A/N: okay chapter two, as promised this is much more interesting than the first chapter, which I am starting to think of as a prologue. Sorry if there is any OOCness but I just can't seem to get everyone perfect. Please rate and review tell me what you think, it' always interesting to here. What happens to the kids comes from chapter 432 where Garp says: "I pushed you over bottomless cliffs, threw you into the jungle at night, tied you on a balloon and sent you flying in the sky…" quick run down of terms I am likely to use in this story (as in through out the story not just this chapter):

Imoutou- little sister

Otoutou- little brother

Nii-san- big brother

Jiji-old man (sort of like gramps I think)

Disclaimer: I own my OC and nothing else, unfortunately.

2. Knots

Michiru looked around her room, it was smaller than her cabin on the ship but it looked much nicer, friendlier almost. Grandpa had gone down to say goodbye the people on the boat, he said they needed to go now but they'd want to know she was safe. Ace and Luffy were helping her unpack. Michiru, Michiru, Michiru, she couldn't stop thinking her name; it was so nice to have one. She looked at Ace and Luffy shyly. Luffy was messing about on her bed, jumping up and down, while Ace arranged some of the things from her trunk on her desk. The pretty, silver box with all her hair ties, ribbons and hairbrush, her storybooks and a few of her dolls. Something caught her from behind and she was pulled on to the bed next to Luffy.

"Hey. Come. Jump. With. Me" he said as he bounced up and down, each word punctuated with the sound of his feet landing on the bed.

Michiru giggled some more and stood up, trying to imitate her big brother. She jumped up and down, trying, and failing, to go higher than Luffy. Soon the third child joined them and the bed complained under their weight. When Luffy bumped Ace while jumping the game deteriorated into a fight. Michiru sat on the side, laughing and clapping. Luffy lost and they both bowed to her, wicked grins on their faces.

"Now come and help Luffy, it's not nice of you to leave our baby sister to do all the hard work."

They all turned to her clothes trunk. Giggling and out of breath they opened it. On top were her sun hats. She had two, one floppy material and the second made of straw. The straw one was her favourite, it had a white ribbon circling it and a white rose pinned on the front. She had never really seen the point of a hat but seeing as Luffy was wearing one she decided to do the same. She jammed it on her head and spun to face her two, new brothers.

"Hey! You've got a hat too." Luffy shouted out in delight. "Where'd you get yours?"

"Luffy got his from a pirate, Red-haired Shanks. He saved Luffy's life." Ace explained with just a hint of pride.

Michiru's jaw dropped. "You've met a real, live pirate!"

Luffy swelled with pride. "Yeah I have, he was really cool and he saved me from a bandit and a sea king. He's the strongest man ever, but when I grow up I'm going to be ten times stronger and cooler than Shanks, then I'll give him his hat back."

"How are you going to do that?"

"I'm going to be the Pirate King, like Ace's dad."

More amazed than ever Michiru spun to face Ace. He looked rather sheepish.

"I don't know what he was like or anything, that's why I use my mom's name, I don't really care about my dad. It's kind of a secret so you need to promise not to tell anyone." he said seriously.

She furiously nodded her consent, wishing her parents had been that cool. Luffy pulled on her hands.

"Wow, check these out Ace!" he cried pointing at her Celtic knots. Ace leant over her hands. She had two tattoos, one round her right wrist and the other on her left hand. The one on the back was contained in a circle. The knot was woven so that it had a cross shape, each edge with two loops. In the surrounding circle, above the points of the cross was a word: grá, creideamh, tá dóchasm agam ,neart . (Love, faith, hope, strength). The second one that wound round her wrist was a little thick. Mr Smith said it would look thinner when she was older. The knots were both circular and diamond shaped. It was done in black, Mr. Smith had said that it was a rarity. Her hand knot was done in many colours. The cross and writing was black but the ring went from blue to green to yellow to orange to red to pink to purple then back to blue. Mr Smith had done it for her on her seventh birthday. It'd hurt to get them but now she held out her hands proudly.

"Pity we don't have a brighter lamp, then we could see them properly" Ace commented.

"I can do that." Michiru said with complete confidence.

She wrinkled her nose as if she was thinking and suddenly an orb of light blossomed from her palm. It hovered above the tattoos emitting a pale, white light.

"How do you do that?!" cried and amazed Luffy.

"You've eaten a devil fruit right?" Ace was quicker on the uptake.

She nodded her head, grinning with pleasure. "The kira-kira no mi, or something like that, I don't really remember it was when I was four, a birthday gift from Mr Smith."

"Luffy's eaten one too" Ace said with a grin, pulling on his brother's cheek to illustrate the fact.

"You stretch!"

Michiru looked around her, more specifically below her. She was hanging on to Luffy's leg for dear life. She watched her flip-flop slip from her foot and fall down what seemed like an endless drop. Ace was in Garp's other hand. He hung them out over the edge of a cliff; the walk up hadn't really seemed that bad, a gentle incline, not too far and then the road had just ended in a shear drop. Luffy had given her a piggy back to the top of the mountain and so when Garp had picked him up Michiru had gone with him. Ace and Luffy struggled against the hands that were holding them.

"I've been easy on you boys because your sister had to adapt to life but after a month none of you have any excuses. Your training will continue so that you can become powerful marines! You know what times meals are so if you want to eat don't get back late! If your sister has so much as a scratch on her you two will be in more trouble then when Luffy fed my very important paper's to the wildlife!"

With that, he released his hold on the brothers. Michiru was already quite far down, Luffy's leg had been gradually lengthening but Ace plummeted past her with a look of complete exasperation on his face. She jerked down with a jolt then stopped. She looked up to see that Luffy did not intend to let go of Grandpa. Grandpa however had other ideas, it was not long before Luffy and Michiru followed Ace to the base of the cliff. Trees broke her fall and they landed at the base of a waterfall. Michiru didn't know whether to cry or not. The turbulent water had broken their fall but she still couldn't swim. Strong arms pulled her out and soon she was sitting on Ace's hip. He and Luffy could stand but the water came to Luffy's chin. They both looked at her to check if she was ok and once they established that she was they wadded to the shore.

"Silly old man." Luffy complained, while Ace sat her down on the shore.

"He's gone easy on us this time Luffy; I think he's worried about Michi-chan"

Michiru was still the same fragile looking child she'd been when Garp found her. Large sea blue eyes dominated her pale face. Her lips and cheeks had some colour and she didn't look like she had never seen the sun anymore but she still looked like the wind could blow her over. People rarely believed she was as old as seven, most thought she couldn't be older than five. She glared at her brothers.

"I can cope just as well as you can Acie!"

He and Luffy just laughed at her.

"Ace shall we try climbing? It can't be too difficult."

"For us, imoutou" Luffy stuck his tongue out at his little sister, dodging her tiny fists. He took off down the beach his little sister right on his heels. She overtook him twenty meters into the make shift race, easily pulling ahead.

"Michi! Come back here, Luffy you stay there and I'll come to you."

Ace marvelled at the little girl's speed. Grandpa had long since stopped trying to teach her to be strong but he boasted in the village that no one could run faster than his little granddaughter could. He also said it wasn't like she had a lot of weight to carry with her, in truth she didn't. Ace could easily hold the little girl in the air away from his body with one hand.

"I have an idea, how about we walk round the beach and find a different way up."

He gave Luffy a meaningful glance but it was lost on his little brother. Not that he needed to worry. The only person Luffy was capable of being, something that vaguely resembled, responsible around was Michiru. They were both very protective of their little sister, to the point that Luffy had gotten into trouble at the village for hitting one of the other children who said that Michiru's eyes were odd. She hated being treated as if she was weak but wouldn't question what her brothers said unless a pointed comment was made about helping her. He sighed and looked up at the cliff. If it were he and Luffy alone they could be at the cliff in a matter of minutes with Luffy's Gomu gomu no rocket but both he and Luffy were resilient. He wondered if that was why Granddad had dropped them near nightfall or if he meant for them to walk home through the forest at night. Probably the later, knowing Grandpa.

"I'm hungry Ace."

"Well we would be home now if you hadn't sworn blind that you knew a short cut and I hadn't been fool enough to follow you off the road."

In all fairness Ace had been distracted, otherwise he never would have considered relying on Luffy's sense of direction. He'd been trying to sort out something for Michiru's feet. She hadn't learnt to wear shoes she could keep on her feet yet and so she was getting her feet quite badly bruised. She was the only person the boys knew who bruised in a matter of minutes, especially from the lightest of pressure. Eventually they'd put her on Luffy's back and continued on Luffy's short cut.

"I want meat."

"You'll have to wait for breakfast, we've missed dinner."

Minutes passed in silence, broken only by the passage of the children through the forest. Punctuated by the occasional sound of Luffy's stomach rumbling. Ace chuckled silently thinking that the sound of Luffy's empty stomach would keep many wild animals far away from them. The first time Michiru had heard the sound was a week after she'd arrived. Luffy had eaten a little early and his stomach had started grumbling in his sleep. Seconds later Ace had felt a little body climb into his bed and cuddle up next to him. An urgent whisper had followed. She had asked in all earnestness if wild animals like the one that was growling could get into the house and if they would eat her.

"Ace, Ace look! I found dinner."

Ace turned to look and froze, caught in Luffy's hands was a four-foot long snake, arguably the most venomous one on the island. It looked annoyed.

"Luffy, I want you to hold that thing just behind its head and then stretch it as far away as possible."

Too late, Michiru was reaching out to touch it. The snake made what was probably the biggest mistake of its life. It tried to bite her. Five minutes later Ace and Luffy finished with it. It slithered away from them; its body had more bends in it than the plumbing system back at their little house.

Midnight found them sitting up a tree, a bandit who had recognised, and evidently not liked, Luffy had run into them. Luffy had pulled them all up to safety after he'd lost sight of them but now they sat waiting in a tree for the man to go away. He was following one of Michiru's light balls that she had sent in the opposite direction to the way they wanted to go. Once they were sure that they were safe, they hopped down from the tree and continued on their way. It was getting late and it was awhile before a sleepy Michiru created another light for them to see by.

Near midnight, they found another tree. Luffy pulled them all to the top. Ace was carrying some fruit that he'd found and determined was edible. It was getting too late for Michiru, her light flickering from brightness to so dim that they could just make out the shapes of the trees. They all sat and ate at the top of the tree, before they fell asleep. Ace used Luffy's arms to tie them to the tree so that they didn't fall out in their sleep. Using a sailor's knot that he'd recently learnt.

The next morning they found that they could see the whole forest from the top of their tree. In the dim light Luffy had unwittingly chosen what was, arguably, the highest tree in the forest. Ace hit him round the head then hugged him.

"You wanted to make sure we'd be dead if we fell didn't you? But at least we can see the way back now."

A problem none of them had expected, including Michiru, was that she was scared of heights. Persuading her to let go of the tree trunk had been the first hurdle, getting her on to Luffy's back was the second, the third was trying to repair Luffy and Ace's eardrums after they found out that she had a good set of lungs on her.

At one twenty, much to Luffy's delight, the three of them arrived home. Michiru hadn't been aware that so much mud existed never mind that is could fit on her tiny frame. She brushed it out of her eyes and looked up into her Grandpa.

"You took a long time. Lunch is in five minutes I expect you all to be washed by then and don't forget we finish at 2!" he shouted after the three mud balls running behind the house. Michiru wasn't quite sure why Ace wanted to go to the back garden seeing as the bathroom was closer to the front door but she followed him none the less. Luffy was more vocal about it then she was.

"Ace I don't want to miss lunch! We've already missed breakfast and dinner, I will die of starvation if you make me skip another meal," the eight year old declared.

Ace ignored his little brother and attached the hosepipe to the tap. Luffy wasn't paying to much attention to what Ace was doing, so the water hit him square in the face, with his mouth open. Ace turned the hose on her once he'd got the worst of the mud off of Luffy.

"Go get a bath running Luffy! Michi will get our clothes once I'm done with her."

Luffy bolted for the house and Ace continued to spray Michiru. She actually had very little mud on her compared to Ace and Luffy and once Ace was finished, a change of clothes would make her presentable. Her fingers brushed through her hair, cleaning the mud from it. When Ace pointed it at himself she turned and ran into the house grabbing Ace and Luffy's clothes on the way. Once in the bathroom she grabbed her own towel and raced back to her room. Seconds later Ace was in the bathroom. She dried herself and wrapped her hair in her towel. She grabbed the first thing her hands came into contact with, incidentally one of the dresses that had come with her on the ship. She hadn't worn anything as impractical in the two months since her arrival. It was over her head before her mind registered exactly what she was putting on. The towel came out as the dress came on. Belatedly she realised she couldn't do the buttons at the back of her dress. She hastily tied the sash round her waist into a bow, slid on a pair of sandals and ran to find the boys. They all ran to the kitchen together, after the two minutes it took Ace to do up her buttons and for Luffy to explain that this was still part of the training.

"You see Grandpa wants Ace and I to become marines, not that that'll ever happen because I am definitely going to become a pirate, but he says that marines have to be able to go from a fight to ready for a meeting in seconds."

She nodded her understanding and seventeen seconds later, they stood in front of grandpa with eleven seconds to spare.

She tried to imitate the boys, she knew that they were out of breath but they both breathed calmly and rhythmically. She tried with partial success. Grandpa and Dadan stared at them and eventually Grandpa smiled and stepped aside. He'd bought lunch from the local pub; it smelt better than any other food she'd seen in the past year.
"I'm very proud of you kids, you even got Michiru into one of her smart dresses."

She and Luffy ran forward to the foods, with quick 'thank-you's. Ace gripped both of their arms, Michiru came to a sudden stop while Luffy just carried going. Half way to the table, he broke a thin thread that released a massive block of something. Ace pulled back hard. Luffy followed the pull on his arms and landed beside his siblings. The box had been sufficiently heavy to break the floorboards.

"LUFFY! How many times do I need to tell you that you need to think about assassins! Think before you go for the food. Think of a safe way to reach the-"

He stopped dead in the middle of his sentence and looked from the table to Luffy, from the table to Luffy, or probably more accurately from the table to a majority of the meal disappearing down Luffy's gullet. In typical Luffy style, he fell asleep¸ Michiru was shocked to see that his hands still tried to get food near his face, it didn't quite reach his mouth but still.

"Luffy doesn't like to miss meals and with Grandpa's training you need to be able to sleep, walk and eat simultaneously, Luffy hasn't quite mastered eating yet but he's getting there. Get ready to move."

"You cannot escape my fist of love doudouhead" Grandpa yelled on top of his lungs.

Ace went left, still gripping her arm and Luffy travelled through the wall. The brawl continued outside with odd periods of quiet when both Grandpa and Luffy fell asleep. She and Ace took advantage of Grandpa's distraction and ate lunch.

"You seem happy."

"Just glad that things have gone back to normal nii-san."

A/N: this chapter is a little longer than planned so I'm putting the balloons in the next chapter. I know that kira-kira is probably not the best name kira-kira means shiny-shiny. For the minute all she can do is generate bright, shiny balls of light and play with light waves a little. I adore terms like boro-boro and sara-sara and kira-kira so when I thought up her fruit I couldn't help but use kira-kira. If anyone is interested in seeing what Michiru's tattoos look like gimme a shout and I'll find appropriate pictures and give you links in the next chapter. Yes, I know she gets odd birthday gifts, it'll continue, it's kind of how any big change was explained to her, so they didn't necessarily happen on her birthday.