'Holy shit I'm in One Piece! A fictional show of island destroying pirates, homicidal marines, and an evil world government… holy shit how is this real?! How can this happen? Are all Animes real? Am I in a coma? Am I currently in the hospital and this is all just a lucid dream?... did I die?' I ask myself these questions as I desperately grip onto the now hard to hold onto flower stem with my shaky and sweaty hands.
With that last morose thought causing my chest to heave in panic and my brain to short-circuit for a second.
'Well, I don't remember dying… but, now that I think about it… I don't really remember all that much to begin with… I don't remember my name or the names of my family and friends… I don't remember what school I attended or what job I worked at … FUCK!... what I do know though are the general facts about the world and more importantly, that I'm NOT supposed to be here!' I scream in my head as I glance back at the scene in front of me for a split second… only to freeze when I witness something insane.
Right in front of me, right as the now identified Porche screams in anguish and heartbreak, Foxy, the character from one of the later seasons of the show, is seen not only getting his right arm chopped off at the elbow, but also 'cleanly' bisected into two by the now recognizable long arms giant.
Guts, blood, and little pieces of bone fly all over the place, landing and covering everything in the vicinity, from the flowers to the rocks to even the now screaming Porche in a deep crimson red.
"Aaaaaaahh!" Foxy screams in agony and horror as he comes to realize what's happened to him, with his now disconnected legs crazily flailing to and fro while he tries to move his upper body in their direction, wishing to somehow reconnect them.
"Kahahahaha, Kahahaha~ did you really think that flimsy whip of yours could do anything to block my blow?! Kahahahahaha, now look at you, two pieces of shit squirming around on the floor!" The cackling giant taunts the dying man as he stomps down onto the flailing legs with all his might, crushing the bone and everything else into a bloody paste.
Seeing this Porche begins to scream and cry hysterically, catching the sadistic giant's attention and making him lewdly grin at her body.
"Hoho~ now what do we have here? A sexy morsel ready to- "Jack goes to speak before being cut off by a loud *thump* coming from behind him, making him turn around and catching sight of my now hunched and heaving figure on the floor.
"Oh~ would you look at that, we got ourselves a peeper here~ well I'm sorry kid but I can't let you walk out of here alive now that you saw what happened," the giant begins to walk towards me with the same menacing gait as before.
"I would have taken you with me to forget about all of this and have some fun with that bitch over there with me and the boys, but this matter is about our honor as pirates, so no one must know about what happened here!" the giant loudly proclaims as he gets closer and closer to me, demonstrating the clear difference in our size as he seemingly grows to almost block out the sun.
My subconscious response is to stumble backwards and away from this monster, unfortunately that doesn't happen as I trip over some overgrown roots and land hard on my ass.
With the giant once again roaring in laughter at this," KAHAHAHA well if that isn't cliche I don't know what is!" while still approaching me at a steady and calm pace, like he's sure he's already won…
Which would have been the case, if not for the final piece of the puzzle my brain just randomly put together, Foxy, Porche, the giant, the cliff, the strange purple goop turning black, and most importantly, the fact that I woke up in the exact same spot where all these events took place.
'If I'm to believe that I somehow got sent into the world of One Piece then why did Foxy just die? Why didn't he use his powers? Why didn't he use his devil fruit to defend himself? And the answer to that question is obvious… he didn't have them yet! Foxy hadn't eaten his devil fruit yet! And assuming this event happened in canon… then that means the only way for him to survive is if he somehow found the fruit and ate it… but he didn't… and the only thing that's obviously different this time around… is me!' my thoughts whirl at the speed of light, trying to fit all the pieces together.
'And since I was the one that woke up in that exact same spot… right before throwing up some weird purple goop… then that means.'
"Slow-Slow Beam!"
I yell with all my might as I stretch out my right hand and make the famous Spiderman pose – the same one I remember Foxy using in the anime in order to use his fruit – and pray to whatever god sent me here that this actually works and I'm not just making a fool out of myself before I once again greet oblivion… and lo and behold, my prayers were answered!
As out of nowhere a sudden unknown energy begins to course throughout my body, into my outstretched hand, and finally out into space as mystical purple energy rings that approach the now surprised giant.
Fortunately for me, he barely even has the time to shield himself with his arms before being consumed by the energy.
And as the seconds tick by, my eyes nearly pop out of my head in amazement to the sight before me.
What not long ago was a murderous and sadistic giant who bisected a man as if nothing and then laughed about it, is now nothing more than a frozen statue of a comedian putting on an act as his large muscular arms slowly hover in place and his face is set in a rictus of surprise and utter bewilderment, with large saucer-like eyes and a low hanging jaw, and not to mention the utterly strange fact that he's slowly tipping backwards into the air.
It's one thing to see something like this in an Anime and think it's funny but it's another completely different thing seeing this in real life and getting to witness the absurdity of this phenomenon.
"… It worked! Holy fuck! It fucking worked!" I yell in elation, if I was being completely honest with myself, that was nothing more than a last Hail Mary that even I didn't believe could happen… not to mention that this confirms once and for all that yes… I am in the world of One Piece… but who cares about that right now?! I have fucking powers!
As I stand there, a sudden fact about this power pops into my head, the slowing effects only lasts for 30 seconds!
"Fuck!"
To this I immediately raise my arms in the Spiderman pose and once again fire, "Slow-slow beam!" twice over, having to for some strange reason catch my breath afterwards, 'I guess that's the so-called strain of using devil fruit powers… but it's worth it!'.
I then near the frozen long-arm giant and inspect him closely, 'Amazing, this is basically a form of time manipulation! In my previous world this was nothing more than some fictional sci-fi concept found only in movies and anime, but here, right in front of my very eyes stands a person frozen in goddamn time! Oh, and look at that! His eyes are slowly moving towards me! Quite Curious.'
I continue inspecting the giant a little more before the reason for this happening in the first place comes to mind, 'Haa~ I can't just let him go after all he did and planned on doing nor can I keep this up forever… so I'll just have to resort to using this power the only way I know how!'
I then walk up to the man, wind back my fist and punch forward with all my strength right into the man's gut, punching over and over in the exact same spot until the timer runs out and…
*Boom! *
Right in the middle of another swing the man goes launching off like a cannonball into the ground, creating a shallow furrow with his body and kicking up a thick curtain of dust as he lands, when my vision finally returns my eyes once again widen at the somewhat expected but still unbelievable results.
There, in the middle of a shallow trench the giant can be seen curled up onto himself while holding onto his stomach as thick globules of blood flow from his mouth and nose onto the rock; all the while struggling to breath with no apparent success… likely due to a pierced lung.
"Holy..." I exclaim seeing this, followed by looking down at my shaking and bloody hands, these devil fruit powers are amazing!
Who would have thought that me, a 6-foot-tall man could ever knock down and hurt a giant more than twice his size in only 30 seconds? No one, that's who!
I once again approach the downed and struggling figure, ready to do it all over again and make sure he stays down for good.
This is the One-Piece world, human bodies work differently here, and as far as I remember its possible to get better from that in a short period of time for some people, don't wanna risk it.
As I near the pirate a low gravelly voice suddenly sounds from behind me, "O-oh *sniff* p-please wait a s-second!"
I whirl at the voice, somewhat paranoid by now, and come face to face with the woman named Porche – who was clearly mourning over the ruined corpse of her now dead friend – weakly walking towards me with some sort of golden baton white-knuckled in her hands, a dangerous glean in her tear-stained eyes.
"What is it?" I ask curiously and somewhat vigilantly as I notice the object I hadn't previously seen, must have been in her clothes or something.
"H-he *sniff* k-killed b-boss, P-please sir I want to *sniff* be the one t-to end him!" she stutteringly but heatedly replies between sobs, as she looks at the still squirming giant.
As I process her words my eyes slightly widen but then slowly nod in understanding; to be honest I wasn't completely sure what I was going to do with this guy after knocking him out... but if anyone has a say in it then its most likely this grieving woman.
"A-alright then… well go right ahead… I guess?" I hesitantly answer as I step away from the giant.
I watch as she slowly walks up to his body, looks down for a small second, before ruthlessly bringing down the end of her baton onto the giants' vulnerable head over and over and over again until all that's left is but a deflated mass of meat, bone, brain matter and blood.
Seeing this barbaric act slightly startles me, but already having witnessed something much worse not long ago I'm not too horribly bothered… that isn't a good thing, is it? Or maybe it is in this world? Who knows…
Anyways, considering how the Anime portrayed her character being quite close to Foxy and always supporting him emotionally, then I guess this is to somewhat be expected... they must have been good friends.
The butchery continues for some time until I see her bend down, grab the leg of the now headless corpse, slowly drag it along the rocky ground towards the edge of the cliff, and finally kick it down into the sea.
*Splash*
The sound of the large body hitting the waves sounds out as I look at the now blood-soaked Porche, she stays on the edge looking down for a long second, before turning around and kneeling near the gruesome remains of Foxy.
…
I stand there awkwardly, not really knowing what to do before I'm reminded of my situation and the fact that I don't really know where I am or where to go.
I consider asking for directions from the once again grieving woman but think better of it and simply walk towards where I saw them come from, hoping to find the trail that leads out of this hellhole.
And as I enter the forest her soft voice reaches my ears, "Thank you".
"No problem," I emotionlessly reply.