OPSR: Chapter 15 (Patreon)

I went inside and heard Lucy’s story from the mouths of Uta and Makino. A very similar thing happened when Shanks sacrificed his arm to save her. There were some differences, but I hadn’t told them about it because it didn’t cost anyone their lives, unlike what would have happened to Uta. And, I wasn’t sure if Shanks would be my enemy once I went to sea. I wasn’t sure it would happen, but weakening him now would only help me in the future, maybe ten or twenty years from now.

It was also a test to see if the changes I made would alter the original story, but it seemed to stay somewhat similar. Personally, I thought the flare-flare fruit was better than the gum-gum fruit; the chances of it awakening were incredibly low. Having someone with the fruit on my team would have also bound me to being against the world government.

I planned to take them down, just not anytime soon. Building up slowly made far more sense, and if I could have gotten a few strong Marine crewmates, I’d have followed the original story more closely instead of hiding my role in the deaths of some of the worst in the East Blue. Axe Hand Morgan and Nezumi needed to die; the same went with Kuro, Krieg, and Arlong.

Stopping Morgan from being promoted might be enough, but it wasn’t something I would go out of my way to stop from happening. I would just pass through every once in a while, and if he was a tyrant on the island, I’d kill him… At least, I hope I could kill him. All this murder talk, and I wasn’t even sure I could go through with it in the end. I probably could, but I’d be puking and crying afterwards, which doesn’t make for a very heroic sight.

I knew I could kill Arlong, but the other humans would be much more difficult, just because I didn’t inherently hate them for what they did in the previous anime. Sure, I knew they were bad, but they weren’t torture Nami after killing her mother figure bad. Once again, that was me wishing for the best.

I thought I could deal with Arlong, but I could make it far worse by showing up. They only killed people who couldn’t pay in the story, but if I show up and kill fishmen, they might start killing humans in retaliation. That’s why I was going to let Garp know about the situation once I saw it on the news. I hoped I’d be enough, but if I wasn’t, then Nami wouldn’t have to live under the rule of Arlong, making navigation maps for him for years.

As much as the story played out similarly, there was a new person not in the original story just hanging out. Bogard had a daughter. Bogard D. Aura(Bogard went by his last name). She was already part of the Navy, even before she was allowed to join, because her father pulled some strings. The same way Garp wanted Lucy to be a Marine, Bogard was raising his daughter to be her second hand man(or rather woman).

I couldn’t help but chuckle at how things turned out. Would Aura still follow her, knowing that she was dead set on becoming a pirate? I doubted it; she was far more likely to join Coby’s boat and be a rival to her. It was still years away, and I was one of the few rare ‘children’ out sailing. Even in the safest sea, it was thought that only ‘adults aged seventeen’ could go to sea.

…

The next few months, I buckled down and trained like crazy, even to the point Zeff pulled me aside to ask what was up with me. He knew about my alternate visions, and I told him something terrible was going to happen, and I was training to stop it. When the news finally came that Arlong was released. I headed directly for Nami’s village. Zeff would alert Garp in a few days, not enough time to arrive before Arlong, but fast enough to finish the fight if I ended up losing.

This was one of the only risks I thought I had to take in this life. One Piece was a silly show until Nami begged Luffy for help, crying her eyes out. That was what made me fall in love with the show. Even then, so long ago, back when they weren’t even done with the Arabasta arc, I knew the manga was going to be special. 

It’s funny to think that I’d start watching a show and over twenty years later it would still be running. Even crazier is that the quality stayed the same, if not improved, from what it was originally. Everyone could tell something was up when I arrived, just by how I was acting. I could only put on a smile, but there was still that undertone of fear and alertness I had.

I spent every waking moment improving the chances of us dealing with them once they finally did arrive. Setting traps in the woods while making sure everyone had the money to pay for their lives in case I failed. The loot Zeff had instead of food was over a hundred million belly, even after buying a ship, we still had money left, and he gave me a portion of it to buy supplies and just to have.

I felt sick, every day I’d feel worse, like I was making a mistake risking this. I was always cowardly back in my original world, and just because you wanted to be the hero didn’t mean being the hero wasn’t scary. It wasn’t a movie where the good guy would punch the bad guy and all would be right in the world. I was risking my life and the lives of many of the villagers trying to play hero, but this was necessary.

I felt that if I didn’t get involved here, I’d end up delegating all my tasks in the future. This was the best chance to grow stronger while building up my own bravery. The only way to build strength beyond what you were capable of was to push your limits in life-or-death fights. Avoiding them was a quick way to hinder your own strength and go down the wrong path.

It’s clear that following your dreams makes you a better version of yourself, while giving up sends you down a far worse path. You could be like Shakky, falling in love with a man, and ending up with him was enough for her to still appear young and beautiful, even though she was the same generation as Garp. Or end up like Gloriosa, who loved Roger, didn’t end up with him, so ended up as an old short lady because her dreams were crushed.

In my opinion, it was better to die than give up on your dreams, especially in this universe. That’s why I was here, ready to defend Nami, because that was the first step to building my harem crew. I wasn’t just aiming for Nami now, but also Nojiko, guiding them onto better paths so they’d be better crew members when I did form my own group.

It was suddenly at night that I knew they were hear, I could smell the smoke in the air. I gritted my teeth because I had dropped my guard, because they attacked during the day in the anime. I assumed it would be the same, but it wasn’t. Climbing up a tree and then onto a house, I got a good look at their group while they harassed townsfolk. “Shahahaha! My name is Arlong and I’m the new ruler of this island. My first decree is that everyone has to pay a life tax: a hundred thousand belly to spare your lives, fifty thousand for your children.”

My heart hammered in my chest as I looked around, planning my next moves before I finally acted. Jumping down, I aim for the perfect target. Landing on Hatchi first, I bite into his neck in one go as I feel the lineage factor in his blood strengthen me for the upcoming fight. Everyone looked on in shock at the young man who initiated a fight before Hatchi screamed out in pain, and all hell broke loose.