Chapter 365 - Timeskip 1 Year.

Chapter Size: 1800 Words.]

Third Person POV

Skypiea.

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...

The seas had been quite rough since the war at Marineford, even though months had passed since then, and thus a year had gone by. Since then, many things had happened; while some groups remained inactive, others had been the central point of discussions in recent months.

In a small, simple fishing village located on a remote island, a boy ran through the bustling streets that morning, swiftly dodging inhabitants in front of him as he headed towards a specific place, one of the city exits.

"HEY, what do you think you're doing?!"

"You almost knocked down my stuff!"

The inhabitants, shopping at the city's market, immediately complained to the boy, bumping into them as he continued running through the island. He finally left the city and approached a house not too far away, perched on a cliff with a rocky shore below, while the sea waves crashed against those rocks.

Outside this house, there was a middle-aged man, calmly looking out to sea. The man was missing one of his arms and remained silent, just enjoying the pleasure of the sea breeze that morning.

"Uncle Rotiv! Uncle Rotiv!" A child's voice emerged in his ears as the boy who had left the town approached excitedly, interrupting the man's leisurely moment.

"Hm?" Rotiv turned to the side and saw the boy approaching with a huge smile, holding pieces of newspaper in his hand.

"Little Kim, what are you doing here? And what's that newspaper? Any interesting news?" Rotiv looked at the boy as he stopped in front of him, trying to catch his breath after running so much. "I haven't bought today's newspaper yet..." He spoke calmly.

The boy, now smiling, stepped closer to Mr. Rotiv, extending the newspaper. Rotiv seemed a bit surprised to see the front page with a pirate group spotted at sea, he couldn't hold back and began to laugh.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" The boy, curious, gave him a strange look, not thinking this was his uncle's expected reaction. "What's so funny? Aren't they the ones?"

Rotiv, with a calm tone and a knowing look, just cracked a small smile after laughing a bit more. "No, they aren't."

"You mean they're fakes?" The boy seemed very surprised by this.

"Yes, just a bunch of idiots pretending to be them. Soon, they will meet a swift end. They don't know who they're messing with. The World Government will send forces beyond what any novice pirate can handle, they will destroy them soon." He sighed, looking at the photo. "It's obvious they want fame and privileges, but at the same time, they're courting great danger."

"Really? Could they have just gained some weight?" The boy commented, confused.

"Of course not! Look at them!" The man raised his voice, frowning with a grimace, while the boy tilted his head, still confused.

"Maybe... they are their brothers?" the boy asked.

"Do you believe that?!" Said the man with a shark-toothed grin to his foolish nephew, his sister's son. He sighed before turning back to the boy. "They are just impostors..." He said.

"But it's been so long... shouldn't they have returned to the sea?" The boy said disappointedly.

"Yes... but who knows... No one knows..." Rotiv spoke calmly.

"But you saw them! You were at Marineford, you must have seen them fighting. You must know something!" The boy insisted.

The man looked out to sea, slightly disappointed. "Why are you so interested in a dangerous pirate? It's been a year since anyone has heard anything about him. He just disappeared. I heard he weakened after Marineford. Maybe he's recovering to come back stronger... And just thinking that monster could get even stronger... it's terrifying for the entire world," Rotiv said with a quite somber tone.

He was a sailor who had retired after the war that took place in Marineford. He had witnessed the horrors, suffered severe injuries while fighting the pirates, and even lost his arm, but he survived all that chaos and massacre, while many of his comrades were not so lucky. In the end, he was awarded a medal of honor and a retirement, living on this island that he had left many years ago to follow his dream of being a sailor. Since then, he would sit in the courtyard of his house, looking out to the sea below the cliff, reflecting on his life and how it all ended like this, no longer able to fight against pirates.

This place was frequented by his nephew, the son of his sister, who always came to talk about the event that occurred in Marineford. This island was small, so there was no live broadcast by the navy.

The boy would constantly ask him many questions, with newspapers coming in about the war, wanting him to narrate the battles, and especially asking questions about Monkey D. Luffy, which was a source of dissatisfaction for the retired sailor. His nephew was a big fan of that pirate monster.

Ever since he saw that monster appear, he has nightmares every night as a kind of film began to run in his mind, seeing himself again on that battlefield while watching all his comrades dying by his side and in front of him, witnessing the battles of Monkey D. Luffy, a monster that turned out to be worse than Whitebeard himself. He was just a low-ranking soldier fighting against common pirates, while that monster passed by them without even looking at him. It was a humiliating situation, but he survived in the end, with some traumas.

"Nobody knows where Straw Hat is. Many claim that he is secretly training with his crew, and as I said before, others say that Monkey D. Luffy weakened at the end of Marinefort and is recovering, while others say he fled and even died. There are even some who say he never existed and is just a legend, despite thousands of witnesses in that damned war..." The man spoke in a somewhat somber tone.

"Of course he exists!!" The boy spoke confidently. "I want to see him in the newspaper... I'm a big fan of his!" He exclaimed.

"You shouldn't be so excited to see a pirate..." The man said with a tone of disappointment.

"I don't care, I'm a fan of Monkey D. Luffy!! He will be the man who becomes the king of the pirates!" The boy asserted, sticking his tongue out at his retired navy uncle.

But before the former sailor could say something, the boy looked at him with a calmer gleam. "Do you think we can see the Straw Hat comet tonight?" asked the boy.

Rotiv looked at him. "Yes, Kim... Today is the day it will appear on this side of the world..." He spoke.

"That's great, then I'll see it with you, Uncle Rotiv!" The boy spoke excitedly.

"My sister won't be happy with you staying here... But it's okay..." He spoke at the end, after all, the retired sailor did not dislike the presence of his nephew, who was one of the few things that did him good, despite the rebellious boy being a fan of those he swore to defeat at sea.

The young man had become addicted to the story of Luffy, especially when the comet that the pirate created to fight against one of the great forces of the world government circled the world once a month, and everyone could see it one day in all parts of the world.

They continued talking, while the boy asked for the thousandth time about Monkey D. Luffy and what happened in Marineford. In the end, everything darkened, and the night showed a starry and clear sky, while a huge purple light crossed the sky at this moment, being the very light comet that appeared after the rotation of the Earth.

"I hope to see him one day, uncle," said the boy with eyes shining to the sky at this moment.

"He will appear one day, despite not liking that monster among monsters again from the sea... he is not something easily defeated and soon we will hear about him, but I still fear for the future of this world..." The man murmured.

As the nephew and uncle watched the spectacle in the sky, the child eventually fell asleep as the hours went by. "Monkey D. Luffy...." The boy murmured in a chair next to his uncle, with his eyes closed in sleep, seemingly dreaming at the moment.

His uncle picked him up before taking him inside and placing him in bed. He sighed, looking once more at the sea through the window, before closing up the house and going to sleep as well, since it was quite late. He would have to take his nephew back to his sister's house in the town the next day, but his gaze kept returning to the comet reflecting on the sea as it streaked across the sky. 'What will happen in the future of this world...' He thought, not having much hope that the future would be so appealing.

The comet continued to shine in the sky, leaving a luminous trail. Many other people around the world also had this view, and the comet was named "Straw Hat" due to its creation in the war. It was a reminder that Monkey D. Luffy was not a legend made up, but someone who had already left his mark on the world, someone who had been absent for more than a year, but surely somewhere, waiting for the ideal moment to appear in the world, once a month, everyone, without exception, remembered him, that one day he would be back.

Questions continued to be asked around the world, still. "Where is he and what is he doing? Why hasn't he returned to the world?" Even those who hated and feared him, as well as those who admired and loved him, pondered this type of question in their minds, some hopeful for the future while others had thoughts not as optimistic as Rotiv.

Meanwhile, the man in question, out of sight of the entire world, was in his current headquarters, amidst the clouds. He was fiddling with some sort of engine inside a hood, while tightening some gears with a screw.

"I think it's good..." Luffy murmured, finishing tightening the last screws on the engine and carburetor, smiling as he looked at the V8 engine he himself had built in his spare time.

"It's ready to run now... let's do a test..." He said satisfied.

In front of him, there was a car that he himself had built. Quickly closing the hood, he was ready to get in and see if his machine really worked, looking at the car, in the glass with two leather seats, a baby's sound came from inside the car.

"Let's see if you can handle a little excitement, son," Luffy said, approaching to prepare the test of his newly built machine with his little son next to the passenger seat.

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