Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Chapter 3– A Ship Arrives.

Edited: 05/03/2023

------------------------------------

I am currently walking through the village while keeping my eyes open for any opportunities that might make my life easier. Still, in a small town like this, there aren't so many of those, so I have just ended up mindlessly wandering through the village and observing the townspeople, who are all very friendly and neighbourly since this village is a tight nit community.

I am ashamed to say that quite a few people in this village actually know my name and who I am. In contrast, I don't remember theirs because I never really paid attention to any of them and mainly just fought with the kids at the orphanage and interacted with the townspeople a few times. Still, I never really paid them anytime as opposed to those who seem to have remembered me, and they shout out friendly greetings as I pass them by.

Eventually, I make it to the docks at the beach, which is a different beach than the one I live at since Shokuyasi Village is a coastal town that is at the very end of the Conomi Islands with it being surrounded on three of its sides by the seas and the other path being the one that leads to the other villages on the island.

Shokuyasi Village itself is more concentrated to the right of that piece of the island, having the sea close by on the north and east, and there is a long old path to the beach to the west, which is where I currently live. So it is pretty isolated from the village and different from the other two beaches, which are heavily populated, with the north beach having the docks of the town.

Walking along the docks, I look at the various buildings where workers are constantly coming in and out of with multiple things and out at the boats where fishermen are standing around on ships that are coming in and out of the harbour with varying shipments on board. Still, mainly they are carrying in fish that they have caught fishing out and seas, and I catch sight of one particular fishing boat pushing out of the harbour.

My eyes trail it as it drifts off into the sea, and I watch it become smaller and smaller, becoming a dot before I can no longer see it. I am just staring out at sea with the sun high up in the sky, shining down and reflecting off of the luminescent waves. I can't believe just how beautiful the ocean looks right now because the sea back in my previous life would not be able to compare to this at all with how polluted it was.

Amazed by the sight, I walk to the end of a dock and sit down, letting my legs dangle off of the side. My toes tip down into the water as I watch the mesmerising wonder in front of me and calmly watch it while feeling a sense of peace that I have never felt before. I can't help but wonder just what other amazing sights there are out there that I haven't seen yet because this world, unlike my last one, is not adequately explored, or at least it is not documented for everyone since in my previous life, everything was pretty much studied. It was all recorded on the internet, but there is nothing like that here in this world.

Of course, I have read a few of the World Economy Newspapers. Still, I was more focused on getting stronger and fighting the other kids at the orphanage, so I didn't pay much attention to any other things that were going on but from the classes at the orphanage. These rumours spread among the children, and I have a pretty basic understanding of this world from some of the newspapers I read.

This world is split up into four different seas called the North Blue, the Sout Blue, the West Blue and the East Blue, which is where I live. Apart from that, a big red cliff separates the East and South blues from the North and West blues. Then even those seas are split up as well because of this big ocean that cuts through the planet, which is somehow perpendicular to the big red wall and then even that sea, which is called the Grand Line, is further separated from the other blues by two strips on either side which is called the Calm Belts which for some reason stop boats going through (It was never really explained, we were just told too never go into the calm belt).

The only sources of information about the rest of the world come from the World Economy Newspapers, and they mainly talk about the significant events and are very focused on the battles between great pirates and marines, which were quite fun to read about and apart from that you only get newspapers that are local on islands, and that is it for information which makes me very curious about what is actually out there to be explored because this world for me is full of mystery just because of the weird set up of the ocean and that is not to mention all of the rumours I have heard.

Rumours about massive creatures in the sea called Seakings, the immensely powered people that exist that can destroy mountains with a punch, the different humanoid species out there, with the most interesting being the mermaids and those people with wings, the apparently magical abilities that can be gained from eating some funky Devil Fruits.

By far the most exciting thing I've heard, which obviously has some truth to it, is the existence of the Pirate King Gold Roger, who has the greatest treasure in the world, the One Piece, which is the cause of the uprise of pirates in the world and the most confusing since people are fighting over something they only know the name of or maybe they are fighting over the title of Pirate King which only belongs to the person who has possession of the One Piece.

I think about all this and more while sitting there looking out at the seas as the sun slowly sets. I daydream and wonder about all the fantastic things out there that are not being put in the newspapers and that the World Government and the Marines are keeping hidden. I can't help but wonder what mysteries and amazing things are out there, just waiting to be found. I can't see myself staying on this island forever since it seems kind of boring, and I want to go out there and see if all those rumours are actually true and if there are actual mermaids out there and if I can find one called Ariel to help me live out my own Disney story.

I continue to look out at the sea, and I finally notice that the sun is actually setting and the day is turning into night. And I have wasted my whole day just sitting here when I should have been improving my situation, so I go to get up and leave. Still, before I do, I spot a dot in the distance directly in front of the sea that slowly gets bigger in my eyes and thinking that it is the fishing boat that went out earlier, I stay sat to watch it so that I have at least gone full circle.

As it pulls in closer and closer, I realise it is much too big to be a fishing boat and the fact that it is blue and white sails and a pale green body with a brown strip. It also has a dog's face on the front that has a bone in its mouth, and did I mention that the World Government symbol is on the front of one of the sails and behind that sail is another that says MARINE.

I sit and watch as the marine ship draws closer and closer and find myself oddly excited because this is the first time I am seeing the law enforcement of this world. If any of those rumours are true, then obviously, some of the people on board that ship should be proof of them since they are tasked with protecting the innocents of the world and should have mighty power to fight off all the pirate scum that terrorise villagers and innocents everywhere, the marine ship has finally drawn close enough that I can see all of it correctly.

I can see that it is a ship made for battle. Still, it also has its quirks, as its crow nests resemble a dog house while the figurehead resembles a dog head with a bone in its mouth and this ship has a lot of sails on it, and the masts are shaped like bones with dog paws with all of this clearly stating the overall theme of this vessel is dogs.

The marine ship is now pulling into the harbour and wanting to get a closer look at all the marines that will no doubt be disembarking (ha, barking, like the ship) the ship and flooding into town to do whatever it is that they have come to do here. So I jump up from my spot at the end of one of the docks and quickly book it over to the dock where the marines have anchored. I slide to a stop as they lay down the plank with a slap of wood meeting wood. I stand awed as marines pour out of the ship and down the plank in neat single-file order, and then they line up on either side of the dock and hoist their guns to the sky against their shoulders as they stand to attention, and I am inspired by the discipline and machismo.

All the marines that came down just now were regular human beings. Still, they were impressive none the less but what I saw next truly broke open the boundaries of my mind because I saw a tall, tanned, broad-chested, muscular old man with a grey beard and a scar over his left eye, blue eyes, and grey hair walk down the plank and then along the dock. Of course, all the marines saluted and shouted at sir when he stepped foot onto the dock. Still, what genuinely shocked me was this man's height as, from a glance, he seemed to be around 9'5", and by comparison, I didn't even make it to the size of his knees, and I was actually pretty tall for my age.

This man was very clearly the boss of this ship as he wore a completely white ensemble having white leather shoes, white pants, a blue shirt with a green tie that strained against his broad chest, over that he wore a white suit coat which was one of those weird ones that had one side wrapped over the others kinda like when you wrap a towel around yourself. It had six gold buttons on the coat, keeping it close, with there being two lines of three which are parallel to each other. His cufflinks are gold too.

Overall, he wears a majestic long white coat that has golden and blue shoulder pads that look kinda regal. But, by far, the weirdest thing about this guy is the bloody dog mask that he wears, which is basically just the cut-off head of a big yellow dog with brown marks and stripes on it, and its eyes have a light yellow fabric on it.

By far, the most maniacal thing is that the dog mask still has all of the sharp teeth in place. So this crazy old man's head is inside the mouth with those dangerous pointy teeth looking dangerously close to his eyes and chin, but he doesn't seem to care as he walks down the dock towards me while munching on some crackers or something.