3 Father's Determination

Leo had almost forgotten about the system, after the first week he tried training many times, but he found the training too difficult and painful, so he gave up. He decided not to go anywhere in the sea. Anyway, their town was considered very poor in the eyes of pirates, even the richest man, Bolt's father, was considered rich only because others were too poor, his only prized possession was his worn-out ship. Their town had not seen any pirate ship for almost fifty years, so he felt there is no need to worry much, as long as he did not leave this island he would be safe.

In the end, he really didn't take the One Piece world seriously. So the world itself decided to take him seriously. For god's sake, this is 'The One Piece' world, anything can happen anytime. Even if you don't go looking for trouble, it will come looking for you.

As usual, it was a normal day, Leo and Nejiko were tidying up their tavern. "Leo, go to Liam's home, see if they got any meat." She handed him the money. "If they any, buy five kilograms of it."

Leo wore his slippers and headed to Liam's home. On the way, he met Bolt near the fruit stall. He was playing with the fruit stall owner's granddaughter, Rose, she was three years old, the cutest and most annoying girl for us. She was riding on the Bolts back.

Bolt asked, "Where are you going, Leo?"

"To buy meat. Do you want to come? I think Liam went there yesterday, we can ask him about it." Leo was talking about Liam going into the forest.

Hearing this Bolt's eye brightened, and then again went back to normal. He had a helpless expression on his face. He gestured at the little girl on his back. "You can ask her."

Leo smiled at her as gently as possible, and asked, "Rose, can I take him with me?"

As soon as she heard he wanted to take him away, her face contorted, she made a crying face and yelled, "Grandpa, this bad brother is taking good brother away from me."

Leo hurriedly put a finger on his lips. "Shoo… Shoo…Shoo.." He tried to make her quiet. "Sorry. Sorry. You can play with him, he is all yours." He didn't want the old man to know that he almost made his lovely granddaughter cry, or else he would surely be beaten by him. No one messed with her in the town.

When she heard this, a wide smile crept onto her cute face. "I knew you were a good brother." For her, there were only two types of people, good or bad. She never called anyone by name, she would call others with the prefix good or bad, like, good sister, bad sister, bad uncle, good aunty, good grandfather, and so on.

Bolt and Leo looked at each other helplessly. Leo gave him thumbs up. "Good luck here, I am leaving, Bye."

"Bye."

Rose cheerfully yelled. "Good brother, let's chase that good ant." Bolt looked toward the old man in the fruit stall and sighed. With reluctance, he yelled, "Let's go."

After some time, Leo arrived at Liam's house. There were many animal pelts were drying under the sunlight in their front yard. Liam was swinging his wooden sword, by side his little sister, Emily, imitating him, with a wooden stick. On a big circular wooden block, Liam's dad was removing the skin from some unlucky rabbit.

When Emily saw Leo coming her face brightened up, it bloomed like the flowers in the spring, but suddenly it took a lightning-fast turn, and now there was the only disappointment on her face. "Ohhh… It's just you. I thought Bolt also came with you. You should train a little, just seeing you makes my eyes hurt."

Leo wanted to argue with her, but before he could open his mouth she had already gone inside the house. Leo was speechless. He thought inwardly, "I know, you don't like me. But at least try not to be so direct. It hurts."

Liam sighed at this. "Don't mind her, she is always like this. But she is right about one thing, you should train your body."

"I will," Leo replied halfheartedly.

"Did you come for the meat?"

"Yes." Leo leaned a little closer, and whispered, "Did you go to the forest yesterday?"

"What are you doing? Voice down a little." Liam was scared, he looked around for his mother, but he didn't find her, only then he heaved a sigh of relief. "If my mom had heard that, I would have been dead."

"Don't worry, you are just scaring yourself too much. Even your mom was nearby, she wouldn't have heard me." Leo laughed inwardly at Liam's sacred expression.

"You don't know how scary my mom can be, I have to be careful," Liam said shiveringly. "We will talk about the forest later in the evening."

"Okay then. Give me five kg meat."

"Okay, I will ask my da-" suddenly he stopped mid-sentence. Knife in his father's hand stopped moving, a pot of rice slipped from his mother's hand, dirtying the just cleaned floor, but she did not care, she did not even take a look at it, her attention was elsewhere, she went still. Emily who had just gone inside hurriedly came out, her face was pale.

Leo's heart skipped a beat. He couldn't believe what he just heard, not only he, but nobody believed. Everyone was telling themselves that, they must've heard wrong.

But the same loud voice again fell onto their ears and proved them wrong. "Pirates are coming!!"

Leo turned in the direction of the voice, and then he saw Blacky, who was yelling as he ran. After a moment he arrived in front of them, breathing heavily. Blacky is a boy from their friend circle.

Liam's father came to him with a stern face. "Boy, are you sure? You can't joke about this."

Blacky replied firmly. "Yes, I am. Their ship's flag has a Jolly Roger on it. When we saw them, they were already heading towards our town. Other two who were with me, they had gone to other parts of the town." Without waiting for their reaction, he continued. "I have to inform my parents." With that, he ran in the direction of his house.

Leo was screaming inside. "How's this possible? How's this possible? How could have they come to this town, there is nothing to loot here. No. No. This can't be happening" He was panicking.

Seeing Leo's expression, Liam's dad put his hand on his shoulder. "Boy, it's not the time to panic. Go tell your mom to come to the hideout in the forest."

"Yes, Yes. I have to tell my mom." He ran in the direction of his house as fast as possible. His mind was in a complete mess, he still couldn't believe what was happening. He was praying, pirates coming to be good ones, but he knew the chance of that was very slim.

On the way Leo saw people hurrying in the direction of the forest, it was complete chaos. He crashed twice into others before he reached his house.

On the other side, Liam's family had prepared themselves to head towards the forest. But just then Liam's father noticed four rough men with swords in their hands were heading towards their house. He mumbled to himself, "I guess, we're not so lucky."

He looked at his family, his eyes were filled with determination, like an unshakable mountain. "I think we have to change our plan, you three should go ahead, run as fast as you could to the hideout, I will meet you there later."

"What are you talking Dad?" Liam asked in confusion.

Liam's dad pointed in the direction of the pirates. Now, everyone noticed them, Emily and her mom were frightened. Liam's mother gathered herself and looked at her husband, her eyes met with his determined eyes, she had lived with him long enough to know what he was going to do. "Husband, I will be waiting for you, don't be late, or else you know what will happen." Tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Don't worry honey, your command is my life, I will be there on time." His eyes were also a little wet. He looked at Emily with eyes filled with full of love. "My baby, come here. Give your daddy a hug." She hugged him. He patted her head, "Don't worry, daddy will beat those bad guys, and I will be there with you no time."

"Yes, I know. Daddy is the strongest in the whole world." She truly believed that he was going to meet with them later.

When he looked at his son, his eyes did not have the same warmth as when he looked at Emily. Now there was only a strict father standing in front of his son. He said to his son in a stern voice, "When I am not present, you are the head of the family. When there is a need you must protect your family with your life."

Liam knelt in front of him, and with a firm voice said, "I understand Da... Father. Until my last breath, I will protect our family." And then he stood up.

Both of them just stared at each other for a while, no emotional parting words were said. There wasn't a need for such words between real men.

Liam with Emily in his arms, and his mother started running towards the forest. He never turned to look back at his father, tears were rolling on his cheeks.

When they were far enough, Liam's dad stopped suppressing his emotions, he let the tears run freely. He pulled out his sword and faced the enemies who were about to arrive.