Law and the Lawbreakers

Chapter 7

Roughly 5 months later, right after Luffy's 7th birthday, the crew was celebrating a successful mission at Party's once again. Amidst the laughing and partying, the door to the bar was kicked inwards. The bar went silent.

"Excuse us," a voice, presumably one of the silhouetted men in the doorway, said. He and the rest of his group walked inside. "So these are what pass for pirates around these parts," he remarked. "Looks rather sad to me." The door he'd sent flying crunched under his foot.

"Welcome gentleman," Makino said with a smile. "What can I do for you?"

"We're mountain bandits," he told her, "but we didn't come here to tear your place apart. All we want is some sake. I'd say 10 barrels should do."

"I'm sorry but actually we're fresh out of sake right now."

"Hmm? That's interesting. These pirates seem to still be drinking. Is that water in their glasses?"

"No, that just happens to be the last of what I had stocked up. I'm very sorry for the inconvenience."

Shanks spoke up from his spot at the bar next to his kids. "My apologies, gentleman. It looks like me and my friends drank the whole place dry. You can have this, if you want," he said, holding up a bottle for them. "It hasn't even been opened yet. Go ahead."

The bandit smacked the bottle, shattering it and causing the contents to spray over Shanks and the counter. "My name is Higuma. I'm wanted," he said. "There's an 8 million berry bounty on my head. One bottle isn't enough for a night cap. So don't insult me."

"Just great," Shanks muttered to himself. "Now the floor's wet. Sorry about that Makino. Do you have a rag I could clean this up with?"

"Oh, don't worry about it," Makino insisted. "I'll take care of it."

Higuma slashed the counter, clearing all the food and drinks he could reach with his sword. "Since you like to clean so much, maybe you'll find this mess more fulfilling." The bandits laughed. "Let's go, men. A bar with no booze is a bar not worth our time. See you later, pansies!" The bandits followed their leader out through the broken doorway.

Makino ran around the counter. "Captain, are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"Not a problem in the world, Makino," Shanks reassured her. Then he began laughing and shortly after, the rest of the crew joined him.

"Why are you all laughing?" Luffy shouted, standing on top of his bar stool. "What's so funny? You should have fought back, Shanks. It doesn't matter how strong they look or how many of them there are, if you just laugh it off you're not a man or a pirate."

"Look, Luffy, I know how you feel but the guy just spilled some booze on me. It's not worth getting upset about."

Luffy huffed and turned to storm out, but when Shanks grabbed his arm to turn him back, it stretched. When the crew noticed they spit their drinks out in surprise.

"Why's he stretchy?" Shanks asked, though he already had a pretty good idea of the answer.

Law immediately turned around from where he'd been focused on the mountain bandits and looked at the treasure chest they had brought with. "No, no, no," he muttered to himself. "Dad, the chest is empty! The Gum Gum Fruit is gone!"

Lucky grabbed Luffy by the shoulders and turned him to face him. "Luffy, this is really important and I need you to tell the truth, okay?"

Luffy nodded.

"Did you eat a fruit that looked like this," he said, holding up a drawing of a round purple fruit with swirls on it.

"Yeah," Luffy said. "It didn't taste very good though."

"What have you done?" Shanks shouted, grabbing Luffy's face. "The Gum Gum Fruit is a Devil Fruit. This one turns your body to rubber but Devil Fruits also take away your ability to swim for the rest of your life!"

"Big deal," Law muttered to himself as Luffy screamed.