Chapter 2 – The Swordsman

Resist and you'll lose everything, comply and the only thing you can lose is your ability to act. That was the world Enzo learnt of when he joined the marines, reached the rank of ensign and then excitedly revealed the fact that he was a kishin with power over the wind. He thought it would be simple, the more capable you were the higher your ran would be and the stronger you were the more people you'd be able to protect. Combine the rank and strength and the options would be limitless.

Those were his thoughts a year ago, but then the dreams crumbled and tossed him back into reality. First captain Nezumi completely blocked his chances at promotion, then he witnessed that very captain's corruption, spoke against it and got transferred. In three months since his first transfer, he got sent from base to base five more times, until he eventually settled down and chose to comply to captain Morgan's every order. The captain's greatness tampered and tamed a rebellious kishin he bragged. Enzo allowed it and his wind grew weaker. He didn't get it, he diligently trained, but his wind was losing both power and speed, it lost the cutting ability it had, and at best it pushed against his target. Still, Perun-san was unaware of that, the man didn't react to the way Enzo's eyes changed.

"You can still leave, even if you can deflect a bullet you can't stand up to a kishin," he hoped that would be enough to get the white-haired man to flee. In a fight, an average kishin would almost always defeat an average human.

"A kishin?" the boy's question wasn't unexpected. Most civilians in East Blue didn't know about kishin unless they encountered them

"It's a general term, either for those whose souls were merged with kishin arms, or were born with an innate ability to create kishin arm from their own soul," Perun-san was the one explaining, the fact that he knew that and that he wasn't surprised made it clear he already knew Enzo was a kishin. Hell, this was the first time Enzo heard a kishin could be born. "Get to untying Zoro, Koby," Perun-san voice softened a bit, making the sentence sound a bit more like a request rather than a demand.

As the boy, Koby, got back to untying Zoro, Enzo was vaguely aware that the two were talking, but his focus was entirely on Perun-san. "You knew," it wasn't even a guess.

"Not from the start, but from the moment I saw your eyes change I knew," Perun-san began approaching him. "Your comrades still haven't seen you, so might as well get out of here Enzo, I don't want to hurt you," even if he said that the look in that cold brown eye said he would, if given no choice, do exactly that.

The sound of running made that option unavailable, as almost immediately after Perun-san said that several marines arrived and pointed their rifles at the three.

"Stay where you are! Captain Morgan has ordered your immediate execution!" it was over, either Perun-san would be the first to be gunned down, trying to protect the other two or they'd all die more or less at the same time. Now that the order was given nothing would change that.

He wouldn't look at Zoro's gritted teeth or Koby's crying. He wouldn't listen to Koby's screams either. He wouldn't look at Perun-san's raised left hand or hear the crackling sound around the man. Wait… Enzo's eyes widened as the realization hit him. "You," the words were stuck in his throat, he couldn't see Perun-san's left eye, as the man turned his head towards the marines, but Enzo was certain it would not be brown.

~X~

Stopping, well more like deflecting, one, or even a couple of bullets wasn't much of an issue, the amount of lightning needed to change the direction of something that small wasn't even enough for anyone not looking at his eye to notice. This many bullets at the same time was a different story, so Perun had two options. Option number one: get Koby and Zoro out of the way and touch them in the process. Option number two: stop all the bullets with a burst of lightning, thus revealing to Koby, Zoro and every marine there that he was, in fact, a kishin. Of course, he would pick the second option, whatever helped keep touching outside of fighting to an absolute minimum.

It didn't take long for the captain to arrive, a tall blonde man with an axe instead of a hand and a metal support for his lower jaw. From the looks of it stronger than an average human, likely the strongest in the town, but as far as Perun could tell, weaker than him and definitely weaker than Luffy, probably weaker than Zoro too.

"You four aren't simple criminals, are you? You're trying to overthrow me!" Morgan yelled.

Perun's arm sort of just dropped at that. "It's astonishing how self-centered you are," he sighed as Morgan completely ignored him and kept spouting something about Zoro being weak compared to him or something.

"Take aim!" Morgan ordered.

"They are already aiming at us," Perun pointed out, as he folded his arms over his chest before turning to Koby and Zoro. From what he saw Koby actually stepped away from the task of untying Zoro. "They have their rifles pointed at us, they are ready to shoot, that's taking aim, right?"

"That's not important Perun-san!" Koby yelled, justifiably frightened of being shot, given that he didn't know Perun could just stop the bullets.

Perun nodded at him. "I get it, but just hear me out. That had to be the most pointless order I heard anyone give in the last week," not that he had many opportunities to hear an order over the past week, but that part hardly mattered, the order was still pointless. All the while Enzo did absolutely nothing.

"Fire!" Morgan, now even more irritated bellowed.

From the corner of his eye, Perun caught sight of Luffy crashing through the window and Gomu Gomu no Rocketing his way to intercept the bullets. "See, that's an order I can get behind," he nonchalantly commented as Luffy landed between the three of them and the marines.

"You!" Zoro gasped when he recognized Luffy, who was, by the way, having three katana strapped to his back.

"Luffy-san!" Koby cried out, relieved to be alive only for his relief to turn into despair when he realized Luffy took bullets for them.

"Yeah, I should have warned you," Perun did feel bad for Koby as the boy's eyes widened when bullets stretched Luffy's body and then just bounced back. "He's rubber."

"It won't work!" Luffy laughed as most of the marines fell back, some from shock and some while trying to dodge the ricocheting bullets.

"Who are you?!" Zoro demanded with wide eyes.

Luffy grinned confidently at him. "I'm the man who will become the Pirate King," he walked over to Zoro and held the three katana out. "Here, your katana! I didn't know which one was yours so I took all three."

"All three are mine, I use Three Sword Style," Zoro explained.

After subtly glancing at Enzo and making sure he still wasn't doing anything Perun whistled. "Not gonna lie, I have no idea how you use them at the same time, but it sounds cool."

Luffy turned to Perun. "It does!" of course, Luffy would agree the idea of someone using three swords at once would sound cool. "You'll take them, right? But if you fight with us here you'll be seen as a villain. Or would you rather be killed by the marines?"

Given the grin on Luffy's face, Perun couldn't help but chuckle at the situation. Luffy, of all people, actually gave Zoro a choice between becoming a pirate or dying.

"You're a son of a devil!" Zoro smirked, and given the situation made a perfect choice of words as far as Perun was concerned. "I'm dead if I stay here. Fine, I'll become a pirate!"

"Well then, we'll toast to that later," Perun stepped forward, taking Koby's job into his own hands. "Here should do," he placed his palm under the ropes tied around Zoro's right arm and closed his eye. "They might heat up a bit," was the only warning he gave Zoro before he made a quick and precise burst of lightning burn through the ropes.

"What the-" Zoro looked at his freed arm and then at the smoking, almost perfectly cut, ropes lying on the ground.

Perun opened his eye and smirked. "You can handle the rest of the ropes," he handed Zoro one of the katana Luffy was still holding. "I have something else to deal with," he turned around and switched all his attention to Enzo. "Luffy, I've got a kishin to handle, need me to do anything else before that?"

Enzo, having heard what Perun just said took a step back before gritting his teeth, he probably didn't even realize he took that step back.

Luffy patted Perun on the back. "We got this," it was all he had to say, hell, patting Perun on the back was all he had to do. With Zoro free and holding his katana, not to mention Luffy there as well there was no need to worry about any of the marines.

Perun nodded, not in the least bothered by the physical contact, and then he began approaching Enzo, steadily closing the distance between them. "I don't usually do this, but it would really piss me off if someone like you got a hold of it, so I'll beat some will back into you," he cracked his knuckles, thinking about an arctic blue shield and a double-edged sword matching its color. There was no need to use lightning for this, he'd just go in and punch Enzo a few times and maybe throw in a kick or something.

"Enzo! Kill that criminal right now!" Morgan's order echoed and the previously nervous kishin became a bit less nervous.

"Yes, captain Morgan!" Enzo's eyes focused on Perun as the wind began picking up speed. "You aren't relying on your kishin arm?"

"You are at least a decade too early to make me use it. Can you even manifest your own? Or at least shift into animal form if needed?" fine, maybe he was taunting the kid a bit, but from the look on Enzo's face he didn't even know those were possibilities. 'That… not gonna lie, that's kinda sad,' he thought, if Enzo was a civilian or even a pirate he'd understand, but that there was no one in the marines to teach him was, well, just bad.

"That's how all of this works, Perun-san, no one can change it," there it was again, the defeat and resignation in his voice and slumped shoulders. Still, Enzo clenched his fist. "If you won't take it seriously, well, don't blame me," hibiscus-colored wind began spinning around Enzo's fists as he used another gust of it to close the distance. He slammed the wind-enhanced fist against Perun's raised forearm.

'Telegraphed movement, lack of cutting capability, his wind only pushes back. Not useless, but not the way it was meant to be used,' Perun analyzed quickly before grabbing Enzo's forearm and, before Enzo could stop pushing his body forward with wind slammed him into the ground.

"Finish me off," Enzo didn't even get up, he just raised his head a bit, letting the blood drip from his nose.

Perun's left eye twitched. 'This brat…' was his frustrated thought, from the looks of it not even going for the kill would get Enzo to snap out of it.

At that moment Zoro clashed his katana with the marines with his back turned to them and facing Luffy. Two of his katana were in his hands, but the third one was in his mouth.

"So that's how he uses three at once," Perun muttered to himself as he turned his attention to the scene in front of him.

"I promised to be a pirate. Opposing the marines will make me a wanted man, however, I'll tell you one thing. I will always follow my own ambitions!" Zoro stated with conviction Perun rarely saw.

"Ambitions?" Luffy asked.

"To become the world's greatest swordsman! If you do anything that would cause me to abandon my ambition you will end your life on my sword!" it was a definitive promise of death if Luffy stood between Zoro and his goal. It was also a clear statement that Zoro would not offer Luffy absolute obedience, or follow Luffy's whims and orders blindly.

"The world's greatest swordsman? That's nice! As the Pirate Kind's nakama, I wouldn't expect any less from you!" Luffy wasn't concerned, there was no need to, after all, this was exactly what he wanted from his nakama.

"Heh, indeed. It doesn't matter if it's as a devil or a saint, my name will be heard all over the world!" Zoro declared.

"Humans that give up their right to choose in order to blindly follow eventually grow weaker, maybe not in strength, but their will suffers. For us it's even worse, we rely on our soul to get us through a battle, we manifest it, and clash it with our opponents. A soul that can't resist in a safe environment is no better than a dull blade cracked beyond repair in battle or danger," Perun turned his attention back to Enzo who was looking at Luffy and Zoro with fascination.

"He just threatened your friend, shouldn't you be mad? Shouldn't you feel the need to protect him?" Enzo questioned.

"Need? Luffy doesn't need my protection. Besides, I'm lightning, I can't protect, I can only supply him with my power when he wishes me to," they both watched as Luffy stretched his leg and kicked the marines Zoro was blocking all at once. They were no match for him. "Morgan will also fall today, but you need to decide, can you risk this town's safety and just lie there waiting to be killed?"

That made the younger kishin completely halt and look at Perun, his eyes no longer proving that he was a kishin. "What?"

Perun smirked. "What makes you think we won't attack the town after we're done with you guys? Here's your chance to change things, use it-" eyes turned hibiscus red and a kick sent a blast of wind right towards Perun's face. "-well," Perun stopped it with a palm of his right hand and continued smirking as Enzo tried to swipe him of his feet.

Enzo growled as Perun jumped over his kick and pushed his body off the ground. Wind propelled him right toward Perun as he attempted to slam his body back first into Perun. The white-haired male pushed off of Enzo's back and jumped over him, before easily landing roughly two meters away from Enzo. "Wind Scythe!" Enzo swiped the sides of his palms towards Perun only for the wind to once again be blocked.

"A bit sharper, but still more of a staff than a bladed weapon," Perun commented without a hint of concern over Enzo fighting back. What followed was an angry barrage of punches enhanced by wind, each deflected, dodged, or simply blocked and through it all Perun's eye remained brown, not a hint of lightning anywhere near him. He wasn't using it, he wasn't taking it seriously.

From the corner of his eye, in the middle of avoiding yet another punch, Perun glanced at the fight Luffy was having with Morgan, at the moment his captain was punching Morgan, yelling about destroying Koby's dream when someone yelled at Luffy to stop. Realizing that a blond brat that somewhat resembled Morgan and was probably the man's son had Koby at a gunpoint and Luffy standing up was enough of a clue that this battle was about to end. Perun grabbed Enzo's punch with his left hand, ignoring the small cuts it made. "That's better," he grinned as a few tiny drops of his blood trickled down Enzo's fingers.

Enzo's eyes widened and the wind that wildly blew around them halted as the red disappeared from the marine's eyes. "Perun-san?"

"Go to sleep now, your town is safe," Perun knocked him out with a simple punch to the stomach, making Enzo gasp and double over, unconscious as he began falling to the ground. Right before he hit it Perun grabbed the bac of his uniform and gently lowered him to the ground. As he did that he saw Zoro cutting Morgan down and Luffy knocking the guy holding Koby at a gunpoint out as well.

"If you want to keep fighting, come at us!" Zoro challenged the rest of the marines, but they dropped their weapons. The battle was completely and utterly over, an overwhelming victory for a pirate crew made of only three people.

That being said, the marines that were left conscious didn't give up out of fear, in fact, they began cheering. Celebrating the loss, looking at Morgan and thinking back to Enzo's words it was clear to Perun what was going on. The man ruled by fear alone and now that he lost his followers could be free. "Hey, Luffy, I'll meet up with you later, at the boat, I have one more thing to do before we leave," Perun glanced down at Enzo, he could spare some time to make the kid more aware of his situation.

"You sure?" Luffy asked.

Perun smirked. "You know I am."

~X~

The first thing he felt as he was regaining consciousness was the soft breeze caressing his face, then came the realization that he was in a bed. Enzo's eyes slowly opened, confirming his suspicion that he was in the infirmary. There wasn't a sound of battle anywhere in vicinity, he couldn't smell smoke or anything he could relate to a town being attacked, so Perun-san really was bluffing.

"It's good for a recovering kishin to be exposed to the form their soul manifests into, wind in your case."

Those words made him jolt into a sitting position, he didn't even notice Perun-san leaning against the wall. "Perun-san? What are you doing here?"

The man, pirate from what Enzo gathered, sighed, his cold brown eye staring right at Enzo's eyes. "It would leave a bad taste in my mouth if I didn't give you an advice or two if you're willing to listen to someone with way more experience than you."

Enzo nodded slowly. "If you could, please tell me," he wanted to know more.

"Find someone that can guide you, tell you more about the power you have. At the moment you are limited to basics, being a kishin isn't like being a devil fruit user, we don't automatically know what we can do. You haven't inherited someone's spirit, experience or skill, kishin arm isn't an immortalized form of someone's will, it's a weapon made out of a soul that resonated with your own soul, merged with it and gave you the ability to manifest your own soul," Perun-san began, it was something Enzo guessed, but never had a chance to confirm or prove wrong.

He felt cold sweat drenching his body as the same bad feeling he had when he found a red dagger overtook him. "And if I don't? What happens to me if I can't find anyone?" Enzo asked as he barely stopped the trembling of his hands under the covers.

"Nothing life-threatening. There's nothing in a kishin arm that can harm you. Those around you though… Well, do you know why our eyes change when emotions get the better of us? Even if we aren't manifesting our soul?" Perun-san asked a question Enzo couldn't answer, he always guessed he just couldn't control his wind.

"I don't," he would rather say it like that than embarrass himself.

Perun nodded, showing his understanding. "Overwhelming emotions are similar to overwhelming situations. When overwhelmed you sometimes say or do things you wouldn't normally do. Here's a catch, you have a power that can go out of control. You'll most likely remain in control of your body, but a stray blast of wind might hit your comrade, maybe even seriously wound them and the longer you use your soul, the less control you'll have and when you hit the point of exhaustion, physical, emotional, or any other, the chances of that stray manifestation of soul going out of control is at its highest," he walked over to the window, looking outside with an unreadable expression on his face.

"They say eyes are the window to the soul, right? It doesn't mean you'll start blasting wind all around you when you're ecstatic or feeling some other intense positive emotions, but your eyes will change. You need to be aware of when it happens so that you can keep complete control over longer periods of time. Learning on your own is fine, but it's easier when there's someone to help you when you're stuck," Perun-san took a deep breath and turned to look at Enzo. "Good luck, and keep an eye on Koby for us, he wants to join the marines," with that Perun-san just walked out, a farewell and a promise that he will do as requested remained stuck in Enzo's throat.

~X~

As he had promised Luffy before Perun made his way to their boat, after, of course, grabbing some supplies, mostly food. Not that it would last long, they had no way of stocking up on enough food to last Luffy more than a day or two.

Perun looked at the sky, it looked clear, not that he had any idea how to predict the weather, but at least for now, it looked fine.

"Hey! Perun!" he heard Luffy yelling and turned around to see Luffy and Zoro approaching him.

"Ready to leave?" Perun asked as he began untying the boat.

Luffy and Zoro jumped in. "Yeah, food was great and Koby is staying," Luffy caught him up on what happened.

"Shouldn't you say it the other way around?" Zoro questioned as they set sail.

Luffy just shrugged and glanced at Perun who supplied a simple explanation. "Order of events, not importance."

Zoro nodded at that and sat down.

"Luffy-san!" Koby's yell caught their attention and they turned to see he was saluting them. "Thank you very much! This marine will never forget you!"

"I've never heard of a marine thanking a pirate before," Zoro grinned, from the look on his face Perun figured whatever happened worked out fine.

"Ditto," he did have to agree with Zoro.

"Shishishishi!" and Luffy, of course, laughed. He jumped to his feet and waved with both of his arms. "We'll meet again! Koby!"

And then something they, or at least Perun, didn't anticipate happened. The marines of the town lined up and saluted them.

"Not one but all of them saluting? You don't get to see that every day," Zoro pointed out.

"Kinda creepy," Perun smirked only to get his shoulder lightly slapped by the back of the pouting Luffy's hand.

"Perun!" yep, Luffy was pouting.

"Mildly disturbing then?" Perun offered jokingly, he had to have some fun, even if it was at the expense of the admittedly somewhat heartwarming moment.

"Don't ruin the moment," Zoro teasingly scolded him.

"Devastatingly unusual?" when both of his nakama stared at him blankly Perun guffawed, which got the other two to laugh as well. "Fine, fine," he said as he paused his laughter to catch his breath. "I'll stop."

I'll have frequent updates, huh? Two in a month? Yeah, that's frequent. In my defense, these early arcs really don't have a lot to put an OC into and I was unexpectedly thrown into two really busy weeks. Hopefully, next chapter will come out much sooner. Also, Nami is in the next chapter so yay! Anyway, a big thank you to everyone who reviewed, you've all made my day. I mean, so did the favorites and follows, but let's face it, reviews are reviews. So yeah, Guest, Guest, C and Guest, thank you.

Special answer to the Guest that left the first review: Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a longer review, I appreciate that. As for Perun's power, it's not weather, it's just lightning/electricity and I have a way to make it different from the way other characters, like Enel, Nami, minks and so on use electricity, the wind, mentioned several times in the first chapter was Enzo, sorry I didn't make that clear enough. Once again, thank you for the review.

See you all next time!