The final year I

Teach is this one's name. There is more to him than meets the eye quite literally in fact. My Kenbunshoku is doing backflips when I look at him. This is not a sign of danger, but just something different. Something of importance sometime later. However, I simply don't care. He can be as many as he wants as long as he doesn't bother me. He feels like quick clay to me. Like a never-ending bother. Eh, whatever.

I see Whitebeard is angry about something. It would appear that Roger has invited the Samurai, Kozuki Oden to our crew, for a year. I can't blame him. Roger has that same wild charisma and fearless drive when he is in a good mood. But Roger wasn't just a happy-go-lucky man. He had real depth and could also get angry for as much as an insult against his crew. 

"Haha, so we're stealing Oden from Whitebeard's crew for a year. We should have thought of that sooner."

"Haha, we're not stealing Oden. He has agreed to help us translate the Poneglyphs and sail with us to the last island. It's only for a year anyway.", Rayleigh says.

"Sure sure. Let's tell ourselves that."

"What do you mean?"

"Life doesn't work like that, Rayleigh. You don't borrow someone simply for a year. Bonds will be forged and circumstances will change. Who can say what happens tomorrow?", I say mysteriously. For some reason, my progress in understanding the essence of the world brought with it secrets that I couldn't just divulge because others wouldn't understand. 

I have not seen the future, but I'm sure I will be able at one point. It all follows that same flow. But I can feel a lot more and my heart has begun to tell me stories sometimes. Stories of experiences that I wasn't aware of at that time, opportunities or adventures. It is essentially talking to myself but much more in-depth and influenced by my current deeper understanding and growth. 

And my heart tells me that this '1-year deal' will not come to pass. I can only agree with it. This world has a knack for doing unexpected and twisted things. Or at least the humans in it do. No matter though. In the end, I will do what I want. I am eager to see where my path leads me. 

.

So it happened that Oden with his wife Toki, and children Momonosuke and Hiyori set sail with Roger. My strange 'pull' or connection to children kicked in here as well. Just like with Shanks when he was a baby and a small child, Momonosuke and Hiyori were literally 'glued' to me. It was the second day of us setting sail when this happened.

(Flashback)

I walk along the deck and look at the sea. I enjoy the gentle breeze that blows on beautifully sunny days such as this one. So as it is my custom, I make my way towards my hammock. It doesn't take two minutes for me to notice something behind me. 

I turn around and see two babies. These have to be the children of Oden and Toki. They are both looking at me expectantly for some reason. 

"What? What do you want?", I ask them. The older one begins to laugh and points somewhere with his small hands. 

"For real? Well I mean, I was just about to take a nap on my hammock. You could come with, I suppose.", I tell them. 

This gets another few baby sounds and gesturing from them. I understand completely.

"Say less.", I say and pick them both up. "Let's go then. You know, Shanks used to do that too. I wonder if there's a connection? Eh, who cares."

Together we walk towards my hammock. Some might call me insane or an idiot for interpreting the sounds and gestures from them. But that's just because they don't understand the essence of what babies are talking about. No matter how small they might look, they already have characters of their own. They understand what you say. Most of their communication is non-verbally but so is ours. 

I understand their wish perfectly. And even if that wasn't what they wanted... no that was definitely what they wanted.

.

What I heard from Oden later:

"MOMONOSUKE!! HIYORI!!!"

The voices of both Oden and Toki are heard on the ship as they run through the ship. They are very anxious about the disappearance of their babies. Toki is close to tears. They enter Roger's room where both Roger and Rayleigh are talking about something.

"Roger, Rayleigh, have you seen Momonosuke and Hiyori?! We can't find them anywhere.", Toki says out of breath.

"Hm? They are gone? Wait a minute.", both Roger and Rayleigh say and use Kenbunshoku to sense where they can be. But they don't find anything, which alarms them. That is until Rayleigh has an idea. 

"Wait, Roger. Don't you remember? It's the same as that time.", Rayleigh says. 

"Oh yeah, Rahaha."

"What?! What are you talking about Rayliegh-san?", Toki asks.

"You see there is only someone that we can't find suing Kenbunshoku no Haki and that person is Sid. Sid used to take care of Shanks when he was a baby, because Shanks just had a natural affinity with Sid, for some reason. He followed him everywhere. So the only logical conclusion is that they must be there right now. So you don't have to worry.", Rayleigh explains. 

"Where ... where is Sid-san at the moment?", Toki asks.

"Well, he should be on his hammock right now. Come let me take you.", Rayleigh says. He, Roger and the Kozuki couple walk on deck and towards my hammock. When they reach me they bear witness to, what they called, one of the most beautiful pictures ever. I was sleeping on my hammock with my hands behind my back and two small babies were lying next to me, snuggled into my sides or on top of me. All three of us were sleeping and enjoying the sun on our skins. 

"Sid has this aura about him that makes others want to follow him, for no reason. And it works especially strongly on children. He doesn't do that on purpose but it's his natural charm and aura. It makes for some funny moments during fights.", Rayleigh explains. 

(Flashback end)

That was how I took up the babysitter position ... again. I mean, I had no problem with it. I loved children and they seemed to enjoy my presence as well. Children and babies were so fun and enjoyable to be around. 

.

We journeyed to Skypiea. I smile at the flow of these upwards streams. It is a wonderfully coloured world. I enjoy myself. Roger easily found the Shandorian Golden Belfry Bell due to his ability to hear its voice. He claims that it spoke about a powerful weapon. Oden told us that it was indeed about a weapon. The weapon was called Poseidon. And that's when I stopped enjoying the way this was going. I had a strong dislike towards that name. 

I wasn't aware of it back then but I appear to have a dislike not only for Poseidon but for gods in general. The notion seems to upset and disgust me. I haven't found out why, but I'll figure it out I'm sure.

"Oden, you can also write the script, right?", Roger asked.

"Yes, of course!"

"Then write this for me.", Roger said and then dictated the following:

'I have come here. I will guide this text to the ends of the earth. Pirate Gol D. Roger.'

I am interested to know what it is that he hears. I have also begun to feel like everything seemingly has a voice and that they are talking, no matter what it is. But that can be stressful and I don't enjoy stressful things. But what I do know is that Roger is definitely planning ahead. I believe that he has seen it as well. It won't end with this journey. The world is still waiting for the one it calls 'Joy Boy'. 

.

After Skypiea we headed for Water 7, the city of water, the shipbuilding town to repair the ship, which had become damaged. No wonder after the fall. But we had destinations planned now. Oden, Inuarashi and Nekomamushi, whose family and people had Red Poneglyphs guarded at Wano Country and Zou, respectively. Another one Roger had already copied when he entered Charlotte Linlin's territory and he said that he had a clue as to where the last one could be. 

So after leaving Water 7, we sailed towards Sabaody Archipelago. A place I would visit again in the future. I couldn't do it now, as my heart told me it wouldn't be a good idea to catch that much attention to the crew right now. And I also didn't want to mark everyone as killers of Celestial Dragons. But I would return, for I not only despised the notion of gods but also slavery. I had to think about Kuma and Ginny as well as Ivankov. I'll be sure to visit them in the future. 

After coating our ship, we began our dive. The deep ocean awaited us. Not only that, giant Sea Kings did so too. I must say, to have such giant and funny-looking sea creatures in this world, there is truly a much higher vitality around than in my past life. Something interesting happened as we were making our way through the deep, I heard a deep voice.

"Will be born ..."

"Hm?" "Hm?", both Roger and Oden must have heard it as well. I stood up from my hammock and looked around. 

"Our ruler will be born.", the same voice said again.

"Rayleigh! Did you hear that?", Roger asked.

"What are you talking about? It's the silent deep sea."

"No, I can hear it too.", Oden said.

"You too, Oden?! Who's talking this deep in the water?!", Roger asked.

"So it's you.", I say and look at the big fish that are watching us.

"Hm? What are you talking about, Sid?", Roger asked.

"It was them.", I say and point at the Sea Kings.

"The Sea Kings? What do you ..."

"That must be it no? ... Poseidon. So Poseidon will be born then ... interesting. I assumed that Poseidon was a weapon but to think that it's not in fact that but a living being ...", I said out loud and the others were stunned. When I heard them talk about their ruler, I didn't feel bad. I assumed that it was Poseidon that upset me when I heard about it in Skypiea, but it was not the one in this world specifically, more like gods in general. That could only mean that the one who shall be born ... is not a god in the actual sense ... I will have to wait and see.

.

We reached Fish-Man Island and something interesting happened. Apparently, there was a small Fish-Girl who had the power of clairvoyance. Her name is Sharley, a prophet girl and she was three years old. She looked into a crystal ball and told us the reason why the Sea Kings were going crazy. Sea Kings had started to crack the barrier protecting Fish-Man Island. 

"The Sea Kings are going crazy because they're waiting for the mermaid Princess to be born.", she said.

"The Mermaid Princess? That's another prophecy."

"So I was right.", I say as I stroll towards them.

"Intruder! Don't you dare step any closer!"

"Relax relax. Well then little prophet, tell me something. The mermaid princes ... she will be ... Poseidon right?", I say with a cheeky smile. 

She smiled cutely and nodded. 

"Haha, how interesting. A female Poseidon and a mermaid princess too. How wonderful. And I'm not even getting the feeling again."

That's right. When I understood that the promised Mermaid Princess would be Poseidon, I knew that she wasn't a god as I remember them. These Ancient Weapons were only named after gods. After that, I left to meet up with the rest of the crew. 

There were two Poneglyphs on Fish-Man Island. One of them, Oden said wasn't that important. But that wasn't true, in my opinion. For the second one, was an apology letter from someone named ... Joyboy. Hehehe, oh my. I feel like a little kid, solving a puzzle. Joyboy ... that name was the one that the essence of this world talked about. It was some sort of promised character. I can only assume that he will be born soon, because the essence of this world, was getting excited.