Chapter 7

Yoruichi sat on the top of a building, legs dangling off the edge. She had stopped here for lunch. As for where she was, well it had been two months since she had arrived in Goa Kingdom, and not much had changed. It had only been a short period of time, and she knew very well that Shinigami’s sense of time could be skewed. Something to do with having to meditate for years on end, along with nothing to do in the soul society.

But, regardless of the short time, she had done and learned a lot. After her and Garp’s spar, she had started asking around the place, or foosha village as it was called, for information on exactly where she was.

This led to someone pulling out a map of the world Woopslap he was called, like what was in her cabin on the ship. She was then regaled with tales of colossal sea monsters, whether she wasn’t sure was supposed to exist, and more. She learned about what the Grand line meant, as well as how crazy it was. Sounded like fun.

She had then gotten some more information from Garp, this time about the state of power in the world. He was a harder nut to crack than she thought, but she was able to succeed in the end. She was able to get out of him some of the upper echelons of the Marines, and the world government, namely some basic information about the Fleet Admiral and Admirals, like this one Kizaru fellow, who he called the fastest man alive. She really wanted to test that theory when she heard it.

She also got him to mention the Shichiubaki, or the 7 Warlords, which apparently work with the World Government in some capacity, though she still wasn’t sure exactly how. Last, but certainly not least, she learned about the Yonko, or the 4 Emperors. One of which was the red-haired pirates she had heard Luffy ranting about for the last 2 months, and where he got the hat from.

Other than the red-haired guy, the one she was most concerned about was Charlotte Linlin, or ’Big Mom’. Garp mentioned that she had a devil fruit that could manipulate human souls, or plus as she knew them. She should be safe, as she was a Shinigami, which were fundamentally different than plus, but even though she was exiled from the soul society, forfeiting her position as a Captain, she was still a Shinigami. She still went out every so often, and purified souls she could find.

She knew that was her purpose, and she also knew that the Soul Society was understaffed. All of them that had fled did, from Kisuke to the Visored. They all tried to help a little, though the Visored less so as the Shinigami assigned to Karakura town could detect them if they weren’t careful.

But hearing that someone had the ability to tear souls out of living humans, and apparently used them as currency sickened her. It went against everything she was as a Shinigami. Mo matter. She will deal with that situation as she comes across it. Nothing she could do now.

She sighed, leaning back on her hands, her food put to the side. She had swiped it from a food vendor in the market, none of the people here were even able to see her movements. In these last two months, she had also tried to, secure, some currency. She fell back onto what she usually did when she was low on cash in the material world, and Kisuke wouldn’t share. She went for the rich. Usually that meant the nobles, which she was right about, all of them had money.

However, she did not realize one crucial detail. She did not know that she wasn’t the only thief on the island, aiming for the nobles. So, when she went around becoming a serial thief, she found, again and again, empty coffers, jewelry gone, only scraps left over. Enough to live off, but not to be comfortable on.

She had come to find out when she came back to Foosha Village all glum, that Luffy and Ace, his brother, had cleaned the place out right before she got there with Garp. Luffy said they had put it all into their pirate stash, but he wouldn’t tell her where it was. He was a stubborn kid, and she eventually gave up trying to find it, as she kind of felt bad stealing from him.

That left her with her meagre winnings, leaving the nobles with absolutely nothing, not even their bed curtains. They were all horrible people. She didn’t usually care that she could be considered a noble herself, but she felt horrified to even be remotely associated with these people. She looked down at the market she sat above, looking at some of the buildings. Scorch marks still decorated a lot of them, from a fire some years before. A fire the nobles set purposely to ‘impress’ a higher ranked noble.

‘Disgusting’ she thought, grimacing. ‘They are lucky I only stole their money.’

Yoruichi stood up, then vanished in place. Using her flash step to head back to the Foosha Village, east of the capital city she was currently at. Garp had said that he wanted to talk to her about something, and that they could talk in the afternoon. She didn’t know what he wanted, but he had her suspicions. He had been buttering up the Marines in her eyes for a while, so he was probably going to ask her to join.

‘Hmh. Kisuke said I was supposed to be on a vacation. Why would I join some military organization. I already was annoyed at all the rules I had to follow in the Soul Society, and I was a Captain.’  She grumbled to herself, dashing through the trees. She had decided to run along the coastline, on the outskirts of Mt. Columbo. A few minutes later, she got close to Foohsa Village, and could sense a bunch of familiar presences moving about. She could sense a lot of the marines moving too and from the ship, with Garp standing outside the Party’s Bar. She changed course, headed to him.

When she got there, she saw marines picking up crates, and bringing them to the ship.

“What’s going on here, Garp?” Yoruichi asked, walking up to the man.

Garp looked at her, and smiled “Bah, I got a call from Sengoku telling me to ‘get my ass back to headquarters’, so I gotta get going. That reminds, me I wanted to ask you…” Garp turned to face her fully. “Do you want to come back to Marineford with us? Join the Marines?” Garp put his hands on his hips and laughed loudly.

Yoruichi crossed her arms, and sniffed “Garp, you have basically been asking me for the last month to come join you. I’m sure you already know my answer.” She spoke.

Garp’s entire presence deflated, but he eventually nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. You don’t seem the type to follow orders.”

Yoruichi frowned, then replied “I know how to follow orders! I was in an organization like yours for a long time. I just don’t like the sound of what I’ve been hearing around the island. That and I’m only supposed to be on vacation, and I don’t know for how long. So, I couldn’t join you even if I wanted to.”

Garp huffed, thinking for a moment. “How about this. If you want your vacation so bad, you can stay here. I’ll be back in like a year or so. Gotta make sure I don’t miss Luffy’s birthday, as who knows what will happen at the next one. When I come back, Ill take you with me to the grand line. You won’t have to join the marines; you can just be a ‘guest’ of the marines. We get a lot of those, so don’t worry. You can still have that vacation of yours.”

He smiled, thinking he had won.

Yoruichi put her hand under her chin, in a thinking pose. It wasn’t too bad of an offer. She still had no idea when, or even how, Kisuke would be getting her back home. She had thought about what he said before she got thrown through the portal, and it sounded like he could get her back whenever he wanted.

She looked up at Garp again, then agreed. “Fine. I’ll stay here and explore the East Blue for a bit, and I will join you on going to the Grand Line for a little while. All the stories you have told me make me kind of curious.” She grinned, “Maybe I’ll come find you in the grand line and kick your ass again.”

Garp pouted and looked away embarrassed. He had won 1 out of the 15 spars they had had in the last two months. She was just too fast for him to catch without causing unreasonable destruction to the village, and he didn’t want to do that.

He eventually looked back at her, and they had a little staring contest. Neither blinked. After a minute or two, Garp started laughing. “Bahahaha, ok Girly, Ill come pick you up when I come back. Then I can show you what it really means to be a marine!” he roared, making some marines nearby drop their crates.

Yoruichi shook her head fondly. She had seen this side of Garp repeatedly over the time she had spent with him. He was constantly trying to get her, Luffy, and anyone he thought had potential into the marines.

‘He must really like it,’ she thought, watching the man laugh then head towards the marines that dropped their crates to chew them out for it.

She watched on as the marines slowly got all their supplies for the journey back to Marineford, the Marine HQ, situated halfway through the grand line. She could sense Luffy peeking out the window of the Bar, watching it all happen. He looked a little teary eyed, probably at his grandfather leaving. Regardless of how much Garp beat up Luffy, she could tell they loved each other.

Once they had finished, Garp walked back to where Yoruichi was, and now most of the villagers stood. Garp came up to her and asked to speak away from everyone for a minute.

Once they were a little bit away from everyone, he looked down at her, looking serious for once. “I know you wanted to stay and explore the east blue, so I have a favor to ask. I’ve been meaning to do this myself, but with Sengoku calling me back, I haven’t had the time. You seem like the sneaky type, so I know you can do it.” he said, sounding much more like the Vice Admiral she had learned he was, than his usual brash self.

Yoruichi felt this was no time for games. She looked up at the man, serious herself for the first time in a while. “What do you want me to do, Garp? Sounds important.” She crossed her arms, looking up at him.

Garp pulled a little booklet out his pocket and held it out to her. She took it from him and looked at it. Plain, brown leather, with a little strap connecting the covers to a button on the front. Nothing else was on it.

When she opened it, she saw words written on the pages. It looked like a list of some kind.

While she was looking through the notebook, Garp started speaking. “Inside that book is a list of some of the Marine bases in the east blue. Recently I have been hearing some things I would rather not hear coming out of those bases there. I want to ask if you would check them out for me, see what is up.”

Garp sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “As things go, the east blue is the least important to the Marines, and the World Government in general. That means there is less of a military presence here than there should be. On paper, things are fine, at least from my perspective in Headquarters. But over the last few years, I have been hearing rumors about marines working with pirates, or just plain old corruption. I don’t like it. This is my home, and as a Marine it is my job to protect it. But I can’t do that, at least not without some evidence.”

Yoruichi interrupted him, looking up at him sharply. “I know I haven’t told you much of who I am, but why do you want me to even do this?” She couldn’t see the reason he would ask someone who he had known for two months to do something for an organization she had repeatedly declined to associate with.

Garp sighed, before looking at her. “You remind me a bit of the CP agents that work for the world government. Sneaky, sly types. But you also remind me a bit of myself. You like the rush, of fighting.” He sighed, before walking over to the outside wall of a building and leaning against it. “you’re right, I don’t really know you. But you seem like someone I can trust. My gut has never let me down so far, and I don’t think it will with you.” He grinned at her. “Besides, you already want to go exploring. Think of that booklet as an itinerary. Most of the bases listed are put in major islands and kingdoms, for a good reason. You’ll be going there anyway, most likely. All I’m asking is, pop your head in for a bit, see what is going on, and look around. See what the people are talking about. If you see something, or hear something, write it down. You don’t have to do anything more than that. Won’t disturb your vacation beyond that.” He finished his long-winded explanation.

Yoruichi frowned, thinking about what Garp just said. She could understand the feeling of not liking what was happening to his home. She felt the same with Aizen, and that situation. He was probably detached from it while he was at that headquarters of his, but coming back here probably made his worries jump to the forefront, but he couldn’t do anything about it.

“Fine, Jiji.” Yoruichi said, pocketing the booklet in the satchel Kisuke had given her. “I’ll keep an eye out. But I’m not going to do anything for you, got it?” she said, growling at the last part and pointing at him. She was no stranger to reconnaissance missions. The Second Division did them all the time in the Rukongai, the city outside the Soul Society. She didn’t see the harm by not helping Garp out, at least in thanks for him bringing her here.

Garp laughed. “Great! One more thing though, could you keep an eye on Luffy? Since his older brother left, there is no one to keep an eye on him when I leave. I don’t know what he would get up to when I leave.” They both shivered, Luffy had been increasingly agitated for some reason. When Yoruichi mentioned it to Makino, she had said it was probably because Ace was gone, and it was just now getting to Luffy.

‘That kid is many things, but smart is not one of them. Empathetic? Sure. Smart? Hell no.’ Yoruichi thought wryly. She pointed at Garp again, saying “No. Make Makino do it. She knows how to handle him best, and besides. I can’t watch the kid and do this.” she said, waving the booklet around.

Garp shook his head, muttering, “Eh, worth a try. Can’t win them all I suppose.” He turned to leave, walking back to the large group of villagers. Yoruichi followed him, aiming to see him off. As they got closer, they saw a red blur come out of the Bar.

“Wahhhh” Luffy cried, wrapped around Garp’s leg. Literally wrapped multiple times, like someone had used his arms as rope. “Don’t leave me Gramps! Ace is gone, so you’re all I have left!” Luffy had tears and snot rolling down his face.

Garp looked down, then punched him in the head. “Get off me, brat! You’ll be fine. Makino can look after you, right Makino?” Garp looked over at the green haired woman, who had also come out of the bar after Luffy. She smiled happily “Of course. Id love to have Luffy around.” Luffy sat on the ground, holding his head where a welt was already forming. He looked back and forth between Garp and Makino before nodding his head. “You’d better bring back some more meat when you come back Gramps! The good stuff this time, not the yucky stuff you brought back.” Garp chuckled at that.

Yoruichi learned that Garp had brought some Sea King meat back, the giant sea monsters the mayor Woopslap told her about. Luffy had fallen in love at first taste. When they had come back this time, Luffy had rushed onto the ship after finding out Garp was there, intent on looking for more of the “delicious meat”. He had eventually found some in the hold, but it was salted and dried, more like jerky than what Luffy usually ate.

He hated it almost immediately after. He said he was tricked, and he hated Garp because of it. Garp then pulled out his own stash of meat and handed Luffy a piece before taking his own. Luffy immediately turned in his head and said that he was the ‘best Gramps ever.’

‘What was the saying?’ Yoruichi thought ‘The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree?’

Garp then waved goodbye to everyone near the bar and walked to the boat. The final marines followed behind him, with the last of their supplies. Yoruichi could see Bogard, Garp’s first mate, walking around on the ship, giving orders.

Finally, they were ready to set off. She could see Garp standing on the deck, laughing boisterously while waving goodbye as they started sailing away. She smiled, waving back. He had grown on her, in the past few months.

Next to her, Luffy sat on the ground still, watching his grandfather sail away. He turned to look up at Yoruichi, and asked, “So, you got any meat?”

Yoruichi froze mid wave and looked down. Her face darkened, and then she disappeared. She reappeared behind Luffy, leg outstretched. “Get your meat fetish out of here!” She yelled angrily, swinging her leg. She connected with Luffy’s still say butt, sending him flying over the rooftops. She could hear him screaming for several seconds.

Yoruichi put her hand over her eyes, looking at Luffy fly.

‘Damn, that’s some good airtime’ she thought smugly. ‘Bet Garp couldn’t do better.’

Thorgrinson

This is going to be one of the last few chapters before a bigger timeskip, and then things are really gonna pick up. The setup is almost done.