Chapter 22

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Toshi perched himself in the crow's nest, the highest point on the ship where the world seemed to stretch endlessly in every direction. The cool breeze tousled his hair, sending it flopping across his face, but he didn't bother to brush it away. The wind felt too good, and he was too lazy to care.

There was something peaceful about this moment, the water shimmering like it was trying to win a beauty contest. Toshi let out a long sigh, the kind you'd expect from someone carrying the burden of great philosophical questions. "This world," he muttered to himself, "is way too pretty for how much it sucks."

He squinted, tilting his head slightly as his eyes caught something in the distance. On the horizon, a faint line stretched across the water, no thicker than the width of his nail. He leaning forward, and almost fell over the railing. "Is that... the Grand Line?" he murmured. The idea felt absurd; they were still a few days away, and yet there it was.

The thought made Toshi pause, leaning his weight a little heavier on the railing as he stared out at sea. ' How big is the Grand Line? ' The question swirled in his mind like a loose sail in the wind. ' How big is this world? ' He didn't have an answer, but the sheer scale of it felt overwhelming...an ocean of endless possibilities.

His gaze narrowed as another thought crept in. ' When I get there... will I actually get stronger? '

The reality of his situation was a bitter pill to swallow. Right now, Toshi was training his ass off, not to become some pirate king or unbeatable hero, but just to avoid dying in the most humiliating way possible. He was clawing his way to the bare minimum of survival, and even that felt like an uphill battle.

He'd heard the stories about the Grand Line...how absurdly strong the people there were. No, not people. Monsters. They could punch craters into the earth like it was a casual, lift mountains like they were paperweights, and move faster than a blink, faster than thought itself.

Toshi clenched his fist, staring at his own hand like it was some foreign, weak thing. How could someone like him...a guy who could barely land a clean blow in a fight...ever hope to compare to that?

He let out a shaky sigh. ' Even if I dedicated my entire life to training... would it even be enough? ' The thought lingered, heavy and unwelcome. No matter how hard he worked, the gap between him and those monsters seemed insurmountable.

The breeze tousled his hair again, as if trying to shake him out of his thoughts. Toshi smirked faintly to himself. "Guess I'll find out the hard way."

Toshi was, for all intents and purposes, just a regular human. Nothing about him screamed "special". Unless you counted the fact that he was from another universe, which honestly wasn't much help in a world where people could shoot fire from their hands or crush mountains with their pinky fingers. ( From stories he'd hear from sailors... )

He had zero special abilities, no hidden power waiting to awaken, and to top it off, he lacked talent in almost every form of combat.

His swordsmanship...It was, to put it kindly, garbage. He'd been at it for weeks now, and the progress was...well, calling it "minimal" would be generous. Sure, a few weeks wasn't enough time to master anything, but even a clueless kid flailing with a stick could've shown more improvement. Meanwhile, Toshi was still fumbling with the basics.

His hand-to-hand combat was marginally better. Training with Troy had forced him to improve, mostly because the alternative was having his face repeatedly introduced to the ground. Sparring with Troy wasn't exactly a nurturing experience. It was less teaching and more trial by blunt force trauma. The guy wasn't cruel, but his advice was...well, let's just say it didn't help much.

( "Yeah, just swing your fist like that," Troy would say mid-spar, demonstrating an impossibly fast punch that Toshi had no hope of copying. "And then, pow! See? Easy, right?" )

Toshi chalked it up to "prodigy talk." Troy was absolutely the worst teacher imaginable. His explanations were a mishmash of vague gestures and rambling nonsense, like he was trying to explain quantum physics to a toddler using finger puppets. Most of the time, Toshi just nodded along and tried to make sense of the word salad pouring out of Troy's mouth.

Still, it wasn't all bad news. His marksmanship, surprisingly, was slightly better than his other skills. For some reason, it felt more natural to him—like aiming and shooting just made sense. That wasn't to say it came without effort. He'd still put in the work, but at least he wasn't hopeless.

Sogeki, however, made things...interesting. The guy was drunk all the time. Training with him was less like learning from a mentor and more like deciphering cryptic riddles from a old man who'd had one too many. Between the slurred instructions, sporadic burps, and occasional tangents about his glorious youth, Sogeki somehow managed to convey useful advice.

The hard part was figuring out what that advice was. Most of Toshi's training sessions involved piecing together fragments of Sogeki's drunken wisdom, like assembling a puzzle where half the pieces were torn.

But when he did figure it out, it clicked. Sogeki's tips, though buried under layers of inebriated rambling...actually worked. It wasn't pretty, but it got the job done.

Toshi let out a long, drawn-out sigh. "What a drag..." he muttered, slumping back against the sturdy wooden mast and crossing his arms. ' I just need more time... I'm expecting things to happen too fast, ' he admitted to himself, a twinge of regret creeping into his mind.

He wasn't wrong, either. Toshi had always been the type to expect instant results, whether it was in life or training. Patience wasn't exactly his strong suit. Deep down, he knew he had a habit of dreaming big while doing... well, very little. In his head, he'd jump from broke to millionaire overnight, all without lifting a finger.

And yet, if he were honest with himself, he knew exactly why he'd never gotten anywhere. Sure, he liked to blame the world, his luck, or even fate. But the truth was far simpler...he was his own worst enemy.

His downfall had a name...gambling. Toshi couldn't resist the siren call of a quick win. The thrill of tossing down some cash and walking away with triple the amount? It was irresistible. And the best part? He didn't even have to move. Just sit there, place a bet, and let the chips fall where they may.

But the chips never seemed to fall in his favor. Time after time, he'd lose everything, crawling back to square one, cursing his luck and vowing to quit. But deep down, he knew it wasn't luck that had wronged him. It was him...his choices, his greed, his stubborn belief that the next bet would finally turn it all around.

Toshi slumped further against the mast, the weight of his own thoughts pressing down on him. ' I'm just a lazy bum… ' he admitted to himself, though not without a twinge of bitter humor. Sure, he was a grinder in his own right. Grind is grind, after all. But his grind came with its fair share of consequences...ones he never wanted to face head-on.

The truth was, Toshi had been willing to do whatever it took to keep chasing his pipe dreams, no matter the cost. He'd shut everyone out without a second thought, convinced he didn't need anyone. When he didn't have money, he'd take it from others...friends, strangers, it didn't matter. If he couldn't borrow, he'd take it.

And the worst part? Toshi had believed his own lies. Lies that painted him as the victim, the underdog in a world that was always out to get him. Lies that justified his actions, convinced him that he deserved more than anyone else because life had been unfair to him.

But deep down, he knew the truth. How could he steal from people and expect them to care about him? To trust him? How could he believe they'd treat him with love or kindness after he'd burned every bridge he'd ever crossed?

Toshi wasn't just lazy. He was stupid. Immature. Selfish. And that's exactly how he ended up starving to death in a dirty alley, alone with nothing but his regrets.

He'd thrown himself into the pit, convinced he could climb out whenever he wanted. But when the walls closed in and there was no one left to pull him up, he realized the only person who'd truly betrayed him was himself...

Toshi clenched his fist, his knuckles whitening. 'Is that why I've been given a second chance? ' The thought lingered.

Before, it had all seemed meaningless. A fluke. He'd chalked it up to some cosmic joke or random twist of fate. But the more he thought about it, the harder it was to dismiss. ' Who brought me here? ' The question gnawed at him. Was it God? Some higher power that pitied him enough to pluck him out of his miserable existence and drop him into this hell of a world?

The thought made him pause, his expression darkening briefly. Whatever the reason, Toshi realized something that made his stomach knot. He couldn't waste this second chance lying around, sulking, or going back into his old habits. Not anymore.

He exhaled, long and slow, closing his eyes. For the first time in what felt like forever, a faint smile tugged at the corner of his lips...not one of sarcasm or bitterness, but something softer. Something...real. He raised his clenched fist, letting the sunlight stream through his fingers as the warm glow washed over him.

"To a new life," he muttered under his breath, lowering his hand, pausing for a brief moment he then turned and began climbing down from the crow's nest.

"I've been training for a while, and I'm hella sore..." Toshi groaned, rolling his shoulders. He let out a deep yawn, a small bead of tears welling up in the corner of his eye. "I'ma clock in for today..."

With his mind made up, he went back to his dorm and collapsed onto his bed. For some reason, he had a feeling he was going to need this extra sleep.

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The wind tore through the air rattling the masts and snapping at the sails like it was trying to shred them to ribbons. Above, the clouds were black and gray, spilling torrents of rain that hammered the deck relentlessly. Waves slammed into the ship, rocking it side to side so violently it felt like the whole thing might flip at any moment.

Toshi clung to the railing, his fingers aching from the cold. His raincoat clung uselessly to him, already drenched through. Water streamed off him in floods, mixing with the seawater that flooded the deck and sloshed around his boots. Another wave crashed over the side, dousing him head to toe, but he barely flinched.

His eyes were fixed forward, locked on to something in the distance. The Red Line stood before him like a wall of eternity itself. It was so tall that it disappeared into the stormy clouds above. It stretched beyond the horizon in either direction.

HUGE...Gargantuan...Massive...

Those were the words that came to Toshi's mind as he stared up at the Red Line. The sheer scale of the thing was unreal, stretching higher than he could fathom, A wall that seemed to go on forever and never ending. But as his gaze locked on the wall, the real problem wasn't its size...

The ship was being pulled in towards the Red line. They were caught in something, though the fog was so thick he could barely see a foot in front of him. The only thing he could make out was the Red Line looming above them.

"CONTROL THE RUDDER!" Dragon's voice cut through the storm. His green cloak flared in the wind, billowing violently around him, but it never seemed to fly off...almost like it had a mind of its own. The crew scrambled in all directions, their boots slipping across the slick deck, but they kept moving like their lives depended on it...well it did.

"WHAT THE HELLLLL!!!" Toshi yelled, his voice barely cutting through the storm. His grip slipped, and before he could catch himself, he went flying backward, slamming into the ship's wall with a bone-rattling thud. "GWAH!" he groaned, sliding down the wall in a heap.

The moment his feet touched the floor, another massive wave crashed against the deck, sending a torrent of icy water over him. Spluttering and cursing, he scrambled back to the railing and latched on like his life depended on it...because it absolutely did.

The wind screamed around him, and the deck was a chaotic mess of rain, seawater, and crew members trying to keep the ship from capsizing. Toshi could barely hold on, his arms trembling from the freezing cold, his fingers digging into the wood almost splintering it.

"Why the hell didn't I just stay below deck?!" he muttered through clenched teeth, glaring at the storm as if it personally offended him.

Below deck, Troy, Rose, Sogeki, and the rest of the crew were undoubtedly safe and dry...or at least safer and drier than this. But no, Toshi had to be curious. He had to see what the Grand Line looked like.

Another wave hit, sending a fresh surge of water across the deck. Toshi flinched, his grip tightening. He glanced toward the door that led below, but every time he thought about making a run for it, the ship would shift suddenly, forcing him to cling to the railing even harder.

'I can't even go back down!' he thought, frustration mounting. 'Every time I try, the waves just shove me right back!'

His knuckles were white, his fingertips biting into the railing like they were trying to claw through it. The bark-like texture of the wood dug into his skin, but it didn't matter. All he could do was hold on for dear life and hope the ship...and himself, made it out in one piece.

Then he saw it...a massive crack in the Red Line. Nestled between the jagged rock walls was something that made Toshi's brain short-circuit for a moment.

His eyes widened, his jaw practically unhinged. "WHAT THE FUUUUUUUCKKKKK?!" The words tore out of him with the force of a storm.

It was a river. No, scratch that...a gargantuan, world-ending, how the hell is this possible river. From his vantage point, it was like an ant staring up at Niagara Falls on steroids. The sheer scale of it was enough to make his stomach flip, but what really sent his brain down the drain was...

"IT'S GOING UPWARDS!" he yelled, pointing at it like anyone could've missed the absurdity.

The river, this insane anomaly of nature, wasn't flowing down toward the sea like any respectable body of water. No. It was going up, surging upward into the sky and disappearing into the clouds above.

Toshi blinked rapidly, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. Gravity, physics, common sense...none of them applied here. The river didn't just defy logic; it drop-kicked it into oblivion and laughed while doing so.

He gripped the railing tighter as if it would ground him in reality. "This is... this is shrooms-level crazy!" he muttered, his voice tinged with awe and disbelief. It didn't feel real, and yet it was. The heavy waves, the cold rain, and the sheer pull of its current...all of it was terrifyingly, but unmistakably real.

And they were heading straight for it.

TO BE CONTINUED.

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