Ok, I'm sure you'll all understand where this is going by the end of the chapter, but sad backstories are probably a requirement of One Piece. Also, I need Drazen to be in a particular place at a particular time, so...
I do not own One Piece, or any original work that I may pull inspiration from. Citations on previous page.
Chapter 2
Drazen was different, the people of Amayar quickly noticed. While it was strange to see the little boy that had run around getting into constant trouble act so grown up, they couldn't blame him.
While death was a fact of life, children should not have to deal with it so young, especially not in such a peaceful village.
And now the seven, nearly eight, year old boy was attempting to cope and the citizens didn't have the heart to try and stop him. A child should still be focused mostly on playing, not attempting to get everyone in the village to teach him everything that they knew.
It made him so happy learning recipes from old granny Maera, how to tie knots from one of the Alabastan merchants, or herbal properties from Anelara the healer, not to mention how Perry had taken him on as an apprentice. And little Drazen wrote down every little technique and scrap of knowledge in a journal, filling them up and then hiding them somewhere.
It felt good, to teach someone so clearly interested and motivated, no matter how sad the reason that he had desired to learn was.
The kid was amazing at drawing, however, though they understood his motivation at getting that good. After all, their village was not wealthy, and had a single adult den den mushi on it in case of emergencies. No one would want to buy a camera den den(because they were ridiculously expensive and hard to use properly), so for most people memories were the only way they had to remember.
Drazen had begun making some pocket money by drawing people so that they'd always have an image of their family and friends.
The poor kid always seemed dissatisfied with his drawings though, like they were never good enough.
But his journals, the few times anyone had gotten a look into them, were works of art(especially for such a young kid). Clearly going over every random bit of knowledge that he found, with accurate drawings included, they all knew that Drazen would probably end up a scholar of some type one day.
Maybe he would become the town chronicler, in addition to whatever trade he got into.
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Diardi Drazen wanted to know and learn. Not for the sheer sake of knowing or because it would be useful in life(though those were bonuses), but rather so that he could preserve and share it one day.
Most people never shared their knowledge except to an apprentice or student, and some never shared at all. When someone died, their story, their knowledge and skills and wisdom, died with them.
And perhaps the other people in Amayar thought he was strange. Most of them seemed to think he was just writing out how to do the things they taught him so that he wouldn't forget, like when Perry showed him how to keep the fire in the forge at the right temperature for different metals and what affected which ore. And they weren't wrong, he also did that.
But he wrote down the stories that went with the skills, and other stories beside. Every merchant would tell him of the places they'd gone, every old-timer what their childhood had been like. He wrote down every myth and legend, every tall tale anyone would tell him.
His favorite stories, however, were when Perry and Christana would tell him of his dead parents, and what they had done together when they were children.
Yes, he remembered his past life in a world far different than this one, and maybe that was what drove him to document everything. Though back then, he'd worked for newspapers and magazines mostly, and used a camera instead of drawing.
In this new world however, cameras and phones seemed to be these really creepy snails. Drazen did not care if he had to get really good at drawing, or reinvent photography from his previous life, he was not touching those creepy snail things.
He only remembered the basics of how a camera worked, so drawing skills it was.
It wasn't that he was bad at drawing, in fact his fine motor skills were extremely high and would only improve with age. But currently his drawings lacked true realism, and probably wouldn't get that until he'd been drawing for a while. It could be useful in capturing scenes that you couldn't take a snapshot of in that moment, cameras couldn't exactly work entirely off of memory.
And so, for the next couple of years, until Drazen turned twelve, he learned from the people of Amayar. He got the best at blacksmithing, because Perry and Christana had taken him in so the least the young boy could do was to aid their business. He learned basic first aid from the healer, and how to do minor boat repairs from the villages carpenter/'shipwright', he learned how to properly fish and navigate and tell when a storm was coming from the fishermen and the occasional merchant(they also taught him how to haggle properly, after first swindling him a little in the name of 'learning'), carving from the farmer that had taken it up as a hobby, and much more beside.
It was enough to fill up a journal that he'd titled "The Village of Amayar: People and Methods", then waterproofed until it wouldn't dissolve in a little rain or sea travel. Drazen had even contributed a little of the wilderness survival knowledge he knew from his before because he was a member of the village as well.
The trip that Perry had taken Drazen with him to Alabasta when he was eleven really helped to cement the idea of a new world and what he planned on doing for a living once he was old enough.
The desert related knowledge and the idea that there were kingdoms and a World Government could probably fill up a journal each eventually. Drazen had a bit of pocket money from selling portraits, which he mostly used to buy paper with the exception of one book.
It was not a very good or informative book, but it was a start. Yes he knew that he lived on the Grand Line and that there was a vast mountain range called the Red Line and four Blue Seas, but beyond that people weren't too interested in far off geography. This book… while clearly heavy on propaganda and heavily emphasizing Marines as "The great bastion of Justice, that protected the world from Pirate Scum and Evil Revolutionaries and other Insurgents", also had some information on the geography of the world and how it could be travelled or explored(basically, only Marines or occasionally Pirates or Revolutionaries could even begin to do so).
But seriously, that was the best book Diardi Drazen could find detailing even a bit of the makeup of the world, how to travel, who was in charge, etc. And it was lame and blatantly false in areas, while being overly complicated or vague in others. It didn't even have a basic map, for crying out loud.
So, after Perry and Drazen packed up their wares to head back to Amayar(with Drazen having collected quite a bit of new paper from the larger markets of Nanohana), Drazen decided that he'd write about the world in as accurate and easily understandable way that anyone would be able to get it.
Because this new world was so amazing, and the only people that seemed disposed to actually check it out were extremely militarily inclined. It was not wrong to know how to defend yourself, in fact Amayar held quarterstaff and longbow tournaments every year with anyone allowed to compete(those wooden weapons were made from a type of wood known to only grow on Amayar), but only Pirates or Marines seemed to actively travel the world even though other people might have the capabilities of doing so.
Because apparently, the age of regular civilian explorers ended four hundred years ago with some guy named Nolan. Who, for some reason was considered a liar by basically the entire world, even though the people on the Grand Line should at the very least consider half an island vanishing as a possibility.
Three Seakings, a massive purple and pink striped turtle with laser eyes, five separate predatory bird attacks, a massive hole in the ocean, and a bit 'too friendly' dolphin the size of a house had all nearly destroyed the merchant vessel they were aboard during their relatively short trip.
And apparently, that was better than usual for this stretch of ocean.
Now, Pirates and Marines were the only ones having adventures and it grated at Drazen. He'd never been barred from travelling around the world of before, sure, people had thought he was stupid for going into so many danger zones(a fact that had eventually killed him, so maybe they had a point) but that hadn't prevented him from visiting active volcanos and war zones. It just gave him a lot of information about various cultures and how to survive in various inhospitable regions.
When he informed his village about how he was going to travel the world and write down stuff about it for the rest of the people of the world to read, they'd all just smiled, patted his head, and taught him two more things.
How to create workable bows and arrows, even from wood inferior to the special wood of Amayar, and that he should carve important things that happen to him on a staff(it was a village tradition to give anyone going on a long voyage a quarterstaff to carve important experiences on. Mostly so that they could smack people upside the head with 'wisdom and experience').
It was pure luck that they'd done so, because not even an entire year later, no one would have been able to pass on this knowledge to another ever again.
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It was a balmy spring day, and everyone was out enjoying the weather. It was relatively early in the morning, and all the fishermen had already gone out for the first catch of the day. It was market day, and so everyone was out buying and selling, with a number of merchants from other islands there to capitalize upon it.
Once a week, Amayar would hold an extended market as a day of relative 'rest' for its inhabitants. Early in the day, people would go out, greet their fellow citizens, and the evening would be a time for family.
On this particular day, when the market was particularly crowded, no one noticed a ship that appeared on the horizon and made haste toward the island. For while the citizens normally did not care if vessels visited their island, this time they would have.
For the ship flew a black flag.
A flag that belonged to those who would enjoy doing nothing less than killing and destroying.
A Pirate flag belonging to a man with a Paramecia Devil Fruit named Captain Shmalz Tallow.
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:Can anyone guess which story I based Amayar off of, bonus points if they know why as well. And no, it doesn't count if you have to look it up. Regardless, I shall tell you all next chapter, so look forward to that. Also, the pirate captains name is a pun made off his Devil Fruit, which I also dare you to guess. And next time, we have sad backstory chapter! Except it's not as sad as most of the ones in the story...