1 Piece AU Luffy Charlotte
By: FunahoMisaki
(AN: I own nothing and read last chapter)
"So this is Shells Town… wonder where Zoro is." Luffy said and then immediately noticed how everyone within a three foot radius of him jumped away looking scared.
"Luffy their reaction means that Zoro is a bad guy. You really shouldn't expect him to join your crew or anything. It's a good thing Captain Morgans caught him." Coby said and they both noticed how everyone in a six foot radius jumped away looking scared, even more scared than when Luffy said Zoro's name.
"That's strange. I can understand why they'd react to Pirate Hunter like that but why a marine captain?" Coby however was confused about the way they reacted and Luffy's eyes narrowed a bit.
"Coby…not all marines are good people. In fact you'll probably find that most marines, especially those higher up in the chain of command, are bullies or abuse their power." Luffy said softly and calmly, a tone Coby wasn't used to hearing from his friend over the last day, to the pink haired boy as they kept walking. Everyone was giving Luffy a wide berth thanks to his weapons.
"What do you mean? If they're in the marines and stopping pirates then they can't be bad right?" Coby asked naively and optimistically.
"What about that vice-admiral who used a powerful technique to hit his grandson on the head some years ago? And did things like threw him into a ravine or threw him to fight against tigers without any training in order to 'make him a strong marine'? There was a whole newspaper spread about him for like a week." Luffy said, having been allowed to read the papers when he was twelve after several long talks with his mamas and papas and even his baa-chan about how age and skill level appropriate training was fine and encouraged, but what Garp had done was considered abuse in every sense of the word.
"He even left his grandson with known criminals, mountain bandits, and the grandson nearly died twice in the first year there. Not to mention the vice-admiral didn't even notice that his grandson had been taken by slave traders and ended up all the way into the deep parts of the grand line." Luffy said and Coby winced, having recalled his parents talking about that and even seeing a few of the articles himself even if he didn't know all of the words and what they meant.
"One bad apple doesn't spoil the entire bunch though." Coby tried to point out and Luffy sighed slightly.
"That's true to a degree but a high ranking bad apple? That gives the lower ranking ones all the approval they need to do the same things he did, if not worse I'm sure, with the excuse that since the vice-admiral did it and wasn't punished then it was okay for them to get away with it too. Take the captain of this base for instance." Luffy said glancing around as he and Coby stopped walking for a moment.
"The townspeople jump a bit when Zoro is mentioned." And to prove his point he counted four townsfolk jump back looking briefly scared before calming down.
"See? A few people jumped and looked scared for what? Ten seconds or so? But if you mention Captain Morgan…" Now he counted at least seven people who scrambled away looking more terrified and for longer.
"Mention him and you have more people who look more scared and for longer. If he's a good marine, like I know you will be one day, do you think the townfolk under his protection would react worse to just hearing his name than they do for a feared bounty hunter? No Coby. Make no mistake." Luffy's hat shadowed his eyes a little bit while Coby looked down, noticing what Luffy had and now it was being put into perspective.
"There are corrupt marines, and the captain in charge of this base is one of them." Luffy said and the two kept walking towards the marine base, or Luffy did and Coby ran to catch up after a minute of thinking heavily.
"Now where would Zoro be?" Luffy asked back to his happy and light self as he began to peer over the wall of the base.
"He's probably locked in a cell somewhere deep down. They wouldn't keep him-"
"Found him." Luffy cut off Coby who looked alarmed and ran over, climbing the wall as best as he could to get a look for himself.
"But..why? Why would he be out here?" Coby asked confused and surprised to see Zoro tied to a cross out in the middle of the yard.
"I wanna go talk to him." Luffy said and moved as if to climb the wall but Coby grabbed him.
"Luffy you can't!"
"Why not that little girl is?" Luffy asked pointing at the little girl who was running towards Zoro holding rice balls.
"Wh-"
The two watched as Zoro tried to yell for the girl to go away, Luffy noticing three others walking towards the scene and realizing that Zoro must have seen them coming and wanted to warn the girl.
"You there. Throw the girl over the wall!" And at that Luffy couldn't stand idly by, especially not when the marine was threatened by the boy who talked about his daddy into obeying.
"You just said something about him picking on a kid and now you're going to do the same? I didn't know the marines sunk to a lower level than a bounty hunter." Luffy said calmly and coldly as he appeared in the yard standing between the marine and the little girl.
"Who are you?! Don't you know who my daddy is?" The blond boy?, Luffy honestly wasn't sure if it was a male or not but his voice was a bit deeper than even some of Luffy's older aunts so he was guessing boy, demanded looking like he was about to throw a tantrum.
"Someone who lets their kid abuse power he doesn't have over marines and spoils them to the point where my five year old cousins and aunts are stronger and better behaved?" Luffy asked as if it were a serious question, making Zoro snort amused and smirk slightly while the blond went red faced in fury.
"Why you-My daddy is a marine captain!" The boy said as if it were a big accomplishment and Luffy openly yawned in his face.
"Yeah yeah. I'd be impressed if he was at least a rear or vice-admiral. Trust me brat, you don't want to play the family game with me. Especially not when I can knock your dad out without lifting a finger. So go scamper on out little chihuahua. The big kids are going to talk now." Luffy waved the blond off nonchalantly, just like his Papa Peros would do sometimes, and making both Zoro and the little girl snicker.
"So Zoro. Why are you out here like this? Lose a bet or something?" Luffy asked wondering how he had been caught by the marines led by this brats dad.
"Not yet. I've a bet going with the poodle over there. I can last a month without food or water and then I'll be free. It was me or the kid so…" Zoro trailed off making Luffy nod his head but he was a bit impressed. After all most people didn't last more than four days at max without water.
"How much longer you got then?" Luffy asked making Zoro hum a bit.
"About a week." Zoro said making Luffy nod.
"Okay when that weeks up come join my crew."