The first thing Ronald felt was the smell of salt.
Not the kind you put on food. The heavy, wet kind that sticks to your skin and clothes. The kind that tells you the ocean is close.
He opened his eyes slowly.
Above him was a wooden ceiling. Old, a little cracked, with thin lines of morning light pushing through the gaps. He could hear birds outside. Waves too, somewhere not too far.
He sat up.
Small hands. Small arms. He looked down at himself and let out a slow breath through his nose.
"So it actually happened," he said quietly.
His voice came out young. Higher than he was used to. The body of a child — maybe seven years old, give or take. But the mind behind those eyes was something else entirely.
He remembered everything. His old life, his old world, his old face. All of it sitting clear in his head like a book he'd read a hundred times.
He looked around the room. It was small. A bed, a wooden chair, a window with no glass — just open to the outside air. Through it he could see green hills, a dirt road, and the edge of a coastline stretching out in the distance.
He already knew where he was before he even saw it.
*Foosha Village.*
He got up, walked to the window, and rested his arms on the ledge. The village was quiet in the early morning. A few houses. A small dock with fishing boats. The sea glittering under a pale sun.
He stood there for a moment just taking it in.
"Alright," he muttered. "One Piece world. Got it."
He said it the same way someone would say *"it's raining today."* Simple. Calm. Like it was just information he was filing away.
---
He found out quickly that he lived with an old woman named Greta. She wasn't related to him — she'd taken him in as an infant after he'd been found near the shore with no parents around. She never asked too many questions about where he came from. He appreciated that about her.
She was already in the small kitchen when he came downstairs, stirring something in a pot that smelled like fish and vegetables.
"You're up early," she said without turning around.
"Couldn't sleep much," Ronald said, pulling out a chair and sitting down at the table.
"Hungry?"
"Yeah."
She set a bowl in front of him a few minutes later. He ate without complaint. Outside the window, the village was starting to wake up. He could hear footsteps on the dirt road, a few distant voices, someone laughing somewhere down the street.
"Greta," he said between spoonfuls.
"Mm?"
"How long have I lived here?"
She turned and looked at him with a slightly puzzled expression. "Since you were a baby. Why?"
"Just making sure," he said.
She stared at him for a second, then shook her head and went back to the pot. "Strange child," she muttered, but not unkindly.
Ronald almost smiled.
---
After breakfast he went outside.
The village in the morning was peaceful. A few fishermen were already heading toward the dock. An old man sat outside a shop, smoking a pipe and watching the road like it owed him something. A dog was sleeping in the middle of a path, completely unbothered by anything around it.
Ronald walked with no particular destination in mind. He was still getting used to the body. The legs were short, the steps small. It was a little annoying but nothing he couldn't get used to.
He stopped near the edge of the dock and looked out at the water.
*This is the East Blue,* he thought. *The weakest sea in the world. Which means right now, almost everything out there is still manageable.*
He crouched down and picked up a small flat stone from the ground. He skipped it across the water. It bounced four times before sinking.
"Not bad."
He turned around at the voice.
A kid about his age was standing a few feet away, watching him with wide, curious eyes. Dark messy hair, a straw hat hanging around his neck by a string, and a grin that looked like it was the default setting on his face.
Ronald looked at him.
"You talking to me?" he asked.
"Yeah! That was four skips. I can only do two," the kid said, walking closer without any hesitation whatsoever. "I'm Luffy. What's your name?"
"Ronald."
Luffy tilted his head slightly. "You're not from around here are you? I never saw you before."
"I live here," Ronald said. "Just don't go outside much."
"Oh." Luffy seemed to accept that without any further questions. He picked up a stone of his own and threw it at the water. It went straight down immediately. He didn't look embarrassed at all.
"See? Two was actually a lie," Luffy said cheerfully. "I can't do it at all."
Ronald looked at the spot where the stone had sunk. "Yeah I noticed."
Luffy laughed at that — a loud, open laugh like it was the funniest thing he'd heard all week.
Ronald wasn't sure what to make of this kid yet. But he wasn't annoying, at least. That counted for something.
---
They ended up sitting on the dock with their feet hanging over the edge. Luffy talked a lot. Ronald listened mostly. He'd learned early in his old life that listening was more useful than talking most of the time.
"Do you want to be a pirate?" Luffy asked at some point, swinging his legs over the water.
"Don't know yet," Ronald said honestly.
Luffy looked at him like that was a strange answer. "Really? I want to be the Pirate King."
"I know," Ronald said without thinking.
Luffy blinked. "You know?"
Ronald caught himself. "I mean — I figured. You've got that kind of face."
"What kind of face?"
"The kind that wants big things."
Luffy stared at him for a second, then grinned again. "Yeah! Exactly!" He pointed finger guns at Ronald like he'd just been perfectly understood for the first time in his life.
Ronald looked back at the water.
*Pirate King,* he thought. *Yeah. That's going to be a whole thing.*
But that wasn't his concern right now. Right now he was seven years old in a small village at the edge of the East Blue. He had no power, no system — nothing yet. Just a body, a clear head, and the knowledge of exactly what kind of world he'd landed in.
He'd work with that for now.
"Hey Ronald," Luffy said.
"What."
"You want to come with me later? Makino at the bar makes really good food and she doesn't charge kids."
Ronald thought about it for half a second.
"Sure."
---
*End of Chapter 1*
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