Partia, an island that is relatively normal for one on the grand lineas unlike other islands that shows its beauty and mysteries as you sail to its shores, all you see when coming to Partia is a simple town facing the ocean with a forest surrounding it on the other sides.
As the final rays of the golden sun hits the town of this island, the people, tired from whatever they spent their day on, would probably be getting ready to close down their stores to head home or to the local pub, but today was different, as anyone with time on their hand was staring in the direction of the open ocean as they do their best to get a good view of the action that's taking place.
A few miles off the shore of the island, multiple navy ships fires on a much smaller ship, caring the golly roger of the straw hat pirates in a extravagant hunt to capture them.
Though they have always been pirates in the town, the notorious groups captain has a higher bounty on his head than anyone else currently on the island.
In the middle of such a great chase, their is something that neither the people watching from the island nor the navy ships giving chase notice, as all their focus is dead set on the straw hats as it gets away from the bigger ships, a small dingy, making its way past them as it sails to the shores of Partia, making sure to stay out of the navies view.
This small boat has only 3 people on it, an old man, a young man and a young girl, and as the waves created from the actions around them hits their boat,the old man does his best to protect the little girl, as the young man tries to keep their boat afloat in the middle of this madness.
"Hold on a little bit longer, were almost past the worst of it" Shuraiya, a teen with light brown wavy hair that reaches to his chin and a hook tattooed on his face and one on his yellow jacket, says as he pushes a paddle against one of the battle ship to stop them from crashing into it.
"Why are we doing this, cant we get the navy to help us!!!!"Adelle, a little girl with similar hair as Shuraiya, screams her question with her eyes closed as the action around her terrifies her to her core, with the old man having to hold her to help protect her and calm her down.
"we would have if not for the bounty on our heads, though it isn't much, i don't see the navy letting us go" Biera, the old man, says with a chuckle, not taking the situation their in all too seriously.
"How did an old shipwright and a child even get a bounty" Shuraiya asks, with a tone similar to Biera and a smirk on his face as he sits down, prepared to act if they get into anymore trouble.
"Well, its a long story"
"Can you guys take this seriously" Adelle scream again, interrupting Biera as their boat gets hit by another wave made by the bigger ships around them.
"You don't have to worry, we've already made it through the worst of it, all that's left is for us to reach the island" Adelle finally opens her eyes, finally noticing the back of the warships as they sail away, she then stares at Biera with a questioning look, wondering why he didn't tell her sooner as her face starts getting red from her current actions.
"You were still shaking so i thought id confront you till you'd stop" Biera speaks in a calming voice like how one would talk to their own child, a role that he took for her years ago when their city was destroyed, thought his words and tone showed how much he cared for her, this time was different, as her brother, someone that she'd just meet after many years apart, was their to see her actions.
"I-i-i was only holding on to you because i was trying to protect you, yeah, protect you" Getting out of her grandfathers grips, she steadies her nerves as she tries to look more matured in her brothers eyes.
"So that's what you were doing, well that means i need to pay you back somehow"
"You don't need to worry about it, were family after all" Adelle smiles, thinking that her obvious lies has fooled everyone on the boat to make her look more matured, but her stomach has other plans as it grumbles with a loud tune, leaving her frozen in embarrassment as her grandfather laughs from the show in front of him, but tries stopping when he feels her stare on him.
She ends up looking in her brothers direction to see his reaction to what just happened, with her grandfather trying and failing to hold back his laughter behind her, but to her relief, he wasn't even paying much attention to them as he was staring at the action behind them.
"Looks like the worst is behind us" Shuraiya words drips with deep emotions as he thinks of the last 8 years of his life as a bounty hunter, with the allusions of all the things he did in his past appears in front of him, before it could affect him he turns around to look away from his sins.
"Lets go get some food when we reach the island" he says with a smile, his words was enough for Adelle to role up in a ball as the hope that her didn't her her stomach were spread to the wind with shuraiya not even knowing how much his words affected her, biera on the other hand, could tell that their was a strange emotion hidden in his words, but decided to ignore it to not mess with the atmosphere he was trying to create.
"We have some time before we get to shore, why don't you finish your story old man"
"humph, very well" Biera tells his tale to pass the time as they head to Partia, with shuraiya enjoying the ups and downs that it entails, Adelle slowly regains her composure as the story goes on and as the story goes on, Shuraiya closing his eyes to listen as the hope of a new life slowly grows inside him.
***
"Were finally hear, come on, let go get some grub" Adelle screams with excitement as she jumps off the boat onto the docks, showing off her true self as she is too hungry to try acting more matured.
"All in good time" Biera says as he docks the boat, while shuraiya follows after his sister before she gets too far, but his happy expression turns serious as he feels someone heading in his direction, looking where he felt it, he saw a young man heading his way, and farther behind him were others with the same cloth design as the one coming his way.
"Hey you", finally reaching him, the stranger spoke in a voice holding no signs of hostility, but the saber on his hip was enough for shuraiya to stay on guard as he waits for his next words while hiding Adelle behind him just in case of trouble.
"Are you a pirate" the stranger asks with the same neutral voice as before, with his sister safe, shuraiya notices something strange, his cloths, thought they look different, are the same type used by the navy, but green and brown instead of the normal white and blue.
"Something like that, is that a problem" Shuraiya says with a smile, preparing himself for a possible fight if it happens, with Biera coming to his side confused at the atmosphere between the two men, but to the groups surprise, the stranger bows his head to the group and speaks with the utmost respect.
"I see, then welcome to Partia, if you would follow me, i will lead you to the local bar, the best place for someone of your standing to eat, drink and sleep" Adelle and biera freeze, as though they were ready for a fight, they didn't expect to be treated like this.
"Oh, really, then were in your hands", Shuraiya on the other hand agrees to the mans request without a second thought, acting as if this strange interaction was normal.
"Hold up a second" Adelle screams in be-wilderness as she gets in between her brother and the stranger, "shura, what are you doing, for all we know this could be a trap", speaking her worries, she hope that her words tries to show her brother the errors of he was doing.
"Don't worry about it, its either their saying the truth and we can get some food" shura freezes for a moments to let the gravity of his next words sink in as a viscous smile shows on his face, "or its a trap, and we have to bust some skulls"
"Certainly not sir, i swear on the glory of the land that i speak no lies", The stranger screams, sensing the change in the air, deepens his bow while doing his best to try and show that he means no harm.
"More importantly, whats up with you calling me shura", Shuraiya on the other hand, ignores him completely as he is more focused on the nickname his sister has given him.
"well, its ...."
"She gives one to people that she likes"
"Grandpa!!!!"
"Come on kids, lets start heading out before my body starts acting up again" Walking past both siblings and the bowing man, Beira starts moving into the town as he without waiting for the guide to show him the way.
"Hey, get back hear, you don't even know the way"
"And you do, humph, Shura, kinda like that" Adelle says to the old man as she runs after him, with Shuraiya grumbling his thought on his nickname as he follows closely behind her leaving the guide confused for a while before he rush to them so that they wont get into any trouble.
The group follows the guide, enjoying the sights of the city as they go by, and before long, they arrive in front of a three story building, even from outside, the noise coming from inside is enough to tell the people outside how wild they were, before reaching the door, the guide turns around, as he attempts to say something.
"Thanks for showing us the way, but i think we can handle it from hear" before he could even talk, shura goes past him, too hunger to wait for anymore distractions as he speaks in a confident voice.
As the doors open to the tavern, the once noisy bar goes silent as all eyes in the room is drawn to the group as the pirates check to see what kind of man entered into their mist, with some loosing interest, turning back to continue their conversations, some checking to see what they can steal from them, while the rest focus on Adelle, wondering why such a child would be in such a place.
Ignoring their stares, Shura tries walking to the counter with his company in toe, but before he could even reach it, a pirate of great stature blocks his way, as he tries to go past him, another person from the same table as the last one stands up and blocks him again.
"Can i help you with something" Shura speaks with a little venom dripping in his voice as the smell of food in the air starts messing with his mind, with how the room was changing.
"Woah their, we don't want to fight, we just want to speak with your boss" The larger of the two man spoke first, a little bit amused that a man so small dared to talk to him in such tone.
"Boss!?" Shura says confused, but the second man ignores him and points at Biera.
"We've seen that man with Gasperde before, so be good henchmen and bring us to him, we have business to discus" Finally understanding the situation, shura flashes a smile, as his once venomous voice turns indifferent as it shows how tired he is of hearing that mans name.
"Gasperde huh, sorry to say, but you wont be able to finish your business with him" he gives a pause, letting his next words sink in,"Ever"
"Bullshit, do you expect me to believe that a wimp like you defeated a man with a $90000000 bounty" the bigger man screams with annoyance.
"Who the hell do you think you,... wait, your" the second man says, at this point, the whole bar was watching the situation unfold, but to the surprise of everyone watching, the smaller of the two men face lights up as he realizes something, then he turns around and gives the sign for his partner to do the same.
"I see, so you really did it, looks like Gasperde finally got what was coming to him" The smaller of the men chuckles as he walks away
"Bordy, what the hell are you doing" the bigger man screams in an angry tone as he was about to start a fight with shura, but one look from the man named bordy was enought to makes him follow his wishes.
"Thanks for giving us the news Mr Shuraiya, or do you prefer pirate executioner" Bordy words beings the bar to silence once again, thought it was only rumors, anyone whose anyone in the bar has heard of the pirate executioner, a relentless bounty hunter that stands on a mountain of bodies in a one man war against pirates.
All eyes return to Shura as one thought that they were his next victim flashes through their mind, the bartender hints for one of the workers before garbing a key from the counter and rushing to where Shura was standing, with the tension in the only increasing with every second, he acted fast in order to keep an all out brawl from starting as he speaks to shura with sweat dripping from his face.
"Mr pirate executioner, you must be tired from your journey on sea, we have already prepared a room for you to stay in" the small man tries his best to not antagonist shura as he brings out the key he got and tries handing it to him.
"I didn't ask for, how do you expect me to eat if i go their"
"We already have a meal waiting for you in the room"
"Oh, then thank you for the room" Shura bows his head as he grabs the key and rushes into the room leaving his group behind.
"Wait for me" Adelle screams as she runs to follow her brother, Biera, watching the situation unfold, shakes his head at how childish both siblings were acting, but though he couldn't see it, he could sense Shura still watching them from the shadows even though he was still in the room.
Entering the room, both Biera and Adelle are shocked not by the sight in front of them, but the time it took for one man to finish so much food, on that day, both the two of them decided that they would never let him eat first in any occasion.
"My god, how has a man like you survived so long"
"Don't worry about it, I've dealt with their types before and their not that hard to deal with" he says with a laugh with the other two in the room looking at him as if he was a mad man, with no other choice, Biera grabs the menu and starts searching the options.
"Me and adelle are going to order some more food, do you want anything" Biera asks as he walks to the door as he plans to give the siblings some time to bond, with Adelle fidgeting as the thought of being alone with him started to scare him.
"nah, i think I'm going to take a nap, if anything happens, just wake me up"
Shura on the other hand, doesn't take the hint as he lays on the bed, making Adelle both annoyed and sad that she was ever excited to spend time with him as she decides to follow her grandfather instead, not wanting to interrupt his nap.
As sleep slowly takes Shura mind away, the images of everything that he has done to be where he is now drifts into his head, once, these thought were use to strenghten his resolve, but know that Gasperde was gone, these memories were a reminder of all the sins he has committed, threatening to swallow him whole.
Slowly, as he drowns deeper into his slumber, a strange feeling starts filling up his body slowly, as it illuminates the darkness that he was sinking in, thought it was small, this feeling was enough for him to not be drown by all the terrible things he has done as the rays of hope it produce slowly rejuvenate his motivation to live on.
But knowing his sins are too grave, he known that no matter how much he wants it, he can never be close, all he can hope for is to watch as it grows to become something greater than he could ever be, and so a decision is made, that as long as the Adelle, his last chance of hope continues to shine, he will always be their to protect her.