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Chapter 3
*************1 YEAR LATER*******************
I woke up in my room, which had grown more and more familiar after all of this time. There was a small desk in the corner and a closet with clothes in it. I was already beginning to forget some of my previous life memories. I couldn't remember details of how my bedroom looked like in my previous life anymore.
It has been almost five and a half years since I transmigrated to the One Piece world.
This year was some of the most fun and irritating times I've ever been through.
I went through loads of learning. School was a bore, but that was expected. I slowly lost touch with all of the other children because I was working so hard outside of school. Additionally, their parents would use me as an example while yelling at their children. No kid likes that.
I didn't really mind it that much. I had outgrown almost all of them. We just weren't interested in the same things. I looked forward to talking to adults more.
Learning from numerous people was interesting. Even in my previous life, I didn't get to learn more about all these different occupations. There was so much to know! Learning went smoothly thanks to my Extremely Fast Learner Trait.
Learning at the grocery store was pretty simple. The food comes in and you stock it. It wasn't very difficult. It was more interesting to see all of the different foods that were available and try them all slowly over time. What was a little difficult was seeing how they had systems to know what food had gone bad and how they disposed of it. They even told me about the farms that they bought their fruits, vegetables, and grains from and let me talk to their suppliers. That led to spending some time on the farms, learning about growing crops instead of working at the store. I spent a decent amount of time helping them plant, water, and harvest the crops over the course of a year.
It ended up getting me a new trait.
Naturally Efficient (Your body and mind both seek efficiency)
Supposedly, unlike many other professions, everything farmers do is rooted in efficiency. They need to work more morning to dusk on the farm to develop the harvest and make sure there are no problems, from fertilizer, insects, plagues, droughts, flooding, or other things. There are systems in place and lists to check off everyday, and everyone has to play their role in a timely manner. In addition, at least on LogueTown, people didn't have machines to help do everything, so it was all done by hand and any ingenuity they could build themselves.
Pretty sure everyone who works any job needs to be efficient. I wouldn't be surprised if it was from working many different types of jobs and managing my time appropriately so I could do them all. Maybe I just happened to be farming when I got that trait.
I was expecting a plant based one for farming, but this was more useful for me. At least for now. A plant based trait probably required more time cultivating plants, which I haven't done yet.
Speaking of the system, it turns out my previous conjecture was wrong. Missions never show their rewards in advance. Even the mission that got the Naturally Efficient trait. That mission was to help grow the crops at a farm. It took me the entire year to get this trait after the harvest was already to go to the store. Of course, it's not like I spent more than once a week there, so that's not bad considering everything.
Still, it sounds good to me. I feel like that's going to be a very useful trait to have.
Another thing I noticed was how the tutorial traits appeared to be a lot more powerful than the ones that I was earning on my own through the system. It seems like I was wrong. The tutorial traits may have been more defining than I originally thought.
Even so, I don't regret my choices at all.
Well, maybe a little.
I still haven't figured out anything with the Supernatural Talent yet, but that's okay [*cries on the inside*]. It was always a risk. Just because it hasn't paid off yet, doesn't mean it won't. I'm sure this trait also covers Haki to a degree so it'll still come in use.
Probably.
Hopefully.
Anyways, I also learned from the antique shop in town. It was one of the more boring things I did. The experience did make me more aware of items and valuables that existed. Needless to say, I went through everything the shopkeeper could teach me quickly about historical items and authenticity, and then I was out. I thanked them for teaching me, and didn't come back for more. History is fun to know, but not my future.
Antiques were boring in the One Piece world. Interesting stuff from the Grand Line didn't come here at all.
I learned to bake bread at the bakery, how to organize books, how to make desserts, milk cows for the dairy store, basic first-aid knowledge, pet care, and types of flowers and herbs. I learned some useful stuff, and moved on. They just didn't interest me.
Of course, I kept helping at the bookstore occasionally in exchange for reading things for free. Knowledge is always helpful.
I would have spent more time at the confectionery, except Aunt Minnie told them I wasn't allowed to eat anything there, and I wasn't allowed to make their unhealthy stuff at home. Rude. Took all of the fun away from the experience.
The junk shop was interesting, but a complete waste of time because it was...well, junk. Still, I had fun looking through all of the stuff and checking everything out. Strangely enough, I got a trait out of it.
Easily Amused (It doesn't take much to keep you happy, does it?)
Screw you! Let me be happy, okay?
I'm sure each of these places had traits that could be mined over time, but I just wasn't that interested in them. I didn't have all the time in the world to waste on every occupation out there. It was better to be really good in certain things instead.
The music store was interesting. The owner was an old musician that quit performing, and opened a store instead. His real business was teaching people how to play the instruments that they bought. He made more money on giving lessons to children and adults than he did actually selling instruments. He had a good deal going one.
In exchange for helping around the store, he taught me more about the music business. He also offered to give me free lessons in any instruments that I wanted to learn. Said it would be good for business. That made a mission pop up to learn an instrument (because of course it did). I asked for lessons on the piano, and he did his best to teach me. I didn't realize how it would help earn him business, until we started. My piano practice attracted droves of customers. Parents saw me playing and learning from the owner, and wanted their own children to learn from him too. The guy was a pro at business.
I actually earned two traits from my time at the music store.
Feel the Beat (You have a natural sense of rhythm)
Soulless Musician (Although you can make music, it has no emotions)
The first trait was pretty nice, and I felt the effects. It was like I synced with something I hadn't even realized was there.
The second trait, Soulless Musician, was harsh but fair. Even my teacher told me that while I could do all of the motions, I wasn't expressing myself through the music. I was supposed to bare my soul in my music, but what did that even mean? I didn't understand how to do that.
I actually continued going to the restaurant without stopping the entire year. It wasn't because I was interested in it though. It was because they were the only place that paid me for working there! I wanted some money in case I ever wanted to buy something. You never know.
Do you want to know what my first mission was at the restaurant, outside of learning? Peel 20,000 freaking potatoes.
That's it.
And that's exactly what they made me do. They made me peel a lot of potatoes for the first couple months. I would be in the corner doing it over and over again.
It was hard at first to peel the potatoes nicely. I would peel off too much of the flesh of the potato, leading to waste. Eventually, I got better at it though. Practice makes perfect. Since it was boring, I made games out of it. I tried to peel off the skin in a single piece. I know everyone has tried to do that before. I got pretty good at it too. Then I tried to go faster and faster. I hurt myself a couple of times, but it wasn't a big deal. It happens.
Once I finished, I got the Deft Hands trait.
Deft Hands (Whether it's crafting or sleight of hand, you are good with your hands)
Once I got the trait, I could feel that my hands had become more nimble and flexible. Movements that seemed to be difficult before were far easier now.
Not bad. It's a basic trait, but a really good one. This'll be useful in almost any situation. I wouldn't be surprised if it was another trait that also developed from many jobs. Maybe without the other jobs, it would have taken 100,000 potatoes. Who knows?
I'm glad I didn't get a trait for peeling things. Who knows how that would have turned out? Maybe if I keep peeling potatoes, I would get a Master Peeler trait, which allows you to peel anything, whether it's an apple or human skin…
Creepy. Although, it does sound like a vicious devil fruit power.
The Butcher shop initially felt creepy as hell. It was seriously messed up with the meat hanging from the ceiling in the back and just loads of meat just waiting to be processed. It looked like a place human bodies would be stored. I wouldn't be surprised if that shop was haunted.
I actually wanted to quit, but when Signore Phillip heard I was working there, he made me stick at it. He literally told me that if I could cut meat, I could cut any food. I was this close to telling him to take that meat, and shove it up his ass, but my uncle was around so it didn't happen.
The butcher was a nice dude, and taught me how to prepare and cut the meat for sale. Speaking of the butcher, he hooked me up with the ranches that supplied the meat to his shop. They let me work on the ranch with animals, which I greatly enjoyed. Unfortunately, no trait was obtained yet at the ranch, but it could just be because I haven't spent enough time with them.
I got a mission to cut up a lot of meat for the Butcher, so I continued to work. I improved, completed the mission, and earned a trait.
With the Grain (You instinctively know how the grains run in everything)
It made chopping meat a lot easier, and when Signore Phillip found out how well I was doing from the butcher, he made me switch over from peeling potatoes to chopping veggies and meat for the restaurant. He also let me quit my job at the butcher, since it wasn't necessary anymore. I also got to spend more time with the other cooking staff. They taught me all sorts of other cooking knowledge.
Spending time at the restaurant after that got me another trait.
Culinary Copycat (You are able to imitate the cooking of others, but it doesn't taste as good as the original)
It was a painful but accurate trait. I didn't have the spark that made a good chef. I could make some of the things that Signore Phillip made, but they didn't taste as good. It was the same with the confectionery and bakery. I was okay with it, as long as it was edible and tasted decent. It wasn't like food gave buffs or anything.
My genius trait didn't appear to be helping that much when it came to cooking either, although that may have been due to the lack of drive and focus. I already realized a while back that I didn't really want to work in a restaurant in the future. If it wasn't for the fact that cooking was a good survival skill to have and that I was being paid, I would have been long gone.
Ipponmatsu's shop was cool to look at, but boring to learn at. Other than the names of the weapons, Ipponmatsu didn't really know anything. On the other hand, he was very helpful introducing me to the blacksmith he got all of his inventory from. To quote him, "It would get me off his back". That was fine by me since there was nothing more to learn at his shop.
The blacksmith was a really quiet guy. Huge and quiet, and spent most of his time hammering out weapons and tools. Watching it happen real time was interesting, although initially very uncomfortable due to the heat in the forge. He made me watch him work the first three times I came there without doing anything else, but he let me help a little bit. Later, he told me that he was making sure that I would be fine. The heat was hard on adults, forget children. He was amazed that I could handle it. My Physically Adaptive trait was awesome.
The first thing that he taught me was the tools of the trade. He made sure that I knew what they were and made me hand them to him whenever he needed them. The tools were heavy, and I was only five years old. I struggled a lot, but the blacksmith was patient with me, for which I was grateful. He taught me how to clean and care for the tools. He taught me the different kinds of metals that he dealt with and how to determine their quality and purity. He showed me how to smelt and purify metals, and then create something out of it.
It was amazing.
I loved it.
It was like a childhood dream to learn how to do this. This...this was something I wanted to learn. I don't know if I would do this for the rest of my life, but I would definitely learn as much as I could!
Over the entire year, I never got to actually try to make anything, but that was normal. I was only 5. If this blacksmith did ask me to try to make something, that would be weirder. My Physically Adaptive trait might help overall, but it couldn't make me capable of doing the strenuous process of blacksmithing within such a short timespan. He did let me try and hammer at metal occasionally with a size and weight appropriate hammer he made himself.
I earned one trait with the blacksmith due to my Physically Adaptable Trait.
Forgeborn - (Your body has adapted to the conditions of the forge, making you unfazed by high temperatures)
It was a useful, if somewhat situational trait. Regardless, it's not like it was going to hurt me to have it, so I didn't really mind. The more positive traits, the better.
I noticed something interesting over time. Having certain traits made it easier to obtain other traits over time. For example, having Extremely Fast Learner and Genius helps pick up all traits. Physically Adaptable Trait helped with getting the Like a Fish in Water Trait and Forgeborn trait. Deft Hands helped to get the With the Grain trait and Culinary Copycat trait. Based on this, I can predict how to get some other traits.
Traits appeared to be connected, but possible to earn separately if you knew the way to do it.
Too bad I don't have that kind of knowledge. I have no choice but to fumble around doing my best to figure it out.
Good thing I have a bunch of time as I'm growing older.
Learning Bounty Hunting was also pretty useful, although it was surprisingly boring. I mean, I didn't really get to be a part of the criminal takedowns. In addition, Daddy Masterson was a sniper, so he always took his targets out by surprise in one shot. It was less exciting than you would think. These pirates were always small fry with low bounties and no devil fruit powers, so I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything.
There wasn't a bounty hunting office or information network. All bounty hunters were independent from one another. The only thing tying them together was the marines, who looked down on them since they captured or killed pirates for money. And the marines weren't going to tell bounty hunters anything, so anyone in the field had to develop their own ways of gaining information.
I was actually a natural at collecting information due to my age and adult mind. Adults like explaining things to children because they feel like teaching and preaching to others. It was easy to get slips of information now and then. In fact, since I was little, people spoke about all sorts of things in front of me without worry. It was pretty interesting. Daddy Masterson taught me to observe everything about my environment and collect as much information as possible. Sometimes I felt like a detective.
No wonder governments sometimes use child spies.
Anyways, I learned everything Daddy Masterson wanted me to learn quickly. Whenever he needed help after that, he would ask my uncle and take me out for some work. It was pretty cool. As long as I helped, he would give me some lessons on gun use and maintenance.
I enjoyed learning how to shoot a gun. It really was a lot of fun. Definitely dangerous though. It made me feel powerful and afraid at the same time. Until I learned to use a gun myself, I never realized how easy it was to kill someone.
Thankfully, automatic and other modern weapons from earth weren't widespread in this world. I know there are gatling guns, but I don't know about much else. I suppose there are lasers too, but it's not the same. Most long distance weapons are pistols, revolvers, and rifles. They lose accuracy past a certain distance, so it's easier to deal with them then.
Gun training got me another trait.
High Spatial Visual Perception (Your spatial awareness and overall perception has been developed by a professional)
I think it was a combination of gun training and bounty hunting observational skills that got me this trait. Once I got it, my eyes burned for a moment, and then the world felt clearer. It was like my sense of vision had widened and I could see more around me, and adjustly judge distances even better than before.
This trait basically went back and made everything a lot easier to do. People with good vision really do have an advantage. I had glasses in my previous life, so I never realized how much of a difference it makes.
Distilling alcohol was also lots of fun. It was like playing with a chemistry set sometimes. I enjoyed learning about the basics on how to brew some good alcohol. Honestly, I didn't get to spend much time doing it, since my family wasn't comfortable with putting me in that kind of environment as a child. Still, we had fun and he was teaching me all sorts of knowledge about fermenting.
When I say it out loud, it sounds boring as hell. Huh. This is how it must feel for all professionals in their fields.
Anyways, I decided that I want to continue to learn from Raoul, since good alcohol is easily sold. Seems like a nice way to make some money, if not a very slow process. Definitely can't make that the only thing I do in the future.
Working with my aunt in her shop had brought me a lot of things. I learned how to make and tailor my own clothes. After I got the Deft Hands trait, this became a lot easier to do. This part was fun for me, not because I liked making clothes, but because it was fun to learn and analyze fashion trends. I know it was weird for a guy to like to do that, but it was fun to critique all of the styles out there.
I also learned how to do business by following my aunt around. I learned how to better interact with clients, determine what they wanted, and offer it to them in an enticing way they couldn't resist. I got pretty good at it. It had less of an effect since I was a child, although when my aunt and I acted in tandem, it worked like a charm.
I earned a few traits from my experiences with her.
Discerning Eye (You have an eye for details)
Business Savvy (Doing business is a part of your blood)
Discerning eye was probably a combination of working and learning at many different shops, rather than just my aunt's place. At the time, my eyes burned again because of the new eye trait, and my vision changed again. Various details that I didn't notice before started to pop out at me. It was like there was a veil that was torn away from the world, and now I saw and realized more. Not only did I notice more details in my environment, I also noticed more details about people. It was mind blowing that I could just understand more about people without actually knowing anything about them.
The Business Savvy trait changed something fundamentally about my personality. My mind would always be on the lookout for good deals and money making opportunities. I didn't like that new part of myself, and had to learn how to control it. The trait wasn't all-knowing or anything. Even if I noticed something, it wouldn't mean that the opportunity would actually make money. Rather, it just noticed opportunities and my mind would develop plans for them based on my own knowledge.
It was kind of like an automatic "get rich quick" scheme maker. It was kind of annoying.
It made me realize that I had to be careful with the traits I gained over time.
Lastly, I spent a lot of time fishing with my uncle. I enjoyed sailing on the ocean and enjoying the water. Sometimes, it felt like there was nothing better than being on the water, looking at the horizon. At night, if we happened to still be on the water, the sky would light up with stars. It was a beautiful sight.
Since I was little, I could handle using the nets, but my uncle still showed me how it was done. He took me out frequently and showed me how to fish with a rod. My uncle made me sit absolutely still with the rod. I learned a lot of patience during those days. It was hard to sit still and be quiet, since I had the energy of a five year old, but I learned how to do it. Once I did, I started catching fish quite easily.
Going with my uncle earned me another two traits.
Man of the Sea (For you, sailing the ocean is as natural as living on land)
One With Nature (You are completely accepted by nature)
I assume I got the first trait from generations of fishermen. No doubt that I inherited this trait from my ancestors and my physically adaptable and fast learner traits helped speed things along to get it earlier than expected. The Man of the Sea trait made me feel like the ocean was my friend. I felt safe. I half expected that the ocean would help me out like it did for Moana in her movie. That would have been a sick power to have in the One Piece world.
The One with Nature trait was a surprise. Apparently, sitting completely still like they do in Naruto can make you closer to nature. I don't know how to explain the feeling, other than being in complete harmony with nature and going with the flow. It would be like asking Zoro to explain the sensation of how to cut steel. He probably wouldn't be able to describe it that well either. Rather than reducing my presence, it made my presence appear to be 'of nature', which prevented fish from getting scared away from me and my bait. As a result, it was easier to catch fish, assuming that the other fishermen (*coughUncleMickeycough*) didn't screw it up for me.
I'm sure there's a lot more to this trait, but I need lots of time to figure it out. I wasn't skilled or knowledgeable enough to know how this trait really worked. It was being asked to repair a high tech car, when you're still learning how a bicycle works.
In total, this year was really productive. I now have a total of 19 traits! My status is bumpin'!
Who's the man? I'm the man, that's who!
Anyways, I can't stay in bed reminiscing about the past year. I gotta get up and go to school, and then do some more extracurricular activities to try and get more beneficial traits.
I went out of my room and greeted my Uncle Mickey. My Uncle Mickey seemed pretty young, but that wasn't actually the case. Apparently, he was a bit older than my mom had been, and he had his children earlier in life with my aunt. They had two children who have already moved out to pursue careers on other islands. My cousin Mira was a dancer on a cruise ship, but my other cousin Raine was a dentist. Not unexpected, Raine was kind of lame, but he was fun to play with when I was little and he always brought presents. Mira was the cool one who had traveled throughout the East Blue on the cruise ship. Whenever she came home, she would tell lots of stories.
Kind of wish that they were around more so I had more family around, but what can you do?
"Good Morning Krishna! How are you doing?" My uncle boomed loudly. It was a nice baritone that did not sound at all like another mouse we all know. Somehow, out of all of the disney characters, Mickey Mouse seems to have one of the more annoying voices, and I'm glad I don't have to experience that here.
"Good morning to you too Uncle Mickey! I'm doing alright! How about you?"
"Busy, busy, busy! I was wondering if you could help out around the house before you go, because today is a bad day for me."
"Sure. What do you want me to do?" I got a quest to do chores at some point in the past, but as usual, there weren't any rewards listed.
"I need you to grab the laundry from the yard and bring it inside. It looks like it might rain today."
God dammit. I hate rain. "Alright." I rushed outside and started pulling all of the clothes hanging outside into the basket. It took me multiple trips. I hate being small sometimes. Doing stuff is just way faster as an adult.
"Thanks." My uncle nodded to me before turning back to finish the rest of the morning chores. "I'll handle the rest, you just head straight to school, and when you're done, I'll take you to your aunt's shop."
"It's okay." I shook my head. "You don't need to. I know the way."
"I'll make sure you get to your aunt." He glared at me. "Last thing we need is another incident."
I sighed. "A kid causes a few problems and your-"
"58 problems." My uncle interrupted, frowning at me.
"You're counting?" I asked with wide eyes.
"Not me." He denied. "The whole town is."
"What?"
"There's even a betting pool going on to see how many problems you can cause throughout the year."
"Seriously?" Do these people have nothing better to do? Scratch that. They don't.
"Yup. They won't let me or your aunt join though." My Uncle Mickey stated with mock sadness. "Said that we'd mess with the results."
I rolled my eyes. "You would."
"We totally would!" Uncle Mickey laughed. "It's too bad they've caught onto all of my tricks."
"Anyways…" I gave him the stink eye. "Where was I before you interrupted me with your 'facts'? I only caused a problems-"
"Natural disasters", my uncle interrupted again.
"-and most of them weren't really even my fault."
"Not your fault?" My uncle looked at me like I was the biggest idiot he'd seen. "That giant stampede?"
"How was I supposed to know that my music would make all of those cows go insane?" I think those cows are still mad at me.
"The food poisoning incident at the restaurant?"
"It's not my fault that there was something wrong with those potatoes. I was just a potato peeler back then." That wasn't my job. I peel. You guys cook. Maybe they should check the ingredients they put into their food.
"The seagull incident?"
"Seriously? It literally said on the signs to not feed the seagulls! Who knew they would be so insulted and start a war? Just be grateful that I was able to negotiate a peace treaty." Damn seagulls pooped all over town in protest. It took everyone many days to clean everything. The seagulls are allowed to take our leftovers, but if they make a mess anywhere on the Island, we'll massacre them all and eat them. The marines were about to do it themselves after they bombed the shit (figuratively and literally) all over the base. I hear that they are still finding their residue in places. At the end of the day, the townspeople were able to convince them it was a waste of time, since they were only birds.
"The whip cream incident?"
"Why are you looking at me? I just did what they told me to do. It's not my fault the whipped cream exploded all over the place. Even they admitted to everyone that they taught me incorrectly." The confectioner 'taught' me how to make whipped cream and then left me alone to make it. It's because he invited those ladies over to have a "good time". Dude had game, but didn't count on his wife coming home early. Rookie mistake. Of course, if my wife looked like that, I'd probably cheat too, and screw the consequences. Probably should've just divorced her first though instead of that mess.
"The pig races?"
"I mean, sure it was my idea, but I meant it as a joke. They're the ones that actually did it." What, is it my fault they took the words of a 5-year-old seriously? Of course, when I realized that they were actually going to do it, I may have egged them on with more ideas. Maybe. I admit nothing.
"The drunk pirate incident?"
"Come on! They were threatening to kill Raoul. They deserved that." I spiked those assholes' drinks. They didn't know what hit them. Then, we took all of their money and clothes, and gave them to the marines. They should be grateful that we didn't slit their throats while they were knocked out. Got a nice bounty out of it too that we split. It's nice to have some money.
"The sea king incident?"
"I blame you for teaching me to be such a good fisherman." How the heck am I supposed to control what the bait attracts? Somehow a seaking was attracted by my low end earthworm bait. We battled it for hours, and luckily survived. Unfortunately, my uncle's ship did need repairs afterwards and it was very costly. Luckily, I had money from the bounty from the previous incident to help cover it.
"Uh huh. What about the-"
"Oh, look at the time!" I decided to run at this point. "Going to be late for school. Bye!"
Apparently we'll be here all day if we continue like this. Has it really been 58 major incidents?
Well, I did say I had a busy year.
Eh, whatever.
I bring life to this town.
That's what I'm going with, and no one can convince me otherwise.
I headed out on the way to school, and on the way I picked up some trash that I saw laying around as usual. I know that in the manga and anime, LogueTown seems nice and clean, but that's in the future. This place is dirty as hell now. It's like people have never heard of using a trash can. It's like living with a bunch of monkeys.
There's a lot of tourism since people like to see the platform where the Pirate King was executed. It's part of the reason why the town is so gross, but that's not really an excuse. Tourism means more money, so they should be able to afford the additional cleaning costs. I wouldn't be surprised that the town had been forced in the original timeline to clean up because a Celestial Dragon stopped by.
I had a mission to help clean the town, which is why I would pick up any garbage that I saw and shove it into my inventory. I pretended that I was placing it into a garbage bag when I did it, obviously. I'm not stupid.
All the garbage only took one slot in my inventory that was labelled garbage. Super helpful, otherwise it would have filled up the entire inventory already. Of course, once it went in, it would be impossible to take out a specific item there later.
Oh well. Don't care about that.
I do need to figure out how to get rid of the garbage in my inventory though at some point. One slot is still a slot.
People would occasionally stare at me with some curiosity, but they didn't say anything. Once they saw what I was doing, they would feel ashamed of themselves when they realized that a five year old was cleaning up all of the trash that everyone had left behind. I knew people talked about it quietly, as the town was getting cleaner, bit by bit, day by day, since people were slowly changing.
I didn't have any problems getting to school. People would naturally watch out for young children and make sure they were going in the right direction. It was easy to do this because there was only one school on this island.
Schooling on LogueTown basically ended when we turned ten. It was the basics of reading, writing, math, science, history, and government propaganda. If I wanted anything more advanced than that, I wouldn't get it here.
It seems that the Marines and World Government not only controlled information and news, it also severely controlled knowledge. No wonder the Arlong pirates needed Nami so badly. Even maps were technically considered government secrets, even though it wasn't strictly enforced in the East Blue. Apparently, we can get maps, but they aren't very accurate and certain important marine based islands are not on there altogether.
Anyways, today was different from previous days. There were a bunch of kids gossiping when I reached school.
"Look who finally decided to show up to school!" Robbie, one of my few friends, greeted me. "How are you doing?"
"Pretty good." I gave him a high five. Robbie was one of those people who could get along with anyone. He was a lot less annoying than a majority of people.
"No natural disaster today?"
I groaned. "You too?"
Robbie laughed at me. "I heard it from my mom. I heard people are gambling on you. My mom thinks it's stupid but my dad finds it to be a lot of fun."
"I'm glad someone thinks so." I grumbled. "Anyways, what's going on? Why is everyone whispering like this?"
"It's not a big deal." Robbie shrugged. "We were just talking about some of the recent changes happening in town."
"Changes? What changes?" I'm so busy most of the time that I barely know the gossip. Heck, usually I am the gossip.
"Well, a new person moved into town last week. They've been sighted all over town." Robbie whispered cautiously.
"That's it? So what? People come and go all the time." God, I thought it was something important.
"Not like this. This person is different from the normal people that come through. Weren't you listening? This person moved here. And they look like a thug."
"Thug?" Did Loguetown have people like that? "No way! There's a Marine base here. No way the marines would let that pass."
"Apparently, no one knows where he came from. So there isn't any information on whether he is honest or a criminal. All it takes is one look though! Clearly, he's super suspicious!"
"Other than how they look, has he actually done anything suspicious?" You guys can't just judge a book by its cover!
"Well, no. But lots of people saw him putting some posters up. Here, take a look!" Robbie pushed over a flyer that was on the table.
It read:
Want to be the strongest man in the world?
Want to learn how to protect everyone and fight for justice?
Join us and you can be powerful too!
Sign up at our new martial arts dojo at the south edge of town.
Come by now and you can receive training at our discounted price!
85% off for the best Martial Arts training in the world if you join now!
Ask for Master Satunuku!
"Umm…" That sales pitch is so...unrealistic! Like, if a dojo could make people into the strongest in the world, it would be filled to the brim. And they wouldn't be giving such a massive deal on training...
'I know right? It's suspicious!" Robbie commented. "It has to be a scam. No one in town trusts him."
"Not surprising." I nodded in agreement. It was a bit suspicious, but I was curious. Our town didn't have a dojo, because anyone who wanted to learn how to fight either joined the marines, or left and became a pirate or bounty hunter. There wasn't any systematic training available on the island before this. "Alright. I'm going to check it out."
"Wait, what?" Robbie began to panic. "I didn't tell you about it so you could check it out!"
"I wanted to learn how to fight for a long time." I shook my head in denial. "Even if you didn't tell me now, I would have heard about it sooner or later."
I want to be able to handle myself in a fight instead of relying on other people. I don't want to end up like Ussop or Nami, who struggled intensely in the beginning of their journey.
"What?" "Yeah! Check it out Krishna!" "Show everyone who's boss." "I bet he'll chicken out before he gets there." The other kids in my class tried to egg me on. And this is why these people weren't really friends.
I frowned. "It's not like I'm going to go alone. I'm going to ask my uncle to take me."
Robbie finally looked relieved. "If your Uncle Mickey is with you, then it should be fine."
"Why do I get the impression that you don't trust me?"
"Who released all of the toads in the school?" He pointed a finger at me.
"Hey! That's not fair. That guy knocked into me and released all those disgusting things." I shivered. I hate toads and frogs. They creep me out.
He rolled his eyes. "Whatever. As long as your uncle goes with you, a disaster probably won't occur."
I sighed.
Life was tough sometimes when people always thought you were up to no good.
My uncle came to pick me up after school like he said he was going to do. What a worrywart.
"Hey Uncle Mickey!" I waved him over. "I heard someone is teaching martial arts to people! I want to go!"
"You heard about him too?" Uncle Mickey frowned. "He's been the talk of the town for the last day or so."
"Let's go check it out!"
"No way! He doesn't sound right!" Uncle Mickey exclaimed. "I heard even the World Government is keeping an eye on him."
"Even more reason to go." I insisted. "That means he's probably the real deal!"
My uncle was silent for a moment. "If you really want to, then that's fine. I've never stopped you from doing anything that you've wanted to do before, and I'm not going to start now. Just remember that once you take this path, there's no choice but to walk it to the end."
"Yeah yeah! No need to give lectures!" I was excited to start learning martial arts. "Let's go!"
On the way to the new martial art teacher, I took some time to consider some things. What did I want to do with my life? I needed a goal. Something that wasn't just 'do mission XXX' for the system. The trait system was amazing, but it couldn't be my entire life. I needed something to devote my life to. Something that would make me happy.
I was in the One Piece World. What is something I always wanted to do here? When I thought about it, the answer came fairly quickly.
What I really wanted to do was travel. The One Piece World is really interesting. I want to go and see all of the amazing unique features and people with my own eyes.
I wanted to be an explorer. The greatest explorer that the One Piece World has ever seen and I wanted to document all of my travels. I would write a book, maybe even a series of books. I think that would be awesome.
I never really traveled much in my previous life. There was always an excuse.
Oh, I have school. Oh, I have a job. Oh, I can't leave my girl to go do these things. Oh, it's too expensive. Oh, it's just not the right time to go.
The truth is I was just afraid of leaving my bubble. It was safe.
I don't want to be like that anymore. I don't want to lose out on something amazing this time. It was time to force myself to grow as a person in different ways.
I had years to work on a plan before I would leave. I even had years before the main plot started.
I'd make sure to be ready.
If something doesn't make sense, please let me know in your reviews. Previous comments and reviews were very helpful.
Does the story sound better now? Shorter chapters for more frequent releases. Also, I'm trying to make the plot smoother.
Do you guys want Krishna's latest status at the end of each chapter? I stopped doing that to prevent padding word count.