Chapter 13 - Pirate Hunter and Vice Admiral Garp.

Raiden entered a well known pirate gathering spot in Shells town. It was a bar where all kinds of low life gathered.

Raiden wonder why the marines weren't doing anything. All he did was ask some random passersbys, and he found the 'hiding spot' of these pirates.

He was absolutely sure the marine officials here were involved with the pirates.

His appearance attracted a lot of attention.

Not only was he exceptionally good looking, he was also a child. For most of these pirates he was the perfect prey.

"Hey look at that! Boss we've got to catch him. We don't get products like that easily. I'm sure some rich noble will pay a high price for him!"

"Yeah boss!"

Similar conversations were happening all around him. Raiden ignored them and went to the bar.

"We don't serve underage brats. Get out before anything bad happens boy."

"How many people here aren't pirates or criminals?"

"Huh? Why do wanna know that?"

"Answer the damn question."

"Tch where do you think you are brat? Everyone here a killer even the servers. You know what, I thought of letting you leave, but now I'm pissed. You'll fetch me a good price." The bartender licked his lips with a vicious grin. He didn't have any intentions of letting Raiden leave.

"Ah! Is that so. That just makes things easier for me..."

"What the fuck are you talking about you b...!!"

Raiden looked at the bartender with a grin.

Suddenly his eyes turned deep blue with lightning leaking on either sides of them.

The bartender realised something was wrong but it was already too late...

The laughing ceased in the bar and the next second the entire establishment was up in flames with a deafening boom.

People in Shells town were scared. The marines stationed nearby were all alarmed. They ran towards the site of explosion only to see the famous pirate tavern up in flames.

Raiden mixed in the crowd quietly while looking at the profit he reaped.

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

Raiden smirked at the notification. There were nearly 200 pirates in the tavern ranging from level 7-9.

At this point for Raiden, whose stats were way higher than normal, these pirates were nothing. Also, he had a busted devil fruit.

He understood why Enel was so dangerous. Raiden, who had a devil fruit which had lightning as it's sub power was so strong, he could imagine how powerful a fruit that of element would be.

The marines were confused. They didn't know how this phenomenon happened. But they just let it be. Afterall there were all just pirates in the tavern anyway. If anything, the unknown assailant did them a favor.

For the next 4 days Raiden relentlessly hunted pirates down. To the point where there were no more left in the Shells town. That annoyed Raiden somewhat but there was nothing he could do.

He completed his goal of reaching level 10 so he decided to relax for some time.

He had a lot of money on him. The sum he got from the captain of the merchant ship. He bought himself a dark blue hoodie. His hair stood out way too much and he didn't want a bandana. And hoodies were cool alright!

Anyway the rest three days Raiden spent roaming around the town and exploring different things.

He also went to the marine building where axe-hand Morgan was during the cannon timeline.

3 days ended pretty fast. And today was the day Garp would come to pick him up.

He would be lying if he said he wasn't excited. Yeah he was still a little hesitant to join the marines, but after experiencing things first hand he knew the marines weren't exactly 'villains'.

Sure there were corrupt officials, they had to dick ride the celestial dragons, but still overall, he could tolerate them.

He saw Garp's ship in the distance, with the signature dog head. Raiden had to admit the ship looked really cool.

"Hop on brat! I'm not planning on wasting my time here!" Garp's loud voice pulled Raiden out of his trance.

He quickly climbed up the ship and greeted the grinning Garp.

"So you're ready to become a marine, boy?"

"Yes sir!"

"Good decision. Bwahahaha. Set sail!"

________________________________________

Apparently Garp already had a training routine set for Raiden. And it was absolutely nightmarish.

He turned simple push ups into weighted ones. And not just your average weights. Nuh uh. That man dumped dumped a plate that weighed nearly half a ton on Raiden's back!

Every normal workout became weighted workout.

Garp made him do 1000 weighted push ups, 1000 weighted sit ups, 1000 squats and planks...for an hour...with him sitting on Raiden's back while eating senbei and laughing at his misfortune.

' I can't believe this man made me do all that one the first day.'

Raiden was glaring at Garp, who just ignored him.

"Don't take it to heart Raiden. That's just his way of doing things. He has your good interest in mind." Bogard, the only sensible man on the ship consoled Raiden.

For some reason Raiden felt a that Bogard was not as simple as he presented himself.

He was a background character in manga but in real life this man...he looked strong. Bogard has been following Garp since time when Rocks pirates were terrorizing the grandline.

(I know oda never really told us much Bogard but let's just go with it cause no way he's weak if he survived that time.)

As for Garp, although he had the 'I don't care about all this' attitude, the man was really observant.

Raiden was not supposed to finish the training set. He met the boy less than an year ago and he could tell the boy had an explosive growth.

It wasn't anything bad tho. Infact Garp was excited to rub it in Sengoku's face. He couldn't wait for the day his grandsons grew up too. He wanted Luffy and Ace to grow up to become good marines.

The journey to marine headquarters was a long one. Raiden actually wanted to see what the reverse mountain looked like, but the marine warships didn't have to go through that dangerous route.

The marine warships had sea stones at the bottom, which prevented most sea kings from detecting them.

"Raiden come over here." Garp called Raiden who was cleaning the deck.

They were on the sea for almost 4 days now. Although they had a lot of conversations, most of it was just related to training. Garp was slightly uncomfortable, he wasn't used to kids being that quite and obedient.

He liked the kid and his work ethic but didn't want an emotionally damaged kid. Marine life was hard and Raiden would see a lot of unpleasant things. He wanted to form a bond with Raiden where he was comfortable with sharing things with Garp.

That is, Garp didn't know Raiden had a soul of a grown ass adult.

Raiden put his mop down and walked over to Garp.

"How are you boy? You've been really quiet ever since you got on board."

Raiden raised his imaginary eyebrow at that. That felt really out for character thing for Garp to say.

'Now that I think about it, I was showing signs of my anti social personality.'

"Um hm. I'm fine. Just a little bored."

Garp 'hmm'ed as they both sat in silence.

'This is getting awkward.'

Neither of them knew what to say, Raiden who was never good at initiating conversation and Garp who had no idea how to handle an introvert kid.

As if sensing the tension, a sea King appeared out of nowhere and headed towards the ship.

Garp looked at Raiden. He picked him up and threw him towards the sea King.

"Huh...?" Raiden was confused, one moment he was sitting on the deck and the next he was flying towards a giant sea King.

"Go deal with it brat!"

'This fucker!!!"

Raiden looked towards the incoming sea King. He wanted to hide the fact that he can use Rokushiki, but decided to throw that plan out of the window. Besides Garp could've asked Rock anytime he wanted.

Raiden used geppo to get out of the sea kings way. The snake like sea king glanced at Raiden and turned it's body and attack Raiden using it's tail.

The attack fast and accurate. Raiden used Tekkai to tank the attack. He flew a few feets away from the ship a bit but managed to stabilize himself using geppo.

'I need to learn observation haki quickly.'

Raiden wasn't hurt much, just slightly disoriented. He looked at the sea king and pulled his sword out.

He used geppo to cover the distance between them in an instance. Before the sea king could even move, Raiden struck it a diagonal slash.

"Rawrrrrrr!!"

The sea king roared in pain, Raiden didn't stop his attack though. He prepared a horizontal slash and used geppo to close the distance between them again.

The sword stuck the sea king and severed it's head off his body. Raiden who was covered in the sea king's blood looked at himself in disgust.

'Ah shit, I'll have to take a shower again. That wasn't all that hard tho.'

He got back on the ship only to see Garp looking at him with jaws hanging.

"What's wrong?"

"What the hell brat! You can use geppo!?"

"Yeah? Wait you're telling me you didn't know I can use use it!? Then why did you throw me towards it! I could've died there !"

Garp had the decency to look sheepish.

"Ahem. Anyways, why didn't you tell me you can use one of the Rokushiki."

"I thought grandpa informed you about it. And I can use all 6 Rokushiki." Raiden decided to be truthful.

"All of them?"

"All of them."

"..."

"..."

"Bogard!! Bring my diary. Yeah the one next to my senbei stash."

A moment later Bogard came running towards the duo and handed Garp his diary, who started scribbling something on it furiously, occasionally casting glances at the confused Raiden.

He closed his dairy and stared at the 11 year old.

*Sigh*

"Just go rest for today boy. We'll continue your training tomorrow."

Raiden was more than happy with the arrangement.

Garp and Bogard watched as Raiden ran back to his cabin happily.

"This boy is going to give me a heart attack."

Bogard chuckled at the comment.

He was sure marines were going to have an interesting new addition.

________________________________________

AN - This is the end of the East Blue arc.

I'm slightly struggling with the whole system concept so I'll reduce that content. Anyway thanks for reading, if you have any suggestions feel free to comment.