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.
"Verily, sir Bard" Jed happily said. "This attire suits you quite well."
"Eehhh..." Bard groaned. It took the highest amount of sneaking and stealth to get the extra-huge sized clothes to Bard, considering that no one in the village had his obscene build, but Bard finally had the right clothes for public. "Where's my coat?"
"I have it kept in an utmost secret place" Jed assured him. "None shall suspect your clothing to be under mine bed!"
"Smart" Bard pointed out. "So, what now?"
"Well" Jed started, "I suppose now I must go about my chores as usual. You are welcome to my home. When my sister does awaken, please ensure her that I am safe and be not afraid to tell her that you indeed saved her. I'm sure she will be more than happy to cook a proper meal for her hero."
"Mah, I don't have to tell her everything, do I?" Bard asked. "I don't want to bore her or anything..."
"Just stay here" Jed insisted. "I shall return after the chores are done. And please, tell no one that you are an outsider. It will cause us all far too much trouble to bear!" Bard gave a stern thumb up and watched his gracious host leave. Then, with a sigh, he fell onto the sitting-room couch made awkwardly from wood and soft fir.
"Pirates would have ruined his life..." Bard lamented. "I can't tell him who I am, he'll hate me and kick me out. Worse yet, I won't get food! Man...I hope the crew's doing okay..." In the adjacent room, from behind the thin wooden walls of privacy, Emily finally stirred. First she sat up, then clutched her head in agony, then listened in to the foreign voice in her house.
"I just have to make sure he doesn't find out, is all" Bard told himself. "If he asks about the symbol, it's a family thing. From now until I can safely leave with everyone, I shall have nothing to do with pirates! In fact, I'm not even captain anymore. Not until I can dress like one...and smell like one..." Emily had listened intently, and now was curious to see just what this man, a supposed 'pirate' looked like. She crawled carefully and peeked around the corner into the room, but didn't see him.
"Oh?" Bard said from above her. Emily looked up and saw him, standing over her. "You're awake? That's great!" Emily retreated quickly and nervously cleared her throat.
"Ah, yes" she said. "Who art thou and where had my brother gone?"
"What's 'thou'? I still don't know!" Bard said. "Anyway, you're brother went out to do his chores. I'm the guy that saved you and him from the guards back in the woods!"
"Oh!" Emily gasped. "You are!? Oh, joy! I had hoped so dearly in my sleep that everything would be okay, and now here stands my hero! However can I repay you, noble sir?"
"Food!" Bard simply demanded.
"Then food I shall give you" Emily modestly said, rising up from the floor in her dirty clothes. "Please excuse me a second while I change and I shall prepare you a dinner as great as I can make."
"Awesome!" Bard cheered. "I'll just wait then, I guess." He walked off with a smile, turning back with a bit of concern to see that a shadow was cast from the bedroom as Emily changed. Bard nearly backed away in embarrassment, but something concerned him about her silhouette. It was malnourished. It looked like an emaciated, almost skeletal frame underneath the clothes she had worn. Bard became sudden;y serious, seeing firsthand just what Jedidiah had been talking about earlier.
They starve and work themselves so much that their bodies suffer for it Bard noted as he walked back to the kitchen sullenly. None of them should live like that. Hell, no one anywhere should be afraid to be strong. This king, and these soldiers...I can't sit by and let all this happen! Its' just not right!
"Good sir" Emily called, coming from the room with her falsely form-fitting dress to the kitchen, "what would you like me to make for-" The kitchen was empty. Given that the kitchen and the rest of the house could be seen from nearly any corner, this meant that Bard had vanished. "Good sir?" Emily called again. Unknown to her, Bard had taken his clothes from the hiding place and swapped them for the large, plain suit he was given before. Captain Bard was on the move.
Elsewhere on the island, Rez and Zan walked together and continued unwillingly to be lost.
"This bites" Rez complained. "You got any extra cigarettes?"
"Not for you" Zan said, irking Rez. "Looks like the trees are getting closer together."
"Yeah" Rez agreed. "We should stick close. God knows what kind of weirdness is in this swamp."
"Indeed" Zan said. "Well, come here then."
"Oh no" Rez huffed. "I'm the first-mate, that means I have authority right now. You line up with me, not the other way a-" then he hit a tree because he wasn't looking. Zan stopped long enough for Rez to shake off the stupid embarrassment of what had happened.
"I'd rather not go over there, if you don't mind" Zan mocked, pulling Rez away from the tree. Rez growled at him furiously, then snapped at himself and walked onward. The light became more and more dim as they both continued through the salty marsh. Zan grew continuously cautious, like the water would suddenly sprout arms and drag him in. It was starting to bother Rez, so he stopped.
"Hey" Rez said. "Tell me something." Zan stopped and listened. "About your power, how did you really get it? Your story feels a bit lacking."
"Really?" Zan said. "You don't trust the assassin's story? It's like I said, I was a kid. I didn't know any better. Then, one day, everyone I knew got killed. I was spared because of my power, enough said."
"...yeah" Rez responded. "Wasn't it ever hard?"
"Not really" Zan answered. "Besides, why do you care?"
"..." Rez kept silent for a while, up until the air started to get especially heavy and the light particularly blue. "Hey, stick together. It'll be harder for us to get out if we get separated."
"Again with this" Zan grumbled. "Why should we?" Zan found himself shouting at Rez, who had taken a digressing path that somehow bent upwards on a bank above the sloshing waters. "Oh" Zan said with surprise.
"Get up here!" Rez ordered. Zan made the bound in a single jump, landing right next to his temporary commander, and thereby upsetting the incredibly loose ground under them. Rez started sliding down into the mushy water below while Zan, acting on his feet and latching himself by all the knives he could hold to a tree.
"You alright?" Zan shouted down. Rez grabbed onto the wet bank and pulled himself up from the deep pool of salty water. "You need a towel?" Suddenly, Zan's grip gave way to the rotten bark of the tree and he found himself falling towards the water as well. In an act of quick thinking, Rez unsheathed his broadsword and allowed Zan to land on it. "Thanks" Zan said with a sigh of relief.
"No problem" Rez replied.
"Oh" a mysterious new voice said, "there's a problem! Hmmhmhmhmhm..." and so the voice trailed off laughing with a hum into the darkness.
"We ain't alone here" Rez pointed out.
"Seems not" Zan agreed. "Let's try and find out what's going on quick."
"Right" Rez said, contemplating his next move. "Just stick close and follow me."
"Whatever you say" Zan said submissively. "Just watch out for renegade trees." Rez growled at him as he walked ahead, keeping his steely eyes wide open for danger...and trees. Both young men were blissfully unaware of just how bad their situation was, for deep in the wasteland swamps of this faraway land lurked monsters...
"Good soldiers of the Great King Rupert!" a dutiful soldier shouted to a line of men wielding spears. "Our keen scouts have spotted, coming upon our land, outlanders!" The soldiers growled in response. "What's more, they bear no distinguishable flag! In fact, they hold a demonic mark at the head of their ship! A testament to sin and evil!" The soldiers growled even deeper still. "Good men of the Great King, we must march upon these heathens with spears of divine strength and swords of righteous might!" The men roared. The outer border of the tiny village was the home of the barracks where these men stood ready for a fight.
"Let us not forget!" the captain again shouted, holding up his sword for all to see. "The most sinful race, those frightful Demons in the swamp that feed from our fears and failures, will be watching us. They have no honor and will strike at our backs whilst we defend our home from their outland brethren."
"Heathens!" one soldier shouted.
"Blasphemy!" another added.
"We must guard ourselves well" the captain continued. "The fate of these loyal weaklings lays upon our shoulders. None shall waver or retreat, lest ye should abandon thy own ambition! Always stand firm and strong in the face of our great aversion, no matter what the cost!" The soldiers roared once more, praising their great captain and the greater king, while the citizens worked in town below. The righteous battle-cries had stirred the hears of the villagers that heard. The very mountain that rose up from the center of the island seemed to resonate with a wonderful energy that the people fed off.
"Oh, good soldiers!" a woman shouted, hoping they could hear her. "Do thy great deeds! Vanquish the demons!"
"You truly are great men to fight those things!" a man shouted. "None of us could ever do such heroic things!" Among the cheering crowd that kept its fair distance, Jedidiah sulked as he worked himself exhausted. He could hear the ringing of metal already from across the valleys, and knew what terror truly awaited those brave men in the swamplands.
They are not heroes or great men Jed thought to himself, walking away. They are only fools to go against those demons... Suddenly, a hot winds blew past him, knocking him over and spilling his buckets once more. "What goes on?" he asked himself, rubbing wherever it hurt. He looked where the wind blew, seeing a cut path of people who had been pushed down by it. Most everyone that stood worshiping the soldiers uphill was now on the ground with the others helping them up.
"Art thou ready, good soldiers!?" the captain shouted. "Are ye ready for glory in the name of the King!?"
"YEA!" they roared. "Death to the Pirates!"
"HEY!" a new voice shouted from behind the line. Every soldier turned with a scowl and armed weapon in hand to the center of the open barracks where the voice came from.
"Who dares!?" the captain shouted. In the open, a tall and wide man stood. His black coat billowed in the cool autumn breeze, and his hair waved in the sky like golden fire. A smile grew across his shady face.
"Who?" the man reiterated. "Why me, that's who!" Bard stood, arms crossed, ready to defy the force of the gathered army with his every muscle exposed and shining in the sunlight. "I'm the Captain of the Buster Pirates! You want to mess with my crew...?" Bard uncrossed his arms, separated his feet and spread out his legs, taking a fighting position. Arms tense and flexing, back arched and ready to strike, palms parallel but far apart with rigid, curled fingers. One arm over head, the other held close to his torso. His smile stayed as the wind picked up and threw his coat up like a cape made of dark fire, revealing part of the very 'evil symbol' the soldiers had talked about. "...you'll have to mess with me FIRST!!!"
"Grr..." the captain growled. "Militia, forward! Destroy that man!" Bard just stood, eager and ready to fight an army on his own and test his power for real.
"Come on..." Bard growled as the line approached. Downhill, the village people could tell something terrible was happening as the soldiers rushed full-speed back into the barracks grounds with weapons glaring in the light. Jedidiah was especially worried, and now broke off in a full sprint for home.
