Dawn of Dreams- Chapter 4: First Mate

<-- CHAPTER 3

Toshin strutted towards where the noises of the excited townspeople were coming from, anger growing with every step. Not anger at James, nor himself, or even the townspeople. There was one person responsible for all of this, and he knew that before he left this island, he would beat the hell out of him. “Ore Hiro, I will reveal you for what you are to this town, then I will pummel you!” Toshin declared mentally. At that point, Toshin turned the corner and beheld the platform with all of the townspeople surrounding it. The platform was made of some old cracked wood, and was about 7 feet off the ground. Standing in the middle was James himself, a noose around his neck, his hands bound and a trapdoor beneath his feet. The person standing at the switch was none other than the other person Toshin was looking for, Ore Hiro.

Toshin: At least all my eggs are in one basket.

As he walked closer, he heard more clearly what Ore Hiro was saying.

Ore: Futile futile futile! We will not be fed your lies! You’re just like that bastard Kaitsen, you were both terrible lia-

James: Kaitsen was not a liar! You’re lying to everyone in this town for your own benefit, for your own gain! Everyone! The Hiro family is nothing but liars, they’ve only been taking advantage of you. These powers aren’t gifted by the Gods, they’re just fruits I tell y-

The crowd started jeering at James, making him pause long enough so that Ore could resume talking.

Ore: Enough! Prepare to meet your crummy “father” in the underworld!

Just as Ore pulled the lever and time slowed down for James, “Damnit, after all I did, I couldn’t live life the way Kaitsen wanted me to. Damn it all!” were the thoughts that ran through James’s head.

Toshin: Iosheka Leap!

Snap! The rope was completely severed, and Toshin’s sword went all the way to the hilt in the tree behind the podium. James fell to the ground, unharmed but shocked.

Toshin: Good grief, I wasn’t fast enough to throw it at the sunflower bastard in time. At least I was able to save James with my one throw though…

Ore: YOU PIRATE BASTARD! HOW DARE YOU INTERRUPT OUR JUSTICE!

Toshin glared at Ore with a passionate hatred emanating from his eyes. Ore shivered, but it wasn’t even noticeable to anyone in the crowd.

Toshin: If executing an innocent man is justice then what I’m about to serve you will look like the most unjustified ass kicking of all time

Ore seemed shocked for a second, as did everyone in the audience. But then he gave a blood-curdling smug sneer, like he was the king of the world. Toshin wanted to bash his face in for making such an obnoxious face, especially when he was already going to get his ass handed to him.

Ore: An ant defeat a lion? Preposterous, even suggesting that some pirate nobody such as yourself could defeat me is futile. I don’t have time to deal with you, as I have the more important person to execute here. People! Take down this pirate scum, I’ll take out the Bear King

Ore turned away from Toshin and jumped to the ground in front of James and started walking to him. A shadow fell over Toshin’s face as the townspeople started to charge at Toshin screaming. Then he opened his mouth to speak his words…

Toshin: You have no clue what powers I have, so you send these people on a suicide mission while you go on your little stroll to take out the person whose powers you know? What an insufferable coward!

This last sentence Toshin shouted, lifting his head and angrily giving his line to the world. Everyone froze, and James who was still sitting on the ground stood up. “Sh-shit!” Ore thought nervously. “How can he read me like this?” Ore started to sweat. Ore opened his mouth, but words wouldn’t come out. Unluckily for him, it was the townspeople who spoke up for him.

Person 1: How dare you talk badly of Ore-sama!

Person 2: Kill him! Kill him now!

Person 3: Ore-sama, you take out this scum for insulting your honor, we’ll take out the Bear King for you

With that third man’s statement, everyone in the town started chanting “Ore Hiro” louder and louder. “Damn him, I can’t back down now, or they’ll mark me as useless!” Ore cursed internally. “Fine then, pirate, it’s you and me now!” He quickly regained his composure and turned around with a cocky smile.

Ore: Alright, I’ll give you the chance to lose to me. Everyone else, take out the bear king.

James: I have a name you know-

Ore: Shush, Bear King

Toshin: Oy James, I’m aware that you are adamant on your stance of not hurting these people, and I support your choice, so for now just run, but loop back here in about 15 minutes and I’ll be done here

James snapped out of confusion finally and nodded at Toshin

James: Alright

With that, all the townspeople ran off after James, leaving Toshin alone with Ore, the wind blowing viciously and leaves flying between them, Ore still turned away from Toshin.

Ore: I don’t know how you are able to figure these things out, but I don’t care either. You have to die now, there are no exceptions.

Toshin: If you and your family hadn’t lied to an entire island for centuries, it wouldn’t have come to this

Ore: Silence! Our family has protected this island from the Bears and the Bear King for centuries!

Before Toshin could retort, Ore launched sunflower seeds at Toshin, which caught him by surprise. He dodged to the side, but some caught him in the leg, and to his shock they actually pierced his leg and shot through to the other side.

Ore: Sun Seed Burst!

Toshin thought to himself at that moment “Damn I underestimated him because he was a coward, but this proves I can’t fool around anymore.” Toshin landed on his hands and rolled into upright position. “I need to get my sword, but first I need to distract him.”

Toshin: Solar Beam!

Toshin made a pistol with his finger and shot a beam of light right at Ore’s stomach, bowing him over. He then made a break for his sword, which was stuck in a tree about 100 feet away. He halved the distance between the sword and him when Ore interrupted his run.

Ore: Sun Stem Spear Burst!

At that moment, about 100 green pointed sunflower stems flew from Ore to Toshin, all aiming directly at their teal haired target. “They’re gonna hit me if I don’t do something, therefore…” Toshin thought.

Toshin: Hyper Leg Overdrive!

Suddenly, Toshin disappeared, and the emerald spears struck empty ground

Ore: Huh? Where did he go?

His question was soon answered, as a great shout came from the direction of the woods, and when Ore Hiro glanced in that direction, he saw none other than Dracule Toshin pulling his signature weapon out of the tree. The tables have now turned. Toshin started strolling towards the “hero”, his sword hanging from his hand. Then Toshin noticed something about Ore’s armor that bothered him, so he decided to mention it.

Toshin: Something is confusing me. I shot my beam at you but your armor hasn’t even been pierced. Is it possible you know Haki?

Ore looked down at the blackened, but otherwise unharmed spot on his armor, then looked up and laughed.

Ore: I don’t know anything about this “Haki” you speak of, but this armor isn’t your ordinary armor. It’s made of a giant rock that fell from the heavens, otherwise known as “meteor steel”. The thing is all but unbreakable, like seastone without the nullifying effects they cause on devil fruit users such as you or I

Now Toshin was perturbed even further. “How come he knows about these things when other islanders don’t.” However, Toshin just put his thoughts aside, as he still had the 15 minute deadline to fulfill. Toshin set his blade aflame and rushed Ore Hiro. The blade was boiling hot but wasn’t melting, one of the wonders of meteor steel.

Toshin: MAGMA…

He pulled his blade down with all his might, hitting the ground at supersonic speeds. Ore Hiro barely dodged, but the molten shrapnel of the earth still hit his back, making him cry out.

Toshin: SPLITTER!

“This guy is literally insane!” Ore thought, terrified. “I’m lucky as hell that I have my armor on, otherwise I would’ve been burnt to a crisp. How many powers does this idiot have?!”

Toshin: AND...

“Shit I have to do something before I’m dead meat!” Ore thought.

Toshin: WILDFIRE TUBE!

Toshin slashed his flaming sword in a circle towards Ore at an arm hurting speed, but he increased the speed anyways. Suddenly, a tornado started to grow from the sword’s flight path, a tornado made of completely fire. It grew at a slow rate at first, but then rushed towards Ore out of the blue, completely engulfing him in the inferno of Toshin’s attack. Inside, a pained yell rang out, which Toshin knew meant his attack hit its mark. However, when the blast cleared, Toshin was shocked to see a very thick dome of burnt and burning petals.

Toshin: He’s just like a cockroach, if a cockroach could turn into sunflowers and manipulate an entire town.

The dome fell apart as Toshin finished talking, and Ore stood from its ashes and glared at Toshin intimidatingly. Something about him had changed, and Toshin knew that this fight would now be bitter until the end.

Ore: Out of all the people I’ve ever fought, nobody has ever made me use this next technique. It takes time to prepare, so you can enjoy these filler attacks while you wait for your doom. You should be honored you get to see this ultimate attack before you die, pirate

He spat out that last word, and Toshin smirked.

Toshin: A lot of the things in this town didn’t make sense to me before, but it all finally adds up

A sunflower shaft spear flew at Toshin from behind, but he turned around and sliced it apart.

Toshin: You don’t leave this island because these people give everything to you

More spears flew at Toshin, aimed for his heart, but he just sidestepped them

Toshin: Food, drinks, women, you name it and they give it to you

Ore’s face started to curdle a bit and 10 spears flew at Toshin, who immediately sliced all of them to thousands of pieces.

Toshin: In exchange, you give them “protection”, using a devil fruit that’s been passed through your family for generations, and when the previous guardian dies, the fruit is given to the next one

A spear flew up straight between Toshin’s legs, but he jumped in the air before it reached the delicate area, and rolled on the ground into a crouch, his sword in hand still.

Toshin: I assume that at the start of the family line, the intentions were all good, but as the generations went on, you became more greedy. You leech off of this town and its goods for your own comfort!

Ore’s face distorted into an expression of rage, and one gigantic spear made of many smaller spears flew towards Toshin, who coated his sword with Haki and cut it in half vertically, making a deep pulsating note ring out.

Toshin: It’s gotta be hard keeping this secret from the villagers though, what with their stockpiles diminishing and no threats occurring in the island. So when someone like James comes along with a bear zoan fruit, an animal that has apparently been a problem on your island, he becomes target number 1

A circle of spears grew from the ground and flew towards Toshin, circling him completely.

Toshin: EPOCH PERIMETER!

He spun in a circle with his sword flashing and all the spears fell to the floor, cut apart.

Toshin: But you’ve never caught him, even though you were capable of it. Most likely because without him, that need for protection would be gone. Just like if there is no rain, why would anyone need an umbrella?

Toshin sliced an “X” with his sword and it flew in the form of a compressed air blast towards Ore, who only barely dodged by ducking down. It hit a tree not far behind him

Toshin: BUT NOW THAT HE CAME HERE YOU WOULD HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO KILL HIM, OTHERWISE YOUR VEIL OF LIES WOULD BE DISPLAYED FOR ALL TO SEE! HE CARES ABOUT THESE DAMN PEOPLE MORE THAN YOU EVER WOULD, AND I’M HERE IN HIS PLACE TO END YEARS OF INJUSTICE THAT YOU AND YOUR BRAINWASHED LUNATICS HAVE INFLICTED ON HIM!

Toshin’s face was no longer calm, but bore a look of determination. Every fiber of his soul was perfectly ready to fight this fight to the bloody end.

Ore: ENOOOUUUGH!!

Ore’s face was as red as the dying flames of the petal dome he made before. His expression was no longer controlled, but now enraged.

Ore: LOOK ABOVE YOU, HAVEN’T YOU NOTICED IT’S GOTTEN DARKER?

Toshin realized that it had gotten darker, as if a raincloud was overhead, but when he looked up, slight fear touched his eyes. Above him were thousands upon thousands of sunflower petals were all floating above.

Ore: THIS IS IT! HOLY SUN PETAL SWARM!

All the petals then angled towards an amazed Toshin, as if they received a sort of command, and they all started to fly towards Toshin. He pulled out his sword disappointed in this “final attack” and preparing to slice them all apart. However, at the very last second, they all scattered away from Toshin’s sword, and started to all individually fly in different directions around Toshin, like he was the center of an unstable tornado with petals flowing everywhere. At that point is when Toshin started to get cut by the petals. He sliced some apart, but he just couldn’t get all of them, as there were too many and they were too small. Ore was no longer sneering, and the look on his face was one that Toshin was familiar with. The face of a man who knew he had won a fight.

Ore: The problem with my spears is that you could easily slice them apart. For some reason, you seemed to know where they would come from beforehand. However this won’t be a problem with my Holy Sun Petal Swarm. There are 5,000 petals, much too many for you to chop up before you die of blood loss. These petals are much sharper and durable than regular petals, which is why it took me so long to make them all. Before you die, I just wanna say that you were a worthy opponent. Thank you for humoring me for a couple minutes

Toshin’s face remained blank for a couple of seconds, but then he started laughing. Not a normal laugh, but an uncontrollable insane laugh. Ore took this as funny.

Ore: Laughing out of insanity? Don’t worry, you’ll be put out of your misery soon enough

Toshin: (still laughing) No no no, it's not that. It's that...you think that you won, against somebody who planned this fight out from the beginning

This disturbed Ore, while Toshin was clutching his chest, hysterically chuckling.

Ore: What the hell do you mean by that? I’ve already won, anything you try now is futile! You-

Toshin interrupted Ore by finally straightening up and pointing at Ore, passion in his eyes.

Toshin: Allow me to show you all the mistakes you made

Toshin puts up his index finger and continued talking.

Toshin: The first mistake you made was thinking that slash was for you. I never expected to hit you with that in the first place. I did, however expect to hit that tree behind you

Ore sneered at that.

Ore: What the hell do-

But Toshin interrupted him by putting up 2 of his fingers

Toshin: Your second mistake was using your final attack, the Holy Sun Petal Swarm. Yes, it has been damaging me, however it’s radius is fairly large, and it has also been cutting at that tree. My attack cut through it about halfway, but your attack pretty much finished it off. The trees here are very thick, and extremely heavy, and if that fell on someone it wouldn’t look good

Ore finally realized what he meant by all this, and turned around to see a giant tree, nearly 10 feet in diameter start to fall his way. He understood in this moment that he wouldn’t have enough time to run. Toshin gripped his sword with both hands, coated it with haki, and ran towards the general direction of Ore, but keeping himself out of the line of the tree so as not to get crushed himself.

Toshin: And your third mistake…

He reached Ore and sliced off the back piece of his armor, allowing the entire set to fall off of his body.

Toshin: Was turning your back to me!

THUD!

The tree landed on Ore and his broken armor, and Toshin was heavily breathing. However, he didn’t have much time for a break, as it took Ore about 30 seconds to completely reform, slightly bloody, as Toshin nicked some of his back and legs when he cut the armor off

Toshin: Meteor steel or not, any armor would be crushed under the weight of that, which means I can finally hit you

Ore: Why didn’t you just slice me in half there when I was turned away from you

Toshin paused a second to think, and then he answered with:

Toshin: Because I don’t fight like a coward, and I respect you as an opponent, even if I don’t respect you as a person or a leader. Hitting somebody from behind is the most cowardly thing a swordsman can do, I would never stoop that low

Ore’s face displayed rage at that

Ore: Respect? Don’t give me that shit! I’ll kill you right now!

At that moment 3 things happened in order. First, Ore made a stem spear grow from his arm and he rushed Toshin with it. The second thing that happened was Toshin knocked it out of his hand with his sword and coated his fist with haki.

Ore: YOU CAN’T BEAT ME! I AM THE GUARDIAN OF THIS-

Whatever Ore was going to say was interrupted by the third thing that happened, which was Toshin’s haki covered fist slamming into Ore’s face, sending him flying. Ore was launched a good 10 feet into the air and 75 feet away, and Toshin was surprised at how hard he threw that punch, being that he was tired as all hell by that point. Ore’s unconscious body with his mangled face and broken glasses collided with a building nearby breaking the wall. He didn’t turn into sunflowers, signifying that he was truly knocked out. Toshin had finally won this fight.

Toshin: *sits down on the fallen tree and watched all the sunflower petals slowly fall to the ground* Now I just have to wait for James. Damn I hope I can sit here for a little bit before that though

However, by a twist of irony, James ran into the town at the exact moment that Toshin stopped talking, and Toshin was so surprised that he fell off the tree backwards.

James: Hey are you alright?!

Toshin: I was just startled. Geez, next time come in a little less suddenly

James helped Toshin up and they both looked in the direction of the broken building

James: Did you take him down?

Toshin: Yeah, how far ahead were you in front of the villagers in terms of minutes

James: Maybe one or two

Toshin: Then let’s scramble the hell out of here before they get here, c’mon I left my boat on the shore

Toshin broke into a sprint, and James followed him not a second later, subconsciously listening to him and seemingly ignoring the decision he made to not be his first mate. They leapt into the rowboat and started rowing as fast as their tired bodies physically could in their condition. When the townspeople finally came into view and saw Ore, they were already about 1000 feet away from the island, already joking around and talking about how awesome they would be as pirates.

Toshin: As soon as we get a navigator and a chef, we’re gonna hit the Grand Line

James: I’m excited for that

Narrator: At last, Toshin finally had a first mate for his crew. Next stop, Lequ-Lequ Island!

* * * * *

Toshin: Didn’t you want to clear your name on that island? I heard something about “Kaitsen”, isn’t that what he wanted for you?

James didn’t speak for a second, but then he responded.

James: Kaitsen’s goal was me living the way I wanted to live, and at the time, what I wanted was my name cleared so I could live with everyone in peace. But right now, how I want to live is on the seas, free to journey the world, and I think Kaitsen would approve of that.

Toshin: Well I’m glad to hear it. I’m off to bed, you’re on first shift

Before James could respond, Toshin pulled the sheet over him, put out the candle in front of him, and fell asleep, all in less than a second. James was so shocked, he didn’t even know how to respond to that. However, he shrugged it off, and sat on the boat, waiting for morning to come.