One Piece: The Legendary Pirate

The day was bright. Grass rustled peacefully as the wind breezed through.

Extending his hand out, Darvy watched silently and cautiously as a butterfly landed on his finger.

"Quite a view, isn't it."

As the feminine voice was spoken, Darvy turned his head and saw the blonde girl standing.

"If you don't know, that's called a butterfly."

"I'm not that oblivious, thank you."

Darvy paused as he returned his gaze to the butterfly.

"It isn't the bug or the environment that interests me. I had plenty of them before... though a lot more hideous than this."

The butterfly left Darvy's hand and correspondingly, he let his arm fall to his side.

"Rather..."

It was the people. Unlike the pirates whom he was exposed to throughout his whole life, they seemed happy, kind, and peaceful.

All of them—they were the qualities that Darvy felt distant to.

He did think, however, that such behaviours seemed to contribute to enlighten the atmosphere of the island, in a positive way that is.

"People, you say."

The girl scoffed.

"Do you wish to live a life like them?"

"...No. Probably never."

'Figures,'

Thought the girl. Looking into the eyes of Darvy, she could tell that there lied a subtle sense of insanity in him, though she doubted that he was aware of it.

"Now, I got some questions to ask."

"..."

The girl spoke with her arms crossed and Darvy remained silent. Taking that as a consent, the girl continued,

"Who are you?"

"Darvy. That's my name."

There was a brief pause. Raising an eyebrow, Darvy muttered,

"What?"

"I want to know more. Like your background, past history, hobbies, et cetera."

"And why should I?"

Darvy bickered. Immediately after he said so, the girl's hand revealed her hand... where the ice supposedly manifested above its palm.

'Devil fruit!'

Darvy's eyes widened.

"Because I am your savior. In addition, because I need to discern that you aren't a threat to the people."

Raising his eyes, Darvy saw a certain sense of hollowness within the girl's blue eyes—something that was unlike any other villager on the island.

The threat was very real. Darvy realized that the girl wasn't joking around.

"I ate the Ice Ice Fruit. It's a Logia-type, so you can't harm me in any way possible. Do you understand? Your life is in my hands. Should I wish, I can kill you here and now."

"...Funny, isn't it? First, you save me, and then you talk of killing me... hah, should've just let me die back then."

"It's my philosophy as a doctor."

The girl spoke with resolve in her voice,

"If someone is sick, they are a patient to me no matter who they are. The aftermath... I think of the consequences after saving them first."

"..."

From a public view, it was perhaps a naive ideal, one that may cost her life in the end. However, Darvy couldn't dare to make fun of it. Determination and the ability to stick to one's ideal faithfully were the qualities that he valued, for they were part of what he defined 'being strong' as.

"...Once again, my name is Darvy."

In the end, Darvy, looking at the clouds, decided to let out truthfully. After all, it was as she said. His life was in her hands, and even upon disregarding such truth, he was nonetheless saved by her. He owed her his life.

The least he could do was to introduce himself.

"I'm 12 in terms of age. An orphan since born and stuck with stranded pirates. No matter when I sleep, I wake up at 6 am every day. It's not like I try to, but my body just does that. Whenever I do so, I'm met by the sight of disgusting pirates who reek of stench so bad that even bugs try to avoid it. Though I despise them, though I know that they kept me alive because I have some use for them, I nonetheless felt some gratitude for sparing me... not that it will stop me from killing them if I have to."

It was a messy, disarrayed story. Darvy didn't care however; the point was to be truthful.

"Too bad, since they are all dead. You see, I had this friend of mine named Xebec. He was everything that I wasn't; strong, confident, charismatic... I admired him. Unlike us, he claimed to have been born on the island, so the pirates didn't harbour a good feeling about him. Believing that there was a treasure on the island, they tried to make Xebec spill the information before killing him. Feeling closer to Xebec than those pirates, I told this to Xebec, and Xebec proceeded to kill all of them and burn the majority of the island—generating a freaking island of doom."

The more and more Darvy spoke, the more he realized, of how shitty his life was.

"Left alone with barely anything to make a life out of, I made a gamble. Throw myself into the ocean and literally commit a pseudo-suicide. Make a bet with the ocean, of whether I will manage to survive miraculously or die and fall into the abyss."

Dryly, he chuckled,

"Well, here I am. After letting me down for my whole life, fate, for the first time, decided to help me out."

"...I suppose so."

The girl seemed quite surprised by Darvy's story. Although short, the impact of it wasn't light.

"Was that enough of an answer?"

"Yes and no. Yes in a sense that the question of 'who are you' has been answered. No in the sense that I still haven't confirmed—whether you are a threat to us or not."

In response to that, Darvy raised his arm and pointed at it with his other hand.

"Look. This is my arm. Scrawny as hell, so thin and frail that it's practically a skin directly on top of a bone."

Lowering them, he snorted,

"Do you believe that I have the capability to beat a fully grown adult? Let alone a guy around my age?"

"Yes."

There was no hesitation as the girl replied.

"It isn't the strength that's required to bring harm. It's the look in one's eyes. And I see it in you... the gleam different from others."

The girl stated coldly, looking right into Darvy's eyes,

"You are a pirate just like those whom you hated, aren't you?"

Become a pirate.

Darvy's heart skipped a beat. His face became wrinkled in a mix of emotions, before he forced a smile onto his face.

"...I guess so."

Turning around, the girl walked away as if having expected such an answer. As she did so, she said for the last time,

"I won't kill you. However, don't approach the village. Don't interact with any one of us. In return, we will pretend as if you don't exist."

Stopping in the middle, she turned her head and gave a glare,

"There is no place for a pirate in here."

In the end, the conversation ended as such—with Darvy not even getting to learn what her name was.

"Well, that surely did go well, didn't it."

Darvy didn't care though. Laying down on the grass, his body decided to shut down, bringing him into yet another slumber, under the bask of the sunlight.

...

When Darvy woke up, the sun was already setting. Hearing the growl in his stomach and met with the craving for food and drink, he brought his wobbly body up and supported his body against a wood nearby.

"...Hm?"

Then, he saw. To his surprise, there was a plate that contained a piece of bread and a bowl of water right next to the space where he slept.

An act of kindness, probably by that girl, for she was the only one who knew where he was.

Without a second thought, he greedily consumed them, not leaving a single bite. He consumed it so fast that he almost choked in the middle, coughing repeatedly such that his body shook.

Considering how little he got back in the pirates' den, this was the feast for him. By the end of the meal, his stomach was so full that he ended up sitting back down.

For the first time in a while, Darvy felt content.

"...So this is what normal people eat. Those strong enough to support themselves."

There lied sadness in his tone.

"If I was born in an environment, would I have lived a normal life? Would I have been accepted?"

'...'

The grinning face of Xebec appeared in Darvy's mind, causing him to widen his eyes.

'...Weak thoughts.'

Slapping his own cheek, Darvy gritted his teeth and brought his body up once more.

"No point in thinking. If you have time to whine... do something more productive."

Find a shelter. Gain a source of water. Some edibles nearby would be nice.

The girl told him to leave. Since she helped him, he intended to give her what she wanted—stay away from them.

He could say that to some extent, her kindness moved him. And through her kindness, Darvy was reminded once more, why he decided to sail out and make a gamble instead of waiting for a slow death.

'I need to get strong.'

There was one goal in his mind, to show Xebec, that arrogant nemesis of him, the taste of defeat.

And so, Darvy walked away, leaving only the empty plate and bowl in the scene.

After he left, the girl appeared, looking at the empty plate and bowl in silence—with a conflicted expression on her face.