Lucian hovered atop a quiet cloud, his black wings out as he watched the clouds ahead. The thin, sweet air of the White Sea filled his lungs, a stark contrast to the sulfur-tainted oxygen of his homeland. He had considered heading straight for the Straw Hats, but he reconsidered for now.
They was going to be a celebration, and the chaos of a post-Enel Skypiea would be loud, messy, and distracting, and that would be the chance to approach the Straw Hats. Right now, there was something far more important to deal with than rubber boys and festive alcohol.
His newly acquired Haki.
He closed his eyes and let the now unfamiliar power he could feel inside him flow through him, it felt similar to his magic but different in how freely it felt. Observation Haki, he felt like he got a third eye, and his senses spread outward from his mind like invisible ripples across the surface of a still, mountain lake.
And suddenly—
Voices.
dozens of them. No—hundreds.
They flooded his mind all at once, he was sensing everything around him, everything. Then he started to hear, hear, hear the surface Thoughts, flickering emotions, sharp bursts of intent of the people on the island.
He could feel people moving through the ruins of Upper Yard, breathing in rhythmic patterns, fighting over scraps of gold, and celebrating with reckless abandon. The entire island of Skypiea unfolded to his senses, laid bare like a 3d map in his mind. It was incredible. It was divine.
And it was utterly overwhelming.
He didn't think it would be like this, and he suspected that it shouldn't be. Was it because he took Aisa's haki? Was that it? Her skills, though untrained, were still shown to be one of the greatest in observation in Haki in One Piece, her potential was extremely high, and now he had it.
Yet Lucian didn't stop. He pushed harder, fueled by a curiosity to know the exact value of the "Mantra" he had swindled from Aisa. The range expanded, pushing past the shores of Angel Island and out into the empty white void. The clarity sharpened until he could sense the literal heartbeat of a Southbird miles away. His range was wide, he could sense nearly the entire Skypiea Island.
And then something changed.
The world in his mind stopped expanding and just shattered. It felt like his skull was being split apart by a wedge of white-hot iron driven by a titan's hammer.
Images slammed into his mind, violent, uncontrolled, and hauntingly vivid. He wasn't just sensing presence anymore. He was seeing.
A woman appeared before his mind's eye. She was young, her beauty ethereal even, dark purple hair and silver eyes, in the fragmented vision, happy and laughing with a genuine warmth he hadn't seen on her face in years.
She danced freely in a garden filled with otherworldly flora, her hand held by a man who possessed the same shape of face and crimson eyes that Lucian saw in the mirror every morning.
'Mother… Father.'
The image shattered into a million jagged shards of light as it changed.
Now there was fire. Screaming that transcended the physical. A battlefield that spanned horizons. A battle was taking place, no, not a battle, it was a war.
Angels clashed with devils in a sky choked with ash and divinity. Holy light, blinding and sterile, crashed against infernal flames that burned with the heat of the abyss. Fallen angels, their wings ragged and soot-stained, screamed as blades of pure light tore through midnight feathers. Demons roared, their monstrous forms dissolving into purple mist as magic and blood stained a sky that looked like it was being torn asunder by the hands of an angry god.
Lucian's breath caught in his throat, his lungs seizing. 'What… what am I seeing?'
The answer didn't come as words. It came as absolute, terrifying certainty when he saw four devils he had only ever seen in images fighting against what could only be called light itself.
The Great War of the Three Factions. This was the Great War.
The images shifted again, time accelerating at a dizzying, nauseating speed that made his stomach churn. The carnage of the past faded, replaced by the polished marble halls of a regal estate in the modern Underworld.
A red-haired girl stood proudly in the center of the vision, older than the child he remembered seeing when he watched the original anime, regal, her Power of Destruction radiating like a miniature crimson sun. Beside her stood a brown-haired boy wearing a bulky red gauntlet that hummed with the steady, heart-like pulse.
Lucian knew them instantly. Rias Gremory and Issei Hyoudou.
But that was impossible. Back in the Underworld, Rias was currently three years younger than him. She was still a child at the moment, and he was sure the anime never showed her all grown up.
Just what was he seeing.
Was it possible, was it really possible that what he was seeing was the future.
The pressure skyrocketed. His head felt like it was physically tearing apart at the sutures, his mind splintering as past, present, and future overlapped in a violent, kaleidoscopic storm.
Lucian severed the Haki connection instantly.
The world snapped back into place with a sickening lurch. He dropped face-first onto the soft cloud, gasping for air, his vision spinning in nauseating circles. His body refused to respond, his limbs twitching with the aftershocks of the mental strain. Cold sweat soaked through his clothes, and a thin trail of blood leaked from his nose, staining the white cloud-matter beneath him.
"…What the hell… was that…?" he panted, his voice a broken rasp.
His thoughts raced despite the agonizing throb behind his eyes. That wasn't Observation Haki. He knew the limits of haki, or at least what was shown in one piece, and while it could sense intent, hell even read minds for some and, in rare masters, glimpse a few seconds into the immediate future, he didn't think it could show what it showed to him like this.
By satan's left nut, it had shown him the ancient, bloody roots of his world and the future.
That wasn't Haki. No, it wasnt. it had to be something else, it had to be....
Lucian froze, his breath hitching as a cold realization dawned on him. Bloodline.
The devils of the Underworld were created by Lucifer, yes, but Lucifer didn't create them like this, each devil was a descendant of the original seventy-two demons created by Lucifer and Lilith. Every House carried a trait from their progenitors. And his house was House Raum.
The Great Earl Raum. The demon of the Ars Goetia, who was said to possess absolute knowledge of the past, present, and future. In the old texts, it was claimed there was nothing in the three folds of time that his sight could not perceive. He was the thief of secrets, the one who stole time itself.
Those of his bloodline inherited fragments of that "Sight," though it had diluted over generations. His mother could see a single day into the past, a talent she used to find lost items or catch lying servants. His uncle, the current head of House Raum, was rumored to see a week into the future, a gift that kept their House politically relevant.
Lucian swallowed hard, the metallic taste of blood in his mouth. What he had just seen went far beyond a day or a week. He had glimpsed the dawn of the Three Factions and the future rise of the Sekiryuutei.
It shouldn't be possible for him to have been able to do that. First off, he didn't have his clan trait, it was just another one of the things life had not given him that made it a simpler choice for his mother to abandon him, secondly he didn't think anyone, save for the original Raum that could do what he just did.
He shook his head. He didn't know what happened, but it had to be the trait, so did that mean gaining haki helped unlock the power? He grit his teeth for a moment as he thought about the possibility of what could have been had he had the power before. Then he shook his head again.
That was the past, and the choices both his parents and clan had made, things could have gone differently, but they didn't. That was all that mattered. Right now, he just needed to learn how to use and control this power.
He forced himself upright, his muscles trembling as if he'd just fought a war. He took slow, measured breaths, steadying his racing heart. Regardless of his issues with his family, the betrayal, the abandonment, the way they threw him away like a defective tool, their blood still flowed through his veins. That blood was a resource. It had given him a nice power, and he was damn sure going to use it to his advantage.
He focused again, carefully this time, trying to coax that specific "Sight" back.
Nothing.
The power was silent. He kept trying, straining his mind and magic until his eyes ached and stars danced in his vision. Still nothing.
Minutes passed into an hour. The stars above Skypiea shifted their positions. Finally, Lucian exhaled a heavy, defeated sigh and fell onto his back, staring up at the endless, glittering canopy.
"…Guess not today." But he wasnt going to give up.
His body ached with a deep, bone-weary fatigue. His mind felt bruised, as if it had been scrubbed with sandpaper. The "Sight" seemed to take a lot out of him, it was an awesome power to have, but the cost was a mental strain that could easily turn his brain to mush if he was not careful. He needed rest for now. He would try again another time, for now, rest. And then, finally, meet the Straw Hats.
Night had fully fallen over the ruins of Shandora by the time he was all rested up.
Massive bonfires burned bright against the dark sky. They cast long, flickering orange shadows over the golden ruins as Skypieans and Shandians danced together.
The air smelled of roasted Sky-sea King meat, sweet tropical fruits, and the sharp tang of local ale. Music filled the air, the frantic beat of Shandian drums clashing beautifully with the melodic flutes of the sky people.
The Straw Hats were right at the center of the party, as they always were. Luffy was already three plates deep into a mountain of meat, and Chopper was spinning in circles with some Shandian children.
"Hey, mind passing the drink?" a voice called out to Usopp from his left, sounding remarkably casual amidst the roar of the party.
"Sure, here!" Usopp replied cheerfully, caught up in the rhythm of the night. He grabbed a large, overflowing wooden cup and handed it over without looking, his eyes fixed on a beautiful Shandian woman dancing nearby.
Then he paused. He blinked. Something felt... off. The voice didn't sound like anyone from the crew or the islanders he'd met so far. He slowly turned his head, his goggles reflecting the firelight.
Sitting right beside him on a fallen golden pillar was a teenager.
The boy was eating like a man who had been wandering a desert for forty years. He was tearing into a massive slab of Sky-Sea King meat with a ferocity that rivaled Luffy's. Grease dripped down his chin and stained his hands, but he didn't seem to care. He downed the drink Usopp gave him in three massive, throat-burning gulps.
"Oh god," the kid muttered between bites, his mismatched eyes, one silver, one crimson, actually watering with emotion. "This is sooo good. Real food. Actual food."
He took another savage bite, a look of pure, unadulterated bliss on his face that bordered on the religious.
"Satan damn it, I can't even remember the last time I ate something this good.."
Lucian nearly broke down crying right there. Between the betrayal in the Underworld, the jump to the Nasuverse, the deal for the Gate of Babylon, and the jump to One Piece, he hadn't eaten anything, and even before everything, he hadnt had a proper, sit-down meal in what felt like a lifetime. As someone who had to literally risk his life for every meal he ate, and even then only getting shitty food, this was paradise.
It was a while before he noticed the silence around him. The music was still playing in the distance, but the immediate circle around the Straw Hat's campfire had gone quiet. One by one, the crew stopped eating and drinking to look at the uninvited guest.
He looked up, a piece of meat still hanging from his mouth.
Everyone was staring. Luffy had a bone in his hand, tilted to the side. Zoro's hand was resting casually but firmly on the hilt of Sandai kitetsu. Sanji had a cigarette halfway to his lips, his eyes narrowed at the "brat" stealing their food. Nami and Usopp were already leaning back.
Lucian took one last, massive bite, chewed slowly while maintaining eye contact with Luffy, and swallowed with a heavy, deliberate gulp. He drained the last drop of the ale, let out a small, satisfied burp, and stood up. He brushed the crumbs and grease off his clothes with an air of practiced dignity, though the effect was slightly ruined by the smear of BBQ sauce on his cheek.
Straightening his posture, he flashed them a wide, confident, and quintessentially "Merchant" grin.
"Lucian Lux Raum," he said, placing a hand over his heart in a formal bow. "Devil, Merchant, and a humble traveler of the endless seas."
He paused for dramatic effect, then raised a hand and pointed a finger directly at Luffy.
"And I've travelled a very long way because I'm here to help you."
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