As they approached the island, it could be seen that it wasn't very big, but they went there anyway while Oliver tried to think about what had happened and why there was another island between Shells Town and Orange Town.
"¡We're here!" said Luffy, getting off the boat.
"I hope there's a village," said Zoro.
"I don't think so. The island's too small for there to be anything," Oliver said, looking at the island. 'It's smaller than Gaimon's island.'
"I don't know about that. ¡Let's go explore!" said Luffy excitedly.
"First we should tie the boat up, so it doesn't drift away and leave us here," said Oliver.
Where they docked the boat was a small beach near a forest, since there wasn't any visible dock, so they had to tie the boat to a tree with a rope to keep it from floating away.
"We're ready here," said Oliver, tying the rope to the boat.
"Here too," said Zoro with the tree.
"¡Let's go!" shouted Luffy, heading into the forest.
"I hope we find some animals or fruit, or we'll starve because of Luffy," said Oliver.
Both followed Luffy as he began to look around to see if there was anything interesting.
"What do you think we'll find?" asked Luffy.
"I don't know, on such a small island I doubt there's much," said Zoro.
Oliver kept thinking about the reason for that island until he noticed something along the path they were walking.
"¿Is this a fence?" said Oliver, checking it. "It's pretty strange to find one here."
"What did you find?" said Luffy.
"A fence. If there's one here, it means there are people, but for such a small island? Why would there be anyone here?" said Oliver, confused.
"¡That means they might have food!" said Luffy excitedly.
"Maybe..." said Oliver.
He couldn't finish talking before Luffy had already gone deeper into the forest again.
They kept walking along the fenced path, which was very worn down and broken.
"A house," said Oliver.
"I doubt anyone's here, it's wrecked," said Zoro.
As Zoro had said, the house was completely destroyed—broken windows, cracked walls, and covered in moss.
"This was abandoned a long time ago," said Oliver, approaching the house.
"¿So no food?" said Luffy.
"I don't think so, but there might be something."
They broke down the door, and inside it was just as ruined.
Each of them searched the house for a few minutes.
"¿Find anything?" asked Oliver, while checking the roof and spotting some apples in a tree.
"There are lots of bugs. Look, a beetle!" said Luffy, showing Oliver.
"V-Very nice," said Oliver, stepping away from the beetle.
"Didn't find food," said Zoro, returning with a box. "But I did find some bottles of alcohol."
"Luckily we've got something to drink, and they should still be fine since alcohol lasts long—but food…"
At that moment, a noise came from outside, so Oliver grabbed Zoro's box and stored it in his inventory.
They went out of the house where something was moving among the trees. Suddenly, a giant boar appeared, devouring the trees in front of the house.
"¡WOW! ¡A giant boar!" said Luffy.
"It looks pretty old," said Zoro.
"Maybe it's the reason this house was abandoned," said Oliver.
The giant boar looked at them angrily, ready to attack.
"Think we can eat it?" asked Luffy, drooling.
"I think so," said Zoro, drawing a katana.
"I've never cooked a boar, but I've cooked plenty of pigs, so I think we can do it," said Oliver, eyeing the new meal. "And we'll have meat for several days."
The boar was scared to see the three of them, who were looking at it like simple prey. It tried to run, but Luffy noticed.
"¡It's trying to escape!" shouted Luffy. "¡Get it!"
The boar grunted before the three jumped at it, silencing its cries.
--
--
In the end, they managed to catch the boar, and Oliver began to cook it.
"¿Is it ready?" asked Luffy.
"Not yet," replied Oliver.
"¿How about now?" he asked again.
"I said not yet."
Oliver had been cooking it for quite some time, and from the start Luffy had been asking if it was done.
"I think it might be ready now…"
He didn't finish speaking before Luffy began eating.
"He doesn't even chew," said Zoro, watching Luffy devour the food.
"Yeah," said Oliver. "Good thing I separated enough meat for more days. We should eat too, or Luffy will finish everything."
And it turned into a battle. Each started fighting for food since Luffy tried to eat it all. After several minutes, the fight—and the food—were over.
"I still don't get how you eat so much," said Zoro.
"¿Really? Seems normal to me," said Luffy, finishing the last cooked meat. "¡Oliver, bring out more meat!"
"No, we've eaten enough. We have to save food for when we're at sea."
Luffy lay back, resigned to not getting more food.
"No matter, I'm happy anyway," said Luffy, laughing.
"¿And why's that?" asked Zoro.
"Because it's the first night with my nakamas," said Luffy happily, looking at the stars.
The two laughed since they perfectly understood the feeling Luffy had.
"Well, I think I'll take first watch. You two can sleep."
Oliver looked at them—and they were already asleep.
"Wow, they fall asleep fast," said Oliver.
Oliver grabbed a few sticks and tossed them into the fire to keep it going.
"Hope I don't fall asleep."
He watched the flames for a few minutes until he got bored.
"Could eat something."
He pulled out some meat he'd stored and a bit of cheese, but as soon as he touched the melted cheese inside the inventory, he felt it was still warm.
"¿How's that possible? It's been hours since I made the melted cheese... Could it be that time doesn't pass inside the inventory?"
With that thought, Oliver began experimenting—storing different things like a burning stick, hot meat, and similar items.
He tested for several minutes, and none changed over time.
"So the inventory freezes time for whatever's inside. Works like an actual game—this way I could cook enough meat and keep it stored for whenever," said Oliver, finishing a bottle of alcohol.
"Should get to work finding fruits—with just this alcohol we won't last long."
Oliver started searching near the camp for fruits in trees and bushes, storing them immediately in his inventory.
Little by little, he got farther from the camp, so he stopped gathering.
"This should be enough."
He was about to return when an apple hit his head, making him fall to the ground in pain.
"¿What was that?"
He saw what had hit him—it was an apple with a rather strange shape.
"¿A Devil Fruit?"
He picked it up, and information appeared about it.
[Slime-Slime Fruit]
[Allows the user to create and control slime, a semi-transparent viscous substance that can vary its density, elasticity, and physical properties at will]
"Seriously got a Devil Fruit like this?! Guess luck's on my side," said Oliver, storing the Devil Fruit.
"¿Why has everything changed? Could it be that because of me things shifted—and that's why Nami would be captured by Buggy?"
Oliver stared at the stars as he walked back toward the small camp they had made.
---
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Hey, I wanted to tell you something about the voting.
At first, I was thinking of not doing any voting and just choosing things myself, but I wasn't sure if my choices were the right ones, so I decided to hold the votes — though the first options I had were quite different.
For the races, I considered all the ones available except the human race. I had even included one with four arms, but if a sword, spear, or axe fighting style had won, it would've looked strange, so I scrapped that idea.
The fighting styles stayed the same.
The love interests were different, though. Nami, Nojiko, and Vivi were there from the start, but I had also included Robin, Yamato, Hancock, and even Perona, since they're characters that interest me.
—I ruled out Yamato and Perona because they appear too late in the story.
—Hancock was extremely complicated to make fall in love (maybe it would've worked if I had written a story about a crew unrelated to the Straw Hats).
—I didn't want to include Robin because I was sure she would win, and also because almost every fanfic I've read makes Robin the love interest — so I wanted to do something different.
Now, the Devil Fruits — that was the hardest part to decide.Garm and Nergigante were there from the start, but I also had: the Human-Human Fruit, Model: Susano; the Break-Break Fruit (Paramecia); and the Plasm-Plasm Fruit (Logia).
—I discarded Susano because if the sword fighting style didn't win, it would've been strange to have it, since Susano in mythology uses a sword.
—I dropped the Break fruit because it would've been too destructive — and if a weapon-based fighting style won, the user would constantly lose their weapon since it would break easily.
—Plasm would've been the most powerful and unbalanced one, making other enemies too easy to defeat, since it's well-known that Logia Fruits are the most unbalanced — so I ruled it out too.
And that's about it. I just wanted to share how the voting originally looked before I changed it.
I hope you liked the chapter and that little change!