The World Nobles, aka Celestial Dragons, are the supposed rulers of this world.
About eight hundred years ago, the dates were a bit confusing; unless one can read a Poneglyph and that is a hard skill to come by; twenty rulers of the world nations reunited and established the based of what is called today the World Government, enforced by the Marine and ruled by the Five Elders.
Eight hundred years later, the World Nobles are the worst possible human beings that one could have the displeasure and bad luck to cross by.
The vast majority of the World Nobles; or the Celestial Dragons, or Gods as they like to consider themselves; are complete assholes of the greatest caliber. They had zero morals and only care about their hedonistic pleasures, arguing that the blood of the gods that created the world; making reference to the founders of the World Government; runs through their veins and they are entitled to do whatever the fuck they want due that same privilege.
Among the usual "entertainments" that the Celestial Dragons practiced, is slavery.
Slave trade is a very old activity, however, it is mostly frowned upon or directly prohibited in the vast majority of the kingdoms, empires, etc, of the world. There are notable exceptions, but in general, slaves are unusual in most of the seas. Only the World Nobles and ruthless Pirates blatantly display their slave collections. Literally in some cases, for example, Saint Rosward, that proudly talks about his Pirate Captains collection or Saint Shalria who despise weaklings and only wanted to buy the strongest slaves available.
The usual entourage of a World Noble is three to four slaves, a CP agent, and several guards. It depends a lot of the individual to determine what exactly kind of entourage will it will have.
Saint Camael entourage is usually made by one or two of his daughters, his steed; a panda these days is been said; his female slave and at last three or four guards, one of them almost surely a CP agent.
Saint Charlos entourage is usually comprised of some of his wives; thirteen by this year; his steed; a slave forced to crawl with Charlos´ throne over its back; and several guards, possible with at last one CP agent.
The origin of using slaves as a steed of sorts actually is quite old. Nobody is sure about when it happened but whenever several Celestial Dragons reunited; quite the occasion to be honest; it surely becomes a disgrace for anyone in the vicinity and competition between the Celestial Dragons to see who is more of a douche bag that the other. That being said, there are rumors that there are actually some of the Celestial Dragons that are not wastes of space, but those rumors are as valued as baseless rumors and childish ideas.
In the Sabadody Archipelago resided one of the largest slave auctions of the world; located in the Mangrove 1 of the seventy-nine, the place was always filled to the brim with all kind of corrupt individuals looking out for a good purchase. This particular auction house, operated under the protection of the crime lord known as Joker, a powerful individual who had its hands in all the pies of the underworld, from drugs to slaves.
Technically speaking human trafficking is illegal, but the Marines on Sabaody; who had one of the freaking command centers stationed there; called the Auction house "Public Enjoyment Security Office", allowing the supposed defenders of the world to blatantly ignore the criminal business in front of their very noses.
The presence of the Celestial Dragons is also a powerful deterrent for the marines to do anything about it, the Celestial Dragons came almost weekly to the Auction House to purchase their next entertainment source. Be it a sex-slave, a gladiator for their personal gladiatorial pits, or even exotic "pets" that they have around. See the aforementioned case of Saint Rosward´s Pirate Captains' collection.
The average price of a human is about the half-million berry, other races are more expensive being the Giants and Merfolk the more expensive ones. Users of Devil fruits also changed the value of the purchase.
Speaking of Devil Fruits; the Celestial Dragons are known to feed fruits into their slaves for mere entertainment value. It made controlling them a lot more difficult, especially if they are of Logia Type of Devil Fruit user, but between the Sea stone cuffs, explosive collars, and all kinds of restricting measures, the real method of control was the "Hoof of the soaring dragon".
This Hoof was nothing but a brand; like the ones that are used on cattle, a red hot metal brand imprinted in the anatomy of the slaves; that all the World Nobles used to mark their slaves, this brand indicated that the slave was less than human and possession of the World Nobles. Any country would happily deliver the slave back before angering the mercurial Celestial Dragons, who could; in an act of pure spite, not all that different from a childish tantrum; summon and admiral and call a Buster Call upon the poor sods that had a sliver of decency.
Such a thing was more or less what happened to the Sous-chef of the floating restaurant Baratie.
Not much of his own past is known to him as he barely remembered Elbaf and an old nun; but beyond that, the only thing that Surt, no surname, could remember is the horrors that he had to witness under the Celestial Dragons.
Surt is a former slave, in his back, between the shoulders, rest the "Hoof of the Soaring Dragons", marking him as one of the many unfortunate slaves of the Celestial Dragons. Surt was one of the slaves that made a run for their lives when the legendary Fisher Tiger climbed the Red Line and lay waste to Mary Geoise.
Without any clues about who the fuck he was, Surt stowaway in a ship and run as far as he could from the "Holy Land". In his escape, he ended up becoming the disciple of Panz Fry, the Volcano Cooking giant that traveled the New World; the last sea; feeding people and cooking over the volcanoes that appeared around the sea.
The art of cooking was something that Surt found fascinating and delicious at the same time. Panz had little problem in allowing the traumatized Giant to join him and his daughter; even if they did not share the same surname; in their travels through the New World. For half a decade, Surt devoted himself to learn all he could of the supreme art of cooking.
As a slave, he was barely offered scraps and cattle food, heck, they even gave him seawater to drink because his "master"; well, "mistress" would be more appropriate; thought it was bloody funny. The food of Panz was the food of the freaking gods for Surt and if Surt could learn to cook it all the better.
Unfortunately, to save Panz and Lily from Big Mom´s subordinates; as Big Mom wanted Panz to become part of her cooking staff, part of her plot to add the Giants to her Totoland project of a place where all races could live together; Surt ended up killing a lot of the Chess soldiers and Biscuit soldiers, along severely wounded a lot of Big Mom´s children in their fight to allow Panz and Lily to get out of Toto Land and into Red Hair Shanks domain or even into Marine Territory.
Knowing that his very presence would be detrimental to Panz and Lily, Surt cleaved a path in Totoland; Ice, Kimi and Potato Islands were left in ruins and blazes; before Surt considered that he has done more than enough and run the hell out of Totoland and into the Red Line
As an apology token, Surt left a gigantic bowl of volcanic french fries in the crater of Potato island, with a note apologizing for the violence and the destruction but being a slave was anathema for him and he would have preferred to die.
Taking a page from Tiger Fisher, Surt climbed the Red Line and smuggled himself into the Grand Line, stowaway his way into the East Blue, the only place so far from the New World that no one would ever believe that Surt was hiding there.
Then, Surt found his home away from home in the Baratie.
The Floating Restaurant, the Baratie, was the dream of a former pirate captain called Zeff; Red Leg Zeff, to be more precise; that was able to navigate into the Grand Line until a tragedy cut his left leg, making impossible for him to continue forward. In other circumstances and with enough contacts, Surt was sure that the Chef of the Baratie could have substituted his own leg with a strong prosthetic, but the man was happy as the chef of the restaurant and Surt was happy for the man.
Nearly ten years passed just like that, happy with being a humble Sous-chef in the Baratie; having constant and hilarious discussions and brawls with Sanji, Patty, Carne, and Carmen, just to be bonked in the head; repeatedly; by Zeff and scolded for being rambunctious brats. Halcyon days indeed. Still, the only regret Surt has was to teach the main cooks of the Baratie a bastardized version of the Six Powers, worst of all, the five bastards managed to awake Haki during that training and since then on, their bloody kicks hurt.
On the positive side, the Baratie was all but impervious to rowdy customers, as the occasional pirate with a delusion of grandeur or a cretin Marine officer with more pride than brains.
There was bad days and worse days, like the time when the Germa 66; a ridiculous evil organization that wanted to conquer the North Blue discovered that Sanji; Surt´s brother in all but blood at this point; was none other than Vinsmoke Sanji, the third son of the patriarch of the family, and a complete fool by the way, and the only one among the Germa siblings that lacked any enhancements.
It was ironic to the extreme how Sanji was way stronger than any of the Germa siblings; among them, only Vinsmoke Reiju, also known as Poison Pink, was worth a damn; after Sanji trained with Zeff and Surt for ten years. They tried to force Sanji into a political marriage with one of the Big Mom´s daughters, an absolute beauty called Pudding.
All the children of Big Mom are called after food or something related to food; it was one of the things that Surt found strange of the Charlotte family, but to each their own, it was their problem. The problem was when the Germa tried to use Sanji to gain the forces of Big Mom to conquer the North Blue; again; and Big Mom wanted the Vinsmoke for the technology, able to stand toe to toe with powerful Devil Fruit and Haki users.
How the hell did the Vinsmoke learned about Sanji is something that Surt didn't know but the shit has hit the fan and Sanji was in the middle of a shitstorm of biblical proportions, whenever a Yonko like Big Mom wanted something, she was going to get it, no matter the methods. The only way to put a stop to all this was to make them think twice about what they are doing, to smash through their arrogant attitudes, and make them saw the consequences of their actions.
Fortunately, Surt was an expert in that front, after years of being the steed and favorite torture/gladiatorial slave of Saint Shalria, witnessing the worst of the World Nobles in all their splendor, Surt learned how to hit people where it really hurt. It was not a matter of punching/slashing, it was not a matter of brute force; although it helps; it was a matter of founding the chink in the armor and dug a very sharp; preferably poisoned; dagger deep inside of it.
For example, Vinsmoke suggested that Sanji would see the Baratie burn if he did not obey them. Direct, clear menace; you do this, or all that you love will suffer.
Classic, in Surt opinion, at that point, Surt answered that if they ever dared to look in the direction of the Baratie, he will personally dissect the seafaring Germa Kingdom piece by piece, crush Vinsmoke Judge spine, cripple four of the five Germas 66, and sold the fifth to the nearest Slave Auction.
Surt was pretty sure that a royal individual like Vinsmoke Reiju will earn a good price in any auction where the World Nobles are present.
Brutality beyond measure was the way to go with these people, they are assholes that believe themselves above the rest of the world due to their body modifications. Any Shichibukai will rip them to shreds without breaking a sweat, heck, that pale fat bastard of Gecko Moria would have an evilgasm at the idea of Germa 66 zombies.
In the beginning, they did not take any of the responses of Surt seriously, then Surt ripped Vinsmoke Yonji´s left arm and proceed to beat Yonji black and blue. After that demonstration and the dozens of corpses of Germa 66 soldiers that surrounded Surt, it was clear that the cook was not in the mood for idiocies and the Vinsmoke realized that Sanji´s new family in the East Blue; supposedly the weakest of the Seas; was not a bunch of weaklings.
A tense series of negotiations later, Sanji accepted to accompany the Germa, but lacked any desire to marry anyone; Sanji has tossed the Vinsmoke name away, the blonde cook hated that name with a passion, he was Sanji of the Baratie now and Sanji will be dammed if his former family used him for some stupidity that he did not care about at all.
Even today, Surt was still confused about what the heck happened, even if the result was a relatively happy ending for all parts involved.
The mere idea of getting close to Big Mom´s territory; or the New World for that matter; was something that scared Surt deeply, but on the other hand, leaving alone Sanji was a big no and with a bit of luck, he even maybe able to see Panz and Lily again.
At the end of the entire debacle, Surt was back at the Baratie with his real identity safe and several recipe books that Surt was eager to test. Sanji and Pudding married and start their own travel to seek out for the All Blue that Sanji always dreamed about, accompanied by Chess Soldiers and Germa Soldiers.
Relative happy ending.
Then, a rowdy boy and his merry band of misfits landed in the Baratie.
Observation Haki had more uses than just combat, that is the thing that most of the people got wrong about it. Observation Haki, trained well enough, is more than enough to actually foresight the future and to "hear" as a lack of a better term, the voices of all-around an individual, achieving an enlightened comprehension of the world around the individual and those that are close to him. The voices of everything can be heard, understood, and comprehend through Observation Haki and when the rowdy boy and his friends made their entrance in the Baratie, Surt knew that they were something special.
Now, for the eclectic party that was the Straw Hats Pirates and their companions; a couple of Bounty Hunters and a cutie orange-haired girl that vehemently denied that she was a pirate; the first impression that they had of Surt was one for the books.
"Straw Hat" Luffy, Monkey D Luffy to be exact, resumed pretty much the thoughts of everyone around in a single phrase.
"Wow, you are big".
Surt smiled, showing a row of very sharp teeth, the boy was not wrong after all.
"Aye, that I have been told", chuckled Surt, "so, are all of you customers?".
"Yeah!", enthusiastically said Luffy as the rest of his merry crew took a seat in one of the tables. With a small laugh at the enthusiasm of the boy, Surt accompanied him to the table and taking a small notebook look at the crew.
"Let me guess", scratched the side of his head Surt, listening to the voices of the crew in front of him.
"Meat, fried, lots of it", scratched in the notebook looking at the smiling boy, "something filling and sake, lots of it", added after looking at the green-haired swordsman, "something bittersweet, preferably with tangerines on it", scribbled after a glance at Nami, "something worthy of a warrior of the seas", mumbled after glancing at the long squared nosed tanned boy, "pretty much the same as the swordsman", added with a final line after looking at the two bounty hunters at the end of the table.
"Will that be all?", Surt asked to the blinking an amazed crew, "if I may add a suggestion, we still had some leftovers of Sea King´s Paella, it's one of the main attractions of the restaurant, expensive", added Surt smiling at the orange aired girl that blinked back again as if the man has read her thoughts, "but worth every single bite, satisfaction guaranteed or I personally reimburse the Berries".
"How on earth?", muttered the tanned boy with the long nose.
"I am a Chef", shrugged Surt.
"I want to try that Paella!", the straw hat boy had stars in his eyes and was drooling.
Before Surt could answer; or the orange-haired girl strangled the Straw Hat lad, judging by her body language; the doors of the restaurant were open violently, and a very wet and furious LT Fullbody appeared in the entrance looking as if he has swum all the way to the Baratie from his Marine Base.
"You!", screeched the marine, pointing his finger to the crew in the table, "you sunk my ship!", bellowed Fullbody, "you are all under arrest!".
"Lieutenant", the deceptively calm voice of Surt interrupted the rant of the Marine before he could even begin. The entire witnesses felt a child going down their spines at that tone. "I will please ask of you to use an indoor voice and calm yourself, you are scaring the other customers".
"What?", blinked Fullbody a couple of times, "what are you talking about? I don't care, I am going to arrest those bast...".
A closed fist, traveling north to south, slammed itself in the head of the screeching Marine, shutting him up in a second and making him fall to the floor like a puppet whose strings have been cut.
"Fast", muttered Zoro, he has barely been able to track the movement of the giant that was attending them, the punch was more than enough to knock the man down in one hit. Speed, strength, and precision. This chef was way more interesting than only his gigantic size and ability to guess all of their favorite foods in one glance.
Now, Luffy was more determined than ever to add a new Nakama for his crew. This giant was awesome.
Most of the time, Zoro, Nami, and Ussop; the real members of his crew; are convinced that Luffy chooses crew members by mere whim. They could not be more mistaken. Luffy, was a creature of instinct, up to a level that very few could understand or empathize with. Perhaps due to his unique upbringing, perhaps his experiences and odd legacy as a D, but at the end of the day, Luffy had more things in common with animals than with men.
That was not an insult, not by any means. Luffy trusted the instincts that he had developed through these experiences with the Mountain bandits of Dadan and his crazy as hell Grandpa, and that very same instincts were the same that guided him in his way to be the King of Pirates. Whenever Luffy saw someone, he instinctively reacted to the person, be it good or bad, and when he meets someone that he knew that could be part of his crew, Luffy just...knew.
From Luffy's point of view, this giant was bloody perfect for the crew.
First of all, he was strong. Easily eight feet tall and built like a tank on steroids, yet he was moved at amazing speed; the giant had red hair to the shoulders and friendly mutton chops beard, he had green eyes and looked a bit older than his crew, but not as old as Foosha Village´s Mayor, but older than any of his actual Nakama.
Thanks to the giant sleeveless Chef jacket Luffy could see that the arms of the giant are big enough to strangle Sea Kings, and had faint scars in his forehead; another detail called Luffy´s attention was the red handkerchief around his neck, the others chefs around were blue. The black pants and boots were the same, but the giant did not have a Chef hat.
"Better", snorted Surt, grabbing the head of the unconscious Fullbody and dragging him to the door, ready to toss him outside to cool his head a bit, but then, a bunch of Marine sailors appeared.
"Fullbody-san, the prisoner has...", their protest died in their throats at the image of Surt carrying the unconscious body of their officer. They were trying to made heads or tails about what the heck was going on when a loud shot echoed in the entrance.
The prisoner, a man with a gray tone of skin that did nothing to speak about good health has shot one of the marines on the back and has entered the restaurant, looking as if he has run a marathon.
Surt facepalmed, the day was going so well until now, why is always one bullshit or the other with the Marines?.
Before the gray-skinned man; that was sporting obvious signs of malnutrition, dehydration, and exhaustion; could say a single word, Surt applied the same treatment to the pirate and he felt like a sack of potatoes, the same way that Fullbody, not fifteen seconds ago, had fallen.
"Carmen!", called Surt to his sister in all but blood, "cover me for a second, I have this bloody mess to clean", before exiting Surt tossed the small notebook to a woman.
"Understood, Surt", smiled a beautiful pink-haired woman; another of the cooks around; taking the notebook in middle air. She was dressed in a white blouse, a purple vest with white frills and a dark red skirt.
"That was..." was about to comment Ussop, but in a flamboyant style of servicing, the Carmen named woman has served all of them their plates and was already dancing? to serve another table.
"Awesome!", smiled Luffy widely, more convinced than ever to recruit this giant into his crew.
Smoking his pipe was one of the few vices that Surt had. Surt blamed Sanji, who was a smoker as well, but Surt considered the brand that Sanji smoked, King Ground, bland and tasteless, so Surt made his own tobacco recipe and smoke in his own pipe.
Far better that way, in Surt´s opinion.
Leaning on the wooden walls of the Baratie, Surt was taking a short break after clearing up the mess that, the idiot of Fullbody and the pirate prisoner had made. The name of the poor sod; who was crying and wolfing down a plate of seafood rice, not a meter at the right of Surt; was part of the crew of Don Krieg, the so-called King of the East Blue.
Gin was the name of the man, who has been caught by the Marines when he was traveling back to his crew after a disaster happened in the Grand Line and force their entire fleet to get back to the East Blue, battered, and bruised. Hardly a novelty, most of the rookies that made into the Grand Line, the first part of the Grand Line, were chewed up and swallowed by that sea.
Curiously enough, the first part of the Grand Line was called Paradise, as it was a freaking paradise compared with the bullshit that the second part of the Grand Line; the New World; could pull out of their sleeves at a moment notice.
Surt traveled the New World twice, one escaping from the fucking Celestial Dragons and with Panz and Lily, and the other when he took Sanji to his wedding with Charlotte Pudding. It will be too soon if he never, ever, set a step in the New World again.
Considering that he was a giant, despite being the chibiest giant ever; a consequence of his Devil Fruit; his life span would be about three times the longest human life span, so Surt had all the time of the world to wait patiently for about a century and then look out for a nice hole where to hide.
It was saddening though, as Surt always wanted to be back at Elbaf. The island of the giants was the only memory that Surt had from his past before his slavery and torture at the hands of the Celestial Dragons. The cold mountains, the magnificent tree of the center of the island, the Winters Solstice Festival, the wooden houses, and warm communal bonfires of the houses. The sweet taste of Semia, the traditional sweet roll of Elbaf was something ingrained in his brain.
If anything, it could be said that Surt´s dream was to return to Elbaf and look out for who he was.
Surt´s earliest memories were flashes of Elbaf, some faceless but dear people, voices, the sound of steel, wood and thunder, the cold snow, the fresh waters of the sea, all emotions but nothing concrete. From then on, the scorching heat of the "Hoof of the Soaring Dragon" brand that the Celestial Dragon put on Surt´s back and the unknown amount of time that Surt endured as the favorite slave of Saint Sharlia.
In the most twisted way possible, Surt knew that the only reason why he was alive was that Saint Shalria wanted a strong slave. Shalria wanted to be carried around like his brother; with a throne over the back of a crawling slave, but in style and to have a slave that could fight for her in equal standing with the strongest guards around.
The World Noble was the biggest hypocrite ever, as she vocally despised the weak, yet her fighting prowess was none. Saint Shalria had the physical fitness of a joke and she was unable to hit a barn with the doors open with her golden pistol; still, she was not an obese and disgusting bastard like her brother Saint Charlos, but she was not precisely fit either.
Being a Giant, Surt was naturally stronger than the vast majority of races, if Surt remembered right he reached about the sixty or seventy million Berries price in the Auction house that sold him to the Celestial Dragons. The average male Giant was around the fifty and the female around the ten, the highest prices were the female Merfolks, which always hit the eighty to a hundred million Berries. Those prices were subjected to changes depending on the individual skills, talents, capabilities and if they are Devil Fruit users or not.
Steed, gladiator, stress relief crash dummy, experiment subject, and similar titles were the names that Surt had under the care of his "mistress" Saint Shalria. Surt´s only friends were the scarce slaves that survived long enough under the demands of Saint Shalria and the slaves in Charlos and Rosward entourages. Surt did not know what happened to the vast majority of the slaves that run like hell from Mary Geois when Fisher Tiger attacked the "Holy Land", but he wished them the best.
"Thank you", hiccuped Gin, "really, Thank you".
"You are welcome", shrugged Surt. "Hunger is a horrible sensation".
And Surt knew it well, from time to time, Shalria forced Surt to endure longs periods without food or water. In fact, she did allow him to drink water; seawater, to be more specific, Saint Shalria found hilarious the idea of a Devil Fruit user like him having only seawater, the weakness of all Devil Fruit users, as the only available source of hydration.
As any sailor worth his salt would know, drinking salt water as it is potable water is paramount to suicide; Surt still wonders how the heck did he managed to survive those particular bouts of entertainment that Saint Shalria had.
Being the favorite of Saint Shalria, little more than a moody teenager then; had its pros; she wanted the strongest slave to flaunt him around; meaning Surt would be trained and forced to eat a Devil Fruit, and its cons, the seawater torture, the constant beatings and being humiliated and punished at the drop of a hat. A hat that Saint Shalria dropped whenever the fuck she wanted.
"Ey, your name is Surt right?", turning his gaze to the straw-hat wearing boy that was hanging from the rail of the balcony as if he was a monkey; Surt would later know of the irony of the statement; Surt smiled warily and answered the boy.
"Aye, that is my name, and you are lad?" Surt took a breath of his pipe.
"Monkey D Luffy, nice to meet you", smiled widely the lad.
"Monkey, Monkey, well, he did act like one, but by all that´s sacred, please tell me that he is not related to one particular Monkey", pondered Surt taking the pipe off his mouth and letting a big cloud of smoke to float in the air.
"Monkey D Luffy uh?, any chance you are related to Vice-Admiral Garp?", asked Surt, tossing the burned contents of his pipe over the rail and into the ocean.
"Please said no", begged Surt on his mind.
"You know my grandpa?", said Luffy a bit surprised.
The kid did not notice how Gin become pale as a paper sheet; well, that only spoke of the freaking common sense of the pirate. From the perspective of the recently saved from starvation pirate, he had the descendant of the nightmare of all pirates around the world since the start of the Pirate Era.
"Tangentially", spoke Surt in neuter tone.
"Bollocks", swore on his mind.
"I decided, you are going to join my crew", frankly, the amount of determination in that single phrase made Surt actually blink.
"Sorry lad, I am the Sous-chef of the Baratie, I cant join your crew", shrugged Surt hiding his real emotions quite well.
"Garp´s grandson is a bloody pirate?, uh, never see that one coming", meditated Surt calmly taking the dishes of a grateful Gin, who was staring as Luffy if he had a second head or was about to summon his grandpa from the deeps of hell and take Gin down into the abyss.
"I refuse your refusal", deadpanned Luffy and Surt actually tripped at the answer. Gin blinked and chuckled, shaking his head, not entirely believing what he was hearing.
"Lad, it doesn't work that way", chuckled Surt, frankly, this kid was unbelievable.
"But I need a cook for my crew", pouted Luffy with the kind of innocence that Surt has only seen in children, "if I want to travel the Grand Line I need strong nakamas".
"Well, that´s true", nodded Surt, holding the cutlery that Gin has used for his meal on one finger in perfect balance.
"Forget about it kid", shook his head Gin. "We challenged that accursed sea, we were fifty ships and thousands of men and we were annihilated as soon as we entered that nightmare by a single man".
"Uh, really?, you are weak or that man very strong", said Luffy bluntly making Gin stumble and rant at him.
Surt on the other hand took advantage of the opportunity to slip past them and back into the kitchen, Carmen would skin him alive if she caught him lollygagging around.
The worst outcome of the conversation was not the debt that Gin felt that he owned to Surt, who didn't really care much about it, hunger was something that Surt experimented in several occasions, so if Surt could help somebody to never experiment such a horror, then all it's good. No, the worst was the constant pestering of Luffy.
The grandson of Garp was a relentless hunter, Surt will admit his perseverance and determination to make Surt part of his crew. If anything, Surt recognized the infinite willpower of the boy, the determination to never give up, never give in, even if Luffy was a freaking annoyance most of the time.
If anything, Surt saw the dreams of the boy and become slightly jealous of him. The innocence and the will...wait a bloody minute.
D...as in the D?.
Surt coughed on his pipe and he looked at Luffy and saw a ghost image of a certain King that took everything that the world had to offer.
"I will be dammed". Grumbled Surt in his head, better start packing, accompanying the next King of Pirates in his adventures was on the cards for his foreseeable future.
Holy Elbaf.