On an Unknown West Blue island
Daiko woke up lightheaded, covered in bandages and clueless. He was in the middle of a forest, on an island he had no clue about. Nearby was a campfire. He saw his black satchel resting on a tree and was immediately reminded of his mother. In the distance, he could still hear the ocean waves. It was a very bright sunny day, the sky was as blue as ever and had many white clouds. Needless to say, the storm has cleared and the seas were calming. Everything was returning to normal in the West Blue. Well, aside from the fact that Daiko has been separated from his mother and is lost by himself in the middle of a forest. Oh, and his home island was obliterated by the storm.
So the first thing he did was what any normal 8-year-old would do: look for mommy "Ma! Where are you? Don't tell me you left again! Maaa! MAAAA!" Daiko stood up, grabbed his satchel and began searching. Whether is be denial or sheer shock, Daiko didn't consider that his mother may have died from the storm
He then also remembered Simmons, who was steering the ship for them before it was destroyed "Simmons! Ma! Where the heck did they go? I'm hungry!" His stomach growled as he repeatedly turned his head left and right.
Daiko stopped in his tracks when he heard rustling in a tree branch right above him. He was surprised to see Simmons drop down from the tree branch. It seems Simmons had climbed the tree in order to find out where they were, scouting the sea from the tip of the palm tree.
He was semi-relieved when he saw the ragged looking man appear before him, but he was still concerned with the whereabouts of his mother "Simmons! What happened? Where are we? Where is Ma?" Daiko kept shooting questions at Simmons. Simmons was barefoot with his clothes tattered and torn. The shadow of his dark brown cap covering his eyes.
"Slow down, kid. I need to tell you something, and I want to tell ya straight up, no games. Alright?" Simmons began to look at Daiko with a dark look resting look on his face. The poor man looked exhausted, clearly, he hadn't slept in days. It was apparent that something had been bothering him, preventing him from getting rest. Despite his happy-go-lucky personality, something has been keeping him down.
"Wha? What are you talking about?" Daiko began to get even moren nervous.
"Morgan, sh-she. . .uhh. . . ah shit." He fumbled his words "Your mom… she… passed away." Simmons looked to the ground. While Daiko froze.
Simmons explained "After the wave hit us the ship was completely crushed and we were deep under water. I only had enough time to save yo-" Simmons was interrupted by a swift jump- punch from Daiko to the face. Simmons fell back
"Stop lying to me, asshole! Ma would never die like that!" Daiko yelled.
Simmons leaned up and rubbed his cheek even though the punch was nothing to him. "Look kid, I know you might a little too young to be hearing this, and I'm honestly sorry, but I assure you it's the truth. Take a look at this." Simmons pulled out the black sash the Morgan wore. The sash had many strange symbols on it that were unreadable. "I don't completely know what it is, but she told me to pass it down to you in case anything happened to her. Don't go thinking that you're the only one who's upset, she was a friend of mine too." Simmons stood up.
Daiko began to weep "Sh-shut up! I don't believe you! A-and she was my ma!" Simmons said nothing as tears ran down Daiko's face.
He walked up to Daiko and put his hand on his shoulder as he tried to calm him. "Just think about it kid, your mom would be happy that you're alive. That storm was one of the worst in West Blue history, and we were in the thick of it! Surely we should be thankf-" Daiko slapped Simmons' hand away, snatched his mother's mysterious sash from him.
"I hate you Simmons! YOU JUST WANTED TO SLEEP WITH MY MOM! GET AWAY FROM ME!" Daiko ran off.
"H-hey, wait!" Simmons couldn't stop Daiko. "Damn where did that kid learn to talk like that?" he thought.
Daiko ran until he was sure that he was far from Simmons. He sat by a tree rubbing his tears with his forearm. He cried there for about an hour, constantly rubbing his tears away. He then soon realized how hungry he was as his stomach growled, he literally hadn't eaten in days. While still devastated, Daiko managed to muster up a little strength. He opened the black satchel that his mother gave him in hopes that she packed him a lunch as she always had before pre-school.
Upon opening it, he found [a very strange looking pair of sandals that were too big for him, and a large, shiny silver colored fruit with swirl patterns all over. These open-toed sandals were light-brown and had leather buckle straps meant to be wrapped around the foreleg and up to the knee.(Similar to those of the ancient Romans)]
Daiko was confused, his mother left him three strange items: her strange sash, a weird pair of sandals and an even weirder fruit. Daiko sniffled and took out the fruit, he held it in front of his face and studied it closely, slowly rotating it in his hand. It glistened brilliantly in the beach sun and had a rippled black stem sticking out of the top. He wiped away some tears as he thought to himself "What.. is this? Wow, it smells so bad. I-I don't think I should eat this...". He took out the fruit and threw it aside on the grassy forest floor.
At the same time, A young looking man passed by and raised an eyebrow as he noticed the silver fruit roll on the ground from behind the tree. He walked pass the tree to see where it came from and discovered a young Daiko crying in his own lap. The man sighed, rolled his eyes and sat next to an unaware Daiko.
"Hey, you alright?" the man asked. [He had brown, spiky hair that reached to his neck. He wore a simple orange shirt with black jeans sucked in black all of this, he wore a brown cloak which he used to carry all sorts of junk (cigarettes, alcohol, etc). He had a "X" shaped scar on his cheek. He pulled out a bottle of wine from his pocket and drank. His most distinguishing feature? Probably his hat, it was a rather large top hat with a lit candle coming out of the top. No, I'm not kidding, this guy literally has a lit candle right on top of his hat.]
Daiko's jaw dropped as soon as he noticed the man sit next him. "Hey! Who.. who are you?" he quickly wiped up his tears and stood up while glaring at the man who had just sat next to him.
The man raised an eyebrow " Well... you can just call me Stabbs, and you?" The man took another drink*glug*glug*.
"Daiko. But what do you want? I'm not in the mood right now...go away." Daiko looked at Stabbs,
"Nothing much, was just wondering why you were crying, thought maybe I could help." Stabbs said.
"I wasn't crying!" Daiko lied through his teeth as Stabbs broke out in laughter "...and now you're laughing at me!" Daiko got even angrier at Stabbs.
"Alright fine, I'll stop. Just tell me what happened to you. I don't think I could call myself a man if I walked passed a kid in need." Stabbs pleaded.
"Alright, fine"
[Daiko told Stabbs his story, much to his amazement.]
Stabbs added "Yeah, I heard about that storm, people say not even the best navigators could predict it. A complete anomaly. And that part about your mom, damn, I'm sorry I laughed at you." he spoke with obvious remorse in his tone, he just laughed at an 8 year-old kid who is now probably an orphan.
"It doesn't matter. People laugh at me all the time, but I don't care!." Daiko said loudly.
"Ah," Stabbs stood up, brushing his cloak off as he got to his feet.
Stabbs pinched his chin "And you said you were attacked by a giant monster with hands? That's odd, usually sea kings swim to the bottom of the ocean when storms hit, not to mention sea kings don't have hands. Are you sure you weren't just seeing things?"
Daiko protested "I am! I know what I saw, it was a giant hand! It took my mom!"
Stabbs still didn't believe Daiko but instead decided to change the subject "Right. Anyway, here, how about I make it up to you, you can live at my place for a while." Daiko looked at Stabbs.
"R-r-really? " Daiko asked.
"Really. Seriously, it's the least I can do after I laughed at you. Some may call me a bum, but I'm still a man of principle." Stabbs said, looking down at the parent-less child.
"Thanks! But... where do you live? Is it on another island?" Daiko asked while looking around, to him, this island was filled with nothing but forest.
Stabbs took a drink of his wine while Daiko asked the question "*glug*glug* At the village, where else?" Stabbs said with a confident tone.
Daiko's jaw dropped. "Theres a village here! Where?" He looked left and right again.
Stabbs smiled "You really didn't know, huh? Just follow me, I'll lead you there."
As Daiko began to follow behind Stabbs, he looked back and noticed the smelly fruit that he threw away, he picked it up again and put in his satchel after remembering that his mother gave it to him. He gave it a second thought, while it didn't have an attractive quality to it, he remembered that it was one of the few things that his late mother left him with. He went back and picked it up, quickly stuffing it back into his satchel. He didn't feel good throwing it away. Sure, it was a smelly fruit, but it was also a memento of his mother.
Stabbs raised an eyebrow as he noticed Daiko lacking behind "Hey will you hurry it up, kid? What are you doing back there?" Stabbs turned around to face him as he took another drink.
"Nothing! Let's go!" Daiko ran up beside Stabbs. They both walked on a nearby dirt road until they reached a large coastal village. It was an average West Blue village with wooden docks, many boats and buildings all over. This village was located inside of a basin(geographical depression), that is connected to the sea, in short, it is surrounded by higher land on all sides except for the side connected to the sea.
"Whoa, this place is huge! How did I not notice it before?" Daiko looked around.
"This island is called Parratry Town. It's nothing special really, just follow me, we're almost there." Stabbs and Daiko walked past many trade stalls and countless people. Daiko was beginning to wonder how he missed such a lively town. He was also wondering about Simmons and actually felt kind of guilty for how he treated him, but as an 8-year-old he didn't really worry about it too much, Simmons will probably eventually find this village.
The sky was bright blue and a rainbow leaned over the village. They walked until they reached a small bar known as 'Candle Light Tavern', inside were around twenty men. Stabbs entered and Daiko followed in suit. Inside, the men were having a small beer party, many of them raised there drinks and greeted Stabbs with respect. This tavern was distinctive because of the disproportionate amount of candles that were littered everywhere, whether they were hanging from the ceiling on lamps, on the floor, or on the tables, there were candles everywhere.
"Captain Stabbs welcome back, mate!" one drunk man said.
"H-hey! Captain Stabbs, its about time you showed up, we've been having ourselves a lil' fiesta, here come join us! " Another said.
Stabbs closed his eyes as he chuckled "Heh sorry guys, not today. I kinda busy today." the men nodded and went on about their party. It was pretty clear that Stabbs knows these men somehow.
Daiko looked up to Stabbs and tugged on his pants to gain his attention "Huh? You're a captain, Stabbs? Captain of what, the Marines? And what are we doing here! I thought we were going to your place!" Stabbs looked at Daiko and chuckled a little more.
"Yes, I'm a captain, but lets put that aside for now. And this is my place, Daiko. So grab a seat." Daiko frowned as he and Stabbs sat at one of the empty two-seater tables.
Daiko crossed his arms "I hate this place Stabbs! Why does there have to be so many candles!"
Stabbs smiled "Well, there's actually a reason for that. I'll tell ya later, alright?"
"Ughh! Whatever! What are we doing here? I'm so hungry!" Daiko's stomach growled again.
"Don't worry you'll get something to eat, I promise. I'll order it now..." Stabbs looked at a frowning Daiko, who was rummaging through his satchel. Frustrated and impatient, Daiko pulled out his mysterious fruit and immediately started eating into it, completely ignoring the terrible smell and taste. Stabbs looked at the fruit immediately noticing what it was. His jaw dropped, speechless at what he was witnessing. As Daiko sank his teeth into the fruit, bits of it flew around everywhere. An odd fruit indeed, the inside of this fruit was completely black and had a strange sheen to it. Daiko finally finished eating the fruit, sticking his tongue out and spitting in disgust.
"Aaaagh! That was so nasty! And I'm still so hungry, I wish my ma was here." Daiko became depressed again, remembering his mother's fate, the sadness hit him like a wave. Stabbs was still speechless, pointing at Daiko with his jaw still dropped and eyes wide open.
"What's wrong Stabbs? You wanted it?" Daiko asked while looking at Stabbs.
"D-do you have any idea what you just ate? How the hell did you get that?" Stabbs asked Daiko, who was very confused.