Through Graphen

I felt lost, even while using observation, because there was a lot of dark gray fog covering a good chunk of the island. It was the slight disconnect between seeing and sensing that was causing the feeling of being lost while knowing exactly where I was.

I spent a while traveling around, and what I found was a bit weird.

'Why are there ruins of buildings here? Actually, what is this island? I know Rosalina told us it was Graphen, but that told me nothing about it! Apparently, it's an island that's got ruins of some city, and one that was very much never shown in the manga or anime! So what happened here?'

I was still wandering behind Rosalina, making sure she couldn't see me even if she noticed me. It was a little weird when I was behind her and she looked back, of course I could only tell thanks to Observation, but my suspicions started to come back to me.

'Does Rosalina really have someone controlling her? Maybe if it was Big Mom, it would explain how she knew someone was following her. But it could be literally anyone! Even someone I don't know who get imprisoned in Impel Down or something. The fact that she turns around is the most suspicious thing, and I don't know how her weird shifting personality mixed with her equally weird physiological traits of having silver stuff in the place of her heart and brain, along with the feeling of her knowing things just makes it seem like she's under the control of someone. Which still doesn't explain who.'

I was still watching Rosalina from pretty far using observation, so I knew what route she took, but I was taking in the ruins of buildings. Walking up to one, the base looked grand, as if it was an important building.

'Why is there so much that's been cleaned up? I thought these were ruins, and yet none of them have any type of plant growth going on, and none of the ones I've passed seemed to be overgrown in the slightest. There's something very odd going on here. Maybe it has to do with Rosalina's family? I mean, I still don't know if they're her real family or just a cover for people like message carriers to take information to someone higher up. Could Rosalina be a spy for some reason? Or even.. maybe CP0? What would CP0 be doing here, and why would Rosalina be with them?'

Shaking my head to rid my brain of my overthinking thoughts, I then thought a little.

'No, I'll get confirmation of whatever Rosalina's doing when I follow her and see what she does. I hope I'm not found out before then though.'

I continued to walk through ruins, and started to notice some buildings that were still standing. Or it was better to say, the looked rebuilt. They didn't look fully original, because there were pieces that didn't match what the buildings looked like. They looked like stone blocks, almost castle like in structure. But I could only tell some of the stones were out of place because nearby were some random broken stone blocks. They were cracked in half, turned to dust, or looked like they were glued back together, which was confusing.

'Was someone rebuilding these ruins? Why? Does Rosa have any connection to this happening?'

Questions started to stack up in my head, so I decided to let go of them, and just follow Rosalina.

On that walk following her, I ended up thinking again.

'What are these buildings for? It was obvious that civilization once strived here, but what caused it's downfall? Why are there buildings that seem to be rebuilt?'

I then noticed that I was getting closer to what seemed to be the central area of the ruins, and at this point, I was still questioning everything.

The reason was because the ruins turned into the outer walls of buildings, and then turned into full buildings, complete with somewhat mismatched roof tiles of multiple colors.

At this point, I was too confused to form thoughts besides going to where Rosalina was, so in my stupor, I looked down and started to notice that the closer we got to the central area, the more clean it started to get. The fog was still there, but was becoming less and less hard to see through, like it was starting to lift. The clouds were very still there, but the fog was less dense the closer to the center I got.

Rosalina still hadn't seen me, and I intended to keep it that way, so when she reached a wall of an actual castle, she turned around to look and check that she was just having a weird feeling rather than someone actually following her.

She didn't notice that I was there, and turned around, then pulling out.. a key card.

'WHAT IS THAT? WHY DOES ROSA HAVE AN ACTUAL KEY CARD? I DIDN'T THINK PEOPLE IN THE BLUES HAD THIS TECHNOLOGY, BUT I GUESS THAT WAS WRONG! OH YEAH, WHY WASNT IT OBVIOUS, CLEARLY TECHNOLOGY IS WONKY HERE, SO WHY DOES SHE HAVE A KEY CARD? DOES THIS BUILDING NEED IT?'

Rosalina swiped it over a stone, causing the wall of stone bricks split in two, revealing a giant steel door, which then slid up, revealing a giant, lit up, stone hallway on the other side.

'AGAIN, WHAT IS THIS? DID GERMA HELP OR SOMETHING? IT WOULD EXPLAIN THE TECHNOLOGY ON THIS ISLAND, AND EVEN WHAT ROSALINA'S DOING.. NO IT WOULDN'T! GERMA AND BIG MOM DON'T HAVE A CONNECTION AND WON'T FOR LIKE 20 YEARS! WHAT IS GOING ON?'

She walked in, and the door started to close behind her.

'CRAP! What do I do!? Do I stay out here? No, then I can't hear what's being said, and I'm not good at lip-reading! Do I go though? I have a much higher chance of getting caught then, but I could then hear all the conversation! WHAT DO I DO?'

I was freaking out, and had a choice. The door was closing relatively quickly, so my decision needed to be quick. And in the spur of the moment, I used Soru and Geppo to get into the castle. The only thing I could do was hope that Rosalina just didn't turn around.

While trying to hide, I noticed the inaccuracies of the inside as well. It seemed to be a giant shell of a building, looking like a grand castle with 6 floors on the outside, having only two floors on the inside, with the second being extremely tall, spanning what looked like five floors. It was basically a shell of a castle, and I was confused when finding a lot of supplies in the second floor, mainly stone and sculpting tools. There were also plenty of stone statues that seemed to be made of the broken stones of many houses and buildings.

'What is this place, and why is Rosa here? I'm still asking myself that question, and I still don't have an answer!'

Rosalina was walking down the hallway, and I then realized just how long it was. It felt like several miles but might have only been one mile. I couldn't tell because of a mix of confusion and fear that Rosalina would find me out. It was nerve wracking.

At the end of the hallway was a door, and only then did I realize the hallway only had the entrance from the beginning, and an exit at the end. It was mismatched stone walls, mismatched stone pillar pieces, and lights that looked like torches, but clearly were not, thanks to the fact that they seemed to use electricity, and not an ounce of wood or any type of fuel. It looked like they used light bulbs, but they had some temperature to them, as the light looked like flames rather than straight light.

My mind scrambled, I had zero idea of what to do besides follow, or at least listen into what what happening on the other side of the door.

But, noticing I could use Observation came quickly after, not having a need to follow to see, but rather hear.

So, a small maze of doors appeared within my sight, and I looked around, noticing something.

Other people.

'Who're they? Does Rosa have a connection to them? They don't seem to be a threat, but what do I do about it? Rosa doesn't know I'm following her, but I need to to make sure to learn of what Rosalina is doing on this weird, forsaken island.'

The people seemed to be sitting around a table, and waiting for Rosalina, as they didn't do much besides sit around it.

The people were.. interesting to say the least. The age of them looked like young, teenager age, all the way to wise dying old man. There were seven of them, and I noticed that they were wearing the same thing, with different variations. It reminded me of Napoleon, because of how it was made, being old European-esque in looks, all in a dark navy blue color for the coat, gold chains on the front, and several things that reminded me of old general like military clothing. The older ones seemed to have the uniform in almost perfect, what looked like original condition. The uniform, along with the age, changed. The younger the person, the more disconnected from perfect was shown, as the youngest had a bunch of other fabric sewn on, along with patches all over, and sleeves from what seemed to be a dress sewn in place of the originals.

While looking at the people, something came up in my mind.

We were underground.

In a mountain.

And the place we were in seemed to be castle themed with a little bit of technological flare, while still underground.

'This is gonna be interesting.'