Chapter 1: Lily D. Aster
A girl. A girl and her backpack. A girl on the way to school in the South Blue. A girl with a mysterious fruit, unbeknownst to her. This particular girl went by Lily, but her full name was Lily Delphinium Aster.
Her day progressed as any normal day would, the only abnormality being lunch. She sat down alone, at a table near the back corner of the mess hall. She was actually quite sociable and friendly, but nobody really liked her, and she was consistently avoided. Because of this, she usually kept to herself. Lily had straight blue hair, which at it's longest went down to her waist. She had large red-purple eyes, a slender figure, and pale skin. She had two hair clips in her bangs, a trademark of sorts, a pink one above a yellow one.
Lily rummaged around in her backpack until she found her food for that day, which happened to be an orange. Or so she thought. She pulled it out to find that it was really not an orange at all, but an oddity of a fruit. It was about the size of an orange, and had a similar texture, but was covered in odd swirls, and was an unusual pink hue. "I could've sworn I grabbed an orange today..." She mumbled. She vaguely remembered reaching into the box of fruit her mother had bought at the store, and throwing the first thing she could get her hands on into her bag. She was in a rush. "Oh well." Lily peeled the strange fruit, and took a bite. She regretted that decision almost immediately. She felt a sudden burst of nausea throughout her stomach. This was easily the worst thing she'd ever eaten. She was about to spit it out when she remembered that was all she had in terms of food today. Lily ate the entire fruit.
After stomaching the fruit, (and almost vomiting thrice) she felt a strange tingling sensation throughout her body. Lily figured that it was because the fruit was rotten or something of the sort, and shrugged it off. She slung her backpack over her shoulder, and headed for the exit when she saw the boy that made her sixteen year old life miserable. Joseph, or Joe, as his friends called him. Lily was not his friend, and she was quite scared of him. She was not very physically tough, and this post-pubescent male was easily six feet tall, and was quite strong.
Joseph approached Lily, and backed her into a corner. "All alone, Little Lily?" Joseph taunted. "Yeah." Lily stood up straight, putting on a false show of confidence. Lily attempted to walk around him, but he cut her off. "Don't walk away from me when I'm trying to talk to you!" Joe reared back his fist, and threw a punch at her.
Lily threw up her arms, palms first, to try and block the impact, or at least shield her face. She squeezed her eyes shut. And yet, no impact came. Lily opened her eyes, and saw Joseph's fist suspended in midair. And it was- bleeding? She backed up, and saw that a tetragram seal had blocked his punch! "Wha..?" Lily stuttered. She backed away, and the seal seemed to melt into the air. Joe had a look of pure shock plastered on his face. "Y-Y-You're a devil..." Lily stumbled backwards into the door, and rushed outside. Lily ran the entire way back to her home, crying.
As she opened the door to her house, she saw her mother, digging through the box of fruit. When she heard the door shut, her head whipped around. "Are you alright Lily? It's a bit early to be out of school." Lily continued sobbing. "I'm a- a- a devil!" She said, with a tone of self-disgust, dropping to the floor. Her mother's face suddenly darkened. "Lily Delphinium Aster, did you eat an absolutely vile tasting pink orange-looking fruit?" Lily vigorously nodded her head. Lily's mother exploded. "LILY, YOU IDIOT! THAT WAS A DEVIL FRUIT! I WAS GOING TO SELL THAT FRUIT FOR TWO HUNDRED MILLION BERRIES! WE WERE GOING TO BE RICH, AND LIVE IN A MANSION! AND NOW YOU'LL BE DIFFERENT FROM EVERYONE ELSE! YOU HAVE SPECIAL POWERS, AND WILL NEVER SWIM AGAIN!" Lily ran to her room, and slammed and locked her door.
Once she was sure her mother was asleep, (She had told Lily she wasn't allowed to leave her room until "this whole thing boiled over") Lily walked over to a carpet in her room, and pulled it aside. She yanked at a loose floorboard and revealed a thick, old book. The cover had one faded word written across the top: 'NAVIGATION'. Her mother had banned books about oceanic navigation, or ocean maps, because traveling the ocean was 'dangerous and pointless'. She opened it up to a dog-earred page titled 'Pirates'. Lily Delphinium Aster spent the entire night fantasizing about the freedom of pirates, and wishing she had that freedom.