Chapter 1 - 1: Romance Dawn

In the party bar in Foosha Village, a group of pirates could be seen drinking and having a good time. Sitting at the bar is a young seven-year-old boy named Monkey D. Luffy and next to him is a red-haired man with a straw hat eating a plate of food.

"Hey, you have to take me with you on your next adventure Shanks. I want to be a pirate just like you!" Luffy said with a huge smile on his face while looking at the red-haired man now named Shanks. Shanks looked up from his food and turned towards Luffy and started laughing.

"Hahahaha! Right as if you could ever be a pirate." Shanks said.

"Why couldn't I?" Luffy asked. A large man eating a piece of meat answered his question.

"Listen Luffy, you may be a good swimmer and all, but that doesn't mean you will make a good pirate," said Lucky Roo while eating his meat.

"But I'm a great fighter too, my punches are like two pistols!" he said as he held out his fist for them to see. It was an amusing sight to see for everyone else in the bar.

"Are they now?" said Shanks with a mouth full of food.

"What's that suppose to mean!" Luffy yelled. Lucky Roo laughed and spoke

"He means you are too much of a kid, kid," he said.

"And he is right you know, I got boys older than you," said Yasopp. A tick mark formed on Luffy's forehead before he starting to yell at them.

"I'm not a kid! I'm a grown up!" he screamed at the top of the lungs. He was brought out of his screaming by Shank's voice.

"Here have some juice and clam down," Shanks said as she slid a glass of what appears to be orange juice over to Luffy. Luffy's eyes lit up and he got a huge smile on his face.

"Wow thanks, Shanks," he said as he began to drink the juice. As he started drinking Shanks starting laughing at him while hitting the bar counter.

"I don't know one pirate who drinks juice!" Shanks said while laughing.

"That's a dirty trick!" Luffy screamed causing everyone at the bar to burst out laughing, "Stop laughing! That was a cheap shot!" he screamed at the rest of the pirates. While all of this is going on the owner of the bar Makino is watching the interaction between Luffy and the pirates with a warm smile on her face. Suddenly the doors of the bar were kicked off of its hinges and came flying into the bar.

"Excuse us." said the tall man standing in front of the door. At this point, the entire bar was silent while looking at the door. The man who was leading the group of other men into the bar was a tall, dark-skinned man with black hair, a black goatee, and an X-shaped scar above his right eye. He wore a long red coat over a white shirt, black trousers, and a golden necklace. "So these are what passes for pirates around these parts. Looks rather sad, to be honest" he said as he walked up to the bar counter and stood next to Shanks.

"Welcome gentlemen, what can I do for you?" asked Makino.

"We're mountain bandits, but we didn't come here to tear your place apart. All we want is some sake. Let's say ten barrels should do." he said to Makino.

"I'm sorry, but actually we are fresh out of sake right now," Makino said. After the mountain bandit had said he didn't come to terrorize the bar Luffy and tuned out and turned his attention elsewhere because in his opinion a mountain bandit ordering sake was boring. So, he turned to his right at the c.h.e.s.t sitting on the counter of the bar. He knew it belonged Shanks because he saw when they brought it in with them. His mind immediately began to race with ideas after ideas about what may be inside of the c.h.e.s.t. So, he decided to satisfy his curiosity and look inside. It was somewhat disappointing because inside of the c.h.e.s.t wasn't any treasure like Luffy had hoped it would be, instead it was a strange looking fruit. It was a light blue fruit shaped like a really big pear with darker blue swirls on it. At that very same time, Luffy stomach growled so he decided to eat the fruit. Luffy being Luffy, instead of taking a small bit of the fruit to see what it takes like he places the entire thing in his mouth and bit down. He instantly regretted it. That was the most disgusting thing Luffy had ever eaten, however, he did not spit it out instead he swallowed. At the same time, his swallowed he was startled when something large fell beside him. He looked over to see Shanks laying on the ground while the mountain bandit was screaming some nonsense about being worth 8,000,000 beli. Luffy immediately jumped up on the bar stool that he was sitting on and screamed at the bandits.

"Leave Shanks alone!" he screamed at the bandit while unconsciously releasing a wave of unknown power. When Luffy did this the strangest thing happened, one by one the mountain bandits started passing out along with a few weaker members of Shanks' crew. Shanks and the rest of the crew that were awake had their eyes widen while the leader of the mountain bandits was shaking in his boots.

"W-what did you do brat!?" he yelled/asked Luffy. Luffy for his part looked shocked and confused about what had just happened.

'There is no doubt about it. That was the conqueror's spirit.' Shanks' first mate Benn Beckman thought to himself before making eye contact with his captain who nodded to him. Before anyone could have reacted The mountain bandit leader took out his sword and swung it to chop Luffy in half while screaming at the top of his voice.

"I am going to kill you brat!" he yelled as the sword began to descend towards Luffy. Shanks who was still on the ground couldn't react fast enough even though he tried but stopped halfway because of what happened next. The sword cut through Luffy's shoulder and made it's was to his c.h.e.s.t but stopped there when sparks of lightning came from Luffy's body and electrocuted the bandit. The sword fell out of Luffy's c.h.e.s.t when the bandit began to fall to the ground as well. Everyone in the bar started at Luffy as the huge cut from his shoulder to his c.h.e.s.t began to come together again with the sight of lighting present in the gap. No one said a word, they all stared at the small seven-year-old boy. everyone was brought out of their staring by Shank's voice.

"Luffy! Did you eat the fruit that was inside of the c.h.e.s.t?" he asked to which Luffy nodded. Shanks then tried to grab Luffy by the shoulder only to have his hand pass right through Luffy and get a serious electric shock at the same time. Shanks immediately pulled his hand back. He then looked at Luffy before he spoke. "Luffy you just ate the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, part of a group called the devil fruits. Eating any of them takes away your ability to swim for the rest of your life, but the one you age is a Logia class devil fruit meaning now you can turn your body into lightning and become lightning!" Shanks yelled. Luffy for his part had stars in his eyes at the idea of becoming lighting.

"Does this mean I can come with you now?" asked a very hopeful Luffy. Shanks went to take his seat at the bar again before he was joined by his first mate who signaled Makino to join them before they began whispering so Luffy couldn't hear.

"Captain, he just ate a logia class devil fruit and one of the more powerful ones at that." said Benn Beckman, "plus conqueror's haki, if he doesn't learn how to control his powers he could seriously hurt someone." he finished while shanks took on a serious look and Makino a more worried one.

"Is he going to be alright?" as a worried Makino. Shanks looked at her and smiled before speaking.

"Yea he will don't worry." the three of them were brought out of they whispering when Luffy screamed at them.

"Hey! Stop whispering I can't hear what you are saying." Luffy yelled causing them to break apart. He then turned to Shanks before speaking again, "So, can I come with you guy Shanks?" he asked again making Shanks turn to look at him before speaking.

"I will decide if I will take after you answer two questions. Okay?" said Shanks to which Luffy nodded. "The first question, do you know what you did to knock out those bandits?" Shanks asked causing everyone in the bar to quiet down to hear Luffy's answer.

"No, I don't know how I did it. It usually just happens when grandpa is training me," said Luffy to which Shanks nodded with his eyes close before his eyes shot open in surprise.

"You mean you used it before?" he asked in surprise. Luffy just nodded.

"Yea against some monkeys grandpa had me fight during my training." said casually as though it was noting while everyone else looked at him wide-eyed except for Makino.

'Who has a seven-year-old fight monkey as a part of training!?' Every pirate thought to themselves. Shanks then turned towards Makino and asked her a question.

"Who is Luffy's grandpa?" Shanks asked to which Makino took on a sinister look before she spoke.

"Monkey D. Garp," she said causing the entire bar to freeze and looked at her with their eyes widen.

"You mean Garp 'the fist' is his grandfather?!" Shanks yelled out to causing Makino to giggle before nodding. Shanks began to calm himself down before turning back towards Luffy who was picking his nose causing everyone to sweatdrop. "Okay, Luffy second question." Shanks said getting Luffy's attention, "What's your dream?" Shanks asked to which Luffy took on a huge smile before he stood up on the stool and yelled out at the top of his lungs.

"My dream is to be King of pirates!" he yelled,

"And why King of the pirates?" Shanks asked.

"Because the King of the Pirates is the man with the most freedom!" said Luffy surprising everyone, "Just you wait I am going to have the greatest adventure and find the One Piece and become King of the pirates!" Luffy said with a lot of determination in his voice causing everyone to smile and Shanks to see an image of his old captain Gol D. Roger behind Luffy.

"Well Luffy," Shanks said getting Luffy's attention, "Welcome to the crew!" he said causing everyone to began cheering and Luffy to start crying.

A week had passed since Shanks agreed to take Luffy with them. Currently, the entire village was at the docks to say goodbye to Luffy and the pirates. At first, the mayor did not agree to Luffy leaving but after Benn and Shanks explained to him how dangerous it will if Luffy doesn't learn how to control his powers he understood and agreed but made it clear that Makino would be the one to tell Garp when he comes back to the village. Another thing that happened during the week was that Shanks had sent one of his crew member who didn't have a bounty on his head to cash in the bounty of the mountain bandits and give it to Luffy. Luffy who currently was currently on Shanks's ship Red Force waving goodbye to the villagers before he screamed out.

"Bye Makino! I'll come back before I set out on my own!" he yells as the ship sailed further away from the island. With the Island now out of sight, Shanks began giving orders to the crew.

"Okay guys no stop, we have enough supplies to last us so set a course for the Grand Line," he said.

"Aye Captain!" replied everyone. Shanks then turned towards Luff who was looking around with a huge smile on his face causing Shanks to chuckle.

"Luffy!" yelled shanks getting Luffy's attention, "Come with me." he said as he began walking towards what appears to be the sleeping quarters, "This is where you will sleep," Shanks said indicating to the room with a single bed, desk, and closet inside. It wasn't a big room but at the same time, it was big enough for one a.d.u.l.t person. Luffy looked around and noticed his stuff was already in there waiting for him. He stepped inside and smiled.

"I love it," he said causing Shanks to smile.

"Okay, Luffy let me tell you how things are going to happen once we enter the Grand Line," Shanks said getting Luffy's attention. Luffy also noticed that Benn, Roo, and Yasopp were standing by the doorway. "First thing that will happen is Lucy Roo is going to teach you how to control that devil fruit of yours a bit then from there every day in the morning Benn is going to teach you navigation and history along with battle strategy and anything else he comes up with. That will be for about three hours a day every day. the rest of the day is either spend with me teaching you Haki or Yasopp teaching you how to shoot. whatever extra time you have you will train to master your devil fruit powers or you can do that after you either master Haki or sharp shooting. Understood?" asked Shanks to which Luffy nodded and spoke.

"Yep, now I have one question." he said to which Shanks nodded for him to proceed, "Do you have any meat?" he said causing the four of them to comically falling over. After Shanks had explained everything to Luffy again to make sure he understood he began to explain to Luffy what Haki was and how it may be useful in combat. to say that Luffy liked the idea was an understatement. Luffy kept begging Shanks over and over to start his training until Shanks finally caved and started teaching him Observation Haki. It had been three days since the crew left Dawn island and the entrance to the Grand Line was in sight. Luffy was excited at the thought of sailing up a mountain. As the ship began ascending the mountain and peak was becoming visible Luffy dashed to the front of the ship and began climbing to stand on the figurehead. Everyone saw this an began to get scared when Luffy finally stood on the figurehead. As the ship reached the peak and began descending into the Grand Line Luffy stretched out his arms and screamed to the heavens.

"I AM GOING TO BE THE KING OF THE PIRATES!" he screamed causing everyone on board to smile at the determination in the young seven-year-old.

**CHAPTER END**