Hey, me here again.
This time I took a really long time to post a new chapter, but then again, most of you must be already used to this, but before we begin, I have some guest reviews to answer.
Guest (Jul 16): Yeah, he probably would be able to do a railgun using his lightning control, it's OP as fuck but also too tempting, so I probably will make him use it at some point.
Guest (Jul 24): Thanks that you like the premise of the story and other thanks for your polite criticism.
The grammar errors are something ever-present in my writing even though I'm using Grammarly, I pondered the idea of getting a beta, but I'm not a frequent author and I don't know if anyone would like to be one, so for the most part, I just go with what I have.
You are absolutely right in the Lightning Dragon devil fruit being OP, I agree with this line of thought, but here comes a thing... that's is exactly the idea!.
I wanted to just write a story about a character of mine, in this world that I like, so he could interact with other characters that I like, and have a power that I absolutely love. Dragons had been a passion of mine since I was little, I had an imaginary friend in the past that was a red dragon, and most of the time when I read/watch a story with dragons involved I will almost always cheer for the dragon, even if the said dragon is the villain. So when I started writing a One Piece fic no other devil fruit would come to my mind besides a dragon one.
I started writing this mostly because of fun and a desire of putting forward the ideas inside my head, in the start I didn't plan to post this fic here, but after some time I thought, 'Huh, why not?' so I did just that, that so many people started reading this thing actually is a surprise to me until now.
The protagonist had an OP devil fruit? yes, but that just what I want, a story of dragon devil fruit user going around the world of One Piece as a marine, I will try not to make too OP, but with his fruit, he is fated to be way stronger than the most people in the One Piece world, so the only thing I have to say to you and any other reading is that, if this is not your cup of tea I'm sorry, I'm happy that you have put some of your time to at least try reading this and I hope that you can find the reading material you are looking for.
Guest (Aug 11/c10): Give Khan a devil fruit? that's an idea, but I'm not sure about it, probably not, but who knows?
Guest (Aug 11/c12): If Tashigi will still be with Smoker? Well, Lucas and she could be stationed with him or with Hina, but as my intention is for Lucas be a at least a captain by the time of the canon start she probably will stay with him, Again, she could be stationed with him for a time, but not like in the canon.
Also, as she is following our MC she will experience things that she hadn't in the canon making her go beyond her original strength, so probably when the canon arrives Zoro will not be the one looking down on her.
DISCLAIMER: I don't know if I should do this or not but whatever, I don't own anything here apart from my OC's.
May have grammar errors
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Mel Island, South Blue
After Lucas dealt with the Ravenous Wolves pirates the tension hovering in the air around the marine's ship got resolved.
Those pirates who had not been knocked down quickly lost their fighting spirit and dropped their weapons. Before their leaders had been defeated their stance had been a firm and wild one, but that changed quickly when they saw the situation turning against them.
They love their lives after all
After that came the time of cleaning everything up. The battle may have not lasted that long, but the damage caused to the ship was not exactly small, most specifically the giant hole at the side of the ship, courtesy of Lucas.
"Don't worry, we got this" said a bald marine giving a thumbs-up
Thankfully the crew had people specialized in dealing with last-minute repairs, these men from Marineford then proceed to put on a real show of skill as they patched the hole. The hole of course wouldn't be completely covered there but now it wouldn't hinder them anymore.
With the repair process going forward Commander Triscratches led some people onboard the Ravenous Wolves ship to have a more in-depth look at what the pirates could have been hiding.
Because of their contribution during the attack the young marines from D-14 got invited to tag along with the search group, they got to see at first-hand a group of experienced marines working their magic.
Under the lead of Commander Triscratches, the marines surgically searched the pirate ship, the entire process left the three friends exclaiming left and right, the efficiency show by the marines was astounding, some of the hidden stashes had been in places they wouldn't have thought about before and even Lucas with his enhanced senses got surprised by many of the places used by the pirates to hide things.
At the time Commander Triscratches smiled seeing their reaction.
"You guys shouldn't be surprised, most often than not pirate crews are just a bunch scattered greedy people that are loosely held together by the coercive force of their captain, they may seem disciplined and united at the surface, but that's just a façade, hiding underneath was the ugly face of greed that don't even trust that much their own fellow pirates…"
Its goes without saying that the three learned a lot from the man, Commander Triscratches is a seasoned marine with a wealth of knowledge and experience that is astounding to the young marines, hearing his advice greatly improved their knowledge about their profession.
As time passed, be money, drinks, guns, or any other thing that the pirates could have hauled got uncovered one by one by them. After that, they returned to their ship and a couple of marines stayed there to bring the pirate ship alongside them.
Finishing with that they once again sailed towards Mel Island.
Everyone was a little tense and wary at the beginning, but later with nothing unexpected happening again along the way and with the wind on their side the crew quickly recovered the time lost. Some time passed and they finally arrived at Mel Island and with not that big of a deviation on their time.
Mel Island is placed in a good spot near some merchant routes and as a result, the island has a good flow of people coming and going, which in return helped give an up to the place. It also helped that the island is aesthetically pleasing making so that a number of people come to Mel Island just for touristic purposes.
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"We finally arrived" said Tashigi with a sigh of relief.
Her friend Torlo who was Close to her nodded
"Mel Island" he said while looking at the bustling harbor before them "Huh, Never thought that we would still arrive in time after all that"
At the moment they are in a marine reserved are of the harbor, and following what they usually did back on D-14 they got assigned to help unload the ship.
This marine only part of the harbor is beside the part by normal people, so from where Tashigi and Torlo are they can easily see the coming and go from the people, in the same sense the people in the harbor can clearly see what's happening in the marine part.
People in the harbor would from time to time look at the marines and watch they work, which is normal considering that the work of the marines is seen as interesting to many, kids in special would do this a lot. The marines had already got used to these curious gazes, but at the moment some marines that work in the harbor started to feel that the look at the eyes of the people was a little different that day.
Two marines busy doing some repairs took notice of the change in the eyes of the people passing by and became confused.
"Why so many people are staring at us today?" asked one of the marines in confusion.
"I saw that a captured pirate ship had been brought here today, so that's probably the reason" said the slightly older marines by his side.
"Really?! So it's no wonder that I saw that one of our ships had arrived today with some damages"
"These guys…" an older marine was passing by them could help sigh when he heard the two talking. Calling the two he pointed with his thumb at one direction "Why the two of you don't just turn and look at that"
Hearing that they automatically turned at the direction pointed by the older marine and when the two did that they finally saw what was drawing the attention of so many people.
"Is he...?"
"How he does that?"
At the marine part of the harbor, a standard marine ship was docked.
With some signs of damage on its hull, the ship appeared to have experienced a battle in the sea, especially the hole on the side of the ship that even though was patched up was still very eye-catching. All these marks put together didn't work to diminish the look of the ship, if anything they gave an up from the standard look.
But even so the ship was not what was attracting all the gazes.
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Having arrived the crew from Marineford started the work, the primary goal of their trip was to deliver some equipment and supplies here to Mel Island, so, they started doing that.
With the cargo opened the marines started to unload the ship using Kong-lifters, a piece of equipment said to have been originated on the era of the Flee-Admiral Kong, and according to the story told among the marine created with the goal of having a string of the strength of the Fleet-Admiral Kong.
Although interesting the Kong-lifters are actually a common sight whoever there are marines, most are already used to see it, what was really drawing the attention of the people there was a scene happening nearby.
The scene was that of a young marine calmly walking out of the cargo while carrying a crate the size of minibus over his head.
As the limit of the human body is set way higher in this world than on Earth the scene of a person being able to carry things that normal people would never be able to can't be exactly called rare, but generally, it wouldn't go too beyond what is normal. As such, the scene of a young man carrying a minibus size crate over his head in such a calm manner is, without a doubt, a shock to the common people in the harbor and to even some of the inexperience marines there.
This young marine is, of course, Lucas, who ignored the gazes and walked with the minibus crate over his head to where his two friends are standing.
"Lucas you can put the crate here" Instructed Tashigi at a spot beside her.
Thud
Having put the crate on the ground Lucas turned to his friends "Is this the last one?"
"It seems so" said Tashigi while looking at the clipboard on her hand, she checked the number at the border of the crate then confirmed down on her clipboard "Yes, it is. Good work Lucas"
"Thanks"
"I already finished help checking the batch of guns. Now we probably will be taken to the base" saying this Torlo stretched his arms then letting a yawn in the end.
As Lucas was helping with the minibus size crates his two friends haven't been idle. Torlo was helping unload a batch of guns, while Tashigi was helping run a check on the big crates being unloaded from the ship.
"Already tired Torlo?" Lucas joked with a smile.
"Hehe" smiling Torlo feigned a burdened expression "You know what they say, my friend, such good-looks are a heavy burden to carry, so it stands right for me to be tired like this".
"Pfft"
"Hahaha"
Hearing that both Lucas and Tashigi couldn't help but laugh with Torlo following after a second later.
"If it's like that, then shouldn't Tashigi be more tired than both us combined?" said Lucas with a smile while pointing at Tashigi.
"You!" Tashigi widened her eyes after hearing that, then with her cheeks red she walked to Lucas and started poking his ribs, a thing that, of course, did nothing apart of making the young Monkey D. chuckle.
"You right!" Torlo slapped his forehead with a look of realization after hearing his friend "Our poor meito master must be completely exhausted" he said to her with a 'worried' tone.
"You too Torlo?" exclaimed an embarrassed Tashigi, but then she smiled and started laughing with both Lucas and Torlo falling in laugh shortly after her.
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The three had just ended laughing when a blond ponytail marine called to them "Hey you three, slacking off?"
"I don't know what you are talking Alvara"
The ponytail marine called Alvara was the first to reject the pirates offer during the attack, and like the rest of the marines present at that time, she became very impressed with the performance of Lucas and his friends during the attack. Because of their help at that time, not only her but basically all the marines on the crew become very grateful to them and are now in friendly terms with the three.
"If you say" She smirked at them before turning to lead the way "Come on, we are heading to the base"
Having heard the call the three friends followed Alvara to where some marines from the Marineford crew were standing.
Everyone briefly greeted each other in friendly manner before falling in silence. In front of them was the MCPO Allex that came with them from Marineford, that after seeing that everyone had arrived on time nodded "Good, everyone is here. You all are going to our base here on Mel Island, just follow the CPO here"
Finishing the MCPO called a marine from Mel Island that was standing by the side. The marine saluted Allex before mentioning to the others to follow him.
Everyone accented and started following the man. They soon walked out of the marine only part of the harbor into one of the main streets of the town, the people walking around seeing the marines passing made point of giving way from them to pass, because of that their passage was smooth one around the busy streets.
"So, this is what a big town here looks like huh?" said Lucas seeing the scenes around him.
It's about the middle of the afternoon by now and the town was still very active.
Looking at one side you could see a housewife buying fish from a nearby stall, on the other side you could see some men walking towards a bar down near the harbor, a little ahead of them on the open second floor of a restaurant was a group of friends eating together and laughing merrily, and more ahead was a couple sitting on a bench underneath a tree.
"Why do you say that?" hearing what Lucas said Tashigi got a little confused.
"Well, this is my first time coming to a town this size in my life"
"What?" Torlo looked at him with a stunned expression "Are you serious?"
"As I told you two before, I have lived my entire life on my home-island on the Grandline. Dragon Island, my home, is bigger than this island, but the town there where I lived is actually way smaller than this one. It was about a year ago when I left for the first time, I was dropped on a desert island and only a week ago I left and went to Marineford, and from Marineford I came here" explained Lucas to his friend.
It's basically common knowledge that sailing across the Grandline is not something that normal people can achieve. The vast number of unpredictable phenomena that occur out on the sea, coupled with the erratic climate, makes trades between islands a very difficult process that would make inexperienced merchant groups of the four seas wanna cry. Only those long-lived groups could try their hands In making business there.
Because of that most of the time, the civilizations on the islands in the Grandline would need to learn to be to some extent self-sufficient and to not depend that much on export-import.
Many managed to go by, but many don't do as much and ended up not developing to the extent they should.
For example, Lucas and his mother Branca home, Dragon Island, is a medium-size island leaning to the large size of the scale and it's bigger than Mel island, but the only town there was actually not on par with the one in Mel Island.
Dragon Island has an overall tropical climate all year but the seas around it would for time to time be covered in big lightning storms, that although are not as bad some of the other phenomena that can happen around the Grandline, is already enough to make sailing though there not an easy task.
Because of the good climate and forest filled with resources the people there achieve a very good level of self-sufficiency, they don't need to build many things there, and as their population isn't that big to begin they settled for a small town as that was already fulfilling their needs.
As the climate on four blues is not as erratic the task of traveling between islands is something not that difficult, making trade between islands something integral to the daily lives of the four-blues people. Mel Island for instance is a place that mostly grew to its present size thanks to the nearby merchant routes.
"The town on Marineford is way bigger than this one though, haven't you gone there?"
Lucas shook his head "I would go from my grandpa's house on the officer's residential area to the headquarters, and from there right back my grandpa's house. So yeah, this my first time on a town like this" 'on this life at least'
"You hadn't told us this, if you did, I may have not heard…" Torlo said the last part a little sheepishly before spring back to normal "When we go back I will make sure to give you a tour of the best spots of Marineford"
"The town of my home-island was not too bigger either, but the training camp I went was on an island with a town bigger than this one, so I can't say that this is my first big town like you" said Tashigi with a bright smile "I also had gone to the Marineford town with some of the girls on the dorm, but I just walked around a little. If you want I can also show you around, like that weapon store with some very unique original designs I had found"
"You guys…" Hearing his two friends offering to show him the sights of the Marineford town made his heart warm. Moving in a speed that shocked the people passing by Lucas hugged both his friends, one with each arm, and effortlessly lifted them from the ground "I love you both, you guys know that?"
Torlo was stunned at first but he quickly recovered and smirked "Hehehe Of course, as if you would resist me"
'His face is too close!' Tashigi, on the other hand, didn't recover as fast. She blushed hearing the 'love you' part and could only chuckle at him.
"That's cool and all, but you guys should continue walking" said Alvara who as walking not far from them.
Smiling Lucas put his friends back on the ground and they continued to follow the others to the base. After some time walking they arrived at Mel Town downtown area, where the marine base of the island was.
Even from afar the iconic blue building could already be seen, occupying a big part of the downtown the base was considerably big, but to these marines that came from Marineford this base basically looked just like many of the buildings back on the headquarters, an overall simple design that has a certain imposing air around it, but on a lesser scale than those back on the Headquarters, but going by the looks of respect and awe thrown at the base by the citizens walking by, the base here was already doing good enough.
Briefly stopping before the gates Lucas turned to look at the town.
This part of the town was more elevated than the rest, giving him a pretty good view of the rest of the island. This Mel Town here is still very far away from the proportion of the big cities back on Earth, but compared to his home it was already enough to give him, a person that was from Earth, a pretty nostalgic feeling.
"Hahaha"
With a Monkey D. trademark smile on his face, Lucas turned back to the others and walked inside the base.
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So yeah, this is the chapter.
I tried to do some world building on this one, the part about the trad between islands is something that I pondered about when going over again on how crazy sailing in the Grandline is. Trade between countries, or in this case islands, is something that greatly helps a place develop itself, vid that isolated civilization of the past that got left way behind by those that got some form of trade. It's just a small point, but I thought it would be interesting to put here.
This chapter also had some more bonding moments between our three marines from D-14, and the moment where ou lightning dragon finally arrive at his post for the time being on the South-Blue. Future chapters would begin to cover some real marine work, like patroling or my favorite that is beating pirates and other criminals.
Like always thanks guys for reading, we arrive at the mark of 327/458 favorites and follows, again, you all are awesome.
Constructive critics are always welcomed.
Fiquem Bem.