Hi everybody out there! It's me, Mjus the Damn Fool, and I've started with yet another story while I still haven't finished the ones I'm working on (bangs head against nearest wall) I'm sorry, but I can't help it. However, this is a challenge I accepted from shiva1, but it won't be twenty or even ten chapters long... or maybe it will be ten chapters...

IMPORTANT NOTE! MAKE SURE TO READ THIS; I'm pretty sick of people complaining about OOCness, so I'll tell you right now that this story is full of it. Don't like, don't read and don't tell me you don't like it, because I'm not going to change it.

This story is also a slight crossover with Clamp's xXxholic, but only one character will appear from that series, so I haven't put this up as a crossover.

Disclaimer; I don't, have not and will never own One Piece or xXxholic or any of their characters.

One Piece (c) Eiichiro Oda

xXxholic (c) Clamp

The challenge (c) shiva1 (I hope you like it :))

The only thing I do own is the "Old world", the plot and OCs appearing in the story.

It was the middle of the day when the space-time witch lifted her gaze from her beer can to greet her costumer; a young woman wearing tight rags and two Japanese katana at her hip and a third one in her gloved hand, sheathed. Over her shoulders hung a rough, greyish cloth with a hood, for the moment pulled back. Her dark tan showed she spent many hours in the sun and her thin face and body that she ate way too little.

"You decided to come in person, huh? I thought you would use smoother ways of contact."

"I know, but I think you probably also knows why I've come like this, Yûko-san."

"Yes," the witch said calmly, taking the last swig of her beer and grieved the can's emptiness. "Very reckless, I must say. But you have come here because you have a wish, so let me hear it." Discarding the empty can, Yûko opened another one.

"I want her to be free, but there is no freedom in our world."

"That depends on what you want to free that girl from," the witch pointed out. "You can free her from her powers, and you can free her from the responsibility."

"No. What I want the most is for her to dream. I know she has a dream, have been trying to chase it all of her life but always chokes it saying it's futile and not worth it, that dreams are useless for… I wish to send her to a different world where she is free to dream."

Yûko quietly watched the grass as she thought about it. "Such a wish has a high price."

"I am aware of that."

Keeping a straight face Yûko downed half her beer. She knew about this young woman's world's condition, which made her wish a call for disaster. However, there was no desire for her friend's position, making the wish pure and honest. Still…

"You don't have enough to pay for your wish," Yûko stated.

"I… don't? This isn't enough?" she asked, holding up the katana in her hand.

"It is not enough, but let me correct myself; I can't accept fair payment for your wish from you. Only you have the power to purify the poison that plagues your world. Taking that power would spell doom on your world completely."

The woman lowered her gaze and bit her lip. She knew that already, but it shouldn't matter. There was no more time. There was no more hope. "I understand. So how am I supposed to pay for my wish?"

Yûko frowned. "Are you really willing to pay that much for it? Why don't you just give her your way of moving between words?"

"Because it demands knowledge of the place one wishes to go to, and because even if I gave her the chance, she wouldn't use it."

The space-time witch watched her client with displeasure. Even if it was a wish she could grant, the consequences of that wish could be catastrophic. Still, the wish was so hot and vivid Yûko couldn't find more excuses to deny it. She would have to compromise.

"Very well. I shall grant your wish. But…"

"Yes?"

"I have no intention of being the catalyst of your world's downfall; in that case your original payment is too high. Therefore, for the future, for your suffering, a price will be paid to you."

In a different world far from the one the space-time witch and her client discussed payment in we find wild and untamed seas dotted with islands of various sizes and nature. This world only has one actual continent, one that circles the world; a continent made from red rocks, thereof its name; Red Line. The seas on both sides of this enormous continent have since ancient times been dangerous and filled with both small silvery fishes as well as demonic monsters the size of islands. This is a world ruled mainly by a single government, a unity of more than a hundred and seventy countries. However, there are a few kingdoms standing outside this world government. Those are lawless zones without the government's military protection, and therefore the people of those kingdoms can be treated like trash by the rest of the world.

Standing up against the ruling government is a revolutionary army, its goal being to overthrow the order of this world to build a new one. The revolutionaries are led by a man named Dragon; the world's most dangerous man. Only a few knows his real name is Monkey D. Dragon, the son of marine vice admiral Monkey D. Garp.

Beside the revolutionaries, the world government has one enemy on the seas, although the hatred towards said enemy most of the time is one-sided. While each country has its own military force, there are numerous battles being fought out at the seas, because the government's enemy is not one person, not even an organized group of people. They are pirates.

In the history there is a hole, a century that was never recorded so nobody alive knows what happened. What is known is that before the "Void century" there was no world government, and when time once again was being recorded the government had complete power and the pirates sailing the seas were only a mild problem, no matter how strong they were. But perhaps fifty years ago a certain pirate took a lead and concerned the rulers. He sailed around the world for a few years before he entered the Grand Line, the most outrageous and untamed sea of them all. Entire fleets of marines or pirates couldn't defeat this single man and his crew. He conquered this wild world and earned the title of the man who had acquired everything the world had to offer; wealth, fame and power. He became known as the King of Pirates, Gold Roger.

Roger was the government's greatest enemy, and they never managed to capture him. Actually, perhaps to some relief for the ministers, Roger gave up and turned himself in. It was decided that this dangerous man, the devil of the seas, would be officially executed in the town he was once born; Loguetown in East Blue, the calmest of all the seas. But the King of Pirates wasn't going to be good and just die and disappear from the world. Because of a foolish marine officer's question, Gold Roger answered with a wide smirk.

"My treasures, you ask? If you want them, you can have them. Look for them! I left it all at that one place!"

After having said that, Gold Roger died, executed with a grin on his face.

Believing their greatest enemy was gone, the government relaxed. That's why they were caught by surprise by the tsunami of pirates setting sails and heading for the Grand Line, conquered only by the King of Pirates himself. People dreaming of the great treasure Gold Roger had left behind swarmed the world, and the government had never hated the King of Pirates as much as they did after his death.

Today the Pirate Era is still on its peak. One of the newly upcoming pirates is quite a peculiar one; commonly known as Mugiwara no Luffy, or Luffy with the straw hat. His real name is Monkey D. Luffy. This adventurous young man has a long merit list already, though his career started not even a year ago. His crew contains of eight people, if that's the right thing to call them, but it's the easiest definition. From Zoro, the first to join the crew, to Brook, the newest member, they all feel the same strong loyalty and friendship for their captain. They are a small but tight crew. That is why they are about to face one of their toughest escapades so far.

Thousand Sunny, the Mugiwara crew's proud ship sailed forwards in the bright sun, occasionally hidden behind little white clouds. Usopp, the crew's sniper and one of the world's greatest liars, had just spotted an island, and Luffy, being Luffy, couldn't wait to sniff out all the cool adventures this island could bring him.

By the railing stood Brook, a living skeleton due to a devil fruit, with a steaming cup of tea in one bony hand. "Such an odd sight," he hummed softly.

"A-are you sure about this, Luffy?" Usopp asked and nervously tried to hide from the island behind the railing. "What if there are huge monsters hiding in that mountain."

"Really? Monsters?" the little reindeer doctor, Tony Tony Chopper jumped to attention and mirrored Usopp's nervousness.

"Is that really an island?" Zoro asked.

"It looks more like a mountain sticking up of the sea to me," Franky the cyborg shipwright agreed with Zoro.

"Have I ever led you wrong before?" Nami the navigator, a pretty and well-shaped woman, asked pointedly. "The log pose is pointing straight to the centre of that mountain. How do we get in? Are we supposed to climb?" She used a spyglass to look for anywhere to dock.

"Nami-san is so cute when she thinks," the cook Sanji, the only one who wasn't looking at the island, sighed in bliss.

"It must be a volcano!" Usopp burst out, scaring Chopper.

"A volcano?!" Chopper's breath hitched in his throat, before he tilted his head to the side. "What's that?"

Robin, historian and archaeologist chuckled. "It is a mountain filled with magma, melted rock."

"Really? Rock can melt?!"

"If it's hot enough. But it's only inside volcanoes the heat ever reaches such degrees."

Chopper's brain started spinning and he went momentarily unresponsive. He was after all born on a winter island, and only after he joined the crew he found there the world outside his island wasn't filled with snow. The concept of something being hot enough for rock to melt was a little beyond what he could imagine.

"Oi! There are holes in the wall!" Luffy called out. "What are those?"

"They must be the monsters' dens," Usopp mused hoarsely. "Wait. Guys, I can feel it. The deadly Can't-Land-On-That-Island bacteria…"

"Then you watch the ship," Zoro decided unfazed.

"Hey!"

Nami glanced past the spyglass to spot the holes her captain referred to. "I can't see anything in the holes," she said slowly as she examined them. "Can't tell if they're natural or not either."

"Of course not," Usopp said like he knew. "The monsters dug them out with their five… no ten meter long talons to capture innocent pirates trying to enter the island!"

"What?! Really?!" Chopper cried out, to which Usopp started painting out a picture and made up a short but entertaining story about how he encountered the monsters before and how he defeated them. Chopper was the only listener, but one was better than none, and the reindeer was a really good listener.

Sanji sniffed. For a second he thought he smelled something familiar that wasn't salt, wood or the tar Franky used to paint the ship's outside. The cook turned his head around to localise the smell, but couldn't find it again, so he dismissed it as imagination.

"Let's dock!" Luffy cried out excitedly.

"Aye!"

"What?! No!" Usopp and Chopper cried.

Nami turned to the crew. "Franky take the helm. Zoro, Sanji, mind the sails, catch the starboard wind. Usopp and Robin, check for rocks under the surface. Brook, take place in the crow's nest."

"Roger."

"Luffy, we'll need your help to get to the island, so don't go ahead of yourself," the navigator said sternly.

"Ah, okay Nami."

Nami could only hope her captain actually would do as she said, but figured that if Luffy had to choose between going on adventures alone or with his friends, he'd definitely rather have someone with him. After all, he hated being alone more than anything.

"Nami-chan, I think I see a bridge ahead," Robin called out.

"Really?"

Nami ran to the bow and followed the dark-haired woman's pointing finger. Sure enough; something that really looked like a rock bridge pointed out of the mountain wall.

"That is definitely manmade," the navigator stated and turned back to the crew. "Luffy, help Zoro and Sanji straighten the sails. Franky, steer towards that bridge."

"I hear you," the cyborg answered and turned the helm, skilfully steering the ship around the rocks, heeding Robin and Usopp's warnings of underwater obstacles.

Nami waited for the ship to be in position. "Alright. Take in the sails and drop the anchor."

Perfect timing as usual. Thousand Sunny slowed and gently stopped right by the bridge. Luffy however was off the ship and inside the tunnel the bridge led to before Sunny came to a stop. Much as usual.

"There's just no stopping him," Nami sighed. Sometimes she wished her captain could calm down just a bit, but at the same time she probably would never want him to be any different.

But as said before, Luffy hated being alone, so when he had checked out the tunnel he came running back to his crew shouting excitedly; "Oi! Everyone, you have to see this!" and ran back into the tunnel.

"Maybe he found something edible," Sanji suggested and jumped off Sunny's deck.

"I don't think so," Usopp argued and followed the cook.

Nami turned to Zoro, Franky and Brook who had just come down from the crow's nest. "You guard the ship."

It was not a suggestion. Brook humbly accepted the order, Franky had the same plan, but Zoro grumbled and boringly sat against the railing to take a nap.

Somewhere else, in a different universe, a young woman returned to her village protected from the sun by a white mountain full of holes and tunnels.

"Shaman, where have you been?" an old man demanded.

"Controlled the surrounding area, Major," the woman answered indifferently.

"My daughter is hungry. Go hunt."

The woman stopped in her tracks and turned cold green eyes on the older man. "If you want food, grab a weapon and hunt it down yourself, old man."

"Don't dare to use that tone against me, Shaman. I found this hideout…"

"But not the water," the woman cut him off and unsheathed a black sword, pointing it to the old man's throat. "Never forget this, Major. You found this protection, yes, but without the girl to find you water and me to hunt for food you'd have joined the dead long ago."

"Exactly," the old man growled. "You are responsible for finding food and keeping us alive. We must survive, so find food for us, or else…"

The woman grinned. "Or else what? You'll chase me out? Torture me? Go ahead, you old fart. Threaten me as hard as you can. Ask me to leave and I will. In difference to you, I have nothing but my own life to lose." She sheathed her sword again. "I'll go hunt when I feel like it, because I don't care if you or your daughter starve."

"You can't do that!"

"Watch me."

She left the old man there. This had occurred many times before. When she was younger, when she had still believed in hope, she had gone to hunt whenever anyone asked for food, which could be a few times a day. Today she knew better, and her rebellion against the major was driving him over the edge. The only thing keeping her safe was the fact that she really was the only one who could hunt down the only food available.

"Shaman."

She turned towards the speaker; a girl who went without a name. Her appearance was not much different from anyone else. Her hair was black and eyes grey, her skin rough from the sun and the harsh life they lived here.

"Take me out hunting," she begged.

"The villagers won't like that."

"Please."

The shaman sighed. "And here I just told Major I refused to go hunt. If you're prepared, let's go."

The nameless girl followed the shaman towards one of the exits. They passed a man sitting against a rock and the shaman turned to him.

"If you see Major, tell him I've taken the girl out hunting."

The man's only answer was an indifferent wave of his hand. He, like many others before him, had given up hope, but still didn't want to die.

Sanji, Usopp, Nami, Robin and Chopper followed their captain through the smooth tunnel, heading slightly upwards. It wasn't very long before they could see the light of the tunnel's end where Luffy had stopped, waiting for his crew to catch up.

The sight that met them was breath-taking. Millions of years ago this mountain had definitely been a volcano that had erupted one last time before going to sleep forever. Over the years, helped by rain and a large chunk of soil that had miraculously ended up here, grass and a single proud oak tree had begun to grow. In the bottom of this valley rainwater had collected into a pond. The sun couldn't properly reach this hidden place; still it was as bright as the outside world. Nami especially was breaking into an excited squeal.

"Diamonds! The walls are covered with raw diamonds!"

"This much… how is it possible?" Usopp breathed.

"Why are there diamonds in the walls?" Chopper asked, gaping like a fish.

"Diamonds are created from the charcoal the magma creates," Robin explained, like an automatic answer since she too couldn't take her eyes off the glistering walls. "But I never thought there could be this much inside a single volcano."

"Amazing," Sanji said.

"Hey, look at that!" Luffy called out and pointed.

"What?"

Instead of answering, Luffy took off into the valley, heading for the tree. His crew followed out of experience; if they let Luffy roam free, there was no telling what kind of trouble he'd attract.

It was Usopp who saw it first.

"Houses? Are there really people living here?"

"I'd imagine," Nami said, momentarily returned from the cash register in her brain that continued trying to count the value of all the diamonds she could see. "That bridge we landed on, the people who live here must have made it in order to go out fishing or something. They can't live on grass…" Just to make sure, she turned to Sanji. "Right?"

"I wouldn't recommend grass as food for humans," the cook said. "But if you're hungry enough and there is nothing else to eat, even grass and the leaves and acorn from the oak will do as food."

Ruffy stopped in front of one of the houses. "Hello! Is there people here?"

At first nothing happened and Luffy's crew caught up with him just in time to stop him from walking straight into the house.

A round window opened on the top floor and a young girl with red braids and freckles leaned outside. She stared at them with wide, blinking, reddish eyes.

"Hi. Do you have any food?" Luffy broke the ice.

Instead of answering the girl blinked again and closed the window.

"That probably means they don't have food to share in this place," Usopp tried to explain the girl's behaviour.

The door to the house suddenly slammed open and the redhead stood in front of them with a cold look in her eyes.

"Who are you and what do you want in my valley?"

"Huh?"

Everybody stared at the short girl. Was she a devil fruit user or where did that attitude come from?

"Well, miss…" Sanji started with a small smile.

"Shut up, ugly bitch. I was talking to the hot guy."

The pirates blinked and turned around. Had somebody else come up behind them without their notice? Nope, nobody was there.

"Don't you dare make a fool of me, man-whore! Of course I meant the man wearing the straw hat. I am way too beautiful to waste my time on blond airheads."

If they were staring before, they were gawking now. Man-whore? Luffy was the hot guy? Sanji had never been this hurt by a woman before. What had he done to be treated like this by a pretty lady?

Nami couldn't help it. She looked strangely at the girl and glanced between Luffy and Sanji. In matters of looks Sanji won without even trying, because Luffy never cared much about his appearance.

"She's got weird taste," Nami stated quietly.

"Indeed," Usopp agreed.

"We're just checking out the place," Luffy said, letting Nami, Usopp and Chopper care for Sanji's wounded pride.

"Oh. So you're yet another hoard of drooling beasts blinded by the walls here."

It was a statement, and one Nami didn't like. Yes, she did plan to steal all the diamonds, or at least as many as Sunny could carry without sinking, but that didn't make her a drooling beast. This redhead needed to be put in place. Soon.

Screams carried down to where they stood.

"Onee-chan!"

"Rose-chan! Look out for the pirates!"

Two boys were running for their lives with newly formed bruises and a bump each. However, when they noticed the redhead surrounded by strangers they started wielding their fishing tools as weapons.

"You pirates! Don't touch onee-chan!"

"What are you doing with my bride!? Prepare to die!"

It was probably meant as a serious threat, but it fell flat before the pirates. They had heard that phrase too many times to count, and they weren't dead yet.

"What are they up to?" Usopp asked.

"If I knew," Nami just said. "Robin, if you please."

"I'm at it, Nami-chan."

The boys fell on their faces when Robin's hands grew out of the grass and grabbed their ankles.

"Fail!" the redhead yelled angrily. "Tanpopo (dandelion)! Kiro (yellow)! What are you doing screaming about pirates and falling flat on your noses? Kiro, if you ever want to even dream about marrying me, you must be cooler than ice. Get up, Tanpopo! As my little brother you can't act like a dog!"

"But onee-chan…" the smallest boy whined, rubbing his green nose, coloured by the grass from the fall. His bright blond hair stood out in all directions, decorated with some greenery of grass and a leaf from the oak.

"Rose-chan, a pirate ship is anchored outside," the second boy in his early teens yelled, he too blond with his hair in a ponytail. "We were just defeat… I mean we just defeated the demons, but some of them must have landed and come here. Admit it, you vermin!" he yelled turned to Luffy and his crew. "You are pirates!"

"Yes we are," Luffy answered simply.

"Huh?"

For a moment the two parties of people stared at each other. Then the blond teen started laughing and stood in a proud pose.

"Fear me, you pirates. I am Kiro the mighty, the ruler of Bright Oak Island. Just now I killed your friends and sunk your ship. You better leave before I get started on you!"

Not even Luffy would fall for that lie. Usopp felt like puking over the fellow's lying-skills. Nami, Robin, Sanji and Chopper glanced behind the bragging boy where the smaller one sat staring at them with tearful eyes and shaking from head to toe with fright.

"That Zoro," Nami sighed. "He just can't hold back."

"He really never does," Robin smiled.

"Seems he didn't use his swords. Good for them." Sanji stated.

"Should I treat your wounds?" asked Chopper, always the kind doctor.

Kiro's face lit up with a slight blush. "What are you saying? I just told you I killed your friends! Don't you care?"

"They wouldn't die so easily," Luffy said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

A sturdy woman suddenly exited one of the other houses. "What's going on out here?!"

Not a single cloud on the sky. In this world that was the norm since a hundred years back. Two women, carefully covered from the sunlight walked steadily over the rough, crumbling rock ground, occasionally spotted with a small patch of dry sand. There was no wind either. Nothing green grew within eyeshot.

They arrived to a steep hill and walked around it until they came to the shadowed side. The shaman looked around, looking for any sort of danger, before she started climbing rather easily. The girl in her company followed without a word. This side, this particular place the women climbed, was the only part that the sun never reached, so it was a safer trip with less chance of the rock giving in under their weight.

Once up the shaman stood prepared to draw her black sword as she looked around, the girl in her tow waited just beneath the cliff's edge.

The coast was clear and the shaman straightened. The other girl heaved herself up and looked with sadness at the skeleton of a since long dead, grand tree. Once upon a time this place had been lush and green. Seeing its state now you couldn't imagine. Everywhere you looked it was only rocks, sand and dry, twisted remains of wood and trees.

The shaman ignored the past and present of this place and started walking with purposeful steps. The girl hurried to catch up. Straying too far from the shaman was dangerous.

They arrived to a cave mouth and the girl instantly took cover between two rocks beside it while the shaman placed herself right in the opening, sword drawn, and used her ring, a metal piece with a small claw on it, to cut her face under both eyes and waited.

Behind the rocks the girl shook from slight fear. She trusted the shaman's abilities, had to, but this world was so full of dangers that not even the most careful person was safe. If the shaman went out of luck one day, that would be the end for their people. She already wore the scars to prove she wasn't invincible.

The shaman waved a hand to signal there was no danger around and the girl sighed from relief.

The cave was narrow to begin with, but after a few yards it widened so that both women could stand straight. The sunlight didn't reach in here and the darkness was pleasantly cooler. The shaman took off her hood and opened her cloak to reach for the medallion around her neck and sent a silent prayer. The medallion answered and slowly it spread a gentle glow around them, lighting the path.

The shaman walked first, all senses alert. In difference to the bright, dry outside world, it was harder to see the dangers and protect oneself here.

To not lose her light, the girl grabbed a tight hold of the shaman's rough cloak. The tunnel turned and twisted, narrowed and widened, all the time going slightly downhill. Once it split in two, but the shaman dove into the left one without even stopping. She had walked here enough times to know her way around.

At the first faint sound of water drops, the shaman put the light out. Stopping for a moment, letting their eyes get used to the darkness and calm their minds from the initial fear it always caused, the shaman gently pushed the other girl against the wall and acted as a human shield in front of her, just in case something would appear from behind them.

Still nothing. The cave seemed empty today, but you'd never know. There could be something sleeping in the cave they were about to enter.

Deeming it was safe the shaman once again moved forward, the girl instantly following.

Crawling only a few yards forward the shaman turned the last bend and looked into their goal; a former den of some animal where a little pond of water illuminated the cave with a faint, blue light.

Nothing was here. Both women slid out of the opening and jumped down to the ground. The shaman stood on guard by their only exit, but the girl went straight to the other side of the pond where two plants grew. Plants with thick, watery leaves the girl instantly put in her mouth and thankfully chewed on. They couldn't take any water from this place of fear it would run dry one day and stop nurturing the plants that were just as important as the water.

Still chewing on her third leaf the girl opened a small pouch and put some leaves in it. Not too many. In order to survive, saving and reserving was the first, second and last rule.

The shaman flinched. A putrid smell reached her nose and she leaped over the pond. The other girl jumped and quickly closed her pouch and dove into the darkest corner, the shaman covering her with drawn sword.

The stench of rotting flesh got stronger, making the women's stomachs turn, before a toad-lookalike creature the size of a pony slowly crawled into the cavern, its eyes blind and tongue hanging out, waving from side to side as it functioned much the same as a snake's. The difference between this beast and a snake was that a snake is only poisonous when it bites. The mare touch of this toad-thing could cause pain that was worse than dying.

The blood on the shaman's cheeks had already dried, but it smelled strong enough for the toad to notice and turn its head towards it.

Wasting no time the shaman attacked, cutting the creature right between the eyes, killing the first brain. Using the momentum she flipped her body around, the sword cutting the monster's head open before being pulled out and cut off the back of the body where the second brain was located.

The monster fell into a twitching heap, dead, but the shaman's duty wasn't over just yet. Sheathing the black sword she used to kill, she instead pulled out a second sword with a blade that flashed white even in the faint blue glow down here. Somewhere in time the one who forged this sword had cursed it and given it a name. The name was forgotten, the curse remained. Using the medallion, pulling it over the head and tying it around the sword's handle to turn the curse around, the shaman started praying, the medallion glowing with a bright azure light, and struck the sword into the monster's neck. At first nothing happened, but slowly the rotten stench cleared away and, instead of poison, water started to leak out of the body.

From her hiding place in the corner of the carven the other girl was praying too; praying that this monster was indeed alone and that nothing would appear in the exit hole behind the shaman's back. Normally the monsters were alone, but there had been encounters with as many as three of them at the same time. This once they had been lucky, because these beasts looked slow, but in reality they were impossibly fast to strike. If caught by surprise even the shaman was an easy target.

Once certain the monster's poison was completely purified the shaman pulled her sword out of the body and put the medallion back around her neck. This was how the hunt worked. The only prey were these venomous, hideous monsters that crawled underground, and only the shaman's prayer could take away the poison so that you could eat them.

Using the cursed sword the shaman cut off the prey's legs and put them in a bag she had worn on her back under the cloak. The body of the monster didn't look appetizing even to a very hungry person. But they couldn't leave the body here. Purified or not it was still a corpse. It could poison the water here and kill the plants. Neither girl would take that risk, the plants were too important, so the girl took the rope that held her rags together around her waist and tied it around the dead body instead. She would carry it, because the shaman always needed both hands free in case they would meet more monsters in the tunnel.

"So, you folks are pirates."

"Yup," Luffy answered.

"Did you come for the diamonds?"

"No," Luffy answered.

"Then what brought you to this island?"

"Adventure!" Luffy answered with a fist pump, earning a hard pat on his head from Nami.

"We followed the log pose," the navigator explained, pointing at the tool around her wrist while Luffy straightened his hat.

"I see."

The two groups of people; Luffy with his crew and a sturdy woman with a big oak leaf standing up from her hair bun with her husband and the three teens, sat across each other in the grass under the oak tree. The old woman's name was Mama Oak, the island's leader.

"A lot of people who come here take refuge in the caves in the mountain until the log is set," Mama Oak told them. "You found the bridge, no?"

"Ah, that's right, a stone bridge," Luffy confirmed.

"Normally the bridge is underwater, but today it was low ebb and our boys here," the old woman looked behind her at Kiro and the other, younger boy, "went out fishing for us. We didn't expect guests during the time they were out."

"I have a question," Robin said, raising her hand.

"Yes?"

"The young lady…"

"My name is Rose," the redhead said snottily with her nose in the air and a scornful look at the older woman. "And I am way prettier than you, ugly wench."

"No, you're not," Usopp mumbled under his breath.

"Rose-san," Robin started again, though slightly taken aback by the teenage girl's comment. "You said people came to take the diamonds before. The walls are still covered with them, so I suppose those people didn't manage. How did you chase them away?"

"Some of the caves around the mountain lead here," Rose said nonchalantly. "But only two of those are safe to use. All the others are filled with traps. Even the dead-end ones."

"Thank you," Robin said happily, surprising the redhead. "That is very good to know. Now we know how to make a safe escape with the diamonds."

"Huh?! What are you saying? You can't do that! There's no way you can tell which exit is the safe one."

"You forget something, little girl," Nami smirked evilly with a hard glint in her eyes. "We are pirates. We know how to make you speak."

"That's right," Usopp picked up with his creepiest look. "I wonder how many needles I can stick under your nails before you spill the beans."

Rose flinched back frightened and Kiro moved into a protective stance.

"This is exactly why you will never be the valley's head, Rose-brat," Mama Oak said sternly, completely unfazed by the pirates' threatening manners. Through the conversation her eyes had strayed to the straw hat wearing boy. She could sense something emit from him, like a scent. Or was it something she could see deep in his black eyes. Normally that colour of eyes would look like impenetrable glass, but this man's eyes were shining with an inner light, or strength. His face wasn't of a smart person, but maybe he owned some respect.

"Grandmother," Rose whined.

"Enough. Leave this to me and learn some wisdom. In difference to you, these two young pirate ladies both have brains."

"Oh, that was harsh," Usopp mumbled.

Sanji was about to say something when a gentle breeze suddenly washed over them, carrying a scent of something familiar.

"Huh? How can the wind blow down here?" Usopp asked out loud.

"This is the second time today," Mama Oak said with slight surprise. "We usually only gets them once or twice a week."

"Smells nice," Sanji spoke.

"Mint," the older woman smiled. "It grows every here and there in this valley."

"I see." Of course Sanji hadn't recognized the smell right away. Mint wasn't a scent you expected to find anywhere on the sea. "Which reminds me, what do you eat here? You don't seem to keep animals."

"Oh, gosh no," Mama Oak said with a laugh. "If we kept animals all the grass and plants would be ruined. The layer of soil is quite thin and it's not like we can bring any more here. The oak grows on the place where the earth is the thickest."

"But where did the soil come from?" Chopper asked confused. "Isn't this a volcano with melted rock inside?"

"It is indeed a sleeping volcano, little one. Counting the diamonds it must have been quite active in its glory days, but I don't know how the earth ended up in here. When our ancestors arrived some hundreds of years ago, the oak was already growing here, and the people gave this mountain the name Bright Oak Island."

"Yeah, that guy was saying something like that," Luffy remembered and pointed to the blond guy sitting close to the red-haired Rose-girl.

"I'm not 'that guy', you moron! I am Kiro the mighty, and I'll be…"

"Forever the bigmouthed little punk," Mama Oak finished curtly.

"That's right," Rose agreed, killing the rest of Kiro's self-confidence. The pirates sympathized with him, just a little.

"So what do you eat?" Luffy asked, now curious.

"Fish when my husband brings 'em in," Mama Oak smiled proudly to her husband who this far hadn't said a single word. "Then we can grow a little rice in the pond at the valley's bottom, some wheat to make bread and anything else we can grow in this soil."

For a moment Luffy just stared at her. In his brain he reread the list of things Mama Oak had just said they ate and found the lack of one ingredient very disturbing. "WHAT? NO MEAT?"

"Of course not, boy. We are vegetarians."

Luffy fainted. An island without meat was for him a living nightmare. But just as fast as he fell down, he bounced up, still with a horrified look on his face.

"How stupid can you get not eating meat!?" he yelled.

Sanji immediately sprung up along with Mama Oak's husband.

"How dare you insult a lady!?" they screamed and kicked the pirate captain into the oak's trunk where he disappeared.

Everybody stared blankly at the brown, unharmed and innocent tree trunk. Not a single scratch, and still they were all as certain they had just seen the dark-haired boy fly head first into it, but there was no boy to find. Everybody rubbed their eyes and looked again. Usopp almost expected the tree to burp.

"What happened?" Nami asked tensely.

With slight difficulties because of their load the two women were finally at the end of the tunnel. It was a relief to know they'd soon be back outside where they didn't have to be afraid of the poisonous monsters of the underground. Of course there were still monsters in the outside world, but they weren't hidden by darkness. The shaman helped pull the monster's body through the last narrow tunnel before she dimmed the light of her medallion and they stopped to let their eyes slowly become used to the brightness of the sun outside.

The nameless girl's stomach suddenly made a bubbly sound and the shaman sprung up with the black sword at the ready. They stayed still. Nothing seemed to have heard the sound.

Both women let out a breath of relief and the shaman walked another few steps towards the tunnel's end, the other girl short on her heels. In this manner; stopping after every few steps the women made it out without hurting their eyes. The shaman controlled the surroundings before she and the girl went to the south-side's cliff and hauled the dead body of the monster over it. They would have to wait for a bit now before they too climbed down the other side of the cliff. The shaman kept an eye on what happened below, but the other girl turned and walked over to the dead tree.

A long time ago this place had been alive and the tree in the centre had been a home to birds and insects. Birds were long gone. Nothing could live that close to the sun anymore, and with all water being found only underground the world's birds had perished.

An arm suddenly wrapped around her shoulders and pressed her back against a female body.

"Shaman?" she breathed.

"You and I share the same responsibility of being the hope of the last humans," the shaman breathed in her ear. "That's why we've both given up on our dreams, but I wish for at least you to be able to find yours."

Using her free hand the shaman pushed the other girl into the dead tree trunk where she disappeared.

The space-time witch watched over the occurrences from afar. The same person, born in two different worlds and ages, crossed each other inside a tree, alive on one side and dead on the other. Both of them were different in body and mind, but they shared the same responsibility of other peoples' lives. But in the passing the girl suddenly acted up and changed her course slightly. Yûko just watched. The girl could awkward all she wanted, she still would end up where the shaman had wished.

"The price is paid and I have fulfilled your wish," the witch spoke, though the shaman couldn't hear her. "Alea jacta est. So what will you do now, I wonder."

Author's note; And so ends the first chapter. It's okay if you don't understand everything that's going on yet, because I'll reveal most of it in the next chapter.