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Sabo sighed, "Oh dear... if what Luffy said is correct then I know what's next..."
The scene changed, showing a poor but sturdy shack.
Luffy was running, but stopped in front of the house, "What is this place?"
Garp was knocking on a door.
A large woman with a cigar opened the door, "Stop it! Whoever you are, do you wanna get killed!?"
"It's me." Garp retorted.
The woman stumbled backwards, "Garp-san!"
"You're looking good!" Garp complimented.
"Give me a break! You have to have mercy on us! Ace is 10 now!" The woman yelled at Garp.
"Oh yeah, already?! How is he?" Garp asked.
"Shitty gramps! You didn't even know Ace's age!" Sabo screamed. Ivankov was very grateful for Smoker's quick thinking of the kairoseki cuffs.
"It's not funny! We can't handle him anymore! You have to take him!" A much smaller person with a relatively large head pipped up.
"Putting that aside - " Garp was interrupted by the woman's screeching, "Don't put it aside! You're annoying, kid! Stop running around!"
Garp had picked up Luffy by his t-shirt, and held him up for the woman to see, "Look after him too!"
Hancock was absolutely enraged. How dare Garp leave her precious Luffy in such a dump!
"This is Luffy. Say hi." Garp held up the boy.
"Yo!" Luffy chirped.
"He's so cute!" Hancock swooned.
Everyone facepalmed. Her obsession with the rubber man was really getting too far.
Seriously, how the heck did Luffy manage this charm this lady? Luffy wasn't romantic in the slightest, and was never even shown to be interested in woman. Hell, he didn't even have the slightest interest in Hancock and she was known as the most beautiful woman in the world.
There was the possibly of him being into men... but the only people he gave attention to were his nakama (including the Heart Pirates), but only because they were nakama and friends. Nothing romantic.
Everyone was hoping the memories would at least reveal that. This was one of the unsolved mysteries of the Grand Line - How Luffy got a man-hating goddess to be so infatuated with him.
"Who is that kid?!" The man standing behind the woman asked.
"He's my grandson." Garp exclaimed.
"What?!" The trio screeched at the marine, "One more!? I mean... Garp's grandson!? We can't!"
Garp then proceeded to beat the trio up as Luffy flopped down on the grass, looking at the sky.
"Alright. I'll give you two choices. Do you wanna spend your entire life in prison or will you raise him!?" Garp growled.
"You're asking criminals to raise them and you expect them to become marines!?" Sengoku deadpanned.
"What is wrong with you?!" Nami screamed in Garp's face.
"The entire Monkey family is insane." Crocodile grumbled.
"Hahaha. That's Dadan, Dogra and Magra!" Sabo grinned, pointing them out, "They're mountain bandits!"
"There are many crimes you've committed that I've overlooked." Garp continued.
"Crappy shack!" Luffy exclaimed.
"What ya say? You little shit! You wanna fight?!" Dadan screeched.
"Not listening!" Luffy cried out nonchalantly, before running off.
"How dare you call my beloved that!" Hancock snapped, trying to kick Dadan.
"It's interesting how Luffy was able to get over... what had happened..." Robin trailed off. She wasn't sure about Trafalgar Law, but she herself had carried the burden of her island for her entire lifetime. Seeing Luffy acting so carefree... she wondered what would happen if she had done the same. Then again, Luffy didn't have a bounty, and he had the protection of Garp.
As Luffy ran, something hit him on the side of the face.
"What is this! Urg, spit! Gross!" Luffy whined, "Who did it!?"
Luffy spotted a figure sitting on a large buffalo, glaring him as if he wanted to incinerate Luffy, "Hey you!"
There, sitting on the deceased animal, was Portgas D. Ace.
Marco flinched slightly. He recognised that look, a look of resentment and full of distrust. Seeing it on the 17 year old Ace was one thing, as he attempted again and again to assassinate Whitebeard.
Seeing it plastered on the 10 year old boy, Marco couldn't help but feel sorry for him.
Hancock was enraged at the younger Ace for spitting on her Luffy, but then she remembered Luffy's cries of anguish as Ace died in his arms. Something had happened between them, and honestly, she was curious too.
"Say sorry! It's gross! Hey! Say sorry!" Luffy yelled as Garp went over to the duo.
"Ace! Luffy, this is Ace! He's three years older than you! You're gonna live with them from now on!" Garp exclaimed.
"You can't just do that!" Dadan screeched.
Garp then proceeded to punch Luffy in the head, with Haki of course, "Be nice."
Sabo attempted to strangle Garp again.
"It is decided!?" Dadan screeched.
"Ya got a problem with it?!" Garp glared at the mountain bandits.
"We'll take him!" The trio saluted, for a good measure.
"Ha. Garp has them scared shitless!" Zoro laughed.
"That's all from me! I'll stop by when I have time!" Garp announced, turning on his heel and leaving.
"What about child support?" Dogma asked timidly.
"Put it on my bill."
"This is not a bar." Magra grumbled.
"Hmm?"
"You're always welcome!" Dadan said with a sickly sweet tone.
"Boss, we can't take another kid." Dogma groaned.
"Say sorry!" Luffy yelled again, but Ace just ignored him and walked past, not even acknowledging the younger boy's presence.
Determined to get an apology out of the other, Luffy grabbed his hat and smacked it on his head. Suddenly, like he was a different person, Luffy took a deep breath, wiped the spit off his cheek, and followed Ace.
"What happened?" Usopp asked, confused why suddenly Luffy would stop harassing the older boy for an apology.
"It's the hat. He must have remembered what happened to Shanks." Sanji replied, puffing out some smoke.
Issho huffed, "I really wished I didn't blind myself." The kid was interesting, and he could only hear what was going on.
They watched as Luffy wandered in to the shack, and immediately got a knife shoved against his throat.
"Luffy!" Chopper yelled out in shock.
"Where's your parents!? They'll pay a pretty price to get you back!" A bandit snarled.
"I don't have parents. I have only Jiji!" Luffy growled back. Clearly, his mother's death was still affecting him.
"Then get your grandpa here!" The bandit shot back, before he was smacked by Dadan, "He's Garp's grandson. He'll be staying here from now on!"
There was a huge commotion, until Dadan got fed up with her bandit's complaints, and she screamed, "SHUT UP! IT'S TIME FOR DINNER!"
All the bandits rushed over to the large plate beside her, and started making a mad grab for the meat.
"Oh dear. What poor table manners." Bege snorted.
"I want some meat too!" Luffy exclaimed, but got trampled upon by the rest of the bandits. Luffy made a lunge for a piece of meat on the ground, but a dog snatched it up, made a laughing sound, before walking off proudly.
"Tch. No wonder Luffy eats like a starving person all the time." Sanji commented. If bandit's lived like that, it was not surprising how Luffy had to use his abilities to get enough food to stay unhungry.
The scene changed to Luffy staring grumpily at a small bowl of rice, which was almost the same size as a teacup. Luffy swallowed the rice in one gulp, and promptly asked for more, "Pops! Another bowl!"
Dadan, who was sitting beside him eating meat, hissed, "I'm a woman! And don't you realised where you've been left?!"
"No."
"Then I'll tell you! This is the hideout of the mountain bandits of Mount Corvo, the Dadan Family!" Dadan growled.
"Mountain bandit? I hate those guys." Luffy muttered boredly.
"Hahahaha!" Shanks laughed out loud.
"Shut it, you damned brat!" Dadan slammed a knife directly in front of Luffy's face, "It's already a pain in the ass taking care of you! If you don't wanna be here, fine by us! Just go somewhere and die like an animal!"
"Technically... humans are animals..." Law drawled.
"I'm still hungry..." Luffy groaned, attempting to eat the chopsticks. He stared at Ace eating two large chunks of meat at a time, "I want that meat." A chunk of meat appeared in front of him, but before Luffy could grab it, it was taken away, leaving Luffy biting at air.
"How dare you!" Hancock screeched at Dadan.
"I should tell you, this is all the buffalo meat that Ace brought us! He shares with us so he gets to sit at our table! The life of a mountain bandit is harsh! Starting tomorrow, I'll work you half to death! Cleaning, laundry, shoe polishing and weapon polishing, theft, looting, swindling and killing! And listen, you're not gonna say a single word to Garp about this! One bowl of rice and one glass of water a day! That's all I'm giving you! Anything else, you have to get by yourself! You'll have to raise yourself here!" Dadan grinned.
"That can't be enough for a normal growing kid." Issho mumbled. And since Luffy was, well, Luffy, he ate a lot more than a normal growing kid.
"Okay!" Luffy cheerfully grinned.
"You're fine with it!?" Dadan collapse comically, "You should be crying by now!"
"Jiji threw me in a jungle once. Earthworms, frogs, snakes, mushrooms... If this is a forest, then there's plenty of stuff to eat! Besides, I'm gonna be a pirate someday, so I gotta deal with at least this much!" Luffy exclaimed.
"That stuff... can't be good for his stomach..." Bonney was close to puking.
Sanji was close to kicking Garp for not feeding Luffy properly. No wonder he looked like a four year old when he was seven.
"Bwahahaha! That's my boy!" Garp laughed.
Ace grabbed his pipe and walked away. Luffy stared at the other boy, "Where's he going?" before following the older boy out of the house.
"Hey!" Luffy called out, trailing Ace through the forest, "Wait! Hey! I'm Luffy! I'm not mad that you spat on me anymore! It's nothing to get work up about! Let's be friends! Are ya going somewhere?"
"Yohohoho! Our captain is so forgiving, it warms my heart! But I don't have a heart, yohohoho! Skull joke!" Brook sang.
Seeing Ace stare at the smaller boy, Franky grinned, "He worming his way into Ace's heart already!"
Sadly, he was wrong. Ace kicked a large tree, and sent it tumbling towards the smaller boy.
Izou was surprised. Ace already was monstrously strong at that age.
Seeing the rolling tree, Luffy ran away, and everyone winced as the tree rolled over the younger boy.
Being rubber, the boy popped up, and continued after Ace. Upon reaching a very broken and poorly maintained bridge, Luffy panted, and Ace turned around, shocked to see the younger boy alive. Seeing Ace walk towards him, Luffy smiled, thinking that he had convinced Ace to be his friend, but then Ace smacked the younger right off the bridge, his eyes filled with venom that no one else knew he had.
Everyone felt a shiver down their spine upon seeing Ace's eyes. They looked so resigned, like the world hated him and he hated the entire world back, like his very existence was a crime. Though seeing as he was the son of the Pirate King... the entire world did think that of Ace, unknowingly.
Drake's eyes widened, seeing Luffy fall down the seemingly endless ravine. He watched, shellshocked as Luffy ran from his life, from the multitude of wolves that lived at the bottom of the ravine. That kid was tough, for one thing.
Nami gasped as a trio of wolves pounced on Luffy, tearing their claws into his shirt as Luffy struggled to escape. No kid should have to go through that.
Urouge watched as Luffy climbed back up the ravine, a rock came loose and sending the smaller boy tumbling back to the bottom. Not giving up, Luffy stood up again, and started climbing.
Upon getting out, Luffy somehow managed to find his way back to the bandit's house. He leaned against the door, panting, when he heard voices.
"That Luffy kid has been gone for a week, Boss! What do we do?" Magra's voice was heard. He seemed genuinely concerned for the kid.
"A week? He managed to survive in there for a week!?" Koby gasped.
"Tch. Who cares. Besides, I've had enough of that Ace too! In my opinion, it would be best if he went somewhere and died, then we tell Garp it was an accident! This is what they meant when "A devil child has devil's luck". He is the child of the devil! Just think about what would happen if the government found out! What do you think will happen to us?"
Garp growled. He had thought that the bandits would help Ace grow strong, but they were also breaking him at every turn.
Luffy let out a gasp, and his eyes widened in shock.
"Okay, what now?" Apoo shot out.
"What's that?" Dogra was heard, and he went to open the door, revealing Luffy with tear streaks on his face.
"Boss!" He called out, and Dadan came to the door, "That Luffy kid came back!"
"This kid, he's still alive?! Where the hell did you go!?" Dadan yelled.
"I was chased by wolves at the bottom of the valley..." Luffy managed to say as Dadan stretched his face.
"Why would you go down there?!" Dogra asked. Luffy had no idea how to answer without mentioning Ace, so he shut up.
Dadan tossed Luffy into a room, where a sleeping Ace was seen. "Go to sleep for now! We're putting you to work tomorrow!"
"At least give him medicine!" Chopper cried out. Luffy's wounds weren't deep, but they could get infected, and that wasn't good for the smaller child.
The second Dadan closed the door, Luffy fell asleep.
"THAT WAS FAST!?" Dadan opened the door and exclaimed.
The scene changes came faster now, as day by day, Luffy got stronger and kept going after Ace. He kept loosing him, or Ace kept trying to kill him, and Luffy had no choice but to return to the bandit hideout.
The scene finally settled on Luffy, curled up in a corner, crying. Ace, who was sleeping on the far side of the room, was awake, but Luffy didn't know that.
Hancock immediately tried to hug the small boy, but her arms went through the memory.
Luffy sniffled, "Why won't you let me help you, Ace?"
Sabo could tell Ace was surprised at Luffy's words, but managed to pretend he was still asleep.
"Why... You're hurting inside... aren't you?"
Issho smiled. He had heard the events going on, and to hear that despite everything, Luffy has seen right through the facade the older had put up to protect himself and was still willing to help him... Luffy truly was something special.
The scene changed again, and this time, Luffy had run into a tiger that was almost the size of the Going Merry.
"Holy crap! That thing's huge!" Shachi and Penguin yelled, grabbing each other.
From their vantage point, they could see Ace hidden in a bush, watching Luffy.
"Help him!" Franky yelled at Ace.
"No wonder he wasn't scared of the lion Buggy had. This thing is enourmous!" Nami exclaimed.
Everyone could tell Luffy wanted to run, but he couldn't, "My leg's won't listen to me!"
Ace was about to jump out of the bushes, but a huge bear appeared, and caught the attention of the tiger.
Law could tell, Ace had opened his heart to Luffy, ever so slightly. The fact that Ace was going to save Luffy if the bear hadn't appeared was proof of that.
Luffy managed to crawl out of the way, and ran.
Everyone caught the small, fond smile that appeared on Ace's face before he disappeared back into the bushes.
"Looks like Luffy can worm his way into anyone's heart, ey?" Zoro smiled softly. Long ago, he had asked that his captain commit seppuku if he ever interfered with his dream, but now, he would willingly give up his life for his captain.
"It's... weird to say the least." Jinbe pipped up, and everyone turned to him, "When he was younger, Luffy-kun is scared of things, like a normal person. Now, he's so reckless... and fearless... I wonder what happened to him?"
"Actually, Luffy is scared of lilies." Sanji replied.
"Wait, actually?" Kidd raised a non-existent eyebrow.
"Yeah. Luffy hates them with a passion, but we have no idea why." Nami said.
They were derailed off topic when Luffy fell over, and looked to the sky. A rainbow was formed, and Luffy's old smile was back on his face.
"One day, Ace! I swear I'll get strong enough to help you!" He yelled.
"Luffy-senpai is so awesome!" Bartomelo exclaimed, dancing about.
"I'm sure he was given the Shichibukai position just so he'd stop doing that." Garp grumbled. Like having one fangirl wasn't enough, he had a fanboy too.
"Well... to be fair, the average number of times he does that has cut down by 5%." Issho laughed. "Plus, there are many pirates in the world that don't think highly of Mugiwara, and most of them were defeated and jailed by the Snake Princess and him."
The scene changes sped up once more. Luffy crossed a swamp while avoiding crocodiles, dodged falling boulders, courtesy of Ace, somehow ended up in a birds nest and was comically trying to gesture to the baby birds to not tell their mother, and many other things.
Once, Dadan, Dogra and Magra grabbed onto Luffy's stretchy arm, yelling, "It's been three months already! Give up already!"
"Three months. That kid's persistent." Killer admitted.
Finally, Luffy was climbing up a hill, when a large junkyard was seen, "What is this place!?"
Sabo grimaced, "Grey Terminal..."
"Wow! This SUPER place is a shipwright's dream!" Franky exclaimed, "Look at all the materials!"
Koby didn't like the expression on Sabo's face. Usually anything Luffy related, he learnt, Sabo was always proud, or mad at Garp, but this expression was new, "What's wrong, Sabo-san?"
"Damned Porchemy!" Sabo growled out.
And that's a wrap for now. Yeah I added some extra stuff and stuck stuff together.