10 Freedom

Jumping into the cold water Jack controlled the water away from his bag creating an air pocket that kept all his belongings dry as he moved deeper. Moving closer to the large passage through the rock that would lead him to the outside world he could feel the currents start to increase and try to pull on his body.

Pushing through, Jack arrives at the mouth of the tunnel and continues on. As he travels around 60 meters he starts to feel the strength of the current increase intensely threatening to bash him against the rocks at the slightest lapse in concentration. Feeling the raging waters around him he now realizes why Seagull implored him to only try to leave when he was strong enough.

Even with his ability to calm the surging currents around himself and ease the travel through the tunnel somewhat, it was still a great struggle to make it through. After traveling for over an hour Jack can finally start to feel the currents lessen in intensity indicating that he should be coming to the exit soon.

As if to confirm his thoughts he can start to see the water start to lighten up ahead and all at once he is spit out into the open sea. Feeling the vastness of the ocean around him makes Jack ecstatic at the thought of no longer being trapped within the confines of that cavern any longer.

When he realizes that he is finally free an overwhelming urge to see the blue sky again takes hold of him. Swimming up to the surface as fast as he can Jack shoots out of the water and into the air like a breaching whale. Seeing the vast expanse of blue sky dotted with fluffy white clouds, feeling the cool touch of the sea breeze, and smelling the freshness of the air causes him to be filled with unexplainable emotions.

Feeling gravity take hold of him and send him back to the sea below Jack summons up a stream of water to wrap around his legs and slow his momentum. Lowering himself down he comes to stand on the surface of the water itself. This is a neat trick he discovered when he was learning to change the speed of the water molecules to freeze and unfreeze water.

Instead of manipulating the speed of the molecule's movement to change the water's temperature, to stand on the surface of the water all he had to do was to will them hold their molecular bonds together. This increased the surface tension to the point that he was able to jump up and down on the water without sinking below the surface.

Utilizing this discovery not only allowed him to stand on water, but he also found that it increased the impact when using water attacks like the water bullet and water whip which were both self-explanatory in design. It seemed like the more he experimented the more he found that he had total control over water down to even the molecular scale and all that held home back is his own strength and haki level.

Standing and just taking in the beauty of the sky that has been absent from his life for so long Jack revels in the feelings that his newfound freedom brings. After a few moments, he returns to his human form and turns to his surroundings.

On one side is the gargantuan Red Line while on the other he sees nothing but never ending ocean. He is in a bit of a tight spot on figuring out his next move as even though he has the map it doesn't show where his location on the Red Line is. This makes it hard to know which direction he should travel in to reach the nearest island.

With no other option, he decides to travel to his left and follow along the Red Line. Eventually, this will bring him to Reverse Mountain. From there he can make it to the closest island which would be Lvneel Island home to the kingdom of the same name. That place will be where he begins his adventures.

Deciding to take his time he walks on the surface of the water while enjoying the breeze and sunshine. Continuing on in this way till evening he then descends into the water to see if he can get a fish for dinner. Instead of chasing one down Jack decides to try out his ability to command aquatic life. Stretching out his senses, he swims until he finds a sizable fish that will make a hearty meal.

With his target in the range of his senses, he sends his will out demanding that the fish come before him. Sure enough, he can sense the fish stop moving for a moment as if struggling with itself before turning and heading in his direction. Seeing this brings a smile to Jack's face as this will make keeping himself fed much easier but at the same time, it is almost too easy and takes the fun out of the hunt.

Entrapping the fish in a prison of ice which flash freezes it, effectively killing it in an instant. Returning to the surface he brings the globe of ice into the air before him he melts it and takes the fish to gut and clean the fish as Seagull taught him.

With the meat of the fish cleaned and prepared for cooking Jack brings up another sphere and puts the uncooked fish into it then makes it boil effectively cooking the fish held within. While the fish is being cooked he brings up another globe of water and starts to make it boil over his two open palms. Boiling the water down to nothing leaves a small pile of sea salt in his hand which he keeps for later to season his meal.

When he has had his fill he then submerges himself and sits in a meditative pose and rests while the energy of the water renews his stamina. In this way, he spends a few hours be for moving underwater at his top speed while keeping the stone of the Red Line in range of his senses.

Once dawn breaks on the next day Jack returns to the surface and continues his stroll along the ocean. In this way, two days pass while he strolls along. Around noon on the third day while jack is walking and enjoying the day out of the corner of his eye he spots a shape in the distance.

Turning his attention to see what exactly it is that he spotted Jack has a hard time making it out. Deciding to drop down beneath the waves and moving in its direction he uses his water sense to discover that it is a large mass floating on the ocean's surface.

Raising his head above the water once he is close enough he sees a caravel sized ship sailing through the waves. It doesn't seem to be a pirate or marine ship as its flag is white with a golden sun encircled by a grapevine. Thinking that he can make it to some civilization sooner than possible Jack gains a mischievous smirk on his face.

Gathering himself he launches up onto the deck of the ship much to the disbelief of its crew. With exclamations of shock and fear, the ship's crew rush to ready anything they could use to defend themselves in case this stranger that appeared out of nowhere turns out to have hostile intentions.

With wooden clubs, some swords, and a few pistols pointed in his direction and shouts to identify himself and what he is doing on their ship Jack couldn't help letting out a laugh. Amused at there poor excuse of weaponry, as they barely seem prepared to face any dangers that abound at sea, he moves to assuage their concerns.

"Whoa there mates, I mean you all no harm I just want a ride to your destination.", Says Jack in a calming voice and a charming smile.

Hearing his words that sounded oddly like they were spoken by a young child, some of the hostility drained from the crew but there was one amongst them that was still cautious. This man stepped forward and addressed Jack, "Want a ride?! HA! That aside, where the hell did you even come from?!? Where in the middle of the ocean with no land around! Is this some kind of trick? Are you some kind of pirate or something?? ANSWER ME!"

Seeing the man before him getting riled up Jack couldn't help but laugh. Thinking to himself, 'Fuck it, if I'm going to be a pirate I might as well own it'. Replying to him with a large smile Jack says, "Why yes.. Yes I am, how kind of you to notice... I'm Captain Jack Sparrow, at your service.. HAHAHAHA"

Jack couldn't help laughing out loud as he was tickled beyond words that he finally got to announce his new name to the world for the first time.

Hearing this, the ship's captain that spoke out stood there blinking his eyes with a blank face and tried to make sure he wasn't hearing things. Even though he asked the question he didn't expect the man to flat out admit to being a pirate straight to his face with no hesitation.

After processing what he heard, the immediate response that followed was, "AAHHHHH PIRATE!!!! He is here to kill and rob us of our merchandise!! Quick Shoot him down!!"

Hearing the man admit to being a pirate and their captain's orders, the faces of the crew hardened and those that held guns aimed them at the self-proclaimed pirate and pulled the trigger. Hearing the order and the crew taking aim, jack called up his spear that was waiting in the waters below and quickly spun it before him to deflect all the bullets that shot at him.

With a hearty laugh, Jack stuck his spear into the deck and moved to swiftly incapacitate the helpless crew while making sure not to hurt them too badly. In his mind, this was all fun and games and he didn't truly mean these people any harm.

He made a promise when Seagull explained the circumstances concerning his devil fruit and how the world government would react to him. Jack made the choice to embrace what they would label him as but promised that even though he will be a pirate he will not be an evil man that harms innocent civilians.

He will pirate the pirates and the marines that support the World Nobles in their atrocities. Those are the people that he will freely act against but he sees no need to seriously harm common people like these that pose no threat to him. So while he might give them a good sized lump on their heads, they aren't in any real danger with him.

Seeing the person, that he thought to be a dead man, move faster than his eyes could follow scared the captain so badly that he shivered down to his bones. Before he could process just what was happening he saw all his crew slump to the ground before he was suddenly shadowed by a large form.

Looking up into Jack's eyes and seeing a smirk that to the captain looked like a smile of a demon he couldn't help but nearly piss himself from fright. Seeing the shivering man that looked to be on the verge of a mental break down Jack couldn't help but feel a little bad. But then he remembers that they shot at him and figures that they are even now.

"HAHAHA Look at your face man! Calm down, calm down I'm not going to hurt you or rob you or anything like that.. HA! That was fun though haha well I'm going to sit here by the mast and wait till we reach our destination... Just let me know when we're close." Saying this Jack moves and sits down with his large back against the mast and acts like he didn't just beat down around twenty people and all is right in the world.

Hearing Jack's words and seeing the scary man sit down and act like nothing is wrong dumbfounded the captain. Not sure what to make of these bizarre events, all he can do is rush to check on his crew once he was sure that this Jack Sparrow would attack further. Going from man to man he is relieved that they seem to be ok and that his men were simply knocked out for a few moments with many of them already stirring awake.

With his crew alright they start to whisper to each other, trying to make heads or tails of the situation that they find themselves in. After a bit of converting they come to a consensus that this man is way out of their league.

Seeing as he could have killed them all easily and the fact that he held back gave them hope. Perhaps this pirate was different from the rest and really didn't mean them any harm. The only way to find out was to try and talk to him but they didn't want to bother him at the same time.

Finally mustering up some courage the captain of the ship hesitantly walks up tho the relaxed form of jack that had his eyes closed with his hands behind his head just soaking up the sunshine and sea breeze.

Seeing how laid back this man is made a weird look come to the captain's face but pushing himself he cleared his throat and asked, "Ummm excuse me Mr. Sparrow but did you really mean what you said?.. that you really won't harm or rob us?"

Hearing the question Jack opened his eyes and looked at the man standing before him, "Of course why would I want to harm you guys? You all are no threat to me and even though I'm a pirate I don't just go around pillaging everything I see, I do have standards ya know."

Hearing this caused the ship captain's lip to twitch, "Then why did you knock out all my men?"

Looking at the captain like he was stupid, Jack replied while rolling his eyes like it was the most obvious thing in the world, "Because you shot at me"

This caused the captain to have to fight the urge to not curse at the man. Taking a deep breath he replied to Jack, "Well thank you for not seriously hurting us as it's clear you have the ability to.. You said that you want to travel with us to our destination and that's fine, I welcome you aboard the Kingscup.. we are a merchant vessel on our way back to Micqueot which is our home island. My name is Captain Elclark"

Hearing this brings a smile to his face and Jack says to the captain, "Well thanks for having me aboard Mr. Elclark, I'll be in your care for the time being"

The cordial tone of Jack further sets Elclark's mind at ease, "Alright it should be about three days till we reach port, till then I'll leave you be... Oh, would you be needing a bunk in the crew quarters Mr. Sparrow?"

"No that is quite all right.. The weather's nice so I'll sleep under the stars", Replied Jack.

"Well then, I'll get back to my duties" Saying this, the captain went back to what he was doing before the craziness that is Jack Sparrow befell his ship.

Jack went back to enjoying the sun and before long got hungry as he had yet to eat lunch when he spotted the ship. Getting up and grabbing his spear caused the nearby crew to tense and look warily at what he was doing. What they saw next though caused their mouths to drop as Jack walked right up to the railing and jumped over into the sea without a word to anyone.

Shocked and not sure what to make of what just happened they could only gawk at each other and then go report to their captain. Hearing what was reported to him, Elclark also didn't know what to make of what happened. As he went to the deck to see if he could spot the strange pirate the man in question launched up out of the water and back on deck with two large fish impaled on his spear.

When Jack saw the looks on the faces of the people around him he couldn't help but let out a laugh. Walking up to the captain he asked him to have the two fish cooked up and that one was for him and one he was giving to the crew as thanks for taking him along.

Seeing the large fish that was to be their next meal the crew cheered as they haven't eaten such a tasty looking fish since the last time they were home. Hearing the excitement of his men the captain couldn't help but let out a chuckle and he thought that perhaps having this weird pirate around wouldn't be such a bad thing after all.

The next day came after spending the night resting on the deck enjoying the breathtaking sight of the stars up in the sky. Jack spent much of it in the same way as the last enjoying the sun and the motion of the ship sailing through the waves.

Late in the afternoon, he was suddenly disturbed by the frantic call of, "PIRATES!! Of the stern side one hundred meters out and gaining fast!! Orders Captain?!"

Hearing this caused Jack to get up and look at what was causing the ruckus. Sure enough there trailing them and catching up quickly was a ship with a black flag. The sails sported a design that caused Jack's face to contort into a visage of suppressed rage.

As the ship got closer they could make out the pirates jolly roger and it looked like two wings angled up and two bones angled down making an X behind the face of a bird... but it wasn't just any bird that could elicit such a reaction from Jack.

Seeing that these jackasses dared to make such a thing the symbol of their crew, Jack could help but spit, "These fucking bastards are really asking to die..."

With eyes full of fiery hatred, Jack moves to the back of the ship among the worried looks of the Kingscup's crew and then jumps off...