One Piece Fan Fiction ❯ Cursed Island of the Devil Fruit Gods ❯ Big Brother ( Chapter 30 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

As Zoro lunged at Kagemaru, the vision Shishou forced into his mind from her lips played out almost instantaneously, fueling his desire to end Kagemaru's wretched existence even if it cost him his life. He closed his eyes to allow it to play more clearly, before he opened them again to look into Kagemaru's eyes with piercing anger.

It was a stormy night over a thousand years before Zoro and the others stepped onto the island. A ship approximately the size of Going Merry was wrecked and washed up on the beach of the island. The people on board the ship were unhurt, but trapped. They repaired the ship once but were brought back to the island once more, the same weather pattern causing it. They concluded that the island was where they would have to remain, until rescue came...if it indeed ever did.
The ship was carrying a small family. A mother, a father, a son and a daughter. The son was slightly older than the daughter, and very protective of her. The parents used the ship's wood to build them shelter and for several weeks, they managed to live off of what the island provided. The children played and learned how to fish, hunt and forage, and were happy in spite of their predicament. And that kept their parents happy enough to keep on going. That is the point where Shishou's memories grabbed Zoro as they ran through his mind.

"Katsuro onii-chan!" a young girl's voice rang out across the beach. She was no older than five years of age, light-skinned with dark hair tied in pigtails by her mother. One strand hung down over her face. It was Shishou at five years old. "Katsuro onii-chan!" she called to someone, apparently her brother. A young boy, seven years old, popped out from behind a rock and startled her.
"Gotcha!" he laughed. "Gotcha, Shishou nee-chan!" he stuck his tongue out at her. "Told you that you wouldn't find me until I wanted to be found!"
"Aww..." Shishou muttered, kicking the sand. "I'm bored, onii-chan. I wish we had some other kids to play with..."
Katsuro was tanned well by the island's sun, much darker than Shishou. His hair was much darker as well, several spiky strands falling sharply over his forehead. He wore only shorts, no shirt, sacrificing it so that his parents could use it for whatever they might have needed. It was clear he was becoming quite a strong young man from living on the island and surviving in the rugged wilderness like that. This was the boy who would grow up to be Kagemaru.
"Well there's nothing we can do about that now, nee-chan." he patted her on the head. "Mom and dad are trying to get us off the island so we can get back home. But that didn't work before, so we have to think of another way. Just try to keep smiling, okay?" he made a ridiculous-looking cross-eyed smile that made her laugh.
"As long as I have onii-chan here!" she hugged him.

More weeks went by. It looked as though their family was going to be on the island forever. No matter how often they begged, their parents would not let them go into the jungle unsupervised. They would tread the edge of the jungle, hoping to see something interesting, but they never found anything without going inside. So one day, when their mother was ill and their father was inside their shelter tending to her, the two siblings sneaked off into the jungle searching for adventure, and a cure for their mother's ailment. Not that they knew what to look for, but at least the jungle held the cure for their boredom. It wasn't long before the two of them got lost, and Shishou was sobbing into her brother's armpit.
"It's okay, we'll find our way back. We won't be in too much trouble, they'll just be happy we're okay." Katsuro tried to reassure her. But it wasn't working. Suddenly they heard rustling in the plants around them, and Shishou screamed.
"Who's there?!" Katsuro picked up a sharp stick and held it like a spear. "Show yourself, whatever you are!" he challenged. Shishou clung to his leg on her knees, cowering behind him.
Three young children who looked like natives of the island popped out of the bushes, two boys and a girl, all of roughly the same age as Katsuro. "Hey! It's strangers!" the trio pointed interestedly. "Where did you come from?" they all asked.
Katsuro put down the stick once he saw them. "We-we came from the beach...but we're lost. We need to find our parents." he explained to them.
"Did you come from another island?" the trio inquired interestedly.
"Uh, yeah, sort of..." Katsuro wasn't sure how to explain what was going on. He didn't know what these natives were aware of if they'd never been on a ship before or been to the mainland.
"Oooh, neat!" they all giggled. Shishou came out from behind Katsuro, feeling less afraid.
"I'm Tomoe!" the girl introduced herself.
"Jigen." the smaller of the two boys smiled.
"Ryota." the larger of the two boys nodded.
"Well, I'm Katsuro and this is my little sister, Shishou." Katsuro introduced both of them. Shishou waved slightly.
"Hi! Wanna play with us?" the trio offered.
"Sure!" Shishou smiled.
"But, wait..." Katsuro hesitated. "We need to find our way back to our parents..."
"Oh, that's easy!" Tomoe giggled. "Our village is just over there, and you came from..." she checked the ground for their footprints, "that way! So let's go!" she led the way and sure enough, within minutes they found their way back to the beach where the shelter was located.
"Oh, good..." Katsuro sighed with relief.
"Is that where you live?" Jigen asked them, pointing to their crudely built shelter, made from the remains of their ship.
"Well, for now...we're hoping we can rebuild our ship and leave someday, and go back to our real home..." Katsuro explained.
The three native children gasped in shock. "No!" they all cried.
"What's the matter?" Shishou asked, now frightened again.
"You can't leave the island! No one can leave! Anyone who tries never makes it...they either end up back here, or..." the trio gulped.
Katsuro didn't feel like asking what the 'or' was, he just crossed his arms. "Well then we'll just find another way." he said determinedly. He looked up at a passing seagull. "Maybe we'll fly." he smiled.
The trio laughed. "You're funny! We wish we could fly!"
"Then let's pretend!" Shishou suggested.

Over the next few weeks the children became wonderful friends. But Katsuro and Shishou couldn't tell their parents about them or they would know that they had gone into the jungle without permission. And the trio promised not to tell their village about their friends, or the villagers would try to force them to integrate into the village and they wouldn't be allowed to even attempt to leave the island. So they all kept the promise of silence and remained playmates for as long as they could. But things like that weren't meant to last, no good things ever were. One day, they all were playing hide-and-seek in the jungle, all hiding much deeper in the jungle than they ever had before, and Katsuro was the seeker. But he ignored all of them, distracted by something unknown. The others got tired of waiting for him to find them, and went after him as he trekked deeper and deeper into the jungle.
"Where are you going, Katsuro-kun?" Tomoe asked him, catching up with him as the others did.
"I hear something." he answered simply. "It's someone's voice...sounds like an old man, he's calling." he looked around. "You don't hear it?" he asked all of them.
"I don't hear anything, onii-chan." Shishou shook her head.
"It's getting stronger the further this way I go. Come on, maybe we can find him. He might need our help." Katsuro picked up the pace now that his friends were with him.
"But there's nothing over there!" Ryota interrupted. "Just the old volcano, and it hasn't erupted in forever."
"Maybe he fell in!" Katsuro argued.
"But how could you hear him from that far away? And why can't we hear him?" Jigen wondered.
"What's he saying?" Tomoe asked.
"I don't know, it's not loud enough to hear what he's saying. Come on, it's getting louder little by little, I think we're close." Katsuro urged them to press on.
They reached the base of the volcano and stopped. There was no way to climb up it. "The voice, it's loud enough I can hear it now...it says we should all come up." Katsuro reported.
"But how? That's impossible! And even if we did, it's dangerous up there!" Tomoe protested.
But as if trying to herd them, a rumbling occurred in the ground and the side of the volcano shifted, changing from impossibly steep surface to a set of steps leading all the way to the top.
"No way!" Jigen gasped.
"Amazing!" Ryota rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things.
"It's like magic..." Tomoe covered her mouth.
"Onii-chan...I don't like this! Let's go back!" Shishou tugged her brother's shorts.
"Come on, we're already here. We might as well go up and have a look. The voice stopped talking to me, I think it means we just need to go to the top and we'll find him. Maybe he's a magician! He might be able to show us how to get off the island!" Katsuro began to hope. He charged up the steps as the others followed quickly, except Shishou, who nervously followed, frequently looking back down and wishing she'd stayed there.
Once they were all at the top, they looked down into the volcano and saw nothing, no lave, no rock bottom, only thick darkness. "Hellooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" Katsuro called down into it, listening to the echo. "Old man?" he called.
Thick smoke began to billow out of the black void and a voice answered. "Welcome my children." it bellowed in a monstrous, loud voice.
"W-who are you?" Tomoe trembled, the voice chilling her to the bone.
"Do not fear me. I wish to help you. Will you all listen to me?" the voice continued to boom.
The five looked at each other, and nodded, as the smoke formed into what looked like a giant face. The smoke-face began to move in a way that made it look like the eyes were blinking and the mouth was opening and closing in rhythm to the voice speaking.
"I was once a great and powerful king." it spun its tale. "But my subjects were not pleased with how I ruled my kingdom. They rebelled against me and overthrew me, and although I was able to fight them off with my magic..." he paused to let the children absorb 'magic', that would surely intrigue them and make them want to help him if they would be able to use it, "they also brought magic-users with them to fight me. They overpowered me and I was sealed away inside a crystal. They threw me in the ocean hoping I would sink to the bottom and never be heard from again. But I drifted at the surface, bobbing along and being tossed to and fro by the cruel ocean. Until one day I was swept under and pushed into a dark undersea tunnel. The tunnel led me here, inside this volcano, and the heat of the lava melted the crystal I was sealed in. But alas, my body was already destroyed. My spirit is all that remains, children. If I am to regain my body and my full powers, I must take them from others. But not just one other...many others. Many, many, many others." it told them.
"But...does that mean you'll kill people?" Katsuro gulped. He couldn't hide his childish curiosity.
"Unfortunately, yes. But I still have much great power. I can give that power to you all. If you so desire." the king laughed, tempting them yet again.
"Isn't there any other way?" Tomoe asked, obviously also intrigued.
"There is no other way. Until then I cannot leave the island, my spirit has nested here and must remain. My power only reaches outside the island a few miles, so I can control the weather and bring ships full of people here. But if they do not willingly give their flesh and souls to me, I cannot re-create my body and leave the island." the king explained.
"Well forget it! We're not helping you, we can't kill people! That's evil!" Ryota refused, turning around.
"Oh? But don't you hate that your parents treat you the way they do?" the king asked him.
Ryota whirled around. He looked down at a scar on his arm, but covered it, hoping the king wouldn't notice it. "Your father beats you, doesn't he? I saw him do it, no point trying to hide it. I see everything on this island. Wouldn't you all like to be kings and queens? Not just of the island. If you help me, you'll be kings and queens of the entire world. Tomoe, Jigen, Ryota, you will all be able to see what else is beyond the shore of this island. That's your deepest wish, is it not? I can grant you that and so much more. No more listening to your parents. No more eating the same things day in and day out. You will be able to turn invisible, to lift trees right out of the ground like they were mere twigs...you will be able to...fly." the king promised them.
None of them but Shishou was still hesitant about accepting such an offer. "Katsuro, let's get away from here! Pretend it never happened, this man is evil!" she tried to pull him away, back down the steps.
"Do you want the power?" the king asked them, as though it was their last chance.
Katsuro stepped forward. "I..." he didn't want to answer right away, he wanted to think about it but it sounded like the king wasn't willing to give them any time to change their minds.
"Katsuro, let's go!" Shishou tugged his arm firmly to get him to come back with her, but the king was devious. Since Katsuro and the others' backs were to Shishou, they wouldn't notice that the king forced the rocks beneath Shishou's feet to crumbled and she fell backwards down the steps.
Unfortunately for the king, Katsuro was fiercely loyal to his sister and he jumped down after her, grabbing her arm and pulling her back up, barely coming to a stop before they both got injured too badly. Shishou couldn't tell if the king had done that or if it was just the unstable terrain, so she kept quiet. Katsuro motioned for the others to come back down. "We can't do this." he told them. "There's just no way...our parents...we love them. I don't know how you all feel about yours, but...we're all friends. If one of us does it, all of us have to, or none of us do. Okay?" he held out his hand, for the five of them to join hands and promise.

Katsuro led Shishou back to the shelter, but all they found was a destroyed shelter, burned to the ground, bloody spearheads and arrows littering the ground near its ruins. "N-no...no!" Katsuro gasped in horrific realization of what had happened. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Shishou was sobbing uncontrollably, and he did nothing to console her, because there was nothing to console himself at the moment. The tribe must have happened upon their shelter and their parents refused to obey them, so they were executed. Ryota, Jigen and Tomoe's parents were responsible for the deaths of his and Shishou's. Katsuro's doubt at the king's power and plan were over. He wanted revenge. He wanted the power to exact that revenge. And he would get it if it cost him his soul.
He dragged Shishou back to the jungle to find their friends, and met them halfway to the tribal village. "What's wrong?" the trio asked them.
Katsuro didn't answer them. "Why are you all here? Shouldn't you be at home?" he asked them suspiciously.
"No one's there, the whole village is empty." Ryota shrugged.
That confirmed it to Katsuro. The village wasn't there because they were out eating their parents' remains, he thought bitterly. "Come on." he told them. "We're going to the king. We're getting power." he told them.
"But...but..." Jigen wanted to ask why but he was so shocked at Katsuro's sudden change of mind he couldn't form the words.
"It's time for the adults to pay." Katsuro said simply, continuing to drag Shishou along, who had stopped crying, but was now looking as though she was catatonic, that the world around her ceased to exist as she retreated into her own mind.
They scaled the volcano's steps once more, and the king was awaiting them. "Have you decided, then?" he asked them.
"Yes." Katsuro nodded confidently. "Give me the power."
"And us, too." Tomoe agreed.
"I will give power to the four of you, but not the young one. The unbeliever. She is weak." the king refused to bestow power onto Shishou.
"All of us get the power or none of us do. We promised each other." Katsuro told the king with fire in his eyes.
The king considered this for a few moments. Shishou was the only one who was vehemently against it. And now it looked like she was completely traumatized by their parents' deaths. But if it meant one loose cannon among four loyal servants rather than having no loyal servants at all, he would take that risk. "Very well. I will bestow upon the five of your powers that will make you invincible. But first...drink of this." the king instructed them, and the volcano filled to the brim with what looked like liquid silver.
"What is it?" Katsuro scooped up a handful and sniffed it, smelling nothing.
"This is an elixir I concocted that will make you all immortal. You shall age much more slowly than normal until you reach your age of peak strength. Then you will stop aging forever and live until the end of time, like myself." the king explained.
They all eagerly drank, except for Shishou. Katsuro had to open her mouth and pour handfuls down her throat.
"That will keep you from dying unless you are forcefully killed by someone or something. The other element of your power is something I discovered during my reign as king. Have any of you ever heard of the Devil Fruit?" he asked them.
They all shook their heads, and the king went on. "There are mysterious fruits that are found all over the world, though their origins are unknown. When eaten they grant whoever ate them a special ability. But they are forever after unable to swim. But that will not matter to the four of you. I have learned over the course of my imprisonment how to create them on my own. I will create the four most powerful Devil Fruits the world have ever known and the four strongest of you shall have them. I shall give one of less power to the least strongest of you, for it shall be the most fitting." the king explained. "Now go, into the jungle. The Great Devil Fruit Tree has taken root." he instructed them, as they all turned and watched a large tree growing taller than any of the others in the jungle.
They all made for the tree, and Katsuro ate the first fruit. "Bikou Bikou no Mi...the Shadow Logia." the king's voice echoed in the sky above them. "From this day forth, you shall be known as Kagemaru."
Katsuro nodded in agreement, masking his body in darkness to hide his true, fragile self from the world's eyes. Tomoe ate the next fruit and listened for the king's words. "Tenpi-Tenpi no Mi...the Light Logia." the king announced. "You shall be known as Tomoshibi." he re-named her. When it was Jigen's turn, he was dubbed Jigyousho, with the Kouba-Kouba no Mi, giving him the power of the Plant Logia. And finally Ryota became Rikujou with the Earth Logia power of the Tsuchi Tsuchi no Mi.
Shishou was given the fifth, smallest fruit, and she ate it without complaint. "Figure out that one on your own." the king's voice rang out to her. She nodded. She wasn't in the mood to argue now. Her life as she knew it was over. He didn't bother giving her a new name so she didn't make one for herself. "Now then! With your powers you can force anyone on the island to do whatever you want! But you must be wise about it." the king explained to them. They were still children, after all. "You cannot sacrifice everyone at once. Listen to me carefully...what you must do is round up all of the adults and bring them to the volcano here. Throw them in. That is how I absorb their flesh and souls." he instructed them. "Leave the children alive. You will have control over what they think and what they believe. You can turn future generations into worshippers of me, you can make me into their god!" he laughed maniacally. "Then they will go on and have more and more children. We mustn't stop until I have absorbed 10,000 souls to get my body back and reach my full power!" he revealed the full extent of his plan.

It happened almost immediately. Kagemaru and the others forced all of the tribe's adults to the volcano. The children, they demonstrated their abilities to and told them they were prophets at first, but then that they were gods, lesser gods, Shinigami, and told them that real gods were watching over them with even greater powers. It was true of course, for all intents and purposes. The children grew up believing in them and it reached a zealous fervor, every new generation believing in it even more firmly than the last. The plan was complete, and there was not a single hiccup in the works. Shishou initially joined in the hunting and sacrificing of the natives, to get out her anger upon them for murdering her parents. But when she went to visit the site where they were killed, she made a startling discovery; there were no footprints around the hut in the sand. That meant the natives couldn't possibly have gone there and killed her parents. And there was no blood anywhere other than on the weapons on the ground. After a while, Shishou found out that the king could, if he focused hard enough, control someone's mind. She realized he had forced her parents to kill themselves in order to fool them into joining him. She tried to tell this to Kagemaru but he was too arrogant to believe he was tricked. He trusted the king too much. And he was drunk with his own power. It led to quite a few arguments and Shishou eventually quit serving under the king. Kagemaru reasoned with the king, as long as Shishou didn't interfere they didn't have to do anything about her. And so it was, until she began doing more and more to make them think she was planning something. And they finally did get rid of her, once the Straw Hats arrived to carry out her last wish; to undo all that she had helped do, and stop her brother and friends. They were no longer the innocent children they once were, they hadn't been since that fateful day.

Zoro opened his eyes and crossed his swords. "Onigiri!" he snarled, and dashed through Kagemaru, slashing at him and hitting nothing as he passed through.
"You tried that before and it didn't work. Honestly, what was she thinking, putting her faith in a pathetic student like you?" Kagemaru taunted him.
"At least she still had her soul intact when she died-you lost your soul to the darkness a long time ago! That means you won't even exist anymore after I cut you in half!" Zoro growled.
"You won't cut me even once, amateur. But you're welcome to keep trying. Until I get bored." Kagemaru laughed.