15 Black

Years 1500, February 1

Seven years have passed since Mother departed and during this time, many things have happened.

For example, I have grown up. When I asked Ban to check my height (with his intuition), he said I was roughly 140cm. 

I also found myself becoming more mature as I developed an interest in newspapers. I imagined myself as a hard-boiled man as I seriously looked over the letters in the newspaper.

Of course, there is a reason why I began reading newspapers. I hoped I could find news for Mother but it was an attempt in futile as Wano Country is a highly isolated country. However, by reading a newspaper, I began to be genuinely interested in what was happening outside Nanimonai Island.

When my little sister Stella found out about my hobby of reading newspapers, I couldn't help but feel mocked but I was complimented on how cool I am, I think. 

["Despite being a joke all day, you do sometimes take interest in something serious, don't you?"] was how she complimented me that day.

Having a flashback of that day and laughing, I reached my hand out to a newspaper that was not far from me as the headline caught my interest.

[Great Pirate Age Embark!! The Word of Pirate King Gol D. Roger Ignites The Romance Dawn Across The Sea!!]

Below the headline were the speeches of Gol D. Roger before he was executed. The One Piece whatnot, where he laid them somewhere... 'huh, One Piece?'

'Didn't that strange thing mention the same thing, the world of One Piece or something? Do I have to find the One Piece to know where I am or how do I go to the world where I was in?'

My curiosity was piqued but I felt the lack of need to find the One Piece. My dream was to engrave the moment captured in my eyes on blank paper (Drawing).

Besides, I belonged to this world. Not the original world I was in.

"Big brother get your preparation done already!! We're going to Long Ring Long Land today, have you forgotten?" Mistella shouted to me from outside.

'Crap, crap, can't let her find me reading a newspaper when I should be preparing,' after hearing Mistella's warning, I panickingly laid the newspaper back to where I put it and began dressing up.

As for the reason for our departure to the Long Ring Long Land, Ban had said that he wanted to forage more variety of plants or trees on the island and also acquire more food.

Just as I finished getting prepared, a rift suddenly occurred in front of me as a dazzling light emerged out of nothing.

Surprised by the sudden occurrence of an unfamiliar object in front of me, I tried suppressing my curiosity, only to end up in failure.

At this moment, the door was coincidentally positioned on the opposite side of the place where the foreign object opened and my curiosity for the dimensional object that doesn't belong to this world ended up causing me to turn my back to the door.

'Forgive me, Grandpa. I can't just let go of something that seems so interesting to happen in front of me without witnessing it first-hand,' I made excuses before entering the portal.

[You have discovered a new trait of yours: Reasonable Bad Sense of Directions]

---

Outside the universe containing the World of One Piece.

"It's a child-peko. He is useless-peko."

After entering the portal, the portal behind me disappeared, filling me with panic as I was greeted with a cheeky voice.

"Come on, Pekora, don't be so rude. Are you okay?... Mr. Amatsuki Heylail is it? I am sorry for suddenly summoning you to our world... I hate to say this but it would take us a day to gather the spatial energy to open a portal to your world, if you wouldn't mind it, can you wait here for a day?... of course, I will compromise you greatly for our failure," the woman in front of me apologized to me.

As the woman apologized, I couldn't help but feel a sense of nostalgia for her attire as she wore a kimono patterned in a black-colored spider lily flower.

Along with the sense of nostalgia, a sense of relief also came in as I was made aware that I could return home to my world, albeit a day later. 

However, my sense of relief didn't prevent me from asking her how she knew my identity as I said, "Miss, how did you know my name?"

"I know right? Something is definitely weird here. My portal resonated with Pekora's 4th Dimension Deity mode won't malfunction such as bringing a child here," the beautiful person began talking alone.

"Yeah. Shirasaki Karma, Rein Carnation, especially Noil was very helpful to us in regaining the Virturan," she continued before finally responding.

"My apologies, Heylail. It's a certain technique I developed. Using my Origin Mana, I can check the identity of others' souls. 

"Oh, so you're not a Devil Fruit User?" piqued by her monologue and uninterested in her intention behind checking my soul's identity, 

"No, I am not. You can call me Kuro, I am a man by the way."

"Are you from the world of One Piece? Does everyone with Devil Fruit talk to themselves?" Kuro asked back.

"Yes!... I think yes? Me and my Grandpa with Dark-Dark Fruit have one inside me!" I said joyfully because the man in front of me may know what the One Piece World is.

"Hm, no wonder I detected another soul inside you, so it is a different universe of One Piece similar to Noil's universe of Dragon Ball. Can I go talk with the one inside you?" Kuro began his monologuing before asking me once again.

"Uhh, yes? But Mister, Only the consumer can hear the voice inside themself!!" I explained to Kuro earnestly whilst being surprised by the fact that the beautiful lady in front of me was a man.

Kuro simply showed his bashful smile that could kill millions if not billions men and women and touched my chest.

'B̩͎͍̾ͅẹ̿͋̒̕ĝ̽̓̀͑o̯̱̊͊͢ṇ̤͛̒̍ẹ̿͋̒̕, O̖̼ͩ͌͐ư̡͕̭̇t̲̂̓ͩ̑s̠҉͍͊ͅỉ͔͖̜͌ḑ̴̞͛̒ẹ̿͋̒̕r̴̨̦͕̝.' The usual kind and sweet-sounding voice of Hereru was replaced with something else with an unclear tone as it spoke with similar unfounded languages.

'I̍̅̀̎̊ s̠҉͍͊ͅẹ̿͋̒̕ẹ̿͋̒̕' Within a matter of seconds, Kuro deciphered the languages it spoke as it responded back and smiled and patted my head making me a bit embarrassed.

"You will make a really good friend with the girl I know, Heylail." Kuro spoke.

After thinking for a short time, Kuro suggested me. "Would you like to follow me to give you a tour guide to this place?"

Surprised by the sudden change of pace, I nodded and followed him.

At the same time, the the girl with rabbit and human ears in her head who called herself by third person perspective lay at the corner sadly as she said, "Fappiu... You're always so self-paced... you could have given Pekora a context on what is happening..." 

By the time she complained, we were already outside the room, walking down the high-tech-looking hallway.

"Kuro, where is this place? Why is there no window?" I curiously asked Kuro who seemed to be knowledgeable of this place.

"Hm? Ah, yes. First of all, this planet is called Virturan, for a reason I am responsible for, Outer World beings or Devils have begun swarming to Virturan starting from the country called Reign Empire where I used to live."

"So me and my friends had to move here, which is Nakiri Town, the homeland of my loved one... Precisely, we're below that because the surface is within the Devil's detection area." Kuro a tinge of emotions emerged from his jet-black eyes devoid of any affection but it was concealed soon enough.

That moment, however, was engraved inside my heart as I decided on the next topic to draw.

"Did you build this place...? Are you someone rich?" I asked, suddenly feeling anxious that I was facing someone of high-ups.

"It was trouble misdirecting the demons but thankfully to the girl that Pekora brought, Moona, we were able to build something this wonderful almost instantly. If not for her, we'd be living in a cage right now. As for whether I'm rich, I am probably the richest person in the world," Kuro smiled silly with 'tehe' on his face.

Just as we continued walking down we were met by a room with signs of unfamiliar letters in it, and from inside the room, a voice rang out.

"Shion, please make me the potion to be able to talk to other people without being nervous" a high-pitched voice made a request to the person she was talking with.

"That is impossible, Aqua. Although I can make a potion that can cure cancer, zombification, and trauma, I can't cure an introvert," responding to the high-pitched voice, a slightly childish voice spoke.

"That voice should come from Aqua. Although she is a little bit introverted, she is really cute and despite her looks, she is one of the strongest people here." Kuro explained.

"The person she's talking to is Shion. She is albeit a little bit too cheeky, but she is generally adorable. She is like a friend to me, I treat her like my little sister."

"Aqua, Shion, can you come here and give the little boy here a greeting?" As Kuro explained, he called the person here.

"Ah, Master! Yes, coming~!!" Hearing her master's voice, Aqua let out a high-pitched response before opening the door, only to change her face to terror in a matter of seconds.

"Iiii~p an extrovert!!" Aqua looked above my face and shrieked as if she saw a Zerg monster (something similar to a cockroach in Virturan)

"Uhh... Sorry about that, Aqua judges everyone with blond hair as an extrovert."

Shion in contrast, hid behind Aqua silently.

"...Shion is not good with strangers... anyway, let's go to my room!! I will show you the record of the alternate universe of your world." Kuro led me to his room.

As we walked down the hallway leading to his room I found that the interior of the hallway underwent a sudden change. Comparing the two, if the previous one we were walking down was a high technology designed for the user's quality of life, then the one we're walking through right now was from the interior of Western Japan Castle.

As we entered his room, another sense of nostalgia flew to me as I felt the clear sensation of a tatami floor. 

From not far away outside with an artificial sky, a sound of bamboo hitting the rock rang by as the cherry blossom petals scattered. 

"There it is, there it is. Look, this is the first volume of One Piece my clone wrote. Don't underestimate it just because it's my clone, he was a much better writer than me as he captures the sense of perspective and dialogue of character perfectly. He was a good man before he defected..." Kuro threw the book with [One Piece East Blue: volume 1] written in it.

Over the cover page was a red-shirt and blue pants man along with the green-haired marimo laughing. 

'Author and artist... Kuro Oni? Oh, he did say it's a clone of him that wrote this,' confused but intrigued, I opened the book and immersed myself in the story.