A yellow vessel floated in the North Blue, and there was a party happening on deck. A group of people was celebrating and carrying on. Among them was a muscled young man wearing a fur hat, a man in a casquette cap, a man in a penguin hat, and a talking polar bear, who stood together and chowed down on gleaming hunks of meat. The meat had belonged to a massive crocodile over sixty feet long that had attacked them at the last island they’d visited. Any normal person would have been quickly overwhelmed by such a creature, but this crew had easily bested the beast.
In the midst of the feast, a flock of swallows flew overhead. At the same time, the four of them thought they heard a voice.
“Hey, did you just hear something?” asked the young man with the fur cap.
“You too, Captain? It was like a voice coming from the sea…” replied the one in the casquette cap.
The polar bear picked up a pair of binoculars and scanned the horizon. “I don’t think there are any enemies nearby…but I definitely heard something,” he said, keeping his lenses trained on the sea.
“It sounded kind of familiar to me,” added the young man in the penguin hat, whose mouth was curling into a grin.
Catching on, the young man they all called “Captain” grinned in kind. “Yeah, me too.”
As the swallows flitted past, chirping away, the young man thought back on his past. Since his decision to become a pirate and an adventurer, a good deal of time and distance had passed. He didn’t usually have time to sit around reflecting on the past—he was the captain of a pirate crew, and he had to lead them and be the first one to rush into battle. Every moment was a battle for survival.
The crew had become infamous, and now many of its members had their own bounties, a fact that made the captain proud. Of course he would continue this voyage with his crew, braving new dangers and challenges. He couldn’t be naive and think about how things could’ve been.
Yet there were certain memories he couldn’t let himself forget: The man who had rescued him and taught him about love, and the old man who randomly came into his life when he needed it most and soon became his friend. The time he spent with those two men would always remain a source of warmth in his heart.
Perhaps as a result of the sound of the swallows overhead, the young man thought back on the old man from an earlier part of his life. Was he still doing well? Was he pushing himself too hard? Was he so busy inventing that he forgot to eat? Was he still getting along with the townsfolk? He had so many questions.
Man, I wanna see him again, the young man thought to himself. He had considered going back to visit the old man on a number of occasions. How much fun would it be to head to his island with the whole crew and have a great big feast together? There were times when the thought was very tempting.
But this was not the time. What he needed to do now was not to return to the warmth and comfort of the past—he had an enemy to defeat, a country to save, and a vast sea to travel with his crewmates. The most important thing for him now was to look ahead and keep moving forward.
Plus, he still hadn’t figured out yet what his true freedom was. If he went to see the old man without achieving that, the old man would just chew him out.
“But if I take too long, the old man’s gonna kick the bucket,” he muttered to himself quietly.
“You say something, Captain?” the polar bear asked.
“Hey, Bepo. Are you confident in your navigation skills yet?”
“U-umm…y-yeah… Totally! Who cares about storms and tsunamis? I’ve been studying every day so I can handle it!”
“I see,” the captain responded. “Then it’s about time.”
“Time for what?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, the young man stood and headed to the prow. The crew watched him go and paused their drinking.
“All right, people!” the young man shouted. “I’ve decided on our next destination!”
A murmur rippled through the crew. Some were worried that it might be somewhere dangerous, and some were excited about the adventures that could await them there.
“So where is it, Captain?” demanded the young man in the casquette cap, grinning.
“The Grand Line,” he declared.
“Whaaat?!” the crew exclaimed. After all, they knew full well how dangerous it was to go to that place. But their concerns evaporated quickly, and soon the whole group looked resolute.
“Let’s go!”
“Yeah, I’m pumped for this!”
“We’ll support you, whatever you decide, Captain! No use being scared now!” they roared in approval.
Do you hear that, Cora? This is my crew—our crew.
“Hoist the sails! Confirm our heading! Heart Pirates…move out!” the captain called.
“Yes, sir!” his crew responded.
✦ ✦ ✦
The ship sailed on. A yellow vessel, bearing the dreams of its crew, cutting through the powerful winds and waves. A young man standing on the deck, staring at the endless expanse of blue and smiling to himself.
He imagined the fierce trials ahead of them, as well as the delight and exhilaration of the adventures to come. These were the experiences he needed to have to honor the memory of his savior. He had faith that on the other end of all of these experiences, true freedom awaited him.
“Just watch, Cora. I’m going to fulfill that dream of yours,” he said softly. His voice vanished under the sound of the waves.
But there was still a long way to go before the dream was fulfilled.