heads up, here's more. This sections's a little longer. Maybe I should start spoilering them. Anyone know how to do that?
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He was unremarkable, thought the old man. Perhaps nineteen years old, with a broad, plain face; dressed in rags, with a damp, much-mended straw hat perched askew on his head. He carried no weapon, wore no jewels or clothes that suggested wealth or status. Yet he was, unmistakably, a pirate; his many scars and signs of wear showed it, as did his rolling sailor’s gait. How, then, had such a young boy, alone and undefended, managed to find his way here…?
Well, doubtless it made for a good story. If there was one thing pirates loved, it was talking about themselves. Months before, another much older pirate had arrived his shores, full of bluster and arrogance. The Curator smiled a little at the memory.
“Out of my way! I am the strongest man on the ocean, and my crew number in the thousands! I warn you, if you continue to impede me, I shall–”
He hadn’t stayed long.
“Hey! You!”
The shout brought him back to the present with a small start. His newest guest was clearly no more mannerly than his last. No matter.
“Yes?”
“Is this…is this Raftel? Tell me where I am!”
“Well, I prefer to call it home, but yes, this is the island of Raftel. Welcome, traveller. I suppose I should offer you my hospitality, but…” The curator smiled wryly, and gestured around the cave. It was about three yards across at the widest point, and Luffy’s hat brushed the ceiling. Beyond the light of the tiny guttering fire, there was blackness; there was no telling how far it went. Apart from the Curator’s chair- a huge, ancient-looking thing, of rotting oak and corroded bronze, that looked like it had been broken off a ship’s deck- there was no furniture at all.
Luffy clenched his teeth against his shivers and tried to focus.
“I-is this where One Piece is? Have you got it?
“Roger’s treasure, you mean? The result of his wealth, his power, and his knowledge of the seas? The one that otherwise rational people have been fighting and dying over for a goodly portion of the last twenty years? ”
Frozen and exhausted as he was, Luffy chose to ignore the Curator’s increasingly scathing tone. “Yes! Yes! Is this where it is?”
“It is, yes.”
There was a pause. Luffy opened his mouth to speak, but was silenced as his host raised one long finger.
“Why do you want it so much?”
“What?”
“It’s a reasonable question, I think. Do you even know what it is?”
Luffy’s face reddened. “No. I don’t. And I don’t care.”
The Curator gave him an enquiring look.
“It doesn’t matter what it is. I just have to get it.”
Oh dear, thought the Curator. Another one of those. The desperate ones. “I suppose there’s nothing I can do to dissuade you, is there? It’s not too late, you know. Any chance you could reconsider whatever madness brought you here, from goodness knows how far?”
The boy’s reddened, sunken eyes radiated disbelief. “Are you serious?”
“I am. There are many who have come just as far as you, only to fail at the last step. I’m giving you a chance to forget this juvenile foolishness and go back to whatever life you left behind.”
“No! No! Just- where’s the treasure? Tell me where-”
“Calm down.”
“Don’t you tell me to-”
“You’re exhausted. Look at you. How long has it been since you’ve eaten? Or slept? Have you been drinking much apart from seawater recently?”
Luffy bit his lip, glaring sullenly. The Curator’s expression softened. It’s been a while since the last one, he thought. Or at least, the last sane one. Do you want the same thing to happen to this one?
“Look, it’s just that- well, there are…trials ahead. Nobody has ever come out of there alive, you understand? Whatever you have come through to get here, it’s worse down there.” He gestured darkly at the shadows behind him. “Sit down. Rest before you go, all right? Here-” He passed the pirate a little clay jug, filled with rainwater- “Have a drink.”
Slowly, warily, Luffy took the jug and settled down against the wall. There was a crumpled mass of damp sailcloth lying beside the Curator’s chair, which Luffy took to sit on. It was the closest thing to comfort he had known in weeks at sea, and a long, blissful sigh escaped him as he settled down and took a drink. There was silence for a minute or two as Luffy drank.
The Curator broke the silence. “Tell me your story.”
“What?”
“Tell me how you got here. All the pirates who come through here do it. What lands you saw, what battles you fought, and most importantly, in your case- how you come to be here…alone.”
Luffy looked down into the jug thoughtfully. “You wanna here my story?”
“I do. You rest awhile, and tell me your story, and we’ll see if we can’t get you something to eat. Then perhaps you’ll think more clearly about this whole silly thing-”
Luffy looked up sharply. “Would you give that a rest?”
“I’m only trying to-”
“Do you know what I’ve been through to get this far? Do you?”
The Curator sighed. “I have to admit not.”
Luffy took a deep breath, clenching his fists to still the shaking in his hands. “My brother is dead. My friends are dead. Every last one, and all to bring me closer to this place. If I turn back now, what have I got to go back to?”
It was not a rhetorical question.
“Well, there’s always your treasure. Perhaps it’ll make you see things differently.”
“Maybe it will. And you’ll have your damn story, as best as I can remember it. But let me tell you one thing before I start.”
“Yes?”
“You do anything, anything at all, to get between me and that treasure…” The boy’s face darkened, “…and you die. No questions asked. Clear?”
“Certainly. It’s all yours, once you win it.”
“I’ll need your name, then, before you get mine.”
“Very well.” The grey young man straightened in his chair and shook his hair out of his eyes. “I have the honour to be Bravo the Curator, formerly of Roger’s pirate crew.”
“Gold Roger? You knew him? You sailed with him? Tell me–”
“Ah! My story comes after yours, if it comes at all. You are my guest, after all.”
“Right, right. My name’s Monkey D. Luffy. Call me Luffy, ok?” The Curator nodded. “I grew up on a little island in the East Blue. Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be a pirate. When I was sixteen , I set out with one thing in mind: coming here. No plan more complicated than that. Never was one for plans, you see. Good with people, though. Y’know, they like me. And damn good in a fight. If a pirate has those to things, he’s pretty well set up. It wasn’t hard to gather a crew like that.
“ We were all young, all idealistic, and all brilliant. Prodigies, every one. We overturned a string of the roughest characters in the Blue on the way to the Grand line. We were something special, everyone could see that.”
The Curator smiled indulgently. “Sounds impressive.” Why did every pirate think they had to do that? The way they told it, they were all lifting buildings and cutting ships before they were weaned.
Luffy’s eyes narrowed. “Three weeks after we entered the Grand Line, we’d knocked down a rogue warlord and smashed his empire to pieces. There were six of us, and not one of us over twenty. How does that sound?”
“I said it sounded impressive.”
“You’re damn right.”
“Please, continue.”
“Hm. Not more than a year after that we’d declared open war on the government.”
The curator snorted. “What, the six of you?”
“Yeah. It was a personal kinda thing.”
“That sort of decision usually is. Might I venture a guess that those were the circumstances in which you lost your crew, then?”
“Ha! Hell no. We broke out of the biggest trap they could spring on us. Took out their best troops, left them reeling. No, those government clowns never gave us trouble after that, I’ll tell ya…”His nostalgic smile faded a little, as if he’d remembered an unpleasant, but easily overlooked detail. “…well, not quite”, he finished lamely. He looked down at the floor, his excitement faded, and caught sight of Bravo’s little cooking pot, nestled beside the fire.
“Hey, is that food?”
“Ah, yes. Mussel stew. Perhaps a little past its prime now I’m afr-”
“Not a problem.” Luffy shot his arm out to twice its normal length, and grabbed the pot by its handle. If Bravo was alarmed in any way by this, he didn’t show it.
“You were saying something about, ah, Marines?”
“I’m getting there. Lemme see…” Luffy paused. “We had a reindeer Zoan with us, our ship’s doctor…” Luffy tailed off again. The storm was beginning in earnest outside, and Luffy shuddered, moving closer to the tiny fire.
“And what happened to him, then? Take your time.”
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