Strange Memories And Stranger!

A/N: Please visit the previous chapter before continuing ahead.

Also, I forgot to mention this in the previous chapters, but if you folks have any questions regarding the content of the previous chapter or new questions, please do ask in the comment sections of the chapters, but at least, maintain a modicum of politeness or rather don't be brash, and state your opinions in a civilized manner.

Now, Chapter HO!

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Inside the still noisy bar, in a quaint room, two children were sleeping- Ace and Asul, one is two years and some months old and the other has just turned a year old, respectively.

All of a sudden, Asul sits up straight on the bed from lying down, and gasps in short breaths; he could have tried to shout for help or throw something off of the table next to his bed, but alas, he is still unconscious. Inside his mind, there are some very strange memories, that are being played on repeat, some are happy but most of them are either tragic or sad. After a few minutes, he dropped down on the pillow under his head, with the strange memories still being played.

___Makino's POV___

My sweet dreams were broken by loud bangs coming from the door to my room. I hurriedly jumped out of bed, ran and opened the door to see little Ace's snotty crying face. Before I could make heads or tails of the current situation, I was dragged by him to the room he slept yesternight, and as soon as I entered, my face went wide with horror:

"ASUL!!!" I shouted.

After quickly observing that he was still breathing, I picked up his unconscious body and ran outside towards the Marine ship docked on the shore of our village, where I knew Garp-san would be present.

___Garp's POV___

The shouts of my name broke the tranquillity of the morning sea.

I stretched and jumped out of the ship and appeared in front of it. There I could see the running pair of Makino and Ace, whilst, Makino was holding my young grandson Asul; there were dried blood stains on his face and neck and he appeared unconscious, from the distance.

Seeing such an alarming scene, I appeared in front of Makino, snatched Asul out of her embrace and appeared back on the ship's deck, all at a moment's notice. The ship's doctor was already present with his kit, looks like Bogard called him up.

After cleaning Asul's face and neck region, and giving him a thorough check-up... at least, as exhaustive as possible by the ship's doctor. Because even if I should take Asul with me to the Marine's headquarters where the facilities would be far better than here; I really could not, as there are many dire reasons...

Soon enough, the results came, stating that Asul was healthy and there were apparently no issues or hidden injuries, other than the blood loss, which was not excessive, but still a lot, hence, he would remain unconscious for a while...

___Makino's POV___

A week has flown by; Asul is still in a comatose state. Although grumbling and mumbling profanities, Garp-san has already left. As for others- I have opened the bar again, though, a day later than mentioned, Dadan nee-san and Ace are frequently seen beside Asul's bed; Ace retelling his daily adventures to his little brother and Dadan nee-san just sitting and observing the situation...

"Makino!!" While I was ruminating over the past week, a loud shout from Dadan Nee-san brought me back "Come over, Asul woke up!" I ran so fast, I figuratively flew upstairs.

The door was already open; I ran and hugged Asul like there is no tomorrow. After calming down momentarily and releasing him from my bear hug, I tentatively asked:

"What happened to you Asul dear!?" my tone was serious and sincere "After going to sleep on your birthday, did anyone come to your room, or did something fall on you, or..." my frantic questioning was halted by a strict and caring tone from Dadan nee-san:

"Calm down, kid! Asul just woke up, let him gather his bearings first"

I observed his confused and slightly tense mood slowly recede and replaced by his ever-present pure and calming smile. Momentarily pausing, he began to address:

"I don't know what happened to me at night, as all I could feel was being drowned in the sea and gasping for breath, I tried shouting for help but no words came out of my mouth... also I saw some weird and horrifying images or they might have been dreams... I am not sure..." I could hear a little fear leaking out of his normal voice... yet, the weirdest thing was; he was speaking... I don't mean to say that he couldn't before... but... how do I put this feeling in words... yes! words... his words, they sound nothing like a normal one-year-old kid would speak... his speech pattern is different too... like... like an adult talking...

Turning my head towards Dadan Nee-san, I could see the same confusion in her eyes, as for Ace, he seems happy, what with showing full teeth while smiling...

Thinking for a moment, I decided to address this weird issue "Asul dear... umm... do you... you know..." Ah! Shit! How do I even ask such a question? I don't even know what to ask...

"Kid, do you know that you sound like an adult while speaking?" Dadan Nee-san bluntly put the question, while simultaneously giving Asul a stink eye "Hey! I know! Are you perhaps... an adult in our child's body! Did you kill our Asul?"

Yeah, wouldn't have expected anything else from her; I hurriedly held her down from standing up and jumping on Asul, and asked what is she talking about, to which I got an expectedly ridiculous answer:

"Dadada... I was just joking, Makino. The atmosphere was getting too tense for nothing." Clearing her throat exaggeratedly, she continued "Also, long ago, when I was younger and making a name for myself, I met an old guy who was telling stories to a large group of villagers on a small island, and one of those stories was- how a child died during a thunderstorm, but before calm morning the next day, some old guy's soul possessed his body and from then on the child completely changed, later in his age he became a king with multiple wives... Dadada"

No matter how intriguing the story and Dadan Nee-san's past was, we should not derail from the main topic. Therefore, as I tried to bring back the topic, I turned to look at Asul's face; I could see stars in his eyes, listening to the story... I guess we will talk about it later, it's already reaching noon and everyone must be hungry, especially Asul.

"Alright, everyone let's go downstairs, it's lunchtime!"

All of a sudden, Asul's pure voice broke my gait "Nee-san! I am telling the truth. I saw those strange dreams on repeat, there were some, which were happy and some very tragic. I don't remember the faces that I saw in the dreams, also... I am not an old guy, Dadan Oba-chan. I am your Asul!"

The momentary and palpable silence that fell in the room after the statement from Asul, which was broken by Ace's raucous laughter, even I couldn't stop the spurt of laughter from leaving my mouth. Dadan Nee-san had tick marks on her forehead as she stomped out the door mumbling how she will teach Asul a lesson after he grows up a little...

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Two months have passed since that funny and weird little incident with Asul.

Asul hasn't changed much, except that he has insisted Makino to daily read a story to him before going to bed and in the early morning hours teach him how to read. Other than this, Asul has started performing exercises of different kinds and weirdly started meditation of some kind, when asked about where he learned all this, he simply stated that in those strange dreams, he saw many people and children performing these strange activities and they seem important for one's body.

While seeing Asul doing all of this, Ace and Makino joined in too. After all, for Ace, it was fun and new, and for Makino, it wasn't much but she felt her body becoming much healthier, however small amount it was.

The activities were:

Exercise-

push-ups= 4 sets of 2 rep

squats= 5 sets of 3 rep

pull-up= 2 sets of 2 rep (Asul could barely achieve this mark...)

Lunges= 5 sets of 5 rep (Both types)

* This began with running early morning around the peir(2 rounds) then stretching and doing jumping-jacks(3 sets of 5 rep).

Meditation-

Yoga[Kapalbharti+Anulom-vilom+Bharamarasan] for upwards of two hours.

All of this continued peacefully until the night of Asul's second birthday; When he was once again going to sleep, a dark silhouette emerged on his bed-side window sil and spoke in a gruff voice:

"Hello, Kid..."

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A/N: Let's begin,

In this chapter the memories or dreams that I mentioned, might be explained in future chapters, still, I would like to give a brief explanation:

The memories of the person who died in the prologue of this book are presented as dreams to our OC/MC.

Due to these memories, there are and will be some subtle changes in Asul's personality, but nothing major.

The memories he received are only partial; meaning he doesn't know the plot of the story, he doesn't know every minute detail. What he knows is that he has to work hard from a fairly young age, if he wants to survive and protect his loved ones.

As the OC/MC is a pure soul of this world, his personality will grow with his age, so don't comment cringe etc.

Now, for the routine that he is following with his exercise and meditation- well I thought that as a year-old child, he shouldn't be able to do gravity-defying activities and hunting etc. So, I gave a simple routine, and about meditation, I just added them because, they are some basic yoga which helps in increasing lung capacity and making lung muscles stronger or resilient, as for the last yoga, which increases your concentration to an amazing degree and calms your mind down...

Now, I would also like to express my opinion on a comment I received in my previous chapter- In Crux, it stated how boring it would be if MC joins Luffy, and how predictable it would be. Also, his not having devil fruit would make him a weakling and deadweight on the crew.

Before answering, I would like to ask the person who commented, that is if they are still reading; did you delete your comment, because I couldn't like or reply under it, I have never deleted any sort of comment on any of my works- first I don't like doing such things unless it's an advertisement, and second, I don't have such privileges, as I only get so many comments...

Alright then, to answer your query-

Having a devil fruit doesn't make you stronger. But I never stated that he will not get a devil fruit or vice versa

Joining the crew will make the story predictable; it could be a valid concern, but I have not even posted the later chapters, his journey hasn't even started, then how can you predict the plot of my story!?...

He will be deadweight on the crew- same as stated in the paragraph above, his journey has not yet started, so be patient and read, if possible...

I guess that's it... if there are any other doubts or comments, please do post them.

Thanks,

Adeus~