One Piece: It's always been you

Chapter 55 My brother left long ago.

"Where am I?" Yu found himself alone in a dark place, stretching as far as the eye could see. "Is anyone there? Katakuri? Shanks?"

There was no response as I expected, only the sound of arguing in my ears, a sound that seemed both unfamiliar and familiar.

"Stop right there! You can't go!"

"It's my freedom, I want to see him!"

"When you actually see him, what are the chances that he will be the person you imagine him to be, or that he is a fictional character who doesn't exist?"

"So what? Just seeing him once is enough. It's my wish. Don't worry, I'll be back after that one meeting. It won't be long."

As the two voices appeared, hazy images surfaced in Yu's mind. When the girl was about to leave, the man sent people to stop her, destroying the device she had created.

After a flash of light, the girl disappeared, leaving only the man and the woman he had sent to stop her.

"Sir, the machine has been damaged." The woman hesitated, then continued, "Could there be a problem with the travel system...?"

"Then fix it for me quickly! We must find her!"

"Yes, my lord!"

Coming to her senses, You looked utterly incredulous. What were these? Her memories belonged to someone else, so why did the people inside seem so familiar?

Before he could finish thinking, a blurry figure suddenly appeared in front of him, grabbing Yu's wrist. "You have to come back with me!"

"Who...who are you?!"

“Come back with me, and you will remember everything and know who I am.”

"No! Let me go!"

"If you refuse, then none of the people around you will have a good ending!"

Yu tried to see the figures in front of him clearly, but he couldn't. Suddenly, Katakuri, Shanks, Sengoku, Rosinante, Garp, and many other people Yu cared about appeared behind him. They floated in the air, without struggling, without resisting, and remained motionless.

The next second, cracks suddenly appeared on these people's bodies, and they shattered into pieces one after another, drifting into the endless darkness.

"Stop! What have you done to them?!"

"It's just to force you to come back with me; you don't belong here!"

"Let go of me!" You reached out her other hand to strike the man's hand, but he dodged it. "You'd better give them back to me intact!"

"What if... I say no?" The man loosened his wrist, watching You's reaction with interest.

"Then let them—be buried with them!"

Hahahahahahahahaha.

The man in front of her disappeared, leaving Yu alone in the darkness and amidst the shattered pieces on the ground.

"Kalista... Shanks... Grandpa... Brother..." Yu stumbled to the fragments and fell to the ground, grasping them and trying to piece them together.

"Yu, wake up! Yu!"

Katakuri and Shanks stood around the bed, watching the person on it clutching the blankets tightly, tears streaming down their face, muttering their names.

Katakuri knew that Yu liked to sleep in and hadn't come out of her room, so he didn't bother her. On the deck, he and Shanks looked at each other in bewilderment.

Before long, the wind picked up at sea, and the sea began to ripple.

This scene reminded Shanks of Yu's emotional breakdown that time. Shanks quickly realized something was wrong with Yu and had Katakuri lead the way to Yu's room.

That's what I saw.

"Was she like this before, causing waves when she had an emotional breakdown?" Katakuri couldn't wake Yuu up, so he could only try his best to soothe her.

"You really underestimate it. It was much more spectacular back then than it is now."

"..." What could Katakuri say? Had he ever seen the world and looked down on someone like this? Yu had no idea what was wrong.

Shanks looked at Yu on the bed, then at the gradually calming sea outside, a stark contrast to Katakuri. Meeting Katakuri's questioning gaze, he whistled and looked away.

"Is there a way to wake him up?"

"Don't look at me, I can't help it," Shanks said honestly, but... "Why don't you wake her up? Like she woke me up..."

"...I thought it was just you and You playing around, and what she said wasn't wrong." You just deserve a beating.

"If you won't do it, I will." Such a good opportunity, might as well take it. Shanks rolled up his sleeves and stepped forward, ready to make his move.

Yu opened his eyes and at the same time threw a punch. It landed squarely on Shanks' face.

"woke up?"

Shanks took a punch and stepped back a few paces to make room for Katakuri. Before Katakuri could even get a good look at Yu's condition, Yu pounced on him and hugged him tightly.

"Kachino 2...it scared me to death."

"It's alright, it's alright, I'm here with you, nothing will happen." Katakuri comforted Yu while patting her back.

"I dreamt of things I'd never seen before, and you, motionless, eventually turned into fragments, which I can't piece back together no matter what I try..."

"It's all fake. Aren't you still holding me right now? You're still quite strong since you just woke up."

I'm afraid you'll disappear again...

Shanks was on the sidelines, keeping a close eye and ear on everything he could see and hear.

Just like when she was a child, when she has an emotional breakdown, her abilities become uncontrollable, and the people she dreams about are most likely the people who grabbed her when she was a child.

"The person you dreamed about is probably related to the people who captured you. They know they need to push you to your limit and make you break down emotionally so that your abilities will become uncontrollable." Shanks rubbed the spot where he had been hit without any pretense.

"You know about my abilities?"

"Yes, Shanks told me yesterday. You..."

"It's nothing. I was going to tell you anyway, but you told me to go to sleep first..."

"You guys..." Shanks was about to say something... wait, something seems off. "Were you awake all along? Were you waiting for me with that punch?!"

"Yes, that's exactly what I've been waiting for!"

Yu spotted Rosinante among the people—her dead brother! Her brother had been gone for a long time; how could he be here? It was all a lie!

After realizing what had happened, her emotions calmed down like the surface of the sea, and her consciousness gradually returned from her sleep. Then she heard Shanks trying to ambush her while she was unconscious.

He's like a madman if he's not disciplined for a day.

"The fight's already happened, so what do you think of what I said?"

Yu nestled in Katakuri's arms, pondering Shanks' words. "It's hard to say. I've never seen that man, and I can't be 100% sure about the woman." The figures in her dreams were unclear, and besides, she had only heard voices but not faces when she was a child. "They can make an island appear and disappear out of thin air. If there really is a connection, then what I just saw, I can't be sure if it was a dream or an illusion. It could be my memory, or it could be that they deliberately wanted me to know."

“It’s not an illusion. If it were a Devil Fruit user, Shanks and I would both have noticed it,” Katakuri said.

Since it's not an ability, it can only be a dream. Yu looked down at her wrist, but the feeling was so real.

Was it really just a dream?

“What if they’re not from this world? What if we can’t judge them using normal thinking?” Yu’s words drew heavy glances from the two of them, their eyes fixed on Yu’s words. “I’m just… offering a suggestion… hehe.”

Shanks didn't care how credible her words were, but he still had to be careful. "Yu, in short, they are not to be underestimated. This isn't the first time. You need to be careful in the future."

"Ok, I know."

(I'm here! I'm here! I used up my once-a-month leave opportunity yesterday, sob sob sob sob QAQ.)