The world, for Eris, had been reduced to a single, white-hot point of agony. The storm had come fast, two weeks earlier than she had calculated.
Aster, just shy of his fourth birthday, stood guard. He was not a midwife; he was a sentry. His small, four-year-old mind couldn't process the biology of what was happening, but he could feel his mother's 'song', the one he heard with the Voice of All Things, straining, a beautiful, silver string pulled to its absolute breaking point.
He stood by the open door of the cottage, Crimson Abyss held in a two-handed grip, his golden eyes scanning the empty, silent cove. He was a small, determined guardian, his Haki a-thrum, ready to murder anything that dared approach.
She's… uh… she's very loud, Aster,
Flamey muttered in his head, the spirit's usual, fiery bluster replaced by a new, awkward discomfort.
Is she supposed to be making that much… noise?
She's in pain, Aster thought, his grip tightening on his axe. So I'm standing guard.
Right. Guard. Good plan. We'll… we'll guard.
Hours passed. The sun reached its zenith. Then, from inside the cottage, there was a final, raw, desperate cry from Eris, followed by a new, thin, wailing sound.
Aster's head snapped around. The song… it had changed. His mother's silver note was still there, but it was weak, trembling, and exhausted. And beside it was the other song. The 'echo' he had felt for months. It was no longer an echo. It was a separate, tiny, brand-new note, crying out in the open air.
He walked back inside, his axe held low.
Eris was propped up against the pillows, her body drenched in sweat, her hair matted to her face. She looked utterly, completely spent... and she was radiant. In her arms, wrapped in a clean white blanket, was a small, red, crying thing.
"Aster," she panted, her voice a reedy, exhausted whisper. She managed a weak, brilliant smile. "Come... come meet your brother."
Aster approached slowly. He stared at the tiny, wrinkled creature. It was… very small. It had a tuft of pure, midnight-black hair.
"He's a boy," Eris whispered, her voice thick with love and relief. "And he... he has a name. A strong name. His name... is Teach. Teach D. Rocks."
Aster just nodded, accepting the name. He looked at the baby, this... Teach. He felt the tiny, new, fragile life. He, Aster, wanted to be strong.
This... this thing... was the definition of weak. It was loud and small. He felt a new, strange, and fiercely protective instinct.
And then, the world broke.
Eris's eyes flew wide. Her concentration, her iron will, shattered by the agony and exhaustion of childbirth, finally gave way.
The silence... was gone.
The invisible, protective dome of her Shizu Shizu no Mi power, the bubble of absolute quiet and suppression that had hidden them for their entire lives, shattered.
For the first time, Aster felt the Calm Belt.
It was not silent. It was a deafening, screaming, psychic roar. The 'songs' of thousands of Sea Kings, a chorus of ancient, mindless hunger, slammed into his Haki. They were everywhere, a crushing, overwhelming ocean of malicious intent.
"No... no..." Eris gasped, her face pale with terror. She clutched the crying baby, her Haki flaring desperately. "I... I have to... get it back up... Hhhh..."
With a visible, agonizing effort, the dome snapped back into place. The overwhelming roar of the outside world was silenced once more.
But it was too late.
ASTER!
Flamey's voice shrieked in his mind, gone was the awkwardness, replaced by pure, abject terror.
BARRIER'S UP! IT'S UP! BUT IT'S TOO LATE! ONE OF THEM! IT'S INSIDE! IT'S ALREADY INSIDE THE BUBBLE!
Aster felt it, too. His Observation Haki, which had been blissfully deafened by the barrier, was now screaming. One of the 'songs', a deep, dark, monstrously powerful bass note of pure, apex-predator hunger, was here.
It had been close enough and fast enough to slip inside the net before she'd raised it.
It was close. And it was huge.
"Mom," Aster said, his voice flat and cold. He turned, his small body already tense, Crimson Abyss finding a perfect, two-handed grip.
"Aster...?" Eris whispered, her eyes wide with a new, dawning horror.
"I'll be back," he said. He didn't wait for a reply. He ran.
He burst from the cottage, a four-year-old warrior-king, and skidded to a halt on the white sand.
It was there.
Its head and neck alone were larger than their entire cottage. It was a colossal, serpentine beast, its scales a slick, oily black, its head a nightmarish visage of tusks and armor plating. Its eyes, massive, dull, yellow orbs, were fixed on the cottage, on the new, sudden, delicious scent of life it had detected.
...Oh, void,
Flamey whispered, his voice trembling.
That's... that's a big one.
The beast's head, which had been high in the air, lowered. It fixed its gaze on the tiny, defiant figure on the beach. It hissed, a sound like a thousand steam pipes rupturing, and lunged.
SOUL HEAT! NOW, ASTER! BURN IT! BURN IT ALL!
Time stopped. Aster's 'Soul Heat' ignited, a ten-minute timer lit in his mind. The internal fire flooded his muscles, and the world slowed. He didn't run back. He ran forward, a tiny blur of motion, his new axe a dark promise.
The monster's head, as big as a house, crashed down where he had been a split-second before, sending a tremor through the entire cove.
IT'S TOO BIG! YOU CAN'T CUT THE HIDE! IT'S TOO THICK! THE NECK! AIM FOR THE NECK! GO! GO! GO!
Aster was already moving, his small legs, supercharged by the internal fire, carrying him up the beast's coiling, thrashing back.
He could feel the monster's intent. Through the Voice of All Things, it was a simple, overwhelming, two-note song: (CRUSH) and (DEVOUR). It thrashed, trying to shake him off, its massive tail coming around like a mountain range trying to swat a fly.
ARMAMENT! FULL BODY! NOW!
Aster willed it. The invisible, dark, Haki armor flared, covering his entire body just as the tail slammed into him. It wasn't a direct hit, but the glancing blow sent him flying, crashing hard into the sand, his new axe skittering away.
Pain exploded in his chest. He felt ribs crack.
GET THE AXE! GET THE AXE, ASTER! IT'S COMING BACK!
The beast hissed in triumph, its massive head rearing back, its jaws opening for the final, killing bite.
Aster, his vision tunneling, his chest a nexus of agony, dove for Crimson Abyss. His fingers found the haft. He rolled, his body screaming in protest, and faced the descending, cavernous-black maw.
He had no time for a full-power slash. No time to build.
It's too fast. I can't...
YES, YOU CAN! USE THE VOICE, ASTER! DON'T GUESS! KNOW! WHERE IS IT GOING TO BITE?!
Aster didn't look. He listened. He felt the beast's simple, idiotic, hungry mind. (DEVOUR. STRAIGHT. DOWN.)
He had a target.
SOUL HEAT! MAXIMUM OUTPUT! WE'RE BURNING, ASTER, BUT WE'RE BURNING BRIGHT! HAHAHAHAHA!
Aster roared, a sound of pure, defiant agony. He didn't dodge. He met the attack. As the jaws snapped shut, he poured every last drop of his ten-minute-timer into his legs and jumped, propelling himself upward, inside the monster's closing mouth.
He flew past rows of teeth the size of trees, into the wet, dark cavern of its throat, his Haki-coated body a tiny, invincible cannonball.
NOW, ASTER! THE FINISHER! GIVE IT THE INFERNO! GIVE IT EVERYTHING!
He was inside. He was at the nexus. He raised Crimson Abyss high over his head. His Armament flared, black and solid. The Inferno exploded to life, a black-red, consuming void. He put every scrap of his will, his pain, his promise, and his power into one, final, desperate strike.
"INFERNO SLASH!"
He didn't just swing. He spun. A 360-degree, all-consuming vortex of dark, unmaking fire.
The world went white with pain.
The sea king's head disintegrated.
It didn't explode. It was unmade from the inside out. The black-red slash, amplified by the close quarters, vaporized its brain, its throat, and its entire upper neck. The massive, headless body, still running on ancient instinct, thrashed once, violently, and then collapsed, its remaining length crashing into the sea, a dead, silent mountain.
Aster was falling. His 'Soul Heat' was gone. His Haki was gone. His stamina was gone. He was just... a four-year-old child, bleeding, with broken ribs, falling from the sky.
He hit the sand, a crumpled, broken heap.
But he was alive.
He tried to stand, but his legs wouldn't obey. He looked at his body. His own 'Soul Heat', pushed past its limits, had burned him. His skin was cracked and seared. A glancing blow from one of the Sea King's teeth had torn a gash across his face, from the top of his left eyebrow, across the bridge of his nose, and down to his right cheek.
He didn't care.
Mom. Teach.
He began to crawl. He left a trail of blood and scorched sand, dragging his Supreme Grade axe behind him. It took him an eternity. He was sobbing, not from pain, but from sheer, desperate effort.
He finally reached the cottage porch. He could see his mother, framed in the doorway. She was standing, her face a pale, white mask of pure, abject horror, her body trembling, clutching the new, crying baby to her chest.
He hauled his broken body up the single step. He looked up at her, his vision swimming.
"It's... it's okay, Mom," he panted, his voice a raw, broken whisper. "It's... gone. You're... safe. Teach... is safe."
He held on for one more second, seeing her safe, and then his world, finally, went black.
He collapsed at her feet.
"ASTER!"
Her scream was the last thing he heard. Eris, her heart shattering, sank to her knees, one arm pulling her sleeping, wounded son into her embrace, the other clutching her new, wailing one. She held them both, her two sons, and wept, her Haki, her Voice, feeling every second of her four-year-old's agonizing, impossible, victorious fight.
"I'm so sorry, Aster," she sobbed, rocking them. "I'm so, so sorry, my little warrior..."
Aster, unconscious, just breathed. In his mother's arms, he whispered one last, sleepy word. "...Protect..."
********************************************************
Time passed.
His recovery was slow. The wounds were deep. The internal burns from his own 'Soul Heat' were severe, and the gash on his face... it was too deep to heal cleanly.
When he finally woke, days later, he found his mother had stitched it. It would be a scar. A permanent reminder.
Life, slowly, went back to normal. A new normal.
Time went on. Aster, Eris, and now Teach spend their lives together.
A year passed.
The island was no longer just a training ground. It was a home. Aster was five years old, his new scars a fitting addition to his serious face. Teach was one, a gurgling, happy, drooling baby with his father's chaotic black hair and his mother's bright, calm eyes.
The days were full. Aster's training was relentless, but it was now filled with new duties. He was a warrior, but he was also a brother.
He would be on the beach, practicing his new, sustainable axe forms, Crimson a black-and-red blur in his hands, while Teach sat on a blanket in the shade, happily chewing on a piece of driftwood.
Focus, Aster! Your form is sloppy! Flamey would shriek. Stop looking at the... the distraction! It just drools! What is it even for?
He's my brother, Flamey, Aster would think, a small, rare smile touching his scarred face as Teach let out a happy squeal.
Great. Now there are two of them(his brother and his mom). Can we please get back to the Armament drills?
Soon, he was done with his daily training and decided to 'train' Teach. Which meant playing with him.
It was a normal day. Peaceful. Warm. The sky was a clear, perfect blue. Aster was "teaching" Teach the "proper" way to hold a stick (it was an axe, not a stick, he insisted). Eris was inside, humming, a sound of pure contentment.
And then, Aster felt it.
It was not a Sea King. It was not his father's wild, chaotic aura.
It was... something else.
It was a feeling, distant but approaching. A single, powerful presence, surrounded by the 'songs' of... many, many other people. And it was coming right for them.
"MOM!"
His yell was a raw, sudden sound of pure, unadulterated alarm.
Eris was out of the cottage in an instant, her face pale, the humming gone. "What? What is it?"
"A ship," Aster said, his Haki reaching out, his small hand grabbing Teach and pulling him close. "It's not Dad."
Eris's Haki flared, her own 'Voice' stretching out. Her face went white. She snatched Teach from Aster's arms. "To the beach. Now, Aster. Grab your axe."
They ran, all three of them, to the edge of the cove, their eyes scanning the horizon.
Aster... Flamey's voice was a low, nervous hiss.
Aster, that's not a pirate. That's...
A ship broke the horizon. It was a massive, impressive vessel, its sails full, even in the windless Calm Belt. It was not Xebec. It was... gray. And orderly. And on its main mast, a massive, flapping flag.
It was a simple, stark design. A huge, blue... plus sign.
Aster didn't understand. He looked at his mother.
Eris was frozen, her body shaking so violently she could barely hold the baby. Her face was a mask of terror so deep that it eclipsed anything Aster had ever seen.
"I can't..." she mumbled, her voice a broken, terrified whisper. She clutched Teach, her other arm instinctively reaching for Aster. "I... I can't fight... not with them... not with them here..."
Aster didn't know what the blue "plus" meant.
But he knew, with an absolute certainty, that it was not good news.
---xxxx---
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