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.


"Mah..." Bard groaned, "this is bad. I wonder where that girl went. I hope she's okay..." Bard wandered lost around the dark and dead forest with no sense of where to go. He tried to track what signs of life there were, hoping they were indeed signs of humanity but so far they had just led him to more bears. While he beat them easily enough, it was still too easy to be considered proper training.

"I should try harder" Bard said to himself, "but that would be tiring. Who knows how long this forest goes on for. These trees aren't even high enough to get a clear view from...I got it! Soru!" Bard straddled his legs and prepared his body for a major jump. "Soru...Max Height JUMP!" With his legs pumping with sound-breaking speed, Bard jumped up easily clearing the trees. He even sped up past the edge of a cliff, upon which was a castle in the distance. From this amazing, height, Bard could see most of the island, and he saw what he was looking for: smoke.

"Alright!" Bard shouted happily. "There's a village over there, it seems. Great! I'll head over there and wait for everyone else!...huh?" As he came down, he turned in the air and saw another fire, this one in the middle of a brownish-red swampland on the border of the cliff-face. With a crash, he landed, and then sped off without wasting a bit of time. He darted through the woods, over rivers and past caves, to the direction of the village he saw. Of course, he didn't want to arouse any unnecessary attention, so once he knew he was close he slowed down and hid in the nearby trees.

It was an idyllically simple village. Single-level wooden houses and huts down a single cobblestone street. Bordered on two sides by forests, a steep path up a hill that led invariably to the castle Bard saw, and the calm coast down the way. Workers strained to construct a wall with minimal skill and strength, women rushed about with children nipping at their heels for thing Bard couldn't quite discern. Everyone wore very plain clothes of black and white, the women bonnets and the men hats with belts on them...

Hat-Belts!? Bard thought. What's wrong with these people!? Moreover, why are all these dudes so weak? If they built all these houses, they should be strong. At this thought, Bard observed a young man, probably no older than himself, struggling to carry two buckets of water. Maybe everything on this island is super heavy, or something...no, then the Bears would've been heavier too. Suddenly, the burdened man fell in plain sight of the village peasants who also worked about.

"Brother, please" a nearby woman pleaded at the fallen man, "get yourself to thy feet! The guards may patrol near and find you like this!"

"Ugh" he grunted in the dust, "they may and leave me happily. If I am so weak that I cannot tally these pails forth, then a proper ritual would be a most fitting end of me!"

"Don't say such things!" the girl pleaded, rushing over and helping him up. The man tried to shove her away, but his hand just lightly impacted on her frail shoulder.

"Look around, sister" he said. "Not a man resides among us. We must exhaust ourselves lest the guards be informed and come to carry us away! The strong are always sent away with the outlanders to war and never return, while the weak ones are sent to rot away in the tax-payers dungeon, unable to work off what they loose to their own cursed weakness. The king, our noble king, has been swayed by such sinister forces indeed. The demons be damned!"

"Here, here" harked a nearby voice. Two men in archaic iron armor stood nearby with spears in hand. "Damn the demons straight back to the fiery pit. I mistook you for a weakling, young one, but one who would openly curse those malicious things is no weakling to I."

"Nor I" the other apparent guard said. "Please, carry on with thy work. We shall not inform the king's men yonder of your spill."

"Thank you" the man said as his sister helped him up. "Thank you, and thank god for your generosity." The two hurried off while the guards stared evilly at each other. Bard could tell they were up to something bad, but from here he couldn't hear them whispering. So, ignoring the caution in his head in favor of the righteousness, he darted forth and hid in a nearby shrub garden.

"The girl was quite pleasent" one guard lowed maliciously.

"Indeed" the other responded. "Now that we've won her brother's trust, attaining her person will be simple. A debt can do such wonders for us."

"Indeed" the soldier pal cackled. "Long live king Rupert!" Bard was fuming over the talk. Based on what he could gather, he knew they intended to steal the girl and then punish her brother. Every synapse in Bard's brain shouted 'RANKYAKU!', but his body instead moved back into the woods.

Those two are in trouble he thought. Especially that girl! I have to tail 'em and stop these jack-asses from doing anything bad! If not me, who else!?"So this is our hidden harbor" Zan said with an air of triumph. The ship, massive as it was, was now stuck in a narrow river delta in the swampy border of the forest. "Hurray. Who's the moron responsible for docking this thing?"


"Rez" Araly shouted in blame. She sat on the shoulders of one of the pirates that was shimmying down the anchor rope to the ground where the anchor in question had impacted on the ground. Once she landed, she took in a deep, comforting sigh. "Ah, the land smells so much better than the sea!"

"What pirate says that!?" the pirate crew shouted at her.

"Hey, Rez" Zan called. "Come on out. You did a great job porting us, come see for yourself!" Rez hid in a barrel on deck, afraid that his poor maneuvering would get him the proverbial ax. Considering of course that more than one pirate in the crew owned a real ax...

"I refuse" Rez said, peeking up from his hiding spot.

"Suit yourself" Zan said, slipping on a leather harness and clipping it to his pants. "You can stay here with Max, then. At least you won't be lonely."

"Yeah" Rez said to himself, "but I'll get hit a lot. Alright" Rez finally gave in, "Wait for me. I'm technically the First-Mate, and with out Captain moroning his way around, I'm in charge."

"No you're not, Rez" one burly pirate shouted. "Mrs. Araly is!"

"Ho?" Araly grunted, hugging a tree with a leg in the air. "Bard and I aren't married, so come off the joke already. In any case, Bard can survive on his own. We shouldn't worry about him."

"That depends" Zan noted, hopping from the ship he vertically strode down. "This is a government island, according to our lookout. If Bard gets the Marine's attention, he could get into some serious badness." Although Zan silently said aside, if he understands enough of Rokushiki by know, he really won't get into anything above him...

"Hey, wait up!" Rez called. He jumped off the edge of the ship and landed with his broadsword of doom on his back. Now he wore something new, a jacket over his normal shirt. "This is a fall island, so everyone bundle up. It's not uncommon for people to catch colds here because the relative nice weather keeps their guard down. Even the most pleasant conditions can change in a blink on the Grand Line."

"Right-o" the crew answered, zipping and buttoning up their own individual jackets and coats from nowhere tangible.

"Where'd those come from!?" Rez pointed out. Zan was the only one with an exposed torso, but Araly didn't question it. The straps on his chest obviously had some use.

"Where do we go from here, though?" Araly asked.

"Nowhere" Rez sternly replied. "It's safest for us to set up a base camp near the ship."

"Shouldn't we also try to get the ship out of the island as well?" Marco blatantly asked Rez. Rez fumed and growled away form the crew, then stomped off into the woods. "Don't get lost, okay!?"

"Hey now" one of Marco's friends said, "how can you say such a thing, Marco? You get lost in your own cabin!" Araly, being the most innocently detached of the crew, looked off in the direction that Rez had marched. She seemed lost in some thoughts about the crew, but who could say.

"Worried?" Zan asked, sneaking up from behind. Araly jumped a bit from his voice suddenly being behind her, but calmed down just as quick.

"A little" Araly said.

"You shouldn't be" Zan said, melding his way through the tree she leaned against, again startling her. "Bard's incredibly strong, believe that. I he brings trouble, he'll undoubtedly stop it as well...just have some faith, okay?" Zan took the cigarette from his mouth, tapped off the charred end and placed it back in his mouth. His terrible form sliced through the air he walked through, just like an assassin's body would.


"Worry not, brother dear" the girl form before said to her brother as he drew water from a well. "We all live to the highest order as our glorious king so wills."

"Hmph" the boy huffed. "I only praise the king when the guards are near. Tell no one, but I believe the king is what's keeping us to out knees in filth and our defenses down!"

Yeah! Bard cheered from nearby. Anti-government thinking is the first step towards Piracy! More competition is greatly encouraged by me! Unknown to Bard, he seemed to be in just the right place at the right time, for the guards from before also lurked about waiting for a moment to strike.

"Brother..." the sister said with alarm. "How could you think such terrible things? Our king is a wonderful man, who strives for our happiness, our very lives! He protects us form Outlanders and keeps the filthy demons at bay so we may continue our lives peacefully. I can understand thy plighted feelings, but I-"

"The kings cares not for any of us!" the boy shouted. His sister coiled back in horror, afraid that he would somehow explode and take her with him for saying such things. "He sits in his castle, hoarding all of our hard work and workers for his own selfish greed! A pox on the king!" His sister's heart panged painfully. "A pox on all his men as well! May the demons come again and engulf them all with their blackened mouths!" His sister fell, only to be caught by the guards. Bard's foot started tapping rapidly under the built-up tension to fight.

"Oh now" one guard said, gripping the girl's arm tight. "What be this?"

"Heresy, I believe" the other answered.

"You are aware, villager, of the price for such treason?" the clutching guard asked. "Such heresy?" The boy fell down and quivered against the well. "Life is the price."

"Oh?" the other added, "but however shall he pay us?"

"Yes" the guard said, now stroking a lecherous finger on the girl's face. "How indeed?"

"Have you an idea, boy?" the guard finally asked. Bard had had enough, but he needed to wait for only a second more for his own reason. The boy twitched, knowing the answer the guards wanted. So, he stood up, stood firm and delivered his answer with the pride of a dying lion.

"If I am a Heretic" the boy said, "then I must die..." The guards were stunned and his sister, while relieved for herself, began to cry. The boy stretched out his arms and tilted his head down so his eyes were shadowed by the brim of his belted hat. "Take my life, for I have sinned beyond sin. I am evil...please leave my pure sister at peace and remove this spiteful one from the world!" The guards both smirked and drew out their spears.

"Oh, we shall purge this vile one" the guard said, tossing the girl against a tree, "but the girl is tainted by thy very existence." The boy looked up with angry shock. "Who's to say such blood does only stop at thy heart?"

"Perhaps she has some Heretic blood in her?" the other guard said.

"We shall find out" the former snidely responded while the boy clenched his teeth and glared. "Now, DIE DEMON!" The guards rushed in, spears out, ready to impale. The boy was frightened for his life.

"TEKKAI!!!" shouted something. The guards stopped. The boy looked up. He could see the sneering face of a golden dragon against a billowing black sky. Bard stood firm, dashing into scene just in time, with the shattered spear points falling off his towering frame like crumbling dust. "Hehehe" he lowed. The guards were scared stiff, which Bard took advantage of by hammering one with a hip-twisting hook, sending him flying into the other and then both started tumbling away together. Bard let his huge muscles relax as he turned around with a smile to the young man he just saved.

"I like you, kid" Bard said. "You've got guts!" The boy was at a loss for words at this smiling, muscular behemoth. This billowing black-coated man who just saved him, who showed no marks or scars from the weapons at all.

"Who art thou?" the boy slowly asked. Bard let the wind sweep by him, his golden hair bristling like fire in the sky and his cape-like coat catching the breeze.

"'Thou?'" Bard repeated. "What's a 'thou!?'" Indeed, this clashing of cultures will take time to sort out...