Encountering Koby

The weather was fine, the sea calm and still, and clouds drifted lazily through the empty sky. Everything spoke of peace.

Suddenly, ripples appeared on the distant sea. Seagulls circled endlessly above one spot. What was going on?

Let's zoom in. Whoa! It was a boat. Zoom in closer. Whoa! On board lay a dreamless humanoid rubber and a dreamless humanoid sponge.

Aaron lay limply across the bow, his hands dangling in the water, his whole body like a deflated ball. He said weakly, "No sliced bread... no broccoli... no meat... what meaning is there in living..."

Meanwhile, Luffy lay sprawled at the stern, staring blankly at the sky as he muttered, "Meat... meat... meat..."

...Well, what could anyone do when these two idiots had gone to sea without bringing provisions?

"Why did I go to sea?" Aaron covered his face.

My dream was clearly to open a burger shop!

Heh heh, if you didn't go to sea, how would the author keep writing? This is the will of the universe, kid!

Vice Admiral Garp, somewhere far away—did you see that? Your grandson still managed to drag Aaron along. All it took was some forceful pulling and a tiny bit of divine will...

All right, I'll stop talking nonsense.

Aaron sighed. Kindhearted by nature, he quickly accepted the reality of the situation. He opened his mouth, intending to say something to Luffy.

"Meat!" Luffy suddenly sprang to his feet, his eyes shining as he stared at the sky. Aaron looked up and saw several seagulls circling above them.

It seemed the birds had mistaken them for people about to die.

But when Luffy suddenly stood up, the startled seagulls flapped their wings and prepared to leave.

"Don't run!" Seeing the meat trying to escape, Luffy panicked. His arms stretched above the seagulls, then his hands crossed as he yanked down hard!

"Gum-Gum! Fishing Net!" His fingers became like netting, instantly trapping one seagull before snapping back at high speed and catching the unlucky bird.

"Hahaha! Meat acquired!" Luffy held the seagull upside down and laughed, flashing his white teeth.

But Aaron was acting strangely. He stared blankly at Luffy's hands, muttering nonstop, "Fishing net... fishing net... fishing net... catching... catching... catching jellyfish... catching jellyfish... catching jellyfish... catching jellyfish catching jellyfish catching jellyfish catching jellyfish..." He repeated himself as if possessed, staring straight at Luffy's hands. Then he stood and slowly walked toward Luffy one mechanical step at a time.

While Luffy laughed, Aaron decisively extended his evil claws!

"Whoa! Aaron, what are you doing?!"

"Catching jellyfish catching jellyfish catching jellyfish catching jellyfish..."

"Whoa! Don't move! Meat! Meat! The meat's getting away!"

"Catching jellyfish catching jellyfish catching jellyfish catching jellyfish catching jellyfish!!"

"Ah!!"

With a scream, the unfortunate seagull flapped its wings and flew off into the distance.

"Hahahahaha~" Aaron laughed happily, occasionally shaking the object in his hand with immense delight.

"Aaron... isn't that enough?" Luffy rolled his eyes wildly.

"No! Consider it punishment for dragging me along!" Aaron refused righteously, then went back to playing with Luffy's body with a grin.

At that moment, Aaron tightly gripped Luffy's legs. Luffy's body was stretched taut, his arms extended straight out and his hands crossed in the shape of a fishing net. Aaron clamped Luffy's legs under his armpits and dipped Luffy's hands into the water.

Yes, the Luffy-brand bug net: infinite durability, infinite elasticity. You deserve one.

"I think going to sea is pretty good now," Aaron said with a smile.

At this, Luffy rolled his eyes wildly.

This kind of voyage is awful! Luffy roared inwardly.

They played like that for nearly an hour, until Luffy's entire body went numb and his eyes rolled up so far that his pupils disappeared. Only then did Aaron reluctantly let him down, secretly deciding that once they reached land, he absolutely had to buy a bug net.

It was the pursuit of a lifetime.

"Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!" Luffy stuck out his tongue and panted heavily like a husky. His hands remained in the sea, dangling there limply.

Suddenly, Luffy stopped panting. He carefully sensed the sea's surface. After a while, he turned to Aaron and bared his white teeth. "Aaron, I think we've entered a huge whirlpool."

Silence...

"Ah!! A huge whirlpool!! What do we do, what do we do, what do we do, what do we do?!" Aaron spun in circles, somehow managing to turn around despite the cramped space.

"Hehehe, don't panic, don't panic. There'll always be a way." As he spoke, Luffy stood and looked around. Then he spotted a wooden water barrel. "Got it!"

Luffy slapped his fist into his palm and hurried over. He poured out all the water in the barrel and inspected the inside. It was very cramped, probably just large enough to fit one child.

"Hehehe!" Luffy giggled, grabbed Aaron by the collar, and stuffed him into the barrel.

Splash! Splash!

Violent waves roared beside Luffy's ears. He looked up and saw the huge whirlpool directly ahead.

Luffy grinned, climbed into the barrel as well, and faced the whirlpool with his lower body inside and his upper body exposed. He held the lid in his left hand and waited quietly.

"Gum-Gum, Pistol!" Timing it perfectly, Luffy struck the boat with his right hand. The recoil launched the barrel into the air, and Luffy used the moment to cover it with the lid.

Splash!

The barrel was thrown out of the massive whirlpool.

But in such a desperate situation, they could only wait for someone else to rescue them. On the open sea, the odds of that happening were such that anyone who wasn't a protagonist would certainly die.

Unfortunately, both Luffy and Aaron were protagonists.

So they were saved.

They boarded a passenger ship and were sent into the storage hold as food.

Koby entered the storage hold with a miserable expression, broom in hand, ready to clean the place.

As he worked, Koby let out heavy sighs from time to time, like an old man in his seventies or eighties.

When will this life ever end? Koby lamented inwardly.

He had never expected to be captured by the infamous pirate Alvida the moment he went to sea, forced into becoming a pirate, and made to endure that fat woman asking him every day whether she was beautiful...

If I become a Marine, I'll definitely arrest every last one of them! Koby thought viciously. But then he remembered Alvida's iron mace, and remembered that she had robbed a passenger ship again today. The courage he had just gathered vanished completely.

Thud! Thud thud! Thud thud thud!

A strange sound suddenly came from the storage hold, making Koby's heart tremble.

Could it be some kind of storage-hold monster? Koby thought. He gripped his broom tightly and fearfully scanned his surroundings.

The sound was coming from a wooden barrel. Koby listened for a moment and quickly found its source. A barrel was shaking nonstop, its movements growing increasingly violent. Koby's eyes widened wider and wider...

Bang! The barrel burst open!

"That was such good sleep!"

"Ugh!"

Two voices rang out at the same time. The first was Luffy's, and the second was Koby's.

Koby fell to the ground and stared at Luffy in shock.

Luffy was staring directly at Koby, making Koby's scalp tingle. Only after a long look did he ask, "Um, do you know where there's meat?"

"Whew!" Seeing that Luffy didn't seem like a bad person, Koby finally relaxed. But he immediately scrambled back up and anxiously told Luffy, "How did you get here? Hurry and leave! Do you know this is a pirate ship?" Koby deliberately lowered his voice for the last sentence.

"Oh," Luffy replied, then asked again, "Do you know where there's meat?"

"What is wrong with you?! This is a pirate ship! Pirates! Their captain is Alvida, with a bounty of five million Beli! Why aren't you running?!" Koby said anxiously. At that moment, he heard footsteps outside the cabin.

"Um... I don't mean to interrupt you two, but could you give me a hand? I can't stand up." A voice beneath Luffy interrupted Koby. Koby looked down.

There was a drawing shaped like a human, but strangely, the person in the drawing kept moving his eyes.

"Mon... mon... mon..." Koby trembled. Before he could finish, Luffy interrupted him. "Aaron, why did you turn into this again?" As he spoke, Luffy grabbed Aaron by the shoulders and lifted him up.

"Obviously because you suddenly stuffed me into a barrel!" Aaron cursed.

Smack!

In Koby's eyes, Luffy shook the drawing as if he were shaking out a piece of clothing. In an instant, the flat drawing became a three-dimensional person, and a blond boy of eleven or twelve appeared before Koby!

Aaron dusted himself off, stretched his body, and took a deep breath. "The smell of freedom~"

"Excuse me... are you a Devil Fruit user?" Seeing Aaron's strange ability, Koby thought of it. Perhaps only the Devil Fruit users from legend could possess such bizarre powers.

But if he was a Devil Fruit user, maybe he could defeat Alvida. Then maybe I could... Koby thought.

"My name is Aaron, Aaron Copperfield. What about you? What's your name?" But Aaron didn't answer his question. He looked at Koby, blinked, and asked with a smile.

"I... I'm Koby!" Koby said nervously.

"Koby! You coward, are you hiding in here slacking off again?" Suddenly, a rough voice, like that of some nameless extra, rang out. A large hand grabbed the doorframe, and a head that also looked like a nameless extra poked inside.

The extra grinned wickedly, but when he saw Luffy in the cabin, his expression instantly darkened. "Who are you?"

"Me? I'm Monkey D. Luffy. Nice to meet you." Luffy adjusted his straw hat and smiled.

"What Monkey D. Luffy... go die!" His other hand appeared, clutching a huge cleaver, and he swung it straight at Luffy.

Luffy's face was hidden beneath his straw hat, making his expression impossible to see. But just as the cleaver was about to hit him, he sidestepped it, clamped the blade beneath his armpit, and twisted hard. The cleaver snapped in two.

The extra stared at Luffy in shock, both hands trembling slightly as he backed away step by step.

Luffy was silent for a long time before finally looking up with a troubled expression. He scratched his cheek and asked, "Why'd you suddenly do that?"

"Ah!! Just you wait!" When he reached the doorframe, the extra suddenly let out a roar and ran away.

"Why didn't he see me?" Only after the extra had gone far away did Aaron ask unhappily, biting into the fruit in his hand with loud crunching sounds.

"Hahahaha! You're too short!" Luffy said with a laugh. He walked over to Aaron, grabbed a fruit, and began wolfing it down.

"Mr. Luffy..." Koby swallowed as he watched the two of them eat wildly. "You... who exactly are you people?"