One Piece: The Legendary Pirate

[With the fall of one, thus concludes—the final battle of the first round!]

The speaker's voice rang loudly. Thanks to the layer of glass—a window—that separated where Darvy currently was.

A month has passed. Every day, it was an endless spree of slave fights, filled with gore and blood. The Celestial Dragons, however, didn't seem to be tired of the repeated scene of violence. Their eyes, containing every single bit of it, seemed to be craving more for it.

"...Born with everything, they were naturally tuned to seek after pleasures."

A man next to Darvy spoke. This man, with his jaggy long hair, was the same pirate—Haddock the 'Scourge'—who was locked with him in the past as they were being transported to here, Mary Geoise.

"Funnily enough, humans adapt, be it for good or for bad. Just as how pain numbs, so do the pleasures. To achieve the same degree of pleasure, one requires something more intense, something more extreme."

Currently, all the victors save the last one who won his own down in the pit, were aligned on the edge of a hall with transparent glass walls. It surely was a long and huge hallway, being capable of fitting all of them.

They were being forced to witness the so-called 'punishment'. It was something that Celestial Dragons purposely arranged to remind these slaves who might've become egoistical from their victories, that they are nothing compared to Celestial Dragons—the gods of the world.

"In doing so, they succumbed greed. Lust. Pride. It began from something as small as slapping a slave's face, to something as inhumane as an unreal torture to inflict an innocent one as much pain as possible."

"You seem to know a lot about them."

"...There are many things you can learn after visiting a variety of bars all across the world."

As Haddock spoke, the gates down in the pit opened, and the soldiers appeared, dragging the horrified slaves along with them. Those slaves, being the losers of the first round, were forced to stand in an orderly manner such that all 499 of them could fit in the pit.

[Now, the time that everyone has been waiting for!]

"Pleasure, huh."

Darvy muttered. To him, pleasure was a foreign idea in his life. The instance at which he felt it was very rare, and thus, as he watched the scene outside, he wondered what was so entertaining about killing others.

"But then again..."

The image of Xebec flashed in his mind. That grin, the savage laugh he was making during that day—it was clear to Darvy that Xebec too, like these Celestial Dragons, enjoyed the idea of killing.

"Is it possible for someone to be born a killer?"

"Is it? I can't say for certain."

Haddock chuckled.

"But I do know this: that whatever it be, there is a reason why it happened."

"HEY!"

From their back, a soldier growled,

"Stop talking!!"

With their mouths shut, they watched the ongoing scene outside.

[What will it be? What will it be?!]

The screen above the pit was showing a roulette. It was rotating, and the images depicted in this roulette were that of human body parts.

Then, the roulette slowed down, before eventually coming to a stop. The drawn result, pointed by a pointer, was none other than a 'brain'.

There was a brief silence before the Celestial Dragons burst out in a laughter.

"HAHAHAHA! NO WAY!!"

"It's been a while since this happened, isn't it?"

[BRAIN! WOW! How unlucky those slaves are, for them to draw the jackpot! Or should I say, reverse jackpot? Haha!]

The roulette faded within the screen, and was now showing the visage of someone on a standby: Figarland Garling.

[Huh? What's with this camera?]

[Now, there will be the execution performed by none other than our idol: Figarland Garling-sama!]

The slaves were trembling in fear. Tears in their eyes. Faces pale. Some even wet their pants. In contrast, the Celestial Dragons laughed. It was as if some kind of a celebration was ongoing. Eating delectable snacks, laid on comfortable seats, with beautiful and handsome slaves serving them—such a scene invoked a disgust in Darvy.

The noble knight, Figarland Garling, walked out of the gate as he drew a fine sword from his sheath. Handsome, clean, fine-clothed, tall, muscular, elegant—he had the image of a perfect man, and even among the Celestial Dragons, he was special.

"""GARLING! GARLING! GARLING!"""

The Celestial Dragons chanted as Garling pointed his sword at the slaves ahead. The soldiers hurriedly made their ways out, afraid of getting caught. The gates were closed shut, and Garling's bored expression was shown in the screen as he looked at the slaves who viewed Garling as if he was their reaper.

There was no more wait. Without any warning, Garling swung his sword horizontally.

"...Ah."

One slave mumbled, as his upper head was cleaved off of his face. And it wasn't just him. Behind him, all the other slaves had the same horizontal cut that bisected their head.

The brain matters and its fluid splattered together with the blood. 499 previously alive slaves were reduced to a pile of corpses in an instant.

And the Celestial Dragons laughed at that. Garling expressed no remorse but disgust as he sheathed his sword and turned back.

Darvy saw that some slaves watching alongside him were holding in an urge to throw up. Some shivered as if having imagined them being in the scene.

Nevertheless, the message was clear. The Celestial Dragons were saying to them, to Darvy, that they were the supreme ones of the world. That no matter how strong they became, they won't be able to resist the Celestial Dragons and break free.

The Celestial Dragons were training them. After giving them the sweet rewards of treasures, food and a month of rest, they also showed them the punishment. The Celestial Dragons were training them to be the gladiators, forever stuck in this place to bring joy and entertainment.

Turning, Darvy saw that Haddock had a gleam of resignation in his sole eye that wasn't covered by the eye-patch.

Even a strong pirate like him succumbed to a despair. It meant that the Celestial Dragons' method was effective.

"OUT!"

The soldiers then shouted, shoving them out of the hallway back to where they came from.

__________

"Imagine sailing throughout the vast sea. No restraint. You are to rely on nothing but your own crew mates. Tools? Compass, maps... none of them matter when the world isn't mapped properly in the first place. You often end up going in the wrong direction. Get caught up by the catastrophic climates. Get stranded. However, you fix your ship and get back on sailing. It is wandering into the unknown that's so fearful yet exciting. It truly was a fine adventure..."

That night, Haddock told tales of his journey as a pirate to Darvy. He told Darvy about numerous tribes and specimen. Perhaps it was his way to vent his stress. It was clear as he said so, he was trying to get rid of the fear in him, but was failing to do so.

Haddock was the man whose measured Doriki reached 2000. In terms of Doriki alone, he could match the guy ranked 3, Brody whose Doriki was 1980. Yet, a man of such strength feared. This was enough to invoke fear in other slaves as well.

"It was going fine until my crew encountered a luxurious ship. Seeing it as an opportunity, I ordered them to raid the ship. Turns out that the ship belonged to that Celestial Dragon."

"...Brysus."

"My crew was formidable. They were strong enough to defeat everyone on that Celestial Dragon's ship except one man—one who was wearing a white armor that made him stand out from the rest."

Darvy too remembered seeing that man back in the island.

"My entire crew was wiped out and I, as the lone survivor, am now here, enslaved."

He raised his hand as if there was an imaginary bottle of alcohol in it, before pausing, staring at said hand, and lowering it grimly.

"Perhaps this is the fitting end of a pirate."

As Darvy directly gazed into the fear within Haddock's eyes, he asked,

"Do you fear death?"

"...I do. It is something natural within humans. To die means to perish. You will disappear in this world, to never return again."

"Then, what about those who don't?"

Darvy couldn't understand Haddock in that sense. To fear death means to fear the unknown, for people didn't know what lies after. However, to pirates, fearing death was absurd. Pirates, those who venture into the unknown and welcome the mystery, fear death?

"There are three possibilities. One, they are pretending. To uphold their values, they pretend as if they don't fear the death."

As Haddock spoke bitterly, Darvy felt as if Haddock was speaking about himself with this one.

"Two, they have given up. They have no hope remaining and accepted their fate."

Darvy was reminded of the pirates back in his home island, those filthy ones who technically grew him.

"Three... they have a goal in their mind. A goal so important that they would do it even if they were to lose their own lives."

Xebec.

Darvy's eyes widened.

"However, everyone is prone to fear, Darvy. Even if isn't the death, everyone is afraid of something. Fear, in the end, is tied to the idea of losing something dear to you."

Weak. Remaining weak and failing to enact his revenge.

Darvy gazed at his thin arm. For a month, he followed the exercises explained within the book he got. For a month, he stuffed as much food as he could. Still, there was no difference. There was no improvement.

Is it impossible for him to grow strong?

Thinking of such an idea brought a chill within Darvy, and he understood what it meant to fear.

"You are young, Darvy."

In the end, Haddock sighed,

"Young, naive, but forced in a helpless situation. It is highly likely that you'll be stuck here forever. Hell, it is even more likely for you to lose the next round and suffer consequences. But perhaps, just perhaps, if you somehow were to make it out one day,"

Then appeared on his face, a wistful smile.

"Do think of becoming a pirate like me."

"I already am one."

"Hehhehheh... is that so?"

The night was long, and the second round was approaching. Fearfully, the slaves slept, hoping that they will be in an optimal condition to survive yet another round of elimination.