One Piece- The Navy Revolution
Voyage -1 20 years earlier.
“MONSTER!!!!” one little boy cried in a scared voice, him and his friends, short generic children freaking out over the mass of arms that had carried their misplaced ball back to where they had been playing. A short girl stood over by a tree looking uninterested if not a little hurt at the children yelling at her, calling her names and cursing her for being different. She brushed her raven black hair out of her sky blue eyes and returned to her book, a deep and ancient tome about the time before the dark ages. She dispelled her arms that had carried the arms to a the children, her Hana Hana no Mi cursed fruit allowing her to generate parts of her body with seemingly no limit.
But this of course, made the adults around her put her down and the child reacting to their parents subconscious messages to hate and fear the young girl of seven. “Don’t touch our stuff again you freak!!!” the biggest one bellowed moving towards her, grabbing her by the front of her top and lifting her up roughly. She grunted a little, squirming scared, knowing she could use her power to fight the idiot off but not wanting to give people more reason to hate or fear her. He pulled an arm back, ready to punch her.
“Bastard!” a strong deep voice cried out, the girl found herself falling to the ground her sky blue eyes opening astounded at what had happened. A man, no a boy? She couldn’t tell, he was big and thick. His hair was a deep black slightly curled, eyes a deep green. He wore a naval shirt, something a cadet would wear off duty, and white navy issue pants. He had jumped into her dark and lonely world so suddenly, his fist had set the air aflame and had more then likely cracked the other boys jaw. “Bastard, how dare you hit a lady!” he bellowed, his voice so coarse and deep, kicking the boy in the stomach, there was an explosion of air from the impact, or something else the eight year old girl couldn’t tell. All she knew was that her tormentor was sent flying through the air and the boy took a defensive stance over her.
“Stupid fucks.” he growled at them as they whimpered away mentioning their parents. “Cowards!” he called after them, laughing deeply from within his chest as if the ground shook with his laughter of ‘KU-KU-KU-KU’.
“You alright?” he asked turning to her one hand going into his pocket the other on his hip. His skin was tan, and visibly rough, he was thick but not overly so, muscular but very young looking.
“I’m fine.” she said, her voice a little monotone and soft not really sure how to deal with someone like this. “Though its just going to be worse now that you fought back.” she said picking up her book, blinking hard when he clicked his tongue.
“I’ll protect you from filth like that.” he said without hesitation, as if it was the only response possible to her statement. The girl blinked and titled her head at this strange boy who was smiling at her so widely. “By the way…” he started to say trailing off. “… what’s your name chibi-tan?” he asked with a big grin making the little girl blush a little, embarrassed.
“Nico Robin.” she said. Waiting for him to introduce himself. He never did.
“We should probably get to your house, odds are those cowards will show up with their parents.” he said motioning her to move with his head. “Come on, lead the way.”
Nico moved slowly brushing some dirt from her clothes before beginning to walk to her house, taking a long way there, assuming her aunt and relatives wouldn’t be there till later anyway. “Are you visiting here form far away?” She asked curiously after a few moments, walking a few steps ahead of him, he inherent curiosity getting the best of her.
“You could say that, I tend to move from place to place for a year at a time.” He said indifferently. “My father’s a big name in the navy and he’s kept my birth a secret for the most part so I get shipped form sea to sea often being raised into a naval machine.” he laughed deeply, but sad this time.”
“What about your mother?” Robin asked, curious as she didn’t know her mother, and for the first time in a long time having someone close to her age to talk to, having not spent any time with anyone but the archaeologists at Ohara‘s world renown library.
“She died giving birth to me.” he said as indifferent as any other statement as they got to the shabby home of Robin, she opened the door and lead him in ignoring the note on the table with a list of chores for her to do, already knowing what needed to be done. “I was surprised though.” he said, smiling at her, “hm?”. “Never thought I’d find another devil’s fruit user out here.” he said stretching his back not stopping her as she started to do house work, Robin treating him as if he was furniture to talk to.
Robin flinched and dropped the plate she had been washing turning on him, her blue eyes wide. “You’re like me?” she asked, too scared to be hurt from getting her hope sup that someone understood her isolation and loneliness.
“Yes.”
“Really?!”
“Really.”
“Show me.” she said shaking a little, scared he wouldn’t be able to do anything, and yet at the same time equally scared that he would.
The nameless boy shrugged and raised a hand, the table in the center of the kitchen jumping up to push against the ceiling. It was there almost instantly but not fast enough that the impact shattered it. He lowered it and moved it side to side with his eyes, uninterested.
“Kabe-kabe no Mi.” he said. “The wall-wall fruit allows me to generate and manipulate raw force into any shape or form I want, more often then not a wall. Try and touch under the table.” he said, watching her door so and her hand stop as if there was indeed a wall there, he made a shift in the wall allowing its energy to be seen visibly.
“And your power’s the Hana-hana no Mi, right?” he asked, letting the table fall back down smiling to her. She looked surprised eyes wide on him, curious. “I’m supposed to study everything while I’m here, I’d be a pretty bad student if I didn’t know the fruit’s of the world.” he teased laughing deeply.
A knocking bam came to the door and Robin flinched, the excitement she had shown fleeing her face replaced by fearful reality. The nameless boy looked at her for a long, long moment before reaching a hand up and ruffling her hair. “It’s alright. I’ll take care of it.” he walked to the door cracking his neck and hands menacingly. He opened it abruptly to end the incessant pounding. “What!?” he said loudly, rudely eyes sharp.
The woman on the outside was taken aback not expecting the boy to answer the door. She quickly regained her courage and her anger the woman was middle age, long red hair, a plain and unflattering face, very much an average person. “That little monster in their broke my son’s jaw!” She bellowed using what could only be called a “motherly aura” in her words. “We can’t have that little banshee terrorizing us!”
“Get your facts straight, stupid cooooooooooooooow.” he said in his uninterested tone, deeply. “I’m the one who smacked your little bastard’s jaw lose, something his father should have done a long time ago. It’s because cow’s like you pamper little weaklings that they become cowards who’d hit a lady.” he lectured her, each word he stepped forward, pushing her away from the door closing it mostly behind him.
“Who the hell do you th-” she began when the boys eyes cute her words off he pulled back the sleeve of his cadet jacked revealing the symbols tattooed in his arm. “It’ can’t be…” she whispered, flinching back, horrified.
“What? You know what this means?” he growled, quieter now. He didn’t want to risk Robin would see it and know what it meant. It was the branded mark of the Admirals. It was a tradition abandoned before the dark ages that his father had felt the urge to use on him. He was branded at birth with the power and rank of the strongest defence the navy had to offer. Slowly this nameless boy covered his arm back up. The woman looked terrified, the wrath of the navy stood before her, half her height but with those eyes, of steel like determination it looked as if he could strike her down right there. “Now go home, stupid cow and coddle your coward.” he spat and raising his hadn to her pushed her body far away to the street using the sheer energy that the kabe-kabe fruit allowed him to manipulate. “Bitch.” he spat to the ground turning back and going into the house to look into those deep blue eyes of Robin.
“It’s alright now.” he said softly putting his large hand in her smooth hair an ruffling it softly. “I’ll protect you from people like that, promise.” he said softly and so began a beautiful spring time between a boy with no name and a girl who had been alienated by everyone else for so long.
And as if no time had passed at all the two unlikely friends had spent six months together…
“When are you going to tell me your name?” Robin asked engaged in a book as the boy lounged in the sun the pair enjoying this setting the most where they could just sit and talk, the boy studying what she did, though Robin had the suspicion that the elder professor’s of Ohara had taken the young boy into their secret meetings when she was not allowed.
“I don’t have a name.” he said as indifferent as ever his voice shaking the leaves around them coarsely. His eyes where still closed his body still as if the fact he had no name did not bother him at all.
“What do you mean?” she asked confused, they had discovered that he was in fact three years older then her over the course of the last few months, and Robin found it hard to believe that someone had lived for the first ten years of his life with no name.
“Well for my brother…” new fact, he has a brother. Robin took note of this for further questioning. “my mother named him and my Father just assumed my mother would name me too, but she died before she could get a chance.” he said opening his eyes an looking to the sky, their metallic green hard, yet inviting. “He told the doctor who was pestering him to name me ‘Just leave it blank, the little guy will name himself if he has a mind to.’” At this the boy laughed smiling softly at the idea of his father doing that while holding such a small baby in his big arms.
Robin leaned towards him a little looking down at the strong boy beneath her, thinking quietly to herself. Unable to imagine what it would mean to go without a name, even she, hated by everyone around her had a name. She couldn’t imagine how lonely that feeling must be. So the next thing she said, though it may have come from some deep maternal instinct, left her abruptly.
“Why don’t I name you then?” she said smiling sweetly making the older boy blush a little, his eyes looking away.
“If you can find a name that suits me.” he said softly, his voice shifting to a more embarrassed one, more reflective of his age.
She smiled and closed her book thinking of what to use for a name. “Well do you have any ideas yourself?” she asked softly.
“D.” he said stubbornly, almost demandingly. “My father and brother have D. in their name…I don’t know why or what it means, but I feel like I should too.” he said looking to the sky his eyes getting intense.
Robin blinked a little her archaeological research mentioning something about “the will of D.” but she put that aside as a coincidence though and thought to what she knew about the boy. “Well…you like to protect things…” she said softly remembering his promise to her, a promise he had so far kept. “What was that armour you have been studying from the dark ages…” she said grabbing a book from beside him. Robin quickly found the page he had been reading, it was a page about the armour used by “knights”, the soldiers of the land continents which were big enough to require more military might then the navy.
The language it was spoken was rougher then their’s, older she formed the words a few times with her mouth trying to get them down before saying it. “Full….Plate…” she said her accent thick on the ending ‘e’ of Plate, it referencing a knight in full plate mail, the strongest armour of the time, the best defence.
“What?” he asked rolling to look up at her strong arms holding up his chin.
“Full D. Plate.” she said with a smile, as the wind blew the hair form her face, framing her so beautifully to the young boy who let the name sink into his very being, it felt, deep, as if some long stopped gear had clicked and begun working once again.
“Yes, that’s fine.” he said in his softest voice and for the first time since they met Robin saw him truly smile, a smile that covered the whole of his face. “Thank you very much!”.
But like all things in life, such quiet and peaceful times would not last forever, another four months passed and Plate received a call from his father, it was time to leave this island.
Plate had taken Robin to their favourite spot, the same tree near where she had been the first day when he had fought off that bully for her. It was twilight, the skies where clear and lit with stars while the orange of the sun still mixed with the blackness of the universe beyond the horizon. He was leaving in the morning and he had to tell her, but Plate found the words trapped in his throat.
“What’s wrong Plate-kun?” Robin asked, since they met she’d been able to see through him so easily, so he wasn’t that surprised that she noticed.
“I’m leaving tomorrow.” he whispered, the words came out on their own, no conscious thought in them, his voice was a whisper against the wind so faint Robin almost asked him to repeat it, but she had head it all to well.
“When will you be back…?” the now eight year old girl asked, knowing full well the answer would be never.
“I will come back.” he said adamantly, feeling her sadness in the question, a rage for the navy welling inside him for taking him away from her. “There are people in the world who will want to hurt you for the things we’ve learned on this island Robin. And I’ll get strong enough to protect you from all them!” he said getting heated, his voice raising. “I’ll come back and we’ll hunt down the truth together!” he said holding her tight, embracing the petit girl in a hard hug, his body towering her. “And when I get back…” he whispered into her ear softly, his voice filled with his heart. “Will you marry me…?” he said, she didn’t answer, but he felt her nod, and tears on his shoulder as he leaned down enough to hug her proper. They spent that night together and Plate left the next day. Robin compared the appearance of him to his father as being merely his younger clone, both were so thick and strong, his father’s hair had greyed though.
His father looked around at the island sadly and down to the little girl that had been watching over his son for so long. “Thank you.” he said soflty to her as his second in command called to him form the ship in the harbour.
“Vice-admiral Garp! We need to go, if we’re not to our position within the next two days our superior’s will get suspicious!” he cried to his captain going back into the ship. It was then that Monkey D. Garp turned back to his ship calling to his son.
“Come on boy! We’re going.”
“It’s not ‘boy’.” his son said, his father stopping to turn around. “It’s Plate, Full D. Plate.” he said moving ahead of his father eyes set, using every ounce of his strength to hold back the tears.
XXXXXXX
Three months later, after Full D. Plate had left the island of Ohara a Buster Call was placed in order and the island of Ohara was wiped off the map. It was another month till Plate received word of the devastation that had destroyed the island on the other side of the oceans, studying martial arts from an old hermit who had once been one of the strongest fighters in the world, and the only solace he had in the dark place this sent him was that one girl had survived, a child of eight named Nico Robin.
And that he would keep his promise, no matter what.