Dark, cold, gloomy… that's what Clark felt at this moment.
'Wait… I feel? How can I feel? Didn't I die?'
Clark woke to this thought, opening his eyes suddenly to find himself lying in a dark, cold, and gloomy place. Faint silver light seeped through unknown holes—that's what he could make out with his wide-open eyes at that moment.
The lower half of his face was pressed against a cold, wet floor, and he could feel the fine gravel digging into his cheek. He could also see the steel cage surrounding him.
'I'm locked in a cell? Is this what hell looks like?'
Clark felt confused; he didn't understand what was happening. He had imagined hell as a giant hot prison, like the mouth of an active volcano, filled with sinners and the clamor of demons. He didn't rule out the possibility of a dark solitary cell like this existing in hell.
So the only thought that crossed his mind was that he was in hell. After all, he couldn't have survived a free fall from twenty stories, could he?
Clark tried to sense his body, and after a few seconds he could feel numbness in his muscles. It seemed that this body had been lying in this position improperly for quite some time… then a sharp, agonizing pain hit all over him, forcing him out of the hazy state of mind he had been in since waking.
"Argh… oh… this hurts… it really hurts…"
He could feel crushes and possibly fractures in several parts of his body. Of course, a fall from twenty floors would not cause only this much damage… the current pain felt familiar—he had been beaten severely by gang members many times before.
"Is this man still alive?"
"Unbelievable… didn't you see how his bones were crushed under that massive lion?"
"But it's only the three of us here, along with him. I didn't scream just now—did either of you?"
"No, I didn't… I don't want to alert Buggy's pirates, you know…"
"Me neither…"
"Then obviously it's him…"
The darkness didn't stop the three prisoners from discovering the person who had screamed, whom they had thought was already a corpse, since he had been unlucky enough to have a giant lion accidentally sit on him.
One of the three prisoners approached Clark, whose voice had vanished after screaming, and placed a hand on his neck to check his condition.
"He's alive… he's passed out again."
After saying that, the man returned to his place.
And so the night passed…
___
The next morning, Clark woke again. This time, although his body still ached, the pain wasn't as severe as the first time. He was surprised by how quickly he had recovered; he no longer felt the fractures' pain.
The first thing he noticed was sunlight streaming through holes in what appeared to be a circus tent, then there was a prison cage. Not far from him, three bodies lay on the rough floor—tall, thin men, as if they hadn't eaten in days. They appeared to be sleeping.
Clark pushed himself against the cage bars and leaned back, staring blankly in disbelief.
"Didn't I die?"
He looked at his hands in shock. His skin was wheat-colored, with many scratches and swelling, as well as rough, calloused palms. They looked like the hands of a fisherman who rarely sets foot on land and spends most days fishing at sea.
He was quick to realize these were not his hands. One of his own hands had burns, just like his face, so he could distinguish easily.
'This isn't my body… Since I'm not in hell, have I moved to another world? In a way… am I now diving into a dream?'
Clark's lips curved into a faint smile… he couldn't remember the last time he had smiled, even this slightly. It showed just how difficult his past life had truly been.
Clark thought: 'If my afterlife dream begins this way, my life must be as difficult as it was before death.'
He accepted that he had died, and he hadn't expected to wake again. Yet even upon waking, he wasn't shocked or confused; he simply accepted it.
But… Clark touched his face with his rough hands repeatedly in disbelief.
No burns…
'I take that back—this life might be much easier than the last.'
Clark felt immense relief. He didn't care how his new face looked. If it was free of burns, he would be very happy, and ask nothing more from this life.
Finally, the first glimmers of "meaning" began forming in his heart without him realizing it.
"If this is my new life, it could serve as compensation for what I've missed, right?"
Clark whispered, touching his face and looking at the tent ceiling behind the cage bars.
But in the next moment, something caught his attention: a young woman with orange hair sneaked into the tent. She looked at him and then gestured for him to stay silent, placing a finger on her lips.
Clark's eyes widened in shock as he recognized the girl.
'Now I'm certain this is indeed a dream…'
___
After realizing from Shells Town that her target was with the clown Buggy, one of the most dangerous pirates in the East Blue, Nami hurried to steal the Grand Line map from him.
She had no choice but to sneak into Buggy's pirate camp, searching place by place before anyone found her.
'I haven't checked this tent yet…'
She noticed a circus tent on the edge of the pirate camp, which had occupied Orange Town, driven out its original inhabitants, and wreaked havoc. Nami knew this, but unfortunately had no power to help the civilians, even though she wanted to.
'Now I need to focus on finding the map and getting out… Okay, stealing some treasure won't hurt, hehe~'
Inside, the first thing Nami saw was a cell in the middle. Some men appeared to be imprisoned.
'Are they Buggy's pirates, or townspeople from this town?' she wondered, noticing a man staring at her in shock.
'My bad luck! If he's one of Buggy's pirates, he'll want to alert them to gain pardon from his imprisonment…!'
Nami panicked for a moment but quickly regained her composure thanks to the abundant experience she had gained over the years at sea and in stealing from pirates. This kind of situation wasn't rare for her; she had often faced worse.
"You… don't scream. I can get you out of the cell…"
Nami approached the man and spoke in a low voice. To her surprise, he nodded without saying a word.
'So I'm in the world of One Piece… and imprisoned by Buggy?'
Clark's eyes gleamed as he got confirmation of his previous suspicion when he saw Nami.
Before his eyes, Nami produced keys. Clark didn't know how she got them, but he sighed in relief as he watched the cell door open.
"You're injured… can you walk with this body?"
Nami felt empathy for the man, whose body looked wounded, even forgetting her own purpose for coming here for a moment.
"It's fine, I feel better, so I'll manage. Thank you for opening this door for me. One day, I'll repay this debt," Clark said with a smile.
Nami didn't care about his promise and turned to leave. In her eyes, the best thing this man could do was survive and escape Buggy's clutches. As for repaying her debt—well, it would be good enough if he didn't expose her if caught again.
Clark watched her back as she left. Even now, he couldn't believe he had transferred to this world.
"Am I really in the world of One Piece?"
Clark smiled faintly, clenching his fist, then muttered to himself:
"If this is my afterlife dream… I'll die a thousand times in it until I create a new meaning for myself."
___