One Piece: Sea Devil

Back in the mountains, Alex was sleeping soundly and his loud snore was heard all the way outside the wooden house.

Right after he made that joke on Addilyn and the others she couldn't help but smack the head of Alex, which sent him right onto dreamland as he was already staying awake with persistency.

Addilyn and the others were shocked and worried about how easy he went down from Addilyn's slap.

And so they picked him up and took him to Nabashi villages doctor while the other villagers from the other villages split with a plan in mind.

Alex was treated and was bandaged all over, and even now he is sleeping soundly as if nothing happened for the next couple of days.

It has been a week already and Alex was starting to wake up.

He woke up to the smell of food, his favorite which was meat being roasted on fire.

When he came to this world food was one of the last things on his mind, but when he saw his old grandfather cooking up some anime styles meat, he couldn't help but get excited.

(Anime Style Meat 🍖)

And when Alex first took that big chunk of a bite when his teeth grew he was truly thankful for that moment and moments on.

They were everything anime has ever shown him, the juicy meat, the flavors, the textures, and the satisfaction it brings.

Now he thought about why Luffy loved meat so much.

And most of all it was easy to make, Alex saw his grandfather slap on some salt on it and left it to roast on the fire, minutes later it has the smell of heaven or even better, and Alex doesn't think this as an exaggeration.

And one of the reasons Alex began the beast hunt for training was because no matter what beast it is, as long as it's a beast from the land, it could turn out as anime meat.

Sea kings probably have good meat too but they haven't tried any.

And so during their training Alex and the others would hunt down a few beasts to bring back to eat at the mountains, but they would stop at Nabashi village to give some to the hungry.

It was easy to cook that even Viktor could do it himself, Addilyn on the other hand would try to experiment on the meat and other kinds of food they brought.

She would use other ingredients for the meats and see how they would taste, she would make them and give to the other three to taste test it.

Some were good, bad, bland, spicy, and even gross making them sick, she once admitted that she used some mushrooms along with other unknown ingredients she found in the mountains and Alex immediately threw all the ingredients she had before dragging her across every village to learn about cooking and what ingredients not to use.

The village cooks were more than happy to teach her, and so that was her other training that she took on the past training years the four did.

And she became better as time passed, now she would carefully cook and feed the others when there is a break.

Now outside of the wooden house where Alex lay asleep, there were 4 kids around a fire as it roasted some meats on it.

These 4 were Viktor, Markus, Addilyn, and a young kid around the age of 4 named Noma.

This kid was the most attached to Alex's group, it didn't matter how much they tried getting rid of him since he was pretty set on following them.

They met the kid in one of their beast hunts, the boy, Noma, was about to be a victim of a tiger beast when the three saved him.

During their saving, Noma watched the three and in his mind over exaggerated them saving him.

Since then he thought of the three as heroes, champions, or whatever he would think of as it changes twice daily.

Apparently the boy was also an orphan and from the far away village of Ringle.

For days the group tried to leave him in the dust but Noma gripped onto them and held on.

That was the daily routine until they heard of his story, the boy who was only a baby at the time watched as bandits slaughtered his family, killed his father and did unspeakable things to his mother.

At that time Noma was still an infant and didn't know what what is.

After that he was in an orphan house and grew up there, but his life wasn't as he hoped, the other kids pick on him and says he brings bad luck wherever he goes.

And he has been labeled as that for his 4 years as a child, he hated being in the village and so he would go to quiet places to get away from these people.

This went on until one day...

As he sat on a rock in the forest a sudden squeal sounded out as Noma jerked up startled before falling on his b.u.t.t, he looked scared at the bushes afraid for what is about to come out.

Then out a squealing boar running past him.

Noma sight in relief thinking it's just a little pig, until a deep growl sounded out behind the same bushes.

This time Noma knew it was a dangerous beast, he crawled backwards as getting up wasn't even on his mind at the time.

But before he could get away a giant tiger the size of 7 feet jumped out with it's mouth open showing it's scary teeth aiming to snack on Noma.

Noma screamed as fear rushed into every bit of his cells and he almost passed out, but a person fell from the sky, and with him a sword that went through the nose of the tiger and out below stabbing onto the ground.

The beast screamed in anger and pain as it wiggled struggling to get this sword off of himself.

But four shots sounded out and the limbs of the tiger beast were bloodied and became weak, shortly after that another guy came from the other side and sliced the neck of the tiger breaking the sword he had.

After that was a tiger head on Alex's sword, a broken blade of Viktor's, and a helpful Markus.

As Markus helped the boy up, they told him to go back to his village, but he didn't and followed the three instead.

And so they left him to do whatever the boy wanted to do, he would appear sometimes and disappear whenever he wishes.

And at times would also try training with the three but couldn't keep up with them.

Now everyone knew about Noma being friends with the three young heroes and the cute Addilyn.

...

As the four were sitting on the logs around the fire roasting the meat, Noma was asking questions as he looked at Viktor and Markus as his idols.

"Tell me again! Tell me again! Tell me how big bro Alexander beat that annoying guy up!!" Noma asked excitedly.

"No way Noman, we've been telling you about it everyday since we came back." Viktor said.

"Noma!! It's Noma!! Stop adding things on!!" Noma yelled back.

"Yeah yeah whatevers punk." Viktor said as he grabbed Noma's face and pushed it aside walking away from the fire and standing a bit away before he started doing sword strikes.

"Hmmph, why are you even training so hard, even if you always train you will never beat big bro Alexander!!" Noma mocked Viktor.

"Wha- you little!!" Viktor walked up to Noma with a fuming face.

But Addilyn came next to little Noma and held onto him looking at Viktor.

"Stop it you idiot, he's just a kid." Addilyn said to Viktor.

Viktor paused to try and calm down, but when he looked at Noma again, the little punk was sticking his tongue out at him.

"You!! Who cares, I'm a little kid too, and you could just call this a little small kids fight, heheheh." Viktor said as he had his sword up with an evil face.

Noma had a worried expression as he looked at Viktor thinking this would be his end.

*Tak*

A small rock came and hit Viktor's big head before falling to the ground.

They looked to the side to see Markus sitting on the other log with a small meat on his left hand and a rock he was throwing up and catching with his right.

"Stop playing with the brat, doing so is making you look stupider than you already are." Markus said.

"Tsk! Throw a rock at me again, I'll throw a boulder at you!" Viktor said to Markus.

"Boulder? Bah, like you lift it up with your scrawny arms." Markus said.

"That's it, I'm gonna rip-"

*Bang*

*Creak*

They turned their heads to the house doors to see Alex, who was bandaged up from head to toe and stood there like a mummy.

"Alex!" x3

The three called out.

But Alex didn't hear them as he awkwardly walked to them with unsteady steps as he still felt some pain on his body.

As he was walking he started ripping the bandages off of him starting from his face.

"Alex-"

Before they could say anything Alex just sat on the log and grabbed a big piece of meat and stared at it with big eyes, watery mouth, and a gulping throat.

As he tried opening his mouth to eat he froze as a sudden stinging pain came from his cheeks and jaw.

"Ow." Alex said.

He touched his cheeks and felt a stitched up line on his right cheeks down to his jaw.

"Alex, be careful, you should still be recovering." Addilyn said as he came sitting next to him checking his injuries.

"It's alright, I'll be fine." Alex said as he ignored the pain and sunked his teeth deep into the meet and biting off a good chunk and started chewing the goodness off of it.

"Mmmmm!" Alex m.o.a.n.e.d.

The others looked at him in silence.

When they brought him to the village, the doctor was shocked and thought there was no way he could still be breathing.

He has lost a lot of blood, and has holes, actual holes on his body.

But through all that he was still alive, now after just a week he is sitting here eating like a pig without stopping.

As Alex was stuffing his face he looked to the side and saw the now silent Noma.

"Why- *cough*, why so quiet now Noma?" Alex asked.

"N- no reason." Noma said nervously.

Noma admired all three of them together, Alex he looked up to the most, but he was also afraid of him.

Noma liked the other two as well, he could ask or do whatever he wants with Markus as he was cool, he also learned a lot from Markus.

If he isn't planning a prank with Viktor, then he is making fun of him since he is an easy target.

When it came to hunting both Alex and Viktor looked like murderous kids since they would always chop and butcher these poor beasts and get covered up with their blood.

But Viktor was more chill and was also an idiot, Noma was scared of them both but when he got to see Viktor more he knew that this idiot was just a nice idiotic demon.

Alex on the other hand barely smiled and at times were serious so Noma was a bit scared of him.

Of course Alex would do some jokes stoically at times but Noma wouldn't even get it, which ends in the others laughing at him.

But Noma knew Alex was a good guy, he was just a bit scary.

"Alex, are you sure you shouldn't be resting now?" Addilyn asked.

"No, it's fine, I feel fine." Alex said.

"Hahahahahah, good, lets fight the- agh." Before Viktor can finish Addilyn smacked him.

"No, even if he says he is fine that doesn't mean he can just run and jump around." Addilyn said.

"How long have I been out anyways?" Alex asked as he now had two meats on his hands.

"Just a week."

*Pffttt*

"A week?!" Alex looked at the others.

"Have I missed anything? Is there any attacks or anything from these [Reaper Merchants]?" Alex asked.

"No, not that we've heard of." Markus said.

"Why? Are there gonna be an attack?" Markus asked a bit worried along with the others.

"Most likely, we just fought off a big group that belongs to a giant organization, and that would put this island on their minds for some payback or something." Apex said.

"Remember that man?" Alex asked the others.

"That... That Borak guy? Yeah, he said killing that Siegfried guy just got us in more trouble than ever." Alex said.

The others looked down deeply worried for the future, it was hard enough to fight off that bunch and they were even lucky that there was a nice guy, but how long will their luck last.

"What are we gonna do?" Markus asked.

"What can we do, we're just a small island with a few thousand people, if that ship was just a small group of this organization then we would be sitting ducks when they decide to fire back fully." Alex sat there on the log eating meat as he said with a serious face.

"But... what about all the people in the villages, they won't be able to do anything if it really happens." Addilyn said in worry.

"They're not our responsibility." Alex said.

As he said this the others fell silent, 3/5 of them are probably the strongest and fastest in this island yet they can't do anything.

"Remember that we're just kids, there is no one saying save us or telling us to save them, if we do that we'll just be killing ourselves along with the others." Alex said.

"But still-" Addilyn voiced out.

"That's enough Addy." Alex said and looked to Viktor and Markus.

"Get ready, we might have to sail sooner than we thought." Alex said as he got up throwing a bone on his left hand away and walked back to the house with another meat on his right.

The others didn't know what to say, in the end they just watched his back as he walked back in the house unsteadily.

Noma was just sitting their silently, he wanted to speak out a few times when they talked but just couldn't find the courage.

As Alex walked back in the house he finally realized that the man he called grandpa is not here anymore.

His face changed into sadness, walked up to the center of the living room and looked around the interior of the house, he pictured the time he spent with his old man on each part of the house.

As he walked around, he ended up in Abner's room, the old guy didn't have anything special in his room, it was just plain simple.

No frames, no decorations, nothing a normal person would put up in display.

There were just closet full of clothes, dressers, wardrobes, and a bed.

But what Alex saw was a large c.h.e.s.t on the corner of the room.

He never knew what was in it and the old man never showed him, there was this tactic he would use when he was just a small child around 2.

He would do his best baby face and asked Abner to do whatever he wanted, like going outside, eating more meat, going for a swim, or asking old Abner to open that large c.h.e.s.t.

But the last one never worked, no matter how Alex made a sad face and pointed at the c.h.e.s.t old Abner never opened it.

Now he was gone and Alex was standing in front of this mystery c.h.e.s.t.

Alex grabbed onto the c.h.e.s.t trying to open it but it was locked, he then remembered the key his grandpops would always carry.

He walked out of the room just to see Addilyn walk in.

"Addy, you said my old man passed from the village raid, where is his body?" Alex asked.

"Oh, um well everyone was gathering the- the bodies these past days, and they are ready to move it to the base of the mountains on that side to bury them." Addilyn said.

"Did you want to see grandpa Abner?" Addilyn asked.

Alex nodded walking out of the house and headed down the mountains.

"Where's he going?" Viktor asked.

"To see grandpa Abner." Addilyn said.

"Oh, well I'm going too." Viktor went, and right behind him was Noma.

As the two followed Alex down the mountain, Markus and Addilyn stayed on top.

When he reached the village he was shocked, there were less people than usual, he only saw about 10 people that were going around fixing things and helping others.

A few buildings were apparently burned down, while others collapsed.

Alex's stomach was twisting as he felt like throwing up.

Most of the people he knew weren't here, they were either dead or elsewhere.

"When the bandits came they raided and destroyed most things in the village, after that the group we fought off came and took some villagers and killed the ones not cooperating." Viktor said as he walked up besides Alex.

"Some of the villagers planned on going after those [Reaper Merchants] but luckily we came back with them before they can go get themselves killed." Viktor said.

"Is... is this all the people left?" Alex asked.

"Oh no, some of the people in the village went to the other villages to help them, in fact it was most of our villagers that went, now there is about 15 left here, but sadly there was still some that died." Viktor said with a frown.

Alex walked up to one of the people working around and asked him where the bodies are, the man pointed to the edge of the village near the forest.

When Alex, Viktor, and Noma walked to the edge of the village, they could see more of the destruction caused by the cowards.

By the time they reached the edge they saw a few other people working on the bodies, they were wrapping it in clothes and putting them in neat piles.

Alex saw more than 20 bodies which are the villagers, that were either wrapped or not, then he saw someone he recognized.

"Grandma Melinda!" Alex called out.

"Hmm? Oh! Alex honey, I'm so happy to see you on your feet already." She said as she weakly got up walked to Alex and hugged him.

Melinda was an old lady around the same age as Abner and was in charge of the store in the village, she had grey'd out hair, 5'5 and is hunched back wearing a dress under a yellow cloak with a hoodie covering her head.

Grandma Melinda was one of the few nice ones that allowed Alex to read the books in both her store and her collection.

When Alex, Viktor, and Addilyn were still young and playing about until nighttime, they would go to many houses like Grandma Melindas and have dinner there.

Melinda along with a few others also loved their company, since they lived alone and the three were a noisy bunch.

As Melinda let Alex go she checked his injuries as she had some help in Alex staying alive.

"Aiss boy, your wounds are not yet gone, and yet you still stand up when you need rest?" Melinda said with a frown.

Alex didn't say anything, he just looked at her eyes.

"Rest is the last thing on my mind, where-... where is he?" Alex asked.

"*Sigh* I thought you might come to see him, come I will show you." Melinda said as she walked to a building next to the spot as Alex followed.

When they were in, Melinda led him through a few doors before they walked inside a dark room where a few things such as cutters, scissors, herbs and many more things.

On the center of the room was a table, and on that table was Abner, lying there without any life.

He was n.a.k.e.d but from his toes to his stomach, it was wrapped with clothes and other things like a mummy would.

On his skin were scars and bullet holes which is from his past as a marine, but there were more recent ones which were obviously from the recent raid.

Alex walked to the table and stared at the old man, he looked the same when he would sleep.

"He tried to save as many as he can as always, but he was never any good with hostage situations, he would sacrifice himself just to let hostages go.

The bandits knew that when they were up against him, those cowards couldn't take him on so they used cowardly tactics." Grandma Melinda said.

"I'll be outside boy, I'll give you two some time alone." Grandma Melinda said as she walked out closing the doors.

Alex looked at the man and his eyes watered a bit before he closed them, he sniffed as his nose got a bit runny.

He raised his right hand and put it on top of the old mans c.h.e.s.t.

"Thank you."

Was all he said.

Then he stood there for half an hour, he didn't say anything nor did he move.

He somehow knew he wasn't good at this kind of thing, saying goodbye or showing feelings, maybe it was from this old man himself or maybe it was from his past life, but the least he could do was say thank you and stay with the man for a bit.

Soon Alex walked out of the room seeing the old man for the last time.

As he walked out of the room, Grandma Melinda saw him and called out to him.

"Said your goodbyes?" Melinda asked.

"Mhmm." Alex nodded.

"Good, and don't you worry honey, he is now resting in peace." Melinda said.

"Oh, and his belongings is on the living room table waiting for you." Melinda said as she walked in ready to finish the body wrappings.

Alex walked to the table and saw a cloth bag, he grabbed onto it and looked inside.

Somehow the bandits or the [Reapers] didn't look at this old mans belongings.

Inside the bag was a small pouch full of berries, a silver ring, and a necklace holding two keys.

Alex tied the cloth onto his h.i.p.s before walking out.

He walked out just to see the small group finish putting the bodies on a carriage, Viktor and Noma helping them which sped up the progress.

Now there were only a few to wrap before it joins the others.

The three watched the bodies and the destruction before they walked back to the mountains.

Along the way Viktor "grabbed" onto a beast and took it with them for their first dinner.

Soon all 5 of them sat on the logs waiting for what Alex have to say, but Addilyn spoke first.

"Oh, Alex I forgot to tell you but the village leaders wanted to speak to you, they came a few days ago but you were still resting so they left." Addilyn said.

"They did? What do those old fogs want?" Alex asked.

"They didn't say, but they looked worried and rushed here." Addilyn said.

"Hmm, well maybe I'll talk to them soon, but for now, I wanna talk about the bandits." Alex said and caught the others attention.

Viktor and Markus wanted the bandits as their first target ever since they started training, but Alex told them that he wants to fight the mountain king first, they went back and forth but Alex was still adamant on his decision.

Hearing him want to talk about the bandits got their attention thinking they might change targets.

"What about the bandits?" Markus asked.

"They stepped over the line, I thought we could leave them for last but that was just risky thinking, the longer they stay breathing the more casualties they could cause." Alex said.

"So..." Markus said hoping for what he is thinking.

"Yeah, Let's take these bastards down." Alex said.

Markus and Viktor smiled widely, for both of them the bandits were always a group they wanna get rid off from this island, and Markus' target was always the bandits.

"YEAHH!!" Markus and Viktor screamed out.

"NO!" Addilyn suddenly shouted.

"Huh?" x3

"You won't." She said.

"But why-"

"At least not now, you are still hurt, and you need to recover fully before you do anything crazy." Addilyn said.

"I'm with her Alex, you almost died days ago, you can't just get out of bed when you wale up and decide to go on a bandit hunt." Markus said.

"Hmm, yeah alright, I can barely walk anyways, I'll give it a few days." Alex said.

"Weeks, give it a few weeks at LEAST." Addilyn said.

"Yeah yeah, but for now we work on a plan." Alex said.

"Do any of you know how many bandits there are in all?" Alex asked.

"No." x4

"Hmm, okay then, on this week I want you guys to find any kind of information you can on the bandits from the villagers, and try to keep our plans a secret, you never know who's side anyone is." Alex said.

"Addy, you can stay at Nabashi and ask for anything about the bandits.

Viktor, go to the far village of Roshak and do your best to find some info.

Markus I'll leave Woogan village to you.

You guys can go tomorrow, and when you get there talk to the village leaders and tell them I will be at the village of Ringles in three days from today." Alex said.

"W- what about me?" Noma asked nervously.

"Well you could come with me when I go to Ringles, how about it?" Alex asked.

"Sure." Noma said.

"Alright, for today, just do whatever you want." Alex said.

He got up and walked to the mountain beast Viktor killed earlier and dragged it by the leg to the fire spot.

"What are you doing?!" Addilyn asked.

"Umm, making food." Alex said.

"No way, I said rest not cook, just leave it to me I got this go lay down." Addilyn said as she grabbed the beasts leg from Alex.

"Alright, I'm fine with that, leave me a big portion though." Alex said.

Soon Alex was in front of the c.h.e.s.t again, he reached onto the cloth bag and took out a necklace and a ring.

The silver ring he put on his finger but it was too big, he always forgets he is in the body of a child, he put the ring back in the bag and looked at the necklace holding two keys.

He took a knee and inserted one of the keys into the c.h.e.s.t key hole, but it didn't work, and so he tried the other one which worked.

When he opened it he was shocked, his face shined from the reflection of the gold berries.

"That's a lot." Alex whispered.

He has seen berries but this much filling half the big c.h.e.s.t was just insane, 2/4 of the c.h.e.s.t was gold.

But more importantly on top of the gold was two letters and a few books.

Alex grabbed the books and read the titles, they varied from:

-Marines Database

-Devil Fruit Encyclopedia

-Dangerous Pirates

-Cp7 Techniques

-World Powerhouses

Along with a few others, Alex put then aside and went to the two letters.

He opened the first letter:

::

Dear Alexander...

If you are reading this then I am most likely gone, and if this is someone other than my grandson then I am afraid something terrible must have happened.

Either way I will continue...

Dear Alex, you must have a lot of questions about who you are, or why I am the way I am, but I will start from the beginning.

There is not much to tell about me, I grew up in a poor family on the island of Manato, and with many dangers lurking around I decided on becoming a marine, I always kept a book with me as I spoke more in writing then talking.

And through my many years in the marines I put everything I know on the books, and after 30 years in the marine I finally became a captain of my own ship.

But by that time I was already ready to retire, good timing too as the seas became more dangerous.

I came back to my island which is marked protected by me, a marine captain, but my time protecting it or coming back didn't put the people at ease as there are still bandits, pirates, and many other factions that target the people of Manato island.

But I still protected it the best I could.

Then one day a storm popped up out of nowhere, this island has always been sunny, yet the skies darkened and lightning struck the island.

After hours of the storm it ended, and when I came out of my door a baby was on my doorstep.

That was you, Alexander Knight.

I was lost as I didn't know how to care for a baby, but you were put on my doorstep and so I decided to raise you.

For the first two years of your baby life, I was a wreck and at times I wasn't sure if you could stay with me anymore as I was constantly doing things that might be unusual for a baby, and dangerous.

But like a answer to my prayers you started becoming more m.a.t.u.r.e, more independent and that puts me at ease to know you start out smart.

After that, I would guess you know the rest, and I didn't have to worry about you.

You trained yourself, you made yourself friends and you seem to have a future for yourself.

All I could say for this new experience you gave me is, Thank you.

And I am proud of you...

::

The letter didn't say much but his origins and how they met, but he was grateful for the old man either way.

Alex folded the letter and put it back in the c.h.e.s.t.

He now has his back on the wall while sitting down and looked up in thought.

Then he looked at the second letter, but it didn't say anything.

All it had was:

::

All my belongings are on the X.

::

That was all it said.