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The sun was high on the sky as the Thousand Sunny was gliding through the shallow ocean waves smoothly, currently moving towards a small trading island.
The Strawhat pirates had left Wano a couple of weeks ago and were now in desperate need of new supplies. Food and fresh water were running low by now, prompting them to take a small detour from their original course in order to secure provisions.
Up until this point, their journey had been relatively calm. Now that their Captain was officially a Yonko, not many dared to attack them head on anymore. The few that had tried had been swiftly sunk and everyone else they’d come across had fled as soon as they’d figured out, who that colorful ship on the horizon belonged to.
Most of them really enjoyed the rare peace and quiet quite a bit.
Luffy of course, started complaining about being bored out of his mind after their third day of sailing.
It had been a challenge to keep him somewhat happy and entertained ever since then and when it was finally decided to visit a new place, they’d barely been able to keep him on the Sunny long enough to actually steer the ship somewhere safe and secluded, not wanting to risk anyone recognizing them before they’d even gotten one foot on land.
When finally, all preparations were done and an overly annoyed Nami had even managed to get Luffy to wear a cloak and pull his hat down onto his back so he wouldn’t be as recognizable, their small group started their trek into the nearest port town.
Since there was a large marine base further inland, they had opted to try to stay as inconspicuous as possible, though since the marines were still busy with their efforts to dismantle the warlord system the world government had decided to abandon, there probably weren’t many soldiers around right now and those who were certainly had other things to worry about.
Well, better for them anyways.
For now, it was decided that there would be no splitting up. They only came to buy food, nothing more. No adventuring, no spa days, no casual shopping. They would simply run their errands and then leave again, hopefully without being recognized and discovered by anyone, who’d make trouble for them.
And for the first thirty minutes, this worked well and they swiftly got most of their errands done without interruption.
Each of the Strawhats had packed some snacks in order to distract their Captain, in case he decided to conveniently forget their plan, Jinbei had been volunteered to keep Zoro close, so he wouldn’t wander off either. Everyone else had more or less enough self control to manage at least one short trip without getting into anything crazy.
However, when the first platoon of marines marched through the city, things got a whole lot more complicated. Thankfully, they’d been pretty busy, so no one noticed the group of definitely suspicious people walking around their marketplace. Seriously, a huge cyborg, a talking skeleton and a well known fishman were definitely a dead giveaway that they weren’t from the area, not to mention the fact that all the other Strawhats definitely didn’t really look all that normal either.
First, they thought that this may have been a one time occurrence, a random patrol to keep citizens happy, but after they’d had to duck into the closest alleyway for the third time in less then ten minutes, they realized that maybe, this wouldn’t be the relaxed trip they’d hoped for.
“Damn, what’s with this place?“ Usopp was starting to look more then a little scared right about now. “I really hope they didn’t find the Sunny.”
“Calm down, even if they did, Chopper and Robin will make sure the ship’s safe.”
“Yes, but Nami, there are really a lot of marines running around the place and-”
“They’ll be fine.” Showing another piece of cured meat in Luffy’s general direction as the young Captain was once again threatening to wander off, the navigator glared at the sniper. “Do you really think they wouldn’t be able to handle a couple of those idiots?”
Thinking for a moment, the sniper then nodded. “Okay, you’re right. They’ll be fine. Robin can be pretty scary.”
“Now you get it, so stop yammering.”
“Luffy, you okay?” Sanji’s sudden comment, muffled slightly by the large bags of food he was carrying efficiently ended that argument.
“Huh?” Looking a little taken aback when noticing that their Captain hadn’t even looked at the snack Nami’d offered told them that whatever had Luffy distracted wasn’t something small. If food didn’t work, the situation was serious.
Those round, dark eyes were fixed on something on the other side of the marketplace, Luffy’s body having gone completely still, muscles tense and fists clenched.
Despite not knowing what was going on yet, Zoro’s hands went straight to his swords. “Captain?”
Shaking himself slightly, Luffy finally tore his gaze away from whatever had managed to get him in this state and turned towards them. Something dangerous and wild glowed in his eyes, his face set in a definitely angry scowl.
“We’re leaving.”
“But-”
“No. Get back to the ship right now. Captain’s orders.”
This sentence was like a secret code, a way for Luffy to let them know that he definitely wasn’t playing around right now and demanded absolute obedience from his crew without any questions.
Barely suppressed waves of haki were now coming off the young pirate, to the rest of the crew feeling like light electrical currents running over their skin. This was unusual. Normally, Luffy took great care to never have his conqueror’s Haki get out of control or hurt them, whenever he was using it.
To say they were concerned now would have been an understatement.
Slowly backing away and towards the general direction of the Sunny, they still didn’t know what had managed to get Luffy this upset. However, when a loud, booming voice suddenly called out, that changed.
“Oi, Brat! Not even gonna greet me?”
Turning around, they saw the large form of one pretty angry looking marine vice admiral swiftly walking towards them, one fist already raised and long, white coat flowing behind him dramatically.
It had been a long time since they’d last run into Garp.
For the fraction of a second, Luffy stopped, closing his eyes briefly and taking a deep breath.
What happened next was something neither of the present had anticipated.
In one fluid motion, Luffy turned around and slammed a haki coated fist right into his grandfather’s face, drawing blood immediately.
With a curse, Garp abandoned his previous path and stopped in order to press a hand to his now obviously broken nose, blood pouring freely through his fingers and staining his uniform.
Luffy meanwhile, looked five seconds away from completely loosing it. Rarely had the crew ever seen their Captain this pissed off.
“Ouch, damn it kid, you really shouldn’t go off on your dear old grandpa like that.”
Luffy literally growled at that, breathing heavily with an absolutely murderous look on his face, teeth barren and looking ready to strike again at any time.
“Though I did kinda deserve that one, huh?”
Now, silence fell over the area. At the first sign of danger, the civilians in the area had all fled in hopes of not getting caught up in whatever was going on. The only ones besides Garp and the Strawhats still present were a couple of marines, wearily watching the situation, not daring to get in between whatever was happening right now, apparently sensing that they were greatly outclassed.
After carefully removing his hand and then preceding to set his nose with a disgusting crunch, Garp stood still, not moving closer, but not backing off either, apparently waiting for Luffy to make the next move.
“...What do you want?” Luffy’s voice was very quiet right now, which never was a good thing.
Apparently, Garp knew this as well, since his shoulders tensed back up, obviously anticipating another attack.
A positively murderous Luffy wasn’t to be taken lightly. Ever.
“Well, first off, I haven’t seen you in over two years. You really can’t blame an old man like me for worrying, now can you? Also, I do think we should sit down and talk.” By now, more marines were flooding the deserted marketplace.
“There’s nothing to talk about. You made your position pretty clear back then.”
“I know, I just… hear me out here, okay? I do think I do owe you at least an apology for-”
“For what exactly?” Now, Luffy didn’t even make an effort to control his haki anymore. More then half the marines in sight had already collapsed. “For fucking sitting there and watching Ace die? For trying to stop me from saving him? I’m not the one you should be apologizing to, I’m still alive, ain’t I?”
That… definitely wasn’t what the Strawhats had anticipated to hear. Also, Luffy never mentioned Ace by name like that. The pain and anger in his voice clearly audible as the name came spelling from his lips.
At least at that, Garp had the decency to look somewhat ashamed. “I… yeah, about that… I’m not really proud of it either but I did what I had to. I chose to live as a marine and to hold up justice to-”
The humorless laugh coming from the Strawhat’s Captain was a sound so terrible, none of them ever wanted to hear it ever again.
“Justice? Are you fucking kidding me right now? What the hell did my brother do to deserve to die like that?! And what about all those other people who got killed that day? You don’t get to stand here and tell me about justice when the people you work for are responsible for so much pain and suffering!”
The tips of Luffy’s hair were starting to turn white.
“It’s not my damn fault you brats decided to become criminals!” Garp was almost shouting now. “You choose that path for yourselves, so accept the consequences! Do you really think I enjoyed any of this? After Sakazuki killed Ace and almost got you too, I wanted nothing more then to go and cave his skull in! But I couldn’t because he only did what he was supposed to do as a marine. And even if I’m still angry, I can’t fault him for doing what he did because of that! From our point of view, it was the right thing to do!”
“So what? I’m supposed to just accept that it was okay for Ace to get murdered because he chose to be a pirate? Are you kidding me right now? You can take your screwed us sense of justice and shove it up your-”
“Oi, Luffy!”
Crimson eyes snapped in the direction of the swordsman’s voice, widening slightly as he took in the state of his crew.
Zoro was the only one still standing, the rest of the Strawhats in various stages of consciousness on the ground.
“Calm down, the other’s won’t be able to take this for much longer!” For a moment, the young Captain only stared at his first mate in shock, before taking a few deep and controlled breaths, reigning in his by now wildly spiking haki. After a moment, his hair went back to it’s original color and his eyes lost that eerie crimson sheen.
Momentarily redirecting his focus, Luffy stepped closer to his Nakama, now obviously scared for them. “H-hey, are you guy okay? I… I didn’t mean to…”
“Urgh, finally!” With shaking hands, Sanji fished out a pack of cigarettes from one of the miraculously still intact grocery bags. “Don’t worry, Captain, we’ll be fine.”
“Yeah, though please don’t do that again, okay?” Carefully getting up on trembling legs, Nami tried her best to smile at him reassuringly, though not quite managing the desired effect.
“Yohoho, that really came as quite a surprise, Captain. I’m still shaking to my bones, though, that really doesn’t mean much, now does it? Yohohoho!”
“You okay bro? I think I’ve never seen you get this angry before. SUUPER scary, really.”
Next to Franky, Jinbei nodded, actually managing to look more steady then the others. “Luffy-kun, please don’t worry about it.”
Apparently, up until now, the entire crew hadn’t realized exactly, how dangerous their Captain actually could be. Of course, they knew he was powerful, strong and fast, but this right now had been the first time they’d gotten a glimpse of, what all their opponents actually had been up against.
Usopp was the last one to say anything, though with how pale he was and with how much his body still shook, that wasn’t really a surprise. “Man, n-no wonder you took down Kaido like that. That was seriously terrifying.”
Somewhere behind them, they could hear moans and groans coming from the marines that had watched up until earlier. Apparently, they had been hit even harder then the Strawhats themselves. Most of them weren’t even responding at all anymore.
Now more or less back to his senses, Luffy didn’t waste any more time. “Let’s go back to the Sunny. Zoro, Sanji, please make sure to take everyone. I’ll be there in a bit.”
“You sure you don’t need backup?”
“Yeah, this won’t take much longer anyways.”
“Aye Captain.” Zoro went ahead and picked up Usopp, while the others all managed to unsteadily start the track back to their home, making sure they distributed their provisions evenly, so no one was stuck carrying too much while still recovering from being hit with the force of nature, that was their Captain’s haki.
Now turning back to his grandfather who’d at least had the decency to not interfere, Luffy decided to not drag this out any longer.
“I’m done, old man. You’re a marine vice admiral, I’m a pirate. Let’s not make this overly complicated.”
“So you’re saying…?”
“I’m saying that if we meet again, I will make damn sure you will not be able to hurt anyone else, I care about. I took down Kaido, so don’t think for even a second I won’t be able to do the same thing to you too.”
“Are you seriously threatening your own grandpa right now?” Garp looked almost as angry as Luffy’d done a couple of minutes ago.
Staring at the old man with a blank expression, the pirate Captain shook his head slowly. “I lost my Grandpa two years ago. I’m just making sure the marine in front of me knows not to mess with an emperor’s crew.”
“Don’t do this, Luffy.”
“I should have done this a long time ago already. You always wanted me to be something I never would have fit into. I used to be so scared of you for a long time and I still loved you and looked forward to every time you came to visit, no matter how painful you so called training was or how mad you got when I told you I wanted to be a pirate. Even back in the war, somewhere deep down, I still trusted you and hoped you’d help me and Ace, like family is supposed to. I didn’t only loose Ace that day, old man, I lost my whole family.”
“I only wanted to keep you safe! As marines, you could have helped me make this world a better place!”
“If the world you are trying to build approves of ripping away people’s freedom like that, I’m happy I never listened to you in the first place.”
And with that, he turned around, pulling his beloved Strawhat onto his head, the rim shadowing his face, hiding his expression from view.
“Hey, You stay right here! I’m not done talking yet!”
“But I am, goodbye, gramps.”
“Luffy! If you walk away now, I will have no choice but to-”
“To do what exactly? Arrest me? Report my location to your superiors? Hit me again and again until I change my mind? That’s never worked before, so good luck with that.”
With an even pace, Luffy continued walking, not turning around and ignoring Garp and the other marines completely. Part of him almost hoped the old marine would attack. Like that, he’d be able to get at least rid of a little bit of the immense anger still boiling deep inside. Though as he got further and further away, Garp’s presence stayed exactly where he’d left him.
It didn’t take him long to find his way back to the Sunny, nor to give the order to sail immediately. After that, he hopped onto his spot on his beloved ship’s figurehead, not feeling like talking to anyone for quite a while.
He still wanted to punch something, tear anything apart that he could get his hands on and scream until his voice couldn’t keep up anymore.
But he couldn’t.
He’d left that part of himself back on Amazon Lily two years ago, had vowed to never let his emotions get the better of him like that ever again. And despite this, he’d unintentionally ended up hurting his friends in a fit of rage, had almost lost control of a power he’d only barely started to grasp and had, for a few seconds, completely forgotten anything but his own anger and grief.
It was a near miracle that his Nakama had only gotten away with a scare. If Zoro hadn’t managed to snap him out of his rage, he would have unleashed the same amount of power he’d used to end Kaido, undoubtedly strong enough to even unintentionally inflict grave harm upon his crew. There was good reason, he preferred to have his more brutal fights somewhere secluded after all.
Breathing slowly, he tried a few of the things Raylight had taught him in order to better focus and relax, whenever his memories got too painful.
Drawing in a deep breath, then another, then holding it before exhaling slowly… Repeating this over and over again for some time helped at least a little bit. He would probably not sleep tonight, but at least, he was calm enough to go back to his happy and carefree self for his friends.
Also, after today, they deserved to rest. He would volunteer for tonight’s watch shift, sending them all to their quarters for a good nights rest.
Mind made up, Luffy jumped to his feet, wiped any traces of distress and anger from his face and replacing them with a broad smile, before hopping down onto the deck.
This was how things were supposed to be after all.