From the edge of the hill overlooking the forest clearing, Vice Admiral Garp stood quietly beneath the branches of a massive tree, arms crossed, a faint scowl creasing his face.
He had followed the boy not Luffy, but the other one. The quiet one. The one who barely spoke but carried himself like a soldier hiding in civilian skin.
Garp narrowed his eyes as he watched Ren move across the clearing.
Swift footwork. Sharp transitions. Controlled breathing. He wasn't just some lucky castaway.
And then there were the attacks.
First, Hydro Veil, he heard the boy murmur. A burst of water spun from his palm with unnatural precision, slicing a line through a tree as if guided by intent itself.
Then the dash Wind Step, a near-invisible burst of air propulsion that left no footprint, move faster but not fast enough as Soru from Rokushiki.
And the lightning spear Volt Lance, bright, concentrated, and deliberate. Not raw elemental outbursts like some Devil Fruit users, but something else entirely. Focused. Controlled. Engineered.
Garp frowned. Not a Devil Fruit. Not Haki either. At least, not the kind I know.
Down in the clearing, Luffy was laughing as usual, shadow-boxing a tree and calling his own punches names that made no sense "Gomu Gomu Something" despite his rubber powers not having awakened yet.
Ren didn't even flinch at the weirdness. He just kept training.
That told Garp more than any conversation would have.
The kid was observing. Calculating. Testing the limits of what he could do in this world. And he wasn't surprised by Luffy at all.
Garp let out a slow breath, then spoke to the air beside him. "What do you think?"
From the shadows, a figure stepped out—an old acquaintance in a black with silver-trimmed lining, face lined with age and eyes sharp as a blade. Not a Marine. A watcher.
"He doesn't belong here," the man said calmly. "His power doesn't match anything recorded in this world's system of energy. Not a Devil Fruit. Not Haki. And yet…"
"And yet he's adapting fast," Garp finished.
The man nodded. "Very fast. Too fast for a lost traveler… but still lacking at some point."
They both fell silent as they watched Ren lift a hand again, trying to focus. Frost began to form along the grass near his feet, ice creeping outward in thin tendrils, fragile but real.
Garp's brow furrowed deeper. So the kid has access to more than just water, wind, and lightning now.
"Should we report him?" the other man asked.
Garp didn't answer immediately. He watched as Luffy shouted something and the two boys began racing each other up and down the clearing, laughing like idiots.
Garp smirked slightly. "Not yet."
"Why?"
"Because he hasn't decided what side he's on."
The older man gave him a questioning glance.
"And I want to see," Garp continued, "what kind of person he becomes around my grandson."
Later that morning, long after Luffy had run off to chase seagulls or climb trees or both, Ren remained in the clearing alone.
He sat on a low stone beneath a tall tree, rolling his wrist slowly, watching the faint glow of the watch cycle through muted colors. The ice he'd summoned earlier had long since melted, and the air had returned to its usual warmth.
He exhaled slowly, then closed his eyes.
For a brief moment, the world went quiet. Too quiet.
No rustle of leaves. No birdcalls. Not even the faint whistle of the sea breeze.
Just silence.
Ren opened his eyes sharply.
Something was off.
He turned his head slightly, scanning the treeline without moving from his seat. Shadows shifted where they shouldn't have. Not footsteps, not movement, just a pressure. A presence. Distant, but deliberate.
Someone was watching him.
His fingers brushed the edge of the watch's crystal face, but he didn't activate anything. He didn't need to. The watch pulsed once, softly as if confirming his suspicion.
He stood slowly and casually stretched his arms, turning just enough to survey the surrounding woods again. Nothing. No clear silhouette. No glint of metal. No breathing. But he could feel it.
Whoever it was, they were good.
Too good.
Still, Ren didn't let it show. He walked to the center of the clearing again and resumed a basic motion drill, this time slower, deliberate. As if training. But every turn of his body brought his senses across the treeline.
And yet… no one came out.
After twenty minutes, the pressure eased. The birds returned. The breeze picked up again.
Ren exhaled quietly.
Not paranoia, he told himself. I was being watched. But by who? And why now?
He glanced once more toward the tree line then back to the faint trail of cracked bark where his lightning spear had hit earlier.
Maybe I was too loud this morning.
Later
The wind howled low as Ren stepped deeper into the shadowed inlet, his boots crunching softly over sand and scattered stone. The cliffs loomed around him like broken teeth, worn, jagged, and eerily silent. This place felt... wrong, like the world itself had once split open here and never fully closed.
The air was cooler here. Too cool.
He scanned the cliffside, eyes sharp, watch faintly glowing a deep violet hue as it pulsed with rising intensity. Then he saw it, etched into the stone like a scar left behind by something unnatural: a long gash carved with surgical precision, lined with faint scorch marks and deep, unnatural cracks.
Ren placed a hand against the scar.
His vision flickered, just for a second. Not a flashback. A reaction. The crystal on his watch pulsed rapidly, blue light crawling up his forearm like veins under his skin.
Then, a voice, low and steady, behind him.
"That thing on your wrist doesn't belong here."
Ren spun, There was no one, Only shadow.
The cliff wall to his left darkened, shadows stretching, unnaturally long despite the angle of the sun. One tendril lifted like mist, then another, curling upward in slow motion.
From the darkness, a figure emerged.
Cloaked in black with silver-trimmed lining. Older, broad-shouldered, standing tall with a soldier's posture yet ghostlike, as if the shadows themselves clung to his presence. His hair was peppered grey, pulled back in a short tie. His face was rough, cut by age and memory, but his eyes were sharp, calculating and dangerous.
Ren instinctively shifted into a stance, hand twitching toward his watch.
The man raised one hand, calm, not threatening.
"Relax, kid. If I wanted to stop your heart, I wouldn't have introduced myself."
The shadows around him coiled downward like snakes, retreating obediently into the ground.
Ren didn't lower his guard. "Who are you?"
The man tilted his head, then looked up at the scarred wall, almost nostalgic.
"This is where you came through, isn't it? I remember the feeling. The pull."
He looked back at Ren.
"It's been a long time since I met someone who didn't belong here."
The silence stretched between them.
Finally, he took a step forward, boots silent in the sand.
"Name's Cael." The man introduced himself "I got pulled into this world a long time ago. Back when a place called God Valley still existed."
Ren's breath caught. God Valley... that mean he's been here for 20 years.
"You were there?"
Cael nodded, slowly. "I was a soldier. From my world, not this one. Didn't know what the hell was happening when I landed here, one second I was holding a rifle, the next I was dodging a Celestial Dragon's execution squad."
He smirked, dry and bitter.
"Garp saved my life. Or I saved his. Depends on who you ask."
Ren lowered his stance, just slightly. Confirmed, another traveller.
"You're like me."
Cael studied him, the smirk fading. "Well yes and no, kid. I'm what you could become. Or avoid."
His hand lifted, and from his palm, a long, thin blade of pure shadow stretched outward, shifting, alive, like smoke turned solid. It twisted once in the air, then dissolved.
"My ability. Came with me, like your little light show. But here… everything's different. Stronger. Unstable."
Ren looked down at his watch, It had stopped glowing, Silent again. I don't think so, i already have it but...let's just get along with it
"You've been watching me?" Ren asked cael.
Cael shrugged. "I had to be sure you were real. And not a mistake."
He turned toward the cliff, running his hand across the scar.
"But you're not. You're here for a reason. Just like I was."
Ren stepped closer. "You said you were a soldier. What did you do… after?"
Cael gave a dry laugh. "Survived. Learned the rules of this world. Broke a few. Saved a few. Hid when I had to."
He turned back to Ren, eyes narrowing.
"You're lucky you landed here. With Garp's brat running around and no Admiral breathing down your neck. But that won't last forever."
Ren raise his eyebrow "What do you mean by that?"
Cael met his gaze. "You'll know the reason..."
Ren just stay silent for a while, then then he look into cael "Then teach me."
Cael blinked.
"Excuse me?"
"I don't want to just survive. I need to understand this world, how to fight in it. And i know you're strong, as strong as Mr. Garp or more." Ren clenched his fists with a fiery determination "So please Train me, Mr. Cael!"
Cael stared at him for a long moment.
Then he smirked again. Not mocking this time, but something closer to approval.
"Alright, kid. Lesson one."
He snapped his fingers.
From the ground, a shadow surged upward, taking shape not as a blade, but a humanoid form. Its head cocked like a wolf sensing prey, body silent, still, waiting.
"Don't blink."
It lunged at Ren.