"Hey Ace, are you sure you're leaving tomorrow?"
"That's right, I have been waiting forever to take to the sea, and as of today, I'm seventeen years old."
Today is January 1st, 1519, and now that I'm seventeen years old, the raft is ready, so there's no reason to stay here any longer.
I didn't know when the original Ace left the Goa kingdom, but I'm not wasting any more time. I've been preparing for this my entire life. I'm trembling with excitement right now. Tomorrow is the start of a brand new era, an era like no other before. It will be my era to shape the sea as I see fit, just like it's currently Whitebeard's era and Roger's era before him, and Rocks's era before that.
Since today is my last day here, Luffy and the mountain bandits are drinking in celebration.
"By the way, Luffy, be sure to look in the papers; it won't be long before the world starts taking notice".
"Hm, Ok."
"Hey Ace, here's a gift from us mountain bandits to you. Don't let Dadan know that I told you, but she made these".
"I know."
I knew where the necklace came from, Dadan, because she always wore one identical to it, but I didn't think she also made the hat. But I guess I should've figured as much because the hat also has a necklace around it, just like Dadan has.
"Cheers to me setting sail tomorrow and finally becoming a pirate."
"Cheers."
"Hey, Luffy, I want to tell you I'm proud of you. Although you've never beaten me in a fight, your strength and precision speak for themselves."
"Yeah, one day I'll be stronger than you and then I'll be king of the pirates."
"Sure, as if an idiot like you could be king of the pirates."
It took me a while to get to this point, countless hours of training in the forest, countless hours of fighting thugs, countless hours swinging that wooden sword to be a proper swordsman, but to be honest, I'm quite satisfied with the result. The only regret I have is that I was never able to learn how to use any haki before leaving; however, aside from that, I'm quite satisfied with my body of work thus far.
"Hey Ace, are you not saving any booze tomorrow for you to go?"
"No, there's a reason I went to the Goa kingdom and stole all that booze; it's so that we could drink and celebrate the day before the greatest pirate in history takes to the seas."
Dadan walks out of the house and comes outside, where we were celebrating.
"Hey, Dadan, I thought you didn't want to celebrate with us today."
"Of course I'm celebrating. You've been a pain ever since Garp brought you here as a baby, and today is your last day here. If this doesn't call for a celebration, I don't know what else does."
"Fair enough, here's to me not being a pain in your side any longer."
"Hey Ace",
"What's up, Luffy?"
"I wonder how many barrels it would take for us to be drunk".
"'Interesting question, Luffy, let's find out."
"Yeah."
A few hours later, everybody passed out from drinking except for Luffy, who passed out from drinking and eating.
With the help of the system, I'm able to cancel out the alcohol in my system as if I had never drunk. I get up and go deeper into the forest, close to our pirate hideout, and I stop and look around and say,
"I know you're here, so you can come out now".