One Piece Fan Fiction ❯ Initium aliquid novi (The start of something new) ❯ Pain ( Chapter 2 )

Thatch was sitting alone at his desk in his room.

It was late and today's battle was tiring. He couldn't sleep due to the leftover adrenaline pumping in his veins though.

To this moment, he couldn't believe how he had flown into battle. His presence alone had helped turn the tide for the struggling seventh division.

Some rookie pirates had decided to form an alliance with a crew of pirate hunters. Their goal was to try and bring down one of Whitebeard's divisions. They had the element of surprise and were quite strong. The newly formed alliance got the upper hand in a flash.

Good thing Thatch had gone fishing close by that morning. He had spotted the explosions of the battle from afar.

Intrigued, he had rowed his small boat towards their ship to see what was going on. When he noticed that his comrades were struggling, he hopped on board to give them a helping hand.

He had surprised everyone with his timely arrival, enemies and brothers alike. Thanks to their combined fighting skills, the seventh division swiftly recovered. The battle ended without any lost lives on their side and minimal injuries.

It hadn't been in his intentions to steal the spotlight from Rakuyo's division when they got home. But his brother was swift to tell the whole crew how incredibly well the cook had fought to defend his family.

What followed their victory was a great party. They feasted on the food found on their fallen foe’s boat. Everyone had wholeheartedly agreed that Thatch would get 70% of the treasure. He had even gotten a devil fruit too!

Thatch wasn't thinking of eating it, who would dive in after his brothers when they fell into the sea if he didn't?

He'd trade it for something big when they dropped the anchor at the next island.

Maybe he could try out a new recipe with an ultra-rare and expensive fish? Or, how about he got an extra good piece of meat since it was Atmos's birthday pretty soon? Or he could get lots and lots of fruit from all over the planet and make a giant fruit salad for the entire crew? He knew that all good quality fruits were over-expensive on this part of the sea.

He couldn't help but be enthusiastic about all the fun and extraordinary recipes he had in mind. All thanks to that fruit. Everyone would be so happy, he was going to outdo himself!

Still, part of him couldn't help but wonder what powers the purple fruit held. He reached towards it and let fingers brush softly against its stem. It looked a little bit like a pineapple on the outside. The many spirals drawn on its surface gave it a hypnotizing look.

He set it back down and got back to work.

He didn't usually like writing reports. Marco often had to lock him up in his room and keep him there until he got the work done. The cook admitted that it was childish of him to force the situation to grow to such extremes. But doing paperwork was so boring!

For once though, he was having a great time laying his exploits down on paper. He made sure to write down every last detail. This had to be perfect. The brawl had been so much fun that writing it down was more of an amusement than a chore.

It might have looked like he was bragging about his strength, but Thatch didn't care, he was so damn proud of his fight. He'd write a report so long that Marco would feel like he was reading an adventure novel.

He felt like an author who's idea for his next bestseller had just bloomed in his head. The only difference being that Thatch had lived through the tale he was telling.

Man, I'm so proud of myself.

I'm so proud of my family.

I'm so happy.

Who would have thought a poor, hungry brat with no family like me could become so strong and loved and encouraged and...

Man, I'm so lucky to have found them all.

I love my family so much.

He repeated several times those words mentally as he enthusiastically continued writing.

He had achieved sophrosyne thanks to them, he felt so grateful!

Thatch was so absorbed in his thoughts and work that didn't hear the door creak behind him.

I can't believe how strong I've become.

I love my family so damn much I can't believe that they have taken me so far .

He didn't sense the presence behind him.

And they were so proud of him too! Rakuyo for example! He hadn't hesitated one second to tell everyone about Thatch's display of skills. He'd spent the entire evening bragging about his brother's strength.

There was no jealousy whatsoever between them.

They cared about him. He cared about them. Simple as that.

He was so happy here.

His back hurt a bit.

His back hurt.

Why was it hurting like that?

He reached back to try and touch the place that had abruptly started hurting and he froze in his movement.

The world exploded into pain, and no matter how hard he tried to, he couldn't scream.

Whatever was in his back, it hurt, and it was horrible, and he couldn't breathe, and he was panicking.

Was he going to die like this? God his back hurt so much.

He fell off of his chair, face into the ground.

As he lay there, confused and in pain, he could feel something warm trickling down his side. Was it blood?

He couldn't move, his head was spinning so much.

The last thing he heard was the frantic footsteps of someone running out of the room. Darkness overtook him.