{ One week ago, Grimesheed Island }
In the busy port of the famous pirate cove, Grrimesheed Island, the Mad Treasure was docked. The huge vessel calling upon the attention of everyone else, just the mere sight of those black sails announced the presence of the so-called pirate king.
Everyone wanted the distance they can consistently take, not wanting to be involved with such a dangerous man and crew.
To these people, the sight of the crimson red hull, almost mimicking the hues of blood. The dark fabrics that are touched by the breeze, and the proud jolly roger—those skulls that are so known for the trademark of its fracture on the left eye. Imitating the scar of the pirate king's left eye.
To them, whenever they are around fleeing and distancing themselves is the only logical matter.
Its not like the crew is a lunatic group that attacks everyone for no reason—although they might do that as well. But the number of naval fleets trying to subdue them every time they get the intel that the ship has docked somewhere else—everything just resulted in a major conflict.
No one dares to challenge the crew of Mad Treasure other than the group of marines that are coming from different kingdoms. Those pirates crew who dared to do so, watched their ship sink to the bottom of the ocean.
In the buzzling crowd of the biggest market in the island, voices at the top, a music of everyone's calls. Each very inviting, calling every passerby for just a piece of glance, with a desire to lure them and look at their designated plateau of objects to be sold.
As if no one could hear them, none looked or glanced at any spare glint of irises on the store up alleys of vendors. Yet they buzzed and all about at the busy market, until few came around and looked, placing themselves at luck whenever someone purchased something.
All of these noises ceased at the sight of the famous man, walking along with his two trusty men. The man in his dark trench coat despite the blazing hotness of the sun. He walked daringly, chin never been down; so high up proud and boisterous. Eyes always glaring as a beast of its own, hunting their prey at the sun or rays.
The once loud buzzing of the market becomes the sound of a ghost town. With their mouths finally closed, the noise died down but their fear rose. Everyone feared for them, almost wanting to close down their stalls and leave as soon as they could.
Although these people had seen various countless criminals by living on an unlawful island—no one could ever prepare them to see the said pirate king on their own ground.
Just by simply watching him evoked fear in their heart.
The pirate king; at least what he has been called for almost three years now.
To say the people who had heard of such a title are scared of him is an understatement. An insult to him, to his ship, to his crew. Ruthless is what everyone had expected, he lived with it.
Never shying down on the opportunity of people addressing him, instead a full acceptance with a proudness and contempt lies on the shoulder of the man; he terrorizes not only the people but their soul and spirit.
This is what the pirate king is.
Someone terrifying.
The young man, at the height of his early twenties has become so powerful that even the "feared" with him could never amount to what he could do.
People did not dare to cross his path as he walked, the two tall gentlemen on his side eyeing everyone who dared to breathe. They both bear the same weight of being a man of the pirate king. Fearsome and intense, almost as beastly but no calm as him.
They made the market quiet as they walked, no one dared to question why they were here or what they were looking for. Simply awaiting, hopes and silent prayers are heard by dozens of angels.
Minutes by minutes, steps by steps, they were all waiting. Their eyes fearfully watched him enter the tavern, the two men coming with him. And only by then, the place heard the huge breaths that everyone exhaled.
The absence of the pirate king in their presence was air for them.
Inside the tavern however, came the most tense place a person could enter. Filled with pirates who are drunk and fighting with different crew, thrashed and ruined accommodation greeted the fearsome men.
And with the appearance of the man they don't ever want to cross, came the resolution of halting their wrestle. The captains of each crew present could not even handle the aura of the man above them. Even at how evil they could be, something about the pirate king terrifies them.
That terrifying feeling that made them angry to the point of not knowing what to do.
Surely, these nameless pirate captains could not handle the fact that an unknown young man became notorious in the sea in just a little of three years. To them, such a feat was a humiliation to their jolly roger.
Yet, they could not do anything but hate him from afar.
" Pirate King?"
One particular person however did not let the intense eyes of emerald green, the pistol in the hand of the trusty gun master pointed in his head.
The sight added to the tense atmosphere of the tavern. The eyes of everyone almost showing fear but successfully hiding it in their pretentious courage.
" Just a kid, Hakim." Axel groaned as he sipped on his rum. His eyes emotionlessly averted to something else.
" Can't be too sure." Hakim's deep voice penetrated the quiet tavern, almost dominating the place with how forceful he sounds.
" Elijah's fucking disease is rubbing on you." Axel groaned once again.
" Who are you?" The man to the left of the pirate king asked, taking the pistol out of the latter.
Hakim glared at the blue haired man, which was matched by his blue ones too.
A little boy, around at least the of ten had made a great sin of entering the tavern and approaching him. No one dared to inhale, two men on his side did not move anymore but let the king decide. A random pirate at the corner of the tavern wishes his prayers to the parents of the child who is about to be taken by these pirates.
To them, even the job of a pirate seems so evil when it is done by the pirate king.
Axel looked at the kid, eyes still encased by darkness yet he did not blame the child; as he knows it is a child.
The kid looked lost, as if he carried many questions in his palm. The observation he made, through the blonde color of his hair to the amber ocean blue eyes of the unknown child. The way he was clothed, the way he moved and spoked, nothing was too suspicious for him.
Yet, the menacing smile of the child puzzled him.
"Pirate king, is it?" The child repeated.
It no longer sounds like a question, asking for the clarification of someone's identity. But rather it sounded like the child is calling him—even mocking the title in his name.
The man's eyes squinted in rebut, unknown why he would raise an interrogative.
"I have what you are looking for." The whispers of those words sound eerily magnetic despite the tone of how a ten year old kid usually sounded like.
Axel heard the difference between the kid's voice and his intention. As if the kid has something he will likely can't refuse.
The kid has a worn out piece of paper over his palms. Careful at every touch he handed the suspicious thing over. He smiled like a child, yet the crevices speak as devil to the man that stood above him. His eyes dare the devil, knowingly he could not resist.
Felix and Hakim both glanced at each other before looking back at the kid's hands. The uncanny feature of a drawn map is visible within the paper, burnt and almost destroyed. Various inks of miswritten lines and marks, making the map almost unreadable.
Felix looked at his captain. "This.."
"You searched the oceans, you searched the seas. Islands into islands, you dared to reach."
The sound he whispers didn't seem to be the voice of a child but someone only Axel can recognize.
" Captain, what is he talking—" Hakim frustratingly asked, almost snatching his pistol out of the navigator's hands.
" The compass, have you found it?" The kid dared to ask, but the mocking tone and his grin held no concern.
Axel's eyes darkened, the sight of the kid no longer of age in his vision. To him, he just bears the body of a young person but what was inside those ocean eyes was what kept him haunted.
Axel grabbed the boy, furiously and harshly. The grip of his hand in the boy's arms almost leaving a print. The pain rushes to the body of ten year old child, but nothing flashes his ocean blue eyes but complete malice.
" Captain, wait." Felix called out, not liking the idea of hurting an innocent child regardless of the mysteriousness he possessed. Both Hakim and him followed their captain out, in his tow was the boy whimpering but the pretentious reaction didn't pass the expression in his face.
" Who are you!" Axel pushed the boy without thinking. The map fell while the boy's body painfully hit the hard ground.
Everyone outside the tavern witnessed what happened. Although they appear to be scared, not breathing and almost on the verge of tears. Fearing the angry pirate king might come too, they secretly wish the parents of this unknown child would come and save their son.
However, saving wasn't an option.
" Who are you!" Axel's loud and clear voice dominated the place, the grit of his tone tells that he is angry.
" Captain, he's—"
" Felix, don't." Hakim whispered in a warning tone. His eyes focused on watching Axel, analyzing his face. His hands went to reach for Felix in hopes to stop him, but having seen Axel like that makes him stand still.
Felix looked at Axel, the feeling of terror coming into his body as he watched Axel eyes darkened. From its emerald green eyes to something almost indescribable. The way Axel brows furrows, the hatred in those gazing eyes—he knew he couldn't step in anymore.
" Don't." Hakim whispered again, the displeasure in his voice overwritten also in his face.
" I am someone of not importance pirate king." The kid slowly got up. In every move he made, came with complete power and confidence. As if there was no fear that resides inside him, he approached the pirate king once more.
There is uncanny visualization in Axel's mind. He could have sworn he knew those ocean eyes before, something not to be forgotten easily. Yet there was no certainty that those eyes in which he had watched everyone drown years ago could be in front of him.
Those eyes that he loathed forever.
" Did she send you to me?!" He growled, grabbing the kid by his worn out shirt.
The sight could have never been pitiful and terrifying. However, just like before. The boy's eyes and smirk that laced with pure malice could not allow Hakim or Felix to feel sympathy.
The boy has the look of evil.
" The compass shall be there, pirate king." He tauntingly said.
" Compass?" Felix quickly asked, there was a surge of rush in his veins. Picking up the worn out map on the ground, he intently observed it.
" Where is it?" Axel gritted his teeth, his face almost too close to the child, killing him with his eyes.
" You have searched the seas, not knowing where to go. She can grow tired, don't you know." The sweet and energetic voice of a kid, the high pitch of excitement, the tone of innocence. It all comes to nothing when Axel was facing something as evil as he remembered.
" You ought to make her freedom come sooner. She is getting impatient!"
" Captain, just who is he—"
" Felix! Shut your mouth!" Axel angrily interrupted his navigator—the anger inside him could no longer be calmed.
" Oh, dear. It seems that your crew still has no clue." The boy laughed.
Both of the men behind Axel looked confused, glances were being thrown to each other as if asking the things they couldn't understand.
" Shut your mouth! Shut your fucking mouth—"
" A deal is a deal, pirate king." The boy snapped, spatting the intent of maliciousness and heaviness of the truth that only Axel knew.
" It has been a long three years, don't you think? She needs to swim."
Those words made Axel let go. The realization came to him all at once. The images of the past flashed like a vision of the future to unravel.
" No go to the cay of which the compass points azure. You shall find it. Through that compass that shines on an ice jewel; you will adjourn the seas, and you will see thee."
"Just a little aid for this long journey pirate king. She is getting impatient." The boy whispered such ghostly words before leaving a pirate king astonished for the first time.
The market buzzed with speculations, words coming out like bees in a spring field. Each has their own meanings of what the look in the pirate king could interpret. His eyes dulled like it had seen something as scary as his existence. The two men standing in silence as they watched Axel looked broken in his feet.
Felix knew something was there to be worried about. In the journey that they all started not even three years ago. What could it be that made his captain stare in nothing but the abyss of his untold memories he wished he could also forget.
" Captain." He slowly called, handing him the map.
Axel accepted, pushing all his thoughts out of the way. The paper unfolds, an illustration of lands and sea greeted his eyes in both desperation and despair; but an anticipation of marking the end of this once unlocated journey.
A half piece was missing.
" What should we do with this kind of map!" Hakim was frustrated, whined and almost looked for the kid to get him to explain more.
" We can't follow this map if its missing half of it." Felix told his captain, glancing at the man in front of him only to be bewildered by the crazy grin that shows the desperation and anger in his eyes.
A sarcastic yet full of wrath laugh came out of Axel.
" He wants us to find the compass, and now the missing piece of this map. That fucking bastard."
In the eyes of both men, was their captain almost losing his mind. And before he could actually tear the map while he dealt with the huge fit he felt in the fiery emotions inside him, Felix grabbed it and kept it safe.
" That kid will be back once we get the half of that map." He said between the manic laughter.
" But who was that kid?" Hakim asked for both of them.
Axel did not answer, instead he walked back to the tavern as if nothing happened. Although the smirk and the proud shoulder of the pirate king intimidated the pirates inside. It was the way his eyes never calmed down that made them leave and have the tavern all by himself.
In his mind was a distant memory. The ocean eyes that reminded him of what was the feeling of drowning the colors that you once called home. The ocean blue that became crimson blood in the back of his mind, he remembered all.
" So where to?" Felix asked.
" Surely, you won't follow a kid's advice." Hakim added with a raised brow.
" Azura." He whispered against his rum.
The whisper sounded defeated.