Chapter 1

My name is Sortis D Ava and the world hates me. Well it doesn't even know me, but it knows about me. Right before I was born my father was killed, not in one of the numerous battles I heard he took part in from the old man, no he died in his own filth rotting away cause the life he made. The life he made that mercilessly punishes the other life he made, in other words; me. The old man says that it is my duty to live quietly and have the world forget about me, that he didn't want a repeat of history whatever that means. So basically I'm supposed to be bored my entire life.

I wake up under my blanket in the corner of the Boars Blood, the tavern Uncle runs. The tavern air around me is stale, even on one of the hottest days of the year the windows are closed, letting the smell of last night's festivities boil. Trust me, cooked puke is not something you want to smell. I grab one of the dirty dishes lying around and start to clean, the faster I clean the sooner I can leave.

I almost finish when I heard a groan that lets me know Uncle is awake. I sigh, today was not going to be a good day, well it was at least going to be worse than usual. "Shithead! Get in here!" I hear him bellow from his room behind the bar. I place the glass I was cleaning down and walk into his room. My eye always take a minute to adjust to the dark so I take a sniff. Now my nose has always been better than most, probably due to me being blind in my right eye. This was due to Uncle smashing a cigarette into it one night when I had mistakenly walking in on him and his friend awhile back. If it was possible his room smelled worse than the bar. But I could still smell him within the stench. When his putrid odor starting getting worse, I moved in time to make his punch fall slightly off my shoulder instead of my head or stomach.

I fell against the wall with a grunt, his blows had stopped hurting years ago but I didn't let him know that it would only make him hit harder. He drags me to my feet and looks down at me. Now Uncle has spent his entire life living at night or inside, so he has practically night vision when he's sober, thankfully this happens around once a year so I'm safe. His vision was one of the reasons he was so successful as an assassin and a thief, that is until the old man caught up to him. Instead of sending him to jail he gave him me to look after since being a high ranking marine meant he wasn't around, ever.

"Hey asshole why isn't my room cleaned yet?" In response to his, not unexpectedly, stupid question I just look up at him. Maybe it's my burnt eye making him feel guilty, though I doubt it. Or he thinks my gaze it that of a dead person, I've been told this many times by others. I never know which is it but he can never look at me for long, most people can't, even if they don't know what hated blood flows through my veins. Like I guessed after a second or two of staring up he just tosses me to the ground, "Whatever you little piece of shit just make sure it's clean by tonight. He's coming to check on you"

I brighten when he says this, though I don't let him know. The old man hadn't been back in two years and whenever he visited Uncle had to clean up his behavior a lot. He remembered last time when the old man saw my eye. Boy was he in trooooouble~. I nod once and head back into the main room to finish the last of the cleaning. When I was done I left for the forest.

I live on an island in the eastblue, one right on the edge of the calm belt so we're always getting seakings in our bay and the animals in our forest have genetically reacted to something making them giant. It was in this forest that the one person who actually knew me lived. Kyle was the same age as me and we had met a year ago. Kyle used to have everything still would except his mother died and his step mom kicked him out. I saved him from being killed in an alley and he had listened to me, something that no one had done before. we struck a friendship of sorts and started training to get stronger with the beasts of the forest. We also robbed, through the advice of Uncle, so we could get enough money to one day leave this God forsaken hell hole.

Kyle had light brown hair which he usually kept short and wore shorts and a T-shirt with a ripped vest over it. We were saving up to get ourselves a ship so we could go on adventures, Kyle wanted to be a pirate and I just wanted to get away from this world. I hated the idea of pirates but I didn't actually mind living like one.

Kyle and I had an ongoing competition in battles, hunting and robbery for who would get to be captain when we set to sea. Honestly I didn't want to deal with other people so I would rather have him be captain but I hate to lose in anything. I was better at the hunting and he was better at stealing stuff but we were slot even when we fought, unfortunately Kyle was starting to pick up muscle faster so I am having to train even harder to keep up. I don't mind really, it also gives me the chance to gain better balance and depth perception with only one eye.

I reach our hideout in a tall tree, Kyle had obviously just gotten there I could tell by the way he tried to look relaxed and how he called,"You're late!" He knows how shitty Uncle is so he doesn't care if I'm late a long as I can still fight.

I smirk, "Since when did you become boss? Last I checked we were tied in that account." He just laughs so I go on, "let's hunt today I need something to distract me."

He agrees but still asks, "I thought the drugs had stopped, so what's it this time?"

I shook my head, "They did, and he should be glad too, the old man is coming to visit, so I gotta get back early so he doesn't kill me. I'm never supposed to go out remember?" He nods and we head off.

Uncle always is in a better mood if I can bring home anything for the fire. Knowing this and that I should probably keep him in a good mood we take down a smaller deer that's easier to transport. Small being relative, I heard stories about on other islands the animals aren't that much bigger that humans making our tiny animals still larger than them.

Unfortunately I'm too late with my delivery cause just as a carry the deer around the corner I can hear Uncle yelling "I can't take it any longer, Ava's almost 12, I can't handle her for much longer you gotta take her back!" Right and would the bar run itself? Uncle likes my work but not my being.

I hear a choking sound and then a rough voice around something in the person's mouth, if I'm not mistaken, a cigar. "I'll let you choose once more; go to jail, or continue to raise Ava," HA! Like he's done anything to raise me other then set me up with robbery gigs and make me half blind, "and Jasper." Wait who the fuck is Jasper? "The number of crimes I've overlooked for you would secure you a place in the third hell of Impel Down." I'm close enough to see them now and I can see Uncle go pale. Hmm this Impel Down place must be hell if he looks so scared. It was then that I noticed a boy maybe 3 or 4 years younger than me running around with this goofy grin that made me want to tear it off his face and strangle him with it, he also was wearing a straw hat that looked so out of place in this city of filth I almost laughed. I set the deer down and sat on top of it daring anyone to mess with my kill.

Uncle and the old man were still yelling, wait more like Uncle pleading and the old man not caring. But I had stopped paying attention to focus on this kid, whom I am assuming is 'Kevin'. The more I watched the more I hated him, he was so happy and carefree and obviously didn't have the world hating him. I picked up a sharp rock and threw it at him aiming to draw blood. I succeeded in cutting his skinny arm with the spinning blade. He cried out in pain, what a cry baby, it barely drew blood, at least not as much as I hoped.

"Oh Ava!" The old man said turning to me. He stopped strangling Uncle and walked over to the kid. Hitting him on the head he said, "That's Ava, she's 3 years older than you. You'll be living together after today, so you better get along." I started at the old man hiding my disdain, I had to live with not only an alcoholic good for nothing assassin but now a snot nosed brat as well? The marine sure knew how to make a place hell, even without this Impel Down.

"Then it's settled." The old man said turning to Uncle.

"What is?"

"I'll leave my son with you."

"SMOKER!"