"Huff..." I exhaled, breath coming short. With a last ditch effort, I shakily pushed the large rock that I was holding above my torso up one last time before dropping it to the side.

Panting, I caught my breath and quickly drank all the water I'd brought with me. "Hah... only 900..." I murmured, annoyed.

I'd been aiming for 1000 lifts, but I guess that'd be too much considering I was using an almost boulder that must've weighed at least 200 kilos.

Snarling at a random insect that looked at me wrong, I pushed myself to my feet and began stretching my cute little 7-year old, doing all sorts of exercises that I remember doing some time in the earlier parts of my life, back when I was still a mere 100-year old brat.

About that, it was quite the culture shock learning that, in this world, even living past 70 makes you ancient. In my old world, being 200 years old was merely considered getting out of your teenage years. People weren't that easy to kill back there.

After a couple of hours of stretching and cooling off, I set back for town. Lately, I'd begun spending less and less time there, considering I was finally beginning to obtain some much-needed independence. Food I could hunt and find, water was easy enough to find in the various rivers, and clothes... well, those I still needed to borrow, but eh. Small steps bring one a long way.

As I entered the town, I saw several kids pointing at me while whispering to each other and giggling. When they looked back at me, I was glaring at them with my death glare™, my teeth showing and eyes narrowed.

They screamed and scampered off. They'd learned their lesson some time ago, when they decided that, hey, pushing me was an amazing idea.

I'd beaten them bloody. I wouldn't have stopped if Makino hadn't stopped me either. Bloody damned brats deserved it.

I frowned darkly as I watched them run off. I really needed to get my hands on some critters again, preferably rabbits. The last one had only cooled off my 'dark side' for a bit. If I didn't, I might do something that won't benefit me.

Entering the dumb bar that the bitch owned, I slammed open the door with my foot and walked inside. I glared at anything and anyone that moved before swiftly running off towards my room.

There, I changed into a new set of clothes, which consisted of simple shorts and a t-shirt. I idly toyed with my hair as I did so, and considering it had fallen to shoulder length, it wasn't too bad.

I'd always admired long hair, but in my last life, I hadn't had the time to manage it. Perhaps, in this world, I might, who knows.

Me and my shitface brother shared a room, but it was more a formality than anything else. I often slept out of the town, in the trees. It was training for when I won't have a bed to sleep in, because god damn it, I will leave this town one day, and I got no money.

Garps had been really getting on Luffy's case lately about the whole pirate-y thing. Apparently, he wasn't very happy about that whole thing, and I could see why. I mean, I'd finally gotten reading the weird language of this world down, so I'd had time to study, and from what I read, Garp was one of the big marines of the era.

Furthermore, daddy dearest, although nobody mentioned it, I knew what and who he was. Dragon wasn't an easy name to forget, after all, and the most wanted criminal was also easy enough to find in at least one book.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Thus, Garp was afraid Luffy would turn out like him. As for me?

I'd threatened to slit my throat if he dared to force me into doing something I didn't want. Garp didn't push the case then, especially after I promised that piracy wasn't really my thing, but I didn't tell him what I wanted to do.

Mostly because I had no idea either, but hey ho, life goes on regardless.

I spent the next hour in bed, resting my exhausted body while munching on some snacks I'd gathered up and hidden under my bed. Shitface macgee, a.k.a Luffy, knew very well not to take my stuff after one time he did so.

He learned his lesson pretty quickly after that.

I got the feeling Luffy wanted to be closer to me, more like siblings. Pushing aside all my insanity and several mental issues, Luffy truly was a one-of-a-kind kid. He was a sweetheart, if not without flaws. Still, he had a charisma and love that truly impressed me.

But I simply couldn't give that kind of bond to him. I wasn't sad or anything because of it, but it was a bit regretful. I'd ended up mostly avoiding him or being outright mean to him in order to keep an emotional and sometimes physical distance between us.

Thinking about such useless and meaningless things, I barely even noticed as a commotion seemed to be going on downstairs. I ignored it for a good while until the noise was too much to bear and, with a dark look on my face, got up from my bed and went to take a look.

A bunch of no-good pirates danced and pranced about, doing whatever pirates do in a shitty town like this. Also alcohol. Lots of that crappy stuff.

And, oh my, weren't those the famous 'come-hither' eyes that Makino was making towards a red-headed hottie? Welp, blackmail obtained. Now, if she pisses me off again, I'll just drown the dumb redhead.

I spotted Luffy excitedly talking to the pirates. Oh, yeah. Pirates. Luffy. Fuck my life, Garps will murder us all. The insane bastard didn't hold his punches when he got pissed.

Although I'm pretty sure I'd be a smear on the wall if he truly meant to harm us. Good thing he's too much of an idiot not to do so.

As I leaned with my back against a wall, hidden from view of most of the pirates and customers, I continued watching as that absolute retard of a brother of mine decided that stabbing himself was an amazing idea.

"You idiot! What in the devil's name are you thinking!? Did your brain finally commit suicide or were you born this stupid!?" I roared as I marched towards him, anger rolling off of me.

"L-laura!" Luffy cried, holding his rather deep cut as Makino and the weirdo fussed over him. Makino had a strange look in her face while the man looked surprised.

"Dumb idiot, stupid, retarded, no-brained moron! I can't believe you'd be so stupid, if you wanted to kill yourself, the throat is much faster and less painful. Then you'd be able to show mister 'I'm a pirate, get on your knees and suck my dick' that you truly have a pair of balls!" I roared at him, pushing Makino and the man off of him as I dragged him by the ear away, all the while insults continued to spew out of my mouth like bullets from a machine gun.

The man was asking Makino some questions, looking rather bewildered, while Makino was holding her face in her hands. Bitch, I'm the ashamed one. You've raised this brat like shit, shame on you.

I dragged the shitty child off to our room, where I kept some medical supplies at the ready. Luffy was crying and wailing, snot running down his nose. Gross.

"Shut up, will you? I get it, the red dude is cool, but you really should think before doing something like this. What if the knife was dirty? Then you'd get an infection, and maybe you'd die. Can't be a pirate if you're dead." Or maybe you can. I don't fucking know, this world is weird.

"S-sorry..." Luffy sniffled. I snarled slightly but still stitched the thing back, carefully avoiding his eyes and making sure there was as little pain as possible. An hour later, I'd done everything I could.

"Dumbass. Go back to jerking off the redheaded pedophile, I don't care, just try being more careful, okay? I don't particularly care if you hurt yourself, but Makino and the other idiots in this town will, and then I'll get blamed." I grumbled before shoving him outside of the room.

Making sure Luffy had left and gone on his merry way, I sneaked out of the bar via window before running off towards the forest. All this drama had made my perversion with murder tingle, and I really needed to get my cute little hands on something breathing.