Prologue

Smoke filled the night air, restricting the intake of anything clean into the deprived lungs of anyone unfortunate enough to still be around. The burning forest crackled and raged, casting unholy shadows of the lone surviving figure.

The man gasped, only to draw in more tainted air that burned his lungs. His beaten, bloody body collapsed to the ground as he seized into a coughing fit, trying to find some pocket of clean air. He writhed on the ground in his pain and tried to make his body obey his commands.

The fire grew more intense and he felt the prickle of heat eating away at the clothes on his back and burn into his flesh sending a new wave of agony through his core. The adrenaline flooded his veins and he stumbled to his feet, absolutely refusing to give into the desire of sleep. He threw himself through patches of burning bushes and through a sea of dry grass engulfed in the red flower before falling to his knees on the beach of the island.

He managed to crawl into the ocean, the salt water seething into his wounds while cooling the burns, making his entire body numb. He was barely conscious at this point, but when he looked out toward the sea, he saw a ship illuminated by the red fires behind him and the silver moon above.

He felt his hands clench at the wet sand beneath the waves as the ship sailed away and vowed to never forget that mark. Never forget the man who took everything away from him.

"I swear on the Shining Rocks," the man said with a hoarse voice and the taste of blood in his mouth. "I swear that I will not die until I erase your existence from this world. Monkey D. Luffy, you will die by my hand!"