Chapter Text
Kong’s displeasure grated against Sengoku’s Observation long before his office door swung open to reveal the man himself. Now, Sengoku could certainly tell it wasn’t directed at him, but that hardly narrowed the options down much and certainly didn’t mean it wasn’t his problem. (Garp had just left for one of his infrequent vacations to East Blue, and Sengoku hadn’t heard anything from that area that would give him a headache, so it probably wasn’t anything too absurd.)
Kong came to a stop in front of Sengoku’s desk and plopped down a child, gagged and wrapped in what looked like a seastone net of all things.
Never mind, this was much worse than he’d thought.
“Fleet Admiral—”
“A Holy Knight dropped him off, in this exact state, a few minutes ago with the order to train him as a Marine or lock him up in Impel Down.” Kong’s face was the very portrait of professionalism, for all that his Voice clearly expressed his baffled anger over something this ludicrous.
“. . . Dare I ask why?”
The professionalism fell away into a frown. “He’s Dragon’s son, apparently, and they don’t want to risk the man having an influence or some such.”
Sengoku’s horror dropped straight to dread. Sure, he could see the sense in keeping the boy away from the rapidly growing Revolution, but surely Garp himself had been doing just that. Dragging a seven-year-old here in restraints struck him as both unnecessary and counterproductive. This would be a disaster. “I see. Does Garp know yet?”
“Unlikely, given he hasn’t made a ruckus yet.” Kong sighed heavily. “I’m trusting you to handle his temper and convince him to keep his mouth shut about it, no matter his opinions. I don’t know what this actually is, but we can’t argue with a Knight.”
“Understood.” At least they’d been given the option to train him instead of holding him hostage outright. Once Kong left, Sengoku unwrapped the boy from the net and removed the gag. “Luffy, right? My name is Sengoku, and I’m friends with your grandfather.”
Luffy rubbed at his face and stared at him with an unsearchable gaze, alarmingly similar to Garp’s. “Do I gotta stay here?”
“I’m afraid so. We’ll do our best to make it comfortable, but you’ll be staying in Marineford for the time being.” His face scrunched up but he didn’t argue. Sengoku wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or not. He glanced down at the seastone net, now on the floor. “Do you have a Devil Fruit, Luffy?”
“Yeah, the Gum-Gum Fruit. I’m made of rubber.”
“Oh? Where did you get it?”
The boy’s gaze tracked along the walls and maps and then lingered at the window over Sengoku’s shoulder. “A treasure chest. Roo wasn’t guarding it real good,” he answered, absently. “It didn’t taste good.”
“Mm. As far as I am aware, all Devil Fruits taste terrible. Mine certainly did.”
Luffy’s eyes snapped to him. “Senny has one, too?”
“Yes, mine allows me to get larger, about the size of a giant, with the strength to match.”
“Cool!”
Petunia chose that moment to nuzzle the boy’s leg where it dangled over the edge of the desk. Luffy looked down at her and grinned, clambering down to pet the goat properly. Well, so far so good. Wrangling Garp would doubtless prove much more challenging, but for now the situation was contained.
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Ace charged full tilt to the docks. Normally, he’d run if Gramps showed up. Normally, Luffy and Sabo were right there with him.
Gramps raised an eyebrow at him and stepped out to meet him with a booming laugh. “Come to greet me, huh? Or just trying to play distraction for the other brats?”
Ace’s heart lurched painfully. “They’re gone!” he snarled, anger and fear and grief mixing and overflowing. He hadn’t been able to stop Sabo from leaving with his stupid family, hadn’t been there to stop the stupid World Noble from shooting him. He hadn’t been strong enough to fight off the bastard who came to take Luffy away. He couldn’t even rub the tears away fast enough.
What kind of big brother couldn’t protect his family? A worthless one.
Gramps’s face went blank. Terrifyingly blank. “What.”
Heaving with the effort of just breathing through the tears, he explained what had happened. By the end, he could barely whisper. “Please, Gramps. You have to find Luffy. You have to.”
There’s nothing worse than being alone.
Ace had been alone before, though he couldn’t remember it well anymore. Sabo had been something of a constant since they’d met, and Luffy filled up enough space for three people. Now that they were gone, he’d been left empty. He’d never understood Luffy so well until now and he hated it. Especially because it meant Luffy was alone again, too.
Gramps scooped him up into his arms. His heart pounded in his chest, Ace could hear it, but his voice sounded just as sure as it always did. “I’ll find him,” he promised, a rumble like thunder. “You sit tight and stay with Dadan, alright?”
Ace relaxed against the hold, exhausted and relieved. “Okay.”
Gramps took him back up the mountain and left on the next tide.
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Garp called Senny first, once he’d cleared Foosha’s harbor by a wide margin. The description Ace had given of the man who’d taken Luffy wasn’t familiar, except for the tattoo the brat had spotted on the bastard’s arm. He hoped he was wrong. He didn’t know what a Holy Knight would want with Luffy, but the options were pretty limited to Nothing Good.
The snail took on Sengoku’s no-nonsense expression and glasses. “This is Sengoku.”
“Senny. Some asshole kidnapped my grandson.” Senny’s face twitched. “You knew?”
“I only found out yesterday, when Kong dropped Luffy in my office. Apparently, the Elders deemed it more prudent to keep Dragon’s son either in Marineford, or in Impel Down.”
Garp froze. Those were the options? They were willing to throw a seven-year-old into that hell hole—who was he kidding. Of course it would be like that. The baffling part was that they sent a damn Holy Knight to deal with it. “What’s the plan, Senny?”
“We’ll keep him here, obviously. I’ll even let you pick who trains him, or else you can train him directly, but if you try to take him from the island, there are going to be consequences, Garp. You understand?”
“Yeah.” It pissed him off a bit, sure, but they hadn’t hauled him up to the Holy Land or dropped him in the prison directly, so it was better than he’d dreaded at least. “The brat in there with you?”
“Hi Gramps,” came the answer. Luffy never sounded that subdued. “Is Ace okay?”
Shit. Senny made a questioning noise. Garp cut in, “Ace is upset, of course, but he’s not hurt too bad.”
“Good.”
“Who’s Ace?” Senny asked, presumably directing it to Luffy, given his tone.
“My brother. We stole some of Dadan’s sake to become brothers.”
“Ah.”
Good. They didn’t need anyone else sniffing around Dawn. Ace would be in much worse straights if he was found out. “You just sit tight, brat. I’ll see you in a bit.”
“Okay. Bye, Gramps.”
The line clicked off and Garp took a deep breath. Raising Luffy on Marineford hadn’t been an option even at the very beginning. Now, he didn’t have a choice. He’d promised Ace, just an hour ago, that he’d find Luffy, and the assumption on both their ends had been that Luffy would come home to him when that happened.
He was going to have to either break that promise or find some other way to remove Luffy from Marineford without anyone suspecting him and subsequently come down on everyone connected to this mess.
Shit.
He picked up the receiver again and dialed a number he wasn’t supposed to have.
A familiar voice answered on the second ring. “Hello?”
“Dragon.” He sighed. “Something went wrong. A Holy Knight showed up and took Luffy to Marineford, apparently with orders to either keep him there or stick him in Impel Down.”
Silence stretched out between them until Dragon abruptly hissed, “Someone outed our base of operations to the Government as well. We lost a great number and we’re scattered for the moment. I won’t be able to get him out yet. Can you keep him safe until I can?”
“Yeah. Take care of yourself.” He hung up. What was going on? It wasn’t unexpected that he wouldn’t be read into Revolutionary related ops, given his connection, but even Senny?
Grumbling, he tacked about to head back to Dawn. He needed to get Ace out of there. Sabo, who’d only been part of their family less than a year, was dead and Luffy stuck on Marineford for the foreseeable future. He had to make sure at least one of these kids didn’t get caught up in the mess or killed for no damn reason.
Or else he might do something truly stupid.