Joining The Straw Hats

'Monkey D. Luffy, the man who is going to be the Pirate King and the protagonist of this whole thing—I don't know what he's doing here, but he must have appeared in the anime before leaving for the Grand Line. And why did he ask me to join his crew just because I showed a little strength? I mean, they said he wasn't smart, but I didn't know he was this dumb,' Neve thought as his mind was racing with various thoughts.

"Hey, can you get me out of this thing first?" Luffy asked, snapping Neve out of his thoughts.

"Sure thing," Neve said as he retrieved his staff hanging on his back.

He then started spinning the staff before slicing the cage open with one of its blades.

"Awesome! Now I really want you to join my group," Luffy said, stars in his eyes as he jumped out of the cut cage.

"Why do you want me to join your crew, kid?" Neve asked, as that question had been bugging him since Luffy asked.

While he would love to go on an adventure with the soon-to-be Pirate King, he needed to prioritize himself and wasn't sure if he could keep up with the monsters this crew would become in the future.

"Because I just want to," Luffy said with a bright smile that magically washed away all stress and worries.

Neve was initially stunned but later smiled, about to accept Luffy's invitation, until a certain someone popped into his head, causing his smile to turn into a frown.

"Sorry, kid, but I'll have to reject your invitation. There's someone I know who would hate me if I became a pirate, and I don't want that," Neve said solemnly, causing Boodle, who was watching the whole conversation from afar, to feel heartache.

"So, if I convince that someone, you would join me?" Luffy asked, not wanting to let someone like Neve slip away.

"Sure, but that's if you can do it, as he really hates pirates," Neve said, as he petted ChouChou, who came to greet him on the head.

"Now, kid, stay here. I have some business to attend to," Neve said as he ran to where Buggy was, leaving behind a still-smiling Luffy.

"Shishishishi! I have another nakama," Luffy said as he laughed his iconic laugh, while Nami and Boodle, who were watching, were left speechless at how stubborn and dense Luffy was.

"Now, how do I find the person he is talking about?" Luffy says, his hands on his chin, now realizing he didn't know who Neve was talking about.

"That would be me?" Boodle says as he steps out from behind the building, with Nami following right behind.

Luffy initially ignored the old man as he was thinking about how to find the person Neve was talking about, but when he calmed down to hear what Boodle said, he rushed to him and stared at him in the eyes with a serious expression.

"What... what?" Boodle asks, surprised at the sudden appearance of Luffy.

"Old man, let Neve join my crew," Luffy says with his signature smile, making Boodle, who was originally going to refuse, hesitate.

"No, you pirates are an evil bunch, and I'm not going to allow Neve to join your type," Boodle says, finally deciding to refuse.

"Why, old man? Can't you let your son go?" Luffy asks with a questioning gaze, as he felt it was pretty normal to leave your sons alone.

"He is not my son. His parents abandoned him, so I'm the only one he's got, and I'm not allowing him to become a pirate," Boodle shouts with a fierce expression as he stands firm on his decision.

"But it seemed like you two aren't that close," Nami says as she caught on when watching Boodle's expression while listening to Neve.

Boodle's expression then turns to one of a guilty fellow as he tells Nami and Luffy about the fight he and Neve had before he left the town.

"Old man, why did you do that? That's a person's dream you just destroyed," Luffy shouts with an angry expression as he wanted to punch the old man.

Nami too had a sour expression as she remembered she too had a dream but couldn't complete it because of her town being in danger.

Boodle couldn't say anything as he too had already thought of what he had done and also considered it wrong but he couldn't do anything about it as he still deeply hated pirates.

"And if you can't trust pirates, then trust me, I swear on my name that I, Monkey D. Luffy, will never do what a bad pirate would do, and to add to that, I will also help your town by defeating the Buggy Pirates," Luffy declares as he points to himself, covering his head with his straw hat, making it cover his eyes.

"Zoro!" Luffy calls out as he heads in the direction Neve was heading through.

"Oi, captain, are we going?" Zoro asks as he steps out of the house with his three swords on his waist.

"Yes, let's go help our nakama," Luffy declares as Zoro follows behind him, leaving behind a stunned Boodle and an out-of-it Nami.

When Nami heard what Luffy said, she momentarily thought of joining their crew so that they could help her beat Arlong after seeing their trust and friendship, but she dismissed that idea as she was sure that they could never beat Arlong and that Arlong was too strong.

While Luffy and Zoro were coming to fight Buggy, Neve had already reached there and was now face to face with Buggy, who had an ugly expression on his face.

"So, you finally came back to die, huh?" Buggy says as he looks at Neve disdainfully, as he was the one who disgraced his Buggy Pirates.

"I don't think that's what's going to happen," Neve says as he starts swinging his staff skillfully, making him look like someone who has practiced it for years.

"Hey, if you guys don't kill this man now, I will slice you all up and dispose of your body parts in the ocean," Buggy says as he threatens all his crew, who, in response, gulp and charge at Neve without thinking.

"I don't have time for you weaklings," Neve says as his shadow expands and covers the entire pirate group.

"Fenrir."

As soon as Neve whispers that name, all the pirates who were rushing at him are immediately eaten by a gigantic black wolf that jumps out of Neve's shadow.

Fenrir, the third creation of Neve with the powers of gigantification, jumps to Neve's side and returns to its original size which is the size of a normal wolf 

Everyone present had their mouths open. Luffy, Zoro, Buggy, Cabaji, Richie, and Mohji. Originally, Zoro was about to rush in to help Neve, but Luffy stopped and asked him to watch. He at first thought Neve had a Devil Fruit since his shadow moved, but he wasn't expecting a giant wolf to jump out of it. Zoro then looks at Luffy, thinking about how he would expect that to happen, but when he saw the stars in Luffy's eyes and his mouth also open, he now knew that Luffy didn't know about it but just believed he was strong. This made Zoro drop cold sweat at how his captain was so careless.

Buggy and the rest weren't also different. They initially thought that since he was just strong, that numbers would tire him down so they could just finish it, but what they didn't expect was that all 50 pirates they sent would lose fast.

"Boss, look, we still have a chance," Cabaji says, pointing at Neve.

Although Neve tried to act normal and strong, it didn't work as his exhausted breaths were showing very well and the sweat on his face was easily spotted.

"That's right, there's no way you can use a move like that and not be exhausted. Let's rush him," Buggy orders as he, Cabaji, Richie, and Mohji run towards Neve to finish him off.

Neve, seeing this, knew that his act had been seen through and just enters his combat stance with Fenrir, who showed his teeth and growled.

Just as Buggy and his commanders are about to strike Neve, two people block the attack for Neve. One with two swords in his hands, blocking the sword's attack from both Buggy and Cabaji, while the other one was one wearing a straw hat, having a battle of strength with Richie.

"What are you brats doing?" Neve asks as he sees Luffy and Zoro here.

"Neve, join our crew. We have already asked the old man for permission, and he said yes," Luffy says. He pushes Richie away while Zoro also pushes Cabaji and Buggy away.

"So what do you say, join my crew?" Luffy says as he looks at Neve with expectant eyes.

"Reporting for duty, Captain," Neve says as he believes what Luffy said.

There are two reasons why Neve believed. One, he believed that Luffy will never lie about things like this, and second, he believed that Luffy would be able to change Boodle's view of pirates and it looked like it worked.

"Yoshhh, let's celebrate," Luffy shouts with his fist in the air.

"Oi, Captain, we can celebrate later. Let's deal with this first," Zoro shouts as he brings Neve and Luffy's attention to the angry Buggy.

"Alright, the green-haired kid will fight the circus swordsman, I will fight the hoop-hopping lion, while the captain will fight the clown. Let's end this circus act," Neve says as he runs to Mohji and Richie with Fenrir.

"Although I don't like what you called me, I will comply for now," Zoro says as he rushes to Cabaji.

"Yosshh, after I'm eating meat," Luffy declares as he jumps high in the sky and stretches his hand back and punches the angry Buggy.