You were born on Mariejois—home of the Celestial Dragons, and one among them yourself. When Fisher Tiger went on his rampage in your early days, your family was slain in the rioting—you preserved only due to the work of your maidservant. Raised by the household's retainers, you have eschewed the soft life and privileges entitled to you by birth and trained yourself hard—so as to bring Peace to the Oceans, so that none need live in fear, and you be worthy of the Rights accorded to you by birth. Your training complete, you have signed on incognito to accumulate experience on the recommendation of your guard captain, and gain a better view of your responsibilities from the ground level.
— Backstory
Written by Mazrick on Sufficient Velocity, Dreams and Destiny is a One Piece Forum Quest.
It follows the adventures of Saint Kennard Burke, a World Noble who has secretly enlisted in the Marines with the goal of ending the Age of Pirates.
Can be found here
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This work provides examples of the following tropes:
- Almighty Janitor: Ken's rank in the Marines is always far lower than his combat ability. A lack of skills in abilities outside of combat, such as leadership and sailing, keep him from being promoted.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Several different groups including the Marines and Cipher Pol 9.
- Badass Normal: This describes most people in the world of One Piece.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: No matter the injury, after a good nap and a bite to eat Ken is as good as new, his skin unmarred. Since averted, as both Ken and Ace gave each other their first scars.
- Big Eater: Ken and Luffy.
- Blood Magic: Captain Matilda. Her Devil Fruit allows her some semblance of control over blood.
- Born Winner: Ace and Luffy as in canon, as well as Ken.
- But Now I Must Go: Shirou decides to leave the group to continue his own quest after the Water 7 Arc.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: Even before he ate a Devil Fruit, or awakened his Haki, Ken was showing signs of being a monster.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- Ken effortlessly defeated Luffy and Sanji at the Attack Cuisine restaurant on Water 7, and then later on the rest of the Straw Hat Pirates on the isolated beach.
- Enel suffers this fate as well during the climax of the Water 7 Arc.
- Dangerous Forbidden Technique: God's Blade. A move that Ken's body is not prepared to handle. He barely survived, and his glaive flat out disintegrated.
- Dark and Troubled Past: See the page quote.
- Determinator: Ken in every arc, and Ace against Blackbeard.
- Disproportionate Retribution: When Ken is ordered to capture the Straw Hat Pirates alive, this does not sit well with him. His response is to slaughter fourteen other pirate crews. While they are docked and idle.
- Elemental Embodiment: Logia-type Devil Fruit users.
- Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Played with during the battle between Ace, Ken, and Enel. Ken was able to beat Enel with ease, due to Cloud trumping Lightning, Ace and Flame on the other hand was easily able to disperse said clouds.
- Empowered Badass Normal: Anyone who has eaten a Devil Fruit or awakened their Haki.
- Even the Guys Want Him: It's not only female civilians who get heart-shaped eyes when Ken walks into a room.
- Foil:
- Ken is one for Luffy. Both are strong, big eaters who lack common sense. They also have the same habit of smiling in the face of death, and being relentless in their pursuit of their dream. This sets the two of them in conflict as Ken dreams of ending the Age of Pirates, while Luffy dreams of being the Pirate King. Mazrick has also confirmed that they started their quests on the same day.
- Ken is also one for Ace.
- For Want Of A Nail: Ken's very existence sends ripples throughout the entire story.
- Before the start of the quest, Ken rewards his trainer and mentor, Rob Lucci, with the Cat Cat Fruit: Model Byakko.
- After Ken left Mariejois to pursue his dream of becoming a Marine, Saint Shalulia commissioned a task force to look for him. This eventually led to the Marines rediscovering the White-White Sea, and capturing Enel after his defeat at Luffy's hands.
- Ken and his crew end up encountering Ace during his hunt for Blackbeard. The fight between Ken, Alvin, Shirou, and Ace resulted in the destruction of his raft. This led to Ace boarding a civilian ship, thereby switching routes and heading to Water 7 to get a new one, resulting in the Duel at Banaro island never happening. Furthermore, his near-death experience at the hands of Ken forced him to start training his Haki once more.
- Since the Duel at Banaro Island never occurred the Blackbeard Pirates were able continue their hunt for Luffy, with Blackbeard even gaining a bounty of 75 Million Beli, which lead to them arriving on Water 7 while following his trail.
- These events eventually culminated to a massively different and more chaotic version of the Water 7 Arc of canon.
- Because of Ken and his crew, the Straw Hat Pirates were utterly defeated on Water 7. This resulted in Nico Robin being recruited by Cipher Pol 9 and Luffy being press-ganged into accepting a Warlord position
- Godzilla Threshold: The events of the Water 7 Arc. Ken bumps into and then hunts the Straw Hat Pirates, then lures the fighting Ace and Blackbeard to the Going Merry. Once they arrive Ken joins their fight and takes out Blackbeard with a Dangerous Forbidden Technique when he turns his back on him. In the aftermath of this, Ken is picked up by Rob Lucci and given a Logia-type Devil Fruit and immediately goes out into the night during the worst Aqua Laguna in recent memory to face Ace and Enel after a Buster Call has been ordered. Oh yeah, Enel rampaged through Enies Lobby and then fled from Garp to Water 7, presumably via the Sea Train rails.
- Healing Spring: Or rather a fountain. Ken and his crew in Kameloth use one in order to heal their wounds after a deadly battle with Beast-King Gwythorn. The fountain is also used to cure the poisoned Prince Medrat.
- Heroic Suicide: Iceburg chooses to kill himself rather than reveal the Pluton plans to Cipher Pol 9.
- Humanoid Abomination: Merlin's Monster, a deadly modified monstrosity made by Merlin using the body of an infamous pirate worth 250 Million. Ken fought and killed it near the end of Kameloth Arc.
- Killed Off for Real: Iceburg, Enel, X. Drake, and Spandam during the Water 7 Arc.
- King Incognito: Ken the Marine is the identity created and used by the World Noble Saint Kennard Burke. Played with as Ken doesn't really fit in properly, with Ormthal quickly figuring out that he was from a rich family and Uma suspecting him to be a member of the nobility.
- Knighting: The Kameloth Arc ended with Ken being knighted by a freed King Arthur, giving him the title of "Sir Ken the Unyielding" and the World Government hailing him the "Radiant Knight".
- Knight of Cerebus: Ken acts as this for the Straw Hat Pirates. His arrival causes an almost complete party wipe for the crew, if not for Garp's explicit orders to capture them alive.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Ace decides to book it after realizing how much damage Ken could endure, and catching sight of the Buster Call ships coming from the horizon. He was still caught.
- Implacable Man: Ken is like the Terminator.
- Immune to Bullets: They simply bounce off of Ken, though he still feels the bullets burn against his skin.
- In Spite of a Nail:
- Ken destroys the Going Merry.
- Zoro breaks one of his swords in a fight with a Marine officer.
- Ace and Blackbeard battle on an island in Paradise.
- Enies Lobby still gets wrecked by an attack caused by a Devil Fruit user.
- Spandam uses the Golden Den Den Mushi by accident and summons a Buster Call.
- Ace is still defeated by a Logia, and then captured by the World Government.
- In the Blood: Uma comes from a family that boasts 20 generations of Marine service, including Admirals and Fleet Admirals.
- Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: One of Ken's most defining traits is his honour. During his travels he arrives at Kameloth, a knightly kingdom in the Grand Line, and participates in an honourable duel with an anointed knight to rescue the imprisoned royal family. Ken himself is knighted by King Arthur after freeing him and helping to save Kameloth from rebellion.
- Let's You and Him Fight: Ken purposely attacks the Straw Hat Pirates on a secluded beach to draw Ace and Blackbeard away from the city.
- Large and in Charge: Ormthal. The Marine Lieutenant Commander is approximately 14 and a half feet tall.
- Like a God to Me: This is how Rob Lucci views Ken. His interlude reveals that he thinks that Ken is the only person fitting to sit upon the Empty Throne and rule the world.
- Literal Disarming: Ken ends up slicing off Monster Point Chopper's leg during his battle with the Straw Hat Pirates. Averted with Nami who almost lost her arm if not for a last second intervention by Luffy.
- Made of Iron: Ken's body has a higher density than titanium.
- Mouth Stitched Shut: Alvin to Fukuro and Spandam
- Nice Guy: Ken compared to the rest of the World Nobles.
- Noble Bird of Prey: Icarus. Uma's pet Ouki, a Demon Bird from the Island of Qin.
- Noodle Incident: Shirou's and Alvin's adventures with Ace.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: As this quest is mostly told from the perspective of Ken, a lot of other events tend to happen offscreen.
- Alvin managed to defeat Beast-King Gwythorn of Kameloth in single combat, after it devastated Ken and his party.
- The climax of the Kameloth Arc involved Ormthal and Shirou, a mercenary swordsman who Ken hired, fighting Revolutionaries and eventually led them to finding the lost sword of legend, Excalibur, which Shirou then used to kill an entire army of knights.
- Rob Lucci managed to kill X. Drake after awakening his Armament Haki during the climax of the Water 7 Arc.
- Uma, with the help of Shirou, survives an encounter with the Blackbeard Pirates.
- Uma, Alvin, and Kaku managed to defeat and capture the Straw Hat Pirates.
- Ormthal and Matilda pacified the West Blue by taking down two of the Five Ruling Families of the underworld.
- One-Man Army: Ken happily takes on Paradise level pirate crews by himself. And often leaves no survivors.
- Pocket Dimension: Uma's Devil Fruit makes her a Storage Human.
- Poor Communication Kills: Mazrick has implied that X. Drake defecting from the Marines was part of a deep undercover mission to infiltrate the Beast Pirates. He was killed by an unknowing Rob Lucci during the climax of the Water 7 Arc.
- Post-Victory Collapse: A staple for Ken who always pushes himself past his limits every time he faces an enemy that is stronger than him.
- Power Limiter: Ken purposely wears a ring made out of Seastone, weakening himself to the point of nausea and suppressing his Devil Fruit powers, for the sake of training himself out of the Logia Invincibility mindset.
- Pretty Boy: Mazrick has confirmed that, like Cavendish, Ken would be drawn in a way that Oda exclusively reserves for his beautiful female characters.
- Public Execution: Spandam's fate for his incompetence.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Ken. Later on Nimue, the princess of Kameloth.
- Seers: Nimue's Devil Fruit allows her to see glimpses of the future. With her ability she was able to deduce Ken's true identity, and later on predict some of the events of Water 7. Aside from that, with the use of her powers she is able to take the role of a navigator which allows Ken's crew to bypass storms and unfortunate weather.
- Selective Obliviousness: Ken refuses to believe that Ace and Luffy are related to Garp.
- Signature Laugh: Aside from the ones in canon we have:
- Ken: "Kokokoko..."
- Uma: "Fafafa.."
- Shirou: "Yahaha.."
- Alvin: "Popapa.."
- Single-Stroke Battle: Ken vs Enel.
- Super Drowning Skills: Ken now has this after eating a Devil Fruit.
- Supernatural Martial Arts: Dragon Style, an ancient martial arts style developed and used by the Great Ancestors. Ken was able to recreate the style in his youth with the help of Rob Lucci. Rokushiki, used by Cipher Pol 9 and the Marines. counts as well.
- Target Spotter: Nimue uses her Devil Fruit abilities to act as this for Uma when they use their combo attack, "Sight and Blast".
- Taking the Bullet: Despite being down an arm and leg, with a chunk of his head missing, and being ripped in half, Sir Gawn of Greenvale manages to move and take what would have been a killing blow from Gwythorn, saving an unconscious Uma's life in the process.
- The Beastmaster: Uma has an affinity for animals and dangerous beasts.
- Thinking Up Portals: The King's Hunter in the Kameloth Arc possessed a Devil Fruit that allowed her to create Corridors. She uses this ability to break Ken's first glaive, Justice.
- Training from Hell: Northpoint Island for Ken, Uma, Nimue, Coby and Helmeppo.
- Too Dumb to Live: Spandam accidentally uses the Golden Den Den Mushi and summons a Buster Call on Water 7.
- Total Party Kill: Ken's usual approach towards pirate crews. Played with during Ken's fight with the Straw Hat Pirates, as only Garp's orders prevented them from getting killed.
- Undying Loyalty: Rob Lucci has abandoned Dark Justice for Saint Kennard's Justice.
- Unreliable Narrator: Ken has a rather skewed point of view, and more often than not ignores details that he thinks are unimportant.
- Victory by Endurance: The fight between Ace and Ken on Water 7 came down to this, with Ken enduring all of Ace's attacks and stalling him long enough for the Buster Call fleet to arrive. This eventually culminated in the capture of Ace.
- Viking Funeral: Ken performs this for two siblings killed by the Noose Pirates early on in the quest.
- Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Enel had the Logia Invincibility mindset, even after losing to Luffy.
- Villain Protagonist: What Ken currently is.
- Villain Respect: Rob Lucci shows signs of this towards Iceburg. If nothing else he respected the man for having the will to take his own life to prevent him from finding Pluton.
- You Kill It, You Bought It: Luffy receives Crocodile's old seat as a Warlord of the Seas.
