One Piece - Before the King

Part I

5 months earlier

Small island along the east blue

A man wakes up in a marine jail cell, his mind is scrambled and he reels a bit as he sits up on his wooden bunk.

"What the hell.. happened..?"

He muttered to himself and held the sides of his head, he felt a thunderous pounding and grimaced. It was then a voice replied from across to the room in a separate cell.

"Ya had a biiit too much to drink last night, caused a bit of a.. 'public disturbance' as they called it."

The man looked up to see the source of the other voice, in the cell adjacent from him, there was a man in a plain white shirt and black, baggy pants. He had unkempt dark hair that was slicked back, he had a smile on his face.

"How do you...?"

"Ya don't remember huh? You and me got in a little fist fight, hence the 'public disturbance' as I call it. By the way, ya got a mean left."

He snickered and turned the side of his face, a large faded bruise on his cheek. The man hung his head low and groaned, feeling another wave of head pain from his apparent hangover.

"Ya married?"

"Uh... yeah, I was uh.. celebrating last night."

"Ahhh, I see, well- congratulations!"

A sudden sound of heavy steps came into the room, and a marine soldier walked inside carrying two trays with a mushy colorless paste.

"Got breakfast for you two."

He placed the trays in front of the two cells and nudged them in with his foot. He leaned against the wall and looked at the newlywed man.

"Nobody got hurt last night, so you'll be out pretty soon. Just make sure it doesn't happen again, yeah?"

The man nodded and then the marine looked toward the other prisoner.

"And you... pirate, you've got a fair little price on your head; you got a convey coming to pick you up."

The pirate smiled and the married man's eyes widened, he got into a fight with a pirate!? His answer came from the marine, who instructed him:

"Don't talk to this man, he's a thief and a killer."

"Actually- I just act in extreme self defense."

The marine huffed and rolled his eyes, ignoring the snide remark before saying.

"He's got a price on his head for 72 million belly, but he got ditched here by his crew."

The pirate peered around the marine at the wedded man and inquired:

"Hey, what's your name?"

"Um... Gallan, James Gallan."

The marine looked over at Gallan and groaned aloud and said:

"I just told you not to talk to him!"

The pirate, ignoring the marine just said with a giddy chuckle:

"Well James Gallan, I'm Val- and I'm gonna get outta here, ya wanna join me?"

Gallan's eyes widened at how casually the pirate, named Val, spoke about his plan to break out of jail. The marine turned to the pirate and sneered.

"You are gonna get outta here? Bagahahahah!! Get real, you're gonna face your justice today, pirate."

Valentine raised his arms to show a pair of odd looking handcuffs to Gallan and explained:

"See these? These are seastone cuffs, these are the only reason I'm still in this room. Ya ever heard of a devil fruit?"