Chapter 2 (Proud Line)

Chapter 2: A New Wind
Eyes white from the sheer force of the blow, Seagar toppled to the ground like a sack of rotten potatoes. Luk, too, landed smoothly on his feet a second later, casually blowing on the attacking palm.

For all his nonchalant attitude, however, a small crowd of pirates and citizens had frozen at the sight of the attack. It took them a moment to respond.

“Ooooh-!”

“What the-?!”

“How did he-?!”

“Seagar-san!”

The hubbub only grew in intensity, disguising the shocked expression of the girl who had been watching from the beginning. Her eyes fixed on both the fallen pirate and the one who had felled him, widening by the second.

A few miles away, a certain hatch swung open and caught two marauding pirates in the jaw, sending them stumbling backwards.

“Thought you could get away with this, huh?!” Jenks snarled, leaping out of the entrance and unleashing a torrent of kicks upon the unfortunate attackers, “after all these years, did you think an island out in the open like this could be taken so easily?!”

“WELL- WHAT- NO!” the attackers cried in unison as they were knocked around, hurtling into the distance. The old man breathed out, tired yet satisfied, while Lena clambered out right after him.

“Punks,” he muttered, scratching at his fabulous mustache, “this old man isn’t dead yet.”

“But it’s not like you’re any more alive, grandpa,” she reminded him gently, placing a cooling hand on his shoulder before walking out beside him. He huffed, but joined her in surveying the area.

“Looks like we’re holding the lines pretty well,” he grumbled, “it’s been awhile since we’ve had a situation like this, but the people haven’t slacked off that much. You worry too much, Lena.”

His granddaughter nodded, a bit of pink tinging her cheeks. It vanished quickly, however, as she detected a certain trend in the pirates around them. “They’re starting to run in this direction, grandpa!”

“Hrm?!” The old sailor whipped around, facing down the small horde bearing down at them. “A second round, huh?! Well, you better watch yourselves, young’uns, because I’m going to-!”

They parted around him and Lena like the water through which they sailed.

Even more puzzled, Jenks turned around to watch them go. “The docks?” he mumbled. A second more and his decision was made; he turned around brusquely, sending the end of his cloak floating up into the air as he began marching forward.

“Grandpa?” Len asked, following him.

“If they don’t care about the people anymore, then that means something pretty big is going on down there.” He glanced back towards her, a rogueish grin appearing his face. “Wanna see the show?”

“Not really...” the young woman mumbled under breath, “but if you say so…”

She followed as her grandfather picked up the pace, worry mounting on her face by the second.

“Ungh… ahh…”

Consciousness returned slowly to Seagar, the bright lights of the sky above keeping his eyes from opening fully. “Thas’ strange…” he grumbled, raising up one hand to shield them, “could’ve sworn ah was standin’...”

“Seagar-san’s awake!”

“Now he’ll show that stupid kid!”

“Still… you think…?”

“I don’t think, I know! What he just used then, that was a Devil Fruit, right?!”

Eyes snapping open in an instant, Seagar flung his chest and arms up, shifting roughly into a sitting position. “D-d-devil Fruit?!” he gasped.

“Mn!”

The youth who had felled him, bouncing on the balls of his feet as if this was all some sort of game, replied with a cheeky smile. “I ate it awhile ago, so I’ve gotten used to flipping it on and off! Pretty good, right?” At this confirmation, the gathering crowd around them buzzed with conversation once more.

“I knew it!”

“A Devil Fruit, huh…? I’ve never even seen one!”

“Is it true what they say? That you can’t swim after taking a bite?”

“You get crazy powers, though. Man, what I wouldn’t give…”

“It looked like his arm changed…”

“Was it a ‘Zoan’-type, then?”

“I dunno, ask him!”

“Hey, kid!” Luk turned at this call. “What sort of power did it give you?”

“Ah, well…” The straw-haired youth paused a moment, one hand reaching up to caress his chin as he thought it over. An instant later and he was back to normal, smiling kindly at the questioner. “I dunno!”

“WHAT?!”

“You’ve got to be kidding me!”

“T-that’s… the first time...” the girl muttered, slowly starting to get up from hands and knees. Her eyes popped for a different reason now.

“Come on! There’s nothing wrong with not knowing it, right?!” Luk protested, waving his arms and hands in an effort to ease the audience’s discontent, “I just transform into a cat-ish tiger-thing! It’s not like there’s a book or something to tell me-!”

“There is a book, dumbass!”

“Really?!” His eyes sparkled with interest. “Where can you get it?! Here, just give me a second and I’ll write it down…” He reached into the pocket of his black vest, beginning to tug out the notebook-

“Ararararararararararara!”

-when a familiar bit of laughter stopped him.

Luk turned around, the look in his face one more of annoyance than fear. “You got up from that pretty quickly,” he said, “last time I hit someone like that, they stayed down at least…” His eyes moved quickly towards the book he carried, then flickered back. “...three seconds longer!”

“Hehehe…” Seagar wiped away some blood and spittle from his mouth, “it takes more than that to take out an ol’ man of the sea, brat!”

“That so?” his opponent wondered, considering him a minute before brightening again, “Then, if I beat you, that means I’m definitely ready for whatever’s out there! Un!” He punched a fist into his other open palm, grinning confidently. “I’ll show that old man a thing or two!”

“I’m right here!” came the familiar, irritated voice of his guardian over the heads of those gathered.

“U-uh, I’m here, too!” Lena’s voice followed not long after.

Luk spun around, peering in their direction. His enthusiasm, if anything, grew.

“Gramps! Lena!” He leaped up and down like a child, waving his arms frantically in the air. “Make sure you watch me, okay?! I’m gonna prove that I can take the sea on, right here and now!”

“But-!” Lena began to protest. She was stopped by the old man’s hand on her shoulder.

“Let him try,” he said quietly when she gave him a look full of knives, “if the kid can’t handle this, then he’ll know from experience that his dream’s too much to handle.”

“And if he can?!”

“Then there really is nothing we can do to stop him, right?” Jenks’ grin returned.

Turning away from the two, Luk faced Seagar once more.

“Alright!” he said, the same feline lines spreading across his face and arms once more, accompanied by a set of barely-visible whiskers, “let’s do this, old man of the sea!”

Seagar stood still for a moment, looking with derision at the boy. Finally, a twisted grin sprouted on his face.

“Y’eh. Okay. Come at me with everything you’ve got, kiddo. One thing, though.”

He lifted up his hand, and for the first time Luk noticed that it was armored. A cruel piece of work, it consisted of a thin-fitting golden gauntlet with a white trim, the latter of which built up to a rather sinister-looking claw. It was made of three interconnected pieces, white as newly-harvested ivory, and curved at the end to bend back towards his middle finger. The pirate flexed it menacingly as he noticed the youth’s eyes on it.

“The name’s SEAGAR!”

The words had barely left his mouth when he charged forward, slashing through the air with all his might. Seconds before it would have landed, Luk backflipped, spinning just out of the deadly strike’s way. His feet hit the deck of the dock in an instant and he was moving in return, drawing one fist back to deliver his own blow.

“Rum…” he mumbled as he drew closer. Seagar rushed to meet him, hands and arms pumping up and down as he comically sprinted forward. They met in the middle, claw meeting claw.

“...Shot!”

Their attacks’ collision kicked up a shockwave, but Seagar quickly discovered that his opponent didn’t intend to match him in a battle of strength. Grasping the safe part of the claw, Luk hoisted himself into the air and flipped over him, spinning around as a kick shot straight for the back of his neck.

“Boom About!”

Seagar grunted, the force of the blow sending him skidding forward as he dropped to his hands and knees once more. His grip tightened on the planks below, shredding them in straight lines as he slowed his forward trip. A few seconds later and he was halted, forcing himself to his feet again, grabbing the back of his neck and growling.

“You have a really tough neck,” Luk said with amazement as he came back to the ground.

“Yeh, yah,” the pirate snarled, reaching up and grasping his gauntleted hand, “I’ve heard it all before, kiddo. But… have you heard this?! Eat claw!”

“Heard-?”

He drew back his hand, and something within the gauntlet primed. Luk tensed, whiskers flickering ever-so-slightly, and in an instant the claw was launching towards him, extending into a wire aimed straight for his head!

“Woah!”

Jerking his head to the side, feeling the barb just miss his skull and tear away a few shreds of hair, he quickly followed through with the rest of his body and sidestepped a few inches. The attack drew back as quickly as it had come, and before he could get ready for another one seven such lines were streaking at him.

“Tch-!” he grunted before his body was in motion, leaping and bouncing through the air, his opponent’s strikes ripping through space he had occupied mere instants beforehand. Luk leaped from one place to another, narrowly avoiding lethal blow after lethal blow, managing to remain at least a half-step ahead of the attacking pirate. In response, Seagar grasped his wrist once more and jerked it harshly to the side. The ripple spread through the claw, and what had been several in a row became many from all directions.

Instinct took over; Luk’s bottom foot caught the edge of a loose plank and vaulted himself backward, tumbling through the air as another volley passed clean beneath him. His breath caught for an instant, but in its place came a surge of adrenaline.

Yeah! his mind thought feverishly, yeah, yeah, yeah''! This feeling… I understand it even more now, Fleury!''

He came down a few feet away, landing smoothly on his feet with one hand pressed against the ground as support. The deadly claw withdrew, returning to its original state at the tip of Seagar’s gauntlet. The older man was cackling, harsh laughter being broken only by the occasional harsher breath. For a moment, the two only stared each other down.

“Howazzat, kiddo?!” he called, “had enough yet?!”

Luk took a last deep breath, then allowed his enthusiasm to break free. “Nope!” he called with a grin, “Not even close!”

The growl the pirate let out was matched only by the renewed buzz from the crowd.

“-first time someone’s dodged all of Captain’s darts-”

“Sssh! You want him to hear you?! He’s a regular demon when he’s upset!”

Jenks chuckled, arms crossed in front of his chest. “Not bad. But can he finish it…?”

“Everyone, please get out of the way!” Lena tried to yell softly, bouncing on her soles and peeking over the taller bodies around them. “He hasn’t been hurt too badly, has he?”

“Stop acting like his mom,” Jenks muttered, seizing her back the back of the color and pulling her back down, “there’s only, what, five years difference between you two?”

“That’s big sister! I’m his big sister!” she protested, “Do you know how he’s doing, grandpa?”

“He’s doing fine,” her guardian replied, “more than fine, if he manages to get a hit in.” His eyes narrowed, scrutinizing the two combatants.

“Come on, brat...”

Back in the center of the commotion, Luk crossed his hands behind his head.

“This is a problem, though…” he murmured to himself. ''How am I supposed to get around that claw of his? If I can do that, then… Ah!'' He allowed his hands to drop to his sides; a mischievous twinkle appeared in his sea green eyes.

I don’t have to get around it at all!

Cockiness not fading a millimeter, he lifted up one hand and gestured tauntingly towards Seagar with his finger.

The pirate’s eyes bulged with barely-repressed fury and a small amount of gleeful killing intent. “Aright then!” he crowed, grasping his armored wrist tighter than he had before, “I’ll hit ya with everything ah’ve got!” Gasps rose from the crowd, one half appreciative and the other frightened.

Luk remained untroubled, still staring at him with dauntless eyes.

Seagar dragged his arm up, grip threatening to break through the gauntlet. “Killing Blow…” he grumbled, then grinned in anticipated triumph, “...Through tha' Heart!”

One last time, the claw went shooting out, its velocity much greater than before. It practically screamed through the air, ripping through space in an effort to embed itself in the flesh of its target. Only a few seconds had passed before it had completely bridged the distance between it and Luk.

Right as it would have hit him the lad reacted, thrusting his arms and hands together around his midsection. The claw struck dead on, the force of it pushing Luk back a few inches as his head and shoulders dropped forward, hair shadowing his eyes as he took the brunt of the blow. The crowd was completely hushed, frozen to silence by the seemingly suicidal act.

But the attack was stopped.

Defying its momentum, the straw-haired young man came to a screeching halt only a few inches from where he had been first hit. Even Seagar was taken by surprise, pausing and blinking at the sight.

“What the…?” he murmured, “is tha’ kid crazy…? Bah. It don’t matter now.” He shook his head and jerked his hand to recall the claw.

Nothing happened.

“Eh?!” he balked, then tried it again. Still zilch. “It be stuck?!”

“Gaohuhuhuhuhuhuhu!”

Laughter emerged from the impaled youth, joyful and brazen. All eyes turned him, he who should have been cut straight through by a blow with that much force. And he who was casually lifting the tip up with both hands gripped tight, his stomach untouched save for a slight rumple of the vest.

“Got ya!” he said happily, letting one hand go while keeping the other around the barb, “you can only control this from where you are, right? That makes it easy to grab!”

“You… got hit on purpose?!” his enemy was flabbergasted.

“Yup!” Luk, on the other hand, seemed utterly unfazed by the daring of his act. “I couldn’t grab it if you sent a bunch of them at me at once, and it wouldn’t be any good if I made it obvious, since you could just retract it… but if I made it look like it hit me, then you wouldn’t have any way of responding until it was too late!”

Seagar growled deep beneath his throat, and he began to pull on his side of the weapon to make it withdraw. “A’right, kiddo, you’ve impressed me. Now… let go and we can finish this properly-like!”

“Wrong~!”

“Eh?!”

The grip on the claw tightened as the youth drew it back further, his free hand grasping it again. “See, you reminded me of something,” he grunted as the dart began to strain from the two sides pulling at it, “and, when I think about it, what you said wasn’t exactly wrong.”

“...?”

“‘Crush everyone who says otherwise underfoot’. That’s what you said, right? Well…” Finally, the line was taut. Luk tensed himself, glaring down at the pirate as he crouched lower to the floor. “I… agree!”

In an instant his grip had relaxed, giving way to Seagar’s own pull. The lad hurtled through the air, carried by the momentum from his own leap and the strength of his adversary. His opponent could only gape as Luk crossed the space between them in moments, his leg spinning out and his foot taking the pirate full in the face!

“Boom About: Clock Cleaner!”

The shockwave from the strike hit the air right as his crewmates’ jaws hit the floor. Seagar followed them not long after, returning to his resting place with a considerably more bruised face. Luk landed next, standing up and dusting off his hands.

“There’s a lot of people out there like you, I hear,” he half-mumbled, “so I can’t just let them slide.” His voice now rose. “I can’t show the world what a true pirate is so long as guys like you are sailing, so come at me as much as you want! Gaohuhuhuhuhu!”

He flung his head back at this, laughing as if he had just won at a sport and not beaten down a rather fearsome-looking pirate.

“...WHAT?!” his crew erupted.

“The captain was beaten?!”

“And by a kid like that?!”

Luk’s laugh grew louder when he heard this, thrusting his fists into the air proudly. “Did you see, old man?! Lena-san?! I’m ready, right?”

In the crowd, Jenks chuckled, ducking his head slightly. “Little fool,” he grunted, “so proud of himself already…”

“He… did it.” Lena’s face was full of disbelief, but a stupid grin was taking shape on her face. “He actually did it!”

Still giggling, Luk dropped his arms and turned to face the ship. “Well, I’ll be taking this then. You guys don’t mind, right?” He turned towards the defeated pirate’s crew, smiling crookedly. “You can always take me on if you do!”

The crew’s only reply was a sort of collective mumble, as they slowly backed away into the awaiting crowd. Already the residents of Shangahi Cay were cracking their knuckles, brandishing household items like feather pans and brooms as if they were deadly weaponry. The amount of familiarity they had with such movements suggested that, in these hands, they were.

Turning back towards his new prize, Luk strode up the gangplank and onto the ship proper. He took a deep breath, allowing that used ship smell to fill his nostrils, before letting out a deep and satisfied breath.

“Step one,” he said contendly, hands placed lightly on his hips as he swiveled around again. Quickly he set about drawing up the anchor, cutting off the few ropes that also connected the vessel to the dock, and overall preparing the ship for the sea as best he could. Finally, he made a few nimble leaps to the top of the crow’s nest, tearing from it the flag of the attacking crew before dropping back to deck level in a single bond with a “ho!”.

“There we are,” he said, crumpling the offending flag in his fist, “all ready to sail!”

“Luk!”

The young man turned around right as Lena and Jenks reached the edge of the docks, the former looking especially concerned while the latter watched him with something close to pride in his eyes.

“You’re setting off just like this?” Lena asked, keeping the nervousness in her voice under control, “you still need to collect supplies! Find a few more crewmates! Maybe spend another month preparing-!”

“Got everything I need right here!” Luk replied, producing his notebook and waving it lightly in the air, “Besides, this guy probably has plenty of food onboard.” He glanced off to the side for a moment, worriedly, and said “Probably” in a smaller voice before shaking his head rapidly and placing his hands on the railing to lean over. “I’ll be fine, Lena-san. Don’t worry about it!”

“He’s right,” Jenks replied, placing his own gnarled hand on her shoulder. His gaze turned next to his ward of eight years.

“Now listen here, Luk. If you’re going out there... if you really want to follow that dream of yours to the last, then I’d better hear about it! If the newspapers don’t mention a single thing about you and you come limping back here, you’ll wish you were never born! A man doesn’t dedicate his life to something and walk away before it’s finished. Better to die trying than return in disgrace! Got that?!”

“Grandpa-!” Lena began to protest.

Luk himself had paused for a moment, thinking over the old man’s words with a blank expression. Finally, warmth and gratitude bloomed across his face and he gave a closed-eye smile. “Right! I won’t let you down, gramps!”

“Hmph,” Jenks nodded harshly, but his expression betrayed that, “damn straight you will. Go get ‘em, kid.”

The straw-haired youth nodded one last time, then turned around and with a skip in his step headed for the main deck once more. “Watch for me, everyone!” he called out in parting, raising one hand to wave behind him, “I really owe you all, so I’ll save some of the treasure I find for you!”

His words sinking in, Lena forced the sadness from her face and ran a forearm along her eyes, returning his firm smile. “Yeah!” she got out.

With a final laugh, Luk disappeared into the ship. Moments later it began to move, drifting away from the docks and heading out into open sea. The townspeople had largely vanished, dragging the various captured pirates with them, but three remained and watched the new pirate set out on his voyage.

“...There he goes,” Lena whispered, finally wiping a tear from her eye.

“Mn,” Jenks agreed, and then, more to himself: “A fresh wind’s blowing today, isn’t it?” He glanced up towards the sky, where the clouds had begun to shift in the light of the setting sun. ...It’ll take you far, kid. It’s the wind the world needs.”

“I just wish he had thought to bring someone with him,” Lena said as she turned around, heading for the old bar, “it’d be reassuring if he wasn’t alone-”

“?!”

Right as she spoke, the third figure on the pier shot forward, dodging gently between them and taking off along the dock. A moment later and it had leaped over the water, reaching out just enough to seize a dangling rope on the stolen ship and cling to the side. The two left behind were frozen with surprise.

“That was…?” the young woman gasped.

Jenks remained silent another moment, and then broke into a grin. “Looks like he isn’t so alone after all.”

“Aaah,” Luk sighed happily as he strode to the front of his new ship. The sun had reached the rim of the world, its rays fanning out as the top of the sky darkened. Golden light flooded the water and the world.

He stood there for a moment, taking it all in, and looked up to the sky above.

“I’ve finally started, Fleury,” he said, “I’m finally on my journey. Just you wait.”

He looked once more at the horizon, daring to imagine what lay ahead. ←Previous Chapter Next Chapter→