Chapter 1 – Prologue – Resolve of the Lone Wolf

[Kaienreki Calendar February the 2nd, 1495]

On a island somewhere on the Grand Line, a small boy was born in a rather peculiar tribe.

Specifically a tribe of shapeshifters. called the Quileute tribe.

Of course not everybody in the tribe was a shapeshifter, but only a selected few families inherited this peculiar ability for the last few generations. The members of these families were able to transform into wolf with a shoulder height of two meters.

The beast had a fearsom physical strength, being able to crush stone with their fangs and claws. Their senses and instincts were so advanced, that this gave them an ability similiar to precognition, where they could forsee where an opponent would strike.

Still, even though these tribesmen were such fierce warriors, they wouldn't ever leave the the island because they believed the ocean to be an unholy abyss that would swallow their very souls.

At least that is what they were told by their elders and the shaman.

They also lived a happy live on the island, with it being big enough to sustain themselves easily. Even the fiercest of the animals on the island wouldn't be able to match a group of shapeshifter warriors.

Being born in such a tribe should have meant a rather peaceful and simple life for the litte boy, whose name was Lupin D. Black.

Why wouldn't it be peaceful and simple?

Well, the reason for that would be that Lupin's father had not been a native inhabitant of the island. He had been a traveler, an adventurer and very possibly a pirate.

Normally the Quileute would keep themselves isolated from the rest of the world, as their ancient laws forbade them to interfere with anyone outside the village.

But every now and then strangers would land on the island. Normally they would leave after finding no valueables around, besides the wildlife.

If they didn't? Well, then they would most likely find out what the insides of a wolf stomache looked like.

Lupin's father had been one such stranger, who had been brought to the island by the sea itself, which was not a good sign for the superstitious tribesmen.

Still, one of the women, who belonged to the wolf families, had given in to her curiosity and approached him. Surprisingly they had spoken the same language and he had told her many fantastic stories of his journeys.

In just a couple of days, they had already fallen in love with each other. The woman named Lea Black had decided to hide the man from the other tribesmen and visited him regularly during this time.

The man himself had meanwhile worked to built a small boat to set sail once again, he had planned to take the woman with him and look for a peaceful island were they could be together.

Sadly, one of the tribal warriors had found the man and the woman one night and attacked in fury, as the outsider had dared to lay with a tribeswoman of her heritage while being a sea-dweller himself.

Sea-dwellers were what the tribe called all those strangers who came from the sea, no matter their looks.

The traveler however hadn't been a weak man. How could he have been weak, when he had dared to sail the Grand Line by himself?

So he had killed the warrior from the tribe in retaliation, which had been a huge mistake.

The tribes shapeshifters had another ability that made them the top predators of the island, which was their ability to communicate through telepathy.

So the rest of the tribe had immediately known, when the warrior had discovered the two of them laying together as man and wife. They had also felt the warrior die, which had sent them into a frenzy.

Lea Black had known that the tribesmen would come for the man and try to kill him by any means necessary. So she had told him to set off immediately on his own, while she had decided to try and stall the warriors of her tribe.

The man had been unwilling at first, but had known that his boat had not been completely finished and wouldn't be able to carry the both of them. He had also known that the woman alone would not survive the rough sea of the Grand Line, so he had complied in the end, with a promise to return for her.

What he had not known was, that the island was unable to be found with a compass. And it wasn't on any map. The fog and mist surrounding it, also made it very hard to detect.

And so he had left, never to return.

Since then, months had passed. The woman had been confined to a lone cave in the mountains to atone for her sins. The tribe had also planned to sacrifice her child when it was finally born.

The child had been born a week ago, and the woman hadn't slept since then. Simply to afraid to let the child out of her sight, knowing what the tribesman had planned for her boy.

In this week she had talked to the child basically non-stop, telling him all about their history, culture and customs. She had also told him of his father, retelling the stories she has been told.

She even talked about their ability to turn into wolfs as long as one was born into the main families, which the child had been.

Most children would shapeshift the first time around four years of age, when their minds began to understand what they were. The intelligence of the child was the most important factor, when it came to shapeshifting.

This particular night the woman had resolved herself to go out and find a way to safe her son from sure death by the hands of the tribesmen.

So, when the moon rose to its highest position the woman carefully wrapped her child in a blanket, before setting him on the ground.

Next she shapeshifted into a wolf herself, and stalked towards the cave entrance, where the guard who had been assigned to her was standing.

Finding the guard, leaning against the mountain wall to the right side of the cave entrance, barely awake anymore, she acted with quickness and decisiveness.

Taking a big leap, she curshed the guard's skull with her powerful jaws.

Wiping her maw on her fur, she quickly ran back into the cave and picked up the bundle with her son in it. Carefully taking him and a nearby bag she had prepared between her jaws, she sprinted away from the cave with her maximum speed.

Exhausted, she finally reached the jungle near the shore of the island. Quickly changing back into her human form, she took a few minutes of rest, while she put on some simple clothes from the bag she had brought with her.

The last few month, she had gotten barely enough food to sustain herself. It had left her weakened and with a severe lack of stamina. Her body also had to heal itself from her recent pregnancy, which had taken its toll.

Normally shapeshifters in her tribe had an exceptional healing factor, but malnutrition and her already weakened state had left their traces.

Still, she soldiered on as she knew the tribesmen would probably come looking for her in a few hours and she did not have any confidence in escaping any of them.

She knew she had only been able to kill the guard, because he had been careless and she had used a sneak attack. He didn't even have time to alert others over the telepathic bond.

For the next two hours she worked as fast as she could, tying together pieces of wood and building a small raft, barely large enough to fit herself and her son on. Another half an hour she spent on gathering any fruit she could find to satiate her hunger and keep them as rations in her bag.

*HOWL*

That was also when she had heard it, the first howl of many.

She knew that they had found the guard and it wouldn't be long before they would find her. So she ran back to the shore, where she had built the raft. Putting her bag and child on the raft, she pushed it into the ocean.

She knew, that if she wanted her child to have any chance at survival, than this chance could only be found far away from this island and the tribe inhabiting it.

When the raft was already several dozens of meters away from the shore, she saw the transformed tribesman arrived one after another on the beach. Growling and howling in her direction, but too afraid of the sea to come after her.

What had followed were several brutal days on the open sea. They had been lucky to not encounter a storm, but the harsh sunlight and the lack of fresh water began to slowly force the woman into a dead-end.

On the seventh day the fruits she had picked up as rations were all eaten. On the following days, the only thing that kept the mother going was her undying will to save her child and her superhuman constitution.

Near death and to weak to even nurse her child the mother-son duo finally encountered a ship on the open sea.

It was a marine ship on patrol.

The marine captain ordered for them both to be brought on board, and taken to the ships doctor.

The woman, finally knowing her child was save, couldn't hold on anymore and died before the doctor even took a look at her.

Lupin, the child was then taken care of by the ship's crew. They fed him and sang him lullabies and even carried him around the ship to keep him entertained.

A few days later, when they had arrived at a nearby marine base, one of the veteran marines from the ship, who had wanted to retire a long time ago, decided that he would move back to his hometown in the East Blue and take care of Lupin there on his own.

They knew his name, as his mother had carved him a necklace with his name on in the week after his birth. On one side the word 'Lupin D. Black' was carved, whereas the other side had the words 'My Beloved Son' carved into it.

…

What all of them failed to realise, was that the child hadn't just been an especially quiet little guy. Which was the reason why the marine crew was so accepting of him in the first place.

But that he was, in reality, not even a real child, but a reincarnator from earth. Well, nobody could blame them as Lupin behaved just like a very quiet baby.

Even his mother hadn't realised that his eyes were especially intelligent and the focus in them when she told him stories and such was definitely anything but child-like.

Lupin himself, was very confused the first several hours of his rebirth, having lived a short and dull life on earth. Lupin had died an equally boring death in his sleep at the age of 27.

Still, he had been an avid reader his whole life and he eventually come to the conclusion that he had reincarnated. Even more weird than that had been the fact that he understood the local language perfectly.

Having understood the basic gist of what was going on with his mother and the circumstances of his birth, he had been rather afraid the first few days of his life. Closely observing his mother and listening for every important bit of news.

He had quickly pieced the bits of information together and figured out that he had been born into the world of One Piece. His own name being Lupin D. Black had been a rather big hint.

That together with his father being a traveler who sailed the 'Grand Line' and it did not take a genius to realise where he was.

The only thing that had left him stumped had been the fact that he was born a shapeshifter. He did not remember such a tribe even being mentioned or existing in the story.

But then again, there were many more weird things existing in that world: Prehistorical animals, giants, long-armed tribe, long-legged tribe, devil fruits, fish the size of a small island, etc.

So he eventually took it as an oddity, but also a lucky coincident.

This world was now his reality and being a shapeshifter would help massively in his survival.

He had also felt himself growing attached to the fiercly protective woman, who was his mother in this life. Their hasty escape had left him seriously fearful about both their futures.

Seeing his own mother becoming weaker by the day and at the end only keep going because she wanted him to be safe, had left a deep impact on his heart.

Her death had been even more overwhelming for him. He did not cry out loud, but his grief and pain had been nearly immesurable at seeing the only pillar of support and love in this life die just like that.

Still, he forced himself to eat and drink, to survive. Even though his own heart had taken a strong blow.

In his past life, he did not have any ambition, simply being content with working the minimum hours required to keep himself well-fed and with enough spare time to enjoy reading books.

His childhood had been pretty crappy and he hadn't had a great relationship with his mother. It had left him to mature rather early and given him a cold and rational look at the world. He had also been a loner since he was little. Being the most comfortable, when nobody bothered him.

The little amount expieriences he had gone through in this new life, had forced him to depend on his new mother. Her quickly becoming his emotional and physical support pillar. With her gone, he was back at square one.

Alone.

When the marines started to take care of him, he did not make the same mistake again. Keeping his emotions in check and not allowing himself getting attached to any of them.

Eventually, he got to know that one of the older marines planned to move to the East Blue and raise him there on his own.

He was obviously relieved about that piece of information. The Grand Line was simply too dangerous for a newborn! It had been a miracle that they had not encountered any pirates on their way to the marine base.

The East Blue was the weakest of the four Blues and that meant also the safest to grow up and develop for him.

He didn't really care who raised him, as long as he was fed and cleaned until he was old enough to take care of himself.

After several dozen days of being concious of where he was and including the expieriences he had gained, he had obviously thought about what he wanted to do with this new chance at life.

The conclusion was rather simple. He was used to being alone, he had always been. And he liked it that way.

So he would become strong and he would never let himself be at another's mercy again. Never had to depend on a stranger's kindness again, never had to have someone sacrifice themself for his sake.

Strong enough to stand tall and free in this world.