13 Chapter 13

13

"Uh… where am I?" when Luffy woke up he found himself in a familiar bed. Then blinked remembering what happened. After Garp's so-called training, he had eaten some crab meat and then fell to exhaustion.

But at least Garp didn't leave him on that island and judging by the room. His trusty naginata Horn's Edge, by his bedside. He was at Makino's house, one of the spare rooms that he would sometimes sleep in.

Wait, speaking about Makino, isn't today her birthday? Shit. He missed it didn't he?

He quickly got out of bed. All the exhaustion and injuries from the previous day were gone. His recovery sure was fast. Looking at the wall clock, it was already noon.

He was late, wasn't he? He quickly took the window to get out, and run towards where he hid Makino's gifts. With the gifts in his hand, he knocked on the door, what, he wasn't going to enter through the window.

Usually, Makino would be working hard and almost never closes her bar. But not today.

The door opened and the older woman was surprised.

"Hey, when did you wake up?" she asked, blinking. "And what's that?"

Luffy grinned, "This for you madam, is your birthday gift." He said, "Sorry I was late."

Makino didn't say anything but hugged him. "Oh, you are all grown up."

Luffy didn't say anything and enjoyed the sisterly love. You know this world was better than his previous one. He had a brother that cared about him, a grumpy old man, and a big sister-like figure that also loved him. Sometimes he was just glad that he was here.

"Well, why don't you open it." He said, getting out of Makino's hug.

"Oh, why are you having this conversation at the door." She said, "Come in."

Luffy followed her as both of them sat at the dining table, Makino opened her gift and was surprised to see the expensive jewelry. But then she frowned.

"Luffy… where exactly did you get that?"

Shit… "Uh…"

But his response was cut off by a sound. "Pereperepere… pereperepere… pereperepere…"

Now Luffy was the one to narrow his eyes, "Hey, isn't that a transponder snail."

"Um…" Makino was about to say something, but Luffy was fast and followed the sound, uncovering a transponder snail. "Hey don't answer that…"

"Moshi Moshi!"

"Huh, who's this!?"

"The future pirate king of the pirates!"

"…"

"Hey, give that back." Makino snatched that snail from Luffy's hand.

"Oh, it's Makino… then that means the other one is Luffy."

"Yeah… but who are you?" He was a bit confused. Transponder snail was a bit rare in the blues, and by the looks of it, this one was quite expensive.

"The one who gave his hat to you!"

"Whhhaaa!" Luffy's jaw hit the floor and his eyes almost popped out of his eye socket. "You are Shanks…" he would have dropped the snail if it was in his hand.

The man chuckled from the other side, "The one and only…" he said, before the snail's eye looked at Makino. "so it seems that Makino you couldn't keep your secret…. I'm not gonna be the guy…. But I told you so."

Makino rolled her eyes. "Well, at least he has grown up… and hopefully won't bug me to call you every day, mister Yonko." She snarked back.

"Nah… I'm too busy, so I won't be able to pick up the calls anyways, but it sucks to be you…"

"Hey!" Luffy said, "I'm missing something here. Why are you calling Makino?"

"Eh… why wouldn't I? She's my wife?"

"What!" This wasn't something Luffy was expecting.

Makino chuckled nervously, a small blush on her face. "I think we shouldn't…"

"Wait… is that why you wear that ring all the time." Luffy said pointing at the ring Mikino was wearing. She blushed a bit, but nodded. "Wow… I didn't expect that…"

From the other end, Shanks chuckled, "Yes, well, don't go marketing around. Especially not to your grandfather… the last thing I want is to put Makino in danger."

"Garp-san wouldn't do that." Makino said waving him away, "I mean Marines aren't that bad." Both the snail and Luffy gave Makino a look. "What!"

"Huh, innocence. The reason I fell for you..."

"Wait… didn't you fall for my beauty?"

"That too." Shanks said, "But I don't want history to repeat itself."

"Yeah, Ace had it real rough," Luffy said, almost casually.

"Wait, who's Ace?" The transponder looked at Luffy with confusion.

"How is Ace connected?" Makino tilted her head.

"Wait, you guys don't know?" Luffy asked in his own confusion. "Ace… as in Portgas D. Ace, or Gol D. Ace."

"Wait! Fire Fist Ace is Captain's son?" Shanks was now surprised.

"Wait... Roger was your captain!" Luffy acted surprised. "Dang, gramps didn't say that..."

"But wait… then why did Garp adopt him? Weren't the late pirate king and Garp-san… like were enemies?" Makino asked.

"Yeah… but they both respected each other. And Gramps didn't actually catch him… he just surrendered himself to the marines. But don't tell anyone that…"

"…so even Luffy knows…" Shanks mumbled in a low voice. The red haired pirate already knew about the situation, but it seemed that Luffy was in the secret as well, "He was already at the last step in his illness."

"But how does that relate to the marines being bad?" Makino asked, "I mean, Grap-san did a very noble thing. And he was a marine."

"It's not about that…" Luffy shook her head, "You see the reason why Ace's mother is… well, dead. And it is because of the marines. I don't know the full story, but his mother Portgas D. Rouge was being hunted down in all blues because somehow it got leaked that Roger had a child. She kept hiding and held Ace for full twenty months before gramps was able to find her. And she passed away leaving the baby Ace at Gramp's care."

"I… I ah… I don't know what to say."

"Marin's suck," Luffy concluded.

Shanks sighed from the other side. "This day is full of surprises." Some of them was old news, but Luffy did bring some issue to the light. "Fire fist Ace, huh? He does look a lot like the captain, now that you mention it." He said, even though Shanks knew about Ace. He hadn't ever met him before. And the name slipped mind. "But it's also a surprise that you know I was from his crew... not many people know that."

"Yeah… well, I'm going to surpass him one day, of course, I would know this sort of stuff." But then Luffy suddenly remembered something, "Hey, Uh… Shanks did you meet Ace?"

"No… Why?"

"Well, he might seek you out…"

"Seek me out?" He said, "What did I do?" Actually, he should seek the boy out himself. Roger did adopt him from a chest as a baby, so by relation Ace is kind of like a brother to him.

"You know how you saved me and the village from some stupid bandits… he wants to thank you I guess." Luffy said, "So can you do me a favor?"

"Sure, if I'm able to."

"Beat him up," Luffy said.

"Am I missing something?" Makino looked at Luffy weirdly.

"Why?" Shanks asked in seriousness and a bit of confusion.

"Well, you know Logias and their intangibility getting them killed in the grand line. Relying too much on their fruits, and not having skills enough to back it up." Luffy said, "So I want you to humble him a beat. Insult him, get under his skin… you know be the pirate that you are. And I don't know, challenge him to learn Haki or something. He's going to get himself killed otherwise."

"Boy… Luffy… you are actually making sense. You have really grown up…" The man chuckled. "I will do it… but what's Ace's end goal anyway."

"Well, he wants to fight and beat Whitebeard. That's not his end goal, but he always had deep regret on why he was born... and that's why he would do anything to prove himself. Prove that he's better than his father... and he's..."

There was a pause before a sigh came and Shanks spoke. "That boy is going to get himself killed. And if he's anything like Captain Roger… he will go there head first, without learning Haki. However, the old man isn't the type to go on a random killing spree, but it's better to be on the safer side. Ace really seems to be hard-headed, isn't he?"

"Yup… that's him. So beat him up for me." Luffy said, grinning. "Also, maybe send him to a teacher of Haki or something… he really hates his father, for stupid reasons… gramps tried to stop the hate. But he couldn't… I don't like that… maybe talking to his father's former crewmates, might lessen the hate. Well, I don't know as Roger's former crew mate I think it's also your responsibility to take care of him."

Shanks smiled from the other side. "Well, I know just the guy. And thanks Luffy" He said, there was another pause. "Anyway, Luffy… you really did do your research. I didn't know you could…"

"I could what… be smart?" Luffy said, "Well, I lost one of my brothers to a celestial pig. While the other one is a loose cannon. At least I have to have some brains in their stead."

Shanks just laughed. "I can't wait, till you start your journey." He said, "And don't go joining into those marines. They suck."

"That they do…" Luffy laughed himself. "Well, speaking about Marines… there is another favor I want to ask you."

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A/N: Okay for those of you don't know. You guys are asking the same questions so I added this to answer all.

Makino had a kid after the time-skip. And it doesn't seem right that it was Ace's kid. As Makino and Ace has a lot of age difference, and it was also true that Shanks visited the village not once, but many times. [From the movie Red]

And Makino and Shanks seemed to be similar of age. And its also a popular theory, and so I adopted it in my story. As this world is kinda AU. Meaning some things will be diffirent here, that's the fun of making a fanfic.

It also makes sense, if Shanks does want to have a kid, what better way to than lay the egg where hen (Garp) will be guarding it. No need to worry about the world government with Garp as the child support.

Also About Roger… from Shanks's perspective it looked like he got the info from Garp's mouth.

Sure Garp isn't the type of person to share it. But Shanks doesn't have that kind of relationship with Garp to know his personality.

Also the same for other infos. If Luffy is smart, Shanks could imagine Luffy snooping around Garp for information. Of course, Luffy knows that because of the canon knowledge, but it's not that hard to mislead people.