The sea remembers everything. It remembers the fire, the screams, the taste of ash that choked the sky over Hi-no-Kuni. Four years I'd sailed its currents, sometimes on creaking merchant ships whose captains didn't ask questions, sometimes on rafts cobbled together from wreckage, sometimes just clinging to driftwood. Four years, and the rage that Garp's final word, "Run," had ignited hadn't cooled. It simmered, a low burn beneath the surface, fueling me through storms and starvation. It was the only warmth I had left.
But the sea is also cruel. One moment, the stolen fishing boat I'd 'borrowed' from a sleepy port in the Conomi Islands was cresting waves under a bruised purple dawn sky; the next, a rogue wave, black and monstrous, had swallowed it whole, spitting me out into the churning, freezing water like unwanted bait.
Splash! Gurgle…
Cold. So cold. It seeped into my bones, stealing the breath from my lungs. My limbs felt heavy, waterlogged. The Kaenken, strapped tight to my back beneath my ragged cloak even after all this time, felt like an anchor dragging me down. The Sunstone Heart, tucked in a waterproof pouch against my skin, offered no physical warmth against the East Blue's chill. Panic clawed at my throat, mixing with the saltwater I swallowed. Darkness crept in at the edges of my vision.
Is this it? After everything… drowned like a rat? The irony wasn't lost on me, even as consciousness faded. Grandpa's face flashed before my eyes. Survive, Akane. The word echoed, faint against the roaring water.
Then, light. Sound. Muffled shouting.
"...the heck is that?"
"Looks like… a person! Shishishi!"
"Idiot! Help me pull!"
Something strong gripped my arm. Another hand, strangely stretchy, snagged my cloak. The crushing pressure lessened as I was hauled upwards, breaking the surface with a choked gasp. Air! Glorious, stinging air filled my lungs. I coughed violently, saltwater burning my throat.
Blinking stinging eyes, I saw faces. One belonged to a boy maybe my age, maybe a bit older, with a mess of black hair, startlingly intense dark eyes, and a dusting of freckles across his nose. He was treading water effortlessly, holding my arm firmly. He looked serious, focused.
The other face, hovering above me from the edge of a small, battered boat, was framed by shorter black hair and topped with a worn straw hat. This boy had eyes wide with a sort of manic energy and a grin that stretched almost ear to ear, even now. "Whoa! You okay? You were sinking like a rock!"
The freckled boy shot him an annoyed look. "Stop stating the obvious, Luffy. Grab her other arm."
"Okay, Ace!" The straw-hatted boy, Luffy, reached down again. His arm stretched, elongating unnaturally from the boat's edge to grab my other shoulder. My eyes widened slightly. A Devil Fruit user?
They hauled me, sputtering and shivering, into their small boat. It smelled of fish and salt and something vaguely like burnt wood. I collapsed onto the rough wooden planks, water pooling around me, too exhausted and cold to even manage suspicion yet. The Kaenken bumped uncomfortably against the floorboards.
"She's freezing," Ace noted, pulling off his own slightly-too-large orange shirt and tossing it towards me. It wasn't much, but I numbly pulled it over my soaked tunic. It smelled like him – sweat, sunshine, and a faint trace of gunpowder.
Luffy poked my cheek. "Ne, ne, are you a mermaid? Did you lose your tail?"
Ace smacked the back of Luffy's head. WHACK! "Don't be stupid! She's got legs! Probably fell off a ship." He looked at me, his gaze sharp, assessing. "Where'd you come from?"
I just shook my head, teeth chattering too hard to speak. My eyes scanned the horizon – nothing but endless blue. Wherever my little boat had sunk, it was gone without a trace. Alone. Again.
Ace sighed, a sound surprisingly mature for his age. "Fine. Can't leave you here. We'll take you back to Makino's first, get you warm."
Luffy bounced on the balls of his feet, making the small boat rock. "Or Dadan's! Dadan gives bigger snacks! Sometimes!"
"Dadan will skin us if we bring home another stray, Luffy," Ace argued, grabbing an oar. "Makino's closer to the village anyway."
The journey back felt like a blur. Ace rowed with steady, practiced strokes, navigating towards a green smudge on the horizon that slowly resolved into cliffs and a small harbour town nestled at their base – Foosha Village, though I didn't know its name then. Luffy chattered endlessly, asking me questions I didn't answer, pointing out seagulls, and occasionally trying to snatch fish leaping from the water with his bare (stretchy) hands.
They didn't take me to the village, though. Ace seemed to change his mind as we got closer, muttering something about "less questions this way." He guided the boat towards a less-used part of the shore, then they helped me out. My legs were shaky, protesting the sudden return to solid ground.
"Can you walk?" Ace asked, his tone still gruff but with an undercurrent of concern.
I nodded mutely. Luffy, however, just grinned. "Don't worry! I'll carry you! Shishishi!" Before I could protest, he'd scooped me up fireman-style. It was startlingly easy for him, his thin arms surprisingly strong. Being carried felt strange, vulnerable, but I lacked the energy to fight.
We walked away from the shore, up a winding, overgrown path leading into the forested hills behind the village. The air grew thick with the smell of pine needles and damp earth. Strange animal calls echoed through the trees. It felt wilder here, untamed.
"Almost there!" Luffy announced cheerfully, bouncing me slightly with each step.
Ace grumbled, "Just try not to drop her, idiot."
Finally, through the trees, I saw it – a ramshackle hut, looking like it was held together by sheer stubbornness and maybe some dried mud. Smoke curled lazily from a crooked chimney. Loud, angry shouting drifted from within.
"...told you brats not to track mud everywhere! And where's that boar I told you to catch?! Lazy good-for-nothings!"
Luffy didn't seem fazed. He kicked the door open with his foot (BANG!) and strode inside, still carrying me. "Dadan! We're back! And look what we found!"
The interior was dim, messy, and smelled strongly of woodsmoke, cheap liquor, and unwashed bandits. A large, imposing woman with bright orange hair tied back loosely, wearing rough clothes and smoking a cigarette, spun around, a frying pan brandished menacingly. This had to be Dadan. Her eyes narrowed. "Found? What did you find now, you little terrors? Another giant beetle? If it eats the floorboards again, I swear I'll—" Her eyes landed on me, draped over Luffy's shoulder like a sack of wet laundry. "A girl?! Where in the blazes did you pick up a half-drowned girl?!"
Ace slipped in behind Luffy, looking wary. "She fell overboard, Dadan. Couldn't just leave her."
Dadan threw her hands up, the frying pan clattering as she dropped it. "Couldn't leave her?! Do I look like I run a charity?! More trouble, always more trouble with you two!"
As Dadan continued her rant, Luffy finally set me down. I swayed on my feet, taking in the chaotic hut, the angry mountain bandit woman, the two strange boys. Just another Tuesday in my life, really. I pulled the damp cloak tighter around me, instinctively checking the Kaenken was still secure.
Then, I heard it.
A sound deeper than Dadan's yelling. A low chuckle that rumbled like distant thunder. A sound that turned the blood in my veins to ice water.
From a shadowed corner of the hut, where he'd apparently been sitting unnoticed, a large figure shifted. He brought a massive rice cracker to his mouth with a loud CRUNCH. Grey hair, weathered face, broad shoulders that seemed too big for the small hut. He wasn't wearing the 'Justice' coat now, just a simple shirt, but there was no mistaking him.
My breath hitched. My heart hammered against my ribs so hard I thought it might break free. The heat of my dormant rage flared, threatening to consume the freezing exhaustion. Him. Here. In this middle-of-nowhere hut in the East Blue.
Ace and Luffy saw him at the same time. Their reaction was instantaneous and comical, if I hadn't been paralyzed by my own shock. All bravado vanished. They went ramrod straight, sweat beading on their foreheads, eyes wide with sheer terror.
"J-J-JII-CHAN?!" they stammered in unison, voices cracking.
The old man grinned, a wide, toothy grin that didn't reach his eyes as they swept over the scene – Dadan sputtering, Ace and Luffy frozen in fear, and finally, me. Small, shivering, dripping seawater onto the dirty floorboards, clutching a borrowed orange shirt.
"Yo," Garp said casually, taking another loud bite of his senbei. "Didn't expect you brats back so soon. Whatcha got there?" His gaze lingered on me, sharp and assessing beneath the casual tone. A flicker of something – confusion? Annoyance? – crossed his face. Then, it vanished, replaced by his usual bluster. "Hah! Brought home another stray, have ya? Dadan, you're getting soft!"
Dadan bristled, momentarily forgetting her anger at the boys in the face of the newcomer's accusation. "Soft?! I ain't soft, Garp! They just dumped her here!"
Garp. The name echoed in the small space, confirming the impossible. He was here. The Hero. The Butcher's Accomplice. The man who saved my life after helping destroy my world. He looked older, maybe, the lines on his face deeper. But it was him.
He pushed himself slowly to his feet, towering over everyone in the cramped hut. He ignored Ace and Luffy, who looked like they might faint. He ignored Dadan's indignant squawking. His eyes fixed on me, a strange intensity entering his gaze. He tilted his head, squinting slightly, as if trying to place a half-forgotten face.
My hand instinctively tightened on the hilt of the Kaenken beneath my cloak. Four years. Eighty million beri on my head. And the sea had washed me up right at his feet.
He took a step closer, sniffing the air. "Oi, squirt," he rumbled, his voice the same one that had haunted my nightmares, the same one that had told me to run. "You smell familiar. Like… like fire and…" He frowned, peering closer. "What are you doing here?"
The air in the hut crackled. Garp loomed over me, his shadow swallowing the dim light, his question hanging heavy between us. "What are you doing here?" The scent of him – gunpowder, sea salt, rice crackers – was the smell of the festival night turned nightmare. My fingers clenched tighter on the Kaenken's hilt, the familiar cold steel a grounding presence against the sudden, terrifying heat rising in my chest. Four years of running, hiding, surviving, fueled by the memory of Hi-no-Kuni burning under his flag, under his watch. Four years of planning, dreaming of the day I could face the World Government, face the injustice… and here he was. The beginning and the end of it all. My heart hammered a frantic rhythm against my ribs – thump-thump-thump – part fear, part fury.
Just as I was about to draw the blade, to unleash the storm I'd carried inside me for so long, a small figure darted forward, planting himself between me and the giant Marine.
"Oi! What are you doing, Ji-san?!" Luffy piped up, his voice trembling slightly but defiant. He still looked scared of Garp, his body tense, but he stood protectively in front of me, straw hat shadowing his eyes. "Stop that! You're scaring her!"
Garp blinked, momentarily thrown off balance by Luffy's unexpected intervention. His intense gaze flickered from me to Luffy, a flicker of annoyance crossing his features. "Huh? Scaring her? I just asked—"
But Luffy's words, his simple act of shielding me, broke something inside. The tension holding me rigid snapped. Seeing Garp wasn't just seeing the face of the system that destroyed my home. It was seeing the man who'd stood on the burning dock, who'd met a cannonball head-on to shield my escape boat, the man I'd last seen swallowed by flames and smoke. In the deepest, most hidden part of my heart, the part that still clung to the seven-year-old girl who shared senbei with a laughing stranger, I hadn't truly believed he could have survived that inferno. I thought he'd died there, a final, futile act of defiance against the 'justice' he served.
And yet, here he stood. Alive. Breathing. Eating rice crackers in a bandit hut in the East Blue.
The rage didn't vanish, but it was abruptly drowned by a wave of something else, something complex and overwhelming – shock, confusion, and a raw, aching relief that felt like betrayal. The cold mask I wore cracked. Tears, hot and stinging, escaped my eyes, tracing paths through the grime and salt on my cheeks. They weren't tears of sadness for Hi-no-Kuni, not this time. They were tears for the impossible sight before me.
"Ji-san..." The name slipped out, the same name I'd called him that last peaceful evening, before I knew what horrors he represented, what horrors he was tied to. My voice was thick, choked. More tears flowed, blurring his imposing figure. "Y-you're... alive?"
The words hung in the sudden silence of the hut. Even Dadan stopped mid-rant. Ace stared, his mouth slightly open, freckles stark against his pale face. Luffy looked back and forth between me and Garp, head tilted in confusion. "Ji-san? You know her, Gramps?"