By the time Hata Akira dragged the limp Monkey D. Luffy out of the water and hauled the half-drowned chubby fisherman onto shore he was panting like an ox, lips pale.
He'd almost passed out after saving them both.
When Luffy had sunk, the shallows were still a hundred meters away. On a normal day Akira could have made that swim a few times over.
But a Devil Fruit user in seawater couldn't help himself at all. Swimming with a man on your back, against drag and tide, was its own brand of torture.
Worse, one Luffy was already enough. As Akira ferried him toward land, he glanced back and saw the chubby man slip off his plank and sink.
That man was Akira's first real friend in this world. His family had saved Akira's life. There was no way he would watch him drown.
Gritting his teeth, Akira turned back, hauled the chubby man up, and swam for the shallows one hand gripping his friend, the other towing Luffy.
If not for six months of hard fishing that had toughened his arms and filled out his frame, there was no chance he could have dragged both of them to land.
Even so, the effort wrung him dry. After he got them ashore, his consciousness blurred and darkness took him.
It was normal. He was just a human being. Saving two drowning men on a single breath was beyond his limit; collapse followed as surely as the tide.
When Akira came to, night had fallen, and a joyous clamor rose outside.
A glance around told him he was back in his own room. Another crew must have found the three of them on the beach and carried them home.
"Alright! Time for a banquet!"
A bright, booming voice cut through the walls.
A boy in a red vest and straw hat burst into Akira's room, grin blazing. "You're awake! Come on we're having a feast. Today's main dish is that Sea King we caught this morning. The meat is amazing!"
Of course. Nearly drowned in the morning, party by night. His energy was terrifying.
Akira moved and pain flared all over. Overwork aches clear as day.
He meant to stay horizontal a little longer, but Luffy hauled him by the arm straight to the bonfires.
"We set sail tomorrow, so tonight we go all out. This meat is incredible!"
Luffy shoved a hunk of flesh the size of his thigh into his mouth and still managed to talk around it.
Akira opened his mouth to explain he wasn't going with him only for the chubby man to barrel in, drop to his knees, and clutch Akira's leg, sobbing. "You're alive! You looked like a corpse I thought I'd be attending your funeral!"
"Scram."
The village blazed with firelight. Laughter crisscrossed the beach. People danced in circles, faces bright.
The chubby man's weeping face killed the mood on sight.
More greetings followed. A handful of pretty village girls, cheeks pink, invited Akira to dance; he declined.
It wasn't pride. His head still swam. With his luck, he'd miss a step and fall into the bonfire.
One person danced with abandon Luffy.
He pranced with the girls, then whooped that it wasn't enough and launched into a belly dance. The crowd howled.
He drew a face on his stomach, puffed his rubber belly until it went round as a drum, and stuck a pair of chopsticks up his nose. He hummed a pirate song no one knew, and the villagers laughed until they cried.
With Luffy around, a banquet became a festival.
Akira had seen village feasts before. None had set the entire village alight like this one.
Eating and watching the show, he nudged the chubby man. "Didn't you know how to swim? How'd you drown?"
As a fisherman, the man could swim of course he could. In the moment, Akira hadn't stopped to think; he'd just saved him.
This was Akira's first time eating Sea King. The meat was rich and tender. Addictive.
Then his appetite fled.
The chubby man explained he'd puked first then, woozy, inhaled seawater that tasted like what he'd just puked. He puked again.
Mouth open to gasp, he took a wave full of it right back in and puked a third time.
He convulsed so hard his leg cramped. Then down he went.
Unaware he'd murdered Akira's appetite, the man kept describing his miseries in grotesque detail until Akira lost patience and decked him.
Fair.
"Are you a Devil Fruit user?" the village chief asked.
He'd just watched Luffy stretch an arm across the fire to snag more meat. The villagers gasped.
"Yeah. I ate the Gum-Gum Fruit. I'm a rubber man."
Luffy stole the meat from Akira's hand without shame and shoved it into his mouth.
Akira reset his mood and reached for a fresh piece. It vanished midair straight into Luffy's mouth.
There was nothing for it. Akira settled for vegetables the one thing Luffy had no interest in.
"Speaking of which, our village has a Devil Fruit," the village chief said, glancing Akira's way before addressing the meat-devouring boy. "You want to invite him to sea, don't you?"
"Yup. He's reliable. I don't misjudge people, and we get along."
Luffy swallowed. His neck bulged comically.
"You're Monkey D. Luffy?" the village chief asked.
He stroked his long white beard. Bent with age, face folded in wrinkles, he nonetheless had a glint in his eyes that could pin a man in place.
"What about my name?" Luffy didn't notice the shift in the old man's gaze. "Oh what's his name?"
Before the chief could answer, Luffy stretched to a pole and slingshotted to Akira's side.
Startled, Akira coughed a spray of vegetable crumbs all over him.
"What's your name?"
Luffy shook his head. The crumbs flew onto the meat in his hand. He took a bite and brightened. "With this stuff on it, the meat tastes better!"
Akira fought down a new wave of nausea and told him.
"Hata Akira?" Luffy rolled it around and grinned. "Weird name."
Says the guy with a middle initial.
Akira was about to say something sensible when the village chief said, "Hata Akira, come with me. We need to talk."
Puzzled, Akira followed the old man to a quiet corner.
"A little over a year ago," the chief said, "someone deposited a Devil Fruit with our village. He said that if we found the right person, we should give it to them."
Akira's heart skipped. Could that have been Silvers Rayleigh the Dark King who'd saved the chubby man a year ago?
Or had Rayleigh come to the East Blue back then just to deal with this fruit?
His thoughts churned.
"If you truly want to set sail with that boy," the chief said, "I can entrust the Devil Fruit to you."
The old man's gaze shone. "I can see it you yearn for the sea. This world is vast. For a man, longing for that boundless, mysterious ocean is only natural. More than that you don't belong here. If you go, you might find what you're looking for. Whether you join him is your choice. I won't force you."
"So what is your answer?"
The village chief smiled, as if he already knew.