Thunder Demon Luffy's

Chapter 78's

As the ship approached, it stopped beside the Going Merry, a man who was most likely the Captain of the ship talking.

"Give up all your treasure or you'll feel the wrath of the Hell Hound Pirates!" the man's shout caused Luffy to raise his eyebrows. Luffy then looked over the entire ship and saw everyone on the ship wearing a head covering shaped like a dog's head.

"And who are you?" Luffy asked in a bored tone.

"do you know who I am?" the man asked sounded very surprised because Luffy did not know who he was. "I'm Jiro Kurosawa, the Bloodhound from hell!" Jiro said proudly. Jiro looks like a man in his late thirties, he is shorter than Luffy, only 180 cm tall with brown hair and blue eyes.

He is ideal in stature with a little muscle on his body and his Jolly Roger tattoo, a dog skull with two crossed bones, on his left arm. Luffy was not impressed at all.

"Never heard of you," Luffy replied, causing the Pirate Captain to be a little sad.

"you .. I was originally going to let you stay alive, but now, I want you all to die!" Jiro said in a threatening tone. Luffy simply shook his head and turned his back on the pirate and jumped off the side of the ship back onto the deck.

"You're not worth my time" said Luffy as he began walking away to the upper deck. "They're all yours, guys, just make sure you don't kill them all" Luffy told his crew.

"Aye aye, Captain!" all the Crew replied before they jumped off the Going Merry and onto the Hell Hound Pirate ship. Usopp remained on board, and is currently shooting people with his slingshot from above the watchpole.

Luffy sat on his throne and poured himself a glass of whiskey before turning his attention to his enemy ship, to see how his crew handled the situation. When Luffy looked at the ship, he saw Zoro fighting against the captain of the pirate ship, while the others faced the rest of his crew.

Zoro pulled out all three of his swords while Jiro turned into a rather large dog. Luffy assumes that the man ate Zoan-type devil fruit and judging from its body structure it is a Dog-Dog: Bloodhound Model (tracking dog).

It was a demon fruit that was quite okay in Luffy's opinion, but that fruit might not be able to do much in terms of combat. Deciding to find out if he was right or wrong, Luffy decided to watch Zoro fight.

* Zoro vs Jiro *

Zoro stands face to face with the pirate captain who is now transformed into a giant dog/human who looks at him while saliva drips from the side of his mouth.

"When I'm done with you, I'll go visit your little captain and show him what happened to the man who messed with the Bloodhound from Hell!" Shouted Jiro before he dashed forward towards Zoro.

He ran faster than what ordinary people could follow with their eyes, but unfortunately, Zoro was not an ordinary person. Jiro appears on Zoro's right and tries to attack him with his claws, but is blocked by Zoro, using his Kitetsu with ease.

"Is that all?" Zoro asked while holding the claw of the man. "Because, if this is all you're capable of, to be honest you have no chance against my captain," Zoro added before he pushed the man away.

"How dare you!" Jiro growls in frustration before he runs forward once again, this time trying to bite Zoro. However the First mate of the straw hat crew could already guess his attack before arriving and sighed.

"It's useless, I just end this," Zoro said before he let out a serious facial expression and took a fighting position.

"Oni Giri!" Zoro shouted as he stepped forward slashing with all three of his swords while easily avoiding the bite of the giant Bloodhound dog. Jiro looked out into the open ocean with his eyes wide, shocked at what had just happened.

He flickered for a moment when he heard the sound of sword friction enter his scabbard. It was not until the three 'click' sounds of the sword tightly shut in its sheath, upon hearing that voice, pain appeared on its body and blood spurted from the three slash wounds on its body, which caused him to fall face down onto the deck of his ship.

When he fell down, he realized there were some things that felt strange. First, he was still alive, a little but in the end still alive. And secondly, he did not hear the shouts of shock or anger from his crew, as their captain had just been defeated.

Jiro used as much power as he could muster, to turn his head to the side in order to check on his crew, and what he saw was shocking to him. His entire crew was cleared by the Straw Hat crew. The majority of his men lay unconscious on deck and who could still stand his condition was not good.

"W-what-what's going on here !?" he yelled /quired in a loud voice, but no one answered. All the straw hat crew did not look at him even though they heard him.

The jiro crew themselves did not look at him, for they were too afraid to die if they took their eyes off their enemies.

The next thing Jiro heard was laughter from behind him, which caused him to move his eyes to the side to try and see who the laughing person was.

He could not see the person clearly but from his shadow and the posture he saw, Jiro guessed it was the person who had just defeated him.

"A group of fools think, just because they have a boat with a flag, they consider themselves pirates" Zoro said with a laugh. "And even more so the Grand Line Pirates!" zoro said before starting to laugh, causing Jiro to growl. Zoro then looked back and saw his captain still sitting on his throne watching the action of his crew.

* With Luffy *

Luffy was quite happy with the way Zoro handled his fight. In fact, he was quite pleased with the way his entire crew behaved in this situation. One thing that surprised Luffy was how easily this pirate crew was defeated, Luffy expected this pirate to give more challenges to his crew, thus giving him the chance to actually see the fighting abilities of every member of his crew, but the reality was not like that.

'I'm not even sure if this pirate can survive in the East Blue let alone in the Grand Line, ' thought Luffy, when he saw Nojiko beating up the remaining pirates. As she watched Nojiko skillfully use her three-part staff, Luffy's eyes caught a glimpse as the nojiko staff turned black for a few seconds before disappearing.

Luffy narrowed his eyes while looking at Nojiko slamming his staff at the last enemy, and Luffy then started to think for himself. 'Nojiko seemed to be the only one who managed to awaken his true observation and armament, while the others only managed to awaken the Observation," thought Luffy before he sighed and sipped his drink.

'I think they need a tougher opponent, ' said Luffy in his mind, sighing and distracting him from the crew then looking up at the sky.

"Hey, Captain!" Zoro yelled to Luffy's attention. "What should we do with these people?" Zoro asked from above on the pirate ship.

"Bring their captain here .." said Luffy as he looked at Zoro. "... and bring Chopper here" he added, causing the little deer to jump back into the Going Merry and walk towards Luffy.

Johnny and Yosaku walked up to the stranded pirate captain and lifted his upper body and dragged him towards their captain. When they arrived on the upper deck of Merry, they threw him under Luffy's feet, while Luffy's other crew also walked towards Luffy, wanting to see what their captain was planning.

Luffy looked at the fallen man with a flat expression on his face before he turned to Chopper and spoke. "Obati him, Chopper," said Luffy to everyone's surprise and caused Jiro to growl.

"I don't need your mercy!" Jiro lashes out at Luffy while scaring Chopper at the same time. Luffy only looked at the bloody man with the same flat expression on his face, before he kicked the jiro right on his face which made his body turn into lying down with his back.

"I'm not someone known for letting my enemies live .. but I'll let you live" Luffy said before he sipped his drink. "So, you'll take whatever mercy I give you or I'll just throw you overboard to let you die slowly and painfully" Luffy added, threateningly, leaving Jiro terrified.

'That's the captain we all know and love, ' Zoro thought in his head as he walked over and stood beside Luffy. The last few days since the crew left Drum Kingdom, the entire crew noticed that their captain seemed to turn a little softened and smiled more than usual.

They all know it's just Luffy trying to cozy Chopper into pirate life, but Zoro honestly prefers the more serious Luffy, in his mind that's how a ship captain should behave.

"Obati him Chopper," Luffy said in a commanding voice causing the little deer to nod its head and carefully approached Jiro with his small medical equipment and began treating his injuries. After Chopper finished treating Jiro's injuries, Jiro now sat in front of Luffy's throne, staring at the Thunder Demon with a confused and angry expression on his face.

"Jiro, you and your crew are very weak," Luffy said causing Jiro to growl and grit his teeth. "So, I'll make you an offer" added Luffy to everyone's surprise.

"What kind of offer?" Jiro asked in a shocked voice and was a little frightened.

"Join my fleet and sail under my flag," said Luffy to everyone's surprise once again but was no more surprised than Jiro.

"you might be weak, but you might be of some use to me and my organization," Luffy said, making his crew understand why Luffy did what he did.

"What organization?" Jiro asked with a confused expression on her face.

"The Underworld criminal syndicate," Luffy said caused Jiro's eyes to widen and his jaw to open slightly. "All you have to do is work for me on the black market and I can make you famous and rich beyond your wildest imagination" Luffy said sweetening his offer for the man.

"I don't know," said Jiro sounding somewhat worried by the idea.

"I know you're still stupid" Zoro said from his position next to Luffy.

"What did you say!?" Jiro asked angrily while looking at the green-haired swordsman.

"you were thinking about this offer as if you had a choice whether you would accept it or not," Zoro said causing Luffy to smile while Jiro looked puzzled.

"What do you mean?" he asked sounding scared.

"you're a fool" Sanji added, lighting a new cigarette. "Your choice is just to accept and join the fleet, or we'll rob all your food and money, then we'll smash the rudder of the ship and leave you here on the Grand Line and drift off, can only pray at the mercy of nature," Sanji said in a bored tone causing Jiro's eyes to widen before he turned his head back to Luffy.

"Is that true?" he asked as he looked at Luffy, which caused him to laugh.

"More or less," Luffy replied nonchalantly. Jiro thought the call was long enough and difficult, five minutes later he gave Luffy an answer.

"Alright, I will join your fleet," Jiro said causing Luffy to grin.

"Smart choice," Luffy replied before he got up from his throne and walked to the side of the ship and looked towards the Pirate Hell Hound's ship. "Prepare your crew and get ready to sail to Alabasta" Luffy said in a commanding tone before he turned around and looked towards the three former Baroque Works agents and spoke.

"The three of you go with him, you know what to do once you get to Alabasta," said Luffy before he walked back to his throne and put his hand into the clouds.