Chapter 21

"I call bullshit!" Luffy cussed. "First Soru... Now Geppo. What are you the next Marine Fleet Admiral."

The six-armed monkey did some weird dance in the sky mocking the human.

"Why you!" Luffy couldn't believe it. The monkey was actually twerking at Luffy. The boy cocked his fist, "Oh, I'm going to enjoy this more than I should."

With that Luffy jumped up, bouncing from a high platform with his naginata out.

He wasn't going to cut the creature, but smacking him down would do some good humbling the animal.

Seeing him come closer, the monkey quickly used Geppo to bounce in the air and stay out of Luffy's range. Luffy didn't give up and stretched his arms now that he was high in the air, trying to land a hit, but of course, the boy missed. Ands the monkey still had his hat.

Luffy didn't feel amused like the monkey was by his silly dance in the air.

"Show off!" Luffy grumbled. The monkey was quite the acrobat and he had Geppo mastered unlike him.

He quickly chased after the monkey as it went deeper into the jungle. Luffy used his stretched limbs and almost everything in his arsenal, but even after ten whole minutes he still couldn't catch the dang monkey.

"Khikhikhi..." The monkey laughed as it mocked him, playing around with his straw hat. And still bouncing in the air out of his reach.

Luffy wasn't fully serious, if he was he could have gotten the hat. But using gear 1 would be overkill on the poor creature. Not to mention that it might injure the monkey. And after ten minutes he wouldn't change his decision. No, it made him more firm on it.

He was curious, about how a monkey was able to learn Geppo. And not just that but the weird bouncing in the air too... That was a copy of his own move, where he would bounce from one object to another to increase his speed.

So the monkey obviously learned from observation. And he might have been observing him for quite some time by the looks of it. It might also be why the creature didn't rip his straw hat, the monkey knew its boundaries. It also didn't hold any type of malice. And that made Luffy want to befriend the creature.

And he was done with today's training anyways. He could spend time chasing the animal. But chasing after it wouldn't be easy without Geppo. And the monkey seemed to have a lot of stamina, as it could easily stay up in the air for a full ten minutes. So he wasn't going to come down soon. The trees in the jungle weren't even that tall that Luffy could use them to catch the creature by surprise.

Luffy crouched down and jumped up high, the monkey getting far from him already. But this time Luffy used his own Geppo. He succeeded the first time and almost caught it with his outstretched hand.

"Khi!"

The key word being 'almost', as unlike the monkey Luffy missed his second Geppo and gravity pulled him in. Luffy didn't give up. And chased after it with vigor.

Luffy stopped counting after the twelfth fail, but he didn't give up.

"I'm not giving up." Luffy said. He pushed himself up, and used Geppo, and used another one, getting a lot closer to the monkey before missing his third step. But as he fell he tried and pushed all his strength to his legs, and suddenly he wasn't falling anymore.

He was using Geppo again. But the six-armed monkey was quite tricky, it moved away before Luffy could catch it and went upwards. Luffy didn't stop following it. He just prayed that his Geppo would work.

And before he knew it he caught the monkey. "Huh, finally got you." Luffy said, grabbing it with both arms.

The monkey giggled. Now that he got a good look at it. It had white fur with some blue highlights. And the monkey didn't seem hostile, as he put the hat back on Luffy's head.

The boy raised an eyebrow.

But the monkey pointed down.

Luffy looked down, and he was still in the air. And not falling, as he was using Geppo from instinct to keep himself floating. That's the reason for not falling.

And he was in his base form, not gear one. That meant he got the technique right.

A wide grin appeared on Luffy's face. "You wanted me to learn Geppo?"

The monkey nodded with a cheeky smile of its own. Luffy had his own odd laugh, "Shishishi, then let's become friends." Luffy didn't need any answers as he put the monkey on his shoulder and started using Geppo to move in the air. The monkey was a bit too big to stay on Luffy's shoulder, but it supported itself just fine with its extra arms.

"Khikhikhi..."

"Shishishi..."

It was his first time ever flying. And it was epic, getting hit by the wind and all. And his new friend was considerate enough to press down on Luffy's hat so that it wouldn't fall of due to the wind.

As Luffy skipped in the air, he finally looked to the horizon. The sun was setting. And it looked beautiful from up here.

And then Luffy's stomach protested in hunger. "Ok then little guy, let's get something to eat."

The monkey agreed. And pointed at a giant bird, not far from them. That's an island bird. A ten foot bird that mainly came to eat some large fishes or animals from the island.

Luffy was already drooling... He gulped.

Those things taste delicious. Luffy had eaten it once with Garp. The man had caught it. And it was something. At that time he didn't even season the oversized chicken, only some salt and it was amazing.

So he could already imagine how good it would taste if he could get it to Makino.

And Luffy tried to catch those suckers multiple times. But most of the time they would be too far, or would fly away after not being able to harm Luffy. But not this time.

"It's time for a hunt." Luffy said, with a savage grin. His expression matched the monkey that was on his shoulder.