The End & Beginning

I was holding the newspaper while sitting on a pile of blankets, thinking 'Its finally going to be time, I will have to set into motion my whole life. I'll need to gather enough money and find trustworthy people for this life, otherwise I'll be killed by the hands of the Director. Although, as they said, I'll still try to have fun.'

And I lowered the newspaper in front of me to take in the stuff that had happened. I looked around the room to find several suitcases full of berri's stacked in a pile. I went throughout the last few months trading gold for berri just because it was easier to have the money itself than gold, which shrank the original over five foot tall wide pile of gold to a couple average sized suitcases. Next to that was my area of the place, since I had decided to not deal with a hotel, considering this was free. I also had a pile of blankets, but I also had some pillows in top of the blankets, since I liked pillows and comfort in my last life. Another thing was the new drawers and shelves, where clothes were put. One more thing was the organization of food, I had actually put shelves in the hideout to organize the food into different sections, so we had a part of the main room designated as the food area.

And then we also had two smaller piles of blankets to act as chairs, one of which I was sitting on.

'Okay, since when did we have all of this stuff? I didn't realize it, but I think we'll have to steal a pirate ship and use that as our starter ship, otherwise all of this stuff will never be able to go anywhere. I was imagining using a boat like Luffy and Zoro near at the beginning, but it seems I was thinking too small. I guess The One can only be more grand than envisioned.'

And I stared at the article again, reading it over and over again just to have the details memorized for the actual day to come.

Several days had passed, and it was finally time for my Captain's execution. I was as ready as I could be, waiting for the last words to break the world.

To very much not blend in with the crowd and exist, I had decided to buy a black dress shirt to wear instead of a white one, and just wore all black for the occasion.

I had brought Taki with me, just so she could witness the end to one of the greatest men in the world. She was very much not going to blend in at all if she didn't wear a hooded cloak, so she had the normal outing cloak that she normally wore when going out and blending in.

I had told her when bringing her along that this was an event that would shake the whole world, and being in the plaza the event takes place is something very few will actually experience.

With Taki in tow, I walked around the crowd to find a great place to witness the start of the Great Pirate Era, and saw several members of the now disbanded Roger Pirates, all hiding in cloaks as well. Well, I didn't exactly look at them directly, so much as use Observation to see who else was there, until I saw Shanks also there.

When we both noticed each other, we just nodded. 'I mean, I might as well talk to him for a couple minutes later, take him to the hideout and talk, it'll be fine.' and I looked away, towards the execution platform, standing there with as little expression as I could.

While waiting, Taki had said to me "Are you sure it's okay for you to not have your cloak up? I have mine up, but I'm still scared of what could happen."

I didn't even turn my head when I said "Don't worry about it. There are waaay to many people here for them to just go after you. Besides, if they actually knew who I was, they'd probably go after me more than anyone else. But they won't because they don't know. And as long as you stay near me, we'll be fine."

I could sense the nervousness eminating off of Taki, and just decided to hold out my hand closer to her, still staring at the platform. "If you really want to stay near me, take my hand, I'll make sure you'll be okay, even after it's done. No one here right now will judge you, so I'm okay with whatever choice you make."

And slowly, Taki took my hand, and I could feel the slight trembling from her. 'I guess she still is a kid, even if she had stolen from people mid-day, it's not like she's perfect.'

And I was unmoving like a statue, with basically no movement.

And then Captain Roger was walked out in chains, up the platform. For me, it felt like time had slowed down, because everyone went silent when seeing Gol D. Roger.

He had guards around him while walking up the steps, and it was super quiet. Even seeing him now made me realize just how much that disease he had was affecting him. 'No wonder he didn't have much time left. His body just started to deteriorate, and the shape he's in isn't any better. I guess he really did push the time limit on his death.' But he was smiling, the entire time without fail.

I was so fixated on watching Captain in general to not pay attention to anything any of the Marines, or executioners were saying. It was probably charges and all that. But Captain just sat there with that same smile as if nothing was happening.

And I was broken out of my staring by someone yelling "WHERES YOUR TREASURE ROGER?"

And I realized that was the cue.

"My treasure? Why, it's right where I left it... It's yours if you can find it, but you'll have to search the whole WORLD!" My whole body got goosebumps, and the words started to take affect on everyone who heard them.

In a panic, the executioners swung their weapons down, but the world was still slow for me. All I could remember was what I had promised the man about to die in front of me.

'Yeah, I'm gonna have to trust you with a task. I want you to become the best Buggy you can. Since you tried to be him to keep him alive, I'm gonna trust you with becoming the best version of him you can. You think you can do that for me? As a last wish?'

Those words resonated in my head, and I felt chills down my back. 'Was it really the best decision to let captain die instead of change the timeline? I'd just be delayed his death by a very little amount, and I'd be exposed as an accomplice to Roger. Besides, his death causes all these events to happen. But is it really the right decision?'

I contemplated that while the blades were brought down on the neck of the smiling Roger. And when they cut through his neck, I was so fixated on the smile and the promise I made to not notice that I was crying and shaking. The tears started to flow out of my eyes, and my body was shaking a lot.

But the world was silent, and no one was saying a word. Everyone was shocked, either due to his smiling to the end, his last words about the One Piece, or just processing everything that had gone on for one event.

When I stopped being fixated on Roger, I felt the completely trembling hand of Taki still holding my own shaking hand. But I stood, with a hand holding Taki's, and tears in my eyes and running down my face.

The Pirate King had died.

Me and Taki hid in the dispersing crowd of people, not saying any words, until I remembered Shanks. When I used observation, I found him, detached my hand, made it fly all the way over to him for him to look at me, and I nodded to him when he noticed me to follow me, or more precisely, the flying hand.

Going all the way to the hideout, I had Taki move the door while I waited for Shanks to get to the hideout at the front. People barely had any reason to come to the hills, so no one other than Shanks would have come this way.

When he first got to the hideout, I said "Hey, Shanks."

I could see his red eyes from crying so much, and I was slightly squinting also because of the tears that came out of my eyes.

He looked at me and said "I want to ask some things Buggy." In a both serious and normal tone.