On a wooden platform, lines of lights formed two bright circles. This was the Sixis Island. A man carrying three katanas, two black and one white, entered the double circle. He lit up a match to put fire to two of the candles. The man was praying in front of them before opening his eyes. "You can come out", the man with three earrings said. After he spoke, someone entered the circle too.
"People often visit shrines to light candles for those they've lost", the individual stated. He had a red ruff and the number 7 on his left cheek. "Who are yours for?", the man wearing red asked. "This one is for someone I knew a long time ago", the green haired man replied.
"And the other?", the number 7 man questioned. The man with golden earrings took his time before answering. "You've been following me for three days", he ignored his wondering before standing up and turning around. "What do you want?", he demanded. "You can call me Mr. 7", replied the man wearing red. "I represent an organization known as Baroque Works". He held up a black card with a skull and wings engraved in it. "We are interested in your unique set of skills, pirate hunter Roronoa Zoro".
"What are you? Some band of assassins?", Zoro asked. "We are much, much more", Mr. 7 replied with a smirk. "You should know it's a high honor to be asked to join our ranks", he bragged. "Kind of got my own thing going on", the green haired respond, declining the offer. He turned his back to the other man.
"Membership would make you even more invincible, more feared", Mr. 7 tried to convince the three blades carrier. "Does it come with a free face tattoo?", he mocked uninterested. "My favorite is Number 1", he added, flipping the man in a ruff off.
Silence reigned for some time as Zoro went back to honoring the candles. "To turn down Baroque Works is to forfeit your life", Mr. 7 furrowed his eyebrows. "If they were that serious, they should've sent someone better than Number 7", Zoro remarked. The man in red took two long swords out and, in a yell, went to slash the green haired one in the back but he blocked the swords with one of the two black katanas, even if it wasn't fully unsheathed.
Mr. 7 backed away, and Zoro pushed the blade back in its sheath. The two swords fighter went on with another attack that his opponent easily dodged, again and again. After some more avoiding, Zoro took out his two black katanas and started attacking. In one move, he had blown out all the lights, except his two candles. The fight continued, quickly ending after Zoro had made two horizontal cuts in Mr. 7's stomach.
He dropped dead on the ground and Zoro sighed, putting out the two remaining flames with one swift slash.
"That look on Alvida's face", Koby laughed as he was rowing on one of the life boats under a sunny sky. "I've never seen anyone stand up to her before", he told Luffy. "Shouldn't have mess with you", he replied. "How did you stretch like that?", the glasses boy mentioned the earlier fight.
"It's kind of a long story"
Shanks was checking on Luffy's wound. It had two stitches. "At least you didn't get your eye", he told the young boy. "I was aiming for it, but I missed", he responded, annoyed. The red head pulled on the thread to tighten it. "Ow!", Luffy whined. "I thought you said you were tough", Shanks said. "I am!", the boy protested. The man in the straw hat chopped the excess of treads off. "Don't stitch it too good. I want everyone to see my scar", the kid told Shanks.
"Scars don't make the man, Luffy", he reasoned. "It's the lesson behind the scar, and you didn't earn this one", he tapped on the child's cheek. "Then let me earn it. I'll be the best pirate ever", he tried to convince him again. "Look, I've been practicing what my face is gonna look like on my wanted poster", he made a funny face with gritted teeth and furrowed eyebrows.
"I've no doubt your mug will be on a wanted poster one day", Shanks reassured as he pressed a tissue on the wound. Luffy winced. "But you're not ready", he told him yet again. "My ship already has an anchor", he explained before taking a sip of his beverage. "I'm not an anchor", Luffy said. The red head pointed to the boy's shirt. He looked down to see that his shirt said 'ANCHOR' in big blue letters.
The man tapped the kid's nose and stood up chuckling, taking with him his beer and the medical box. Luffy watched him walk away with a saddened look. "Stupid Shanks", he muttered, getting up himself.
He walked into a room where they kept the crates and boxes. He kicked one and grunted "Stupid treasure". Walking a bit more, he sat on top of one big crate. A small box got his attention. It was the box that Roux had let fallen.
Standing back up, he approached the mysterious box and took it. When he opened it, there was a metallic purple fruit. It had twirls on the peel and a brown curly stem. Luffy narrowed his eyes and took the fruit in his hands. He smelled it first before taking a large bite. He swallowed it with a sour face but kept eating. The interior of the fruit was apple green and juicy. At the end, Luffy had eaten it all.
"There you go, Captain", a crew member said, handing a bottle of alcohol to Shanks. As he took it, a group of men entered the small bar.
"Bring us your best whiskey", the leader ordered the bartender who was cleaning a table. She walked back to the counter. "I'm afraid we're out", she said. The leader of the group went up and stood next to the red hair. "That'd be our fault, friend", he commented. "We've, uh, been doing some celebrating", he added, looking around to his crew and friends. "We've drunk the place dry, but..." Shanks took a half empty bottle and placed it near the black haired man. "Perhaps this will make up for it."
The beard man took the bottle and examined it. He grumbled, looking back at the pirate in a straw hat. "What are we supposed to do with one bottle?" Shanks shook his head. "Generally, you drink it."
The man chuckled before breaking the glass bottle on the counter. This made Shanks' crew look over at the noises. They prepared their arms, just in case.
Luffy also heard. A slightly worried expression was on his face. He put the last bit of the fruit in his mouth and stood up.
Shank looked down at the shattered pieces of glass. "Now there's glass everywhere", he commented. The angry man hummed in response. Luffy was walking towards the sounds to see what was happening.
"Makino", Shanks called at the bartender. "Got a mop?", he asked. Makino nodded and handed a mop to him. Shanks then started to clean up the mess the man had done.
Luffy looked a bit frustrated at the sight and the man chuckled again. He then scooped all of the objects on the counter and made them fall on the ground, like a cat would. His men laughed and Shanks stopped mopping the floor. He looked over his shoulder, making eye contact with the black haired man.
"Since you like cleaning so much", the man said. Shanks went back to cleaning the floor. "Come on, men. Let's find a real bar", he spoke, walking off.
Shanks' crew laughed. "He got you good, huh, Cap'n?"Roux friendly mocked. "You got a mop?" the dark skinned man mimicked and they laughed even more. Shanks had a small smile on his face and Luffy was angrily walking towards him.
"Why are you laughing?" the young boy shouted with frustration. "How could you let him insult you like that?" he scolded. "All he did was spill a drink on me", Shanks replied, brushing the incident off. "But you should've fought back! Why didn't you kick his ass?" Luffy yelled.
"Not everything can be solved with violence", Shanks explained. "A man needs to be strong, but he also needs to be good", he clarified. Luffy walked over to him. "You're not a real man. You're nothing but a coward", he spoke harshly.
"You see?" Shanks remarked. "I told you, you weren't ready." The boy groaned and went to stomp off but Shanks gripped his wrist. "Wait", he started but cut himself off when he saw Luffy's arm stretched as he tried to walk away.
He loosened his grip and the extended arm went flying back to the boy. "Luffy!" Shanks exclaimed as Luffy rolled down the stairs. When he finally stopped falling, Luffy stood back up slowly, looking unbelievably at his arm. "What have you done?" Shanks muttered.
"You ate a Devil Fruit?" Koby asked, incredulous. "I didn't know any better", Luffy admitted. "But mine was a Gum Gum Fruit. It turned my body into rubber."
To explain it better, Luffy pulled on the left side of his mouth. It stretched and made a very wide smile. "Eee." He let go of his cheek and it went back quickly to its original place, making a 'clack' sound.
Koby looked stunned and a bit uncomfortable. "Huh?" Luffy said enthusiastically. Koby was looking around the water. No land could be seen. Only the distant burning boat of Alvida.
Luffy was getting himself comfortable by laying on the wood plank. "So now what?" Koby asked. "We have to be going somewhere, right?" He had stopped rowing, worried. "We are going somewhere", Luffy responded. "Next stop, to the Grand Line!" He pointed at, well, somewhere since he didn't know where that was.
"Do you know how to get there?" Koby questioned. There was a small silence on the boat and Luffy hummed as he was picking his nose.
"You can't navigate. You don't even have a map!" Koby snapped. "Good point", Luffy said, sitting up. "We should probably pick one up", he stated the obvious.
"Maybe I've made a mistake. I never should've left Alvida", Koby talked anxiously. "Koby." Luffy said seriously so the other boy's attention was on him. "If you could do anything in the world right now, what would it be?" he asked.
"I guess there's one thing, but..." The silence returned for a quick instant before Koby found the right words to describe it. "It's dumb." Luffy stood up and slapped Koby on the face. The lavender haired boy grunted, holding his face.
"What was that for?" he asked confusedly. "You being dumb", Luffy scolded, pointing his finger at Koby and still standing in front of him. "Now spit it out", Luffy repeated sitting back down with a bright smile.
"I've kind of... I've always wanted to be..." Koby took a deep breath. "a Marine", he finally admitted. "Ah", Luffy mumbled quietly. "Ever since I was a kid. I wanted to protect people that can't protect themselves", Koby explained.
Luffy was smiling at him. Koby took the rows back since he had let them rest on the floor. "I told you it was dumb", Koby kind of apologized. "If that's what you want, I think you should do it", Luffy gave him his opinion. He nudged the boy with glasses' shoulder. "I'll help you out."
"You don't even know me." Luffy was looking at Koby straight in the eyes with still his never fading smile. "We shared a meal, Koby. And if being a Marine is your dream... that's good enough for me."
Luffy stood up. "Okay." He walked to the other side of the boat, his hands on his hips. "So you plot a course to the next Marine base. I get my map, and you can join up," Luffy planned. "Yeah. All right." Luffy got back to laying down. "Well, I'm gonna take that nap now."
"You can't just waltz into a Marine base and ask for a map to the Grand Line!" Koby tried to reason with the man in a straw hat. "Don't worry. I'm stealthy." Luffy took his hat and placed it on his face, going for that nap.
There was an explosion on the burning ship. Koby gasped nervously and Luffy couldn't care less. "Yeah. Super stealthy", Koby highlighted the irony.
Elsewhere in the East Blue, another small boat was drifting away silently. There was a woman on it. She was laying on her side, looking exhausted. She opened her blue eyes slightly. She weakly lifted her head when she saw sails.
Two men were whispering on the other boat. "There's someone in there, let's get closer", one decided. The tangerine haired woman supported her body with her arms, calling for help.
"Help me!", she pleaded. She was panting and her voice sounded dry, as if she hadn't drank anything for days. "Water..."
"Oh, you're in luck, sweetheart. We're all the help you'll need", one of the men said as the other maneuvered the boat. Both looked at the girl like starved dogs. "My crew was attacked by pirates", the woman explained. "I... I barely managed to make it out alive." Her voice was unsteady and she had a hard time keeping her head up.
"Pirates, you say?" one of the men interrogated. "I hear they're a terrible lot", he added. Both men looked at each other. "The worst sort", the other declared. "Good thing we found you instead of them."
Realization struck the girl when she saw a Jolly Roger hanging at their mat. They were pirates. Grapples hooked her boat as they were pulling it closer. Quickly, she went to cover her chest with fabric. "What you got there?", one of the pirates noticed. "Something to share?"
"No. Please, no", she begged as the two stepped on her boat. "It's... it's all I have. Please." She couldn't do anything to defend what was hers other than this. "It's a fair trade for saving your life," the first said, pushing her to the side. The second had uncovered the chest.
Eager to see the inside, they broke the lock of the box. They looked at each other with smiles before opening it, but the chest was empty. "Hey, what gives?", one wailed as the other looked back at the girl, except she wasn't there.
"Sorry, boys," she dropped her act, her voice now sounding completely normal. "Thanks for the rescue", she called from the pirates' boat that was sailing away. As a last good-bye, she waved two fingers off her forehead and she went into the boat. One of the pirates pushed the other for his, or should I say their, idiocy.
On the boat, the tangerine haired woman pulled out a book of maps from her shoulder bag. She flipped through the pages and started to navigate through the East Blue.
________________________
Heyyy
This chapter was longer than the other but it's because I wanted to include Nami in it
(HEHEHEHE ZORO AND NAMI)
Can we just appreciate the fact that the cast of this show is full of beautiful people?
Speaking of beautiful people...
YOU who read/like/add to your playlist/follow me (I hadn't expected this one)...
Are you my school's staircase?
Cause you take my breath away 😮💨
I ADORE BEING FLIRTY WITH KINDA EVERYONE AAAA
Tell me what you think of this chapter, I'm open to every possible improvement
Also correct me if I made mistakes!!
(Y/n) is coming in the beginning of the next chapter :D
(took me long enough)
Have a sublime day (or night)
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