Hey guys, this is a new story for One Piece that I've been thinking of. Recently I've been pretty hooked on the show and have been watching it on my free time and eventually came up with the idea for this story.

So, the premise of this story is the idea that Shanks decides to teach Luffy about haki before he leaves Fushia village along with a few other things. Luffy will still have the Gum Gum fruit, but he is going to have the ability to use observation haki and armament haki when he starts his adventure. Luffy will be a bit smarter than he is in cannon and will also be a lot stronger. Luffy will not be insanely OP, at least not yet.

I do want to let you know that parts of the story will be the same or at least very similar to cannon, but I think I found a lot of ways to make most of the events in this story deviate from cannon. We will start to see a decent amount of changes when we first get into the Grand Line.

I want to do an extended crew, but I still haven't really decided on the potential crew members yet. If a good argument can be made for any individual characters then I will definitely consider adding them to the roster, as of now though, I can only think of two characters that I want to put onto the crew.

Now as far as romances go, it won't be a major focus of this story, but it will have some Luffy/Nami involved. To see any other relationships happen you will just have to stay tuned :P

For those of you that have been following my other story, I'm sorry that I haven't really updated. I've done some cleaning up and editing on the first couple chapters, but unfortunately, I was pretty busy with work, school and a couple family related things that pulled my attention away from writing. The story will be on hiatus for a while and I'll give an update when I get back to working on it.

Anyways guys, let's get to the story.

[&]

"I'm in your debt, Luffy…" Shanks, a man with red hair and a jagged scare over his left eye, held the sobbing child close to him as he kept them both floating above the gentle waves of the ocean. "Makino-san told me everything." He paused as the boy shifted in his grasp, gripping the man's shirt as tears fell from his eyes.

"You fought for us." The red head spoke quietly and sincerely so as to calm the boy down. Suddenly with a little more enthusiasm and volume, he told the boy before him, "Hey don't cry! You're a man!"

It took Luffy a moment to final respond, tears rushed down his cheeks and mixed with the ocean, "But, Shanks… Your arm!"

Shanks could understand Luffy's sadness and his shock, it was easy to tell that the boy felt guilty over the events that transpired. If Luffy hadn't eaten the devil fruit or wasn't taken by the bandit and attacked by the sea king, Shanks never would have lost his arm. Shanks looked down at the missing appendage, not even wincing at the blood flowing into the waters below.

"It's only an arm. It's no big deal, I'm just glad that you're alright." The red-head pirate started to make his way back to the coast, "Come on let's get you back to land."

Later that night

Hey Luffy what's wrong, why you looking so down? I thought you were a man?" Lucky Roo, a rather rotund member of the red-haired pirates asked Luffy, as he sat on the stool right next to him. Lucky knew that asking in a way like that, challenging the boy's manliness would quickly get him out of his slump.

It just so happened that he was right, "Of course, I'm a man! What do you take me for?" The small boy shouted back, gathering the attention of Makino and all of the pirates inside of the bar. The shout caused everyone to burst into laughter, everyone knowing that the boy would be teased endlessly.

"~I don't know~" Shanks said in a sing-song kind of voice, all patched up and not at all looking like he just lost an arm and a lot of blood. "I don't think I've ever seen a man, let alone a pirate ever mope around the way you do!"

Everyone in the bar could have easily predicted what was going to happen next and no one was disappointed by Luffy's reaction.

"SHUT UP SHANKS! I'M GOING TO BE A BETTER PIRATE THAN YOU ARE. JUST WATCH ME!" The boy shouted out at the top of his lungs as he stood up on his chair, trying to give the appearance that he was bigger than his hero. 'Trying' was the key word here because as soon as he stood up and glared at Shanks, the man took a swig of his rum and gave Luffy a good-natured slap on the back.

"HAHHAHAHAHA!" Everyone in the bar burst into laughter when Luffy fell forward, his face landing in the large bowl of stew that served as his dinner.

Makino couldn't help the giggle that escaped her when Luffy finally lifted his face back up and he was covered in the stew.

"Shanks, you jerk!" Luffy yelled in rage, causing another uproar of laughter, "Hey shut up!"

After a while, the bar calmed down from the fiasco, everyone went back to drinking and socializing until finally everyone in the bar except for Luffy, Shanks, Makino and Ben Beckman, the first mate of the red-hair pirates were unconscious due to heavy drinking. Ben was at a table in the corner of the bar smoking a cigarette, minding his own business. Meanwhile, Shanks and Makino were chatting while Luffy was quietly sitting next to Shanks, it wouldn't take a genius to know that he was deep in thought.

"Hey Shanks," The boy finally spoke up for the first time in what seemed like a long time to the chatting duo. "What's on your mind, kid?" The red-head asked Luffy, he was glad that the kid finally decided to speak up. This was probably the quietest the kid had ever been since they met almost a year ago. In fact, he was about to ask him what his problem was.

"Can I really do it, can I really become a pirate?" The raven-haired boy said. He paused momentarily to clear his throat with a sip of water before speaking again, "It's all my fault that you lost your arm today."

Luffy wasn't taking the events of today well at all, Makino and Shanks could easily tell that he felt guilty before he even spoke. "Listen Luffy, none of what happened today is your fault. I'm happy to have a friend like you, you stuck up for us when we weren't there to do it ourselves. Don't beat yourself up over it. Losing my arm was my choice, I would have done the same for Makino-chan or anyone on my crew. That was my decision Luffy."

Neither of the guys noticed the green-haired bartender blushing at the pirate captain's response.

"But if I wasn't weak then you never would ha… OWW!" The boy was interrupted by a fist to the head, "What was that for, you jerk!?"

"Don't whine because you were to weak, if that's the issue then you will just have to get stronger so that this doesn't happen again! If it makes you feel better, then consider us even. You fought for us against a group of bandits and I defended you from a sea king."

The boy quietly thought over what he was told, 'If that's the issue then get stronger!'

"Alright I'll do it! I'll get really strong and I'll be able to protect others the way you did for me! I'm going to start right now!" The boy hopped out of his seat and started running for the door, but then he stopped all of the sudden, "Hey Shanks, what am I supposed to do to get stronger?"

'Smack, Smack' The bartender and pirate both facepalmed at the kid's sheer stupidity. "Tell you what kid, I'm going to be here for another week before we take off for the grand line. I'll try and teach you a thing or two before we leave. How's that sound?"

"Really!?" Luffy's eyes were shining so brightly that the drunk pirates started complaining about it already being morning in their sleep. "When can we start?"

"Why don't you go get some sleep? We can start tomorrow." Said Shanks. With that, the kid left the bar after giving Makino a hug. The days events were catching up to him and he was really tired.

A minute or two after Luffy left, Ben got up from the table he was previously occupying and casual made his was over to the bar and sat in the same seat that Luffy was previously settled in. "So," He took a long drag from his Cigarette, "I'm surprised you want to train him, is it going to interfere with our schedule." To anyone, it would seem that Ben didn't like the idea of him taking the time to train Luffy. To anyone but Shanks at least, they had known each other for a long time and Shanks knew that Ben liked the kid as much as anyone else on the crew. He normally just liked to get to the main point right away.

"No it won't, I need the time to recover before we head back to the grand line and I'm sure the crew will enjoy the break." The pirate captain took a sip of rum, "You know as much as I do that the kid could be something special in the future, he reminds me a lot of my old captain. I just want to give him the tools that he will need to find his own way." 'I'm sure, he's the one that Roger was waiting for.' With that said the two men continued drinking and chatting until they blacked out like the rest of the crew.

The Next Morning

The next day had finally arrived, two figures sat in a grassy meadow just outside of the village. Off to the side of the figures, a large boulder sat in the clearing. The first one was Luffy, a small seven-year-old with black hair and a small scar under his left eye. He wore a pair of cargo shorts and a white shirt with a blue anchor on the front. The second figure was the one armed pirate that saved his life the previous day.

"Luffy, listen up. The crew and I will be leaving the village in about a week, so I'm going to teach you a couple things and set you up with a couple exercises to help you develop your skills for the future. I'm not going to focus on your devil fruit, I want you to work on that on your own time. I'm going to show you two techniques that you can master if you work hard at them."

The pirate knew that it wasn't really responsible to teach him what he was about to. He didn't care though, he felt that he owed the kid one and what better payment method then to teach the self-proclaimed 'better future pirate' how to start earning his haki. "What I'm about to show you, you have to promise me that you don't tell anyone about except for your future crew when you feel that they are ready to learn how to use it."

The boy had a confused look on his face with one eyebrow raised up, "How come Shanks?"

"Because," The man started to explain, "The abilities that I'm going to show you are really powerful and if anyone found out that you can use them, you would be targeted by people who are just as strong as me, if not stronger. They would destroy everything that you love, your friends, your village, everything." Maybe it was a slight exaggeration, but the kid didn't need to know that.

Luffy definitely didn't expect that, "Okay, I won't tell anyone then!"

"Are you sure? Little kids don't know how to keep secrets." He said as he stuck his tongue out, knowing that would get a response out of Luffy.

"Hey, I'm not a little kid! I can keep a secret just fine." He crossed his arms and looked away. "Jerk!" He mumbled to himself, although the red-head still heard him, gaining a chuckle out of him.

After he stopped laughing, Shanks slowly grew more serious before finally getting back to business, "What I'm about to show you is called haki, there are three different forms of it, however I'm only going to show you two of them." Shanks started to explain to the aspiring pirate, "I won't be showing you the third one because it's very rare and only a select few can learn it. If you are capable of learning it, then it will show it's self when you are ready."

Shanks stood up and told Luffy to do so as well, "Here is the first one." Luffy watched in awe as Shanks arm was covered in what looked like a black substance, "This is called the color of arms or otherwise known as armament haki. Normally your skin wont turn black like this without a lot of training, normally it would be an invisible coating around my arm. This is called hardening." The pirate let the technique slowly fade away.

"What does it do?" Luffy asked.

"Good question, watch this." Shanks walked over to the boulder and casually punched it. Luffy was left underwhelmed when nothing happened, he was about to ask what the point was when he was cut off by shanks cutting him off.

"Now watch what happens when I use the color of arms, you won't see it covering my arm this time." Shanks pulled his arm back and struck the boulder again with the same amount of force. Luffy's jaw dropped and his eyes bugged out when a huge crack appeared around his fist, almost looking like a spider web.

"Holy crap, that was awesome! So, it makes your attacks stronger?" The boy asked with stars in his eyes.

"Yes, it can also be used to shield you or even be applied to weapons." He demonstrated by pulling his sword and nicking his shoulder only for nothing to happen and then coat his sword in haki and cutting the boulder in half like it was nothing. Shanks couldn't help laughing at the sight of the kid, he looked like he just hit the jackpot.

"That's soo cool! I want to learn how to do that."

"You will at some point." Shanks grabbed a stick laying on the ground and walked back over to Luffy before handing it to him. "Okay Luffy, here is the other technique you will start training in. It's called the color of observation or observation haki. Try hitting me with the stick. He said as he sat down, his back facing towards Luffy.

Luffy was confused with the orders, but decided to follow them anyways. He trusted that Shanks knew what he was doing. He proceeded to swing the stick at him multiple times and was completely in awe as not only did Shanks flawlessly dodge every strike at the last second, but also called out exactly where the strikes would come from at the same time!

"H-how did you do that!?" The boy asked, not knowing how to comprehend what he just saw.

"It's the power of observation," The pirate said as though it was the simplest thing in the universe. "Every living thing emits a 'voice' or an 'aura' if you will. Basically, by training in this skill, overtime you will be able to sense that 'voice' or 'aura' of others around and feel where they are as if you were seeing them without 'sight'. People that have trained their observation haki well enough can even slightly see into the future, read people's emotions or sense how strong another person is." The red head tried to explain in a way that he thought Luffy would understand.

"Wow really! The ability to see into the future, that's so cool!" The boy was hopping in place, excitement clear on his face. "Let's get started then, so what do I have to do?"

"Don't get too excited, it will take you a couple of years to learn these skills and even longer to master them." The boy frowned at that, "One of my old teachers explained it to me like this, 'The act of not doubting yourself is the key to building your haki.' You need to have confidence in your decisions and in yourself if you want to earn it. It also takes a lot of training to awaken your haki for the first time. We are going to start on some exercises to build up your strength, speed and endurance over this week and then next week ill start teaching you exercises that you can do to start unlocking your haki. Do you have any questions before we get started?"

The boy thought for a second before one popped up in his head, "How come we are working on this and not my devil fruit at all? Isn't that a waste of my fruit then?" He was super excited to learn how to use these other abilities, but it would be a waste to not learn how to use his devil fruit especially since the ocean now rejects him because of it.

"Your right. And you should learn how to use your fruit because it will make you more powerful. I'm not helping you with your fruit because you need to do that yourself, what I'm teaching you will be a lot harder to learn. If you learn haki, you will be a lot stronger than anyone in the east blue and stronger than most people in the first half of the grand line. Plus, you should never just rely on your fruit, if you do that makes you weak to other people."

"Wow!" Stronger than everyone in east blue and the first half of the grand line! "Alright, I'm going to learn haki and how to use my devil fruit! Then ill show you how great of a pirate I am." The kid flexed his right arm with his left holding it, causing Shanks to laugh at his determination.

"Alright, we are going to spar," The man said as he moved closer to Luffy, "Try and dodge as many attacks as you can."

Luffy's training had finally begun.

Two weeks later

The two weeks that Shanks spent helping Luffy had finally ended, it was time for the crew and Luffy to split ways. Who knew how long it would be until they saw each other again.

Luffy and the people of the village stood on the docks that surrounded the ship. Everyone member of the pirate crew was in the process of packing up for their long voyage back to the grand line. Everyone that is, except for Captain Shanks, who was still on the dock with the villagers. He was standing between Makino and Luffy chatting with them.

"Do you really have to leave." The boy asked with a big frown on his face. The two had grown even closer in the two weeks that they spent training. While Luffy hadn't gotten very far with his haki training, he did notice that he was starting to get quicker and stronger under Shanks' tutelage. Luffy had also started experimenting with his gum gum fruit, he had a couple ideas that he could use for attacks and was currently trying to figure his rubber body out.

"Yeah, we've been here for a long time and it's finally time that we go back." The captain answered back, "Will you miss us?"

"Yeah," Tears threatened to fall, but somehow Luffy managed to hold them back, "I'm going to miss you guys, but I'm not going to ask you guys to take me with you this time. I'm going to stay here and get stronger then I'll become a pirate on my own."

"Bleh," Shanks stuck his tongue out at the boy, "I wasn't going to take you anyways. Like you can become a pirate." He said in a silly tone.

Luffy frowned and yelled out, causing the whole crew to stop what they were doing and look at him. "I will! I'm going to get stronger and gather a crew that beats yours and when I do, i'll find the world's greatest treasure. No matter what, I'm going to be the Pirate King!" The crew smiled at the boy's determination as Shanks looked down, his precious straw hat shadowing his face.

"Eh, you're going to beat us? Then," Shanks took the hat off his head and placed it on Luffy's head. The hat shadowed his face as he listened to his hero speak, "I'm leaving this hat in your care, its very important to me. Take good care of it for me."

Luffy couldn't hold it anymore, he started crying as Shanks took his hand off of his head and turned around. As Shanks started walking to his ship, his cloak trailing the wind behind him. He said one last thing before boarding his ship, "Someday return that hat back to me, when you're a great pirate."

"Shanks, i'm going to get even stronger than you! Next time we meet, I'll save your life instead." Luffy yelled as the pirate ship left the dock.

"Hah!" Shanks whispered to himself as his ship pulled away from the docks, "I'll hold you to that Luffy."

The pirate crew that significantly impacted Luffy's life set off for the final time. The boy held the precious hat to his chest with his right arm as he waved to the cheering pirates out on the sea.

'Just wait Shanks, when we meet again, I will be giving your hat back.' With his mind made up, Luffy left the big crowd and started heading to the clearing that Shanks taught him in.

"Where are you going Luffy?" The green haired woman asked. She was sad to see Shanks leave, they had grown close over the past year, but she could only imagine how Luffy felt. She knew that he only had her and his grandpa who hasn't even been back home in longer than a year.

"I'm going to train, Makino-chan. I need to get stronger so I can keep my promise to Shanks. I'll be back at the bar later." The boy left, his face showing just how much determination he was feeling in order to keep the promise.

Shanks

Shanks and Ben continued to stare back at the small village that served as their base for the past year.

"He's going to go far in life." Shanks finally broke the silence.

"Yes, if he can learn how to use everything that we taught him, I have no doubt that he will make waves in this vast world of ours." Ben anticipated.

'Use this time to grow Luffy. Find your own way and get strong, I gave you everything I could. Now it's your turn to choose what to do with it."

When the village finally left their sight, the Captain and first mate turned their heads to the future. "Men, set sail to the New World!"

"Aye, aye Cap'n!"

Ten years later

It's finally time! After ten years of training, Luffy was finally ready to embark on his journey to becoming the Pirate King. Luffy gave Makino a hug before hopping onto the small boat he prepared to take him on his journey.

The little boy had grown well over the past ten year, he now stood a little taller than Makino. He was skinny but still clearly muscular from his grueling training over the years. The boy, no he was a young man now, wore a red vest with blue shorts and the ever-present straw hat that sat upon his head. Makino was sad to see him finally leave on his journey, she thought of him as if he was her own son due to all the time that they had spent together. She was going to miss him.

"Everyone, I'm taking off now. Take care." He said before looking out towards sea. The lazy waves greeted his eyes and he smiled in anticipation.

"Sabo, watch me. I'm off to sea. I'm going to be a pirate." He whispered to himself, his eyes facing towards the sky with one hand on the brim of his straw hat. After a moment of silence, he suddenly lifted both hands into the sky, his fingers clutched into tight fists, "Ace, Shanks. Here I come, don't wait up for me." He shouted to the heavens above, as if his voice would care throughout the world and somehow reach them. With that said, Straw hat Luffy took his first step towards his dream. To be the King of Pirates!

As he set out on his journey, the villagers waved out to him and he waved back. Suddenly, he had to turn around when the same sea king that tried to attack him and instead ate Shanks left arm ten years ago shot out of the water, anticipating its next meal.

"So, your back huh?" He pushed the straw hat down so it shadowed him eyes, "Here's payback for what you did to Shanks." The pirate threw his arm back behind him where it seemed to stretch briefly before coming to a stop. With a little bit of concentration, Luffy covered his fist in the color of arms, applying an invisible coating to his fist to greatly increase the power of his punch.

"Take this! Gomu gomu no… pistol!" The fist hurtled back at intense speed, whistling past Luffy and smashing the sea king in the face. The punch was so intense that the beast shot through the surface of the water, creating a trench briefly as it skipped across the surface of the ocean until the waves came and filled the displaced water. When the sea settled down, any traces of the sea king were completely gone.

"Shishishi. Serves you right!" The pirate snickered to himself, "Onward, to adventure!"

After a couple hours of sailing, Luffy decided to sit back and enjoy the ocean surrounding him, the waves rolled by lazily as the occasional seagull flew by. It was a nice, sunny day with a slight breeze and Luffy was all too happy to relax and soak up the sun for a little bit.

"Alright, I better start recruiting crew members before I go to the grand line. I think I want about 10 members." He lazily spoke to himself, as if to get an idea of his master plan. "First, I should get a navigator since I have no idea what I'm doing and then maybe a musician next so we can sing. Huh, after tha…" Luffy was cut off when suddenly his raft trembled, he quickly shot up to see what was happening and found himself being sucked in by a whirlpool.

"Shishishi, this should be fun." He gave a genuine smile as he thought about how he should get out of the situation. He looked around to see if there were any near by ships, after finding none he looked down at the barrel containing his food and shrugged to himself, 'Hopefully this will work.' He thought as he proceeded to stuff himself into the barrel and miraculously fell asleep immediately without a worry in the world.

About an hour later

Luffy slowly started waking up to the sounds of voices, he looked around momentarily and noticed it was pitch black. 'Where am I?' He thought, before remembering that he was in his barrel after getting trapped in the whirlpool.

'I need to stretch, time to get out of the barrel.' Luffy shot up with a yawn and a stretch, not even noticing that one of the voices out side had just said that they were going to smash the barrel open.

15 minutes earlier

"Everyone get ready, we are going to show these guys the wraith of the Alvida pirates!" A rather big boned lady with a huge mace shouted out to her crew as they all cheered. Said crew found a cruise ship and decided to raid it for their valuables. Everyone except for a small dorky, pink haired brat was preparing for the fight that was about to ensue. The lady noticed and promptly called the brat over, "Coby, get over here now!"

Said kid winced when he was called over, but still trudged up to the large woman, "Yes Alvida-sama!?" Alvida was… obese, easily so. She wore a fancy white cowgirl hat with a dark blue captain's coat adorned with gold trim. Under her coat, she wore a pink, plaid shirt that hugged her rolls. Her outfit was finished off with excessive amounts of flashy jewelry on her hands, a sash wrapped around her waist with a pistol tucked under and a massive mace adorned with spikes gripped in her right hand.

Alvida fully turned and faced her subordinate before glaring at him. Causing the kid to break into a sweat. "Why don't I see you getting prepared Coby? Your getting on that ship too." She narrowed her eyes at the brat, waiting for a response.

Coby was a wimpy, short kid with baby fat adorning his face, circular glasses sat on his face and he wore a simple white button up v-neck with black pants. He had pink hair that parted in the middle and was currently sporting a scared frown with sweat forming on his brow.

"I-I was j-just cleaning the ship Alvida-sama." The kid managed to stutter out, although just barely.

The captain seemed to hum in thought, "Were you now Coby? I don't think that's what I saw myself." She pulled her mace up and leaned it over her shoulder, giving a pointed look to the pink haired brat. "I suppose I can let you off with cleaning the entire ship from top to bottom if you do your part in the raid and actually make yourself useful. Otherwise, I think we can see just how intimate you can be with this mace here."

"Y-yes mam Alvida-sama." Coby squeaked out as he saluted, then moved away from the scary woman to mentally prepare himself.

"Alright boys, who is the most beautiful woman in the entire seas?"

It was finally time, with well-placed hooks the crew connected the pirate ship and the cruise ship together. With a cry of, "Alvida-sama is!" The entire crew boarded the ship and rushed to secure the crew and the civilians.

Coby trailed right behind as he was thrown across by Alvida. The big lady soon followed when one of the pirates came to tell her the crew was secured.

No one noticed when a girl wearing a tight blue shirt and a black bandana used one of the ropes securing the two ships together to slide down into the pirate ship and scurry off to find the nearest door or when Coby walked down into the cruise ship's lower levels.

Coby continued down into the ship until he found himself in the kitchen, where he promptly decided to stay. "Maybe I can hide down here for a little while." The kid took a look around and noticed a peculiar barrel sitting off to the corner of the room, it was a lot bigger than the rest of the barrels in the kitchen which was rather odd. He walked over to take a look at it right as three of the crew members walked into the room.

"Oi, what are you doing down here brat? Are you trying to hide from Alvida-sama again?" One of the pirates asked, intimidating the brat when he pulled his sword out from it's resting spot at his hip.

"N-no I was gathering supplies for our ship and then I found this really big barrel." The kid responded back, quickly finding a way to get attention off him.

One of the goons walked over and experimentally lifted it up, only to find out that it weighed much more than he expected, "Let's crack this bad boy open. I bet there's a lot of booze in here and I'm feelin pretty thirsty! Right, scallywags?" The men all smirked as the one by the barrel shimmied it over to the other two.

"You can't!" Coby freaked out, "What if Alvida-sama finds out?" He really, really didn't want to take any of Alvida's wraith.

"Well then, it's a good thing that no one here is a snitch. Am I right boys!?" The other two men agreed whole heartedly, "Am I right?" The man turned back to Coby and gave him a smirk that easily promised a whole lot of pain to the brat if their captain caught wind of this.

"R-right." The pink-haired brat stuttered out.

"Time to drink!" The man started to swing his fist down onto the top of the barrel, trying to smash it open (idiot). Suddenly, as his fist was just about to reach its desired target, the lid was smashed outwards as a man yawned and threw his arms out to stretch his muscles. Everyone watched in shock as the pirate was dropped like a sack of potatoes by the stretching fists of a young adult wearing a red vest, blue shorts and a simple straw hat placed on top of his head.

"Ahh, that was a great nap!" The man noticed the two pirates in front of him and the one knocked out on the ground. "Hey, who the hell are you?" he asked the pirates.

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!" The men shouted back as they stepped forward.

Luffy responded back as if this kind of thing was a normal everyday occurrence, "I'm Monkey D. Luffy. Why is that guy sleeping on the floor? He's going to get a cold." Luffy asked with genuine confusion.

Their eye's bugged out, "YOU PUT HIM THERE!" The pirates continued yelling as they pulled their swords out and moved them towards Luffy's throat.

Once again, Luffy ignored them and stepped out of the barrel, he shook some dust from his vest as he faced Coby, "Hey, you. Where's the food at, I'm hungry." Luffy's stomach growled loudly in response to his question.

"QUIT IGNORING US!" The pirates swung their swords at Luffy, prepared to kill the stupid bastard. Coby was just about to cover his eyes when he noticed that Luffy was smirking. He was confused why anyone would smile at the face of their death and so he decided to watch whatever happened next.

Everyone was shocked when Luffy casually ducked between the two blades with such grace, Coby even noticed that his feet stayed in the same spot through the entire motion. The pirates had put so much strength into the attack that when both blades missed their mark, the men were left over extended. Luffy reached his hands out and grabbed each blade as they flew past him and easily snapped them, as if they were sticks.

Both men panicked for a moment and fell backwards, quickly trying to put distance between them and the man wearing a straw hat. When their brains started working again, they freaked out and dashed out of the kitchen, praying that the man wouldn't give chase.

Meanwhile, Luffy just turned back to coby, his pinky up his nose, as he once again asked Coby to bring him to the food. The kid just nodded, not even attempting to anger the man who defeated three of the Alvida pirates without even trying. "F-follow me."

The two soon entered a storage room and Coby closed the door behind them. Luffy jumped straight in and immediately started eating any food that he could get his hands on. Coby watched in pure awe, he had seen the eating manners of pirates. Pirates didn't eat anything like what he was seeing. The cabin boy was feeling disgusted just by watching.

Coby was gathering his thoughts, he had a lot of questions he wanted to ask. He was just about to open his mouth, but Luffy beat him to it, "So, are we on a pirate ship?" Luffy asked the pink-haired kid.

"N-no we aren't, we're on a cruise ship that's being attacked by the Alvida pirates." Coby said as Luffy continued eating.

Luffy finally asked another question after he swallowed the apple he was eating, "Can you take me to a boat? There's got to be a small one on the shi…" He was cut off with a protest from Coby, "Are you crazy!? We can't, there are pirates up there. We wouldn't stand a chance! We need to stay down here where they won't find… Ow! Why did you hit me?" The kid whined

"Shishishi, cause I felt like it! You're a coward ain't ya?" Coby felt a pang to his heart from the insult as Luffy looked down, his hat shadowing his eyes. He cracked his knuckles as he continued, "It doesn't matter if their pirates, cause I'm a pirate too. If they get in my way, I'll just kick their asses!"

Coby fell back in horror, "Y-y-you're a pirate?" He squeaked out.

"Yup!" Luffy grinned at the horrified look on the kids face, "I just started my journey, but I got sucked into a whirlpool and lost my boat. It doesn't matter though, I'm going to be King of the pirates!" He said with such resolve that it shook Coby to the core.

"Y-you have to be crazy! Pirate king is the title given to the man who acquires everything. Wealth, fame, power, everything. That means going into the grand line and getting the one piece! No way, just no way! T-that means standing at the top of this great pirate era!" Luffy was just nodding through the whole explanation, as if it was the simplest thing in the universe, "There's just no way. You can't, you'll die!" The kid finished his rant.

Luffy stared at him with an intensity that made Coby want to hide and curl up into a ball, "It doesn't matter if I die along the way. I'm going to do it because I want to! I would rather die trying to make me dream a reality then stay back home and do nothing with my life. I would never forgive myself!" Luffy stood up and dusted his pants off, "I'm full. I'm gonna go find a boat."

Luffy reached the door and started to turn the door knob when Coby finally called out, "Wait, d-do you think I can do it? Do you think I can get away from these pirates and accomplish my dreams?" The intensity that Coby spoke with put a smile on Luffy's face, who knew that the coward could speak so passionately.

"Shishishi, how should I know. If you don't fight for your own dreams, then who will?" He said back.

"Your right! I'm going to become a great marine and catch bad guys like Alvida-sa… no Alvida." That declaration surprised Luffy but he smiled at the lofty goal, "Go for it, Coby! You can do it!"

Luffy could feel the people that had been listening in on the conversation ever since he first told Coby his dream and his sixth sense warned him about what was about to happen.

'3… 2… 1…' Luffy thought to himself.

BANG! The ceiling above Coby smashed inwards, a mace making itself visible before the owner herself made an appearance through the hole. "Your going to catch who, COBY!?" Alvida yelled as she landed right in front of the cowering kid, her mace raised threatening over her shoulder.

Behind Luffy, swords skewered through the wooden door in an attempt to pierce him. Four of the five completely missed their mark while the finally one was on a collision course with Luffy's head. Luffy tilted his head slightly to the left, completely dodging the sharp blade by a fraction of an inch.

Alvida looked over and studied the straw hat, "You don't look like pirate hunter Zoro to me. Must be another weak bounty hunter." The lady smirked before gazing at the pink-haired brat, "Coby, who is the most beautiful…"

"Hey Coby, why is there a fat whale on the ship?" Luffy flicked a booger from his pinky.

Everyone within ear shot lost control of their jaws as eyes bugged out and jaws smashed the floor. The occupants of the storage room could swear that they saw steam coming from Alvida's ears.

"Why you!? I'm going to crush you, you damned brat." She hefted her mace up and prepared to smash Coby and Luffy into smithereens. Coby was shivering in fear and Luffy… Luffy was laughing his ass off…

In the blink of an eye, before Alvida could even start swinging the mace down towards the two brats, Luffy grabbed Coby by the shirt and jumped up. He skillfully hopped onto the mace and used it as a step to leap up through the hole, onto the deck of the cruise ship.

The two pirates who Luffy had met earlier were the first to react to the new faces on the deck, both were shaking in their boots but still managed to pull new swords from their belts and rush forward to decapitate Luffy and the brat. Luffy rolled his eyes and stepped forward to meet both men head on. The first one to reach him tried to stab him through the chest, but Luffy skillfully pivoted on one leg and completely dodged the stab attempt. The man's head was introduced to Luffy's elbow right after as he carried the pivot into a smooth full circle spin and smashed his elbow into the pirate. The man fell like a puppet with its strings cut and didn't get back up.

The second man followed up and tried to gut Luffy with a ruthless slash. He simply stepped into the mans guard and caught the sword by the guard and kicked the assailant in the chest, sending him flying off the deck of the ship and into the ocean below. A third pirate tried to take advantage of Luffy's turned back and went in for the kill. He wasn't expecting to not only fail in his attempt, but to be back handed into the group of pirates behind him.

Luffy turned back to make sure that Coby was alright. As he caught sight of the brat and saw that he was safe, he caught two different things; Alvida had just made it back onto the deck and he could sense someone watching him intently. He looked over to the other ship, where he saw a girl in a blue shirt and a black bandana with a little bit of orange hair peaking out staring at him. They made eye contact and he smiled at her. She instantly looked away, embarrassed that she had been caught and continued lowering the boat that she was stealing.

Luffy made a mental note to keep an eye on her presence in the case that he needed a quick getaway.

"I'm getting sick and tired of you stupid brats," His attention was pulled away by Alvida as she waddled towards him. She was getting a couple practice swings in before she showed this brat who was boss. "I overheard you talking to Coby and I have to say, you're a fool! Hahahaha! You as the pirate king? Don't make me laugh, you won't be able to beat me. I'm going to enjoy killing you brat! After I'm done with you, I think I'll have some fun crushing Coby too." All of her men cheered, there was no way this wannabe pirate could stand up to Alvida-sama's might.

Alvida pulled the mace up over her head and then swung it down towards Luffy, ready to finish him off, "Luffy! NO!" Coby shouted at the top of his lungs as the men continued to cheer.

It was safe to say that no one expected to see what happened next.

Luffy stood in place, his hat shadowing his eyes as he clenched his fist. He breathed out as his fist was covered in a light application of haki. Suddenly, his fist rocketed up in an instant, meeting the mace half way. The mace shattered like glass immediately on contact.

Everyone's jaws dropped as they watched the spectacle. Slowly, Luffy's head lifted up and his hat no longer shadowed his facial features. All hearts froze and everyone felt a chill pass through them at the hardened look in the man's eyes. All of the pirates and the aspiring marine understood right then and there, this straw hat was way beyond them. A few of the pirates dropped to their knees, all faith in winning this battle lost.

"I'm not going to let you trash talk my dream, and I'm sure as hell not going to let you hurt my new friend!" Luffy pulled his arm back and smashed Alvida right in the face, he didn't use haki with this punch, that didn't matter though because the force of the punch caused the fat in her face to billow outwards like waves. Alvida rocketed off the ship and was carried out over the sea. When she finally landed, she cannon-balled right on top of her subordinate that was kicked off the deck earlier by the straw hat.

Luffy was just about to call out for the rest of the quivering Alvida pirates to prepare him and Coby a ship when cannon balls landed right next to the two ships. 'Shit the navy's here, there's no time to get a boat ready. They want to sink both ships to get rid of the pirates.'

Coby started freaking out, "We need to get out of here! I can't be seen with these pirates or I'll never be accepted into the navy!" Luffy ignored him as he tried to think of a quick way out. Suddenly a light bulb went off in his head as he thought about the girl with the orange hair. He quickly focused with his observation haki and easily caught on to her signature. She was about to leave the ships behind.

"Come on!" Luffy quickly grabbed onto Coby and sprinted across both ships where he found the girl down below, just pushing away from the ships. "Hold on tight Coby!"

"W-wait!" Luffy jumped off the ship and they landed in the little boat, practically giving the girl a heart attack and knocking her out of the boat. "Aaahhhhh! What the hell!?" She screamed as Luffy reached out and grabbed her by the hand and pulled her back into the boat.

"No time," Luffy responded, shocking Coby as he had only seen him serious when he was angry, "The marines are going to sink all of the ships here in the name of 'Absolute justice'. We really need to get out of here or their going to target us too." Luffy said with some clear distaste.

And sure enough, a cannon ball from one of the ships landed right next to them. Coby and the girl started freaking out, both of them muttering something like 'we're screwed.'

Another cannon was shot at them, this time it was clearly going to hit them dead on. The two cowards started screaming and hugged each other. "We're gonna die," they shouted together, "now I'll never get to follow my dream! / now I'll never get the money for my village!" They continued in unison.

Both of them continued to watch as their death flew right at them, but neither of them expected for the third occupant of the ship to catch the cannon ball with one hand like it was the easiest thing in the universe. Both of their jaws dropped and their eyes bugged out, "What the hell!?" They looked at each other, then back at the straw hat, "We're saved!"

"W-what are you doing?" Coby asked as he watched Luffy pull him arm back and prepared to throw the cannon ball like a baseball.

"What does it look like? I'm return it back to it's owners." Luffy pitched the ball back and it shot back at the ship with almost triple the amount of force that the cannon shot it with. The cannon screeched all the way back and smashed into the ship with a massive explosion. The ball must have hit a gun powder supply because the explosion was massive enough that the wind generated was enough to push the small boat a long way and almost capsized it.

"You idiot!" The girl yelled.

"WOOHOO!" Luffy laughed as the small boat shot off with a massive speed boost, he used one hand to hold his hat in place and his other arm stretched out to grab the girl who was almost left behind. She was standing when the explosion happened and was practically thrown out of the boat from the force of it.

Coby was gripping onto the boat hard enough that he was sure his hands were bleeding. He was also staring at Luffy's stretched out arm in terror. Arms were not supposed to do that!

The girl was freaking out for a couple different reasons. First, she was scared the boat would capsize with all her valuables. Second, she was holding on tightly to a person she didn't even know that was keeping her from flying out of the small boat. And finally, said person's arm was stretched out and wrapped around her waist a couple times. 'I'm pretty damn sure that that isn't supposed to happen!'.

Oh yeah! Not to mention, who was this guy!? Not only did he manage to catch a freaking cannon ball with one hand, but he even threw it back at a marine ship with way more force than a cannon ever could and he destroyed the entire ship with one throw! How freaking powerful was this guy?

After a little while, the boats momentum managed to slow down to a more manageable speed and Luffy let the girl down into the boat when he was sure that she would be safe.

Now that everything had calmed down, Luffy took a look at the girl. He didn't really get to look at her before and the only feature he could remember was the strands of orange hair sticking out of her bandana. She now had her bandana off, revealing short orange hair. She had hazel eyes and fair colored skin. She was currently sporting a tight blue V-neck shirt that revealed her assets and loose-fitting black pants with a red sash tied around the waist.

"What the hell was that!?" The two shouted at the straw hat.

"What, I don't understand?" he responded back, really confused with the question.

"What do you mean by 'I don't understand'?" The girl asked in exasperation, "You just caught a fucking cannon ball like it was nothing and then threw it with enough force to destroy a ship and then your arm stretched out and caught me. Thanks for that by the way."

"Shishishi, that's a lot of questions." He said back with his pinky up his nose.

"ANSWER THEM!" The girl shouted back at him.

"Shishishi, fine fine. I did a lot of training growing up as a kid. And the reason why my body can stretch is because I ate one of the devil fruits. The fruit I ate was the gum gum fruit," Luffy grabbed his cheek and stretched it a good two feet to show them, "See I'm a rubber man." He snapped his cheek back into place.

"So, the devil fruits do actually exist, I thought they were just a myth." The girl had a contemplative look on her face, "Wait, that doesn't explain how you were able to catch a cannon ball. What kind of training were you doing as a kid that would let you do that?"

"Well when I was really young, my grandpa used to throw me in the woods for a week or two at a time for survival training or there was that one time where he threw me down a bottomless pit. I think it took me like five days to climb back up. Oh yeah and I almost forgot about the time where he tied me to enough balloons that I flew up into the sky and I was up there for three hours before a bird came by and popped all of them. I was really lucky that I landed in the ocean. Oh, but I didn't know how to swim, good thing grandpa saved me." Coby and the girl just listened in growing horror as each story got worse and worse. You couldn't make this shit up. 'No wonder this kid is so strong, I'm surprised he's not dead yet!" The girl thought to herself as she turned to look at their heading and to check the weather.

"Oh, I forgot to ask." Luffy said, causing the girl to look back at him, "What's your name? My name is Luffy and this coward is Coby." Coby visibly deflated after being introduced as a coward by the man that saved his life.

The girl giggled into her hand, "My names Nami, I'm a thief who steals from pirates and I'm the best damn navigator you'll find at sea." Nami puffed her chest in pride at the self-proclaimed title. She felt fine telling these guys that she was a pirate thief, it wasn't like these guys were pirates or anything.

In fact, he seemed pretty strong, maybe she could get him to help her. She would definitely get her one million beli quicker. "You know, maybe you should help me out for a little while, we could make a killing working together!"

"Sorry, can't do that." He didn't sound sorry in the slightest bit.

"Come on, please." She latched on to his arm, making sure it was in the middle of her chest. There was no way she couldn't get him with her feminine appeal, "I could really use someone strong like you." 'Hook, line and sinker.' She thought to herself.

"Nah, I'm good." No reaction at all, it looked like he was ignoring her.

"Why not?" She let go of his arm and sat back down in the boat, partially upset that he didn't take her offer. 'Is he gay?'

"Because," He gave her a big grin, "I'm going to be the pirate king!" Coby facepalmed, only this guy would be stupid enough to tell someone that hates pirates that he is one.

And just like that, Nami was on edge, "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't throw you off this boat right now."

"Because you won't." Luffy said, his eyes shadowed by his straw hat.

"Are you trying to intimidate me?" Her eyes narrowed, she wasn't going to lie and say that he wasn't intimidating right now. "Cause it won't work."

"No, I'm saying that because I can feel your emotions, we both know that you aren't even going to try and throw me over. I know you hate pirates, but you can't cut us all from the same cloth." Luffy was staring intently at her as he spoke, "Not all pirates are bad people."

"What would you know!?" Nami yelled at the straw hat, "Have you ever been hurt by one? Has a pirate ever taken everything you have away from you? Huh?" Nami grabbed Luffy by the vest and pulled him to his feet as she continued yelling at him.

She wasn't expecting to see a single tear fall down Luffy's cheek and it stopped her in her tracks. "I understand exactly how you feel," Luffy said in a solemn voice, "I hate people like them. They have to bully and beat down on others to make themselves feel like their powerful. That kind of scum hurt their own crew mates. They are the worst kind of people." Luffy sighed, he didn't like bringing up his past, but he thought it would help him with making his argument against this girl. "When I was seven years old, a couple members of a pirate group tortured me for a couple hours to get some information that I had and a couple month down the road, their actions played a part in getting my brother killed." Luffy's fist tightened up so hard that he drew a small line of blood and it slowly seeped down his hand onto the boat. He put his hand in the ocean to clean the blood off his hand while ignoring the instant weakness he felt at touching the ocean to the best of his abilities.

Nami and Coby didn't expect that answer. Nami was upset with herself, she didn't expect that he would have a story so similar to her own. She bit her lip to keep the tears from coming, "I-I'm sorry for making you bring that up." She walked up and wrapped him in a hug.

Luffy returned the hug and rubbed her back slightly the way that Makino would when he was upset.

"Don't worry about it. Just keep in mind that not all pirates are evil. That crew wasn't my first pirate crew I ever met. The first crew I met stayed in my home village for a year. I hung out with them every single day that they were in the village. They even gave me my devil fruit." That shocked Nami, she didn't believe that they existed until today, but she had heard rumors that they would sell for hundreds of millions in beli. "The captain even saved my life and lost something important because of it." Nami could hear a bit of sadness and guilt in that last part and she was shocked that a pirate could be so selfless.

Luffy took one of his arms off of her back and grabbed his treasured hat from his head, "When he left the village for the last time, we made a deal. I would hold on to this hat for him and someday when I become a greater pirate than he is, I'll give it back to him. This hat is my treasure and someday when I'm the pirate king, I'll return it to him." He spoke as he admired the hat in his hand before returning it back to his head.

As Nami broke the hug, the three of them noticed that it was starting to get later in the day. She walked over to the bag and pulled out some provisions. She handed some dried meat, an orange and a chunk of a bread loaf to Luffy and Coby each before grabbing one for herself. "I don't have a whole lot of food for all of us, we probably won't arrive to shells town until sometime tomorrow morning."

"Thank you for the food!" They both said back to nami. Nami sat down next to Luffy and they all started eating.

"Hey wait," Coby asked, "Isn't Shell town where they are keeping the evil pirate hunter Roronoa Zoro?"

"Yeah I think so." Nami responded back.

"Hey, that walking whale back there said something about this Zoro guy." Luffy earned a giggle from Nami, "He must be pretty weak to get captured."

Coby was shivering, he didn't like the idea of even being on the same island as that monster. "Are you crazy! Pirate hunter Zoro is known all over the east blue as a demon, no one that has faced him has ever stood a chance!"

"Shishishi, it's decided then," Nami and Coby did not like the large grin that was spreading across his face, "If he's a good guy than I'm going to recruit him!"

"Are you an idiot! Everyone knows that he hunts pirates, he's probably going to kill you!" Nami smashed him over the head with her fist.

Coby sighed, "Were you even listening to a word I just said?"

"Nope, sorry coward. I decided that he's joining my crew and that's that." Luffy gave them his big grin as Coby's head dropped in depression.

"Well I'm going to bed guys, good night." Luffy promptly laid down in the boat and started snoring immediately. He already had a small bit of drool dripping from his mouth and a snot bubble was slowly forming.

"What the hell!?" The other occupants of the boat face planted at the absurdness of him falling into that deep of sleep so immediately.

"What the hell is this guy?" Nami asked the pink-haired kid.

"I have no idea, I just met him today. I almost feel bad for who ever ends up with him as their captain." He responded back.

"Wait, you're not a part of his crew?" Nami questioned, she figured that Luffy was the captain and that the kid was his first crew member.

"No, I'm not. I owe him my life though. Two years ago, I ended up as a crew member of Alvida's pirate crew and I've always been too afraid to escape." The boy admitted to the orange haired thief, "Luffy convinced me that if I didn't escape and fight for my own dream, then who would. He gave me the courage I needed to stand up to Alvida. I told him that my dream was to be a great marine and to lock away bad guys. After I stood up for myself, he told me that he would do what ever he could to help me get into the marines."

A pirate helping an aspiring marine, who would have guessed. Nami was feeling tired, her entire life she had always believed that all pirates were terrible people. But, all of a suddenly Luffy comes into her life and shakes that belief to the core. She hated pirates, but Luffy was already starting to melt that hatred just a little bit.

"I-I think we should get some sleep, it's been a long day." She told the boy and he readily agreed.

Coby settled down in the corner of the boat that he had been sitting in. It was relatively easy for him to fall asleep between the events of today as well as the fact that he was use to sleeping on the floor of Alvida's ship.

Nami settled down in between Luffy and Coby, she was turned towards the straw hat. Everything that he had told her today was constantly running through her head in what felt like a mile a second. His story was somewhat similar to hers, but it seemed like the difference between them was that he was able to move on, while her past seemed to keep her chained. She closed her eyes, but her mind wouldn't shut down like she hoped it would.

Later in the night

It had been at least three or four hours since the guys had fallen asleep. Nami was still up, tossing and turning. No matter what she did, she just couldn't seem to fall asleep. Currently she was laying on her back, looking up at the brilliant stars in the sky when something shifting to her left caught her attention. Luffy shifted in his sleep, he rolled over onto his right side. One hand instinctually scratched a spot on his neck as his other hand stretched out, due to cramping from laying in one spot for too long and landed right on top of Nami's hand.

She stiffened as Luffy unconsciously grabbed onto the appendage and seemed to settle back down as he got comfortable again. She noticed how warm his hand was and softly blushed as he held on to her. She wasn't sure why, but she was slightly disappointed when a moment later his grip loosened and his arm dropped to the wood below.

The slight impact from his hand hitting the floor board shook him awake and he shot up almost as if he was expecting to be attacked. "What? What happened?" He took a moment to rub his tiredness away from his eyes. After a moment he looked around him and found a fully awake Nami next to him.

"I-is something happening?" Nami giggled at his attempt to speak, he clearly wasn't a morning person.

"No nothings happening." She spoke quietly, so as not to wake up Coby. "Hey, Luffy. I have a question for you."

"Huh? What's up?" He yawned out the words.

"How were you able to fall asleep so easily after I threatened to throw you out of the boat? If I had gone through with it, you would be dead." The guy couldn't have been stupid enough to fall asleep next to a potential enemy, that was just asking for trouble.

"That's easy," He reasoned back, clearly more alert now. "I knew you wouldn't do it. I can sense your emotions, you were threatening me, but your thoughts didn't match up with your words."

She didn't expect that answer, was this guy messing with her. It was impossible to read other people's minds. Nami's eyes narrowed at the straw hat, "That's impossible, I've never heard of anyone ever being able to read another person's mind."

"It's not reading minds, I can sense people's emotions and guess from there what that person is thinking. It's a skill that I started train to learn when I was seven years old." It didn't take Luffy's observation haki to know that Nami's interest was elevated, so he answered first before she could ask how it worked, "I'm sorry, but I can't tell you how it works or how to do it. I made a promise to my teacher that I wouldn't tell anyone except my future crew how to do it after I felt they were ready to learn."

"And what if I don't believe you?" She asked.

"Then that's your choice," Luffy laid back down, getting relatively comfortable in the wooden boat. "Doesn't matter though. You're a kind person, I know that you wouldn't attack me. Who ever it is that caused you to hate pirates must have done something terrible to you. That's not what being a pirate is about." He clenched his fists in anger.

Nami really wanted to blow up in his face, however she managed to hold in her anger. They had already gone through this conversation before. "Then what does being a pirate mean to you? Why are you setting out to be one?" She whispered back heatedly.

Luffy took the straw hat off his head and placed it in his lap. A smile grew on his face as he stared at it. "I made a promise with the man who gave me this hat that I would be the pirate king. At first I thought being the pirate king meant finding the ultimate treasure." Luffy almost sounded whimsical as he thought about his past promise.

"I told you that my brother was killed right?" Luffy looked up into Nami's eyes.

"Yeah you did." She responded, not sure where he was going with this.

"My brother grew up as a noble of the Goa kingdom, he ran away to be a pirate because his parents didn't give a shit about him. They only cared about him marrying into a royal family to keep their prestige up…" Luffy paused to get his thoughts together, "He was killed by a world government ship right as he was leaving Goa. He wasn't even three minutes into his journey before they blew his ship up and killed him." Nami felt sick to her stomach, Luffy felt a couple tears roll down his cheeks at remembering that day.

"I decided on that day to set sail and live the life that he wanted. That's what being a pirate means to me. A pirate is the person with the most freedom, a pirate can follow their dreams and die for what they believe in."

The orange-haired thief didn't know what to say after hearing his story, she felt a few tears fall from her eyes. She got up from her seat and sat next to Luffy, her heart going to the man. 'Maybe I should tell him about Arlong.' She looked back at Luffy to find him knocked out, already starting to snore again.

"What the hell!? He just told me something that emotional and falls asleep immediately after! This guy really is an idiot!" Nami wasn't too angry, she was already starting to figure out how his mind worked. She just smiled and laid down next to him. It took a couple minutes, but she finally fell asleep.

[=]

And there's chapter one.

So, what did you think? Did you like it? Hate it? If you have the time to review, please do. I would love to hear what you guys think so far of the story!

That was a decent amount of writing, 11,000 words before the AN. All of the chapters that follow after this one will be of similar length, give or take a couple thousand words. Chapter two is already shaping up to be around 16,000 words. Next chapter will be covering Shells town and Orange Island together.

Remember, if you have any suggestions on crew members or relationships to let me know. I can't promise that I'll go through with them, but I will definitely consider any suggestions, provided that have a good reason.

Anyways, I'll see you with the next chapter.

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