"What would you do if you could go to any world you want?"

I stare at the message sent by my fellow writer on the Discord app. Did he have to ask? Obviously, the answer is...

"What's the catch?" I type back.

...another question to the question. I mean, the offer is tempting, but I do have a decent, happy family. A fulfilling and happy life is debatable, considering the fact that I am seriously considering the question in the first place, but, you know. I like my family.

A decision to go to another world is selfish, given that I have nothing to run away from, aside from maybe my responsibilities of studying something that I feel 'meh' about. Family expectations and all that. The thing is, everyone experiences that and I am no special snowflake.

"The catch? Well, you'll become the opposite sex."

Ah, so that's the catch. Not that bad. I don't mind not having boobs or not having period for the rest of my life. Most of the worlds I'm considering of going to are not of the modern sort; I honestly would appreciate not having to worry about such inconveniences. I'm not someone who cared much about such things like my sex. For me, what defined me is something more than my sex or gender after all.

I'm Rudy Leos, and that name—while it's definitely not a feminine name and I blame my parents' terrible naming sense for that—should be enough to determine who I am.

Anyways, I got sidetracked, evidenced by the next message I receive from my internet friend.

"Hellooo? You there still?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm here. Just thinking."

"So, would you? And what world? I'm gonna for sure jump on the opportunity and maybe go to Fairy Tail. That world's fun, and honestly, nobody really dies lol. Except for Simon, the poor dude."

"Even if they did, they either got resurrected or reincarnated -_-'..."

"Exactly lol."

Well, all things considered, I'm a selfish person. I love my family, sure, but I want to go to another world as well. It's not like this is for real, so...

"I would go, I guess. One Piece would be nice. The world itself is not nice, but the adventure is. Especially if I can be on Luffy's crew."

"Booooo! Sticking with canon sucks!"

"I never said I'm gonna stick with canon though..."

"You'd totally be the type of person that'd let Ace die in the name of necessary 'character development' for Luffy."

I stop typing. He's not wrong. Ace's death is necessary and he's not my favourite character anyways.

"Anyways, I hope we both have fun in our respective worlds! I probably have a high chance of survival as long as I don't eat shit outta my ass, but that's not the case for you, so, good luck, Rudy!"

What? He's talking as if it's real...

I reply, "I think you're more insane than me with how you're talking as if all this wishful thinking is real..."

"Heh, you'll see."

"Did he smoke some weed or something?" I muttered as I leaned back on my chair. "Whatever. I'll just treat this like the usual mindless convos we have."

I yawn and close my eyes.

Ah, why must my assignment be due tonight?

When I open my eyes again, what I see isn't the white ceiling of my boring old room, but the wide blue skies.

"What the fuck," I say, as it's the only appropriate response in this situation. Then, I proceed to slap myself. "Ow! That hurts!" I hiss as the pain confirms this is no dream.

"That lunatic guy really... How is this even possible?" I sit up and realise that I'm on a small boat in the middle of nowhere. And then I have another realisation as I feel the dick I never had before and my flat chest. "Oh wow, I'm a dude now."

I look around the boat—looking around is kind of exaggerated because the size is abysmally small—and noticed that there are two barrels in the boat, and a rucksack. I check the barrels first in which they contain drinking water and dried food like jerky packed in brown paper and some apples.

The rucksack on the other hand, has a compass and a few rolled-up maps with some writing utensils. Besides that, there's a journal, a pair of binoculars, and some extra pairs of clothes. The clothes are the same as the one I'm currently wearing, which are a black dress shirt and slacks.

Speaking of attire, the only protection for my feet are sandals, which are fine, I guess. At least I'm not barefoot.

Now then, the million dollar question is, where in the world am I? Sure, I'm in One Piece world, but I hope I'm in East Blue in the same timeline as canon. If not, honestly, I might as well yeet myself off the boat right now.

I don't believe in myself to survive and go on an adventure without being on Luffy's crew. I'm pathetic but if I wasn't, I won't be wishing to go to another world in the first place. Besides, if I die here, I want to die as a Strawhat pirate. At least I'll have made a mark on the world that way and have people to remember me.

In any case, there's no use dawdling around here so I give the maps a try and navigate myself through the sea.

Shit, I didn't take one thing account.

"I...urk..." I heaved at the side of the boat. "I'm not used to the sea damn it...!"

This is horrible. Clearly all I thought are sunshine and rainbows, thinking the breeze would be cool and the sailing would be nice.

The boat sways from side to side, lazily making its way to some island I can't read the name of on my map; the series is in either Japanese, English, or a mix of both languages, so speaking wouldn't be a problem, but the writing and reading part is impossible. I don't even know if I'm using the right map, but yolo, am I right?

I look at my compass to make sure I'm still on the right course. I approximately mark my current location on the map and slump back to try and abate my nausea.

"Oh! Hey! Do you have some food?" A young male voice snaps my attention from staring blankly down the water surface to lifting my head up.

So, people of this world speaks Japanese with occasional English like in the bounty posters? Hmm, a thought for later.

I squint to make out a similar small boat to mine in the distance. I take my pair of binoculars from my rucksack to take a better look at the waving figure. As the binoculars focus on the figure, a grin forms on my face. A strawhat atop a head of black hair, coupled with a red vest and blue shorts. There was a scar under the young man's eye.

It's Monkey D. Luffy.

I put down the binoculars, intending to row my way to Luffy, but then I double back when I see a hand stretching towards me. It clamps down onto the side of my boat, rocking it, before Luffy launches himself here.

"—Rocket!"

"Well, fuck."

I couldn't dodge in time, and Luffy crashes into me, sending the both of us into the water from the force of his technique.

Splashing into the water with such force took my breath away, but the coldness of the sea shakes me from my stupor. I swim up but then I see Luffy's figure sinking like a hammer not far from me. I swim and grab him. Going up the surface dragging another person up is a struggle, but I manage, thankfully.

I haul Luffy up my boat first with a huff, before doing the same for myself. I collapse against the boat, before doing CPR onto one rubber idiot. Luffy spurts out water with each push of my arms, and after a few moments, he coughs and sits up with his eyes bulged out.

"I'M ALIVE!"

Since Luffy is alone, he should just be starting his adventure. Therefore, this is the East Blue, then. The waters in East Blue are relatively calm, so we really got lucky. Or else, Luffy might have died before even starting his journey.

He turns to me and does a dogeza as I just smile at him. I already know what persona I'm going to take on.

"Thanks for saving me!"

I wave my hand, myself soaking wet from his idiotic action. "Don't mind it. But, who are you?"

He gets up from his dogeza and says, "I'm Monkey D. Luffy! The man who's going to become the Pirate King!" Luffy has a huge grin on his face as he points at himself.

"Oh, I see." I put a finger to my chin. "So, why did the future Pirate King attack me out of the blue?" My body still hurts from the Gomu Gomu no Rocket, but the pain has lessened already. One Piece level of natural healing is bonkers.

"What? Oh, you mean my Gomu Gomu no Rocket!" Luffy tilts his head to the side before he tilts it back straight. "By the way, do you have some food?"

That doesn't explain anything but I know that this is classic Luffy behaviour, so I don't bother playing the straight man. "I do. Please wait a minute."

I take out a few pieces of jerky and two apples before handing them to him. Luffy ravages the food in seconds before thanking me.

Now, how do I get him to take me in as a crew member?

"Hey, what's your name?" Luffy asks.

"Hmm?" Luffy's question takes me out of my rumination. I reply without thinking, "It's Rudy Leos ."

"Rue D. Leos, hmm..." Luffy's way of saying my name is weird, but I'm focusing more on the fact that he's scrunching his eyebrows together.

What is he thinking so hard for?

"Alright, I've decided!"

I instinctively ask, "What?"

"Leos, be my firstmate!"

Oh.

"Why?" I had to ask the reason. I mean, it's good and all that I can be a part of the Strawhats so easily, but why? I know my value, which is to say, none at all, so, why?

"I can't swim at all and you saved me, and most importantly, you gave me food when I was starving!" Luffy grins. "Actually, I'm still starving, do you have more food?"

That's...not a legit reason to invite a literal stranger into your crew. Well, let's not look a gift horse in the mouth. It's not in the character of the persona I just created to be questioning these useless things. I'm supposed to be easygoing and smiley sort of person right now.

"Okay." I don't correct him on using my last name instead of my first name earlier. It's my fault anyways that I forgot this world uses the system of last name first, and first name last.

I get up to take more food from one of the two barrels and give it to Luffy with a smile. "Here you go, Captain."

Luffy seems to brighten with the title coming out of my mouth even as he devours the food. "Thanks, Leos!"

"So, Captain, I think we should get your boat here."

"Crap, you're right!"

Both of us turn around to look in the direction of where Luffy initially came from, but no dice. There is no boat to be seen. I take my binoculars from before to try and see if I can spot Luffy's boat, but the result is disappointing.

"It seems like your boat might have drifted off."

Luffy just picks his nose. "Eh, it's fine. It's not like there's any food on my boat anyways."

Figures...

"So, where are we headed to?"

"The Grand Line!" Luffy smiles.

Figures, once again.

"Then, that means we need to go to Loguetown." I hum. "I don't know which direction Loguetown is though."

"Alright!" Luffy stands, and squints. He then points to a direction opposite of the one where he came from. "To Loguetown!"

"Aye, aye, Captain!" I smile as we head off to the unknown.

Yolo, as they all say.