6 in the morning.
Dadan's hideout was still quiet when a loud crash shattered the silence of that morning.
BAM.
The front door was forced open. The wood groaned loudly before slamming into the wall beside it. From inside the hideout came the sound of footsteps running, several people waking at once, a chair scraping, a bowl nearly falling.
Dadan, who had the lightest sleep of anyone in that hideout, was on her feet before her eyes had fully opened. Her legs carried her toward the door on their own, her hair still a mess, her expression already holding enough anger to destroy whoever had the nerve to wake her this early.
Standing at the door was a middle-aged man. An old scar on the left side of his eye. A grey beard. A body that didn't look like an old man's from the way he stood.
Dadan didn't see who it was. She only saw someone who had woken her up.
Her hand moved and grabbed the man's collar before he could open his mouth.
"Who are you? Who has the nerve to wake me while I'm sleeping? Don't you know this is the Dadan family's residence?"
The man grinned. "Oh I certainly know this is the mountain bandit group's hideout. My question is whether you're all ready to go to prison."
Behind Dadan came small whispers from her subordinates who had gathered.
"Boss... boss..."
Dadan turned with an irritated face. "What is it?"
"That's... Garp."
"Garp?" Dadan turned back to the man whose collar she was still gripping. Her eyes moved down to his face, to the scar on the left side of his eye, to that grey beard.
"...Garp!!"
In one movement she hoped looked natural, the hand that had been gripping his collar shifted into something resembling straightening his shirt. Dadan stepped back several paces, a wide smile appearing on the face that had been full of fury moments before.
"Oh, Garp-san. I was just cleaning your shirt, hahaha."
BAM.
Garp's fist landed on top of Dadan's head. A lump rose immediately. Dadan held her head but didn't dare make a sound.
Garp walked inside without being invited, his steps heavy and unhurried at the same time. He looked around the room, into every corner, at the bedroom door still closed.
Not long after he came back out. "Where's Luffy? I don't see him inside."
"He's in the forest of course," answered Dadan, still holding the lump on her head.
"At this hour?!"
Garp turned to Dadan with slightly raised eyebrows. For someone who had known Luffy for sixteen years, the boy waking up before the sun was high did not fall into the category of normal.
"Did the boy eat something strange in the forest again?"
"At first we thought the same thing." Dadan stood, moved both her hands, and began explaining. Everything that had happened over the past six months. Luffy waking before dawn. Luffy bringing books from the village. Luffy reading the news section of the newspaper instead of the comics. Luffy asking about Logia. The cross incident she didn't need to tell but told anyway because it had already slipped out.
Garp listened while sitting in the chair closest to the door, his arms folded across his chest.
When Dadan finished, Garp was quiet for a moment.
His mind turned searching for an explanation. The boy who never wanted to touch a book. The boy more interested in chasing wild boars than thinking about anything. The boy who didn't even know what Logia was until a few months ago.
Now waking before dawn. Reading the news. Asking about things he had never cared about before.
One thought rose in Garp's head and the longer it stayed the more sense it made.
Hmm... could it be that the boy has finally chosen the right path? Left behind that crazy idea from Red Hair and decided to become a Marine?
The more he thought about it the more it fit. He had told Luffy many times that if he wanted to become a great Marine he had to be diligent, disciplined, and hardworking. And now Luffy was waking before dawn every day and training in the forest.
It fit perfectly.
Garp stood from his chair.
"Garp, where are you going?" asked Dadan.
"To see my grandson of course." Garp was already walking toward the door. "I want to see how far he's developed."
In the forest Garp didn't search for Luffy from the ground.
He used Geppo, leaping into the air and treading there with steps that couldn't be seen, rising high enough until the treetops below looked like an uneven spread of green. From that height his gaze swept across the mountain slope at leisure.
It didn't take long.
At the foot of the mountain a shadow moved quickly, too quickly for an ordinary person, circling the slope with a consistent rhythm.
Garp descended slowly, not straight down but approaching from the side, choosing a branch large enough to hold his weight and dense enough to hide him. He sat there and waited.
Luffy passed beneath him.
Garp observed in silence. The way he ran was already different from six months ago. Something had changed in how his feet met the ground, in how his body moved when passing obstacles. Not the movement of a child running out of restlessness. This was the movement of someone who had become familiar with this terrain.
Then Luffy stopped on a flat area at the river's edge and began doing something else.
Garp watched from his branch without moving.
Push-ups with a rock on his back. Pull-ups with a rock on his feet. Sit-ups. Squats. All of it done with repetitions that were no small thing for a boy his age. And between those physical exercises Luffy began doing something that made Garp's eyebrows slowly rise.
Those movements.
A kick against the ground that produced a burst of speed forward. A step in the air not yet perfect but clearly not accidental. Variations of punches combining the elasticity of his Devil Fruit with the physical strength he had built.
Garp furrowed his brow.
That looked like...
He stayed on his branch a little longer, watching until Luffy finally stopped and lay down under the shadow of a tree. Only then did Garp descend and walk toward Luffy with unhurried steps.
Luffy hadn't noticed him yet.
The boy was lying with one hand raised toward the sky, as though trying to catch the sun in his palm. His smile was wide.
"Yosh. Today I've become a little stronger than the day before. With this I can protect my friends better and I'm closer to my dream of becoming King of the Pirates."
Blood vessels began appearing at Garp's temple.
King of the Pirates. Still King of the Pirates.
"Luffy!" Garp had already swung his arm. "Do you still have that stupid idea that Red Hair put in your head?! Today I'm going to straighten you out!"
Luffy, hearing that voice the way one hears something from a nightmare, moved before his brain could think, rolling to the side just as Garp's fist hit the ground where he had been lying.
BOOM.
The ground at that spot caved in forming a hole that was considerably deep.
"Geh! Gramps why are you here?!"
But Luffy didn't wait for an answer. His feet were already moving, a kick against the ground producing a burst of speed, and in one second he was already among the trees at the edge of the area.
Garp, seeing that movement, paused for a moment.
Then he grinned and gave chase.
In the forest Luffy ran using his kicking technique, his body weaving through the gaps between trees. Behind him the sound of falling trees came one after another, Garp not bothering to avoid anything in his path.
Luffy heard the third tree fall and something began turning in his head.
He had said he wanted to fight his grandfather. Wanted to see how great the distance was between himself and the strong people out on the seas. But the moment he saw his grandfather his body had run on its own.
But now.
Luffy turned his body around.
He used his kicking technique to launch himself straight forward, toward Garp who had just emerged from among the fallen trees. His arm stretched back, stretching far, then shot forward.
"Gomu Gomu no Pistol!"
Garp saw the fist coming. He crossed his arms in front of his chest.
Luffy's fist struck Garp's arms and Garp was pushed backward, his feet carving the ground, his body slamming into the large tree behind him until the wood cracked. Dust and splinters of wood flew in all directions.
Luffy had already disappeared upward before the dust settled.
"Gomu Gomu no Gatling!"
A rapid volley of punches from the air, fists coming from multiple angles simultaneously aimed downward toward where Garp stood.
Garp used Soru.
Not like the Soru Luffy used. No preparation, no visible gathering of force. Garp simply moved and in one step he was no longer where he had been standing, appearing in the air at Luffy's side where there were no attacks.
Luffy stopped his Gatling and turned looking for Garp. But Garp was already above him and already swinging a fist downward.
Luffy heard the sound beside him and on instinct used Geppo, pushing himself higher. Garp's fist passed below his feet.
For one second Luffy felt he had succeeded.
Then his ankle was caught.
Garp who had passed beneath him twisted his body in the air and threw Luffy downward with force that was no joke.
Luffy shot like a bullet. The first tree fell. The second tree fell. The third tree snapped at its middle before Luffy finally stopped, his body half-buried in wood and upturned earth.
Before he could lift his head, a pair of feet was already standing in front of him.
Garp lifted Luffy by the collar of his shirt until his feet left the ground. Luffy, still half-conscious, hung there, his breathing heavy.
"Luffy. Don't you understand yet? You're going to become a Marine."
Luffy looked at his grandfather. His eyes were still focused despite his body refusing to cooperate.
"Don't say something stupid. I'm going to be King of the Pirates."
Garp stared at him for several moments.
Then he pulled his arm back. "Alright then. In that case I'll knock some sense into you with the fist of love I'm about to give you."
Luffy saw that fist coming.
Then darkness.
When Luffy opened his eyes the sky was dark and full of stars.
He was lying on the ground, his back feeling like it had been buried under trees, because that was exactly what had happened. His head throbbed. His face felt strange in several places where he was certain there were now lumps.
Luffy held his head and sat up slowly.
For a moment he just sat there, staring ahead without seeing anything concrete. A small campfire burned a few steps from where he lay, its light moving gently between the trees still standing around him. And beside that campfire, Garp sat casually eating grilled fish, with a considerable pile of forest food beside him.
Luffy's stomach growled loudly.
"This still hurts." Luffy finally spoke, his hand still on his head. "Why does Gramps' punch hurt when I'm a rubber man?"
Garp didn't lift his head from his grilled fish. "Because of love. I hit you with a feeling of love, that's why it hurts."
Luffy stared at him for a moment with a flat expression.
Then he stood, walked toward the pile of food, and sat in front of it. Without ceremony he started eating. Garp watching him said nothing, only shifting a few portions of the pile in Luffy's direction.
They ate in silence for a time. Around them the night forest spoke with its own sounds, insects, wind, the distant sound of running water.
The pile of food that had looked like it could last a whole night disappeared in an unreasonable amount of time.
Luffy leaned back, his stomach round, and let out a long belch. "Burp... full."
Garp tossed a fish bone to the side and picked up the next piece.
"By the way Gramps," said Luffy while staring at the sky above them, "recently I read a newspaper about an Admiral who destroyed a pirate crew. But there was one word I didn't understand." He turned to Garp. "What does a Logia type Devil Fruit mean? I already asked Dadan but she didn't know."
Garp glanced at Luffy briefly with slightly raised eyebrows. This boy is reading the news section now.
"Of course Dadan wouldn't know," said Garp. "Ordinary people generally think Devil Fruits are myths because they're so rare. But once you get to the Grand Line or even the New World, Devil Fruits are no longer rare at all." Garp pointed at Luffy. "Devil Fruits are divided into three types. Paramecia, like the fruit you ate. Can give various abilities but the user still has a normal body."
Luffy listened seriously, something unusual for this boy.
"The second is Zoan, which lets someone transform into an animal and strengthens their body physically. And the last, the rarest, is Logia. The fruit that lets the user transform into an element, fire, ice, light, lightning, and so on."
Luffy furrowed his brow. "But in that case... doesn't that make Logia users unbeatable? If their body can turn into fire, a normal punch would just pass right through."
Garp paused his eating for a moment and glanced at his grandson.
"Sharp enough." He went back to eating. "That's true, with only ordinary strength, a Logia user is almost untouchable. But in this world there is something called Haki."
"Haki?"
"A power hidden inside every person's body. Every person in this world has Haki, but almost no one knows how to use it or even knows it exists." Garp picked up the next grilled fish. "There are three types. The first is Kenbunshoku Haki, something like a sixth sense. You can feel the presence of others, even their intent before they move."
Luffy looked at his grandfather with an expression that was genuinely paying attention.
"The second is Busoshoku Haki. This is what answers your earlier question about Logia. Busoshoku coats the body or a weapon with something invisible but harder than steel. With this you can strike a Logia user as though they have a normal body." Garp drove his fist into his other palm. "And the third, Haoshoku Haki. The rarest of all. Only one in a million people naturally possess it. The ability to impose your will on others, you can even make people faint with nothing but conviction."
Luffy sat quietly for a moment taking it all in.
Then something in his head connected.
"Wait." He looked at Garp with an expression that slowly shifted into displeasure. "So all this time Gramps has been hitting me using Haki? Not because of love?"
Garp burst out laughing until the grilled fish in his hand nearly fell. "Hahahaha! So you figured it out!"
Luffy pouted. "I was tricked."
Garp kept laughing for a few moments before finally settling. He let out a long breath, still smiling, then looked at Luffy more seriously than before.
"By the way, Luffy. That technique you used earlier in the forest." Garp tapped the ground with his finger. "It looked similar to something we have in the Marines. It's called Rokushiki. Where did you learn it?"
Luffy scratched his head. "I didn't learn it from anyone. I just... remembered when I was small Gramps chasing me. The way Gramps moved. I tried to copy it myself."
Garp looked at his grandson for several moments with no clear expression.
"Rokushiki isn't some ordinary technique," he said finally. "It's a combat system the Marines developed over many years. There are six techniques in it and what you've developed is only two of them, and rough versions at that." He paused for a moment. "But you developed both of them on your own in six months from nothing more than remembering how someone ran."
He didn't continue the sentence. He just ate again.
Luffy, waiting for a continuation that didn't come, turned to his grandfather. "And?"
"And nothing." Garp tossed a fish bone to the side. "Just a fact."
Between them the campfire kept burning, its light swaying gently.
Garp, going back to his eating, spoke without lifting his head. "Luffy. I heard from Dadan that you've been training hard lately. What's actually going on?"
Luffy didn't answer right away. He stared at the campfire in front of him for a few moments.
"Nothing's going on," he said finally. "I just suddenly felt I wasn't strong enough. I wanted to train harder before I start my journey." He paused for a moment. "And after trying to fight Gramps today... I feel like I'm still very weak."
Garp said nothing.
Luffy turned toward his grandfather, and a wide smile spread across his still lump-covered face. "But at least I can keep getting stronger. And one day I'll surpass Gramps and become King of the Pirates."
The campfire crackled softly between them.
Garp looked at his grandson for several moments with an expression that couldn't be read at first glance. Then he snorted, turned away, and went back to his eating.
"Eat plenty if you want to get strong."
Luffy didn't need to be told twice.
End of Chapter 5