Garp's legacy
The marines started their training. They were grouped in pairs and started with Observation Haki.
Garp dragged Luffy in the middle of the forest, far away from the place all the others were training. He looked at his grandson and sighed.
He wanted to train Luffy in Armament Haki but who would anticipate that his little grandson learned both types of Haki's by himself. Garp thought how Luffy mastered his first type of Haki by the age of six, so he shouldn't be too surprised. There was only one thing he could teach his grandson.
Garp had a serious expression, a sight Luffy never saw on his old man.
"Brat, you sure surprised me. Let me teach you the technique that made me famous all over the world. It is a technique that specializes in Haki, to be precise, Armament Haki. I build all of my good reputations with this attack alone!"
Luffy was surprised. So his grandfather was really teaching him something serious. He understood why he didn't train Luffy in the original story. One of the reasons was that Luffy wanted to be a pirate, but the second was that one had to control Armament Haki to master the technique of his old man.
"This technique is an old one, I learned it from my father all those years ago. It functions with Armament Haki as it's core, but transforms it into something different. This technique was well known over 800 years ago, but today it's almost forgotten."
Luffy frowned. So this is something that originated from the Void Century. His family had the D. in the name, it wasn't too surprising. Luffy wasn't that interested in the history of this world. He would eventually find out, the reason was Nico Robin. What was more important for him was his strength. If he could beat everyone in this world, then the mysterious history wouldn't have much meaning to him. It was as simple as that.
"So, did you teach this technique to my father, too?"
Garp was shocked by this response. Luffy wanted to address this subject a long time ago. Now was the perfect time for this.
He took out a wanted poster.
"Monkey D. Dragon. I saw this poster many years ago. Our family name is unique, so I thought that this guy could maybe be your son. It explains why I never met him, too. A revolutionary, that would make his circumstances definitely complicated."
Garp sighed. He thought that his grandson was too intelligent sometimes. He didn't know what happened to him all those years ago, he supposed it was his Observation Haki that changed him. He could sense things since he was a little boy other children couldn't sense. This was the answer he gave him for the strange behavior of his grandson.
"Yes, he is your father. I gave him this technique. It's a tradition in our family. A father teaches it to his son, so it should be his job to teach it to you. But your father is very mysterious and who knows if he would respect the tradition of our family. I wanted him to be a good marine, but…"
Garp sighed.
"Gramps. Does old man Sengoku know that I'm the child of the most wanted man in the world? You know, I know who Ace's father is. It's a little bit strange that Gol D. Roger gave his son to his rival, a marine none the less. Even more strange is that everybody in this world is aware that it was you who captured the pirate king. I learned early on that you couldn't believe the stories in those newspapers. But do you think it is a good idea for me to join the marines? They did really crazy things to find Roger's unborn kid. What would they do if they know that I'm the son of the most wanted man in the world?"
Garp had a headache. Why was this brat so smart to come to such a conclusion? That definitely wasn't a trait he had from Garp.
"Sengoku knows who your father is, but he ignored it until this point. It's only because of our friendship that he didn't do anything, and the Celestials don't know anything about you. So as long as you don't make trouble and become a wanted criminal, he will not chase after you. He promised me that."
Luffy frowned at this answer. He first thought that he had to go against the marines, because of his father. But this answer from his grandfather changed everything. Maybe he could work with pirates and marines alike, only the marines he liked of course. Aokiji was one of those. He really liked that guy. He had to look into this in the future. He doesn't want to disappoint Garp as the original Luffy did, but he doesn't like the World Government, so working with them was impossible. The World Government was like the Pokemon League for him, something he had to defeat to become a Pokemon Master.
Garp took a deep breath, this serious expression on the face of his grandfather didn't look good on him. Luffy liked the goofy one more.
"What's your goal, Luffy?"
Luffy grinned.
"Well, I want to be the very best, like no one ever was."
Garp grinned at the answer from his grandson.
"To tell you the truth, I don't care if people call me a Marine, Pirate, Revolutionary or Bounty Hunter. I don't like to be put in a group and be judged by others. In the end, it's my strength and the fun of my adventure that matters to me. I hope this answer is enough."
Garp laughed out loud.
"Then you will follow your old man and become the very best marine there ever was! Hahaha!"
Both of them grinned. The two were aware that this wasn't an option, but both remained silent. It wasn't normal for this family to engage in a serious conversation, so the situation was a little bit awkward for a couple of minutes. They decided they should engage in the thing they both were good at: talking with their fist.
Garp showed Luffy his unique technique and Luffy couldn't help but smile. This would make things easier.
.....
The year quickly came to an end and Luffy and his Pokemon grew stronger each day. His Trainer Level grew and his team was bigger than before.
Only a small part of the marines had success with their Haki. Hina, Smoker, and Ain made huge progress, even Tashigi awakened her Armament Haki. But these four were one of the few.
Luffy, Hina, Ain, Smoker, and Tashigi became quick friends. It was really good for Luffy to make friends with people that are more mature than his two sworn brothers. He only interacted with his Pokemon and mountain bandits in the past few years and it was good to make new friends along the way.
Garp was giving them the last trial for this training camp. Luffy was grouped with Hina and Ain, they had to take out a pirate crew that was terrorizing an island on the Grand Line.
Luffy bonded with Ain and Hina in the past year and he really wanted to take them with him for his crew. He didn't want to make the exact same group as the original Straw Hats. He would recruit every one of the official members, but there were many other guys with a lot of potentials he could take with him. It would be hard to convince the two girls, especially Ain who had a really stubborn mindset and hated pirates.
The three of them arrived at their destination after a couple of days. Their opponent was a pirate with a bounty of 80.000.000 Beli. When the other marines heard that number they were shocked and happy that they didn't have to take care of this one. The other bounties were mostly in the range of 20.000.000 - 30.000.000 Beli. Luffy wasn't impressed by this pirate, he was fifteen years old now and a monster in terms of Haki. That wasn't all, he had this new technique from Garp in his arsenal.
Oh, and don't forget the monsters he had in his pocket and Gible, who didn't want to evolve in the past year, but was strong none the less.
If you would ask Luffy what his strongest trait was, then he would definitely answer with his Pokemon.
These guys were nuts. He realized that after he escaped East Blue.
.....
The two marines and Luffy didn't want to spend a long time on this island. They directly went to the pirates. It wasn't hard to find them because the crew created chaos in every place and the captain was behaving like he was the king of this island.
While Hina fought the guy with the third-highest bounty, Ain confronted the Vice-Captain.
Those girls were strong so Luffy didn't bother to watch what they were doing. It was astonishing how one year with Garp changed this group of marines. Smoker and Tashigi weren't the same as in the original story. When you learned the secrets of Haki, then it changed everything in this world.
Luffy looked towards his opponent and couldn't help but sigh. This guy was an annoying one, he appeared in the manga more than once. No wonder that he was so arrogant, he had the illness almost every logia fruit eater would get.
It was Wet-Haired Caribou.
"What an ugly dude. This is boring."
Caribou was insulted by this brat, so he greeted him with a projectile that was made out of a swamp.
This guy ate the Numa Numa no Mi, a logia type fruit that could transform him into a swamp. Luffy thought that the only useful thing about this guy was that he was a living inventory for items, but he had his own inventory so, in the end, this lunatic was useless.
And annoying.
Luffy pointed a finger towards Caribou. In front of his finger appeared a black ball, in the size of a Rasengan.
After a couple of seconds, the black ball shot to Caribou, piercing the place where Luffy assumed was his heart. Before the fight even started, it ended. The swamp disappeared and a dead man with a hole in his chest was on the ground.
The attack Luffy used was the one he learned from Garp. It looked simple if you looked at it in this fight, but it was far from that.
Garp's technique allowed him to control his Armament Haki and form it. Usually, you could coat your Haki around objects, weapons, or your body, but this technique allowed him to gather Haki in a sphere that he could use to attack his opponent.
In Luffy's case, the Armament Haki transformed into a sphere that he could throw at his enemy or use like a Rasengan, holding it in his hand to attack. If he trained hard enough, he could form his Haki in other forms if he had enough talent.
Garp used this technique in a different way. When he used it, a black fist would appear and attack his opponents. Garp could only control one fist, but he could make it huge, bigger than the fist of a Giant. This was the main reason why he was called Garp the fist.
Luffy was happy with his sphere-shaped attack. He couldn't wait for the future when he could create a ball that was big enough to rival a Genki-Dama. A ball of pure Armament Haki - the nightmare for every devil fruit user, especially the Logia type.