Storm on a Sunny Day
East Blue Saga – Romance Dawn
Chapter 1 – The Beginning of the Adventure
The muscles ached as he clawed his way to the shore, barely keeping the rope tied around the barrel between his teeth. A growl escaped from his throat, an effort worthy of a beast was exerted as his body emerged above the water's surface. The world he saw narrowed, colors became more vibrant, and the rope fell from his mouth into his hand.
Having no idea where he was he pushed his body forward, to the beach, then to the edge of the forest. His vision blurred and he stumbled, narrowly escaped colliding with a tree and just barely managing to stay on his feet. A few steps forward and he knew he reached his limit, dropped the rope, and sat against the tree he nearly stumbled into. What little consciousness remained in his mind told him he wouldn't be seen from the beach and he doubted someone would be interested in a random barrel by a tree.
While still sitting he slightly slouched forward and fell asleep.
~X~
It had to be a dream, there was no other explanation. First, a boy popped out of a barrel, then that same boy, Luffy-san, said he was going to become the Pirate King or die trying. Things then went from crazy to complete madness when he, in what was perhaps the most ridiculous wave of motivation and confidence, talked back to Alvida, only for Luffy-san to beat her, and now he and Luffy-san got a boat.
"Right, now we just need to get Perun," Luffy-san had a satisfied grin on his face as they got the dinghy to the beach.
Koby was more than certain there was no one around the barrel when he found it. Puzzled and more than a bit uncertain he looked at the black-haired boy wearing a straw hat. "Perun-san?" he still pointed Luffy-san towards where he found the barrel.
Luffy-san happily nodded. "Yeah, he's my first mate!"
A horrifying thought occurred to Koby, one he really wished wasn't a possibility. After all, Luffy-san just saved his life, and here he might have to tell the boy there wasn't another barrel or a body to be found. "Luffy-san, you slept for a long time, didn't you?" when Luffy-san nodded Koby swallowed a lump that formed in his throat. "Maybe Perun-san wasn't as lucky as you."
Luffy-san's grin grew much to Koby's surprise. "Shishishi, don't worry about Perun, he swam to the island," the certainty in Luffy-san's voice was staggering. "He used to swim out of whirlpools even bigger than the one we got caught in while we were growing up!"
Just what kind of person would take that kind of risk on a regular basis? "Why would anyone do that?!"
Luffy-san tilted his head to the side. "Dunno, something about being prepared."
That explained nothing. Prepared for what? Surely he and Luffy-san didn't plan on getting caught in whirlpools all the time. Luffy-san went into the forest and immediately stopped, his straw hat cast a shadow over his eyes, and Koby for a moment thought he found his friend wounded or worse. Luffy-san grinned and extended his hand behind the tree only to a moment later pull a person to his feet and Koby took in what felt like Luffy-san's opposite.
Short white hair, opposing Luffy-san's black, sharp brown eye and a dark blue eyepatch over the right eye, as opposed to two black round eyes and a scar under the left one. The man Koby assumed was Perun-san was also about a head taller than Luffy-san and with much more defined muscles, boots, black pants and light blue T-shirt with white tiger straps on the back and sleeves as well as fingerless glove matching the color of the eyepatch reaching up to his elbow contrasted Luffy-san's red vest, blue shorts with cuffs, sandals, and the straw hat. From the looks of it, the man had some kind of necklace around his neck, but it was tucked under the shirt. Also, unlike Luffy-san, who was clearly unarmed, Perun-san had a smaller than usual folding pocket knife strapped to his left forearm, as hard as he tried to figure it out Koby couldn't think of any way Perun-san would be using it, especially in combat.
The man yawned and leaned against the tree, even the level of energy was the complete opposite of Luffy-san, as he lazily glanced to the left and straight at Koby. "Got a new friend, Luffy," it wasn't even a question as Perun-san glanced away from Koby and instead turned his attention back to Luffy-san.
"Yeah, Koby will take us to the next island," Luffy-san explained happily.
Koby felt his cheeks heat up, so he turned to studying the ground. The grass sure got tall around this part of the forest and it was really green as well.
"I see," he wasn't sure how, but he could swear he heard a smile in Perun-san's voice, "Thanks Koby, we owe you one," Koby lifted his head to find Perun-san scratching the back of his head with a bit of an apologetic grin on his face. "We really suck at navigation," came an honest acceptance of that fact.
"We do?" Luffy-san inquired with a tilt of his head and a puzzled look on his face.
"I know better than to dignify that with an answer," Perun-san sighed.
Luffy-san suddenly pointed toward the beach. "It's right over there, dunno what a dinghy has to do with navigation though."
Koby, downright surprised by Luffy-san's statement, nearly fell on his back, but Perun-san seemed completely unfazed.
"Plenty of things, like how we overcooked the previous one and now we need a new one, so how about we don't overcook this one," Perun-san wasn't making any sense, and neither was Luffy-san's vigorous nodding and exclamation that he got it. The white-haired male, perhaps sensing Koby's distress turned back to him. "Meat analogies, somehow the least painful way to teach him anything."
That made no sense, but both pirates seemed to think it did. "Sure…"
"Right! Perun's awake, we got our dinghy, let's set sail!" Luffy exclaimed and after what he just saw Koby automatically followed after the two pirates.
~X~
After a nice long nap on the new dinghy and brief catching up on what he missed given to him by Koby Perun figured there wasn't much for him to do once they did reach Shells Town. Luffy wanted to see what kind of person certain Roronoa Zoro was, maybe even invite him to join the crew. That was fine as far as Perun was concerned, still, if Shells Town had a marine base then it could probably provide them with at least basic information about what was going on in East Blue.
At Luffy's excited yell over some dolphins jumping out of the sea Perun glanced at his captain. The corners of his mouth tugged upwards and the seriousness in his eye gave way to a bit softer gaze. Luffy was strong, but he was unprepared when it came to information and Perun wasn't about to let that side of his long-time friend and captain cost them.
"Luffy," Perun began.
Luffy immediately spun around at the sound of his name, damn near bounced really.
'Note to self, get a bigger boat as soon as possible,' Perun figured, but pushed that thought aside for the moment, they didn't have nearly enough money for something like that right now. They had, maybe, twenty thousand belly and it would quickly get spent on food. They had a bit more, but whirlpool took that money to the bottom of the sea. "I'll go and get supplies and info when we get to the island," Luffy wasn't exactly keen on information gathering, and they wouldn't be spending a lot of time in the town, so there was no need to waste it by going together.
"Oh, get meat!" was Luffy's immediate request.
Koby raised an eyebrow. "Luffy-san, how are you going to cook it?"
Perun smirked at that. "Already gathering info for the marines?" he teased with enough lightheartedness in his voice for even Koby, as nervous as he was, to recognize it. "I'm just messing with you, still, it is a bit of a trade secret," nothing against the kid, but explaining how they would be cooking the meat would involve revealing things Koby didn't need to know.
"Yeah, Perun doesn't like talking about it," it was a major miracle that Luffy actually managed to keep his mouth shut about it, but Perun guessed eleven years of knowing one another and Perun's secrecy about it until he absolutely had to reveal it to Luffy helped a bit.
Koby's eyes widened a bit. "I'm sorry, Perun-san, I didn't know," apparently Koby relaxed around Perun enough to stay calm. Good, since Perun didn't like Luffy's new friend being uncomfortable around him.
"Take it easy, there's nothing to apologize for," he wouldn't apologize for keeping a secret, but he definitely wasn't offended by Koby being curious.
"Uh, Perun-san?" Koby glanced at the pocket knife strapped to Perun's forearm. "Is that a secret as well? It doesn't seem practical in a fight."
Perun glanced at the pocket knife, at the tiger carved on the right side and the wolf carved on the left side of the handle. With practiced ease, he slipped it from the strap and into his right palm before unfolding the four centimeters long blade. "It's not for battle, it's for wood carving," it was a precious gift, much like the necklace around his neck. Sure, he probably could stab someone with it, but it was too important to him to stain it with blood unless there was absolutely no other solution. And all things considered, the chance of that being his only solution was almost a zero.
Koby nodded, said something about that making sense and Perun vaguely heard Luffy commenting something about Perun's hobby.
He, however, paid them little attention. His entire focus shifted to the carved wolf on the handle. His thumb traced the carefully created details. He thought back to the day he accepted Luffy's invitation to join the crew. The dream Perun declared that day, 'I want to see her one more time, I want to apologize,' he had no idea if it would even be possible, he had nothing but her stories to latch on to, but he needed to believe in that possibility. The memories of those days threatened to come back to the forefront of his mind and he pushed back against them by putting the pocket knife back in the strap designated for it. It wasn't a practical place to keep it, but she used to keep her blade there, in the very strap currently around his forearm. The pale, arctic blue strap clashed with the cobalt blue glove and eyepatch, it was always the color blue with him, for one reason or another.
~X~
Shells Town was pretty much what Perun had expected, a small, fairly quiet town that didn't attract much attention, well, aside from a rather prominent marine base. Were all marine bases sticking out like sore thumbs? Perun flipped through the newspaper as he leaned against the wall of some bar. Some rebellions here and there, a few captured pirates, some battles Perun saw no relevance in. Bounties that came with the newspaper weren't much help either, hardly any new ones related to East Blue, and even the ones that were didn't seem important enough to keep in mind. Getting supplies gave him a basic gist of what was going on in this town, with Morgan, the marine captain in charge, and tributes he was making the people pay. Not exactly the best situation, but Perun couldn't say he cared enough to get involved.
Well, there was only so much he could learn from the newspapers. He glanced at the doors to the bar he was outside of, it seemed like a good place, with plenty of customers, both civilians and marines from what he gathered over the past half an hour he spent there. With that in mind, he folded the newspapers and headed inside. The bar didn't disappoint his expectations, it was dimly lit, had a distinct smell of booze, and the only thing out of place was a kid trying to wake a drunk male up, an older sibling perhaps. Perun picked a spot at the bar and sat down.
"What do ya want?" the bartender, a middle-aged man that didn't exactly have a welcoming demeanor, barked at Perun.
"Sake will-" Perun began only for the bartender to place a beer in front of him.
"Don't have it. Beer or leave," The man was already on his way to the next customer. The marine didn't even get to start his order when a cup of sake was placed in front of him.
"I… beer… uh, whatever," the marine lowered his head on the counter. He was young, maybe about eighteen years old, with light brown hair tied in a loose ponytail. From what Perun could see he looked distinctly average.
"Wanna trade? Beer for sake?" he offered, hoping to get a few information on Zoro in the process.
The marine lifted his head and looked at Perun as if he just got offered a lifetime supply of anything he would ever need. Frankly, it kinda freaked Perun out.
"Really?! Great!" there was a soft gust of wind that caught Perun's attention as the young marine basically jumped into the seat next to Perun's and swapped the drinks. "Thanks a lot," he drank some of the beer and let out a satisfied sigh. "Name's Enzo, I'm an ensign," well, the justice kanji on his uniform indicated he could be exactly that.
Perun's eye twitched at the hand Enzo held out. "Perun," he obviously stared at the hand and then looked the marine right in the eyes. When the hand persistently remained in the air between them Perun figured minimal explanation would be necessary. "I hate being touched," unless it was a battle, or circumstances made it unavoidable. Luffy was the exception, Ace as well to an extent, though not as much as Luffy, a random person he met at a bar was absolutely not an exception.
"Oh, sorry," Enzo pulled his arm back. "Say, what brings you here? Not many people visit Shells Town."
"I heard there are some changes in rules, figured asking directly would help and this was the closest marine base," Perun began, he paused for a moment when he saw Enzo's puzzled expression.
"I'm not sure I'm following you Perun-san. What rules changed lately?" Enzo inquired as if encouraging Perun to keep talking.
"Haven't you arrested a bounty hunter a bit over a week ago? Roronoa or something like that?" Perun took note of the way Enzo's body stiffened at the mention of the captured pirate hunter and maybe it was just Perun's imagination but he thought the entire bar suddenly got a lot quieter.
"Nothing changed. Roronoa Zoro attacked the captain's son," it seemed more like an automatic answer Enzo had to say, rather than what he actually believed.
"Is that so? Well, that's a relief for bounty hunters," Perun leaned back a bit. "Did you help catch this infamous Roronoa Zoro?"
Enzo looked down at the wooden floor of the bar. "Wh-What makes you say that? Me? Nah, no way," his voice wavered.
"You're trembling, figured he might have frightened you during battle. You said the captain's son was the victim, right? So Zoro attacked a civilian and that must have been scary for a marine as young as you," the words were carefully chosen, pushing a bit at a time, because as far as Perun was concerned a lie from someone as nervous as Enzo would crack fairly quickly.
Enzo tried to keep his hands still. "Right. I-"
"Liar!" a sudden shout made Enzo jump and caused Perun to turn around in his chair to look at a young boy, probably not even ten years old. "Zoro saved us from Helmeppo's pet wolf and got arrested because of it! He didn't even fight back when you took him!"
The bartender walked around the counter and slammed a bottle of juice in front of the kid that was still trying to wake the drunk sibling up. "Drink and don't speak."
"That's what happens when you cross captain Morgan's son. Disobey the captain and you're dead, it doesn't matter what's right or wrong," Enzo admitted, the empty beer mug falling from his fingers.
Perun caught it before it hit the floor and set it back on the counter. "And you can't change it? Challenge this authority figure?" Perun questioned, more for the hell of it rather than with a desire to actually get an answer.
"I can't do it; I can't change anything!" the excruciatingly desperate cry that escaped the young man had an even greater impact on Perun when he saw the black eyes flashing hibiscus red a couple of times before Enzo hung his head low and refused to meet Perun's eye again.
"Well then, there's nothing to talk about," Perun placed a couple of coins on the counter to pay for his drink and got up. The marine he left at the bar was bad news, a kishin, even as obviously inexperienced as this one told him more than most places he could gather info at could. There was someone in the marine base in this town that could reign a kishin in to the point of frightened surrender. It wasn't as simple as rank, Enzo was genuinely terrified, otherwise, he probably wouldn't be losing his cool so quickly, so he wasn't strong enough to handle the issue.
Luffy wasn't Perun's current concern, there was no doubt in his mind that Luffy could easily handle anyone in this town. No. The one he was worried for was Koby, because if half of what he heard was right then this town's marines weren't the heroes Koby was looking up to.
"Ah! Perun-san!" Koby's voice caught his attention and Perun turned to his left and saw the boy running as fast as he could. Koby just barely stopped in front of him and, while gasping, reached out for Perun's arm.
Perun took a step back, avoiding the contact. "Hey there, take it easy," whatever it was it probably wasn't so urgent it couldn't wait a few seconds for Koby to catch his breath.
"Luffy-san punched captain Morgan's son and then went to free Zoro-san!" Koby hastily explained.
"Sounds about right," Perun nodded and motioned towards the largest building in the town, the marine base. "Come on, let's go give them a hand," he waited for a few moments, just to let Koby catch his breath a bit more, and then took off at a pace Koby could keep up with, though an extremely loud crash coming from the marine base caused them to pick up speed. 'Luffy just did something, I know it,' Perun mentally sighed, well, life would be boring without Luffy's ability to get in trouble.
A few minutes later they reached the marine base and Koby led Perun to an open field with a single man tied to a post as if put on display. "That's Zoro?" all things considered Perun probably didn't need to ask.
"Yes!" though he was more than a bit breathless Koby still managed to reply as they came to a stop right in front of the surprised and curious pirate hunter. "Zoro-san, have you seen Luffy-san?" Koby quickly asked.
Zoro, a green-haired man wearing a white shirt, black pants, and haramaki, as well as a bandana, studied them for a few moments. "Yeah, he went into the base. Who are you?" the question was clearly aimed at Perun.
"Wolzard Perun, Luffy's nakama," Perun stated and turned his attention to their surroundings. They were a fairly easy target out here in the open.
"Luffy-san went into the base? He is too reckless!" Koby sounded genuinely worried.
"I noticed. So, who is that guy?" Zoro asked as Koby approached him and began untying the ropes. "Hey, now you are being reckless! They'll kill you if they catch you freeing me!"
"A bit too late for that," Perun noticed a marine lining up a shot from the roof of the base and took a few steps forward.
"You were unjustly arrested! I can't stand seeing marines acting like that!" Koby declared as he struggled with the rope around Zoro's right arm. "I'm going to become a proper marine, and Luffy-san will become the Pirate King!"
Well, after that declaration Perun really couldn't let anything happen to Koby. The marine was about to pull the trigger, his target, Koby.
Zoro, however, was shocked. "What? Does he even know what Pirate King means?"
Koby laughed for a moment. "Yeah, I was shocked too, but he's ready to risk his life to do it!"
The marine fired his rifle and with a single step to the left Perun got in the way of the bullet and swiped it to the side with his left hand. It was too far for them to hear him, so he just raised his right hand and motioned them to come to him.
"How did-" Koby watched the bullet stuck in the ground in utter shock.
"I'll cover you, so get to untying Zoro," Perun simply said, a gust of wind he felt less than half an hour ago brushed past him once again and he turned back to the gate.
"Perun-san," Enzo greeted him with disappointment in his voice. "Even if you free Zoro it won't change anything. That's how all of this works," he sounded defeated and that alone made the way his eyes changed into hibiscus red with slit-shaped pupils much less of a problem than it usually would or could be.
"That's the decision you made. Don't go pushing it on me," Perun said, unaffected by the disappointment the young marine felt.
And that wraps up the first chapter. So, how is this story going to work? Well, I'm going for relatively short chapters, about four thousand words, with frequent updates. Second, while it will follow canon as far as the route the crew takes/who joins and similar I will actively try to change the way certain points are reached whenever I can make a logical change. Side note, I've mentioned several specific shades in this chapter, I'm referencing site color meanings in case you want to know exactly the shade I'm referring to. As for kishin, well, those familiar with Japanese mythology probably have an idea of where that's going, it's not exactly the same but specifics will be explained in the next chapter. That's about all I have to say, I hope you'll enjoy reading the story.
