Chapter the First-

He left the smoking carcass of the beast that had stolen the left arm of the man he had once loved behind him as he slowly felt to the straw hat on his head. Still there. He breathed out slowly, at ease knowing that it was there; it was the second most important thing to him and perhaps the easier of the two treasures to lose.

Reflexively, his hand went from the plaited straw on his head to the greater treasure on his chest. It was at times like this when he felt to it for comfort.

His fingers felt down the thin black cord around his neck to the irregular shard that hung from it. He was always strangely reassured when he felt the cool fragment between his fingers, slipping like liquid but holding form like a solid. He pondered for the millionth time why it sometimes felt warm when he wasn't concentrating on the thing itself; as though it was hiding a secret from him.

He dropped it and felt the warmth for a second as it touched his chest, the fleeting and ethereal pulse of life. As though the fragment had once been part of a man like him but had petrified once disconnected from its host. There was no point in really thinking about it because he was sure the answer would come some day, he just had to tough it out and wait.

It was as much a part of him as the straw hat was; when he took it off, he changed. When it was separated from him his mind was taken over by an idiotic optimism that clouded his judgement and made him act like a child. A child that wasted his days eating meat and hoping the future would fall into his hands. The very thought made him shudder.

He turned back to the village he had just left and waved slowly, wondering if they missed him yet. It wasn't really that important to him yet, though; he would return someday as the most powerful man in the world. He was sure of it. He could already taste the sweet essence of victory in his mouth, like sake and sweat and the blood of men who dared to oppose him.

…No. That wasn't right. But the thought made him freeze for a moment. Another daymare, he thought to himself. Another daymare. They seemed to be hitting him with more frequency lately, like the time he had stabbed himself in his shoulder without warning or reason, threatening the use of his left arm. It had healed but the fear of insanity had not.

As he took precious time to mull over these useless facts of what must have been chance, quintessential warm and cold currents collided into a large stone that stuck out of the ocean floor a precious few meters not even close to breaking the surface. But it was enough to disrupt the currents, causing them to swirl around the stone in an attempt to continue on their way. This only caused the warm and cold to collide. The collision worked to cause the warm to swirl clockwise upwards and the cold counter clockwise downwards, meshing and working together until a whirlpool screamed the ocean's raw fury where there had been quiet only seconds before.

The child noticed it one moment too late.

"SHIT!"
Shock contaminated his mind as he struggled to think of a way out of the situation. He couldn't jump out of his craft and swim away; he sure as hell couldn't swim. He couldn't paddle away because the swirling vortex had already half-encompassed him. He was going to die only two hours into his dream. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair because he was Monkey D. Luffy and he was going to die. He was going to die and nothing could save him but some higher power…

God smiled.

Proverbial milliseconds before his body should have been ripped to shreds of cold flesh, the shard of questionable birthright around his neck began to give off a silverfish glow that surrounded his chest, his body, the entire sea to every horizon he could see. A strange and extremely unnerving silence filled the silver air; suddenly it was only him standing in the silent silver glow as though he was deaf. He couldn't breathe. The situation was so familiar, so heart-wrenchingly familiar, that it was as though it had happened a scant few hours ago.

hours
silence
nakama
one piece

Arms creating flesh are like meat. meatmeatmeatmeat why did this happen to me

"Luffy! Stop stealing all the meat!"
"Luffy! Stop eating form my plate!"
"Luffy! Stop running away and put your pants on!"

If he strained hard, he could swear he heard people screaming as the sand drained their bodies of moisture and stole the country they had swore allegiance to. Their voices were joined by more voices; green and chocolate and blue and orange and pink voices. Voices of all of the colours of the rainbow. They were screaming and crying into his bleeding ears and pulsing veins and pounding brain.

Tears streamed down his face.

Two million and six.

Six.

Two million.

A lot of people screaming.

"SHUT UP!"

He opened his eyes without having closed them and the whirlpool was gone. The strange shard ceased its glow and slowly floated down back to his chest to once again mesh with his heartbeat and he wondered where it would have gone if it hadn't been secured around his neck.

If he strained his ears, he could still hear them screaming.

"Naturally," he said with a slight grin on his face. "It was meant to happen this way."
"You can't win." The crimson tears that streaked like blood lit her face in an unnatural blood-red afterglow.
"Oh, but you're wrong. I've already begun to win."

She looked away and wondered if he was right. He had, after all, put forth a rather promising opening strike.

It felt wrong.

But there could be nothing wrong with it. True, he had just been saved from imminent death from his Greatest Treasure and perhaps that was slightly less than fair, but it wasn't like he could have thrown himself over the side of his vessel in the name of fairness. Only fools did that and died for nothing with broken dreams.

The sea was calm and the sun was bright overhead, his stomach growling in tune with the soft melody of the ocean that hated him so. He needed food, a place to stay for the night, and perhaps a crew. He was, of course, a captain and needed the manpower behind him to see out his dream.

In the distance he noted the thin strip of earth signifying land. Thoroughly exhausted from his close brush with Death's hand, he considered it a golden opportunity to pass his last night in a real bed. He would commence sleeping on the rocking waves under the stars tomorrow. Besides, anything could happen while your eyes were closed.

An enemy ship could overtake you.
A giant wave could throw you into the cold sea.
A whirlpool could suck you in.
A giant stream could knock you into the sky.

sky island

He shook his head viciously and turned his attention to the growing shoreline. It was still pleasantly midday but he was hungry and perhaps there were people on the shore waiting to be his crewmates. His friends. His na-

He wasn't going to think of that word right now. It made his head hurt too much and his consciousness lost itself constantly after just saying the damned word, combined with a fierce pain in his still-healing left arm. It was best to leave these matters alone and ignore them.

There was a sturdy dock awaiting him, and he slowly tied up his vessel and covered his possessions with a mauve blanket he had borrowed from Makino. She had bequeathed it to him with a sad sort of smile on his face as he had made his final preparations that morning.

He stepped out onto the dock and began to walk slowly onto the shoreline. His footsteps fell heavy and something inside him was screaming to turn away, turn away and get away from the island. There was something he needed to do. Something he forgot. But there was nothing he forgot, because he had taken everything he needed to see out his dream and everything else would come in time.

"What brings you to Hanno Island?" He looked up into the eyes of a quiet young man of perhaps eighteen years. He wore a simple greyed cotton robe and sandals and had been in the process of a long and thoughtful walk down the thin strip of beach between the town and sparkling sea. "My name is Monkey D. Luffy, and I'm…" he paused, not wanting to arouse suspicion. "Do you know where I could purchase supplies and find a place to rest for the night?" The man motioned towards the bustling town behind him. "I don't know why you'd want to go there, anyways. There's nothing of interest, except for the Tower of Icarus…"
"The Tower of Icarus? What's in there?"

The boy gave a lopsided smile that set off his clear brown eyes and hair a shade darker in a short, spiked cut.

"Icarus, of course."

/kanthia writes-

sorry for taking so long. it took a long, long time to script the first arc of Once More; after that kanthia lost her drive. don't you hate when that happens? yeah. kanthia does too.

who is the strange fair-skinned boy, what could Icarus possibly be, and why is Luffy so damn OOC? all this and more in the next installment of Once More- Start: Hanno Arc!