บท 2: Chapter 2

East Blue – Dawn Island

Goa Kingdom – High Town

It's been about a week since Luffy started observing the movements and routines of people in several mansions he had chosen as potential targets, and today was the day he would act.

When night fell, Luffy waited another hour until everyone in the mansion went to sleep, leaving only the guards, some patrolling seriously or out of obligation, and others sleeping or drinking while playing among themselves.

Luffy approached the wall of a luxuriously giant property, aiming for a darker spot around the wall with few guards patrolling the area.

Without wasting time, he sensed the area with Observation Haki and knocked out the guards patrolling inside and outside the wall with a small pulse of Conqueror's Haki.

He then easily jumped over the large wall and continued sensing his surroundings with Observation Haki while walking through the property, looking for and taking valuable items like jewelry, money, gold bars, ornaments, decorations, etc.

Whenever he encountered an obstacle in the form of people or animals, he used a pulse of Conqueror's Haki before they could see him, and thus he cleared out not only this mansion but many others throughout the night.

From that day on, horror stories were told to scare noble children, describing this incident known as "The Night of the Phantom Thief", with the moral of the story being that if they didn't behave, the Phantom Thief would steal all their valuable belongings and leave them unconscious, foaming at the mouth.

The nobles never found any clue that even linked Luffy to this series of thefts, as Luffy sold what he had stolen little by little on the kingdom's black market and only to merchants passing through the island who wouldn't stay for more than a few days. He logically took the precaution of disguising himself to sell what he had stolen, his disguise consisting of a black cloak with red clouds that he had asked Makino to make, a set of fake mustaches, a large fake nose, and dark glasses, complemented by a cowboy hat over his straw hat.

After selling everything he had stolen, Luffy earned a total of 700,000,000 Berries. With this money, he first paid off his long-standing debt to Makino, leaving him with 680,000,000 Berries, which he hid away.

After that, he went back to training using water again, but this time in his spare time, he began training Armament Haki and trying to hear the Voice of All Things.

In less than a week, he could already coat any part of his body with Armament Haki as he wished.

Thinking of a way to unlock and train the Voice of All Things, Luffy had an idea, and here we are, with him in a boat a little distance from Foosha Village's port.

Using Observation Haki, Luffy sensed his surroundings, especially below the surface of the water.

"Is this fucker never coming? I've been here waiting for over five hours; I even put a bait under the boat", he said, feeling frustrated. As he was about to give up and grab the oar to head back to the port, the boat suddenly rocked sharply due to the sudden movement of the water below.

Looking into the water, he saw the shadow of a gigantic serpentine silhouette swimming beneath and around the boat.

Suddenly, a Sea King resembling an eel broke the surface of the water, causing waves that destabilized the boat a bit.

After stabilizing the boat, Luffy faced the Lord of the Coast, who seemed intent on eating him.

"Hey, as loose as a goose, big guy?", Luffy said, waving his hand in an attempt to break the ice, but all he got in response was what could only be described as a roar.

"Rooaaaaar."

"Yeah, I still don't understand you, but anyway, I have to give you a beating for the arm you took from Shanks, so we'll talk later."

Without wasting time, Luffy quickly stretched one of his arms back while coiling it and said, "Gomu Gomu no Rifle", delivering a punch that instantly hit the Sea King with enormous force, almost lifting its huge body out of the water completely before gravity did its job and pulled it back into the sea, creating a huge wave upon impact.

As Luffy steadied himself on the trembling boat, the Sea King quickly submerged to try an attack from below.

'Alright, I admit it's a bit embarrassing to say the attack name out loud, better keep it in my thoughts.'

Luffy didn't have time to continue thinking about how embarrassing it was to say the attack name out loud because the Sea King suddenly leaped out of the water aiming to bite Luffy, its attack creating a huge wave that almost tipped the boat. However, thinking quickly, Luffy used the boat's tilt caused by the wave as a ramp and jumped towards the creature coming at him, stretching his left arm and right leg while spinning his body to generate centrifugal force, hitting the Sea King's snout with the back of his fist with such force that it caused the creature's jaws to snap shut abruptly, only to then hit the same spot with a devastating kick that not only drew a lot of blood but also broke some of the beast's teeth, sending it hurtling back into the water at dizzying speed.

The sea was completely agitated and turbulent due to the ongoing battle, with the poor boat shaking, trembling, and creaking constantly as the fight progressed.

More than a few times, Luffy had to prevent the beast from destroying the boat, whether by trying to capsize it with a huge wave, sink it with a tail attack, or the closest attempt, attacking from below and trying to swallow the boat with Luffy inside. As the boat was lifted out of the water by the creature's attack, Luffy quickly positioned himself under the boat, preventing the Sea King's jaws from closing with his stretched arms while kicking the boat into the sky, lifting it out of the Sea King's mouth. Having done that, he quickly launched himself out of the closing mouth.

Suspended in the air, Luffy quickly oriented himself and stretched his leg upwards, and before the Sea King could even think about how to react, he struck it with a powerful 'Gomu Gomu no Battle Axe' right between the eyes, on the nasal bridge, sending it plummeting downwards at tremendous speed.

Without even letting the beast hit the water's surface, Luffy continued his combo with a 'Gomu Gomu no Gatling Gun' with no intention of stopping until he began to hear a broken phrase, ".... stop..... it hurts..... I... sorry....".

At that moment, Luffy stopped attacking and retreated to his boat, which had just fallen nearby.

"Aha, I heard you just now, hey big guy, talk more to see if I can hear you", Luffy said, only to then notice the Sea King floating in the sea, unconscious and beaten up, with swollen eyes and face from taking so many punches without even being able to retaliate.

"Uhhh, it looks like we'll have to wait for Sleeping Beauty to wake up from his beauty nap, come on, I didn't hit you that hard, I didn't even use Haki."

After waiting about ten minutes, the Sea King woke up and raised its head, appearing somewhat groggy.

After orienting itself and spotting Luffy nearby, who greeted it with a wave, it began what, to anyone outside a select group of individuals, would be equivalent to growling and snarling, but fortunately, one of those select individuals was listening to what came out as "... sorry for.... arm.... friend.... no... hit ...hard...".

"Shishishi, I'm hearing you, not everything, but I'm hearing you, you're apologizing for eating Shanks' arm, right? And I didn't hit you hard, on the contrary, I went easy on you, you're just too weak," what Luffy didn't realize was that the original Luffy had defeated this Sea King with a single punch at the beginning of the story, and he, who had trained with water along with the three Hakis, was already at a level where he could easily defeat Arlong with just physical strength and go toe-to-toe with Crocodile. Adding Haki to the mix, he could easily defeat Crocodile and fight on par with Rob Lucci or any of the enemies the original Luffy faced in the first part of the Grand Line.

For the first part of the sentence, the Lord of the Coast nodded in affirmation, and during the second part, he turned his head to the side, snorting while growling, "Tsk, you're the monster."

Suddenly, he froze upon realizing that a human had understood and responded to him.

".... Boy.... you.... Joy Boy."

"Am I Joy Boy?"

The Sea King nodded frantically.

"I'm not sure, from what I know, I probably am, but I'm almost certain Joy Boy ends up being a sort of title given to the person who ate the Hito Hito no Mi: Model Nika because I'm definitely not the same person who did all that stuff in the Void Century, and I don't know if it's a coincidence or not that the users of this fruit so far have had the Voice of All Things."

".... I can't believe... meeting Joy Boy", the Sea King stared at Luffy with stars jumping from his eyes.

"Shishishishi, you're funny, just don't tell anyone because I'm still not sure if I am or not Joy Boy, okay?"

The Sea King nodded frantically.

"Okay then, I'll probably only know for sure when I reach Fish-Man Island or Zou, so until then, I won't think about it too much, just as necessary."

"Changing the subject, are you male or female?"

"I.... male, why?"

"Because you look like a Francisco, I'm going to call you Chico from now on."

After that, they spent another couple of hours talking about whatever came to mind.

From that day on, Luffy always spent one to two hours a day talking with Chico, while the rest of the time he continued training his body in the water, now adding weights into the mix, and, of course, training his Haki whenever he had the time.

Following this routine, the rest of the month passed quickly, and finally, the day arrived when the things he had asked Shanks for were delivered. Now, Luffy was 260 million Berries poorer but in possession of ten Sea Stone bracelets, an instruction manual on how to train Rokushiki, and a manual on how to train all three types of Haki to their advanced forms.

One day, while he was talking with Chico, whom he could now fully understand, he suddenly heard a call coming from a specific direction.

"Come and get me, Nika, let's have adventures together."

"This wasn't in the original story, shishishishi, things are getting interesting", Luffy said, looking out at the sea in the direction where he heard the voice while a smile formed on his face. He turned to Chico and said, "Chico, my friend, get ready because we're going on an adventure tomorrow. I just need to prepare a few things and say goodbye to everyone. Meet me near the port."

"Leave it to me, Joy Boy", Chico said, puffing out his chest and nodding his head.

Luffy started rowing towards Foosha Village's port while saying, "Didn't I tell you to just call me Luffy?"

"But you are Joy Boy", Chico said, tilting his head.

"Whether I am or am not Joy Boy, that's just a title at most. And we're friends, aren't we?", Luffy paused rowing for a moment and turned around to look at Chico.

"Chico is Joy Boy's friend", Chico nodded vigorously, causing some ripples in the water around him.

"Then if we're friends, call me by my name or a nickname, just like your name is Francisco, and I call you Chico."

"Okay, I'll call you... uh... 'Lu' from now on."

"Shishishi, perfect then, see you tomorrow, Chico", Luffy said as he went back to rowing.

"Bye, Lu."

= Scene Break =

At the port of the village, we see Luffy in a small boat receiving one of the many barrels of supplies he and Makino had prepared for the trip. In the background, Dadan and the mountain bandits, along with all the villagers, were there to say goodbye.

"Phew, this is the last one, thanks for helping me, Makino", Luffy said after stowing the last barrel in the boat.

"Luffy, do you really have to leave now? Didn't you say you would only leave when you turned 17?", Makino asked with a sad expression on her face.

"Yeah, brat, didn't you and Ace agree to leave only when you were seventeen? Not that I'm complaining about you becoming a pirate earlier, without you here it means one less mouth to feed and the silence will be wonderful too", Dadan said, trying to hold back the tears forming in her eyes as she spoke, a sentiment echoed by all the other bandits.

"Luffy, I think you better stay. You're still very young, the sea is dangerous, and becoming a pirate would bring a bad reputation to the village", Mayor Woop Slap said, clearly not wanting Luffy to leave and bring disrepute to the village.

"Thanks for caring, everyone, but first of all, I'm not becoming a pirate until I turn seventeen, so don't worry, old man. And I really need to go; something is calling me, and anyway, I'm not going alone."

"I don't know, Luffy, if something is calling you it seems even more dangerous, and besides, where is the person who's going with you?", Makino asked, even more worried, looking around to see if she could spot who was going with Luffy.

"Relax, Makino, I'm strong", Luffy said, flexing his muscles (which were already much bigger and more defined than those of the original at the start of his journey) while striking poses to show off "Anyway, let me introduce you all to the friend I made over the past month."

Luffy then approached the edge of the pier where his boat was docked, took a deep breath, and shouted with his hands cupped around his mouth like a megaphone, "CHICOOOOOOOOOOOOOO."

Not long after, in the distance, they saw a huge silhouette approaching the port underwater, only for the enormous head of the Lord of the Coast to emerge from the water in front of Luffy.

While everyone stood wide-eyed and open-mouthed, Luffy turned to them and said, "Everyone, meet Francisco or just Chico", introducing Chico, who snorted in response, splashing water onto the pier.

"Uhhhh... Luffy, are you saying you befriended a Sea King?", Makino asked, still shocked by the scene.

"Yes, I beat him up for eating Shanks' arm, he apologized, and now we're friends."

"Wait a minute, brat, he apologized? Does that mean you understand him?", Dadan, a bit confused, asked, pointing at Chico.

"Shishishi, that's right", Luffy said, scratching the back of his head.

"Anyway, Chico, is it okay if I tie you up with these ropes and you pull the boat so we can go faster?", Luffy asked, pointing to some ropes attached to the front of the boat.

"Sure", Chico puffed out his chest and snorted while positioning himself for Luffy to tie him to the boat.

After tying the ropes to Chico, Luffy said his goodbyes to everyone and set off towards the call, feeling the scent of adventure beckoning.

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(AN: 2,589 Words)

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