You meet the man, who will become the king of the pirates

The man who paid out your bounty was an extremely by the books man, who introduced himself as commander Ripper. Though he made it obvious, that he didn't like 'freelancers' very much, he had a hard time not showing his relieve, when he heard that a monster like Oshiri had been taken out, before he could kill anybody on this island. You've made some small-talk to test out whether your Devil Fruit did anything more, than showing you, how much people liked you. Not to be ungrateful; you were not very good with social cues so it showing you how much somebody liked or disliked what you did was already pretty helpful. After a short time Ripper's disposition to you started ticking down slowly. He really wanted the conversation to end, but because you had guessed correctly, that he didn't approve of his captain, he was willing to keep talking to you, provided you kept your voice down: “The problem is, I can't file a complaint with at least some eye-witness accords, but pretty much everybody here is to scared of him to say something.”

“Well, I'm not and I don't have a boat to leave, so what should I look out for?”

That gave me a chunky tick up.

“Hmm, pretty much everything involving Helmeppo should get him in trouble for nepotism, but if we want to be sure he won't retaliate we'd probably have to actually arrest him. I'm not just talking of power, I'm talking assaulting civilians. Something I can't let happen in good conscience, just to get rid of a bad boss.”

“Don't worry, sir. I wasn't planning on picking a fight with a marine captain.” You took your leave. Time to spend your freshly earned money.

While you ate, you were getting into the good grades of the cute bartender. She was a single mother, but despite all that life had thrown her way, she was doing quite well for herself and her daughter. When you were paying the daughter, a little girl named Rika, tried to leave inconspicuously.

“What is she sneaking out for?”

“What? Who?”

“Rika. She was carrying a small bag or packages.”

“Oh no, she's probably trying to give food to Zoro.” Rika had told you the story, while you were eating.

“If you want, I can watch after her: Make sure she's not caught or get's into some new kind of trouble.”

“Thank you so much!”

You quickly caught up to Rika. “Hmm smells delicious. Is that swordsmen-lunch by any chance?”

“KYAH! Don't sneak up on me like that!”

“You're just to nervous. Am I right? Are you visiting Zoro?”

“... Yes.”

“Than you probably shouldn't go for the main entrance. Do you have something, you can use as a rope?” Her and your cloak tied together were long enough for Rika to climb the wall around the courtyard where Zoro was kept.

You helped Rika up on the wall on the outside and she immediately tied the 'rope' to one of the pikes on top of the wall and climbed down on the other side. She obviously believed since you had lifted her up to the top of the wall, you could climb it on your own. In actuality you believed you had pulled yourself a muscle and slumped down against the wall. That meant you hadn't trained your sixth sense, that had helped you through every fight in your life, on her until you heard voices.

Helmeppo had caught her. You were still trying to pull yourself up the wall, when Rika was thrown over it.

Luckily somebody else was there: A young man, probably even younger than you, with a straw hat. Rika pretty much landed on him and he didn't seem to mind at all. At first you thought, he was a pervert, because he already liked you, despite barely knowing you, but it was quickly revealed, that one had to actively earn this man's ire. Than barely waiting to introduce himself as Luffy or for Helmeppo and his goons to leave he jumped the wall to talk to Zoro.

The next few hours were a mess. You met the guy, who had brought Luffy here: a scared kid named Koby. Helmeppo confirmed to us, that he had no desire to honor his deal with Zoro, shortly later Morgan tried to us, along with half the town.

Luffy and you freed Zoro and the two of them took down Morgan, while you did your best to subdue the marines, who were following his orders. With him now defeated there was no longer a lack of witnesses and you wondered, where you would go next, while you were celebrating. Than Luffy started a brawl with Koby, so he would be accepted into the marines and you ended up with Luffy and Zoro on a small boat.

That was terrible, because none of you knew your way around the East Blue. To be fair: Your geographical knowledge about the Grand Line was also only sporadic at best. Then Luffy tried to catch a bird, before you could warn him, that it was way further up than it looked. Zoro and you tried rowing after him, though it was quickly just Zoro as he became aware how much faster than you he could row. Three pirates tried to rob you so you quickly made them help rowing until you saw the ship they belonged to and they jumped of board.

The men belonged to the crew of one 'Buggy the Clown'. While Zoro ran ahead to find Luffy, you went through your bounty posters and sure enough there were 15 million on his head, though of course it gave no indication of what you were up against.

The answer was a freak-show. Buggy called himself 'the clown' yet tried to kill one of his crew mates, because he thought he said 'red nose'. Their idea of a sword fighter swallowed his weapon during his 'battle' with Zoro. A group of jugglers and knife-throwers identified you as an exclusive hand to hand fighter, because you only had your knife as a weapon hidden in your sleeve. At least you picked up 'combat juggling'. It was more valuable as entertainment than as a fighting style. Somehow Luffy, who after eating a Devil Fruit was immune to blunt , found it odd, that a Clown could become immune to cuts after eating one as well.

Only when running from the civilians, who tried to retake their town, did you find out, that it wasn't Luffy's fault you instantly had to fight Buggy's men:

Nami: 5/100

She was a pretty young woman with orange hair, kleptomania and a feisty attitude. You were in love.

As the other three were already boarding you were lagging behind, because one: You were helping Nami carrying treasure and two … ok, you had simply abysimal stamina. In your defense in the last three days you had eaten better than in the last two years and in the last of those three days you hadn't eaten at all.

When you caught up to them you realized, that they were being talked to by the very same pirates, that had tried to rob Zoro and you. They saw you and quickly apologized for bothering you and ran.

You loaded the treasure you had been carrying into the boat Nami was on and Zoro and Luffy got into the other one.

Nami: 6/100

This would be arduous.

Shortly after leaving the island behind Nami raised a good point: “Um, guys I don't think we should take course for the Grand Line just yet.”

“Yeah, we need to stock up on meat, we can't just eat apples!”, Luffy responded with excitement.

“I don't think that's what Nami-chan meant.”

“Yeah, what we need is mead!”, Zoro threw in.

“I don't think that's what Nami-chan meant either...”

Nami: 8/100

“Honestly the three of you share a single braincell and it doesn't like to go into men. What I meant is that the Grand Line is the most dangerous sea-route, and I'm using that term loosely, in the entire world. If we go there, we're going to be under attack not only by the occasional marine patrol but also dozens of other pirate crews, who want mostly the same we want. Crews made up of dozens of pirates.”

“So you're saying we need a bigger crew.”

Nami: 9/100

“Yes and also”, Nami wanted to continue but was interrupted by Luffy: “Yes we need a cook and silverware and …”

You shut him up by throwing an apple into his mouth: “And our navigator wanted to recommend us getting a bigger ship, I presume.”

Nami: 15/100

Huh.

“Exactly. What do you guys think, if instead of immediately following this map, we go to the nearest island to get ourselves something that can hold all of us at the same time and won't sink at the first sign of bad weather?”