against the walls of the buildings. Luffy burst into laughter, remembering how funny all this was.

"I'd expect that reaction from hearing Zoro's name, but from Captain Morgan?" Coby said as they kept walking. Luffy just pulled his hat over his eyes as he frowned in thought. Morgan was one of many 'honorable marines' that Luffy had encountered. He remembered when all those marines had come after him and his crew, throwing wave after wave at them, all in the name of upholding their twisted sense of justice.

"Here it is." Coby said, bringing Luffy out of his thoughts. They both looked up at the the building, surrounded by a stone wall with an iron gate that read MARINES on it. Coby couldn't believe his eyes as he started saying his goodbyes, only to notice a moment later that Luffy was now hanging off the wall, peering over it. "What are you doing Luffy?!"

"Looking for Zoro." Luffy replied before jumping off to move further down to the wall and jump up to peer over it again. Coby walked over to him.

"He wouldn't be out in the middle of the base Luffy." Coby said as he started to climb up next to Luffy.

"Then who's that?" Luffy asked. Coby looked at where Luffy was looking before nearly having a heart attack at the sight of him. There, in the middle of the yard, tied to what looked like a crucifix, was Roronoa Zoro. He wore a white shirt, black pants, black combat boots, a green sash around his waist, and a black bandana covering his green hair with 3 earings on his left ear. Though he looked like shit, he was eminating a dangerous aura around himself.

"No way." Coby squeeked out. "It's really him. Pirate Hunter Zoro."

Luffy stared at Zoro with a smile under his hat, happy to see his first mate and friend again. He couldn't help the smile that seemed to take up his whole face as memories came back to him. He was so happy, he almost didn't notice Zoro call to them.

"Hey, you two." Zoro said, making Coby flinch. "You're bothering me. Beat it."

Luffy just smile as he heard a ladder clack against the stone wall next to him and Coby. He looked to his side to see a little girl with big brown eyes and brown hair tied into little pigtails at the top of the ladder with a finger to her lips, telling them to be quiet before jumping over to the other side. Luffy watched her while Coby started freaking out, calling to the girl to stop. She walked over to Zoro smiling.

"You must be hungry." she said, clearly not intimidated by Zoro glaring at her. "I made you some food."

"Whatever it is, take it and scram kid." Zoro said.

"They're rice balls." she said as she opened the clothed item in her hands, revealing two big white rice balls. "They're my first time making them, so I hope they're good." Luffy watched as Zoro looked at them like starved animal before looking back at the girl. "I don't want those kid. Leave me alone."

"But-"

"Do you have a hearing problem or something?" he shouted, clearly losing his patience. He was about to say more, but was stopped when a group had started walking towards them both.

"Temper temper Zoro." came a whiney voice. Everyone looked to see a few marine soldiers around a blond lanky kid with his hair in an oval shape on his head. He wore a purple suit, white shoes, and a smug grin as walked towards them. Zoro sneered as the man looked at the girl. "Oh. Rice balls? Don't mind if I do." he said as he took one and started eating it.

"Hey! That's for Zoro, not you." the little girl said before the blond teen spit the food out in disgust. "What is this?! It's got sugar in it. You're supposed to use Salt! Salt!"

"But I thought it would taste better if it was sweet." she said, sounding sad.

"Well you thought wrong you little brat!" he screamed as he knocked the other rice ball out of her hand and started stomping both into the dirt.

"Stop!" she screamed, trying to get him to stop, but failed as he kept stomping until it was nothing but a white pile with his shoe print on them. She stared at it as she tear up and sniffled. "But I...I worked so...so hard on those."

"Ugh. This is why I hate kids." the teen said. "Don't you know the rules of this base kid? Anyone who helps criminals in anyway are to be executed on sight. By order of Captain Axe Hand Morgan." He watched the little girl pale before ordering one of the marines to throw her over the fence.

"But...but Helmeppo sir. She's just a little girl." the marine said. Helmeppo grabbed him by the collar before pulling him face to face.

"I said throw her over the fence. If you're not gonna follow my orders, I may have to tell my father of your insubordination." he said. The marine looked frightened, but lowered his head as he walked over and picked the girl up and walked toward the fence. He told her to curl into a ball before lobbing her over screaming. Coby looked horrified as he watched her get tossed over and head for the ground. He closed his eyes, waiting to hear her smack into the ground. Her screaming stopped and both Coby and the girl opened their eyes to see that Luffy was standing there, holding her up. Coby looked at where Luffy was a moment ago, then back at where he was now, blinking few times.

'How'd he get over there that fast?' he thought as Luffy set her down, asking if she was okay.

"Yeah. I'm fine." she said looking up at Luffy who just smiled.

"That's good. You should go home now. You're mother must be worried about you." Luffy said as he looked back at the town. He waved her goodbye as she left with a small smile before he turned back to the fence and climbed back up to hang on it and look at Zoro and Helmeppo.

"You really are a stubborn one. Aren't you Roronoa Zoro?" Helmeppo said in a smug tone.

"That's right." Zoro said as he glared back at him. "I'm gonna survive a whole month, then leave as our agreement. And you better not back out of your part."

"I wouldn't dream of it Zoro." he said with a laugh. His laugh died in his throat as he felt a chill run up his spine. He and the other marines were rubbing their arms as if cold as they looked around, confused as to why they felt cold when it was warm and sunny. Zoro felt it too and looked around until he saw Luffy and Coby on the wall again. His eyes widened a bit as he looked at Luffy.

'Is that guy doing this?' he thought as Helmeppo finally spotted them as well.

"Hey you!" he screamed. "Who are you two? This is a marine base."

"He's spotted us Luffy." Coby said as he looked at Luffy. Luffy didn't look away from the group in the yard as he traced a circle the size of the palm of his hand on the stone wall. "What should we do?"

"Hey Oval Head." Luffy called at Helmeppo, who just gawked at him for insulting him. Luffy pulled his hand away from the wall before smirking. "You're wide open." he said before slamming his hand on the wall. Faster than any of them could blink, a perfect cylinder of stone shot out of the wall and hit Helmeppo straight in the groin. Helmeppo just stood there for a few moments before his face slowly twisted into one of pain as his eyes crossed before rolling back in his head as his mouth slowly fell open, yet no sound came out. He was trembling and sweating profusely as the pain finally reached his brain before he slowly fell forward at an agonizing pace and hit the ground with a thud.

"HELMEPPO!" the marines shouted as they hoisted him into the air and ran back towards the base. Coby just gapped at what happened while Luffy smirked. Zoro was cracking up laughing as he hung from the post he was tied to. Luffy then jumped over the wall and walked towards Zoro before stopping a few feet away from him. Zoro slowly stopped laughing but kept the smirk on his face as he looked at Luffy.

"I don't know who you are kid, but I'd give just about anything to see that again." he said as they both shared a laugh. "So who are you kid?"

"I'm Monkey D. Luffy, a pirate. I heard about you Zoro." he said as he looked at Zoro. "They say you're a swordsman, along with being a heartless pirate hunter."

"I am a swordsman, but anything else is just rumors." he said as he looked at Luffy.

"Hmm. You don't look like either if you ask me."

"No one asked you." he said as his face slowly fell back to a frown. "Anyway, what does a pirate want with a pirate hunter anyway? Never mind, I don't care." Luffy just faked a pout as he turned to leave, but stopped and smiled as he heard Zoro speak again.

"Wait. Before you go, can you get that for me?" Zoro asked as he looked back at the crushed food. Luffy bent down to pick up the food. "You mean this?" he asked. "It's got more dirt than rice in it now."

"I don't care. Give it to me! Every grain of rice!" he said as he opened his mouth. Luffy looked at him as he threw the mud ball into Zoro's mouth. He watched as Zoro choked the food down before coughing a bit.

"Told ya."

"Delicious." Zoro said in a quiet voice with his head down. "Tell her I enjoyed the food." he finished. Luffy just smiled as he headed towards the wall.

()()()()

Back in town in an alley, Luffy and Coby were talking with the little girl named Rika.

"He liked it?" she asked with a big smile.

"Yep. Every grain." Luffy said as she sighed in relief. "I'm glad." she said.

"I don't get it. He doesn't seem like the bad guy that everyone says he is." Coby said.

"He's not a bad guy at all!" Rika screamed. "He's in there because...because of me." she said. She then went on to explain how about a month ago, Helmeppo owned a wolf that he used to terrorize the town with. He waltzed into her mother's restaurant, letting the wolf scare everyone there. She then told them that it tried to attack her when she tried to shoo it out of the building, only to be sliced up by Zoro, who was enjoying a meal at the time. Helmeppo saw this an act of aggression towards him and threatened to execute the mother and daughter unless Zoro stayed imprisoned for a month. "If anyone are bad guys, it's Helmeppo and his rotten father." she finished.

Luffy stayed quiet as he listened. He heard it all before, but it still left a bitter taste in his mouth. Coby also couldn't believe that a marine would abuse his power in such a manner. Both were brought out of there thoughts as they heard crashing coming from inside the building next to them. Rika ran inside, screaming for her mother as Luffy and Coby followed her inside. They watched as Helmeppo came in, his face in a scowl as he sat down at table before knocking a bowl of fruit off of it and into the wall. Luffy looked over to see Nami again before smiling again.

"Gimme your food and best drink on the house woman!" he screamed in bit of a high voice. As they poured him a drink, he began talking. "Lousy strawhat bastard. If he thinks he can strike me and get away with it, he's so very wrong. After I execute Zoro, he's next."

"Who will you execute tomorrow?" said Luffy as he appeared behind Helmeppo. Helmeppo froze as his eyes widened before he slowly turned around to see a grinning Luffy standing behind him with his arms folded across his chest. He slowly turned blue in the face as his mouth hung open for a few moments before his eyes rolled back again and he fainted, leaving Luffy to howl with laughter.

"Big baby." he said as the marines who accompanied him carried him off towards the marine base. Luffy stopped laughing as he muttered. "Zoro is definitely joining my crew."