The late-night laboratory was drenched in the sterile glow of cold white fluorescent lights. Darius Flint hunched over a test tube rack, his sharp eyes fixed on a faintly glowing violet solution while his pen scratched steadily across the experiment logbook.
He wore worn athletic gear, sleeves rolled up past his forearms, showing lean muscle carved by years of morning runs and three hours of boxing practice every day.
A third-year chemistry student, disciplined martial artist, and three-time youth sword-fighting champion, his entire focus was locked onto the "Improved Nitroglycerin Stability Experiment" in front of him. So much so that he completely ignored the faint electrical hum coming from the constant-temperature chamber inside the fume hood.
"Temperature, thirty-five point two degrees… PH value, six point eight…" he muttered as his pen moved.
Then came the sharp crack of shattering glass.
Darius froze and turned. The metal casing of the chamber bulged grotesquely, and sparks of pale blue electricity leapt across the wires.
An instant later, the entire row of equipment detonated like falling dominoes.
His pupils narrowed. Instinct drove him to lunge for the nearest fire extinguisher, but before his hand touched it, a blast wave struck his back.
The explosion hurled him across the lab. His body slammed against the floor, his knees tearing open his athletic pants as friction scraped his skin raw.
Pain shot through his spine as the ceiling lamps swung violently above him. Test tubes tumbled like falling stars. At the center of the blast, an eerie indigo glow twisted, writhing like something alive.
"A… spacetime vortex?" His mind flashed back to a paper he'd read last month, *Hypothesis of Parallel Universe Physics*.
Before he could think further, the vortex consumed him. His body was ripped into the swirl of light, and his consciousness dissolved into darkness.
---
Endless dizziness. The sensation of his body being stretched and dragged through a torrent of spacetime.
Then, suddenly—air.
A salty breeze filled his lungs as his body slammed against uneven bluestone.
He coughed violently and rolled onto his side.
"Don't steal the fish! Those are for the sick children!"
The sharp voice cut through the ringing in his ears. Darius forced his eyes open.
Twenty meters away on a dock, three burly men with jagged tattoos ripped into a fishing boat's canvas with iron hooks. Silver mackerel spilled onto the ground in metallic clatters.
The leader had a mechanical saw for an arm, slicing through the mast with a shriek like bones snapping.
"Old geezer!" The saw-armed pirate kicked a hunched man in a grey shirt. The old man flew against the wall, coughing blood.
On his chest hung a wooden sign: *Foosha Village Chief*.
Darius's temples pounded. Memories flooded his mind—East Blue, Arlong Pirates, Nami…
He turned sharply. There she was. A girl in an orange and white striped shirt, hair in pigtails, clutching a sea chart as she cowered in the boat. Her eyes, however, burned with a stubborn defiance far sharper than the glass scattered across the dock.
Sixteen-year-old Nami.
Darius's jaw tightened.
A former martial arts club president, he had never tolerated bullies. And now, barely after arriving in this strange world, he was staring at cruelty face-to-face.
He planted his palms on the stone slab and pushed himself upright. Blood seeped from the tear in his knee, but he ignored it.
The mechanical saw whirred, ready to cut again.
"Wind-Breaking Kick!" Darius roared, springing forward.
It was a leg technique he'd developed himself. His sole scraped the ground, throwing dust into the air, before his calf snapped outward with explosive force.
Two sword-wielding pirates turned too late. His kick smashed one in the wrist and the other in the ribs. Steel clattered onto the dock as the men doubled over, gasping.
"Where did this brat come from?" the saw-armed pirate snarled, his blade spinning. "Perfect, a new toy."
"Shut your mouth." Darius spat blood to the side and glared at the pirate. His gaze drifted past the man—to the bleeding village chief and to Nami's trembling fingers clutching her chart.
His heartbeat thundered, not with fear, but with the long-buried fire of combat.
Years of training had honed his instincts: eyes sharp, fists steady.
Now, with the sea breeze stirring his clothes, he read the pirate's weaknesses in an instant—the joints of the mechanical arm, the knife at another pirate's waist, even the wear on Nami's sea chart.
"Village Chief!" Darius shouted. He ducked beneath the saw's swing, seized a mooring rope, and swung behind the pirate. His fist, backed by improved Xingyi Boxing, slammed into the back of the man's neck.
The pirate staggered and crashed into a fish basket, mackerel scattering under his boots.
"Boss Johnny!" the other pirates rushed forward with harpoons.
Darius froze mid-breath.
A voice echoed inside his skull—mechanical, cold, like an old radio tuning in:
[Detecting host's first contact with a high-risk event in the One Piece world…]
Nami's scream jolted him back.
"Look out!"
A harpoon cut through the air. Darius twisted, but it grazed his ear, slamming into a wooden pillar behind him. Splinters bit into his cheek.
His breath quickened. His trembling hand curled into a fist.
That voice… was it a system?
He thought back to the explosion, the strange light, the stories of systems he'd read in novels. His chest tightened.
The saw-arm pirate lunged again. Darius rolled aside, teeth clenched.
Something deep inside him stirred awake.
The village chief clawed weakly at his sleeve. "Child… run. Take Nami. The Arlong Pirates… they're monsters."
Darius wiped blood from his face and grinned. "Even monsters bleed."
Nami pulled a small knife from the boat, her eyes flashing with a mix of fear and resolve.
The dock's wind picked up, heavy with salt, fish, and the faint trace of gunpowder.
[System activation condition triggered: Host's first combat engagement. Binding in progress… 10%… 30%…]
The saw blade came down, sparks flying.
Darius smirked. "System… you'd better be worth it."
[Binding complete.]
His pupils shrank to pinpricks. Data flickered in his vision:
[Detected: Paramecia-type user, Saw-Tooth Johnny, cadre of the Arlong Pirates. Current ability: Mechanical Saw Arm (Integration coefficient: 1.1). Defeat target to acquire ability. Original user will permanently lose it.]
Darius's throat tightened. "A… Devil Fruit?"
The thought of Luffy's Gum-Gum powers flashed in his mind. Cold sweat soaked through his shirt.
But there was no time. Johnny's saw whirred, swinging toward Nami.
The girl's compass flew from her hand as he grabbed her wrist.
Darius lunged. His palm closed around the compass mid-air. His eyes locked onto the weak spot at the back of Johnny's mechanical neck joint.
This was it. His chance.
He roared and struck, compass tip aimed true—
And the fight for his fate truly began.
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