When the boy opened his eyes, the fire was already beginning to die down. The charred remains of his house let off a trail of smoke into the sky, and the smell of burning flesh was fresh in his nose.
"Dreadful...fucking pirates."
These words were spoken close by, but the boy paid no attention to them. His gaze continued to rest upon what he had once considered home, still stunned by what had transpired.
"Kid...Look at me." The voice was remarkably close now, and the boy found himself obeying. There was something in the voice that compelled him to do so; a trace of anger, or of sympathy.
No matter what it was, the boy would probably have listened anyway. He was always one to take orders with little fuss.
The man he found himself looking at was large. Nowhere near the height of the giants he had once read about, but still taller than his father had been. The fire had died down to an ember now, so the boy struggled to see anything else identifying the man. With some struggle, he managed to make out a marine cap on the man's head.
"I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. You've already saw what happened. All I can do is give you a choice." The man kneeled down, though he still towered over the boy. The man did his best to look the boy in the eyes.
"The standard procedure in a situation like this is to just ship you off to some random town and have you fend for yourself. But I've been in your situation. So I'll give you an alternative."
The boy moved his mouth, in an attempt to speak, but couldn't.
If the man noticed, he ignored it. "I can give you a chance at Justice. I can see to it you get training, become a great marine, so no one else will have to suffer." He smiled. "What do you say?"
The boy looked around, at the ruins of his town, at what could only be the charred corpses of his parents, and finally back to the man.
The man looked eager.
What did the boy really want? To be like any other orphan, and fade into obscurity? Or to get revenge on the bastards that killed his family?
"I choose...Justice."
AN: Hello everyone! I'm InfernalDingus, and this is my very first fanfiction! Get ready for the time of your lives, because this is going to be one wild ride! This is just the prologue, for now; expect the first chapter in about a week.