Chapter One: You Will Remember My Name!
Welcome to the Great Pirate Era. After being captured by the World Government, the legendary King of the Pirates Gol D. Roger was sentenced to death. On the day of his execution, his final words drove thousands of pirates into the sea in search of his legendary treasure, the One Piece, resting somewhere along the Grand Line. Among the countless mass of pirates, there is one boy that is seeking the glory for himself. Every story has a start, and this story begins in the small island of Kiro Village in the South Blue. This is the tale of one of the most legendary crews to sail the blue seas, led by the future King of the Pirates!
The blonde haired, blue eyed, tan young man gazed out over the waters of the Kiro Village harbors from a cliff high above the port. He leaned back and looked up at the sunny sky, perfectly clear of any sort of bad weather. The bustling sounds of the island town made its way all over, except for the cliffs from which the man stood. He gazed down at the port, looking at the beautiful ships that were docked. "This is it. This is the day I finally get to set sail." He thought to himself. He looked down at the port again and jumped, racing well over one hundred feet to the ground. He landed with a thud, grinning at the people who had watched him complete what would normally be an amazing feat. But to the young man, it was just another way of getting around.
He walked around, looking at the houses and people that he would miss while he was on his adventure. He went to say goodbye to his uncle, Tom, who had raised him since he was a child. Tom worked at one of the local bars in town, called the "Seaman's Glass". It was a normally peaceful island, but every now and then a band of pirates appeared and tried to wreak havoc among the villagers. Usually they didn't get very far however, as the villagers were well equipped to take on even a seasoned group of thugs. It took about twenty minutes to walk from the port to the bar, and finally the man had made it.
When he went inside, he noticed the bar was more quite than usual. The young man walked over to the barkeep. "Hey uncle, I'm getting ready to leave and just wanted to say goodbye. Is the boat ready at the south port?" the young man asked. "Ah, is it that time already?" the old man said while looking at his watch. "Yes son, the boat is ready but…" the man trailed off. "But what?" asked the boy. "Another group of pirates came into town today causing trouble. Threatened to rip off my head if I didn't give them my weekly earnings. I don't know what this village will do without you here to stop the shakedowns." "Where are they?" the boy said in a solemn tone. "They're down at the south port, oddly enough. Tell you what; if you can go and get the money, it's yours. Consider it a farewell present." "Uncle you don't have to do that, I can make money some way." The boy said. "Ah, nonsense, I was going to give it to you anyways. Well, I might as well say goodbye, we can't have you wait any longer, so off you go boy." The old man said with a faint smile. The two men hugged each other for a time, and then the man headed for the door. "Goodbye uncle Tom, I'll never forget you!" said the boy. The door shut behind him, and the old man said to himself "I'll never forget you either son. Please, be safe out there."
The young man raced down to the south dock, where he saw the pirates giving some locals trouble. He counted them, seeing eighteen in total. "This is going to be too easy." He said with a smile. He saw a thick muscled man carrying an axe giving orders to the others to take the money to his quarters. "He must be the captain then. I should save him for last." The man thought to himself. One of the villagers looked over and saw the young man standing near the stairs leading into town. "Hey, help us!" the man screamed. The pirates all looked over in one direction and raised their swords. "Get him men, and bring me his head!" shouted the captain. "Aye, Captain Shellsbrooke!" the pirates said. With that, they rushed the blonde haired man. The man set his legs and curled his fist and rushed right at the pirates. "Stupid kid, what does he think is going to come of this?" said the pirate captain. All of a sudden, the captain saw several bodies being pounded into the ground and sent flying sky high. One after another, the pirates fell. The young man was moving fast and threw powerful combos into the bodies of the captain's men. Within forty seconds, the pirates were down for the count. Captain Shellsbrooke was wide eyed and snarling at the man. "What the hell are you doing kid? Who are you?" the man was on all fours, looking like he was about to take off in a dead sprint right at the captain. He looked up from the ground at Shellsbrooke with a wild pair of eyes and a wild grin to match. "My name is Rory H. Masters, and I'm going to be king of the pirates!" he said with a roar. The man reared his head back in laughter. "How can this punk be the king of the pirates when I'm standing right here?" he thought to himself. While he was distracted by his own thoughts, Rory's hand kicked back the dust on the ground and his eyes grew a wild shade of red as he took off, barreling straight down on top of the captain. The captain looked up just in time to see Rory's head plunge right into his gut with the force of a freight train. "Wild Spear!" Rory shouted with all his might, and the captain was sent flying back to his ship, splitting the frame of it from the impact of his body in half. Smoke blew out of Rory's nose as he stood up, and his eyes grew back to the normal shade of dark blue. The villagers cheered as they pushed the pirates into the sea, screaming out Rory's name with glee.
One of the villagers, Toshi, a farmer, ran to greet Rory. "That was incredible Rory, when did you get so powerful?" Rory looked up with a half-smile on his face. "I've been, uh, training with my uncle recently. I guess all that work paid off, wouldn't you say?" Toshi nodded his head. "It sure did. Where are you off to this fine day anyways?" Rory got back on his two feet and looked towards the ocean. "I'm setting sail Toshi; I'm going to the Grand Line." Toshi was open-mouthed at the news, and then just nodded his head again. "Well, I'll make sure to look after your uncle for you while you're gone. Be careful out there Rory, there are a lot tougher pirates than Shellsbrooke out there in the Grand Line, assuming you can even make it." Rory was still gazing out at the sea. "They don't scare me man. We've seen plenty of rouges come through here, and we've always been able to handle them. Anyways, I'm off. Tell everyone I said good-bye, it'll be a long time before they see me again." Toshi shook Rory's hand with a smile. "Don't worry, I won't forget it. Where's your boat anyways? You know you need a boat to cross the water right?" Rory looked to the far end of the dock, and saw his boat. It wasn't large, but it got the job done for him.
It had a tall mast with a crow's nest at the top. It had black flags hanging, and the ship's body was golden brown and detailed with black lines down the port and starboard side. The ship wheel was brown with a black triskelion in the center of it. The custom figurehead was a black bull, with red tinted eyes and two long horns protruding from its skull.
"It's right over there." Rory said to Toshi, pointing over at his ship. "Well, looks much better since I last saw it, seems to have recovered quite well from the wild storm we had a few weeks ago." Toshi told him. "Yeah, uncle Tom and I fixed it up real nice. Well, I'm off Toshi." Rory turned to walk away before Toshi called his name one last time. "Rory, wait, do you even know where you're going?" Rory thought about it for a moment. He had never left his small island home and realized he actually had very little knowledge of the world. "I suppose I'm just going to go wherever the wind takes me Toshi, unless you have a better idea." Toshi looked towards the east over the water. "Just east of here, about 40 miles away, is an island where I send my crops to sell. It's called Lagusta Hills, it's a small island with a marine base on it, but it's pretty populated and it sees its fair share of business. Anyways, I'll let you get off on your journey now, don't want to keep you too long. Be safe out there Rory." "I will Toshi, thank you." With that, Rory turned back around and waved goodbye without looking back and walked toward his ship. With his tremendous leaping ability, he cleared the gap from the dock to the deck of his ship and unfurled the sails. The wind caught the large sails and blew a strong gust, pushing the ship forwards. Rory walked slowly up the stairs to behind the wheel and started to steer, glancing one last time at Kiro Village. "It's going to be a long time before I see any of you again," he muttered to himself, "But I'll make you all proud. I promise."
Waves slapped against the wood boards of the ship as the boat sped off, gaining a lot more speed than what Rory had even thought it could. The small island that was Kiro Village grew to nothing more than a black dot on the horizon as the sun cast over Rory's head. He took off his white tank top and let the sun beat down on his lean body and put a on his favorite black hat that covered most of his medium length hair, showing only the ends sticking out over his ears, his bangs, and the back of his neck. He sailed for about six hours, dropping anchor at Lagusta Hills around 7 pm that night. Rory was exhausted and starving, so after eating his dinner in his cabin, he took off his hat, pants, and shoes, and crawled into bed. With a yawn he said "Tomorrow I'll look around the city for anything interesting." And then he fell asleep for the night. As he closed his eyes, he thought about what kind of adventures he will have, what kind of people he will meet, and what kind of fights he will have. He drifted off into slumber with a smile.