Know Your Worth
prologue

She remembers it vividly, still on this day. (Someone could say she's lifetimes away from that event, but to her mind it feels like only a few years have passed.) She knows the children at the village don't like her and the Mayor, for some reason she doesn't comprehend (she blames her grandfather's genes and his hard fists that somehow are always finding a way to bump on her head), glares at her like she's the devil's spawn.

She doesn't care much, life has never been easy for her; she glances down from her place on her grandfather's shoulder. He's whistling a happy tune, his rough hands set on her knees to make sure she doesn't fall off. Again.

He's a strange man, that much she can say. She has never met anyone like him and she thinks she wouldn't have loathed his presence in the past either; he's prideful and super busy with his work (she still doesn't know what his job is, but he always leaves on a ship when he can't stay with her), but he tries for her. It's her fourth birthday today and he made sure to take the week off from work, so she's happy.

The other kids from the village don't like her. The boys won't hang out with her because she's a girl (something that makes her want to slam her head on the nearest walls, because really?) and the girls think she's too rowdy. And yes, the nice bartender from a few doors over is always there if she needs her, but she misses that type of unlimited affection that comes with a parental figure. Her Grandpa is never really there, just enough for her to consider him important.

This new existence came to her with a strange environment and an even stranger body. She's way too strong for a toddler and most times she ends up hurting the other children from town without wanting to. She's a glutton, and it's weird 'cause she remembers never being a fan of too much food. She's used to having a fine appetite, only usually eating only enough to keep her on her two feet and not crash down dead. She's only four now, but she can already eat more than a grown man; the nice bartender isn't the best cook, and her Grandpa is even worse, but she's always hungry hungry hungry and so she leaves it be.

She remembers her preference for movies, but they're not available here and so she resorts to reading. It turns out, the nice bartender is so nice that she actually sits down with her to help her when the pub isn't crowded. That's more often than not, the village isn't as big as they all think it is and clients are sporadic at best. She knows there's a kingdom on the other side of the island, but no one is brave enough to climb their way through the tall forest dividing the Windmill Village from the more, expensive civilization.

It's a curious world, the one she's ended up in. Starting from the very own trees her Grandpa sometimes gets lost looking at, or the serpentine-like sea monster that lives at the coast. It's strange because her Grandpa is huge, bigger than most men she has met in the past. And he can eat a lot too, just like her, and sometimes he falls asleep while doing so. He has called it narcolepsy, but she knows it should be a bit more serious than him casually falling asleep in the middle of drinking a beer. If it's that, shouldn't he have way less muscle mass? And there are no automatic episodes whenever he falls asleep, and, anyway, that's supposed to be genetic. Is she gonna have it to? She doesn't like the idea of sleeping while doing something important, much less in a world as unusual as this one.

She never tells him anything along those lines, though. Because she's four, and even if she's smarter than the average person, she still shouldn't know that much about a neurological disorder she supposedly had no idea about before. And she especially shouldn't use the word neurological before him. Plus, while her Grandpa is a funny person, she doesn't trust him. She's still pretty much confused about the happenings of four years ago, even with her developed mind and head full of past experiences, but she's slowly starting to put the pieces together. For the time being, though, she decides she'll live her life like she always has. Her brain is still slowly but surely organizing her many past memories and she needs an actual pastime 'lest she wants to go crazy.

She doesn't feel guilty about it.

Playing with people's heads is something she has always enjoyed; it came from being one of those that were different. Being called special for years, she started seeing herself as effectively exceptional. She's distinctive, way smarter than anyone else, and she gets bored easily… what's to stop her from finding her own amusement in others? She believes it's a bit like going to the town circus. With the difference that she doesn't have to pay to see an animal running in circles on itself, she simply has to blink her big, brown eyes in another's direction.

"What are you thinking about?" her Grandpa squeezes her knee and she looks down to him, her back bending weirdly so that she can see his dark eyes. She's starting to put the pieces together, of who she really is and the importance she holds in this world, but she's not sure she likes it. Don't get her wrong, because she enjoys the attention. It reminds her of the past and she's always been a bit adventurous anyways, but what great feat would it be if she followed everything to the dot?

She's going to lead her own life though, because she always does what she wants and there's no one who can stop her. She sends him a blinding smile, the same one she knows makes her eyes shine and her grandfather's heart swell; she should feel remorseful, because she's deceiving him while, no questions asked, he has tried so hard for her in the past years.

But the thing is, that she doesn't. So she shrugs, her tanned shoulders bobbing up and down in a way she knows makes her look cute. "When will you take me out to sea with you?" her voice is whiny and her rosy lips are in a petulant pout. The man looks at her and she can see the change in his expression, but it settles back into that same bedazzling grin she was gifted with.

If she was a different person, she wouldn't have caught it. But she's not, because she's smart and manipulative and her past is filled with emotional games and different masks. Her future will be the same, because she's never been prone to change anyway.

The look he had in his eyes unsettles her though, because for a moment it seems like he was seeing right through her tricks, through her. His smile yet is sweet and something she knows he saves for her and only her. She likes that, because she's possessive over her people. She's possessive over everything she likes and she has never been afraid to show it.

She's not prone to change but she's changed, she's not completely herself anymore. Her own essence is slowly being reshaped, to fit in a world where she's not supposed to be. She doesn't mind it as much as she should, because the power that fills her veins is gets stronger as the days pass.

(The man is hers, just as the nice bartender is. She protects what it's hers and she's the only one who can destroy them. She won't let others near them because they're hers and if they have to perish it'll be by her hands only, not some pesky little pirate or a worms-for-brain mountain bandit.)

At night, when her grandfather is out to sea for work and the nice bartender sleeps in her own home, she dreams of the past.

She dreams of the parents that never appreciated her enough, of the teachers who doted on her and defended her blindly with the promise of money. She dreams of days and nights spent awake, of blood and bruises, of the freedom she would feel only when her feet met the tartan pavement. She dreams a lot, but as soon as she wakes up the sound of the cars roaring over a bridge becomes nothing but a distant memory, and her chest doesn't hurt as much anymore.

The taste of mud stays on her tongue, though, and so she heads off the pub so that she can drink a glass of pear juice.

Makino would look at her, a gentle smile on her face. "Good morning," she says, and the little girl barely spares her a glance as she downs the glass expertedly. It's a fun sight, of that she's sure, and adults probably think she's imitating her Grandpa or one of the other tenors of the inn. Minutes pass before she's awake enough, sufficiently conscious for words to escape with lips without being harmful. "Makino, do you have some cucumbers?" she would ask and the day would proceed as always.

She doesn't blame anyone for the way she turned out. It would be ignorant of her, and if there's something she has always prided herself in it is how open-minded and intelligent she is. She doesn't show it as much in this life, and she thinks it's simply because she's in a child body still. She's manipulative and an insane bitch on most days, but she's not angry about it.

She likes it and people rarely dismiss her, because she has that air around her that is just so charming. She's gifted with the most dangerous ability in the world and she owns it freely, with well-thought words and a perfectly built mask always on her face.

No one notices, apart from her grandfather, and so she doesn't worry much because she knows he would give his life for her.

She's five and a half and she hasn't seen her Gramps in a while. He's been relocated to another sea and it's ok, because she knows the pirates are soon going to dock at her village's port.

He's a nice looking man and she grumbles, because she wishes she was older. It's hard getting used to being a kid all over again, especially for her who was so confident in her own skin. She knows she still has her same features from the past, her big brown eyes shadowed by long eyelashes as black as her short hair. She knows how she'll look, how her life will most-likely go, but the sight of copper hair still makes her sigh and groan.

He crouches before her and a soft dimple appears as he grins at her and she thinks she might swoon. "Hi, d'you know a place where we could have a bite to eat?" His voice is smooth, almost honey-like and she wonders if all the people she will meet in this life are like him.

She nods at him, her wavy hair fluttering around in the wind, and grips his hand as she leads him to her nice bartender's inn. She ignores the scared look on the Mayor's face and the glare he attempts to send her way, because he's nothing to her. He's below her, just as all the other people in this place.

(The man whose hand she's gripping tightly isn't though, because he feels like power and freedom. He feels like her and she adores it.)

"What's your name?" he asks as he stumbles behind her, trying not to step on her tiny feet. She admires the way he's being with her, because even if she knows of him, actually meeting him is a completely different thing. He's nice and gentle, nothing like the rowdy pirate her memories pictured for her.

She wonders if it's because she's a female, or maybe because she's nothing like what she's supposed to be in this life. She dismisses the thought, because it's not like an outcome to her questions would change anything.

She grins at him, her tanned skin colouring pink on her cheeks and her big eyes wide.

"I'm Luffy, nice to meet ya!"

Kind of, Sorta, Most-Likely, Self-Insert? Oc insert? Yes, let's call it that. Updated, hopefully better, version of the prologue of KYW! This is gonna be an AU, quite a bit canon divergent if I succeed with it, but also... you know basic canon events will be there 'cause how is she gonna pick up the Strawhats? But yes, still working on the deets but if you're interested I'll be sure to have the first chapter out soon enough :)! Hope your quarantine is going well (mine is involving way less - meaning none - studying than it should and way too much other things) and that you're interested by this ! Please review as I'm really interested in your opinions and feel free to drop some suggestions :)))