Imu soared through the brilliant blue sky of Paradise.
Below, the sea was a sparkling like a diamonds because of the sunlight and soon and an island materialized on the horizon.
It was shaped like a crescent moon and a strange and jagged piece of land that looked as though it had been violently broken.
This was Jaya.
As Imu circled above this island, the island's tragic and wild history flooded his ancient memory. This was not the complete island. This was merely half of a forgotten story.
Four hundred years ago, Jaya was a much larger landmass, its shape resembling a giant skull. It was the ancestral home of a proud and powerful tribe known as the Shandians, who fiercely protected a legendary city made of pure gold: Shandora. They were led by their brave and noble warrior named Kalgara.
One day, a ship from a distant kingdom arrived, carrying an adventurer named Montblanc Noland. Noland was not a pirate, he was a kind and curious man and a botanist who revered nature.
At first, Kalgara and his people were wary of this outsider.
But when a deadly plague swept through their tribe, a sickness that no medicine man could cure, it was Noland who used his scientific knowledge to find the cure. He saved the Shandian people and in doing so, he and Kalgara forged a bond of friendship so deep they became brothers in everything but blood.
Noland eventually had to return to his own kingdom but he promised his friend Kalgara that he would one day return.
When Noland told his king about the city of gold, the greedy monarch sent him back with a fleet of ships to claim the treasure.
But when Noland arrived at the location of Jaya, he found nothing. The entire city of Shandora, along with half of the island had vanished, leaving only a gaping hole in the ocean.
The king, believing he had been deceived by Noland, he branded Noland as a liar. He was called "Noland the Liar," and was publicly executed in his hometown and his name becoming a cautionary tale for centuries.
Noland, however was not a liar. He was simply the victim of a cosmic, once in a lifetime accident.
The day before his return, a colossal super powered stream of water known as the Knock-Up Stream had erupted from the directly beneath Jaya.
It shot upwards into the heavens with unimaginable force, ripping half of the island from the earth and launching it 10,000 meters into the air, where it settled among the clouds to become a new island in the sky: Skypiea.
Kalgara and his people, now trapped in the sky and believed Noland had betrayed them. They would spend the next four centuries fighting the people who had taken over their golden home.
The people left behind on the broken remnant of Jaya were eventually forgotten and the island descended into lawlessness, become a home for the bad people of society.
Imu folded his great wings and began his landing on the island.
He was not heading for the untamed jungle but for the only significant settlement on the island, a place that perfectly embodied Jaya's fallen state: Mock Town.
From the air, it looked like a random collection of broken toys. The buildings were messy and poorly constructed, leaning on one another as if too drunk to stand.
As he come closer, the sounds of the town reached him: loud, boisterous laughter, the angry shouts of arguments, the clash of swords, and the constant shatter of breaking glass.
It was the symphony of a town without rules.
Imu landed as softly as a shadow in a dusty alleyway, his wings melting back into his body. He pulled the hood of his dark robe over his head and stepped onto the main street.
The town was even more wretched up close. The roads were covered with dirt. Drunken pirates stumbled out of cheap, dirty bars, starting fights for sport.
Every person he saw was armed and wore a mean, suspicious eyebrows. This was a place where kindness was a weakness and only the cruel survived.
Imu observed several different pirate crews, each with their own unique flavor of depravity.
He saw the Hokahoka Pirates, led by a man so hot tempered that steam seemed to perpetually rise from his shoulders. They were gathered around a treasure chest and screaming at each other over the division of their loot.
He saw the Roshio Pirates. Their captain, Roshio the Executioner was a tall and menacing figure who loved to boast about his body count. He was laughing as one of his men kicked an old street vendor and stole his food.
And then he saw the most infamous and arrogant crew on the island: the Bellamy Pirates.
Their captain, "Bellamy the Hyena," was a young man with blonde hair and a cruel mocking smile. He was lounging outside a bar, his feet was on a table and surrounded by his adoring crew.
Bellamy was a new breed of pirate. He scoffed at treasure maps and ancient legends. He think that a "New Age" where dreams were for fools.
This cynical belief wasn't born from wisdom, but from a life of privilege and boredom.
Bellamy had grown up in a wealthy and peaceful town where he had everything he wanted but no excitement.
He grew to despise the quiet and order and began to idolize a man who represented the opposite: the Warlord Donquixote Doflamingo.
Doflamingo was a king who was secretly a monster, a man who believed power was the only truth. Bellamy left his comfortable home to become a pirate and adopting Doflamingo's symbol and his cruel philosophy.
To Bellamy, crushing other people's dreams made him feel strong.
Imu walked through the center of the street like a quiet specter in a world of loud chaos. The pirates paid him no mind.
To them, he was just another traveler and a potential target for later. They were too absorbed in their own petty squabbles. They couldn't feel the cold and terrifying power that was gliding among them.
He passed a group of Roshio's pirates who were laughing at a four day old newspaper nailed to a wall. In that newspaper there was a photo of newly promoted marine Vice Admiral "Vice Admiral Umi." The hero of the North Blue.
"Look at this guy," one of the pirates, pointing a grimy finger at the picture. "The 'Hero of the North Blue.' What a joke. I bet he is just some weakling in a fancy suit."
Another pirate guffawed. "Yeah, I like to see him come here. We will show him what real pirates are like."
But as Imu walked past, one pirate who was slightly less drunk happened to look away from the poster and saw the quiet man in the dark cloak. The man's face was hidden, but for a brief second, the pirate saw his face.
The pirate froze. The beer mug in his hand slipped from his grasp and shattered on the ground.
"Hey… wait a minute…" the pirate trembled, his eyes widening with a new fear. He looked back at the wanted poster and then back at the man walking away.
The black hair. The serious face. The glowing red eyes he had just glimpsed.
It couldn't be.
The pirate's face turned dark with fear. He began to tremble uncontrollably.
"It's… it's… HIM!" he said with his voice laced with pure terror.
His shout sliced through the town's noise like a wildfire.
Everything stopped.
The arguing, the laughing, the fighting - all ceased. All eyes turned to the pirate who was pointing a shaky finger at the man in the dark cloak.
"It's Umi" the pirate screamed. "The guy from the newspaper. The new Vice Admiral. He is here."
For a heartbeat, there was absolute silence.
Then pure chaos erupted.
The pirates, so brave moments before were now screaming like frightened children. They scrambled to get away and knocking over tables and each other in their panic.
The "Hero of the North Blue," the man said to have crushed the Revolutionary Army in four kingdoms was here.
Bellamy the Hyena, who had been lounging with an arrogant smirk fell from his chair. His face was a mask of disbelief and little fear.
Imu stopped walking and slowly turned around. His red eyes regarded the scurrying pirates like a man observing a nest of insects he was about to crush. He sighed.
"Wait....Please" a pirate from the Hokahoka crew cried and dropping to his knees. "We were just minding our own business....We did not do anything to.....you"
Imu drew his magnificent sword, Reidai Kitetsu. The dark red blade seemed to absorb the sunlight. He looked down at the begging pirate with cold and empty eyes.
"I am a Marine," Imu stated, his voice quiet but carrying across the suddenly silent town. "Isn't it normal for me to kill pirates?"
He paused, his gaze sweeping over the terrified faces.
"And besides," he continued, his voice dripping with a cold, logical cruelty, "the normal people of which you hurt before in this world were also minding their own business. But you still hurt them...didn't you????"
The words hung in the air like a perfect and terrible statement.
The irony was so thick and so absolute, it was a wonder the very air didn't curdle. Here stood the leader of the World Government, an organization that hurt people for "minding their own business" on a scale these pathetic pirates could never dream of.
This statement itself is a double standard, irony and top of that hypocrisy.
These pirates were like rabid dogs snapping and biting at anyone who passed by, their cruelty is messy, personal and small.
But the World Government, his government was like a plague. It didn't just rob a single vendor. it extorted a "Heavenly Tribute" from entire kingdoms, bleeding them dry for the sake of the Celestial Dragons' luxury. It didn't just kill a few rivals in a bar fight. it unleashed Buster Calls, erasing entire islands like Ohara from the map, killing thousands of innocent scholars, men, women, and children, simply because they were minding their own business and seeking forbidden knowledge of the Void century.
The pirates hurt people for a bag of gold or a moment of fun. The World Government hurt people to maintain a global system of control built on lies and fear. Their cruelty was clean, efficient and systemic.
The begging pirate's eyes widened in horror, and before he could plead again, Imu moved. There was a single soft swish as his blade cut through the air.
The pirate fell to the ground in two clean pieces.
The sight of blood broke the spell of fear and replaced it with a stupid and desperate rage.
"GET HIMMMMM" roared Roshio the Executioner, drawing his own massive notched blade. "He is just one man"
With a collective battle cry, the remaining pirates of the Roshio and Hokahoka crews charged forward with a wave of rusty metal and angry shouts.
Imu watched them come, his expression unchanged. A pirate swung a rusty axe, but Imu was no longer there. The pirate spun around in confusion, only to see the glint of a black blade before feeling a cold line across his neck.
He fell without a sound.
Imu was a storm of death. He did not use any grand and flashy techniques. His movements were small, precise, and utterly final.
With every movement, another pirate fell. He was not fighting them; he was disband them with the detached efficiency of a surgeon.
In less than ten seconds, all of Roshio Pirates and Hokahoka Pirates were dead on the street with other pirates on this island, their "battle" was over before it had even begun.
Now, only the Bellamy pirates remained.
They were frozen in terror. Bellamy scrambled backward, his mind struggling to process the scene. This was impossible. This level of power was monstrous.
Panic and instinct took over. Bellamy's legs coiled and compressed, transforming into powerful springs.
"You think you are so.....tough?" he shrieked, his voice cracking.
BOINGGGGGG
He shot into the air, bouncing off the side of a building, then a rooftop, then another wall, gaining incredible speed with each impact.
He became a yellow blur and a living pinball of destruction.
"SPRING HOPPER!" he screamed, rocketing down from the sky and aiming to crush Imu with all his momentum.
Imu simply looked up and not even bothering to raise his sword.
As Bellamy shot down like a cannonball, Imu lifted one hand and punched him on his face. The punch was coated in Armament Haki and the result was catastrophic.
Bellamy's incredible momentum vanished. His body was sent flying by imu's devastating punch.
Finally He lay ground with his broken head and dazed, his "New Age" philosophy shattered. He looked up at the man standing over him and finally understood.
"Ahhhhhhhhh" Bellamy Screamed.
Bellamy died on the spot.
The massacre was over.
Imu stood in the middle of a street littered with bodies, his blade perfectly clean. He sheathed his sword with the soft click echoing in the deathly quiet.
This part of the island was now clean. But he could feel other presences on the far side of the crescent.
He began to walk, leaving Mock Town and its dead behind. He moved through the wild jungle, following a faint path toward the other coast.
Soon, he emerged into a clearing and he saw the house. This was the home of the Saruyama Alliance.
Imu saw three figures on the beach. One was a man was Montblanc Cricket. With him were two strange looking men: Masira and Shoujou. They were pirates who dove into the dangerous local waters and searching for clues to the ancient city of gold.
Montblanc Cricket was the descendant of the infamous "liar," Montblanc Noland. Cricket had been shamed by his family's name his whole life. He had become a pirate and eventually came to Jaya, the source of his family's disgrace. He spent every day risking his life in the deep sea, searching for a single piece of evidence to prove that his ancestor was a hero.
Cricket and his friends looked up as Imu emerged from the jungle. They had heard the screaming from Mock Town cease, and they knew something terrible had occurred.
Imu looked at the house and the diving equipment. He understood. They were trying to find the golden city shandora. He started towards them, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword.
Masira and Shoujou leaped in front of Cricket and get ready to defend him.
But Cricket waved them aside. He was not young, and his body was often sick from the pressures of deep sea diving.
But he stood tall, his eyes burning with a desperate fire. He had recently heard a rumor that a boy in a straw hat had gone to the sky and found the city of gold, and rung its giant bell. He was so close to the truth. He could not die now.
He faced the powerful, silent man who had clearly just annihilated an entire town of pirates. He knew he had no chance in a fight.
But he would not run.
He stood his ground, his fists clenched and shouted at Imu, his voice filled with all the pain and hope of his life.
"I can not die without confirming all the truth about my ancestor Noland"