A woman in a pirate captain outfit, stood in the crows nest over looking the destruction her crew caused.
A man, her right hand, climbed up next to her.
"Cap'n, a lot of them are wondering what's next, and if I can ask a question?"
The woman sighed softly, "Jace, I told you how many times, you can ask, you don't need permission. Unlike the other crew, you're my right hand, which gives you certain permissions. Ask away"
Jace shifted, "Right Cap, well a lot of the crew have made many assumptions of why you're attacking the marines, despite many of marines having connections to pirates.
And well, I was wondering if you would tell me the reason, you don't hav-"
"Jace, it's fine." She let out a deep tired sigh, sounding as if she had let out decades of secrets and pain that no one should go through.
She looked up and narrowed her eyes at the destruction, "this isn't my first life Jace, my past life wasn't...this... Life there was different, wars and famine still happened, but it was controlled. And most the world wasn't as under water as this one.
We weren't powerful beings Jace, we didn't have Haki, We didn't have Devil Fruits...but we had guns. Guns much stronger and bigger then this world. Guns that could level cities close to that of devil fruits.
But dispite all that, it was good....until one day a guy came through...took control of our homes, of our city.
And what did the government do? They leveled the city because he had power with those guns...it scared them."
She let Jace take all of it in for a minute, and then he looked at her, "What happened? You said they leveled the city so does that mean...?"
She nodded, "I had my legs and left arm blown off...I was only eleven, whole life ahead of me but snuffed out because a man thought he had a big enough gun to rule.
But then darkness came.
When I woke up I was in the body of a four year old, my motor functions and brain were...limited...but at seven that changed.
My mind got sharper, I remembered my past, knew things that a seven year old shouldn't...knew things about this world that could have changed everything...
But that changed the day my parents in this life died...killed similar to my past life. Marines hunted down pirates who were hiding in the town, so they took prisoners to lure them out...twenty deaths Jace...that's how many it took for them to realize that our town wasn't hiding them!"
She slammed her fist on the crows nest railing, her hand changing to molten rock, before she breathed and her hand changed back.
Jace looked at her with wide eyes, "Devil fruit power? All these years and I find out now? Why hide?"
She sighed as a shudder wrecked through her being, tears threatened to escape.
"After they killed the innocent, they took me with them, saying they would come back for the others to take them to orphanages...
But they lied! They kept me as a damn test subject!"
She breathed as she realized her body was about to change from being angry.
"They gave me a fruit, said they wanted to see its uses and if it can be made through other means, I didn't know what they meant, still don't.
The fruit they gave me was Kopi Kopi no Mi, or as they named it later, Copy-Copy fruit.
As it sounds, anyone who had a Devil Fruit Power, as long as I seen them use it or touched them, I could...gain or copy certain aspects of those powers, sometimes the powers completely as if I ate the Fruit and not them.
At first it wasn't the strongest, most copied fruits only lasted a few days to a week...but I was trained...they shaped and grew my body and mind...
Currently I have five copied fruits, Magu Magu no Mi, Ama Ama no Mi, Atatchi Atatchi no Mi, Barans Barans no Mi, Chatto Chatto no Mi.
All the names are, Magma-Magma, Armour-Armour, Attach-Attach, Balance-Balance, and Chat-Chat.
The first turns my body to that of lava and rock allowing me to control the lava, and even fire related fruits as well.
The second allows me to eat anything and make it armour, be it metal or candy, I can make it form armour anywhere and everywhere on my body.
Third allows me to Attach any element onto any weapon or armour I have... basically if someone punches or slashes armour on my body with fire attached, they get burned.
Fourth is my favorite though, it allows me to manipulate gravity any way I want, I found that if I use it correctly I can even fly.
The fifth one is bland compared to the others in comparison, it allows me to understand, speak, and write any language. It has its use but in a world like this one....yea it's bland."
Jace breathed in and out deeply, "Cap'n... that's....that's a lot to take in...but that means something must have happened if you're here now."
She nodded, "Yea...the day I Copied Magma-Magma, I learned to be secret with how I acted, cause that's when everything changed....they gave me a target, someone getting close to getting a fruit they wanted first.
So they trained me, and I don't mean normal...they beat me until I passed out and as soon I woke up I had to train again.
The reason I didn't die was my hatrid and the copied fruit secret from them...the next fruit, Balance-Balance, gave them even more reason to train me, that one was in the open cause they captured the one with the fruit....I copied it and they let them go after a little bit of 'memory manipulation' aka they beat them until they could barely remember their own name...
Either way, I was trained to be a spy in the sky basically...and if that didn't work, use the gravity to pin them to the ground in pain and force what they wanted out...
The day I got Armour-Armour and Attach-Attachi secretly, was the day my revenge started."
They stood in the crows nest, leaning against it, as the last bits of destruction ceased and the crew made their way back, she looked at Jace with an unreadable expression.
"Jace...I need you to do something, be a good leader to these guys alright? And... shoot me in the head."
Jace looked at her with wide eyes and an alarmed look, "What?! Cap'n what are you saying... You can't...I...why?!"
Jace looked like he was on the verge of tears, the background of his Captain mixing with the request almost breaking him.
"I'm old Jace...I'm in my sixties...fruit weilders are known to live long life's but I can't...I wanna rest...after two lives, one taken to early and one based on revenge...I'm done...my soul is tired.
In my quarters you will find a note, along with a captain outfit for you're specific size...I was gonna disappear after all this..but I can't keep living Jace, and if I try to shoot myself my body will react too fast...that why I need you to... promise me Jace!"
Both of them were now full on tearful, Jace from his heart breaking as he couldn't refuse his captains last wish.
And her because she was tired and wanted to rest.
As she seen Jace take out his flintlock, she turned away from him. He put it against the back of her head.
"Jace, tell the others I was shot from amidst the destruction while talking to you. It'll be easier and a better way to allow you to take over."
"Alr-ahem-Alright Captain...I'll lead them well, they...we, won't be the same without you"
With a tearful goodbye, a gunshot rang out as her lifeless body fell toward, the echo causing everyone to look around in alarm.
After wiping his tears Jace breathed in, and the yelled, "Someone shot the captain! It came from the area of destruction!"
And so more chaos consumed the area, gunshots, bombs, plenty more harm came to the area, meanwhile Jace slid down the rope from the crows nest.
"Right Hand Jace! What happened?!"
A rather short woman ran up to him with alarm and worry on her face.
"Elaine, the captain was explaining why we were doing this, when she turned to face me a shot rang out as she fell towards me. I told you all as quickly as possible to find the person responsible.
She told me she suspected something was gonna happen today but didn't say what. Said she had something in her quarters for me, Elaine can come with me?"
She nodded and they entered, Jace looked around in slight nastolgia and noticed a paper next to some clothes, he picked it up and read it.
"Jace, my life may have been one battle after the next, and while I knew I was gonna go sooner or later, it still hurts to write this knowing I'll be leaving you all.
Jace, you were my right hand from the moment you joined my crew at the age of fifteen, I knew something happened to change you into someone ready to fight but I never pried.
Now, with my death comes the need for a new Captain, and that's you Jace, you knew the ins and outs of the boat and crew better then I did, noticed things others didn't.
You just need to be more confident in yourself as life goes, you're almost in the thirty's. Maybe ask Elaine to a date, I've seen the way you look at each other when the other doesn't notice.
Well, anyway enough trying to give you something I never had a chance at, onto the contents beside this letter, you have a fitted Captains outfit along with a Devil fruit, Chishiki Chishiki no mi.
It wasn't easy getting it but a few years ago while everyone was getting drunk I went exploring and found it in a chest that someone thought was hidden haha, anyway this fruit isn't something that'll give you fire or lightning, but it will make you better in general. Anyway, I leave you all with this.
I loved you all like you were my children, and though my life wasn't great at the start, every one of you made it worth living."
Jace stared at the paper, it started to get sprinkled with tears as the edges crinkled underneath his clenched hands.
"I know she would want us to not mourn, to continue on through the sea and have fun...but I think...just for a day...we can mourn."
Soon after setting the note down he looked over and gripped a devil fruit, and no sooner did he bring it to his mouth and bite.
Pain, everything in his head was pain.
For minutes or hours he wasn't sure, but it was all pain.
And then finally he breathed out, and smiled, a happy but sad smile.
Everything, every memory, every sword practice, every strategy meeting, all running through his mind. He started to fix everything, every sword swing in his memory became precise and calculated.
Every meeting of where to send people, became better and he seen hidden points normal brains couldn't think of.
When he opened his eyes, he looked at the captains hat, the last piece from her that he'd keep, and smiled. "Thanks Captain. Dispite all the shit we been through, we were family first and pirates second."
As he looked up at the ceiling, he begged anyone listening, 'please, if there are higher beings up there, angel, god, or anything in between...please give me captain another chance at a life she deserves.'
Little did he know, someone...something...was listening.
"Hmm might as well get involved now...it was my fault after all, couldn't help until now due to stupid laws. But worry not little soul, we will figure something out. Hmmm that could work."
With a snap of the entities fingers, the captains traveling soul was wisked away from the bridge to the afterlife, and she was now standing in a room, looking at an energy like form of pure white light being bowing with there head on the floor.
"Forgive me! You had two shitty lives because of my mistakes!"
She stared at the being, "huh?"
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First story, I've had this idea running around my head and it kept bugging me so I'm finally writing it.
I have MAJOR anxiety and just thinking about posting this is making me thinking twice but I'ma do it anyway!
If anyone has any ideas or noticed any mistakes or misspelling, please point out where!
I doubt many will read this, at least for a while, but I do hope to overcome my anxiety of writing and posting as time goes.
Oh I should state this right now, I know One Piece didn't have a lot of the things I mentioned but take it as an AU or something similar.
Also thank you to One Piece Ship Of Fools Wiki for the inspired fruits.