The dust cloud slowly dissipated, revealing the utter absurdity of the situation. Soren stood with his piece of charcoal hovering over the rough parchment of his leather-bound journal, completely captivated by the bizarre boy in the straw hat. The stranger was casually dusting off his red vest, entirely unfazed by the massive crater he had just carved into the stone courtyard. His laughter was bright and infectious, ringing out over the groans of the defeated Marines scattered around them.
"You... you stretched," Zoro finally managed to say, his gruff voice laced with a rare thread of genuine bewilderment. His silver eyes darted from the shattered remains of Captain Morgan's towering stone statue to the boy's bizarrely uninjured limbs. "You stretched like a rubber band."
"Yep!" the boy chirped, flashing a grin so wide it threatened to split his face in half. He pinched his own cheek, stretching the skin out a good two feet before letting it snap back against his teeth with a sharp, comical thwack. "I ate the Gum-Gum Fruit! I am a rubber man!"
Soren let out a delighted, booming laugh. The sheer ridiculousness of this new world never ceased to amaze him. He quickly flipped his charcoal upside down and sketched a rapid, exaggerated caricature of the boy's elastic face.
"Fascinating! Another Devil Fruit user. I am Soren Corvus, the official chronologer and aspiring botanist of a crew that does not quite exist yet. And this grumpy fellow with the terrible sense of direction is Roronoa Zoro."
"I do not have a terrible sense of direction," Zoro snapped, his massive hand resting defensively on the hilt of his white-handled katana. "The roads in this town are just built wrong. They twist when they should turn."
"Right, the roads are the problem," Soren smiled warmly, his bright blue eyes twinkling with amusement. "Anyway, Straw Hat, what brings a flying rubber boy to a heavily fortified Marine base?"
"Oh, right!" The boy slammed his fist into his palm, a spark of immense determination replacing his goofy demeanor. "I am Monkey D. Luffy! And I am going to be King of the Pirates! I heard Zoro was super strong, so I came here to ask him to join my crew."
Zoro stared at Luffy for a long, heavy moment before letting out a sharp scoff. "Pirate King? Are you out of your mind? I am not playing pirate with a rubber child. My ambition is to become the world's greatest swordsman. I have my own path, and I do not need a captain."
"But you are a wanted criminal now anyway!" Luffy laughed, pointing a stretched finger at the groaning Marines still hopelessly tangled in the thick, fibrous roots Soren had summoned from the cobblestones. "Besides, the King of the Pirates absolutely needs the best swordsman in the world by his side! It makes perfect sense!"
Before Zoro could formulate a suitably harsh rejection, the temperature in the courtyard seemed to plummet. A rhythmic, heavy thud echoed from the massive archway of the main Marine building, followed by the terrifying scrape of heavy metal dragging against stone. "Who... who destroyed my statue?"
The voice was a deep, guttural growl that vibrated right through the thick soles of Soren's boots. Stepping out of the shadows and into the glaring sunlight was a man who looked less like a human being and more like a walking battleship. Captain Morgan was terrifyingly massive. His lower jaw had been completely replaced by a bolted, heavy steel plate that clamped shut with a mechanical finality. But it was his right arm that commanded the most terrified attention. In place of a hand and forearm, a gigantic, brutal steel axe head was grafted directly into his flesh.
"Oh, hey!" Luffy waved casually, completely ignoring the murderous, oppressive aura radiating from the giant man. "Are you the guy in charge here? Sorry about your big statue, but it broke my fall."
"Father!" Helmeppo shrieked from the sidelines, still cowering pathetically behind a stack of wooden crates. "Kill them! They hit me, and then they beat up your men, and that stupid rubber boy ruined your monument!"
Captain Morgan's eyes narrowed into tiny slits of pure, unadulterated malice. He did not look at Luffy, Zoro, or Soren. Instead, he glared down at a trembling Marine lieutenant standing near the courtyard entrance, his own subordinate. "Lieutenant. Why are these criminals still breathing in my courtyard? I ordered this town locked down. Execution is the penalty for treason. Kill them. Now."
The young lieutenant slowly raised his rifle, his hands shaking so violently he could barely keep the barrel straight. He looked at Zoro, then at Soren's bright, unbothered face, and finally back to his terrifying captain. "But, sir... they... they are just kids. And the statue... it was an accident..." "Insubordination," Morgan hissed, raising his massive axe-arm high into the air. The sunlight caught the razor-sharp edge of the blade. "The only absolute power in this base is my word. If you question it, you die."
Morgan swung the giant axe down toward his own lieutenant with blinding, brutal speed. The young Marine squeezed his eyes shut, dropping his rifle and bracing for the inevitable end.
It never came.
Soren moved with a fluid, terrifying grace that completely contradicted his sunny, silly disposition. When it mattered, his dependability was an unbreakable wall. He closed the distance in a heartbeat, dropping his leather journal safely back into his waterproof pouch. He did not bother drawing the long curved knife from his hip. Instead, he slammed his calloused palms together, his blue eyes flashing with intense, primal focus.
Wood-Wood Barricade.
Thick, ancient oak roots erupted from the cracked cobblestones directly above the kneeling lieutenant. They twisted and braided together in a fraction of a second, smelling of damp, rich earth and ancient forests. They formed a dense, hardened shield of living wood. Morgan's steel axe slammed into the barricade with a deafening crack that echoed across the entire town. Wood splinters exploded into the air like shrapnel, but the shield held firm, stopping the lethal blow mere inches from the terrified Marine's head.
"You know," Soren said, his voice dropping its cheerful lilt to become a bedrock of cold, dependable steel. "A true leader inspires loyalty through genuine friendship and mutual respect, not through fear and execution. Using your own men as target practice is incredibly bad form."
Morgan wrenched his axe free from the splintered wood, his steel jaw trembling with absolute rage. "Devil Fruit trash! I am the law! I am Captain Morgan!"
"Yeah, and you are also a huge jerk," Luffy added, suddenly appearing right beside Soren. The rubber boy pulled his arm back, stretching it impossibly far behind him until the tension hummed audibly through the air. "Gum-Gum...Pistol!"
Luffy's fist snapped forward like a cannonball, planting squarely into Morgan's steel jaw. The deafening ring of flesh meeting metal echoed out as the massive captain staggered backward, his heavy boots carving deep trenches into the stone courtyard.
"Do not think you two are leaving me out of this," Zoro grunted. He stepped up beside Soren and Luffy, reaching down to draw his two remaining white-handled katanas. He rested one over his shoulder, a feral, battle-hungry grin finally breaking through his normally stoic mask. "If I am going to be a wanted man, I might as well earn the bounty."
Soren glanced at the rubber boy throwing impossible punches and the deadly swordsman radiating lethal intent. The sheer chaos of it all was beautiful. Soren finally drew the long curved knife from his hip, the polished blade glinting in the sunlight. With his free hand, he willed the residual roots around the courtyard to coil tightly around his left forearm, forming a hardened, spiked wooden gauntlet.
"Well then, Captain," Soren smiled, his bright, happy personality returning in full force as his blue eyes locked onto the towering tyrant. "Let us see if your absolute power can handle the three of us."
Morgan roared, raising his axe high as he charged blindly forward. Soren darted in to meet him, his wooden gauntlet raised to intercept the handle of the axe, setting the stage for Zoro's slicing counter-attack and Luffy's devastating momentum. The true adventure had firmly begun.