When word got out to the whole world that the all-all paramecia fruit had been found, everyone seeking it got their hopes up. Fantasized about being the most powerful man or woman on the planet. Being the next pirate king. The next Whitebeard. Word spread across the whole world, and pirates and marines alike were on the edge of their seats, waiting for it to say where it was found.

The marines weren't happy with word spreading to anyone but themselves. Pirates passed it on to each other after merchants found out about it and brought the information to Paradise and then the New World. Everyone was hoping no one had eaten it yet, but if they did, then taking said devil fruit user and using them for their own benefit was the next best option.

Crews such as the the Donquixote pirates, the Big Mom pirates, Kaido, the marines, and many small crews wished to find the fruit or new user before anyone else. However, many people wanted the user dead. Someone having their own devil fruits didn't sit well with many. Crews like the Red Haired and Whitebeard pirates were not interested in finding the fruit or taking the new user for their own gain.

Whitebeard wasn't happy with someone having his powers, but he wasn't so upset that he'd do anything about it. His crew was strong enough as it was, even if the all-all fruit would make them even more so. They were happy as they were, and wouldn't partake in the race to be the strongest.

Red Hair was just fine with no devil fruit users on his crew, so it didn't matter much to him. He was just curious about who it was who would find it and what would happen after that.

The Charlotte family immediately had their strongest set out to find the fruit or its user. None of them could eat the fruit, as they would die painfully after already eating one, but a future child could eat it and make the Big Mom pirates even more powerful and feared among the world. It would help make the captain the next pirate king, which was one of her greatest ambitions, along with having every type of creature in her territory.

Multiple people and crews under Doflamingo set out, searching for the fruit. They carefully kept this a secret so Kaido wouldn't compete with them or order them to not look, as Doflamigno was under him while making the yonko SMILES to make him more powerful. He left his stolen kingdom to search himself, waiting for any information about the location or where the fruit had been seen.

Then there were the smaller, less known crews that flocked towards the fruit as well. So, when word got out that the fruit had been eaten, many felt defeated. But, learning who had eaten it, the search was on again. A child ate the powerful fruit. A child so young that he would easily be manipulated to be useful to whoever ended up finding him or her.

The siblings of the poor child who had eaten the fruit panicked, but did their best to keep their baby brother safe, even if they didn't like what would happen

-x-

"Hello?" a gruff voice answered on the snail.

"Gramps, it's Ace and Sabo," Ace said seriously. His tone of voice was clear to Garp. That something serious had happened.

"Where's Luffy?"

"He's with Makino in the other room. The call is about him, though," Sabo replied. "Luffy has eaten a stolen devil fruit. We don't know where he got it, but he started showing its powers."

-x-

It had been a stupid mistake that the boys hadn't been watching Luffy for just a second. Ace and Sabo had been trouble makers in town before Luffy came, when they stopped going into town too much because one, they had Luffy to take care of and sometimes that wasn't a one man job, and two, they didn't want anything negative they did lead anyone to follow them and endanger Luffy.

The three were in town, though, because it was Luffy's fourth birthday and they wanted him to taste cake for once in his life. It was expensive, but they used some of their pirate funds for the special occasion.

Everything was going fine, Luffy holding onto Sabo's hand tightly as they slowly walked to the bakery. It had been a couple years since Ace and Sabo ever brought negative attention to themselves, so they weren't too recognizable. Sabo let go of Luffy's hand just for a second to get out the money from his pockets to give to Ace to go inside and pay for the little cake. The boy only wandered off a few feet before Sabo noticed, but by then, Luffy had sneakily snagged a golden fruit that was in someone's pocket. He had seen the pretty stem, and wasn't meaning to make trouble.

But, before the man, who looked like a marine of some sort, noticed Luffy, he was walking away and back with his brothers, who hadn't witnessed his expert pick-pocketing. No one had seen directly, but one person did see the cute little boy putting something shiny in his pocket.

It wasn't until weeks later that anyone found out about a young child taking the coveted fruit that had been found inside of a very large and tall tree. Finding it had been chance since it was only the size of a strawberry and tucked inside the tree very far from the surface of the trunk.

Later that day, after Luffy had some delicious cake, he wanted a nap, and Ace and Sabo wouldn't let him stay in the treehouse by himself, even if there was a railing around it so he couldn't easily fall off. So they stayed in their home with Luffy, who was covered in a blanket and holding his worn stuffed bunny they found in the Gray Terminal and cleaned thoroughly.

As Luffy was extremely relaxed, something horrifying to the big brothers happened. The looked away from Luffy for only a second, and when they looked back, the small boy was gone, and there was a while blob in his clothes there, the shirt and shorts stretched out.

"AAAAH!" both brothers screamed, before Luffy's eyes snapped open and his was back to how he was supposed to be. He was startled by waking to yelling, and started crying. Ace and Sabo looked at each other in fear. But, they had to comfort their brother, who they scared. Well, he scared them first. But still.

"Luffy, do you feel okay?" Sabo asked worriedly. Luffy nodded, wiping his teary eyes. "We're sorry for scaring you," he apologized. Like usual, Luffy moved on quite quickly after an apology. He was quite forgiving.

However, the next couple of days, things started going wrong in other ways. Luffy turned into the blob a couple more times, but never realized it. During a bath in the stream, bubbles had foamed around him and filled the stream with soapy bubbles.

That same day, Luffy's small hand turned into diamond for around an hour before turning back to normal. He thought it was amazing, luckily not very scared about what was happening to him like his brothers were.

Neither had any idea what was wrong with him, and didn't know a thing about devil fruits, so there was no explanation other than them thinking it had something to do with whatever Luffy ate earlier that day. So, they had no choice but to seek information from somewhere. Gray Terminal wasn't trusted, so Ace decided to go into town and try and find information about abilities like this. Sabo wasn't fond of dealing with Luffy and the weird occurrences by himself, but it was necessary. Luffy was distracted by trying to turn into sparkly diamond again.

Sabo humored him, and didn't try to stop him from his interesting powers. So far, none of them were dangerous. "You're so sparkly, like our treasure stash," Sabo said as lightly as he could. Luffy beamed his little teeth and nodded. "But don't worry, we won't sell you for our pirate ship. Promise." Luffy giggled at this. He knew his brothers wouldn't sell him. Whatever that meant.

Sabo tried his best to not visibly freak out when Luffy's head suddenly toppled over and hit the wood floor while he remained sitting up. His neck was stretched down. However, Luffy finally didn't like this and started crying loudly. It only lasted for a few seconds before his head snapped back into place and he toppled backwards onto his back from the sudden impact.

"Shh, Lu it's okay. We'll figure out what's wrong. Don't worry, your brothers have your back. Promise," Sabo vowed and took Luffy into his arms. He rocked Luffy back and forth, who said he was scared.

Ace arrived not long after the neck incident, and saw a teary-eyed Luffy in Sabo's arms. "What happened?" Ace asked in concern. He had a book with him that he set down on the floor by the entrance of the treehouse. Luffy sniffled loudly.

"Luffy had a few incidents while you were gone," Sabo said vaguely. He wasn't going to paint this as negative or positive. They didn't know which one it was yet, after all. Ace frowned and looked down at the book. "Did you find something out?"

"Yeah. Luffy, did you eat anything gross lately?" Ace questioned nicely. Luffy nodded his head, which thankfully stayed in place. Sabo never wanted to witness something like that again. And Luffy hadn't liked it either, even if it hadn't seemed to hurt him. Thankfully.

Ace opened the book he had bought and opened it up to a page he'd put a leaf in as a bookmark. "Was it this one?" he asked, pointing to the golden fruit on the page, which had a list under it. Ace couldn't read, but Sabo could, so that was lucky.

"Yeah, it was that one!" Luffy exclaimed. He had thrown the fruit away in the woods once he determined it was too yucky to finish. "It was yucky." Ace sighed, but didn't look upset. His expression was carefully crafted. Before Luffy came, Sabo knew Ace would never have been able to control his emotions the way he did around his younger brother. Ace handed Sabo the book, asking for him to read it out loud. He was over the fact that he couldn't read or do advanced math, and just was glad someone in their trio could.

Sabo took the book and began to read the contents of the two pages out loud to his brothers. Luffy moved to sit in Ace's lap. "The all-all fruit, paramecia class. A devil fruit that grants the user the ability to use all devil fruit abilities under the paramecia class. This includes: the gum-gum fruit, the chop-chop fruit, the slip-slip fruit, the b-bomb-bomb fruit," Sabo said, starting to feel alarmed at the information. But he continued to read. "The kilo-kilo and ton-ton fruits, flower-flower, wax-wax, munch-munch," (Luffy giggled at this, clearly not understanding what was being read to him). "Clone-clone, dice-dice, spike-spike, cage-cage, string-string, hobby-hobby, spring-spring, slow-slow, love-love, bubble-bubble, door-door, rust-rust, revive-revive, p-poison-poison, wheel-wheel, shadow-shadow- hollow-hollow, op-op, clear-clear, paw-paw, straw-straw, castle-castle, horm-horm - do I have to list all of them?" Sabo asked. He really didn't want to know the other dangerous powers the four year old not possessed and could in no way control.

"Can you count how many there are?" Ace asked, sweating heavily, especially at the bomb-bomb and poison-poison powers! Sabo looked down the list and counted all of them that had been identified in the book. It said that there could be more that haven't been recorded yet, which only made Sabo uneasier.

"...Se… seventy-two," Sabo said quietly. "That are recorded in this book. There could and probably are more out there." Ace blanched. "For some reason, a great deal of them are food related." He gave a shaky smile. "At least Luffy will never go hungry." He tried to lift the mood of the treehouse so that the two preteens didn't give off a negative vibe to luffy, who they were glad was not freaking out.

Seventy-two, though. That's a lot. Especially for someone so young! Luffy just turned four, he can't handle something like this! Hell, even Ace or Sabo wouldn't be able to handle such a strong devil fruit. And they were both gravely thinking the same thing. They needed outside help.

Neither of them had any trust in any sort of doctor or stranger or anyone for help, so there was only one person they could ask: Garp. Luffy didn't have a set goal yet, even though he knew Ace and Sabo wanted to be pirates. So, his freedom to his dream wouldn't be taken away if he were to live with the marines for however long it took for him to master the powers and at least be able to defend himself.

"Food? I can make food?" Luffy asked, the only thing he got out of the conversation. Ace put his hand to his forehead while Sabo chuckled.

"Once you are able to control the powers, you'll be able to create food. It will take a long time, though," Sabo explained.

"And we'll need help. We have to call Grandpa," Ace told Luffy. "I'm sure he'll be happy to see us." Both he and Sabo knew there was the silent "and kill us for not supervising you good enough". But, Garp would protect Luffy. The sooner the better, as the people in town know Ace had something to do with a devil fruit based on the book and questions he'd asked the owner of the book store he shopped at.

Devil fruit users were either punishable or coveted in the Blues. Hated or wanted. And someone as young as Luffy with such a rare devil fruit, with the rating on the page of being the hardest to be found. Once whoever Luffy took the fruit from realized it was missing will no doubt search for it. Luffy suddenly displaying some sort of devil fruit power, or multiple, would be a dead give away.

"Why don't we go see Makino-san?" Sabo offered. Luffy jumped up and cheered. He really liked Makino and her house she lived at. Sabo and Ace both knew she had a direct line to Garp's personal den den mushi. To call in emergencies regarding the island or his grandsons. They would ask Dadan for her den den but Ace didn't want to risk having her want to exploit Luffy's potential.

It was ten minutes later that Sabo was climbing down the rope ladder with Luffy clamped to his back, and they walked through the forest and down the Foosha Village. They didn't know where Garp was now, whether he was in the Grand Line or luckily, and unlikely, in the East Blue.

Once they all heard voices in the forest, they hurried their pace, going the long way to the little village that those in Goa didn't care about. Having multiple people in the forest was worrying, but honestly they all probably got attacked by the giant animals by then. That was a good thing about living in the forest. It was as if they had hundreds of vicious guard dogs that attacked anybody and anything.

Ace and Sabo were different, though. They'd been in the forest long enough for the animals to know that they would end up as food if they tried anything. There were a few that were the exception, like the Bear King or original Tiger Lord. So, they were left alone, and Luffy was able to walk between both of them.

When they reached the village, the citizens greeted them happily, knowing Ace and Luffy were Garp's grandchildren, and Sabo as an adopted one. The three made a b-line to Makino's bar, which was empty at this time of the day.

The three boys had all forgotten it was Luffy's birthday after everything that had happened, so were surprised to interrupt Makino baking a cake. They hadn't even thought about the Foosha Villagers wanting to celebrate Luffy's birthday.

"Hi, boys!" Makino said happily. Luffy ran to her and hugged her legs tightly. However, she noticed quickly that Luffy was the only one who was acting happy. She grew concerned when Ace asked for the den den mushi to call Garp. And that it was an emergency. "Alright. I'll be right back," she said and went up the stairs to her living quarters and fetched the snail. She was worried about what the reason was for Ace and Sabo to want to call Garp, who wasn't the most gentle and loving grandfather when he did visit.

Sabo and Ace handed Luffy off to Makino to play, which she was more than happy to do, while they headed to the storage room to speak privately. They did trust Makino, but it may be safer for her to not know. Things could get ugly, and Ace and Sabo were anticipating that would happen. Human greed had no end, as did the anger that must be directed at the new owner of the fruit from whoever Luffy stole it from.

"Hello?" a gruff voice answered on the snail.

"Gramps, it's Ace and Sabo," Ace said seriously. His tone of voice was clear to Garp. That something serious had happened.

"Where's Luffy?"

"He's with Makino in the other room. The call is about him, though," Sabo replied. "Luffy has eaten a stolen devil fruit. We don't know where he got it, but he started showing its powers."

"... What is it? What devil fruit did he eat? Damn devil fruits ruin everything," the vice-admiral grumbled. He did sound worried, though. Whatever fruit Luffy had eaten, it wasn't a good one. Well, were any devil fruits inherently good? However, he didn't even consider the one he was answered.

Sabo sighed. "He ate the all-all paramecia," Sabo admitted. Silence on the other side. Then there was the sound of something crashing and breaking. Garp knew what the problem was, and how much danger Luffy was in. What all of his grandsons were in. Goa, a place that was supposed to be their safe haven, was now very dangerous to them. He'd seen the paper about that fruit being found, though there had been nothing about where it was found.

And now Luffy had the most coveted fruit in existence. A four year old!

"Damn it!" Garp bellowed. Ace and Sabo were glad he wasn't there in person. "Stay in Foosha. Don't go back to the forest and keep Luffy hidden. I'll come as soon as possible. I'll be there in two weeks. You better keep him safe or I'll give you more than a beating."

Garp was clearly fearful for his youngest grandson's life and safety. So much that he didn't trust other marines to handle him safely. "We will," Ace replied strongly. Then, the den den's expression softened.

"Ace-" Garp began, but said grandson cut him off.

"I know. I can't come. Just make sure you take real good care of Luffy until he can handle the fruit," Ace said quietly. He bit his lip, but didn't let it show how upset he was. "We're sorry we didn't supervise him well enough," he apologized. Sabo muttered an apology as well.

"I don't blame you two. Even before he could walk, Luffy was a troublemaker," the marine said with a gruff chuckle.

Sabo spole next. "Is it safe for Luffy, though? To be in the marines? Do they not know who his dad is?" Ace and Sabo had overheard Dadan and Garp once when they were drunk. Luffy's dad was Monkey D. Dragon. The most infamous criminal in the world, even more so than the top pirates of the New World.

"I'll make sure he stays safe here. No one else knows about his heritage but Sengoku, and he's a good secret keeper as long as Luffy doesnt turn out like my stupid son. Keep safe, I'll leave today to come and get Luffy. Stay in Foosha for now. Don't even go back into the forest once.

"Be warned that, once the public knows someone on Dawn Island ate the fruit, pirates and government officials alike will try and take him. Keep him and yourselves safe. Got it?" Garp finished sternly.

Both pre-teens agreed and promised that they'd do their best to keep things under control. They would both miss Luffy so much, but this was for his own good. They heard Makino scream from the other room and hung up the snail and ran in to see Luffy had turned into the blob again. After Sabo read all of the fruits' names, he could identify this fruit as the mochi-mochi fruit, which was one of the food related fruits.

Ace hurried over to Luffy, who snapped back into regular form. He looked upset, but didn't cry. Makino had wide eyes, thoroughly freaked out by what just happened. Neither wanted to explain what had happened and put Makino in danger in case anyone got here before Garp did. When she looked at them with questioning eyes, Sabo said, "We can't tell you. Garp is on his way here and will be here as soon as possible."

"Can we stay with you for a bit?" Ace questioned. Makino nodded slowly, wondering why the boys had invited someone they both feared to come to the island. She assumed it had to do with what had happened a minute ago. But, she didn't press them for anymore answers.

"Do you want to stay in the storage room? Are you hiding from someone?" Makino asked vaguely. She didn't need a complex answer. Just a yes or no, which was what Ace gave her. Staying in the storage room that had no windows would be best. They hoped no one had seen them enter Foosha. It had no marines or police here to protect anyone. It was too rural and peaceful.

Pirates did rarely come as there was a marine flag, Garp's fluttering high on a pole at the coast. Plus, this was the East Blue and there were only a few pirates that circulated the sea leisurely. A few were somewhat dangerous, but nothing compared to the Grand Line and New World.

The three boys spent the rest of Luffy's birthday playing games in the storage room, which now had some futon mats for them. Ace and Luffy would be sharing one while Sabo had the other. Ace and Sabo didn't tell the boy he'd be separated from them for awhile. A long while. They didn't want to ruin his birthday even more. It had already been ruined a bit, and they didn't want to make it worse.

Bed time was nice, because they three brothers finally had some sort of cushion instead of on their treehouse floor. They each fell asleep easily, even Ace and Sabo, who were feeling a great deal of stress and sorrow at losing their little brother, who they'd only been with for a little over three years. They'd miss him so much.

They would demand to have contact with him at least over the den den mushi. That's what they deserved, along with Luffy. What a mess all because of a stupid fruit. Damnit, why hadn't they been paying better attention?! The two would always resent themselves for this.