Chapter Text
In all honesty, Reborn doubts that the boy will be able to convince the cook to join his crew. He may be stubborn, slowly wearing him down— but the cook had a reason to stay. A resolution that the hitman sees whenever the cook refuses. The blond may be yearning to leave, but he had a sense of duty that will not be broken down despite the persistent offers. Well, not with the rubber man's approach at least. His lips curled into a small smile as he remembered how he 'convinced' Dame-Tsuna. Ah, those were the good days.
Speaking of persistence however, the boy seemed to be trying to recruit him as well, being highly insistent on the matter and Reborn spent more than once batting away greedy hands. (It wasn't like with Dame-Tsuna, where threats could make him back off and waver— no, this kid was as stubborn as a bull. A stupid bull that couldn't accept rejection— which is a lot, lot worse. In addition, hits did not affect him much and bullets were simply bounced off, making a mess so Reborn did not try shooting him again after the first time.) Luffy, as he had introduced himself— kept on demanding him to join every few minutes, whether he was just passing by and breaking dishes or sneaking past stealing food.
Reborn considered more than once throwing the boy into the ocean.
He chewed on his food silently, using years of experience in dealing with Lambo to ignore the rubber boy's whines and demands. Luffy was worse than any number of Lambos however.
And then the door slams open and everything goes down hill from there.
He's not sure when he starts to consider the idea seriously. Was it when Roronoa Zoro challenged the Worlds Strongest Swordsman? When the brat didn't interfere till the end? (There must have been a hidden promise there. It was interesting how different Dame-Tsuna and Luffy was. While Tsuna would have stepped in, Luffy would have trusted and wait.)
Reborn watches, and the potential there makes his eyes gleam.
.
The hit man changes his mind halfway through the battle. "If you beat them, I'll join you." He nods to Don Krieg and his crew.
The rubber man whips his head around right away, eyes shining. "Really?! No take backs!" And with that, he sent another rubber fist to pummel some guys face in.
Reborn almost smiles.
.
Reborn coolly watches as the boy sends himself hurtling to Dong Krieg, fist out as it smashes into the mat of spikes the other man had pulled out. It was clear who was going to be the victor.
He pulled his fedora down slightly. This time it was to hide a smile.
.
The battle ends with great fanfare, and Reborn settles against the wall as he sips the soup. He had managed to filch some and no one seemed to notice, not with the commotion occurring inside. A green head peeked out of his suit, and Reborn smiles, sliding a thumb across scaly skin. "It's good."
The blond joins and the Straw Hats get a cook.
"That makes-" Luffy pauses, counting before beaming once more. "That makes five people! This calls for celebrati-" And then Reborn kicks him in the head.
"Owww," Luffy looks up with teary eyes. "Whats that for curly burn?"
"The ship is gone, Baka-Luffy." Not only that, half the crew was gone.
Luffy makes an 'o' with his mouth, fist connecting to his palm. "Right!"
Reborn kicked him again.
.
His captain was a Grade A idiot and Reborn regrets everything and nothing all at once.
The hitman has to to admit though, that the boy found himself one hell of a crew, despite it's small size. The swordsman had lots of potential, he had no doubt that he would one day defeat Dracule Mihawk he was sure the older man had seen the potential as well. (Why else would he have left him alive and encouraged him after all?)
He hadn't seen much from from the girl nor the long nosed boy yet, but from what he heard— they weren't too bad either. He had seen the cook's skills and the hitman was quite satisfied with both his skill in cooking as well as fighting.
This crew could go far, he thinks— and theres a familiar feeling. Something ignites in him. The tutoring part of him that wants to bring out their full potential, and he feels like he's in the Mafia once more, tortur— tutoring Dame-Tsuna and picking out his Guardians.
Yes, he thinks. He doesn't mind, and he is the Worlds Greatest Hitman. Fitting for the Pirate King no?
He would have fun training these brats.
"Y-You're Hitman Reborn!"
Reborn simply blinks before shrugging gracefully— neither in denial nor acceptance. He's slightly surprised that it took so long for someone to recognize him.
The man, and Reborn remembers that he was the one who was half eaten by a shark, seemed to be panicking, his hands shaking.
Luffy blinks, mouth closed tightly as he looked around. "Who?"
"Brother Luffy! He's new, but really dangerous! They say that he killed hundreds, all without getting seen nor caught! Hitman Reborn, wanted for 100,000,000 Beris!"
Reborn smirks, satisfied that at least someone knew him. In his old life, he was a lot more infamous, and he simply cannot wait to achieve the same amount of fame as before.
Luffy 'oohed' and 'awwed' before grinning. "Old man! I didn't know you were that strong!"
Yosaku gasped, glancing warily at the hitman. Did the boy have a death wish?! The hitman didn't seem to mind as he didn't react, but Yosaku couldn't help but shiver as the man's shadowed eyes narrowed.
"Oh, I've heard of him too. Didn't think I would see him though." Sanji comments, glancing at the hit man thoughtfully.
"Shishishi! Doesn't matter, curly burn is in our crew after all!" Luffy grins, totally not noticing the flabbergasted looks Sanji and Yosaku gave him.
"He- He's joining?" The cook can't help but stutter out. That man was joining? He didn't seem like the type to follow others, nor the type to accept commands. Leave it to Luffy to wrangle him in as well.
The pirate grins even wider. "Yep!"
Sanji blinks. Why would someone so infamous join a clearly new pirate crew? Dark beady eyes suddenly shifted to him, and the blond startles just a bit.
"I have a soft spot for idiots and big dreams," he remarks, and Sanji wonders if his train of thought had been that obvious.
"Yes, but I can read minds," Reborn smirked, enlightening the blond.
"..."
They soon set sail and Reborn listens idly as he lounges around on the small boat. Arlong huh? He had heard about him before, but there weren't any recent news about him. No wonder, he had been laying low in the weakest sea. Wanted for 20,000,000 beris, though Reborn had a feeling that his actual strength was actually higher then the bounty (seeing as he wasn't seen for a while, no one would know his current strength). Still, based on what he had seen— the boy might be able to take him on, albeit with a bit of difficultly. It would be a good test for the new pirates, and would show the hit man how strong they were. The battle with Don Krieg showed some of the boy's strength, but Reborn needed to know more about the other crew mates.
"Luffy."
The Pirate captain pauses for a moment, meat stuffed into his mouth. "Huh?"
"Fighting Arlong would be a good training," he remarks. The boy frowns. "It's not training, we're getting Nami back!"
Reborn blinks, right, that was the reason they were going. He feels a hint of respect for his childish captain as he declares it so normally with complete and utter faith. He's not really sure what he feels about the orange haired girl, she had technically betrayed the straw hats by taking the boat— so it was likely that she was never actually with Luffy from the start. But Luffy doesn't seem to particularly care that the girl had betrayed him, he spoke as if she had just gone to visit someone and he was just picking her up. It certainly put a new meaning to 'No man left behind'. In fact, it sort of reminds him of his Dame student, as this would be something he would've done.
His captain is childish and naive, yet he has the will of a King. It's interesting, Reborn thinks. For once, he doesn't really mind following someone, though it's probably because Luffy hasn't ordered him to do anything yet. He's certain that the boy won't give him a order he'll disagree with.
And even if he does, well— Reborn doesn't really have to obey.
"We should probably start now."
"Start what?" The blond quirks a brow as he joins them, placing the remaining dishes on the table.
"Your training."
"Training?" The blond blinks.
"I'm the best tutor after all." This was said with a smirk, and Sanji scrunches his face up.
"Tutors train people?" The blond asks, slightly miffed. Didn't they focus purely in academics?
"I do."
"I don't need it." Sanji isn't particularly angry nor annoyed, he knows the hitman is strong (not to mention maybe a little terrifying)— but what did he know about kicking?
Reborn raises a brow and flicks the blond, who hisses as his hands reached up to his forehead. "Everyone needs training," he remarks dryly. "Don't you want to get stronger?"
The cook glares at him angrily, but did not respond.
"For you, you have considerably strong leg strength already, though it wouldn't hurt to train a bit more. You should try training with your hands a little, in case one day you can't use your legs for some reason. Lifting weights, running laps and jumps should help." Reborn tactfully leaves out some of the more harder and dangerous training exercises, no need to scare him right? Besides— he always did like seeing their faces when he does something completely ridiculous and crazy that could be considered borderline torture.
Luffy, who had been kind of listening while shoving a whole plate into his mouth, chimes in. "Oi! Curly burn! How about me? I wanna get stronger too!"
Reborn ignores the ridiculous nick name and answers. "You're already pretty fast and your physical strength is impressive, so dodging should be next. Bullets may not harm you, but it's still better to avoid them then to bounce them back. The control is not 100% and bouncing it back without accuracy would be detrimental."
"Detri-what?"
"Bad," Reborn clarifies. "we can work on the accuracy of the bounce backs after. For now, let's play a game."
Sanji lets out a silent curse as something almost hits him as he swerves to the left, trying to figure out where the hell that shitty bastard was hiding.
He had no idea how the hell he got dragged into this stupid game. From afar, he can hear Luffy shouting about something as a dark blur flashes by. The bastard wasn't kidding when he said he was strong, and fast too.
They had just finished eating when the man had brought out a chameleon of all things! The shit captain had immediately fangirled over the animal as it suddenly turned into a pistol. And then the game began, the rules simple.
Don't get hit.
The cook lets out another curse as he kicked the bullet, allowing it to splatter over his shoes. Shit! He shouldn't have done that, but he was just so used to kicking things back in reflex. With a growl, he jumps back as he was once again almost pelted with the weird bullets.
They weren't real bullets, but some sort of paint bullets instead. (The captain had been quite surprised when he had tried to deflect them with his body.)
When splattered, it didn't really stick to the clothes, or at least Sanji didn't think it did since he could see no trace of the substance on his clothing. He's not sure what the older man was trying to accomplish, since the substance was invisible. How the hell would he know if they got hit?
He dodges another bullet before the hit man pulls back, sitting at the edge of the boat once more.
"Time's up!"
The blond pants, waiting as Luffy runs over.
"So? How did we do? Did we win?!" Sanji wants to kick his captain for having so much energy, even if he wanted to know as well.
Reborn smirks, walking past them. "Follow me."
They go into the only room on the small boat, and watch as the hitman covered each of the windows.
Luffy was the first to notice. "WHAAAA-" The blond simply blinks before looking at his captain.
Bright.
That's all he can think of as he watches the glowing patches on the other teenager's skin. He quickly glances down at his own suit to see some glowing patches as well, though not nearly as much as Luffy's.
"Glow in the dark paint."
Sanji looks at the hitman, annoyed. "We got hit."
"Yes, now your goal is to not get hit anymore."
Judging by the numerous splotches, Sanji thinks that that's not going to happen anytime soon.
.
Somewhere in between all of that, the hitman had somehow managed to tame a cowfish(?). Sanji still isn't sure what it was but he felt that this was the start of a painful pattern.