o.o.o.o.o.o

Luffy sulked.

He sat on a soft, squishy chair and sulked.

And glared at anyone and anything that passed in front of him.

But mostly he sulked.

Why you ask?

Because he was currently in a room surrounded by a lot of other rooms, rooms which were filled with marines. . .

He was on an island with a huge-ass fortress. An island where every person was a marine.

They called it Head-Quaders, though he didn't know what head has anything to do with it. They also called it Marinefart, a nice name in his opinion. Fitting.

Now he was sitting in a chair, told to sit there by his grandfather and not move or face the pain of The Fist of Death. He didn't care if grandpa called it the Fist of Love, there was nothing loving about that torture device.

And he was hungry. They haven't given him anything to eat since he got here.

Anyway, he was sitting here while his grandfather and some other funny looking people had a meeting.

They are probably eating there too, he thought sulkily.

Grandpa had wanted to bring him along, saying that it would help him be a better marine. Ptoey, he's gonna be the Pirate King, not a marine. And he'd said it too, right then and there. Though, he didn't know why everyone had looked so shocked. Especially that weird bird head dude.

And grandpa had socked him over the head, then said he had to stay here and wait for him.

So now he had to wait here for his stupid grandpa, bored out of his mind. He could hear people going about all over the place. Looking out the window, and passed the bustling streets of the town below, he saw some people in white (guh, marines again!) doing something funny by the sea. They'd salute some important looking dude, scatter around, and then do something, and do some other something and come back to stand in front of the important looking dude again. And repeat. But it looked like fun, maybe he should join them.

He was just getting up to launch himself out of the window, the threat of Garp's fist long forgotten, when his stomach decided to remind him he was hungry. Very loudly.

''Waaah, I'm hungry!'' he announced to no one in particular (as no one was in the room with him), and proceeded to waltz out of the room (using the door, luckily, as some of the people in the hall noted.. he was Garp's grandson after all, they'd been in the near vicinity when Garp had loudly declared it so to Sengoku, they wouldn't have put it passed him to create his own exit). And now, off he went to fulfil the all important task of finding sustenance.

He went down one hall, turned left into another, turned right into yet another one, left again, straight this time, right now.. and so on and so forth he meandered through one of the most dangerous places on the planet (for a pirate anyways) and got himself lost. He didn't even notice he passed the room his grandfather sequestered him in a grand total of five times, and neither had the thought entered his head that he stayed on the same floor. People he passed numerous times started to question if he was all right in the head (not at all, but they couldn't have known that, these people weren't there to hear who he was related to).

But Luffy just kept on going, whistling all the while, looking for the paradise known as the 'Kitchen'. He regularly looked out the window, trying to spot if what he was looking for was outside. No such luck. He passed people on the hall, they were all going somewhere in a hurry. Why were they hurrying? There was nothing interesting going on as far as he knew. Then again, maybe there was something he didn't know about.

''Oii.'' He stopped the first person to cross his path. ''Why are you hurrying?''

''What's with you brat?! Don't just ram into people in the hall!'' the gangly looking young man seemed rather annoyed.

''Why are you hurrying?''

A tick mark started throbbing on the head on the marine. ''I need to deliver the papers. Now step aside. '' And he showed Luffy out of the way.

Luffy looked at the receding back of the man for a few seconds before declaring, ''He's hungry too. Hungry people are always grouchy. Ace was like that all the time.''

''You!'' he stopped someone else, an older man this time. ''Why are you hurrying?''

''My ship is sailing of soon, young lad.'' He couldn't see his mouth, but the man's beard and moustache moved in a funny way when he spoke.

''You're funny. '' Luffy laughed at the man.

''Ah, well..'' The man stroked his beard. ''I'll be going then, lad.''

The next several people he stopped had similar reasons (papers and reports mostly) and reactions varying between annoyed to bewildered at seeing a young boy in the fortress. Luffy shrugged it off, going about his previous task of trying to find the food. He was just about to turn into a corner when he rammed into someone, someone twice his height, and was thrown back on his butt.

''Whaa?'' He looked up to see a big man with strange hair standing in front of him.

''Are you alright, kid?'' the man, who Luffy saw was wearing a coat just like his grandpa's, asked and extended his hand to haul the boy back onto his feet.

''Yeah, shishishi'' he laughed. ''Why are you hurrying, ossan?''

''Hmm, '' he eyed the kid in front of him strangely. ''I'm late for a meeting. ''

''Meeting? Like the one jii-chan went to? ''

Jii-chan? ''Probably.''

''Aaah, you don't wanna go there. It's boring! But there are a lot of funny looking people..'' Luffy looked thoughtful now.

The man blinked and sweatdropped at the weird boy. ''What are you doing here, kid?''

''Huh, me?'' he pointed at himself. '' I wanna go see my brother. I haven't seen him in soooooo long, I'm starting to miss him too. But I know he's having fun, and doing whatever he wants. So I hid on grandpa's ship and told him I wanna go for a visit. But jii-chan hit me and told me I can't go, but I told him we have to go, so he told me we're going. But jii-chan was being mean so he said we had to go here first, I don't wanna be heeeere! There are marines here!''

The marine stared at the kid, he didn't understand half of what just came out the boy's mouth. ''Aah, really?''

''Yeah.'' The boy nodded and seemed like he had a thought. ''I'm Luffy! What's your name, ossan?''

''… Momonga.''

''Nice to meet'cha, shishishi'' Then he seemed like he had another thought. ''Say, ossan? Do you know where I could get some fooooood?'' he started drooling at the 'fooooood'.

The kid was getting weirder and weirder by the second. ''In the kitchens.''

''I know that.'' He waved his hand in front of his face to further his point. ''But, where are the kitchens?''

''A few floors below…'' Momonga then gave the young teen directions on how to get to the specific location of the food, watching the entire time how the boy's eyes got shinier and shinier and how more and more drool started to escape his mouth.

''Thanks, ossan!'' he cheered and was off. Momonga was left to watch, dumbfounded, the trail of dust left in the kid's wake. He shook his head and turned to head to the meeting room. ''Who was that kid anyway? And who's his grandfather?'' he muttered to himself. ''And why did he want to know my name if he wouldn't use it?''

However, even with directions, Luffy still managed to get himself lost, again. He'd been running all around the giant fortress for some time now. Up and down floors, sticking his head into rooms (sometimes multiple times in the same ones, as he'd been running around in circles quite often), and generally bumping into people on almost every step. He'd garnered himself quite the attention, since there were people running around now trying to find him.

But it meant little to the strawhat wearing boy as he caught the whiff of food. ''Aaaah, I should've done it like this in the first place.'' and he started following his nose, which was following the tantalising smell, toward his great goal.

''Ooof.'' He bumped into an old lady on the way, but kept running in the direction of the food. ''Sorry, obaa-chan.'' He called back.

''Tsuru-chan! Are you alright?'' A rotund officer ran up to the old marine.

''I'm fine. I would take more than some scrawny brat to take me down.'' She looked in the direction the boy disappeared. ''But who was that boy?''

''We don't know.'' The man growled. ''But he has been causing a ruckus. ''

''A new recruit maybe?''

''Doubtful. He's been yelling 'You'll never catch me alive, marines!' every time some of us chasing him spot the little troublemaker.'' He rubbed his shoulder then. ''But the brat is strong, almost dislocated my shoulder when he bumped into me.''

''Hnn.. And energetic one then.'' She chuckled. ''Make sure you catch him before he does any real damage.''

''Yes, ma'am.'' He saluted and ran off.

Finally! Finally he had found it! Food! Lots and lots of food! Luffy's eyes were the side of plates as he took in the sight in front of him. ''I'm in heaven!'' he yelled at the top of his lungs and dived for it. He devoured the food by piles, in two minutes half of the buffet in the room was missing. The rest went soon after. But Luffy didn't care, the food was soooo gooood. Better than anything Dadan and the mountain bandits ever made. It was almost the same as the restaurants in High Town he used to eat from back when he was younger. Hmmm, maybe I'll go to one of those again when I get back home.

Quite a large number of marines stood in front to the dining hall, peering past each other to see the commotion. Most stood dumbfounded in their spot, seeing that a scrawny squirt cleared out the entire mountain of food meant for over three hundred soldiers (though this was just one shift and one of the massive kitchens in the entire fortress, but still...) they couldn't help but wonder what kind of demon was sitting just a few metres from them.

''More food!'' he yelled in the general direction of the kitchen. If the cooks weren't aware of the happenings outside their doors, they certainly were now.

He ate all that and wants MORE, was the collective disbelieving thought of the crowd.

''Oi, oi, who the hell is that kid?'' Someone had managed to find his voice and asked out loud.

''I have absolutely no idea. But did you see what he just pulled?'' Came the reply of another one.

''I see it, but I don't believe it. Where did all of it go?'' A blond man from the front of the crowd murmured. ''That was more than ten times his size.''

''Hey, that's the brat we've been looking for! What's he doin' in the kitchen?''

''Oiii, where'd all the food go?''

''WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED HERE?!'' An enraged cook shouted from the door of the kitchen.

''Oiii, ossan'' Luffy waved his hand in the air. ''More food! I'm starving!''

STARVING!? How in the blazes can he be starving?! He ate it all! The collective marine audience shouted in their heads.

''You!'' the apoplectic cook pointed at the boy. ''Were you the one to do all this?''

He tilted his head to the side. ''Do what?''

''EAT ALL THE DAMN FOOD!''

''Yeah, shishishishi. And I want more, ossan.''

A rather prominent vein started throbbing on the back of the cook's head ''You little shit!''

Luffy had to duck an incoming frying pan. ''Oi, oii, what was that for?'' he straightened himself back to his full (but unimpressive) height.

But the cook was far from being able to answer him, he charged at the scrawny kid in front of him like an enraged bull. Luffy ducked out of the way, but the table that'd been behind him took the hit, and exploded into splinter wood. Luffy kept dodging the man, but the dining hall took all the damage, looking less the dining hall it was and more like a battlefield.

''Hey, how can that kid keep evading the huffy cook?''

''Dunno, but that one is famous for having a short temper and an even shorter fuse. Somebody better get that kid out of there before he gets killed.''

''I say let him get beat up, the brat had me running all around the place looking for him.''

''That's him.'' The most of the people turned to see the one who yelled. ''It's him. That's Garp's grandson.''

A beat of silence.

''WHAT?! GRANDSON?!''

Meanwhile, Luffy had gotten bored with the loud ossan and his charging around. He ducked beneath the man's fist and brought back both of his arms as far as they could go, namely to the wall on the other side of the room. ''Gomu Gomu no'' he muttered, and smashed both of his palms into the unprotected stomach of his opponent, sending him flying across the room ''Bazooka.'' The man indented the solid wall a little from the impact.

The whole lot of the marines there were too preoccupied with the spectacle to notice an Admiral going their way. Said Admiral was going back to his office after leaving the meeting early and spotted the crowd. He'd just heard someone revealing the fact that Garp the Hero had a grandson and looked passed the all heads and into the room, only to see a man sail by and meet the wall, painfully. He turned his gaze to the direction the man came flying from and noticed a small teenage boy standing there. But he was one who knew that appearances can be deceiving, and seeing the damage done to the immediate area, he could admit to being rather impressed with the kid.

Said kid, however, panicked after hearing his grandfather's name called out loud ''What?! Jii-chan!'', and made his exit. By smashing through the wall.

All the crowd was able to do, after standing there stunned by seeing a little brat fling a man multiple times his own size cleanly across the hall, is think, yes that is definitely the blood relation of one Garp the Fist, the walls must be crying.

''Seriously, '' Akainu gruffly commented in the silence, ''did he have to demolish the wall?''

A beat of silence as every head turned to him.

''Admiral! When did you get here?!'' Came the collective yell of the crowd. And Akainu felt the burning desire to discipline all the idiots in front of him.

Luffy was running at full speed, like the hounds of hell were at his heels. In fact, he was running because he thought his grandfather was chasing him. There was nothing on the planet quite as scary as his grandfather and that threatening fist. He pushed his legs harder, seeking to outrun the perceived threat, not giving a thought to the people he bowled over, splattered across the wall, stomped on or otherwise injured.

His sole motivating thought was getting the hell out of there. So he navigated the halls as best he could (mainly by taking random turns), kicked in doors he thought would be helpful to his cause and found himself out of the fort and on the crowded streets of the town below.

Only then did he look behind and realized that Garp was nowhere in sight.

''Phew, saved.''

He looked around and came to the conclusion that he didn't know where he was.

''Huh, did I get lost or something?'' He tilted his head to the side.

''Well, nevermind. Time to explore!'' And he was off.

He wandered through the streets of the town, the people here weren't dressed in marine uniforms, sure there were some marines here and there, but mostly he saw women and children mulling about. Kids were playing some funny games and there were some random vendors all over the place, selling weird stuff, sometimes he'd swipe some food from a food stall he passed, trying not to get noticed. He looked at everything with wide eyes, there weren't things like this back home.

Somehow, he found himself on the plaza, looking at the vastness of the ocean.

He couldn't wait to set sail.

Movement caught his eyes and he turned to see the funny marines that were doing stuff, he remembered seeing them back when he was sitting in the room jii-chan dumped him in. It still looked fun, so he went over.

''Oi, ossan,'' he addressed the uptight person that always stayed in place, ''can I play too?''

The man huffed at him. ''Get lost kid. Don't you see we're in the middle of a drill?''

''But I wanna play,'' he whined.

''Play?! You think this is a game!?''

''Uh, yeah.''

''GET LOST!'' the man yelled, blood vessels popping in his eyes and veins throbbing on his temples.

''Booo..'' Luffy pouted. He didn't want to listen to the loud man, but he saw something in his peripheral vision and turned. There was a bell, a cool looking bell, not fifty metres from him. His eyes started shining; he wanted to ring it. He wanted to ring it soooo bad.

Luffy ran up to the cool bell, looking up at it for a few moments. Then he grabbed the rope and made to swing it.

''Uh, commodore?'' a nervous looking sailor addressed the fuming man. Said commodore was trying to get his blood pressure under control after losing his cool to some pretentious brat.

''Yes, sailor?'' he snapped. The man before him flinched at his tone, but answered, pointing his finger at something.

''What is that boy doing?''

The commodore followed the direction of the pointing finger and stared in shock.

''YOU!'' he bellowed, turning the heads and getting the attention of everyone is his general vicinity. Except his intended target. Luffy ignored him, after all, anyone here could be 'you'.

''Brat with the straw hat! What do you think you're doing?!'' he stated, marching up to the troublesome brat. Thus directing the attention he'd garnered over to the kid.

Luffy finally turned to look at him. ''Who? Me?'' he pointed at himself.

''Yes, you!''

''Uhh, I was thinking of ringing this cool bell. Wouldn't it be awesome.''

The man's face was turning a colour shade of something between blue and purple. ''No, it would not be awesome! You can't just ring the Ox Bell!''

Luffy's head tilted to the side. ''And why not?''

''Because it's not the right time,'' the man was shaking now, ''and you don't have permission to do it.''

''Whattaya mean it's not the right time?'' he started picking his nose with his pinkie.

The poor commodore looked like one of his major blood vessels would burst and second. ''It is only done on the turning of the years.''

There were a few seconds of silence as Luffy merely stared at the man... and then shrugged.

''Maah, I'm gonna do it anyway.''

And he gripped the rope tighter, but just as he was about to pull on it the commodore, who'd gotten fairly close to him, jumped. Luffy saw him and jumped out of the way just in time to prevent being squashed under the man.

''Hey, what was that for?''

''This kind of disrespect will not be tolerated,'' the man said ominously as he pulled himself to his feet, ''Men, apprehend him!''

The marines watching took a moment to react, the commodore was basically telling them to arrest a child, but followed orders regardless. The words of a superior officer were absolute. They charged at Luffy, who, seeing the trouble heading his way, turned tail and bolted off.

What proceeded was probably the biggest commotion Marineford had experienced in a while. Luffy ran across the bay several times, a hoard of marine soldiers hot on his tail, then he ducked into the streets of the town. They had trouble following him there, but remedied that by splitting off and trying to cut off the kid's escape routes. And it worked, somewhat, Luffy would regularly find his way through the street blocked by some soldiers whenever he managed to ditch those pursuing him, but he was a resourceful little bugger and would pass between their legs or jump over their heads.

Later, after hearing the entirety of what one, Monkey D Luffy, had done during his stay on the island, Sengoku would lament at how a single boy managed to outdo the marines in their own stronghold.

Elsewhere, in a large room in the fort, quite a few high ranking marines were holding a meeting, which turned out to be not so important, when they heard a commotion and shouts coming all the way down from the bay. They ignored it, thinking it was a minor disturbance and would pass soon enough. But as several minutes passed by, and the noise still didn't abate, people started wondering what was the matter.

''What in the world is going on down there?'' one Yamakaji, Vice Admiral of Marineford, murmured to himself.

Garp had a thought, but dismissed it. Nah, it couldn't be. I left the brat in a room a few floors below.

''…''

Meh, who am I kidding. Of course it's that idiotic grandson of mine, it can't be anyone else.

Sengoku sighed. ''Excuse me for a moment. I'll ask for a report.'' He exited the room and removed a baby den den mushi from an inner pocket of his jacket. ''Report! What is happening there?''

And, as it so happens, the one that answered his call was none other than the righteous commodore that sent his men on a wild goose chase through half of the island. ''Sengoku, sir! Commodore Daigin reporting. We are currently chasing a presumptuous brat that dared to try to ring the Ox Bell. We have yet to apprehend him, my sincerest apologies, but consider it done.''

Brat? Sengoku could feel a headache coming in. Something tells me it's Garp's spawn. ''Describe him to me.''

''What, sir?''

''Describe the boy's appearance to me!'' Sengoku was slowly, but surely, getting annoyed.

''Umm.. well… red west, jean shorts, and a straw hat, I believe.''

Why does it have to be the blood of that idiotic man? I knew Garp shouldn't have reproduced. ''Call it off. The boy is Vice Admiral Garp's grandson. He is not dangerous,'' probably, ''just dim witted,'' certainly.

''Yessir!... What? Vice admiral Garp's grandson?''

But Sengoku hung up, halting further questions and exclamations. Barely out of diapers, and that boy was already bringing trouble and headaches his way. Sengoku had half a mind to start fearing the future.

He entered the room again and shot Garp a glance. ''Your grandson is a damn handful, Garp!'' As I knew he would be the second those words spewed from his mouth.

Garp blinked. ''So it was Luffy.''

Luffy? Momonga thought. That kid I met on the way here? So Garp was 'grandpa'.

''Yes,'' Sengoku sat down heavily on his chair.

''What'd he do?''

''Tried to ring the Ox Bell.''

A moment of dead silence passed before Garp bent over and guffawed for all he was worth.

''Don't laugh, Garp! That kid will bring nothing but trouble, I can just feel it,'' Sengoku snapped at his old 'friend', a tick mark appearing on his face. ''Go deal with him!''

''Yes, yes.'' Garp waved a hand in front of him, tears from laughing too hard running down his face.

As was his tendency whenever he moved at high speeds to get away from, or to somewhere - preferably to a location with meat, Luffy set his sights way ahead, thus not looking where he was stepping. It proved detrimental at this point, as his feet caught on an obstacle, but the rest of his body kept moving. He ended up kissing the ground.

Not that it hurt him, mind you, but it did surprise him.

''Whaa? What'd I trip on?''

He turned to see a big man lying on his side in the middle of the street. The dude hadn't even moved.

''Oi, lazy-ossan, what're you doing?'' he poked the lying man.

Said man lifted his sleeping mask to eye the disturbance. It was a boy. ''Ara, resting.''

''Why are you resting in the middle of the street?''

''Didn't feel like moving.''

''Oooh... sounds like fun. I'll join too!''

And just as Luffy was about to lay down, a shiver ran up his spine. He had a bad feeling all of a sudden.

It was proven correct moments after when a fist made contact with his hatted head. His teeth rattled from the impact and he yelped out in pain.

''Owie, what was that for?!'' he turned around, only to see none other than his grandfather.

''Grandpa!''

''You,'' Garp pointed a finger at the poor boy, ''Didn't I tell you to stay in that room?!''

''But, but, but, but, Jii-chan! It's sooooo boring in there!''

''I don't care! When I say something, you better do it!''

''Ara, I didn't know you had a grandson, Vice Admiral Garp.''

Garp looked at the - now sitting - man behind Luffy. ''Oooh, hey there, Kuzan, yup, this is my cute little grandson.'' He gestured at the empty spot before him.

Luffy had high tailed it out of there the second his grandfather's attention wasn't on him.

''EEEH! WHERE'D HE GO?!''

Luffy heard him from the other side of the island (he can be a fast little bugger, when he has half a mind to be). ''Phew, grandpa didn't follow me.'' He noticed there were a lot of marines around him. ''Huh, how did I end up back here?''

He was back in the fort.

''Hey, kid.''

Luffy turned to see a big man (were all marines big men?) in a red suit walking up to him. ''Huh, me?'' he pointed at himself.

''Yes. You're Garp's grandson, aren't you?''

''Yeah!'' he laughed. ''And who're you?''

''Sakazuki.''

''Like the sake?'' his head tilted to the side, remembering the foul liquid he and Ace and Sabo drank, swearing themselves to be brothers.

Akainu ignored his question. ''Are you here to become a marine, kid?''

''No! I won't ever become a marine!''

''And why not?'' his eyes narrowed contemplatively on the boy.

'' 'Cause that's not my dream! I'll become a pirate! The Pirate King!''

''THE HELL YOU WILL!'' and he was punched through a wall. ''No grandson of mine will be a pirate!''

No one knew exactly how Garp had found his grandson, or how he got here so quickly, or how he managed to be quiet enough (Garp and the word 'quiet' don't mix, just as Luffy and the word 'quiet' don't mix either).

He jumped out of the debris. ''I will, jii-chan! And you can't stop me!''

''Why you...'' Garp ground his teeth together.

''Then that will make us enemies.''

Both family members turned to look at the Admiral.

Luffy was staring at Akainu with a surprisingly blank face, and the man met his stare evenly.

Suddenly, Luffy laughed. ''Yeah, we'll be enemies then. Shishishishi''

o.o.o.o.o.o

Well, here's the second part. My exams are done (and I passed all of them! Yaaay) but I still have to write a paper for my Political Economy class, and I don't know how long that will take (but when it's done and handed over, I'll get to work finishing the final part of this).

-lily