The Goa Kingdom is a small but wealthy city in the East Blue, it is home to some very snobbish folk who look down on the people they consider to be below them. On the edge of the city is an elevated bus depot called Gray Terminal, the underneath of the terminal is a small dump where unused furniture, cars and other items find their way to. As such it is considered a treasure trove for scavengers and very popular for children to hang around and play in.
Nearby the city is a large mountain surrounded by a forest which extends over the mountain before ending at a small settlement called Windmill Village, a town known for fishing and their delicious beef being a local delicacy. From the edge of the village, a dirt path snakes its way up Mount Corvo to a clearing near the top. Visitors that come through often believe that the path leads up to old temple or shrine and sometimes take the lengthy, often very steep path to see it. If they do not give up partway through the monstrous hike or aren't scared off by the occasional bear, they will reach the top, only to be greeted by disappointment. The only buildings are a couple small shacks and a medium sized building with a white flag of a mountain in front of two crossed words and a sign reading "Dandan's Orphanage and Primary School".
The land is owned by a woman named Curly Dadan and her 'Family' who use it to take care of orphans and take them through the first year of schooling. Curly Dadan, the director of the orphanage and principal of the school is a tall and overweight woman with long, knotty, orange hair. When she isn't teaching or taking care of the kids, she can always be found in the dining hall smoking and drinking beer, a light mist glazing over her eyes as she recalls her past. The other teachers, Dogra; a short bald man with a stern look and cloth wrapped around his head, and Magra; a tall stocky man with a brown moustache connected to thick sideburns and head and bright red head and chin hair shaped oddly similar to a chicken's comb, would always tell the kids that she was fondly remembering her younger years with her lost lover.
This was of course a lie.
The Dadan Family was originally a notorious bandit group, the man-sized axe hanging of the wall in the principal's office being the only proof. They were later captured and would have been sentenced to life had a certain police officer not let them off with a specific condition. Now they took care of the lost, forgotten and unwanted children all day long and whilst they tried their best to avoid crime, they couldn't help pickpocketing certain rich folk when they went out shopping. Midway forest was home to many dangerous animals like bears and snakes and boars, so the children are forbidden from entering though many do any way to fight the animals.
Being raised by former bandits and living in a rough part of the area, the kids often picked up the skills of the former bandits which lead them to often get in trouble for stealing or starting fights. Some members of the village did not mind the Dadan Family and their kids such as Makino, a young woman with dark-green hair, often tied up with a checkered yellow kerchief and the owner of the local Partys Bar & Convenience Store. Woop Slap, the elderly, often grumpy man with grey hair and moustache, a red and white striped hat and yellow spectacles didn't mind either but was less forgiving when it came to the kids misbehaving. Most of the townsfolk however were scared of the group so did not allow their kids to attend the local school, thus the Dadan Family taught their children up until the 6th grade.
Today, the spring sun shone brilliantly down over the peaceful countryside, the birds sang, the still sleepy bears ate their catch, and the sound of heavy running could be heard on the Mt Corvo trail. A young man with straw sandals, blue shorts, a sleeveless, red, button-up shirt, a scar under his left eye, messy black hair and a large straw-hat with a red line around the brim was sprinting up the steep path up the mountain, leaping up the steps three at a time despite them going up at a 45 angle. Whilst it was impressive that someone could be tackling the treacherous hike, it was even more so as he was carrying a cartoonishly big bag on his back, being almost twice his size. He raced up the mount that would take people more than an hour to walk in just under 10 minutes, the wind rushing through his hair and his huge smile gleaming as bright as the sun.
Monkey D. Luffy was one of the many kids raised by the Dadan Family, though not because he was an orphan but because there was no one who could take care of him. His father was… absent and his grandfather, Garp was unable to safely say that he could be well taken care of if he took custody, thus he settled on Dadan being his foster mother. Ex-Vice Admiral Garp, now Commissioner Garp was the one who had let Dadan off on the condition that she raise his friend's child and later requested she take Luffy in. Being threatened with life imprisonment and also being director of an orphanage, she had no choice but raise the two, a choice she said that she regretted but deep down, she loved Luffy like her own son.
Luffy, when he had graduated, primary school was forced to go to the only high school in the area, Goa Academy. Luffy hated it there, not only because the other students where the dictionary of rich, spoiled human scum, but also because… well, he didn't like to talk about it. Thus, when it came close for him to graduate from junior high school, he, with the help of Garp successfully enrolled into Grand Line High. The school was quite far away from his hometown but thankfully offered living arrangements for long distance students. Now, his back packed beyond its limit and adventure rising over the horizon like a golden sun, he was ready to say goodbye.
The energetic teen reached the top of the mount and sprinted over to the orphanage's main building. The wooden door to the dining slammed open as Luffy ran in panting heavily, the kids where chaotically eating some freshly cooked deer and boar carcasses yelling and pushing and snatching from each other. This, however, was commonplace and even encouraged by the orphan carers, the questionable rule implemented by Dadan was:
"A serving of rice, a bowl of miso soup, a cup of water and a single portion of meat per meal, anymore you will have to either make yourself or fight for it."
This spurred on one of three responses:
1: The child would diligently hunt local fauna, get vegetables from the vegetable patch a learn how to cook for themselves. 2: The child would accept their meal portions as they were and instead spent their pocket money for more snack-based food in Windmill Village, or 3: The child would fight over the extra meat portions from the carcasses.
Number three was the most common.
At the sound of the door opening, the kids went silent as they turned around to see Luffy fully packed and ready to leave. Dadan was chatting with Dogra and Magra before glancing over to look at the young man, ready to depart out into the real world.
"Hey guys!" he called out gleefully "I just came by to say goodbye!"
Many of the younger children swarmed him like a school of fish, bitterly crying and begging him not to leave. Luffy was happy to see everyone, but it was clear that he was growing uncomfortable with them crawling all over him. Dogra and Magra chuckled from their table.
"My, my, does time fly," Dogra said, his narrow eyes opening up a little, "it feels like it was almost yesterday when you first showed up here."
"Yeah," Magra agreed, "and now look at you, all grown up and about to head off to Grand Line High School, just like Ace 2 years before!"
"I know," Luffy laughed "I can't wait to see him again."
Dadan remained silent as she watched Luffy, not because she didn't care but because she feared that she would burst into tears the moment she said something.
The motley crew of rambunctious kids and retired criminals talked, laughed and sometimes cried about the past and Luffy's plans for the future. He then glanced at his watch and began wrapping up the heartfelt moment in need of leaving soon.
"Well, you guys, I'm off to the bus stop, are you going to see me off?" he asked.
It was then Dadan plucked up the courage to speak to the boy she had raised to a fine young man, off to make his mark on the world.
"Nah, we'll see you off from here," she declined, doing everything that she could to hold back the croak in her voice. "You know the townsfolk don't like us; I hope your journey goes well." She said, content of her ability to hold it in together.
"Oh," said Luffy, slightly disappointed before returning to his goofy self, "well in then, I'm off. See you guys!" he said with a wave and began to jog out of the house before stopping to turn back to his 3 carers.
"Oh, Dogra, Magra, Dadan," he called out drawing their attention, "I don't really like mountain bandits, but I really like you guys!" he said, the light from his smile inescapable.
This was too much for Dadan as se whipped out an old handkerchief from her breast pocket and wailed into the small piece of cloth, drenching it with tears and nose drippings.
"Dammit you little brat," she wept loudly, "get out of h-h-here!"
Luffy dashed out of the house and ran faster down the mountain than on his way up, a chorus of "Bye Luffy," s and "We'll miss you," s from the kids was heard as his sprinting figure dashed behind a boulder and out of sight. As Dadan recovered from her crying fit, she reached over and grabbed Magra's untouched bottle of beer and chugged the whole thing down in two gulps. Slamming the bottle back down on the table, her eyes drifted to an old, framed photograph sitting on the sill of the fireplace. In it were three children fighting an enormous bear with metal pipes: a blonde boy with black top hat, a confident black haired one with freckles and a younger boy with messy black hair, a scar under his left eye and large straw hat snuggled over his head. Dadan looked away from the photo and chugged down Dogra's beer bottle before looking at the door and the saddened kids.
"Damnit" she said as she picked herself up"
"So just triple checking," Makino began, listing off of her fingers with one hand while the other arm cupped a small baby sleeping peacefully. "You have your clothes?"
"Yep"
"Toothbrush, toothpaste, towels, soap, everything like that?"
"Yep"
"Phone, laptop, chargers, torches, all your textbooks, schoolbooks and school supplies?"
"Yep"
She sighed, "A packed lunch?"
"Yeph" Luffy replied chomping away on a prime grilled beef leg.
"And you know how to get there and what you are going to do?"
"Yes, there is a bus from Shellstown to Orange town and I'm going to be roommates with a guy called… Boogie?"
"Buggy" Makino corrected.
"Right"
The two had come to Windmill Village's bus stop which stood between the edge of the town and the lake. Several people from the village had come to see him off, congratulating him for getting into a great school. Even Woop Slap, the grumpy old Mayor had come out to say goodbye. Standing by Luffy were two suitcases with all of the things that he would need moving into a new place. Grand Line High offered students from the East Blue a shuttle bus service from Shellstown to Orange town, a small part of Loguetown city which housed the high school's dormitories. However, to get to Shellstown, he would have to take a 3-hour coach ride from his village. The coach's schedule had it depart from Goa Kingdom's Grey Terminal which was closer to the orphanage on Mt Corvo, but Luffy didn't feel like visiting it so instead, here he was waiting by the side of the road for the bus to come.
To pass the time he was snacking on several curry bento boxes he picked up from Mikino's while he waited. Makino wasn't the one to raise Luffy, but she would often come up the mountain with weekly supply of snack foods and beer from her store (Her biceps were well toned carrying the equivalent weight of a baby whale up the trail), and sometimes helped the kids in 'courtesy classes' were she would teach them about proper manners and how to act around people, traits the kids lacked being raised by bandits.
While not as a prominent figure in his life, one would consider Makino to be kind of his foster aunt was she always took care of him when he came into town (Luffy did not consider Makino as an aunt figure, he saw her as the nice polite lady at the bar who gave him food).
As Luffy finished downing a can of Calpis soda, his phone began to buzz in his pocket. Curiously, he reached in and pulled it out to see who it was calling him.
Facetime video call from: Grampa
Luffy clicked the accept icon and the screen flickered as the grinning, bearded face of his grandfather appeared on his screen.
"Hey Luffy!" he chuckled "How are you?"
"I'm good grandpa, I'm just waiting for the bus to come pick me up."
"You do well at school and become a great navy soldier or police officer you hear me?" Garp nudged enthusiastically. "In fact, the school runs several clubs and extracurricular activities related to the local navy branch and it just so happens I know several members of the school. If you want, I could pull a couple strings and see if I can get you enlisted."
"Grandpa," Luffy said stubbornly, "You've been telling me to do that all my life but I'm not going to do that, I will go to Grand Line High, and I will become…" he threw his hands into the air dramatically, "King of the Pirates!"
"What?!" Garp's yell being so loud that Luffy's phone couldn't process it, "You little brat! Is THAT why you wanted to go to that school?! To compete in that stupid student contest?!" Garp was being so cartoonishly angry one could swear his pupils vanished like in a manga.
Luffy glanced to his right and saw the bus coming over the hill towards the stop and so he flagged it down and finished up his call, "Bus is here, bye grandpa!" he said ending the call and cutting Garp off mid-sentence. As the bus came to a stop, Luffy heard a rippling sound behind his, so he glanced back to see what it was. Protruding out of the surface of the lake was the head of an abnormally large eel, its sharp front teeth from its lower jaw gripped tightly around the base of its snout. It was Windmill Village's unofficial mascot being nicknamed "The Lord of the Coast" after an old myth of the lake being home to an enormous snake-like monster.
"Hello," Luffy called out approaching the creature which was almost as wide as his torso, "did you come to say goodbye to me?" The eel naturally did not answer but Luffy didn't care as he gave it a light scratch behind its ears and on its chin as if it were a dog.
"Now," Luffy said, sounding sterner, "don't go around biting people while I'm gone, OK?" The eel had no reaction and just stood there watching the teen ramble on.
"Good boy," he said giving it a pat in the head before turning away and waving goodbye.
The driver loaded up his suitcases into the coach's storage while Luffy paid for his ticket and went off sit down by a window on the left side of the back of the bus, all the villagers waved him farewell with smiles and tears and he waved back. As the bus began to pull out of the stop, he saw something amazing, standing next to the fishmonger parallel to the bus stop was Dogra, Magra, Dadan and all of the other kids, gleefully waving and cheering as he waved goodbye to them all, that iconic smile on his face as he watched the town he had lived in all his life slowly fade away until he couldn't see it any longer. He turned around and sat back down in his chair, excitement for his new adventure overflowing, fondly holding on to his straw hat. Plugging in his headphones to his phone, he pressed play on his Spotify playlist, playing one of his favourite tunes; We Are!