DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING EXCEPT RAGNAR AND ALL VIKING THEMED CHARACTERS. ONE PIECE BELONGS TO EICHIRO ODA, TOEI ANIMATION, AND FUNIMATION ENTERTAINMENT/CRUNCHYROLL LLC.
Prologue: The Dawn of a New Era…
A boy ran through the streets of Loguetown, making his way through the back alleys. His heart soared with determination. He was set on seeing this historic moment. The crowds gathered on the main road made out the location, especially with the flags and spears passing by. The boy made his way through the mass of people, and what he saw that day inspired awe in his heart. In chains, being led away was him: the man who did the impossible! The look of excitement in the boy's eyes said it all: he was seeing the greatest man who ever lived. He wore a dark maroon coat with gold epaulettes on his shoulders, cavalier boots, dark blue breeches, and a green waistcoat. His medium length black hair covered his eyes, but under his mustache, he had a huge grin on his face. As the man passed by, the boy knew exactly what he stood for…
Wealth, Fame, Power... this man, Gold Roger, the King of the Pirates had obtained these, along with everything else the world had to offer. He was now facing his final moments before his execution, but he smiled and acted as if it was his coronation. Even as he climbed the scaffold to his execution, he held his head high.
"Destiny, fate, dreams," he said proudly with each step, "These unstoppable ideals are held deep in the heart of Man. As long as there are people who seek freedom in this life, these things shall not vanish from the Earth."
Finally, he made his way to the execution platform at the top, where two guards armed with sword-staves awaited him.
"Do you have any final words to say?" One of them asked.
Roger turned and smiled, indicating his handcuffs, and asked, "Would ya mind taking these off? They're beginning to chafe me quite a bit. Please?"
"I can't do that!" The guard responded.
"Where am I going to run?" Roger asked with a grin, "That's alright. I guess I'm on my own for this one." The giant of a man then walked past the guards, spun round, then sat himself down on the platform, cross-legged. "All right, let's get this over with."
The two guards readied their weapons, and twirled them ceremonially, with the blades facing towards Roger's head. All the crowd below looked on in disbelief. This man had accomplished the impossible: he sailed the Grand Line – the most treacherous sea in the world, and lived to tell the tale! He'd obtained the most elusive treasure of all time, and now, here he was to be executed for all the world to see.
"Hey! Pirate King!" A voice cried out from the crowd below, "Tell us where the Hell you've hidden all of your treasure! Is it in the Grand Line or someplace else?"
"You there! Shut up!" The guard from before yelled back, but the man kept asking.
"You found it! Didn't you?! The legendary treasure! THE ONE PIECE!"
And with those words, Roger began cackling like a maniac in complete defiance of the fate that awaited him, and what he said next would be remembered in history for all time:
"You want my treasure? You can have it! I left everything I gathered together in one place. Now, you just have to find it!"
As he finished speaking, the two guards stabbed him right in the chest – their last-ditch attempt to get him to shut up, but they had no idea what was to come next. Roger had just given them a clue to where his ultimate treasure was! Silence fell over the entire crowd, but it was soon broken by the sound of cheers in celebration. Roger had indeed found the treasure, and now he'd just stated that any man or woman who had the courage to find his treasure had the right to claim it as their own! Even the guards were bamboozled by this reaction, and as Roger laid dead, sitting in a pool of his own blood, he still had that characteristic smile on his mustachioed face.
Roger's final words lured men to the Grand Line in pursuit of dreams greater than they ever dared to imagine. This is the time known as the Great Pirate Era!
ありったけの夢をかき集め
捜し物を探しに行くのさ
ONE PIECE!
羅針盤なんて 渋滞のもと
熱にうかされ 舵をとるのさ
ホコリかぶってた 宝の地図も
確かめたのなら 伝説じゃない!
個人的な嵐は 誰かの
バイオリズム乗っかって
思い過ごせばいい!
ありったけの夢をかき集め
捜し物を捜しにいくのさ
ポケットのコイン それと
You wanna be my friend?
We Are, We Are on the cruise!
ウィーアー!
A/N: Aaaaand welcome to the very first One Piece fanfic in my time as an author here on this site! Now, many of you have looked at the title and thought, what does "Age of Vikings" mean? Well, it's as the name implies: It's the storyline of One Piece but with actual Vikings! Eichiro Oda himself said in one of the manga volumes that his favorite pirates were the Vikings, and so I figured what better way to honor his love of Vikings than to actually include them into the storyline? As you can guess, I will definitely be following the Funimation dub - since that's the only English Dub of One Piece that I truly know by heart, and which I have come to love as a superfan. I wasn't tuning into the series during the atrocious 4Kids dub, so this is going to be uncensored. And yes, I will be using the Japanese lyrics of the openings per each arc. As with the live action Netflix series, there are going to be a ton of Easter eggs, as well as references to Norse mythology. Anyway, I hope you all loved the prologue, so stay tuned for the very first chapter.