Cap4

A sailing vessel was passing by a whirlpool when two of the sailors on board heard a few large barrels bump into the side of the ship. Inside the ship, a large party was being hosted.

"Yes, there's no need for concern. A whirlpool that small is no threat to this ship. I've made sure we steer clear of it." The Captain of the ship assured the guests.

On the upper deck, a man approached a young lady standing by the window.

"Pardon me, young lady. Would you do me the honor of this dance?"

The lady turned out to be none other than Nami, who decided to accept the invitation. Back outside, the sailors started to haul in the barrels.

"Man, these things are heavy!" One of the sailors grunted.

"I know, it's like several people are inside them or something!"

"Hey, maybe they've got booze in it!"

"Yeah! Hey, maybe we can grab a swing or two later!"

Sadly, ther dreams of a drink were postponed when all of a sudden:

"PIRATES OFF THE STARBOARD!" The Lookout suddenly called out.

Sure enough, a pink vessel with a swan figurehead and hearts printed on the sails was coming into view. The Jolly Roger was a classic skull and crossbones, with the skull facing the left of the flag and a heart printed on it.

"We're being raided!" The first sailor called out, quickly moving to sound the alarm.

The pirate ship's cannons immediately fired, impacting around the vessel and threatening to capsize it.

"We need to evacuate immediately! Everyone get to the lifeboats in a calm and orderly fashion!" The Captain declared.

Most of the guests ran out immediately, but Nami stayed behind, a small grin on her face as she snuck off.

"Perfect timing." She smirked. "There should easily be a million or so Berris on the ship."

-OP-

On board the pirate vessel, the female captain watched as her crew continued to fire. She was a large woman with freckles on her cheeks who wore a cowboy hat, blue vest, and striped pants while carrying a mace over her shoulder.

"Koby."

"Y-Yes, ma'am...?" A small stout boy with glasses and pink hair nervously spoke.

"Who's the most beautiful of all on these seas?

"Y-You of course, Captain Alvida!" Koby fearfully replied with heavy reluctance due to how grotesque Alvida actually looked.

"Well done!" Alvida cackled, slamming the tip of her iron mace into the deck. "As for the rest of you, excellent work bringing that ship to heel! This is our first good prey in a while."

As Avlida's ship, the Miss Love Duck, continued to fire on the sailing ship, Nami was running out onto the deck.

"Looks like they're just about to pull up."

Quickly, the orange-haired girl got out of sight as the Alvida Pirates started boarding the ship. As they did, Alvida noticed that Koby seemed to be hesitating.

"What the hell are you doing, Koby?!"

"I-I'm not really good at this sort of thing!"

"I don't want to hear any backtalking! When I tell you to do something... You go do it!" Alvida snapped as she kicked the poor boy right onto the other ship, causing him to hit the cabin headfirst.

Koby groaned as he got up but then ducked as Alvida smashed her way into the cabin. Down in the main hall, the pirates had gathered up all the party-goers.

"No need to panic, people. We're not here for your lives, just your valuables." One of the pirates clarified. "Give up everything you have short of the clothes on your backs, and you'll be allowed to leave without incident."

"Where would they even run to? It's a freaking boat!" Another pirate asked.

"Oh, you know how it is, matey." Another added. "Fear and hysteria make people stupid."

"Aye, aye."

"And just so you know, anyone who tries to fight back will be sent to the bottom of the ocean. So no funny business!" Alvida stated as she approached.

Nami was up above the scene and grinned as she quickly changed into her normal clothes before stealthily boarding the Miss Love Duck. As she tried to enter the cabin, one of the pirates still on the ship came out and spotted her.

"Hey, I've never seen you before! Who are you, and what are you doing on this ship?"

Nami laughed dismissively and kicked the guy square in the no man's land, causing him to foam at the mouth and go down like a pile of bricks.

"My only weakness! How did you know?" The pirate managed in a chipmunk-like voice.

Nami didn't bother with a reply, making her way in.

"I should have realized they'd leave some guards behind. Oh well, where's the fun when there's no challenge?"

-OP-

Koby had entered the ship's galley and looked around, sighing in relief when he saw nobody there before noticing the large barrels that the sailors had pulled up earlier and started rolling them out.

"There you are, ya little coward!" One of the pirates sneered as three of them came over. "You trying to hide out again?"

"N-No, of course not!" Koby pleaded. "I just found this large barrel of alcohol and thought I'd haul it over!"

"That does look like a big barre. How about we lighten it for ya?" The shortest of the three suggested.

The tallest nodded. "I could use a drink myself."

"Are you crazy?! Alvida will kill us if she finds out!" Koby cried.

"So just keep your trap shut," The short pirate pointed out. "Now, let's see what we got in here."

"It's pretty heavy. I bet there's some top-quality booze inside." The largest of the three grinned. "Stand back while I bust it open!"

But just as he was about to smash the lid, it burst open on its own as a stretchy fist shot out and punched the large pirate so hard, that he was sent flying and flopped on his back unconscious.

The other pirates and Koby were shocked at this. Coming out of the barrel was a young man with black hair, a straw hat, a red vest, denim shorts, and sandals. With a yawn, he stretched his arms up before climbing out of the barrel, followed by what looked like a tiny monkey which then poofed and transformed into a girl with tanned skin, brown hair, monkey-like ears, and a tail, golden headdress, and clad in red and white Chinese clothes.

"Man, that was a great nap!"

The other barrel's top then burst open and a teal mist, a mass of bloody fog, and a pool of volcanic ash all spilled out before collectively reforming into three people.

The mist formed into a girl with ghostly pale skin, long silky black hair that was stringy in a few places, and was wearing a grey long-sleeved dress shirt, black skirt that reached down to her knees, and black loafers with no socks.

The ash pool was a young man with dark skin, long beige hair with orange ends, and clad in a black open coat, a white scarf, a loose-fitting yellow belt, an eyepatch, a black bandana, a checkered tie and matching fingerless gloves, a blue and green necklace, and a white undershirt that was opened up to show his pecs, which were decorated with tattoos.

And finally, the blood fog became a young man with pale skin, a red bandana, and wearing long sea boots and long, hard-wearing linen trousers. A knotted striped-red sash was tied around his waist, a faded blue waistcoat with a shorter lightly-coloured back area and a torn white undershirt made up the rest of the ensemble. The left cuff of the undershirt was ripped, and it was through this hole that the man slipped his left hand.

"That was cramped..." The girl of the three said in a monotone voice.

"Seems we got picked up by a pirate crew!" The third of the group noted. "Well, this is a fine pickle we've gotten ourselves in, huh?"

"Geez, looks like you clocked this guy good, Luffy." The monkey girl noted as she kicked the unconscious pirate with her foot.

"Um...guys?" Spoke the dark-skinned young man as everyone noticed the remaining two pirates pointing their blades at them.

"You punks shouldn't be toying around with pirates!"

The stoic-faced black-haired girl said nothing but simply swiftly knocked the swords out of the pirates' hands by kicking so hard the very air seemed to become a blade.

"Seems we're in the ship's galley." The boy with the bandana noted. "What say we find something to eat, savvy?"

"Sounds good!" Luffy grinned. "I'm starved!"

Koby just stood there, stunned. He'd never seen anyone so strong yet so nonchalant.

"Just...w-who are you guys?"

"Oh, my name is Monkey D. Luffy! Hi!" Luffy grinned. "And these are my sister and best friends; Monkey D. Bamia, Rainha D. Sonson, Lor D. Draco, and Sparrow D. Benjamin!"

"Just Ben if you please." Ben clarified.

The two pirates quickly ran out of the galley, dragging their downed buddy with them.

"Guess we scared 'em off. And I don't think we used that weird force Grandpa was talking about either." Luffy noted.

"You're not yet experienced enough for it. It took us all years to master Rokushiki." Draco pointed out.

"W-We have to run for it! Once their friends come back, they'll kill you!" Koby exclaimed.

"Ah, relax!" Sonson said, flicking Koby's nose with her tail. "We eat chumps like those for breakfast!"

"Literally in my case, sometimes," Draco added.

"We've all had experience tangoing with enemy pirate crews," Bamia said simply.

Draco patted Koby on the head. "Maybe if you step out of this small ship, you'll see just how big this world we live in really is."

"Mmmm, fresh!" Ben noted as he bit into a cabbage. "Wonder what else they got in the hold."

Luffy looked inside. "Hey, it's fully stocked in here! Look at all this food!"

The others headed inside, Koby nervously following after them.

"At least they might not find us in here..."

Luffy and Sonson began stuffing their faces and even Bamia, despite her refined stoic appearance, began to gorge. Ben simply kicked back on one of the crates and Draco broke open another to see what was inside.

"So, what's your name?"

"H-Huh, me? I-It's Koby." Koby introduced. "Um...I'm really curious. What was that kick you just did?"

"Hmmm?" Bamia perked up, swallowing the food in her mouth without changing her expression. "It's one of the techniques of Rokushiki. It's called Rankyaku, a technique where you swing your leg hard and fast enough to create a vacuum blade."

"So those guys earlier were pirates, huh? This a pirate ship?" Sonson noted.

Koby shook his head. "No, it's a passenger ship. It's being raided by Captain Alvida."

"Alvida? You mean 'Iron Mace' Alvida, eh?" Ben noted. "Has a bounty of over 5,000,000 Berri. Rather small in the grand scheme of things."

"Well, she hasn't done many raids," Bamia stated. "Even still, she's quite dangerous to regular people, especially those on passenger ships like this one."

"Seems like we got someone to give a beating," Draco noted. "Though we also need to secure a boat for all of us."

"That ship we got from this people we rescued from Ganzack got swallowed up by a whirlpool." Sonson groaned. "Rotten luck, am I right? We all had to hide in those barrels to survive."

"Sonson turned into her little monkey form to fit in with me while Bamia, Draco, and Ben turned into mist, blood, and ash to fit inside the other barrel," Luffy explained.

"And ash isn't even my primary element," Draco added. "The Disaster-Disaster Fruit is a powerful Devil Fruit indeed."

"So what is your story, Koby? Are you a pirate too?" Bamia asked.

Koby looked sad all of a sudden. "Actually, I was roped into this by accident. See, one day I got in a boat on the outskirts of my hometown to go fishing. Unfortunately, the boat I got on was actually headed for a pirate ship. So for the last two years, I've been stuck as Alvida's Cabin Boy."

"Wow, talk about bad luck. Why not just run away? Take one of the longboats and row for it." Luffy asked.

Koby freaked out. "Every time I considered it, the thought of Alvida finding me made me too scared to try."

"Oh, so you're a wimp, huh?" Luffy just grinned. "I hate guys like that."

He started to chuckle, only to start groaning in pain when his ear was pulled by an annoyed Bamia.

"Brother..." The Monkey sister frowned. "A little more tact is always appreciated from others."

"Sorry….!" Luffy managed.

Koby just sighed. "Yeah, I guess I'm just a coward. I don't even dare to drift along the ocean in a barrel."

"We didn't so much drift as get tossed by the currents," Draco clarified.

"Well, regardless, if I had that kind of courage, I could live out my dream," Koby said. "So, what compelled you all to set out to sea?"

Luffy gave a big grin. "I'm gonna be King of the Pirates!"

Ben chuckled at Koby's jaw dropping to the floor comically at that declaration.

"Shocking, eh? We're pirates ourselves. In fact, Draco's father is one of the Legendary Yonko of the Grand Line."

"And we share a dream as well!" Sonson beamed. "To find the fabled treasure of Gol D. Roger, the ONE PIECE!"

Koby was shocked. "So... Where's your crew?"

"Right now, it's just the five of us," Luffy explained. "Me, Sonson, Ben, and Draco all kinda fought over who got to be Captain, and...it ended up in a draw."

"So, all four of us are the Captains," Ben added. "Bamia here is our First Mate."

"Right now, we're looking for more people to join our crew." Draco finished.

"But...no one even knows if the One Piece is even real," Koby pointed out.

"Oh, it's real alright!" Luffy smirked. "Draco's old man saw it with his own eyes, even if he never got to claim it."

Koby started freaking out harder than ever, repeatedly calling out "no way", until Luffy gave him a quick bonk on the head.

"What was that for...?"

"You looked like you needed it. Break you out of that freakout." Luffy said.

Koby gave a sad laugh. "Well, I'm used to it..."

"That's not something you should have to get used to. Unless you're training in the school of hard knocks." Sonson said.

Bamia nodded. "We trained for this for years. And we did because we wanted to. Draco wants to vindicate his father, and both Luffy and Sonson want to live as free as the open sky, I'm happy following my brother and Ben wishes to live life to the fullest and travel the world. And the one with the most freedom is the King of the Pirates and his crew. It doesn't matter if we die fighting, because that just means we were able to live free."

-OP-

Meanwhile, Alvida was overseeing her men haul off the booty they had claimed back on deck.

"No dawdling, now! We need to haul it all off before the Marines arrive!"

Little did she know, Nami was swiping the haul as it was being loaded onto the Miss Love Duck. Suddenly, the two pirates from before ran onto the deck.

"Captain Alvida! We got a problem below deck!" The short pirate cried.

"What's going on? One of the sailors giving you trouble?" Alvida asked.

"No, Captain! There's a group of five monsters down in the galley!" The tall pirate clarified, shaking his head. "Three made of ash, blood, and mist, a monkey, and one that was strong enough to take out our buddy!"

Alvida noticed the unconscious state that the large pirate was in and frowned.

"That looks like a hard hit all right. Did some bounty hunter wind up on the ship somehow?"

"We don't know. They just popped out of a couple of barrels in the galley." The tall pirate said.

-OP-

"Okay, now that we got some grub, what's our first order of business?" Sonson asked.

"We find Alvida and give her a beating for threatening innocent people. And then we find a boat we can use." Draco said.

"We'll probably have to fight her entire crew in the meantime. Probably only two, maybe three dozen men at most." Bamia noted.

Koby sat there for a moment, having been awe-inspired by what Bamia had said earlier.

"Hey, do you think if I train, I can get my own dream?"

"That depends, what is your dream?" Luffy asked.

"Well...I want to join the Marines." Koby stood up. "To right wrongs and catch the bad guys! It's been my dream for years! Do you think I could ever achieve that dream?"

"That's up to you, kiddo," Ben said. "Don't ask others if you can have your dream or not. Just say you'll do it, then find a way to do it."

Koby nodded. "Then I'll do it! I'll find a way to join the Marines, no matter what it takes!"

Suddenly the roof of the hold broke open, prompting Luffy to grab Coby out of the way as the planks came crashing down. It turned out Alvida had smashed her way down.

"I hear a group of strangers have been beating up my crew."

"Well, well, well, Iron Mace Alvida herself," Draco said. "Looking just as nasty as in the wanted posters."

"How dare you! I am the most beautiful woman in all the seas!" Alvida called out.

"Lady, do you even have mirrors on your ship?" Sonson asked. "You wouldn't even crack the top fifty beauties on the ocean."

"The heck's a mirror?"

Everyone fell over from Alvida's question in shock, even the normally straight-faced Bamia.

"Y-You've never even seen your own reflection?" Draco asked in disbelief as he picked himself up.

"You never even looked at yourself in the sea?" Ben added. "Sheesh! How dumb can you get?!"

"Wait, Ben?" Luffy asked. "I thought you…"

Ben clamped a hand over Luffy's mouth and glared

"First off, I like 'deliciously plump', not…whatever that is!" He whispered in an enraged tone. "Second, what have we told you about revealing our personal info?"

"…To not?"

"Good. And what were you doing?" Ben asked as if he was directing Luffy to an obvious answer.

"… doing that?"

"Exactly! So, as punishment…Bamia, Draco, Sonson, and I reserve the right to tease you about you thinking that Nami girl is cute if we ever see her again and yes, that includes showing her your little kid pictures!"

Luffy gawked for a second, then paused, thought for a moment, and chuckled.

"That's fair. If I get to do the same to you guys."

"No promises," Ben said, then bringing himself and Luffy back to find the others had still been processing Alvida's stupidity in the time they were talking.

"For the record, this is what you look like!" Sonson said, transforming into a copy of Alvida with the Earthly Transformations technique.

"Is…is that really what I look like?!" Alvida gawked before shaking her head. "Bah! Who cares about that? No matter what I look like, I am the most beautiful in all the seas!"

"Well, at least she's not ashamed of herself..." Bamia dryly noted, Ben nodding in agreement.

"Silence! You dared try to mess with my crew and as their captain, I can't let that slide! DIE!"

Alvida swung her mace to hit the five but Luffy simply repelled it with his rubber body while Sonson hopped above it, carrying Koby on her back while Bamia, Draco, and Ben turned into mist, blood, and snow respectively.

"Guess we better boogie!" Ben said.

The five leaped up with Koby in tow and landed on the deck in the middle of the Alvida Pirates. Bamia calmly slipped out a pair of scimitars from her sleeves and held them in reverse grips.

"Game on."

All of the pirates were pummeled by the five's martial skills, Ben forming a spine-esque blade and clashing with a few pirates just for fun before tripping them up while Sonson flipped and rolled around like a monkey with her Ruyi Jingu Bang.

"You gotta be kidding!" One crewmate screamed. "These guys are monsters!"

Luffy then took a running start, grabbing the mast and letting his arms stretch as far as he could. The pirates quickly realized what he was doing and tried to run only to be stopped by a wall of bones made by Ben.

"GUM-GUM ROCKET!"

Luffy let his body fly right into the pirates, slamming them into the bone wall. Alvida climbed out of the hold just in time to see this, her jaw-dropping right to her ankles in shock. As the five dusted themselves off, Koby walked up to them in shock.

"Just what are you guys?! How did you do all that?!"

Luffy chuckled as he pulled his cheek like a rubber band while Sonson balanced herself on her staff and Bamia just waved her hands, creating mist from them.

"We all ate Devil Fruits! I ate the Gum-Gum Fruit, my sis ate the Mist-Mist Fruit, and Sonson ate the Monkey-Monkey Fruit: Model Sun Wukong."

"S-Sun Wukong...from Journey to the West?!" Koby gasped.

"That's not all." Ben said, sprouting a blade of bone from one arm while blood pooled out of the pores in his other arm and snaked around it. "I ate THREE Devil Fruits; the Bone-Bone Fruit, the Blood-Blood Fruit, and the Bat-Bat Fruit: Model Higher Vampire."

"Same here. But the fruits I ate were the Kaiju-Kaiju Fruit, Alchemy-Alchemy Fruit, and Disaster-Disaster Fruit! Three of the most rarest and most feared Devil Fruits around!"

Alvida was shocked. "You lot actually ate Devil Fruits? I'd heard rumors, but to think they actually exist."

"Just shows how much of a small fry you are. Where I'm from Devil Fruits are well-known." Draco said. "We have whole books written about them, hell some people actually experiment with them."

"Like the legendary Dr. Vegapunk!" Sonson clarified.

"But from what I saw, your power doesn't come from Devil Fruits alone. You're way too skilled for that." Alvida noted. "You some kind of bounty-hunting crew like the Pirate Hunter Duo?"

"Pirate Hunter Duo?" Draco asked. "Never heard of those two…."

"…I think a drunk at Makino's may have mentioned them…" Sonson mused. "Something about…too many swords and…a bird? I don't know, I wasn't really listening."

"Actually, we're pirates." Bamia clarified.

Alvida laughed. "Really?! Just five measly pirates?!"

"Cut us some slack, we just started," Ben said. "Right now we're looking for crew members.

Luffy perked up as he noticed Nami fleeing the Miss Love Duck out of the corner of his eyes, recognizing her from the confrontation with Ganzack. Despite this, he kept his mouth shut.

"So you're all pirates too, huh? I guess that makes us enemies." Alvida said.

Koby just noticed that both men were staring at Alvida without fear, heck they were actually grinning. Emboldened, the boy decided to go for broke.

"Alvida, you've always been the ugliest cragged old hag I've ever seen! And you know what else!? I'm going to join the Marines, and beat up evil pirates like you!"

That got every member of Alvida's crew's jaws dropping in shock. Alvida herself could barely keep from dropping her iron mace.

But Koby's pirate friends?

"Shishishishishishi!" Luffy laughed, slapping his knees.

"Ukikikikikikiki!" Sonson giggled as she rolled on the floor, tears in her eyes.

"Kurukurukurukurukuru..." Bamia whispered in a creepy ghostly tone.

"Scary!" the Alvida Pirates mentally shivered.

"Babababababababababa!" Draco bellowed, pointing at Alvida and then Koby.

"Trolololololololo!" Ben snickered, clutching his gut at the scene.

Alvida, after getting over her shock, felt a vein bulge in her forehead as she lunged at Koby with her mace.

"You damn pipsqueak!"

Luffy quickly stepped in the way, allowing Alvida's mace to hit his head, which simply squished against it harmlessly.

"Cool thing about being rubber. Concussive force doesn't affect me at all."

"Except for Grandpa's Fist of Love..." Bamia noted silently.

"We don't talk about the Fist of Love…" Draco hurriedly mumbled, trembling in his boots as he recalled…memories.

Luffy then pushed through that and with a smile on his face, began to speak as his arm stretched beyond the ship.

"I am rubber and you are fat! Don't you dare TOUCH MY HAT! GUM-GUM PISTOL!"

Alvida felt Luffy's stretchy punch slam into her gut, sending her flying back and right into the ocean. Ben grinned as he turned to the rest of the crew.

"Anyone else wanna try us?"

There was an immediate clattering as all the pirates dropped their weapons at once and raised their hands in surrender.

"Alright. Koby here is going to join the Marines, and you guys are going to let him. That understood?" Luffy said with his hands on his hips.

"Or do we have to give you guys a spanking?" Sonson added, slapping her staff in her hand with a threatening gaze.

"N-No! Koby is free to go! We'll stay right here and not do anything!" One of the Alvida Pirates squeaked in fear.

"Looks like you'll be getting your dream, Koby," Draco said, putting a hand on the younger boy's shoulder.

"But not if you're caught associating with us." Bamia pointed out.

Everyone looked to where she was pointing and saw a Marine vessel, which was already starting to open fire.

"Huh. They found us already." Bamia noted.

"Looks like three battleships. We'll have to jump ship." Ben noted before he tensed. "Um, Draco?"

Draco's eyes suddenly turned into those of a moth and he gave all the ships a once-over.

"Nope. We're good," He noted as his eyes returned to normal. "He's not on any of them."

The five pirates let out sighs of relief as Ben then noticed a longboat being prepped below.

"And there's our ride, lads, and lasses!"

"Banzai!" Sonson shouted as she picked up Koby and leaped down right onto the boat with everyone else...which just so happened to be piloted by Nami.

"You guys again?! I thought I ditched you back on the other island!" Nami snapped.

"Wow, what a funny coincidence!" Luffy grinned cheekily. "Anyway, we need to get outta here!"

"Hope you got room for a few bags of goodies!" Sonson said as she dropped a large bag filled with food, nearly sending the boat capsizing before

"BONE BOAT!"

From Ben's hands burst out several bones that formed an open ribcage to hold the bag and a quarter of a spine to attach it to Nami's boat.

"And you all said that move was useless!" Draco beamed.

Nami's fragile little mind barely realized what was going on before she decided to just go with this. At least these guys couldn't be any worse than Carmina, right?

…Right?

Knightmare Lord A/N:

That should be enough for retcons. Sorry about that, Marc!