The Beginning of the Moonlight. (Leo/Kusatta)

[Blushing z0ro]

It had been a month since Leo left his home and things had been going quite well, sort of. The young man now found himself in the The Holy Remunun Empire. It was a vast country spanning 5 islands, some big some smaller. But it did mean there was plenty to see there so Leo enjoyed himself so far. Leo had spend the beginning of his stay in the capital Romano City where he enjoyed all the merchant streets and the various shows and distractions available. But this island was not all rosy, Leo found that it suffers the same problem has many other countries. Nobles who think themselves above the laws and treat the lower class people like scum. But Leo decided to just bare with it, for now, and simply continue is venture of the great things the Empire had to offer. Those ventures had however left Leo very much broke very quickly. He didn't have a Beri left in his pocket and was seriously wondering what to do. However simply mopping around was not going to solve the issue so he decided to go see what was on the other islands.

After a few hours of traveling on a small boat Leo ended up on the eastern most island of the Empire, Marius. While it seemed like a place for vacation at first Leo quickly realized it was not really so. The entire island was a training camp for new recruits of the Remunun's army. It became apparent that the wandering swordsman had to get the hell out before he got in serious trouble. He had no love for that country but he wasn't planning on creating a commotion for no real good reason. Thus he tried to sneak out of Marius Island as quickly as possible. However fate would have it so, sounds of battle began to be heard not far from where Leo was and soon after an alarm began to be heard. "What could all this be?" he thought. And so, after careful thinking and looking at where he could go without being noticed, Leo decided to go check what all the fuss was about.

Carefully staying out of site Leo made his way unnoticed towards the source of the commotion, the closer he got the more he could here sounds of fighting and what seemed like a beast, that Leo could not identify, roaring. He was very close now, so keeping his head down and staying out of sight, the young swordsman crept ever closer towards the fight.

[Blaka]

Earlier that day, Kusatta had been sailing from the capital port to the next best island, just to discover that it was in fact the city of Marius, where they brought new recruits for the emperor's army, so it was practically crawling with soldiers. This would be a fitting goodbye to this messed up empire. He would destroy a base on Marius and leave it at that. Later, he would return with the One Piece and make the empire vanish from the face of the earth with it.

So, he left the boat at the beach and walked up to one of the walls sorrounding the training grounds directly near it; still in his dirty rags, with nothing but a dagger in his hand, yet with a wild grin on his face.
"Hold it!", yelled the man guarding the gate. Kusatta didnt answer or slowed down. Instead, he slowly turned into his animal form, enjoying the look on the soldier's face who slowly processed what was going on. The next moment, the giant beast stood right in front of the guard, blowing air through its nostrils in the soldiers face, who was to terryfied to move. Before the man could scream for help, the giant tail hit him and blasted him through the gates onto the training ground where the soldiers had been practicing swordfighting until now. With a loud thud, the guard landed to the feed of the instructor, who immediatly realized that this beast was what the message about the high priority target meant the other day, while the rest of the recruits stood in awe looking at the dinosaur. Kusatta grinned. Yeah, this would do.
Suddenly, the instructor grabbed his sword, with the one hand and a baby snailphone with the other and shoutet into it. "GET THE VULTURES HERE NOW, THE TARGET IS HERE!"
Kusatta swung his tail, sending a couple of recruits flying in one direction, then a couple of others in the other. Most of them drew their weapons, others were still shocked, but the dinosaur headed straight for the instructor in his shiny armor, seeing an opportunity to prove himself.

But suddenly, he heard a croaky scream behind him and the recruits shouting in relief. He tried to turn around but was grabbed by the tail and the neck each by 2 large claws and picked up a few meters into the air, roaring in agony. The Gryphon Vultures were here already. Suddenly, they let him go and the giant body crashed right down to earth, shattering the ground as he fell down. It took him a moment to get back up on his feet. When he got up again, he witnessed all of the recruits storming out of the training ground, ready to kill the enemy together.
Now they made him angry.

[Blushing z0ro]

What the hell!? Leo couldn't believe his eyes. In front of him the recruits and few soldiers began to surround what looked like a huge spiked lizard. To the best of his knowledge that thing was a dinosaur, in other words, something that shouldn't exist anymore. Maybe it was someone who ate one of those rare "Devil Fruits". Leo had heard that some fruits were said to give the ability to turn into an animal, but was it possible to turn in an extinct one? Whatever the case was that thing was there only to rampage.

Completely focused on the surreal battle unfolding in front of him Leo did not realize that a group of recruits, coming out of a barrack behind him, spotted the swordsman. Only when one of the shouted "There is another intruder here!!!" that Leo understood that he was now in trouble. Leo simply let a "Crap!" leave his lips as he turned around to face the group of four recruits. Luckily for Leo out of the four, one held a blunt practice sword and the other three were completely unarmed. It was then Leo realized that his best chance of making it out alive and not shackled was to take advantage of the lack of experience and overall skill of the recruits. After all that's all they were, recruits. Most likely out of all the soldiers here, less than a dozen were actually trained fighters. And yet, taking into account the sheer number of recruits it would be impossible for him to get out by himself. And so Leo came up with a plan.

But first he had to get ride of those four before more troops surrounded him. The first target was obvious, the one with the blunt sword was the primary threat in this situation. So Leo dashed towards the sword wielding recruit as fast as he could. "Mangetsu-Ryuu..." said Leo quietly said while grabbing the hilt of his sword, as the recruit he was aiming at shrieked and clumsily tried to take a defensive stance. Leo then drew out his sword at a blinding speed shouting "Batou Justsu. Kaminari!!!" slashing across the recruit's chest. The wound was not fatal but it would incapacitate the boy for a while.

Leo was now standing in the middle of the three other recruits who were arranged as if the three points of a triangle. The three were almost stunned by what just happened to their friend. They probably thought Leo killed him, but he wasn't going to tell them otherwise. Taking advantage of their fear was much more advantageous. The swordsman quickly out weight on his right leg and swung both his sheath and sword in a clockwise direction, hitting both the recruit in front of him with the sheath and the one to his right with the blunt side of the sword, knocking the two out from the hits to their heads.

Leo then heard a shout coming from behind him. It appeared the last recruit wasn't quite as scared as the other three, or maybe he was even more so and just got desperate, whatever the case was Leo wasn't going to try and find out. The last recruit charging at him like a mad bull hoping to tackle the swordsman. So Leo quickly turned to face him and as the bull wannabe who was now less than a meter away from him. So the swordsman quickly raised his knee to catch the recruit in the chest stopping him there and there. Then, quite unbecoming of a swordsman but efficient nonetheless, Leo punched the recruit as hard as he could with his left hand while still holding one to his sheath.

Now that the those four were taken care off there was only one thing to do. Leo could not expect to get out of there alone anymore. His only chance was teaming up with that reckless dinosaur...thing. So the swordsman sheathed his sword again and rushed towards the center of the fight. More recruits and a few soldiers now surrounded the Dinosaur, so Leo grabbed his sword again and using his Kaminari again, cutting down what appeared to be an actual soldier as opposed to a recruit, taking advantage of the fact that the man was too focused on his attack of the dinosaur to pay attention to Leo.

Leo was now showing his back to the huge reptile and said "What the hell are you doing!? Causing such a ruckus and dragging others into! Now if we want to get out of here alive and not in chains we have to work together you got that!?" Hopefully the dinosaur really was a a user of a devil fruit and not just a beast. Leo knew it was a risky bet but he had to try it. It was the only way he could get out. And if it was just a beast maybe at least it would create enough of a mess for Leo to escape.

[Blaka]

What? Who was that behind him? He didn't look like a soldier, nor anybody from around the empire for that matter. His long sword was glancing in the sunlight.
"What do you want?", Kusatta yelled. Or wanted to, instead another loud noise came out of his throat, making the soldiers flinche for a second. Urgh, that had happened before...suddenly, something in his brain triggered. Everyone around him watched in terror as the giant dinosaur stood up on his feed and grew human arms and legs. Apparently this was some kind of inbetween form, half human, half beast.
"Let's try that again." His voice was a deep, bassy sound, not as loud as the roars before but still making the soldiers shiver. "What are you? What do you want?"
"The beast talks...", whispered one of the soldiers.
Before the stranger could answer, one of the vultures swooped down again, trying to grab Kusattas arm. Kusatta made a grunting noise, and send hurled his right fist at the bird. Instead of sending him flying the soldier on the birds back let him dodge to the left and the large claws scratched along Kusattas arm up to his shoulder, leaving a bloody wound. Kusatta blared out a painfull scream and grabbed his arm.

[Blushing z0ro]

To the swordsman great relief, the beast was indeed a Devil Fruit user. Yet, Leo couldn't help but be shocked at the hybrid form he took, not quite a beast but not quite a human either. The "man" Leo assumed asked him who he was but before he could answer one of the large vultures swoop down on the man-beast wounding his arm.

Leo saw an opportunity there, the swordsman secured his sheath onto his belt then jumped upon his unwilling ally's spiky back, using it as a stepping stone before jumping again, this time to be right at the height of the soldier upon the vulture. Grabbing his sword with both hands and lifting it above and behind his head "Mangetsu-ryuu". He then swung it down in curved downward slash with all his might, "Kougetsusen!!!" taking out the soldier atop the bird making him drop to the ground. Left with no one to control it the vulture flew away croaking, as Leo touch down on the ground in front of the dino-man.

Turning his head slightly to look at his possible ally, while his body still faced the recruits Leo spoke. "I'm here to help! You've got to understand that unless we help each other get out of here we'll either get captured or killed! And I have no intention of dying here of all places!" There was no malice in his voice, just honesty and the will to live were coming from the swordsman voice. Leo then turned his attention to the recruits, ready to parry any attacks they would throw at him, or so he hoped.

[Blaka]

Kusatta must have misheard. Help? He didnt need help he was a monster now! What was that guy thinking?
"Listen you little shit!" He tried to throw a punch at the man, but his arm hurt so much that he stumbled and didn't aim right, hitting 4 recruits that flew through the air, simultaneously taking down about a dozen guys.

The instructor was witnessing the fight from near the gates. He was freaking out now. "TWO TARGETS NOW, REQUESTING MORE TROOPS! YES YOU HEARD RIGHT! NO, NOT TWO BEASTS, THAT DOESN'T MATTER!"

Kusatta was furious. Soldiers from the other training grounds on the island came running down the beach to the battlefield with at least 5 oder 6 more Vultures above them and that guy apparently seemed to be able to take care of them. Okay, maybe that hadn't been the smartest idea he ever had but he sure as hell wouldn't back down so easily.
"Listen you little shit", he started again, "Who are you, why are you he-" A spear, thrown from one of the vultures landed right into his right shoulder, piercing it. Another deafening scream escaped his lungs and he stumbled a few steps into the mass of recruits sorrounding the two, shoving them into each other and crushing one or two under him. He focused again, grabbed the spear and broke it half, the spearhead still sticking in his shoulder. "Okay first those guys. Then talking."

[Blushing z0ro]

Seems like getting that guy to calm down was going to be difficult. But at least it seemed that the threat of the 6 vultures that showed up was enough to get him to focus on them rather than wanting to fight Leo. One of the over-sized birds swept down towards Leo barely leaving him the time to dodge to his left. Not quite fast enough, the claws of the bird slashed the swordsman right arm right under the shoulder. Leo grunted at the pain but luckily the wound was shallow and wouldn't impair his fighting.

The ability to fly was just too much of an advantage, the recruits and soldiers on the grounds were not even trying to fight the two intruders, they just surrounded them so they could not evade the vultures. Not really fair but damn effective Leo had to admit. He could only think of one way to handle the birds but it was pretty much crazy. No, it was downright nuts but it was the only way. So Leo sheathed back his sword.

Leo focused on the birds above looking for any signs of an attack. One of the birds croaked, climbed up in the air for a few feet and then swooped down again but Leo saw it coming and rolled to his right avoiding the bird entirely. Then from the corner of his eye to his right he saw another one fly up then sweep down again. Jumping forward Leo avoided yet another attack. He figured it out. It seemed that the birds always rose a few feet before coming down, with this he could avoid them. However the riders were somewhat more unpredictable. Most seemed to be content  sitting on the birds but two of them were more active. One had throw his spear at the beast-man and the other flailed his about like a madman whenever the his bird came down. Nothing to do but to avoid those two.

One of the four calmer riders brought his bird down upon the swordsman. Time for Leo to try out his plan. Standing perfectly still Leo waited for the last second before the claws of the vulture would reach him. Shifting his weight to his left and twisting his body Leo avoided most of the attack, getting only scratches on his chest. Extending his arms to grab onto the saddle on the bird's back Leo jumped onto the bird of prey and kicked of the rider.

Now firmly upon the vulture's back, Leo drew his sword. Sadly the bird refused to obey any kind of commands Leo gave it through the reigns.It just flew in circles at the same height as the other birds. At least it wasn't actively trying to throw Leo off so that was good. Now at least the others lost the advantage of height, hopefully that will be enough. 

[Blaka]

Huh. That guy must be actually crazy. Aside from showing up out of nowhere, he actually went and climbed a Gryphon Vulture.
Looking down again, he noticed that the recruits had slowly been replaced with actual trained military soldiers in full armor. Well, if it wasn't going to be like he imagined, Kusatta would make way for the escape. And decimate the Emperor's military force a bit on the way. Or the other way around, didn't matter really.

Someone jumped at him with his sword, but Kusatta quickly used his left and knocked him into a few others. A second one swung his axe, thinking the target wouldnt be fast enough to evade. Wrong. Kusattas tail pierced him through the chest and send him flying in the other direction.
The Dinosaur started marching forward. Left and right he was punching dudes in front of him out of the way while no one would dare to try and attack him from behind, where the dangerous spikes whizzed through the air. Everyone trying to land a hit on him was immediatly send flying to the other direction, usually crashing into comrades and taking them out as well.

Suddenly, a man in a shiny golden armor stood in Kusattas way, probably some sort of commander. Well he wouldn't stand there for long more. Kusatta raised his hand and swung it with all the force he got at the golden shield. But the man was too fast for him, dodged, yelled, and rammed his hammer into the arm of the beast, shattering the bones. Yet, Kusattas left surprised him, grabbed his head and pulled it downwards driving a crack into both the skull and the ground.

With a completely broken and paralyzed right arm, Kusatta descended into just tackling the soldiers aside, who, after seein their commander get brutalized, were a lot more hesitant to pick a fight and more or less retracted to leave the "target" space to walk, who was breathing heavily and by the look in his eyes ready to mush anyone who opposed him into a tiny puddle of mush.

Their courage started to vanish completely, when people started to fall out of the sky.

[Blushing z0ro]

Leo's griffin vulture was circling the other five. Even without control over the actions of the beast the fight should be manageable, or at least he hoped so. After a few more seconds the soldier who had earlier jammed his spear into the Dino-man send his vulture rushing after Leo. Rushing was the appropriate term, there was no strategy in the soldier's action, just recklessness. Or at least that's what Leo thought but quickly the other four got in formation behind him. The V shaped attack force prevented any hope of escaping. The vulture Leo was riding also sensed the danger and began trashing violently so as to eject the unwanted rider.

What could he do? Leo had to think of something fast or else he'll be dead in a matter of seconds. "Oh what the hell." Thought the young swordsman. There was only one thing left to do, attack. A desperate attack to take the enemy by surprise, Leo hated this kind of tactic, if that could even be called one, but he saw no other way. So just as the enemy closed on him, the young man readied himself and jumped of his mount by kicking off with all his strength. "Gekko!!!" shouted the swordsman, with his sword pointed at the soldier in the lead, whilst in mid-air. The soldier was just too dumbfounded to react. One could wonder who was the most surprised, the soldier who got pushed off his vulture by a swordsman with seemingly no sense of self-preservation or said swordsman as he realized his desperate assault worked? Whichever it was didn't matter to Leo, all he could do was keep on pushing, and so he did.

Before the soldier could even touch the ground, Leo kept up with his mad tactic and jumped onto the closest enemy but this time one did not let himself get pushed off so easily. The soldier thrust his spear at Leo, but being on a vulture was hardly a stable place where a precise one handed thrust was possible, in fact any kind of attack like hitting true depended more on luck than skill. So the spear only grazed Leo's left side as the swordsman swung down his sword hitting the soldier on the head with blunt side. "Only three to go." Leo thought. The other three now circled Leo and his new mount, rather than attacking one by one as it was proven to be inefficient the soldier all charged in at the same time. Leo smiled, "Why couldn't they have started with this?" he thought. The enemies now were very close. Leo readied his sword to his side, "Mangetsu-Ryuu". The enemy spears were only inches away from him and the griffin vulture screamed in fear of death. "TSUKI NO KAGAMI!!!!" The very split second preceding the spears skewering Leo, the swordsman spun his body and sword clockwise knocking the last three soldiers off their birds at the same time. With the vultures dealt with all that was left was making a breach through the soldiers and recruits towards freedom.

[Blaka]

Kusatta arrived at the bote. The soldiers had more or less made a way for him to slowly walk and occasionally shove one or two of them aside. He heard the instructor yelling something from above the hill, running down with his sword in hand. Grunting, he grabbed the piece of wood still sticking in his shoulder and pulled it out, spilling blood all over the ground. Then he tossed it towards the instructor. The spearhead hit the mans chest, making him fall to the ground.

Out of the reach of the deadly spikes, the soldiers began to slowly and quietly regroup and follow the beast to the beach. Kusatta was only focused on getting to the boat. He looked up to the vultures, that flew off in random directions without their riders. He was done here. His right arm hang powerless on his side, the left one grabbed his boat and shoved it into the water in one fluent motion.

Now the soldiers seemed to realize that the target was really going to just leave. Uneasiness spread among them and they started to whisper. Kusatta looked behind him - just in time to see a young man with a big Warhammer jumped at his back and swung his hammer against the bone-plates.

An excruciating pain drove through his back as one of the plates broke in the middle. For a moment he could neither see nor hear anything, only the pain was in his mind. He stumbled in the direction he thought his boat was, constantly letting out a horrifying roar. A moment later, he realized he didnt hit the boat. Instead, tripped and fell into the sea water. Immediatly, he changed back into his human form, the water coloured red because of the blood coming out of his shoulder and he could hear the soldiers outside cheering. He couldnt move. Most of his breath was already gone because of the roaring. Why couldnt he move? His vision became blurry.

[Blushing z0ro]

Leo sheathed his sword and jumped off the Vulture he was ridding, rolling on the ground to lessen the impact. It appeared that the Dino-man had made a breach through the soldiers and recruits towards a small boat. But things didn't go quite according to the man's plan, if he even had one. Before he could reach his boat he got hit by a falling war-hammer. A roar of excruciating pain resounded through the island as the beast man changed into a thin man and fell into the ocean while only a few feet away from the boat. That was bad, Leo had read somewhere that those who have ate a Devil Fruit could not swim at all.

Not wasting any time the swordsman in black let a "Damn it!" escape his lips and rushed towards the sinking man. Bypassing the remaining soldiers, Leo jumped in the water. The cold North Blue water made his skin crawl and the pressure upon his lungs quickly began to hurt as the swordsman swam down following the trail of blood that would let him to his makeshift ally. A few more seconds of diving brought Leo to the level of the man, luckily for the both of them the Dino-man had reverted back to his human form, had it been otherwise Leo would have been unable to save him. So the swordsman grabbed the other man and swam up to the surface as close to the small boat as possible.

Once he broke free of the waters Leo took a loud and deep breath in while climbing into the small boat while still dragging his unconscious looking ally. He could here shouts coming from the island where the soldiers shouted to bring something to stop them, but Leo wasn't going to wait and see what it was. He promptly untied the boat and readied the sail. A godsend gust wind quickly pushed the tiny ship and it's to occupants out of harm's way. 

After about 20 minutes spent in exhausted silence Leo who was lying down on the ship turned his head toward his injured shipmate. "So... I'm Leo, Leo Le Clerc. What's your name?" was all the swordsman asked.

[Blaka]

"blurgh." said Kusatta and puked red water and probably blood all over the deck.
Why was he still alive? He thought he would drown and die down in the sea. He turned his head and looked at the man in front of him, reviewing him from head to toe. He was soaked in water as well. Did he actually jump after Kusatta?

The wheels in his brain started to turn immediatly, something he learned on the streets of his city even when he was dead tired. What reason would that man have to just show up, tell him to calm down and then rescue him? He wouln't gain anything from Kusatta living. Leo Le Clerc. He looked like a foreigner, must have come from someplace other than the empire. Kusatta's mouth opened to ask him why he was out at sea, but only more sea water came out. Groaning, he sat up and puked more water over the railing. His right arme dangled useless to his side. What a crushing defeat, he had planned that day a bit different, leaving Marius in pieces by the end.

Maybe that was it. Even with that newfound power Kusatta wasnt able to do anything against even one Gryphon Vulture. Maybe Le Clerc needed someone for whatever he was planning. He did save Kusatta afterall, he probably didnt have to fear him right now. They could both benefit from each other, as long as they were usefull, no one had to fear anything. And if the day came Kusatta wasnt needed anymore, he knew how to defend himself by now against a man like that.
"I am Kusatta Kotei.", he said finally. "I am heading out for the One Piece. What are you doing out here?"

[Blushing z0ro]

Leo stared blankly at the blue sky while listening to Kusatta. The sky was beautiful, empty and clear blue other than for the occasional white cloud. "One Piece, huh?" Leo remembered the last word of the Pirate Whitebeard as they were transmitted around the world. The huge man stood in Marinford and with his last remaining bit of strength shouted a message to would forever change the world. "One Piece! It exists!" Fitting last words for a the greatest Pirate of his era. But now a new era of piracy had begun. Not one that belonged to giants like Whitebeard or Red-Hair. It belonged to the young. Like those pirates Leo reads about in the newspaper, "Strawhat" Monkey D. Luffy, Eustass "Captain" Kid or "Death Surgeon" Trafalgar Law. All those guys were roughly the same age as Leo, and if they did it, why couldn't he?

A glint of purpose could now be seen in Leo's eyes. The swordsman sat up and turned to face Kusatta. "I was just going to travel and have fun. But One Piece seems like it would certainly be some good fun." And so Leo Le Clerc extended his right hand to Kusatta Kohei. "So what do you say Kusatta? Wanna join me so we can turn the entire world upside down?" Said Leo with a smile on his face and a conviction in his heart he had never felt before. A conviction that could be seen his eyes, the eyes of a man who had just found his purpose in life.

[Blaka]

Kusatta was actually impressed. That was the face of a guy just like himself, going from mere surviving to an actual purpose for his life. The adventurous attitude was contagious and Kusatta felt that this was the real moment his journey started. Turning the world upside down sounded good. Afterall that had been his plan all along and after the failure in Marius, there would be no second one.
"Sounds like a plan!" He grabbed Leos arm and the two man shook hands, hyped up by the fire in each others eyes.

The wind was shoving their boat over the sea in any direction, Kusatta didnt care. A life of enjoyment and adventure was ahead of them. Even if that meant two different things for each one of them. For Kusatta it meant taking revenge on the world that had shit on him since birth and if he directed the revenge at the right people, he would surely get along for a while with his new captain.
And he would grow stronger. By the time he would see the coast of Marius again, he would pick Vultures out of the sky like flies.

"First we have to deal with my arm. And something to eat."
The little vessel sailed into the sun, away from the land and into the wide sea.