One Piece: Rise - Childhood Woes (Patreon)

"Bahahahahahah!" the bellowing laugh of your father echoed over even the cheers and applause of the crowd lining up on both sides of the roads, "Thank you! Thank you!" he waved grandly to the citizens of Cozia

Your father was an absolute mountain of a man. Incredibly tall, with a thick and powerfully muscular body, and a head of golden blonde hair.

He turned away from the crowd to look at you sitting beside him in the open topped horse pulled carriage, "Come now Magnus," he picked you up as if you were a feather and hoisted you onto his massive shoulders, "Wave to them, they're all here to see you, this is your big day after all, your fourth birthday."

A giggle left you, "Okay father!" you replied and did as you were told, lifting your small hands into the air and waving to the crowd of onlookers.

Somehow, their cheers grew even louder.

"That's it!" your father laughed, "Don't be shy. These are your people and one day it'll be you who rules this land."

Your heart beat hard in your chest as you stared around at all the people in awe. All these people, just to see you?

"That's why we're going to the Monastery, right?" you asked.

"That's right!" he confirmed, "It's tradition. Those who rule Cozia must be strong enough to protect these lands. You never know when a group of pirates will attack! That's why today, you will be beginning your training, and one day soon you'll even be stronger than me Bahahahaha!"

Stronger than your father you gasped? That didn't seem possible. Father was so strong that even the master of the monastery couldn't defeat him and used to be a Marine Captain!

The carriage made slow progress through the town, allowing for everyone who had come out to see you, to get a good look. It was the first time you had been shown off to the general public of the island and your future subjects. Your fathers way of letting everyone know of you.

And it was your first time seeing the island in full. You were usually confined to the palace more or less. The most you knew about your kingdom, was what you had learned in books.

Because of your heritage, you had been studying since you could walk so that you could one day be the best ruler you could be.

Cozia was perhaps a small kingdom, but it was a rich, prosperous one. It was based on a large, exotic island with a lot of natural resources. Delicious natural fruits, rich mines filled with gold, iron and such. Large, powerful animals, a variety of fauna that could be used in medicine and even natural hot springs thanks to the large volcano atop the island.

It was because of those expensive, natural resources that it was custom for the ruler of Cozia to be strong, and have strong subordinates. And thus the reason why Cozia Monastery of Martial Arts was founded over a hundred years ago.

As you the carriage left the town behind and traversed the road leading towards the jungle, out of the town walls, you entered the land of the martial artists that guarded the entrance into the forests and put a stop to the powerful beasts within from attacking the town.

It was a massive building, almost like a small castle in of itself, and all around you could see uniformed monastery apprentices already out on the fields practicing and sparring. Fists and feet flying, weapons clashing and sending sparks glittering into the air.

You watched the training apprentices in awe as they blurred around the grassy plains. You had been put through basic training by your father, how to punch properly, how to kick, how to take a hit and already you exercised each day to keep fit.

But nothing like this!

Truly the martial artists of your home land were amazing!

It made your father seen even more amazing when you considered the fact that he was the strongest on the island by far!

Not long later, you the carriage slowed to a stop in front of the monastery and your father gently prompted you to exit the carriage.

You did so easily. But when your father exited it, you noticed the carriage noticeably perk up higher in a way. The sheer wight of your fathers bulging muscles had weighed a carriage down that could easily carry five normal people!

You were a bit jealous. You did not take after your father in looks. You had seen pictures of him in his youth, and even now, at the same age as he was then, you were more slender of build. You took after your mother, being dark of hair.

But at least, you inherited your fathers bright emerald green eyes.

"Alexander, good to see you!" a voice called from the monastery entrance and you turned to see a dark skinned man with long silky black hair dressed in white, red and gold.

"Karna my friend, it has been too long!" your father strode over to meet the man and swept him up in a great big bear hug.

"Yes yes, I'm happy to see you too you big lion, now can you let me down? As always, you forget to moderate that absurd strength of yours." The man, Karna rolled his piercing golden eyes.

Your father just laughed, but did as he said and let the dark skinned man down.

Karna peeked around your father and looked at you in interest, "So, this is our fabled prince then?" he mused, giving your father a side eyed look, "I expected to see him long before now considering we grew up together, but I suppose you have been busy."

"Sorry, sorry, it has been a bit of a learning process, learning to be a father and a king at the same time, with no mother for the boy," your father chuckled lightly, rubbing a hand through the back of his golden hair, "I wanted to make sure he was ready as well and able to handle the training before I let you get a hold of him."

"Somehow, considering how over the top you are my friend, I bet he's over prepared at this point," Karna chuckled. The golden eyed man walked passed your father and stopped in front of you, bending down to crouch and look you in the eye, a gentle smile atop his lips, "Hello Magnus. I've not seen you since you were but a babe in the crib. As you heard, my name is Karna, I'm your godfather and I'll be the one handling your training from today onward."

Your father had told you of his best friend and your godfather many a time, usually amongst stories of the both of them fighting pirates as marines within the fabled Grand Line.

"Hi," you smiled at him excitedly. Finally, you could begin your journey to become strong like your father, "Nice to meet you! Can you teach me the super secret martial arts that'll let me be stronger than even father and protect everyone?" you rapidly questioned.

Karna chuckled and reaching out to pat you on the head, "Well, I don't know about super secret martial arts, but that is the general plan. You becoming stronger than your dad though, well, that's all up to you little man," he said before standing up and looking behind him to your father, "So you want him to learn kickboxing first?"

"That's right," your father nodded, crossing his arms over his barrel wide chest, "It will be the best for him to branch out into other things I think and the best suited for his build. And alongside that, he will need to learn some Wishu, every ruler of Cozia has wielded a weapon of their own."

"I understand, and I'm inclined to believe you," Karna nodded. He turned back to you while reaching into his white vest top and pulled out a thick wooden board before crouching down in front of you, "Let's see what we're working with here shall we? Can you punch this board as hard as you can?" he asked.

You tilted your head to the side. How would punching a wooden board tell him anything? But well, if that was what he wanted, you would do it. 

You clenched your fist and turned slightly with your hips before unleashing your hardest punch.

Your knuckles met the thick wood of the board, before plowing right through it and snapping it in half, wooden shards flying through the air.

Karna blinked, and then chuckled as he stood up and looked at the pair of broken boards now in his separate hands, "As expected, completely over prepared," he hook his head, amused, and looked over his shoulder at your father, "I see he's inherited that monstrous strength of yours even without your build. Your average marine wouldn't be able to break through one of those in a single punch, yet this four year old boy punched through it as if it were wet paper mache."

Your father laughed loudly, hands going to his hips, "That's ma boy!" his voice boomed.

Karna shook his head and tossed the broken boards aside, "Well, I can see why you chose kick boxing at least, with your strength, and a smaller build built for speed, it is perfectly suited for him over the plain boxing you prefer," the golden eyed man mused, then looked down at you, "Well, now that, that is taken care of, let's go have a look at some weapons I have prepared shall we? You can pick what one you want to learn how to use."

"I can!?" you cheered excitedly. So awesome!

Ooh ooh! Maybe you could even learn to use a bisento like your father! He had a really amazing big huge golden one that was so heavy you couldn't even lift it when he let you try!

You followed along behind Karna into the monastery a second later. He led you through the towering walled hallways, passing by many teachers and apprentice alike who bowed to you as they did, but you barely noticed them, too excited about choosing a weapon.

You were led to into a large circular room with many racks filled with weapons. In the center of the room, there was a large table with a bunch of different weapons displayed on it.

Karna gestured to the table, "These are the weapons I'm most proficient with," he said, "Feel free to pick one of them and I'll do my utmost best to help you master usage of it."

"Kay!" you chirped and practically skipped over to the table.

The first thing your eyes landed on was a weapon very similar to your fathers biseno. With a long staff and large curved blade head.

Beside it, was a single large curved dao broadsword.

And right next to the large broadsword, was a pair of similar swords, practically the exact same. Yet a bit smaller and in a pair.

Then your eyes landed on the last set of weapons on the table. Like the dual dao blades, there were two of them. And they were swords. But you'd never seen swords like them before. They didn't have a hilt, but handle on the sides, and flared out into hooks at the end.

Ah, they were all so cool! 

Mmmmmm!

You must have stared at the weapons for a good ten minutes, unable to decide. They were all so cool!

But, in the end, you decided above cool, usability was more important! And you didn't want to just copy your dad in the end no matter how cool his bisento was!

The one that met in the middle of both practicality and coolness, had to be the dual dao blades you decided in the end!

"Aww, and here I thought you'd pick the bisento like me!" your dad pouted, "You always told me how cool it was!"

"It is," you giggled, weighing the two swords in your hand and marveling at how strong they made you feel, "But I don't wanna just copy you dad."

The big blonde man sniffled, "Uwaaa, my son doesn't love me anymore! He's to cool for his old man!" he ran out of the room, arm folded over his eyes.

You stared after him, blinking, confused. Sometimes your dad did this kind of thing. But it never made sense to you. Why would you not love your dad?

"Over dramatic as ever," Karna rolled his eyes before smiling at you, "Now that the big baby is out of the way, what do you say we start you on the basics of your training?"

You put your fathers dramatics out of mind and beamed at your godfather, "Yeah, let's do it!" you cheered.

                                                                                           ___________

Three months came and went in a flash. It felt almost like just yesterday you had received your dual dao blades and started training under Master Karna as your godfather insisted on you calling him when you were training.

You wiped the sweat from your brow as you finished up your morning training. Sheathing your dao blades within the twin sheathes on your back.

The room you were training in, was a large empty room within the palace. The widely spaced walls, alongside the weights and straw dummies that you had been gifted made for a great place to train while at home.

You were the prince after all, you had duties and studies to attend that made it so that you couldn't spent all your time at the martial arts monastery, as disappointed as that was.

'Still not to great.' you pouted. You had the basics of wielding the dual blades down, and could use them together more or less at this point without cutting yourself. The trick was that they were two halves of the same whole.

But, you weren't exactly jumping around and completing complex and cool maneuvers at this point. You knew it would take longer than a mere three months, you may have been only four years old, but you were smart for your age and you knew that much.

It didn't mean it didn't frustrate you a bit though. Especially when your kick boxing skills were even worse.

Most of your training beyond the basics of both weaponry and unarmed combat, was focused on your conditioning. According to your master, you were very very strong for your age, strong even for any age. You were just like your father in that respect apparently. Better even, Master Karna claimed you were even stronger than your father was at the same age by a decent margin.

You didn't believe him of course. He was totally just trying to make you feel better. No way you were anywhere close to how amazing your dad was even at the same age!

Once you caught your breath, you left the training room behind, closing the thick wooden doors behind you.

You nodded to the two palace guards stationed in front of it just in case anything went wrong while you were training and they bowed deeply to you.

'It's nearly time for my studies.' you mused. 

You made your way through the halls, heading for your fathers study at the top of the palace. At this time, he should be working on his duties as king of Cozia, at least the management side of things, rather than within the throne room.

When you got to the top floor of the palace and walked over to your fathers study, you were surprised to find the door slightly ajar and could hear the voices of your father and your master echoing out from within.

Odd, your master very rarely visited the castle.

"The fools won't listen at all!" you heard your father growl.

"It's to be expected," Karna mused, "There's bad blood between you and the higher ups because of your choice in women."

"Bah, they're idiots! It's not like she chose to be a pirate, she was born into it," your father snarled, and your heart stilled in your chest. He was talking about your mother. "Even then, to refuse calls for aid and pull much of the East Blue forces into the Grand Line and leave many islands defenseless is too absurd to even call petty!"

"More and more pirates are retreating here thanks to their actions," Karna sighed, "Have you heard? Arlong who got let out of Impel Down thanks to the Shichibukai Jimbei has came here as well, he's taken over a few small islands."

"I have, and I'd go crush that piece of trash myself if it wouldn't leave Cozia open," your father replied and sighed, "I can't risk it. That fool Vinsmoke has been testing the waters recently in all of the Blue's. And the navy won't move against him because of his royal blood and technological donations. Cozia is too tempting a target for someone like him. The only reason he hasn't attacked is because he knows he can't beat me and he'd never risk his own life properly, coward that he is."

You bit your lip and stepped away from the door. Your father it seemed, was far too busy.

'Studying can wait for a bit.' you decided, turning on your heel and making your way back down towards your training room.

You had to get stronger. For your kingdom and your father!

                                                                                         ___________

"Are you ready?" Your father asked, looking down at you with a frown, "You don't need to do it. You can put this off until you're stronger, I don't mind." he fretted worriedly.

Master Karna rolled his eyes, "Oh stop fussing like a mother hen Alexander," he chided the massive blonde man, "He's more than ready. He's stronger than you were at his age and you did the same at his age."

"Yes, but that was when I was a boy," your father crossed his arms and huffed, "What if they've gotten stronger over time?"

"They haven't," Karna snorted, "Who do you think is in charge of monitoring the jungle and making sure they do not attack the town?"

Today was the day you would complete a rite of passage for your family. You were to enter the forest and defeat and kill one of the beasts that reigned over the Cozia jungle.

Your kingdom was known for a rare species of large white lion, twice the size of a normal lion that ruled over the jungle of the island. Whenever someone of your family was deemed strong enough and learned the basics of their chosen martial art, it was customary for them to enter the jungle and slay one of them and bring back the corpse as proof.

And from stories you'd heard. It was this very jungle that your father found his devil fruit within as a child.

"I'll be fine dad," you grinned at him, "Don't worry! I can do this!" you assured him. You had. If you couldn't even complete this rite of passage, what help would you be to your father?

As the months came and went, more and more pirates had been attacking surrounding islands, and some had even tried to attack Cozia but were quickly crushed by your father and the martial artists of the monastery.

But even now, you hadn't seen a single marine appear on the island to talk with your father even after he reported them.

All because of the simple fact that your mother was a pirate, and not by choice. It was astounding to you, you pathetic the marines were. Leaving their own citizens to die because of something like that.

You'd lost count of how many shouting matches you'd heard over the past few months with your father raging down a Den Den Mushi at the marines who refused to act.

Your father sighed, "I know you can..." the massive man's shoulders slumped slightly and he took a knee in front of you, even then utterly dwarfing your full height, "I can't help but worry though my son. Your my baby boy after all!" he swept you up into a massive hug and despite all your training in the last nine months, you felt your bones creak in protest.

Truly your father was far too strong!

"Oi oi you idiot! You're crushing him!" Karna protested, kicking your father upside the head to make him release you.

When your father finally let you go, you made your solo trip into the forest. The path ended as soon as you entered and you found yourself walking through thick foliage.

As soon as you entered, the sounds of wild life were very apparent. Chirps of birds flying through the air and hiding in the trees. Squeaks of monkeys in the trees as they tore at fruit hanging low.

And the resounding roars of your prey.

The species of lion were abundant within the jungle. Usually, that would not be possible, because with how many they were in numbers, they were end up eating all available food sources and starve.

The lions of this jungle though were different. Not only were they much larger in size and stronger than normal lions. They were also omnivores. They had evolved to be able to eat fruit, vegetation and meat.

And it wasn't long before you found one. There were hundreds of them within the jungle after all.

You stepped out into a clearing after hacking your way through a troublesome bush and found it standing on its hind paws, reaching up into a tree and reaching for a large group of ripe banana's.

It glanced out at you from the corner of its crimson red eyes before snarling and pushing off of the tree, turning to face you and landing on all fours. The sheer weight of the beast made the floor tremble beneath you lightly. Its white fur bristled and ivory mane stood on end

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" a massive ear rattling roar left its huge maw and it leapt towards you, huge claws outstretched.

Despite its massive size, it was deceptively fast!

You juked to the side and rolled passed its strike allowing its claws to slam hard into your previous position. As you came up from your roll, your hands were already over your shoulder grasping the handles of your dao blades.

With a metallic ringing sound, they came free and you slashed at its side. The blades bit into its side and blood splashed into the air.

The white lion roared in pain and fury. Before you could push in and slice right into its innards, its sail came swinging around at you like a whip, fuzzy head first aimed right for your nose.

You let go of blades and ducked to the side narrowly avoiding it. And the lion used the chance to turn, pulling the side with your blades stuck in it to the opposite side.

It lashed out with a huge clawed paw straight towards you. A paw that was literally bigger than you were tall.

Its crimson red eyes went wide in shock when you raised both hands up and caught the paw aiming to crush you.

You grunted and the muscles in your arms trembled. A vein throbbed on your forehead with strain as you let loose a roar and used the paw to lift the huge white lion into the air above your head and slam down into the ground.

A yowl of pain left it and you let go, spinning on your left heel to come around and deliver a round house kick straight to side of its head that sent it rolling across the clearing. Your blades clattered to the ground, coming free as it rolled along and only came to a stop when it slammed into a tree.

A snarl left it, and despite the hits it took, the beast wasn't down as it pushed itself up a moment later on shaky legs. 

You dashed forward and grabbed your blades, not slowing at all as you did, heading straight for it.

You angled your blades out, aiming to stab into its head as you crossed the distance.

Only, the beast was far smarter than you gave it credit for. It lunged forward, maw wide open and slammed into fangs into the tips of your blades and they held strong. 

It pawed at the ground with all four legs and had far better purchase than you, giving it more ways to leverage its own strength against yours.

It jerked its head upwards and before you could let go of the blades and sent you flying back through the hair. Stars exploded int your vision as you slammed into and through a thick tree.

You wanted to hiss in pain, but couldn't. You were winded from the blow and could barely get yet your breath out, never mind make a sound.

A shadow suddenly darkened the area around you and your eyes widened when you caught sight of a white blur leaping into the air and then diving right down towards you!

It wasn't giving you any chance to recover!

No way! No how! You refused to lose like this! If you couldn't even beat one of these stupid lions that your father easily killed when he went through the rite of passage, how would you ever be able to help him and protect your kingdom!

A roar of your own left your throat as you willed your breath to leave your body. It didn't matter that you were winded. You refused to let that hold you back.

You forced yourself to jump to your feet, hands fastened so tightly around the hilts of your blades you felt like the skin would burst and blood would pour free.

You jumped into the air with all your strength and thrust your blades out as it lashed out one huge paw. You ignored defending altogether, and even as its claws raked across your face and plowed you downwards, you made sure your blades found their target.

Up through the roof of its mouth and into its brain!

A scream of pain left you as blood poured over in great rivers down over your left eye, tainting your vision blood red, and your mouth opened into a gasp as its limb body slammed into you and smashed you into the ground, winding you once again and burying you under its bulk.

For a long while you just lay there, crushed under the furry white beast as you rode out the pain and tried to regain your breath,

Despite the situation though, a massive grin split your face, 'I did it!' you cheered internally. You'd done it! You'd slain one of the white lions. You weren't a failure!

When you managed to pull yourself together and drag your beaten body and the corpse of the lion out of the jungle, your father was practically in hysterics when he found you.

As it turned out, due to the hit you'd taken from the lion when you took it to get your own hit in and kill it, it had cut three gouges from just above your left eye to your cheek and you were lucky you didn't lose your eye.

And the white lion it turned out, was one of the oldest and strongest within the jungle and usually didn't venture out far from its pride, so Karna hadn't expected you to actually run into it and fight it.

All you cared about though, was the fact that it was apparently stronger than the one your father had killed.

You still ended up getting confined to bed rest by your father for an entire week though and he very rarely left your side, constantly fussing over you.

At the very least though, you got a consolation prize. Your father happily had one of the fangs of the lion you killed fashioned into a necklace for you to wear around your neck as a trophy.

                                                                          __________

Three months after you defeated your first white lion, your birthday had once again come around, your fifth in fact.

The morning was spent like your fourth birthday, riding around in an open top carriage to wave to the citizens of your kingdom. Your father took extra special care to loudly boast about your accomplishment in killing the powerful lion, gesturing to the trio of scars that came down over your left eye proudly as proof of your accomplishment.

When you returned to the palace though. Your father asked you to accompany him to his study. As you entered in behind him, your eyes landed on the massive golden bisento and armour hung behind his desk, ready for him to grab whenever it was needed.

The bisento in particular was a very impressive weapon. Your father had told you before, that it was a Meito, and one of the twenty one great grade blades. Weapons of exceptional quality far beyond the ken of normal blades. Their quality so great that should normal blades like your own dao meet them in a clash, your blades would be likely to shatter.

The golden bisento had a glowing green edge to it. Sea Stone. A rare mineral from the depths of the ocean that you had been told on many occasion had the power to cut through even the power of a Devil Fruit.

Your father coughed, dragging your attention away from the marvelous weapon to him, and you found him giving you an amused smile.

"Sorry." you apologized.

"It's fine son, don't worry about it," he laughed in assurance, "Though, as little as I mind you paying more attention to my weapon than me, I did ask you to come here for a reason, a very important reason."

You blinked slowly, "Father?" you said, confused.

He stroked his chin, "Hmm, I'm trying to think on how to explain this," he mused, before laughing, "I suppose a practical demonstration would be best."

You were even more confused now, "What do you mean father?" you wondered.

"I have something I want to teach you, but first," the massive golden haired man grinned and turned around so his back was facing you, "Attack me from behind where I can't see you son."

"What?" you stared at him wide eyed. You'd sparred with your dad here and there, but never anything like this.

"It's alright son, just do as I say, it'll make sense in a moment." he assured you, not turning away.

You swallowed heavily, but shook your head. You trusted your father, he was much wiser than you. So if he told it would make sense, then it would.

You tensed, curling your hands into fists, before launching yourself at him as fast as you could, a punch aimed at his lower back.

Just as you were about to make contact though, he tilted to the side ever so slightly and your punch met thin air. You lashed out with another, and he dodged slightly once again.

What!? How!?

Going full out, you launched a barrage of rapid bullet like punches as hard and fast as you could. 

Yet, without turning around, your father easily weaved around your punches with the simplest of movements and did so for over two minutes straight.

In the end you found yourself on your knees, gasping for breath and looking up at him in shock as he turned to you with a massive grin on his face.

"How did you do that father?" you asked once you recovered enough to speak.

"It's something I picked up on the Grand Line son," he laughed, "It is a power known as Observation Haki it allows me to sense people within a certain range and even predict how they move. I'm led to believe in the second half of the Grand Line, even the weakest of people have access to it or another form of Haki called Armament Haki that I've never been taught how to use, that apparently even lets you counter devil fruit powers like Sea Stone."

Your eyes went wide, "That's so cool dad!" you gushed, so excited you forgot all about propriety.

"Yep, daddy's amazing huh? Bahahahahahahaahahaha!" your father burst out laughing loudly and proudly, hands placed on his hips. Once he calmed down he smiled down at you, "The reason I showed you this today, is because I want to make sure you're as prepared as possible going forward and make sure nothing can hurt you. So, from today onward, I'm going to help you unlock your own Haki and teach you how to use it!"

You jumped to your feet unable to contain your excitement, "Really! That's awesome dad!" you cheered. Before pausing as something occurred to you, "Unlock it? How do you do that?"

"By blindfolding you and hitting you with a stick!" he happily explained, "The same way I was taught!"

...Eh!? 

                                                                                   __________

Your training became even more intense with the inclusion of Haki training. 

Honestly, even six months later, you felt like you wouldn't ever need a proper crown like the one your father wore when the day came for you to be king. You already had a crown of swollen lumps on your head from all the smacks you took from sticks when training.

And once again, today you were being called to your fathers study. You were in fact, dreading it. Could today be the day he added even more to your training? You were all for getting stronger, and it had even become a passion of yours, you loved the feeling of your muscles burning and telling you once they recovered they would be even stronger!

You had been allowed to go out into the jungle without supervision as you pleased just a few weeks ago, and you had slain three of those white lions as easy as breathing. Compared to nearly a year ago, the difference between yourself of now and then was like night and day.

But you absolutely hated Haki training. For hours on end each day, you were blind folded and your dad would swing at your head with a thick stick over and over again.

It had been six months. And you'd managed to react to and dodge the stick, once in all that time. And it was only yesterday. Quite frankly, you thought it was a fluke.

To your surprise though, when you reached the study and entered, Master Karna was there as well, while your dad sat behind his desk. Atop the desk, was a large long box shaped object draped in black.

"Good morning Magnus." Karna greeted you with a nod.

Odd, you hadn't seen him in a while. Your father told you he'd been busy doing something very important for the last month or so.

"Master," you dipped your head in acknowledgement to him then to your father, "Morning father."

"Morning son!" he beamed at you, full of energy. "Are you excited?"

You gave him a wary look. It was the same kind of energy he had around him the day he introduced you to Observation Haki, "Excited for...what?" you questioned hesitantly.

"You didn't tell him?" Karna gave your father a deadpan look.

"Ooops, I forgot Bahahahah!" your father laughed, before turning his attention to you, "Well do you remember how I told you Karna was busy the last month?"

"Yes?" you raised an eyebrow.

"Well, the reason he was so busy was because he alongside his students were working on something for you," your father revealed, before grasping the black sheet over the object on his desk and pulling it away in a grand flourish, "These to be exact!"

Your eyes went wide and a gasp left your mouth when you saw what stared back at you. It was a pair of dao blades, a bit bigger than the set you had already. But that wasn't the main difference and what made you so shocked. No, it was the fact that the blades of the pair of dao, was a dark and luminescent green.

"Is that...?" you trailed off, awed.

Your father nodded happily, "Yep, steel blades encased in sea stone!" he proudly announced, "The marines may have monopoly on the easy to access sea stone mines, but that doesn't mean we can't get our hands on them. Your teacher and his students have been diving deep into the ocean and harvesting small deposits of sea stone to create these magnificent blades for you!"

Before you even knew what you were doing, you slammed into your teacher so hard you knocked him off of his feet hugging him tightly.

"I suppose you like them then, huh?" Karna laughed pattinng you on the head.

"No don't hug him!" your dad leaped over his desk, "It was my idea! Only I can get hugs like that. Buzz off Karna you damn son thief, I'll kick your ass!"

There was much laughter and joy that day.

Your sixth birthday was full of festivities, and tears. The tears mostly came form your father who blubbered and got snot all over you as he apologized over and over again about failing to find a devil fruit for you.

It was a day full of laughter spent with your father, godfather and many subjects wishing you well. You even got to spar with apprentices from the Cozia Monastery and put a show on for your subjects.

You went to bed that night with a wide, happy smile on your face. It made you so glad to be who you were, with so many people who who cared for you and believed in you.

And yet, the good memories were not to last.

For you were awoken a mere hour after falling asleep by the screams and tears of the dying and the sound of cannonballs shooting through the air, while gun shots resounded in the distance.

You jerked up in your bed in a panic. Dressed in only a pair of comfortable sleeping shorts and your lion tooth necklace, you grabbed your sea stone dao blades from where they hung above your bed, slipped them over your shoulders and rushed out of your bedroom.

Palace guards armored from head to toe sprinted through the halls, shouting and bellowing orders to each other as they made for the exit of the palace.

It didn't take a genius to figure out what was going on. Cozia was under attack, by a substantial force at that. They wouldn't have gotten close otherwise.

You dashed through the hall sensing for your father with your Observation Haki, and found him in the throne room that overlooked the entire island kingdom of Cozia.

When you reached the throne room, you swallowed heavily. And it wasn't because of the mass of guards already within the room waiting for your fathers orders.

It was because of your father himself. 

You'd never seen him look so angry. So angry, that he wasn't even in his human form anymore. He'd taken on the hybrid form his zoan devil fruit had given him. That of a towering bipedal golden furred lion, and dressed in his glittering golden armor, his huge golden bisento clasped in his hand as he stood on the large veranda that opened up to give a view of the entire kingdom.

He turned to you as soon as you entered, "Magnus!" his almost glowing green eyes, pupils slit widened in a panic at the sight of you before he sobered and gestured for you to approach, "Come here son, quickly."

You did as you were told and hurriedly rushed over to the veranda that he was standing at, right behind the throne itself.

"Father what's going on?" you asked as you reached him.

"It's Germa 66 my son." he rumbled with a growl, gesturing for you to look out over into the distance with a massive arm of rippling golden furred muscle.

You followed where he was pointed and your mouth dropped open wide, your body beginning to tremble slightly.

You could see uniformed men carrying weapons by the hundreds rushing toward the town from the port side of the island like a swarm of locust, while the much smaller forces of your own kingdom rushed out to meet them.

The martial artists of your land were worth five or more of them, and killed the invaders en masse. But, for every one killed, three more took their place and bit by bit your own kingdom natives were being overwhelmed.

But the most shocking of all, was the massive, massive island that had somehow appeared at the edge of your own island kingdom. A gargantuan castle jutting out proudly atop it, and dozen upon dozens of large holes dotted across it, firing cannonballs by the bucket load across Cozia killing your people and destroying the buildings they plowed into in rains of debris and fire.

Germa 66. You'd heard of them spoken in rage filled words by your father many a time. Conquerors of royal blood from the North Blue led by the Vinsmoke family.

A very rich nation and family, known for their scientific excellence and being suppliers of weapons and more to the marines for many a years. 

In the last few years, they had starting conquering much of the North Blue, and then somehow began moving through the Calm Belt itself to the other seas and attacking kingdom that bordered the home of the Sea Kings.

And you knew how thanks to information your father shared with you. Sea Stone. Apparently discovered by a marine scientist, by lining ships with the mineral, Sea Kings themselves would ignore the ships as if they were never there.

...But how did Germa 66 get their hands on enough sea stone to line the bottom of such a massive island with it? And how the heck could they convert such a massive island into a ship in the first place?!

"What do we do father?" you shook lightly in fear, unable to stop yourself. You were ashamed of your cowardice.

Your father was silent for a moment, before he sighed, "I will crush that fool Judge with all my strength," he replied after a moment, before turning and smiling gently at you, somehow even with the face of a lion, "You my son though, you will be leaving the island."

"What?!" your eyes widened in shock, "I can't leave father! I must stay here and help protect the kingdom!"

"You will!" he rejected you firmly, and you flinched back. Your father never took that tone of voice with you. "The forces of Germa 66 outnumber us 50 to 1. Sheer numbers can overwhelm superior strength in sufficient amounts. Should I fall here, though I do not plan to, the fate of our kingdom's future shall we in your hands!"

Even in the face of your fathers words, and your own fear, you wanted to protested. But you never got the chance. "ALEXANDER!!!" a voice bellowed from the battlefield, echoing over even the sounds of those screaming and dying.

Both you and your fathered jerked around to face the direction of the voice and you heard your father snarl and rage. But, what you saw, made that sound like a million miles away.

You saw a towering man of height with your father, with a massive mane of golden hair flowing out behind him. He had a golden half helmet on that left his oddly pointy mustache to bare, and was wearing a grey uniform and orange cape with the number '66' emblazoned proudly upon it.

In his left hand, he held a large spear. But it was what he held in his right that shocked you so. It was something you were very familiar with. A weapon that was like a combination of a sword and a spear. With a huge black blade, with a glowing line of purple striking up the middle. Like your fathers weapon, it was a meito and one of the twenty one great grade blades. And the prized possession of your Master Karna.

"Come out and face me lion! I've come to claim your kingdom and your head!" the one who must have been Vinsmoke Judge challenged your father openly, gesturing up with his blood coated spear.

The blood that was surely that of your master.

"JUDGE!" your father roared so loudly it felt like your ear drums would explode and broke you form your shocked state, "What did you do to KARNA!?" he demanded.

"Oh him?" Judge laughed mockingly before pointed his spear back towards his ship, "Annoying little shit that one! Almost took me down, if not for my amazing cannons, both me and them were a bit to much for him I'm afraid. His body is back there somewhere, but his head is probably being eaten by some fish after I booted it into the ocean!"

Your father shook with a rage so great you could feel the stone floor underneath you vibrate, "Go! The family ship is waiting on the dock at the other end of the island! I will come find you when I'm done here!" your father's order brokered no argument and then he turned to face Judge once more, and then with a air shaking roar he launched himself out of the throne room veranda, shooting through the air to Vinsmoke Judge and hefting his bisento high above his head.

A moment or two later, Judge hurriedly backpedaled while your father slammed into his previous position like a meteorite, splitting the earth beneath his blow and making an earthquake go off that shook the palace itself and sent Cozia citizen and enemy alike flying into the air.

You stared after him in a daze as he tore out of the cloud of debris he kicked up with his impact and shot out towards Judge in a blur of speed you could not see, but could only sense thanks to your haki. Judge lifted your teachers weapon and his own in a cross guard to block, yet he was sent flying backwards regardless through the air like a bullet skipping across the landscape like a stone on a pond.

"My prince!" one of the guards shook your shoulder, breaking you from your daze, "Please, you must go!" he pleaded with you.

It was only with one of your citizens pleading with you, that you tore your eyes off of the battlefield and with tears budding in your eyes and your teeth gritted with rage, you did as ordered by your royal father.

Yet, you were the only one to go. As you left, all the guards, all graduates of the monastery left the palace behind and joined your father and the others on the battlefield.

'Master Karna! Father!' tears streamed down from your eyes and would not stop as you fled.

                                                                _______________

"Die!" you snarled, your fist impacting the chin of Germa 66 soldier that came staggering out of a burning home, a chest in his hands. You felt bone cruncher under your fist before his head erupted in a fountain of gore that covered you from head to toe in crimson life liquid.

You ignored. If you paid it any mind, like all of the other gore staining your body, you would vomit in horror and disgust.

All you could do was hold on to your rage as you rushed through the town, doing your level best to ignore the dead and dying of your own citizens and those of Germa 66. Bodies littering the streets as far as the eye could see.

This was not the first Germa 66 soldier you killed and your mad dash through the kingdom. It was the eleventh. And it did nothing to soothe your rage. But it was the only thing keeping you from doubling back. Even now you could hear the rage filled roars of your father echoing across the distance.

You continued on, dashing through the streets. But you paused, crushing any soldier you passed by and making sure to pass by them with your haki.

But as you went, you skidded to a halt not long later as you felt...four young boys. No three now, one had just died. The other three though, they felt strong. Easily as strong as any of your palace guards.

Were they citizens?

You quickly made your way towards them, skidding around the corner in a blur of speed where you sensed them. Only to stutter to a stop and stare wide eyed at what you say.

It was three children, boys a bit bigger and a few years older than you. They each looked very alike, practically clones. Triplets? The only difference was their hair colors. One with crimson red, one with lime green and one with deep blue.

And they were laughing happily as the green and blue haired ones lifted baseballs bats into the air and smashed the corpse of another boy into a bloody pulp. 

..There was no doubt. It was the child you felt die with your haki just a few moments before.

These boys, had killed him?

"Oh?" the red one noticed you first, "Looks like we've got another one boys."

"Awesome!" the green haired one cheered, stopping his swinging and leveling his blood covered weapon towards you, "Let's see if we can make his head burst!"

"Let's! Let's!" the blue haired one giggled, his swirly eyebrow wiggling.

They were with Germa 66. That was all you needed to know.

With a snarl you shot towards them, headed straight for the green one. You were going to knock his stupid looking head straight off of his shoulders.

His stupid looking grin only widened and you felt his body ripple underneath his skin. You ducked to the side and avoided as his hand shot out like a bullet, baseball bat aimed right for your head.

'What the hell!?' you went wide eyed in shock when you saw the steel cable propelling his arm!

You felt energy building from the other two and jumped, just as the blue haired one sparked with electricity and shot at you in a rapid blur of speed, narrowly missing.

You pulled your swords free and swung out, cutting through a wide read beam of crackling energy fired from the red haired one.

What the hell was up with these freaks!? Were these Devil Fruit powers?!

"You can't measure up to the power of science you lower being!" the blue haired one shot up at you and taunted while the green haired one extended his other hand and shot it up at you from behind.

Without looking, your right hand flashed out behind you and sliced right through the cable propelling it with one of your blades while you tilted your head to the side, allowing the fist to continue flying and smack right into the blue haired ones nose and knock him out of the air.

You had to quickly bring your other blade up to block with the flat side as the red haired one propelled himself at you with a blast of red from his feet and lashed out at you with a glowing red fist.

A metallic sound rang through the air, and not only form your blades. But from his fist as well. 'His fist is metal?' you thought, confused. But didn't dwell on it.

"What?" he seemingly gaped at you when he didn't win the clash of hits and you felt strong even mid-air.

A snarl tore from your lips and you lashed out as you began to plummet, a kick catching him in the cheek and smashing him down through the roof of a house, hard.

As you landed though, you felt something tightly grasp on to your foot and pull you through the air.

You gagged in pain as the wind was driven form your lungs and you were smashed into and through the stone wall of one of your subjects houses.

"What the?" you spluttered, and glared down at what grabbed you. It was a hand, with a steel cable stretching out behind it through the rubble you made when you were smashed through the wall.

Snarling again, you slashed out with the blade in your left hand and cut it off and heard a shout of annoyance from outside.

Your eyes widened when you felt a mass of people rushing towards your destination, closing in quickly.

Soldiers from Germa 66, and a lot of them. thirty two by your count.

You felt the blue one with your haki, his energy rising once again and rippling the same way it had when he used the electricity, at the same time the soldiers stopped to a halt and you felt them aiming at your position.

You hurriedly jumped up and sliced through the roof with your blades, escaping into the air above as a beam of electricity alongside dozens of cannonballs reduced the home to a rubble.

"There he is, bring him down!" you heard a man bellow from where you sensed the Germa 66 soldiers and felt the energy of the blue and red ones spike again.

You lashed out with both arms and swung, spinning yourself with the force of two slashes, narrowly evading a beam of crackling blue and one of glowing red.

You could not evade the rain of bullets and caonnballs that followed though. You kept spinning, parrying aside two cannonballs and dodging most of the gunfire. But a cry left you when one pierced your shoulder blade and another, the meat of your left thigh.

It forced you out of the air and to land on one knee.

"Ra! Take this! Yonji power!" the green haired one laughed and launched at you with a flying kick.

Ignoring the pain of your bullet wounds, you shot to your feet, standing on your hit leg and lashed out as he got close with a kick of your own. You snarled in pleasure as you heard a metallic ding come from his cheek and saw said cheek dint inwards and a split second later, he plowed through a wall like a cannonball himself.

You felt as he fell unconscious. And while you would love nothing more to go separate his head from his shoulders, you couldn't.

You pushed off the ground in another jump, landing atop a house and narrowly evading another rain of gunfire.

"Where do you think you're going!" blue shot up towards you from behind in a blur of electricity enhanced speed.

You already felt him coming though.

He screamed in agony as one of your swords slashed out and off the arm he was aiming at your back with, a river of blood shooting into the air.

You went to turn and take his head off, but was forced to dodge when you felt another red beam shoot towards you. You jump and spun, slicing through it with one of your blades and using the momentum from the force it generated to push yourself through the air.

The last you saw of them was the red haired one frowning at you as he stood over his blue haired brother who was clutching his stump of an arm and squealing like a pig.

You landed a moment later, and ran. As much as it galled you, fighting them all was a losing battle.

'I'll remember their faces.' you vowed.

You reached the end of the town quickly, only a few minutes of running later. Thankfully, they hadn't chased after you, you were already having trouble moving without limping due to the bullet in your thigh. You'd dig it out, but it risked making the bleeding worse.

As you approached the cliff side that overlooked the small port where your family ship was docked, you frowned. You could feel someone hiding under the cliff. But you couldn't feel your family ship at all.

Did fleeing citizens of the kingdom take it and escape to sea?

"Hello?" you called out when you reached the edge of the cliff, peering down to where you felt whoever they were.

It was a girl. A few years older than you, dressed in a pink dress. She was staring off at the ocean with her back turned to you, but jumped slightly and turned towards you when you called out to her.

She was very cute. With bright blue eyes and lovely pink hair, with full, very noticeable pouty lips. But your eyes widened when you saw a very familiar swirly set of eyebrows above her sapphire blue eyes.

"Ah...hello?" she waved at you lamely, before rubbing at her eyes where you could see tears in the corner of them.

"You...you're one of them," you gaped at her for a moment before narrowing your eyes into a glare, "You look like those three fools I ran into before."

A huffing little laugh left her, "..Yeah..I guess am," she shrugged then slumped slightly, "I'm just like my little brothers." the pink haired girl sighed.

You once again drew your blades. She was alone, an easy target. You could have killed any one of those three earlier without much issue if you weren't outnumbered.

The girls lips twitched into a bitter smile, "Going to kill me?" she mused, "You can try, but I'll warn you, it looks like you barely escaped me brothers. I'm just as strong."

You snorted, "It's the other way around girl," you bared your bloody teeth, "If it weren't for all those soldiers of yours coming to save them, I would have killed them. As it is, I already the cut arms off of those green and blue idiots."

Her eyes widened in shock for a moment, before her bitter smile widened, "Is that right?" she hummed, before spreading her arms wide, accepting, "Then I suppose you probably will kill me then."

You stared, confused. She didn't seem to be scared at all that you would kill her. Or that you dismembered he brothers and would have killed them if they didn't get lucky.

She chuckled at your confused stare, but like her smile, it was bitter, "You'd be doing the world a favor," the pink haired girl continued, "We're monsters. My three brothers were modified in the womb, they can't feel things like guilt or compassion. We're just tools for our father to conquer and take over the world."

He hesitated, blades shaking in his hands. How was he supposed to take that? He didn't understand.

And he wasn't given time to process any of it either.

The loudest roar he'd ever heard resounded across the island. He whipped around on instinct, eyes looking back to where his father was fighting since the first time he left the palace.

Even with the thousands of metres between him and the battlefield, he could clearly make out his father's towering golden furred form. He stood in the middle of a mountain of corpses, surrounded on all sides by Germa 66 soldiers, the blade of your master piercing his chest, held in the one remaining arm of Vinsmoke Judge.

You heard Judge raise his voice, not able to hear it clearly, and then the hundreds of soldiers still surrounding your father let loose with their weapons, a barrage of bullets and cannonballs that blotted out his form slammed into him while Judge jumped away and a massive explosion rocked the island, so powerful you could feel the earth tremble beneath you even with the distance.

You stared in shock, your heart in your throat and waited for the smoke to clear. Your arms went limp and the sea stone dao blades fell from your fingers to clatter against the ground.

No!

Your father. He had sunk to his knees, his lion having faded away to show his human form once again.

And he wasn't moving.

"NOO! FATHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!" you roared, fury overtaking you, tainting your vision red. You felt something rising up in you. It was thick, hot, cloying and pressed against your insides until it felt like you were about to burst.

And then it escaped and your vision was consumed by white and you heard the world vibrating around you.

                                                                                       __________

Reiju staggered as the boy who was just about to kill her and screamed. Something, like a wave of force slammed into it and for a moment, her legs buckled beneath her and her vision darkened.

Just as she was about to fall though, her vision came back. 'What was that?' the pink haired girl wondered in shock.

She looked up at the boy and was bemused to find him on his knees, eyes whited completely out to the point where his pretty green eyes were nowhere to be seen.

She bit her lip. Before shaking her head and jumping up, landing on the cliff beside him. In the end, he was just a little boy, younger even than Sanji, though much stronger apparently.

Strong enough to beat her genetically enhanced brothers without what they went through and being stripped of his emotions.

From what she could tell. He was coming for the cruise ship that was here. The cruise ship that she had put Sanji on alongside the fleeing citizens of the Cozia Kingdom and sent away.

And if what she just witnessed was anything to go by. The son of Alexander Cozia, and that made him the prince of this kingdom.

Thinking quickly, Reiju ran over to one of the wooden shacks atop the cliff side and ripped one of the wooden walls off and tossed it over her shoulder, flying through the air over fifty feet to land in water and float atop it.

"I'm sorry," she apologized to the boy. This was all she could do. She hoisted him up on her shoulder and grabbed his swords in her hands before jumping down and laying him on the makeshift raft alongside his swords, "This is all I can do for you."

She pushed the raft and let it drift it to sea with him atop it. There was no other way. If he stayed, he would surely be killed. "If you can hear me, then feel free to blame us and come take our lives if you can," she called out to the boy, "But please, if you meet Sanji, my other brother out there. He's nothing like us. He's a good boy, the only good thing of our family. Please don't blame him."

She watched over the boy until he disappeared into the horizon on that raft, before sighing and turning to make her way back to the Germa 66 island, rubbing the tears from her eyes as she did.

She was surprised though when she got back. Most of the Germa 66 army, even after winning, lay strewn across the island, unconscious.

As was her father.

                                                                                   ___________

"These are quite nice." you awoke to a crisp, smooth voice humming, "They'd fetch quite the price."

You groaned, blinking your eyes open. 'What happened?' you wondered groggily. You remembered, you were talking to that pink haired girl, the daughter of Vinsmoke Judge, and then...

Your eyes widened abruptly and you shot up, 'Father!' you thought in horror. He had...he had been killed by that walking corpse Judge! And then, you'd felt a pressure coming from your body, rising up, and then you blacked out.

"Oh, awake are we?" that same voice mused and you jerked around, breaking from your thoughts. 

You were sitting on a wooden floor, and your arms were tied tightly to your back with thick rope. The speaker, was a handsome, slender man in a dark captains coat with round glasses and slicked back black hair.

And in his hands, he held your sea stone dao blades, admiring them with appreciative eyes.

"Get your hands off of them." you snarled, "Those were a gift!"

The man arced an eyebrow, "Haven't you ever heard of finders keepers lad?" he smiled mockingly at you.

You bared your teeth and uncaring of your tied arms hopped to your feet in one motion. The thigh that you were shot in flared with pain but you ignored it to lift your leg into the air and bring it down on the desk he was sitting behind, snapping it in to as if it were as sturdy as paper.

The mans eyes widened lightly, "Well now, you don't see that every day, quite the strength for such a young boy," he mused before shaking his head chidingly at you, "Now, is that any way to treat your savior after I so graciously fished you from a rickety raft drifting in the ocean and had my doctor treat your wounds?"

You paused and looked down on instinct. You had only been wearing shorts when everything happened. But now, you had a pair of threadbare three quarter length pants on, and they were white, with no blood stains. Your torso was bare, but there was a bandage wrapped tightly around your chest where you had gotten shot as well. That meant the one on your thigh was most likely taken care of as well.

..He had treated you. "Why did you help me?" you asked suspiciously, putting anything else you felt to the back of your mind.

You could rage and cry later.

"Well initially, it was because of these lovely sea stone blades of yours my boy, these must be worth at least a good fifty million beri or so, sea stone doesn't come cheap after all," the glasses wearing man hummed, leaning back in his seat and smirking lightly at you, "Tell me, where are you from?"

You scowled, "Nowhere worth going now," you spat, "Last I saw it, it was in flames after being conquered."

The man clicked his tongue, "Pity," he sighed, before shaking his head and beaming at you, "But not a total loss. If your little outburst there was anything to go by and what happened to my desk, you will be worth a lot more than a mere fifty million beri in the long run."

"What are you getting at?" you bared your teeth at him threateningly. All it would take was flexing your arms and you could snap this rope and have your fingers around his neck before he could blink.

"Why, I'm inviting you to join me dear boy," the man spread his arms widely, grandiosely, "I am Captain Kuro of the Black Cat Pirates. And I dare say you would make a wonderful apprentice."

..Become his apprentice. As in, a pirate? A criminal in the eyes of the world government.

The same world government that had refused the call to aid of your kingdom time and time again and never stepped in to stop the Germa 66 despite knowing what they were up to.

'I have nothing else.' you realized after a moment. You didn't know how the world worked outside of your kingdom. You had no money and your family and subjects were gone, dead. Taken from you by Vinsmoke Judge.

You grit your teeth, before sighing. "Alright," you shrugged lamely, "Please teach me everything you know, Master Kuro." it galled you to call anyone but Karna master. But he was dead and gone now. Along with everyone else.

Needs must.

And you needed to learn all you could. Because one day, you swore, you would make Vinsmoke Judge watch as you took everything from him the same way he had taken everything from you.

"Ooh, Master Kuro?" Kuro hummed, "I do like the sound of that." he chuckled.

                                                                         _____________

"What's with this-" a marine attempted to scream, only to be cut off and fall silent as your blade separated his neck from his shoulders.

You watched his corpse tumble to the ground limp, boredly, uncaring. You had no love for the marines. You turned away from him and eyed the battle around you atop the marine warship.

All around you, men in white fired on members of the black cat pirates. Some fell to the rain of bullets, most didn't. And the white uniformed men fell under their onslaught.

And you'd already slaughtered their strongest officers.

The pirates of the Black Cats were decidedly weak fighters. But, they became much stronger than the average marine thanks to Jango, the first mates abilities with hypnosis.

You tilted to the side as your haki sensed someone aiming at you from behind, easily dodging the rifle bullet aimed for your head without even looking. The bullet zoomed past you and clipped another marine in the neck, dropping him to the wooden deck floor.

"M-monster!" the marine who shot at you stuttered.

And that was all he got to say before you kicked the ground five times rapidly and disappeared in a blur of speed. 

You appeared behind him a split moment later, and like the marine before him, his head was separated from his shoulders and his body fell limp to the deck.

"Probably," you mused lightly, "The same as you trash marines though." you snorted. If they wouldn't care for the lives of your innocent subjects, why should you care for theirs?

Bored, bored bored. So bored. These marines were so weak.

The training for the skills you learned from your father and godfather had slowed quite a bit without a teacher. But, Captain Kuro was actually quite the fount of information and abilities.

You would never have guessed that he would have stumbled upon the Soru technique your father had told you that higher ranked marines had in the Grand Line and managed to make a bastardized version of it.

And from watching him, you had been able to pick it up yourself, and apply it far better than he did as the so called 'Pussy Foot' technique.

If you had this technique a year ago when the Vinsmokes invaded, you could have cut down those three fools easily even with their soldiers backing them up. You could have possibly even saved your father and together turned the tide of the battle.

You sighed, shaking your head. There was no point dwelling on it. What was done, was done. And the marines weren't even reporting that it was Germa 66 that attacked your home invaded. As far as the world was concerned, your home was attacked by an alliance of pirates and destroyed who then disappeared into the grand line.

You cast a glance at the ship around you, noting the fighting was dwindling down. You shrugged and made your way over to the side of the ship before launching yourself in a large jump back over to the Black Cat's ship.

"Done already?" Captain Kuro asked, sending a raised eyebrow your way as you landed a bit away from him.

"More or less." you replied blandly, walking over beside him to lean over the railing of the ship.

"Good work, as always," Kuro beamed, patting you on the shoulder, "I'll make sure you get the lions share of the singular shares."

"Cool." you replied idly staring into the ocean.

                                                                               ___________

The mess hall of the Black Cat ship thundered with the cheers and applause of your fellow crew mates.

The reason why was, was held within your hands as you sat at one of the benches. A half eaten stake on your plate left forgotten.

'Red Magnus - Wanted Dead or Alive: 9,000,000 Beri.'

Your first bounty had come in this morning. The marines had finally captured a photo of you in the act when you slaughtered your way through a small marine ship a few days ago it seemed, and gotten a picture of you.

Quite the flattering picture. With you standing over the headless corpses of dozens of marines, absolutely drenched from head to toe in their blood.

"Magnus! Magnus!"

"Magnus! Magnus! Magnus!"

"Magnus! Magnus! Magnus! Magnus!"

"Magnus! Magnus! Magnus! Magnus! Magnus!"

The black cat pirates chanted your name in celebration of another one of their members getting a bounty. Having a bounty, was apparently like bragging rights for a pirate.

..But honestly. You were just disappointed. A mere nine million beri for your head? You owned more money than that, and you barely went out of your way to collect beri from raids and conquests you went out on with the crew.

You supposed it was because Captain Kuro only had a mere bounty of fourteen million and wasn't keen on raising it. And since you technically were his subordinate, that probably made the marines think he was stronger than you.

He wasn't.

Kuro was strong, for the East Blue. But he was only about as strong as you were when you first met him. You were far stronger than him now.

"Magnus, have a drink little buddy!" Jango approached and patted you cheerfully on the shoulder, slamming down a freshly poured pint of rum in front of you.

"I'm nine." you gave him a deadpan look.

"I'm thirty!" he replied with a laugh, spinning in place and striking a flamboyant pose.

....That in no way refuted what you said.

Well whatever. You may as well. You grabbed the pint glass by the handle and raised it to your lips, opening your mouth and downing the entire pint in one go.

It burned your throat as it went down, but you ignored it. You wouldn't cough and splutter like a fool in front of everyone.

"MAGNUUUSSSSS!" the crews cheers grew explosively louder.

As you slammed the glass down, you took a glance around the massive room, your eyes landing on Kuro. He lifted a glance of ale in congratulations to you, smiling and giving you a nod.

Then he turned away after holding your gaze for a moment and frowned at the wall.

Odd.

                                                                           ____________

You awoke to the feeling of a soft, plush and warm body next to your own. The memories of last night came rushing back, and as you stared up at the ceiling of an unfamiliar room, a wide grin split your face.

'That was awesome.' you chucked internally.

Yesterday had been your twelfth birthday. And not two days ago, did your bounty rise up again. You were now the most sought after man- boy- man in the East Blue, with a bounty of thirty six million. Higher than that of the most notorious of the East Blue, Buggy The Clown, your own captain Kuro and the fishman Arlong the Saw.

So Jango in his infinite wisdom, decided that the best way to celebrate your birthday was to visit a whore house and have you pop your cherry. You were a fool to doubt the man. Clearly there was a reason he was chosen to be first mate of the Black Cat pirates.

The warm body of the woman who's name you couldn't recall shifted and she let loose a low, seductive groan that set your spine tingling and blood rushing forth. "..You were something else," she sleepily muttered, eyes opening and giving you a lazy smile as she rose up on one hand, large, round breasts hanging from her chest and her nipples scraping against the rigid muscles of your stomach, "You really wore me out last night, you'd never think a little cutie like you was actually a virgin." she mused, pushing her long brown hair out of her eyes.

She had in fact not lasted an hour. You'd came quite quickly the first time, but after that, you got used to it and couldn't get enough. You mind flashed back to all the positions you went through with her. Riding your dick, breasts bouncing in your face, your hands sunken into the soft cheeks of her rear end. Your hand fisted into her hair as you took her from behind. Just thinking about it was getting you riled up again.

"Oh!" her eyebrows rose and mouth formed a small circle before she giggled, "Looks like somebody is excited early in the morning."

..Kuro wanted to meet you early this morning. But, you could put that off for a little while longer. It probably wasn't important.

Reaching up you threaded your fingers through the brown hair of her scalp and gentle pushed her head down towards your crotch, "Then you should probably take care of that."

"I suppose I should." she giggled, allowing you to guide her down. Moments later, you groaned as her lips wrapped around your cock head and began bobbing up and down.

It would be two hours later after you lost control of yourself and rutted her into unconsciousness and just kept going that you finally pulled yourself away from the voluptuous prostitute and returned to your ship.

Kuro wasn't mad at all. But he did inform you, that he was done being captain of the crew and he was passing leadership off to Jango. He, as it turned out, was going to fake his own death and become a butler to avoid the stress of being a pirate.

...Well okay. You weren't exactly going to stop the man. And you were only hanging around until the age of majority from your kingdom kicked around and then you were setting off for the Grand Line.

As almost content as you had been with the Black Cats in the last six years, they were no help towards your goal.

The goal to grow so strong that none could ever take from you again, while sticking it to the World Government. And when you felt ready, when you'd reached the pinnacle of your strength, you were going to hunt down Vinsmoke Judge and destroy everything he had built.

                                                                              ____________

You know, you had to admit. As far as goodbye presents go, Kuro's old captain coat that Jango never wore after he left, was much better than you expected it to be.

Today was the day you finally started your journey as a lone pirate to build you crew. And as a new pirate captain, Jango thought it only fitting you have a captains coat.

Honestly, you'd never paid it much attention when Kuro wore it. But, as you hopped off the dingy you rowed to Syrup Village and made your way up the slope of the island towards your destination, you couldn't help but examine the coat and marvel at how comfortable, yet stylish and durable it was. It even hid the blades hung over your back.

Kuro must have paid quite the pretty penny for this when he got it. Or, he probably just stole it knowing him you mused.

"Hiya!" a scrawny older boy in brown overalls with a really long nose stopped you as you reached the top of the slope and began making your way through Syrup Village towards the mansion at the top of the hill, the highest point in the island, "I've never seen you before. What brings you to the lovely Syrup Village buddy?"

You paused and looked him over, before shrugging, "Just visiting my uncle," you lied easily, "He goes by the name Klahadore, I hear he started working here a few years ago as a butler."

The teens long nose wrinkled in distaste and his thick lips tugged downwards into a frown, "Ah, yeah, you'll find him at the mansion up there, he's working for a friend of mine, Kaya," he pointed at the mansion you'd already planned on heading to, "He's really your uncle? You don't seem much alike." he gave you a suspicious stare.

You shrugged again, "I've not seen him in a while, I'm only coming to check because my mother was worried after not hearing from him for a while." you lied again.

One of the most vital skills of a pirate, at least according to Kuro himself, was that you needed to be able to lie.

"Ah, well, guess she can rest easy, that guy's fine, if a pain in the butt and a real grouch," he grumbled. He raised his finger and pointed at you then, "But no funny business you hear? If you get up to trouble on this island, I the great Captain Usopp and my crew of five thousand will take you down."

"Cool story mate." you shrugged and walked away, continuing on to your destination. You barely got ten feet away before you burst into laughter. And from behind you, you could feel the boys embarrassment with your haki.

He was incredibly weak. Strong maybe for the average person, maybe about half again as your average fully trained marine, but compared to you, he was like a bug. And you could clearly sense all the inhabitants of this island with how far your sensing range had grown with your haki over the years.

There wasn't even five hundred residents on this island, never mind five thousand.

As you were making your way up to the mansion, you paused, and then blinked. You felt something odd on your senses. You'd never felt anything quite like it before.

And it was coming from the small forest to the side of the village.

You had a delivery to pick up from Kuro and it was the reason you were visiting him in the first place. He just had better contacts than you as things were. 

But it wasn't like you were in any rush.

So you turned on your heel and with the use of soru, disappeared in a blur of speed, rushing towards the forest.

It was only a small distance, and the forest itself wasn't very large, so finding the weird signature blipping on your haki senses wasn't very hard.

"Huh." you blinked, staring up into a tree, bemused.

There were a bunch of banana's hanging from the trees, and amongst them  a very oddly shaped and very oddly colored fruit.

A devil fruit.

You never imagined you'd find one here of all places, on the day you decided to set out on your journey as a pirate good and proper.

You hopped up and plucked it from the tree before landing and examining it with your senses. It felt weird as well to your haki, but at the same time, there was like a tangible powerful pressure it exuded.

Now that you were up close and personal with it. It almost reminded you of the feeling you got from your dad, but at the same time wholly different. Did all devil fruits and users give off a pressure like this, you wondered?

You eyed the fruit in your closely for a few moments, a frown on your face. You were hesitating. You wanted to eat it. But at the same time, you did not.

It was always a gamble what power you would get from a devil fruit. You could end up with some useless power like soap or becoming a giraffe.

But at the same time. It was high risk, high reward. And there was potential to become the likes of a Logia. Become an element itself and be impervious to damage except to an elemental weakness, armament haki or sea stone.

'Don't be a pussy!' you psyched yourself up. Your father never pussied out when he found his fruit as just a child in the jungle of your kingdom. And you would not either!

Besides, you kind of liked the look of it. A pure pristine white with jagged ebony black steaks across it.

Swallowing all of your hesitation, you lifted it to your mouth and took a bite out of it.

The most rancid taste you'd ever felt upon your tongue assaulted your taste buds. Like liquid shit, mixed with swamp sludge, tar, candle wax, cigarette ash and the greasy sweat of a fat overweight loser.

It took all of your willpower to swallow and then take a second bite, and a third, before swallowing it fully.

"Ugh, I feel like I'm gonna be si-" you paused as the sick feeling suddenly passed and you feet energy rush through your veins.

And suddenly, you were rising, legs stretching and white fur sprouted along your arms while you felt your canines enlarge into fangs.

When you felt the change finish, you fasted no time in reaching into your black captains coat and pulling out one of your sheathed swords and staring into the shiny polished blade and the reflection looking back at you.

Your eyes widened at what you say.

You had grown a good two feet at least in height and bulked out quite a bit. And staring back at you from the reflection of the sword, was the face of a white furred, black stripped tiger.

You even had a thick, powerful tail that swished back and forth behind you. And you felt powerful! More powerful than you'd ever felt before. It felt like you could pick up a marine battleship and toss it over the Red Line!

"This is amazing!" you growled in pleasure and had to resist the urge to roar loudly and proudly.

It took you the better part of an hour to figure out how to revert back to your human form. And if it weren't for your haki letting you sense and feel the new energy within your body much easier, it would have probably taken you a hell of a lot longer.

With that done, and high in confidence and with a skip in your step, you made your way back out of the forest and walked your way up to the mansion Kuro had given you the address of when he faked his death.

You rapped on the large white oak doors and waited.

You didn't have to wait long. You could sense two people within the mansion and one of them was Kuro. It was the other one who answered. 

'Well hello.' you internally smirked when a pretty blonde haired girl a few years older than you opened the door. She was clad in a loose orange brown dress that showed off quite the curvaceous figure, you could even make out the indents of a decently large set of nipples through it.

My it was chilly today wasn't it?

She gave a light cough before smiling lightly at you, "H-hello," she greeted warmly, "You're a new face. I've never seen you around before."

"Hi, I'm Markus and you must by Kaya." you gently held out your hand, palm up. She smiled back and placed her hand daintily into your own and you lowered your head to press a kiss into the back of her hand.

She giggled lightly, cheeks flushing, "I'm Kaya yes, it's nice to meet you," the pretty blonde, "Is it fine if I ask what brings you here and how you know my name?"

"That's fine," you replied with alight laugh, "I'm actually here to visit my uncle. Klahadore is his name, and I heard your name from his letters when he sent them. I'm surprised though. He said you were pretty, I wasn't expecting you to be this gorgeous."

Her cheeks darkened and a giggle left her cute little lips. Her eyes sparked with energy a moment later as she registered what you said fully, "Oh, you're Klahadore's nephew!" she clapped her hands lightly and gestured for your to come in, "He told me about you a few times, it's really nice to meet you."

You followed her in and she closed the door, before walking in front of you, leading you deeper into the mansion. Your eyes fell to her curvy rear end stretching out the back of her orange dress like a shelf, and you could feel quite the mix of emotions from her.

Embarrassment. Delight. Excitement. Attraction.

God damn was Haki useful. 

You were led into the dining hall of the mansion, where you caught sight of Kuro polishing at a marble table, dressed crisply and neatly in black butlers uniform. Your lips twitched.

"Ah nephew, so good to see you," he put a smile upon his lips as he caught sight of you,  before giving Kaya a light chiding frown, "Lady Kaya, how many times have I told you, please don't force yourself. I know Merry and the other staff are a bit busy and will be for the next few days, but that's no excuse for you to push yourself, what if you condition flares up again."

"I'm fine Klahadore," the older girl waved him off lightly, "And it's not fair to expect you to do everything around here while everyone is away. And it was only opening the door."

Kuro let loose a put upon sigh before giving her a small, caring smile, "Very well, but please don't push yourself," he sighed in defeat, before turning to you, "You have good timing nephew. That package you wanted me to look into arrived this morning." he said, and reached into his pocket, pulling out the item within. It was a small glass orb held aloft by a wrist band with a compass needle in the middle.

A Log Pose.

"What's that?" Kaya asked curiously as you accepted it from your former glasses wearing captain.

"It's a log pose," you grinned, slipping it onto your wrist and holding it up for her to see, "It's a special compass you need to find your way and navigate through the Grand Line."

Kaya gasped, pretty eyes flying wide open, "The Grand Line?" she uttered, staring at you in awe.

You slipped a hand casually over her shoulder, "Yeah, would you like to hear about it?" you asked, "I'm planning on setting out there soon."

"Oh, I'd love to!" the blonde clapped excitedly, "The only one who ever tells me about the Grand Line is Usopp."

You had to stop yourself from snorting at the mentioned name. What would a weakling like that know of the Grand Line?

"Nephew, before you get comfortable," Kuro interrupted, frowning at you over Kaya's shoulder, "May I ask how long you plan on staying?"

"Eh, just the night," you shrugged lightly, looking back over your and the girls shoulder to wiggle your eyebrows suggestively at the man, drawing a pair of eye rolls from him, "That is, if it's okay with you Kaya."

"Oh please," the curvy older girl beamed at you when you turned to look back at her, "You must have had a long journey, the least I can do is let you stay the night."

And her bed if you had anything to say about it.

                                                                      ____________

"That's a good girl." you groaned.

It was hours later, after Kuro had 'happily' prepared dinner, and now you were up in Kaya's room, naked as the day you were born and sitting on the edge of her large, spacious and soft bed.

And just as naked as you, was the curvaceous blonde heiress herself. Lips wrapped around the thick head of your cock, stretched to the limit as she bobbed her head up and down in your crotch, gliding her lips along your length.

"Itsh sho big." she spluttered around your cock as she tried to talk, drool pooling sloppily from her lips. She wasn't quite the picture perfect the image of a dainty heiress here and now was she?

You reached down and filled your hand with one of her breasts, your fingers sinking into the doughy springy flesh and groping her. "All the better for what comes next love." you smirked, gently fisting one hand into her blonde locks and easing her off of your meat.

She panted as it plopped out, and you couldn't resist grasping it around the base and slapping it nastily against her forehead, leaving great big dollops of pre cum to drip down across the bridge of her nose.

"Oh!" she gasped, but didn't get to say anything else as you used the grip you had on her hair to force her to the underside of your cock and made her wrap her lips around your balls.

From there, it was a blur. You threw her onto the bed, grasping her by her petite arms and pulling them back as reigns to take her hard from behind, making her gasp and squeal your name.

Big tits bouncing wildly on her chest, ass jiggling and rippling as your crotch impacted against it on each bed shaking thrust.

You fucked her through several squealing orgasms slike that before dragging her up to the top of the bed and sitting against the head board and making the frail girl ride you for all she was worth, spanking her bouncy ass and loving the control you had over her.

And once you got tired of that you pushed off off onto her back and rutted into her missionary style, fucking her so hard the bed cracked hard against the wall and the legs sounded like they were about to snap, the busty older girl outright screaming in pleasure as her pussy twisted and contracted like a vice around you.

And with a roar, you came. You didn't bother pulling out and unleashed yourself in her, cumming by the bucket load, and only when you were hald down, did you pull out and unleash a heavy stream of jizz that caked her from pussy, up across her flat stomach, across her fat breasts and glazing her lovely face.

As Kaya collapsed limply, panting deeply, eyes rolled up into the back of her head and tongue hanging limply from between her lips you pulled back, lazily stroking your still hard cock and admired your handiwork.

And the river of thick white semen pouring from her gaping pink little pussy. It was hard to believe this girl was a virgin not an hour ago.

"Who's my good girl?" you asked, before smacking your cock heavily against her pulsing pussy lips and throbbing clit.

Kaya moaned, "I-I am, I'm your good girl." the busty blonde moaned.

"Yes you are," you chuckled, before pushing forward and squeezing your fat dick back inside her. The girl squealed, arching her back, "And we're not done yet, we're going all night Kaya."

And all that was exactly how long you went. You retreated to her room just at around seven PM, and didn't let her collapse in exhaustion until in three in the morning.

It was a very good night and you got your fill of Kaya and her soft, plush body.