Staring at the gentle woman who had appeared before them, radiating a warm, motherly air, everyone in the Straw Hat Pirates widened their eyes.
"She's so beautiful!"
Ace, however, sounded a little displeased.
"Who said I'm friends with them?"
"Don't be ridiculous!"
At that moment, Rouge slowly came down the steps and walked up to Luffy. With a gentle look in her eyes, she reached out as if to touch the straw hat on his head, but Luffy warily took two steps back.
Everyone found the scene a little strange, and Ace looked at his mother in confusion too.
"Um, sorry. That was rude of me. I'm Ace's mother. My name is Portcatter Rouge!"
After introducing herself, she looked at Luffy, who was still watching her cautiously while holding onto the straw hat on his head, and asked,
"Is that hat very important to you?"
"Of course! Shanks gave it to me! It's my most precious treasure!"
"Shanks!"
The name seemed to remind Rouge of something, but she did not say much. Instead, she asked,
"And what about you, little guy? What's your name?"
"My name is Monkey D. Luffy, and I'm the man who's going to become the One Piece King!"
Just as Ace had been shocked earlier, Rouge seemed to see something in the boy before her at that moment, and her eyes shifted slightly.
"I see. Monkey. D. So that's how it is. No wonder you looked so familiar!"
After saying those puzzling words, Rouge smiled brightly, almost like a young girl, and said,
"Then, would you like to come inside? I made cherry pie."
"Cherry pie!!! That already sounds delicious!!!"
Everyone nearby, including Ace, stared blankly as Luffy followed Rouge into the house. They looked at one another, then finally all turned to Ace.
Why does it feel like you're the outsider here?
Of course, no one actually said that out loud. ... Inside Ace's home, Ace sat on the sofa and watched Luffy happily eating the freshly baked cherry pie under his mother's warm hospitality. For some reason, a faint sense of jealousy rose in him.
I'm supposed to be your son, right? So why is this stranger the first one who gets to eat the cherry pie you just baked?
Fortunately, Rouge soon gave her son an answer.
Watching Luffy happily eat the cherry pie, Rouge said with nostalgia,
"He really does look so much like him. Like Garp-san!!!"
"Eh!!!"
Rouge's words startled everyone, and when Luffy heard that terrifying name, he was so frightened that he nearly choked. After struggling to swallow the cherry pie, he said in horror,
"Wait, Ace's mother knows my grandpa too?"
This time, even Ace was shocked.
"So it really is..."
Rouge smiled and answered,
"Of course. Garp-san is the one who saved Ace and me. If not for Garp-san, Ace and I would probably have died long ago."
That left everyone present even more astonished.
But did that mean they might be able to get along a little better from now on?
Luffy did not seem to care much. He kept eating as he said,
"Eh, Grandpa did something like that too? Well, since Grandpa is a Marine, I guess that's only natural!"
Rouge did not say much more about it.
"So, did you all come to Angel Island for an adventure, or...?"
Nami was the one who answered, explaining everything that had happened.
"I see."
As Rouge spoke, she walked into another room. A little while later, she came back out holding a small cloth pouch.
When she opened it, inside were stacks of currency that even Nami had rarely seen before.
"Well, because most of life on Angel Island is self-sufficient, I haven't really saved much. There's 500,000 Sora here. Please take it."
"Eh!!!"
Nami immediately panicked and refused without hesitation.
"No... no, we can figure something out ourselves... and this is way too much..."
"Don't be so polite."
Rouge directly pressed the money into Nami's hands and said,
"Compared to the help Garp-san gave us back then, this is very little. And if you feel bad about accepting it, then once you return to the sea and earn enough money, you can come back to Angel Island someday and pay me back."
Nami hesitated for a moment, but in the end, she accepted it. Then she lowered her head and said with deep gratitude,
"We'll definitely pay you back. Thank you, Rouge-san!"
"Hehehe... You're welcome. Well then, you young people can talk. I won't disturb you."
With a gentle smile, Rouge looked at her son, then at Luffy and the others, before quietly leaving the living room to them.
"Great! With this money, we won't have to go hungry!"
"She's so kind!"
"It must be wonderful to have a mother like that!"
Hearing everyone praise her, Ace showed a rare look of pride.
"Um, what is this? Why is it different from Belly?"
Luffy looked curiously at the money in Nami's hands.
Nami gave Luffy a speechless look, pulled out one bill, and said,
"This is called Sora. It's a currency like Belly, issued by the Rainbow Kingdom. Right now, it mainly circulates in the North Blue and in some countries under the Rainbow Commercial Alliance. Look, the back has the Rainbow Kingdom's totem on it: the Golden Crow, the divine sun bird. On the front, the denominations of 1, 5, 10, 50, and 100 are engraved with portraits of the different races in the Rainbow Kingdom. See these four people on the 100-Sora bill? They're humans, Fish-Men, the Dwarves, and the Angel race."
"Oh, so that's what it is?"
Everyone curiously took out Sora bills one by one and began examining them.
Then Nami said something that surprised them even more.
"And the exchange rate between Sora and Belly is 1 to 20!"
Everyone froze. Sanji was the first to react.
"Doesn't that mean..."
"Right. So even though this is only 500,000, if you exchange it for Belly, it's 10 million..."
"!!! That really is a huge favor! Luffy, you should be grateful you have such a good grandpa!"
"Eh! He's not good at all!!!"
Luffy immediately retorted.
"You have no idea how I got through my childhood!"
Luffy began complaining about all the ways his devil-like grandfather had trained him when he was young.
The Straw Hat Pirates felt chills run down their spines as they listened.
"Are they really grandfather and grandson?"
"Seriously, he's practically a devil! A devil!!!"
As Ace listened to Luffy's childhood experiences, he inexplicably felt a faint admiration for this foolish-looking guy before him.
On top of that, this guy's grandfather had done so much for him and his mother.
With that thought in mind, he looked at the group and suddenly said,
"I can teach you Haki!"
Ace's sudden words made Luffy and the others freeze for a moment before they snapped back to their senses and cheered loudly.
"Don't get too happy yet. I'm not giving you much time. I'll only teach you for one month. How much you can learn is up to you. After a month, don't come bothering me again!"
"Thank you so much..."
At this moment, Luffy and the others still had no idea just how difficult Haki was to learn.
"Since you've agreed, let's not waste any time."
As Ace spoke, he glanced outside.
"Angel Island isn't suited for training. Go tell your friends. In one hour, I'll take you to Upper Yard... that's the best place to learn Haki..."