Fisherman's Luck

Does Fisherman's Luck Even Exist? (I)

It was such a tiny thing that had the potential to change a poor soul's life. The pearl was light gray, slightly cloudy, and shiny as the sun. Upon closer inspection, however, the pearl was not as smooth as expected, especially on its back side. The back side was rough and bumpy, feeling much like grains of sand. It wasn't a pearl. It was a pebble.

Lucrio Law roared with rage and hurled the pebble into the water.

"Shut up!" echoed a voice from across the water.

"Frick you!" Luc shouted.

Killer followed Luc's lead and began barking loudly, prancing around in the tiny fishing boat.

"Shut up!" Luc shouted at the dog.

"Frick you!" the voice from across the water shouted back.

Cursing to himself, Luc tried his best to calm Killer down, grabbing at the dog's clumps of golden fur. Killer, thinking it was time to play, pounced on Luc's chest, knocking him against the side of the boat and tipping the boat and its inhabitants into the water.

Luc resurfaced and stared glumly at his upside down boat floating in the water. Two of his three rods were nowhere to be found, and the last looked like it had been snapped in half by the flip. All of his lures were gone as well.

"Is that Lucrio the Luckless himself?" a haughty and confident voice called.

A giant of a fishing boat cruised into view from the fog, fully armed with dozens of fisherman on either side, wielding rods of the highest quality. Cormorants, the famous fishing birds, flapped above the water around the boat, occasionally dipping down to snag a fish. At the head of the boat stood Nonamana's greatest fisherman, Blaze.

"How's the sea today?" Blaze asked, smirking with his all too perfect features. "Our cormorants have brought in at least fifty sunfish by themselves. How many fish have you caught?"

Luc sneered. "You're not a real fisherman! You're just a pervert who can't hold onto a rod!"

Blaze laughed, although his face turned the same color as his hair. "We'll see who's the laughingstock of the town after your family comes back to find their precious house claimed by the Mandarin!"

Luc gulped. That was a very real fear that he preferred not to think about. Especially with Tax Day coming up tomorrow.

"Ha! Ha! Ha!" Blaze bellowed. "Eat shit, Luckless!"

"I will!" Luc shouted back. "That's the only thing I can afford anyways!"

Blaze's features twisted in horror. "Really? That's disgusting."

"Well, not literally, but you get what I mean," said Luc.

The two of them sat in amiable silence for the better part of a second. Then Blaze turned to the paddlers of his boat. "What's with the dilly dally? We're not going to make any money with this poor excuse of a haul! Work those muscles! Put some effort into it! Ha! Ha! Ha!"

Luc and Killer watched as Blaze's boat slid away into the fog and out of sight. With a great heave of a sigh, Luc easily flipped his boat right side up and crawled on top of it. The good thing was that it was just several long pieces of wood tied together, more of a raft than a real boat. The constant flipping it endured would not harm it too badly.

"Now look what you've done, you mongrel," Luc said to the happy dog, who shook the water out of his fur and pranced excitedly into Luc's chest.