The air in the bar, usually warm with the scent of wood and ale, had turned brittle. Luffy's small fists were clenched on the counter, his straw hat casting a shadow over his eyes.
"A real pirate wouldn't just take it," he muttered, voice thick with a frustration too big for his small body. He'd been telling Makino about the bullies in town, about the rocks they'd thrown.
Makino wiped a glass, her smile gentle but tinged with sadness. "Sometimes, Luffy, walking away is the bravest thing. Standing back up after you've been knocked down… that's real strength."
"You don't get it!" Luffy slammed a fist on the counter, making the glassware tremble. "Shanks says there are times a man *has* to fight! When someone tries to crush your spirit… you can't just smile!"
"She doesn't understand," the boy at the end of the bar, a quiet observer, said softly.
"She doesn't understand!" Luffy affirmed, louder, his declaration echoing in the quiet room.
The door creaked open, cutting off any reply.
"Pardon the intrusion," a rough voice grumbled.
Luffy's head snapped up. A mountain of a man filled the doorway, his face a roadmap of scars, a brutal axe strapped to his back. Behind him, a dozen more rough-looking men loomed, their eyes scanning the empty room with predatory disinterest. The air grew heavy, tasting of unwashed leather and malice.
*Bandits.*
Higuma, their leader, let out a disappointed grunt. "Hmph. The scuttlebutt said pirates. Place is dead." His gaze, flat and cold, swept over Makino and the two boys. It lingered on Luffy for a moment too long. "Well? Customers are here. Don't just stand there, girl. Sake. The strong stuff. Move."
Makino's hands trembled slightly, but she gave a curt nod, her eyes darting to Luffy in a silent plea for calm. She moved to the barrels.
The bandits sprawled at the tables, their laughter coarse and jarring. Higuma took a long swig directly from the bottle Makino provided, then wiped his mouth with the back of a hairy hand. His eyes landed on Luffy again, who was glaring with undisguised hatred.
"What's your problem, shrimp?" Higuma sneered. "Never seen a real man before?"
"You're not a real man," Luffy spat, the words out before Makino could stop him. "You're just a bully. Shanks is a real man! He's a pirate who protects people!"
The bar fell silent. Higuma's expression darkened. He slowly set the bottle down. "Shanks? That red-haired coward?" He laughed, a sound like grinding stones. "I heard about him. Lets mountain bandits throw drinks in his face and just laughs it off. A pirate who doesn't fight? That's not a man. That's a joke. A stain on the very word."
Something in Luffy snapped. A red haze descended over his vision. This foul-mouthed bandit was spitting on the honor of the man he admired most in the world.
"TAKE THAT BACK!" Luffy roared, and launched himself across the room.
It was over in a second. Higuma didn't even rise from his chair. One massive hand shot out, catching Luffy by the throat mid-air. He held the boy aloft, Luffy's legs kicking uselessly.
"Luffy!" Makino screamed.
"Feisty little maggot, aren't you?" Higuma mused, squeezing slightly. Luffy gagged, clawing at the iron grip. "Loyalty to a joke of a pirate. How pathetic."
"Let him go!" Makino pleaded, rushing forward, but a bandit blocked her path.
Higuma ignored her. "You want to be a hero? Heroes die young, kid." He drew a long, wicked knife from his belt with his free hand. The steel glinted in the lamplight. "Let's see if your 'great' Shanks comes to save you now."
***
Makino's lungs burned as she sprinted through the village, her apron flying. "MAYOR! MAYOR, HELP!"
She found the old man tending his garden and spilled the story in a frantic, gasping rush. Together, they raced back to the bar, hope and dread warring in their chests.
They burst through the door just as Higuma, holding a struggling, purple-faced Luffy, was raising his knife high.
"STOP!" the Mayor bellowed, his voice cracking with authority. "Higuma! He's just a child! Whatever he said, we'll make amends! Name your price!"
Higuma didn't even look at them. His eyes were on Luffy's terrified, defiant face. "Price?" he chuckled. "It's too late for that. Some lessons are paid for in blood. This one's for disrespect."
The knife began its descent.
*THUD.*
The door exploded inward, not from their entrance, but from the other side.
Silhouetted against the afternoon sun stood a familiar, relaxed figure, his red hair like a flame. Shanks. His usual easy smile was gone, replaced by a calm so profound it was terrifying. His crew fanned out behind him, a wall of grim, focused intent.
The knife halted an inch from Luffy's eye.
"You," Higuma snarled.
One of the bandits, panicked, yanked out a flintlock and aimed it at Shanks's head. "Don't move!"
A single, deafening *BANG* echoed in the confined space. The bandit crumpled, a smoking hole in his chest. Lucky Roo stood with a pistol, a piece of meat still in his other hand. "You don't point guns at our Captain," he said, almost conversationally.
Shanks didn't flinch. He took one step forward, then another, his footsteps the only sound in the petrified bar. His gaze was locked on Higuma.
"That child," Shanks said, his voice low and carrying a finality that chilled the bone, "is a friend of mine. I won't let anyone hurt my friends and walk away."
Higuma, emboldened by his remaining men, sneered. "Big words for a coward! Get them!"
The bandits roared and charged. Benn Beckman sighed, a cigarette dangling from his lips. He moved.
It wasn't a fight. It was a symphony of precise, brutal efficiency. The butt of his rifle cracked against jaws, his foot swept legs, his elbow found throats. In less than ten seconds, the entire gang lay in a groaning heap. Only Higuma remained standing, still holding Luffy.
The bandit leader's bravado evaporated, replaced by the cold sweat of survival. His eyes darted to the door, to the windows, to the monsters in human form surrounding him.
"Fine… you want him?" Higuma hissed. "Have him!"
He threw something to the floor. A thick, acrid cloud of smoke erupted, filling the bar with a blinding, choking haze. Coughs and shouts rang out.
"LUFFY!" Shanks's voice cut through the chaos, sharp with a fear no one had ever heard in it before.
When the smoke cleared, blown out by a frantic wave of Shanks's coat, the spot where Higuma had stood was empty.
Luffy was gone.
***
The small rowboat rocked on the swells, already a mile from shore. Higuma panted, sweat and seawater stinging his eyes. The stupid, squirming brat was still in his grip.
Luffy gasped for air, his throat bruised. "Shanks… will come…"
"Let him try to find you out here," Higuma spat, his fear curdling into rage. This whole mess, his crew defeated, all because of this snot-nosed kid. "This is where you get off, shrimp. Time to sink or swim."
With a final, furious roar of humiliation, Higuma lifted Luffy and, with all his strength, hurled him over the side of the boat.
The cold of the East Blue was a shock that stole the breath from Luffy's lungs. He plunged beneath the waves, the world turning into a blurry, greenish silence. He kicked, fighting his way back toward the shimmering surface, toward the air.
He broke through, gasping, treading water. The boat was already several feet away, Higuma a receding silhouette.
And then, Luffy saw it.
A shadow. Vast, sleek, and impossibly fast, moving just beneath the surface. It circled him once, a primordial intelligence in its movement. The water around him grew colder.
A single, vertical slit of an eye, pale yellow and as large as a dinner plate, broke the surface ten feet away. It regarded him with ancient, hungry curiosity.
A dorsal fin, dark as a nightmare, sliced through the water between him and the shore.
The Lord of the Coastal Waters had come to investigate the splash.
And Luffy, alone in the vast, deep blue, was no longer treading water.
He was treading in its feeding ground.