Lara's POV;

Both turned to me, the old woman studied me for a moment, before hitting Garp again. “How often do I have to tell you not to destroy the facility? And look at the girl, her clothes are in tatters, it gives the Marines a bad image if someone sees her like that.”

“It's not my fault, she is really good at the Six Skills. I had to test her, you should see her Soru, she already uses twenty steps,” defended Garp himself.

Tsuru, for that must be the old woman, turned her attention back to me and had a disapproving look in her eyes. One that only old grandmas are able to produce. “You as well little lady, destroying the whole gym is not something someone young should do. Garp here is an idiot, he doesn't know better, but you look intelligent.” She tried to hit me with her cane, but I evaded. Another swing followed swiftly and also got evaded.

From one moment to the other it turned into something strange, where this old woman was trying to hit me with her cane and I was evading with Kami-e. Her swings got faster and faster and the cane even turned black from Haki.

Why isn't someone stopping her?

The cane came down from the top and I caught it in between my hands, clasping it like one of these swords catching moves. The ground under me cracked from the strength behind the swing and I got almost forced downwards.

“Would you stop that old woman?” I asked before she could pull her cane back.

“Children should accept their punishment or they'll have to get washed and hung,” replied Tsuru. Her body suddenly blurred and her hand narrowly missed my face, instead, it moved through my hair.

She stopped directly behind me and turned around, a slightly surprised expression on her face. She then frowned and was just about to move again, when the Marine woman that I ditched moved in between us. “Vice Admiral Tsuru, please stop attacking our guest the Warlord Slicer Lara.” She empathised the Warlord part.

“Hmpf, a slightly fast child, don't go around and destroy any more gyms they are expensive and cause a lot of paperwork for me,” she glared at me and I had a distinct feeling that the costs were not really troubling her. She just doesn't want to do the paperwork for the repairs.

“Fine with me, holding back this much is boring anyway,” I agreed with a shrug.

“Guahaha, I know right? It's always such a bother to hold back,” agreed Garp with me as well. In the background, we could hear more than two dozen students asking him if he even knows what holding back means. We ignored them.

“I knew you were okay when I saw you in Water 7. Come, let's ditch this boring training and eat something,” said Garp suddenly. He put an arm on my shoulder and began to lead me out of the gym.

“Sir, what about us?” Asked one of the assistants.

Garp looked over his shoulder as if it was too much of a bother to properly face him and stared at him for a moment. “Don't know? Train or shit like that?” He then asked, more than ordered, and continued walking.

Tsuru was walking next to us, her fragile image was just that, an image. The Marine woman looked confused for a moment, before steeling herself and catching up with us. She stopped again in front of Garp and blocked our way. “Vice Admiral Garp, I was ordered to escort Slicer Lara to her quarters.”

“So?” Asked Garp with a raised eyebrow.

“And I haven't shown her her quarters yet,” she explained and acted as if that would be enough.

However, that much was nearly not a good enough reason for Garp. “Again, so?”

The woman almost started to cry. “I have to escort her to her quarters.”

“Yeah, you said that already. And I have to take her out for lunch as a thank you for the grate spar. Now step aside,” replied Garp. His tone did not hold much authority, still, the woman looked troubled, before stepping aside and letting us through. She did also follow us, but with some distance.

“Your HQ is pretty,” I commented absent-mindedly while we strolled through the streets of the town. The civilian family of the Marines who will fight in the war were already evacuated and only soldiers were left. They were watching me, Garp and Tsuru with open-mouthed stares.

“A pirate praising something of the Marines?” Asked Tsuru with one of her eyebrows raised. Garp laughed loudly, his laughter was so annoyingly loud I had to dampen the sound a little.

“I am not really against the Marines, only those who are corrupt. Do you know why I even have a bounty, to begin with?” I replied to her.

“You killed a Marine Captain and a vessel of the World Government, later changing its name and using it as your own,” she answered and showed that she at least knew something about me.

“True in everything you've said, but do you also know the why?” I asked again, this time she could not answer, so I did. “The Marine captain I killed was a rat of a person, literally. He was working together with the now dead Arlong and tried to steal the hard gathered money of someone that got suppressed by Arlong.

Arlong was making the people of the island he ruled over pay him money to stay alive. One of them stole money from pirates to pay it for herself and the people. There was even a buy out option a hundred million Berry for the lives of everyone on the island.

However, Arlong had no intention of allowing them to gather that much, no he ordered the Marine Captain to confiscate the money. As you will surely know, money from pirates is still stolen money and should be handed over to the authorities. No one does that, but such are the rules.

Anyway, the Captain did and was in the process of stealing the money from the person that had painstakingly gathered it and had also shot a family member for protesting.

My sister and I were on the island to take one of the ships off of Arlong's hands, but after seeing this we decided to borrow the ship of the captain, after taking the trash out.

You guys just did not investigate why he was killed. You instantly assumed it was because we were evil and wanted the ship.”

“I think you are intelligent enough to see that the death of Captain Nezumi was not the reason why you got a bounty,” said Tsuru after a moment of silence. I could think about a few other reasons but wanted to know where she was going with, so I looked at her with a confused expression.

“Don't act like this, I know that you aren't stupid. But I'll oblige you and tell you why we, the World Government, needed to give you a bounty. It was a statement, you stole from the World Government, we can't leave that unpunished. Had we caught you then and there you would have gotten a heavy fine and that would have been it.

Captain Nezumi was known to us, we had the suspicion that he was corrupt and his death and the followed investigation confirmed those.

But then you got Josef Mengele into your crew, a man that is hunted by the World Government for what he knows. It changed the situation and you became a danger yourself, your stunt at Geral-Island and killing of one of our officers solidified our reasoning.

I agree that you and your crew aren't much like normal pirates, but there are things we as the protectors of the people can't allow to become known.”

I think I should be a little more careful about what I say in the presence of this formidable old woman. She does know quite a lot about my crew and what we have done.

“Say, what happened to the person that gathered all the money?” Asked Garp, he did not look as if he has had known all this.

“She became the navigator of the Straw Hat pirates, Cat Burglar Nami. Her sister joined the Kage Pirates as their navigator. She is now known as Rapid Fire Nojiko,” answered Tsuru him. Garp nodded and then guided us into a small restaurant on the side.

The Marine that manned the counter quickly gave us a table and waited for us to choose. “Say, Lara, what is your favourite dish? Mine is meat roasted over an open fire,” started Garp. Seems like the heavy topic is over and we now are going to have a normal dinner.

“Chicken roasted in a pan, until it is a little crispy and pan roasted potatoes with bacon and onions, together with a bottle of coke,” I answered while looking at the Marine who took our orders. He got the message and wrote down what I had just said. With a satisfied nod, I looked away and waited for the other two to decide.

The meal was okay and edible, not good enough to even be close to what Lia can do but enough. We talked about nothing of importance. Garp was boasting about things he had done with Luffy when they were small, Tsuru was complaining about all the logistical work this war comes with and I made them jealous with stories about the freedom I had as a pirate.

We talked, drank and ate until late in the day and I was sure that had Lia and I been born into a normal family we might have become Marines. They were not the purely evil organisation it was sometimes made look like. Like all governments it had its light and dark parts.

Once Garp had passed out in a drunken sleep I excused myself and allowed the still waiting Marine woman to guide me to my quarters.

She was not happy and did not speak a single word on our way. She also stopped directly in front of the door, handed me a key and then left without saying goodbye.

I did nothing of interest the next day, too lazy to do any trouble. So I slept in, ate a big breakfast, chicken kebab, and then trained a little. There are three moves I am finally able to do. One of them I am working on since I started on the manipulation of finer and even finer vibrations. It's gonna be one of my ultimate defences.

Another skill is for the morale of the people that fight alongside me. It combines one of my specialised angel forms and the manipulation of sound. It'll be my opener for the war and will shock everyone. And not only because I have two fruits, for all they know my angel fruit can do the vibrations as well.

And lastly the third skill. Something that's less a skill and more my last ace. It's the awakened form of my angel fruit, I can still only access it with rumble balls, but the form is overkill. Sadly it only lasts 5 minutes and exhausts me greatly.

The second day of my stay had the gathering of the Warlord on my list.

Around noon I was then escorted to our meeting room and stood face to face to the other Warlords.

The moment I stepped inside I got attacked by a crying Marine soldier, he charged at me with his sword and was shouting that his body was not in his control. I sidestepped his charge and made my hand vibrate, before swishing the air behind him.

Doflamingo, who was sitting crouched on his chair, was moving his fingers around. Fine, almost invisible threads were coming out of the fingertips and were now loosely hanging off. They were a moment before connected to the Marine that attacked me.

“What kind of greeting is that Doofy, weren't we friends?” I asked with a wide grin and inviting open arms.

Doflamingo grinned widely before he started to laugh. “Friends? You stole from me, that Fruit cost me millions of Berry and was part of an important plan,” he replied, yet did not attack. He knows that now is not the time, he will probably try something during the war.

“What did you expect? I mean it was a mythical Fruit, those are too good to waste. But hey, I gave you one in return. You said I had to give you everything that was not sea stone, money or gold. The stuff had a Devil Fruit and we gave you one,” I said mockingly and sat down opposite of him. He was so far the only one.

He started to grin darkly and laughed again before he did something that was not intelligent. “That smug look of yours will soon leave, the moment we speak fifteen ships of mine are closing in on yours and will leave nothing but cinders. Maybe I will sell you your sister off as a pleasure slave, but only after my men had their go at her.” He frowned when I did not react visibly.

The moment he finished his sentence I only gave him enough attention to notice if he tries something. I was too busy thinking. Fiara did want to free her people and it's not as if we need canon. Maybe we give Dressrosa a visit a little sooner. Let's see how he laughs when I slowly torture his crew to death, right in front of him.

The door opened again and the massive body of Kuma stepped inside. He said nothing and waited on the side for the meeting to start. Wasn't he by now completely without a free will?

The next one was Mihawk, his piercing yellow eyes were scanning the room and us already waiting with a sharp and calculating look. The aura of his was strong, stronger than Doflamingo or Kuma.

Gekko Moria joined us as the fifth Warlord, he did not look as if he was defeated a few weeks ago and acted arrogantly for the most part he spoke.

The last one who will come was Boa Hancock, she strutted inside the meeting with a flair of self-importance, narcissism and arrogance. If her fruit had an allure I didn't feel one, my Calm Mind is either stopping it or she is simply not my type. I don't like her tall body, the black hair or arrogant expression. Lia is beating her by a long shot.

Strangely enough, she was the only one besides Doflamingo that showed any reaction to my presence. She was glaring at me fiercely and her large snake was watching me the whole time.

Boa was followed by Sengoku and some Marine officers with stacks of papers. The door behind them closed and the meeting was started.