7 Chapter 7

[4 years later

Mc age: 10]

Not much has happened in these four years except for me getting my hands on a small sword. Ace, Sabo, and I have become the best of friends. We have had a lot of spars, and I currently am at 126 wins and 35 losses. At 2nd place is Ace and at third is Sabo, but it's really close with the two of them.

The only reason that I'm stronger than them is because I see Garp's training as real training, and they only see it as hell.

I was walking down the mountain towards the village. Ace and Sabo said that they wanted to keep training, so they didn't come with me.

When I arrived at the village, I heard a commotion. Once I arrived there, I found Luffy on the ground with a sword against his throat and the Red-Haired Pirates trying to save him.

'So that was today, huh. That little brat has grown on me, so I will help him out. I can't be a hundred percent sure that he will be saved by Shanks again, so I can't just stand here and do nothing. And it will be fun to fight Shanks one day at his full power.'

I carefully walked towards them without the bandit noticing me. His men are already down on the ground. I grabbed my flintlock and aimed it at him. The moment he put his hand in his pocket to grab the smoke bomb, I fired.

*BAM*

The bullet scraped his forehead.

"ARGH!"

'Damn it, I missed.'

I put my pistol back and pulled out my sword. I ran up to him and tried to cut him down, but he managed to block my sword.

"So you're the one who shot me. Do you even know who I am!"

I glared at him.

"You are mountain bandit Higuma. With an 8.000.000 berry bounty."

He looked a little surprised.

"So you know who I am, but you're still trying to fight me. Why would you do that?"

"I have a question, Higuma. Do you know who this brat is?"

"Why would I care who he is? I have an 8.000.000 berry bounty. There is no one in the east blue that I fear!"

"The brats name is Monkey D. Luffy. He is the grandson of the Marine Hero Garp."

"WHAT!"

He was so shocked that he almost dropped his swords.

"Idiot."

*PUCHI*

I stabbed him in his heart.

*BAM*

He fell down on his back dead.

I cleaned off the blood on my blade on his clothes.

Everyone around me was shocked.

'I wonder if it's a good thing that I can kill without blinking, or is that what a demon would think?'

I put my sword back in its sheath and held out my hand to Luffy. He took my hand and stood up.

He looked down.

"Ken, I'm really sorry. It was my fault for not being strong enough."

"Yeah, it sure was your fault."

He looked really hurt by that comment.

I patted his head, and he looked up.

"But that just means that you still have room to grow and to become stronger."

He immediately brightened up.

"You're right. I'll train and become stronger than you."

*BAM*

I hit him on his head, making it stretch out.

"What was that for!"

I glared at him.

"Don't get ahead of yourself, brat. You will never be able to beat. me."

He glared back at me.

"Just you wait!"

I smirked.

"Don't take too long, or I'll be too strong for you to even be in my presence."

I turned around and looked at Shanks and his crew.

'From being around Garp a lot, I can know when someone is too strong for me. And looking at these guys, I know that it will take a long time before I can face them.'

I started looting all the bodies, and I also took all their weapons. Everyone looked at me, surprised that I would just start looting the bandit's bodies. I put everything in a big bag. I looked at Woop Slap.

"You can have the bounty on this guy."

"No, I can't accept so much money."

"I'm just paying you back for all the money I swindled from you."

He glared at me.

"Yeah, you're right. That money is just rightfully mine. Sigh, you should come over more often."

"Yeah, sure, I'll come if you make some delicious food for me."

"You brat. Only using me for the food."

I smiled at him and picked up the bag.

"I'll be going now."

I went into the mountain. I went to the place where the three of us always train, and I found them there training.

"Yo, Ace, Sabo."

They looked a little confused.

"Why are you back so quickly and what is in that bag?" asked Ace

I placed it on the ground and opened it up, making money and weapons fall out.

They looked surprised.

"Did you attack a navy ship or something?" asked Sabo

"Nah, it was a bandit group. We should be able to give the swords to Dadan and have her sell it for us."

They nodded.

"How much money is there?" asked Ace

"I don't know. Let's count it."

We started counting.

"Tsk, just 110.000 berries." said Sabo

"But this was just what they had on them. If we raid their empty base, we should be able to find more."

"Is it close by? And who are these bandits anyway?" asked Ace

I smirked.

"No one to impressive."

I threw them a bounty poster.

Their eyes were about to bulge out.

"8.000.000 berry bounty! He is the bandit that owns the other half of the mountain. How in the hell did you defeat him!?" asked Sabo

I smiled at them.

"What do I say, I'm just awesome like that."

They looked skeptical.

'Well, I'm not 100% sure that I would have won, but it would have been a close fight. Good thing that he was such an idiot.'

"Let's go and hide the bag. We'll raid their base after that."

They nodded.

We hid the bag and went to raid the bandits base. After clearing everything out, we made an additional 1.200.000 berries. We also got some swords, pistols, smoke bombs, and other weapons.

We went back to the other bag and put all the money in there and put the weapons within the other bag. We hid the money and took the weapons back to Dadan's hideout.

We arrived at the hideout and entered.

We managed to trick her into accepting Sabo by heavily guilt-tripping her.

"Yo, Dadan, we got some presents."

"Huh!? What could you brats give me?"

I place the bag in front of her.

I smiled at her.

"Open it up."

She opened the bag, and she looked shocked by the number of weapons that were in there.

"How did you three get so many weapons?"

Ace pointed to me.

"This guy defeated Higuma and his goons, so we raided his place."

"WHAT!"

Everyone fell down from the shock.

"That can't be! Where is his body?" asked Dadan

"I owned Woop Slap some money, so I gave it to him. Everyone saw it, so you can just ask one of the villagers."

"Sigh, you brats keep amazing me. So are these really all for me?"

I smiled at her.

"Nope."

She was about to hit me.

"Wait! If you sell these weapons for us, you can take 20% of the earnings, and the other side of the mountain is also yours."

Dadan had a big smile on her face and patted me on my head.

"Did you hear that, guys! We now own the entire mountain! Let's have a feast!"

"YEAH!"

Everyone cheered.

That night we kept partying till 5 am. When everyone was asleep, I went on top of the roof and stared at the sky.

I looked at my right arm. It was shaking. This is the hand that killed the bandit.

'I just killed someone again. Even if it was to save Luffy, I still killed someone. I didn't even flinch. Am I also becoming a demon?'

I balled up my fist.

'No! I'm nothing like them! I am in a different world with different morals. This is my world now, so I should keep the morals of my last world behind. If I want to become truly free, I will need to spill blood. I don't have Luffy's power to make everyone my friend, so I have no other choice.'

"Sigh."

I looked back at the sky.

'Yo, little bro. I'm starting to make new friends. If only you could have been here. We could have had so much fun, and I would have been able to protect you this time.'

A tear fell from my eyes.

'Damn it! Why wasn't I strong enough to protect you!'

I heard someone climb up the ladder. I quickly wiped my eyes.

"What is it, Dadan?"

She sat down next to me and also looked at the sky.

"Were you thinking about your little brother again?"

I didn't say anything.

"I'm sure that he doesn't want you to blame yourself. After all, it wasn't your fault. You did your best, but it just wasn't enough. You already took your revenge, so you should just move on."

"Sigh."

I had a little smile.

"I didn't know you could be so soft."

She glared at me.

"Don't get used to it, brat."

"I won't."

"Now, let's go back and sleep."

I nodded. We went back to our own rooms. I went into my bed and closed my eyes.

'Maybe she is right. If I keep blaming myself, nothing good will come from it. But I can't just forgive myself so quickly.'