Haruka & The Great Pirate Era
Thatch was worried. His friend, Ace was holed up in one corner of the Moby Dick, not talking to anyone, and keeping his head down. Thatch also noticed his shaking shoulders, and the tell-tale signs that he was trying not to cry. Slowly, the pranks-loving man walked up to his nakama.
"Feeling alright?" Thatch asked in a rare show of gentleness.
"No. I think I need to be left alone for a bit, do you mind?" Ace was still polite, but Thatch could detect the faint sadness in his voice. Thatch moved over to where his other friend, Marco, was resting.
"Something's wrong with Ace." Thatch poked Marco.
"Just leave him alone and hope it's just one of his quirks." Marco advised. Then he blanched and yelled out. "POPS! It's Garp the Fist!"
Ace's head snapped up so fast, Thatch swore it broke the sound barrier. He then turned to the rapidly gaining ship and ran to the railing. "GRAMPS! GO AWAY! DON'T YOU KNOW WHAT TODAY IS?!" He screamed out, shoulders heaving.
Garp the fist suddenly appeared in front of Ace, punching him in the head. "Of course I know what today is! That's why I'm spending it with my only living grandchild, pirate or not!"
"GRANDCHILD?!" Everybody on the Moby Dick yelled out in surprise. Ace glared up at the Marine Hero.
"Don't hurt them. They're my family."
"Your family?" Garp blinked then nodded in understanding. "That was her last request, wasn't it? For you to find a family?"
"What are you two talking about!?" Haruta yelled out impatiently.
"Today is the anniversary of the day my granddaughter, Monkey D. Luffy, sacrificed her life to protect Ace." Garp stated. Ace looked away, a tear dripping down his cheek.
"Story. Now." Thatch ordered, motioning the two inside a room, where several of the commanders were waiting, and so was Whitebeard himself.
"I don't think I can…" Ace refused to make eye contact with anybody.
"Then I'll tell her story." Garp pulled Ace into the room, and they sat down.
"No, I'll do it." Ace swallowed.
"When I was ten, Gramps brought his granddaughter to live with the mountain bandits I lived with. I thought she was a weak, spoiled brat at first, and I spat on her and walked away. She didn't do anything, and she looked at me like she was expecting something worse. She always followed me through the forest, and I kept trying to kill her. I never managed though."
Several commanders chuckled when they remembered Ace's 100 day streak of attempting to assassinate Whitebeard. They quickly sobered when Ace glared at them.
"Eventually, she learned of a plan to kill me, take away the only person I considered my family, and burn down our home. All because I was stupid enough to steal from some pirates. So being the selfless idiot that she is, she let the pirates sell her into slavery so that they'd get the money to leave us alone and not burn down our home. It worked, and we never saw those pirates again. After being told what being sold implied, we now know that she most likely died." Ace choked on the last words. "Her final request was for me to find a family."
"You know, that was her dream. To find a place to belong and a family, just like a normal person." Garp rarely showed negative emotion, but it looked like his hard walls were cracking.
"I thought her dream was to be Pirate King?" Ace asked, rubbing the wood near his feet.
"No. She told me once that being Pirate King was her goal. To quote her words, 'A goal is something that you can achieve with enough hard work. A dream, on the other hand, won't come true no matter what.' She truly believed that she'd never find a place to belong. And she never will."
"Why didn't she think she'd find a family?" Marco asked, leaning lazily against the wall near Shirohige's chair.
"Well, according to Makino, that's the bar owner that Luffy made friends with. Luffy's mother, her only living relation, killed herself and the blame was put on Luffy. So she was always shunned, and never got a person to be her family. And when I could have been her brother, I turned my back on her."
Ace was obviously putting a lot of blame on himself. Garp lay a hand on his adoptive grandson's shoulder.
"She was a lonely child. All she ever wanted was a family to belong in. I think I failed my duties as her grandfather more than you failed yours as a brother."
Whitebeard ruffled Ace's hair with his finger. "You say that she was sold into slavery? Then she might still be alive."
"She was sold seven years ago. Most slaves are dead within a year, and she was only seven, too." Ace looked away. "She's dead."
"She died protecting what mattered to her most, Ace. Her family." Garp showed a rare display of gruff affection, before walking away. "And for the record. Dreams can come true, despite what Luffy says."
The strongest man in the world couldn't help but agree.
***
8 years ago…
"There." The bar owner placed a bouquet of flowers on the grave, then backed away, drying her tears with her sleeve.
Ace stared at the grave silently. He never really knew her, but her death hurt him so much.
"Ace-kun?" Makino placed her hands on his shoulders. "Do you want to come to the bar and hear her story?"
Ace quietly nodded, and together they walked down to Fuusha village. Luffy's grave, despite never having found a body, was situated on a cliff overlooking the sea. Makino was insistent they put it there. She and Ace were the only ones attending the funeral.
They sit down at Makino's bar, Makino making some food for Ace.
"She and her mother washed up on our shore three years ago. Never told us what happened before that. But anyways, her mother left the island often, so she was left on her own quite commonly."
Ace nodded and slowly took the juice Makino offered him.
"They were quite fun-loving, and quick favorites among the villagers. But one year later, her mother was found dead, and the blame was put on Luffy, since she was found holding the knife."
Ace choked on his drink. "She killed her own mother? Why?" He never knew his own mother, she died in an effort to keep him alive. He couldn't fathom why Luffy would get rid of the person who brought her into the world.
"No, she didn't. What she told me was that her mother killed herself. She told me that she was repeatedly abused, and eventually her mother snapped. Her mother was actually mentally disturbed, and it had started when they arrived on this island."
Ace quietly lowered his eyes. What would it be like to have a mother who tried to hurt you, and then killed herself in front of you, blaming you. No wonder she didn't care about Ace's several murder attempts.
"Nobody believed her, and she became known around here as the 'Demon Child'. She never seemed to smile anymore, and the fact that she was almost always present when somebody died didn't help."
Another demon child? So she was a lot like him then. "Present whenever somebody dies?" He asked.
"Yeah, she liked to wander around the island. Somehow she always noticed when someone was about to die of unnatural causes. Whenever they did die, she'd come in and bury them, then visit their graves on the anniversary of their death. There's a lot of those graves scattered everywhere on this island. If you want, I can take you to one of them later." Makino explained, cleaning a glass.
"Yeah." Was all Ace could say.
"Well, anyways, this all went on until a year ago, when the Red-Hair Shanks and his pirates came to this island for a vacation. Shanks brought Luffy out of her shell and the two became friends. He even left her his hat and told her to return it when she became Pirate King. I guess she won't be able to now. I wonder how he took the news…" Makino trailed off, looking out the window, which Ace assumed was a habit of hers.
"Anyways, after her grandfather realized that Red-Hair had been here for a year without him knowing, Garp dragged her off to live with you. You know the rest." Makino finished, glancing at Ace's face. He had tears slipping down his cheeks without him noticing. She quietly put a hand on him, and slowly said. "Nobody blames you, Ace. She died of her own accord. It's not your fault."
Ace disagreed. Another person had died for the sake of someone as worthless as him