Chapter III: A realization and a decision
"Life presents many choices and the choices we make determine our future."
Bright sunrays beamed down on the majestic blue ocean, making the surface of the water shimmer in the light, as the sound of the waves crashing against the golden, sandy shore echoed around the empty beach- or it would have been empty if it wasn't for the young woman who had appeared out of nowhere last night in a glow of purple light.
The seagulls' squawking entered her ears and her nose twitched at the salty scent of the air. Her eyes fluttered open only for her to slap a hand over them, shielding her beautiful orbs from the brightness around her. She groaned as she sat up, slowly removing her hand to let her eyes adjust. For a fleeting moment, she thought she was kidnapped again and tensed up, ready for a fight, but then remembered what she did and relaxed.
Once she was able to see clearly, Aella observed her surroundings. The sea in front of her was like a rippling blanket of cerulean blue as seagulls flew overhead, occasionally diving to catch a fish. Behind her was a lush, green forest with tall trees and lots of bushes. Everything around her smelled light and refreshing, waking her up completely.
But the scenery wasn't exactly what caught her attention. No. What did catch her attention, though, was the fact that her surroundings looked animated to some extent, even herself, which confused the hell out of her.
Aella stood up, brushing the sand out of her silvery hair and off her clothes. She opened her backpack and took out a black strap that held her set of fifteen throwing knives. She secured it around her thigh then put her hair into a messy bun before placing a hand on the hilt of the sword on her hip, just in case. Who knows what kind of creatures live in that forest behind her? She knew she needed to be careful, especially now that she was in a foreign world.
Aella, whose previously cut hand was fully healed, picked up her treasured gem (which was free of blood) from the sand and returned it to an inside pocket in the bag.
She started walking towards the forest to look for food and shelter, maybe see if someone was around. She focused all her senses on her surroundings, trying to detect any sounds other than her quiet footsteps and the crashing waves.
After wandering around for a while, she didn't run into any animals or humans, but that may be because she still wasn't very deep into the forest. She did, however, find different types of berries, some that she wasn't sure were edible. She settled on types that she recognized, like cranberries and blueberries.
Having not had any success in finding human civilization around, Aella finally decided to climb a tall tree to see if there was anyone. She grabbed one of the lower branches and easily pulled herself up. She continued climbing until she reached the top, where she could see just about everything around. She took a couple of minutes to marvel the breathtaking view -it's not everyday that you get to see something like this- before focusing again.
The first thing she noticed was that she was on an island, with no other piece of land in sight. The second was that the island only had the beach, where she woke up, and the forest with its river; no sign of human life.
"Just my luck, appearing on an uninhabited island." Aella muttered under her breath.
She frowned and started climbing down. She then turned to where the river was and started moving, wanting to drink some water. The closer she got to the river, the more noises she could hear. Bushes rustling, twigs snapping, animal roaring or hissing.
What weirded her out most was that she was almost certain they weren't anywhere nearby. And when she blinked, she could've sworn that she could almost see some kind of flickering animal figures.
No, no. I'm just being paranoid.
Aella finally reached the fast-running river and crouched in front of it, rubbing her hands together to get rid of the dirt that accumulated on them during her climb. She scooped some water in her palms and brought it up to her lips.
Had she known she was gonna end up hiking near a river, she would've brought some water purification tablets with her. Alas, she would just have to make do and hope for the best.
The cool liquid moistened her dry mouth and travelled down her throat before she drank more. When she was done, she dried her hands on her shirt and stood up, wanting to check out a box that she had noticed when she arrived at the river.
It must've washed up from somewhere, she thought, pulling the chest away from the river bank. The female opened the lid and glanced inside, then did a double take, not believing her eyes. Yet, she couldn't have been just seeing things, because when she rubbed her eyes, the thing was still there.
Her mouth opened and closed like a fish out of the water until she finally managed to compose herself. She took one into her hands and stared at it. The fruit in her hand looked like a strawberry, except that it was white with bluish swirls all over. It was smooth and its forest green stem was curly. The one that was still in the box was shaped like a papaya but it was black with blue fire-like designs on it along with a purple stem. Both of them looked hypnotizing and she could almost feel a special kind of power, of energy, emitting from them.
"Devil Fruits?" Aella breathed incredulously. Her eyes then widened in realization, "Oh, bloody hell. Out of all worlds, I just had to end up in this one, where there is always the chance of getting killed; be it by corrupt marines or bloodthirsty pirates or vicious Sea Kings? Seriously?"
Should I eat one, or not? I wouldn't want to lose my ability to swim only to get a crappy power like the Jacket-Jacket fruit, She thought, staring intently at the fruit in her hand. Then again, I can just live like a civilian and I wouldn't need to fight... But I love fighting, and I don't want to live a life that's I'd come to regret later on. Besides, this world is the perfect one to complete all my dreams.
She turned to put the fruit back in the box so she could think this over when she spotted the red book at the bottom of the box. The title read 'Devil's Fruits Encyclopedia'. How utterly convenient. She quickly returned the Devil Fruit to the box and closed the lid, carrying it with her to a tree.
Aella sat with her back against the trunk and opened the book.
A Devil Fruit once again laid in the young woman's palm as she weighed the pros and cons of devouring it. This fruit's power isn't half bad; it can be pretty useful, actually; it can counteract just about every other power out there except Haki. On the other hand, I will never be able to swim again. Then again, it's not like I can swim away from this island, so what good would that skill do me? And if I actually managed to get off the island and had to fight, I don't even have Haki to help me out. I need all the strength and power I can get to survive and thrive in this place.
You know what, screw it all. I'm eating it, consequences be damned.
If there was something she used to be known for other than her intelligence, it was her recklessness.
She opened her mouth and popped the strawberry shaped Devil fruit in, chewing on in. She had to practically cover her mouth to stop herself from spitting the disgusting fruit out. It tasted like solidified sewage water, or what she imagined sewage water would taste like, at least. Finally swallowing, she shoved a handful of berries into her mouth to drown out the taste, not that that had helped much. She's pretty sure that the nasty flavor would be stuck in her mouth for a while.
The other Fruit and the book were safely in her bag, so she didn't need to worry that the wrong person would get their hands on the one she didn't eat; it could be quite... destructive.
Aella knew that she'd need some serious training now, what with her becoming a Devil Fruit user in this specific world, where the strong prey on the weak. Though she loved the concept of danger and taking risks, she didn't exactly feel like dying any time soon, especially when she hadn't really accomplished anything much in her seventeen years of life.
"Sometimes the best thing you can do is not think, not wonder, not imagine, not obsess. Just breathe, and have faith that everything will work out for the best."
Three weeks had passed since the silver haired female came to this not-so-fictional world and ate a Devil Fruit. Everyday, she trained with her new powers -which was far harder than she expected; she once almost launched herself into the ocean-, survived on berries or the meat of some animal that she managed to hunt
Even though Aella was training hard to occupy herself, she was still pretty bored. By now, she had already went around the entire island in hopes of finding a boat or something that would help her get off this island. The place was full of trees, sure, but she was no good when it came to building a raft. Besides, even if she knew how to build a boat, she didn't want to risk running into a storm and falling into the sea with no one to fish her out. Flying away wasn't exactly an option, either.
She didn't even know what sea she was in; East Blue, South Blue, West Blue, North Blue, Paradise or the New World.
The girl swung her long katana and cut a boulder in half. Sweat trickled down her temple and she wiped it off, sheathing her blade then holding four throwing knives, two in each hand.
She spun around, using the momentum to throw one behind her swiftly and heard a low thunk as the blade hit its target (a weird looking mammal that was sneaking up behind her) then a thump when the body fell to the ground, motionless ,with her ten inch long blade embedded in its forehead. She wasn't new to the prospect of killing wild animals; she had went on hunting and camping trips with her father when she was younger.
"Damn, I'm bored. I'm really stupid for forgetting to bring a book to read or something," Aella groaned, lifting her kill and taking it towards her camping area. It wasn't really a camping area, just a clearing located near the river that she was staying in until she could actually figure something out.
It took her fifteen minutes to start a fire before she proceeded to skin and gut the animal before she cut it up. She cleaned the meat and threw the guts and other inedible parts to the opposite side of the river, where she knew other animals would eat them.
She cooked the meat and used some herbs she found to give it more flavor. It wasn't the best, but it did the job. After eating some of the meat, Aella kept the rest for later and grabbed her two swords -Excalibur and Yorukaze- from the leafy, dirt ground, strapping them to their respective places.
Earlier, Aella had felt someone approaching the island, and now the feeling intensified and her instincts told her that the person had probably already arrived at the island.
Hopping onto a tree branch, the agile young woman jumped from tree to tree -her speed, agility and strength had significantly increased during her training, but that might have had something to do with the peculiar nature of this particular universe; after all, she could eat like a cow and feel hungry again in a few hours now- until she eventually neared the edge of the forest. She got to the top of the tree she was currently on and looked towards the sea.
Her eyes widened slightly in surprise at the sight of the huge ship in front of her. It had a red dragon as the figure head, a painfully familiar Jolly Roger was painted on the sails and on the black flags that rippled in the wind. The Jolly Roger was a realistic looking skull with a pair of crossed sabers behind it. It had two red stripes with black outlines that crossed diagonally across the skull's left eye socket, representing the most prominent scars that the captain of this infamous pirate crew had.
The Red Hair Pirates.
Talking and laughing could be heard from the crew members as they got off the ship, some carrying barrels of, what Aella guessed was, sake and booze (oh, how much she craved some). The female watched the pirate crew for a few more seconds before she turned around and flew away.
Even though she had been hoping someone would come to the island, her pride wouldn't let her just walk up to the Yonko and ask for help. Besides, even though she wouldn't admit it even to herself, she had started feeling nervous. Those people were so much stronger than her, and even though she knew they probably wouldn't do so without a reason, they could kill her before she could even blink.
It was only natural that she was wary of them. Aella wasn't particularly afraid of death; she simply didn't feel like perishing just yet- after all, she had left her entire world behind in order to start a new life for herself, and she'd be damned if she died before at least getting off this island
Although something did tell her that some of the higher-ranking members of the crew had already taken notice to her presence on the island with their, no doubt, powerful Kenbunshoku Haki.
Aella sat on the edge of a cliff overlooking the open sea, just as the sun was rising. The girl was sharpening and polishing her swords and knives while watching the beautiful scene in front of her. A light breeze passed by her, bringing with it the mixed scent of the salty sea and refreshing forest.
When she was done with polishing her blades, she carefully put the equipment into their pocket in her bag before sheathing both katanas and retuning the throwing knives back into their places on her straps.
Taking out a small pouch with different types of berries in it, she chose a random one and popped it into her mouth, savoring the taste with a content expression then chose a blueberry, her favorite, and ate it.
She laid down on her back, hands under her head, and closed her eyes. What should I do? I can't stay here forever. I don't even know the basics of navigation to sail away
If I fly away, I have no idea how long it'd take me to reach the next island, even if I had enough control. Hell, I don't even know which sea I'm in right now! Then, there are the Red Hair Pirates... but I don't know how to ask for help; I always do everything myself, I have done so ever since I was a kid.
Maybe if I sneak onboard their ship? Nah, not my style at all, and their Haki would alert them. No need to get on those guys' bad side.
Aella sighed exasperatedly rubbing her face. She was tired of thinking, of trying too hard, of being alone. But mostly, she was tired of not having the power to actually start a new life for herself, one she would look back on one day and proudly say she didn't regret. Was her decision of leaving her world completely and utterly reckless? Yes, it definitely was. But she couldn't even bring herself to reprimand herself about it, it was better than staying with her family's murderer.
She was so deep into her thoughts that she didn't notice the presence of another person on the cliff until they spoke, "You seem very deep in thought,"
Author's Note:
Heyy! A new chapter is up : ) Is the length good enough? I seriously don't know how many words to put in one chapter, but I'm guessing somewhere between 2K-3K words is enough.
Anyways, how was the chapter? Feedback is accepted and appreciated. I'm open for suggestions; I don't wanna completely stick to canon but I'm not totally sure how to go about the butterfly effect.
An idea for a new story popped into my mind, and I really can't push it out. So, naturally, I started writing it out without any real plans whatsoever and it probably won't be published for a while. I'm gonna need a general idea for where I'm going with it first.
One more thing, I need fanfic recommendations. I don't care if it's time travel, SI, or whatever as long as it is well written. Do you have any?
Thanks for reading!