The Marine Hero found him drifting through the waves. He was cheeky and had that fire just like his boys. And with both his grandsons dreaming about a life of piracy in their future, Garp just couldn't ignore that pink haired little brat who brought him a ray of hope. Donning the coat of justice, he was ready to make everyone's lives miserable.
Chapter 1: Cast Away
Through the humble and calm waters of the East Blue, sailed a large Battleship with a dog's head as its figure head. The ship wasn't heavily damaged nor was it following a pirate vessel. To say the least, it was weird seeing a vessel of its class in the most peaceful sea which was not much of interest to the Government or the pirates who usually attract the navy.
Zzzzzz...
The loud sound of snoring was heard throughout the vessel, but none of the officers or soldiers paid attention to it; seemingly unconcerned of the person who was neglecting duty, but they were not at fault here, they simply didn't have the authority or power(physical or mental) to discipline the rule breaker. Through the busy sailors and various cannons, the view falls on a beach chair in the centre of the front deck where a man in shorts and a Hawaiian loose shirt with the buttons opened, showing a broad muscular chest with a few scars here and there. His black hair was cut with a flat top and had whitening sideburns and a black goatee.
He had his right arm hung loosely on to the wooden board and the other limply placed on his lower abdomen while a small snot bubble expanded and contracted at his nose. "Vice Admiral Garp!" The call of an unlucky sailor who was about to face a manly lecture on letting men sleep burst the snot bubble on the sleeping man and made him jump up in surprise with a startled face; his eyes widened, stretching the scar above his eye a bit.
"Huh? I was lecturing Luffy?" The man spoke dazed as his sleep still controlled what left of his pinprick brain which couldn't make out where he was. Well the petty officer who woke up the Devil got a few moments to enjoy his lowering mortality rate until the man he addressed as Vice-Admiral shook his head and shot a glare at the him. "It better be Roger coming out of his grave and raising an army of undead and unkillable pirates in a island sized ship that has a super cannon that could wipe out a hundred warships!" The massive man stood up with a boiling face, his broad teeth bared and his fists clenched with a nerve popping off his forehead.
"Uh...no sir..." The sailor spoke nervously increasing the Admiral's fury further.
"Then?!" Garp asked with annoyance and anger.
The non-commissioned officer gulped nervously as he wondered why none of his comrades involve themselves. "T-There's a lot of wreckage in front of us and there's a boy floating on one of them." He managed.
Folding his arms he gave a thoughtful look. "What the hell are you morons waiting for?!" Garp suddenly roared causing his subordinates to stumble back while the sailor who brought the information was shivering like a mound of jelly.
"T-There are small s-sea kings circling the b-boy." He managed.
"So? Fire those cannons!" The commander of the vessel walked over to starboard, while closely followed by the few crew members who were brave enough to follow the tyrant.
"Sir the boy's too close, he might get hit too." Rubbing his forehead in annoyance, the commander pulled off his Hawaiian shirt and without any warning, jumped into the sea.
"Vice-Admiral!" The crew yelled in shock at the man's action.
Unaffected by his crew's concern, Garp swam fast towards the speck of pink hair that he saw from his ship, and true to their words, there were a few small sea kings that could be classified as Class C monsters. "Bunch of wussies who couldn't even save a brat..." Upon the man's arrival to the wreckage of what seemed to have been wooden boards and benches once, the Sea kings fled the scene.
The Vice Admiral grabbed the wooden plank on which the boy floated and lightly leaned on it for stability so he could observe the boy. He was maybe a few years older than Ace, wet spiky pink locks covered his head which had the right cheek pressed on the plank. Most of his upper body was exposed with a torn off shirt. The man gently pushed the hair off the boy's face and was awarded with the sights of disappearing scales, leaving a little tan coloured face that slept peacefully.
The sound of his even breathing relieved him. "Hey kid." The Garp shook the boy lightly and got a low groan in response. "Good. Keep a hold of that breath, I'm gonna getch'you outta here, ok?" He heard the rescue boat nearing him and lifted the boy towards his men who immediately grabbed hold of the boy only to find out he didn't come alone; in the submerged hand of the boy was a white scarf with scaly patterns.
Of course they tried to separate the scarf from the boy, only to find that his grip was as strong as an iron lock. "Dammit, he ain't letting go!" The sailor who was doing the act complained.
"Leave it willya? He clearly doesn't want that scarf off him." The Vice-Admiral who stood on the boat commented. "Lieutenant, take a couple of men and sweep the area, see if you can find anything." The commander ordered his men as the boat docked against the ship. "I'll take him." He bent down and swung the boy over his shoulder before jumping on to the ship effortlessly.
After a moment of silence the man dressed in the grey suit and fedora hat of the same colour, a katana strapped to his hip and an officer's coat draped over the shoulder, who was addressed as the lieutenant turned to the crew on the rescue boat. "You heard the boss, get on with it." He barked the commands and let the boat row into the debris.
Meanwhile, on board the mighty battleship, the Vice-Admiral carried the boy to the cargo crates and placed his limp body over the plastic draped boxes. The ship's doctor rushed with his instruments and placed the stethoscope on the pink heads chest and mindfully observed.
The Vice Admiral spoke with a sigh. "He's just fine doc, maybe a bit screwed by the sea water..." The doctor looked up and nodded.
"You are right sir, there seems to be no disturbance in his heart beat or blood flow." He opened the boy's eyes, revealing unfocused obsidian pupils and inspected with his small medical torch. "Yes, he's fine, maybe exhausted from scarcity of food." The doctor concluded as he took out the surgical scissors and cut off the few bits of clothing that remained of his shirt. "Hmm...his body is well nourished and in top shape..." The doctor spoke as he searched for any scars.
"Yea, I figured that out..." The Vice-Admiral thought back to the disappearing scales on the boy's face.
"Sir?" The doctor looked weirdly at the officer.
The old man sighed. "Nevermind..." Garp waved of the other man's look. "Get him cleaned and prepare a massive feast for him..." The doctor understood the cleaning part and the food, but why a feast? As if reading his mind, the Vice-Admiral spoke. "Don't ask, weirdos like him are hard to miss." As the doctor took the boy into the ship, he saw what seemed to be an odd red tattoo on the boy's right shoulder. 'Well, at least it ain't a skull...'
He walked over to the side and looked at the search party scour through the wreckage. "What the hell happened here..." His eyes narrowed right before his head fell backwards and his eyes shut and a snot bubble started to blow on his nose. He was asleep, right on the spot, standing.
The team sent to search the area returned back with little results. The Vice-Admiral's right hand man got on the ship. "Alright, bring all that stuff up!" He barked the commands which the sailors quickly followed as they tied the baggage to the rope sent down from the ship to the sack of items they scavenged. The Lieutenant turned to look at his commanding officer and sweat dropped at the sight of the oddly sleeping man.
POP!
The snot bubble burst and the Vice-Admiral woke up startled. "Huh? Whaa? I fell asleep again?" He rambled before he saw his lieutenant. "Got anything?" Garp enquired, not at all concerned about his embarrassing action.
As it seemed, the lieutenant was a man who stuck with the Vice-Admiral for a while now and he was pretty used to his ways. "Yes sir, only a little though." He replied smoothly. Garp folded his arms and nodded. "The forensic tests are on route." He added.
"Good, find something, report to me." He commanded.
"Yes sir." The younger man replied.
An hour passed over from the incident and the ship was once again on its course to Dawn Island. They were expected to arrive at mid noon five days later and the Vice-Admiral was very much excited on the concept of meeting both his grandkids. 'Hopefully, those two got the prospect of being good Marines drilled into their bird brains...' The old man thought.
He was interrupted from his line of thought by the sound of the foot stamping on the wooden board. "Sir! The forensic results are ready!" A petty officer stood behind him erect.
Letting out a sigh, Garp looked over his shoulder. "Yea...be there in a minute..." He heard the hurried taps of the feet of the sailor. Soon enough, he began to make his way inside the gigantic ship. Hopefully, some trash his subordinates found will get him a picture of what happened in the most peaceful ocean in the world. It can't be a spoilt Celestial Dragon who found joy in screwing up the lives of normal people.
Why?
One, that boy was far from normal. Two, that bastard Sengoku would be on his ass to make space for those bastard 'noobles' in his vacation with his grandkids. Three, there wasn't much to see in this boring peaceful sea that would cause a lazy ass fat bastard with a god status make their way here.
The room he entered was cramped; it had a big table in the centre, couple of book shelves and normal shelves with equipments, two tube lights and a small round window. On the table was all the junk that his crew collected. "Whatchya got for me Bito?" The Vice-Admiral asked the only other man who was present in the room.
He was a tan skinned slightly chubby man who wore a brown suit with a lab coat over it. His black slimy long hair was combed slick backwards and had thick square black framed specks and a clean shaven face. "Well, I know one thing for sure." The man spoke. "This," He pointed at the junk on the desk. "…isn't from a ship wreck." The forensic chief confirmed.
"Then?" The old man folded his arm and looked the other man in the eye, clearly showing his impatience.
"It's something that happened far inland, these are parts of chairs, building planks, concrete materials, spears, arrows and what not. Either it's a military or civilian gathering inside a building that went wrong." The Vice-Admiral looked at him weirdly. Bito deadpanned. "We are New World Marines, sir." That answered the commander's question about how all this reached here.
Then his eyes fell on a particular item. It was a flag, or at least what was left of it. Picking it up, he stretched it out. "What's this?" It had its top half in red and the other in dark red and there was a symbol at the centre. It didn't make sense, but after a while, he classified it as a bird and dropped it. Just as he was about to turn back, his eyes narrowed. "Where have I seen that before?" He picked up the strange flag and once again looked at it. "Oh yea, the boy." He looked at the scientist. "I am taking this doc." Bito didn't bother replying as the Vice-Admiral was already out of the room and walking over to the main deck.
"Vice-Admiral, the boy's awake!" A small smirk came over the old man's face.
.
.
.
Everything was wet at first, and then everything became naked, now dry and clothed. He slowly opened his eyes; now everything was hazy and blurred beyond recognition. Why is it always everything and not just a part? But what was the giant flat topped object staring down at him with a wide grin? Grin? So it was someone. "W-who the heck are you?" He groaned out as he reached his forehead with his palm.
"What's up kid? How ya feeling?" The booming voice of the old man echoed through his little head. Like a bolt of lightning, pain shot through the boy's body, although it lasted only for a few seconds. The Vice-Admiral frowned. "You ok?"
"Yea, I am feeling peachy!" The boy shot off the bed and stood on it with a vein popping from his forehead. He was not at all concerned about the older man's size, which to say the least was still a foot taller and two feet wider.
"Grrr..." The old man growled as he raised his fist. "Show some respect to your elders you cheeky little brat!" He began to bring down his fist on the boy.
"You can't stop me old geezer!" The boy too raised his fist and brought it towards the old man's incoming one.
Grrrrr
Both fists stopped inches away from connecting with the other at the sound of the growls that erupted from their respective stomachs, other than that, they didn't mover or break eye contact with each other. A few seconds seem to pass before another growl erupted, but this time, it was from only the boy's stomach, he withdrew his fist and let it rest on his sides while a frown came over his face at the thought of the betrayal done by his stomach.
"Dragneel Natsu." His eyes didn't waver as he looked at the smirking old man.
"Monkey D. Garp." The old man spoke. "Now let's go get something to eat." He turned around and walked out of the room, quickly followed by Natsu who wrapped the scarf around his neck. He didn't bother with a shirt and continued with the shorts.
A few minutes later, lunch was being served...
The crew could only term it one thing. War. Food was getting butchered and massacred...even though it was dead to begin with. True to Garp's words, the boy in fact was a black hole. He alone has finished the entire stock of sea king the old man caught two days back and they feared he would start with the ship's rations. That would be catastrophic, even as a thought.
"Damn that hit a small spot!" Natsu let out a barf which was soon followed by Garp's own barf. "So old man, where am I?" He asked him with a curious face.
"East Blue." Garp stared at him for a moment and nodded his head. "On board my ship." He folded his massive arms. This got the boy's attention, his eyes widened as his hands accidently gripped the table, crushing it under his strength.
Time passed since Natsu realized his one true weakness no longer plagued him, but at the same time his memories took its place instead. He knew he was turned into a kid for a purpose, he also knew what Erza's mother did. This was his chance to do it right, to make the next confrontation with his brother the last one. More than that, he knew this wasn't the first time he was seeing this new world, he took a detour from his brother's plan on dropping him with the remains of his guild before he was forced back on the journey here.
"Hey brat." The gruff voice of the old man brought him back to the land of the living.
Frowning at being called a brat, Natsu shot back. "What do you want old geezer?" It clearly got on to his nerve and the Dragon slayer was pleased.
"Why you impudent little..." Garp took a deep breath to calm himself but it didn't work. "Oh screw that!" He brought his fist down on Natsu who took the blunt force of the attack before slamming his foot on the old man's abdomen. The crew watched in amazement as the kid they found half dead a while ago, going toe to toe with the Marine Hero.
Bumps and bruises lined the two who sat beside each other on the side of the ship. "Not bad brat." Garp spoke first.
Grumbling, Natsu replied. "You are not half bad either, but I was going easy on you." Garp merely laughed it off while Natsu's thoughts slowly went back to the old man who ran his guild.
"Big fight eh?" Natsu looked at the Vice-Admiral with curiosity; the old man was looking at the setting sun with a calm face.
"What?" The teenager asked.
"That look you had on your face earlier and now," Garp began. "I know that look," The dragon slayer remained silent.
There were a few minutes of silence between the two as they just sat there, until the pink head decided to break it. "So, what's this Admiral thing people call you by?" He was genuinely curious and this curiosity would be the building stone of a great Naval Officer who would bring down real justice in the coming days.
Garp gave a smirk. "Well it all starts with will to help others..."
XxxX
Yea, it's been in my mind for a while, I wanted to make our Dragon Slayer into a Navy man just like how Garp wanted to with his grandkids.
So please review if you like the first chapter..
Edited: 21 July 2017