Journey: Start!

Standing from my chair, I smell the scent of the sea coming through the open windows accompanied by the gentle rocking of the waves brushing against the ship and igniting my passion for adventure.

With a confident stride in my steps, I make my way to the front double doors leading to the deck and give them both and push open and step into the bright sunlight with a gentle sea breeze caressing my face.

Alex "It's a good day to be alive!!"

Stepping out from the front door, I can feel the door close behind me on its own as I make my way to the front of the ship.

The first step in any journey is to first figure out where you are. With that in mind, I need to learn about the current world I'm in.

With a single thought, I can feel the ship making its way forward, treading through the waves without a single care of the winds or waves' directions.

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It took 3 days till I managed to find land. It seems to be a fair-sized island from what I can tell.

It's currently night time which makes it easier to tell the island is inhabited based on all the windows with light near a port.

First willing to ship to become invisible, I proceed to have the ship float off the ocean and into the sky before making my way to the village in view. It would be a shame to scare people off even before I arrived.

Jumping over the starboard side of the ship, I float down in a gentle breeze in the middle of town and walking down the main street, observing the houses on each side.

Spotting a mailbox with a fat newspaper bulging out of it I rip the paper out without much care, unfolding the paper. a stack of loosely folded papers also came into view displaying the bounties of quite a few people. Listed pirates and all manner of other criminals displayed a price below their mug shots.

Keeping the paper, I roll it up and holding it under my arm as I continue searching the town for more information. I can't say I found much, mostly because everyone is sleeping. that is until I got to the town entrance where I can see the village sign above the road, Cocoyashi Village.

~~ "Who goes there!?!"

In the darkness, I can see the shadow of a person standing near the gate post.

Alex "Lumos" as the green light comes out of my palm and brightens the arena between myself and the person in the shadows.

He's wearing some kind of uniform it seemed, with a pinwheel sticking out of his hat. Quite the oddball if I have to say so. I can now see the small stood there against the fence where a few cigarette butts lay on the ground. He's probably guarding the village gate.

At first, the old man is stunned by the floating light above my palm but steels himself.

~~ "Who are you? What are you doing in our village this late at night sneaking around??"

Alex "I don't come with bad intentions old man. No need to be so wary. You can call me Alex."

~~ "Well Alex, What are you doing here so late at night? No need to be skulking around at night when you could come in the day."

Alex "Sorry old man, I also have some circumstances you see. I'm sort of lost and trying to figure out where I am right now. I came during the night so as not to scare people."

~~ "well you sure scared the hell out of me! I'm Genzo, Sheriff of Cocoyashi Village. Where'd you come from anyway?"

Alex "Even I'm not sure where I'm from, Genzo. I'm a pirate, Captain of the... Vile Night"

At the mention of a pirate, Genzo visibly stiffens which immediately catches my eye.

Alex "You don't need to worry too much Genzo, I'm not here to create any trouble, Just looking for my way."

Genzo "Well you wouldn't be the first pirate on this island anyway... We already got one pirate crew causing terror on this island already, Arlong and his crew."

At the mention of other pirates. I reopen the paper and sift through the papers till I reach the mentioned bounty of 20,000,000 Belly. A pretty good amount of starting cash I'd imagine.

Alex "Well, Genzo. How about we make ourselves a deal? How about I take care of this Arlong and in exchange, you tell me where I am along with a Sea Chart."

Genzo has an odd look in his eye, shock, disbelief, and doubt. Not many in this sea can stand up to Arlong's Might In East Blue. But at worse, they lost one more pirate, at best they'd kill each other and there'd be two fewer problems in East Blue.

Genzo "Aye, I see no problem in your deal. But you better make sure no civilians get in the way of your fight... Also... If you happen to see a young lady in Arlong's build, Could you let her go? She has no part in all this mess..."

Genzo seemed to deflate at the last few words. But it's all the same for me.

Alex "We have ourselves a deal Mister Genzo. I'll be looking forward to hearing from you next time."

As my words finish, I start lifting off the ground to the shock of poor Genzo's heart, and just as he thought his heart couldn't take it anymore. a massive ship appears in the sky and sails in my direction just so I could slip on board as it continues its sail through the night sky and into the clouds.

Alex 'Was my exit badass enough? I hope I left a great impression on my first acquaintance.'

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Genzo's POV

A night just like any other, or so I thought. the next "protection payment" will be needed in only a couple of days and the villagers are on edge once more. Arlong will probably look for a reason to kill more people and destroy homes.

Puffing on my nth cigarette of the night while listening for any signs of Arlong and his crew making an early show. The cigarette falls from my mouth as I hear footsteps in the night and a vague shadow from the moon. Although not as tall as Arlong. this person does seem taller than most, Is it a Fishman attack already?? It should be too Early...

Genzo "Who goes there!?!"

A second later a flash of light enters my vision and I can see the skulker who seems to be a human. But not from our village.

Genzo "Who are you? What are you doing in our village this late at night sneaking around??"

~~ "I don't come with bad intentions old man. No need to be so wary. You can call me Alex."

The young man quickly explained his circumstances. Although he's a poor soul to be lost at sea. I'm also a bit worried about him mentioning he's also a pirate. Even if he does seem to have no bad intentions. Can never trust a pirate.

As for his deal about getting rid of Arlong, I'm having mixed feelings. They're both pirates and I'd sooner hope they both off each other. but if Arlong catches wind of us pointing him in their direction. we might be the ones to pay, or worse, Nami will.

Just as the young lad says his farewell's he lists off the ground and starts flying into the sky. and I can feel my jaw is about to have a cramp from dropping too low. but it gets worse, a ship that looks like it came straight out of hell appears out of thin air in the sky and flies off into the clouds above after the lad gets on.

What on earth was I smoking?!

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Alex's POV

Flying above the island again. The ship sails in circles a few times around the island to get a view of everything.

There are quite a few abandoned villages with buildings that were razed to the ground or demolished in their fights. The most suspicious place would be the large building with the flag of a red sun. It's quite odd to have a pirate crew displaying its might in plain view for all to see when on the paper it clearly shows the might of the Marines on display in many pages.

Floating down to the castle. I can see it has a canal directly connected to the sea with a sea gate. A few of these Fishmen seemed to even be sleeping outside after having a drinking party earlier in the day. The only light still on is coming from a window near the top floor albeit very dimly.

Once again jumping off the ship, I can feel the night wind blowing through my hair until I decide to slow my descent when nearing the castle.

Slowly coming upon the window with the light. I peek through the crack and can see stacks of papers almost as tall as myself scattered around the room. In one corner of the room is a small bed without a blanket to keep warm. and just to the side of the window, not even far from myself. is a girl young that seems to be about 16 years old that fell asleep at the desk when she was writing on a paper.

It gives off the same feeling of a sweatshop that works children to the bone.

Looking at her exposed arms, I could see many scars. Some old and some very fresh. I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't only her arms.

quietly opening the window, I glide through and step into the room and touch down. The little bit of light left in here was coming from a candle that only had an inch left of its length on the desk to light up the young lady's work.

Stepping up to one of the giant piles of papers, I start skimming through them and realize they're sea charts. flipping through quite a few I forgot how long I've been looking through all the charts when I hear a soft cough behind me that spooked the hell out of me.

*cough*

Turning my head like a machine. I see the girl has woken up for a while. Looking at me with an appraising gaze and a bit of ridicule.

Alex "Haha... Good morning... awkward..." with a wry smile

~~ "What are you doing here? You shouldn't be here, Arlong will kill you if he finds out, assuming he hasn't already."

Alex "Well that's not too important right now. I'm Alex, a pirate. I was told to get you out of here before I start my demolition side job!"

~~ "tsk... Great another pirate... I hate pirates, and how do you plan on getting me out of here, not that I can leave in the first place."

While the girl was busy in her own sarcastic attitude I act quickly and scoop her up into a princess's carry as she starts squealing in panic.

~~ "Hey! Let go! What do you think you're doing!?"

As she was starting to calm down, I could hear steady footsteps approaching from down the hallway outside the door.

I quickly jump out the window, much to the displeasure of my passenger as she starts squeezing around my neck in what I'd almost assume was some kind of chokehold.

It only takes a couple of seconds to reach the deck of my ship. which the young miss seems to have not noticed yet with her eyes shut tightly.

Alex "Heyyy... You can let go now... You're choking me."

At my words, she opens her eyes slowly to peek around and notices the deck of the ship we're on, and quickly lets go of me in favor of the floor... How depressing, Not.

Looking at her with an evil glint in my eyes.

Alex "Hey girl, wanna watch a good show?"

I don't give her the time to answer as I focus back on the building with lights having been lit from torches everywhere. You could see the little Fishmen searching the area. Maybe they think she escaped?

Not giving them too much time to think about it. I focus my mind on a familiar old tune from when I first watched Pirates of the Caribbean Movies where Davey Jones played his Organs.

Much to the pleasure of myself and not caring if anyone else enjoys it. the Organ in the belly of the ship starts playing that very tune that covers half the island in a deep and foreboding song of the deep.

Turning off the invisibility. I notice them all looking up in my direction was shock and horror on their faces. Nothing like a ghost ship sailing in the clouds to give you nightmares.

Just as the song was getting to the deep beat. In replacement for the drinks, I gave them a surprise chantless Bombarda from 24 cannons off the Starboard side for every beat in the song.

*BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG*