"Luffy": talk
"Sabo": whisper
"ACE": shout
"Gomu Gomu no": the skill's name
'idiot': thinking
<Joyboy>: voice of all things
-Into the story-
They had been trying to reach Going Merry as fast as they could be ever since they left Zoro to face Tashigi alone. However, Luffy suddenly slowed down his speed, then stopped. Sanji soon also followed his captain's action, even though the cook didn't know his reason.
"Luffy?" Sanji asked, looking at the captain.
"Go ahead, Sanji! Tell Nami and Usopp to get ready to set sail", Luffy said.
As soon as Sanji turned back to head toward their ship, he immediately caught the sight of the Marine captain standing right in front of them. Now he knew the reason.
"Another one?!" Sanji exclaimed as Luffy just gave him a nod.
Sanji then gave out a tired sigh, then started to speed up again, quickly went past the Marine captain. Both of them still stood silently, not a single word was exchanged between them, not even when Sanji's sight was no longer there. The only sound around them was the sound of the heavy rain that was still pouring down from the sky.
"Straw Hat Luffy, a pirate captain with a bounty of 45 million berries. I'm afraid I can't let you go that easy". Smoker decided to speak up
"I don't think so". Luffy smirked.
'Ne, isn't that Smokey?!' Loki's voice suddenly echoed inside his mind.
'Yes, he is. So?' Luffy replied.
'Luffy, let me fight! Please let me fight!' Loki begged. Somehow, Luffy could imagine the powerful god with a puppy's eyes.
Actually, letting Loki fight wasn't a bad idea, since Loki already knew Smoker was a future ally, perhaps he would go easy on the Marine captain. Plus, he wasn't in a mood to fight at the moment. Therefore, Luffy agreed to swap places with Loki, with a few conditions. Firstly, he mustn't kill or disable Smoker. Secondly, he mustn't use Advanced Haki, Kokushiki or even the Gears, except for the Second Gear, to fight. Lastly, made sure to enjoy the fight and made their dad, who was watching them right now, impressed. Loki pouted after the first two conditions, but it soon turned into a grin when Luffy said the last one, Loki would surely enjoy this fight.
Smoker was watching Luffy's every single movement in silent, waiting for the pirate captain to make his first move. However, when Luffy closed his eyes, Smoker was shocked to see Luffy's hair and clothes change into white. Not just that, but his eyes' color had also changed from pit black to shining gold.
'So his devil fruit is a Zoan type?!' Smoker thought.
"Finally, it's my turn. Let's enjoy this fight, shall we?" Loki said while still smiling widely.
Tired of waiting, Smoker suddenly lunged toward Loki at a great speed. Making the white-haired surprised and almost get caught with the full-blown, as he had quickly jumped back right before Smoker destroyed the wall behind him. However, Loki was grinning excitedly as he was trying to dodge all the rain attacks that were delivered to him, none stopped. Even though Smoker was so much faster and stronger than those weaklings in East Blue, it still wasn't enough to stop Loki, but Loki enjoyed this fight either way.
But once Smoker launched both his Logia arms in order to catch Loki, the white-haired man quickly shrunk his body down to the size of a mouse, then hid away. Making Smoker furious while looking around to search for his opponent impatiently. Suddenly, he felt someone was holding one of his legs, so he looked down just to see a tiny Loki smiling at him devilously before he lifted Smoker's leg up and started to smash him around the concrete floor like he was somekind of a toy.
It took some minutes for Smoker to get up, but all he saw was the same boy from before was laughing to death. However, once he noticed that Smoker was up, the Navy swore he saw the kid's eyes just light up.
"Ho ho, impressive!" Loki smirked.
Smoker was panting heavily while also questioning himself how could Loki touch him? Logia user was meant to be untouchable, but Loki just proved that knowledge was wrong by grabbing his leg with ease. Smoker then once again launched himself toward Loki with higher speed from before, but it still no use as Loki just had to sidestep to dodge the attack. However, Smoker then took flight up to the sky, letting his smoke to circling around Loki. It was a bad move, Loki admitted.
As Smoker quickly rushed down toward Loki, the white-haired boy had already ready his attack. However, both of them weren't making contact to each other, because Smoker had quickly dissolved into smoke once he was very close to the pirate captain. Now Loki was truly trapped inside a sphere shape smoke, this attack was meant to make his move to become unpredictable. Nonetheless, it was the double-edge sword, as Loki could use Haki to land a solid hit on every part of the smoke.
"Gomu Gomu no.....Gatling" Loki said
The white-haired boy punched in all direction of the smoke until Smoker couldn't tolerate it anymore. Making the smoke gather around and took the form of our beloved Marine captain. Smoker was now panting even more heavily than before, he was covered by bruises and blood from head to toe. Unable to accept his lost, Smoker intended to launch another attack, but Loki was once again nowhere to be found. Suddenly, Loki reappeared right in front of him and gave him a punch straight to his gut with a stronger force, making Smoker to cough up blood that mixed with saliva and went limb.
"Oi, you'd better not die Smokey, I don't want to face a furry Luffy, you know" Loki said while poking Smoker with his finger, checking whether he was dead or not
Instead of leaving Smoker's body there and heading toward Merry, Loki decided to stay there, as he felt the previous presence was approaching him slowly from behind. Even though the man had supressed his aura to look like civiliance, Loki could still easily notice him.
"It's quite an impressive display!" Dragon said.
"Nah, it was nothing really", Loki replied after he had stood up and faced the man.
"Knowing you, it's truly nothing compared to your full power". Dragon smirked at his son.
Dragon's cold eyes suddenly had a small sight of sadness as he was looking at the young captain. The revolutionary then slowly walked toward him and embraced his son in both his arms.
"Things will get crazy once your crew arrive at the Grand Line. However, I can only help you in the shadow, so you must take care of yourself and Luffy, alright!" Dragon said lovingly.
"I know, dad. You don't have to worry about us! We'll make sure to bring papa back home". Loki smiled.
"That's good to hear! Take care Loki, Luffy" Drangon said after he let them go.
Loki looked at his dad walking away from them, then quickly vanished from his sight like thin air. Now that everything was done, Loki then gave Luffy back his controlled and quickly ran toward the Going Merry. Once Luffy arrived at where they docked the ship, the young captain was met with the beaten bodies of Mohji and Richie lying on the ground unconscious. However, they seemed to still be able to move. What a miracle! Nami and Usopp must have gone easy on him.
Luffy then used Haki in order to scan for his crew's location, then quickly took off. Seemed like Zoro and Sanji had also arrived, however, they were being stopped by a bunch of Marines. How annoying! As for Usopp and Nami, the two of them had successfully managed to board the ship. Once Luffy spotted Zoro and Sanji, who were fighting those Marines, from far away, the captain abruptly stretched both of his arms out to wrap Sanji and Zoro around their waists.
"Let's go Sanji, Zoro!" Luffy said excitedly.
"L-Luffy?!" Zoro said with a pale face, as he knew exactly what would happen next.
Sanji was confused as to why Zoro seemed so scared just because he was wrapped by their captain. Sadly, the poor cook didn't have a chance to voice his question, because Luffy had quickly used Geppo and Gear Second to walk in thin air at a high speed. Everyone, including Nami and Usopp, was shocked. As for the captain, he seemed to enjoy this moment, despite Zoro and Sanji being on the edge of puking. Once they were finally on board, Usopp immediately went to raise the anchor, and they started to set sail away from Loguetown and head toward Grand Line.
"Oi, captain", Zoro said, with a deep voice and dangerous smile.
Luffy, who was laughing just now, suddenly went quiet as he heard Zoro's cold voice. Zoro slowly got up and walked toward Luffy, completely ignoring the half-dead Sanji that was lying on the floor. Foam was in his mouth. The closer Zoro was, the more sweat came out of Luffy. The captain was trying his best not to make eye contact with Zoro. However, Zoro suddenly grabbed Luffy's chin with one hand, and force the captain to look straight into his deadly golden eye.
"Do you have anything to say, captain" Zoro said sweetly, too sweetly.
"I.....I apo-pologize for my stu-stupidity!" Luffy said fearfully while shutting his eyes together.
Looking at the captain, Zoro knew very well that there was no way this idiot would change that easily, he was Luffy after all. Zoro shook his head hopelessly, then let Luffy go and went to help the others in the crew.
"The wind has suddenly become stronger, what is going on?!" Nami exclaimed.
'Wind suddenly became stronger?! That can only mean....' Zoro thought as he finally realized whose presence he had felt before.
The vice-captain then looked at the person right beside him just to see a certain captain who was whistling nervously. Luffy definitely knew his dad was here, and he sure had met the man, but he didn't say a word to them. Despite that, Zoro didn't seem mad at this matter, he knew Dragon's identity must be secret as the man was the head of the revolutionary after all, which also meant that he was hunted down by the Marine all the time. Zoro then went back to order the crew to work.
"Let the sail down, we will use the wind to get out". Zoro ordered
Sanji, who had just gained his conscious, and Usopp quickly complied. Once the sails were down, and the anchor was raised, Usopp then tried his best to go to the rudder and gain his balance while doing so. Luffy quickly noticed how they were slowly losing their balance because of the strong wind and waves.
"Everyone get inside the cabin! The wind can easily knock you all overboard", Luffy said.
As they all hurried inside, Luffy suddenly felt two presences on the ship. Luffy was cursing at himself quietly for not notice them sooner. Being with the crew made him feel safe and become unaware of his surroundings. That should definitely change in the future. He didn't want the same thing to happen again.
"Who are you?" Luffy asked coldly, while looking at the tangerine groves.
The two cloaked figures then walked out of the tangerine groves. Both were female, one shorter and the other was taller. The taller one was holding a sword on her hip which Luffy quickly knew was Wado Ichimoji, one of Zoro's old swords.
"Luffy, you're such a bad friend! How could you just forget about me easily like that" the shorter pouted
Suddenly it clicked, the voice and the presence. How could he forget her?
"Wait, Koala?!" Luffy said.
"Hehe, bingo!" Koala said with her fingers pointing at him like a gun.
Koala and her friend then took their hoods off. Looking at the new face, Luffy felt like he had seen her somewhere. She had long dark blue hair tied up in a ponytail, sharp blue eyes, brown goggles on her head, a black cloth wrapped around her breast like a bra, a half open white shirt that went along with blue ripped-off jeans, brown leather boots and gloves, a small brown bag was also hanging on her hip.
Koala then dragged Kuina to where Luffy was standing. Thanks to that Luffy had noticed their matching earrings, Koala was wearing a blue one with the shape of a small water drop on her right, while Kuina was red and on her left.
"Nice to meet Dragon-san's son! My name is Kuina". Kuina greeted him
"I'm Monkey D. Luffy, the man who will become the King of Pirates", Luffy said.
"Ne, Luffy, mind if we catch a ride?!" Koala said.
"Nah, but we seriously should go inside. My crew may think I was knocked overboard by now." Luffy smiled.
"Yeah" Koala said.
They then quickly went into the cabin, which surprised the other four members of the ship. They had been worried whether Luffy would be knocked out of the sea, or if something had happened to him. Fortunately, it seemed not that case. Now that their focus was on the newcomers, as they all knew too well that people were supposed to be thrown out of the ship, not onto the ship. Zoro somehow felt these two were very familiar, like he had met them somewhere. Suddenly, an image of Koala and Kuina when they were still in Longuetown appeared inside his head.
"You are that girl who bumped into that Marine woman, aren't you?" Zoro asked.
"Yeah, that was me. Nice to meet all of Luffy's friends. I'm Koala". Koala greeted
"You know my friend and also work with her......the girl beside you also looks like her, but with longer hair and different clothes from before......that only means.......Kuina!" Zoro exclaimed.
"It has been so long, Zoro. Never thought you could recognize me that fast", Kuina greeted
"Oi, are you saying that I'm stupid or something?"
"Well, am I wrong?" Kuina titled her head
"You......"
The room then broke into laughter as the two old friends had reunited with each other for so long.