Author's Note: This chapter is due to be rewritten. The new Luffy-intro chapter will be original instead of canon. Please be patient with me and not judge this story by the quality of this first chapter!

Red-haired Shanks sat at a bar in the small village his crew had made their base, sitting next to the strangest little girl he'd ever met. And likely was ever to meet.

The little girl had enormous eyes, with apparently no eyelashes, and a small bandage over a fresh cut below her left eye where she'd stupidly stabbed herself trying to prove how tough she was to Shanks and his crew to get them to take her out to sea. Her hair was no different from a boy's, unless you count how incredibly BAD the haircut was, with large chunks sticking up in every direction. And she was dressed in jeans shorts, a T-shirt with an anchor on it, and flip-flops. Honestly, he'd never have known she was a girl if the townspeople hadn't referred to her as 'she'.

The strange little girl was shoveling meat into her mouth, honestly no different from most of the rest of his crew.

It was absolutely hilarious. Lately he'd been coming here just to laugh at the crazy little girl.

"Why can't I come with you?" she demanded, frowning at him in annoyance.

"'Cause ya sink like a rock, Anchor!" he responded, reaching over and messing up her hair even more. "Maybe in ten years or so."

"I'm learning!" shouted the girl angrily, standing up on her seat and waving a fork with a steak on it over her head as if it was some sort of a flag. "My punch is a strong as a pistol! I'll send anyone flying next time they call me Anchor!" She leaned down to stare into Shanks face, her face strong-set and determined.

Completely serious, she said, "I'm gonna be the best, strongest pirate ever! I'm gonna be the Pirate King!"

Everyone in the room started laughing their heads off in delight. This crazy little girl was insisting something so bizarre beer flew across the room as pirates and townspeople fought to keep from spewing it out as they broke into uncontrollable laughter.

"Not gonna happen, Anchor," laughed Shanks.

"What's so funny? And I told you not to call me that!" screamed the little girl, charging at Shanks, furious. She shoved the steak in her mouth, then reeled back a punch and struck the pirate in the stomach.

Shanks continued laughing and the rest of the crew joined in. Though secretly he rubbed his sore stomach. Maybe not on the level of a pistol, but the little girl sure could pack a punch.

"You can't be King, stupid! You're a girl!"

"Yeah, and nobody can be pirate king anyway! Not since Gold Roger was killed!"

"Just you wait! I'll show you all!" insisted the little girl, plopping back into her seat. "Makino! Dessert!" she cried out to the tavern's proprietress. "Put it on my treasure tab!"

"Treasure tab?" mocked Shanks, a grin on his face.

"Yeah! I'm gonna pay Makino back when I become a great pirate and have tons of treasure!"

"Ya gotta learn to swim first, Anchor," chuckled Shanks.

All the pirates cracked up and went back to their boozing and merrymaking. The little girl continued to shove food into her mouth, barely paying attention to what went in. She reached over and grabbed a strange fruit just as one of Shank's crew started reliving the story of how they discovered one of the legendary Devil's Fruits.

"And here it is!" the pirate cheered, lifting up an empty box from the bar next to Luffy and displaying it proudly.

Silence instead of cheering met his shout.

"HUH?" went around forty voices, and all eyes turned to the strange little monkey of a girl, who still held the last bite of the Devil's Fruit in her hand. Not noticing the stares on her, she popped the last piece in her mouth and swallowed.

"Yuck!" she complained, sticking out her tongue. "This is gross! I think it's rotten!"

"Luffy!" cried out Shanks in a panic, reached down and grabbing the girl by the shoulders. "That was the Gum-Gum Devil's Fruit! It changes whoever eats it into rubber, and worse…!"

"Worse?" panicked the girl.

"You'll never be able to swim!"

The girl's mouth dropped open in horror.

Shanks' first mate started chuckling. "Well, Luffy, there go your plans of being pirate queen."

"KING, stupid! King!" shouted the little girl. "And just you watch! I'll… I'll be a pirate that never falls overboard!"

"Now, now, Anchor," began Shanks calmingly, before he suddenly laughed. "Hey, now the name really fits!"

"HEY!" screamed the girl angrily. "You're just picking on me!"

"Guy's gotta have a hobby!" let out Shanks, unable to stop laughing mostly due to the furious girl's funny-looking face.

With a loud crash, the door to the tavern suddenly was flung open and crashed into the wall. Silence filled the room as a huge man, flanked by dozens of rough-looking men, stood in the entry and looked deridingly around at the pirates and townspeople.

"Crap," whispered Makino.

Shanks gave her a sideways look.

"Mountain bandits," she whispered, before plastering a professional smile on her face.

"Welcome, sir. How may I help you?" she asked the man politely, her raised voice ringing in the silence of the room.

"Beer," grumbled the man, gesturing for his men to stay in the doorway while he approached the bar the proprietress was standing behind. He sidled right up to Red-haired Shanks and Luffy, only sparing them a disgust-filled glance.

"I apologize, sir, but we're sold out. I just sold our last bottle," replied Makino, her hands twisting nervously in the towel she was holding even as her face remained welcoming and calm. "Is there anything else…"

BANG! The man slammed his hands on the counter and leaned forward threateningly. Makino's professional mask slipped and she took a nervous step backwards.

"Sorry about that, man," said Shanks casually, holding up an unopened bottle of beer he'd just gotten from Makino before the man arrived. "This is the last one. Here ya go."

The man took it and slammed the bottle over Shanks' head, shattering glass and sending the red-haired man and the full bottle's worth of beer to the floor. If not for Shanks' straw hat, he would've had some serious damage from the glass alone. The pirates studiously ignored the scene and the townspeople desperately tried to look invisible.

Instead of getting upset, Shanks merely started picking up the glass from the ground. "Sorry about that, Makino," he apologized to the proprietress.

The man started laughing in a mocking tone. His gang in the entry joined in. "I don't want your scrap, pathetic pirate. Get your tails out of this town before we kick you out ourselves. Disgusting, weak, whiny pirates. Losers."

The pirates said nothing to defend themselves.

"Take it back!" screamed little Luffy, to everyone's shock. Shanks quickly grabbed the girl and hauled her into his lap, his hand covering her mouth. Behind his hand, the girl continued to try to scream and shout, trying to get at the bandit to start a fight.

No-one said anything. The mountain bandit snorted in derision at the screaming child and turned on his heel.

"We'll be back. Make sure to have enough beer," he warned Makino, then slipped out the tavern. His gang melted away after him.

Luffy furiously bit Shanks' hand.

"Hey!" he yelped, freeing her. "What was that for?"

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" screamed the girl. "You just let him WALK AWAY! He insulted you! He hit you! And you let him WALK AWAY!"

"Look," said Shanks, setting a hand on the girl's head. "Luffy, words mean nothing. And it was just a bottle of beer."

"But he… you…" Shanks just watched her, his face saying he believed he was being perfectly reasonable. A tear crept down from one of the girl's eyes, which she swiped away impatiently.

"I HATE YOU!" screamed the little girl, taking off out the door, face red in fury and twisted with betrayal.

Shanks shrugged and returned to the bar. After a few minutes, the joking and conversations started up again.

After about two hours they heard shouting and a townsperson charged in. "Makino! Mayor!" cried out the man. "They've got Luffy!"

"What?" cried out Makino, throwing down her towel and charging for the door, the mayor right behind her. Neither noticed the look exchanged between Shanks and his crew before they got up and followed.

"What happened?" demanded the mayor as they ran towards the edge of town.

"Luffy started the fight! Screamed at them something about 'taking it back'! They're gonna kill her!"

They made it to the edge of town. Makino almost collapsed from the hard run, leaning over with her hands on her knees as she stared helplessly at the situation in front of them. The mayor coughed and started cursing pirates and bandits under his breath, but when Makino glanced at him, she saw him hiding his eyes and tears streaking down his face.

Luffy was on the ground kicking and swinging and screaming in rage, surrounded by jeering bandits kicking and stepping on her. Every time she tried to get up or grab one of them, three more legs were in her face or kicking her in the back or head or pinning her down. At this point, her new gum-gum powers were quite obvious, as instead of the loud cracks of bones being smashed or the thuds of muscle being slammed into, there was the noise of rubber stretching and bouncing with each kick. Not to say the girl wasn't getting hurt – her face and skin was covered in blood from where the bandits' boots and the rocks on the road had torn through her skin.

The bandit leader leaned over. "Take what back?" he mocked. "Calling that filthy pirate a piece of scum?"

"TAKE IT BACK!" screamed the little girl, even with a boot smashing her flexible face against the ground, making her head look squished like a ball or piece of dough.

"What a freak!" laughed the bandit leader, grabbing her arm and stretching it out, then laughing as it snapped back toward her when he let it go. "Maybe we could sell the brat to a circus or something…"

"Luffy, you okay?" asked a calm, and completely unexpected, voice coming from behind the crowd. As one, the bandits, the townspeople, and Luffy turned their heads to stare at a casually approaching Red-haired Shanks in disbelief.

"Go 'way! Hate you!" choked out the girl.

The bandit leader laughed. "Hah! Even children hate pirates! Weak little…"

"SHUT UP!" screamed the girl, struggling mightily to get out from under the six or seven feet pressing her down. "Take it back! Shanks' isn't weak!"

Shanks' face was hidden in the shadow from his straw hat. He stepped forward.

One of the bandits raised a gun and pointed it at the pirate captain.

Shanks tilted his head up, revealing his normal cheerful grin. "Pointing guns at me is bad for your health," he commented lazily.

Before anyone could figure out what he meant by that, a loud gunshot ran through the air and the bandit lay on the ground, dead. One of Shanks' crew casually readjusted the smoking gun to point towards the crowd of bandits.

With a tremendous shout of rage from the bandits, and mocking laughter from the pirates, the two sides clashed. It was clear from the beginning that the bandits stood no chance, as they went down by threes and fours while not one pirate fell. In seconds, all the bandits had fallen or run off. When the dust cleared it revealed the bandit leader running off, Luffy grasped tight against him.

"Let me go!" rang out Luffy's furious shout as the man charged for the port.

Shanks cursed as he took off after them. "You can insult me, you can hit me, but don't you dare hurt my friends!" he growled as he charged after them, his crew behind him.

"Let me go! Let me go! Let me go!" shouted Luffy, punching and kicking and biting. The bandit leader cursed, but didn't dare let go of the little brat. A hostage was his last hope to getting out of here alive. He slashed a sword through the rope tying a small fishing boat to one of the docks and jumped in. He only set the brat down once they were a good ways from shore, watching with a smirk as the townspeople and pirates reached the beach.

Luffy clung to the side of the boat, frozen in fear as she stared out at the ocean. She distantly heard Shanks shouting her name, but her focus was on the water splashing against and into the small boat. Suddenly the boat shuddered, then jolted. She let out a yelp and clung tighter to the boat.

The bandit leader looked over his shoulder and froze, mouth dropping open in soundless horror as he stared down the maw of an enormous sea monster. The monster swam forward and it's jaw started closing.

The man screamed bloody murder and tried to jump overboard. The teeth crashed together, splitting the boat in half, just barely missing the little girl – but closing on the man and swallowing him whole.

Luffy screamed as she was thrown from the wreckage and crashed into the water. She felt her body freeze as if paralyzed the instant she crashed into the water. She sunk like a rock.

Suddenly someone or something was pulling her up. She didn't realize it was Shanks until they broke the water and took gulps of air. Her eyes were blurry and her head was buzzing, but she suddenly saw and felt something looming over them.

She screamed in terror as she recognized the sea monster that had just eaten the bandit. She clung to Shanks in panic and heard those teeth again crash together, but she wasn't in a mouth and she heard Shanks say just two words. Two words in the coldest, most terrifying tone she'd ever heard. A tone that promised death.

"Go. Away."

The sea monster let out a panicked scream and turned tail, escaping as quickly as it could.

Luffy looked up into her hero's face.

"You okay?" asked Shanks, smiling casually.

Luffy's eyes dropped to his arm and couldn't help the uncontrolled scream of pain that erupted from her chest and throat as she saw he had lost an arm protecting her. She clung to his neck, sobbing and screaming in heartbreak.

Months later, a recovered Red-haired Shanks, covering up his missing arm with a cape, bent down to say farewell to the little monkey girl who'd come to be so special to him and his crew over the past couple years.

"You have to go?" whimpered Luffy. "You're not coming back?"

"The Marines have caught on to this being our base, Luffy."

The girl lowered her head and tears started rolling down her face.

"I…. I can't join the crew?"

He didn't need to reply. She knew the answer.

"Hey, the future pirate king can't be caught crying! Can she?" he teased, tilting her head up to look at him. "Kings don't cry."

"Not crying, idiot!" shouted the girl, rubbing her eyes. She felt something land on her head and reached up to grab it, gasping as she felt Shanks' straw hat.

"Give that back to me next time," said Shanks, standing up and raising a hand in farewell as he headed down the dock towards his ship. "When we meet as pirates."

"When… When I'm the pirate king!" shouted the girl, tears still pouring from her eyes, but a huge grin on her face as she waved farewell to Red-haired Shanks and his pirate crew.

Author's Notes: Any suggestions on names? I was thinking Luffy, Sanji, and Robin could stay the same, but I think I may have to change Zoro (Zora?) and Nami (Nomi? Namo?). Tony Tony Chopper will just change the spelling to Toni Toni Chopper, and Franky to Frankie. Sound good? I don't want to change them unless it doesn't make sense otherwise. (In other words, if enough people thing Zoro, Tony, and Frankie are okay names for girls and Nami is an okay name for a guy, I'll leave them be.)

Note, I will be keeping them in-character while I change their genders. For example… In my head, that means instead of Sanji still hitting on girls, SHE is now always hitting on guys (particularly Nami/Nomi and Robin). And she still shows her 'love' by cooking and fawning, not acting giggly or helpless. Zoro (Zora?) will still kick serious butt and act like a hardcore training-obsessed samurai. And Nami (Nomi?) will have now use masculine rather than feminine whiles to get HIS way. Et cetera. Everyone's abilities and skills and personality (as best I can write them) should still be the same.

Feel free to overwhelm me with ideas and suggestions! This should be fun!