A Rough Start

**Date Completed:** Ongoing
**Previous Role-Play**: N/A

**Users Involved:** User:GameBug03, User:Isaacmax2003
**Setting:** West Blue
**Timeline**: 1584
**Characters Involved**: Elisabeth Zalia, Kurai Kage

A chill breeze blew across an empty beach, as the last warm rays of the sun slowly disappeared below the horizon. The sky above showed to be perfectly clear, with the first few stars of the night already visible for all to see.

Zalia trudged her way over the beach, leaving behind a trail of footprints, leading back to a small one-person boat tied to a series of rocks just off the shore. The breeze kicked up grains of sand, flinging them at the muscular woman, the grains struck against her exposed face, hands and feet like a barrage of small bullets against her lightly tanned skin.

A faint grumble emanated from her stomach, having recently set off to become a pirate, Zalia hadn't expected the level of difficulty she encountered attempting to sail solo in such a small boat and vastly understocked on food for the journey. While she had initially set sail to this island for the purpose of plundering, Zalia's current focus was on finding a meal to eat. Looking forward and scanning the interior of the island, Zalia could make out the silhouettes of buildings just a few kilometres away, soft light emanating from the windows, signalling a village or town ahead. Pushing forward she began to make her way towards the town.

After forty minutes of walking, Zalia found herself walking through the mostly empty streets of a small island town. Passing by mostly wooden houses, Zalia progressed inwards towards the centre of town. Drawn in by the sound of music and laughter, it wasn't long before Zalia found herself in front of a large building situated close to the centre of the town, 'The Dusty Seagull', read a small sign situated above the entrance. Walking inside it was clear the building was the town's pub, a series of wooden tables littered the floor of the establishment, occupied with people eating meals, drinking booze and playing rounds of dice or cards. Finding a seat at the bar, Zalia sat down on a barstool, taking a moment to relax from the long walk.

"What can I get for ya?" asked a young barkeep standing across the bar from Zalia,

"Pork, beef, chicken... really any meat you've got, as long as it's good and there's a lot of it" Zalia responded, placing her elbows on the bar and her head into her hands. "And try to be quick about it, I'm bloody starving"

Within the load and cheery bar, a green-haired boy dressed in a black coat can be seen sitting down and enjoying some chicken curry rice. Kage sat alone in silence he had just gotten here from completing an assignment retaining to him ending the lives of some slave merchants as they had been causing trouble with the Wung Family so they had hired him to take them out which he was had willingly accepted so now he was just relaxing here before heading back up to meet his partner Dokumi.

While eating, Kage noticed the new face that had; noticed the new person entering the bar before he notice the hungry and tired Zalia. He didn’t pay her any mind before going back to devouring his lunch.

Without any prompting, a group of men began to walk up to Zalia with flushed faces looking as if they might have had too many drinks. They all circled around her like predators ready to pounce on their prey.

Kage had noticed this and was just observing it from his table as he waited to see what they would do. Whether it escalade or not wasn't his problem, but he wanted to see what the muscular girl would do before proceeding.

Situating himself next to Zalia, one of the men leant against the bar counter. He possessed a bald head, contrasting against a poorly kept orange beard and moustache. Immediately, Zalia was hit with the scent of his breath, the smell of fish and onion mixed with cheap booze filled her nose,

"Can I help you?" Zalia asked, lifting her head from her hands to face the source of the horrid smell that stood beside her. The man let off a chuckle, followed by the rest of the group surrounding Zalia.

"You must be new around here, see me and the boys run a business of sorts here in town," the bearded man responded, "We offer our protective services in exchange for a reasonable amount of money." Behind Zalia, the rest of the men began to inch closer, step by step. "You never know what unsavoury types might try to cause you harm," the man continued, reaching out his hand to run the back of his finger down Zalias's face.

As his finger began to run down her cheek, the bearded man noticed a sudden feeling of pain as the skin of his finger slowly scratched off against the side of Zalia’s face, leaving behind small pieces of skin and a smear of blood. Instinctually, the man pulled back his hand, grasping his now marginally scraped-away finger.

"What the hell?!" the man yelled, both enraged and confused about the state of his finger.

"Thanks for the offer, but I think I’m good without your help," Zalia stated, standing from her chair.

Feeling the wooden floor beneath her feet, Zalia took a quick breath before kicking at her chair. Channelling her power through the soles of her feet, smoothing over the floor beneath her. The chair collided with the orange-bearded man after having slid across the wooden floorboards, causing him to fall over due to his reduced traction on the newly smoothed floor. As the man fell to the ground, Zalia reverted the floor to its natural roughness before turning to face the gang of men who had been left behind, a smug expression on her face.

"You lot must be the unsavoury types," Zalia quipped as she began to hop between her feet.

Without much more warning than a yell, the group of men leapt forward at Zalia, all in an attempt to overwhelm and force her to the ground.

The gang of men was now furious upon seeing what Zalia did to their fellow compatriot. It lead to them leaping toward her, but before they could even get close enough to touch her, a wall made of darkness manifested in front of her causing all the men who jumped up at her to smash into it before falling back to the ground.

“W…what the hell is this!” One of the men yelled out in confusion about the spontaneous wall of darkness that had just seeming appeared out of nowhere.

While still dazed from the sudden randomness of the wall, Kage stood up from his chair before walking up to the goons. “It seems the lady ain't too interested in your proposition so I’d suggest walking away now because ain’t too interested in ruining such a nice day by spilling your blood.” Kage said in his usually expressionless tone as he dematerialized the wall of darkness that he had made.

“Huh, who the hell are you!” Said one of the men, now more agitated by the random appearance of Kage in this brawl.

Noticing the hostility in the atmosphere getting more and more dangerous the other patrons began getting up out of the pub not wanting themselves to be dragged into whatever sort of mess that was brewing up. The place was now empty all except for the group of men, Zalia, Kage and the owner of the bar, who was seemingly hiding behind the bar counter.

“Oh me I’m just an on-looker who just wants some peace and quiet for his morning breakfast.”

Now more frustrated than ever at the response that Kage gave him the group of men now set their sights on Kage as one of them ran up to him ready to deliver a punch to him. Before the punch could even land, Kage went to put his hand in his jacket seemly going to pull out something, but before the man could even notice what he had pulled out the sound of a sword swing could be heard before the man's arm seemingly fell off.

“AAAAAAAAAAH!” The man secreamed in pain at the sudden loss of his arm leading to him clutching onto the sump where his arm used to be as he was now on the ground.

“Told you to just walk away, but you didn’t listen.” Kage said to the panicking man in his usual neutral and bored tone but in his hand, he held a sword to which had seemed just appeared out of thin air.

Zalia watched as the shadowy wall disappeared before her, only to be greeted by a scream and the sight of a man's arm falling to the ground.

Kage caught her eye, unsure of his intentions but seeing his entrance into the conflict as an opportunity, Zalia moved to position herself between two of the thugs that made up the gang,

“Picking a fight with me, that's a mistake” Zalia stated grabbing the wrists of the men beside her, roughening their wrists and the palms of her hand to strengthen her grip, “but picking a fight with me and then losing focus, that's an even bigger mistake”

Zalia crossed her feet and began to spin around, smoothing the floor beneath her to easily drag the men along with the motion. Continuing to spin until the men were lifted off of the ground from the circular motion, Zalia released her grip, causing them to fly across the room to be knocked out upon collision with the bar walls. Taking a moment to steady herself from the spin, Zalia then dashed towards the nearest thug, reaching out towards his shoulder

“Next time don’t forget who you’re fighting just because a man starts waving his sword around” she added, running her hand down the man's arm, from his shoulder to his forearm, tearing away at his sleeve and skin in the process.

“And you!” Zalia called out switching her attention to Kage, “I appreciate the assist, but this ‘lady’ can speak for herself” she added before tightening her grip on the thug, clawing a set of roughened fingers across the man's already scraped forearm, forcing him to the ground from the pain.

Kage looked at Zalia for a second after what he said to him before shrugging. “Sure thing.” Kage said in a still neutral and expressionless tone to Zalia before beginning to discreetly stare at her in action as he was analyzing her. From what Kage could tell this lady in front of him seemingly had a devil fruit like ability that seemingly allowed her to either harden her skin or to some level alter its roughness meaning she could either be a paramecia or have some sort of strange zoan.

While the carnage continued, Kage walked over to the bar counter making sure to nimbly dodge out of the way of any incoming men Zalia was throwing around the place before finally standing in front of the counter. Kage peaked over the counter a bit only to be met with the visage of a shaking crying man who could be called the owner of this establishment.

“Oy, old man can I get two drinks.”

The old man didn’t listen to Kage's order as he could still be seen huddled in fear and unmoving. Kage let out a sigh before jumping over the counter to the other side. He garbed two bottles of booze one of which he was pouring out for himself while the other he dropped on the counter. He was now leaning against the wall while watching Zalia dispatching the last of the men.

Rushing around the bar, Zalia slid from thug to thug, throwing them around or tearing at their flesh with the aid of her Devil Fruit ability. Grabbing hold of one of the men's arms, Zalia held them up, her tall stature compared to the man meaning he was barely touching the floor with the tips of his feet.

"Not so tough now without your friends now, are you?" Zalia asked the man before being struck by a force from behind.

A loud crack filled the room as one of the thugs broke a chair over Zalia’s back, causing her to stumble forward and release her grip on the other gang member, dropping him to the floor. Slowly turning her head to look behind her, Zalia locked eyes with the attacker, what was left of the chair held in his hands. Standing up straight, Zalia turned her body to face the man only to be met by a punch to her jaw. Zalia’s head jerked to the side from the force of the hit, blood beginning to run down the side of her face.

"Heh, you may act tough and have a few fancy tricks, but you bleed just the same!" the man yelled arrogantly before beginning to strike Zalia back and forth with a flurry of punches,

Pulling back from his barrage of punches, the man breathed heavily, eyes focused on the blood running down the woman's face. His sense of confidence quickly turned to confusion as Zalia began to let out a light chuckle. Standing up fully, Zalia wiped the blood from her face with the sleeves of her coat.

"Might want to double check whose blood this is." Zalia spoke through her light chuckle, pointing towards the man’s hands.

The man let out a shout as he looked down at his bleeding fists. The skin shredded down to where bone was visible. In the adrenaline of the fight, he hadn’t noticed his skin grating away with each punch.

"So, now you’ve had your turn, are you ready for me to take mine?" Zalia asked, stepping closer to the thug and cracking her knuckles.

The man looked up at the imposing woman, a grin now visible on her face. Without a second thought, the man began to stumble backwards before turning and making for a full sprint, out the bar door and into the streets. Zalia let out a sigh as she walked back over to the bar, stepping over unconscious bodies in the process. Leaning up against the bar counter, Zalia grabbed the bottle Kage had placed there, opening it and taking a swig.

"Hope you don’t mind, got a bit thirsty," Zalia said, looking over the bench at the cowering bar owner, who was now peaking over the counter at the unconscious bodies littering his establishment. "Oh, and I’m still waiting on my food," Zalia added, turning to the owner with a glare.

Zalia watched as the owner rushed off through a door into the bar's kitchen. Turning her attention to the mysterious man standing behind the bar, Zalia took another drink before addressing him.

"I heard about a few other interesting characters working their way through the West Blue, didn’t expect to run into one here though," Zalia spoke, looking over Kage, unsure of the strange power he seemingly produced earlier, "I appreciated the help though, would have been annoying to pull them all of me," Zalia continued before taking another drink. "Anyway, the names Elisabeth Zalia," she stated, reaching out her hand.

Before shacking her hand, Kage made sure to observe, it making sure that her Devil Fruit power still wasn’t active, but upon checking, he could see that Zalia was back to normal so he then extended his arm to shake her hand. “Well I wouldn’t call myself the only interesting character in the room, but yeah, it's a pleasure the meet you. The names Kurai Kage.” He said in a neutral but respectful tone before taking another sip of his drink. “So what brings you to this little Island Miss Zalia because from the way you look you aren't a resident of this place.”

“Nice to meet you Kage” Zalia replied shaking his hand with a firm grip. Pulling back her hand she sat upon one of the still standing bar stools, leaning back to stretch out her arms and legs. “As for why I’m here, I’m just stopping to acquire some supplies” as Zalia spoke the owner ran back into the bar from the kitchen, carrying two large plates containing various cooked meats arranged haphazardly on top of each other. The older man placed the plates in front of Zalia before moving into the main area of the bar, attempting to clean away some of the destroyed furniture and blood stains from the floor. Zalia began to dig into the food placed before her before continuing her previous statement, “Gonna need to stock up a lot in order to make it to the Grand Line.”

“So you’re heading to the Grand Line, that’s interesting, so does that mean you’re an explorer…or are you another pirate looking to make a name for themselves outside of their home sea.” Kage said neutrally before taking another sip of his drink and waiting for his rough new partner to answer the question.

“Why not a little of both?” Zalia responded, leaning back in her seat causing it to wobble slightly backwards. “I’m just looking to live my life freely and to its fullest, if that makes me a pirate then I’d be disappointed to find someone who isn’t.” She continued, leaning forward and causing the chair to rock back towards the bar counter. “What about you Kage, what’s bringing you out onto these seas?” Zalia questioned before once again grabbing the bottle of booze on the counter and taking a drink.

“Well, you could say we’re the same that that department.” Kage said while moving from behind the before jumping over the bar counter and grabbing a seat right beside the red-haired woman. “My reasons for going out to sea is mainly to live my life freely and untethered from anything that could shackle me down and force me into that of servitude. So in a way, you could say the both of us chose to go out in search of living a life of freedom.” Kage said with a bit more emotion in his tone while facing Zalia before grabbing his bottle from the counter and taking another sip of his drink.

“I hear ya” Zalia responded with a laugh, turning to face her drinking partner who was now seated beside her “that's the way things should be though, people should be taking initiative, taking action to attain the freedoms they deserve.” Zalias tone went dark as her grip tightened around the bottle in her hand. “ Instead, they just go on their lives in ignorance, willingly living under someone else's thumb…” pulling herself from her spiral Zalia took a deep breath, followed by a drink. “Tell me Kage, what would you do, how far would you go to achieve a life of freedom?”

“That’s a serious question but…” Kage said before putting his drink back down on the bar table and then looking back at Zalia when he looked back at hers, his eyes were now staring deeply into hers, not with that of malice, lust, or even disgust, but it was more of deep thought like as if he was staring into her soul with a gaze that could be called slightly hypnotic. “My answer would be that I would fight tooth and nail for my freedom even if my body was destroyed or my mind was broken I would continue to fight on for it up until my last breaths.” Kage said with full genuine honesty, his voice sounding more expensive with each word he spoke while still keeping eye contact with Zalia. “but to those who try to take away my freedom.” Kage spoke again this time his voice grew darker before a small plume of darkness started to ride up from his coat but only for a second before disappearing. “let's just say that their lives would be cut shorter before they knew it.” Kage said before finally removing his gaze from Zulia and taking another sip of his drink.

“What about you? what would you do, to achieve your own life of freedom?” Kage asked giving her a slight side glace.

Zalia was surprised by Kage’s answer, it wasn’t one she expected, nor the one she would prefer to hear, but still, the response surprised her. She’d heard many people talk about what they would do to protect and retain their freedom, very few however went as far as to imply genuine violence or bloodshed in their response, and of those few, Zalia had seen that Kage was more than capable of backing those claims up. Upon hearing Kage repeat her question back to her Zalia let out a light laugh.

“What would I do? I don’t have to do anything. I am living my life freely” Zalia replied, clutching her drink in hand and once again swinging back and forth on her chair, “I don’t need to say what I’ll do to attain or protect my freedom because I already have it.” Zalia continued, sipping from her bottle in the pause between her speech, “I find that the people who feel compelled to explain how exactly they’ll protect their freedoms aren’t free themselves. Instead, they’re justifying to themselves that they can fight against the things preventing their true freedom. More than often they’re fighting against something, be it their past, their obligations, or the people around them” Taking another swig of her drink, Zalia leaned forward slamming the chair back to the ground onto its four legs.

“So Kurai Kage, is there something you’re fighting against?” Zalia’s eyes shot to the side, meeting Kages side glance.

Kage listened to Zalia’s response to the question not really taking much of any offense to what she said before mentally nodding to himself. Kage could understand Zalia’s perception of freedom because at the moment she has shown to neither have any form of shackles or ties that could be holding her down or restraining her from her freedom, but at the same time, he also couldn’t deny that her word’s sounded naive because even if he didn’t know her well enough he could still tell from her words that she’s never personally experienced what it feels like to never have had the freedom, to begin with.

When she brought up the question Kage only just gave her a slight side glace. “Interesting you’d think something like that but…” Kage was saying while reaching for another bottle on the corner, but while reaching for another bottle, Kage’s sleeve shifted back a bit to reveal an arm covered in several scars and lacerations theses scars weren’t new with all of them looked several years old the strangest thing about them was that they didn’t look self-inflicted instead they looked more precision akin to those inflicted by a doctor before they then disappeared back into the coat as soon as Kage got the bottle. “Let’s just say that in my life I’ve had many things come against me and freedom most aren’t around anymore but the marks they left behind just keep refusing to leave me in peace so in the end, I’ve chosen to live my life the way I choose and to not waste my time hunting after the lingering ghosts of the past but if those ghosts do come back I deal with them all the same.” Kage said before taking a swig of his drink.

Hearing Kage's response and seeing the scars on his arms Zalia couldn’t help but be curious about this strange man. His scars weren’t regular like what she had seen on others before, and his choice of words was deliberately vague, boosting Zalia curiosity. Finishing off her bottle and dropping it to the floor, Zalia planted her hand on the counter and vaulted herself over it. Now standing in the bar Zalia looked over the bottles of booze and spirits, pulling out a few bottles that peaked her fancy.

“Ghosts huh?” Zalia responded casually tucking bottles of rum and whiskey into her coat pockets, “It’s great you’re forging your own path, but whether you choose to hunt them or not, one thing I know about ghosts is that they have a penchant of coming back to haunt you,” having packed around four bottles of alcohol into her coat Zalia grabbed another bottle, opening it while walking around and out of the bar area, “And if they do I hope you’re ready for it, would be a shame for you to die before we get another drink” walking over to Kage, Zalia took a drink from her newly opened bottle, “unfortunately I can’t stay and chat, got places I’m wanting to be and all that, but you’re certainly an interesting character” Zalia spoke while putting out her hand towards Kage, “Until we meet again”

Kage didn’t do much in the department of stopping Zalia in the act of her plundering of the booze seeing that it wasn’t his place to judge and it wasn’t his place to act on. However, he still listened to her advice about ghosts as he had to admit ghosts always had a penchant for never staying dead. When Zalia walked over to him Kage turned his chair to face the slightly taller girl. “I would say the same for you, Zalia you certainly do have quite an interesting outlook on things but yeah may meet again, hopefully under good circumstances.” Kage said before getting up from his chair and then extending his hand out to accept her hand and giving her a nice but firm hand shape.

“When are circumstances ever good for people like us?” Zalia joked, reciprocating Kages handshake with a firm grip before taking back her hand and making her way towards the bar exit, the clinking sound of bottles emanating from her coat. Stopping at the door Zalia turned back to Kage and gave him a brief smile,

“See ya on the Grandline” she spoke before stepping outside of the tavern into the black of night. Zalia began back the way she came through the town, starting a long hike back to her boat, though this time accompanied by good booze and the cheery clinks of glass with each step.

**-Zalia Epilogue-**

Zalia lay reclined in her small boat, in her hand she held a bottle of whiskey, while other bottles of alcohol here strewn around the bottom of the boat. Drinking straight from the bottle she watched as the sun began to rise before her, turning the ocean a glistening orange. Zalia stared at the beauty of the sunrise, removing the bottle from her lips only to be met with the sound of a grumble from her stomach. Immediately her eyes went wide with realisation,

“I forgot to pack the food!” Zalia screamed in frustration. The island she’d come from was now too far behind her, Zalia sat up properly and began to row the boat to acquire speed, “Let's hope there's another island not too far from here” Zalia sighed as she sailed off to destinations unknown.