"Alright I'm ready, Mr white. I want to start at age 10," I said with conviction. There's no use overthinking it, Oh, how I would come to regret this decision in the very near future.
"Are you sure?, *sigh* I guess I'll grant your wish." He says with a with a long dramatic sigh, "you need character development anyway right?" He adds as a tear suddenly rolls down his face.
"Huh, what do you mea—" I get cut off by a hard kick to my temple. As my vision goes blurry, the last thing I hear is the being saying, "Good luck Dan, this is your lass chance so make it count, Or I'll just throw you downstairs myself" in a tone that sent chills down my spine, then it was lights out.
—————————————————-
"Caw!Caw!Caw!"
When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was the clear, beautiful blue sky. Sigh, that bastard Mr white, couldn't he have found a less painful way to send me here?
"You awake, eggplant head? You've got some powerful luck," a deep, gruff voice said nearby. The sound startled me, and as I tried to sit up, a sharp pain shot through my body.
"Ah, fuck, why does my stomach hurt so much?" I gasped, clutching my midsection.
"Hmph. Don't bother trying to get up. Who do you think kicked you, boy?" the same voice said, directly in front of me. I leaned back against a rock and looked up to see who was talking.
"Huh?" I mumbled, looking at the figure infront of me. Sitting there was an old man with slicked-back blond hair and a thick, strange mustache that looked like handlebars.
"Y-you…" I stammer, shocked to see a character I've only seen on screens and in the pages of a book.
He starts talking, but I'm not really listening. My shock has already morphed into excitement as I think about all the amazing things I'll get to do in this new world.
I snap out of my daydream and start focusing on to what "Red-Leg" Zeff is saying.
"…the storm hit two days ago. You and me boy got thrown onto this barren rock. No fruits, no animals," he says, turning toward me.
"We can't even fish here. The waves have carved the rock so once you go down, you can't get back up. It's a mousetrap." He faces me fully now, and as I look at him, my excitement fades, turning slowly into dread as his familiar words sink in.
But what shook me to my core and made me realize how bad my situation truly was were his two perfectly working legs.
'This is the manga version of events! Where he eats his own leg!' I screamed internally.
"There's no way for us to get food. Makes you want to cry, doesn't it?" He smirks at me, I close my eyes and take a deep breath to try to calm down my racing heart.
"Yes." I answer absentmindedly, clenching my fists remembering what Mr white told me about needing "character development", fuck that bastard, I'm going to kill him the next time I see him, fuck the consequences.
"Here's your cut kid. I little grub got washed up up here with us. If we eat normally, it'll last maybe five days. But if we're smart we can stretch it a bit." I open my eyes to see him dropping a bag of the only food we have while holding a bigger bag over his shoulder filled with what I know is treasure.
"Thank you, old man," I reply. I was only 23 when I died, and since he's going to be like a father to me and teach me his ways for the next seven years, I might as well start calling him that now.
"Hmph, at least you're grateful. You keep watch here, I'll be on the other side of that rock watching for ships," he says, pointing to the far side. "Holler if you see a sail," he adds walking away.
I watch his retreating figure with a mixture of emotions, then sigh and look up at the sky. Oh man, 'I'm in for a world of pain', The sun is still high up, I have till the sun is on the horizon before zeff smashes his own leg off so I need to make a decision before then.
Now let's look at the options I have:
Option one, I follow cannon I let zeff eat his own leg and we both barely make it out alive, but that's boring And there's a chance I could get stronger if zeff had both legs.
Option two, I share my food with him so he doesn't eat his own leg and believe that Sanji must have missed a few ships during those 3 months, And believe mr white won't let me die, basically believe in plot armor that may or may not exist. And again, there's a chance I could get stronger faster if zeff had both legs to work with.
"Arrgh! Damn it!" I growl through clenched teeth, scratching my head and not wanting zeff to hear me. 'Why is this so hard from the start? No matter what I choose it's going to hurt a lot.'
I sigh as I lie back down on the hard ground, gazing up at the beautiful sky. I raise my hands in front of me, 'they're so small. It's probably going to take a while to get used to this small body.' I sigh again, for what feels like the umpteenth time. 'I'm tired and my body's sore. I'll take a quick nap before making any life or death decisions' and so I close my eyes to get some much needed rest.
-Hours later-
I blink my eyes open, I yawn stretching my now barely sore limbs. I sit up slowly, taking in the beautiful sight of the sun setting.
Eyes wide I shoot up, heart pounding, barely steady on my feet as the rush of panic hits me. but I don't have time to think about it, I'm already looking around, I grab the bag of food and start running, hoping to make it in time.
I come to a stop at the big rock that separates our two sides, I don't hesitate to throw the bag of food over before I start climbing. It takes me no more than ten seconds to reach the top. As soon as I look down at the other side, my eyes go as wide as dinner plates. Zeff is lifting a rock over his head while biting down on something. Most likely to endure the pain better.
"Wait, you senile old geezer! Don't be stupid! We can share the food!" I scream at the top of my lungs as I scramble over the rock. In my haste, I slip and start rolling down, probably picking up a few bruises from the impacts, I hardly notice, preoccupied trying to save the leg that will make me stronger.
As I'm about to come to a stop, a thought races through my mind, 'I don't know if he heard me or if he's dropped the rock yet. He might still ignore me and tear his own leg off.' Using the momentum from the roll, I grab a rock the size of my fist and fling it in his general direction hoping to stop him.
As I look up from the ground after my throw, I see Zeff kicking the rock right back at me. I stammer and quickly roll to the right as it flies past, shattering against the much larger boulder behind me.
"Who are you calling senile, you brat?" Zeff snaps. I look up to see him standing right in front of me with his arms crossed infront of his chest. "Didn't I tell you to only contact me if you see a ship?" he glares at me. I scramble to my feet, cross my arms copying his posture, and glare up at him back.
"So you really are going senile, old man," I say in a deadpan tone.
"You damn brat! Taste one of the great Red-shoes Zeff's kicks!" He lifts his foot, ready to send me flying. I quickly stammer, "But you didn't say that! You only said 'holler if you see a sail'" I try to mimic his gruff voice though I fail to since I'm still only 10. "Plus, I know that bag only has treasure." I point toward the huge bag by the cliff, and he stiffens at that, before lowering his leg.
"I saw that same cloth being filled with the treasure from our ship," I add, making up some believable bullshit. Can't be too careful, I mean, what are the chances he'd ask me how I know it only has treasure, and I'd end up stuttering out an obvious lie and he guesses I'm actually a 20-something year old man from another world, who transmigrated into Sanji the day I died? Sure, the chances are low that he'd guess that, but it's still possible.
"Why is a damn pirate being so kind as to give me all the food we have?" I ask, getting back to the point. And trying to get him to tell me what he told Sanji in cannon today and not when on the brink of death.
He stays quiet for a few moments before sighing, then turns and walks toward the edge of the cliff. I quickly pick up the bag of food and follow him. When he sits down, I do the same.
"Because you have the same dream as me," he says after a few minutes. Yes! He's finally opening up to me! I think happily to myself, though outwardly I feigned surprise.
"What!? All Blue? You actually believe in the All Blue, you senile old man?"
"Ye—who are you calling senile!?" he snaps, holding his body up with one hand and bringing his leg down onto my head.
"Fuckk, that shit hurts a lot! you dumb fuck ass!!" It hurts like a bitch and when I look up to glare at him I see another kick coming towards me.
"Who taught you to speak that way to your elders?" he shouts as his kick lands in my stomach, sending me flying backwards.
"Ouch! This is child abuse you damn old geezer!" I grumble, getting up and walking back toward him. He only knocked me back a couple of meters, not as hard as he hit Sanji on the ship, but it still hurt.
"Hah, what was that?!" he says, lifting his leg again.
"Nothing!" I say quickly. "Anyway, how can you say you believe in the All Blue when your whole crew was laughing at me?"
He pauses, lowering his leg and glancing out at the ocean. I settle down beside him, sitting on his left.
"After sailing the grand line for a few years, my men gave up, no longer believing in the dream they once had and so they mocked anyone that did, they were good men but they became bitter after abandoning their dreams. but it exists, what I saw there made me believe in the all blue." As I listen to him talk about his dream I kind of start to feel bad because I don't have that dream, If I had to have a dream it would be to have a fun adventure in this new world while becoming the strongest along the way.
But at least I'm trying to save his leg so 'meh' I shrug internally. Plus I know the all blue 100% exists, Oda wouldn't give Sanji an impossible dream so if I come to love cooking as much as Sanji then i would just need to find it. And who said I could only have 1 dream, I'll have a fun adventure while becoming the strongest while also finding the all blue, then I'll bring this old man to it.
"Anyway, my ship was smashed, my crew is dead, It's a cold comfort that I haven't seen any corpses, and I don't feel like being a pirate without them. So when the time comes, head to the Grand Line, little eggplant," he says, his tone sad but firm.
*Grrrrr*
At that moment, both our stomachs growled. "Let's just share the food," I say, glancing at him. "There's no need to smash your leg off and eat it. You can do that after we run out of food. We can share your leg too, if we don't see any ships." I say it as a joke but It could really become a reality. Hopefully in cannon Sanji missed a few ships.
I walk over to the bag and open it. "If we're careful, we can probably stretch this to last twenty days if we each eat a quarter of a meal per day." I say while organizing and separating everything that was in the cloth. "Maybe we'll get lucky, and one of your crew mates will wash up here. Then we can share him instead of your leg," I joke, picking up a piece of bread and preparing to take a small bite. But before I can, I'm sent flying backward.
The last thing I hear before darkness claims me is, "You little brat, you're lucky I don't eat you right here and now. *Sigh* What a terrifying kid.
I guess that was too soon, I think, just before I'm swallowed by unconsciousness.