Ryu drank with the villagers and feasted.
"When the navy comes here, tell him that it was the Thunderking Kaminari D. Ryu who took down Arlong, make sure they know about me"
"And where are you planning to head next, captain? And what were those powers you displayed?" asked nami, nursing her drink.
"Those powers came from the devil fruit I ate, the hito hito no mi, model: Zeus and I heard there is another village being oppressed by a pirate in the east blue, the notorious Buggy the clown, I aim to take him down next, to grow the legend behind my name. Say, do you guys have someone here who could remodel Arlong's ship? I want to have a ship to call my own and his just got free but I don't want to sail around with the figurehead of another pirate and I'll also need a new jolly roger"
"I can work on the ship for you, it is the least I can do after you freed us, what figurehead do you want me to replace it with?", asked a shipwright.
"An eagle, with lightning bolts", he told him, drawing up a sketch of his idea.
"And I'll make you a jolly roger", another villager offered, "I'll just paint it over Arlong's jolly roger"
A few weeks later, the ship was ready, his new jolly roger was a blue cloud with crossed lightning bolts behind a skull, the jolly roger of the Storm pirates. He also wore new, fitting clothing, a white shirt with a captains coat around his shoulders and black pants, "It is time to liberate another island! Set sail for Orange town!"
They traveled quickly, thanks to Ryu's ability to just create favorable wind conditions. Within a day or two, they had arrived at Orange town. The place was deserted, with a single refugee shelter being all that was left of the once bustling town, though it wasn't as destroyed as it had been in canon, two years from now, "Stay away pirates, we don't want anymore of your filth here, we already have to tolerate the clown but we won't just roll over and let you roll into this town"
"I am not here to subjugate you", Ryu put his hands in the air, "I'm here to beat Buggy and free you"
"And why would you do that? You are no marine, just a pirate"
"Why? Because I am taking out the pirates of the east blue to grow my fame. I will one day be the strongest man alive, I must make a splash and a big one at that, I already took down sawtooth Arlong and Buggy the clown is next on my list", he pulled out a wanted poster, "10 million berry, one of the biggest pirates in the east blue, right behind Arlong and ahead of Iron mace Alvida"
"Well, if you want to rush into your death… but I have to warn you, Buggy has eaten a devil fruit, he is invincible"
"It seems that is a trend with pirates in the weakest of the blues, thinking themselves invincible Rarararara! Come nami, let's beat that clown", Ryu made his way straight towards the buggy pirates' base, which was located on a hill further into the island. He had just arrived there a few months ago but had already driven out the residents of the town. Nami walked behind him, meekly, "do I really have to come with you fight? I am not really a fighter, you know?"
"I know but you can't just hide in my shadow all the time, you can use that bo-staff rather well. I'll take out the big threats and you focus on the goons, it is a good way for you to get some practical experience", Ryu walked into the camp and called out, "Big nose Buggy! I am here to beat you!"
"What did you just say about my nose?!", Buggy ran out of one of the tents, rage in his eyes.
"You heard me big nose, come here and fight me!"
"Oh you will die for that… Cabaji, kill him, you others, get the girl, we will have our fun with her once he's dead"
A man on a unicycle came rolling out of the tent, a sword in hand, followed by a few goons. They didn't all come, probably thinking those few would be enough.
Cabaji jumped from his unicycle, slashing at Ryu from above, though he dodged to the right as Cabaji fell back onto his unicycle. He slashed again, aiming at his side, though the sprung back a few feet.
Nami was fighting the goons, it was challenging but she kept them at bay as Ryu kept dodging Cabaji's attacks.
"Enough!", shouted Buggy. He had sent a hand with knives towards Ryu's back but, without even looking, he dodged those too.
"I've had my fun and my navigator seems to not be able to continue for much longer, so, let's end this", he punched Cabaji, sending him flying, unconscious, then, he turned to Buggy. He was out of punching range, so, he pushed his hand towards him and a bolt of lightning arched from his fingers to the clown. To Ryu's surprise, the clown didn't immediately fall unconscious but he was too shocked to react, so, he closed the distance and punched him, knocking him out. After knocking out the remaining crew members and raiding the treasury -which wasn't much, only about 500 thousand berry, which he split with nami- he brought news of their liberation to the people of orange town.
"We thank you most graciously for liberating us", the mayor bowed his head to Ryu, "what can we call you?"
"I am Thunderking Kaminari D. Ryu and that is cat burglar Nami, my navigator. We won't be staying here long, our next target is iron mace Alvida, with a bounty of 4 million berry"
They set sail the next day, searching for Alvida, though when they didn't find her for a week, he decided to give up. She had no hideout that they could raid, so she was way harder to find. After that week, the bounty posters came in, with Ryu's first bounty, 'Thunderking Kaminari D. Ryu, wanted dead or alive, 23.000.000 berry', 'Cat burglar Nami, wanted dead or alive, 4.000.000 berry'
"Rararara, our first bounties!"
"Why are you laughing? We are now wanted by the navy, this is no laughing matter!"
"Every good pirate has a bounty, it is no big deal, we will get even bigger bounties one day, now, let's head to find ourselves another crewmate, I have just the man in mind", he pulled out a wanted poster, 'Gods cook Star Larry, wanted dead or alive, 2.000.000 berry', "Larry is a cook pirate, who has recently been kidnapped by the Hellhound pirates and forced to be their cook, with their captain being him here", 'Hellhound Lung Sei, wanted dead or alive, 3.000.000 berry', "he has eaten the Inu Inu no mi, model: Mastiff, he is a new pirate, just raiding a few villages for now. Larry is a good fighter too, an expert marksman and all around decent fighter, their base is on Dry Island, how long do you think we'll need to get there?"
"Well, Dry island is about a week away from here but with your power over the wind, we will get there in four days if everything goes right"
"Then let us set tail for Dry island"
Unfortunately, they were hit with a storm on day three, which steered them off course, making their time to get there be 6 days instead of four. The Hellhound pirates' ship was docked at the port of Dry island and they were quick to find their captain and Larry, both sitting on the ship, eating a meal with the rest of the crew. Lung Sei was a large man, 1.90m tall, with broad shoulders and wild, grey hair, a big scar ran across his nose, he looked at peace as he stuffed his face. Star Larry on the other hand looked at him with hatred in his eyes. He was a small man, 1.6m tall, with well defined muscles, in a swimmer's lean build with blue hair, trimmed in a buzz cut and a little goatee.
"I am here to recruit Gods cook Star Larry" Ryu proclaimed loudly as he climbed on board.
"And who are you? Don't you know, I am Lung Sei, the hellhound! I have a bounty of 3 million berry!"
"B- boss, look at him, isn't that-?", "It can't be…", "T- t- thunderking Kaminari D. Ryu?!"
"W- what?", captain Sei looked a lot less sure of himself now, "no matter, I have eaten a devil fruit, he can't be stronger than me!"
He sprung up from his chair, transforming into a mastiff-human hybrid, growling.
"Rarara", Ryu snickered, shooting a few weak lightning bolts. They knocked out the normal crew members(minus Larry) but to his surprise, Sei didn't fall over, "looks like you are stronger than I gave you credit for… but still-", he rushed at him, throwing him by the arm into the sea, letting him drown, "-not strong enough to beat me"
He then looked at Larry, "Hello, I'm Thunderking Ryu, I'll one day be the strongest man alive and I want you to be my cook, though you can of course refuse"
"I don't see a problem with that, you clearly are strong and that you are giving me a choice shows me your character, but know, I reserve the right to leave your crew if you ever go against my code of ethics"
"Of course, of course, now let's raid this ship!"
They searched the ship, the money went towards Nami, who eagerly took it and the food was relocated into their ship. What they found in the food though was extraordinary, Sei's devil fruit had reincarnated into a pair of cherries in the bowls of the ship. He kept those cherries in his captains quarters, they could use that for a future crewmate, Larry didn't want it, believe me, Ryu asked him multiple times. Larry wasn't a close range fighter, so a Zoan devil fruit was useless to him, he was a long range fighter, wielding two revolvers and before even that, he was a cook. His skills in the kitchen were great. The crew enjoyed their first professionally made dish as a group that day. Beforehand, Ryu had simply roasted some meat, with a bit of pepper and salt, a long shot from the professional grade food that Larry cooked up. He served them a roast duck with a side of fries and gravy with a desert of freshly baked lemon pie. It was divine. This had been the first time since his reincarnation that he had eaten something crafted by a professional chef.
"Your cooking was soooo good, Larry, no wonder they call you the Gods cook"
"Thank you, though I have been meaning to ask you, how did you shoot that lightning from your fingers? Did you eat a devil fruit too?"
"Why, yes I did, I ate the Hito Hito no mi, model: Zeus, it's a mythical zoan devil fruit"
"What is a mythical zoan?" Asked Larry, nursing his cup of sake.
"A mythical zoan is a type of zoan that lets one transform into a mythical creature instead of just a normal animal. They are considered to be the rarest type of devil fruits, even more rare than the elusive Logia type fruits"
"A logia? So far, I've only heard of Paramecia and Zoan types, what is a logia?"
"Well, a zoan is -as you know- a fruit that allows you to transform partially or fully into an animal and a paramecia is anything that isn't a zoan or logia. A logia allows one to become, create and control a natural element, they are nearly invincible, unless one knows haki or uses seastone"
He then had to explain haki to the two crew members present. He told them only of the two most common types, leaving out conquerors haki.