We have already met Monkey D. Luffy and Rainha D. Sonson (plus Monkey D. Bamia), but there are still two others we have yet to cover. Lucky for you readers, we shall tell the tale of how the other two young future legends would come to be.
For the first one, we shall start on the Grand Line, home to the fiercest challenges any pirate could ever face. Those that made their home here were known as the toughest of the tough and even those who settled down on the many different islands were quite experienced.
Right now, we focus on a small little dinghy boat, where a weak-looking child is lying down, struggling to stay conscious.
He had dark skin, messy beige hair with orange tips, silver eyes, and the most unique thing about him was the three cross-shaped scars that were carved into his back.
His name was Lor D. Draco and his story is not a happy one.
From the moment he was born, life had it out for Draco. He was one of a set of triplets, but sadly, he was the only one to survive. Now, any parent would be heartbroken at the loss of their children, but most would expect them to be grateful that at least one survived.
Draco's parents were, sadly, NOT like that.
They treated Draco as a demon who stole the souls of his siblings, carving crosses into his back to represent the souls he had stolen before casting him out to sea in a small dingy and burning their house down with themselves inside so he could never return home, preferring to die rather than live as the parents of a 'demon child'.
Right now, he had no food, no water, and no salvation in sight. As the sun beat down cruelly on his body, he was prepared to give up...until he saw something floating nearby and grabbed it.
It was a bizarre-looking fruit that didn't look like any fruit that ever existed, it looked like a pair of jagged jaws with the stem resembling a glaring pair of eyes. It was black and purple in color and had spirals decorating each individual tooth.
Hungry and not questioning where the fruit came from, Drago took a nibble and found that it was indeed food, even if it tasted terribly bitter. Not wanting to waste it, he kept the fruit by his side, sporadically taking a few bites here and there before going to sleep.
"Now what's a little lad like this doing sailing out on the Grand Line in a little dinghy boat?" A strange voice was heard.
"The poor boy must have been lost at sea. Probably hadn't gotten a good meal in ages." An old but powerful voice said next.
Draco slowly opened his eyes to see several men looking over him. The source of the powerful voice he heard was a giant of a man with a white crescent moon mustache with a bisento at his side.
"Who...who are you?"
"You can call me Whitebeard, boy. We found you out at sea and brought you on our ship. No need to fear, you're among good company."
-OP-
Since he had no home to return to, Draco had decided to stay with Whitebeard's crew on their boat, The Moby Dick. Eventually, as he settled in, he ended up becoming everyone's baby brother and Whitebeard became his father.
When he first settled in, some of Whitebeard's crew discovered the mostly eaten fruit that Draco had with him and realized it was a Devil Fruit. Looking it up from what could be described, they realized it seemingly didn't exist in the records.
Nobody knew what Draco's Devil Fruit was supposed to be until one day, while they were on shore and fending off some bandits, Draco transformed into some kind of large beast, almost the same size as his adopted father, and fired a powerful beam of energy that annihilated all the bandits in one fell swoop.
From that day on, Draco's Devil Fruit was dubbed the Kaiju-Kaiju Fruit, which everyone could now see was a Zoan.
Now, you might think that was the end, but no. While the Whitebeard Pirates were enjoying a merry night, Draco was seeing the stars when a fruit rolled up to him. Nonchalantly, he grabbed it and took a bite, not realizing the familiar bitter taste until it was too late.
He looked to see the fruit was shaped like an elixir vial but was a brilliant scarlet red color with spirals decorating it. Now, Draco knew that anybody who ate more than one Devil Fruit would have their body ripped apart, but for some reason...Draco felt completely fine.
It was a phenomenon, unlike anything that had been seen. Looking up the fruit in the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia they had on hand, everyone learned that what Draco ate was the Alchemy-Alchemy Fruit, a Paramecia that allowed whoever ate it to manipulate any non-living matter with a touch, reshaping it to their whims.
Nobody knew how Draco was able to hold the power of two Devil Fruits inside him, but they were just glad he wasn't dead.
Interestingly, around this time, one crewmate, Marshal D. Teach, ended up trying to become closer to Draco; sharing his beloved cherry pies with the boy and teaching him about the history of the world whenever they had time. Teach even offered Draco a spot on his crew if/when he left Whitebeard.
You see, while the Whitebeard Pirates were indeed a family that adored and loved each other, Whitebeard himself had no issue with his children breaking off and forming their own legends. All he asked was that they kept in contact with him and be ready to aid him if he needed a hand.
Draco was unsure to accept the offer, so Teach told him to take as long as he needed and that the invite would remain open until the day either died. Besides, Teach explained he needed something important to come along first before he did that.
Things continued as normal until one day, the Whitebeard Pirates were battling an enemy pirate crew and another fruit had rolled in front of Draco:
It was shaped like a carambola starfruit and was brown in color with tornado-shaped swirls all over and flame markings on the corners. Realizing it was a Devil Fruit, Draco did the most boneheaded thing he could imagine and ate it to prevent the enemy from using it for themselves, willing to sacrifice himself to help his family win.
However, a new surprise was revealed as he didn't even die from THAT! To have eaten THREE Devil Fruits and survived was never seen before! To make matters even more complicated, this Devil Fruit happened to be one of the most powerful in legend, the Disaster-Disaster Fruit, a Logia that legend said was the forefather of all present Logias and had a very high bounty worth for whoever was lucky enough to find it.
Obviously, such power would draw a lot of attention, so Draco opted to sail out to the East Blue, where it was quieter and didn't have many eyes on him. As he bid his father and family farewell, Whitebeard had this to say to him:
"I finally managed to lay eyes on it, but sadly it would not be mine to claim. My longtime friend and rival Gol D. Roger got to it first, giving him the right to declare himself King of the Pirates."
Draco had heard many tales of his father's adventures in his youth and his journey to find the legendary One Piece as well as the exploits of the legendary Gol D. Roger himself. However, he noticed the forlorn look in his father's eyes as he said this.
"When Roger issued his challenge to the world, I thought it would bring about a new era of freedom. But few people today even believe the One Piece is real. It saddens me that Roger's efforts to create an Age of Dreams has fallen on deaf ears."
Hearing his father's sorrow, Draco decided to make a vow. He would find someone worthy of finding the One Piece and help them claim it, to vindicate his father and prove to the world that dreams are worth pursuing.
"I promise, Pops. I'll become a mighty Pirate Captain or join a mighty crew and whoever I join...I will help them find the One Piece and together, we'll make your world a reality!"
After giving his adoptive family one last hug goodbye, Draco set to sail in a yawl ship, waving his father, brothers, and sisters goodbye with tears in his eyes.
-OP-
After a day or two of sailing, Draco decided to make a stop and find some food on a nearby island.
"Ayo!"
Draco turned to see a boy his own age waving over to him.
"Any room in there for a future pirate?"
"...Pirate, eh?" Draco asked. "Well, I'm a real pirate myself. so..."
He let that hang before smiling.
"Hop aboard!"
The boy did just that and offered a hand to shake as he grabbed an oar to steer.
"So, what kind of pirate are you? Oh, the name's Ben, by the way."
As they fixed their way, Draco explained.
"I'm more of an adeventuring pirate myself. But I'm not against seeking out treasure..."
"Excellent!" Ben smirked. "The reason I'm here is to find the greatest treasures of all! Captain John, Captain Sparrow...maybe evev a few no one else know s about, it depends!"
Draco smiled, happy with this.
"Full disclosure: I can't swim." Ben added sheepishly. "I mean, I know HOW to swim, but..."
"Lemme guess; you ate a Devil fruit?" Draco cut off.
ben was shocked by this...butr then sighed and explained himself:
"I found this weird fruit while exploring the woods one day; it looked like a fusion of a watermelon and a ribcage. It was pretty weird, so I just took a bite, and well...it tasted like garbage. Then, the next thing I know, I'm sprouting bones from various parts of my body and in desperate need of new clothes. Turns out, what I ate was the Paramecia Bone-Bone Fruit."
Draco snickered at that before Ben frowned, a troubled look on his face.
"That's not all...I ate two other Devil Fruits."
Draco's eyes widened as he leaned in, wanting to know more details.
"Really? How did you survive? Normally people who eat more than one Devil Fruit die."
"To be honest, I didn't even realize I had eaten another Devil Fruit at the time! Considering how Devil Fruits aren't very common here in the East Blue, I just thought it was a regular fruit." Ben admitted. "What I ate was the Blood-Blood Fruit and it's a Logia that lets me create, manipulate, and turn into blood."
"And how did you get the third one?" Draco asked.
"That was kind of my fault." Ben said sheepishly. "Long story short, I ticked off this old pirate in hiding and stole a Devil fruit he'd been saving as a kind of leverage. But then I slipped off a cliff, it fell into my mouth, I took a bite..."
Draco tried to hold it, he really did. But he couldn't. Ben frowned and turned away.
"Oh, wait!" Dracoi said. "I was laughing at you! I was laughing becayse the same thing happened to me!"
Ben stared at Draco in shock and disbelief as he listened to Draco's tale, being brought out when the boy stretched out a hand to him.
"How would you like to come and team up with me? Travel and see the world? Meet the people both humans, fishman, giants, mink, and others. Heck, maybe even find the One Piece."
Ben's eyes widened. "Wait. The One Piece? As in...Gold Roger's treasure?"
"Gol D Roger." Draco corrected his newfound friend with a smile. "Yeah, for some reason the Government doesn't like us D. folks…And yeah, it is real. Whitebeard says so himself. Now, I'm not really interested in it myself…"
Ben looked sheepish. "….I might like to see it at least. Not sure about becoming Pirate King…"
"Me neither." Draco smiled. "I'm trying to find someone to finish what Roger started…But for now, if you'd like? I'd like to have a friend."
A friend.
Ben smiled. Been a while since he'd had one of those.
The two boys shook hands and on that day, a bond was formed.
-OP-
After setting back out to sea, Draco and Ben soon arrived in another island village town. Draco had a deep feeling that what he was seeking was here and sure enough...
"Hey, we haven't seen you around here before!" A boy their age with messy black hair and a straw hat said. "I'm Monkey D. Luffy and welcome to Fuusha Village!"
"Nice to meet ya, Luffy!" Draco smiled. "We were sailing out to the East Blue and figured we could take a stop here."
"Hungry..." Ben said to himself.
"If you want food, Miss Makino's bar is just over there." A girl with silky black hair and pale skin said as she stepped in beside Luffy. "It's got plenty of good food to try."
"Thanks, we'll take it!" Draco grinned. "We managed to score some Berris here and there while on our journey. Hope it'll be enough."
Arriving at the bar, the two boys saw a strange sight; a girl with brown hair hanging upside down from the rafters by a monkey tail while eating a peach.
"Hey, Sonson! We made some new friends!" Luffy beamed.
"Cool!" The monkey-tailed girl said as she flipped down onto her feet and approached. "What are you doing here, travelers?"
"Just trying to grab some grub." Ben smiled sheepishly, ordering a meal for himself as Draco followed suit as Luffy and Bamia came in and sat beside them,
Normally. Ben would be worried about this, but something told him that these kids would be good to know.
"So, where did you two come from?" Makino asked as she served the children plates of warm, freshly cooked food. Draco and Ben's mouths salivated and they cried as they enjoyed a homecooked meal.
"Thank you, ma'am!" Draco said as he then wiped his mouth. "To answer your question, well…Ben comes from an island away and I was born somewhere in the Grandline."
The bar went silent.
"…What?" Draco asked.
"YOU'RE FROM THE GRAND LINE?!" Luffy and Sonson gasped while Bamia stared in shock. Draco just nodded and shrugged.
"So awesome! Do you know any pirates?!" Luffy beamed.
"Luffy!" Bamia said, pulling her twin back. "I'm sorry, he…"
"Not a problem," Draco explained. "And actually, I was raised by pirates. The Whitebeard Pirates to be exact."
The bar went silent again….except for Bamia, who smiled.
"Ah. So you're like Uta."
"Oh?" Ben, curiosity peaked, asked. "Who is this Uta raised by?"
"Shanks!" Luffy beamed in pride.
Again, the bar went silent.
"Wait, YOU KNOW SHANKS?!" Draco gasped, his eyes bugging out.
"…Who?" Ben asked.
"Red Haired Shanks! A fellow Yonko with Pops!" Draco gasped, shaking Ben, who whined about just wanting to eat. "And the only one WITHOUT A DEVIL FRUIT!"
"…You about know Devil Fruits?" Luffy asked.
"Yeah, we each ate a few." Draco smiled.
"Three each."
For the fourth and hopefully final time, the bar went silent.
"YOU ATE MULTIPLE DEVIL FRUITS?!" Sonson screamed before she fainted.
"OH GOD, WE KILLED HER!" Ben screamed in worry.
"She's fine," Bamia said, then walking over and bonking Sonson on the head. "Wake up, you idiot."
It was on that day that Argos D. Draco found the person he was looking for as well as someone who would become his lifelong friend in the process. In fact, it seemed the five young kids had already found themselves forming a pseudo-Pirate Crew...and in a few years time, their adventure would begin.
Knightmare Lord A/N:
I figured I'd change up Draco's Devil Fruits as well as Ben's backstory as well as his own Devil Fruits. I also wanted Ben to be more like the legendary Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean.
What do you think, Mrotrax? Is this okay with you?
Mrotrax A/N:
Fine with me!