Riven ran.
He didn't know where. He didn't know why. He just knew that a bunch of angry pirates were chasing him, and his arm had just turned into a pile of ribs. That felt like enough motivation.
"STOP HIM!" one shouted.
"HE ATE IT! HE ATE THE FRUIT!"
"THAT FRUIT WAS WORTH THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILLION BERRIES!"
"HE ATE THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILLION BERRIES!"
Riven tripped over a mop bucket and faceplanted into the deck.
"I'm sorry! I didn't know it was expensive!" he shouted from the floor. "I thought it was a gross pineapple!"
His fingers twitched weirdly. One cracked and stretched into a jagged bone blade.
"…Okay what the hell is happening to me?!"
He scrambled to his feet and tried to shake the bone off his hand like it was stuck. It didn't work. It was his hand now. Sharp, pale white, and totally alien.
"I think my elbow's trying to escape my body—someone help!"
The pirates surrounded him.
"Look at him," one pirate muttered. "He's turning into a skeleton."
"Why's his left leg skinnier than the right?"
"His jaw's unhinging."
"No, that's just panic."
Riven stumbled back. His spine cracked. A piece of it popped out and clattered onto the deck.
"I'm not okay!" he yelled. "I am very much not okay!"
He tried to swing his new bone-arm at a pirate.
It slashed through the air and cracked a barrel clean in half — just missed the guy's head by inches.
They all stopped. Some flinched.
Then, somehow, his left leg jolted and launched a bone upward like a missile. It flew into the sky and smacked a bird out of midair.
"…I did not mean to do that," he muttered.
The pirates stared.
He stared back.
"Listen," Riven said, holding up both hands. One was still kind of flesh, the other looked like it belonged to a cartoon skeleton with anger issues. "I don't know what I'm doing. I didn't mean to eat the stupid fruit. I definitely didn't mean to turn into a budget skeleton. And I really didn't mean to knock out that bird just now, but I'm kind of proud of it."
"You're dead, bone boy," one pirate snarled, drawing a cutlass.
Riven panicked and threw his arm forward.
A sharp, solid bone spike fired out. It missed the pirate by a mile and stabbed into the mast instead.
"…That could've been cool if I aimed better," he whispered.
They all rushed him.
He screamed, tripped over his own loose rib, and fell overboard again.
"WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING TO ME?!"
SPLASH.
This time, he landed in an empty barrel floating beside the ship. It tipped, but didn't sink. Riven flailed a bit, then curled up inside it like a sad bone burrito.
Above him, the pirates looked over the railing.
"…Should we go after him?"
"Nah. Let the sea deal with him."
"He's turning into a skeleton. Pretty sure he's cursed."
"Yeah, bad luck."
They turned away.
Inside the barrel, Riven floated silently, dripping and shaking.
"…I hate boats. I hate fruit. I hate bones."
He paused.
"…But that bird shot was kinda awesome."
Riven didn't know how long he had been drifting. Hours? A day? Time had become meaningless in a barrel.
His body was still doing… things. His fingers were sharper now. His toes were suspiciously bony. And he had a feeling his right shoulder was missing a chunk of skin.
He sighed and looked up at the sky.
"Note to self," he muttered. "Don't eat mysterious fruit. Don't board shady pirate ships. Don't trust anything that looks like a rotten coconut but smells like shit."
The barrel bumped into something.
He blinked. Then blinked again. Land?
"OH THANK THE SEA GODS!"
He tried to jump out. Instead, he flipped the barrel over, smacked his face on the sand, and rolled twice before groaning into the dirt.
"Graceful," someone said.
Riven spat out a mouthful of sand and turned his head.
Standing over him was a girl. She had messy short hair, an eye patch, and a long fishing spear. She was staring at him like he'd just washed up wearing a tutu.
"Are… are you okay?" she asked.
"Do I look okay?! Half my body is turning into a Halloween prop!"
She poked his leg with her spear.
"...What the hell are you talking about?"
Riven blinked at her.
Then he blinked again.
She was still there. Spear still jabbing him. Still very real.
"Okay, ow," he said, swatting her weapon away. "I just washed up from being chased, nearly murdered, accidentally ate something cursed, and now my bones are staging a rebellion inside my body. I think I earned a break."
The girl stared at him, expression unreadable.
Then she crouched down and looked him dead in the eyes. "You hit your head, didn't you?"
"No!" Riven said indignantly. Then paused. "Okay maybe. Just once. Or twice. But I'm not imagining this."
"You said something about turning into a Halloween prop."
"I'm serious!" he groaned, sitting up. "My fingers stretched into a blade! My spine fell out! A bird got sniped by my knee!"
She blinked. Slowly. Like she was trying to figure out if he was insane, or just very, very stupid.
"…You're not a skeleton," she said flatly.
"I was, like… partially skeleton! You just missed it! There were ribs and bones and—ugh, this is coming out wrong."
"You know what? Sure." She stood up and dusted off her pants. "Crazy skeleton man in a barrel. Makes about as much sense as anything else around here."
"I'm not crazy," Riven muttered. "Just cursed."
She offered a hand. "Name's Marlo. I fish. Sometimes stab things. You?"
"…Riven D. Ark. Pirate. Maybe."
She raised a brow. "You sure? You smell more like a shipwreck than a captain."
"That's fair," he admitted, taking her hand and getting pulled up.
Marlo circled him like she was checking for loose screws. "So what's your plan now, Captain Kinda-Dead?"
"I'm gonna build a crew," he said proudly, brushing sand off his pants. "Get a ship. Go after the One Piece."
Marlo stared at him.
Then laughed.
"You? You don't even have shoes."
"I—hey, that's not fair! The sea stole them!"
"Sure it did."
"I'm serious!"
She leaned on her spear. "Alright then, Skeleton Man. Let's say I believe your weird story. Why should I join you?"
Riven thought for a second.
Then pointed dramatically at the horizon.
"Because I have… ambition!"
A crab scuttled over his foot.
He screamed and jumped behind her.