NOVEL NEXT Surviving in the Wilderness I
She went and left me -a supposed three years old kid- on an island filled to the brim with mass-murdering oversized monkeys that use swords and armour.
This is no doubt a universe inspired by the ideas of a Japanese madman. Thankfully everything is possible in this world, otherwise, even if I had all the experience and resilience in the world, I can't survive in this place with such a weak body.
*CLANG!!*
The battles I fought resembled more skirmishes of survival than full-blown duels to death.
In the beginning, I camouflaged myself by using mud, but these humandrills learn so fast. I've already been exposed. I quickly dropped the poles and sticks; grabbing a long yet rusty sword for myself, I was ready for anything.
Fighting them single-handedly always devolved in me fleeing for my life. I can see their sword, their strikes… they resembled a lot of everything Mihawk had taught me (beaten into me), but I was still physically weaker and unable to take any of their strikes head-on.
...
After running and scattering myself in the forest I found a small bush to conceal into. My tiny body still helped me hide in the most treacherous places around this forest. I had already left marks to know where they were in case I was running for my life and needed a hideout.
Sitting down there waiting for my trace to be lost I just grit my teeth and thought for myself how difficult this challenge was going to be.
'I don't have a devil fruit or any advantage… if I don't learn Haki here I'm going to die. I don't know how long is going to take her to return… I don't even know what she's doing at this point of the story, six years after Gold Roger's death? there is no such registry of what she could be doing at this point'.
I panted, waiting for one of those bastards to lunge at me at any moment, thankfully they lost my track and I could make a sprint to the edge of the forest where the lake is. To come to this world was like a dream come true… but now I realise that to live here, I must become so much stronger. My big brain, equations and thermodynamics aren't going to help me on this island.
'If the body of a kid is not enough then I must learn armament Haki to put weight on my lack of physical ability but… what's Haki again?'
I scratched my head in irritation, recalling Rayleight's explanation to Luffy, it was easier said than done.
**
**
Having harvested some fruits at the cost of injuries, Veyron rushed back to the mansion. For the first weeks, he created a few mechanisms that could help him awaken those abilities quickly or so he believed.
'One Piece is indeed One Piece. There is no way the body of a two-year-old kid could sustain this much work…' He thought, feeling quite fatigued still able to continue so long as he kept feeding his body.
One of the mechanisms he created was a pendulum attached to the ceiling of the room created with a few heavy sandbags hanging on a rope, things that he found on the shore of the island.
*BAANG!*
He put on a blindfold and tried... the bag of sand would hit him each time, always coming back to the centre after hiring it with a stick. He had no way to know where the bag was coming from but yet he could intuitively calculate the moving vector.
'This is more or less what Rayleigh did to Luffy. But I don't know if this is entirely effective to awaken observation Haki' after days of repetition, he didn't feel any progress.
As for armament Haki. He was still struggling to punch a hole through a timber log. Albeit that may be a little overboard for a beginner.
'This isn't working… do I have to expose myself to the threat of the forest?' He slumped back on the ground, still feeling hungry. Although the energy was there, the fruits weren't enough.
"I want meat..."
His gaze fixed dead on Mihawk's empty chair. She had already been gone for nearly a month; it was impressive to him how much presence an individual that just sat there the majority of the time reading newspapers, drinking wine and asking occasional questions... ah, and beating the crap out of him.
'I was given a second chance. Will I throw this opportunity as well? Shouldn't I wait for her to come back?' He thought, each time the risk was getting higher. It was as if Mihawk's absence emboldened the humandrills to the point he could look at them squirming and yelling in the woods through the window, a sight that would have never happened before.
'No, I can't wait! She left while knowing that I would be left here stranded, this is a test! If she comes back and I'm the same… it is a failure!'
And if something I could never allow in my life… they were: failure, negative marks, or miscalculated algebraic results.
That night was the last night of peace he had on this island.
Taking a knife and a sword, Veyron coated himself in mud and left during the day; intending to eat meat or this time around, no more fruits... where to get the meat from? there was only one answer.
Lurking in the forest he found his prey, a group of Humandrils, they were young but still too big of a group for him to deal with. He took three stones and threw them in three different directions, one of them closer to him, and the other two as far as he could throw them while still generating enough noise to attract the group.
The impact of the heavy stones did call for the attention of the humandrills lurking around, just as he wanted. Sure enough, the group divided and searched for the origin of the noise.
It was a half-success. Veyron cursed inwardly and considered his chances. The humandril that came his way was the biggest out of the group with armour and sword, only its throat exposed.
The boy's hand shook constantly, knife in hand with the human drill within strike distance.
'If I don't kill it…' his imagination had already started running wild. The one to become dinner would be him, considering their barbaric behaviour, his head would be put on a bloody stick.
Veyron receded, it was too risky of a move to pull out. But then he grit his teeth in realisation, the window of action was closing, "I came here to hunt. What's the point if I don't try!?"
*WHOOSH!*
With a swift move, he plunged his knife through the humandrill's throat to the base, the question was not whether the attack would be a success... the question was whether he could finish this with a single strike without making too much noise.
A mute noise of pain emerged before Veyron twisted his sword, slicing the head of the animal that fell limply on the cold soil, spasming.
His bloodied hands shook, first kill… the first life was taken even if it was just a monkey. His eyes shook in a regret that lasted as long as his stomach didn't grumble. This was for survival. He threw up a bit and yet contained the noise lest it alerted any other members of the group.
He thought about what to do, the best course of action would be to cut a slice instead of foolishly trying to move the whole corpse across the forest, dragging attention to himself with the smell of blood. He wasn't the only one interested in eating humandrills, the humandrills openly committed cannibalism as well.
Just as he was about to cut a good slice, the next thing he felt was a brutal pain assaulting his brain, coming straight from his back's pain receptors; a clean slash across, coming from another humandrill that arrived with a literal vengeance.
!!!
He rolled down to the ground crouching in pain with his eyes wide open and shaking; blood poured out and he realised things weren't looking nice for him even if the pain didn't last long as the adrenaline kicked in. He managed to roll through the ground with the humandrill continuing to plunge its sword into the soil, missing each time by miracle.
When his rolling body met the stem of a tree, there was nowhere else to escape. He gasped and life started to flash in front of his eyes.
Mysteriously enough… the most vivid memories were those where Mihawk's naked alluring body was present for him to delight on.
*RUMBLE!*
A spark of red lightning flashed in his eyes.
The sword came down, intending to plunge his life and Veyron's shaky red eyes shone in a red lightning of will.
*WHOOOSH!*
The knife plunged into the soil right next to his head, the humandrill stopped in confusion, but that was all Veyron needed.
*PUCHI!*
The knife went through the monkey's chest without mercy, showering him in blood yet again. Veyron crawled away, aware there was another one left and coming. The blood kept pouring from his back as he crawled amid a panic attack. Danger, there was danger everywhere and yet, the red lightning in his eyes kept flashing.
*RUMBLE!*
The incoming humandrills felt a drenching aura corrode the atmosphere, one they knew very well... conqueror haki. The one emitting it was this young piece of bloodied flesh who had just slaughtered two from their race and yet... he looked so frightening.
"Step back..." Veyron kept crawling against the stem of the tree. The shadows of the humandrils moved along the trenches as if ready to plunge but none of them dared step forward towards his pointing knife.
'I can't die! I CAN'T DIE AGAIN!'.
With the red lightning still flashing through his eyes, he sliced the arm of one of his prey and staggered away, always with his gaze fixed on the group of humandrils that popped up from the vines and trees, surrounding him yet keeping their distance.
When he was farther enough they lunged and started killing each other for the possession of the two corpses.
Ten minutes was all it took, but they were the ten longest minutes of his life. He reached the mansion, closed the door behind him and the next second, passed out.