Throne

"Remember the moment you left me alone and

Broke every promise you ever made

I was an ocean, lost in the open

Nothing could take the pain away

So you can throw me to the wolves

Tomorrow I will come back

Leader of the whole pack

Beat me black and blue

Every wound will shape me

Every scar will build my throne"

-Bring Me the Horizon, "Throne" from That's the Spirit (2015)

Chapter 1

With a sigh I rested my head in my palm, staring out the windows of the general store that I worked in, tapping my pencil against my clipboard.

The waves were gentle as they rolled in, crashing on the shore, before being pulled back out to the ocean. The sun was high in the sky, which was a perfect shade of blue that was only disrupted by the occasional cloud.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day. Such a shame that it was going to waste.

Word had come from the docks that a pirate ship had been spotted offshore and was currently making its way to our tiny village. The people of Aurora had tucked themselves away in their homes and shops, windows and doors shut, but not locked.

They weren't afraid after all. Surely, the village guardian, Tel and his band of men would take care of it. No, the villagers weren't afraid. They were only trying to discourage any would be fiends from coming into their establishments. They were simply too busy to be bothered with pirate riffraff.

I stretched, letting out a yawn as I did so, returning to my previous position, sighing once more as I turned my attention to the window.

While everyone else fretted, I couldn't have been more bored.

Once word has reached Gene, the owner of the general store and the only other person that worked there, he had pulled me from the stock room, where I had been rearranging our inventory for what felt like the millionth time and put me on the counter.

It would've been a nice change of pace, had there actually been something for me to do. There were no customers to wait on – pirate or otherwise, and I had already cleaned and straightened up the displays. Hell, I'd wiped the counter down so many times that I was fairly certain that I could see my reflection in it.

At a glance, I was rather unassuming. Sure, I was large for a woman. I stood over six feet tall and had cracked the 200-pound mark. Aside from my size, a trait that I inherited from my father, there was little to make me stand out.

I had sepia colored skin, red-toned brown hair so dark that appeared black until the sun hit it, and brown eyes. I dressed fairly simply, jeans, boots and blouses, and typically kept my hair up in a neat ponytail or bun.

Innocuous.

Up close, it was a different story. It was easier to spot the scars, faded after 20 years, but still present. The faint lines across my knuckles and raised ridges scattered across my forearms were fairly easy to ignore. The mess that wrapped around the column of my throat and the line that ran from just below my nostril down to my jawline not so much.

Very few ever got that close. With the exception of Gene and my landlady/part-time employer, Rayne, the villagers kept their distance from me. In part this was due to rumors that had been circulating ever since I arrived in Aurora. The most frightening to the general population was also the only one to be completely true. I had consumed a devil fruit.

The Oni-Oni no Mia: Model Balor was a mythical zoan that gave me the power to turn into the demon king of legend, Balor. It was a powerful fruit, so much so that even in my human form, its demonic aura could be felt by the even the most average villager.

My very presence struck fear into the hearts of most average people. Only the incredibly strong and incredibly stupid were unaffected.

As a result, most people in town avoided me. Devil fruits were rare in these parts, so just having a fruit was more than enough reason for Aurorans to keep their distance, but one of the demon demon fruits. That was a whole other level that they were unprepared and unwilling to deal with.

To spare both the village and myself, I made it a point to stay away from the general populous unless it was absolutely necessary. That was why I spent so much time rearranging the store room. My other job — working at the town tavern required more interaction, mostly because Rayne felt that the people that avoided me like the plague were ridiculous, and that their issue with me was exactly that, their issue.

This outlook was helpful to an extent, but it did nothing to make village life easier from a practical standpoint and it only made it even more annoying that the rest of the village felt the need to take their problems out on me.

Business owners didn't want me in their shops, and the second something in the village went even the slightest bit awry, I was the first one suspected, even if it was something completely out of my control.

The worst thing that I had done to any of them was lash out with sharp words. Occasionally those words had a little extra oomph behind them, but no one in the village knew enough to figure out what exactly that was. I had been nothing, but a model citizen, despite numerous attempts to provoke me into behaving otherwise. Their fear was just as unfounded as it was persistent.

I couldn't deny that while my fruit made my life more difficult, it also came in handy. My very presence was enough to deter would be thugs from coming after the store or the tavern. I had sent countless pirate crews and groups of bandits running for the hills with nothing more than a dirty look.

Other groups were a bit more persistent. Some times they needed a good ass kicking to get the message. And while I didn't need my fruit for that, I wasn't one to deny myself the pleasure of watching them all freak out as I transformed.

The bell over the door chimed.

I turned my attention to the group in the entry way, perking up, when I recognized their faces from their wanted posters. This was a far more interesting group than the usual crews that we got around these parts.

"Hello. Welcome to Gene's General Supply," I greeted in my customer service voice. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Just looking for now. Our captain and the first mate will be here soon, and they're going to want to fill out an order."

I nodded, noting that they were surprisingly respectful and that only one looked to be uncomfortable. "If you need help with anything just let me know."

I returned to my previous position, alternating between watching the men in the store and staring out the window. They weren't causing any trouble, and they didn't appear to be afraid of me, which was unusual, but not surprising given their reputation.

Honestly, it was kind of refreshing.

The door opened again, and two more men entered.

I smiled at them, welcoming them to the store and telling them where I could be found if they needed any help. They gave me their thanks, both grinning at me – one a small smirk around his cigarette, the other a wide toothy thing.

I was momentarily caught off guard by their polite behavior. Generally, people didn't speak to me. They were too afraid. They mumbled under their breath and scampered off. The also weren't so friendly. People didn't usually smile in my direction. If they were brave enough to look at all, it was a sneer.

The crew continued to walk around, eyeing different items and comparing them. After about fifteen or twenty minutes of discussion, they finally approached me, with the two late arrivals at the front of the pack.

"Excuse me, miss?"

I perked up, my attention now on the man standing on the side of the counter, none other than Benn Beckman. "Yes?"

"Would it be possible for us to place an order?" he asked.

I lifted the clip board in my hand. "I was waiting for it," I said.

"Finally, someone a step ahead of you, Benn."

My eyes shifted to Red-Haired Shanks.

"Be careful, or I'm gonna have her remove all the booze you order," Benn threatened.

"No, you won't. There'd be a riot," Red Hair said argued.

Beckman was quick to argue his captain's point. "And at the center of it would be you."

"No respect." Red Hair shook his head in exaggerated disappointment. "You know a less generous captain would have you killed for such mutinous words."

Beckman rolled his eyes. "Generous," he said in a deadpan.

I smirked. "Generous, huh? Should I be expecting a generous tip, once I get your order all put together, Captain Shanks?"

That caused Red Hair to shoot me a cheeky grin. "I see my reputation precedes me."

I shrugged. "What can I say? News travels fast and far, and you've created quite a stir. First pirate captain I've heard of with such a ridiculous hair color," I teased.

"I like her," Beckman said.

"Which doesn't bode well for me," Red Hair grumbled, his expression not faltering at all.

"Don't worry," I assured him. "I still want a tip, so I won't be too hard on you."

I took down their order the conversation flowing easily between the men and myself.

The obvious discomfort that usually plagued my social interactions was missing, allowing the conversation between us all to flow easily as I took down their order. I gave them a bit of info, while they ribbed each other and occasionally me.

"So, Miss…" Shanks trailed of, seeming to just now realize that he didn't know my name.

"Elizabeth," I supplied.

"Miss Elizabeth," he repeated. "Pretty name for a pretty girl."

I didn't bother to look up and I added up their order. "I'm not cutting you a deal, so don't bother trying to sweet talk me."

"But will it get you to tell me, where we can get a drink around here?"

That caused me to pause and look up at Shanks. I chuckled.

"There's a tavern in the village, but I wouldn't get my hopes up about getting a drink. The owner's not too fond of pirates. Thinks that they're all no good bastards."

Last time that a crew had come to the tavern, Rayne had called me in to kick them out.

"I think we'll be fine. I can be very disarming," Shanks said, leaving on the counter and turning up the charm.

"Looks like you've been disarmed," I jabbed as I returned to tallying their order.

Benn let out a loud laugh at that.

"You wound me."

"Clearly, I'm not the only one."

I turned my clipboard around and, the total at the bottom circled in red. Shanks took the clipboard, eyes trailing over it, before handing it off to Benn.

Shanks pulled out a bag of berries. "Hit my pride and then my wallet."

"A job well done if I do say so myself."

Author's Note:

So if you've read Stillwater, then you know that I've been talking about this Shanks fic for a while now. It's got a different name than what I originally said, but this is it. Enjoy and let me know what you think. Also forgive me, because the first few chapters are going to feel a bit repetitive, until I really get the dynamics and everything down.