One Piece: The Legendary Pirate

"Listen, Darvy!"

Down in the late night full of stars, two young boys stood awake.

The first one, characterized by sharp appearance with jagged teeth, black-coloured eyes and and equally black hair full of spikiness, seemed to be chattering non-stop.

On the other hand, the another, characterized by a notably handsome appearance even at the young age with a wavy red hair and equally red eyes, listened to the first one's words out of curiosity.

Opening his arms wide open, the first one declared,

"One day, I'm going to form the biggest crew in this world! Then, I'm going to travel all across the world and beat ass!! All this world's treasure will be mine to take!!"

"Really, Xebec?"

The red-haired boy laughed at that.

"How will you do that?"

"I don't know! But one day, for sure!"

__________

Darvy. That was his name.

He was a frail boy, malnourished. Weak and useless—that's what adults called him by.

If not for one old, retired pirate who took pity on him, he would've been dead already. Darvy suspected that it was because of his relatively fine appearance that the old pirate took an interest in him, and vowed to escape from this man before the old man's time of 'harvest' comes.

But anyhow, being given a piece of dry and hard bread once a day, like a pet being fed, Darvy was able to survive up until today.

In that sense, he admired Xebec.

Vibrant, full of energy, and charismatic. Xebec had the incredible will that made even the adults falter. Even when he went down, he didn't stop fighting until he fainted.

Coupled with his abnormal healing factor, abnormal physical strength, and talent at fighting, Darvy could tell that he would make far—though he never mentioned.

"Huh, you're seven as well? Same age! Well, I'm Rocks Xebec, call me Xebec! What's your's?"

Locked in an island full of pirates with harsh sea surrounding it, there was no way out for them. Being the only kids in the area, the two of them quickly got along, and beyond the disparities in their life-style, they became friends.

"In the future, when I make a pirate crew of my own, how about you join, Darvy?"

It wasn't that Darvy wanted to become like Xebec. However, Darvy too held a desire to become strong—strong enough to live without help from others.

So he tried. After observing how others worked out to grow their muscles, Darvy tried on his own too.

Push-ups, lifting heavy weights, and more...

...Darvy's weak body didn't allow him to do any of those on the first day. And the day after, he ended up being sick, and it surely did take a long time for him to recover. If not for Xebec who checked on him at a regular basis, Darvy may have died; the old drunkard of a pirate didn't understand the concept of 'being sick' anyway.

After his state got better, Darvy learned that he had to eat first to grow stronger.

"Here!"

The only way for Darvy to get healthy food was through Xebec, his only friend.

And the food did have an effect on him, he grew taller. However, his body remained weak; it seemed that his body was naturally born weak, as everyone around him commented.

But that didn't mean that Darvy was going to give up.

__________

"Oi, pretty boy! Shake that booty for me, will ya?!"

Darvy frowned as he heard whistles from three bearded men afar who were drinking non-stop.

"Just ignore them."

"I know."

As Xebec spoke from the left, picking his nose, Darvy nodded before they walked away.

A few years passed already. At the age of twelve, Darvy, as he looked around, came to wonder how he managed to stay alive.

The island was full of mess. These pirates, retired pirates or whatever—the only thing that they've been doing apart from hunting wild animals for the food was to craft all kinds of liquors that they could.

'Filthy bags,'

Thought Darvy as his nose stung from the sheer stench that emanated from them. If there was one thing he learned, it was to wash himself at a regular basis; he wanted to be anything but smelly.

"But anyway, guess what I found out."

As Xebec brought him to the back of the woods, he reached into his pocket and took out an old and tattered paper slip. Unfolding it, Xebec revealed the content to Darvy.

"...A map?"

"Yeah, a map it is!"

Excitedly, Xebec jabbed his finger at the 'X' mark on the paper,

"This is where we gotta be at, right? This island!"

"X is for the treasure, isn't it?"

"...Eh? Is it?"

Darvy blinked, and Xebec, no longer sure about his thoughts, scratched his head out of frustration.

"Where did you get this map from?"

"Heh,"

Xebec grinned at that,

"It was in the treasure box that I found!"

"Treasure box?"

"Yeah! It has that map and a weird fruit!"

"Fruit?"

Darvy raised an eyebrow.

"It's probably overripe. Do you happen to have eaten it?"

"Uh... yeah? it tasted like shit though!"

Holding his neck, Xebec made an exaggerated gagging expression.

Laughing lightly at that, Darvy muttered,

"Well, given how you're fine with poisonous mushrooms even, I doubt that it'll do much on you—"

"A-Achoo!"

Turning to the side, Xebec sneezed.

And as he did so, a literal blast of fire exited from his mouth, burning a whole chunk of forest.

This was the day which Xebec became the star human, the user of Star Star Fruit.

...

During the night, Darvy remained dazed, unable to get rid of the shock he got from Xebec's performance.

"What the fuck of that, yer face is asking."

To Darvy, the old pirate who was hugging a barrel full of liquor, spoke before contently gulping it down.

"That's a devil fruit. Am sure of it... lucky bastard."

"Devil fruit?"

"A fruit that gives you power... in return for making you unable to swim."

The pirate snorted as he clapped his fat belly and burped.

"...I still remember when we first came on this island."

The man was clearly drunk, evident from his sluggish way of speaking, red cheeks, and drowsy-looking eyes.

"You were the kid of ma good ol' Savy. If not for him bringing along that bitch who died after giving birth to ya... you wouldn't be here today."

"...What?"

Darvy froze. This was the first time that he heard about this.

"Then Savy died too, flown off during the storm. I guess he's with Davy Jones now, deep in the abyss! Gehehehe! And honestly speaking, am glad that he's dead... now I have another thing to look forward to!"

At this point, the man was practically speaking to himself, licking his lips greedily in a way that made Darvy uncomfortable. Darvy could tell that by saying 'another thing to look forward to', the man was talking about Darvy... in a sexual manner.

Darvy bit his lips, trying to hide his contempt.

Drinking and staring at the air dazedly, the man continued,

"And yes, after we reached this island, there he was... that savage of a boy, trying to fend us off with a wooden spear. Gehehehe... don't get too close to that boy, he has to die soon... after showing us the way to the treasure here..."

At the end of words, the man fell asleep, snoring loudly.

Darvy was left with many things to think about.

__________

"...They will kill me eventually?"

"According to what he said."

In the end, Darvy couldn't conceal this information to Xebec. They've been friends for years. Darvy felt closer to Xebec than those pirates who ill-treated him—even if his parents, or his father at least, was a part of them.

"Are you sure about it?"

As Xebec asked seriously unlike his usual self, Darvy grimaced.

"...I don't know. Maybe he didn't mean it."

Xebec's head lowered, and Darvy couldn't see his face.

Xebec's shoulders shook.

Darvy suddenly felt a chill creeping down his spine.

Xebec was crackling a laughter.

"Darvy."

Finally he spoke as he stared at Darvy with a bright smile,

"You're a good friend."

Darvy wasn't able to say anything in response to that.

...

And that night, Darvy saw—the whole forest burning.

"XEHAHAHA!"

Every last pirate on the island was killed brutally. In the middle of the burning forest stood Xebec—no, a mad man.

Standing still in shock and confusion, Darvy wondered if he was seeing a reality.

"Gehehehe..."

And even in this state, this old pirate who was bleeding to death next to him was laughing—albeit weakly.

"This isn't a bad end either..."

The pirate revealed his rotten teeth, grinning,

"If there is one regret in me though..."

looking at Darvy with greed in his eyes, the man spoke for one last time,

"It's not banging you sooner. Should've just done it right away... gehehe..."

No pirate screamed as he died. They simply laughed as if taking a stroll in a forest. Though the blood of their crew members splashed before their own appeared as well, they simply laughed as they fell as if unable to register any pain.

In this burning forest, Darvy learned that this is what the life of a pirate was.

Always plundering and killing, they were used to this type of scene, and have become far too dull—enough to an extent where even their own deaths couldn't faze them.

And among these mad men stood the greatest mad man of all... Xebec.

XEHAHAHAHA!

Watching as the last pirate was burned to death, Darvy fell to his knees.

"Darvy..."

Then, Xebec walked up to him with delight. Looking into his eyes, Darvy saw the lust for the blood.

"Darvy, my best friend... you saved my life!"

It was a sheer insanity. Darvy wondered if Xebec whom he knew for years was simply an act that latter put on.

"You have my gratitude for that."

And then, there was this strange feeling of oppression. Darvy felt his breathing quickening, and at one point, couldn't breathe any longer. He felt as if his throat was being crunched up by someone, and his trachea was forced shut, unable to let air in—

"Now, unfortunately... this is where we part."

Darvy saw Xebec shrugging casually, and wondered if the latter was unable to sense the surroundings... these... stench, sight, noise—everything that spoke of blood and gore.

"I considered bringing you along, but, eh, you're too weak! I did try though, remember how I've been giving you the food?"

Xebec then continued to blabber more. Darvy saw Xebec's lips moving, but unfortunately, he was no longer able to hear.

His vision grew hazy and having stayed in a state of suffocation for a while, he fell face-first, going unconscious.

However, for some reason, he was able to hear this one statement from Xebec, who leaned down to Darvy's ear and growled,

"I. Hate. Weak and useless people."

__________

When Darvy finally regained his consciousness, it was a bright day.

The fire died down. Many trees were scorched to black. The dead bodies all around began to rot and bugs began to crawl all around.

As Darvy weakly lifted his top-half up, he saw everything but Xebec. The culprit of all this was gone—as if he no longer existed.

"...Hah,"

Watching this, Darvy felt helpless.

And he hated this feeling.

"In the end..."

'There is no one to trust but myself.'

It wasn't about taking a revenge; Darvy didn't hold any attachment to these pirates either.

However, he did want to prove.

"Weak and useless?"

Darvy whispered,

"I will become stronger—strong enough to return those words back to you."

Though shaky, Darvy clenched his hands, determining to survive and improve—in this now-graveyard of an island.