All in all, being a monster is precisely what brought me freedom.
Talk about irony.
Once, I accidentally listened to the rambles of "Joker", Aka Donquixote Donflamingo, the fallen Celestial Dragon turned pirate and later Warlord, when I was protecting the next batch of slaves for the amusement of my owner, Saint Camael.
The crazy asshole insisted that luck was the most potent factor on the seas. The luck to have a good ship, the luck to find a powerful devil fruit, to have a strong body, to be the one born with the Conqueror's Haki, so on and so forth. Up to a point, I agree. It was just sheer dumb luck that I was in Mary Geoise the day Fisher Tiger razed the place, allowing me to help other slaves escape.
It was a glorious day.
In my limited experience of the world; I am around ten to twenty years of biological age, despite looking as I am in my thirties; I have been exposed to the worst and best of humanity at the same time.
My cradle was a nutrient bottle in the depths of the labs of Punk Hazard, the private laboratory of the genius Doctor Vegapunk, not much after he was arrested by the Marines for his, and Vinsmoke Judge's experimentation with clones, where he was trying to perfect the cloning process, and add Lineage Factor's to create a better human. To develop an immune system that would make the humans adapt to everything that this World has to offer, stronger, sturdier, healthier humans that could mingle with the rest of the races of the world on equal footing, no matter where.
It was a pity that the good intentions of Vegapunk were taken and turned into weapons of war. Like Vinsmoke Judge did with his very own children, turning them into living weapons, or how the Word Government just wanted perfectly expendable soldiers or his giant army. Fortunately, the Gigantification process was a failure, the ten subjects, even if they were as big and strong as an Ancient Giant, they are severely limited. Not to mention, that Vegapunk kept the secret of the clone fabrication to himself.
Just imagine what the World Government, well, better said, the five assholes at the top would do if they had a factory of government loyal Gold Rogers, White beards, Kaidos, etc. That's just the stuff of nightmares.
In my case, Vegapunk cloned the best physically suited individual whose blood he had access to, and then added other races Lineage Factors, to craft an individual that would be able to survive any environment and thrive on them. I am the clone of the physically stronger individual of the era.
Nay, not Gold Roger. Roger had a genetic disease that made him a poor candidate for cloning. Neither his fellow pirate, Whitebeard, as he has never been a prisoner of the marines, so they did not have samples of his blood. Nay. The sample that Vegapunk used was from the strongest marine, "The Fist" Monkey D Garp.
To be more concrete.
I am a modified clone of Monkey D Garp, with the addition of the Lineage Factor of Ancient Giants, Wolf Mink, Fish-men, Merfolk, and Three-Eye tribe. I am a bloody abomination.
The last part, the Three eye tribe, was responsible for most of my actions so far. The idea to add such a thing to the mix was to see if the power called "The Voice of All Things" could be implanted, distilled from the Lineage factor of the Three-eyed and infused in all people. If all people could hear the true voices of other people then lots of misunderstandings will simply disappear.
It was a nice dream, unfortunately, the Lineage of the Three-eyed did not sit well with the rest, and when I awake for the first time outside of the bottle that birthed me, I listened to the Voice of All Things of the entire world, at the same time. It almost fried my brain. It lasted around five seconds, my first five seconds of life was the entire world screeching at my head. Agony could not even begin to describe it.
Vegapunk saw my suffering and pumped me full of sedatives, with the blissful silence and oblivion, the voices shut up, and I no longer listened to them again. On the other hand, it awakened my Observation Haki, something that came pretty useful to survive the incoming battles and miseries of my life.
Vegapunk did not throw me into the garbage, he felt responsible for almost frying my brain, and for the life that he has created. For a while, I was the assistant of Vegapunk in Punk Hazard, a mixture of a lab assistant, student, pack mule, and bodyguard of Vegapunk. Due to my unique condition, I was leagues above the rest of the people, even if they are New World natives. Learning was fun, cooking was fun, fighting the native fauna and the failed experiments of other mad doctors was fun.
Sadly, everything good has an end, and during one of the routine checks of the bosses of Vegapunk, a small World Noble, the youngest daughter of Saint Camael, saw me and decided that she needed on her collection. She collected "animals", meaning anyone that was not another World Noble, and put them in pens, where she collected them whenever she wanted to entertain themselves with fights to the death or to experiment with them or to use them as a steed.
Vegapunk tried to argue that I was a vital part of the gigantification project, but the word of a World Noble is absolute, she wanted me for her collection, and she would have shot Vegapunk in the site, except for the fact that Vegapunk was the Chief Scientist of the World Government and the CP-0 agents would have evacuated him of the site in a blink and told the World Noble that they have killed the offender.
The majority of the World Nobles are petulant children, so that would be enough.
Time does not matter much when you are a slave. Especially a slave that is treated like an attacking dog. I rested on an animal pen between the latest whim of my mistress, Saint Zerua, alternating between steed, gladiator, poison dummy, piranha racer, and several other very entertaining activities.
Pros: It was the best possible trainer.
Cons: It was the worst possible situation.
The only reason why I survived, is because of my enhancements. I am the clone of a very strong individual, and I carry the benefits of several other races. Curiously enough, the World Noble that owned me believed that she had found the first Devil Fruit user that can swim. That notion was dismissed by everyone else with two brain cells to rub together as they had a look at my files in the CP-0 archives.
Vegapunk classified me as Wotan when they asked for my data. An experiment on Human-Wotan hybridization and investigation on the possibilities of Gigantification through the application of Ancient Giant blood. My Electro came with the excuse that my father was an electric heel Wotan, and my mother a giant blooded human.
It was a good thing that the World Noble was an ignoramus that believed herself to be a master tamer. If she ever ran a blood test, she will be freaking out, not to mention how my blood matched the blood type of Garp.
So, time passed, I fought, I killed, I carried the small bitch all over Mary Geoise, I suffer torture, poison, beatings, the usual for slaves.
Saint Zerua seemed bored with me, I was the only survivor of all of her latest "hunts", and she was about to shoot me in the head; something that will not kill me, as the gun was a very weak pistol and my skeleton bones are stronger than iron at this point; when another World Noble commented that she would mercifully save me from my death, she needed a new strong steed and gladiator for their weekend disputes, and I was perfect for the job.
As a toy, I was passed around the World Nobles, I was their favorite toy. I was able to endure their abuse and punishment. They were delighted of hitting me, just to see that I did not break, which started quite the competition about whose riding crop was better to make me walk faster. The winner was a cattle prod, they found that my fish-man ears were very sensible to electric currents that are not my Electro, and it rattled my brain badly whenever they applied it to me.
If I was not carrying a World Noble all over Mary Geoise, I was tossed into gladiatorial pens with other dangerous slaves and animals, or used for a specific set of entertainment. In an ironic twist, my status as Wotan prevented most of the sexual abuse that other slaves suffered constantly. In part due to how my twin cocks; the product of Fish-men Lineage, from the sea snake blood; we're too big for the human bodies of the female World Nobles, and in part due to how I was a Wotan, a Fish-man, meaning, ugly to the eyes, and whose only attractive is his bulging muscles.
Red skinned, with fins on the arms and legs, horns, tusks, reptile feet, wolfish eyes; sensitive eyes were a pain; and swole as hell. I am built like a battleship on high spec steroids, the consequence of being the clone of Garp and blood of Ancient Giants. Oh, and my hair had a golden sheen, not different from gold, that was eye-catching. It grew on its own, covering my upper lip and cheeks. I am convinced that it had something to do with my Mink heritage, but the golden color of my hair is quite baffling.
Anyhow, I am an ugly motherfucker the best of days, but some among the World Nobles had a thing for muscles and big cocks, and I was called in a few occasions to service those World Nobles. As the first time goes, it was bloody horrible. They were not ugly, well, not hag level ugly, I mean, they were hardly attractive, they were pudgy, bland, and annoying, not to mention that they did anything, and it was just me, orally servicing they rancid pussies and trying not to laugh at their pathetic attempts to take more than a quarter of my cocks into them without being split in half.
Horrible, as I have said. Fortunately, some female slaves were the complete opposite and that taught me what a real woman can do. It was a common thing among certain cliques of slaves, that they found comfort and respite among them.
Those wonderful women show me the true pleasures of the flesh, how to satisfy, and how to treat a partner with passion and pleasure. I owed them a lot. Thankfully, I managed to pay them back, when a chance for freedom came around later.
On other cliques of slaves, their masters demanded that they did all they could to fall ass over tea kettle to serve them, even kill other slaves for the privilege of serving them a coup of glass, or being lashed, or any other delusional ideas that the wastes of flesh had on their heads those days.
Vegapunk tried to teach me some basic morals, after all, I grew up in a bottle and when I awake, I was on the receiving end of the world's worst screech since the execution of Gold Roger. Not to mention how Vegapunk failed to realized that the modified human process that he used, was the same that Judge used, and that left me with a lot of muted emotions.
The Voice of All Things shattered most of those, one can not felt the entire world's emotions and walk away from the same, but I knew that I was of a different mentality than the rest of the world. That being said, I tried to aid my fellow slaves as much as I could. Taking a punishment here, distract an angry World Noble there, smuggle food over there, small things that help the slaves survive another day. It was a sad truth, that my efforts usually were wasted, as the death toll on Mary Geoise was bigger than some wars.
There were slaves from all over the world. Minks, Fish-men, Merfolk, Long-arm, Long-leg, Snake-neck, Dwarfs, Humans, Giants, all races represented in Mary Geoise. Only Toto-land had such diversity, however, Toto-land was paradise, even if it was the territory of Big Mom, compared with the atrocities that took place in Mary Geoise daily.
For a time, I become the favorite slave of Saint Shalria, a vapid bitch that had a muscle fetish a mile wide and that claimed that only the strongest slaves were allowed to serve her. That they are delighted to serve a goddess like her and that worship her was the only thing that they need to survive. Meaning, that we had to literally pray to her daily, and then scramble as much as we could to seek out food, as she considered that her divine presence was nourishment enough.
Well, she had an iota of reason inside that stupid head of hers and often tossed scraps of the licentious feasts that she and her siblings indulged daily, to her favorites, who were chained at her feet like loyal dogs or acting as stools for her royal ass to sit on. In the beginning, I had some difficulties to make the other understand that all the food that the bitch tossed, was to be collected and shared among all the slaves under her heel. After the third "accidental" broken neck, spine, and sudden and mysterious hole where their heart should be, they caught the message.
Saving the lives of other slaves become the only thing that kept me sane in the middle of that freaking purgatory. I knew that I was strong enough to carve a bloody path in the castle, but I was seriously out of shape, and the collar around my neck had blades of Sea Stone that would cut my head faster than I can use my Armament Haki to broke the bloody thing. On the other hand, training was not a problem. Survival of the fittest was the best trainer possible, and almost daily, I had to fight strong opponents that push my Haki to the limits and beyond.
Saint Sharlia make me participate once, in a lottery of death of sorts, along with other strong slaves.
The idea was to take a dozen starved slaves, put them in a cage with hundreds of carefully crafted fruits that imitate Devil Fruits, but in truth were terrible poisonous, and let the slaves fight or eat the poisoned fruits, The hunger must be so big, that they would prefer to eat the poisonous fruits than to continue experimenting hunger.
Sharlia gave me a legendary beating when I flipped the script in front of their noses.
First, I used my observation to find the Devil Fruits, then pick them up, eat a lot of the poisonous fruit; that was bitter than anything else to me; then walk to the slaves, give the Devil Fruits to the three girls that look completely out of place among the monsters of the cage, then walk to the other beasts in human skin on the cage, rip them apart and feast on their corpses. The first time that I eat fresh meat in quite a while. Pity that I could not cook it, I missed cooking, I like it.
The three girls were scared shitless of me, but they recognized that I have saved their lives, and spoke to me, well, once I stopped munching on the heart of a particularly vicious Fish-man. They were Amazons, three sisters from Amazon Lily, the legendary kingdom of the Amazons in the Calm Belt. It was quite a surprise, I knew that they were other Amazons in Mary Geoise, the natural beauty and strength made them quite desirable for the slavers.
Screeching the name that the bitch has given to me, Teddy, Shalria proceed to whip me with all she had. Thanks to my Armament Haki, it did not left crippling consequences, but the pain was very real. The girls silently supported me through the entire ordeal, as they have to endure the gloating and groping of the disgusting pig that was their master, but no harm came to them, as I was hit in their instead.
The next time that I saw the sisters, was when Fisher Tiger climbed the Red Line and delivered the mother of all the reality slaps to the World Nobles.
By that point in time, I was the favorite slave of Shalria, and I had my hands full trying to protect a small kid that another asshole had brought for a corner of the East Blue called the Goa Kingdom. The moment I saw the black-haired kid, the moment I felt him through observation Haki, the Voice of All Things that I believed will never bother me again, screamed at me again.
That boy was of my blood, well, of Garp's blood to be precise, he carried the Will of the King, his presence here was a tremendous error. I knew how he was and knew who his father and grandfather were, I knew of his brothers, siblings through bonds stronger than blood, I knew of what this small kid will achieve, and I knew of the day of the arrival of Fisher Tiger.
I did all I could, I did all I could to prevent the breaking of the small child. I called him Chimp and took him under my wing. It was a very delicate balance, standing on the blade's edge, serving the World Nobles and protecting the innocence of a child at the same time.
Truly, the arrival of Fisher Tiger was a blessing. With him as an excuse, I tore the entire wing of the palace apart and join the Fish-man in his quest to liberate the slaves. I guided the three sisters and Chimp, along with Tiger, to run, to escape from the place, I collaborated with a pair of giants to topple several of the pillars of the city into rubble.
Staring at the bottom of my glass of rum, in the hideout of the Dadan gang of mountain bandits of Mount Colubo, I sighed and waited for the arrival of the strong presences that flared at the edges of my Observation Haki. One of them was so similar to mine when I was young….okay, that is a line that barely two decades old clones should never use.
With a spare glance to the side, I smile at the image of Makino, Luffy, and Ace, cuddling in their sleep. The reunion has been emotional, and tears of relief, sadness, and impotent rage have been dropped. Dadan and the other bandits were at their respective huts, I have informed them that the father and grandfather of the rescued boy will appear and once they listened to what I have to say, it was more than possible that Mount Colubo will no longer be.
It is a possibility, it is what I would have done if some assholes with delusions of grandeur kidnapped children all over the world to satisfy their psychopathic whims.
Tipping the edge of my claw on the liquid on the vase, I used the natural affinity of the Fish-men to manipulate water to create two droplets of rum that tickled the nose of Makino, awakening her. Her eyes were puffy, and she was hugging the two small boys like a mother hen, but she has demanded to be present during my tale about how I found Luffy, and how have I rescued him.
Not to mention, the explanation about why Luffy now has the symbol of the Sun pirates on his back. I had the Sun on my chest. It served to cover the Hoof of the Soaring Dragon, the brand of the slaves of the Celestial Dragons, aka, the World Nobles. I had to admit that I liked the cool tattoo, and it was the perfect way to cover any possible slaves among a pirate crew.
Thanks to how I have been a member of the Sun Pirates during the voyage from the edges of the Grand Line to the East Blue, I knew that all the Marines were convinced that I was a Wotan under the banner of the Sun Pirates, and not a slave. A clever trick that Fisher Tiger pulled. And I took advantage of that to mark Luffy as well, so if anyone asked, he was a cabin boy for the Sun Pirates making his fortune.
"They are already here", I informed the green-haired woman.
She smiled softly at me, cleaning her puffy eyes for the long cry, and triple-checking that Luffy was there and safe, she reluctantly left the bed and joined me at the table, servicing herself directly from one of the bottles of rum. I can not blame her, this was not a good conversation.
"We can not thank you enough for returning Luffy to us", she nursed the bottle. In her voice, a million emotions danced, all of them claiming a spot at the forefront of her thoughts.
"Think nothing of it", I shrugged and took a swing from another bottle. I can drink oceans of this stuff and I will not even be tipsy. "It something that I had to do".
Makino raised an eyebrow but said nothing, the massive presences of Garp and Dragon were already at the entrance and their Haki was more than enough to crash the hut by sheer force of will alone. That was the dangers of Haki, Haki is the imposition of one's will over the world, a strong enough will can shatter steel by just focusing his Armament Haki on it. It took me way too much to realize that.
"Shhhhh", I shushed the two adults, completely indifferent to their powerful Haki, mine was enough to withstand their fury, and I do not know fear. It was an emotion that was pretty alien to me.
Makino stiffened a giggle at the flabbergasted expression of the two men, who blinked, processing the situation, and walked inside the hut. Well, Dragon walked, Garp almost fly at the bed with Luffy and Ace, bawling his eyes out. But Makino was faster, grab him by ear, and guided him to the table.
Garp muted protest died once he finally took a minute to look at me. Curiously, both Dragon and Garp looked at me with the same raised eyebrow and tilted head. Makino smiled widely at the scene and poured drinks for all of us. As I have said before, this was the kind of conversation that is impossible to have in a sober state.
"You know that I am completely loyal to your mom, right?", said Garp to Dragon, who facepalmed and groaned at Garp's words. Makino laughed quietly but nodded along with Garp.
"At first, I thought that Garp had another son", nodded Makino. "But I do not remember him being married to a Merfolk, so I thought it was yours", turned her face to Dragon.
"I have no brothers, and only one son", simply said Dragon, eyeing me with curiosity and eager to listen to my tale. "And that makes your appearance and the rescue of my son, quite the interesting tale".
"Luffy", sighed Garp. "Where have you been all this time?", grumbled Garp and Makino stiffened, knowing already the answer.
I emptied a glass of rum and pour myself another before answering.
"Take a hold of your Haki", I told to my "family". This was nuts. "You are not going to like the answer, and your Haki will hurt Makino or the children".
Garp growled, but Dragon recognized the truth of my words. I think I impressed them when I perfectly judged when have they lowered their Haki enough for the hut to do not blow up like an overstuffed balloon. Still, I knew that I was about to unleash my own Haki when I explain to them what happened to Luffy.
"Saint Jalmack took him during the Grey Terminal burning". Said and done.
When I finished my words, I let my Haki protect Makino and the children from the stormy expression of the Monkey family men. My Observation picked up the very unnatural weather formations that were taking place way above our heads. Garp did not have a Devil Fruit, it was something that he took pride in, so Dragon had a powerful Logia or weather-related Paramecia.
"Control yourselves", I pushed my own Haki tapping theirs. "You will hurt Makino and the children".
Dragon glared at me, but he soon reigned in, his temper, and everything went to normal. Honestly, the real worry was Garp, the man was on the verge of having a seizure. His fists were strangling something imaginary, as his teeth gritted and big tears fall from his eyes. Makino was consoling the big guy, but I understood that what I have said had some implications that the men knew pretty well.
"The World Nobles", the pure, undiluted, venom that distilled those words would have been enough to kill a Sea King. Dragon's beef with the World Dragons must be something serious.
"Jalmack, then Shalria", I nodded. "I was Shalria's favorite toy and I took Luffy under my care, as much as I could". It was not a pretty tale, but they must know it. "Unfortunately, there is a limit on what a slave can do in Mary Geoise, however, Fisher Tiger, that wonderful bastard, climbed Mary Geoise and give us the chance to escape".
Pushing the border of my jacket down, they could see the Sun tattoo on my chest.
"I joined Tiger's crew to pay for passage back to the East Blue and took the Sun mark to hide Luffy's and mine brands". Pirate life has been quite interesting, it was almost like being back at Punk Hazard. "It took us almost a year, but Tiger is a man of his word and he took us to the East Blue, from Loge Town to here it was an easy travel".
Silence, only cut by the sobs and grunts of Garp, filled the hut. Another bottle to my tally, yay. I miss the chance to be drunk.
"Why?", asked Dragon.
Makino eyed Dragon as if she could not believe the question that has come out of his mouth.
"I own you, a stranger, more than I could never repay", continued Dragon, cutting the incoming angry response of Makino. "But Luffy was one more among the slaves, why Luffy, why did you protect him and how do you know where to bring him?".
That made Makino pause and think about it, that was a good question.
"It is a long story", I picked more rum. I may not be able to drink myself into a stupor, but I will try nonetheless.
"We have time", simply said Dragon.
"I recommended you to fetch a drink", I offered a bottle to him. "This is the kind of tale, that needs booze to be believed".
Dragon said nothing but continued to stare at me, it was Garp the one that took the bottle and drink a long swing. Everything on the body language of the old man spoke of how much hell he was going to unleash later.
"Everything started when Vegapunk had an idea", I started to explain, and the name of the genius of the marines made Garp and Dragon look at me with growing dread. Whenever Vegapunk was involved, things like logic and common sense tend to abandon the room. Through the window.
"He, along Vinsmoke Judge", another name that made them groan and grunt respectively, "discovered the buildings blocks of all living things, the Lineage factor. The blueprints of life, so to speak".
"By the time they completed the investigation, the government reached the lab and took Vegapunk prisoner", which was in the report about Vegapunk's actual capture. "Seeing the immense talent of the guy, they decided to offer him a "job under probation", and sent him to the laboratories that the government had at the entrance of the New World, in the Punk Hazard island".
"There, Vegapunk continued with the experiments that he was doing with Judge and collaborated with the rest of the personnel of the island, in all of what they were doing there", frankly, it always amazed me how much work can Vegapunk does, the guy was a workaholic, but only when the project interested him. "From the gigantification project to the chemical warfare, to medicine development".
"In his laboratory, Vegapunk tried to found a Lineage Factor capable of enduring everything", or at last that was what Vegapunk explained to me. "It was not the idea of a panacea, but the idea of making an immune system so strong that it can adapt to everything".
"To create such a strong individual, Vegapunk needed a perfect specimen, the top of the top of the human race", as I said those words, Dragon started to go pale, and Garp blinked, not entirely getting it. "Thanks to the investigation that he and Judge made, he only need a sample of blood to create the perfect vessel for his experiments".
"The scientific name is cloning", I explained to them and I saw Dragon stiffening, quickly deducing whose sample did Vegapunk used for his experiments. "Make a perfect replica of an already existing individual".
Garp observed me, and I swear that I could listen to the gears of his brain working before realization hit him and closing a fist, muttered between clenched teeth.
"That bloody mad scientist!", Garp's teeth grated as Garp mentally swore to punch the asshole into the next era.
"Of course, with that alone was not enough", I continued drinking more rum.
"Oi", croaked Garp taking offense to that. Seriously?. Only the Monkey family, I swear.
Everyone ignore the childish tantrum of Garp and continued with the tale. As much as the "Fist" is the hero of the marines, the man is also a knucklehead most of the time. A creature of instinct more than brains. His son, Dragon, was the polar opposite.
"Thanks to the already developing investigations on Punk Hazard, Vegapunk added the blood of Ancient Giants, Wotan, Mink, Merfolk, Fish-men, and finally Three eye tribe". The last name made Dragon frown.
"If I did the numbers right, it takes around five years to develop a twenty years old human, taking into consideration the age spam differences between the races, I think, I passed two to three years to create the equivalent of an infant Ancient Giant".
"Unfortunately, once I was out of the bottle where Vegapunk growth me, once I was awake for the first time, the Voice of All Things that came from the Three-Eye tribe went Awol and I become capable of listening to the voices of all the world, at the same time".
"Ah, shit", Garp grumbled and picked up his small bottle. "Roger grumbled about that, he said that the world was really loud sometimes".
Dragon stared at his father with surprise. He never spoke about Roger's supposed inhumane skill to learn and know things. So, it was the Voice of All Things responsible for that.
"The first five seconds of my life, was the world screeching at me", I snorted and shivered, even after all of what the World Nobles did to me, the experience of the Voice of All Things was even worse. "I lasted five seconds before Vegapunk pumped me up with enough sedatives to put down a giant and the blissful silence. I only have listened to the Voice of All Things twice in my life".
"One, when I awoke for the first time outside of my bottle, and two, when I meet Luffy".
I stared at them, with the kind of look of a veteran of wars that had seen shit that would make the Emperors lookout for the nearest booze.
"The world screeched at me, shouted Luffy's name, who he is, who he could be, and the absolute certainty that he should not be there, that Luffy's presence in Mary Geoise was an aberration".
"When the world commands you to do something, you do it". I shrugged. "And Luffy, as demented as it can sound, is family, I could not leave him there, well, I tried to free as many slaves as I could taking advantage of the opening that Tiger gave me".
"We thank you for that", Makino turned her gaze to the sleeping children. "No matter how strange your tale and origin is, we are grateful that you have returned Luffy to us". Makino's glare at the other two men spoke volumes of how she will not allow any objection to that.
Nor that they have any, thanks to my Observation, I knew that they are beyond grateful and carefully holding their anger for a more worthy objective. I pity the next poor sod that gets in their way, not to mention that Garp had all the traces of someone that is going to do some serious spring cleaning with his fists.
"It was the right thing to do". I nodded and continued drinking my rum. "Once Fisher Tiger assaulted Mary Geoise, I pick up Luffy, help any slaves that I found in my way out, and joined the Fish-man when he sailed into the ocean".
Quickly showing them my Sun mark, they understood what the symbol means.
"I served with Fisher for the time that it will take to bring Luffy and me into the East Blue", it was a nice time all things considered. "As part of his crew. I served Tiger in whatever quest he could have. He went around freeing more slaves, so it was hardly a chore. Any loot that I have, I paid that to him for the medical bills of Luffy".
The other adults freeze at those words. What medical bills?. Makino eyed Luffy as if he was about to fall at any moment.
"Do not worry, the medical bills were for the lacerations, bruises, and fractures that the World Nobles inflicted on Luffy, along with the massive food bill that the lad needed to recover from the malnutrition and dehydration that he was suffering before I rescue him. In the time that it took to sail back home, the lad recovered fast and in no time he was up and running like a wild monkey", I smiled at the lad. Luffy brightened the day of anyone with his antics, although, sometimes he is too much savage and ignorant of the world to feel comfortable.
A mixture of emotions raged in the eyes of the other adults. Relief, anger, sadness, guilt, well, the lad was back with them, and that was all that mattered. I have filled my promise to my grandson, if that term can be applied to me, and returned him to where he should have never left, at least until he is twenty, well, according to the will of the world.
The thing is, Luffy is the inheritor of the Will of D, and the World wanted him on the oceans.
The other important thing is that I lied a bit.
I have listened to the Voice of all Things thrice in my life. The moment I delivered Luffy back to his, our, whatever, family, the Voice of All Things screamed like a howling banshee at my head a very, clear, precise, instructions.
YOU ARE GOING TO SAIL WITH THE PIRATE KING.
Bollocks.