One Piece: Pirate Code

In the Calm Belt, a battered warship struggled forward across the sea.

The ship's ram had already broken off, and the hull's damaged holes had been patched with mismatched planks of wood. The uneven patches made the originally imposing vessel appear rather comical from afar.

Without wind, the sails had been furled, and below the deck, two rows of oars extended from the sides of the ship. Accompanied by faint shouts of rhythm, they rowed in unison, leaving two white trails on the sea's surface.

Behind the ship, crimson blood dyed the blue sea as the corpse of a gigantic Sea King beast floated up and down like a small mountain. The ship's captain, the pirate Selkirk, lay sprawled on the deck, soaking wet and gasping for air.

He appeared to be in his thirties, his bare torso crisscrossed with countless scars. Due to a lack of sufficient food, his reduced body fat made his muscular lines even more pronounced.

Next to him stood the ship's vice-captain and navigator, Crusoe, who showed no concern for their captain's exhaustion from battling the Sea King. With an emotionless expression, he ordered a crew member beside him, "The blood will soon attract other Sea Kings. We need to leave immediately. Notify the others below deck to row harder. We must speed up!"

The pirate receiving the order didn't even glance at their captain and quickly left to carry out the command.

It was only then that Crusoe mocked Selkirk, saying, "If you had eaten the Devil Fruit, could you still have gone underwater to stop the Sea King from attacking our ship? We'd all be dead by now."

"If that fruit were a Logia-type, or if it had some other useful ability, I might not have needed to go underwater at all," Selkirk replied as he slowly sat up.

"If?" Crusoe sneered.

After just a few exchanges, an awkward silence fell between them. The tension between the captain and the vice-captain, two pivotal figures on the ship, was evident to anyone who looked.

The Swordfish Pirates—the name chosen by Captain Selkirk—had nothing to do with Crusoe. He had neither suggested nor participated in its discussion, as he was not an original member of the crew.

On the Grand Line, every moment of navigation required vigilance against harsh weather and frequent battles. Selkirk's original navigator, vice-captain, and several senior crew members had perished in a brutal fight. Crusoe and several others joined the crew afterward.

Without the bond of shared hardship, there was naturally no camaraderie to share prosperity.

By sheer chance, the Swordfish Pirates had acquired a Devil Fruit. This windfall, combined with the crew's weariness from the Grand Line's harsh conditions, led to a collective decision to risk leaving the area.

While the officers agreed on leaving the Grand Line, they disagreed on the specifics.

Selkirk proposed consuming the Devil Fruit himself. With the power it granted, combined with his experience honed on the Grand Line, he believed he could quickly become a top-tier pirate in other seas and recover the fruit's value of 100 million Beli in no time.

However, Crusoe adamantly opposed this suggestion. The Devil Fruit's effects were unpredictable, with potential outcomes ranging from immensely beneficial to utterly disastrous. The worst case? Becoming a "land duck"—unable to swim and no significant power gain.

Even in less extreme cases, mastering the fruit's abilities required long-term practice. Crusoe and his supporters argued this was detrimental to their immediate goal of crossing the Calm Belt.

The real, underlying issue was that the fruit only benefited one person. Crusoe and the crew members who didn't align with Selkirk resented the idea of him monopolizing such a valuable resource. As the saying goes, "People fear inequality, not scarcity."

Moreover, if Selkirk's already formidable strength grew further after consuming the fruit, his dominance on the ship would increase. Repaying the crew for their support would depend solely on his whims.

Crusoe's faction proposed selling the fruit at their destination—the weakest of the Four Seas, the East Blue. Given their strength, they believed they could establish dominance there without using the fruit and fetch the best possible price.

Thus, a peculiar standoff developed onboard. Neither Selkirk nor Crusoe trusted the other. Since taking a single bite would render the fruit worthless, the two settled on a compromise. Selkirk locked the fruit in an iron box, kept the key, and placed the box in Crusoe's quarters.

Though frustrated, Selkirk had no choice. Despite being the strongest fighter, he relied on Crusoe for navigating the Calm Belt and acclimating to the East Blue—a crucial role during this transition period. Selkirk's main function as captain seemed reduced to diving into the water to fend off Sea Kings and protect the ship.

Although Selkirk regarded Crusoe as a scoundrel, he grudgingly admitted his capabilities. It was Crusoe who had calculated that this season was the most active for Sea Kings, enabling them to navigate the Calm Belt with minimal risk so far.

Determined, Selkirk resolved to replace Crusoe with a reliable navigator once they settled in the East Blue.

As the sea breeze brushed against his damp skin, Selkirk shivered, goosebumps rising. He glanced around, searching for a towel to dry himself.

Wait—sea breeze!?

Selkirk suddenly turned, locking eyes with an equally astonished and delighted Crusoe. For a moment, their joy mirrored each other. Then, without a word, they turned away and sprinted in opposite directions to inform the rest of the crew.

They had crossed the Calm Belt!

"Finally, I can shake off this damned fool!"

Both men thought the same thing simultaneously.

Meanwhile, the Redbeard Pirates had a relatively smooth journey toward the Calm Belt. Under William's cautious command, the ship carefully avoided wandering Sea Kings.

After nearly two weeks of nerve-wracking navigation in the Calm Belt, the Redbeard Pirates hadn't encountered any other pirates—or even a trace of other humans. Morale dipped as the crew began losing faith in Barbarossa's plan.

Barbarossa himself grew increasingly irritable. In the past few days, he had used his Devil Fruit powers to strangle several crew members over trivial matters. Their corpses now dangled from the ship's prow like oversized wind chimes, tongues sticking out as they swayed in the breeze, their blank eyes occasionally turning to glance eerily at those working on deck.

Sailing the Calm Belt was already fraught with danger, and Barbarossa's actions only added to the crew's mental strain.

The rotting corpses began to emit a faint stench, but no one dared to suggest removing them for fear of provoking Barbarossa's wrath.

The once-dominant pirate who had ruled a part of the East Blue with connections to royal ministers and naval commanders—the fearsome "Redbeard" Barbarossa—was gone. In his place was a tyrannical madman, impulsive and bloodthirsty, a beast that terrified and alienated his crew.

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