Chapter 3: The forest guardian?

Harry, for the second time in his short life, awakens in a new and different world. 

He was on a beach.

"Uggghhh, my head hurts. And why do I feel so weak? My whole body feels like it's filled with lead. And and…..AAAchoo. Sniff. Ugh, Looks like I'll get a cold soon."

This was the result of lowering his physique and body health in exchange for points in the Cube store. His body was in a horribly weak state and there was nothing he could do about it in the short term.

"Uggh, this sucks. I am really starting to regret my decisions."

And that's when he saw something that really surprised him.

"POCK POCK POCK...….."

"Is that….a dog with a chicken head?" Harry said to himself.

'Huh, this is One Piece world alright. Now, why does that thing seem familiar?'

Harry sat up and started moving towards the jungle. Despite feeling weak and tired, he knew that he had to find a source of water, food, and a place to sleep. So, the first line of business is to simply find a source of water and then hopefully some edible fruits or coconuts.

As Harry continued toward the centre of the small island he kept seeing more and more peculiar creatures. A Snake that had rabbit ears and a rabbit spoof at the end of its tail. A pig that had a black lustrous mane around its neck. And some more.

Suddenly he heard a shout.

"Stop there you ugly beast, if you value your life."

"Who's there?" Said Harry as he came to a stop.

"This is the guardian of the forest. You are a pirate, aren't you?"

The voice shouted back.

"No, no I'm not. I am a survivor of a shipwreck. The ship I was on was boarded by pirates and was put on fire. I had to jump off to survive. Who are you?"

Harry shouted back as well. 

"Oh, that's very sad. Here, My name is Gaimon."

And that's when Harry looked down across from him, in a bush there was a box with an afro.

"Wha...Oh!!! You! You are the forest guardian?" Harry replied back with surprise.

And he had good reason to be surprised. There was a talking box with an afro on top. And that's when he realized where he had seen that before and why the creatures from before looked familiar.

He was in East Blue on a very peculiar island.

This part of the manga is often forgotten by the readers and fans of One Piece. This island and its resident Gaimon were shown in a sort of filler chapter. It was a canon chapter but it had the feel of a filler chapter. Luffy, Nami, and Zoro came to this island when going to the island of Usopp.

Now Harry realized where he was thrown into. And this was extremely valuable information.

"Hey, Gaimon. What happened to you? Why are you in a box? Need some help getting out of that?"

Gaimon looked a bit surprised at being asked such simple questions since he rarely had any visitors and all of them were pirates looking for treasure and trying to poach the rare creatures on the island.

So, he took a look at the new visitor and then replied, "I fell off a long height into this box. My back was sort of broken and after staying in this posture for so long I'm sure that it was joined together in the wrong shape. I can't survive getting out of this box."

And wasn't that a sad situation.

"I see. Well, I'm homeless now and I doubt I'll be getting a ride home anytime soon. So, I would love to stay here with you for some time. Would there be any problems?"

Gaimon replied, "Yes, certainly. I have a small place where I live. There's clean water nearby. You can stay here."

"Thanks Gaimon."

And so they went towards the living area and as soon as they reached there, Harry had collapsed in the dirt without any strength.

"What! What's the matter? Are you alright?"

Gaimon came forward and asked Harry.

"I'm too hungry and thirsty. I've been floating in the water for too long."

This was not completely true but for now, that'll have to do.

"Ohh, right, give me a minute."

Saying that Gaimon moved fast to his storage room and brought three big mangoes. He then swiftly cut them up and offered them to Harry.

"Here, eat this. There's tons of sugar and vitamin C inside. Since you might also have scurvy, this will be helpful."

And helpful it was indeed. After eating Harry felt much better than before. He was still very weak. But it was better than before. Not to mention, his body was bone thin and looked somewhat grotesquely disfigured. There was a reason that sacrificing his physique gave him so many points. It had to have given him the biggest setback in the scenario.

"Thank you Gaimon. Without you, I would've probably collapsed and died on this island. If I may ask, have there been other people who came here?"

Gaimon looked a bit happy with the compliment but he replied to the question, 

"No, only pirates."

"Why is that? Why would only pirates come here?", Harry asked for clarification.

"Well, it's because there is a treasure map spread around that point to this island. That's how I initially came to this island too."

"Woah, so you were a pirate?"

"Yes, but I wasn't really good at it," Gaimon replied with a bit of self-deprecation.

"I see. Did you go to the grand line, Gaimon? I hear that every pirate aims to go there."

"No, but I did hear from pirates that it is a very scary place."

"I see."

............…..

Harry and Gaimon continued talking, with Harry trying to get subtle information about the timeline as well. For all he knew, it could be years before the Straw-hats get there. Not to mention, he could also be late and the Strawhats could've already passed this island years ago as well. That would be problematic but much more than the previous scenario.

By doing that, Harry learned some valuable things from the exchange.

First, the Strawhats had not reached there by then.

Second, Gaimon had been stuck there for 19 years. Which was perfect for Harry. He vaguely remembered the chapter but he was sure that Gaimon had been stuck there for 20 years before the Strawhats had arrived there. So, there were roughly 6 months to one year left before the three Strawhats arrived there.

That much time was perfect for Harry to fix his weak body and learn the two Rokushiki at least. Not to mention he needs to build up his stamina a lot to be able to use his fruit.

Something that every fan of One Piece knows that almost every fruit can be OP if given to the right person or in specific scenarios.

One of the main things necessary for almost all devil fruit abilities is that they require a high amount of stamina and strength to be used for a long time.

So, that's the next plan for Harry, to use the Kami e technique to absorb a lot of nutrition and get his physique to a very strong level or at least up to the max it can get.

And that's what he did the second day.

............

In a clearing in the forest, Harry can be seen, flexing his muscles methodically in a specific manner.

To use kami e one needs absolute control over their body. For that, the first step is to simply familiarise with one's body. The easiest and fastest way is to flex every muscle and try to tap into the muscles that are smooth.

There are three basic types of muscles in the human body.

Skeletal muscles: The ones we can control and the ones that let us move our body.

Smooth muscles: The ones in digestive tracts and the ones that are sort of automated. These are involuntary muscles. They are governed by our subconscious mind.

Cardiac Muscles: The muscle that is specific to the heart. The heart contracts and relaxes without human conscious awareness. The difference between this one and the smooth muscles is that it's like a combination of the two. It works like Smooth muscles but looks like Skeletal muscles.

So, for learning and applying Kami e, there are several things that he needs to do. One, control his subconscious mind and via that, take total control of his entire nervous system and all that is connected to it.

And lastly, really control his hormonal system. It is connected to his nervous system, sure, but it is also really delicate. There is a very intricate balance that he needs to be maintained. Or there might be very horrible consequences. 

For the first task, he needs to just simply meditate and take control of his body slowly but surely. There are tons of exercises related to that in the Kami e manual. It's just a matter of time. The manual given by the system that was burned into his brain was very very comprehensive. All he needs to do is follow that information. 

The hormone part is tricky. There is a lot of information regarding that as well. But the problem is that based on one's body, there are very small amounts of changes. Every human body is unique. So, there are very subtle variations as well. So, the manual's suggestion is to observe the body's hormonal reaction during various activities and exercises. So, that part is going to be difficult. So, that's the plan for Harry's next six months. Achieve and learn Kami e as fast as possible and then enhance his base body as much as possible. After getting a great base strength and body, learning haki and the rest of the Rokushiki would be possible.

"Let's get started. This next month will be tough. But after that....hi hi hi, it's gonna be fun."