One Piece: The Legendary Pirate

Blue sky. White clouds. Blue sea. Green land.

Sitting in the middle of such an environment without any thought in his mind... Darvy felt content.

Though the sea ahead of him was in a never-ending turmoil, his mind was at peace, at least for the time being.

"Why?"

To the sea, Darvy whispered.

"Why did you save me? Why not just let my life end?"

'...Because you vowed,'

The sea seemed to be saying,

'To become strong. To become a pirate.'

Darvy clearly recalled the last moment of those pirates who grew him.

Though they were hideous and evil, they were unafraid. The old pirate... he grinned even at the last moment of his life.

"Is it even possible to become strong with a body like this?"

Darvy stared at his exposed arms gloomily.

"I've already tried for years, but nothing changed."

'Or maybe, you didn't try your best.'

"I did try my best. I gave my 100%."

'Can 100% be considered your best?'

Darvy chuckled. What even was he chatting with?

He had to admit at this point that he had a few screws loose in his head.

Anyhow, words spoken by this strange voice reminded Darvy of the old pirate.

"You sailed across the globe for some treasures you don't even know if they exist or not?"

"Gehehehe... we sure did."

"The sea is extremely harsh. The chance of your survival is harshingly low. Why did you decide to sail?"

"Because... it's fun."

Getting into a push-up position, Darvy bent his arms, bringing his chest downward.

Helplessly, his arms trembled uncontrollably before his face became mushed into the soft ground.

"...Aw man."

The taste of dirt wasn't that pleasant.

Sighing, Darvy flipped his body so that he could face the sky.

It has already been a week since he arrived on this island.

Bringing back his knowledge and skills from his home island, Darvy managed to weave a small hut-like shelter with leaves and branches. There was no need to worry about food and drinks when there were fruit trees everywhere, as well as a fresh pond in the middle of the island.

Compared to the vastly harsh conditions of his home island, this was a paradise.

So Darvy spent the next few days trying to improve his body condition. In order to build muscles, he had to work out. To work out, he needed energy. To gain energy, he had to eat.

So he ate, but eating itself wasn't easy; just one bite of a fruit filled half of his stomach. His body was too used to the scarcity of the food it became a low-maintenance type, if it already wasn't low-maintenance enough.

"But anyway, just what is this fruit?"

Speaking of the fruit he was eating on this island, it was the first time that he saw something like this.

There just happened to be one rolling around by his side. Grabbing it, Darvy inspected its appearance.

Green, spherical, easy to peel, doesn't taste sweet but instead, bitter.

"What are you holding onto?! Let it go immediately!!"

Then, a voice shrieked from the back, causing Darvy to yelp as he lost his grip over the fruit. Turning around, he saw a bearded man with a fishing rod staring at him in panic.

"Who are you?"

"THAT THING IS TOXIC!!"

...Huh?

Darvy found his face getting pale.

"W-wait, I've been eating this thing for the entire week. Are you sure that—"

"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY?!!"

After thirty minutes passed, Darvy found himself back in the village's clinic—the same place he woke up in a week ago.

"...So you've been eating this for the entire week?"

That same blonde girl, cold as ever, looked at Darvy as if staring at some unknown creature. She mumbled to herself,

"How is this possible."

"Don't stare at me like I'm some kind of monster, will you?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. Are you not?"

"AS IF!"

Barking angrily at the girl, Darvy slumped back on the bed.

"What even is that fruit anyway?"

"It's not a fruit. It's a waste."

"Waste... what?"

Darvy frowned in disbelief, and the girl sighed.

"This island is peculiar. The soil is rich and the climate is ideal. This is possible because through an unknown mechanism, the island absorbs the harmful substances and condenses them all together in the form of a 'fruit' as you described. The accumulated amount of poisonous substances inside shouldn't be tolerable by an average human being."

"And you didn't tell this to me?"

"..."

The girl shut her mouth, and it was obvious that she had forgotten about it.

Darvy deadpanned.

Watching as they talked, the fisherman from the back scratched his head,

"Er, he is okay then, I guess?"

"So far, I see no problem. Assuming that he is alive and no different than what he was a week before, it seems that his body did indeed... absorb that toxic waste as a nutrition."

The girl opened a notebook and flipped to a particular page.

"One thing to note is that there was nothing exceptional about your body when I last inspected it. Barely any muscles, barely any essential fats, fragile bones, weak cardiovascular and digestive systems—I tested many, but overlooked one category: your immune system."

"Which means?"

Scratching his head, the fisherman asked.

"It means that he most likely has tolerance for toxins—all of them in that waste. And there are two possibilities. Either he inherited the resistance from his biological parents or he actually consumed something similar in the past."

"But I didn't."

Darvy commented,

"The only things I ate were pieces of bread, meat, and some fruits and vegetables lying around here and there."

Turning around, the girl asked the fisherman,

"Can you bring me a sample of them?"

"Sample? Food you mean?"

"Yes."

"Eh... I don't want to."

"So you want to be frozen instead?"

"H-ha... haha, will be back as soon as possible!"

The fisherman hurriedly left and in no time, returned with a handful of food, enough for Darvy to drool at.

"Can I have them? They are the finest things I've ever seen."

Darvy asked,

"Elaborate more about being the 'finest'. In comparison to these, how did your food look like?"

and the girl answered the question with a question.

Darvy, seemingly disappointed afterward, eventually answered said question,

"First of all, the colours are vastly different. These are so... colourful, while the ones I've been eating were mostly green."

"YIKES! Just what have you been eating?!"

The fisherman yelled with a disgusted expression.

"Mold? I think that's how the pirates I lived with described the food. Yeah, moldy. Foods were moldy, and the pirates liked them that way."

"...For how long?"

"How long?"

Darvy seemed confused,

"Since my birth?"

"BIRTH?!"

The fisherman shrieked, causing the girl to flinch.

"You're supposed to drink milk!!"

"Milk? What's that?"

Darvy squinted his eyes.

"Those pirates told me that they used to chew moldy bread and spit into my mouth. Then, since water was quite scarce on the ship, they fed me a rum."

"...How are you alive?"

Darvy was now even more confused as the girl muttered.

"What do you mean how I'm alive? I'm alive because I am?"

"...Perhaps your body's devastating condition wasn't necessarily genetics. Rather, it is thanks to your genes that you managed to survive up until now."

The girl sighed again.

"Listen. If any other human grew up like you did, they would've died long ago. Do you understand? Your existence is a miracle."

"Also,"

The fisherman then added on,

"The fact that you aren't retarded as hell is crazy! I heard that food is important during development!"

The girl snorted at that,

"Oh, don't worry about that. He is retarded. Very much so."

"Fuck you."

Darvy and the girl raised their middle fingers at each other, which caused the fisherman to laugh.

"But y'know,"

The fisherman stated,

"This guy doesn't look harmful, to be honest. Must we still have him stay outside all the time?"

"He's a foreigner and he claims himself as a pirate. Besides..."

Losing all the humour, the girl frowned,

"You know nothing about pirates—"

While saying so, the girl turned to look at Darvy, who somehow managed to get his hands on the food, silently eating them—though at a very slow pace.

"..."

'Is he really a pirate?'

The girl couldn't help but think,

'And not a beggar?'

"I think you're being too paranoic though."

The fisherman shrugged,

"No one in the village is scared of this guy. I doubt that he can win a fight against one of our children even."

"...Hey, you're going too far there."

Darvy grumbled in response before dropping the slab of meat with his bite mark on top of, feeling full from a single bite.

"Wait."

The girl's eyes then widened,

"That meat is raw."

Darvy nodded,

"Yeah, raw is fine as well."

"NO IT ISN'T!!"

The fisherman screamed.

...

After the incident passed by, Darvy was kicked out of the wilderness once more. Lying down in his self-made hut now, he smiled in satisfaction with his stomach feeling more full than ever.

"...Wait, by the way,"

He then realized,

"What was their name again?"