19Ok, to clarify, this is not an SI. In fact, this is more like a crossover. But considering that the OC was a mix of several characters or character archetypes and does not refer to any particular universe beyond regular earth, I do not believe it to be one. If you truly want to consider this a crossover, then consider the movie "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" to be it. One of the contributors to my OC was Sean O'Connell in this movie, but there are other contributors.
In addition to that, this fic is not set during the main timeline. None of the Straw Hat Pirates are even born yet. The OC in this story is in the same age bracket as Shanks, Buggy, Mihawk, Doflamingo, and all of those characters.
I do not own One Piece, or any original work that I may pull inspiration from. Citations at the bottom.
On an island on the Grand Line not very far away from the desert island of Alabasta, a small village resided on the beach. There was nothing particularly special about the island or the village beyond the cliffs surrounding the island(barring the entrance to the single cove), and the extensive system of caves riddling said cliff and tunneling throughout the island.
The island had a forest covering the vast majority of it, with the village on the cove to promote trade with their closest friendly neighbor, Alabasta. Mostly the island, called Amayar, sold lumber and a small number of fruits and vegetables that were surplus crops to Alabasta.
Amayar may not have been wealthy, but they did well enough in their trade and had enough economical independence that no one in the village ever starved.
And since it was an island, there were fishermen that went out each day onto the ocean to catch fish and help support the population with their catch. It was on a day when many of these people were out fishing that the traditional Grand Line unpredictable weather hit.
As a small community, most of the dozen or so fishing vessels were manned by families. And when the storm hit, while many of the vessels managed to get to safety while bearing only minor structural damage to their boats, one vessel was capsized during this storm and smashed into a series of rocky spires near the entrance to the cove.
This was both a curse and a blessing.
The people on that little fishing boat were a mother and a father that perished that day on the sea. And, as bad as that was, it could've been far worse. For they had a young son of the age of seven, a curious and intelligent kid, that normally would have been on the boat with them. However, on that particular day the kid had gone to explore the caves, and his parents had let him go have fun.
So, even as his parents died, at least they knew that their son was alive and would be well taken care of. What they did not know, and would never know, is that their death caused something to awaken in their child that day.
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Diardi Drazen was a relatively normal child. He liked to learn new things, and enjoyed exploring his home island Amayar and the caves on it, but that is not very far out of the norm for a seven year old child.
One particularly sunny day, when he was really supposed to go with his parents fishing, but instead decided to go on an 'adventure' leaving only a note for his parents behind.
That would one day become one of the biggest regrets in Drazen's life, that he never got to see his parents one last time before their death.
Grabbing a sturdy stick and heading out into the woods, Drazen wanted to explore the cave system that ran through the entire island. Lots of kids did it, and the day was really nice. The sun was out, there were very few clouds, and while it was slightly warmer than average that just meant that the caves would be even more awesome to explore.
A thin stretch of the woods of Amayar separated the village from one of the easiest to reach cave entrances. It was hidden behind a thick tangle of vines and bushes, but it wasn't that difficult for Drazen to get into.
Just well hidden if you were unaware that it was there(the people in the know about this cave included the entire town, so that they could use the caves to hide in in case of an attack).
Drazen had been playing in the caves for a couple of hours, marking off different tunnels and just generally having fun when Peregryn, the massive blacksmith that'd been friends with his father since they were children and that everyone in the village called Perry for short, ran into the cave as fast as he could.
It was unusual for anyone to come down to the caves, especially if they weren't children, so of course Drazen went to meet Perry the moment he noticed the blacksmith. A sense of unease filled the dark-haired child, however, when he saw the burly and stoic man up close.
Perry was soaked, the type of soaking you get from a torrential downpour, and he had an expression of utter sorrow on his face. Not all of the moisture had been from the rain, Drazen realized, but when the boy had last been outside there hadn't been a cloud in the sky. Perry, when he saw the child heading toward him, stumbled into the wall and slid onto his knees with a light sob filling him.
That was when fear really struck into the heart of the kid, and his head began to pound almost like there was something inside of him waiting to be let loose. As the son of fishermen, he already knew the dangers of an unpredictable sea, and that a storm that sneaks up quickly could spell disaster.
"Mr. Perry," The young child croaked out, "Is something wrong?"
"You're alive, thank goodness you're alright," The massive and rough seeming individual spoke in a deep but extremely relieved voice.
"Mr. Perry…" The ache behind Drazen's eyes got even stronger, feeling like something was pounding on a door inside of his mind.
Perry shook his massive, shaved head, before croaking out, "I told them. That no one had seen you get on the Blue Fisher with Mylo and Zlata. You're alive."
Drazen hesitantly inched closer, "What happened?"
And as the weathered and craggy face of the blacksmith looked into the face of the tanned and dark haired child, the older man gently bowed his head, "Mylo and Zlata… their ship got capsized during the storm. Everyone else managed to make it to shore… but their boat was too close to the reef and was blown into it. I'm so, so sorry."
Drazen, upon hearing those words, simply froze. He could hear screaming, but it seemed so far away. The noise in his head was getting louder, and louder, and louder... until, silence.
And then Diardi Drazen, seven years old, and last survivor of the Diardi family collapsed. When next he woke, nothing would be the same for more reason than one.
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At first it was all white. Completely blank, no corners or shadows, just an unending field of white. But then, amidst all of the blankness, a shadow appeared. It grew in size and color, warping slowly to give itself shape, and when it had stopped a single door stood amidst the white.
Drazen, while he wasn't entirely sure what was going on, felt drawn to the door. Everything felt fuzzy and weird, like there was something wrong, something that he couldn't quite remember, but the white seemed to comfort him. The door, a rough wooden thing that showed wear and tear, stood proudly in the midst of the blankness.
Drazen was right up next to it, and placed his hand on the handle before hesitating at opening the door. The nob appeared to be made of iron or steel, and while dull was extremely durable. Everything about the door seemed well made, but utilitarian. Plain and humble, but durable and strong.
Eventually, it was the feeling of rightness that sung through the young child from the door that caused him to open it.
As soon as the door was flung open, the whiteness seemed to get brighter and brighter, overtaking everything in a flash of bright light.
And at that moment, Diardi Drazen opened his eyes in a small, homey but unknown room, tears streaming down his face.
And he remembered.
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Peregryn the blacksmith, known throughout his home as Perry, carried a young boy in his arms back to the village. While the man couldn't stop his tears(his best friend had died), he still held the catatonic child close.
Drazen was a good kid, one who liked to learn and figure out new things. He didn't deserve the death of his parents.
As soon as Perry, grieving but so relieved that the boy hadn't been embraced by the sea, had told him of the storm, Drazen had thrown his head back and screamed. It was a horrible sound, made all the worse by the broken sobbing that had happened afterword, and while Perry had held the boy and tried to give as much comfort as he was able… Drazen did not seem to register any of it.
Eventually as the large man held the son of his dead friends(patient and understanding Mylos, kind and sweet Zlata), silently swearing that he would insure that the kid was well taken care of, Drazen fell asleep having cried himself to exhaustion.
When Perry began his slow trudge back to the village, the storm had already broke, leaving behind sun and dripping leaves.
That storm… it was truly a terrible example of Grand Line weather. It had happened so quickly, and with such sudden ferocity, that no one had seen it coming until it was to late. Most of the fishing vessels that had been out had been damaged, and were all run aground on the sandy shore of the village.
But the Diardi's… the boat had gotten terribly unlucky, grinding into the sharp, rocky maze that lay just beneath the surface past the entrance to the cove. It was normally something of a defense measure, to prevent large and unknown ships(which tended to be marauding pirates, usually from Jaya) from reaching the village.
On this day, it prevented Mylos and Zlata from ever being able to come home. It turned their son into an orphan. It also, though no one would know it for a long time, was one of the catalysts for the eventual existence of the greatest explorer the world had ever known.
So Perry carried Drazen into his house, tucked him under a blanket on his futon in the little guest room, and then left to mourn his friends with his wife Christana as well as get ready to house a child and to prepare for a funeral.
All the while, Drazen began to recall a past life while asleep. A life that was both him and not him. Memories that would aid him, help him to figure out an outlet for his grief. Because it was not two different people fighting for control, it was not an older soul erasing the younger and leaving only scant memories, this was the unlocking of the memories of a past incarnation.
Drazen could choose to ignore it if he wished, but he had the memories of a dead man, and while it did not change who he was, it did change the way he saw the world.
In the years to come, the boy would need all the help he could get just to survive, especially from the memories of an intrepid photographer and survivalist that he'd been previously.
Regardless, the curiosity that filled him in each incarnation caused him to want to know, to learn, to document, and to seek out extraordinary things. Fitting indeed that he would stay the same even before he could remember his past life.
:Eiichiro, Oda. One Piece. Shueisha, 1997. 85 Vols.
If you do not like OC's, that's fine. Beyond Drazen and an OC that hasn't been introduced yet, most of them won't be recurring. That does not make them unimportant, however.