Chapter 3 (Happy Birthday! Part 2) rewritten

Us two brothers went trekking no sooner we finished with breakfast. As we trekked through the forest, Ace led the way, his eyes scanning the terrain for anything that might resemble a good hideout. I followed closely behind, my mind still buzzing with the memories that had come flooding back to me earlier this morning.

As we ventured deeper into the forest, the trees grew denser, their thick canopies filtering the sunlight into scattered beams that danced across the forest floor. Ace was determined, his pace quick and purposeful. I could tell he was excited by the prospect of finding a place that was truly ours, away from the prying eyes of Dadan and the bandits.

"Jackson, over here!" Ace called, waving me over to a cluster of large boulders partially hidden by overgrown vines. He had that look in his eyes—the one that always preceded one of his big ideas.

"What is it?" I asked, jogging over to him.

Ace pointed to a gap between the boulders, just wide enough for a small person to squeeze through. "What do you think? Maybe there's something on the other side."

Curiosity piqued; I crouched down to peer into the gap. It was dark, but there was enough light to see that it wasn't just a small crevice. The space beyond looked like it opened up into a larger area, possibly a cave.

"Let's check it out," I said, feeling a surge of excitement. "This could be it!"

Ace grinned and immediately dropped to his hands and knees, wriggling through the gap. I followed close behind, carefully manoeuvring my way through the narrow passage. After a few tense moments of squeezing past sharp rocks, we finally emerged into a wide, open space.

The cave was larger than I expected, with high ceilings and walls that were covered in strange, ancient markings. Light filtered in through a small opening in the ceiling, casting an eerie glow over the interior. The air was cool and damp, but not unpleasant. Most importantly, I don't think this was ever shown in any flashback, be it anime or manga, so my curiosity quickly turned into interest.

"This place is awesome!" Ace exclaimed, his voice echoing off the walls. "It's perfect for a hideout!"

I had to agree. It was secluded, well-hidden and not easy to reach despite being nearby Dadan's place.

As Ace explored the cave, I took a moment to examine the markings on the walls. They didn't look like anything I'd seen before—certainly not something that the locals would have made. The symbols were intricate, almost like a language, but one that was lost to time.

"What do you think these mean?" I asked, tracing one of the symbols with my finger.

Ace glanced over, but his interest was more in the cave itself than the markings. "Who cares? They just look cool. Maybe they're pirate symbols or something."

"Maybe," I mused, though I couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to this place than met the eye.

We spent the next few hours exploring every nook and cranny of the cave, making plans for how we would use it. Ace wanted to stash supplies here—food, water, maybe even some weapons if we could get our hands on them. He also talked about setting up traps to keep out any unwanted visitors, though I wasn't sure how serious he was about that.

"This is going to be our secret base," Ace declared, planting his hands on his hips as he surveyed the space. "No one else can know about it, especially not that old geezer."

I nodded in agreement. Gramps would turn our secret base into a mini navy-base for us new 'recruits' and I certainly wouldn't want that. I had already chosen the life of a free man on sea no matter what.

"Right," I said. "This is our spot."

For a while, we just sat there, enjoying the silence and the feeling of having something that was ours alone. For men owning a secret base is as cool as a huge roboter, or watching ninjas perform various ninjutsu. It just makes our eyes twinkle.

Eventually, the sun started to dip toward the horizon, casting long shadows across the cave floor. It was time to head back, but neither of us wanted to leave. This place felt special, like it was meant for us.

"We'll come back tomorrow," Ace said as we reluctantly made our way back to the gap in the boulders. "And the day after that. We'll make this place awesome."

"Yeah," I agreed, already looking forward to our next visit. "This is just the beginning."

By the time we squeezed back through the gap and emerged into the forest, the sky was tinged with the orange and pink hues of sunset. We made our way back to the hideout, our minds buzzing with plans for our new base.

As we approached the clearing, we could hear the familiar sounds of Dadan and the bandits arguing about something—probably what to have for dinner. But there was another sound too, one that made both of us stop in our tracks.

The unmistakable laugh of our grandfather, Garp.

Ace groaned. "Great, the old geezer's here."

I couldn't help but smile a little, despite the impending headache I knew was coming. Garp was a pain, but he was our pain and even though we would never admit it, there is nothing in the world we would give him up for.

"Let's get this over with," I said, bracing myself for whatever nonsense Garp had planned this time.

We stepped into the clearing to find Garp sitting cross-legged in front of the hideout, a huge grin on his face. Dadan and the bandits were standing a safe distance away, clearly wary of the chaos that usually followed Garp wherever he went.

"There you are!" Garp boomed as soon as he spotted us. "Took you long enough!"

Ace crossed his arms, glaring at our grandfather. "You are late old man. We already finished the 'birthday banquet' hours ago."

Garp's grin only widened. "Who said anything about that? I'm here to celebrate your birthday, boys! I even brought presents!"

I raised an eyebrow, sceptical. "What kind of presents?"

He reached behind him, taking out 2 navy themed t-shirts in our size. They weren't even look-alike uniforms, just simple, blue shirts with the navy's symbol on it.

"Oi, what's with these marine presents, old geezer?!" Ace instantly went on another tirade of his.

"What's wrong with marine-themed presents? Future marine soldiers should be happy to receive them! And call me Grandpa!" Garp quickly rebuked, seemingly not ready to let this one go.

"Future marine soldier my foot! Who said we want to be marines?! Old geezer! Old geezer! Old geezer!"

"Why you little brat!"

Ace received a fistful of Garp's love and care in response. I kind of didn't want to interfere, but you know the saying: "Bros before Marine Hoes!" Cough—I mean heroes.

"Stop hitting Ace, you old geezer! We will become strong pirates when we grow up! Strong enough to beat you!"

"Hoh? Really? Is that so?"

Gramps asked us in a menacing manner while cracking his fingers loudly. Dadan and co. who could be called pros at reading Garp's expressions by now, quietly vanished as if they were never present to begin with.

'Cowards!'- I thought. Judging by the thick mark on his forehead and the way he's holding his fist, we were about to receive a lot of his love and care, leaving us practically no choice but to copy Dadan and co.

"Run!"

Shouting simultaneously, Ace and I sprang up and ran in different directions, as if we had practiced it in advance. Obviously, that did little to nothing for us, as we were caught and properly 'educated' on how 'strong pirates' are dealt with by gramps.

'Damn geezer, one day I'll beat you up for sure!'- I secretly swore in my heart as he carried us back to the hut.

"Just you wait old man, I will secretly train in our hideout until I become stronger than you!"- Ace probably meant to secretly swear as well but perhaps because he was hit a few times to many, his thoughts slipped out.

Gramps raised an eyebrow in response, causing my heart to sink for a second. "Hideout, eh? What are you two planning now?"

"Nothing!" we both said in unison, a little too quickly.

He chuckled, clearly not convinced but willing to let it slide. "Just don't get into too much trouble, you hear me? And remember—no matter what, I'm always watching."

'What a terrible thing to say!'

We finally reached Dadan's hideout, where we went straight to bed, after eating a huge piece of grilled meat each. It has been a long and tiring day, more so than was needed. Ironically the cause for my exhaustion was spending the night here with us, carefreely snoring away. At least lying on his arms felt somewhat comfortable so me and Ace didn't act shy when occupying him like that.

"Guess today was a good day after all."-My thoughts wandered. My memories were back, turning me into a fusion of both Jackson's, we had good food, found a cool secret base, met and 'played' with gramps… There was just one thing left to do now.

"Activate cheat." It was about time to activate my cheat code. No sooner those words were spoken, a transparent light screen appeared in front of my eyes. It displayed the following lines:

[Chosen Character: Gol D. Roger]

[Synchronization Rate: 0%]

[Synchronization Speed: 5% per year]

[Synchronization Boost (Quest): Run 10km while blindfolded for the next 365 days in a row]