A wind blew across the clearing, swaying the trees and making my leather jacket flutter behind me. Once I managed to pick my jaw up from the ground and shut off the sparkles that had appeared in my eyes, I pushed forward to the oaken doors of the castle. Luckily, there was no moat or drawbridge or anything like that, just giant double-doors. A gilded brass door knocker hung off the front of said doors, gleaming brilliantly in the warm sunlight. The walls were stone blocks and covered in moss, and towers and turrets rose up into the air.
"This is just too cool!" I said in delight. Here I was, a New York City street kid, about to step into a castle in the world of One Piece. It was pretty damn awesome, but it made me wonder just what the hell kind of a person lived here.
I gripped the brass knockers and tapped them against the doors.
—BANG! BANG!
The sound echoed through the forest, making me wince. Maybe I had overdone it a bit. There were a few moments of silence, and I was about to turn away when the doors opened by themselves.
Okay... I thought slowly. That isn't creepy at all .
I stepped through the doors into the Great Hall, which was as majestic and legit as the rest of the place. A red-and-gold designer hid the floor; a golden chandelier hovered high above me; and portraits of various famous people from my world and heroes from other manga, anime, books, etc. hung on the walls. At least, when the doors opened, that was what it looked like. But when I crossed the threshold the doors swung closed behind me and I was suddenly wrapped in darkness.
"What the—" I gasped.
The room lit up again, and suddenly I was in a totally different place. There were still oak doors behind me, but they were much smaller, along with the entire room itself. Instead of a castle, I was now in a slightly cramped room with purple walls and a creepy mist on the ceiling. A wooden desk sat directly in front of me, not even five paces ahead, and various creepy nicknacks like shrunken heads, a skull-shaped lamp, a broken pencil, and a crystal ball covered its top.
Then my eyes took in the person sitting at the desk, and I couldn't help but stare.
She was, in a word, a hag. Sorry, but there was simply no better way to put it! She was old and small and frail-looking, craggy fingers tracing lines on the desk randomly. The old woman's face looked like it could peel off at any time, and her hair was such a bright white it should have come with a warning label: DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY AT HAIR. PERMANENT BLINDNESS MAY OCCUR. The rest of her body I couldn't see, because she wore a simple brown cloak that hid her other features.
"A visitor?" she said, her voice weak. I thought I detected an English accent, but I couldn't be sure. " I haven't had a visitor in quite some time now. I'd say... oh... twenty years? "
I swallowed, my throat dry. "Where am I?" I asked.
She raised an eyebrow, her roaming fingers moving to the crystal ball that sat on her desk. "Why, you're in my shop. My fortune telling shop."
"Your fortune telling shop?" I echoed. "Wait, you mean you're Lady Vestionora? But I was supposed to be in her castle just now! How the heck did I end up here? What happened?"
She chuckled weakly, a raspy laugh that reminded me of cat nails on a chalkboard. "Silly boy. It was an Illusion, an Illusion! Nothing more, nothing less."
"An Illusion?" I said, groaning inwardly at the fact that nobody ever gave me the whole story. "What's that?"
She cackled again, making me wince. "An Illusion is something we gods and goddesses can use, " Lady Vestionora explained. "It's a kind of magic. Yes, that's how to best explain it. We cast the Illusion on ourselves or our belongings and we—or it—changes to something humankind can comprehend. In the case of my shop, a castle."
I tilted my head. "But why do you have to cast these... Illusions?"
"It's because of the Three Mortal Sins."
A wind blew through the shop, though that shouldn't be possible because we were indoors and no windows were open or anything. I felt like these Three Mortal Sins, whatever they were, were incredibly important.
I frowned and asked, "What are the Three Mortal Sins?"
"You don't know about them?" Lady Vestionora blinked, her dark blue eyelids momentarily disappearing underneath saggy skin. "Aes didn't explain much, did he? That idiot. He never does. Very well then. " She rapped her weak fist against the surface of the table. "Listen up, young hero, because this is a very important lesson."
I nodded, though still a bit wary of the old woman, proved by the twitching of my eye.
"The Three Mortal Sins are, in layman's terms, the Ten Commandments of the immortal world. They were handed to us by the Goddess Yggdra 900 years ago in this world's time and... millenia ago in your world's time. If any one god or goddess breaks these Sins an accumulated total of seven times over a period of 396 years, or one Mayan bak'tun, then that god or goddess turns into a demon and is cast out of the heavens temporarily. "
I took a step back. "Wait, so you mean that all demons were originally gods? ...And what do you mean by temporarily?"
She bent her head, her almost glowing hair descending over her face. " You see, Yuril, if a god or goddess turns into a demon, then he or she loses most of their humanity. They start to become evil. However, they still have a chance to repent. If they decide that they want to be forgiven, and they mean it, then that demon or demoness can and will be returned to godhood by our Mother. "
I nodded slowly. "Okay, I see... but what about that demon I defeated at the Baratie? I'm pretty sure I killed him. I did knock him out and dropped him into the sea unconscious and all... Does that mean he'll never get the chance to return to godhood?" I felt a crushing sense of guilt, and also a little anger at Aes. He'd never told me any of this! He just said I had to kill the demons to stop every world from burning to ashes!
"No." came Lady Vestionora's simple answer.
I blinked, confused. "Wait, what?"
"That demon, Yugly, is still alive, and has a very high chance of repenting, " she explained. " My younger sister Testarossa confided that to me. Being goddesses with similar areas of reign makes us closer than most. "
I sighed in relief. "Oh, good."
"However," she continued, " if that demon doesn't repent, he will eventually turn into what is known as a Senshi among our ranks. "
"A... Senshi? Isn't that the Japanese word for 'warrior?'"
The oracle goddess nodded. " Yes, that's right. We have called these completely evil types of demons 'Senshi,' however, because they are seasoned fighters and clever with their battles. They nearly never lose but are more vulnerable than even demons, who can only be killed by demigods. Senshi, on the other hand, can be killed both by demigods and regular mortals. "
"Why do we have to fight them, though? Can't the gods just kill them with a quick lightning bolt or something?"
"No, that would be impossible for any self-respecting god or goddess," said Vestionora with a shake of her head. "And that is because one of the Three Mortal Sins is the Sin of Murder, which bans any immortal from killing any other immortal. And evil or not, demons and Senshi are, unfortunately, still considered immortal because they cannot die from natural causes. "
"That stinks," I puffed.
"Quite " she lamented. " Now, I assume you are here in my shop for something other than a history lesson, no? "
I nodded. "That's right. Aes said you have something to tell me."
"That I do, that I do. A prophecy came to me a little while ago. " Her hands hovered over the crystal ball and she peered into it expectantly. "Now, let's see, I have it here somewhere... Where is it? I need to clean this darned thing out some time... Ah! There it is." She drew her hands back quickly, as though pulling something out of the ball.
"Um, did you—" I started, but she waved her hand and I fell silent.
She opened her mouth to say something, then paused and seemed to think better of it. She bent down under the desk and disappeared momentarily, then came up with a sword in a deep blue sheath. " The name of this blade is Raising Blue," she announced and handed it to me. "It shall give you boosted power but cannot harm regular mortals. "
"Cool," I said appreciatively. I took the sword and also a belt that she handed me and strapped it to my hip like Zoro.
"Now, here is your prophecy. " Her voice became raspy, like a thousand snakes all hissing at once, and I backed up to the doors, eyes widening. The mist around the ceiling suddenly swooped down and enveloped her, and she recited, "From the east/across the sands/above the clouds/before the gates/into the shadows/through the land/under the seas/with one plus eight. The sun shall rise at break of dawn/and the ember ejected from darkness's yawn. "
Then, quite suddenly, the mist dissipated and Lady Vestionora slumped over in her chair.
There was a great POP! sound, and the room was abruptly dark once more. I felt the sensation of being sucked backwards by a kind of giant vacuum cleaner. My head hit something both hard and soft at the same time, and kind of itchy. A sour taste filled my mouth, and I realized I'd bitten my tongue by accident. Spitting blood, I sat up and opened my eyes.
I wasn't in Lady Vestionora's shop.
I wasn't in the clearing.
I wasn't even in the woods anymore.
I was sitting in the middle of one of Cocoyashi Village's dirt streets, and a very familiar orange haired girl was screaming, "ARLONG! ARLONG! ARLONG!" and crying, stabbing her own shoulder with every word, kneeling alone in the street. My eyes widened and I winced, my own shoulder throbbing in sympathy.
"Nami..." I murmured.
Her blood-soaked blade arched up into the air for another stab, but Lucy walked up and her hand shot out to stop the self-attack. Nami's pained shouting paused and she turned, allowing me to see her tear-ridden face. She looked older, much older, and it seemed as though centuries of agony had built up in her eyes.
"Lucy..." she cried.
The knife dropped to the road in a clatter. I got to my feet as Nami pounded against the ground, crying, "Why?! Why are you still here?! You don't know anything! You don't know a thing about what's been happening on this island for the past eight years."
"You think that'll stop her?" I spoke up.
She jumped and they both turned to me. "Yuril?!" Nami spat.
"Oh, there you are!" Lucy said. "I couldn't find you! You missed it, Yuril, there was this old guy with a really cool pinwheel on his head! Why do you have a sword?" I opened my mouth to reply, but then she blinked and turned to Nami. "And yeah, I know nothing about what's going on here."
She turned away from us and I sighed. Ignored again.
"This is none of your business, both of you!" Nami hissed, her body shaking. Her fingers dug into the dirt. "I told you to leave this island, didn't I?!"
"Yeah, you told me." was the simple answer.
Nami threw dirt back and it dissipated into dust at Lucy's feet. "GO AWAY! YOU... GO AWAY! GO AWAY!" The words became like a mantra, increasing in volume and pain. I gritted my teeth. For causing my friend to go through so much pain... a flare of anger burst inside me, and I forgot about my strange visit with Lady Vestionora. "Go away..." Nami moaned quietly.
Lucy didn't move a muscle.
The navigator stopped throwing dirt back, her left arm coated in red blood. She hiccuped, crying so much she made a sound like the whine of a hurt puppy.
Her head lifted and turned, and I could see the tears again. "Lucy, Yuril..." she cried. "Help me."
I grinned, and Lucy took her hat off her head and stuck it on Nami's. A beat skipped, and then I shrugged off my leather jacket and walked over to them, placing it gently on my desperate friend's back.
Nami's eyes widened.
A spark passed between the two of us, a spark of pure anger and hatred for the damned bastard who would dare do this to our nakama, our precious nakama. We nodded and walked back together, then glared up at the sky. Lucy and I shouted, "DAMN STRAIGHT!"
A quiet murmur of "Lucy... Yuril..." came from behind us.
We glared down the path.
Zoro, Sanji, and Usopp had arrived. Zoro was sitting on a bench, Sanji was standing in the middle of the road smoking a cigarette, and Usopp was on the road, legs folded Indian style and back turned from us. As one, the three all rose.
Lucy and I marched down the road, looks of equivalent anger on our faces.
"We're going," she announced.
They nodded.
"Yes!" Zoro, Sanji, Usopp, and I said.
We all marched to Arlong Park in one row, side by side, taking up the whole road. An electric bolt of adrenaline, anger, hatred, anticipation, and excitement stabbed through my soul. The sun beat down hotly on my neck—actually, my body in general—but that didn't quell my bloodlust. Someone was gonna pay. Screw the storyline! Screw not stealing the spotlight! I'd never felt such a deep sensation in my entire life, and if I didn't have my own battle to fight, then I was gonna duke it out with Arlong himself. My hatred was rooted in me so deeply, it seemed to be a part of my DNA and all rational thought had escaped my mind except one sentence.
Someone WILL PAY!
***
Two beat-up men sat, slumped, against the gates. One wore a red and grey helmet as well as green clothes. The other had a spiky hair cut and wore blue clothes, and he had his name in kanji tattooed onto his left cheek. They had short swords that were deadly sharp. Both were injured badly. They blocked the way of a crowd of angry villagers carrying an assorted array of weapons, including shovels, makeshift scythes, farming forks, and even a pan.
The two men were Johnny and Yosaku, the self-proclaimed "biggest and baddest bounty hunting duo on the seas."
"Out of the way," said a villager carrying a sword and wearing a red outfit with a cap. He was known as Gen, or by a certain ginger navigator, 'Gen-san.' "We've come to see the mermen."
"After finding out the truth about Nami-aneki," said Johnny calmly, "there was only one thing left for us to do—beat Arlong. With that in mind, we came here to Arlong Park."
"But we lost badly," his partner added.
"No offense, but we ain't moving for you guys. Not for you, who have no chance of winning."
"What?" Gen-san growled.
Yosaku spoke up. "We're waiting for them to come. They should be here soon, so don't worry."
"Them?" the village leader echoed.
Johnny smirked. "Bet your life on it. If they can't beat Arlong, then no one can."
Behind the mass of people, five fighters in their teens marched along a road. In the middle was a girl with a low V-cut red vest that was buttoned up. She also wore short jean shorts but her trademark straw hat was missing, instead safely secured to another occupant. Her hair was raven black and flowing in the breeze, and her hard eyes were a beautiful onyx color. A thin scar was visible under her left eye. The only protection her feet had was sandals. This was Monkey D. Lucy, captain of the Straw Hat Pirates and future Pirate Queen.
The first person on her right was a green-haired swordsman who usually carried three swords, but because two had been broken during his last battle, only had his most treasured possession, the legendary blade Wado Ichimonji. He wore a blue floral-patterned Hawaiian shirt, stolen from a fishman, and green pants. His chest was heavily bandaged to stop a wound he'd gotten from his last battle from bleeding again. A dark green haramaki was strapped around his wrist. This was Roronoa Zoro, an ex-bounty hunter and unofficial first mate of the Straw Hat Pirates.
Beside Zoro marched a seventeen year old red haired girl wearing an orange purple Pac-Man shirt, deep blue jeans, and Adidas sneakers, slightly fraying. A sheathed sword swung on a belt at her side, which she had never used before and only gotten earlier that day. She was thin for her age because she used to live on the streets of New York City, though she wasn't as thin now as she had been a week before, due to getting three square meals a day at the sea restaurant, the Baratie. This was Artwaltz D. Yuril, demigod of the sea and psychic of the Straw Hat Pirates.
On the other side of their captain was a cleanly, handsomely dressed man. He wore a simple blue suit and black tie under an equally black jacket and black dress pants. He wore black dress shoes that were slightly dented from years of kicking customers who wasted food in front of him. His blonde hair hid his left eye from sight, but his right eye was blue and had an eyebrow that was as swirly as a helix. He smoked a cigarette. This was Sanji, the new cook of the Straw Hat Pirates.
Finally, the last person had an incredibly, almost impossibly long nose and brown eyes. He had black hair and puffy dreadlocks. He wore a tan, diamond-patterned bandana around his hand and carried a simple green slingshot as his only weapon. He wore sniper goggles, brown overalls, green shoes, and a tan bag carrying various types of "Sure-Kill Stars." He was Usopp, liar, wimp, and sniper of the Straw Hat Pirates.
"There!" cried Johnny and Yosaku.
The villagers all turned.
"Oh, it's them..." said a young woman among their ranks who had purple hair and wore a yellow shirt. Her sizable chest had a rather large, blue tattoo on it and her shoulder was bandaged. This was Nojiko, Nami's last remaining family.
Gen-san was mystified. "Those three guys and those two girls? What about them?"
"If they can't stand up to Arlong and survive," repeated Yosaku, "then there's no hope. Not only for this island, but for the whole of East Blue."
Johnny nodded. "Remember the faces of those five. They have come to reshape your future."
"Move," ordered Lucy.
Yugly laughter came from inside Arlong Park, and the expressions on all the Straw Hats's faces darkened.
The villagers, Johnny, and Yosaku wisely moved.
The black-haired girl smashed her fist into the door in a rage of fury, and it splintered inward but didn't break. She gritted her teeth and punched again. Now the other door of the double set splintered. Her fist barreled into the middle of the doors this time, and they imploded, becoming little more than rubble and splinters.
Gen-san's jaw dropped and Nojiko's eyes widened. The rest of the villagers gasped, and Johnny and Yosaku smirked.
As the dust cleared away, the bowels of Arlong Park were revealed.
"Which one of you is Arlong?" Lucy demanded once the dust had cleared.