True Magician's Travels

Chapter 4

We explored Fishman Island a bit, it was quite fascinating seeing this little underwater kingdom. There was a lot of discord here though. The pirates of this era didn't have the deterrent of Whitebeard protecting this place, so it was a tragic place. We helped when we encountered a bad situation, but sadly there were far too many problems for us to fix as we were.

Artoria: Hey love, I know we don't usually do stuff like this. I know we're not strong enough to make a difference yet either. But one day, after this great voyage is over, I want to help people like this. I want to help the Fish-Men, I want to free all the slaves the dragons have taken. It might go against our peaceful life, but I just feel like it's what I need to do. Will you help me?

Altera: Artoria, you never have to doubt. No matter what you do, no matter how many troubles it brings us. I'm with you to the end. I may not care as much about saving people, and sure the reason I wanted us to run from England was so that we could be happy together. But if what truly makes you happy is improving this world, then I'm willing to join you in shouldering that burden.

Artoria: Thank you, Altera. I'm sorry.

Altera: Don't be sorry. Even if this fails spectacularly, even if it goes horribly wrong, I won't regret helping you. So please, don't be sorry.

Artoria: I love you, Altera.

Altera: I love you too, Artoria.

She was crying, she had probably held that to her chest for a while, feeling guilty thinking about bringing all sorts of chaos into our life. First off, we're pirates. We are literally living a life of chaos already. But even if we weren't, it wouldn't matter. A life of chaos with her is far better than a peaceful life without her. I comforted her, and she seemed as if a large weight had fallen off of her shoulders.

I hadn't been thinking about it, but I guess it was time to think about how I could use what I knew of the world to make it better. If Artoria wants to free the slaves, we're going up against the World Government. I don't think we could ask our crew for such a sacrifice. Most of them would surely die. Thankfully we had no such limitation. Even if we died, we'd just come back. I at least understood the Third Magic well enough that I could just materialize our soul again on this plane if we died. This was going to require some more planning. Currently, my best idea was to master Kaleidoscope to a level wherein we could transport all the slaves out of Mary Geoise, then just release a large portion of Excalibur's or Rhongomyniad's power to straight up decimate both the city and the portion of the Red Line under it. That should help reunite the seas as well, like all those fan theories I vaguely remember saying. I guess doing all this wouldn't be for a few more decades. Perhaps I'll have a better plan by then.

After our short trip at Fishman Island was over, we headed towards the surface in the New World. This area of the world was even more perilous than the last. While we were here, we learned of things like how to use the basics of Haki. I'd always wanted to learn, but this knowledge was quite scarce outside of the New World as of right now. Artoria and I had all three types, as did Roger and Rayleigh. Haki was just a different way to manifest the power of the soul. With our Third True Magic, we were naturally more in tune with our souls than most other people, and picked it up quite easily. Armament Haki was about hardening or compressing spiritual energy. Observation Haki was about spreading out your spiritual energy to increase your awareness and grant minor precognition. Conqueror's Haki was about pressing your spiritual energy against that of others, trumping their spiritual defenses with your own willpower. Having more willpower led to stronger Haki, but that was simply because having a stronger will meant a stronger spirit meaning more spirit energy. I wonder how that applies to Big Mom who can move around souls with her fruit.

Speaking of Big Mom, the most insane thing Roger did on our voyage thus far was sneak into the territory of Charlotte Linlin, who would become known as Big Mom in the future, and transcribe her Road Poneglyph. He finally told us that he suspected the Road Poneglyphs pointed to a secret destination somewhere, but he could not read the words.