Year 1510 of the Sea Circle Calendar
East Blue
On the vast and endless sea, a medium-sized ship was quietly anchored.
An abstract skull was painted on both the main and auxiliary flags.The same flag fluttered from the mast.
It was clearly a pirate ship.
It was noon, yet a lively celebration banquet was in full swing on the deck.
"Hahaha! Cheers, to the return of Nami and Carina!"
"Thanks to Nami and Carina, we got this treasure map without wasting a single bullet!"
"Unbelievable… are you girls really only eight years old?"
Laughter and shouting mixed with the clinking of bottles. A curtain had been pulled up as a makeshift shade, and a group of pirates sat in a loose circle on the deck.
In the middle of that circle stood the only chair on the deck.
On it sat a burly man, around 2.2 meters tall. His clothes were flashy and uncommon for this era—even among pirates, he was the trendy type of captain. The hat on his head bore the emblem of their pirate crew.
Next to the captain's seat stood two young girls with short hair—one orange, one purple.
Ordinarily, for such cute little girls to fall into the hands of vicious pirates, their fate would be grim:sold as slaves, kept as future "playthings" for the captain or crew, or traded to nobles with twisted tastes.
However…
No one would have expected that these two little girls were actually members of this pirate crew.
Both the captain and the crew treated them as comrades.
The girls' names were Nami and Carina. They were not recognized for being young and cute, but because their talent for stealing rivaled that of professional thieves.
Combined with their innocent faces and small bodies, the pirates saw great value in them.
That was why the captain had made an exception and allowed Nami and Carina to join the ship as trainee pirates.
Nami and Carina did not disappoint him. In just two weeks, they had successfully stolen the treasure map he wanted most from an enemy.
This banquet was not only to celebrate obtaining the treasure map, but also to celebrate Nami and Carina officially joining the crew.
Facing the captain's praise and the crew's cheers, Nami and Carina held their juice cups and smiled shyly. Seeing this, many pirates who had children of their own felt their hearts soften.
After today, everyone believed that Nami and Carina would become the precious "treasures" of the ship.
As the banquet reached its climax, everyone except a few remained sober. The rest were already drunk.
The life of a pirate meant living at the edge of death. No one could guarantee they wouldn't die tomorrow or be captured by the Navy.
So they enjoyed their freedom as if every day were their last.
Some drowned themselves in alcohol, some gambled away their money, others vented through different kinds of "fun," trying to suffocate the fear and violence in their hearts that they didn't dare show, afraid others would laugh at them.
At this time, two pirates who had just lost all their money in gambling staggered over to the ship's side, carrying bottles as they drank.
Suddenly, one of them narrowed his eyes and looked out at the sea.
"Hey… what's that?"
"A fishman or a human? Let me see…"
Still holding the bottle in one hand, he pulled a monocular from the strap around his neck and lifted it to his eye.
After a moment, he lowered it again. His face was flushed with drunkenness, and a wicked smile twisted his lips.
"Hehe… just a poor kid lost at sea."
"Hehehe… how pitiful. Let's help him!"
His companion showed the same nasty grin. The two of them staggered to the bow and dragged a small gun carriage into position.
They aimed the cannon's muzzle toward the "poor child" floating alone on the waves.
From their movements, it was clear that they were either the ship's gunners or had done this kind of thing far too many times.
Boom!
With a deafening blast, the cannon fired.
The pitch-black cannonball drew a graceful arc through the air and crashed into the sea ahead.
Whether it was because they were drunk or simply because their aim was bad, the cannonball missed the child. Instead, it hit the water less than ten meters away from him.
A towering geyser of seawater exploded upward. The spray fell like a heavy rain, completely swallowing the small, fragile figure on the waves.
When the water finally calmed, the "poor child" was nowhere to be seen.
"Got him! Hahaha!"
Still drunk, the two pirates didn't realize the shot had gone off target.
They picked up the monocular and, seeing no trace of the child on the sea, put their arms around each other's shoulders, wine bottles raised, and began to dance in celebration.
However…
The two celebrating fools had no idea that because of their cruel little game, the entire voyage of this ship was about to come to a sudden end.
The sound of the cannon hadn't alarmed the others.
The banquet atmosphere was too heated; everyone was lost in their own ecstasy.
The few who remained sober glanced over out of habit, and, seeing there was no enemy attack, looked away just as quickly.
Because of that…
No one noticed a shadow slipping through the water like a fish, quietly approaching the underside of their ship.
Swish—kacha!
A white streak of light, like a shooting star fired from the depths of the sea, slashed straight through the middle of the pirate ship from bottom to top.
In the very next second, the medium-sized ship—about fifty meters long—was cleanly cut in two and began to sink.
As the halves separated and dropped toward the sea, the smoothness of the cut was clearly visible. It was obvious that either the power behind the strike was monstrous, or the weapon used was unimaginably sharp.
Seawater poured into the two broken hulls. Within moments, most of the heavy sailboat had sunk, leaving only a small section still floating on the surface.
At this time, the one who had split the ship finally appeared.
A dripping wet figure climbed up from the sea onto one of the floating sections and lay there, resting for a moment.
The golden sunlight poured down on him.
It was a boy with long silver hair. His body was small, and his face still had traces of baby fat.
He looked less like a "boy" and more like a child.
Just like Nami and Carina, he seemed to be no older than ten.