#luffy focus

[opcoveraus]

I honestly cannot put into words how nostalgic going through these old chapter covers is making me. It’s like I’m falling in love all over again.

Though I notice more now. Like, Luffy, what are you looking into the distance for? The sails are up and the anchor is down. You’re docked.

AU where these two actually spend some time on a proper ship together instead of just being a couple lost idiots on a rowboat for a couple days.

I don’t know where they got the ship. Probably stole it in a harbour somewhere. They’re still terminally lost idiots, but at least they can somewhat make it from island to island now.

Zoro ends up painting the first version of the flag, just to avoid Luffy’s monstrosity. It’s still not great and won’t be until they catch up with canon, but it doesn’t look like abstract art.

Even with the flag, they’re frequently mistaken for bounty hunters, because at this point, Zoro is a lot more famous than Luffy and honestly, what pirate crew has only two members?

It drives both of them up the wall. Zoro might not have cared earlier, but if he’s a pirate, he’s going to be a pirate dammit. And yeah, okay, they might hand in a few assholes for bounties, but that’s because they were already fighting them for various reasons and money is nice, especially when you’re essentially drifting blindly.

After the fifth time someone makes the mistake, they decide enough is enough.

You know what’ll definitely make people recognize them as pirates? A bounty.

They didn’t get one on either of them the last time they raided a marine base, because of the whole mess with Morgan, but they can always try again.

They find a marine base. Unfortunately, said marine base is already under attack from another set of pirates. Shenanigans ensue, and they accidentally end up saving it instead.

The marines still don’t believe them when they insist afterwards that they’re pirates too.

By now they’ve made sort of friends. It’d be awkward to attack them. Better try again elsewhere.

More shenanigans ensue.

By the time they finally run into Nami, they still don’t have a bounty on either of their heads, and they’ve run their ship aground so many times they’re really starting to need a new one.

[opcoveraus]

And we’ve begun.

Chapter one, the beginning of the adventure. The first cover of the series, it’s a little unusual. Worth mentioning is that Nami shows up here, long before Zoro does. This is also a scene that could never actually happen in canon, as neither (non-child) Luffy nor Nami ever spend time with Shanks’s crew.

Also, I’ve said it before and will say it again, Romance Dawn is an incredible name for a first chapter.

AU: Red-Hair Pirate Luffy

As a child, Luffy begged Shanks time and time again to join his crew and be a pirate. In this world, he somehow succeeded.

Exactly how this happened is hard to say, but Shanks didn’t lose his arm and did change his mind, and decided to bring a seven-year-old to sea. For some reason.

Luffy ends up raised as a pirate, and if you thought he was a wild child before, you’ve got no idea.

He’s basically copying Shanks’s role on the Oro Jackson, cabin boy, feral brat and occasional hatstand, except much more likely to randomly run off into the woods and have to be rescued.

He has a ship full of dads now. When he finally meets Usopp, they’re gonna be brothers.

If he meets Usopp, that is.

He’s still going to take off on his own at some point, but for now, he’s more or less okay as is. He already has his freedom, after all.

Nami never meant to get involved with pirates any more than absolutely necessary. She’ll rob the hell out of them, but still can’t stand them.

When she runs into a famous Grand Line crew out in the East Blue on vacation, currently drinking themselves into a stupor on some island, she gets overconfident and figures they’ll be easy targets.

They’re friendly enough when she asks to join them, and she settles in to play the long con.

When she gets to talking to the one member of the crew that’s her own age, she doesn’t expect to like him so much.

She didn’t expect to start feeling like, maybe, robbing this crew would be regrettable.

She has no idea yet how long she’s going to end up staying with them.

[opcoveraus]

Yes, yes, I know. It says Zolo. It’s the official translation. What can you do?

I have always wondered if the shark on this cover is supposed to symbolize Zoro. He’s pretty shark-like at times.

AU: No Devil Fruit for Luffy

This is the most unlikely of AUs, one in which Luffy learns how to swim.

To begin with, things are pretty much the same. Luffy is a little less invulnerable and floats a little better, but he’s still the same brat who stabbed himself in the face to show how tough he is.

He’s more vulnerable and doesn’t have the same wide array of tricks to pull on an opponent, but he makes up for it by keeping the stick fighting and by becoming a dangerously skilled swimmer.

He’ll probably never be particularly good at any given school of staff fighting, but he knows how to efficiently beat things with an iron pipe for sure.

He can hold his breath longer than should be reasonably possible, can lap an island faster than most ships, and sometimes,

only sometimes,

he swims down and tames/befriends various deadly sea creatures.

Most people would rather he stopped doing that.

[opcoveraus]

Ugh, he’s so cute. How am I supposed to deal with this? He’s just sleeping there, cuddling with a tiger. Should be illegal.

AU: Raised by Tigers

This doesn’t require that much of a change, honestly. 

Luffy gets lost in the woods one day and doesn’t get found, and doesn’t find his way back.

Somehow stumbles into a tiger den and falls asleep.

Mama tiger wakes up later and decides that yeah, actually this is the number of tiger cubs she has. Definitely.

Luffy is a little confused, but she gives him meat to eat, so sure, he’ll call her Mom.

Her smallest cub doesn’t seem to grow as fast as his siblings, but he eats enough and he climbs better than any of them, so Mom figures it’s probably fine. His teeth and claws also aren’t as good, but after a bit of nudging and guideance, he learns to hunt just fine.

Mom is a very good teacher. Better than any Luffy has had before. She doesn’t use any words or anything, just shows him, and she doesn’t think he’s stupid when she has to show him twice.

His siblings leave, eventually, but Mom doesn’t throw him out. He’s still too small to be on his own. And then there are more siblings, and he can help teach them this time.

The next year there’s another clutch.

Luffy has a lot of siblings, and all of them are tigers.

He’ll still be a pirate some day, he figures, but he has to learn to fight first, so for now, he’s staying here.

(Somewhere out there, people have almost given up hope that he’s still alive.)

[opcoveraus]

A couple of the earliest chapters, four and six, don’t have chapter covers, which is why we skip those in the lineup.

Anyway, Zoro exists now!

AU: Vacation Time

This is a peaceful one.

Luffy and Zoro are childhood friends, now high school age, whose foster families have been brought on friendly terms by their youngest sons getting attached to each other.

For the first time, the two families have gone on vacation together.

As the children of both families are going to get lethally bored within the first two days, they’re soon to learn that this was a very, very bad idea.

But for now, it’s still peaceful.

(Featuring: alive!Kuina as the cool older sister, goth little sister Perona hissing at the sun, goth dad Mihawk wondering why the hell he decided to adopt, a very tired Dadan cursing Garp for handing these kids off to her, Sabo disappearing to do crimes in secret, Ace disappearing to do crimes in public, and Luffy and Zoro causing a ton of trouble and having a blast.)

[opcoveraus]

I’m pretty sure this is a reference to something, folklore-wise. Rabbits making mochi on the moon? Something like that.

They never should’ve given Luffy the hammer, either way.

AU: Luffy has a hammer.

That’s it. That’s the AU.

We give him more range and a harder punch.

He’s unstoppable now.

What have we done.

Run. Save yourself.

It’s already far too late.

[opcoveraus]

I love the vibe early One Piece has. Just the relaxed, careless attitude that comes with being no one yet.

I love what it’s turned into as well, and I love that it’s been allowed to evolve over time as stakes get higher and the world gets larger, but I’ll always have a particular love for the early days, when the adventure had just begun.

AU: Cartography

In a more peaceful world, there might be no need to be a pirate to be free.

Luffy would still sail, of course. He’ll always sail, will never be content unless the whole wide world is before him, but if he has that, he’s fine.

Nami has her goal. No one has mapped the world yet.

Parts of it, yes, and there are projects to gather and combine all the maps that do exist, but the world map still has large holes, and she’s determined to complete it.

They suit each other well, like this. Just the two of them (and the rest of the crew, presumably) sailing the world to seek out the blank spots on the map.

Her to map them out, him because he wants to see what’s there.

It’s not always peaceful. The world may be kinder, but the sea is cruel still, and there will always be enemies. They need every skill they have at hand just to survive.

But they’re not criminals in this world. They can land at harbours without fearing for their lives, expecting a warm welcome. Hell, they’re hailed as heroes some places, out there risking their lives to provide tools the whole world wants and needs.

(Luffy’s no hero. He just wants to have fun.)

(Nami will let herself be called whatever if it means not having to pay for their food.)

Mostly it’s this. Days of hard work and measurements, of gaining access to the inaccessible, and drawing it out on paper.

Then a feast, when they’re done, when the whole island is captured on their maps.

And then a new course, a new adventure. New friends to make and dangers to face.

It will take a lifetime to see it all, but they would have it no other way.

[opcoveraus]

You know what I have to do with this one?

AU continuation: Red Hair Pirate Luffy

So tiny Luffy begs and begs to come along on a trip with Shanks. He wants to be a pirate too!

Shanks is understandably dubious. 

Maybe hypocritically. He grew up on a pirate ship too. But on the other hand, look how he turned out?

The sea isn’t a place for a child, and he knows that better than anyone.

But the kid is persistent, so at some point, someone suggests that they could bring him, maybe just once, just on a small trip, so he can understand that they’re not just joking when they say it’s dangerous.

It goes surprisingly well.

Luffy does understand, they realize. Maybe better than they could’ve expected from a kid his age. He just thinks the danger is worth it.

And that... well, they’re pirates. They can respect that.

And he’s not even that much trouble. Only falls in the water twice, and he’s eager to help, and learns quickly when he gets to learn with his hands.

It’s not the only trip he comes along on. Not even close.

Somehow, he’s become a regular fixture on the ship. It’s starting to get hard to imagine being a Red Hair Pirate without having to sometimes stumble over Luffy as he runs across the deck.

He really brings a ray of sunshine to the ship that everyone appreciates.

When it’s time to leave Dawn behind for good and set out towards bigger adventures... Shanks still isn’t thrilled to bring a kid, but at this point, there’s nothing he can do.

And so our adventure begins...