Deal (part 1)

The marines are in a dilemma right now. They don't know if they should run, celebrate or cry. In front of them is Captain Morgan, sprawled on the ground, his famous ax-hand is shattered. Next to him is his son with a cut on his chest. He tried to stop Luffy from torturing his father by taking Koby Hostage, so Luffy threw Morgan to Helmepo. In his panic to catch his dad, he didn't notice Zoro draw his sword and attacked.

The father-son pair is now unconscious, side-by-side. "East Blue was weaker than I remember," Luffy has his hand on his chin like he is thinking. He looks at the marines and says "So, your tyrant of a captain is done for, he is just passed out though. You can do what you want now."

With that the marines finally decided on what to do, they celebrated.

"WE'RE FREE!!"

"THE TYRANT IS GONE"

"IDIOTS! HE'S NOT GONE YET! THROW HIM TO THE DUNGEON WHERE HE BELONGS!"

"YEAH!!" x 200

"Huh, they are way too happy to lock up their Captain." Zoro looks at the marines with a smirk. He notices Luffy still has an inquisitive look on his face. "What's the matter cap?" "I'm just thinking, what a pirate hunter like you have for a dream that you'll follow a pirate for it?" Luffy turns to Zoro with a smile. "I'll tell you later. I don't think this would be the perfect place to tell a story." Zoro points around the surrounding. Luffy looks around "Yeah, you're right. Just wait a minute, I have to do something." Luffy without a sound picks up the still bleeding Koby and brings him towards the celebrating Marines. "Huh? Luffy-san, where are you taking me?" Luffy just silently brings him to the marines.

The marines noticed them and someone stepped up. "I'm the second in command here. Thank you for helping us but as I recall, you're a pirate, we may need to send you away for that." The marine has an apologetic but strict look on his face. "I kidnapped this kid from his village, he might have Stockholm syndrome so can you take him in to change his mind?" "AAAAAARRRRGGGGHHH!!!"

Luffy holds Koby's shoulder and burns it a little, not enough to leave a scar but enough to make Koby feel the heat.

The marine immediately saw through Luffy's lie and from an almost smiling face, His face turns stern and angry. "THAT IS ENOUGH PIRATE!! UNHAND THE KID AND LEAVE IMMEDIATELY!!" Koby was shocked and just looked at Luffy while the two members are leaving. He runs until the gate and salutes at Luffy's back, "THANK YOU!". Luffy just turns back and tips his straw hat at him and continues to walk away. Behind him, the marines also saluted to the pirates that saved their town, some were crying because their families are now safe from tyranny. "No food for all of you for a week! We just saluted to pirates!"

---------------

As they were going to the port, Zoro turns to Luffy, "So how many are there in your crew?" "Just three of us. For now at least. The other one is back in grandline." "....you're serious are you?" "Yep." Zoro takes a breath and was about to scream but as soon as he opens his mouth, a big piece of meat was shoved down his mouth. "!!!"

"There, eat first, talk later, we are close to the boat anyway."

Zoro just bites and chews the meat and walks with Luffy, 'I guess it'll be interesting at least' Zoro. When they reached the pier they stopped in front of a small boat, "Is that our ride?" "For now, I don't think we would need that big of a boat with just 2 of us in it." "Yeah, I guess so." Luffy unties the boat from the pier and they sailed away to their destination.

While chomping on a piece of sea king meat himself, Luffy asked Zoro "So, what's your dream?" "It's not a dream, It's a promise. A promise to be the strongest swordsman in the world." Luffy stops, looks at Zoro and just chuckles. "Is there something funny about that? Zoro is a bit irritated that Luffy is laughing at his ambition. "No, you just reminded me of someone." Luffy brings out a map and a compass from his coat pocket.

"How did you do that?" "Do what?" "You just brought out a map and a compass from a pocket that doesn't look that big. "Not now, maybe after we go to grandline, that is when I'll tell you what I know. Okay?" Zoro shrugs and answered, "Whatever you say, Captain, I just wish we have booze though."

Luffy thinks for a second and asks "What kind? I have all sorts of them." Zoro looks inquisitively at an emotionless Luffy. "Sake or ale, either of the two, I prefer sake though." Luffy without a second thought just brings out a sake gourd from his pocket. It is a big gourd as well, the same size as Zoro's torso. Without knowing what to say, Zoro just utters thanks and drinks it.

———————

They reached another Island after 3 days of travel. The two of them are eating lemons right now as they're walking towards a town. "What's so special in this island?" "This island is under the control of pirates named Buggy. I want to talk to him."

When they reached the town, it was barren, no one was around and everything looks like it was abandoned for months. "Let's go to the center, maybe we'll find clues there." Luffy and Zoro turned and went to the center of the town.

"Oooiiii! Captain! Help me with these fools!" Luffy heard a scream and looked where it was coming from. He saw a girl and 3 men behind her. They were running towards the pair while the girl is waving her arm towards Luffy.

When they got near them, in a loud voice the girl said: "Thank you, captain, I'll leave them to you." And the girl runs away from them. "So you're her captain! Give back the map, or we'll kill you!" Luffy just looks at these 3 fools and without a word, punches the 3 of them and made them pass out with it. "What's with that girl? What she did was dangerous, what if we were civilians?" Luffy was shaking his head while saying this.

"But you're not! You beat them up so fast!" A high voice was heard from above. On the balcony, an orange-haired girl is looking down at them holding a paper that might be a map. She is wearing a striped white and blue shirt and an orange skirt.

"My name is Nami! I'm a thief who only steals from pirates! Want to be partners? We can make a lot of money!" "...." without saying anything, Luffy just grabs Zoro's shoulder and points him to the center of the town.

"HEY! Don't ignore me! Wait for me!" Nami was desperate, the pirates that she can steal from are now getting fewer and fewer. The treasure was also dwindling. She needs to get some people to help her steal more treasure from pirates. Even her thievery from Buggy today proved to be hard.

"Are we just going to ignore her?" "I don't like thieves." Luffy just answered Zoro's question quickly. "Especially because I don't know anything about her. She might be nice, who knows." " I am nice!" They turned to see the orange-haired girl. "We can make a deal to—-"

"We're here." Luffy got Zoro's and Nami's attention. He points forward. All three of them are looking at a bar where there is a place on the roof to celebrate. People were drinking and being rambunctious. Nami immediately recognized the place. This was where she stole the map. Buggy's crew is in here! She looks at Luffy worryingly. "What are you going to do here? This is where Buggy the Clown is staying!" Nami is now nervous, just an hour ago, she stole a treasure map from them. 'Is he going to give me to Buggy?' With that thought, Nami is readying her folding staff to attack these two. 'Surely a surprise attack would affect them. Right?'

Just as she was reaching for her staff, Zoro's hand was on his sword. With a smooth emotionless voice, he looks at Nami and says "I hunted pirates for a living until a few days ago, if you wanna go at it, let's go." Zoro flicks his katana to reveal it for a few centimeters. "Stop it, both of you." Luffy sighs and looks at the roof again.

Before Nami could react Luffy just screams out "BUGGY!! I'M HERE FOR YOU!!" Luffy made sure that this shout of his will be heard by the whole island so he used haki to strengthen his larynx. In doing so, there are even faint traces of haki in the voice that traveled in the island.

—————-

(Under a tent at the roof, a few minutes before)

"So the girl escaped with the map? Damn, I should've been more careful about that map. She might not have left the island yet, search for her." A calm voice was heard by about 60 people on the roof. The voice came from someone sitting from under the tent. He has a pirate hat, a red round nose, a plain white shirt and an orange jacket on. This is Buggy the clown, a pirate with a 15million berry bounty.

'Damn, if I knew how to use observation haki then this would have been easier.' Buggy is scratching the back of his head with this dilemma. He wanted funds to make a better ship. He can't take any money from the people here as he already knows that they're poor. The treasure map was his way to get more money but now someone stole it from them. "Well, at least we have barrels of rum, isn't that right boys!!"

"Woooo!! Long live Captain Buggy! "

"Let's drink!

"Kanpai!"

Buggy raises his mug with a swish, he screamed "Let's drink! Forget our troubles for now! KANPAI!" With a laugh, he was going to drink. Instead of the usual Kanpai as an answer, he heard completely something different.

"BUGGY! I'M HERE FOR YOU!!!"

"PFFFFTTT!!!"

Over 60 people just spit their drink from hearing something as misleading as to that. It also sounds like it came from a man.