Grim And Roger

"Years ago, I was the captain of my own crew. As I said, Captain 'Death's Hands' Grim of the Beamer Pirates. Thinking back on it, you would most likely have considered us to be the worst pirates out there, a crew full of murderers, killers, and all the like. But we all respected each other, mostly because of our similarities of being killers of some kind. Some of them died by the hands of other members of the crew, but we had a single rule, 'Do not kill the crew'. And so, those on the crew who couldn't hold their bearings until finding others to murder, were themselves, murdered. This may seem like a stupid thing to you, but you could say we were pirates."

He looked fondly at the sky, as I was still surrounded by massive amounts of compressed air, all ready to launch at me along with Taki, and completely destroy the both of us.

I was sweating a little, but I still listened intently, as I wanted to know this guy's deal while trying to escape.

'Seriously? He's fine with murder? Is he like Rocks? Someone after power for some reason? I want to say "You can't just murder and be fine with it", but the explanation of "you could just say we were pirates" makes waaaaay to much sense. He's closer to Kid than anyone else. At least Kid had some character changes during the fight on Onigashima.'

"Anyways, I got off topic, we were just fine, and they were helpful on my journey to become the strongest." His face went dark. "That is, until Roger got in the way."

"Um.. I think I asked for-"

"I know what you asked for. A full story, right? A slight inconvenience of delaying your death and wasting my time, but testing if you truly remember me is a trivial thing. Either way, you will end up dead, wether or not you hear what happened."

"Okay...?"

"It all went down three years ago...."

"CAPTAIN! THE ROGER PIRATES ARE IN SIGHT! THEY SEEM TO BE ON THE ISLAND IN FRONT OF US, RESTOCING OR SOMETHING!" One of the members of my crew yelled from the crow's nest.

I spoke in a normal tone for no one to hear "Roger, you seem to be in a place set up for an ambush. Is this intentional, or just an idiotic thing that they did?"

The island me and my crew were directly looking at in front of us was a large one, consisting of what looked like a massive pile of clay made up of many layers, along with some stone. That clay and stone looked like it was carved out by water, forming many branching paths of water flow all around the island. But there was no sand anywhere on the island except for on the beaches, which looked a bit odd having hardened clay and then sand. The island was called Calwasoun.

The Roger Pirates were docked at one of the ports at one of the entrances to the canyon, with a small town lining the canyon walls from the bottom to top. The port was just at the bottom of the canyon, overlapping the ocean.

"What should we do captain?" One of my crew members, Tanner, came up behind me and asked. He was possibly the most important person on the crew, besides the vice-captain, mostly because of the bond we shared.

I thought on what he asked for a second, and then spoke "...READY THE CANNONS! WE'LL TAKE THEM ON AS SOON AS WE ARRIVE! GET RID OF ANYONE WHO GETS IN THE WAY!"

A lot of roaring followed that yell, mainly "YEAH!" coming from most of the crew.

The cannons all fired at nearly the same time, hitting the Oro Jackson along with the port behind it. We were sailing right by the Oro Jackson, almost side by side, but far enough to not ram the ships in to one another. We passed by before the anchor dropped, and once it hooked, our ship swung around to stop at the dock. Immediately, all hell broke loose.

All of my crew jumped over the side, ready to go and wreak hovoc over the town, and as the dispersed, some of the Roger Pirates who were on their ship noticed, and some decided to try and stop them.

But I wasn't going to let their fun be ruined.

I jumped down too, and immediately went to try and find Roger, or at least lure him to me. One of the crew members that appeared in front of me seemed pretty weak, as I could tell with my Haki that he wasn't strong enough to be a high rank. It was a kid, but he had an aura of animosity around him from his own Haki.

"I don't have the time for a child, but you will make a great sacrifice to bring Roger here quicker."

After a short battle, one that lasted only two moves, I had killed the kid.

Looking down at his corpse that had a hole straight through it, I spoke "No hard feelings, but no one else offered themselves up."

Just standing there, I took in my surroundings, and found that the town was starting to go up in flames, and several fights had broken out between the Roger Pirates and my Beamer Pirates. Around me on the port were several fights that had also broken out, the Roger Pirates were yelling that they would kill me as they were being held back by my own crew.

"Take them out."

Those words were the only thing to cause my crew to immediately try to instantly kill these people too. Several of them also died, and the blood started to stain the floor.

"Maybe Roger will take us seriously as come as quickly as he can."

A rumbling came from the distance, and then Roger appeared in front of me, swinging his sword, imbued with Armament.

With that, I blocked it using my arms, also covered in Armament. But it overpowered me, and flung me through a few burning buildings.

I heard him yell "MAKE SURE THE INNOCENTS GET OUT OF HERE! THEY'VE KILLED LAUST, VERIN, AND GERI, SO TAKE CARE OF THE BEAMER PIRATES!"

And that was cause to a loud yell of pain and anger from the Roger Pirates, that I, who was under some rubble, could still hear, as it echoed through the canyon.

I immediately got up, pushing the remains of a roof off of me and standing up.

"ROGER! I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU!"

"I'VE HEARD OF YOU, GRIM! I READ THE NEWS PAPER ABOUT YOU WANTING TO BECOME THE STRONGEST, BUT I FIND THAT KILLING IS A COWARDS WAY TO STRENGTH!"

I noticed Roger's face, which was one of anger, as a vein could be seen. And then, he charged at me, taking a leap towards me, falling down from the air to swing down towards me.

I quickly grabbed the remains of the roof that was in top of me, lifted it up and then it swirled into a liquid, reforming into a single giant beam. Launching it, Roger swung at the beam, immediately cutting it in half, and the force itself caused an invisible blade slash to fly past me, being seen around the town, as if he could cut the whole place. But while it didn't go through everything, it left gashes in the still remaining wood, and some houses that I could tell were empty homes were, which were cut in half, which also ended up killing some of my crew who had been nearby in the town, hiding behind buildings ready to attack.

Their screams were those of absolute pain, and then there was no more screaming, as they died. I looked at Roger, who had a very angry expression, as he pulled Ace, his sword, back to swing again. Once he swung, he swung downward again, then causing a massive cut from my jaw, down my chest, and ending near my leg. Blood came from all of those cuts, and I almost died in that moment. But I didn't, as my will burst out, because I wanted to become the strongest.

"So, what happened after that?"

Grim looked at me, exhasperated. "I was getting to that. Or would you prefer me kill you quicker?"

"N-nope. Sorry, continue."

After making a couple of beams to attack Roger, I hadn't left more than a scratch on him, and on the opposite side of the spectrum, I was covered in wounds. I was leaning against a broken wall in pain, head looking at the ground.

"...ie."

Roger was walking towards me when he heard that come from my mouth. A burning tower fell behind him, making a square of space to fight in, as the rest was broken buildings.

"What was that, Grim?"

"...on't die."

"You won't die? As someone who's strong to someone who wants to be strong, you have gone about it all wrong. I'm not going to step all over your dream, but I will step over how you did it. You kill for fun. When me and my crew kill, it is to bring retribution to those who truly deserve it. Never any innocent lives, just those who themselves kill, or do one of the many horrible things in the world."

"..."

Roger sighed, then walking up to me, and immediately holding up his blade.

"Grim. If you went down a different path, then maybe we could have been rivals. But you've gone down the wrong one."

"...I SAID.. I WON'T DIE!"

As soon as Roger swung down, I turned myself into a beam, and made myself fly away to anywhere besides Calwasoun.

While flying away, I could see the remnants of the battle, as the town was burning, smoke was billowing from the town, as well as my own ship.

'Tanner, everyone, I'm sorry.'

"I vividly remember that, because I lost my best friend, my crew, and my dignity by running away to preserve myself and myself alone."

"Huh."

"Do you remember now?" Grim asked.

'OF COURSE I STILL DON'T REMEMBER! I'M NOT ORIGINALLY BUGGY, SO I DONT HAVE THESE MEMORIES!'

"No. But before you kill me, could you tell me what happened after that?"

Grim looked defeated, and then spoke "If you must know, I landed on this island, where those guys found me, who had passed out from blood loss and was very near death. They saved me. They made me stronger through modifying my body, adding bits and pieces to make me into a weapon of mass destruction. Not only for them to protect themselves, but also for me to become stronger. You see, when I woke up and processed everything, I vowed to kill Roger, the man who defeated me twice. Once through his bounty, and twice through nearly killing me."

'That logic is horrible. He really doesn't realize what he's done before, and I've only heard of him through this story he told me.'

"Wait. Captain Roger is dead. What does that mean for you?"

"Oh, as soon as I heard news of his execution, I was overjoyed to hear he was getting what was coming to him. But I was angry about not personally being able to kill him, so instead, I vowed to kill the remnants of the Roger Pirates by myself once my augmentations were finished."