The Journey

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, I am just writing a story about them. The only thing that I own are the characters that I create, and I am not even making a profit off of them. If you believe that I do own One Piece, then please, tell me. I will be Happy to sign autographs.

Authors Note: This is practically my first story, but I do have another one that I am not really dedicated too, who knows how this one will turn out (I hope better). I hope you enjoy, and please R&R!

"Stuff"- Talking

'Stuff'- Thinking

{Stuff}- Animal Speak

The light reflects off of his red hair, styled in a spiky manner on his head. His dark, almost black eyes scans the wooded area he is currently located in. His name is Jak, Jak Surn; he is a young man from the outskirts of California's city, Murphies. Jak glanced up at the placement of the sun in the sky to see how long he had been out on his walk.

"5 hours…" Jak muttered, "Mom will be worried about me, better get home." He set out, running through the forest, it seems that he does this often, based from his athletic build.

The trees in this area of the forest are old, and rather large; so it was quite impressive that he was able to run through the dense foliage with such ease. This young man really lets off a graceful air as he dodges and steps around the many obstacles in his path.

He has been running now for almost a quarter of an hour, and his mind starts to wander. He thinks about his life, and how lucky he is to have such a loving family, and to live in such a beautiful, unpolluted area; untouched by civilization. As his mind wanders, he is no longer paying attention to the setting, and almost trips over a fox that runs out in front of him.

Jak notices just in time to hop over the small animal, but still manages to knock it over. Jak is so worried about the fox that he fails to notice where he is landing, and falls with his foot caught in a root.

"AHH!" Jak screams, as he tumbles to the ground. He would have been able to catch himself, but he was not expecting the pain that came from his ankle being jerked backwards by the root.

He crashes to the ground, his head hitting a rock set into the ground, right where his face will fall. His head makes a CRACK as it impacts the rock, and he blacks-out.

The fox wanders up the where he is lying, and sniffs at his face. The fox then notices that it is not the boys hair scattered on the ground, but a puddle of blood.

It seems that the fox isn't the only one to smell blood, as a howl echoes through the woods.

The fox scurries away in fear; bigger predators than he are on the way to the scene.

Once out of sight, a grizzly bear wanders into view. Cautiously looking around for other creatures, the grizzly bear walks up to the body lying on the ground.

Sniff Sniff… The bear smells nothing odd in the air, and so it moves forward to take a sizable chunk out of the corpse lying at his feet. It's giant maw opens, teeth glinting, terrifyingly sharp.

The mouth comes down on the body and it just nicks it when…

The body isn't there anymore.

Not moves away.

Not gets dragged away by another animal.

Doesn't fade into nothingness.

It's just not there anymore.

The bear backs up, frightened, something supernatural just happened, but all it can think is 'DANGER' and its instincts take over as it flees the scene.

White. White. White.

That's all Jak could see.

He turns his head.

White.

'What is going on,' He thought.

"You are here Jak, to start on your journey to complete your destiny." A woman walks out of… nothingness.

'Where did she come from? There's nothing there!' Jak thought, surprised at the mysterious act.

"I don't need anything to come from, I'm part of your mind, as well as something more." The woman said to Jak.

'Did she just read my mind?' Jak exclaimed in his mind.

"Yes, I did." The woman responded to him.

"Can you stop that, please? I'm a private person, and this is just too much for me too take," Jake asked her. He took this chance to look more thoroughly around the room, and saw that he hadn't noticed some of the minor details.

The room was not a solid white, but made up of white tiles, about 6 feet in length. If one looks closely, they can see the small, but visible seams in between the tiles.

Then he squinted to see it even better. What he saw shocked him.

The place was wrecked. Tiles were cracked and misplaced, some falling apart and some lying on top of the others.

"I see you have noticed the state of this place," The woman said, standing behind him. "All the cracks and disaster starts getting worse as you get farther from where we are."

Jak looked again, and saw this was the truth. "This is my mind right? You said you were part of my mind, so this must be my mindscape. Am I hurt, or sick? What's wrong with me?" Jak yelled at her, thinking he was incurably hurt or sick.

"You are a bright one, aren't you?" She stated, "Yes, you are right, but it is not that you are sick. It's that you are dead. Your mind is falling apart because of this fact."

Jak's eyes widened, this wasn't what he had expected. He thought this might have been his mind way of coping with a disease or something of the like; but to have died.

"But, then why is this section of my mind completely fine?" Jak questioned her, trying to find salvation in the devastation.

"Because, you just dies and your mind is falling apart. A small part of you is still alive, the part that you are right now. Death is trying to take over this part of your mind but I am holding him off for now," She responded to Jak's desperate questioning.

"Oh, thank you. But why are you keeping me alive? What do you have to gain from this?" He knew that she needed something in return, that was how people were.

"Oh Jak, but I am not a person, I am part of your mind. I do just want to help you."

"I thought I told you to stop reading my god-damn mind! It's my only private place, and you're invading it!" Jak yelled at her, his temper flaring at her blatant disregard for his wishes. Or so he thought.

"I told you, I am part of your mind, I can no more help it then you can stop breathing." The woman responded, in a calm and soothing voice.

He huffed. He struggled to wrap his mind around everything that he was being told.

"Look, my duty is to tell you that you have two options to pick from," The woman informed him, "You can choose to die and move on, to be gone from this and every world. Or, you can choose to fulfill your destiny by living, but in a different universe. It's your choice, so pick well." The woman then turned away, and started to fade into nothingness.

"Once you choose, your decision will come into effect. Take your time, Death won't get to you anytime soon." And the woman was completely gone.

Jak moaned and flopped down on the ground. 'This can't be happening, it's gotta be a dream.'

"I know that I don't want to die, I want to live, who doesn't. But, wouldn't it be nice to get a break? And to go to a whole other dimension, it's too much." Jak muttered to himself, "I don't want to go, but how can I say that I want to die?"

Jak pondered this question for sometime, struggling to find a solution to the dilemma. However, as much as he thought about it, the more frustrated he became.

"How the hell do I choose something like this? I know what I should be picking right now, but I just can't do it!" Jak screamed at the top of his lungs, "Just let me out of here!"

He disappeared in a flash of bright light.

Silence.

Crack!

A/N- Hey there everyone thanks for reading my story. I know this is a short chapter, but it is such a natural ending. I hope people will come back and finish reading my story as I post the rest. Oh, and for anyone that is confused, the cracking is the tiles breaking apart. Thanks!