One Piece: Unreal Adventure

Coby's jaw hung loosely in response to the bold statement. "Pirate King? And the Strongest Man? Do you even realize what that means!?" he asked in shock.

"Yes," Luffy said simply. But Coby shook his head furiously.

"You're insane! Your desire is to stand at the top of this great age of pirates! Not just shoot for the title of the pirate king, but you also want the title of Whitebeard." A hint of fear crept itself into Coby's voice at the thought of the boy he had unwittingly started to like dying a gruesome death.

Luffy just smiled, while the six-armed monkey just had a raised eyebrow.

"Don't tell me you're going to the Grand Line to challenge Whitebeard! And finding the One Piece is no joke. And beating Whitebeard… he's a giant!" Luffy just smiled, confirming his suspicion. Coby continued shaking his head. "It's impossible, Luffy! Give up now before you get yourself killed! I know I just met you and have no right to order you around, but I don't want you to die a premature death! If the sea doesn't kill you… then challenging Whitebeard definitely will. "

Luffy's held back from bonking him on the head, if only because Coby had worked up the courage to shout at him, something he wasn't sure he would have the nerve to do after Luffy kind of overdid it with testing his will. Instead, he just gave the boy a confident smirk. "Not likely. It will be a while before things actually get dangerous, but I'll be ready when they do. Also… living with unfulfilled dreams is a life of coward… and do I look like a coward to you?"

Coby looked awed. That made the boy look at himself, did he have the courage to fulfill his dreams… to serve justice to the criminals… to help the needy…

Could he truly lead a life like Luffy?

"I wonder if I can be like that." Coby's quiet voice pulled him out of his thoughts. "I wonder if I can live with no doubts, confidently fulfilling my ambitions."

Luffy shrugged. "No reason why you can't." He said, "In fact, why don't you accompany me on my journey? I can see great things in you." Luffy cringed internally at that stupid line. His recruiting pitch needed some work.

"Wha…"

"Hmm… do you have a dream?"

"I have a dream," he whispered. "It's nowhere near as amazing as yours, but I wonder if I can do it." He looked up to meet the focused gaze of Luffy, who smiled widely.

"Only you can answer that one!"

But Coby continued on, ranting as if he'd been discouraged, which Luffy thought was hilarious.

"No, I will do it! I will become a Marine! A great Marine who follows the code of justice to the end! And I will stop pirates from wreaking havoc on the innocent!"

Luffy felt a bit disappointed, somethings never change huh? But Luffy quite liked Coby… not as a fictional character. No… it was because of his dream… and he wanted him on his crew.

"Oh, really." Luffy said, "Did any Marin help you get out of the ship? I mean the East Blue isn't that strong for having Pirates, excluding me of course."

The boy thought, it was a bit strange, that in his one-and-a-half year of staying in Alvida, no Marines ever came to stop her. There was always the talk one the ship that the Marines were increasing more and more bribes. But the boy's came out of his stupor at Luffy's next question.

"Coby, what's being a Marine to you?"

The pink-haired boy blinked at the question? "Umm… I-It's to follow what you think its right. To serve justice."

Luffy rubbed his chin, "What if being a Marine changes you… no shoot that… I know that sometimes the government forces you to do bad things to people. Then what?"

The pink-haired boy thought seriously for a moment before answering, "Then I will quit being a Marine, and do what I think it right."

"Even if it means punching a Tenryūbito. One of the world nobles?"

"Yeah, I don't care who it is," Coby said, the boy's lack of knowledge of what a Tenryūbito was a good thing. "I will kick anyone's ass, if it means doing the right thing."

Luffy's smile grew even wider. "Does that include Alvida?" It was a calculated risk, he knew.

Coby's eyes widened in fear before the determination flooded back into them stronger than before. He took a deep breath, and shouted, "I will capture Alvida!"

There was a sudden crash and Coby caught sight of a giant mace sticking out of the ruined wooden wall. "I was wondering where the hell you were while the others were attacking our target. And here I find you aiding a bounty hunter and entertaining thoughts of mutiny!"

Coby stared in horror at the still-smiling boy. Did he do that on purpose? Why? What would his motive be? He had essentially just gotten Coby killed for revealing his traitorous thoughts, but that didn't mean Alvida would have mercy on him! What was he trying to do?

Alvida addressed Luffy directly. "And who do you think you are, planting thoughts of treason into my gullible cabin boy? Do you know who I am, brat?"

Luffy looked at her, pinky already in his nose, picking it due to boredom. "The biggest whale in East Blue?"

All doubts vanished from Coby's mind. Luffy was definitely trying to get them both killed.

Luffy's thoughts were elsewhere. 'Wait…does Laboon count? Nah, he's on the other side of Reverse Mountain, so that's not in East Blue. I guess there might be whales bigger than her in the eastern seas. So as far as I'm concerned, she's the biggest.' He was amused in a way… before he snapped back to reality, just as Alvida's shocked expression melted away to make room for an enraged one.

Before she could compose herself enough to act, Luffy turned to Coby with the same bored expression. "What do you think, Coby? I guess there might be bigger whales out there…" he said.

Comprehension dawned on Coby's face. It was a test. He was to become a Marine. Marines could not simply bow their heads in the face of insurmountable power. Their job was to protect the world from injustice when no one else would. How could he ever be a Marine if he couldn't stand up to a single pirate?

That's what it's about, isn't it, Luffy? The resolve to put your life on the line. His eyes hardened and something shifted within him. He snapped. "The fattest bitch-ass whale from here to Loguetown! Iron Mace Alvida!" He shouted it at the top of his lungs.

It seemed Luffy's persuasion in letting the boy quit his dream was having zero effect.

Alvida wordlessly swung at the offending stain of a child with all her might, only for him to disappear from sight along with the bounty hunter. When her perception of reality caught up with what had just happened, she recognized that there had been a crash directly above her. She looked up to see a hole in the ship's deck. The shitstain of a bounty hunter was standing above deck with Coby sprawled down beside him in shock. He was casually taking down pirates who had reacted with hostility to his sudden interruption of their pirating. As they kept coming, he seemed to get slightly annoyed and his arms seemed to blur out of sight.

As Alvida climbed out of the hole he had made, she realized that all of her henchmen were now unconscious. The rational part of her brain told her to be wary of this boy, the same part that was ruthlessly stomped into submission by the part of her brain that desperately wanted to process the image of his bloodied body dead at her feet.

She screamed in frustration as she jumped into the air and came crashing down behind the boy, swinging down with her mace. Coby's eyes widened. He didn't even have time to shout a warning before the iron mace came crashing down on Luffy.

And shattered upon contact with his head.

What just happened?

Coby saw that on his shoulder the six-armed monkey had covered Luffy's head with one of his arms and was glaring at the fat pirate.

'Wait… did the monkey shatter the giant mace?' Coby asked internally.