Chapter 1: The Mystery Rock and the Strange Ruins
The sun was shining amidst a cloudless day just as a gentle sea breeze drifted over the railing of the Thousand Sunny. It was bright and early that morning with the Straw Hat Pirates up and enjoying the unusually nice weather—something of a rarity in the New World—or so they were told. All the while, they were absorbed in their own activities while taking advantage of this quiet day.
Nami, for one, was in the library catching up on two years worth of maps and charts from her time on Weatheria. She had the window open so that she could enjoy the breeze… for once able to relax without worrying about the change of weather thanks to that clear blue sky. Zoro, meanwhile, was in the crow's nest, busy lifting weights—occasionally glancing out the window to make sure that there were no signs of danger approaching. Usopp was on the upper deck near Robin's flowers and Nami's tangerine trees as he tended to his garden of Pop Greens. He had set up a small area where he could continue to grow them in bulk, which he dubbed the, 'Usopp Garden' and was looking forward to the latest harvest so as to restock his precious arsenal.
Chopper was also on deck, lying on the grass and letting his plants dry out in this hot weather while he drank the icy lemonade that Sanji brought out. Not for the first time, he hated the fact that he couldn't stand warm weather as well as his friends could. However, he grinned and bore it as he listened to Brook tune his guitar while humming 'Bone to be Wild!'
"Yohohoho, as you wish, Chopper-san," Brook laughed joyfully, strumming the strings as they let out a pleasant vibration while Chopper applauded and kept asked for more. Immediately, he started up with his personal favorite… Bink's Brew and the entire crew paused in whatever they were doing for a moment as they listened.
Just as he was reaching the second verse, Sanji chose that moment to stick his head out from the kitchen—relieved to taking a break from cooking over a hot stove all morning. He breathed in a breath of fresh air before he called out, "Lunch will be ready in another hour!"
"SUUUUPPPPER BRO!" yelled another familiar voice from across the ship as Franky continued working on his tan, taking a break from drawing up his latest set of blueprints for a possible new invention. Maybe he should have made Sunny a little bit larger so that he could have more room to put so many of his designs…? He snorted to himself at the thought while Robin giggled next to him before stretching out on her lawn chair, enjoying a new book that she picked up before leaving Fishman Island. She reached over to take a sip of her lemonade before turning the page to finish reading about the most common legends in the New World.
Meanwhile, on the starboard side of the ship, the captain, Straw Hat Luffy was enjoying fishing. The breeze gently tugged at the treasured Straw Hat hanging off his back, while he was nodding his head to Brook's song, and he cast his line out as far as it would go while also humming along. After a couple minutes of excited waiting, he felt his line tug and he cried out excitedly, "HEY! I GOT SOMETHING!"
He then pulled with all his might, and with a great splash, something small and mostly round came bursting out of the sea. Stretching his arm out to grab hold of it, thinking it was a fish… only to pull it back and realize that it was just a rock. Frowning in disappointment, he was about to throw it back when he noticed something strange about it.
It looked as if it had once been a perfectly round stone and was about as big as one of Nami's tangerines—but at some point it had been sliced clean in half as if Zoro had gotten through with it. But what fascinated him the most was the fact that it was glowing slightly… like there was a faint light inside from within it.
Luffy stared down at it in amazement, before he tried to take a bite out of it… only to end up almost breaking his teeth. "OWWW!" he yelled out loud before calling out, "Hey guys! Check it out!"
"What is it?" Sanji asked, having finished bringing Robin a refill of lemonade. "Did you catch something we can eat?"
"Nah," Luffy answered holding it up to show him. "We can't eat it… I already tried. It looks really neat though…"
"If we can't eat it, we don't need it," Sanji responded firmly, turning away and heading back to the kitchen without another glance back.
"But look!" Luffy called as he held it up, "It's glowing! How many rocks do you see do that?!"
"Really?!" Chopper cried in excitement, coming over to see. "Oh, wow!" he exclaimed in wonder when he realized that Luffy was right and slowly poked at the stone. "It's really glowing! I've never see a glowing rock before. It's not even hot."
"Yeah, neat right?" Luffy laughs, pulling his straw hat up and onto his head as they continued to examine it.
"Yohohoho," Brook said in interest, leaning over to look at it before saying in awe, "Such a mystery. So amazing to see, I feel as if my eyes will pop out! Ah! Not that I have eyes, Yohohoho."
Luffy laughed as he held it up to the sun to get a better look at it. But at that moment, they heard Zoro's voice calling out from above, "Hey! I think there's an island dead ahead!"
"Really? An island?!" Luffy cried out enthusiastically, putting the rock into his pocket before he went running off to the Sunny's lion head and stared out ahead of him, squinting to see the distance. Sure enough, he could make out the narrow strip of land appearing in front of them.
"ISLAAAND!" he cried out happily, all thoughts on the 'mystery rock' completely leaving his mind as he jumped up and down eagerly. "Islaaaaannd!" he yelled out loudly before turning to the others. "There really is an island! Quick! Let's go! Full speed ahead!"
Hearing the shouting, Usopp turned to where the Sunny's 'Brain' was and called out, "Nami! Do you see it? There's a…"
"I know!" Nami's amused voice called as she stuck her head out the window to look as well. "Kinda hard not to with all the shouting going on!"
"Naaaaaaaaami-swan!" Sanji cried, hearts in his eyes as he stood below her and called up, "I hope you're hungry! I devote this entire meal to you!"
"Thanks," she called with a little wave before she checked the Log Pose. "Yep," she called, shading her eyes from the bright sun and looked ahead where the small island gradually began to grow larger by the second. "One of the needles is definitely pointing to it."
"Oh boy!" Luffy cried out in anticipation, having been aching to see what the New World had in store for them. They hadn't seen much action since that storm a few days ago after they came up on this side of the Red Line and he was eager for some action. "Our first island in the New World! I can't wait!"
Closer and closer they sailed, with Luffy growing more impatient with each second. Usopp and Chopper were on either side of him, also beaming and jumping around, wondering just what kind of island they were going to set foot on this time.
When they were close enough, they saw that a good part of the island was covered with grassy fields and flowers, but they were also near a long, winding river that seemed to lead them further inland, close to where they could see parts of a dense forest a ways back.
"Let's follow the river," Nami called to them, having come down from the library and was now standing with the others. "Those trees look like a good place to help hide the Sunny."
"Awesome!" Luffy cried out, pointing to the trees eagerly, that looked like they would easily tower over their ship. "I've gotta climb one of those trees! They're huge!"
"Yeah!" Usopp agreed in relief. "This looks like a quiet little island. Thank God for that."
"Yeah, it's nice!" Chopper added in brightly, a big grin on his face. "I hope the people here are just as nice."
"So long as there aren't any monsters here," Usopp added worriedly, glancing around as if he thought that there were invisible monsters stalking them from the shadows.
"Ahh, no worries," Luffy said, now bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet, ready to get off the ship and onto the grass. A few minutes later, the ship followed the river up till the entrance of the forest until they were almost completely out of sight of the ocean. Once there, the three trouble makers jumped off without a second thought.
"Hey, hold on!" Nami called to them all as they rolled in the grass and laughed. "We don't know where we are! It could be dangerous!"
"Don't see what the problem is," Sanji said coming up with them. "We can see everything here, and there doesn't seem to be other inhabitants so far."
"Yeah, but Sanji," Nami said in worry. "This is the New World! Who knows what we could find here."
"Don't worry," said another voice and they looked up in time to see Zoro sliding down from the crow's nest, a towel over his shoulders as he had just finished his workout. "They can handle themselves if there's anything here. Besides, I don't sense anything around for miles. If there's anything dangerous, I think we'd have sense it by now."
Upon hearing that, the rest of the crew started to relax before they leapt off and started to explore. Just as they were enjoying being back on solid ground however, the sky started to became darker and some clouds seemed to appear out of nowhere and warningly crossed in front of the sun. Immediately Usopp noticed this and stopped laughing, actually freezing in mid-chase of playing tag with Chopper and Luffy.
"Oi! Nami!" he called out, "That sky doesn't look so friendly all of a sudden! Are we in any danger?"
Nami glanced up at the sky before she frowned slightly. "I think that there's a good chance that there will be a storm later. If that's the case, then it's a good thing that we came here when we did. I don't want to be out in the middle of the ocean if a big storm hits."
"But we should be safe here, right? Not…" he added quickly, a nervous tone peppering his voice, "Not that I'm scared or anything! After all, Usopp, brave warrior of the sea, always laughs in the face of danger!"
"For now we seem to be safe," Nami called, still looking up at the sky. "I do think that it's a good idea that we stay here until we're sure the storm's passed. But as long as we keep an eye on those clouds, we should be just fine."
"Phew. That's good." Usopp sighed in relief as he rejoined Luffy and Chopper in their game.
"Does anybody know where we are by the way?" Chopper asked merrily as he watched Luffy stretch his arm out to grab a high branch of one of the trees and rocketed up.
"It doesn't look like a place where people live," Robin stated, pushing her sunglasses up onto her forehead, her book still in her hands. "More likely a nesting place for monsters."
"What?" Chopper cried out in panic. "You really think that there're monsters here?"
"YOW! Robin, we talked about this. You really need to stop scaring them for your own entertainment," Franky told her as she merely smiled back innocently.
Usopp secretly wiped his sweat away and forced a laugh. "Don't worry, Chopper!" he cried out, jerking a thumb to his chest. "Even if this place is swarming with blood-thirsty monsters, the brave 'Pop Greens Master Usopp' will be here to take care of them all!"
"Really…? Awesome, Usopp!" Chopper cheered, beaming up at him like he was a great hero.
"Come on then! Let's go!" Luffy cried out swinging from tree to tree, without any worry in the world. After spending the last couple days at sea, it felt good to be on land and exploring again.
Soon enough, almost everyone had left the Sunny as they set about exploring after they finished their lunch. As Robin and Nami wandered the flower fields, listening to Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper all messing around as they tackled the other in their games, Nami turned to Robin.
"Do you think there are any inhabitants here?" she asked curiously.
"Doesn't look like it," Robin said with a smile. "And so far, I don't see any monsters."
Just at that moment, Sanji came tearing out of nowhere, hearts in his eyes, as he dropped to his knees and held out two large bouquets of flowers to them both.
"Though these flowers are beautiful," he cried out passionately, his arms outstretched to them both. "They are nothing compared to the beauty of the two goddesses that I see before me!"
Zoro, who had been dozing against a tree, rolled his eye and sighed at the display.
"Dumbass…" he murmured, clearly audible, and suddenly Sanji's attitude changed from romantic to hatred as he spun around and glared at Zoro.
"What was that?" he demanded.
"You heard me, Mr. Nosebleed," he shot back.
"You wanna go, Moss Head?"
"That does it! I'm going to shut you up once and for all!"
As the two of them started fighting each other, Luffy burst out laughing and cried out, "Come on! Let's go! Let's find some meat! Some meeeaaaat!" and before anyone could stop him, he bolted through the grass and into the trees of the forest.
Nami cried out, "Hey, Luffy wait!" but it was too late, he was long gone.
"Men… so typical," she sighed as she shot an annoyed glance at Zoro and Sanji who were still going at it, with Zoro pulling out two of his swords and Sanji aiming a swift kick at his head. "I swear, they haven't changed at all in two years," she hissed to Robin, who giggled as she smelled the flowers that Sanji brought them.
Nami then tied her long hair back into a ponytail before calling out, "Hey! You guys! Someone go and see if they can find some fresh water and food. And check up on Luffy to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."
"Don't see how he can in a boring place like this," Franky said with a loud yawn as he finished inspecting the Sunny for any signs of damage from when they first came bursting out into the New World.
"Did you forget who we're dealing with?" Usopp asked, his eyebrows raised. "He always gets into some kind of trouble even when there isn't anything dangerous going on."
Thankfully, there truly didn't seem to be anything at all on this island that one could mistake to be dangerous. They had managed to find some fresh water and a few fruit trees, but surprisingly they couldn't find a single animal anywhere, much to Luffy's disappointment at not having found a source of good meat.
"Maaan, Sanji? I'm hungry!" Luffy whined, pouting at coming up empty-handed on his hunt. "There's nothing else on this island!"
"Would you calm down?" Sanji snapped at him as he was going over the barrel of fresh apples that they were lucky to have found. "You just ate lunch! Wait until dinner."
Luffy pouted at him angrily before he caught sight of Brook with his guitar, and his short attention span was captivated at the thought of another song.
"Yohohoho," Brook said happily. "What a peaceful place. It is so calming to the nerves… ah! Not that I have nerves. Yohohoho! Or do I?"
"Well, the good news is that I think we'll be missing the worse part of the storm," Nami called from on top of the hill, her telescope and papers in front of her as she kept looking through it to get the correct measurements for her latest map. "Once we're sure of that, we only have to wait a few more hours before we can get the Log Pose reset and then we can move on."
"Hopefully somewhere with meat," Luffy pouted.
Nami rolled her eyes at Luffy's whine, more out of habit than actual annoyance, before looking back through the eyepiece. Just as she adjusted it at a new angle to get a glimpse of the forest, she saw something she didn't expect through the trees.
"Whoa, what's that?" she whispered to herself as she strained her eyes to make out what it was through the thick canopy of branches. "Hey, guys!" she called to them. "I think I see something!"
They all glanced up at that, now curious as to what she found.
"See something?" Zoro repeated, having just woken up from his nap. He let out a long yawn as he asked, "See what? Something to eat?"
"Oh!" Luffy called eagerly. "Meat! Meat! Meat! Do you see any meat Nami!?"
"No, you idiots!" she called exasperated. "I can't tell exactly what it is, but from here it, looks like some old temple or something in the forest?"
Robin immediately looked up from her book. "What did you say?"
"I said that it looks like some kind of old house or temple in the middle of the forest up ahead," she called, finally looking up. "It doesn't look like anything special though…?"
But Robin's interest was piqued as she closed her book with a snap before standing with a gleam in her eyes.
"Well, might as well go and check it out while we wait for the log to reset," she answered with a bright smile. "I'm sure that there are still many unexplored territory in the New World so it might still be filled with tons of old relics. Who knows, it could be something valuable…?"
Beri marks suddenly appeared in Nami's eyes and she called, "I'll come too!"
"Nami!" Usopp complained from the back of the group. "Any reason why you insisted half the crew go to check out this place?"
"In case there are some monsters of course," she shot back at him, wiping sweat from her brow as they continued their march through the forest. They each had drawn straws back at the ship, and in the end, it was Robin, Nami, Zoro, and Usopp who had won and were part of the exploring team. Luffy hadn't bothered drawing and came with them anyway as he looked around at the trees with a goofy smile. "Besides, I'm sure that the others can take care of Sunny while we're not there. Hopefully, this doesn't take long. The ruins I saw are small. In fact, it was hard to say for sure they were ruins."
"Either way, it's worth checking it out, if only for a few minutes," Robin said, leading the way. "You sure it was this way?"
"I'm sure," Nami said with certainty. "I may not be strong like you guys, but no one can read a map better than me."
Luffy, who had been swinging on vines through the trees, had caught Usopp's attention and he let out a loud cry of delight at the sight and went to find vines of his own to swing from.
"Don't see what's so fun about that," Nami said waving her hand dismissively at the two.
"Shows how much you know," Robin laughed. "There are some things that little boys never grow out of!"
"That's for sure," Nami whispered as she watched the two swinging around like monkeys. "Well, just make sure that they don't hurt themselves, Zoro."
"Why am I here again?" he demanded crankily.
After another twenty minutes of walking, they came to a large clearing devoid of trees. Standing there was indeed a crumbling ruin that was barely larger than the Sunny. It was built in an oval shape, almost like a mini coliseum, covered in green moss and vines while some old carvings were engraved into the wall nearest them.
Eyes bright, Robin walked forward, tracing her hand along the stone wall with great interest.
"Wow," Usopp said gazing at it as well, shielding his eyes with one hand so that he could get a better look at it without the sun's rays. "Look at it. It must be several hundred years old."
"More or less," Robin confirmed, wandering around the other side, examining every inch with a critical eye. "And if I had to say, I would guess that this was, indeed, a temple of some kind."
"A temple?" Luffy asked, having found another fruit tree a second ago and was now enjoying apples as he watched her examine the stone. "For what?"
"Hard to say," Robin answered, continuing to look at it. "But it's definitely seen better days. Judging from the weathered stone, however, if I had to guess, I would say that this place is over eight hundred years old."
"Whoa!" Usopp cried out in shock. "It's that old?"
"So there really were people on this island at one point?" Zoro asked, looking up at section of the stone wall that depicted pictures of different phases of the moon.
"Most likely," Robin admitted. "However, this seems to be the only man-made structure on this island. At least, the only one that we've encountered so far. If this was indeed inhabited at one point, either all other traces of civilization simply wore away with time, or this place was considered special and this was the only building constructed here to begin with."
She studied the worn carvings, her hand tracing the depictions of the moon before she noticed that there was something very strange about this section of the wall. Running her hand over it, she realized what it was. "Everyone!" she called. "Look at this."
At her call, they all joined her, watching as she was tracing the ancient carvings with a finger.
"What is it?" Zoro asked, walking forward to see what she was looking at.
"This appears to be some kind of door," she answered, peeling away moss from the carvings to read it better. "Let's see."
"What's it say?" Usopp asked as Luffy came jumping over.
"Is it something good?" Luffy asked with a muffled voice, his cheeks still full of fruit.
Robin frowned a little as she read out, "Strange… it says… 'Beyond these doors you will reach your greatest treasures… but in exchange, you must face the darkest shadows of your soul while also sharing what it means to…?' I cannot read the final part, it is so worn away."
"Treasure?!" Nami cried out, her eyes becoming beri marks again. "Did you just say our greatest treasure?! What are we waiting for?! Let's get it! It's right through this door right?"
"H-hold on!" Usopp yelled, waving his hands around dramatically. "Didn't you hear what Robin said? 'The darkest shadows of our souls?!' What the hell does that mean?"
"What's the point in waiting around wondering?" Zoro said with a rather evil grin. "I say we go in and see for ourselves!"
"Treasure!" Luffy said in excitement, ready for the next adventure as he took hold of the door and pushed.
"Hey! WAIT!" Usopp yelled, but too late, the door opened with a loud creek and entered. They were all standing in the middle of what one would call a stone room but there wasn't a ceiling here, instead there was a bright skylight right above them. But in front of them there wasn't anything but a small, stone platform in the very center of the structure.
"You mean there's really no treasure here?" Nami asked, disappointment and depression ringing clear in her voice. "I knew it. I knew that it was too good to be true."
"Aw man," Luffy said angrily.
"You see?" Usopp called in relief as Robin approached the platform. "Someone must've been here a long time ago and took whatever treasure was here! Now that we're done here, let's just go! I don't like that warning the door gave us! It sounds freaky to me!"
"Hold on," Robin said, spotting something even more curious than treasure.
"What is it, Robin?" Zoro asked, looking back at her. "You find something?"
Robin didn't answer right away as she knelt upon the platform where a small altar had been set up—with only a stone having been placed upon it. Yet Robin found herself unable to look away. She carefully picked it up with both hands from the altar and began to run her fingers over the perfectly smooth stone with fascination.
"A rock?" Nami asked in frustration, looking over her shoulder to see what had gotten her friend's attention. "What? That's it? Am I missing something? What's so special about it?"
"Look at it," Robin said, holding it out for them to see. A once perfectly round stone that had been cut in half and was glowing slightly in her hands as if there was light inside. Luffy leaned forward, a frown on his face as his brain started to hurt from trying to remember where he'd seen it before.
"Ah! I don't know!" he finally called out.
"Don't know what?" Zoro asked him in annoyance. But at that moment, there came a feeble light shining from Luffy's pocket.
"Hey, Luffy, what's that?" Usopp asked and Luffy looked to see what he was talking about before he pulled out the stone he found while fishing earlier.
"Oh, yeah!" he cried out excitedly. "The Mystery Rock!"
The stone in his hands began to glow brighter after being brought out, and Robin stared at the two stones before asking, "Where did you get that, Luffy?"
"It's what I found fishing earlier!" Luffy laughed, holding it up, which was now glowing like a hot coal in his hands, but still cool to the touch. "It's a Mystery Rock! Cool, isn't it?"
"That's strange," Usopp said, staring at the two glowing rocks in their hands. "They look like they're…"
But then Luffy's hand shot out and took the other half of the stone in Robin's hands and grinned as he held the two pieces up. "Check it out!" he said happily. "A perfect…"
"Luffy wait!" Usopp called in panic.
"Fit!" and he clashed the two stones together. For a moment, nothing happened, but then the two halves melted together until you couldn't tell that they had ever been broken to begin with. That was when the light from the stone began to glow so brightly that everyone had to shut their eyes—unable to look directly at it. When Luffy screwed up his eyes, he felt them watering as the light seemed to swallow him up, as if someone had wrapped a warm blanket around him. It was surprisingly soothing even as the surprised cries of his crewmates faded from his ears until silence rang out around him and the light gradually died down.
When Luffy finally opened his eyes, he stared around him as he realized that he was surrounded by a thick cloud of darkness, save for a single ball of light that shone brightly in front of him like a miniature sun.
"Whoa!" he called out in awe. "Hey guys! Look at this!"
But as he looked around him, he realized that he was alone.
"Ah? Guys?" he called, completely at a loss to what was going on. "Where'd you all go?"
"Do you wish to find your treasure?"
"Huh?" Luffy asked, looking around, knowing that he heard someone speaking to him—but not recognizing the voice.
The voice then spoke again, "Do you wish to find your treasure?"
But this time, when the voice spoke, Luffy realized that it was coming from the rock in his hands, whose light had completely died down at this point.
"Huh?" he repeated in surprise, "Oh! You're the Mystery Rock! Wait! How are you talking?" he then realized what the rock said and asked eagerly, "Wait, Treasure? Did you say treasure?"
"To discover your treasure you must face your biggest regrets," the rock's said as the light in front of him seemed to twinkle at the words.
The grin faded from his face. "Regrets? What regrets? What're you talking about? Hey, how's a rock know how to talk anyway? What's going on here?!"
But instead of answering, it began to shine brightly again.
"Again?" Luffy cried in frustration, ready to shield his eyes again. "Can you stop glowing like that?"
But no sooner were the words out of his mouth did the light die down little by little… but when it did, and he glanced up in frustration…? He felt the rock fall from his grasp and roll across the ground, but he was no longer paying any attention to it.
He stared at what was standing in front of him…? Where that little ball of light had been, a new figure appeared instead. The light had taken on a new face, one that he knew as well as his own—one that he had secretly yearned to see again every single day for the last two years…?
Messy black hair, childish freckles across his cheeks, a wide mischievous grin as flames leapt up around his form appeared while a bright orange hat covered half his face…?
Luffy's face paled as he stared at him… "Ace…?" he croaked out. "Is that you?"
(Oh, is it wrong to say that it feels nice to be back? Yes, so I am doing a remake of this story and I do intend to update it both here as well as on A03 if you wish to read it there. I should be able to post each chapter every Sunday, or at least try my best to do so. Don't worry, I will still be posting on other stories whenever I get the chance but I need something for my One Piece fix right now and there's only so much I can do at the moment. Since I have this story saved on my laptop, it's actually a lot easier for me to be able to do some reworking on this. So please let me know what you think about the changes I've made. I will still be keeping the original as well if you want to go back and read it, of course, but I hope that you enjoy it.)
