[Main Character's Point of View]
In front of me lies a field of dead people. Some have their skull bashed in while others have their throat slit or a heavy slash wound which has a fountain of blood gushing out of it and filling the ground with a sea of blood. The faces of most are bloody or rotting as they say the same thing.
"...did..."
"Why?"
"Kill us?"
"...did..."
"Why?"
"Kill us?"
"...did..."
"Why?"
"Kill us?"
"...did..."
"Why?"
"Kill us?"
.
.
.
"YOU!"
"AH!"
I wake up in the middle of the night from my most recurring nightmare. No matter how many times, I kill my opponent, I keep having the same dream except one more body is added compared to the last kill. I am now nine years old and I have fought hundreds of Battle Slaves. Menthos has really tried to break me.
As you can guess since I am still alive, they are dead and to this day I still do not hesitate when I am fighting someone that is trying to kill me that does not help me with my nightmares. In fact, the more they beg the worse the nightmare gets so I started killing my opponent quickly before it came to that point.
Those who have fought and survived more than a hundred times in Heaven's Arena become famous. This goes double for death matches. And for the participant, we have another name for the Heaven's Arena which is the Tower.
I know not very original but that is not the prime concern for those involved and as some might have guessed with the popularity that comes from fame also comes a hierarchy. At the top of the Tower's hierarchy is Zahard "The Hollow", Menthos' favorite slave as well as the King of the Tower.
The reason why he is called the King of the Tower is because he passed Trial by a thousand blades and chose to stay in the Tower as a slave to Menthos. As the King of the Tower, he gets a few privileges but he is still a slave and by choice mind you.
"Another nightmare right?"
I hear an old and frail voice on my right. I turn to see a lean old man with pale skin. He has long white hair which goes midway down his back. Two strands of hair stand out from the rest and point outwards.
His eyebrows are nearly as long as the hair on his head, reaching down past his chin. He has a thick gray beard which extends down to his chest. He wears a pair of beige shorts with no shirt. He has a big burn scar covering his back. He is Urek D. Rob, my sort of teacher in this Tower.
"Yeah but you know me, Rob, I always make it through."
I say as I try to go back to sleep. Since I am awake I might as well tell you guys about Rob "The Legend".
He is an old man who managed to sleep with the Queen and three princesses of some country in here, South Blue, for about a decade before that ordeal was found. According to Rob, the ordeal became public knowledge before his execution date making the king known by all as the Cucking.
Naturally, the king was livid and would not give a swift death to Rob so while Rob was proclaimed to be executed, he was sold as a slave and sent to Eisleymos. The king thought that Rob would die in the most gruesome death possible but Rob got the last laugh or should I say is still getting the last laugh.
As Rob explained, even though Eisleymos is a lawless Island, a sort of hierarchy began to form in this place. Men attained very high places here and like most people that obtain power, it went to their head.
They started to act like they were kings and royalty here. They also got themselves pretty women to boast about their powers but they also needed to work very hard to maintain the powers that they attained leaving their women unattended... I think you catch what I am trying to pitch.
Rob charmed his way into their panties. He does not have to worry about fighting someone since he is basically a sex slave here- no he IS a sex slave here but I do not see him complaining about it far from it.
The way he became my teacher is pretty funny. My cells ended up being next to his and out of boredom he began talking to me. I responded because I thought he would have some information about the Tower which he did.
Now when he told me his name, I was reminded of Urek Mazino from Tower of God due to our talk about the Tower and such. He then asked me what my name was and I did not have one in this world.
At the Zoldyck, we had numbers and here, I am being called by my epithet so I never got a real name nor did I have the time to think about one, survival was my top and main priority. Since I liked his character, I decided to go by the name of Urek Mazino.
I told Rob that it was the name of Chad I knew once because he thought I had just taken his name for my own then I explained to him what Chad was and he started calling himself one. He then told me that I was allowed to take his name, notably Urek D., as my own which I refused at first.
It was only after he nagged me about it and offered to tell me stories about the world among other things that I agreed. Now my name in this world is "Urek D. Mazino" though for obvious reasons I keep it a secret, with how many women Rob has slept with I do not want to add any more enemies than I have on this Island. Still, Rob has taught me many things about this world such as how it functions.
He also told me a legend he once heard when he was young. The legend of the "Sun God" Nika. According to the legend he heard, Nika is a legendary warrior of ancient times who slaves believed would free them one day. A warrior who would make you laugh and put you out of your misery.
When I asked if he believed in such a legend, he gave a dry laugh and said that he once believed it back when he was a slave. Now that confused me and upon seeing my expression he said that he was born as a slave but managed to escape one fateful day when he was supposed to die.
During his childhood, he was secretly told to pray to Nika which he did even as he was about to die while being hunted by his former masters which he described as the scum of the earth and monster in human skin.
He was saved by a kid instead of Nika and ever since then he stopped believing in that legend. When I asked him who his former master was, he got quiet for a second and told me that some things were better left unsaid but I could guess who they were.
The face he made when he spoke about his former master was the same he made when he warned me about people called Celestial Dragons who coincidentally were very fond of getting slaves and treated them worse than most criminals would.
Anyway, I could have taken Sinbad's name because I got his "flow of all things" ability as a perk but from my recollection Sinbad never T posed on his opponents. It is definitely not because Rob also added that he would teach me his secret that allowed him to bang four royal members for ten years because I had the potential for it. Yep... definitely not it.
[AN: In all seriousness, I thought that with his backstory so far naming him Zoldyck D. Sinbad would be in poor taste.]
"Rob, you awake?"
I asked since I could not get back to sleep.
"I am now, what's on your mind kid?"
He says.
"After I turn ten, I am going to do the Trial by a thousand blades."
I say with a big smile as I turn to face Rob who shakes his head.
"Are you crazy! Do you plan to risk your life even more and for what? To be the King of the Tower?"
It was now my turn to shake my head before I stood up and T-pose as I spoke while facing him.
"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?"
"Haha!"
Rob laughed at my plagiarized speech. I managed to sleep enough to be ready for my next match, tomorrow. Once I entered the arena, I was faced by a young man with light skin, brown eyes, and hair, roughly ten years older who was smiling at me. He is wearing a red shirt, pale lilac pants, white shoes, an armband, and a left forearm band.
"And here I thought I had it rough fighting people older than me when I was your age. I used to hate them for being so blood lusted but after a while, I started getting what they meant. There is no greater rush than a death battle."
I tilted my head before speaking.
"And who might you be?"
"Oh, sorry, I forgot that I requested to referee to not introduce me since I want to introduce myself. I am "Comet Fist" Seiya, the one that will become the King of the Tower!"
Seiya said as he made some weird gesture with his arms and from my perspective, the constellation of Pegasus appeared behind him.
'He can't use it, can he?'
I thought as I heard Seiya yell something.
"Pegasasu Ryūsei Ken!"
Seiya cocks his right arm back before he unleashes a very rapid discharge of punches in mid-short distance. I was within range of those punches. Seiya unleashes about 100 punches per second, but I manage to evade them as I walk past Seiya leaving after images of myself as the background turns dark for a second.
"Not bad, I guess that you didn't survive your death matches through sheer luck."
Seiya says turning to face me. He still sported a cocky smile. I on the other hand seem bored because I am since the fight already ended. I sigh and lightly throw something at Seiya while speaking.
"Catch."
Seiya instead of catching it throws a punch at the red cloth pouch that I had thrown to him. Once his fist makes contact with it with the red pouch, it is blown to bits, and flesh and blood come out of it.
"Nice try but I was not born yesterday, I will not catch something an opponent throws at me."
Seiya says confidently.
"It is a shame though."
I chuckle as I mutter those words. I point at the blood-covered ground with my right hand and as I speak, Seiya notices that my fingernails now look like claws.
'These claws look sharper than knives. I better avoid getting hit by them.'
That is what his face is telling me. Seiya must have made a mental reminder to avoid them in his next strike.
"That was your heart and you are already dead."
"What?"
My words confused Seiya which I then explained further.
"I said, that was your heart that I threw at you. I thought it would be the right thing to do since you showed me something interesting. I wanted to show you something interesting as well but oh well, I guess that I should have warned you what it was before throwing it."
Seiya looked down at his chest and noticed that there was a small hole where his heart was supposed to be. Upon realizing this and seeing the hole, Seiya started to feel weak and cold. He struggled to move his body, even the task of moving his head upward to face me took a lot out of him.
"Karma's a bitch ain't it? You said all those things about facing older opponents when you were young and you probably killed them too right? Anyway, thanks for the refresher course and your Technique "Comet Fist" Seiya.
I was starting to worry that I had forgotten how to use my claws for these sorts of things. "
I say this as I wave his hands while my back faces Seiya. I turned to face the referee as I spoke.
"Oy, Referee, you might as well announce the winner now."
"*Coughs* W-Wait-…"
*Thud*
Seiya barely had the strength to utter a word before he fell to the ground. The referred announced my victory and no peculiar opponent showed up since then. Time went by, I turned ten and I heard one day that Rob had died but he got the death he wanted, death by Snu-Snu.
His death became known through the entire Eisleymos along with who he was sleeping with. Let me tell you, a lot of men were pissed and lost a huge part of their reputation. Menthos was funny enough one of them.
Good thing I kept my new name a secret from everyone outside of Rob. Speaking of Menthos, he has almost run out of patience but that did not matter because I was ready to attempt the Trial by a thousand blades.
[AN:
Remember this is technically an AU so there will be non One Piece Characters here and there.
Want more? Like Thanos, I want those STONES!!!]