12 Realization

Walking while scouting my surroundings I took a drink from my canteen and placed it back In my bag. After travelling for awhile I noticed something off about this section of the forest.

"Hm, the grasses and shrubs in this area seem to be considerably less wild. Almost like someone's been maintaining the forest as if it were a garden."

That's when it hit me. Literally. Like being hit in the back by a baseball.

I steadied my self and turned to face my attacker.

Nothing.

'BAM' I wheeled around and again nothing.

I calmed my min- 'BAM' "DAMMIT. Who the hell is doing that?" I yelled, foolishly hoping for a response.

But I only got silence and another fist sized welt on my back.

I spread my awareness and focused on the pain. The second something touches me I'll spin around and grab it before they could pull back. I was almost sure I knew what was attacking me. I just had no idea they were so precise.

'BAM' "Gotcha!" The second I felt it, I began to move, but just as I grabbed hold of what ever it was. I felt another strike. This time to my stomach.

I felt to one knee. The blow had winded me, but I didn't let go. I still had one of the things in my grasp and as I pulled my hand around to look at what it was.

"I knew it" I exclaimed. Satisfied at my guess. What I held was a large brown bunny. Not a common rabbit, but a wild hare. With horns too. They were similar to those of goats, but didn't curve back or grow too long. They way this particular species fights and forages for food has earned them a rather interesting name.

The combat gardener hare.

They were known to be rather violent should anything enter their territory. And the way they foraged for food made it so that it seemed as if a human was maintaining it. Thus the name.

I tossed the creature to the floor along with my backpack, stood up and readied my staff. The way these creatures fought would be perfect training. And I wont have to kill a single one. When I leave their territory they'll leave me alone.

"Now come."

And they did. Sometimes two at a time, sometimes three and as I fought I slowly began to get the hang of their timing. Dodging, ducking, diving and more dodging. Constant moving. Doing my best to fend of their well timed attacks.

After avoiding being hit a few dozen times, having a lot more of them hit me, I finally stopped watching and started to act.

Spinning around just after avoiding being hit in the shoulder, I held my staff shoulder-width apart and stopped the attack clean. With the hare's horns perfectly between my hands, my left arm bent slightly as I brought down the right side of the staff onto the back of its neck.

That's where the tides began to turn.

They were tough little things and I couldn't deal with them in a single strike, but the same could be said for me. The differences was, I began to adapt. Learn from my mistakes and improving mid battle. Eventually they could no longer land a single hit on me. I blocked as many as I could, while simultaneously countering. Eventually I started to tire and I slowly moved towards the edge of their territory picking up my bag as I moved. When I was finally out they stared at me. Eyes gleaming through the bushes.

There were FAR more than I thought. If I had ever wondered why they didn't exhaust themselves or seem injured at all, it made sense now. They were switching out. No two hare's ever had to attack back to back. And when one was hit, they had plenty more to send out without needing to risk sending in the injured.

Smiling contently I walked till they were out of sight, where I promptly sat down and dug through my bag for my canteen and the remains of the spinegator. Taking a few sips from the canteen and a few bites from the chunk of cooked meat, before putting it back. I then began to meditate once more on my mistakes.

And so it went, for an entire week. Sometimes I would find some type of weird, or overly large beast trying to hunt me. Where In would I would fight the creature to the death, or until It fled. And other times I would find a unique herbivore that had developed the strength to fend off the carnivorous beasts dwelling within this forest. I would always spar with them until I was exhausted. After each battle I would meditate on my mistakes and work to improve myself. I used the terrain to my advantage as worked on my parkour and ukemi skills both during battle and outside of it. I also spent time fighting bare handed against certain foes. Like the kickboxing monkeys or the sumo rats. They were fun, but I had to watch out for their teeth when they started to loose. They really were poor sports.

When the week was over and I left the forest, I sauntered towards the village.

Looking down at myself I realized my clothes were tattered, I was covered in cuts, bruises and barely healed scars and I looked almost like I did when I first entered Grassroots town. Only this time I was much bulkier. Not overly. A change like that doesn't happened overnight. I was less just skinny and more toned. My muscles where starting to show in more prominent ways and my skin was starting to tan due to prolonged exposure to the sun. I looked nearly unrecognizable from that pale kid who starved to death half a month ago.

My hair had grown slightly but still looked like a military cut.

'Sigh' Sadly my beard didn't develop much. It's still pitiful stubble at the moment, but one day it shall be glorious! My thoughts were cheery as I walked into the inn and went up to my room to change and wash myself. Next stop, the bounty hunters den to pick my next bounty.

After throughly enjoying the look of stupidity on Arthur's face when I walked in, (he had bet I would die in the forest and lost big) I walked over to Baona Fae and asked if she had any recommendations based on my experience with Joe and what I told her about my time in the forest. She apparently hunts there to get the food she serves. I had seen her a few times while there. I wonder how strong she is to be able to go in their and come back without a scratch. While I was thinking, about whether the rumours of her wrestling a fully grown cave bear and winning were true or not, she answered.

"I have a few suggestions, but only two if your looking for a straight up brawl."

And before I could ask more she pulled out a couple broken plate shards and tossed them across the room like darts. She then pointed me to where they landed and didn't speak again.

Walking over to the bounty wall, I eyed the posters the two pieces of plate shards had been lodged into. Both of them landed dead centre between the eyes. Staring in awe I couldn't help but Look back at the bartender and ask

"Honestly woman, just who are you?" before pulling down the higher bounty between the two posters. All I got was a grunt In response. "Oh never mind." I said as I began to leave the bar. "And Thanks again."

My next targets bounty was just shy of 200,000.

'Wheeew'

I whistled and licked my lips at the thought of another challenge and a higher prize. With this I'll be close to buying my own ship. Then it's off to the Martial Isle to challenge real martial artists and once I'm satisfied I've learnt all I can, I'll journey around the south blue in my ship and start gathering my crew.

But before any of that I would first need to rest, get my staff and knife repaired and gather some information. Then I could go after my next bounty before returning to the forest. I'll repeat this cycle until I've gathered enough money not just for a ship but also for more weapons, since I've always wanted to own a weapons wall. Why not start now. The more weapons I own, the more I can practise with.

Though I think I'll always come back to the staff or spear. Other than hand to hand combat I want to be a master of all forms of weaponry. Maybe if I'm strong enough, and I get to the new world in time, if I can get to dressrossa and participate in the colosseum, I might be able to join the Straw Hat Grand fleet. But that's not going to happen anytime soon.

"Wait... what year is it." Thinking back to my body's memories I paused.

Looking around I ran up to the first person I saw and grabbed her tight by the shoulders. I basically screamed in the poor persons face "How long ago did Gold Roger Die?"

"e-excuse me?"

"You heard me! You know, Gold Roger the king of the Pirates, the guy who attained wealth, fame, power and everything else the world had to offer. How long ago was he executed?"

The woman seemed to freeze at the mention of his name, but she soon came too. She quickly came removed my hands from her shoulders, violently, and responded.

"Honestly how stupid can someone be. He was killed twelve years ago. That was the start of the great pirate era. How could any bounty hunter worth their salt not know something like that?!"

It was then I realized who I had grabbed. I was face to face with Lenora, one of the strongest bounty hunters on the island. Baona Fae had kindly mentioned it in passing confirming my suspicions. The one thing I didn't expect was that Arthur wasn't her partner, but rather she worked alone and he was always trying to get her to join up with him. Saying things like "With the two of us together we could take on any bounty around." And "We could even survive on the grand line if it was the two of us."

Arthur was quite the dreamer. Whereas Lenora was practical. She was content just hunting enough for her to save up while also paying her bills. And right now she did not look happy at having her white pantsuit ruffled in such a rude manner.

She put her hand on her left revolver and eyed me like a predator. "So James, who exactly are you?"

"Who me? I'm no one really, just a passing soul looking for adventure." I said taking a step back and placing my hand on the butt of my pistol.

And in a second she had drawn. I did the same but by the time I pulled it from my waistband, she had already fired.

My pistol flew from my hand. She put her smoking revolver towards her lips and blew the smoke from the muzzle.

"Take that as a warning. Touch me without permission again and I won't just disarm you." And with that she was gone.

I picked up my pistol and went back to the inn. Making a mental note not to mess with Lenora, I ate the meal they had prepared and lay down on the bed. My hand still shaking slightly. It started with a smile. At first it was a small smile. Then it turned into a fit of light laughter, before I nearly fell out of the bed I was laughing so hard. It kept up until the manager came up and told me to quiet down.

I closed the door and whipped the tears from my eyes. I learnt something incredible. I thought that since no one had heard of Straw hat Luffy that I was at the start of the series, before he got his first bounty. But after he had left Windmill village. I never would have thought I was sent back 10 years before the time skip. 10 Years before the war of the best at Marineford. And 12 years before Luffy set sail for the new world.

"I have a long time to catch up!" My smile returned as I held back my laughter.

Hell Luffy might even be getting his hat from Shanks around now. I had to force back another laugh. I can't believe I get to experience seeing the rise of both Ace and Luffy as an outsider. I wonder if I could join Ace's crew for awhile? He won't be entering the grand line for another 7 years.

First things first I need to get strong. Maybe I can have Lenora teach me to shoot before i go to the Martial Isles. That'll be tricky though.

Next I need to get into the grand line. I'll need to relearn how to navigate and sail in this world, since it's not exactly like earth.

I can decide once I have a ship what I want to do. After all I have more than a decade to plan it out.