Author's Notes:

I don't own One Piece, characters, or anything created by Eiichiro Oda. But the way the words go together – that's all mine.

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Marie has left me.

She did not pack up and take her things from the home we have made together. She never could do such a thing, no matter how I might have drove her to it. She would never willingly leave this island; the trees outside this window grow blood oranges – her blood and the blood of those that came before her.

My dryad never asked me to choose her or the ocean because she knew my blood was salt water. She let me be free and it may have killed her.

I should not have let her work so hard. I should not have let her weaken so that the fever could take her so easily. I should have, I could have, I would have…

I look to what the future holds and I am afraid. Marie has left me with a precious charge. I cannot fail in this; but I am not a good man and I am now alone.

Marie was my anchor and I drift without her.

Where can I find the strength to rule the restless wave that tosses my heart and soul through life?

In a new anchor; weighted with love and chained with will, attached to my lifeboat which contains my daughter.

Bellemere.

She is more beautiful to me than all the waters of this world.