One Piece: The Legend of Beasts

Chapter 107-Awakening

Uno could not remember how long he had slept. When he woke up again, he unexpectedly found himself in a pitch-dark environment. There was no trace of blood around him, and the suffocating feeling of having blood plasma fill his throat had long since disappeared. He seemed to be dragged by an invisible force, and his body involuntarily fell into the endless darkness.

——This is... the world after death...? It seems to be a little different from what I imagined...

He tried to raise his right hand to feel for something, but it seemed as if his hand was filled with lead, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't move it even a little bit. An icy chill spread from the soles of his feet up his legs, causing every muscle and nerve in his body to gradually lose sensation, and even the surface showed some criss-crossing marks of fragmentation, like torn paper, slowly cracking and shattering.

——Death doesn’t seem to be as scary as the rumors say…Neither pain nor confusion will exist anymore.

Watching his body gradually fall apart, Uno's frail face did not show the despair and fear that one would show before death. Instead, he managed a helpless smile. When he thought about how his painstaking revenge plan ultimately turned into nothing due to the cruel reality of the huge disparity in strength, he felt an indescribable sense of loss in his heart, and his heavy eyelids slowly closed without him noticing.

The numb perception pushed his consciousness to the brink of disintegration like a tide, and his soul separated from his body bit by bit, like a shadow floating in the morning mist, gradually merging with the lifeless darkness.

——It doesn't seem so bad to fall into eternal sleep like this...

Just when he had completely given up struggling in his heart and allowed his soul to be swallowed up by the ocean current called nothingness, a deep and low voice sounded in his ears from somewhere.

Uno...don't lose...

The tone full of care and encouragement, the voice that was so familiar, was like a stream of clear water that suddenly appeared in the vast desert. It awakened Uno's dormant consciousness with its vigorous vitality and pierced through his lifeless heart.

——Dad? Did I hear wrongly...?

Uno, who had just woken up from his coma, slowly opened his eyes and looked around with doubt in his heart, but he still didn't see any figures. Just when he thought it might be an illusion, the voice seemed to have infinite magic and resounded throughout the dark space again.

Hey! You little brat! How long do you want to be lazy here? Get up now!

The angry words struck his mind like thunder, instantly creating sparks and making his originally confused thoughts gradually become clearer.

——Why did my father's voice appear in a place like this? Could it be that he is...?

Recalling his father's unremarkable but enthusiastic face, Uno, who had lost the will to live, suddenly became overwhelmed with emotion. He did not know where he got the strength from. He immediately raised his head and looked around, eager to find the source of the voice. However, there was nothing around him, and he did not see any human figure. The whole dark space seemed to reject his expectation and fell into silence again.

——What? I really thought too much. People always have hallucinations before they die...

Uno's mood immediately fell from the sky and he laughed bitterly at himself. Just as he was trying to convince himself with some self-consistent explanations, another voice, completely different from the previous one and as gentle as a pool of autumn water, reached his ears.

Giving up easily when encountering a little setback on the road ahead is not a good thing for children in their growing years.

Hearing this, Uno was stunned. His lips trembled slightly, and an unclear voice came out from the depths of his throat bit by bit: "Mom...?"

Before he could react to what was happening, he heard a childish and slightly annoyed voice shouting, "Brother, if you continue to stay in bed like before, I will let you experience the power of my new ultimate move, 'Rachel Flying Crash'!"

"Why Rachel...why?"

Uno blinked blankly, his eyes were moist, and the cracks on his chest stopped spreading. He calmed himself down, and the emotions that had been suppressed in his heart completely collapsed, pouring out at this moment like a flood. "Why do you have high hopes for someone like me?! I've thrown my so-called dream behind me a long time ago, and now I'm just a hopeless pirate who has survived to this day by lying and using any means necessary. I don't even know how many lives I've taken! How can a scum like me be worthy of your shameless salvation?!"

The more he spoke, the more hysterical he became, and by the end his face was covered in tears, his body twitching slightly uncontrollably due to self-blame and grief, as if only by releasing all the negative emotions that had been pent up in his heart for nearly a decade could he slightly ease the pain contained within his almost numb heart.

"If I...if I hadn't been injured that day, at least I could have saved your sex--"

Stupid! Don't take yourself so seriously!

Uno's mumbling was interrupted rudely by a sudden shout. Before he could continue, his father's rapid-fire voice followed.

Do you think you are the only one who feels bad?! Including the three of us, all the people who died in that incident felt the same way! They watched their compatriots being brutally killed one after another without being able to resist, and then had to leave this world that was still worth staying in with lifelong regrets!

But even so, so what?! If you indulge in the regrets of failure, you will not be able to sleep at night even in that world! We in that world have seen all the things you have done since you left Senuno Island! So far, you, who are just a child, have successfully survived among a group of murderous pirates, overcome countless difficulties, and finally came here! Nothing can trip you up! If there is, it is your heart that has begun to give up before you are completely in despair!

His father's irrefutable words were like a wake-up call, causing Uno's heart to tremble. The flying debris in the sky seemed to have received some kind of instruction and began to quickly piece together and merge with the incomplete body, returning to its original appearance in the blink of an eye.

At the same time, my mother's gentle words, as soft as velvet, echoed in my mind again.

As a man, no matter how many storms you experience during the voyage, you must never easily discard the burden called "courage". If your mother had ever had the thought of giving up under the extremely harsh weather conditions, perhaps she would never have had the chance to meet your father.

No matter how cleverly you disguise your true self in front of others, even if you have to force yourself to do things you have never thought of before, the gentle and kind nature in your bones cannot be hidden no matter what. Wasn't it with your help that the big kid who was bullied by everyone was rescued?

The self-pitying expression on Uno's face froze. Although his limbs gradually became more mobile as time passed, he was now petrified and motionless. An unprecedented excitement surged in his heart, and soon it roared in his mind like a huge bell.

For you, that long period of pirate life was not meaningless. There must be treasures in it that you regard as the most precious. Think carefully about them, and then hold them tightly in your hands and never let go. I believe you have found them, right?

--treasure......

Uno lowered his eyes and chewed over this seemingly simple and easy-to-understand word in a low voice. A female pirate who is greedy but attaches great importance to morality, a pirate chef who is usually not very serious but can always be relied on at critical moments, a female swordsman who is free and cheerful but a little rash, and a new pirate who acts recklessly and impulsively but always surprises people. Those most familiar faces appeared in front of the boy like images.

“Well, well, well! I don’t know any kid your age who is better than you, so I’ll make an exception this time and give you half of the chocolate cake that was originally intended as an after-meal dessert. Keep up the good work in the future!”

"Are you asking me the secret of my cooking proficiency? Chew chew ~ First you have to eat a demon - no, start by learning how to cut vegetables from me. With your skills, I estimate that you will be on par with me in less than a month - bah! You are a little inferior!"

"Congratulations on becoming an officer, Uno! Let's go outside and have some sparring without delay - pain, pain, pain! Chloe, you're too strict! Just let him put aside his duties for a while and fight with me. It won't waste too much of his time - sorry, please allow me to take back what I just said...

“Kid! What are you doing sitting there all by yourself? If you have nothing better to do, come and have a few more drinks with me! Don’t always act so polite. In a lively environment like a banquet, you should indulge your true nature! Hehehe! That’s the energy! I didn’t expect you to be such a heavy drinker! But that doesn’t mean I will lose to you!”

A series of completely different voices echoed in Uno's mind, causing his gaze to gradually soften. He uttered a few words softly, "You are a group of people I will never forget... But the time I spent with you was not bad."

——If I surrender to that scumbag... no, fate so easily, I won’t leave a good impression on them after I die.

Thinking of this, Uno's eyes were no longer confused and hesitant, but instead were filled with a firmness that could not be shaken by any obstacles.

At the same time, his right hand suddenly released a soft, silky green light, which gradually spread in all directions.

Follow your heart and move towards the sea called freedom.

Stop deceiving yourself like you have been doing before and open your heart to your most cherished companion.

"I see... Mom, I'm sorry to have made you worry again."

Uno murmured something in a low voice, and clenched his right hand into a fist. The light was brighter than before, and quickly enveloped his figure. It was as if the dead dark space was suddenly illuminated.

In an instant, the blood coffin that had been standing quietly above the sea of ​​flowers suddenly shook violently. Dense cracks appeared on the surface, and rays of light burst out from the cracks, accompanied by a buzzing sound that was particularly harsh in this quiet valley.

Then, the blood coffin that seemed indestructible by any means suddenly turned into countless cube-shaped blood clots with a crisp cracking sound, splashing in all directions, and blood rained down from the sky, landing on the young man who had finally escaped from it, dyeing his tights with several holes corroded into scarlet.

"Ahem! Ugh! Ahem!"

Uno fell to the ground and coughed violently, unable to stop spitting out mouthful after mouthful of blood that had been poured into the depths of his throat, as if he was trying to choke out his internal organs as well.

After a while, he finally stopped coughing, struggled to get up slowly and hard, wiped the blood stains on his cheeks, took a few breaths, looked down at the pair of arms surrounded by green halos, and muttered with an incredible look on his face, "Hu...Hu...what's going on? My ability suddenly took effect on the blood coffin, which obviously had no effect before. I felt that I could do more things...