I honestly had been thinking about the One Piece universe for a while, it is vast, and the bullshit one can place into it is quite outstanding.

It is also a very difficult world to play with. Either one ends up following too close canon, or the MC becomes immediately overpowered, for this or that reason.

I am also trying to flesh out a character that says 'fuck you' from the get-go.

I doubt I will be able to portray the world Oda has gifted us, and surely I won't be able to match This Bites by Xomniac, which is simply perfect. In a way, that one is a better-written edition of my own Revolution, and frankly I read it during the last week, cursing myself for not having found that particular gem before.

Anyway, this is a very long term project, that I honestly believe will fall apart at some point, if only because I get bored writing about the endless series of islands.

Since my stories are from the POV of a more or less jaded character, they come out showing a bit more the dark side of the worlds they are written in. But... that's kind of the point.

Feel free to point out what does not make sense in your heads and spare me your angsty outbursts.

I don't own shit beyond my character.

Have Fun!

GRINDING

The sky was so blue it almost felt unreal, the few clouds were white and fluffy, roaming aimlessly among the higher currents.

The beach was a long stretch of white, fine sand, the waves quietly crashing on the shore.

The ocean shone of a sparkling blue, mirroring the sky, occasionally broken by the white foam of waves breaking against the wind.

"It is different from what I remembered." I muttered to myself.

The body my consciousness was living into appeared to belong to a three years old boy.

Red hair with matching eyebrows, irises as blue as the sea itself, and delicate features under the rightfully chibi-face.

I was wearing a white cotton shirt and a pair of shorts. I had chosen to forego my sandals to feel the sand between my toes.

It was the first time my mother had allowed me to leave the house on my own, hence why I had chosen to mesmerize myself staring freely to the ocean.

From there my vague awkwardness.

I lived in a small village on a small island, curiously enough, the technology gap between the world I came from and the one I was into was mind blogging.

No school, no hospital. Those had been the first two things that actually made me realize that there was something wrong.

Have you ever been in a situation so utterly alien that even if you are seeing it, your brain can't elaborate it?

That was how I was feeling.

In my tiny, chubby hand, I was clutching a newspaper.

What the fuck was wrong with the newspaper? Simple, really. It was a motherfucking news coo.

That had been the detail necessary to hammer in the absolute certainty of my current predicament: I was in One Piece.

If the manga, the anime, or a mixture of both along with the movies, I had no idea.

And honestly, it didn't really matter. I could have been reborn in the bible for what mattered, even if it would have been undoubtedly less fun. I could remember my previous life like a very vivid dream, and there wasn't a single event that justified my existing into the Obe Piece reality.

It most definitely was not a dream, simply because if you can think about being in a dream while you are sleeping, it's really easy to distinguish it from reality. At least this is always been something I could do.

Was I in a drug-induced coma?

It doesn't really matter does it? I realized with freezing certainty.

Fortunately enough, I could recall pretty well the events described by Oda.

If my life was a paradoxical result of a parallel universe in which Goda chose to metaphysically break the fourth wall from day one, I... I honestly didn't know if I wanted a refund or not.

Are my thoughts the result of some dumbass typing on a fanfiction site in the middle of the night?

Do I have free will?

Would I realize if I didn't?

My three years old face contorted briefly into a snarl.

"What the fuck is the point of being born anew in a fucking magical-physics breaking-moral thwarting universe if I can't even do what I want?" I muttered under my breath, the breeze, and the waves covering my words.

In that moment, I knew. I felt, that like hell I was going to conform to whatever.

I was in a world of monsters, they mostly walked on two legs, and spoke with a human voice, but they could burn an island whole, cover themselves in magic black mumbo jumbo that allowed them to do whatever. And that was without taking notice of the utter bullshit that was the World Government.

Slavery, corruption... Bah.

I knew that in a world where the islands were separated by deadly stretches of water one from another, the cultural and technological development would be inevitably stunted, even more, because the ones who actively controlled any form of official trade were the Marines.

Read: brainwashed-mercenaries led by inhumanly powerful beings that catered to the whims of a self-sustaining oligarchy that actively implemented slavery just for shit and giggles

If I had a lifetime of dedication I would have joined the Revolutionaries, it was only a matter of becoming strong enough to be noticed, they would complete my training and employ me.

But there were two problems.

One: I really couldn't be bothered to liberally incite revolution just because.

Two: If I already existed on the base of whatever Random Omnipotent Bastard, like hell I was going to obey to anyone but myself.

"What to do, what to do..." I realized that I was strangely calm after the revelation of having being drafted in the standard Self Insert - Other Character fanfiction that I had enjoyed once upon a time.

Is it because of the same R.O.B.? I wondered briefly.

I scuttered closer to the sea, the cool water washing my feet with every incoming wave, and sighed again.

"What is the point of asking myself this shit? It's no different than asking to the aether if Allah or God were real back on the earth..." And it was true, maybe I wasn't real, maybe I was only words on a page, maybe I was a dream of a superior being, or a drawing from Pif the magic dragon. It doesn't matter.

I would make my choices, from the distinct lack of general madness in the edited newspaper I knew that Luffy wasn't around yet.

Which only raises more suspicions on the origins of my existence here. But I avoided once again the topic.

Were I to find a way to join the Straw Hat Pirates only to have a repeat of his adventures? Were I to set sail on my own? To find and join another supernova? To stay civilian?

The only question I had a ready answer for was my last one: Hell No.

I was reborn in the small village on an almost smaller, rocky island where pebbles or sand covered the shoreline and a small forest covered the northern surface.

There were less than twenty houses, which meant that everyone knew everything about everyone else, so I was already known at the strange, quiet child of Tomoe and Hitorama Izu, who apparently were my parents.

The boredom of being reborn in such a place was not easy to describe, and there would be no point to it.

It was the first time I was allowed to look without interruptions to the sea, and I could feel it. The Call. The waves, the winds, the promise of living of what you could fish, the challenge of the unending horizon.

I knew, that one day I would set sail to the sea.

What would I do then it was a mystery, but until I felt ready, there was only one thing I could, and should, dedicate myself to.

Training. Training my body because I wasn't aware Zoro held any special bloodline and I had seen him take a spectacular amount of abuse.

Until my body grew enough, it would be running and swimming in the low waters, doing the bare minimum to help my parents.

Now that I think about it, learning how to properly fish is an excellent idea. I noted to myself.

Once I hit five, I would start with bodyweight and steadily increase it.

I would push myself until I learned the bullshit skills of the CP9.

Or at least, flying and moving fast, those two were a must.

Then...

I smacked myself on my forehead.

Haki

The utter bullshit everyone was capable of that made someone virtually invulnerable or capable of seeing the fucking future.

The overpowered skill that made anyone certified unbeatable on this side of the Red Line.

I sighed, my fingers slowly massaging my temples to soothe my raging headache.

I was years away from any form of actually magical mumbo jumbo, but there was nothing to it.

There was only one thing to do:

Grinding.