Mount Corvo
Mount Corvo was a paradise for wild beasts, and it was about to get a new one.
"Let go of me! You damn old geezer! I'm gonna be the Pirate King!"
A small boy in a straw hat was being dragged up a mountain path like a sack of potatoes. His legs flailed in the air as the Marine Hero, Monkey D. Garp, hauled him along. The boy's shouts were so loud they sent birds scattering from the trees.
"Shut up! From today on, this is your new home!" Garp's massive hand pressed down on Luffy's head, seemingly squashing him down by half. "You're going to train hard and become the strongest Marine!" That damn Kyle, Garp thought grumpily, it was his fault Dragon became a revolutionary in the first place! Next time I see him, I'll give him a good thrashing!
In front of the Dadan family's wooden shack, Garp unceremoniously tossed Luffy onto the ground and yelled, "Dadan! I've brought you another problem!"
A plump woman with a cigarette dangling from her lips stormed out, her face a mask of fury. "Garp! I'm a mountain bandit, not a daycare teacher!"
"This is my grandson. Take good care of him," Garp said, picking his nose with an air of complete authority. He ignored Dadan's protests, gave the still-struggling Luffy an "affectionate" iron fist to the head, and then let out a booming laugh as he turned and headed back down the mountain.
Inside the shack, a black-haired boy with freckles was carefully wiping down a steel pipe. It was Ace, who often used Dadan's place as a base for his adventures.
"Hey! My name is Luffy! Let's be friends!" Luffy said cheerfully, approaching him with a large new bump on his head.
Ace didn't even look up. His mother, Rouge, was always worried that he didn't have any friends his own age, but he had no interest in this stupid-looking kid in a straw hat.
The word 'give up', however, was not in Luffy's vocabulary.
For the next several months, Mount Corvo became the stage for a relentless chase. Luffy was like a piece of sticky candy that simply couldn't be shaken off. No matter how many times Ace rejected him, threatened him, or set traps for him, Luffy would always reappear the next day, bruised and battered, with the same hopeful phrase: "Let's be friends!"
This continued until the day Luffy accidentally stumbled into the Gray Terminal—the world's junkyard—and discovered the secret hideout of Ace and another boy with blond hair, Sabo. They were counting the treasure they had scrounged together to fund their future voyage out to sea.
Trouble followed quickly. The boys were captured by the Bluejam Pirates, who interrogated Luffy about the location of the treasure. They beat him black and blue, but Luffy gritted his teeth and refused to say a word. He had only one thought in his mind: If I tell them, Ace will never be my friend.
That night, when Ace and Sabo finally found him, Luffy was hanging from a rope, barely conscious.
"Why… why didn't you tell them?" Ace's voice trembled, a fact that he himself didn't even notice.
"Because…" Luffy grinned, his face a mess of blood and dirt, but his smile was dazzlingly bright. "I don't want to be alone anymore… Being alone… it hurts more than getting hit!"
Ace felt as if something had struck him squarely in the heart.
That night, the lives of the three boys finally merged into one. They built a secret base in the forest, hunted giant boars together, bathed in the river, and shared every meal. Dadan's shack became less of a home and more of a hotel they'd stop at to recharge. The flower shop in the village, however, felt like a real harbor, a place to return to after their adventures. Though Rouge often fretted about the three of them running off into the dangerous mountains, she would always be the one to quietly mend their tattered clothes. When they returned with injuries, she would lovingly take out her medicine box, muttering about their recklessness while her hands moved with incredible gentleness.
In her presence, Ace would retract all his sharp edges and become a sunny, kind, and ordinary child.
Garp's "Fist of Love" also continued to descend on a regular basis, leaving new bumps on their heads.
"You three brats! You'd better grow up to be the strongest Marines!"
"No way!" Luffy would shout, covering his head. "I'm gonna be the Pirate King!"
"What was that!" Garp's fist would fall again.
"Ace, what about you?" Garp asked, turning to the quiet boy. Ace wouldn't answer, just lowering his head and clenching his fists.
That night, the only sound in their secret base was the crackling of the campfire.
"I hate him," Ace said softly, staring into the flames. "My damn father, who I've never even met." He seemed to be talking to Sabo, and also to himself. "Mama said he was a free man… but to me, he was just an irresponsible jerk. Leaving Mama all alone like that… I will never acknowledge a father like him."
"So, I want to become a Marine," he said, his voice quiet but firm. "Something completely opposite of what he was."
Sabo looked at him, then at Luffy, who was already drooling in his sleep nearby. One wanted to be the Pirate King, one wanted to be a Marine, and he himself just wanted to escape the cage of nobility and find true freedom. Their dreams were completely different, yet they were all united by the goal of "going out to sea."
"Hey, let's become sworn brothers!" Sabo suddenly suggested. "That way, no matter where we go or who we become, we'll always be brothers!" He pulled out a bottle of stolen sake and three small bowls from his stash. "If we share this drink, we'll be brothers!"
"Brothers! Awesome!" Luffy instantly woke up, his eyes shining with excitement.
Ace looked at his two companions, and a genuine, warm smile spread across his face. He took the bottle and solemnly poured the sake into each of the three bowls.
"No matter what happens in the future, and no matter where we are…"
"This bond will never change!"
"From today on, we are brothers!"
Three small sake cups clinked together with a crisp sound. The boys tilted their heads back, ready to drain the cups in one gulp. Just then, a gentle but firm hand pressed down on all three of their heads at once.
"My, my. Secretly drinking sake isn't something good children should be doing."
A gentle female voice sounded above them. The three boys stiffened and slowly looked up. A woman with kind eyes and pink hair that fell to her waist was smiling down at them. It was Rouge, now known as "Luna," who had come from Windmill Village to visit Ace.
"A-Auntie Luna!" Luffy was so startled he dropped his cup.
Ace's face turned beet red, and he couldn't meet her eyes. "Mama, we… we were just…"
"Just becoming sworn brothers, right?" Rouge's smile remained gentle, but her words sent a chill down their spines. "Becoming brothers is a good thing. Secretly drinking sake, however, is another matter entirely."
The next second, three sets of ears were simultaneously and expertly twisted.
"Ah—Mama!"
"Ow, ow, ow! Auntie Luna, I'm sorry!"
"My ear's gonna be ripped off! It's gonna stretch, ahhh!"
Above Mount Corvo, the lively screams of three brats who would one day shake the world echoed through the night.
"Come on, now. Dinner will get cold," Rouge said, finally letting them go. "I made your favorite barbecue at Auntie Dadan's house today." With that, she turned and started walking toward the shack down the mountain path, the moonlight stretching her shadow long behind her.
Ace, Sabo, and Luffy looked at each other, saw the disheveled looks on each other's faces, and then all burst out laughing. Forgetting all about the sake, they rubbed their burning ears and chased after that gentle figure.
"Wait for us!"
"Barbecue! My barbecue!"
"Mama! Slow down!"
In the mountain forest, three small figures followed closely behind Rouge, their shadows overlapping in the moonlight, as if they had already merged into one.
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