Chapter 2: The exiled prince

10 years later…

On a small cottage made of wood and leaves, a woman stands looking at the house with complicated eyes. Victoria has now outgrown this place and is planning on setting out to sea in hopes to find civilization.

Victoria, now age 16 was 5,5ft tall with a toned lean body. Through the years she was stuck on the island, she has survived through foraging and using her power to fish on the coast. During this period, she has mastered the ability of healing, barrier, and even offensive skills using divine light. 

Just as she was about to say goodbye to her humble abode, she heard a commotion on the distant shore. She quickly stepped and transformed into a stream of light towards the commotion. Upon arriving, she saw a ship crashed with an injured man wearing a straw hat lying on the beach. Victoria hastily inspected the man, seeing that he was unresponsive, she was caught in a dilemma of whether to treat the young man or let him die. As she was deliberating, a small ding rang in her ears.

"Save the stranger… reward: 1 lottery ticket."

Upon hearing that, Victoria immediately went into action to heal the young man. Throughout her years on the island, other than her first 10 lottery tickets, she was not able to find another way to get them. Seeing this made her a little happy, she dragged the man to her cottage and laid him in a bed of leaves. Lifted her hands, and a stream of light enveloped the man. After a few seconds, his wounds started to close at a rapid pace and he no longer looked like he was at the brink of death.

Seeing that the man was in a stable condition, Victoria stepped outside the cottage and went to gather water from a nearby stream. Upon returning, she found that the man was awake sitting on the edge of the bed. As her golden eyes met his, he was too stunned to speak.

"Is there something on my face?" asked Victoria with a smile

"No… no, sorry that was quite rude of me, thank you for saving me. My name is Joy Boy. What's yours?" 

"Joy boy, huh… well nice to meet you, my name is Victoria. Now can you tell me how you managed to get to that condition?"

Victoria spent that whole day learning more about joy boy and where he was from, through his stories, Victoria was able to piece together information about this world she came to. This world consisted of multiple islands, and even large continents of land mass, there seem to be 20 kingdoms scattered around the world. However a single force named the great kingdom has developed weapons that suppressed the 20 kingdoms which made them the overlord of this world.

Joy boy seems to hail from the so-called ancient city. After a few hesitation and reassurance, he admitted that he was once a prince of this great kingdom. However, upon witnessing the evils of the kingdom, he was dissatisfied and consumed a fruit believed to be born from a devil, hence named devil fruit.

His consumption of the fruit, although it gave him great super powers, cursed him with the inability to swim in the ocean water. When the kingdom found out, they stripped him of his title and exiled him to death, if not for his cleverness in escaping, then he would have died. After escaping, he wandered in the endless sea sailing without direction until finally a storm hit his boat resulting in him drifting on the sea before reaching the island Victoria was on.

Victoria gave him words of comfort and asked if he had any plans after recovering. Joy boy turned to Victoria before saying

"I want to someday return to the empire and end the tyranny of the nobles, through this I hope to create a world of freedom for everyone" 

Victoria observed his eyes as it lit up with passion when speaking, convincing her in aiding him accomplish this dream. She looked at him in the eye saying

"Although we have not known each other that long, hearing what you said, I want to aid you in achieving your dreams." 

"Alright, from now on you will be my first comrade in sailing the sea, exploring the world and liberating people from their oppressor."

After a quick understanding from each other, they both celebrated and started planning on preparing to depart from this island. During the night, Victoria opened up her lottery table and used the ticket she had received from saving Joy boy. 

"Congratulation host for receiving a customizable ship"

Seeing this, Victoria can't help but be thankful that the thing her and joy boy needs the most appeared as her prize. After receiving the boat, she did not bring it out but instead went to a hill top to meditate through the night. It was only when the sun had risen that she opened her eyes only to see that joy boy was training near her. On her peripheral she saw him throwing punches and saw the wonders of the devil fruit. His hands had extended like rubber, a fascinating scene Victoria has never seen before. Seeing that he was focused on training, Victoria remained seated and waited for him to finish his session. 

"Oh you're already awake Victoria!" shouted joy boy

"I have been awake for some time now, just did not want to disturb you" Victoria replied with a faint smile and eye squint.

"I was not able to tell you yesterday but I have a boat all ready for us to use, so we can set sail whenever you are ready" 

"Alright, let's spend a few more days preparing before we set sail!"

Victoria was a little surprised joy boy never questioned where she got the boat but quickly suppressed it as everyone had secrets and he seemed to not mind it.

"Alright, I'll bring it out now, we can design it and name it before heading out."

Victoria brought out the boat and a small boat floated above her palm, after a few modifications she shook her hands and the small boat flew to the shore and expanded till it was a full fledged ship. Seeing the ship, Joy boy and Victoria named it 'Pluto'.