Chapter Text
Luffy had had the string far as long as he could remember. It was a red string, attached to his right pinky finger. He didn't know why it was there, or where it came from. He'd found out early on no one else could seem to see it, and that no matter how hard he tried not he nor anyone nor anything else could touch it. It couldn't be cut, or untied, or burned (he'd tried, once) or sliced or anything. He deemed it a "mystery string" and ignored it. It didn't get in anyone's way, so why bother?
He still wondered about it, though. How could he not? It was bright red and always there. Though his wondering also ended up side tracked until it was pushed out of his mind. One day, he found out by accident from Makino.
"Hey, Luffy, have you ever heard of the Red String of Fate?" She asked. Luffy was immediately attentive as he shook his head.
"See, it's this old tale. It says that every person's got this red string on their little finger" she said, reaching out her hand to show the boy "and it connects us to our true love who we're destined to meet. It might stretch, and it might tangle, but it'll never break."
Luffy, in a rare moment of thought, looked to his own hand, seeing the string which lead off into the distance. At the other end of the string... was someone else? His "true love"? Luffy didn't actually know what that meant, but it sounded good. He wondered if he could eat it. Which reminded him, he was hungry. He said as much, which made Makino laugh as she went off to get the energetic boy something to eat.
"What'cha looking at, Luffy?" Ace asked. Luffy had spaced out, looking off at the string again. Ace's journey would be starting in a year, and Luffy's was in four. He had decided he was going to look for this mystery person at the end of the thread. He had been wondering about the person on the other end when Ace noticed him.
"Ah... nothing" Luffy lied. When he was seven, he'd tried to tell Ace and Sabo about the thing, but they looked at him like he had a second head (how cool would that be?!) and he'd dropped the subject.
"Well if you aren't doing anything, then let's go hunt. I'm hungry." Ace said. All thoughts of threads were gone in an instant as Luffy excitedly ran into the forest with his brother.
It'd been three years since Ace left. Being alone sucked a lot, so Luffy was very excited when his 17th birthday came around. He set off (punching that Sea King that ate Shanks' arm in the face. Now that felt nice) and started drifting aimlessly. He found himself heading in the direction of the string. That didn't bother him, though. He did want to know who was on the other end, after all. But, this drifting led him to follow the currents, which lead him into a whirlpool.
And to think, his journey had just started. Shame.
Well, he didn't drown. Hiding in a barrel was a smart plan, apparently. He was sailing off with Coby, a pink-haired coward, to the island where "Roronoa Zoro", a famous East Blue bounty hunter was held. And, also, in the direction the string went off into.
Arriving at the island, they went straight for the Marine Base. Luffy was surprised to see the guy they were looking for, tied up right in the yard. And, when he went into the yard to get a closer look, he was completely blown away to see on the little finger of the right hand of the man, Roronoa Zoro, was a red string. The red string that was attached to Luffy himself.
Then he knew all the bad rumors about him were false. Zoro couldn't be a bad guy, because he was the one Luffy's string was attached to. And Luffy's hunch was proved this just a few minutes later by a little girl and a bratty teen.
Zoro was definitely a nice guy, and he was definitely going to join Luffy's crew; now Luffy just had to tell Zoro.
He did, in fact, end up joining Luffy's "crew" (if you can call two people a crew). A pirate hunter turned pirate, how ironic. But hey, Luffy found who was on the end of his string!