Looking around, I found myself in a gray room, and after wondering where I was, another thing came to mind: "Did I die defeating Grim?"

I looked around, and I didn't recognize the room, but it was full of medical equipment, which I was sitting up from laying on a.. medical bed to look around.

I noticed lights were on, and the many different weird looking pieces of equipment, all of which I could not recognize.

"Well, I guess that they all have some form of purpose, but I still don't know where I am." Turning my head to search the circular room, I found a door, and something came to mind. "Why is everything gray? Not even white? OR black? I... Um... Does this mean I am dead?"

I got off the bed, and realized that I had my right arm back. I felt my eyes widen as I stared at my fixed arm, moving it around, checking that I had it back.

"Why do I have my arm back? Didn't Grim destroy it? I don't WANT it back! Please! Someone tell me what happened!"

I yelled into the gray room, only for no one to answer, and for an echo to ask me exactly what I wanted to know.

I sighed. "This is getting me nowhere. Do I... just leave? Like.. out the doors?"

I walked to the doors, and found the conference room on Graphen, also colored in gray.

"Why am I here? Dang it! Why did I not pay any attention to the layout! And! Why is this place also gray!?"

Walking around the massive center table, I walked to the doors that I knew, the ones leading to the outside. Pushing them open was harder than I thought, as friction refused to release the doors for a second, until I jumped at the doors, and they slammed open. I fell to the ground on the other side of the doors, and dusted myself off, only to find the hallway, as well as the same annoying gray color.

I facepalmed before growling a little before walking down the hallway.

"First, it's a hospital or something. Then, it's the meeting room that's like.. the first room at the end of this damn hallway! And now, it's the damn hallway! Why did the creator of this place decide that gray was a good choice? Must've had a sale or something!"

"You know, you once hated the colors we wore, and now you want a lot of it?"

I turned to find myself, Buggy, leaning against the wall. This only confused me, as I felt my whole face scrunch up to convey just how confusing this was.

"... Aren't you... Like... Supposed to be in my head? Are you a figment of my imagination? You were in my head before.. and the last time I saw you was when I was being stupid and needed a push to survive, so..... how are you here right now?"

I saw him cross his arms, and then lift his head to meet my own gaze.

"I don't know how I'm here. Yes, I think I'm supposed to be in our head, and no, I shouldn't be a figment of your imagination. I'm just.. here."

I stared at him, and stated outright "You're no help, you know that? I mean, outside of internal, mental affairs, and in a fight, you aren't that helpful. That's what I meant."

He raised an eyebrow. "Yes, I know what you meant. Now, thanks to.. well, your influence, I have come up with some.. thing.. to help US out. I don't have full proof, but if we leave this hallway, and go out the entrance, we may find something. And before you ask, I've wandered every interior room of this place, it's all gray, and there is not any other exit that I could find."

He stared at me, proud that he answered some questions that I didn't even ask yet. He was smug, and I just said "Well, thanks for being smart. But uhm.. did you try... Ooh! Did you try observation Haki?"

"Yes. It doesn't work. As in, it will not even manifest."

I was trying to outsmart myself at this point, so I ended up turning and walking down the hallway that I was originally going down.

"Hey, aren't you going to bring me along?" echoed throughout the hallway, all the way down it.

I stopped for a second, and only said "Well, if you're a part of me, you should know the answer, right?" And I simply continued on.

All that I could see was gray, even the light itself was gray, and I just ignored it, trying to rack my brain for answers on what was going on. I felt myself start to doze off while walking, and before I did anything else, I felt my other self tap me on the shoulder.

"Hey, you... uhm.. we were about to walk into the door, can you not doze off like that?"

I shook my head, rubbed my eyes, and stopped in front of the main entrance door.

"Uh.. yeah. Sure. I don't know why that happened, but let's just see outside."

I pushed against the door, and found it surprisingly easy to open it, as I fell face first into the ground, or what I thought was ground. Lifting myself off the ground that was surprisingly soft, as it didn't hurt me when I landed, I found that I was on white clouds, and that the door behind me swung closed, which was weird as I didn't remember the door being that way.

"Oh..kay then. Is this maybe a dream?"

"Nope. This is not a dream. I wouldn't be here if that was the case."

Buggy, or myself, put a hand out and pulled my to my feet.

"Thanks."

"No problem. Now, uh.. where are we?"

"I don-"

"Do not worry about where you are, my project."

That voice was one I hadn't heard for over a year, and the only one I felt I could trust. I turned to find a androgynous figure sitting on a throne made of clouds, in a sea of clouds, sitting in the middle of a palace made of clouds as well.

"Director? What am I doing here? Also, where is here?"

Director themself ran their hand over their face, and sighed.

"Do not worry, my child. I will explain everything. Why don't you come take a seat? It may be a while."

Some couches formed out of clouds, and I looked at myself, we both nodded and then went to sit on the couch.

I sat with my elbows on my knees, hands clasped together while the other me sat with his arms crossed. Up close, I could tell that Director was extremely tired.

"I thought deities didn't get tired."

Director then shook their head, and spoke "Do not worry about me, your creator, I have just been going through a lot since I first sent you to your current world. It was all stressful, and so, I would like to answer any questions you had before asking me about why I am stressed and tired." Director leaned back in their throne, asking "So, what do you want to know? I can answer all of your questions as long as you ask them."

Both me and myself looked at each other, then turned to Director.

"Um.. where are we?"

"We are currently in between worlds. You asked yourself why everything was gray when you awoke, right? That is because I had frozen all time in your world, just to make it a little easier to tell you everything. Freezing time makes all color disappear, and so that is why everything was gray. As for HERE, my child, this place was thrown together very quickly to have this meeting of sorts, which is why, while it does look like a palace of clouds, it was just some quick work with creation. It is also inaccessible by any other deities, but that's because none of them know."

I looked at them for a second, and asked "So, why are we here again?"

"Wow, your original life REALLY affected you, your memory has become foggy from just a couple minutes ago. Let me say, you are here for some explanation, as I need to do so, but I wanted your original questions out of the way before I started to tell you things."

I nodded. 'Well, obviously something crazy happened while I was doing whatever. But I have to ask my questions first.'

My other self spoke up "Are we dead?"

I looked to Director for some closure on that question.

"No, you are not dead. As I had said before, this place is for a meeting, not to kill you."

"Cool. Uhm.. thanks for not killing me? Or.. us?"

"Well, myself, that brings another question. Why do I exist here?"

I could tell Director looked at both of us before speaking "I could not have this meeting without the existence of both of you could I? You are one in the same, and yet you are seperate minds sharing a consciousness. You see, my child, he is more of an addition onto yourself when you transferred into this new world of yours. I know I said that you would replace the original soul, but I never said they would disappear. Unless I did, in which, something, somehow either went wrong or something was tampered with, both of which are very possible. Now! Onto your next question, I only have a limited time for all of this before the other deities decide you need to be back."

"Forcing this? Okay.. um.. how about...."

"Since the both of us are one in the same, as you said, what was the '30 Second Full Awakening' we were given?"

Director sighed again.

"Already to those questions. Not anything else?"

"Nope, unless we forgot something, which we most likely did. So, if we ask questions out of the blue, don't mind that we didn't ask them before."

"Fine. If you must know, that was a gift given to you by the deity known as Lentor. I don't know how he got through the security of this world, but You were given it nonetheless, which saved your life. If you hade not used it, you would have died, and ended up meeting me no matter the circumstance."

"Uhm.. thanks? For not killing me?"

"You should be thanking Lento-"

"That reminded me of a question I forgot! Oh, um, sorry, please continue."

"As I was saying, you should thank Lentor, as he was the one to give you that. And aside from that, I couldn't have stopped it from happening before.... You know what, my child? On the topic of gifts, I should list them off! All of the deities watching you for entertainment were generous and gave you a gift of some kind! Would you like to know them?"

Director was sounding angry, forcing the words to be spoken near the end, and I could only squeak out "Sure?"

Director then blew up at me and myself.

"OH, LENTOR WAS NOT THE ONLY ONE! WHILE HE GAVE YOU THAT, OBSERVER DECIDED THAT YOU SHOULD HAVE MULTIPLE PERSONALITIES JUST FOR THE FUN OF IT! AND GRAN DJOR DECIDED TO ADD ONTO THAT, AND GIVE YOU ACCESS TO ALL TYPES OF HAKI, YOU JUST HAD TO ACTIVATE IT, AND THEY WOULD ALL WORK! YOU STILL HAD TO ACTUALLY LEARN HOW TO USE IT, BUT WITH YOUR CURRENT ABILITY THAT I GAVE YOU, YOU LEARNED IT LIKE NOTHING! THE GODS, ASIDE FROM ME, WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO HAVE ACCESS TO YOU, LET ALONE GIVE YOU GIFTS! THEY WERE ONLY SUPPOSED TO BE ABLE TO WATCH, AND YET, SOMETHING IS WRONG ENOUGH FOR THEM TO JUST DO WHATEVER THEY WANTED!"

Me and myself leaned back when Director got up and walked towards us, but they stopped, and turned to sit back down, sighing a heavy sigh.

"I.. am sorry about that, my child. To explain my outburst, you were originally supposed to not be accessed by any other deity than myself, and yet, I can only think of one way that they had done so, which is to use their 'Higher Authority' to gain access. Let alone the fact that they shouldn't have been able to do so, but they have done so without so much as a word from 'One'. And that is the main reason why I am tired. It is because I have been trying to find why you had such abilities so easily. Originally, I had thought that my own gift to you of being able to take anything and everything and use it to create something else, would be the explanation of why, and so, I threw those thoughts away, until they came back and hit me in the face when Lentor up and gave you a 'power up' as you would call it. That stirred up everything, as I then dug around what had been done to you to find some gifts were bestowed upon you while I wasn't looking. I am mad at them, but I can't do anything TO them, directly at least."

I was still leaning back, holding my arms in front of me for a possible attack, with the same going for myself, still sitting next to me, making sure he wouldn't get hurt either. We looked at each other again, and I spoke "Um....."

"Oh, sorry, you had a question before hand, and I showed you some of my anger. I'm sorry my child, what were you going to ask before?"

Slowly, I fixed my position to have my arms crossed, still concerned.

"Ooooohkay then.... Um... What did I want to ask before? It was something about.."

"You thought of it after saying 'thanks for not killing me?'."

"Oh. OH RIGHT! Um.. why is my arm back?"

"Your arm is back because in this place, you are your true self, which also includes your ideal looks. It also suppresses your power, mainly because you are here, not physically, but rather, spiritually, which also allows your ideal appearance to manifest."

I looked to the side, and only said "Oh-kay then. Weird, but all right. Now! Um.. what is..."

I started to think back on things I wanted to ask. 'there was so much said just then, what? What are some things Director just said? Didn't they say that I got other gifts, or did I just completely imagine that up? Other gifts? Didn't I also learn of some of them? What is up with me?'

"So Director, can you tell me more about these.. other gifts from.. other deities that I was given?"

"If you must know of your gifts, I find it will piss off the other deities that messed with you in the first place. I bet that they had thought you would have never learned them, but just to screw with them, I shall tell you again. You, my child, were given multiple personalities by Observer, and the best thing I can tell you is that you have already met one of them, and it comes in the form of that personality switch you call 'Lucifer'. He is one of your other personalities, and while you have others, they are more like different changes to your own personality, the different modes you have, if I remember correctly, the 'Zen' and your 'Chillax' modes. And as one more message to completely ruin their fun, I'll tell you that there is another, more feminine one. You have yet to name it, but she has also yet to come out, so I guess you'll have to see later about that one, but I feel just a bit happier knowing that I can screw up their own interference! I cannot wait to see how you add on to this! Please make it worth while that I did such a thing!"

I sweat dropped. 'Why is Director so happy about messing with them? Can't they do something without their knowledge like it was nothing? There should be more caution, right?'

"W-well thank you for that knowledge, I'll look out for it, and I may~ try to do something, but it will probably be a small thing. I don't know what, but I can MAYBE do something."

For a second there was silence, until my other self broke it.

"Speaking of other deities, didn't you want to ask about Director's name?"

"Yeah, I did. My gosh, thanks other me! I would've never remembered that, and then disappeared back into our world, and then remembered to ask! Sorry that I thought you weren't useful before!"

My other self had a smug smile that changed into a straight face, and voiced a response "We had this conversation before. You really do need me to keep your memory and everything in line."

I inhaled, acting hurt. "You don't trust me to do that myself?"

"Ah. The dramatic side you rarely showed in your last life. Now, can we get back to the topic at hand?"

"What was it again?"

"What Director's name is, you idiot."

"You didn't need to emphasize that." I turned from staring daggers into myself, and looking calmly at Director. "What is your name? If I can ask?"

Director tilted their head, leaning on a hand, showing themself having calmed down from the excitement of petty revenge against other, apparently higher ranking, deities. "My dear child, while I would have loved to tell you for the first time, you have already heard mention of my name. The others..." They scowled for a second at the mention of others, which I took as mentioning the deities. "Have already spoiled my name."

Me and myself looked at each other again.

"What is it?"

"I do know it, since I am a part of you rather than you being a part of me. I do have access to basically all of your memories, so let me enlighten you to a point you can come up with it yourself." He turned and faced his whole body towards me, and I did the same. Facing each other on the couch, my other self started my saying "Your thoughts during first having the 30 Second Full Awakening appear. Those thoughts were angry at them too, right?"

"Yeah."

"What was something mentioned multiple times?"

"Um..."

'What WAS something mentioned multiple times? I really only remember the fight, and I just barely remember that, so.. what was mentioned multiple times? Was I angry at this? Because I do kinda remember going through the new messages and finding things to be mad about, especially in that situation.'

Raising an eyebrow, I spoke "You do know how bad my memory is right?" While moving my hand in the air, swiping in it. What happened next made me jump a little, as a blue screen appeared where my hand swiped.

I noticed that myself and Director were both confused as well, before Director put their head into their hand, and spoke quietly "It seems like I missed some other things too. It's too bad, I would have liked to rub it in their faces more that you knew about all of them, but I seem to be wrong."

I heard that, but ignored it, then looking at the blue screen before me, and it looked like a phone screen with a list of messages from different people. "Of course it has to be a phone. Why does every single isekai world have this? It's become overdone, so which stupid deity was all like 'Oh, I'm so awesome that I'll give this.. entertainment the ability to text with us!', which one?"

Director sighed, rubbing their temples, and responded "I'll have to give you a rain check on that. Just finding who had tampered with you before was a painfully long process, so wait until next time, I can't just do everything on a whim when other deities are mixed in."

"Okay then."

'I trust you on that, so maybe I do need some revenge on them myself. Sadly I can't do that without a lot of planning, so I'll have to deal later.'

I turned back to the screen, tapped on one of the names, and I read over the message from Gran Djor, then switching to one from Mornisa, repeating the process, and doing the exact same thing from Lentor's message.

Looking at all 3, Gran Djor had nothing, but Lentor had a name: Phallenmora. After taking a quick look at Mornisa's message, I found a nickname: Phalla.

Looking up from my message thing, I asked "Is your name... Phallenmora?"

My other self pointed finger guns at me, and said "Bingo!" While Director, now known as Phallenmora, spoke "I really am surprised what 18 years in one world can do. Yes, my name is indeed Phallenmora." And I could see them smile a little, just enough to change back to a straight face in a split second.

"can I just call you Mora? Or would you prefer Director still?" I asked, swiping downwards in the hopes that the screen would disappear.

'Mental note: don't text them.'

"My child, you may call me whatever you wish, be it Director, Phallenmora, any nickname steming from Phallenmora, or even mother if you so chose."

Looking at them, I asked "You.. are a.. goddess?"

"No, I am not, as I am not definable by and gender standards humanity has created, I am a deity, not a god or goddess, just a deity. But if you so chose, you could indeed call me mother, my child."

"Well, I'm just gonna go with... Mora. It's short enough for me to remember easily, and it perfectly fits the nickname idea."

"Mora. If that is what you choose, I have no issue with such a name. I know how much you like shorter names."

'Mora. Replace Director with Mora. I'll have to remember that, but I have my other self, the actual Buggy, to remind me if needed.'

My other self spoke up "So, off of that, why can't the-"

Mora's expression went dark.

"I'm sorry my child, it seems as though this place is compromised. I had hoped I would have finished speaking with you before they found out, but I can only do so much."

"Bu-"

"No buts, my child. I must return you before anything else happens. I am sorry that is has been cut short, but it is good to know you are having fun."

Mora smiled.

"How do you-"

"I am a deity, now, continue to have fun, and do whatever you want in this world of yours."

Before I could even get another word in, me and myself were whisked off back through the invisible doors and to the room I woke up in, immediately losing consciousness.

•

I woke up.

'Deja Vu. Why is this the third time it's happened to me? First, I get put into this world, and I wake up, and then, I wake up AGAIN only to be met with Shanks, and now this time? Am I gonna have to go through this every time I overuse my abilities or almost die?'

I opened my eyes to find the very same room covered in medical equipment that I still didn't recognize. The only difference being, it was all in color. My arm was still missing, and I had some bandages over the small stub, and I felt almost all of my organs fixed.

'Great. I'm still here. At least everything isn't in gray, so I guess time is moving normally now. And my body is fixed, exactly where I want it.'

I layed back down, and stared at the domed ceiling, left to my thoughts.

'That.. was crazy. That fight? Crazy.. ier. What did I do? I mean, I did a freaking lot! I mean, I turned into sand! Just as I wanted! And vibrating my particles at a high enough speed to create lightning? And then using it to enhance myself? I mean, who IN THIS WORLD would have come up with something like that? I'm just copying a cloud!'

I chuckled to myself.

'No one I know of. Heh. Now, I'd like to thank you in the future Luffy, you may not know why, but Gear 3rd? I have already used it! It's gonna suck to get to that level, but at least I know some attacks I can use in the future! I better write those down before I forget them!'

And before I moved, I heard the door open, and I recognized two of the three people, one being Rem, another being the teacher-looking woman who I thought was her older sister, and some random guy behind them, who, from looking at his eye, was basically dead inside. He was weirdly wearing the uniform I remembered, but colored in black, with the front open. He also had some long, black hair covering one of his eyes.

Was was weirder than the guy who sighed as he entered the room, was the fact that Rem was hugging the woman who I did recognize, but didn't remember. Rem had a smile on her face, as if this woman was important to her.

Without any hesitation though, because I recognized the lady being hugged by Rem, and got into a fighting stance.

'I can trust Rem, because she was super attached to Rosa, but why is she attached to someone else?'

"Rem. Who is this?"

Rem didn't answer, and only continued to smile while gripping onto this woman in front of me like a giant claw. The guy only looked up, and then, with some angst, he flipped his hair covering his eye up, revealing his other eye, stared at me, and then lowered his head down, looking at the ground blankly.

"If you must know, Buggy, then why would you not ask me?"

Shaking my head, still watching them, I asked "Okay, then who are you?"

She walked forward, and I didn't feel any aura of anger, or will to attack me, all I could tell was that the woman who was walking up to me was not hostile.

Once she was in front of me, I realized how tall she was, almost twice my height.

'Was she always this tall?'

She leaned down, and whispered into my ear "Hello there, apprentice of the Pirate King, or should I say.. one who took over the body and became an apprentice of the Pirate King?"

I felt my own face contort for my eyes to widen.

'How does she know this? Who have I told about this? Was one of my old crew drunk and spilled everything about me for only one person to learn and take over her body somehow? No, wait! That's crazy! Who have I told about that? Could it be...'

"Rosa?" I asked with no confidence in my guess.

"Yes, it is me, Buggy."

"Uhm... What happened to you?"

"Well, Buggy, we would love to tell you, but I would expect you having a want to go somewhere more comfortable than this place. It will be a long story."

And then I watched as Rosalina, who was oddly in another body, along with Rem and the guy I still didn't know, walked away, towards what I knew as the conference room.

Rosalina stopped, then turned to me, who was frozen a little from the realization and trying to figure out how it was possible, and then asked "Are you coming, Buggy?"

Snapping out of my existential thoughts, I started to follow them out, and towards the conference room.

"So, what's the story?" I asked, sitting on top of the round table, looking at the three in front of me.

The one claiming to be Rosalina spoke first.

"Would you like to start from the beginning, Buggy?"

I stared at her like an idiot.

Clearing her throat, she then started to speak.

"Okay then. From the beginning, then! Around 300 years ago, there was an island, this island we are on, to be specific. And this island was once uninhabited, until the World Government started a project, one that no one outside the island knew of, or had access to."

'Already? We're only into the story a tiny bit, and the World Government did something? 300 years ago, nonetheless.'

"This project of theirs was to create a genius, one who could create superweapons, ones that could destroy the entire world. They never disclosed any reasons as to why, and we have never found an answer. This island, developed to generate world class superweapons, was once full of flora, covered plentifully on greenery, and only had buildings where they needed to be. There used to be paths from the dock that we were at all the way here, where the original, main laboratory was built. The World Government had several of the smartest scientists at the time join in on this project, in which they were then forced to procreate, and birth a child, in hopes that a genius among geniuses would be born. Out of all the children born, one stood out the most due to his incredible ability to take in information faster than any of the other children, learn processes even faster than most of the adults, and one who could be certified with the name 'super genius'. That person born is right in front of you, Buggy, Djane Thallise, the one you have not met yet."

I turned to look at the guy, with his new matching name, Djane Thallise.

"Wait, you said 300 years ago? HE SHOULDN'T BE ALIVE!"

"If you listen to the full story, you will learn all of the reasons for many things that had happened. Now, may I continue?"

I was frustrated, but nodded to tell 'Rosalina' to continue.

"Good, now, Djane here, he is not the same one from 300 years ago, and the reason will come later within this story. Now, Djane was originally supposed to be a prodigy, someone who would learn how to create superweapons, and he did. But what would you expect from a child who was forced to learn about creating bombs when they see the other scientist's children going around and playing, having to study at regular intervals? They threw the other children away, as if they were never going to be useful, and forcing them to, while slower, learn everything that Djane was learning. They had no faith in the other children, and yet still forced them to learn on hopes that maybe one of them would come close to Djane.

For several years, Djane had watched the other children grow, learning what he had and yet, still having free time, all while he never did. It caused him to do exactly what the world government wanted him to, and for the wrong reasons. His family, children his own age, all of them put him on a pedestal, all while he just wanted to get down and be with them. They kept putting him on that pedestal, expecting him to WANT to be on it. And not realizing it. It even forced him to lean towards drastic measures. For over a year, he spent his time creating a weapon, one of mass destruction, just as everyone around him had wanted, and he had done so."

I saw Djane shake a little, as if the mention of these memories was torture.

"The only thing that was different, while he did create this weapon, it's intended use by it's creator, was not to be used as a superweapon for the greater good of the world, it was to wipe the island off the map, to get rid of all the people who put someone who just so happened to be smart, on a pedestal. Where they never let him down, and he was stuck, higher than everyone, but alone. And so, he activated the bomb he had created, and the explosion from it decimated all living things, destroying all of the buildings around the island, and only causing the ships at the dock to float away a little. While the original plan for the explosion was to wipe out the island, it only ended up destroying things on the island, and everything with it."

'That's.. um.. still plenty of destruction for a bomb. Wait. Bomb?'

'Rosalina' continued "The mountains around this fortress were built alongside the fortress, but you may not have expected who built it. But first, Djane survived his own, self caused.. apocalypse. It took out everything and everyone, and Djane just wanted peace, a life away from building weapons, and yet, the knowledge cursed him. While living in a bunker he had made to survive his own bomb, he was tormented by the fact that he had killed hundreds,if not thousands of people, just so they would stop worshipping him. And one day, an idea came to his mind, one that he had hoped would help him forget the tragedy he had caused. He wanted to travel the world, and do whatever he wanted, having true freedom to do anything. And at first, he started to build up a home, this fortress, a castle of his own, and once he started, he realized that it would take too long to just make himself a home, and so, while in his bunker, the one tree he had left, had a fruit on it. It was a pear, one that had never even been there, and yet, it had appeared, without any reason for appearing. But, it was a silver pear, covered in swirls, and Djane, who at first thought to study it, decided to do what he wanted, and ate it. Obviously, it had tasted horrible, but he still swallowed it, and found something out. If you have not already guessed, he ate a Devil Fruit, one that had never been recorded, put into the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, one that had to do with souls."

She stared at me, and I could only think 'Haven't I talked about this with Rosa? Is this really her? And a soul fruit? Did history change and Big Mom has died or something? Doesn't that mean..'

"Was it maybe.. the Devil Fruit of Big Mom?"

Who I now had less suspicion of being Rosalina, nodded her head no, and continued "This devil fruit that Djane had eaten, was indeed the Soul-Soul Fruit, but it is not the same one. While it does indeed share the same name, as well as possibly some of the same abilities, it does not share the same classification."

"Classification? Do you mean.."

"Yes, I do mean that it is not a Paramecia. The one that Djane ate, was in fact the Logia Soul-Soul Fruit."

I was shocked for a second, thinking 'There's a logia version of that? Would that mean that there's other versions of other known devil fruits? I mean, a Zoan Soul-Soul Fruit sounds impossible, but what if there are? I mean, anything could be possible if there is a Logia Soul-Soul Fruit.'

"I do still need to finish telling you the story, so please, do not doze off now."

I just nodded, trying to put my own thoughts to the back of my mind.

"And Djane tested it, seeing if he could turn into a soul, which he did. Do you know what he did though? As a test, he created a separate version of himself, and then, he continued. Over and over. Until he created eight versions of himself. The bodies of these eight soul-people were included as a part of the power, and these soul-people were able to think and act independently, and yet, all felt similar. All of them were pieces of Djane's own soul, and he didn't realize until too late that he split his soul into too many pieces, leaving none for his own conscience, therefore, no piece of himself to actually be himself. These pieces of his soul, while being a logia, took a part of his metaphysical body, meaning that his own soul, and his own body, were torn apart to create those eight I keep mentioning. Now, these bodies had a physical existence, took up space within the world, and yet, kept Djane's body in one piece. The only issue was how these eight would keep their original safe, which was left to being frozen, kept in stasis until the eight decided to bring him back. These eight all had different pieces of Djane's personality, and therefore we're all different from each other, and yet, all connected, having all of the knowledge that Djane had accumulated. And with their soul-bodies not being a full body, they could occupy other bodies, ones that were unoccupied, or even inanimate objects, if they so chose."

"So.. these eight.. they were ghosts? With a hive mind.. -ish?"

Rosalina looked at me directly in the eyes, still sitting on the table.

"Yes, you could call it that. But, since they were all a part of Djane, they all had his issues too, and they were represented over the years. You see, these eight were Rem, Rath, Rosin, Roy, Rianna, Rosten and I. We were the pieces of Djane that became seperate people."

"So how did-"

"How did I switch bodies? I have said it and you have said it as well. While there is no technical term, and ghost is the best fitting, we were and are able to take control of bodies besides our own. Which means, we can move around bodies as long as there was no soul occupying at the time we move into them. That means, we can take control of dead bodies, and use them ourselves. While that may not seem like a morally good thing to do, I hope you understand, the World Government thinks that Djane died, and now, to keep ourselves secret, I switched bodies to keep my real identity a secret. The others stayed here, not because they were scared of the World Government taking them and killing them or anything, they were more cautious about just leaving, and doing their own thing. Which is why all of them had different things, different weapons, different hobbies. We have all been doing what Djane had wanted, which was to explore the world, and do whatever, and yet, a little part of him wanted to create those weapons, and follow the World Government, which of course, never happened. But that one part was within Rosin, who then commanded the rest to do what he wanted, and they just followed. Which led to the whole Grim thing, and now, we are here. I have switched bodies to have something more suitable, Rem here is finally not being hurt by those brainwashed versions of us, and Djane now exists. He is very docile, and will not do much, as the personality coming through is submissive, as it was amplified when they joined together once again. But Rosin is out of the picture, and the souls that split are.. for better or worse.. almost entirely back together."

I sat, staring at Rosalina, switching to Rem, and switching to Djane, then repeating that process while figuring it out.

"So, let me get this straight: Djane was born, only to be put on a pedestal he never really wanted, and then destroyed his own home to stop it all, and, when doing his own thing on a desolate island, at a devil fruit, incidentally causing himself to split way too many times, and leave no piece of his soul to control himself? And on top of that, the pieces of his soul did their own thing for.. you said 300 years? Only for the Grim situation to happen and you to put the other six back into Djane to fix something?"

Rosalina nodded, nonchalantly agreeing as if all of that was perfectly fine.

I rubbed my eyes, and said "You have some screws loose."

"That is incorrect, Buggy. I have the same amount as I was given, which may be only a small amount compared to the full."

"..."

"...."

"I can only frame it by saying the want to be not on a pedestal caused this, and I'm just gonna stop there."

"Well then, Buggy. We both have the knowledge of each other's past, can you trust me again?"

The current Rosalina reached out her hand, and I could only shake it.

"Fine. If either of us speaks a word of it to someone untrustworthy, I dunno, but it's gotta be bad."

"You are not good at this."

"I kno-oh my gosh. I FORGOT TAKI!"

•

We were now in a random room that I still didn't pay attention to the direction, but Taki was laying, asleep in it.

"Wait.. how long was I asleep?"

"You were unconscious for approximately a week, give or take a couple hours."

"So, Taki's been unconscious for longer than me?"

Rosalina and Rem turned to me in unison.

""You have an abnormal healing factor, so you were able to heal faster. It was hard to fix the rest of your body, and a new arm is being made, but your healing factor is fast, so fixing all of that was made quicker!""

"You really had all that memorized to say at the same time?"

"Ro-Ro told me about you, and I like Ro-Ro, so don't take this away from me!"

Rem then gleefully skipped away, going to Taki to do something.

I leaned over to Rosalina and asked "What's Rem doing?"

Rosalina leaned down, and spoke "She is tending to Taki. She may not look it, and I may not look it, and even Djane may not look it, but we all have extensive knowledge of how the human body works, and while Taki isn't human, it was pretty easy to fix her. Now all that is needed to be done is to let her wounds heal naturally."

I took a long look at Taki, covered head to toe in bandages, her face, ears, and tail uncovered.

"Can I assume you also learned medical practices?"

"Yes, we did."

"So.. what's gonna happen now?"

Rosalina sighed.

"I cannot just leave Djane here, so he will have to come with us on our journey. We need to complete what Djane originally wanted too, so we will try. Why? What are you doing after this? Did you not want to continue bounty hunting with me?"

It was my turn to sigh.

"Since we've been so open about our histories, I'll just tell you now: I plan on becoming a pirate again."

Rosalina was shocked at first, jaw dropping, but she fixed herself up and let out a small laugh.

"Hmm? Nothing about.. capturing me? No 'I'm gonna take you down!', no.. nothing?"

She smiled at me. "Buggy. You have already told me twice about you being an apprentice on the most infamous pirate crew of all time. And to get you to understand that I switched bodies, I even told you something that only WE spoke about. How have you not figured out that I could never stop you from doing so, especially as you helped me with a major problem, AND that I trust you?"

I dropped my head.

'I can't believe I'm still this stupid. At least I don't have my arm to remind me. Wait..'

"Thank you for that. But.. uhm.. didn't you say I had a new arm being made?"

"Yes. We did."

"Um.. how do I say this.. I came up with a reason not to replace my arm, which was because I want to protect those close to me, and help them as much as I can. I don't want my arm replaced, because I won't have a reminder otherwise."

Rosalina's expression changed to one of 'Oh, I didn't know that' mixed with slight dissatisfaction.

"I know, I know. I'm sorry about that. You just wanted to help and all, which I appreciate, but it's for my own reasons."

We both looked at Taki, and a couple minutes of silence passed.

"So, what's the plan?"

"Well, Buggy, the plan is to rebuild our ship while my other body is being fixed and remade, that is.. alongside apparently now, adding a second ship to that list, one for you, and I can only assume Taki will be joining you?"

"Yep. Otherwise I can't get her to Zou."

"Sounds fine to me, it will be more work, so do not expect to be lazy. And of course, we will then head to Batarilla, where you left both Alice and Mariga. Then the plan was to head back to the East Blue, also known as the shipyard, and continue to do our work. But with your new plan, that may be a bit harder than expected."

"Oh! Um.. you won't have to worry about that. We will HAVE to go back, I have a little bit of business that needs Branson."

We stood for a second, the silence interrupted by Rosalina.

"Is that all?"

"Nope!"

She sighed, and I just decided to ignore it and continue to talk.

"You see, Rosalina, I had a plan. It was originally to make 200 million berri, and then set off into the Grand Line. But, the plan has since then changed, and now I want to own the Shipyard in secret, so that my own adventure through the Grand Line can be funded! Which is also why I kind of gave that suggestion to make a moving store, one that sells and builds ships. I don't remember what part of this I told you, but if the shipyard is able to gain some people from Water 7, then it will be able to grow beyond just some shipyard, eventually, it could even become a floating mall of some sort, and I know this is grandiose, but I wanted to tell you it! It's a lot of work, but it would be worth it. All 3 of us, me in secret, all becoming wealthy enough to do whatever we want!" I swore that I felt stars in my eyes, and I watched as Rosalina put a hand to her forehead, and only said "You are crazy. You'd have to talk to Branson before anything becomes concrete. Now, we have some ships to fix." And she walked out of the room.