Broken home

"Now I know why all those MC complain about being a small child." Zen sigh as he was recalling the past trees years of his life. He was kneeling on the ground looking up at the sky, he lifted his head and took another look at the burning building that used to be his home.

"I'm sorry mom and dad, I couldn't save either of you. But I will keep my promise to you, I will live a good life and grown-up strong." Tears fell from his eyes as Zen looked back up to the night sky.

For three years he had a happy family, a loving mother and a gentle father. At first, he hated being a baby, with an adult level of intelligence it was hard not to get bored from all that baby talk. He came to understand the languages very quickly, but not being able to communicate almost drove him nuts. But the worse was having his diaper changed, having someone else clean him up was humiliating. As for breastfeeding surprisingly, he had no aversion to it, he only felt hungry no weird attraction or embarrassing feeling, just plain old hunger.

For his earlier childhood, he surprises his parents with his maturity and intelligence. To be honest, he personally wouldn't call himself a genius, figuring out to put the red square in the same shape hole, and all other shapes in their respective holes weren't exactly genius material. But with his already adult awareness, it certainly gave that illusion. He was happy, and the rest of the village wasn't all that bad either. He found out that he was in north blue, but his village was not very big just around 60 to 70 people living in it. So it didn't have any marine base on it, which unfortunately made them easy picking for the pirates that destroyed his home.

"What the hell could I do, except hide as my mother told me." Zen mumble to no one, the sounds of the dying fire burning in his village was his only answer.

"I'm Thorncroft D Zen, and I will have my vengeance. Or I hope I will, that is if the pirates that did this don't go and get themselves killed before I get strong enough." Zen got up and look around as far as he could see the whole village was smoking with its final burning remains, not one soul was left alive beside him.

He got up and slowly made his way around, he was looking and hoping in finding at the very least one person alive. Sadly all he saw was more mutilated bodies of people he once knew. The pirates after landing, took everything, food, water, gold and their lives. They didn't give a reason, they just started killing. After the villager chief had cooperated with the demands of the pirates, the pirates just laughed and started killing everyone. Not even bothering in catching anyone to sell off or for entertainment later. They just killed as they laugh and cackled maniacally, their eyes glowing in a hazy purple as if they were all high on something.

His parents had built a crawl space under the house, it was only big enough for a small child to hide. So he stayed under his house for as long as he could, crying as he heard the death cries of his parents and fellow villagers. What else could he have done, he was only three years old, the only edge he had was remembering parts of his past life.

Oh and also knowing about the One piece world. He didn't get a broken system to gift wrap him some overpower devil fruit right off the bat. Or some ghostly ancient master that would point him on the path of cultivation. Nor did he have some broken potential coming out of his ass, he was a normal human with his past life that did not give him any immediate boost, except maybe being more mature and knowing some secrets of this world from the manga, anime and movies.

"In the manga and anime, the One piece world wasn't so dark." Zen had stop and kneeled in the middle of the village. He gave one last look around, he had spent a few hours looking, but he came up empty. The fire was dying down as most of the houses were now nothing more than all the black empty husk. But the smoke kept going strong, it towered black in the sky.

He remained kneeling, lost in the burning village not knowing what to do.

"Doesn't the protagonist, bounce back quickly in all those novels." A sad smile across his face, as he tried to come up with a witty remark. Only to come up with nothing but pain and sorrow. He felt empty, he had raged at first, then tried humour but all he found now was a void so deep he didn't know if he could come out of it. He learned something he'd known even before coming here, the strong ruled while the weak tremble. But he now had a front role seat to this truth, he honestly would have much preferred not having had one.

A few more hours passed as he simply stayed there with a blank look on his face.

"Isn't there going to be anyone coming to find me?" Zen whispered as he looked around. Someone should have seen the smoke on another island. It's was only a few hours of travel from at least three islands in the area. On two of them, there was a marine base, yet he was left all alone as if what had happened was ignored.

"The pirates took everything, assuming the next supplies shipment still comes around. They will only be here in two weeks. So I got to make a choice stay here and wait, or make myself a raft and try to get to the nearest island." Zen looked down on himself not very optimistic about building a raft with a child body. On the other hand, staying on the island without food and water with a very unlikely rescue, was equally unappealing. He still had no idea why the marine had not to send any scouts to see about the smoke.

Just last year they had a small bone fire, the marine on both bases sent out a scout just to make sure everything was ok. But now after a pirate attack, they should've seen the ship coming to this island, but nothing, no reaction, and even after the pirates left, no scouts to check on survivor? What the hell was going on?

For the past three years, life was good, but suddenly this happens, his family killed for the sick pleasure of those pirates. The marine that proudly shouted about justice and protecting the people are hiding in their base twilling their thumbs like scared obedient dogs. Even if he knew better about their stance when it came to nobles. As for the so-called revolutionary, also a no-show, but to be fair the whole revolution was still probably only an idea at this time.

"I promise my parents that I would grow up strong and kind, but I think I have to change who Ill be kind to in the future. Also, my chances are better if I leave, on a raft or maybe just a log will do? I don't remember anyone having any mind control fruit, but if I think about it the pirate's action is weird, this whole situation is weird. NOTHING MAKES SENSE!" He screams his void-like trance burst and left him in a highly destructive emotional spiral. He got up and started throwing pieces of burn wood around as he screamed and shouted, tears came down, his eyes turn red from the tears and rage he felt. He wanted something to blame a target for his wrath, but he had no clear target since this all seemed so surreal.

An hour later he calmed down enough but he was still feeling like crap, his head was a little clearer, his stomach made itself known with a growl. Looking around he searched for anything that he could eat. All he managed to find was some trash scraps that on any normal day he wouldn't touch. But he was hungry and tired, he needed all the energy he could get for the long workload of just getting off the island.

"Guest this will do for now." He looked at the semi-burn wooden door he found. As he grips the piece of burn wood in his hands, it had a paddle-like shape. Looking at it one could tell it wouldn't take much for it to break. It was the best he could find, he wasn't confident in his none existing woodworking ability and child-like body, in making himself an actual raft and paddle. Instead, he scouted the burn scraps of his town in search of something that could float and paddle.

"At least it's not going to rain or storm, usually it takes an adult two to three hours to row to the nearest island. If I'm lucky with the current it should take me five to six hours, maybe less." He checked his pathetic supplies, he manages to find a burn metal container that still had half its water in it and some burn and not too rotten food for this trip. If he'd tried staying on the island he wouldn't have lasted even one week on it. This island had a few trees and bushes but no fruit, it didn't have any wild animals. It wasn't very big either, most of the village would eat fish from the sea as their main protein. There wasn't even any fresh water on the island, almost everything was imported from the outside.

Any fishing boats had all been sunk or burned beyond saving, so Zen had no choice but to use a half burn wooden door as a makeshift raft, a broken half ceramic jug clumsy nailed down in the middle holding all the water and food, and a dubious burn wooden shape piece of wood that had a paddle like a shape. He set off to sea hoping to find, a better place than the hell he was leaving. As he slowly made his way he thought back on the clumsy graves he made for his parents. He couldn't get to their body so he made, two burn wooden crosses and set them in front of the burning nightmare that was once his home.

"Il find what happened here, and Il will kill everyone that had a hand in this!" Zen said as a small flame burn in his soul, he had lost everything and no one had cared. This wouldn't stand, not as long as he could breathe, he knew that he should be careful, he didn't want to just give up on life and become a mindless avenger. No, he would be more, he would find out what happened here and everyone responsible, then he would burn down their life, just like they had done to him. They will know despair just like he had found today, once they would feel it, he will kill them.