"Hey gramps, how about you take me along to train me how to do Haki and Rokushiki?"

Gramps, after beating us up to pulp and then happily drinking sake, chokes on it and coughs for a few times while I just stare at him with a bored look.

"Stop choking, gramps. I didn't ask you to choke on your drink." I add with my hands on my hips.

"Give your grandpa a small break, can't you?" Garp says and coughs for one last time before turning to me, "So what's your reason for wanting to train Haki and even Rokushiki? In fact, how did you even know about the latter?" He asks curiously.

"I need to get stronger. Strong enough that I don't need weapons to fight. So my body is the weapon itself." I tell him, ignoring his second question, "I know you used Haki when you torture us, especially against Luffy, and I know you used it to detect our own Haki. So take me."

Garp looks at me, reading my expression before grinning. "Then I take it you wanna be a Ma—"

"Absolutely not. I'll slaughter them all if you even think or mention it once more, and especially those who murdered Sabo." I snarl at him with a death glare, and his grin immediately disappears. "I did it once, and I will keep on going until none of them remain." I add and he frowns.

He knows why and how Sabo 'died'. I told him in fury and tears when he came to visit a while ago, and he looked absolutely saddened by it before apologizing to the three of us. That was the only time he didn't immediately 'train' us to death, but instead being a grandpa that he is for once.

He also knows that I'm 'Garu'. I told him too and he looks absolutely conflicted about it, but ends up deciding to turn a blind eye on it.

But enough about that; right now, I want him to take me along and train me for real.

Suddenly, something crashed into my back and crushed me down on the floor. Who the fuck—

"NO! YOU'RE NOT LEAVING AGAIN!" I hear Luffy shouting out and actually giving me a punch in the head. That hurts! "I told you that you're not allowed to leave! Captain's order is absolute!" He adds angrily.

"How did you even learn the word 'absolute'—you know what, I'll ignore it this time, but listen up Luffy," I push myself up and Luffy just clings to my back, like a baby monkey that he is, but I let it slide as I continue, "I know I said I won't leave again, but I need to get stronger." I tell him and I can feel him getting angrier by the second.

"NO! I WON'T LET YOU!" And then he proceeds to tie my body up using his rubbery limbs tightly.

"Luffy—"

"NO!"

I purse my lips as guilt forms in my chest. I don't like it when I make Luffy upset, but I need to do this.

"I'm sorry, Lu-chan. But hear me out first, please?" I softly beg as I tap my fingers on his stretched limb. He's silent for a few moments before he eventually complies and his limbs slowly untangle themselves from me.

I turn to face him and he looks like he's about to cry. Lips pursed and trembling, eyes shiny and watery, and cheeks red. He looks absolutely adorable and I would squeal in endearment if I'm not filled with guilt.

"I know I promised, but I need to get stronger so I can protect you." I start, "I know you'll be the Captain and the Pirate King, but who will have your back if I'm weak? I can't always let the Captain solve their crewmates' problems."

"But I'll get stronger!" Luffy argues back, "so you don't have to leave…"

"I know you will, but I need to get stronger too." I reply reasonably, but he's still not satisfied by that. "How about this; you decide how many years I will go train with gramps, and during that amount of time, I will learn my ass off to be strong. How's that sound?" I suggest with a smile.

Luffy is silent, still thinly pressing his lips unhappily before bringing up his hand with index and middle fingers up.

"Two years! And then you come home!" He eventually decides and I smile gratefully at him before bowing down.

"Thank you for your generosity, Captain. I will use that amount of time to be stronger to be worthy of the future Pirate King's First Mate." I tell him with my eyes closed before opening one, only to see him grimacing on the courtesy and I snort at that.

"Stop being like that, I don't like it." Luffy says as he sniffs with a frown.

"Oh, but I absolutely should, because you're my Captain and I need to respect him and his decisions." I tell him teasingly as I sling my arm to his neck and give him a noogie before turning to gramps. "Well, I got Luffy's permission, so you better take me along, gramps." I say with a grin and Garp just laughs.

"Bwahahaha! Well, I suppose I can't deny my grandchild's request to train with me, but I will not hold back." Garp warns with that daring glint in his eyes and I roll my eyes in return.

"You never hold back every time you come to visit anyway, so why bother with that warning now?" I reply and he just has a hearty laugh in return.

"Then hurry up and get ready. We'll go tomorrow at dawn!" Garp says and Luffy seems shocked by that.

"What?! That's so soon! Eris just got here!" He says dejectedly. It's actually been a month since I returned, but oh well.

"The sooner we leave, the sooner she'll be home." Garp returns with a grin and Luffy is about to protest again, but I pat his head.

"As much as I hate agreeing with him, he's right. I'll be back in two years, and I will make sure to actually send you two letters this time, okay?" Luffy pouts at that, but eventually nods in understanding.

"And Takao stays here." I say and the said blue-feathered bird seems shocked by that. "I can't risk the Marine recognizing him, so he stays here and trains with you guys, okay? So instead, I'll take Flame this time. He seems itching to get some challenges." I point out and the said wolf just huffs, ears perking up and tail wagging.

That night, I grab my things I will need for my training and I look at my 'Garu' mask, tracing my thumb on the grooves and the brown splatters of the dried blood from many months ago. I didn't clean it up because it's my war paint against the world that 'killed' Sabo, and Ace later in the future. I will clean it up once I finish my mission.

But for now… For now, 'Garu' will be on hiatus, until the time comes for them to return.

"Are you sure you're leaving?" I turn to see Ace entering the bedroom, approaching me and placing a hand on his hip. He and Luffy are getting taller so I need to look up to look him in the eyes and I'm not happy about it.

"Yeap. Gotta get stronger so I can actually beat and protect your asses." I reply with a grin as I put my mask in my box.

"You know you don't have to, right?" He points out and I nod.

"I know, but I'm doing it for my own sake. I can't have you two die in a stupid way, considering both of you really love doing that." I tease and he just rolls his eyes before giving me a pat on the head.

"Don't die, okay?" Ace tells me and I just smile at him.

"I could say the same to you, Gold Boy." I reply and he frowns a bit before he ruffles my hair with a grin.

"I won't die, Weirdo." He teases with that rare, carefree smile of his. I smile back and give him a tight hug, something he never really accepted at first until he started to realize that both Luffy and me are super touchy-feely and he needed to get used to it real fast.

He returns the hug and we just stay there for a moment before we pull away.

"Take care of Luffy until I come home, okay?"

"I would even if you didn't tell me."

XXX

Leaving home for the second time is harder than I thought.

Luffy tried his best to not cry, because he's 'not a crybaby anymore', and Ace teased him for that. Makino and the Mayor were the ones that bid us goodbye last, and then we're off.

I watch Dawn Island slowly getting smaller and smaller as the ship sails on, letting the salty wind to brush over my bare skin and hair as the ship lazily rocking about, while Flame is joining me watching the island. We keep watching until it's gone from the horizon and I decide to take a look around now.

The ship is pretty huge, but that's to be expected when lots of marines are on it at once.

There are marines around on the deck, and they all greet me when me and Flame walk past them while I just nod at them. Considering they're all working directly under gramps, they must've been getting the same training methods as us and I kinda feel bad for these guys.

"Is this your first time on a ship?"

I turn and look up to see a man in a matching beige suit and fedora with a Marine coat approaching me, his eyes somehow shadowed by his hat and somehow has some kind of a permanent scowl. He has a katana attached to his belt with a brown strap on his left hip, but I can feel that he's not dangerous, so I'll be friendly.

"Not really, but it's my first time leaving home with gramps." I replied, "Who are you, old man?"

"Pardon me, but my name is Bogard. It is nice to be finally meeting you, little miss Eris." Bogard introduces himself and I grimace.

"Don't call me 'little miss'. Just Eris is fine. And this is Flame, my partner-in-arms in this training program." I tell him as I introduce Flame to him, who snorts at the man. Bogard is silent for a moment before nodding, either from my preference, or at Flame

A beat of silence.

"…Sooo what do you want from me?" I ask, breaking the silence.

"Garp-san told me to accompany you and show you around." Bogard answers and I raise my brow.

"And where is he now?"

"He's taking a nap." Taking a na—wait. This is a good opportunity to land a hit on him.

Grinning deviously, I throw my satchel to Bogard, who catches it easily, before I run off to find gramps. Sneaking around and finally finding him on the front deck, happily napping on a deck chair. Giggling, I jump on him and ready my fists to get him, but then he suddenly swings his arm and hits me so hard that he's literally throwing me off overboard.

And he's still sleeping!

"GRAMPS YOU BASTAR—!" and into the sea I go, with a loud splash. I quickly swim to the surface and scowl as I can hear commotions on the ship.

"Someone's overboard!"

"Hurry and rescue them!"

"It's the Vice Admiral's grandchild! Hurry up and throw the ladder down!"

I calmly swim on my back as I watch the ladder slowly descending. I quickly grab it and climb on until I'm back on the deck, absolutely drenched in sea water from head to toe and while I'm not happy, I kinda expect that to happen.

"Are you alright, Vice Admiral's grandchild?" One of the marines asks in concern as I squeeze out sea water from my hair and shirt.

"'m fine. Can I have a towel and a staff?" I ask, and two of them quickly on their feet to grab my requested items. I dry myself up using the towel as I grab a wooden staff and throw the towel away before running back to the front deck, back to where the gramps is.

Readying the staff in my hand as a javelin, I throw it at him with a grin and it turns into a frown when the said staff gets parried by him, throwing it away somewhere in the ship. I growl as I grab my slippers and throw both at him, only to get deflected away with a slap and into my face they go. That hurts.

Okay, so I need to do it, then.

"GRAMPS! BREAKFAST IS READY!"

Hearing that, Garp's eyes immediately snap open and he quickly sits up with that hungry look of his, just like how Luffy will. Truly, bloodlines cannot lie sometimes.

"YOU'RE OPEN WIDE!" I yell out as I throw my slippers again to his face, which distracted him enough for me to run up and jump at him, delivering a kick to his stomach.

That is, if I actually managed to touch him.

Because he catches the slippers and my leg with that deathly grin of his as he holds me up by my leg so I have the same eye level as him.

"Nice try, brat. But you need to try harder than that." Garp comments and I grin back.

"Oh, I fucking will, shitty gramps." I reply with a daring grin and he grins wider.

"'Shitty gramps'—I told you, that's 'grandpa' for you!" He bellows out as he throws me overboard.

And into the sea again I go.

XXX

The estimated travel time from Dawn Island to Marineford takes around 3 months, and that's why my training starts first on the ship.

And obviously, by the time we arrive there, the ship is absolutely wrecked.

And both of me and Flame too, obviously.

Garp is truly insane. It should be illegal for him to throw a literal child and a wolf into the walls and using them to make new entrances on walls and the deck, throwing those said child and wolf into a pirate ship and telling them to deal with those pirates in 10 minutes, or even forcing them to gain control of their Haki through survival means.

It's me and Flame. That child and wolf are us both.

We both almost died so many times, but through sheer willpower, we pulled through and now we finally arrive at our destination.

As soon as the ship is close enough to land, I immediately jump out of the ship with Flame following close behind. Focusing on coating my bare feet with Buso, I manage to land on the ground unscathed, except for the stony ground that got cracked a little and a little pain on my feet.

"Fuck, the coating is not hard enough. That kinda hurt." I grumble as I rub my right foot to my left calf, "But anyway! We're finally here, Flamey! Aren't you excited for the impending doom for the next less than 2 years in the future?" I ask sarcastically with a wry smile and putting my hands on my hips.

Flame just blinks in return.

"not really"

"Well, aren't you enthusiastic. Let's go explore first!" I tell him as I start to run and he follows close behind.

While training Haki has been hard, I'm always told that I'm a fast learner, so focusing on one of them first before the other makes it easier. So far, I'm learning new things about Haki, and how Kenbun can be used to hear and feel all kinds of 'voices' and 'presences', be it living or not, and even see the future.

But so far, I can only clearly hear Flame's 'voice' and the others are still too intelligible for me, but that's fine by me. As long as I can feel the presence of others, that's fine by me.

Still, the fact that I can hear voices of the surrounding area is a bit overwhelming and weird. I can't stand it when I'm in a crowd at first, but I've learned how to selectively hear the voices, just like I usually did even before I fell into this world.

Lower the volume, tune it out, and muffle them all out but never close your ears to them. Just enough so you can mostly hear that one voice you want to focus on, while the rest are just background noises.

I grin as I run through the sea of people, moving around so I don't crash into any of them before jumping on the walls and roofs to the upper level to see the whole vicinity of the area, letting the salty wind brush over my skin and hair like a whisper.

The whole place is crescent moon-shaped and composed completely of bricks and steel with cannons on the edges. There are four cardinal corners of small mountains with buildings at the top and the town that surrounds the Marine Headquarters' building is surprisingly large, very lively, and very noisy.

Covering my ears and doing steady breathing to tune out the voices for a few moments, I open my eyes and face the looming building of the Marine Headquarters. The accursed building is going to face the greatest war of the world and the changing era of said world.

I look at it silently before raising my hand and point my index finger toward the building, determination filling my very being.

"Just you wait; I will not let you see a drop of their blood land on this island. I will promise you that." I whisper in determination.

"master, promising to house?"

I turn and grin at Flame, "Yep! A resolve for myself to fulfill later in the near future." I tell him and he just cocks his head curiously, but he didn't ask further. I smile at him before looking back at the building and decide to go back to gramps.

Closing my eyes and putting my hands on my ears, I try to focus on gramps' voice back to the ship.

["Oi! Who's child is that?"]

["She'll fall!"]

["Someone! Hurry and get her down!"]

["Get the ladder!"]

Lower the volume.

["Little girl! Hurry up and get down!"]

["You'll get hurt!"]

["Please come down!"]

Tune them out.

["What is she doing up there?"]

["Who cares? It's dangerous up there!"]

Muffle them out.

["Vice Admiral Garp! Your grandchild Eris and her pet ran off to town!"]

["Bah, let them be. They'll come back when they're hungry."]

Until you can focus on that one voice.

["And if she's listening, we're going in first, so hurry and catch up before I leave you."]

Opening my eyes with a devious grin, I jump off from the building and land on another roof, Buso coating my feet as the people around are screaming out in shock and panic. Flame follows along and coats his paws as he lands next to me before we sprint off to where gramps is.

When we finally reach Garp, I can see that he's actually waiting for us to return to him and he grins at me. He didn't say anything as he started to walk inside the big building, while I looked around the place and the Marine soldiers scattered around in fascination. The place is huge! It has so many crooks and crevices I think I can squeeze into, and I'm so excited to actually do it later in the future.

As we enter the Japanese castle-like building and eventually stop at one of the sliding doors, suddenly a booming yelling can be heard from the other side when gramps slides open the door.

"Garp! Where have you been, you bastard! You better do your reports after this!"

"Bwahahaha! Well, I'm visiting my grandchildren, of course!" Garp replies joyfully, "And I even managed to bring one along with me for a special family training program!" He adds as I follow him along inside the room, with Flame trailing behind me.

Hmm, the room is very bare and actually very big. There are sofas by the wall on the side, a big office desk in the middle that's facing the door, a cute goat, and a certain Fleet Admiral with a marine hat with a seagull figure glued on top behind the said desk and he looks absolutely fuming.

"You didn't bring me, shitty gramps. I follow you here by my own accord to get stronger." I scoff, crossing my arms.

"What did you say?! It's 'grandpa' for you, you brat!"

I ignore him as I look at the Fleet Admiral, who looks a little younger and has fewer wrinkles than what I thought he would have from dealing with Garp on a daily basis. "So who are you, old man? Are you one of the big shots here? The one that gramps called 'Sengo-chan'?" I ask him, remembering back to my time back on the ship and how Garp kept on complaining that 'Sengo-chan' kept on interrupting his bonding session with his grandchildren.

I can see his eye twitch a bit before he just sighs exasperatedly and replies, "Garp, I will deal with you about that part later, but what is all these?"

"By 'these', you mean by what?" Garp asks back innocently while picking on his ear and veins are popping up on 'Sengo-chan'.

"This is not 'bring your child to work' day!"

"Obviously not, because this brat is my grandkid, not my child." Garp replies seriously, and I snort and quickly cough to disguise my amusement as I look away, but 'Sengo-chan' spots it easily.

"Don't worry 'Sengo-chan'; gramps didn't kidnap me for the second time. I came here by my own accord to learn Haki and Rokushiki in two years. Once the time is up, I'll be out of your graying hair." I assure him while looking at him while gently petting Flame, who loves the attention, "After all, I have no interest in being a guard dog for my brother's murderers." I continue sharply with glare.

The Fleet Admiral is silent when he hears that as we keep our eye contact until he breaks it by closing his eyes and letting out a sigh while I cheer out internally. I won this round!

"Garp, you should know that the HQ is not a place for children." He says to Garp, but before Garp can reply, I cut him off.

"You say that, but I know the World Government bought orphans to be their secret agents. They groomed those children to be loyal to them, and they easily got discarded once they had their usage." I say with disgust as I cross my arms while the Fleet Admiral widens his eyes, "I know I'm right. Those propagandas about Marine and World Government bullshit cannot fool me." I finish with a scowl.

The room is silent once more and I see Sengoku and Garp are sharing a silent conversation. I gently fiddled with my locket and Sengoku took a glance at it with some recognition, but he didn't comment on it.

"I take it you're not interested in being a Marine soldier?" He asks. I snort and let out a big laugh at the stupid joke for a good minute and I wipe away the tears that escaped.

"That's a pretty good joke, old man, but never joke about it again unless you want me to destroy this whole island with civilians on it." I reply with a big smile that didn't reach my eyes, "Being a guard dog is the last thing I wanna be. Catch me dead if I actually am one." I add.

The dark look Sengoku is giving me is pretty scary and almost makes me regret my wording, but I keep my ground as I stare back at him until gramps gives me a good whack on the back of my head.

"What the hell, gramps?! That hurt!" I yell at him as I hold the bump he gives me.

"Shut your trap, brat! One of these days your running mouth will kill you." He scolds me and I huff in return as I look away from him while he straightens up and looks at Sengoku. "So anyway, I'm keeping the kid around. Gotta train her up to be strong enough to rein the other brats back home." He tells him simply, and Sengoku just sighs.

"Do whatever you want. Just keep on doing your duty properly and keep an eye on your grandkid." Sengoku eventually says as he turns away and Garp just grins at him.

"With the 'dog' around? Not a chance." Who? "Well, c'mon brat! Your training starts now!" He grabs me by the back of my shirt and I just let him take me away like a kitten as Flame follows us along.

"See you around, Sengo-chan! It was nice debating with you!" I exclaim out with a wave of my hand as we walk out of the room, and I can feel him getting annoyed by that nickname.

Eventually, Garp puts me down and we walk to somewhere in silence until he breaks the ice.

"You need to be careful of whatever you say here, kid." He starts with a serious tone, "who knows who will listen in on us and weed you out before you reach 13." He adds.

I scoff in response, "Sure, but I'm not going down without a fight. And if I die, no matter how, I will come back to repay it." Clenching my fists, I look straight ahead down the hallway, ignoring the Marine soldiers around that gave Garp a salute and gave me and Flame a curious look. "After all, I've met god, and I'd say that's a pretty high point of my life compared to being dead." I add with a shrug.

"...You say that, but I'm not risking anymore of my family being taken away by the World." He replies softly.

I fall silent as I take a glance at his face. He looks forlorn and he has a faraway look in his eyes. He looks similar to Ace, when he's like that. I guess family traits, blood-related or not, will still be passed down, huh.

"Don't worry, gramps. I'm not suicidal." I assure him with a smile, "after all, I still need to watch over my brothers from the world for them to fulfill their dreams. Because it's my dream to see them fulfill their dreams."

"Even if I have to destroy the world and lose myself on the way, I will never forget my dream."

Garp, hearing that, lets out a big laugh while I just pout for being laughed at.

"Well, then I suppose I need to train you harder so you can reach your dream. After all, you can't do shit if you're dead!" He tells me with a huge grin and I smirk in return.

"Bring it on, shitty gramps."

"That's 'grandpa' for you, you ungrateful brat!"

And so, the training program from hell with gramps is officially starting.

(A/N: the end of this arc is coming close, and i'm excited to plunge into the main plot

And for you guys in FFN, this version of Eris will be completely different from the 'Eris' i wrote from almost a decade ago, especially in the main plot. She'll be one bamf because why not and we need more BAMF!OCs

Posted in June 3, 2022)