Straw Hat Luffy: The Black Fist

Chapter 3: Upside Down

AN:

Our first future crew member! I hope Zoro felt natural. I'm not all the way happy with their fight, so I might go back and spruce it up a tiny bit in the future but for now I'm ok with where it's at.

Here's chapter 3. Hope it's not too slow for you.

---

Chapter 3: Upside Down

Zoro and Luffy traveled for the next week waiting for any sign of a new island. Along the way they both swam beside Levi and Zoro was still wondering how in the world Luffy had managed to tame a sea monster. However, being who he was, he eventually decided he didn't care that much and would probably just ask when he felt like it.

The two future crew mates swam beside the sea monster whenever they had the energy to and when they didn't, they rested in the boat. They ate when they needed it but tried to save as much food as possible, not knowing how much longer they might be traveling. It was quite the feat considering who the future captain was.

At first, Zoro had no clue as to why Luffy insisted on swimming with the sea monster as he did, but when he thought about it the answer wasn't that hard to figure out. Endurance. When the realization came upon him, he embraced the so-called 'training' and decided to swim along with him. There was a problem, however... Compared to Luffy, he was slow. Like, REALLY slow. It hurt his pride to admit it but seeing Luffy in the water was something otherworldly. It almost made him think he might be part fishman.

The first time he tried to swim with his future captain and his pet sea monster, Zoro wasn't just struggling to keep up, he physically couldn't. They had to come back and pick him up because Luffy, the idiot that he was, didn't even notice the swordsman had been left behind. Eventually, they came up with a system so he could actually train instead of having to be picked up every couple of minutes. When Luffy was swimming, he would rest or eat in the boat and vice versa.

When Zoro was in the water, Levi swam at a much slower pace, so his master's friend could keep up. It was obvious who the monster liked swimming with more, much to a certain verdet's chagrin. The sea beast liked to swim fast and his master could swim fast. Not as fast as him, but fast enough to make it fun.

Even though Zoro's assumption about the nature of the 'training' was partially correct, he was still missing a crucial piece of it and that piece was all Luffy thought about as he swam. Yes, endurance was a big part of it. But, the reason for building that endurance was what drove the younger boy. While training with Shanks all those years ago, the one thing that he beat into Luffy more than anything else was the fact that using Armament Haki wasn't free.

Using Armament Haki not only took a certain amount of concentration but it also used up energy. By building up stamina, one could increase the amount of time spent using it. If they were to ever run out of stamina from overuse of armament, not only would it be physically taxing, leaving most barely able to walk, but it would also leave them unable to use it again for a certain period. The length of that period, once again, depended on the person. It could be anywhere from ten minutes to the rest of the day if they were fully matured.

To sum it up, even though stamina didn't increase the potency of Armament Haki, it did increase the amount of time one could use it before their body gave out. Therefore, Luffy swam...

And swam...

And swam...

And swam...

And then swam some more...

Luffy could swim at full speed for up to an hour at this point, but he wanted more. He wanted to be able to swim between islands if he had to! He wanted to be able to swim forever! So he always swam as hard as he could and whenever he got tired he'd switch out with Zoro.