Disclaimer: One Piece is the property of Eiichiro Oda. Many of the characters in this story are property of me. Do not use this story or its characters without my permission. Thank you.
The wooden city is rumored to have been built from the scrap wood and debris of sinking ships when pirates ruled the coast. There are even tales that the massive Tall Mast Tavern, an inn and tavern in the center of the city, was made from a part of the Pirates King's ship before he commissioned the Oro Jackson many years ago at Water 7. Inside this tavern, which acted as a mast complete with a crow's nest at the top, acted as a guiding point to the epicenter of Artefatto Coast.
Inside the tavern was a chaotic sight. Pirates from the world over were cheering and singing, dancing and drinking, singing tales of a man they had just met. Bard, who saved them from an avalanche (which no one but Rez knew he caused), was the center of attention. Not only that, but he was by far the youngest captain there.
'Just look at this kid!' 'They sure grow 'em big in the West, eh?' 'Where's your girlfriend, kid?' 'How much do you bench?' These were among the slurred shouts and inquiries from the gathering as Bard sat atop a pile of tables. For now, he was as good as a king in the eyes of these drunks and bandits. The Buster Pirates, by affiliation, were given free rounds of fine ale.
"Tell us, kid," one large man began, "how'd you come to the Grand Line?" Bard looked triumphant atop his makeshift throne and responded to every question he heard with a smile.
"Reverse Mountain!" the pirates listening let out a short uproar of exclamations and praises. "It was awesome! I didn't get to see much of it, though, but there was this giant whale-thing at the end! It was as big as a mountain, maybe bigger!" The pirates still sober started to nod and talk amongst themselves while the drunken ones shouted their condolences.
"Yeah, that thing's a jerk!" one very drunk pirate yelled. "He ate most of my crew and half of my ship, so I had to paddle my way here on a scrap of wood!" A chorus of laughter rang out again.
Upstairs, in the suite at the tiptop of the inn, Araly was peering out the window. There were many poorly dressed men and some women walking around in the wooden streets. It all seemed eerily familiar to her. Back at home she would often observe the goings-on of her hometown, neighbors greeting each other and families going to market together. This all seemed far to peaceful to be a town full of pirates. Araly jumped slightly from the knock at her door.
Rez opened the door about halfway and peered inside to find her on the bed next to the window.
"Hey! You comin' downstairs or what? This party's great!" Araly shook her head.
"I'm fine. I'd rather not be the center of attention with Bard down there. Just tell him not to drink any booze or I'll kill him." Rezland gave her a curious look, as if to say 'you can't be serious,' though he didn't want to bet if she wasn't. He chuckled and left with a brief "I'll try".
Araly stared at the door for a second more before something caught her eye outside. A small group of men were talking amongst themselves under a streetlight. They were huddled around one man who was holding a large paper of some kind. Then one of them pointed up to the mast in, almost directly at Araly. Several other men glanced up for a second before bringing their attention back. Araly felt a chill run down her spine, like they knew she was watching.
"Goddamn the ocean is salty!" Zan stepped out of his little boat, which was now saturated with water, and planted his feet on dry land. He had arrived at his destination, Paradiso Isola, with little complication beyond nearly drowning twice. His ship was docked at the opposite end of the island. In the south was the town, and at the northern coast was a dense forest where the thick fog came from.
"Guess I should get going. No point in staying here any longer than I…" His prose was cut short by a twig snapping. Any experienced assassin knows to never let your guard down even for a moment. The whole time Zan walked through the forest he had a foreboding feeling that he was being watched, nay stalked the entire time. When he reached the mountain path that led to the labyrinth ravines, he looked back in a panic. He saw only the foggy shadows of the forest swirling about.
The mysterious figure hidden in the mist watched as Zan phased through the solid rock wall and disappeared into the maze. Hunched over on top of a tree, clad with a skin-tight black body suit and a black scarf wrapped around its face, the shadowy being had observed the assassin's every move. Every precise reaction and movement through the forest was calculated and an objective was reached within this stranger's mind. Straightening itself up, the mystery person clasped his hands together with index and middle fingers pointing up, then disappeared in a wisp of smoke.
The town's bustle had finally settled. The only remaining people in the tavern now were the Buster Pirates and the tenants of the inn itself. The rest of the rooms had been rented out to the new pirates. This was a common custom of the town's main merchants, to make all new visitors feel welcome so they could bring them back more business in the future. The tenants continued light and somewhat hearty conversations with the crew, while Bard had retired upstairs already. All the food he had eaten knocked two of the inn's chefs unconscious.
"Where'd you learn to cook like that, guy?" the curious bartender asked Marco.
"In the East Blue there's a restaurant-at-sea called Baratie. Me and my friends here used to work on it before we were booted out by some young punk." Marco took a chug of his drink, then continued. "Something about 'being rude to a lady' when some chick was trying to skimp out on her bill." Marco and his three fellow cooks were all seated at the bar, while the rest of the crew was at the tables, chatting up a storm. The noise carried away to the upper stories where Rezland and Bard were staying. Bard refused to share a room with Araly for unknown reasons, so everyone assumed he was just shy.
Rezland was busy fine-tuning his pistol-swords, calibrating the sights and sharpening the blades in one corner of the rather wide room, while Bard had retreated to the crow's nest atop the inn to read from his mystery book. Rezland tried to peek at what Bard was reading, but Bard obviously wanted to keep it a secret from him.
Up in the crow's nest of the inn, Bard had a perfect view of far and wide. With the mist rolling back in from the labyrinth he couldn't see the ships docked along the jagged coast, but he could see the town. There were lights everywhere from candles and lanterns of pirates who were still going about their business in the night. Bard was busy reading the mystery book that Captain Mars had given him before he set out as a pirate.
Rokushiki is a set of six highly destructive and powerful techniques that are to be used in self-defense only. These arts have been known to go under other names in the past, such as "The Demon's Fist", and "Unarmed Assassination". Mastery of each step will lead to the ultimate of all martial art techniques… Bard turned the page and stared down the curious word that was sprawled across the entire page
ROKUOGAN
After feeling satisfied with reading the word over and over, mouthing it for effect, he turned to the next page.
The Support Arts 1. Soru
Soru is a technique required to master several more steps of Rokushiki. The first most important training regiment to take into consideration is that of ones legs. Soru requires powerful leg strength, enough to crack open steel should be a minimum requirement. Once the legs have been trained, an open space is required for effective practice. Make sure there's something to stop your body from carrying itself to far and run into it as fast as possible.
Bard stared and silently judged the authenticity of these instructions. It all seemed a little to convenient. The most powerful form of fighting in the world was being spelled out for him in a step-by-step guide. Not only that, but the training for the first step sounded insane and painful.
Captain Mars gave me this book, he thought, so it's got to help me! I can't give up just because something sounds ineffective and painful! Bard resituated himself to continue reading the guide to learn Soru, when a knock at the hatch that led downstairs startled him. He quickly tucked the book into his inner coat pocket and stood up, facing the ocean.
"Bard," Araly inquired sleepily, "are you going to sleep up here?" Bard had given that thought so he could continue reading, and the sky didn't have any rain clouds so the idea didn't sound so bad, but sleeping on a wooden floor wasn't appealing after all the Marine work he had done like that.
"Nah," he replied, not turning "I'll go back down in a sec." he heard the hatch close and footsteps coming towards him. Araly leaned against the crow's nest and looked out to the ocean, gazing at the splendid moonlight bouncing off the rolling waves.
"It sure is beautiful, this deadly ocean." She said longingly. Bard glanced at her quickly, then smirked.
"You always were a real poet, you know?" he joked. Araly glanced through her eyelashes at him with a smile on her face.
"And you always were the center of attention, weren't ya?" Bard looked away, "And guess what," she said as she hopped off towards the hatch door, "you still are." She winked and left down the ladder with Bard watching her out of the corner of his eye. Bard sighed and hopped back towards the hatch to climb down after her. At least he got to sleep in a bed tonight.
"Is everything ready?"
"Yeah. We haven't seen any of them for a few nights so far."
"Good, good. The commander will be happy to hear this."
Two pirates were talking quietly in an alley behind a bland looking shack on the outskirts of town. From a nearby tree, the mysterious figure from the woods was lurking unnoticed, listening to the entire conversation.
"The ships should be here by tomorrow, so we have to get ready for the attack ASAP, got it?"
"yeah, yeah, I got it."
The other pirate snickered evilly. "These stupid pirates won't know what hit 'em." A low poof was heard from behind the pirates. The evil looking one hit the other with his open hand.
"You pig! Excuse yourself!"
"I didn't do anything!"
They're already moving out, it seems. The mysterious stranger's face was partially illuminated by the moon. His auburn bangs peeked out from his black headband, while the black muffler covered his lower face. Fishnetting was on his forearms and short-studded leather bracers covered both his hands. A long sword in a black scabbard was sheathed around his back, and his black suit ended at his cloth-booted feet.
We'll have to be prepared for the worst. With a slight hand motion, the mysterious man vanished in a puff of smoke from the top of the crow's nest.
