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When the first cry from the newborn child was heard, Garp the Fist cried in sync. When he first held his loud daughter in his arms, he gave a loud bellow proclaiming to the room's occupants and the world, “My daughter is going to be the best marine in this world!”
Monkey D. Tiger, barely an hour old and with dried blood still clinging on her tiny head, gave a louder cry in answer to her father's shout.
The silence in the world was broken and it refused to be quieted anymore.
---
Monkey D. Dragon, age 15 and his little sister, age 3, were orphans in all the sense it entails. They only had each other now, after their mother's painful passing months prior and the lack of paternal presence in the months before and after their mother's death.
That meant that Dragon and Tiger were all the other had left. It meant that Dragon needs to protect his little sister from the darkness of the world. It meant that when she has questions, she looks at him as if he knows the answer to all the questions of the universe.
“Big Brother, why do the baba in town not like you?”
When she looked at him with her bright eyes and grin that she, fortunately, didn't inherit from their father, he knew he had no chance at all.
“This world is cruel to those not born noble. People judge me because I'm not how they want me to be,” he had long since promised never to hide the truth from her, making her promise the same.
She blinked, “Is that why they get mad at me when I play with you or not wear the dresses they give me or have you tie my hair?”
“Yes.”
“Even though I like the way you do it?”
“Yes.”
“Oh.”
A beat of silence passed the siblings as they walked home. Then, Dragon felt his sister tug down on his hand. He looked at her, her eyes determined in her gaze up and her mouth set in a frown.
“I like how you do it, big brother,” she said in a voice too serious for a three years old. “I'd choose yours over what old babas think is right any day.”
Dragon gave a grin that frightened onlookers but caused his little sister to giggle and return it with her own toothy version. Yes, he would never lie to his sister and she would never lie to him. The two of them see eye-to-eye and the two of them would change this world.
---
There are three truths that Monkey D. Dragon knows about his little sister - she is ten years his junior which means he has a duty to protect her; she has a huge heart, laughing freely and crying easily and loving her family so wholly despite some members like their father not deserving her affections; and she shouldn't be a marine.
“You will be a marine!” His father screamed during one of the rare moments he visited them.
“I refuse to be another dog that serves the monsters of this world,” Dragon sneered.
At age 18, he had seen the monstrosity that the World Nobles have done to their world. They had stolen the freedom from the people, giving little and claiming that it was freedom. He refused to abide by those lies.
“Pirates are the scums of the earth! I won't let you be one!”
“I have no ambition of being one either.” Dragon screamed back. “I am never going to be a marine nor a pirate. I will bring change to this world.”
“Those are loads of bullshit coming from your mouth,” Garp replied. “If you want to change the world, become a marine!”
“Never!”
“I'll be a marine, daddy!” The shouting match ceased, eyes turning to the tiny energizer bunny on the sofa with her arms raised and a smile that she got from their mother.
A pause. Then raucous laughter from Garp echoes in the house. Dragon's eyes were wide as he took in his little sister in clothes too clean from her usual muddy ones and hair too neat from the clumsy braids he was slowly learning to tie. It was as if he didn't know the little girl in front of him.
“At least I spawned something right!” Garp bellowed, scooping the little girl and twirling her around the room.
Tiger giggled and when they stopped spinning, cocked her head to the side, “Then - then it's okay now for big brother to sail and change the world?”
Again, both the male Ds present paused to stare at the girl.
“What?”
Tiger, sensing something was off, gave a frown at her father, “You said that you wanted a next generation of Monkey in the marines, right?”
Without waiting for an answer the six years old threw her hands in the air, “Well, big brother wants to change the world and not be a marine. I'm a Monkey so if I become a marine then you'll let big brother go to change the world, right?”
“Sweetie bunch,” Garp starts.
“You don't have to do that,” Dragon cuts in. “I won't let you sacrifice your freedom.”
Tiger, all six years old whose primary role model is the man who will be feared as the Revolutionary Dragon, gives a growl, “Big brother is going to change the world. Daddy needs to stop being mean.”
“Daddy's not being mean, sugar plum,” Garp says. “But the world isn't all rainbow and sunshine. Big brother will be better off as a marine.”
“But that'll make him not happy.” Tiger starts to bawl, “Anything that makes people not happy is bad. Daddy wants big brother to be unhappy. Daddy is bad and mean and I hate daddy now.”
Tiger is usually very mellow - a happy child who always laugh. She hardly cries, truth be told. But here she is, tears streaming her reddened cheeks as she sob and scream and cry.
Her earnest words froze Dragon but the sound of her crying unfroze him. With a glare at his father, he growled as he stalked forward at the old man shushing his bright sister. He grabbed his sobbing sister from the old man's hands and let her cling to him like their name Monkey would.
“Leave us alone, old man,” he growled. “You're good at that. We don't need you here."
With those words said, he carried his sister out of the house and ran to the port. She always loved that port.
“Shush now, little sister,” he sat down with her still clinging on him. “Don't cry for me. And there’s no need for you to be marine. You still have years to decide what you want to be, don't let that old man tell you what to do.”
She sniffled, hiding her face on his shirt, “I'm gonna be a marine though.”
“Little sister,” he started.
“Big brother will be changing the world, right? Because the world is mean. And the Pirates make are trying to make the world mean, while Marines are trying to make the world less mean?”
“The Marines are part of the wrong,” he said. “They make the world mean.”
“Okay.” She nodded, “But if I become a Marine I can tell you all about secret Marine stuff daddy won't tell us and you'll have an easier time in changing the world, right?”
“Little sister,” he breathed out.
Tiger grinned at him, “We're gonna make the world less sad and less mean, right?”
Dragon returned her grin with one of his own, “Yes, we will.”