Chapter 7: The Voice is Real!? The 'Blue Archer' Appears!

Three days after the events in the South Blue Prison,Strahl's boat was sailing along slowly through the bright blue sea, without a cloud in the sky. The blue haired teen was lying on his back staring up at the sky, attempting to remember the rest of his missing past, but was coming up with nothing. He had eaten nearly everything already because of the devil fruit and was starting to get hungry once again. To pass the time he would look at the map the Marines left on the ship and try to figure out where he was, but he kept on forgetting which way was which. Another thing that he would do to pass the time was read a journal that appeared to be written by Dou Fus and told all about the Dragon-Dragon Fruits. Most of what he wrote sounded more like a depraved maniac, but there were some interesting notes in there. One was the eaters gain enhanced senses, and another note said that they gain a love of bloody meats. Strahl also found out something else, but it was a little annoying and not in Dou Fus's book…

"Man, this is so boring. Can't we find something to fight?" Said the voice in his head.

No, just shut up and relax for once, Drago. Strahl thought back towards the voice.

"Make me." The voice said back, and Strahl smacked his face in response, but remembered it only hurt himself afterword. "Ah the joys of being without a body are grand."

After leaving South Blue Prison, the voice in his head had introduced himself, calling himself Drago, told him he was the devil of the green dragon devil fruit and that he has been waiting to be picked for over twenty years, but no one had noticed his fruit until Restrun arrived with his soldiers. He had also told him that Restrun let the Marine soldiers go after finding his fruit to help keep them alive. Strahl found out he had the pride of a mighty dragon as well as the wisdom. Most of the time though he was annoying as hell.

"Geez I need to get a traveling companion, I might go crazy arguing inside my own mind." Strahl said out loud.

"Hey! I make great company! Hell, most of the other dragonmen looked up to me. Well, except for that asshat Drakon." Drago's voice said in his mind, with a growl. Strahl ignored him as he finally spotted a landmass up ahead, which he sat up to look at. It looked like a rather small island, pretty much just a beach with a couple of trees. What drew his attention, though, was that there was a shirtless man lying face up on the shore with an orange cowboy hat covering his head. Right beside the man was a single man ship about the size of a kayak with a round metal thing at the back of the ship. Strahl landed close to the man, easily dragged his ship onto the shore and walked next to the man. He was shirtless, showing off a tattoo on his right arm that showed the letters A.S.C.E, wore black shorts held, up by a tan belt and had on a pair of black shoes. Strahl sniffed the air and smelled something like roasted meat over a campfire, instinctively making his mouth water and stomach grumble.

"Something smells good." Strahl said, looking around.

You realize that the smell is coming from him, right? Drago asked

No way. Strahl said looking at the man once more.

"You know, it's rude to stare at someone when they're sleeping." The man said flipping his hat up, revealing a freckled face.

"Oh, sorry." Strahl asked, as the man stood up and rubbed off the sand on his body.

"Eh, no problem." The man said giving him a smirk. "I was just getting ready to sail anyway."

Strahl's stomach growled rather loudly, making the shirtless man grin. "Do you know where I can get some food, meat dude?"

The man sweat dropped and thought, Meat dude? "Yeah, there's a town to the east from here, Red Town, probably just a day or two away."

"Thanks meat dude." Strahl said and looked around. "Which way's east?" The man pointed to his right, "Thanks again." Strahl said with a grin and pushed his boat back into the water with gusto, then began sailing in the direction the man had pointed to. The shirtless man continued looking towards where he disappeared, then began readying his own ship to sail. As he was getting ready to sail off, he heard movement in the water and when he looked up his jaw dropped in shock. Sailing across the sea was Strahl's ship, only it was coming from the west.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" the man yelled, catching Strahl's attention.

"Huh? Do you have a twin or something?" Strahl asked.

Oh, boy. Drago said

A LITTLE WHILE LATER ON THE SEA...

Strahl was sailing along once again, now with the tattooed man on the deck, his own ship tied off on the back of Strahl's ship. The freckled man was standing in front of Strahl, who was on his knees, his head bowed in embarrassment.

"How in the hell could you end up on the other side on the island?!" The man asked.

"I have no clue." Strahl said in an embarrassed tone. "I just forgot which way was east."

Why did I have to come into YOUR mind? Drago said irritatingly.

The man sighed and muttered out, "Sounds familiar, somehow." Strahl cocked his head at this before the man asked, "By the way, what's your name?"

"Oh, my name's Strahl Galsi." Strahl said holding out his hand. "You?"

"Portgas D. Ace." The man said taking his hand and giving it a firm shake, on his back was a tattoo of a purple cross with a pair of white eyes, large white mustache and a grin.

Meanwhile, in another part of the South Blue, later in the night

It was a dark night with bright stars in the sky as a lone ship was sailing along the waters with a skull and crossbones jolly roger on its flag and main sail. There were several pirates walking along the deck keeping watch for other ships. There was one pirate up on the crow's nest keeping a closer eye out. Suddenly, he heard a splashing sound off on the port side, causing him to look over and see three of the guards lying on the floor.

"Hey! Don't be-" He began, but was interrupted by another splashing sound on the other side and he turned on that side and saw that the others were the same way, only some were also stuck to the walls.

"What the-" suddenly he heard something flying towards him, so he turned towards it and was instantly stuck to the mast in the crow's nest. He looked at himself and saw four crossbow bolts stuck into his shirt and pants, making him unable to move. "W-What the hell?! Who did this?! Wh-" the pirate was instantly silenced by another cross bow bolt hitting him in the head. This crossbow bolt was actually blunted a great deal, but hit him with the force of a sledgehammer, knocking him out.

Standing on the rails of the crow's nest was a man with black a cowboy hat, a ruffled white shirt with a black vest, blue jean pants and cowboy boots. He had a crossbow pistol in his left hand, which the hand was a dark blue, his face was slightly covered but by the moonlight his face was tinged blue as well. He placed a bolt in the crossbow with inhuman speed and shot it up at the sky where it exploded into a firework that lit up the sky. He stared up at it revealing his full face as a dark blue and his eyes were tired looking. The blue skinned man sighed when he saw a returning shot from far off in the distance, and once more stared up at the moon.

"I'm so tired of this…" He said with a slight southern drawl, and a frown on his face.

TO BE CONTINUED…