I realized I was a reincarnated person when I was four years old.
Something triggered a flood of memories—experiences I'd never lived through in this life, yet knew were undeniably mine.
Panicked at first, I couldn't make sense of it. I thought I was having some kind of bizarre nightmare, paralyzed by fear. But after some time to calm down and think it through, I understood: these were memories from a past life.
I had died once, retaining those memories, and been reborn into this new body.
And at the same moment, I realized exactly what kind of world I was in.
It wasn't the memories from my past life, but the ones from this one, that contained far too many familiar terms:
"Grand Line"
"Pirate"
"Marine"
"Den Den Mushi"
"World Government"
"Devil Fruit"
The evidence was overwhelming. There was no denying it: I had been reincarnated into the world of One Piece, that mega-popular manga.
I was forced to accept it. This was undeniably the world of One Piece.
I had been reincarnated here, retaining the memories of my past life. And to top it off, I was now the daughter of an ordinary villager on an island deep within the perilous Grand Line, where dangerous pirates swarmed like flies.
As a pirate, laughing coarsely, swung his saber down at me, everything seemed to slow to a crawl. I watched as if it were happening to someone else, thinking, Well, isn't this something?
___
Right, so, having somehow survived that chaotic mess, let's start with introductions and try to make sense of this situation.
Yeah, yeah, I'm okay. I somehow managed to survive.
I'll explain how I made it out in a moment, but first, let me introduce myself.
My name is Sue.
My full name is Venerdi Toto Sue. I have a middle name, but I'm not from some noble family or anything—just an ordinary girl. Oh, and I'm a Reincarnated Person.
The name doesn't ring any bells from my past life memories, so I'm guessing I'm not a character from the original story. I'm probably just one of those nameless background characters.
I used to live peacefully with my parents in a small village on an island somewhere in the Grand Line—I'm not exactly sure where. We did. Past tense.
A few days ago, news arrived that another village on the same island had been attacked by pirates.
And when we investigated, we learned that the pirate captain had a bounty of 30 million Berry on his head.
Considering the power scaling in the original story, 30 million Berry might not seem like much, but for ordinary people like us, it was a terrifying figure.
A bounty doesn't necessarily equate to strength, but it undeniably reflects the level of danger involved. Arlong, who served as the final boss of East Blue in the original story, had a bounty of 20 million Berry. This new pirate's bounty was 1.5 times that amount—the same Arlong who could hurl entire houses with his bare hands.
Of course, Arlong's circumstances for ending up in East Blue were somewhat unusual, so his bounty might not have been a perfect reflection of his true capabilities. But that's beside the point.
To make matters worse, we heard the pirate had set sail for our village. It was clear the village's Self-Defense Corps stood no chance. Reluctantly, we concluded we had no choice but to abandon our homes and flee. We packed our belongings and the entire village began to evacuate.
But it was too late. Before we could even begin evacuating, the pirates stormed into the harbor and started raiding the village.
Just as I'd feared, the Self-Defense Corps was easily overwhelmed, and the looting of homes began.
No, I'm going to die. I'm definitely going to die. There's no way a kid like me can outrun them.
Paralyzed by the bleak future looming over me, I watched a grinning pirate approach. Fear and panic had rooted me to the spot.
Then, at the worst possible moment—or maybe the best, depending on how you looked at it—my past life memories flooded back. The shock completely froze my mind.
The next thing I knew, I saw the pirate's saber arcing down towards me. Ah, I'm dead, I thought.
So, I finally get reincarnated, and it's over the moment I realize it?
But it seemed God—if such a being even existed—hadn't abandoned me after all.
Just as the pirate's saber was about to fall, he was suddenly sent flying sideways with tremendous force. The impact shattered the wall of a nearby house, leaving a gaping hole as he crashed through to the other side.
"Spacing out like that will get you killed, Missy," the man who'd just sent the pirate flying said.
He was a massive figure of a man, wearing a pristine white coat with the kanji for "Justice" emblazoned across the back. His bare fist—or rather, his entire forearm—was pitch-black, posed as if he'd just delivered a powerful blow.
"Well, maybe it's cruel to tell a little girl like you to buck up... Hey, someone get this kid to safety!"
"Sir!"
Following the Marine's order, one of his subordinates scooped me up and carried me away.
Lifted high above my head, I glanced around and saw Marines in identical uniforms battling pirates throughout the village, where chaos had reigned just moments before.
"Battle" felt like too generous a word. It was more like the pirates desperately fleeing and trying to defend themselves while the Marines relentlessly pursued and struck them down.
My eyes landed on a man sprawled near the entrance to the central plaza. Wasn't that the Boss's 30 million Berry bounty guy? His face was so battered and disfigured that I could barely recognize him, but I was pretty sure it was him.
I learned later that the leaders of the first village attacked had sent a desperate plea for help to the Marines. By sheer luck, a Marine ship happened to be sailing nearby and intercepted the distress call.
They were too late to save the first village, but they tracked the pirates here and arrived just in time to rescue us.
And that's how the Marines rounded up the pirates and saved the village.
It was a close call, but I managed to survive.
Of course, the village was far from unscathed. There were plenty of dead and severely injured. But I figured we should just be grateful we weren't wiped out entirely.
Remembering the "original story," I understood this was just the kind of world we lived in. The Great Pirate Era was like that.
After some complicated discussions with the village elders, the Marines eventually left.
The survivors from our village and others that had been attacked decided to band together and rebuild as one community.
Thankfully, both my parents were injured but alive. If I did my part to help out, we might just manage to get by in the future.
At the same time, I was thinking about the future—not about making a living, but about self-defense.
We'd been lucky this time, but this world was littered with death flags. Pirates roamed everywhere, and a small, defenseless village like ours could be wiped out at any moment. The Marines might not always arrive in time to save us.
That meant we needed to learn how to protect ourselves. We had to.
If I started training now, even little by little, I might at least gain enough strength to defend myself... maybe. But it was better than doing nothing.
After all, this world was full of monsters—people who could take down giant beasts and Sea Kings with their bare hands. They weren't everywhere, but they existed. It was a world where ordinary humans could push their bodies to such extreme limits.
I remember hearing people online say that this world was like that Hunter world, where the air was practically filled with protein.
Of course, those people probably had natural talent, proper training, and maybe even used Haki or powerful weapons.
Still, the fact remained: this was a world where even ordinary humans could reach such incredible heights.
So, if that's the case, it's definitely better to try than not. Absolutely.
I'd hate to regret not having done something later.
By the way, that Marine who helped me earlier... the one who seemed to be their boss... he looked familiar. Who was he?
Short, cropped purple hair, Armament Haki so intense it made his arms completely black... If I'm not mistaken, I think someone called him "Admiral."
I can't quite remember... I guess my past life memories haven't fully awakened yet.
Oh well. It's not like not knowing is causing me any problems. I'll just be grateful that a Marine Admiral came to my rescue.
Which is exactly why I need to make the most of this luck and train hard to get stronger.
But if someone I don't know (or can't remember) is already an Admiral... then things are definitely way off from the original timeline.
And one more thing...
I only found out later, but the Great Pirate Era hasn't even started yet.
I saw an article about the Roger Pirates in the newspaper—they're still going strong.
So, even before the original story or the Great Pirate Era, there are already this many pirates roaming the seas... I knew it, but this world is seriously messed up.
Wait, what year is it anyway?
To be continued...