One Piece: Madness of Regret

I am getting up a lot lot like this. 

I mean, I don't mind the view I woke up to. The stars in the sky, scattered like fragments of a shattered diamond, their light gentle yet eternal. God, I would hike a whole day, scale the steepest cliffs, and tread the loneliest paths just to stand beneath this celestial wonder for a single night. The stillness of the world, the hush of the wind whispering through the trees, the cool air kissing my skin—it all felt like the universe itself had stilled, waiting, watching.

I could feel the writer in me stir, restless and yearning, aching to turn this moment into words. As if ink and parchment could ever capture the vastness of the heavens, the quiet hum of the cosmos above. But oh, how I longed to try—to weave poetry from the stars, to carve beauty from the silence, to take this fleeting wonder and make it last forever in ink and memory.

So I did. I let the words flow as naturally as the river below, as effortlessly as the stars wove their constellations above.

Oh, how gladly would I wander 'neath the vast and boundless heavens, treading the earth's rugged breast through the long and lonesome night, if only to bask in the celestial splendor above! The bitter breath of winter's chill might gnaw at my flesh, yet would I endure it still, for naught but the sight of those silver flames cascading their radiance upon me. Each star, a gleaming ember of eternity's fire, did cast its light upon my weary form, so near they seemed, so delicate in their trembling glow, as though my very fingers might pluck them from their lofty perch and cradle them as one doth a lover's cherished gift.

And lo, in that fleeting moment of folly, I reached, my hand trembling with the sweet madness of desire. I grasped—but the stars, in their distant glory, eluded me still. They are too far, too grand, too ethereal for mortal hands to claim. Yet, was it not I who vowed to her, in the ardor of my heart, that I should bring the stars and the moon to their very knees? That I should lay their majesty at her feet, as proof of love unbounded? A token of devotion, a vision of the sublime, a whisper of awe?

O cruel jest of fate! To stand beneath heaven's jeweled dome, to feel the weight of infinity pressing upon my soul, and yet to know it shall never be mine to hold! For love itself is as the stars—distant, untouchable, a thing of wonder yet ever beyond reach. And yet, if love be thus, if love be the yearning for that which can never be possessed, then let me love as the night sky loves the earth—silent, eternal, casting its light though it may never be embraced.

For though I may never seize the heavens, though the stars may laugh at my folly and the moon turn away in silent mockery, still shall I stand beneath their celestial gaze and whisper her name unto the night. And if the heavens will not bow, then let them bear witness to a love that dares to reach, though it may never grasp; that burns, though it may never be answered; that shines, though it may never be seen.

Ah, but was I not born in the wrong age? Too late to chart the unbroken wilds, to carve my path through untamed lands where no footsteps have yet fallen. The world has been measured, mapped, claimed—its mysteries laid bare beneath the unrelenting gaze of progress. Gone are the days when men could disappear into the unknown, when legends were written in the margins of uncharted maps. No longer do sailors set forth upon restless seas, guided only by the stars and a whisper of destiny. No longer do explorers vanish into the heart of darkened continents, chasing the ghosts of wonders unseen. I have come too late to call the earth a frontier. An explorer paradise.

And yet, I am born too soon to slip the bonds of this world, too soon to cast my gaze upon new horizons beyond the sky. The heavens call to me, their silent song woven into my very soul, and yet I can do naught but gaze upward, yearning, reaching—always reaching. To be among the first to set foot upon distant planets, to walk upon the dust of forgotten moons, to witness the birth of a star and touch the very edge of eternity—such wonders lie beyond my grasp, a dream for some future soul. And so, I remain suspended between the past and the future, a wanderer with no true path to follow, a seeker with no untouched realm to claim.

Would that I had lived in an age where wonder was still within grasp, where the unknown still stretched vast before us, daring the bold to chase it. But here I stand, a dreamer forever earthbound. The stars, distant and cold, shimmer with unspoken promises I cannot yet claim. And so I do the only thing left to me—I etch their beauty in words, whispering their light onto the page, in the futile hope that ink may hold what my hands never can.

For though I am a traveler with no new lands to discover, an explorer with no uncharted realms to tread, still shall I wander beneath this boundless sky. Still shall I dream. And if my feet may never leave this earth, then let my soul take flight among the stars.

God, I am hopeless. A traveler at heart, a risk-seeker deep inside, yet tamed, chained by the world built by those who came before me. Civilization, they call it. A construct of order, of safety, built upon the blood and sweat of men who once roamed freely. They forged roads where there were none, raised cities from the dust, turned wilderness into kingdoms—yet in doing so, they carved away the wildness of the soul, turning something feral into something docile.

And now, here I stand, bound by rules I never made, expectations I never agreed to, staring at the open sky, knowing I shall never truly touch it. They tell me that this is the way of things, that this is progress. That the world is better for its laws and its boundaries, that the endless march of time has tamed the chaos of the past and given us something greater in return—stability, certainty, purpose.

But I do not want stability. I do not crave certainty. I crave the unknown. I crave the untamed lands that once stretched vast and unclaimed, where a man's only law was the rhythm of his own heart and the whisper of the wind in his ears. I long for the days when adventure was not something written about in books but something waiting just beyond the next hill, over the next crest of the sea. But the earth has been conquered, every path paved, every wilderness marked and tamed. There is no great unknown left to run toward, no true frontier left to seek.

How many times have I dreamed of casting it all aside? Of walking away, vanishing into the unknown, chasing nothing but the whisper of the wind and the pull of my own restless heart? Caution, they say. Think of your future, they warn. Be sensible. But what is a life lived in chains, if not a slow death? I am domesticated, aren't I? Made to obey, to conform, to quell the fire that rages in my soul.

I wonder if the men who built this world felt the same when they saw what they had done. Did they, too, feel the wildness slipping from their veins as they raised their cities, as they carved their borders, as they watched the wilderness shrink beneath their hands? Did they ever regret trading the unknown for the comfort of the familiar?

Oh, how I wish to be like the stars—something free, something untouchable, something that no law nor hand may ever truly claim. The stars know no master, no ruler, no limit. They burn not because they are told to, not because it is expected of them, but because it is simply what they are—beacons of untamed fire, drifting through an endless, boundless void.

Civilization, for all its triumphs, will never reach them, not truly. Society builds, expands, conquers—but it will never own the heavens. Kingdoms may rise and fall, empires may stretch their borders beyond sight, but none shall ever stake their claim upon the stars. They are beyond control, beyond the grasp of laws and governments. No decree can order them to shine. No king, no ruler, no god of men can command them to burn more brightly or demand that they dim their glow. They remain, untouched, indifferent to the struggles of the world below.

Perhaps that is why I envy them so. Everything around me has been shaped, molded, restrained—crafted to fit within the delicate lattice of civilization. Even the wilderness, once wild and untamed, is now sectioned into parks and reserves, parceled and controlled, its freedom an illusion granted only in measure. But the stars? They remain untamed. No road reaches them, no hand has touched them, no city has tamed their fire. They are the last great frontier, the final realm that remains wild—not just in distance, but in spirit.

And oh, how the world has tried. The greatest minds, the brightest thinkers, all reaching, all dreaming, all trying to pull the stars from their perches and place them within the grasp of mankind. But they remain as they always have—unreachable. We send metal and fire into the void, launching ourselves toward them in defiance of gravity itself, yet we are still but children grasping at embers, hoping to steal fire from the gods.

Perhaps that is the one battle civilization will never win. It has conquered the land, the seas, even the skies—but it will never tame the stars. It will never make them its own.

And I—I am here, yearning, aching, knowing I am but a prisoner of my own time, my own world. A creature meant for something greater, something boundless, yet shackled by the weight of civilization's expectations.

But if I cannot be the stars, then let me at least dream like them—wild, untamed, defiant in the face of a sky that will never be mine.

I wake beneath the open sky, the stars scattered like shards of a shattered diamond, their cold fire whispering of worlds beyond reach. I would cross oceans, climb the highest peaks, and walk the loneliest paths just to stand beneath their silent majesty. And yet, I am bound—not by chains of iron, but by a world that no longer holds the unknown nor the excitement of finding one.

The wild has been tamed, the maps have been drawn, and the earth, once an explorer's paradise, is now a conquered land. No longer do men vanish into legend, guided by nothing but the pull of adventure. The last great frontiers lie not in the distance, but above, in the vast infinity of the cosmos. Yet even those remain out of reach, belonging to some future age that I will never see.

I am too late to discover, too soon to escape. The roads before me have all been walked, the stories all written, the stars still untouched. I was born with a heart meant to wander, yet there is nowhere left to go. And so, I do the only thing I can—I dream. I dream as the stars burn, untamed and free.

For if I cannot chase the unknown, then let me at least yearn for it. If I cannot touch the stars, then let me forever reach toward them.

No wonder the ocean depths trickled my fancy.