Conqueror of All 11 A forgotten past, and the path to Reverse Mountain

"Jiutian, head to the Reverse Mountain, Grand Line is our next object…!" Izan spoke calmly while having an indifferent expression on his face as he walked towards his own bedroom.

"Will do." Jiutian had a small smile on her face as she nodded while walking towards one of the control rooms of the ship. "Nojiko, come with me." Jiutian said in a low voice as she walked towards the control room.

Nojiko followed behind Jiutian with a confused expression on her face. After a few moments, they arrived in the control room which was literally a room with three black sofas forming a triangle with a table in the middle with a map over the world.

Jiutian sat on one of the sofas and traced her finger towards "Reverse Mountain" before holding it there for a second which made the ship move by itself.

"Now that's done, we can finally speak in private." Jiutian nodded as she glanced around the room before putting her eyes on Nojiko. "You must have understood some things, right?"

Nojiko hesitated for a moment before nodding. "Yes. I don't know of Izan's origin, but he must be someone with a very high position."

A long sigh escaped Jiutian's mouth before slowly shaking her head. "I think what you said is underestimating Izan right now." Jiutian didn't hesitate to speak as she was closely watching Nojiko in the past few days and Jiutian felt that Nojiko is one of the few people that could stay with Izan.

"All I can say is that Izan is someone way more important than you could ever imagine. Sadly, even Izan doesn't know it yet…" Jiutian sighed while closing her eyes before continuing to speak. "Nojiko, what did you feel when you and your 'sister' were surrounded by the marines?"

Nojiko lowered her head for a moment before answering with one word. "Despair."

Jiutian nodded and a forced smile appeared on her face, Jiutian's forced smile appeared to be very devastating as it could show the immense grief and sadness from the smile.

"A long time ago I lost someone… that someone went through enormous amount of torture and pain before passing away." Jiutian's voice started cracking the more she spoke. "Even after dying, that someone wasn't able to rest as if the whole universe was cursing him… you said that you felt despair. What he felt was despair for countless years."

Jiutian raised her right hand and placed it over her heart as she could feel a heartache. "The feeling of not belonging, of being lost, of not anyone could recognize you and slowly but surely, lose your mind." Jiutian kept her eyes closed as she gritted her teeth.

"Even when facing despair, turmoil and suffering, that someone continued to walk forward even losing everything he owned. With the mindset of never stopping, he embraced the suffering as he gritted his teeth and walked forward." Jiutian wanted to claw out her heart because of the heartache, but to no avail, she wasn't able to control her feelings.

Nojiko was seriously listening to Jiutian at the beginning, but the more Jiutian spoke, the more absent-minded Nojiko became. Jiutian didn't tell Nojiko who 'he' was, but Nojiko's thoughts were all of Izan walking forward while shouldering everything on his shoulders without complaining.

The more Nojiko heard, the tenser she became. Losing everything. Facing despair and suffering. Not even knowing who he was… The more Nojiko heard, the harder her heart would beat. Nojiko thought that she and her sister, Nami were pitiful. But, it seemed like what she had to deal with was nothing compared to what 'he' in Jiutian's story had to deal with.

"After many years, he died once again… I sacrificed very much to find him, and in the end, I managed to find him." Jiutian smile shined for a moment before it turned gloomy. "But, he couldn't remember me, he couldn't even remember who he was."

Nojiko lowered her head deeply for a good while. Nojiko couldn't bear it in any longer, she raised her head and stared at Jiutian before asking. "Izan…?" Nojiko's voice was trembling as she asked Jiutian.

Jiutian nodded slowly in return which made Nojiko release tears from her eyes.

"You might have guessed. Me and Izan aren't from this world, we are here to become stronger before leaving." Jiutian told Nojiko the truth. Slowly but surely, Jiutian opened her eyes and stared at Nojiko. "What will you do now after learning about the truth?"

Nojiko wasn't all too surprised by what Jiutian said as she felt that the origin of Izan and Jiutian was way too mysterious. It didn't even take Nojiko a moment before she answered in a clear voice. "As long as Izan doesn't abandon me, I will never leave his side!"

"A great answer." Jiutian smiled brightly as her mood was becoming better. "I will let you know right now, Izan will not abandon you nor any of his chosen companions. All you have to think about, is how to help Izan feeling secure around us."

Nojiko understood what Jiutian meant. "I had the feeling of Izan only showing us what we want, but never what's behind it." Nojiko spoke while slowly raising her eyebrows.

"You are indeed right." Jiutian nodded in return. "Izan might enjoy the company and he might even like us. But, deep inside of him, he can't seem to bond with others as he fears of losing them." Jiutian was showing an exhausted expression on her face before a smile appeared on her face.

"I am trying my best to accompany his side at any given moment. In the end, Izan will open up." Jiutian smiled brightly at the thought of Izan remembering the truth of his origin.

Nojiko nodded before frowned slightly. "You haven't told him anything about this?"

Jiutian shook her head. "No, and I won't do it either. Putting this pressure on him while he can't remember isn't what I want to do." Jiutian sighed before smiling softly. "I want Izan to enjoy all of these things while perhaps remembering who he is and who I am."

"I understand, I will act according to your wishes and I won't tell Izan anything about what we have spoken about now." Nojiko nodded, she smiled as she kept thinking of Izan.

In another room, Izan was laying on his bed while watching the roof while thinking about his progress. "With this finished today, we will have an estimated time of three days before our names will travel around the world if they give us bounties."

Izan let out a sigh as he shook his head. "The Reverse Mountain isn't far away either. After arriving to the Grand Line, our destination should be Alabasta Kingdom."

"Crocodile. Royal Seven Warriors of the Sea. Robin. Poneglyph" Izan narrowed his eyes slightly as he thought of how he should solve the situation when they arrived at Alabasta.

"Heh, seems like I'm thinking ahead a little too much." Izan shook his head before laughing silently. "But seriously, today was really fun…" Izan's eyes seemed to shine for a moment as he thought of everything he did today with Jiutian and Nojiko.

"Going against the Marines and the World Government in public and even beating a Logia Devil User which is a captain. Haha, I would have never thought acting like a 'cool guy' would be that fun." Izan laughed as he thought of his previous actions.

Izan felt proud of how he acted, it would have most likely appeared to everyone that Izan was someone with high standing and not afraid of anyone in his path.

"What a great experience, I will try to act like that a lot more, maybe I can grow into that kind of attitude with time." Izan let out a smile before raising from the bed and walking out of his room.

After taking a small rest and calming his mind, Izan's mentality was good again. Step after step, Izan walked towards the dining room where the three would usually meet and chat if they weren't exercising in the basement.

What greeted Izan when he stepped in the dining room was a table filled with food and Nojiko and Jiutian preparing platters and cutlery.

"Seems like you have a great timing as always." Jiutian smiled brightly when she saw Izan coming in with a smile plastered on his face.

Nojiko nodded as Izan would always manage to appear at the last moment they would serve the food.

"Hahaha."

The three of them laughed at once before shaking their heads.

"Jiutian, how will our ship handle the Reverse Mountain." Izan asked as he sat on his red chair.

Nojiko sat on her aqua blue chair whereas Jiutian sat on her golden chair.

Jiutian raised one eyebrow as she answered Izan. "There won't be any problems. According to the speed we are traveling at, it will take a day before we arrive at the Reverse Mountain."

"I can't believe that I will be seeing the Reverse Mountain." Nojiko sighed as she smiled. Nojiko was at the beginning satisfied with just the tangerine farm. But after knowing Izan, she started dreaming about the world and watching its wonders.

Chapter end