On Dawn Island, a remote edge of the Goa Kingdom in the East Blue, there was a tiny seaside village called Foosha Village.
Fruit lay scattered all over the ground.
Standing in front of Monkey D. Luffy was a black gorilla.
Its face was swollen from a beating, courtesy of Luffy.
"Oy. Weren't you acting all tough the other day?" Luffy drawled, slowly peeling a banana as he stared down at the gorilla with open contempt. "What, you're done already?"
He took a bite and kept provoking it. "If this is all you've got, I'm not giving you any of these. Come on, come on. Show me something real."
Humiliated, the gorilla raised a thick, hairy palm and slapped toward him.
Luffy had expected it. He slipped aside effortlessly.
"What a useless little animal," he said, voice light and cruel.
The gorilla trembled. Tears gathered at the corners of its eyes. Unable to take the shame, it turned to leave.
Luffy clicked his tongue, as if he couldn't stand to watch it go.
"Ah, fine. I guess I'll share a little."
As expected, the moment it heard that, the gorilla spun around, delighted, and reached for the pile beside Luffy.
A boy and a beast sat together, happily eating like nothing had happened.
"This world really is something," Luffy muttered, chewing on an orange as he patted the gorilla's shoulder. "An animal that understands human speech this well."
They had barely finished when a wild boar appeared behind him, snorting and scraping at the dirt like it was announcing itself.
This one was a true "knight." It never attacked him from behind.
The gorilla let out a couple of wary grunts and bolted up a tree, vanishing in the leaves.
Luffy clapped his hands and stood, facing the boar head-on.
"Come on. Let me show you what human martial arts can do."
The ground shuddered.
The boar lowered its head, tusks aimed straight forward, and charged.
Luffy calmly struck what he thought was a cool stance and declared, "Tekkai!"
Then he got launched.
He flew five or six meters, sailed right off the cliff, and dropped toward the blue sea below.
Midair, Luffy didn't even bother resisting. He surrendered to gravity with a bored expression and went splash, sinking deep into the water.
The next second, a massive hand scooped him up.
A powerfully built old man, thick as a bear, appeared like he'd teleported in and hauled Luffy out in one smooth motion.
"Still can't swim?" the man said, setting him down. "At this rate, you'll never become an excellent Marine."
"I don't want to be a Marine." Luffy shook the seawater from his hair and opened his eyes.
"No," the man snapped, wearing beach shorts and a loose, oversized shirt. "You must become the best Marine there is."
He placed Luffy on a rock.
"I don't care," Luffy shot back. "I want to live happily in this world!"
The old man's teeth ground together. Then he raised a fist and punched Luffy on the head so hard Luffy dropped on the spot.
Only then did the man turn and leave.
"Ugh, that hurt…" Luffy groaned, hauling himself back up from below the cliff and dangling off a tree branch as he complained. "Armament Haki is ridiculous…"
This was Monkey D. Luffy.
Just… a Luffy who wasn't supposed to exist.
A reincarnator wearing Luffy's name and life like borrowed clothes, with a completely different soul inside.
And that old man walking away was Monkey D. Garp, his grandfather.
Garp was still relatively young, though the hair at his temples had already begun to pale. Luffy hadn't met Shanks yet.
If he had, he would've definitely bragged about becoming the Pirate King just to spite the old man.
Luffy looked out at the horizon. Then his eyes lit up.
Along the shoreline, two crossed swords framed a skull with a red scar, the pirate flag snapping proudly in the sea wind.
A wooden sailing ship, plain and unremarkable in size, yet its flag said everything.
Pirates.
Pirates had arrived.
But the villagers didn't panic.
They were used to this ship, used to this strange kind of pirate crew.
That scarred flag didn't burn villages or slaughter innocents. They drank, laughed, stayed a short while, and left without disturbing the peace.
The villagers didn't hate pirates like that.
If anything, their visits even boosted the local economy.
"Shanks is here!"
Luffy tried hard to remember how the original story's Luffy first got close to Shanks.
He couldn't recall.
Whatever. He just had to act like a kid. A pirate like Shanks wasn't going to seriously argue with a child.
Besides, his grandpa was basically the law on this island.
So the seven-year-old Luffy sprinted toward the shore.
The pirates stepped off the ship in all kinds of outfits, carrying the salty, damp scent of the ocean with them.
"So these are pirates…" Luffy watched them, tall and short, fat and lean.
Sure enough, the Red Hair Pirates didn't care about him at all. They passed him like he was air.
"Yeah," a crisp child's voice said beside him. "Got a problem with that?"
Luffy turned.
A little girl with split-colored hair, half red and half white, stood there looking smugly at his soaked clothes.
Compared to him, she was dressed in glittering finery, pearls draped around her neck and wrists.
She looked like a princess, not a pirate.
"You're…" Luffy stared, disbelief flooding his face.
Uta.
So he really had been tossed into the wrong version of the world. Why was a movie character here?
"Uta," she said brightly, as if introducing herself was the most important thing in the world. "I'm the singer of the Red Hair Pirates. Uta dayo."
Seeing someone her age, she seemed delighted to show off to a country bumpkin.
Luffy wasn't interested. The red-and-white hair was weird enough, and he knew exactly what kind of trouble she could become.
His gaze slid past her.
To the man stepping down last.
Red hair.
Three scars slashed across one eye.
A sword hanging at his waist.
He moved lazily, but there was something about him, a magnetism that made people want to follow.
Red-Haired Shanks.
So you really are Uta's dad.
Luffy decided not to waste time on the fact that Uta had "invaded" his world. He bounced forward, excitement rising.
"Hey! You're the captain of this pirate crew, right?"
"Let's duel! I'll protect this world!"
He shouted and charged, fist swinging toward a former crewmate of the Pirate King.
Shanks calmly reached out and grabbed the back of Luffy's shirt, like seizing a kitten by the scruff.
"Damn it! That's cheating!"
Luffy kicked and punched wildly in midair, but with his tiny arms and legs, he couldn't land a single hit.
"Duels," Shanks said with an easy smile as he lowered him back to the ground, "are something you can talk about when you're older."
"Hahahahaha!"
The crew burst into laughter at how easily Luffy had been subdued.
I'm evenly matched with Shanks!
Luffy ignored their reactions. The instant Shanks set him down, he drove his little fist straight into Shanks's chest.
Thump.
Mission accomplished.