3. Hello Captain

It was only for a second that I felt the exhilaration of the treasure hunt but in my idiocy, I left the only thing keeping me from hurting. I removed my hands just for a second from the log which had now spanned through hole and still went up into the darkness which glowed with stars. Perhaps it was insects that glowed faintly but they resembled stars. Then the pain set in, and it was far more than anything I had ever experienced. In a matter of second, my chest caved in, my nose and ears started bleeding and no matter what I did my hands didn't move an inch from where they had fallen. My skin split and blood marred my body from head to toe. Darkness was approaching very fast in the corner of my eyes and I knew that once I fell unconscious then I will no longer be alive when I woke up. (IF I WOKE UP)

The fact of matter was, I was completely paralyzed. No matter what I did, how I did, there was no part of my body that moved. The blood started pooling and made a nice small puddle below me. My clothes were soaked in it, more was coming out form my ears and even my vomit. I knew that this would be how I die.

Death

The sensation of approaching darkness made me fear death,my death. Here in this unknown land as a nobody against my will.

'I will not die in this place not like this never against my will...'

The words were a trigger and my mind suddenly cleared from all things, they just faded away. Then came the kaleidoscope of colors and thousands of things raced around in my mind and the next thing I knew, I directly stood up, moving my painless, feeling-less body. I felt like seeing something from far away. The body, my body was barely standing when my ankles broke and I fell down. There was no pain, no suffering not even an involuntary cry from my mouth, I didn't feel any of it. I couldn't stand up now so I crawled towards the center of it all. The reason I was here, I wanted to see it with my own eyes. The inside of the cave was barely lit but I could see a faint light coming from some distance away so I crawled there.

I crawled and crawled using his hands as some sort of hooks pulling myself towards the light. My body broke even more, there were maybe only a few meters between me and the treasure. I reached the light and found out that it came from the top of a pedestal. A pedestal as dark as night written with a language of a long forgotten time. I touched it and everything stopped. The pain was there but the reason for the pain wasn't. The pressure had vanished and I could stand once again, I knew whatever had happened to me allowed me to cut my sense of pain and allowed me to better use my body like a doll but it wouldn't be long before this state disappeared and the sense of pain returned. I would need a frightening amount of medical assistance just to stay alive.

Only a miracle could save me now...but since I still wasn't unconscious, I shrugged mentally and using the pedestal as a support stood up to see just what lay on the pedestal. What I saw blew his mind away.

There was a fruit; a mix between an apple and a mango. Dark and with random flashes of golden runes on it. This was the reason of the pressure, I could still feel it, the pressure trying to make me obey, bow down and die.

I laughed cause I finally figured out where had I learned the name: Devil Fruit.

'I am in the world of One Piece...'

'One piece huh...This should be interesting now, but except him why can't I remember anyone else...hmm weird'

The problem now was that all I could remember was a boy who had eaten a Devil Fruit and whose arms were stretching.

Monkey D. Luffy

'I will become the King of Pirates. Shishishishishishishi'

I was sure that I had read almost all the regular updates of it. I even vaguely remembered that he had a crew...vaguely see his flag symbol..but for the love of me, I couldn't remember fully. But all of that was for some other time, now I had to focus on the fruit and if it was what I thought it was, I barely even had to think about the decision that would change my life forever.

I ate the fruit whole, I didn't even feel any taste cause my senses were already closed off. I chew it with leisure and peace, even when I finished it, I smacked my fingers like eating a very tasty snack. The pressure had now fully vanished, even after I had removed my hand from the pedestal. I stopped just for a second and like a tsunami breaking through a dam, my senses burst through and the pain returned an hundred nah..a thousand times worse.

I fell unconscious without any more theatrics. In my sleep the pain still came to haunt me. This was the first time I had been so close to death, my dreams were filled with darkness and all I could do was flail about.

'''Finally somebody worthy enough, wake up little rascal. I had to use most of my energy to heal you. You won't be able to meet me for a while''', it was a melodious and familiar voice that woke me up to find a thoroughly sore body and well-rested mind.

I looked around but couldn't see anyone and the sentence like sand just vanished from my head. I was left with a faint sense of regret and amazement because I saw almost all my wounds healed. Though there were a few here and there, they weren't attention worthy. My body was sore though and I was sure it would take a lot of time before it was perfect and next thing I noticed was that I was moving now, not myself but I felt the slow momentum of the island.

Calibrating..

Energy Source confirmed

Diverting excess energy to primary systems

Time until full charge and boot up: 12 hours

The feminine voice almost made me jump in fright but in my sleep-induced mind I barely even responded except perhaps a shiver. The voice went silent.

'Shit how the heck can an island move about. I have to get out of here fast...'

Diagnosis done, I stood up with a groan. My body wasn't reacting well after the ordeal. Well atleast I was alive. I looked around and surprisingly the darkness that was filled in the cave was now gone. Light flooded in and for a second I thought it was my fruit's power but it wasn't anything like it. The roof of the cave was crumbling and the sunlight had spilled from the hole.

I looked around at my surroundings and found that I was in a huge hall with great depictions of wars portrait on all the walls. Behind me lay a small pool through which came a tree as white as snow. It didn't have any leaves on it. The log had ended up becoming a tree. It was gigantic in it's width and the room even more so. Just the tree occupied at least half of the room. Everywhere else there seemed like someone had carved the walls and even the ceiling with it.

Upon touching the wall I felt the same texture as the log. It seemed pieces of the log were used to create this room. There was a map carved on the wall opposite me. I went closer for a nice look and found to my amazement, the map was almost similar to earth. There were no continents just islands thousands maybe more and there were sprinkled all over the globe. The whole earth was cut in two by a mass of land.

The moment I understood the point, something else inserted itself into my memory. It was a lecture about how the world was divided by the red line but this was from the voice of a girl. So the huge line is called red line..huh. The whole of the map was filled with various different symbols all over it, I didn't understand them but I could deduce something of it.

These symbols were for different powers which seemed to govern a part of the world, in the past. There were 6 different symbols and corresponding parts pf the world which were large and small. Perhaps they were some sort of kingdoms then that would mean that there were 6 differing kingdom. One of them was situated on the red line. The symbol looked like a eagle or perhaps Zeus lightning bolt.

Anyway I examined the other parts and slowly but surely came to a realization that this hall was supposedly the meeting place for all this kingdoms perhaps their kings because all over the rest of the wall remained 6 differing portrait except the map that depicted each and every symbol and their nation's history. My eyes then moved to the hugest painting I had ever seen and it was on the bottom part of the roof. The bottom of the roof was painted like a connecting diagram. There was a single gigantic rune in the center of the painting and attached to it by six strings were the 6 kingdoms. So it was I think like a organisation rune or perhaps it was a kingdom that conquered the other 6 and created this place. The 7th rune looked like infinity but with a dash of rift going through it's center.

'Weird symbol for an infinity.'

See all the other symbols were unfamiliar to me so I couldn't even deduce anything from them. They all were just like an alien language with some looking like across between a L and a T some looking gaseous but this symbol was an infinity or horizontal 8 which in most civilizations represented eternity and the rift in the middle of it would mean something like..

'To tear apart an eternity. Or roughly something like that. Hmm..well whatever it didn't matter, cause all of that was just history.'

So I took a deep breath and once again went towards the pedestal in the center, it was like an ordinary pedestal now if a bit ancient. I had noticed there to be a compartment in it. I had removed the fruit and the compartment was opened as a result. It was too dark to see, but I slowly made my hand inside and grasped a cool metal rod and pulled.

With a grinding sound and a whirl of wind, the map section of the wall slowly moved sideways and showed me another room. It was slightly smaller than the hall but it seemed to contain a passageway at the end of it and in the center of the room was a sword placed vertical. It's sheath had been inserted into the ground and beside it was a fingerless glove. I immediately opened the sword and with a flash of light out came a simple katana with it's edges designed with gold engraved runes. I couldn't read them so I tried swinging the sword around. It was heavy not weight wise but feeling wise, it now was in my hands. A weapon of death so I now had the responsibility to save or not save a person with it.

Whooo thats a heavy feeling...

I sheath the blade and felt the glove. It was black in color with runes of gold all over it. Though not like the modern version glove, it fit snugly against my hand and went half-way to my elbow. It didn't seem to possess any power or anything but it looked cool so I wore it. Dressing done, I looked towards the tunnel in the room. It was still dark and I could barely make out

I walked back into the hall to find something to light the way but alas there was nothing in there anywhere. I made the decision to enter the tunnel and find what's on the other side.

The tunnel kept twisting and I could barely discern anything but since it only went one way, I followed by sticking to my right and always keeping in touch with the wall. I had to be double sure while walking because I had seen those movies where someone falls into a pit of sharp spears and everything lethal. So I paid attention to my feet more so than my ears or eyes.

Soon I could see a ray of light at the end and when I finally reached it, I came upon a opening. I was at the bottom of the Lion's Mane; the entrance in the middle of the island. This was a bloody place, there were corpses everywhere and though most looked barely discernible but I could make out atleast a hundred bodies and skulls from where I stood.

I started my Sherlock mode and tried deducing just what had happened here. It didn't take much to understand that there had been a battle here but it was ages ago. Just how is it that there bones were still intact, even the gravity didn't seem to affect them. There were 2 bodies nearest to the entrance of the tunnel that were still mostly intact. It was with them that I found the reason, they too were wearing the glove. It was easy to identify since it still had the same design if a bit cruder. It looked like they just wrapped it around their hands or for some people they wore it like a bandanna. These things seemed like they negated the effect of gravity at least up to a point. I found a bag of the same material and collected all of these special cloth for future use.

I think they came here in order to take the fruit and these guys were defending it. But still for no one to live...weird how can no one be alive. There must be someone who was a coward or just lucky to survive. It was simple probability, maths was my forte.

This was a forgone conclusion, someone must have made it out. I started climbing and finally saw the sun. This was the Lion's maw or whatever it was called which was the center of the island except this time it was the center of a falling andmoving island. I climbed out of it in a completely different way. The island was crumbling now faster than ever and it was adrift. It seemed like the logs supporting it had fallen apart not only that the speed at which it was moving was like a ship. He was really lucky in getting the fruit, if he had gone through the normal way then all he would have found was the sword and the glove but the door to the fruit was closed from within so he would never have found the Grand Hall.

I am damn lucky...well that's a given..I mean how many people can say that they just traveled into one of the most adventurous and absolutely awesome anime turned real world ONE PIECE and ate a Devil Fruit.

The people who wished for it to happen were millions but I wasn't clear on the fact that I was just one of the 2 people in this world that were from...well Earth. I had a sneaky suspicion that my old man was here too, seeing that the lake was the same place that he had vanished from.

Well all the more good, I was worried that the old baldy had already ascended heaven and I wouldn't be able to meet him but if he was here there was quite a good chance that he was still alive.

My old man is strong.

My mood had increased to quite good and now I could concentrate on the stuff right in front of me, how the heck do I get off this goddamn disintegrating island.

Well isn't like I don't have any place to go, firstly I have to find just in which timeline am I. Before anything else now that I had finally thought about it, I understood the point cause if I was in the original timeline of Luffy then I was okay but if I was in the latter part or god-forbid in the earlier part of the series then I am completely fucked up. I didn't even properly remember the original series let alone the time before that.

The island was now barely even a 100 meter wide, it seemed to be moving fast towards a single location without winds to carry it, so that would mean there was something in the tide that was stringing it along. There was only one thing that was in the sea and that could create such a great force of attraction and that was a...

"A god-forsaken whirlpool in the middle of the sea and such a huge one at that. My luck seems to be taking a turn for the worst now.", The whirlpool was huge and not like I-have-never-seen-such-a-whirlpool-huge but like Shit-this-is-Nigeria-falls-huge and it wasn't even that far away now,maybe just a 1000 meters or so.

It is at such a time where I couldn't do a thing that I remembered the most notable thing about Devil Fruit i.e the user will become an anchor in the sea (Unable to swim and will drown like an anchor).

I went ahead and tried to put my foot into the sea and the moment I did, a wave of nauseous and weakness filled me such that I could barely stand anymore. I hurriedly removed my foot out of the water and went as far away from the water as possible.

'Shit this is dangerous. Man I don't even know what power I have...it sucks so much if it was something completely useless.'

I wasn't worries about the fact about the power because if a power such as this could guarantee someone to create a whole island just as a resting place for this fruit then this fruit's power will not be lower than legendary for them and legendary for them means super strong for me. Maybe it is gravity like how the fruit exerted the power, I would be able to exert gravity around myself too. That would be so cool.

'I would be like..."You can't even stand up to me and you want to beat me...hahahahaha", god that will be so awesome.'

That was it for my mind-speak as the next moment the world seemed to flip on it's own and I was sent flying to the side as a massive part of the land I was standing on suddenly broke off and fell aside and started moving faster towards the mother-fucking whirlpool. I got up to see another island this one, just like mine getting dragged over to the center of the whirlpool.

I could just helplessly wait and watch as the island got devoured and there remained nothing of it.

"HOLY SHIT,I am gonna die, gonna die. SHIT SHIT SHIT", the whirlpool was coming closer and I just watched everywhere but at the center in hopes of trying to find a solution and then it was as if the world stopped, I saw a boat making it's way right over to my island. There was someone on the boat and he/she was waving his/her hands to catch my attention. It was a small boat but the person soon came into focus and it turned out to be a girl. The moment my eyes landed on her, I knew who she was. I was getting rescued by the navigator of the Straw-hat Pirates: Nami.

Suddenly for a second I blanked out and information came directly right into my mind. So that's how it was, even if I have come to this world, I don't get a huge advantage of knowing the full future of this world. It's more like a foreknowledge of the arch that I was in I saw myself sitting there and now I remembered the first release of One was other information too but I just ignored it and waved my hands to let her know that I needed her help. I ran towards her side of the island as close I could reach as possible to her. My thirteen years of swimming were quite useless to me now, I sighed in my heart but kept her attention on me. She was no doubt aware of my impending doom,if not bu the whirlpool but by her own talent of the sea.

The small ship closed in but still was too far away, I wasn't sure she did it purposefully or not but I didn't care.

"I just came out here for a walk and this happened. Man I have such a lousy luck"

"Get on the boat now, I won't be able to steer it any closer",her reply was quick.

I couldn't do anything except just trust my luck. So I took a dew steps back, rubbed my shoe soles to the ground and started running without any care to the consequences knowing full well that if I missed, she wouldn't be able to save me and then it would be: BYE BYE WORLD.

The run was short,too short. I jumped at the edge with all my power and suddenly I was flying in the air. This was surreal because that jump just exceeded the world-record and I passed through what it seems like 10-11 meters before I looked around me and caught the edge of the boat on the other side from where I jumped. I easily flipped myself over to the boat and the boat pulled away from the falling abyss.

I looked over to the wheel and saw her, I mean really saw her. Like a human, she wore a orange tank top with a very short blue jeans. It demonstrated her figure perfectly as well as left a few important bits to imagination fully giving her the 18 and sexy vibe. Man she looked gorgeous even with all the sweat on her face and a frown as she looked at me.

"Hey, are you alright? How the heck did you get on that sinking island anyway and weird I don't remember an island being around here.."

Seeing that I was too stunned to open my mouth, she waved her hands and that woke me up.

'Seriously dude can you look any more like a dork huh. Stupid acting just by seeing an anime character that isn't supposed to exist. On second thought this does seem appropriate.'

"Names Dastaan ...Moirai D. Dastaan. Thanks for saving my life, ate a Devil fruit not too long ago so can't swim and just how the fuck can a whirlpool that big suddenly come out of nowhere. I mean seriously...", the D. was added for when the world starts to know about me. I had to have a cool name for that and in One Piece there is no other name more secretive and cool than D.

"Names Nami. Don't mention it and welcome aboard my boat. Now can you help me steer her, still in dangerous waters like literally next to a whirlpool. Get me full sail and there's a rudder here..try and hold it for me."

I started working in a jiffy, though these things were a little unfamiliar to me. I had been on voyages and trips on more modernized ships but I quickly go to work on following her orders. In the next fifty minuted I ran around the whole deck almost like a possessed man and finally the ship came under control, away from the terrifying whirlpool. I had a sneaking suspicion that she could have taken care of all this herself more easily but she seemed to be wary of me and kept her distance from me.

'I mean why shouldn't she be? Great start for something..now where to go after this ..hmm...let me ask her for information first like where the heck am I,right now? Atleast I know in which timeline I am now. Seems like even before Luffy sets out.'

"Hey Nami can you tell me where are we right now? I mean in which sea and any nearby islands that you could point me to and leave me at?", I knew that she is a robber now, she is still under Arlong's thumb so I can't stay with her. We will meet again soon so I have to leave her with a good first impression and getting my ass saved by her does not fit it.

"We are right now in the east blue and though we are still far but we are sailing under the waters of the Goa kingdom. There are a few islands closest to us and I personally am enroute to an island with a marine base: Shells Town. Wanna come with me? "

Just as I thought about the whirlpool I remembered how Luffy gets to Shells Town (By getting dragged into a whirlpool,caught by a Alvida, punching said Alvida, punching her crew mates and finally coming to shells town with coby). My memory seems to be sealed than forgotten as I thought. I need to remind myself of related things to finally remember the future of this world.

'Man this is not going to be easy, especially if I can't even plan ahead like any respectable self-insert can.'

I did the only thing that I could to lessen her worry and sat down up front of the boat and tried to make heads or tail of my power. Just while trying and listening to the familiar sound of the sea waves around me, I didn't even know when I fell asleep. I knew talking to her would be good but I didn't want to come across as some sort of creep since I basically knew about her. Far more than any stranger should know about you.

It barely felt a second before Nami was trying to wake me up.

"Hey Dastaan wake up, we are here.", her voice was soft and I felt my sleep flow away. So I sat up and looked around to find a bustling port and a small boat just off the port tied by a rope barely.

'I know who that belongs too'

"Yeah hey thanks for taking me till here. You saved my Life, I will make sure to repay you someday."

"How do you know we will meet again after this?"

"I don't know but I have a feeling that we will..Wanna bet?"

"What are the conditions",her voice was light, mischievous.

"Well lets say in a week we meet again of course not on this island, then would you let me take you out for a Date?", I smiled as she went stiff for a second and then looked away. There was no such thing as courting in One Piece. I barely had seen anyone do it so I was hopeful she might give me a chance, I mean she was a beauty and in my strike zone too so I became bold.

"And if not...", Nami laughed it off.

"Well then take this...", saying so I tossed her the Sword that I had got from the island.

"Sell the sword if we don't meet again but till the next island take care, it is a very special sword for me."

The sword for just a second spun through the air and then Nami caught it with her hands which immediately fell down.

"Ugh..so heavy. Oh my God this is too valuable...aren't you afraid I will sell it?"

"Nah you won't. I trust you till then and besides don't forget if I won then you have to agree to our date."

"But the world is so big, what if we really don't meet again?"

"The world is a big place but I have a hunch that I will meet you again.." 'so wait for us'

The following thing was even more simple, I said my goodbyes to Nami (afraid she might start charging Berries...if I stopped for a second longer) before running away. I had a Future Pirate King to find and as for Nami I already knew she was going to rob the marine building and I will meet her again.

Finding Luffy was quite simple actually. all I had to do was walk straight ahead towards the big ugly Marine building and I will find him around making trouble. I found him laughing at Coby while walking to the Marine building.

"shishishisishi So funny, we definitely should visit again.",said the straw-hat wearing Pirate.

For a second I was ramrod still because in front of me was a Pirate, someone who was destined for greatness. My breath hitched when knowing just how great this guy was going to become. The adventure he would have and the places he would see were both incredible and dangerous. I envied him weirdly, i can't understand the reason myself but one thing was clear: I had to follow him, make him my Captain cause though I could live my new life around here safely and without a major hiccup with my future knowledge but was that what I really wanted? I loved adventures, I wanted to be in danger, help a friend and just live my Life grandly and all those things follow this straw-hat everywhere. And who knows they might even follow me now that I have become a D. I rubbed my eyes and before I knew they had already gone way past me.

Luffy and Coby had made their way to see Zoro though I couldn't remember his face. I walked towards the building behind them and saw them both climb a wall and look towards the inner grounds. Just then a girl came out of the restaurant close-by and climbed the wall to go inside. I knew she was going to give rice-balls to Zoro.

I wanted to see him too so I made my way towards them and climbed the wall easily to look at a green haired, wounded man tied to a pole in the center of grounds in blistering heat. The next seconds were spent trying to digest the rush of info I saw of him.

Roronoa Zoro the first mate of Straw-Hat Pirates, a tough guy who used three-sword style and a total badass. I smiled and looked towards Luffy to find him looking at me too. The moment I did, I was shocked not only because he was looking at me but near his shoulder I saw a small ball of light though Coby couldn't see it cause he was right behind.

"Hey who are you? What are you doing here?", Coby was fast to ask cause he was afraid of someone complaining to Marines against them.

My eyes were still fixed at Luffy who still looked at me curiously.

" Hey did you eat a disgusting fruit that gave you powers?", was the question asked to me by Luffy.

"Oh yes...How did you know about that?", Could he too see some sort of light ball on me. I knew that the light ball must be a Devil-Fruit power since only Luffy in the whole town had it but I wasn't 100 percent sure so I had to make sure.

"No, it just feels like you are?"

"Oh hey stay still for a moment, could you?", I asked him and then touched the light ball to feel something like... rubber. So I was right, the light balls were about Devil -Fruit uses only. The info just came into my brain, I could know about other powers if I was close enough to touch there light balls. Let's call them Devil Balls. I removed my hand as soon as I felt it.

"You are a rubberman ", it wasn't a question but a confirmation. Ofcourse I knew what power he had and all sorts of things that he did with them in the future but to feel it was a different matter.

'I could find out everything about a power if given enough time'

And that was the truth, the Devil Ball were giving me the info they had like some sort of internet. But I felt unnaturally hungry before Luffy brought me out of my thoughts.

"Yes...I am a Rubberman because I ate the Gomu-Gomu Fruit. Which one did you eat?"

"Actually I don't know...",but once again I was interrupted; this time by a thrown little girl that was now just above me. I jumped in reflex to catch her and brought my back to the ground to make sure that she didn't get hurt. The ground scraped me but I was more concerned about the light whimpers of the girl.

The girl's mother came immediately and patted down the girl to see if she had any injuries. Luffy came and gave me a hand to pick me up. The whole thing was almost surreal for me (apart from the usual) I had been a hero now. I was now the guy who saved the little girl though I was sure that Luffy was the one in the original time to do it.

'Damnnit I never knew it felt so good'

I was smiling widely and before I knew it Luffy patted me on the back while still smiling said something which will change my life Forever.

"Hey Join my Crew."

And I not to be left behind by such a straightforward method could only answer simply but trying to be cool.

"Sure Captain"