The Warrior of Liberation will come one day...
Legends speak of an ancient warrior, a man of freedom. Someone who will one day descend and liberate the world.
He will take the people into the sun, and remove the shackles from the seas.
They say his body had the properties of rubber.
He was white, in every way.
The world bent to his will.
He was always smiling. Always laughing.
He fought as he fancied, and made the people smile.
He holds the most ridiculous power in the world. A power that, above all else, grants absolute freedom.
He is the Warrior of Liberation. He who plays the fool and brings smiles and laughter to all.
He is a god worshipped by many.
The Sun God — Nika.
***
"I will become a pirate!" A little child raised a knife in the air.
"I'm not kidding!" A seven year old Luffy raised a knife with one hand up while standing at the end of a ship.
"I'm being serious here! Just watch me!" He yelled at a young Shanks.
"I wonder what you'll pull off this time! Though I don't know what it is!" An excited Shanks smiled expectingly.
"Knowing Luffy, it's probably something childish." Uta rolled her eyes while the rest of Shank's crew laughed out loudly.
"She sure is right about that!"
Shanks was expecting something funny or childish, but his smile immediately dropped when he saw Luffy pointing the knife at himself and looking at it dangerously, small drops of sweat forming on his forehead.
"OWW!!" Luffy then stabbed himself under his left eye and cried out in pain.
This action of his caused everyone to yell at him while Shanks looked at him with widened eyes.
"YOU IDIOT!! WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?!!" Shanks yelled at him and immediately rushed to his side.
Uta stared in shock and worry but she quickly gained an angered expression and rushed over to Luffy's side as well.
"It hurts!" Luffy began to wail in pain while the entire crew started panicking.
***
"What's wrong with you?! Why would you do that?!!" Uta yelled at him.
"Sorry..." Luffy rubbed his head with tears at the corner of his eyes. He then gave Uta and Shanks a shaky smile. "It didn't hurt!"
The rest of the crew were celebrating Luffy's courage and bravery for
actually doing something that crazy.
"That's a lie! Don't ever do that again!" Shanks yelled at him.
"I'm serious! I'm not sorrowed about getting hurt or anything!!" He then excitedly stood up on the stool. "Take me on your next journey Shanks! I want to be a pirate too!"
"Like you could become a pirate." Shanks laughed at him. "It's a fatal flaw for a pirate to sink like an anchor."
This made even Uta laugh at him while Luffy just stood up in anger and yelled, "I'll be fine as long as I don't fall off the ship! Also I can fight! I'm well trained! My punches hit as hard as pistols!!"
"Pistols ? Really ?" Shanks looked at Luffy with his usual smile, like he's heard this a million times already.
"What's with that look?!"
"Hey Luffy!" Three big dudes with three beers all hugged.
"Have fun whatever you're going!" He stuck his tongue out at him.
"Yes! Becoming a pirate is fun!"
"The sea is beautiful and vast!"
"We journey to different islands!"
And most importantly, we are all free!!" They all exclaimed at the same exact time, causing Luffy to look at them with stars in their eyes. Uta sighed but she agreed with them all.
"Guys don't teach him such silly stuff." Shanks facepalmed at their antics.
The big man took a bite out of the meat. "But it's true!"
Yassop then threw his hand over his shoulders. "Riiiiiigght ?"
A man in the background leaned against his chair and asked, "Why don't we take him on a voyage ?"
"Great idea! Let's do it!"
But Shanks was entirely against that idea. "Then one of you trade places with him."
Everyone went back to what they were doing, much to Luffy's surprise. "Weren't you all on my side?!"
"In short, you're too much of a kid. I'll consider it when your ten years older." Shanks ruffled Luffy's hair.
"But Uta is almost the same age as me! How come she can go but not me?!" He pointed at Uta, much to her suprise.
"Uta is my daughter. I must take care of her. But if she wanted to stay here with you, I wouldn't mind." He looked at Uta, who stared at him in surprise.
"Wait, really ?"
"Great idea! Come on Uta! Why can't you stay back at least?!"
"Because I want to go on a voyage with Shanks!" She retorted.
"Sorry, sorry. Here have some juice." He reached out for the juice and placed it in front of Luffy, who smiled and sat back down on the stool, completely forgetting his anger.
"See! You are a kid!"
"That's not fair Shanks!" Luffy complained. He jumped down and began to walk away while pouting.
"Luffy. You gotta try to understand how the boss feels." Shank's first mate, Benn spoke up.
He lit his cigarette and took it out before puffing out some smoke. "He's the head of a pirate group. He knows better than anyone how dangerous it is to be a pirate. He's not trying to demotivate you or anything."
"No! Shanks is just making fun of me!" Luffy huffed while crossing his arms.
Shanks then smiled a bit while looking at him. "Anchor~"
"See!" He Luffy pointed at Shanks while Making walked in and giggled slightly.
"I see you're having fun." She placed down some wine near him.
"I just like teasing him."
"Luffy do you want some food ?" Making asked and he instantly smiled at her.
"Yeah! Put it on my treasure lab!"
"Treasure lab again ? That's a fraud y'know!" Uta remarked.
"No it's not!" Luffy glared at her while sitting down with a knife and fork. "Once I become a pirate and get my treasure, I'll pay for it myself!"
This made Making giggle at him. "I'm counting on it!"
"How long will you stay in the village for ?" He asked Shanks.
"Stay in the village ? Well, we have a couple voyages to go to, then we'll leave and go to the north." Luffy seemed to be satisfied with that answer and started to eat the food Making gave him.
"I'll practice swimming until you get back!"
"Knock yourself out." Shanks and Uta replied at the same time.
That's when the door was burst open with a kick and it fell down, revealing a group of bandits wearing confident smirks. "So these are pirates ? Look pretty damn dumb."
While they entered the tavern, Luffy's attention was stolen by a certain small chest that Shanks kept beside him. He took it and began to look at it.
"We're mountain bandits. Be we ain't her to wreak the place." The bandit leader assured. He then sniffed the air and smirked. "Smells like booze."
Making then look at him nervously and apologised. "I'm sorry, but we just ran out of alcohol."
This made the bandit leader scowled. "These pirates seem to be drinking something.... What is it, water ?"
"No, they're drinking the last of it." She told him.
"My apologies. It seems we drank the place dry. Sorry." Shanks offered him the bottle he was holding. "You can have this if you'd like. It's not been opened yet."
The bandit leader smirked and smashed the bottle on Shank's head, shocking Makino, Uta and Luffy. "Bastard. Who do you think I am ? One bottle ain't gonna cut it!"
"Aw man, the floors all wet now." Shanks frowned, completely ignoring the bandits existence.
"Look over here." He brought out a wanted poster. "I have a bounty of eight million berry on me. I've killed a total of 56 people and they all impudent like you. So you better watch yourself."
His words and actions were starting to anger Uta and Luffy, who began took a tiny bite of the fruit. "Ugh! That tastes horrible!"
"We're mountain bandits while you're from the sea. So I doubt we'll ever see each other again." The bandit leader with a smirk, but it quickly dropped when Shanks picked up the glass pieces on the floor and handed it over to Makino.
"Sorry about the floor Makino. Do you have a rag ?"
"Oh no, I'll do that!" She was about to reach out for him but the bandit leader unsheathed his sword and swung it at Shank's head, narrowly missing it. this action shocked Luffy and Uta even more.
"Seems like you like to clean. Then get to it." He laughed and began to walk out.
"Hey! The hell is wrong with you?!" Uta yelled at the bandit.
"Huh ? Who's this stupid brat ?"
"Excuse me?! How dare you barge in here and hit Shanks like that you stupid ape! Go back to the mountains where you stinky pigs belong!" Uta sneered, making the bandit leader mad.
"Oh listen here you little brat." He reached out to her but Shanks stopped him.
"That's enough Uta. There's no point. I'm sorry about her." He apologized and the bandit leader begrudgingly left.
After he left, Makino went over to Shank's side. "Are you alright, captain-san ?"
"Yeah, I'm alright Makino."
After this, the entire crew began to laugh at him. "That was so lame! He got you good Shanks!"
"That's so uncool!" They all looked at an angry Luffy. "Why didn't you guys fight?! You guys aren't men or pirates if you laugh after something like that!! You're all cowards!"
"Hey! Don't be mean to Shanks!" Uta yelled at him.
Shanks was surprised by Luffy's outburst but he then smiled at Luffy. "He only spilled some booze on me. That's no big deal."
"I'm leaving! I don't want to be a coward like you!" Out of anger, he pushed the entire fruit into his mouth and down his throat.
This action caused Shanks and his entire crew to look at Luffy with widened eyes when they realised what Luffy just did. Unfortunately, Luffy forgot to chew because of the anger and the fruit got stuck in his throat, causing him to start choking and he fell down the floor.
"LUFFY!!" Uta rushed to his side and Makino quickly went and got water for him.
Shanks stood next to him and yelled. "Luffy! Oh no! He's going to die! Don't you dare die Luffy!"
He then looked at the rest of them. "What are you all standing there for?! Get over here! He's choking!"
"Here!" Makino gave Shanks the cup of water and he looked at Luffy. His eyes widened as Luffy began to slowly swallow the fruit and he managed to entirely swallow it. After doing so, he collapsed back on the ground tiredly.
Shanks sighed in relief and Uta hugged Luffy. "Baka! Don't scare me like that!!"
"Luffy ?" She looked at him as she didn't get any reply from him.
Doom-dut-da-da~ Doom-dut-da-da~
His heartbeat... It was different. It was beating in a specific pattern. The rythmic heartbeat completely caught Uta off guard.
Actually, how can she even hear this ?
Luffy then looked up with a massive smile etched across his face as his entire appearance changed. His eyes turned dark pink and his hair became white and cloud like. What looked like a yellowish white cloud floated around his shoulders and neck. On seeing this, Shanks looked at him with a shocked expression, his jaw hitting the ground and his eyes bulging out.
Uta looked at him in shock. "L-luffy ?"
"Yes?!" He suddenly turned to face her with a large smile, scaring the crap out of Uta, who punched him on reflex.
"Kyaa! Sorry Luffy!" All the while, Shanks was looking at him with widened eyes.
"Luffy ? Is that you ?"
"Yes! What's the matter ?" Luffy innocently asked him.
"You look different." Uta told him.
Luffy blinked a few times as Uta handed him a mirror. He checked himself in the mirror and his eyes widened when he saw his new look. "HUH?! WHAT'S HAPPENED TO ME?!!"
"THAT'S WHAT I WANT TO KNOW!!" Uta yelled at him.
"But I look really cool though!" This made Uta fall down on the floor but she smiled when she realised that he was still the same Luffy she always knew.
"Luffy." Shanks called him.
"Huh ? What is it Sha-" He was cut off as Shanks chopped him in the head and began scolding him.
"Did you seriously just eat that devil fruit?! And your awakened it?!! You nearly died Luffy! Why did you do that?!"
"What do you mean Shanks ?"
"The devil fruit you ate is special. It's a powerful devil fruit that the world government has been after for a long time! They'll hunt you down when they find out you are it! It also means that you've lost the ability to swim entirely!!" He revealed and Luffy stared at him in shock.
"EEH!! NOW WAY!!"
"YOU DUMBASS!!!"
This revelation also shocked Makino and Uta, both of who became extremely worried for Luffy when they heard of it.