A Pirate's Journey - Chapter 2: The Devil's Tree Bears Fruits of Truths
Last time in APJ, Archie encountered an old man named Elmer and his pet poodle Snore after making his way down to Byrjun Town from the mountains where he lived. In order to get information on the whereabouts of Vinnie, an old close friend of his, Archie had to walk Elmer's dog for a favor. The young man just wanted to find a boat and set sail with his friend to the Grand Line and become a pirate. Returning he apologized for his rudeness and then managed to win over the old man applying the seniors teachings of morality upon him. Therefore Elmer decided to bring Archie to the house where Vinnie's father, Marine Captain Elias Ron Vach, lives in return to find out what Archie's true intentions were.
Byrjun Town, North Blue
Walking through the bustling town during the peak of noon, Elmer and Archie take in how busy their seemingly small economy is during mid-day. The market is crowded with townspeople shopping for fresh produce that some local fishermen and farmers managed to acquire recently. Archie's favorite food is the Wild Spiral Salmon fish that make their home in the frosty waters surrounding the island. Time and time again, Archie is in awe at how delicious the fish can get when cooked over a bonfire. His mouth begins to drool as he places his attention on the big man reeling in a batch of the aforementioned red salmon.
Elmer notices the young man becomes distracted so easily as he attempts to explain to him the town as a whole. He then starts to comment on what Archie has taken interest in.
"You probably haven't been down in Byrjun very much during your life spent in the mountains, but I can see that you are aware of how delicious North Blue fish can be once they are pulled in from the icy waters. It's our pride and joy, a delicacy of the gods." Elmer states with a hint of teary pride in his hometown's economical success.
Archie hardly listens to Elmer boast about the town they walk through but he still respects the old man's expression of how he cares so much for this place. The fresh batch of salmon makes it difficult for him to concentrate on the conversation at hand though.
"Yeah, yeah. A delicacy of the gods... I have to get myself some of that." Archie murmured with no attention spent on his words. He flies over to the freshly caught fish and grabs one of them from the net.
Elmer shakes his head and begins to sigh in disappointment.
"Not only does the boy refuse to listen, he also doesn't know that things don't come for free. He's probably going to die out there on the sea when he becomes a marine." Elmer says to himself in disappointment.
Doing this, a middle-aged fisherman of muscular build and short blonde hair catches him with suspicion. He grabs Archie's wrist with the fish in the same hand and demands to know if he is going to buy the fish or not.
"Hey boy, are you paying for this fish or not? If not, put it back or we are going to have some trouble." The fisherman warns him with a look of troubling suspicion.
Archie looks up at him with a menacing stare for a second, implying that he might indeed have a problem. Only for him then to change into a very friendly attitude.
"Of course, you caught the fish after all." Archie responds pleasantly as he grabs a berry from his coin purse with his free hand and hands it to the fisherman. Everyone including the fisherman and Elmer becomes shocked at how well the situation went.
The tall, blonde fisherman lets go of his grip and bottles up embarassment for becoming too great aggressive toward the unnoticeably kind young man. Archie pats him on the shoulder and lets him know that what he did was the right thing.
"No need to feel sorry, I should have made my intentions to buy clear from the beginning. Also great catch, by the way... these salmon look amazing." Archie states as he adores the fish he bought.
The fisherman begins to glow at the compliment Archie gives and scratches his head as he truly is ashamed for assuming the boy would just take.
"Thanks, they really are a beauty. Spent the entire day yesterday over by the coast pulling them in like candy. My name is Neil, and you are?" The fisherman known as Neil replied and introduced himself.
"The name is Archie, you'll come to know my name well soon. Keep doing what you do best, Neil." Archie concludes as he catches up to Elmer to continue their trip. Nobody really understood what he meant by "they will know his name well soon" but regardless Neil waves to him as he leaves. Immediately after the encounter, people begin gathering all around him to examine the fish he caught that Archie deemed "amazing". Elmer's suspicion dwindles as he starts to believe more and more that this boy refers to becoming a famous marine alike Captain Elias. That's until the conversation is brought up during the second half of their walk... they were near the coast where Oceanview Road resides when Elmer gets his end of the favor.
"So... Archie boyo, I assume you want to become a marine with your visit to this man's estate?" Elmer asks with a high degree of curiosity as his poodle lifts his leg to pee on some rock nearby the path they traversed. Archie's belly rumbles as the question is brought up.
"Hold on, I'm starving." Archie pulls the fish out of the larger bag perched on his shoulder.
Elmer begins to get a bit nervous at Archie's hesitation to answer and warns him that eating a fish raw will make him sick.
"You don't eat the fish raw, Archie! You need a fire to cook that on!" Elmer warns him with concern.
Archie laughs really hard in response to Elmer's warning and holds the fish by its tail in one hand upside down. The other hand resting below the fish.
"Of course you don't eat a fish raw, haha! I'm going to cook it, obviously." Archie says as he holds the fish the way he does.
Elmer is really confused with what Archie's telling him until... the boy's lower right hand ignites a flame large enough to begin cooking the fish. The senior's reaction is that of him absolutely stunned in disbelief, his hat falling off his head as he jumps back from what Archie's doing. Engulfing his tired vision is the impossible fire floating above the boy's palm. Elmer is speechless and Archie needing to concentrate... waits until the right time the fish cooks just right.
"Wh- wh- what-... Is that magic?" Elmer stumbles as his poodle Snore escapes behind his master in slight fear.
When the fish is finally cooked, Archie takes a big bite out of the fish's head.
"I aith a defill fru..." Archie replies with a mouthful of fish.
Elmer becomes very intrigued with the boy's strange powers and picks up his hat, placing it back on his head. Archie stands in bliss while chewing the food.
"Excuse me, what did you say?" Elmer further questions him closing in on the boy somewhat at a safe distance.
Archie then gets disgusted, spitting out some of the bones he almost chokes on. Answering Elmer as he can sense the senior feels a bit afraid.
"Ugh... the bones... I meant to say I ate a devil fruit, it gave me the power to manipulate the four elements." Archie explains to Elmer, who is completely stumped. The term "devil fruit" rings through the man's ears for a moment and then Elmer begins to recall when he heard of such a thing.
"But aren't they just a myth? They supposedly grant you the power of the sea devil..." Elmer states blankly as he attempts to contemplate what he just saw.
Archie finishes up his meal and becomes glad to hear that Elmer knows what they are, it saves him the explanation.
"Yup and that's why the sea hates me. My sorry ass can't swim. But hey, dont worry old man... I won't light you or anyone else on fire... unless you deserve it of course." The strange boy chuckles. Saying such dark humor makes Elmer gulp and laugh nervously as they reach Oceanview Road. Elmer points ahead to a rather large building further up the hilly road, it is blue in color with darker blue, horizontal stripes blazed across it and appears to be several floors tall.
"There's the captain's home up there, good luck getting recruited into the marines boyo." Elmer says, wishing him luck as he walked away. He can't help but feel absolutely astonished about the strange boy.
Archie responds with a very confused look and turns around to face the retreating old man.
"Thanks a lot but... I don't have plans to become some marine. I plan to sail the seas as a pirate and I'm heading right for the Grand Line!" Archie states as he starts to run toward the house pointed out by Elmer. Speaking of Elmer, he again becomes absolutely stunned at the boy's response. His jaw drops and he begins to recall an old memory from his youth when he used to be friends with a similar boy.
In the flashback, Elmer remembers declining the boy wearing a pirate hat when he asks of him to join his crew. The pirate hat boy laughs and tells him he is going to sail the Grand Line... Elmer never seen him again after that fateful day. Once he reverts back to reality... he sees Archie, the mountain boy, runnning away wearing an identical pirate hat around the back of his neck with a string attached.
"Wait! Get back here, boy!" Elmer shouts in desperation.
Getting further away, Archie waves his hand.
"See ya Elmer! Thanks for everything!" Archie says goodbye as he approaches the house he assumes Vinnie must be living in. The excitement brews up again and revitalizes the ambitious future pirate as he knocks on the front door.
"Hello, anyone home? Vinnie, are you here?" Archie yells while he bangs on the door.
A young man with wavy light brown hair and blue eyes appears to be staring in frustration at the marine uniform laying out on his bed. Hearing the banging at the door, he begins to sweat furiously and runs to answer it like a ball of nerves. This nervousness causes him to fall down the stairs leading to the front door. Archie hears the racket and becomes curious and confused.
"Ahh, everything okay in there?" Archie asks with concern, his ear against the door.
The young man gets up in a panic with his hair out of place in a mess and reaches for the door, turning the knob to open it...
"Yes, everything's fine-" The boy responds nervously as he opens the door to find a familiar face standing on the porch. The last person he expects to be the one knocking on the door... Mountain boy...
"Archie?! What are you doing here-" Vinnie asks stunned with amazement. Before he can even finish his question, Archie lunges at him for a hug taking Vinnie off guard. This is the last thing Vinnie expected to happen on a day like today. Letting go of the bearhug he gives Vinnie, Archie cannot express more how much he has missed his old friend.
"Vinnie! I missed you so much, man! You've gotten a lot taller since we were younger." Archie states in a bottle of joy while he takes in Vinnie's more mature appearance.
"Yeah I guess I have, haven't I? It's been a long time." Vinnie replies in earnest as he looks Archie up and down. Then it hits him, where has this guy been? He hasn't seen or heard of him for four or five years. Vinnie didn't have many friends and Archie... though he was strange and weird... was the only person he could really open up to back in their days of playing in the mountain wilds away from the confines of his home. It made him forget the difficulties in life. Archie leaving suddenly after his grandfather's death left Vinnie uncertain of Archie's whereabouts or his well-being. With all of this coming back to him in the moment, he grabs a hold of Archie by the collar of his shirt and demands to know why he left and what he has been doing.
"Archie... why did you leave?! I was really worried you would've been eaten by a mountain lion or something, you idiot..." Vinnie demands with some emotional desperation for an answer. It appears that if Archie would have given him an unsatisfactory answer, he would punch him in the face.
Archie smirks in joy knowing his friend really did care about him unlike most of the townspeople and Vinnie's dad. He grabs a hold of his hat from behind his head and places it on his temple.
"To get strong, of course. I've been wrestling my demons. Don't tell me you forgot about our quest to the Grand Line, did you?" Archie answers with another question. Grabbing a hold of Vinnie's head, applying a headlock and delivering a nuggie to his wavy thickness of hair. This response makes Vinnie remember their ambitions as kids, it brings him satisfaction in knowing the knucklehead was alright.
"No, I didn't. Let go Archie that hurts, haha." Vinnie informs him that he didn't forget and how painful the headlock was. Archie released his head a moment after and waits in content for Vinnie's thoughts on the subject. The wavy-haired boy didn't forget, not for one day did those ambitions leave his mind. However...
"Those dreams we had when we were kids, huh?" Vinnie murmurs with a bothered tone. Archie could see right through him and wonders what got Vinnie down so quickly about it.
"They aren't dreams no more. They are about to become a reality... join me. I'm leaving this cozy little island for the Grand Line." Archie requests as he puts out his hand for a handshake in agreement.
Vinnie becomes ecstatic to see Archie's confidence in pursuing their dream. Just as fast as the excitement brews, it dwindles with Vinnie frowning in frustration. He slaps Archie's hand away.
"I can't join you Archie. I have another dream now." Vinnie declines reluctantly, Archie stares at his old friend in disbelief wondering what happened to him during these past five years. This wasn't the same Vinnie he remembers.