Hey everyone! Hopefully, I'll be updating this more in the future. Unfortunately, a narration where the perspective is so limited doesn't suit the story's release schedule, but I'll hope that it makes do regardless.

Lots of stuff here is reliant on the next part of the arc and yet it's still bloated somehow lol. I guess spending too much time away from Luffy-mode is bad for me. I'll for sure need to shake the rust off as I move forward.

Illustrations for the chapter are available on Spacebattles, Questionable Questing and my Discord server!

X

This Zoro guy sure was being difficult. I couldn't get him to talk.

"…"

"Say, are you a good guy?"

"…"

"I see, I see," I continued after giving him a moment to fill in the silence. He didn't. "But you're not saying that you aren't a good guy, right?"

I had to come up with something. We wouldn't get anywhere, otherwise.

"…"

"If you're a good guy, then…" I paused.

Hm. Good. He was listening, at least.

"Join my crew!" I asked him again cheerfully. I bent forward so that I could smile right in his face.

He didn't smile back, though.

"No way," he ground out.

"…Join my crew!" I repeated.

"No!"

"Please?"

"Saying 'please' won't change my answer, you nitwit!"

「Notice: A bounty is needed for your Infamy to be effective! Recruitment will be story-limited until a bounty is acquired.」

I stepped around the mystery square and pretended that I couldn't see it. Zoro watched me shuffle around with a confused frown on his face.

"Why not?" I continued after a moment.

"Do you really need to ask!? Besides– I have other things to worry about right now if you couldn't tell."

I tilted my head. Was he talking about the whole "being tied to a pole" thing? This guy wasn't very good at thinking things through.

"Well, if you joined my crew, I'd obviously help you get out."

"Not the point," he snapped back.

"What is the point, then?"

Before Zoro had the chance to answer, I felt something tugging at my arm.

I looked to the side, then down. The kid who'd been following us had his fingers wrapped around my elbow and was shaking like leaf.

"M-maybe this isn't a great idea, Mister!" he stuttered out. "This guy's a criminal, so…"

He trailed off once he saw that Zoro was staring at him blankly. The kid squeaked and backpedalled until he tripped onto his butt.

"Weren't you paying attention?" I asked the kid– not that I didn't already know the answer. He obviously wasn't paying attention. "I already asked him if he's a good guy or not, but it's just that he didn't give me an answer yet."

Nami looked around her nervously before leaving the far edges of the courtyard and pacing towards us as quickly as she could.

"No answer means 'no', dumbass!" she whispered, even though I didn't know why she was whispering to begin with. We were outdoors, so it was totally fine to use an outdoor voice. "It's obvious that he's not a good guy!"

I wasn't following her logic.

"I don't understand."

"I know you don't!" she screamed in her outdoor voice.

Zoro stomped his foot weakly, but it was enough to get our attention.

"Now that you have that settled, can you get lost? You people are annoying."

Nami huffed and dropped her hands on the kid's shoulders. He stiffened but didn't react beyond that.

"Gladly," she spat. "We shouldn't be here anyway. Wasting any more time when we've been able to get out of this crapshoot relatively unharmed would be looking a gift horse in the mouth."

"Hey, hey, hey! Who the hell are you!?"

Hm?

Someone had called out to us. I turned my head to the bunch of marine guys standing around an angry-looking mushroom-headed weirdo in a suit.

Nami and the kid looked pretty freaked out when they started walking toward us. The tied-up guy only frowned and looked away.

Hm? Now that he was a little closer, I noticed that Mushroom Guy's chin kinda looked like a butt. That was pretty funny.

"Are you three trying to interfere with this man's lawful detainment?" the funny mushroom-head asked in an annoying voice. I instantly wanted him to stop talking.

Nami and the kid looked at each other for a moment. They seemed to have been thinking hard about something, but I wasn't able to figure out what.

"Of course not," Nami chimed. She cupped her chin with her hands and grinned. "We have no business whatsoever with anything unlawful or arrest-related! In fact, we were just passing by and were… uh… a little curious as to why this guy here was locked up, is all!"

The marine guys looked at each other confusedly, but Mushroom Head wasn't budging. He scoffed and took off the other way.

"I don't have time for this!" he shouted again. "Marines! Get them out of here and make sure they stay out! You don't want Daddy to get angry again, do you?"

Nami and the kid sighed at the same time as Mushroom Head stomped away.

"Don't get involved with criminals," one of the Marines grunted before putting a hand on mine and Nami's shoulders. "Even when they're tied up, people who deal in violence will always be dangerous to a civilian. You're off the hook because the base is over capacity with pirates right now, but don't come back here again."

I looked down at this Zoro guy's face. The marine was talking as if he wasn't even around.

The man's teeth were grinding together. His bandana was casting a shadow over his eyes, but he was glaring all scary-like.

I opened my mouth to ask him a question.

"Say, what did you do any–"

Nami's hand slapped my lips shut.

"We're very sorry, Sir!" she apologised. "He's a bit slow. Come on now, you two!"

She pulled the kid and me toward the gate by our shirts. The Marines watched us leave without interfering.

Once the giant metal doors slammed shut behind us, Nami and the kid both dropped onto their hands and knees.

"We got away!" the kid squeaked before rolling onto his back and staring up at the sky blankly. "I don't know how, but we're out…"

Nami's head snapped up. She was glaring at me.

"No thanks to you!" she screamed. "What were you thinking!? Was it too easy to just keep your mouth shut and watch those guys let us off scot-free?"

I stared at her blankly for a second.

Then looked to my left.

Then my right.

The kid was still lying there and no one else was around, so…

"You talking to me?" I asked, pointing to myself.

"You– never mind that!" Nami got back onto her feet and spun away angrily. She started walking away from us. "I'm done with you, Pirate. See you never."

My lips thinned. I stretched out my arm and held onto her shoulder firmly.

"Hey. You can't leave."

I could feel her stiffen through my fingers. Her neck turned over her back slowly; she looked scared.

"…Why's that?" she asked calmly.

The kid stood up and slowly shuffled back. His eyes were wide and his head flipped back and forth between us.

I pouted.

"You said you'd help me find my friend! You promised! We made a deal and everything! It's not fair if you just leave now, is it?"

She blinked at me.

"…"

"…"

She blinked again.

"Ah. Well, uh…"

I crossed my arms and nodded. Being-right-edness sparkled in my eye.

So there.

Nami avoided my eyes.

"…Sorry. I can't help 'ya. You lost your friend at sea, right? There's no way that an extra head will do you any good if what you know is just that."

My jaw hung open.

"Hah!? Seriously!? That sucks!"

She clamped her mouth shut and didn't say anything more. Before I could try anything, though, the kid butted in.

"Excuse me…"

We both looked at him. He shrank in on himself a little, but the wind wasn't totally taken out of his sails.

"It wouldn't hurt to go ask around the city, right?" he suggested. "If we go to the heart of town or something, there might be someone who's heard a rumour or two."

"…"

I laughed.

"You're pretty smart, kid!"

Nami wasn't as impressed. She hunched over him and whispered loudly into his ear.

"What the heck are you doing! Don't drag me into this; I was about to be rid of this moron!"

If she didn't want me to hear that part, then she should have been a little quieter, I think.

The kid made a strange noise when she called him out.

"Ah! Eh, sorry! I'm just…" He turned towards me and bowed. I blinked emptily at the top of his head as he did so. "I'm grateful! Mister Pirate got us out of there: it would leave a bad taste in my mouth to run off knowing that if he didn't help us, we'd still be imprisoned in the marine fort right now."

"He's the only reason I was thrown in there at all," Nami grumbled, but I ignored her.

I beamed at the kid.

"Don't mention it!"

He got up from his bow and shook his head vigorously. There was an unusual fire in his eye.

"No! I have to mention it! Ever since I was a kid, it's always… what I'm trying to say is… I want to be a Marine! It's always been my dream to join the navy, but it's not possible with a criminal record, so…"

He trailed off bashfully. I smiled.

His dream, huh?

"Say. Kid. What's your name?"

"You're only asking that now!?" Nami squawked. "No, more than that, you've definitely heard it! I know you did!"

"Koby," he answered simply.

「Your bond status with Koby has changed from [wary] to [appreciative].」

"Koby, then," I repeated. If you want to join the Marines, why don't you just ask since we're here?"

Nami slammed her fist into the back of my head.

I leaned forward and cupped the spot that she hit.

…Eh?

It hurt. Did she–

"Dumbass," she moaned out with a defeated expression. "They'll definitely recognize him since he was arrested with the rest of the pirates here. If he's serious about the marine stuff, then he'll have to join at a different branch."

I understood.

"Right. We'll take you somewhere else, then."

Koby blinked.

"Eh? Really? Is that fine?"

I was confused by his question.

"Why wouldn't it be?" I asked back. It wasn't like I was just gonna stay here anyway. It was a shame about that Zoro guy, but I guess it couldn't be helped.

Nami crossed her hands in an "x" in front of her.

"You two do whatever you want, but I have stuff to do."

My head spun around to face her. I think the strange way that my neck turned kinda freaked her out.

"Why not?" I asked.

"That's none of your business!"

"Ah. Okay."

Her brows furrowed.

"So then, I'll just–"

"Nope!" I shot her down before she could say anything.

Nami clicked her tongue.

"Fine! I'll stick around and lend you a hand– but only until you've given up on looking around here."

I smiled.

"Thanks!"

Koby raised his hand for some reason. After waiting a moment for something, he lowered it.

"Mister Pirate," he started, "Is there maybe, I don't know… something that you could tell us about your friend? Anything that could help us describe her when asking around, really."

I thought about it for a moment.

"Big, has a club–"

"We covered that already," Nami snapped back.

"…"

"…"

I lifted a finger to my chin.

"Well, uh… she's got horns?"

"…Horns?" they repeated.

Oh yeah. I couldn't forget about her devil fruit. It made her look different whenever she used it after all.

"She's got fur all over her, sometimes…"

"Fur!?"

"Ah. Also, she gets all scary when she gets angry. I've seen her snap a sea king in half with a–"

"Stop!" Nami begged with her hands stretched out in front of her. "Just… stop. Are you even looking for a human being?"

Good question. Was Yamato a human? I didn't really know. Probably not, right? She was a person, though.

Ah… but then again, "person" wasn't the same as "human"– or at least, that was how I understood it. I knew a bunch of people that looked way too weird to be human.

I hummed.

"Maybe. Not Sure."

Nami took a deep breath. In the meantime, Koby spoke up again.

"A name, then! Your friend must have a name that we could use, right? That's always a good place to start."

Hoh. Smart.

I grinned.

"Her name's Yamato!"

"And what about you, Pirate?"

I turned to Nami. Her eyes didn't blink once as she stared at me.

"Me?"

"Yeah. You have a name, don't you?"

I shut my eyes and my smile widened.

"Yeah! Call me Luffy."

X

We walked through the city streets. My eyes were whirling all over the place, trying to keep track of all the cool things that were appearing in front of me.

I didn't get to see all of this before, but… this place was way different from Dawn Island, huh?

Gosh. Adventuring sure was exciting.

Hm?

Something was off.

It was all the villagers around us: they seemed freaked out by something. There weren't many people on the streets to start with –most of them were peeking out through their windows– but of the few that were out and about, all of them were pretty on guard.

I wasn't the only one who noticed.

Nami frowned.

"Hey, is it just me, or…"

Koby nodded.

"Yeah."

"Hey! You three!"

Someone was whispering at us angrily. I turned to see some random lady nervously shuffling from one foot to another with an arm stretched out to block our view of a little girl.

"What are you doing walking around like that!" she tried to say in what came out as more of a shout.

Obviously, none of us had any idea what she was going on about.

The woman bit her lip.

"You… you aren't from around here, are you? If so, you've come at a bad time."

We didn't get the chance to ask her what she meant. There were heavy footsteps behind us.

I turned around, and so did Koby and Nami. A whole bunch of Marines were marching down the street. The lady pushed us all into the building behind her and shut the door before we could ask any questions.

Suddenly, the marine guy leading the way stopped in his tracks and everyone behind him did too. We watched it happen through a nearby window, though I couldn't get a good view because Nami kept pushing my head down whenever I tried to poke my head through the opening.

Head Marine Guy took a deep breath. His hat was casting a dark shadow over his eyes.

"Tax collection!" he yelled. "We'll be quick. Have one representative from each household at the ready. We don't want to ask twice."

I watched an old man step out of his house and fall to his knees.

"Please!" he begged, his head still lowered. "This is… we won't have anything left! I'm my grandson's sole provider, and I need this money to–"

"Pay up, old man," a marine droned emotionlessly. "Everybody pays."

The lady looked away sadly and the girl hanging off of her buried her face into the back of her skirt. Koby covered his mouth in horror and Nami... Nami seemed pretty calm, actually.

Koby's voice quivered.

"These people are… Marines, right?

Slowly, my blank expression melted into a scowl.

「A quest flag has been raised!」

「[The Terror of Shells Town]

Something's fishy, and it's not the harbor! The Marines aren't acting like they're supposed to and the whole town has been thrown into disarray. Get to the bottom of this!

Objective: Find all clues leading to the truth of the Shells Town Marine Base

Clues found: 0/5

Bonus Objective: Find all clues leading to the truth of Roronoa Zoro's arrest

Clues found: 0/3」

「Completion Rewards: [300 EXP], 50% discount at [Ririka's Bar]

Bonus Rewards: [?]」

I was too upset to care about whatever the mystery square was trying to tell me. I watched calmly as the lady handed over a bunch of Belly notes to the Marine guy who couldn't look her in the eye as he took the money.

"Hey. Lady," I spoke once he left. She turned to the window, which I had already stuck my neck through. "What is it that all of you people are paying them for, exactly?"

She smiled, but it wasn't a happy smile.

"Don't mind that, Dear. Living expenses are a bit high around here is all. We've grown used to it."

"But you shouldn't!" Koby yelled. He practically jumped out the window, falling forward and onto his butt outside. "I mean, the Marines shouldn't. This isn't how representatives of the World Government should act! This isn't Justice! If it's obvious that no one can afford to pay the state tax, then it's their job to do something about it, not run the town into poverty!"

Koby sure did have his own idea about what the Marines were supposed to be, huh?

He lowered his head before continuing in a lower voice.

"Why are they doing this? Is it because of the pirates? Do they need funding to deal with the scale of the detainment?"

The girl that was hiding behind the lady stomped forward.

"No! They're just a bunch of meanies!"

The lady pulled the kid towards her and slapped a hand over her mouth. She looked around to see if any of the Marines had heard the girl, but they had already moved on.

She sighed.

"…It's the captain of the base. Morgan. He's–"

"Corrupt?" offered Nami.

The lady's smile thinned, but it wasn't hard to figure out what that meant.

"How about you all come inside?" she suggested instead. "That must have been quite shaking for travellers such as yourselves. I run a Tavern: can I offer any of you something to eat? I'm afraid there won't be much of an ambiance until the regulars come along later, but–"

"Sure!" I agreed before Koby or Nami could offer their own input. I didn't need to hear anything more.

X

I stole the steak right off of Nami's plate when she wasn't looking, and it seemed like she wouldn't notice anytime soon. She had a finger on her chin and she was looking all focused-like. She'd turned around to face the nice bar lady.

"So the head of the Marine base has been a thorn in this island's side for years?" Nami tried to clarify.

「Clues found: 1/5

Find all 5 clues to progress the quest!」

She sounded pretty mad. Koby was sitting next to me at the table, staring at his food with balled fists.

I had my eye on him while I chewed on Nami's food. The second that he looked away, that pie would be mine.

Nice Bar Lady chuckled uneasily.

"There's no need to bring up such depressing subjects. You three have come to this town for your own reasons, right?"

Koby snapped out of his funk.

"Ah! That's right, Miss. We're looking for someone. Have you heard of a lady named… uh, Yamato passing through here? She's very big, from what I've been told."

The lady shook her head.

"Sorry. Maybe someone else's heard differently, but we really haven't had many people passing through here as of late. You're the first strangers I've seen around in a long time."

Ah. That sucked, then. Maybe I'd have better luck wherever it was that we sailed to next.

That was my cue. I swallowed Koby's dish in one bite. The poor sucker turned back and immediately went bug-eyed.

"What the–"

"It makes you think," Nami started again looking back at us and cutting Koby off. She didn't seem to waste too many thoughts on what the lady just said about Yamato. "How awful must Zoro be if even these guys went out of their way to detain him? Then again, it's not like they don't do their job at all if they were arresting those pirates–"

"No!"

The girl from earlier ran out from a back room carrying a tray of drinks. The lady grabbed the tray from her before she could slip.

"Big Bro Zoro isn't a bad guy!" the girl shouted. Her cheeks were puffed out. "Those jerks are just unfair! They were breaking things in mommy's bar, so Big Bro stopped them! But…"

She trailed off sadly.

I slammed a hand into my fist.

I see. So Zoro wasn't a bad guy, then.

That settled it. If I wasn't gonna find Yamato on this island, then I was gonna get something out of this.

The sound of my chair's legs scraping against the ground echoed as I stood up. Everyone looked at me.

"M'kay. I'll be back. I'll go talk to Zoro then tear down the Marine base or something."

"…"

"…Hah?"

"Hm?"

"Wait–"

I'd left the tavern and closed the door behind me. I spun my arms in circles and whistled as I started walking toward the Marine base.

…It was this way, right?

The door that I had just closed swung right back open. My arms stopped mid-twirl and I turned my head over my shoulder, wide-eyed.

Nami and Koby were standing there with beads of sweat dripping down their faces. Were they okay?

"Luffy," Nami started softly, "What was that you were saying about tearing down the Marine base?"

I blinked.

"That? Well, uhm, I'm going to tear down the Marine base."

"You just repeated what I said!"

Koby stepped forward.

"You can't just… do that!" he shouted. The kid's glasses were all crooked on his face. "That's–"

"Why not?" I asked. A wind kicked up, so I pushed my straw down on my head firmly.

"What put this idea in your head anyway?" Nami asked me. "Is it what that girl said about Zoro? She's a kid. You can't take anything that she says at face value. That's just irresponsible."

"..."

"...You'll get in trouble for real this time," Nami explained once she realized that I wasn't gonna say anything. Her arms crossed all serious-like. "Attacking a government building is more than a petty crime. They might just execute you."

…I didn't get it. They were saying all of this like it meant anything.

"Yeah. So? I'm a pirate."

They were quiet for a moment.

Nami's eyes widened for a split second before immediately going back to normal. She looked away.

「Your bond status with Nami has changed from [disliked] to [pitied].」

"You just set sail a little while ago, right? I can tell. You're not a pirate: you're just a dumbass who's playing the part without knowing what a pirate really is. I hope you're ready to die because that really is what's gonna happen to you if–"

"If I die, then I die. I'll do it 'cuz I wanna."

I spun on my heels before I could see their reactions.

I could hear their footsteps following me as I walked away, but I didn't look back at them.

X

"Hey! You there! Step away from the fort walls!"

「Clues found: 1/5

Find all 5 clues to pro-

I grabbed the flat surface of the giant gates. My grip warped the metal as my fingers dug into it.

"Didn't you hear me? Get–"

I pulled. The gates were torn right off the hinges, and their weights kicked up huge clouds of dust as they hit the ground.

The Marine guy that was yelling at me ran away.

"Y-you…"

I tilted my head back and my neck stretched so that I could look behind me. I held onto my hat so that it wouldn't fall.

"Hah?" I exclaimed when I saw Nami and Koby hiding behind a building really far back. "You two are still there?"

Their eyes were dead.

"You really aren't human, are you?" Nami said.

That caught me by surprise. My spine snapped back into place.

"I'm not?" I asked, kind of worried.

Before anything else could be said, a bunch of Marine guys ran through the big hole that I just made.

Koby shrieked. He and Nami ducked behind their cover, only poking the sides of their faces out a little.

"You need to get out of there, Luffy-san!" Koby tried to tell me without being too loud. "There's way too many of them!"

What the heck was he saying? There were only…

…

A few of them here.

Oh. Maybe there were others that I couldn't see. Yeah. That must've been it.

I took off my hat and held it to my chest while my other hand came up to give shade to my eyes. I spun around and tried to look for more Marine guys while Nami and Koby let out strangled cries.

I heard clicking. I stopped spinning around and looked at all the guns being pointed at me.

One of the Marine guys stepped forward and yelled, "Intruder! I recognize you. You're the Pirate that we arrested at the docks! How did you get out? Did Iron Mace Alvida–"

He stopped talking once I started walking toward them. He gritted his teeth.

"Men! Ready… aim… fi–"

I buried my fist in his face. A bunch of bullets were shot at me at the same time that he hit the ground. Obviously, none of them landed.

I grabbed the closest Marine by the hair and slammed him into whoever was nearby. I jerked my head to the side right before another bullet whirled past my ear.

"How did you–"

That guy was next.

I fell to a crouch and flung out my leg. The Marine tripped, and as he fell, I kicked him in the gut and sent him barreling into a bunch of other weaklings.

….Hm? That was most of them, right?

"G-get the captain!" one of them yelled.

After that, the rest of the weaklings ran away. I stepped past the unconscious ones and entered the Marine base.

Zoro was somewhere in the front, right? I wanted to talk to him first.

"Luffy. All those marines, you…"

Nami and Koby had stepped out of hiding.

"I beat them up," I finished simply. "I'm mad at them and they were in the way."

"That's not something that you can just do!" Koby screamed.

"Why not?"

"Because it's against the–"

He cut himself off. Good. I didn't have to say anything.

I found Zoro.

"Hey!" I shouted. I was smiling again, and in seconds, I had already run up to the guy.

Wow. He looked ever worse than earlier somehow. It took him a lot of energy to look up at me.

"…What do you want, kid? I thought I already told you to piss off."

Pueh. Mean.

"Join my crew! The girl from the tavern says you're a nice guy, so I think it's fine."

He spat on the ground.

"You're thicker than a bag of bricks, you know that? I already said no. My sentence is to hang out here for thirty days, and that's exactly what I'll do."

Ah, well…

"But there won't be a 'here' in just a bit."

"…Huh?"

"I'm gonna kick the captain guy's ass because he's being mean and I'm busting this place up too while I'm at it. Whatever the Marines say you've gotta do won't really matter in a minute."

"Wha– wait! You can't do that!" he shouted at me with more energy than I thought he had in him.

"Why not?" I asked.

Tche. Another one. Seriously. Was everyone outside of Foosha this unreasonable?

"I made a deal!"

"So?"

"A man doesn't go back on his word."

Grrk.

I took a step back and frowned. He had me there. Going back on your word wasn't manly at all.

But… but…

"Are you two done?" Nami whined. She was standing next to me suddenly. Koby was somewhere between her and the exit and he kept flicking his head back over his shoulder as if someone was gonna poke him in the butt. "The longer you take, the sooner there'll be more Marine reinforcements!"

"Then why don't you leave?" I asked her. It wasn't like I made her come or anything. Besides, I was gonna be looking for Yamato somewhere else after this anyway. She could have left any time she wanted. Girls were weird.

"I–"

"I have no intention of becoming a criminal, kid," Zoro told me, talking over Nami. "I have my own ambitions; I don't have time to slow down for someone who's playing 'pirate'."

Jerk. Another one, huh?

I looked him dead in the eye.

"I'm not playing."

"…"

He didn't want to hear it. He was right back to being quiet.

Tche.

I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Fine. I'll come back once I wreck this place up."

"…Wait."

I buried my heel into the ground.

"Hm?"

"Those bastards took my swords. They're in the base somewhere. Don't touch them."

Hoh?

Slowly, I turned back. I could feel a devilish smile splitting my lips.

"Well, if you join my crew…"

Once he realized what I was saying, Zoro's eyes widened.

"You. You're a real son of a–"

"No time!" Koby screamed. "They're here!"

Sure enough, a bunch more marines had come to the courtyard. There was a really big guy with a cool metal jaw marching in front of the others.

He stopped a good bit away.

"Men. At the ready. We're killing them all right now."

"B-but Captain Morgan, Sir! That's not–"

The Marine who spoke had his head chopped off by an axe attached to the jaw bastard's arm.

I could feel a vein throbbing in my head.

I sort of noticed Nami running off somewhere and Koby freaking out, but I wasn't paying attention to them right now.

"Hey! Asshole!" I shouted at the big Marine guy.

The jaw bastard cracked his neck.

"Hoh? So you're the shrimp who's been causing a commotion in my town. Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

Hey, hey, hey…. He wasn't ignoring the fact that he just killed one of the guys working for him, right?

I clenched my fist.

"Mm, Zoro. Make up your mind right now. If you want to join my crew, I'll go get your swords. Otherwise. I'm burying this bastard right now. I don't know what'll happen to your stuff if I do that, though."

I tilted my head just enough so that I could see him from the corner of my eye.

For a moment, I didn't think that he'd say anything.

"…What's your name, kid?"

"Monkey D. Luffy."

"Luffy, then."

"Why are you two talking so casually!?" blubbered Koby "The Marines are right–"

Zoro spoke over him.

"I'm going to be the world's greatest swordsman. You've given me an ultimatum; I don't like that, but I'm not going to let my dream end here. If you ever stand in my way…" he trailed off threateningly.

I grinned.

"Your dream, huh?"

I was kind of worried about this, but it looked like I made the right choice. I absolutely needed strong crew members for what I was gonna do.

"Fire!"

The captain's voice must've been loud because every marine behind him heard the order clearly. Hundreds of bullets flew at us. Koby fell to his knees and grabbed his head uselessly.

Before anything could hit us, I grabbed Koby from the ground and tore Zoro –and the thing that he was being tied to– right out of the dirt. I jumped and watched all of the bullets fly right by beneath us.

When I landed, everything was quiet. I dropped the two I was holding, and Zoro wiggled off the broken mast with only a little bit of difficulty.

One of the Marine grunts dropped his gun. I couldn't see who did it, but I could hear it.

"Who just dropped their weapon?" the jaw bastard asked.

No one answered him for a moment.

"M-me, sir."

"Kill yourself. Right now."

"But–"

"Enough!" I shouted.

I was sick of this. I was sick of this guy. I was sick of these marines. I was sick of everything they'd been doing until now.

My heel smashed the dirt beneath me. It made a loud "clap!" sound, and an instant later, I was in front of the jaw bastard.

He snarled at me and lifted his axe.

Way too slow.

I slapped it and it shattered. The arm froze.

"…I get it," the jaw bastard said evenly. "This is one of those devil fruits, right? Don't think you're some hotshot just because of that. I don't care if you got a devil fruit or if you've gotten shat on by a fairy: that's not enough to make it in this world, kid. You're about to learn the hard way that someone like you will never amount to anything."

"..."

It was like the marines suddenly remembered that they were supposed to be the bad guys. Their surprise disappeared and the barrels of their guns were pointed at me again.

Hah…

I wanted to hit this guy really, really hard.

I couldn't. Not yet. I told Zoro that I'd get his swords first.

Annoying.

"Heads up!"

Hm?

I looked up. A window was open, and three objects were thrown out of it.

I saw orange hair fluttering around the opening.

…Nami?

Zoro didn't hesitate. He looked like he was about to pass out at any moment, but he still had enough strength to stand up and grab each object as they fell.

Were those–

"My swords," my newest crewmate exclaimed.

Nami was crawling down the side of the fort walls like some sort of spider monkey. How was she doing that! That was awesome. Was she really able to find Zoro's stuff so quickly? Without getting caught, even? Man, Nami really was–

"Quit spacing out, shrimp!"

A really big hand grabbed my face. I let it happen.

The captain's palm was covering my smile.

"I'll hold him still. On my mark–"

BOOM

I lifted my leg and kicked him in his side. He was forced to let go of me as he barrelled through his men and straight into the Marine base.

He went straight through the bricks like they were made of paper. The walls were hit so hard that chunks of stone and stuff were sent flying in every direction.

The entire half of the base that was facing us disappeared. The roof collapsed.

It took less than a second to turn most of the Marine base into a pile of rubble. I was proud of myself.

Hah… that felt good.

I walked through the crowd of stunned Marine people. They weren't stopping me.

I got closer to the rubble. I climbed to the highest point of the hilly mess that I'd made one step at a time.

I took a deep breath and puffed my chest.

I looked down at everyone here. The marines, Koby, Nami, Zoro…

They were all looking up at me

Still as statues.

My lips opened to show teeth, then they pulled up my cheeks. My grin was gonna split my face in half

…Right. They needed to know something. There was for sure something that I felt I needed to tell them right now since I was here and everything was as it was.

It was kind of annoying when everyone was treating you like you weren't taking this seriously, ya know? Hopefully, they knew better now.

I introduced myself loudly enough that I could be sure that everyone could hear what I was saying clearly. I wasn't through with the jaw bastard yet, so he better have been hearing me from wherever he was pretending to nap.

"My name is Monkey D. Luffy and I'm gonna be King of the Pirates!"