Chapter 22

East blue, loguetown, two years after Konomi island

A young man of nearly 2 meters , short shaved hair, as if he were some kind of monk, a b.a.r.e muscled c.h.e.s.t with a red pearled chain around his neck, and clad only in wide beige trousers, took his first steps after two years of intense mental training back into the embrace of civilisation. As he was walking down the pier with a bundle thrown over his shoulder every man and woman instinctively stepped out of the mans path. Why? They didn't really know but they had the feeling, or rather want to simply do so. Coupled with his appearance, a few men thought he looked rather dangerous, despite his kind smile, while one or two women couldn't help the redness that crept up their cheeks. And yet, the young man didn't seem bothered by it. In fact, he didn't seem bothered by anything, not even the cold, as it was autumn at this time of the year but the man didn't seem to get cold at all. As he was walking down the streets to a shop which sold consumables the man stepped through a patch of water that had found its way onto the street by some poor souls bad luck. As he stepped through it steam started to rise, but disappeared as soon as his foot left the barely remaining water inside said puddle. Said man was Azul. He had spent the last two years sometimes hunting bounties, but mostly stayed on a remote island, only filled with animals as his companions, and there he had finally had the time and space to train in peace. And so he did. At first he only planned to stay on said island for a month or two but shortly after he arrived on the island he had had a breakthrough concerning his conquerors haki and besides focusing on his devilfruit transformations had fully focused his attention on sharpening his spirit and honing his instincts. While in training Azul evolved his conquerors haki into a battle ready weapon by incorporating his breathing technique with the heat and flames his devilfruit could produce to create an unlimiting, at least to his knowledge of trial and error, circle of using his inner flame as medium to temper and finally conquer his hakis conquerors form, while supplying his inner fire with the fuel his devilfruit could produce. As he found out not just on the outside no, to his luck also on the inside. And so he managed to hone his spirit into a lethal weapon in the form of his conquerors haki, which from then on surrounded him in a near fog like state, passively pressing down on all those around him, as if demanding their obedience or suffer the consequences.

His devilfruit had become rather lethal as well, though he still hadn't made any progress when it came to the power over souls. It seemed to be a rather instinct based skill which he would need years to become even a little versed in the art. Though that didn't phase him as he had all his life to work on it and he knew that one day he would manage or as he used to say: die trying.

Azul had decided that tomorrow he would set sail towards the grandline, and finally after all the years of preperations step into his masters footsteps and set the whole world on fire!

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East blue, hours away from Konomi island, flying lamb

The strawhat pirates, as they had become to be known, named after their quircky captain Monkey D. Luffy, who had obtained his precious strawhat, the symbol of his crew, from one of the four emperors of the grandline, especially the new world, namely red-haired shanks, and Luffy protected his treasure with everything that he had at his disposal. This possessiveness had been the deciding factor that had caused their newly added navigator to join his crew. After she and her village had been freed from the Arlong pirates two years ago she had followed her sister everywhere until one day she had been attacked by a group of bandits that decided, now that Arlong was gone, it was finally time to seize some riches from the, ironically, poor town. Before that had happened though, Monkey D. Luffy and his crew, consisting of Roronoa Zoro, Sanji (Vinsmoke) and Usopp had come upon their village and made friends with Nojiko who was tasked to watch after Luffys strawhat while he and Zoro had held a contest on who could eat more. And so it came that at the time of the attack Nojiko was still wearing Luffys strawhat. As they arrived to the scene to help Namis sister, Luffys strawhat dropped from Nojikos head while barely dodging a swords slash which was thanks to Luffys quick reaction to pull her out of the way. This unfortunately lead to his strawhat get damaged rather badly, and in his rage Luffy decimated the bandits to the last man, pummeling them black and blue. After witnessing Luffys decision to prioritize her sisters life over his treasure she chose to join his crew, knowing that she would be his first priority, just like the rest of his crew if there ever was danger heading towards them.

And so they set sail towards Loguetown, the town also known as the beginning and the end, the town in which Gol D. Roger was executed all those years ago and the town that served as the gate into the grandline, to begin their jouney and move the world to try and make their dreams come true.