Hinokizu, Awakening and Downsides

__________ POV Narration __________ 

In one random corner of the new world, a gigantic ship cut through the waves swiftly.

The ship was truly grand, rays of sunlight seemed to reflect off of it seamlessly, it was built of the finest wood, a Brigantine to put even the most wealthy pirates to shame. 

Its figurehead was like the head of a sunflower, with the face of a lion in the middle. The ship was the 'Thousand Sunny', the flagship of the 'Would-Be' Emperor, Monkey D. Luffy.

In another world, then he likely would've been an infamous Emperor already, with a Grand Fleet of his own, filled with New-World faring pirates. 

But now? 

Now he was mostly just a journeyman. His bounty had not increased at all since he had started his journey into the New World, the government couldn't be bothered anymore.

It couldn't afford to waste too much time with raising his bounty. 

But they should have paid more attention to him... Because now, he was headed for the one place where it all started. Or rather, where all of it would end.

"Is this truly the way?" 

It was unusual for Nami, the orange-haired navigator of the crew to ask for directions.

She was always sure of herself and had a charted course, even through the treacherous waters of the Grand Line... But not now.

They weren't going to a location that could be found on any of her maps. Or on any maps in general. 

But she did have a compass... Though it was not one she was used to.

"I am sure... That's where the poneglyphs are pointing us..." Nico Robin was her guide. 

They had finally managed to collect the Road Poneglyphs.

Law had given them a copy of the Poneglyph he found within Zou, they had gotten Kaido's Poneglyph and had stolen the one from Big Mom.

The last Poneglyph they had gotten was just after egghead. More specifically, it was while they were on their way to Lodestar, the 'Last Island' of the New World. Well, it was the last that could be reached with a Log Pose. 

Luffy and his crew were rather miffed that they were reaching the last island without any sign of the last Road Poneglyph, but there wasn't much they could do in all honesty. 

Egghead itself was quite dangerous, and they had only gotten away through the skin of their teeth. 

One of Vegapunk's Sattelites had betrayed everyone and took the Seraphs away, but Shaka(01, Good) and Stella (Og Vegapunk) managed to move thier collective brain into the Strawhat Ship, so they were able to flee before the giant eye that had appeared in the sky destroyed them.

They didn't know if York had managed to make it out, they only knew that she had also taken a piece of their brain and fled. 

The Seraphs had certainly survived, however, as several agents as well as an elder had shown up to ensure that they would be retrieved. 

Luffy's fight with the elder in question was not exactly an easy endeavor. Even though Luffy was strong, he still was stuck in a stalemate with the strange spider-like Elder. 

A fight between a demon and an infant god was never going to end easily. Luffy had a lot of space left to grow.

And he was given that opportunity to grow alongside the last Road Poneglyph. 

It was a gift seemingly, from a man of few words—Hinokizu, the one that was touched by flames.

His black ship had appeared in front of them, emerging from the centre of a whirlpool untouched and stopping right before coming in contact with them. 

The man touched by flames was a deeply scarred individual, with not a hair on his body. 

No one knew what his origin was for the longest of time, the world only knew that he had appeared on Fishman Island and had taken the Poneglyph from there. 

That was where the information started and ended. The man had no wanted poster, no history to speak of, nothing at all. He was, by all definitions, a ghost. 

But Luffy, upon laying eyes on the badly burnt man, felt a bit of recognition.

Their conversation was a bit hard for Luffy to understand as well.

"Well well well... If it isn't the remains of a pathetic loser..." Hinokizu started the conversation in a hostile manner, the waters around the Thousand Sunny flaring up and twisting dangerously, putting everyone on high alert.

"What do you want?!?" Zoro immediately stepped up, unsheathing his blades. 

But Hinokizu didn't even spare him a glance, his gaze transfixed on Luffy, who was now, for some reason, sweating heavily. 

The young pirate felt, for some odd reason, that a piece of him recognized the man. But he could not put his finger on why that was... 

Before any of them could even blink, Hinokizu was already on thier ship, face to face with their captain.

Sanji and Zoro acted first, kicking and slashing at him, to get him away from their captain.

But the man just stood there, and their attacks passed through him, regardless of thier use of Armament.

Sanji immediately took a step back, feeling his leg a bit colder and... Wet?

"He's a water logia?" Sanji narrowed his eyes as he shouted in annoyance.

Jimbei tried his masterful Fishman Karate, but every attempt was met with the same reaction... And that was a lack of reaction. 

Some of Vegapunk's Sattelites tried to send some lasers in Hinokizu's way, same with Franky. But they also just passed through, causing giant explosions in the distance and splitting parts of the raging sea apart. 

"How are we supposed to deal with this guy?!" Ussop was growing frustrated as he tried shooting some explosive seeds into the man's body.

But it was all in vain. All of their attacks did nothing. 

Many in the crew tried some way of attacking the man, but nothing worked, and he just stood in front of Luffy, staring into his frozen eyes as if he were looking into the abyss.

Luffy's confused and befuddled expression seemed to morph into a smile, as his body seemed to naturally transform, his hair growing and flowing, before turning white. 

"ShiShishi~ Stop attacking him guys... You can't kill a ghost." The Awakened Straw Hat captain spoke with an unnaturally large toothy grin. 

"G-ghost! Don't tell me..." Ussop immediately reacted, running behind Zoro and looking at Hinokizu with fear.

Brook tilted his head at that. "I guess he does feel... Ephemeral." He was the one who had the most experience when it came to souls among the crew. He himself was technically just a soul inhabiting a skeletal body. 

 "Hmm, about time you woke up. These kids were getting on my nerves!" Hinokizu spoke, his burnt lips splitting into a smoking smile.

"Shishi~... No need to be rude! You're also just a wisp of a soul. You were a watcher only, but you got a bit too close to the war, and suffered for it." Luffy, taken over by Nika, spoke in a rather high-pitched voice. His tone felt different to the whole crew, they all seemed to be taken aback by that. 

"And whose fault is that? You burned me to death back then... But I guess that doesn't matter anymore... You're not even the same person." Hinokizu shook his head and looked deeper into Luffy's eyes.

Sun God Nika, was one who fought for liberation. Hinokizu was no such warrior, he only watched from a distance and tried to document the situation.

But during that last war, he had gotten too close for comfort. Nika's abilities were based on imagination, and the old god's mind was a lot more keen on destruction than Luffy's...

Simply put, a rubbery piece of the sun that Nika had pulled down from the stars had incidentally fallen on Hinokizu's head. 

Although not a god, the Watcher's will was just as strong as that of the gods.

He was determined to see the story through to the end, so he was able to keep his soul bound to the earth, bound to his ship that had already turned to charcoal. 

The Watcher wanted to 'live' through it, to see the ending with his long-dead eyes... So he decided to judge the current Nika. 

"You have a lot of growth to do before you are ready to face 'him' alongside Raijin's Incarnation." 

The man marked by Nika's flames could easily tell that Luffy was still lacking. And Nika who had momentarily hijacked Luffy's body thought the same.

"True, but there is still time~" Luffy stretched his body in odd ways as he spoke, turning his head towards the black ship. His eyes gave away exactly what he wanted.

"Hmph... I guess there is still a chance for me to see the dawn of a new age... Fine, take the Poneglyph." The Watcher marked by flames then snapped his fingers, and a wave of water washed over the ship, carrying with it a large red stone. The Road Poneglyph.

"Find Raftel no one's touched the treasure you prepared there... Get your soul in order and prepare... I will be watching on." With that Hinokizu turned into mist alongside his dark ship, his presence was blown away by the wind, and the waters finally calmed down. 

He left the Straw Hats quite confused and rather scared. But they were more scared because Luffy had passed out as soon as Hinokizu left. 

Of course, there was also the fact that Luffy had seemingly been controlled by his devil fruit. It was worrying for the crew to watch their captain turn into someone completely different.

They were only able to really calm down when Luffy woke up and was back to his normal self.

He didn't seem to remember anything at all but just claimed to have a greater desire to train his awakened state.

The others weren't exactly worried by his newfound desire either. Since Luffy was still in a stalemate with an Elder, someone that was underneath IMU greatly.

By that point, all of the Straw Hats understood what their captain was going to face, so they understood that their captain needed to at least be as strong as Enel.

And something was sure. 'If Enel were to have fought that Elder then it surely would not have been a stalemate...' 

And since that encounter with Hinokizu, Luffy had done nothing but train and eat. 

Even on Lodestar, that was all he did. He had advanced to the point where he had turned the ocean into a bouncing castle with very little effort. 

But he still could not maintain that for too long. He felt as if he was still lacking something. Every time he used his awakening his appearance changed, he felt as if he had grown.

His beard also started showing at some point, his muscles had become more well-defined.

This prompted a very thorough investigation by Chopper and Vegapunk's Satellites.

They were able to rather quickly determine that Luffy became a bit older each time he used his Awakening.

It was as if his overflowing imagination was powered by his vitality. 

But Luffy didn't stop training because of that. He figured that he was going to find his answers in Raftel regardless. 

And, incidentally... They were not that far from Raftel.

"Land ahead!" Nami's shout caused every head on the ship to turn towards the horizon.

In the distance, shrouded by mist, and barely visible, was a large island. And in the centre of it was a large white and gold temple.

'We're here!' Luffy's eyes sparkled as a large smile grew on his lips. 

"Onwards! To the ONE PIECE!" 

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Heyy, hope you liked the chapter!

Managed to write it at least, but my eyes are hurting, so I need to rest now :((

Must be the constant wind that's blowing in my face from my fan tbh, with the temperatures lately I can't help it

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