Warnings: angst
Note: This takes place between years 10-20; everyone looks one year older than the previous chapter.
Disclaimer: Eiichiro Oda owns One Piece, not me.
Survival Is Not A Game
They were running as fast as their bodies would allow them to run. If they could fight it, they would, but it wasn't as if an avalanche would be harmed by their kicks and punches, feeble in comparison to its roaring power.
Somehow they found and overhanging. Roger yelled at them all to get under it and they sprinted even faster. It was barely big enough for them all to fit and they all huddled close underneath it; just in time as well as hundreds of tons of rocks immediately fell over it. The roaring sound was loud, the rumbling of the ground making it hard for them all to stand. Shadows flickered over their forms as the dark, large rocks blocked out the sight of the orange sky, shining down on them with a burning vengeance.
It seemed like ages for the avalanche to stop. When the last few rocks fell and the sound or raging stone disappeared into the distance, they relaxed, leaning against the wall or falling to the ground.
They were covered in injuries; heads bleeding something that was not blood but close to it, limbs broken and bruised, cuts and gashes covering body parts, illness harming them. It was hard to get out of anything uninjured these days. They had been wandering for ten years to reach that island Roger said was extremely important, yet even if they could walk on water, there were still deadly creatures out there, lurking.
Shanks would rather see the most dangerous creatures of the night. At least they had souls at one point. These monsters didn't and they were absolutely vicious. They didn't find pleasure out of doing anything they did – their sole purpose was destruction. It was how they survived. People couldn't die, so instead they destroyed homes, caused disasters, go on rampages. Their acid green eyes, so alike to those monsters in the swamp ten years ago, were feared by everyone.
All of them had been recently injured by one of these beings. It had been a tall, grotesque thing with freakishly large hands and long, bony fingers. It's arms were gigantic, dragging on the ground as it walked, yet capable of destroying cliff sides. Like all the others, it had been a shade of black, dripping a strange liquid as it walked, with those horrifying acid green eyes.
Shanks was glad they were far away from it. He never wanted to run into that one again, but he knew it was futile. Even if they didn't run into that one, they would run into others.
What was the most frustrating was their inability to fight.
No magic, no odd powers, the strength of normal people. There had been many people with advantages years ago, but five years ago, they became normal people as well. No one in this world had the advantage over anyone else. It was terrifying, having no one strong enough to fight off these monsters. Shanks was just glad that Roger and Rayleigh were there because he doubted they'd be able to defeat the monsters without their help.
He never wanted to be eaten by a monster. You wouldn't die by being eaten. You became a monster yourself, losing all sense of self and transforming into a vulgar beast.
"Is everyone alright?" Rouge whispered from where she was crouched on the ground, holding Usopp against her chest. The two of them weren't injured, but they were ill.
Mumbled sounds of agreement were heard through the small space as they all shifted into comfortable positions, turning to each other to tend to their wounds.
Shanks himself was one of the worst wounded. In protecting Usopp and Rouge when the others had been knocked down, he had foolishly overestimated his strength and was smashed against some rocks. His head had an unsightly gash in the side of it, it's once profuse bleeding stemmed by Benn's quick first aid to his captain.
They rested for a half hour after treating their wounds and giving some medicine to Rouge and Usopp and then set out once more. Even if it was dangerous, they kept trudging on to that island where they could hopefully find safe haven.
For once, they had peace.
They were resting in a small cave, imbedded deep within a mountain side in an unnamed mountain in a large mountain range.
Yasopp was holding Usopp in his arms as he walked slowly along the cave walls, telling him made up stories of the paintings there with joy. Roo was cooking some deer they had managed to catch. Benn was taking a nap against the wall, tired from the previous night's watch. Rouge was sitting with Roger, mending the meager amount of clothing they had which was torn up, while Roger and Rayleigh talked about their next step.
Shanks looked out at the dark maroon sky, unnerved by the thrumming they had heard for the past three days.
Suddenly Roger sat down next to him at the mouth of the cave, his own expression serious.
"This happened the first time as well. It's nothing serious. It'll happen more frequently when everything turns back to normal."
"It's so unnatural."
"Everything is these days."
A few moments of silence.
"Roger, how did you survive?"
"I had to. Too much was at stake for me to die."
"What if this All Soul dies?"
Quiet.
"He won't die. He has yet to be born."
"How do you know?"
A smile; sad eyes.
"You'll understand soon enough."
"Nico Robin."
Shanks looked over at Usopp, who was staring up in awe at the woman frozen in stone before him.
"Did you know her, Usopp?" Yasopp looked down at the six year old, who stared with sad eyes up at the figure before him. They were in the middle of dense, dangerous woods. These days, few ever dared to enter them out of fear of death.
They mustn't have been that bad all those years ago…
The pink sky seemed to be mocking the sad child next to Shanks, it's happy color making the atmosphere for once peaceful, even if it was strange.
"I knew her. She moved to the town I grew up in. She was a really nice lady. She'd help me out when I was having too much trouble watching Zoro and Nami and Sanji."
"Who?" Rouge questioned, looking down at the six year old. He looked up with a smile.
"They were some neighborhood kids I was asked to watch over often. They were always fighting and never believed anything I told them, but they were good kids."
"You're still a kid yourself," Shanks smirked down at the kid who looked up at him with an irritated expression as he yelled indignantly.
"Only in body!"
Then Usopp looked back up at the woman. He stood there for the rest of the day, just staring as the rest of the group set up their camp for the night, extremely cautious but in grave need of rest. It was only hours later, when the sky had changed to a pale green, that Shanks sat next to him on the ground.
"You worried about her?" Shanks whispered. It was a while before the child replied.
"She never believed my stories either, but she'd humor me a lot. She was really powerful too. A seer. I didn't know they could live this long…"
"You're worried," Shanks stated. The boy flushed, embarrassed, and nodded.
"Do you think we could take her with us?" Usopp asked after several long, silent moments. Shanks gave a small regretful smile, already knowing full well that the boy knew the answer to that question.
"I'm sure she'll be fine. If she's as strong as you say she is, I'd be more worried about you than her," Shanks ended on a teasing note, making the boy whine and complain at him, telling him that he wasn't weak loudly.
Shanks felt like he hadn't laughed that hard in a long time.
Shanks stared in shock at the girl before him, the girl who had his exact hair color. She was staring at them with her blue eyes, standing before a creature defeated by the use of magic which could only be obtained by relations to ghosts.
Rose.
"Rose?"
The girl gave him a small, coy smile, mirth dancing in her eyes as she stared over at him and his group. They were all looking at him with various forms of curiosity. She seemed to know full well exactly who he was.
"Hello, father," She said in a quiet voice, one exactly like her mother's had been. "I'm sure you weren't expecting to see me like this, living and breathing, not trapped in stone."
"Well, considering you use magic, I assumed…"
"Mum had blue blood, Shanks. She was careful that you never saw it."
Shanks fell quiet, staring at the girl. Everyone looked between them, curious and cautious. "Is that why you have lived so long?"
Her eyes closed and another small smile graced her lips. Shanks took that as a yes as he watched her long, curly locks whip around her.
"What are you doing here? Don't you have a crew to watch over?"
"They'll be fine for now. Besides, what I'm doing now is for my crew," Her eyes grew hard as a sneer came over her lips. "That bastard tricked us all, Shanks. I didn't recognize him for who he was. He was on the crew for so long, he was family, and he still treated us like we were nothing but dirt on his boots. He killed some of the crew, slaughtered several from our territories, and now this," She spread her arms out wide. "I'll kill him, Dad."
Before Shanks could say anything to the girl, she disappeared in a flurry of wind. Shanks reached out for where she once stood with a sigh. The sky suddenly changed colors from a light yellow to a furious red as wind whipped around them furiously. Rain fell, burning the ground and their skin, pelting them like bullets. Shanks was forced to leave that spot with the others to survive, but only thoughts of his daughter were in his mind.
"Roger, should it be taking this long to get there?"
The man turned to Shanks, who was staring up at him with tired eyes. Not that Roger could blame him. After almost twenty years in a world so stagnant yet dangerous, one would feel utter exhaustion. No fun for such a long period of time was deteriorating to the mind. It was affecting all of them, and Roger only hoped it wouldn't affect their future travels.
Even he was getting frustrated.
"I have no idea how long it should take. We're walking thousands of miles, over water and land, with no aid and constant threats and injury. I was told that last time, it took 50 to 60 years to reach this island."
Shanks groaned. "That's way too long."
"We're forced to start as far as possible."
"That's annoyingly unnecessary."
Roger only nodded, staring out at the currently green sky and water. They had been at sea for fifteen days now, and all were growing tired and irritated from the constant trudging.
Roger could only hope it didn't all fall apart.
AN: Sorry if this chapter is kinda boring. I'm having issues getting to where I want to be in this story because of stress-induced writers block and the fact that school starts tomorrow. But, hopefully after these first few days, I'll get back on track with the writing.
jam klaoo: Thanks! It's gonna be kinda sad for a while, but once this arc is over, it'll hopefully have more happy moments in it.
luffylova: The All Soul info will all be revealed in this arc and it will be quite the revelation I think. And Garp is coming up pretty soon :)
shadowmarialove: sorry if this story is confusing you :( If you have any questions, I'll gladly answer :)
Bluebird42: Luffy will be appearing at the end of this arc in a...dramatic way. Can't say much else
Thanks guys for reading this story! I uploaded another story called It's Complicated the other day so if you want, go check it out :) Anyway, please leave a review! I love reading them :)