I never planned to run away that day.
Honestly, I wasn't even brave enough yet.
It happened when I was seventeen.
Dragon was off somewhere in Marine elite training camp, probably beating up some poor rookie with his over-serious face.
Meanwhile, Dad… er, Garp, decided to take me on a trip.
"Vacation," he said.
To West Blue.
I was suspicious.
Dad and the word vacation never mixed well.
But I was a good son — or more like, too scared of the Fist of Love to refuse.
We arrived in West Blue.
For once, the sea was calm, and the wind soft.
It almost felt like a normal father-son trip… until he heard a rumor.
Monkey D. Garp's one and only obsession: Gol D. Roger.
News came that Roger's ship had been spotted near God Valley.
And like a madman, Dad turned the ship around so fast I nearly fell overboard.
"Stay here, Iron! I'll be back after I catch that bastard Roger!"
That's what he said.
Then he left.
Just like that.
Left me alone on the ship near the cursed island of God Valley.
Not even a snack.
Typical Garp.
I paced around the deck for hours.
I wasn't brave enough to run away.
The trauma of his fist made me hesitate.
If he came back and found out I left… my head would become a drum again.
I told myself,
"Wait for Dad. Don't be stupid. Don't be a pirate. That's death."
But the hours passed.
And then something I didn't expect happened.
A man, no, a giant of a man, bloodied and battered, climbed onto the ship.
Long blonde hair.
A massive bisento.
And the air around him was so heavy I thought the ship might sink.
I was frozen in fear.
He looked at me with one eye squinting, the other a little blurry from blood.
"Huh? A kid? What's a runt doin' here alone?"
I didn't even answer.
He chuckled.
Then, without asking, tossed me over his shoulder like a sack of rice.
"Congrats, brat. You're my hostage now."
And just like that, Edward Newgate — yes, Whitebeard himself — hijacked the ship and kidnapped me.
At that moment, a weird feeling hit me.
Relief.
I didn't have to choose to run.
The choice was made for me.
I wasn't brave enough to escape my dad on my own.
But fate — or maybe the Moon — sent me a pirate.
A terrifying, injured, grinning pirate.
And as his ship sailed away from God Valley, my old life began to disappear with the horizon.
Monkey D. Iron was gone.
Diron, the future pirate, was born.