Luffy was currently sulking in Makino's bar. He has been like that for about an hour now, imitating the pirates from before as he drank more and more and acted as if he was drinking alcohol even if it was just regular apple juice.
Makino looked at this scene with a mix of exasperation and sadness at seeing the bright child so down, making her ask.
"Luffy, are you that sad because Shanks and the others left for an adventure?"
"It is not fair!" Luffy said, pouting even more somehow. "I am strong too, but they said I am just a kid and refused to take me with them. I wanted to go be a pirate and explore the world too!"
"Luffy, you know you can do that as a marine as well, right? Your grandfather would be happier this way." Makino said, knowing that Luffy may have declared he wants to be a pirate but the path of a marine was usually the better one.
Besides, Garp was something of a grandfather figure for her and she could well imagine how he would not like Luffy running off to be a pirate. Sure, Luffy shouting this now was fine for the moment since he was still young, but he should keep his options open.
"Don't wanna. If I become a Marine I will need to stay with gramps and he will beat me up all the time. I prefer to go be a pirate and be free." Luffy said in a petulant tone.
Makino did not know if she should laugh or cry considering that Garp himself seems to have inadvertently made Luffy not want to be a marine.
She could only let it go for now as she continued checking her inventory. The Red hair Pirates may have been very generous in their consumption and gave plenty in the way of tips and such, but even if they paid so well they had consumed more than 80% of her stock and she would need some time to restock.
According to Shanks they should be returning in about four months, needing over a month to reach Elegia and another to come back even if they know some special routes to get there faster.
It had to be said that the Red Force, the ship of the Red Hair Pirates, was amongst the very best in the sea. It could break through from New World to Marineford in about a day despite its distance and all the dangerous waters that exist between the two locations. One could argue that, in all the sea, there should be at most three or four ships that could compare with it in terms of speed, such was the potential of this ship made with the help from the very best shipwrights from the Ship Graveyard in the New World.
For them to still need over a month to get to Elegia, it was clear just how far away that place was.
This, however, did not dissuade Luffy from pouting intensely as he still wished he could have gone with them to the sea.
Makino then decided to change subjects to try and cheer Luffy up.
"How about you go play with your brother? With his little girlfriend gone he should be sad as well." Makino said with a teasing grin threatening to split her face.
The little girl Uta's reaction to Mike was just so cute, and Makino was not foolish enough to not see how much attention the normally cold and distant boy who was fanatical about martial arts and training showered the girl. Makino felt confident that, should things progress well, they may truly end up in a dating relationship… even if that would be a tad complicated.
Not only due to Mike wanting to be a Marine and Uta being a pirate, but because Shanks clearly was not exactly happy with the idea of his 'baby girl' falling in love with any boy any time soon. The number of times Shanks's first mate, Ben Beckman, had to stop Shanks to go into a bloody rage when Uta acted like a love struck puppy in her own clumsy and childish way was no joke, nor the amount of alcohol the man would drink in a depressed mood when he saw her running off to see Mike.
Luffy, taking the cup of juice in hand, drank it all down like it was some sort of heavy drink before speaking.
"I can't go play with him."
"Why though?" Makino asks in curiosity, not understanding just why he could not do that.
Luffy, seeming to realize he spoke too much, turned his face to the side and started to try and whistle in a way that was ridiculously obvious he was not willing to say.
"Luffy! What are you hiding from me this time?" Makino asks with her hands on her hips.
"Can't say. I promised to stay quiet about it." Luffy answered before putting his fingers on his ears to act as if he could not hear anything anymore.
Makino, seeing this, felt a mischievous idea as she continued.
"Okay then. If you won't say anything, I will take away all the meat from dinner tonight."
Luffy froze as he heard this, his face turning into an horrified expression before he could no longer hold it in and spoke up.
"Okay, the truth is that-"
Marineford.
Located in Paradise on the Great Line it was the strongest bastion of the navy at sea. At all times at least one Marine Admiral sits here, a true symbol of the might of the Navy, the guardians of the seas.
In the central tower of such an infamous island, three officers were enjoying a relaxing afternoon after the hard work they had just gone through.
"Hah, I still can't believe that that old man was so hard to capture. He truly was a monster." Marine Admiral Aokiji sighed as he drank his hot tea.
"Hah, of course he was. That old fossil Redfield may have been a lone wolf, but he was strong enough to face off even against the entire Roger or Whitebeard Pirates in a fight and run away if needed." Garp said with a laugh at the end as he completed. "Slippery guy, but punching him in the face sure felt satisfying!"
"Yes, yes, you two did a good job on that operation." Marshall marine Sengoku said, knowing the two in front of him had plenty of difficulty in doing that mission despite all the help they had in finding the man and fighting him.
Redfield had probably the best Observation Haki in the seas, being a born monster in the sense he was born with an extremely advanced Observation Haki already working, being able to see through a person's heart from birth and further developing the ability to terrifying extents. The man, even now despite being old and fighting alone, was able to injure both Garp and Aokiji rather seriously and both would need at least about two weeks to recover from it even with the best medical treatment the world had to offer.
It was a show of how powerful Redfield was that he did such a thing even in a two on one situation with enemies of Garp and Aokiji's level.
Honestly, Sengoku was just glad that Aokiji and Garp alone managed to take care of things even if they got hurt in the process. He honestly feared they would need even more people to go there, a troublesome prospect considering they were already troubled everywhere with the pirates going crazy everywhere.
Roger's last words really made all pirates out there go into a bloody frenzy, New World was all but completely lost to the Marines except for the few franchised countries they still had and several other nations were in constant strife thanks to pirates acting up everywhere.
Sengoku felt that, should he stop using so much hair paint in his hair, he would already have gone white from stress despite his friends all still only having some white streaks in some places.
The Marine Marshal would have continued his talks, but he noticed the crackers that Garp was eating and his eyes turned fiery at that.
"GARP! DID I NOT TELL YOU NOT TO STEAL MY STUFF?!" Sengoku yelled so loud that the door to his office actually vibrated and Aokiji worriedly looked at the window to see if it did not break in a hundred pieces from this yell.
Thankfully, the office had long since been reformed into a proper 'anti-Garp' state.
As for said marine's vice-admiral, he just shrugged, ate another cracker, and said.
"It's not my fault that yours is better than what I can find."
Sengoku was seriously contemplating throwing Garp into some mission far, far away from Marineford for a while when-
"PURU, PURU, PURU, PURU." The den den mushi in Garp's pocket sounded. Pulling it out, Garp answered. "KACHA."
"Hello, Garp speaking. Who is it?" Garp said in a calm manner, still basking on his victory against an old enemy.
"Mr Garp, it is me Makino." Makino back in East Blue said.
Normally a call from so far away would be pretty much impossible, but Garp was Garp after all and he managed to get the very best of Dendenmushis to leave in Fusha Village to make sure that they could call on him if anything was to happen.
"Oh, Makino. Happy to hear from you, are my two little rascals doing well over there? Tell them they better be ready for some good training when I go back to visit in two-" Sengoku signed four fingers with an irritated expression. "Four months."
"It is actually about that." Makino said nervously. "One of them left on a trip secretly and I was hoping you may go check on him to make sure he is fine."
"Well, I guess I should have expected Luffy to do something this stupid. What, did he run away in some merchant ship or something to go explore or-"
"It was not Luffy, it was Mike who went on a pirate ship." Makino said, making Garp freeze.
His brain refused to comprehend how his oldest grandson, who was always shouting about becoming a Navy, would get into a pirate ship out of nowhere like that.
Taking a deep breath, he comforted himself in that the kid was still just that, a kid. He may mess around but, as long as he did not cause any trouble, Garp could still put him in the Marines easily enough. He had more than enough pull to make it happen as long as he did not do something truly idiotic and extreme.
"... Don't worry. In four months I will be back in East Blue and no matter where he ends up I will go pick him up." Garp said with confidence.
He would need to teach the brat some manners for sure. But he consoled himself that this sort of experience should help him with learning some hard truths about the seas. Besides, that was East Blue and, with Mike's honestly monster level talent, Garp was sure that he would be okay for a few months even if he gets into a pirate ship to go explore for a while.
Makino, however, busted his bubble once more.
"The pirates actually said they will be going to New World in the Great Line. E… Ere… No, it was Elegia. Some sort of music festival or something like that." Makino said, making Garp spit out the cracker he had on his mouth… right at Kuzan who shot a glare at his old teacher.
Iron Fist Garp, however, did not give a single shit about it as he shouted.
"WHAT YOU MEAN HE IS GOING INTO THE NEW WORLD?! THAT PLACE IS FAR TOO DANGEROUS!"
Even for him, traveling to the New World was not something he would be able to do so easily and being on a pirate ship there was every chance that they could end up in a fight with some of the Yonko's crews right now.
Garp, staring intensely at Makino, asks.
"Do you know who they are? I will go and fetch that idiot grandson of mine before he gets into more trouble than it is worth." Garp said, already wondering how much of a spanking his troublesome grandson would get.
"I believe they called themselves the Red Hair Pirates? Not sure, but their captain Shanks seems very nice as a person and-"
"Garp, no." Sengoku said, using a short burst of Conqueror to end the call and making Garp turn his eyes to him.
"Sengoku, don't try to stop me. Even if it is Red Hair I can't just let him take my grandson and-"
"Garp, we are already stretched thin as it is and we can't afford starting a conflict with the Red Hair Pirates or their fleet." Sengoku said seriously.
Shanks was the second greatest swordsman at sea, his mastery of Haki in all forms being extremely advanced and he could likely face even two Admirals by himself without much problem. That is saying nothing of Ben Beckman who also could fight Admirals without much issue and the rest of the main officers who were all at least comparable to the elite Vice Admirals in Marineford.
They were not much weaker, if at all, when compared to a Yonko Crew, just lacking the numbers and influence that could be rather easily obtained. Fighting them was not something that even Garp could do willy nilly like that.
Garp, however, did not seem to give two shits about it. Instead, his and Sengoku's gaze continued firmly locked for several minutes before Garp said.
"I understand. I will not go hunt down the Red Hair Pirates right now, but I WILL go bring my grandson back." Garp said. If it was just some random pirate in East Blue Garp would not be worried about his grandson, but the old marine knew how easily Shanks could 'enchant' others into following him.
One of the perks of having such a strong Conqueror's Haki, his natural skill when it comes to obtaining others' allegiance was simply not normal. Garp could not possibly allow his grandson to spend even a moment too long near such a man otherwise he might end up deciding to go become a pirate instead of a proper marine!
Of course, Garp was still unaware that his other grandson had already been snared into that path and was a lost cause in terms of joining the Navy.
Sengoku sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose before speaking.
"The girl said they should be going to that musical festival. You can go there during the festival and fetch him, just remember to NOT start a war with the Red Hair. We cannot afford this sort of thing right now, let the World Government deal with them since they seem so interested in going after him lately for some reason." Sengoku said and Garp very reluctantly nodded his head.
As for Aokiji who was mostly forgotten through this whole ordeal, he just sneakily stole the package of crackers that Garp dropped and began eating them as he watched the two older officers discuss. As long as he was not sent to do anything troublesome, it was just plain not his business.
On the Red Force, the flagship of the Red Hair Pirates, a certain little girl was having dinner with everyone else like normal. The only strange thing was that she took a way larger amount of food than normal on her plate.
"Hey there Uta, isn't this a bit too much?" Shanks said and, with a teasing expression, he continued. "Careful now or you might become fat."
"Humph, Divas do not become fat. They just get more glorious." Uta justified, making the crewmates around snicker at the ridiculous logic of the opinionated child.
The girl, seeing their expressions, showed an annoyed face as she stood up and declared.
"I will go eat in my room, idiot dad." Shanks said before she took off with a plate of food almost as high as her towards her room.
Shanks snickered as he saw this, his observation Haki accompanying her form for a while as she entered the room.
Beckman, with a cigar in his mouth, took a puff before speaking.
"Are you sure this is smart?" Beckman asks as Shanks just smiles at his best friend's words.
"You don't have to be so worried, this is just Uta being mischievous in the end. Besides, it is not like our crew needs to worry about lacking supplies simply because of an extra passenger or two."
Beckman, hearing that word, looked at Shanks incredulously.
"You do know that the old man from the Marines may come after us after we 'kidnapped' his grandson, right? That is a dangerous prospect."
"Now, now, no need to be so gloomy." Shanks said with his usual confident smile before he pushed a mug of beer to Beckman. "It is not like we won't be returning the kid home soon enough. Besides, who knows, we may just lit another future prospect on the path of a pirate instead of a boring marine."
Beckman, hearing this, narrowed his eyes and said.
"So, you noticed as well."
That was not a question, it was an affirmation. Monkey D. Mike was one of those natural born monsters.
They happen every once in a while, people born with innate abilities outside the norm like Redfield's natural born Observation Haki and Whitebeard's monstrous physical strength. Sure, being born like that was not an indication that those abilities could not be developed by others via training, but it was undeniable that those with that sort of skills tended to become powerhouses in the world.
Mike's body felt similar in Beckman's eyes to that of Charlotte Linlin, the infamous 'Iron Balloon' that was born with immense physical might as well as a body that was as tough as steel. Even for Shanks the prospect of facing her would demand the use of advanced haki just so he could try and bypass her defense since breaking it head on was near impossible.
Sure, the kid was not the same as her. His body could be hurt much more easily, but Beckman could feel that it was already as tough as regular iron and after each spar he felt it grew a bit tougher, especially the area previously hit during the fight. Not only that, he healed simply far too fast.
If not for him seeing the kid swim in the ocean with Uta after another of their challenges he would have thought the kid ate some kind of Devil Fruit. Add in the kid's frightening growth speed in fighting and his dedication to growing strong, Beckman felt he just might reach his own level by age sixteen or eighteen.
Someone like that joining the Navy would be a disaster for the pirates, had it been another Pirate Crew that found him Beckman was sure they'd just kill him and be done with it.
Fortunately for Mike, the Red Hair Pirates were not the type to do something like that. They do not harm children, especially if they are guilty of no sin.
In the end, Beckman could only trust Shanks and let his captain decide what they should do. If he was sure they should let Mike be and even allow Uta and his relationship to develop further, that was his choice.
… If only the said captain could stop releasing killing intent every so often when he felt Uta sitting a bit too close to the kid or the two being a bit too intimate, that would make things so much better.
"This is troublesome." Beckman said as Shanks just laughed as he pushed another mug to his first mate.
Considering how troublesome this trip was likely to become, he would need the drink.