It has been fifty-seven years since the execution of the Second Pirate King, Monkey D. Luffy, and he has left a legacy in his wake so great that some say he was more legendary than the First King, Gol D. Rogers. But like the last Pirate King, at his execution, he told the world that he had again hidden the One Piece for the world to find. Many saying it was the start of the next Age of Piracy, but then, war broke out among two families: The Monkey family and the Cobra family. After four decades of bloodshed, the war finally subsided. And nineteen years later, a member of the Cobra family set out on a quest to obtain the One Piece, his name is Cobra D. Red. P.S. I wonder how many people actually read this paragraph every time.
Chapter 19: The Captain and Henry's Connection! Henry Tells his Tale
Panting, Red lay on the beach, staring at the sky above him smiling. He could hear the cry of seagulls somewhere above him, he just couldn't tell where. He lay there exhausted, pretty much unable to get up. This just showed the hard truth that he may not be ready for the Grand Line yet. As he lay there, he heard someone walking towards him. Turning his head, he saw that it was Miles, who helped him to his feet. Staring at the men lying unconscious on the beach, Miles looked down at Red, saying, "So what are we gonna do with these guys?" Thinking for a second, Red really didn't plan that far ahead. Slowly, though, a plan, along with a smile, began to form.
As the three men dusted off their hands, they turned to survey their handiwork. A large pile of ropes had allowed them to tie every single one of the Captain's men, along with the Captain himself, to a log. Some of the men had new welts on their foreheads, those were the ones who had foolishly tried to escape as their comrades were tied up. A swift knock to the head sent them back down into the sand, and soon backed onto a log. Satisfied that they wouldn't escape while they were gone, the three began the long trek back up the mountain.
As they crested the final hill, Red fell exhaustedly on his back. He panted, not only from the long climb, but from the injuries he had received. Turning his head, he could tell Miles was also feeling the mountain climb. Sighing, Henry helped the two to their feet and the walked the last few feet to the house.
As soon as they walked in, Thomas was in Henry's face, telling him off for being so reckless, but immediately turned back into the caring grandfather when he saw that Henry was hurt. Bede quickly deduced that Henry had only suffered minor bruises and scrapes and would be good to go in about a day's rest. He couldn't say the same for Red, though. Through careful prodding, he felt several fractured ribs and told Red that he could be out for about six weeks, although it might be shorter, due to Red's fruit. As Bede went about his analysis of the two, Thomas began preparing a meal for them. Finally done, Bede took off his glasses smiling, glad that there were no serious injuries, and at that point, the meals had finally been cooked.
As the three people who had fought dug into their meals ferociously like wild animals, the two who had stayed behind sat there, taking calm bites and sipping tea. As Red finished off a second leg of meat, he took to staring at Henry's missing arm while eating. After a few seconds of this, Henry noticed, and went back to eating. Trying to ignore it at first, he couldn't help but glance back at Red, who still stared intently at his stump, as if the missing half might pop out of it. Finally, his tension broke, as he slammed his fist down on the table, shouting angrily, "What the hell are you looking at!" Holding his hands up in surrender, Red quickly turned back to his meal, which he began wolfing down again. Looking away, Henry, too, went back to his meal, but only after a few moments of eating, he could feel Red's gaze on him again. Spinning angrily in his seat, Henry stood so that he could look down on Red, shouting, "QUIT STARING!"
At this point, Miles, trying to diffuse the situation, slapped Red, saying, "What the hell, Red!" To this, Red gave another sign of mock surrender, which only further pissed Henry off. Finally, Red spoke what had been on his mind: "When you were talking to the Captain, you said something about 'if it wasn't for you, he wouldn't be here', what was that about?" Hearing this, Henry calmed down quite a bit, his face going from fiery red to normal in less than three seconds. Sighing, he looked at the three that were listening intently. He wasn't sure if he could trust these guys because they were pirates, but their captain had helped him, even when he never asked. Sighing, he relented, deciding it was okay to tell them.
"Like Gramps here said, they showed up a couple months ago, in a storm kind of like the one that blew you guys ashore…"
Several Months Prior
As the wind whistled past their heads, Thomas and his grandson Henry slowly made the trek back up the mountain. Thomas looked out to the sea, and seeing the fast approaching line of clouds, he began to quicken his pace. Suddenly, the storm was upon them, and they were only halfway up the mountain. Henry stared at the sea of water and clouds stretched out before them, flashes of lightning connecting the two briefly before dying away. Massive waves crashed against each other, some slamming into the side of the cliff, causing some large carvings to fall into the sea below. Henry shuddered; even though he was being trained as a shipwright, he couldn't imagine any of the ships his grandpa built get through this weather, let alone any other ship.
Out of the blue, almost quite literally, a ship crested over a wave, making the downward slide over it. From the distance he was at, Henry could make out the men on deck: Some pulling rope to furl the sail so they wouldn't be caught in a crosswind, others wielding long oars trying to keep the ship going in a straight line, and one man in front of all the others, keeping a firm grip on the steering wheel. As the ship began another slow climb up another tall wave, Henry knew they couldn't possibly make it up the near vertical slope. But somehow, the ship managed to pull through, sliding down the back of it dousing the men in the process.
Unfortunately, though, cresting waves weren't their biggest threats, as a wave racing towards the island's cliffs slammed into the ship, carrying it along for the ride, and Henry could only stare in shock as the ship was impaled onto a rock spire, causing it to sprout from the deck. From where he stood, he could tell that the ship was damaged to the point where it would take weeks, or months to repair, counting on the fact that the keel hadn't been damaged, but it would stay above the water due to its position on the spire.
He wasn't as focused on that, though, as he was the thrashing figure in the water. The rest of the crew didn't even notice he was in the water, all they cared about was the fact that the ship would float. Coming to the edge, Thomas, like any good shipwright, surveyed the condition of the ship, and seeing it was still reparable, turned his attention to where Henry was looking. Shaking his head, he stated, "If his crewmates don't do something, then he'll be swallowed by the sea." Hearing the sound of running feet behind him, he looked back just in time to see Henry diving off the forty-meter cliff. Looking over the edge, Thomas shouted, calling after him, until he saw the water jump into the air from where he landed.
Miraculously, Henry survived, as he stared around where he had landed, looking for where the sailor had been. Diving down, he ignored the salt water against his eyes as he looked for the sailor, and was shocked to see him so far down. Using his hands and legs, he propelled himself down, trying to reach the drowning sailor, who had seemed to have given up all hopes of survival.
He was so fixated on getting to the sailor, he didn't even notice the chain from where the anchor had been slowly wrapping around his arm. He still didn't notice it as he reached the sailor, and began to pull him up. As he and the sailor rose above the surface, he coughed up the water he had swallowed as he had lost his breath coming up, and at that point, he noticed the pressure of something just below his left elbow joint, but before he could administer to it, a crashing wave sent the two spinning head over heels towards the beach. And as they went, Henry felt the worst pain he had ever experienced in his entire life in his left arm as he blacked out from the pain.
The next day, Henry awoke, face down in the sand with a mouth full of water. Rising slightly, he saw to his right the sailor he had attempted to save, and recognized him from his brief view as the Captain of the ship. Feeling a sharp pain in his arm, he tried to turn his head to look at it, knowing something had happened when he dived to save the Captain. But something subconsciously in his mind prevented him from turning his head to look at it. As he felt his vision going black again, he heard the pad of running feet on the beach, and through his darkening sight, he saw a group of men, looking relieved, but one with gray hair looking at him, with a terrified look on his face. And with that, he passed out again.
Coming too, somehow he could tell that it had been a couple days since he had last been conscious. Groaning, he turned over on the damp sheets, thinking he probably sweated a lot in his sleep. Faintly, he could hear the sound of two voices speaking to each other, but he could only make out a few words. Something about a ship, and repairing it? He wasn't too sure. Rolling again so that he could get up, he was met with a face full of damp sheet. Wiping the liquid off his face, he stared down at his hand, which now had a shade of red to it, along with the sheets. Going wide-eyed, Henry recalled that something had happened to his arm when he tried to save the Captain, but he had never gotten the chance to look at it. Tearing the bloody sheets away and tossing them on the ground, Henry looked at the grotesque sight in front of him with a mixture of emotions: His arm was a stump. Through the many bandages, Henry could make out the flesh that had made up the insides of his arms, and some of the bones that had made them move. Finally, through all the mixture of emotions that had ran through his mind, one finally prevailed: Fear.
Screaming, the conversation outside his bedroom door stopped and his door was slammed open, his grandfather filling the doorway with a look of sadness on his face, as the Captain stared over his shoulder, his face remaining unchanged by the spectacle, maybe even the corners of his mouth twitched upwards a little. As his grandfather sat beside him, trying to comfort him, tears ran down Henry's face, knowing that he would never be a shipwright.
