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Luffy seemed mystified as he ran a finger along the inside of the ribbon of his straw hat and smiled with excited glee when he produced the somewhat wrinkled money from inside. "Shishishi! Food for me and my crew, old guy! Let Koby have some too, I guess."

The old barkeep eyed the money before he shrugged (money was money after all) and dished out three bowls of thick white stew, three large loaves of bread, and three tall drinks that were bluish-green and a little murky. "The Special: whelk stew, buckwheat loaf, and a seaweed special. That'll be 1500 beris for each of the three meals."

Luffy slapped his entire allowance on the bar and began his meal by picking up his bowl, tilting it back and swallowing it down in a single gulp, followed secondly by stuffing the loaf into his mouth in one bite and finished by chugging down his drink in a split second, presumably to wash down the bread. The entire sequence took approximately three seconds at most to complete. "Thanks, uncle! That tasted great! Makino's had beef stew and sake the other day but this was pretty good too."

Ann had been sipping her green drink and was staring in shock at Luffy's annihilation of his food while Koby was still trying not to choke on a bite of his bread over his disbelief over Luffy's actions. The barman actually let out a single gruff bark of laughter at Luffy's comment and said, "Well I'll be. Haven't seen anyone pack away food that fast since Skipper's boy left the island to go and join the marines. Tell me why you're a pirate instead of a respectable marine and I'll give you a second serving at no charge."

"That's easy. I can't be a marine because my dream is to be King of the Pirates. I can't find the One Piece being a marine." Luffy said before adding shamelessly. "Plus being a pirate is more fun and they have better songs to sing, so that's sauce on the steak."

"Don't you mean 'icing on the cake'?" Koby asked.

"No, I like steak better," Luffy said, not caring a bit over whether he was using a metaphor correctly or not.

The barman was still smiling and kept his word by dishing out another bowl of stew, loaf, and drink which Luffy consumed in the same manner as his first round. Koby noticed he did stop long enough to feed Dawn on his hat a chunk of the new loaf of bread almost as an afterthought.

Koby eyed his murky green drink and took a cautious sip and found that it tasted a lot better than it looked. Fruity, with the flavors of lime and melon mixed with what was probably rum and was a little on the sweet side. It certainly tasted better than the grog that Alvida's crew made for their raiding voyages. The barman continued to have a friendly if one-sided chat with Luffy talking about stories of marines, pirates and bounty hunters whose reputations had come even out to their tiny island.

"You've got the guts to make a splash young pirate, I can feel it deep in my bones. When you get to the Grand Line don't you let people get away with saying the East is the weakest sea and don't you forget that Roger himself was from this sea. His marine rival the Hero is as well. There are legends in the making from this sea. Not like that fool Krieg who just left these parts but young folks like that famous marine from your island who went from the rank of lieutenant all the way to rear admiral recently for his actions and work out in the worst parts of the Grand Line. Then there's that crazy young man who's already a big name under that Emporer Whitebeard too in nearly the same amount of time! Of course, there's the Greatest Swordsman of the East Blue, "Pirate Hunter" Roronoa Zoro who was last seen in Shells Town on Yotsuba Island and then here locally there's Captain Morgan of the marines who's famous for taking down the smartest pirate in the East Blue, Captain Kuro of the Black Cat Pirates. "

"W-wasn't it mentioned in the news that the marines imprisoned had Roronoa for some reason in Shells Town?" Koby asked to himself, remembering the news that had been delivered by coo from a little over a week ago.

Koby imagined walking into the Shell Town marine base with Alvida in chains so Captain Morgan would give him praise and demand he should join the marines to be his protege as soon as possible. Luffy would already be on the horizon daring him to come after him as his marine rival as soon as he could and allowed himself a very brief side story imagining of Ann falling in love with him and starting a forbidden marine-pirate romance. Luffy's voice brought him back to reality though.

"The Greatest Swordsman of the East Blue, huh?" Luffy asked with an oddly satisfied gleam of excitement in his eyes. "You said he's in Shelly Town, Old Man? How far away it that?"

"It's about a three days journey to the southwest of this island. You sure you're interested in going? The marines down there have become more terrifying over the last few years or so according to the rumors." The barman warned though Koby had the (accurate) feeling that a warning like that to someone like Luffy was more like encouragement or a challenge.

"I haven't decided yet," Luffy said and nudged Ann with his arm while stealing away her bread and stuffing it into his mouth in a single motion.

"Hey - I was saving that for Balloon!" Ann scolded as she tugged on one of Luffy's bulged out cheeks in irritation.

"Sowwy-" Luffy said with his mouth full but didn't sound a smidge remorseful about his actions.

Ann looked at the barman with her captain's cheek still pinched in her hand and she politely asked, "Will you give me more bread, please?"

The bartender did so and laughed as she stowed it away under her shirt to keep it out of her captain's reach and said, "I'm sure that you brats will be legendary pirates one day. I look forward to seeing your bounty posters in the news one day."

"I don't want to be a pirate, I want to be a marine." Koby boldly declared (feeling finally fed up at being considered to be a pirate). "I won't let Alvida stop me. Luffy - this is a selfish request but when you leave this island will you take me to Shell Village, please. I want to join the marines there."

"Do what you want - I decided we're going to go to Shelly Village anyway," Luffy replied without a care.

The sound of voices speaking outside the pub who were speaking in somewhat enthusiastic voices shouting things like -

"The pirates should leave!"

and

"The pirates should hang!"

and even

"They're drinking our booze! String 'em up! String 'em up!"

They devolved into chanting as a mob which finally alerted the barkeeper to the ruckus outside.

"Uh oh, it seems my regulars decided to form a lynch mob. You pirate brats can leave through the back while I settle them down - you don't want to begin your journey with a short drop sudden stop I think. Go on and get outta here pirate brats. Have fun becoming the pirate king, straw hat kid." the barkeeper shooed the three away towards a door behind the bar.

Luffy was laughing delightedly over being run out of town by a murderous mob as he swept away with Ann and Koby at his heels though Koby found enough willpower in him to half turn and shout back at the barkeeper. "I'm going to be a marine - not a pirate. If Luffy's going to be the next King of the Pirates I'll be the next Hero of the Marines."

The next generation of sailing folks were definitely something interesting. The barkeeper laughed as the door closed behind the trio and he went out the front to temper down his neighbors. If they didn't settle right away he'd douse the light and close for the evening. It was almost closing time anyway.

When Luffy, Ann, and Koby made it back to the forest Balloon was gwarking in irritation over being pestered by a flock of about eight birds that were each individually about a foot or more taller than he was.

"Balloon! I have some food for you." Ann called as she pulled the loaf out from her shirt attracting the attention of not only Balloon but the other birds as well.

"What the heck are those things!?" Koby screamed as the veritable flock of large black and green striped ostriches with pink primaries and pink tail feathers left Balloon's side from among the trees and came straight over to the group seemingly out of curiosity and friendliness.

"Don't you know? Didn't you say you've lived on this island for two years?" Ann asked skeptically as one of the large birds pressed its head into her hand to receive a head scratch while Luffy danced around to each of the birds filled to the brim with excitement trying to pet all of them.

"I've never seen this kind of bird in my entire life." Koby denied and shrunk away when one of the larger ones turned and hissed threateningly at Koby like an angry goose. Koby hoped it would turn its attention far away from him.

Balloon watched enviously as the multicolored birds were scratched by Ann and produced an irritated squawk which startled the other bird away from Ann and took its place to receive head scratches and eat his bread instead. The other bird looked hopefully over to Koby who shrunk away from its attention. It honked angrily at him before walking over to Luffy who was enthusiastically petting the remaining birds like they were a pack of dogs instead of a flock of birds. They seemed to be enjoying his attention.

"What cool looking mystery ostriches. Do you think they would taste good? I'm still a little hungry even after the pub stew." Luffy said looking contemplatively at a particularly fat looking one who was eyeing the top of his head in an equally hungry gaze.

"As I live and breathe." The barkeeper from the pub appeared (which nearly caused Koby to jump out of his skin) from his relatively easy job of dispersing the mob (a round of free drinks promised for the next day funded by the pirates they were about to form a mob over apparently was enough to calm small town rage) and looked on in amazement over the colorful collection of birds. "These are Goat Forest Ostriches. I haven't seen one of these since I was a lad back when these woods were full of em. The royal family of Goa Kingdom liked the taste of them years ago and everyone thought they were hunted down to the last. They're plant-eaters and used to keep the woods from getting overcrowded like it has become these last few decades."

"They're what-!?"

Koby watched in muted horror as the swallow on top of Luffy's hat had her voice cut off when the fattest ostrich finally got impatient enough to try to snatch the hat off Luffy's head. Only her bold sacrifice to intercept its lunge with her body allowed her to save the hat by letting it gulp her down in a single motion instead.

"Hey, you were trying to eat my hat! Bad bird." Luffy scolded the ostrich and instantly stopped petting the flock to swat the one who ate dawn across its beak. It honked sadly over its chastisement. "I don't like these birds anymore. Dawn had to use a lure to save my hat. Let's go."

Luffy marched away from the flock, ignoring the second farewell from the barkeeper with Ann, Balloon, and Koby following in his wake.

"I'm sorry about that ostrich eating your bird. I know she was special to you." Koby said sympathetically to Luffy who was clutching his hat close to his head and watching the flock of ostriches that were following behind them suspiciously.

"Why're you sorry? You didn't try to eat my hat." Luffy said, not sounding upset at all over the loss of his talking bird. Luffy seemed to be taking a bizarre form of revenge on the flock of ostriches (who seemed determined to follow them for some reason) by leading the group into even more than triple the number of webs, bugs, shrieking frogs and pitfalls that they had passed on the way to the town. Koby was only glad that it wasn't him running into such unpleasant things anymore.

As they walked Luffy kept going faster, trying to ditch the overly familiar ostriches. Ann had hopped on top of Balloon to use him as transportation and seemed to be fighting a losing battle with sleep though she seemed determined to keep up with Luffy's pace so Koby refrained from suggesting that they rest up. Balloon sometimes took the lead if Luffy looked to be going in a random direction and sometimes it was Luffy who kept chatting about Dawn as though she was gone just for a moment instead of eaten inside the stomach of a larger bird.

"Let's go already - Dawn is waiting," Luffy said as he took the lead again only to scowl when he noticed the flock of ostriches still following behind him, one covered in web, one with moths fluttering about it, one with mud-covered feathers from the pitfalls and the rest as pristine as when they had first started, including the fat one that had gone after his hat.

Balloon, apparently now completely fed up with the actions of the overly familiar flock of ostriches, raised his wings to stretch out and over his head and flared out his primary feathers so sharply that Koby swore they looked more like sharp knives instead of feathers and let out a sound that was less like that of a hissing goose and more akin to the scream of an eagle. The ostriches immediately stopped their stalking of Luffy and his group and instantly fled back in the direction of the fishing village. Balloon, having demonstrated his fowl dominance, gwarked at their fleeing tailfeathers and seemed satisfied with the results of his display of dominance.

"Good job, Balloon." Ann praised giving him a scratch beside his head even as she began to yawn again. "We need to get some sleep soon, we've been awake for almost two days haven't we?"

"You can sleep on Dawn when we get there. Come on, we're nearly there." Luffy insisted.

"Well maybe we should get rested up and then we can leave in the morning," Koby suggested spotting that Ann and Balloon were yawning for longer stretches with shorter breaks between them.

"Let's leave this island then - it's morning!" Luffy cheerfully ordered as he ran for the edge of the forest.

"It's the middle of the night Luffy not - how is it morning already!?" Koby screamed as he got to the edge of the forest and saw that the morning light had already passed merely approaching and the sun was already rising out of the blue causing Luffy's boat to cast a dramatic shadow across the shore. Being in the dark forest had skewed his perception of time way too much.

"It was three hours on foot each way to cross the island and return," Ann reported as she yawned widely in unison with Balloon before she patted the exhausted Balloon on his head sympathetically as she dismounted from his back. Koby gaped at Luffy, Ann, and Balloon walking towards the boat whose figurehead seemed to be smiling encouragingly. This was finally his chance to leave Goat Island and he spoke with conviction stopping the tiny crew.

"I am going to be a marine. I know one day this will mean we'll be enemies but you really helped me decide - in a good way. I crossed a forest even Alvida never had the guts to go into, was gone all night and nothing really bad happened. I will go with you to Shell Town." Koby said with the confidence that he had previously lacked causing Luffy and Ann to finally turn their gazes towards him with a pair of grins. "I want to be a marine, not be stuck with Alvida for the rest of my life. If I leave now with the two of you I can get away from her for good and one day I'll be able to catch her myself. The only thing keeping me here was my fear and I'm not afraid to leave anymore. (Though considering the number of spiders in the forest here I might now be more afraid to stay.)"

"It's great that you've finally got the confidence to leave your fears behind" Dawn complemented from the figurehead in a tone of what sounded like admiration in her voice which caused Koby to gape at it in disbelief. Dawn really was the boat and not a bird? What was the bird then? What kind of pirate was Luffy to have a boat like that? His shock fizzled though when he heard the sound of many footsteps arriving from the woods and it wasn't the angry villagers.

The sound of a slow mocking clapping brought Koby's attention to a sight he had not wanted to ever see again. Alvida was flanked by most of her crew as she mockingly applauded Koby's declaration. Koby shrank back instinctively and flinched when Alvida began to cruelly laugh.

"I heard what you said you little brat. Do you really think you can escape from me and catch me one day? What a joke." The cruel smile on Alvida's face turned a touch more menacing as she got a good look at Luffy and Ann. "Are these two helping you escape? Are they bounty hunters taking you under their wing then? No one can beat me. Before I crush them and give you the beating you deserve if you tell me what's the most beautiful thing in the sea I might decide not to kill you."

"Well, of course, it has to be -" Koby started to speak before he stopped and remembered Luffy's confidence and complete lack of fear about death, the goat forest journey to the town and back, Luffy's cool dragon boat and Luffy's way of erasing his own fears in less than a night over his decision to leave to go to Shell Town with them without looking back. "...Probably a mermaid somewhere."

Alvida and the crew who had come along with her all had their jaws hanging down to the floor over Koby's audacity.

Koby wasn't finished yet. Two years of servitude and one boost of self-confidence was all it took for Koby to tell Alvida what was truly on his mind. "Not just that but angelfish, anemones, sea slugs, and coral reefs are all beautiful things in the ocean. If you meant on the ocean there are beautiful ships and aquatic birds too. If you meant beautiful people then there are queens, princesses, marines, and I'll even admit some pirates in this world who are beautiful… but you aren't one of them. Even if you were in the ocean or on the ocean you wouldn't be on any one of those beautiful lists either. You're the ugliest thing I've seen in my life and I've seen an anglerfish."

Throughout Koby's speech, her assembled underlings had been slowly edging away as Alvida's face became more and more thoroughly enraged. "You...little...bastard! I am going to kill you slowly!"

Koby couldn't move. Even after his decision to be a marine, his knees were still shaking and he couldn't move. Koby kept his eyes open and even though a nearly silent 'eep' escaped from his mouth he resolutely thought to himself, 'I don't regret this! I already told myself I'm going to fight for my dreams like Luffy!'

"Well said, Koby! Now get behind me." Luffy said as he stepped between Koby and Alvida. That wasn't quite what he had expected but while Koby appreciated the gesture Alvida crushing Luffy's head in with her giant club wasn't the desired outcome.

Except when Alvida lifted the club Luffy was completely unhurt. Luffy grinned, excited to showcase his cool powers again, and said, "That's useless against me because my body is rubber. Shishishi!"

"Th-that's impossible!" Alvida stuttered in denial. "My iron mace can crush anyone!"

"Rubber Pistol!" There was a mighty crash and Luffy performed a right cross so hard-hitting that Alvida flew back and crashed into at least three of her subordinates before landing flat on the ground, passed out.

"His arm!... His arm extended! Captain was defeated by that monster!" The gathered crew clustered together in terror, not knowing what to do in this situation.

"Aw, she was even weaker than the mayfly faced guy. At least he could handle one pistol punch without losing." Luffy complained when he saw that Alvida wasn't getting back up.

"Told you she couldn't be that impressive." Ann supplied her commentary. "Let's get going then, shall we? Shell Island is three days from here and Koby can join the marines there."

"Alright but first, you." Luffy pointed at one of Alvida's crew who jumped together at attention. "Bring us a week's worth of food so we don't have to stop to fish."

Within ten minutes the supplies had been brought over and Koby was sailing away with Luffy and Ann on the ship Dawn. Once they were out to sea Koby asked how it came to be that he was made of rubber.

"So you actually ate the Rubber Devil Fruit? That's surprising." Koby said as they sailed away from Goat Island and made their way towards Shell Island, "Though since you're going after the One Piece that means you'll be heading toward the Grand Line soon, right?"

"That's right." Luffy agreed as he perched atop the dragon figurehead of his ship and smiled at the horizon they were traveling towards.

"You know that place is known as the Pirate's Graveyard, right Luffy?" Koby questioned feeling a bit worried over the friendly pirate's lack of concern over his own life.

"Yeah, that's why I'm looking for an amazing crew. I already have Dawn, Ann, and Balloon and the old guy from the bar mentioned someone who sounds interesting being held where we're going, right?" Luffy asked showing a growing spark of excitement in his expression.

"You don't mean... Roronoa Zoro do you?" Koby asked in disbelief.

"Yep. If he's a good guy I'll ask him to join the crew." Luffy said with an excited smile. "The old guy said he's a strong swordsman right? The greatest swordsman in the East Blue."

"You must be joking! H-he's a bounty hunter! On top of that, I've heard he's a demon too so it'll never work!"

"Well, I haven't met him yet. If he's a good guy I'll ask." Luffy seemed resolute in his decision. Ann huffed a little but smiled and leaned back to press into the already sleeping Balloon. They'd had quite the hectic last few days so it really was a good time to rest as Dawn made her way towards their next destination. She decided a nap was a great idea knowing if there was trouble Luffy and Dawn could handle it for now. As she drifted off her smile widened at Luffy's rather excited demands towards Dawn to 'tell an adventure story to me and Koby - one of the ones with funny marines since he wants to be a marine.' She drifted to sleep as Dawn began her tale. She was asleep almost as soon as the story began.

"Commodore Dodger was about to be passed over the third time for his promotion to Rear Admiral along with the new underwater ship to command that went with it. The reasons he had been given were (first) his unorthodox command methods, (second) an unfortunate "incident" with a noble's personal ship and (thirdly) there happened to be a rumor of a certain genital tattoo that was acquired after he got blind drunk following said "incident"."

To be continued

Up next: An accidental theft is performed by Ann, a purposefully performed mess is orchestrated by Luffy, and a twist of fate has a certain hunter become the hunted.

In case it isn't obvious I want to let you good readers know that I'm attempting to try for one chapter per location but don't want the chapters to be too short - or too long. Once I get further along I'll very likely need to split the locations into separate bits. After all, in the manga Shell Village was only five chapters long but Cocoyasi Village/Arlong Arc was around thirty chapters.

I'd like to thank anyone who took the time to read this story, for those who've favorited and followed which I smile over and an especially big thank you to any of you who've reviewed. I hope this story continues to entertain you all.