Summary: The arrival of the Red Hair Pirate crew brings opportunities for Luffy, along with one or two surprises...

Chapter 4: The Pirates Are Here!

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Luffy was dealing with a number of unexpected complications. First, he hadn't expected the village to panic when the Red Hair Pirates showed up. In retrospect, he probably should have expected that. Shanks hadn't reached Yonko status quite yet, but his was a veteran New World crew, with an astronomically high collective bounty. In fact, if Luffy was reading things right, he was guessing that their stop at Foosha was so long because they were prepping to make that jump. Since settling in, they'd done an unusual amount of training for pirates, even if they hadn't been obvious about it. Thankfully, that settling in had happened peacefully in the end, after the Shanks and his crew had proven extremely polite to Makino, one of the few in the village that hadn't backed down and hidden when they showed up. Luffy had long since realized that Makino was far more than she seemed, something aided a great deal by finally managing to Observe her properly after he'd hit level 7.

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Makino

Title: Foosha's Hellion

Level: 37

Age: 24

Stats:

Strength: 60

Dexterity: 95

Endurance: 53

Intelligence: 41

Wisdom: 57

Charisma: 68

Luck: 40

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She was, by far, the single strongest person in the village. He had no idea how or why that was, and she didn't seem to show it off. Indeed, given how unfailingly polite and kind she was, he had no idea how she'd earned that title. He assumed it must be something in her past and had tried very hard not to show that he was more than a little wary of her after he discovering the monster in disguise that she was. Not that she could have stood up to the Red Hair Crew. There was literally only one member of that crew that Luffy could observe the level and stats of, and she was the other surprise that left him reeling.

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Uta

Title: Songstress

Level: 14

Age: 9

Stats:

Strength: 23

Dexterity: 39

Endurance: 29

Intelligence: 22

Wisdom: 9

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Uta was…real. That alone threw him for a loop. His past self had never seen any of the One Piece movies, but he'd seen enough art of her and discussions about her to know she was from one of those supposedly non-canon movies. He'd also known she was vaguely connected to both Luffy and the Red Hair Pirates. Yet, the movies hadn't been canon. Despite doing his best to discard the idea of anything he knew being accurate, her presence here had thrown him for a hell of a loop. Though it did confirm he'd been right to not attempt relying on his questionable memories of a series that might not even have been based on this exact version of the world.

Of course, despite her presence throwing him off kilter…he could hardly say it was a bad thing. He had a feeling that she and the original brash and egotistical Luffy would likely have rubbed each other the wrong way, before Luffy's weird charm eventually worked on her. In his case, though, he'd been slowly easing off of Luffy's big-headed, cocky little kid attitude for several months. He'd had to do it slowly, so it would seem like Luffy was simply growing up, as well as maybe getting out from under Garp's poor influence.

By now, no one thought it strange that he'd leveled out a bit, while still keeping his obsession with being strong. That, added to the fact that Alex had been a decent enough singer and Luffy's young voice was somewhat suited for a few songs he remembered, had helped him make fast-friends with the young Songstress. She was far better than him, of course. But even merely sharing a love for music and being able to introduce her to a bunch of songs she'd never heard was enough to break the ice. Which was nice, for more reasons than just having someone to hang out with that didn't default to treating him like a child. For one thing, given that she was apparently Shanks' adopted daughter, befriending her had allowed Luffy to quite seamlessly join in with the Red Hair crew. Something that might have been hard otherwise, as he wasn't as mindlessly brash about throwing himself in among monsters as the original Luffy would have been. For another, she was the first person close to his age that he'd met who had serious training. Well, sort of.

Luffy wasn't certain, not having wanted to directly ask, but he was fairly sure Uta hadn't been trained on purpose. Instead, she'd simply been living on a pirate ship, surrounded by a legion of doting 'uncles' who were all grotesquely powerful and thought of shooting things, punching things, and otherwise causing mayhem as fun. Add in their collective desire to make sure she could take care of herself in a pinch, and you ended up with an absurdly strong 9-year-old, who probably didn't even realize how absurd her strength was. Of course, with nearly four months having passed since his arrival and replacement of the original Luffy, he wasn't exactly normal at this point either, as shown by his own status.

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Status

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Name: Monkey D. Luffy

Age: 7

Level: 7

Devil Fruit: N/A

Money: 45000 Belli

Shop Points: 750

Perk Points: 3

Stats:

Strength: 18

Dexterity: 23

Endurance: 28

Intelligence: 44

Wisdom: 27

Charisma: 15

Luck: 25

Free Stat Points: 30

Perks

Gamer's Body: Grants a body that allows for the user to live the real world like a game. Wounds healed on rest. Status Effects removed on Rest.

Gamer's Mind: Allows the user to calmly and logically think things through. Gamer can suppress negative emotions at will.

The Will of D: Bearer holds the inherited will of the Family of D. Effect: Live in Interesting Times, ?, ?

Outsider's Perspective: Imported save data increases relevant stats, as well as relevant skills when acquired.

Gifted Hands: You are naturally good with your hands. Anything from art to martial arts gets a helping hand. Your instincts for all such things are 10% better than they should be, and you get a 5% boost to XP gain for any skill based around working with your hands.

Sage's Curve: You learn intellectual pursuits much faster than normal and retain the knowledge more completely. You have a 20% boost to learning speed and memory retention of any Intelligence or Wisdom-based skills.

Training Expert: Get the most out of training! Not just for yourself, but for your crew too! Gain instinctive knowledge of the best ways to tweak your training for those GAINS BRO! +15% XP for Training your own skills, or for Training others in skills in which you outrank your trainee by at least 10 points.

Skills

Brawling: 14

Carpentry(Ships): 24

Guns: 3

Haki(Conquerors): 1

Haki(Observation): 14

Meditation: 21

Observe: 33

Free Running: 16

Sailing: 18

Sciences: 28

Sneak: 11

Sword Mastery: 7

Spear Mastery: 5

Staff Mastery: 9

More…

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While Luffy was well behind her, he was at least within shouting distance. Better yet, he suspected he'd be stronger than her when he reached her age, despite the lack of so many able trainers constantly available. That, as far as he was concerned, was a solid vindication of his efforts. Particularly as he was currently refraining from spending stat points. He wasn't planning to hold onto them for a rainy day or emergency, not yet at least. But he was in a relatively safe environment for now and could afford to hoard them while he worked up stats the natural way. Besides, he had plenty of opportunities to gain on hand, now that he had managed to integrate with the crew a bit. It had only taken two weeks to reach the point that none of them minded if he asked for stories or participated in their parties, and he'd finally figured out who he wanted to approach for some advice first.

Which is why he was currently putting on a deliberately cute display as he pushed a tall stool over from the bar to the table that held Ben Beckman, Lucky Roux, and Limejuice. He hopped up on it, putting him almost at eye-level to the three of them, who were looking at him with more than a little amused curiosity. Beckman, who Luffy had already identified as something of an instinctive mother hen to the entire crew, as well as possibly the sole voice of marginal sanity on said crew. He put out his cigarette and lifted an eyebrow at Luffy's serious looking expression. Doing his best to mix seriousness and cuteness into a weapon, Luffy asked his most important question.

"How do you choose a weapon?"

All three men blinked, with a few others at nearby tables suddenly paying a bit more attention. This was different enough from their usual to be mildly interesting. Not letting Beckman fully recover from the odd question, Luffy gave a bit more explanation, jabbing a finger at each of them in turn, starting with Lucky.

"He uses pistols."

The finger shifted to Limejuice.

"He uses that electric staff thing. Which is sort of awesome!"

His finger drifted to Beckman, then waved at the whole crew.

"You use a rifle. Shanks uses a sword. I've seen at least one crewman with some sort of axe-pole-thingy. But I can't figure out how you choose one."

Now he definitely had the curiosity of several people, including just a spark of it from the First Mate. He withdrew and lit a new cigarette and considered for a moment.

"Well, there are a lot of ways to choose. Sometimes, it's simply what someone had access to when they started their life path. They get familiar with it and never do more than upgrade. Other times, it's chosen to correct for a weakness. Still others simply go with what naturally feels right to them, after they try several." His eyes darted to the surprisingly well-made wooden sword Luffy had on his back. "Are you trying to learn the sword?"

Luffy let himself frown, knowing from experience that the expression looked an odd combination of adorable and wrong on his usually-grinning face. Almost like a pout, but without the indignation. A devastating look he'd already discovered he was shameless about using. Pride be damned. Makino made fantastic cookies.

"I've tried a sword, and a staff, and a spear. But none of them felt…special? I mean, they all felt okay, but not like any better or worse than other things?"

It was Limejuice that spoke up this time, surprisingly.

"Sounds a bit like the problem I had until I made my staff. I used to use an axe, and it was fine, but I could pick up any other weapon and it felt fine too. Still, that's not exactly an exhaustive list. Tell you what, kid…I'm taking a break today. Why don't we try you on a few more, see if something clicks?"

Luffy didn't have to fake the blindingly bright smile that split his face. He had, after all, gotten exactly what he wanted…

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"Huh."

Limejuice and Carthright, the Red Hair crew's shipwright, were both scratching their heads. Luffy lowered the 14th practice weapon he'd tried, all but his original System Shop purchased trio having been quickly created by Carthright. As might be expected from any New World crew's shipwright, the man had proven to be ridiculously skilled with any sort of woodwork. Enough so to basically bluff making a series of increasingly esoteric wooden weapons for Luffy after Limejuice had pulled him into their little experiment. The man was a fairly cheerful sort and was looking just as puzzled as Limejuice. Though it was Limejuice that finally sighed and expanded on his 'huh.'

"Kid, you've got the weirdest problem I've ever seen. You're equally talented with a huge range of weapons. Even the strangest stuff I gave you," he waved to the rope dart Luffy had just put through its paces, "you pick up the basics of in just a few minutes. You're not good with them, exactly. But you quickly get way better than you ought to be without a hell of a lot more time to train."

Luffy did his best not to wince at that. Unlike Limejuice and Carthright, he had a very good idea what was going on. Once he used any one weapon, regardless of what it was, for a few minutes…he got a system notification that he'd gained one skill point in it's use. After that, he'd quickly been able to tell what he was doing wrong and adjust to basic use of the weapon. Not skilled use, but enough to show he had the potential to wield it instinctively. He genuinely didn't know if it was the result of the System entirely, or of original Luffy's ridiculous combat instincts. But whatever it was, it was utterly fucking with any attempt to sort out a single weapon Luffy was more talented with. He was, essentially, equally talented with both everything and nothing. Thankfully, Carthright had a very practical way of answering the problem.

"Well, it's not a bad thing. It just means you can pick whatever you want and practice with it, even build a fighting style around it, rather than being stuck to whatever you are most talented with. So how do you fight, kid? Bash someone's face in? Dodge like a maniac? What's your preference?"

That…was an excellent question, actually. How did he want to fight? He immediately dismissed canon Luffy's reckless 'charge in and tank everything while wailing with my rubber fists' approach. He still wasn't intending to take the Gomu Gomu no Mi, which meant Luffy's tendency to just tank hits so he could give them back was a bad plan. Thinking quickly on his stats, he also realized that the current him wasn't strength focused. That was mostly the result of his age, but the simply truth was that right now he was a Dex build. If he trained to stay that way, it would actually solve quite a few problems. Doubly so when paired with the Devil Fruit he was considering and the Observation Haki he'd already unlocked.

So…rapier? That seemed…like a bad idea. Even with Armament Haki that would suffer from the inability to do all that much damage. An edged weapon certainly, but sabers and katanas were commonplace. They also suffered from something that he'd always thought was dumb. Making a blade with a single edge was just…why? There were probably reasons it was so common, but he didn't understand them. He hummed for a moment, trying to think how he would fight. He'd prefer to be able to go one-handed at will, which meant a fairly light blade. So...oh! That could work! Playing up the cuteness again by firmly hitting his palm with a fist, he grinned up at Carthright.

"Well, I saw a sword like this once…"

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Twenty minutes and three prototypes later, Luffy was happy with the result. The weight still wasn't quite right, according to his Swordsmanship skill. But it was more than enough to be getting on with. Besides, he could buy a perfected version from his System Store in a few weeks anyway, without anyone noticing. The end result of his and Carthwright's little pow-wow over the design had produced a blade neither of his temporary teachers had ever seen, but which Luffy knew was a pretty good replication of a jian. A straight, double-edged sword used in many Chinese martial arts, Alex had been familiar with the weapon from various wushu style anime. It was meant to be integrated in a high-mobility style, while still being a sturdy enough bit of metal that he could use it to parry.

Better yet, it was extremely versatile, being a nice balance between thrusting and slashing styles of weaponry. Long enough in blade and handle that it could be momentarily wielded two-handed at need, but largely intended for one-handed use. Perfect, in other words, for the vague concept of a fighting style Luffy had in mind. So much so, in fact, that practicing with the prototypes to get the balance closer to right had already unlocked something relevant.

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You have gained a new Skill! By combining flowing body movements with the use of a sword, you've created the Wave Dancer sword style. Versatile and suited for high-mobility combat, this style can be complemented by various additions, such as an offhand weapon or Devil Fruit ability.

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Relevant and extremely informative, as this was the first time he'd seen the System say he'd created a skill of some sort. He did wonder if that might limit its ability to help him…but for now, he was satisfied. Limejuice and Carthright both looked intrigued, as well, looking at each other in an unspoken conversation that Luffy couldn't begin to parse. Abruptly, they both nodded, though it was Limejuice that spoke.

"Yep. We're going to have to bring him to the attention of the Captain. That looks far too much like some of his blade and gun combos for us to ignore."

Luffy blinked. Wait…Shanks used a gun? Since whe…oh. Oh, Shanks wasn't currently missing an arm and there was no indication in the show of how he'd fought before he lost it. If he used his free hand for a gun, then what Luffy had thought of as an original idea just now might actually be close to what Shanks, of all people, was already using. Just with a different style of blade. He wondered just how Shanks would react to that?

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Enthusiastically.

That's how Shanks had reacted to Luffy's 'new design.' The basic movements he was using with it weren't anything special, though he'd gotten some rapid skill increases when Shanks had recognized some similarities to his own fighting style and spent a bit of time teaching Luffy a little about how to use them. The design of the jian itself had intrigued Shanks greatly, however. Enough so that he'd worked with Carthwright to fix the remaining balance issues, possessing the language and experience to properly guide the man in what was needed. He'd then had his shipwright make a full-sized version for himself and proceeded to see what he could do with it. He'd been grinning the entire time, and something about the look on his face told Luffy that the man might just be ordering a real one made for himself at some point.

As it was, Luffy made sure to follow as much of what the older man did with it as he could, including making note of what he did when he added a heavy, double-barrel pistol for use in his right hand. He hadn't been able to track half of it, but even observing and internalizing what he could track had resulted in more skill gains. Admittedly, part of him wanted to pout at the pirate captain potentially stealing his idea. The rest of him, though, admitted that Shanks' insight into the concept was utterly invaluable. It had also gotten him more involved with Shanks than he had been before, the man rapidly deciding he liked Luffy more than just as a friend of his adoptive daughter. All around, a win for Luffy in every way. Well, almost every way. Shanks was, shockingly, too responsible to allow a 7-year-old to try wielding a gun…

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A/N: Before I get any 'well, actually' type comments...I know Uta is 'real.' I looked into it and saw that she's one of the few Film characters that are canon, though the events of the movie she's part of are not. Odd mix, that. The point is while I did my research to discover that fact, Alex would not have known, and thus Luffy didn't expect her to be. It also helps leave me some wiggle room to include movie character is I decide I want to, later.