Ryu worked at a butcher shop on dawn island ever since he was twelve. It was the perfect way to grind his devil fruit power. That's right, he was a devil fruit user and not only that but he was also from another world, earth. What was his devil fruit? Why, it was the leech leech no mi, turning him into a leech human. Not the animal though, no, his power was a paramecia, not a zoan. It allowed him to gain strength, skill and even special abilities by drinking someone's blood. So, he worked at the butcher shop, drinking the blood of dead animals day in and day out, getting stronger every day. Now, after 6 years of drinking blood, he was way stronger than anyone else around. Sure, animal blood didn't give as much as human blood, in fact, it gave almost nothing at all but six years worth of 1% add up quickly. He was even stronger than Luffy had been at the start of the journey. Luffy, who was as of right now still 12 years old, a full five years away from starting his journey.
He bought a small boat, a map, a rapier and enough food and water to last him a few weeks, sailing out one day.
He sailed for a day or two before he finally found what he was looking for, a pirate ship. He climbed aboard it.
"Hey, what do you think you are doing, kid? This ship belongs to the Bloodwolf pirates! You better hop back into your boat and-", before he could finish, Ryu had sliced his throat open and his mouth to the wound. The blood tasted like pepper and garlic. The other pirates were too surprised to react until the guy was basically already out of blood. The power he got from a human's blood was far superior to that he would've gotten from an animal's blood. He could feel the skills and raw power flow through his veins. Ryu had to dodge a sword from his side, as one of the other pirates lunged at him. He struck the pirate's wrist, which caused him to lose his blade and then, he pierced his chest. There was no time to drink his blood however, as there were shots being fired at Ryu. They were terrible marksmen, for they didn't hit him, the bullets sailing past him. With unnatural speed, he finished off pirate after pirate. He hissed as a bullet finally found its mark, hitting him in his non-dominant arm, before he killed the last pirate on deck. Ryu drank the blood out of the corpses and could feel the wound in his arm knit itself together as he absorbed their vitality. After having consumed all their blood, he went looking for the captain; he wasn't amongst the crew he slaughtered. The captain was killed in his bed, still asleep, with a naked woman laying by his side. When he had drained the captain, Ryu shook the woman awake. She screamed loudly, backing away from him, "W- who are you? I- I already slept with your c- captain to-", she looked at the dead captain and then back to Ryu, covered in blood, "Y- you killed him… are- are you a pirate too?"
"Not yet"
"'not yet'? What do you mean?", she covered herself with the bedsheet, still clearly terrified of him.
"Well, I don't have a bounty yet, so I'm not officially a pirate yet. Don't worry, you won't have to sleep with me, though I have to ask, are you strong?"
"N- no?"
"Then I have no use for you… do you know where these guys have their treasure?"
"Y- y- yes! they- they keep it in the room just down the hall, please don't kill me…"
"Like I said, it is no use killing someone who is weak. I will take the money and leave, you should leave here too, if you don't want to sleep amongst corpses. It looked like they had some small, rowing boats on here", Ryu said, leaving the frightened girl behind.
The spoil was okay, 50 thousand berry, the crew had recently stocked up on weapons and food. The ship wasn't big, in fact he could probably steer it himself, if with a little difficulty, so, he decided to keep the ship. According to the logs, it was called the longclaw. When he returned to the captain's quarters, he found the woman still there, though now dressed in a red dress and her brown hair put up in a bun, "what are you doing here? I thought I told you to leave"
"W- well, I- wanted to join this pirate crew, that is why I slept with this guy, because well, I may or may not have abandoned my post at the marines. I can't really go back to a law-abiding life, so… could I- join your crew? I can- I can cook! I'm a pretty good cook in fact!" She looked so helpless, Ryu felt pity for her.
"Can you fight?"
"Well… I have been trained in rifle shooting back in the marines and have gotten pretty high scores in our yearly reports. My body though, it's pretty weak", she admitted hesitantly.
"Nothing that a bit of training won't fix, sure, you can join my crew. I'm Kaminari D. Ryu, what's your name?", sailing this ship together would be easier and he had to start his crew somehow. He had hoped to get a stronger first crewmember but he could train her up and having a cook was good too.
"I'm Mika Cho", she introduced herself and held out her hand, "to a great cooperation"
"To a great cooperation, Cho"
They took down the pirate flag, threw the bodies in the sea and sailed on the lookout for more pirates to kill and drain. Whilst they were sailing, Ryu trained Cho up. His training was brutal but after a week, it already showed progress. Then, after a week of searching, they met another pirate crew, the Small cat pirates. They were easily dealt with, not posing much of a threat to Ryu. Whilst he got in close range, Cho shot them with her rifle. She was more then shocked when he started draining them, "what are you doing?!"
"Drinking their blood"
"Why would you do that?", she looked at him with horror.
"I ate a devil fruit, which makes me stronger by drinking other people's blood", he explained, "the more I drink, the stronger I get"
"Like some kind of vampire? My captain had a devil fruit, back when I still was a marine but he didn't need to drink blood to grow stronger"
"Well, every devil fruit is different. If I might ask, what devil fruit did your captain have?"
"The kuma kuma no mi, model: polar bear", she said, still looking warily at him, "you aren't… gonna come drink my blood in my sleep, are you?"
"Rararara! Of course not, why would I drain my own cook? Besides, I'm already so strong that your strength would be a drop in the bucket, not worth taking. If you had a devil fruit, I might drink a glass or two but I wouldn't drain you dry!", he laughed. This explanation seemed to satisfy Cho and she began loading their loot onto their ship, now a lot less scared.
"Say… do you know where your former captain is right now? I might want to drink some of his blood to get his devil fruit ability"
"Wait- you can even get other devil fruit abilities? Your fruit is broken, why haven't I heard of it before? I feel like that is something all marines should know. With that kind of power, becoming an admiral would be easy!"
"My best guess is that the world government hid this power because they fear it. Imagine it, what I could become in a few years, no one will be able to stand in my way and I'll have my dream in no time, rararara"
"Your dream? What is it? You haven't mentioned your dream before", she asked.
"To become the strongest man alive, of course!"
"B- but that's the title of whitebeard!", Cho's jaw was wide open, she threw a sack of apples onto their ship as she stared at this ridiculous statement.
"For now… you said it yourself, becoming an admiral would be easy, so why not a yonko? Say, what is your dream?" Ryu asked, as he carried crates of ammunition onto his ship, down into the storage rooms.
"My dream? Well… I suppose it is… well- it is kinda silly compared to your dream but I want to marry a nice woman or man one day and live with them happily", she blushed deep red.
"Well, it is not the most ambitious goal but it is a good goal", Ryu opened a chest, there were jewels inside. They would fetch a good price on the next market they visited, "you haven't answered my first question though, do you know where your former captain is right now?"
"Yes… he should be around cloud island right now, paroling the seas there", Cho said as she placed the last crate onto the longclaw.
"Next destination cloud island then"