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Kaito lived in a small town inland, so the ocean was quite far from him. This was the first time he had ever seen the real ocean.
"It's my first time at the beach, and I'm flying aimlessly over the sea. It's truly magical." Kaito smiled again.
As the sea breeze blew, Kaito's thoughts began to drift away.
Suddenly, he saw a dark shadow flying on the horizon. The shadow drew closer and eventually revealed its true form. It was a bird that looked like a seagull, but it wore a small white hat on its head and had a linen pouch hanging from its chest—just like the mail carriers seen in old movies.
Kaito was stunned for a moment. Could the birds in this world really be that unique?
Then he realized the bird looked strangely familiar, as if he'd seen it somewhere before.
Lala also noticed the seagull-like bird and tugged on Kaito's arm, smiling as she said, "Kaito, Kaito, look! That little bird is so cute!"
Kaito smiled and nodded. Lala kept waving at the bird as it circled above the ship, trying to get its attention. The seagull tilted its head and looked down for a while, then slowly descended and landed on the table beside Lala. Lala clapped her hands and squeezed Kaito's arm excitedly. "Kaito! Kaito! Look! It's landing! So cute! It's really landing!"
Kaito nodded helplessly. "Yeah, yeah, it landed."
Turning to look at the bird, it tilted its head and stared back at them with clear curiosity in its eyes. This seagull was very human-like—clearly an intelligent creature. Suddenly, it opened its pouch, pulled out a newspaper with its beak, and laid it in front of Kaito and Lala. Then, it tilted its head and looked at them again. Lala seemed confused. "Kaito, what does that mean?"
An idea suddenly struck Kaito. He stood up and said, "Hold on a second."
He went inside, grabbed the banknotes he had found earlier, and placed them in front of the seagull. The bird looked at the bills, opened a smaller pouch hanging from its main bag, pulled out a bunch of coins, counted out 9,900, and placed them on the table. Then it took the 10,000-yuan note, flapped its wings, and flew back into the sky.
Kaito watched the bird disappear and couldn't help but smile. "Just as I thought."
"It's selling newspapers?" Lala finally caught on.
Kaito smiled and nodded. "Seems like it."
He picked up the newspaper and skimmed through it. The text was clearly readable thanks to the translator. Kaito glanced at the headline:
"A New Pirate Has Emerged in the East Blue! First Bounty: 30 Million! Could He Be the Next Roger?"
Kaito: "..."
He read more closely. The article said a pirate named Monkey D. Luffy had appeared in the East Blue, and the Navy had issued him a 30-million bounty right off the bat. The article emphasized how such a high initial bounty meant he was extremely strong and dangerous—someone who could carve his name into the world with unstoppable strength, and possibly even become the next Pirate King, like Roger. It also mentioned that his surname, Monkey, was the same as that of the Navy hero Garp, speculating on a possible connection between the two. The article even threw in some sarcasm, suggesting the Navy should investigate Garp more thoroughly.
"It's real," Kaito nodded.
This really was the world of One Piece. Luffy and Garp were here.
Kaito glanced at the rest of the paper. The other stories weren't nearly as eye-catching, so he put the newspaper down.
"Kaito, what does it say?" Lala asked curiously.
Kaito smiled and said, "Take a look for yourself."
Lala took the newspaper and read the headline carefully, then turned to Kaito. "Kaito, the bad guys are in the newspaper!"
Kaito smiled and nodded. "Yep!"
Lala hummed thoughtfully for a moment, then said, "It feels like the article is praising that bad guy. What's going on?"
She believed that newspapers were supposed to promote the right values, but this one seemed to glorify a pirate with a bounty on his head. It felt strange. How could a paper like this be allowed to publish content like that? What was the ruling body of this world even doing?
Kaito smiled and said, "Because this is a privately-owned newspaper."
"Private companies still need to be regulated, right?" Lala still found it very odd.
Kaito nodded. "They should be. But the owner of this private paper is very influential, so the regulations tend to be... loose."
Lala responded with an "Oh," and then went back to reading the paper.
After a while, she smiled and said, "But this makes the pirate game a lot more fun. It's going to get really famous, and everyone will know about it!"
Kaito smiled. "But pirates all have bad reputations."
"That's how pirate games are," Lala replied with a grin. "As long as we don't do anything bad, it's fine!"
"If we don't do anything bad, people won't put us on a wanted list," Kaito said, shaking his head.
But as soon as he said that, he thought of the Straw Hat Pirates. They had defeated the Arlong Pirates led by the fish-man Arlong and freed more than 20 nearby villages. That was undoubtedly a good thing, yet they still ended up with a 30-million bounty. So apparently, even doing good could get you a price on your head. As long as you flew a pirate flag, you couldn't escape.
So, Kaito finally nodded and said, "Alright, let's have some fun."
One Piece was an anime he really loved. He still followed it. Even if he no longer watched the show regularly, he kept up with all the manga updates. Now that he had arrived in the world he adored—and Lala wanted to play the One Piece game too—he wondered if he could leave his own mark in this world. He couldn't help but smile.
"How about trying to become one of the Four Emperors? That sounds pretty exciting!"
But then he thought of Luffy, one of the Four Emperors. Luffy didn't have the aura or intimidation factor the Emperors were supposed to have, so it kind of defeated the point.
But that was just because Luffy was the protagonist, and the story had to revolve around him. His "prestige" as an Emperor came and went, entirely depending on how the author chose to portray him. If it were someone like Lee Sin, the "prestige" would be set in stone, and that would be interesting.
Shaking his head, Kaito smiled and said, "Let's take a look first."
Maybe it really would work someday.
Becoming someone important in your favorite story... really did feel like a dream.
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