Chapter 4
Previously…
"Well duh. Now take a seat, both of you. I insist." Garp said politely. Too politely. Well, any polite was too polite with Garp, but that was beside the point.
Now…
"Psssshhh," Delta waved his hand in dismissal, "I'm not lying. What in the world are you talking about? I am hundred percent m- married to Makino."
Makino frowned, "Delta, please. I don't think-"
"I am super married. To Makino. My wife. Who I love. Because we're married. Yes."
"Delta, really this is-"
"In love one hundred percent."
Garp looked at Delta as if embarrassed for him, "Lucy, please. Listen to Makino. What you're doing… well boy, it's just sad."
Delta looked around nervously. 'It's all over for Luffy. He's going to marine camp. Wait, more like murder camp. His life is over. My life is over. No. Who am I kidding? I'm the goddamn Pirate King! I'm not gonna lose to Gramps. I will defeat the power of love. I will defeat the ninja.' He then sighed. "Fine. You got me. I'm not married to Makino."
"Thank y-"
"I'm actually the ghost of her dead brother, Manino." For two seconds, Garp just stared at Delta, neither moving. Then Delta fell to the ground after being punched in the gut. Not that he hadn't seen the fist coming, but he felt that he may have deserved it.
"Lucy, will you please be seated?" Garp gestured to the two chairs opposite him, "Let's have a talk." Delta failed to point out that he was already seated. Seated on the ground.
Delta instead grasped the chair and pulled himself up. Seeing Makino was already sitting, he hesitantly sat opposite her, right next to Garp. "So," Makino started, "How has it been, Garp?"
Ignoring Makino, Garp studied Delta intensely, as if looking for some fatal flaw that would give him reason to bash his brains in. Luckily for Delta, he did not seem successful in his search. Passing a quick glance to Makino, he said gruffly, "You know Lucy, the only reason I didn't leave you to sink when you fell in the ocean earlier was because there were so many marines around. Wouldn't have looked too good if I got reported to Sengoku. That guy's a real stickler for rules, you know."
Makino glanced at Delta worriedly, and Delta mouthed 'later'. He turned back to Garp, "At least you have your priorities in check."
"Meh, I don't really care what you think, boy," Garp said. "Then, the only reason I kept you alive after we'd brought you on board was that little conversation we had about my family. I wasn't sure who you'd gotten the information from or if it was a solo effort, so I waited to see where you'd go, what you'd do."
"Garp, he's not a bad guy." Makino pleaded, "He's just… strange, that's all."
"Oi!" Delta huffed. Makino shot him a sorry glance.
Garp made the smallest of grins, "Wait a second, Makino. I appreciate your opinion and I'm getting to that. Anyways, when Lucy told me he was married to Makino; that set off a bunch of red flags. Makino's not a particularly well-known figure around the world, meaning the only reason Lucy'd know her'd be if he was in direct contact with Luffy."
"How perceptive." Delta murmured, slightly surprised.
"You know, boy, I didn't get where I am today from brute strength alone. I can think a thing or two if need be. So shut your mouth before I shut it for you." Delta shut his mouth. "Good. So when I learned this, I decided to bring you to Makino to see how she'd react to you. You see, I trust her absolutely, so when she went along with your lie to save your sorry ass, it made me think. So here we are."
Delta raised an eyebrow. Garp stayed silent.
"So?" Makino and Delta finally asked in sync.
"So what?" Garp seemed genuinely puzzled.
"So if you trust her and she trusts me, why are we here?" Delta specified.
"Ah yes. You see, I understand that for one reason or another you can't tell me who you are, which makes me want to break your face…"
"Sure, sure. Makes sense."
Garp twisted a bit in his seat, "But it seems that I will not be doing that any time soon. So I'm asking, what is the real situation here? Are you staying in Foosha? Leaving? What?"
"Ah," Makino began, "He'll be staying here with me until further notice. No raucous causing, I'll make sure of that." She sent a stern glare to Delta, who shivered.
Garp sighed, "About as much as I was expecting. Well Lucy, it seems for the time being, you're joining our little family. I'm not particularly excited about it, but for now, I'll go with Makino on this."
"Thank you." Delta said.
"Shut it, Lucy. I don't like you and I don't know what you're hiding from me and that makes me like you even less," He gave a very menacing glare, "So remember this; if Makino ever comes to me with a single doubt about your trustworthiness, I will crush you."
"You can try," Delta intoned, not particularly knowing where that came from. Garp narrowed his eyes.
"Please-" Makino pleaded.
"I'm just saying that you're kind of old, I'm not, and, well…"
Garp scowled. His body tensed and his fists balled up. He readied to stand. "Boy, you don't know what you're talking about."
Delta shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. I just hope we have a doctor ready during our fight in case there're some steep stairs and you hurt your back."
Garp's eyes gleamed. His face reddened. "I am going to-"
"Gramps!" Luffy came running into the bar and jumped into a hug. 'Oh, how the days of actually enjoying Gramps visits had been. So bright. So innocent.' "I thought you were coming in tomorrow!"
Immediately, Garp cooled down. His fists unclenched; his muscles relaxed under his white suit. A grin replaced his scowl. He pulled his beefy arms into the hug, squeezing Luffy and seemingly forgetting the burning hatred he had felt towards Delta just moments earlier. "Sorry about that Luffy. We were a little ahead of schedule. That okay?"
"Yeah!" Luffy grinned, "I haven't seen you in years!" Actually, it had only been a couple months, but nobody bothered to correct him. Luffy's eyes then wandered over to Makino and Delta. "Delta! You're back too!" he yelled, releasing the hug and running towards his future self, much to Garp's obvious dismay.
"We found him in a little dingy on our way here and picked him up." Garp said without much enthusiasm. 'Picked me up. Right.'
"Cool!" Luffy laughed, "I thought I was gonna' have to train by myself for the next ten days!"
Garp raised an eyebrow, "Train?"
Luffy turned to Garp after a moment of staring infatuatedly at Delta. "Yep! He's training me to be an awesome pirate! Shishsishishi!"
"WHAT?" Garp bellowed in rage, his temper flaring again.
"Luffy, why did you say that?" Delta yelled, "Now Garp's gonna' try and kill me! This is exactly like what happened with Makino!"
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Sorry."
"Luffy, we are going to have a long talk when-" Delta was cut off as Garp's fist made contact with his face, sending him flying through the wooden wall of Makino's bar. "Ow!"
"That's for teaching my grandson to be a no good pirate!" The old man sprinted towards Delta with surprising speed, fist raised, "And this is for me just not liking you!" He swung, hitting nothing but air as Delta swung himself out of the way.
"Let me explain!" Delta yelled, dodging yet another raging fist.
"Whatever you have to say, do it now!" Garp yelled angrily, throwing another punch as they both ignored Luffy's incessant cheering from the bar.
"I'm not training Luffy to be a pirate!" Delta lied quickly, "I'm just training him to get stronger! I see potential in hi-oop!" He threw himself onto the ground to avoid Garp's solid black foot.
"That's bullcrap!"
"No it's true! He just wants to be a pirate really bad! I promise, I've tried explaining to him that pirates are pure evil, but he just won't listen- ah!" 'Too close for comfort,' he thought as another fist came bounding past his face, just past his nose. 'This not attacking or using my devil fruit or using any awesome abilities strategy is hard!'
Garp stopped punching for a moment, thinking about what Delta had just said. Delta hoped that Garp would just believe him, but felt that that would be too good to be true. That is, until Luffy yelled, "Don't tell him that! Now he's gonna' be mad at me and I'm gonna' get so many fists of love!" And that did the trick.
Garp turned to his grandson, fire in his eyes. "You lied to me, you little brat?" Luffy gulped and quickly shook his head 'no' before promptly running away. "Get back here! I'm gonna' teach you a lesson in wasting my time!" Garp shouted, running back to the bar and jumping through the Delta shaped hole in the wall.
Delta sighed in relief. "Thank you, Luffy. You really pulled through." He looked at Makino, who was still standing by the hole in the wall. "I think that went well."
Makino just smiled. She pointed at the gaping hole. Her smile turned sinister.
"I'll fix that tomorrow. Don't worry."
The sinister smile faded, and she walked to her room, presumably to go to bed, and ignored the yelling and punching coming from somewhere else in the bar.
