5 Ragner

My tears caught in my throat, as my blue eyes stung. My pale upper body trembled as I tried to control my raging emotions. It had been twelve days since our escape, and now in front of me, my mother breathed her last.

Her brows were covered with wrinkles of age that should not have been there, and her previous glossy hair had turned into a dying white, so had mine in fact, but not for the same reason. Her chest had heaved, struggling for breath just moments ago, but now it had fallen with one final rumbling call, never to rise again.

She had lost her hands, in that incident that had shook the world and burnt the seas. By lost her hands, I of course I mean that she had no arms, no vitality, and now no life, after a dozen days of suffering, my mother had died in her sleep.

I had felt that none would touch me in this world, atleast until I had formally set sail, for that was what I would do, if there had been even the slightest of doubts before, now there was none. I Would set sail, and I Would massacre a path to Mary Geoisse, and I would wipe my mother's grave with blood! That was what I had promised myself and that was what I would do.

'My previous thoughts were wrong, and I know that now, for I had tasted sorrow, first in my last life I had lost my parents, and now in this life, again I had lost the mother I had gotten close to.' I thought as the hot tears flowed down my face gushing as they did, much like a dam had broken flowing and rushing torrentiously.

This battle had hit us badly-badly was an understatement, we had been devastated. My world view had collapsed, my mother had died, and my father-he probably had it the worst of all. He had lost his wife, the women he had loved dearly, and had lost the ability to take revenge, probably the worst thing that had happened to him. He had lost his right hand, the one he wielded his sword with and had also lost his left leg, he was a cripple for life.

The battle had wrecked him completely, and now he was barely a husk of the man that I had known. He sat at the base of the mast as he stared at the sky, he would not have eaten had I not force-fed him a bit of the meager rations we had left, and had not spoken a word save something to the way we were to travel, after which he had promptly shut himself into his shell with vacant eyes and a forlorn body.

A howl shook the ship as I whipped around. Behind my back was the man I once called my father, a man who had crawled on the ground to see his beloved's last moments and a man that now seemed to age beyond the limit to what humans were allowed. His black eyes now had a path of blood running down the side of his gaunt face, as he tried to hold onto his wife's hand. He raised his spindly arm to hers as he supported himself with the bed frame before caressing her face.

"Father, father, it's my fault mom died! don't cry! this unfillial son of yours will get revenge! I will slaughter a path to Mary Geoisse!! I will dismember all the body's of the men of Cypher! Dad believe me!!" I cried as I kneeled in front of him, my tears straining my vision and my throat constantly clutching and relaxing.

"Oh….? You'll slaughter a path to that hell-hole will you..? YOu tHinK It iS tHaT EaSY!!" he roared, coughing as he regarded me. "if it is THAT easy, I would have done it already! I couldn't do it at my peak! how do you think that you Can!?!?! Mary Geoisse isn't your backyard, son…."he said as he sighed. He had gotten quite calm over his monologue.

My knees touched each other as I continued to sob on the ground. My blue eyes swam in their sockets as I regarded my father. My snot had made its way to the ends of my mouth, and my tears had made a small puddle, and had wetted my shirt. Imagine that a one-year old child on his knees sobbing with a vigor usually associated with adults who had lost everything that they had held close to them.

"Help me out.........…" my father said, his tiredness visible in his hunched frame, he had lost everything that he had held dear, save his son, who was too old to be a one-year old. "Your mother and I had promised each other, that if we were to die, someday then we would be buried in the tumultuous seas of the grand-line. Help me, son, help me burry your mother, father-father has already become useless…." he said mournfully as he yanked out the side of the bed, before using it like a crutch, to move out of the room with it and my help.

It was time. I had lived in this world for barely a year now and I had already been exposed to the harshness of the world. It was time to put on my thinking hat, and my serious shoes and get to action. I thought seriously as we slowly lowered mother's body into the sea, never to be seen again….

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"NO No No, you're doing it wrong! you Dumbass!!" My father roared as he corrected my Observation Haki. It had been eight months on the sea, and I had already gotten used to the rocking of the boat and the hard-hits of the butt of my father's pistol.

Though I wished to train, I had only been able to practice observation, because my father did not want me to practice the types of Haki that might damage my body, irreparably.

So here we were. Training my observation to extreme levels, did I mention that I was using observation and my tiny-infant body to avoid mortally dangerous bullets from my father's Winkle Pistol( I had decided to call 'em that after I saw how much they curved in the air, my father said he did it by a strange mixture of the three Hakis, I was not so sure..) and I had awakened my Conqueror's Haki. (Don't get me started on that!!)

So ya, it was quite an eventful torture session I had had. Today it would all end, or so my father told me. Today I would see my grandfather, Gol D Ragner, the first ever ascendant to the throne of the Pirates, I know, quite mind-blowing, how a hundred over middle aged( my father said that he was very touchy of his age.)man could possibly be the first king of the Pirates, and more than that my own father's father!

"Lore, after we reach Raftel you will be able to eat that Devil Fruit that you got from that vault, and then you'll be able to finally start training your body, don't let down your old man now.." he said with a sigh as he reached for the anchor. We had reached the outer boundaries of the island of the Pirates, and I was jittery.