Ryouseirui | 両声類 |

00 - prologue

If someone told me that I would be reborn in a world during the era of piracy with fruits that are literally termed a deal with a devil that takes away your capability of swimming I would have laughed at their faces but not after socking them in the face. But of course here we are.

9 years, it took me that long before realizing the world I now lived in is the world of piracy based on the worldwide famous manga/anime I knew and for sure read/watched. But the problem is, I remember jackshit about it. Only coming back to my mind when it smacked me right in the face, and by that I mean a newspaper literally hitting me right on the nose.

I remember looking at the newspaper, reading the headings and before I knew it the entire thing about how the Whitebeard Pirates destroyed another marine ship (you guessed they passed by the marine ship on accident that attacked them so they fought back), I probably wore a shocked face because that time a passersby walked and saw what I was reading before attempting(and failing) to comfort me saying "I shouldn't be afraid, there are other marines to fight them back."

First of all, thank you, but second of all, I don't need your comfort. I'm not exactly afraid of that, or them. I'm afraid because of the knowledge that was suddenly bombarding my mind after being locked up in my hippocampus for too long. How I had a past life, I didn't get married but my siblings did, so I had a big family that I lived with until I grew old and died. (No truck-kun included, thank god.)

As far as I could remember since being born again is that it was the complete opposite of how I lived my previous one. When I was born with loving parents now I was orphaned. Back then I was a chubby little shit, since my parents and aunts spoiled me with food(growing up with Asian relatives and all). Now while I'm not skinned to the bone(it's a near thing), I look smaller than what my age actually is even though I eat more than 3 times a day, and I eat a lot. It's like my metabolism grew to the roof. When I used to go to school where people teach children everything, this time we had to learn everything by ourselves, including reading, which wasn't exactly a problem for me since I'm a fast learner(which I realized now is probably due to my old memories). Now I know why some kids I see barely go to the library, or read the newspaper. Unless you are born rich and/or a noble, you're on your own.

And that's the thing, I've never really liked reading the news, even previously, they didn't involve me anyway so why bother. They were mostly about politics anyway, I hated dealing with those (and still do, apparently that stuck). I never made the effort to grab them whenever I passed by any, using my time to read books in the local library instead and doing odd jobs to keep myself busy and feed myself.

I've always wondered why I was the way I am, why people would look at me with pity when I ask for a job even though I thought it was normal, why I'm more mature when compared to other kids I would pass by just playing around without a care in the world, why I new complicated words I never knew the definition unless spoken.

Until now.

The person who was talking to me left a while ago, as I read the entire article I noticed it had information including the inside, and the newspaper was thick, so I folded the newspaper before walking back to the woods where you were staying. Walking along the tall trees through muscle memory, I arrived at a random tree that looks about the same as the rest unless you looked up. At the top of the tree is a treehouse I made on my own (another previous skill I had realized now). Climbing on from branches to branches with ease I reached the wooden floor plank securely roped to the tree, inside the treehouse were papers stacked on one side, a schedule pinned to one of the 'walls', a stack of books borrowed from the library I haven't finished yet, and containers of food, mostly bread and biscuits, I got from extra bellies I earn incase I get hungry.