#i ended up writing a lot for luffy & law's part even tho i initially wanted them to be like. the side pairing

[deecotan]

more stuff for dragon zoro & prince sanji AU! We have daddy mihawk and the other dragon-human pair, luffy and law

Massive loredump beneath this so read it at your own risk!

In this setting, dragons and dragon-shifters are the same, but also different. Pure dragons are 100% animals/monsters with no human intelligence, while dragon-shifters are a subtype of dragons who can turn into a human via magic in their blood. Dragon-shifters are heavily discriminated against in human society, considered as subhumans the same level as animals – therefore, dragon-shifters rarely mingle with humans and would rather stay in the wilderness. Dragon-shifters are also capable of communicating with dragons, and would have a better chance to survive by coexisting with them rather than humans. Dragon-shifters are also considered a commodity in the black market. 

Zoro’s backstory 

Zoro was an orphaned dragon-shifter ever since he was young, and had never learned how to turn into a dragon. He used to live in the wilderness until he arrived on a small human settlement where he met and subsequently befriended Kuina, a human girl. It was from her where he learned the way of humans, including their culture and language. Despite his horns and scales, Kuina and the other people in the village thought he was some sort of a specific magical race instead of a dragon-shifter and thus never questioned his identity. As Zoro started to grow older, though, he started to noticeably possess more dragonic features in his body, such as a pair of wings that sprouted from his back, which was when Kuina started to realize what he really was. Fearing that the villagers would kill him if they found out, Kuina tried to convince Zoro that he had to hide himself in a way, but Zoro stubbornly said that he didn’t care about what other humans thought of him. They broke into a fight that ended with Zoro running away into the woods. Kuina tried to chase him, but in an unfortunate twist of events, she accidentally slipped when trying to climb a high ground and died instantly from the fall. The shock that overcame him triggered Zoro to turn into his dragon form, his roar in agony subsequently alerting the villagers. When Kuina’s father, Koshiro, soon discovered them, he immediately recognized the dragon as Zoro as he had known from Kuina of his identity as a dragon-shifter, and despite learning of his daughter’s death, he understood that Zoro wasn’t responsible for it. However, he immediately told Zoro to leave the village and to never look back, since the villagers would never be able to accept dragon-shifters and that they would think Zoro was the one who killed Kuina. 

He ran away from the village and soon met with Mihawk, an ancient dragon-shifter. Disoriented in his new dragon form, he initially became hostile towards the older dragon and attacked him, though Mihawk easily overpowered him and gave him a permanent scar on his front body. After realizing that Zoro is a dragon-shifter, though, he decided to take him under his wing and practically raise him. Mihawk was the one who taught Zoro the way of the dragons, and that “humans are rarely to be trusted”. After learning of Zoro’s friendship with Sanji, Mihawk was initially not very keen on it, though in the end he lets him off. 

Zoro and Sanji’s story (continuation) 

Zoro and Sanji initially lived in the mountains near the village where Zeff lived. However, over the years, many people of the village started to grow suspicious of the two of them, especially Sanji, because he had a mysterious upbringing and a distinctively foreign-looking face that doesn’t belong in the eastern region they lived in. The turning point of their fates happened when the infamous bounty hunter Don Krieg turned up in the village – after he and his crew suffered a humiliating defeat after trying to slay Mihawk in his dragon form, he tried to restore his pride by changing his target to the dragon in the mountains that allegedly hoarded a huge amount of gold. Carrying out a surprise attack and using a dragon poison, Krieg was able to overpower Zoro and capture Sanji. Upon finding out that there was no gold, though, and that the dragon was actually a dragon-shifter, Krieg planned to sell them off to the black market instead, but not before he was stopped by Zeff and his tavern workers. 

The groups clashed against each other, and at some point after Zoro was given an antidote to counter the poison, he gained enough strength to defeat most of Krieg’s men. Krieg tried to take Sanji hostage at first, but was surprisingly stopped by Gin, one of his subordinates, who in an attempt to find help for his crew was the first person to arrive at their village and subsequently got his injuries treated and then fed by Sanji. Krieg was soon defeated and Gin admitted his crew’s defeat, promising never to bother them anymore and thanking Sanji for his help. 

The event had stirred unrest in the village, and Zeff, concerned that the growing attention would jeopardize Zoro and Sanji’s safety, encouraged the two of them to leave the village altogether to find a better place to live. Despite Sanji’s initial objection, he eventually complied, realizing that Zoro would be better off somewhere where he wasn’t being hunted down every now and then. After a tearful farewell, Zoro and Sanji began the journey to find a new home.

The two of them spent weeks looking for a place to settle in, coming across a variety of places and people in the journey. At one point, though, they crossed paths with a group of bounty hunters who knew of Zoro’s identity as a dragon-shifter. They managed to hold them off enough for them to run, though Zoro’s left eye got injured by a poison-coated knife, drastically weakening him. Sanji desperately tried to find help while carrying an unconscious Zoro, but on the way, he came across a mysterious stranger who claimed that he was a medic who could treat Zoro. Having no choice despite not believing him at first, Sanji decided to follow the stranger.  

The stranger turned out to be telling the truth, taking them to his dwelling where he immediately treated Zoro’s injury. The stranger also revealed that he knew of Zoro’s identity as a dragon-shifter, and treated his injury like he would to a dragon-shifter. The stranger introduced himself as Law, a doctor and surgeon who was studying medical practice for both humans and magical creatures. Even more surprisingly, though, was the fact that Law himself had been living with a dragon-shifter – a cheerful lad named Luffy.

Law and Luffy’s backstory 

Prior to meeting Luffy, Law was working under Doflamingo, an infamous underground broker who had a wide network of illegal activities, including the business of buying and selling magical creatures in the black market. The only survivor of the plagued city of Flevance, Law was taken by Doflamingo’s group when he was a child. Law was recruited by Doflamingo for his vast knowledge in medicine and human anatomy, and was the one who encouraged him to learn about medical treatment for magical creatures. Law’s task usually required him to run medical experiments on the magical creatures to “enhance” their appearances/abilities so that they could be more profitable in the market.

Despite working together, Doflamingo and Law’s relationship was far from being called a good one. Law deeply resented Doflamingo for his arrogance and pride, and didn’t always agree with Doflamingo’s illegal, often unethical practices he ran in the underground business; he only agreed on working together with him because Doflamingo had been abusing him, and threatened to shatter any semblance of freedom left on Law’s life if he ever dared to oppose him. He also hated Doflamingo for killing Corazon, Doflamingo’s own brother and a father figure to Law - the only person who showed genuine love and care for him while living with Doflamingo’s group. Doflamingo, while considering Law’s skills to be useful, had always treated him badly and considered him to be an insolent brat. Doflamingo’s mistreatments of Law mostly manifested ever since he killed his brother after he tried to take Law away from him. While Law didn’t manage to escape, Corazon’s influence had managed to make him aware of how dangerous Doflamingo was, and he had been secretly planning to overthrow Doflamingo by secretly collecting all the resources and information he needed ever since Corazon died. 

He first met Luffy when the dragon-shifter was unconscious and greatly injured after a battle. He patched Luffy up and took him under his watch for a while, before promptly setting him free – he had a principle that he would never involve magical creatures who had human intelligence to the black market, and knowing that Luffy was part human, he let him go. However, unexpectedly, Luffy came back to him a few months after his injuries were treated by him, claiming that he was grateful for Law’s help and that he wanted to be his friend. While their relationship started off a bit rocky, mostly due to the disparity of their personalities, they eventually became close since Luffy was the first person whom Law could truly open up to, ever since Corazon. 

“Why do you like to talk to me? Don’t you have other people you’d rather hang around with?”

Luffy stared at him. “Do you have other people you want to hang around with, Torao?”

Law didn’t answer immediately. Couldn’t. There were always those like Bepo, Shachi, and Penguin whom he actually liked to talk with – a little brash and overexcitable, perhaps, but good people nonetheless. But that’s the exact problem; they’re good people, and Law wasn’t, and he couldn’t possibly get into anything deeper with them. They’re just… acquaintances. Associates. People he worked with when necessary. They’re not his… he wasn’t their friend. He wasn’t anything to them. The less they knew him, the less likely they would consider him important. They wouldn’t be involved in the clusterfuck of a mess that was his life. 

“... well, no, I don’t. But I enjoy my solitude. I’m not like you who could go around and make friends with whoever you like.”

“Then that’s fine!” Luffy smiled, unexpectedly. (It was the brightest smile he had ever seen.) “I like hanging around with you. You’re a good guy, Torao. I don’t want you to feel alone.”

Luffy’s growing friendship with Law was what led him to be involved in his plan to defeat Doflamingo. After Doflamingo was defeated and his crime organization fell apart, Law decided to move to where Luffy and his friends resided, the Thousand Sunny, where he built a home and a small clinic near the woods. Luffy was the one who wanted to stay with Law, since the two of them had built a special bond after they’ve spent a lot of time together.

Luffy was some sort of a mix between an European dragon and a feathered serpent, so his dragon form had four legs, but with a long, semi-feathered body, feathered tail, and prominently a pair of bird-like wings instead of a dragon one. He had a noticeably very flexible and somewhat elastic body that allowed him to bend and twist to almost impossible forms, which he would like to describe as “rubber-y”. Despite his lithe form, Luffy was surprisingly very powerful both in dragon and human forms, and notably one of the very few who could overpower dragon Zoro, both in his normal form and Asura form. 

ADDITIONAL NOTES

Surprisingly, Dragon (as in Luffy’s dad) wasn’t a dragon. He did have a child with a dragon-shifter, though, which was how Luffy was born. 

Shanks was a famous, well-respected knight, one that was notably known for never discriminating against dragon-shifters or any human-monster hybrids. He and Mihawk knew each other. He was the reason why Mihawk said “most humans are not to be trusted” rather than “all humans”.

After Doflamingo’s defeat, Law sought out to become closer with Bepo, Shachi and Penguin, and they became close friends ever since. 

The villagers of Thousand Sunny were an exceptionally welcoming and open-minded bunch, that even a dragon-shifter like Luffy was welcomed with open arms. Thousand Sunny was established with the idea where people and magical creatures of all kinds could live together in peace. 

I never actually get to draw Luffy with his iconic straw hat in this since design-wise it would just obscure his horns. But he would still wear them around his neck, though, and his crew would still be called the Strawhats. 

With that being said, the Strawhats in this universe and their occupation/species/etc: Nami - human, weather witch; Usopp - half-elf, craftsman and artist; Robin - nephilim (ironically known as “Devil Child”), historian; Chopper, a human-deer hybrid, doctor; Brook, an undead whose curse was lifted by Luffy, musician; Franky, orc with prosthetic body (a “cyborc”), architect and weapon tinker; Jinbe, fishman, martial artist and diplomat.