ONE PIECE: Dawn of a New Era

Kirks first thought was to protect the keys, quickly holding them with a deathly tight grip, ready to whip around and try to shove whoever grabbed onto him off... but was very surprised as his mouth was let go and he was turned around.

Kirk's mouth opened and closed a few times in shock as he got a good look at the stranger, scrambling for words to say.

He clearly wasn't a marine or at least a normal citizen. He looked... practically homeless, in the Fishman's own opinion, with that drenched red sash and weird, old clothes he had on. Kirk's eyes narrowed. Pirate. Absolutely. But he hadn't seen any other pirate ships about, had he? What was a pirate doing without a crew?

Why had the other felt so strange? That roughness told a few short tales of past fights at least, but there was that..squishiness, almost. Was this man another species? Kirk had been a bit worried his own secret might be revealed as soon as his skin was touched, but the other didn't seem repulsed yet.

Kirk shook off his short paralysis and started speaking in a hushed voice. He came up with bullshit on the spot, knowing he needed some sort of story for this guy. "Oh! Uh... I just found these on the ground just now! I didn't know they belonged to one of the Marines! I thought someone must've accidentally dropped them on the way to their house! I was about to go return them... who are you, sir? I haven't seen you around town before.."

In truth. He had known that Kirk wasn't human. The moment He was close enough to him to see gills and feeling his skin.

Leroy Only smiled as he heard the lie. He knew it was. These Lies would have definitely worked on someone else. But Leroy? Nope. He himself knew how to lie, and It takes a liar to know another.

Despite that though, Leroy was one to usually tell the truth. Disregarding the consequences if it got him into trouble. And this was one of those times.

A quite Chuckle escaped his lips. Quite and hushed as he began to speak "Shishishi~ Yeah. Okay, totally. That's why you were keeping look out from the Marines right? Waiting for a good moment to just POP out and say 'I found these keys Mr. Marine!'"

He gestured with his hands, making a popping gesture with them to extenuate his words as he stayed hunched over slightly. The Marines still busy only mere meters away with unloading civilians from docks.

A small frown twitched onto his face for a moment before Kirk's nervous, fake smile was further plastered onto his face. Alright, it was a bit of a stupid thing to do to try and lie to pirate, but most of them were stupid, so it was worth a shot. He thought he may have been able to make himself seem truthful if he kept pushing, but the homeless man seemed to have seen through him. Kirk eventually gave up the act, sighing deeply and looking a bit agitated.

"Yeah, totally.."

But now for the Next question. He smiled larger, It was almost as though his natural state of being was a man with a grin etched into his facial structure

"My Name I Falcon D. Leroy. And I'm the Man whose gonna become King Of The Pirates."

He spoke quietly. Yet loud enough that this words could not be mistaken. Was he crazy or something?

"Who're you Mystery Person? How about you join my crew."

That was...Blunt. Why in the World would he ask now of all places?! In the middle of all of this?!

Leroy was one that had such a keen intuition when it came to people, he could almost automatically judge the person with a look. It was like an itch in the back of his mind telling him and swaying him.

"I'm actually Really looking for a navigator so that we could get through all this" He said point with a finger and circling it through the air, gesturing to the small misting of rain and large over cast.

Perhaps...It was fate...

Kirk scoffed and crossed his arms. He squared his shoulders and stared down at the other; he was trying to pull off a more intimidating look in case the pirate was thinking of stealing the keys from him or something.

He was about to speak again before being completely blindsided and dumbfounded by what Leroy said next. His jaw was left ajar and utter confusion captured him.

Ok, no, this guy was on Glimmer or some sort of crazy, smiley drug. 'King of the Pirates'? You had to be completely unhinged to have a dream like that. While Kirk's dream was quite ambitious, it wasn't unreachable.

How did a tiny little goblin-like guy think he could ever become the King? It nearly made him gag at the thought of such a...pirate-y pirate.

Kirk somehow became even more gobsmacked at Leroy interjecting another comment and question about the crew thing. He responded normally for a moment, still trying to rap his head around this crazy situation.

"I'm... Kirk. Kamiko Kirk."

He blinked a few times before shaking his head. "Wait wait wait wait, you don't even know me and you're asking me to be a part of your crew?! Where even IS your crew? I didn't see a ship anywhere!"

He held back a scowl. What a coincidence. A pirate standing in front of a navigator, desperately needing a navigator. Snowball's chance in hell he was about to let on he was a navigator. He didn't want to get roped into whatever chaos this man was about to cause, he just wanted his treasure and to get out.

"I thought I'd worry about that when I got to it. As for a crew, I don't have one." Blunt yet again "I figured I'd find the suitable people when I was out here...Maybe a good, 10....maybe 13 people would be good."

Thirteen people. Thirteen?! Most crews had tens of people. Even for small carracks like Steadey Bonneys. Let alone big pirates! There'd be a chance that kirk himself had even heard of the fact that there were crews out there with populations that matched entire ISLANDS. Ranging in the hundreds of thousands, spread across entire fleets of hundreds of ships! How could he possibly think thirteen was enough?

Leroy figured, that all he needed. If he had a group of people he could trust, and people that had faith in him, and he had their loyalty. Then he could do anything. Regardless if they were the best or not. Leroy remembered how once, when he was with his siblings, that he talked about forming a crew. And how that, no matter what, they'd become strong in their own way!

The red sashed man smiled at the nostalgic thought.

'....Ok, yeah, no. He's fucking insane. No doubt about it.' Kirk wasn't sure if he should be relieved or not that this new era of pirates was getting stupider and stupider by the batch.