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“Hurry up slowpoke! Garp’s going to kill us if we’re late!”
“I’m coming, I’m coming!”
Two pairs of hurried footsteps rush through the hallways of G-14. “Well you’re not going fast enough!” Helmeppo slides to a stop and shoves the door to the courtyard open.
“Wait!” Coby yelps out, pinwheeling, trying to stop in time before-
He crashes into Helmeppo’s side, who ‘oomphs’ as the wind is knocked out of him. “Sorry! I didn’t-”
Helmeppo recovers quickly and pushes him through the door. “Idiot! You’re lucky you didn’t stab yourself on my Kukri.”
Coby grins sheepishly, his eyes falling to the sheath where the weapons are. Or would be.
“Helmeppo!” Coby calls out as they push through the door.
Helmeppo gives him a weird look at his panic before he follows his eyes. “Crap!” He pats his belt as if the weapons will magically appear. “I must’ve left them after training!”
The two scramble into the courtyard. “You search high, I’ll search low!” Helmeppo calls out before splitting off.
“Right!” Coby kicks off the ground. The wind rushes through the air as he scans the ground below.
Boxes are being carried by cadets who look up at him and gape as he flies by. The courtyard is filled with them. Coby frowns. That’s going to make things difficult. They’re running out of time and Bogard will flame Helmeppo if he shows up without his weapons.
The ground becomes eager to remind Coby that gravity exists as it rushes up to meet him.
Kicking the air beneath him, Coby launches himself back up with Skywalk. “I better find somewhere to land.” He mutters. Training will be horrible if he already uses up all his energy getting there.
With that in mind, he kicks himself over to one of the courtyard’s walls. He tucks and rolls onto the top of the wall, stone digging into the uniform on his shoulder.
“Coby!” His head swivels to the ground below. Helmeppo is ducking and weaving through the crowd, jumping over both boxes and people. He frantically points at something. “They’re over there!”
The blades are sitting on top of three stacked crates that a marine is precariously balancing. He’s walking close to the wall and is coming in Coby’s direction.
“I’ll grab them!” Coby shouts back before running and leaping.
The crates fall from the cadet’s hands and clatter to the ground under the sudden weight as Coby jumps and grabs the swords. “Sorry!” Coby hurriedly continues on to the training grounds, leaving the shouting marine behind.
Someone’s pushing through the crowd on his right. “Here! How much time do we have left?” He doesn’t pause as he hands over the kukri.
“Does it matter? He’ll beat us up all the same if we’re late!”
The training ground comes into view. Coby has been here so many times that side-stepping the craters left behind from Garp’s punches is second nature.
Garp’s laughter sends chills down Coby’s spine as he comes to a stop in front of the man and snaps into a salute. “Reporting for duty, Vice Admiral Garp!” Coby yells. Sweat is dripping down his back. They had to be on time, right?
His hope is quickly crushed when Garp takes out a pocket watch. “Hello there, boys. I hope you weren’t planning on doing anything else today.”
The pocket watch taunts him. One minute. They are one minute late.
Coby’s shoulders sag in resignation. “No sir.”
Helmeppo bites back a retort and Coby huffs out a laugh. They know better than to argue Garp’s rules by now. Resisting only made it that much worse.
And yet the progress is undeniable.
~~~
“Has he gone insane!?” Helmeppo yells over the wind.
It was supposed to be a nice day. The weather forecast said that there’d be no rain, no gusts of wind and most certainly no cannonballs being thrown at them.
Unfortunately, the weather forecast didn't account for Monkey D. Garp.
Most of the time their warmup consisted of running around the courtyard to keep up their stamina. But Garp saw tardiness as an excuse to drill the lesson into their heads.
Coby wishes it was in a less literal sense.
“Well at least they’re defective!” Coby shouts back, skywalking over one of the cannonballs at the last second. It shakes the ground behind him but he can’t afford to look behind him to gape at the crater it undoubtedly leaves behind.
There’s plenty of risks that come with naval battles. They’re expensive and it can make you lose a lot of resources if your ship sinks. Because of this, the marines make a habit of scavenging whatever they can from the wrecks. Cannonballs are useful even if they originally come from a pirate ship.
But since they’re often stocked below deck, they’re unfortunately also one of the first things to sink. But if the ship has the weight capacity, then the crew will grab as many as they can. A band of pirates will think twice if all the cannons are locked and loaded.
If there’s an overload of them, then some of them are smelted down or broken depending on what material they were made of.
And some are used as target practice by their mentor.
“On your left!” Coby warns Garp reels back to throw another cannonball.
Helmeppo curses under his breath as he throws himself to the side, the projectile barely grazing his side. “Thank- WATCH OUT!”
Time slows down as Coby spots it. Hey, that one is pretty close- Coby thinks. Then his head splits.
He feels the air rushing past him as he’s sent flying. There’s shouting but Coby struggles to focus on it with the overwhelming pain.
He isn’t sure how long he’s airborne but his fall is surprisingly cushioned. The noise from the training ground is gone and replaced by the squawking of seagulls, the sounds of their wings flapping fading as they scatter.
“Uggh..” Coby forces his eyes open. The surroundings are blobs of green. His hand brushes over the ground. Blades of damp grass tickle against it. Must’ve rained recently.
He flicks his glasses down from his forehead and the blobs of green quickly sharpen into neatly trimmed trees and flowers.
Whoever took care of this place had to spend a lot of time tending to it, keeping it this prim and proper. It makes him feel bad for disrupting the tranquility of this place.
Coby gets up to his feet, brushing the mildew against his pants to dry his hand. He can’t let himself look dishevelled. He’s already trespassing!
“Hello?” He nervously calls out. His voice echoes throughout the garden. After a couple of moments, he glances around. Did he land in a courtyard?
What little walls he can see behind the greenery have marine insignias on them. Coby panics. He’s seen most of Marineford, a perk of being Garp’s student, a man who doesn’t care much for protocol and goes wherever he pleases.
“Maybe I can leave before anyone notices.” Coby mutters.
The garden doesn’t have much when it comes to obvious exits so he walks deeper, passing under an arched hedge.
His feet freeze in place as he stares in shock at the sight before him.
A field of wildflowers, untamed and overgrown, spanning as far as the eye can see. They brush against his legs and bloom open, spreading over to the others and soon enough, in a wave of life, Coby finds himself surrounded by vibrant colours.
His shock quickly turns to awe. “Wow..” It’s unlike anything he’s seen before. Walking through the field, he spots flowers from his hometown, ones from a winter island they visited and stubbornly clinged to life despite the harsh conditions.
A group of sunflowers are clustered together and a familiar face comes to mind, bringing a smile to Coby’s face.
The sky turns into a pink hue as he walks further and further.
“How big is this garden?” Coby wonders. “Did Garp throw me to another island?”
“Nope!” A cheerful voice rings out from behind him and Coby’s heart skips a beat. Is that..
Coby whirls around, eyes bulging out of their sockets. “Luffy?!”
Standing behind him, arms stretched behind his head and grinning from ear to ear, is Luffy. “Shishishi! Coby looks so surprised to see me!”
Coby’s ears flush red. “Wh- huh?- Luffy what are you doing here!” Coby splutters, wildly looking around. “Where is here??”
A fogginess he hadn’t noticed before lifts from Coby’s mind. Things aren’t adding up. The neverending field, winter flowers blooming in a warm climate and Luffy being here? “What’s going on?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Luffy cocks his head to the side. “Man, Coby must be really lost.”
A hint of exasperation washes over him. “Luffy..” But Luffy pays it no mind as he grabs Coby’s hand and drags him along. “C’mon! Let’s go explore!”
His excitement is infectious and Coby doesn’t have the heart to stop Luffy. Coby huffs. “Alright, alright.” He relents, chuckling under his breath. Leave it to Luffy to throw logic to the wind.
The further they walk, the less flowers appear. Instead, they’re replaced with bare dirt and eventually, a sandy beach. The ship bobbing off-shore is one he’s familiar with.
Despite only seeing it once at Water 7, the Thousand Sunny is a ship that Coby can recognise anywhere.
Luffy squeezes his hand, snapping him back to attention. “Coby needs to not be so stuck in his mind.” Luffy huffs. “It makes him miss the obvious.”
Miss the obvious? “That’s not a good sign if you’re saying it.” He teases. Laughter bubbles up in his chest when Luffy pouts and crosses his arms. It makes Coby miss the warmth of his hand.
“Neh, what’s that supposed to mean!” Coby laughs harder at the offense in his voice. “Coby!” Luffy whines, bouncing forward until they’re face to face. Coby stifles his giggles and waves his hands apologetically. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. You just surprised me.”
Luffy stares at him for a moment and Coby’s shoulders hunch up. If he didn’t know any better, he’d say that Luffy was staring straight into his soul. A bright grin reappears on Luffy’s face. “Shishishi. Coby thinks too much.” He sounds delighted at his own declaration.
Coby doesn’t need to see his reflection to know he’s gone beet red. “Wh- Well it’s what’s kept me alive so far!” He weakly argues which gets another laugh from Luffy.
“Pfff. Coby can survive anything thrown at him!” Two hands reach up cup his face. “Because he’s going to be an Admiral!”
There is so much certainty and warmth in Luffy’s eyes. It’s overwhelming. More importantly, it’s nice and makes his heart hammer in his chest. “Luffy..” Coby’s hands clench into fists, a grin forming on his face and a fire burning in his eyes. “You’re right. I am going to become an Admiral! And nothing is going to stop me!”
He puts his hand on top of Luffy’s. “A-And one day, when you become King of the Pirates, I’ll come and take you in!”
“Good!” Luffy chirps. His grin stretches wider. “But if Coby wants to catch me, he needs to train more. And he can’t do that if he’s asleep.”
Coby blinks. “Asleep?” He glances around when the realisation hits him. “This is a dream.”
“Yep! And Coby needs to wake up or he’ll stay stuck in his mind.” Luffy tilts his head. “So get going!”
“But how do I..” Luffy doesn’t give him the time to finish his question before he knocks their heads together. Coby stumbles back and-
~~~
His eyes snap open.
He shoots up and all it takes is the feeling of a scratchy cotton sheet to know where he is.
“You’re awake!” The voice is accompanied by footsteps as doctor Fishbonen appears with a clipboard in hand. “You took a nasty hit there. Your friend said that you got nailed in the head by a cannonball?”
“We were late for training with Vice Admiral Garp.” Coby says, his response dazed and automatic. Did he imagine all of that? Was it just a vivid dream or was Luffy really there?
“Ah, yeah that’ll do it.” Fishbonen scratches behind his head with a pen. “I don’t think you’re going to be training for a while. We need to check you for a concussion.” He scribbles something down on his clipboard. “I’m surprised you weren’t out for longer. A cannonball to the head is no joke.”
“Maybe I used Armament Haki?” Coby reasons. It wouldn’t be the first time it activated on its own.
“Maybe.” Fishbonen noncommittedly hums before clicking his pen. “Either way, Haki or no Haki, you’re staying here overnight. I’m sure your friend will visit soon when he hears that you’re awake. He can bring over whatever you need.”
Coby nods slowly. “Thank you doctor.” He watches the man leave before putting a hand on his head. It still stings. Was that from the cannonball or from the dream?
He wonders when he’ll see Luffy again. The thought brings a smile to his face.