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Chapter 2: Join My Crew!

William stood at the bow and watched the setting sun bask the sky in bright vibrant orange as the day came to a close. Even after several hours at sea it all still felt like a dream and any minute now he would wake back up in his house back on Lacha. But it wasn't a dream and William really was out here sailing. All he could do was smile as the sun disappeared behind the horizon and was replaced by the moon.

William let out a big yawn, all of the excitement had worn him out and he was starting to get drowsy. Walking down to the hold he took his blade off his back, set it against the hull of the ship, and layed down on a small bed on the floor. Before he went to sleep he thought about where he should go. He was so caught up in leaving he never really thought about where his first destination should be.

His first idea was going straight to the Grand Line but immediately shot it down. He had heard the stories of over confident pirates heading there through Reverse Mountain only to either come back beaten and broken or never come back at all. If he ever wanted to go there he would need to be one hundred percent sure he was ready so staying in the East Blue for now was the best idea. But now the question became where in the East Blue does he go. Realizing he was getting nowhere he set the question aside for tomorrow and went to sleep.

…

Suddenly he was awoken by the sound of thunder and the ship rocking violently. Rushing out of bed he immediately threw his sword over his shoulder and on his back as he rushed up to the deck to see what was going on. When he made it up the stairs he saw once clear skies now covered in dark clouds unleashing a torrential downpour as lightning shot all around. The quiet and calm ocean was now replaced with turbulent and raging waves that continuously slammed into the boat causing William to almost go overboard. Rushing to the helm he tried to guide the ship through the rough waters, the longer he stayed here the more likely the boat would capsize. While his ship was capable these waves could pose a threat even to the largest of ships.

William was trying all he could but there was only so much he could do in this situation. By now the sail had been ripped off the mast and now he was dead in the water with no way out of the storm. All he could was pray that the storm would die down and let him leave. But it had other plans for him. As panic started to set in he noticed a large shadow came over him and the ship.

That's when he it, a massive wave that dwarfed any wave that came before. William was frozen with fear as he realized that his tiny little ship would no doubt be crushed by this behemoth. When he finally did move it was too late the wave was on top of him and came crashing down. The ship was instantly split in half and sent down into the depths of the ocean. The sheer force of the wave hitting him almost knocked William out but somehow he managed to stay awake. Swimming back to the surface he saw his ship had vanished, say for a few pieces of wood and the barrels it had onboard. He swam over to one of the pieces of wood and clung onto it for dear life as the storm continued to rage on with no end in sight. He was now lost at sea.

…

Several days had gone by and William was still stranded out at sea. His body was starting to give out from days with no sleep and trying to stay afloat. He could barely keep his eyes open let alone move. Just as he was about to slip unconscious he noticed something. A small brown dot on the horizon coming towards him. It was hard to make out at first but as it came closer he recognized what it was, a ship.

His eyes shot open as nothing but sheer joy coursed through him. He began to wave his arms and shout desperate to get their attention. He noticed the ship start to turn and head directly towards him. With renewed strength he swam towards the ship even as his body screamed for him to stop. Once he got alongside the ship a life preserve was thrown and landed right in front of him. "Grab on!" a voice said as William held onto it for dear life as he was pulled up and out of the ocean. Once he got near the top a hand came over the gunwale and pulled him aboard. Both William and the men who pulled him up were out of breath exhausted from the ordeal. "Thanks." William said in between breaths as he slowly tried to stand up. However as he went to walk forward his body finally gave out and collapsed on the deck from exhaustion.

"Hey you alright!" one of the crewmembers asked as he rushed over to check on him.

"Quick get a doctor!" another shouted as they scrambled to help the unconscious man.

…

William awoke in a daze, he tried to move only for his body to start to ache all over. He began to look around to see where he was. He looked to be in a cellar in the hold of the ship, as he continued to look around he saw his blade leaning on a barrel. Realizing it wasn't on his back he stood up fighting through the pain and walked over to his sword. He inspected his blade for any damage, when he found none he breathed a sigh of relief thankful his prized possession was undamaged and holstered it.

Still sore he decided to stretch for a bit to ease the pain. As he was stretching the ship something struck the ship causing the whole thing to shake fiercely. William at first thought he was caught in another storm as some twist of irony but then the ship was struck again and he could hear the thunderous footsteps of the passengers and crew. That when from the chaos he heard someone from above shout one word "PIRATES!".

…

Above deck it was complete madness, everyone was panicking. Cannonballs striking either the water or the ship itself as a ship came up alongside and its crew threw grappling hooks to reel in the now damaged vessel. The ship was bright pink with hearts painted on her four sails and the figurehead was the head of a white duck with hearts for eyes. The crew of the ship began to board the ship and roundup the passengers and crew and take them onto the deck. Those who tried to resist were either cut down or shot, they were nothing short of ruthless.

Standing on the deck of the pink ship was a large round woman wielding an iron mace. She wore a white cowboy hat, navy blue coat with a pink shirt and white pants. It was clear to everyone she was the leader of the ruffians.

"KOBY!" the woman yelled. A boy came running over to answer her call. He was a small meek boy who wore a white sailor's shirt ,black pants, and had round glasses.

"Yes!" he said, doing a salute while clearly shaking in his boots.

"Who is the most beautiful woman throughout all the seas, that would even make Boa Hancock blush?" she said with a sneer while brandishing her mace waiting for the correct answer.

"Why that would be you, Lady Alvida! No one can compare to your beauty." Koby answered, lying through his teeth as he was sweating bullets while giving a scared smile.

"Correct!" she grinned happy to have her ego rubbed."Now go check down in the hold for anything of value." Koby immediately ran down into the hold happy to get away from her even just for a minute.

…

Koby looked around but all he found was barrels of food and alcohol then he came upon a barrel sitting all by itself. He tried to open it but it was sealed shut making impossible for the weak boy to open it.

"What do we have here slacking off are we?" a voice said behind him. Koby whipped his head around to see three members of Alvida's crew standing there all with evil grins on his face.

"No!" he shouted, frightened by the three men. "I just can't get this barrel open, it's sealed shut." trying to open the barrel only for the lid not to budge at all.

"Of course a weakling like you can't do anything right! Now stand aside and let me show you how a real man does it." as the pirate walked over to the barrel with a cocky grin on his face.

"Ooh I wonder if it's rum." another asked, salivating at the idea of it being liquor. "Well whatever it is, it's ours and ours alone." The third one said just happy to get anything.

"But if Lady Alvida finds out she will have our heads!" Koby shouted, afraid that if the men's plan gets discovered it won't just be them who gets punished.

"That's why Alvida is not going to know about this right, Koby." The main pirate brandished a cutlass with an evil smile ready to open the mystery barrel while the other two hovered over Koby making sure he understood the threat clearly.

Koby immediately put his hands up while letting a scared chuckle "Please don't hurt me." he whimpered.

Just as the pirate was about to bring his sword down on the barrel a boy suddenly burst from the barrel, arms extended and accidently hit the pirate in the jaw with enough force to knock him out cold. Everyone was beyond surprised and let out a shocked scream.

"THAT WAS A GREAT NAP!" the boy shouted with the biggest smile plastered on his face. The pirate's unconscious body finally hit the floor with a loud thud causing the boy to look down with confusion. The other two pirates, over their initial shock and confusion, unsheathed their swords and rushed over to cut down the boy for hitting their friend. Just as they were about to bring down their blades another blade came up and stopped them dead in their pirates were confused as to who stopped them, they looked down to see William who had decided to make himself known. With one big push of his sword he managed to break both of the pirates blades leaving them shocked and more importantly defenseless. The two pirates, seeing they were completely out matched, grabbed their friend and ran out of the hold as fast as they could.

William once he heard the hatch to the deck slam shut turned to look over at the two people still down here with him. He was just as confused as the pirates were as to why there was a boy in a sealed barrel. The boy was lanky and looked to be about seventeen. He wore a red sleeveless vest with no shirt underneath, A pair of blue jean shorts,sandals, and adore on top of his head was a simple straw hat with a red band wrapped around it. William could just tell from looking at him that the boy was brimming with energy and joy.

Koby was left slack jawed at the events that just unfolded and couldn't even get a single word straw hat boy looked around in confusion at William and Koby. "Who are you guys?" he asked while tilting his head slightly.

Koby finally found his voice and shouted back "I should be asking you that question!"

"I'm Monkey D. Luffy! Nice to meet you!" he exclaimed with a big grin.

"Names William." the swordsmen said, he thought he might as well introduced then looked over at the frightened boy. "Well what's your name?"

"My name's Koby." the young boy said softly before turning to look at Luffy. "What were you even doing in that barrel?" he asked, still curious about it.

"Well I was sailing when a giant whirlpool sunk my boat so I hid the barrel." he said almost nonchalantly like it was something completely normal.

Koby looked back to William who was now seated on top of one of the barrels. "What about you, why are you here?"

"Same as Luffy but instead of a whirlpool it was a big wave. Now the real question is why is someone like you doing with a pirate crew, you certainly don't look or act like one." William was curious, he had been watching from afar and wondered why such a meek and shy kid was with a pirate crew.

Koby started to rub his next and let out a half hearted chuckle. " Well two years ago I wanted to go fishing and accidentally wandered onto Alvida's ship by mistake, ever since I've been her cabin boy" he said embarrassed by his mistake.

"Hahahaha man you're dumb!" Luffy said laughing at Koby's error.

"You don't have to be so frank about it."Koby muttered at Luffy's blunt reaction.

"So if you've been on her ship for two years why haven't you tried to escape." William questioned but he had a feeling he already knew the answer.

"Now way! Just thinking about what Alvida would do to me if she caught me! I can't risk it! It's impossible!" He said hysterically while shaking his head.

"Koby, have you even tried to escape?" William asked curious to see what his answer was but he had a feeling he already knew it.

"Um well no." he said meekly.

"Then how do you know if it's impossible?" Koby looked at the ground dejected, having his logic thrown right back at him.

"Because I'm a coward, I don't have the guts to jump into a barrel and float around the ocean like Luffy." Koby then looked up at William and Luffy, the latter of whom was rooting through the barrel looking for meat.

"William, why did you set out to sea in the first place?" he asked the took the blade off his back and laid it on his hand.

"I made a promise to someone and I intend to keep that promise, even if it costs me my own." William said never breaking eye contact with his blade. His hand tightened around the handle as painful memories of his failure came flooding in. He needed to let it go but he couldn't, no matter how hard he tried.

"Hey are you ok?" Koby asked, seeing this angry expression on William's face like he was lost in his own world. William realizing what he was doing holstered his blade and shook his head.

"Yeah, I'm fine just lost in my thoughts for a second" He said while taking a deep breath. Koby then looked over at Luffy who was munching on a piece of meat he found.

"What about you Luffy, why did you set out to sea?" Luffy then looked at him and began to smile the biggest smile he had ever seen.

" I'M GOING TO BECOME KING OF THE PIRATES!" he shouted to the heavens with his arms stretched out.

William let out a small chuckle "That's quite the ambitious dream you have.".

Meanwhile Koby was in complete shock after hearing Luffy's declaration. "King of the Pirates! But the only way to do that is to find Gold Roger's treasure, the "ONE PIECE"! Are you insane! Every pirate in the world is after it, even the Yonkos."

"Yeah and so am I." he said nonchalantly as if it was no big deal at all.

"But the chances of success are so low that it's basically impossible! You can't become King of the Pirates in this day and age! It will never happen! Never! Never! Never!" Koby continued repeating never while shaking his head until Luffy hit him in the head,knocking him down.

"What was that for!" He asked, rubbing the bruise on his head.

"You were being hysterical."

"Sorry." Koby replied meekly while getting up off the ground. Luffy then took off his straw hat and looked at his but while when William did it his eyes were full of sadness and guilt, Luffy's was filled with nostalgia and happiness.

"Besides, I'm not afraid to die. I've set myself to become King of the Pirates and if I die then at least I know I tried."

"You're not afraid to die! But how are you so sure you will find the ONE PIECE!"

"Because I believe I can succeed."

Koby was left speechless; he had never seen such determination in all of his life. Tears began to run down his face as a long lost dream came to the surface.

"Maybe it is possible after all, as long as I'm willing to risk everything." he whispered to himself.

Both William and Luffy looked at Koby, overhearing him talking to himself.

"William, Luffy, do you think I can join the marines!"

"The marines?" they both said in unison confused by the out of nowhere question.

"Yeah, it's been my dream ever since I was a kid! I know we would end up fighting each other but I want to join and stop bad guys like Alvida! Do you think it's possible?"

Luffy just looked at Koby and gave him a very matter of fact answer. " How should I know?".

Meanwhile William's response was very personal. He walked over to Koby,knelt down, put a hand on his shoulder, and smiled. "Koby,I think you would be the best marine in the entire world and I can't wait to see your dream come true."

Luffy looked on and smiled watching the heartfelt moment.

"But first we have to get off this boat" William said as he began to stand up. " Koby, do you know if this ship has any dinghies we can use?"

"Yea there should still be a few left."

William began to walk over to the stairs leading to the deck. " Then let's get out of here so all our dreams can come true."

…

As the trio walked on deck they all immediately noticed something. It was quiet, too quiet. There was no trace of Alvida or her pirates anywhere, say for there ship still hooked alongside.

Looking around they noticed a lone dinghy still on the ship ready to be dropped into the ocean.

"Over there!" Koby shouted as all three began to run to the tiny boat.

"There you are, you little runt!" a voice shouted from behind them. They all turned around to see Alvida and her pirates who were all waiting to ambush the group. William noticed in the group of pirates was the three who were with Koby down in the hold.

"That's them captain, those were the ones who beat us!" one shouted

"The one with the blade, he's got to be Roronoa Zoro!" another yelled pointing at William.

" The pirate hunter but that's absurd the navy has him locked up there's no way that's him!"

That's when Alvida put an end to the argument. "That's not Roronoa Zoro, he only has one blade! This is just some upstart who went barking up the wrong tree."

Koby at this point was starting to shake in his boots as his fearful self came crawling back and Alvida noticed this.

"Koby!" she bellowed. " I'll give you one chance to save yourself. Tell me, who is the most beautiful throughout all the seas?" she smirked, she knew his fear would make him crawl back to her.

He started to sweat fiercely and he began to rub the back of his neck. "W-Well Lady Alvida t-t-that w-would be–." Before Koby could answer her question Luffy answered it for him.

"Who's this tough looking old hag?" he asked, pointing over to Alvida. This left everyone stunned, they all just looked at him, mouths hung wide open and eyes nearly bulging out of their heads. All except William who was trying his hardest to hide his laughter at both Luffy's question and everyone's reaction.

Once Alvida got over the shock of the response her eyes were now bloodshot red and her hand squeezed her iron mace. She was not about to let some boy get away with insulting her like that.

Koby grabbed Luffy by his shoulders and began to shake him while Luffy just looked at him in confusion. " Luffy! Do you understand who that is? That's Iron Mace Alvida and she-" and then he paused and thought about what William and Luffy said about their dreams as well as his knew what he needed to do.

"LADY ALVIDA IS UGLIEST WOMAN THROUGHOUT ALL THE SEAS." he shouted directly at Alvida who now just stood there looming over all three of them. William smiled at Koby seeing him finally stand up for himself while Luffy was laughing at Koby's insult.

That's when Alvida snapped.

"Why you little brat!" she shouted as she brought her mace over her head ready to swing down and clobber her former cabin boy.

William was about to step in and block the hit but Luffy beat him to the punch. He pushed Koby behind him and stood directly in the path of the swing ready to tank the hit.

"It makes no difference to me you're going to die all the same!" Alvida screamed as she brought the mace down right on top of Luffy's head. Everyone including William and Koby thought Luffy was going to die but when the mace hit his head Luffy stood firm and the mace stopped dead in its tracks.

"Impossible!" she muttered in complete shock that some random boy was able to stop her iron mace.

"That won't work on me cause I'm made of rubber!" Luffy smirked as he pushed the mace off of his head. Everyone was shocked by the reveal that Luffy was a devil fruit user. William had heard about them from both his grandfather and Matthew but to actually see one in person was incredible. Luffy then threw his arm back to throw a punch but his arm extended almost thirty feet backwards going completely off the deck of the ship.

"Gum-Gum" he shouted as his fist then came rocketing back.

"Pistol!" The attack slammed face first into Alvida, sending her to the floor and knocking her out cold.

Everyone on Alvida's crew was left stunned as their captain laid on the floor not moving a muscle.

"He took out Lady Alvida with a single punch." one muttered they were all scared of the boy. If this is what he can do to their captain then imagine what he could do to them.

Luffy then looked over at the cowering pirates, gave them a serious glare and pointed at them causing all the pirates to jump in fear.

"Give Koby a dinghy, he's going to join the navy!"

All the pirates immediately shot to their feet and rushed over to prepare the looked over at Koby who had tears running and gave him a big smile while laughing.

"Luffy.." was all Koby could say after seeing what he did. William sat on the gunwale and smiled. At first he didn't know what to think about Luffy but now he knew everything he needed to know about who he was.

…

The trio hopped on the boat prepared by the pirates and started to sail away from the two ships.

"So if you're made of rubber that must mean you ate the Gum-Gum fruit."Koby said, still intrigued by the revelation of Luffy's abilities.

"Yep." Luffy replied.

"Hey Luffy, if you're after the One Piece then you're going to the Grand Line right?" William asked.

"Yeah." he answered nonchalantly.

"You plan on going there by yourself?" William asked, seeing how Luffy operated he wouldn't have been surprised if his plan was to go straight to the Grand Line; he seemed crazy enough to do it.

"Nope, I'm going to assemble a crew. William, you should join!" He said looking over, his hand outstretched with a big smile.

"Why me?" Luffy's request caught William completely off guard, he had only known Luffy for about ten minutes and now Luffy wants him to join his crew.

"I can tell you're a good guy and you seem pretty strong. What do you say?" He answered back. William was about to say no but he paused and thought about it. Luffy seemed like a good kid, a little blunt and naive but his heart was in the right place. He then thought of his promise and what would make his grandfather more proud then to be a part of the future King of the Pirates crew.

"Sure why not, I was planning to go to the Grand line anyway." William said as he smiled and shook his new captain's hand. Luffy was ecstatic at William's acceptance and could barely contain his happiness.

"Alright, my first nakama!" he shouted

"Well we're going to need more crewmates if we want to go to the Grand Line." William noted even if Luffy was a devil fruit user there were bound to people who were either stronger or had stronger devil fruits.

"What about that guy those pirates mistook you for, Roronoa Zoro" Luffy brought up.

"You're talking crazy again, there's no way he would ever join your crew! Never! Never! Never!" Koby shouted after hearing what he thought was a ridiculous and stupid idea.

"Koby, how do you know?" William asked as Koby continued his hysterical chanting

"Alright it's settled, we're going to find the Roronoa Zoro and ask him to join our crew." Luffy declared as they ventured to the nearest navy base to find the fabled swordsman.

…

Meanwhile back on the ship another dinghy was being launched without anyone's knowledge. This dinghy only has one passenger, a girl with orange hair and a large sack full of money,jewelry and other stolen valuables. She then starts rowing the boat away from the vessel to her next destination. Where that destination was not even she knew ,all she knew is she had to get more money and everything would be alright. She would hold up her end of the bargain no matter what.

And that concludes chapter 2! I know this was a long one. I hope you enjoyed it and sorry for the wait.

Now answer some general questions about this story

Q. When is Smoothie going to appear?

As of right now. Aside from Lola in Thriller Bark none of the Big Mom pirates will appear until right before the two year time skip would start in canon.

Q. Will you cover any of the movies?

As of right now, no because I have not seen any of the movies so but if i end up seeing them and have an idea on a story then I might.

Q. Will I do original arcs/ add more original characters?

As for arcs I only have one in mind that's during the two year timeskip and to help flesh out multiple characters. However I want to keep original characters to a minimum and use the materials I'm given so most original characters pertain to William and William alone.

Q. Why did I decide to do this in the first place?

Because I got mad that there were little to none stories involving Smoothie besides smut and incredibly short stories so I decided if no one was going to do it I would do it myself.

I hope this answers any questions you might have. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I hope you stick around to see how this story unfolds.