Chapter 5: Three years of battle Part 2

[Third Person's Point of View]

A pirate ship can be seen heading to a town named A- City located on the Garage Island. The pirates on board planned to pillage the necessity required to navigate through the Grand Line there and then set to Reverse Mountain.

The plan is to do what pirates usually do, which is to get in, acquire what you need by force, and murder before leaving a bloody mess as they sail away as fast as possible situation that plan did not go as they had envisioned. 

As soon as they stepped foot on the Island, they saw someone running towards him. It was a very tall and large muscular man with a stubbly, cleft chin, large lips, and black bushy hair. He has a well-defined jawline and light blue eyes with long eyelashes.

He wears a traditional Navy Uniform and considering the epaulets, the pirate noted that he was an Ensign. The sky is covered by clouds but they felt that the weather was going to worsen, a lot more than it already is.

"I sensed cute pirate boys. CUTE PIRATE BOYS!"

The navy Ensign yelled as he ran toward the pirate that had just docked. 

"I can't contain myself, Angel Transformation!"

The navy Ensign yelled as he jumped right as his clothes ripped during his so-called transformations, leaving him naked. Most pirates bled from their eyes at the sight of that transformation while making a grimacing face.

"Angel Kiss!"

The now naked man said still in the air. The pirates were... eventually arrested and they did not put any fight during their arrest, in fact, they welcomed it. Outside of the Captain who was pretty, the rest of the crew were sent to prison immediately.

The crew would wait a month before they could see their captain again but when that time came, the surviving members of the pirate crew could not recognize their captain. He was a shell of his former self.

This would mark the beginning of the legendary monster known and feared by most criminals as "Puri-Puri Officer". It would be years until South Blue was freed from that monster by a man that criminals would dub a hero much to his annoyance.

[Zahard's point of View]

I am a Fish-men which means I am worth a lot to many people. I used to think that was good when my parents told me this when I was three years old but looking back I guess they were trying to warn me and I did not listen too well.

I learned very quickly that humans are a violent and dangerous race who discriminate against fish-men, They tried to capture my parents and killed them when they fought back. The only reason why they did not kill me was because they did not want to waste any more money.

The day, I saw my parents being killed by them, was also the day I found that to humans, we were just a way to earn money by depriving us of our freedom. I learned more about the history of the Fish-men while I was waiting to be sold.

Humans define both fish-men and merfolk as "fish" instead of "men". This led to centuries of discrimination as the fish-men fought to prove their worth to the world. After being bought by the Zoldyck family and enduring Menthos' torture, this seems pointless to me.

They should not have anything to prove to humans or this world. It would have been better to fight against them. This was my mentality, to openly fight against them and never yield. Through everything that mentality is what kept me going and it became even more so after I met her.

Arlen Grace, a fallen noble swordswoman that was sold into slavery and ended up here in Eisleymos. At first, I did not like her since I hated humans... ALL humans but after a while and her nagging me to talk every time I was beaten black and blue by Menthos... I got to know her.

In the beginning, I thought I would use her to learn more about this world. I truly believe that was the reason why I talked to her. Little by little, without even realizing it, I started to not hate all humans. I guess loneliness gets to even the best of us.

I learned a lot about the world such as the various power systems, mostly those under the World Government and I was surprised to learn that the Zoldyck fell into that power system. I started to enjoy Arlen's company and I was shocked when I realized it... sadly I was not the only one.

Menthos used the chance of Arlen losing a match along with one arm to buy her and use her to break me... It almost did but instead, it made me change my mentality. I would not care what I had to do but I would see that his world burned even if I had to die.

That was why, when he brought in a girl that had soulless eyes and made some snarky comments at how she reminded her of Arlen, what he did to her before he killed her, I did not hesitate to kill the girl at his order. We both knew I was putting her out of her misery.

From that day on, I played the part of a loyal slave. I won battle after battle, tournament after tournament, trial after trial, and remained by his side because I needed to know everything about him. After all, that was the only way to know how to painfully burn his world to ashes.

After becoming the King of the Tower as people say, I earned a lot of privileges that Menthos thought fit to 'give' me as a reward. I felt like puking every time I had to put up the act of being a loyal slave. The Hollow... that is what people call me and to be fair, it is not far from the truth.

When Menthos got himself a new target to break, I knew my chance was coming. He started completely dropping his guard around me and little by little I learned even more about him such as his dream or ambition to lead the Zoldyck Family.

Once I learned that, I knew what I needed to take from him to break him. I started to make plans to make that a reality. It took more time to find ways to leave the Island unnoticed but once I did, all I needed was a big enough distraction to make my disappearance for a few days to go unnoticed.

Another Trial by a Thousand Blades would have been a decent option but it needed to be more challenging to captivate the entire Island and I would need the participant to be strong enough to last at the very least one year for my disappearance for a few days to go unnoticed.

As if answering my prayers, I overhear a conversation between the slave that Menthos has been trying to break and the slave that has been fucking every man who holds an important position here's woman.

---

"Rob, you awake?"

The slave that Menthos is trying to break asked.

"I am now, what's on your mind kid?"

Rob answered says.

"After I turn ten, I am going to do the Trial by a thousand blades."

I heard him say which widened my eyes. This was it! I could use this!

"Are you crazy! Do you plan to risk your life even more and for what? To be the King of the Tower?"

Rob said trying to dissuade him. I had honestly long known about their friendship but never did anything about it since that would not help me with my revenge in any way. I became thankful for that decision because I earned a golden opportunity.

"What fun would it be to become the king of the Tower? Tell Zahard to keep his boring seat. I will get out of the Tower and then out of this Island. Outside this Island, there exists the vast world you told me about, rolling skies stretch endlessly, and countless stars illuminate the darkness.

A place that is a thousand times- no, a billion times wider and freer than this Island. Once you imagine that such a world exists, don't you think all those things you get as King of this Tower are all so trivial?"

The boy said which brought a smile to my face. He had the will and drive to attempt it. I also knew that he had the strength to survive the trial for at least a year. 

"Haha!"

Rob laughed. Time flew and Rob died while leaving the Island with the most hilarious news. I had never seen Menthos this mad and humiliated. I almost broke character when I saw his red face. Anyone man who had power in Eisleymos wanted revenge for what Rob had done to them.

I seized this opportunity to tell Menthos that I had just recently overheard... what was his name again? Oh right, I remember, he decided to name himself Urek D. Mazino. I told Menthos that Mazino had decided to take upon Rob's name after the former declared that he would attempt the Trial by a Thousand Blades.

I knew could also use his connection to Rob to gather more attention to him so I stroked the iron when it was hot. I did not even need to say anymore, Menthos cooked up some background story about Mazino and Rob's friendship which was ironically almost identical to the truth.

The man in power needed a way to vent their frustration and just went with Menthos' story. They upped the difficulty of the Trial by a Thousand Blades. They also added a new condition to be able to participate in the Trial by a Thousand Blades.

---

It has been six months since he won the free-for-all deathmatch and Menthos sold the Mushi Mushi no Mi, Model: Praying Mantis to the World Government. I thought I should go see him after his latest victory.

His opponents decided to fight without weapons so he also had to fight a thousand opponents without weapons. He decided to grab an opponent by their feet and use them as a weapon. The crowd went wild when he bludgeoned everyone to death.

"That's a good attitude. You managed to survive your first six months. It is impressive, Mazino but you still lacked something. You should hate me more, curse me more, and detest me! Then you should take the power of that hatred and use it to survive this rotten world."

I said as his cell came into view and noticed his eyes staring daggers at me. He calmed himself before speaking as his eyes were still closed.

"You dirty bitch, work the shaft!"

"What?!"

I said in confusion.

"Oh, I'm sorry I was told to dirty talk when someone is sucking my dick! Nice glazing by the way."

Noticing that he did not need any more motivation to win, I left without saying another word. I could not my facade break not when I was close to getting my revenge. My current target was the Doflamingo Family since they had enough power to destroy the Zoldyck Family.

The problem at the moment was that I did not know exactly what to do to pisse them off to the point of them annihilating the Zoldyck Family. Their bases that were close to Eisleymos were not important enough to warrant the desired actions upon their destruction.

I have heard that a Celestial Dragon couple frequently visits an Island nearby to buy slaves that were trafficked into Eisleymos first before being sent to that Island but recently they have not gone to buy a new set of slaves. I will keep an eye out in case they come.

[Third Person's Point of View]

"XAXAXAHAHA! Another great loot!"

A pirate shouts as he looks at what he and his crew have done. In front of him is a burned town riddled with dead bodies which were now burned as well. Behind him was his crew who were surrounded by crying women and children that were tied down with ropes.

As the pirates started to laugh, a short old man wearing a set of clothes and rings with elaborate designs can be seen walking towards them. He has green spiky hair, a beard, and a mustache. He has a mark on the right side of his head, with two spiked circles connected by a line cutting through his right eye.

"Hey, I heard this place makes the best strawberry milk in the whole South Blue... Do you know where I can get one of them?"

The old man asked which caused the pirate crew to notice the old man next to them that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

"Who is this crazy old coot?"

A pirate asked before the old man brought his wooden cane up and pointed towards the pirate that had just spoken before yelling at him.

"Listen up! Let's say you drink too much strawberry milk, and have to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, but it's cold outside your bed. You don't want to get up, but the urge to urinate is just too strong! You make up your mind to go!

You run to the bathroom, stand in front of the toilet, and let loose! You think that all your life has led to this moment! But then you realize. It isn't the bathroom! You're still in bed! That feeling of lukewarm wetness spreads like wildfire! But you don't stop!

You can't stop! That's what I'm talking about! That's the truth of the strawberry milk! Do you get it?"

There was an entire minute's worth of silence before the rest of the Pirate erupted in laughter at what they thought was a demented old man.

"You think this is funny old man?!"

Said the pirate who had been pointlessly lectured about strawberry milk. The old man sighed before speaking once more.

"Lighten up will ya, I was just joking but if you want to get serious then... What kind of woman is your type?"

"The fuck is with this demented coo-"

*Fwip*

The pirate tried to yell but stopped when a sudden gush of wind emanated from him.

*Thud**Thud**Thud**Thud**Thud**Thud**Thud**Thud**Thud**Thud**Thud**Thud**Thud**Thud**Thud**Thud**Thud**Thud**Thud**Thud**Thud**Thud**Thud**Thud**Thud**Thud**Thud**Thud*

With a horrified look, his crewmate watched as his body fell onto the ground as an assembly of cubed meat. Even his clothes and weapons were cut into pieces. They saw that the old man now had a sword instead of a wooden cane in his hand.

"*Sigh*... I knew it. Pirates always give a boring answer. Still, I try to give the benefit of the doubt. What about you guys... What kind of woman is your type? Do get the answer right or else... I'll kill ya!"

As the old man says those last words, he opens his mouth, which shows to has a full set of fangs for teeth.

[AN:

Being an AU, allows me to add more suspense since with how my MC is built, with him joining the straw hats, it will put them at recruit difficulty. There will not be any challenges or suspense during any arc which I will try to avoid.

Want more? Like Thanos, I want those STONES!!!]