Meat Mountain Demon King?!

"Hm?" Hearing Koby's question, Luffy turned around, swallowed the fruit in his mouth, and smiled. "I'm a pirate—the future Pirate King. And this is my partner, Aaron."

"A pirate? The Pirate King? You're joking, right? Just the two of you?" Koby interrupted in shock, his jaw hanging so wide it looked ready to fall off.

"Yeah, it's just the two of us for now. There'll be more later," Luffy said with a silly grin.

"The Pirate King! That's someone standing at the top of the world, at the very peak of this Great Pirate Era! Impossible! Absolutely impossible! How could anyone become the Pirate King? Impossible, impossible, impossible!" Koby clutched his hair and shook his head wildly, as though he had taken drugs.

Bang! Luffy punched him straight into the ground.

"Waaah, why did you hit me?"

"Don't know. I just felt like hitting you."

"Well, whatever. I'm used to it anyway. Heh heh, hehehe..." Yeah, the broken expression of a glasses-wearing nerd was not cute at all.

"It's not a question of whether it's hard or not." Luffy took off his Straw Hat and gazed at it tenderly. "It's because I want to be, so I will be."

"Hm?" Koby lay on the ground, looking up at Luffy.

Ah, here it comes! The protagonist-style motivational speech!

While Luffy was feeding Koby a bowl of motivational soup, Aaron looked around at the surroundings and discovered that this was a storage hold.

"Hmm... I wonder if there's a bug-catching net here?" Aaron muttered to himself. Then he picked up a fruit, stood, and walked out of the cabin.

"Bug-catching net, bug-catching net... It should be in the captain's quarters, right?" Aaron swayed his head as he thought. Then he stepped out into the corridor and saw the brightly shining sun... and a group of pirate extras with vicious-looking faces.

"Whoa! So awesome!" Aaron's eyes widened as he watched the pirates coming and going, letting out an exaggerated cry.

Who knew what was so awesome about it.

Bang! Suddenly, someone struck his head hard. Then they yanked him over, tightly covered his mouth with a hand, hurried away from the corridor entrance, and hid beside a lifeboat.

"Mmph mmph mmph mmph!" Aaron cried desperately.

"Shut up!" A voice sounded beside him, carrying what seemed to be the scent of oranges.

Nami cautiously poked her head out. Only after confirming that no pirates were paying attention to this place did she let out a long sigh of relief. Looking at the child in her arms, she said viciously, "When I let go, you're not allowed to scream, got it?!"

"Mhm mhm mhm mhm!" Aaron nodded desperately, blinking nonstop.

Only then did Nami slowly release him, allowing Aaron to break free.

Aaron blinked, turned to look at the person who had grabbed him, and said, "Hello, I'm Aaron. Why did you bring me here?"

Bonk! "That hurts!" Aaron clutched the swelling on top of his head, tears welling in his eyes as he looked at Nami.

"Keep it down! If you draw the pirates over here, we're both done for!" Nami's face darkened.

"Pirates? Gasp! So sca—"

"I said shut up!" Nami reacted quickly and covered Aaron's open mouth again.

"Mmph!" Aaron pointed at his mouth, then shook his head hard to show that he absolutely would not speak. Only then did Nami remove her hand.

"Stay here and behave. When I come back, I'll take you away, understand? Don't let me catch you trying to run away." As she spoke, Nami waved her fist threateningly, then cautiously left the lifeboat, leaving Aaron alone.

Yeah, it seemed she had mistaken Aaron for a passenger from the cruise ship.

Originally, Nami had wanted to question Aaron properly, but seeing how he screamed twice for every three sentences, she was afraid he would bring the pirates over before she could finish talking. Helplessly, Nami decided to take him with her when she escaped later.

At worst, she would spend a little time taking him to that village. Nami thought.

As for Aaron, he stared blankly as Nami disappeared. He tilted his head and thought about what she had just said, then decisively stood up and walked out of the lifeboat.

Since she had told him to stay there, and she had looked so rushed, she must have had something important to do. A warmhearted Aaron could not just stand by—he had to go help her. That was what Aaron thought.

Yeah, Aaron's thought process was just that peculiar.

Aaron walked out of the lifeboat and looked into the distance.

Burly man, burly man, burly man.

Then he looked over there.

Burly man, burly man, burly man.

"How did she run off so fast?" Aaron said with wide eyes. He unconsciously walked forward, looking left and right.

Yeah, it seemed he had been born with an aura of weak presence. Aaron walked all the way through, yet not a single pirate noticed him. Just like that, he safely reached the pirate ship.

Aaron looked here and there, but before long, he forgot all about finding Nami because he discovered something really cool.

Aaron looked up. Above the crow's nest, he saw a black flag fluttering in the wind. On it was a side-view skull, with a pink heart painted beside its eye socket.

"So pretty!" Aaron exclaimed, opening his mouth wide in exaggerated admiration.

"Right? You think it's pretty too, don't you?" Suddenly, a rough voice sounded behind Aaron.

Aaron turned around.

...A lump of meat. A mountain-sized lump of meat. A mountain-sized lump of meat dressed in gorgeous clothes! Aaron looked upward and found three thin black slits at the top of the meat mountain. Two of them were side by side, and when they noticed Aaron's gaze, they widened slightly. The slit below stretched open to both sides, revealing large yellow teeth like they had been smoked.

...So they were a pair of eyes and a mouth.

Seeing this, Aaron was so shocked that his eyes fell out. He screamed wildly, "Aahh! Meat Mountain Demon King! Ah, my eyes!" Yeah, his eyes really did fall to the ground, rolling and rolling until they reached the foot of the meat mountain.

Aaron quickly bent down and fumbled about with his head lowered, still shouting nonstop, "Left! Left! Go right, go right! That's it, that's it! Move forward, move forward!" And that was how he found his eyeballs.

Smack! He stuffed his eyeballs back into their sockets, glanced at the meat mountain again, then suddenly stretched his arms straight out and ran away screaming, "Meat Mountain Demon King!!"

The pirates who had watched Aaron's entire eye-dropping performance were so shocked that they could not close their jaws. "M-Monster!!" someone screamed, and the pirates threw down their weapons and scattered in all directions.

Bonk!

Alvida gave her spiked club a violent shake, sending several fleeing men beside her flying and bringing the situation under control. "Why are you running? Making a fuss over nothing."

Then she called out to Aaron, who was running around in circles, "You... are a Devil Fruit user, aren't you?"

"Aah! Meat Mountain Demon King!" Aaron spun around wildly.

"I'd heard that Devil Fruits were treasures of the sea. I thought it was only a rumor, but I never expected them to really exist..." Alvida continued.

"Aah! Meat Mountain Demon King!!" Aaron kept spinning in circles.

"Hey! I said, you—"

"Aah!!"

"You—"

"Aahh—"

"..." Veins bulged on Alvida's forehead. She tightened her grip on her spiked club and strode up to Aaron, raising it high. "Will you listen when people are talking to you?!"

Clang!

With a crisp ring, Luffy made his dazzling entrance!

Alvida's spiked club smashed hard against Luffy's head. With the Straw Hat blocking her view, Alvida could not see Luffy's expression.

Luffy suddenly raised his head and grinned at Alvida. "That didn't work at all!" Alvida stumbled back several steps in fright.

At that moment, Luffy turned to Aaron with a complaining look. "Aaron, you ran off to play without taking me with you!"

"A-Alvida!" Koby, whom Luffy had brought along, lay on the deck and looked up at Alvida. At that moment, the terror of being ruled by fat returned to him, and he could not help crying out.

"Hmph! I was wondering who it was. So it's cowardly Koby. What are you doing lying there? Want to kiss my beautiful toes?" Alvida sneered.

Hearing Alvida's humiliation, Koby recalled Luffy's motivational speech in the storage hold and instantly felt his entire body fill with strength! He scrambled to his feet, pointed at Alvida's nose, and said shakily, "Sh-Shut up, you fat hag! I'm going to become a Marine someday, and I'll arrest every last one of you!" His voice grew louder and louder until he was practically roaring. Afterward, Koby was drenched in cold sweat and gasping heavily, but there was something new in his eyes, a feeling completely different from before.

Before Alvida could continue mocking Koby, Luffy suddenly said,

"Hmm... So this really ugly old lady is called Alvida."

Silence!

The surroundings suddenly became extremely quiet. Everyone stared at Luffy in shock.

At this point, it was not just veins bulging on Alvida's forehead. Even her eyeballs, buried beneath layers of fat, protruded from rage. "All of you, die!" As she spoke, she raised her spiked club high and charged at Luffy with great strides.

"...Heh heh!" Luffy quietly watched Alvida, then suddenly revealed a gleaming white grin.

He pulled his Straw Hat lower, rolled his shoulders, then stretched his arm far back. "Gum-Gum Pistol!"

And so, Alvida, who looked to weigh half a ton, was sent flying into the sky.

The spectators' mouths hung wide open. Koby voiced what they were all thinking. "With just one hit..."

"Oh no! Lady Alvida can't swim!" With that, the pirates exited the scene at lightning speed.

"Shishishi! We should get going!" Luffy said, grabbing Koby with one hand and Aaron, who was still spinning in circles, with the other. He ran toward a lifeboat.

"Going? Where?" Koby asked in confusion.

"To find that pirate hunter, Roronoa Zoro!"

"Aahh! Meat Mountain Demon King!!"

Yeah, Aaron was still stuck in the previous scene.

Nami tied up the treasure, lowered the lifeboat, and jumped down herself.

Seeing the treasure, Nami should have been happy, but she felt a little unhappy instead.

The child she had told not to run around was gone!

Maybe the pirates had killed him!

Sure enough, pirates were all terrible people! Nami thought, her expression darkening.

Splash! At that moment, the sound of something heavy falling into the water came from beside Nami.

"Yahoo! Let's go!" Luffy laughed loudly, carrying Aaron on his back as he continued wailing.

"..." When Nami caught sight of Aaron, her expression softened somewhat.

So he was rescued. Thank goodness! Nami thought to herself.

"Hm?" Noticing Nami's gaze, Luffy turned to look at her. Their eyes met.

In that instant, time seemed to freeze. A thousand words appeared to pass through their gazes, as though their souls had known each other for ages. The two fell in love at first sight, retired into the mountains together, and spent every night in blissful revelry.

Yeah, just nonsense.

To be continued.

.