[Male Reader x One Piece]
"Alright, [Y/N] dear, you have a busy day ahead tomorrow, and you mustn't forget to sleep. How will you be able to pick up your sword and defend the kingdom without any energy?" An older woman with dazzling golden blonde ha...
(AN: I had a different power in mind for a Devil Fruit [Y/N] would have but I've changed my mind, I'm just going to stick with a more basic power instead. It was originally going to be some form of biomass manipulation, like Prototype, and he would be able absorb corpses and reform his body into armour and weapons, but I'm not too big a fan of that now that I'm actually writing it. I'm shelving that idea for another story. Thus, any mention to him absorbing dead bodies has been taken out, just forget about it, pretend it never happened. [Y/N] will have a power, but it will be different, more like Berserk...)
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[The Count's Fort...]
The Count marched along a long hallway, with openings along the wall which allowed them a view over the entire city below. Yet, there wasn't much to be seen as night had fully settled in, the pale moonlight and the small twinkling stars the only lights in the sky...
Behind him were a few people. Around twenty armed knights. His advisor, Dahl, and the three drifters who had stormed the execution stage earlier that very same day. It was the same three who had aided the Golden Swordsman, and helped him take out tens of guards.
Victoria, Kid and a mask-less Killer.
The Count could only admire their bravery, or was it their stupidity? Gunning down one of the executioner's dead in broad daylight, making one last stand, and taking many knights down with them.
Truly commendable, but ultimately useless.
Vargas was decapitated, and they were promptly captured. Seastone cuffs were slapped onto the red-haired brute. It became clear that he was imbued with the power of a Devil Fruit. However, that didn't stop them from resisting. It took many chains to keep them in line. And yet, their bruised and beaten faces remained defiant. Perhaps they still believed that there was a way out for them somehow? A humorous thought. Maybe a hope remained that the Golden Swordsman would come to their rescue but it seemed that he had fled, or hidden away somewhere in the city...
If he hadn't helped them at the execution grounds, he saw little reason why the swordsman would come to save them now, in the very heart of his enemy's lair.
Victoria rubbed her eyes, but she was barely able to move with the heavy cuffs around her hands. A few tears stained her face, remembering back to that old fella, the one who, despite her sudden act of bravery, still died nonetheless. There was nothing that she could do to save him.
Not a single thing.
The Count had brought them to one of the tallest towers in the entire fortress. It was a long journey, up countless winding stairs and dark halls.
All they could wonder about was their own fates? What was going to happen to them now?
Considering Vargas' own testimony, nothing good, she could be sure of that at least...
