First Arrival at Foosha Village

When Aaron opened his eyes again,

"An unfamiliar ceiling..." Looking at the dark wooden boards above him, he muttered to himself.

Clearly, he was no longer on that reef.

I actually got saved? Never expected that, holy crap. Aaron's thoughts raced, and he instantly sorted out his situation. Overwhelming joy surged through him, making him want to burst into loud laughter.

"Yo! You're awake?" A rough voice sounded from beside him, interrupting Aaron's thoughts.

Aaron turned his head and saw a soldier in a white Marine uniform standing ramrod straight in the doorway, watching him.

"Yeah, I'm so lucky I actually survived! Ahahahahahaha~" In the end, he still laughed out loud.

"..." The soldier stared at Aaron, who was laughing like mad, his face darkening.

Shouldn't normal kids either fall silent or cry their eyes out after being rescued? Sure, there was nothing wrong with being happy to survive, but wasn't this way too exaggerated? And why did this kid's laugh sound so... ridiculous?

One second... two seconds... three seconds... one minute... two minutes... five minutes...

How could this kid laugh for so long? Had he eaten the Smile-Smile Fruit or something?

The soldier felt as though he were trapped in a birdcage full of chirping birds. Just as he was about to go inside and stop Aaron's laughter,

"What happened in here?! Why does it sound like a wolf is howling?" A booming voice suddenly came from the corridor. The soldier's conflicted expression immediately turned serious. He stomped his foot, puffed out his chest, stood ramrod straight, and stared ahead without shifting his gaze.

Soon, a burly old man appeared before the soldier. The coat draped over his shoulders revealed his rank as a vice admiral. He looked at the soldier, then at Aaron, who was still laughing wildly inside.

"Yes! This kid woke up just now, and then he kept laughing. He still hasn't stopped." The soldier saluted first, then his expression collapsed.

"Oh? He hasn't stopped at all?" Intrigued by the soldier's answer, the old man looked at Aaron before striding into the room.

"Kid, how did you..."

"Ahahahahahahaha..."

"Your family..."

"Ahahahahahahahaha..."

"This place..."

"Ahahahahahahahahaha..."

Bam! "Listen when people are talking, you brat!" The old man smashed a fist into Aaron's head in exasperation, silencing him as abruptly as a duck whose neck had been wrung.

"That hurts!" Aaron covered the visibly swelling lump on his head and stared blankly at the old man. "Old man, who are you? Where am I?"

"Shouldn't I be asking those questions?" the old man snapped, though he still answered Aaron's question. "My name is Garp. You're on a Marine warship."

"Oh..." Aaron nodded in understanding, then suddenly froze. He looked at Garp in shock. "You're that Marine Vice Admiral Garp?! The one who..."

Hearing the shock in Aaron's voice, Garp folded his arms and tilted his nostrils toward the sky. Before Aaron could finish, he arrogantly declared, "That's right, it's me."

"The one who steals donuts from the Fleet Admiral, loafs around all day, causes a mountain of trouble, and makes the Fleet Admiral clean up after him?"

"Mm-hmm, that's right, it's me." Garp nodded, but then he realized what Aaron had said and smacked him again. "Bullshit! That's not me! I'm a Marine Vice Admiral! How could I possibly loaf around all day?!"

"Anyway, kid, what's your name? Where are you from? How did you end up shipwrecked?" Garp sat boldly on the edge of the bed and asked Aaron, who was rubbing his head.

Yeah, that sounded suspiciously like changing the subject.

"My name is Aaron, Aaron Copperfield. I'm from the Sabaody Archipelago. We ran into a huge storm when leaving Loguetown, and my parents both died..." As he spoke of this, Aaron's mood suddenly sank.

But Garp seemed not to notice Aaron's gloom at all. He raised his brows. "Sabaody Archipelago? You came from the Grand Line? That's a long way from here. What were you doing here?"

"I heard my dad was looking for some relative, maybe one of my mom's younger sisters or something..." Hearing Garp's question, Aaron instantly recovered from his low mood. His eyes darted around as he answered uncertainly.

"Looking for relatives? Here? Coming all this way just to find relatives?" Garp could not understand it at all.

The Grand Line's weather was mysterious and unpredictable. What's more, ever since Roger's execution ushered in the Great Age of Pirates, the number of pirates had skyrocketed. Risking their lives to cross the first half of the Grand Line and come to the East Blue just to find some relative—unless they were idiots, they must have had some unspeakable secret!

Garp secretly nodded at his own deduction before asking, "Do you remember where that relative lives? Or what her name is?"

"Uh... I think she lives in Foosha Village. Her name was... Ma... Ma... Mati..."

"Makino?"

"I think that was it... How do you know?"

Garp looked speechlessly at the blond kid, thinking that the world really was strange. He had casually rescued a child, only for the child to turn out to be a relative of someone he knew.

"We're heading that way anyway. Come with us." Garp explained nothing, while silently abandoning his deduction that Aaron's parents had some unspeakable secret.

Yeah, his parents were just idiots! Garp thought to himself.

"Huh? Ah! Sure, sure!" Aaron froze for a moment before hurriedly agreeing. Then,

"Ahahahahahahahaha...!" Aaron started laughing loudly again.

Bam! "Why are you laughing again?!"

"Shouldn't you laugh when something this lucky happens?"

"No! Shut up!"

The warship sailed quickly, and after only a few days, they arrived at Foosha Village.

But those few days had been torture for Garp and his soldiers.

Aaron was far too troublesome!

It was not that he caused trouble for others. On the contrary, he was very polite and even rushed to help with cleaning and such.

But it was as if he had a screw loose. He would always find bizarre ways to ruin things.

For example, when mopping the floor, he started off fine. But after a while, he started playing with the bucket, saying things like, "This terrifying bucket has absorbed a huge amount of water! We must punish it! Fight for justice, ahhh~~!!" What the hell was that supposed to be?!

And then there was his carefree smile at every hour of the day. It did not sound malicious, but did they know how alert it made people feel when they heard that sound while trying to sleep?!

So over those few days, the soldiers barely got any proper sleep.

Yet Aaron had never actually done anything wrong, leaving the soldiers angry but unable to say anything.

Aaron gradually noticed the changes in himself as well. He had always been somewhat absentminded before—well, perhaps he inherited that from his parents—but he had at least possessed some reason. Now, however, it was as if his rationality and emotions had been split apart. His emotions were on full display. One moment he would burst into laughter, the next he would cry, sink into melancholy, or beam brightly. He was even more unpredictable than the weather on the Grand Line.

Putting aside those changes in personality, there was also Aaron's body.

Aaron discovered that he could absorb water!

He meant it literally. While scrubbing the deck, he noticed that his hand had unconsciously swollen. Only after squeezing it and wringing water out did Aaron realize that he could actually absorb water.

Garp was quite shocked when he learned of it. He had even called Aaron a "natural Devil Fruit user killer." Because of this, Garp kept urging Aaron to join the Marines.

Naturally, Aaron refused.

Because his dream was this.

To make the most delicious burgers, catch the biggest jellyfish, and blow the prettiest bubbles! Then go to a restaurant called the Krusty Krab... Well, not that last part.

Fine, he had only come up with that dream over the past few days.

But Aaron felt that it had always been the pursuit of his life.

Well, leaving aside how bizarre Aaron's dream was, once Garp confirmed how serious he was about it, he gave up on recruiting him into the Marines.

After all, that dream had absolutely nothing to do with the Marines.

Of course, Aaron also laughed quite a bit after discovering that he could absorb water.

Heh heh! So you're old after all, old man! Just wait and see how your grandson tricks Aaron onto his ship in the future!

Aaron got off the ship, followed closely by Garp, who had dark circles under his eyes. The soldiers behind Garp also had heavy dark circles beneath their eyes.

"All right, I'll take you to see Makino first." Without giving him a choice, Garp grabbed Aaron by the arm and dragged him along, yawning nonstop.

"This is Makino. Makino, get me a beer! And this is your nephew."

Garp led Aaron into a tavern and stood before the bar. He first told Aaron that the gentle woman behind the counter was Makino, then spoke to Makino.

"Nephew?" Makino filled a one-liter beer mug and handed it to Garp, looking at him in confusion.

"Ah, my mother's name was Athena..."

"You're Sister Athena's son? It's been nearly ten years since we separated!" Makino sighed wistfully after hearing that. "Where is your mother?"

"They went to heaven..." His voice instantly became low again. In Makino's eyes, even Aaron's golden hair seemed to dim at that moment. Tears welled in his sparkling blue eyes, stirring her maternal instincts. She stroked his hair, poured him a glass of juice, and slightly opened her mouth to speak.

But just as Makino was about to say something, the tavern's doors were suddenly kicked open. A broad-bodied old woman entered, carrying three unconscious children by their hands and shouting, "Makino, get me a beer!"

As she spoke, she sat at the counter, casually threw the three children aside, grabbed the nearby juice, and gulped it down. She smacked her lips afterward and complained to Makino, "Makino, since when did you start brewing this stuff? It's not strong at all!"

"Uh, excuse me, but that was my juice." Aaron interrupted the old woman at just the right moment, speaking quietly.

"Hm?" Only then did Dadan notice Aaron beside her. "Who's this kid?"

"He's Makino's nephew." Garp took a huge gulp of beer and answered lazily.

"Hm? When did you get here, Garp?"

"Couldn't you see me when you came in?!"

"Sorry, when I saw you, I thought you were a hyena Makino was raising."

"Do I look like a dog to you? And since when has Makino ever raised a hyena? Dadan, are you looking for a fight?!"

Dadan disdainfully glanced at Garp, who was shouting beside her, then lowered her head to look at Aaron. "Since you're Makino's nephew, let me tell you something."

"What?"

"The bar isn't a place for little brats like you to sit!" Bam! Dadan kicked Aaron aside, sending him crashing into a child who had just woken up.

Thunk!

Their heads collided, and that child fainted again. As for Aaron, after being kicked away, he had only one thought: What did being her nephew have to do with the bar?