Chapter 3: Onward to Orange Town!
"I'm stuffed! I was definitely at my ropes end, having not eaten for three weeks!" Zoro said with a smile, leaning back in his chair.
"Huh? You're finished already?" Luffy asked, pulling his fork out of his mouth.
"How the heck can you have a bigger appetite than me?!" Zoro asked, pointing to the stacks of dishes beside the straw-hatted teen, eyebrow raised in disbelief. Zoro had literally been starving after all, and Luffy was still eating as if he'd been the one to go weeks without meals.
"It tastes good! Right, Coby?" Luffy asked the pink-haired boy who sat at the bar where Rika's mother was smiling and cleaning dishes. Rika was nearby as well, carrying dirty dishes from the table Luffy and Zoro sat at and bringing them to her mother.
"Thank you for treating me to food, too..." Coby said, rubbing the back of his head as he addressed Rika's mom. She smiled at him, continuing to clean.
"Its no problem! The town has been saved after all!" She said cheerfully.
"You really are amazing!" Rika said to Luffy with a wide smile, Luffy smiling back as he allowed the happy feelings to sink into him.
"Yep, I am! And I'm gonna be even more amazing! 'Cause I'm gonna be King of the Pirates! And I even have a crew!" Luffy said, looking to Zoro who was still lounging in his chair as he listened, waiting on Luffy to finish eating. Hearing the teen's words, he smiled.
"So, how many others have you gathered besides me?" He asked, watching Luffy take another large bite of meat. Luffy gave him a blank look and Zoro raised another eyebrow.
"You said you were in the middle of gathering a crew. To be the King of the Pirates, you must have a good number gathered." He said matter of factly. Removing his fork, Luffy pointed to the green-haired man with it.
"Just you." He said simply.
"Huh?! Then..." Zoro pointed between the two of them in shock and Luffy nodded.
"Yep! Just us two!" Luffy confirmed.
"We're gonna call just us two a pirate crew?!" Zoro asked, expression evening out again.
"What's wrong with that? We're strong!" Luffy replied, as if that made everything better. Besides, you had to start somewhere.
"What about a ship? Wheres your pirate ship?" Zoro asked, leaning on the table.
"There." Luffy pointed out the window to the boat he and Coby had arrived on and Zoro moved to the window to look himself.
"That?"
"We'll have a ship this big before long!" Luffy exclaimed optimistically, stretching his arms out in demonstration of how big he wanted his future ship to be. Zoro laughed.
"And hows that?" He asked, Luffy's smile never wavering despite the swordsman's skepticism.
"And I'd like a pirate flag, too! Yeah! Yeah, yeah! So cool!" Luffy said to himself, ignoring Zoro completely. Zoro rubbed his forehead, wondering what he'd gotten himself into. Meanwhile, Coby spoke up.
"I think Luffy-san was born without any sense of planning." He said with a nervous chuckle.
"Did I really make this guy my Captain?!" Zoro asked himself, Luffy continuing to eat with a smile as if he didn't hear, or realize, what was being talked about.
"Well, we'll get more crew members before long!" He said with a laugh.
"Hey, hey! Where are you guys gonna go now?" Rika asked, still standing beside Luffy.
"Isn't it obvious?! Paradise!" Luffy said, the occupants in the room looking at him in confusion.
"Paradise?" Zoro asked, wondering if that was an island he'd never heard of.
"Ah, right, the Grand Line!" Luffy said, correcting himself.
"How did you mix up the Grand Line with Paradise?! Besides, you still only have two crewmembers! There's no way you could go there! No way! No way! No way!" Coby shouted, spitting his juice out in shock from where he sat behind Luffy at the bar. Everyone turned to watch him, wondering if he was done yelling.
"Is the Grand Line that terrible of a place?" Rika asked.
"Naturally!"
"Nah, not really." Both Coby and Luffy answered at the same time. Zoro raised an eyebrow at the two, sitting back down to listen seeing as things were getting interesting. He had almost forgotten that Luffy was 11097, a former Whitebeard Pirate, and had been to the Grand Line before. Sure, his new Captain may be a bit spontaneous, and possibly stupid, but he was at least experienced in comparison to him.
"What do you mean it's not?! It's the pirate's graveyard for a reason!" Coby shouted to Luffy, sweating just at the thought of the infamous sea.
"Sure, but it's not as bad as the New World. It's only bad if you don't know what you're doing." Luffy said with a nonchalant shrug.
"The New World? Luffy-san, sometimes I forget you've sailed the Grand Line before..." Coby said, wilting as he remembered that small fact.
"Guess it can't be helped," Zoro said, leaning back in his chair with a grin, prepared to take on whatever challenges they faced.
"Not you too, Zoro-san!" Coby moaned out, sweating again.
"What's it matter? You're not going, are you?" Zoro asked the pink-haired kid, wondering why he was getting so worked up.
"N-no, but I'm worried about you! Is that so wrong?" Coby asked with a frown.
"Luffy-san and I haven't known each other long, and I was a bit scared of him when I found out he was 11097, but we are friends! Right?" Coby asked as if he'd overstepped a boundary and was worried what Luffy would say in response.
"Yeah! We're gonna part ways, but we'll always be friends!" Luffy said with a wide smile. Coby looked surprised at his words for a moment before he smiled to the ground.
"Since I was a little kid, I've never had friends... Much less anyone who would fight for my sake..." He said softly.
"But more than anything, I never tried to fight for anything..." He continued, everyone watching him in silence.
"But you two taught me how to live for my beliefs! I've decided to make my childhood dream come true! I want to join the Navy!" Coby finished, holding his fists up in determination.
"Shouldn't you be more worried about yourself, then?" Zoro asked.
"Even if you were just a chore boy, you did spend two years on Alvida's pirate ship," Zoro said, having heard about how Coby had come to join Luffy on this journey while they were eating.
"Don't underestimate the Marines info-gathering skills. If they find out about that, you'll never get to join." Zoro said as if it were obvious. Coby stared with wide eyes, realizing this as well.
"N-now that you mention it..."
"Pardon me!" The door opened, cutting Coby off, and they looked to see a crowd of Marines standing at the door, one of them walking into the room with them.
"You're 11097, Monkey D. Luffy, correct? And you've joined him, Pirate Hunter Zoro?" The Marine asked, arms behind his back as he stood tall.
"Yup," Luffy responded, eyeing the man and wondering what he would do about it. The marine was confident in himself, but his emotions didn't give way to what he was planning on doing which made Luffy weary. He wasn't exactly on friendly terms with the marines after all.
"We appreciate that you saved our base and this town from that tyrant. However, now that we know both of you are confirmed pirates, in the name of the Marines, we cannot stand by quietly!" He said, people crowding at the window to see what was going on. Luffy and Zoro stood, the two of them ready to fight if necessary, and the Marine looked to them rather than at the ground as he'd been doing before.
"You will leave this town at once! Out of obligation, we will refrain from contacting headquarters of the fact that there is a so-called former Whitebeard Pirate forming his own crew." He said to them, Luffy feeling the mans resolve.
"Hey, marine guy! How can you talk like that?!"
"Even you guys were subdued and terrified of Morgan!"
"We owe these people our lives!"
"Yeah! Yeah!" The people outside all began shouting in outrage, all of them feeling strongly that what the Marine had said was wrong. Rika was frowning in worry but neither she nor her mother said anything as they watched on. Luffy, who had had a blank face this entire time, grinned.
"Well, guess we should go! Thanks for the food lady!" Luffy said, turning to address Rika's mother like Sabo had taught him, a bag of food hanging over his shoulder. He had left his other bag back on their ship.
"You guys are leaving already?" Rika asked sadly.
"Yeah," Luffy said, nodding to her and beginning to walk out with Zoro.
"Aren't you part of their crew?" The Marine asked Coby who had remained standing where he was.
"Eh? I... I'm..." Luffy stopped in the doorway and frowned, head turned to Coby as he took in the boys nervousness, fear, conviction. He was about to walk out again when the Marine stopped him.
"Hold it! Well? Is he?!" The Marine asked, and after a second of thought, Luffy grinned, turning to look at the Marine.
"I know what he's done until now." He said cheerily, feeling a bubble of betrayal coming from Coby, but ignoring the ugly emotion as the boy turned to look at him in shock.
"There was this reaaally fat pirate lady, I think her name was Ahiruda." Luffy began, arms stretched at his sides to try and imitate just how big the woman was while Zoro watched from the doorway.
"Luffy-san!" Coby said in shock, sweating.
"And she had this iron club. Man, she was an ugly hag! And for two whole years, this guy was her-" Luffy, who had walked up beside Coby and began poking the boy in the head, was cut off when Coby's emotions suddenly grew stronger, a wave of fear and courage coursing through him as he turned and swung a punch into Luffy's jaw, shocking Rika and her mother, as well as the Marines.
Realizing what he'd done, Coby stared at Luffy in shock, noticing the teen was grinning.
"Now you've done it, you bastard!" Luffy called, pulling back and returning a punch of his own.
"Damn you! Damn you! Damn you!" Luffy shouted as he beat up the boy, grinning the entire time.
"Stop that! We won't allow you to cause any more trouble in this town!" The Marine shouted though he didn't make a move to stop Luffy.
"Oi! You've gone too far. That's enough." Zoro said, grabbing onto the back of Luffy vest and pulling him away from the battered pink-haired boy who fell to the ground.
"It's very clear that you guys aren't crewmates! Now leave this town at once!" The Marine shouted as he pointed at them. Luffy, still grinning, stood up and readjusted his straw hat on his head, leaving the building with Zoro. He could feel an understanding coming from Coby, all feeling of betrayal leaving.
Both Zoro and Luffy walked through the crowd outside and headed to the docks where their small boat was waiting for them, no one stopping them as they did.
"That was a pretty lame tactic. Wouldn't be surprised if they saw through it." Zoro said as they walked.
"Coby'll handle the rest on his own. I just know it." Luffy said with a smile. As they got closer to the docks, the smell of the ocean got stronger, but with it, an underlying smell of tangerines and berri that made Luffy frown.
Was that lady following them or something?
"It's a nice way to leave though. Being unable to turn back 'cause everyone hates you. Its pirate-like!" Zoro said, interrupting Luffys musings as they reached their boat.
"That's true!" Luffy said, smiling and laughing as he forgot about his previous thoughts and removed the loop of rope holding the boat to the dock.
"Luffy-san!" Coby's scent drifted over to Luffy and both he and Zoro turned to find both the boy and Rika and her mother standing behind them. Seeing he had their attention, Coby saluted them, standing up tall and straight as he did.
"Thank you! I'll never forget all you've done for me!" Coby shouted to them, Luffy and Zoro grinning as he did.
"I've never heard of a pirate being thanked by a marine..." Zoro said, making Luffy laugh. Zoro's words reminded him of when he and his brothers had seen Garp again for the first time since they'd gotten out of the facility and how the man had thanked Whitebeard for rescuing them.
Getting onto the boat and setting the sail, Luffy turned and waved to Coby.
"Let's meet again sometime, Coby!" He shouted, watching Coby as he continued saluting and Rika waved back.
"Bye!" Rika shouted back, and Luffy could see Coby's lips move, but couldn't hear what he said.
"All hands, salute!" A crowd of marines appeared behind the group and they all saluted as Luffy and Zoro drifted out of the docks and onto the sea.
"See ya!" Luffy called with a laugh.
Marines sucked, but those guys were ok.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
"Alright! Our pirate crew finally sets sail!" Luffy said as he stood at the bow, Zoro smiling where he sat on the ground behind him.
"Looks like some pretty good adventure'll be waiting for us," Zoro said, Luffy feeling the man's happiness and excitement, matching his own. He laughed before staring at the ocean in determination.
"I will become King of the Pirates!" He said, voice tamer then it had been before. Zoro raised an eyebrow at that, leaning forward slightly.
"You really seem obsessed about this King of the Pirates thing. Is there some sorta reason for it?" He asked in curiosity.
"No reason. It's just..." He trailed off, smiling fondly.
"It's just?" Zoro prodded.
"I swore to a certain man that... someday I would gather a great crew, find the world's greatest treasure, and become King of the Pirates!" Luffy told him, remembering the promise to Shanks from so long ago, holding onto his hat that was on his head.
"This hat knows." He said, looking up to the sky now.
"I see..." Zoro said with a smile, also looking to the sky.
"Alright! Let's go! Set sail for the Grand Line!" Luffy shouted into the sunset, laughing in excitement.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Some time had passed since they'd left the Marine base island and Luffy was leaning over the side of their boat, stomach growling.
"I'm starving..." He moaned out.
"When the hell're we gonna reach land?" Zoro asked from where he sat.
"Who knows. We're just going with the wind and waves after all... I wonder if we'll reach land... Nah, I'm sure we will, sometime." Luffy moaned out, not moving from his spot over the railing. He could feel an annoyance rising in Zoro.
"Isn't it kind of weird that someone tryin' to be King of the Pirates doesn't even have any navigation skills?! Besides, I thought you were apart of the Whitebeards for a while! How didn't you pick up any navigating skills at all?" Zoro asked, still not sure how he felt about that little tidbit. It was one thing to hear about pirates like the Whitebeards, but another completely to meet one of them. To have a former Whitebeard pirate as his Captain was a bit daunting.
"It's not weird, I just drift around. And everyone back on the Moby tried to teach me how to sail and stuff, but I didn't get it. Sabo's better at understanding that kind of thing then I am." Luffy said, eyes trailing onto the boat towards where his bag sat, a mini den den resting inside it, ready for him to pick up and call the Moby at any time.
"But anyway, aren't you a bounty hunter who wandered the high seas?" Luffy asked as he now turned his head to look at Zoro, still dangling over the railing.
"I have no memory of ever calling myself a bounty hunter. I set off onto the sea in search of a certain man... but then couldn't get back to my village. I had no choice, so I just went after pirate ships to earn a living." He told Luffy, looking to the sky as he did.
"Oh, so you're just lost." Luffy deadpanned, feeling the irritation rise in Zoro at his words.
"Don't put it like that!" Zoro shouted, kicking the boat and rocking it. The straw hat on Luffy's head bounced as the wind picked it up from off his head, and the trusty string Izo had tied to it unraveled for the first time in the three years since it'd first been tied. In shock, Luffy watched as the hat began sailing into the air and towards the sails. It went up and over it, both Luffy and Zoro running over to the bow of the ship as they attempted to guess where it would land, and thankfully, Zoro was able to grab it out of the air right before it fell into the water.
There was a joint sigh of relief as Zoro handed the hat back over to Luffy and he put it on his head again, frowning at the two untied strings.
"It came undone." He said with a small pout.
"What, it hasn't done that before?" Zoro asked as he went to go sit back down.
"No! Izo tied it for me years ago and it was fine." Luffy whined as he went to join Zoro on the ground.
"So just retie it," Zoro said with a shrug, not seeing why it was a big deal. Luffy frowned again at that, holding the hat in his hands now as he examined the strings.
"You can tie it again, can't you?" Zoro asked with a raised eyebrow. Luffy looked up at him with wide, unblinking eyes, before grinning and laughing sheepishly.
"Gimme that!" Zoro said with another irritated sigh as he held his hand out for the hat. Luffy looked between Zoro's hand and then his hat for a minute before conceding and handing the precious item over.
"Geez, you can't navigate, and you can't tie knots. What can you do?" Zoro asked as he tied the two strings together, Luffy watching his every move carefully.
"Fight! Oh, and eat!" Luffy exclaimed with a grin, making Zoro roll his eyes as he handed the hat back over to its owner.
"Thanks, Zoro!" He said with a wider smile than before, putting the hat on his head and looking at the two, once again, tied strings.
"So that hats pretty important to you then, huh?" Zoro asked as he observed how careful Luffy was with the object.
"Yeah," Luffy said as he pulled on the edges of it. There was a brief moment of silence before Zoro asked something that had been bugging him for a while.
"So you're 11097, then? That kid who escaped a mental hospital a while ago and has a bounty of 350,000,000?" He asked. Everyone had heard about it, even him seeing as he'd made a living off turning in pirates. He'd seen Luffy's bounty poster a few times but hadn't gone after him seeing as he stayed strictly within the East Blue.
Back when the news of numbered children having escaped was big, even he had been suspected of being one of them until the marines checked his wrist and found no such number. Looking at his new Captain, the tattooed number on the inside of his wrist practically confirmed him of being the kid in question.
"Yes. Wait, no." Luffy said, confusing Zoro.
"Yes or no?" He asked, wondering how Luffy could get confused. It had been a simple question.
"Yes, I am 11097, but I didn't escape a mental hospital. That's just what the marines told everyone to... what did Ace and Sabo say? Save feet?" Luffy asked, trying to remember how his brothers had phrased it. Zoro looked at him, his confusion clear on his face before he realized what Luffy might be trying to say.
"Save face?" He asked, Luffy grinning and nodding.
"Yeah, that! It wasn't a mental hospital we escaped, it was a facility." Luffy said as if it were obvious.
"A facility?" Zoro questioned, making Luffy frown as he realized this was probably going to keep happening. Every time he got a new crewmember it would be natural for them to wonder about the things Marines had said about him, and he didn't want them to have any misconceptions about him.
It didn't mean it wasn't annoying though.
"A facility is a government-run place. Ace, Sabo and I all escaped it after we were held there for seven years. It's a bad place." Luffy said, his voice dark as he explained it to his swordsman.
"What's so bad about it?" Zoro asked, wanting to know more. He didn't like the sounds of it already, and from the looks of it, Luffy didn't like the memories of it, but he couldn't help but be curious.
"Everything. Everything about it is bad. I'm not some crazy kid that the Marines were trying to help, and neither are the other kids who got out. We escaped, and the marines were scared we'd say something so they tried to get us all back, but they couldn't cause the Whitebeards helped us stay safe. That's what Sabo said anyways; I didn't pay a lot of attention to what the Marines said in the papers about us." Luffy said, looking back to the sky. Zoro realized he probably wasn't going to get anything more out of his Captain on that subject, so he dropped it, trusting that his Captain wasn't actually crazy like the marines said he was.
Maybe he only did that because he was going to be sailing with the man from now on and he didn't want to admit he may have intentionally agreed to follow a mentally unstable person.
"So you were apart of the Whitebeard Pirates, then?" He asked instead, Luffy's somber mood lifting as he grinned again.
"Yeah! It took us a month after the facility, but we joined them because they're good guys!" Luffy said with a laugh, his words holding more weight then Zoro was realizing.
"And Whitebeard just let you leave to start a crew of your own?" The swordsman asked, finding it a bit hard to believe, but Luffy laughed again.
"Yup! Pops said he didn't care what I did, as long as I was happy. Everyone really wanted me to stay with them, but I'd promised I'd be King of the Pirates, and I couldn't do that being apart of someone else's crew!" Luffy said to Zoro who smiled, agreeing with Luffy's words. A stomach rumbled and Luffy moaned, remembering how hungry he was.
"Man, I'm hungry..." He groaned as he held his stomach and looked to the sky again. Zoro sighed, having heard this multiple times already and wondering how the teen could be hungry after eating everything they had only a little while ago. Not to mention the large amount of food he'd eaten back on the Marine base Island.
"A bird..." Luffy said, making him look up to see what his Captain was seeing. A grin spread across Luffy's face as he looked to Zoro.
"Let's eat it!" He exclaimed.
"Huh? How?" Zoro asked, the bird having been high up in the sky.
"Leave it to me!" Luffy said as he stood and stretched his arms back, flinging them forward and grabbing onto the rigging.
"Gum Gum Rocket!" With that, the teen launched into the sky, straight towards the bird in question.
"I see..." Zoro said with a raised eyebrow, having forgotten about Luffy's devil fruit. He watched as his Captain grew smaller as he got higher up before he stopped, level with the bird. He squinted, wondering how his body was lower than the birds, yet he wasn't moving down anymore.
"Help!" Luffy's voice called, and it was then he realized his new Captain was caught in the bird's mouth.
"Moron! What the hell're you doing?!" Zoro shouted as he began rowing as fast as he could.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Luffy watched as the sea drifted by below him, the bird not stopping as it continued flying. He remained still and allowed himself to be carried, a bored look on his face as he waited for something to happen.
Finally, after a few minutes of the bird flying, Luffy saw an island below them and grinned.
"Oi, bird, let me down now!" He shouted, becoming annoyed quickly when he still couldn't get his head unstuck from the bird's mouth. Try as he might though, it was for naught, legs flailing as he tried pulling the bird's mouth open.
They were midway over the island when Luffy saw something heading their way and he began flailing harder.
"Bird! Bird, let me down!" He shouted, but it was too late as a cannonball hit them, exploding and forcing the bird to let go of Luffy. He screamed, flailing as he began plummeting to the ground, and before he knew it he was crashing into the stone pavement, a giant dust cloud forming.
"W-what?!" A woman's voice asked in surprise, Luffy vaguely noting that that familiar scent of tangerines and berri was back.
"What the-?!" Another voice asked, this time a male.
"A person fell from the sky!" Another man said in shock.
"Damnit! What are cannonballs flying at me for?!" Luffy asked in annoyance as he stood from the ground, the dust cloud dissipating around him.
"But now I'm safe! That was a pretty neat experience that I had!" He said, holding onto his hat as he looked around, taking in the shock and surprise surrounding him. There were three guys behind him, most likely pirates by their looks, and in front of him was the woman that had continued popping up wherever he went.
"Hey, you! Have you been following me?!" Luffy accused as he pointed to the red-haired girl who was staring at him in shock. There was a moment where the girl was confused by his words, before she was suddenly confident, a grin forming on her face.
"Of course boss! I've got the map as promised! Sorry, but I've gotta go now!" She said to him, running off before Luffy could ask her any more questions.
"Hey, the girl got away!"
"That's ok, her boss is still here!"
"Ah, tryin' ta cover for your crony, huh?!" Luffy turned, still confused as to what was happening. His stomach growled and he held it with a frown.
"Say, is there any place to eat around here?"
A much shorter chapter than normal, and probably going to be my shortest chapter for a while. I hope everyone's doing well with all the chaos in the world right now, and I hope that this update was able to brighten some of your days like you guys brighten mine!
This chapter was more of a filler chapter and seeing as its so short- as well as the fact that I'm now home indefinitely with this virus going around- I am hoping to get another chapter out soon. I don't know if I'll be able to manage it, but I'm hoping I'll be able to! If I can, it'll be out next week. If I'm not able to do it though, updates will continue as normal.
So, a little about this chapter. There's not too much to say seeing as it's stuck mostly to canon, but we'll be seeing Buggy in the next chapter! I know there's a bit of a mixed response on the clown- some people love him, some people despise him. I don't mind his character too much, I think he's funny at times, and as for his part in this story, it'll stick mostly to what we've seen in canon. Unlike other characters, I don't really see him playing any big part in this, even if he will be showing up a few more times in the future.
So, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Stay safe, stay healthy, and I hope to see you all again next week with another chapter! If not, two weeks!