To Raise a Vampire

The Final Choice

With everything with Teach being over, and the crew being themselves again, Luffy was practicing more. He was determined to make people, but they were unable to stay too long, so he started making babies and toddlers. Of course, they couldn't function correctly because Luffy's anatomy of them was so off, but it was practice nonetheless.

Luffy's babies' heads were too big for them to stand, and it was annoying that they cried a lot, but the brothers convinced themselves that it was progress, even if it was annoying, and so progress should be encouraged. The babies and toddlers lasted for fifteen minutes, more than the versions of Luffy had been. So, age mattered in this department.

Aggie 68 had made a comment that got the brothers wondering if Luffy's powers could better help the pirates, if they stayed, of course, which they weren't sure of yet. But, if Luffy was able to create full human bodies, the medical staff could practice things. If Luffy's people creating became so good and accurate, then it was possible that they could become dummies, and the nurses could test out medications on them instead of only doing it for Marco, who could heal if any of the drugs did something bad.

It was hard, though, to make new medications using Marco as the test subject, as he wasn't human and had a devil fruit, but it was the best they had. So, Luffy's powers could become very valuable to them.

Thatch also had the idea that Luffy could help him with creating new dishes. He wouldn't need to waste food trying out new things. It wasn't known if Luffy's creations were edible, as in if they did anything to the body after they vanished, but taste testing would be convenient.

The more mischievous pirates thought about the fact that they could have Luffy make some money, buy something and ditch before the money vanished, effectively robbing someone without them knowing. This was looked down on by Marco, but it was a good idea.

The pirates were sure that if they brought up these thoughts to Ace and Sabo, they would have enough trust in the crew that they wouldn't assume that they only wanted to keep Luffy so he could do services for them. Well, hopefully.

The pirates had gotten used to floods of animals, sometimes puppies and sometimes other things, so they weren't shocked or freaked out about their appearances. There had been one more nightmare, but it was handled well. Everyone just ignored them, and they were gone early, with someone going to wake the boy up.

Luffy's happiness seemed to be infectious, and could now get away with anything. Thatch and Haruta looked forward to them joining -because they had to! - so that little Luffy could help them play pranks on their family. After all, dumping temporary paint on someone didn't warrant punishment, right?

On the fifth night of Luffy practicing babies, help from Sabo from an anatomy book and a pediatrician's encyclopedia, he finally made one that functioned. They were on the back deck, and the baby was good enough to crawl. Luffy has scooped it up and started running around the ship and showing people his baby.

They were very confused unless they were those who were awake when Luffy was and knew what he'd been practicing lately. Luffy knew it was only a matter of time before the baby disappeared, as it cooed and giggled at running around. The boy zipped inside, too fast for his human brothers to follow, and shoved the sudden baby into Marco's back as he sat at the table.

Izo said, "Uh, why do you have a baby, Luffy?"

"I made him! Watch!" and the boy set the baby down, who started to crawl around. Luffy looked up to the pirates, his favorite ones, with a grin, expecting praise, which was what he got. It disappeared, and Luffy felt very accomplished and successful. Ace and Sabo had caught up, and Ace threw Luffy into the air.