User blog comment:Ricizubi/It will be Shirahoshi, if this doesn't convince you even one bit that I give up/@comment-1595565-20110520171203/@comment-3130944-20110520182410

Luffy actually liked her otherwise why he would protect her, If you look the trivia section of Shirahoshi you will see that there is only 2 coward people that Luffy befriended with; Coby and Shirahoshi