KASL Book 1: Lost but Found (One Piece Fan fiction)

Chapter XXVIII: Independence

Kitsune's 17th Birthday

The Moby Dick

Kitsune

Why do these guys have to crawl from the woodwork on days like today, mused the young pirate. Several strands of long yellow hair floated into his face. Kit swiped at the stray hairs, missing the comforting weight of his cap. Ace still nursed bruises for burning the fox's baseball cap after the former misfired a fireball at the beloved cap. Apparently, Kit couldn't trust his pyromaniac of a brother to not set his stuff on fire when he needed to groom his fur. Ah, but if Ace's gift was nice enough, maybe Kit would stop pranking the raven. Today was a special occasion - today, Kit would turn 17; a magical number to his brothers. They all swore to go on their own adventures on their 17th birthdays.

The sound of gunfire drew the fox back into reality. With a Cheshire grin, Kit juggled several large fireballs and tossed them with a negligent wave of his tails. A scream and several sprays of red blood. Some of those flames may have some of his specially made daggers as an accompaniment.

"Good job as always – yoi," complimented Marco, the phoenix landing just beside the lounging Kit. Kit gave a lazy-eyed grin full of sharp needle teeth.

"Eh, nothing but rookies. Second Division probably could have handled it without my help."

"But, you single-handedly defeated their captain, someone with a bounty over one hundred million berries."

"Not that I'll let that get out quite yet." Kit's grin became feral. "Ace is set to stay here, but Luffy has plans outside this crew. And Sabo...he still needs to make up his mind. Me, I don't know. So for now, I'll just make some memory adjustments as needed. Luckily, the practice had made that particular spell a bit easier to use on this many people."

"Kid, did I ever tell you how scary an enemy you would make?"

"Probably. I hear it a lot from friend and foe alike. A kitsune can be both a great friend and a greater enemy, of course. Shahehehe!"

Without further fanfare, Kit straightened from the deck railings and leapt into the air. The first division commander shook his head wryly before following suit, golden talons snagging the flamboyant idiot from the sky as he fell toward the sea.

Kit enjoyed the oddest of foods. His birthday cake? A perfect example. Thatch made a whole bunch of smaller cakes for Kit's 17th birthday. Kit's portion was separate from the rest since he enjoyed an extremely spicy pepper-laced frosting on his carrot cake. Kit could still remember the one time he baked in the kitchens and offered Thatch an innocent-looking red velvet cake. It still brought a tear and a laugh when the fox remembered how red Thatch's face got. Then he offered some pieces to the rest of the crew, including his brothers. Luffy literally turned himself into a water balloon, Ace breathed fire, and Sabo dunk his entire head in a barrel of water. Safe to say, Thatch would never again let Kit cook in the kitchen unsupervised. He thought the cake tasted fine, honest. Just a difference of taste buds, the fox pleaded.

So Kit stuffed his cheeks with the spicy cake while his family ate the more traditional vanilla, chocolate, velvet, sponge, carrot, lemon, and ice cream cakes. More for him.

When it came time to open presents, the first one to catch his eye was red box. It was a modest one, somewhat bigger than a shoebox. But his nose picked up the hint of satin and gold. He snatched the box from the pile and lit it on fire, carefully burning away only the wrappings and box. In his hand sat a beautifully made grey beret. The soft satin of the fabric made his palm tingle. On the left side was a medallion of gold with an embossed blue fox, its head tilted and silver eyes gleaming. Kit's smile nearly swallowed his face. He gently placed the beret at an angle, facing the right. With his shoulder-length black hair and blonde framing strands, the beret made quite an impression.