East Blue / Dawn Island / Goa Kingdom / Gray Terminal Outskirts (Broken Wagon Road / Dead Tree Near Gray Terminal Burn Line): 1529, Age of the Sea Circle.
(Anthony's POV)
The forest smelled like rain, ash and old death.
Good smell.
Honest smell.
Burned ground did not lie.
Something had died here.
A lot of things.
People.
Homes.
Trash.
Dreams.
Names.
All of it cooked beneath noble fire until the smoke went up and the weak learned another lesson about how cheap their suffering really was.
I laid on a makeshift wooden sled made from broken planks, blankets and rope.
Humiliating.
Very humiliating.
Mog pulled from the front with the rope wrapped around both of his thick hands, dragging me through the mud like a mule that had learned fear better than language.
Tallow walked ahead with a lantern in one hand and a shovel in the other.
His skinny body kept shaking.
Good.
Shaking meant he remembered the cabin.
Shaking meant he remembered pike.
Shaking meant he remembered jory's throat opening like a red mouth.
Matilda walked beside us silently.
Too silently for a woman almost twelve feet tall.
Her armor did not clink.
Her feet did not slip.
The rain touched her dark skin like it was asking permission.
I hated that.
Not because it scared me.
Because I wanted to understand it.
Anything I did not understand had too much freedom.
My gun rested on my chest.
My fingers were wrapped around it.
Every bump sent pain biting through my body.
I did not scream.
I did not groan.
I breathed.
Wet.
Rough.
Controlled.
Gray terminal was not far.
I could smell it.
Smoke had settled into the soil like a memory refusing to rot.
Bluejam's memories twitched inside my skull.
Men cheering.
Men shouting.
Bluejam laughing.
Bluejam believing.
Bluejam trusting nobles.
My jaw tightened.
"Stupid bitch" I thought calmly with cold eyes.
Tallow suddenly stopped, his eyes widening as he said with a trembling voice "There."
Ahead, the forest opened slightly.
A dead tree stood near the broken wagon road.
Black bark.
Twisted branches.
No leaves.
It looked like a hand reaching out of a grave.
Beautiful.
Beside it sat the remains of a wagon, one wheel broken, the wood burned at the edges.
Tallow pointed toward the roots.
"Under there. Jory buried it after the fire." Said tallow with a shakey tone.
I smiled.
"Everything bad in this world apparently happens after somebody trusts the wrong perso." I said calmly.
Tallow swallowed.
"Yes captain." Said tallow quickly.
Matilda stepped toward the tree.
I raised the gun and said calmly "Stop."
She stopped.
Slowly.
Her head turned toward me.
"You have something to say." Asked matilda calmly.
"You got something on your mind." I asked with squinted eyes.
Matilda stared at me for a long moment.
"You believe I came all this way to steal your chest while you watched." Said matilda calmly.
"I believe people do what makes sense to them, now step aside and make way. " I said calmly with cold eyes.
"And what makes sense to me." She asked calmly.
I smiled.
"Your stomach." I said calmly.
The forest went silent.
Even the rain sounded quieter.
Matilda's hand moved near her stomach.
Not touching.
Almost.
She stopped herself.
Too late.
I saw it.
I always saw it.
"You want a future. A child. A race not buried under stories. Maybe safety. Maybe power. Maybe all of it." I said calmly.
Matilda's face did not move.
"But you do not know what is in that chest. And if there is a devil fruit inside, stealing it before understanding me would be greedy." I said calmly with a sighed while waving the gun back and forth.
Tallow and mog stood very still.
I smiled.
"And you do not strike me as greedy, matilda. You strike me as patient and opportunistic but that opportunity is now." I said softly with very calculating eyes.
Matilda's milky white eyes stared at me for a long moment.
Then she stepped back and said calmly "Dig."
Mog grabbed the shovel from tallow immediately and started digging.
Smart.
Tallow dropped beside him and clawed mud away with both hands.
Mud flew.
Rain fell.
Wood scraped dirt.
The dead tree watched.
I laid there on that ugly little sled with the gun on my chest and rain dripping down my face like the sky had the right to spit on me.
My body screamed.
My stomach burned.
My back ached.
My swollen gums throbbed with pain.
I ignored all of it.
Pain was a tenant.
It could live in the building.
But it did not own the deed.
After several minutes, Mog's shovel hit something.
*THUNK*
Everyone stopped.
My breathing slowed.
"Pull it out." I said calmly.
Mog dug around it.
Tallow reached in.
Together, they pulled a chest from beneath the mud.
It was not large.
But it was heavy enough to make mog grunt.
Dark wood.
Iron bands.
Mud clinging to every edge.
A lock hanging on the front.
A dead man's little secret.
Matilda reached into her armor and held up the key she had taken from jory's belt.
Small.
Iron.
Wet.
I looked at it.
Then at her.
She stared back at me.
"May I." Asked matilda calmly.
I smiled.
"See, you learn quick. It is called asking." I said calmly while gesturing for her to do the honors.
Her face did not move.
She stepped forward and slid the key into the lock.
*Click*
The sound was small.
But it felt expensive.
The chest opened.
The forest seemed to hold its breath.
Inside was gold.
Not a fortune.
But enough.
Berry notes wrapped in stained cloth.
Jewelry.
Noble rings.
Two pistols.
A rolled map.
Several letters sealed with wax.
And a fruit wrapped in red cloth.
Dark golden.
Round.
Ugly.
Beautiful.
It looked like an apple that had been forced to wear a crown against its will.
Swirls curled over its skin like lazy snakes.
At the top, a crown-like stem curved upward in small jagged points.
My smile slowly faded.
Something in my chest went still.
Not fear.
Not excitement.
Recognition.
Not from bluejam.
From me.
From the part of me that understood symbols better than scripture.
A crowned fruit buried under dead roots after a noble betrayal beside a burned kingdom's trash.
Funny.
Very funny.
"That's it, that's the nasty fruit jory wanted to get rid of." Said tallow whispering with disgust.
Mog shook his head and said with a mutter "Ugly thing."
Matilda stared at the fruit.
Her milky eyes did not blink.
I reached out slowly.
My arm shook.
Pain crawled up my side.
The distance was too far.
Humiliating.
I looked at tallow and said calmly with the gun readied "Bring it."
Tallow hesitated.
"Captain, devil fruits are cursed." Said tallow carefully.
My eyes squinted subtly at him.
Tallow grabbed it immediately.
Good rat.
He placed the fruit in my hand.
It was heavier than it looked.
Cold from rain.
Warm beneath the skin.
Wrong.
Very wrong.
I stared at it for a moment.
Memories of a different world moved through me.
Stories.
Pirates.
Powers.
Men who became rubber.
Men who became smoke.
Men who became monsters because the sea found a new way to laugh at the weak.
Devil fruits.
Cursed fruit.
Power for the price of the ocean's hatred.
I could not swim in this body anyway.
I almost laughed.
"Well there is one more thing I will not be able to do." I thought calmly.
Matilda watched me and asked calmly with a slight smile "You know what it is."
"I know what it means." I said while looking at her.
"And what does it mean." Asked matilda with a smile.
I looked at the fruit in my hand for moment.
Then at the men.
Then at the burned earth.
Then at the sky.
"Debt." I said calmly.
Matilda tilted her head.
"Power is debt. You take it, then spend the rest of your life proving you deserved to steal it." I said with a sigh.
The rain slid down my face.
My hand tightened around the fruit.
Bluejam never ate it.
Maybe he was scared.
Maybe he planned to sell it.
Maybe he thought he could become important without becoming cursed.
Stupid.
Anthony zarwick did not believe in clean hands.
I brought the fruit to my mouth.
Tallow's eyes widened.
Mog leaned forward.
Matilda became completely still.
I bit down.
The taste hit me.
Rot.
Metal.
Ash.
A dead king's tongue.
My stomach tried to reject it.
My mouth flooded with disgust.
I chewed anyway.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
Spitefully.
I swallowed.
The world went silent.
No thunder.
No rain.
No breathing.
Nothing.
Then something moved inside me.
Not through my blood.
Beneath it.
A pressure.
Heavy.
Ancient.
Arrogant.
It did not ask permission.
It sat down in my bones like a man taking a throne that was already his.
My fingers tightened around the half-eaten fruit.
My eyes widened.
The forest listened.
For one moment, everything around me felt like it had ears.
The mud.
The dead tree.
The men.
The rain.
The gun on my chest.
The blood in my mouth.
Everything.
A word rose inside my mind.
Not nglish.
Not any language I knew.
But I understood it.
Authority.
My breathing came out slow.
Wet.
Rough.
Beautiful.
I looked at the dead tree.
Its black branches reached toward the storm.
Still standing like it had a right.
My lips parted.
"Kneel." I said calmly as I ate the rest of the fruit and swallowed it.
The forest did not move.
For one second, nothing happened.
Then the dead tree cracked.
*CRK*
Tallow screamed and fell backward.
Mog cursed and stumbled away.
The roots beneath the tree snapped through mud and ash.
The trunk tilted.
Slowly.
Heavily.
It fell forward.
Not collapsing.
Not breaking.
Bowing.
The dead tree bent toward me until its crown of branches touched the mud.
*Boom*
The ground shook.
Silence.
Complete silence.
Rain slid down my face.
I stared at the tree.
Then I laughed.
Softly at first.
Then harder.
Pain ripped through my stomach.
I laughed anyway.
Wet.
Broken.
Alive.
"Well, would you look at that." I said hoarsely.
Tallow was on his ass in the mud, eyes wide and mouth open.
Mog had gone pale enough to make his ugly face look unfinished.
Matilda did not look at the tree.
She looked at me.
For the first time since I woke up, her expression was not calm.
Not fully.
There was something else there.
Interest.
Caution.
Hunger.
Good.
Very good.
"What did you eat." Asked matilda calmly.
I turned looked at the red cloth stuck to my bloody fingers and said "I do not know its proper name."
The pressure inside me shifted.
A memory that was not mine brushed against my tongue.
Crown.
Command.
Territory.
Will.
Dominion.
My smile widened.
"But I know what it wants to be called." I said with a smile.
Matilda waited silently.
I looked at the men.
Then at the bowed tree.
Then at my own ruined body.
"The king-king fruit." I said calmly.
The words landed in the mud like a law being written.
Tallow had wide eyes and whispered "King…"
Mog lowered his eyes without realizing it.
Matilda's hand touched her stomach.
This time, she did not hide it.
I saw the fear.
Small.
Thin.
But real.
My smile turned cruel.
"Do not worry. I am not in the mood to make you kneel yet." I said calmly.
Matilda's eyes went cold and said as she started leaving back in the direction of the cabin "Yet, is a strong word bluejam. I don't kneel to anyone."
"Yet." I said calmly repeating with a chuckle as I watched her leave.
The air grew heavy.
For a moment, nobody moved.
Good.
The first lesson had been taught.
Not fully understood.
But taught.
I looked down at my broken body.
Then at the gun.
Then at the chest.
Gold.
Weapons.
Map.
Letters.
A devil fruit now sitting in my stomach like a crown made of blood and rot.
I smiled and said calmly "Pack the chest."
Tallow moved first.
Mog moved second.
Thunder roared above us.
*BOOOOM*
The dead tree remained bowed.
The men did not look at it.
They did not look at me for too long either.
Good.
I looked toward the burned edge of gray terminal.
Somewhere beyond it, nobles slept in clean beds.
Somewhere beyond that, children who would become legends breathed under roofs, trees or stolen blankets.
Somewhere in this world, marines carried justice like a badge that excused murder.
Pirates chased freedom because they were too stupid to understand freedom without power was homelessness with a better song.
And me.
I laid half dead on a sled in the rain with stolen gold, stolen body, stolen fruit and stolen future.
My lips curled upward.
Finally.
Finally this world was starting to speak my language.
"Back to the cabin. I have a women to keep a leash on." I said calmly with a wave of the gun in my right hand.
Mog grabbed the rope.
Tallow carried the lantern.
The bowed tree remained behind us.
A dead thing that had learned manners.
The sled began moving.
Pain screamed.
Rain fell.
Men obeyed.
And inside my ruined body, something royal smiled.
…
THE END…