Prologue
Unknown Island, Grand Line (Paradise)
"Little one, do not cry for me. Wipe away those tears. My end may near, but yours has just begun," whispered the woman lying on the cot. Her hair hung like a haggard black mane, and once tanned skin now shone sallow and unhealthy. Her breathing wore ragged, and the hand that lifted to stroke the crying child hovering over her was frail and bony.
"Live free and proud. I have already made arrangements, my precious son. An old friend will take you away to a better place. I am sorry I could not provide for you properly. Remember, your father may not be able to be there for you in person, but he will always be there on the sidelines. Be strong and true to yourself, Sol D. Silvers Kitsune. You will always be my little fox kit…" The light fled from the woman's topaz eyes. The child beside her cried out denials of her death.
In the doorway, an old vice-admiral bowed his head in respect for the woman that has led a proud and loving life to the end. Slowly he walked over to the eight-year-old and gathered the sobbing child in his arms.
"Come, now, lad. Your mother wouldn't want you to be so sad. Hey, you know, I have a grandson whom you might like. He about three, and I'm sure you might enjoy having a little brother," murmured the marine, unusually soft-spoken, if a bit gruff, but the child's sobs have already gave away to the exhaustion of sleep.
Garp sighed and hoped this was the worse of it; it was a long trip back to East Blue, after all, and it would be hard to secretly transport the child of such infamous lineage as the little boy in his arms if said boy sobbed the whole way there.
Not that the vice-admiral blamed the child, he remembered shedding more than a few tears at his own parents' funeral. Unfortunately, the child's mother would probably not get much more than a grave hidden away on this island, far from any point of civilization for several hundreds of kilometers around.
Garp made a mental note to get word to that annoying former second mate of Rogers of the mother's death.
Knowing the secretive nature of Kitsune's mother (and her subsequent infamy), Garp would also have to drop off an eternal log pose to the retired pirate, probably personally given the nature of the secret.
On more than one occasion, Garp felt the need to bang his head against the wall and ask why infamous criminals kept thinking he was the right person to raise their kids. Though, he never regretted taking their troublesome kids in as his own.
Garp smiled down on the small child in his arms and thought, He'll make a fine marine, I guarantee it. They all had their parents' potential, but Garp would do his damnest to see it used for the right side of the law.
For him, there was never an option to think otherwise.
The other roads led to a nightmarish path that could only end in one way, after all. And Garp would do everything in his power to prevent such a short-lived future for his brats.