Waking up in the New World was not on Kristin Lite's agenda.
Kristin Lite had woken up on the sea, whisked away from her home, the place she knew as 'the real world.'
Now, she continues on the waters, leaving chaos and confusion in her wake. As she...
I looked around. I was lying on a beach by the ocean.
I didn't live anywhere near the sea or where there were beaches. I was either far away from home in my world, or I was still in One Piece.
I had died, hadn't I? Didn't I save Ace?
A dreadful feeling settled over me.
I rushed along the shoreline, looking for a dock that would point me towards town.
Soon enough, I had found one. I headed towards the village.
People chatted among themselves in the streets, people sold their goods, and kids played with each other.
I walked up to a shop.
"Do you know where I can get the paper?"
He nodded, smiling lightly at me. He pointed in a direction.
"Over there."
I nodded in thanks.
As soon as I found the paper, I opened it up.
I scanned through it, catching up on recent, popular events.
I smiled at the small versions of bounty posters. It seemed Ace and Luffy both did something to get more beri added to their name.
By the events, it was already after Luffy's training. Ace didn't die, so I hoped he had still decided to do it.
I was on an unfamiliar island, but as I glanced upwards, a Whitebeard flag sat atop the tallest building.
I smiled. Seemed the old man was still kicking.
I hadn't woken up in a dinghy this time, I had woke up on an island. I was going to need to find some sort of a boat and sail off again, just to make sure things were still running smoothly in the One Piece universe.
As I walked towards the docks, a piece of paper caught my attention. I turned towards it. It was dirty, crumpled, and worn, but I picked it up anyways.
I stared at the front of it, a grin on my face.
I guess they didn't get rid of all of my bounty posters.
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I forgot to mention that I had bought a hat. It looked like a baseball cap, and it was black and white.
My hair was in a pony tail then, and I really had no idea how they had gotten that picture. It was most likely anime logic.
I tossed the paper, the poster flying away in the wind.
I had a boat to steal. ______________________________
The Whitebeard crew sailed the ocean, making their way to another island.
Ace sat up in the crow's nest, a black and white hat in his hands, his mind elsewhere.
"Sabo is alive. And he's waiting, waiting to remember. Help him do that, will you?"
Ace wondered how she knew about him. But they listened. The brothers had ended up finding Sabo a couple months after the two year training.
He'd remembered, he told them. He remembered when he saw the paper, about how a young girl had saved the life of Gol D. Roger's and Dragon's sons.
Ace wondered how she knew.
She had known about his father, too, long before his execution.
What else had she known? Who else had she told?
He guessed it didn't matter now. She was dead.
The guilt of her death weighed the brothers for a year before they decided to move on. She died for him for a reason, not for them to live like that.
"Live a life with no regrets, Ace, with these words in mind."
Considering everything else she knew, she must've known about his and Luffy's promise after Sabo died. The one to live a life with no regrets.
Maybe she knew about his other promise, too, that he'd never die.
Maybe that was why she saved his life.
Even though he didn't have the weight of guilt anymore, he still hated that he let a girl that had a full life ahead of her die.
Ace spotted a yellow paper floating above him in the wind. It looked like a bounty poster. He reached up and snatched it, staring at the page.
It was her bounty poster. He remembered seeing it. She had gotten the same starting bounty as Luffy did.
He glanced at her smile, her hand on the bill of her hat. He also looked at the shirt she had continued to wear every time he saw her. He clutched the hat tighter.
He thought about where she could've gotten it. Why did she wear it so much? Why did she have clothes with his brother's pirate flag mark?
Self hatred and guilt washed over him as he realized he would never get an answer.
No child her age should've seen that much bloodshed, that much war. He wondered if she had parents, a family or friends.
He'd never find out.
Ace shook the negative thoughts from his head.
"She told me to live a life without regrets, Luffy and I made a promise. I can't break it now."
Ace left the crow's nest. _______________________________
I smiled smugly in the small boat I had taken from the dock. It was already filled up with food, too, though most of it was meat which was a pity.
I sunk my teeth into an apple, chewing on the red skin and white fruit.
The boat was a little bigger than my last one, but I wasn't complaining. More room to stretch!
I laid my head on the edge of the boat, closing my eyes. The apple core tumbled out of my hands and onto the floor of the boat as sleep took me under.
