"When your dreams all fail
and the ones we hail
are the worst of all,
and the blood's run stale - "
You're kidding.
Unfortunately for a certain orange-haired girl, the boy standing in front of her was most quite not kidding when he declared to make the demon in front of him his dinner, as she clearly saw with the hungry drool trickling down his chin.
"Hey, that thing's poisonous - " Nami began, half-exasperated, half-annoyed, when two more people ran up to them.
"Luffy!"
One of them looked quite similar to the so-called Luffy; he had identical black hair, but he was a little taller with freckles dotting his cheeks, and appeared older. The other had oddly-colored green hair, piercings, and three swords that hung limply at his side.
The three of them halted to a stop in front of Nami.
Luffy chuckled a bit. "Hey, Ace! Remember when Zoro said we couldn't find any meat to eat in this town?"
"...yeah."
"I FOUND IT."
Ace facepalmed.
Meanwhile, Nami was inching behind them. "So, you can go eat your way through that poisonous demon, I'll just escape here for now - "
Before she could finish her sentence, her jaw dropped low, cutting off what she was about to say, as Luffy, who was wiping away his saliva, suddenly swung his arm behind him.
And his arm stretched.
She watched as it became more taut, and tighter the more distance it passed. At the same time, the reptilian-demon reared his fangs, revealing dripping venom in his mouth. He lunged for the scrawny-looking boy, who's arm was still stretched ten meters behind him.
"Watch out!" Nami gasped, her fingers curling into the fabric of her jacket as she tensed.
Before the demon could attack Luffy though, the green-haired man gripped one of his swords, one with a delicate white handle, and pure white sheath, and tensed.
"Ittoryu: Iai!"
If Nami had blinked, she was pretty sure she would've missed the rapid, flickering movement of his arm as he rapidly unsheathed, then sheathed the sword.
An inch before the dripping venom touched Luffy's hair, the demon stopped. Nami held her breath.
A large gash appeared hear his midsection, cut cleanly and gushing black pools of blood. Nami felt disgusted for a moment. The black blood sizzled as it made contact with any surface, instantly taking an acidic effect and melting it. A horrid stench flew in the air.
Ace had somehow fallen asleep. Guns were strapped to the older man's belt.
"Gomu Gomu no Pistol!"
While the demon was writhing in agony from the cut, Luffy had swung his outstretched arm forward, using the momentum to deliver a powerful blow that send the accursed reptile to the ground, screeching inhumanly in pain. Nami yelped in surprise for a moment as she covered her ears, shielding them.
Wheezing noises made her look back up again. She saw a pair of yellow eyes, belonging to the demon, who stared at them with a burning hate. His breathing was labored.
And then he roared loudly, the mere pressure of it blasting everything around it back. A gust of wind almost blasted Nami off her feet as she raised her arms to shield herself, a scream escaping her lips. The two men were shielding themselves, and Ace seemed to be able to sleep through even this.
She heard Luffy comment about how much his breath stunk. She had to admit, the boy was right.
"After all that, the stupid snake still has this much power?!" she heard the green-haired swordsman yell over the wind.
"Snakes don't have arms, or legs," Nami reminded him quietly under her breath. Not that it mattered much. She was pretty sure snakes were on the brink of extinction.
The demon seemed to want to drag them back down with him to..wherever he was going, and he showed no signs of relenting.
No choice, then, Nami thought grimly. With effort, she made her way to the still-asleep Ace.
"What're you doing!?" she heard the green-haired guy yell again.
"Finishing him off!" Nami replied, gritting her teeth as she forced her eyes to open, despite the immense air pressure. Her fingers kept flying away from the buckles, but eventually, Nami managed to pull out a pistol from Ace's belt. Salt was more effective, for some weird reason, but normal bullets would do, too, for solid demons.
She lifted the gun and faced the pressure directly, almost getting blown back. Ignoring the wind, she tried to take aim at the large, yellow orb that was her target.
She squeezed the trigger.
A loud explosion sounded, almost louder than the wind. jarring Nami's arms and making her lose her footing. Luckily, she was only blown back two meters, before the wind stopped altogether.
"Wha - ? What happened?!"
Nami sat up, brushing flyblown hair away from her face. Her breathing was slowly calming, the pistol that she had used lying on her feet.
The reptile demon was dead. For solid demons, their eyes were the most vulnerable point, and the most crucial part to aim at. Salt bullets usually made them shriek unholiness and writhe in pain as they slowly disappeared, not leaving a trace, but normal bullets simply killed them, leaving their body behind.
So apparently the thing was edible, despite being able to spew venom.
Ace had finally woken up; He had fallen asleep due to narcolepsy, a sleeping disorder which proved to be a little disadvantageous at certain times like when they were ready to get eaten by a certain reptilian-like demon.
"If you have that condition, then how'd you survive for this long, with the world like this?" Nami had curiously questioned him, before pausing and looking over at the green-haired man, who was polishing one of his sword's blades, and Luffy, who somehow managed to eat five kilograms of meat in under a minute.
"...forget I asked," Nami had muttered after a few moments.
Nami learned that the green-haired man was named Zoro, though she couldn't say his killing aura around him didn't disturb her at times.
Luffy seemed to trust her wholeheartedly after she shot down the demon, despite the fact that it was to save her own skin. While they were wolfing down the demon, he started a conversation with her.
"So - " munch, munch, "who are you?"
Nami sweatdropped at his bluntness. "I'm Nami. What was that thing where you stretched your arms?" Honestly, she was quite disturbed by that whole thing.
Ace ripped off a chunk of meat to the bone. "Oh, that?" he shrugged. "After the huge volcanoes exploding and the weird creatures appearing, Luffy and I got these weird abilities. His body has the properties of rubber, and I have fire." He stuck up his index finger, and a small flame, as controlled as a candle, appeared on the tip of it. Explains how they cooked the demon.
"That's weird," Nami absentmindedly mused. Could it be the result of a genetic mutation thanks to the radioactive dust that the volcanoes had spewed? No...she didn't hear of any genetic mutation that involved turning a live human into fire. She shrugged. She would just have to wait and see.
"So, whatcha gonna do?" Luffy's carefree tone, annoying but relaxing, cut into her thoughts abruptly.
Nami stopped the words from passing her lips. What was she going to do, after this? Most likely, fall into her regular routine: move from town to town in search of shelter, defenses, and supplies.
"I'll try and survive...I suppose," she finally settled on.
Luffy grinned widely. "Then join us!"
The blunt statement caught her off-guard so much that she blinked. Join them? She understood that, in moments of desperation, people would form alliances to rely on each other, and it was presented with a bigger chance of survival, but also of betrayal. Staring at the strong group of men sitting near her and chomping on demon meat, she couldn't fathom why they would want her as an ally. She was clever and resourceful, but nowhere near as powerful as they were.
"For what? What's your goal?" Nami asked carefully; she didn't want to be the person that was left behind as the injured antelope.
"We want to go to the Grand Abyss," Ace explained.
The statement alone was enough to make Nami back away, slowly, in fear. "The Grand Abyss?! Are you nuts!?" her fingers curled apprehensively on the asphalt, dirt marring them. "That place is like a slaughterhouse! There's more demons there than anywhere else in the world! It's the one place where murder is common and I've even heard about genetic mutations there, things you've never even fathomed could be real in your wildest dreams. Why there?!"
Zoro had gone to sleep, and Luffy was busy polishing off the rest of the demon meat, so Ace was the only one who heard her rant.
"There's a rumor."
Nami blinked. "Huh?"
"No one outside of the Grand Abyss knows much about it, or even what type of terrain is it. It could easily be a forest or an underground tunnel. But at the very end, it's said that there's a certain area called Raftel. Inside, supposedly, are the Gates of Hell."
Nami sighed. "There's no such thing as Gates of Hell, or whatever it is!" she snapped impatiently.
"Just listen," Ace said. "It's thought that someone, or something in the Grand Abyss opened the Gates of Hell, which resulted in the volcanic eruptions. There's a theory going around that all the demons and ghosts around that you see are from Hell, and they've escaped thanks to the opened Gates, which is why the Grand Abyss supposedly has more demons than anywhere else. If you close them, then you've blocked off all the other creatures from Hell from entering this world, and then it's just a matter of killing them."
Nami hesitated. "So you're saying that if you travel to Raftel and close the Gates, the whole world will return to normal?" she shook her head. "That's too convenient to be true."
"So is this." his finger lit up back to fire. Even though Nami didn't believe a word of the rumors, she had to admit that Ace and Luffy's strange abilities would not be dismissed.
He tossed her a book. Nami, startled at the movement, just barely caught it, fumbling.
"Read it."
"What's...this?" the cover seemed to be a childrens' fable, dirtied and scratched and old, worn, but she could tell that it was used with loving care.
The Tale of the Demon King.
"Huff...huff.."
A long-nosed boy looked left and right as he ducked into an alleyway, struggling to calm his breath and heart. Please don't let them have seen me, I don't wanna die...
"Hey! You brat! Where the hell did you go!?" Usopp bit back an unmanly shriek as he heard the gruff voice snarl for him, so incredibly close to his hiding spot.
Don't think of looking in the alley, please, please...
"Coward ran," another voice said. "Stupid kid, challenging us like that. He should know that we don't believe his bullshitting. Seven thousand warriors? Ha! As if! That scrawny boy couldn't command one person."
Usopp had to admit that, when he was gruffly shaken awake that morning and asked to give a few men all of his supplies, food, and clothes, he had fled. Fled until he was trapped, then tried to bluff his way out.
"Hey! You'll get beaten up if you do this! I'm the leader of seven thousand warriors, and they'll all crush you!"
"Dammit..." Usopp breathed. "I used to be better at lying. After all this demon business, I'm losing my stuff."
Admittedly, the seventeen-year-old had been incredibly shaken when the volcanoes had, suddenly and inexplicably erupted. His family had lived in a town near a volcano, and with the resulting blast, his entire town, including his father, mother and childhood sweetheart, Kaya, had been simultaneously killed. He had only been spared thanks to his habit of taking walks further inland, pretending he was a great warrior.
Those days of childish games are over. He needed to get back on his feet and survive, which he knew wasn't going to be so easy with the much stronger people who formed gangs and alliances.
Usopp didn't dare try that. He knew he would be viewed only as a burden, as his only skills were long-range. He could chuck a pebble at a target a hundred meters away and hit the bull's-eye without any difficulty. His trusty slingshot had kept him alive for so long, as well as a gun that he preferred not to use, but did come in handy when the time called for it.
The problem was, the city that he fled to when the explosions happened were quickly losing supplies, and the inhabitants were relying more and more on the weaker, but more resourceful ones to survive. He needed to leave, and fast, though he dared not venture out of the eastern suburbs, as there were far less demons there than anywhere else.
Usopp made sure his gun was fully locked and loaded, and his gunpowder balls that he used for his slingshot was in the small bag that he carried around. Tying a bandanna around his curly hair, he looked out the alley to make sure the coast was clear, and fled.
"This won't prove anything," Nami stubbornly declared, not even bothering to open the book. "It's a fiction child's book! Not a scientific textbook or anything! Just a fable!"
"But all fables are based off real things," Ace pointed out.
"Now you're just quoting fantasy books," Nami scowled.
"Just read it."
Sighing, Nami flipped open the paperback cover. She looked at the first page, then frowned.
"It doesn't say who the author was."
Ace shrugged.
She turned it, and the story began.
Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, evil demons took over the world. It showed a picture of unholy spirits and ghosts, emerging from a gate. Behind the gate was a mixture of red and black, the depths of Hell. She turned the page.
They were cruel, evil, and wanted to hurt all the human beings. Then there were the same demons who emerged from the gate, terrorizing the humans and animals.
Soon, everyone lost hope. A desolate mother clutching her sobbing child, hiding in a wooden house.
However, one man didn't give up. They showed a proud, tall man, with dark shaggy hair and either an extremely curly mustache, or extremely curly nose hair. His name was Gold Roger.
She turned the page.
Gold Roger wanted to stop the evil demons from taking over the world, so he went into a dark abyss, where the demons came from. They showed the previous man, entering a dark, horrible abyss, with demons reaching out of it, wanting to kill him.
He went to a certain place, where he saw a gate, and he closed it. It showed the man closing the gate that the demons had emerged from.
And by doing that, he gained free control over the demons. It showed the demons forced into submission, kneeling before Gold Roger as he scolded them for harming the world.
He saved the world, and was granted a name.
He was called...
The Demon King.
I LIED. I'M SORRY I SAID I WAS GONNA UPDATE YESTERDAY BUT I DIDN'T.
Anyway I feel like this is too similar to the original story. What do you think? Also, that bit with Roger, Oda joked that his mustache was actually nose hair XD
Reviews are appreciated!
-alittlebitlate