Chapter Text
The crew was navigating the seas, talking about how they thought the next island would be, and what they would do there.
Robin and Chopper were reading the books they had together. The woman had found a short book about a certain island somewhere in the sea. Titled: ''Spring Days'' It was just a short storybook about a small island, said to contain all the flowers in the world.
The reindeer started jumping around, telling the woman how awesome an island like that would be. She smiled at the small boy and kept reading the book, just a kid's story about a magical island where a lonely, hopeless romantic boy lived, afraid of falling in love, but always dreaming about it. The woman read it in minutes, but when she reached the last page, she found herself confused, the story was incomplete, the last pages were missing, and the last page left had almost all the words covered in something she recognized as blood.
Feeling uneasy, she closed the book and hid it where no one would find it, the story was too depressing and dark for her innocent friend.
Suddenly they heard their navigator's voice, Nami, calling their captain because she had just found another island. Everyone reached out, wanting to know where they'd be going. She explained that the needle they had been following pointed towards an island that, she suspected, was not too far away.
Everyone cheered and went to prepare the boat and their stuff. Only Robin stayed with the girl, who kept staring at the needle with a confused expression.
''What's wrong?'' Asked Robin as she walked closer. ''It's just...this thing keeps acting weird, I don't know if it's broken or if this is normal...'' Nami answered. Both looked down at the needles on the girl's wrist. One of them pointed straight to where they were going, but after a few seconds, it started to shake, then stayed still, then shook again. Robin understood right away what the girl meant, a needle shaking usually meant the island was dangerous, but that movement was unusual.
A couple of hours later, Usopp shouted he had spotted the island, proving Nami right. The captain gave orders (very excitedly), rushing everyone to land and explore around.
All the members of the crew gathered around. The needle hadn't changed its odd movements. The boat soon reached the shore, and they could all see a wide field, illuminated by the sunlight and full of flowers everywhere, and a small, very old, and moldy cabin far away on one side of the island. The entire place was small, it had no mountains, and just a couple of trees scattered around. The island looked like a gigantic garden, completely inhabited.
''This place would perfectly fit as the illustration for the word ''spring'' don't you think?'' Said Jinbei, their helmsman. Various agreed, but Robin got even more worried, she had seen that island before in her mind while reading that storybook, and everything matched perfectly with it.
Before the black-haired woman could say anything, Nami, who was standing next to her, smiled amazed. ''This place is beautiful! Luffy, can we go gather some flowers??''. The boy was staring at the field, with a puzzled look on his face. ''This place is super pretty....but kinda boring, you can go if you want, if you find anything interesting call me!''.
Nami jumped in excitement, but Robin still wanted to say something. ''Hey... I've got a bad feeling about this, why don't we send someone first? This place is too suspicious, so calm and quiet''. Everyone turned to look at her, confused but they didn't doubt her.
''I'll go!! If my lady wants flowers, I'm getting her flowers!'' Shouted the cook, already rushing to get off the boat, but Zoro stopped him. ''Hey lover boy, stop right there, if you go, you'll be too busy picking the most beautiful flower for your ''ladies'' and won't even notice if there's danger around, I'll go'' The swordsman said, annoyed.
''Excuse me? So what? Do you think I'm not strong enough to manage whatever could be out there?'' Responded the blonde man, clearly offended. Both of them started to fight, and then Usopp interrupted them. ''Hey guys, both of you can go, we all trust your strength''. ''And Sanji, if you find anything to eat, bring me some!'' Added Luffy.
The two men stared at each other, visibly annoyed about having to go with the other. Everyone else sighed, ''Please?'' Asked the two women at the same time. The swordsman sighed and nodded, jumping off the boat. The moment his feet touched the ground, gray clouds gathered in the sky, and the sun faded behind them. The Island became gloomy.
Sanji, not wanting to be left behind, rushed to catch up with his new companion.
They walked inside the field, and the blonde guy soon ran around the entire field, excited, picking up every flower he found pretty, completely forgetting about the other man. The green-haired one, on the other side, stayed still, staring at the blonde with a helpless expression on his face, he had been in love with that man for months, but it was clear that his feelings would never be reciprocated. The only thing he could do was stare and feel grateful that all the women the man had flirted with so far, had rejected him.
The grey clouds kept descending until the island was covered in fog, which got thicker as they walked to the center of the island and further from the boat.
Even though the swordsman tried his best to not lose the blonde from his sight, the fog got thicker and thicker until he couldn't see anything at all. The blonde kept going, not even noticing the fog for the first ten minutes, he already had a ton of flowers in his hands and pockets. And even after noticing it, his excitement didn't allow him to stop. Only when he reached the very center of the island, and couldn't see the flowers on the ground, he turned around realizing he was lost. And his companion was too.
'Observation haki' warned the cook about a presence not too far away from him. The presence walked towards him, slowly. The cook didn't know what to do, his legs begged him to run, or do something, but he was a man and couldn't run away just like that, nor would he know where to run. ''Mosshead, is that you? This isn't funny''. The blonde asked trying to sound annoyed and hide the fear. There was no answer.
Glowing red eyes stared directly at his soul. Creepy noises started coming from his direction, like breaking branches and dried leaves. Regret was all he could feel at that moment. The fog was thick enough for him to not see a thing but every cell on his body knew that the thing in front of him was dangerous. ''Forget being a man, I'm out''.
It didn't matter where he ran, as long as it was away from whatever creature he was facing. He couldn't fight something if he didn't know what it was. The guy turned around and sprinted away at maximum speed, the creature reacted and chased after him.
His heart fell when the creature's breath warmed his neck. Freaking out, he used his last move, praying that the creature wouldn't be able to follow him if he was running in the air. Using 'skywalk', he fled.
Once he had been up in the sky for a minute, the blonde finally relaxed. Looking down towards the island, one still couldn't see anything. Using 'observation haki' again, his heart raced once more, when, at least fifty presences showed up, wandering around the entire place.
Only one place remained peaceful. The shore where the thousand sunny was. He was about to rush toward the rest of his crew, wanting to warn them, when a thought popped into his mind. He was forgetting something. He went inside the island with someone.
He wanted to believe that his companion would eventually get out of the flower field on his own, but he knew him too well. Even if he were to kill every soul around, with or without fog, the swordsman would never get out on his own.
He thought about returning to the boat and asking for help, but there wouldn't be much difference, the fog wouldn't let anyone see, no matter the number of people, and if someone else got lost, they would have even more problems. Only five (three without both of them) of all of them knew how to use 'haki'. Protecting everyone would also be a pain, so he forgot the idea.
He would go back, after all, they had sent them together to protect each other, as much as he hated the man, he couldn't leave him behind like that. Trusting his 'haki' would recognize his crewmate's presence, he went back inside, plunging into the blinding fog.