"I took the initiative and created our first flag, Captain" Izu unfurled the jolly roger, black fabric with a grinning skull with a straw hat and crossbones on it, "From this day onwards, we are the strawhat pirates. We will be powerful! Respected! And most of all free"
"Suuuuuge!", Luffy's eyes sparkled as they hoisted their jolly roger.
A day later, they saw Alvida's ship, raiding a cruise vessel. Thanks to Izu's navigation, they didn't hit the whirlpool and so their boat didn't get destroyed.
"You ready for our first proper fight, captain? Beating other pirates is a surefire way to increase your bounty, as is raiding and pillaging but I don't think you want to do that, so this is how we will rise to infamy", Izu cracked his knuckles as they got closer and the two of them boarded the ship. Alvida stood there, barking orders when she spotted them.
"You little boys, what do you think you are doing on my ship?" She rested her weight on her big mace.
"Who is the fat lady?" Luffy turned to Izu confused.
Alvida's crewmates mouths hung wide open, sweat dropping down their faces. 'You idiot, she is going to kill you' they thought. Coby was trying to ignore everything, scrubbing the deck with laser focus.
"You little runt! I am iron mace Alvida with a bounty of 5 million berry and I'm not fat. Who is the most beautiful woman in all the blues, boys?"
"You Alvida"
"Wow you are terrible liars", Izuku chuckled, "Tehuhuhu! Tehuhuhu! Now let me show you what real power looks like, who is really the one you should fear"
Izu rushed forwards as Alvida swung her mace. Izu intercepted the blow with his hand and used overhaul. The mace, once the sign of 'mighty iron mace Alvida' reduced to dust in one swift motion, "w- what are you?!" Alvida stared at her hand.
"Never look away from your opponent in a fight", he smirked, swiping at Alvida's arm, erasing the appendage in a shower of blood.
" Aaaaaaaargh! My arm!!!" She screamed in agony, "do something you fools or I'll beat you to death!"
A few of the cremates rushed towards him but Luffy took them out, stretching to punch them.
"W- what are you?" Alvida asked despite the pain, her eyes rapidly moving, searching for an escape route from them but she found none.
"We are the strawhat pirates. The name is Zawa D. Izu and my captain is Monkey D. Luffy, future king of the pirates! Now you can tell the demons in hell exactly who sent you there, so die", a touch was enough and Alvida was no more. He turned to the crewmates, those still alive anyways, "you have two options, fight us and join your captain or surrender to us all your treasure and get to live"
A part of him hoped they would fight, a small, sadistic voice in the back of his head but the crew decided to forfeit their treasure, 3 million berry in notes of differing size, a few maps and a treasure map, depicting shells town, or more specifically a forest on that island with an x smack in the middle.
As they left for shells town, the former Alvida pirates pondered what to do.
"Who should be the new captain now that Alvida sama is no longer with us?" One asked.
"None of us are strong enough", another protested, "I followed Alvida because she was so strong. I don't think any of you have what it takes to become our captain"
"So what, we should just disband, go out separate ways and join some other crew?"
"Those strawhat pirates were pretty strong, maybe we could convince them to let us join their crew?" One looked out towards the retreating boat.
"Are you crazy? Alvida was a handful but at least she was human. She could swing that oversized mace but what she didn't do was stretch or disintegrate anything she touches. Working under them would only end in one thing, death. That disintegration guy in particular gave me the creeps"
"Let's put it to a vote. Who wants to join the strawhats?" Three raised their hands, "and who wants to disband the crew fully?" Again, three hands shot up, "a tie… we need a tiebreaker. Coby, you haven't cast your vote yet"
"M- m- me?"
"Yes y- y- you. What do you think we should do?"
Coby's eyes lit up with hope, "I- I say we disband the crew" this could be his chance to become a marine.
"Very well then", the man ripped the Alvida crew flag from the ship and let it fall into the ocean, "from this day on, we are no longer a crew. Each of us can take a lifeboat and sail away. As the second in command, I'll keep the big ship"
Coby couldn't believe his luck. If he ever saw the strawhat Pirates again, he would have to thank them. Coby boarded one of the lifeboats and began rowing towards shells town, the nearest marine base should be there and then, he would finally achieve his dream and earn the right to wear justice on his back.
Luffy and Izu arrived at shells town not long after.
The big marine base was overlooking the white town, "I heard Roronoa Zoro is on this island, he is a famous bounty hunter and swordsman"
The people around them jumped back upon hearing Zoro's name.
"Really? He would be a perfect addition to our nakama! We'll go look for him!"
"You do that. I got this treasure map from Alvida. I'll see what's in that spot. Let's reconvene on the boat"
They split up, Luffy marched through town whilst Izu headed straight for the forest. He moved quickly through the forest, searching through it, following the map. According to it, the treasure should be buried under a birch tree. It took three hours to find the tree from the map but when he did, he sighed down and stumbled upon a non descriptive treasure chest. It was easy to open and inside was a devil fruit. This had to be the Sube sube no mi… he had no interest in eating it, so he put the valuable fruit away. Just as he gazed back over the trees, he saw ax hand Morgan's statue topple.