Monsters

Monsters (モンスターズ) is a oneshot manga by Eiichiro Oda written in 1994. It is canonically part of One Piece, although this wasn't revealed until One Piece's Thriller Bark arc and confirmed in SBS Volume 47.

Plot
In this manga, Ryuma had traveled to a town. Ryuma unfortunately had at the time no money to pay for food. He had gone five days without food and his starvation was starting to get to him. Luckily he was saved by a kind waitress of the Restaurant Gèrard, Flare. Giving him food, Ryuma decided to repay his debt to the red-haired girl. Unfortunately for him, she was at the time talking to a swordsman, Cyrano, and thus ignored him. Just as Cyrano was leaving, his sword's sheath accidentally touched Ryuma's. Ryuma took this as the sign for a duel to the death and decided to fight Cyrano. As the two swordsmen engaged each other, Ryuma slashed a copper Buddha in half easily. Just before the fight could escalate, Flare asked Ryuma to stop. This he did much to shock to everyone in the restaurant.

Later, Ryuma learned from the restaurant's owner the story of Flare's hometown that had happened seven years ago. Ryuma learned that the town was attacked by a dragon and the only survivors were Flare and Cyrano. Later after eating, Ryuma decided to continue traveling. As he was walking, Ryuma's sheath was touched by another. Instinctively, Ryuma thought of it as a challenge. However before he could do anything, the swordsman, D.R., was apparently stabbed. D.R., seeing that he was stabbed, decided to blow the dragon horn he allegedly stole and supposedly summoned a dragon to come to the area. He did so in order take the whole town with him. He then broke the horn so no one could stop the dragon and then apparently died. This caused an uproar in the town and Ryuma was blamed for it.

Ryuma, not understanding the situation at all, decided not to take responsibility despite the townspeople and Flare's anger towards him. Cyrano however confirmed that the horn was real and asked everyone to leave so that he can deal with the dragon. Flare, feeling bad, decided not to go. Ryuma, being in debt, decided not to leave as well. Flare, fearing that Cyrano might die, decided to stop him. Ryuma decided to follow her and try to stop her. However just as they got a certain ways away, Ryuma tried to stop Flare from looking back. He unfortunately failed and she saw that Cyrano was helping D.R. loot the town. It turned out that Cyrano and D.R. were partners from the start. Cyrano had told D.R. about his and Ryuma's sheaths touching so that they could stage a scene with a fake dragon horn. They did so in order to scare everyone away so they could steal from the town. It was then revealed that they were responsible for the attack that happened seven years ago.

D.R. had summoned a dragon with a dragon horn that Cyrano stole from his own subordinates to attack Flare's hometown. While in the chaos, Cyrano found Flare and killed her father while she was unconscious. Cyrano then decided to use Flare in order to gain some prestige for his name. Learning this new information, Ryuma told Flare to leave, as a dragon was still coming to destroy the town. She however didn't and cried. Ryuma then decided to confront Cyrano and D.R. Upon meeting up with them, Cyrano merely mocked Ryuma and attacked him. Ryuma dodged Cyrano's attack and killed him with one strike. D.R., frightened by this, pleaded for his life by saying that only he could stop the dragon from coming with the real dragon horn. Ryuma did not believe him and killed D.R. in vain.

Just as the dragon arrived, Ryuma leapt from a building and with one mighty swing, slew the beast. Afterward, Ryuma decided to leave town. As he went, he left Flare with some encouraging words and told her that she owed him one as he fought for her twice. Later, when the townspeople came back and discovered everything, they learned that Ryuma was called "The King". It was a name that was given to him by the people he had saved. Ryuma, despite his fame, doesn't know this himself and even plans to fight this "King" one day. Ryuma, despite it all, simply travels off to his next adventure.