Chapter 10 - Adventure Awaits!

*Snore* *Ribbit* *Ribbbbbbit* *Slap*

"Ouch! You didn't have to slap me!" I woke up suddenly with a startle as Mochi delivers one of his patented 'frog-slaps' to get me out of bed.

"*Yawn* Morning, Mochi. Did ya sleep well?" I got up from bed after giving Mochi a few head pats as thanks for waking me up.

*Ribbit* *Slap* *Slap*

"Gahh! I get it! I'll go out now, just give me five minutes to get dressed!" I rubbed my head a couple times in genuine pain. This little guy had developed a nasty slapping habit in the past couple of years, and I was always the target of them…

*Ribbit* With a satisfied look on his face (there was no change at all), Mochi decided that I'd had enough slapping already and hopped out of my room.

'I seriously have to have a stern talk with that frog… It's not right to slap your friends around just to wake them up! Especially when it's me'

As I got out of bed I noticed a trail of confetti by my room door, which seemed to lead into the living room. Not knowing what it was there for, I followed the trail while groggily scratching my head and letting out a yawn.

'Why's it so quiet? Did mom head out to buy more ingredients for her pie?'

Seeing all of the lights in the house turned off, I couldn't help but feel even more confused. However, I felt a sudden tingling sensation coming from the kitchen.

"<<Soru!>>"

Within a fraction of a second, I fazed behind the source of the tingling sensation, holding a kitchen knife to their throat while holding their hands behind their back.

"Oi! Ya damn brat, it's just me!" The familiar voice of the person I had apprehended shouted out in surprise.

In the next moment, the lights of the living room and kitchen were turned on to reveal a group of people hiding behind various furniture in the house.

*Pop* """Happy Birthday, Riker!""" My mother, Gwen and Samantha jumped out from behind the living room couch.

"Eh?" I lowered the knife in my hand in confusion. After taking a second to comprehend the situation, I then looked at the person I had apprehended. I saw poor Samson sweating bullets as I still had him restrained, so I let him go quickly.

'Wait, birthday?? Ahh crap… I completely forgot about my own birthday!'

"Geez, kid! Can't you treat the elderly with a bit more respect??! I almost died from shock!!!" Now free from my grasp, Samson grabbed at his neck and breathed out a sigh of relief.

Now that Samson had moved out of the way, a blue blur suddenly jumped on top of me while delivering a bear hug.

"Happy birthday!!! Fufufu! Now that you're 17, we can finally go on our adventure like you promised!" Gwen's 'sneak attack' caught me off guard as she now clung to me like a spider monkey. And it's true, Gwen turned out to be a month and a half older than me, which left her with quite the satisfied look when we found out…

"Ara Ara! Gwen is too fast to avoid, even for Riker! Fufufu! That's my daughter!" Samantha and my mom laughed to themselves at the sight.

A lot has changed around Samson Village ever since Kujo left to work on the Marines' special 'project'.

For starters, as a result of the Armorback Pirates incident, it eventually became impossible for Gwen and me to hide our strength from our moms. To both of our surprise, however, Samantha and my mom seemed to take the news quite well, even acting as if the fact that Gwen and I had super-human strength was to be expected. Then again, I guess it isn't normal for a kid to have the stamina to work everyday as a blacksmith for 7 years, so I can understand how they might have had a clue.

It's been almost 7 whole years since we've last seen Kujo in person. Thankfully, though, we've been exchanging letters every week this entire time. From the sounds of it, the Marines seem to be working him to the bone, making him forge multiple swords in rapid succession with only a day's rest per week! Reading about Kujo's struggles has left a bad taste in my mouth over the years, to say the least.

On another note, I'm finally old enough to hear about the 'family secret' my mom has been keeping from me for all these years. Seven years of meditating on what it could be have only strengthened my belief that this has something to do with my absent father. I mean, what else could it be?

As the years went by, my daily schedule became quite packed. In the mornings I would wake up and do some light warm-ups to prepare my body for the day. As soon as I was finished with that, it was straight to the repair shop. The residents of Samson Village somehow found a way to constantly have a huge number of repair requests every week for me to go through, so every day I spent at least four hours a day solely on repairing various tools.

Once the repair requests for the day were completed, I moved onto forging various weapons as practice. Even after all this time, the glory of the forge never became dull to me, and as a result of constant practice I can say with confidence that I am one of the best blacksmiths in the West Blue.

Ah, that's another thing! I've finally figured out after looking at a map in Samson's office that this village is located in the West Blue. More specifically, we're technically a part of the Balboa Kingdom, a small sized kingdom bordering the Ballywood Kingdom that managed to get affiliated with the World Government. According to Samson, our village was granted an exclusive pardon from paying taxes to the King as part of his deal with the World Government when he retired.

"Yosh! Okay, everyone! Let's let Riker change out of his pajamas, then we can begin the festivities!" Clapping her hands twice, my mom took control of the odd situation. Mochi was on her head mimicking her clapping motion.

"Alright! Hurry up and get dressed so you can open your presents, dummy!" After letting go of me reluctantly, Gwen rushed me into my room, closing the door behind me.

'Presents, she said? I hope she didn't overdo it and give me something crazy…'

I walked to my bathroom and started to freshen up by splashing water in my face. Looking up at the mirror above the sink, I saw myself reflected back. As it turns out, I hit quite the growth-spurt in my teen years, growing to be almost 8 ft tall!! Thanks to One Piece logic, however, my body seemed to balance itself out with dense muscles covering the right places to give me a toned physique and a wide chest.

My hair seemed to grow a bit darker as well, going from a bright red to a darker shade more similar to a red wine. My eyes similarly darkened a bit, giving them an almost-crimson look. Not unlike myself, Gwen also grew to be quite tall, standing at 6"10' while also developing a toned frame. Aside from that, she seemed to be the spitting image of her other-world-fictional-character look-a-like, with a nearly identical dress on top of it!

With our adult physiques, it didn't take long before our strength saw explosive growth. In Gwen's case, she quickly mastered all of the Rokushiki techniques at age 13, even going as far as to work on further enhancing her Soru technique and making it her own. At age 16, I started to see signs of her developing Observation Haki after preemptively dodging one of my strikes during a spar. To top it all off, she even managed to develop her Snip-Snip style to a level I couldn't replicate unless I devoted a lot of time to learning it. Her progress was nothing short of genius-level!

I wasn't slacking off on my end either. I managed to master all of the Rokushiki techniques a month before Gwen, and even managed to develop my Pistol Finger to a point where I can use the technique to send compressed air bullets at my enemies. The strength of these attacks aren't as potent as my sword techniques, but they give me a ranged attack that can hopefully equal out the playing field against any long-ranged fighting specialists. On top of that, I've also managed to develop some forms of Armament and Observation Haki! The only downside to this is that my progress in developing either form of Haki has been slow due to having to focus on the two forms at once, whereas Gwen has been able to focus purely on Observation Haki. Still, my training has been fruitful!

Ahh! And then there's my custom sword-style… I have decided to name it: Nature's Wrath! And no, it's not a lame name! After doing way too much research on various martial arts and sword techniques thanks to Samson's personal connections in the Marines over the years, I came to the conclusion that the best way to develop an all-encompassing sword style is to mimic nature. For what else is more all-enconpassing than nature?

While the sword style is still in its infancy stage compared to Gwen's, it's potential is endless. I also successfully developed the first technique just a few weeks ago, too! The only issue with my technique is that it destroys my sword after a few uses. As a result, I'm now using to my 73rd iteration of my STBN: Prototype… The only percievable solution to this problem is to find a better material to make my weapon. After all, I have been using scrap-metal this whole time.

Now finished getting dressed, I opened my door and saw the birthday party attendees sitting at the dining table while talking with one another.

"I still can't believe you brats are already stronger than Kujo and me. He and I took years to get this strong, and now some kids are overtaking us in a matter of a few years! Sheesh, this new generation just isn't normal, I tell ya!" Samson's voice sounded exasperated, yet proud as he 'complained' about Gwen and me.

"Fufufu! That's our kids for ya! We look away for one second and they grow into such capable young adults. *Sigh* I wish my Gwen was still a little baby so I could pinch her fat little cheeks!" Samantha sighed a proud sigh while holding her hand to her cheek.

"Ah, Riker's out! Alright get over here and open your presents! Quick! Quick!" Once again dragging me, Gwen brought me over to the table which was decorated with drawings she made for the occasion.

After sitting down at the head of the table, Gwen pushed the pile of presents in front of me in an effort to speed up the process. As I reached for one of the presents, Gwen quickly stopped me.

"Not that one! That one's for last!"

Amused by Gwen's antics, I comply with her demand and reach for a different present that's wrapped in blue wrapping paper. As I ripped away at the wrapping, my eyes glow at the sight of what looks to be a log pose and a map.

"*Ahem* I hope ya like it, kid. I know you and Gwen kept saying you wanna travel the world, so I used some of my old contribution points from my marine days to buy you these. It ain't much, but I think it'll serve you well." Samson turned his head away from me with an embarrassed look on his face as he explained his gift.

"This is perfect! With this, Gwen and I can travel to our first destination safely. Thank you so much, Samson!" At my words, Samson's embarrassed face grew redder as he failed to hide his expression.

I began to open the next gift which was significantly larger than the last. Ripping off the green wrapping paper revealed a large food container filled with various kinds of sweets and even slices of my mom's signature cherry pie. Additionally, there was a small box taped to the top of the container. Upon opening it up I saw a silver necklace looped through an onyx-colored ring. The ring itself gave me a strange feeling of familiarity, as if I had an inherent connection to it.

"What's this, mom?" I looked at my mom with a quizzical look. This clearly had something to do with the family secret.

"*Ahem* Well, I guess it's alright if Gwen-chan knows about it too. Riker… do you know why your father was never… around all these years?" Looking at my mom, it was the first time I'd ever seen her seem so sad.

"I'm not sure… I always thought that maybe he died… or abandoned us…"

"That's not it! Ah…." My mom immediately retorted after I mentioned the idea of my father having left us voluntarily.

"*Sigh* The truth is… your father isn't around because he was taken from us…" Hearing these words, I couldn't help but gulp in anticipation at my mom's next words.

"Your father was killed by a Celestial Dragon just weeks after we found out I was pregnant with you…" The moment the words left her mouth, tears flowed from my mother's eyes as her lips quivered from the memory of my father.

"What…" A deafening silence fell over the room. A million thoughts raced in my head as I never expected this outcome.

I felt overwhelming emotions build up inside me at the sight of my mother crying: confusion, sadness, helplessness, but most of all, anger. For the first time in this world, I felt genuine hatred for a person.

'Calm down, calm down. I can't let anger take control of me. In. Out. In and out. Think of the good… Thankfully I learned some grounding techniques from those martial arts books'

I sighed to myself in order to release the feelings of frustration I was feeling. I had to take control of my emotions in order to take care of my family.

"I'm sorry I'm crying like this on your birthday, I didn't mean to ruin the mood." Struggling to stop her tears as she wiped at her eyes constantly, my mom continued to apologize.

Without saying a word, I stood up and hugged her, hoping to take away some of the pain she was feeling.

Looking to my right, I notice that Gwen was sobbing silently. Without saying a word, I opened up my arm to hug her too. After a few minutes of soothing them, my mom and Gwen managed to stop crying after being comforted.

"*sniffle* *sniffle* I'm sorry, honey. It seems I got lost in the memory for a moment…" Having wiped away the last of her tears, mom clapped her face a few times, trying to force herself out of her gloomy mood. Gwen followed my mom's example and did the same.

*Ribbit*

"Yosh, you're right Mochi! That's enough crying for today! I can't ruin my son's birthday like this, now can I? Go ahead, love, open the next gift." Putting on a tough face, my mom insisted that I continue opening up the two remaining gifts on the table.

The next gift I chose looked to be a simple envelope. Recognizing the stamp on it, I could tell this was a gift from Kujo, but there seemed to be an extra piece of paper besides the letter. Ignoring the additional paper, I began to read the letter to myself.

'How's it going, brat? You know how I am when it comes to emotions and all that, so I'll put it plainly. As thanks for taking care of the village and always entertaining this old man, I decided I'd use up all the extra contribution points I've been getting from this project to buy you a nice present. I know you and Gwen have been talking about adventures… take a look at the other letter in this envelope and you'll understand what I mean. Well… that's all. Take it easy, kid! ~ Samson'

Putting down Kujo's letter with a smile, I then opened up the second letter.

'Kujo, your request for a small-sized gallion in exchange for your contribution points has been accepted. As specified, the ship will be delivered to Samson Village. We thank you for your continued service. Best, Marine HQ.'

My eyes went wide after reading over the short letter again.

'Kujo got me a whole frickin ship for my birthday?! How many contribution points would that even cost???'

"What's it say, honey?" My mom asked cheerfully after seeing my reaction.

"It says Kujo bought me a ship, and it's supposed to arrive at the port this evening…" I could see everyone's eyes visibly change to complete shock at the news.

"That damned geezer! One-upping me like that just because he's got a few extra contribution points… I'll show him when he gets back" The first to react to the news was Samson, who seemed to be more focused on the fact that Kujo's gift was absurdly more expensive than his own.

Without even looking to my right, I could already tell that Gwen was absolutely beaming with anticipation and happiness at the news.

"That's AWESOME! Now we can go on our adventures without a worry! Alright, alright, now open my present!" Gwen shoved the last present towards me, not waiting for longer than a second after hearing such big news.

"Haha, ok. Let's see here…" I gave Gwen a head pat. It's always amusing to see Gwen's over-the-top reactions.

Now at the final gift, I quickly ripped off all of the wrapping paper hiding it's contents. To my surprise, underneath all of the wrapping paper was a set of clothes including black combat pants, brown combat boots, and a black zip-up jacket with a hoodie.

"What do you think!!?" Gwen was impatiently waiting to hear my reaction to her present.

"These are perfect! Thank you, Gwen!" I flashed her a grateful smile and hugged her, which seemed to send her over the moon.

"Fufufufufu!!!! Of course it's perfect. I made it myself, after all! Fufufu!" Putting her hands on her sides in a proud pose, Gwen relished in the compliment.

"Alright! Now that we've gone through all the gifts, it's time to celebrate!" As she spoke, mom brought out a freshly-baked cake, placing it in front of me.

""""Happy Birthday, Riker!""""

*Ribbit*

—---------------------------------------------------

[A few hours later - Evening]

"Do you have everything you need, honey? Enough food? Water? Oh, and what about -"

"Haha, I've got everything I need, mom. You made me triple check just in case already." I tried to calm my mom down and assure her that everything was prepared.

"*sigh* Alright, I understand. I'm just so sad to see my little boy leaving so soon. It's as if you were a baby just yesterday… *sigh*"

"Fufufu. They'll be alright, Delia. It's better to let them be free than to keep them all cooped up in this small village, don't ya think?" Samantha patted my mom's shoulder as she spoke.

"*sigh* You're right… Alright. Be a good boy, Riker! Make sure not to get into any trouble, and always take care of Gwen. You both might be tough, but you never know what kinds of situations you'll find yourselves in on these seas. *sigh* Alright. Now go have the adventure of your life! And Mochi, make sure you keep an eye on them both!" With watery eyes, my mom gives me and Gwen a final hug before letting us board the ship.

"Alright, brats. You both take care, ya hear? I'll take care of the village like usual, so don't worry about us… Good luck out there, and take care of each other" I look over to Samson and see that he too is holding back tears, although he seemed to be failing as snot started to fall from his nose while tears flowed down his face.

"En! I promise you guys that we'll be safe." With those words, I untied the ship from the docks and started to raise the anchor. As Gwen and I started to drift away from shore, I saw our loved ones waving their goodbyes at us.

"You ready to go, Gwen? What about you, Mochi?"

"En!! Yosh! Our adventure starts now!"

*Ribbit*!