The Winner Pirates; Chapter 1; The harsh Victor-y (Open to me and Sleepy)

It was a sunny day on a small island somewhere on East Blue. The people in the small town were walking across the streets, doing their daily jobs. Some of them were working on their own land and they were carrying their whole equipment to get to the fields and start their job. Some others were working in the taverns they owned. Apparently, the island was visited by people quite frequently. It was somewhere in the middle of East Blue. Pirates and marines used to dock on the island for a day or two in order to rest and buy some supplies for their ships or their basements. And thus, there was a need for taverns at the place. Many people were getting to the island and thus, it was necessary for the town to have some spots were people could have some fun. There also were people who were working at the town's organization. Those were only a few but there was a need for somebody to do this job. After all, how could the town survive if there weren't people working on the most important sector, the organization of the small community the town was consisted of?

And finally, there were the tourists. The pirates and the marines who happened to arrive on the island. While many pirates used to pass from the island, the marines wouldn't really do anything at all to stop them. The truth was that the island was in East Blue, the weakest of all the seas. The pirates who were strong enough would leave from East Blue and get to the Grand Line or the New World. Nobody strong enough would really stay there as there was almost nothing the place had to offer. Thus, while there were many pirates on the place, the marines would not really bother sending a powerful unit to deal with them as it would be a waste of time. The pirates who used to stay there were harmless and they were just sailors who traveled together, claiming that they were pirates while in reality they were not really doing anything comparable to what a real pirate could. Most of the marines used to walk at the streets of the island without their uniforms, as if they were civilians... Same for the majority of the pirates. Overally, the place was quite peaceful, unless the small brawls between the drunk people in the taverns were counted. That was the sole disturbance in the town's daily life. However, everything would be forgotten with the passage of the time. Everything, except the incident which was about to happen...

[3 days ago]

"We have found you, Victor... You are cornered. There is nowhere you can go." a man yelled at a man somewhere in a dark street of the town. There were two people right behind him, probably his accomplices.

"Indeed... But you are mistaken. You are the ones who are cornered." the man replied.

Then suddenly, something weird happened. The three men and the man switched places, with the three men being cornered while the man was casually walking away. As he walked away from the street, his faces was shown a little bit. He had a goatee and a brown colored hair, medium in terms of height. He also had sunglasses, which he still wore despite the fact that it was midnight.

"Huh? What was that?" the three men were shocked to see that they switched places with the man. "Shoot him!" they grabbed their flintlocks and they were about to shoot at the man with the goatee.

The man with the goatee stopped moving. "Room." he whispered and the screams of the three men echoed across the island for a brief moment in the midnight from three days ago...

[Now]

"Look at that guy! He has an afro!" two kids pointed at a man who was walking across the street. The guy had an afro, indeed. He wore a rainbow colored sweater, a pair of jeans and black shoes. He had his hands in his pockets while walking, acting cool and such. However, by the time he listened to the kids who were talking about him, he slowly turned his head towards them. He took a serious look on his face for a brief moment, staring at the children.

"You think I am cool?!" his eyes sparkled in awe and he smiled widely. "That's right! It's because I am!" he said, being proud of himself.

The two kids looked at each other. "Come on, let's go, he's just a loser." they said and nodded, before leaving.

[Introduction Box]
[Francis Makyte "The loser"]
[Captain of the Winner Pirates]

The sound of a horn going off at the island's bay partially disturbed the nice quiet day the island was having. After its echoes were gone, several marines in the dock prepared a bay for the arrival of the small marine ship that produced the disturbing noise as it neared shore. The ship was small, yet fully armored. It bore the Marine insignia on a flag that waved from its main sail, and another insignia right below it that read "Gold Walls Prison". Naturally, the odd additional flag made the mob that naturally filled the dock either back away or gather in curiosity, but after one of the marines on the dock barked a warning at the curious bystanders they scattered like the others. As the shipped docked, a draw bridge connected it to the dock and allowing three figures to climb off the ship: Two marines, armed with rifles at hand and swords strapped to their belts, walking on either side of a third, stranger figure. The man the marines were escorting was at least two heads taller than them and carried a wild mane of grey hair on his head that easily reached down to his knees. He wore what appeared to be an extremely old and extremely out-of-style green robe and had a long goatee matching his grey hair in color. His arms were covered entirely by the sleeves of his robe, making him miss the old days when the long sleeves complimented his then-muscular figure. His wooden sandals produced a disturbingly high amount of noise as he was pushed down the bridge by the marines that were holding him by the seastone cuffs that were secured around his wrists.

"Here you are, your final destination..." One of the marines said bitterly as he produced a key from his pocket to free the old man from his handcuffs with. The old man smiled brightly as the cuffs came off, revealing a few missing teeth. "Goodbye and good riddance, god hopes we'll never see you again" The marine concluded in with obviously forced manners, before turning back to his ship and adding "... you goddamn pirate fossil" quietly enough so only his fellow marine could hear. The marines then climbed up the bridge without waiting for any response of the old man and prepared to set sail. The last they wanted to do was see his happy expression or hear his unbearable laugh. They had enough of it.

[Introduction Box]
Tenma A. Swig A.K.A "The Unbreakable" "The Fossil"
Pirate Law-abiding citizen
10,000,000B 0B

Once the cuffs were off his wrists, Swig paid zero attention to anything his escorts said. He stared at them blankly with a smile smeared all over his face. Even as the marines left him, the smile persisted. He simply stood where the marines left him, staring with widely open eyes and a smile as he observed his surroundings. No grey walls, no bars, no ceiling, no handcuffs, no marines to boss him around - He was actually free. Even though he knew this day would come eventually, he couldn't help but being excited to the point of surprise. Everything around him was even more beautiful than he remembered. The sun was brighter, the skies were bluer, even the air was sweeter! 'Air! Free Air!' He thought to himself as he appeared to study the very air that surrounded him with an expression of a child opening a present. He continued to simply stand there and take it all in, sniffing the air with pure enjoyment as random people passed by him, pointing at and remarking about the strange old man with strange clothing and ridiculous hair that simply stood there and stared blankly into space. A few moments later, Swig switched from staring randomly to just waving at any random stranger that walked by him, not even caring if they waved back or were spooked by him. The feeling of freedom was simply overwhelming.

He could have stood there for ages. Seasons could pass and he wouldn't care, but then a certain feeling climbed up his stomach with a growling noise. He grabbed his stomach with one hand and looked down at it, before speaking as a free man for the first time in the last 100 years: "I'm hungry...".

"Whaaaaaaaaaaat?!" Francis yelled.

Meanwhile, at the spot where Francis had that brief encounter with the two kids, the captain of the Winner Pirates was yelling all alone, as he was being called a loser by those children. "I'm not a loser, man! I'm a winner! My crew's name says that! Do you listen to me?! I'm the captain of the WINNER Pirates!!!!!!" he yelled at the children, even though they wouldn't listen to him at all.

However, the people from around would listen to him. And while most of the people didn't really pay attention to what he said, there were a few around who would actually pay attention. There were a few marines around, having a walk with civilian clothes, not wearing any uniforms at all. And as expected from a marine, they would turn their attention to the man who called himself a pirate. Despite the fact that the marines wouldn't really chase any pirates who happened to be on the island, they wouldn't ignore somebody who actually admitted being one. Thus, they had their eyes on Francis...

"Oh man..." Francis sighed. Then, he looked at the sun and took a deep breath. "I'm hungry. I guess I can have a meal at the tavern." he said while rubbing his belly before he started walking towards the direction of a tavern so that he could order a meal to eat.

[A kilometers away from the island]

A strange figure is flying on the sky...

Swig strolled the island slowly, allowing his curiosity and mere enjoyment of being free to overpower his angry stomach for a while. He wandered around, glancing with wide-open eyes at everything around him. Every house, every plant, every person, they were all so fresh, so new and so beautiful. He let his nose carry him, sniffing the air that poured out of every tavern he walked by. Finally, as his stomach produced another loud roar, Swig stopped his stroll at the entrance to a random tavern and walked inside, ducking his head down so to not hit the door frame.

Inside, Swig allowed himself once again to delay his meal in order to enjoy the sight that brought back so many memories of his past journeys. The tavern was more or less full, and was made entirely of wood. The smell of smoked cigars and the sound of drunken laughter filled the air. He found the strong smell of meat not as pleasing, but he couldn't allow it to rain of his freedom parade so he chose to ignore it. When he first consumed his devil fruit so many years ago, he was sad to discover that his stomach could no longer stand meat. He missed it at first, and was made fun of by his crew for his vegetarian diet. However, after seeing the meat that was supplied to prisoners in his 100 years behind bars, he no longer missed it and was thankful for the life style that he was forced to adapt. He stood at the doorway for a while, looking around the tavern with a pleased expression, before finally heading to the bar to place an order.

"What is the best vegetarian dish you've got?" Swig asked with a smile, happy to finally engage in a conversation with someone. The bartender, not even lifting his gaze from the newspaper he was reading, mumbled "Vegetarian dish? That would be beer", before appreciating his own joke with a sarcastic giggle. Swig assumed a frown for the first time that day, and it wasn't a good look for him. "Just give me some of the veggies you serve with your meat then..." He sighed, not allowing the attitude of the tender to ruin his mood any further. The bartender sighed as well before climbing out of his seat. He picked up a plate that carried a burger on it, before tossing the burger aside and leaving the vegetables and buns alone. He tossed the plate to Swig. "You'll have to pay full price though, 30B" The bartender demanded.

Frowning again, Swig reached inside his robe's pockets. He couldn't remember if he had some money on his person when he was first imprisoned, but when he felt the familiar touch of coins inside the pocket he felt relief. He pulled the coins out of his pocket to pay for his over-priced meal. "What the hell's that?! You think you're funny or something?!" The bartender shouted as he examined the coins in his hand. They were old. Very old. These coins were completely out of date, with at least 2 version of the Belly coin replacing them from the moment Swig was imprisoned with them in his pocket to the point the bartender slammed them down on his bar with disgust. "30B, now, or no meal Veggi" He said, eyeing Swig angrily.

Francis was walking across the street, heading towards one of the taverns of the island. While walking, thoughts were passing through his mind. The thoughts were actually pretty simple. He was sailing for quite some time by himself and yet he could never really find any people to join him. Most of the people who actually agreed to come with him would eventually ditch him when they found out that Francis didn't even have a ship on his own to use. That was a shame. Francis knew that he had to do something... The problem was that he couldn't really get a ship without some help. He required some assistance, assistance which he would get from his crewmates. It was like a circle. He didn't really have any subordinates to join him because he didn't have a ship and he didn't have a ship because he didn't have any subordinates to help him get one.

"Damn it... All of them are calling me a loser! But I'm a winner! I'm the mighty captain of the Winner Pirates!" Francis thought with a loud voice while walking. "They are the losers." he sighed, before arriving at the tavern. He raised his hand and pushed the door, making his grand entrance in the place. "Hello!!!" he entered inside, looking at the people. He quickly walked towards the bartender and he sat down, next to an old man. The old man was apparently drawing the attention of the bartender, who was eyeing him with an angry look on his face. "Hm, excuse me but I'd like to have some meal!" Francis interfered in the conversation so that the bartender could serve him instead. Francis looked like he didn't really care that the old man should have been served first, but he noticed the tension between the two and thus he tried to make the two chill out a little bit.

Swig glanced down at the coins resting on the bar in front of him, allowing the angry bartender to stair at the mane of hair on the top of his head instead of his face. 'Perfect, just perfect...' he thought, 'They throw me back to the world with nothing but out-dated money and expect me to not return to piracy... I'M HUNGRY!'. This situation was ruining his first day of freedom. The rude bartender, having no way to pay for even a simple dish of food to calm his stomach, these problems had no place in his fantasies, and it was starting to make Swig angry.

At first, he considered trying to sweet talk the bartender into accepting his coins, but he wasn't much of a sweet talker even in his prime and the bartender didn't seem to belong to the pitying kind. In fact, his face was now even redder than before as he found himself staring straight into Swig's bushy hair as the retired pirate considered his response ever so slowly. "ANY DAY NOW! I got other customers to serve!" The bartender shouted, pounding the counter. At that point, Swig was thrown back to the old days, when shouting at him or any of his nakama would have resulted in a near-death beating. With his anger rising, Swig clenched his fist under his long sleeve. He made up his mind, he was going to punch that bartender for ruining his day. He raised his head to face the bartenders frown with an angry grin, but before he even raised his clenched fist up a man came through the bar door - and he was loud enough to grab the attention of both Swig and the bartender.

He wasn't as tall as Swig but easily taller than most, and his black afro-styled hair granted him a look that was hard to ignore. He turned several eyes towards him from around the bar while he made his way to the counter, positioning himself right next to Swig. Swig and the bartender were now looking at him with baffled faces instead of at each other, unsure of what to do with the anger they built up after being distracted. The man proceeded to order, and an idea popped into Swig's mind as he snapped back to reality quicker than the bartender. With a sure swoop of his sleeve-covered arm, Swig snatched the plate that carried his vegetarian meal from the preoccupied bartender, before rising from his chair and running for the door. "Thanks!" He shouted as he was making his way between tables. He would rather avoid violence and stealing on his very first day of being free from prison, but given the circumstances stealing the dish was a price he was willing to pay to calm his stomach. At least he won't have to hit the bartender. Unfortunately for him, Swig was a pretty slow runner.

While the old man was thanking him, Francis nodded and turned his head, looking at him while he was trying to run towards the exit. He took a glance of the old man and then he turned his head towards the bartender, starting a conversation with him. The bartender was cleaning a glass so that he could serve any customers who would ask him for some meal or some drink. The two looked at each other and they started talking... Actually, the bartender started mumbling, completely ignoring the fact that Swig had just snatched a dish.

"Do you understand?! He comes here and wants a meal without paying! He tried to pay me with old coins! Can you imagine it?! Did he really believe I'm a fool?" the bartender said and looked at the old man who could barely run with an angry look on his face. "He thinks I'll pity him because he is old. He should be ashamed!" he continued speaking before he took a deep breath to calm down. "Whatever, what would you like to eat?" he remembered that Francis actually came to be served some meal.

"Erm, you didn't really notice that he stole the plate, did you?" Francis commented, making the bartender calm down and realize what was going on. The old man had snatched the dish and he was at the tavern's door, ready to get out and leave with it.

"HEEEEEEEEY!!!" the bartender grabbed a shotgun and pointed towards Swig. "You won't get the dish if you don't pay! Move an inch and I'll shoot you, like that bastard, Ryder!" the bartender yelled out, making the people in the tavern freeze. They gulped together and sweat started running down from their foreheads, bathing their whole faces.

"Noooooo! We don't want an incident like that again!" the people wanted the bartender to calm down.

"Relax everybody." Francis walked in the middle of the tavern. "There's no need for you to relive that "Ryder Incident" again. I'll pay for the old man's meal. If he is stealing the food, he is probably starving. Right, old man?" he proceeded and turned his head towards Swig, looking at him and expecting an answer.

Swig could his body tense when he heard the cock of a shotgun behind him. His body began morphing by pure animal instinct, it's what allowed him to survive so many near-death experiences before. If the bartender would have known who Swig was, he would have known that pointing a shotgun at him was absolutely pointless and that it would only reward him with a destructive punch from Swig. However, it became obvious to Swig at that point that no one knew who Swig was. Not at that bar at least. He was just an "old man" to them. No body knew of his history, of his reputation, of his power. A clean slate.

He turned slowly to face the shotgun-wielding bartender and the man with the afro who was trying to calm him down. Swig wasn't really if he was "starving", but if starving was what it took to get him a free meal than he would starve! "Yeah yeah, starving!" He answered enthusiastically, nodding his head all the while. Why would that man pay for his lunch? Was that "Ryder incident" so bad it made it worth it? Who was Ryder anyway? So many questions popped in Swig's head as he slowly walked back to the counter with his plate. He stopped in front of the bartender, looking straight into the barrels of his cocked shotgun. "Is a plate of salad really worth shooting me? You'll just end up regretting it" Swig said calmly and confidently, clearly not moved by the loaded weapon that was inches from his face. He faced much greater threats and his powers always saved him from them.

He calmly sat down and began eating, ignoring the tension in the bar completely. "Who's this Ryder anyway?"

By the time the bartender listened to Francis' words, he immediately stopped. Swig was returning back with the plate, anyway. There was no need for him to be angry anymore as he would receive his money for the salad. Thus, as if nothing happened, he placed the shotgun back at its place and he continued his job as if nothing was going on. The citizens sighed in relief and the life in the tavern continued as if nothing had happened the last few minutes. Everything returned back to normal, with the bartender even having a conversation with Swig, who had just gone back at the bar and started asking him a few questions.

"Oh, Ryder..." the bartender scratched his head. "That bastard came here 5 years ago. I still remember that day... It was raining and the tavern was full of people. The people of the island still remember the incident because it was the last extreme incident to be heard in the island. You see, he came here along with his crew and he demanded free beer and free food. Of course, I wouldn't give anything to him for free! I refused."

"And?" Francis, who had already sat down, next to Swig was listening to the story.

The bartender grabbed a cigar. He lit up his cigar and he took a deep breath of the smoke. "Things were pretty much simple. At first, a mere subordinate attacked me. So I grabbed my shotgun and shot him down. Then, three more run towards me, so I shot them down as well. Another one would pick up a chair and throw it at me. I kicked it away and then shot him, just like the other four. The sniper of the crew aimed at me with his own rifle. I simply used one of the fallen subordinates as a human shield and when he run out of bullets, I shot him at the chest. Only Ryder was up. Apparently, he wasn't a weakling. He was a real pain in the ass." the bartender started explaining the story behind the Ryder incident.

"Wow... And?" Francis was more than excited to listen to the bartender's cool story.

"Hm? What did you expect? I'm here and Ryder isn't. He pointed at me with his sword. I aimed at him with my shotgun. I shot him once at the chest. He didn't fall. I shot him twice. He didn't fall. He was coming at me. I shot him three times at the chest and yet he didn't fall! So I figured it out. I had to shoot his legs. I immediately shot his legs and he fell down... And that's how I protected my property. That's what actually happened, old man." the bartender finished the story, answering Swig's question. He looked at Swig first, then at Francis. However, upon looking at Francis, his cigar fell from his mouth and he jawdropped by the time he realized that the young man's eyes had turn into sparkling stars out of excitement.

"COOOOOOL!!!" the man with the afro yelled. "I'm Francis Makyte, captain of the Winner Pirates. And I'm looking for crewmates. What do you say?! Do you want to become my crew's sniper?! Do you want to join my crew?" Francis introduced himself to the bartender and Swig, although he didn't really know who the men actually were.

Swig didn't stop eating while he listened to the bartender's story. The food was bad, obviously. It was only some lettuce and tomatoes from a burger, but Swig didn't care. Anything was better than what he was eating for the past 100 years and he enjoyed every bite. He was, again, unmoved by the bartender's story. "A mere bartender taking out an entire crew?" Swig said with a mouth full of vegetables. "Don't get me wrong, your end of the story is quite impressive, but it doesn't really sound like these pirates really knew what they were doing..." Swig added, chomping on another piece of tomato.

"Back in my days, at the Grand Line, pirates could simply blow this place sky high with a swing of their sword" He said, allowing himself to extend into a story of his own. "If you faced my crew back then, you wouldn't have gotten a chance to even pull out your weapon, let alone kill any of us". The story seemed pretty pathetic coming from a man who appeared to be around 60 years old, and seemed to be blown out of proportion, but was completely true. Swig's crew consisted of a pack of some of the worst the Grand Line had to offer at that time. It was before Gol D. Roger's execution, before the golden age. Back then, a simple man with a simple sword could run havoc on his own, but when you had a bunch of not-so-simple men with more than just swords roaming around not caring about any laws, it was straight up scary. Swig learned from the types who were throw into his prison over the years that today's world was different. Roger's death ignited a wave of pirates, stronger than anything that roamed the seas back then, but the bartender's story wasn't very impressive.

"Name's Tenma A. Swig, former member of the Blazing Pirates. You probably never heard of them though." Swig said, reacting to Francis' introduction with one of his own. The Blazing Pirates left next to no impact on the world since their imprisonment 100 years ago. That, along with the fact that they bore a pretty unoriginal name that was probably used by dozens of crews these days, meant that the chances of anyone knowing them around these parts was next to none.

"Indeed, they didn't. Those pirates were just a few pieces of trash. Of course your crew would stand a better chance against me." the bartender agreed, speaking casually to Swig as if the incident before did not really happen. He really looked like he forgot that the old man right in front of him tried to steal one of his plates a few minutes ago. Not even days, not even hours. Minutes. The bartender was apparently very forgetful. However, he wouldn't forget what Swig had just said. He claimed that he was once a member of a crew which would easily destroy the bar with a swing of their sword back in their days. Well, that was interesting. Very, very interesting. "Blazing Pirates, huh?" the bartender scratched his head. "I've heard of that name before... Twice. There's a crew called the Blazing Pirates... But there was also one, years ago... Was it 50, or 60? Or more? I can't remember." the bartender was surprised to listen to Swig's introduction.

"Blazing Pirates?" Francis started speaking. "That name sucks, dude. Who would name their crew Blazing Pirates? There's only one name for a crew and that's called "Winner Pirates". Because we are winners. Winning since forever! Winning for a life! Winning everything and everywhere! Imagine me saying these sentence with Blazing instead of Winning. Listen. Because we are blazers. Blazing since forever. Blazing for a life. Blazing everything and everywhere. Naaaaaaah... My crew's name is more menacing." Francis spoke some nonsense, trying to proove that his crew's name was better than the name of Swig's old crew.

"Erm, whatever." the bartender tried to ignore what Francis said. "If there was 1% chance of me joining you, now that I listened to you speaking that chance is 0. So I'll pass." he declined the offer.

"DAMN!" Francis punched the air in front of him and looked at the ceiling above in order to show his disappointment about the sniper not joining him. "You are the 11th one to decline my offer! Crap!" he seemed disappointed. "Why's nobody joining my crew?!" he complained.

"T'was a bit more..." Swig answered jokingly as he munched on another piece of lettuce while allowing memories of his old crew pop into his head as the conversation slowly wandered to piracy. Although he knew that he will be released from prison in one of these days, he never actually planned on what he'll do when that happens. Now that it did, considering he was left to fend for himself without any money or company, returning to piracy seemed like his only choice. The marines were obviously going to try o keep a close eye on him knowing that he'll have no choice but to slip back into crime, but it didn't bother him as much as it should have. After spending so much time behind bars, he was going to live his life the way he wanted and right now piracy seemed like a sure way to both be free and keep his stomach full. Maybe he'll even get to have as much fun as he had back with his old crew.

These thoughts were followed by Francis' stream of childish competitiveness as he compared Swig's crew to his own crew that apparently consisted of him alone. The bartender's response wasn't surprising. Francis didn't show much maturity or leadership in his words, and although he was confident it was obvious he didn't have anything to be confident about - he was a one-man-crew.

"Well, you're not gonna get many buyers with that attitude boy" Swig said, stretching in his seat as he finished his meal. "To get people to follow you you'll have to show leadership, power, vision, charisma. They need to think that they're better off with you than without you to reel them in" he continued. "However, buying them a meal is a good start, so far I'm much better with you than without. I owe you one for the meal, so I'll make you a deal: I'll join your crew as your first member until I'll repay that debt." he concluded. Swig's offer would seem like an odd one. He wasn't asked to join Francis and was clearly too old to get into the pirating scene. As it seemed, he might bring more difficulty than benefit for Francis in his quest for crew members. Carrying an old man around won't help the crew's image. Swig's potential remained hidden.

Francis was surprised. Swig was actually willing to join him, despite the fact that Francis didn't really invite him at all. The truth was that from what he had seen from the elderly man, he couldn't really run. What could an old geezer offer to a young pirate captain who aspired to travel across the seas and make a name for himself? He would be a hindrance more than help. However, there was also the fact that nobody would actually join him, for reasons he didn't really know. While Francis could see the troubles Swig could bring him in because of the old of his age, Francis didn't have a choice after so many people declined his offer.

"Hm..." Francis messed with his afro. "I have all those traits! Leadership, power, vision and charisma is my motto. A motto for "Winners", just like me and my future crew. And judging from your speech, I guess you can be a winner, too. You are welcome in my crew!" Francis spoke, obviously lying about these words being his motto. He actually wanted to impress Swig, as he was the first person who wanted to follow him, at least for a while. Finally, somebody joined Francis' crew!

Near one of the windows of the tavern, two people were sitting. The two were discussing about something, although that didn't really matter. The two would eventually stop speaking, though, as they noticed something weird. "What is that thing up in the sky outside?" one asked. "It looks like an eagle!" the other one replied, before he continued speaking "Oh wait... What is that thing on its back?! Is it a human?!". What was the weird creature flying at the top of the sky outside the tavern?!

Swig rolled his eyes as Francis went on about being a winner. It was a mantra for him. The young pirate was lucky to end up with Swig as his first crew member, as he was probably the most patient pirate he could come around. Others would probably find Francis' "mottos" annoying pretty quickly. "How very impressive... captain..." Swig answered without a hint of enthusiasm. His old captain would probably threaten to kill whoever showed him such disrespect, but Swig got the feeling that Francis won't even notice sarcasm at this point. He was too busy being a winner.

Then a shout came form one of the windows, something about a bird carrying a man on its back. Back in his days, Swig saw a lot of weird people. A man riding a bird wasn't really going to take the pot as the weirdest sight he saw, but it's been so long since he got a glimpse of the world that it was enough to get him up from his seat and heading towards the window. "People ride on birds these days? how fascinating" Swig murmured as he glanced outside the windows at the figure in the sky.

While Swig was looking at the man who was riding on the eagle, the man would quickly move down, a few inches away from the tavern's window. However, it wasn't a man riding on a bird. There was the upper body part of a man stuck on the eagle's back. The man carried two katanas with him on his back, both sheathed. Two katanas which he would gladly use from the look on his eyes, in case something happened. "Holy crap!" was the reaction of the people around, looking at the weird creature. "Is that a harpy?" one man asked, only for Francis to start laughing as everybody knew that no harpies existed around the world.

"Wait a minute..." Francis paid attention at the man outside. "Are these two things swords? Crap! I am afraid of the swords!" he started trembling. "My afro was cut by a swordsman some time ago... And I don't really want that to happen again!" he explained the reason he was afraid of the peculiar swordsman.

"Relax." the bartender replied. "If he ever tries to mean harm for my tavern or my customers, I suppose I am about to shoot him down like Ryder and his crew." he tried to calm down the young captain.

"Phew." Francis was relieved. However, when he noticed the man flying slowly towards the tavern's door and opening it with a serious look on his face, he started trembling again, hiding behind Swig.

"Hello, people. My name is Lance Cricket and I am looking for some information." the bird-human hybrid replied politely. What were the man's motives?

"Now THAT's something I haven't seen before, or at least I can't remember seeing something like it" Swig said as he studied the unique creature that stepped into the small tavern. His best guess was that the man or eagle were Zoan users like him, but such a transformation was extremely unique even to Zoan users as it seemed like both his eagle half and human half had separate minds. 'Maybe they changed how Zoans worked? My powers might be out of date like my coins...' He wondered to himself.

Francis hid behind Swig as the creature stepped further into the tavern. It was probably out of sheer reflex or fear, but Francis was probably hiding in the safest place in the tavern at that point without even knowing it. Though a smart choice, Swig could definitely see why Francis had no crew members so far. "Leadership power and charisma huh?" Swig whispered to the man hiding behind him.

The man-eagle combination then proceeded to introduce itself as Lance Cricket. Swig was only in town for about an hour, making him the last person with the ability to provide Lance with information, but he did have a question. "So, you're Lance Cricket..." Swig said, pointing at Lance's human half, "...That's Lance Cricket..." He pointed at his eagle half, "...Or are you both Lance Cricket?" He concluded.

"Grrrrr..." the eagle seemed to be angry while looking at Swig. "Excuse my little pet, Roze." he continued speaking. "He is often upset when I forget to introduce him. May I correct myself? My name is Lance Cricket and this is my pet eagle, Roze." he corrected himself, answering the question of the old man at the same time. "We are here, looking for information for a certain man...".

"Wait a minute... Lance Cricket?" the bartender spoke, taking the attention from the eagle-human hybrid or whatever that thing was to himself. "I have heard of you... You are a wanted pirate. You have even killed members of the Two-Faced Pirates... You and your crew are taking over territories, aren't you?" the bartender actually knew a few things about Lance. "But I must say that you are different from what I imagined. The newspapers, didn't really give out your peculiarity."

"That's right, that's me. But my captain isn't here. He has stayed back at his turf... waiting for me until I get back what belongs to me." Lance explained. "There's a man on this island according to my information. A group of bounty hunters was after him and I know he would come here. I want you to know whether you know where he is or not." he continued speaking, giving out the reason why he was there. Then, he unsheathed one of his two katanas, pointing across everybody in the tavern. "Now, tell me where the pirate named Victor Groose is... Or I'll cut your throat with the very same sword that is pointing at you." Lance had an angry look on his face, while speaking. Apparently, his voice was altered by his sense of disgust when he spoke the name of the man he was after. The hatred for that guy who was named Victor Groose could not be hidden... However, things were getting more and more tense, each second nobody actually answered the man's question, making Francis tremble in fear.

"Get out of my place, man. If you are not willing to pay for some food and threaten my customers, I guess I cannot let you ruin my business. At least if you paid for a meal, you wouldn't ruin my place for nothing." the bartender tried to force the mysterious creature to get outside the bar.

"Wait, don't anger him!" Francis spoke, moving in front of Swig. He had to speak. While he was afraid of the swordsman, he knew he had no other choice. The swordsman looked very dangerous and if he started a rampage inside the tavern, Lance could actually get caught in it and miss a few of his hair. And he didn't really want that. He wanted to protect his afro at all costs. And not only that...

"That's not what I wanted to hear, I'm afraid!" Lance unsheathed the other sword and Roze flew towards the bartender, who instanty picked his shotgun and prepared to shoot.

"Stop it!" Francis yelled and jumped in the middle. "What do you have to win if you attack this place? That man you are after might find out what you are up to, that you are on the very same island as he is and he will leave from the place, making you chase him! And you cannot be sure whether you will find him tomorrow, in a week, in a month or a year. Is this what you want?" he asked the swordsman, who stopped immediately.

"I suppose you are right." Lance sheathed his katanas back at the sheathes.

"Now... I have an idea. The bartender here will lock down the tavern so that nobody will get outside and reveal what happened here, while me and Swig will help you find that guy you go after. Is that a good deal?" he made a proposition, introducing Swig to Lance in the meantime.

"I will accept your help, I guess... But if you betray me along with that geezer, you know what happens." Lance accepted the young pirate's help, without really thinking about what Francis had to earn as he didn't really care. After all, if Francis was planning anything bad against him, he would cut him down, just like he intended to do before the young man with the afro stopped him.

"Hm... That kid is smart." the bartender thought, putting the shotgun down. "But what is he up to?" he wondered. Indeed... Francis seemed confident in what he was saying, but the truth was that he had no real reason to help Lance, other than protecting himself from a possibly dangerous rampage. He was taking a risk of dragging himself in some real trouble... Why would he bother taking the risk of helping Lance?

'Well whadya know, the kid's got some courage under his belt after all' Swig thought as Francis took a dangerous stand between a cocked shotgun and a drawn katana. The hot-headed bird-man freak was turning up to be as monstrous as he seemed, and Swig had no idea why Francis wanted to get involved with this situation instead of just bolting off from the tavern. To top it all, he now included Swig in whatever plan he may or may not have. To tell the truth, Swig felt more alive in these seconds of chaos than the entire time he spent in prison. Facing drawn swords didn't scare the old ex-pirate one bit.

"Woohoo! Manhunt! Adventure!" He called, jumping in place in a way that should've been impossible for a man his age, without considering the fact that his age was actually twice what it seemed. "No idea how we're supposed to help a flying mutant such as yourself to find someone you couldn't spot from above, but it ought to be fun. Where should we start?".

"To be honest, I always ended up slicing up people who didn't reveal me where Victor is... So I haven't really tried searching from him from above. Plus, that bastard is usually lurking around in the nights so even if I searched for him, I wouldn't really find him." Lance explained. He didn't really try what Swig thought he had already tried, but he knew that even if he tried, he wouldn't find the pirate he was after.

"To be honest, no man with that name came to my place recently, not even in the nights." the bartender said. "However, three bounty hunters actually came here. They might know some information about him." the bartender spoke.

"Three bounty hunters? Those were the people who gave me the information about him being here!" Lance smiled as he realized that his search for Victor could come to a conclusion.

"There is a problem, though. They were coming here every night until two days ago. Since then, I haven't really seen their faces. They either left the place, searching for that guy or..."

"Or they run onto Victor Groose." Francis guessed. "If we found them, they could give us some information about him, but I doubt we will."

"We can give it a shot! If they are alive, I know how we can find them! Victor likes torturing his enemies... So... Let's go, Roze!" Lance stormed outside the tavern and flew high up to the sky.

"Let's go, Swig!" Francis run outside the tavern, looking at the eagle-human fusion flying up to the sky. He looked quite intimidating.

"If they run on him, he probably used his powers on them... They are definitely an abomination like me!" Lance thought.

"Oh wait... What is he doing? If Groose sees him, he will leave the place! Hey, Lance get down!" Francis yelled.

"What?!" Lance couldn't listen to him.

"Get down! If he sees you, he will figure out you are after him!" Francis kept yelling but Lance wouldn't listen.

"Wait! Where are we even going to start looking?!" Swig called as he began running after Francis and Lance out of the tavern, but he was obviously not fast enough to keep up with the two. "Wait.. stop... just one sec-... Ah whatever" He mumbled while he ran as they both grew further away from him. Eventually he stopped running. He couldn't see Francis anymore and Lance was just a blur floating in the sky. He caught his breath for a moment. "I guess I have as good a chance to find him on my own as these two anyway, I'll just look for him myself" He murmured to himself as he began roaming the streets ever so slowly.

He allowed the sights of the world outside of prison to stun him once again. He walked along the streets and alleys with a dumb smile spread all over his face, completely overlooking the fact that he was looking for a man who could very well be a serial killer for all he knew. 'I wonder what that Victor guy did to that birdman to get him to chase him like that...' He wondered while looking around, not really trying to find Victor as much as he was trying to enjoy the chase.

At the place Swig was walking, there were several people around, taking a stroll as the day was quite sunny. Children were playing across the streets, young couples were walking together holding each other's hand tightly and the elderly people were sitting around the corner, discussing several things. While Swig was walking, whistles could be heard from elderly women and comments like "Who is this handsome old man?" or "Who the hell is that gorgeous geezer?". Swig was dragging the attention of the old women without doubt.

However, the old women were not the only ones to notice the old man. About half an hour later, in a dark alley there were two eyes looking at him, staring at him. "Old man! Help!" a voice was heard from the alley, yelling at Swig. Somebody was calling him for some help!

Swig enjoyed the sight of anything that crossed his path, though he could have easily skip waving awkwardly at the old women who spotted him. He wasn't used to being old. Sure, he spent a 100 years behind bars but on the outside he was 31! Continuing his life right where he left them. An old man? Hell no, he had plenty of time being old in the many years he still had before him. He awkwardly walked past the women and continued his stroll around town, almost forgetting that he was supposedly looking for a manic along with a mutant birdman and an afro-bearing pirate who were probably devoting much more attention to the task at hand than he was.

After around half an hour of pointless walking, swig heard a voice calling him from a dark alley he walked by. He stopped an retraced his steps backwards to the alley, spotting a pair of eyes looking at him from the darkness. "Who are you calling old? Can't you see I'm at my very prime?!" He called back, waving his arms as he did.

"Erm, old man, I can't move. Could you please help me?" the pair of eyes replied and while Swig approached, the reason he was asking for help was quite obvious. The man's head was stuck on a wall, somehow. Next to him there were some rip offs from a shirt. The case was similar to that of Lance and Roze. It was definitely the doing of a Devil Fruit user, without a doubt. However, the question was... What kind of power was responsible for all these twisted things? What kind of power allowed Victor Groose to create such abominations?

Meanwhile, in another alley...

Francis is scratching his head while looking at a mysterious thing on a wall. Apparently, the thing is stuck and it is covered with a black colored cloth. "Hm... What is that thing?" Francis wondered and drew the cloth, only to see a head of a man, stuck on the wall, in a similar way with the man Swig encountered. "HMPPPPPPPPH." the head couldn't speak at all as it . The man who did this also placed something inside the head's mouth so that he would be unable to speak and call for help. "Holy crap." Francis didn't know what he was encountering at all. "What is going on here?!" he yelled at the sky above him, expecting an answer. Of course, nobody would answer, unless he asked the head for an explanation...

"Hmm... WHA?!" Swig called in shock as he noticed the human head speaking to him from the alley wall. He pointed at it instinctively as his jaw dropped in surprise, his grey mane of hair frizzing up as if shocked by a sudden burst of electricity. "What's with this world?! They put human heads on walls now?! Back in the day with only that with dead seakings!" He yelled. He then exhaled heavily while placing his hands on his knees, regaining his composure. "Damn crazy kids, I sure as hell never seen anything like THAT before, I would have remembered it no doubt..." He muttered, rubbing the back of his head while his mane of hair shifted back into its usual messiness.

"Oi! How can I help you? Do I just pull? Is the rest of your body inside the wall?" Swig asked as he examined the head closely, trying to identify what was gluing it to the wall and how to free it. Unable to locate any obvious stitches or traces of glue, he scratched his head in confusion. "How did you even end up like this?" He continued asking, obviously confused.

"Just get my head of here and carry me, please! I need somebody to help me! I was cut by a fruit user with a weird ability... He cut me in three pieces, severing me in three pieces! He cut my legs, my upper body and my head. That bastard did this to all of us... My friends were also cut by him. I can feel my legs chained somewhere but the problem is that I don't even feel my upper body. This shit is a nightmare!" the man explained the way he ended up in such a harsh situation. "That bastard Victor... He has eaten the Op Op Fruit... We knew his ability along with my friends, but still we followed him here. We were attracted by his huge bounty... That piece of shit is too strong! We got him cornered and he cut my head, sticking it here before cutting my body and my legs. Then, he cut my friends and he took them somewhere!" the man started crying out loud. "He is a twisted piece of shit!" the man was yelling in anger. The tone of his voice was somewhat as if he had lost his mind. Well, that was natural. The man couldn't feel his upper body, he had his head stuck on a wall for some time and he couldn't do nothing to protect his friends, who most likely suffered the same fate. "I want you to free me and help me find my legs, so that I can kill Victor!" he finished speaking, revealing the reason he asked for the old man's assistance.