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Chapter 3 – Meeting a Yonkou, Dreams are Made

Almost two months had passed since Kuzan and Garp had left the three brothers to return to Navy Headquarters and we find the trio at Makino's Pub in the, once again, quiet town of Fuusha Village. Well not so quiet in the last few days, since a band of pirates under the command of "Red-Haired" Shanks, one of the Yonkou of the New World, had docked at Dawn Island. What would this infamous band of powerful pirates be doing in the East Blue of all places? They were partying wildly in the local tavern with the three brothers. At the bar of the tavern the three boys Luffy, Sabo, and Ace are sitting next to Shanks, the captain of the Red-Haired pirates. "Red-Haired" Shanks is a man of average height wearing a button down long-sleeved white shirt, black pants with a sash holding them up and sandals on his feet. There are three vertical scars over his left eye and a straw hat over his dark red hair, hence his nickname. The reason for the celebration was another successful adventure of the crew and finding a new temporary base of operations on Dawn Island.

"These guys are so cool!" Luffy exclaimed with his signature grin as looked at the pirates partying in the pub.

"They're definitely more fun than your Grandpa, Luffy." Sabo replied with his own grin as he downed his drink and set the empty cup on the bar.

"That doesn't take much." Ace commented as he shoved the last piece of his steak into his mouth and then turned around on his bar stool to look at the group of pirates.

"Glad you kids think so!" said Shanks with a grin before he chugged a bottle of sake, burping after he finished the bottle and then laughing like an idiot.

"I want to be a pirate too! Next time bring me out to sea!" exclaimed Luffy in the voice of a child ready for an adventure.

"You can't handle being a pirate! Being unable to swim is a pirate's greatest weakness!" retorted Shanks while sporting a knowing smile on his face, thinking back to when he first wanted to become a pirate.

Luffy, with a ticked off look on his face shot back, "As long as I stay on the ship I'd be fine! Besides my fighting is really good too! I've been training my whole life and my punch is stronger than a pistol!" Luffy finished with a proud grin on his face.

"He's not wrong, you know." Sabo spoke up as he looked towards Shanks, "All three of us were trained into the ground by Luffy's Grandpa."

"I doubt there's much worse out on the sea than that old jerk." Ace agreed as he scowled at the memory of Garp's training.

Shanks seemed skeptical at all three of the boy's high opinion of themselves, and his crew wasn't helping the matter by telling them how awesome the life of a pirate is. Luffy listened enthusiastically, his eagerness only increasing as the pirates continued to talk. Shanks tried to act as the voice of reason by telling the brothers that they were still too young to live the life of a pirate, which Luffy heatedly denied while Ace and Sabo scowled at the captain for looking down on them.

"Don't be mad, here have some juice," Shanks said with a mischievous smile. Luffy thanked the pirate and drank the juice down with his usual child-like enthusiasm. As soon as Luffy was done with the juice Shanks could no longer hold it in and burst out laughing, "You really are a kid! That's too funny! What kind of pirate drinks juice?" He gasped out between bouts of laughter.

"That was a dirty trick!" Luffy cried indignantly as he watched Shanks laugh at his expense. Sabo and Ace simply sighed at their little brother's simple-mindedness. Luffy left the bar table in a huff muttering about the unfairness of it all when he noticed Shanks' first mate, Ben Beckman, make a come here motion while lighting up a cigarette.

"Luffy, while I understand that you're upset, you should try to understand the captain's feelings," the first mate said between puffs of smoke. Seeing the small boy's confused expression, Ben explained, "While the captain knows that being a pirate is interesting, he also knows that the life of a pirate is hard and very dangerous. You understand? He's not purposely teasing your ambitions of being a pirate."

"I don't understand!" Luffy replied in irritation. "Shanks just takes me for an idiot," Looking in said man's direction, Luffy noticed Shanks stifling his giggles about the prank he just pulled. "See?!" Luffy shouted while pointing an accusing finger in Shanks' direction.

'The kid might have a point.' Ben thought with a sweat drop seeing his captain still chuckling at his prank.

A distraction from the prank came when Makino asked Luffy if he wanted something to eat. Never one to pass down food, especially food of the meat variety, like the steak Makino was presenting Luffy eagerly plopped down next to Shanks and dug in to the plate of meat. Luffy then asked how long the pirates would be staying and, after finding out they would be staying for the rest of the year, promised Shanks that he would convince him to take him along by that time. Ace and Sabo both laughed at their brother's determination to join Shanks on an adventure causing Luffy to yell at them, which only made his older brothers laugh harder. Suddenly the tavern's door was kicked open by a man who looked like one of the dirtier mountain bandits from around Mt. Corvo. Eyeing the pirates seated around the bar, the obvious bandit made a snarky comment on the pirates' appearances despite the fact that he was obviously outnumbered fifty to one against superior opponents. Everyone was looking at the poor excuse for a bandit wondering what he thought he would gain by making such an entrance. The man walked up to the bar and introduced himself as Higuma and then demanded ten barrels of sake for him and his men. When Makino told him that her supply of sake was sold out, the bandit leader frowned and looked around the room.

"Oh, that's strange, what are they drinking then? Is it water?" Higuma asked with a scowl.

"No it's sake, but it's all we had." Makino explained to the bandit.

"Sorry about that," said Shanks trying to diffuse the situation. "It seems like we finished off all the sake here. But, if you don't mind, why don't you take the last bottle?" He offered while holding up the unopened bottle of sake. Higuma promptly smashed the bottle sending sake splashing all over the pirate captain, much to the shock of Luffy, Ace, Sabo and the other's present in the bar. Most likely they were shocked at the audacity of the bandit insulting someone who so far outclassed him.

Higuma went into a small rant on how he was the top fugitive around the area and how his head was worth 8,000,000 Beri. Shanks simply ignored the man in favor of cleaning up the newly created mess on the floor. Higuma, seeing that he was being ignored unsheathed his sword and proceeded to smash all the glassware on the bar right on top of Shanks. With a few more condescending words, the bandit leader stormed out of the tavern. As Makino checked on Shanks to see if he was all right, which he assured that he was, the rest of the pirate crew started cracking jokes on what just happened, with Shanks joining in on the laughter. The only people not laughing, however, were Luffy, Sabo and Ace.

"Why are you laughing?" Luffy shouted while looking angry. Seeing Shanks' puzzled expression, Luffy continued, "That was disgraceful! Why didn't you fight him?! So what if they have more people? Who laughs after getting picked on? You're not a man and not a pirate either!"

Shanks paused for a moment before saying, "Look Luffy, I know how you feel, but it's just a bottle of sake. There's nothing to get worked up about."

"You still didn't have to take that." Sabo stated with a frown as he looked between Shanks and Luffy.

"Yeah, you could have sent him running with his tail between his legs at least. You wouldn't have even had to throw a punch." Ace commented with a scowl while looking at the doors Higuma had left through. Luffy didn't like Shanks' answer and was heading towards the door in a huff.

"Come on, don't go Luffy…" Shanks sighed as he reached out to touch Luffy's shoulder. Shanks quickly pulled his hand back with a grimace when he received a painful shock. All the pirates in the bar were staring at Luffy in surprise as sparks of electricity danced around the boy's body. "Luffy what is this?" Shanks asked, though he had a very good idea already.

"Why should I tell you, you're just a coward." Luffy replied with a grumble as he turned away from Shanks.

"Luffy, did you eat a fruit that looked sort of like this?" Lucky Roo asked as he held up an opened treasure chest that had a purple fruit with black swirl-like markings on it resting inside.

"Yeah he did, but he wasn't the only one." Ace spoke up as he turned his hand into flames and Sabo turned his hand into a swirling cloud of ash.

"All three of you, you've all eaten of the Devil Fruit?" Shanks questioned the brothers as Ace and Sabo's hand returned to normal and sparks of electricity stopped jumping off of Luffy's body.

"So what if we did? We've already been trained in how to use them." Sabo replied as he and Ace moved to stand beside Luffy.

"Nothing bad," Shanks replied with a smile. "It's just really rare to encounter a Devil Fruit in the East Blue, much less three of them." He explained as he went to sit back down at the bar.

"Luffy's grandpa said the same thing." Sabo said as he and Ace pulled Luffy back towards the bar and all three sat back down on their bar stools.

"What are you guys going to do with the one you have?" Ace questioned while looking at the chest containing the Devil Fruit that Lucky Roo had set on the end of the bar.

"Not sure yet," Shanks replied as he looked back at the boys. "We could save it and see if a future nakama wants to eat it. Or we could sell it for a lot of money." He explained with a look towards the chest.

"How much is a Devil Fruit worth?" Sabo asked as he looked at the chest as well.

"Any Devil Fruit can easily sell for 100,000,000 Beri even if you don't know what power it holds. There are always buyers hoping to get an incredible power from an unknown fruit. But any fruit that has been identified can easily be sold for 150,000,000 Beri or more depending on which one it is." Shanks explained as he patted the lid of the closed treasure chest.

"Is that enough money to buy a life-size bronze statue of me?" Luffy questioned with sparkles in his eyes and a big grin on his face. Both Ace and Sabo sighed at their brother's stupid idea, though Luffy didn't really have a grasp of the value of money, maybe it was something Makino could teach him the two brothers thought as Shanks and the rest of the pirates laughed at Luffy's question.

"Luffy with 150,000,000 Beri you could melt the coins down and make a solid gold statue of yourself." Shanks laughed as he smacked the bar top repeatedly. "Though the World Government would get pissed if they found out you melted down their currency."

"Awesome!" Luffy responded his eyes sparkling even more at the thought of a solid gold statue.

"So which Devil Fruit do you have in the chest?" Ace asked after all the pirates had stopped laughing.

"This is the Gomu Gomu no Mi, whoever eats it has their body gain all of the properties of rubber. They'd be able to stretch, twist, expand, and probably be resistant to electricity like Luffy's power." Shanks replied as he drank a glass of water Makino had placed down for him.

"I like my power better." Ace commented as he lit his index finger on fire for a moment before putting it back out.

The party quickly resumed with the three brothers showing off small tricks they could do with their powers much to the enjoyment of the pirates. The party lasted until late in the evening with many of the pirates passing out on the floor of the pub for the night. Ace, Sabo and Luffy were taken to the back and put into a makeshift bed by Makino so they'd be comfortable during the night.

~Time Skip – A few months later~

Luffy, Ace, and Sabo were having lunch at Makino's pub after practicing with their Haki and Devil Fruit powers all morning when a familiar and unwanted person made their entrance into the pub.

"Well, looks like the pirates aren't here this time. Place smells better without them at least." Higuma muttered as he led his men into the pub and sat down at a table. "Hey, woman, get us sake and keep it coming." He shouted as Makino quickly moved to start serving drinks. After several rounds of booze Higuma started blathering on about Shanks and his crew calling them cowards and fools. During this time Ace and Sabo had to restrain Luffy from attacking the bandits.

"Hey woman, why don't you show us some skin?" questioned a bandit as Makino walked past him to refill Higuma's glass. All the other bandits started cheering at the thought of seeing the pretty bartender's body.

"That's not a bad idea." Higuma agreed with a laugh as Makino poured his drink with a barely suppressed scowl.

"That's enough out of all of you." Sabo growled his Haki coming forth and projected towards the bandits causing them to start to sweat in fear.

"Leave and never come back." Ace added as he let his Haki loose as well. All the bandits started to back away from the two boys at the counter more afraid than they'd ever been before and not able to understand why.

"Oh, and who is going to make us? You kids?" Higuma laughed as he smacked Makino's ass causing the bartender to growl in anger.

"You jerk!" Luffy yelled as in the blink of an eye he'd crossed the distance between the bar and Higuma's table and punched the bandit so hard he flew out the front door and landed in the street. The other bandits stared in shock at the sight of their leader being sent flying by a kid before quickly running out of the pub and heading back towards the mountains screaming about monster kids.

"You little brat!" Higuma yelled at Luffy as the boy walked out of the bar and into the street to face the bandit leader. Ace and Sabo stood in the doorway of the pub to watch their little brother beat the bandit into the dirt.

"I'll make you pay for what you did to Makino you jerk." Luffy growled as he walked towards Higuma.

"Like hell you will you little bastard!" Higuma replied as he sent a kick at the young boy. Luffy's Observation Haki let him see the move coming before Higuma had even started the motion so he moved back a half step causing the kick to miss. "What?" Higuma questioned when his kick failed to hit the boy. He quickly threw a punch only for Luffy to dodge his fist by an inch. Higuma tried several more punches and kicks all of which Luffy dodged with the smallest of movements causing the bandit leader to become angrier. "Stay still damn it!" Higuma yelled as he reached for his sword.

"Ok." Luffy responded as Higuma grabbed his sword and slashed at Luffy's neck. The blade passed completely through Luffy's neck leaving behind a trail of sparks which confused Higuma, until he felt the horrible shock of several hundred thousand volts of electricity surge through his body as his steel blade acted as a conductor for Luffy's lightning. Higuma collapsed while twitching in agony. "Never show your face in Fuusha Village again, jerk!" Luffy yelled before kicking Higuma down the road several feet closer to the edge of the village. Higuma weakly started to crawl away from the village in terror of the child that couldn't possibly be human in his mind.

"Well I guess this explains why no one came down to the docks to greet us." Shanks said as everyone turned to look at the pirate captain and his crew walking towards the bar.

"Shanks! You guys are back." Luffy called out with a grin as he waved to his friend. Ace and Sabo smiled as well from the doorway of the bar along with Makino.

"That was very impressive Luffy." Shanks complimented the young boy as they walked into Makino's pub together. "Protecting a friend is the best reason to fight someone else. I never let someone get away with hurting a friend of mine. I'm glad to see you're the same way." Shanks said with a grin which got Luffy to smile widely at the pirate captain.

~A few days later~

"So you guys are leaving now?" Luffy questioned as he watched Shanks's crew prepare their ship for departure.

"Yeah, we've been here a while so it's time to move back to the Grand Line and the adventures there." Shanks responded as he watched his subordinates work. "Aren't you gonna beg me to take you along again?" Shanks asked with a grin at the boy.

"Nope, Ace and Sabo told me it would be cooler if I was the captain of my own crew and made a crew better than yours." Luffy replied with a smile.

"Ha! Like we'd take you with us anyway. You'll have to get a lot better to beat us Luffy." Shanks laughed as he stuck his tongue out at Luffy.

"Oh yeah! You'll see! Just you wait! I'll gather the best crew ever! We'll beat you guys and then I'll find the One Piece! Then I'll be King of the Pirates!" Luffy yelled out loud causing laughter and cheers to erupt from Shank's crew.

"Pirate King, huh? Well in that case, why don't you keep this hat safe for me?" Shanks said as he took off his straw hat and put it on Luffy's head. "This hat means a lot to me, promise that you'll give it back to me someday…when you've become a great pirate." Luffy simply nodded as a few tears fell from his eyes. Within the next few minutes Shanks and the Red-Haired Pirates set sail from Dawn Island and Fuusha Village heading back towards the Grand Line.

"Don't be sad Luffy. You'll see them again someday." Sabo consoled his younger brother as they watched Shank's ship disappear over the horizon.

"Yeah, we should probably thank him properly for giving you something so important to him. Maybe Makino can teach us those manners and stuff that she says we need." Ace said as he rubbed his chin in thought.

"Shishishishishi! Yeah, I'm definitely going to be King of the Pirates! Then I'll return this hat to Shanks!" Luffy laughed as the three brothers headed back to their hideout near Dadan's place to hang out.

~A month later~

Luffy, Sabo and Ace stood on top of a hill looking over the area known as Grey Terminal. Or at the very least whatever parts of it that weren't on fire yet. Someone had set fire to the entire Grey Terminal area tonight and the three boys could barely hear people yelling over the roar of the flames.

"What's going on?" Luffy yelled as the brothers watched the fire burn.

"I don't know Luffy. But this definitely wasn't an accident." Ace replied with a grimace as the flames spread farther.

"This is probably the work of the nobles in Goa. They've always despised the people who live in Grey Terminal." Sabo ground out through gritted teeth.

"Hey, look, there's a ship in the cove." Luffy pointed out as a large ship docked near the shore. Not a minute later a small bright white light left the deck of the ship and a huge blast of air cleared out a large space at the edge of Grey Terminal completely removing the flames from that area.

"What in the hell?" Ace muttered in shock at seeing the display of power. Beside him Luffy and Sabo were also too shocked to speak. Several minutes later the large ship departed from the shore and disappeared into the darkness of the night.

"What was that about exactly?" Sabo wondered out loud as Luffy and Ace shrugged unable to answer their brother's question.

"We should get back to Dadan's place. There isn't anything we can do here." Ace said before heading back into the forest towards Dadan's home. Luffy and Sabo stared at the large fire for a moment longer before following after Ace.

After a week had passed since the burning of Grey Terminal, the three brothers had gone exploring the area again. Finding many survivors the three learned that the fire was caused by the nobles of Goa wanting to remove all the trash from their kingdom in an effort to look good for the visiting Celestial Dragons. Sabo could only grit his teeth in anger at being proven correct, this was the kind of thing that made him run away from his life as a noble's son. He truly despised how the nobles looked down on other human beings as mere trash. They also found out that it was the Revolutionary Army that had saved the majority of the people from burning to death in the fire. When Sabo heard about what the Revolutionary Army stood for and their goal he was determined to one day join them and help them change the world.

Later that night back at Dadan's compound Luffy brought up a fact that he thought was important.

"Ace, you need a hat!" Luffy stated with finality, causing both of his brothers to look at him oddly.

"Why do I need a hat, Luffy?" Ace questioned while Sabo looked between his two brothers.

"Because I have a hat and Sabo has a hat, you're the only one without one." Luffy said with a completely serious face. Sabo burst out laughing while Ace simply chuckled at Luffy's statement.

"Fine, I'll look for a hat I like all right?" Ace replied with a grin causing both Luffy and Sabo to laugh at the thought of all three of them wearing hats all the time. "Maybe something in orange?" Ace pondered causing a new wave of laughter to come from his two brothers