Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece.

Kilnorc: Wow, such warm greetings from fans and friends! ^_^" Glad you guys are enjoying it and are so eager and curious as to what this is all about. You asked questions, wondering about what's up. You want answers? I'll GIVE YOU ANSWERS!

But you have to wait, MWAHAHAHAHAHA!

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It took Axe a short run through the jungle to realize that he had no idea where he was going exactly. Assuming he had made himself lost, he stopped running and began to think about what was going on. There was the old man with a supposed treasure, there was the other man ahead of him somewhere, and then he realized that he had no idea what this treasure actually looked like!

He began to mentally kick himself. "Shit! I was in such a rush, but now I have no idea what the hell I'm doing out here!" he sighed and scratched his head. "Okay, think, Axe, think! You've gone after treasure and competition before, when your life wasn't all completely screwed up with your first crew. You know what to do."

So deep in thought, Axe did not see the shadowy figure move about around him, but he had heard something. It was a sound; a kind of stretching and creaking. He knew what it was three seconds after he heard it. He had no reason to fear though. Why should he, when he had his Devil Fruit power?

Twang!

A large arrow sailed through the treeline and struck him in the back, but instead of penetrating his flesh, it only made a hole in his clothing before bouncing off and landing on the ground. In a heartbeat, the pirate wheeled about and threw one of his tomahawks into the trees. The shadow in the lion pelt quickly dodged and watched as the weapon landed deep into the bark of the tree it was just standing in front of.

If it could have whistled without fear of being completely exposed, it would have. Despite the lack of such an action, the figure was both surprised and impressed at what it had just seen. It ripped the tomahawk free of the bark and looked back at the youth who had thrown it. This kid's something else, whoever he is! He can handle a blade just fine...and what the hell is with him? He wearing some kind of body armor or something? I don't see anything...

"I don't know who you are," Axe called out, "but you're messing with the one guy on the wrong day!" He scanned the jungle slowly, trying to catch a glimpse of his stalker. "I'm only going to warn you once: leave the treasure hunting to me and don't try anything stupid again! You have no idea who I am, or what I am capable of and if you piss me off, you'll find out at the greatest extent!"

No reply came back from the jungle. However, the stalker melted deeper into the trees, trying not to lose sight of the target. What exactly are you capable of, stranger? You've caught my interest...

Axe looked at the jungle for a short time more, then nodded. "Alright! I'm going to get going now, and if I find out that you're being a dumbass and coming after me again, then you can't say I didn't warn you! Because I did!" He turned and left, wanting to get on with the hunt.

The stalker decided to have a little more fun with the boy. There was a warning, but who cares? Ideas ran through the stalker's mind and it smiled at each and every one of them. It looked at the tomahawk in its grip and nodded.

This is going to be so much fun...

Before this day was done, the pirate known as Axe would be put up against a plethora of troubles during his stay in the Heikou wilderness. A number of problems specifically are as follows...

The Hanging Tree

Axe settled underneath a large tree. He removed his weapons and pulled his coat off to look at the hole in the cloth. "If I were any normal man, that could've punctured a lung or something!" he peered closer. "Though, why use a bow and arrow instead of a rifle? I can get that some people prefer it, but if you're going to bring down something in a jungle, it's a smarter thing if you use a rifle..."

Above him, sitting on a branch was the stalker in the lion pelt. It looked down intently at its prey, watching every move he made and staring at the equipment he carried. The belts of tomahawks (minus one) rested against the tree next to the giant double-headed axe. It was that weapon in particular that sparked more interest in the stalker.

He must be pretty strong to be able to carry that without much hassle, but I wonder if he can use it well enough?

"It can't be a bounty hunter," Axe was saying to himself, "because no one knows that I'm here! I haven't seen any Marine presence anywhere and the only WANTED posted I've seen is some guy named Rockstar!" he scratched his head. "Who the hell is Rockstar, anyway?"

The stalker shook its head. Whoever this person is, he loses track too easily! At first he was concerned about my arrow, now he's worried about some wanted man! It looked closer and frowned. Strange, I don't see any body armor on him or anywhere around him, so how come my arrow didn't kill him? I don't get it, I know I didn't miss!

Axe donned his coat and sat there, arms crossed as he thought out loud. "Okay, would be assassin aside, I'm still lost at trying to find this ossan's treasure. I should focus on that, because I can handle any dumbass who thinks they can make a name for themselves by bringing me down. Now, if I were a treasure...where would I be?"

He sat there thinking for some time, lost in his own mind until the smell of food wafted into his nostrils. Sniffing, he looked up from the ground, a gluttonous smile crossing his face. As drool rolled down the corner of his mouth, he discovered that a large, beautiful display of food sat not twenty feet in front of him. It was filled with cuts of roast meat sitting over a fire, and fresh looking fruit gathered around the pit...oh, how Axe's stomach rumbled at the sight of it! It made him think back to the delicacies Herman would often make on The Ocean Dreamer.

Axe stared at the feast before him, his stomach growling like a wild beast and rose to his feet, forgetting his equipment. He started moving towards it when something hit him. "Wait, wait, wait!" he slapped himself a couple times. "What the hell am I doing? Since when does food magically appear in front of me?" he shook his head, chuckling. "This is so obviously a trap!" He looked around on the ground and immediately noticed a patch of earth that stood out from the rest. The patch was made up of very crude branches, mis-matching pieces of grass and other plants stitched to the frame.

A pitfall trap, obviously.

"PFFT!" Axe scoffed and walked around the trap. "I don't know who you are out there," he called out, "but you're gonna have to do a lot better than that!" With that, he made his way towards the food, but unfortunately, his pride led him to his downfall.

No, seriously, it literally led him to his downfall, because as he moved closer to the food, a much more finely crafted pitfall trap, completely unnoticeable this time, broke under his weight.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

THUMP

"...ow..."

The stalker emerged from the trees, smiling. "Gets them every single time! Make a trap so bad they think they're smart enough to detect and bypass it, then when they're not expecting it, let them go into a better trap!" The stalker laughed triumphantly.

Axe heard the laughter. "I DON'T KNOW WHO YOU ARE, BUT WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE, YOU'RE GOING TO WISH YOU NEVER MET ME!" he roared from the hole.

"Good luck with that," the stalker said dismissively, eyes locked on Axe's forgotten equipment. "My traps have caught all kinds of things for me, and not one of them has managed to get free. You're going to be in there for awhile, kid! Or maybe until you die..."

Axe picked himself up from the ground and looked up at the hole opening above him, squinting as the sunlight poured in. "Okay, this bastard's asking for it! Just you wait, you've messed with the wrong pirate! I-"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Axe suddenly heard the stalker scream above him. "Now what? Geppou!" It took him very little effort to launch himself into the air and out of the hole. He landed just in front of the tree where he once sat and saw why he had heard the scream. Dangling from a tree with a thick rope made out of vine tied around his ankle was his stalker. It was a man, from what he could see, with his animal pelts covering his face and his arms flailing like mad.

"Well, well, well! Look at what we have here now!" Axe jabbed a finger at the man. "Karma strikes back, asshole!"

The man stopped his flailing and just hung there. "This is nothing! I'm gonna get down and when I do, you're going to wish you hadn't made this trap!"

Axe blinked. "I didn't make a trap, though. I just fell into one..."

The man was silent. "...ooooh...that's right...I made this one to catch you too..." he murmured.

"AAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Axe burst into a fit of tearful laughter. "YOU FELL INTO YOUR OWN TRAP? YOU DUMBASS!"

"That's right, get your laugh in, but when-"

"What kind of frickin' moron gets stuck in his own trap?" Axe asked through his tears, holding his sides. "DUMBASS!"

Axe's mocking and ridicule went on for about an hour until he had fallen into the pit again during his laughing fit. Using Geppou to rise out again, he began to calm down. He wiped the tears away from his eyes, still chuckling now an then. "Okay...okay, I'm done..."

"Oh joy," the man in the pelts muttered. "How the hell do you keep getting out of the pit? I heard you fall in again!"

"I'm talented, that's why," Axe picked up a stick and poked the man. "I got plenty of questions for you too. First off, why'd you try to kill me early?"

"You're competition!" the man replied immediately. "I'm out here looking for the old guy's treasure and thought you'd try to screw me out of the reward."

He poked the man again. "So, you're not a bounty hunter?"

"I've done some in my time, but I'm not doing it right now, I-WHY DOES THAT MATTER?" the man began to flail again. "Where are you, you little shit, face me like a man!"

Axe sweatdropped. "I am facing you, you just can't see me because those animal hides are in front of your face. Speaking of," he reached and grabbed the lion pelt tightly, "time to see who the hell you are!"

He pulled the pelt clear off and dropped it immediately.

Axe's jaw dropped. "Holy-"

"Shit!" the man exclaimed.

"This...what the hell is this?"

Samuel D. Axe had witnessed a great many things during his life as a pirate: he had seen the evils that Marines and the World Government were capable of, he had seen wonderful treasures long lost since centuries past, and he had seen extraordinary people with magnificent abilities. A good deal of them being part of his crew, like Chizuru and Kirsty in particular. But there was one thing that especially surprise the pirate Axe, and it was this man.

The man was muscular and strong, as he could tell from the muscles he saw underneath the very tanned skin of his. He was quite brown in color, a sign that he had spent a great deal of time underneath the light of the sun. His body was covered with scars of all kinds and he wore simple cloths: leather boots, stitched pants, a thick leather belt with a large knife and a bag attached to it, and the mountain lion pelt he had just worn. His attire was not what was surprising, as something like this was not exactly uncommon in the Grand Line. No, what was truly surprising was his facial appearance. Browned and scarred like the rest of his body, his head sprouted a mane of thick, wild hair that was as black as night itself and dark eyes. Despite the color and the scar marks, he had seen this face before. So many times before.

It was his own face!