2/4

"The blood-red beast sunk your ship?" the slightly smarter boy, Geel apparently, asked as his skin paled significantly, "I once saw the beast throw a stone so hard that it cracked a tree in half so it could be true."

"Really? I once saw the beast wrestle a fifteen-foot sea snake from the ocean and kill it with just her teeth."

"Is this blood-red beast a sixty-foot long sea monster who wears a kabuto helmet?" Dawn asked.

"What? No way! The blood-red beast's a nightmare demon disguised as a seemingly adorable little girl. She broke Serpo's arm when she was only three years old." Iaana frantically explained.

"I remember when I was ten years old she got into a serious brawl with Big Jaune. She walked away without a scratch while he still has scars to this day from the fight. He hides in the smithy whenever she actually comes into town 'cause she still terrifies him."

"Even with pirates living on the island, she's still somehow scarier to me than they are."

"True. It just isn't right for a girl to be so strong." The two young teens exchanged doleful looks at each other and then stopped to watch Zoro, seeming to be waiting for something.

There was a long beat of silence.

Zoro (deciding the encounter was now over) began to walk past them further into town. The two boys seemed shocked and together they called out "Wait!"

Zoro didn't wait.

Iaana continued to talk as he and Geel trailed behind Zoro (their paint and brushes left in the middle of the road seemingly without care) as he said, "You realize we're talking about a girl younger than us that's strong enough to destroy trees and give scars to the blacksmith's apprentice, right? A real monster."

"Why does that matter?" Zoro asked rhetorically, though he received a response anyway from Geel.

"Because everyone on the island knows that little girls shouldn't go around beating up all the boys on the island and being all rough - they ought to be more delicate and play nicer, right?" Geel said, soinding like he was quoting someone.

"I really don't care about what people should or shouldn't be able to do," Zoro said flatly. So what if a little girl was beating up all the boys who tried to fight her? It was more nostalgic for Zoro rather than something to be bothered over in fact.

He was fully in town now and the place looked nice with clean gray cobblestone streets everywhere. The colors of the town looked bright and cheery with houses and businesses that were built with brick red stones and roof tiles that were painted sky blue. Well-groomed trees were growing out of their designated areas every ten to fifteen feet apart and none of the business signs or windows seemed to be sun-bleached, scratched or chipped.

Right in front of an ornate water fountain however, there were two wooden carts that the townsfolk were loading up with parcels, baskets of food and packages in an urgent though unpanicked manner. There were four burly looking pirates (two stationed at each cart) who were standing watch over the proceedings in a laid back manner that indicated some degree of a familiar, though monotonous, job.

"I think we just found the source of that sea monster and the explosion," Dawn spoke candidly with her voice softly down to Zoro who nodded in agreement, "If I know anything about Luffy's luck though I'd say he'll either be befriending these guy's captain or punching him before the day is through."

Zoro eyed one of the pirates with slight interest (mostly because said pirate carried a katana instead of the usual cutlass or machete that most average pirate swordsman tended to use) and said, "So one of these guys can take me to their leader and that's where Luffy will be? Makes sense to me."

Before Zoro could make a move to 'persuade' one of the pirates to bring him to their boss the two teenage wimps (as dubbed by Zoro's often ignored subconscious) boldly grabbed hold of Zoro and quietly hissed, "Stop."

Zoro shook the two off easily but Iaana continued to talk, "Don't start a fight with the pirates in town. That's one of the rules."

"Rules? Don't be ridiculous," Dawn said, "If the pirates just needed a neutral location to relax around then they wouldn't have armed guards transporting goods to their base. They'll attack you eventually."

"Only if hotheads like you and that blood-red beast keep instigating fights with them," Geel argued back.

Iaana nodded in agreement, "That little brat keeps fighting pirates out on the shore and making pitfall traps at their base. She's going to get them fed up and they'll start making examples of people. Everyone knows the pirates went after her dad and killed him because she raised the alarm and tried to bring everyone together to fight them off when they first arrived."

"Yeah, if she keeps picking fights they might go after our parents next. Their captain said anyone who goes out of town is fair game to attack but the town itself is neutral grounds."

"I've seen people hide from pirates or try to fight them off but I've never seen a whole town not even care that pirates have invaded unless there are a lot of marines around. It sounds like the only brave person on this entire island is this 'blood-red beast' you seem to be mocking, even if she is a girl." Zoro said as he narrowed his eyes at the two young teens, who both seemed to wilt under both his expression and his harsh opinion.

On reflex, the two began tearing up and began to sniffle which seemed to somehow instantly summon a pair of beautifully dressed women who were wearing eye-catching shades of yellow in order to simultaneously grab Iaana and Geel, hide them behind their bodies and scowl up at Zoro (since they were both petite). Iaana's 'rescuer' had identical features as her son though Geel's mother had brown hair, blue eyes, and a lighter skin complexion than her own son did.

As though she were correcting a misbehaving toddler instead of speaking with an adult who openly carried three swords Iaana's mother scolded, "You big brute. Don't harass my son before your shift begins. Don't you know the rules? No pirate activities within town border."

"A pirate with a border?" Dawn muttered incredulously, "I take back what I said. Luffy's gonna hit their captain within five minutes of meeting him."

Zoro laughed at Dawn's comment and asked, "Does that mean I can drag one of these pirates outside this town and then make them take me to their base?"

Iaana's mother seemed to be puffing herself up to scold Zoro again but Geel's mother raised her hand and said, "Wait Safra. This isn't one of the pirates. I remember reading in the newspaper a few months ago about a famous bounty hunter who carries three swords and wears a green haramaki. You're the Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro, aren't you?"

Zoro regarded the brunette woman for a moment and said, "Yes I am."

The woman glanced across the courtyard over to where the four pirates were loitering, not paying any attention to the townsfolk, and turned black to Zoro to say, "You should talk to the mayor up at the town hall. A bounty hunter coming into town without documentation breaks the rules so you need to be registered. Please don't argue. The rules have kept the people living in this town safe for the last six months."

"What about the people who live outside of town?" Dawn spoke up.

Safra scoffed and said, "There isn't anyone else outside of town who matters, right Rumena? Just animals and castaways from the pirate attacks."

"What about the girl these two were talking about? Doesn't she live outside of town?" Zoro asked.

"That ruffian Medaka?" Rumina asked, looking alarmed, "She's not a local so she doesn't matter. About ten years ago a man named Herring arrived here and decided to live out on the beach with his daughter. He built a charming little toyshop but it didn't bring in enough money for him to buy a home here in town."

"All the great families live in town you know. That poor man, he was a widower you see. All the children liked his quaint little shop but that girl of his was always hurting our kids. Some people just aren't fit to handle uptown life - she was always getting into places she shouldn't be at like the mayor's office or else she was playing messy pranks in the town shops and was always getting into fights with the boys. She didn't have a mother to raise her right."

"Oh Safra, you know poor old Herring tried as best he could to reign that girl in but he was just too mild-mannered to make any difference. She was just too wild. I heard her mother had been a pirate actually so she must take after her mother."

"Truly? Oh, I hadn't heard that theory, how enticing -"

Zoro had at this time realized the two women were just gossiping together and that their sons had long vanished away and so this time he was successfully able to escape without any further notice. Spotting the four pirates moving to pull the carts full of stuff out of town presumably to their hideout Zoro grinned a smile that was as about as friendly as a shark's and followed them. He mentally promised to try to contain himself until he was certain of where the pirate base was located and once that happened no amount of rules would stop him from reuniting with Luffy.

"So now I have Zoro! I really want a musician next but Ann wants a navigator and Zoro thinks we need a cook." Luffy, after he had finished singing a pirate song, had begun telling Medaka all about what great adventures he and Dawn had been having since he had set out, and he had just barely started! (Mostly because Medaka was the first kid younger than him that he had ever met and spent time with. He always had liked hearing Shanks' stories about his real pirate adventures when he was little so surely a kid younger than him would want to hear his own real pirate adventure stories, right?)

Medaka didn't believe a word of what he was saying.

"I knew stupid Ganzack's crew was full of dummies but you're the most delusional one I've ever seen," Medaka stubbornly said, "I'm not a dumb little kid now - I'm eleven and I know a fish story when I hear one. Ships don't talk and sail themselves, giant birds can't fly, marines wouldn't execute someone for no reason and chickens don't lay golden eggs. I hope you're as strong as you are stupid or we'll be in trouble soon. We're here."

Luffy was severely disappointed in seeing his first real pirate base. He had been imagining a cool fort with at least five flags, three times as many cannons and a ship docked out in front. Instead what Medaka had led him to was what appeared to be an old abandoned one-story house. There were old barrels emptied of their previously held liquor that were littered around the entrance, each labeled with a skull and crossbones which were the only signs of a pirate emblem anywhere in sight. Tall beach grass grew up in tufts between the house and the shore further away that indeed had a ship anchored offshore. Even though the ship was large and seemed to be plated in metal there wasn't even a pirate flag flying above it which was practically sacrilege to Luffy.

Medaka didn't care about what was above ground, all that was just the top. Never one to waste an opportunity she pulled Luffy into the building and they found themselves walking down into the basement of the house. Down in the basement there was a maze of dirt walled halls, each either leading to rooms with locked rooms or else was open to pirates who were bustling around with tools of all kinds or armed to the teeth with blades, pistols, muskets, and mortars.

Luffy's nose twitched and he suddenly bolted down a side hall, causing Medaka to follow behind him as she called out, "Wait! Where are you going? We need to find where they're imprisoning my dad!"

"I smell food over here. It might be where they keep their prisoners, right?" Luffy said optimistically.

"Food? No way, you're just hungry and want to find the kitchen don't you?" Medaka accused.

Before Luffy could answer they ran into first a room that was neither a kitchen nor a brig but a large room bustling with pirates who were carrying crates of explosives and mortars out to the opening a sea cavern out to where the ship they had seen weighed anchor offshore from a new angle. A man in red armor with shoulder gauntlets that looked like crab claws who looked slightly damp from seawater was directing the crew strictly from where he was standing overseeing their work.

"That's Ganzack," Medaka said before, with a fierce glare in her eyes. Forgetting her own plan, she gripped her spear tightly and ran towards the armored pirate captain with a desperate-sounding shout, "Give me back my dad, you stupid pirate!"

If Ganzack was at all surprised over being attacked by a kid in his own base he didn't at all show it. Instead of startling or flinching away from the attack Ganzack just turned around and snatched the spear out of Medaka's hands without a single flinch. As he tossed the spear aside he turned around, looked scornfully down at Medaka, and said, "Oh, it's just you again. I warned you last time that I'd take any weapon you used against me didn't I? Someone get this brat out of here and teach her a lesson."

"Give me back my dad! I'll beat you today because I have backup this time!" Medaka shouted as she flung herself away from one of the goons who tried to grab her.

"Backup? Who would back you up? Everyone on this island from my men to the townsfolk all hate you," Ganzack said before he noticed Luffy just standing there staring at him intently, "Who the hell are you?"

"Me? I'm Monkey D Luffy. I'm helping Medaka with a treasure hunt to find her dad. Your armor looks really tasty, crab-guy."

"That's the guy, boss! The weirdo she teamed up with! He has magic like you do!" The short pirate from earlier on the beach, Ronnie, accused as he gestured frantically towards Luffy with his tall buddy Arry nodding in agreement behind him.

"I'm not magic, I'm rubber," Luffy denied as he demonstrated by stretching his cheek out two feet to the side of his face and releasing it with a snap causing the gathered pirates around him to clamor in alarm. Medaka was scowling up at him by now and wondered why was he talking so nicely to the people who were holding her dad captive, had she misjudged Luffy?

A greedy glint flashed in Ganzack's eyes and always glad to seize up talent, especially if it ruined that child's dreams he said, "Oh really? You have an interesting ability kid. I'm the Glorious Captain Ganzack and I like to have strong subordinates on my crew. If you become one of my men and work hard you'll get all the treasure you can collect from permitted areas, a free official crew tattoo, and a delicious feast every day. What do you say, young man, want to join my crew?"

"No, don't wanna," Luffy instantly refused, "I'm gonna be Pirate King so I'm my own captain. I can get my own treasures, my own tattoos, and my own food. I don't need yours, crab-guy."

"My name is Ganzack - not crab-guy! Show some respect, Monkey. I'm a powerful magic user, my armor can absorb any attack and I have this!"

Ganzack pointed his arm towards Luffy and launched a mortar towards him - it exploded in the air before it reached him and the resulting smoke obscured everyone's vision in the open-air sea cavern.

"Kanininini, now you're dead you stupid Monkey! You should've taken my deal! Now I can finally finish up here on this island and go on to become King of the Pirates myself! Somebody get that armored kid out of here already, she's annoying me!"

Medaka raised her fists defensively, ready to begin another fight viciously for her father but was interrupted when a barrage of rubbery fists exploded from the cloud of smoke, hitting away from the pirates who had been rushing towards Medaka.

"What the-?" both Medaka and Ganzack were shocked over Luffy's unscathed survival.

"I'm gonna be Pirate King!" Luffy shouted, "Not a crabby pirate like you, crab-guy!"

"Don't call me crab guy, you stupid Monkey!" Ganzack shouted back before ordering, "What are you idiots waiting for? Get that stupid monkey and that brat now!"

The pirates surged forwards but Luffy didn't mind at all. He fought his way through the crowd of pirates, knocking them back in all directions with Medaka sticking close behind him hitting her own opponents with strikes hard enough that Luffy could hear the cracking of bones getting fractures! He thought it was great that she was tough just like his brothers and he had been when they were younger! He knew he and his brothers weren't 'abnormally monstrous' like the bandits and Dawn and Mayor Woop Slap had warned.

He made it up to the front of Ganzack before long and launched a strong punch that landed hard against the chest of the man's armor. He didn't budge a single inch and instead he let out a cackle, "Kanininini! My armor's the result of over a decade's study of magic and a lifetime of science - it won't be broken from a simple punch!"

"No punching your armor? Okay crab-guy," Luffy said, as though he had been given helpful advice from a friend before he swung his fist at Ganzack again and hit him square in the side of his face so hard that he flew into the group of pirates that had been converging on them.

Ganzack cursed and with gritted teeth slammed his hand down on the floor hard which pressed down on a hidden plate in the ground.

A blast of something pink and fluffy like cotton candy but glowing and more viscous shot up out of the ground and wrapped around Luffy and Medaka sticking them still like bugs trapped in a spider web.

"Argh! Let me go! Fight me! You crab-shell! Let me go!" Luffy shouted.

Ganzack cackled and said, "Too bad for you. You may have a witch on your crew but you obviously don't know how to fight someone with magic traps on their side! I've rigged this entire place with nets that can catch anyone who tries to attack me! You'd need strength enough to bend steel to get free of my special potion or my counter potion! Men! We will have a banquet in honor of the completion of my armor and the eve of our voyage to more prosperous waters! Lock this idiot and that little brat in those shackles on the wall of the banquet hall and let's have a feast!"

Within a half an hour the pirate's party was in full swing with pirates drinking, eating, gambling, and having a grand old time with Luffy and Medaka locked up in steel shackles on the far wall of their banquet hall. The potion had been dissolved by then but Medaka and Luffy were still locked up on the far side of the room, across from where Ganzack was sitting in a chair that was elevated up a foot from the ground as though he were some sort of king holding court. The room was partially lit from the ceiling itself, which had a smooth texture that was softly glowing pink. There were many tables and chairs scattered about filled with pirates, food, and drink and Luffy looked on enviously as he watched Ganzack bite into the leg of something red and meaty with obvious relish.

With the party in full swing and Ganzack practically buzzing with excitement (and more intoxicated than he would admit to being) began amusing himself by mocking Luffy, "Kanininini! 'Look at me I'm a Monkey and I wanna be Pirate King but I'm too stupid to live.' That's what you sound like to me! You're so stupid and so's that runty brat! Who has the strongest armor? Me, not you with your stupid toy! Who's the smartest pirate ever who can do magic and fight as well is a genius? Me!"

"You can't be that smart if you had to kidnap my dad in order to make anything," Medaka snarked rudely.

"That fool didn't make anything worthy! It was all me!" Ganzack yelled as he stood up in indignation, "I only needed that fool for my armor! Before that, I designed and commissioned my amazing ship myself! Me! Take a look at how amazing it is!"

Ganzack slapped the wall behind his chair and a large sheet of paper unrolled from the ceiling down to the floor.

"Behold! My ultimate warship! She had a length of 184 feet, a beam of 29 feet, a draught of 6 feet, and can carry over 60 tons. She's powered by two sixty pound engines and is armed with two pivot-mounted 32-pounder and four 6-pounder guns. Her shallow draught will allow me to travel from the sea and into rivers so no one will be safe from my reach! Kanininini!" Ganzack bragged as he proudly slapped his hand on the schematic.

Luffy was not impressed. "You're so dumb. That isn't a ship, that's just a drawing of a ship, crab-guy."

"Don't call me crab-guy! This is a schematic of my ship you stupid kid - a picture of my ship." Ganzack ordered.

Luffy wouldn't have cared if had been a picture of the one piece. He stretched up a finger to pick his nose and rudely said, "Don't care - your ship isn't as cool as mine anyways crab-guy. Mine's alive."

Ganzack stormed over to Luffy and snarled in fury as he got closer, intending to uphold his ego by crushing in Luffy's face for disrespecting him.

"I said to watch how you address me, you brat! There's no way your ship's alive! No magic in the world can give true life to the lifeless! It's me who has the strongest ship in all of history and I am on my way to becoming Pirate King!" Ganzack snarled threateningly as he pinched Luffy's face in a vice grip and twisted it back and forth trying to shut the rubber pirate up, knocking Luffy's hat from his head as a result. Then to add insult to injury he looked down at Luffy's fallen straw hat and stepped on it while he ground his foot into it.

Luffy's face went so apocalyptic with rage that Medaka reflexively moved as far as she could away from his side out of nervousness. Medaka had never seen a face so angry and she has seen a lot of angry people in her life.

"THAT'S MY TREASURE! STOP STEPPING ALL OVER IT WITH YOUR DIRTY SHOE!"

Ganzack scowled and hissed, "It's just a dirty old straw hat."

"SHANKS GAVE THAT TO ME! DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH IT ANYMORE!"

"Shanks?" Ganzack asked with surprise crossing his face for a moment as he stroked his goatee in contemplation and followed up by asking, "What could a nobody like you have to do with a famous pirate like him?"

"NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS YOU JERK!" Luffy shouted back at him, "GIVE ME MY TREASURE BACK!"

Ganzack ground his foot harder into the hat and with a mocking laugh spread his arms wide and said, "Why don't you make me, then? Men, I've decided what we're going to do with these two pests. This banquet to celebrate my debut to the Grand Line will have the following entertainment: we're going to have an auction. I want to auction off this hat, this runty little brat, and this weakling pirate in that order for the right to destroy them. The hat's auction starts at a mere 100 beris, doesn't that sound like a good time? Kanininini!"

The crowd of pirates roared out their approval over their captain's bloodthirsty plan.

"I'm gonna use all my savings and shove a spear down that armored brat's throat," Ronny from the beach conspired to his buddy Arry with a wickedly enthusiastic chuckle, "Pool in with me, would' ya?"

Before Arry could agree or refuse Ronny's request the four pirates on delivery duty were tossed into the banquet hall in an unconscious heap, silencing the entire room so that a single comment could be heard throughout the entire hall.

"Is saving each other from executions going to be a thing we do on every island on this crew?"

Everyone turned their attention over to Zoro who stood with Dawn's lure still perched on his head, who had already taken care of the pirates he had followed from the town into the pirate base. He had been listening to the crab armored pirate captain for only a minute or so but enough was enough for him to understand the immediate situation.

"What's everyone standing around for? Get him!" Ganzack ordered, sending his men into action.

While everyone's attention was drawn away from them Medaka took the chance to swiftly-but-carefully snatch Luffy's hat up from the floor with her feet and pulled the skull-and-crossbones hatpin that had been stuck in its ribbon out free.

Luffy watched Medaka with interest as she stuck the sharp end of the pin into the lock of his cuffed hands and said, "Don't you want to get out first?"

"I would, but you're my only chance to get out of this alive, so you'd better not lose again." Medaka scolded and glared at him as he began to pull at the cuff, "Will you stay still already so I can get you out?"

"Yeah, like this?" Luffy asked as he slid his wrists free from the cuffs and handed them back to Medaka who looked frustrated at his actions.

"Could you have freed yourself from these whenever you wanted?" she asked trying to decide whether she wanted to stab him with the hatpin or not.

"Only when I felt like it. I'm gonna hit Ganzack three times for each time he stepped on my hat!" Luffy declared and flung himself into the fight against the masses of pirates.

Ganzack quickly moved so the majority of his crew were now between Luffy and himself and made a new order, "Stop! The one who brings me that Monkey brat's head will be given 100 kilos in gold! Fight! Kill! Win!"

The pirates roared out their approval and attacked Luffy with a gold lusting frenzied free for all, pissing Luffy off since all he wanted to do was punch Ganzack in the face!

Medaka made short work of removing the cuff from herself with the hatpin and once she was free stuck the pin back in the straw hat before pushed the hat snug between her body and the chest plate of the armor that she was wearing in order to keep it safe. Once she finished storing Luffy's treasure safely away she glared at the melee and rushed in to join the fight.

Most of the pirates were attacking Luffy, though a few were forced to engage in combat with Zoro and then Medaka simply for the reason that the two were attacking the pirates anyway.