Main Character POV
Ugh… my head.
A sharp pain throbs behind my eyes as consciousness slowly returns. I groan, lifting a hand to my forehead—and freeze when my fingers brush against unfamiliar hair.
…Huh?
I push myself upright and instinctively glance at the nearest reflective surface.
A calm puddle sits nearby.
Reflected within it is a young face—blue eyes staring back at me, wide with confusion. Brown, wavy hair falls messily around my head.
No.
No, no, no— isn't right.
I look… fifteen. Maybe younger.
This isn't me.
My heart starts pounding as I whip my head around. Tall trees surround me on all sides, their leaves rustling softly in the wind. I'm in a forest.
And I'm sitting at the edge of a cliff.
I crawl closer, heart racing, and peek over the edge.
An endless ocean stretches beneath me, sunlight dancing across the waves like shattered glass.
"…What?"
Ahhh—damn it, my head hurts.
What happened last night? How did I even get here?
I live nowhere near an ocean. This isn't even remotely close to my hometown.
…Did I get kidnapped?
Panic crashes into me all at once. I frantically pat my chest, my stomach—searching for stitches, scars, anything.
Nothing.
My body is completely intact.
"…Okay," I mutter weakly. "At least my organs aren't gone."
But something's definitely wrong.
I look down at myself again. My body feels lighter. Leaner. I was bigger than this—broader, heavier. And the clothes I'm wearing… they're simple, unfamiliar. Definitely not mine.
"What the hell is going on?"
My breathing grows uneven as confusion twists into fear. I try to stand—
Clink.
"Huh?"
I flinch and look down.
A small treasure chest sits beside me, half-hidden in the grass. Resting neatly on top of it is a folded note.
…A treasure chest?
Seriously?
My hand trembles as I pick up the note and tear it open.
Hello. This is the Divine Subsidy Department.
A god accidentally killed you before your designated time. Please do not panic. The responsible deity has been heavily reprimanded for her actions.
Due to policy restrictions, we are unable to disclose her identity.
As compensation, we will reincarnate you into your favorite story. The items within the chest are part of your reimbursement.
—Divine Subsidy Department
…
I reread the letter.
Once.
Twice.
"A god… killed me?"
My gaze slowly drifts from the letter to the treasure chest.
"…You've got to be kidding me."
After a brief hesitation, I open the chest.
Inside are four items, neatly arranged:
A syringe filled with thick black liquid
A small velvet-colored box
A golden ticket with three tearable edges
And another envelope
For several seconds, my mind goes completely blank.
"What the hell is this…?"
Disappointment bubbles up at how little there is. I grab the envelope and open it, my eyes immediately locking onto the text.
If you are reading this, you have likely realized you are no longer in your original body.
Your assumption is correct. The body you now inhabit belonged to a recently deceased individual from this world.
Below is an explanation of the compensation items provided.
I continue reading.
Item One: Nano Machines
Origin: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
An improved and stabilized version of nano machines. Once injected, they permanently integrate with your body.
Effects include enhanced strength, defense, speed, perception, and precise muscle control. Defensive performance matches that of Senator Armstrong's nano machines.
For safety reasons, full output is restricted. Power will unlock gradually as your body adapts.
Item Two: Revival Tokens
Quantity: 10
Automatically activates upon death, restoring the body to peak condition with no side effects.
Tokens must be in your possession prior to death. They cannot be applied retroactively.
Item Three: Devil Fruit Ticket
Grants one random Devil Fruit from a selected category: Zoan, Paramecia, or Logia.
Devil Fruits already consumed by others are excluded.
Basic information will be provided upon acquisition.
We hope these items adequately compensate you.
Enjoy your experience in the world of One Piece.
—Divine Subsidy Department
Silence.
I lower the letter, resting my hands on my knees as the ocean wind brushes past me.
"…So. One Piece, huh."
I sigh.
"I really should be grateful."
At least it isn't Attack on Titan.
Or Marvel.
"…Oh shit, yeah. Definitely grateful it's not Warhammer 40K."
Thank God.
"Haaaah…"
I take a deep breath. Panicking won't help.
I pick up the syringe in one hand and the golden ticket in the other.
"…Alright. Which one first?"
After a moment, I place the syringe back in the chest.
Yeah. Smarter choice.
Devil Fruits permanently alter your biology. If I inject the nano machines first, there's a chance they'll see the Devil Fruit as a foreign substance and try to neutralize it.
Not worth the risk.
I turn my attention to the ticket.
It's beautifully designed—an illustration of a mountain made entirely of Devil Fruits etched into the gold. Along the edges are three tear lines:
Zoan.
Paramecia.
Logia.
"Hmmm…"
Zoan
The best possible outcome would be a Mythical Zoan, but let's be real—there's no way my luck is that good. If I choose Zoan, I'll probably end up with something like the Bird-Bird Fruit, Model: Pigeon.
Yeah. Not risking that.
Paramecia is even worse. Completely random. Sure, I could get something insane like Fujitora's gravity fruit… or I could get absolute garbage.
Like that one Marine with the Berry-Berry Fruit. A worse version of Buggy.
…Though, to be fair, Buggy is one of the Four Emperors. Former member of Roger's crew. Clearly the strongest being alive.
"Nobody compares to him," I mutter solemnly.
That leaves only one option.
Logia.
No contest.
There are a few questionable ones—like that jelly Logia from the movie—but even that's an outlier. Jelly isn't even a natural substance! And don't get me started on the candy Logia guy. He's the reason Perospero ended up with that weird-ass Lick-Lick Fruit.
"…Damn it, I'm getting sidetracked."
I grip the ticket firmly and tear along the Logia edge.
A blinding flash of light bursts from the paper, flooding my vision. The ticket disintegrates into glowing particles, the light twisting and condensing in midair.
Slowly, the glow fades.
Floating in front of me is a purple Devil Fruit covered in elegant spiral patterns. A thick green stem curls from its top, and tied to it is a small note.
My breath catches.
"…So, this is it, ah."
Why does this devil fruit look familiar?
"Weight is that"
My hands start trembling. Cold sweat runs down my face as a chill crawl up my spine. I take a shaky breath before carefully picking up the small piece of paper tied to the fruit and unfolding it.
Devil Fruit Name: Yami Yami no Mi (Dark-Dark Fruit)
Category: Logia
Abilities:
Negates all Devil Fruit abilities through direct contact.
Possesses a personal pocket dimension capable of storing objects.
Generates a powerful gravitational pull.
Creates darkness capable of swallowing objects, terrain, and living beings.
Downsides:
Weakness to water.
Weakness to Sea Prism.
Stone Light disables Logia intangibility.
User experiences pain at twice the normal level.
I stare at the paper with conflicted emotions.
"AHHH—what do I do?!"
My mind spirals.
If I eat it, Blackbeard will hunt me down. He won't stop until I'm dead and this fruit is torn from my corpse. The man became a Yonko after eating this thing—there's no denying how terrifyingly powerful it is.
But if I don't eat it…
I lose one of my biggest advantages. Worse, someone else could steal it. And if he gets it first—
"Damn it!"
This is so damn annoying!
I crumple the paper in my fist and look back at the Devil Fruit, its purple surface swirling ominously.
…Will this even help me survive in a world ruled by pirates anne marines?
I don't know what the future holds anymore. But I do know one thing.
The first step toward surviving—toward reaching my goal in this world—starts right here.
I raise the fruit and take a large bite.
The moment it hits my tongue—
"BLEGH—!"
I immediately vomit.
"Eughhhh—!!!"
I fall to my knees, coughing and gagging as the taste assaults every sense I have.
"Holy shit… they weren't joking. This is awful. It's so bad It's so so bad!"
I keep retching, tears forming in my eyes.
Oh my god—this must be what Geto feels like when he eats cursed spirits. This is pure suffering.
My body trembles as I kneel there, the experience shaking me to my core.
"…Damn it."
I wipe my mouth weakly.
"I don't even think I swallowed it. I probably threw everything up…"
For a moment, I seriously consider giving up on eating it.
"…I don't want to do this anymore."
I inhale deeply, forcing myself to calm down. Then I break off a tiny piece of the Devil Fruit.
Slow breath in.
Slow breath out.
I shove it into my mouth and swallow immediately, refusing to chew.
"Gulp."
I cringe violently as the taste hits again. I grab some nearby leaves and start chewing them desperately, trying to get rid of the lingering flavor.
"Oh god… I think I'm going to be sick."
I clutch my stomach as nausea wracks my body, the result of vomiting over and over again.
Eventually, I collapse onto the grass, staring up at the sky.
"…Wow."
New life. New choices. Terrible decisions.
After a while, I sit up cross-legged and stare at my hand, focusing—trying to feel something.
Then—
Black smoke begins to seep from my arm.
It coils and spreads, completely coating my skin in writhing darkness.
My breath catches.
"…Ha."
A laugh escapes me.
"Ha… ha… ha ha ha—HAHAHAHA!"
This is real.
This is a real superpower.
I wave my arm around, hearing the heavy whoosh of darkness cutting through the air. My heart races with excitement as joy floods my chest.
"This is incredible…"
I grin like a child discovering magic for the first time.
"A real power… something I could never have imagined in my old life."
I watch the darkness swirl around my hand.
"This is so cool."
For the next ten minutes, I completely lose myself in experimenting with the Dark-Dark Fruit.
I stretch out my hand and focus.
Small rocks, pebbles, even chunks of stone rip free from the ground and fly toward me, pulled in by an invisible force. With a thought, they vanish into the darkness, swallowed into that strange pocket dimension I can feel but can't see.
Then I release them.
Boom—!
The rocks shoot out like bullets, smashing into nearby trees. Bark explodes, leaves scatter, and trunks shudder from the impact.
"…Okay. That's dangerous an extremely cool."
After a while, I force myself to stop. Getting drunk on power this early is a bad idea.
My gaze shifts to the chest.
"…Right. The nano machines."
I pick up the syringe, staring at the black liquid inside. My excitement cools into hesitation.
"…Where the hell am I supposed to inject this?"
My brain immediately starts rejecting bad ideas.
"Yeah, no. I'm not stupid enough to stab this into my neck."
"And absolutely not my but."
"And I am definitely not a professional medical expert who knows how to inject something directly into a vein."
I sigh and look down.
"…Thigh it is."
At least that feels survivable.
I brace myself, grit my teeth, and inject it.
For a few seconds…
Nothing happens.
"…Huh."
I blink.
…Did it fail?"
And then—
Everything hits at once.
My vision sharpens violently, every leaf, every grain of dirt suddenly too clear. Sounds crash into my ears—the wind, the waves, my own heartbeat pounding like a drum. My skin tingles, my muscles tighten, and my balance nearly gives out as my body struggles to process everything.
I stagger, gripping my head.
"Whoa—okay—okay—!"
Just as suddenly as it starts, it stops.
The world settles.
I straighten up slowly, flexing my fingers.
"…Wow."
I blink once.
"…Well, that was weird."
Curiosity immediately replaces caution.
I step forward and start shadowboxing.
"Left hook."
I twist my waist, the punch slicing cleanly through the air.
"Right hook."
Faster. Smoother.
"Duck and then uppercut—"
I drop low and then spring upward, my fist snapping skyward.
I take a step back, inhale, and wind up.
And my fist slams into a nearby tree.
BOOB—!
The bark explodes outward, deep fractures spiderwebbing across the trunk.
My eyes widen.
"…Holy shit."
A grin spreads across my face.
"NANO MACHINES SON! — ah?!"
"Oh—oh no."
I see the tree falling down on me.
I punch again.
The tree splits straight down the middle.
The trunk groans and split apart, and starts falling—directly toward me.
"Oh—!"
Instinct kicks in.
Darkness erupts from my body, swallowing the falling tree whole before it can touch me. The space clears instantly, as if it never existed.
Silence returns.
I take a deep breath.
The scent of the ocean mixes with the forest air—salt, leaves, earth, and wind.
I exhale slowly.
"…I don't want to be weak in this new life."
I clench my fist.
"I don't need the One Piece."
The words come out firm. Certain.
"What I need… is the power to survive."
I look out toward the endless sea.
"I'll become strong enough to never die buy anybodys hands."
Strong enough to stand above everything this world through at me.
"To become the strongest person in this world."
A small smile forms.
I raised up both of my hands, one of them covered with shadowy Darkness, will the other one turning metallic black.
I make a fist and crash both of them together making a shockwave.
I say with all my heart.
"…I will become the World's Strongest Man."
One week later
Sigh…
"I'm in trouble," I mutter, rubbing my face in annoyance.
After an entire week of exploring, it's clear now—there's no way off this island. No people. No towns. No ships. Just an uninhabited stretch of land surrounded by endless ocean. Even the wildlife is scarce, like the island itself doesn't want to be lived on.
The most immediate problems are food and water.
Thankfully, I managed to find a small supply inside a cabin tucked deeper into the forest. Judging by the condition of the place, this must've been where the original owner of this body lived.
And honestly?
This guy was smart.
The inside of the cabin is packed wall-to-wall with blueprints—detailed schematics for inventions far beyond anything I understand. Gears, pressure systems, strange mechanisms… I can recognize the effort and precision, but making sense of them? Not a chance.
There's also an extension attached to the cabin—a workshop. A sturdy workbench sits at the center, covered in tools and half-finished parts. Whatever he was working on looks like… Gauntlets?
Propulsion gauntlets? Maybe?
From what I can barely decipher in his notes, they're supposed to let the user fly by using some kind of thermal acceleration and pressure system.
Yeah.
Way too smart for my dumbass.
I sigh and place the schematic back onto the growing pile of blueprints the guy left behind. Pinching the bridge of my nose, fatigue settles in.
"Who was this guy…?"
None of the notes mention a full name. Just a signature at the bottom of every page:
H.P.
"…Maybe it's Harry Potter or something?" I mutter.
I shake my head. Doesn't matter right now.
What does matter is getting off this island.
My original plan was simple: train here for at most a year, get stronger, then travel to the nearest inhabited island. But without a ship—or even a clue how far I am from civilization—that plan is already falling apart.
I clench my jaw.
If I want to survive in this world, I need more than just raw power. I can't afford to be reckless like Luffy, charging forward and hoping things work out. That's not me.
I need a plan.
Grabbing a pen and some paper, I sit down and start writing—mapping out the path forward.
1. Learn everything I can about the Yami Yami no Mi
2. Increase my physical strength
3. Try to sense or awaken Haki, even a little
4. Learn how to properly use a weapon
5. Attempt to train the Six Powers (Rokushiki)
I get up and head outside, walking toward a clearing near the house.
Alright… let's see what the Yami Yami no Mi can actually do.
I manifest darkness around both of my arms and extend my right hand toward a nearby tree.
"Dark Blast."
A wave of darkness shoots out and slams into the trunk of a tree—
…and nothing happens.
The darkness fizzles out like smoke, leaving the tree completely unharmed.
"…Well, that was embarrassing."
So, the darkness doesn't have a physical form. It's more like smoke—unlike Smoker's Devil Fruit, which can become solid. Maybe that's because darkness is a concept rather than an element?
I walk up to the tree and prepare a punch.
Boom!
The bark splinters apart.
Hmm. The fruit doesn't strengthen my physical attacks. I could already do this with nanomachines boosting me, so that's not very useful.
For the next few hours, I experiment nonstop.
Conclusion: the darkness itself isn't solid—but if I coat a physical object with it, it becomes tangible. I can also expand and enlarge the darkness, but it needs something physical inside it as a catalyst. My effective range is about twenty feet from my body. Any farther, and the darkness evaporates or snaps back to me.
Weirdly enough, I can imitate some of Luffy's moves.
By coating my arm in darkness, I launch a dark fist forward like a Gum-Gum Pistol. Once disconnected, it evaporates instantly. When I try something like Elephant Gun— enlarging my arm and smashing towards the forest, destroying multiple trees from that attack.
…yeah. Now I've got a lot more space in my training ground.
Blackbeard's techniques are easier.
Black Hole.
Darkness Gravity.
And Liberation.
Those feel almost natural.
I also discover something strange when experimenting with water. I can create a vortex and pull it toward my pocket dimension—but it immediately fails. Water can't be stored unless it's inside a completely sealed container. Any opening at all, and the ability refuses to work.
The tests I've done with my pocket dimension keep producing strange results.
I can control how much pressure I apply to anything inside it. The first time I tried storing a water container that I found in the cabin, it shattered instantly—and I ended up coughing up multiple litres of water. From that failure, I learned something important.
The default pressure inside the pocket dimension seems to be around 20 times normal gravity, but I can regulate it at will. My favorite application so far is launching stored objects as projectiles—like a cheap imitation of Gate of Babylon. Blackbeard calls it Liberation.
The area around the house is a mess. Trees snapped, uprooted, or outright destroyed from my experiments with the Yami Yami no Mi.
…Figures. I'm the one who has to clean this up.
With a tired sigh, I start storing the broken trees into the pocket dimension, I already thinking about how I can reuse them later.
Third-Person POV
Three weeks later
"Haa… haa… haa…"
The MC bends forward, hands braced against his knees, breathing raggedly. For a moment, it looks like he's about to collapse—but he straightens up.
His fists tighten.
In front of him stands a tree reinforced with a bolted metal plate, its surface dented and scarred from repeated blows.
His knuckles are torn and trembling.
Main Character POV
Damn it… I need to unlock Armament Haki.
I don't even know if this kind of training will work. I've already shut down the nanomachines—I can't rely on them for this part.
I draw a slow breath and focus inward.
I need to believe.
Believe I can punch through it.
Believe… believe… BELIEVE!
I throw a punch with everything I have.
CLANG!
Pain explodes up my arm, far worse than I expected. I bite down hard, drawing blood.
Again.
CLANG!
My hands start shaking. Blood splatters onto the ground, dark and sticky. The pain is unbearable, but I stare at the tree anyway.
I start remembering my actions in my last life… I was a burden.
I ate my parent's food. Slept under their roof. Used their money. Their time. Their hope.
I woke up, played games, watched videos, and went back to sleep. Day after day. Year after year.
They kept believing in me.
And I kept proving them wrong.
They would've been better off without me. Less worry. Less disappointment. Less wasted effort.
That's the truth I never said out loud.
And yet… I still miss them. So much it hurts.
If I ever get the chance to stand in front of them again—
I WILL MAKE SURE THEY WILL SEE A SON THAT THEY CAN BE PROUD OFFFFF!!!
I can't stop.
I am not willing to stop.
I have to become stronger.
I want… I want… I WANT TO BE USEFUL TOOOOOO!
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
I keep punching. Over and over. My fists tear open, skin splitting, bones threatening to push through.
I pull my arm back and swing with everything I got and more.
CRACK—BOOM!
The metal plate bends inward as the tree splits apart, collapsing in on itself.
I stare down at my fist.
A faint black sheen coats my knuckles.
"…Ha."
So, I really did it.
A weak smile spreads across my face, more disbelief than joy.
"Neo… heal my arms."
"I think I'm going to pass out now."
I close my eyes as the weight drains from my body.
Author's Note
Hi everyone, thanks for checking out this novel.
I want to be upfront: this story is a hobby project, not something I'm writing on a fixed schedule. Updates will be irregular and random, depending on my free time and motivation.
I'm writing this because I enjoy the process and want to improve my storytelling, not to chase deadlines or stress over consistency. When a chapter is posted, it's because I felt it was ready and worth sharing.
Thank you to anyone who chooses to read, follow, or leave feedback. I really appreciate it.