Disclaimer: One Piece and all it's characters belongs to Eiichiro Oda.
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Chapter 01: After The Battle
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Captain Kuro, the notorious cold and calculating pirate who had terrorised East Blue and caused the Marines no end of problems, was a man no one would have expected to lose to a seventeen-year-old boy. Never before had one of his plans gone awry, but now, thanks to that whelp with the straw-hat, they had: badly.
The boy who had gone down in history for trashing his opponent had held a dream of which Kuro had scoffed. His desire was to be the Pirate King. Not only was it a fool's dream and unplanned, unplanned an unpredictable and dangerous word Kuro hated, it was doomed to end in failure. Or so Kuro thought. Not only that, but Luffy was a child who had an annoying habit of giving lectures to those with no interest in hearing them.
The Black Cat pirate crew, several of whom had expressed distaste, had reluctantly dragged their ex-captain aboard his old vessel. There was no escape if their old captain did intend on finishing those he'd failed to kill; the ocean surrounded them on all sides.
However, although the thought of Kuro filled them with dread, the crew were not on the same level as their captain. Some would even say there was something there, an unmentionable feeling they'd rather not say. Therefore, by a majority of 15 to 7, they had decided to keep the unconscious man aboard until he was sufficiently well to be cast off the ship. More would have voted, but the captain had effectively nuked the vote by killing the rest of them back on that island.
As far as the crew of the Black Cat could tell, Jango had been left behind on that island; a result of him chasing that girl Captain Kuro had been after. They had been left behind without anything that could protect them from a psychopathic murderer intent on shedding their blood.
Maybe it was their lucky day.
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When he woke up, the first thing Kuro noticed were the dim rays streaming from the porthole to the right. He lay back and saw a familiar wooden ceiling. It was pockmarked with recognizable knots in the grain. Not only that, the room was one he remembered.
Raising his right hand, a force of habit, Kuro felt his glasses missing, but then spotted them on a table to the left. Inch by inch, he levered his left leg then right, intending to get off the bed. But no sooner as his back had started to rise off the mattress then something happened. There was a crack somewhere (for he wasn't a physician) and a crippling flash of pain ran down his spine and legs, following the bone. He bore the pain as best as he could.
Please tell me those fools haven't taken me off that island, Kuro thought, raising a hand to his forehead. Goddamn it, this bloody hurts!
Kuro plummeted back to the bed and his mind began operating like clockwork. His plan, the one intended to free him of this life, had failed. It had done so because of a stupid boy with an equally foolish hat. Luffy had defeated him, Captain Kuro; a feared man who had not tasted the defeat once before in his life. And he hated it. He, the dreaded Captain Kuro of the Thousand Plans, had lost.
Useless fools. If they had an ounce of strength I would not be in this mess, thought Kuro, and his eyes closed.
As much as he desired to dispose of those who had, in the end, proved to be unreliable, Kuro knew he was in no condition to do so at this moment.
Besides, if they wanted him they would have done the deed and tossed him overboard. However, he had a plan. Although he appeared right now to be weak and defenceless, there was one thing his men had to remember; he always landed right side up. His men would serve his purpose, aiding him in recovering from his injuries and getting things on track, and as soon as he was well they would pay for what they had done.
It's not like it's personal. I just can't afford witnesses.
Finally exhausted, Kuro caught some uneasy rest, sleeping with an open ear just in case his pawns were thinking of doing something they ought not to.
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Several days later, the Black Cat had sighted land. In the distance lay a small island, upon which were two towns on either side. Both were ports, each serving a different side of the island. A blanket of lights gleamed in the darkness, specks of light inside rows of houses. Through the telescope, the senior member of the ship had decided that this would be where they dumped their passenger.
This man was not a captain but a gunner. The answer was quite simple – Captain Kuro had killed most of their force, one after the other, with that terrifying skill of his.
And now he had found himself in charge of those who had survived; he had responsibilities. One of them was to make sure they all survived Kuro's departure in one piece.
"Right then, you lot; listen up!" the pirate called loudly.
Everyone stopped what they were doing. Heads turned in the direction the voice had come from.
"I'll need you and you to lower a boat," the appointed leader ordered, before turning to another group stood nearby. "And you three, go and get you-know-who. But don't wake him up! He's still in pretty bad shape, so it shouldn't be difficult. Then we can dump him in that town and put as much distance between him and us as possible."
The three men picked themselves up from where they had been perched and left.
Meanwhile, the momentary leader breathed a huge sigh of relief. Finally, he was free! The general consensus was that as soon as the captain was taken care of they would disband the crew and return home. Anything to get away from this cursed ship.
There was an ear-piercing scream.
Everyone jumped on the spot, chattering, looking, wondering what had happened. The moon shone overhead. Soon, all eyes fell upon the door that led to the cabin where Kuro had been resting. The door was banging on its hinges and the first thing to be noticed was the silence.
A clink of metal: the pirate leader's eyes widened in alarm as the sound grew closer. His heart jumped out his chest when the door was opened, and Kuro, somewhat healthy enough to walk, emerged from the darkness. Blood glistened on the clawed gloves he wore. Several pulled back in fear and others gritted their teeth as Kuro raised his claw and pushed up his glasses.
"Was there something you wanted with me?" he asked simply, lowering his glove. "Or are you just surprised I'm not as ill as you hoped I was?"
The black-haired man stepped closer to his former pirates, who were rooted to the spot. For one, his legs had suddenly become as heavy as lead, unmovable. For another, his heart had frozen as the hairs on the back of his neck rose in fear.
Kuro found this amusing. He stopped and pushed up his glasses again, leaning back to watch those terrified of a 'dead' man. He gazed at them. There were a few new faces, men Jango had bought aboard after he'd left.
"Never mind, it doesn't matter," Kuro said. "You failed my plan. You should already know the consequences of failure."
Kuro suddenly disappeared, and all his men could see were the glint of the silver claws as they tore through their bodies, which collapsed to the deck, lying in blood that pooled, mingled and ran between the cracks.
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Cleaning his glove with a dirty rag, Kuro readjusted himself on the ringed barrel he'd sat on. They hadn't required too much effort, though he found he'd exerted too much too soon.
And the burning reared its head, causing him to wince.
It passed.
Kuro sighed; raising his glove to check it had been cleaned properly. He nodded and lowered it to look at the bodies littering his ship. They were sprawled across the floor, some caught in the rigging, some over the side. Claw marks were apparent everywhere; on the floor, a few on the walls, even some where the rigging was torn. And, of course, the bodies themselves.
Now what should I do?
There was no way he'd return to the life of a pirate and be chased down by the Marines. One thing of which Kuro was sure was that Siam and Buchi had not been among the dead. They must have been left on that island after they'd sailed away. The two brothers were beyond his reach.
The lights in the distance caught his attention. He rose and turned to face the town in the distance. He knew the island to be small, with a crescent shape and a range of mountains down the middle, splitting it into two. It was relatively secluded; the town he could see was of a modest size. It would be perfect.
Kuro smiled at the thought of his plan; the thought of proving Luffy wrong made him excited. No, he would not wait to get the money and quietude he desired. Three years was long enough to wait.