[h2]Enter Birdy D. Blade, The Kid with a Hundred Swords![/h2]

Yes you could feel the excitement in the air, the buzzing energy of busyness and preparation that filled up even backwater towns like this one here on Frux the day before a big festival. That's what had drawn Birdy here along with so many others like he supposed flies would eventually be drawn to whatever left-over fruit hadn't been sold or eaten by the end of the island's famous festival! Well that and the fact that he was broke, starving and had nowhere to go other than here. The last fight he'd gotten in had ended with his puny raft of a so-called ship diced to pieces after he'd gotten a little too enthusiastic in fighting off the bounty hunters on his tail. But after two years of near-constantly being dogged by marines and money-chasing jerks like those he'd been understandably ticked off in his own opinion.

So after barely managing to drag himself ashore just a day ago 14-year-old Birdy D. Blade, perhaps one of the youngest swordsmen ever to earn a major bounty, was reduced to prowling the dockside of Frux like a hungry stray puppy. Matters were made even worse by the huge metal box slung over his shoulder constantly reminding him of nice hot bowls of soup as it weighed him down, though the container marked 'HI-SPEED DELIVERY' held no such thing.

"Guuuh~...gotta find, something to eat...anything..." 

Unfortunately for him, it would still be a whole day before the festival began in earnest so it wasn't like there were already loads and loads of-

"FRUIT!~ AHAHAHAHA YES!~" There was a whole cartload of the stuff right in front of him, and there was suddenly so much commotion going on that there way no way anybody including the weird old pirate or the fruit lady would notice if he stole a fruit or six to munch on! Naturally, Birdy dove for the fruit cart ready to snatch some of the deliciousness for himself...but just then some jerk smashed right into the cart and sent all the fruit flying and tumbling!

"My...my precious chance at a meal...ruined..." Birdy mumbled to himself in despair, practically blue with shock. Not only did this guy wreck his first chance at food in two whole days, he had the nerve to turn into some kind of goop monster and start running off! That didn't even get into the irritating-ness of the weird old man shouting about-

"20,000?! That could buy me a whole 'nother cart of fruit all to myself! And meat! and RAMEN!~ That jerk's wearing a Marine uniform too, ooooh this is PERFECT!~" With that the short, spike-headed child joined in with the pursuit! Despite the big heavy metal box on his shoulders he dashed with surprising speed right toward the old, blue bearded guy, and as he tried to catch up with the mass of pirates chasing after Captain Mushy and he began swinging the massive 'Hi-Speed Delivery' box around by the straps to try and bludgeon them all out of the way!

[b]"GET OUTTA MY WAY! THAT BIG MUSHY MEAL-TICKET IS ALL MINE!!"[/b]

The fact that he might either blow past or bash aside the man actually offering the money and his crew to get to the mushy marine barely even registered, so great was Birdy's hunger and childish enthusiasm.