章 1: Slave

I could immediately tell something wasn't right the moment I woke up. The smell of rotten eggs and sweat assaulted my nose, instinctively making cover my mouth as I gagged at the awful smell.

I immediately wondered where I was, but my train of thought was cut off when I noticed my next problem. With my hands up to my face, I observed they were small, like extremely small. I didnt know if I was in some crazy fever dream or a coma of some sorts, but I was 100% sure these weren't my hands(after all I spent a good portion of my day with my right one).

My eyes began to trail off, eyeing the rest of my body. My arms were primarily covered in burns and scars while containing zero muscle, and looked more akin to a damaged stick that had been in a fire. My chest was short, only covered by a thin ragged t-shirt while my legs were stumpy and only half covered by a pair of dirty blue shorts. Cuts, scrapes and bruises covered the rest of my legs, while my awfully small feet were the same in that regard.

As I began looking at my(?) body, pain slowly started spreading throughout it.

'My mind must have blocked out the pain while I was occupied with other things, mainly about where on earth I was' I mused, and the fact that I was able to feel pain cleared one of my theories up.

'So this isn't a dream...' I took note of the dull stinging all across my body. The pain predominantly presided in my legs, which were covered in many open cuts and dark bruises.

'What happened to this body?'

Deciding to look for more clues to get an idea where I was(or to keep my mind occupied from going insane), I began to look at my surroundings, taking note of the abundance of different coloured gemstones and jewels in the dimly lit tunnel, which confused me even more. The light came from further back, illuminating the rest of the tunnel, making it bright enough to see, but just barely.

'So I'm in a cave or mine of some sorts?' I asked myself. I was still confused about the situation, and on the verge of a panic attack, until it all finally clicked.

The small unfamiliar body, all the scars, the unknown location, all this left me with only one feasible explanation, I was in another body.

I had read enough fanfiction to know where this was going, if I was in another body then it most likely meant I was in another world. The million dollar question was what world was I in? Due to my precarious position, I had zero clues to help me figure out where I was, and the location(which was trapped in a child's body underground with no idea how to get out) I was in made me believe I wasn't going to be finding out soon.

I began to stand up, but my knees buckled, mainly due to my weak body and a sudden rush of pain to my brain.

I fell onto the rocky floor, the indescribable pain in my head outweighing the fresh cuts that formed on my knees. The hot searing and stinging pain made my brain feel like it was on fire, and I finally relented gritting my teeth as I screamed in pain.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

A gutteral screech escaped my mouth, echoing through the walls of the chasm, but I paid it no mind, as it was currently occupied with the equivalent of fighting Satan itself.

...

2 minutes later, and my mind somehow survived the onslaught of pain. The same couldn't be said for my throat, as all the screaming damaged it to the point where when I spoke I sounded like a heavy smoker with a collapsed lung.

Another 5 minutes passed, my breathing was now finally steady and the copious amounts of sweat that had formed already evaporated off my body(which was partly due to the cold climate). My body was fine...well as fine as a small, malnourished body covered in injuries can get. However...I noticed something was different, it was similar to the feeling of knowing something was there but you didn't know what.

I scoured through my brain, and eventually found what I was looking for, it was the most likely source of that pain I felt...Memories.

The moment I found them, it was like a switch was activated and the memories were played back to me.

"Hollow D August..."

"Mother Died…"

"Father beat him..."

"Sold into Slavery..."

"Gemstone Island..."

I repeated the words like a mantra, going through each memory and hardship this kid had gone through. It slowly ingrained itself into me, into my brain as it felt like I was experiencing the memories first hand.

I was still myself, my soul didn't magically merge with the kids and drastically change my personality, no no no. I had experienced all of this in only a second, but I could clearly recall everything from the memories. This very unique method of memory transfer naturally gave me certain biases, particularly against my shitty sperm donor and the World Nobles, but my personality was still very much the same, if not maturer.

I clenched my fists, ignoring the sharp pain of my dirty nails cutting into my skin. I felt really sorry for the kid, he was forced to go through so much at a young age that no human should ever have to go through, and in the end he killed himself. It was a tragic story from start to finish, without a happy ending, but it was anything but unrealistic.

I felt an indescribable rage boil up in my stomach. His father, the world government, the world nobles, I wanted to kill them all for all the atrocities they committed to this young kid. These people needed to be stopped, permanently. Killing his father would be easy enough, I just needed some proper training, a boat, and preferably a better environment, but slaves couldn't be choosers, I needed to work for it.

The world government and nobles were another story, but after seeing what this kid had gone through it showed that they both were not opposed to making children slaves, which lowered my already drastically low opinion of them. I mean even pirates had standards, the most violent ones would just give the child a quick death instead of prolonging his suffering.

Just knowing that these people were in power for 900 years, it made me wonder how many people had to go through something like this, and it made me sick to my stomach thinking about it. How many other Islands had places like this, where slaves worked until they shriveled up and died here, no one ever knowing the pain they suffered?

"You can rest peacefully knowing I'll avenge anyone that has wronged you" I said out loud, some part of me hoping he could hear me knowing retribution will come, and that he can rest peacefully.

Now I needed to get onto other matters, one of which concerning the fact I was in one piece. The torrent of emotions I felt before momentarily clouded my mind from the fact that I was in another world, specifically one piece, a world I knew a lot about.

My mind momentarily went to thinking about my old world, then one I spent 25 years on, would anyone miss me? Probably not, I had absolutely no one aside from a few colleagues that I drinked with once a month. My family was long dead, while I was working too much to even consider having a romantic partner.

Overall, I was quite happy with the fact I was in one piece. This world was created by a mangaka, but it was certainly real, especially given all that I experienced in the memories. Every person was its own unique entity with its own emotions and feelings, they weren't just made up characters. It wouldn't do good to think of it like a game or a simulation, my actions had consequences on other people.

My spawn-point wasn't good, I was a 10 year old malnourished slave covered in cuts and bruises and trapped on a stranded island. Some part of me hoped I was on a peaceful island in East Blue where I could train peacefully, but being in this body helped me see what this kid had gone through and established a proper goal.

I was starting at the bottom(quite literally, I was really far underground), which meant the only way from here was up. Life was all about challenges, and if you were never challenged you could never improve yourself. The first challenge was quite a daunting one, but If I managed to rise above it then I would have a really good foundation to build upon. A man is only as good as his hardships.

First I needed to make a plan. Gemstone Island was practically invisible to the outside world. The person who took me in decided to spill some information, that information being how Gemstone island was surrounded by a thick mist, making it nearly impossible to find. He also told me it wasn't on any official map, which made sense. I mean why would an Island which has a massive source of revenue that relies on slaves be public?. I guess the guy believed I would never leave here, so he believed the information was useless to someone like me and he mentioned it, but it certainly wasn't. I planned on escaping, no matter the cost. I refused to die like a pig.

This information was extremely helpful, as it immediately ruled out the possibility of being saved by an external source and saved me lots of thinking.

The slaves were useless, talking to them was pointless and I would most likely get ignored, even attacked. In the slim chance they listened, the first mention of escape would make them stop listening, especially when it came from a 10 year olds mouth(and the fact I didn't have talk no jutsu). It was understandable, they were all demoralized as the countless number of guards had guns that could kill them instantly, and the island was on tight lock with little to no escape routes. Numerous slaves tried to escape over the years, but they all failed miserably, and eventually the slaves deemed escape impossible and resigned themselves to this fate.

All of this left me with no other option, I had to rely on myself. Let's put my knowledge to use.