SOLO PIRATING
What if Gecko Moria's power had been a tiny, tiny bit different ?
A grittier take on One Piece. Evil!MC. Not a SI. Adventure & Horror.
Prologue
31st October 1521
Thriller Bark
Gecko Moria groaned and tossed in his sleep. It was clear he wasn't having a good night. As usual, he had taken the little pills Dr. Hogback prepared for him, designed to knock him out for nearly eighteen hours of dreamless, almost comatose sleep. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, they weren't working tonight. No, the nightmare had returned. He tried to wake up but couldn't. He was stuck in the nightmare.
The nightmare—or rather, the memory—always began the same way.
He saw himself, inexplicably, from both the first and third person perspectives. He stood tall, his lean body in an elegant suit, both blades drawn. At seven meters high, he was the epitome of strength and agility, with perfectly sculpted muscles—a body honed by relentless training. This was the physique of a warrior destined for greatness, who aspired to be the Pirate King, scouring the seven seas for worthy adversaries and finding none. This was before he became a shapeless mass of fat, spending his days sleeping in a different spot each night on the floor of his own castle, too afraid that an assassin would bypass all his zombies and might come for him in his bed.
But it wasn't the vision of himself as Gecko Moria, the future Pirate King, that hurt the most. It was the relentless onslaught of emotions and sensations. In the dream-memory, he was a concentrated force of willpower, desire, tenacity, and drive. Brimming with courage and ambition. The ambition to become the Pirate King, to explore, to seek adventure. It reminded him of what he had been before he became numb, reduced to a faint unease, fear, and resignation. Now, his only desires were to eat and sleep, devoid even of a thirst for revenge.
"Shall we go, boss? That bastard is right there," said dream-Madro, his loyal second-in-command, pointing at a towering man approaching them with a massive weapon in hand. The air was thick with the scent of blooming flowers and the distant hum of traditional flutes and drums of Wano. Moria flinched at the sound of Madro's voice. The sight of his steadfast comrade, ready for battle, brought a surge of emotions. What hurt the most wasn't the fear of the impending fight, but the profound love and camaraderie he felt for Madro and his crew.
Then, he heard Kaido's laugh from afar. A deep, thunderous sound that echoed through the mountains.
"UORORORORO!"
Some might say this was the moment when the dream turned into a nightmare. But Moria knew it had been a nightmare from the start, as the first part only served to highlight what he had lost. Kaido finally arrived before them, without any of his subordinate - they could hear them fighting against the samurais a few hundreds of meters a way. The dragon-man stood atop the ridge.
"So, these are the mighty Gecko Pirates?" he laughed, his voice dripping with amusement. "Pathetic!"
"Madro!" Moria shouted, but his warning came too late.
Madro was the first to charge. But Kaido was swift and merciless. With a single, brutal swing of his haki-covered kanabo, he struck Madro with a sickening crunch. Blood sprayed, and Madro's body crumpled to the ground, lifeless.
"No! Madro!" Moria's voice cracked with anguish.
Kaido's laughter boomed again. "Is this the best you have? Come on, entertain me! UORORORORO!"
Moria watched in horror as his crew members and himself faced Kaido. Each fought valiantly, their skills and bravery evident, but they were no match for Kaido's overwhelming strength and brutality.
"Please, spare us!" cried Lanto, one of Moria's oldest friends, as he was lifted off the ground by Kaido's enormous hand. "We surrender!"
Kaido's response was a sinister grin before he crushed Lanto's skull with his bare hands, blood and brain matter splattering across the ground. "Surrender? UORORORO!"
The screams of his crew filled the air, mingling with the once-distant sounds of flutes and drums. Kaido tore through them with savage cruelty. Limbs were severed, bodies shattered. The ground was slick with blood, the scent of blooming flowers replaced by the stench of death. Moria's heart pounded in his chest, a mix of rage and helplessness consuming him.
"Help! Someone, please!" shrieked Tara, her body pinned beneath Kaido's massive foot. She clawed at the ground, her eyes wide with terror, before Kaido brought his kanabo down, silencing her forever.
He tried to rally his crew, to turn the tide, but Kaido was unstoppable. With each fallen comrade, Moria's resolve weakened, the weight of his losses crushing his spirit. Finally, it was just Moria, standing alone against the beast that had taken everything from him.
"Kaido! I'll kill you!" Moria roared, launching himself at the monstrous figure. He fought with all his might, every ounce of his training and willpower poured into each strike. But Kaido was a force of nature, impervious to Moria's desperate attacks.
"You think you can challenge me?" Kaido sneered, blocking Moria's blows with ease. "You're nothing but a weakling, clinging to dreams of glory."
Moria's strikes grew weaker, his body battered and broken. Kaido laughed again, a chilling sound that reverberated through the mountains. "This is the end for you, Gecko Moria."
With a final, devastating blow, Kaido struck Moria down, sending him crashing to the ground. Broken and bloodied, Moria knew he couldn't win. He could barely move, his body a mass of pain. Kaido stood over him, sneering. "Rival? Uororo! You were never a match for me," he mocked, delivering a kick to Moria's side that made him gasp in agony.
Confident in his victory and too arrogant to finish the job, Kaido turned his attention to the village. "Men, pillage and burn! Let's have some fun!" he bellowed to his crew, who eagerly descended upon the defenseless village. The sounds of screams, crashing wood, and drunken revelry soon filled the air as Kaido and his men indulged in their rampage.
Moria, lying in a pool of his own blood, knew this was his only chance. Summoning every ounce of strength left in his battered body, he began to drag himself away from the battlefield. Each movement was pure agony, but the thought of surviving, even in his shattered state, propelled him forward. He had to live, if only to honor the memory of his fallen comrades.
Kaido, now preoccupied with the 'party' he had unleashed, cast one last disdainful glance at the crawling Moria and chuckled. "Pathetic," he muttered, dismissing Moria as inconsequential. Turning his full attention back to the pillaging, Kaido drank and laughed with his crew, his mind already moving past the defeated warrior as if he were nothing.
Moria fled for his life, a broken shell of the warrior who once dreamed of becoming the Pirate King. Pathetic. As he crawled to safety, his heart shattered by the loss of his crew, he swore that one day, somehow, he would find a way to rise again.
"So, you swore? And you did nothing? It has been thirty years, Moria," a voice suddenly broke through the darkness.
For the first time in three decades, the nightmare shifted. It was no longer a mere memory; something new was happening. Moria looked up, his vision blurred and his mind clouded with pain and confusion. Before him stood a stranger, unlike anyone he had ever seen in Wano. The man was caucasian, with olive skin, his muscular build rippling with raw power. His wild, unkempt hair framed a face etched with scars, his eyes gleaming with a chaotic, almost savage intensity. Draped in a purple toga that barely contained his feral energy, he exuded an air of unbridled freedom and unpredictability, casually sipping wine from a goblet as if he were the king of the world. He looked more like a pirate than every pirate Moria knew.
"Who... who are you?" Moria croaked, his voice weak and trembling. "Are you... a Beast Pirate?"
The man laughed, a deep, resonant sound that echoed through the space, carrying an unsettling blend of amusement. "No," he replied, a hint of amusement still lingering in his tone. "I don't even exist. Well, not really. I'm something akin to a concept, a whisper, a vibration of growth, freedom, liberation, and rebellion against limits."
Moria's eyes widened, a mixture of fear and recognition flickering in their depths. "Are you... Nika?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper, laden with awe.
The man laughed again, this time with a hearty, booming sound that seemed to shake the very air around them. "Not really," he said, his eyes twinkling with a mischievous glint. "But in a way, yes. I embody the essence of what Nika represents. I am him in that way."
He fixed Moria with a piercing gaze, his expression both curious and intense. "Normally, I only appear during moments of great transformation or rebellion," he began, his voice low and commanding, "when individuals defy reality itself, when their will transcends the ordinary. Yet, here I am, standing before you. You, who are haunted by the past. You, who lost everything that made you worthy, everything that defined you as a true pirate."
The man paused, letting his words sink in before continuing. "You claim to still desire the title of Pirate King, but deep down, you've abandoned that dream. You prey on weak pirates in Paradise, a shadow of the fierce warrior you once were. You've built a ship too large to pass through Fishman Island and return to the New World. You hide, surrounded by zombies, avoiding any contact with the living, paralyzed by the fear of losing anyone again. You cannot even remember what the warmth of a hand on your skin feels like. Your human subordinates neither respect nor truly love you. You spend your life in the Florian Triangle, shrouded in mist, as if ashamed for anyone to see your face and what you have become. Your will weakened so much you are not even able to use Haki anymore."
He took a sip from his goblet, his eyes never leaving Moria's. "You chose to forsake everything that once defined your identity, the spirit of adventure that coursed through your veins. You submitted to the Marines, becoming the laughingstock of all, out of fear they would hunt you down and kill you as Kaido nearly did. You indulge in delusions of grandeur, all the while knowing, deep down, that you are nothing anymore."
The man leaned closer, his voice dropping to a whisper. "Your jovial facade is a lie. You sedate yourself every day with sleeping pills because you are too afraid to live, too afraid to face reality. You merely survive."
Straightening up, he delivered his final words with a mix of pity and disdain. "Look at yourself, Moria. You have become the very antithesis of what you once aspired to be. Not a Pirate King, but a fallen monarch, a ghost of ambition and glory. You have forsaken the fire of rebellion for the cold comfort of survival, trading your dreams for a nightmare of your own making. You've become a shadow of yourself, the shadow of a shadow. You don't live; you barely exist, considering yourself already dead. You don't just dwell in the shadows; you have become one. And paradoxically, it makes you a perfect embodiment of your fruit's concept."
The man smiled.
"Ironically, despite being the one who probably deserves it the least, you just awakened your fruit and became the Shadow Monarch," he said, his voice now tinged with genuine admiration.
"Arise, Gecko Moria."
And with those words, Moria jolted awake.
31st October 1521
Thriller Bark
"Master! Master!"
Moria opened his eyes and jumped to his feet, startling his three small subordinates who had been trying to wake him, having noticed him thrashing in his sleep. Gyoro, the little blue zombie, even fell over in surprise. His two comrades rushed to help him up.
But Moria was already standing, gazing ahead with a curious expression.
The [Shadow Monarch] system has awakened.
Absorb shadows, amplify your infamy, and commit fearsome acts of piracy to level up and upgrade your class!
Welcome package: [Blessed box], [Cursed box]
Could the man—the figure in the dream—have been telling the truth? Had he truly awakened his devil fruit? He scoffed at the thought of a god in a dream. However, the floating words before him looked undeniably real. He tried to touch them, but his pale, gloved fingers passed through. Strange.
To ensure he wasn't hallucinating, Moria slapped himself. The sharp sound echoed through the room, startling Gyoro, Nin, and Bao, whose eyes widened even more in surprise.
"Can you see the words floating in the air?" he asked the little zombies. They shook their heads, looking at him as if he were crazy. He was about to dismiss them with a wave, not caring about their reactions, when he saw something floating over their heads. He concentrated on Gyoro's name, hovering above him, and the name transformed into a full table.
[Gyoro]
Class: Zombie
Job: Comic Relief
Dourikis: 13
Potential: G
Fate: F
"Uh?" he said, even more confused.
What did that mean? How...how in the hell was that his awakened power? And how did it link with shadows? Moria's mind raced, trying to connect the dots. He glanced around, half expecting more tables to appear. His gaze fell upon one of the stained glass windows of his Gothic castle. For the first time in years, he did not avert his eyes from his reflection. The vibrant colors of the glass framed the image of the man he had become—a shadow of his former self, burdened by the weight of his own neglect. Instead of turning away in shame, he focused intently.
[Gecko Moria]
Class: Night Lord
Job: Warlord of the Seas
Fruit : Kage Kage no Mi
Dourikis: 2 945
Potential : A
Fate : B
Physique: 1 279
Will: 43
Soul: 1 623
He wondered what it all meant. Dourikis he understood—it was a measure of fighting power, albeit an imperfect one, as it only accounted for direct confrontations. Could his new power be to measure dourikis? And what of the other attributes? Physique, Will, and Soul—terms he knew well, but what did they truly measure? Physique must relate to physical strength and endurance, while Will likely indicated mental fortitude, and the subsequent ability to use khaki. But Soul—what did it mean to quantify one's soul? And why did he have two values for it?
As he stared at the letters for his Fate and Potential - he could clearly see As, they began to glitch, flickering in and out of clarity. He reached out, but his hand passed through the text as if it were a mere projection. Why were the letters glitching? Was this some kind of warning or an indication of instability? Maybe they could change? He had to be sure, and turned his gaze back to his subordinate.
"Are you sure you don't see anything?" he pressed. The zombies shook their heads more vigorously, their confusion matching his own. Moria took a deep breath, his thoughts spiraling. How could this strange system be related to his devil fruit powers? He had always been able to manipulate shadows, to bring the dead back to life, but this...this was something else entirely.
Suddenly, a new message appeared before his eyes:
You unlocked your first class: [Night Lord]
You unlocked two class-related skills :
[Shadow Raising]
You can raise the shadows of you defeated foes so they will serve you even in death
[Shadow Absorption]
You can absorb the shadows of you defeated foes to gain powers beyond your understanding
He…had a class? Skills?
[System finalization]
Do you want to absorb the shadows of the zombies under your control for the transition? This can only happen once.
[Yes] [No]
He noticed that the "Yes" and "No" had a different... visual texture, he would say, lacking a more precise term. Could he touch the words? Moria tried pressing the "Yes." As soon as he did, a tide of shadows surged toward him. Instinctively, he absorbed them, filling a long-neglected void. A hunger for power and strength awakened within him. The scars on his back, graved by Kaido, pulsed with eagerness, and he yearned for strength as all the shadows precipitated in his mouth.
31st October 1521
Thriller Bark
Doctor Hogback knew something was wrong when all the zombies around him suddenly crumpled on the ground. The shadows that served as their souls, as if endowed with a consciousness of their own, emerged from the clump of semi-putrefied bodies and, with surprising speed, converged on the large castle in the middle of Thriller Bark that served as Moria's residence.
In a panic, the Doctor ran out of his laboratory, past the painting containing Surprise Zombies, which had also emptied of their shadows. What had happened ? What was happening? He passed the observation cells, where he kept some of the humans whose shadows served to power his captain's zombies. They all lay on the floor of their cells, and the doctor knew in the blink of an eye that they were dead. Panicking, he ran out of his mansion, still running, breathless. Zombie trees, once moving, lay completely lifeless. He couldn't even get into his carriage to go and see what was going on at the castle, because the zombie horses pulling it had also become mere piles of crudely sewn flesh.
31st October 1521
Thriller Bark
As he started to convulse, Moria barely noticed the three zombies in the room had fallen unconscious. He absorbed most of the zombies' shadows, recognizing each one: some pirate captains he had captured a few months ago, the musician skeleton's, Big Mom's daughter's... and a faint trace of another, a silver of shadow that felt distant yet strong. This one he refrained from absorbing. It was not one of his own shadows but seemed to come directly from the corpse itself. It would rise again as his first warrior, one unlike any other.
For the first time he spoke the word that would change the world.
"Arise."
AN What to expect ? Ask your eventual questions in reviews, I'll answer in further chapters!
- A Villain MC. And it means there is violence.
- A Moria that remains fundamentally a grinning monster of a pirate who pillages, burns, laughs, and enjoys a good time. He won't be, physically or psychologically, a clone of Sung Jin-woo. Far from it
- Moria will have many living people in his crew, not only shadows.
- NSFW (sex) scenes starting from chapter 30s. NSFW (violence) scenes will begin soon.
- The System will be more present in the first chapters for mechanic explanation, with a lighter gamer focus in later chapters.
- Exploration and questioning of the origins and goals of the gamer system. Why these missions?
- If you're looking for similar stories to this one, try the ones of Sir Lucifer Morningstar, or DarkWolfShiro, who made me want to try my hand at a One Piece Gamer Story with an Evil MC.
- The world of One Piece will retain its identity, with its strange characters and mechanisms, but it will be grittier. Imagine the world of Worm, but where all villains actually pillage, kill, and burn. Pirates truly are horrifying.
Furthermore, I added pictures, SFW and NSFW, for a lot of characters in a Questionable Questing Thread titled Solo Leveling. The thread is about 2 to 3 chapters further than ffnet for the moment.