Sea Calendar 1522, East Blue.
On the deck of a luxury ship sailing under the midday sun, passengers had gathered to enjoy the sea breeze. Neatly dressed waiters carried drinks and light refreshments between the expensive chairs arranged in tidy rows. Nobles and wealthy merchants spoke in voices louder than necessary, showing off stories and wealth to anyone willing to listen.
Among them a young woman sat in a corner chair with a glass of cold drink in her hand.
Her hair was short and orange. Her clothes were simple but neat, enough not to draw attention among the other passengers but not fine enough for anyone to remember her face.
Her eyes moved in a way different from everyone around her. Not watching the sea view. Not following the conversations beside her.
Taking stock.
The jewelry at the neck of the woman in the next chair. The expensive watch on the wrist of the man standing at the railing. The shape of a wallet bulging from the jacket pocket of the nobleman walking past.
A heavyset nobleman approached her with a smile he clearly believed was charming, bowed, and extended his hand.
The woman glanced at his hand for a moment.
Then smiled thinly, placed her glass on the nearest table, and walked toward the door at the corner of the deck before the nobleman could say anything.
In the corridors inside the ship the sound was far quieter. Only her own footsteps and the low rumble of the ship's engines from somewhere distant. The smell of wood and engine oil mixed in air more stale than the deck.
The woman walked with clear purpose, passing several corridor bends without hesitation, as though she had already mapped the entire ship in her head since boarding.
She stopped in front of an iron door with a large padlock at its center.
Her hand had already drawn a tool from inside her clothing when the ship lurched.
Once. Hard.
The sound of an explosion from the upper deck broke the corridor's quiet. Followed by shouting. Followed by the sound of ships colliding, audible even from down here.
The woman stood in front of the iron door without moving.
Listening.
Running footsteps above. Panicked screaming. The sound of clashing weapons.
Her lips narrowed slightly. Not an expression of fear. More like someone who had just realized her plan needed adjusting.
She put her tool away and walked toward the stairs leading to the main deck.
From a corner of the deck sheltered by shadow, she watched.
A larger pirate ship had pulled up alongside the right. Ropes were rigged between both vessels. The pirate crew had already started climbing onto the main deck. The passengers who had been enjoying their afternoon were running in every direction.
A black flag with a skull bearing a heart on its head flew from the mast of the pirate ship.
Her eyes stopped on the crates being hauled across the ropes to the pirate ship.
The treasure from this ship's storage room was already changing hands.
She pulled clothing from inside her jacket and changed quickly in the shadow. Simple clothes not far different from what the pirate crew wore. Her movements were efficient and unhesitating.
Two minutes later she had blended in among the pirate crew busy hauling cargo and was moving toward the rope connecting both ships. A small triangular iron piece came out from inside her clothes and was hooked onto the rope.
She slid across to the pirate ship without a single person noticing.
Inside the pirate ship the corridors were narrower and more stifling. The smell of old wood filled air that didn't circulate well.
In front of a door at the end of one corridor she stopped. Listened. Quiet.
Her hand rose to open the door when the door opened on its own from inside.
A pirate crew member stepped out, looked left, then right, directly at her.
Before his mouth could open his knees went weak. He dropped to the floor with a dull sound, his body sprawled across the doorway.
The woman looked at him briefly. Exhaled. Then stepped over the body and entered the room.
A storage room. Crates and sacks stacked from various pillaged ships. Daylight coming through gaps in the wall lit everything well enough to work by.
Her eyes swept it all quickly and efficiently.
She got to work.
On the left side of the docked pirate ship, a rubber arm stretched up from beneath the sea's surface and gripped the bow's edge.
Luffy pulled himself up, climbed the side of the ship until he had cleared the railing and stood on the deck. The midday sunlight hit him directly.
He wiped sweat from his forehead and looked around.
Signs of a fight everywhere. Cracked deck planks, cut ropes, scattered belongings. Quiet now but clearly just recently very loud.
"What happened here?"
His eyes moved to the right. There a larger ship was docked alongside with a black flag bearing a heart-faced skull flying from its mast.
His stomach growled loudly.
"Mah, none of my business first."
His nose sniffed the air, searching for a direction. His feet followed the smell that caught his stomach's most interested attention.
The door at the end of the corridor below deck banged open.
Inside the room three pirates sat casually drinking beer. In the corner of the room a pink-haired boy stood with feet that weren't entirely still.
Every head turned toward the door at once.
Luffy stood in the doorway, his eyes sweeping the room with a confused expression. "Who are you guys?"
The teeth of all three pirates shifted, turning sharp like shark teeth. They stood simultaneously, their beers dropping to the floor. "That's our question! Who are you?!"
"I'm Monkey D. Luffy." Luffy walked inside ignoring them, his eyes already searching for something in the room. "The person who will become King of the Pirates. Nice to meet you."
He walked past all three pirates as though they didn't exist.
The veins in their foreheads twitched simultaneously. Their faces reddened. "How dare you ignore us! Don't you know we're pirates!" Their swords swung toward Luffy.
Luffy turned. Two of his fingers caught the flat of the blade between them. A short crack and the sword snapped, the broken piece spinning away and embedding itself in the ceiling.
Silence.
All three pirates stared at the ceiling, then at Luffy, then at the ceiling again. Their faces had gone as pale as wrung-out cloth.
"Mo-monster!" They dragged each other out of the room at very high speed. The sound of their running faded down the corridor.
Luffy watched the door they had left through with a puzzled expression.
The pink-haired boy pushed Luffy's back with both hands. "You have to run before Alvida comes!"
But Luffy had already found what he was looking for. Behind the boy was another door. He walked to it and opened it.
A food storage room. Crates and sacks stacked from floor to nearly touching the ceiling, filled with all manner of food.
Luffy's eyes lit up.
"Woah." The word came out soft, like someone who couldn't believe what they were seeing. "There's so much food here."
His hand was already inside the nearest crate before he finished his sentence, pulling out an apple and biting straight into it.
"Now where do I start."
The pink-haired boy stood behind him, staring at Luffy chewing with a full mouth, his own mouth slightly open.
"M-my name is Coby." He swallowed. "You're Luffy-san, right?"
"Yeah." Luffy glanced back briefly, his cheeks bulging. "You a pirate?"
"No no no!" Coby's hands waved like propellers, his head swinging left and right leaving afterimages. "I'm not a pirate!"
"Then why are you here?"
Coby sat down in the corner of the room. His shoulders dropped slightly before he began to explain. How he had boarded the wrong boat two years ago when he was going out to fish. How his boat had been swept all the way to Alvida's ship. How he had ended up staying there for two years doing whatever was ordered because he had no other choice.
His cheeks flushed slightly toward the end of his story, remembering how careless he had been.
Luffy listened while continuing to eat.
The room was quiet for a few seconds after Coby finished.
"So basically you're a coward."
Coby froze.
The wind blowing through the gaps in the ship suddenly felt colder. Coby's mouth opened slightly. His eyes went wide staring at Luffy's back still turned toward the food crates.
"I don't like you."
The words came out as casually as a comment about the weather. Luffy picked up another apple and bit into it with a grin and a small laugh.
Coby's mouth opened wider. Then his eyes started to water. Then he was crying in a way that couldn't entirely be classified as normal human crying, his nose running, his shoulders shaking, the sounds coming from his mouth more resembling a combination of sobbing and whimpering and something else that had no name.
Luffy glanced toward him briefly.
Then went back to eating.
A few moments later Coby wiped his eyes with his sleeve. Took a long breath. Then lifted his head.
"Luffy-san." His voice was still hoarse. "Earlier you said you want to be King of the Pirates. Does that mean One Piece, the greatest treasure containing wealth, fame, and power that all the pirates in the world are also searching for?"
"Yeah."
Coby's mouth dropped open wide. His eyes went round. "B-but every pirate in the world is searching for it and nobody's found it yet!"
"I'm searching for it too."
"Impossible impossible impossible!" Coby shook his head hard enough that his hair went wild.
Luffy picked up his hat, looked at it for a moment with an unhurried expression, then put it back on.
"This isn't about whether it's possible or not." His voice was casual, no heroic tone in it at all. "I just do what I want. And if I die on the way to reaching my dream..." he shrugged, "I have no regrets whatsoever."
Coby went still.
The words hadn't come out dramatically. No deliberate emphasis. Just an ordinary statement from someone who had decided something long ago and never doubted it since.
That was precisely what made it feel far heavier than any sentence Coby had ever heard.
He thought about two years on this ship. Thought about the dream he had buried long ago under a fear he couldn't explain even to himself. Thought about how pitiful he was compared to the boy in front of him who spoke about death with the same casualness as speaking about food.
His hands clenched at his sides.
His eyes closed.
"Luffy-san." His voice trembled. "I... can I become a great Marine?"
Luffy, who had already started walking out of the room, stopped for a moment. He turned and looked at Coby with a wide smile.
"I don't know. Whatever you want to become, that's none of my business." His eyes met Coby's directly. "But I do what I want to do. I decided a long time ago that I will become King of the Pirates, and if I have to die fighting for it, then I'll die!"
Coby stared at Luffy who had already turned back around and was walking out with his casual stride.
Something in his chest that had been locked for a long time began to move.
The wall on the side of the room caved in with the sound of snapping, cracking wood.
Dust and splinters flew. Through the opening that appeared came a large shadow with a kanabo resting on her shoulder. A raspy voice full of fury came from inside the still-billowing dust.
"Coby! What did you just say you were going to do?!"
Coby's feet stepped back on instinct. Cold sweat ran down his back.
Alvida stepped in through the hole in the wall, her eyes sweeping the room until they landed on Luffy. "So you're the bounty hunter who came to take my head. Roronoa Zoro."
Luffy turned with a confused expression, pointing at himself. "Bounty hunter? Who? Me?"
"Don't make excuses." Alvida leapt into the air and swung her kanabo downward.
Boom.
Luffy was gone.
Alvida's kanabo struck the floorboards where Luffy had been standing. The wood cracked in rings spreading outward in every direction, splinters scattering.
"What are you doing? Isn't that dangerous?"
The voice came from behind her.
Alvida spun and swung her kanabo backward. This time it also hit empty air.
The vein at her temple began to twitch.
She kept swinging her kanabo. Right. Left. Above. All of them missed. Luffy kept moving between the strikes, his feet nearly silent on the already-cracked wooden planks, his body shifting position in ways that made it impossible for Alvida to predict where he would be next.
One step left. Already somewhere else entirely.
Alvida pushed the fight out onto the main deck, her strikes growing harder as her frustration grew. Her breathing started to labor. Sweat ran at her temples.
She stopped swinging.
"Roronoa Zoro." Her breathing was heavy, her eyes fixed on Luffy. "If you have any courage, take my attack head on. Stop dodging like a coward."
"Why would I do that?" Luffy tilted his head. "And also I'm not Roro—"
"Stop making excuses!" Alvida turned to her crew who had already encircled Luffy on the deck. "What are you all doing? Attack him!"
Alvida's crew moved simultaneously, swords swinging from every direction.
Luffy vanished from the middle of that ring. Appeared on the other side, one fist hitting one pirate who flew and knocked into two behind him, all three slamming into the ship's wall and collapsing.
At the top of the stairs connecting the lower deck to the main deck, Coby appeared.
His eyes swept the deck. Luffy moving among Alvida's crew. Alvida standing and watching with her kanabo in hand, waiting patiently.
Alvida heard footsteps and shifted her gaze.
Her eyes landed on Coby.
She walked slowly toward the boy until her shadow covered all of Coby's body which was far smaller than hers. The kanabo rested on her shoulder.
"Coby." Her voice dropped into something colder. "Who is the most beautiful woman on these seas?"
Coby's legs trembled.
His back was cold with sweat.
This was the same question as for two years. And for two years the answer had always been the same, spoken with his head bowed and a voice barely audible.
But today something was different.
Luffy's words from earlier still echoed somewhere in his chest. I just do what I want. And if I die on the way to reaching my dream, I have no regrets whatsoever.
Coby swallowed.
Then raised his head.
"That is..." His voice trembled at the start. "That is clearly not you, you old hag."
Alvida's eyes narrowed.
"I'm going to join the Marines!" His hands clenched at his sides. His jaw hardened. His voice rose with every word. "And I'm going to become a great Marine and catch all the pirates like you!"
On the last sentence his voice burst out, carrying two years of anger and fear and buried dreams that finally refused to stay buried.
The pirate crew members who heard it froze. Their mouths fell open.
The vein at Alvida's temple appeared and throbbed like a tree root. An unpleasant laugh rumbled up from her chest like the sound of thunder. "The Marines?" Her kanabo rose. "What nonsense are you talking about, boy."
Her kanabo swung downward toward Coby.
Coby closed his eyes.
The sound of splitting air rang out.
When Coby opened his eyes Luffy was standing in front of him, one hand holding back the shaft of Alvida's kanabo which had stopped several centimeters from where Coby stood. His feet hadn't shifted.
He glanced back at Coby briefly. "Those were good words."
Alvida pushed her kanabo harder. The veins in her arms tensed. "Why are you protecting him? He's nothing to you."
Around them the sea wind blew softly. Waves struck the hull of the ship with a rhythm that cared nothing for whatever was happening on top of it.
"I do what I want."
Alvida furrowed her brow and pushed harder.
Luffy's other hand pulled back, far back, until his fist was nearly touching the railing behind him.
"Gomu Gomu no Pistol!"
The fist shot forward. The air split behind it. It struck Alvida squarely in the center of her stomach with a sound that shook the entire deck.
Alvida's body folded at the point of impact before launching into the air, clearing the deck railing, and falling into the sea with a tower of water shooting up beneath the midday sun.
The sound of the splash thundered then slowly faded.
Alvida's crew who had witnessed all of it didn't move. Didn't make a sound. Just stared at the spot where their captain had just disappeared over the deck railing.
"All of you." Luffy turned to face them. "Bring out all the food supplies and put them in the small boat docked at the side of the ship. Coby and I are sailing to the nearest Marine branch."
Alvida's crew immediately moved inside the ship.
Not long after, Luffy jumped across to Alvida's ship using Geppo.
Inside he found the storage room with its door already open, the padlock lying on the floor. Inside were only treasure chests that had been completely emptied, not even a single coin left on the floor.
Luffy stood in the doorway of that room.
His face showed no expression of surprise.
During the fight earlier his eyes had caught something amid the bustle of Alvida's crew running in every direction. One figure moving differently from the rest, more purposeful, faster, carrying something heavy on her back toward the side of the ship. Short orange hair had flashed briefly under the midday sunlight before disappearing.
Luffy walked to the side of the ship and looked out at the sea stretching vast under the blazing sun.
Far out there a small boat was moving away from these ships. One person rowed it with a steady and purposeful rhythm. That orange hair was still faintly visible under the glinting light.
Already too far to chase now.
Luffy watched the boat for a few moments.
A slow smile came to his face.
An interesting person.
He jumped back to the other ship using Geppo and landed on the main deck. Coby was already waiting for him there, his face still not fully recovered from everything that had just happened.
"Luffy-san!" Coby walked closer. "What were you just doing over there?"
"Nothing important." Luffy shrugged. "Just now I wanted to invite someone to join but looks like they already left."
"Really? What were they like?"
Luffy rubbed his chin. "I'm not sure, I only caught a glimpse. Orange hair."
Coby nodded slowly though he didn't quite understand what Luffy meant.
"By the way Coby." Luffy looked out at the sea in front of them. "Do you know the Marine branch nearest to here?"
"Yes!" Coby nodded quickly. His cheeks flushed slightly. "On Yotsuba Island, specifically Shells Town. I always looked for information about the nearest Marine branch every time we docked anywhere."
Before Luffy could answer, a splash of water burst in the distance and a Marine patrol ship came into view heading toward the docked ships. A white flag with a seagull emblem flew from its mast under the sunlight.
Luffy looked toward it for a moment.
Then smiled wide.
"Then it's decided." He jumped into the small boat already loaded with supplies. "Next destination, Shells Town!"
Coby ran after him, nearly tripping over himself in his rush, and jumped into the boat.
In the distance the Marine ship kept approaching, unaware that the two people who had just left the pirate ship were already sailing far in the other direction.
End of Chapter 8