Journey to One Piece

9. Luffy

The next day nobody spoke of the things that had happened the night before and the very less time that Ace was in the house, everyone treated him a little differently. There were no bad eyes among the bandits as they looked or interacted with him. From this day on, Ace was officially accepted by everyone and not just Dadan, Dogra and Magra.

Ken was happy to see this and just continued with his life. He had been growing impatient for sometime now. He didn't have his mobile, nor any forms of music to soothe his ears and no daily necessities that he was used to in his previous life. All he could do was sneak away sometimes with his umbrella and have some fun around.

Ken even tried flying with his umbrella and was so happy that he could feel the air rushing by his face when he went high up in the air. Flying came naturally to him. He had even tried his power with the legendary tiger of the island. With just one swing of his hammer he knocked the tiger a few metres back. He was ecstatic. Though he knew that his 100% power of Thor wouldn't be enough to rule this world, dealing with things in the East Blue would be a walk in the park.

It is the Grand line that he needed to look out for. That is where Ken hoped to get a character that would allow him to be powerful. And of course learn Haki before New World. His advanced physique still didn't allow him to use Haki in any form.

At the beginning Ken thought that he would be able to learn at least Observation or Kenbunshoku Haki like Koby did during the war. But he wasn't lucky enough.

"I need to find Naguri and ask him to teach me. At least the initial form would be enough and work on this overtime." This was his plan for the time being.

The days went by as usual and finally the day that he had been looking forward to had arrived. Garp had returned and this time he had brought a small kid with himself. Garp was holding the kid by his collar and this small kid was hanging from the hands of Grandpa like someone who was made of rubber.

It looked weird but only Ken who just came out of the house had a smile on his face. Dadan and others also came out hearing all the commotions. Dadan as usual had started complaining about the problems Ace had brought in her life but Luffy who had just escaped the clutches of Garp had started running around. Seeing the kid annoyed Dadan more and screamed

"Who is this annoying kid?"

"This is Luffy. Take care of him too. Oye Luffy say hi."

Luffy raised his hand and said "Yo!!" Ken, who had silently stood near Dadan and saw the iconic scene, had a smile on his face. From the looks of it Luffy had eaten the Gomu Gomu no mi or as the legends call it Hito Hito no mi Model : Nika. This meant that the story was on the right track and he just needed to wait a little more before the adventure started.

"Welcome home, Joyboy!!!" Ken murmured under his breath.

Ken was waiting for a perfect time to enter into the ranks of three brothers and he already had a perfect scene in his mind. All these years he had been thinking of ways to enter the brotherhood and his memories had already helped him in carving out a way.

After that Luffy was spat upon by Ace and thus the famous 'running after Ace' started. Ken was beaming with joy looking at this. He was right not to intervene in this regard. Garp stayed with them for a few days before leaving while Luffy noticed Ken.

"Yo, I am Luffy. It's nice to meet you. Let's be friends."

"I am Ken. Nice to meet you too and sure we can be friends." Ken said. He knew that Luffy was interested in him but Luffy's inherent hatred for bandits didn't allow him to be with Ken for a long time. Luffy recently had a huge interaction with bandits and so seeing Ken being with bandits didn't go down well with him. Luffy didn't hate Ken but seeing that Ken was almost of his age he approached him.

Here he didn't have any friends and only Ken could be his friend as Ace just leaves the first time in the morning. Garp, seeing all of this just smiled and didn't stop these small shenanigans of his three grandsons.

After Garp left, Luffy tried interacting with Ace but he was silent and just left early in the morning. And Luffy too followed him like an idiot. Ken sighed. It was time to step his foot into the world and control destiny in his own hands.

After Luffy went away after Ace the first day, he said to Dadan in a hushed tone.

"I will be going out like Ace and Luffy. It is time that I too go out and see the world with my own eyes."

"Eh!! Why? Who will clean the home if you leave. You are the only good kid in the house. Don't make things more difficult." Dadan said in a straight face trying to establish dominance though she was happy from inside. Ken had been a homeboy for far too long and he needed to see the world like Ace had but it was true she would have a headache cleaning and cooking. Ken had been helping her for such a long time that she had forgotten a life without Ken.

"You can take care of that yourself." Ken didn't care about the thoughts of Dadan.

"Sigh!!! Go go. Live your life." Dadan said. Ken just smiled at it. After seeing Luffy and Ace vanishing, Ken took his umbrella and stepped out of the house. He would follow Luffy and Ace but from far and would make sure that nothing extreme happens to Luffy.