Right in the afternoon, we're off into the town to beat up some thugs. Though to be honest, we're back in town because I forgot to buy spices and sweets yesterday, so I brought the boys with me to accompany me, and then we decided to beat thugs up on the way too.

Oh, and steal their money too, of course.

Sabo is acting as a bait, while Ace attacks them from behind, using Luffy's stretched leg to swing in. I'm with Luffy on the rooftop until his leg stretches back to him and he flies off from the recoil. I immediately jump into the scene and land on one of the thugs' head, knocking him out instantly before headbutting another in the balls when he's about to punch Luffy.

Somehow, I can feel Luffy's horrified and pained look at my direction.

After a few minutes, the thugs are mostly down and I quickly rummage into their pockets, grabbing literally anything useful looking and putting them into my satchel. And then we hear a whistle and hurried footsteps, slowly getting louder. Ah shit, it's the cops.

"The cops are coming! Let's go!" Ace says, running and jumping over a wall along with Sabo. Luffy throws his arm forward and I cling onto him as we stretch back towards Ace, who's perching on the wall. Luffy bounces from the wall while I let go of him so that Ace can catch me, and then we quickly jump and run off from the town. I just giggle madly as we run.

Eventually we arrive at the tree where Takao and Flame are waiting for us. Then Sabo suggests hunting a deer for today's dinner, which gets positive responses from Luffy and the babies, who cheer out and run off somewhere. Sabo, Ace, and I then followed them and got ourselves a huge ass deer.

"We're home!" Luffy and I shout in sync.

"Don't come home, you troublesome kids!" Dadan shouts back before she gets cut off by a deer landing on her face by Ace and Sabo and she falls on her back. The boys just walk away without any care for Dadan while I just laugh at her misery as I crouch down next to her.

"Don't worry, Dadan. I'll help you cook dinner. But the antlers and hides are mine to take, okay?" I assure her with Berry signs on my eyes. It's not possible, but I can imagine it when I talk about money.

After a lot of cooking, dinner is ready and the usual ruckus starts. It's amusing to watch and I might join in just for the sake of it after I ate my portion I put aside for myself. But of course, living in a house filled with men and beasts, there's at least one or three people trying to steal what's mine. And those people are the ASL.

Of course, I immediately react and bite any hands in my vision (except for my own hands), hissing and snarling at them. I only share some with the babies, but Flame prefers to join the actual ruckus than me and Takao. He is basically equally beastly and crazy like the boys when it comes to food; fighting his way up towards his food.

Takao is still a baby, so I feed him with small pieces of unseasoned meat.

I can see that Dadan is surprisingly calm about this, until a slice of meat lands on the left side of her face, then her right, before a bowl is thrown to her face, making her snap and joining the ruckus. And suddenly Luffy is biting on her head, making her run and yelling around like a headless chicken, but of course Ace, Sabo, and Flame barely glance back at her as they're busy with their meat.

Because of the ruckus, the four of us (plus Flame and Takao) are thrown into the bathroom by Dadan, who is clearly upset and tells us to clean ourselves and don't come out until we're clean.

I'm washing Flame in a small bucket with shampoo for dogs, and the puppy in question is not happy that he's bathing right now. Takao is perching nearby on top of an upside-down bucket and just watching us. But then suddenly a bucketful of water is thrown at me, making me wet and the bubbles on Flame get washed off. I turn to face the perpetrator AKA Ace, who's smirking at me and I smirk back before splashing water at his direction playfully.

Eventually we stop playing around and wash ourselves up, and Luffy is asking me the most embarrassing question I have ever heard.

"Hey Eris, how come you don't have a family jewel between your legs?" Luffy asks innocently, while I can hear Sabo is just choking on his saliva.

"…That's because I'm not born with one." I answer calmly.

"How come?!"

"Some people just don't. But instead, they have something inside them to store babies inside."

"Oh. Like a bag?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"Oh, okay!"

And that's pretty much how sudden sex education for Luffy dropped. Thankfully he didn't ask further while I can see that Sabo's face is completely red and Ace is looking at him weirdly. Ah, so the D brothers are equal in terms of knowledge about it, but Sabo seems to know plenty. That's kinda funny.

"What are you guys talking about?" Never mind, Ace just continues the conversation.

"We're talking about the birds and the bees." I reply and both Ds are even more confused, "We'll talk about it later in the Education Session and Sabo will explain it to us." I continue and smirk when Sabo gives me a disbelief look that I just betrayed him and pushed him into the hole of shame.

We finish our bath and dry myself and the babies up with a towel in my arms before following the boys along, who are still dripping wet when they enter the living area and just goofing around with each other.

"Luffy, Ace, Sabo! Dry yourselves up first, you're making the floor wet." I scold them, but none of them care enough to hear me. I just let out a sigh and I spotted Dadan just holding her anger that the deck brush in her hands broke into two.

We get dressed when we arrive in our room. The boys use their previous clothes while I wear a new, clean shirt because I'm not gross like the boys. I wear a plain red shirt and black shorts, and am currently drying up my hair and Flame.

Apparently the boys decide that having one last SS is a good idea, but I'm dead tired and just watch them from afar in the corner with the babies. Flame seems ready to jump in and join though, but he didn't, so he might've just been pretty excited to watch them.

The boys wrestle so badly and so hard that Luffy actually breaks through the floor and falls down with a loud crash. I scoot closer to the hole along with the older boys and the babies, peeking down.

"Luffy, are you alive?" Ace asks.

"The floor is quite fragile…" Sabo comments.

"This is going to be a pain to fix." I point out.

"Damn you guys!" Luffy shouts from below, followed by Dadan's loud angry cry and starts to chase Luffy around. We just watch the scene with a sweatdrop and in slight amusement.

"Should we sleep?" Ace asks, turning to Sabo.

"Yeah, we should." Sabo replies and they both go to bed, leaving Luffy alone as he's running around from the lion. And then I decide to go to bed too, as I'm getting sleepy and I drift off into dreamland by the time I rest my head on the pillow.

I wake up as a hand slaps on my face. I quickly remove it and see that it's Sabo's. I sit up and yawn, rubbing my eye and stretching out to pop my bones. I look around and decide to walk out to wash my face. I tie my hair up using a cloth I stole a week ago, but of course it's going to be messy because it's not a hair tie, but it suffices for now.

After I wash my face and back into the shack, I hear the boys start to wake up.

"Morning." I greet them and they just grunt for a reply, their hair sticking out everywhere that I just giggle before trying to fix their hair. I like it when they just woke up. They're all quiet and didn't protest much.

We all go down and hear familiar voices from outside. Both Luffy and I look at each other in realization and we quickly run outside. Sure enough, it's Makino and mayor Wood Slap.

"Makino!" Both Luffy and I exclaim out in sync, running up to her and hugging her.

"Luffy! Eris-chan!" Makino replies with a big smile, hugging us back.

"You two seem healthy! It's been six months, so we came because we're worried about you." Mayor says with a kind smile.

"Oh, mayor!" Luffy and I greet him in sync before Makino crouches down to be on eye level with us and puts a finger on her lips.

"Keep this a secret from Garp-san, okay?" She tells us and I just give her a nervous laugh. I don't know about that, Makino. That old man always managed to know shits for some reason.

"So you two really do live with those bandits, eh…" Mayor mutters, making Dadan look at him with a sour look.

"You have a problem with that?" She asks.

"Of course! You bandits definitely have bad behaviors!" Mayor complains.

"What did you say?! The one who has no manners are the people from Foosha Village!" Dadan replies back. Both of them then proceed to argue with each other while I just stare at them with sweatdrops before turning back to Makino when she claps her hands together.

"I have something for you two! I'm sure Garp-san never gives you anything…" She starts rummaging into the basket she brought along before taking out a shirt with pastel yellow color and a purple star in the center, and then another shirt with turquoise color with the word 'CHAOS' at the chest area, "Ta-da! New clothes for you!"

"Wow! So cool!" Luffy exclaims out excitedly.

"Thank you, Makino. We start to run out of clothes that Sabo is wearing the same clothes every single day." I tell her with a smirk as I thumb at the said boy by the doorsill.

"Oh my! I guess it's a good thing we come in time, don't we?" Makino comments in amusement as she turns to look at the older boys, "Don't worry, I bring plenty of clothes for all of you, so none of you will run out of clothes." She continues with a kind smile.

I see that the older boys' cheeks redden and Sabo eventually approaches us, leaving Ace behind as I help Luffy to wear his new shirt and then wear mine. Makino shows Sabo a sleeveless dark purple shirt before turning to Ace.

"You too." She says with a smile. Ace hesitates a bit at first, but finally gives up and approaches us.

"I heard Ace-kun is a naughty boy. But it looks like you're a good kid." Makino says and smiles while adjusting a sleeveless plain green colored shirt to Ace, which makes him blush and looks away in embarrassment.

"T-that's not…"

Sabo, Luffy, and I are giggling at the scene.

"He looks sheepish!" Sabo teases.

"Your face is red, Ace!" Luffy points out.

"And you're sweating up a storm!" I add with a big grin.

"You guys—!" Ace starts, but quickly gets cut off by Makino who tells him to not move around a lot, "I'll get you guys later…" He mutters and we all laugh harder.

In the evening, I decided to help Makino because she's making a big meal for all of us, bandits included. Sometimes I burn the meal or burn myself a little, but the meals turn out great and tasty, and it makes me happy that everyone is eating happily.

Then the boys start talking (or more likely arguing) about their voyage journey in the future later and in the end Luffy says that he'll be the first one to be a pirate, and then everyone is spitting their food, making Ace and Luffy stare and blink in confusion, and then continued by a loud cough behind Ace, Luffy and I, making us go pale and turn around in fear.

"So you two still talk shit, huh?!" Garp says with an evil grin, making the D bros spitting out their food too while I just back away.

"Why don't you understand that you both must become great Marine soldiers yet?!" He shouts before giving the D bros his 'Fist of Love', making them fall down with their eyes rolling behind. Then he calls for Dadan and before she can say anything, he also gives her the same punch in the head, making her join with the other two.

"Why… me too…?"

"Looks like you didn't educate them properly, eh?" He says, fist still in the air. I quickly run and hide behind Sabo after seeing his victims as Sabo stares at gramps with terrified looks.

"G-Garp? So he's Ace, Luffy, and Eris' grandpa?" Sabo asks no one in particular before gramps turns to look at us, or Sabo in particular.

"Hey kid, you also said something about being a pirate too, didn't you?" Garp recalls with a dark look.

And then Luffy stands in front of Sabo and replies, "He's not a kid, he's Sabo! We four became brothers and we're all going to be pirates! And Eris will be on my ship as my first crew member!"

Damnit Luffy!

"He and his big mouth…" Ace mutters, resigned.

"Ooh, so now there are 4 brothers who I should give a lesson to, huh." Garp says as he's cracking up his knuckles and preparing for his next attacks, not even showing a reaction that there are 4 brothers and not 3 brothers and 1 sister.

This is bad. And what I mean by bad is REALLY, REALLY BAD.

"RUN!" I yell out as I quickly run toward the back door and into the woods while screaming out in fear, with the boys following behind me and screaming along with me.

"DON'T YOU DARE RUNNING AWAY!"

We all scream while still running away from the insane gorilla behind us, but the one who runs faster is me.

"WAIT!"

"AND LET YOU BEAT US UP UNTIL WE'RE IN A BRINK OF DEATH?! I REFUSE!" I scream out and just dodge a punch by a hairbreadth as he actually punches through a tree and breaks it effortlessly. That was close!

He keeps on attacking us (or more likely trying to attack us) until he gets the boys. I keep on running and dodging without looking back and go faster when I hear the footsteps getting closer.

"WAIT! YOU MUST BECOME A GREAT MARINE TOO!" Gramps yells as he gets closer.

"EAT SHIT, SHITTY GRAMPS! MARINES AND WORLD GOVERNMENT CAN EAT MY ASS!" I scream out.

"THAT'S 'GRANDPA' FOR YOU!"

I quickly do a U-turn and slip under his legs before continuing on running. I was pretty sure Garp knew my movements because of Haki, but apparently not that I'm able to escape his grasp as I continue on running.

Somehow, I'm thankful that I'm super short right now.

After a few minutes of running, I suddenly sprained my left ankle and it significantly slowed me down. But I can't hear that gramps gorilla stomping around nearby anymore and I can finally catch my breath. Fucking hell, that was the most exhausting exercise I got and I'm not looking forward for another one for the next few years.

Thankfully, Garp's rampage in the forest actually drove animals away and gave me a waypoint towards where the boys were, so I just limped my way to them until I found them all beaten up and on the verge of passing out. Sheesh, this is basically abusive! Crazy old man! And we can't report it because he's one of those World Government bastards! Damn it!

"Are you guys still alive?" I ask, poking on them using a stick I found nearby and they all groan out in pain.

"Wha… Eris, are you still alive?" Ace asks as he tries to sit up but grunts in pain when he does that.

"Yeah, somehow. He almost got me several times. Managed to dodge most of them somehow." I reply with a nod.

"Ahh, that hurts…" Sabo whines out as he sits up, along with Luffy.

"Can you guys walk?" I ask as they all try to stand on their feet and rub their sore spots.

"Sort of…"

"We should go back so I can take care of your injuries. I bet gramps is already drunk and asleep with the bandits." I tell them and start to walk, but the boys seem to realize my limp.

"Eris, you okay?" Luffy asks in concern.

"I kinda sprained my ankle. It's been awhile since the last time I ran that fast and long, but I'll be fine." I reply and Ace hits me in the head. "That hurt! What gives?!" I yell, rubbing on the bump.

"What do you mean by 'fine'? You sprained your ankle! Of course it's not fine!" Ace scolds me and I pout at that, but didn't say anything in return. And then he turns around and crouches down, his back facing me. "C'mon, I'll piggyback you to Dadan's house. You can't walk, right?" Ace says, looking at me from his shoulder.

I stare at him for a moment before quickly nodding. I wrap my arms around his neck and he holds me from behind before he stands up.

"Hang on tight, okay?" He tells me softly before he starts to walk, with the other two following right behind.

This feels…nice.

I bury my face into the crook of his shoulder and just sighs out. This is nice and Ace is warm. This close, I can smell that he smells like the sun, and grass, considering he just got beaten up to pulp and into bushes and trees, it's to be expected.

"You smell nice." I comment bluntly, and I can feel Ace tenses up a bit. Whoops. Maybe I shouldn't say that.

"…Do you always smell people around you, Weirdo?" Ace asks teasingly and I pout.

"I'm not a weirdo! And I guess? Luffy smells like rubber and meat, Sabo smells like a smoky and sweet body odor, Dadan smells like cigarettes, gramps smells like salt and freshly made rice, and you smell like the sun and freshly cut grass at the moment." I elaborate.

"I understand Luffy because you both are basically inseparable, but I can't believe you even smelled that gramps." Sabo quips up in slight disbelief.

"Nyehehe, then I guess I just have that strong of a nose!" I reply proudly.

"I don't think that's something to be really proud of…" Sabo adds with a sweatdrop.

We walk back home quietly through the back door and up to our room. I limp my way to my satchel and grab the first-aid kit to take care of the boys' injuries, before Sabo bandages my sprained ankle gently along with the scratches I got from the cat-mouse-chase with gramps.

"If this continues, that old man would've killed us." Ace says as we peek down, watching gramps sleeping with the bandits at the lower floor.

"If we survive, he will continue to make us quit being a pirate!" Sabo continues.

"I don't want to die!" Luffy says, terrified.

"Then why don't we just live by ourselves in the forest?" I suggest with a smile, "We can already fend for ourselves and find our own meal. All we need to do is try to build ourselves a place to live! How's that sound?" The boys look at me before grinning.

"That's a great idea!"

We decided to leave early in the morning and bring all of our things with us. We wrote a letter and gave it to Flame so he can deliver it when we're halfway in the forest. My sprained ankle still hurts a bit, but Sabo piggybacks me when the terrain is a little too much. Oh, he smells sweeter and less smoky.

Also I wrote another letter for gramps that says:

'To stupid, crazy-gorilla gramps,

I'm not going to join the people who hate my friends just for existing!

Kiss my ass, Marine Dog!

Signed, Eris.'

I told Flame to give it personally to gramps and quickly ran for his life after. I hope he's okay…

And then Flame comes back, still safe and sound, which makes me sigh in relief.

"We got away from them, right?" Luffy asks after a while.

"They didn't pursue us, Dadan and the others…" Sabo says.

I pick Flame up and hold him in my arms. He didn't protest for once while Takao is chirping happily in my head. I turn to Ace, who looks behind us with that distant and forlorn look on his face, probably remembering the past. I watch him silently before gently patting him in the head, which grabs his attention.

"What are you doing?" Ace asks, with a surprisingly calm voice.

"Nothing. I just thought that you need one." I reply with a shrug before I turn to the others, "Well, we should hurry up before they start looking for us." I add and they all nod before a drop of water lands on my nose and turns into a full-blown rain.

I yelp a bit when Ace suddenly carries me into his arms before the boys run, searching for a shelter. They eventually found a huge tree with big roots that makes a cave under it, so we immediately crawled in to take shelter.

"Let's shelter here for a moment." Ace says once we're all inside the root cave.

We all stare out into the rain when we finally settle in, Luffy laughing and saying how exciting their new adventure is. The older boys sit between the younger ones; I sit next to Luffy and Ace with Takao and Flame on my lap, while Luffy sits next to me and Sabo.

We're all watching the rain until the boys and the babies start to doze off. I'm still watching the rain while Luffy and Ace are leaning on me before I glance at their sleeping faces fondly and start to doze off myself. When they're asleep like this, they're pretty much like any other normal children. Peaceful and happy, just like how kids should be when they're kids.

Children with happy lives…

(Posted on March 18th, 2022)