'Selene was alive.'
Even after Makino finished explaining everything, those words kept returning to Ling. Somehow, his sister had survived the wave, been found by the Red Hair Pirates, and eventually continued toward Loguetown.
He still didn't know what had happened after their barrels separated, how Shanks had found her, or why she had ended up traveling with his crew.
For now, none of that mattered.
"Thank goodness..."
Ling lowered his head as tears gathered at the corners of his eyes.
"Thank goodness."
Makino stepped closer and gently pulled him into her arms, resting one hand against the back of his head.
"Good for you, Ling."
She slowly rubbed his back while Ling remained quiet. When she eventually released him, he wiped beneath his eyes with the back of one hand.
Woop Slap watched from nearby.
"I'm glad."
Ling looked toward him and managed a faint smile.
---
A little while later, Ling returned to his room.
Makino had gone back to Party's Bar while Woop Slap left to handle his usual responsibilities around the village, leaving the house quiet again. It was still relatively early, but with bandages covering most of his body and his injured leg barely capable of carrying him from one room to another, exploring Foosha Village would have to wait.
Ling settled against the bed with a pillow behind his back.
Since waking up, he had barely been given time to think. First came Makino and Woop Slap, then the memories of Cozia, the missing year, his Devil Fruit, and finally the news about Selene.
Now he knew where he was and what had happened to that missing year. More importantly, he knew his sister was alive.
With those questions finally answered, Ling could think about what came next.
He turned toward the nearby window.
Living as a completely ordinary person probably wasn't going to be enough.
Even the East Blue, generally considered the weakest and most peaceful of the four seas, wasn't truly safe. Pirates attacked towns and ships, dangerous creatures filled the seas and wilderness, and countless places existed that the original story had never shown him.
The wave that separated his family was proof enough of that.
Beyond the East Blue waited the Grand Line, where the dangers only became worse. Ling remembered powerful pirates controlling entire territories, Marines capable of wiping out crews on their own, and people strong enough to decide the fate of entire nations.
Many of those events were still years away.
That gave him something almost nobody else possessed: knowledge of people who had yet to become famous, conflicts that hadn't begun, places he had never visited, and events that would eventually change the world.
But knowing what originally happened wasn't the same as controlling what would happen now.
The moment Ling began interacting with this world, things could change. One different decision could lead to another until events no longer unfolded exactly as he remembered.
His memories weren't wrong.
The future simply wasn't guaranteed to remain the same.
Ling lowered his gaze toward his bandaged hands and slowly opened and closed his fingers.
Right now, he was weak.
If danger found him again, he didn't want his only option to be waiting for someone else to save him. He had already spent ten years unable to act, and the wave had shown him how little knowledge mattered when he lacked the strength to do anything with it.
Ling wasn't interested in becoming powerful so people would fear his name, nor did he have some grand ambition to stand above everyone else.
He wanted to survive.
He wanted to find Selene.
And when the people important to him were in danger, he wanted to be able to do more than watch.
Becoming stronger wouldn't give him control over everything or make the world safe, but remaining weak guaranteed nothing would change.
For now, he didn't need some enormous dream or complicated plan.
He needed strength.
The question was how to get it.
Fortunately, Ling wasn't starting from nothing.
His greatest advantage was the Toki Toki no Mi.
Even from what little he currently understood, an ability capable of sending people and objects forward through time obviously held enormous potential. The problem was that possessing an incredible Devil Fruit didn't automatically make someone strong.
Ling remembered plenty of people with absurd abilities who still lost because they were inexperienced, careless, physically weak, or simply faced someone stronger.
The Toki Toki no Mi gave him an advantage, but it wasn't going to carry him through everything.
That brought his thoughts to another power he would eventually need.
'Haki.'
Silvers Rayleigh immediately came to mind.
Ling remembered the lessons Rayleigh would one day give Luffy on Rusukaina. Observation Haki, Armament Haki, and Conqueror's Haki were all familiar to him, along with many of the things powerful fighters would eventually accomplish with them.
Unfortunately, remembering what Haki could do wasn't the same as knowing how to use it.
He couldn't close his eyes, recall Rayleigh's explanation, and expect Observation Haki to suddenly appear. Staring intensely at his fist probably wasn't going to produce Armament either.
'Would've been convenient.'
Conqueror's Haki was even less useful to worry about. Either he possessed the potential for it or he didn't, and there wasn't exactly a convenient test he could perform while sitting injured in bed.
For now, Haki could wait.
Before any of that became a serious priority, Ling needed something much more basic.
A stronger body.
Monkey D. Garp immediately came to mind.
Ling's expression became slightly strange.
'That old man's training was insane.'
Garp had reached the highest levels of the world without relying on a Devil Fruit, using his body and Haki to stand against some of the strongest pirates alive.
One example stood out immediately.
Battleship Bags.
Ling obviously wasn't going to copy the extreme parts literally. He was ten years old, still covered in bandages, and if he walked up to a battleship tomorrow and started punching its hull, his hands would probably lose that argument long before the ship noticed.
What mattered was the principle behind it.
Build the body first.
Ling could work on his strength, stamina, speed, balance, and coordination, gradually increasing what his body was capable of as he grew. If he eventually learned Haki, it would be better to have a strong foundation beneath it than expect it to compensate for everything else.
Between Garp's approach to physical training, what he remembered about Haki, and the Toki Toki no Mi, Ling already had the beginnings of a path.
He didn't need some miraculous method that would turn him into a monster within a few months. Most of the events that would eventually shake the world were still years away.
He had time.
Ling glanced down at the bandages still wrapped around his body.
Of course, he was sitting in bed thinking about future battles when walking across Woop Slap's house still made his leg hurt.
Perhaps fighting for his life could stay off the schedule for a while.
'One thing at a time.'
First, he needed to recover. After that, he could begin strengthening his body and learning how to properly control the Toki Toki no Mi.
Haki could come later.
Even then, Ling would probably need someone who genuinely understood it to guide him. His memories gave him the explanations and demonstrations he had seen throughout the story, but they couldn't tell him what using Haki actually felt like or point out mistakes he didn't realize he was making.
Ling looked down at his small, bandaged hands.
'Yeah... I've got a long way to go.'
Fortunately, none of the monsters he remembered were waiting outside Woop Slap's house for him.
For now, his priorities were much simpler: recover, strengthen his body, and learn how to control the Toki Toki no Mi.
Ling slowly closed his hands into fists.
'Looks like training is going to be part of my life from now on.'