Devlin was only ten years old when her mother was killed. She’d been found beaten to death in an alley not too far away from her home.

The guards of Loguetown decided that her death was the result of a struggle between her and another person whom they assumed had tried to rob her.

When the Guards had told her and her father this, she knew the conclusion that they came to wasn’t what really happened. It wasn’t some random asshole who grabbed her because she just so happened to be walking past him.

As an alcoholic, her father spent most of their income on booze. So much so that her mother needed to get several low paying jobs for fast cash, so she had it ready when her husband needed it.

And while they had major issues and fought constantly, their daughter survived it all by creating her own little world away from it all. But not inside her head. Inside books about sailing the open sea.

One day, after a night of reading by the fireplace, Devlin woke up only to hear her parents going at it like never before resulting in her mother leaving for work angrily and her father leaving for his job right after.

But when neither showed up around the time they usually do, and her father came home angry, out of breath, and covered in blood…

She knew it was him. Somehow, he’d managed to track her mother down on her way home from the last job of the night, catch her off guard, and then take her life in cold blood.

Why she never said anything back then is still a mystery to her today. One she regrets creating in the first place.

Her father had been abusing the Devlin’s mother for years. Only, her mother had done nothing about it and silently endured. Why? Devlin didn’t know. But she assumed, if only for peace of mind, that it was to make sure Devlin grew up off the streets.

But soon her father grew weary of ragging on his seemingly indifferent wife all the time. So, of course, his attention slowly shifted to Devlin.

Unbeknownst to him, however, Devlin was where her mother drew the line. But unfortunately, drawing that line had cost her. And it would also cost her daughter for years to come.

For six years she, like her mother before her, endured his brutality and unrelenting cruelty. Beating after beating after beating until she turned sixteen. That was when things changed.

That was the year the man known as the King of the Pirates, Gol D. Roger, was executed and The Golden Age of Piracy began.

She had to sneak out to watch the execution. Luckily for her, it was around the time of day when her father was blackout drunk in his room. And she felt especially lucky since he didn’t give to shits about going to see some pirate getting executed.

So, she had a good couple of hours before he woke up and made her get him some more bottles of beer.

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

The execution itself was, in a word, unforgettable. To witness such an accomplished man who looked as though he had decades left of adventures to have and life to live speaking so confidently to the two men who were about to execute him….

Even if they hardly said anything beyond ‘Keep moving’

Words could not describe the awe she felt. The awe of witnessing someone smile as he did in the face of certain death. The awe of watching him walk down Main Street, straight to the execution platform.

He didn’t beg or plead with the men and women around him. He didn’t try to escape or bargain for his life. None of that.

He simply held his head up high and walked with the presence of a King.

But none of that could compare to the moment that changed the world. A moment that Devlin thought, in all honesty, probably wasn’t even planned.

The two men had done what they were trained to do during an execution. A short display with their blades to get them into position before bringing them down into Roger. But their usual show succeeded in more than just theatrics.

The time it took for them to do this was the window a certain man in the crowd used to ask the question.

“Hey, Pirate King!” The eyes of several hundred people turned to the direction of the man’s booming voice. “Where did you hide all the treasure you found!? It’s in the Grand Line, isn’t it!? The greatest treasure in the world!? That legendary treasure! The great treasure!”

The guards could see that the man in the crowd was a disruption and one of them attempted to silence him. “Silence! You insolent-” But the man shouted over him, determined to get his question answered.

“THE ONE PIECE!!”

As he finished, out of breath from yelling so loudly, there was a slight pause before Roger’s laughter broke through the quiet. He laughed to himself before facing the sky and sharing it with the world.

It was the laugh of a man who knew exactly what the answer to such a question would do to the world. So, of course…Roger answered.

“My treasure?” The guards looked at one another before trying to bring the situation back under their control. “Shut up!” “Not another word!” Their weapons pointed menacingly at his chest, they prepared to strike.

But he wasn’t done talking. “If you want it, you can have it!” The executioners raised their arms up high, “Find it! I left everything this world has to offer at that place!” and brought them back down.

“Execute!” Two blades found themselves plunged deep into Roger’s chest, piercing his heart.

But even then, as his life came to an end, he wore a large smile. One that expressed the pure joy he felt at that moment in time, where he managed to change the world, just one last time.

There was a deafening silence. A stunned silence, before the crowd erupted into an unparalleled frenzy of excitement. The guards who had carried out the Pirate King’s sentence were at a loss as they saw the petulant smile on his face.

And Devlin had a front row seat to it all. A front row seat to the beginning of a new era. Which begged the question:

Was her father awake yet, or did she have enough time to…sneak back…in…? Thinking about that after seeing that felt…wrong? She didn’t know. Devlin hadn’t ever felt something like this before.

It was like…the world changed colors while she wasn’t paying attention. Nothing made sense. Nothing. Not her clothes, not her name, not her hair, or her house. Not even where she was right that second.

Everything she’d been up until that point felt…strange…and now they felt…different. Better, even. And the more she thought about it, the more things became clear to her. Or, one thing. She was different now. She was no longer who she was.

Then, more questions came to mind.

Why did she stay? What was her purpose? Why did her father beat her so much? What would this mean for the pirates of the world? What should she make for dinner? Why should she stay and end up like her mother? What stopped her from leaving before now? What the hell is a One Piece? Why was she asking so many goddamn questions!?

Yes. After that day…Marcy D. Devlin would never be the same person she once was ever again. Never.