I realized I was a "Reincarnated Person" when I was four years old.
A certain incident triggered it, and from somewhere deep in my mind, like a flood, they came rushing in. Memories I had never experienced, yet which I knew with certainty had "happened." Memories I recognized as my own.
At the time I was half in a panic and couldn't make any sense of it. I was so scared I thought I must be having some kind of bizarre dream. But after I let some time pass and thought it over calmly, I understood: these were "past life memories."
I had died once, and with those memories still intact, I had been reborn into this body.
And at the same time, I also came to understand "what kind of" world this was.
Not memories from my past life. Memories from this one. Among them, there were far too many words I recognized.
"Grand Line."
"Pirate."
"Marine."
"Den Den Mushi."
"World Government."
"Devil Fruit."
Along with plenty of others, there was an overwhelming amount of information pointing to this world being the world of a certain mega-famous manga.
I was forced to recognize it, to be certain of it, whether I liked it or not. This was the world of One Piece.
I had "reincarnated" into this world with my past life memories intact.
And on top of that, I'd been born as the daughter of a perfectly ordinary, utterly unremarkable civilian family, on some island smack in the middle of the Grand Line, that sea crawling with dangerous Pirates.
As a Pirate who had attacked our village swung his saber down at me with a vulgar laugh, and the world seemed to slow to a crawl around me, I watched the scene unfold as if it were happening to someone else, and thought about all of this.
***
...Now then. Since I managed to survive that little crisis, let me start by introducing myself while organizing the situation.
Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. I survived. Somehow.
I'll explain how I was saved in a moment, so just hear me out first.
My name is Sue.
Full name: Venerdi Toto Sue. I've got a middle name and everything, but it's not like I'm of noble birth or anything. Just a perfectly ordinary, everyday girl. Also a Reincarnated Person.
Since I don't recognize the name from my past life, I'm guessing I'm not an Original Work character. Probably just a regular nobody, a nameless background-mob kind of existence.
I was living in a small village on an island somewhere in the Grand Line. I don't really know where exactly it is within the Grand Line, but there I "was," living happily and peacefully with my parents, just the three of us. Past tense.
A few days ago, word came in that another village on the same island had been attacked by Pirates.
And upon investigation, it turned out the Captain of those Pirates was a Bounty Target worth 30 million Berry.
Given how inflated things get in the Original Work, that number might not seem like much, but for ordinary civilians with no power whatsoever, it's a thoroughly hopeless figure.
Even if Bounty amount doesn't directly equal strength, there's no question it represents that level of "danger."
Arlong, who served as the final-boss-type figure for the "East Blue" arc in the Original Work, had a Bounty of 20 million Berry. This guy was 1.5 times that. That Arlong, who could pick up an entire house and hurl it with brute strength alone.
Granted, Arlong's circumstances for coming to the East Blue were somewhat special, so his posted amount probably wasn't the whole picture... but anyway, that's beside the point.
To top it all off, word was these Pirates had set sail heading straight for our village. Absolute disaster.
It was obvious this was beyond anything the village Self-Defense Corps could handle. Frustrating as it was, the conclusion was that we had no choice but to abandon the village and flee. So we packed up and the entire village prepared to evacuate.
But it was already too late. Before the evacuation could even begin, the Pirates forced their way into the harbor and started attacking the village.
Just as expected, the Self-Defense Corps was swept aside in an instant, and the looting of homes began.
No good. I'm dead. Absolutely dead. There's no way a child's stamina is enough to outrun this.
A Pirate approached me with a leering grin as I stood frozen, paralyzed by the hopeless future laid out before me. But between the fear and the panic, I couldn't move.
And then, with timing that was either perfect or terrible, that was the exact moment I remembered my "Past life"... and the shock of it sent my brain into total shutdown.
By the time I came to my senses, I could see the Pirate swinging his saber down right in front of me, and I thought, 'Ah. I'm dead.'
'I finally reincarnated, and it's over the moment I become aware of it?'
But apparently, God, if such a being even exists, hadn't abandoned me just yet.
The instant the saber came down, the Pirate was suddenly sent flying sideways with tremendous force.
So much force that he smashed clean through the wall of a nearby house and out the other side.
"Standing around like that'll get you killed, Missy."
And the man who had just punched that Pirate into oblivion was... a very large man.
Draped over his shoulders was a pure white coat, and on the back, two characters: "Justice."
Standing in the follow-through of a punch, his arm, bare skin and all, dyed pitch-black. A middle-aged man.
"Well, I suppose it's a bit harsh telling a little girl like you to snap out of it... Hey, someone get this child to safety!"
"Sir!"
Following the middle-aged Marine's orders, someone who appeared to be a subordinate scooped me up and carried me off somewhere.
Lifted up well above my own height, I happened to glance around and saw that all across the village where the Pirates had been rampaging moments ago, Marines in matching uniforms were fighting the Pirates.
No, "fighting" was too generous a word. It was completely one-sided. The Pirates were desperately trying to flee and defend themselves while the Marines chased them down and took them out.
I happened to spot a man lying sprawled out near the entrance to the village's central square. That guy... I was pretty sure he was the Boss, the one with the 30 million Berry Bounty. His face was caved in so badly his features had changed, so I couldn't be completely sure.
I learned this later, but apparently the leaders of the village that had been attacked first had sent a rescue request to the Marines, not really expecting it to work. And a Marine vessel that happened to be sailing nearby had picked up the request and come to help.
They hadn't made it in time to save that first village, but they'd chased after the Pirates and come to rescue ours.
And just like that, they rounded up every last Pirate and saved the village.
So, by the skin of my teeth, I survived.
Of course, there were more than a few dead and seriously wounded, so the village was far from "unscathed." But all you could really do was count it as a stroke of luck that we were alive at all, that we hadn't been wiped out entirely.
Having remembered the "Original Work," I understood. This was that kind of world. The "Great Pirate Era" was that kind of era.
The Marines discussed various complicated matters with the village leaders, then departed.
The plan going forward was apparently for the surviving villagers and the survivors from the other attacked village to come together and rebuild as a single village.
Fortunately, both of my parents were injured but alive, so if I pitched in and helped out too, we'd manage to get by somehow.
And at the same time, I was thinking about what lay ahead.
Not daily life stuff. Self-defense.
I survived this time, but this world has death flags scattered everywhere... Pirates are all over the place, and a small village with no means of defense could be attacked and destroyed at any time.
There was no guarantee the Marines would always come rushing to the rescue like this.
In that case, I wanted to have the means to protect myself. I needed to.
If I started training little by little from now, at the very least I could build up enough power to defend myself... or maybe I couldn't, but it had to be better than doing nothing.
This world was full of monsters who could take down enormous wild beasts and Sea Kings with nothing but raw physical ability.
They weren't everywhere, but where they existed, they existed. This was a world where ordinary humans could train their bodies to reach that kind of level.
I seemed to recall online communities joking that this world, along with a certain hunter world, had "protein mixed into the air" or something.
Of course, people like that also had talent, proper training, and in many cases combined it all with things like Haki, excellent weapons, and other advantages.
Even so, the fact remained that this was a world where the possibility existed for a pure human to reach those heights.
So I should do it rather than not. Absolutely.
If something happened and I ended up thinking, 'I should have trained'... that would be the worst.
By the way, that Marine who saved us... well, the one who seemed to be the Boss of the group. I felt like I'd seen him somewhere before... Who was he?
Close-cropped purple hair, Armament Haki strong enough to turn his entire arm jet-black... If I wasn't imagining things, I thought I'd also heard someone call him "Admiral"...
Couldn't quite place him... Had my past life memories not fully awakened yet?
Oh well. Not knowing probably wouldn't cause any problems... I'd just count it as a stroke of luck that a Marine Admiral had come to our rescue.
And precisely so I didn't waste that stroke of luck, I wanted to train properly and get stronger.
Still, if the person I didn't know, or couldn't remember, held the rank of Admiral... then as expected, the timeline was probably way off from the Original Work.
One more thing.
I also learned this later, but... the "Great Pirate Era" hadn't started yet.
I looked at the newspaper, and there was an article about the Roger Pirates. They were apparently still going strong and very much active.
The Original Work's timeline hadn't even begun, let alone the Great Pirate Era, and there were already this many Pirates out on the seas? I'd known it, but still... this world was terrifying.
Also, what year is it even?
To be continued...