It was a bright and sunny day. The birds were chirping, while the ocean waves were rhythmically crashing against the shore of the sea. Next to this shore lied a little old town which harbored somewhere between 2-4 thousand people. Although small, it was a quaint and happy place to be. Pirates rarely came as they had little possessions and the island was small enough to be ignored by most map makers. 

Oddly enough, a boy who looked around the age of 9 was sitting by the shore, basking in the sun and enjoying the ocean breeze with no one around. It seemed that the kid didn't have any friends whom he could spend time with, so he had to spend it alone. Well, not that he minded, he was an introvert by nature which contrasted with his outward appearance. Jet black hair and baby blue eyes, complemented with porcelain white skin. This was very unusual for an inhabitant of this island, as the sun was very strong in these areas. In fact, they would have been less surprised if he had turned black instead of remaining white. This led to a majority of the kids holding prejudice against him, although the adults didn't mind and only remained fascinated by his skin, they took no actions towards teaching their children right from wrong.

'Kids are gonna be kids. What can you do?' This was the exact mentality of most of the townspeople towards this situation. Probably because of their hostility towards the child's parents who threw him on this island for the people to take care of, instead of taking care of him themselves. The child slowly got up, as his long hair waved in the air, giving a picturesque scene on the beach. As he got up, one could tell that this child was very tall. He was 9 years old but he was at least 5 feet and 10 inches tall. He easily surpassed many of the villagers in height and stature. Yet, even with his imposing height, he could not cover up his scrawny build, likely due to malnourishment seeing the protrusion of his ribcage.

The boy made his way forward and jumped through a thick brush of vegetation, continuously making his way through a shortcut through the woods to reach the town. Carefully treading past small drops and thick foliage, he finally made his way to an opening in the vegetation as he moved out. Inhaling the fresh air, he smiled to himself.

"Wow! It really is a waste to go to school on such a beautiful day!" He exclaimed out loud. He slowly moved his gaze from the blue sky to a large building which seemed to be an educational institute. Peering through the windows, he spotted a girl sitting in her chair, one arm on her desk while the other supported her sleepy countenance. She gazed around the room before getting bored, then turning her head to look through the window. Seeing the beautiful weather, she couldn't help but feel regret at having to go to school. She looked down at the schoolyard and noticed a tall and slim figure, with long black hair standing there looking at her. A contagious and dashing smile appeared on his face as he looked towards her. She returned the expression by making an ugly face, then laughing silently. Laughing along, the boy began making ugly faces towards her, which made her laugh extremely hard out loud. 

"Sarah, do you need to be excused? I don't find whats so funny. Would you like to share it with the class?" The teacher reprimanded. 

"Oh? I-I am so sorry- ahaha" She couldn't help but laugh mid-sentence as she peered to the side and saw the boy spanking himself towards her while laughing.

"?" Everyone in the class looked at her weirdly, even her close friends were confused.

"Mr. Belton, I am so sorry, please excuse me for a second so I can straighten up for class," Sarah said.

"Alright, seeing how you do exceptionally well in my class I will let you off the hook this time. Now hurry and come back quickly so you can take notes." 

"Alright Mr.Belton, thank you." She said quickly as she walked towards the door. After she shut the door, her expression immediately changed into one of hilarity and excitement as she sprinted down the halls and down the stairs. She made her way quickly to the schoolyard where she saw the boy whom she was playing with earlier.

"Ah! Viktor! What is wrong with you?!" She yelled at him angrily.

"Me?" The newly titled Viktor feigned innocence. 

"Yes, you! You made me laugh in class and the teacher even yelled at me!" Sarah yelled.

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" I don't dare! That sounds nothing like me!" Viktor showed such a serious face which made Sarah stop for a second to stare at him.

'This idiot!'

"Sigh.. I can't argue with you can I?" Sarah asked dejectedly.

"Nope!" Viktor instantly replied.

Sarah began chuckling again as she stared at his smiling countenance meaningly. She held her gaze for a while which made Viktor blush.

"Ai! Am I really that handsome?" Viktor said jokingly.

"Yeah..." Sarah answered subconsciously.

".........................."

Complete and utter silence. Sarah's pupils dilated as she stuttered her next few words.

"W-w-what, wa-wait, no no no. You know I didn't mean it like that." 

"Of course I know you didn't." Viktor instantly replied.

"Definitely."

"Most definitely."

"Of course."

"Obviously." 

" Damn, it's so obvious, I didn't even need to explain myself to you."

"You surely didn't."

This rapid-fire exchange of false assurances only made the situation worse.

Sarah blushed hard as the conversation became awkward. Attempting to change the subject, Sarah began asking him questions.

"Why are you even skipping class anyways?"

"It would be a shame to not enjoy such a beautiful day."

"It sure would, too bad my parents would never let me skip school."

"It's good then that I don't have parents." Replied Viktor.

"Don't say that!"

"Alright." He agreed instantly, showing his lack of care for the topic. 

'If my parents wanted to leave me and threw me away, then why should I even care about their existences, surely they were devils in their own right, to be able to throw away their child.

"Are you eating well?" Sarah couldn't help but ask after looking at his thin figure again, he seemed to get taller and taller but also seemed to get thinner and thinner as he aged. She really was worried about his health, thinking of this issue.

" Not really, but I make due with the scraps the mayor gives me," Viktor said.

"Viktor!" Sarah yelled.

"Kidding, kidding. The mayor gives me enough to eat but not enough to ever put any meat on my bones, I can't blame him. It's not like he can take care of every random orphan that gets thrown here."

"Yeah..." Sarah frowned at the hard truth which Viktor spoke.

"I have recently been eating less deliberately though! I am trying to save up for new sandals!" He excitedly said as he moved his toes to highlight the fact that his sandals were broken and he needed new ones. 

"...." Sarah remained silent for a while. As if debating something in her head.

"Idiot, eat as much as you want! As for the sandals, I'll see what my dad can do." Sarah said.

"Sarah..." he looked at her emotionally. He slowly crept forward and began to give her a hug, which improved both their moods. In the middle of the warm hug, a head peeked out of the school window.

"SARAH! What did I say about hurrying up? Its been at least 10 minutes since you left! And here you are, hanging out with Viktor!" The teacher took a second to process what he said.

"Wait..... VIKTOR!!!!!!!" 

"Shoot! Gotta run!" Viktor quickly broke away from Sarah and waved goodbye as he sprinted in a weird fashion so his sandals wouldn't fall off.

"Damnit! That delinquent is always skipping class."

This instance had the class giggling. While the boys made fun of Viktor, the girls talked about how cute he was. It seems that his social status in the school was complicated.

..........

Viktor ran for a while until he felt that he was in a safe zone.

'Wait, where am I?' He looked around and found a large boulder next to a sapling. 

"Ah! This is near the docks. Oh well, might as well try to snag some fish from some drunk fishermen."

So Viktor made his way down to the docks and saw a horrid sight. A ship, and not just any ship, a pirate ship!!

"Oh no no no no! Pirates never come here! Why now, oh god why now!" Viktor slowly crept up and examined the insignia on the boat once more. "Yeah, this sure is a pirate ship! What to do, what to do!"

Hundreds of scenarios popped up in Viktors head as he thought of the consequences of the pirates coming and taking over this island and killing every man while raping the women. Pirates were notorious in the world, for not every pirate was like Luffy or Shanks. They were mainly an evil and horrid bunch of ragtag mercenaries on ships, armed with cannons. They weren't valiant knights fighting against the injustice like the Revolutionary Army. No, they were simply criminals on the sea! Simple as that.

Viktor quickly turned around and rushed back to go warn the mayor to take precautions against the pirates. But a tiny devil in his heart appeared. 

'What did they ever do for you? Look at you, you barely have enough food to live and they don't bat an eye. Listen here, go warn Sarah and leave on a fishing boat from the back of the island. Surely you can make it and live together!'

He hesitated for a second before directly killing this thought from his head. 

'No, I can't betray them. Although the circumstances were not satisfactory, they never had an obligation to take care of me in the first place. So I must warn all the others before anything bad happens!'

Viktor began running in the opposite direction.

..................

Meanwhile, on the pirate ship.

A red-haired man slowly walked out of a cabin and stood on the deck. He looked around and fixed his gaze towards a hurrying boy who's sandals fell off instantly as he dashed the opposite direction.

"Oh? What do we have here?"

----------------------END------------------