Defect or Defend

Chapter One

Sometimes Sengoku found it hard to believe that the slightly-wizened man standing in front of him was, indeed, a Marine Hero. The notion that Monkey D. Garp had only captured Roger because he wanted the pirate's food suddenly seemed plausible. Or maybe Roger stole his crackers. Possibly both.

"YOU'RE DOING WHAT?!" he roared, slamming his hands on the table. None of the Marines in the surrounding offices paid attention, by now used to the men's antics.

"Bwahaha!" the Vice Admiral laughed at the Fleet Admiral's show of ferocity. "Yup! I am," he agreed cheerily.

"We're about to go to war!" Sengoku protested in despair, gritting his teeth as he paced back and forth. "We need you! How else are we supposed to face Whitebeard! We're running out of Marines with all the ruckus with the Supernovas, and now you..." He quieted slightly, calming down. He had to be more professional then to yell at Garp, no matter how infuriating he was. "You're kidding me."

Garp remained buoyant. "Nope! Bye bye!" And with that, the Marine Hero walked straight through the wall of Sengoku's office, leaving dust and broken wood in his wake.

Sengoku's eye twitched, before he sat back down, his eyebrows furrowing. "Now what will we do? Maybe we could send out Himeji...?"

The first time that Sengoku had gotten a report from Himeji, he was... displeased, to say the least.Meaning, he was considering firing her if she hadn't been such a great fighter, and Garp's friend on top of it—who knew how they knew each other; if he didn't know better, he would've thought Garp was her grandfather, but his granddaughter was Monkey D. Luffy, and Garp couldn't keep a secret—he was bragging about her for weeks when she was born.

Anyway, they couldn't risk Himeji going to the enemy. She had covered the thing with doodles, and the basic summary was that 'this kitty-mustache ossan was being a meanie so I beat him up.' A whole townwas almost destroyed.

Of course, at that point, she was only seven, which shows what Garp's crazy training regimen could do—Ace and Sabo were proof of that. However, the mindset of that child was much (much much much) less refined than her pink-haired friend Coby, who happened to be more feminine than Himeji was. Even if he hadn't had pink hair.

As the years progressed, the doodles all but disappeared, but Himeji often told her subordinates that she didn't need to tell "Senny" about it "just that moment," and so the reports often came late. (Her current record was four months.)

However, with Garp... busy... they may need the seventeen-year-old, he mused. Maybe as a backup? He'd have to test her first. He clicked on a Den-Den Mushi, dialing the number of his subordinate reflexively.

"Purapura," the snail said, before Sengoku's assistant picked up, "Sengoku-ue?"

Sengoku put his hand on his forehead, suddenly exhausted. "First, get someone to fix the wall in my office."

The snail sighed in sympathy, and said rhetorically, "Garp-ue again, huh?"

"Mm-hm. Send for the Admirals. We have a job for one Rear Admiral Himeji."

The snail's eyes widened. "You're letting her out? After all these years?"

"We'll see if she's capable enough. If she is, she'll be promoted and will help in the war. If not..." Sengoku paused grimly, closing his eyes, "she'll die."

•••

Thatch opened his eyes and sat up from where he lay on a white cot. He surveyed the room, attempting to figure out where he was. The walls were scarce; instead there were evenly spaced windows. The minuscule space left was a strong peach color. Several other beds were lined up in a row, a nightstand next to each one.