CH - 77

Jozu," he said with a deep, humbling voice.

"Sir," Jozu responded in his own deep voice.

"Your message sounded important."

"It was. We have a new kid wanting to join our crew."

Whitebeard looked at Jozu in confusion. "This was…?"

Jozu nodded to Halcen. "Go ahead."

Halcen nodded. He stepped forward. "Hey there, geezer. I'm here to join your ranks!"

Whitebeard laughed. His boisterous voice reverberated through their little party. He looked at Jozu. "I like this one. He's got spunk." He looked back at Halcen. "And what's your name, kid?"

"My name is Avarik Halcen," he said with stalwart enthusiasm.

"Avarik Halcen?" he asked. Hearing the man say his name was something else.

"Yes," he said with confidence.

"Don't you have parents that will worry about you?"

Halcen's face twitched. "My parents are dead. They were murdered two weeks ago."

Whitebeard seemed to take his word. "Hmmm. I see. Now you're another lost sheep, looking for a place to fit in."

"I think… joining your crew would be good for me. I can hold my own in a fight and I'll carry my own weight. But I need someone to teach me how to be stronger." He clenched his fists. "I can't be this weak anymore." He almost choked on his words.

"I understand." Whitebeard stood up from his chair. He was beyond massive. He was a titan. He made Halcen feel like an ant. He looked deep into Halcen's eyes. "We have found ourselves a family here, Halcen." He looked about his crew, waving his arms. "If it is strength you seek, you can find that anywhere. But here, we find courage. We find meaning."

Halcen didn't look away from Whitebeard's eyes. "If that's what it takes." He clenched his fists.

Whitebeard extended his hand to Halcen. Halcen put his hand in Whitebeard's. The giant Captain's hand dwarfed Halcen's like an infant's, but he shook it anyway. "Welcome to the Whitebeard Pirates."

Everyone around began cheering.

"Welcome!"

"Let's party!"

Whitebeard looked around at his raucous crew, then back to Halcen. "I'll have Marco show you around. You're gonna need to get acquainted if you're going to be staying here."

"Wait, I won't be staying with Jozu?"

"Hmm? No, you'll be staying here, on my ship."

Halcen wasn't sure how to take that. "Why?"

"There's… something about you…" he said vaguely. "I feel like you would be better suited here."

Halcen smiled to himself. Now he could be free of Blanche and Jozu and their expectations. He looked about the ship. Off to my next grand adventure, with this crew. This is why I came here. To be stronger. I can do that even better with Whitebeard by my side. If Whitebeard recognizes me, that bodes well. Halcen looked up at Whitebeard with fiery eyes. "Sounds good to me."

"Marco!" Whitebeard roared, trying to get someone's attention.

"What's up?" came a small voice, followed by a smaller person. This was Marco. He was outrageously short, but he also seemed really young. He had slightly tanned skin and ruffled yellow hair. He was surprisingly thin, even for how short he was. Halcen thought he looked like a starving orphan. "I'm Marco," he said through a mouth with several missing teeth.

"Halcen," Halcen said, suddenly unsure about this whole thing. They shook hands.

"Marco," Whitebeard said. "Halcen's going to be joining our crew. I want you to give him a tour of the ship. You're going to be inducting him into our ranks."

"Sweet," the kid said. Marco turned around and said "Let's go."

Halcen walked off without looking back. He left Blanche and Jozu behind with a smile. They walked off from the adults with Marco in the lead. "What's all this bullshit about family? The old guy sounds nuts."

"What? No way," Marco said. "We're all each other's got."

"And that means we have to be family? I just want to be powerful."

Marco giggled. "How do you think that's gonna happen without any help? No one here is self made. We all lean on each other. We're a big old pirate family."

"And you're a pirate?" Halcen laughed.

"Yes indeed," the kid said with pride. "I'm Whitebeard's most powerful weapon."

Halcen burst out laughing.

"Hey, you'll see. One day I'm gonna be big!"

"And where are your parents?"

"I honestly don't know," Marco said with little offense. "I've been here as long as I can remember."

"Wait… you grew up on this ship?"

"As far as I remember, yeah."

"But… why? You're just kid."

Marco laughed. "So are you."

"Psh… I'm not a kid."

"How old are you?"

"Thirteen. I'm practically an adult."

"Well, I'm nine, so you're only a couple years older than me. We're not so far in age."

"But I'm a teenager. You're still just a kid."

"Nuh uh. I'm a pirate."

Halcen laughed. The kid had spirit; Halcen had to give him that.

"Anyway, I'm s'posed to give you a tour. We got a lot of ground to cover. There are a lot of important people to meet and a lot of places you need to know about. It's a big ship with a big crew."

"It sure is."

Marco began leading Halcen around the ship. First he took him down below, where he showed Halcen where the kitchen, dining room, latrine, and his own room were going to be located. There was a shortage of individual beds, most of them had to share. Halcen was going to be sharing a room with Marco. Most of the crew were put in bunks. After all, on that one ship alone, there were about two hundred crew members. Halcen met the quartermaster and cooks. Then they went up to the deck where Marco showed Halcen where all of the important parts of the ship were and how to run them. It took so long just to walk from one side of the ship to the other. Halcen was beginning to get tired of all the walking, and at that, walking at a nine year old's pace.

They went through the crew, introducing Halcen to this guy or that guy. After a while, all the faces began to blend together. There were just too many people and Halcen has only just arrived. Everybody else was drinking and having a good time, but Halcen was working. He was annoyed.

"There's so many people. Don't you ever just want to be alone?" Halcen asked.

"Not really. I like the attention. It's fun!"

"Of course you'd say that," Halcen said, annoyed out of his mind. He was getting fed up with the little kid and his positive attitude. It was getting old real fast.

And then they passed by and old man sitting on by himself against the railing of the ship. He had long grungy grey hair and looked depressed. He was pounding a beer, not paying attention to anyone else. He had a pack of beers sitting next to him. He was really tall though. Even sitting down he was as tall as Halcen.

"That's Grey," Marco said. "He doesn't talk much."

"Now that looks like fun," Halcen said.

"What?"

"Halcen began walking over to the old guy.

"Wh-what are you doing?!" Marco shouted, confused and scared.

"Fuck off pipsqueak." He walked up to the old man and sat down beside him.

Grey didn't pay him any mind. He was drunk enough to not give a shit about a random kid. He kept drinking in silence.

Halcen grabbed one of the old man's beers and opened it. He took a big swig. It was disgusting. It was so bitter. It tasted it like horse piss. Halcen gagged. But then he went to take another drink.

Grey looked down at the kid next to him, drinking that beer. He was so young. Not even hair on his face yet. And for a moment, he felt something. Grey snatched the beer out of Halcen's hands and chugged it all right there in front of him. Then he yelled "You don't need to be drinking this shit!" in an angry voice.

Halcen hadn't expected that. He sat up abruptly and said "You're a sad old man!"

"Fuck off, kid."

Halcen stormed off in an uproar. He was pissed.

Marco rushed off after him, a horrified look on his face. "What was that?"

"I'm so fucking sick and tired of adults telling me what to do." he said aggravated. When he was far enough away, Halcen looked back and said "What's his problem anyway? Why does he get to sit by himself and nobody bothers him? Who does he think he is?"

"I don't know. I heard he's been through some stuff."

"Like what?"

Marco shrugged. "People don't tell me stuff like that. They think I'm too young to understand. But from what I've gathered, I think he's just got nowhere else to go."

Halcen looked at the old man from a distance. "I can see why. Nobody would want to be around a miserable old man like him."

"Anyway, we should keep up with the tour. We still got a few more things to go over."

"No, I'm done for now."

"But…"

"I'm tired of this. There's too much all at once. Just… let's do more later."

"Alright, well what do you want to do now? We can go check in with the others if you want."

"Yeah, sure, I guess." Halcen was too tired and angry to think properly anymore. It had been a couple hours of walking around talking to people, and learning about the ship. The sky was beginning to dim. He was worn out.

They went to find Whitebeard, Jozu, and Blanche. They were no longer at Whitebeard's "throne." Marco looked around, nervously. "That's odd. He doesn't usually leave in the middle of a party."

"Where else would he go?"

Marco thought hard. "His office? They might be having a meeting?"

"About what?"

Marco shrugged. "I dunno, but let's go check."

Halcen followed Marco once again down below deck. They went down to Whitebeard's office. There was a giant door that led inward. It was closed.

"This is it."

They heard muffled shouting. Halcen tried to make out what was being sad.

Marco wasn't paying attention. He went to open the door, but it was locked. "That's weird."

The voices ceased. Whoever was in there knew they were out there. Halcen gulped.

The door opened a crack and Blanche's face came to light. "Halcen? Marco? What's wrong?" Her face was red and it looked like there were tears in her eyes.

"We're done with the tour," Halcen said.

"What do you want us to do?" Marco asked.

"Oh, uhm… well we were actually finished up in here anyway," she said looking back into the study. "Jozu, I think it's time we say our goodbyes."

Jozu joined Blanche at the door. He was silent, but Halcen could tell he was angry.

What happened in here? Halcen tried to crane his neck to see Whitebeard, but to no avail.

"Let's go," Blanche said.

Halcen followed her and Jozu back up to the deck. There, Jozu interrupted the party. "First Division! Pack it up! Time to move out!"

The party ceased and there were cries of annoyance and groaning, but they did at he said. All the pirates from the Regal Rhino headed back to their ship, still drunk and in the mood to have fun. They slothed back, but they didn't talk back.

Halcen, Jozu, and Blanche stood at the edge of the ship, saying goodbye.

"Well, it's been a pleasure," Jozu said, shaking Halcen's hand.

"Halcen," Blanche said, kneeling down in front of him. "You're a special boy, and you're going to grow up and do something big with your life. Just mind Whitebeard and you'll be okay. We're going to miss you on the Rhino." She leaned in and hugged him.

"Are you kidding me with this?" Halcen jerked himself loose from her hug.

"Excuse me?" Blanche said, confused.

"You guys have known me for like two weeks. You don't know me well enough to say what I'm capable of. All you two did was get up my ass every five minutes. I came to you to become a pirate, because I wanted freedom and power. And instead, you suffocated me. I'm glad to finally be rid of you. But I'll tell you this, I am curious to see what I'm capable of under Whitebeard's training. With him, I might actually be able to do something. I can finally become strong. And then I'll choose my own fate."

"Halcen?" Blanche cried out, offended. Tears fell from her face.

"Is that really how you feel?" Jozu asked.

"Yes," Halcen said enthusiastically. "You guys act like leaving me here is some big tragedy. But you did nothing but harass me. Why would I feel bad about leaving you? Why don't you two do me a favor and leave me alone for once?"

"Fine," Jozu said, and turned back, and boarded his ship.

Blanche stood up. "I just… can't believe this is really how you want to leave this. But fine. Goodbye and good luck." She turned around and dropped down to the Regal Rhino.

The crew was already busy getting ready to go. They pulled the ladder down so they could make a gap between their ships. They made sail and away they went.

Halcen watched in annoyance. "It's about damn time."