Chapter 2

When I raise my head up, my sight was greeted by the beautiful and peaceful town. I can see some people walking and talking with each other. Some are doing business such as selling flowers. I can also see some tourists, which I can guess base on their clothes. There is also and old lady selling mutton sticks. A guy shouting about newspaper. Some boys and girls playing together, running around all over the place. I can also see middle-aged man who is walking with a large net and a paddle. 'What is this?' I asked myself. I was in a dark room recently before remembering my childhood experience, scratch that, instead of that I basically saw my whole life experience. The moment I learn how to read and write, entering my first class in preschool to attending college in a university. It is like I was watching my whole life as a movie and the actor was obviously me. But here I am in a peaceful town, bustling with people who are harmonious together.

I verified my surroundings once again. I look over the place and get a feeling that it is very familiar, like I grow up living here, but that is impossible right. I lived in New York city. Still the feeling I get is like a deja-vu.

I turn my head slowly to the right and was surprised by a huge and conspicuous windmills. They are very many and spreading all over place. I can also see barns surrounding them with different animals inside it such as cows, chickens, pigs, ducks and so much more . The fence also stretches in a long road, I can't even see the sign of ending. I am very amaze at this place. The scenery is very colorful, I can see the grasses on the field very well and it extends all over. I can see the clear blue sky above, and pure white clouds with it. I can also see the shining sun above. It feels very refreshing.

When I turn myself around I am very surprised by the huge blue sea. It is very vast, I can't even see a single land mass with my own eyes. All I can see are the groups of ships docking the harbor. 'Oh' I pretty much exclaimed inwardly. I see different types of vessels.

"Is that a merchant ship? well it explains a lot since this is a seaport town. Hmm, what about that?" I said to myself.

The thing I was referring to are the ships having two to four masts with two to three sails per mast. The decorations and paint job are always kept within the same style and there are little variation between ships beyond size and armaments. The standard paint colors I see are covering the outer hull with a greenish-blue basis, patterned with darker streaks of the same. What I am focusing my sight right now are the sails flying in this vessels. The sign it show is clearly visible up here. It symoblize a type of bird, and its color is dark blue. I begin to survey the ship. I can see row of holes lining up horizontaly. Inside of it there is black metallic object shape like a big gun. 'Wait is that a canon' well I am very surprised. Since most ships I saw in my life having canons are naval warships. They are also fully made of steel and metal but the ships infront of me are clearly made out of wood.

"Strange, it is like I am back in the 1500's to 1700's where ships were made of oak. Also this vessels ressembled a bit a like what Ferdinand Magellan used to explore the vast sea" I assumed my observations.

But the next thing that bothers me is the word written on the very top of the mast. It is painted with blue colors and clearly written with capital letters.

"Marine" I said with a low voice only I can hear.

I then look to the sign below portraying like a seagull with a fish caught in its feet, then back to the word above. I repeated this several times before I came into a conclusion.

"What the hell!!" I shouted loudly on top of my lungs, surprising some of the people nearby.

Then suddenly an oldman is approaching me, he seems very familiar to me and he is making an ugly expression, seems like he is angry. He has a cleft chin, wears oval glasses, and has a mustache and a beard. His facial hair have grown long enough to become a thick mustache and a goatee, as well as turning grayish-white. He wears simple clothes and a hat that changes with his appearance, but they are similar to each other. He currently wields a walking cane.

Following behind him is a young woman with brown eyes and dark green hair that goes up to just above her shoulders. This time, I was mesmerized and captivated by her appearance. She is a very beautiful lady. Most girls I saw in my hometown cannot even compare to her. While most of them wear light or heavy makeups, this lady coming together with the oldman has a her own natural beauty. She displayed elegance and gracefulness while walking. She wears a yellow kerchief, an orange blouse with black sleeves and a long light blue skirt and orange sneakers with white soles. It match perfectly with her figure. 'She is so pretty, I wonder if I can ask her name but still I feel that I know her somehow and we are very close to each other and this place including that oldman over there' I said inwardly while making an innocent yet troubled expression.

Step by step they are walking towards my direction. I wondered, so I look behind me to see if there is another fellow but to my dismay there is none. Before I could even turn my neck back, an angry and reprimanding tone flew to my ears.

"Why are you shouting out of nowhere brat, your scaring the people nearby" loudly said by the grumpy oldman.

"Eh" I replied with a short answer while being flustered. Who can't be flustered when there are a lot of audience looking over us. But their expression tells me that this a common occurence they see everyday. Their faces contain a hidden laughter and amusement. They are currently watching us and waiting for the scene to unfold.

"Mayor don't be too hard on him, he may feel excited since his grandpa came today, ne Luffy" This time a charming voice sounded to my ears and it feels good to good to hear it again. But at that moment, the words she last spoke echoed heavily in my ears. I was stunned for a moment and came to realise that I might miss something. The name still flow in my mind continuously. Like a domino effect suceedingly falling one after one to each other creating a ripple in the scenes, memories and familiarity I currenlty have. I closed my eyes for a few seconds to feel this changes happening inside of me if you can say that. The deja-vu I felt, the sceneries I feel closed to, the people I deemed intimate with me.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I don't know how much time had passed while I closed my eyes, It feels like days had already gone by. I don't know how to describe it, it is like I was doing a meditation if you can call it like that, it increased my awareness and mentally calmed my mind. It is like I achieved a balanced and serene state to my soul.

After few seconds I calmly opened my eyes, what greeted me was the same dark room I once entered. I become numb of the events currently happened to me. 'Is this the effect of meditation' I concur to myself. The state I felt earlier helped me calmed my emotions down to a certain degree, I can think calmly right now. Not even a few seconds have pass, my gaze linger again on a weak flashing red light infront of me. It is like small firefly hovering in midair. After blinking for a few moments the color intensified and it covered the whole room. I retract my gaze for a moment to avoid being blinded by the flashes being projected.

After I regain my bearings, I opened my eyes to the place I was sent into. I began to inspect the place I am standing right now. I am in the open field covered with a 2 meter high grasses. I inhaled a mouthful of air and release it slowly.

"The same thing happened once again" I calmly analyed the situation I have.

"First of all I before arriving here, I woke up in a forest with nothing but myself, secondly I saw a hologram-like floated in front of me. This hologram says that it is binded to its user. I can't seem to remember the number, but from what I conclude the user must be me" I stated the facts I gathered this time.

"Third, the hologram made an announcement in whether to absorb the current body memories. Based on this phrase alone, I can precisely assumed that I am not in my world anymore. I can clearly remembered the memories I had, that I got a virus called COVID-19. It is incurable from the current situation on Earth. I saw myself got admitted in the hospital and died while sleeping on the bed" I calmly said the events that happened to me.

"And lastly, the sensations I felt from the last scene was very vivid. It was like a familiarity with everything from the people, place, environment and emotions. Also that dark green-haired beauty called me Luffy" I said all the facts and informations I can come up with. But before I can concentrate I heard a cute and audible sound, seems like this one is having a hard time battle.

"Gomo-gomu no pistor-uuuu"

This words fell straight to my ear. I am very familiar with it. I grow up watching the series itself. All the moves and events are printed on my mind. I turned myself to the sound and commotion where it happened. This time I saw a boy wearing white shirt with anchor-like picture on it. I focus on his face and was very surprised. 'It is real' I exclaimed to myself loudly. Well who won't be surprised when a certain anime character is very infront of you and on top of that his arms stretched in a long way. It is scientifically impossbile for a human to stretch itself that long. I am a realistic person, even if I watched and loved animes but that's it. I don't believe in the like of transmigrations and reincarnations since it is only fictional. But here I am standing with one of the protagonist of a shounen manga.

"He is very different from the anime. Well that is for sure. Standing infront of me is a real kid. If I have not seen his iconic strawhat, his scar below his left eye and his arm that were stretching like a rubber. I can't maybe recognize him" my thoughts were interrupted once again by the battle currently happening infront of me. Well I don't know if it can be called a battle since there are a lot of monkeys ganging up on our kid Luffy.

"Damn monkeys, wait when I get stronger I will beat all of you" said little Luffy angrily. But his expression didn't last longer. It was replaced by an innocent look on his eyes and a huge happy smile on his face while laughing and shouting but what surprised me more is what he did after voicing out his dreams.

"Shishsishishishi, I wanna get stronger, stronger than everyone else so that I can protect everyone close to me" Luffy paused for a second and he inhaled a lot air and shouted.

"I wanna be the Pirate King" after that he added one more line.

"Let's make our dream come true, right oniichan" Luffy said and look towards my direction.

I am stunned, I don't know what do right now. The only response I make is to look on the pure eyes and innocent smile little Luffy made. But before I can grasp the situation little Luffy started to crumble. He turned into a crystal-like thing starting from his hands and feet going to his head. He is dissolving slowly and turning into crystal dust. I am only standing at my current position and don't know what to do. But before I can say something I see little Luffy huge smile and he spoke softly.

"Take care of me" that was the last sentence he said after turning into crystal dust completely. The dust then fly into my direction and entered my body. At that moment I blanked out completely.