The Island of Kuraigana

The mansion was gigantic.

'If I recall correctly this mansion used to belong to some kingdom and the animals living here are quite violent' Alexander staggered for a few seconds until he got the whole grasp of his juvenile body.

Mihawk walked in front, having taken her legendary sword that had Veyron's eyes shining like stars the moment he saw it, 'Yoru!'.

"What's wrong?" Mihawk felt his gaze and asked without even turning her head around.

"Nothing, where are we going?"

"How old are you, kid?"

Looking at his own aspect and size, Veyron thought he should be two or three years old, "Two?"

His answer sounded more like a question to her.

"This island is too dangerous for you to be on your own. Until you learn to defend yourself… I'll tell you where you can get some fruits".

Outside of the mansion, the whole place looked like an abandoned battlefield with rusted swords and leftover bones and armour everywhere. He even wondered how could one even live in a place like this, 'She's certainly badass!'.

Mihawk walked through the ominous forest with steady calm steps; the whole time Veyron followed, pulling on her sleeve and seeing how the bushes moved around them. He felt a faint presence coming from them, but never did any of those creatures dared to step forward.

The trees were filled with fruits, but the majority of them were dried and ripe fruits were scarce.

"T-There are creatures lurking around..."

"This Forest is filled with humandrills; be careful of them whenever you come. For now, Hmph, you should just run if you see one of them" Mihawk smirked in amusement and passed him a fruit that was as big as his head, like a watermelon. It seemed like the prospect of him running for his life, chased by a monkey wielding a sword, amused her.

**

**

They kept on moving along the forest, taking different types of fruits that Veyron had never seen in his life. Back in the mansion they both ate their fruits in silence while Veyron read the pages of the newspaper after climbing on her shoulders.

"…" Mihawk looked at him briefly before sighing and continuing.

'This is no doubt One Piece. North Blue, Grandline, Gold Roger… Garp the Hero!'

He then looked down and refrained from staring at Mihawk's massive chest which made him awkward, he was not yet used to her being a woman, after all in all of One Piece he had two favourite characters. Mihawk and Shanks.

With one of them being a woman, he didn't know how to feel about it yet.

'W-Why is she a female!? Could it be… the theory of parallel worlds? Not everything is bound to be exact. But it is a universe close enough to resemble one piece. There are different things and one of them is Mihawk's gender? if that's the case, how many things are different? is Shanks a woman too? Luffy? is this a matriarchal world?!'

As always his imagination was taking him to uncharted territory, he even imagined Nico Robin as a man for a second.

"What are you thinking, brat? I'll kill you..." Mihawk's gaze went cold for a second, she could feel in her being she was somehow being insulted.

"N-Nothing!"

"Hmph, looked enough? I'm going to sleep, make yourself at home".

With the night quickly at hand and the moon hanging up high, the deadly lady stood up and left the newspaper on her chair, drinking the rest of the wine she had before walking away to her room without sparing him another word.

"..." He followed her with his gaze until she disappeared around the corridor.

Before going to sleep, Veyron read the whole content of the newspaper that indicated the new bounties of some pirates given by the marines, royal family events and the movement of pirates in the grand line.

'Fleet Admiral Kong, Garp the Hero, Sengoku... Admiral Zephyr' The majority of the news involved the marines who were regarded as heroes. With a small section containing the bounties and achievements of recent pirates. A prominent name among the pages was 'Edward Newgate' as he expected... six years later after Gold Roger's death, he was considered a Yonko together with Kaido of the Beasts and a woman called Big Mom.

'I only know Whitebeard...' Veyron recalled, thinking he was an old man that he wanted to meet aside from Shanks. He then moved along the pages but didn't find Shanks' name in there.

'Shanks is not a Yonko yet? and it seems Mihawk is not the strongest swordsman either... not only are many things different, but I also don't have much knowledge of this time. There are no shichibukais and it is six years after Gold Roger's death... I think Luffy is not even alive. So I'm older than Luffy?!'

He rubbed his forehead, thinking about what to do from now on. Fate seemed to have played a trick yet again choosing such a dangerous island as his starting point.

'Gold Roger died six years ago… I don't know the timeline very well but I know Mihawk was present during that time. Which means Mihawk should be in her early twenties or late teens?'.

Veyron hugged his knees in a loss.

'What am I going to do from now on? I was killed by my driver… because of my invention. I was naive. Everything I did was for nothing. I always wanted to come to One Piece. But now that I'm here… I don't know what to do'.

He walked across the mansion until he arrived in an empty room where he was supposed to sleep, and yet, the moment he saw the moon hanging out in the sky, the only thing he could recall was Patrick pointing his gun at him, followed by the most painful pain he had felt before eventually dying.

Veyron gulped and left that room, walking aimlessly through the mansion until he found another door. He entered and saw her there, sleeping in light white night robes.

"You can't sleep…." Mihawk stated, raising her head to see a Veyron whose gaze seemed so dark. The boy merely nodded and she beaconed him to go in albeit annoyed.

They lay down on different sides of the bed and Veyron started sobbing.

"Why are you crying?"

"I feel lost… and I feel my life had no meaning and I don't even know why I am here".

"Stop overthinking things brat… life in itself has no meaning".

"Huh?"

"We live to die... can you find any meaning in that?"

"Isn't it… to leave something behind" He cleaned his tears, turning around until Mihawk's back and silky pitch-black hair was within sight.

"Leave something behind? You could try to think in an altruistic way like that… but the truth is: nothing of what you leave behind you can enjoy. You don't even know if the moment you close your eyes forever, the reality you had lived up until that moment... shall remain the same afterwards".

!!!

Veyron gasped, as if her words had touched his very soul... after all what she described is something he experienced. He closed his eyes forever, and his reality changed... past and future no longer mattered.

Mihawk continued.

"You can't be certain of anything in this life except for the present, Veyron".

"…"

"While you live do what you want to do as NOW is your only chance. If there is any sense to life at all; it must be that…" Having finished her words, Mihawk prepared to sleep.

"Is there anything you want to do?" Veyron inquired suddenly, a smile on his face no longer marred in tears.

"I'll be the strongest swordsman in existence".

"Is that your dream?"

"It is what I must do".

Mihawk's eyes widened when she felt him hug her from behind.

*RUMBLE!*

She drastically suppressed her killing intent just as Veyron's next words resonated.

"Thank you... I feel like I can sleep now".

"… it was nothing, brat".

She turned around and hugged him back, much to Veyron's surprise… he tightened the hug around her.

'I had never felt such warm before. Actually, I have… but it was so long ago that I had almost forgotten'.

...

Unbeknownst to him, a pair of yellow hawk-like eyes were observing him coldly with full intent, waiting for him to make the slightest move, 'Brat, you don't know how close you were to death and yet you can smile so soundly'.

"Thanks, Mom".

"…"

Mihawk sighed and for that whole night she didn't sleep, on guard against a kid she just found on his island and yet… she felt unable to push him away.

**

**

The next two weeks were uneventful. Mihawk took her gaze away from the newspapers to look at her feet where a set of fruits were laid down.

Veyron was sitting right in front, on the floor, eating his fruits while reading his own newspaper. A smirk made its way to her face before she continued, picking up a fruit and eating it.

For several hours this continued until Veyron got bored and decided to make some calculations, sadly... Mihawk had other plans.

Out of nowhere and as if expecting him to do the same, she stood up and walked away from the room. Veyron however, stayed there, taking the chair she departed and reading her newspaper which was the one from that day, the one he had been reading was from the day prior… he was about to take a sip of her wine when something smacked him on the head.

"What are you doing brat? You're too young to drink, stop wasting time and come!" The sad boy was pulled away from the wine.

...

"What is this island?" Veyron asked on his way forward towards the forest.

"This is just a place I found and made my temporary home... as for its story, let's say a very important royal family had settled on this island, but they angered the wrong people" Her explanation was vague and yet she didn't ask any further.

The two continued in silence with Veyron pulling on her sleeve like before. Mihawk's sidelong glance rested on him.

'For a two years old boy, he'd quite clever. To come to this forest without my presence and not be attacked by the humandrills… I wonder what he did. There is also that energy he released the first day. Although this young he has already manifested Haki... he may be worth nurturing. Let me see what talents you have, Veyron'.

The only matter that confused her was that the Haki he manifested that day, didn't feel like Armament Haki, Observation Haki or Conqueror Haki... this small detail made her believe she had misinterpreted what actually happened and her senses were fooling her...

'But my senses would never fool me'.

Mihawk walked all the way to an open field, unlike the rest of the forest, this was a clearing resembling a gargantuan dome with nothing but dried blood and weapons, the skeletons of those that fought in this land couldn't be any more dusty and pitiful.

"What are we doing here?" Veyron pulled on her sleeve harder; he recalled this story of this island, although he didn't think the timelines matched, 'Zoro trained here during the time skip and even he had a hard time'.

With enough time, shadows started to gather around them as Mihawk wielded her sword, Yoru.

"I want you to see everything that's going to happen here… and save it in your mind. Can you do that?"

"Eh?"

*RUMBLE!!!*

The hysterical yelling of the human drills became clear… there were thousands of them, all with swords of their own. Before long they lunged at Mihawk and Veyron!

!!!

'We are dead! No, I'm dead!'

Although he believed that Mihawk's prowess could allow her to defeat everyone in this lineup, he didn't know if Mihawk would be able to protect him simultaneously.

Cheap thoughts.

When Mihawk's eyes opened and she released her power, half of the human drills fell on the floor, motionless.

'Conqueror Haki!' Veyron gasped at Mihawk's control. He hadn't felt anything, not even the smallest wave of oppression.

This prowess didn't deter the rest of the humandrills that lunged forth together with the one he thought was the leader, a gigantic one with a sword that looked the same as Mihawk's. The one Zoro had fought at that time.

The lady jumped in front fearlessly and danced like her whole life's purpose was to live for the sword.

*CLANG!*

*CLANG!!*

Fighting more than five hundred opponents at the same time, Mihawk didn't break a sweat. Overbearing strength allowed her to blast several humandrills with a single strike, no blood was drawn but this exchange made him realise how the dynamics of this island were.

'When Mihawk is in this dome... that's their time to challenge her, she's the leader of this island!'.

Veyron was engraving everything in his mind, unaware of the looming threat right behind.

One of the humandrills squeezed across the chaos and up to him; before Veyron noticed. By the time he realised the humandrills' presence; blood coated his whole body as if a whole bucket had been splashed on him.

It wasn't his blood.

An ominous cold energy emanated from her and her yellow eyes were now shining with murder, watching the shivering humandrills who knew one of their members had gone too far.

"Don't touch the kid".

So far Mihawk has been knocking them out, this was the first one she slaughtered and she did it with such a long distance between them leaving a literal cloud of blood dust.

Ten minutes later, all the human drills lay on the floor, defeated. Mihawk sheathed her sword and pulled the shaking Veyron away after having finished her 'spar'.

She looked at him and sighed, 'Maybe I overdid it, he's still just a kid'.

Little did she know Veyron's gaze towards her was filled with anything but fear.

'THAT WAS SO COOL! MIHAWK, YOU WERE NOT MY FAVOURITE FOR NOTHING!!'