The Shipwrecked Hero

[scalpa]

"Well that hurt..." panted Scalpa as he lay against a tree in the jungle. He had been forced to claw his way up from the beach after the horrible storm and his strength was rapidly fading. He had to rest, but he wasn't sure if resting in this place was a good idea.

"Hmm, what's that?" he asked as he heard what sounded like people coming from the distance. Although he couldn't see them, they were close enough that he could tell it was a well populated area.

"Good, maybe I can rest and get some food..." He said as he forced himself to his feet, using the trees for support as he trudged onwards, heading in the direction of Sparks Village.

[juusan]

Sparks Village was uncharacteristically dark and gray that afternoon. The dark clouds from the past day's storm still lingered over the village, leaving everything in shadow, dulling the usual color.

Naturally this made most of the citizens a bit down, but since the Mayor had insisted that the clouds would pass by the time evening rolled around everyone was still hard at work preparing for that nights events. Tonight would be the beginning of the Spring Festival, and there was still much to do before it began. The annual festivals of Sparks were known through out the island, and so the village had gotten many visitors throughout the day. The area nearest Bright Village was most wary of unfamiliar faces.

However it wasn't an unfamiliar face that was bothering the village-folk at the moment. It was one they knew a little too well. One man, in the middle of a conversation with a friend, paused in his speech to look over to the street with wide eyes. "Maybe", he began, still looking out over his friends shoulder, "We should postpone the festival. I have a bad feeling about today."

"What are you-" The man's friend turned around to follow his friends gaze, and his own eyes widened a fraction. He turned back quickly with a shaken look, "Yeah, you may be right about that..."

Out on the street was a young man who looked completely at home in the dark grayness of the village. He walked through the center of the street, everyone in his path suddenly finding some reason to move away from where he was. He stopped at a food stand and climbed up on a bench, the squeak usually accompanied by this act oddly silent for the man.

Because of his quiet arrival, the patron of the stall had the start of her life when she turned around and saw him. She actually let out a strange screech-squeak that made the man grin, and dropped the tray she was holding all along the counter. Of the things that spilled was a small bag of salt. The man's dark face brightened considerably, but before he could even get out a delighted "Ah~!" the girl had snatched up two handfuls of the white crystals and tossed them hurriedly over her left shoulder. Making an even bigger mess, but seemingly out of danger at the moment.

The man seemed a bit put-out, but none the less glad that it happened. His grin remained as he spoke, "Very good. That is indeed what you do to get rid of the curse."

The girl gave him a look that seemed to say, 'And what do I do to et rid of you?', but she never got the chance to voice it as in that moment the man looked over her shoulder with an even wider grin.

"But you know", he began again, his eyes glittering a bit too much considering it was so dark out. Then again, the girl noticed, it was suddenly getting brighter... and hotter. "Perhaps you didn't do it fast enough? Ah, maybe it was me~!"

The woman whipped around quickly to see that the salt had sparked on her burner and had caught the nearby napkins on fire. She let out another horrified noise and quickly began to smother the flames. "You!" she called over her shoulder, "You go away!"

"Oh? But it isn't so bad this time is it?" He said, even though his grin didn't leave his lips and his eyes never left the flames. "It could always be worse, ne? Harakakaka~!"

(OOC: Sorry about the long post. I had to set the scene a bit. I figure I should since I made the island... ^^;

[scalpa]

(heh, no problem, I don't mind the long posts, it's the tiny texts that throws me off.)

Limping out from the jungle trees to see the looming sight of Sparks Village, Scalpa first noticed that the whole place seemed to be very gloomy, almost depressing in it's atmosphere.

Some of the people around the entrance seemed to have been disturbed recently and were looking around towards a building mumbling rumors to each other.


"H-help... me..." said the boy as he collapsed at the entrance to the village, his strength fully exhausted. "Ship... wrecked..." he panted.


Luckily, he was still conscious, but he couldn't bring himself to move another inch without proper assistance. He suddenly heard somebody call out about a fire, but couldn't turn to see the direction from his prone position.

[juusan]

A nearby man who was just saying something about a jinx suddenly stopped when he heard a faint cry. Turning around, he cursed when he saw the fallen boy just a few feet away. "Man, I'm really having a bad feelin' bout today... Oi! Someone help me with this kid! I think he passed out!"

A few more guys came running over to help out. One shook the boy lightly, "Oi, are you still live? Hey, kid!"

Edgar tilted his head a bit at the commotion down the street, then he thrust his arms out suddenly to lean back on the stool for a better look. I just so happened that at that moment the stall woman had pushed out at him, seemingly to try to push him away. The sudden absence of her target caused her to lose her balance and fall with a thump over the counter of the stall.

The odd boy seemed startled at the sudden non-successful attack, but just grinned and got up quickly and quietly before the woman had a chance to compose herself and try again. She'd managed, he noted, to put out the fire. It really wasn't as bad as it usually was.

Edgar walked casually over to the group of guys hauling a younger boy to his feet. He heard one of the people mention 'shipwreck' and grinned. "So he crashed here? That's-"

Everyone seemed to start at once, turning to the dark boy who had come over so quietly.

"Incredibly unlucky." Edgar finished with a grin.

Everyone was glaring at him, seemingly caught in-between just ignoring him or telling him to go away. Edgar kept up his grin as he watched their internal struggle. Finally one guy spoke up, "Yeah, well, unlucky enough without you being here. Do you want him to be struck with some type of incurable disease too?!"

"Do you think that would really happen?" Edgar chimed happily, while the villagers seemed to get even more frustrated. The boy just laughed his odd laugh and continued. "Well, I suppose I couldn't be of any help?"

"NO!" Everyone shouted at once, followed almost immediately by the boy's strange laughter.

[scalpa]

"I'm in a catastrophic amount of pain..." groaned Scalpa sarcastically as if the fact he was barely able to move was amusing to him somehow.

"Could you get me some food or a bed? I think I have a concussion too..." he groaned, wincing as people tried to raise him. He didn't know who this new man was, but apparently everybody despised his very presence. Maybe he could pick up his old job with taking down this guy first!

"Vision going black now...." he said once again sarcastically before he closed his eyes and began to snore from drifting into the blissful relaxation of sleep.


"How could a boy possibly survive a shipwreck? He should be dead by now." said one of the villagers as he hoisted the boy onto his shoulders and began carrying him towards the nearest pub for a bed and some food for him.


They didn't seem to notice the fact that the boy's body seemed to be... dripping... as it was carried away, tiny globs of gray mud, almost like clay was dripping off his arms and face as if it were his actual sweat!

[juusan]

"Harakakakaka~" Edgar laughed, cackling about the boy who seemed to have no concern for his own condition. It was when the villagers began carrying him toward the pub that he stopped, looking after the group with another one of his grins.

"Oh, so he did pass out." He muttered, noticing something weird about the boy's sweat, but not getting a very good look before he was hauled out of his sight. "Hm..."

"Why did you come here anyway, Edgar?" The stall-lady had finally righted herself, and though she looked like she had calmed down a bit since the incident just a few minutes before, she had a strained look on her face and ashes in her hair.

"Hn?" Edgar twisted around on his heel to look at the girl. His grin had faltered a bit at the unexpected question, but it was back by the time he answered. "Why, for the festival, of course!"

The woman was trying hard not to be irritated, but failing slightly. "If something happens..." The girl trailed off.

"Well something most certainly will happen. It wouldn't be much of a festival if nothing did." The creepy boy said, then continued before she could interrupt. "But, if I look from far enough away, I'm sure nothing will explode, or anything." This reassuring statement was completely ineffective as his grin got wider at the word 'explode'.

The woman sighed. "Even if nothing does. Even if it just rains."

Edgar looked up at the dark sky with a curious expression. "It might..." He said thoughtfully, then he looked back down to the woman with his usual expression. "There was such a lovely storm last night, wasn't there?"

"Someone was shipwrecked!" The woman snapped, rapidly losing patience.

"And what a lovely shipwreck it must've been~" Edgar said happily, before moving suddenly to dodge the bottle of soy sauce that came flying at him. Of course there just happened to be someone else in the line of fire, and the bottle broke over a fish merchants head.

The stall woman let out a little squeak and rushed over to the man, squealing out 'Gomen' over and over. When she finally looked up to glare at the strange boy, she found he was already gone.

[scalpa]

Scalpa simply stirred as he felt himself placed onto a bed and something cold pressed against his head. He opened his eyes to see a wet cloth was laying on his forehead with a bag of ice, trying to numb his concussion.

He was actually surprised, he thought for sure he'd be out for at least several hours or even days, yet he could already feel his body repairing itself. The villagers who were attending him left the room to fetch him some nourishment as he looked at his hands in thought.

"Hmm... so this is the power of the devil's fruit?" he asked himself as he saw the bruises and scrapes from the wreck were already starting to vanish as if molding themselves to health.

"Well I'm still exhausted..." he muttered as he heard the door begin to open and quickly pulled a blanket over himself. Unsure how the people would react if they saw how miraculously fast he had recovered from his wounds.


They brought in some soup for him and set it on the table next to the bed. A women held a ladle and began to try feeding him.

"Thank you..." he said as they began to feed him, "Why does everybody hate that man from earlier?" he asked, "Is he a pirate or something?" he added.


"He's a human black cat!" shouted the man who accompanied the woman, "Every time he walks by, something goes wrong! It rains on an otherwise beautiful day, our children come home from school with straight F's on their grades, a newly constructed boat springs a leak the day before it sails! Nobody will go anywhere near him!" the man ranted before managing to calm down, realizing his guest still had a headache, although not as bad as he believed.



Scalpa thought about that for a while. A man who was a literal bad luck charm would normally be something he might try to pity, but judging from the display he had witnessed earlier, this man had absolutely no remorse for what he caused to these people. He sighed and turned to look at them.


"If you want... I can try to get rid of him, or at least beat some manners into him." He proposed, surprising both villagers at his sudden offer.

[ias]

An enigma of a man stepped out of the lush forest seemingly healthy and not tired at all even though there were ferocious beast living in their....This enigma of a man had on a strange mask and was covered from head to toe, in what would look like a cloak which was dark blue....

Has he made his way towards the village looking at his surroundings he was planning on making this small and enclosed village see his existence as a "god " and if that wasn't possible " Death " he said to himself thinking about the idea....

As he got closer and closer to the village he began to walk instead of puffing around the place and in a matter of minutes he reached the village and headed into the bar to get a glass of water due to him feeling a little perched......He opened the door and headed towards the bartender with everyone looking at him yet he didn't mind and sat at one of the stools motioning for the bartender to bring a glass of water for him....

[juusan]

The villagers looked at each other. The woman who hadn't spoken before looked down at the injured boy she was feeding. "Well, he's not usually in this town to begin with. He lives on the other side of the island, Left Village. I don't know why he's here now actually, he hasn't been here for a while now."

"He doesn't need to come here at all. It's normal, of course, to have some bad luck some of the time - but the sudden increase that happens around that kid - even strangers notice somethings up with him!" The man has started to get loud again, but quickly quieted when he remembered the patient. "Um, so who are you exactly kid? Do you normally go around offering to beat people up?"

The man's expression got serious. "Just so you know, we don't need any criminals or ruffians in our village, alright? You look like a nice enough kid, so I'll go ahead and give you the benefit of the doubt..."

~☠~

The bartend got the strange man his water, looking at him a but suspiciously. It was someone new, or at least he thought it was, he couldn't see any of the guy's face. He was too busy studying that man to notice the boy that entered a little after him. He didn't notice the boys silent footfalls, in fact, until he came and sat at the bar. "Good day, ossan~ How about some rum? Will you serve me today? "

The bartender's expression changed first to panicked surprise, then to irritation. "You're still under-age, and no."

Edgar looked a bit upset at that, but brushed it off quickly. "Do you have juice then?"

"I said no! There are too many glass bottles here! What were you thinking?!" The bartender tried not to be so loud, but everyone was still looking over in their direction.

"Hm? You think a bottle will break?" Edgar looked at all of the liquor bottles behind the bar with curiosity, like he was waiting for one to explode at any moment.

There was a sharp crack, and for a moment Edgar thought a bottle had exploded, but the yelp that followed proved that it came from behind him. Turning around with his usual grin, he sat that one of the bar's patrons had stood up quickly, using the table to stabilize him, and a leg had broken. The tables corner collapsed, and the man fell along with it.

There was a bit of stumbling, but about half of the people in the bar, including that unfortunate fellow, quickly got up and left. The other half was trying their best not to move at all.

"My... table..." The barkeep muttered. The creepy boy just turned back with a grin. "Not as bad as usual, ne ossan?"

[scalpa]

"Well to be honest, I do have a slight bounty, but over an incident which was completely misunderstood. I doubt it's high enough to reach anywhere off the island I came from." replied Scalpa with a sigh.


"I'm more of a vigilante. I fight crime according to my own code of ethics, not that of the government. Sure our opinions clash occasionally, but I'm on the moral side of life, not the corrupted." he responded as he turned over in his bed to get a better look at them.


If the man only came around rarely, then he might not need to bother. Besides, these people didn't seem to want an all out battle at the time. He'd wait until he had a good reason, he couldn't beat someone up just because bad luck followed them around.


"If you don't mind, I won't be needing any more medical attention, I just need to rest and get my strength back." he muttered as he reached up to take the ice bag off and set it on the table. The villagers though it strange, but he seemed pretty sure of himself, so they didn't press the issue.

He'd at least have enough strength to walk after five minutes or so in bed, so he would just take it easy. He could hear noises coming from downstairs as the two people attending him hurried down to see the commotion.

"Well... this is getting interesting..." He sighed as he tried to listen from upstairs.

[juusan]

(OOC: well, it's been 3 days. I suppose I should just go on with out Ias? -_-;; I was really hoping he would reply... )

The man looked at the boy for a moment, then nodded. "Well, alright. Like I said, you look like a nice kid. Just don't go getting into trouble, right?"

"I wonder whats going on down there?" The woman looked out the door where the sound of something crashing could be heard.

"Everything goes wrong when he comes to town..." The man sighed. He turned back to their patient. "If you're going to insist you're alright, we'll leave you be. Just don't do anything reckless, alright kid? You're still recovering."

With that the man and women left with their best wishes for recovery. No sooner than they disappeared down the hall, Edgar appeared just a few feet from the room. There was a crash as a bottle broke just two feet to the left of him, but even after that close call the insane grin hadn't left the boy's face. "Oi ossan! You can't blame me for breaking bottles you throw, you know! Harakakaka~"

Another crash sounded, this time from downstairs, which sounded suspiciously like a shelf breaking and multiple bottles crashing to the floor. The bartender cursed loudly, and Edgar's laughter became just a bit louder.

Edgar opened the nearest door, hoping to find a room with a window or something, since even he realized it wouldn't be a very good idea to try going down there again. He walked into the room before he noticed the boy inside it, and stopped when he saw him. "Kainan(shipwreck)-kun? Ah, you don't look as hurt as I thought before. Could it be that it wasn't an amazing shipwreck after all?"

The creepy boy seemed to roll this over in his mind for a bit before thinking of something. "Ah! Did anyone die?" He asked, the question not matching very well with his still-grinning expression and cheerful tone.

[ias]

(OOC: Sorry about that...)

"Ahh.. Thankyou..." Iblis said grasping the class of water and then proceeded to remove his mask to drink it....He slowly slid the hood off his head and unlatched the mask to reveal a young man that everyone was staring at....He merely smiled and drank his water while all the time listening to the bartender's conversation with Edgar the boy that looked ohh so creepy...

After Iblis had finished drinking his water he glanced around and saw that the boy had gone upstairs taking the opportunity to talk to the bartender about him.... " Oiii Ossan " Iblis said in a rather non-nonchalant tone of voice.... With the bartender looking his way "Yes... ? "......"Whats the deal with that young man...if you dont mind telling me... "

The bartender hesitated for a moment and sighed before finally agreeing thinking there would be no harm done in doing that...It may even save the stranger's life in fact.....He took up a piece of cloth and started to wipe down the counter while explaining Edgar's origins to the young man......After the story was told Iblis had a curious look on his face and a menacing thought in his head * If this boy..Truly is a bad luck charm...I wonder if hes the Devil Then ?....quite logical.....I'll have to ask him*

Iblis simply got up walking towards where Edgar had gone with one of the villagers trying to warn him about Edgar's curse but it didn't bother Iblis at all....He continued and opened the door and went in and saw Iblis and a man that was resting in a bed..>With all his attention on Edgar he asked the question that was in his head all along "Oiii.....I heard your story....But let me ask you t5his one thing....Are you a Devil...and if so.....Do you know the only way to banish Devils ?... " Iblis said

[scalpa]

(OOC Finally! I was getting worried where you guys went! )


"First, it was a terrible shipwreck, destroyed the entire ship it did. Second, no, I was the only one riding it at the time." he said, leaving out the part about how he had given his friend a burial at sea just hours before the wreck occurred.

"Well, I'm not even in town for one day and I've got visitors every five minutes." he joked, turning to see the newcomer as he was questioning the unlucky man.

He didn't like the man's question about banishing devils, if a fight broke out while he was still in bed, things could get pretty messy. He began scooting back to the other side of the bed in an attempt to avoid a conflict.

"I hardly think eating a devil's fruit literally makes you a devil." he said to the man, "Although with all the crazy stories you hear about their powers, that might not be far from the truth." he added.

[juusan]

Edgar nodded to the boy in the bed. "Well, alright then. I had figured it would have to be a well enough shipwreck to do that beautiful storm justice. It would have been a waste if it hadn't."

The boy was going to look for a window to climb out of, but just as he spotted one another man came into the room, apparently to see him. "Ah. Someone came after me? That doesn't happen very often." Hearing that the man heard about his past didn't bother Edgar so much as made him curious as tpo what the man would ask.

"A god." He answered the second question first. He pretty much knew how to banish any evil omen, but for devils, it would just have to be God right? Then Edgar tried to think of himself as a devil. "Tell me, if I was a devil, would I know? If not, then maybe. But I always heard the devil was lucky."

Edgar cackled and the soup that was resting on the bedside table tipped over the edge and splashed to the ground. Edgar's laughter died down, but his grin remained. "If misfortune is a diesease, I'm just the carrier. Harakakakakaka~ It has nothing to do with me."

Edgar took in what Shipwreck-kun had said and tilted his head at the mention of something unfamiliar to him. "A devil... fruit?"

[scalpa]

"Darn, I liked that soup..." muttered Scalpa before turning to the man who seemed to be confused as to the mention of the mystical fruits.

"You're kidding, right?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "The Devil Fruits are the most sought after object in the seas. Each one is unique, but they all carry some kind of fantastic power and grant it to the first person who eat them." he said.

He sighed while leaning back in the bed. It was common knowledge that not many people actually believed the fruits existed, but he figured everybody had at the very least heard of such a mythical treasure.

"Of course they permanently rob you of the ability to swim in exchange for them, though." he added while sitting up in the bed, his strength now somewhat recovered.


He climbed out of bed and began to clean up the bowl of soup that had fallen over from the bumping of the bed as he had scooted back earlier, when he had picked it up, he began to search the room for any sort of towels to clean up the spilled food.