Making of a Legend
Nefertari D. Damian finally turned fourteen this year and, by his culture's standards, was viewed as a man. He was playing in the palace garden with his best friend Maruss and practicing his sword technique. He had his mother's hair color but it was styled in a way that resembled his biological father's. He was of a slim build and tall height with a scar on the right side of his face going vertically down perpendicular to his eyes. Damian, as the prince, was taught in many studies from history to science to martial art disciplines. His academics had much to be questioned, though he was intelligent enough in his own right, but Damian excelled as a combat genius. He was able to bench press a lot for his age and had incredible strength and stamina and was able to best some of Alabasta's better warriors. Damian felt more at home in the ring and in fight rather than on the throne and it was made apparent by his mother, Vivi.
Maruss has been his training partner for years and aspired to be either a part of the Alabastan army or, even better, the Navy. Maruss was two years older than Damian and just as talented in fighting. They met once in the outskirts of the town square in a street fight; Damian was always challenging the local fighting clubs and gangs in order to test his strength. Maruss was the only one in Damian's list of opponents that gave him a good struggle. Maruss was the one to give Damian his scar when he knocked him into a chunk of wall to which Damian complemented him on. Maruss was a head taller than Damian and had brown hair fashioned into a fo-hawk.
"Come on Maruss, is that all you got!" Damian yelled
"Bring it on bitch," Maruss retorted, "Hand-to-hand you can't be beat, but swordsmanship is something I have the advantage in."
Damian made a lunge with his rapier but Maruss parried and made a thrust of his own. Damian immediately avoided the point and tried to tap Maruss' hand in order to knock the sword out of his hand. But Maruss saw an opening to the right and struck it.
"Damn, you got me," Damian said. Damian massaged the part that was hit as Pell came along.
"What're you two doing?" Pell asked, "I told you not to practice without protective suits."
"Relax Paulie, these things can't hurt anybody," Damian commented.
"Why don't you have a cracker and calm down," Maruss said.
Pell just stared at Maruss with a stern attitude. Since Damian respected Maruss as a friend, everyone else in the palace accepted him as well.
Pell began to explain his appearance. "Your highness Damian, just so you remember, your mother has requested that you attend a conference with the council."
"Yeah, I know, I'll be there later."
"Also, you and Maruss should be on your best behavior, a high ranking official from the World Government will be here with a real vice admiral."
Maruss instantly lit up at the mention of this. "Really?! A real vice admiral is coming?"
"Yes, and this time we better not have any more antics like last time," warned Pell.
After Pell left, Damian had a bored look on his face, "You have got to be kidding me. Maruss I will give you five hundred beris if you shoot me right now."
"No way, I want to meet the vice admiral coming here and you're not screwing me over on this."
"Wonder who the vice admiral could be," asked Damian. "You think old-man Garp would know?"
"Why would he know anything? Just because he used to be a marine doesn't mean anything."
Former Vice Admiral Garp finally retired and was now living out his days in a cottage in Alabasta. The boys only knew him as old-man Garp and nothing else. He would teach them how to fight and every once in a while, unfortunately for them, he would put them through his hellish training.
Meanwhile…
The representative from the World Government and the Navy were head towards the place where the conference was going to be held. Vice Admiral Bruno was having a conversation with the representative.
"Are you sure he was sighted here?" the representative asked.
"Reports have confirmed Monkey D. Luffy being sighted on a course to Alabasta," V.A. Bruno said. "I have no idea what he could want here but we have to be on our toes."
"The Second Pirate King causes so much of a commotion every time his name appears. It's always the same, he is never to be found until a small rumor surfaces and an entire fleet has to be dispatched only to be too late or to find out the rumor was complete bunk," the rep said.
"Add to that the Navy has enough of its hands tied with the New Gods and the Eight Supernovas," V.A. Bruno said.
After Straw Hat Luffy re-conquered the Grand Line, the Three Great Powers were never the same again. Though the Marines and the Shichibukai still exist, the Yonkou all vanished off the face of the planet never to be heard from again. In the Yonkou's place rose two new groups with equal power. The Eight Supernovas being the pirates that once competed with Straw Hat Luffy for the title of the Pirate King. And the New Gods, pirate captains who were high ranking members of the Straw Hat pirate crew. After the botched up execution the Straw Hat pirates went their separate ways. Afterwards, Zoro, Nami, Ussop, Sanji, Chopper, Robin, Franky, and Brook founded their own crews and lived in the New World.
The Rep from the government then asked "What about him? Can we still not do anything while he's here?"
"He is respected and protected by the entire country," V.A. Bruno answered. "We can't do anything about it unless we want to risk waging war on Alabasta."
"We were gutsy enough to challenge Whitebeard those many years ago when we had the sole heir of Roger's. What's the difference now?"
Bruno stepped in front of the rep and towered over him with a sharp look. "Back then, though he may have been the most powerful man at the time, we were only dealing with pirates with just guerilla tactics. In this case we are dealing with a child with a royal bloodline, the backing of an entire nation complete with its own organized military, not to mention this country is one of the 170 nations that the World Government is involved with."
"I suppose by comparison it's far less risky to wage war with pirates than an entire country that is one of our own."
"There's also Garp to deal with." Bruno said.
While on their way to meet with Garp, Damian and Maruss were talking.
"Hey Damian, did you figure out who your father was yet?" Maruss asked. Damian's father was a great mystery to those two. They were told he was a soldier who died in battle but it time Damian was born and the last war didn't add up.
"No, everytime I ask I never get an answer or something conveniently comes up." Damian said.
"What about that one guy that always visits, that Kohza guy?" Maruss asks.
"They don't seem to have that kind of relationship; every time I see him with Mom I can't sense any chemistry. Well that and I'd rather not think about those parts of her relations."
"What if he is your father but your mom just isn't telling you."
"That would imply that they broke up over something and there would be animosity between them. Besides I confirmed it when I found out for myself that his blood-type didn't match mine."
As they were walking, a group of pirates were heading for them. The one at the lead was a heavily armored man who was huge. His armor was gold in color and he had a face plate and helmet and a long cape.
"It's him Don Krieg," said one of the pirates. "That's the current prince."
"Perfect," said Don Krieg, "It has taken me so long to get this far on the Grand Line but soon I will dominate this entire country. With an entire country's fighting force no one will dare to stand in my wa-"bleh!
Don Krieg spat out blood and crashed to the ground. What was an intimidating figure is now a crippled man. One of the men tried to ease his pain with some medicine. "Don Krieg, sir, your wounds from him are starting to act up"
"Who are you and state your business by authority of the crowned prince of Alabasta, Nefertari D. Damian!" Damian spoke.
Don Krieg spoke, "I'm Don Krieg; and my business is to claim this country, military, citizens, all of it."
"And to begin, we're going to need you as a bargaining chip my liege," said one of the lackies.
That lacky then went straight for the prince but was easily dodged while Damian kicked him a few feet away knocking him unconscious. The pirates started to attack in hordes as they targeted the prince, who they underestimated, and his friend. Maruss took out his practice sword and swatted them all away with his sword showing precision in disarming his opponents' weapons with a wooden one. Meanwhile, Damian stuck to hand to hand combat, though he would occasionally steal one of the pirate's weapons to use until he got bored with it. As a pirate tried to blind-side him, Damian leaped up above him, grabbed him by the shoulders, and dragged him down to land his opponent on his head. Damian jumped into the air and kicked two more pirates in the guts and smoothly moves towards three other pirates to give them a savage beating.
Don Krieg stared at the prince's fighting style, "Those moves… that fighting style. Reminiscent of an agile monkey swinging through a forest. It's just like him!!!"
Don Krieg began attacking in a fit of blind rage after seeing an image of his sworn enemy. Don Krieg new spear at poised for a strike, he used his brute strength to plow right through his own men and head straight for Damian. Krieg continuously struck at Damian with pure hate in his eyes as explosions were made which eventually took their toll on Damian. Maruss finished off the last pirate and was heading over to help his friend when a bullet went right through his shoulder and then his leg.
Maruss screamed as he fell with one of his good legs now rendered motionless in pain. He looked back to see who had shot him, to his immediate shock it wasn't one of the pirates but Vice Admiral Bruno accompanied by two other men plus the rep.
WHAT!? The Marines? But why!? were the first thoughts to cross Maruss' mind.
The battle between Don Krieg and Damian lasted for awhile until a brief opening was made when Krieg coughed up some blood and Damian was able grab hold of the spear and push Krieg back. The pirate captain flipped a switch that made the spearhead self-destruct at point-blank range but Damian emerged from the smoke to headbutt Don Krieg, sending him of balance, and crashing him into a tree.
Damian won and Don Krieg was unconscious. And Damian fell back out of exhaustion and fell unconscious. Maruss tried to crawl after Damian but was cut off by the two Marines that were with V.A. Bruno. Bruno walked over to Damian's unconscious form and looked around.
"This is perfect," Bruno said, "Picture this, men, the brave and noble prince fought valiantly against the pirates but was killed by the remaining captain who took his chance when the prince was exhausted."
The rep came into view and applauded, "Splendid, this will settle the matter once and for all and we won't be blamed. You'll even get a promotion I daresay Vice Admiral Bruno."
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?" Maruss yelled. "PIRATES ATTACKED US AND YOU DID NOTHING BUT WATCH AND YOU EVEN SHOT ME. HOW CAN YOU JUSTIFY THAT!?"
"Quit your yelling brat," Bruno said. "Your friend, the prince, is nothing but a wasted existence that must be wiped out at all costs. He carries a most horrible bloodline stemming from his father and his grandfather."
"DON'T SCREW WIT' ME, DAMIAN IS THE CROWNED PRINCE OF ALABASTA, AND YOU WANT TO KILL HIM OVER SOME GRUDGE YOU HAVE WITH HIS FATHER AND SOME OLD FART! HE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW WHO HIS FATHER IS!"
Damian started to regain consciousness at this point but still felt weak. Bruno started to state "Nefertari D. Damian's true father is none other than the damned "Straw Hat" Luffy. His real name is, in fact, Monkey D. Damian."
To this Damian's eyes widened. He was coming to grips that if this man is telling the truth he is the son of the second Pirate King. But that was actually the least pressing thing on his mind. Maruss dreamed of becoming a Marine to uphold justice and protect the innocent from pirates, but was this truly how the Marines work?
Vice Admiral Bruno took his gun and held it to Damian's head, ready to fire. A resounding bang was heard.
…
Damian awoke a few minutes later to see Vice Admiral Bruno unconscious and upon looking around he found the World Government representative unconscious. Maruss was still conscious and looking at a distant figure in a cloak and some kind of hat. He walked over to Damian and Maruss and addressed Damian.
"You did pretty good work on Don Krieg," the figure said. Damian, upon closer inspection, noticed he had a straw hat hanging on his neck while a hood covered half his face. "Tell me something Damian, are you satisfied with the life you have now?"
Damian looked up at him with a confused look on his face. "Who are you?"
The figure looked at him and said "Answer my question first. Are…you…satisfied?"
Damian thought hard on that subject and replied "I guess not. I don't know. I always felt that I could go out there and see so many new things."
"Indeed you can, but you can't do that on your own. Especially with guys like him trying to kill you at the first chance they see," the man pointed at V.A. Bruno.
"What do you mean?"
Maruss started to talk "That vice admiral tried to kill you just because you're the son of Straw Hat Luffy."
To this Damian's eyes widened, "Straw Hat… is… That means you must be—"
The figure took the straw hat off his neck and put it on Damian's head. He then turned around and yelled in the air, "Don't be tied down by the Marines who will kill anybody for their own gain. Go out there and search the entire world for adventure and freedom. There's a whole world out there and it's constantly changing. Not just in the Grand Line, but the East, South, West, and North Blues, and even the Red Line. An entire world is waiting out there."
With that the figure walked away and vanished in an instant. Leaving the two boys there by themselves and Damian pondering while looking at his new hat. Damian stood all the way up and looked at Maruss. Knowing what decision to make, he knew it would probably mean distancing himself from his best friend.
"Maruss," Damian said, "I'm going out there like that guy said. But I know you want to be a Marine so I can't force you to come with me. What do you think?"
"I saw, first hand, how the Marines work. They're nothing but vile, corrupt people that have no right to spout words of justice," Maruss said. "That man there," looking at Bruno, "shattered what was my dream of becoming a Marine. Now I want nothing to do with them."
"What are you saying Maruss?"
"I'm saying that I'm joining your pirate crew!"