This is poetry, a horrendous attempt at poetry.
I awoke from my slumber expecting to find myself in my comfy bed, but what I felt was not my sheets.
These sheets are not mine, my sheets are soft and they smell of Downy, not this rough texture that smelled like metal rods being pushed through inside your nose
I lifted my body, sitting at the mattress I slept at. Huh... the mattress was also quite springy. Shaking my head weakly to remove the remaining grogginess from my head, I look at the unfamiliar room I found myself in.
If you could call it a room, at all.
The room was dirty, smelly and I hear drops of water, seems like there's a leakage in the ceiling.
There was not much here except for the large mattress I slept at, it's wooden frame, and what seems to be an antique wooden closet with a broken mirror. The walls seem to be concrete with unpainted or is it peeled sections?
I remove myself from the musty bed.
Huh.
Is everything larger now?
Wait.
...
I'm smaller?
How did that happen?
Wat. da. fuq?
Lifting my now, smaller hands, fixing my gaze upon them.
I could feel it.
My arms, my hands. I formed a fist and flexed my hand and finger muscles.
They weren't mine
Well, I'm a child again I guess?
I look at my arms again.
My brand new integuments are smooth and soft.
Like a girls'
Wait...
I narrow my eyes and quickly, my hands quickly reached for the goods
...
.
..
.
...
False alarm.
The goods are still there.
I wipe the metaphorical sweat-drop, and I walked towards the antique closet. My eyes fixed on the remaining mirror fragments attached to the closet, I saw my new vessel.
I look whiter.
Caucasian.
A caucasian?
A handsome caucasian kid.
You know, like the ones on the osh-kosh billboards. Those perfect-looking little Aryan shits. Not blond though, my new hair was more of red-orange or ginger, so not Aryan? Still, it's like looking at a different person, it's going to take a while to get used to. Heck, adapting to this body is going to take a while. Fuck I feel like a certain pedo-snake.
-meanwhile in a certain hidden village-
A long haired pale-man who looked like a member of a death metal group suddenly sneezed.
"Strange. Have I gotten sick? Perhaps an allergic reaction to my new body?"
"You!" Points at a random grunt.
"Yes Otokage-sama?" said the grunt.
"Call Kabuto" The death metal bandmate said
"As you wish Otokage-sama"
"And bring me some cookies"
"..."
I hear footsteps outside... huh? There was someone else in this shithole?
*knock-knock*
"Young master are you awake?" Said a gruff deep voice
The voice sounded male. As the door opened, an prim looking old man in a suit entered the room. Strangely enough, I recognized the man
"Cain" I said
"Yes young master? I hope you would refrain from sleeping here in the basement, it's rather unbecoming of someone of your station."
I digested that piece of information.
Again, information seeped through my brain feeding me the necessary bits. I knew. I was the son of a noble. The noble was my new mom, she was disowned when she ran away with my new dad. Cain here was supposed to tend to my mom, orders from her dad, grandad? Mom said grandad still loved her but he had to keep appearances so he sent Cain here to make sure mom's okay.
"I'm not nobility Cain, and I did not want to sleep here, I just fell asleep here, I guess from working out" That last bit was reflex I didn't know why I said that but I knew that it was the right answer.
"Your grandfather would surely disagree with you young master, noble blood still flows within your veins. Normally, I would approve of your efforts towards self-betterment, however I doubt that this environment would be conducive towards proper growth." said the old man
Hearing his words, and looking again at my accommodations I'm inclined to agree with the guy. Browsing my vessel's memories, I found that the former owner of this body became apathetic towards his bodies' well-being, training in extremes, thinking it would make him stronger faster.
The only thing that was improving faster here was his immune system, I quip in my mind.
The former owner was beating himself up over the death of both his parents, oh, my parents now too I think. Death by pirates. The kid was prepping himself for revenge
huh.
Pirates?
Browsing his memories more, I now know where I am.
Loguetown
...
..
..
Oh One Piece. Neat.
Dragging myself out of the bathtub was harder than I thought, my body was heavy despite my small frame or was I only fatigued? I went in for a nice long bath not only to clean myself after spending time in that biological hazard of a place, but also to organize what little knowledge this vessel have. Turns out my neo-mom was from Montblanc noble family in the north blue, and my neo-dad's from another fallen noble line. Neo-mom fell in love with neo-dad and his dreams of adventure, neo-dad wanted to see things he hadn't seen before in his time in the North Blue so he wanted to go to the Grand Line. Neo-mom wanted to escape the mundane life she had, met neo-dad who was preparing for his journey at a market. They had a chat, clicked, and eventually dated for awhile before neo-mom's dad wanted to stop the budding romance the two had. My parents, lovestruck idjits that they were, decided to elope, travel the world together. My mom got pregnant with me after they left Lvneel. Cain said I was born here on Loguetown, my memories agree with him for the earliest memory I could access was the sights of this town.
Oh yeah, neo-dad was a Donquixote
Believe me, that threw me in for a loop. From what I could remember, dad said that he was the youngest of three brothers. He told me that his family went cuckoo and got out fast. He said he had wanted his older brother Rosi-nii to come with him when he saw Doffy-nii's descent to madness. The death of their father being the last straw for him, he said Rosi-nii had to look out for Doffy-nii so he came with him, the condition was that he left dad alone if he didn't want to join them, Rosi-nii accompanied him for a while saying he would join up with Doffy later. Surprisingly, Doffy-nii agreed saying dad was softer than Rosi-nii anyway but also said that if dad changed his mind he could still join anytime he wants since he was blood. Relieved, dad and his brother roamed the kingdoms of North Blue. Eventually dad got bored and decided that he wanted to brave the Grand Line. Rosinante returning to his older brother. He was about to set off but he met mom and his plans shifted.
Oh they still wanted to brave the Grand Line, they delayed their plans a bit for me saying they wanted to spend more time raising me before going ahead with their dream. Being the brat that my former vessel was, he had wanted to come with but was rejected quickly by dad since the Grand Line is no place for weak snot-nosed kids. They did promise to come back after a year or so for me and if I wanted to come with them when they return I had to study and train so they left me in Cain's care here at Loguetown promising to regularly keep in touch via den-den mushi.
Unfortunately they were MIA during a pirate raid a year after they left.
The kid took his studies and trained diligently even before the incident. When the timely chat with his parents over den-den mushi stopped, and news of a pirate raid near their last known location, the kid was devastated. He threw himself harder to his studies and training believing that he would get stronger faster, to sail for the Grand Line the moment he was ready to find his parents.
The training sadly did more harm than good as his body was given little time to recover, grow, and coupled with a bad training environment.
I was in my room now, or the kid's room whatever you want to call it.
Dressing my self with clean clothes prepared by Cain
I was having difficulty believing the reality that I was now on a different plane of existence.
"Dad... mom.." I mutter. Thinking of my former life, former family, friends.
"I see your still the same broody kid, Barba-kun" an unfamiliar deep voice stated
Surprised, I turned around and look towards the voice, I saw a huge figure sitting by the window, like, really huge. I have seen guys reaching to 7-feet in my old world, yet this guy was easily taller by a foot or two. Thinking about height, dad was also huge. Not as tall as this guy but close. Would I also grow close to that? I narrow my eyes as the guy wasn't there before I entered the room. The guy could've killed me before I even knew what was what. Dang, have to work on that. The guy was blond, sporting a mop hair look with a hat, also, is that makeup? He was sitting there with a cigarette in his hand. If this guy is who I think he is, then I would believe I have nothing to fear.
Still, to think I would meet them so soon.
"Stop beating yourself up with what happened with Crisostomo and Marcelle. I'm certain they're just lost, or without a den-den." He says while puffing a smoke
I stare at him, mustering up my courage, I quip "I would if you'd stop smoking, uncle. I'm sure they're just as harmful"
He smirks "Can't. Won't. Shan't. I need them in my line of work brat" he says while puffing another
"Please, you just want to look cool" I retort flatly
"I don't want to look cool, I AM cool brat GAHAHAH" He held his thumb up, and gave a cool guy grin and laughs
I didn't react to his statement, aiming to unnerve him and give his reasons of showing up.
"Oi, oi, is that how you treat your loving uncle who went out of his way to visit you, you ungrateful little shit"
"You're doing a great job at that uncle" I say with a fake smile and a thumbs up.
"Heh, You're welc- OI!"
"Doffy said you're always welcome to join his crew you kn-"
"I won't"
"LET ME FINISH! Ahem! As I was saying, he said you're welcome, but I knew better than letting a kid join a pirate crew, my little brother's kid to boot."
I raise my eyebrows at what he said. What is he getting at?
"So I convinced him to let me come to you and bring you some company"
What?
"This is him Cora-san?" a girly voice said coming from the other side of the room.
"What- how!?" I look at my uncle who seemed satisfied with himself. I then look at the direction of the other voice.
I was correct in my assumption, there was a brunette at the door who was smiling at me.
"Who are you-u?" My voice croaked at the end
"My, my~ it seems my precious nephew is quite taken with you Baby 5" My uncle said with a teasing tone
"Hey! I do not-GUHG"
Something hit me like a truck, I was down at the floor looking at the brunette, though I admit, she's easy on the eyes. I shake my head, it's a kid, what's wrong with me!? The brunette was on top of me and she was on her fours, looking at me, smiling. I was dumbstruck.
"Cora-san said you needed someone to be with, so I came with~~" she said cheerily, blushing too.
Dang... cute.
"Ah~ young love. Youth today grow up so fast. One moment they just met, the next they're getting married" Rosinante said with fake tears and tissues
I went beet red.
"Jerk" I said while getting up from my previous embarrassing position.
"Ah but you didn't reject. Gahahah! This clingy brat is Baby 5, her real name, I don't know. She's a selfless kid, do take care of her"
I stare at the girl again, she was still smiling. I couldn't bring myself to reject this one.
"Sure..." I said while blushing.
"Gahahaha, you're Crisostomo's son alright. Oh, I forgot, there are two more, I guess they're outside and was polite enough to wait there."
"Forgive me for intruding, young master. A young lady must have passed by here" Cain entered my room then saw uncle. "Rosinante-san, a pleasure to meet you again however please use the door next time" Cain finally saw the brunette that was hiding behind me "Ah there you are young lady" He then looked at me . "It seems you have everything under control young master, I will take my leave now" He looked at uncle again. "Rosinante-san" Cain bowed then left the room.
"Baby 5, go outside. Go talk to Law-kun for minute" Rosinante said
Imagine my surprise when I heard that. One of the future supernovas is here.
The brunette made a pout "I don't want to. Law's always glaring when I bother him"
Uncle stares at her while puffing his cigarette. Then he smiled "I'm sure Barba-kun here would need you later too. For now I believe Lami-chan needs you more outside to save her from Law's broodiness" he said with a small laugh
Hmmm... Who's Lami?
I chuckled too "I presume the other two are named Law and Lami?"
"Yep, siblings." answered uncle.
Law's sibling?
Who?-Oh..
He did have a sis right but she died from amber lead.
How?
Uncle looked towards Baby 5 again "So?"
Baby 5 looked torn. He looked at me first, biting her lip. I nod at her.
"Okay..." Baby 5 said "I'll be back later Barba-kun" Baby 5 says happily and runs outside.
Uncle snapped his finger when Baby 5 left. "Is he feeding you right?" uncle said
I presume he's talking about Cain? "Not as much as I would like, been training much lately uncle, so my nutritional requirement is a bit larger. For now though, we're getting by budgeting what dad left."
"Figured as much" uncle says while dropping two black duffle bags at the floor.
"There's at least a hundred million there, fifty each bag. Use this to sustain yourselves, I want only you to manage this Barba-kun. I don't trust the old man."
My eyes widen with what he said. That would solve a lot of financial problems we had.
"This... This is a huge help uncle.. but... w-why?"
"Oi, am I'm not allowed to spoil my favorite nephew now and then?"
"But.. t-this large? Where did you get this?"
I looked at him. He stared at me. I did not avert my gaze for even a second. He sighed as he broke the silence
"Look, you don't need to know. Maybe in the future you'll figure it out, you were always a smart brat. Now come on, tell me about Cain-san"
Suppressing the questions I had in mind. I knew it was related to the Ope Ope no Mi. The Trafalgar sibling being here means that they were cured of their illness, if not then there would be at least a noisy commotion outside for kids with white patches. Symptoms of Amber Lead Syndrome is known well enough here.
"I know he's reporting to grandfather. Lately, he's been sending letters suggesting I live there since mom and dad are missing. I thought about it, but declined his offer. Don't wanna deal with intrigue between noble families. Frankly, I don't know if Cain's presence here mean that grandfather cares about me or if he wants a bastard to serve his other grandchildren"
"You'd only grow weak there brat. Plus, you have more freedom here"
I nod at what he said.
"You sure you want to leave this amount here? I mean, I just turned ten." I said. Honestly I am baffled by the amount and I'm currently thinking of how to hide the money. Putting it in a bank would solve that, but it's sure to attract attention from unwanted areas. Laundering is prevalent here, government agents would investigate suspicious activity.
"Gahah! Lemme worry 'bout that too. We'll put it in BoL under your name. I have some contacts in the marines, I can make them look the other way for you."
Contacts?
Sengoku, then.
I feign ignorance "You? With the marines? What have gotten yourself into uncle? If Uncle Doffy finds out about that, you might get in trouble"
He might already be in deep shit.
"My favorite nephew is concerned about me? I'm so happy~~" Uncle said while fake crying and blowing tissues
"GO DIE IN A DITCH!" I snapped.
"Gahaha! I win! Come on, let's go get them." Uncle snaps his finger then stands up and walks out of the door.
Proceeding with breathing exercises to calm myself, I follow the uncle out though I notice the smell of burnt paper.
I turn around and see that the tissues uncle left were on fire.
"SHIT" I ran to extinguish the embers quickly.
Stepping on the embers, uncle noticed the commotion
"Hey brat, what's-"
"Shut up! Your cigs lit up your tissues!" I said while still extinguishing the embers.
"What? I always put the tissues in my pockets away from my stick hand. It's impossi-"
I look at uncle to yell at him again but I noticed his pants are on fire too. Wtf, how is he not feeling that?
"Uncle! You're pants!"
"What?"
"GAHH! HELP!"