After a round of Garp's loving discipline, Luffy had been beaten half to death and lost his initial arrogance.
Only after the village chief talked him down did Garp stop and let Luffy off.
Garp was rarely back in his hometown. He chatted briefly with the village chief and warned him that the East Blue had been unsettled lately, with a powerful pirate crew roaming around whose captain was named Her Kazi.
The village chief looked very strange when he heard this, leaving Garp puzzled.
After asking a few questions, Garp finally learned that Makino had boarded that pirate ship too.
Seeing the village chief's righteous indignation, Garp felt the same way.
How had such a good girl ended up being carried off by pirates? No wonder he hadn't seen Makino at the tavern when he came back this time.
"Forget it. Makino's already in too deep. I'd better straighten out this little bastard Luffy's thinking first."
With that, Garp picked Luffy up and headed out, straight for the forest deep in the mountains.
He was going to train Luffy's body while giving him some loving discipline. He had a whole month of leave, so he had plenty of time and energy.
But what Garp hadn't expected was that Luffy was practically cast from the same mold as his son, with an equally stubborn and rotten temper.
His son had ignored his objections, quit the Marines outright, and organized a group called the Freedom Fighters. Now he had even openly renamed it the Revolutionary Army.
He had almost given his son a thumbs-up...
Ah, no, that unfilial son had nearly angered him to death.
Now his grandson wanted to become a pirate too. Garp had worked hard beating him for an entire month, yet he still wouldn't change his tune. His stubbornness was outrageous.
Left with no other choice, Garp personally dumped Luffy at Dadan's home on Mount Colubo before leaving.
That was simply because Garp had already dumped Roger's son on her to raise, and the results had been remarkable. The child was still alive, so there was no problem.
Under Dadan's despairing gaze, Garp threatened her for a while, then sauntered away.
"Damn it! What sin did I commit to end up looking after another little brat?"
Dadan didn't dare lose her temper with Garp. She turned to look at Luffy's stupid face, and her anger immediately flared.
"Kid, don't think you can eat and drink here for free! If you want food, you'll have to hunt something yourself. Got it?"
Dadan's words didn't upset Luffy in the slightest. Instead, he gave a goofy grin.
"Hunting?"
"That's what Grandpa and I were doing all along. I'll definitely catch something."
Luffy ran outside, brimming with enthusiasm, while Dadan sighed and told her underlings to tidy up a room for him.
She couldn't really leave Luffy without a place to stay. If she actually threw him out or let him starve to death, that bastard Garp would pound their whole gang of mountain bandits into the ground.
Meanwhile, Kazu and the others had crossed Reverse Mountain, then randomly selected one of the seven routes to sail along.
Kazu hadn't deliberately sought out the route Luffy would take ten years later.
He had his own adventures. Wherever he went would be spectacular, and all seven routes ended at the Sabaody Archipelago.
After getting their ship coated at the Sabaody Archipelago, they would descend ten thousand meters beneath the sea to Fish-Man Island and enter the New World from there.
Otherwise, they could only enter the New World by taking their ship over the ten-thousand-meter-high Red Line.
As soon as Kazu and the others entered the Grand Line, they experienced its unpredictable weather.
The sky had been clear early in the morning, only for a storm to roll in an hour later. By noon, it was sunny again, and when they ate dinner that afternoon, snowflakes actually began to fall.
Kazu was fine. His physical constitution was terrifyingly strong, so he could handle a little cold or heat.
Carlmand, Behrens, and Makino had a harder time adjusting.
One moment they were wearing tank tops, the next they were wearing sweaters. It made them extremely uncomfortable.
"Kazu, once we land on an island, let's buy some more supplies."
"We bought enough summer clothes, but we only have a couple of things to keep warm in winter."
After clearing away the dishes that evening, Makino gently lay down beside Kazu and began to wheedle.
"No problem. I'll buy you a hundred pieces when the time comes. Whatever you like, we'll buy it all."
Kazu held Makino's slender waist with his left arm and squeezed a soft mound with his right hand, making her cheeks flush.
This animal was getting restless again. Lately, she felt less and less able to take him.
With Kazu still looking unsatisfied afterward, she understood that she couldn't satisfy him alone. He was too strong.
Forget it. She would listen to Kazu and make up for it in other ways.
At that thought, Makino slowly lowered her head...
Early the next morning, Kazu came out onto the deck feeling refreshed.
It was another beautifully sunny morning, perfect for setting out a deck chair and sunbathing.
Carlmand and Behrens had been working very hard lately. After witnessing Aokiji's strength, they knew they weren't strong enough to help Kazu.
Now, aside from eating and sleeping, they spent all their time cultivating in the training room.
While Kazu was still basking in the sun, a seagull flew over, flapping its wings. It tilted its head and looked at him, seemingly asking whether he wanted to buy a newspaper.
"Here you go."
Kazu took out a hundred Beli and casually tossed it into the pouch on the News Coo's chest.
The News Coo happily flapped its wings twice, dropped a newspaper to Kazu, and flew off to find its next customer.
"Let's see what news there is to give me a laugh."
Kazu opened the newspaper. The front-page headline was the Blond Hair Pirates' bounties.
Captain of the Blond Hair Pirates-Space Demon, Her Kazi. Bounty: 1.53 billion Beli. Extremely vicious. Dead or alive.
Crew member of the Blond Hair Pirates-Iron Hand, Delips Carmand. Bounty: 115 million Beli. Dead or alive.
Crew member of the Blond Hair Pirates-Beautiful Cook, Makino. Bounty: 1 million Beli. Dead or alive.
Crew member of the Blond Hair Pirates-Quick Gunner, Behrens. Bounty: 39 million Beli. Dead or alive.
"Well, well. The World Government and Marine Headquarters work pretty fast."
Big Mom and Kaido both currently had bounties of over three billion Beli. Although they hadn't yet reached the four-billion-plus figures they would have ten years later, those were still astonishing sums.
The 1.5-billion bounty the Marines had given him could be considered recognition of Kazu's strength.
They no longer treated Kazu as a rookie pirate with a little strength who had only just made his debut, but as a powerful pirate they needed to remain constantly on guard against.
Even Carlmand's bounty had passed a hundred million because he had fought the Logia user Smoker.
"Space Demon. Aside from that lousy nickname, the rest is pretty acceptable. Especially this photo. Tsk, tsk, looks like there's no hiding my handsome face."
Kazu lit a cigarette and continued reading to see whether there was anything else interesting.
"Boa Hancock, captain of the Kuja Pirates and empress of Amazon Lily, successfully led her crew to defeat the Spike Pirates, led by Daedalus, whose bounty was 69 million Beli."
Kazu was all too familiar with this pirate, the world's most beautiful woman. In his previous life, there had been more doujinshi of her than of Nami and Robin. She could be called the top seller in One Piece.
Kazu had also had the privilege of admiring them. Now that he had come to the world of One Piece, he even had a chance to witness the Pirate Empress's charms in person.
But the one thing that gave him a headache was Hancock's fruit ability.
If he couldn't make her fall in love with him, he would most likely be turned to stone.
As he had said before, he knew his own lecherous thoughts perfectly well. He would definitely fall victim to the Love-Love Fruit's ability.
"Well, I'll worry about it if I get the chance to meet her. If nothing else works, I'll take one look and get the hell out. I'm the Space Demon, after all."