Chapter 3: Romance Dawn

I do not own One Piece

Ten years had passed since the three kids had undergone the tutelage of Garp and the now Captain Smoker. Ace and Sabo had already set out on their own journeys and now it was Luffy's turn, but right now he was on the eastern coast punching away at the same battleship he'd been using for training since he was seven. He then was suddenly interrupted by one of Dadan's bandits.

"Oi Luffy, we got your boat packed and ready to go." He shouted stopping him mid punch.

"Ok. So, it's finally time." he said running past the bandit. When he looked at Luffy he was reminded how much he had changed in the last 10 years. He finally caught up with his big brothers in height standing at 6 ft and was extremely fit sporting an eight pack, but the most notable change was his upper torso area. His arms and chest area were starting to resemble a young Garp when he was a Marine Cadet in his twenties. Luffy was now wearing a red sleeveless cardigan, blue jean shorts with cuffs rolled at the bottom, and his favorite sandals. As well as never being seen without his straw hat.

A few minutes later he made it to the dock of Fuusha Village standing in the sloop-type ship that Curly Dadan and Makino helped him buy with the money he had left over for turning in Higuma's bounty. Over the years Makino kept a hold of most of it fearing that Luffy would spend all of it on food, and she would probably be right. He still had roughly 5 million beli left to use for whatever he would need.

"Yoshi, I'm finally heading out! Ace! Sabo!" he yelled excitedly. The villagers had gathered around to see him off, even the mayor who was against his choice of wanting to be a criminal. "Luffy, hold on a second." He said walking to the edge of the dock holding on to a long, black box with a golden latch and accents on it. Luffy turned around with a look of slight annoyance, "Come on, don't try to stop me now."

"I'm not you idiot!" he yelled, throwing the box at Luffy who almost dropped it overboard. "There, now take it and get out of here before you start giving this village a bad reputation!" he said stepping back to stand next to Makino.

Luffy opened the box and the first thing that he noticed was a sword sitting on a rack. He picked it up and drew it and thoroughly looked it over. It was a cutlass with a slightly curved blade, with a saw hamon patterned on both sides. It possesses a grey hilt with a diamond shaped pattern, a silver guard as well as a thinner hand running atop the hilt and a black sheath. 'This blade is strong. I can tell by just holding it this was made by someone good.' Luffy thought, sheathing the sword and clipping it to his waist. He was going to close the box when he incidentally touched the inside and noticed there was something cloth-like inside. He pulled it out and opened what looked like a black coat, when a note fell out that was quickly snatched up.

Luffy, I wanted you to have these on your journey. I can tell that you are going to be special right out the gate, and I wanted you to have the two most important things that make a captain stand out. That sword and captain's jacket are sort of replicas of my old captain's. I hope they serve you well. Good luck little anchor.

P.S. the sword is named U-indokatta (Wind Cutter).

By the end of the small note Luffy was smiling ear-to-ear and holding back a few tears. "Stupid Shanks," he said throwing the coat over his shoulders and pulling it snug. "I'm not a little kid anymore." He said sniffling and wiping away his tears. His moment was ruined anyway when the Lord of the Coast showed its head, looming its eel-like body over his ship baring its teeth.

"Oh, it's you. You know for some reason; you don't seem so scary anymore." he said, swinging his left leg upward. "Kaze Rankyaku" he said sending the sharp blade of wind at the monster bisecting in down the middle cleanly with both halves falling back into the ocean turning it red. All the villagers, including Makino and Mayor Woop Slap, jaws were on the floor in shock not knowing the little kid that used to run through here carefree had gotten so absurdly strong. Luffy set sail and was soon waving his last goodbyes to the villagers. "See you guys!" He yelled with both hands waving in the air and smiling.

He then laid down on the ship floor with his arms behind his head and his hat covering his eyes, "Well it'll be a while before I get to the Grand Line, so I should gather a nice crew along the way. We'll get a bigger ship and then I'll become the King if the Pirates!" he finished laughing. "For now, I'm gonna take a little nap."

He was sleeping for almost a full day when his sloop rocked violently jolting him awake. He sat up and looked out to see a whirlpool spinning rapidly, and slowly pulling in his ship. "Just my luck. Well, I don't want to lose all this good meat or my meat funds so, looks like we're flying today!" He said while smiling. He then stood up and raised both hands to his sides. With a little effort his ship began rising out of the water until it was a good distance in the air.

"Ok, well let's keep flying till we see an island or another ship." He laid back down in his previous position with his ship sailing forward with a blue funnel of wind underneath it.

About an hour later the weather had calmed down and Luffy was able to lower his ship back in the water. He sailed for a few minutes before he saw a pirate ship attacking and boarding a civilian cruise ship. He was going to sail past them both when his stomach growled. He hadn't been a pirate for a full 48 hours and had already run through all his rations that he was told would last him 3 weeks. 'Well, they seem pretty occupied attacking the cruise ship, so let's see if there's something to eat aboard' he thought pulling his sloop next to their ship and tying it down. He hopped aboard and saw three guys rolling a barrel with a chubby kid with pink hair panicking, trailing behind them. He figured it must be something pretty good if it took three grown men to move it, so he starts trailing behind them without notice. At the same an orange haired young woman is making her way over to the pirate ship via ropeway.

Moments later the three men had pulled the barrel into a room, "It must be some good booze or something in here." One of them said. The other two raised their fist to bust it open.

"Guys, we shouldn't do this. Alvida-sama is gonna kill us!" the pink haired kid shouted.

"Chill out Coby. We'll bring her some, but it's our duty to make sure this isn't poisoned first. So, keep your mouth shut!" They swung their fists downward to break through the top of the barrel.

But there was a sound of fist colliding with metal and both men fell on their backs clutching their hands. "Man, I'm hungry. You guys gonna open this or what?" The new voice cause Coby and the other pirate to look and see a man in a red shirt and black coat hanging over his shoulders. 'Who is that guy? How did he get on top of that barrel?' Coby thought to himself. The man looked at the two men screaming on the ground. "What's wrong with you guys?"

They shot up off the ground yelling with shark teeth, "You did this you idiot!"

"Whatever, you guys got any food?" he asked hopping off the barrel. His nonchalance pissed the three men off making them draw their swords. "Oi, do you know who's ship you're on. This is Iron Club Alvida's pirate ship, so prepare to get run through!" One of them yelled as they all rushed the strange man. When they reached him, they all were blasted back into the wall past Coby with their swords shattered. The boy had his right hand raised with his palm facing them. 'How did he do that? I didn't even see him move.' Coby was in shock and awe of the power this guy just showed.

"That wasn't very nice. I just wanted something to eat." The young man said pouting.

"Who are you?" Coby asked shaking like a leaf. It was then that the man took notice of the trembling boy in front of him. He saw he was a short, chubby kid with pink hair and glasses. He pointed a thumb at his chest, "I'm Monkey D. Luffy. I'm a pirate." He stated.

He then sniffed the air and planned to follow his nose, but Coby grabbed his arm trying to stop him. "What are you doing?! You must get out of here! There are at least 30 more pirates on this ship and the captain is a monster herself!" All his pulling and pleading didn't stop Luffy from trudging along and finding a storage room with food everywhere. He grinned and jumped down to the food and began stuffing his face. Coby finally relented with a sigh of relief; feeling that they were relatively hidden away, "Well, hopefully they won't find us here." Luffy wasn't even worried as he was still shoving various foods in his mouth. "Your name is Luffy, right? I'm Coby." He said descending the stairs to stand next to him. "That was amazing what you did to those guys. How did you do that?"

Luffy turned to see Coby approaching him, "These are great! He yelled while holding up an apple while ignoring Coby's question. "This isn't a pirate ship, right?" Luffy asked.

"No, this is a cruise ship that the Alvida Pirates are raiding." Coby explained sitting next to him.

"Are you one of Alvida's pirates?" Luffy asked, still stuffing his face.

Coby took a moment and then began to explain his misfortune. How he had wandered onto a boat to go fishing but didn't realize that the dinghy he boarded belonged to the Alvida Pirates. Before long he had spent two years being a cabin boy in exchange for his life.

Luffy was silent for a minute then he burst out laughing, "Man you're an idiot. Who just walks onto a pirate dinghy? Didn't they have a flag on it?" he was clutching his side trying to contain his laughter.

Coby hung his head low in depression. "You're brutally honest."

"Well, if you hate being here just leave." Luffy said stretching his arms above his head and getting a few satisfying pops.

"I-I couldn't, I can't! No way! No way! Lady Alvida would kill me if I tried! I'm too scared!"

"You're a coward too? Luffy laughed, making Coby even more morose. "Man, I hate guys like you!"

By now Coby was full-on crying, debating whether he should go on living. "Yeah, you're right. I'm a coward. If only I had the courage to do what I want like you. There's something I want to do too…hey…Luffy? What compelled you to go out to sea?" Coby asked.

Luffy grinned and stood with his fists pumped in the air, "I'm headed to the Grand Line of course! I'm going to be the King of the Pirates!"

Coby's jaw was on the floor, and he was hyperventilating, but was able to stumble out, "I-Impossible! No way! No way! Pirate King? Are you serious?!"

"Yeah?" Luffy shrugged, "Got a problem with that?"

"What about your crew? Wait, what about your ship?" Coby stuttered.

"Don't have one yet! I just started out, so I'm going to just gather members as I go." Luffy replied cheerfully. His response put Coby in a state of shock, one that wasn't broken even by Luffy yelling his name and waving his hand in front of his face.

"P-Pirate King is the title given to the one who obtains everything! The greatest treasures in the world! Wealth! Fame! Power! Luffy nodded along in agreement, "…One Piece!"

Yep!" Luffy responded with a wide grin.

"Pirates all over the world are after that treasure!" He yelled in shock.

"Me too, and I'll be the one to obtain it!" Luffy stated as if it was fact. As if the world had already decided that he would be the next Pirate King.

"No! Impossible! No way! Absolutely no way!" Coby yelled while shaking his head back and forth while clenching his fists. "There is no way you can stand at the apex of this Great Pirate era and scream that! No way no way…"

Luffy's fist bonked him right in the top of the head stopping his whining, "Shut up, you wimp."

"W-why'd you hit me?" Coby asked clutching the forming knot on his head, "Not that I'm not used to it by now." He replied laughing and crying simultaneously.
Luffy held onto his hat, "It's not about whether I can do it or not. I'm going to do it because I want to!" He stated determinedly, "It's my dream! I'll become the Pirate King, or I'll die fighting for that dream! I don't care if I die trying!" He said putting his hat back on, "Well I'm full. I'm going to get back on my boat and head out.

"W-wait!" Coby yelled, "Luffy! I have a dream too! Do you think I can do it if I stake my life on it?" he asked with a newly rekindled passion.

"Do what?" Luffy asked, stopping to turn around and look at the timid boy.

"Do you think I can join the Navy? It's been my dream ever since I was little to catch the bad guys of the world!" Luffy smiled seeing the boy with a fire in his eyes that wasn't there before.

"Then do it!" he yelled slapping Coby's back, "Don't let anybody take your dreams away, because you don't fight for your dreams then who will?"

"That's right! I'm not going to be a chore boy forever! I'm going to be a great Marine and work tirelessly to catch criminals!" He was working him self up pretty good now, "And the first one I'm going to catch is Lady Alvida…No! Alvida!"

Just after his proclamation, the ceiling fell through revealing Alvida's large body landing right behind him, sapping him of all his conviction, "Who did you say you were going to catch, Coby?" she asked, making him tremble in fear.

"Ha, you don't look like pirate-hunter Zoro to me." Alvida was eyeing the unknown boy before zeroing in on Coby, "Coby! Who's the most beautiful woman in the sea?" she demanded.

"Th-that would be…" Coby stuttered rubbing his head in terror.

"Hey Coby, who's this fat hag?" Luffy asked, picking his ear clean with a pinky. The other pirates who had stormed in the room including Alvida herself were stunned into silence, "You bastard!" She screamed, bringing her large mace down to crush him.

When the dust settled, she saw he and Coby were no longer in front of her. 'What the? Where did they go?' She thought, looking around the room for the two. She snapped her head around when she heard coughing from behind her. The boy was just standing on the deck of the ship holding onto the back of Coby's shirt with him flailing mid-air.

"You're too slow to hit me." Luffy said nonchalantly as Alvida's crew began to surround him. He let Coby down and crossed his arms. "Well, if you're going to come at me, just do it!" His outburst made two of the pirates rush him with their swords drawn. Their bravado caused the rest of the crew to rush him as well.

"He's just one guy, he can't be that strong!" One yelled while the others yelled similar words along the line of his. The first got close and brought his sword down, only for Luffy to sidestep and backfist him across the face, sending him flying over the railing of the ship. Ther next three got near him and were sent flying before they could even attack him. They landed at the other end of the deck with their jaws smoking with indents of fists covering one side. The rest of the crew shortly followed suit, either being knocked overboard or rendered unconscious lying down on the deck. After the last one was down Luffy dusted off his clothes, "Well that was boring, I thought the first pirate crew I'd run in to would be strong." He pouted.

"Amazing! You took down all those guys in a matter of seconds!" Coby yelled quaking in awe.

"They really weren't tough at all. I could have beat them when I was just a kid," he said grinning.

"Do you think… I can be as strong as you one day?" Coby asked silently.

"No clue." He said still grinning, "Only you can decide that you crybaby."

"You don't mince word, do you?" Coby slumped over, being reminded of how cowardly he's been for the past two years.

Suddenly there was a loud crash that occurred right behind them, with Alvida walking through the dust glaring daggers at them. "So, you're not Pirate Hunter Zoro? I haven't seen you use that sword of yours." She ground out.

Oh, the fat hag showed up again." Luffy said turning around to face while picking his ear clean. Coby started stammering when Alvida's face turned bright red. "L-Luffy! Repeat after me!" he yelled grabbing onto to his arm, "Lady Alvida is the most…" suddenly, images of Luffy were flying through his head. His determination, his strength, and his no fear approach to living. He then remembered how he was abused and beat down. He gritted his teeth and faced down his tormentor. "She's the fattest, ugliest, and most horrible bitch the sea has ever seen!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. His response got an uproarious laughter out of Luffy while simultaneously sending Alvida into a rage. "Coby!" she yelled, bringing her mace down to pulverize him.

Coby was afraid to die, but faced his impending death unwavering, 'I-I did it! I stood up to her.' "I don't regret anything!" he yelled, closing his eyes.

Luffy moved in front of the large iron mace, "Way to go, Coby!" He smiled widely, catching it with the new gift he got from Shanks. He pushed against her two large hands with his one with minimal strain or effort. "How?! How are you doing this?!" Alvida asked, perplexed by his strength.

"Easy. I'm strong!" Luffy then pulled back to strike at her mace shattering it into tiny pieces. 'Hmm. This sword is nice. It seems like it knows what I want when I swing it' he thought bringing it back for another swing. Meanwhile Coby and Alvida where for the first time thinking the same thing, 'He's so strong!'

"So long, tubby!" Luffy smirked. He brought his sword forward horizontally, applying his wind and Rokushiki powers to send a large scythe of wind straight at her. It collided into her midsection bending into her body before sending her flying into the distance like a cannon. He sheathed his sword and was about to tell Coby it was time to head out when the ship shook violently.

Geysers began rising all around the ship due to the cannon fire from three Marine battleships closing in, "Now look who shows up. This is why I hate the Navy. They're always late and they put people in danger." He was referring to the fact that they would fire so close to a civilian vessel even if that meant taking down pirates. He also figured this was perfect time to leave, so he grabbed ahold of Coby throwing him over his shoulder heading in the direction of his Sloop when he felt a presence already on it securing her belongings to it.

He leaps down to his tiny ship and startled the girl upon landing causing her to let out a yelp, "Who the hell are you?! What is your problem?!" she asked pointing her staff at him.

"We can deal with that later." He said grinning. He was in a pretty good mood until a cannonball splashed right next to his small vessel, "Those idiots are gonna sink the cruise ship with aim like that." He said glaring at the three battleships.

He raided his right arm with his fingers arranged in a gun-like position. "What are you-...?" The orange haired girl cut herself off when the wind around picked up immensely and started gathering around his index and middle fingers. Luffy concentrated the gathered wind into a small ball with dregs of wind endlessly feeding it more power, when suddenly it stopped.

Luffy grinned widely and aimed for the space in between the three Marine ships, "Kaze Kaze no Pistol!" he shouted sending the small sphere of wind rocketing forward and colliding hard against the ocean. The small ball expanded upon impact immediately displacing the water causing the three vessels to violently rock back and forth almost crashing into each other. "Shishishi." Luffy laughed at his small victory against the Marines, "You idiot, that wave is going to take us out too!" the orangette yelled with shark teeth, panicking seeing the giant wave headed right for their tiny vessel.

"Oh yeah, I forgot that would happen. You two should hold on." He said with his hand facing their sails. He let loose a powerful gust of wind that carried their vessel forward out speeding the large incoming wave. Luffy was laughing the whole time while Coby and the girl were holding onto the edge of the ship for dear life.

"Shishishi, well that was fun!" Luffy exclaimed after they were a safe distance away.

"Fun?! You could have killed us!" she screamed throwing a punch at the back of his head, what she didn't expect was for him to tilt his head to the left causing her to miss and fall flat on her face.

"Relax, we made it ok so what's the big deal?" Luffy asked extending a hand to help her up off the floor. "You're crazy, but you're right. We did successfully get away." 'And I got a nice amount of treasure to boot.' She thought to herself, "Anyways, I'm Nami." She said offering her right hand which Luffy took into his own grinning, "I'm Monkey D. Luffy and the crybaby over there is Coby." Coby slumped back into his depression in his own corner of the Sloop.

"Well, you did a pretty good job getting us away, but don't do that again!" she said going back and forth from frantic and yelling to easygoing, "Anyways, you're pretty strong!" she praised him genuinely.

"Thanks, I trained really hard!" He said grinning and holding onto his right bicep that he was unintentionally flexing. 'His muscles are so huge' she thought reaching for his bicep and leaning forward to expose her cleavage to Luffy. He peeked for a moment but went back to her eyes with a small tint of pink on his cheeks. 'So, he isn't completely clueless it seems' she thought putting his right arm between her breasts.

"You know I could use a big, strong guy like yourself helping me! I'm the best damn navigator in the East Blue and I'd like your help stealing treasure from pirates!" She said smiling, "So, you want to be partners?"

Luffy pulled his arm from her grip and went to lay at the front of the sloop with his arms behinds his head, "Nope, not interested."

Nami immediately deflated with a pout, "Oh come on, don't be like that. We could get a lot of money!" she said rubbing her fingers together. Luffy simply ignored her while staring out at the sea, "Fine. Your loss." She said crossing her arms under her breast and sitting adjacent to him. "So, what did you come out to sea for?"

Coby, who had finally got his bearings started sweating profusely and panicking, "Wait Luff..." but he was too late as Luffy jumped to his feet with both fists raised, "I'm gonna be the King of the Pirates!" He shouted for the world to hear with a smile on his face. The self-proclaimed Pirate Thief had adopted a look of pure rage at his proclamation though, "So, you're a scumbag Pirate, are you?! Everything in this stupid era is Pirate this and Pirate that! I hate it!" She pointed at him angrily, "I hate Pirates! I should toss you overboard!"

Coby looked at her like she was crazy. They both just saw what Luffy was capable of so threatening him wasn't going to end well. Nami suddenly had the same realization and was immediately regretting her rant.

"You can't do that." Luffy said eyeing her down making her nervous.

"Oh? Why not?" she asked, mustering up some courage.

Luffy stared at her intensely for a long moment before stating plainly, "Because I'll die!" causing Nami and Coby both to face-fault into the wooden floor of the small ship. Luffy just laughed in response. "Plus, this my ship so if anyone's getting kicked off its you."

"Wait, why would you die? Surely you learned how to swim." She inquired sitting back on her bag of treasure.

"I ate a devil fruit! I'm a Wind Human! Shishishi!" Luffy laughed at their stunned faces.

"Wait hold on! A devil fruit?! I thought those were a myth!" Nami yelled in shock. She always wondered if the myth was true. After all, selling one of those would easily clear of her debt from that 'man'. "So that explains how you did what you did before." She said thinking about his display if power.

"Oh, they're very real!" Luffy laughed, "I ate one when I was seven, and a few months later I wound up stealing two more when I raided the Porchemy Pirates Treasury. Ace is a Fire Human and Sabo is a Tar Human." Luffy started remembering all the training they had gone through courtesy of their grandfather, causing an involuntary shiver.

Coby had perked up at the mention of Ace, "ACE?! You mean Fire Fist Ace?! The 2nd commander if the Whitebeard Pirates is your older brother?!" Coby was shivering with excitement.

"Yeah." He said nonchalantly, shocking Coby and Nami. Everyone in the world knew who Whitebeard was. The one known as the 'Strongest Man in the World'. "From the few letters I got from him, he's having a blast. They've been all over the Grand Line and have had many adventures and parties!" he exclaimed. "He even told me about this time he went some place called Wano to fight this guy called Kaido. Apparently, he's one of the Emperors of the New World."

"New World? What's that?" Nami inquired. That was something she had never heard of before. "It's what Ace told me they call the second half of the Grand Line while calling the first half Paradise. He said the New World is full of pirates as strong as monsters, like Kaido. I can't wait to get there!" Luffy grinned.

Coby was in awe soaking up this new information, while Nami was in disbelief. The only pirates she had the displeasure of knowing were nothing like what he just said. They were cruel, evil, and lived only to make her life a living hell. "Yeah right, all pirates are scum." She whispered with her head down, but her words were heard by Luffy.

Hours Later

Luffy slowly left his slumber when he heard a loud chittering sound. He noticed that it was the dead of night, and the sea was rather calm at the moment. He looked over to the other side of the small boat and saw Nami on the wooden deck shivering while clutching her treasure bag. He smiled and took off his new captain's coat and placed over her body to help alleviate the cold she was experience. He turned to walk away when she grabbed his arm pulling him down and in close with a knife to his neck.

"I don't need help from a shitty pirate." she said, staring at him heatedly.

"You say that clutching onto my coat," Luffy said smiling making lower the blade, but her eyes never left him. "You had something bad done to you by pirates, didn't you?" Nami looked at him in shock as he sat in front her. "I hate pirates like that too. Hurting the weak, treating their comrades like dirt, or making good people suffer. That isn't what being a pirate means."

"So, what all pirates are nice like you?" she asked coldly.

"No, but you can't through everyone in the same bag because of one group. Hell, I hate mountain bandits because one of them insulted and tried to hurt one of my friends. His name was Higuma, and he was the worst. After I stopped him, he made me believe all bandits were scum, but for the next ten years of my life, me and my brothers were raised by a mountain bandit named Curly Dadan. I hated her at first, but truthfully, she's the closest thing I have to a mom." Luffy smiled remembering his crazy upbringing. Nami just listened to his words while contemplating them.

"Anyways my point is guys who terrorize people like that will end up going nowhere. They're bullies who can't beat the strong, so they pick on and hurt the weak. Not to mention the so-called Absolute Justice marines talk about was on full display. You saw how close they came to sinking a cruise ship full of civilians. Just to catch one pirate crew in the weak East Blue." He finished his rant and went back to the other side of the boat to reclaim his resting spot. "Not everything or everyone in this world is black and white. I learned that the hard way." He had a distant look on his face before he laid back down and put his hat over his eyes.

Nami stared at him for a long time just watching him sleep. 'What did he mean he learned the hard way' she wondered as she herself finally got warm and started feeling drowsy. She reassumed her initial position on the wooden deck and was fast approaching sleep while thinking about the conversation she just had with the raven haired young man.