Chapter Text
”I’m hungry~!” Luffy whines as he leans over the side of the boat, watching the vast ocean as the boat slowly drifts to who knows where.
He has for the past days been without food or any contact, except for two enemy ships that he easily took down. He was utterly bored. But that boredom is about to end as he spots something in the distance. An unknown figure is falling from the sky!
”Hmm? What’s that?” Luffy says as he leans forward to try and see better, putting his hand up to cover the sun.
He takes a closer look and starts to see bits of the figure. It appears to be something or someone small, rapidly falling towards the ocean. Luffy does not hesitate and pulls his arm backwards, stretching as far as he need with his devil fruit powers.
”Gomu-Gomu no Grapple!” Luffy shouts as he launches the arm towards the figure, spiraling round to properly haul the figure into the ship. Luffy, however, forgets how physics work and realizes too late as the figure crashes into him upon landing on the boat. The boat rocks violently as he quickly recovers, he is rubber after all, and now fully sees what he managed to catch;
A young, limestone skinned woman lays before him, unconscious. She has short, blue hair that covers almost up to her hairline. She is wearing black brace trousers with a white long-sleeved shirt underneath, black combat boots on her feet. The small boat can barely hold the two of them as Luffy scours the area to see if anything is off. No weird markings, no wounds or weapons to be seen and he can’t see any ships or islands nearby where she may have been flung from. Does that mean she flew herself here on her own!? He watches with anticipation as she stirs, almost being thrown off the boat as she sits up quickly, taking in the scene around her. She is clearly startled by something.
“Woah, slow down, the boat will capsize if you keep thrashing! I can’t swim!” Luffy shouts to get her attention. The woman stops and turns to him, confusion spread across her face. She takes a long took at Luffy, which makes Luffy laugh.
“You are an idiot, aren’t you?” This seems to make the woman speak up after that remark.
“Idiot!? Do you wake up on an unknown boat with a stranger and not be afraid at all!?”
“Nope! Shi shi shi!” Luffy continues smiling widely as the woman simply stares at him in confusion.
“So, you are not afraid of strangers?”
“Nope!”
“Not at all?”
“Nope!” The woman sighs, giving up on the conversation. “So, what is your name then, since you rescued me, I should at least know the name of my savior?”
“The name is Luffy!”
“A pleasure, my name is Jennifer.”
“Nice to meet ya, now how come you fell from the sky?”
“The sky?” Jennifer is clearly confused by his question.
“Yeah, the sky! If I did not catch you, you would have fallen into the ocean!”
“I actually don’t know…” Jennifer glances downward on her legs.
“You don’t know?”
“I…” Jennifer hesitates “… I don’t remember.”
“Wait, you don’t remember?”
“Yes, I only remember my name and how old I am, oh, and I like drawing?”
“Drawing? That’s cool, you can draw the jolly roger for my pirate crew!”
“P-pirate crew!?” Jennifer crawls as far back as she can to create distance between them, shock and fear swept across her face.
“Yeah, I plan to become the king of the pirates! I can’t do that without a pirate crew!” Luffy’s smile spreads wider, almost intoxicating as Jennifer lets her guard slightly fall. He looks harmless, but pirates are known for being ruthless savages, pillaging and looting, no? But somehow, the man in front of her fails to fit any such descriptions.
“Hey, look a pirate ship!” Luffy suddenly yells out, pointing towards the horizon, where a large ship is visible in the distance, docked at a nearby island. “Set sail!”
“Wait what!? Why are we charging them!?”
“To beat them up, obviously!”
“Do you know how many it could be on a ship that large, there is no way you could take them all down!”
“I’m really strong, there is no way they can beat me.”
“Ok, I’m sorry but you look like walking noodle, how are you exactly supposed to do that?”
“Do what exactly!?” A third voice interjects. This is when Jennifer notices that during the entire conversation, Luffy had sailed up to the ship, grabbed her and climbed onboard the ship, now surrounded by said crew of the ship.
“Wait, why am I onboard!?”
“Why not, you can fight right?”
“Huh? Wait no I cannot fight- “
“Shut up you two! How dare you enter the ship of Crescent Moon Gyari! Who are you even!?” A short, fat man with a moustache asks, wearing a stereotypical pirate captain outfit.
“I’m Monkey D. Luffy, the future pirate king.” Luffy answers.
“H-how can you just casually say that…?” Jennifer keeps getting more confused.
“Who is the captain of this ship? Is it the one with the weird beard?”
Everyone on the ship is stunned, the captain is furious.
“Men! Get these brats right now!” Gyari yells, pointing at the duo.
A few of the men approach the duo, Jennifer starts retreating, but Luffy takes aim with his fist and quickly punch the closest pirates off the ship. With some quick maneuvers Luffy had not only taken out the remaining men, but also tied them up, including the captain. Jennifer is simply staring in awe as Luffy heads to the bow.
“Fighting people made me hungry, there are food stores there.” Luffy turns to Jennifer. “Hey, you want to go and eat? I’m hungry”
“Eh, how? I don’t have any money.”
“No worries, I can fix that!”
“Bastard!!! Just who do you think I am!? Don’t think you’ll get away with this!” Gyari is yelling from where he is tied up with two of his men. “I just let my guard down! I lost because my guard was down! Wait, what!? I didn’t lose! As if I could lose, idiot!”
Gyari lowers his voice. “I heard a rumor that there was a guy going around taking over ships but… What grudge do you have against us to do such crap!”
“I wasn’t planning on fighting. You guys started attacking me, remember?” Luffy responds. “Weird beard, right- “
“Who’s the one picking a fight!” Gyari starts yelling again.
“-All the pirates up to now did the same thing.” Luffy finishes his sentence.
“Maybe you should start by not stating their obvious flaws…” Jennifer mumbles to herself.
“…But this time you picked the wrong enemy. You have angered a person no one in the world wants to make an enemy of, the man who will become the most feared in East Blue, Crescent Moon Gyari- “
“Sir, they are gone.” One of his henchmen interrupt him.
“Oh, they are.” Gyari takes a second. “I’ll kill them!” And proceeds to head bash his henchman.
“This is a quiet village, huh…” Luffy walks down the street, Jennifer right next to him.
“I mean, we did just arrive on a pirate ship, they are all probably hiding.” Jennifer responds. “What are you going to do with them anyway?”
“I’ll set those guys free somewhere far away out at sea. If they got out here and started rampaging about, it’d seem like we brought them here.”
“We? You were the one who charged that pirate ship and boarded!”
“You boarded with me.”
“But that was because you pulled me along without my consent!”
“Oh hi, you have a strange head, huh?” Luffy is now focused on an elderly man in front of them.
“How about you stop ignoring people and don’t say what you directly think about people!?” Jennifer retorts.
“I am this village’s headman! We’ll listen to your demands.” The elderly man responds.
“Oh no, you must be mistaken, we are not- “
“Where can I get food?” Luffy interrupts Jennifer.
“Right this way!” The headman points to a nearby house.
“Oh, thank you very much!” Luffy walks towards the house mentioned. Jennifer looks between Luffy and the headsman before she quickly walks after Luffy into the building. They enter a quiet and almost empty bar, seeing an elderly woman behind the counter and a younger woman sitting on one of the nearby tables. The elderly woman greets the duo as the younger woman turns to Luffy and charges with her sword.
“Prepare yourself, pirates!” She cries out. Luffy falls backwards avoiding the attack.
“Wait, neither of us are pirates!” Luffy yells back, holding his hand in front of him to signal her to hold. “Not yet anyway.”
“You are the only one wanting to become a pirate, I was pulled along since a moment ago!” Jennifer accuses.
“Eh?” The young woman sheathes her sword. “No wonder, I thought you both looked weak, neither of you have weapons either.”
The elderly woman places down food in front of Luffy, who thanks her and starts devouring the plates of food. Jennifer snatches a plate of fish before he gets his hands on it. The younger woman introduces herself as Shiruku.
“But that ship is Gyari’s, isn’t it? Where are they- “
“This is good! Ah, this is gross! This is good! This too, but this one’s gross!” Luffy interrupts while eating. Jennifer smacks him on the head.
“How about you start listening to what people are saying first!?”
“Listen to what I’m saying.”
“How about you listen first!?”
“I’m going to become a peace main.”
“Peace main?” Both Shiruku and Jennifer ask. Luffy starts telling them how there are different pirates in the world, the violent ones and the peace mains who only go out for adventures and fight the violent raiders. He tells them the story about his straw hat and how he received it from Shanks when he was young. Shiruku relates to the story and starts telling how she is a daughter of a pirate who left her at the village when she was newborn and how the villagers raised her as one of their own without any grudge against her for just having the blood of a pirate.
“… Because they are treasured people to me, even if I’m alone, I’ll fight! There were pirates on that ship, right!?” Shiruku finishes her story.
“Right, Gyari and his men! We need to get rid of them.” Jennifer stands up. “I don’t know how I can help, but let me help you Shiruku, we can’t just let them be!”
“Thank you! I appreciate the help none the less!”
“Ah, thanks for the food.” Luffy thanks the elderly woman at the bar disk.
“How about you listen to us for once!?” Jennifer and Shiruku yell at him as they follow him out of the bar.
“Gyari?” Luffy asks. “Who’s that? What a weird name.”
“How could you forget about the guy you punched on that ship earlier!?” Jennifer asks.
“He really was there? What did you guys do with him?” Shiruku asks.
“Luffy tied them up and just left for the- “
“I won’t forgive you, you insect gathering bastards!” The trio turns to the road and sees Gyari and his two henchmen. “The man who can make even a crying child shut up, Gyari is me!”
“Eh… Gyari?” Shiruku says.
“Ah. He did say his name, didn’t he?” Luffy asks.
“Of course, he did! How could you have missed that earlier!?” Jennifer retorts.
“Crescent moon Gyari!?” Shiruku realizes who it is.
“That’s correct, little girl! Are you scared?” Gyari smirks at her, then turns sour when he spots Luffy and Jennifer. “Ah, hold on. After I kill these brats, I’ll help myself to all the treasure in this town!”
“He’s right here! What were you saying!” Shiruku turns to Jennifer.
“Some of his men must have cut him loose.” Jennifer responds.
“Ohh, you were talking about him, he’s here.” Luffy says.
“We can see that, idiot!” Jennifer retorts.
“Just what did you do to them? They’re so angry!” Shiruku asks, looking at the duo next to her.
“They came attacking us first, that weird mustache.” Luffy squints at Gyari, who is shouting something in the distance.
“Maybe because we boarded their ship without permission, and you called his moustache weird?” Jennifer sighs, she has no idea how deep Luffy’s ignorance goes.
“Go, slice them apart!” Gyari yells, as his two henchmen charges towards them.
“You cowards! Attacking unarmed opponents!?” Shiruku starts unsheathing her sword, but Luffy stops her.
“It’s fine, I don’t use a weapon, stand back for a second.”
Luffy walks towards the two henchmen, once they try and slash him, he jumps over them and lands on the other side. The two henchmen are confused for a split second, which gives Luffy the opening to smack them from behind using his devil fruit powers. Shiruku and Jennifer are both stunned, it’s the first time they have seen devil fruit powers in action.
“They’re down, huh?” Luffy smiles as he turns to the duo.
“Wha, what just…!? His arm stretched?” Shiruku says, Jennifer simply nodding in amazement.
“Surprised? I told you I ate the Gomu Gomu fruit, right?” Luffy answers. “Because of that I- “
“You really piss me off! Just die already!” Gyari shouts as he shoots Luffy with his pistol, hitting him in the stomach. Horror falls over both women as they watch Luffy stagger backwards, only to then launch the bullet away like he was a slingshot.
“Ahh, that surprised me!” Luffy pats his stomach.
“Pistols… don’t w-work either!” Gyari is shocked. Silence falls for a moment, and then both Gyari and the two henchmen break out into screams as they take off, screaming bloody murder at Luffy. Luffy turns to the others.
“Like I was saying, my whole body is rubber. It’s the trade-off for never being able to swim, cool, right?” Luffy pinches his cheeks and pulls at them, stretching them to impossible lengths to demonstrate his powers. “Anyway, I better catch those guys. If they start destroying this town, I’ll feel bad afterwards.”
“A rubber man…” Shiruku mumbles to herself.
“Hard to believe, yeah.” Jennifer whispers to her.
“I’ll catch them!” Luffy sprints off in the same directions as the pirates. He passes the next street and is immediately jumped on by the other villagers and ends up being tied up.
“We did it! We caught him! Crescent moon Gyari!” The headman cheers alongside the other villagers.
“Aren’t you making a mistake?” Luffy casually asks, which causes some villagers to retort him. Jennifer and Shiruku are running up towards to headman.
“Headman! You’re wrong! He’s not Gyari!” Shiruku yells.
“Please release him!” Jennifer yells after her.
“That’s correct!” Gyari laughs as he exits his hiding spot with his henchmen. “Good job, idiots!”
“We were too late!” Shiruku gasps.
“I am Gyari. My mustache is a crescent moon, right?” Gyari smirks towards the villagers. That is when the entire atmosphere becomes stale and all villagers realize their mistake. Shiruku cannot take it anymore and charges at Gyari but is easily knocked back by him. She keeps going at him for several minutes without any success.
“Still planning on fighting?” Gyari laughs at Shiruku, who tries to retaliate.
“Stop already, Shiruku!” The headman shouts at her, causing her to freeze.
“But, if we hand over our valuables now, this village will start to become easy prey for pirates again!”
“These aren’t opponents we can match. We can’t sacrifice our lives.”
Shiruku steps down, sheathing her sword and taking a step back.
“No matter how you look at it, that’s a weird beard.” Luffy sighs.
“Did you say something!?” Gyari roars as he kicks Luffy, but then gets annoyed as he remembers that Luffy is a rubber man. “Damn rubber!” Gyari turns his attention to Jennifer.
“Men grab all the valuables in this village and tie that girl up!” Gyari points to Jennifer. “We are bringing her along to show this brat a lesson.”
“Damn it!” Jennifer hisses as she backs to run away, but the henchmen quickly catch her and tie her up.
“Ha ha ha this is a good haul!” Gyari laughs as he watches his men move the treasure onboard their ship. Both Luffy and Jennifer are standing tied up next to Gyari, who turns his attention to Luffy. “What’s left is throwing this guy into the sea!”
“Please save me.” Luffy says blankly.
“As if, idiot! You really made a mockery of this great pirate, Gyari-sama!” Gyari snatches Luffy’s straw hat from him. “Drag this other brat onboard the ship and make sure she can’t escape; I’ll deal with her later!”
Jennifer is dragged onboard the ship; she keeps struggling but to no avail as the men tie her up to their mast pole. Jennifer can see something flying across the sky and she realizes that it’s Luffy. She bites her underlip to contain her fright, tears falling down her cheeks as she watches Gyari and his two henchmen join the others on the deck and set sail. After they have made some distance from the village, Gyari walks up to her.
“Now then, what to do with this second brat?” Gyari laughs as he turns to his men for advice.
“Sell her!”
“Make her walk the plank!”
“Keep her for housekeeping!”
“Ha ha ha, those are some good ideas men!” Gyari cackles. “Ok how about this- “
Something crashes onto the bow of the ship, causing everyone to knock over and stop in their tracks. As everyone’s attention turns to the bow, they see a figure in the smoke.
“Captain!”
“What is it!?”
The men’s expressions turn into horror when they see who it is, while for Jennifer it’s a sight for sore eyes.
“Bastard! Why are you alive!? And how did you get on this ship!?” Gyari screams in horror.
“Luffy, you are alright!” Jennifer says.
“Shi shi shi, I’ll take this back- “ Luffy snatches his hat back from Gyari. “- and I’ll take this back.” He jumps over to where Jennifer is tied up and unties her from the pole.
“You smashed my treasure. I’ll also take back that village’s treasure.”
“What!? That shouldn’t concern you!” Gyari retaliates.
“By the way, is your treasure this ship?” Luffy flashes his iconic grin, which causes Gyari to start rambling. He yells something about slicing him in half and telling his men to attack, but his men are standing in the background, whistling and trying to ignore him.
“I’ll smash and sink your treasure.”
“Do-Don’t say such ridiculous things!”
“I’ll do it.” Luffy puts on his straw hat. All Gyari’s men are jumping overboard to try and escape from the destruction Luffy is going to cause.
“Oi, wait you bastards!”
Luffy launches his foot towards the sky, having his leg stretch from his powers. He grabs a hold of Jennifer. “Hold on, I’ll smash it!”
“Stop him!!! Hurry and stop him!!!”
But Gyari’s wails are in wain, as Luffy proceeds to pulls his leg back in with such force that he splits the ship in two pieces. As all scramble to swim away, Luffy carries Jennifer to his small boat and grabs the village’s treasure on the way.
“This is way more than the treasure we lost.”
“He said that he could not carry it all on his ship.”
“I wonder why he did not run off with it?”
Luffy smiles as he prepares his boat for take-off, with Jennifer, Shiruku and the headman watching him. He finishes his preparations and turn to the others.
“I’m sorry for all the misunderstanding, thank you so much for saving this village!” The headman bows his head in shame.
“Shi shi shi, it’s ok! I am a future pirate myself after all!” Luffy laughs at the headman’s intense bowing.
“I can’t thank you enough either, after everything we did to you, you still saved us all. I hope to meet more peace mains like you in the future.” Shiruku smiles.
“I bet you will!”
“Before you go Luffy, I need to thank you for everything.” Jennifer bows, keeping her head down. “If not for you, I would have either drowned in the ocean, or been slaughtered by pirates.”
“Don’t worry about it! They deserved a beating anyway!” Luffy laughs as Jennifer raises her head, a smile growing from the show of kindness expressed from him.
“But, will you be fine here?” Luffy asks.
“Eh? What do you mean?”
“You said you lost your memories?”
“Yeah, but don’t worry!“ Jennifer attempts to give a genuine smile as she watches the sky “I may have lost my memories, but they will come back in time.”
“….” Luffy’s iconic smile flashes.
“I have decided!”
“Decided what?”
“Join my crew!”
“Ehh?” Jennifer’s surprise is visible on her face as she turns back to Luffy.
“You heard me, join my crew!”
“But, why? I have not done anything to help you, I have been more of a burden to you then anything.”
“I don’t care, you are weird and mysterious! Also, an idiot.”
“Excuse me!?”
“Shi shi shi, see, a big idiot!” Jennifer mumbles something as she turns away in annoyance.
“But there is no way I can fight; I don’t have any powers like you or strength to punch someone.”
“I don’t care! You are fun to hang around!” Jennifer is taken back by that statement.
“I am fun… to be with?”
“Yeah! I am the only one right now, but I am planning to get more people, so please be the first to join! Besides, I can help you get your memories back, we just need to find them and squash them back into your head, right!?” Luffy’s smile never falters from his face. It’s like he knows Jennifer cannot resist his offer. A smile grows on her face.
“Alright, I’ll join.”
“Really!?”
“Really.”
“Woho! I did it, my first crewmember!” Luffy lifts his arms in a victory pose as his smile brightens. Shiruku and the headman smiles with him as Jennifer boards the small boat.
“Set sail!”
“Aye captain!”
“Farewell younglings!”
“Stay safe both of you, thank you so much!”
The small boat sets sail from the village, Luffy and Jennifer watch the horizon as the island grows smaller and smaller, the great ocean of East Blue in front of them. The amount of adventures awaiting both will be plenty, a story retold many times with many differences in characters, relationships and conclusions. This is just another one in the vast ocean of possibilities, the story of how one woman found her dream. The dream of discovering her true self.
“Also, Luffy, that is not how memories work.”