AN: Sorry to all those of you who followed me solely for stories in the Harry Potter fandom. Unfortunately for you, it's only one of many that I like to read from, and now I'm trying my hand at the One piece Universe.
For all new readers, this is just a teaser to gauge the reception of this kind of story. Unfortunately if you do like it, my other story takes priority as I don't really want to start another project without finishing the first one. (Writing chapter 26 of ABE right now btw, the chapter should come out on time for once!)
There's a longer AN at the end of this chapter discussing the potential direction the story may take, but for now, enjoy the chapter!
There was nothing quite like the endless glassy surface of a still ocean lit by a full moon.
Especially in these waters.
Unnatural, most would call such a sea, silent as the grave and equally as unsettling. No subtle current disturbed the perfect planes extending infinitely in every direction, nor did any merciful ocean breeze fill our sails. Not that we ever really bothered with them in the first place.
Such a claim would seem absurd coming from the average sailor, whether they be pirate or marine. Most would claim that they lived and died by the whims of the sea. An awesome force of nature that could, and would take lives in a heartbeat, and in exchange granted man the freedom to travel to the far reaches of the world, limited only by their own strength and determination.
However, even the four pirates hailed as emperors of the harshest sea tended to avoid these waters. And yet, my ship slipped unimpeded through the brine, its dull, blue-green hull nearly indistinguishable from the surface as it carved a path towards my next target.
I briefly wondered if they were yet aware of their inevitable fate. Most likely not, as the ship had not changed its course nor hastened its pace since I had picked up its trail. They would eventually; they always did. It was only a matter of when, and how they would react to their death sentence.
The fools and cowards in this situation often responded in the same manner.
They fled.
Or at least they tried to. A grievous error to anyone who had any inkling of my reputation prior to falling into my sights, yet a common reaction all the same. I tended to take a bit too much amusement at the stunned and panicked looks on their faces as whatever vessel they had put their faith in eventually crawled to a halt.
Almost as much as when it begins to reverse directions, gradually being reeled in like some comically oversized fish.
Such was the nature of the tether-tether fruit, at least after years of experimentation and practice.
As a young boy barely into my teenage years I had aspirations of conquering the grand line with my overwhelming strength along with crew of battle-hardened warriors. A childish dream, some would say, and yet it was dwarfed by my fascination with the tales of mystical fruits that turned men into gods. So much so that I made the mistake of taking a bite of the first such fruit I came across in my travels, a white pear with swirling purple accents. As a consequence to my haste, I was entirely ignorant to what power I was permanently trading my body's buoyancy for.
For days my power eluded me. My arms did not burst into flame nor did my legs collapse into sand under my own body weight. A shame, since such phenomenon were often indicative of a newly-born logia user. I did not sprout horns, a tail, or any other such appendages, so a zoan's transformative properties were unlikely as well. Ironically, it was through the simple action of stretching my hand out to a cup of tea slightly out of reach that the first hint of my power showed.
To say I was initially disappointed with my ability was an understatement. The small objects I had managed to pull towards my body in the following days seemed to taunt me and my new aquatic disability. At first it seemed my haste would leave me vulnerable in the sea with very few benefits.
But I persevered.
Days became weeks, and weeks became months, then years, and eventually my ability had developed to the point where I deemed the trade a worthy one. Despite being significantly less versatile than the rumored abilities of the Warlord Doflamingo, the eventual range and scale of my powers were finally formidable in their own right.
But perhaps that's oversimplifying things. One could not survive on the Grand Line relying solely on the power of the sea devil after all.
Exploring the world in my early teenage years let me experience the cruelty that could be shown by man, pirates and marines alike. So as I grew older, I chose to follow neither of the obvious paths, paving my own way in this chaotic world built on the foundations of strength. It wasn't very often that bounty hunters braved the seas of the grand line, and even more rare were they as successful in their endeavors as I, not that I really considered that my career in the first place. If the lifeless bodies of the scumbags infesting this world could be exchanged for millions of beli who was I to say no? The bounties of grand line criminals positively dwarfed those of the Blues after all.
Self-employment allowed me to be more selective with my targets in a way a marine admiral never could, while my avoidance of piracy kept those same marines out of my hair, giving me the freedom to go wherever I pleased. Not that I expected this luxury to last much longer, I doubted they were too happy about a non-government affiliated vessel stalking the waters surrounding the Calm Belt so frivolously.
Of the many wonders I had encountered in my travels, the untouched vein of kairoseki I'd come across on one of the many unchartered islands in the first half of the grand line was perhaps my most valuable discovery to date.
It had been nearly a year since then. Time in which I had hired a team to excavate the mineral, as well as a company of shipwrights to coat my ship, The Equalizer with a substance whose primary ingredient was the ever-elusive kairoseki. A cut of the processed material was enough to keep both parties quiet, and my activities remained obscured from the world government.
At least until I started putting my refurbished ship to use that is.
This was just the latest of a long stint of high profile assassinations, cloaked by the darkness of night, and possibly even more so by the sheer improbability of being attacked from the still waters of the calm belt. This particular piece of shit, "Captain" Frederick Bogsworth, ran a slave ring that had been operating out of a local archipelago on the south blue side of the grand line for the last several months. Taking him down would be its own reward, the 55 million beli bounty was just icing on the cake. He was rumored to have a devil fruit of his own, but as long as there were no unforeseen complications he should pose no problem to my small crew.
It's almost time, I thought, noting the particularly putrid aura of my latest target come within the inner half of my range. Of the three powers of the king, observation was perhaps the most underrated. However when used in conjunction with my devil fruit, nobody was safe from the hunt. The fact that observation haki lent itself so well to my preference for long-range combat was just another reason for me to master the skill.
"Mark to starboard bow Captain!" came the call of my first mate, confirming my thoughts from moments earlier. I could just make out the silhouette of a ship quite a bit larger than my own galley on the horizon. I tensed in concentration as I ramped up the force put into my tether, forcefully closing the distance between our two vessels. A Galley's more slender build was designed specifically to be propelled by the power of rowers, often used to chase down more cumbersome enemy ships. My abilities allowed me to do the same, only with a miniscule crew of three members. The Equalizer lanced through the still waters, bearing down on its prey at an even more rapid pace than before.
The operation would be over within the hour.
A heavy thud sounded to my left as my first mate dropped from her perch in the crow's nest, landing deftly in a crouch, her dark locks obscuring her features before straightening, waiting for orders despite knowing exactly what I'd ask of her.
Calypso Valentino was in a word, stunning. Even if our relationship had never been one of a romantic nature only a blind man would think otherwise. Her shoulder length dark brown hair fell in chaotic ringlets framing what was an exotically beautiful face despite the weathered signs of a life of hard labor. Not to mention a lithe, athletic figure put prominently on display by her standard attire, usually some kind of top that exposed her toned midriff and shorts displaying her equally impressive legs.
"Captain! Your orders?!"
But beyond that, in an impressive example of irony she almost always adhered to the chain of command to an absurd degree, which in this case, mean I was first and foremost her superior, everything else came afterword. This was the most likely reason that we had never progressed beyond casual friends, though I liked to think she'd always have my back in a pinch.
"You know the drill Val, once we hit moving waters you may proceed."
As if you didn't know that already, I laughed to myself.
"Aye Captain," she snapped off, moving to the bow of the ship to wait.
The transition from the unnaturally smooth momentum of sliding through the calm belt to the haphazard nature of currents in the Grand Line was obvious, and feeling the shift herself, Calypso did not hesitate to dive over the side of our small ship, immediately disappearing into the churning surf.
My first mate's outward appearance would suggest that she was as ordinary a human as one could be in this world, but her prowess in the ocean did little to hide the fishman blood that ran through her veins. To most, swimming the waters of the grand line was suicidal, but to her, and to my crew, it was a key aspect to the distinctive hit and run tactics that we had begun to employ.
And so the game began anew.
I deftly hopped from pole to pole up the mast to replace Val in the crow's nest and to gain a proper vantage point for the next stage of the operation. A sleek black case over a meter in length rested at my feet as I flipped over the edge of the small platform. Flicking open the latches with a practiced motion revealed the sleek looking rifle within.
Marine infantry units often carried standard issue muskets if their skillset was more applicable to sharpshooting than close quarters combat. However as one traveled further and further into the grand line, using such crude weaponry against fighters who could leap across battlefields in the blink of an eye, or crush stone with their bare hands, became less and less advisable. And that was without considering the presence of people like myself, that is to say those who could bend the very laws of physics on a whim.
Had I been restricted by the same technology I would have long since given up being a long range fighter, no matter how good a shot I had become. However, that madman Vegapunk had developed several prototypes that leveled the playing field a bit for marksmen of the Grand Line, and through certain connections, I had managed to get ahold of one.
A musket was frighteningly impractical in skirmishes like this, an arduous, front-loading weapon with a negligible range was simply too inefficient a weapon against the kinds of titans I could possibly encounter. Luckily, Vegapunk's prototypes for a new bolt-action mechanism were quite revolutionary, and the increased range along with the significantly more manageable rate of fire, when paired with my prodigious mastery of observation haki made for a formidable threat indeed.
As for those pesky logia users, up until several months ago my crew and I avoided them like the plague. Val's armament wasn't quite to the point of being reliable in a fight, and I tended to avoid unnecessary risk-taking when hunting on the grand line. It only took one mistake to end up fried to a crisp by some absurdly powerful ability. However, that all changed when I stumbled upon that kairoseki.
Bullets made from the mineral could not only harm a devil fruit user but almost acted as a paralyzing agent if they managed to hit their mark, and what would normally be an exorbitant expense was, in my case, merely an investment. An invisible tether on each bullet made them easy enough to retrieve, reducing the cost of ammo after the initial investment to nearly nothing. It was possibly the best answer I had as a marksman to the various powers of the Grand line, at least until I figured out how to apply armament to a speeding bullet. However, such a feat was far behind my ability for the moment.
I shouldered my rifle, relishing the familiar weight in my arms as I loaded a cartridge of regular rounds before peering through the scope. Observation haki provided the user ample information concerning the relevant environmental conditions, however I still made ample use of the scope despite the poor lighting provided solely by the glowing moon hanging in the sky.
Though the choppy surface of the water gave no indication of the fact, I could sense Calypso nearing our target, the enemy ship now within 500 meters of The Equalizer. I felt my lips twitch into a grim smile at the enemy crew scrambling in a frenzy, finally having noticed their lack of control over their own ship's movements. Normally I'd have been hesitant to open fire indiscriminately on an enemy that hadn't antagonized me first, but the build of the larger vessel confirmed it as a slave ship, and one didn't simply stumble into that line of work. They had already made their choice, and now they would pay for it.
I noted the enemy crew coming to some semblance of order as they rushed to prime their cannons for fire.
Interesting, so you choose to fight instead.
I inhaled, steadying my crosshairs over my unwitting target, the unfortunate man had finished loading his cannon before the rest of the men, and would pay for his haste.
I took a slow breath in to steady my heartrate, followed by a steady exhale.
A crack like thunder pierced through the night, and the nearly inaudible splash that followed marked the first of many that would fall by my hand that night.
I vaguely heard the enemy captain shout orders from across the distance between our ships, but currently had no visual on the man. Figures that despite choosing to turn and fight me head on, the man was a coward through and through, happy to hide behind his crew at the first sign of danger.
The waves rolled chaotically under our ship, but my assault did not falter. Every dip and surge of the sea was taken into account; every whipping gust of wind predicted, my haki providing a heightened awareness that transcended the limits of my feeble human senses.
A second and third gunner fell in the blink of an eye.
It wasn't until the fifth pirate hung limply over his own cannon that they wised up and abandoned the guns exposed on the deck for the ones below that offered more cover.
So focused were they on the threat of an enemy sniping from the cover of darkness, that nearly a half dozen of their crew had disappeared before they took notice of the more immediate threat, a dark shape leaping from the churning surf and dragging their comrades to their watery demise. It was as the shape leaped past a lantern to drag down her seventh victim that the panicking crew recognized Val as a human threat.
They were half right, for no full human was capable of the tactics employed by my first mate as I watched her single handedly dismantle the enemy forces, ruthlessly picking off the men I couldn't reach myself and dyeing the frothing waters red.
It was as she silenced the screams of a particularly vocal pirate that had leaned just a bit too far out of his gun port that I caught the flash of something curious through one of the portholes near the captain's cabin. If I wasn't mistaken, a woman with long, dark hair had appeared briefly before she once again hidden from view.
The fact that a woman was on the ship in the first place was nothing I hadn't already been expecting, it was a slave ship after all. What was curious was that the woman was not restrained in any way as one would expect. Was she with the slavers? Or was I simply missing some crucial information that would shed some light on this interesting turn of events. I would have to get closer for answers, not a problem since I'd have had to board the ship to track down Bogsworth for his bounty anyway.
Propping my rifle against the crow's nest and making a mental note to service it later, I dropped the full twenty-five meters to the deck, landing in a crouch to soften the fall.
"I'm going to nab our paycheck Sam, mind watching the ship?" I called over my shoulder to the only member of our crew remaining on The Equalizer. I didn't wait for an answer as I lowered an oddly slender dingy into the water with practiced movements. It was custom built, sacrificing stability for speed and compatibility with my devil fruit.
"I 'dunno Jace, I was thinking of just letting it float away for a change," my youngest crew member snarked as he lounged in a hammock looking bored with the world despite the chaos surrounding him. AJ was the name he gave me the day I found him stowed away on my ship, sprawled out over an unused tarp below deck like he owned the place. It had turned out the boy had a frightening amount of knowledge regarding the less reputable individuals I'd been hunting at the time, and a passible amount of experience with navigation. A bit redundant, considering our standard method of travel, but being able to make our way from island to island if I was otherwise occupied was still handy.
I had intended to drop the scruffy blonde teenager off at the next island, but by that point he had proven his worth enough to keep him around; by his own whim of course. I was always on the lookout for talented individuals to bolster the strength of my crew, but it was always their decision to join in the end. Loyalty could not be bought, and a willing crew was always more loyal than one coerced into servitude.
"You joke now AJ, wait until you get carried off by one of these freakish grand line storms then we'll see who's laughing," I grinned back. Our dynamic was nearly the exact opposite of the one I had with Calypso's. The teen was almost always sporting a grin, but whether it was genuine or not depended on who it was aimed at. The boy would joke around with his comrades whenever possible, but his infectious grin was also the last thing a street hustler saw before being conned out of all his cash. But disregarding his more dubious pursuits, the boy's presence certainly lightened the often too-serious atmosphere of my ship, and I tried to watch out for the kid like I would a little brother.
His response to my earlier jest brought me out of my own thoughts, "Yeah then you'd have me and a ship to chase down, I'm sure you have much better things to do with your time Jace."
I flipped him the bird as I dropped off the side of the Equalizer into the smaller vessel, ignoring his cackles echoing into the night. I had pulled our ship within 300 meters or so by that point, a distance I made short work of in my little boat, reaching the dark hull of the enemy vessel in minutes. The scent of salt and blood on the breeze invigorated me in ways not many things could. As much as I abhorred senseless violence, bringing down the hammer of vengeance on the truly cruel beings of the world gave me a high better than any drug.
I hopped up on the rail, leaving a tether just strong enough to keep the boat from floating away, before surveying my surroundings. The bloody evidence of the small skirmish that had taken place moments earlier painted the deck in a gritty masterpiece, the bodies that hadn't fallen into the sea all sporting telltale holes in their skulls; a cruel testament to my unerring accuracy with my weapon of choice.
I made my way over to the entrance that clearly led below deck, my haki making me aware of several presences still huddled together. The fearful auras they emitted informed me that they were the "cargo" I had expected to find on this trip, but now that I was at a closer range, I could pick out two other signatures separate from the rest. Both were coming from the Captain's quarters located towards the stern of the ship.
I made my way over cautiously, not knowing what kind of threat the unknown woman would pose to my crew. Entering the room I briefly took in the sickeningly opulent décor that was most likely bought with the lives of women and children, before my eyes settled on the scene unfolding before me.
Sprawled in his own high-backed chair was the captain and the target of this evening, however, it seemed that someone had already done half of my job for me. The man was quite dead, neck cleanly snapped by an elegant pair of arms that appeared to be sprouting from somewhere within his oversized coat.
Upon closer inspection I noticed they were the same hands currently crossed casually in front of the same woman I had spied earlier. Her nonchalance was an obvious bluff considering the evidence of how dangerous those deceptively slender arms could be sitting right in front of our eyes.
Meeting her eyes triggered a spark of recognition despite being confident that I'd never met this woman before in my life, Poseidon only knows that I would have remembered such a striking woman had I come across her in my travels. She was tall, both for her age and for a woman, hell, standing face to face she might even have a few inches on my own six-ish foot frame and positively towered over Calypso standing between her and the exit. The woman, and even now I couldn't shake the feeling that feeling of familiarity, clearly had curves to spare, despite her light grey traveling cloak hiding most of her figure. The skin that was exposed however, was a beautiful bronze, complemented by straight, dark hair that fell in a curtain to the middle of her back.
Her features were equally as extraordinary, sporting seductive, cupid bow lips, high cheekbones and a slightly upturned nose. But it was her eyes that truly drew me in. They were beautiful, of course. A blue like the sea and attractively large, but any traits often associated with innocence stopped there.
I had never seen such tortured eyes in any individual before. It was if this woman believed the world was merely a cruel game played by higher powers, her being their favorite sacrificial pawn. Yet there was no king she would die for, no drive spurring her to live for her own purpose. Only the monotonous grind of making it to the next day.
None of this was shown through her expression of course, her face arranged in a neutral mask with practiced ease. Impressive, but futile, at least to someone of my own capabilities. I had always been adept at reading others, a skill only amplified as my observation haki matured. It was an imperfect art, but the agony radiating from the soul before me stood out like the sun in a world of darkness, or perhaps the opposite analogy would be more appropriate. The woman radiated a depression as tangible as a black hole in a world bathed in light, despite her posture and general appearance giving no indication of it.
"It seems I've stumbled upon a bit of trouble," the woman spoke up in a throaty tenor, breaking the silence. Her voice somehow matched her appearance perfectly. It was the voice of an orator, though to what use she put such a captivating tone was yet to be seen. Calypso tightened her grip on the serrated dagger she held at her side, poised to leap to my defense.
I silently held up a hand to halt any aggression from my sometimes trigger-happy first mate before turning back to the woman. "Actually, that may not be the case, it's entirely up to you and your relation to our friend over here," I mused, tilting my head towards the slowly cooling cadaver over her right shoulder.
She glanced over her should briefly, "Mmm?," she mused casually, ignoring the slender fingers still wrapped around the man's pudgy neck, "your friend seems to be otherwise indisposed at the moment, perhaps if you come back at a better time?" My lips twitched up in humor despite the very real situation on our hand, but Calypso seemed to find the banter less than amusing.
"Captain, I was searching the ship for any survivors when I caught her here trying to escape," she said, pretty much confirming my assumptions
"Perhaps I misspoke miss… do you have a name I may call you by?" I said, pausing after realizing I still had no idea who she was.
"I do," She said simply, nodding with that false smile of hers. I couldn't help but crack a grin of my own at the obvious rebuttal.
"I walked into that one," I conceded, before finishing my earlier thought. "I was merely being facetious earlier, I assure you that this scum is no friend of ours," a bit of heat entering my voice at being denied the pleasure of ending him myself. "Are you after the bounty? Or are you here for some other purpose?"
"I have no need of the money," she said, giving perhaps the first serious answer of the night. Her grin then turned absolutely feral, somehow doing nothing to detract from her beauty. "Captain Bogsworth here was simply unfortunate with his choice of targets," her opinion of the designation 'Captain' made apparent by her inflection.
I pondered her statement for a moment, and finding no flaws in her logic turned to my first mate. "Stand down Val, it seems there are no more enemies here."
Calypso scoffed, still suspicious of the strange woman that dared show such disrespect to her captain. But despite her personal feelings, to her, the Captain's word was law, so I knew she would follow orders, no matter how much this woman's flippant attitude pissed her off. Sheathing her dagger, she stood to one side opening a path for the woman to pass through.
"Will you be needing a way to the next island miss? We intended to transport the remaining slaves to safety anyway, so it would be of no inconvenience." I spoke the truth, it was always my intention to find a safe haven for any of the slaves left over, but it was also true that the mysterious woman intrigued me. Any excuse to spend more time trying to figure her out was a good one in my opinion.
She paused as if genuinely considering the offer before shaking her head gently as she passed me in the doorway. The distrust and scepticisim practically radiating off of her frame. What could cause such a staunch distrust of someone offering help? The answer was sadly, many things. I had no delusions about the cruelty of man, but never before had I encountered someone so effected as she.
"I will make my own way Senchou-kun," she called over her shoulder, "and as for the children below, I will leave them in your clearly capable hands."
I smiled at the sarcasm lacing her tone, not taking too much offense from the playful jab, a sentiment not shared by my loyal first mate, judging by her clenched jaw and eyes practically sparking with fury.
My new acquaintance sauntered to the edge of the ship, before leaping over the edge. For a moment I worried for her safety assuming the strange ability she displayed before was the product of consuming a devil fruit, but while my guess was correct, it seemed I had fretted for naught, as she drifted away steadily on a small boat, propelled by the same power I had thought would be her doom moments earlier.
"Senchou-kun!" she called over the surf, causing me to perk up at any tidbit of information she was willing to give. "You may call me Robin!" she shouted while gradually fading into the blackness of the night.
I grinned, finally having made some sort of connection with the now-identified Robin before leaping up to the bow where I could just barely make out the outline of her retreating figure. "Bartholomew D. Jace!" I shouted, removing my Chinese rice hat with a flourish and bowing theatrically as I returned the introduction. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance Robin!"
It wasn't until much later that I realized it was my boat on which she had departed so dramatically.
If anything her guile only made her even more intriguing.
AN: Hey there, thanks for checking out the teaser for this story. I'll restate that this will not be getting regular updates until I'm either completely finished with my other story, or at a point where there a definitive end in sight and I feel confident that I'll finish it. Too many authors never finish their stories due to starting so many.
Now that that's out of the way, this chapter is being released now to gauge how popular It would be to readers in this fandom. Being both a story with an OC as the main character, as well as having multiple OC's in the first chapter I have a feeling it will be looked over by a lot of readers. I would probably skip this story myself if all I saw was the character list. That being said, it is still in its infancy and I'm quite open to suggestions at how you'd want it to proceed.
My current plan is to skip over long periods of time between chapters, cataloging encounters between my OC and Robin over the years and how their relationship developes. This setting spans from this chapter which is around ten years prior to the start of canon, and ending around 3D2Y, depending on where I want to take the story after that point. Robin will still join the strawhats as it's an incredibly key part to her character development, but she might show minor changes to her personality based on how her interactions with Jace skew her world view (whether in a good or bad way is up for debate.)
As I said before, I am open to any suggestions, and even then the story will most likely not see very much in the way of updates for a while. Thanks for your time.
-BT