Chapter 3 - A New World

Mary's cooking was scrumptious. Raiden was sure it was something about the ingredients in this world that made even a simple stew taste absolutely divine.

Mary left him to rest for a bit.

As for Raiden, he had a million thoughts going in his head.

'How did he come to this world'

'If one piece world is real, does that mean other anime worlds are real too? Have others from his world transmigrated to other anime/manga worlds too ?'

"I hope no one gets transmigrated to Berserk!"

Raiden shivered at the thought.

He thought of asking his system but it looked like his system was not a sentient one. Well not that he complained. He hated those sentient ones anyway.

Anyway coming back to the one piece world.

Honestly it was not as fun as anime made it out to be.

If you remove the rose tinted glasses through which you followed Strawhats' adventure, this world was really dangerous and bleak.

Slavery, opressive government, bloodthirsty pirates, corrupt officials you name it and One Piece had it.

*Sigh*

"I need to grow strong if I want to survive here. Also, what year is it ? I need a reference point to know at which point in the story I am currently."

He waited for Mary to leave the house before he got up to look around.

It didn't take him long to find a newspaper. It was filled with bullshit propoganda from the world government. Anyways, it was year 1510. So nearly 11 years before Luffy left for his journey.

(AN- I'm not exactly sure in which year Roger was executed. So this I how I'll consider the timeline. Year 1500 - Roger's execution. Current year - 1510. Luffy was born in 1505 considering he was 19 in wano and by then it 24 years past Roger's execution. MC is 10 right now so born in year 1500.)

Which means he had more or less a decade to train and grow strong enough before the entire shit show started.

Raiden looked at his body. After a proper rest his body was more or less completely healed. His trait 'Member of the D clan' and skill 'Enhanced Physique' made his recovery many times faster.

He decided to leave the house and take a look at the village.

It was...pretty generic, more or less exactly what you'd expect from a rural semi-modern setting. The air really fresh tho. For someone who lived in an urban metropolitan, the fresh air was luxury.

Although the village was small, people here were happy, the colors were bright. It was not cartoonish like he thought...but a weird blend of realism and how anime depicted it. It was beautiful nonetheless. Extremely so.

While traveling he spotted Rock and a weird lanky kid talking. Being the only person other than grandma Mary that he knew, he decided to greet him.

"Grandpa Rock!"

Rock who was discussing things with 'actual' grandson was surprised to hear his name called out and when he spotted Raiden, he surprised how fast the boy recovered.

Bob being just as surprised, composed himself and smiled at the young child.

"Hey! You're Raiden right? My grandpa here told me your name. I'm Bob. Looks like you're more or less healed huh?"

Raiden looked at the new face and smiled childishly before nodding his head.

"Yeah! I'm good as new. Hehe"

Rock smiled at their interaction. Although he was surprised with how fast Raiden got over his mother's death, he just thought it was the boy's way of coping with it.

He sighed and ruffled Raiden's hair with a board grin.

"So brat now that you're up and running, how about I show you the village?"

"Yeah! Let's go grandpa!"

Rock's grin widened. He really liked the new kid's nature. Bob smiled at the little boy too.

He sure had happy vibes.

Rock remembered he had some things to do so he decided to leave for the port and told Bob to show him around the village.

Bob happily obliged and took Raiden's hand in his and started touring him around the village.

For Raiden this was an absolutely amazing experience. This world was just too bright and vibrant. But an image of a certain inbred, bubble head came to his mind and his mood soured.

Raiden sighed. Beneath all this beauty this world was just as dirty if not more than his last one. At least there, people actually feared the law, whereas here, the only law is strength.

This made his resolve to gain strength even stronger. Considering this world didn't really have physical limitations of his previous world, he was determined to use this to is advantage.

The tour ended shortly with Bob bringing Raiden to show him their fishing boats near the harbour. Raiden leared a lot about the man he called grandpa.

Rock was actually an ex headquarters Rear Admiral.

But due to a cripping injury he was forced to retire and so he decided to come back to his home town and settle here. Surviving in the grand line Haki was hard.

His grandma Mary was actually Rock's wife but they seperated when Rock trained his son to be a marine, something Mary was vehmently against. She knew how dangerous the job was and considering how Rock was injured in marine, she wasn't wrong either.

Anyway Bob's father had a one night stand with Bob's mother before he left to join the marines. Bob's mother who didn't want anything to do with him, so she dropped him at his grandparents place and vanished. (Bob explained this to Raiden in as age appropriate manner as he could.)

As for why Rock and Mary seperated, apparently Bob's father was KIA against a rather powerful pirate group. Mary blamed Rock and never got over her son's death.

It was sad story. A story that showed how cruel and unforgiving this world was.

Rock, to keep his mind off of that topic, took up the job as a fisherman and an unofficial gaurdian of the village. Being an ex headquarters Rear Admiral, even if he can't use haki and had an old age this man was powerful enough to deter any pirate groups that tried to loot this island.

Being the weakest of all the 4 seas, east blue pirates were not that strong to begin with and once the news spread there was an ex Rear Admiral here, no one dared to raid the Black Rock village.

Rock greeted both of them with a smile.

Raiden, without even realising started growing closer to the group. It felt fulfilling, after a rather antisocial past life.

They enjoyed a nice dinner and surprisingly, grandma Mary joined them as well even though she still held same animosity towards Rock.

Bob was happy to have both his grandparents and so was Rock even tho he had a melancholic smile. Mary ignored him and just talked to her grandsons. As for Rock he was more than happy to be in the presence of his wife even if she ignored him.

By the end of the day Raiden had the most fulfilling meal of life...his past one included.

Mary tucked him in and left for her own room.

Raiden finally alone decided to create a plan he was going to follow from the next day onwards.

He still rememberd his last thought right before he died. To die without regret. To die after achieving something. He got his wish fulfilled....and now he promised himself he's going to make the most of it.