A/N: I know that the "Luffy's sister" concept is a cliché. And I've noticed that the biggest issue with the concept, in my opinion, is that people will introduce the character as his sister and then create no importance to the sibling relationship. I don't plan to do that so please bear with me and give this a chance.

"After a series of unanticipated events, Portgas D. Ace was killed at Marineford on the scheduled day of his execution by vice-admiral Sakazuki, also known as Akainu.

As we had predicted, 'Fire Fist' Ace's planned execution went neither quickly nor orderly. Before his death, there was a massive struggle between the marines and the Whitebeard pirates, the highlight of which was the arrival of the captain of the Straw-Hat pirates, Monkey D. Luffy. He, along with several others which included the ex-warlord 'First Son of the Sea' Jinbei and the Revolutionary Commander Emporio Ivankov, made a grand appearance by falling into Marineford from the sky.

As 'Straw Hat' Luffy fought his way forward toward 'Fire Fist' Ace, the former revealed that he and 'Fire Fist' were brothers. Fleet Admiral Sengoku 'the Buddha' clarified the statement by announcing that the two were merely adoptive brothers. He followed this by two pieces of shocking information: Portgas D. Ace was the son of the infamous 'pirate king' Gol D. Roger and Monkey D. Luffy is the son of the leader of the Revolutionary Army, Dragon, who is also known as the 'the world's most dangerous criminal'."

...

"The fate of Monkey D. Luffy is currently unknown. The Navy is unwilling to share any information that they may have on the pirate's whereabouts."

[~ 10 Years Prior; Ace, age 10; Luffy, age 7; Lavi, age 6]

"But Miss Makino," whined a small, black-haired girl sitting on a barstool. She had an empty plate in front of her and frosting all over her mouth. "I have to see him." She pouted as she looked at the older woman.

"I'm sorry, Lavi," began Makino from behind the counter of her bar. "But you know that I can't tell you. Mr. Garp said—"

"I don't care what that old fart said!" Shouted Lavi with a furrowed brow as her tiny hands balled up into fists. Makino sighed.

"You have to trust that Luffy's in a safe place," Makino told her.

"No," Lavi replied without hesitation.

"Do you really think that Mr. Garp would leave Luffy somewhere dangerous?" Makino asked.

"Yea. Remember that time when he—"

"Okay, okay. That wasn't the question I should have asked. How about this: I know where Luffy is and I know that he's safe. Can you trust my judgement? You know that I wouldn't want any harm to come to your brother." Lavi looked at Makino unblinkingly, the silence of the empty bar hanging heavy between them.

"No," Lavi said with a serious face after a minute or so. "I only trust one person and that's my brother."

"You can be really troublesome," Makino told her with a soft sigh. "How about we make a deal?"

"What kinda deal?"

"Well, your grandfather left you here in my care because he wants you to become a proper lady."

"I'm not gonna be one!" Shouted Lavi, standing up on the barstool. She put her hands on her waist and puffed her chest out. " I'm gonna be a pirate with Luffy! I don't care what that old man says!" Makino giggled.

"I'll take you to Luffy if you agree to let me teach you some proper etiquette." Lavi's eyes widened at Makino's suggestion. The girl sat herself back down on the stool with a grin.

"Yes! Anything for Luffy!" She shouted.

"But you have to promise me that you'll actually listen and learn," Makino told her. Lavi nodded without hesitation.

"What are we waiting for?" She asked. She hopped off the stool and ran around to the other side of the counter, grabbing Makino's hand. Lavi tugged on it and pulled her forward.

"Wait," Makino told her. "Let's at least get you cleaned up first." Lavi pouted at the woman, but complied, not wanting her to decide to go back on the deal.

A short while after, Lavi found herself skipping up the path to Mt. Corvo with Makino just behind her. As soon as she saw the bandit house, she ran toward it, stopping right in front of it and shouting Luffy's name at the top of her lungs. The door to the house immediately slid open to reveal an irritated looking woman with orange hair.

"What the hell, you brat?!" The woman narrowed her eyes at the little girl who turned to look at her with a blank expression on her face.

"Where's Luffy?" Lavi asked her. The woman opened her mouth to tell the child to go away when she saw Makino walk up to them.

"Hello, Miss Dadan," she said to the orange-haired woman. Dadan closed her mouth and gulped at the sight of the younger woman. She hesitantly turned her attention back to the girl who was looking at her with frustration.

"D-don't tell me this is another one," said Dadan.

"Don't worry, Miss Dadan. We're only here to visit." Dadan sighed in relief.

"Where's Luffy?!" Lavi asked again, stomping one foot on the ground, with angry features set on her face.

"The brat went out hunting with Ace and Sabo."

"Ace and Sabo?" Lavi asked with a tilt of her head, but before Dadan could answer, Luffy's loud voice interrupted the conversation.

"Lavi!" He shouted, causing said girl to turn around to see her brother rushing toward her. Her face brightened up and a grin that rivalled his appeared on her face.

"Luffy!" She shouted back and started running toward him as well. The two meeting in a tight hug. Luffy's straw hat, too big for his childish head, slid back and off, hitting the floor. At the sound, Lavi pulled away with wide eyes.

"Your hat!" She squealed, picking it up and dusting it off before handing it to Luffy.

"Shishishi," Luffy laughed. "It's fine." He placed the hat back on his head.

"But it's your precious hat!"

"Luffy, who's this?" Asked a voice that Lavi didn't recognize. She turned around to see two other boys that looked older than both her and Luffy—one of them had black hair and freckles while the other one was blond and had a missing tooth.

"Oh," she said. "You must be the other two that the old lady said. Umm," she trailed off, looking deep in thought for a few moments. "That's right! Icing and Soufflé," she said with a grin on her face.

"What the hell?!" Shouted the freckled one. "Those aren't even names!" Luffy and the blond one laughed in the background.

"They can be if they want to be!" Lavi shouted back at him. The two glared at each other.

"Guys," Luffy announced, "this is my little sister, Lavi!"

"What?!" Shouted both older boys and Dadan simultaneously. Dadan started to mumble to herself nervously in the background.

"You never told us you had a sister," said the freckled boy while the blond walked up to her.

"My name is Sabo," he told her. "And he's Ace," he said pointing to the one with freckles.

"See," Lavi said, elongating the last two letters. "I was close."

"Not at all!" Yelled Ace. The two started to glare at each other again.

"You wanna fight?" Challenged Lavi. Ace scoffed and looked away from her.

"I'm not gonna fight a little kid," he said.

"You're a kid too!" She shouted and then jumped on top of him, sending a punch at his face. Ace dropped his pipe as he fell back onto the floor with Lavi on top of him.

"Lavi!" She heard Makino's voice call in the background, but she ignored it as Ace growled and tried to push her away. Much to Ace's surprise, since he could easily do it with Luffy, he could not overpower her. So, instead, he punched her in the gut. She yelped, but retaliated by punching him in the chest, which slightly winded him. The two scuffled for a few more moments until Lavi felt something pulling her back.

"Lavi!" She heard Luffy's voice shout to her. It caused her to relax and let herself get pulled backward by, who she later saw was, Sabo. She panted heavily, feeling places where bruises would form and looked over at Ace who was in the same condition.

"I won that fight!" She exclaimed.

"That wasn't a fight!" cried out Ace. "You attacked me outta nowhere!"

"So? That's what pirates do!"

"You can't be a pirate! You're a girl!" He argued.

"Girls can so be pirates! I'll prove it to you! Fight me!" Sabo stepped in between Lavi and Ace with a sigh.

"Guys," Luffy whined. "Stop fighting." But neither party wanted to listen.

[10 Years Later; Lavi, age 16]

Everything was still except for the slight quivering of Lavi's lower lip. Her head was tilted downward, facing the newspaper that was set on the bar counter before her. The angle caused the bill of the green baseball cap on her head to shade her eyes.

"Portgas D. Ace was killed at Marineford".

The moment she read those words, everything else ceased to exist. Everything went still and silent. Her eyes scanned across the rest of the article, but they always, always, came back to those seven words.

"Portgas D. Ace..."

She was oblivious to the barkeep that had raised her giving her constant worried glances and to the orange-haired woman next to her, drinking like there was no tomorrow. She was oblivious to the rest of the bandits around her and to the commotion that was going on outside. None of those things mattered.

"...was killed..."

Her hands, which had been clasped together on her lap, had tightened their grip on the other and her nails were digging deeply into her skin—deep enough to draw out blood. But blood was fine. As long as she didn't cry, it was fine. She couldn't let herself succumb to that.

"...at..."

If she hadn't cried when Sabo had died, then she wouldn't cry when Ace had either; she still had one brother left. She still had one more person that she needed to be strong for.

"...Marineford".

She needed to be strong for Luffy.

Lavi blinked rapidly as the world started to move around her again. She lifted her head and let her eyes wander around the bar as she took in deep breaths. Where had everyone gone, she wondered.

And why did it hurt to breathe?

She looked down at her shaking hands to see nail marks and blood on them. She sighed as she forced herself up off the bar stool.

Heavy. Why did her body feel so heavy?

She walked around the counter to the sink that lay behind it and washed her hands with warm water.

Cold. Why did she feel so cold?

She rubbed her eyes with the warm water before turning the faucet back off. Then she noticed the sound of crying—shouting and crying. She turned to look at the door of the bar and saw that whatever it was, it was coming from whatever commotion was going on outside.

She dragged herself to the entrance of the bar and stepped outside. She was met by the sight of a bloody Garp in the grip of a furious Dadan whose arm was being held onto by Makino.

"Stop it, Miss Dadan!" Makino shouted. Lavi's blank eyes ran over each person in the scene, but those blank eyes became consumed with bitter anger when they landed on her 'grandfather'.

Dadan put down the arm that she had been intending to use to hit Garp again and then let go of the man. Makino moved from Dadan's side to stand in between the two and stretched out her arms to shield Garp from the mountain bandit's wrath.

"Can't you see that he's taking it harder than anybody else because he couldn't help them even though he was there?!" Shouted Makino.

"Bullshit," Lavi said, drawing everyone's attention to her. "That is bullshit!" She shouted, her eyes dead set on Garp. "If you were there you could have helped him! There are no excuses! I don't give a damn about who you work for. When the people you genuinely care about are in danger, you drop everything and help them! When the people you genuinely care about are about to die, then nothing else matters! Would you have done the same if it were Luffy? Would you have done the same if it were me? Would you have just stood there and watched us die?!"

The crowd of people that had gathered had gone dead silent at the girl's angry words. Garp had hung his head down in shame. At that moment, he couldn't stomach looking his grandaughter in the eye. Lavi scoffed and turned to look at Makino and lowered her voice back to a reasonable volume.

"Could not help even though he was there? No. He could have. He just decided that his damn job was more important," she hissed and turned her attention back to Garp. "Just like that damn man they decided to call my father. You want to act like him? Fine. Then I'll treat you the same way that I treat him."

She took a deep breath before saying the next six words. Her words caught in her throat for a second. Something in the back of her mind was telling her 'no', but her mind was too clouded by rage to listen to that faint voice of reason, so she said it.

"I no longer consider you family."

Garp squeezed his eyes shut and dug his fingers into the fabric of his pants. He had seen this coming; had known her well enough to know that she would react this way. But having expected it to happen didn't make it hurt any less.

He heard the words of a younger version of her echoing her present ones:

"Why would I be happy to see you? You're just going to leave again anyway! You're a terrible grandpa so just leave me alone!"

A tense silence settled over everyone. Lavi had turned around, giving her back to Garp and stood with her arms crossed against her chest as her hat shaded her eyes. Makino, who had brought down her arms, looked over at Lavi with deep concern.

"Garp," said the mayor hesitantly, breaking the silence. "What happened to Luffy? It said in the newspaper that he went missing."

"Mayor," said Garp, lifting his head to look at the man that he was addressing. Everyone in the crowd looked over at the marine, eager to hear what he would say. "He got away by submarine. The Navy went after him full force and searched for him desperately, but they didn't find any shipwreck so he's probably alive." The spirits of the townsfolk seemed to lift at the news, easing some of the tension.

"Probably?" Questioned Lavi, turning everyone's attention back to her. "No. Luffy is definitely alive. Do not underestimate my brother. He would not die that easily." She sighed and walked back into the bar.

Only a few more months, she told herself. Only a few more months and she would be 17. And then—then she could set sail; then she could find her brother.