Strength (One Piece fanfiction)

Ch 48

He laughed as I hugged him, "thank you for remembering me, Hana-san!" He had grown much taller than the last time I had seen him, and he no longer radiated fear. He was handsome, that's for sure!

I let him go and grinned through my mask. "Coby?" I heard Luffy ask. I glanced back to see his head tilted in cute confusion. "Coby's my friend, but I only know the smaller Coby."

"That's me!" Coby smiled, "I'm Coby, who was once a cry baby!" I laughed at the proud tone in his voice.

Zoro was shocked, "that Coby?! What is he doing in the Grand Line?"

"I'm not a marine officer yet, but when I heard that you guys were nearby, I had to come and meet you guys!" He saluted, "we are here now! Thanks to you guys!"

The other guy also stood next to him, like we should've known him too. I narrowed my eyes...could it be...?

"A lot of things happened, and now we're being trained by Vice Admiral Garp at marine headquarters."

"I see!" Luffy grinned.

"But there should be a limit to how much you can grow," I laughed.

"I'd say the shock factor is about the same for you, Hana-san! I never imagined you were so beautiful," he smiled genuinely.

I blinked slowly at his words. Only half my face was showing, but the sincerity that rang in his voice had me blushing. I pulled my hood up to hide my redness.

I walked away to call my dragons back, now that I knew there was no danger. I had to zip up, they were still marines.

I walked back in to join them again just as Helmeppo was pouting about not being recognized. So that was him!

Jii-chan was scolded for breaking the wall and helped his men patch it up. He turned to Luffy as he hammered in a nail. "By the way, Luffy, I heard you met your dad."

"Eh? Dad? I have a dad?" Luffy asked.

"What? He didn't introduce himself? I heard he saw you off at Loguetown," Jii-chan explained.

"Luffy's dad was in that town?" Sanji asked.

"What's my dad like?" Luffy wondered.

"I wonder what his dad is like," Nami repeated.

I refrained from adding anything, I didn't want the other marines to know about my connection to him.

"Your fathers name is Monkey D. Dragon, the revolutionary," Jii-chan told him.

"...EHHHHHH?!"

"Dragon the revolutionary has a son?!" A marine shouted.

Coby was also freaking out, "Luffy-san is a son of that Dragon?!"

"Then, Dragon is the son of Admiral Garp?! What's up with his family?!"

"Why are you all freaking out?" Luffy asked.

"Idiot! Haven't you heard of the name Dragon?!" Sanji shouted.

"Your father is an outrageous man!" Nami added.

He turned to Robin for a better explanation, and she informed him that the government had named him the worst criminal in the world. The revolutionaries directly make attacks against the world government, and Dragon being the leader takes the blame. "He was such a mysterious man, that they knew almost nothing of his identity," she finished. "But..." she trailed off and glanced at the admiral.

"Ah! Maybe I shouldn't have said anything," Jii-chan scratched his head. "Forget everything that I said."

"Ehhhh?!" Everyone shouted.