Uta was who Luffy might've become without his crew. Solitude had hollowed her, and loneliness gnawed at her sanity
That fateful day, everything was stolen from her. She destroyed a whole country Shanks left her alone in these ruins and took the blame.
For the past ten years, she had lived with the belief of being 'abandoned'.
The same nightmare repeated, the unchanging empty day, and the lonely night would arrive.
To Uta, the world had long since lost its color.
Until—
"Aqua, AQUA!! HELP ME~!! I'M MILI-AWAY FROM DEATH"
Beyond the Den Den Mushi once lifeless, burst to life with laughter and chaos—projecting the lives of two players living like a firework of her dream.
"What, Kaido!? How-, I mean… h-hi…?" Sakura forced laughter completely forgetting the current situation.
Sakura laughed bitterly. "Ha-, haha... what a great disguise..."
"N-no way, Mr. Kaido! I'm just a lowly coward, a weakling you despise the most!" Sakura replied with a trembling voice.
Kaido's gaze narrowed and Sakura prayed despite being an atheist.
Who was he going to pray to? Better ask some random Sun God Nika to beat Kaido up or whatever.
His nightmare had come true—the attention from strongs—he loathed the system that gave him no security, unlike the other one.
Aqua's voice broke through the noise. "Master! I'm coming~!"
Sakura snapped back to reality.
It wasn't the time to be worrying about a measly Four Emperors.
An arrow sliced through the screen, digging deep into the boss monster's eyes.
The words typed themselves as Uta thought them.
"Leave it to me!" Aqua beamed, nocking another arrow.
In Uta's mind, the two worlds overlapped
For the first time in ten years... Uta didn't feel alone.
They could hear her. They could see her.
She reminisced the words whispered to her before, surprised at the warmth a stranger brought them.
Colors slowly spread from the Den Den Mushi projecting this footage.
Even if this connection was one-sided—even if she could only watch.
It was enough for now...
…
"Zee…zee…." Sakura wiped his dirtied mouth with haggard breath—his inside tasted like iron.
66%… 100%
The percentage in Pal Sphere rocketed up indicating their capture.
"Master! We did it! We did it!! We captured level 11 Boss Chillet!"
Aqua bounced excitedly under the gravity, practically glowing with joy.
Sakura averted his gaze away. Aqua's joy bounce was... vivid.
Aqua reddened her face at his reaction instinctively smacking his face. "Pervert master! Ah, cra-..."
This depleted his remaining health and killed him.
Sakura complained in the afterworld. "What else could I have done!?"
He struggled with the fact that he had died after defeating the boss. The battle against Chillet was the hardest.
The boss monsters spammed its technique like a button masher, not only that, it fired its attack strategically to fill up their only dodge route.
Unfortunately, the Depresso Aqua captured died mid-fight making the battle absolutely hellish.
Sakura directed his hatred against Smoker who was probably picking his nose while setting the difficulties to hardest.
"The spawn timer is up—," As Sakura tried respawning, he spotted a single player with [Smoker] nickname arriving at the afterworld.
"Damn it, I will remember this grudge you monkey…"
"Yo, Smoker. Monkey get you again?" Sakura asked the guy.
"[Blossom]? The shop owner. Yeah. Tried hunting that green monkey. It spat seeds at me, you know the rest."
"I'm asking just in case but—without using any weapon?"
"...We can make weapons?"
Sakura blinked. "Are you an idiot? Why didn't you make a weapon, you know how weak we become upon entering this world."
"Oh, come on, how didn't you notice the thing on your forehand? If you focus on it, you can learn knowledge for item crafting."
"...You're right. I even have a bunch of skill points… so that's how you get stronger, thanks for the advice. I'll try making weapons next time."
"So we weren't supposed to fight these monsters bare-handed," Smoker stared.
Then, Smoker respawned, vanishing.
Sakura muttered at his disappearance, "Was this guy punching monsters bare-handed for an hour...?"
[Respawn]
"Master I'm sorry…" Aqua approached Sakura looking down, gripping the corner of her clothes.
"Don't worry, I don't mind it"
Kaido wailed. Seeing his reaction, Sakura blinked. 'What the heck? Is this guy drunk right now?'
"Kaido-san, uhh... maybe treating your daughter a little bit better...? At least in Master's world, it's rare for someone to chain their children..."
Aqua couldn't say anything much because she was just a mere streamer—not a therapist—her power reached short regarding private matters.
"Let's not fight on stream! Every one of us has a matter of our own!... That's right, Master, let's form a party so I won't accidentally kill you with friendly fire anymore!" Aqua cheerfully changed the topic.
"Sure," Sakura accepted the invitation going along with her plan.
"Master, follow me! I know a good place for a base!"
"Hm." Sakura nodded.
As the two, passed their time, the slight awkwardness when Aqua gained sentient disappeared as the two captured the surrounding pals.
Mid-way, they spotted a strange base filled with Pals,
"I wonder whose base this is-…"
They didn't wonder long.
[Roger] sprinted past.
Jumping around while moving, whether it was to boost his movement speeds or he just had nothing to do while waiting.
After a while, he sorted his stuffs and went out.
Clown fell silent.
Sakura wondered if Buggy was shitting his pants right now.
"Now, now. You guys are making mistakes. That is Roja, not Roger. He's not even a pirate—just an ordinary customer of mine."
Sakura crushed their hope before they thought something bad but this backfired.
'Please don't do that…' Sakura paled.
"Master, look! The Pals are taking a bath! Do you think I can steal this structure for our base?" Aqua tapped his shoulder and pointed to the leaf-based fox pal, Lifmunk who was taking a bath.
Sakura pondered for a while. That was impossible when the game was at early access, but it could be possible now.
"Alright, let's do it. Let's teach that brat the lesson of a harsh world," in doing so, Sakura lightly burnt the ground, softening the soil.
Lifmunk's eyes were melting in comfort forming streaks of = lines. Then, the water started boiling, finally noticing the issue, as Lifmunk flew up, its butt red.
Aqua had a shovel equipped, digging the whole soil to steal the structure.
Meanwhile, after softening the soil, Sakura found the nearby Pals aggravated at their action of thievery.
To prevent Aqua from being interrupted, Sakura quickly identified three of the Pals that were trying to launch an attack toward her and quickly pulled the bowstring and shot an arrow in quick succession.
The situation has quickly become chaotic.
Flames, rock, water, and wind attacks intersected toward Sakura—dodging them with a bare body just by using the Invincibility-Frames from rolling became impossible as he blocked some, taking a chunk of his health.
"Master, almost… I'm done!" Saying this, Aqua quickly brought out a bow and fired toward the pals, sharing the aggro with her master.
Then, they ran away like the pesky thieves they were.
Mid-way, they even stole the cooked berries in the pals' food storage—and escaped, their clothes worn out they took a fair amount of damage.
"Hah… hah… master we did it!"
.
.
.
"Who-... who did this!!" said Roja, veins visible on his wrinkling face.
"Aqua... no, she's good at receiving orders but she doesn't randomly attack a stranger. I doubt Ralts would also steal something from me based on her gentle personality... Smoker!"
"Only they could steal something from my pals-secured base and run away unscathed...! "This means war... I'll show them the wrath of a single-player," Roja muttered, leg trembling