Chapter 2: Setting off once again

10 years later

"Alright Luffy! Here we are! Now get your ass off my ship!" Garp yelled. He turned around to see Luffy fast asleep by the side of the deck, a piece of meat hanging in his hands. His straw hat sitting lopsidedly which seems out of place compared to the rest of his smart marine attire.

A white collared shirt with the marine emblem on the left chest was worn loosely with all buttons unbuttoned, revealing Luffy's chest openly. Blue cargo pants stretched downwards where it ended folded into itself just above his knee area and a large white cloak was draped loosely on his shoulders. The cloak itself comes complete with red and gold epaulettes on its shoulders and the word "Justice" emblazoned smartly in kanji at the back.

A tic appeared on the side of Garp's head as he stormed towards Luffy. "Wake up Captain Monkey D. Luffy!" A fist landed on Luffy's head, smashing him into the deck of the ship.

Luffy jumped up on his feet, rubbing his head in pain, "What was that for, Gramps?!"

Garp placed both his hands on his hips and snorted, "What are you doing sleeping Luffy? We're finally here!" Garp stepped aside and gestured to Luffy's hometown.

Luffy ran towards the prow of the marine battleship, glancing down excitedly at Foosha village. Garp smiled proudly at his grandson, after going through the hellish training he had put him through without much complaints, Luffy had become a splendid marine officer.

With Sabo's apparent death and Ace's departure, Luffy was more than willing to subject himself to various forms of training in order to become stronger.

The first year was spent under Garp himself with an inhuman training plan. Then it was a one year attachment to the CP9 headquarters before finally spending the last year as an apprentice under the Marine admirals Aokiji and Kizaru.

Luffy was finally ready to set out on his own. Luffy turned around to see his Grandfather beaming proudly at him. He smirked at this and saluted to the old timer smartly. Garp's smile broadens, never thinking he would see this day. Sure, he had hoped Ace would join the Marines too, but he shrugged that he can never get everything he wanted in life.

"Thanks for the ride Vice Admiral Garp! I shall begin my mission here!" Luffy turned and prepared to jump away from the ship.

"Oh, Luffy! Before I forget!" Garp reached out his hand that was holding on to a piece of paper. "I managed to get the higher-ups to comply with your… unusual requests"

Both Grandson and Grandfather grinned at this. Garp cleared his throat as he brought the piece of paper in front of him.

"Your request for the authority to seek out and assemble your own marine team was granted. Your group will be known as a separate marine entity operating directly under Vice Admiral Garp's command as the "Straw Hat Marines", receiving orders only from him and his associates."

Luffy listened intently as Garp stole a wink at him.

"Your group would not require to respond to any dispatch calls unless directly ordered to and would remain autonomous while in service. You are also granted permission to arrest any criminals and claim their bounties for your personal expenses, but you will not be allowed to requisition for monetary supplies from any marine base outside of essential living supplies. You are also granted the authority to arrest and detain any marines that have performed any criminal activities."

Garp frowned a little at this, realizing that the Headquarters was essentially making Luffy a bounty hunter. Luffy did not seem to mind this in the slightest, though, seeing it as another way to attest his strength to Headquarters.

"As for your first mission, you are required to patrol around the East Blue area and root out any criminal activity in the region. Report back any notable activities directly back to Headquarters and your station shall continue to remain in said location until told otherwise. Signed, Fleet Admiral Sengoku."

Garp folded the paper neatly and handed it to Luffy, who deposited it into one of his pants pockets.

"Thanks Grandpa, you're the best!" Luffy gave a thumbs up.

"Wahahaha! Make me proud, Luffy!" Garp was grinning widely. "Go show me the results of your training! I've asked the mayor to prepare a boat for you so go kick some ass!"

"Shishishi! See ya, gramps!" Luffy turned towards the town and leaped into the air.

"GEPPO!" With a single step, Luffy managed to land on the shore of the town before turning around and giving one final wave to the departing ship.

When the battleship is only a small speck in the horizon, Luffy was ready to leave in his small boat with most of the town to see him off.

"I'm off everyone!" Luffy waved at the villagers. "I'm going to become an Admiral!"

The villagers cheered as Luffy slowly drifted away when suddenly, water exploded behind the departing marine. The Lord of the Coast growled menacingly at the small boat as Luffy turned to regard it.

"Shishishi, I almost forgot about you boy. I'm not the same weakling as before!" Luffy grinned.

The Sea King roared and lunged towards Luffy, jaws wide open.

Luffy smirked as he dropped into his battle stance, feet apart.

"Rankyaku!" Luffy kicked his foot in an arc, sending a compressed blade of air towards the Sea King, slicing his head cleanly off.

The villagers cheered as Luffy turned to wave at them again.

"He's going to achieve great things," the mayor sighed contentedly.

"We're going to miss him," Makino agreed beside him, still waving.

A few hours later

"Whew, that was a close one, if I wasn't paying attention, that whirlpool would have been the end of me!" Luffy laughed.

Hearing shouting ahead, Luffy turned and spied land with a small ship anchored next to it.

"Alright! There seems to be some people there!" Luffy stood on the prow of his small boat, arms crossed and his coat waving behind him with the wind.

"My first mission, I can't screw this up if I want to be an Admiral! Shishishi!"

Meanwhile on the island

A small pink haired boy with round framed glasses was leaving from locking up a storage shed near the beach.

"Hey Coby!"

Coby turned to see three pirates bearing down at him.

"You have the key to the storage room right?" A pirate stepped closer, making Coby shrink back.

"Er… Yes? Why do you need it?" Coby was shivering in fear, trying to hide behind his hands that were raised in fear.

"Give it to us, we have er… some inspection to do." One of them smiled.

"If… If Captain Alvida finds out…" Coby tried, only for one of them to smack him across the head, sending him sprawling on to the floor.

"Shut up! If you don't say anything, she won't know, right?" The three pirates began laughing.

"Now shut up and give us the key you stupid boy!" The three began advancing on him.

"Hey guys!" A sudden voice startled the four of them. Turning around, they saw a foolishly grinning boy wearing a straw hat waving at them while walking towards them.

The three pirates immediately drew out their swords and pointed it towards the advancing boy.

"Who are you?"

"Where did you come from?"

"What are you doing here?"

All three pirates questioned him at the same time, waving their weapons at him menacingly.

Luffy frowned at this and disappeared, reappearing behind them with their weapons in hand. "It's dangerous to point these at people you know…" Luffy dropped the swords on the ground beside him.

While the pirates are still recovering from the shock of losing their weapons so easily, Coby pointed a shaky finger at Luffy.

"You're… You're a marine!"

This shook the three pirates out of their stupor as they immediately turned and ran from them, shouting "Marines are here!"

"Hey, you know what's gotten in to them?" Luffy asked, pointing at the escaping pirates.

Coby clung on to Luffy's cloak, tears streaming pass his cheeks. "Sir! You have to help me! My name is Coby and I was kidnapped by these pirates and was forced to serve under them for the past two years in order to survive!"

"Wow, you actually stayed with them for the whole two years?" Luffy was taken aback.

Coby nodded dumbly, still sniffling.

"I mean, if you don't like this place so much, why haven't you left yet?" Luffy looked questioningly at Coby.

Coby fell back on his hunches at these words. "Impossible, impossible, impossible! If I had tried to leave, they would have killed me!"

Luffy laughed at this, placing his hands on his hips, mimicking his Grandpa, "Well if you're so afraid of them, all you have to do is get stronger, then beat them!"

Coby was furiously shaking his head this time, "No! No! No! Definitely impossible! I can never do it! I'm just a weak—"

Coby's words were cut off as Luffy's fist landed abruptly on his head. Coby screamed in pain, clutching at his head. "Why did you hit me?"

"Never say that anything is impossible Coby. If you're strong, anything is possible." Luffy held out his hand to pull Coby up.

"Tell me, Coby, do you have something you want to do?" Luffy grinned.

"Something… I want to do?"

"Yeah, like my dream is to become a Marine Admiral one day!" Luffy beamed proudly.

"Wow… An Admiral... I…" Coby looked down at his feet. To have such a dream, the boy in front of him must be strong. Unlike himself, who always cowered and hid himself whenever something threatened him. His own dream of joining the Marines paled in comparison to the boy standing in front of him.

'I can never be like him…' Coby thought sadly.

Luffy, seeing his depression, smacked him on the head again, gaining another cry of pain from Coby. "Listen Coby, anyone can become strong as long as they have the will, just don't ever give up! Pursue your dreams!"

Luffy punched into the air victoriously, smiling up at the sky. "Shout out your dreams for the world to hear! Don't let anyone tell you that you can't do it!"

Coby, emboldened by Luffy's energy, turned towards the sea and shouted out his dream. "I'm going to be a Marine!"

Luffy looked at the boy, grinning. "A Marine huh?"

"Yeah! I'm going to become a great marine and catch tons of bad guys like Alvida!" Coby shouted proudly.

"Who are you going to catch, Coby?" A menacing voice said behind them.

Both boys turned to see Alvida and her crew glaring at them with their weapons drawn. Alvida swung her giant mace menacingly before propping it up on her shoulder. Luffy could swear she heard her growl at them.

"I… Er…" Coby stuttered, his earlier courage gone.

"Hey Coby, who's the fatty?" Luffy pointed at Alvida nonchalantly.

Everyone's jaw dropped at his statement and Coby began to panic.

"You can't say that sir!" Coby waved his hands at the marine in a panic.

Luffy tilted his head, confused, "why not?"

"Because Alvida is…" Coby peeked at the fuming Alvida, then back at the grinning face of the Marine officer.

"Because I'm what, Coby?" Alvida sneered, swinging her mace around her bulbous body.

Coby took one more glance at the Marine, before breathing in and shouted, "Because she's the ugliest and fattest pirate I've ever seen!" Coby announced with tears in his eyes

Everyone on Alvida's crew wrung their hands in the air in a panic as Alvida's face reddened with anger.

"Shishishishi! Well said Coby!" Luffy laughed.

Alvida charged towards Coby, swinging her mace at him but Luffy stepped in between them, raising an arm to block the incoming blow.

"Tekkai!" Luffy took the full blow of the mace without flinching, rebounding the mace away from him. Everyone's jaw dropped at this inhuman feat.

"So I take it that you are Captain Alvida right? With a current bounty of five Million?" Luffy snickered, lowering his arm.

Alvida squinted her eyes at the boy, "Who are you?"

"Captain Monkey D. Luffy of the Marines and I'm here to arrest you under the name of justice!" Luffy grinned.

"Like I'll let you! Die stupid Marine!" Alvida charged towards Luffy, her mace raised in the air.

Luffy smirked as he stood, unmoving in the face on Alvida's wild swinging. When her mace was about to hit him from above, he nimbly stepped to the right before stepping forward to deliver a single punch into her abdomen.

Alvida's grip on her mace loosened, letting it crash on to the floor as her eyes rolled back to her head. As Luffy retracted his hand, she slumped on to the ground without resistance, already unconscious.

Luffy turned to the other pirates, grinning at the wide-eyed, open mouthed crew. "Anyone else?"

All the pirates immediately shook their head in fear.

"Coby, help me find some rope and tie her up!" Coby rushed off to do as he was asked. "The rest of you, well… You guys don't really have any bounties so scram!" All of Alvida's crew immediately took to their heels.

Luffy whipped out a baby den den mushi, "Reporting in, this is Captain Monkey D. Luffy. HQ do you receive?"

"Receiving you loud and clear, captain, go ahead."

"I have pirate captain Alvida in my custody, sending you the coordinates to her current location. Over." Luffy grinned as Coby finished tying the still unconscious Alvida to a nearby tree.

"Understood Captain, a ship will be dispatched to pick her up, good work. Marine base out."

Luffy returned the snail back to his cloak and turned to Coby. "Coby, do you still want to be a Marine?"

Coby stared back with all the determination he could, "Yes, sir!"

"Shishishi! Alright then! There should be a Marine base nearby, I'll sign you up with them!" Luffy grinned.

Coby broke out in a wide smile and rushed to grasp Luffy's hands, thanking him profusely while shaking his hands.

"Onward to Shells town!" Luffy grinned, with Coby laughing alongside him.