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Glory to my chief Proofreader: Solare. For he is the one who points out mistakes and acts as my favourite wall to bounce ideas off of.
Word Count: 3771.
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Adam grabbed onto a sheet of ice and pulled himself up to it in a single motion, he felt the water flow down his body and drip onto the ground beneath him. An annoyed frown covered his face at that, he looked around for a moment to orient himself.
All around him was simply a frozen wasteland, nothing but ocean and ice behind him with a similarly icy path before him that led into the island. Adam shrugged, deciding that he might as well explore the island since he's already there and had nothing better to do.
Flames lit on his back, lighting up the area around him with their orange hues. The heat from his fire began permeating through his body, warming it up and drying his clothes. He patted his satchel, sighing slightly in relief that it was made of leather and could shut entirely, this meant its contents were mostly dry.
"Everyday I become more and more thankful to you, Mother. Thank you for your hindsight…" He muttered as he walked forwards, making his way towards the island while reaching into his satchel to grab a specific item.
However, something was revealed to him from the corner of his eyes through the haze of the snowstorm. "Huh.. A Pirate Ship? Well, I suppose that's more of a schooner.. Must have balls of steel to sail the Grandline in this dingy piece of shit…"
True to Adam's description, the ship docked in the middle of the icy harbour looked to be held together with hopes and dreams. It was a small, rugged vessel with a mismatched hull and a tattered sail bearing a grinning skull. Its Jolly Roger was a grinning skull with a cracked forehead and a bandana, the crossbones were replaced with a wrench and a cutlass.
The Lunarian shrugged and kept walking into the island, retrieving his previously gained map as he did. He pulled it out of his satchel with a careful hand, finding it to be slightly wet from his ocean dip. He raised the heat radiating from his body just enough to start evaporating the water near him without burning the map.
After a second of scanning the map as he made his way towards a snowy forest, he finally deduced which island this must be. "Hm… 'Drum Island', eh? Sounds stupid, who the hell names their island after a musical instrument?"
And so Adam kept walking through the snowy forest, deciding that if he didn't see anything interesting in the next 5 minutes, he would simply fly up to that castle he spotted not too long ago.
Not 3 minutes after that moment, his eyes caught something interesting in front of him: Snow Tracks. It was a subtle foot trail of about 4 or 5 people leading deeper into the forest, and given the ship he spotted docked nearby, he would hazard a guess that it was from the crew of said ship.
The Lunarian jogged ahead along the trail, his long and powerful legs eating up the path as he quickly made his way towards wherever the pirate crew had gone. A couple of minutes after that, he found himself staring at a quaint little village, each one of the houses were framed by a large bonfire in the middle of the village.
"Hm.. This should be interesting if nothing else, I just hope the Monkeys know their place. Would be a shame if I had to kill some of them, not that I'm opposed to it, but this village looks like it has enough problems…" He muttered under his breath, walking towards the town and taking in the views.
Adam kept loosely following tracks of the supposed pirate crew, he eyed up the village as he did, spotting that the town's bonfire was slowly fading away. One of the men near it sighed in resignation, turning away and moving towards a nearby building, presumably to grab more fire wood.
A thoughtful look covered the Lunarian's face for a moment, he saw a few children playing near the bonfire with some shivering slightly, he shrugged and raised a hand, "Well, I suppose since I am a guest, I should bring with me a small gift. But only this once."
With a snap of his fingers, the once fading and sputtering bonfire instantly lit up into a blazing inferno, causing the townspeople near it to gasp and flinch at the sudden change. The man who was going to get more firewood stared at the brilliant flames with obvious confusion.
"...A flare-up? No, that doesn't make sense. The fire would be dying out by now, it's obviously not that. The hell?" He muttered, scratching his head in confusion before shrugging and sitting back down next to his friends. "I suppose we just have to thank whatever God was kind enough to help us out."
Adam smirked from the side as he overheard the brown haired man's words, a small amused chuckle escaped him as he crossed his arms. "'God', huh? This Monkey is a smart one."
He turned from the bonfire and looked around the village itself, slightly surprised that no one had noticed him yet despite him making no efforts to hide himself. He then spotted a large building at the back of the town centre which had the pirate crew's foot trails leading into it.
"Well.. If I were a betting man, I'd say that's either a Tavern or the Town Hall." Adam thought aloud as he rolled his shoulders, walking to the large building while turning off his back flames to avoid becoming a walking fire hazard since it was made entirely of wood.
The door to the building itself was also quite big, allowing his 9'3 foot tall frame to pass through it comfortably. Something Adam could appreciate, given how most of the other Human architecture did not work so well or accommodate his enormous size.
Adam went to open the door of the building to enter, but just as he reached towards it, the large double door swung open. From the building emerged a small black haired child in a thick coat, he was looking into the building and was not paying attention as he exited.
"I know, I know! I'll be careful and come back soon, mom-!" The black haired child's words were cut off as he bumped into Adam's leg, falling on his behind from the sudden interruption.
"Ah, Dalton! Are you alright?" A blonde-haired woman called out. She wore a simple pale woolen gown cinched at the waist with a leather belt. Her apron, slightly soiled from the day's work, hung loosely over her skirt, her blonde hair was tied together into a braided side ponytail.
Adam looked down on the black haired child for a moment, his deadpan stare making him start to sweat slightly. The Lunarian's eyes softened in amusement before he stepped to the side, "My bad, go on Brat."
The child's face immediately lit up as he seemed to have forgotten all of his building fear and got up to his feet, "Haha, thanks mister!"
Dalton ran past him with a carefree laugh, making his way towards the village's bonfire and drawing a relieved sigh from the blonde haired woman. Adam guessed that she must be the Mother of the child, if her reaction to such a minor incident.
"Sorry about Dalton, Sir. He can get a bit overexcited and not pay attention when he has to…" She said as she closed her eyes and let out a small sigh, she recollected herself turned up to look him in the eyes. She found that to be harder than she expected as he looked to be nearly twice her height.
A crimson blush covered her face as she got a close look at his sculpted body through his still slightly wet shirt, which only got bigger when their eyes met.
'Holy wow he's handsome.. AH! What are you thinking, Astrid?! You're married!' The blonde haired woman thought with extreme embarrassment before shaking her head harshly to shake away the unwanted thoughts.
"A-Ahem! My apologies, Sir. I-I am Astrid, the Hostess of this establishment. What can I do for you, S-Sir?" Astrid asked as she brought her hands together in front of herself and bowed slightly, trying to ignore her heated blush.
"Hm.. Well, first of all, is this the Town Hall or a Tavern?" Adam questioned, crossing his arms and walking into the building with Astrid by his side. Although he had picked up on the woman's flustered fit, he didn't say anything about it since he wouldn't bring himself to start anything of that nature with a Human.
"B-Both actually, my Husband usually covers the administrative part though, so I keep a hold of the Tavern and take care of guests. Is there anything you need, Sir…?" She asked, slowly gathering her composure back, although her face retained a red tint.
"Adam. Adam D. Valentine." He answered with a steady tone, looking around the insides of the place and finding it to be much larger than he expected it to be. "As for what I want, some food and a drink would be nice."
"Oh, I see! Then follow me, S-Sir Valentine. Let me guide you to a table." Astrid said, hastily walking past him with her head down to hide a crimson blush that had returned with a vengeance.
The Hostess speed walked forward with a strained expression as she screamed in her head, 'AHHHH! DAMNIT! WHY IS EVEN HIS NAME HOT?! And he has wings too?! Hold strong, Astrid! You can't be swayed and tempted by this Angel!'
She was broken out of her flustered stupor as she processed his name finally just as they reached a table close to the Bar counter, it was near the corner of the Bar and allowed whoever sat in it to view all the patrons.
"Huh.. 'Adam D. Valentine'... I apologise if this is an odd question, but have we met before? Your name is oddly familiar." Astrid asked, tilting her head in confusion as she turned back to the Lunarian.
"No, we have not." He replied simply as he sat down at his table, he had gathered that she probably heard about him on the news but didn't want her to panic and be a hassle to him.
"Oh.. Well I suppose it doesn't matter, what would you like to have today? Tonight's special is a Venison stew with dark rye bread. It comes with some pickled vegetables and a tankard of spiced berry mead." She explained cheerfully, switching into her 'work' mindset to shake off her flustered fit.
Adam hummed as he rested his head on a hand, looking her up and down, causing her cheeks to heat up slightly, before eying up the rest of Bar's patrons. He tilted his head slightly before raising his other hand and waving at her dismissively.
"Yeah, sure. Let's go with that."
"O-Of course, Sir Valentine. I'll get that done for you as quickly as possible!" Astrid blurted out a little too quickly before bowing her head and rushing off, leaving Adam to chuckle under his breath at her expense.
'With how easily this Mongrel girl turns to putty, it's a wonder she's still married. Although, I suppose none of the other Monkeys in this backwater village could hope to match up to what I am.' Adam thought with a slight smirk, his eyes wandered from her back to the rest of the bar patrons.
"Speaking of which…" He muttered under his breath as he spotted a group of what looked to be 5 PIrates chatting animatedly on the table next to him, he guessed that was so since one of them wore a stereotypical pirate captain's hat and was literally called such by one of his crewmates.
"Liora, how long until the Log Pose resets?" The brown haired man, who Adam assumed was the captain, asked before taking a bite of a bowl of stew.
"Well Captain, I presume it's going to be about 8 hours if the knowledge I gathered on the last island was correct." Liora answered as she took a glance at the Log Pose on her wrist with a slightly monotone voice, she had long black hair and a cutlass at her hip.
"Damn it, Liora! We've known eachother since childhood and you're my First Mate! The least you could do is call me by my actual name! It's Kaiden! KAI-DEN!" The brown haired man exclaimed incredulously, to the indifference of the black haired woman.
Their exchange caused the bulky blonde haired older man beside them to slam his hand on the table and laugh uproariously, "SHOGAGAGA! You should give up on her calling you by your name, Kaiden! It hasn't worked for the past 2 years!"
Kaiden sighed tiredly at his shipwright's slightly blushing face, the blonde haired man had been drinking quite heavily, "Yeah, I know, Taro. But a man can Dream, right?"
His words only caused the Blonde haired man to burst out laughing again, Kaiden just shook his head and turned his head slightly, inadvertently meeting with Adam's eyes. The pirate captain couldn't help but feel an odd sense of Deja vu when he saw Adam's face, although couldn't quite place who he was.
"Something I can help you with, friend?" He asked after a few moments of silence, Adam ignored him for a moment as Astrid came in from the kitchen bringing his food on a tray.
She timidly placed the steaming food at his table, bringing up the tray and hugging it against her chest. "There you go, Sir. Please enjoy."
Adam looked at her from the corner of his eyes, a smirk covering his face as a devious idea entered his mind. He turned and looked her straight in the eyes with a smile and spoke flirtatiously.
"Thank you, miss~!"
And then he winked.
Astrid's face very quickly transitioned into a bloody crimson red.
"You'rewelcomeenjoybyenow!"
With those hastily stammered words, the Blonde haired woman all but sprinted away from the table. Adam just snickered at her before turning back to Kaiden, he picked up a spoon and took a testing bite of the food.
"Hm… Not bad.. Anyways, don't mind me. I'm just looking for some entertainment and watching you lot squabble was the most entertaining thing on this drab island." He answered bluntly, not caring for the crew's taken aback expressions and kept on eating.
"I-I see…" Kaiden said awkwardly, not expecting such a blunt answer. He looked the man up and down, taking in his huge form and wings as that sense of deja vu came back with a vengeance.
"Ya hear that, Captain? He thinks we're hilarious! I told you we didn't need a Musician, your very existence is entertainment enough! SHOGAGAGA!" Taro teased with a joyful laugh, slapping his captain on the back before taking a large gulp of his drink.
The crew laughed at their captain's expense who simply sighed exasperatedly at his crew's unseriousness, meanwhile Adam just smirked and kept on eating.
A few seconds later, Adam spoke up again after a moment of contemplation. "I wanted to ask, I found a ship docked at the frozen harbour a few kilometres away. Was that yours?"
"Hm? Yes, that's probably our 'Driftwolf'! Scrappy little Brat, but she's my baby and she's served us well!" Taro interjected and answered cheerfully, his pride in their ship was obvious.
"Yes, I must say, I am impressed. That you managed to sail through the Grandline in that dingy piece of ship without sinking, I mean." Adam said with a small honest smile, he wasn't even trying to insult them, the Lunarian just spoke his mind without caring how others would take or interpret them.
However, the shipwright, who poured his heart and soul into maintaining the ship, couldn't take these words lying down. "HAAAH?! What did you just say?!"
Taro stood up from his chair and began marching to Adam who simply raised an eyebrow at him, a moment later he rolled his eyes. Kaiden watched this happen as a sense of nervousness washed over him, one that was only exasperated when his First Mate tapped him on the shoulder.
"Kaiden, look!" Liora called out, pointing just to the right of where Adam stood at a Bounty Board.
And as he did, all of the blood immediately drained from his face.
"Now listen here, you bastard! Driftwolf may not be the prettiest ship, but she's our ship! And I won't let anyone badmouth her!" Taro shouted as he made it to Adam and reached forward to grab him by the shoulders.
The Lunarian's eyes squinted as he noticed the shipwright's move, causing a small frown to tug at his lips. A second after that, the Temperature in the room began skyrocketing immensely.
Kaiden was already on the move, knowing that even a second would be more than enough for his crewmate to Die. Grey fur grew on his body as he moved forwards, his body then morphed quickly into what looked like a Human-Wolf Hybrid or a Werewolf.
And then, to the shock of everyone present, he grabbed his shipwright's head and crushed it into the ground. The floorboards of the Tavern instantly crumbled and shattered, allowing Taro's head to sink through them.
Then Kaiden, followed by his First Mate and eventually the rest of his crew, all got on one knee and bowed their heads to the Lunarian. The captain gulped nervously as he looked into Adam's now amused and intrigued eyes, a sense of relief flooding his veins at the sight.
"I sincerely apologise for my crewmate's rudeness, S-Sir Valentine!" He said, remembering how Adam was called that by the Hostess. "Please forgive him, he's a fool but he didn't mean anything by it! I promise!"
Kaiden didn't know whether to cry or laugh when he heard Adam crack an amused snicker at their expense.
"Pffft.. Kuhahaha! My my~! I thought I would have to slaughter that Mongrel for touching me without permission, but it seems I won't have to do that." Adam laughed, causing the pirate crew to sweat as they didn't know whether they were out of the proverbial fire yet.
"However… He did interrupt my meal, so you have to take responsibility for that. Don't you think so?" He asked coldly as he rested his head against his right hand, his tone switching up on a dime in a manner that sent shivers down the pirate crew's collective spines.
"Y-Yes, whatever it is you want! Just please, don't kill him!" Kaiden exclaimed desperately, the fur on his Zoan hybrid form standing on edge in terror. He remembered what he heard about Adam from the news, and combining that with his bounty…
They would not survive if he chose to kill them.
Yet, to his shock, Adam's intense expression melted away into an amused smile before he laughed. "KUHAHAHA! My god, you Mongrels really are entertaining! Hah.. Just pay for my meal, I'll consider that enough to look past his insolence on account of your hilarious Clown act~!"
Kaiden was taken aback by this immensely, "Uh.. For real?"
"What, you're not happy with it?"
"NO! I-I mean- No, it's fine! We'll do it…"
Adam watched on as the pirate captain transformed back into a full human, picking his shipwright up from the ground and taking him to their crew's doctor to heal his head's injury.
His eyes then wandered away from them, looking to his left at where he saw Liora point at his bounty. Curiosity got the better of him as he stood up and walked over to it, his crimson eyes spotting his own bounty before looking at the other high profile Bounties they had put up on the board.
'The Flameborne' Adam D. Valentine - Bounty of 460 Million Berries. Charges include mass murder, piracy, mass property damage, raid of a Branch Marine Base and killing a Rear Admiral, conspiracy against the World Government, among others.
'Desert King' Sir Crocodile - Bounty of 150 Million Berries. Charges include mass murder, piracy, mass property damage and a recent attack on a Branch Marine Base, among others.
'Marine Hunter' Dracule Mihawk - Bounty of 220 Million Berries. Charges include murder of Royalty and multiple accounts of killing Marines, including a Vice Admiral, among others.
'Heavenly Demon' Donquixote Doflamingo - Bounty of 280 Million Berries. Charges include mass murder, piracy, mass property damage, torture and conspiracy against the World Government, among others.
'Shade King' Gecko Moria - Bounty of 320 Million Berries. Charges include mass murder, piracy, mass property damage, mass grave robbing and crimes against humanity, among others.
Those were all definitely eye-catching, however it was the one in the middle with the highest bounty on this specific board that had caught his attention.
'Demon Heir' Douglas Bullet - Bounty of 1.2 Billion Berries. Charges include mass genocide, grand piracy, mass property damage, terrorism, conspiracy against the World Government and being a Former Member of the 'Pirate King' Gold Roger's crew, among many others.
"Hohoho… Quite a big fish swimming along in these waters, eh? Would be interesting to peel back his scales and see who this 'Demon Heir' truly is." Adam said with immense intrigue in his voice, out of all those he heard about, he was definitely the one he wanted to meet first.
"The only ones who would have higher Bounties than him would be the 4 Emperors or the 'Yonko', no?" He muttered to no one in particular as he crossed his arms and began rubbing his chin with his right hand.
The 4 Emperors or the 'Yonko' are the four most powerful pirate captains in the world, ruling vast territories and commanding immense influence. They are neither allies nor enemies but maintain a fragile balance of power that shapes the seas. Their strength rivals even the Marines and the World Government.
'If memory serves, the current Yonko are.. 'Whitebeard', 'King of the Beasts', 'Evil Spirit' and… Well, it used to be 'Golden Lion', but he was captured soon after Roger was, no? So who would be the one to replace him? The newspapers I got to read here and there weren't very informative beyond surface level info…'
As Adam's train of thought rushed onwards, he got an idea that brought a smirk to his face. "Kuhahaha! Yes! That would work wonderfully!"
He then turned to face Kaiden and his crew who stood behind him awkwardly as they didn't know if they were allowed to leave yet or not, the captain himself flinched slightly when he saw the Mad Grin on Adam's face.
And then, he said words that made him wish he and his crew took his chances with that Storm.
"Hey Mongrel, how much time do you think it would take me to go up that Castle and Overthrow the Kingdom?"
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Author's Note:
For those that like Elden Ring, I decided to make an Elden Ring fic and I'm gonna release the first few chaps soon, so be on the lookout for that :3
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Please Upvote/Like the story and Comment if you can! It really helps me a lot and I'd Greatly Appreciate it!
Next Chapter Title: Overthrowing a Monarchy Any % Speedrun.