OPSR: Chapter 07 (Patreon)

As the glass cups went flying, several people all moved at the same time to stop the glasses still intact from landing and shattering. Lucky Roux moved fast as the wind, so fast it was hard to trace him, and I could tell he was only moving that slow because he didn’t want to cause more problems by moving too quickly. One of the other red-haired pirates near the table grabbed the few that flew his direction.

The bulk of them would have crashed, but two hands came out of nowhere and caught the rest with expert ease as if it happened often enough for him to be prepared. A man I hadn’t really looked at, sitting on the side playing cards, yelled out. “Damn brat. How many times have I told you not to fight in my bar!?” One of the hands moved over and punched Ace out of the bar; he rolled back comically just as I did when he slammed the door open.

There, sitting at the table with Shanks, sat Buggy the Clown… Well, at least I thought it was Buggy; he didn’t look anything like the man in the anime. Bigger, bulkier than Shanks, his hair cut the same length as the beard covering his face. The red nose peeking out was the only sign that, yes, this was in fact Buggy. Some of the glasses smashed on the ground, and Buggy yelled out. “Makino. We got some broken glasses out here. Can you sweep them up for me?”

A ten-year-old girl came running out, and I knew who it was immediately. It was thought that Shanks was the guy who knocked her up in the original world, but that would most likely not be the case in this world. Her younger age meant that someone needed to run the bar, and it looked like Buggy filled that spot. He could have even been forced to by Garp, but much more likely, the older Ace meant the Roger Pirates met him before Roger died.

I wasn’t sure why I was trying to piece everything together in my mind, though. What did it matter whether someone was older or younger, or male or female? At this point, I couldn’t really rely on my One Piece knowledge and could only use it as reference material for what was going on in this universe. I knew of devil fruit locations, but did I really? There was a good chance that every location I knew where a devil fruit was, wasn’t there.

Things didn’t seem to be too different so far. Roger still died in the same year he did in the original. I was still forced away from my family. Right now, my best bet is to stop Uta from going to Elegia. I asked. “Is there a way to get a hold of Garp? There has to be a den den mushi around here, right?” That got their attention. They began questioning me, and I went through the same situation I did with the swordmaster.

People really didn’t like you saying you can see the future and know that bad shit is going to happen to their kids. Shanks almost attacked me as I spoke about the demon Uta would free that would kill all the people on the Music Island. Only Uta herself was able to stop him from hurting me. Someone did have a den-den mushi; it only made sense as this was Garp’s hometown.

It was the mayor Woop Slap. I warned him about all the things I suspected would happen, the assassination of Queen Otohime. I think about telling him not to free Arlong, but I needed him to come to put me in the good graces of Nami and her family, so I let it pass for now. I’d get a hold of him again, closer to the time, if I don’t think I can beat Arlong.

Most of the sad situations were already over. I couldn’t help Law or save Rosinante, Kid’s love interest was slain, and Odin sacrificed himself already. Robin’s mom was dead, the slaves were freed, Fisher Tiger was dead, same with Ginny, and Dress Rosa just happened a few months before I was reincarnated as Sanji. It was odd that Uta was still here, and some of those events could have happened after, but I could check that all of them happened around the same time as the original world.

Enel eats the thunder fruit in a little over a year, so I needed to head up before then in order to take the fruit before he consumes it. That’s all I told Garp right now. I would be strong enough to handle most events after Otohime’s death, so unless something terrible came up, I wouldn’t need to talk to him again. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to start out as a pirate or go into the Marines first. 

Both had their advantages. I could receive training and get access to more resources, especially if I became the student of someone big like Garp or Zephyr, warning him about what would happen to him in the future along the way. If I had the munch fruit when I joined… I could also piggyback off their strength when they killed devil fruit users and take their power.

Starting as a pirate meant freedom. The Marines would also chase me harder if I started as one of them, then became a pirate, especially if I was the personal student of someone strong; they’d want to catch me. With things wrapped up here, I decided to leave the two girls who might become my crewmates in the future with a good memory of me.

I made swords for the girls obsessed with swords; musical instruments made sense for them. Making a flute and guitar, I walk up to greet them now that everything was done and over with. Ace was sitting near them, staring me down. Stopping me before I get too close. “What’s this about. I don’t want some snot-nosed kid talking to my sisters. Go away.”

“I’m here to give them gifts before I leave. Are you going to stop me from that?” He scoffed before looking away and sipping at his drink. It would look cooler if his drink wasn’t milk. “We haven’t really talked much. But I hope these gifts will help you remember me.” I went to hand the flute to Uta, but she grabbed the guitar while Lucy took the flute.

As I walk out the door, I hear a loud discordant note come from the flute as if someone randomly held down all the holes and blew as hard as they could. I couldn’t help but smirk at the thought of how much that was going to annoy Ace.

The travel back, I checked to see if Usopp was sex changed, and he was, but unfortunately… His, now her nose wasn’t changed in the switch. Did that mean all the Straw Hats were swapped? Was Nami a man in this universe? No, that would mean I would be a girl. I would still have to check. Baratie wasn’t very far from Nami’s home island, so I figured I’d stop there and spend the night before heading back.

You don’t realize how big the world is until you’re petalling for an entire day without seeing anything except the sea. It was terrifying if you thought about it, and I couldn’t believe people went to see it with no navigation experience, because if you lost track of where you were, you could easily die of thirst or hunger before finding an island.

It was still months until Arlong would be freed, and I needed to start preparing for his arrival.