Chapter 1
[William Pew]
He sat inside his cell in silence, feeling the rough stone under him, the metal shackles around his limbs, the harshness of his old, dirty clothes. He heard the laments of the other prisoners, the other slaves around him and further away, he heard the sounds of Sabaody, if muffled the walls in between. The stench of stale air and much worse things permeated the air too. In his mouth, there was the coppery taste of blood left behind by one of the punches he'd received not long ago.
Lots of information about his surroundings, and yet William didn't get any of what he actually wanted.
Never would.
His eyes and the area around them itched, burned, as if his wounds had just been delivered instead of being months old. He could almost feel the lava still, taking away something as precious as his sight. Taking away the colors and shapes of the world and leaving him in a limbo of his own.
He didn't cry though, like the teenager two cells to his left. He didn't plead, like the mother even further to his right. He didn't hiss at the guards like the cat mink across from his cell to the right.
No, William sat there, gathering as much information as he could without his most important sense. He had somewhat of an idea of the dimensions and layout of the slave auction they were in. He'd made a mental map of sorts when they were brought in and had pictured the rest through his hearing as best he could. In fairness, it wasn't a terribly complex building.
A long set of cells at the side of a long stone hallway, followed by a big gate that led further into the building. Presumably to the stage where they would be sold. He idly noted the sound of wheels crossing the room as they transported the crying mermaid they had brought over earlier in the day. An incredibly rare find done by someone called Peterman, if the guards' whispers were to be believed.
"Do it, bastardos!" cried out the cat mink, enraged. William didn't know what language that last word was in, but it was close enough in pronunciation that he could infer what he was saying anyway. "Sell me to them. All the closer for me to kill them for the audacity!"
William ignored him, just as he ignored the responses of the guards and auction staff.
He'd cultivated a set of skills while he traveled the world, after all, trying to make sense of what his father had died chasing. He'd tried so hard too. He'd studied the thrice be damned notes and books on the ancient language. He'd traveled the world, moving in the shadows like a common criminal until he became one. He'd explored the darkest corners of the world he could find, in search of poneglyphs or whatever else he could manage.
In the end, all he'd gotten were years of his life lost, a handful of notes that meant nothing and, ultimately, blindness.
Even his own freedom had been taken from him.
Wearily, William let his head fall back, to rest on the same cold surface that his back did. He'd analyzed as much information as he could, he knew where they were, his surroundings and some other things. Not in detail, but well enough he had some confidence… But what did it matter, in the end? It wasn't like he'd be able to escape.
He could try to pick the lock on his shackles, maybe even the door's, as he'd planned. After that though, even if he knew the way and could try to follow it, he would get nowhere. Fighting already wasn't his strong suit before he'd gone blind. He'd been a good marksman, for sure, but without a gun? Without his eyes?
William wouldn't be going anywhere and he knew it.
The bastards in the World Government were sure to be having a good laugh at him. He'd tried to uncover their secrets, find out why they'd done some of the shit he'd found out they did. Instead, he would never find much of anything ever again. He wouldn't be able to see any mysteries come to the light. He wouldn't be able to read any discoveries in all but forgotten languages. William would just rot, as a plaything for an excuse of a human that believed themselves a higher being.
It was all so messed up that it was almost funny.
A bitter grin formed on his face, weak and tired. Maybe there was a way out, but the risk was high and he was tired of struggling. He'd struggled for most of his life. Struggled to learn from his father's notes. Struggled to learn how to travel. Struggled to learn how to defend himself. Struggled to find results for his search.
William should have wanted to give up.
Instead, no matter how much his mind told him that there was no way out, he persisted. The plans for escape continued forming, even when he wanted nothing more than to wait for his fate to come. He took a deep breath in, and pushed forward, just like he had with every other wall that had been put in his way.
'Open the shackles, open the door,' he thought, fidgeting with a piece of wire that he'd hidden in the hem of his shirt for a situation just like that one. 'Then what? The guards will get me…' he continued, frowning at the problem. He couldn't fight people that were more capable than him and could see.
'Maybe I don't have to though,' he considered, the sound of the other slaves seemingly picking up, even though it really didn't. 'Do I have enough time to free other people? Can I find a blind spot long enough?' he wondered, frowning. That was the best plan he had for the moment though, so that was what he'd work with. 'Who would be the best person to free first?'
As if to answer that question, he heard the cat mink continue cursing up a storm. Despite the other man's grave voice, William was almost positive that they were small, judging by the sound of the steps in his cell. It was an interesting conundrum. There was also the fact that the voice almost always seemed to come from too low a height, as if the person were sitting down or even lying on the floor.
William tilted his head.
'Short, he might be, but if his bark is anything to go by, he might be able to bite too,' he mused. He didn't have better ideas, so that would have to do. 'What after that though?' he wondered, his mind continuing to work.
That is, before the commotion started.
William didn't know what was going on, but there was shouting, there was a gunshot, there was running. 'A chance?' he thought, hearing the guard's boots on the floor, moving away. He didn't hesitate for long, his fingers moving as dexterously as he could manage.
It was funny. Before, he could have done it just fine without looking, but somehow the lack of sight seemed to make everything more difficult anyway. It was distracting, it was disturbing. William managed anyway, pushing through and doing his best to forget about that.
The lock clicked open, but he held the shackle in place as he went to open the other one. Then he unlocked his legs, keeping his ears open for anything that might change outside his cell, outside the dungeon they were kept in. The guards weren't coming back though, so whatever it was that had happened, it was serious.
Good.
The last shackle came loose and he jumped for the door. It took him a few tentative moments, but he found the actual door instead of just bars, and then the lock. His fingers shook, for a single moment before he bit the inside of his cheek to force some focus and steel his nerves.
"Psst. Hey, caballero," he heard a voice whisper close to him. The cat mink once more, with his weird language. "Here, help me too," the man whispered to William, most probably.
It only made his eyebrow twitch. Was he as blind as William was, or did he just not see that he wasn't even done freeing himself? He remained silent then, trying to find the spot for the lock on the door and-
The door clicked.
"Please, help us! Please!" someone cried out from the side and William grimaced.
"I'll get to it. Don't draw attention here while they are distracted," he said, putting as much volume to his voice as he dared. There were some more cries, but it seemed to do the trick. Nobody wanted the guards to come back and ruin their chances, he supposed.
It didn't stop them from desperately whisper-shouting at him to hurry up, to free them next. William ignored them as best he could as he moved to free the cat mink first. With any luck, the guy would at least have claws to scratch at the eyes of one of the guards. Preferably Steve.
The bastard had mocked William for being blind, after all.
The door clicked open and he tried to find the cat mink's position with the clicking of his chain. There were a lot of noises around, but he managed. It was close, after all, and he had somewhat of an idea already.
"Muchas gracias, caballero," the cat mink said, still whispering with a very deep baritone for how small his body seemed to be, a strange accent giving a distinctive tilt to his voice. Now William definitely had no idea what he was saying, but he picked up gratitude, so he'd run with that.
"You are welcome," he mumbled, working on the locks of the shackles. It was getting easier, at least, but it was different to open them on someone else than it was on himself. However, eventually, they clicked open too.
"Aha!" the mink exclaimed, his voice rising slightly due to his happiness. "You have saved me. This humble lion is known as Flags Antonio, and let it be known that you have helped me in my moment of most dire strife. A favor I will gladly repay you for. This I swear, en mi honor!" he said in his weird accent as he rubbed the fur on his freed wrist.
William gave him a simple nod in response, already moving out of the cell to open another. If he could free enough people, maybe there'd be a second commotion to keep people away from him. Once he reached the next door lock though, he paused. 'Did he say lion? Was that hyperbole?' he wondered, ultimately just shaking his head and continuing his work.
As he did so, he heard the cat mink follow him. The sound was strange, not quite the one of bare feet on stone, but close enough. Soft, quiet, small, but there. He was almost grateful for his blindness. He was sure it'd have been very awkward to have the man following him around and looking over his shoulder as he worked. As it was, he only needed to worry about the wire between his fingers and the lock he was working on.
"Thank you," said the man in the cell once he opened the door and approached to free him of his shackles. It had been another purposeful choice too, since from the sound of his voice, he sounded stronger than most others in the slave house. Not that that meant much, really.
They'd all been starving for some time, William would bet. He knew he had been, after all. He had been no great warrior before, but he'd been fit. After months of captivity, he was barely better than the beggars on the side of a street. Starved, barely able to move, blind. Most others likely didn't share that last one, but they would the first two, he was pretty sure.
They'd been given a chance though, and by the sounds of it, things weren't calming down anytime soon.
'Perfect,' he thought, after another set of shackles was opened and he could move to the next one. Maybe there was an actual chance he'd been able to walk free. He wasn't sure what he'd do even then, but he'd cross that bridge when he got to it.
For the moment, he had a whole lot of lockpicking to do.
[}-o-{]
[Antonio Flags]
'I should have known that things were going too well for us,'Antonio thought in the privacy of his mind as he heard the rush of guards swarm from the entrance to the prison they were in. Apparently they weren't dumb enough to leave their merchandise unchecked even with all the ruckus he could hear coming from what he assumed was the stage of this accursed place.
Taking his place in front of the blind gentleman that helped him, Antonio prepared himself for a fight. He gave his word that he was in this young man's debt and he would stand by that. Antonio just wished that he would at least have a sword with him right now.
Shaking his head he focused on the coming tide of enemies as cold sweat poured down his neck. Those were a lot of guards that were coming their way…
"Then bring it! I will take all of you together!" he exclaimed as he prepared his claws to fight. Most of the slaves that were freed cowered, and started sobbing as their hopes were dashed before their very eyes. Yet, a few of them raised their hands and prepared to fight just like him, unwilling to fall back into slavery. Antonio spared a glance towards his savior, who continued working on the shackles of the prisoners. Some of them rudely slapping the man away, unwilling to face the repercussions of escaping if the guards won this.
"Caballeros, it is an honor to fight together with you today. Might we see each other again, be it in freedom or death! For their chains won't shackle us any longer!" Antonio exclaimed to his fellow freed slaves as they looked at him oddly. He was trying to build a mood, but it seemed that most weren't able to grasp the poetry of his words.
"Is that a talking cat?" one of the guards, a particular one he didn't recognize, said suddenly stopping on his tracks out of befuddlement. Antonio felt his eye twitch in annoyance as a vein popped on his forehead at the sheer audacity of this person.
"I am a lion!" Antonio exclaimed as he jumped to the guard's face, claws aiming for his eyes.
The battle started then, getting only increasingly more chaotic by the second. It was more a desperate brawl than anything else, with malnourished slaves-to-be fighting their less than merciful jailors. Claws slashed to the mostly unprotected neck of one of the guards that tried to flank him by his right, connecting, but not digging deep enough to become a fatal wound. Still, it was enough to make them step back in fear and give him time to block the club of the guard that attacked from the front. This one seemed to be less armored and dressed with the odd clothes of a staff member of the establishment.
There was a clear difference in skill too, Antonio noticed. He could deal with multiple of the staff members easily, but the guards were on another level even though they seemed incredibly rusty. Their time without a proper fight showed in their every motion. Then again, it wasn't like Antonio could talk about such things, really.
Electro, which was one of the core parts of his fighting style, now had become a vital trap card that he could only use three or four times before losing all his stamina to it. It would have certainly proven extremely useful against these armored guards. A simple touch would have been enough to send shocks through it and cook them inside their armor. Alas, he would have to make do with what he could do at the moment.
As the staff member fell, Antonio tried to take the club for himself, only for another of the armored guards to step in his way, halberd swinging for his neck as he jumped backwards using his natural dexterity to get out of danger. His eyes scanned the battle as he saw more of his companions were felled by the guards. Some of them still stood their ground but their conditions left them weak enough for the armored guards to pick them off with lucky shots eventually. His savior seemed to have gone through a few more prisoners already, but few of them dared join the battle, it seemed.
He dodged another swing from the first guard, the one he slashed the neck of. As he tried to coordinate with the halberd one as they closed on him in a pincer formation.
"You desire to be delivered into the cold embrace of death by my claws? Then I shall fulfill sus deseos, you dragon dogs!" Antonio exclaimed as he struck an elegant pose against his opponents. Let his magnificence be the last thing they saw. This was his gift for them, letting them know that their lives were taken by such handsome and majesti-
He was then hit on the back of the head by a third opponent he hadn't noticed. He must have been more tired than he thought. What was clearly a growl of annoyance and most definitely not a mewl of pain came out of his mouth as he scanned all his opponents trying to pick through his swimming vision with which one should he start.
A quiet "aww" leaving the mouth of the helmeted guard with the halberd cemented him as a volunteer.
With a hiss, Antonio leaped.
[}-o-{]
"I can do this all day, me oyen?" Antonio asked, his ragged breathing giving away how tired he was, even after the relatively short skirmish. He'd had to use electro once already and it had taken its toll, certainly. He was not about to give up, however. If he was to die then and there, then he'd do it fighting, like a warrior of his caliber deserved.
The guards walked forward, silent and menacing. Antonio's fellow captees were almost all either out of the fight or long gone, having run away. Cowards, unworthy, the lot of them. They were all a disgrace. Antonio felt only pity for such sad, lost souls.
Another step from the guards brought him back to the present as he hissed at them and prepared for his last stand. He only hoped the blind man had managed to escape with the rest. He deserved that much, for his efforts.
"I think that's enough," a new voice said, the calm in it a contrast to the chaos that had filled the entire place ever since the first signs were heard outside their area. Antonio turned slightly and saw a prisoner walking out of his cell, their savior, the blind man, walking behind him hesitantly, tentatively. "We all have better things to do, I'm sure."
And like that, with just that and a slight shift on the man's look…
The guards fell to the ground.
Antonio couldn't say it was nothing, however, for he felt it too. Something washed over him, like a wind, but heavier. It weighed on his body like Zunesha itself had stepped on top of his shoulders. It weighed on his mind just as much too. He felt the need to kneel then and there, for what else was he to do in the presence of such a person.
'The Will of Kings,' Antonio recognized, eyes widening. He heard legends of them from his lords, Nekomamush and Inuarashi. He knew of haki ever since before setting sail, both Armament and Observation haki were somewhat common between most musketeers back in Zou. The most advanced of them having long since reached a certain mastery of at least one of the elusive arts. This is the first time, however, he had ever witnessed, experienced, the Will of Kings itself. Something so rare that only a few chosen ones were able to use it across this whole wide world.
'Who is this old man?' he couldn't help but ask himself in the back of his head.
His blind savior wasn't faring much better than Antonio himself, really. He'd stopped where he'd been standing, stiff, like he was afraid to take another step. He had to wonder how much worse it was, to be hit with such a thing, for him in his condition. They were in Paradise too, so he had to wonder if the poor man even knew what haki was.
Slowly, Antonio straightened himself, trying to still his arms as they shook. Fear that he hadn't even felt when he had been facing death just now grew in him. The piercing gaze of the old man seemed to scan even the deepest part of his soul and he had to do his best not to cower under it.
"M-Many thanks, for your assistance, esteemed elder," he said, failing to suppress either his stutter or the wince that followed after calling someone like this man an elder. Antonio dared to look at his face, hoping that the man would not take offense to the faux pass.
"Esteemed elder," the man said and Antonio had to make a conscious effort not to flinch. Then he saw the man's lips twitch and a smirk take place on his face. "It's been a while since someone referred to me with such respect," he added, seemingly more amused than anything else. "As I said, everyone has better things to do right now, so…"
And with nothing else said, the man walked forward, passing by Antonio and going on towards the front of the slave house, where the guards had come from, a giant following close behind. Something that brought to question how tired he was for not noticing the oddly taciturn man standing just at the corner of the room. Antonio let out a sigh as the man left the room.
His pounding heart slowly went back to its regular rhythm. Shaking the last of his involuntary shudders and straightening his matted fur, he looked back to his savior who he still didn't know the name of.
"I am glad you find yourself unharmed, caballero," he said, giving the man a smile he couldn't see. "It wouldn't have been good for my reputation if I had failed to keep my word just a scant few minutes after swearing on my honor, isn't that right?" Antonio exclaimed with a small laugh as he directed his attention to the sort of weapons left by his fallen opponents. He was a bit surprised though, by how accurate the turn of the man's head was. He was looking almost directly at Antonio, actually.
"I appreciate the help," his savior said, a slight smile on his face. "... I don't suppose you got Steve's eyes with your claws, did you?" he asked then, a little out of nowhere.
'Steve?' he thought to himself. 'Ah,' he recalled a particular guard with that name that tended to mock the blind man's condition. He did so, if only because that had happened for the better part of a week right next to his cell. He found the nasal voice of that scum particularly annoying too, so that didn't help matters.
Looking around the battle area, he found the man, easily at that.
"I don't think you should worry about him any longer," he said with a small smile as he looked at a particular guard with his neck twisted completely backwards. He hadn't killed this one himself, but probably one of the other slaves had gotten him.
"That's great to hear," the man said, grinning widely. Then the expression seemed to turn into more of a grimace. "We do need to worry about these collars though," the blind man added, a hand moving to his neck. "We ain't going anywhere if we don't take these off."
"Maybe we should check with that desgraciado. What was his name? Disco?" Antonio agreed, thinking about the owner of the slave house with a frown on his face. Anger bubbled in his stomach at the mere thought of the man. "I am sure he should be at the stage right now, there is a chance he has the keys for-"
Only to be interrupted by another burst of Will crashing on them like a tidal wave.
"...Right. Maybe we should check his studio first. This place might be big but I doubt it would take long to look for it," Antonio added after regaining his wits.
"Lead the way, Mr. Lion," the blind man replied.
"As I said before, this one is known as Flags Antonio, future strongest musketeer and proud warrior of Zou and the Mink clan," he said with flourish and conviction as he presented himself with his newly acquired sword from the fallen guards. It wasn't exactly made for his size, but it would have to do for now.
"Pew William, arch-" the blind man started introducing himself before pausing. "... ex-archaeologist," he finished then, a bitter tinge to his voice and a grimace on his face. "Nice to meet you."
[} Chapter End {]
Arc: Well, this is the first chapter of yet another one of our projects, a One Piece one at that.
Adrian: He says, as if this weren't entirely his fault.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of "Of Travels and Oaths".
Adrian PS: We used a CYOA that we personally adapted to better fit our writing and more seamlessly blend into an actual story, since most of those are… a bit of a mess. I hope we did a somewhat good job. Didn't get to show everything, but that's what introductory arcs and development are for.
Discord Link: discord .gg/UTDransjJZ