OR, a vow in the golden age of pirates, captain and first mate
The seas in all your life had always looked dull.
Dark grey waves lapping against each other with silvery linings, never once glowing under the rays of the sun, or to the glow of the moon.
It had never been kind, but nor had it ever been cruel. It had never given a home, but nor had it ever cast you out from seeking shelter in its waters.
It's a sea of paradoxes and contradictions. Having found both freedom and slavery in its arms, as safety and destruction birthed in its waters.
The seas had given you everything, and had also taken everything away from you.
But today, as you walked along the shoreline of the newly liberated Dusk Island with Luffy running ahead, the seas had never looked so pretty before.
A shade of pinks and oranges, and halfway hidden by the shining horizon, the sun rests above the waves of the seas, casting a faint glow over everything it touches.
Your eyes tear away from the sun over by the horizon, and trail back to Luffy.
He keeps running ahead, leaving a trail of splashes, but never going farther than a couple of meters away from you. His straw hat is askew and his grin rivals everything that is good in the world.
The seas takes, but sometimes, it gives.
"We're setting sail tomorrow!" He yells, loud and clear, for everyone to hear. Your smile is soft and your feet dig into the sand, footsteps disappearing with a wave of the sea.
"Do you have a destination in mind?"
"Shishishi, yep! The One Piece!"
"One piece, huh..." You echo, feet kicking against the sand. "It might take some time before we find it."
"It's more fun that way." He brings his arms up high in the air with a grin, bouncing on his feet as both of you continued walking by the shoreline. "Whether next year or the next ten, it's fine by me!"
He stops momentarily to think, hooking his hands on the back of his neck. He spots something in the sand. "And I finally have my first crew member, so the first island we have to stop at should be full of adventures."
You say your name out of the blue, stilling Luffy from picking up a shiny crab from under the sand.
"What's that?" He turns to you.
"My name." You answer.
"Ah, I see." He nods.
. . .
"Eh?! Your name?!" , flinging his arms above his head. You rose an eyebrow at the crab holding onto his hand for dear life. "I thought your name was Seas!"
"It was, until I met you." You remove the crab from his hand, turning it over to decide whether it's edible or not. "To be honest, it's been years since I last used it. It's a miracle I even remembered it."
After deciding the crab wasn't even worth grilling, you tossed it back into the sea.
Luffy doesn't reply back instantly, seeming like he's thinking about something and wasn't sure if he can ask about it.
"Okay," he says after a few bouts of silence. "Okay. Got it."
You inclined your head, wondering what he was thinking of, but ultimately casted it to the side. There were no doubts to be had against him, your captain.
You blink, coming to a halting stop once the thought fully registers inside your mind. He was your captain. Your captain. The one you swore to find years ago, and the only one you would follow until the very end of their dream.
And what better way to concrete your bond with Luffy than to make a deal with Davy Jones himself.
"There's an old tradition among the seas," You recalled, turning to look at the sea. Luffy stops, and with an inquisitive glance, lays his attention on you. "It's one most sailors had forgotten as time passed by, but I want to do it."
"If you want to, then sure." There's not much difference between his smile and the sun at this point, and with him doing that more often than not, you're pretty sure you're going to be blind.
You nod, "it's just a vow. You don't have to do it with me if you don't want to. It can work both ways, anyway."
"I still wanna see." Luffy pouts as you stepped away from the shoreline, leaving him standing on the water on his own.
"Hold on a sec. Things like this have to be done properly."
"What's the vow for?"
"Just to make it official," giving him a grin as you tossed your shoes over your shoulder, "captain."
He brightens up considerably and lets out a laugh. "So like a promise then?"
You unfastened your escrima sticks to plunge them in the sand, the bells muffled by the sand.
"Not quite. This particular vow requires a certain audience to claim it, and not all of them can be accepted." You stopped to stare at your gloved hands, contemplating whether to remove them or keep them on.
"That's so confusing." Luffy voices his complaints with a grumble, but stays still in order to watch you. "Why can't they just claim everything?"
You chose to remove your gloves.
"I don't really remember the specifics, but if I had to guess..." You ponder a little bit, "then I think it might have something to do with your soul or something along those lines."
Luffy bursts out laughing. "You don't remember much, do you?"
"...not even a day, and you're already dissing me? I'm hurt."
Reaching a hand inside your bag, it grasps air before a handle materializes in your hold. You take out a dagger as you let the bag fall on the sand.
You nimbly walked deeper into the sea. Breathing in the salty air with a small smile. With this, you began letting words of an old tradition leave your lips.
"I say to the foam, let it be known; I have a dream but his dream shall be mine."
The water pulls away from the shore, having earased the traces of your footsteps and the marks of fleeting moments in time.
"I say to the tides, let it be known; I have a name but his name shall be mine."
The winds rests its whispers against the skies, and the waves stops its course towards the shore. It leaves a serene, yet empty feeling to those present.
"I say to the seas, let it be known; I am his first mate and my place is by his side."
Your palm opens and the blade of the dagger cleanly slits a cut in the scarred skin of your hand.
"I say to Davy Jones, let it be known; he is my captain and my soul is his."
Blood overflows, and a drop of red was lost among the grains of the sand, and it is all that it needs.
The water comes back greedily to the shore, eating the sands whole and taking the blood in its crystal azures.
A white seagull circles the sky above, letting out a cry and flying off.
The seas begin to move once again, this time carrying the vow of a first mate into the farthest parts of the seas, into the deepest depths of the Four Blues, and into the unimaginable storms of Grand Line.
It is a claim heard, judged, and accepted.
.
.
.
Luffy breaks the air with a shriek and a furious tug at the back of your shirt. "She's bleeding! Doctor! We need a doctor!"
And as he drags you back towards the village frantically and in search for bandages, your laughter is full and light and vibrant and real.
Yes, perhaps everything will be fine.
— ❐ —
LOG ENTRY
Luffy thinks you must have been incredibly lonely after you told him everything. So despite what you said had been cool-sounding, he wants to do it in his own way.
—so before setting sail, he drags you by the shore again and cuts his own palm, all the while declaring;
"I say to the mystery man in the seas, she is my nakama and she will never be alone again!"
— ❐ —
A/N* [Rewritten on: Feb. 26, 2021]
INSPIRATION FOR THE VOWS FROM stereden's "Watashitachi wa Roger kaizoku desu (we still stand proud)", Chapter 23.
Highly recommend the fic if you want Ace to live, Buggy to be hella fuckin badass and Shanks to be the best nakama there is to Buggy.
And like this is obv a pirate show, right? So why not sprinkle in some old sailor traditions and mythologies ('ヮ')
SO YES HEY, YOU REACHED THE END OF THE ZEROTH ARC!!!! 🎉🎉🎉
Be ready for a new arc!!!! and for a MAJOR MAJOR tonal shift in the narrative stand point for the rest of the story!!
Everything is there for a reason, to how it was said, done, and perceived.
It is your story, after all.
see ya~!
Artwork Credit: @SHANGSIII on Twitter