"It's so stretchy now!" Luffy told Makino. He talked about his training with his 'Gomu-Gomu no mi' and his new moves, 'Pistol', 'Bullet', 'Bazooka', and 'Rifle', as they were eating dinner together.
"That sounds cool, Luffy. So you don't care about not being able to swim?" Makino asked him.
"I don't care! I'll just stay away from the water, it's simple!" Luffy replied with a grin, making Makino giggle.
"What are you going to do with it now?" Makino asked and Luffy hummed as he swelled a piece of meat.
"More training!" He declared energetically, making Makino laugh again.
"Make sure you don't overdo it, Luffy?" Makino told him with a worried expression. Luffy nodded to that.
As he went to respond, he heard the door to the bar get slammed open, making him turn around. A scowl grew on his face as he realized those idiots were back.
"There you are, brat." The leader, Higuma, said as he saw Luffy, a malicious expression growing on his face.
Makino's face went pale as she realized what was going on. She went around the bar to try and convince them to let him off, but Luffy beat her to it.
"What do you want, Idiot?" Luffy asked in a deadpan. Higuma's expression grew enraged before taking a deep breath and returning to his malicious smirk.
"I want to make you suffer brat, but I'm not going to take any chance with that weird power you have so.." He trailed off as one of his men held Makino at gunpoint. Luffy's face grew enraged as he saw this but still looked back at the bandit's leader and nodded his head. Higuma smirked and motioned to his men who held Luffy at gunpoint and forced him outside the bar.
"Don't even think about it brat. I told my men taking take good care of that lady that he should shoot her as soon as he hears gunfire, and we will shoot as soon as you resist." Higuma said with an evil look. Luffy gritted his teeth and looked down as he kept walking. After walking for a couple minutes they heard a voice.
"I was wondering why no one greeted us at the port" a voice sounded as they turned towards it, revealing Shanks and all of his Red Hair Pirates behind him, Makino and a knocked-out bandit further back. Higuma sneered.
"The hell did you shitty pirates do to my men?! Get them out of my sight!" Higuma said as he started walking away.
"Bet your life." Shanks said as he pointed at the pistol aimed at Luffy.
"Huh?" The bandit leader said as he turned back around.
"I said, Bet your life. Those things aren't for playing around."
*BANG*
As soon as he finished that sentence, Lucky Roo appeared next to the bandit holding Luffy at gunpoint and blew his brains out, all with a chunk of meat in his mouth. The bandit dropped to the ground, the next moment, Lucky was back with his crew with Luffy under his arm. Luffy grinned as he was set back on his feet and looked back at the unnerved bandits.
"Now that I don't have to worry about Makino, I can kick your ass all I want!" Luffy said as he charged the bandits with his right fist stretching back.
Shanks looked on in surprise. 'Has Luffy created an attack already?' Luffy planted his left foot and stepped forward with a massive smile on his face.
"Gomu-Gomu no…"
Luffy threw his stretched right arm forward. The arm started zooming towards the bandit closest to him.
"PISTOL!"
*BAAANG!*
The fist crashed into the first bandit's face and didn't show down, knocking him into other bandits as 5 ended up unconscious with 3 more trapped in the dogpile. Higuma looked at Luffy with drops of cold sweat running down his face.
As his arm stretched back, Luffy kept charging the know completely freaked out bandits as The Red Hair Pirates watched with pride and Makino with awe as he was moving too fast for her to see clearly. He stretched his arm out as he was running. "Gomu-Gomu no…"
He stopped right in front of Higuma, from his perspective looked like he teleported there, and let his stetted left arm snap back and ram right into the bandit leader's face.

"BULLET!"

The rest of the bandits looked like they just saw a ghost. They went to run away before they all fell unconscious with an unseen force.
"I thought you were kidding when you said your punch is as strong as a pistol?" Shanks said to Luffy with a grin. Luffy grinned right back at him.
"Of course, I wasn't kidding! They messed with Makino, so I had to beat them up!" Luffy said with a frown that made Shanks chuckle. He reached out to rub the kid's hair only to get slapped away, which only made him laugh harder.
"Oh yeah, where is Uta? I don't see her anywhere" Luffy said after he saw the bandits getting tied up. The question made the crew tense up and Luffy noticed immediately. He narrowed his eyes at Shanks who was avoiding eye contact.
"Shanks! What happened to Uta?!" Luffy shouted as he was getting more and more worried. Shanks looked at him with hesitation before sighing and motioning him back towards the bar.
Luffy and Shanks are sitting next to each other at 'Partys Bar' without anyone else in there. Shanks looked at Luffy seriously and asked.
"Luffy, you already know that Uta ate the Uta-Uta no mi, right?" Luffy nodded his head. Shanks did the same and continued.
"You see Luffy, one of the past users of the Uta-Uta no mi sealed away a monstrous entity known as 'Tot Musica' as it would actively seek out and control users of the Uta-Uta no mi into doing horrible things by trying to influence the users to sing the song that would bring it back into the world." Shanks explained to the boy, who didn't care about any of this, he just wanted to know if his friend was alright, which Shanks could see, so he continued.
"Uta was influenced into singing that forbidden song and in turn, released the monstrous entity, and in turn, destroying the island and killing nearly everyone on the island." Luffy was shell-shocked. He never could've imagined his friend went through all that in the short time since he saw her. He thought back to what would end up being the last time he would talk to her for a while.
*Flashback*
The Red Hair Pirates were preparing for their voyage. Luffy although sad, couldn't stop them as Shanks' command was of top priority.
So here he was at the dock, saying his last goodbyes to Uta. "I'm gonna miss you a lot, ya know." Luffy smiled at her. Uta huffed and smirked mischievously at him.
"Well, I won't!" Uta replied with a smile, making Luffy frown. Uta giggled.
"I'm just kidding, Luffy. I'm going to miss you a lot too. Wanna hug?" Uta asked him more stretching out her hands. Luffy grinned and hugged her tightly. Uta laughed and squealed as Luffy picked her up and spun her around a few times.
She was still giggling as he sat her down. She looked at him with a smile "Yeah, definitely gonna miss you a lot." She muttered.
"Uta! We have to go now!" Uta heard Shanks call her.
"Got it!" She shouted back before looking at Luffy who was smiling at her. She leaned into him and kissed him on the cheek.
"This is my goodbye gift, you better return it when we meet again. See you soon Luffy!" Uta waved at him as she boarded the ship. Luffy was stuck in a daze. He stayed there for a few seconds before running to end of the dock and started waving at them as they sailed away.
"BYE UTA! I'M GONNA GET STRONGER HERE AND WAIT FOR YOU!" Luffy shouted at them. Uta waved back.
"BYE LUFFY! I'M GONNA MISS YOU!" She shouted back with a grin. Luffy grinned back as they kept waving at each other until the ship was out of sight.
"They're not coming back, are they Makino?" Luffy looked at Makino who was standing behind him. The only friend he made around the same age as him was now gone in a flash.
"Luffy, I think it's time for a life lesson," Makino muttered as she knelt beside him.
"You have to cherish the time you spend with the people you care about. You never know when you will see them again or what will happen tomorrow, so you need to make sure you enjoy your time with them while you have the chance. If you're sad they are gone, just think about the happy memories from when they were here." Makino explained.
"You said you and Uta-chan would meet again right?"
"Mhm."
"So think about that. Get stronger and prepare for the time you're going to reunite with her. Got it?" Makino smiled at him. Luffy grinned at her.
"Got it, Makino! Yosh! I'm so excited now!"
*Flashback End*
Shanks saw as Luffy's face went from shell-shocked, to fierce determination and couldn't help the grin that grew on his face. Luffy saw as Shanks looked like he was thinking about something before making eye contact with his vice-captain. Said vice-captain looked contemplative for a few seconds before his eye hardened and he gave a single nod. Shanks nodded back and looked back at Luffy.
"Listen, Luffy…" He started as he made sure the easily distracted boy was paying attention. When he saw he was, he continued.
"I was originally going to leave after I explained what happened to you because I felt you needed to know as Uta's friend, but this changed my mind." Shanks said with a grin that excited Luffy. He felt a smile growing on his face as Shanks continued.
"We're going to stay here for 3 more months because that's all we can take before the Marines come sailing in here. I'm going to be teaching you the basics of something called 'Haki' as well as how to wield a sword." Shanks checked to make sure Luffy was paying attention and surprisingly, he was very focused and seemed to be comprehending what he was saying. That made him smile as he went to continue.
"Benn will be helping with your physical skills. Before you say anything, I already know you're strong enough to knock over a tree with a punch, but remember Luffy, there is always someone stronger out there and there is always someone who is working harder than you, so you can't slack off even if you're already good." Luffy nodded to that, he knew he was nowhere near what his Grandpa does with his punches, he'd seen him punch a bird out of the air 100 meters above him! He just punched towards the bird and the next thing he knew, the bird was crashing into the ground with a visible fist mark on its face.
"You don't seem like much of a shooter so Yassop will be helping with your 'Observation Haki' and Lucky will be helping you with your speed. So do you have any questions before we start?" Shanks grinned down and asked Luffy who seemed ecstatic about everything he was being told. Luffy couldn't hold in his excitement anymore and yelled out.
"Can we start now? What's this 'Haki' thing you keep talking about? And what's a 'fis-i-cal' skill?" Luffy rapid-fired off questions in his excitement which made the bar burst out laughing,
"Don't worry, I'll teach you. Though before we get started, I do have something for you…" Shanks trailed off as he stood up and walked out of the bar. Everyone looked at him curiously before shrugging and returned to what they were doing.
It was only after Shanks walked back in with a cutlass in a black sheath with a yellow hilt with a diamond-shaped pattern, a golden guard, and a thinner hand-guard extension running atop the hilt that the bar quieted down again.
Once the Red Hair Pirates saw what their captain went to grab, they immediately went silent, some unconsciously holding their breath. Luffy's attention was immediately grabbed by the blade Shanks was carrying. It gave him the same feeling he felt that time he tried to grab Shanks's 'Griffon', crazy strong. But instead of rejecting him, he could somehow tell this one accepted him. Shanks walked back to the bar and sat down next to Luffy.
"Luffy, this cutlass used to belong to my captain, I've always had it since he passed away but it's just been collecting dust in my ship since I have no use for it. But now I do." Shanks said with a smile as he handed the sword over the Luffy who took it with a look of awe on his face.
"That cutlass' name is 'Ace' and it's one of the '12 Supreme Grade Meito' making it one of the strongest swords in the world. I've seen my captain cut down mountains and tsunamis with this sword." Shanks explained with a grin as Luffy unsheathed it and admired it. A massive grin grew on Luffy's face.
"So can we start now?!" Luffy asked as he was practically vibrating in his seat, making the bar burst out laughing again. Shanks smirked at him before he slammed his beer and stood up.
"Let's go, Anchor!"
"Stop calling me that!"
Luffy was at the port watching Shanks and his crew load up their supplies, trying to contain himself as he was being teased by the red-haired captain.
"Blehhh! There's no way a wimp like you could ever be a pirate!" Shanks stuck his tongue out and mocked Luffy to get him riled up which worked perfectly. Luffy felt his eyebrow twitch.
"I WILL!" He yelled out as Shanks grinned down at him and got the attention of the rest of the crew.
"Someday, I'll gather a crew even better than yours! I'll become the Pirate King and start a new Age of Freedom! I'll turn the world upside down!" Luffy yelled out with all his heart and soul as he felt a tug on that feeling he now knew was 'Conquerers Haki' and felt a little bit escape his body which made Shanks grin and put his hand on his straw hat.
"Then take this. This hat was passed down from my captain to me, and now I'm giving it to you. When you accomplish your dreams, return this straw hat to me." Shanks smiled and put the straw hat on Luffy's head. Luffy gripped the brim tightly to cover his eyes overflowing with tears.
"Shanks! Thank you for believing in me! I promise I'll give this hat back to you after I find the One Piece!" Luffy sobbed out as he watched Shanks, Benn, Lucky, and Yassop wave at him as they sailed away for the final time.

Yo! 4th chapter done! Sorry if you read the chapter before I edited it, I thought I set the auto-publish to 6:45 PM, not 6:45 AM or whenever the hell it ended up getting posted. Anyway, I'm finished with the 'Romance Dawn' saga as of writing this and I just need to go through and edit them. I'll probably post them on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with the last chapter of the saga being posted on Friday. This should give me the time I need to write out most, if not all of the 'East Blue' while also giving me time to see if people have any suggestions. Thanks for reading and see you Monday!