Chapter 1: What Is Your Dream?

Upon a sandy shore, a remarkable man, with remarkable knowledge appeared from nowhere. Where there once was a blank spot, now had the most average of humans stretching in it. Not attractive, not ugly, certainly not detestable. Completely ordinary - but also remarkable.

As he opened his eyes, the world spun for only a moment. "I guess she didn't lie. I am here, finally." He felt the need to fist-bump the air but settled for flashing a stoic grin at the sea. A talent that had since long frightened his peers.

Suddenly beside him, a note appeared in mid-air. He caught it before it hit the ground.

{Hello again, Mark the remarkable. I forgot to tell you that I gave you a gift before you left my realm. It's nothing much. It should arrive shortly. And I hope to hear great stories about Mark The Remarkable soon. Have fun!}

Mark stared at the piece of paper as it burned up in his hand. Funny enough, it didn't hurt him at all - which he appreciated. Burns were the worst.

A moment later a katana appeared in a similar fashion as the note.

"Well, isn't that just fantastic..." Mark glared at the heavens as he took a deep breath. "I DON'T KNOW HOW TO SWING A SWORD!!" His voice echoed all around - a mighty fine example of his excellent lung capacity.

Another note appeared, this one flying straight at his face, delivering small but brutal cuts over his face.

{Don't be a baby! And if you complain about free gifts again, I will take away the thing that makes you a man.}

Mark sighed and dropped on his back with the note in hand. "Understood. Sorry, you stingy bitch." He looked at the sword and noticed another note on the sand beside it.

"What is with all these notes? Ever heard of email?"

{This is a blade of my own design. Its name: [Crawl for it] I will let you figure out what it does.} He crumbled up the note and sighed again. Nothing imposing or regal about the weapon, just perfectly ordinary in appearance.

"I don't particularly enjoy the feeling of anxiety growing. A katana created by a sadistic AND masochistic goddess can surely only spell my doom."

The remarkable man let out another long sigh. Definitely not the last one he would exhale before the day was over. "What to do? I am finally away from my previous boring reality and dropped into a more exciting one. But, what to do?"

"Whatcha mumbling about, stranger?" A voice clearly belonging to a juvenile male came from behind. Mark picked up on the sound of feet meeting sand in a casual stride. 'A populated island. I thought she would drop me on a deserted one.'

Mark sat up and turned around. His mouth dropped involuntarily when he laid eyes upon one, very young-looking Dracule Mihawk. A teenager, maybe seventeen he guessed.

"Nothing, I just like talking out loud. It makes it easier to organize my thoughts if I hear my own voice. I'm weird like that."

"Fair enough. Though, finding someone on my beach is the last thing I expected today. I haven't had a guessed in many years. What happened to ya?"

'I'm so lucky. The adult version would have definitely just cut me down for being here.'

"A goddess with an ego dropped me here after I killed someone. That's the short version. Want the long one? Mark said without flinching.

Mihawk only stared with a slight tilt to his head. "Yep. Definitely a crazy person. Name's Dracule Mihawk. What's yours, crazy?"

"First of all," Mark raised his finger. "That's rude. I may or may not be clinically insane, but that doesn't give you the right to call me crazy. The name's Mark. Mark The Remarkable!" He said with a tinge of pride.

"Why remarkable? Are you famous? Maybe infamous?"

"In my own head, sure. Outside, not really? The thing is, I don't forget, so I call myself remarkable."

"You don't forget? Don't forget what?" Mihawk looked both intrigued and disturbed by Mark. Usually what everyone who met him felt.

"Everything. I remember everything I've ever smelled, touched or seen. I can tell you how it felt to be born. Strange, right?" Mark tried smiling like he had so many times before.

"What are you doing? Are you in pain?"

"Rude! I was smiling." He tried again. But Mihawk burst out laughing.

"You were smiling? How was that painfully unpleasant expression a smile? Boy, you are something else."

Mark returned to his comfortable stoicism. "Thanks! I pride myself on my queer behaviour." His tone and his facial expression did not fall in line with each other. The person who was by all accounts "Mark The Remarkable" did not fit in any form of a sane image. He was positively mad.

"My castle is just around the corner. How about a drink with a fellow mad person?" Mihawk asked with a grin.

"A fellow soul? Mad as the hatter then?" Mark stated.

"Hatter? Can't say I've heard that expression before." Mihawk couldn't stop the chuckle that escaped him.

"The mad Hatter diagnosis. By Mark The Remarkable. Patent pending." Mark stated stoically. A new world, he realized. So many ideas that suddenly no one would know about. He with his remarkable memory now had access to almost infinite ideas to juggle around.

"Mad Hatter? Pleased to make your acquaintance. As a fellow Hatter then, I will have to insist on that drink now." There was a clear underlying threat in his tone.

So, maybe Mihawk wasn't as docile as Mark believed. Best follow along, he thought.

"A fellow Hatter? you look perfectly sane to me. Not ones have you asked to kiss my foot or tried to kill me." Mark stated with a grin.

Mihawk looked him in the eye, a question mark almost visible above his head. "How can you grin but is completely incapable of smiling? And also, why in God's name would I do any of those things?" He asked.

"I don't know! But, why would a Hatter not? When you're mad as a Hatter, you just do - you don't think." Mark stated.

"My ambition is to be the greatest swordsman in the world. Anybody who knows the monsters roaming these seas would know how mad I am to pursue such ambitions." Mihawk stated proudly. A slight glint of insanity deep in his gaze.

"Hahaha! I see it, Hawkey. That glint of a Hatter! I do see it!" Mark laughed and rolled around on the sand. " Well met, fellow Hatter!" He said seriously. His switches between stoic and emotional had Mihawk laughing, more than he had ever before.

"SO, how about that drink, Hawkey?"

"Follow me, Mad Hatter. I hope Mark The Remarkable is as remarkable at drinking as he is at spouting nonsense." Mihawk stated amusingly.

"I am a certified alcohol Connoisseur. I took a test I found online." Mark stated smugly.

"Online? Which sea are you from?" Mihawk asked curiously. More than ones now, Mark had dropped terms he had never heard of. To be fair, he had barely ever left the island other than to challenge other swordsmen in the area. But, he still considered himself quite knowledgable.

"The Great Seven! The sea of the soul! The pool in my backyard. Any of those work." Mark said happily.

"Mad, indeed." Mihawk was sure to find endless amusement with this one.

***

"Haaawkey... I am thirsty. Bring more wine..." Mark stumbled around the living room, knocking over suits of armour and lamps. "Mihawk... Where did your twin come from?" His slightly cross-eyed gaze regarded the two Mihawk's looking equally angry.

"You're drunk, Hatter!" With a firm step forward he was only inches away from Mark. "AND... Are you gonna introduce me to YOUR twin!?" His eyes wandered to the semi-transparent slightly distorted - almost female-looking Mark standing beside the actual Mark.

"You're drunk, Mihawk! You're seeing doubles again!" Mark kept switching between the two Mihawk's, unsure of which was real.

"That *hick* explains a lot..."

"I'm gonna pass out!" Mark yelled suddenly, spraying Mihawk with spit. The swordsman was completely knocked out - the volley of saliva was enough to overwhelm him. Not long after, Mark went down with him. Right on top of Mihawk.

***

"How long have we been here?" An extremely bored Mark asked the equally emotionally unstable Mihawk for the hundredth time that hour.

"No idea. I have been here most of my life." Mihawk said with a casual tone. "My master trained me here. He then left me here to finish training, and now... You are here. That's about it." He didn't bother to look up from the book he was only half paying attention to.

"Well, I can't stay here forever. I have big plans. Plans to ruin for others. People to kill, governments to upset. Girls to pick up." Mark's eyes wandered around the room, as it usually did. He rarely could keep his eyes on one thing.

"How about you join me?" He blurted out suddenly.

"Join what? All your worldly possessions are in your pockets. And you have no ship. What exactly are you starting?" Mihawk looked up from his book for the first time.

Mark chuckled quietly. He put down the glass and looked up at the chandeliers. "The first step is to join the Navy. The Marines is my way onto the big stage."

Mihawk looked genuinely curious. "Play the good little soldier while sharpening the knife you're gonna stick in their backs."

"I can neither confirm nor deny. Unless you join me, of course. Then you would be allowed that information." With a little innocent whistle, he glanced at Mihawk.

"So, what are you expecting me to say?" Mihawk asked. "Are you waiting for me to say that I will take over the world with you?"

"Why not? There are already crazies sitting on the throne. Who says I can't take over the world?" Mark said while looking slightly bemused.

Mihawk regarded the Mad Mark with a little confusion. "You are serious, aren't you? Do you know what it will take to do what you are suggesting we do? Kong, Garp, Sengoku. That's only three among the many, many monsters in the Navy to face. And don't get me started on the pirates." To his credit, he didn't look upset about the idea.

"So what? Are you in or not? Nothing will stop me!" Mark stated with a confident tone.

"I suppose I am. Might as well die while screwing over the Celestial dragons." Mihawk said with a little too much glee for any sane person.

"The technicalities come afterwards. We're best friends, you know. I wouldn't dream of taking over the world without you." Mark's smile could only be described as devilish.

"You never planned to do this without me? What would you have done if I said no?" Mihawk asked - afraid of the answer.

"Annoyed you until you said yes."

"I was afraid of that." Mihawk rose from his chair and simply walked away.

Mark coughed and yelled after him, "Where are you going?"

"Gonna take a shower. I feel dirty after talking to you."

"Rude." The Remarkable Mark sank deeper into his chair.

***

"Faster, Hatter!" Mihawk yelled half-assed as he danced around Mark with a sword in hand. Since childhood, he had been called a prodigy with the sword, but what he was seeing was ridiculous - something even a prodigy could not comprehend.

"I am DYING! Help me! You DEMON! My arms are gonna fall OFF! I HATE YOU!!" Curses flew faster than a machine gun. Mark stood and swung his sword back and forth with sweat flying everywhere.

"We've been training for two minutes. How are you this pathetic? Garp could kill you with his breath." Mihawk wasn't sweating, not even close and he was swinging his sword so fast that Mark couldn't see it. All while looking perfectly calm.

"Pick it up!" Mihawk said after Mark dropped the sword. "And pick up the pace! No more pathetic excuses!" Mihawk threw a tiny pebble at Mark that knocked him out.

"Oops!" He said.

"I guess I drilled him too hard..." Mihawk said and scratched his head. He wasn't overly concerned so he continued with his training.

***

Mihawk squatted down beside Mark. "Well done! You lasted fifteen before you collapsed. And I'm happy to see that a pebble can't knock you out anymore."

"I... hate... this..."

Mihawk flashed him a smile and smacked him on the chest. The sword prodigy still had forty minutes of training left and Mark would surely die from it - so he left him alone for now.

"You'll thank me one day. When you are standing on top of the world, don't forget who got you there."

"A sadistic goddess." Mark rolled over on his stomach and crawled to the bottle of water just out of reach.

"Mad Hatter. I fear what goes on inside that head of yours." Mihawk kicked the bottle away with a smug grin. "Crawl for it."

Mark slammed his head down on the sand in defeat. "Ironic. I bet she's laughing." He rolled back on his back and got ready to embrace sleep. His last thought was a string of curses to his lovely benefactor in heaven.

***

"How much longer, love!?"

"Stop calling me that, Hatter. My love rests with my art. It stole my heart early in life."

"Cutting people with sharp metal is not art, love. Face it, we are destined together. I will have you!" Mark said with gusto as he crawled toward the water bottle once again. Only to have it cut in two and spill into the sand.

"NOO!! DEMON!"

"Fifty more push-ups. Then a jog to the coast and back. Get to it, Hatter."

"You said that THREE hours ago. You, demon, are a lier! I won't have it!" Mark couldn't finish the next thought. A pointy metal object was only inches from his eyes.

"Get going, or I will make you appreciate my art... Up. Close."

"Fine!"

_______________________

End