Dexter's POV;

The air was cold and the light bright when I came out, the pained grunts that came from nearby, those grunts I could understand as Japanese, were most likely my mother.

“Good Luna, the first is out, it's a girl”, said a woman from directly above me. She was probably holding me.

“Hahaha, very good, females are good. They can be used for breeding”, laughed a narcissistic and sadistic voice from behind the woman that held me. I felt the hands that were holding me trembling and then how I was laid down on my stomach.

“Give me the rod, I will burn my sigil in it myself”, said the same voice now over me.

Oh shit, God you asshole, I'm some kind of slave and on top of that most likely a slave to a Celestial Dragon. Maybe Kura-chan won't be born near me?

“The other is a girl as well, they are twins”, said the same woman that first held me. So much to that hope.

“Even better, now then let's start”, crackled the World Noble over me. Something hot and slightly stinging then pressed itself into my back. I faked a cry of pain and waited for the man to stop before I stopped crying.

“A resilient one hm?”, he asked, surprised by the lack of baby crying. The skin on my back stung in a hove like formation and I somehow knew that my fast healing won't heal this one. And if it's only because God gets his laughs of it.

A moment later I heard the same hissing noise of burning flesh, but no cry at all. This confirmed it, the other baby, my twin, was Kura-chan.

“You have two weeks time to get back into your beautiful form, if not, we now have spares”, laughed the distancing voice of the World Noble.

“Can I see my babies”, asked a weak female voice. It sucks to not seeing shit, at least I can hear most things. Probably thanks to my heritage.

“Of course”, said the only other person in the room in a soothing and sad tone. I felt how i got picked up and laid down on a woman's chest. A moment later I felt something touching my side and somehow knew that Kura-chan was next to me.

“They are booth beautiful”, crooned our mother.

“You're going to be called Lia”, she said and a blurry stick/arm touched something next to me.

“While you'll be Lara”, she said and a finger poked my nose.

“Please rest Luna”, said the other woman then. I was picked up and bathed before put down on something raspy, most likely straw.

Two Days Later;

Being a baby is boring and I can't do yack shit in the first year and probably even longer as a slave. At least we have no collars, as we are babies. For now, we did nothing, occasionally wailing if there were waist or hunger problems. Still, ways better than being Naruto in a very hard world.

I only fear what Kura-chan will do once we are grown up. The simple fact that she was branded is enough for her to go bat shit crazy. She doesn't know how it is to be weaker.

Well, I'll think about that burned bridge at a later time. For now, we learned that we also had a father, the man sounded not manly at all but introduced himself as Leo. Seems like everyone in our family has a name with an L at the start. So I am going to be Lara and Kura-chan will be Lia. I can live with that.

Two Weeks Later;

Yeah, nothing really changed, we were still in our straw crib and that's it. Oh, but there was one thing, our mother said she had duty today and was gone since then. If the word of this noble have a meaning, then she's probably a belly dancer or pleasure girl for them.

Which is good as their life isn't as hard as that of other slaves. If he isn't into torture during sex. They have to be well fed if they have to look good. At least something positive, but then again, there are also fetishism that are about being too thin, too fat, cripples, excrements and other things.

Later That Day;

Seems like mom is back, she came over to us and stroked both of us while crying. She pleaded for our forgiveness in her own selfishness at keeping us and not killing us now. That her greatest wish was to have children. That she knows how selfish and cruel it is for her, but she is not able to kill us. The moment she sees our faces she is not able to harm us, even if it would save us.

This was good, I in her place would have killed us, a life such as this, under a World Noble isn't worth living.

Three Months Later;

In the whole three months, at least I think it was three months, I have heard my father only ten times. He always sounded sorry and exhausted. He must have a different work than our mom.

Alas those times he came, he only spoke with love in his voice and care in his touches.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Our mother was now not home as often as before and more often than not someone other came and fed us.

Nine Months Later;

Lia, I got used to that name, and I were now nine months old. We spoke with each other through our eyes the moment we were able to see. Both of us are able to walk but are acting as if we could only rob. Our room, we only had a small room with a single bed made of straw, and a pile of straw, the later was our bed, was never left. So we chose the time we had without anyone else inside for the start of our training. First thing was getting used and train how to speak.

Oh, and we would have struck gold with our looks if we weren't slaves. Mom and dad look like WoW blood elves. They were thin, yes, but not unhealthily so. We too had already long ears. Mine were a man sized finger long, while moms were probably as much or longer than 20 centimetres. We both have bright blond hair and green eyes. Exactly my type of girl.

One Year Later;

We were now one year old, we still didn't leave our room a single time, but both Lia and I had started reading the 'Haki for Dummies' book. We began with Observation Haki, it was easy, in theory. I just had to close my eyes and let myself be thrown at by stones from Lia, while simultaneously concentrate very hard and keep a calm mind. And I tell you, Lia never missed. I also tried the Armament Haki during this training. The training for that is to concentrate heavily at the point you want to protect and then focus all your will into this single point.

It was way easer than Observation Haki and I even managed to activate it already once or twice.

Lia was the opposite, she quickly got out how to evade my throws, but wasn't able to protect herself with Armament Haki when I did hit.

Neither of us has eaten our Devil Fruit, we don't want to risk being found out.

Two Years Later;

Both Lia and I were now walking and had gained some progress in our Haki. Lia could evade some throws and even some punches without looking, but could still not protect herself with Armament. She is able to apply it, but not in the blink of a moment and not for longer than five seconds.

And mind you the hits she can predict are thrown by a two-year-old girl.

Armament was easy for me. I could activate it rather quickly and hold for ten seconds before it became too tiresome. I still needed 30 seconds to activate it. Observation Haki was hard, but I evaded one of ten throws. Well, I managed to get out of the sure head- or heart shot.

Right now no one was with us and both Lia and I were playing evade the fist. It was my time and I had just pulled my arm back when we heard someone coming... and they were running?

The door burst open and in came both of our parents. At first, we looked confused, until we saw the lack of their collars. Something happened. “Quick, grab a blanket and carry Lia and Lara”, shouted our father hectically and with a lot of fear.

“What is happening Leo?”, asked our mom, who then picked me and Lia up.

“Mother?”, asked Lia. She never called her mom, while I did.

“Not now, Lia, mommy needs to concentrate, please stay silent. What happened Leo?”, she asked with badly hidden fear, hope and stress.

“I don't know, the fishman just came inside, killed the World Noble and then undid my collar, before giving me the keys. He said we are to meet him outside”, replied Leo frantically. I couldn't see too well with the blanket obscuring my view, as well as how mom pressed us hard against herself. But I heard how we left our room/home and then run somewhere.

“Grab some of the gold, we will need it if we manage to flee”, ordered Leo while we run. We stopped briefly and something cold was put right next to my face. Looks like our blanket is used as a bag for both toddler and gold.

A few minutes of running later and the sound of fighting and burning houses came nearer.

It then suddenly got really loud and also warmer. People were screaming around us and I heard how many were running away from something.

“Quick, run and never get captured again!”, shouted a deep and strong voice.

“Thank you, thank you Mister Fishman”, sobbed my mother out.

“My name is Fisher Tiger and it is only natural to help those in need”, replied the now identified fishman. Holy, we were in the middle of Fisher Tiger's raid of Mariejois?

“Come, Luna, we have to run”, urged our father almost desperately.

“Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart”, repeated our mother, before we were carried away.

The crackling of fire came from all around us, the screams and shouts of people ripped through the night. Gunshots came from behind us but were not near us.

Others run with us, one had really loud foot steps, maybe a giant? And then there was a single voice I heard between all the chaos. It came from a girl and was not far away.

“Please, I can't run, please help!”, pleaded the girl. Her voice came from the left.

“Mom! Girl help!”, I shouted and squirmed so that I could point to my left. My mother looked down at me, fought with herself but did not stop.

My speaking was not unknown to them, both Lia and I were speaking somewhat. 

“Please”, sobbed the girl again. I couldn't see her, but her voice did not sound older than 4 or so. Dad could carry her.

“Dad, help girl!”, I screamed towards my father while pointing to where the sobbing came from. My father looked at me with a massive conflict on his face. “Girl help”, I said again and tried to make a serious expression. This time he steered over towards the sound of the sobbing girl.

Our mother followed him while cursing softly, and stopped when she saw who the voice belonged to. It was a little girl, so far I was right, but it was also a mermaid. It was hard to tell how old she was, but her face looked to be around 5 or 6.

She still had a chain around her neck, not one of the explosive ones. Her belly was almost raw from the wounds she must have suffered by being pulled alongside the World Noble, a dead World Noble who was next to her. A piece of wood has pierced his chest. It was burned and must've come from the burning house the girl was next to.

“He saved us, we will save one of his”, grunted my father. I now noticed that he had a sword in his hand. He cut through the chain like nothing before scooping the mermaid up with his free arm and turned around.

“I'm sorry Luna, but I can't leave her”, he then said. Mom nodded and they run back to the street and from there out of Mariejois. I don't know how we managed it, but I saw dead humans, dead marines and a lot of dead slaves on our way.

Our parents run for what must have been hours until we reached a port with a few boats and ships. The voice of Fisher Tiger came from one of these ships, he was our best bet to escape.

“This one, fishman inside”, I said and pointed at the ship. Freed slaves were going on board, most of them fishman.

“We can see that Lara, but we need one with humans”, said mom.

“No, fishman big helped us”, said Lia this time, obviously catching on, on what I want to do.

“Fisher Tiger? Well, he might be our best bet”, agreed dad. Mom sighed and followed him. Soon after we were on-board of the now moving vessel and sat down in a corner. The mermaid was still clutching onto my father's rags.

“So who are you? My name is Leo, this is Luna and the two cute girls with us are our daughters Lia and Lara”, began our father after most things calmed somewhat down.

“Jury, thank you for helping me”, said the girl, only holding on her tears with willpower.

“Don't mind it, we were saved as well, it was the right thing to do”, waved my father off.

“I think it would be for the best if we try to sleep, we all had a hard day”, he then suggested. Lia and I were squeezed between our parents, while Jury got also added into the group hug.

A Week Later, Sabbaody Archipelago;

Fisher Tiger led the ship to the Archipelago, where most left on their own. Our parents were not one of those. They went to Fisher Tiger and asked him of two things. First, if he could take Jury back to her home and secondly if it was possible to bring them near East Blue. The weakest sea was their hope of a free and undisturbed life.

The fish man agreed and invited us to come with him on his ship and pirate crew the Sun Pirates.

Our parents agreed and, even if reluctantly, also agreed to the offer of burn the sigil of the World Nobles off and place their symbol on it.

Arlong disagreed, of course, he said us humans were not worthy of their sign. He got a punch in the face from my father a second later.

“Don't lump me and my family together with humans. We may look similar but WE.ARE.NOT.HUMAN!”, he snarled fiercely. His punch was not that of a weak man, no, Arlong got blasted off and into the railing. It seems like our father is more than the wimp he looks like.

And there was also the thing with him cutting through iron. I nearly forgot this little titbit, but he must be a skilled swordsman. At least more skilled than what Zoro was during the Alabasta arc.

“Heh, but you oh so much look like them”, countered Arlong while spitting out some blood. Fisher Tiger was going to step in but was stopped by our father.

“Is that so? Then am I right that a matured mermaid is also a human?”, he asked and Arlong growled. He then stopped and whipped his head back in loud laughter.

“You are right, you are not human. No puny human would have had the guts to do that”, laughed the saw shark fish man. Our mother let out a relieved breath and then patted our head softly.

“Lia, Lara, this will hurt, but you'll have to stay strong okay?”, she then said while looking at the rod that was heating up.

“Hurt?”, asked Lia. She waddled, baby legs and all, over to where Arlong was and patted his leg.

“Hurt”, she repeated. For any bystander it looked adorable, for me it was funny. Lia was using her babyness as a way to mock Arlong.

Arlong growled and crouched down so that his shark face was directly in front of Lia. Our mother tensed and was ready to jump forwards.

“Child, I'll eat you”, he snarled but did not expect to be grabbed by the nose.

“Funny nose”, laughed Lia. I knew that she was doing all this only so that she could later rub it in his face. It was thankfully not hard not to laugh, like the rest of the crew.

“Yes yes, just you laugh, I will laugh when you scream from the branding”, grunted Arlong. Sadly that promise was left unfulfilled as Lia did not even grunt when the mark was burned over. I did the same and the crew was left in awe.