Chapter 2: その男 "麦わらのルフィ"

Luffy sets out alone in a dinghy, meets the timid Coby, and declares his goal. The chapter introduces two speech registers side by side: Luffy's blunt confidence and Coby's polite hesitation. The grammar leans on explanatory のだ constructions and strong volitional statements.

Vocabulary

Grammar

～んだから (explanatory emphasis)

のだ (contracted んだ) plus から. The のだ layer marks the statement as an explanation or established fact. から then gives the reason. おれがなるって決めたんだから means "because I've decided I'm going to become (it)," with the んだ signaling that this decision is already settled and not up for debate. Michi Stage 3, Ch16 covers colloquial のだ patterns.

～わけない (there's no way)

わけ means "reason" or "logical basis." わけがない, often shortened to わけない, means there is no logical basis for something. It is a flat denial of possibility. Michi Stage 3, Ch07 covers わけ and its compounds.

～ようが～まいが (whether X or not)

The volitional form plus が, paired with the negative volitional (まい) plus が. 泳げようが泳げまいが means "whether I can swim or not." This is a concessive pattern: the speaker dismisses both possibilities as irrelevant. Michi Stage 4, Ch03 covers concession and counter-expectation. The volitional form itself is in Stage 2, Ch02.

～な (prohibition)

Plain-form verb plus な is a direct prohibition: するな means "don't do it." Short, blunt, no softening. This is the simplest prohibitive form in Japanese. Michi Stage 2, Ch06 covers imperative and prohibitive forms.

Structural Glosses

Luffy on his inability to swim:

泳げようが泳げまいが関係ねェか

泳げよう-が 泳げまい-が 関係ねェ[=関係ない]-か

Whether I can swim or can't swim, it doesn't matter, does it.

泳げよう is the volitional of the potential form 泳げる. まい is the negative volitional suffix. The が...が frame means "regardless of either case." 関係ねェ is 関係ない with the characteristic ェ shift. The final か is a musing question directed at himself.

Luffy explaining his goal to Coby:

おれがなるって決めたんだから

おれ-が[subject]-なる-って-決めた-んだ[=のだ]-から

Because I've decided that I'm going to become (the Pirate King).

って is the casual quotation particle (と). 決めた is past tense of 決める (to decide). んだ marks the whole clause as established fact, and から gives the reason. Luffy uses this structure to shut down objections. The decision is already made. The explanation is not an invitation to discuss.

Reading Notes

Coby's speech is the first sustained polite register in the series. He uses ぼく, です, and ます even when panicking. This contrast makes Luffy sound rougher than he already is. Pay attention to how the same information lands differently depending on which character delivers it.

The chapter also introduces Luffy's Gomu Gomu powers in action for the first time. The sound effects during the stretching scenes (ぐい～ん, ビヨ～ン) are onomatopoeia for elastic pulling and snapping. These are not standard dictionary words. Context and the art carry the meaning.