"Good thing I'm not normal anymore."
Roy tilted his head back to the stars and laughed. He hadn't reined in his power and had literally punched a hole through a Sky Island then plummeted out of the sky.
He was lucky an island lay beneath him. Had he hit the sea, even turning into lightning at the last second might not have saved him.
He couldn't swim now. And without the Devil Fruit, a fall from ten thousand meters would have killed him outright.
Call it fate or stubborn luck Roy was still alive.
He lay on solid ground, savoring dirt he hadn't seen in ages. After months of the same cloud-white vistas, the sight of earth filled him with a fierce, wordless fondness. Mother Earth was no empty saying after all.
GRRRR
The sound snapped him from his haze. He sat up, clutching his stomach. He must have been drifting for a long time. Hunger gnawed at him and if it was the fruit's fault, his appetite was a monster.
"This should be an uninhabited island." He peered up at the starry sky and the wall of trees. From the air he'd glimpsed a shape near the coast a ship, maybe.
"Food first." His belly answered with another GRRRL. If this was the price of lightning, so be it.
He pushed to his feet and hobbled toward the shoreline he remembered.
Through the brush, onto a stretch of sand tents, a campfire, and the scent of roasting meat.
"Who goes there?"
A man in a coat and brimmed hat stood, eyes narrowing at Roy.
Roy probably looked pitiful. He'd picked up a branch on the way and leaned on it as a crutch.
"The… Navy?" Roy froze. The ship on the beach was a Navy warship, and there were Marines at the camp.
"I…" GRRRL.
His stomach answered for him.
"A little squirt, huh." The coat-clad man's brow furrowed, then smoothed. "You're starving. Come eat."
"Th-thanks." Roy nodded. He didn't recognize the officer; the man didn't ring any bells from the story he knew.
Maybe it was Roy's bedraggled state or that he was alone but the officer's guard was low. He waved Roy over, almost kindly.
Roy's mouth watered at the sight of meat crackling over the fire.
"All done. Here." The officer handed him a slab of roast.
They ate and talked. Roy didn't share his origins. He said his ship had wrecked and he'd washed ashore.
No bounty. No one who knew his face. In this world, shipwrecks were common enough; no one asked too many questions.
The officer introduced himself as Vice Admiral Burgi of Navy Headquarters. He was past fifty, with seniority that even outstripped Garp and Sengoku of the same generation as the current Fleet Admiral, Kong.
No wonder Roy hadn't recognized him. In the parts of the tale Roy knew, Burgi would have died in battle or be an octogenarian by now.
Pirates were rampant these days: Edward Newgate, Whitebeard; Shiki the Golden Lion; the World Destroyer, Bandy World; Don Chinjao the Drill; Roger… With thirty years yet before Luffy set sail, the seas were in their wildest age.
He'd braced himself after seeing Enel as a little brat, but he hadn't expected to land in this era.
"Where's your home?" Burgi asked.
"East Blue."
"That's a bit far," Burgi said, surprised. "How'd a kid from East Blue end up on the Grand Line?"
"Our ship ran into a storm. We were sucked into the Calm Belt. Sea Kings tore the ship apart. I got lucky… and floated here." Roy let a little fear leak into his expression.
Burgi watched him, then eased. This world held too many mysteries, and he'd seen people drift from the Calm Belt into the Grand Line before especially near its edge, where they were now.
He thought for a moment. "Getting you home won't be easy. Come back to Headquarters with me first. When there's a ship bound for East Blue, you can take it."
Roy lowered his head, thinking. At length he looked up. "Vice Admiral Burgi… that is your rank, isn't it?"
"It is."
"In that case may I join the Navy?"
Burgi blinked. He studied Roy's eyes for a long breath, but didn't answer right away.
Roy understood. A stray with no background couldn't just waltz into the Marines. If anything went wrong later, the officer who vouched for him would pay for it.
Burgi didn't say yes. But Roy boarded the warship anyway, traveling with them toward Headquarters.
He changed into a deckhand's uniform and cleaned the ship day after day another invisible body on a crew of dozens.
Truth be told, he liked the Navy. For all the pirates' talk of freedom, he preferred justice however flawed the men who carried it. Without the Marines, the world would drown in chaos. Without them, ordinary people would never know peace.
And the Navy was the fastest place to grow stronger, to take the helm of his own fate. Roy had no reason to refuse.