Luffy smiled with accomplishment on finally seeing the Conomi Islands, happy that countless hours spent on learning navigation gave fruits and helped her in her not-exactly legal adventure…
Mean Makino - she just wanted some tangerines, why did she have to wait for a merchant ship to swing by if it's just a week long journey there? She checked the weather forecasts three times, prepared a harness as to not drown should she fall into the water and chose the easiest current to sail on…
She'll even bring some crates for Makino and the Mayor as apologies so they shouldn't be very mad, right?
Yeah… She'll be lectured when she got back… But at least she'll have her tangerines so all will be good.
Her mind unconsciously went to the other reason for her little adventure - Garp's other 'grandchildren'… Both boys were seen around Fuusha more often than not and by Makino words 'were looking for a little girl wearing a straw hat going by the name Luffy'. At first, some of the adults around tried to tease her about being a little heart-breaker but then she started pouting and complaining how normally being stalked isn't something to be congratulated about.
After that (and a few others reminders that she didn't want to have them anywhere near her) the adults and even other children in the village (mean, little monsters calling her freakish for her Monkey strength) started to tell the boys off and insisting they leave the village right away. She had no idea what exactly did Garp do to them but after a year, she was more than a little tired of being stalked and sincerely hoped they'd just give up already.
She was happy to be alone…
Well…
Content with just her training…
She was alright.
Everything was just alright.
√ -√v-√ -√v—
Luffy docked her small boat and after making sure all the knots were tight, skipped off to the village she docked at, chanting under her breath 'tangerines' and smiling with anticipation. But the moment she arrived in the village plaza she froze for a moment sensing tension between the villagers and the pirate group that didn't exactly look human.
Could they be?
"Whoa… Are you fishmen?" She ran in the direction of the pirate group. At its front stood a blue-skinned man with a long, sharp nose, a sharp looking shark fin on his back, two red tattoos and a strange looking sword. The man was wearing only green trousers with a purple sash around them and a strange bronze hat and was smiling toothily. And yet there was wariness and resignation in his eyes. Was he treated badly by humans before?
"So what if we are?"
"Really? Like Fisher Tiger? Do you know Fisher Tiger? He saved all those slaves from Mariejois. I want to be just as determined as he is! Do you know what he's up to now? Why are you in East Blue? Were there any slavers reported here? Did you come here to protect us from them? You're sooo cool! What is that thing? Is it a sword?" Luffy rambled impossibly fast, looking at them with stars in her eyes dumbfounding not only all those scared villagers, but also the fishmen, who were ready to become violent not so long ago.
"Get away from those monsters, girl!" A short, but tough looking woman shouted. She was wearing green shirt with some kind of letters, Luffy couldn't see because of the distance and had that really strange hairstyle. For a moment she thought the woman allowed one of the girls standing behind her to style her hair but then she didn't think one of the girls would do that to her. Other than the short shaved fuchsia hair, she had her longer strands of hair only in a ponytail, which was held by a single strand of her on the middle of her head, a short fringe and a pair of long strands of hair trailing down her ears. All in all, Luffy decided that the woman looked totally ridiculous. "They'll kill you!" Luffy deflated after hearing that and bowed her head a little, causing the fishmen closest to her to tense.
(They called her that as well…
Villagers, Bandits, people that have seen her helping carrying things around…
Even Mayor had in the past called her strength freakish.
Why?)
"Why is it that every time someone's different they're called monster?" She asked just loud enough for everyone around to hear her. "Why are humans so quick to judge people they have no right to judge? Humans, Fishmen, Giants, Mermaids and Minks. We're all living together on the same planet. And yet we're trying to kill each other only because of how different we are. Next thing you'll say that all Marines are just, Pirates are evil and Nobles are all benevolent beings who act only for betterment of people on their lands." Luffy's bitter voice, full of experience, no child should have, made every single villager around look at the ground ashamed. That was until they took another look at the armed Fishmen standing in the middle of the village. Luckily Luffy continued to talk over any protest villagers could voice. "Your good Marines allow for slavery in the hands of the Tenryuubito, they even help them. Your great, just Marines go and murder civilians when ordered by their masters. Your evil Pirates… Fishmen Pirates! Released every single slave of the Tenryuubito two years ago. Your evil Pirates are sailing around and calling each other family. And it's not just anyone - the Yonko Whitebeard calls his crew 'children'. Evil aren't they? And Nobles? Your benevolent, gentle Nobles… Just two years ago they burned down entire part of the city on the island I live at. With its population still inside." Luffy raised her eyes full of determination and disappointment on villagers and put her hands on her hips. "And now you're calling them monsters just because they look different?! Did they do anything to you? Or are you just reacting to race and Jolly Roger? How dare you call yourself adults and teach all the children here the same behavior!?"
"You're really not scared of us child?" The apparent leader of the fishmen knelt down to look into her eyes.
"Should I be scared of you?" Luffy tilted her head and blinked with visible incomprehension.
"Most people are..."
"I'm not 'people'. I'm Luffy! What's your name fishman-san?"
"I'm… Arlong. My name is Arlong. And yes, I know Fisher Tiger. I sailed under him. We fell into a trap when we were returning one of the slaves to her home. Her parents contacted the marines..."
"I'm sorry…" She murmured immediately latching herself onto his neck and hugging him tightly.
"We chose East Blue randomly and no, slavers are rarely reported." He finished his answers carefully circling the small child who was not only not scared of him, but also defending his entire race and offering comfort to a complete stranger.
"Will you be staying here? Or are you going back to the Grand Line?"
"Do you want us to stay?"
"You need some peace, don't you?"
"You're a terrifying little monster, aren't you?"
"So I am," she answered to his smile with one of her own. Bright and happy and so precious. If she'd just open her eyes she would see look of awe and peace on the fishmen's faces. And almost incredibly, fond look from some of them were leveled at her. So different from the one they had when she started asking. But she didn't, so she didn't know what kind of difference those few kind, honest words did.
"As the little monster here said, we're here to offer our protection from pirates and slavers. We'd expect your village to pay five 500 000 beli monthly. And maybe show us which kind of land would be free for us to stay on." Arlong announced making a snap decision. It was nice to not be feared. He wanted more of that feeling…
√ -√v-√ -√v—
The beach was peaceful. The stars were twinkling and the bonfires were big and bright, different meats were being barbecued around and adults all had some alcoholic drinks in hands. In the middle of entire crew of fishmen sat a small girl in a blue dress with a straw hat hanging on her back thanks to the string it had.
"The Princess is really big? Soo cool~!"
"Yes, we fishmen can grow in different sizes. Our genetics are kind of screwed like that," the doctor of the Arlong Pirates explained to the starry-eyed girl who tried to soak in as much information and stories as possible.
"And she has pink hair? Seriously?"
"Yes, Lu. Princess Shirahoshi has pink hair. Prince Fukaboshi has blue hair, Queen Otohime was blonde and King Neptune is ginger. Don't ask me how that works, I don't know"
"Booo… Tell me what kind of games did you played as kids then. Better yet – teach me?" She whined making pleading eyes.
"Shahahaha! We have similar playgrounds to human ones - just no sandboxes and more swings," Arlong swung around them and plopped next to the girl who immediately snuggled up to him. Fire was nice in itself but Arlong was so warm. "Other than that, there is a kind of coral that we use to create bubbles for mermen to float on. They are popular with children of every kind and I remember even some adults that used to come and float with us to relax."
"Do you have that coral here?" Arlong looked at Luffy's big, hopeful eyes and smirked.
"Nope. You'll have to be one of those adults that float with children."
"Boo…"
"Don't worry. I'm sure you'll fit right in, chibi."
"I'm not a chibi!"
"You sure? You're pretty small. Even for a human."
"I'm only 10! Of course I'm still small. Just wait till I'll be older! I'll be big and tall and strong and free!" Luffy puffed her cheeks looking with righteous indignation at the laughing fishman.
"You can become strong and free," Arlong allowed muffling his chuckles. "But big and tall?" He laughed again, absolutely destroying any composure the other fishmen could keep and causing them to burst into loud, uncontrollable laughter and Luffy to turn away from him and trudge her lower lip out into a pout.
"Meanie!" She whined again.
She was not fighting the smile that tried to bloom on her lips.
She was not.
√ -√v-√ -√v—
She was planning to spend only a day at the archipelago and go right back but the cheerful and somewhat awed attitude of the fishmen crew and their tales of the Ryugu Kingdom and the other islands in both New World and Paradise kept her in there for a week. That and the warm welcome she got from most members, some of them were still hesitant to be near her and treated her somewhat gruffly but she understood.
They were hurt.
Badly.
She could wait for them to learn that not every human is automatically a bad person. Just as they could wait for the citizens of Conomi Islands to relax around them fully.
But they all were working on that so that was what was important.
Her new friends were so different from Shanks's crew though. Where the Red Hair Pirates were carefree and certain of their own strength and ability to protect their crew, the Arlong Pirates were simply awed at being able to freely walk around the island with a real sky, to be able to feel real sun rays on their skin, to see somewhat wary acceptance of villagers and know that they're reluctant because of jolly roger not because of the webs between their fingers.
(Apparently after being scolded by a little child they decided that they could be just as courageous as said child)
They looked so happy, she found herself smiling without a conscious thought.
See? She was smiling even now - in her little boat speeding back to Dawn Island thanks to her new fishman friend towing it, with its sails furled and tangerine crates and herself safely secured. After she warned them she can't swim they prepared sturdier rope harness to put her in. Just in case. She smiled again and let her thoughts wander to members of that, for the lack of better word, family currently protecting the islands in East Blue.
Kakuzu - a serious, little pessimistic doctor cardinal fish fishman (and getting out from him exactly what kind of fish he was based on was a pain) with an almost unhealthy fascination towards different styles of clothing and materials. He was a brilliant surgeon and it seemed that his needle skills passed on to his civilian interests. Most of the clothing the fishmen crew wore came from his hands and Luffy had to threaten him to dye all his material in neon pink if he'd make anything with Hawaii patterns for her to stop him.
Sanaria - with her calm and somehow lazy behaviour and overall friendliness didn't seem like someone that would be head scout of pirate crew. Hell she didn't seem like someone to even be part of a pirate crew. The brownish nurse shark fishwoman was excellent at not being noticed in water and similar to her fishy counterpart was a lot more active at nights than at daytime. She was moving with deceptive slowness as well, which Luffy learned the hard way after being thoroughly beaten at tag by her. Sanaria was also fascinated by land plants and immediately after setting camp caught Luffy and demanded to be taught how to recognize and take care of plants for which Luffy laughed and invited her to Fuusha village to talk to Makino (after warning the entire crew about Garp and his visits of course) about them.
Then there was Chew, the blue-skinned sniper of the crew, she heard someone say that he was a smelt-whiting based fishman. Calm, a little arrogant, but try to even touch his necklace and you'll see that temper of his. Chew was also another victim of an awful disease that plagued almost the entire Arlong crew - liking-wearing-flip-flops-itis. The crew also quickly warned Luffy to not comment on his lips unless she'd like to take a swim in the ocean, since he was a 'little' sensitive on that point.
Hatchi - an octopus based fishman with a soft heart and a penchant for getting into trouble. He was also a little hard on thinking, but nothing that couldn't be found endearing in small doses. He was the first one to fully warm up to her and believe that she just wanted to spend time with them. He was the official caretaker of the sea kings that Arlong's crew brought with them from Grand Line. Moomoo was his favorite, the sea cow's appetite and cowardice meant that the rest of the crew didn't really care for him.
Other than Moomoo, they had with them were Terokk - a sea parrot covered in orange and pink feathers with two small fins imitating wings and a wicked looking beak that, should she believe the crew's boasts, was strong enough to destroy a marine's ship hull with just one strike. Terokk was also the cheerful and energetic of the trio. And of course her personal favourite - Jormy, an enormous sea snake, black as night with velvety green scales here and there giving him an otherworldly look and a big flange he would flare now and then. He was the laziest and yet the deadliest of them all. Hatchi and Kuroobi both warned her numerous times to be careful and not get close to his fangs, since other than his size he had also deadly venom going for him.
Speaking about Kuroobi – the gentle and strict Kuroobi, whose first concern was for Luffy to answer questions about her safety in her village and quiz her on sailing knowledge. After both 'tests', the green-skinned ray fishman straight out demanded for her to train more and maybe pick up some additional styles and explained the horrors of slavery to her and more importantly how to spot and escape from slavers. At the end of her stay he even offered to supervise her training from then on. Under all those scowls he was just a big softie.
And finally the captain himself - Arlong was… Lonely, funny, sarcastic, caring. He quickly become the big brother she was yearning for. Distrustful to most of the humans and yet soft and careful around children, playful and protective when around his family but arrogant and cruel when facing those he considers a danger. Selfish. Exactly how she imagined pirates to be. She didn't want to lose him after setting sail… Suddenly she smiled toothily, an idea popping into her head.
What if…?
√ -√v-√ -√v—
Luffy smiled at her memories, going back to the Party Bar for lunch. Both lectures she got from both Makino and the Mayor and getting grounded in the village was well worth the friends she made in Arlong's crew that time. Now, after almost a year of long talks with the Mayor, she finally understood what kind of state the entire crew was in and was appropriately awed that just simple kindness from a child could break them out of that dark, dark place. The Mayor helped her understand exactly what kind of welcome most fishmen came to expect from humans. Even on the Grand Line where strange should be considered normal and exactly how precious to them the unabashed kindness and faith from little child in the Blues was, where they're considered straight up monsters.
In fact she proudly considered it her first successful 'political' move, it didn't matter that it was not on purpose. They were Pirates and as a future King she felt it to be her responsibility to give them peace when they were seeking it. She was also incredibly happy that Sanaria did come to Fuusha and was warmly welcomed by villagers. She even struck a fast friendship with Makino thanks to their shared interest in gardening. Lately whenever she came, Arlong or Kuroobi tagged along and took her aside to talk and play cards with her, sometimes to help her train.
So lost in her thoughts she was, she didn't even realize she entered the Party Bar and mechanically sat on her favorite chair until the smell of food put before her became too strong to ignore and so she jerked her head and started eating Makino's special curry.
"So you're the girl Redhair likes so much," the sudden noise startled her, causing her to jump and just barely stay sitting upright. She turned around to take in the form of the imposing man she sat next to and didn't even notice.
"Mother-" She blurted seeing the face that Benn had showed her on a poster when explaining how Shichibukai worked. The only Shichibukai known to work somehow closely with the Redhair Pirates. Dracule Mihawk was sitting right next to her in all his glory. With a wide brimmed hat with a feather, long coat, no shirt and a long sheathless katana on his back - Yoru.
"Language Luffy!" Makino immediately scolded her charge.
"Sorry Makino," Luffy smiled sheepishly and turned her full attention to the extremely dangerous swordsman sitting next to her. "How did Shanks manage to convince you to come here?" She asked incredulously, remembering that Shanks promised her someone to teach her 'how to swing a sword' and connected the dots.
"By promising me a diligent student and a crate of my favourite wine for every month 'till you set sail. Or resign." Mihawk smiled chillingly, obviously hoping for the second option. But that was an occasion Luffy couldn't let go by… Lessons from Dracule Mihawk! "When will that be exactly?"
"6 years and 8 months from now on!" She answered promptly…
"'6 years and 8 months from now on, Shishou'," and got immediately corrected.
"'6 years and 8 months from now on, Shishou'!" Luffy obediently repeated, she was ready to smack herself. Of course someone of this caliber wouldn't put up with her audacity. She really needed to curb it down. She's not The King. Not yet.
"Good, you're not as dense as I was expecting from Redhair's protégé. Name?"
"...Luffy, Shishou," Luffy bit her tongue, when it immediately tried to form 'Monkey D. Luffy'. That's another thing she needed to curb down. Both Garp and Dragon were known by that surname. Even if most people knew them by 'Garp the Hero'/'Garp the Fist' and 'Revolutionary Dragon'... Those that would kill her just for existing (on both sides of the conflict) would know the surname. It was too dangerous to use it.
"Hiding your surname from Pirates is a good idea, but I'm a Shichibukai. I know it already," Mihawk reprimanded gently, visibly approving of her tries to hide her heritage.
"Be that as it may, Shishou. I need to make it into a habit."
"That's true," He conceded the point and raised tankard of wine to his lips. "What is it that you're already trained in?" His off handed question caught her unprepared but even so she quickly answered.
"Defensive hand to hand; daggers with my grandfather's help; bo staff thought that's mostly self-taught, with the basics beaten into me by Benn Beckman; and according to Yasopp I'm not a terrible shot. No practice since they left though, little girls in the Blues can't buy gunpowder..." She rattled on what she already practiced.
"I see. So at least you should have proper working discipline. Well here's how we'll do it, girl. For obvious reasons I cannot spend much time in East Blue, so I'll be coming once a year for a month. Then I will be giving you some new katas and exercises. It's your responsibility to learn how to use them correctly and how to adjust them to different types of blades. If I ever find your progress non-satisfactory, our lessons are terminated. Permanently."
"Understood, Shishou!" She swallowed with both excitement and a little of dread.
"Good. Then get up girl and take the bokken by the door. We're starting immediately," after grabbing said bokken she led him to the clearing just at the start of the mountain she claimed as her own training space. There were few shooting targets from before Red Hairs left the island, some straw dummies for her to practice her dagger and staff work. They also worked when she decided to learn throwing her knives. Mostly because it looked cool.
"I don't expect you to actually understand the beauty of the art. Not right now. But by the time I'll be finished with you, you will. Your sword will be your best friend, an extension of your will, a part of your body. Your partner and defender. Your first instinct in the face of danger will be to go for your sword. But in the end of a day sword is only a tool. It parries, it blocks, it protects. At the same time it cuts, it slices and it stabs. It kills and cripples. It is you that decides what will be protected and what will destroyed. It's your heart that chooses the target and your hand that directs the blade against your enemies. Understood?" Mihawk's lecture was delivered with the haughty tone of a master in the art.
"I think so, Shishou," Luffy nodded after mulling over his words for a minute or so.
"Good. Now we'll go over different Blade types and standard sword types. For the Blade Types: We have 12 Supreme Grade Swords, one of the examples will be my Yoru or Shanks' own Gryphon; 21 Great Grade Swords, here as an example we can get Shisui wielded once by Ryuma the King of Wano Country; 50 Skillful Grade Swords, Yamaoroshi is one of the swords of that grade; And then there are all those Grade Swords. I expect you to find out about the swords' history and differences from the books I left at that barmaid's place. There you can also find out about the differences in weapon types and in fighting with and against them. For now you should know that since Wano is considered the home of the best swordsmen in the world, so katana style swords are the most popular. Yoru herself is a katana, another similarly popular choice would be the saber, like Gryphon, so those are two kinds of swords I'll teach you how to defend yourself from. Other than that, you'll need to learn the differences in attack or defense by yourself. If you can, feel free to ask for help from other swordsmen but I will expect you to keep to the style taught by me every time I come visit you here. On the seas you'll be able to use whatever style you want. Questions?
"No, Shishou."
"Let's get to it then. Copy my grip…"
√ -√v-√ -√v—
The following year was spent with new training routine, whenever she wasn't visiting Conomi Islands and her friends - before eating breakfast she went running for a bit and did her staff katas. Then she ate with Makino-nee, helped her fix clothes if there were any holes and run to the forest. She practiced with daggers and her bokken then. When Kuroobi came with Sanaria, she got lessons in basics of fishman karate. Just enough for her to keep her distance but whenever it was Arlong that came with her, she had him help her with doing her katas and sparring with her. And in the evenings, she was meditating and either doing her exercises or working on her devil fruit ability.
Her awareness of her whereabouts was getting better and better. She didn't even need to focus to sense her grandfather or Shishou anymore. And she learned how to transform only parts of her body, so taking form with just ears and one tail was something she did instinctively when she needed to access additional strength. She also was pretty good in transforming just her claws, after deciding to keep it as her backup hand-to-hand option.
She was pretty happy with her progress. Especially since, thanks to constant movement and training, her stamina, speed and even strength were getting better and better. And that meant she was able to complete Garp's training faster and faster, often finding shortcuts and other cheats as to not use her devil fruit abilities at the sessions. For all the insults she still was getting from freckled boy, Garp insistently called her 'brother', she loved the face he was making every single time he came to join Garp by the bonfire, dirty, often times bloody but so proud of himself, just to see her already changed and again training.
Yes, that was mean. She knew it.
Did she care though? Not really. While over the years she struck somewhat shaky acquaintance with Sabo, she really couldn't stand Ace. With Sabo it was easy. They were polite to each other, they discussed books from library in Edge Town any of them managed to get their hands on and then they left each other's company. With Ace…He insulted her, she ignored him, he tried to grab her, she evaded his hands, he made her patience snap, she snarled…
Luffy took deep breath and focused on her opponent, a big ass tiger Garp caught somewhere in the mountain, and cursed. Both boys took to carrying pipes everywhere with them, but she only had her daggers. And the tiger was big… It growled and lunged. She rolled out of the way. It growled again and she took on her stance. Low in the knees, with daggers ready.
She locked her eyes with the tiger's and took another deep breath. The tiger screeched and somehow she, for the lack of better word, sensed its movement before it lunged. She evaded again, fully on instinct driven by her Devil Fruit. Both Kitsunes and normal foxes were predators that specialized in ambushes. Laying a trap and pouncing while the enemy was distracted…
So she slowed her movements, getting a little sluggish, few more swipes from the tiger, each evaded just by a hair length.
And it lunged again.
Just for Luffy to pump in additional speed into her legs and lunge herself at the tiger.
She tried to bury one of her daggers into animal's neck but missed thanks to the surprising amount of energy she used and managed to just bury the other one - straight into the animal's chest and, thanks to her momentum, gut the cat.
She stumbled out from under it before all its live left it and put her hand on one of the trees to steady herself. She was suspiciously tired for just escaping the ravine and later fighting the tiger. Then she heard gasp.
"Lu… Luffy what is that?" Sabo's question and finger pointed at her head brought everyone's attention to her head. She carefully raised her hand up and patted her hair, and then she understood why both boys were gaping while Garp was fuming. On top of her head, were nestled fox ears. She had somehow transformed mid fight. She sighed in relief upon noticing she at least didn't have any tails out.
"My ears?" Luffy immediately decided to go for the 'I'm clueless' defense. After all, Garp did look quite angry right now. No need to tell him that she ate the fruit on purpose.
"They are animal ears!" Sabo's screech reminded her, rather painfully, about her heightened senses in that form, making her wince.
"They're pretty cute, aren't they? I was training in forest one day and they just appeared. Grandpa, do you know what are they?" She cocked her head and put her best 'totally innocent and clueless' face. It was working pretty well whenever she was begging off something out of people in Cocoyashi or Gosa, unfortunately the villagers from Fuusha became immune to it long ago.
"Lu-chan… Did you eat a strange looking and awful tasting fruit?" Garp asked coming closer to his only blood grandchild with a slightly raised fist. Luffy winced, knowing what's about to come but soldiered on and answered anyway.
"I bit a strange fruit - it looked just like normal strawberry. But it tasted rancid"
"FIST OF LOVE!" Blackened fist came crashing down on Luffy, who tried to jump away only to have it hit its target anyway.
"What was that for?!" She whimpered on the floor sitting, touching her hurting head and looking up with tears in her eyes. Not that it really hurt… Why was she even trying to kid herself? It hurt like hell. She could tell Garp pulled his punch but still, it was just enough to give her justification to tear up.
"You ate a Devil Fruit Luffy!" Garp wailed, knelt down and embraced her. "My little princess will never be able to swim again and what for? Just a zoan?!" He whimpered pitifully, almost squashing her to his chest.
"Grandpa~!" She started to push to get some much needed air. "What is a zoan?"
"Not going to comment on not being able to swim, huh?" He grouched raising his fist again, making Luffy duck down, Sabo wince and Ace laugh tauntingly, visibly pleased with the fact that for once she was on the receiving end of the fist and not him.
"We have a tub, Grandpa. I learned that the hard way already," she murmured circling his neck with her arms and looking up at him absolutely fake tears. Luckily they were enough this time.
"Ugh… My poor, poor Lu-chan… There are 3 types of devil fruits Lu-chan. Logia – which allows you to become one of the elements, widely considered the most powerful, and specialized in wide area attacks; Zoan - the ones that allow you to become an animal. If you'll show me your tail later, I'll tell you what you are. Zoans are the most straightforward fruit type. You can just transform into your fully animal form or any of your half-forms. The last one is Paramecia which includes everything that is neither Logia nor Zoan," Garp explained, taking on a tone of an experienced teacher. In the safety of her mind, Luffy scoffed, thinking that it was probably a speech he had to give quite a few times for him to remember it so perfectly. She suppressed a snort and went over his explanation again… It was almost identical to the one Roger wrote in her journal. Almost.
"'Any of my half-forms' Grandpa?"
"Accomplished Zoans can achieve up to seven different forms," he explained with the example of few of his colleagues.
"I see…" She answered and went deep in thought.
"So what? Is Princess even more freakish now?" Ace's insult and Sabo's resulting yell barely registered in her mind. She remembered from the journal that Seastone will weaken her immediately on contact. But Garp didn't tell her about it. Why? Did he forgot? Or was it on purpose? Did he… Did he plan to keep it in secret so that marines to capture her easier in the future?
"Ace!"
"Grandpa, is it just water I have to be careful around now?" She asked hoping that maybe he just forgot after all...
"There is also Seastone. It weakens every fruit user, but with enough training it can be somehow bypassed." He explained readily. "That blonde brat on Whitebeard's ship… Mango I think, is being known as being able to fight with Seastone on. But I guess being mythical zoan he had to learn and to do it quickly. Bwahahaha!" Garp's laughter caused her to blanch. Mythical zoan. Like her… In danger of being fucking enslaved and her grandfather is laughing...
"What is mythical zoan?"
"Zoan fruits have two underclasses: ancient zoans - which changes its users into long extinct animals; and mythical zoans – which allows its users to transform into creatures from myths. There is only one known ancient zoan - that'd be Lieutenant Diez Drake from North Blue and also the only known mythical zoan - that'd be Mango, who is Whitebeard's first mate."
"What are they transforming into, Grandpa?"
"Lieutenant Diez transforms into a dinosaur. A T-Rex I think. And Mango? Some kind of flaming bird. Turkey maybe?" Garp explained in his 'sneaky' voice.
"Turkey?" Sabo asked incredulously
"Yup! You see now? Marines are cooler, you should try…" He tried to coax them just to get the same answers he always got.
"No way kuso-jiji!"
"No, thank you."
"Grandpa~!"
"But you'd look so cute in the uniform Lu-chan~!"
"Grandpa!"
"Fine, fine…Now show me the tail. Or even better, fully transform for me."
"Ugh…Here you go," she conceded and transformed in her fully furry form, taking care to just produce one tail. She really, really didn't want Garp to learn about her status as mythical zoan. Not after his laughter at poor Mango's situation.
"Fox, huh? Could be worse," Garp smiled plucking Luffy from the grass, laying her on his knee and starting to pet her fur.
"You're so fluffy Luffy~!" Sabo coed with pure mischief in his eyes.
"Khhhh…" Luffy's only reaction was pause in her purring to snarl at him.
"That's a big form. Bigger than I'd thought you'd have," the only adult in company admitted, starting to scratch behind her ears.
"Well at least it'll be useful for something."
"Well zoans are excellent offensive devil fruits, though I guess you could use it as part of your defense. You just need to train hard."
"Of course I will train hard. I'm a Monkey after all."
"Bwahahaha! That's my granddaughter! If you're able to transform just your claws, you won't need to be worried about forgetting your daggers anymore!" He smiled at her, while Luffy tried hard… Really hard not to roll her eyes.
She did thought about that already.
Thank you very much.
√ -√v-√ -√v—
Since eating her Devil Fruit, her favorite reading spot was on a gentle riverbank, where she could still be near water without being in danger of falling in. She learned the hard way that while running water wasn't so bad, getting into the river was still a really Bad Idea. Luckily, Chew was with her that day and had fished her out of there. And later babbled inside their settlement and so every single fishman in East Blue lectured her on water safety.
Yay… Well at least she had her excuse to ask Arlong to go with her to the Grand Line when she's old enough to set sail.
After all they clearly didn't trust her to not fall into the water…
She was just reading a book with a title that should really be shortened to 'Politics 101', when something rudely interrupted her lecture.
"What the fuck are you doing here princess?" She sighed recognizing Portgas's voice. Of course the day was too beautiful for anything to not destroy it, wasn't it?
"I certainly didn't come here to try and start a conversation with you," She answered with just enough disdain to signal to any intelligent being that she didn't wish to be interrupted. Even that blue haired girl from Cocoyashi was giving up on making any conversation after hearing that tone.
"Oh? Think you're better than me, aren't you?" It seemed he wasn't an intelligent being, rather than leave her the hell alone as she had indicated already, he bristled and took a few steps forward.
"Are those my thoughts? Or yours?" She countered, finally raising her head to look at him and smiled seeing his companion "Sabo, hello!"
"Didn't see you there Luffy. How's the book?" He immediately pounced on his chance of changing direction of that 'conversation' and indicating the book laid out before her with the pipe-free hand of his.
"Somewhat enjoyable. I really hate the topic, though knowing at least the basics would make my live easier later on," she answered with a grimace, raising the book and showing him its title.
"Oh? Gonna become a noble?" Sabo smiled bitterly recognizing it as one of the books he had to memorize in his noble childhood.
"Well… I guess from one perspective that'd be true…" Technically...
"Oh? Do tell."
"Nah, I think I'll keep it a secret. I hope you won't be anywhere near Grandpa the moment he learns about my life choices!" She smiled cheerfully with a mischievous light. She could just imagine the excellent chaos that could happen...
"Do one of those life choices have anything to do with the man I've seen you with?" He asked delicately.
"Finally admitting to stalking me?" Luffy raised an eyebrow at the blushing Sabo
"While I wouldn't peg him for nobility I guess he looked classy enough…" The blond boy ignored her comment and fought down his blush to try and lead her to spill a secret.
"Shishishishi! Never thought I'd hear anyone call my Shishou 'classy'!" Luffy immediately burst into giggles, just imagining Mihawk's face at being called classy had her clutching her stomach.
"Shishou?"
"Mhmm…"
"Something more?"
"Nah, where's the fun in telling you whatever you want to know?"
"Oh? Not gonna admit you needed someone more just to teach you sewing?" Ace cut in, visibly annoyed at easy camaraderie between the two. Which just cracked her again.
"Shishishishi… Shishou… Needle… shishishishi!"
"Ace…That man had big ass sword on his back," Sabo quietly explained to his brother.
"Don't worry Acey, I'm sure Shishou would kick your ass even with just a needle," Luffy taunted with an evil smile, after she finally calmed down.
"Fancy moves are nothing without strength to back them up!" He snarled back and straightened his back to make himself bigger.
"Then it's sad you don't have either, isn't it?" She snarled right back, once again feeling her patience snapping.
"You little…!" With something akin to a war cry, the brunet lunged at her. Luffy immediately jumped to her feet and out of his way. He did it again and again and again. She had to give him points for persistence she decided evading one more swipe of his pipe and jumped back.
What she didn't notice though was that he had herded her into the direction of the river. Then she heard warning shout of "Ace!" from Sabo and… Something hit her back, causing her strength to leave her body. She quickly realized she was under water and started trying to flail around just to learn that just as in the tub, she couldn't move… She couldn't float… She couldn't even use her powers… She closed her eyes in powerlessness. She felt just like at that day so many years ago, when she learned whose daughter she was, what was waiting for her the moment someone would learn about her heritage.
She swore to become strong and here she was. At barely twelve, feeling the air escaping her lungs, being utterly helpless in the face of her natural enemy. Darkness started encasing her when she felt something hit her hard.
After a while she noticed there was no more water around her… Just that in her lungs that she was hacking out, while being held cradled safely against a familiar, scaly chest. One webbed hand was making circles on her back while the other was keeping her above grass, from around her waist.
"Shhh… Shhh… It's okay little one, it's okay," the throaty voice of her favorite fishman sounded like an angel's bells in the moment.
"A… Arlong?" She choked out between coughing attacks...
"I'm here, I'm here… It's okay."
"I thought…"
"I know."
"I hoped…"
"That's why you need to have good swimmers on the crew, Captain!" He announced firmly, immediately dispersing the fog from her mind. Peripherally she was aware of the matching gasps from both boys standing on the shore.
"C-Captain?" Luffy asked hopefully. Did that mean?
"I can't really leave you without one of the best swimmers out there, can I? Only mermaids are better than us." She launched herself to circle her arms around his neck and squeezed.
"Thank you… Thank you," She murmured, feeling his arms encircle her form again and basked in the feeling of being absolutely safe in the arms of her crewmember. Her nakama. She wanted more of that feeling.
"Anytime Captain," Arlong murmured, leaning down and kissing top of her head. Then he leveled the glare on both Sabo and Ace…
√ -√v-√ -√v—
She was again reading, this time though in the Party Bar. After her near drowning she made sure to not be anywhere near water without someone ready to jump in, should she need rescuing. Meaning that she was anywhere close to a river or the ocean only when any of her fishmen friends came to visit. Every time they came, she apologized for not simply going to Conomi Island and meet them all, but everyone was understanding. Though they did try to ease her into being close to the sea again by towing her around in the boats.
She also almost religiously avoided both Portgas and Sabo by transforming and running to the forest or hiding herself under different illusions. Her normal annoyance at them became cold anger and later indifference. Of course part of the blame at falling into water was on her, she wasn't careful enough that day but she knew that freckled idiot heard that she can't get anywhere near water and yet he still pushed her into it. And then swam away leaving her there.
"Luffy… can we talk?" Speak of the devil...
"What do you want, Portgas?" She raised her head and looked at freckled boy. He didn't look too good. Good. She hoped his conscience was eating him alive.
"Me an' Sabo are going fishing, wanna come?" That gremlin had even the gall to smile at her… She ground her teeth and glared at him.
"For obvious reasons I will not be going anywhere near water with you, Portgas. Not without at least two swimmers ready to jump to help me. And Grandpa doesn't count."
"C'mon… I just said I'm sorry!" He whined, trying to grab her hand, only for her to evade his move and glare at him again.
"You did not. You, Portgas, invited me to go fishing with a guy who threw me into the river, knowing I'm a devil fruit user and that it's a death sentence to me. Nothing about your behavior is at least slightly apologetic and as such I will not spend any of my precious time with you. Especially not alone."
"Listen here, Princess!" His temper flared again. "I don't like you. You're a spoiled little girl who thinks everyone should cater to her. That idiotic geezer talks about you nonstop! He's not hounding you into becoming a marine! And he even taught you how to use blades. You have a Devil Fruit. You are cared for!" He screamed that into her face making her look at him incredulously.
"You almost killed me because you're jealous? Really?" She laughed brokenly… Of all the reasons to get so close to death, jealousy didn't even cross her thoughts.
"I didn't think you'd drown…" Ace murmured, looking at his feet and causing Luffy to straight up facepalm. And he was meant to be older than her? Seriously?!
"Then what on Earth were you thinking? I know you were listening when Grandpa was telling me about the devil fruits. You knew I couldn't swim for the life of me!" She yelled at him, pouring all of her frustration, fear and anger into her voice.
"I didn't think…"
"Then start thinking!"
"Ummm…" On his stuttering Luffy's senses came back and she closed off again. After all there was no use in actually showing any kind of weakness to him, was there?
"Tell me, Portgas, why the hell should I go anywhere with someone who almost killed me because of their thoughtlessness? It was a miracle Arlong decided to come for a visit and fished me out of the water."
"That was an accident!" Ace protested hotly, which caused Luffy to laugh again.
"You left me there! You've seen how fast I started to sink when I was in the water and you left me in there!" She accused, glaring at him with full force.
"It'd be probably for the best to leave now Portgas-kun," Makino intervened before any of the other patrons inside could decide to 'have some words' with him.
"Tch… Fine. It's not like I really wanted to spend time with the little crybaby," the freckled teenager spat out leaving the bar and slamming the door behind him.
"Don't look at me like that, I was perfectly polite Makino!" Luffy defended herself, seeing Makino sending her a disappointed look.
"Who was he?" She asked softly.
"Remember when right after Shanks left Grandpa took me into the mountain?"
"The same mountain you spend most of your time now?"
"Yup. Just the one."
"I do remember."
"So there he tried to leave me with mountain bandits that survived the Red Hair Pirates' little purge – the Dadan Family. They are the ones that tried to protect a little boy. He is that boy. That… boy spat on me on our first meeting and from that time whenever I was going to the mountain to survive Grandpa's 'training' they were there with me," She explained quietly.
"Oh, he was also one of the boys that were… how you called it 'stalking' you" Makino finally recognized him as one of the boys that tried to catch Luffy's attention few years back.
"Yeah, after he told me to finally jump of the cliff and die. Nice boy, isn't he?" The brunette asked bitterly. And Garp still tried to call them siblings… Maybe he hoped the idiotic boy would actually kill her before any of the marines could get their hands on her?
"I'd say he's a little shaken from it though."
"It's easy to wish and even tell someone to die, but to cause the deed?"
"You're right. Sometimes I forget exactly how wise you are Luffy"
"I'm not wise Makino-nee. I'm just well-read and somewhat intelligent."
"Of course Lu-chan. Of course"
"Meanie!" She pouted seeing amused expression on her caretaker face.
√ -√v-√ -√v—
After his 'apology', Portgas became suspiciously overprotective over her. Any time she actually had to spent time near him (whenever Garp came to train them) he was almost hovering over her. Offering to carry her above the mud so she wouldn't dirty her shoes, asking to help her with completing training sessions, trying to share his portion of food with her. He also tried to find her whenever she escaped to the Forest to train.
Well it had its benefits - for example, she became pretty good at doing her katas or sparring with Arlong while keeping them invisible under one of her illusions. It didn't matter how much she trained though, Garp's maniacal grin that day was almost bad enough to send her into a blind panic.
"I know that you're happy to see me… us again Grandpa, but you're somehow… too happy. What are you planning?" While asking it Luffy started taking hesitant steps backwards.
"Planning? Who? Me? I'm not planning anything at all!" Garp turned around and started whistling, making all three of them deadpan at him.
"Grandpa…"
"Just special training for my favorite granddaughter!"
"Your only granddaughter unless there's something you're not telling me Grandpa."
"What's your weakness as a devil fruit user Lu-chan?" He asked changing subject to the primary one.
"Portgas already managed to almost drown me. I'm not going swimming with you…" She deadpanned.
"Ace! You did what?"
"That was an accident!" The freckled teenager defended himself.
"You are an accident…" Luffy murmured just loud enough to be picked by everyone interested.
"You little…!" He took a threatening step towards her.
"Ace!" Sabo's voice cracked air like a whip, reminding him what happened last time he lost temper in both her and his company.
"Yes, Portgas?" Luffy asked, raising eyebrow and looking with clear disdain at him.
"'It's nothing…" Ace murmured, looking ashamed of his loss of control.
"Hmm..."
"Anyway! Luffy I meant Seastone. Maybe not often seen in East Blue but Seastone is still a popular weapon and should someone try to harm you, you can bet they'll have Seastone with them," Garp warned seriously, intervening before teenagers could start their brawl.
"'Can bet'? Why? Did you tell someone about me having a Devil Fruit ability?" Luffy immediately latched at his wording with suspicion.
"M-me? I have no idea what you're talking about!" And again, Garp turned around and whistled, trying and miserably failing to look innocent.
"You're an awful liar Grandpa," she sighed, trying to come to terms that the marines now know not only about her existence but also about her Devil Fruit. And surely about her self-defense lessons with Garp. That was also the moment she congratulated herself for hiding that much of her skill from him.
"You will be safe Lu-chan. You will all be safe," Garp promised with a determined glint in his eyes.
"Safe?" She snorts brokenly, closed her eyes for a while and looked up with a look of determination of her own. "Okay Grandpa, give me that Seastone stuff!"
"Are you crazy?! You'd be weak as a kitten!" Ace immediately protested.
"One can eventually train themselves to be able to still fight. Even with Seastone on them. That way you'd be able to escape, maybe use one of the knives and run. You hear me Luffy? If anyone comes after you with Seastone, you run Princess."
"Gotcha, Grandpa. Not fighting your coworkers," Ace and Sabo both gave a jolt on those bitter words and what she just implied, while it seemed to fly completely above Garp's head.
"Bwahahaha! That's my girl!" He laughed, putting a Seastone cuff on her left hand and immediately moved to catch Luffy. The moment the cuff touched her skin she felt so… so weak. Her knees buckled and the only reason she stayed upright was her grandfather's hand on her waist. "How are you feeling, Princess?"
"You sure, some of the users can actually move with this?" She asked dryly, trying to muster enough energy to actually stand without being kept upright.
"Yep. Admirals and Vice-Admirals are good enough to still kick pirates' asses!"
"And so are Yonko's and their officers, huh?"
"Unfortunately."
"And Shichibukai? How are they doing against Seastone?" She asked curiously, remembering those rare occasions Arlong or Mihawk were actually talking about Three Powers.
"Do I want to know exactly how do you even know what Shichibukai is, Princess?"
"Nope!" She cheerfully replied
"Do you know who the current squad is?"
"Not really?"
"Okay, so there is Dracule Mihawk, the Greatest Swordsman in the World, no fruit, no crew. Just his skill. If you ever meet the man - be polite, unless you're the target, then run. Then we have that upstart Donquixote Doflamingo, the Heavenly Yaksha, uses the Ito Ito no Mi and kinda has a strong crew. He became a Shichibukai two years ago and took his residence in Dressrosa. From what I've heard, he's good enough to fully fight under Seastone. Next would be that brat Boa Hancock, the Pirate Empress, called The most Beautiful Woman in the World, she ate the Mero Mero no Mi, has exceptionally strong Haki, and took the title shortly after Fisher's stunt. Some say it's to protect those of the Kuja tribe - her people - that were caught as slaves. Bypassing her truly awful attitude that just calls for a Fist of Love, or three, she's strong enough to protect her territory in the Calm Belt. No idea how she'd do with Seastone though. Bartholomew Kuma, the Tyrant took the title few years back, he ate the Nikyu Nikyu no Mi, no crew currently. There were reports of him fighting even when caught in Seastone, even before taking the title. There is Jinbe, a fishman. So called the 'Sea Knight', no devil fruit, no Seastone. He became one of the Shichibukai, almost immediately after Fisher's death. Then there are the weak ones - Gekko Moriah, who took the title a year ago, went to the New World and lost his entire crew. He ate the Kage Kage no Mi and I believe he lives in the Florian Triangle now. If you'd ever meet him - Seastone is your friend. And Crocodile, the only Logia Shichibukai, with the Suna Suna no Mi, also weak against Seastone. He's also the only Shichibukai without a claimed territory. Last I heard, he declared he'd kill Whitebeard. Again."
"If Gekko and Crocodile are so weak then why keep them?" Sabo asked curiously.
"There has to be 7 of them. And not a lot of pirates would work with us. At least not strong and somehow pleasant enough for us to want them," Garp explained, thrilled that his grandchildren actually asked questions about how the Marines worked.
"I see..."
"Well, ready for training?" He asked cheerfully, ignoring the somewhat somber expressions on all three of them.
"How am I going to train my resistance?"
"By running of course!"
"And why would she even need to run?" Ace snarled, flipping a switch and getting into his protective vibe again.
"Well… That bear doesn't seem ready to let me go just because of a fancy bracelet…" Luffy pointed casually behind all of them, turned tail and started running away.
√ -√v-√ -√v—
After that day, most of her 'training' with Garp was done with the Seastone cuff on her to 'help her build proper resistance'. What was worse it seemed that Shishou thought it was a great idea and so she was wearing the cuff for his entire stay. Well, as annoying as it was, it kind of helped her already. After a year and few months of that torture she was able to run away safely from most of animals on the Mountain. She was also able to kill most of them without that stupid thing. Even without using her fruit ability to its fullest.
Seeing what kind of idiot her dear grandfather was she wasn't really surprised that after one of their 'training sessions', the old fool forgot to take off the cuff. So softly cursing him under her breath because of course Garp had to insist on only him having the key for the cuff. Something about it being a Marine secret or the other.
Luffy was trying to move her pin enough to push all the ratchets in the cuff's mechanism so that it'd come undone, when she heard a soft chiming of the bell announcing that the Party Bar had new customers, she raised her head a little, just now sensing how incredibly strong both men were and cursing herself for not paying attention to her whereabouts. One look at them… well at the tattoo proudly displayed by both of them had her cursing again. This time because she had The Hat with her and not the one she was still showing to Garp. Shoulders dropping in defeat she turned around and focused at opening the cuff. Not like her Devil Fruit would help her if they'd really decide to hurt her. After all even a really good thirteen years old is just not good enough to take on two of a Yonko's officers and survive.
She needed to make them not want to kill her then.
She took a deep, calming breath sensing them coming up to her table.
"Look Marco, they start so young these days!" Luffy raised her eyebrow as she stared at the big pompadour on the slightly taller man head. Other than the brown pompadour, the speaker had a black beard and was wearing white clothes with a yellow scarf. All in all if not for a very long and very sharp looking saber at his side, she'd take him for a cook and not a pirate.
"So they do, yoi. Why the cuff?" The other one, Marco asked. He was almost as tall as the first one, though he gave out a somewhat rugged feeling. Her eyes were drawn to the opened jacket, or rather the muscles said opened jacket showcased. After a valiant fight with her rising blush (luckily, she won), she managed to raise her eyes to finally take in his long face, slight stumble, thin lips, sharpish nose and heavy lidded eyes, which shone with knowing amusement. Luffy immediately fought off another rising blush and studiously ignored both said amusement and possible reason for her blush, taking in the blond tuft of hair and feigning calm she certainly didn't feel.
Stupid puberty.
"The old fool forgot to take it off of course," She answered calmly his not asked question. She proudly noted her voice didn't waver and sounded almost as bored as blond's.
"Lu-chan, language!" Makino immediately scolded putting pancakes with cream for her to eat.
"Makino-nee, I'm fairly sure whoever Whitebeard sent to the island heard worse and from even younger girls by now," Luffy's answer made Makino blanch and look at them warily and both pirates look at her surprised. She could bet they didn't expect to be recognized from the symbol. At least not in East Blue and certainly not by a teenage girl.
"Whitebeard?" Makino repeated faintly, realizing as soon as she said it that Garp just left and won't be back for at least three months from now.
"Yup. It seems Dawn Island became a popular relaxing spot for pirates, didn't it?" Luffy asked trying to both soothe Makino and warn the pirates into behaving "First the Red Hairs, now the Whitebeards… And here one would think pirates would think twice before docking in Garp the Hero's hometown. Especially with him still being in East Blue" She smiled winningly, seeing the taller one cringe.
"Cheeky brat, aren't you? Since you know who we are then you know why we're here, don't you?" He asked sitting down and allowing his blond companion to take the seat opposite to the one she claimed.
"Sorry mister pirate, but I have no idea who you are. I just know whose sign your companion has tattooed," she answered candidly, holding eye contact with him and taking a peak at the blond from under her lashes now and then.
"Well we can't have it then. I'm Thatch, the Fourth Division Commander and this is Marco, the First Division Commander." Hearing the names, Luffy started giggling.
"What's so funny, yoi?" The blond, Marco, asked. His amusement turning into slight puzzlement at her reaction. It was the first time someone reacted that way to his name. Especially when knowing exactly who he was.
"It's… It's just… Shishishishi… Grandpa was at least close to your real name Marco-san. Shishishishi!" Luffy answered between fits of giggles.
"Do I want to know, yoi?" The puzzlement in his eyes immediately turning into wariness. That was the third emotion he managed to convey while looking absolutely bored. Luffy admired his self-control for a few seconds before answering.
"Well, I heard tales about Mango, the Fire Turkey, who's Whitebeard's First Mate." That made the one called Thatch join her in her fit of laughter, while she choked out end of her sentence. "He meant you, didn't he?" Aaand… the self-control broke. Marco's frown was really slight, but it was there. Luffy wondered for a second if he would display boredom, should she…
No!
Bad brain!
She crushed another blush before it managed to bloom on her cheeks. Say anything you want about puberty, but puberty plus being a kitsune? What a Nightmare! And the fact that the pirate opposite to her was strong and nice on the eyes?
Not helping.
"Mango the Fire Turkey!" Thatch choked before another fit of laughter took him hostage.
"It's Marco, yoi." He ground out, glaring at his crewmate.
"Don't worry girlie, call him Mango all you want!" Thatch managed to say that only after both his laughter and Luffy's giggles finally died down. And that wasn't easy because every time they looked at each other or Marco their laughter started anew.
"Thank you Thatch-san. So what are two of Whitebeard's officers doing in East Blue? It's not like anything in here could be a proper adventure for New World pirates after all." Luffy finally gave up on trying to pick lock on the cuff and began eating her pancakes. They were delicious as always. Somehow whatever she tried, she could never quite replicate the taste of those made by Makino. Neither was she able to do so with her cream with cinnamon. The same recipe and yet such different results. She mused on it silently, automatically blocking any playful attempts on snatching her food from the plate. And they had to be playful, she refused to believe New World pirates couldn't swipe food from her plate if they'd really wanted.
"Redhaired Shanks came to visit us without his hat one day. Pops got curious, yoi," Marco answered instead, letting Thatch make one more attempt and smirked when Luffy almost nailed his hand with a fork.
"Yonko visit each other?" Her question was full on innocence.
"More like Shanks visits whoever the hell he wants. Though we go visit him from time to time too," Thatch explained eagerly. "The Redhairs have the best parties"
"How do you find each other? I can't really see Yonko giving their vivre cards to their rivals," She asked curiously. Shishou explained that, thanks to Shanks' vivre card, he was able to find him anywhere, but after having them explained to her, she somehow doubted even someone with such a devil may care attitude as Shanks has would allow anyone, that's not closely allied to him, have such a thing.
"Some quality information gathering of course," Thatch boasted.
"You still didn't introduce yourself, yoi. Nor have you answered our question," Marco, who up to this moment was content to go with the flow and observe how she managed to misdirect their conversation, finally cut in. He leaned his elbow on the table and propped his face in his hand, leveling her with a keen look that somehow still managed to give off a lazy vibe and convey that while he was amused enough to let it continue for a while, it's finally time to spill.
"I didn't?" Luffy fluttered eyelashes, donning on her best 'totally innocent, it's your fault' expression "I'm Luffy."
"And the cuff?" Marco prompted with pointed look.
"Can't pick it up yet. My old man went back with the key," she shrugged nonchalantly.
"So the little outlaw can't pick locks yet?" Thatch taunted with a pointed look at The Hat laying at the table, right next to her elbow. She sighed again, she should know better than to hope that the Yonko's officers wouldn't recognize The Hat for what it was.
"It's 'Your Majesty' Pirate, not 'little outlaw'!" She sniffed hauntingly turning her nose up.
"May I offer my services to Your Majesty then?" Marco snorted and outstretched hand to take a pin from her and deal with pesky thing.
"You may," she sniffed again and after a bit of silence raised an eyebrow prompting him to grin in amusement.
"Then let me deal with the awful foe on your wrist ma'am, yoi," He declared making Luffy giggle silently and pass him the pin. She laid her wrist in his hand, making his eyes fly wide open and hiss silently. "Why do you have Seastone on you?"
"For the same reason anyone else would get cuffed in Seastone" Luffy answered with easy going smile and slightly raised eyebrow as in asking 'are you seriously gonna ask?'
"You're able to talk and sit normally, so you had to have it for quite some time," Thatch observed casually, leaning back on their bench. His expression turned serious, showing that while jokes are nice and good… He was dangerous. Both of them were.
"With breaks, a little over a year," She admitted. Both her instincts and Haki (as she finally learned the name of her 'strange sensing power' Benny and Yasopp started to teach her) were insisting those two would not harm her. That they were just curious. And that they could become pretty close allies in the future.
"I'd say you built a pretty nice resistance already, yoi," Marco murmured fiddling with her hairpin and miserably failing to actually open the lock.
"Hahaha… Let Thatch the Mighty open it for you, Your Majesty. Since it's obvious the Flaming Turkey here can't deal with a simple bracelet!" Thatch stole pin from Marco's hand and indicated where she should put her wrist so that he could deal with the problem.
"Go ahead mister Mighty," she smiled at him and moved her wrist to lay on the proper spot, but keeping eye contact with the blond, who was looking back at her with patient amusement and approval in his eyes.
"So you ate a Devil Fruit, huh?" Thatch started, doing quick job of picking the lock
"Yes, I ate a Devil Fruit. I heard they're quite popular in the New World, so I'm sure I don't need to tell you about them, do I?" She replied, stealing a glance at a visibly amused Thatch, before stretching herself with the full flexibility her devil fruit gave her. Or at least as much as she was able to while sitting on the bench.
"All teeth, aren't you?" Thatch snorted and ordered some rum for both pirates then hesitated and raised an eyebrow to Luffy, and silently asked what to get for her, making both her and Makino smile indulgently. Then Makino simply put the strawberry shake she had just finished making in front of Luffy. She also quickly put two bottles of rum before going back behind the counter. Her experienced eyes seeing both amusement and fondness in the pirates' eyes and the little crush of her charge.
"Ne Thatch-san, could you teach me how to pick locks?" Luffy waited for both pirates to gulp down their mouthfuls before continuing with a sly smile. "Since you seem to have more practice than Marco-san."
"Oi! I don't get caught so much!" He immediately protested, meeting her eyes and making both her and Marco to smirk.
"You said it yourself, Thatch-san~!" Luffy singsonged, causing him to face palm and sent a glare in her direction.
"Fine. I will teach you, but you better get good soon," He warned with an 'or else' not said, but heard anyway.
√ -√v-√ -√v—
Both Whitebeard commanders spent two weeks on Dawn Island. Two weeks miraculously free from her so called 'brothers' and full of sparring, both hand to hand with Marco and with swords. Well, her bokken and Thatch's sword; lessons in Grand Line navigation from Marco; stories about interesting places from both of them; hunting local animals together (Luffy was delighted to find out, what an excellent cook Thatch was); teaching her how to pick locks properly.
Luffy sincerely told Makino later that it was the most fun she ever had, making her giggle at the teenaged girl. Unfortunately it seemed that her hormones were warring against her, since most of the time, she lost focus and her eyes wandered back to Marco's bare chest or his lips, and the fact that through all the sparring and hunting, he never lost his cool made Luffy's little heart skip a beat every morning they greeted each other. He even took her flying thereby cementing her amazement and her no longer so little crush in stone.
Flying on the back on an enormous bird, with soft, blue feathers under her fingers and blue fire dancing around her was amazing. For the first time ever she felt envious of the other devil fruit user. After all her Kitsune form while generally awesome, couldn't let her fly. That short excursion made her decide to find another bird zoan and get them on her crew. Even if she'd need to blackmail the bird into joining.
Now they stood on the docks, with both Whitebeard Pirates ready to set sail and go back to their family and their future King staying to train some more and wait for her turn to take the world by storm.
"So that's it Lu-chan. Will you be lonely without me?" Thatch joked coming up to embrace her. Luffy happily cuddled to him, after coming to see him as more of a brother than the ones on the mountain.
"Of course I will, Thatchy~! But I will come and find you when my crew and I come to the New World," she promised hugging him more.
"Deal! But don't try to get to the New World at all costs. If anyone in your crew isn't ready, it'd be better for you to stay in Paradise. You hear me Princess?" Thatch cautioned her seriously, tightening his own embrace.
"We'll all be training hard, don't worry," She accented her promise by planting wet kiss on his cheek. "You'll make me another one of those great Strawberry Cakes, won't you?"
"I will" he promised, and planted a kiss on top of her head and jumped onto the boat that he used with Marco to get to East Blue. It was a small boat, easily manned by two experienced sailors with Whitebeard's Jolly Roger on top its mast. With a quick kick he took off from the port, making both Luffy smile through her tears and Marco to shake his head.
"Be careful when setting sail, you hear me?" Marco opened his arms invitingly and took quick step back to keep himself upright after Luffy almost rocketed into him in her haste to hug him as well.
"I will," She promised, closing her eyes and breathing in his scent. She silently promised herself to get rid of that crush, but for now… It wouldn't hurt anyone if she'd just hug him for a little longer, would it? "You too. Be careful on your way back."
"We will," Marco murmured, petting her hair gently.
"When we meet again, take me for another ride. Will you?" Luffy asked raising her head from where it was buried in his chest minimally. Just enough to see his face.
"I promise," he answered with a smile. "I have something for you, yoi." He announced suddenly and took another step back, this time untangling from her embrace.
"You do?" She asked cocking her head and looking at him hopefully.
"Here, yoi" He gave her pair of black, leather gloves. "Use this when fighting. Even a little something between you and seastone will negate its effect on you." Marco smiled at Luffy's squeal and quickly caught her, when she jumped up to plant a kiss on his cheek, seeing her red cheeks he put her down and rubbed back of his head with thoughtful expression. Then smiled in resignation, bowed down and planted a kiss on her hair. Flashed her another smile and jumped up to glide in his half-form to the boat. There both pirates stood and waved to her.
"Thank you!" Luffy yelled out to them, taking few steps to the edge of a dock. "Be safe on the seas!"
√ -√v-√ -√v—
It was a year later that she stood on the dock seeing off another pair of pirates. Ace and Sabo were both seventeen and so were setting sail to their adventure. Although their relationship was still rocky at best, both young men became fiercely protective of her since she started her Seastone training and even she herself started to see them as part of her family. Greatly extended, but family. Which is why she stood there with The Hat on her head watching them finishing their preparations.
"You sure you have everything? Enough food and water to last for at least two weeks? Maps and compass? Additional rope and sails?" She asked, just to make sure they didn't forget anything really important.
"We have everything Luffy," Sabo promised smiling at her warmly. "Thank you for seeing us off."
"Be safe on the seas!" She repeated her last wishes given to Marco and Thatch.
"We will. Thank you," Ace answered with his own thanks and looked her in the eyes conveying his seriousness. "I'm sorry for how I treated you at the start, Luffy. Know that I see you as a sister now. So be careful while we're out there…And good luck for when you'll set the sail yourself."
"Thank you… Ace," She smiled at him. The sole fact that she used his first name made him smile a full blown 'D' toothy grin.
"Be safe Luffy! Good luck!" Sabo laughed, kicking off their boat and waving to her.
"Good luck! Be safe!" She yelled back, smiling with determination. Three years and that'll be her.