Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Title: Desperate Survival...

….

I open my eyes widely as I feel the sun hit my eyelids, I immediately close them.

What?

I opened them again and winced a little as I felt the sun hitting my eyes directly. I narrow them and get up, confused… I notice the sea in front of me. The seemingly never-ending sea.

I look around and I see that I am on a shore. I glance at my hands and notice that they look different from my normal hands…

What is going on? I thought, whole feeling confused, disoriented, and tired. Add nauseous too.

How can this be happening? I was just on my bed before I decided to go to sleep last night. I went to sleep in my bed like normal and now I wake up here… in the middle of nowhere. How is this possible?

I have so many questions, but very few answers. How!?!?!

Okay… I must calm down first and think this logically. I shouldn't try and find answers to questions that seem impossible to get answers to at the moment. I could see that there was nothing around here.

I got up and saw that I am only wearing some black rags as pants. I frown slightly, I feel shorter than I was in my first life. I used to be around 185 cm (6'1") now I don't know how tall I am in this body.

But I feel that I am shorter. Still, it seems like my vision is a little better. As I can see that the only thing on this island seems to be some dry trees.

Well damn, how the hell am I gonna survive now? I am screwed… absolutely fu*ked… but I can't give up yet.

I want to live so badly, I don't care that I am shorter and am in a desperate situation. It doesn't matter to me, what matters is that I must survive!

With that single goal in mind, my thoughts got clearer and all my questions disappeared. It doesn't matter anymore how I got here, all that matters is that I must survive.

First, I should walk around the island, see where I am at and what I have to work with. 

….

...

..

.

Sand and beacg, that was how the whole place was. It took me around three hours to go around the island… probably. Judging by the position of the sun I am assuming three hours. But I never really needed to judge what time it was by the position of the son so better take this with a grain of salt. Before it was kinda early morning, and now it's midday. Still, the island wasn't that big. There didn't seem to be dangerous creatures in here either, or any creature for that matter.

I decide to grab a stick amongst the dry trees and I frown. I bend it slightly and…

*crack*

It breaks, the wood seems to be old, dried up, and brittle. The situation just went from bad to worse. I decide to walk towards the dry tree forest, I wince a little as I step on broken twigs and some rocks. I am not wearing any shoes either.

….

Thirty minutes of traversing the 'forest' and I find out that it's just a pile of brittle and easily breakable wood. There is no fruit in sight, no grass… no… nothing. 

So now the situation just went from worse, to despairing. I am gonna starve on here. I know some basic wilderness survival tricks… but they won't do me any good here either. At least I can light a fire with these woods, but that is it.

Damn… this is gonna suck… I am gonna have to light up a fire and hope that some ship comes by. Now, I must gather as much wood as I can, and as I get tired, I must conserve energy.

….

I spent the whole daylight just gathering wood and piling it up in one place. I don't know how long I will be able to go without food, but I am ready to go to the limit… before I will start eating myself. A human can survive quite a bit without food, so I will wait three to four weeks, and then I will chop off my left leg and eat it. I am desperate, I wanna survive no matter what. Life will always be worth living… no matter the sacrifices.

….

As night comes around, I just light a fire and lie down next to it. Putting wood in every now and then as my stomach rumbles. Damn… I have never really even gone 24 hours without food. So I hope I can conserve as much energy as I can from now on…

….

The sleep for me isn't too bad, because as I wake up I am fully relaxed and re-energized. I immediately got up and went towards the dry wood forest again, this time I wanna try and maybe find some worms or at least something to eat. I honestly wouldn't mind eating anything edible right now. In some parts of the world, worms are considered a delicacy… probably… 

….

Unluckily my search was for nothing, I couldn't find anything even remotely edible. No birds, snakes, rats, or anything of the like. Honestly, my hunger is getting quite irresistible… maybe I should try fishing?

I mean grabbing fish with your hand is supposed to be hard, but if I take off my pants and use them like a net, then it will be okay. No one is here to look at me naked… even if there were I wouldn't care. I am more concerned with my survival at the moment.

….

Nothing, no fish, even the waves seemed to move strangely and no raft would be able to leave the island. Not that I can even make a raft with brittle wood.

….

The third day came around, and this time I just lay down on the ground sleeping all day. I want to conserve energy, I don't even try to think too hard as that would to waste energy too.

….

The fourth day came and I get up once again. At this rate, I will starve. It feels like my stomach is eating itself. 

Anyway, once more I walk among the brittle wood forest. Unlike the first time, now I don't even feel any pain from walking barefoot. The hunger has become the prominent feeling, drowning out the pain.

*creak*

As I am walking I see a fruit? It is a brown fruit that looks like a type of apple with brown swirls all over it. Maybe it's a hallucination?

I can't believe it… a fruit? I don't even think anymore, I just grab the fruit and start devouring it. I notice that the taste is quite bad, but to me, it feels like a heavenly fruit at the moment. The juices of the fruit running down my throat as I devoured it completely… it tasted like the most goddamn delicious fruit in the world. 

But suddenly I stop in my tracks as I am about to turn back to my makeshift camp. My mind goes back to the fruit and its taste. It couldn't be could it? In no way is that true…

But I am currently in a weird situation, in what I assume to be a whole other body. It wouldn't be that strange… would it?

….

As I arrive back at camp, I dip my feet slightly into the shore, I don't feel anything. But then I start walking towards the sea and when the seawater is around my knee, I immediately feel my strength get drained from me. Like getting hit by an elephant tranquilizer.

I was about to fall face down, but if I do that, I know that I will drown. So I give it my all to fall on my back.

And so I start crawling back to safety. My suspicion has been confirmed, and what I just did right now was stupid! The hunger must have dulled my thought process too, there would have been many different ways if I wanted to test my theory…

Well now at least it was proven right… I am 60% sure I am in the One Piece world. It's either that or my mind is subconsciously playing tricks on me, to make me feel a slimmer of happiness before I starve to death.

Or maybe that really was a devil fruit? If it is so, then maybe I have a power that can get me out of here.

I close my eyes and try to do something. Then as if instinctively, I can feel hair grow all over my body as my body gets taller. I look at my hands and see some giant paws instead of the hands that I am used to. 

These are brown bear paws… damn… I can't get out of this island and I just sealed my fate in this world. Even if I get out of here, I ate the worst type of fruit… a normal Zoan. If it was a mythical or ancient Zoan, then I would kinda be feeling better. But right now it feels like the world is just beating me up while I am down.

I try to turn back into a human and I am back to my normal appearance. Damn, this is kinda easy. Except being a little unfamiliar with the new height of the bear body, going back and forth between one and the other doesn't seem hard to do… it feels kinda like moving your arm. Super easy because you have been doing it for such a long time.

But I keep my curiosity in check and I don't transform anymore. Who knows, it might take energy to transform and keep the form active, I must conserve as much energy as I can.

….

Two more days pass like that, I just lie around and do nothing. Only the grumbling of my stomach accompanying me. Damn it… I want to explore this world. I don't want to die in a place like this, or maybe my mind has been playing some cruel trick? No… I can think so clearly, there is no way that transformation will ever be something faked by a simple hallucination.

As I am thinking that, I see something that I have been wishing for what feels like an eternity. A ship, flying a pirate flag, but I don't care about any of that as I grab a piece of firewood from my fire and throw it in the forest.

FWOM!!!

The whole place catches fire and I smile at it, this should now at least grab their attention now.

THANK GOD… I AM GONNA BE OUT OF THIS PLACE…

I am never again will be this weak. I will have everything under control from now on, I will do things that people have never thought of if it ensures my survival.

….

AUTHOR NOTE:

Despair breeds excellence…

Had another One Piece idea, but I decided to write this one because it seemed like it would be more fun to write.