Pride of a Marine
Luffy continues to walk through the forest heading for the village. He was able to spot the path to go from the top of the hideout. After meeting with this rival of his, his eyes are more determined than ever. There was a spark of fire that started burning inside of him. He finally had a worthy adversary. Luffy knows that he is not strong and that he will have to work harder than ever in order to make it to the top. After what seemed like for ever, Luffy begins to hear voices in the distance. Luffy hides in the bushes and the voices become more distinct. According to the distinct different voices, Luffy determines them to be many. Luffy finally spots about 10 people walking through the forest. These men are look barbaric in nature and are wearing loincloths. Their upper body is muscular with many scars from previous wounds. They are carrying small swords. Their leader in front has two swords and a bow and arrow. Some men are holding bags full of jewelry and others are carrying livestock. The leader is carry a woman over his shoulders. She seems to be unconscious. Luffy recognizes that it was the woman from the bar that he was at earlier today. It dawns on him that these are the bandits that Ace was talking about.
"We got a great harvest today boy's" speaks the Leader.
"We robbed alot of jewelry today. Lucky those pirates left or i dont think we could have gotten away with it" replied one of the men.
"We got alot of prey today also. We should be able to eat for awhile now boss." said another
"Boss got the best prize of all though" pouted the youngest.
"Haha don't worry men once im finished with this pretty little thing Ill be nice and share her HAHAHA" cries the leader.
The bandits continue marching back to their base. Luffy knows that he is out numbered and he has no way of fighting them. He quietly follows behind making sure not to be noticed. He knows he must do something to save the woman. He knows if he runs away now he could never face himself again and that he would never be a marine. He would be a coward and lose all determination. He must find a way to rescue her without these bandits finding out. He continues to follow the bandits and they finally reach the base. Luffy notices that there are two watch towers guarding each side of the entrance. There are many tents stationed inside. Lucky he is small so he shouldn't be noticed. He must look for away to get in undetected. Luffy looks around for anything that he could use to get inside. He notices that there is a man on a horse pulling a wagon not far from his location. "There we go i can sneak in under that wagon they would never know" Luffy thinks to himself. He hurriedly makes his way towards the wagon and quickly runs under it he grips one of the wooden beams and successfully makes it inside the bandits lair. The wagon comes to a stop and the rider yells out "Hey come help me unload this wagon. I got a deal on the merchandise. They came straight from the marine port." The other bandits quickly help the driver. One of the bandits states "We can sell these to the pirates tomorrow they will make good slaves." Upon hearing this Luffy is horrified. He had heard about slaves but this is the first time hes witnessed something like this.
Luffy has always been with his grandpa and never seen the reality of the world. He has never seen brutality of human kind. Luffy notices that the people coming off the wagon are elderly, men, women, children. Luffy tries to hold in his anger. His fists clutch even tighter on the beam and blood starts to trickle down his fingers. He had squeezed so hard he tore his own flesh that is how angry he was. What hits Luffy the most was that he heard that there were marines involved. His entire being was mortified and the image he had that marines were righteous was shot. He now realizes what Aokiji really meant. Those words reverberate through his head over and over. "not all marines are good and not all pirates are bad" he says that in his head almost like a mantra. He knows he must do something. He sees that they are being taken into one of the bigger tents and it is guarded by two men at the entrance. He spots the leader coming out from the tent next to it and deduces that the young woman must be in there as well.
He slowly makes his way through the camp. Being small certainly helps. If he were older and taller he definately would have been seen already. He grabs a small cutting knife from one of the tables and makes his way to the back of the tent. He looks around for any body to see him and when the coast is clear, he begins to tear slowly into the tent. When he pokes his head through the tent, all the prisoners are astonished to see this little boy. He counts the amount of people that he needs to rescue and sees there are 10 prisoners. He puts up two fingers to his mouth and whispers "Shhh" which eases the tension of the prisoners.
Luffy needs to think of plan and quick. After alittle pondering he thinks he has an idea. "Ill be righ back he whispers. He then precedes to make his way towards the other tent and rips through the back entrance. He looks through the tear and sees the woman is still there unconscious. Once he assures that she is currenly ok, he heads over to a box. Inside the box are bottles of alcohol. He then gets a great idea. He grabs the alcohol and opens it he starts slowly pouring the alcohol along a path towards the opposite side of the prisoners. Along the bath he soaks tents, the ground, even the wooden perimeter. He goes through bottle after bottle until finally he has secured a pathway for a distraction. He grabs a lighter that is on one of the nearby tables and heads back to the prisoner tents. He goes into the tent of the unconscious women and cuts off her restraints. He starts nudging her awake. The groggy woman slowly regains consciousness and awareness. When she sees the boy from earlier her eyes widen. She looks around and realizes she is not in a good spot and she can hear the bandits partying outside. The boy motions for her to be quiet and to follow him. He then precedes to the prisoner tent and with the help of the women help free the prisoners.
Luffy whispers in a low voice "Ok listen everyone i am going to create a distraction and you all are gonna head hug along side the wall to the exit. Once your out do not stop and do not look back" He motions them to quietly leave the tent. As they get ready along the back wall, Luffy makes his way to the opposite side where his trail of alcohol is. He picks up the lighter and flicks it open and presses down. A tiny flame ignites and he lowers the lighter to the alcohol. Once the flame hits the alcohol like a dominoe effect the flame starts to engulf everything. The tents quickly catch fire, the ground lights up and the wooden wall gets torched. The fire gets bigger and bigger and smoke starts engulfing the entire area. The bandits quickly notice and start to panic. They scurry quickly to put out the fire but the current is too strong. The leader tells all the bandits to start working together. They get to work right away trying to put out the fire. They use all means necessary. Luffy motions the group to start making for the exit. He notices that the leader still has not moved from his location and if this continues he will see the prisoners escaping. He knows he must act now or his whole plan will falter. He picks up the last bottle and drinks the remaining alcohol and holds it in his mouth. He runs up to the leader and spits the alcohol over the bandit leader. The leader is experienced and is quick on the reflex so the majority of the alcohol is on his arm. Luffy Ignites the lighter and throws it at the leaders arm. The flame ignites the leader's arm and he immediately screams in pain. Luffy turns his head to look back and sees that the prisoners are no longer in view which means he has succeeded. The bandit quickly puts out the flame on his arm and is still in agony. "GRAB HIM" he yells out. The bandits quickly restrain luffy and with his current predicament it's gonna be tough to get out of this one.