Chapter 7

On his fourteenth birthday, Annie gave him a tri-needle Log Pose.

He looked at her in surprise, and Annie smiled a touch sadly, "We both know you aren't going to stay on Orango, so I figured I'd better make sure you had what you needed before you set out." Suddenly she threw her arms around his waist and hugged him tightly, "Thank you for everything, Marshall," she choked out, her voice sounding wet. He was tearing up a bit himself as he hugged her back, bending down to accommodate her smaller height.

(He was almost nine feet tall at that point, so there was definitely a size difference.)

His voice had finally finished breaking about a week prior, so it he couldn't even blame puberty when his voice cracked as he said, "No, thank you. Helping you move things around and punching some jerks in the face was the least I could do after you helped me so much."

Annie laughed wetly, sniffling as she stepped back and rubbed her sleeve across her eyes as he strapped his new Pose to his wrist, sniffing back tears of his own. He'd been on Orango Island for three years by now and it was safe to say that he was a bit attached, especially to Annie and her family. She'd helped him a lot when he landed at Orango, and he would have been lying if he hadn't entertained thoughts of putting down roots there...but that wasn't him, he'd realized. It was why he'd learned all he could about sailing and navigating and keeping a ship in order. He wanted to go out to sea, he realized. He might not want to be a pirate or Marine, but he wanted to get stronger, and the way to do that was sail.

If the original Teach could get strong enough to take on Shanks, then so could he!

(Not that he planned to fight Shanks, but the point stands!)

(...Why did he feel like someone, somewhere was laughing at him?)

He still had the rowboat he'd escaped from his home island with, hull freshly resealed and ready to sail at a moment's notice. He'd made some modifications over the years with help from some of the local shipwrights - the addition of a mast and sail, for one thing. He'd even managed to expand it until it was large enough to support a decent-sized cabin and give him enough room to stretch out on the brand new deck. It wasn't really a rowboat anymore, come to think of it. It sent a small pang through his chest, but he would have to leave Orango soon.

Annie knew and understood that, and so they spent his fourteenth birthday having as much fun as possible, Mary and Richard stopping by briefly to drop off their presents. Richard gave him a razor-sharpening kit and Mary handed him several shirts that didn't look like they were about to split across his shoulders with a wink and a grin. If the couple's eyes looked a little misty, he couldn't very well say anything considering how he had to turn around and blow his nose no less than three times during their visit. It was without a doubt one of the best birthdays he'd had. He put off climbing the mountain to pick out his five chests of treasure, wanting to enjoy the celebration a little while longer.

The morning of August 4th, he went up the mountain, half climbing and half using Moonwalk just for fun. He reached the summit, looking around at the previously disturbed earth and following his instincts as he picked out the chests he wanted. He had to take them down one at a time, not wanting to risk damaging the contents. The repeated trips took some time, but he got everything down without incident. He gave some thought to looking inside the aged, dirty containers now, but decided not to.

Best to let it be a surprise, he thought as he lugged the chests towards his boat, making sure to keep out of sight so no one got any ideas. For someone of his size, he was surprisingly good at sneaking even without utilizing haki as an early alarm system.

(It explained so much about a certain Canon Event That Would Never Happen if that was a trait he shared with the original Teach.)

After putting the chests in his boat-cabin, carefully hidden beneath a pile of blankets and bobcat pelts so it looked like another bed, he hugged Annie, Mary and Richard goodbye. He wouldn't be setting sail from the docks, instead casting off a little further down the coastline, and the three people had come to see him off. He was dressed in one of his new shirts, plain white with long sleeves, pants that ended midway down his calves, and a pair of worn sandals. His hair was kept out of his eyes by an improvised bandana (made out of the sleeve of one of his old shirts), and his jaw was freshly shaved and his teeth brushed.

He was ready to set out.

Waving back at the trio on the beach, he consulted his new Log Pose, adjusted the sail and rudder, and cast off. He didn't look back as Annie called out from the shore and wished him luck, but he did raise one arm in a backwards wave as the breeze caught the sail and the boat leapt forward.

He tilted his head back and smiled as he looked up at the sky. It really was a beautiful day to start a journey...

It was barely a week later that he encountered his first Sea King, a massive wall of pink and green scales rising from the water right in front of his boat, literal waterfalls running down its body as it turned to look at him. Far from being frightened, Marshall grinned, viewing this as an opportunity to test his skills.

If he couldn't defeat even one Sea King, then he had no chance in the New World. He jumped from the deck of his boat, using Moonwalk to get closer to the monster's face as he drew back an arm, the skin dark with Armament. The Sea King looked at the wild grin on his and started to sweat, large pupils turning into tiny dots of fear.

"Zehahaha!"

As it turned out, once he figured out how to cook it, Sea King really was as delicious as Canon would have you believe.

His trip was off to a great start!

He spoke too soon. A day later, staring at the freckle-faced girl standing proudly on the beach in front of him with her hands on her hips, the flower in her hair bright red against the blonde strands, his thoughts were best summed up as:

"...What?"

The girl beamed at him, fifteen years if she was a day, and said, "You should join my crew!"

"Whaaaaaat?!"