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"Gin, drink this, hurry, it should help with the pain."

"I don't want it."

"But if you don't have something you're going to die!"

"I knew that the moment I inhaled that poison."

These were the words that Don Krieg, formally the most infamous pirate in East Blue, awoke to. A single hand rose up and rubbed at his eyes as he tried to recall how he had ended up in this predicament. Pushing himself into a sitting position he realised that there was a lot less weight on him than usual. It was during these few short moments that recent memories began to surge forward once again, how his golden armour had been destroyed at the hands of the rubber pirate he had been fighting upon the Baratie.

A vicious crack echoed out as he slammed his fist against the wall next to where he had been laying, alerting all those around him that he had indeed regained consciousness. "Captain," said Gin, ignoring the fact that blood was dribbling out of the corner of his mouth. Krieg looked at the commander of his fleet and at the wreck that he had become. It was clear to see that some number of hours had passed since the battle upon the Baratie had taken place if the lack of colour in Gin's face was any indication. Don Krieg was actually surprised that his commander had survived this long but he guessed that he had to have selected him for a reason in the first place.

Pushing himself to a standing position, Krieg stumbled at first as he leant against the wall in order to prevent himself from falling over, hating himself for showing such weakness in front of his men. There was something he had to do immediately however and the scorching pain raging through his body was not going to stop him by any means. Marching forward, deep breathes escaped his lungs as he moved to where Gin stood, the rest of his crew seemingly parting like torn pieces of paper. Gin sat there knowing full well what was coming his way and embraced the sickening punch that caught him across the jaw with enough force to dislocate his jaw.

"Gin/Don Krieg!" shouted the members of the crew as they looked on in shock at what their captain had done. One of the men rushed down to where Gin's unmoving body was and held it in his arms before looking up to his captain. "You killed him!"

"He was going to die anyway, I merely put him out of his misery," stated Krieg without a hint of remorse in his voice. "Wasting resources on him would have been a waste of time before we journey back to the Grand Line."

"So you still want to go back, captain," stated Gin, making everybody watch in disbelief as he got to his feet. A few turned towards the man who had diagnosed their commander as having passed on to the next life in confusion. "My heart beat is quite weak at the moment, I doubt even the finest doctor would have been able to hear it."

"So now, even at death's door you choose to defy me," declared Krieg looking at the person who was once his most loyal follower.

"It doesn't matter how many men you have, nor how many ships," said Gin as his eyes began to glaze over. "What you lack Krieg is heart."

"Heart?"

"You saw it, didn't you," started Gin as he dropped to his knees, life slipping out of him second by second. "When you were fighting...Straw Hat..."

The last breath escaped Gin's mouth as he fell forward, his face colliding with the wooden boards of the house they were holed up in. Don Krieg however seethed with anger, his hand balling into a fist as veins surged on his temples. Caring not for his desecration of the dead, Krieg stomped onto the back of Gin's head and drove the deceased man's face into the ground shocking everybody else who was in the room at the time.

Kuro rubbed his temple, his head still slightly pounding. The pirate glanced around the deck of the damaged ship, noting that no one would look him in the eyes. They were afraid.

Afraid he would snap and kill them all.

He sighed and pushed his glasses up his nose, what idiots. It would make no sense for him to kill them out at seas, he couldn't man a ship the size of Bezan Black on his own.

He slowly walked over to the only member of the crew left alive that had any knowledge of smithing. Kuro coldly looked down on the trembling man. "My claws."

The burly man licked his lips, his arms shook as he presented Kuro's signature weapon. The man was weak, Kuro despised weakness.

Kuro slipped on the gloves and inspected the metal before sheathing the claws back into the gloves. "Shoddy work," he muttered, "but it will have to do."

"Oi!" A drunken voice roared from the opposite side of the deck, "who the hell do you think you are?"

The owner of the voice was stumbling towards him, clutching a sword in one hand and a bottle of beer in the other. The drunk man's face was red and he stank of booze. "Waltzing back here after admitting that you were going to kill us!"

Kuro's eyes narrowed into slits as the man drew closer, he unsheathed his claws. "I am Kuro of a Thousand Plans, someone far above your caliber."

The drunkard snarled. "Stop using 'dem fancy words, thinking you're better than the rest of us!" The man raised his sword.

It was over in a flash. The decapitated man's head sailed over the edge of the railing and into the sea below. Kuro turned to face the crew. "I don't think I'm better than you, I am better than you. It's a fact."

A few low angry murmurings came from the crowd but no one stepped up to challenge him. "Back to work, the ship won't repair itself". Kuro glanced down at the sanguine fluid pooling at his feet. "And somebody clean this mess up"

Kuro strode over to the captain's quarters, his head was getting worse. Kuro pulled off his deadly gloves and took off his jacket. Damn that idiotic rubber brat, preaching about how his crew were his friends.

How had someone with such a naive ideology bested him?

He collapsed into a chair, his head in his hands. He inhaled and exhaled, calming himself. His brain was one of his strongest weapons, he couldn't waste too much time thinking about his defeat.

A sudden idea struck the infamous pirate captain, the brat wanted to be King of the Pirates. He was leaving East Blue for the Grand Line.

His headache gone, Kuro stood up as a plan began to form in his mind.

"Go and have your merry adventure with your friends Straw Hat Luffy," Kuro spoke out loud, cold anger surging in his obsidian eyes. "But when you return, East Blue will have gone up in flames."

His men walked in muted silence, no one daring to speak, as they marched behind Krieg down the beach towards the port town. They walked forward with their eyes on their feet, no one daring to look at their captain and the blood dripping down his fist.

A few brave but foolish men had attacked Krieg in a blind fury after he had killed Gin.

Krieg had put all the corpses in a mound and torched them.

Krieg strode forward with purpose, his imposing figure silhouetted against the sun's rays. Don Krieg, terror of East Blue, was heading back to the Grand Line. The few men that still followed him only agreed to go back to that hell on earth for one reason.

Krieg had threatened, no promised, to snap the neck of any man who attempted to desert the pirate captain.

And now they were going to raze the quaint little port town on the island they had seeked refuge on to the ground. They'd storm whatever military base was in the town for weapons before taking over one of the ships docked at the harbour. They'd kill as much as many of the townsfolk as possible as they left.

The less loose ends the better.

Krieg clutched a large butcher cleaver in his dominant hand while his men went in unarmed. "Some of you will die," Krieg announced to the group behind them as they entered the final stretch towards the town, "but if we don't do this...I'll kill every last one of you myself."

A woman hanging up her washing on the side of the beaten road waved to them. "You guys are looking much better than before, leaving already?" Krieg casually rolled his shoulders and nodded. As they passed each other, he sprung. Don Krieg was fast without his heavy armour dragging him down.

Deadly fast.

The woman collapsed to the ground, spasming as her lifeblood gushed out from her slit throat. Krieg didn't spare her a second glance. "Men, you know what to do."

His pawns screamed out their war cries and stampeded past him. More willing to assault a town with their bare hands than to disobey "Foul Play" Don Krieg. Krieg tightened his grip on the cleaver and followed them, missing the comforting weight of his wootz armour.

Damn you, Straw Hat Luffy.

His men had already found a gun store by the time he reached them, the sounds of gunshots and screams deafening him. Men, women and children were gunned down as they attempted to flee.

Krieg pillaged a pistol from one of his fallen men and cocked it. He took careful aim at a fleeing merchant and fired.

Headshot.

Krieg smiled and pocketed the weapon. "Enough!" He roared over his men and within seconds they fell silent, "to the harbour!"

His men fell behind him with ashen faces, blood dripping off their clothes. They found a decent-sized ship that would be easy to man and Krieg gave his men their orders. "Kill everyone on board but one, bring the survivor to me."

"Wait," he called over a small portion of his men, "you guys go get necessary supplies, rations, ammunition, etc." The men nodded and dispersed leaving Krieg to wait.

Five minutes later, two of his men dragged a middle-aged sailor towards him. Don Krieg pointed his gun lazily at the sailor's head. "You're going to do me a little favour."

"A-anything," the sailor stammered as he fell to his knees and Krieg noticed with distaste that the man had pissed himself.

"Tell the villagers that the next time they insult me, Straw Hat Luffy, that I'll kill every last one of them."

The man nodded feverishly and sprinted off. Within hours all the survivors on the island will have heard the name of their attacker.

His crew followed him on board his new ship.

He wasn't called "Foul Play" Krieg for nothing.

The next day, Kuro was woken from his slumber by banging on the door. He plucked his glasses from the bedside and slid them up his nose. "This better be important," he called out as he rose from the bed, "enter."

One of his pawns burst into his quarters. "Cap'n," he announced, "ship off the starboard brow."

Kuro grinned and slipped on his claws. "I forgive you for waking me up." He strode onto deck and blinked in surprise.

The ship was heading right for them.

Kuro sharpened his claws against each other and gestured to the Nyaban Brothers to join him at the railing. "Black Cat Pirates," he called out, "get ready for a raid!"

Don Krieg cracked his knuckles, his men ran around the deck like headless chickens as they approached the cat-themed pirate ship.

"Krieg Pirates!" He roared, "get ready for a raid!"

Brought to you by Razamataz22 and Dying Grin