It has been fifty-seven years since the execution of the Second Pirate King, Monkey D. Luffy, and he has left a legacy in his wake so great that some say he was more legendary than the First King, Gol D. Rogers. But like the last Pirate King, at his execution, he told the world that he had again hidden the One Piece for the world to find. Many saying it was the start of the next Age of Piracy, but then, war broke out among two families: the Monkey family and the Cobra family. After four decades of bloodshed, the war finally subsided. And nineteen years later, a member of the Cobra family set out on a quest to obtain the One Piece, his name is. . .

Chapter 1: Welcome to Pirate Life

Somewhere in the West Blue, near the island Toroa:

". . . Cobra D. Red, sir," said a timid sailor.

They stared down at the sleeping form. His hat was laid across his chest, that if you didn't give a good look, you'd think he was shirtless, but his dark green trench coat, blocked out most of his shirt. He had long, flat, brown hair and a scar on his cheek. He also had a gun holstered in his belt as a makeshift holster, the captain seeing this, kicked the gun so that it now lay a few feet to his left.

The captain scratched his chin stubble, wondering what his next move should be. He had heard stories of the Cobra family and their infamousness, hell, he had been born during their war with the Monkey Pirate Organization. He wondered whether he should wait till they got to the island, or kill him here, on the Fishhook, but he thought against it. He didn't want his sailors to be mopping up blood along with the usual shit that came out of the ocean. He thought these things because in his hand was a Wanted Poster, and that poster belonged to a certain Cobra D. Red, for a 1,000,000 beli.

"It would be pretty nice to have that money, but he's offering more just to get to this island, and he sounds pretty desperate, too," said the captain, "Also, there is the thought that the crew might not like that idea, considering they had laughed and drank together last night."

And truly, there was a lot of fun last night, the men on board laughed, even at the stupid jokes, they drank until their captain told them that a drunken sailor in five minutes tops could be a dead sailor, and they partied on board, and it was honestly a big bang. And it was all thanks to that Cobra. "You have to admit that was a pretty wild night, I think we might've capsized if you hadn't stepped in," said the sailor with a smile on his face. "Yes, but we have to remember that he is a pirate, and pirates, even if they give you a good time, they're still damn pirates," the captain remarked. Suddenly, the lookout yelled down from the crow's nest, a look of terror written on his face.

"Ship! Ship! And it's flying a Pirate Flag!"

The captain turned and took out a telescope, and with ease saw the pirate ship coming towards them. Seeing the flag, he recognized that it wasn't a big group, just a small one that had started out in the past few weeks. They weren't a serious threat from what he had heard, but their captain could mean business if he was in a bad mood. But just as he was thinking of what small threat they posed, they started firing on them, and they were coming upon them quickly. "Turn to port and trim the sails! If we let that ship catch us, we'll be history!" shouted the captain.

That's when they heard the yawn.

"So what's going on, are we under attack?" asked Red, stretching out his arms as he yawned. He looked like he just woke up and was now looking blurry eyed at his surroundings, seeing the plumes of water rising from where the cannonballs had hit. "I guess we are under attack," said Red, answering his own question. "I'm a go deal with this, be back in a minute." He grabbed his gun and his hat, and suddenly bolted for the end of the ship, clearing the gap between the ships, and landed feet first on the deck of the enemy ship. "So, who's in charge?" said Red, looking around the ship of shocked pirates, fists on his hips as he scanned the ship for any, captain-y looking people. Strangely, whenever he saw crews like this, they always had a sort of theme to them.

Suddenly, their shock turned to anger and they all started charging. He easily avoided the first sword stroke, and then dodged the second one by falling down to the deck. While on the ground, he used his hands to propel himself, feet first, at the nearest pirate's chest, knocking the wind out of him. He then turned to see the pirates raising guns to shoot, but they realized he wasn't there anymore. He had jumped from where he was standing to grip onto the yardarm with his right hand, and from there he took out his gun and shot a pirate in his foot. He then proceeded to swing down from the beam to give a hard right hook to the pirate's head, so hard, that when the head slammed down on the deck, it snapped and splintered the wood. The pirates started backing up at the sudden turn of events, seeing that their comrade was now out cold, with one punch. Then a voice came from behind them.

"So, you think you can barge onto my ship, beat up my men, and destroy part of my boat!" said the man, obviously the captain.

"Yes, also that 'destroying' is just a bent plank. You can easily hammer it out," said Red.

"How about I hammer you, you little shit!" and with that the captain charged.

In hindsight, it was an easy battle. Red dodged the punch that would've knocked out a cow, allowing it to get stuck in the deck where he had been standing. He then proceeded to knee the man in the stomach while he was trying to pull his fist out of the decking. But then the captain grabbed him with his other hand, the unstuck one, and lifted him up, throwing him through the cabin window and knocking over a table. Then the captain barreled through the door and threw Red out of the unshattered window, slamming his foot down on top of him.

"Ha-ha, now prepare to die, you piece of crap!" But before he could do anything, Red grabbed him by the ankle and lifted him, as if he were as light as a pillow, and proceeded to chuck him overboard, with the sounds of his screaming growing fainter, until he hit the water and there was nothing.

"Oh no! Captain can't swim!" shouted the crew.

"Wait, he ate a devil fruit? Then why didn't he use it in battle?" Red asked. "No, he doesn't have a devil fruit, he just doesn't know how to swim," explained a crewman, and with that Red stared open mouthed at the crew as they tried to get their captain out of the water. After pulling him out of the water, Red gave a swift knock to the captain's head, knocking him unconscious. After all that had happened, Red jumped back to the ship with the pirate's captain in tow. It turned out that the bounty on his head, 10,000,000, would more than make up for Red's travel expenses. And they sailed onward, finally reaching their destination of Toroa.

"Thank you so much for saving our ship, and with the bounty you collected for us, the passage here is free," said the captain, "although, I'd be careful here, you are a wanted man." Red smiled, rubbing the back of his head, "I get that a lot."

"Well then, take care."

And with that the Fishhook left the harbor, to leave Red looking at the town he had landed in. It was a quaint enough town, with people strolling around the harbor, many looking at exotics sailors had for sale, and others just staring at the ocean. So Red hitched up his bag and started going into town. But then, out of nowhere, a guy with long red hair took out a dagger and sliced open his bag, quickly sifting through it to find the money within and then took off running. This took place so fast that Red had no time to react before he was a few meters ahead of him.

"HEY GIVE ME MY STUFF BACK!" shouted Red as he took off after him.