The swordsman (part 2)

Luffy and Koby are now looking for the girl. They just left the marine base.

'I'll think about it. Before all of that, can you give me that onigiri? I'm kinda hungry'

Luffy chuckles as he remembers his encounter with Zoro. Zoro ate the overly sweet, recently stomped onigiri that the girl made. With tears on the edge of his eyes, he ate the onigiri and tells Luffy to tell the girl that it was delicious. Luffy chuckles "Sure," then left with Koby. 'Now I really want him in my crew'.

"Hey! It's the girl from earlier!" Koby's exclamation brought Luffy back from his thoughts. He looks at where Koby was pointing and sees a girl on a doorstep with a sad expression. They walked up to her and Luffy greeted her. "Hey, Zoro said that the onigiri was good," Luffy says this with a bright smile on his face. The girl looks at the guys from the base earlier and when she heard what Luffy said, her frown turned into a brighter smile than Luffy's. "Really? Did he say that? Yay!"

Luffy's smile was turned upside down when he sensed onion-bowl's aura coming close. Sure enough, he heard his voice and when Luffy looked at him, the people on the streets started to bow down to him. Even the little girl was about to bow down when Luffy stopped her. "From today, you won't have to bow down to anyone."

When Helmepo saw someone not bowing down he walks towards them. 'How dare he not bow down!'

"Hey, you! Why aren't you bowing!?? I'm the son of captain Morgan!" 'That would surely scare him!'

Luffy just looks at him, smile and opens his vest and shows something to Helmepo. Helmepo's face paled and he turned white. On Luffy's chest is a tattoo of a skull with 2 red lines on one of the eyes and two cutlasses crossed behind it. It was the jolly roger of Red-hair Shanks, one the Yonkō residing in the grandline. "Before you accuse me of being fake, you better know that I might take offense with that and kill you for doubting me." Says Luffy while releasing a minuscule amount of Haokushoku Haki aimed at Helmepo.

Onion-Bowl passed out while the two marines behind him are sweating so much that they are drenched. One of the four Yonkō's crew member is here and their young master was going to order him to bow down. Their thinking was cut-off when Luffy called out to them. "Hey, bring that bastard back to his home, if he wakes up, tell him I'm coming for him and his father. If he doesn't tell that to his father," Luffy just smiles and waited for them to move. They ran away while carrying Onion-Bowl and cursing him for their misfortunes.

"C' mon Koby, I'm going to get Zoro today as I don't want these people to suffer even a second more," With a smile, Luffy pulled Koby with him. Koby shocked about Luffy's origin he doesn't respond. He just has a slacked jaw and his body is also too stiff to even move. Luffy thought Koby also fainted but his aura says otherwise. Before he goes, he turns to the little girl who is looking at Luffy with star-filled eyes, "Wait here, I'll bring Zoro here so that he can thank you later," Luffy laughs and drags Koby back to the marine base.

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Luffy is now again standing in front of Zoro. "Will you join my crew now?" Luffy has the biggest shit-eating grin.

Helmepo actually woke up earlier than Luffy expected. Helmepo was so scared and embarrassed by what happened that the memory of him seeing Luffy's tattoo is blocked by his mind. He even ordered the two marines that wanted to warn him to shut up about the incident or he will execute them. If they went to Captain Morgan with this, they'll probably be executed on the spot by the Captain himself. The two marines gritted their teeth and told each other via eye contact that they'll resign the next day to escape from this tyrant father and child. After that, Helmepo saw Zoro again and just poured his anger on Zoro by pointing at Zoro and screaming that he'll execute him later. He even kicked Zoro a bit to prove his point. Zoro coughed blood as Helmepo walked away still fuming. Luffy just happens to see the exchanged when he climbed up the wall for the second time.

"Fine, I still want to live for my dreams, if I have to become a pirate to achieved my dreams, so be it," Zoro looks at Luffy's shit-eating grin that without a doubt is telling Zoro 'I told you so'. Even though Luffy was smiling, Zoro didn't see it as belittling, on the contrary, it feels a little bit like how Kuina was when she was still alive. "But first, I need my katana, after all, I'm a swordsman," "Sure," Luffy runs off and enters the Marine base through the front door by smashing it open.

(Narrator PoV)

*Sigh* And here one again shows Luffy's carelessness/stupidity. Even though he is a great fighter, even though he was apprenticed and had boarded the ships of two different Yonkō he is still as careless and rash as he was when he stabbed the knife in his face. Luffy is running inside the base now while Zoro is still tied up, with a nostalgic expression on his face.

Koby is once again shocked. The captain ran inside the marine base, while the possible crew member is smiling to himself while a bit of blood is still dripping from his side.

Meant to be captain and crew.

(Narrator PoV End)

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(Inside the marine base)

Helmepo just got chewed out by his dad, Captain Morgan. His dad wanted him to execute the little girl for feeding Zoro. But he just couldn't do it. He may be able to kick the kid but even then he probably wouldn't do it that hard, she is just a little girl. He walked out and saw Zoro. Helmepo kicked him and decided to execute him tomorrow. 'This stupid hunter is the reason for my week long-suffering.'

As he was walking back to his room, it suddenly turned quiet. The only footsteps he was hearing were his. He was about to look back at the new pair of marines that was supposed to follow him but he was stopped. A hand just grabbed his right shoulder and he heard a whisper behind his ear. "Tell me where Zoro's sword is," Helmepo gulped and was about to pull the "My father will kill you" card when a sharp foot long blade appeared and touched his neck. "Where is his sword, please?" Helmepo as quietly as possible guided Luffy to where he kept the sword.

Some marines saw Luffy while he was walking by. They didn't even hesitate when they pointed their rifles and shoot. They didn't see Helmepo as Luffy was carrying him and was running. Luffy just deflected the bullets that were shot at him by using his naginata. When they reached Helmepo's room, Luffy saw three katanas that were just leaning on the wall. He just took the 3 katanas and let Helmepo go. Luffy looked at the window to see where was Zoro tied up. When he found Zoro, he saw Koby trying to untie Zoro. Luffy was shocked to see Koby suddenly clutches his shoulder and blood was flowing through his hand. It didn't stop there as several marine officers line up and point their rifles at Koby and Zoro. Behind them is Captain Morgan screaming something. "That looks bad," Luffy once again grabs Helmepo and the 3 katanas, readied himself and runs and jumps through the window.

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(Back at the courtyard)

"I can't die yet. Not now, not like this," Zoro is looking at 6 or seven marines with their rifles pointed at him and Koby. The marine Captain is behind them shouting "fire at will". Zoro is sweating and despairing as he remembers his promise with Kuina and here he is, about to die. He heard the rifles go off. Then suddenly, a man carrying another man in one hand and his three swords just go between him and the rifles. He puts the swords and onion-bowl behind him and just blocks the bullets, literally. The bullet hit Luffy and just bounces off him. "Hey, I don't know which is yours so I just took what I saw," says Luffy while pointing at the 3 katanas. "They're all mine," Zoro says blankly as he saw bullets bounced off his "captain". "Sorry, I forgot to untie you," Luffy holds his hands and Sirius appears in his hand again and he used it to slash Zoro free. "You can handle them, right? Go get them, I want to see how strong you are," Luffy crosses his arms while holding his Naginata.

Zoro chuckles, he draws his katanas and holds all three of them. One on each hand and one in held between his teeth. He charges the Marines. Even without food for a few days except the stomped onigiri, Zoro is still injured, which should've lowered his fighting abilities. It didn't, Zoro puts all of the marines down and was even tieing up with Captain Morgan. The other marines didn't help Morgan. They were even secretly cheering for Zoro to take down Morgan.

Zoro was slowly losing ground as his injuries are catching up to him. Even more so when Morgan was continuously targeting his injuries. Then Zoro made a mistake when the pain from his injuries flared up. He was about to be sliced by Morgan's ax hand when he felt his body got dragged. Zoro was shocked as is everyone when Zoro flew from Morgan's front to Luffy who has his hand up towards the incoming Zoro. Luffy catches Zoro with one hand and puts him down gingerly.

"Good job, I would've wanted to see more but it would be better if you were in full health and not injured." Luffy smiles at Zoro who frowned. "Don't frown, this will be the first and last time I'll stop any of your fights. From now on, even if you are on your last breath, I won't help you unless you want me to." Luffy cracks his knuckles and looks at Captain Morgan. "Please hold still I want to know how much a person from East Blue can handle my power."