Sergeant Major Tashigi:
-x-
Luffy stood in the middle of the town square at Loguetown, he had finally found the execution platform. "This was the place where the greatest pirate who ever lived died," Luffy realized, "and the place where the Pirate Age began. I wanna see exactly what he saw then before he died. Well, here it goes..."
-x-
"Captain Smoker, where are you going?" a marine called after Smoker as he exited the Gold Roger Bar.
"The town square," Smoker answered gruffly.
"Personal quest," Luffy replied when Smoker had asked him why he wanted to see the execution platform, "to see where the King of the Pirates died."
"He'll be there, I'm sure," Smoker reasoned.
"You mean, Monkey D. Luffy?" questioned one of the marines.
"Captain, I'll relay the message to Lieutenant Devo," said another one of the marines as he saluted the marine captain.
"No need," Smoker told them. "Don't bother the Lieutenant for something like this, I don't need anybody's help."
-x-
CLANK! CLANK! Luffy climbed hand-over-hand up the execution scaffold, this probably wasn't allowed but he didn't really care, he wanted to see what Gold Roger saw before he died. People were gathered in the square and stared up at the strange boy with the straw hat as he climbed like a monkey and attempted to reached the top of the scaffold.
"Hey! You! Kid!" came the voice of Marine Captain Smoker as he stood on the ground and stared up at Luffy.
"I'm kinda busy right now, can it wait a minute?" questioned Luffy as he glanced over his shoulder at the nice marine he'd attempted to get directions from.
"You're him?" Smoker inquired, "The guy with the East Blue's biggest bounty?"
"Yeah, that's me, Monkey D. Luffy," Luffy introduced himself. SLIP! "WHOOAA!" Luffy cried out in surprise as he momentarily lost his hold on the scaffold and slipped downward.
"I'm Captain Smoker of the Marines and I'm in charge of keeping the peace in this town," Smoker stated, "You're under arrest."
"Huh, arrest?" said Luffy. "Forget that, see, I'm going to the Grand Line so that I can become King of the Pirates."
"King of the Pirates?" Smoker repeated, of all the places for the little punk to say that. He picked here at the scaffold where the former King of the Pirates was killed.
"And I refused to get arrested in this town," Luffy continued.
"Then you'll have to go through me," Smoker told him as he cracked his knuckles, "you don't get to enter the Grand Line unless you're able to beat me first. That's the rule of this town. Of course, that's assuming you'll be stupid enough to fight me."
"So your saying I can't get into the Grand Line unless a beat you first?" asked Luffy, "Well, I guess I'll have to beat you."
"Let's get started," Smoker challenged.
Luffy pulled back his fist and got ready to swing at the smoky marine, "GUM... GUM..." WOING! Luffy's rubber legs were tangled in the scaffold, resulting in him getting stuck and hanging upside down from the metal rigging of the platform.
"What's this... he's made out of rubber?" Smoker commented.
"No fair, my legs are all tangled up," Luffy complained as he hung upside-down and swung back and forth.
