Ch.39 Dawn of Strawhats

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　"Gomu Gomu no Pistol!"

　'WHAM!'

　Koby saw in disbelief Luffy's hand suddenly stretched far as he punched Alvida right on her cheek! The unsuspecting Alvida couldn't help but sprawled on the ground losing her consciousness immediately due to Luffy's punch!

　"What? How! How did you do that?" Koby stammered on the ground as he was still in disbelief with Luffy's action just now.

　The straw hat behind Luffy's back swayed gently by the wind, he turned towards Koby and said, "I ate Gomu Gomu fruit! I'm rubber man! shishishi..."

　"De...Devil fruit?"

　Luffy grinned in answers as he helped Koby back on his feet, then as both of them began to walked towards harbor and leaving Alvida there. Suddenly,

　"You guys done?" Rei voice coming from atop of the tree besides the road.

　Luffy and Koby paused on their track, then they saw Rei jumped down from the tree in healthy condition.

　"Re, Rei? How can you be here?" Koby was the first to ask the smiling Rei.

　Tilting his head, Rei asked back, "Why can't i be here?"

　"Ah, ah, no. I thought you are still inside the brig!"

　Suddenly Luffy leaped forward, as he scrutinized Rei more closely this time, his eyes were twinkling like little stars and spoke, "Woooow! You look realy awesome!!! Hey Horned man! Join me!"

　Luffy actualy needs to raised his head to see Rei's face to face, Rei's height after transformation raised to around 204cm(6.7") which makes him a head taller than Luffy which has 172cm(5.6") height currently.

　After Luffy asked, Koby and Rei especially were stupified by Luffy's spontaneous action, it seems Luffy was always done whatever he wanted just like his manga counterparts!

　As for Rei, his heart beat faster when he heard Luffy's last sentence!

　"Wait! Wait!" Koby interrupted, then he spoke after he saw both Luffy and Rei focused on him.

　"Alvida is down! So, its our best time to get away from this island! If we're not fast, I'm afraid Alvida's crew will come here in no time!"

　"Naaah, don't worry about them! I can deal with anything!" Luffy Bragged as Rei spoke simply,

"I already dealt with them."

　Koby nodded and said, "Thats right! Rei already dealt with them...."

　"...Wait,"

　"...YOU DEALT WITH THEM?" Koby yelled with wide-eyes!

　Rei nodded with simple smile, Luffy were even more excited when he saw Rei!

　"So, you're strong?" Asked Luffy.

　Rei nodded, "Yeah, kinda..."

　"Then! Join my crew!!! Hahahaha...!"

　Rei raised his eyebrow, and asked, "What crew?"

　In fact Rei knew already what Luffy meant by those sentence. However, he wanted to hear it more clearly from the man's mouth himself! It feels exhilarated to him.

　"I'm going to become Pirate King in future! So i need an awesome crew!!!" Exclaimed Luffy as his eyes were lingering around Rei's horns.

　Seeing his eyes, Rei chuckled helplessly. He answered, "Let me think about it."

　Rei turned towards Koby who still in shock after hearing Rei claims.

　"Koby, what's your plan? How can we get away from this island?"

　Koby snapped back and said, "Ah! yeah, yesh. Follow me."

　Koby walked towards somewhere with Rei and Luffy in tow.

　"Hey! hey! Is that horns realy real?"

　"Hey, your name's Rei right? Why your hair and eyes white? Are you blind?"

　While following Koby, Luffy and Rei chatted about which Luffy mostly threw him questions after questions. Rei almost didn't believed the man besides him were truly Luffy he knew from the series. Rei just didn't know that Luffy basically has curious nature and always wanted to know something which gotten his interests.

　After a while, Koby swiped the bushes ahead and Rei saw that they were standing on another coast.

　Both of them saw Koby jumped down between rocks and stones and removed a canopy of palmtree leaves from something on the seashore.

　Luffy exclaimed in excitement as he saw what had Koby hid under the canopy, "Woaah! Is that? You made it yourself? It's awesome!"

　Koby rubbed his head in embarassment as Rei smiled wryly. Turned out, Koby already made a "boat" there, seems like the boy already had an escape plan beforehand and prepared it by himself.

　"He, hehehe. yes i do, i made the boat by myself by collecting the wooden scraps." Said Koby feeling flattered.

　However, Rei cleared his throat and said, "Uhm, i believe you made this 'boat' only to be used for yourself right? Koby."

　Raft was more apt to describe Koby's boat. And clearly there was no standard whatsoever with the design as Koby mix and matched those scrapped wood. The "boat" was barely floating and Rei was sure it would be scrapped once a seawaves pounched at it.

　Koby were more embarassed than ever. Indeed, when Koby made this 'boat' he only had a thought for using it by himself. But now, there were another two with him.

　"Hey! It's fine. We can just ride it together!"

　Rei could only shook his head when he heard Luffy spoke. Then he sighed, "Follow me.."

　Rei returned towards the harbor as he recalled there were several boats docked there, enough for their temporary use.

　"Where are we going?" Asked Koby with Luffy followed them both.

　"Harbor..." Rei answered simply.

　"Huh? But, but....."

　"I recalled there are several boats there, we can take one."

　Flabbergasted, Koby asked in uncertainty, "What? How? Those are Pirates!"

　Rei smirked and chuckled, "We'll ask them 'nicely'."

　Luffy laughed as he patted Koby's back. The trio walked for a while passing the still unconscious body of Alvida and finaly arrived back at the harbor.

　When arrived, Koby were speechless as he saw the harbor was in mess! Seawater were flooding everywhere, the docked boats were also seen aground everywhere as if there was a tsunami passing before.

　"What happen here?" Asked Luffy.

　Rei didn't respond as he walked towards the group of the tied pirates not far from where they stood. He observed each and one of them then he pulled one of the pirates away.

　'PAK!'

　"Don't pretend! I know you're awake..." Said Rei after he slapped the poor man's cheek.

　The pirates finaly opened his eyes in horror, just as he wanted to speak. Rei spoke first.

　"Give us your best boat! And the provisions for a week! Wake up your other friends, you have 10 minutes!"

　Seeing the White Ghost cold gaze, the pirate nodded hard and waking up his friends one by one. After he had enough men, the pirates began to work zealously.

　Rei folded his hands overseeing the pirates moving one of the bigger boat into the sea while several of them gathers the needed provisions for their journey.

　"You're awesome! Were you the one who does that?" exclaimed Luffy while he pointed towards the 3 pointing masts popping out of the sea.

　Luffy knew the masts were from Alvida's sunken ship which Rei had somehow drowned it.

　As for Koby, he was still stood on the spot as he didn't knew what to do, often times he looked back and forth between Rei and the Alvida's ship which now had been reduced to only three masts.

　"Maybe i did, hahaha..." Rei chuckled in answers.

　"OKAY! I decided! You join my crew!" Claimed Luffy once more.

　'Badumph'

　Rei slowly turned his head towards the grinning Luffy, and asked, "Why?"

　"Neshishishi...Because i need crew for my journey to become a Pirate King!"

　"Why me?"

　Luffy tilted his head and answered, "Why not? You are interesting of course!"

　Rei was speechless then asked once more, "..Only because of that?"

　Luffy nodded and laughed hard for an answer.

　"Then, whats in it for me? Surely i'll get something right?" Rei turned his head ahead overseeing the pirates once more.

　Luffy closed his eyes while folding his hands seemingly in thought.

　"Well, we'll have a blast journey ahead! Finding OnePiece! Adventure! We are gonna do what pirates do!"

　Rei sighed as he spoke, "Is that what pirates do? You said you wanted to become a Pirate King right? What does that mean to you?"

　"Freedom!" Luffy said spontaneously.

　"For me, by becoming Pirates King it means to rule over the sea right? Which mean i can go anywhere i want! And do anything i want! Freedom, thats all i want!" Luffy ended his speech as Rei kept his silence in thought.

　Joining Luffy was actualy a temptation Rei almost couldn't refuse! In the past life, he couldn't go anywhere anytime he wanted. So, when he was sent here. Rei realy loved to travel, and joining Strawhats in their adventure actualy aligned with Rei basic interest! Adventure! Mystery!

.

　He knew most of the stories about Strawhats in manga and its adventure. But, he knew that seeing it and experiencing it were two different concepts altogether!

　And most importantly, he was a wanted man now. So, rather than traveling alone, joining a pirate crew could turned out beneficial for him in his adventure. Besides, there was someone he wanted to have a good chat amongst Luffy future crew

　However, Rei still has one more question to be answered by Luffy himself.

　"You still haven't answered me, Why me?" Asked Rei as he stood right in front of Luffy. Their height disparity clearly shown as Luffy's head was only at Rei's shoulder.

　Rei's face turned serious as he locked his eyes towards Luffy's. Rei looked down on Luffy as the later grinned and raised his head to meet the former's eyes.

　"I need the best crew in the world! And you meet with my expectation..." Luffy laughed in answers, however Rei knew Luffy was being serious this time.

　For quite a while both Rei and Luffy locked each other gazes, until Koby walked closer and said, "Rei, Luffy. The pirates are done! we can go now!"

　After locking their eyes, Rei chuckled and sighed as for Luffy, he also laughed out loud.

　"Fine, it seems you are realy desperate for it. So, I'll reluctantly accept the Captain position." Rei teased as he walked away.

　"WAIT! I'm the Captain!" Luffy ran in front of Rei and declared.

　"Huh? If you want to be the Captain, then how about me?"

　Luffy scrunched his head in thought, however in instant later he exclaimed, "You can become Captain two!"

　Stunned, Rei then laughed out loud in instant, as Koby covered his face helplessly.

　"HAHAHAHHAHAHA! Captain two you said? Oh my....."

　Luffy just tilted his head in confusion and asked, "Why did you laugh? I'm a captain, and if you want to be a Captain too, it means you can become Captain Number Two right?"

　"HAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHA..." Rei now couldn't held it anymore, he hold his stomach due to an excessive laughter hearing Luffy's response.

　"There's no 'Captain Two' Luffy, if Rei wants to join you. You can make him your first mate." Koby patiently explained towards the straw hat boy as he wondered if the later's brain had a few screw loose?

　"First Mate?" Luffy asked as he continue to Looked at Koby, "How about you? You wants to join me too? Come on it will be fun!"

　Koby shook his head with faint smile and answered, "I don't want to be pirate."

　"He has different goal than you Luffy..." Rei still holding his stomach and straighten his back.

　"Is that so? Thats a pitty..." Luffy sighed.

　"Okay then, Monkey D. Luffy!" Rei turned serious at once as he addresed Luffy by his full name. Rei finaly decided one of his most momentous choice he wouldn't regret in future.

　"From this day onwards. I, Rei Ōtsutsuki will join your pirates rank and become your First Mate! I will assist you in your journey to become Pirate King by all my heart! Me however only has one demand. I won't restrain your action and you must also not restrain my action! Is that savvy?" Rei declared by his full-name in all of his seriousness towards the man who he would called as Captain from now on!

　Luffy's face also turned serious in this rare kind of momentous occasion as his first crew he succesfully recruited declared an oath.

　"You have my word!" Luffy answered and nodded.

　Rei and Luffy grinned at the same time and laughed out loud, both of them fist bumped to seal the deal, while Koby had a smile witnessing probably one of the most important event in the world of One Piece.

　It wasn't until much later in future that he would recalled this scene as the only person who had witnessed about Rei's oath towards Luffy whose both name would shook the whole world!

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