Beta Read by Iai-gami as of 4/04/2018
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Luffy watched in anger as his hero, the person he truly looked up to, allowed that guy to beat him up for nothing. Normally, he would be so angered by something like that, he would explode and say something, but Makino was there, and she was scared enough without Luffy adding to it. Makino was one of the very few people who could get him to actually calm down and think things through.
She was sad sometimes, so anything Luffy could do to bring a smile on her face was good.
Yet, even as the bandit guy left, Shanks and his crew didn't do anything. They just laughed the situation off.
"WHY DIDN'T YOU DO ANYTHING?!" Luffy screamed, finally losing his head, not understanding just how they could be so happy.
Shanks just sort of rubbed the back of his head, wondering how to explain it in a way that Luffy would be able to understand, "It just wasn't needed, that guy was weak, and he wasn't hurting the things I care about."
The words hung heavy, and Luffy just didn't understand. A glare still on his face, he ran out of the bar and toward the house he lived in. It was empty, lonely, and cold whenever he was here without at least his Gramps. Yet, Gramps was rarely if ever there, so Luffy was used to it. Luffy laid down on his bed and looked at the ceiling that he couldn't actually see in the dark, arms and legs spread, and allowed himself to actually think about what Shanks was saying.
Only fight for what is important to you...?
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Shanks had left awhile ago, promising that he would be back in about a month, and Luffy was still too angry at the man to be sad to see him go. He had absolutely no intention of forgiving his hero for allowing what he did.
Then…the ugly bandit came back.
He walked into the bar like he owned it, and he pulled Makino right over the bar, in front of all the people in the building, without a care. There were some people who got up and looked like they might help, but the bandits pointed their guns toward those people, and they froze in their tracks. Luffy had to watch, as those people, those bandits, dragged his, for all intensive purposes, mother, into the middle of the street as she violently struggled against his hold.
"HEY! LET MAKINO GO, YOU BASTARDS!" Luffy screamed, unable to take it anymore and rushed forward after them.
A hopeless endeavor. Even as Luffy punched the man, he jerked back with a yelp, but just turned and kicked Luffy away from him a moment later.
"Luffy, its okay, just go to the others!" Makino exclaimed, stopping her struggling as she saw Luffy get hurt.
Instead, Luffy charged forward again, intent on helping her get away from her captors, and he was kicked back again. He got up and rushed them again, only to get the same result.
Only, he didn't stop.
It had to have continued 20 times, and the bandits were laughing at Luffy, even as the child, now bloodied, continued to get up and run over.
The townspeople were silent, some had tears in their eyes as they watched Luffy rage against the inevitable defeat that he would be facing. Luffy could barely see, his eyes so hazed with the pain running through his body, but he still got up and rushed toward them again. The only thing in his mind was Makino and the fact that she was in danger.
"I wondered why no one came to greet us." A familiar voice spoke, but the voice was filled with anger, "I come here to make sure everything is okay, only to be met with you cowards. Beating on a helpless boy. He only wants to protect his guardian. More importantly, beating and terrorizing my friends. You won't live to regret it."
Shanks...
Luffy could feel a grin spread across his face, even as the pain became so much that he fell to the ground.
Shanks would protect Makino, after all, he was the one that said the time to fight was when the people you cared about was in danger.
"You did good Luffy, we'll take it from here."
That was the last thing that Luffy heard before he completely blacked out.
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"You did good, kid," Shanks spoke, the second that Luffy opened his eyes.
Luffy grinned and gave off a laugh that both hurt his chest, but eased it somewhat. He could feel Shanks hand on his head, in his hair, and Luffy had only ever had Makino ruffle his hair like that before. It felt nice to get it from Shanks as well.
"I'm going to get stronger and stronger. So strong that next time, I can protect Makino myself…and I'll beat you too." Luffy suddenly pledged, even with the pain making it hard to even twist his neck to look at Shanks.
Shanks smiled at the determination that he could hear in Luffy's voice, "What will you do with all that strength?"
"I'll protect the people I care about and I'll become a great pirate. No, I'll definitely do it. I'll become the best pirate!" Luffy suddenly exclaimed at the end.
"So strong that you'll beat me and…what? You'll become Pirate King?" Shanks asked, mostly just teasing, but in a way asking. He looked at that determination, at the smile that Luffy sometimes had, and he could see that resemblance between Roger and the little anchor in front of him, and if Luffy said he would become Pirate King, Shanks knew he would believe it.
"That's a thing?!" Luffy asked, his eyes shining and he sat up as though he was never hurt, "Then that's what I'll do! I'll become Pirate King! Shishishishishi~!"
A second later, Luffy was placed back down into the bed as he started to wince in pain from reopening his closing wounds.
Makino came in a moment later, Shanks still sat at Luffy's side, and she was crying.
Luffy calmed down and looked confused, with bleed into anger, "Makino? Did someone do something to you? I'll totally beat them up for you!"
"No way little anchor, you're still hurt. Don't worry Makino, I'll beat them up for you!" Shanks declared, raising a fist into the air at the over-dramatic declaration.
"No, I'm just so glad that you're okay." She spoke through her tears, a smile rising to her mouth at the sight of those two boys, so worried and ready to fight for her, even when there was nothing wrong. She really was cared for, and though she wanted to tell Luffy not to do what he had before, she also knew that it would only make him more determined.
She went over to the bedside and pulled Luffy into a hug, "Yes... I'm just glad you are okay."
Makino continued to cry, and Luffy sat there in her embrace and felt warm.
He didn't feel alone in this house he lived in, with Shanks and Makino at his side.
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"Nee, Shanks! Train me! I wanna get stronger!" Luffy begged, sitting next to the Captain as he drank at Makino's bar. It had been about a month since Luffy had tried to save Makino, and since then, he had been begging Shanks every single day to help him get stronger. Yet, Shanks just laughed it off every time.
"I want to be able to protect Makino if it happens again!" Luffy suddenly exclaimed, and Shanks finally looked at Luffy seriously for a moment.
"Ehhhhhh, I'm not really a good teacher." Shanks admitted, "Do you have a weapon or something?"
Luffy's eyes lit up with excitement because it seemed that Shanks was finally going to train him, "YEP! Gramps trains me to use it sometimes when he is here. He says that once I become a marine I can get a better staff but I've told him that marines are stupid! I'll go get it!"
Luffy ran off, going into his house and rifling through all of the stuff in order to find the pipe that Gramps put in there whenever he had to leave. It was heavy, but with all the training that Gramps had already given him, it was simple to lift it up and bring it with him, as if the metal pipe were nothing more than a simple stick.
He came back within fifteen minutes, Shanks had been hoping the kid said he didn't have a weapon so that he could escape the training, but it seemed like he wasn't that lucky, "Benn~ How do you train a kid?"
"You move really slowly so that you don't accidentally kill him." Benn stated, giving his whining captain a dry look.
Luffy was standing before them. My god, Shanks had seen some pretty horrible looks, but those puppy eyes were poison to the soul. There was just no way to keep saying no to the kid when he flashed those things.
"Urghhhhh~ Fine, come on Luffy."
They stood in the middle of a field and Luffy was practically hyper with wanting to spar, while Shanks would have preferred to be just about anywhere else, "Alright Anchor, you just attack me, and I'll defend. Go as hard and fast as you can, okay? A little kid like you wouldn't be able to hit me anyway."
Luffy was about to rush forward in anger, but he took a deep breath, not noticing the look of pride that Shanks had sent his way from it before rushing toward his opponent. Gramps had taught him all of the basic attack and defense stances, so Shanks would definitely be in for a big surprise.
Fifteen minutes past, Luffy hadn't even come close to hitting Shanks once.
Shanks was actually rather surprised by the strength that his young friend had at seven. He was stronger than Shanks had been at that age, for sure. Luffy was going to grow up to become someone very scary when he learned to fully control and use that strength of his. Shanks already knew what he would be giving Luffy as his going away gift, but this fight solidified that. It was the perfect thing to help Luffy get stronger and to protect himself once the Red Haired Pirates left and when Luffy went on to find his own path.
They went at it for hours, Luffy trying in vain to attack Shanks. Shanks stood there unshaken, looking nearly as relaxed as he would be if he were sitting at the bar drinking. Luffy, on the other hand, was covered in sweat and dirt, the signs of his hard, but futile, work.
"You're going to be really strong one day, Luffy," Shanks admitted, even though he had shown absolutely no strain against Luffy.
He watched the kid puff up in aggravation – Understandable, what Shanks said had to have sounded really patronizing after what just happened.
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Luffy might not have been able to tell, but after the three months that he was being utterly destroyed by Shanks, he had improved a lot. Most of that improvement had to do with recognizing and controlling his own natural strength, though he did get stronger as well. Even his technique had gotten a lot of polish under the harsh and painful corrections of Shanks. No matter what though, the training was easy compared to Gramps. Still, it was the time that Luffy had been dreading. The Red-Haired Pirates needed to leave, and this time, they weren't coming back.
Luffy wasn't crying, he just had something in his eye.
"I guess that means you'll miss us, Anchor." Shanks proclaimed upon seeing the tears, "Not going to ask to come along?"
"NO WAY!" Luffy sobbed out, "I'm going to become Pirate King, I can't do that with someone else as Captain!"
Shanks grinned and could practically see the ghost of his captain standing behind Luffy. "He would have approved of this" Shanks thought, as he laid the straw hat atop Luffy's head, it's wide rim sinking over those leaking eyes. "Then this will be our promise. Give this back to me once you become a great pirate."
Then, Shanks reached over to the pole that he was carrying on his back and held it out to Luffy. It was made of something smooth but extremely dark grey, "Now this…this is my gift to you, my little student. It's Kairōseki, I'll let you figure out what that means yourself. DAAAHAHAHAHA!"
Luffy might have glared for the teasing, if his eyes weren't already busy leaking as Shanks walked away, leaving Luffy with a hat and a staff.
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"I'M NOT GONNA BE A STUPID MARINE, I AM GOING TO BE KING OF THE PIRATES!" Luffy yelled at his grandfather, smashing his head with the staff that Shanks had given him. His Gramps looked at the staff in surprise.
"Where did you get that?" There was an almost serious note to the voice Garp was using. For a second, he actually acted almost like the Vice Admiral that he was supposed to be.
"Shanks gave it to me. He said it's made of Karosake!" Luffy proclaimed, looking at it proudly but getting the pronunciation just a little wrong.
"BWAHAHAHA! I'll give that Red Haired brat some credit for giving good gifts!" Garp laughed, the seriousness practically melting away with it, "Still, the brat put some bad ideas in your head. PIRATE KING! As if I would ever let that happen. Clearly, my leaving the island too often has had a bad effect on you."
Garp picked Luffy up and started to drag him along by the shirt, "I can't stay for too long, but I will bring you somewhere with more discipline."
Luffy kicked about, trying his best to break his grandfather's grip. He didn't want to go through any more of his Gramps' plans. They were always really dangerous!
Yet, no matter how hard he tried, there was no wiggling out of the grasp he was in, even when Luffy tried to just take his shirt off to escape, his Gramps just held him by his ankle instead.
The heavy forest broke to show a big wooden house with the sounds of fighting and yelling happening inside. Luffy was wondering just why his Gramps had brought him here when Garp walked through the unopened door like there was nothing there, like he owned the place and could destroy it however he wanted. A fat looking woman looked up from where she was beating someone with a wooden bat and glared, "OI! Just because you blackmail us doesn't mean you can destroy our stuff!"
"Sorry, sorry." Garp said, but his tone was so insincere that even Luffy could tell that his Gramps didn't mean it, "I'll be leaving this one in your care from now on. Take care of him, Dadan"
With that, Luffy was thrown in front of Dadan. His Gramps didn't stick around long enough to have anything else said and left while the whole room was still too stunned to even object.
"Well, seems like I'll be staying here, for now, shishishishishishishi! My name is Monkey D. Luffy." Luffy got up, remembering what Makino said about manners, bent backwards to bow to the room of people.
They just stared at him.
Silence.
"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?" They screamed at Luffy
The boy just looked confused, "Makino said I should bend when I introduce myself so that I'm polite."
"YOU BOWED THE WRONG WAY!"
Luffy just tilted his head to the side in confusion, but waved the thought away, "I'm hungry. Give me meat!"
Dadan stepped forward, "Listen, kid, since you're staying here, you'll need to learn the rules."
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Luffy had felt alone for the first week being there, but he quickly gained another goal besides training and hunting. Portgas D. Ace, someone only a few years older than Luffy, was someone the boy was determined to make friends with. He was strong, and sometimes mean, but it was better than feeling alone with the bandits. Luffy just knew that if he could become Ace's friend, he would become every bit as important to Luffy as Makino, his hat, and his staff was.
Easier said than done.
Ace tried to kill Luffy several times, or at least, he would kick Luffy around and into dangerous situations. Once down a river, throwing trees at him, spitting at him, rocks, punches, kicks, horrible words, Luffy took all of Ace's aggression and didn't return a single thing other than the offer of friendship.
He learned that from Shanks.
It wasn't working, but Luffy was getting stronger and quicker from all the things that Ace was putting him through.
He finally caught up with Ace, and the success that he felt at meeting one of his goals was beyond the scope of what Luffy could have expected. It didn't last long though.
"We need to kill him."
"Yep."
Silence...
"You do it!"
"I DON'T KNOW HOW! I'VE NEVER KILLED ANYONE!"
Luffy wanted to cry because he had hoped to be accepted, but instead, they wanted to kill him, and Luffy still had so much that he wanted to do, not even having learned how to swim yet, "DON'T THROW ME INTO THE WATER!"
"RIGHT! LET'S BRING HIM TO THE RIVER!"
Luffy started to cry and struggle to get out of the ropes that he was tied in, screaming at the top of his lungs for help. He promised himself, with the same conviction that he promised Shanks he would become Pirate King, that if he lived through this, he would watch what he said from now on. Any crying died when Ace accidentally hit Luffy's staff against the ground, "OI! TAKE CARE OF MY TREASURE YOU BASTARD!"
"SHUT UP AND DIE!" Ace screamed back.
Luffy was glad when he got to run away. That ended when he was tied up again and by someone looking for Ace and his treasure. They said that Luffy only needed to speak and if he did then he would be free to go, that he would get to live!
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
What is life if it's alone and without the things that matter?
For hours, Luffy was beaten with that spiked glove, and he still wouldn't speak. No way would he give up the chance at Ace's friendship, not after going through everything he had already. It would be worth keeping his mouth shut until these guys got tired of beating him up. At least, Luffy tried to tell himself that he would get himself out, but his vision was starting to get hazy, the sort he had after that fight with the people who tried to take Makino, which meant that Luffy was about to pass out. Then, the ray of hope that Luffy was unconsciously hoping for showed up "ACE! SABO!"
He was saved.
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Time went on, and bonds were forged. Ace, Sabo, and Luffy became brothers and started to train with one another. Generally, they were pretty tied up as far as who beat who – Though Ace was clearly the strongest, Sabo and Luffy weren't exactly lagging far behind. They each pushed each other to new heights, hunted stronger animals, and just had a great time.
Luffy couldn't have expected what happened, happy as he was.
Sabo's father came for him, Grey Terminal burned down and Sabo died before he became free.
Luffy was just crying as Ace swore he'd go after the people who did it.
"It's the world itself that did this! You can't go against this, not unless you are the highest caliber. Until you're half the man your father was, you can't even attempt to avenge Sabo!" Dadan said, stopping the raging Ace from going after the Celestial Dragons.
"Sabo wasn't free, he wasn't free at all." Luffy sobbed out, crying even harder than he was before.
Ace stormed out of the house.
Luffy was so alone for the next few months. Ace didn't want anything to do with him, considering the way that he was avoiding his brother. The staff user was alone again. Even after gaining two brothers, he had lost them. It was because he wasn't strong enough to protect what was important to him…again. Even after training with Shanks and all the fighting and practicing with his brothers.
It took Ace a year before he finally broke and came to visit Luffy and apologize.
Luffy just hugged his brother and sobbed, "I've been so alone! Don't do that again! I don't want to be alone!"
"I won't ever leave you alone again Luffy, I promise." Ace swore. And even though Luffy couldn't see it, tears were streaming down Ace's face too.
Gramps visited again, and training was even harder than before, but Luffy was finding the punches easier to dodge and even when he was hit, they didn't hurt as much. Gramps got a weird look on his face whenever Luffy managed to almost dodge a hit or didn't end up halfway across the yard when one of the hits connected.
It was the look Gramps gave when Ace got angry in town and knocked half the people out that Luffy would remember the most, though.
"SHISHISHISHI! LOOK AT GRAMPS FACE! SHISHISHISHISHI~!" Luffy laughed out loud, on his back squirming with the force of his laughter.
Once things calmed down, Garp started to laugh as well, "BWAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I guess that type of strength does travel in the blood! You really are my grandsons!"
Gramps explained the mysterious powers and tried to get Luffy and Ace to train with them. Ace took to it like a fish out of water. Luffy, on the other hand, wasn't really good at understanding what his Gramps was trying to explain, so he had to deal with the physical side of the training.
Gramps just kept hitting him all the time until Luffy started to dodge.
The only problem was, Luffy couldn't ever dodge in time, "OW! Gramps is lying about the mystery power for another excuse to hit me. I'm not stupid!"
"STOP WHINING BRAT! THIS IS HOW YOU TRAIN THIS POWER!"
Luffy pouted and looked to the side, "Liar..."
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Ace left when he was seventeen, during one of the few times that Gramps was gone, and the two brothers swore that they would meet again on the sea "Make sure that you write about your journey. I can't do that stuff so it'll be your job."
One of them had to take up Sabo's dream.
"Pfft, you say that as if I didn't already know that, little brother." Ace retorted with a smile, reaching over to knock Luffy's hat off his head, Luffy dodged out of the way with a glare "See you in a few years!"
"Of course!"
When Gramps came back, he was beyond angry that Luffy had let Ace leave to become a pirate, "You little brat! How could you allow him to leave like that?!"
"I'd never get in the way of the dreams of someone I cared about," Luffy stated, nice and simple.
Internally, Garp found that a little bit admirable, and would have praised his grandson for it, had it not been for the fact that Ace was out of his protection now. There wasn't anything he could do. Ace would make a name for himself and it was his father's blood for sure. Garp would have to watch as the consequences played out. He'd tried everything he could to stop it from happening, and yet...
Luffy looked up at Garp with determined eyes, almost daring Garp to say that Luffy was wrong about what he did.
It was one of the few times one of his precious grandsons stood up to him like that.
"You need more training. I'll work that stupid ambition out of you!"
It wouldn't work of course. It didn't work on Dragon, it didn't work on Ace, it wouldn't work on anyone with that indomitable will of D, but that didn't mean that Garp would give up on making sure that the kids could protect themselves. If nothing else, hopefully, they would live longer lives instead of dying early.
Like Sabo already had.
Garp let out a sigh at the grandson he barely knew, the passing of which was brought about by the Celestial Dragons. When he'd heard of that, he had known once and for all that if the brothers ever found out, they would never join the marines. It seemed that it wouldn't ever come to that since they were so determined to go their own path, even without knowing it.
Even for Monkey D. Garp, even for another D, it was impossible to go against that sort of determination and win. Sometimes all you could hope for was a stalemate at best.
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Luffy was stood at the beach on his seventeenth birthday and looked out at the ocean that he would soon be traversing. He was wearing a red jumpsuit that Makino had made for him. A bright red, short-sleeved and knee length jumpsuit, but personalized on the back with the Jolly Roger that Luffy had decided on, a grinning skull with a straw hat on it. His straw hat was, of course, on top of his head. On his feet, he was wearing the same plain sandals that he always wore.
His staff was around his shoulders, behind his neck, but held in place by the fact Luffy had his arms over the top of it.
He spent so many years balancing that staff around him that Luffy barely even noticed when he was holding it anymore. It was simply second nature.
Luffy stopped looking at the ocean and turned to face Makino. Having already said his goodbyes to everyone else there was only one more person left.
He grinned at her and leaned forward, giving her a kiss on the cheek "Thanks for everything, Makino!"
Her eyes closed as she smiled, looking happy for him, although Luffy knew that she would be sad after he actually left. She was that way about Shanks and Ace leaving as well.
Luffy jumped onto the little boat that he had purchased, it already holding his food supply and everything. It was the same start that Ace got, and now, he was following in his brothers footsteps, "Wait for me, Ace, Shanks, I'll catch up to you, gain my nakama, and become Pirate King."