Chapter 74:The Boyhood Chronicles of Ozz

Two ambitious, greenhorn pirates sailed their modest vessel through the Calm Belt bordering the West Blue, steering boldly toward the New World.

"Say, this place really lives up to its name there's not a single gust of wind."

It was Ozz's first time entering the Calm Belt.

Back when he'd sailed aboard the Oro Jackson, he'd visited almost every corner of the world from Paradise to the New World but this peculiar "Silent Domain" that separated the Four Blues from the New World had remained unexplored. After all, the Oro Jackson lacked an advanced propulsion system and rarely, if ever, took this route.

They usually traveled via Fish-Man Island or the Twin Capes.

"Wait a second... isn't Amazon Lily somewhere in the Calm Belt?"

Midway through their journey, Ozz suddenly clapped his hands, as if recalling something crucial.

The real-life version of the legendary "island of women"! He'd heard Uncle Rayleigh had supposedly been there before.

In any case, it wouldn't hurt to take a little detour before visiting the old man. Swinging by Amazon Lily sounded like a fine idea this whole trip was just a joyride anyway.

With that in mind, Ozz turned to Mihawk and asked for the Eternal Pose to the island of women.

Only to be immediately shut down.

"Oi... are you an idiot? Amazon Lily is in the Calm Belt off the South Blue. We're currently in the West Blue's Calm Belt!"

Not only was it completely out of the way, but there was also the small matter of a massive slab of Red Line between them.

Talk about acting on a whim...

Mihawk sighed heavily, clearly exasperated.

Hearing this, Ozz abandoned the idea with a sulky shrug.

"Eh, I'll check it out another time. The Empress hasn't even been kidnapped yet, anyway…"

Lounging in his deck chair, Ozz flipped through his little notebook. It was filled with scribbled notes on future events everything he could recall from his past life.

As he read, he casually released his Conqueror's Haki, so dense and intense it crackled like lightning in the air. Any Sea King that dared to approach the Oro Jackson fainted before even making contact, their eyes rolling back in their heads like infants soothed to sleep.

Mihawk, standing at the bow, swept his blade with elegance. A single, massive slash of emerald green cut through the slumbering Sea Kings, splitting them cleanly in two. Some were cleared simply to avoid obstruction, others selected and sliced with surgical precision Mihawk's way of stocking up on fresh meat.

As the Oro Jackson pushed forward with brazen confidence, a vast, ominous shadow began to rise from the ocean depths.

"Oh-ho… a colossal Sea King, huh?"

Ozz paused mid-page, his intuition tingling. He slowly turned his head to meet it.

A tiger-headed, fish-bodied monstrosity had surfaced. Its eyes glared at them with primal hunger, sizing up the ship and its occupants like toys trespassing in its domain.

As for its size?

At least several dozen times larger than the Oro Jackson. Ozz suspected its eyeball alone was bigger than his entire body.

Though not quite ten kilometers long, it was still well within the range of his Observation Haki.

"What a huge fish… But fishing isn't on today's agenda."

Ozz remained unfazed.

Ordinarily, he wouldn't mind taming a beast like this for sport. But he was in a good mood after all, he was almost home.

And right now, he really wasn't in the mood for a game of cat and mouse.

After all, if he wanted, he could teleport the Oro Jackson thousands of meters in a flash. For a beast of this size, that was little more than a splash.

So...

"SCRAM!!!"

BZZZ-KRAKKK!!!

Ozz's eyes flared.

In an instant, a bolt of near-tangible black and crimson lightning erupted from him pure Conqueror's Haki, condensed into a crackling beam of force that surged across the sea, crashing into the massive Sea King.

"!!!"

Struck dead-on, the beast's house-sized pupils dilated in terror an all-too-human expression flashing across its monstrous features.

It slowly began to retreat.

Then, with a thunderous twist, it dove back into the depths, the wake of its departure churning up a maelstrom so violent it nearly capsized the ship.

Ozz calmly teleported the Oro Jackson skyward, evading the worst of the vortex.

"Looks like Navy ships are smarter after all. Slap on some Sea Prism Stone and they might as well be invisible radars."

But then again…

The Marines have technology.

I have raw, unfiltered might.

Guess I'll just bulldoze my way through with Conqueror's Haki.

"Alright, alright, almost home~!"

Ozz reclined in his chair with a smile, letting nostalgia wash over him.

His thoughts drifted back to the days before he ever joined Roger's crew...

"WHAT THE HELL?! Where'd this brat come from?! I ain't got time to babysit!"

"I'm only keeping you one night! Once I find your lousy parents, you're outta here!"

"Quit laughing, you little punk! I'm a pirate, damn it! Feeding you formula doesn't OW OW OW! LEGGO! Are you a monster?! You bruised my arm just squeezing it?!"

"HUH?! How'd you know what was inside that birthday box?! Spit it out!"

"Well... kid, I'll tell you something. One day, you're gonna be a world-class monster just like the captains I used to sail with. I'm tellin' ya, when they got serious whew!"

"You're my grandson now! You hear me? Take my name Dotor! The future monster: Ozz Dotor!"

When Ozz was still very young, the old pirate zeek had long since retired and unexpectedly found himself in the role of nursemaid. Ozz grew up hearing a steady stream of grumbling and affectionate nagging.

"Ozz, when you become a great pirate, don't forget your grandpa, alright?"

"I once dreamed of being Pirate King, y'know... But I didn't have your talent, didn't have your luck…"

Little Ozz had heard it all before.

And honestly, he couldn't argue.

With zeek's talent even if he'd trained from a young age, mastered Haki, and survived countless life-or-death battles the best he could've done was tangle with a rear admiral or two. At most, he might've scraped together a spot as a mid-tier fighter on the Rocks Pirates' crew.

In the end, even a lifetime of effort couldn't match his grandson's starting point.

If Ozz remembered right, he could already obliterate vice admirals by the time he was twelve or thirteen.

So it wasn't surprising that zeek had pinned all his old dreams on Ozz. His own body couldn't handle it anymore.

But hey raising a Pirate King? Wasn't that even more satisfying than becoming one yourself?

And with a kid like Ozz, even feeding him was a Herculean task.

No matter how much zeek had squirreled away in his younger days, it wasn't enough. He had to pick up odd jobs just to make ends meet, relying on the town's goodwill for help.

The townsfolk knew that thanks to zeek, they'd been spared from the tyranny of nobles so they were happy to pitch in to raise the boy.

Even when their kids got roughed up by little Ozz, as long as it wasn't too serious, they turned a blind eye.

In truth, Ozz had been raised by the entire town. As a kid, he'd often head into the mountains to hunt down wild beasts, feeding the whole village with his catches.

This time, he was returning with a sense of gratitude.

But how best to repay them...?

Maybe he should conquer a country for them?

After all, those nobles were just bloated leeches. Why not kick them out?

Besides, the World Government did owe him a favor or two...