Chess Luffy Chap 1 (Patreon)

Chess Luffy

Luffy doesn’t eat the Gum Gum Fruit, but he does learn a lot from Shanks and his men. Like the love of games like chess, he gets his fruit training with his brother Ace, since he found it, he gets to eat it. The chess fruit is certainly interesting, Luffy sees it as a way of protecting and supporting his crew.  

Chap 1  

Monkey D. Luffy was inspired by Red Hair Shanks. The man and his crew filled the boy with dreams and ideas of adventure. They showed him skills, and games. Chess became a common game they would play with him, teaching him how to be strategic. Luffy got really good, to the point Shanks made him a deal if he could beat every crew member in chess, he could join the crew.  

Luffy did his best and beat everyone except for Benn and Shanks. He refused to give up and kept trying, even Benn had to admit Luffy’s skills were quite impressive. When he wanted to learn, it was scary how fast he absorbed information.  

Another thing they showed him was how to handle conflict. Some bandits showed up and messed with Shanks and his men, but instead of fighting they just laughed it off. Luffy didn’t get it, but he was told that some fights aren’t worth fighting, and the only way to win is to not fight.  

While the crew was away, the bandits returned to the bar Makino worked at, and continued to bad mouth Shanks. To Luffy, Shanks was a great man, and his friend, so he couldn’t sit back and say nothing when he was being insulted.  

He lacked the strength however to back up his words. It was a deep and painful learning experience. The bandits took turns kicking him around, and even the Mayor showed up to try and defend Luffy. The leader, Higuma, while he respected the old guard and the way the world worked, couldn’t see past his own arrogance and pride. He planned to kill Luffy from the start, but he enjoyed watching the old man grovel.  

Before he could do anymore harm to the boy, Shanks and his crew arrived. The bandits were cocky, and didn’t realize who they were dealing with. Benn alone took out 98% of the bandits, the 1% was a bandit who got shot in the head by Lucky Roo, the remaining 1 % was Higuma himself. Luffy was amazed at his strength, each crew member had their own unique strength and skills, and together they were a mighty force.   

Higuma treated his men like they were pawns to be sacrificed or discarded. Once cornered he fled like a coward, taking Luffy with him. He thought he was clever escaping out to sea, but failed to account for the dangers the sea faced. The Lord of the Coast swallowed the bandit in one bite, his screams of terror becoming nothing but the crunching of bones as the sea beast’s mighty jaws crushed him.  

Luffy wasn’t the best swimmer, but he was able to stay afloat. It wasn’t long before the monster went after him. Before he could kill the boy Shanks got in his way, and lost his arm. “Get lost!” with a single glare, he scared the beast off.  

The boy cried, not because he was scared, but because Shanks had given up his arm for him. He gets medical treatment, and the crew decides to leave. They had been using the town as a base for awhile now, but it was time to head off. Luffy and Shanks had to say their goodbyes, and Luffy swears he’s gonna find his own crew, one even greater than Shanks’.  

His words touched Shanks, making him smile. He gives the boy his treasured straw hat. “You can give this back to me once you’ve become a great pirate.” the boy was stunned, Shanks had told him this hat was more important than any gold or jewel to him.  

It was his turn to be touched. The crew left, leaving the boy with big dreams of becoming a pirate.  

-x-

Said dreams of being a pirate did not go over well with Garp, Luffy’s grandfather, and a Marine Hero. He wanted Luffy to become a fine marine like him. He had been training Luffy off and on, to some insane degrees.  

His latest big idea, was to leave Luffy in the care of mountain bandits...I’ll repeat that...the marine hero plans to leave his grandson with mountain bandits, to raise him to become a marine...sure…

Never mind after recent events Luffy hated mountain bandits. What’s more upon meeting Curly Dadan, and the Dadan Family, he also meets Ace, his brother?! Ace introduced himself by spitting a spit wad at Luffy.  

Not the best introduction, but Luffy took the lesson from Shanks and decided to forgive Ace. Laughing it off, and wanting to be friends with him. The older raven wanted nothing to do with Luffy, and went above and beyond to try and ditch the boy. It didn’t work...and Luffy discovered his partner in crime Sabo.  

Ace was really proud of his latest score, having stolen from the Bluejam pirates. It was quite the haul, and they added it to their treasure stash. They wanted to save up and use it to get a ship and become pirates. Luffy heard everything, and saw where they hid the treasure, so...he had to die…

That was the plan anyway, but neither Ace or Sabo had ever killed anyone. Luffy ended up getting caught by Porchemy one of Bluejam’s men, and the one who Ace stole from. The older boys thought Luffy was gonna confess right away, because one, he was a crap liar, and two, he was kinda dumb.  

So while Luffy was taken away to be interrogated the two boys moved their treasure. It took hours, and they figured Luffy spilled the beans by now. Ace did feel a little guilty, he believed Luffy would turn on him in a second, it wasn’t like he had been nice to him anyway.  

To Ace’s shock and horror Sabo returned, and gave him the horrible truth. “He didn’t talk! All this time they’ve been torturing him, and he never gave us up...Ace they are gonna kill him!” The two raced to save Luffy.  

The boy had been strung up and used as a punching bag, his arms and legs were cut up, adding fuel to the fire they had been dunking him into salt water making the wounds burn. He didn’t even have the strength to scream or cry anymore.  

Ace and Sabo burst in before Porchemy could land a killing blow. The boy was in critical care, so Ace told Sabo to get him out, while he fended off Porchemy. Which was crazy, they got the jump on Porchemy before now he was ready for them.  

It was only by a stroke of luck they got out alive, Porchemy having slipped in a puddle of Luffy’s blood, allowing the two to land a finishing blow. Ace had no choice but to take Luffy to Dadan to receive care, the bandit leader was stunned.  

“What happened?” Ace didn’t respond so she slapped him. “Damn you, tell me what happened?!”  

“He didn’t talk, I messed with the Bluejam pirates and they wanted to know where I was, he knew but didn’t give me up.”  

“You stupid fool, if that boy lives you better apologize.” she says and goes to see if she can do anything to help Luffy.  

“Is there anything I can do?” he asked, as the large woman stood in the doorway with her back to him.  

“Pray,” she left him to get his own treatment. He and Sabo had gotten roughed up as well. It was touch and go for Luffy, his body had shut down in order to save his life. He was in a coma for a week. Sabo and Ace had moved in with the bandits, out of protection and wanting to be near Luffy.  

When he finally came to the bandits had gathered round. “Hey, I’m alive...that’s nice...” he smiles. His left eye was bandaged so he could only see out of right. “Ace...did you save me?” the older raven was frozen. “Thank you!”  

“You idiot!” Ace snapped. “Why didn’t you talk? You could have been killed!”  

“Ace...” Sabo says, looking at his friend in concern.  

“I haven’t been nice to you, you don’t owe me anything, I can’t give you anything, so why?”  

“Because… Ace would hate me...I wanted to be friends...if I told you’d never want to be my friend...”  

“You idiot...” Ace drops to his knees, staring at Luffy’s bandaged body. “You really care that much about me?”

Luffy gave a weak smile. “Yeah, I wanted to be with you.”  

“So if I wasn’t around, you’d be sad?”  

“Of course I would!” Ace broke down, he hugged the boy as gently as he could and he cried. It was the first time Sabo had seen him cry. Luffy didn’t know what was going on but he was too weak to figure it out and he passed out.  

“Next time, I won’t be late, I promise I’m gonna take better care of you. I’m gonna protect you!”  

It’d be another month before Luffy fully recovered. The trio of boys were thick as thieves after that, in their hearts they were brothers. To make it official they even stole some of Dadan’s sake and became sake brothers. Their ambitions varied, Ace wanting to become a pirate so people would know his name, and know his life was worth something. Sabo wanted to become a pirate to obtain freedom, similar to Luffy but he was seeking the ultimate freedom, and becoming the Pirate King.

They also followed the pirate’s code, Luffy found a strange fruit during one of their hunting trips. As it turned out it was a devil fruit. The Chess Chess fruit, a strange fruit to say the least, one of the paramecia.  

At Luffy’s current age and power, all he could muster was conjuring pawn soldiers. These soldiers wielded two small dagger like blades. They obeyed Luffy, and were a skilled work force, and made excellent training partners.  

They needed help as Garp showed back up, and wasn’t pleased that they were still talking about being pirates. Though he was happy to take in Sabo, and give him a heavy helping of his Fist of Love.  

Garp’s real surprise was Luffy’s devil fruit power. He gave the boy a book on devil fruits and their dangers. The bandits had very little knowledge only rumor and speculations. This is where Luffy learned his biggest lesson. “A devil fruit’s power has different limits and restrictions based on the fruit, but through the user’s creativity one can surpass and tap into a devil fruit’s powers to their fullest and wildest possibilities.” So he focused on not only making himself stronger, but working on his devil fruit power.   

To be continued