The Island Named Argost!

A Welcome Back Party!

"Xavier!" shouted Mikoto as he looked at the old man. The man was still every bit as big as he was when Mikoto left. "What are you doing here?"

"Me?" asked Xavier, "Uh…Mikoto, you are home." Xavier pointed behind him at the pub clearly labeled, 'Xavier's pub'. "That's me bar, remember? How many fights did you start there?"

"Home?" asked Mikoto, "but I can't be home, yet! I'm supposed to return when I'm famous! I can't be back here now!" Mikoto turned back to his crew. "We got to leave! I can't afford to jinx myself!"

"It is considered bad luck," said Zesiro considering Mikoto's offer.

Hiro-Shu extended his hand to Xavier, "the name's Hiro-Shu. Nice to meet you."

"The pleasure's all mine, friends of Mikoto's are friends of mine," said Xavier.

Zesiro realizing his mistake extended his hand next, "Zesiro. I'm the swordsman of the crew. Hiro-Shu's the navigator. You know Mikoto as the captain."

"Nice to know," said Xavier, "this it? You've been gone for a little over half a year and you only got two people to show for it?"

"I got five!" shouted Mikoto, "Ridley, a musician, Enma, a doctor, and Sage, a cook!"

"You got a ship?" asked Xavier. He was trying to make sure his old friend wasn't messing up his one life in this world, "and what about a bounty?"

"I have a ship and my bounty is over 25 million!" shouted Mikoto. "I'm doing better then my old man ever did!"

"That's true," said Xavier, "but you can't compare yourself to the worse pirate who ever lived and expect to be seen as an accomplished fellow."

"You can't even quite count the ship," said Zesiro, "it'll probably fall apart if we try to enter the Calm Belt with it."

"Thanks for telling him," grumbled Mikoto under his breath.

"Really?" asked Xavier, "you are going to drown again? Did you forget you can't swim or do you just not care?"

"The ship won't sink! It'll go strong all the way through the Grand Line!" shouted Mikoto.

Xavier's fist smashed into Mikoto's face sending him down to the ground, "be serious! You don't want to kill your crew, too! Next to a jolly roger the ship is the single most important thing a pirate can have!"

"We just got our jolly roger," said Zesiro. Mikoto shot Zesiro a glare from his place on the ground.

Xavier stomped onto Mikoto's back sending him back into the dirt, "are you a fool? A jolly roger after six months? After you got five crew mates? Are you stupid?"

Mikoto remained silent. Zesiro spoke up in his defense, "our crew is pretty powerful, however. We have three Devil Fruit users, me, and Hiro-Shu here who is as tough as steel."

"I thought you had six people?" asked Xavier, "we did you only mention five?"

"The sixth isn't that great," said Zesiro.

"A worthless man is better then no man," said Xavier, "let's go inside. I'll give you guys a round of drinks." He began to lead the group into his bar.

"Won't Ridley be jealous?" joked Zesiro. Mikoto remained flat on the ground.

"You coming?" asked Hiro-Shu nodding to the inside of the bar.

"Sure," said Mikoto, he stood up, dusted himself off, and headed in. The three of them sat at the bar while Xavier attended to his paying customers. Mikoto remained silent and in deep thought while Zesiro asked questions to Xavier about Mikoto.

Suddenly Mikoto spoke up, "HE WASN'T IN LOGUETOWN!"

"What?" said Zesiro jumping back out of his chair and onto the ground shocked by the sudden outburst.

"The riddle," replied Mikoto, "the answer is the man wasn't in Loguetown."

"Who cares about a stupid riddle?" asked Zesiro standing up. He was met by one of Mikoto's feet smashing into his feet. Zesiro was thrown back to the ground.

"Don't mock riddles!" shouted Mikoto.

"I'll mock them if I want to!" shouted Zesiro his voice rising with anger. Mikoto ignored him and took a congratulatory gulp of lemonade.

"Yeah, that's the answer," said Xavier as he sat down, "wondered how long it would be before you figured it out. Melanie actually came up with that one."

Mikoto spit his lemonade out. "Melanie!" He got up and bolted out of the door. "I got to stop Sage from meeting her!" He was out of sight in a matter of seconds.

"Who?" asked Zesiro.

"An old friend of Mikoto. His teacher to be exact," said Xavier, "they've always had a bit of a strained relationship."

"It's a wonder his parents put up with him," said Zesiro.

"Until they died," corrected Xavier.

Zesiro flinched. "I'm sorry. I had no idea, Mikoto doesn't often talk about his old life here. As a matter of fact…I don't recall him ever talking about anyone other his terrible pirate of a dad."

"He never told you guys?" asked Xavier, "I would've thought he would've told his crew."

"Did you look after him when his parents died?" asked Zesiro.

"Nope," replied Xavier as he swirled the liquids in his cup around, "not many people could afford another mouth around here."

"So, did he go around and beg?" asked Zesiro, noting the irony that Mikoto, the dog, had to beg.

"He tried," said Xavier leaning back, "people don't care that much for a kid. We had mountain bandits down in the hills. Handing out food is a surefire way to get attacked and pillaged."

"Oh," said Zesiro, "how did he manage then? Work odd jobs, steal, or something like that?" Hiro-Shu peeked up from his scarcely touched drink as he finally decided to get involved in the conversation.

"I wish this world was that simple," said Xavier, "Mikoto doesn't have much of an affinity at doing things other then beating people up and answering riddles. Can't make much money for that."

"So, you going to tell us how he did it?" asked Zesiro getting inpatient.

"Sure," said Xavier, "but you didn't hear this from me."

(-With Ridley and Enma-)

Ridley crouched down at the tombstone, "Nothing in this world is as interesting as bars." He looked at the names and shrugged. "So, what a man and a woman. Miyu and Michael Azgard. Probably husband and wife. They died…about 11, maybe twelve years ago. Big deal."

A tick appeared on Enma's forehead, "you really can't put anything together can you?"

"A husband and wife died," said Ridley. He looked around the field, "probably by some kind of fire. Nothing worth getting all excited over. Things like this happen."

"Azgard," said Enma. Upon seeing no reaction from Ridley, he repeated himself, "Azgard."

"You can say his name one hundred times," said Ridley, "still doesn't make him important or relevant to me. Now where's a bar?"

"What about the name Mikoto Azgard?" said Enma, "that name important to you?"

Ridley stopped searching around for a bar and looked back at the gravestones. "He probably doesn't want us to see these. A guy's private life and business life should be kept separate."

"Private and business life?" asked Enma, "we are his crewmates, we are his business life. We sleep in the same room as him, we are part of his private life. I didn't even know his parents died. He never told me."

"I think the only person he actually told was Sage," said Ridley. "Sage's mom died, so it gave them some sort of common ground. I was around when he told her so, of course I know."

"So, you, Sage, Mikoto, and Zesiro all lost your mothers?" said Enma, "what a way to make a guy feel left out. My mom is still alive."

Ridley all of a sudden felt crept out by being with a man with the number thirteen printed on his fingers, controlled bones, and knew a lot about the human skeletal system. The graveyard they were standing in didn't make him feel any better either. "I think I really need a drink."

"You just saw your best friend's parents' graves," said Enma, "and all that you can think about is a drink?"

"Its how a deal with bad situations," said Ridley, "been that way ever since I was three. You coming or should I head out without you?"

"Go on ahead," said Enma as he sat down and closed his eyes, "I'm going to say a prayer for these two souls."

A cold shiver swept up Ridley's spine, "Yeah…you do that." Ridley started to walk away from the graveyard, "tell them 'their son is doing fine'."

"Sure," replied Enma as he continued his prayer.

(-With Sage-)

Sage delicately balanced the plates and cups she had taken from the tables and had staked on top of each other. They leaned a little from one side to the other, but that didn't distract her. She kept up her stride from the dining room and into the kitchen. She carefully deposited the plates into the sink and got to work. Humming as she washed.

The woman, whose name Sage had found out was Melanie, came back into the room. She immediately went back to cooking. "This place has been so hectic after that Yonkou stopped here. I just wished I knew what happened to the mountain bandits. Did that Yonkou's visit empower them or something? They have just been so destructive as of late."

"Yonkou?" asked Sage, the term was familiar to her, "as in one of the four great pirates of the sea?" Melanie nodded, "wonder what he's doing in the East Blue."

"Recruiting," said Melanie, "there are some powerful people in this ocean now. Ever since the last two pirate kings were executed, pirates been coming here to prove their power."

"Wow," said Sage as she started back on the dishes, "at least its sunny outside!"

Melanie smiled, "yes, it is sunny. I just really wish we could get rid of those mountain bandits. I miss my male friends."

Sage chuckled, "yeah, men are nice. But its nice for it to be just women in one place, don't you think?"

"Yeah, and so does Dai Mungi," said Melanie with a sigh, "the king of the mountain bandits here. He separates us as the women are easier prey."

Sage stopped her humming. "Well, I'm sure if you just asked nicely he'd stop," she said as she restarted her humming.

Melanie laughed, "yeah, talking sense to that guy isn't easy. I swear he has two personalities or something. Anyways, he really took precautions against us. He separated the men from the women to decrease our morale, not to mention the simple fact that now we have a constant reminder that he is stronger then us. That wall. He installed it to separate us and now whenever we do anything we see that infernal wall."

Sage stopped her humming. She began to do the dishes in silence. When she returned to her ship, maybe she'd ask the guys if they wanted to stop this. She was sure that they would be kind enough to do it. She knew she couldn't do it herself, but Hiro-Shu or Zesiro could easily defeat them. Not to mention what Mikoto could do.

"We used to have someone on this island that could stand up to them," said Melanie, "He was a pirate. His name was Michael Azgard…he was so strong and so righteous even though he was a pirate. His son was foolhardy and a little bit too dense, but he was made of good stuff, too."

Sage stopped doing the dishes altogether. Azgard? A foolhardy, dense boy? "Say whatever happened to that boy? I sure would like to meet him?"

"Him?" said Melanie, "he went off to become…" Melanie cleared her throat before shouting, "THE NEXT PIRATE KING!" Melanie burst into giggles, "I always find that thought of him so funny. I mean I've known him to fight, but I never actually saw him do it."

"Was his name Mikoto?" asked Sage quietly almost in a whisper.

"What?" asked Melanie, "couldn't hear that. You are going to have to speak up, darling."

"I said…was his name Mikoto?" repeated Sage.

Melanie dropped her dish to the floor. It shattered into hundreds of pieces. Melanie's face turned red and started to pick the pieces up, "yeah, yeah, it was. You've seen his bounty poster or something? He's getting started at it, but he'll be something one day. At least I hope."

"He's something alright," said Sage as she knelt down and stared Melanie in the face, "he's my captain! I'm an Infinity Pirate crew member! The cook!"

Melanie gasped at Sage's proclamation, "Really? I'm so proud of that boy!" Melanie hugged Sage tightly. Sage joyously returned the hug.

The Tale of a Puppy!

Mikoto's Childhood?

The boy is back! The next two story arcs (not including this one) have just been formulated! I promise to work extra hard to get through this one and keep bringing quality work though.

So, yeah 100 CSpacian points to anyone who guessed Mikoto's hometown! (Remember CSpacian votes are not valid for redemption in the United States, Canada, South America, Central America, any other place on this planet, or the moon. If you ever go to Uranus you are set!)

So, yeah, Mikoto's childhood is coming up in the next chapter. Sound interesting? Remember, he lost his parents at the age of four? So far he hasn't showcased any talent that would allow him to make money. So how did he survive for twelve odd years? Find out next chapter!