One Piece - I Am A Different Luffy! - Chapter 505 - Let's Further Expand the Fleet 02.

[Chapter Size: 1900 Words.]
Third Person POV

Fish-men Sland.

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“You want my family to join you?” Katakuri said suspiciously.

“You have another choice? But I don’t want you to become directly part of my fleet. After all, you’ll be operating from a specific base, which is your base. You can say we’ll become allies.” Luffy said.

Katakuri could be like Ace, acting as an ally, but still with Luffy in command. The Yonko positions would be free for him and the other Yonkos that he fought and defeated, so he had faith that Ace and Katakuri could take on this position in the future.

“Why are you doing this and why do you think I’d accept, this is very strange.” Katakuri murmured looking at Luffy. The subordinates of this man had defeated him easily, he clearly wanted to make him and his family into subordinates just like he imagined.

“Because I have faith in your potential and I’ll need it in the final war.” Luffy said.

“Final war?” Katakuri narrowed his eyes.

“A battle that will happen in the future, the whole world against us, I need all the allies who can fight by my side. It won’t be just one battle and you won’t be able to escape from it, that’s why I want us to become allies and for you to follow me in this fight along with your family. Even if you think I’m using you here, I’ll repeat that it will involve the entire world and you won’t have a choice.” Luffy said with his arms crossed.

“...” Katakuri was sitting on his saddle with his high knees below his elbows, hiding his teeth, something he didn’t show to anyone.

“My family... how many of my siblings... died in this war?” He asked with more seriousness than anything else.

“Don’t worry, no one died, all were spared, at least the members of the Charlotte family, now your allies and soldiers, well, a lot of them died.” Luffy said.

“I see... that’s good.” He seemed relieved to hear that.

“If I accept your proposal... will you let my siblings go free?” Katakuri added this question.

“Yes... your whole family will be released, as long as I get some information from them, like your sister. Pudding, she needs to give me the memory of your red poneglyph.” Luffy requested.

“I see... that sounds reasonable and all you ask is that we become allies and fight in your final battle? And mama?” Katakuri asked again just to make sure Luffy wouldn’t leave anything out of his requirements.

“Exactly, but you’ll have to follow some rules, after all I’m not a big fan of Big Mom killing a bunch of people just for petty reasons like not showing up to her tea parties. As for your mother, she’ll be imprisoned and won’t leave custody again. You’ll take over leadership of the Big Mom Pirates and I advise you to just change the name, you know, continuing that name with you in command would be strange, try something like the Great Charlotte Family or something like that.” Luffy said, shrugging.

“I see...” Katakuri seemed thoughtful, he was considering everything, did he even have a choice to begin with? He had an opportunity at this moment.

“Your lands were attacked by Blackbeard...” Luffy suddenly said, seeing him deep in thought as Katakuri looked at the man, his hat nowhere in sight, stunned.

“There were still members of my family there...!” He stood up with a tone of urgency.

"I don’t really know. All I know was reported in the newspaper. And even if it wasn’t reported, some information reached me." Luffy replied and continued.

"I know they took the red Poneglyph kept in the vaults of your mother’s castle, but the place looked pretty destroyed. I haven’t had time to check yet."

“Damn.” Katakuri seemed quite nervous as he clenched his fists. There were siblings who couldn’t go to war when their mother summoned them for the battle at Onigashima.

"You want this, Katakuri? To protect your family? But just that is not enough." Luffy spoke to him again.

"Seriously, you will now have to become far more powerful than you’ve ever been. You must reach your mother’s level and surpass it. Only then will you protect your family.

Because we will still be allies, and I’ll help when I can. But we won’t be your babysitters. You’ll have to survive the New World without Big Mom. Are you prepared for that? Are you willing to accept my offer?" He asked with a serious look.

Katakuri no longer even cared to hide his face after what he heard about his homeland. He looked at Monkey D. Luffy and nodded slowly.

"I accept your offer, Straw Hat. Free me and my siblings. I will become strong and fight by your side when the time comes, along with my family."

"Great." Luffy gave a smile. "I’ll have someone free you and your family. Meanwhile, gather everyone in Alabasta, we’ll have a meeting with you all, and you may leave after that. After all, I’ll have to explain some things I expect from you."

Katakuri nodded... with some doubts still. But also confident. They would let his family go and take care of what happened with the destruction Blackbeard must have caused to reach the Poneglyph.

Leaving Katakuri’s room, Luffy kept walking through the prison as he headed toward the next group, finding a Lunarian training while punching the air with force.

"You look busy." Luffy said, standing in front of him.

King didn’t even look at Luffy, continuing to punch the air.

"Come to mock us, Straw Hat?" He muttered, still punching.

Luffy just gave a small smile. "You know... I heard some stories about you, King. You were captured by the World Government and used as an experiment. No wonder they now have weapons made based on your genetics."

Luffy began, while King stopped his strikes, narrowing his eyes, wondering where Straw Hat was going with this.

"Surely it couldn’t have been easy for you. And I’m sorry for that. But I also heard that this same boy imprisoned by the Government for years was searching for the return of Joy Boy. That one day he would return to free the world." Luffy left the question hanging.

"What do you know about that? Joy Boy is just a myth..." He muttered.

"You say that because you were unconscious and didn’t know what happened in the battle. Did someone tell you it wasn’t me who defeated Kaido?" Luffy asked.

"I heard something... I heard it was your sister." He muttered, remembering that the men who put him in prison had commented about it.

Luffy nodded. "Yes. She awakened her fruit... a mythical Zoan. And not a Paramecia, like everyone thought. Do you believe there’s a Zoan capable of turning someone into a god?"

Luffy said calmly, looking directly at him.

"What do you mean by that?" King was confused.

"I’m saying that my sister’s fruit... it’s actually called, Hito Hito no Mi, mythical type: model God Nika. The same power Joy Boy used 800 years ago. And everyone who has the ability of the Voice of All Things in the world felt the drums of liberation the moment she awakened... declaring that Joy Boy had returned." He explained.

King seemed surprised by that. There was a feeling in him… the feeling of wanting to believe it immediately, but there was still a lot of distrust.

"And what do you want with all this?" King looked seriously again, still unsure where Straw Hat was going with all of this. Not knowing that his name had already changed... That is, Straw Hat was no longer on his head, but rather given to the Joy Boy of this era.

"It's very simple. I want you to join me, under my flag. Become a member of my fleet and help me in the Final Battle." Luffy said.

"So... you do want to recruit me after all. And what do you mean by 'Final Battle'?" He asked. He wasn't too surprised by the first part—after all, it was understandable. But... turning his back on Kaido? Wouldn't that be the same as betraying him? The man who saved him?

"The Final Battle will be for the liberation of this world. A war that will involve everyone. Don’t you want the chance to fight against the World Government? Avenge everything they did to you? And stop anyone else from suffering what you suffered? You know very well… your race was entirely exterminated by them. You may be the last of your kind." Luffy said.

"You really think you can handle all those monsters?" King muttered.

"You believed Kaido could. And we are stronger than Kaido. You didn’t even have a chance, and we still had a fight you weren’t even aware of. The World Government sent a considerable force to destroy us… and we still won." He said.

"..." King stayed silent for a few seconds, thinking about it—it didn’t seem like a lie, after all.

"What happened to Kaido?" He asked.

"Kaido is now being kept prisoner. And I won’t give him freedom. That’s because I doubt I can control him, even being stronger." Luffy commented, knowing Kaido was far too proud to try to follow someone’s orders—he wasn’t as young as he was during the time of Rocks.

Luffy planned to use Kaido and Big Mom at another time, but, for now, he would keep them imprisoned.

"I see..." King seemed a bit frustrated at that moment. But what else could he do? Maybe... maybe he could have a chance at revenge. Finally fight against the Celestials and the World Government, like Kaido once planned.

"If you don’t want to be in my fleet, you can just become an ally. But in that case, you won’t have an island to protect and you’ll have to stay here. You don’t need to use my flag… but I will need you in this Final Battle." Luffy said.

"...No." King shook his head. "I’ll accept. I’ll be part of your fleet." He decided, as Luffy nodded, satisfied with that.

"Great. I’ll have someone release you. But for now, I have other people I want to talk to. I also want to know who from Kaido’s group I can bring to my side and who might betray us." Luffy said, leaving the cell as he moved on to the next person he wanted to visit.

Luffy kept walking through the prison until he found Page One in front of a cell.

“Sorry big sis...” Page One murmured.

“You defeated me, you bastard! Is this how you thank me after all this time, I tried to save you, but you were corrupted by those pirates when they captured you in paradise!” Ulti complained, stomping her foot while the seastone chain clinked.

“But we were enemies. Big sis...” Page One tried to defend himself.

“I don’t want to hear it!” Ulti snapped.

“Hey, can you guys be a little quieter? I’m trying to sleep here...” Queen muttered from another cell.

Luffy raised an eyebrow at that and hoped King would pass along the names of those he could trust—they’d be great allies and his fleet would become even stronger—but now he had something else to deal with.

After all, he was about to begin Operation Sword.

First, he would deal with the ex-admiral Zephyr—it was time to create the new marine force and he would lend a hand with that, placing his sister in command of the new marine force.

With Zephyr and Fujitora with her, Garp, Coby, and the others would join too, making it an even more powerful force.