Nami stares through the glass of her log pose, directly looking in the direction the needle is pointed at. From afar, she could spot an island and she made sure the ship is headed towards it.

"We're almost at our next destination!" she informs the rest of the crew but as soon as she walks up to you, she notices the strange atmosphere. "What's with this serious mood?"

"Nothing to worry about now! Let's figure everything out along the way!" Luffy says and gives you a pat on the shoulder. You smile at him modestly, grateful for his encouraging words. But the truth is, you just could not quite get those self-deprecating thoughts out of your head. All the negative things you have heard about yourself seem to outweigh the positive. You never thought you would feel so insecure about your past and anxious of unravelling even darker memories.

While burrowing yourself inside your mind, the Going Merry drifts closer to the island and eventually, you are floating in a river, heading deeper into a forest. The air feels stuffy and there is a change of temperature as well. The further you go, the more humid it gets.

"So this is Little Garden..." Usopp says nervously.

"Just what about this island is little? I can't see anything that would deserve such a cute name," Nami remarks.

Suddenly, strange sounds erupt from every direction, sending the cowardly sniper jumping and shrieking around the deck. The next thing you know, a giant bird with flaming red feathers flies over the ship and a large tiger topples exhaustingly into the river. By now, a few of you already decided that this island should not be taken lightly, thus it would be better to stay on board until the log pose sets itself.

But not all of you thought that way...

"I smell an adventure!" Luffy hops around excitedly. "Sanji! Prepare a lunchbox!" When he does not receive an answer he looks around impatiently. "Where are you? Prepare me a lunchbox, Sanji!"

"I got it! Just hang on a moment." Sanji's voice appears from the kitchen all of a sudden.

You got curious about this island as well and wanted to join Luffy on exploring it. For preparations, you quickly go to the girls' room and search for the bullets which were given to you by the owner of Golden's Guns. They gave you quite a few clips of the unique rubber bullets. Thinking back, you wish you could have driven the marines away from their shop although you are not sure how you could have achieved that. The marines were quite intimidating, especially the white-haired marine captain Smoker. I hope they are alright, you think.

When you finished preparing your weapons, everyone who wanted to set foot on this island was already gone. Only Nami and Usopp are staring at each other, not knowing what they should do.

"Y/N, you're still here?" Usopp asks when he sees you sitting on the ground.

"They went without me," you mumble, a bit upset about it.

"We thought you already went ahead," Nami explains. "But it's good that you're here! You're the only one I can rely on!" She wraps her arms around you and side-glances at Usopp.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" he complains. "Though half of what you said is true, with Y/N here we are definitely saf-"

Before he could finish his sentence, the three of you simultaneously stiffened when you felt the ground vibrating. Steadily, a beat between the vibrations indicates heavy footsteps coming your way. You could feel Nami shaking beside you. Any moment from now, a vicious beast could pop up from the ominous jungle.

A tall creature made its way to the ship, pushing away sturdy trees standing in its way. When the giant revealed itself under the sunlight, Nami and Usopp let out an ear-piercing scream. Tears are running down their faces as the giant moves his face closer to you. His head is as big as a house and you bet he could swallow the entire Going Merry if he wanted to. He inches closer and closer until his gigantic mouth is only a few meters away from you.

"Do you have any rum?"

"...Huh?" You are baffled by his unexpected question.

"W-We have a little..." Nami quickly answers, not risking the chance of angering him.

"Oh! So you have some!" the giant says happily. But suddenly, he yells and swings his axe powerfully, decapitating a dinosaur who bit him. Nami and Usopp screamed their lungs out, fearing the giant's unpredictable nature. "I am Elbaf's strongest warrior, Brogy!" he declares while holding up the head of the dinosaur he just slew. He proudly presents it to you. "Now that I got some meat, let me welcome you as my guests!"

At that moment, your friends come up with the same idea. They fall to the ground and remain silent, pretending they are dead and hoping the giant would leave them alone.

"I'm in. Isn't is better to explore a place with locals than going alone?" you say and stand up, taking this opportunity that is being offered to you. "I wouldn't mind some food anyway."

'Y/N are you out of your mind?!' Nami screams at you silently. 'Ah, we're doomed!'

ஐ

After a short trip on the giant's palm, you arrive at his base. On the way there, you were astonished by the different species of dinosaurs roaming this island. Being held so far up was a lovely feeling, for you at least. The other two were not as excited about it.

You sit down on a tree stump as Brogy roasts the meat over an open fire. Although it looks appetising, you could not figure a way out to eat any of it since the food is at least five times your size. Nami and Usopp are still scared to make any reckless movements.

"Umm, may I ask you one question...?" Nami musters her courage and asks. "H-How long does it t-take for the log pose to finish recording this island?"

"One full year," Brogy answers. "So take it easy while you're here!"

"That's way too long!" you remark as the other two topple over in shock. "We can't stay for a whole year. Isn't there another way?" you ask with hopeful eyes.

Brogy leans back and thinks about it but just when he was about to answer, a volcano erupted violently in the distance. "Sorry, but this is my signal to fight," he says before picking up his axe. "May the righteous one survive!" He leaves to battle off a quarrel with a fellow giant, the sounds of their weapons clashing together could be heard from miles away.

Usopp watches the giant's battle in awe. "So this is a real battle of pride between two warriors!" You could only smile when you hear him gushing over them. "This is what I meant by a brave warrior of the seas! I want to become a proud warrior just like them!"

Their fight continued until they both hit the last strike and fell over. It ends in a draw, just like the 73.465 fights before. Not long after he returns, the volcano erupts again and he prepares to head to battle once more.

"Let's take this chance to go back to our ship, it's useless watching two giants fight over nothing," Nami suggests.

"Can I stay for a bit longer?" you ask. "I still want to see a few dinosaurs, you can't see them every day." Although they are worried and unsure about you being by yourself, knowing the fact that you can use teleportation to get back on the ship makes them agree to your request.

Once they step foot into the forest, they realise the mistake they have made. "The real question is... will we be okay without Y/N?" But that question was asked far too late, noises of hungry beasts and dangerous predators rumble from behind them.

✘

Happy Anniversary~~!!!

I'm very happy to release the official 50ᵗʰ chapter of my story Freedom & Fate and share it with each one of you! My dearest reader, thank you for joining me on this journey of my first written story!

I can't believe it has been a year now... I still remember how much I prepared before I finally found the courage to press the 'publish' button on the first chapter. I was really nervous and wanted to make sure that everything was perfect.

After a while readers came in and were interested in my story. A lot of you left amusing comments and even came up with amazing theories!! I want to you to know that I appreciate every comment and that you make me smile when I read them!

(ﾉﾟ▽ﾟ)ﾉ Onto some exciting news... Freedom & Fate received its first fanart!!!

A bunch of thanks to @ShiroYukiHime5! Her favourite part was when the reader wore a maid outfit, hehe~ Look at the cuteness!! (≧∀≦)ﾉ If you like her art style, be sure to check out her book called 'Sketch Pad arts'!

Again, thank you all so so much for reading my story and showing support through votes and/or comments! You encourage me to keep writing and keep improving myself~!

Until next time...

~ Rin