The sea was silent where Kael stood.Not calm—never calm—but silent, like it was listening.
Below the jagged cliffs, waves beat the rocks with rhythmic violence, a reminder that even the ocean's breath could break bones if ignored. Kael Veyne stared out at that endless blue, coat billowing around him like smoke from a fire long extinguished.
He didn't feel the cold anymore.
Behind his gloved hands, beneath the mask of calculation and iron discipline, his mind played the names like a mantra:
Arlong. Crocodile. Enies Lobby. Impel Down.
Everywhere Monkey D. Luffy went, the world cracked a little wider. Order bent. Power shifted. And people cheered.
The boy with the straw hat laughs, Kael thought, and kings fall.
He opened a leather-bound notebook—edges worn from constant use—and flipped to a page covered in hastily scribbled notes, diagrams, predictions.
Kael's fingers hovered over Luffy's name, as if crossing it out might kill the man.
He didn't.
He couldn't.
Not yet.
Somewhere behind him, gulls cawed, and the faint noise of a bustling port town reached his ears: the Straw Hat Pirates had docked below, unsuspecting, laughing, alive. For now.
Kael slid the notebook back into his coat. Every instinct screamed at him to act, to strike, to end this before it spiraled further. But instinct had a price—and emotion, worse.
"Not yet," he whispered. His voice was flat, but his fingers twitched.
His mentor's voice echoed in his mind, sharp and unforgiving:
"Control the chaos, Kael. Before it consumes you."
He breathed in through his nose, out through clenched teeth.
He would wait. Plan. Dissect.
And when the moment came, he would put an end to the chaos.
To the Straw Hat.
To the one who laughs.
Would you like Chapter 1 next? Or want to dive deeper into Kael's past, his encounter with Luffy, or maybe show how the crew reacts to him sneaking aboard?