30 Years Before | One piece Fanfiction

Waking up

Garp's POV

The beep of a heart monitor could be heard in the background, rousing Garp from his groggy sleep. His head felt full of cotton wool, his breathing was slightly painful when he took in air, eyes slowly easing open, blurry whites and greys swirled around until he realised he was staring up at a ceiling. The light was bright, wincing away he turned his head, gaze falling on his best friend who was sat by his bed.

Sengoku having noticed Garp awake lowered his paperwork, he looked tired and troubled, he seemed as if he'd been in a fight or something, his face was littered with cuts, gashes and bruises...

The vice-admiral lay there for a moment, he had a strange feeling, his heart was thudding fast, as if he was panicked over something. But he could think for the life of him what it was. What happened? Something was wrong... what was it?

"Hello Garp... how are you feeling?" His friend asked, his tone sounded slightly off and he was refusing to look Garp in the eye.

The bearded man frowned, he sat up stiffly, his muscles creeking, causing his joints to pop as he pulled himself upright. It felt as though he hadn't moved in a long while...

"What happened?" The man asked ignoring Sengoku's question, he couldn't remember much... he couldn't even recall why he was even in the medical unit in the first place. His memories were all fuzzy, he tried to focus but his head was swimming.

"I guess you don't remember..." Sengoku sighed pinching the bridge of his nose, the Admiral look stressed, this had gotten Garp more concerned, his friend didn't generally get like this unless there was a reason...

"What happened Sengoku? Spit it out already!" Garp snapped, he wasn't in the mood to be calm and reasonable. He wanted answers! He wanted to know why he felt so wrong, so panicked and angry all at once.

"Garp, now listen I want you to stay calm, or the medical staff will have to tranquillise you again" Sengoku warned, his tone having a exhausted edge to it. That didn't make Garp calm at all, it just worked him up more.

"What do you mean again!" He demanded, he trys to get up but his stupid friend pushes him back down, this pisses off the Vice-admiral more. Would he back off?!

"You woke up a week ago, punched several doctors and caused most of the hospital staff to faint because you blasted off some conqueror's haki. Since then they've kept you sedated since you made such a mess, they refused to have you there and you had to be moved to a Marine base for treatment. Now will you sit down, or they will tranq you again!" Sengoku snapped, finally getting through to Garp and he grumbled a bit, but he got the message. Damn Sengoku, when did he get so sensible and boring? Probably since he got his position as a Admiral, working for those bastard Tenryuubito... That would mess anyone up.

"Fine. Still wanna know what happened, somethin' must have considering I'm in here. How's Dragon been? Caused any trouble since I've been out?" As soon as those words were out of his mouth, he frowned, for some reason that made him stop for a minute, why did that sound wrong?

Sengoku winced, before turning to face Garp with a tired, dark circled gaze. Finally he sighed, prying a newspaper from under the paperwork on the bed side table, he passed it over silently.

The dark bearded man took it, his heart sinking, afraid of what was on the paper in his hand. Was Dragon... No! Not him too. He- he couldn't cope if he'd lost Dragon aswell... not after all the shit he'd put him through, not after all he'd done to protect him. Not after Maria's sacrifice!

He swallowed, forcing his eyes to look down at the newspaper- his pain and sadness was quickly extinguished, instead replaced by relief, then confusion. It was a article about the Whitebeard pirates scuffle with one of Big Mom's biscuit ships, which in itself wasn't particularly surprising. Pirates were always fighting amongst themselves... no what made Garp stare was the picture underneath the Headline.