章節 5: Chapter 5 - I just want a Family.
"Ouch, ouch..." The boy groaned as he opened his eyes, realizing he was lying on a soft bed in an unfamiliar room. Despite the pleasurable comfort of sleeping in a bed for the first time in years, the need to understand his whereabouts prevailed.
Immersed in hazy memories and a sore body, as if he had been slammed against an entire boat, the child wondered what had happened. His memories became more accessible over time after waking up.
"I was fighting with the man I swore to defeat, but why do I feel like I don't remember much after..." he muttered in his childlike voice.
"I see you've awakened..." A new voice was heard, suddenly startling the little child, who jumped at the unexpected presence. Turning his body in the direction of the voice, he faced a man he had noticed in the past few days on Whitebeard's ship. He seemed to have a special significance in the group, always close to the leader.
"You!! You're the man with the pineapple head!!" exclaimed the boy, looking surprised and amused at the same time, intrigued by the uniqueness of the appearance.
"Pineapple head..." Hearing that, Marco could only lament the nickname the child had given him, considering that this was supposedly the first time they were actually talking to each other.
"Well... you could start by calling me Marco," said the phoenix, emerging from his state of lament and showing interest in getting to know more about his future "little brother."
"Hmm? Okay, Marco..." said the boy, lost in thought, hesitating as he looked at the man with the pineapple face, and questioned:
"Are we on Whitebeard's ship?"
"Yes, you passed out after the fight, and Pops asked to bring you to one of his cabins," Marco replied calmly.
"I see... But why bring me here and help me?" asked the boy, curious, considering they were enemies.
"Pops liked you a lot, so that's not a surprise," Marco said with a smile.
"Why would he like me? I've been trying to defeat him for many days!" protested the child.
"It's not because you want to defeat him that Pops will stop liking you. He sees things in us that no one else can see..." Marco smiled.
"Now, I remember... I'm quite weak... I'll never defeat him..." The child lamented, almost on the verge of tears, memories clarifying in his mind.
Marco sighed and directed his gaze to the boy.
"Look, I can't say you're strong, but you're not weak either. You know that Daddy is the strongest man in the world, right? He had to take the fight seriously with you before passing out. I can assure you that 99% of the people in this world wouldn't make our dad take the fight to that level," Marco said solemnly.
He didn't lie. How many people in the world could make Whitebeard use his Haki and the power of the shock fruit at the same time?
"Really?" said the child, with some tone of hope and disbelief.
"Yes, but that also makes me curious. You came to the sea alone wanting to come to Pops, right? Why are you so determined to defeat him?" Marco finally asked the question that had been in his head for days.
"Because..." The boy didn't hesitate to answer, he had no reason to hide, but clenched his fists tightly when remembering why he was there, why he ventured into the sea for weeks to find the strongest man alive, and why he spent 5 years training on a deserted island when there was no one else but him and his determination to get stronger.
"Because... because I want to prove that I am strong... that I can protect the most important people to me this time. Because I don't want to be alone in this world anymore..." He said, while a tear rolled down his eyes.
The boy still had vivid memories of his parents saying that, as they were not strong, they could no longer be together...
"*Sob* I hate being weak, *Sob*, I just wanted my family back..." He said, crying without caring anymore about Marco, he was broken after realizing that his strength was not enough to defeat Whitebeard.
Jimbei's words still echoed in the child's head, triggering a wave of emotions. Five years on an island living among animals and seeking to get stronger every day, but even though he felt himself getting stronger, the feeling of loneliness was his only companion. He thought that he might not have loneliness anymore once he could get stronger. He couldn't take it anymore, so he ended up releasing these feelings stored in his heart for a while.
*Sob*
*Sob*
*Sob*
Marco felt lost seeing the child crying after those words, something that equally squeezed his heart. It shouldn't be taken lightly, and he should be very careful with his next words.
"I don't know your story, but everyone on this ship has gone through similar things when we thought the world had rejected us and felt the loneliness of being alone, a man saved us and brought us in as his own children..." Marco said calmly.
"*Sob* Who?" asked the boy silently, crying without looking at Marco.
"Who else? The man you want to defeat, of course. He is our father, the father of a bunch of misfits like us... When the world didn't care about our existence, it was that man who reached out to each of us." Marco said, smiling.
The boy looked at Marco in surprise.
"Hahaha, don't look at me like that. Why don't we talk to Pops? He's surely worried about you!" Marco smiled at the boy.
"I... I don't know... *Stomach growl* Hm?!" The boy jumped when his stomach growled with hunger.
"I think you need to eat! Haha, let's go outside, there's plenty of food!" Marco said with an encouraging smile to the boy, who was now quite shy.
"Okay..." He said hesitantly but soon wiped his face from tears with his clothes and got out of bed to follow Marco outside.
After passing through many corridors inside the ship, both the man and the child knew they were reaching the exit to the deck, as they could hear the cheers of people celebrating outside. As soon as Marco led the way and opened the door, Damon could see the deck full of food and drinks, with everyone on this ship laughing and enjoying all kinds of available things.
But the place quickly fell silent when they saw Marco coming out as if someone had flipped a switch. But it got even quieter when they saw the child following him out onto the deck, just behind the first division commander.
The boy looked at everyone for a moment as the other part stared at him with curiosity. Everyone could see that he had tear marks in his eyes, knowing that his defeat was not easy to swallow. The boy continued to walk behind Marco while no one said anything more, until Marco led him to the tallest man in the place, who even sitting, no one matched in height here.
Whitebeard waited for Marco to lead the child in front of him. The boy stopped when he looked at the world's strongest man.
"I see you woke up, brat..." Newgate smiled at seeing the child in front of him, and the captain of this crew was the first to break the silence, seeing the child quite restless and lost.
"Hm... Hello?" said the boy timidly, as he wasn't in the mood to fight at the moment.
*Stomach growl*
Once again, the boy's stomach began to growl, making him blush in embarrassment, and Newgate opened an even wider smile.
"The brat is hungry, Marco, feed him with all rights." Whitebeard warned without taking his smile off his face.
"Feed me? But I'm your enemy?!" The boy protested nonetheless; he had no idea that Marco had been feeding him for the past few days.
"I won't fight a brat without strength, so eat, we are not enemies now." Whitebeard warned, and everyone smiled at that.
"I guess I can understand..." said the boy, unable to refute this logic.
"Here." Marco gave a plate with fruits and meat, and he sat in a corner to eat quietly without trying to interact with the crew.
People went back to celebrating, but everyone occasionally looked at the boy eating in silence in that corner.
"Hey, pineapple guy, I mean, Marco, why is there a new hole in the deck?" Damon asked curiously, feeling better now with his stomach fuller. He threw the question at that man as soon as Marco brought him a juice.
His question was met with a sudden silence from the crew.
"You guys are so strange..." The boy commented without Marco being able to answer.
"IT WAS YOU WHO DID THAT!" Everyone shouted at the same time.
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