Chapter 4 Competing (Just An Introduction To The Next Chapter..)

In the midst of the 23rd marine training base, 90 trainees walked out of their cabins expecting to find their usual instructor, but instead found one Monkey D. Luffy stretching his legs with a turkey leg in his mouth.

"Yo!" Luffy cheered as he began to stretch his arms.

"Where… Where is Instructor Locket?" one of them asked.

"Took the day off." He explained with his mouth still full, "So you get me today! Just wait a bit while I finish stretching."

They all stared in shock at this new face who seemed like he didn't have a single serious bone in his body.

"Shouldn't you get them to line up or something?" Rei yawned as she walked towards them.

"Rei!" Luffy's face lit up, "What are you doing here?"

Her face immediately turned gloomy as she gritted her teeth and muttered "I got in trouble for tying up some guys at the base the other day and this is my punishment. What about you? I didn't know that you would be here today."

He scratched his head, "Oh… about that…"

Yesterday

"I want Coby to be in my crew, starting now." Luffy demanded.

Garp sighed as he continued to organize the papers on his desks. When Luffy came barging into his office, he knew that it would only be for some selfish request.

"Luffy, if you want to request a certain individual to be a part of your unit, then you need to file the proper paperworks which could take months for it to be even looked at. Even then, Coby would still have to go to a training camp before he can go out into the field. And you of all people should know how long that could take!"

Luffy pouted and just stared big puppy dog eyes at him.

Garp rubbed his temple, "Weren't you complaining about a wimpy short kid when you called me after your Alvida mission? Why the sudden change of heart?"

He sat down on the chair across from Garp's desk, "After what happened in Shells Town, he became a little less wimpy. I think he's starting to become a little more interesting. He's still short though."

"Bwahahaha!" Garp laughed as he stood up, walked around his desk, and clapped Luffy on the back (a little too hard).

"Ouch!" Luffy cried, "What was that for?!"

When he finally finished laughing, he wiped his eyes and sat down on top of his desk. "That was my 'congratulations' slap!" When he noticed Luffy's confused look, he continued, "You're finally starting to grow up a little! The way you feel about Coby right now is the same feeling that a teacher has for their student! You saw some potential in Coby, so now you want to help him develop that potential and see where he goes." Noticing that Luffy had fallen asleep, Garp smacked him on the head and shouted "Wake up!"

"Ouch!" He cried again.

"Pay attention when someone's talking to you!"

Rubbing his head, Luffy asked "So can he be in my crew or not?!"

Garp sighed in frustration, "Listen, and I mean really listen this time!" He held up his fist threateningly. "I'll make a deal with you okay? Some of the instructors at the training base have been complaining about being overworked. So if you help instruct the recruits at the training base tomorrow, then I'll pull some strings and let Coby join your unit after one month."

"One month?! That's too long!" Luffy shouted.

"That's the best I can do so either take it or leave it!" Garp shouted back.

Luffy was silent for a moment with his eyebrows scrunched together. "... Fine."

Garp grinned "Good! Be there at 6 o'clock sharp tomorrow!"

Present

"So that's why I'm here!" Luffy finished.

Rei smiled "That's so sweet how you would do that for Coby!"

He scratched his head "Yeah, well… it's not really a big deal. I kind of missed being here…This place brings back a lot of memories…" Before Rei could question him about it, Luffy cleared his throat and asked, "So um… why is Zoro here?"

He pointed at a single green haired figure who was standing at the side by himself. With his arms crossed, Zoro glared at anyone who dared to glance at him. He was emitting a murderous aura that kept everyone away from him.

Rei laughed "He got in trouble too for hurting some guys at the base the other day. They must be really desperate if they even want him to instruct today. Or perhaps this is just a scheme to convince him to join the marines?" She snickered at the thought of Zoro in uniform.

"What the hell are you laughing at?!" Zoro demanded as he walked towards them.

She only laughed harder as she struggled to gasp out "You... in… a… sailor boy outfit!"

"Go to hell." He growled at her through clenched teeth.

"Already been there." She batted her eyelashes innocently.

"Shishishi! I think it's about time that we get started!" Luffy declared before he took a deep breath and shouted "EVERYONE, LINE UP!"

All of the trainees immediately got into their positions. As they stood there waiting for further instructions, they sweatdropped as Luffy began to pace in front of them, eyeballing every single one of them. Finally, he walked back towards Zoro and Rei. Then the three of them crossed their arms and tilted their heads to the side in confusion.

"What are we even supposed to do with them?" Zoro asked.

"Beats me." Rei shrugged her shoulders.

"Lunch break?" Luffy suggested.

Rei glared at him before demanding "Weren't you once a trainee here too? Shouldn't you know what to do?!"

"Hold on!" Zoro pointed at Rei, "What about you?! You're a marine so you should've gone to this stupid camp thing too! So what are you acting so lost for?!"

She smiled smugly "I was accepted for this job under special circumstances so I wasn't required to join a training camp."

"Damn witch." He muttered under his breath, "Probably casted some spell and hypnotized them to let you in…"

"I heard that!" She shouted while pinching his ear.

"Um… We should really get started…" A quiet voice came from the back row of the line up of trainees. Everyone turned their head towards the pink haired boy with glasses who had spoken up.

Luffy cleared his throat "Yeah, you're right. How about we start by splitting everyone into groups of three? Then Zoro, Rei, and I could each lead one group."

"Fine with me." Zoro grunted.

"Yeah, sounds good!" Rei agreed.

"Yosh!" Luffy pumped his fists in the air before shouting "I get first pick!"

Everyone sweatdropped as Luffy sprinted towards the trainees and twisted and turned around them all as he began to pick out what seemed to be a completely random group of people.

Coby waited in anticipation when Luffy finally got to the very last row. 'He'll definitely pick me too! I can't wait to be a part of Luffy's group!'

"27, 28, 29...30." Luffy finished, skipping Coby and stopping at the person right next to him instead.

Coby blinked his eyes, surprised that Luffy hadn't picked him. "Huh?" He asked out loud.

"Alright, everyone that I picked will come with me this way." Luffy announced.

"Eh?" Coby began in a voice barely above a whisper, "B-but… wait…"

"Let's go." Luffy walked past him with his group, ignoring him the entire time.

Coby's face fell as he continued to watch Luffy's group walk away. He felt ashamed and embarrassed of himself for believing that Luffy would favour him after what happened in Shell's Town. That he would be able to immediately start his training with the person he had recently begun to admire.

Zoro, who had witnessed everything, went up to Coby and said in a quiet voice "Let's go. You're with me today."

He went with Zoro with the rest of their group following behind them.

When he noticed that Coby still seemed to be depressed, he lightly smacked him on the back of his head and said "Relax, will ya?! It's not the end of the world that Luffy didn't pick you! It's impossible for anyone to try to understand him…"

"I know it's not the end of the world!" He cried, "But I just wanted to…"

"You wanted to what?" Zoro demanded, "Train with Luffy and only him? So you could forever become his shadow and have him guide you through everything? You'll never grow as your own person if you stay like that! He may have specifically asked for you to join his crew, but that doesn't mean he's going to interfere with everything you do from now on! He's just not that kind of Captain, you know?"

Coby sighed "Yeah, you're right."

However, still seeing the troubled expression on Coby's face, Zoro sighed too and admitted, "When I was still on the boat that was arriving here this morning… I heard a little rumour about Luffy."

Coby looked at Zoro's face, newly interested in what he was saying.

Zoro continued as he looked into the distance at Luffy's group. "It wasn't anything horrible. Just that when Luffy was still a trainee, he had to stay here for three years."

Coby almost choked "Three years?! The most time that anyone ever spends at a training base is only one year!"

Zoro laughed "Apparently he wasn't the greatest fighter back then, so they had to hold him back a few years." When the shock on Coby's face was replaced with a look of sympathy, Zoro nodded in Luffy's direction "Take a really good look at the people in his group."

Coby did as he was told, and with a closer inspection, he noticed that they all had something in common. They all looked… well… unfit. It was a group full of nervous, out of shape trainees who you wouldn't look twice at.

'They're just like me.' Coby realized.

"Why did Luffy…" Coby began to ask.

"Choose to train a bunch of incompetent wussies?" He said bluntly. Coby noded shyly.

"Perhaps he felt like he could relate to them more." Zoro mused, "Perhaps he wanted to personally help them and encourage them for the tough life they're about to have. Who knows? No one will ever be able to understand what he's thinking." He shrugged his shoulders. "But the point is that you're here with me and not with Luffy. Which means that Luffy himself believes that you're a fully capable person who doesn't need to always rely on him."

Coby stayed silent for another moment; long enough for Zoro to wonder if he was still upset.

Finally Coby smiled "For someone who says no one could ever understand Luffy, you sure seem like you understand him pretty well."

"Sometimes I wonder about that as well…" Zoro sighed.

"Heeeeeeeeey!" They all turned their heads to find Rei shouting at them from the distance, "Slacking off already, Zoro? We just started!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" He yelled back at her.

She smirked "Use your eyes a little and look around you."

Zoro did as he was told and saw that his group of trainees had wandered off into their own smaller groups to fool around while Zoro had been talking to Coby. Meanwhile, Luffy and Rei's group of trainees were hard at work.

"Everyone get back in line!" Zoro growled. Apparently, no one had heard him and they all continued what they were doing.

Rei laughed, "If you need some pointers on how to get people to listen to you, then I'm happy to help!"

This only enraged Zoro more as he emitted a murderous intent, "Get. Back. In. Line. NOW!" He shouted, earning him a surprised "Eep!" from Coby. This time, everyone heard him and quickly rushed into their positions in front of Zoro.

Zoro glared at Rei "I'm not losing to you."

She raised an eyebrow in surprise, "I didn't know this was a competition."

"Does that mean you forfeit?" He asked.

She put her finger on her chin while she thought about it for a moment before saying, "No."

"Good." Zoro smirked before turning his attention back to his trainees. They all shuddered from the evil smile that he was giving them. "Run." Was the only thing that he said. When they gave him a confused look, he slowly started to unsheathe one of his swords. They all got the message and began to run for their lives. To where and for how long, they were too panicked to ask.

Zoro gave one last smirk to Rei, "I'm going to win."

"Oh no you're not!" She quickly turned to her own trainees who were doing 200 pushups. "Make that another 200 pushups!" Rei ordered. They all looked up from her in surprise. "Another 300." She glared at them. They quickly went back to doing their pushups without another word. The trainees soon realized that this was going to be a very long day.

To be honest, this chapter was mostly just an introduction to the next chapter...

Next time, you'll learn more about Luffy's past while he was still a new recruit. You'll also find out just how scary of an instructor that Rei and Zoro can be! What are they competing for? Who's going to win? Who knows! I don't even know yet...

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