Chapter 1: Birth

Somewhere on the eastern side of the United States, a young man laid in an isolated hospital bed. He looked out the window which was located to his left, his eyes desolate. He was diagnosed with cancer at merely twenty years old, just when he was about to attend college and flourish in life. His friends had all moved on and forgotten about him and his family considered him to be a leech; someone that could no longer be saved.

He was bitter, extremely bitter. The high grades he had worked hard for all of his life to achieve were worthless and all of the friends he cherished abandoned him. He was left with nothing but a single laptop and a T.V set.

The only things that had followed him since his childhood was his favorite anime, One Piece. Even after watching every single weekly serialization, he would go onto Reddit and argue about silly things such as power-levels, justice, and whether or not the pirates or the navy were in the right. It was the only thing that kept him warm nowadays.

Even now, just hours before his next surgery, the young man was busy watching an episode of One Piece. He loved the intricate design of each character, alongside the unclear black/white forces. Whether it was the corrupt navy who upheld some form of justice and order, or the pirates who were simply freedom seekers. Both sides were wrong and right in their own ways, similar to most things in life.

The anime itself was often regarded as a cartoon; one without much depth. However, in the young man's eyes, it was actually quite the dark show. Slaves, aristocrats, pirates, pillaging, and even child experimentation were all major factors inside of One Piece. Although each and everything was described in a more flamboyant way, the root evil of the anime was nothing to scoff at.

Thinking to here, Ren slowly killed time until the surgeons entered into his hospital room. He had already resigned to his poor fate long ago, letting the doctors drug and put him to sleep without much resistance.

While losing consciousness, a single, yet silly wish escaped from his lips. He wanted to live in a world where everyone was given an equal chance for greatness. A world where hard work and effort played a bigger part than luck and genetics — the world of One Piece!

With this thought in mind, he slowly drifted off to sleep. Even though he knew it was impossible, even though he knew that it was a foolish thought, he couldn't help but desire it. An intangible thing, an imaginary world, how fun would it be if he could reincarnate into such a place.

…

An unknown amount of time passed inside of the darkness. The young man felt as though he was dreaming, so he didn't pay much heed to it. He patiently waited until he woke, or until he could no longer feel. Like this, more and more time passed; which felt like years.

Then, suddenly, after what felt like an eternity, a light could be seen at the end of the tunnel. Ren reached out toward the light with all of his strength, he was tired of the lonely darkness. He inched closer and closer until finally, he grasped the ball of light.

Then, as if an entire world emerged, Ren could hear both the sound of a baby crying and the howling of wolves. He could no longer feel his long limbs and his vision was nothing to be proud of. His blurry vision barely made out a dense forest.

To his right, he could see a basket on the same height as him.

'Am I on the ground? Why am I in the forest?" Ren mused to himself while inspecting the baby basket to his side.

Confused, Ren began to squirm his little body around. He looked left and right, and then down. On his little belly, a piece of newspaper was resting. More shocking than the paper, however, was his minuscule body; he was a baby!

An indescribable amount of shock assaulted Ren as he shifted his attention back to the newspaper. Although his vision was slightly impaired, he strained his immature eyes and inspected the bolded words on the paper.

March 9th, 1485 on the sea calendar. The corkscrew pirates pillaged a few villages inside of the West blue. And, a new promising marine, Monkey D. Garp has been promoted.

Ren's mouth gaped in astonishment. Just this little bit of information caused a few ripples inside of his heart. The marine Garp, sea calendar, and the West blue, all of which were things from his favorite anime — One Piece!

'1485, why did this year sound so familiar?' Ren quickly pulled himself back together and observed the baby to his right. It was still small, but discernible red hair poked out of its crib.

"Shanks!" Ren mumbled.

1485 was the year Shanks was born, one of the four future Yonko, and one of Luffy's main role-models in life. Ren was also aware that Shanks was around twenty years older than Luffy, so it would be around 15 years from now when Gol D. Roger was executed.

A hundred different thoughts and ideas passed through Ren's head as deliberated about his future path. It was clear that he was just a baby, but the fact that he entered into the One Piece world was thrilling. Things such as haki, devil fruits, and even dinosaurs were present. More than any of that, Ren didn't have to worry about his ailments any more!

With such thoughts in mind, Ren's body began to slowly lose consciousness. A baby's brain was incapable of handling such an excessive number of memories, let alone erratic thoughts. Slowly, Ren drifted off to sleep with a small smile playing on his lips.

The next day, Ren could vaguely feel his body being transported along with Shanks, but he was far too tired to open his eyes. In fact, the only things he was currently capable of accomplishing were eating, defecating, and sleeping.

…

Peacefully, a few years had passed and both Ren and Shanks were around five years old. They were rather tall for their age, Ren being only an inch or so tall than Shanks. Both of them shared the same blood-red hair, but Ren's was longer and drooped down below his shoulders. Furthermore, Ren's face was more streamlined in comparison to Shanks. Ren possessed a more mature countenance, while Shanks appeared to be younger and healthier.

Both boys sat around a wooden table. They were busy eating a bowl of stew that was placed in front of them, served by a smiling middle-aged man. "Haha, I'm glad I found you two in that forest," the man said, "I don't know which monster decided to leave two children alone in such an environment, but you're safe here, with me."

Shanks nodded his head and smiled, "thank you, old man."

Ren, in contrast, simply nodded and finished his meal. Over the last few years, Ren was painfully reminded of the frail bodies children were forced to endure. Let alone training, the young boy was hardly capable of venturing out in the forest in search of treasure.

Ren was aware of his capabilities; things like determination and persistence were not among his greatest virtues. He was a calm and collected man, one that was only innately good at things without putting in much effort. He was not confident in his talent to painstakingly train his body to be on par with Shanks in the future, or WhiteBeard. Rather, he was much more focused on the mysterious Devil Fruit.

With his modern knowledge and sophisticated nature, a powerful devil fruit could easily be developed into a weapon of mass destruction. It didn't need to be a powerful logia fruit or a mythical zoan, he just needed something to rely on other than his weak body.

Thus, every single morning, Ren would venture out into the forest alone. He refused to believe that his second life would be wasted. Especially so in the world of One Piece, where only the strong dictated the rules.

A sly smile was plastered on Ren's face as he quickly departed from the cabin and ran down the village streets, not at all paying attention to the dozens of ships slowly approaching on the horizon.