Chapter 2 The Future

Luffy watched with curiosity as the bandit leader, Higuma tried to argue with Shanks about how this whole incident was none of his business.

"I don't know why you're here, pirate, but you'd better get going, before you get hurt." said the mountain bandit boss, trying to threaten the Yonkou. Shanks ignored him and looked straight at Luffy, who had suddenly become very calm, completely different from a few seconds ago.

He watched for a few seconds and then spoke again.

"Didn't you say your punch is as strong as a pistol, Luffy?" Shanks spoke softly.

"That's right." Luffy answered calmly, so calm that Shanks wondered if Luffy realized the danger he was in. The villagers were also surprised by how calm and indifferent the boy was. Makino then reprimanded him.

"Luffy, what are you-" makino spoke in a worried tone, but Luffy cut her off by raising his hand. Then he looked Shanks right in the eye and spoke.

"Shanks, I can handle this."

Luffy said those words in a very low voice, his behavior was very different from his usual self. The villagers froze in place and everyone could only stare at him. The bandit leader didn't know how to react to such bold words, coming from a seven year old boy. Then Luffy glared at the bandits and then all of them except Higuma fell to the ground. Higuma was now in a kneeling position, panting like he was having trouble breathing. All the mouths of the villagers gaped at this event. The villagers didn't know what to think, while the pirates knew what had just happened. There was only one thing going through a pirate's head and that was: 'Impossible!'

Then Shanks recovered from his shock and lifted his jaw. Everyone follows him. They were still in complete shock from what had just happened. They all stared at the boy for a few moments, and then Shanks suddenly shouted at the boy, shocking everyone present.

"LUFFY! THAT WAS CONQUEROR'S HAKI RIGHT?! NOT ONLY THAT, IT WAS A CONTROLLED ATTACK!"

"I know." Luffy replied quietly, but everyone heard him. Shanks had never been as shocked as he was now. He was a Yonkou and he had never seen anything like this before.

"But how-" he started to speak again, but he stopped when the leader of the bandits stood up and tried to slash at Luffy.

Shanks wanted to help, but Luffy dodged his sword easily, without even looking. Then, with his Gomu Gomu no Whip, he sent the bandit leader flying into the distance. Again, effortlessly. The boy beat the bandits like they were insects.

Once again everyone's mouths both pirates and the villagers gaped as wide as they looked at Luffy. He himself slightly looked to the right and saw where he had sent the bandit leader.

"Well, 8 million berries just flew by," he said casually. Shanks raised his jaw again and spat out everything that was on his mind.

"LUFFY, WHAT IS THAT? HOW DID YOU DO IT? HOW DID YOU HAVE THIS POWERFUL HAKI? IT TAKEN MOST OF MY ENTIRE LIFE TO BECOME A YONKOU AND YOUR HAKI POWER HAS ALREADY HAD HALF AT YOUR 7TH YEAR!" he took it all out. Everyone was now staring at him, only now realizing how serious the scene they had just witnessed was. They kept looking between Shanks and Luffy, who patiently stared at the pirate he idolized.

"I'll explain, Shanks!" said the boy, but the pirate didn't listen.

"YOU ARE NOT LUFFY! LUFFY IS A WEAK LITTLE CHILD! YOU ARE AN IMITATION! OR SOMETHING!"

"Shanks, let me explain-" Luffy begged to stop the hysterical Shanks.

"YOU CAN'T MASTER CONQUEROR HAKI AT 7 YEARS OLD! WHATEVER YOU SAY, IT'S ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE!" Shanks continued, ignoring Luffy. By now, even Ben was bothered by his captain who couldn't stop and listen for a second.

"Captain, try-" Ben tried to calm him down, but was also ignored. Luffy's eyes twitched in annoyance.

"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE? IS THIS SOME KIND OF JOKE? ARE YOU A COPYER OR SOMETHING? HOW COULD-"

"SHUT UP!" the boy suddenly shouted with teeth turning sharp like sharks, quite irritated at the man. Shanks stopped and glared at the boy, who wasn't the least bit afraid of being stared at by him. Then he relaxed a little more and sighed.

"Sorry," the Yonkou said gently. "Please explain."

The boy looked at him for a while, then he also calmed down and slowly started to speak.

"I... I don't know if you guys will believe this..." he spoke softly.

"Just say it!" Ben Beckmann answered.

"Good!" said Luffy, "The other me came from the future."

Shanks looked ready to start talking again, but Ben covered his captain's mouth. The others stared at him, clearly in disbelief.

"He joined the current me and gave me all his power and knowledge."

He was aware of people's gazes and immediately knew what the matter was.

"You don't believe me, do you?" he said. No one answered, but Luffy knew that was the case. He looked at the Yonkou. "Shanks, you saw me trying to swim last week, right?"

Shanks didn't know what that had to do with it, but he nodded anyway. Then Luffy turned to the villagers.

"And you, Makino, saw me take a shower yesterday right?" Makino also nodded, not knowing where this conversation was headed.

"Luffy, I don't-" Makino wanted to speak, but Luffy cut her off again.

"When we merged together, my body also changed. I became a bit more like him." He said, and then he slowly undressed. No one understood Luffy's explanation, but then when he pulled his shirt up higher, they finally did. He has a very muscular chest, where it was not like a day ago. And then, when he was taking off his shirt, they noticed there was an x-shaped scar on his chest. Many of the villagers gasped at this and Makino put her hand over her mouth, surprised.

"It hurts a bit when I transform..." said Luffy slowly. Shanks was wide-eyed.

"What causes a scar like this?" he asked. Luffy looked at him straight in the eyes as he spoke his next words.

"Admiral Akainu."

Everyone was wide-eyed again.

"AKAINU?!"

"That's right."

"Okay, okay..." Shanks said slowly while massaging his forehead. "Let's just say I believed your story so far." he sighed. "But why did you come from the future?"

Luffy answered in reverse order.

"A friend of mine, He is a prospective marine that I met on my adventure, he ate the Toki Toki no Mi (Time-time devil fruit). Because of my encouragement he wanted to become a Marine Admiral." Luffy spoke in a low voice, but everyone was silent. "He then came to fight me but since I did want to die I gave up on him."

Shanks was surprised. He saw in Luffy's serious eyes that what Luffy was telling him right now was true and he knew something bad must happen to him.

"Then, because he is my friend, he gave me the opportunity to do this and fix things," Luffy continued.

Shanks nodded at him silently.

"What happened? Why do you want to die?" he asked.

"My nakama." Luffy said with tears coming out of his eyes. He knelt down and began to sulk. "He killed them all."

"Wh-who?"

"Akainu." Luffy spat out the word like a curse. Shanks' eyes widened at this. He glanced at the rest of the crew and he knew everyone believed in him now. He saw the expressions of sympathy from the people and tears appeared in Makino's eyes. "And when I fought Kaidou! We almost lost when we fought Kaidou." They saw Luffy repeatedly punching the ground with his hands. "And when I woke up, everyone was dead. Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper, Robin, Franky, Brook. They were all dead. And he was standing over them with the lava that destroyed my ship."

He looked down for a moment. "Then I got mad seeing this. I don't even remember much about what happened back then. Except in the end, Akainu was dead."

He smiled weakly at the end of his story.

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

(This fanfic was made before the Dressrosa Arc, so there are differences between this fanfic and Canon one piece)