I didn't like this. Not one bit. I missed being at home, even going to school just to leave, and all the nice things I had.

I was wearing the same clothes I was when I somehow got transported to this place, which I didn't mind, mostly because I liked my outfit. I also had my backpack on me, which I was extremely lucky for.

I opened my backpack to check and make sure I had everything. Rummaging through my belongings, I found my glock-17, with a magazine inside and another magazine lying at the bottom of the bag, both filled. Off to the side was a vacuum sealed bag filled with marijuana, which would last me a good two weeks if I was conservative. Scattered here and there were a couple of lighters, a butane torch, a glass pipe, a pack of raw papers to roll with, filter paper, my switchblade and a solar powered battery for my phone. And finally, my speaker lied at the bottom of the bag.

Now hold up, these don't sound like school supplies. What kind of student carries a gun, a switchblade, lighters and drugs in his backpack, you might be asking. And my answer to that is, the kind of student that doesn't care about school, leaves without permission and runs with a gang.

In a way, I felt relieved. Relieved of my failing every class, relieved that I could have freedom in this world, and relieved that nobody could tell me anything and that I would no longer need to watch my back and lookout for police, security guards and angry neighbors complaining about the smell of weed.

In a way, that was what I had wanted, I just wish I didn't have to leave my mom behind. I wish I could have been a better kid, a better student, so I wouldn't have to be worrying about all those things.

Overcome by emotion, tears started forming in my eyes. It was no use though. I'd just have to make the best out of my situation.

I was interrupted from my moment of sadness when a kid, maybe two years younger than than I nearly made me jump from my skin.

"Who are you?" He asked, with my back turned to him which forced me to jump up and straighten my back, and hide my belongings. Yeah, looking out for yourself for years will make you scared of anybody creeping up behind you. Where I come from, they would've said they caught me lacking, but I realized there was nothing to be worried about soon after. The kid seemed friendly enough.

"Watchu got there?" He curiously asked, peeking at my bag.

"Nothing," I quickly responded, zipping it up to conceal what was inside. My heart was racing and my back was sweating from the nerve attack I had.

"Who are you?" He questioned.

"I should be asking you the same thing. Where'd ya get the hat?"

"Oh this?" He wondered, taking the straw hat off his head, revealing his messy black hair underneath. His eyes showed admiration and looking at the hat in his hand, he answered, "Shanks gave me this hat."

"Shanks?"

"Yea, I promised him a long time ago that I'd return this hat when I became king of the pirates."

"Who are you?" I questioned, memories of the manga I used to read years ago now flooding my brain.

"My names Monkey D. Luffy. I'm the man who's going to be king of the pirates!" He exclaimed, showing a determined expression on his face.

"Yea... good luck with that," I told him. I stood up, placed the straps on my backpack over my shoulders and started walking towards Luffy.

"Oh! You should meet Ace!" He excitedly said, and started walking with me.

"Ace?"

"Yea! He's my big brother! He can be a meanie sometimes but apart from that he's really cool!"

He then grabbed my arm and stretched his other arm towards a tree before rocketing us into the forest at speeds which would've made anybody nauseous. Including me.

When we landed I was so nauseous that I almost threw up my small intestine. I supressed the feeling though, and got back on my feet.

My nausea subsided after a few minutes and Luffy started to call Ace.

While he was distracted, I reached into my bag, grabbed my glock and my switchblade, then placed the gun under my waistband, concealing it under my hoodie. I clipped the switchblade onto my jean pocket and closed my backpack.

Ace appeared from the forest after a little while. "What do you want Luffy? I'm still training."

"Ah. I forgot," Luffy said. I face palmed.

"Who's this weirdo?" Ace asked, signaling towards me.

"Oh yea! This is ummmmm..." he thought about what to say for a moment. "What was your name again?"

I looked at him, pondering whether I should call him an idiot, or answer his question. I decided upon the latter. "Randall," I told him.

Ace took one look at me, and walked away. "I don't trust him," he said.

I didn't take any offense, as I knew where he was coming from. "Likewise," I shot back.

I got up and walked away from the area, to a more secluded part of the forest. When I reached a tree stump, I sat down and set my belongings on the floor.

It was really hot in that forest, so I took my hoodie off and set it down by my side. I opened my bag, took out the vacuum sealed bag, my filter paper and my rolling paper.

I sliced open the top of the bag and set apart two medium sized weed nuggets, and began to roll a cone to satisfy my cravings.

Just my luck, as soon as I started to light the joint, Luffy appeared out of the trees. "Whatcha doing?"

Again, he made me jump. This time, however, I spilled all my weed over the ground.

"Holy fuck!" I yelled out, turning around. "Can you maybe not sneak up on my next time? You made me drop everything."

"Sorry," he said, while helping me pick up the weed I spilled. He brought some to his nose, took a whiff and asked, "what is this stuff?"

"Gas," I told him.

"It smells weird. And now my fingers are all sticky," he said, while rubbing his index and his thumb together.

I laughed. "Yea, the smell isn't for everyone. It tastes pretty good though."

I didn't realize what I had just done. Without even thinking about it, Luffy grabbed another one and threw it in his mouth. He spat it out almost instantly.

"This tastes horrible!" He cried while trying to wash out his tongue.

"No, you idiot, that's not what I meant. This is how you taste it, watch." I brought my finished joint to my mouth, and, covering the tip from the wind, I lit it on fire.

I took a couple of puffs to get a decent ember going, took the joint out of my mouth and blew on the frontside a couple times. Luffy watched me carefully.

After I made sure I had a nice cherry going, I put it to my mouth and took a nice, long drag.

Luffy eyed the joint, and then asked, "can I try?"

I looked at him, took the joint out of my mouth and said, "sure, just don't suck in for too long, and make sure to inhale, otherwise you'll burn your mouth."

I passed it to Luffy, and he started to take a drag. It wasn't as long as mine, but he started hacking up a lung, causing me to crack up.

"Doesn't it taste like mango?" I asked.

He nodded, still coughing and passed me the joint back.

I looked at him, and said, "you'll start to feel good pretty soon."

I took another drag, then asked if he wanted to take another hit and he agreed.

We finished the joint and when I looked at him, his lips curved into a smile, and he started to laugh, and laugh and laugh. He could not contain his laughter. His eyes were dropped to the height of an asians and they were completely shot. If you looked at him, and you didn't know, you would assume he had pink eye, and stay away.

"Man, I'm hungry," he said, rubbing his stomach.

"Yea? It does that to you," I informed him. "I'm hungry too, do you have anything to eat?"

"No, but we can go hunting," he said, still laughing.

"Let's go then."

I then gathered all my belomgings and he led me to a part of the forest near a river, where he said we could catch an alligator.

"You can catch... an alligator?"

"Yup!" He proudly exclaimed.

The alligators here were much larger than the occasional alligator we would encounter in Miami, it made it even more impressive when Luffy caught the wild gator.

It didn't take long before he did catch an alligator, but it still took longer than it normally would've taken Luffy.

"Man, you have to teach me how to do that."

Luffy frowned. "We can't eat him with the skin, let me go get a knife."

I stopped him and pulled out my switchblade. "No need."

I stabbed the blade into the stomach of the alligator and sliced it open. From there, I didn't know what to do so I gave Luffy the knife and he made quick work of it.

From there, we set up a campfire and I helped him start a fire with my torch. We poked some alligator meat with sticks and started to cook them.

After what felt like an eternity, I finished cooking my first piece, meanwhile Luffy was struggling. He had dropped his piece into the fire and burnt it to a crisp.

I started eating my piece, and helped Luffy out. He couldn't really control himself while completely blazed out like we were.

At that moment, that alligator was the best food I'd ever eaten. I had no idea how hungry I was, and managed to stuff myself full of 7 large portions of the alligator. Luffy, on the other hand, was on his 12th portion after he mastered cooking while stoned, and it didn't seem like he was stopping anytime soon.

He just stabbed the gator meat with his stick, cooked it, and ate the whole piece in one bite.

I continued watching in amazement. "How is it possible for you to eat so much?"

Still eating, he answered, "I don't know."

He was multitasking, cooking multiple portions while eating. Describing it in words just doesn't do the scene justice.

Right after he finished eating the rest of the gator, leaving just the bones and the thick alligator skin, he immediately fell asleep. I couldn't blame him, it makes you really sleepy.

I got up, and went to the river to clean my knife. I decided I could do without my shirt, so I took it off and ripped a piece off from the side, which I used to wipe the alligator blood from my blade.

Again, I seem to have the best luck. I threw the piece of the shirt off to the side by where Luffy was asleep, stained with the gator blood, which to anybody that passed by, would seem just a little suspicious. I set my blade down, not realizing this and right as I did, Luffy's brother, Ace, happened to walk by.

If you can't guess where this is going, you have the IQ of a crawfish.

Ace looked at the scene, saw the open blade and the shirt stained with alligator blood and assumed the worst.

I didn't notice him, until he tackled me and started to punch me in the face until I managed to wrestle him off of me.

"What the fuck is your problem?" I asked, wiping the blood from my lip.

"You killed my brother! I knew I was right to not trust you! Now look what you've done!" He yelled out, and went to attack me again.

I dodged his first punch, grabbed his wrist, turned him around and kicked him into the ground. "You're wrong, he's asleep."

"Like I would believe that!" He yelled, getting up and rushing me again.

I dodged again, grabbed him by his shirt and shoved him to the ground. "Check for yourself. I ain't no liar."

He then got up, set aside his rage for a little bit and shook Luffy to get him to wake up. "Luffy! Wake up!"

Luffy, however, was dead asleep, but at least when Ace turned him over, he could see that I wasn't lying, and that Luffy was snoring.

"Just let him rest, he's tired. He did catch an alligator, after all," I informed him.

"He wouldn't get tired after just catching an alligator. He's always super energetic."

"Well I wouldn't know then, he just finished eating and fell asleep immediately after."

I picked up my switchblade, examined it for any stains, then closed the blade and put it back inside my pocket.

Ace sat down next to Luffy. There was an awkward silence for a couple of minutes, until Ace spoke up.

"If Gold Roger had a son..." He paused, then he continued, "should he have been born?"

I looked at him, before answering to the best of my ability. "I don't know who Gold Roger is or was, but I do know that it isn't right to wish anybody death. So I guess my answer would be, yes, he should have been born. I think everything happens for a reason, and it isn't in our power to change the past or the future. It also doesn't matter where someone comes from, what matters is that they're their own person."

He looked at me, speechless. I couldn't understand why. I knew I was in the One Piece world, but for some reason, I couldn't rememeber anything about it, other than a couple of major characters.

"And I don't know if you can tell, but I'm not from here," I told him.

He looked at me, and asked, "what do you mean? You just appeared here?"

"To be honest, I don't even know myself. This whole place is uncharted territory for me. I brought along some things that might help you understand." I pulled out my phone, which still had battery as I hadn't touched it since I landed. I showed it to him, and he was fascinated by it. He had never seen anything like it.

"Where I come from, this is called an iPhone. It's useless here though, 'cause I need a variety of things in order to use it. All I can do with it right now is play the music I have on it."

"So, you can store music on this little thing?"

"Yea, it's hard to explain, but I can show you." I opened my backpack and pulled out the bluetooth speaker, and then traded the speaker back for my phone. "Can you press down on that button right there?"

He pressed it down, and it made a sound signaling it was ready to pair to my phone. I connected it to my phone and opened Apple Music, and started to play some trap music that's generally popular in Miami.

When the music started blasting through, Ace didn't know how to react. It startled him, and he looked around to see where else the music would be coming from, but it was clear there was nowhere else it could be coming from.

"I don't like it," he said, so I turned it off.

"They like it where I come from. Not for everybody I guess."

"Luffy would be amazed by all of this. You should show him when he wakes up." Just as he finished saying that, Luffy stirred.

"Oh, I fell asleep," he said. His eyes weren't as low as before, and they were mostly clear by now.

"I need to ask you two for a favor," I started, earning questioning looks from both of them. "I need to get stronger, can I train with you for a couple years? I'm not planning on staying here forever, so I need to get stronger for when I leave."

"You seemed plenty strong when I attacked you," Ace stated.

"You guys fought?" Luffy asked.

"Yea, while you were sleeping. Nothing serious though," I answered.

"You can train with us, just don't expect me to go easy on you," Ace said.

"I was hoping you would say that," I replied, grinning like a madman. Ace smirked.

"Great! Let's start right now!" Luffy energetically exclaimed.