"Did you cut your hair?" Luffy asks me during dinner and I nod.

"Yeah! Old man Rayleigh's life partner helped me with it too!" I reply with a smile.

"You look like a girlish boy." Ace comments as he takes a bite of his meat and I shrug nonchalantly.

"That's okay. At least I'm second of the cutest here after Luffy." I say confidently with a cute pose and Ace looks like he wants to puke.

"You? Second of the cutest? Don't make me vomit." He spats with a scrunch of his freckled nose and I frown at that.

"…Just say you're jealous of our cuteness." I tell him with pity and he looks ready to strangle me for that.

"Well, I think Eris looks great with new hair!" Luffy says with that big smile of his, "now nothing can get tangled up in your hair!" He adds. Ah, yes. The beauty of having long hair while living in a jungle like apes, you'll get things tangled up in your hair. A lot.

"At least now I can pass to being boys like you two." I point out before remembering about puberty, "Or not. It's almost time for puberty and my boobs might get bigger. It'll be hard to hide them." I add as I take a bite of my meat and chew on it.

"So? They're just lumps of meat, aren't they?" Ace asks with a raised brow and Luffy nods.

I blink at that and hum in thought. "You're not wrong. Well, who cares about that! I have new hair and look cute as hell, and that's all that matters!" I exclaim and have a hearty laugh for myself. Ace doesn't seem impressed about that, and Luffy is being Luffy.

"But enough about that, how's your training?" I ask, changing the topic and both boys' eyes light up.

"It's doing great! I can kinda aim better, but I still can't beat Ace." Luffy pouts unhappily while Ace smirks smugly.

"Obviously. Even if you can aim properly, you still won't beat me." He says and I roll my eyes on that.

"Yeah, yeah. We'll see about that tomorrow." I tell him with a smirk, "I'll tell you about my journey tomorrow after we do our Sparring Session, so we should sleep early today."

"Okay! Hurry Ace! Let's eat faster and then sleep!" Luffy exclaims out as he starts to grab whatever meat nearby to shove it into his mouth, including mine and Ace.

"Hands off my food!" "Don't you dare take my food!"

And then we both tackle the rubber boy down before he inhales all of the food while Dadan just watches in annoyance that it becomes too noisy again.

The next morning, I wake up to the boys shaking me awake. I blearily open my eyes before detecting the intent to hurt, so I quickly move my head to the right just in time as Ace punches the spot where my head was before.

"What the fuck, Ace?!" I yell out and the preteen boy just blinks in return, seemingly impressed.

"Stop sleeping. You need to tell us more about whatever you were doing for the past 1 year and 3 months." Ace says as he stands up and starts to walk out of our bedroom. I groan as I sit up, not minding the fact that Luffy immediately glued himself up to me.

"Talk about a rude awakening call." I grumble as I stand up and follow Ace, with Luffy in tow before noticing that Flame and Takao are nowhere to be seen. "Where are Takao and Flame?"

"They're outside. I guess they're just hanging out." Ace replies, not looking at me as we jump off to the floor below and I hum in return.

"Well, I suppose that's to be expected. They've been together since they're babies." I comment, "I guess we'll just go without them this time. Let them hang out."

And we did. We still ignore Dadan's shouting to make us do house chores as we run off outside, the boys grabbing their pipes on the way.

Halfway to our SS place, both boys just noticed that I didn't bring along mine.

"Where's your pipe?" Luffy asks curiously.

"Huh? Oh, I forgot to grab it." I nonchalantly reply before shrugging, "Eh, it's fine. I can call for it later. I'll show you guys something cool later!" I tell them.

"'Something cool'? I can't wait!" Luffy says excitedly and I smile in return.

"I bet it's nothing. It's just 'cool' enough to impress Luffy." Ace rolls his eyes with a teasing grin, and Luffy is not impressed as he lets out a 'hey!' while I just laugh.

"We'll see about that." I grin as we keep on running until we finally arrive at our usual SS spot. "Okay, who's going first?"

Both Luffy and Ace start first. I watch them going at it and clapping when Luffy manages to aim and lands a hit on Ace, but laughing when Ace grabs his stretched arm to throw him over the shoulder to the ground. The rest usually ends the same, and I just laugh my ass off watching it while Luffy is yelling at me angrily.

"You can aim, sure, but your stretched limb is too vulnerable for your enemy to grab." I tell him as I approach him and gently pat him on the head. He's getting taller. "You need to practice to pull your limb back before the enemy can grab it. C'mon, practice it on me." I tell him as Ace walks to the side, watching us.

"Okay! Brace yourself, Eris! Because I'm gonna kick your ass!" Luffy announces as he starts to swing his arm around and I put on my stance with a grin.

"It's been awhile since I used only my body to fight, so I might be a little rusty." I comment as I ready my hands and curl my fingers a bit, making the impression of tiger claws. "Come at me!" I yell out and Luffy grins.

"Gomu Gomu no…Pistol!" I can feel that he's aiming to my right, so I quickly move to the left and about to grab his stretched arm, but he quickly pulls back and manages to miss my grip as he falls to his back from the recoil and I grin wider.

"There you go! You learn fast, but you still need to deal with the recoil," I tell him as I run up to him and jump. He's scrambling to be on his feet, but he trips over them and lets out a choking sound as I land on his back and laugh at him.

"I guess I'm not as rusty as I thought. C'mon Luffy, let's practice again." I tell him as I hop off him and he's up to his feet with that familiar determined look of his before I run up to him and readying my 'claw', aiming at his chest.

"Cakar Maung!" I yell out as I hit him in the chest and that sends him backward for a few steps, before he yells out as he stretches his arms back.

"Gomu Gomu no…Bazooka!" He aims his attack at me, but I quickly roll to the side as he hits the ground before his arms recoil back to him.

"That's a pretty good move, Luffy. Did you come up with it?" I ask with a grin.

"Shishishi! It's cool, right?! I came up with it to surprise you!" Luffy says and I hum in reply, impressed.

"It's cool, but you need to aim better and deal with the recoil even more than the Pistol one, considering you're using both arms." I explain and Luffy just nods seriously as he readies his fists up again.

"I see, so I have to deal with the recall better. Got it!" No you don't.

"It's 'recoil'." I correct him and he nods.

"Yeah, that!"

After that short talk, we continued with our sparring. He managed to land several hits on me and threw me off a few times, but the same thing can be said to him. Ace is watching us with a grin, seemingly having fun watching us kicking each other's asses, but even more so when it's Luffy's.

Dodging his punch, I slide under his arm to aim my strike to his chin, which makes him fly into the air before the gravity pulls him back and he starts crying out in pain, which is concerning.

"That hurt! Why did that hurt? I'm made of rubber!" Luffy cries out and I just blink in confusion before looking at my hand that's somehow coated in black that shifts in and out before it's completely out.

…Okay, that's definitely Buso-Haki. What the hell? There's no way in hell I should be able to do that!

But I shake my head and quickly approach Luffy, "Sorry. Are you okay? I swear I have no idea what the fuck was that, but I have some hints." I tell him as I start to fuss over him, who pouts unhappily at me as Ace approaches us too.

"That hurt! What was that?" Luffy asks while rubbing on his chin, "It kinda felt like when grandpa hit me!" He adds and I do my best to not look him in the eye as nervous sweat starts to pour out and Ace is absolutely giving me the suspicious look.

"Well, I guess I kiiiiinda use the same power that gramps used on you. It's pretty effective against DF users with physical invulnerability like you." I tell him nervously as I look closer on his chin and wince when it's starting to bruise. "Welp, I don't have any control of it unless I train myself with gramps about it, so I might ask him to train me how to use it properly." I say as I pat Luffy's head before he springs back up to his feet.

"Damn it! That's not fair that you get to have the same power as grandpa! You cheater!" Luffy accuses and I give him a chop on the head for that. Thankfully, there's no black coating with pink coral sheen on my hand, so he's not harmed.

"It's not my fault I just happen to have the same power as him! If you train with him, I'm sure you'll be able to learn it too." I huff in reply as I cross my arms and look away, while Luffy is still being petty about it until Ace breaks it off.

"Alright, break it off, you brats. Eris is the winner." He declares, but none of us actually hear him as Luffy keeps being petty.

"Cheater! Cheater! Eris is a dirty cheater!" Luffy mocks me while making faces and it pisses me off, but I'm more mature than him so I calm myself down…

"You're just jealous. Jealous dumb head!" and I ended up replying him.

"What did you say?!"

We both butt heads with each other as I can even see sparks between us. I can hear Ace letting out a sigh before approaching us to give us a hit on the head, but I quickly move away so he punches Luffy's head and empty air. He doesn't care.

"Stop fighting, you idiots. It's my turn to spar Eris. If you want to fight her again, try again tomorrow." Ace tells him and Luffy just 'hmph!' in return. He just rolls his eyes before turning to me, "Whatever you just did, I can still kick your ass." He declares with a smirk. Seeing that, I smirk back at him.

"Oh yeah? We'll see about that." I challenge him as we gather back up in the center and facing each other with a good space between us.

We watch each other's movements before we both jump at the other. I quickly parried his punch, but his kick got me on my side and threw me off. I quickly recollect my composure and roll to the side as he stomps the spot I was before. I ignore the pain on my side to be back on my feet and take steps back to give space to myself from him.

Unlike Luffy, Ace is a wildcard when it comes to fighting, or at least he used to be. He's cunning and unpredictable at times, but I'm glad I'm very observant when it comes to reading people, even though sometimes I tend to forget about it. And now that I can even see him even clearer, his movements are even easier to read because most of his movements are filled with intent.

But still, sometimes I get too overwhelmed and get blinded by it.

He runs up to me and throws a punch, but I quickly parry it and grab it, using his arm to throw him over my shoulder to the ground. Once he's down, I quickly take steps back and wait for him to be on his feet again, which he quickly did before he jumps at me again and throws a punch to my left.

I move my head to the left, his fist missing me by a millimeter before delivering him a punch to his face. But like the smart, brawler type he is, he gives me a kick on my shoulder at the same time and I grunt in surprise and pain at that.

I quickly take a step back as he gives me a bloodied smirk and I grin back while rubbing on my shoulder. He waits for me to make my move, so I run up to him and ready my 'claws'. He's ready to block my attack, so I quickly take a side step and jump at him, grabbing him by the neck using my arm to throw him down to the ground.

And then he proceeds to elbow my back using that monstrous strength of his.

I growl in annoyance and pain as I kick my legs up and pin him using my body weight in return, crushing him down but that didn't hold him down for very long.

Sparring with Ace will always end up as a one, long sparring match instead of 50 matches like when against Luffy. And because of that, the rule was changed to 'whoever managed to throw the other down to the ground longer, they win' times 50. It's a better rule for us both compared to 50 short matches.

But unfortunately for Ace, I kept tally on my wins and I'm currently way ahead of him, and I can see him getting frustrated by each loss and I smirk at him.

"C'mon, is that all you've got? Just because I left for a year means you can slack off." I taunt him and that ticks him off as he lets out a roar and jumps at me with a kick to my head, but I easily step aside and punch him a few meters away into a tree, resulting in my victory.

I cheer for my victory and Luffy follows suit, while Ace himself pushes himself up and doesn't seem happy that he lost, but he pretty much accepted it.

"Fine, you win today, but I will kick your ass tomorrow." Ace promises and I just grin at him.

"I'll be waiting for that." I reply and he returns the grin as Luffy literally bounding away and gluing himself up to me with those sparkling, amazed eyes of his. Oh, he's super cute.

"Sparing is over! Time for you to tell us your adventures!" He states and I roll my eyes at him endearingly.

"It's 'sparring'. And yes, it's story time so gather up and sit down." I say as I sit down on the grassy ground, and the two boys follow suit with that anticipation in those dark eyes.

But suddenly, I feel nervous.

What will their reaction be? Especially after they know that I kill people? What if they hate me for that? What will I do then? Will I lose my goal and dream then? If so, should I get myself a new dream then?

"Eris, you're thinking too much." Luffy comments calmly, and that snaps me back to reality.

"Oh sorry. I was…readying myself." I reply as I scratch the back of my head sheepishly. I take a deep breath in and slowly exhale it. Okay. It's gonna be okay. Just tell them the reason why I left first, and then we continue on from there.

"Okay, so…I didn't really tell you guys why I left, right?" They nod. "Yeah, so gramps threw me into the ocean and I had a dream. I pretty much met some sea god that goes by the name Ầ̷̛͎̰͈̭͙̗̻̻̣̝̬̙͖̍͗̋͒̄͠t̶̨͖͙̱͌̓̍̈́͌̓̆̕̕͜͝͝h̷͈̝͑̑͐͌̓̈́̔̈́́̾̉͝͝a̴̧̛͇̱̪̥̥̥͖͙̹̓̓̏̆͑̂̔̎̀̍̕̚͝͝ǫ̶̧̭̤̱̲̳̳͖͕̤̋͑̚͜ͅt̶͈̰̩̲̘̦̦͖͎͇̮̥͎͇̮̐͋͂̓̊̽̿̽̋͘͝͝ḥ̷̗̟̹̖̭̦̫̐̎̌̍͋͌̈͠ĺ̶͍̀́̄͛́̚ͅ'̷͙̮͕͋͌̃͒͛͐̓̚͝ẋ̸̩͈̼̤͍̮̲̤̫͗̈́͐͐͜͜͠ë̷͖̣̗͚̪͇͙̩͋̓͘͝l̷̢̝̠͕̖̝̘̜̞̠͕̆͌̽̃ ̷̬͖͋̽̾̌͆̓͗͆̾̉̍̍͘͘͘ in this world, saying that if I want more power, I should go to its temple to gain it."

Luffy and Ace are blinking before looking at each other.

"I think we lost her." Ace comments and Luffy turns at me with an angry look.

"Who are you? Where's my brother? And why are you talking weird?!" He demands and a vein pops on my forehead before I give him a hit in the head.

"I'm not lying! I'm serious! I have similar weird dreams each time I reach new islands to guide me, so it cannot be some coincidences!" I protest and Ace rolls his eyes, crossing his arms to his chest.

"Yeah, yeah, and Roger is alive and well. You need to come up with a better story than that if you want to fool me." He replies with a bored look.

"Fine. I'll show you then." I grumble as I close my eyes, connecting myself to Deimos and Phobos back in my satchel in the shack. I can see them slowly sliding out and hooks the satchel along before slowly exiting the room. There are some bandits that saw them and are absolutely pissing themselves as Deimos and Phobos are opening the front door before flying up to where I am.

As they get closer, I raise my hands and both weapons gracefully glide into my palm as my satchel lands on my lap and I open my eyes. I can see both Luffy and Ace are absolutely losing their minds over it as I grin at them.

"So yeah! I managed to find the temple and that god gave me these two legendary weapons! Pretty cool, ain't it?" I continue on as I show them to the boys, who are still star-struck and reaching their hands to hold them, but Luffy flinches away when he quickly realizes they give him weird feelings.

"I don't like it. It feels weird!" Luffy concludes and Ace raises his brow in question.

"That's to be expected, considering they're made of heavily concentrated Seastone. DF users like Luffy won't be able to hold it without giving the feeling like they're drowning on land." I explain to them.

"'Seastone'? The weird substance from the sea that's basically the hard version of the sea water?" Ace asks and I nod.

"Yep! Seastone is usually used by the Marine to deal with DF users, but most of them aren't that concentrated to actually make DF users immobile. They're just enough to weaken them and stop them from using their power." I explain further as I glance at Luffy, who's staring at Deimos and Phobos with uneasy tic.

Gently, I press Phobos to Luffy's skin and he immediately wilts into the ground with a teasing grin. Luffy can only slurs out incoherent protests and I just laugh at his misery before turning to Ace, who's carefully looking at Deimos closer, who thrums softly in his holds.

"But they're made of stone, right? Are they even that sharp?" Ace asks in confusion.

"Er, no. They're made of some kind of mineral, so not exactly stone. They're just called 'Seastone' because they're hard and look like one. I think." I tell him, "They're as hard as a diamond, but unlike those things the Marine made, this one is indestructible unless I want it to be. And I sure as heck do not want it to break."

"And yes. They're sharp enough to…kill people." I whisper the last part as I pull Phobos away from Luffy, who's slumped on the ground and slowly weakly pushing himself to sit up, moaning that he felt weak.

Should I…tell them?

I'm scared.

Deimos and Phobos thrum in unease, and Ace seems to notice it as he lets Deimos go to look at me. "Spit it out." He says simply and I purse my lips together.

"…Have you heard the news about 'Garu' from the newspaper?" I slowly ask, my fingers tracing over the graving on Phobos and my eyes glued on my fingers. I can't bring myself to look at them both.

"…I think I heard Dadan reading it out loud from the newspaper. Why?" Ace answers, crossing his arms to his chest, "They showed up around a few months after you left, before disappearing off around a few months ago before you come home—"

He stops, as if finally connecting them together.

"You're 'Garu'." He concludes and I bite my lip nervously.

The silence is deafening. It's as if the forest suddenly can feel the heavy air that not even birds are chirping or even the wind is blowing to rustle the leaves. I can feel Ace's scrutinizing gaze on me while Luffy is just looking at both of us back and forth in confusion.

"…So? What else do you wanna tell us?"

I chew the inside of my cheek anxiously before looking up straight into his eyes.

"I kill people, including 2 Celestial Dragons." I confess and I can see him and Luffy widen their eyes a bit when hearing those two last words.

"…I see."

More silence.

"Are they…" A pause. "Are they the ones that killed Sabo?"

I shake my head.

"Not the actual one, but they're still connected." I answer, "And I can't help but to kill them. They were buying people as their slaves. I can't turn my eyes away from that." I add with fury bubbling in my chest, clenching onto my shirt as I remember those scared looks of the chained back at that accursed place.

"Did you regret it? Killing them?"

I shake my head. "I will never regret hurting or killing those who harms those I care about." I tell him as I reach up to play with my hair nervously, "And especially if it's for Sabo, or even for you two."

I will even burn the world, if it means to keep you all safe.

That's the reason why I accepted that contract with that sea god, after all.

A life for power to protect.

Suddenly, Ace gives me a hit on the head.

"Ow! What the hell, Ace?!" I yell out, rubbing on the bump and Ace is looking at me in exasperation.

"You dumbass! What if you get yourself killed?! Just because you get some awesome, strong weapons, doesn't mean you should waste your life like that!" He argues with a scowl, "I already lost Sabo, I can't lose you too!" He adds frustratingly in a whisper.

I just pout, but staying silent.

Luffy, who has been silently listening and watching us, slowly reaches to my cheeks before pinching and pulling on them.

"Don't you dare do it again! I don't wanna lose another brother!" He exclaims out, "You hear me?! Captain's order!"

I widen my eyes before snickering and laughing out, reaching up to both boys and pulling them into a tight hug.

"I'm so glad to meet you two."

And I will do everything I can to protect you both from this world.

Forever, until the end of time.

(Posted on May 27th, 2022)