Summary: An unexpected offer turned down and a grandfather side-tracked.

Chapter 6: Farewells

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"You know Luffy, you could come with us. Normally, I'd never allow it, doubly so with who your grandfather is. But you and Uta get along amazingly and you're pretty strong for your age."

Luffy blinked at Shanks, completely taken by surprise as they stood on the docks. Had…he changed so much already that Shanks would make that offer, rather than actively telling him to stay? A part of him wanted to take it. A part of him really wanted him to take it. Uta had been good company, about the only kid 'his age' he could tolerate. Shanks and his crew represented a hell of a resource, too. He could see a lot of the world and do incredible things with them. But…there was one thing both of his lives agreed on. It was that one thing that made him grin hugely at Shanks and turn him down.

"Nope! If I went with you, I'd have to take orders! I can't do that if I'm going to get my Dream!"

All the people around them had stilled. First at Shanks' completely unexpected offer, even Ben Beckham not seeming to have been aware Shanks was going to make it. Maybe Shanks hadn't been aware, either. He was a pretty chaotic soul, after all, and might have just been taken by a whim in the moment. That stillness had only deepened when Luffy answered, with Shanks the only one that seemed able to speak. He smiled, not his usual boisterous smile, but a much more knowing one.

"Somehow, I thought you'd say that. So, Luffy…what is it? Your Dream."

"I'm gonna be the freest man in the world, Shanks! And see all the world has to offer, while I'm at it!"

Now even Shanks was quiet for a moment, his wide smile fading like he'd just seen an ghost of the past. And maybe he had. Luffy didn't know if Rodger had ever actually spoken those words, but they were the ones that had connected to him when he'd first watched One Piece. Ones that the remnants of the original Luffy had embraced as well, without ever knowing how to put them into words. As Alex, he had hated the rails the world as it was had placed him on. Known it wasn't within his grasp to break them. No one could. Not the lucky, not even the wealthy. Even billionaires who built giant space dildos to fuck the universe with were just as trapped as Alex had been. Stuck in a world where normal had been defined so tightly that there was no chance of escape. Stuck in a world so interconnected that no one could break the system any longer. They could rise through it, pick an unusual path. But they couldn't change it. The entire thing had simply grown too dense, too concrete and settled, for that.

But the world of One Piece wasn't like that. Not yet, even if the legal powers that be in it were clearly trying to make it so. Those powers, the Marines and the Celestial Dragons, they hadn't managed that normalization yet. There were too many other powers, too many strong people they couldn't yet fully contain. Too many Gol D. Rodgers, Edward Newgates, and Monkey D. Dragons. Add a mixed technology level and the very nature of places like the Grand Line, and this world wasn't Stuck yet. It was still possible to be Free. Not easy, anyone that walked that path would end up labeled a threat sooner or later. But still possible. Like the days of the Wild West, or even the discovery of the Americas in general back on Earth. Not pretty, not as romanticized as movies would have you believe. But possible.

Luffy was going to take it for himself, or die trying. He'd already died twice, after all. And they did say the third time was the charm. So what was the harm in trying?

"That's a big Dream, Luffy. The biggest dream there is. You'll have to become strong, possibly the strongest man in the world, to make it real. You know that, right?"

Luffy met Shanks' eyes, his own burning with determination. He didn't answer in words. Instead, he simply let his will seep into the world, not as a full-blown burst of Conquerors Haki. Just as…emphasis. Shanks eyes widened as he felt it…and Luffy simply nodded. Shanks' grin was back in full a moment later, it eyes alight with a matching flame. He began to walk away, but removed his hat and spun it on one finger as he did.

"Well then Luffy, I'll see you at the top! Until then…look after this for me, will you?"

The hat left his finger, spinning in a perfect arc to land on Luffy's head, just as Shanks stepped aboard his ship. Shocked, not having expected it with how much he'd changed already, Luffy's hand went up to that infamous Straw Hat in awe. His smile widened, even as his eyes misted.

"You bet, Shanks! I'll see you in the New World! Don't get your ass kicked too hard before I get there!"

There were roars of laughter from the crew as Shanks face-faulted a bit at that. But the man recovered quickly, his own laughter joining his crew's as he waved one last goodbye and began shouting orders to cast off…

To distract himself from the emotions of the moment, Luffy preformed a simple Observe on the Hat. Then became legitimately distracted when he read it.

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The Straw Hat of ?

Grade: Relic

Abilities: ?, ?, ?

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What…what the fuck?

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It was several long hours after the Red Hair Pirate Crew had set sail, when Luffy sat himself down in his room above Makino's bar. He'd been staring at the somehow Relic-Grade Straw Hat for a good fifteen minutes, once again wracking his brain to try and remember anything about the Hat that would mark is as so important. He did remember that it had once been owned by Rodger, of course. But beyond it having belonged to both the former Pirate King and Shanks, he'd never considered that it was anything more than a keepsake. Had…Luffy known that? It seemed unlikely. Or perhaps more likely that he wouldn't have cared less about any mystery the hat had, instead valuing only the promise it represented. Finally coming up blank, again, Luffy carefully stowed it in his Inventory, before pulling up his Status.

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Status

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Name: Monkey D. Luffy

Age: 8

Level: 12

Devil Fruit: N/A

Money: 542000 Belli

Shop Points: 575

Perk Points: 5

Spirit Coupons: 2

Stats:

Strength: 23

Dexterity: 35

Endurance: 31

Intelligence: 45

Wisdom: 30

Charisma: 22

Luck: 28

Free Stat Points: 54

Perks

Gamer's Body: Grants a body that allows for the user to live the real world like a game. Wounds healed on rest. Status Effects removed on Rest.

Gamer's Mind: Allows the user to calmly and logically think things through. Gamer can suppress negative emotions at will.

The Will of D: Bearer holds the inherited will of the Family of D. Effect: Live in Interesting Times, ?, ?

Outsider's Perspective: Imported save data increases relevant stats, as well as relevant skills when acquired.

Gifted Hands: You are naturally good with your hands. Anything from art to martial arts get's a helping hand. Your instincts for all such things are 10% better than they should be, and you get a 5% boost to XP gain for any skill based around working with your hands.

Gun Nut: Despite your age, you've managed to learn a lot about guns! How to clean them, how to make them, and even a little bit about how to shoot them! Gain instinctive knowledge of any gun you handle, as well as 10% faster XP gain for the Gunsmith and Gunslinger skills.

Intuitive Combatant: You are naturally gifted at learning combat. You are 15% faster at learning any type of combat, from the use of guns to punching lights out with your bare fists!

Training Expert: Get the most out of training! Not just for yourself, but for your crew too! Gain instinctive knowledge of the best ways to tweak your training for those GAINS BRO! +15% XP for Training your own skills, or for Training others in skills in which you outrank your trainee by at least 10 points.

Sage's Curve: You learn intellectual pursuits much faster than normal, and retain the knowledge more completely. You have a 20% boost to learning speed and memory retention of any intelligence or wisdom based skills.

Sword Savant: You have created a new sword style at an incredibly young age. Know its flaws and how to fix them instinctively.

Skills

Brawling: 17

Carpentry(Ships): 27

Gunslinger: 12

GunSmithing: 10

Haki(Conquerors): 1

Haki(Observation): 20

Haki(Armament): 5

Medicine: 9

Meditation: 27

Observe: 45

Free Running: 24

Sailing: 28

Sciences: 29

Sneak: 28

Sword Mastery (Wave Dancer Style): 27

Spear Mastery: 7

Staff Mastery: 12

More…

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It had been a bit over a year since he arrived in this world and Luffy was pleased with how far he'd gotten. He was still weaker than even Uta, particularly as she'd leveled again during the year. But he'd closed the gap a bit and was entering the territory beyond what the vast majority of civilians would ever reach. As Observe had leveled up, he'd gotten more comprehensive views of people's stats and skills, and a normal person's highest skills rarely reached above 50. In fact, aside from Makino, the only person in the entire village with a skill above that was Mr. Minatomo. The old shipwright had a sailing skill of 64 and his Crafting (Ships) skill was 73. Given that the man was old and had apparently once been a designer at the premier shipyard in the East Blue, Luffy suspected that meant genuine experts in a skill would likely hover in the 60-70s range. Something born out by him seeing a lot of sailing scores in the 40s and 50s for the various fishermen that lived in Foosha. Those people weren't true sailing experts, as they didn't need to operate large ships and navigate immense distances. So those scores likely represented professionals, whereas the 60s and 70s represented experts. Presumably, someone with a score in the 80s or 90s would be a true master of that skill.

That meant that Luffy himself was no more than a gifted amateur or low-level apprentice in any one skill. But, frankly, for an 8-year-old it was extraordinary to rate on the same scale as adults at all. He was also quite pleased with the types of skills he'd managed to eventually wheedle out of the Red Hair Crew. Shanks helping him with his new sword style and finally convincing Yasopp to shut up about his kid and give him some basic safety lessons with guns had been the two greatest accomplishments. Particularly as, while Yassop wasn't all that willing to let him fire guns at his age, he was more than happy to help Luffy learn about them. It turned out that the sniper made his own guns and ammo and had taught Luffy enough to qualify him to meet the Gun Nut perk requirements. It had even given him some fundamentals to start with when it came to making his own guns, which was something he'd intended to do from the start. He'd even managed to get enough information out of them about Haki, after demonstrating his Observation, that he'd recently been able to unlock Armament, though he was still working on doing much with it…

Yes. Luffy had a solid start in a lot of ways. Though, in one specific way he was still running into issues. Specifically, he wanted a Devil Fruit. A very specific Devil Fruit, since he felt it was likely to provide a good combination of abilities. He'd ultimately decided against attempting to 'steal' the Darkness fruit, unless he somehow got the chance to do so without costing himself a fruit he actually wanted.

Likewise, he'd also answered the question of if he even wanted one at all. It was possible to become a monster without one, Shanks, Garp, and Gold D. Rodger being strong examples of that. Yet, doing it that way created two major problems. First, he'd be weaker on the front end of his journey, where Devil Fruits were a massive advantage to actually surviving to reach the New World. Second, Haki was far more of an outlier than Devil Fruits were. If he showed it off too readily, became strong enough to challenge the Grand Line without only it…he'd also become a major target. A lucky draw on a Devil Fruit boosting a rookie into the ranks of the dangerous was almost normal. Someone popping up with Haki from the weakest ocean was not.

So, he wanted a Devil Fruit, but he wanted one that fit him. Better yet, one that would have a high top-end of power so it didn't become as much of a liability in the long run. But the one Fruit he'd selected cost 3 SF Coupons from his System Store. Currently, he only had the two. Part of him had been tempted to steal the Gomu Gomu no Mi, since after he sold it to the Gamer store the Red Hair crew couldn't prove it was him…except that Shanks could probably tell if someone was lying with Observation. And Luffy wasn't the best liar in the first place. They'd forgiven the original Luffy for eating it. But that had been on accident and mostly the crew's fault for not watching it closely. Stealing it might be an entirely different matter. Besides he…liked them, and didn't want to steal from the people who'd accepted him and taught him so much.

But that left him with the far more irritating problem of needing to find another Devil Fruit to sell to the store. Even the lowest grade of Paramecia would do. Unfortunately, the blasted things weren't exactly common in the weakest of seas. He'd hoped that, as large and relatively important as the Goa Kingdom was, that there might be one hidden away here. He'd spent the vast majority of his Shop Points on a very specific item that would be dead useful anyway, in the long run, with that in mind. The Spirit Fruit Locator, which looked a little bit like a log pose with a dozen needles and dials, was described by the System as being able to locate any Spirit Fruit within 100km of it. That included, apparently, even those that had already been consumed. Which made it capable of tracking down Devil Fruit users as well as unused Devil Fruits. Potentially incredibly useful…but currently useless as he'd already covered all of Goa and there weren't any other Fruits or Fruit Users here.

Fuck.

Luffy sighed and stared out to sea, wrestling with what to do. He wanted to go looking for a Devil Fruit, to get his power-up now and learn to work with it. But there was an issue with that. A big one. He wasn't supposed to know why the Red Hair Crew had left in a bit of a hurry. But he wasn't nearly as oblivious as Makino and Shanks thought him to be. The two had been shacking up together since the first month Shanks arrived, even if they'd done a good job of hiding that fact from most. Luffy had caught on quickly, and had been close enough for his Listen skill to pick up the warning Makino had given to Shanks as the two split one morning. Garp had called her, to let her know he was on his way back to Foosha. It would not be good for anyone if Shanks was still here when his grandfather arrived.

Understandably, the Red Hair Pirates had scrambled to leave, not sure how long it would be before Garp arrived. Frustratingly, Luffy didn't know either…and he also didn't know what Garp would do when he came back to find Luffy had been buddy buddy with a big name pirate crew for an entire year. The original Luffy was a knucklehead who would have shouted to the rooftops about being the King of the Pirates. Which, in turn, was presumably be why Garp had/would have thrown Luffy to Dadan and her bandits. The question Luffy had was…would he still do that to a Luffy that didn't scream about being the King of the Pirates?

Honestly, Luffy hadn't misspoken to Shanks. The King of the Pirates title didn't mean a thing to him. He just wanted to be free to explore and live how he wanted. That, he knew, would eventually put him on the wrong side of the World Government, likely getting him labeled as a pirate even if he never committed any actual acts of piracy. Without Garp worried about his goal of being Pirate King shouted to everyone that could hear though…would he still send him to Dadan? Or would he stick to Foosha, possibly even teaching Luffy himself in hopes he could be convinced of being a Marine? As yet another option, would he simply leave Luffy with Makino again?

Luffy didn't know, and that was the most frustrating thing of all. Particularly as he had zero plans to stay put entirely on Foosha, even disregarding the Devil Fruit business. He had seeds to plant and butterfly wings to flap about to see if he could create a few storms that shifted the future. He couldn't very well do that here. Sighing again, Luffy pushed it all from his mind and focused on training instead. There was a perk he wanted that required him to have at least twenty points of Armament Haki. Better to spend his time grinding away at that than to beat his head against the unknowable. It's not like he had a ship to leave the island with yet, anyway…

... ... ...

"Grandson."

"Gramps."

A moment of movement and there was a slight lump on Luffy's head. He hissed…but knew full well that it had been a tap on Garp's part. Barly even a tap, really.

"What is this I hear about you being friendly with a bunch of Pirates?! You're going to be a Marine!"

Luffy scowled…but didn't respond the way Garp had thought he would. The original Luffy had always immediately shouted some version of 'Never' to that.

"No. Too many rules. I'm going to be me."

Garp…blinked in confusion, not seeming to know what to do with the calm and serious response.

"Explain."

Well, this was already going better than Luffy had hoped, honestly. Now, if he could just get Garp to draw a few only-partially-accurate conclusions. Flopping down to take a seat looking out over the water, Luffy primed his ammunition carefully. He'd had to ask some very leading questions to get what he needed out of even the drunker members of the Red Hair Pirates…but he'd gotten enough to confirm a few things.

"I want to live the way I want! To help the people that I think need help! The Marines wouldn't let me do that."

"The Marines do the most good for the world. They are where you should be if you want to help people!"

Interesting phrasing, that. Garp was hedging, even if it wouldn't have been obvious if Luffy wasn't looking for it.

"So the Marines will arrest a noble for killing someone? They don't cut deals to let some pirates go?"

Garp was frowning now. Luffy knew he was pushing his luck in framing that question so well at his age, but he needed to shift Garp's thoughts a bit.

"If you managed to capture a Warlord, they'd give you his bounty."

"What's a Warlord?"

Garp was silent, and that silence was telling. Luffy knew the answer, of course. But just bringing up that he hadn't been the one to mention it, Garp had just jumped there on his own, was the victory he needed.

"If I set slaves free, would I be lauded as a Hero, gramps? Everyone should have freedom, right?"

Garp flinched and Luffy looked away from him to hide too-knowledgeable eyes. So long as Garp thought he was parroting stuff Shanks' crew had said, it would probably be fine. Probably.

"I don't really care about being a Marine or a Pirate! My dream isn't to find the One Piece, or become the next Pirate King! But I know I can't be a Marine, because they'd tell me how to live. Screw that!"

Garp snorted.

"Oh? Then what are you going to do? Not a Pirate and not a Marine?"

Luffy shrugged, grinning up at his grandfather, letting the childishly-serious expression fade away, knowing he'd already pushed too far with that as it was. Time to both tell the truth, yet do it in a way that sold the childishness of it.

"Don't know! I just know I'm gonna be me! Maybe I'll just hunt all the bad guys the Marines aren't good enough to take on? I can turn them in for those bounty things!"

Garp's face looked conflicted. Grudgingly, he nodded.

"You're still going to be a Marine. But if you want to play at being a bounty hunter for a while first, that's fine. Good bounty hunters often get recruited in as officers to the Marines once they're strong enough, after all. You'd get to skip all the grunt crap. You're right after all, there are way too many rules!"

Luffy laughed. He couldn't help it as Garp began to whine about 'paperwork' and that 'old bat Tsuru.' Garp, he'd long since realized, was actually very bad at being a Marine. He was just too powerful and too useful for the Marines to let go, no matter how much trouble the Hero of the Marines made. To a certain point, at least. Luffy, of course, was never going to join the Marines whatever Garp thought. But it would be interesting to see what Garp would do with a grandson he thought he might have a serious chance of getting into a Marine uniform…

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A/N: By the by, if you haven't realized it yet, I'm highlighting new perks each time I make a stat block. With as fast as I'm trying to move through the young-Luffy stage, I don't want to slow down to watch him agonize over every perk choice or skill grind. Most of it is long-term learning speed boosts and such at the moment, anyway. Eventually, I may put more attention on when he gains such things.