The slap of Alvida's wet, muddy boots hitting the floorboards echoed like a gunshot in the quiet morning. Koby flinched, the sound a familiar herald of humiliation.
"Clean them," Alvida commanded, not even looking at him as she lounged on her makeshift throne, a mountain of stolen silks and furs. "And I want to see my reflection in the leather by noon."
"Y-yes, Captain Alvida," Koby stammered, his small hands trembling as he gathered the filthy boots. The stench of mud and something fouler filled his nostrils. He could feel the eyes of the crew—Heppoko, Peppoko, Poppoko—watching him from the shadows of the hideout, their sniggers like insects buzzing in his ears.
Tears of frustration blurred his vision as he stumbled outside. Two years. Two years of this. He wasn't a pirate. He was a slave. His only solace was the hidden cove, and the secret project waiting there.
He found the barrel washed up on the rocky shore. It was sturdy, sealed tight. Maybe it contained supplies. Maybe it could be a final, desperate offering to buy a moment's peace. With a grunt of effort, he began rolling it up the path toward the hideout, the wooden staves groaning.
"Oi! Stop right there, pinky!"
Three figures materialized from behind a stack of crates, blocking the entrance. The triplets—Heppoko with his leering grin, Peppoko cracking his knuckles, and Poppoko idly spinning a dagger.
"What's in the barrel, cabin boy?" Heppoko sneered, kicking it. It gave a hollow *thump*.
"I… I don't know. I found it. For the Captain," Koby whispered, shrinking into himself.
"For the Captain?" Peppoko laughed. "We're the ones who do the finding around here. Looks like fine wine to me. A vintage she'd never miss."
Poppoko leaned in, his breath reeking of cheap rum. "You're going to be quiet about this, understand? You saw nothing. We found nothing. Or we'll tell Alvida you were trying to steal it for yourself."
Koby's heart hammered against his ribs. He nodded, a frantic, jerky motion. "I understand. Please, just take it."
They were already prying at the lid, their greed overriding caution. With a final creak, the lid popped off.
And a young man in a straw hat uncurled himself from inside, stretching his arms high above his head with a tremendous, jaw-cracking yawn.
"AWWW! WHAT A NICE NAP!"
The voice was a thunderclap in the quiet clearing. The triplets stumbled back, falling over each other in a heap. Koby's jaw went slack.
The stranger blinked, rubbing his eyes. "Huh? Who're you guys?"
Before anyone could form a coherent thought, a whistling scream tore through the air. A massive, spiked club—Alvida's Iron Mace—smashed through the wall of the hideout above them, sending splinters raining down.
"WHO'S SLACKING OFF OUT THERE?!" Alvida's roar shook the very foundations.
Instinct, raw and desperate, took over. Koby didn't think. He grabbed the stunned stranger's wrist. "Run! NOW!"
They fled into the thick woods, the sounds of Alvida's fury and the triplets' panicked excuses fading behind them. Only when his lungs were burning and his legs felt like lead did Koby collapse behind a large moss-covered boulder, dragging the straw-hatted boy down with him.
"You… you were in the barrel," Koby panted, stating the obvious.
"Yep! Thanks for the ride!" the boy said, grinning as if they'd just shared a pleasant cruise. "I'm Luffy!"
"Koby," he managed. He pointed a shaking finger through the trees, toward a small, hidden inlet. There, bobbing pathetically in the water, was a raft. A lopsided, leaky-looking thing, cobbled together from driftwood and stolen nails. "That's… that's my boat. I built it. For two years. I was going to escape. From her."
The story spilled out of him then—the press-ganging, the years of bullying, the endless degradation. He spoke of his dreams, not of treasure, but of justice. Of a clean, white Marine uniform.
Luffy listened, head tilted. Then he said, "You're really wimpy."
The words were a physical blow. Koby hunched his shoulders. "I know."
"But you have a dream?" Luffy asked, his dark eyes suddenly intense.
"To be a Marine. To catch bad pirates," Koby whispered, the confession feeling dangerous and sacred.
"I'm gonna be King of the Pirates."
Koby stared. The declaration was so absurd, so utterly audacious, it short-circuited his fear. "The Pirate King? But… that means you'd have to conquer the Grand Line, defy the World Government… you'd have to be prepared to die!"
Luffy's fist connected with the top of Koby's head with a solid *thunk*. "So what?!" Luffy's voice was fierce, unwavering. "If you don't risk your life for your dream, you don't really want it!"
The pain was sharp, but it cleared the fog of despair in Koby's mind. He looked at this strange, rubbery boy who slept in barrels and spoke of the pinnacle of piracy as if it were the next island over. A spark, long buried, flickered to life in his chest. Admiration. A wild, impossible hope.
"You're right," Koby said, his voice firmer than it had ever been. He stood up, facing his shoddy raft. "I would rather die trying to reach the Marines than spend one more day as Alvida's slave! I'll—"
**CRUNCH.**
The sound was that of kindling being snapped over a giant's knee. Alvida's club descended once more, not through a wall this time, but through the center of Koby's two-year hope. The raft exploded into a cloud of splinters and shattered dreams.
"There you are, you little rat."
Alvida emerged from the tree line, hefting her club, her face a mask of cold fury. The triplets cowered behind her. "Hiring assassins now, are we? Who is this brat? Did you bring Zoro here? Did you bring the Pirate Hunter to claim my bounty?!"
She loomed over Koby, her shadow swallowing him. "Well? Answer me! And while you're at it… tell me. Who is the most beautiful, powerful woman on all the seas?"
It was the old, degrading ritual. Koby's mouth opened, the conditioned lie on his tongue.
Luffy stepped forward, planting himself between Koby and the mountain of a woman. He scratched his cheek, looked Alvida up and down with a critical eye, and said, "Huh? You're a real ugly old hag."
Silence. Dead, absolute silence.
A fire, hot and bright, ignited in Koby's gut. Luffy's words, his fearless stance… they burned away the last of the chains. Koby clenched his fists, stepped up beside Luffy, and looked his tormentor of two long years directly in the eye.
"He's right!" Koby shouted, his voice breaking but clear. "You're a cruel, violent bully! You're not beautiful! You're a monster!"
Alvida's face contorted from shock into pure, unadulterated rage. "YOU INSOLENT MAGGOT!"
The Iron Mace swung, not at Luffy, but in a vicious, whistling arc aimed to obliterate Koby's skull. Koby froze, the world slowing to a crawl.
But Luffy moved.
He didn't shove Koby aside. He simply stepped in front of him.
**THWUMP.**
The sound was sickening, a impact that should have reduced bone to powder. The club connected squarely with Luffy's head, driving it down into his shoulders with terrifying force. The triplets gasped. Koby screamed.
Luffy's neck stretched like rubber, his head snapping back… and then bouncing right back into place. He blinked.
"That kinda tickled," he said.
Alvida stared, her weapon still pressed against his distorted skull. "W-What… what are you?!"
Luffy's arm drew back, his fist coiling like a spring. A grin split his face, wide and fearless. "I'm Monkey D. Luffy! And I'm gonna be King of the Pirates!"
His arm shot forward, not with the force of muscle, but with the explosive release of coiled tension.
***"GOMU GOMU NO…"***
The fist became a blur, a rubbery projectile screaming through the scant few feet of air.
***"PISTOL!"***
The punch landed.
And Alvida, the "Iron Mace," the terror of the coastal waters, her 5,000,000 Berry bounty and all her brutal strength, simply… *vanished*. She didn't fall. She was launched. A screaming, disbelieving comet shot straight through the line of trees behind her, leaving a clean, person-sized tunnel through the forest, the sound of snapping wood fading into the distance.
Silence returned, deeper and more profound than before. The triplets were statues, their faces pale with utter terror. Koby stood, mouth agape, trying to process the impossibility he had just witnessed.
Luffy retracted his arm with a *sproing*, shaking out his hand. "She was noisy."
He turned to Koby, the world-altering power now gone from his demeanor. "So. You need a ride to the Marines?"
Before Koby could even begin to form a reply, a new voice cut through the clearing—cold, sharp, and dripping with lethal intent.
"Interesting."
A man stood at the edge of the shattered tree line, where Alvida had made her exit. He hadn't been there a second before. He wore a simple white shirt, black trousers, and three swords hung at his hip. A green bandana was tied around his bicep. But it was his eyes that froze the blood in Koby's veins—eyes like a hunter who had just found his prey.
He flicked a glance at the tunnel through the forest, then his gaze settled squarely on Luffy's straw hat.
"A Devil Fruit user," the man stated, his hand resting on the hilt of one of his swords. "And a pirate. My name is Roronoa Zoro. I'm here to collect a bounty."
He drew the sword, the *shing* of steel the only sound in the world.
**"Is it yours?"**