A New Dawn

It's currently a normal day around Foosha Village,in Dawn Island,the waves at the coast are calm,the paths are quiet, the squabbles at Partys Bar are mostly very mild, and the fishes and seagulls are roaming around aimlessly, the only unusual sight around the area is that of a little boy standing at the edge of the port, looking towards the sea, tho this sight isn't that odd for the residents.

Standing on the beach while looking at the horizon is a 3-year-old boy with black shaggy hair and round black eyes, looking at a massive ship heading towards the village, to his position. Said boy is staring at the incoming ship, shielding his eyes from the sunlight with his hand, while leaning on his right side by using the scabbard of a training wooden katana, carrying another scabbard with a second wooden katana at the left side of his waist.

"It's about time that old man finally came, he's 2 days late, he really should stop giving false predictions" the little boy just sighs, hearing footsteps behind him, to then turn around at the person coming towards him.

"You surely are strict on timing, aren't you, Luffy? As you said, it's only been 2 days, it could have been a way longer delay,plus he's your grandpa, so you should still be happy that he finds time to visit you. To be fair he did say that it could have taken him between 1 to 2 weeks to get here, and it's been 10 days since he called you,so he's technically still on time"

a voice tells the little Luffy, giggling softly, said voice beloning to a 15 year old girl with brown eyes and dark green hair that reaches just above her shoulder, said girl being none other than Makino, the daughter of the current owner of Partys Bar.

Luffy gives her a soft smile, before turning back towards the ship "i guess so, it's just that i have the strong feeling that gramps took longer to get here to stop at some island because he forgot something or who knows why, and knowing him, it's highly probable" Luffy replies, staring at the massive ship approaching closer.

The massive ship heading towards Foosha Village is a 3-mast white ship, with black stripes on it,a blue line going around it at the bottom, and a metal hull,a marine warship. This warship in particular is iconic compared to others, due to its front, which has a dog head biting a bone, a signal that means one thing in the pirate world, the arrival of perhaps every pirate and criminal's worst nightmare.

Standing on the dog head is a massive old man with tanned skin, blue eyes,graying hair, a decently thick beard, a scar below his left eye, an incredibly developed and large broad chested torso, and large muscular arms, while his legs look a little too thin for his body. Said man is wearing a tropical style shirt, navy blue shorts that expose his rather hairy legs, and a pair of brown sandals.

While staring at the port, he immediately notices his grandson, who is waving at him to get his attention, making him grin broadly, before crouching slightly and jump to the port, closing the gap in a single leap, landing on it while being careful enough not to break the planks making it, but still making a strong enough impact to raise some dust where he landed, as well as making Luffy and Makino briefly lose their balance.

"You really must have missed me to keep waving at me to get my attention, ay Luffy?" The old man, who's none other than Monkey.D.Garp, asks Luffy, raising an eyebrow while giving him a small grin, happy to see his grandson welcome him, but not showing it, instead deciding to tease his grandson a bit, as he could already tell that Luffy got a bit annoyed because of his delay by looking at his deadpan face.

"Really gramps,really?" Luffy retorts, giving his grandpa a rather annoyed and deadpan look, to then notice him hold something in his right hand, a pair of really good and cool looking scabbards, his grin getting a bit bigger, making Luffy curious and a bit suspiscious "are those..." He is about to ask, but Garp anticipates his question.

"Yup, these are the katanas you so excitedly begged me to bring you on my next visit last time you called me, and it so happens that said visit is today" Garp explains, smirking at his grandson, who's now growing excited "and since i'm such an awesome grandpa, i couldn't just bring my grandson random katanas, so i found someone who forged these custom-made katanas." He added, showing Luffy and Makino the scabbards, to then slowly pull out one of the katanas, which makes Luffy's eyes almost pop out of their sockets when he sees it.

-t-that's a black blade! Did Gramps really just bring me a fucking black blade katana?! Holy shit! Wait a minute...i asked for twin katanas....so it means that the second one is a black blade too, i think i'm gonna faint... Who the hell is this old man? and what has he done to my grandpa? There's no way gramps would be this nice towards me, not even to attempt to convince me to become a marine, and i am sure he's not this dumb, or that he wouldn't know what a black blade is.-Luffy ponders, pausing for a few seconds, just staring at the now unsheathed katana, completely stunned, before resuming his train of thoughts.

-am i really fucking up the canon timeline that bad already? I mean, i get that unlike the actually Luffy i am actually studying and learning stuff, and that i am basically a polar opposite of the original by being overall mindful of my own businesses and not a walking hazard or a complete idiot most of the time, but i never thought that this kind of change would get gramps to like me more to the point of bringing me what are at the very least great grade meitos, when i only asked for 2 kanatas as a gift, or it's just me overthinking it. God damn,and to think that i have to start my journey in 14 years. Ho boy,i'm in for a blast,aren't i?-

But before Luffy can continue his train of thoughts, Garp interrupts it, mistakingly thinking that his grandson's shocked face is from pure enthusiasm, giving his usual broad grin to the little boy, with Makino also looking quite surprised despite not being a fan of weapons, after all she is still a minor as of now,regardless of her views on things, she is also really curious about Luffy's drawing abilities, since the twin katanas were designed off of a drawing that Luffy gave to Garp as reference of what he wanted, plus the katanas that Garp is holding could be easily described with 2 words aesthetically speaking. Simply mesmerizing.

As for the katanas themselves, Luffy decided to give them a separate design each to make them distinguishable and unique,as they are a pair set,hence meant to be the exact same as in shape and sharpness. In this particular case,he decided to give his twin katanas a special common theme,which will also act as a clue for the very few aware of the true nature of what is gonna be Luffy's fruit in the future,as one of his katanas has a sun themed design,with the other having a moon themed one.

The sun themed one is named Taiyo (literally "sun"), and it has a guard made up by a larger twinkle shaped golden part, with slightly smaller bronze looking orange parts that look like twinkle tips placed diagonally from the larger twinkle's tips, making it look like as if a smaller twinkle piece was nestled inside the larger one, forming a heavily stylized yet beautiful looking sun guard. The edge of the blade has a sharp hamon pattern,except of an intense orange, while the edge of the blade itself is golden. The handle is of an intense orange, with golden 4 tip straight twinkles going along the sides in a single line. The scabbard of the blade is of that intense orange, tho at the sides it has a line of less stylized golden suns going down the whole length, with the suns themselves being circular, while the rays are verg thin straight lines.

The moon themed sword is named Tsuki (literally "moon"). Its guard has the shape of a silver crescent moon going upwards, following the katana blade with its arc,the edge is of a silvery white, with a soft night blue wave pattern hamon on it. The handle is of said night blue, with a line of sliver crescent moons going along the sides, all facing the same direction, towards the guard, and lastly the scabbard follows the same idea as Hikari's one, except that in this case it's obviously blue and with moons instead.

Some would have called those blades flashy, others minimalistic, or perhaps strange, but it's exactly this peculiarity that makes Luffy love them so much, with his stare making it clear to Garp, Makino, and even Bogard, who is following Garp as his right-hand-man, crossing him arms while quietly looking at the scene, having a soft and almost inperceptable smile when seeing Luffy's enthusiasm, making the man forget about his job and the reality of the world he lives in for a few moments, before his usual expression comes back, now looking at the rest of the warship's staff with his usual scowl, giving them the signal to dock the warship by giving them a soft nod.

"They're really beautiful, aren't they? Not that i would know better about it, but i still have to admit that they look really good, brat ,i was truly suprised when i first saw them, and i was even shocked when the blacksmith said that he forged them to look the exact same as your drawing, literally, which he did, even showing me your drawing. When did you even become such a good artist, Luffy?" Garp asks, raising an eyebrow, impressed, but wanting to look suspicious to scare Luffy a little (and to distract him from the fact that he never checked the drawing beforehand), and it worked like a charm, making the boy freeze, earning a chuckle from Garp and a giggle from Makino, who also caught on with the tease, making the little boy just roll his eyes at them.

"BWAHAHAHA! You should have seen your face, Luffy! Anyway. I almost forgot to say that the blacksmith also said something about these katanas being special, it was like 'these blades will only accept those worthy to wield them, and shall grow alongside them, and become stronger, sharper and sturdier the more their user grows in power, and they shall aid their user back by awakening their user's true will and spirit, and strengthen it through battles, hardship, constancy and rigorous training, and adapt to their wielder's wishes, so that their wielder can reach their true potential, and make it so that no one will surpress their worthy owner' or stuff like that" Garp explains, picking his nose while he repeated the quote of the blacksmith that forged Taiyo and Tsuki.

Meanwhile the other 3 listeners have their eyes wide, or at the very least jolt up, since unlike Garp, they didn't straight up ignore these types of message, understanding what this particular message implies, at least Luffy and Bogard did.

-let me get this straight, not only Taiyo and Tsuki are black blades, but they somehow also have the ability to become stronger alongside me, help me develop my haki way faster than normal and make it stronger via battles, training or just constant usage, and somehow alter themselves in an unspecified way for me? Dear god, these might already be 2 new supreme grade blades, or i might just be tripping balls, could be both to be honest- Luffy thinks to himself, still shocked about all of this, but also trying to keep himself grounded enough to avoid having his expectations completely ruined.

As for Makino and Bogard, the former is also shocked, but still really happy for Luffy, while the latter just facepalmed at how nonchalant Garp can be sometimes, and don't give a fuck about anything unless it involves the man personally.

Still, there is one thing both of them understood right away and can't ignore, that those swords can directly affect someone's haki, and in this case, they would affect Luffy's later on, and neither of them know just how much they will do so. Unknowingly to them, Luffy also knows what this means, and just pretends not to know, since he IS still a 3 year old, and it would be at least mind blowing if they knew he knows haki.

"Wait...what is that part regarding willpower about? And only now i paid attention to it, but why are the blades of Luffy's new swords black? I don't remember having seen black blades across Dawn Island before"

Both Garp and Bogard quickly snap their heads towards Makino as soon as she asks that, because while it is true that what she's asking about is related to haki, it's also true that basically no normal person would think that there's a special meaning behind those things, but from the doubtous look she is giving them, and how she tilted her head when asking that, they now understand that she definitely understands that there's some deeper meaning.

"Yeah,what is that even about,Gramps? Is it some sort of super cool stuff related to mariner? Or is it something else" Luffy asks, tilting his head while pretending to be curious, trying to make it pass as a logic that a 3 year old child should get, by throwing in the assumption about it being stuff that is related to marines, since Garp does try to make them pass on to his grandson as the coolest thing ever, so the boy gladly took advantage of that.

Hearing the boy's assumption, Garp gives his usual massive grin, getting the 'genius idea' to use this as a way to make his grandson become a marine.

"Bwahahaha! That's right! The blades of these swords are black because of an awesome power that only high rank marines know, and it makes them way stronger than any normal sword you can buy!" Garp says proudly, puffing his huge chest comically to try to make it sound all the cooler, which worked in his eyes, as Luffy looks at him with stars on his eyes, with his mouth wide open while looking estatic, while Makino just giggles softly to his enthusiasm.

Bogard on the other hand, both thanks to his haki and his skills due to working in the marines for more than 3 decades already, sees through Luffy's act, and realizes that he is faking it to get Garp to tell him about this super cool secret, which does make him smirk softly, due to the kid's cleverness and seeing the Marine Hero himself get fooled by his little grandson, since Garp doesn't really bother to use observation haki when visiting Dawn Island unless it's strictly needed.

"I can teach it to you, BUT, i will only teach you if you join the marines when you're old enough." Garp briefly explains, grinning at him in a sort of smug way, trying to coax him into joining the marine in the future.

"As for the blades...." He then tosses them to the ground, looking at his grandson with a more serious look ".. they're yours if you can lift them" he gives Luffy a challenging grin when saying that, watching the little boy position himself in front of the katanas "Good luck with that, because so far only me and the blacksmith who made them were able to lift them for some reason" He gives the little boy a smirk when he heard him whisper wait and see, and looks on as Luffy tries with all his might to lift them, failing to do so, trembling greatly when trying to lift them, to then fall on his ass and pant a little from the effort.

"WHAT THE HECK ARE THESE MADE OF?!" Luffy yells out, a tad bit out of breath and pretty frustrated from not being able to lift the swords, on the other hand Makino had a surprised look, since despite his age, Luffy is already really strong, which made it all the more surprising when he was unable to lift of an inch a single one of those katanas.

"What's wrong, brat? You can't lift them? Because to me it seems that you're too weak to even pick up your gifts, let alone hold them." Garp points out in a teasingly mocking way, which ends up being more hurtful than intended, making Luffy look down and clench his fists, also earning the old man a death glare from Makino, while Bogard just shook his head, understanding the intent of those words, but disapproving the execution.

When seeing their expressions, Garp quickly regretted his idea, now feeling bad for Luffy, who's still looking down and clenching his fists, looking like he's gonna start crying.

"Look, Luffy, i'm sorry, i didn't mean it like that, it's fine if you can't lift them yet, becuase i know that you'll be able to lift them like it's nothing in a few years!" He apologizes to his grandson, throwing in some reassuring words too, hoping to cheer him up, but when seeing that it didn't work, and that now Luffy is completely quiet, he decided that he maybe should throw him a bone... Or a few of them. "If you want i can teach you-"

Before he can finish his sentence Luffy took a deep breath and grabbed the katanas' handles, holding Taiyo in his left hand, and Tsuki in his right one, and proceeded to try to lift them once again, putting in all his strength and determination, letting out a roar right before managing to lift them, holding them up high, panting quite a lot, but from mental exhaustion more than physical one, since it literally took him all his willpower to lift the twin katanas.

The blades are now firmly gripped in his hands, so much so that a few veins are visible, mainly due to Luffy's fear of dropping them and having to do that again, or even worse, not being able to lift them again.

"What...are you gonna....teach me?" Luffy asks while giving him a serious and fierce look, panting heavily, his arms limp from the effort he just did, and the weight of his katanas, while his voice tone sounds cold, which acts as a final confirmation that he still didn't like Garp's previous remark one bit, now having the determination and anger of someone dead set on wanting to prove others wrong no matter what seeping through his body, getting a concerned look from Makino, while Bogard and Garp have serious looks, impressed yet surprised by the intensity that this 3 year old's emotions had right now, since he basically had written on his face 'i'm gonna show you all! Just you wait!'

For once Garp found himself thinking throughly before saying something, deciding to be cautious this time, since Luffy's mood is already more than bad enough as it is, and depending on what he's gonna tell him, the boy might either hate him completely or do something extremely rash, if not even suicidal. After thinking for a little bit, the marine hero finally finds what to say.

"I'm gonna teach you a set of techniques that make up the fighting style taught by the World Government to its secret agents, it's called Rokushiki, and...." He then sighs quite heavily, to then look back at Luffy "I'm also gonna give you the basics of that power i mentioned, the one making your swords stronger" He added, giving him a serious look to show his honesty, realizing that it will be useless to keep haki as a trump card to make Luffy join the marines, if the boy in question doesn't even like him to begin with.

Hearing this made Luffy's eyes widen for a brief moment, before considering his options, his angered look returning, but not with the same sheer intensity as before. 

-So now you want to teach me Haki and Rokushiki, huh, old man? In that case you better come up with a more tempting offer, since it will take me years to learn both of them effectively, especially Rokushiki, since i need a set amount of physical strength first, while for Haki i shouldn't need any specific physical requirement as long as i know the right basics, or have the right training, after all it IS possible for children to have and use haki, since Doffy and Aisa demonsrated it for Conqueror's and Observation Haki respectively, and i don't think it's that far off for Armament either.

I should also focus on other important things, more specifically skills and knowledge, because i don't think Haki will help me too much if i fight like a complete retard without any idea of what i'm doing, so i'll definitely have to pick up on some fighting styles and sword styles, or i could even make up some of my own, or to pass down to the crew, after all, i do have Luffy's body, so i might also be a fighting genius. Speaking of crew, i'll most importantly need the skills to take care of myself until i gather the right crew member for it, so i gotta include navigation, cooking, medicine and carpentry in my study schedule, which already sounds like a chore, but it will be handy as hell regardless-

After about a minute of internal thoughts, Luffy made up his mind, looking at his grandpa directly, showing the old man a less angered yet dead serious expression.

"Fine, but before you start explaining, i have a condition and a few requests" Luffy states, his voice having a hint of authority to it despite only being 3, getting the others curious, enough to make them ignore how Luffy's arms are starting to shake a lot from the strain they are going through.

Garp raised an eyebrow when hearing that, but still decides to comply for the time being "then go ahead and state them" he then crossed his legs and sat on the ground, looking at his grandson, with a serious yet slightly curious look on his face.

"I want you to explain the super cool power right here and loud and clear, so that both me and Makino can hear it, then i want some manuals that teach in detail strong or versatile fighting styles, the best swordsmanship teacher you can find, and either the best manuals or tutors to teach me all the useful knowledge i'll need when i'm out in the sea and have no one else with me, especially navigating, cooking, medicine, helmsmanship, carpentry, fishing and hunting, the same goes for useful yet not too urgent things too, like finances, blacksmithery, farming, craftsmanship, and so on. Does that sound alright to you, grandpa?" Luffy then proceeds to state his requests, his look a lot less angry, and not excessively serious either, not wanting to give in, but neither to provoke his grandfather into making him taste the 'Fist of Love' for the first time.

But to Luffy and Makino's surprise (who's already kinda shocked that the first thing Luffy asked for was to have the secret shared to her too) Garp started to laugh heartily, with Bogard just giving them a soft smirk, to then focus his gaze on Luffy, giving the monkey boy a thumbs up.

"BWAHAHAHA!!! And here i thought that you were gonna ask for a request hard to fulfill! Now this is a true member of the Monkey.D family speaking right here! Always thinking 10 steps ahead and never settling for anything less than the best! You're really making me proud with this one, Luffy! Garp looks at him with his iconic broad grin, patting the boy on the head, who just looked dumbfounded, ignoring the pain in his arms, who are starting to beg for mercy, getting completely ignored.

"W-wait, you're completely fine with this?" Luffy asks, now shocked, but also excited, his canonical happy mood returning, smiling adorably at his grandpa "You're. AWESOME!" he then jumped on the old man to hug him, somehow still holding Taiyo and Tsuki in his hands "YOU'RE THE BEST!" he yells out while hugging Garp, smiling so brightly that it would put the sun out of business.

-SHIT, this sheer cuteness is gonna cause me a heart attack!- Garp curses inside his mind, but nontheless happy, hugging Luffy back to then lift him up "BWAHAHAHA! I already know i'm the best! Ready to learn about Haki, Luffy?" He asks while having his trademark grin on his face, to which Luffy just nods eagerly.

"Haki? Is this the power that makes Luffy's swords so powerful, Garp-san?" Makino asks, genuinely curious now.

Garp grins at that question, like a teacher proud of his student "Yup! The thing coating Luffy's blades is Haki, Armament Haki to be precise, which is one of the three types Haki is divided into, the other two being Observastion and Conqueror's haki.

I'll start with Observation Haki, which is basically a sixth sense for the most part, allowing you to sense or see anything all around you way further than what you can actually see, even working with closed eyes, it also allows its user to see the presence of others through solid things as a silhouette of a certain color. Other than presences, Observation Haki can sense the strength of those presences, be it people, animals or even weapons, the emotions of others, and the intentions someone has, and get an instant precognition according to what they are gonna do, but keep in mind that the emotion sensing can be decieved if you don't focus enough, or if you deal with a good actor, and that the precognition only works on conscious actions that have an intent behind them, and not unconscious actions. 

But the best part comes at the advanced level of Observation Haki, because it allows you to see a few seconds into the future.

The drawbacks are that this Haki is especially hard to train, requiring battles as the most effective way, the future you see isn't guaranteed because it can be changed, it requires a lot of focus, especially if recently unlocked, and it can be misleading because it allows you to see the future from your perspective, meaning that you most probably won't get the full context. There IS a way for others to block it, but we'll get to it later."

Garp explains as briefly as he can, trying to make it as easy to understand as possible, which wasn't hard, since he did train some people, one of which being Aokiji, making him experienced in this regard. He then proceeds to continue his explanation after making sure that Luffy and Makino paid attention so far.

"The other type of Haki you'll more commonly find is Armament Haki, and it's pretty much a black armor within your body that you can create when you need and where you need it, with "where" being your own body and whatever you're touching, and "when" being at any time as long as you're conscious and haven't already depleted it.

As for the drawbacks, this Haki does make your body strong and especially more durable, but it's not an unbreakable defence, because it can be broken through by stronger Haki and powerful enough attacks that don't use Haki, it has a limit on how long you can keep it active too, and the larger the area or thing you're coating, the faster it depletes, and it takes quite some time to fully "restock" after you've completely used it up.

Lastly i should specify that it's not a perfect defence either, because it only protects the outer layer of what it coats, leaving the inside still vulnerable, and because it's not as good at protecting from piercing attacks as it is at protecting from blunt attacks.

Just like Observation Haki, Armament Haki has advanced usages too, those being Emission, which consists into a sort of short-distance invisible barrier that comes out from your body, making it better than hardening for offense, and Internal Destruction, which quite literally destroys from the inside whatever target you aimed it at, usually doing so in an explosive fashion." Garp continues, checking for a second time, seeing Luffy nod to the explanation, while Makino was taking notes (and also gave a side-eye of surprise to the fact that Luffy is understanding this).

"Last but not least is the third type of Haki, which is also by far the rarest, Conquerors' Haki, and to put it in the simpliest way possible, it's basically the spiritual manifestation of your willpower, giving its users the ability to dominate those of weaker will, knockout whoever has too little willpower to withstand it, without needing to do anything else, cause a pressure that destroys stuff if you need it to, and at its advanced usage it can be used to infuse attacks to make them tremendously stronger, and it can negates Observation Haki's future sight by controlling your own presence.

The only real drawbacks are that it can't be trained on its own, meaning that it gets stronger only if you get stronger yourself, and that you need at least a decent mastery to be able to knock out individual targets or those of your choice, because at the beginning stage it comes out as a shockwave that knocks out everything it can within a certain range. This pretty much wraps it up, questions?" Garp asks as he finishes his explanation, looking at Luffy and Makino for an imput, with both shaking their heads, tho Luffy did so tiredly, barely keeping his eyes open, which of course didn't go unnoticed.

After seeing Luffy's exhausted face, their gaze slowly shifts to his arms, making their eyes widen in shock at the sight presented to them, that being Luffy's now pitch black and withered arms, shaking heavily while his blood vessels, which have become of a creepily intense glowing red, were pumping blood very quickly, becoming fully visible underneath the skin, bulging underneath it, doing so in an especially intense way at his fingers, which are still somehow tightly gripping Taiyo and Tsuki.

Giving a closer look, it's possible to notice a few things that make this especially odd, more specifically the blood somehow pumping from the fingers and traveling up the arms to get inside the body, and the red blood vessels having a hue to them that changes from one arm to the other, the ones in the left arm having a golden hue, while the ones in the right one have a silver hue, making it painfully easy to understand what's going on.

"L-Luffy?" Makino stuttery calls him, absolutely horrified at the state the little boy's arms were in, shakingly extending her hands towards him to try to take the katanas away, hoping that it would solve the issue, but before she can do that, Luffy eyes go complete white, as he then falls on his knees, and face first into the ground.

"!!!"