Chapter 2: Pirate
The world was a symphony of explosions. My lungs burned, full of ash and the coppery scent of blood.
Every instinct, every fiber of my being, screamed at me to hide, to curl up and wait for my father to make it all stop.
But I knew, with the cold certainty of an executioner's blade, that he was the last person who could save me now.
If Garling didn't kill me, Father would. He, the "Hero of the Marines," would see my act as the ultimate betrayal, a stain on his legacy
I ran. My new Body: 18 stat was the only reason I was still moving. The pain from my tumble was a dull, manageable ache instead of a crippling set of fractures.
The 20 EP points from my first quest glowed in my system's log, a resource I didn't yet know how to spend..
'System,' I panted, dodging a stray cannonball that vaporized the ground where I'd been a second before.
'Allocate my 15 new stat points! All of them to Agility!'
[System Error: Quest [Escape] not yet complete. 15 Stat Points are locked pending completion.]
"Damn it!" I cursed, ducking behind a shattered piece of a Marine barracks. I was on my own.
I peered out at the battlefield. It was no longer a fight. It was an apocalypse.
In the center of the valley, a whirlwind of black and red lightning signaled a clash of Conqueror's Haki so potent it made my teeth ache. I could just make out the figures.
My father, Garp, his white Marine coat long since abandoned, was laughing, his fist colliding with the massive, club-wielding frame of Rocks D. Xebec himself.
The shockwave of their clash leveled the surrounding forest.
Not far from them, a younger Gol D. Roger, all smiles and fury, was trading blows with a massive, blond man.
"GRA RARARA!" Whitebeard's laugh was a force of nature as his bisento met Roger's cutlass, Ace. The very air cracked around them.
This was the world I was now an enemy of. A world of living gods and laughing monsters.
[FATAL DANGER DETECTED. HOST'S SURVIVAL PROBABILITY: 0.04%. RECOMMEND IMMEDIATE EVACUATION.]
"You don't think I'm trying?!" I hissed at the blue screen.
I had to get to the docks. But the main docks were where the Marine fleet had anchored. It was a deathtrap, a choke point swarming with Vice Admirals and pirates alike.
I remembered from our arrival: there was a smaller, secondary supply dock on the island's western shore. It was my only chance.
I ran through the burning forest, a 15-year-old ghost in a battle of titans. I passed a blur of motion—a man with wild silver hair, Silvers Rayleigh, was cutting through a squad of CP agents, a rescued woman with dark hair (Shakky, I'd later learn) slung over his shoulder.
He was heading for Roger's ship, the Oro Jackson.
I kept moving. I was an ant. And the giants were about to stamp.
A new presence descended upon the island. It was a feeling unlike anything I had ever experienced. It was not the boisterous, fiery Haki of my father or Roger. It was not the chaotic, dark ambition of Rocks.
This was an ancient, cold, and absolute void. It was a pressure that demanded subjugation.
I looked up, and my heart stopped.
On a cliff where Figarland Garling had stood, a new figure had appeared. It was one of the Five Elders, Saint Jaygarcia Saturn. But he was... different.
His body contorted, swelling into a nightmarish, spider-like form with massive, curved horns. His very presence seemed to drain the color and sound from the world
[WARNING! WARNING! TRANSCENDENT BEING DETECTED. IMU-CLASS ENTITY. EVACUATE! EVACUATE!]
The system was panicking. So was I.
Even the titans of the battlefield paused, their epic duels halting as they all turned to face this new, primordial threat.
"So, you finally show your face... 'Davy Jones'," Rocks D. Xebec sneered, his voice dripping with a familiarity that made no sense.
"Silence," the creature that was Saturn and not Saturn boomed. Its voice was a chorus of suffering. "The promise is broken. The D. must be extinguished."
For one insane moment, the world's greatest enemies stood shoulder to shoulder. Roger. Garp. Rocks. Whitebeard. Big Mom. Kaido (in his new dragon form). They all looked at the entity on the cliff.
"GALAXY IMPACT!" my father roared, launching a punch that compressed the air itself.
"DIVINE DEPARTURE!" Roger yelled, his Haki-coated blade slicing the sky.
"PANDEMONIUM OF THE ABYSS!" Rocks screamed, a vortex of darkness erupting from his hands.
"SHATTERING VOID!"
"HEAVENLY SOVEREIGNTY!"
"DRAGON BLAST!"
The combined attack of six of the world's strongest beings—a force that could shatter continents—streaked across the island and slammed into Imu.
The explosion was silent. It was a flash of white so bright it burned my eyes, followed by a wave of pure, negative energy as Imu retaliated with a word: " Demonisei."
The combined attack folded back on itself.
The resulting cataclysm didn't just destroy the center of the island; it erased it.
The ground beneath my feet vanished. The sea itself was blasted back, and the entire island of God Valley began to shudder and tear itself apart.
This was my cover.
Thrown by the shockwave, I tumbled end over end, my new Sun Sun Fruit power flaring instinctively, a small shroud of warmth protecting me from being instantly vaporized.
I landed in the shallows of the western shore, right next to the splintered remains of the supply dock.
One ship was left.
It was a small Marine caravel, a fast-response vessel, its mast cracked and its sails torn. It was still tied to a single, straining cleat.
I waded through the churning water, my legs screaming in protest. A few Marines, dazed and wounded, were on the deck, trying to cut the last rope.
"The island is sinking!" one yelled, his arm clearly broken. "We have to go!"
"Who are you, kid?" another, a Petty Officer, demanded, raising his pistol at me. "You're... you're Garp's son! The traitor!"
The system's quest flashed in my mind.
[Task: Escape from God Valley].
I didn't have time to talk. I didn't have time to be the boy I was this morning.
I lunged forward, my base Strength: 10 feeling pitiful. The Petty Officer fired, but my Agility: 10 was just enough to make him miss. I tackled him, slamming my elbow into his temple. He went limp.
The other three wounded men stared in shock.
"Get off the ship," I ordered, my voice a broken, high-pitched imitation of a captain's
"You damn traitor!" one lunged at me with a knife.
I grabbed his wrist and, using the Basic Swordsmanship forms Father had relentlessly drilled into me, used his own momentum to throw him overboard.
The last man, seeing the island crumbling behind me and the mad look in my eyes, simply raised his hands.
"I... I can't swim... my leg..."
I grabbed a life preserver from the wall and threw it at him. "Then use this. Get off."
He scrambled overboard, clinging to the ring. I sliced the last mooring rope with a galley knife.
The ship was free. I ran to the helm, the small bit of sailing knowledge I'd picked up as a trainee flooding back. I unfurled what was left of the storm sail.
The wind, a chaotic gale from the battle, caught it. The ship lurched, then shot forward, away from the island that was being erased from history.
I didn't look back. I gripped the wheel, my knuckles white, tears of terror and rage and loss streaming down my face. I was fifteen years old. I was alone. I was a pirate.
The ship cleared the storm surrounding the island, and the first rays of the morning sun, which had been blotted out by the chaos, touched my skin. A feeling of warmth, of power, of pride flooded my system.
The dormant Sun Sun Fruit in my chest awoke, and the aches in my body began to fade, replaced by a low, humming energy.
A series of chimes rang in my head.
[Quest Completed: Escape]
[Reward Issued: 1x Small Pirate Ship (Damaged Marine Caravel), 500,000 Berries (Stored in Captain's Quarters), 15 Unallocated Stat Points.]
[New Quest Received: Get Wanted]
Task: You are a ghost, a traitor with no name. To truly be a pirate, the world must know your face and fear your name. Get a bounty poster for yourself.
Reward: 10 Unallocated Stat Points, 50 EP, Unlock System Shop.
I stood at the helm, the sun on my face. My new life had begun.
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