Chapter Text
Soaring through the sky, Marco pushed himself to fly faster, a strange fatigue settled in his bones. Bizarre yet familiar sensation, a feeling that the 1st Division Commander was all too familiar with. As amazing and handy his akuma no mi powers were, there was one major drawback that leaves him completely exposed and vulnerable.
Once every 10 years, Marco would be stuck in his Phoenix form for about a month. After being consumed by his own Flames of Resurrection, he is born again in the form of a small defenseless chick and he is forced to re-grow into his adult form. On the morning after the final night, he would be able to change back into his human form but not before then.
So, with this in mind and the fact that he was miles away from the safety of the Moby Dick, Marco was panicking.
‘Damn it!’ Marco cursed to himself. ‘I’m not gonna make it! I’m sorry, Pops.’
The steady increase in the temperature in his usually cool flames was the only sign of the impending combustion. At the moment, it was on the cusp of it’s limit before the inevitable.
Normally, at this point he'd be safely tucked away on the Moby with Pops and his brothers there to help him. But, this time an urgent call from one of their islands had pulled him away. It was supposed to be a quick call but things were more out of control than initially thought, cue this costing him a few precious extra hours needed to get back.
‘I have to land NOW!’ Fortunately, Marco was right above a tiny island. ‘I hope I can find a safe place before it's too late,’ changing his course, he quickly circled back down towards the thick forest that occupied most of the island.
Sadly, Marco’s smooth landing was ruined when suddenly he was consumed by a brilliant teal and gold flame. Burning brightly for a few short seconds the flame fell to the forest floor and tumbled for a few paces before coming to a complete stop at the base of a huge oak tree.
After a few seconds, the flames finally began to die down leaving behind a small pile of smoldering ash.
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Living on such a tiny island didn’t really bother you that much…
It was the lack of companionship that really bothered you. Shipwrecked here at such a young age, it was either survive or die for you. With a iron will to live, you got your shit together and thrived. And so, you have resided here for the past some years. Long enough to have built yourself a cute little cabin that keeps out the weather and even a relatively small garden of edible vegetation and herbs.
Your morning had started off the same as the many days before, getting up at the crack of dawn and going about your daily business with relatively low to no problems with the few predators on the island. Later in the evening, however, everything took a sudden turn.
Suddenly, the sky overhead was illuminated in a bright golden light and after shielding your eyes from the light, you could see a brilliant ball of teal and gold flames shooting down from the sky like a falling star.
‘What the heck is that?!’ you tried to keep your eyes on it but it was too bright. ‘A star?!’
And suddenly, it just fizzled out. However, you could see that it hit the island from the trajectory.
Swiftly dodging better trees and deftly leaping over rocks and shrubs, you followed the path of the star. As you got closer and closer to the impact site, you watched the brilliant blaze as it dimmed down until finally, it became nothing more than a faint plume of smoke. The closer that you got to the crash site, you couldn’t help but feel an eerie feeling growing in the atmosphere.
‘What’s going on?’ you slowed your pace almost to a stop, effectively silencing any noise you made. The only sound that you could hear was the faint rustling your movements caused in the tall grass. ‘I can’t hear any birds or large animals moving… This is the quietest that I’ve heard the forest.’
Determined to get to the bottom of this mystery, you cautiously proceeded onwards.
Whatever had plummeted to the earth had landed by the base of a huge tree located on the edge of a clearing. While you came to a stealthy stop at the opposite end of the clearing.
So, not being a fool to rush on ahead, you waited and observed.
From where you were, you could see a small pile of ash sitting at the base of the tree. But what truly struck you as odd was the lack of burn or scorch marks on the ground or the wood of the tree despite the obvious presence of fire.
‘Maybe it finished burning up before the collision?’ you wondered as you finally leaned out of your hiding spot and slowly made your way to the pile of ash. ‘A meteor, maybe?’ you took a few carefully measured steps before stopping an arm’s length away. ‘Pfft, maybe it’s an alien,’ you joked to yourself.
Suddenly, the little pile of ash moved!
You jumped slightly a took a step back as the ash pile twitch a couple more times. After a few more twitches, you were about ready to leave before something could possibly attach itself to your face. But, you stopped when a pair of big sleepy blue eyes peeked out of the pile.
‘What the-?’ before you could continue that thought, the little being shook the ash from its tiny body, leaving behind an absolutely adorable fluffy teal chick with dark blue markings around its eyes and a wispy tuft of gold feathers atop its head.
Staring wide-eyed at the sleepy looking chick, you couldn’t help but move to take a closer look at it. From its vibrant plumage to its arrival on the island, everything screamed odd about this little fellow… But… It was so damn CUTE!!
You furrowed your brows as you mulled over the possible things that you could do or the things you should do. “This is freaky,” you murmured aloud as the little bird looked around as if it was assessing its surroundings. “I should probably leave you, your Mom or Pops are probably looking for you,” the little bird seemed to perk up at the mention of its parents, as it was now looking at you again with those big blue eyes. It even went so far as to let out a tiny cheep!
‘Gah! That’s so adorable!’ you clutched your chest, unable to stand the sheer adorableness of the tiny fluff-ball.
“Anyway, I gotta go, little bird,” you stand up. “I hope your Ma or Pa find you soon,” you just as you started to walk away, you suddenly heard the little chick start to fuss behind you. The poor thing let out several hi-pitched chirps, if you didn’t know any better you’d say that the little guy was scared of being left alone.
Unable to find it in yourself to deny the frightened chick, you turned around to see that it had followed after you a couple of steps. You felt a slight stab of guilt in your gut when you noticed that the poor thing’s feathers were more fluffed up than before, probably from the scare that you gave it.
One look into the big blue eyes and you were done.
With a resigned sigh, you turned and squatted down in front of the blue chick.
“Alright, I’ll take you with me,” you tried to be stern with your new charge. “But, you better not ruin any of my stuff!” you lowered your hand down to the chick’s level, offering to carry it as there’d be no way for it to keep up with you on its own.
It looked down at your hand before looking back up at you, then after a moment, it hopped into your cupped palm, fitting perfectly. When you lifted it up to eye-level, the little bird chirped happily at you and even flapped its tiny wings as if it was saying thanks.
You offered a smile to the little avain before standing up and taking long strides back to your home, as in the pursuit of the ‘meteor’ it had taken you almost to the other side of the tiny island.
It was mid-trip back that you realized that you had been talking to a bird as if it were human.
A rather sad yet sobering thought, you let out a quiet chuckle at the epiphany.
This caused the little bird to look up at you and tilt its head as if it were wondering what you found so funny.
“I’ve been here almost 6 years and I’m already going insane,” you hopped over a log in the path, careful to not jostle the bird too much. “I can’t believe I’ve already resorted talking to birds,” you cautiously watched the forest in case one of the predators on the island got gutsy. “Not just any bird but a weird flaming blue one that fell from the sky in a ball of fire… Perhaps, I really am losing it and your just an illusion, little Blue.”
These thoughts frightened you. True, you had fared much better than a lot of people, but it's been a long time since you seen anyone let alone had intelligent company. The bleak reality of your situation and the idea that you’d live and die on this island chilled you to the bone.
As if sensing the dark thoughts rolling in your head like an angry thundercloud, the little blue bird chirped loudly and pecking at the hand holding it.
Effectively, pulling you from your thoughts with a wince.
“Okay, Okay, Blue! You’re not an illusion and I’m not nuts,” with your free hand, you rubbed the spot it pecked at. “Geez, just chirp next time. Well, on the upside, I got a name for you!”
Blue gave a happy little chirp and flapped it’s too-tiny wings.
The rest of the trip back was spent in a amicable silence. Fortunately, because everything was done earlier in the day, you had plenty of food and resources for your new little friend.
“Whelp, here we are, Blue,” you smiled as you finally emerged from the forest and your cabin was in plain view. “It’s no palace, but it does its job pretty well,” the little bird in your hand trilled in agreement.
Stepping into your cabin, you took a second to take it in, mentally assessing where you could put your friend while it or you slept. It was a small single room square cabin with your cot pushed into the left corner against the far wall, a fire pit for cooking sat in the middle of the room and in the far left corner was a couple of makeshift baskets and salvaged crates from your initial shipwreck ages ago.
Taking a seat near the fire pit, Blue hopped out of your hand once it was close enough to the ground, apparently eager to move about more.
“Okay, ground rules, little… guy? … girl?” you raise a brow as you watched it waddle around. “Alright. Rule number 1, don’t ruin my stuff,” you affirmed once you got it’s attention, and as if understanding you it nodded its head. “Awesome, Rule 2! Don’t poop on my stuff. Seriously.”
It was at that last one, that the little bird suddenly looked as if it were offended as it puffed out its feathers and abruptly turned its back to you. Evidently, showing that he was displeased with you.
The rather cute display caused you to giggle. “Alright, Blue. I’m sorry for the last one,” you leaned over and gently petting the little golden plumage at the top of his head.
It first, it didn’t react, seemingly dead set on ignoring you but after a couple more pets, the little bird gave in and leaned into your hand as you moved to rub its cheek. Even going so far as to coo happily at one point.
Sadly, the head pets were disturbed when you felt your stomach grumble from lack of food.
“Alright, time for dinner!” you sadly moved your hand away from the baby bird, it was then that you remembered something. Something very crucial. “What do you even eat?”