"THIS IS NOT WORKING!" Usopp yelled with tears in his eyes and bumps on his head. He, along with Zoro, Gin, Sanji, Johnny, Yosaku, Alvida, and Nojiko were all training with Luffy on how to use Haki. They were all sitting lotus style on the deck of the Going Merry with blindfolds on while Luffy hit them with a broom stick, leaving the others to watch in amusement. After some major yelling and complaining from Sanji about how the women shouldn't need to train and get hurt because they're ladies, they decided that Luffy would fling a few metallic pellets of Usopp's at them. Zoro, through instincts, dodged a few strikes before his head was covered in bleeding bumps. Johnny and Yosaku couldn't dodge shit, but didn't give up in a small attempt to catch up with Zoro. Sanji dodged twice before he was whacked on the head, which was now a giant lump. Gin had dodged once, but the rest of the strikes hit. Usopp didn't stand a chance, both with the training, and his earlier attempt to weasel out of it with fake disease. He was now holding onto the bumps on his head before he sat back up and cried. "This isn't training! This is us sitting on our asses while you smack us with a piece of wood!"
"It's how I was taught." Luffy said with a grin. "It just takes some time. Zoro, Sanji, and Gin dodged some."
"Don't compare me to these monsters!" Usopp yelled as he stood up, only for Zoro to pull him back down onto his ass.
"We need this training." he said with a glare. "The people we fight on the Grand Line are gonna be stronger, so we need to get stronger as well."
"If they don't kill me, this training will!" Usopp whimpered with tears cascading down his face.
"Alright." Luffy said as he picked up the metal pellets and looked to Nojiko and Alvida. "It's your turn."
"I thought you wanted to relax." said Nojiko as she turned her head towards Alvida.
"If I can get a little stronger, I can use a heavier mace." she lied. Truth was, she wanted to just sunbath and relax in the nice weather. But when Zoro's earlier comment about how if the four strongest on the ship did all the fighting, then the rest would just get soft. To her, soft meant fat, and she was not gonna risk that again. "Okay Captain. Take your best shot."
"You better not throw them at full speed Luffy!" Nami warned from the tangerine trees. She didn't want to see her sister with a hole in her head because Luffy used too much strength.
"I got it." he said as he picked a single pellet out and aimed at Alvida. "Here we go!" he said as he threw the first one at Alvida. The pellet flew and hit Sanji in the chest.
"Oi, sit down Ero-Cook!" Zoro barked.
"No way." Sanji said as he lit a cigarette and blew some smoke out. "I won't stand by when a lady's in trouble."
"She volunteered for the training like the rest of us." Gin said, with Usopp slapping the air with an 'Oi'.
"Come on Brother Sanji." Johnny said.
"Yeah. Besides, it'll just slip off her skin." Yosaku added.
"Oh yeah." Luffy said before his hands turned black along with the pellets. "Now they can't slip."
"I said I'm not moving." Sanji said while giving Luffy a defiant look before he found himself smashed against the cabin of the ship.
"That takes care of that." Alvida said as she put her mace down onto the deck and re-covered her eyes with a blind fold.
"Alvida-chwan~!" Sanji groaned in a pained love-mode with hearts in his eyes.
"Let's get this training done." Nojiko said.
"Right." Luffy said before he started lightly flinging the pellets at them. After a full minute, both Nojiko and Alvida had a few welts on their foreheads, shoulders, and arms. "You guys didn't dodge any at all."
"Sorry." Nojiko said. "Maybe we should try something else."
"This haki stuff sounds really hard to use." Vivi said from the sidelines, earning a quack from Carue.
"How does he expect us to learn this?" Grace asked as she painted another picture, with Robin reading a book next to her.
"Everyone!" Nami suddenly shouted. "Get to your positions! A big storm's coming!"
"Marines!" Chopper shouted from the crow's nest. "There's a marine ship off the starboard side and it's turning towards us!"
"Where'd they come from?" Valerie asked.
"Terrific!" Nami groaned as the wind picked up. Not even a minute passed by before the waves kicked up and the storm violently swept through the area. The Marines began to fire at them, but missed as Nami had the ship turned to take full advantage of the wind and were now sailing away at full speed.
-Later-
The crew had safely gotten away from the Marines and were now at an island with a huge town on it. It was night, but practically everyone was awake and lively as people were everywhere living it up or just talking. The Straw Hats were eating a meal inside one of the bars, where Luffy was sucking down any scrap of food he could get his hands on.
"Ahhh! I'm stuffed!" Luffy said with a smile as he patted his distended stomach.
"Of course you are. You've been eating nonstop since we walked in here." Zoro grumbled.
"Still hungry though." said Luffy.
"Save some for the rest of us Brother Luffy." Yosaku said while Johnny chewed on some meat.
"These meals weren't half bad." Sanji said before asking the women if they wanted desert.
"Can I have some more cake please?" Grace asked while Robin asked for some coffee. Nami started yelling at Luffy when he asked for more food, stating that he'd eat forever if they weren't there to stop him.
"So we're a little tight on money?" Sanji asked after getting Robin her coffee and Grace her cake.
"We haven't really been earning anything." Nami said as the others were either sitting at the bar or standing against the nearby wall. "And we'll be practically broke after we stock up on food."
"That's not good." Sanji said as he puffed on his cigarette.
"Maybe we could turn in some bounties while in disguise." Johnny suggested.
"Yeah." Yosaku said as he and Johnny reached into their jackets and pulled out wanted posters. "We made it a habit to collect any new wanted posters at every town we visit, so we could choose any of them."
"How do we keep losing money anyway?" Luffy asked, earning a fist from a few of the others.
"IT GOES TO FEEDING YOUR BOTTOMLESS STOMACH!" they roared.
"Oh yeah." he muttered before he started taking food from the other Straw Hat men's plates. The others were talking amongst themselves before Nami noticed the barkeep and a pirate talking, with it ending with the pirate leaving through a door. Some of the others asked her what it was before Zoro said that Nami could smell money with a grin despite being repeatedly hit in the head with tiny bones.
"Listen up guys." Nami said, stopping the ruckus that Luffy, Usopp, Chopper, Gin, Johnny, and Yosaku were causing. "I smell an adventure, so quit fighting and get ready." she said. Gin smirked while the others had stars in their eyes while Nami walked over to the barkeep. The boys were cheering before they began to wrestle each other, with Carue joining the fray as Nami chatted with the barkeep. He said that it's not worth throwing their lives away, but she countered by saying that they're used to danger and that her crew wasn't one to turn away from danger, especially her captain. The barkeep sighed, saying that there's no cure for idiots or pirates and that he was sure they wanted to die young before telling them to follow him. He lead them through a locked door and into a room that held a dark mineshaft and told them to just go straight and they'll reach where they want to go.
"This is as far as I go." he said.
"Thanks for leading us here." Luffy said before Usopp started yelling that it might be a trap. Grace stayed close to Valerie, who leaned down next to her.
"Afraid of the dark?" she whispered. Grace nodded before they held hands before Luffy told them he was going.
"This is gonna be a great adventure!" he said in excitement. His mind was working, albeit slowly, but he was piecing together what this place was and what was gonna happen as Usopp stated he had a Can't-enter-this-creepy-mineshaft disease.
"I have a cure for that." Gin added. "It's in the form of a suppository the size of my foot."
"I've never heard of a suppository like that." said Chopper in naive confusion. Some of them facepalmed while Luffy looked confused.
"What's a supple story?" he asked.
"Can we please get going?" Alvida asked as she shook her head.
"YOSH! ONWARD TO ADVENTURE! LET'S GET MY FOOD MONEY!"
"You're still hungry?!" Usopp asked as they walked off, with the barkeep telling them that two 100 berry coins was the password.
"Why'd you become a pirate?" he asked Luffy.
"To become King of the Pirates." he answered with a grin. "Treasure hunting, adventuring, and all sorts of other cool things!" he said. The barkeep laughed before saying that he liked him before telling him to stay alive.
"We will." Luffy told him before he waved and ran to join up with his crew. They kept on walking with Zoro leading them down the tunnel before he squinted his eyes. He looked back when they asked what was wrong before looking ahead and screaming at the creepy face that appeared in the darkness. Nami stepped forward and presented the password, making he resheath his hidden blade and open the door to them. The more eager Straw Hats ran inside and were immediately left in awe at the sight before them. They were in an enormous room that held hundreds, if not thousands of pirates all around the room on many of the floors that they were on. Each little room they were in had their Jolly Roger hung up, showing who they were as they all laughed, ate, and partied. They looked down to see two giants sitting on the ground floor laughing before they looked up and saw a ship being suspended by ropes.
"Where'd all these pirates come from?" Nami asked. "There should be more ships with all these people here.
"Yo, hotstuff." called a man. Nami and the others looked at him as he smiled at her. "Here to bet? Bookmaker's on the top floor." When she asked what he was talking about, he asked if they were gonna enter the race. "I wouldn't throw away your lives for that dumb race."
"Now I recognize this place." Robin said. All of them turned to her as she explained that she had been to this place before with another pirate crew. "It's an underground race they hold every few years. Organized by pirates, for pirates, the anything-goes Dead End Race." She told them all that citizens of the town were former pirates, and that the goal was always different, but started from the island that they were on. Each vessel was provided an Eternal Pose that pointed to the island they were to travel to, and that the rules were that the winner was the first one there. Whatever happens while traveling there was their own problem, and that they'd recieve a prize at the end.
"Sound like this race will be a little dangerous." Nami said.
"And yet you were the one who wanted to come here because you smelled money." Nojiko said with a small smile. Nami asked who else would be entering, which the man from before said that around a third of everyone there would be in the race.
"That's a lot of people!" Valerie said as the man pointed out the third and second favorites. The two giants named Bobby and Pogo were the third favorites, while a fishman, and old Rival of Arlong's, named Willy was second favorite. Nami and Usopp had calm smiles on their faces before Nami tried to convince Luffy that they shouldn't enter, but changed her tune after hearing that the prize is 300,000,000 berries.
"WE'RE WINNING THIS RACE!" she yelled to the others. Most of them agreed while Zoro and Usopp looked like they wanted to slap her. They soon found themselves following Nami as she went to sign them up, none of them noticing that Luffy had suddenly vanished.
-With Luffy-
Luffy was looking around on the bottom floor for the guy he had met before. He remembered something about him hating Gasparde, along with him getting beaten to within an inch of his life by the man, and wanted to talk to him.
"Where was he?" Luffy thought as he looked around for the guy.
"Hey, that looks good. Gimme."
"I can't! This was ordered by those guys." Luffy turned his head to see a waiter trying to keep some food away from a man with wavy, light brown hair and a yellow jacket with the word SICK on the left breast of the jacket.
"There you are." Luffy said to himself as he walked over towards him.
"Hey, asshole!" came a shout. Luffy, the waiter, and the man in yellow looked to see a bunch of people with sinister grins on their faces stand up and walk towards the guy. "What's the big idea holding up the waiter with our food? You know who we are? We're Gasparde's crew." The man in yellow removed the napkin from around his neck and stood in front of the guy with pink, buzzed hair that looked like a clawwed hand was grabbing his head from behind.
"It's too late for apologies." sneered the pink haired pirate. "We'll enjoy our meal after we kill you."
"Hey, Shamalama." Luffy called. All of them looked at Luffy as he waved at the man in yellow before he looked up in thought. "Wait, that's not it. Shamoo, Sharmin, Shaggy."
"Shuraiya." the man interrupted as he turned to Luffy. "Shuraiya Bascud is my name."
"Oh yeah." Luffy said before he grinned and laughed while some of the pirates whispered about him being the 'Pirate Executioner'.
"What does a man with 48,000,000 berries on his head want?" Shuraiya asked, completely ignoring the pirates that were threatening him earlier.
"HEY! DON'T IGNORE US, YOU BASTARD!" yelled the pink haired man.
"Who are you?" Luffy asked, making one of the men pull out his gun and fire at Luffy. "Shave." Luffy whispered before disappearing, making them all blink and look around for him.
"What the-? Where'd he go?"
"How'd he disappear like that?"
"Is he like General Gasparde? Another Fruit User?"
"Over here." All of them looked to see Luffy grinning and waving at them. The pirates, either from fear or rage, all began to pull out pistols and fire at Luffy, who didn't budge an inch as the bullets all hit him.
"Stupid brat." one of them said with a grin as Luffy just stood there with his head down before jerking it up, scaring the shit out of the pirates. Shuraiya's eyes were as wide as theres as Luffy put his fingers up like a scope before the bullets bounced back at them, each one either destroying a sword or gun that was in the pirates' hands. All the pirates started sweating at the spectacle that they just witnessed, with Shuraiya blinking in shock as well.
"That won't work on me. I ate the Gum-Gum Fruit. I'm a Rubberman." he said before he pulled at his cheeks and stretched them out, making the lot of them freak out at the sight of him.
"This is bad! We should tell General Gasparde-"
"ARE YOU ALL COWARDS?!" shouted the pink haired pirate before he glared at Luffy and Shuraiya. "Gasparde has a highter bounty than this rubber freak! All we gotta do is gang up on him! Then we'll take care of this food stealing bountry hunter! GET THEM!" The pirates charged at his command as they ran at Luffy, who was easily swatting them away like flies. Shuraiya just grinned as he used everything and anything he could get his hands on and fought back the pirates that went after him as well while the spectators ran off in a panic.
"So, what did you want to talk to me about?" Shuraiya asked as he smashed a chair over someone's head.
"I want to help you take down Gasparde." Luffy said as he grabbed two pirates and smashed their heads together. Shuraiya raised an eyebrow at his statement as he grabbed one of the pirate's swords and was now using it against them.
"You have something against Gasparde?" he asked.
"Yeah." Luffy said as he elbowed one of them in the face.
"Hey Luffy!" called a voice. Luffy looked to see Zoro, Gin, Usopp, Johnny, Yosaku, and Chopper walking down the staircase and watching him fight.
"What's going on?" Zoro asked in a bored tone.
"Nothing. Just a fight." he said as he reached behind himself and threw another pirate without moving the rest of his body.
"Hogging all the fun by yourself, huh?" Gin said with a smirk.
"Friends of yours?" Shuraiya asked as he flipped a table up and used it as a shield.
"They're my nakama." he said with a grin.
"Then they're no friends of ours!" yelled a few pirates as they went after Luffy's friends, only for Zoro and Gin to effortlessly take them out. While they were fighting, and yelling at the other four for either admiring them or hiding, Luffy and Shuraiya were now hanging onto a giant chain that was going up the floors, with the Gasparde pirates right behind them.
"Hi everybody!" Luffy yelled at the girls and Sanji as they passed by.
"Luffy? What are you doing?" Nami asked in surprise as they looked at him.
"Just a fight." he said.
"Why am I not surprised?" Alvida asked with a smile while Valerie laughed.
"Have fun Luffy!" Nojiko called.
"I am!" he called back while laughing before he, Shuraiya, and the pirates were now standing on the boat that was suspended in the air.
"Got you now!" one of them yelled as the ship rocked in the air.
"Watch it morons! You might cut the ropes!" Shuraiya yelled.
"As if we'd be scared of something like that!" said the pink haired pirate with a grin. Shuraiya just sighed before he kicked an oar that was connected to the ship, making it twirl and knock all but the pink haired pirate off the boat, leaving him, Shuraiya, and Luffy the only ones left.
"It's raining men." Grace said as she watched the swaying boat with the other women and Sanji while the pirates fell into the water below.
"Guess Luffy's having a lot of fun up there." Valerie said with a laugh.
"Too much fun." Nojiko added when the boat tipped over and the three men fell out. Luffy grabbed the pirate while Shuraiya safely jumped to the upper ledges.
"You saved him?" Shuraiya asked. "You're a strange one."
"Felt like it." Luffy said before dusting himself off and turning to him. "So, as I was saying before-"
"I'm not done with you yet." said the pirate as he got to his feet and shakily pointed his sword at the two of them.
"You're starting to annoy me." Luffy said.
"Be quiet." echoed a deep voice. The three of them looked to see a dark room littered with debris and bodies, with two figures in the back. One was a man with pale skin, tattoos on his face and biceps, and claws in the holsters on his hips. But their attention was on the tall, muscular man wearing an elaborate Marine jacket with the Marines insignia crossed out in red. Luffy and Shuraiya were calmly looking at him, while the pirate turned blue with his mouth gaping open.
"General Gasparde!" whimpered the pirate as Gasparde looked at the three of them. "Why are you here?"
"You got a problem with me being here?" he asked in a deep voice, making the pirate stutter and flail in terror while saying he thought he was on the ship. "Since when do I need your permission to do as I please?" he asked, causing the pirate to apologize. Luffy just watched while he remembered why he hated this guy before the pink haired pirate was painfully thrown over the balcony by Needles. "Scum." Gasparde huffed while Needles bowed. Luffy frowned as a group of people from around the area were watching to see what was going on. "Seems that you've been enjoying yourself." Gasparde said as he looked at Shuraiya. "Who are you?"
"My name's Shuraiya. A poor, no-name bounty hunter." he introduced as he put on his black hat while a few pirates began whispering about him.
"Bountry hunter?" Luffy asked, not remembering every little detail.
"Pretty much. Guess I'm a little famous." he said as he put his hand on his hat.
"I've heard of you too." Gasparde said as he looked at Luffy, remembering what he had read in the newspapers about him. "A man with 48,000,000 berries that likes to piss of Royalty one way or another. Very interesting. How about this?" he said with a grin. "You two wanna work under me?"
"I'm the one who's supposed to be hunting you guys." Shuraiya said with a grin.
"Look at me, an ex-marine." Gasparde said. "You have guts and skill. I only like strong guys after all."
"Didn't expect this to happen." Shuraiya said with a dark smile before looking at Luffy. "You gonna join him?"
"Nope!" said Luffy, making Shuraiya frown. "He smells like trash." he said before he disappeared when Needles lunged at him for insulting Gasparde. He reappeared a few feet away while Gasparde laughed.
"You've got guts kid. But I'd watch your mouth in the future." he said. "Come to my ship if you reconsider." he said before he stood up and walked away, with Needles joining him as they disappeared behind a door.
"Back to the matter at hand." Shuraiya said as he gave Luffy a serious look. "You said you wanted to help me take down Gasparde. Why?"
"Because he's a jerk who treats his crew like they're nothing." Luffy said. "Even the guy they call a bookmaker's gonna die because of him."
"You mean that bookmaker that's in charge of the race registration?" Shuraiya asked.
"Yeah." Luffy said as he remembered Gasparde's words last time. "All of this is nothing but a game to Gasparde to amuse him."
"Heh. Bastard." Shuraiya said. "So, how would you help me against Gasparde?"
"Flour." Luffy said, remembering the sacks of flour Sanji gave him and how they helped him defeat Gasparde.
"Flour?"
"Gasparde at a Devil Fruit. I think it was called the Candy-Candy Fruit. It's a Logia that turns his body into candy syrup or something." Luffy explained as they walked.
"Is that so?" Shuraiya said with a small smile. He didn't know who Luffy was, but if what he said was true, then Gasparde would finally pay for what he did eight years ago. "So how does flour help?" he asked.
A/N: And thus ends part 1. Tell me how I did please. And easy on any flames.