By the campfire that night, Ritter finally accepted the reality of his situation.
Roger, now full and satisfied, lay sprawled on the beach before suddenly springing up. "Ritter, you're such an interesting guy! Want to join my crew?"
He threw an arm around Ritter's neck. "From now on, you'll have adventures on the open sea!"
Rayleigh quipped, "Captain, you didn't even bring a ship when you set out."
Roger leaned in close to Ritter, eyes sparkling with excitement. "And now we've got a little pirate on board! Isn't that even better? That makes three of us on this pirate crew!"
Rayleigh shook his head with a sigh. "Roger, I don't think you're capable of taking care of a child."
"Huh?" Roger scratched his head, then laughed heartily. "But Ritter, our adventures will definitely be more exciting than going it alone! Because—"
He suddenly stood tall and pointed to the sky. "This is how I, Gol D. Roger, sail the seas! Ku-hahaha!"
Watching the two men laugh and joke in front of him, Ritter couldn't help but think maybe it really was more fun not knowing what the future held.
"All right, Captain." Ritter looked at Roger. Damn, this guy was dangerously charismatic. He really was the Pirate King.
The next day, Ritter regretted everything.
As the readers probably already know, when Roger and Rayleigh first set sail, they only had a tiny sailboat. Even though Ritter was barely four years old, there was no way this thing would hold them all. It was like trying to cross the ocean in a barrel. Ridiculous.
Roger proudly slapped the hull. "What do you think? Pretty grand, right? It's Rayleigh's boat!"
Ritter couldn't hold back his sarcasm. "Captain, are we really planning to set sail like this?"
He did a quick headcount, then looked at the boat's maximum load capacity and arrived at a horrifying conclusion. "So there are three of us, but this boat... only supports two and a half people?"
"Ku-hahaha!" Roger laughed as he jumped onto the boat. It tilted dangerously, nearly thirty degrees. "Don't worry! Rayleigh did the math. As long as we cut our food supply in half, bring only three days' worth of water, and toss the backup oars—"
"That's suicide!" Ritter screamed, tugging at his hair in frustration.
Rayleigh calmly pushed up his glasses. "According to my calculations, with our current load, and assuming no wind... we can last approximately six hours."
Suddenly, Ritter wasn't so sure he wanted to go out to sea anymore.
In the end, though, the three of them accepted the risk. Ritter thought, Well, Roger is the chosen one. Things probably won't go too badly... right?
Roger stood proudly at the bow, yelling into the wind. "This is amazing! This is the taste of the sea!"
Rayleigh gripped the rudder with one hand. "Captain, we're off course."
"How far?"
"No idea," Rayleigh replied evenly. "I don't have a chart for these waters."
Ritter, barely able to lift his head, muttered, "Shouldn't we be thinking about turning back...?"
Why was he so pale and weak?
Simple: he had never been on a boat in his entire life.
And he was seasick as hell.
Before the words even left his mouth, a three-meter wave came crashing down. The little boat groaned under the strain, and a taut rope snapped with a sharp crack.
"Oh, the rope broke," Roger said, pointing to the swaying mast.
Ritter immediately transformed into a human Scream painting. What do we do what do we do what do we do—
"There goes the fresh water barrel," Rayleigh added, watching it tumble into the sea.
As the boat began to fall apart, Ritter was struck by a sudden realization. "Wait! I'm a Devil Fruit user!"
Fighting through his nausea, he summoned every bit of strength to activate his Fog-Fog Fruit powers. He compressed a thick layer of mist beneath the hull.
"Fog Sea: Sky Platform!"
It wasn't enough to lift the boat completely, but the fog significantly lightened the load. The vessel steadied, and its waterline rose by a few inches.
Roger's eyes lit up. "Whoa! You can use it like that?"
Just as Ritter's fog power was about to run dry, a medium-sized merchant ship appeared on the horizon. Its sail bore the insignia of a merchant guild Ritter didn't recognize.
"We're saved!" he cried, waving frantically.
But Roger and Rayleigh both grew uncharacteristically serious.
"What is it?" Ritter asked.
"Slavers," Roger replied grimly.
The merchant ship had already changed course and was heading straight for them. Several burly men stood on the deck, armed to the teeth.
"Get ready for a fight!" Roger drew his cutlass, his eyes gleaming with excitement. "We just so happen to need a new ship!"
Ritter looked at his tiny four-year-old body, then at the fully armed giants on the other side. "Uh... I've only been on this crew for three hours..."
(A quick word to readers who think Ritter set sail too early allow me to explain:
1. If Ritter had stayed on the deserted island until his teens, his growth would've been far too slow. Even with knowledge of the future and extraordinary insight, without some kind of cheat system, his power progression had to be linear every step earned logically, not granted instantly by some overpowered plot device.
2. We're talking about Roger and Rayleigh here. In this story, they're his teachers. Learning by their side accelerates growth naturally. Roger built everything from scratch. Rayleigh was born strong. It makes perfect sense.
3. Don't compare this to Luffy starting at 17. If his first crewmates had been Roger and Rayleigh, he wouldn't have waited till 18, either.
This doesn't count toward the official word count. Just clearing things up for anyone who found it unrealistic.)
"Welcome to the pirate life!" Roger bellowed with laughter as he launched himself from the small boat just before it collided with the merchant ship.
Rayleigh patted Ritter's shoulder. "Don't worry. The Captain is very good at 'borrowing' ships."
As the sounds of battle and screams echoed from above, Ritter let out a long sigh. He finally understood life with these two lunatics was going to be even crazier than surviving alone on a deserted island.
Uncle Rayleigh seemed so reliable what the hell is happening? Someone save me!
From the ship, Rayleigh's voice rang out. "Human traffickers deserve to die. Let justice be served!"
"Charge, boys!" Roger shouted.
Ritter's sense of foreboding deepened.
But what choice did he have? He had agreed to board a pirate ship.
The mist surged across the deck, and the slaver grunts collapsed one by one, vomiting blood. The acid-base balance technique might not be much use against strong opponents protected by Armament Haki, but against common thugs, it was brutally effective. After all, internal organs are always the most vulnerable.
Anyone who has dealt with acidic or alkaline changes in the body knows they're corrosive.
The methods Ritter used couldn't be called merciful. But people like this didn't deserve mercy.
Before long, the three had seized control of the entire vessel. Ritter headed below deck and was stunned by what he found so many people. Not just humans, but multiple species. Including, shockingly, merfolk.
So the trafficking of different races had already begun, even back then.
Ritter stepped forward and gently addressed the caged prisoners. "We're the Roger Pirates. You're free now. You can trust us."
But no one responded. Not a single word. In every pair of eyes, across every race, he saw only numbness.
Something inside Ritter ignited.
He had come from a world where all people were equal. He knew that the world of One Piece was like this, but knowing didn't make it right.
"Get up! Do you want to live as slaves for the rest of your lives?! Stand up, dammit!"
His hair had come loose during the earlier fight after all, it was only tied with some grass. Now, wearing one of Rayleigh's spare shirts and his long black hair flowing freely, he looked like a noble young prince. Children naturally put people at ease. A good-looking child? Even more so.
But the expression on that handsome face was now twisted with rage.
Just because they got caught, they're supposed to live as slaves? This damn world. These damn Celestial Dragons.
The worst part? While cleaning the deck earlier, Ritter had spotted a Marine officer on board.
A Navy officer on a slaver ship.
What a sick joke.
Ritter said quietly, "I spent eight months on that island hunting pigs. My heart is colder than ice now."
And most importantly—
"All human traffickers deserve to die."