"WAAW!! WAAW!! WAAW!!"
The sound of a crying baby dragged Ling out of the endless darkness.
His awareness returned slowly. At first, there was only noise, followed by light and a blurry mixture of shapes and colors. Ling tried to focus on whatever was in front of him, but his eyes refused to cooperate.
He instinctively tried to speak.
"WAAW!"
Another infant cry rang in his ears.
Ling went still.
'Wait.'
The crying stopped for a moment.
He tried again.
"WAAW!"
'That's... me?'
Any remaining drowsiness vanished.
Only a short while ago—or at least what felt like a short while ago—Ling had been drifting through endless darkness without sight, sound, or even a body he could properly feel. Now he could see again, hear again, and feel warmth against his skin.
Ling tried to raise his arm.
Nothing happened.
He concentrated harder and tried turning his head, then moving one of his legs. Still nothing. No matter what he did, the body refused to respond.
A moment later, one tiny arm moved on its own.
Ling hadn't done anything.
'What?'
He tried again, focusing on everything he could think of. His arms, legs, head, even a single finger refused to move when he wanted them to.
At first, Ling assumed it was simply because he was a newborn. Babies could barely control their bodies to begin with, so perhaps he only needed time.
As the days passed, that explanation stopped making sense.
Ling could see through the child's eyes and hear through his ears, but that was the extent of his influence. Whenever the baby was carried somewhere, Ling went with him. Whenever his eyes closed, Ling could no longer see, and whenever the child turned away from something, Ling couldn't simply turn back for another look.
Everything he experienced came through the child, yet none of the child's movements belonged to him.
'So I'm not controlling this body...'
For now, all Ling could do was watch.
Time was strange too.
Days passed almost without notice, followed by weeks and eventually months. Whenever something caught Ling's attention, the moment remained clear, but most ordinary stretches between those moments seemed to rush past before boredom had any chance to settle in.
One of the first things he learned was that the child's name was also Ling.
---
His mother was named Tessa, though Ling never truly had the chance to know her.
His earliest memories of the woman were little more than warmth, a weak voice, and blurry glimpses of an exhausted face looking down at the newborn in her arms.
"Ling..."
Her voice had been faint.
Not long afterward, Tessa died from complications following childbirth.
One person remained beside him more often than anyone else after that: a man who seemed to speak less with every passing day.
That man was Rufus, Ling's father.
Rufus stayed for a while. Then one day, he carried the baby somewhere unfamiliar and handed him to another man before leaving.
Years later, after hearing the story repeated within the family, Ling understood what had happened. Tessa's death had devastated Rufus, and unable to remain and raise his son, he had entrusted Ling to his closest friend, Alfred, before disappearing from his life.
---
Alfred was a baker who lived with his wife, Susi, and their five-year-old daughter, Selene, in the Cozia Kingdom of the East Blue.
Their family owned a small pastry shop specializing in coconut products: coconut pies, coconut bread, cocodonuts, and enough other variations that Ling would eventually stop bothering to keep track of them all.
Of course, he knew none of that in the beginning.
To the newborn Ling, Alfred was simply the large man who often picked him up after work with flour still clinging to his clothes. Susi was the woman who fed him, cleaned him, and stayed awake beside him whenever he became sick.
Selene was different.
She seemed determined to become his older sister whether anyone asked her to or not. She constantly appeared within his limited field of vision, sometimes making ridiculous faces and other times talking to the baby as though he understood every word she said. Whenever Alfred and Susi were busy, Selene would often sit nearby and keep her little brother company.
As the months passed, Ling began paying more attention to all three of them. Alfred and Susi treated the child no differently from their own daughter, while Selene never seemed to think of him as anything other than her little brother.
Ling couldn't speak to them, move toward them, or even decide when the child looked in their direction.
But he could listen.
Their voices gradually became familiar.
---
When the child turned one, Ling began paying more attention to the conversations taking place around him.
One afternoon, Alfred and Susi sat nearby with a newspaper spread across the table.
"The scholars really tried something like that?" Susi asked.
"That's what the paper says."
Alfred tapped one section.
"They were apparently researching something dangerous enough to threaten the whole world."
Ling immediately recognized the event.
'Ohara...'
The scholars had already been destroyed, and the World Government's version of what happened was now spreading throughout the seas.
'Propaganda.'
Ling couldn't blame Alfred or Susi for believing it. They were ordinary civilians living in the East Blue, and newspapers were one of the few ways they could learn about events happening on the other side of the world.
Besides, even if Ling suddenly gained control of the body and could speak normally, what was he supposed to tell them?
That their one-year-old son somehow knew the World Government was lying?
That sounded like a good way to create an entirely different problem.
Months later, another newspaper arrived carrying news about Shiki. The Golden Lion had become the first person to escape from Impel Down.
Several weeks after that, rumors began spreading about a growing revolutionary movement.
One evening, Alfred lowered the cards in his hand while playing with Susi.
"You don't think that Shiki fellow has something to do with it?"
Susi frowned.
"He escaped prison, and then this new group suddenly appears..."
Ling would have shaken his head if the body belonged to him.
'Not even close.'
Still, without knowing what Ling knew, connecting the two wasn't completely ridiculous.
His attention drifted toward the cards in Alfred's hand. One of them carried the symbol of a spade.
'Speaking of spades... this is the year Ace and Sabo are born.'
Somewhere else in the East Blue, two boys who would one day become incredibly important to Luffy had entered the world.
Meanwhile, Ling was stuck behind the eyes of a one-year-old.
The contrast was almost funny.
---
By the age of two, the younger Ling had finally begun walking.
Tiny legs pushed against the floor as the boy took one uncertain step, then another. His body wobbled dangerously on the third before his balance gave out and his view suddenly dropped toward the floor.
Alfred immediately burst out laughing.
"He did it!"
"He walked three steps," Susi replied, though she sounded just as happy.
"That's walking."
Selene quickly crouched in front of her little brother and stretched out both hands.
"Again! Come on, Ling!"
The child tried again.
Each attempt lasted a little longer than the last until he could eventually cross part of the room before his legs gave out beneath him.
Watching the body learn to move was frustrating. The child could walk now, yet whenever Ling tried to influence even a single finger, nothing happened.
Then came the first words.
"Dada."
Alfred froze before an enormous grin spread across his face.
"Did you hear that?"
Susi laughed.
"I heard."
Later came another.
"Omma."
Susi's expression immediately softened.
Then one afternoon, Selene leaned close to her little brother and repeatedly pointed at herself.
"Se-le-ne."
The child stared at her.
"Se-le-ne."
"Ter."
Selene stopped.
"Ter?"
The little boy reached toward her.
Selene's eyes widened.
"Sister?"
"Ter."
That was apparently close enough.
Selene immediately pulled him into a hug.
"He called me sister!"
Alfred burst out laughing nearby while Susi tried unsuccessfully to calm her down.
Ling hadn't spoken the word himself or reached toward Selene, but watching her celebrate still made him happy.
---
By three, the world had become considerably clearer.
The child's eyesight was normal now, his movements had grown steadier, and his speech improved almost every day.
Selene took considerable pride in teaching him. She would sit beside her little brother with simple books spread across the table, tapping individual words with one finger as she guided him through them.
"This says bread."
"Bread."
"And this?"
The child's eyes followed her finger.
"Coconut."
Selene smiled brightly.
"Good!"
She repeated words as many times as necessary and celebrated almost every correct answer as though her little brother had accomplished something incredible. Eventually, individual words became sentences, and sentences became simple books meant for children his age.
Alfred and Susi could hardly believe how quickly he was learning.
Selene, naturally, took all the credit.
"I taught him."
Alfred laughed.
"Of course you did."
Far beyond Cozia, events continued unfolding that Ling remembered from One Piece. Somewhere in Wano, Kozuki Oden died, and several of his retainers were sent twenty years into the future.
Nobody around Ling knew anything about it.
People in Cozia continued working, eating, arguing, shopping, and living their ordinary lives while history changed somewhere across the sea.
Ling could only watch both happen.
---
At four years old, the child finally got his first proper look at the city beyond the immediate surroundings of their home.
Selene held his hand as they walked through the streets. Until then, Ling's view of Cozia had mostly been limited to windows, doorways, and whatever places Alfred or Susi happened to carry the child during his earliest years.
The city was larger than he'd expected.
Merchants called out from roadside stalls while residents moved between closely packed buildings. Carts rattled along the streets, and the smell of cooked food mixed with the sweetness drifting from bakeries and pastry shops.
What Ling noticed most were the palm trees. They stood everywhere, their tall trunks rising beside roads and between buildings while broad leaves stretched overhead.
As he learned more about Cozia, he discovered how important the trees were to the kingdom. They provided food, material for roofing and rope, and even parts used in rural homes.
It also explained Alfred's seemingly endless collection of coconut recipes.
Behind the city, an enormous mountain range dominated the horizon, its peaks visible from almost anywhere. The kingdom's castle stood in front of the mountains, overlooking the city below.
One afternoon, Selene and her little brother sat beneath the palm tree growing in front of their home, each holding a small serving of coconut ice cream.
As Selene happily ate beside him, Ling watched the broad leaves sway overhead.
'This is the year Luffy is born.'
Somewhere else on Dawn Island, Monkey D. Luffy had entered the world.
The child's gaze eventually wandered farther up the palm tree.
'Has this tree ever grown coconuts?'
Ling searched through several years of scattered memories but couldn't remember seeing a single one.
'Weird.'
His attention soon moved elsewhere.
---
At five, Ling started school.
For the first time, large portions of his days were spent away from Alfred and Susi, though Selene still walked with him whenever she could.
It wasn't long before a few older children decided that bothering her little brother sounded entertaining.
One boy had barely finished shoving him when Selene's foot sent the bully sprawling backward.
The other children immediately reconsidered joining him.
Ling would have laughed if he'd controlled the body.
Instead, he could only watch as Selene planted herself in front of her little brother with both hands on her hips.
"Don't touch him again."
They didn't.
Around that same period, Ling began noticing another child.
A little girl with light-purple hair and worn clothes occasionally appeared along the streets they used on the way home from school. Compared with most of the children in the city, everything she wore looked old and overused.
She probably came from the slums.
At first, she was simply another face among countless others.
Then Ling's bento disappeared.
The child opened his backpack one afternoon and found it empty. Nothing happened the next day, but several days later, the bento vanished again.
Eventually, the little purple-haired girl approached the partially open backpack while Ling's younger self was nearby and quietly pulled the bento free.
Ling expected the child to call out.
Instead, he hesitated before following her.
The girl hurried through several narrow streets, moving farther from the cleaner parts of the city. The buildings became more worn, cracks spread across the walls, and the roads grew increasingly uneven until she finally entered the slums.
The child followed from far enough behind that she never noticed him.
Eventually, the girl stopped beside an elderly woman and opened the stolen bento. She immediately began eating, taking several quick bites before slowing down.
Then she pushed part of the food toward the old woman beside her.
Ling's irritation disappeared.
After remaining hidden for several moments, the child quietly turned around and left without confronting her.
After that day, whenever they passed through that particular street, his backpack would occasionally be left slightly open. It didn't happen every day, but every now and then, the bento inside disappeared.
Eventually, the girl seemed to realize what was happening.
The next time she approached the bag, her hand stopped before reaching inside. Ling caught the guilt on her face as she slowly pulled it back and walked away.
That was the last time they ever saw her.
---
At six, helping at the family shop had become part of everyday life.
Alfred's small bakery had grown considerably over the years. It no longer sold only pastries. Several tables had been added along with drinks, gradually turning the place into something halfway between a bakery and a bar.
Customers came and went throughout the day. Some stopped only long enough to buy bread or pies, while others remained for hours, drinking and talking as the smell of freshly baked coconut pastries filled the shop.
The younger Ling carried plates, wiped tables, and helped wherever Alfred allowed him.
The work was ordinary and often repetitive, but Ling had come to like those ordinary days.
There was one customer he remembered more clearly than most.
A pink-haired young woman.
Every time she entered the shop, she asked almost the exact same question.
"How many coconut pies do you have?"
Alfred would tell her.
Then she bought all of them.
The first time it happened, Ling assumed she simply liked coconut pie. By the fifth, he had started wondering how anyone could possibly eat that much.
Still, she eventually became a familiar face. Whenever she stepped through the door, Alfred already seemed to know which shelf was about to become empty.
---
When Ling turned seven, another newspaper caught his attention.
"The Reverie is coming up soon."
Alfred spoke casually over dinner, causing Susi to look toward him.
"Already? Has it really been four years?"
Ling's attention sharpened.
Every four years, rulers from World Government-affiliated nations gathered at Mary Geoise to discuss matters affecting the world.
Alfred and Susi talked about which kingdoms might attend, but Ling's thoughts briefly turned toward Fish-Man Island and Queen Otohime.
He remembered how her struggle would end.
About a month later, another article caught his attention.
Flevance was facing the beginning of the Amber Lead Crisis.
The newspaper described a terrible illness spreading throughout the population and the fear growing among the surrounding countries.
Ling knew what it didn't.
Amber Lead poisoning wasn't contagious.
The neighboring nations would close their borders, Flevance would be isolated, and the royal family that had profited from Amber Lead for generations would abandon the country.
Ling stared at the newspaper.
'Trafalgar Law...'
Somewhere far away, a boy's life was beginning to fall apart.
A moment later, the child turned the page, and the article disappeared from view.
Ling couldn't do anything about that either.
---
By eight, Ling had spent nearly his entire second existence watching the years pass without being able to interfere.
One afternoon, he and Selene sat together eating pie. Selene seemed perfectly content, occasionally stealing small pieces from her little brother's plate whenever she thought he wasn't paying attention.
Ling noticed every time.
Normally, the major events happening elsewhere in the world would have caught his attention.
Not anymore.
Only two years remained until Germa 66 attacked Cozia.
Ling looked toward Selene as she casually stole another piece of pie.
He had known about Cozia's destruction for years. Back then, it had only been another future event he remembered from One Piece.
Now he knew Alfred's laugh after a long day at the bakery. He knew how Susi's voice changed whenever she became worried, and he knew Selene would happily kick someone twice her size if they bothered her little brother.
He had watched birthdays, school days, ordinary dinners, and countless afternoons pass with them.
They were his family.
Ling knew what was coming.
He focused on the child's hand and tried to move it.
Nothing happened.
Ling tried forcing the boy's mouth to open, but the younger Ling simply continued eating beside Selene.
'Move.'
Nothing.
'Just once.'
If he could reach the child even once, maybe he could warn them.
Tell Alfred.
Tell Susi.
Get them out of Cozia before Germa arrived.
Ling pushed harder, concentrating on the body with everything he had.
Nothing changed.
Then Selene suddenly looked toward her little brother.
"Hm?"
The child had stopped eating.
Ling's attention sharpened.
For one brief moment, he thought something had finally happened.
Then the boy reached toward Selene's plate and stole another piece of pie.
Selene narrowed her eyes.
"That's mine."
The child immediately pulled the pie closer.
"Hey!"
She lunged toward him, and within moments the two siblings were fighting over the stolen piece while Alfred laughed from somewhere nearby.
Ling watched Selene.
'Only two years left...'