Another story! This one is a sequel to The Boy Who Changed a Life, the one where Katakuri adopts Luffy. I just had the idea to make a sequel even though it's been months since I wrote the first one. People really enjoyed that one, and this one has more fluff and involves some of the Straw hats, who are also children! I wasn't able to tag the Vinsmoke family like on AO3, but they are in this story. Screw them. This story is only half the length of the first, but still multiple chapters.
And I changed Zoro's age a bit so he could be with the others in their class. Sanji is still at his respective age compared to the others. Two years older. It's just how it ended up.
There is no school in the OP cannon world, but I made one for the children in the story. They are kindergarten age, and I might not be very accurate with how that goes, but just don't think about that too hard ;) Enjoy~
Katakuri and his son walked through the market, Luffy carrying a box of tangerines from Nami's mommy's orchards, while stacked on top of that was a bag of cherries. It was all he could carry, as he was still small as a six year old. Katakuri carried a large bag with raw meat in them to cook at home for dinner, as they wouldn't be hunting that night, which they did to eat for free and train Luffy's senses.
The citizens made way for the former Big Mom pirate. It had been a year and he hadn't had contact with any of his former siblings. Life was quiet in the sleepy town, and it was nice. Katakuri could do what he wanted, and hadn't killed anyone since his pirate days. He mostly spent time raising Luffy, and making sure to help him become the Pirate King.
With the booths of things under an awning, Luffy was the one to buy them as Katakuri couldn't bend over and reach his arm under the covering. "Hello, Luffy-kun, Katakuri-san. Do you want some almonds today?" the farmer asked. Luffy nodded his head, and got the massive amount of almonds for both of them to eat, though of course Katakuri was the one to carry them.
Luffy paid for the food with the money Katakuri handed him. Luffy felt like a big boy when he paid for things. The father and son still had quite a bit of money he'd gotten from when the man left his old home, but he was also selling the meat of the monster animals in the forest, which only he could hunt and made quite a lot of money selling an animal that could feed a family for a week.
As the two walked back through the path through the sparser woods they'd made, Luffy chattered about looking forward to eating Nami's tangerines. He was friends with her as they had went to the same kindergarten, along with their friends Zoro and Usopp.
Katakuri had been very proud when Luffy recited the whole alphabet for the first time, and had had a small "party", which was just Brulle and Katakuri making lots of desserts with Luffy's close friends coming over, also celebrating their own success.
After a whole year of the ex-pirate and his son being there, many weren't totally terrified of the man anymore. He wasn't much of a talker, unlike his cheery, social butterfly son, but he wasn't rude or threatening to anyone, and even was friendly with Whitebeard when he came to check on the island (Katakuri). Luffy had played with Fire Fist Ace, and they both showed off their powers. Luffy really was a likable kid.
That night, Katakuri and Brulle made pie out of the tangerines, which was Luffy's favorite dessert. It was a break day for training, as it was a Sunday and school was the next day. They trained a lot on Friday' and Saturdays.
No one had seen Luffy's training but the family, so they didn't know how powerful the boy had become in the last year. He could completely control his speed, and was able to electrocute objects in his hands.
On accident, he'd brought a squirrel back to life after he found it after falling out of a tree and accidentally shocked it. Luffy was amazed by that, but had to be told not to do that to other people since it would hurt them.
Sometimes bright lights would show up from somewhere in the mountains, but none of the townsfolk peeped, since it was on the ex-pirate's property, and he wouldn't like that. Plus, it would just be rude to anyone, regardless of their size and power abilities.
Though he hadn't fought with his powers in a while, it wasn't as if Katakuri had grown soft. He still used his powers to hunt, and still practiced in the training area, which Luffy cheered for him as he did so. It was times like this that Katakuri was just so glad he'd bought the boy. He was glad all the time, it just sometimes was still surprising he'd be lucky enough to find him.
The next day, Luffy walked to school with Brulle, who no longer scared the children as she was nice to them and had shown them her mirror devil fruit, which they were all fascinated by. No one knew about Luffy's devil fruit but his closest friends, who found out on accident when he had gotten too excited a couple months ago and blew out the lights in the classroom, where only his friends had seen him flicker into white light.
Today they were going to practice more on writing their alphabet. The class was on "E". Luffy was not the best at writing straight since his body was always excited and sometimes interfered with doing things slowly and calmly. But he did his best, and Miss Conis appreciated that. Effort played a big role in the classroom.
Luffy and his friends played go fish together at play time before going home while they waited for their parents. His friends mostly played this with Luffy since he wasn't good at any other card games. He constantly changed the rules without even realizing it. But it was Luffy, so it wasn't like they could fix it easily.
When Katakuri was on his way to get his son from school, someone was glaring at him. A large man with a mane of blonde hair, looking like a jerk. Katakuri ignored him. He didn't want to spend any time dealing with someone like that guy. The father didn't want to be late.
"So it's true, you've moved to another island away from your pirate family," the man said in a rude and harsh voice, like he was disappointed. Katakuri didn't take the bait; he wasn't an impulsive man. Never had been, and wouldn't be now. He towered over this man, and he didn't exactly scare the ex-pirate.
Katakuri could probably immobilize him just with his haki, but he didn't want to scare the other citizens. He could tell the man didn't have any strong powers. He wasn't worth wasting time with.
When Katakuri reached the school, Luffy was waiting in the doorway, his green dinosaur backpack on, wearing a grin. "Koori!" he shouted and ran to the man, who picked him up and sat him on his big scarf. The good thing about Luffy being a logia is that, if he fell, he'd be fine. He'd never fallen before, but thankfully he'd be fine if he accidentally did. Though Katakuri would be able to catch him by seeing the future momentarily.
"How was your day?" Katakuri asked as they walked through town.
"I played go fish again with my friends, and we practiced writing "E"s today. I'm not good at writing straight lines still, but Miss Conis is really nice and helps me. And we had apples with peanut butter for snack time," Luffy said enthusiastically. "How was your day?" he asked.
"Mostly training. I came up with an idea that would be fun for you. It's a surprise when we get home," Katakuri replied.
"Ooh, what is it, what is it?" Luffy wondered loudly. Katakuri said that it was a surprise, so he had to wait a little longer. Luffy beamed on the way home. That man from before was in the same spot, glaring at Katakuri and his child.
"Luffy, I'm going to release haki," Katakuri warned. Luffy nodded, and was ready for it. The man made sure nobody was around, and turned his eyes to the rude man, letting his haki came out, and the man's eyes widened and started to shake. Luffy was perfectly fine. He wasn't afraid of his daddy, so he wasn't scared.
Then, the ex-pirate continued on his way home, nonchalant about the sweating man he left behind. "Is that guy a meanie?" Luffy asked once they were walking along their trail.
"I don't know, but he seems quite rude. Better to keep him away before he annoys us too much," Katakuri explained. Luffy nodded, and the two walked around the back of the big stone and wooden house to the back yard, to see a large blob of mochi.
Katakuri walked right to it, and dropped Luffy onto it from not a very high height. Luffy exclaimed in surprise before erupting into giggles as he bounced up and down like a trampoline. Katakuri similed behind his scarf. Luffy continued to jump until Katakuri made something else for him.
The man had observed the public playground he brought Luffy to often, and formed a jungle gym for the boy out of hardened mochi. And it wasn't sticky, which was good. Luffy screamed "Ahh! It's a playground!" and went hurrying over to play enthusiastically.
"You can bring your friends over sometime and play in private and not have to share with other kids. How's that sound?" Katakuri asked as he supervised Luffy's excited playing.
"Sounds fun!"
"I can also probably make some swings," the man added, getting a "Woo!" from Luffy, who was extremely happy. He began to zip around the play structure using his powers. The mochi bars didn't melt, thankfully, but Luffy soon tired himself out.
"Do you have homework to do?" Katakuri asked the spent boy. He nodded, but didn't seem too upset about it. "Want to go work on it now? Then you can have some of the left over tangerine pie."
"Kay!" Luffy said and quickly skipped inside. The homework was practicing tracing "E"s. Lowercase and uppercase. He was getting better at them, like he had for "A", which was all straight lines, while the others had curves.
It took him half an hour to fill out the whole double sided paper, and was treated to a small slice of the dessert. Then he took a short nap. The rest of the day was a lazy day. Katakuri read him a book that wasn't pictures, but was still for children. Brulle came over and was trying to teach Luffy how to play chess. It was fruitless, but Katakuri said it was good practice for forming strategies.
"Good and smart pirates can come up with strategies. How to go about doing something, how to win a fight. So chess is good practice," the ex-pirate said. Luffy being Luffy wasn't upset about losing spectacularly. He just vowed to get better so he be a stronger Pirate King.
"Of course. The Pirate King was a smart man," Katakuri replied. Luffy beamed up at him.
"I'll be smart some day, too," the boy cheered.
-x-
The next day, Luffy was playing at the public park, sharing toys strewn about with other children. He always made friends here, even if they didn't see each other much again. Luffy shared toys well, and built sand castles with the other little kids. But he didn't use his powers when playing tag, because that would be cheating.
Katakuri was reading a book, while still focusing on Luffy with his haki. Luffy moved around a lot, unable to stay doing one thing long. He amazed the other children when he leaped off the swing really high and landed perfectly fine.
Katakuri briefly looked up to see three not to nice looking kids with a shyer one who walked at a long distance from to the other boys. He walked to the swing set while the other boys walked towards Luffy. They didn't seem like they'd be there to make friends with Luffy.
The man wasn't worried, and just watched what was going to happen. Luffy didn't need his help, and if he was unafraid of Big Mom, these children would do nothing to bother his son. He watched but didn't do anything, interested in what Luffy would do.
The red haired boy smirked at Luffy and kicked down the sand castle he'd made. Luffy just stared at them, looked at his ruined sand castle, and simply picked up the pail to walk away to somewhere else, unbothered. After all, there was lots of sand he could rebuild with.
This wasn't the reaction the boys expected. The blonde kid watched in interest and surprise. His brothers didn't scare the little boy? He was at least two years younger than the three. And he was very small.
All three of the boys grew angrier and stomped across the sand to Luffy. Luffy just frowned at them and stood up. He was shorter than the three clearly bullies. "Please leave me alone," Luffy said politely.
"You sure are a runt," the green haired one said. Luffy laughed and put his hand behind his head.
"Haha, yeah! And my daddy is super big! It's funny," Luffy laughed. This angered the boys even more, and the blue haired one moved to kick Luffy, but suddenly, Luffy was three feet to the left, and the kid kicked the air.
"Hitting is not nice and you should stop," Luffy said in a hard voice. "You dont scare me. If I'm not scared of Big Mom, then I won't be afraid of you. Bye," Luffy said and picked up the pail before zipping away, though the boys seemed to be fast, too.
But Luffy wasn't just being trained in using his powers. Koori had taught him how to defend himself without the powers. And he'd learned how to get away from someone by doing flips, having used mochi at bunji chords so he could practice, and learned how to use his senses. Katakuri had taught him the importance of paying attention to your surroundings.
When the blue haired one caught up to Luffy, he tried to hit, but Luffy blocked the punch and zipped a few feet away. Luffy looked slightly angry, but unafraid and confident he could beat these kids. Technically, he didn't need to evade them, since their punches would do nothing.
When all three boys rushed him at the same time, Luffy jumped, using his powers a bit to force himself up and stepped on one of their heads to jump behind them. He didn't hit them at all, and could have kicked them easily.
The blonde boy looked at the kid in shock. His brothers were all genetically enhanced. But maybe that was the reason. They focused on using their powers most, and werent the most graceful fighters. They just went for the obvious punch and kick.
"I want to go back to play, so leave me alone," Luffy said sternly, looking at the pail in longing. Katakuri watched his son "battle" with a proud smirk. Luffy was a fast learner with combat, even if the devil fruit powers were hard for him.
The three rushed him again, all angry, and Luffy simply stuck his leg out and tripped all three, all landing face first into the sand. The blonde watched the fight with a very small smile. His brothers were being shown up by a child smaller and younger than them. Sanji then looked away and to the side of the playground he hadn't faced, and saw Dogtooth watching with a smirk.
So that's why… This boy was the over a billion bounty ex-pirate's son. No doubt the big man would train his son in combat, even if he hadn't thrown one punch. And how the hell did none of the kids notice him?
But, Luffy was done with these kids. He'd let them hit him and show them they were nothing. They couldn't beat a logia, and didn't use haki like Koori and his old aunts and uncles could. When the red head rushed him, Luffy didn't move this time, and was punched in the face, but the fist went right through Luffy. The boy kept a hard, straight face.
"I said leave me alone!" Luffy shouted, and flickered lightning around his body, which hit the sand and turned it to glass since the lighting was so hot. The boys felt the heat from the electricity, and froze, not knowing how to continue.
Luffy scowled at all three, but then picked up the pail, and returned it to the boy who shared with him who had retreated with his mother, and walked to Koori. He'd play on his own jungle gym. These kids were jerks.
"If you think your genetically modified kids can beat my son, you are dead wrong," Katakuri said, knowing the man from the day before was behind him a ways. "And if you or any of your children target my boy, you'll all regret it. Just because I'm not a pirate anymore, doesn't mean I've gotten soft," Katakuri said, and got up and grinned at Luffy. He picked him up and set the kid on his shoulder.
"That was great, Luffy!" he said in a proud voice. Luffy laughed and grinned at the praise.
"I got stronger, Koori! And there was three of them, too," Luffy said, holding onto his daddy's scarf.
Apparently the three boys had not been told that that boy was the son of the fierce pirate. They knew he lived in this town, but their father set them up to fight his kid and didn't tell them? If he wanted to, Dogtooth could have killed them in a second. But, the man let his son fight his own fight. And knew that he would win.
The boys were embarrassed and angry. They stomped over to their father, faces red. Sanji slowly walked over, too, glad he was able to witness the fight. Luffy was strong, and beat older kids that were born with superpowers.
But it was clear that Luffy was being trained by one of the strongest pirates out there. Well, used to be a pirate, but was clearly still strong. He radiated danger, though those at the park didn't seem to mind him much. And he very big, even towering over their father.
Sanji knew that his siblings would want revenge, but they were not petty enough to set their house on fire or something underhanded like that. That would not prove their strength, only what brats they were.
"That was disgraceful!" Judge said angrily. He was still put off and angry with what Dogtooth had said to him. There was no way that runt could beat his boys. "You were acting all as weak as Sanji!"
Reiju had been away with her father watching through a bush, and chuckling at their pathetic fight. The little boy was in control of his emotions, while her younger brothers grew angry, and that made them weaker.
She never thought that someone as fierce as Dogtooth would have a tiny child. It was cute, and their interaction when they left the park made her smile. And what a polite child, too. She wished she could meet him under other circumstances before their ship was repaired and they could set sail again.
Stupid Vinsmokes. That's right, I embarrassed you in my story. Review!