Hey guys! I'm updating today and pls review it would be really helpful. Also to expect new projects/stories to come.
Enjoy!
'Thoughts'
"Talk"
Sound
The final battles are about to begin:
Its the Strawhat Pirates vs. The Demon Pirates
Fifth Fight: 'Blackleg' Sanji vs. 'Kitchen Knife' Niji
A/N: Dirst and foremost this will be split into 2 parts, due to the fact I want to put Kiken's past, so I wouldn't have to do it in later chapters.
Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece
Chapter 24: Sanji vs. Niji Part One: Kiken's Past
Sanji and Robin ran into the fortress. "Damn, what is this place? Some type of butcher chamber." Sanji commented on the dark, dried blood on the walls.
"Whatever this place is, it seems to me that it's a torture chamber. I'm assuming the slaves were tortured, even to death." Robin stated sadly.
[With Nami, Usopp, Zhen, and Gaishou]
Nami shouted "Great, Usopp! You got the guards coming after us!" Usopp retorted "Me?! How was it my fault?! I wasn't the one yelling 'Get away from me,' 'Get away!'" Nami punched the back of his head for mocking her voice, as the two ran in a flash.
Zhen and Gaishou were following pursuit, ignoring the bickering between Nami and Usopp.
However, they came across opened gates that seem to lead a prisoner hallway. Nami, Usopp, Zhen, and Gaishou ran towards the gates, as they pass by them. Gaishou shouts "Shut the gates!" Zhen, Nami, and Usopp ran to either side pushing the huge gates shut. "They're trying to push through!" Usopp yelled, worrying that the guards may get through. Nami remarked "Well, let's not them!" She took her electric pole form her Clima-Tact and shouted "Thunder Ball!" She fired off the powerful ball outside and the guards got shocked from such power (A/N: Pun not intended).
Zhen placed a large bar to the door handles to lock in place as the Demon Guards' screams could be heard. Since that happened Zhen, Gaishou, Usopp, and Nami ran for it.
Thousands of guards were slamming on the gate and screaming "Open the gates, humans!" Trying to ignore it the group kept on running.
As far as they ran they could no longer hear the screams of the Demon Guards.
Zhen stated as he looked back "Hey, I think they've stopped for now. We can't hear their screams anymore." Usopp and Nami panted after so much running. Zhen remarked "Hey, this isn't the time to relax, pirates. We need to move now."
Nami retorted "Relax, will you? We're only resting for a bit to catch our breath. Besides, our first priority is to find Brook, Franky, and Zoro. Then we can go to the Central Cove."
Zhen retorted "That's not the point! We need to hurry to the Central Cove now!" Nami and Usopp got startled by his outrage again. "Hey, wait, Zhen. Calm down." Gaishou demanded. Zhen looked at Gaishou with a feeling of bit of rage. He pointed at him with his index finger, and asked "You? There's something strange going on about you?"
Gaishou asked "What do you mean?"
"I've noticed the looks you make whenever someone mentions a word to you. You seem to be offended by it. Why is that?"
Nami ordered "Hey, guys! This isn't the time to fight right now!"
Usopp remarked "Yeah! Zhen, you said you needed to go to the Central Cove right now."
Zhen shouted "Silence! I need to hear this. Tell me, Gaishou. That word 'monster' why does it offend you so much? I've noticed ever since Strawhat's friend the cyborg, Franky said that you were tense and Kai went berserk."
Gaishou asked "What's your point?" Though Usopp and Nami could feel the annoyance in Gaishou's voice.
Nami agreed "He's right. You're wasting time. Why are you asking such a ridiculous question?"
Zhen retorted "That's the thing. It's not ridiculous. Kai was always calm and collected. Even if you insult him, he'll never snap. However, that word 'monster' seems to make every single of these Demon pirates tense, why is that? Don't you two remember what happened when Franky said that word?"
Usopp and Nami looked at each other, then back at Zhen.
[Flashback]
"I want to fight him, simply because these guys are simply just monsters," Franky reasoned, as Gaishou was saddened by that word 'monster.' Kai had an expression of rage on his face.
[End Flashback]
"Actually, now that I think about it that demon Doctor stated that Gaishou was more of a monster than any of the demons we've ever faced before. Why is that word so offensive?" Nami asked curiously.
Gaishou sighed and replied "You really want to know don't you, humans?"
All of them nodded.
"Fine, but the story I will tell you is not a pleasant one." Gaishou stated.
"How bad could it be?" Usopp asked fearfully.
"It is really terrible. First, let me start at the beginning that Kiken and I are brothers." Gaishou stated.
"Wait, what?!" All three screamed in unison.
Nami tried to process this, "Wait, then that means... Your own brother tried to kill you!"
Gaishou sighed "Yes, I know. It's shocking, but it's true. He and I are brothers."
He continued noticing Zhen, Usopp, and Nami ready to listen.
"This all started in a kingdom far, far away..."
[Flashback]
"Kiken, are you there?" A 5-year old Gaishou asking where his big brother was, wearing a yellow bandanna around his neck, red tunic, black trousers, metal plates on both his right and left shoulders, he had sandy-blonde hair, green eyes, and freckles on his cheeks.
"Kiken, this is not funny." Gaishou stated, as he walked down the halls, the dark halls that Mom told them not to go because that was where father was. Father was the king of the North Kingdom. His names was King Gratian of the Noth Kingdom. His wife was Queen Isabelle. Together, they were most powerful monarch of the Nothern side of the world.
Anyway, Father was working down the hall, and he was not to be disrupted by him, Kiken, or his wife.
Father hated being disrupted. He was always in so many meetings, having so many protests, and fought so many battles. It was taking a toll on his mental health.
The young Gaishou ran up ahead scared from the hallway pictures of his grandfather, and his grandfather's grandfather. The pictures of them were creepy looking. "Kiken? Kiken? Kiken? Where are you? Mom said not to go down in this hallway."
He walked up even further and noticed a boy crying across from him. He recognized it was Kiken. "Kiken!" He screamed as he ran towards his big brother.
"Kiken, why are you crying?" Gaishou asked, as he noticed his big brother crying tears hard. Kiken, 7-years old, he had yellow tunic, black trousers, shin guards on his knees and elbows, and blonde hair, like his brother, lastly he had blue eyes. He looked at his younger brother. If only he understood, what he just heard.
"Kiken, why are you crying?" Little Gaishou asked again, as Kiken wiped away his tears, and tried to be a big man to his little brother.
"It's nothing," he said boldly and retorted "besides, don't you have to finish up some studies with our new tutor."
"But the tutor is so boring. And he keeps making spell the same word again and again." Gaishou complained.
Kiken chuckled at his brother's complaining, it was quite cute actually, but Kiken replied being the big man he was "Well, you think our new tutor is boring. You've should'a seen my tutor before you were born. He was the most boring tutor in the world. He made study so much, than our new tutor. Now do you want Father...," he quickly regretted 'father,' but decided to continue "to get that same boring tutor."
Gaishou replied "No, but...," he sighed and went back slowly. Kiken sat back against the wall, and started to tear up again, remembering what he just heard from his Father's office.
Gaishou ran back to his tutor's room, who simply grabbed him and said "Where have you been little one? You simply didn't try to leave did you?"
"Uh, no! I was just trying to go to the bathroom." Gaishou lied through his tongue, but it was for the best.
"Oh, well, ok. I guess that's a reasonable excuse. But now we will continue on our lesson of the 20 Kingdoms. The first kingdom is..."
Gaishou only started to daydream, not caring of the lesson. He wondered about Kiken as to why he crying so much. He can only hope Kiken can tell him the next day.
It was the next day, that was when it went to Hell. The air was chilling, the mood was depressing, as Gaishou walked down the hallway from his bedroom, till someone grabbed him from behind. He was pushed against the wall.
"Hey, what's the big idea, bu-," Gaishou realized who it was who grabbed him, "Kiken..."
Kiken looked like he just woke up from a night terror, but besides that he had a pretty normal look on his face. He was silent for a second before he decided to speak. "Listen, Gaishou. You remember, yesterday, that you saw me crying?" Kiken asked while Gaishou nodded.
Kiken sighed and explained "Well, you see the reason why I was crying was because..," he was starting to tear up, "Father is going to sell us as tribute to the South King Constantine. He's going to sell us as slave tributes to him." He cried on his little brother's shoulder, and Gaishou's eyes widened.
Gaishou was about to tear up, why? Why would Daddy do this? Daddy was the good guy? His mind raced these questions, simply because he was in denial that Daddy would ever do that to his own sons.
Gaishou asked his big brother "Why would Daddy do this to us? Why? I thought he was the good guy? Did we do something bad?"
Kiken cried even harder and sniffled "No, no, no, Gaishou," he wiped away his tears with his left arm, grabbed onto his little brother and hugged him hard. Hard enough that he wouldn't let go of his little brother, "we didn't do anything wrong. Father is a coward. He's only selling us as slaves to avoid war from the South King. Apparently, they had a fight over some land, and soldiers fought. The soldiers died and thus someone needed to be paid. The South King asked for tribute, something more valuable than our money." Gaishou's eyes widened "You mean?" Kiken nodded, starting to tear up again, but tried to hold it in "Yes, we are more worth than our family's money," Kiken hugged his little brother for 3 minutes now, and stopped hugging him after that. He started to slam his fist into the wall "Don't you see Father is nothing, but a coward?!" Kiken retorted, startling Gaishou.
"Instead of loving us! He's using us to end the suffering of our Kingdom's war! Father is a coward!" Kiken shouted with temper on the verge of exploding. Gaishou always knew he had a hot-temper and it was the one that scared him the most.
Kiken stopped his ranting for awhile, then turned his eye to Gaishou. His eyes couldn't help, but tear up again. He tried to control it, but they just kept coming out. On that day, Kiken became a changed boy.
Gaishou asked "Kiken?" He tried approaching his big brother, but Kiken sneered at his 5-year old brother. He left his little brother to go somewhere off.
[End Flashback]
"You see Kiken was always a great big brother. But ever since that day everything changed." Gaishou stated his story with a simple sad face.
Usopp, Nami, and Zhen were surprised; they all thought of the same thing: 'How could a father, especially a king sell their children to another man as slaves?'
Gaishou commented "I bet you're wondering what happened after that. Or at least what we tried to do to stop becoming slaves. The truth is we didn't."
Usopp gasped "What?!"
Gaishou replied "Greed corrupted my father, and what can I say? He was a bastard to begin with after that day. My mother, heh, she was the bitch, who convinced the deal between my father and the South King."
Zhen didn't know what to say to that, but only say a few words, "My God..."
Gaishou remarked "I don't need your pity. Give it all you want; it doesn't change a thing in my past. So, anyway back to what I was saying..."
Ever since that day when Kiken changed into a completely different person. He distanced himself from Gaishou, teased him a lot, bullied him, slapped him, and even tried to make Gaishou's life miserable.
Gaishou didn't understand what was going on at that time, so he and Kiken were getting into a bunch of fights with each other, even to grow hatred against each other. Their brotherly bond severed by a simple doing of their Father.
Mother didn't even try to stop the fights. She just let me be, she would hang out with her friends, which she would either talk about the castle and the luxurious they have, rather than try to know what was going on with her children.
Gaishou sometimes thought whenever these torturous months were going to end; it didn't.
In fact, it was only just one month passed by so quickly did the South King arrive outside the Kingdom Wall to achieve his tributes.
Soldiers approached outside, asking what the South King wanted, he replies with his sly tongue "I want my tributes paid by your King. He said his offer would be brought today."
Now the Northern King Gratian appeared outside along with more soldiers, he approached Constatine, as the soldiers behind him bring in the two tributes: Gaishou and Kiken. They struggled to be free, trying to escape from their fate.
Gratian looked at them with disgust, "Take them. Take my tributes. They're not my sons anymore."
Gaishou screamed as loud as he can "Daddy?! Why?! Daddy?! Why?! Save me?!" He was tearing up, scared for his life, as the soldiers dragged him across into the slave carriage.
Kiken didn't have any reaction, he kept thinking about how his parents were nothing more than shit.
The soldiers pushed them into the back of the carriage; Gaishou struggled trying to be free, Kiken just let it be.
The South King smiled about his new slaves. The carriage left as Gaishou screams on the top of his lungs "Noooooooooooo!"
Gaishou was weeping so hard, during the ride, till Kiken looked at him and shouted "Shut up will you?! Gosh! You're so annoying!"
Gaishou retorted "But Kiken! Father looked-"
Kiken mocked "'Father this,' or 'Father that.' I don't care about father or mother anymore. They could rot in hell for all I care. Besides, you already knew this was going to happen. At least I've prepared myself for this coming day. You're acting like you didn't expect it."
Gaishou sniffled "I didn't expect Father to be so cold when he told that King to take us. It was like we were nothing to him."
Kiken thought of the words, he heard his father talk about the day he made the deal.
'No, no I don't want to pay with my money,' The Northern King said grimly, ' I got it, how bout I sell you my children as tribute. They could be your slaves. And you don't have to invade our land.'
Kiken let those words run through his head so many times that it's making him go insane.
"We were a threat to our family." Kiken stated ridiculely, Gaishou asked "What?"
Kiken snapped "We were a threat to our family. Father, only made us tribute so that Southern Bastard wouldn't invade our land. We're sacrifices, pawns, and expendable. All for what? Profit?! That's what we were to our parents."
Gaishou tried to wipe away his tears, but was twisting his cuffs, hurting his wrists. Kiken retorted "Enough with the struggling will you?! Gosh?! You're so annoying, Gaishou! I wish you never my brother!"
Gaishou hearing these from his own brother was even sadder than what his parents were doing.
"How could your own brother say that to you?!" Nami asked tearfully,
Gaishou replied shortly "I never understood, until I realized that we were just only kids at the time. So, our ego gets in our way, a lot of times. Kids are egocentric, no matter what. But me and Kiken had a bloody relationship. It wasn't until when we stepped off that carriage did things go from bad to worse..."
The South King laughed at his throne chair, as he stared at the two new slaves, he acquired. He was eating a chicken leg, like a pig, and talked with his mouth full "I see you must be the sons of Gratian. I bid you welcome to my kingdom."
He went to a table filled with a lot of food. Gaishou twisted his wrists again, even after his failed attempt from the carriage, Kiken just rolled his eyes.
"You can stop doing that. It's not going to get you nowhere, kid," Constatine, the South King commented on Gaishou's naive attempt.
"You bastard! Let us go!" Gaishou hissed at the King.
One of the King's guards slapped Gaishou across the face. "You will respect your new king with respect, young boy." He stated nonchalantly.
Constantine sneered at Gaishou "You've got guts, kid. I hate those kind of people," he took a bite out his chicken leg again, talking with mouth full, "but you know what? I have an idea for you two. Why don't you two be useful to me? Become servants to my kingdom. You wouldn't be slaves to me. You would be treated right with respect, wealth, and food. What do you say?" He offered grimly, but Gaishou spoke out of turn.
"Who do you take us for?! We are not your servants, or slaves. We serve no one!" Gaishou hissed again at the King, till one of the guards smacked Gaishou on the back of his head hard.
He yelped in pain, and yet tried not to scream. Kiken only glared at Constantine, who glared back and retorted "You're the sons of a weak, moronic, and greedy King that traded you for profit. He was so afraid of my invasion that he decided to do this. Moron couldn't make his soldiers fight mine. A coward at its best, he was. But you know, times wil change. And we're going to have a lot of fun."
-(Few years later)
Few years later, Gaishou: now 7, Kiken: now 9, their life was very torturous. They kept refusing to serve Constantine, often whipped by their captors for disobedience, witnessing executions, being assaulted a few times by the guards and other rich leaders, either men or women.
It eventually got to the point where Kiken was taken by the guards and put under the military by order of Constantine. Kiken learned over the course of the next few months on fighting with sword, and dying with it.
While Gaishou was called by the King as he was informed with news of the Northern kingdom has fallen by his forces and that his mother and father were killed.
Gaishou would be shocked, but unfortunately he didn't care anymore about mother or father that belief was spread by Kiken often too much that eventually sometime a year ago, he started to believe in it.
Now flashing forward to 5 years later, Gaishou was put under the military, and he had a similar manner of training put on him, almost similar to his brother.
Kiken's and Gaishou's relationship renewed that year as they often sparred against each other to improve their techniques and power.
Kiken and Gaishou often shared stories they learned from the other soldiers tell them.
Flashing forward to 10 years later is when Kiken and Gaishou reclaimed their parents' lost throne after killing Constantine. They put Constantine's soldiers under their own military and set up a new monarchary.
"Congratulation, brother! You've become prince of our family's lost kingdom." He cheered for his brother as his inauguration party as prince ended.
Kiken remarked "I know. It feels good to be back in power. However, I feel I need more power."
Gaishou was distraught "What could bring more power than a prince or a king?"
Kiken replied grimly "I don't know. But I'll know I'll find it. Someday, I will."
I'll end it there and hope you enjoyed it. Just wanted to say that Kiken's and Gaishou's past in the flashback is based on Vlad the Impaler.
Gratian was an emperor of the Byzantine Empire in history
Constantine was an emperor of the Romans in history.
