One Piece Shadow Army - Chapter 54
“The William Pirates!”
Staring at the pirate ship gradually approaching from afar, Curls muttered softly.
He was not unfamiliar with this pirate crew. Similarly, the other Marines present were not strangers to them either. On their very first day as recruits, they had encountered the William Pirates—a terror that had once haunted their dreams.
Bound hand and foot, Gin twisted his prone body slightly, casting a difficult glance toward the distant pirate ship. Gin thought he could make out Captain William and First Mate Jeff through his blurry vision.
A flood of long-buried memories resurfaced.
…
Approximately ten years ago.
Creak, creak!
The wooden planks emitted a clear, humming sound.
In the darkness of the ship’s hold, about a dozen children were shackled and imprisoned in this dim, humid environment.
These children were around ten years old, looking extremely weak. The people on the ship would occasionally throw a few cold, black loaves of bread into the hold. This food was barely enough to keep the children alive, preventing them from having enough strength to resist.
The reason was simple: these children were slaves, captured and sold by traffickers.
The traffickers were responsible for transporting captured slaves to specific locations for sale, thereby making a profit.
The hold where the slaves were kept was dark, damp, and unbearably foul-smelling.
The frail Gin curled up his arms, silently waiting in a corner of the dark room.
Captured by traffickers, his future was bleak and uncertain.
With a piercing and grating sound, the door opened, and the sudden light was almost blinding.
Some food was thrown in by the traffickers, scattering across the dirty wooden planks of the hold. The enslaved children had no right to be picky. Driven by hunger, they mustered whatever strength they had left to snatch up the food.
Perhaps out of some twisted sense of kindness, today’s meal wasn’t the usual black bread, but rather steamed corn.
As the warm corn kernels touched his hands, Gin felt an unusual sense of fulfillment.
The door slammed shut again, and the room was once more plunged into darkness.
Gin held onto the corn like a treasure, slowly retreating to his previous spot. His stomach growled, and the cramps in his gut signaled his severe hunger.
Just as Gin was about to eat the precious corn, his eyes fell upon a boy nearby.
The boy was about the same age as Gin, around twelve or thirteen, with blond hair and fair skin, resembling a noble’s child.
For reasons unknown, the blond boy hadn’t joined the scramble for food. Perhaps he was too weak. His chapped lips indicated severe dehydration.
Driven by a lingering sense of compassion, Gin decided to break his corn in half, giving one portion to the starving blond boy.
“Thank you,” the blond boy said after a moment, accepting the corn without hesitation.
Gin didn’t say much, focusing instead on devouring the remaining half of his corn. The warmth and slight sweetness of the corn provided a fleeting comfort.
With his meager meal finished Gin returned to his corner, knowing that it might be days before their next chance at food.
In the silence of the dark room, the blond boy spoke softly.
“My name is William. What’s yours?”
“Gin,” he replied simply.
They didn’t converse further, each retreating into their thoughts as they awaited an uncertain future.
The sound of waves crashing against the ship’s hull was a constant, along with the creaking of the vessel as it rode the ocean’s swells.
Gin had grown accustomed to these noises.
He fell asleep in the dark, only to be jolted awake by a commotion outside the hold.
Through the wooden walls, Gin could hear snippets of conversation and cursing. It seemed the slave ship had encountered a pirate ship, and negotiations had turned into a battle.
The enslaved children grew tense. After about ten minutes, the sounds of fighting faded, leaving only the shuffle of footsteps.
A series of heavy footsteps approached the door. With a grating sound, the door opened.
Light flooded in, revealing a burly man with a beard standing in the doorway.
This was the captain of the slave ship.
Gin’s fleeting hope was dashed.
The slave captain scanned the room coldly, issuing a stern warning. “Stay put and don’t think about escaping. Staying here gives you a chance to live. Out there, you’ll die for sure.”
His words were met with the cold retort of a gunshot.
Gin turned his head in confusion.
The person who fired the shot was the blond boy, William.
Where did he get a flintlock pistol?
These questions remained unanswered for Gin. With the slave captain dead, no one could stop the children from leaving.
William found the keys on the dead captain, unlocking his own shackles and then helping the others, including Gin.
Soon after, William located a small boat and some provisions. He turned to the temporarily freed children, asking, “I’m going to find my own way. Who wants to join me?”
Staying on the slave ship was not an option. The traffickers had more than one group, and eventually, more would come to take them. Remaining on board the vessel meant continued enslavement.
But as the captain said, survival on the open sea with just a small boat was a slim chance.
In the end, only Gin and another boy chose to join William on the small boat.
As they rowed into the vast, endless sea, they began to get to know each other better.
William asked the other boy with messy hair, “What’s your name, and why were you on the slave ship?”
The boy scoffed before answering.
“I’m Jeff. I wasn’t captured. My parents sold me because they had too many kids and couldn’t support us all. So they sold me to traffickers for a low price.”
The boat fell silent.
Then William turned to Gin. “What about you, Gin?”
Gin didn’t hide anything.
“My father was a fisherman. We got caught in a storm at sea, and I lost him. I was lucky to survive but then got picked up by the slave ship.”
After hearing Gin’s story, Jeff looked at their rescuer, William.
“And what about you, William?”
“I was just a fallen noble,” William replied with a bitter smile.
…
The small boat drifted across the sea, and the destinies of the three boys became intertwined.
Unfortunately, they were not immediately lucky enough to find land or an island. Instead, they encountered a pirate ship.
With no other choice, they joined the pirate crew as apprentice pirates.
Years later, the pirate crew disbanded under pressure from the Navy, scattering its members.
William, Gin, and Jeff escaped the Navy’s pursuit and landed in a place called Shimotsuki Village.
There, they sought refuge in the famed Isshin Dojo, finding temporary peace.
At the Isshin Dojo, they met their swordsmanship teacher, Koushirou, and their amiable senior, Kain.
William’s talent in swordsmanship blossomed, advancing rapidly within the dojo, while Gin and Jeff did not possess the same talent, causing their skills to lag behind.
After completing their training, driven by William’s ambition, the three resumed their pirate ways.
Years ago, on William’s orders, Gin infiltrated the Krieg Pirates, gradually rising in rank and gaining Krieg’s trust.
Recently, William had sent word, planning to strike against the Krieg Pirates that night, with Gin providing internal support.
But things had not gone as planned.
The Krieg Pirates encountered a Marine patrol ship and were wiped out by Curls alone.
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