When Admiral Akainu meets Monkey D. Luffy, the wannabe pirate already has the collar on him despite being a slip of a child. He's a 14-year-old menace with terrible manners, absolutely no attention span and an ill-hidden admiration for piracy. He embodies the ignorance and potential criminality Akainu has learned to hate on sight, all this without bringing his most notorious parentage into the fray.

When Akainu is briefed on the existence of Monkey D. Luffy, a criminal legacy willing to become a marine because of a pirate, Gol D. Roger's unknown son himself, it all feels like the beggining of a terrible joke. He doesn't put it past Vice-Admiral Garp.

"They say you're a tough guy." Luffy tells him one day, as Sakasuki is crossing the plaza towards Marineford. "I'm Monkey D. Luffy, the man who will..." His expression sobers, but the grin is back in seconds. "You should fight me. The sooner I get stronger, the sooner I can go on adventures." He's cracking his knuckles and grinning.

Akainu beats Luffy into the ground -not something he considers an accomplishment. As he waltzes around ill-coordinated punches of the least offense-prone devil fruit he's ever encountered, letting enough magma bleed to the surface of his skin for his hands to be scalding hot, he does find one remarkable thing. The kid won't stay down. It's annoying and pathetic, and it shows just how immature and unrealistic Garp's grandson views are but no amount of burning, punching or taunting makes the kid stand down.

"Oi, magma-brat. What are you doing to my grandson?" It's Garp and Akainu considers briefly reminding the man that Akainu is the higher ranked officer among them, but decides against it -with the Vice-Admiral there's really no point. Akainu is ready to let the kid go, run back to his grandfather and his delusions, half of him thinks the kid might cry when a guardian-figure becomes involved.

Not for the first time, nor the last, Monkey D. Luffy surprises him.

"Stay... out of it... Gramps!" The boy is barely conscious, swaying on his feet. Garp can see it, Akainu can see it, but the teen still clenches his fists; ready for more.

"Idiot!" Garp says, 'fist of love' in no way softened by the grandson's state. Well, now Akainu knows why the kid is so good at taking a punch. He grabs the back of Luffy shirt, raising him by the scruff. The boy protests, kitten-like in his movements. He's at his limit.

"Grampa... let me go..."

They're gone when Akainu realizes he's smiling. It's a small thing, barely there, but it's there nonetheless.


The next time he sees Monkey D. Luffy, now designated as Garp's brat, for longer than a passing glance is almost a year later. He's in Akainu's superior's office, wrecking absolute chaos. At first, Sakazuki isn't sure what's happening, but when he sees Luffy's pout and the way he has his arms crossed across his chest and is apparently yelling at the Fleet Admiral it strikes him suddenly.

A tantrum. This kid is throwing a tantrum in the highest office of the navy, Akainu's lips curl in distate.

"I am not investing marine resources in tracking down a pirate!" Sengoku's voice has the long-suffered quality of a man that has repeated himself an exponential number of times.

"Then let me go!" Luffy says, and he's gesturing to his neck. "It's not like I can really do anything you don't want to!"

"I said no, you're too inexperienced to even think about going to look for Whitebeard! And what are you even planning to do when you get there?"

"I'll ask about Ace!" The boy says, unflappable in his conviction, but Akainu can see his eyes are getting glassy. Once again he thinks, HQ is no place for a kid.

"You'll ask..." Sengoku echoes, baffled, before his frown comes back in full force. "Are you stupid? You won't make it anywhere near that ship!" That's where the conversation takes a turn for the worse.

"I need to know that Ace is okay!" The teens snaps, cracking both knuckles on top of Sengoku's desk. It isn't enough to break it, but the room rattles. Sengoku's eyes widen minutely and Akainu sees Luffy fall. Then the kid screams and it almost makes him take a step back. Akainu's devil fruit melts his enemies to death, he's used to the sound of suffering. It might be the context or it might be Luffy's age or it might be the memory of Luffy's resilience as he face off against him, but there's something wrong in the scene that has the admiral biting down unsavory words.

After a few seconds the screaming dies down, and there's only the shivering form of a teen on Sengoku's floor. His hands claw at the rug, finding no purchase, but hiding his face from both officials. One hand pulls at the hair on his head, and for reasons that Akainu cannot put together, the action seems to pain Luffy.

"I need to know Ace is okay." The whimper fills the silent room with a heavyness that makes the Fleet Admiral give a long sigh. Akainu doesn't see justice in the prone form of this boy, not even when he thinks about who his father is. Can Monkey D. Dragon even be considered his father when he's oblivious and uncaring to his spawn's plight? The Admiral still cannot understand why a boy like Luffy, who has nothing if not guts to him, can give up so much for a damn pirate.

For that alone, Akainu's dislike for Portgas D. Ace turns personal. This is the effect of the blood of Gol D. Roger, good people throwing away their lives for a meaningless dream.


Somewhere in the two months of Fire Fist's disappearance, Akainu runs into Luffy or more specifically Luffy runs into him. At first, he's ready to scold the brat and keep going, but Luffy's words make it clear the brat has been looking for him. The thought is a little baffling.

"They say you're the strongest." It's not a question and therefore requires no answers. Luffy's looking him up and down, as if he could measure the admiral's strength based on sight alone. He grins at him. "You're shirt's cool. You should train me." There is absolutely no correlation between those two things and Akainu is about to inform him of that, but he has a better question.

"Why exactly?" He has never taken a personal student, never had the need to and no one had ever dared ask.

"I need to be strong to look for Ace." Luffy says, and he must slowly -very slowly- be learning some caution because his eyes wander the hallway they're standing on as if to see if anybody else heard.

Somehow that answer infuriates Akainu enough to agree. He would not allow a future marine to build his life around a goddamn pirate. In his mind he hopes Fire Fist isn't missing, but very much dead. When the pirate unfortunately reappears, Luffy still shows up to his duties -initially a glorifed errand boy- and doesn't bring it up to Akainu.

"Fire Fist is back." He tells him, and hadn't rescuing him been Luffy's main drive to getting tutored? Akainu is not soft on him by any definition and even now the rubber boy sports copious amounts of dark blue bruising. Luffy grins, the same grin he always has, full of hope and right things -a good smile for a marine, one who'd bring comfort. Akainu has never excelled at that part of his job.

"He's not the only person I need to protect." Akainu doesn't pry any further, he's almost already asked more than he'd wanted or needed to know.


"Proud?" It's Kuzan's voice that jumps from behind him, and he looks much more at ease than Akainu in the formal function.

"He deserves it."

"He saved a princess." Borsalino joins. "It doesn't really strike me as your influence."

"More like liberated a nation." Kuzan refutes, and these two are a big reason why Akainu tends to avoid these events -not that'd he'd ever admit to either the avoidance or the reason. His eyes trail his apprentice's form, he's made Rear-Admiral now. It's almost ridiculous how many ranks he's skipped, but the Nefertari family were adamant that Luffy get the highest reward possible. They would've made him Fleet Admiral if they could, Akainu thinks.

He doesn't regret the sentiment. He doesn't often ponder on his relationship with the younger marine, but Kuzan isn't off. Akainu is a little proud, and what a one-sided sentiment. Luffy, who'd gotten significantly more aware about the dangers of praising piracy as his collar so consistently reminds him, doesn't look happy. His apprentice rarely does when being complimented on marine accomplishments, all his promotions have been the same. Garp cleared it up for him once, reading the question in his eyes during Luffy's last promotion.

"He made a promise," the older man says. He doesn't add what the promise is and Akainu is sure he can fill in the blank for himself. Unusually perceptive, he continues, "things like this remind him he's never going to keep it."

Akainu is angry as he watches Luffy's poorly concealed mopping. Even with his eclectic crew surrounding him -which Akainu keeps a keen eye on because he can smell trouble, his shoulders hold that little slump of something aching to shame and it infuriates the officer.

He starts planning to set out to the New World, to check the waters he tells Sengoku, but there's a pirate at the forefront of his mind.


Luffy catches him when he's about to leave.

"You're going for Ace." He speaks without preamble, he touches on the collar, a reminder to them both. "You can't."

"No pirate should be above the law." He says, but it's not a denial, the little rascal knows him better than Akainu thought he did... or one of his smarter friends told him, both were genuine possibilities. That Nico Robin is a dangerous woman. Luffy nods, but Akainu doesn't think it's in agreement.

"He's my brother, sensei."

"He's a criminal." He stresses, because it never seems to go through. While that bastard is wasting life away plundering and stealing and killing good marines, Luffy trains here and is tortured. The flaws in justice can always be traced back to pirates. Akainu has never used the collar, he knows neither has Aokiji, but they're not the only ones with access to the mechanism. He's certainly seen it in use enough times to know no pirate can possibly be worth such pain.

"You can't arrest him." Luffy's shaking his head and his conviction is there, but he's eyeing Akainu and there's fear there. Luffy has never looked upon him with fear -not even when he should have. The fear isn't even for himself, but for that blasted scum... Akainu turns around, white coat fluttering in he sea breeze and starts walking towards his ship.

"I wasn't planning on arresting him."

"I trust you, sensei," comes the whisper, soft and patient. So unlike the default state of Akainu's student, who has always had too much charisma and good timing for it to be a coincidence. He also adds, "and I have a deal."

In the end, Akainu doesn't pursue Fire Fist Ace, but things never really recover either between teacher and student. For years to come, their bond would be split open, stranded in opposites sides of the chasm between the devoted love and blistering hate for a man that should've never been born.


This is my absolute favorite chapter of this entire fic. It was so hard to write, and yet I am so pleased with it. I am leaving the cliffhanger alive for a little longer, but at this point you must've figured out I have no patience.

Thank you to midnightscar17, SupImHere, SakuraS41, Ruth, nyuh98, Lulumo, Lily Noir, 12slytherin, daisy2295; I enjoyed your reactions tons hehe

I wrote one more chapter for The Watchdog of Sabaondy Archipelago and did start a couple of one shots -unposted for now- so we'll see, I might stick in this AU a little longer. It's given me something to do other than blasting you with updates haha.

Hope Quarantine is being kind to you!