In the middle of an open field near a marine base, a certain man wearing a white shirt, green pants and black-green bandanna was in a bad condition. He was tied up on a cross. He had been beaten severely. His face was bruised and swollen, and he was bleeding from several cuts. The cruel marines did not even feed him for several days. The blazing sun was draining what little strength he had.
Luffy had bumped into Ben and Alvida at this exact spot. Ben suggested to climb on top of the wall. They saw a young boy with purple hair wearing a marine and a little girl with rice balls in her hand.
The little girl was offering the rice ball to the man tied on the cross.
"You should leave now, he is coming and you don't want to get caught by him and suffer the same fate" the boy said to the girl
At this moment a voice shouted, "Get away from him, cleaner boy if you know what is good for you." A lanky, young man with a distinctive cleft chin and light blonde hair slowly approached them. He wore his hair in a mushroom-shaped style.
"Helmeppo sir, please we are going." replied the boy.
Helmeppo saw the little girl with the rice cakes in her hand. He immediately snatched it from her hand and took a bite. "Too sweet," he said in disgust and spit the food out and threw the rest on the ground.
The boy quickly grabbed the girl away saying sorry and this won't happen again.
Helmeppo couldn't be bothered to deal with trash and walked away.
Ben, Luffy and Alvida saw the entire scene playout. "So what do you think of the man?" Ben asked Luffy.
Luffy smiled back and jumped down the wall to approach the man on the cross.
"I am Monkey D Luffy and I will be the King of Pirates. Will you join my crew?" he said.
The man looked up and saw a boy wearing a straw hat, red shirt and blue shorts.
"Will you join my crew, I need a crew?" Luffy said again, with a smile on his face.
"No, I am the pirate hunter Roronoa Zoro, why would I join your crew?"replied Zoro.
"I want to be Pirate King and I think you will be my first crewmate. That Ben already has one member," Luffy said.
"Like I said, no besides the rich looking idiot took my swords." replied Zoro.
"So, if I get your sword, you will join my crew, got it," Luffy said with a smile.
"Are you listening? Don't make decisions on your own!" Zoro shouted back.
"Shishishishi," Luffy replied.
Zoro and Luffy saw the rice balls on the floor.
"Could you feed that to me?" Zoro asked.
Luffy smiled and picked up the rice balls and fed them to Zoro.
"This is delicious," Zoro said with a smile on his face.
"Shishishishi," Luffy replied.
Before Zoro could say anything, Luffy started running towards the marine base.
Ben and Alvida saw this playout from the wall, they did not move from their position at all.
Alvida asked, "Why don't we recruit him for ourself?
Ben smiled and replied, "No need, there is someone else I have in mind who has the potential to be a great swordsman. We will meet her soon, though it is going to be difficult to convince her."
While Ben and Alvida were talking, Luffy met the purple-haired marine boy and little girl.
The boy introduced himself as Koby and the girl as Rika. They had explained the situation around Zoro and how he saved Rika from getting hurt and confronted Captain Morgan. A deal was struck, in which Zoro survived for a number of days, he would be free. Luffy hearing this was now even more determined to have Zoro on his crew.
Ben and Alvida had slowly made their way from the wall and saw Luffy talking to the young kids.
Luffy saw them approaching and said, "Let's go beat this Captain."
"Sure, we made a pirate alliance, I get Helmeppo and Alvida can get the swords," replied Ben.
Luffy and Alvida agreed. Koby and Rika looked in shocked.