Chapter 11 – First Clash with Cypher Pol

[Kaienreki Calendar 1502, March]

Having just delivered the infant son of his old rival Gol D. Roger to Dadan on Mount Colubo, so she could take care of the boy. Garp had been contacted by Sengoku, who had talked him into looking up the matter about some little brat repeatedly beating wanted criminals trying to raid the village he lived in.

Normally a Vice Admiral wouldn't be sent on such a low-level mission, but considering that they would pass by the island on their way back to the Grand Line anyway and Sengoku trusted Garp's judgement more than some low-level Marine from a base somewhere in the weakest sea, it wasn't that surprising.

Garp had accepted the mission without much thought, as it meant more vacation time for him, because what else could sailing through the weakest sea with strength like his be other than a vacation.

Still after Garp had read a more detailed report about the things the boy had supposedly done, he was a little intrigued.

The boy had ruthlessly killed dozens of pirates, one even being a devil fruit user and the rest being fairly average or below average for the East Blue. Still, a normal grown man wouldn't be able to fight against the average pirate, much less a devil fruit user.

Also interesting was that the boy had been born somewhere on the Grand Line and had been found on a raft with his mother by a Marine ship patrolling the area.

His mother had died shortly after, while the boy had been adopted by one of the officers on the ship, who had retired shortly after.

All that information had piqued Garp's curiosity, so he looked forward to meeting the boy.

After arriving at the village, greeting the locals, gathering some info, Garp finally reached the home of the child the villagers had dubbed the 'monster child', and met Charles Kindred, a former Lieutenant Junior Grade from the headquarters.

Garp knew from the report that the man had decades of experience sailing the Grand Line and would it not be for an injury in his youth, Kindred may very well have reached the rank of Captain.

Garp had to admit that the report was most likely true, he could see it in the other man's eyes.

The man held zero fear towards himself, simply respecting his strength and rank. He truly had the demeanor of a strong man and Garp's Haki also confirmed the report of the old man gaining the powers of a devil fruit, as he definitely had the strength befitting the average Lieutenant, which surpassed Kindred's strength even in his prime.

After a short introduction, Garp informed the man why he was here, even though Kindred had long since guessed it.

Garp was also intrigued about the girl he saw in the training field, he could sense the hostility and tension in the girl, directed at himself. Kindred had then told him about the girl's backstory – a tragic, but not an uncommon fate.

Still, Kindred's answer to Garp's question about if he planned to send the boy to the Marines later on, had been something else.

"The boy would rather drown himself in the sea, than he would join the Marines, Vice Admiral. Don't try to force it, you will only bring disaster upon yourself and the Marines."

At first Garp hadn't really taken that statement seriously, but the moment the boy came out of the woods and walked across the training field, he knew that the former Marine was right.

The boy was an absolute monster. With Garp's Haki, the presence of the boy was more like a beast in human skin than a human being.

Lupin's strength was something even he, someone who had sailed the whole world had only seen maybe once or twice in a child. He was probably one of the Gifted.

Gifted were people the Marines and World Government called those who were born with Haki and could use it without any official training. And Garp could feel the boy's strength hiding in his small frame just ready to be unleashed.

'Those villagers were right to call the boy a monster, what a freak of nature...', the Vice Admiral thought to himself.

Still, the most convincing factor for the Vice Admiral were the eyes of the boy. Looking at them, he knew Kindred was right in his assessment.

In his decades as a Marine, the Hero of the Marines had seen thousands of different pairs of eyes, and knew that the boy wouldn't change his mind.

After a few short sentences, Monkey D. Garp confirmed what he already knew, but decided to test the boy's strength before leaving.

'Observation and Armament, truly a monster...'

It seemed Sengoku had been right in his decision about him checking out the boy.

…

After assuring Kindred that he was fine, Lupin watched the old man go back into the house, while he himself turned around and walked towards Ina and sat down next to her.

Ina looked at him in slight concern, as he began to speak to her: "That old man was Monkey D. Garp, a Vice Admiral and the Hero of the Marines."

"He wanted to recruit you?", Ina asked hesitantly.

Lupin nodded at her question.

"You rejected him, didn't you?", the girl questioned with a tinge of anxiety in her voice.

Again he nodded and a short silence followed.

Ina had long since lost her naivety and knew that things were seldom as simple as they seemed, so she asked Lupin: "What now?"

"Nothing has changed."

"You are lying."

"I am."

With that last answer, Lupin stood up and vanished from sight with Soru before Ina could continue to dig for more information.

In truth Lupin was worried that after Garp reported his situation, the World Government would send some Cypher Pol agents to try and recruit him. Still, as long as they weren't CP-0 he had the confidence to defeat all other agents one on one, or at least escape from them.

He just hoped that, that wouldn't be the case, as he wanted to stay in a peaceful environment, where he could continue to focus his whole time on training.

Alas, life seldom turned out the way one wanted.

…

Only a month had passed since that day, when he was woken up from his meditation in the middle of the night by the approach of two foreign presences signaled by his Haki.

Strapping on his gauntlets with practiced ease in just a few moments, Lupin put on his sandals and grabbed his sword, which was resting beside his bed.

Walking to the training field behind the house, he sat down and waited for a few minutes.

He had registered them from nearly 800 meters away with his Haki, while meditating and they weren't moving at a fast pace.

He could even hear the two whisper, if he focused his senses and boosted them with Haki.

"You think the boy will agree to come with us peacefully?"

"Well, he doesn't really have much of a choice, now does he?"

"Hehe, you are right. Maybe he will struggle enough, so that we can have a little fun with the girl, who is supposed to be like a big sister to him?"

"I don't really care either way. I just wanna leave this backwater place and get back to the Grand Line. It's almost an insult that they would send two agents from CP5 to recruit a boy from the weakest sea."

"Well, Vice Admiral Garp seemed to have confirmed his strength to be 'above average', which doesn't mean much in the East Blue. Still, Garp's words carry enough weight to send us."

"..."

"..."

Lupin stopped listening after a few seconds, having understood the gist of what was going on. It seemed that Garp had been rather vague in his evaluation, though Lupin wasn't sure if that was on purpose.

Who could really tell, when it came to that crazy old man?

It seemed though the World Government had decided to send some low-ranked agents from Cypher Pol to recruit him, thinking that they would be enough.

Well, they would be enough for Lupin to get some intel from, before he ripped them apart with his bare hands. How could he let them live, when they had threatened his close ones with such obvious remarks?

A few minutes later, in which Lupin had calmed down his anger and waited patiently, he saw the two men walking around the house, before approaching the backdoor.

They had not even noticed his presence on the field.

Both wore a white suit with hats and face masks. They had an average height, but one of them was rather obese, while the other one had a normal athletic figure. The fat one had been the one, who had threatened to harm Ina.

Having enough of this charade, Lupin used Soru to appear behind them in an instant and knocked both out with a precise blow on the backside of their heads.

Even though the two of them had enough strength that they could easily subdue someone like Kindred in a one on one, Lupin had moved too fast for them to even react.

This short attack perfectly displayed the incredible power of this superhuman martial technique combined with his great physical strength.

Grabbing the two men and throwing them over his shoulders, Lupin used Soru again and vanished into the forest.

Arriving at his usual training site by the mountain, he dropped the two men to the ground.

Dislocating their arm and leg joints with a few simple movements of his hands, had them not only waking up screaming in pain, as Lupin hadn't been gentle in his ministration, but it also left them incapacitated and he had a chance to search them for their belongings.

Ignoring the cursing and screaming for a moment, Lupin focused on the things he had found on the two men: Roughly a million berry in cash, a Log Pose, an Eternal Log Pose for Enies Lobby, several hidden weapons, a few documents with a drawing all concerning him and two small Den Den Mushis, which he promptly crushed by throwing them full speed against the mountain wall.

Lupin didn't know how they worked, but he wanted to avoid someone hearing what was going to happen next.

Their belongings all seemed relatively self-explanatory. Enies Lobby being somewhat of a headquarters for Cypher Pol, so he understood the need for an Eternal Log Pose.

Turning to the agents, who had at this point calmed down considerably.

"Do you know what you have gotten yourself into by attacking us, boy? This won't end well for you, so you better help us before surrendering yourself to us! We may just put in a good word for you then! You wouldn't want to offend our employer, boy! You have no idea about what they would do to your family, when they realize we went missing!"

The fat agent directly tried to threaten him, while the other one seemed more cautious and kept his mouth shut.

Lupin just grabbed the fat ones right arm and used his considerable strength along with a bit of invisible Haki enhancement to rip the limb directly from the fat man's body.

*CRUNCH* *RIP*

"AARRGHGGHH--"

A high pitched scream erupted from the man, before he directly fell unconscious, blood still pouring from his wound.

Lupin didn't bother with bandaging it, as he didn't mind the man bleeding to death.

He just turned to the quiet and athletic one, who at this point was positively scared shitless.

The man obviously wasn't a very tough one, being used to being the the one that had power over others, his mind couldn't process the fact that he was now at the mercy of his own target – a child nonetheless.

'No, that thing isn't a child. It's a monster, a monster in human skin!'

That was all the agent could think about, as the boy with the raven hair and piercing blue eyes looked at him, the blood of the other agent dripping from boy's face.

"I think it is clear now that threats aren't going to work on me, isn't it?"

Moving his head like he was a chicken picking up corn, the agent signaled his understanding. Not daring to speak in fear of angering the boy in front of him.

"Good. Now, I will ask you some questions and if you answer them honestly I might just reset your joints for you, so you can walk away from here. How does that sound?", the boy said with an eerie calmness.

"G-g-good."

"What's your name?"

"Andre-", the agent tried to answer.

*CRACK*

"ARGHHH!!"

Directly crushing the man's hand, after Lupin had felt the deceit in his word with his Observation Haki, he waited patiently until the man stopped screaming.

"You should be careful with your lies, you only have four limbs I can crush. Afterwards I will crush your skull. And if you want to walk again anytime soon, then you only have a single chance remaining."

Leaking a bit of his Conqueror's Haki to reinforce his word with some mental pressure, Lupin was sure the man would think twice before lying again.

"Now, your name?"

"Adam.", answered the agent, while gritting his teeth to endure the pain of his crushed limb.

"What is the reason for you and your partners attempt to break into my home?"

Visibly struggling with himself for a moment, the agent seemed to deflate a little before giving his answer.

"We are Cypher Pol agents working for the World Government, and we were tasked with recruiting you for that very same organization."

"Recruitment? Why did that look more like an attempt at kidnapping?"

"It's the modus operandi for recruitment, if the target is still a child.", the agent responded honestly.

Snorting inwardly, Lupin continued with his questions: "Now, Adam. How did you and your partner get to this island? Did you take a boat on your own, or were you escorted by some Marines?"

"Marines. We were escorted from Loguetown with a small ship from the nearby 16th base to Cocoyashi Village. They are scheduled to take us back in the morning. From Loguetown, we were supposed to take another Marine ship that transports supplies to a base on the Grand Line. From there we were scheduled to directly travel to Enies Lobby on another ship.", the Agent explained, slowly getting used to answering the boy.

'Ah well, nothing I could not have figured out by myself. Let's get to the more interesting stuff, like the inner workings of Cypher Pol and the Rokushiki, etc.', Lupin thought to himself.

"From whom do you get your orde..."

…

From there began several rounds of questioning.

Unfortunately though Adam was only a low-level agent from CP5 and didn't know much about the inner workings of his own organization. He had one superior, namely Spandam, that relayed the orders to the whole CP5 and no contact with other important personnel.

And while he had access to the Rokushiki techniques, his proficiency was basically nonexistent. He only knew the basics of each style, which gave him a boost to his speed, mobility and strength, which gave him battle power on par with a Marine Lieutenant from the headquarters. Which was pretty low for the Grand Line, but definitely above average for the East Blue.

The fat agent had awakened some time during his conversation, but seemed to have decided to play possum and didn't move a muscle.

Still, Lupin's extraordinary hearing had immediately picked up on his changed breathing pattern.

"*Sigh*, what a headache. Why couldn't you have just let me grow up in peace?", as Lupin uttered these words, both agents suddenly felt a chill crawl down their spines.

"I-I-I have answered all your questions, so what about your promise? Please reset my joints, I swear I won't report anything and you will never see me again!", Adam spoke, terrified that the boy had changed his mind.

"You know as well as I do, that this was not an option from the start, don't you?"

Lupin's voice had taken a darker tone at the end of his sentence and before either of them could take another breath, he decapitated them both with a precise Rankyaku.