Darkness.
That was the first thing he felt—endless, heavy, suffocating. A void without beginning or end. He floated within it, weightless, with no sense of time. Minutes, hours, years… he couldn't tell.
Each time he tried to grasp a thought, it slipped away into the emptiness.
And then—suddenly—he heard a voice.
Deep. Ancient. Unfamiliar.
"You were not meant to end this way… so I offer you a gift… and a choice."
The voice deepened, echoing like thunder rolling over an endless sea.
"I shall reincarnate you into a new world with your memories… and a gift."
It paused, the void trembling with its words.
"Or, you may refuse, and be sent back into the cycle of reincarnation—without your memories, without your will—reborn in the same world you came from."
A flicker of light bloomed before him, swirling with infinite colors.
"Or…" the voice softened, almost like a whisper of temptation,
"you may choose. Choose the world you wish to enter. Choose who you wish to become."
The weight of the decision pressed against him, heavier than the darkness itself. Worlds spun behind his eyes: seas, skies, flames, faces. His heart began to pound.
This is it, he thought. My second chance.
"I want to be reincarnated in the world of One Piece… as the brother of Monkey D. Luffy. But I want to regain my memories only at the age of Six—around the time Luffy meets Shanks."
The void quivered at his words. For a long moment, there was silence. Then the ancient voice—Rob, as it named itself—rumbled with faint amusement.
"Fine. So be it."
A pause, heavy as the ocean.
"But know this—the gift you shall receive for your reincarnation… will remain a surprise. It will awaken only when your memories return. Until then, you will live as a child of that world, bound by fate you cannot yet see."
The darkness folded inward, light blooming at its center.
"Now go. Adapt. Survive. Evolve. Your second life begins."
And with that, his consciousness was torn away—carried on a tide that would soon crash upon the shores of Foosha Village, where destiny awaited.