Life aboard the Wicked Wench had always been on the dull side before B joined their crew. Back then, it was only Jack and Aramaki, both of whom were mostly focused on traveling from one place to another, rarely stopping to entertain themselves with anything outside of sailing and survival. The routine was repetitive, and while it was steady, it lacked variety.
When B finally came aboard, however, things changed, as they suddenly had their very own source of entertainment. B would often spend the empty hours on deck rapping whenever there was nothing else to do, and even though his raps were horribly out of rhythm and his lyrics made little sense, it was still better than sitting in silence.
At the very least, it gave Jack and Aramaki something to laugh at, even if that meant laughing at B's expense. On this particular day, B was once again rapping loudly on the ship while both Jack and Aramaki leaned on the railing, listening with blank expressions, enduring the noise with quiet patience.
One day, while they were lost at sea, continuing forward on a path with no clear destination or guidance, they suddenly spotted something unusual in the distance. A massive shipwreck lay scattered across the water, debris drifting aimlessly with the current.
Around it floated numerous bodies, lifeless and bloated, painting a grim scene. Jack immediately stretched out his Observation Haki, but he could sense no active signs of life. Both Aramaki and B also stared at the wreck, grim recognition forming in their eyes.
"Looks like a pirate raid," Aramaki muttered, his tone sharp. "Judging from the looks of it, a merchant vessel was attacked and everyone on board was slaughtered."
The conclusion was obvious to all of them, yet Jack kept scanning, unwilling to dismiss the wreck as completely lifeless. Then, faintly, he felt something—a weak breath, fragile but present, a flicker of life among the sea of corpses.
"There's still someone alive," Jack suddenly said, pointing toward a floating body. "Fish that out."
Aramaki extended a root, pulling the body aboard. It looked like an unconscious man, his breathing shallow, his life force barely clinging on. Jack, however, grinned the moment the man was placed on their deck, his smile confusing both Aramaki and B.
"You can drop the act," Jack said flatly.
The so-called survivor twitched, his faint pulse and weak aura suddenly shifting. Just moments earlier, he had perfectly imitated the condition of a dying man, but now Jack could sense his malice clearly. It had been a convincing performance, one that might have fooled them had Jack not paid attention long enough to notice the difference.
The stranger moved suddenly, pulling a knife hidden within his sleeve and lunging straight at B, who was standing the closest. Before the blade could make contact, Jack calmly intercepted, catching the knife between two fingers as if it were nothing. Both the attacker and B froze in shock, staring at the weapon now held motionless by Jack's grip. Jack's eyes, however, never left the stranger's face.
The man smirked, unfazed despite his failed attempt. "Interesting," he said with a crooked smile. "It seems fate has decided something different for me today."
Aramaki reacted instantly, roots sprouting forward to strike, but Jack raised his free hand to stop him, signaling to hold back. His focus remained entirely on the stranger.
"A killer without mercy," Jack said evenly. "But it's strange—you don't carry the usual breath of a killer. Don't you know?"
The stranger's grin widened, showing teeth. "It takes one to know one."
Jack tilted his head slightly, his tone shifting to playful innocence. "What do you mean? I'm just a humble pirate." His voice carried no weight of malice, so much so that anyone overhearing might have believed him. Yet the stranger was not convinced. Despite Jack's harmless expression, his instincts screamed otherwise. The moment he had first attacked, he felt it—Jack's entire presence splitting apart. Those eyes were not looking at just his body, but at his entire being, as though an abyss itself was gazing back. One more wrong move, the stranger realized, and he would die instantly.
Aramaki broke the tension by speaking. "Why did you kill all these people?" His voice was filled with disgust as he gestured toward the floating corpses.
"Why?" the stranger repeated casually. "No reason. I just wanted to." His bluntness only deepened Aramaki's disgust, and B mirrored the same expression, glaring at the man with open contempt.
"You're not very honest, are you?" Jack interrupted, his voice cutting into the exchange.
The stranger raised an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Jack's grin returned, but this time it was sharper. "This vessel was a merchant ship, right? But I don't see a single crate, not even fragments. Cargo boxes don't just vanish when a ship sinks—they float. Food, clothes, supplies… There should be at least something scattered here. But there's nothing. Not one piece. That tells me either this was the most incompetent group of merchants to ever set sail, or the goods they carried weren't meant to be stored in crates." Jack paused, his voice lowering slightly as he finished, "Something like… slaves."
His words struck hard. Aramaki and B immediately rushed to the deck's edge, scanning the wreckage again with new eyes. What they saw matched Jack's explanation. The absence of ordinary cargo was undeniable. Meanwhile, Jack and the stranger remained locked in place, both of them focused entirely on each other.
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The trio eventually allowed the stranger to remain aboard as they resumed their course. Aramaki and B kept their eyes on him, but neither carried malice in their gaze. Both of them understood well enough that someone who had lived through the kind of life this man clearly carried would naturally stay on guard. Survival often demanded distrust, and if the stranger wanted his life intact, suspicion was only natural.
Not long after, the silence was broken when the stranger suddenly shouted across the deck.
"Turn the wheel west! There's a storm coming in, and I'd rather not get soaked again when I've only just dried off!"
The demand startled both Aramaki and B, who looked at him with confusion, but Jack tilted his head slightly. He too could sense it—through smell, through the subtle shift in the air, through the instinct that rarely failed him. Without hesitation, Jack repeated the order aloud, and Aramaki followed it. Sure enough, moments later, the skies shifted, the bright blue darkening to heavy gray, then to pitch black as a violent storm brewed overhead, lightning cracking in the distance.
Jack broke into a grin, pointing at the stranger. "Gentlemen, we've found ourselves a navigator."
The declaration earned puzzled looks not just from Aramaki and B, but also from the stranger himself. He turned to Jack with a raised brow, his expression sharp with disbelief.
"And what makes you think I'd join you?" the stranger asked, his tone mocking.
Jack's grin only widened. "How long are you going to keep pretending you haven't already decided? Until the next island? Fine. I'll let you keep up the act if that makes you feel better."
The words made the stranger pause for a moment before breaking into laughter. "Interesting. You're interesting. Fate really does enjoy its little jokes when it comes to throwing people together."
"Oh, you have no idea," Jack replied, his voice calm but layered with something unspoken. "My name is Sparrow D. Jack. But you can call me Jack… or Captain. Your choice."
He gestured casually toward his crew. "This here is Aramaki, my right hand, and that's Kira Bee—though we just call him B. Our singer."
Aramaki and B exchanged quick, bewildered glances at being introduced so formally, but neither objected. They had learned to trust Jack's judgment, even when it left them confused.
The stranger straightened slightly, his smirk sharpening. "My name is Laffitte. And I will be your navigator."
His introduction confirmed what Jack had already suspected from the very beginning. Jack recognized the name—recognized the figure from whispers and fragments of memory that connected to his brother's crew—but chose not to say anything out loud.
"Fate really does have a strange way of bringing people together," Jack said again, echoing Laffitte's earlier words. But unlike Laffitte, the meaning behind Jack's statement carried a weight that only he understood.