One Piece: I have Hacks

[The Synonym]

(A/N: New Fanfic, one that took me a while to balance so its premise wouldn't make the protagonist overly OP from the start.

Don't worry, though, once things start to kick off for him, his power creeping will become pretty noticeable, and hopefully, feel rewarding for you readers.

Before that, however, the protagonist will have to earn it.

I like my characters to suffer.

Anyway, enough rant, enjoy—or not.)

°

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[Reincarnation]
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| ???'s POV: |

…

"... So, in summary, I'm getting reincarnated into the One Piece world with a wish of my choice."

"Yes."

... Huh.

I guess the dreams of many guys out there were true, then.

Though, I couldn't help but feel suspicious it was happening to me specifically.

I wasn't particularly important, nor did I have any special set of abilities. My biggest accomplishment was not getting mugged in a city famous for it happening to almost everyone.

Maybe I had a scary face, or maybe I was just a fast walker... or maybe I simply looked poor.

Either way, there wasn't any real reason for me to be chosen for something like this—as much as I appreciated it.

Hence why I couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive.

So I decided to voice my suspicion, not looking all that convinced. "Alright, but why?"

The ROB—as I'd labelled him since he said his name was unpronounceable for a human like me—gave me a slow nod, as if my question had been but expected.

"I'm part of a company that collects stories. My job is to plant 'seeds' like you in worlds so they can have their own adventure and 'blossom' into a proper story. Once these stories reach a balanced state —with no further major obstacles or foreseeable problems—or die, I harvest the story, sell it to our customers, and profit."

I stared at him speechless, "...There's a customer base for that?"

"Higher-dimensional stuff bro. You wouldn't understand." He said as he waved me off.

"... Alright bro." I muttered, massaging my eyes—half exasperated at the dismissal, and half aware he was probably telling the truth about me not understanding.

Nothing about the situation made sense to me, to be honest. But I was already dead, and not exactly in the mood to question the logic of cosmic publishing nor the machinations of afterlife too hard.

"But why me?" I glanced at him again, more exasperated than suspicious. Like I said, I wasn't exactly the most outstanding guy out there.

To my dismay, he actually just shrugged.

"Our algorithm handles that. As far as I know, the basic requirements are knowing about the story of the world you're being sent into, and not having a boring personality... Beyond that, what the algorithm searches for in the people to be selected is unknown even to me."

"I see..."

Whatever it had seen in me, I had no idea.

But that was as far as my curiosity and suspicion were willing to go.

It was time to surrender to the fantasy.

"Alright, so... about my wish?" I asked, my eyes growing hopeful.

The ROB waved his hand side to side. "Nothing outrageous that might make the story boring."

"...That's a bit ambiguous."

"I'll warn you when something isn't allowed."

I nodded.

'Guess it's time to make the most important decision of my future life.'

My feet involuntarily began carrying me back and forth as I sank into thought, my mind wandering through references of wishes people had made in similar situations, whether in original stories or fanfics, not wanting to bother coming up with something too complex on my own.

And the first thing that came to mind—

"Mahoraga adaptation?" I asked, looking at the ROB hopefully.

I was a JJK fan who didn't know how to read. But I was pretty sure Mahoraga's adaptation ability was busted. Don't ask me for the specifics, though—like I said, I don't know how to read.

"Hmm..."

He paused to actually consider it for a moment, before shaking his head.

"While it may be fairly interesting... in that world, with an ability like that, if you find yourself a good mentor, your power level will skyrocket. I want a product of regular length, not a one-shot where you get taken in by Garp and become the strongest in the sea within a single day."

I briefly considered pointing out that not having a good wish would make his product even shorter when I died powerlessly.... but judging by his whole extra-dimensional energy, I thought better of it.

"I could give you a weakened version, like—"

"Forget it. Let me think of something else." I waved him off.

Adaptation only worked for me if it was as fast and thorough as Mahoraga's. I wasn't a masochist, and I had an entire wish—settling for a watered-down version just because I couldn't think of anything better felt stupid.

So, adaptation on a pin for now. I could always circle back.

'So... what else?'

My eyes drifted aimlessly as I thought, feet carrying me back and forth again. Countless ideas passed through my head, most of them rejected immediately by my subconscious before becoming a proper thought.

Some, howewer, stood out the most, and prompted me to present them to the ROB, testing the waters.

The feedback wasn't good.

A Gamer system? No issues with the power level, but he said it was overused. Other fictional abilities—the Sharingan and whatnot? Too many were Adaptation-tier, so he offered to nerf them, or dismissed them for the same "overused" reason.

Eventually, frustrated, I couldn't help but vent at him.

"Do you even want a fun product?! You keep blocking everything I suggest!"

He sighed—apparently not even angry at the outburst and appearing understanding.

"Listen, there's a fine line between what's overpowered but fun, and what's just broken and ultimately boring. Sorry, but this is my source of income. I can't afford a faulty product."

I groaned.

"Then what kind of cheat ability would even fit your taste? Suggest something yourself and I'll tell you whether I like it." I said, pointing at him daringly.

He didn't look very enthusiastic about that—probably used to having the reincarnators do the thinking—but then his eyes widened slightly, eyebrows drawing together.

"Cheat ability, huh...?" he muttered, glancing down in thought, before snapping his gaze back up to me. "I got it! How about this...?"

He waited for a second, likely to increase the dramatic effect or something.

Then, he spoke again.

"How about—a hacker system!"

Both arms shot up, extending wide as if making a grand revelation.

I, on contrast to his excitement, blinked slowly.

"...Like, with commands and stuff?" I asked, wincing slightly as I wasn't exactly a fan of informatics.

He shook his head vigorously. "I mean the X-ray, Kill Aura, Aimbot, Wallhack, or Godmode—that kind of hacks!"

My unenthusiasm faltered at that.

I wasn't exactly proud of it, but in my younger years I had been a user of such game "aiders." And I remembered it being fun as hell.

For me, not for the other people.

I apologize for that.

But anyway—if that were brought into reality... wouldn't it be absolutely absurd?

"Hmm..."

I thought about it for a moment, tilting my head left and right as I weighed it against the other options still sitting on the pin board.

However, in the end, because nothing else seemed as fun as literally cheating reality, I decided to go for it.

"Let's go with that, then."

He gave me a firm nod and pointed a hand at me. "This will be good, I'm already looking forward to see how this plays out. Please don't die to quickly."

A portal opened beneath me without warning, and it began pulling me in before I could react.

"H-hold on...!"

I called out as I tumbled into it, but the pull didn't slow even slightly.

Was he seriously already done with me?!

"AT LEAST LET ME SKIP THE INFANT PHASE, I DON'T WANT TO HAVE MY ASS WIPEEEEEED!"

My voice echoed desperately as the ROB's figure shrank away into the distance.

Please let him have heard me.

...

°

°

°

| Years later, Shimotsuki Village, Isshin Dojo: |

...

"Sei! Sei! Sei! Sei!"

The cries of dozens of children swinging bamboo swords filled the dojo in a steady rhythm.

At the front, a man with slit eyes and a low ponytail watched them with a calm, unreadable expression, occasionally giving a faint nod.

The constant shouts and repetitive motions blended together into something strangely soothing.

Until something broke it.

"...?"

One of the kids abruptly stopped swinging, lowering his bamboo sword as he blinked several times—like someone snapping out of a trance.

The man—Koushirou, the owner of the dojo—called out to him. "What's wrong, Dan?"

"Uh... nothing, sensei."

The boy shook his head and went back to swinging.

Koushirou watched him a moment longer. Seeing nothing overtly wrong though, he eventually returned his attention to the group.

Meanwhile, Dan sweatdropped as he rejoined the rhythm of the class.

'Talk about an inconvenient moment to regain my memories.'

The sudden influx of another life's worth of memories was making his head spin. But being in the middle of class, surrounded by Koushirou's sharp instructions and the endless "Sei! Sei!" around him, he decided to ignore it and keep swinging.

"Sei! Sei! Sei! Sei!"

Class continued without a hitch.

Sweat poured down the kids' faces as they gasped for breath, forced to repeat the same motion over and over without rest. Dan was no better—his breathing grew rougher with every passing minute.

But as the training wore on, his eyes regained a little clarity. The unrelenting rhythm was helping shove the matter of 'oh, I suddenly regained past-life memories' into the background, sparing him the worst of it.

By the time Koushirou finally dismissed them, Dan's arms were shaking so violently that he dropped the bamboo sword the instant the command was given.

He stood there a moment, chest heaving—then picked the sword back up and placed it neatly where it belonged. After giving Koushirou the appropriate bow, he walked out of the dojo without joining the chatter of the other apprentices.

A few minutes later, he wandered to the outskirts of a nearby forest, found a tree with a decent patch of shade, and collapsed against it—letting his head fall back against the trunk.

'Well... now it's better.'

He stared up at the canopy of leaves and light filtering through them, looking relieved.

The intense focus from the lesson had helped settle the dizziness that had come from two sets of memories—this body's and the reincarnator's—colliding and mixing together. Now, both seemed to have properly arranged themselves in his mind, their order clear.

'Though... what the hell is this?'

Even with the memories sorted, the problem hadn't fully resolved itself.

A crisis of identity had risen in their place. A quiet conflict between two perspectives, each vying to be the dominant one.

On one side: a nine-year-old orphaned kid taken in by fishermen, trained in a dojo, who had just awoken to memories of a distant, otherworldly life and the promise of power beyond anything he could have imagined.

On the other: a grown man who had died, met a strange story-collecting being, been promised extraordinary abilities—only to wake up inside a child's body with an entirely new set of memories layered over his own.

Even though it would be easy to assume the man's perspective would win out through sheer experience, the child's raw sense of self—his ownership of this body and this life—made the convergence of both personalities more like oil and water than a simple takeover.

Was he the man who had been reincarnated into a fictional world, only to end up as a child?

Or was he the kid who had just received a flood of foreign memories threatening to overtake who he was?

His mind wandered over the question for a while, searching through both sets of memories for some kind of answer.

He looked at the child's memories—full of wonder, excitement, and a simplicity that made the whole world feel manageable.

Then he looked at the man's—experienced, guarded, and far more complex, carrying an awareness of intricacies that had never once crossed the child's mind.

The more he thought, the more both sides seemed to push against each other.

At least—

-Thud-

—Until he lightly knocked the back of his head against the tree. Not hard. He wasn't trying to die.

That small jolt of pain seemed to cut through the noise.

"I'm both," he said at last.

And as if those words had triggered something, everything began to settle.

They were foreign to each other, yes. But the ROB had said it himself.

This was a reincarnation, which meant both were the same person.

And with that, the question of dominance dissolved.

The man's eyes opened to the world anew, seeing it through the lens of a child for the first time. His sense of adventure—long dulled by reason and cold logic—flickered back to life, burning a little brighter than before.

The kid, meanwhile, began to grow. The older set of memories reached out to him, showing him the world beyond the village: the remarkable people who waited out there, and the countless things he had never even known existed.

Devil Fruits, Pirates of cataclysmic strength, treasures beyond comprehension.

And slowly, just like he'd muttered, he became both.

Not the man, and not the kid.

But something new, forged from both.

The new Dan.

Clarity returned to his eyes. He let out a long, annoyed sigh.

"I suppose it's my own fault for asking him to skip the infancy years..." he muttered, rubbing his face. "But he could have at least warned me something like this was going to happen."

Groaning, he shook his head and moved on. No point in dwelling on it.

With the identity crisis behind him and his breathing finally back to normal, he turned to the next most important thing.

"System?" he called.

And sure enough, the moment the word left his mouth—

[Ding!]

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

Current Infamy Tier: Starter

▸[Current Bounty: 0 / 500K]

▸[NP: 0]

Equipped Passive Hacks [0/1]

▸None

Equipped Active Hacks [0/1]

▸None

Equipped Script

▸None

───────────────────

≡[LIST OF AVAILABLE HACKS]

[Passive]

▸None

[Active]

▸None

[Items]

▸None

[Scripts]

▸None

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

Dan smiled pleasantly as he looked over everything displayed before him.

Until—

"Pause, what do you mean I don't have any hacks?!"

...

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-To Be Continued...-

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[The Synonym]

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[System]
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...

"What do you mean I don't have any hacks?!"

Dan bellowed, staring in disbelief at his system screen—which contained nothing but a floating display and a whole lot of empty space.

He had been promised a system built around hacks, so why wasn't there a single one to speak of?

He was certain he'd at least start with something. Had he somehow made a mistake with the wish?

Fortunately, the system moved to save him from his growing despair before he could spiral too far into it.

[Sensing memory awakening—The user has been given the Hacker's Starter Pack!]

[Gained the SpeedyGains Passive!]

[Gained the FullBright Passive!]

[Gained the TreasureFinder Active!]

[Gained the item: Sunglasses of Anonymity!]

[Gained the Script: AutoExist!]

[Gained the Script: AutoWalk!]

[Gained the Script: AutoFish!]

A string of notifications rang out one after another, and just like that, his system screen was a little fuller—much to Dan's still-baffled expression.

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

Current Infamy Tier: Starter

▸[Current Bounty: 0 / 500K]

▸[NP: 0]

Equipped Passive Hacks [0/1]

▸ None

Equipped Active Hacks [0/1]

▸ None

Equipped Script

▸ None

───────────────────

≡[LIST OF AVAILABLE HACKS]

[Passive]

▸ SpeedyGains

▸ Full Bright

[Active]

▸ TreasureFinder

[Items]

▸ Sunglasses of Anonymity

[Scripts]

▸ AutoExist

▸ AutoWalk

▸ AutoFish

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...

"... I guess the system just forgot to do its part," he muttered, eyeing the rapid response with a wry look.

Sighing, he turned his gaze back to the newly updated screen, eyes gleaming with excitement.

This was it—his actual system. A genuine cheat on reality, the kind that only fictional protagonists get to have.

Feeling like he might punch something out of sheer excitement, he tapped on the first skill's description.

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≡[Passive Hack: SpeedyGains]

▸ Multiplies the results of your training by 2.

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

His gave a slow nod, his face looking a bit lost but otherwise content.

'That's pretty good, I guess.'

He had been hoping for something that gave him immediate power, but a multiplier on his training results wasn't something to scoff at either. The concern, naturally, was his base talent. If it was poor enough, a multiplier of two might just bring him up to the level of an average person.

He gazed at the sky, raising an eyebrow in doubt.

'Nah, that guy was making a power fantasy, not a masochist journey... probably.'

Hoping for the best, he moved on to the next skill.

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

≡[Passive Hack: Full Bright]

▸ You can see perfectly in the dark, as if it were daytime.

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

"...Okay," he muttered in a tone that was equal parts dejected and exasperated.

On the bright side, it wasn't a bad ability. It was, technically speaking, a superpower. Though he was fairly sure that with enough training, some people in his old world had probably managed something similar without needing a literal cheat.

"Whatever." He moved on.

The next skill was listed as an active hack, which he assumed meant he'd have to trigger it manually instead of it running in the background.

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

≡[Active Hack: TreasureFinder]

▸ Grants the user the ability to detect and see valuables in their surroundings from any point, no matter how hidden they might be. Even if they are 6 feet under, they will see them.

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

He frowned, mouth opening to complain—before closing it again as he reconsidered.

"For a free hack, I suppose it's not bad. I think, it's actually something I used to want as a kid. To know when there's money dropped somewhere, or where it's hidden."

He hadn't been a particularly innocent child, that was for sure.

In a world filled of buried treasures all around, the hack would probably have its uses—maybe.

At the very least, it would serve as a reliable backup for pocket change whenever he was short on cash, whether by finding dropped valuables or, well... other methods.

With SpeedyGains behind him, he'd probably pick up pick pocketing pretty fast if he went for it.

"I guess my true colors are finally coming out now that I have power," he muttered, shaking his head with a wry look.

His eyes moved to the next item—and he paused. It was listed as an item, not a hack.

'So there are items in this?' He thought, eyeing the screen with a curious look.

He tapped the icon.

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

≡[Hacked Item: Sunglasses of Anonymity]

▸ Sunglasses that hide your identity perfectly, somehow. No matter if you're standing right in front of them, wearing the same clothes—so long as you have these sunglasses on, they won't recognize you.

▸ Warning: The identity you take on whenever you put on the sunglasses remains the same even if you take them off and put them on again. Meaning that whatever criminal charges or relationships you have with people while wearing them persist until you remove them.

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

He let out a disbelieving laugh.

"Alright, this one is outright a tool for committing crimes," he muttered, excited about something finally feeling busted to a degree.

This was it, the essence of having hacks. Tilting things unfairly in your favor.

The other hacks were good, but they were just minor superpowers without a real absurdity.

This, on the other hand, was literally messing with people's perception of him, making him virtually unrecognizable so long as he had them on.

Still, for this good of an object to be in the starter pack... he suddenly had the feeling that the system's motives wouldn't be specially... saintly.

Shrugging and moving on, his gaze shifted to the last gifts he had received.

"Next are... the scripts?"

He opened the first of the three.

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

≡[Script: AutoExist]

▸ Find yourself with nothing to do, waiting for something, bored out of your mind? With this script, you can automatically exist and let time pass on its own.

Warning: The body won't do anything while it is active, even if you're spoken to, called out, or if insects crawl onto you. The script will only terminate at the specified time or if the system detects danger.

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

"...The hell?"

Baffled by the outrageously simple—and arguably useless—reward, he tapped through the remaining two in quick succession.

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

≡[Script: AutoWalk]

▸ Do you want to get somewhere, but find it a pain to do so? Let the script make your body automatically walk to your destination, so when you wake up, you're already there!

Warning: The system isn't responsible for calluses or injuries on your feet if the destination specified is too far away. The body won't respond to external stimulus unless the host's life is perceived to be in danger.

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

≡[Script: AutoFish]

▸ Fishing—a life skill that for some means the difference between starving and feasting, but undeniably a patience-testing one. With this script, your body will automatically handle the whole process and reel in a good catch for you.

Warning: The body won't respond to external stimulus unless the host's life is perceived to be in danger. Depending on the nearby water, fewer or no fish at all may be caught. Depending on the nearby water, dangerous life forms might be caught, in which case the script will be terminated.

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

...

The finger he'd been using to tap the screen dropped. His gaze went vacant.

"What is this starter pack, man?"

Though, on second thought, It was called a starter pack for a reason.

Heaving a long, long, long sigh, he glared at the screen again.

"I guess, bro..." Dan muttered, massaging his temples with a thoroughly done expression.

Though, to be fair, the fishing one wasn't that bad. He was very unskilled at fishing, so at least the script would know what it was doing. And having a steady food source was never something to dismiss, especially on a planet covered mostly in water.

Having made his peace with the starter pack, he shifted his attention to what seemed like the most important part of the system.

"Infamy tier, NP, and a bounty goal..." he observed with a curious look before addressing the screen directly. "System, explain these to me."

...

There was no answer.

His eyebrow creased. He looked back at the screen and noticed a small "?" icon tucked in the corner.

"Oh."

He tapped it.

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

≡[Here's a brief introduction to the way this system works.]

You have been granted the Hacker System—a tool that allows you to purchase and equip real-world hacks: passive enhancements, active abilities, automated scripts, and bugged items that defy conventional logic.

▸How you unlock things:

The system's catalogue is gated behind Infamy Tiers, which advance as your Bounty reaches certain thresholds. A higher tier does not give you hacks automatically; it only makes new hacks available for purchase. You still have to buy them. However, advancing tiers can grant you more slots to equip multiple hacks at once.

There can't be more than one script running, so the slots for this category are limited to one.

▸How you buy things:

The currency for buying hacks is NP: An acronym for Notoriety Points.

These are earned through acts that generate genuine fear and infamy among the population. The more people who witness or hear of your acts, and the more they fear you, the more NP you earn.

However, consequently, the stronger that the hacks and items available at the store are, the more expensive they will be. So thread carefully on your NP balance, and plan your purchases smartly.

▸What you can equip:

You have:

Passive Hacks that run constantly as long as they are equipped.

Active Hacks that must be consciously triggered once equipped. Some might have durations and cooldowns.

Scripts that automate a physical process while you are not fully present, often with extreme efficiency.

Items that can be bought multiple times, or unique artifacts that can only be bought once. These don't need slots; you can take out as many as you want or keep them stored in the system.

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

"I see..."

Dan leaned back fully against the tree, staring up at the rustling leaves above with a troubled look. "So it's one of those systems—the mischievous kind. I guess I'm bound to become a pirate, then."

That, or a bandit. But you and I both know that wasn't happening.

"Build infamy, huh? Save for the sunglasses, with these starting hacks kicking off a criminal career is going to be a nightmare," His eyes drifted to SpeedyGains. "...Though I suppose that's what this is here for. To let me have a training arc before the adventure into crime begins."

Come to think of it, he really had gotten lucky being reborn here—Shimotsuki Village, of all places. The same village where Zoro grew up.

It was a place that seemed untouched by the kind of threats that plagued the rest of the world, judging by how smoothly Zoro's own childhood had apparently gone here. And with the dojo's existence, it offered more than safety.

It offered a foundation to grow on before the real journey started.

A literal starting village, in every sense of the phrase.

The perfect place to hone his skills before setting off to become the world's greatest criminal.

As the thought settled, a slight frown crossed his face.

"Well, I've got the system and everything... but am I actually capable of becoming someone like that?"

In both lives, common was probably the most accurate word to describe him. Suddenly placing before him the path of becoming one of the most wanted figures in the world felt strangely disconnected from how he'd always lived.

'If so, then why...'

He lifted both hands, still seated, and slowly clenched them.

'Why do I feel so motivated?'

He had the system and it promised great power in exchange for building infamy, yes. But even setting that aside, the eagerness he felt didn't quite fit the person he'd always assumed himself to be.

To have the entire world against him, and to feel not even the faintest trace of hesitation about it... something was different.

Maybe the fusion of both perspectives had brought something forward that had always been buried—some part of himself that years of following the expected path had kept quiet.

Maybe he had his self from this world to thank for that.

Either way, it was a good thing.

"Alright," He grinned, clenching his fist, and pushing himself off the ground to get back to his feet. "If it's the greatest criminal in the world you want—you'll have it! Hahahaha!"

His laughter rang through the trees without restraint, loud and unbothered by how unhinged it probably looked. Behind him, someone passing through the forest paused at the sound.

A girl with blue hair, a bamboo sword resting over her shoulder, gave him a flat look.

"What a weirdo."

...

────────────────────────

-To Be Continued...-

────────────────────────

(A/N: I honestly didn't know whether to put this on NSFW, since I'm still not sure about whether I'll do those kind of scenes, and if I do, it'll be way further ahead, when he ain't a brat no more.

Though, since I've already put this on the SFW section, might as well just suck it up, and not do them altogether.

—That or I can just write the NSFW scenes and leave them on my patreon so they work as bait.

Well, I'll see.)

 

[The Synonym]

────────────────────────
[Fishing Powerhouse]
────────────────────────

...

Later that day, Dan returned to his humble abode.

And he did mean humble—a small wooden room more reminiscent of a badly built storage closet than a child's bedroom.

The smell wasn't particularly pleasant either. A pair of buckets filled with fish sat in the corner, making the source fairly obvious.

Aside from that, the room had little else to speak of. No furniture beyond a crudely made straw bed—itchy, and occasionally host to insects crawling through it—along with a handful of belongings that had belonged to the old Dan, and even those were few.

But while the amenities left something to be desired compared to what he'd had access to in his old world, he knew it was the price of having a ceiling over his head in the first place.

He was, after all, an orphan.

Years ago, when he had been around the age of four, the village had suffered a pirate invasion. Many villagers died before the pirates were finally put down by the more experienced swordsmen—his parents among them.

The old Dan had been left alone with no idea how to survive or where to go, until a group of fishermen took pity on him and brought him in.

Though, of course, with the intent of teaching him the craft. He was, in a way, an investment—someone to help with the hard work once he grew older.

Not that he resented them for deciding that without asking. That was simply how things worked in this world, where there was no school waiting, no university, and certainly no desk job after graduation. In small traditional villages like this, the parents' trade passed down to their children as naturally as breathing.

In Dan's case, that meant becoming a fisherman once he was old and experienced enough.

As for why he had ended up at the dojo alongside all that—there were several reasons: the village's tradition, the basic expectation of strength in a world where pirates roamed the seas, and the original Dan's own persistent pleas to the one currently taking care of him to enroll him in Koushirou's classes.

In the end, the man had agreed, and Dan had become one more sword-swinging kid in the dojo, well on his way to being a background character in Zoro's backstory.

At least, until today.

Now, he held something that could take him well beyond that.

Sitting on his straw bed, Dan let out a wry laugh.

'Had it not been for the system's goals, I probably would have tried to keep canon from diverting too much while doing my own thing in the background... but if I'm going to become the biggest criminal in the world, staying out of the way entirely is basically impossible.'

He eyed his system screen, mouth curling with amusement.

"So I guess I'm just going to do whatever."

-Knock, knock, knock-

The door rattled gently at the sound, and Dan turned with a raised eyebrow.

A moment later, it swung open, revealing a bald middle-aged man with an unkempt beard stepping inside, a pair of fishing rods balanced over his shoulder.

"You're back from practice, Dan? Good, let's get moving—the boat's about to take off."

He tossed one of the rods over without much ceremony. Dan caught it easily and let his gaze linger on the man for a moment.

'Old Shun, the fisherman who took me in,' the foreign part of Dan's mind thought, pulling up the realization from his local memories.

It was a strange thing, now that both perspectives had merged. He knew people and places, yet still felt the need to reassess them for a second—as if confirming what he already knew.

Old Shun was the boss of the fishing crew Dan had grown up with. He owned the small cabin Dan slept in, and while he couldn't quite be called an adoptive parent, he did allow Dan to eat lunch with him and was the one paying for his dojo classes. He was also the one in charge of eventually passing the craft of fishing down to him.

Sighing, Dan gathered what little else he might need and followed old Shun as the man headed toward the village's bay.

Minutes later, they were boarding a large boat docked at the water, five or more hands already moving about the deck in a hurried rhythm.

As their feet hit the wooden planks and the cold, fishy air of the ocean reached them, a burly man tightening ropes looked up to greet them.

"Are we ready to take off, old Shun?"

The old man gave a brief nod without a word.

Nodding back, the man then turned to Dan, a slightly mocking grin spreading across his face. "Well, little Dan—how was training today? You strong enough to protect us from pirates yet?"

Old Shun stopped walking and gave him a firm whack on the head. "Focus on your task, dumbass. I don't want any of these ropes loose by the time we're out at sea."

"Ouch—I'm just asking, boss." The man rubbed the spot and shrugged. "Why even let the kid go to that fraudulent place instead of using that time to learn the craft?" He proceeded to imitate the stance and cries of the dojo kids, swinging an invisible sword. "Sei, sei, sei—bah, what's that gonna do when pirates actually attack? I'm telling you, old Shun, that place is a scam. I'd beat that Koushirou guy easily. If you want to teach the little runt how to fight, the street is the only real teacher!"

Old Shun just shook his head, then turned to Dan and gestured for him to follow.

"Don't listen to this dumbass. It's that exact attitude that gets people like him killed. Learn everything they're willing to teach you there."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" The man's voice complained from behind them.

Shun waved him off without looking back and kept walking. Dan followed with a quiet nod.

Soon, the whole crew was busy preparing for departure—checking the rigging and sails for wear, confirming the anchor was properly raised, adjusting ropes and pulleys, and readying the sails to catch the wind once they were underway.

Minutes later, they were out on the water, the sea rocking them gently as the sun beat down without mercy.

Once they found what looked like a promising spot, the anchor went down, and every man took up his fishing rod along the sides of the boat.

Dan, however, stood in the middle of the deck, staring at his fishing rod with unusual intensity.

Old Shun noticed him from his spot next to him by the rail and raised an eyebrow. "What's wrong, kid? Did I give you a faulty rod?"

"No. I'm just feeling very focused."

"...What in the hell does that mean?" The old man gave him a flat look.

Dan offered a slight smile and started making his way toward an empty spot at the rail. "I think I'm about to enter a trance of pure focus. So don't worry if I stop answering when you call me."

"...Hah?"

Ignoring the incredulous looks from the rest of the crew, he settled at the edge of the boat and readied his rod.

'Alright. System, equip the AutoFish script for thirty minu—'

...

°

°

°

| Thirty minutes later... |

...

Dan's eyes—blank and distant until a moment ago—suddenly blinked back to life, as if he'd just surfaced from a dream.

"The hell?" He shook his head and rolled his shoulder, wincing at the soreness running through it, and set the fishing rod aside.

Still dazed, he looked around—and found the entire crew staring at him with expressions somewhere between disbelief and awe.

"...?"

His gaze wandered, searching for the reason—until he found it right beside him.

The basket that was supposed to hold his catch was filled well past the brim; the overflow of fish sprawled across the deck around it, having simply run out of room.

He glanced over at the rest of the crew's baskets. Not one of them was even a fifth full.

He had out-caught all of them combined.

'Damn.'

He took back every ounce of pessimism he'd felt when he first got the script. This was genuinely extraordinary.

Old Shun stepped closer, crouching down beside him. "You finally snapped out of it. I called you more than a few times while you were at it, but you didn't answer once."

"Uh... like I said. Very focused."

To his surprise, Shun nodded slowly, as if something had clicked into place for him.

"I've only ever heard about it in stories... I never thought I'd see it with my own eyes."

The burly man from earlier approached, stroking his beard with an expression caught somewhere between amazed and reverent.

"Old Shun... you can't possibly mean...?"

Shun nodded again, his face settling into something grave and solemn.

"The legendary state of mind—attainable only by talents so rare they appear once in a billion..." He let the words hang for a moment before finishing them. "Rod Enlightenment."

The small crew gasped and pressed closer.

"Him? A one-in-a-billion talent?"

"Rod Enlightenment... I've heard it's the ultimate state in which soul and sea become one. A fisherman so in tune with the water that the fish come to his hook through nothing but pure will—where the whole world fades away, and all that remains is him, the water, and the fish."

"Little Dan is capable of that? It must be a mistake!"

"Didn't you see him? We shook him, yelled at him—he didn't respond to a thing. And the fish were coming in so fast it looked like they were swimming straight onto his hook of their own free will!"

"Impossible!"

Amid the rising chatter and disbelief, Dan stared at the scene with a flat expression, a bead of sweat running down the side of his face.

'How did it end up like this?'

Before he could even begin to untangle that question, old Shun knelt in front of him and placed both hands on his shoulders, staring at him with an expression of absolute conviction.

"Dan. When I took you in, I thought you were a pitiful but ordinary kid who could barely hold a fishing rod. I was wrong." His voice dropped to something close to reverence. "You are a one-in-a-billion talent, Dan. You, who possesses Rod Enlightenment, are destined to rise to the very top of the fishing world..."

He let the pause stretch—then let it out like a declaration:

"YOU CAN BECOME FISHERMAN KING!"

'HELP!'

...

────────────────────────

-To Be Continued...-

────────────────────────

(A/N: I'm just having fun here, don't worry about his goal suddenly being to be the king of the fishermen.)

 

[The Synonym]

────────────────────────
[The Moss Kid]
────────────────────────

| The next day, Dan's POV: |

...

"Sei! Sei! Sei!"

'Hmm...'

"Sei! Sei! Sei!"

'Hmm...'

"Sei! Sei! Sei!"

Okay, I genuinely don't feel any different. Not in the slightest bit.

I had expected some kind of enlightenment to wash over me the moment I swung the sword—a flash of clarity, a surge of strength, anything. But it feels exactly the same as yesterday.

Wait... Don't tell me I forgot to equip it?

...

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

Current Infamy Tier: Starter

▸[Current Bounty: 0 / 500K]

▸[NP: 0]

Equipped Passive Hacks [1/1]

▸ SpeedyGains

Equipped Active Hacks [0/1]

▸ None

Equipped Script

▸ None

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

...

Nope, there it is. It should be working perfectly.

'Then what the heck am I missing?'

I tilted my head slightly as I kept swinging, waiting for any sort of enlightenment to settle over me at any minute.

After yesterday's fiasco on the boat, I had become acutely aware of just how extraordinary my system actually was. All it had allegedly done was make me a super-fisherman—and yet it had still felt genuinely amazing, like I had a real superpower.

Even if that superpower was fishing at superspeed.

'Better stop thinking about it, or the more I'll feel like a fool for getting so excited over that.'

Fortunately, the fish weren't the only benefit my newfound abilities had brought me. Old man Shun had been so thrilled about the whole "legendary fisherman" business that he'd gone ahead and upped my allowance. As in, from zero to a thousand Beli per week.

So now I could actually buy things… In due time.

A thousand wasn't a fortune—but the fishermen didn't rake in much on a monthly basis anyway, so for a kid, it was decent. And if my skill kept boosting their daily haul, I'd consider asking for more.

I wasn't a pushover… Most of the time.

Nodding to myself, I kept swinging the sword—having completely forgotten to actually check on SpeedyGains and whether it was showing any results yet.

And while I was doing that—

—Shaa!—

The dojo door swung open hard, and a green-haired kid stumbled through it carrying an armful of bamboo swords, eyes sweeping the room with a look somewhere between frantic and annoyed.

"Sensei, where's Kuina?!"

Everyone paused and turned to look at him. I did too, though I already knew exactly who he was the moment he walked in.

'That's... Zoro.'

Roronoa Zoro. Part of the main cast. Luffy's first crew member. Aspiring best swordsman in the world. A compass's worst nightmare. Probably the most fangirled character in the whole series, second-biggest chest as well, and certified minority hunter.

Also—and looking at him from a less otherwordly lens—a prodigious kid who had arrived at this dojo before me and shot up in strength at an alarming pace, quickly narrowing the gap between himself and the dojo's reigning genius. Kuina.

Well, narrowing wasn't quite the right word. He was still getting his ass handed to him on a daily basis.

If I recalled correctly, the two of them were somewhere around their 1100th duel by now—all victories belonging to Kuina. Zoro had already been at it for nearly an entire year by the time I joined the dojo. The day I walked in, they had just finished their 1018th

To the old me, he had been an untouchable star. Living proof of what raw, undiluted talent looked like. And while the talent was undeniable—since he was already beating adults despite his age—it would be wrong to pretend he didn't train like a man possessed as well.

The old me had never seen that side of it. To him, the green-haired kid had simply been lucky, gifted, and strangely fixated on losing to Kuina.

But now I knew better. He was a talented but also relentlessly hard-working person—who also happened to be strangely fixated on losing to Kuina.

'Pfft.'

While I cringily laughed at my own jokes, upon hearing the commotion, Koushirou glanced up from the class, focusing on Zoro unhurriedly. "You're finally here. She's practicing behind the dojo." He jerked a thumb toward the back without breaking his calm expression.

Zoro gave a quick nod, already turning, and scrambled back out the door—probably on his way to add another loss to his tally.

I watched him go, my sword slowing slightly as my thoughts wandered somewhere less cheerful.

'It was at their 2001st duel, wasn't it? At least the number is easy to remember.' I mused, picturing the images from the anime.

The day Zoro forged his rivalry with Kuina into something deeper—a promise made between two people dead set on reaching the top—and also the same day when that very promise was shattered once Kuina had an accident.

The sheer abruptness of it, right after such a seemingly fated promise between rivals… It was so anticlimactic that it was almost comical. Almost.

We're serious people here, so we won't laugh.

And all of it caused by the most fearsome enemy known to man. Down D. Stairs.

Thinking of such a terrible force of nature, my mind drifted naturally toward my own path.

'Should I do something about it?'

My goal was to become a criminal—a spectacularly notorious one. But that didn't mean I had to be a bad person. That was a choice I could make, sure, but this world's government was corrupt enough that being genuinely evil wasn't even a requirement to become a great criminal. Rough up some rotten marines or nobles, and done—I'd have myself a perfectly respectable head price. Take it a step further and pick a fight with the Celestial Dragons, and I could raise it without a shred of guilt, by leaps and bounds at that.

I'd probably have to do some questionable things here and there out of necessity, but for the most part, my war was going to be with the World Government. That was enough to keep me busy.

Anyway. Where was I?

Right. Since I didn't actually have to become a villain, there was no reason to just let the girl die. Especially not in such an anticlimactic way.

'Don't laugh, don't laugh.'

The timing wasn't a concern. The date was clear enough that I didn't have to worry about being caught off guard. The event happened after their 2001st duel, and we were currently somewhere in the 1100's, which gave me roughly a year to prepare.

When the day came, all I had to do was pay attention.

Simple enough.

Until then—grind. Build the foundation for my swordsmanship and the backbone that was gonna let me soar these seas without fear, while slowly brewing plans of action for when my criminal career finally kicks off.

I had a few ideas already forming in the back of my mind, but without the strength to back them up, they were just daydreams.

So, first things first: Get stronger.

With that settled firmly in my head, I swung harder than before, feeling something sharpen in my chest with every bead of sweat that rolled down my temple.

This world shall know Hax.

...

°

°

°

| 3rd Person POV: |

...

'The morale seems high today,' Koushirou thought, his gaze moving steadily across the class as they moved in unison to the rhythm of their fighting cry.

He gave a quiet, satisfied nod. The kids had a tendency to slack without realizing it—swinging robotically, with motion emptied of intent, waiting for results to arrive on their own.

And to be fair to them, results would come regardless. Even if they possessed an utter lack of talent in the more insightful part of swordsmanship; through their current repetitive training, the motions would be refined with time, and the muscles being applied would develop alongside them.

But to truly improve, they needed more than that. They had to understand the motion they were performing, seek to refine it, and adapt until they finally reached something worth calling mastery. The difference in growth between mindless repetition and intentional practice was staggering.

He had told them as much, more times than he could count. But he also understood the reality of it. This was an endlessly monotonous task, and unless a child was consumed by it the way Zoro or Kuina were, finding genuine joy in swinging a sword up and down over and over again was a near impossibility.

Most of them were here because their parents had sent them, or because the village expected it. In their minds, this was just one more thing standing between them and the rest of their day.

He let out a quiet breath through his nose—not in disdain, but in the mild helplessness of a man who had made peace with human nature long ago.

At least, that was where his thoughts had settled—until something at the edge of his vision made his eyebrows lift.

'That's... Dan,' Koushirou thought, taking a moment to place the name. The boy was still relatively new to the dojo, having joined only a month prior.

His eyes, already narrow, narrowed a fraction further as he watched the boy's form.

Something was different. He couldn't immediately name it.

The technique itself was the same—appropriate for someone still settling into the foundational stage, whose body hadn't yet fully developed the build for swordsmanship. Nothing obviously wrong.

But something...

'Is that...?'

The clarity came a moment later, his eyebrows lifting slightly as it clicked into place.

The skill level was roughly unchanged. But the disposition behind it wasn't. For anyone else watching the class, it likely wouldn't register—but Koushirou had been teaching for long enough that reading the difference between a dozen kids at once had become second nature to him.

Dan was learning faster.

He couldn't say exactly how. But he could sense it. The boy was picking up on small, almost imperceptible adjustments to his technique—smoothing out the arc, taking just a little more weight off the wrong joints—and integrating them in real time. Sometimes he slipped back into his old habits, which was entirely normal when someone didn't yet know what they were reaching for. But the direction of movement was unmistakably there.

Slow, yes. But swordsmanship was slow by nature. Forging a swordsman was no different from forging a sword—a process of constant and gradual refinement.

Even so, for that slowness... Dan was moving through it quickly.

If he kept at this pace, Koushirou wouldn't be surprised if he caught up to the rest of his peers within a month or so. Not merely because of the speed of improvement, but because of something else Koushirou had noticed in the boy's expression.

Focus. Real, deliberate focus.

Not obsession like in Zoro or Kuina's case, but something quieter and more grounded. Dan wasn't doing this out of boredom or obligation.

He was training with purpose.

He was seeking to learn.

'A curious sight.' He mused, hand massaging his chin in interest.

With the right guidance, it was hard to say how far that kind of focus might take him. Perhaps not to the heights Zoro and Kuina were reaching for—but a very capable swordsman, certainly. Especially now, while his foundation was still being laid.

'Still, I'm the teacher of everyone. I can't stop the lesson because one student needs extra attention,' Koushirou reminded himself, and turned his attention back to the class as a whole.

He watched them for a while longer—making small corrections here and there, his voice carrying evenly across the dojo—until he found his gaze drifting back to Dan again, drawn in despite himself.

He lasted about three more minutes before he gave in.

"Dan."

The boy's sword slowed, and he turned, his expression that of someone worried they might have done something wrong.

He wasn't wrong to look like that. Which was exactly why Koushirou had spoken up.

"Straighten your posture and let your shoulders rotate smoothly through the motion. Even out your breathing as well."

"Ah... yes, sensei," Dan gave a short nod, then turned back and adjusted his stance—a little clumsily at first, working through the corrections with slow but steady progress.

A few snickers passed through the nearby students at the sight of him being corrected on something as basic as a straightforward swing. Koushirou's gaze moved briefly over them, and the sounds stopped.

He returned his attention to Dan.

The improvement was immediate. Not perfect—it never was on the first try—but the motion was measurably cleaner, and it was already refining itself further with each repetition.

Koushirou found himself thinking of Zoro and Kuina.

Zoro, who had never needed much instruction and who simply threw himself at the task with relentless fury until his body worked out the answers on its own.

Kuina, who had learned most of what she knew by watching adults fight long before she was old enough to do so herself—absorbing the skill and refining it like a dry sponge thirsty for more knowledge.

Between the two of them, he had almost forgotten what it felt like to actually teach a talented student. To give a correction to a listening pupil and see it take hold in real time.

'Interesting.'

...

────────────────────────

-To Be Continued...-

────────────────────────

(A/N: Here we see the effects of the SpeedyGains hack. It might not be perceptible at first, but it does make a huge difference in the long term.)

 

[The Synonym]

────────────────────────

[Climbing The Hierarchy]

────────────────────────

| Weeks later… |

...

As always, the dojo was filled with the steady rhythm of children swinging bamboo swords and calling out in unison.

"Sei! Sei! Sei! Sei...!"

—Clap!—

The sound cut cleanly across the room, and the class came to a stop. Koushirou stood at the front, his hands folding behind his back as the last echoes of the clap faded.

"Alright, kids. Time for our usual monthly dueling class."

A ripple of excitement ran through the students—eyes lighting up, backs straightening. Something that only occurred when something other than repetitive swinging was on the table.

Dan, still resting with both hands leaning on top of his bamboo sword, blinked once.

'Dueling class... I almost forgot that was a thing.'

A few weeks had passed since he had settled into his new self, and in that time, he had simply thrown himself into training—swinging, adjusting, following Koushirou's occasional and increasingly frequent corrections without overthinking it, running marathons along with the other disciples, performing the usual exercises, learning other types of swinging and their corresponding posture, etc...

He couldn't put a precise number on how much he'd improved, but his swings were noticeably smoother and faster, and his stamina was letting him last longer through practice sessions than several other students now.

He had been caught up enough in the routine that today's dueling class had slipped his mind entirely.

Which was a problem, because Kuina and Zoro weren't the only ones who dueled. Everyone did too—just way less. And they did so today, specifically.

'The last time...'

Dan's eyebrows creased slightly as the memory of the last dueling class surfaced.

'... It didn't go well for me at all.'

That had been barely a month in. His progress at the time had been close to nothing, and he'd had his ass handed to him by most of the other students without much trouble on their part.

He wasn't exactly brimming with confidence this time either—his swings had improved, but swinging in a straight line and actually fighting someone were two very different things.

What he was counting on was two things: whatever edge the training had quietly given him, and the fact that his adult perspective might at least keep him from panicking mid-fight the way a regular kid would. That, or it wouldn't help at all. Either outcome was possible.

'Well, I guess I just have to wait and see.'

He let out a quiet breath through his nose and surrendered to fate.

The class settled along the edges of the dojo. Koushirou took his place at the center, and ran through the rules briefly for the benefit of anyone who had somehow forgotten—a hit to the head, wrists, or torso ended the duel. The throat counted too, but hitting there was frowned upon.

"First duel of the day—Yasui against Shima!"

Both students pushed themselves to their feet and made their way to the center mat, bamboo swords in hand.

A bow to the shrine, a bow to each other, and they were off.

The two kids went at it with the ferocity of a kitten and the bravery of a rabbit. Jokes aside, Koushirou's teaching showed even through the obvious nerves—their footwork had shape to it, their guards were in roughly the right places, and there was at least some discipline behind the swings.

Dan watched them from his spot with squinted eyes, trying to get a rough read on where he stood by comparison.

'No idea.'

He could follow their movements well enough and had a few rough instincts about how he'd counter certain attacks. But he was fairly sure that was just the spectator effect—things that looked obvious from the outside had a habit of vanishing entirely once you were the one in the middle of it.

…He was probably making that up, but he was also fairly sure he wasn't wrong.

"Winner, Yasui!"

Before he knew it, one of the kids slipped, and the other used that to hit him in the torso.

After the victor was decided, both kids went back to their seats, and the next ones stepped up once Koushirou called for them.

The duels continued one after another. Dan sat cross-legged with his chin resting on his fist, watching each exchange with loose attention—his mind going something along the lines of 'that move looks painful, I should avoid that,' rather than anything genuinely tactical.

By the time nearly an hour had passed, he had mostly settled into a comfortable state of mild observation.

Then Koushirou's voice cut through.

"Last duel of the day... Dan against Zoro!"

Dan blinked.

'Huh?'

He turned his head slightly. Across the room, Zoro sat with his arms loosely crossed, looking equally caught off guard—before the confusion gave way to something a lot more like outrage as he shot to his feet.

"Sensei, what do you mean?! Don't I always spar with Kuina?!"

'Yeah, why am I getting paired with the sword gremlin with just two months in...?'

Dan stared at Koushirou with a baffled expression.

"Settle down. I simply thought Dan would benefit from a duel against you—he's been improving quite a bit lately." Koushirou's tone was even, as if the pairing were the most natural thing in the world.

"He is?" Several kids echoed it at almost the same time, glancing over at Dan like they were seeing him properly for the first time.

'I am?'

Dan raised an eyebrow.

Zoro still looked unhappy about it, lips pressed together, but after a moment, he huffed and rolled his shoulders. "Alright, whatever." He moved toward the center, picking up two bamboo swords from the basket on his way.

Dan stood, not particularly enthusiastic. He shot a sideways glance at Kuina, who sat beside her father with her usual composed expression, entirely unbothered by all of it.

'At least it's not her...'

He grabbed a sword from the basket and walked to the center mat.

"Bow to the Gods." Both turned and bowed to a shrine nearby.

"Bow to each other." Both turned, facing each other, and bowed.

"Then..." Koushirou let the pause stretch just a moment.

Dan held his breath. Zoro's grip tightened around his swords.

"...Begin!"

"Orya!"

The duel started frenetically, with Zoro already moving before the word had fully left Koushirou's mouth.

—Tack! Tack! Tack! Tack! Tack! Tack!—

Dan got his sword up just in time to block the first strike, but the ones that followed came too fast to properly track.

His grip nearly gave out more than once through the flurry, his arms absorbing each impact with barely enough resistance to keep the sword in his hands. The sheer relentlessness of it left no room to think.

In a desperate bid for space, he started backing away.

It didn't help much. Zoro matched every step, keeping the pressure constant.

But the small gap it created was enough to let Dan's head clear for just a second—enough to actually watch the rhythm of Zoro's attacks instead of just bracing against them.

Something caught his eye. A moment, a tiny break in the pattern.

His instincts told him it wouldn't come again. So he stopped retreating and swung—a clean downward strike, the one he had repeated probably a thousand times by now.

Whether it was because Zoro hadn't expected him to stop running or hadn't expected him to swing back at all, the barrage stuttered. He was forced to break his rhythm and block in a hurry, bringing one sword up to meet it.

—Tack!—

Sadly, one sword was all it took to stop it. The other came around a half-second later and whacked Dan cleanly on the torso.

Thus, marking the duel over.

As the defeat settled in, Dan lowered his sword and pressed a hand to the spot with a wince. Zoro had held back noticeably—it would bruise, but nothing worse than that. He let out a breath and looked back up at Zoro, who was watching him with a mildly curious expression.

Koushirou called for the bow. Both of them turned and gave it, and when they straightened, Zoro tilted his head slightly.

"Oi, what's your name?"

"Dan."

"You're new, right?" Zoro asked, still looking him over.

"This is my second month here."

"Second month." He repeated it once, as if testing the weight of it, then nodded, a grin spreading across his face. "You're pretty good. Those guys—" he jerked his chin toward the rest of the students without looking at them "—still can't manage to swing back, and half of them have been here longer than I have."

Dan glanced over. Several of the other disciples had found something very interesting to look at on the floor.

So he had done something even they couldn't, while only a month since he got his hacks?

'I wouldn't call that a success exactly, but at least I know the hack is working.' He thought, feeling a bit refreshed through some of the bad aftertaste of losing the duel.

"Thanks," Dan said, turning back. "And for holding back, too."

He wasn't under any illusion about what had actually happened. Zoro had been fighting adults regularly. If he'd wanted to send Dan's sword spinning across the dojo in the first two seconds, that would have been well within his ability.

The fact that Dan had lasted long enough to even find an opening was as much Zoro's restraint as it was anything else.

Zoro didn't deny it, which was confirmation enough. He gave a short nod, and they both returned to their seats.

Dan dropped back onto his with a thud, more tired from that brief exchange than he would have liked to admit. As he did, a few glances from nearby students were directed at him, looking at him as if he were a weird animal.

He ignored them and simply closed his eyes to rest while he still could.

Meanwhile, across the room, Koushirou's gaze settled on him.

'I was not wrong, then. That kid really is talented.'

On the surface, what Dan had done didn't look particularly impressive. But Koushirou had been teaching long enough to read what was underneath it.

To start with, staying composed under that kind of pressure—arms getting battered from the mere recoil, sword nearly wrenched away, no space to breathe—was already uncommon for a child his age.

Most would have locked up or turned their back on it entirely. The instinct to keep looking for an opening rather than simply endure or escape was something that couldn't be drilled into someone easily.

Then there was the matter of actually spotting the gap. Finding a moment to strike in the middle of Zoro's barrage required both sharp attention and fast enough judgment to act on it before it closed. Very few of the students in this dojo could do that, regardless of how long they had been here.

And then, there was the matter of executing it. Forcing Zoro to block, even caught slightly off guard, still required enough speed and weight behind the swing to make him respond to it. A month ago, Dan wouldn't have been able to do that.

Now he could.

It was a small thing. But it was the kind of small thing that told Koushirou what direction someone was heading in.

'I'll need to keep a closer eye on him.'

While Koushirou sat quietly with that thought, Kuina—still beside him—let her gaze drift from her father's face over to Dan, her eyes narrowing slightly before she looked away.

"Oi, Kuina, let's duel!"

Zoro's voice snapped her attention back. He was already on his feet, sword in hand, looking at her with the particular expression he reserved for these moments—impatient and single-minded.

She glanced at her father. Koushirou gave a faint nod.

"Very well." She reached for her bamboo sword and stood.

That day, they completed their 1178th duel.

Zoro's loss.

...

────────────────────────

-To Be Continued...-

────────────────────────

(A/N: We start losing, but as someone wise once said, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and Dan is going to become stronger.

... That was kinda corny, I admit.)

 

[The Synonym]

────────────────────────
[Engaging In Some Tomfoolery]
────────────────────────

...

"... How long am I supposed to keep doing this?"

Dan lay flat on his bed, staring at the ceiling with a bored expression.

"An entire month, and I haven't made a single move with my system..." he muttered. "Just training and training."

To be fair, that had been his plan from the start. Train, build up strength, and once he felt ready, go out and earn himself a proper bounty.

But when you had a literal cheat of reality in your pocket and had spent a full month doing absolutely nothing with it, impatience was bound to set in.

"Am I really sure there's nothing I can do right now?" He mused, scratching his head in doubt.

He pushed his chin forward in thought and pulled up his system, navigating to the NP section to go over it again.

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

▸ How you buy things:

The currency for buying hacks is NP: an acronym for Notoriety Points.

These are earned through acts that generate genuine fear and infamy among the population. The more people who witness or hear of your acts, and the more they fear you, the more NP you earn. However, the stronger the hacks and items, the more expensive they will be.

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

...

Basically, he had to make his name known—in the bad sense—and the system would reward him for it with Notoriety points.

With those points, he could buy hacks beyond the handful he currently had.

It wasn't complicated at all.

"Shop," he said.

A new screen appeared.

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

[Starter Tier SHOP]

≡ Passive Hacks

▸ Presentable: [10 NP]

▸ WalkingCompass: [25 NP]

▸ SpeedReader: [30 NP]

▸ IronStomach: [30 NP]

▸ Pokerface: [50 NP]

▸ Polyglot: [250 NP]

───────────────────

≡ Active Hacks

▸ Dry: [10 NP]

▸ Internal Clock: [20 NP]

▸ Clean: [25 NP]

▸ Appraiser: [30 NP]

▸ Tireless: [100 NP]

▸ Coward's Eye: [100 NP]

▸ Sugar Rush: [200 NP]

───────────────────

≡ Scripts

▸ AutoRest: [75 NP]

───────────────────

≡ Items

▸ Water Bottle: [5 NP]

▸ Jerky: [5 NP]

▸ Clothes: [10 NP]

▸ Golden Pencil: [15 NP]

▸ Golden Pen: [15 NP]

▸ Golden Quill: [15 NP]

▸ Golden Fork: [15 NP]

▸ Golden Spoon: [15 NP]

▸ Golden Lockpick Set: [15 NP]

...

▸ Music Headset: [25 NP]

▸ Fix-everything Tape: [30 NP]

▸ Bugged Smoke Pellet: [30 NP]

▸ Bottle of Hyper Glue: [50 NP]

▸ Gravity Cuffs: [65 NP]

▸ Very Stable Surfing Board: [75 NP]

▸ Intelligent Dumbbells: [80 NP]

▸ Haki Knot (Weak Level): [300 NP]

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

"Hmm..."

He went through each listing with care, eyes slowly going over the function of each hack and item.

Some of it was genuinely interesting. Some of it was not.

Presentable, the cheapest Hack in the entire shop, essentially kept his hair in whatever position he put it in—basically, an invisible and permanent hair gel.

That was the entire skill.

A total waste of NP in his opinion—although if he ever had points to spare, he could maybe see himself caving in out of spite. His bed hair was especially rebellious, so he often found himself eyeing the hack, despite it not being worth it.

Polyglot was on the other end of the spectrum. The ability to read and understand any language wasn't going to be particularly useful right now, stuck in a village on a single island. But the long-term value of it was hard to argue with. Especially since ancient languages actually seemed really important in this world.

The items section caught his eye too. The Golden everything—pencil, pen, quill, fork, spoon—were all listed as indestructible, which already made his heart beat in excitement.

Indestructible. That sounded crazy already!

—Even if the only objects with that characteristic at the moment were pretty mundane, with no weapons anywhere in the long list, just common tools and cutlery with no edge to speak of.

There was a screwdriver somewhere in the list, though. He filed that one away as a maybe. It was the closest thing to a weapon in the list, after all.

The Music Headset had also been on his mind since he first saw it. Not for any tactical reason—he just wanted something to listen to.

Nothing but silence and nature's sounds for an entire month was making him crave the music he used to hear every day.

Next, the Surfing Board listed there was more practical than it sounded. It basically let him stand on its surface without risk of falling or slipping, which in other words meant island travel without a ship—assuming his legs could hold out for however long the crossing took.

... He didn't love that part, but it was there, if he ever felt he might need it.

And then... there was the Haki Knot. A single-use item, purchasable once, that released a weak burst of Conqueror's Haki upon being untied.

A hidden card up the sleeve, essentially.

The instant he saw it, Dan knew he'd want to plan around that one carefully before buying it.

None of it was accessible right now, of course. No NP meant no buying spree, which in turn brought him right back to the source of his frustration—remaining poor in NP, and not getting to try out the other hacks for however long his training would be lasting.

Getting his ass handed by Zoro a few weeks back hadn't helped his mood either.

Rationally, he understood it—the moss head was already fighting adults, there was no way he, a kid who'd barely been there two months, would beat him.

But knowing he had a literal cheat of reality at his disposal, and yet still ending up losing that badly, left a sting that reason didn't fully soften.

He knew it was just the impatient side of him talking. He had the system, and he wanted the benefits of it immediately. Sadly, that wasn't how it worked—or at least, not how it had been designed to work.

While he would love to just go and build up his infamy right now by making something crazy that would surely yield him NP and maybe raise his bounty—like going to the nearest marine base and punching every marine soldier there—the ROB had made sure this story he was supposed to produce wouldn't end prematurely.

How?

With damn rules. The guy had made sure he couldn't just speedrun his bounty tiers and get the most OP hacks right away.

... Well, technically he could, but not without consequences.

By pressing a "?" icon at the corner of his system's window—which he took a week to notice since it was so damn minuscule he mistook it as part of the screen's decoration—he could get a look of the rules the ROB had put in place.

The first rule stated that the moment he crossed into the Rookie tier—the one after his current Starter tier—the system would personally guarantee that an opponent of appropriate strength would come his way in due time, to make sure he was up to level.

—And that would happen at every tier, without exception, like a constant examination of his worthiness.

Of course, that wasn't all that worrying on its own. Sure, it was a problem to deal with each time he leveled up, but in the end it was only one person he had to beat to prove his worthiness.

The real problem came from the rule also adding as a bonus that, unlike in the show, a bounty on his head wouldn't just be a creeping number with no real danger. It would actually fulfill its purpose.

Make him be hunted.

Depending on the tier he was at, the system would make sure an appropriate number of people came knocking to claim it, drawn in by fate and the system working together.

Marines. Bounty hunters. The whole thing.

Not like Luffy, who at worst had a few encounters with bounty hunters and marines after getting his first bounty, but didn't get chased around much.

No. In his case, the moment he gained a proper price on his head, bounty hunters and marines would be on the look out, sniffing every corner to get a hold of him to the best of their ability.

And what was worse, the ROB also decided that the backlash from bounties wouldn't necessarily be capped at his current tier's level. The opponents the system sent as tier milestones would match roughly the required level—but the hunters drawn in by the bounty itself had a chance to be considerably stronger. That part was essentially a matter of luck.

Maybe even an Admiral would show up because he woke up on Lady Luck's bad side one day.

So basically, the ROB here was telling him: "Raise your bounty however much you want, but you will have to face backlash of equal measure."

If that wasn't enough, the second rule had been made to account for any possible attempt at exploiting the currency system without becoming a proper criminal as intended.

It stipulated that manufactured infamy counted for nothing. He couldn't make up stories about himself and hope they would terrify the world and send a rush of NP his way.

The system rewarded actions, not speculation. If he was rumored to have destroyed a town, the gains would be minimal, if any at all.

If he did destroy the town, only then would the gains be appropriate. Not that he would do such thing—unless the residents deserved it or something.

The third rule was added to complement the previous one. Stating that grinding NP by picking on the weak and avoiding anyone stronger would yield diminishing returns over time.

Basically, it was telling him not to be lazy and to go seek trouble against those stronger than him constantly.

The fourth rule also complemented the two rules from before. It clarified that using strong allies to cause infamy-worthy acts, then mooching off them, wouldn't work either. Only deeds with the credit verifiably belonging to him alone would generate NP.

He had to be the big bad. He couldn't just be "part of the bad guys", or the "mysterious guy behind the bad guys" whose entire infamy came from allegedly being stronger than allies who actually did the act.

So much regulation for what was supposed to be a fun adventure was pretty annoying, and he wondered if the ROB even knew what he was doing—although, he had to admit that when he first learned how NP worked, he had been concocting a plan like those.

So maybe the rules may have been warranted... just a bit.

However, if any of those rules hadn't been enough to deter him from attempting anything "story breaking", then there was the fifth and last rule. One put there to plug any loophole that the ROB may have not noticed while designing this thing.

It explicitly said that, if he were to find a loophole in any of the rules above and tried to exploit it despite the posterior warnings the system would give him, then the ROB would come down and deal with him directly. No further explanation given.

So, in short: don't fuck around, and you won't find out.

"So much for him wanting a fun story." He scoffed.

As he came to terms with the fact that he wouldn't have much of a choice, Dan exhaled slowly through his nose and closed his eyes in thought.

All of those fucks you from the ROB brought him once again to the question that was currently bothering him the most.

If he couldn't exploit anything, and had to be careful about rising his bounty—was training all he could do right now?

With such a question in mind, he stayed like that for a few minutes more, thinking it over.

...

Then, at some point, his eyes snapped open. A gleam of realization passing by them.

... Actually, there was something he could do right now. He just hadn't thought about it from the right angle.

Judging from his status screen, his current tier wouldn't advance until he hit 500K beli in bounty. That meant as long as his acts stayed below what would prompt the Marines to put a formal number on his head—or at least to put a bounty lower than 500K on him—he had room to maneuver.

If he managed that, he could quietly farm NP and have something worth equipping by the time he was actually ready to kick everything off.

A glint of mischief passed through his eyes as that thought settled.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of sunglasses.

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

≡[Hacked Item: Sunglasses of Anonymity]

▸ Sunglasses that hide your identity perfectly, somehow. No matter if you're standing right in front of them, wearing the same clothes—so long as you have these sunglasses on, no one will recognize you.

▸ Warning: The identity you take on whenever you put on the sunglasses remains the same even if you take them off and put them on again. Meaning that whatever criminal charges or relationships you have with people while wearing them persist until you remove them.

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

He held them up for a moment, turning them over once as if expecting them to look supernatural in some way.

They didn't. They appeared to be completely normal sunglasses.

Regardless, after a quick shrug, he put them on with a grin.

"Alright. It's evil time."

...

°

°

°

| Half an hour later... |

...

Shimotsuki Village was, usually, a peaceful place.

The strength its people had built over generations—tradition brought from a distant land and maintained with quiet pride—meant pirates rarely gave it a second look. And when they did, they didn't leave in good shape.

The last pirate attack had been roughly three years ago, and incidents of that nature had been pretty uncommon since.

This particular evening, however, something happened that disrupted the village's peace.

"My animals—they're all loose! Someone opened the gate to my pen!"

"The pie I left to cool on the windowsill... someone took a piece out of it!"

"Who kept knocking on the stall door?! I shouted five times that it was occupied and they just kept going!"

"Who left a pile of cow dung on my doorstep?!"

"WHO MOVED MY TOOLS?! THEY WERE IN A SPECIFIC ORDER! AAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"

Furious voices erupted from all corners of the village, overlapping and building on each other until the whole place felt like a pot about to boil over. Doors swung open. People poured out into the street, red-faced and searching for the culprit.

They didn't have to look for long.

"It was I!"

The voice came from above. Heads turned upward in unison, eyes locking onto a small figure perched on top of one of the rooftops, arms crossed, wearing a smug grin that only made the villagers more angry.

"You did all of this?!" one of the villagers shouted, jaw tight.

The figure tilted his chin up. "Yeah. What about it?"

That was all it took.

"Get him!"

The shout went up like a signal flare, and the mob surged forward.

"Oh shit—!" The figure's composure cracked immediately.

He scrambled back from the edge and jumped sideways onto the tree growing close to the rooftop—almost certainly how he'd gotten up there in the first place.

He grabbed a branch, swung himself down, hit the ground running, and dove into the village streets with an angry mob roaring behind him.

The chase went on through alleyways and between houses, neither party showing even a sliver of giving up. The figure was quick for his size, ducking under obstacles, cutting corners, slipping away even when someone cut him off and tried to block his path.

But eventually the streets gave way to the outskirts, and the outskirts gave way to the treeline, and the figure plunged into the forest without hesitation.

The mob followed him in, ducking under branches, slapping leaves away, crunching the soil beneath them—until their assassination objective slipped through a particularly dense bush and the foliage swallowed him up.

Regardless, they pushed through after him, not about to give up now.

But as they emerged from the other side... he was gone.

And instead, leaning against a nearby tree with a remarkably "innocent" face and his arms crossed, even going as far as to whistle, was a kid several of them recognized.

"Little Dan?" One of the older men raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing out here?"

The kid shifted his weight slightly. "I was, uh... passing by."

Several eyes narrowed at the same time.

Then one of the villagers, a farmer, spoke up, squinting. "Right. Either way—kid, did you happen to see a runt about your size come through here just now?"

Dan's eyebrows shot up dramatically, and his mouth made an "o" for a second before he asked. "What did he look like?"

The farmer opened his mouth. Then stopped. His eyebrows pulled together as he realized he actually didn't remember much about the punk they were after.

"He had sunglasses!" someone else from the crowd suddenly offered.

"Like those!" Another pointed.

All eyes followed the direction of the finger, landing right on Dan's shirt—specifically, the slightly suspicious sunglasses-shaped bulge near the collar.

-Clack-

A pair of sunglasses slipped out from under the fabric and dropped straight to the ground.

"..."

"..."

Dan looked down at them, then back up at the crowd... then he slowly raised one arm and pointed into the forest behind him.

"He went that way."

"After him!"

""OOOH!""

For some reason, the crowd didn't hesitate even a second, and lurched back into motion, streaming past Dan and crashing deeper into the trees.

"..."

Dan stood very still until the last of the footsteps faded.

Then he let out a long breath and bent down to pick up the sunglasses, pocketing them right away.

"Five points for all that..." he muttered, massaging his temples. "This is going to be a real pain."

...

────────────────────────

-To Be Continued...-

────────────────────────

(A/N: Tried to fix some of the infodump present in this chapter so it was more digestible than in previous versions. Did it still feel that way?)

 

[The Synonym]

────────────────────────
[Sunglassed Bandit]
────────────────────────

| Three weeks later… |

...

-Swish!-

'Is it like that?'

-Swoosh!-

'Nope, that one felt better.'

-Swish!-

'Or does this one feel better…?'

Dan pushed his chin forward as he became lost in thought, repeating the same two motions and frowning more and more with every iteration.

Then two voices from nearby cut through his bubble—a pair of resting kids talking among themselves a short distance away.

"You heard of that guy? The one who's been terrorizing the village lately?"

"Yeah. We were playing near the dojo yesterday and heard the commotion. The other day too… and the day before that."

Another kid leaned in from nearby.

"I heard he's like a ghost. Even with a huge mob behind him, he managed to just vanish. The adults said it themselves."

"I heard Dan was nearby when it happened," another added.

All of them turned to look at him.

"Yo, is that true?" one asked from their seat.

Dan sweatdropped.

"...Uh, yeah, sure."

"You've seen the guy? What does he look like?!"

Dan scratched his chin, appearing to think it over deeply. "Very dashing… and muscular. That too."

"Huh? My dad said he looked pretty thin, though. Short and thin."

"You guys think he's a Leprechaun?"

"What's that?"

"It's a mischievous little man that loves gold. I heard about it from some travelers who passed through our inn. Apparently, it has a pot full of gold hidden somewhere, and rainbows point to where it is."

"Gold?!"

"We should find the thing, then we'd be rich!"

"..."

Dan's eyebrow twitched as the conversation drifted in a weird direction.

He looked down at himself.

He was a bit thin, yeah... but that's what being an orphan did to you. Old man Shun let him eat with the crew, but the meals weren't exactly nutritious, and he often skipped breakfast and dinner entirely. They ate plenty of leftover fish when there was some, but that was about it.

He was in genuine need of better food. The money he'd started earning since the boat fiasco had helped—he'd been buying things that actually filled him—but his salary still wasn't quite enough to cover three meals a day for a whole month. And since old Shun handled the cooking, he hadn't found the right moment to bring it up.

'Maybe I should learn to cook.'

He already could, technically. But that was university-student cooking, not actual cooking. If he learned properly, he'd at least feel less apprehensive about quietly improving their meals himself.

And once he wasn't so thin, maybe he'd finally have the build that would make his victims take him seriously.

As for his height… he was a kid, that's all. He was even taller than plenty of the kids around.

So that was something only time would cure.

Dan sighed and resumed his swinging, tuning out the Leprechaun debate and treasure search talk happening behind him.

As he did, his mind drifted back over the past few weeks.

A lot had happened. Annoying pranks mostly, and some less innocent stuff. Through it all, he'd built himself a proper name as someone who instilled at least a moderate level of fear in the villagers' hearts.

The first attempts had been on the lighter end—harmless pranks, a slow rhythm, nothing that would attract actual authorities. The plan had been to let it build quietly over time.

Then the villagers, being perfectly functional human beings, started preparing against him. Making the usual targets harder to reach, and keeping a lookout where there hadn't been one before.

He'd been caught mid-act more times than he'd like to admit, and by the end of the first week, he could barely think of anything that wouldn't get him nabbed on the spot.

It was honestly a miracle he hadn't been caught for real yet.

So, with his usual options drying up, he'd had no choice but to make a big change. The harmless pranks had to become psychological warfare.

Under the cover of night, he stood outside people's windows and scratched at the glass. He grabbed pigs and made them shriek once the village had gone quiet. He banged on doors at the same hours, night after night, then laughed loudly from the dark to make sure they knew it had been him. His night vision hack came in clutch every time someone gave chase, letting him slip away through the dark without missing a step.

Genuinely awful stuff he wouldn't wish on himself. But a hacker had to gain NP somehow.

So far, through the three weeks he'd been doing this, he had accumulated 54 NP. Enough to buy the Music Headset he'd had his eye on since day one—but he didn't. With genuine iron will, he'd held off.

He hadn't terrorized an entire village just to treat himself to some music. He was saving up for the hack he actually needed.

Tireless—an active hack that would nullify exhaustion completely for one hour, after which all the fatigue he hadn't felt would crash back in at once. In practice, it meant he could push himself to his absolute limit without exhaustion cutting him short, and then SpeedyGains would convert that enormous effort into twice the normal improvement.

Basically, the perfect way to replicate the insane training regimens of shonen protagonists, but without needing the iron mentality that actually pushing past your limits required.

He was still only halfway there. A few more weeks of the same thing, probably—assuming the villagers didn't find a way to shut down his current method entirely.

If they did, he'd have to step things up—and then he'd be able to boost his current improvement rate with his new hack.

But for that, the villagers had to suffer first.

'Don't feel bad, don't feel bad.'

He kept the thought on repeat as he swung.

With a system like this, guilt over small things was a luxury he couldn't afford. Especially not when the World Government was at the end of this road.

He'd probably end up affecting plenty of lives—directly, indirectly, guilty, innocent—once he crossed that line.

That was just the reality of the path he'd chosen, and what was bound to happen given the tight control the Government had on the people of this world.

His brows drew together slightly. He closed his eyes and took a slow breath, letting the thought settle and then consciously setting it aside.

Then, he noticed footsteps approaching.

He opened his eyes to find Koushirou approaching, hands folded behind his back.

"Dan. I said it was rest time. You're still at it?"

Dan smiled wryly. "I feel fine… I can keep going a bit longer."

Koushirou didn't look convinced. "Dedication matters, but so does rest. Be careful not to push your body past what it can handle."

"I'm genuinely not that tired, sensei."

Koushirou lifted an eyebrow at that. He was quiet for a moment, studying him.

"Do a few more swings.," He then ordered.

Dan nodded and got back to it.

Five swings in, Koushirou had gone still, his arms folded now, eyebrows furrowed as he watched with a look of quiet calculation.

'I had expected him to be showing fatigue by now… his physique is already that much better than the other kids?'

A few more seconds passed before he gave a short nod.

"Continue, then. I'll correct you when you make a mistake."

Dan looked mildly surprised but didn't argue.

He went back to swinging—up and down, left and right, working through all the motions the dojo had covered so far. Koushirou watched, and whenever Dan slipped into a bad habit or fumbled a form he'd had right a moment before, he said so. Dan corrected it, sometimes cleanly and sometimes not, occasionally undoing a fix he'd just made. But slowly, steadily, the swings got a little better.

From the edges of the dojo, the other students watched enviously—but for the most part with respect. They were those who threw themselves to rest as soon as Koushirou allowed so... yet, seeing Dan was still at it, they couldn't help but acknowledge his determination.

It reminded more than a few of them of Zoro and his relentless grind to catch up to Kuina, which had taken him from newcomer to something that made even the older students reluctant to volunteer for a spar with him.

Although, now that they thought about it, Zoro had been plenty strong since the start. When he first entered here, he carried with him a raw ferocity that made up for every gap in technique through sheer aggression.

Dan, on the other hand, had been beaten by plenty of them on his first monthly dueling day. He actually started from the bottom. A weak kid, just like them.

Even if, after his first month, he shot up in strength, making many in the dojo doubt whether the'd be capable of beating him right now.

Still, he had a long way before he caught up to Zoro.

Nowadays, Zoro had equaled his ferocity with his technique, making him much more of a monster than when he first arrived. So much so, that nobody even wanted to consider sparring with him, in fear of getting depressed from feeling an insurmountable gap between them.

Well. Almost nobody.

From her corner of the dojo, Kuina watched her father instruct Dan with a slight frown pulling at her brow.

"..."

This kind of attention—standing there, pointing out mistakes in real time, staying with a student through the exercises—she hadn't seen him do this often.

Certainly not with Zoro, who was too hardheaded to follow anything but his own instincts anyway. Instead, her father had mostly pointed him in a direction and let his stubbornness carry him the rest of the way.

And not really with her either, if she was being fair about it. He'd started teaching her only once she made it obvious that she wasn't going to stop asking, and even then, it had been pointers, not this. So she ended up filling in the gaps herself.

So what was different about this kid?

She studied him for a moment. He wasn't anything remarkable to look at, swordsmanship-wise.

Faster than most of the others, sure, but Zoro had been further along at this stage. Raw talent-wise, he wasn't that impressive to warrant such attention.

Then she watched her father say something, and saw Dan adjust right away—not perfectly, but genuinely trying to apply what he'd just heard.

No argument, and no going back to what felt comfortable.

Maybe that was it, the reason her father seemed to favor him so much nowadays.

He actually listened to her father.

… That, and the fact that he was a boy.

"Hmph," She snorted.

Then, she stood up, picked up a bamboo sword without hurry, and headed through the door to the backyard, where the practice dummies waited.

Whatever it was that had her father's attention—it didn't matter. Just like Zoro, this one wouldn't beat her either.

She'd make sure of it.

...

────────────────────────

-To Be Continued...-

────────────────────────

(A/N: Dan finally starts gaining some infamy. One step closer to his path of criminalism.)

 

[The Synonym]

────────────────────────
[Goodies]
────────────────────────

| Three months later… |

...

"What a pain," Dan muttered, eyeing the sky above with an exhausted look, the breeze ruffling his hair. He was lying on top of a rock, on a hill by the seaside.

Living on an island had its privileges, like having a constant view of the sea.

Allegedly, this world was about 90% islands, 9% bigger islands, and 1% continent-sized islands.

He made up those percentages, by the way. But his point still stood.

So it wasn't exactly a unique perk.

Maybe it was just a bonus of being part of a fishing crew that lived right by the coast.

-Sigh…-

A fair amount of time had passed since he recovered his otherworldly memories. He was a bit taller now, and broader too.

Not too much, it had only been three months.

Thankfully, his efforts to eat better had pulled him away from the malnourished end of the spectrum over time—that, plus a few cooking lessons from the owner of the village inn, which gave him a proper understanding of what made up a hearty meal.

With SpeedyGains behind him, he'd picked up the craft fast, which left him feeling deeply satisfied with the hack.

But despite the improved physique and the new cooking skills, not everything was going smoothly.

"Tsk…"

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

Current Infamy Tier: Starter

▸[Current Bounty: 0 / 500K]

▸[NP: 96]

Equipped Passive Hacks [1/1]

▸ SpeedyGains

Equipped Active Hacks [0/1]

▸ None

Equipped Script

▸ None

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

He stared at the screen with genuine pain in his eyes.

96 NP. So close, yet so far.

And worst of all, he'd been stuck there for weeks. Just imagine the helplessness of glancing at a number that close to your goal, day after day, with no sign of it moving anytime soon.

But that was just how things were. His farming method had finally been patched.

There were only so many crimes one could commit against a village this size before they became virtually unterrorizable. After enough incidents, the villagers had started coordinating properly and running day and night patrols all around, making it nearly impossible for him to even think about putting on the glasses.

He'd tried the tactic of going quiet for a stretch and coming back to catch them off guard. It worked a couple of times. Then they caught onto that, too.

So now he was at a full impasse—unable to even attempt anything, stuck right at the border of his goal.

At the verge of hitting those 100 NP.

"This sucks…"

Fortunately, not everything was bad news. His training, unlike his currently stalled criminal career, had gone fairly well. Sure, he still wasn't superhuman, and that realm felt like it was a good way off yet—but his learning speed had let him start actually challenging the more advanced students at the dojo. Guys who had been there for years.

He still couldn't overwhelm them the way Kuina and Zoro probably would—those two were already operating somewhere in the adults' level. But he was rising fast. Beating senior disciples at five months in, while being no more than ten years old, was nothing to dismiss.

His birthday was last month, by the way.

Since his parents were kinda dead, there was nobody around to remember such a thing, so the day passed without notice, and he treated it like any other. Old Shun took care of him but never overstepped—he clearly hadn't known.

And honestly, Dan had never once seen the old man celebrate his own birthday either, so he probably wouldn't have thought much of it regardless.

But back to his progress—he was doing well by his own standards.

SpeedyGains was evidently doing its job, even if swordsmanship moved slowly enough to make the results hard to spot in real time, but since it had already proven itself with cooking, the functionality wasn't in doubt.

With swordsmanship, it just took longer for the hack's benefits to become noticeable, and while he had his doubts when this all started, the three months that allowed him to catch up to those more experienced confirmed its effectiveness.

At the rate he was going, catching up to the two prodigies of the dojo was only a matter of time.

A rather long time for his taste, but definitely a short one for anyone else.

'If only I could use Tireless too,'

Dan's mood soured all over again.

He could feel the desperation whispering at him to just risk it all for those last 4 points that remained. He wanted a new hack badly.

Super automatic fishing, night vision, and a slightly-valuable-stuff radar that he honestly had no use for, except for when he dropped some of his money on accident, were beginning to get old and boring.

Letting out a quiet groan, he shut the system's screen, knowing that if he continued staring at it, he would end up doing something stupid. Then, he closed his eyes and made himself settle back against the rock, letting the breeze do its job and calm down his greedy heart.

...

At least, that was the plan—until his ears picked up the faint sound of the village in the distance getting noticeably louder.

Which, on an island this remote, was quite the occurrence.

He pushed himself upright and squinted toward the village. Nothing obviously wrong, like fire or people rushing away. Just the muffled and apparently hectic voice of the villagers.

"...?"

Seeing nothing wrong, his gaze drifted instead toward the docks.

And that's when he saw it.

A ship, not a pirate one. A merchant vessel.

"Oh."

He nodded in understanding. That explained the commotion in the village.

A merchant ship meant goods from other islands, maybe from much further than that.

Even he was interested now.

"Hup!"

So, he pulled himself to his feet and started jogging toward the village, curiosity already winning out. Maybe he'd find something worth spending his allowance on for once, other than food.

...

°

°

°

| Minutes later… |

...

Dan strode into the village, looking around with wide curious eyes. The usually quiet streets were packed—everyone had left their homes to get a look at what the merchant had brought in.

He spotted a few of his fellow dojo students scattered through the crowd as he pushed his way through. He didn't slow down for any of them though.

He wasn't particularly close to anyone at the dojo—or in the village, actually.

Part of that was the old Dan's doing. Losing his parents young had pulled him inward for a while, and he'd stayed that way until the decision to join the dojo gave him somewhere to direct himself.

And the other part of it was the new Dan's own reasoning—he was mentally preparing himself to be a criminal, so feeling guilt whenever his stunts against the World Government caused collateral damage against normal people was something he couldn't have himself feel.

He'd still try to avoid such occurrences the best he could—but he was still gonna make sure guilt wouldn't get to him the day he wasn't able to prevent something like that from happening.

So, with such resolution for his path ahead, he drifted through the crowd, making use of his child-sized frame to navigate it with ease, until he reached the center of it all.

There, a merchant who looked exactly like a merchant should—moustache, loud vest, slimed hair, and slightly on the heavier side—was holding court with the gathered villagers, rattling off his inventory. Bolts of foreign cloth, a few precious stones, vegetables, and fruits from islands none of them had ever visited, and plenty more.

But what stopped Dan in his tracks was further along the display.

Swords. A small rack of them, nothing fancy—worn hilts, blades that had clearly seen use—but swords nonetheless. And right beside them, something that made his eyes linger even longer.

Guns.

A handful of pistols, mismatched and a little battered, propped up alongside the blades. Recovered loot, by the look of it, same as the swords.

He stared at both for a moment.

A sword was the obvious choice, since he was training in swordsmanship and lacked a sword. The joke wrote itself there.

But a gun was a gun, and in his current powerless state, it'd bridge the gap between him and anyone not overly superhuman.

Hence, for a moment, he considered buying one. Or both. Or at least asking.

But as he considered asking the merchant, he noticed he wasn't the only one who was checking the weaponry inventory, as it turned out.

Glancing up through the crowd, he caught sight of Kuina not far off, her eyes on the swords with an expression that was hard to read—somewhere between interest and appraisal.

And then, slightly further along, Zoro was also looking at the display.

—Or possibly at the cask of brewed delicacies sitting right next to it.

Dan stared at him for a second, smiling wryly.

So young, and already on the road to alcoholism.

Shaking his head, he turned back and pushed toward the merchant, working his way up until the man finally noticed him.

"How much for the swords? And the guns?" He asked.

There was a flicker of dismissal when the merchant registered he was talking to a child—but given that this was a swordsmen's village, he clearly decided someone in earshot might be interested regardless, and his voice carried when he answered.

"The swords range from 40,000 to 65,000 beli, depending on condition. Recovered from a pirate crew that made the mistake of attacking us on the way here—they've seen blood, but a good polish and you'll have a fine blade. As for the pistols—" he gestured to the rack beside him "—25,000 to 40,000, same story. Functional, just not pretty."

He was already pitching to the crowd by the end of it, not particularly invested in the kid in front of him.

Dan winced.

Now that he had an allowance, he had been saving up, sure, but buying food had steadily eaten into what he could save; hence, his current savings did not even begin to scratch those prices.

'Damn.'

Sighing, he slipped back through the crowd and came out the other end of it, tilting his head back to look at the sky.

'Well, I guess I'll have to save for a while more before I can get my hands on something nice.'

In the end, it was just a matter of time.

There was also the chance that, just like with the Golden tools and cutlery in the shop, better versions of them, like unbreakable swords and guns, would unlock as he advanced through the tiers. So maybe it wasn't worth stressing over right now.

He nodded to himself and started walking away.

...

Only to stop dead in his tracks a second later. His eyes widened as if he had the revelation of the century.

'I could save up and buy them fair and square in due time, or…'

His eyes, already glinting, drifted back toward the crowd, narrowing dangerously.

'I could just take them.'

He licked his lips involuntarily as he realized such a straightforward way existed.

But then, he shook his head.

The merchant had guards. There was hardly any chance he'd be able to do something like that.

So, he started to resume his walk into the distance—

Until his eyes widened again.

If he pulled this off, wouldn't he finally reach the NP goal he'd been grinding toward for weeks?

The moment that thought dawned, greed began taking over, slow and steadily, and overriding his logical thoughts.

He scanned the surroundings. Villagers were posted as informal guards all around, doing their rounds, keeping an eye on things.

Getting to the display and then getting out through that crowd was going to be a nightmare.

Avoiding the guards of the merchant would be even worse.

...

… But what if he pulled it off?

His rational mind told him he was going to get caught and probably have his head hung as an example for any other thieves. There were no human rights in this world, after all.

And while they probably wouldn't be doing that to a ten-year-old, if he put on his glasses, they wouldn't know that until it was too late.

So yeah, his rational mind immediately told him it was a horrible idea.

—But the rest of him told him to do it anyway.

"Phew~"

He ended up letting out a puff of nervousness once he realized what was about to take place here

—before smirking.

"Alright. Let's do this."

…

────────────────────────

-To Be Continued...-

────────────────────────

(A/N: Time for the criminal path to open up. Will he succeed, or will he be hung for everyone to see?

Discover it in the next chapter)

 

[The Synonym]

────────────────────────
[Goodies 2]
────────────────────────

…

The stall the traveling merchant, Locks, had placed in the middle of Shimotsuki village was doing wonderfully, even for his standards.

"Come, come! What are you looking for, ma'am? We have the finest dresses, tools to make everyday life easier, and food from foreign lands! You, sir—you look like a respectable blacksmith. We have a collection of prized ores here, valuable metals scarcely available in this sea!"

"Hmm, I see. They do seem rare. What can be made from them?"

"Oh, all kinds of things. Swords, hammers, axes—whatever you like. I do have to warn you, though... these are difficult to work with. Only the most experienced and gifted of blacksmiths can carve them into something beautiful—and lethal, of course."

"Ahem, then they must be perfect for me. How much?"

"Haha, I knew I wasn't mistaken about you! The price varies depending on the ore—for example, this one here..."

For such a remote village like this, the chance to get their hands on things from beyond the island was a rare opportunity, hence why the great attention he was getting—and as luck would have it, he had plenty to sell as well.

Those who were in desperate need of tools or new goods were buying like crazy.

Those who weren't were also buying like crazy.

Locks wanted to laugh out loud right then and there.

If only they knew half these things were cheap pieces made by a bunch of rookie artisans under his employ, they wouldn't be paying the prices he was asking.

The only things he had been somewhat honest about were the guns and swords his crew had recovered from a bunch of nobody pirates who thought too highly of themselves and ended up at the bottom of the sea.

Of course, that was just because they simply looked too worn to fool anyone. Had they looked presentable enough, he wouldn't have hesitated to sell them as artifacts of enormous rarity, comparable even to the Meitos.

Sadly, that wasn't the case, and they just looked like junk one might be able to use to defend oneself.

It was a bit of a pain that they might make everything else in his stall look cheap just by sitting next to his other merchandise, but he had to cover the costs those pirates had put him through when they attacked.

Still, judging from the way things were going, he was going to leave this place completely loaded!

He snickered at the thought—internally, at least. On the outside, he kept a broad, friendly smile as he handed a set of jewels to an unsuspecting woman.

But just as his hand was reaching for the money—

"Hey!"

A voice rang out loudly from somewhere in the crowd. Everyone turned, searching for the source with a curious look, but even as seconds passed, no one stepped out.

'Did I mishear?' Locks dug a pinky into his ear.

He was about to disregard the matter, when—

—PAF!—

Something came flying and hit him square in the face.

It didn't hurt. It was soft, actually.

But what came next wasn't.

"Cough, cough!"

A cloud of white exploded at the same instant, stinging his eyes and blocking his view in every direction.

Just from the smell and color, he and everyone were able to know what it was.

Ash.

"W-what the—cough—hell?" He glared around in confusion. The guards around looked just as baffled, searching in the direction from which the ash had come to find the perpetrator.

But that's exactly when a figure slipped out from within the opposite end of the crowd and reached the stall.

-Clacklack-

In a single instant, it yanked one of the swords free from the rack they were in, then a pistol lying on the counter, and quickly dived straight back into the mob.

"Hey, stop there, you thief!"

The ash cloud wasn't thick enough to blind anyone completely, so Locks caught most of it, as did his guards. They shook off their surprise quickly enough, shoved the crowd aside, and broke into a chase.

At the same time though, someone else grabbed one of the remaining swords.

"Hey!" Locks cried out.

"I'm borrowing it!" the person called back—and then dashed off after the thief.

Several meters ahead, the thief was already tearing across the village, sword and gun in hand. Those who hadn't been caught in the crowd recognized him the moment he came into view.

"It's the Sunglassed Bandit!"

"He's back!"

"Catch him!"

Bells were rung as the alarm spread. Villagers posted as guards from every direction began converging.

He was nearly surrounded.

But instead of stopping, he raised the sword.

Several of the guards hesitated on the spot—it was the first time the bandit had actually threatened with direct violence, and more than a few of them weren't fighters by trade.

Some were, though.

Two men stepped forward, their own swords already drawn.

—PAF!—

"AAARGH!"

"Cough, cough!"

But two ash bombs caught them right in the face as soon as they got too close.

Using the gap, the figure slipped through the last of them—sliding through the ground and passing by between their legs—and broke free, finally hitting the outskirts.

The merchant's guards were still on his tail, though. They were bigger, and thanks to that, they were closing fast. The gap he had made initially thanks to the surprise factor diminishing at a bullet's speed.

A few seconds later, they were already nearly at arm's reach, fingers brushing the hem of his clothes.

—That's when the figure spun around and leveled the gun directly at them.

"Argh?!"

"Watch out!"

The moment they saw the barrel aimed point-blank at them, they stopped and dove aside on instinct.

"..."

"..."

Only a few seconds of silence later did they recall that the thief had only taken the pistol, not the bullets.

"Ah, crap!" They scrambled back, looking hurriedly for their foe.

But by then, the bandit was already gone.

They stared blankly at the forest meters ahead in which he had probably dived in, pursing their lips with a "we're done" look.

"We're getting fired."

"You don't say…?"

...

°

°

°

| Minutes later, Dan's POV: |

…

"Huff, huff…"

I breathed haggardly as I rushed through the vegetation, completely damp from the effort it took me to run so fast, and the nerves I felt the whole time while I pulled that off.

After a nervous glance behind me showed nobody following, I still kept running a little longer—just to be safe.

Only when I finally felt reasonably in the clear did I slow down. After that, I found a tree thick enough to put my back against and dropped down against it, using it to stay hidden from anyone still giving chase.

Then I focused on catching my breath.

'I did it... I actually did it.'

My eyes dropped to what was in my hands. A cutlass and a flintlock pistol.

I had actually gotten the loot.

And not only that...

Heart already speeding up, I opened the system panel.

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

Current Infamy Tier: Starter

▸[Current Bounty: 0 / 500K]

▸[NP: 104]

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

I had the NP.

"Hahahaha!"

I let the laugh out right there in the middle of the forest. I didn't care.

But of course, good things don't last.

"You seem happy."

I jumped clean off the ground the moment a voice reached me from nearby. My head snapped toward it, and my eyes went wide behind the sunglasses.

'Seriously?'

Kuina was standing there, one of the merchant's swords in hand.

'Of course she followed.' I clicked my tongue.

It was just what a character from the show would do, instead of minding their business.

My hands went for more ash bags—empty.

Well, of course, there was only so much ash in the village smithy to fill bags with, especially if it had been cleaned recently.

Huffing through my nose, I raised the gun and pointed it at her.

"Scramble or you die here."

God, what a cliche line. Still, it should do the—

"With what, air bullets?"

—And she saw the stunt I pulled with the guards... Of course she did.

An awkward silence settled over the clearing.

Then, suddenly, I made a quick move sideways, trying to slip away.

She moved at the same time, cutting me off. I pulled back to where I started.

"..."

"..."

I tried again. She matched it again, if not faster.

'... This doesn't look good.' I swallowed.

Running behind me was an option, but I had no idea what her actual top speed was. She was taller, so probably faster.

And with her holding a sword, I wasn't about to leave my back open to find out.

"..."

"..."

Another beat of awkward silence.

"So it's come to this..." I muttered, already knowing what she was waiting for.

Then—

-Clack!-

I tossed the gun aside.

And with both hands free... I brandished my sword.

"Good." She smirked.

I laughed wryly. I was absolutely going to get my ass kicked. I was still well below her level.

...

'But that doesn't mean it has to be totally one-sided.'

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

[Tireless (Active)] [BOUGHT!]

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

The sound of my NP draining echoed in my head, and with it came the sweet ping of a new hack landing in my library.

I equipped it before she could move.

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

Current Infamy Tier: Starter

▸[Current Bounty: 0 / 500K]

▸[NP: 4]

Equipped Passive Hacks [1/1]

▸ SpeedyGains

Equipped Active Hacks [1/1]

▸ Tireless

Equipped Script

▸ None

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

Then—

I activated it.

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

[Tireless Hack Activated!—Time left: 59 minutes, 58 seconds.]

▸ For 1 Hour, your body will become virtually untiring. No matter the level of exertion, intensity of the action, the body will feel no fatigue nor limits to his stamina.

(Note: In most cases, this hack does not nullify pain. However, pain caused for prolonged exertion like: running, constant movement of any sort without rest, pulling or pushing something constantly for too long, etc... are all considered forms of exhaustion, so the hack will negate these for the duration of the effect.)

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

The instant it kicked in, I felt an invigorating rush of... nothing. The good kind of nothing.

Every bit of exhaustion, muscle soreness, joint ache, and whatever else I'd been carrying without even realizing it—gone.

I was suddenly in a completely normal state.

It felt incredible.

Smirking, I tightened my grip on the sword and took a step forward.

"Alright. Let's do this."

And then I rushed her.

She had the same idea, apparently, because she was already coming at me.

And we both swung.

—CLANG!—

'Oof…!'

She was stronger than me, no doubt. I felt the full weight of her swing pressing against my own—but I didn't wince nor lose ground.

It was like pure adrenaline with no ceiling. My muscles and joints didn't ache, my lungs felt full of air—I felt like I could go forever.

So, invigorated by the lack of complaints from my body, I pushed forward. She looked briefly surprised at the force behind me pushing beyond my usual limits, but she was more experienced in technique, and it showed—a second after I began pushing, she redirected the energy cleanly to the side and prepared to slash back.

'Shit!'

I scrambled backward before she could.

-Swish!-

Seeing the sword cleanly slice some blades of grass, I felt cold sweat run down my back.

'This world sure is ruthless.'

A girl no older than eleven had just tried to cut me down with a sword and hadn't thought twice about it.

This was the world I was in. The world I was going to live in from now on.

I had to get used to it.

I clicked my tongue and rushed in again.

—CLANG!—

—CLANG!—

—CLANG!—

Our swords kept meeting. She blocked most of what I threw at her without much trouble, and every time she looked ready to go on the offensive, I jumped back—fully aware that trying to hold her attacks would only go badly for me.

The good old hit and run.

And judging from her increasingly annoyed face, it was doing its job.

But then, instead of letting me back off again, she surged forward the same moment I tried to retreat, closing the gap instantly and swinging down hard.

—CLANG!—

Somehow, I blocked it, putting my sword horizontally.

"Fight me properly!" She was right in my face now, forcing her blade down against mine, the swords creaking under the pressure.

-Wack!-

"Ah?!"

I answered with a kick to her legs, making her buckle for a second, and using that gap to slip away again.

By the time I was at a safe distance again, I saw her looking at me with murderous eyes, one hand placed on the spot I had kicked.

She hadn't expected that, had she?

Seeing that expression looking at me as if I had done something extremely unfair, I let out a shaky laugh. "This isn't a duel with rules, you know?"

She gritted her teeth and rubbed the spot I'd hit. She was utterly pissed.

—But then she forced a smile.

"You're right. I made a mistake forgetting that."

She slashed the air once, loosening up, and settled into a ready stance.

'That's not good,' I winced.

Judging from her "devil may care" expression, I knew what was about to come.

Any rules from the average spar she might have been unconsciously following were out the window.

Which meant—

It was time to dip.

"See you," I said as I picked up the gun I had tossed earlier and ran.

"You bastard!"

That did not improve her mood.

I sneaked a glance over my shoulder as I ran and immediately flinched—she was cutting the gap faster than I'd expected.

Damn it, short legs were a real disadvantage.

When she got close enough to swing at my back—

—CLANG!—

I twisted mid-run and caught it with my sword.

Then I kicked off the ground and changed direction.

She scrambled after me. I changed direction again, this time throwing a tree between us, and started moving left and right to keep her guessing—before snapping right as a feint and then quickly bolting left.

She barely kept up.

But keeping up wasn't what I was going for anyway.

—Wheezing!—

She was stronger, more skilled, and more experienced than me.

But she wasn't superhuman.

She was in better shape than I, sure, but the gap between us physically wasn't that wide.

By now, I should have already been face-down on the ground, gasping for air, unable to move… but I wasn't.

This was why I had bought Tireless.

Now, she was the only one getting tired.

Smirking, I kept weaving through the trees, using the vegetation and my small size to slip through gaps she couldn't, and just kept running.

"You... come back here...!"

I didn't even look back.

Left, right, feint, cut—until finally, during one of the direction changes, she couldn't follow.

The moment I felt that gap open up...

-Bam!-

I kicked off the ground and sprinted.

She tried to give chase again once the path straightened out—but she was exhausted, overheated, and within ten seconds, I was too far ahead to close.

HAHAHA, FEEL THE HAX!

"Damn it!"

...

°

°

°

| Half an hour later... |

...

A slightly heavy-breathing Kuina pushed out of the treeline and back into the village outskirts, flushed red and with her forehead soaked in sweat.

"Damn it... I lost him in the end..." she muttered, more exhausted than disappointed.

After he'd gotten away, she'd spent some time searching across the forest for him, not willing to let him escape. However, by then it was too late. The guy had completely vanished.

So she'd had no choice but to come back empty-handed.

She swept a hand across her forehead and looked toward the village.

Then her gaze dropped to the borrowed sword in her grip. There were chips in the blade—she couldn't say whether those had been there before or not, but there was a good chance her father would end up paying for them either way.

She groaned quietly, her grip relaxing around the handle.

Turning back toward the forest with a reluctant expression, she frowned.

"I was clearly stronger... so how was he not even tired?"

She raised a hand, staring at it.

"Is it really—?"

-Crch-

-Crch-

-Crch-

That's when she heard footsteps on the grass coming from inside the forest behind her. Her head snapped toward the sound, and her grip on the sword tightened right away.

'Did he come ba—huh?'

Then a familiar face stepped through a bush and into the clearing, hands in his pockets, looking entirely unbothered.

The kid her father had been paying close attention to lately. Dan, if she remembered right.

"...?"

That's when he noticed her too.

He seemed to flinch for a second before ultimately meeting her gaze with an awkward look.

The two held each other's gaze for about five seconds.

Then, he gave a short nod, and walked past.

She watched his back as he went. He wasn't heading toward the village—toward the docks, by the look of it.

"... What was he doing in the forest?"

She stared after him for a moment longer, eyebrow furrowed, before she shrugged, then turned away and started heading back toward the village.

'I hope father won't be angry…'

Meanwhile, near the docks, Dan strolled calmly into the small patch of land where Old Shun kept his house and the cabin Dan lived in.

Old Shun was there, sitting on a log and quietly smoking a fish, watching the process with the patience of a man who had done it a quintillion times.

He looked up when Dan came into view. "Little Dan, you're back. A merchant arrived not too long ago—did you go see him?"

Dan kept walking toward his cabin door, but gave a nod. "Yeah. Nothing too interesting."

"I might wander over myself later. Maybe he's got a better rod than the one I've been stuck with."

"Good luck with that," Dan let the old man's musing fade behind him as he stepped inside and closed the door.

Then he crossed the room in three steps and threw himself onto the bed, face-up.

He pulled up the system screen and reached for Tireless to deactivate i—

—Snore—

His head dropped to the side before he could finish the thought, and a long, completely unrestrained snore rattled out of him.

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

[Tireless Hack— Deactivated!]

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

...

────────────────────────

-To Be Continued...-

────────────────────────

(A/N: Some action in this chapter. After rereading it, I think it ended quite well.

And we at last finally see the first actually impressive hack in his list. Many more are to come, I hope.)

 

[The Synonym]

────────────────────────
[The Matchmaking Here is Awful]
────────────────────────

…

'Is this the rumored shonen body of One Piece?' Dan thought, sneaking quick glances at his own body.

He was seated in his usual spot along the border of the dojo, watching a pair of fellow students duel at the center while everyone else did the same.

—Yes, the monthly dueling class was today.

But he couldn't really give it much attention. His mind was elsewhere.

It had been a few days since the stunt he'd pulled to get the sword, the gun, and—most importantly—his Tireless hack.

After getting away from Kuina, he'd stashed the haul in a small cave by the seashore, well out of sight of anyone passing by, so nothing could be traced back to the cabin where he lived.

He hadn't expected to run into her on the way home, but it made sense in hindsight—after getting away from her, he kept on running the whole way to hide the weapons and then back, so he naturally caught up to her at the outskirts since she just walked the way back.

That, and also that she probably continued searching for him for a while after losing him, which helped a bit more for the coincidence to happen.

As for how his first experience with Tireless went—let's just say that even after collapsing on his bed several hours earlier than usual, he still woke up late the next morning.

Since then, he'd put the hack through a few more sessions during the evenings, pushing himself to the limit until the effect wore off and he dropped, then sleeping straight through to the next day.

To say it had done wonders for his physique would be an understatement. He was improving fast—for what had just been three days, at least. But what surprised him most was his recovery speed.

If he'd tried something like this with his old body—Tireless or not—the next day would have been spent bedridden without question.

Yet here he was, completely fine after a single long night's sleep. It wasn't on Luffy's level, where a piece of meat was enough to bounce back from near death, but these genes were nothing to complain about. It was making the combination of Tireless and SpeedyGains a lot smoother to abuse.

100% the right purchase.

His swordsmanship training hadn't sped up in the same way, though. An exhaustion-free hour just meant he could swing harder and longer—it wasn't going to hand him some sudden enlightenment.

If anything, it might be doing good things for his core muscles over time.

'Maybe I'll try focusing on that next.'

He smiled faintly to himself.

That's when a hushed conversation nearby reached him.

"Oi, why does Kuina look so on-edge today? She looks like she'll snap at anyone who breathes wrong."

"I heard Sensei chewed her out badly the day the merchant came. She took one of his swords without asking and went after the Sunglasses Bandit—only to end up back with a chipped blade and nothing to show for it, so Sensei ended up paying for the damage himself."

"That bandit beat Kuina?! He must be insanely strong."

"They fought with real swords and she doesn't have a scratch on her, though. Did she even lose?"

"Should we just ask her?"

"Are you out of your mind? Look at her face. We'd get beaten up before the question was out."

"... Fair."

Dan gave them a sideways glance and said nothing.

Even though he'd been trying to set aside guilt for the sake of his criminal path, he couldn't quite stop himself from feeling a little bad for her.

Though when he remembered that she'd tried to cut him down the other day, the feeling faded fairly quickly.

But aside from the misfortune that had befallen Kuina because of it, his stunt hadn't come without other consequences, either. The merchant had left later that day without a word, but the look on his face made it pretty clear he had no intention of returning.

That was going to sting for the villagers.

Hopefully, it wouldn't go the way Chinese fanfics did, where the guy would go crying to his senior brothers and ask them to blacklist the island from any further trading. Otherwise, he'd really feel bad.

And hopefully the man wouldn't go talking to the marines about it either—and if he did, that whatever description he gave wasn't enough to put a bounty above the 500K mark on his head. Things would get complicated very fast, otherwise.

'Well, I have a sword now at least. That counts for something if my bounty rises and people start coming for my head.'

Maybe that was wishful thinking. But still.

"The winner is Kotaro!"

Koushirou's announcement cut through his thoughts and pulled his attention back to the center of the dojo—or rather, to the tail end of the duel that had just concluded.

'Here I come.'

This was his fifth dueling class. By now, he had a solid enough feel of the duels' order, and he was pretty sure he was up next.

And sure enough—

"Next duel, Dan, against..."

What he hadn't accounted for was someone cutting Koushirou off mid-sentence.

"Father. I'd like to duel him instead."

Kuina's voice rang out, dipping the entire place into silence.

Everyone in the dojo turned to look at her. Even Zoro, who'd been sitting with his arms crossed, looked genuinely thrown off.

How come Kuina was challenging Dan instead of him?

Not just that. He was always the one doing the challenging—Kuina never did so herself. So what the heck was this?!

Dan, meanwhile, looked at her dubiously as a bead of sweat rolled down his forehead.

'... I wasn't found out, was I?'

What other reason would Kuina—who had never spoken a word to him—have to challenge him, three days after his criminal persona escaped from her successfully?

The truth, as it happened, was both simpler and more complicated than he'd assumed.

Being outrun and outstamined the other day had lodged something unpleasant in Kuina's head—the possibility that her father had been right about physical differences being a ceiling on her goal. Watching the bandit look completely composed while she was struggling had been a harder blow than she'd expected.

Getting scolded by her father afterward hadn't helped.

Then there was the matter of watching day by day Koushirou give Dan the kind of direct, personal instruction she'd had to fight tooth and nail for. Like he was the son her father had never had.

And to top it all off—

'His height reminds me of that bastard...'

Kuina's eyes narrowed at Dan, who was still seated, watching her with a mildly helpless expression.

Basically: a pile-up of coincidences Dan had no part in creating. Pure bad luck.

Koushirou, at least, was aware of the gap between them. He shook his head.

"You're still too far ahead of him, Kuina. It wouldn't—"

"It's fine."

To everyone's surprise, however, Dan's voice cut him off before he could finish. Heads turned to see the brave or foolish classmate of theirs.

He was already on his feet, reaching for a sword from the basket.

"Might as well use this to broaden my horizons," he said plainly, and walked to the center.

Kuina's frown shifted into a grin.

Koushirou let out a quiet sigh. "Very well. I allow it then."

With that settled, Kuina stood and picked up her own sword. Both of them took their places at the center of the mat, facing each other.

And so, the duel was on.

"Bow to the Gods!"

Both turned and bowed to the shrine.

"Bow to each other!"

Both turned and bowed to one another.

Then they settled into their stances, swords raised. Koushirou let the silence stretch—Kuina managed it easily, expression still, while Dan swallowed quietly.

Then—

"DUEL!" Koushirou's shout marked the start.

Unlike in the forest, however, Kuina didn't wait even a fraction of a second—before Dan could even finish blinking, she was already upon him, swinging down.

-Tack!-

"Hngh…!"

Dan got his sword up just in time to catch the first strike—but in the slight rebound, Kuina was already turning the momentum of the bounce into her next swing, angling for his torso.

He reacted. Their brief fight the other day had at least given him a rough sketch of how she moved, and SpeedyGains had done its part in locking that in.

It wasn't enough to read her completely. But it was enough for this.

-Tack!-

His teeth clenched on impact. His hands stung, and his body was already heating up from the speed he'd had to pull out for just two blocks.

He tried to step back and buy a breath.

But Kuina didn't give him one.

She came straight at him again, sword swinging down hard.

He threw up a horizontal guard and took it crudely.

-Tack!-

What's worse, before he could think about what came next, she was already winding up again.

-Tack!-

-Tack!-

-Tack!-

She began a relentless barrage of swings upon him. Wearing his guard down one hit at a time, and she knew it was working. Dan couldn't keep the wince off his face.

Truthfully, she could attempt other moves and probably end the fight there and then—Dan wasn't skilled enough yet to react to all her movements.

… but perhaps because of everything that had led her to take this fight, she wanted to prove something today.

To them, to her father, to herself.

-Tack!-

-Tack!-

-Tack!-

—And she'd do it, once she broke through his guard!

-Tack!-

-Tack!-

-Tack!-

… However, what she hadn't accounted for was that her opponent wasn't just going to comply.

Dan's eyes, filled with impatience and exhaustion, fired up. 'I'm going to get beaten up, that's for sure… but I'm not making it easy!'

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

[Tireless Hack Activated!—Time left: 59 minutes, 58 seconds.]

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

In that instant, the pain, the burning muscles, the short breath—all ceased.

The strain on his guard, which had been threatening to buckle with every next impact, simply wasn't there anymore. He felt like he could block forever.

Dan smirked.

"...!" Kuina's eyes flickered as she caught the change in his expression.

But she didn't stop.

-Tack!-

-Tack!-

-Tack!-

-Tack!-

-Tack!-

The downward swings came faster now, each one a little sharper, a little more urgent than the last.

But in the end, none of them made Dan move.

Eventually, Kuina felt it—the toll of that relentless output was catching up… and with nothing to show for it.

Unable to continue swinging, she jumped back at last and caught her breath.

Then she looked up and found Dan standing exactly where she'd left him, completely unruffled.

A deep, disbelieving frown crossed her face.

She didn't have long to sit with it, though. Because now—

'Who's tired now?!' He smirked and surged forward, swinging down.

—It was his turn.

-Whack!-

"...?"

At least, that's what Dan thought—before he felt something hit him.

When he looked down, he saw the tip of a bamboo sword cleanly resting on his rib.

His face lifted, and saw Kuina now right before him, holding said bamboo sword tightly in a thrust.

Then he understood.

Kuina had cut the distance and caught him on the torso with a clean hit the moment his arms went high.

Dan froze in place, arms still raised, and stared ahead with a flat expression.

'...Goddamnit.'

"Winner, Kuina!"

The entire dojo let out a collective breath. Finally snapping out of the trance that such an intense fight had produced in them.

Then, their eyes collectively drifted to the loser, a wave of newfound respect passing by everyone's eyes.

Nobody had expected Dan to last more than a handful of exchanges—or even one, if they were honest.

And yet he'd actually made her back off, however briefly. He'd make Kuina retreat!

Even if he'd gotten cocky at the end and handed her the opening, even if he had still lost…

Dan, who had been at the dojo for five months, had pushed Kuina to that point?

The unprecedentedness of what happened today would remain in their minds for a good while.

"..."

After the bow, Dan walked back to his seat with a calm expression.

Kuina stayed at the center a moment longer, watching him go—her expression caught somewhere between surprise and frustration, still catching her breath.

What was with her opponents lately? Why was she always the only one who ended up tired?

Her gaze drifted to Zoro, who looked just as baffled as the rest of the room, and narrowed.

"Oi, Zoro. You're next."

His head snapped toward her, immediately offended. "Hah?! You're not even recovered from that—it wouldn't be a fair fight!"

"You just don't want everyone watching when I still beat you in this state."

Zoro's jaw tightened. "Fine. But no excuses afterward!"

...

Two minutes later, he lost. Marking the 1519th duel.

Zoro was now flat on the floor, a fresh red bruise smeared across his face.

Kuina let out a short breath through her nose.

'That's more like it.'

But even as she thought it, a frown settled on her face.

Zoro had been training longer than Dan, and Zoro was stronger than Dan. So how the hell had Dan been the harder fight?

And saying she hadn't fought efficiently wasn't the answer. She used the same barrage of downward slashes, and Zoro ended up buckling in the end.

'In contrast…'

Her gaze found Dan across the room—

"...?"

—who was, to her confusion, on the verge of falling asleep, his head slowly tipping forward before he caught it, then tipping again.

She stared at him with a flat look.

'What's with him?'

...

────────────────────────

-To Be Continued...-

────────────────────────

(A/N: Some more showcases of how powerful Tireless is, at least at this weak sea where everyone is still human and can't fight for three days straight—and on that note, an actual doubt here... I wonder if the top fighters can also fight in bed for three days... Surely making babies ain't more tiresome than fighting to the death.

Although that depends on the partner, I suppose.)

 

[The Synonym]

────────────────────────
[Answers]
────────────────────────

| A month later… |

...

After the last dueling class, things continued just as normal. Day after day, Dan and the others went to learn, while Kuina and Zoro dueled constantly—slowly but steadily climbing through the count between them, which now stood at 1,612.

Another monthly dueling day had come and gone since then. This time, Dan only fought regular opponents. No more surprise challenges arose.

During all of it, he kept using Tireless to train during the evenings so that he could end his days with a healthy dose of limit-pushing before going to bed.

The results were nothing short of amazing—it was almost like his already-doubled rate of improvement had doubled again on top of it.

His swordsmanship was still moving at roughly the same pace as before. But his strengthened muscles were making his attacks and movements passively sharper, even without any direct improvement to technique… which there was, but not as significant nor as fast as his physique's growth.

He would obviously prefer to wake up fully overpowered one morning—but the gap between him and Zoro and Kuina was at least closing.

At the rate he was going, two or three months was all he needed before he could put up a proper fight against either of them.

—In one-on-one duels. Not both at the same time. Let's not get crazy.

Though with Tireless, maybe there would be a chance.

As for NP farming… that had sadly not gone well.

He could officially say… it had reached its current limit. The villagers were on maximum alert after the merchant incident, which made pulling a similar stunt now the same as handing himself over gift-wrapped.

And fighting the villagers was still something he wasn't capable of. Plenty of them were trained swordsmen, after all.

So, unless some new and unsuspecting people wandered onto this isolated island in the middle of nowhere, he wasn't getting anything from the system for the foreseeable future.

For now, his best move was to do the best he could with what he had.

Training.

And that was exactly what he was doing.

"Huff... huff..."

It was evening, an hour or two before nightfall. He was swinging a long bamboo stick he'd found in the forest—longer than the ones at the dojo, heavier for it—while working through different motions, breathing steadily all the while.

His eyes flicked briefly to his system screen, then back to the motion.

"...Thirty minutes left. I'll stop at five—wouldn't want to collapse face-first in the dirt." He muttered amidst his faint gasps.

Decision made, he pushed the rhythm up. His swings became faster and more constant.

No sweat came. His breathing didn't change. For the level of intensity he was putting out, it was a deeply abnormal sight.

Abnormal enough that it had apparently unsettled a certain someone nearby.

-Rustle...-

A bush not far off shivered slightly.

Dan slowed his swings and turned to look at it, eyes narrowing.

A little cautious, he deactivated Tireless—not wanting to have something unexpected drag on until the effect wore off and he went down without warning. The remaining time would hold until he activated it again.

The exhaustion landed on him all at once. Not enough to put him down yet, but enough to force a loud huff out of him, his back curling forward and his hands dropping to his knees as the bamboo pole clattered against the hard ground.

It took a few seconds before he was able to straighten back up, and even then, his body felt heavy. Still, he pushed through it and made his way toward the bush.

In the worst case, like it being a bear stalking him, he'd just flip Tireless back on and make a run for it.

-Rustle!-

As he got close, however, whatever was inside the bush decided it didn't want to be found. The moment he took his first step toward it, something scrambled to get out and bolted.

Dan frowned and went after it.

As he began running, he caught a glimpse of a figure breaking through the forest and sprinting away—slightly faster than him at the moment.

Not about to let it get away, he activated Tireless again, pumping his speed to max gear in an instant.

For the next few minutes, the chase stretched through the trees—the low evening light and thick vegetation doing their best to keep the figure hidden.

But that didn't last long.

Because eventually, someone ran out of steam.

That not being him.

At last, the figure slowed, stumbled, and finally stopped against a tree a short distance ahead.

When Dan caught up, his eyebrow twitched.

"The hell?"

Wheeze—

Leaning against the trunk with her back to him, wheezing like she'd just run for her life, was Kuina—as if facing away from him would somehow make her harder to recognize.

Out of respect for her apparent desire for anonymity, he decided to be tactful about it.

"So it was you, Kuina. Mind telling me why you were spying on me?"

"Ugh..."

She pushed herself upright and turned to face him with an indignant expression—her nose still very much gasping for air in the background.

"Spying on you? Who do you think I am? I was just passing by here, nothing more and nothing else."

"Then why did you run the moment I noticed you?"

"I remembered I had something urgent to take care of at home."

Dan's expression went flat.

She sure wasn't about to admit it. That much was clear.

"..."

"...!"

"..."

"...!"

They stayed like that for a moment, each waiting for the other to crack first.

However, with her being the one in the wrong, she was inevitably the one who broke—unable to keep standing there while he looked at her like she was the strangest thing he'd ever encountered.

"Fine, yes, I was watching you!" she snapped, jabbing a finger at him. "But don't get the wrong idea. I just came to figure out the weird things you keep pulling off!"

"Weird things?"

"Like your abnormal stamina—and don't try to deny it. Even my father would be at least a little winded by some of the training you pull off when you think no one's looking. You don't even break a sweat!"

Dan raised a single eyebrow, unbothered.

"I think you're just parаnоi—"

"And don't even try to deny it right now either, because after running for five minutes straight, you're not even slightly winded!"

Dan blinked. His gaze slid briefly to his still-active Tireless indicator, a bead of sweat running down his temple.

Then he deactivated it.

Immediately, he dropped to one knee, gasping.

Kuina gritted her teeth. "Stop it, I know you're faking!"

"...I'm… not."

Kuina's pointing finger wavered. The gasping was starting to sound genuinely real.

—Wheeze…—

A confused look crept in as her arm slowly fell.

"Huh?"

Dan took a few seconds, then straightened back up and met her eyes with a perfectly impassive look despite still breathing like he had been drowning a few seconds ago.

"You were… saying?"

The smug/exhausted combination on his face left her with absolutely nothing to say.

She knew he had to be lying… But he was disturbingly good at it.

Watching her expression cycle between suspicion and genuine uncertainty, Dan let out a slower breath and felt a small pang of guilt at the gaslighting.

'...I suppose I can at least give her something so she can have some peace of mind.'

Revealing the hacks was out of the question. Beyond keeping the surprise factor, it was standard practice in stories—the ROB's readers probably wouldn't appreciate it.

And he didn't particularly want to find out what happened to him if they complained. Maybe the ROB would come to smite him.

Plus, he simply liked having it be his secret. That was reason enough.

So…

"Ahem," He cleared his throat, regaining Kuina's attention, who, until then, had been in a deep internal conflict between believing him and keeping her suspicions.

Once he had it, he shrugged, lifting both hands as if he had been discovered.

"Alright, you caught me," He said, a slight smile appearing on his face. "This ability is a hereditary thing. In simple terms, it allows me to hold off exhaustion so it doesn't slow me down, then release it all at once afterward."

It was the perfect excuse. In a world like this, that wasn't even that insane to believe.

"Stop spouting nonsense, that's insane!"

—Though apparently she didn't see it that way.

Dan sent her a flat stare. "Believe me or don't, that's your choice."

And without much else to add, he turned and started walking back.

It was her call whether she believed him or not—even though he was lying.

Whatever other reason she might have had for coming here, it wasn't his business.

Plus, he was feeling pretty tired. Since his training had been interrupted, he might as well end it here and go to sleep early.

Thus, with such thoughts, he began diving back into the vegetation, leaving a stunned Kuina behind.

"Ah…"

Kuina stood there a moment longer, watching his back with an unreadable expression.

For a moment, she truly considered simply going back and leaving things here.

—But since the fact that she'd been sneaking around watching him was already out in the open, she wasn't leaving until she had at least something more to show for it.

She hadn't gone through this shame just to get a flimsy fairy tale for an answer!

"Hold up!" She ran after him.

...

°

°

°

| Minutes later... |

...

In the end, she accompanied him all the way back while continuing to ask questions on the way, much to Dan's exhaustion.

So, not wanting to accidentally slip up during the questions—considering his tired state—he offered to, rather than answering, show her from up close how his "ability" worked.

Luckily, she accepted.

After that, Dan resumed his earlier training while Kuina watched seated on a cut-down log. Of course, while toning the intensity down compared to earlier, since he didn't want her to see him hit the floor the moment the effect cut out.

Her expression kept shifting between fascination and outrage through it all.

After all, now she was clearly able to see from up close how, despite the long duration of the training and the immense intensity, Dan did not even look the slightest bit tired.

No sweat, no heavier breathing, no lessening in his speed.

It was almost mystical.

And her expression only turned more baffled as she saw him collapse on one knee the moment the training ended, and with it, all the characteristics mentioned above that had been missing came back in a tidal wave. Ending up with Dan gasping for breath on the ground for a few seconds, before he was at last able to stand up… barely.

"Unbelievable..." she murmured, staring at the exhausted-looking Dan like he'd grown a second head. "So you can just... hold your exhaustion off? Like actually telling it to come back later?"

"More or less."

She passed a hand through her face and let out a breath that leaned toward relief. "No wonder you've been improving so fast. You can push yourself to the limit without anything stopping you."

"I'm pretty talented too, you know," Dan added.

That part was technically also true—He just had a hack for it. But she didn't need to know that.

"..." She didn't refute it, still turning the whole thing over in her head.

Then, Dan smiled at her, eyes narrowing slightly.

"By the way—if you were so curious about all this, couldn't you have just asked, instead of creeping up to my home and watching from a bush like a stalker?"

Kuina flinched and immediately leveled a finger at him in outrage.

"You…"

But no actual answer came. Not one she was willing to say out loud, anyway.

After a moment of visible hesitation—

"Sorry," she said.

Not entirely genuine, given her prideful nature—but enough that it held some weight.

So in the end, Dan accepted it with a shrug and left it there. "Sure, whatever."

Then he slowly hauled himself upright, swallowing the groan that tried to come with it, and patting his clothes to brush off the dust.

"Well, if that answers everything, I'm going to go collapse on my bed now, if you don't mind."

"Oh." Kuina gave an absent nod, saying nothing as he turned and headed toward the cabin a short distance away.

-Slam!-

Then, the door shut with more force than strictly necessary, snapping her momentarily out of her trance.

Once the place fell back into silence, however, she went back at it, apparently not in a hurry to go.

She sat there for a while after that, still working through her thoughts.

—Snooooore—

Until the loud and completely unrestrained snore rang out from inside, rattling out of that cabin like Dan had been unconscious before he even hit the bed.

"..."

At having her train of thought interrupted once again, and by a snore of all things, her expression went deadpan.

But in the end, it was enough of a wake-up call.

A moment later, she stood up, let out a sigh, and turned to leave, her gaze a little less clouded than it had been in the days since the dueling class.

Though not entirely settled, either.

With such eyes, she began walking away, back to the dojo.

Leaving behind only the beautiful sound of nature and the snores of an incredibly exhausted kid.

...

────────────────────────

-To Be Continued...-

────────────────────────

 

[The Synonym]

────────────────────────
[Teach Me]
────────────────────────

| The next day… |

…

Lying down on a rock, Dan hummed thoughtfully as he watched the waves crash gently against the shore from the cliff he was currently on.

"I should maybe carry my training elsewhere..." He muttered, eyeing a certain wave crashing further into the sand.

Yesterday, because Kuina had been snooping, he ended up revealing more than he should have. He'd semi-covered it up with a plausible excuse, but it would still be a pain if someone else saw it and started asking questions.

He preferred his secrets to stay that way. Secret.

So now he was considering finding another training spot—one that wasn't right outside his home, where anyone could just walk up at any moment.

"Maybe the spot where I hid the weapons might prove useful... If I trained there, I could also use a real sword for practice, not a bamboo stick," He muttered, gauging the possibility.

But if he did that, he'd have to make sure no one ever followed him there. Otherwise, his haul from the merchant would be to be discovered, and he'd be associated with all the crimes his sunglassed persona had committed.

That, or he could excuse himself by saying he'd merely found the weapons there, and just blame his possession of them on the "bandit's" carelessness.

But it would still be ideal if they continued to stay hidden.

Who knew if the villagers would want to take them away for being stolen goods, after all?

—And also because he was a kid, and no kid should have weapons.

At least, he could see some adults using that as an excuse. Even though Zoro had two swords in his possession at the moment.

Kuina too, but her sword was more heritage than current utility at the moment.

So there was a chance his treasure would be taken away if it got discovered.

'Worst case I'll just leave the island with my things and go live somewhere else... It might even be for the best, considering I'm no longer able to farm NP here.'

Dan pursed his lips at the thought, giving it long consideration.

"Hmm?"

But at that moment, he spotted something appear on the horizon, far away across the sky.

He squinted, doing his best to make out what it was.

As he struggled to identify its appearance, he pondered for a moment whether the system would put a vision-related hack in the future, once he upgraded his current infamy tier.

Eventually, however, such worries became unnecessary, as he was able to make out the figure's identity.

—Although that was mostly because the figure in question had also noticed his existence, and was now swooping down in his direction.

It was a News Coo. The newspaper deliverers of this world, carrying papers across the whole sea using their convenient flying abilities.

Soon, the hatted bird swooped down, descending upon the hill he was currently on with grace.

Then, it picked out one of the newspapers from its backpack and offered it to him.

Dan checked his pockets, and after a bit of rustling, took out some change and paid for the paper.

Though, as he handed the money and got the paper, he couldn't help but gaze at the bird, wondering if cooking it and stealing the newspaper would yield him some NP.

He was getting desperate for it. His gains had stopped long ago, and he didn't know how long he'd be able to resist like this.

He wanted NP.

But before he was able to attempt anything, the News Coo seemed to notice his not-so-kind glare and quickly flapped back into the air, leaving him frozen mid-choice.

"Tsk."

Seeing the potential NP fly away, Dan clicked his tongue and flopped back on the boulder, opening the paper in the process.

"Let's see... A famous merchant got raided by pirates and died, Jack of the Afro Pirates has been captured, and a certain lieutenant from the Marines got swallowed whole by a Sea King while in the middle of service... this world sure is hectic..."

A bead of sweat ran down Dan's forehead as he took in the sheer amount of bad things going around.

But this world was pretty brutal, so it wasn't that much of a surprise.

That, or it was propaganda to fuel support for the marines.

Or both.

Next, he turned the page—only for his eyes to widen slightly in surprise.

{"Controversy! A new warlord has been chosen by the World Government—Donquixote Doflamingo!"}

Dan's surprise shifted to a frown as he proceeded to read the whole thing, his eyes squinting more and more with each word.

Eventually, he put the newspaper down and let out a sigh.

"So this happened just recently?" Dan muttered, staring down at the picture of a bounty poster of said pirate with its bounty now scratched—along with a following picture of Doflamingo calmly walking around, unbothered by the marines surrounding him in the photo.

His frown deepened at the sight.

"This means..."

Dan dove into his memories, more specifically his knowledge of dates and important events.

Then, his eyes opened.

For Doflamingo to be named a Warlord, it meant...

'No idea.'

Dan's gaze went flat.

One Piece was such a big story that he honestly couldn't recall the specifics of many important events prior to the story taking place.

He could only recall specific bits of information that had stuck to his mind for some reason, and the general outline of the rest of things... while also probably having forgotten many others entirely.

Still, finally having a point of reference as to where he was in the timeline, Dan felt he needed to at least try to understand what had happened during this period, and whether there was anything he could make use of.

He sat there thinking for a while, trying his best to connect it with anything.

But aside from the obvious Law backstory that would come to happen in due time because of Doflamingo—or had it already happened?—nothing he could make use of really came to mind.

He opened the newspaper again and inspected it to see if he could get anything from it.

For a moment, he didn't find anything worth looking at.

But then, he caught a certain word that sparked something in his neurons, making the rusty gears of his mind begin turning.

"... Warlord," he read out loud.

That's when it dawned. If Doflamingo was a mark in history worth remembering, then perhaps the other Warlords were too.

And after a quick recounting—the only one that came to mind that may actually mean something in his current plans... was Jinbe.

Not because he could do something with the guy himself. The obese fishman was still far away in the Grand Line right now—but rather because of what him becoming a Warlord would cause.

Arlong being released, escaping to the East Blue, and thus, causing Nami's whole backstory to develop.

Leaving the dilemma of preventing the girl's canon event aside—or at least trying to prevent it—Dan's other reason for eyeing that whole canon event was because of a particular individual.

Nezumi.

The guy was exactly what Dan needed. A perfectly corrupt Marine official he could deal with without feeling bad, and use that to kickstart his bounty.

The only problem was...

'When will all the Arlong stuff happen?—or has it already happened?'

He knew at least that, ever since he'd gained a bit more awareness of the world around him after his past life's memories intertwined with his current ones, Jinbe hadn't become a Warlord during that time. He had tried to keep up with world events as much as he could, and nothing of the sort had been mentioned since then.

But before that? He had been a carefree kid who couldn't have cared less about the world's events. So during that time, he may have just missed the fishman's coronation.

And there was no internet here to make a quick search about it.

The only way to know for sure would be to ask someone who kept up with such things, or go himself to Nami's island to see if the whole thing had already played out or not.

But until he did either, he'd have to sit with the doubt.

Besides, gaining strength was still the main priority on his list. Even if the thought of preventing Nami's whole sad backstory just because he could had crossed his mind—with killing Nezumi as a bonus to increase his bounty—that was hardly a realistic choice, or at least, not a good one at the moment. His strength was barely reaching adult level as of now.

Arlong was probably dozens of times stronger... at least, by the show's depiction of Fishmen being absolute beasts compared to humans.

Whether that'd translate correctly to reality, however, Dan didn't know—but he preferred not to take risks and have his head ripped off like someone pulling weeds out of the ground.

Worst case, helping Nami and dealing with Nezumi would have to wait until he got strong enough to contend with the fishman, probably after all the bad stuff had already happened... maybe years from now.

"I've got a long way ahead..." Dan muttered, pushing himself up and folding the newspaper. "Regardless, I won't reach that point unless I put in the effort. So let's go find a new training spo—... oh, come on."

That's when he spotted Kuina's figure coming out of the forest, entering old Shun's property not too far away from the hill he currently stood on.

From the way she looked around as if searching for someone, it was clear she hadn't wandered here by mistake.

So, sighing, he made his way down the hill to see what she wanted.

Eventually, he got there, barely hiding his suppressed annoyance as he approached.

'Why is this girl suddenly involving herself with me so much? Shouldn't she be busy beating Zoro's face into the ground daily?'

Snorting at the thought, Dan eventually reached her.

"Kuina... to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?" Dan asked, barely hiding the sarcasm in his voice.

Her head snapped toward him, looking totally unaware of what his tone had implied.

"After what you told me yesterday, I thought it over and..." she started, before drawing the bamboo sword at her waist and pointing it at Dan. "I decided I want to learn your exhaustion-pushing technique—please!"

"..."

Dan eyed the sword barely a few centimeters from his face with a flat gaze.

'At least she said please...'

His flat gaze drifted back to her, looking a bit done.

"I thought I was clear yesterday... but I guess not," He crossed his arms. "I can't teach it to you. Sorry."

"Why not?" Kuina frowned.

Dan's flat gaze flattened even further. "I said it was hereditary... you don't know what hereditary means?"

She tilted her head to the side, raising an eyebrow. "That the parents pass it down to their children?"

"Yeah."

Kuina looked even more confused. "So?"

"What do you mean 'so'? That's the reason you can't learn it!"

"So is it like a clan technique?"

Dan's patience diminished slightly, prompting him to massage his eyebrows. "... What? No. Listen, you just aren't able to learn it, that's all."

However, it seemed his answer only deepened Kuina's frown.

"Even though I beat you and proved myself better... in the end you also think like that?"

Dan's eyebrows twitched. "I don't make the rules... what do you want me to do?"

Her eyes narrowed.

"Just because I'm a woman..." She hissed under her breath.

Dan blinked upon catching that part.

'Right... forgot about that whole deal for a moment.'

He wasn't very invested in others' business, apparently—even if they were canon characters.

He was just focused on getting stronger quickly, and only planned to intervene when the 2,001st duel happened, so he could stop her from falling down the stairs.

Sighing, he looked back at her.

"... By hereditary, I meant something only people of my lineage are able to do. It's not something teachable. Think of it like the exact same thing that makes your hair weirdly blue, or Zoro's green. It's something your parents passed down to you, and that you can't teach, right?"

Her hand reached for her hair, looking a bit surprised and confused by it.

"So it's not because I'm a woman?"

Dan sneered slightly. "When you know the monsters out there, the village's views don't seem very sound. Physically speaking, the strongest human alive is actually a woman, if I'm not wrong." He muttered the next part under his breath, "Though I'm not sure she's fully human..."

Although it was said Big Mom was human, she was a bit too big. So much so that it made one think otherwise.

Even if there was a chance Kaido was stronger physically—which he wasn't sure about, the guy was an Oni and not human, so the point still stood.

Whitebeard, on the other hand, was getting on in years, his strength diminishing even if still monstrous.

As for Garp... he supposed the same applied to him? Honestly, he wasn't so sure anymore. The old guy was just that crazy.

Regardless, it didn't really matter all that much. Big Mom was the clear example of the absurdities that human bodies could accomplish in this world, regardless of gender.

A true freak of nature.

Kuina blinked. "The strongest human is a woman?"

"... She may not look like it, but she's a woman... I think."

Kuina looked confused—but a bit interested.

"Who is she?"

Dan was about to answer—but recalled this point in time was still years before the show.

Was Big Mom even in her fully grown state at this point?

'Well, she should be...' Dan thought, not totally certain but not about to care much either way, so he described her to Kuina. "It's this pirate that governs a part of the distant seas. Big Mom, a Yonko."

Kuina nodded, looking pensive. "I think I've heard that name from the adults..."

She seemed to fall into silence for a second, absorbing the piece of information, before her gaze fell back onto Dan—this time, however, not as stern or guarded as before.

Even a little hopeful.

"Then, you think it would be possible for a woman to become the greatest swordsman in the world?"

"I don't see why not." Dan shrugged.

He hadn't gotten to see any super overpowered swordswoman on Zoro's level by the point he'd been in the show, but surely it was possible. Even though not world-level, there were plenty who were crazy strong, and who probably didn't even have the goal of becoming the best swordsman.

Kuina frowned. "Even though my father says otherwise?"

Dan deadpanned. "Is your dad the strongest swordsman?"

"... No?" She answered with a bit of uncertainty.

He spread his hands as if the answer were obvious.

"Then that's that."

Maybe within the constraints of the rules of physics from his old world, such a thing could have had more foundation to it, given the different structures and limits that made one better at swinging metal sharp sticks than the other—and he was purely speculating.

But here? Where people punch mountains and flatten them in the process? Where entire ships are cut apart in single sword swings? And where strange things such as Devil Fruits and Haki exist, closing any physical difference that may exist?

It'd be mind-blowing if Koushirou was right.

"..."

Kuina looked a bit overwhelmed by the reality check. But she didn't look upset or troubled—instead, she looked rather relieved.

"Is that so?"

Dan smiled flatly. "Yeah. Anyway, you get it now. You've got your specialties, I've got mine—in my case, the ability to put exhaustion off."

He clapped and began walking away.

"So, let's each do our best to achieve our goals and respect each other's space."

"You have a goal?" Kuina asked, ignoring his obvious attempt at getting away, and stopping Dan in his tracks.

"... Yeah," he said as he turned.

"What is it?" Kuina asked, looking at him curiously.

"I prefer to keep it to myself, if you don't mind."

Kuina's eyebrow creased slightly.

"Hmph." She huffed. "Very well, keep it to yourself."

"I will, thank you."

And without further delay, he entered his house and closed the door behind him, leaving a stunned Kuina standing there alone.

"Jerk."

…

────────────────────────

-To Be Continued...-

────────────────────────

 

[The Synonym]

────────────────────────
[Catching Up]
────────────────────────

| Four months later... |

...

—Tack!—

A bamboo sword came down with brutality and sheer efficiency, clacking heavily against another.

"Argh!"

Soon, the sword on the receiving end dropped clean from the person's hands, clattering against the floor.

Then, the point of the other sword slashed against the air, stopping just a few centimeters from a man's face, who eyed the sword with a shocked gaze, a bead of sweat rolling down his brow.

Then—

"The duel is over. The winner is Dan!" Koushirou announced from nearby, his loud voice echoing across the stunned silent dojo.

The silence stretched for a bit more, before chatter broke out instantly among the students lining the borders of the dojo.

"For real?! He actually beat an adult...!"

"And that's Yashimura-sensei. He's no small fry either!"

"How long has he even been here?!"

"...About nine months."

"And he already beat an adult?!"

"I wish I had his talent."

"You guys think he can beat Zoro and Kuina yet?"

"No way, those two are way too powerful. He might not lose instantly, though…"

"But don't you guys remember how Kuina seemed to struggle a bit months ago? Perhaps now he can truly put up a fight!"

"Hmm, I don't know. At the end of that duel, he still lost rather disappointingly. I'd say at that point his power level might have been that of a quarter of a Kuina."

"I'd say more like a third. A quarter is too little considering how much he endured that fight."

"Who cares how strong he was before? How many Kuinas is he now?!"

"Considering his feats so far, and taking their last duel months ago as a reference—perhaps 70% of a Kuina, maybe more. I guess it's up for debate until both clash again."

While the students of the Isshin dojo powerscaled their classmates in a strange manner, the subject of their conversation stood in the center of the dojo, breathing steadily as the effort finally caught up with him.

'Well, that went better than I expected.'

Dan rested the handle of his sword against the floor and leaned on it, letting out a quiet huff.

'Didn't even need Tireless for that.'

Today, like every month, was the dueling class. And this time, he'd gone a step further and challenged an adult outright, just to see what nine months of training with Tireless—and a real sword—had actually yielded.

The short answer: a lot.

Not only was he now stronger than a trained adult at still ten years old, he was also fairly confident he could hold his own against a properly formed swordsman.

… A normal, non-superhuman one. No cutting-through-steel bs, and also not early-canon Zoro level.

Just someone who genuinely knew how to use a blade. That was his estimate as to where he stood based on the duel.

And if he was overestimating himself, there was always Tireless to even things out.

All in all, he was finally starting to feel like a One Piece protagonist—barely ten, and already able to contend with armed adults. Who knew how strong he'd be by the time his training arc wrapped up?

He was planning to give it at least four or five more years, so he assumed he'd have built up quite a lot by then.

'Or sooner, depending on how things develop.'

His mind wandered over to his other discovery from recent weeks. After discovering, or rather rememorating, Arlong's situation and the opportunity it might present, Dan had gone looking for more concrete answers about Jinbe's warlord status.

Eventually he'd asked Koushirou, who struck him as the type to keep reasonably current with the world's state of affairs.

He'd started the conversation from Hawkeye's status as a warlord since the guy was a swordsman, and let it drift to the others from there. Koushirou had given a thorough rundown, and Jinbe's name never came up once.

Safe to assume, then, that Arlong was still operating on the Grand Line and hadn't yet come to terrorize a baby-level village in the East Blue.

Which meant there was still time.

For what exactly? he hadn't fully thought it out. He'd decided to figure it out when he got there.

After all, even with the progress he'd made, the thought of actually going up against Arlong was still somewhere between ambitious and delusional—that saw-nosed fishguy was on a superhuman level, while he was just barely cresting adult human. The gap was pretty significant.

'Though maybe I won't need to be equally strong to deal with him...'

He gave the bamboo sword in his hand a pensive look. His hacking system gave him a fairly creative toolkit to think with, after all.

Though maybe he was overestimating what the system could do at this tier.

Either way, that was for later. Jinbe wasn't even a warlord yet, so there was no point rushing.

Huffing, he turned and stored the bamboo sword back in its basket, then settled back into his seat while the other students' stares and whispered commentary washed past him.

Across the room, two people rose from their seats almost in unison.

Kuina and Zoro, up for their duel of the day—though calling it duel of the day would be innapropiate, since the two tended to squeeze in at least three per day, which explained how fast the count had climbed.

Right now's marked their 1,908th.

Ninety-two more to go before Kuina met her match against the stairs of her own house.

'Although, maybe my intervention isn't even needed anymore.'

He figured things had already diverged from canon at least a little, just from his presence.

For all he knew, one of his handful of encounters with Kuina might have nudged one of pair's duels back by a day, which would push the final one back too, and change how everything played out.

Or maybe nothing had changed at all.

—Or maybe something had, but it would still end the same way.

He had no way of knowing. So patience it was.

-Thud!-

"Damn it!"

The dry sound of Zoro hitting the floor pulled Dan out of his thoughts. Kuina stood beside him with the sword pointed at him, a slight smirk on her face.

'And that makes 1,908.'

Dan watched with an amused but quiet snort, his cheek resting against his palm.

One month from now and he'd be free of this self-imposed vigil.

As he thought it, Kuina's gaze drifted over to him for just a moment, her smile carrying a hint of extra pride before she turned and walked back to her seat.

Dan noticed it and felt a faint, slightly uncomfortable awareness of how involved he'd let himself get in something he was supposed to only touch when absolutely necessary.

He let out a quiet sigh under his breath

'Hopefully everything goes smoothly.'

...

°

°

°

| The next day... |

...

'Nice way of screwing me over, universe.'

Dan's eye twitched as he held the newspaper in front of him.

The headline felt like a personal taunt.

{"A Fishman!—Meet the new Warlord chosen by the World Government"}

Just when things had seemed to be going smoothly, this landed the very next day. The irony was almost impressive.

He didn't even need to read the article. He already knew what it meant. Arlong was getting out of prison and coming to the East Blue to stomp around the weak.

Dan rubbed his temple and stared at the headline a moment longer.

There was still time—a few things had to happen first before things developed like that, and the travel from the Grand Line to the East Blue wasn't short. But the window was now significantly smaller than it had been yesterday.

And on top of that, Kuina's situation still needed handling—that alone would eat up the whole month.

'At this rate, I won't be able to do much about how things unfold.'

He knew it wasn't his responsibility to deal with Arlong, and the power gap only made that more clear. But it still left a bad taste in his mouth to just sit on the knowledge and do nothing, especially with a system in his pocket and future knowledge at his disposal.

But as much as it bothered him, things weren't looking particularly optimistic either.

Groaning, he folded the newspaper and lay down on the flat rock he'd been sitting on—the same one he'd started coming to when he needed to think.

The view and the breeze made it decent for that.

"What to do, what to do...?" he muttered at the sky.

The core problem was clear enough. There was too little time, and even with more time, very few things he could actually get done within that.

Eyes narrowed, he opened the system shop.

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

[Starter Tier SHOP]

≡ Passive Hacks

▸ Presentable: [10 NP]

▸ WalkingCompass: [25 NP]

▸ SpeedReader: [30 NP]

▸ IronStomach: [30 NP]

▸ Pokerface: [50 NP]

▸ Polyglot: [250 NP]

───────────────────

≡ Active Hacks

▸ Dry: [10 NP]

▸ Internal Clock: [20 NP]

▸ Clean: [25 NP]

▸ Appraiser: [30 NP]

▸ Tireless: [BOUGHT]

▸ Coward's Eye: [100 NP]

▸ Sugar Rush: [200 NP]

───────────────────

≡ Scripts

▸ AutoRest: [75 NP]

───────────────────

≡ Items

▸ Water Bottle: [5 NP]

▸ Jerky: [5 NP]

▸ Clothes: [10 NP]

▸ Golden Pencil: [15 NP]

▸ Golden Pen: [15 NP]

▸ Golden Quill: [15 NP]

▸ Golden Fork: [15 NP]

▸ Golden Spoon: [15 NP]

▸ Golden Lockpick Set: [15 NP]

...

▸ Music Headset: [25 NP]

▸ Fix-everything Tape: [30 NP]

▸ Bugged Smoke Pellet: [30 NP]

▸ Bottle of Hyper Glue: [50 NP]

▸ Gravity Cuffs: [65 NP]

▸ Very Stable Surfing Board: [75 NP]

▸ Intelligent Dumbbells: [80 NP]

▸ Haki Knot (Weak Level): [300 NP]

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

A solid catalogue, though most of it was training-oriented rather than an outright boost to his combat capability.

'Proper for the starter tier, I suppose.'

Sugar Rush was an exception to that. The description said it put him in a sensorially-enhanced state.

But even buying it, he doubted it would do much to bridge the gap between him and Arlong.

'Is there anything useful I can even do if I go there?'

His best bet might not be going himself at all, but finding a way to tip off the marines—hopefully someone with actual strength, not fodder that's going to go there and get folded instantly— and get Arlong taken out before he can even get started.

But he had no idea how to make that happen in practice.

He didn't have Garp's number on dial, or Sengoku's, after all.

He didn't even have a Den Den Mushi.

"What a pain." He sat back up and stared at the ocean.

Then his eyes went back to the list, scanning it slowly.

They narrowed.

'Though... if I bought that... then perhaps...?'

He sat with that thought for a while, jaw moving slightly as possibilities branched and crossed in his head. Whatever he was working through, he kept it to himself.

Eventually, he stood up, looking noticeably less clouded than he had a few minutes ago.

"Alright. One month it is."

A smile settled on his face.

...

────────────────────────

-To Be Continued...-

────────────────────────

 

[The Synonym]

────────────────────────
[Subtlety]
────────────────────────

| Two weeks later... |

...

Life at Shimotsuki Village remained as simple as ever.

Every day, villagers continued their rounds around the village, watching out for their sworn enemy, while others farmed or fished.

Trades occurred in small amounts over the days. But they still happened every now and then. Mostly with travelers, cargo ships, or passing marines who needed to restock.

On that same routine, the cries of the students at the dojo as they swung their swords remained a constant in the people's daily life. They were the hope of the village, one more layer of security for its future and its people—hearing them filled the villagers with hope.

Today in particular, however, those cries sounded a bit more harsh.

"Argh!"

-Thud!-

At that same moment, inside the dojo, a certain greenhead hit the floor after a sword caught him square in the face.

Standing next to his defeated body, Koushirou gave a faint nod before pointing at the person not too far away who had delivered the finishing blow.

"Winner, Kuina!"

Who was, of course, Kuina.

The girl in question heaved a long sigh as she cleared the sweat from her forehead. Then, without even looking back at the half-unconscious, half-sulking figure of Zoro on the floor, she turned around and began walking back to her seat.

"Do those two not get tired? That's the 1,952nd duel already."

"Ask Zoro, he's the one issuing the challenges every day."

"Maybe he likes getting beaten up. My mom told me about such people, and said to stay away from them."

"Who would even like getting beaten up?"

"Dunno, but I agree with her. Whatever's wrong enough with his head to make him like getting roughed up like that is reason enough to maintain a safe distance."

Kuina caught the tail end of the students' conversation as she walked past, her mouth curling slightly.

As always, she remained unbeaten, proving her father's beliefs wrong.

Zoro was improving—she couldn't deny that. But so was she. No matter how much he chased her, she'd continue to be ahead.

She'd make sure of it.

As she had that thought, her smile widened slightly.

But as she finally approached her seat, her eyebrow twitched as the smile on her face dropped a little.

"..."

Something was ruining her sweet moment of victory.

Slowly, her eyes dragged to the corner of her vision, glaring at Dan.

Instantly, the boy's eyes shifted, looking elsewhere as if he hadn't just been openly glaring at her.

'What's wrong with him?'

Her brows creased slightly, a huff leaving her nose in dissatisfaction.

This had been going on for a while now. For some reason, a few weeks ago, the boy shifted from looking lost in his own world to glaring at her constantly.

She didn't notice at first. But eventually those long gazes became too noticeable and too piercing to stay ignorant of.

And no matter how much time passed, no matter how many times she made it clear she'd noticed by glaring right back at him, he never brought it up—just looked away, and whistled like an idiot, as if trying to feign innocence.

For a while, she wondered if she was being paranoid. But eventually it became clear she wasn't.

And it was starting to get on her nerves.

Narrowing her eyes, she let out a huff and turned back to her seat.

Calmly, she sat back down, her back straight and posture perfect, a clear show of discipline, just like her swordsmanship.

As she did, however, she shot yet another look at Dan.

The boy dodged her gaze again, suddenly looking at the ceiling as if it were the most interesting point in the dojo.

Kuina's eyes narrowed.

Whatever it was, he'd better bring it up soon. Otherwise, her patience was going to snap one of these days.

...

°

°

°

| Hours later, in the afternoon... |

...

Sitting on a rock by the backyard of the dojo, Kuina let out a scoff as she placed a bamboo sword down beside her.

"You're so weak."

"K-kgh...!"

In front of her, flat on his back on the ground, was a beaten Zoro with a bump on his head still sizzling from the recent blow, his expression extremely sour.

Seeing his unwilling face, she grinned, resting her head against her palm. "Why won't you learn, Zoro? You can't beat me. The 1,952 duels before this one should've made that clear by now."

"S-shut up, only losers give up!" Zoro grunted from the ground, slowly pushing himself upright and pointing a finger straight at her. "Besides, I'm catching up to you sooner or later! If you're scared, just say so!"

She sneered, crossing her arms and looking at him with a suspicious gaze. "You know, earlier, after I beat you, I heard some of the boys saying how there are people who enjoy getting beaten up, and assumed you must be one of those... Is that true, Zoro?"

"What?! I'm not a freak!"

"Well, the nearly two thousand duels with zero victories in your favor until now say otherwise."

"Shut up!"

She smirked at how easy it was to frustrate him.

"Well, I'll beat you up whenever you want. So don't hesitate to ask."

"Enough! Let's duel again, and I'll show you who enjoys getting beaten up!"

...

In the end, he ended up sprawled on the ground again, this time more pathetically than before, making that the 1,954th.

Kuina chuckled at the pitiful sight—only for her smile to freeze as she caught sight of something.

Inside the dojo, sneakily staring at them from the door frame, was Dan.

"Alright, that's it!" She stood up.

Zoro looked up at her as if she'd lost her mind, then stared in confusion as she left him behind and made her way inside.

"...What did I do?"

Back inside, she stomped her way over to Dan—who was now sweeping the dojo, acting as if he hadn't done anything.

She stopped right in front of him, arms crossed, staring him down with an upset expression, clearly waiting for him to acknowledge his weird behavior first.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Clearly, she hadn't accounted for Dan having the resolve to keep ignoring her blatant stare without issue for a full minute.

In the end, she broke the silence first.

"What's up with you?!"

Only then did Dan turn to her—his face looking completely puzzled and tilting to the side.

"What's up with me?"

A thick mark appeared on her forehead. "You even have the nerve to deny it?! This is like the one hundredth time I've seen you staring at me!"

"It hasn't been that many times."

"So you accept it!"

"Accept what?"

"Argh!" Kuina massaged her face in exasperation.

While Kuina fumed on her own, Dan's expression flattened slightly.

'Tailing people isn't as easy as they make it seem in media... wonder if the system will have a stealth hack for purchase eventually.'

Sighing, he went back to sweeping the dojo, ignoring the blatant glare and hysterical groans coming from beside him. Koushirou had given him sweeping duty today, so he didn't want to waste much time here.

Of course, he wasn't only sweeping. He was, indeed, observing the blue-haired girl.

As to why he was doing such things? The answer was simple.

To say he was anxious was an understatement.

For starters, the urge to go to Nami's village and unfold his plans there, but having to stay here to prevent the girl next to him from falling down some stairs, had made him grow a bit impatient.

Secondly, yes, the moment of truth was supposed to happen after the 2,001st duel, so there wasn't much reason to be this attentive this early. There were still a few dozen duels left.

However, the thought that things might have already diverted off course from canon without him knowing, and that Kuina's mid-stair tripping tendencies might flare at any second rather than when they originally did in the show, had made him a bit paranoid.

That, plus his urge to get the heck out of there and unfold his plans at Nami's village, didn't help.

Which is why he'd ended up being overly observant of her whenever there was a duel—though maybe a bit too much, seeing as how she had noticed, and clearly wasn't enthusiastic about it.

There were other solutions to his predicament, of course. Like moving the sharpening stone that Kuina had gone to fetch—the one that ended up killing her—down to the first floor of wherever it was, thus making her avoid going up the stairs in the first place.

But who knew if they'd put it back up the moment he turned around.

He could also hide it, for extra security.

But in that case, they could just buy a new one.

Basically, with them being thinking beings, and not robots he could order not to do stuff, this wasn't going to be easy.

Especially because fate in this world was a variable to consider, or at least it seemed like it.

So he wasn't about to take risks. He'd remain on the island—putting all the contingencies he'd previously thought of into motion at the moment of truth—and keep a tight eye until it finally happened, he stopped it, and Kuina learned her lesson around stairs. But not in the lethal way.

Then he'd dip.

If she died even after all that, thanks to fate or whatever... well, he'd feel bad about it. But there was nothing more he could do.

He had a criminal empire to build.

And in it, guilt had no place.

To such thoughts, Dan nodded with his eyes closed, caressing his chin thoughtfully.

But just as he felt he'd arrived at a clean enough conclusion, a sharp voice brought him back to reality.

"Are you listening to me?!"

"...What?" He turned to Kuina, a bead of sweat rolling down his temple.

"I said I'm not going to put up with your sneaky glances anymore. If you have something to say, just say it! Otherwise, stop stalking me!"

"You've got a lot of nerve, coming from the one who stalked me first..." Dan muttered under his breath.

"What did you say?!"

Dan ignored her, thinking about what to do now that she didn't seem like she was going to overlook his vigilance this time.

He could, of course, just walk away and put an end to this. But given that there was still half a month left before the event he was waiting for, he very much doubted he'd stop his vigilance over her.

So he supposed it was better to deal with the problem now, smooth over whatever wasn't working here, and let his plans sail cleanly from here on.

So, smiling slightly, he turned to her.

"There's a reason I've been acting like this."

"Well?" Kuina asked, eyes squinted.

Dan let a pause follow for a moment, then pointed the tip of the broom at Kuina dramatically.

"I plan on challenging you during the next dueling day."

An awkward silence followed, with Kuina apparently taking in the war declaration.

"You?"

Only for a frown to take over her face the next second.

"I've been training my whole life, since I was a literal kid, and you already think you can beat me? With just nine months of training?"

That sounded a bit assholy when she put it like that, but Dan nodded anyway. If it could get her out of his hair for now, passing off his vigilance as merely "scouting the enemy," it worked for him.

Whether he lost or won that match when the day came, it wouldn't matter—not long after, her death event would happen, and after he did what he could to prevent it, he'd be leaving this island for good.

"I see," Kuina nodded, her expression a bit calmer.

Dan was about to let out a sigh of relief—and even more so when she began walking away.

That lasted until he saw her heading toward the bamboo sword pile instead of the exit.

Soon, she grabbed one and tossed it to him. He caught it, the corner of his eyebrow twitching slightly.

"If you're so confident, how about we test whether you're as ready as you think you are?" she asked, her tone leveled, though Dan could read it clearly enough.

She had taken his challenge pretty close to heart.

'I should have seen this coming.'

He shot a wry look at the bamboo sword in his hand, then back at the approaching Kuina.

After a moment, though, he sneered softly, let go of the broom and kicked it clear of the area around him, then settled into his stance.

'No matter. I've been curious either way. I've improved a lot, after all.'

Kuina took her stance a few steps away.

"Don't you dare hold anything back," she said suddenly.

Dan immediately knew what she meant.

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

[Tireless Hack Activated!—Time left: 59 minutes, 59 seconds.]

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

"I didn't plan to."

Her frown deepened as whatever slight traces of exhaustion that had been on him vanished from one moment to the next.

Still, she gave a short nod and tightened her grip on the sword.

Without a referee to declare the start, nor any spectators to witness it, they had no way to mark the beginning of the fight.

So instead, the two just...

—Tack!—

Lunged.

...

────────────────────────

-To Be Continued...-

────────────────────────

 

[The Synonym]

────────────────────────
[Better Than Talent]
────────────────────────

...

As the battle started, both parties rushed at each other, swinging in wide arcs.

—Tack!—

Their swords came crashing down against each other with a dry sound as they collided, and from then on, the two pushed against each other, the bamboo swords trembling under the contrasting pressure coming from both sides.

'I can't...?'

That simple fact seemed to surprise Kuina. Months ago she had been stronger physically—Dan had the advantage in endurance with his strange ability, but she had clearly been stronger at that point.

Yet now she couldn't push him around anymore.

However, despite the surprise, soon she shook the matter off.

'...You may have grown stronger, but there are still things you need training at!'

Gritting her teeth and knowing she wouldn't win a battle of attrition, she changed tactics. Using Dan's focused strength on the sword clash, she let go of her own pressure, and in the gap where Dan adjusted to the sudden lack of opposition, she slipped out of his range before quickly delivering a slash at his blind spot.

—Tack!—

He blocked it—flimsily. He barely had time to react, so he wasn't able to get into a proper stance. It did the job of keeping him in the fight, but it left him in a compromising posture.

And Kuina wasn't about to let that go unpunished.

'Just as I thought, you're still too weak!'

Taking a deep breath, her expression hardened as she began hammering down on Dan from all sides, her speed picking up with each blow.

—Tack!—

—Tack!—

—Tack!—

Dan did his best to block, and under normal circumstances, he might have managed it well enough—but the flimsy block from just a moment ago had trapped him in an unbalanced state, and Kuina wasn't giving him room to regain his footing. Her slashes looked like ricocheting bullets, hitting his guard and then curving down swiftly to rain back on his weak points.

For most people, being constantly hit at their weak points, forcing them to use desperate attempts at blocking and thus being very unstable, would wear them down, cause them to slip, or simply break their guard in due time.

—But in this situation, the exhaustion wasn't accumulating. The pain of each improperly blocked hit was there, muscles and tendons bearing pressures they weren't supposed to… but that was something he could ignore.

Going down wasn't on the table anytime soon.

So the only one who actually began wearing down from all that relentless assault was—

'Why isn't he falling?!'

—Kuina.

And Dan was the first to notice.

In her frustration at having him a sliver away from breaking but not managing to deliver the finishing blow, she'd forgotten that such tactics simply wouldn't be enough.

That proved a grave mistake. The moment she slowed even slightly—

—Tack!—

"...?!"

Dan batted one of her swings aside. Her exhaustion, combined with his completely undiminished strength, was enough to throw her off balance this time instead.

And with that done, Dan smiled.

... and proceeded to start his own counterattack.

—Tack!—

—Tack!—

—Tack!—

—Tack!—

Using his unlimited reserves, Dan turned the tables and became the one hammering down on Kuina's guard. Each of his attacks equal in speed and power to the others—a stark contrast to Kuina's fading strength and shortening breath with every block she had to endure or attack she had to dodge. The more she blocked, the closer defeat felt.

It was in that moment, with her brain in overdrive searching for a way out, that the reality of how much Dan had grown since their last spar finally dawned on her.

Before, even in a similar situation, she would have been fast enough to find a gap to strike him between his attacks.

But now she couldn't find anything of the sort. His speed had increased compared to before, and the efficiency of his movements had improved tremendously as well. Trying to pull something off carried too high a risk of eating a hit instead.

Though, maybe, the fault lay in her own exhaustion slowing her down and keeping her from fighting at her best.

Or maybe it was just the difference that the ability to push off exhaustion granted in fights, and only now was she truly becoming aware of it.

Or perhaps...

'...What father said was true.'

Years of training, all reduced to nothing before the boy in front of her. A newcomer who had caught up to her in mere months.

Sure, he was clearly abnormal—capable of holding off exhaustion in a way that no ordinary person could. But was that really the only reason? Was that alone really enough to trample over years of her effort in just a few months?

Or was it also the fact that he was a boy?

"...!"

That thought brought forth a burst of energy she hadn't known was still there. Feeling anger fill her, her grip on the sword tightened, and she pushed against the burning in her muscles.

Her breathing re-adjusted itself, and soon her eyes sharpened, settling on the attacking figure in front of her.

She wasn't going to lose today, she wouldn't—

—Whack!—

Her thoughts and fury were doused in an instant as a sharp sting hit her palms, followed by the feeling of her sword leaving her hands.

-Clack, clack!-

The sound of it clattering against the ground followed.

"..."

Just like that, so abruptly, what she had thought was her comeback ended.

-Swish-

The tip of a bamboo sword stopped right before her throat as she stood stunned.

"I guess challenging you at the dueling day is unnecessary now."

Dan's comment snapped her out of her trance. Her eyes wandered to the dropped sword, then to her reddened palms.

Losing was one thing. Losing by letting go of your sword in combat was another.

Not only had she lost—she had lost badly.

Her jaw trembled slightly. "How...?"

Dan smirked faintly. "It was a bit of a gamble, but I figured you wouldn't be in the clearest headspace and would try to pull something out of desperation."

Kuina's eyes widened.

"So I just waited patiently until you snapped," he continued, "and used that moment to strike a bit faster than I'd been letting on up to that point... and I guess it worked, didn't it?"

Kuina's lips trembled slightly as she took in his words.

She had been led on from the beginning. He was faster than he'd been showing, and had caught her completely off guard at the last second using that very fact.

She had been read completely.

She had truly lost.

"..."

Kuina fell silent as the reality of her defeat settled over her, thoughts running a mile a minute.

Then, after a few seconds, she spoke.

"How did you know?"

Dan stared at her for a moment, seemingly weighing whether to answer, before shrugging.

He'd be leaving this place soon. There wasn't much reason to care about his relations here.

So, sneering, he answered. "It was obvious. A boy was slowly coming close to beating you, and you weren't able to do anything to stop it... I just saw the moment where the desperation was about to make you slip, and acted accordingly."

A deep frown took over Kuina's face, her teeth gritting.

"... Was I wrong?" She asked, her tone clearly upset.

Dan raised an eyebrow, but she kept going before he could answer.

"Nine months, and you were able to catch up to me—someone who's trained most of her life... Your exhaustion-pushing thing might have helped, yes, but that much?!"

She slouched forward, her hair falling to block her face.

"... If it's not that, then what other reason could there be besides you being a boy?! Is there anything else?! I don't think so!"

Dan looked a bit taken aback by the outburst.

A few sniffles came through as she spoke, making it pretty clear what was happening despite her face not being visible.

In the end, she said one last thing through them.

"... How am I supposed to feel about the fact that my father ended up being right?"

A silence fell between the two after that. Kuina kept her gaze on the floor. Dan, meanwhile, stood there staring at the sulking girl in front of him for a moment, a bit unsure of what to do.

It seemed he may have been a bit tactless with his words.

Realizing that, he scratched the back of his head, annoyed at himself.

For people he wasn't supposed to care much about, and should quickly forget once his criminal career started, they sure made it hard to remain that detached.

Maybe he just didn't have the cold-heartedness required yet.

He let out an annoyed sigh.

"Alright, cut it out." He said, calling her out.

Kuina lifted her head, small tears at the corners of her eyes, looking pretty frustrated—like she was expecting him to laugh at her for what she'd blurted out in a burst of anger.

What she didn't expect was a finger suddenly shoved into her face, making her stumble back a step in surprise.

Only once she was clear of it did she focus back on Dan properly.

"Why you...?"

"In the first place, you're under a big misconception," he said, cutting her off. "You think I caught up so fast because I'm a guy."

He opened his arms wide.

"But the fact is, I caught up to you simply because I'm me."

A beat of silence settled for a moment.

Followed by Kuina's scrunching face of bewilderment.

"... Hah?"

Seeing her reaction, he snorted in amusement. "What I mean is, your father was wrong. The fact that I'm a boy is irrelevant to me catching up to you. Even Zoro hasn't caught up to you yet, has he?"

"..." She didn't answer that, but her expression said enough.

That was true. And not only Zoro—all the other disciples, including the adult ones, had been defeated by her.

So what made the guy in front of her different?

Seeing the look she was giving him, he shrugged with a wry smile. "Then the real reason should be clear enough, right?"

She didn't answer, as if expecting him to just say it.

So he did.

"The answer is that I'm just that good."

"..."

Kuina's mouth opened in sheer disbelief.

This guy... he was unbelievably cocky!

But on second thought, even though she wanted to bring him down a notch, it made sense. Why else would his growth rate be so outrageous compared to the rest of the students? And that was obviously setting aside the other clear advantage he had—the exhaustion thing.

Both clearly abnormal. Both explained by that simple statement.

He was just that good... apparently?

Kuina blinked, looking like she was struggling to come to terms with that. It was the first time she'd been in a position where she was the one lacking in talent—she was usually the one at the top of that ladder.

But now the roles had reversed, and she didn't quite know how to sit with it.

On one hand, she felt relieved. Once again, the supposed limits she'd been told existed since birth were being proven wrong. She could still achieve her goal.

But on the other hand, if the matter of him having greater talent was real—as he said—wasn't that roughly the same problem as before, just shrunk down from a whole gender to a single person? The fact that she might ultimately be unable to surpass another existence remained.

On that thought, Kuina's fist clenched.

Dan picked up on it, his eyebrow twitching at how troublesome she was to calm down.

"Listen, it's not even a talent thing. Even if you were the most talented person in the whole world, you still wouldn't be able to catch up to me."

Kuina's face snapped up at him—not angry anymore, but outright baffled.

"What?"

He had gone from talking plausibly to crazy in an instant. What did he mean by even the most talented person not being able to catch up? How did that even make sense?

Walking closer, Dan slung an arm over her shoulder and gestured at the air above them, sweeping his free hand from one side to the other.

"The thing is, I'm beyond talent. This isn't simply about you. The rest of the disciples, Zoro, your dad, marines, pirates, heck, even Mihawk... none of them will stand a chance against me in due time, and consequently, no one will be able to catch up to me either."

Kuina was not even baffled anymore. She was scared.

When they first met, he seemed relatively normal... who could have thought he had this level of delusion hidden inside?!

She could concede him having great talent. But "being beyond it"... what did that even mean?!

While she struggled to process the words leaving Dan's mouth, he let go of her and stepped back.

"That's why there's no reason to compare yourself to me. Just go for whatever you're aiming for and put me out of your mind."

Those words seemed to snap Kuina out of her trance for a moment.

"... Even though you'll probably beat me to it?"

Dan paused, looking confused for a second—before rolling his eyes as he got it. "Right, the whole becoming the strongest swordsman thing... I'm not interested. My goal is another."

Kuina still didn't look convinced.

Dan's smile twitched in annoyance, so after another roll of eyes, he added something else. "... And besides, even if my goal was that, just because I'm faster than you at getting to the finish line doesn't mean you can't reach it eventually. My talent being higher doesn't cap yours off... At least, it shouldn't work that way, I think."

He honestly wasn't very versed in the power scaling of this world, or in the matter of talent. He knew that stronger Haki was basically what mattered the most at the top—at least according to Kaido. But so long as you put in the effort, you should become pretty strong, right?

Even if for some, "putting in the effort" meant breaking their body apart over and over, unlike the most talented—like Coby. That guy, catching up to Luffy so quickly and learning Rokushiki just as fast, was a pretty clear display of what talent meant in this world. Talent paired with effort, but talent either way.

That, or other factors he wasn't aware of.

'Whatever,'

Dan shook his head and shrugged his wandering thoughts aside.

Looking back at Kuina, he found her deep in thought over his words.

'At least I got through.'

Huffing in quiet relief, he turned around—but before leaving for good, he stopped, glanced back, and gave her a light bump on the shoulder.

That snapped her out of her swirling thoughts. She looked up to find him holding out the broom toward her, like passing down a sword.

"So long as you put in the effort, you should be able to reach your goals. So focus more on yourself, and not on others... Take your destiny into your own hands."

Kuina looked dazed for a moment, her eyes moving between him and the broom.

Her jaw clenched a little as her throat tightened.

But in the end, she nodded and took it from him.

Smiling faintly, Dan nodded back and turned around.

He waved once without looking back, before walking out of the dojo.

"..."

Kuina remained where she was, staring at the spot where he had disappeared. Then, she glanced down at the broom in her hand, inspecting it with a pensive look.

"Take my destiny into my own hands..."

Her eyes shone with newfound realization as she uttered those words.

-Step, step, step-

"...?"

Just at that moment, the sound of approaching footsteps from behind made her turn.

Her father was just leaving his room, heading her way.

Once he got close enough, he gave a quick look around before settling on her. "Kuina, where's Dan?"

She blinked, surprised her father was looking for him, before staring down at the broom in her hand.

"... He just left."

"What? I'm sure today was his turn at cleaning duty—" His eyes drifted to the broom in her hands, eyebrows rising slightly before settling into a small smile. "Oh, I see you took over for him. No issue then."

"Huh?"

Kuina looked at her father, then at the broom in her hands, then at the door where Dan had just walked out.

Then, back at the broom.

'That guy... gave me the broom to skip out on cleaning duty?!'

...

────────────────────────

-To Be Continued...-

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[The Synonym]

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[Shoo]
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| A week later, Dan's POV: |

...

"... What a pain."

That left my mouth as I stared at the sky with a bleak look, feeling drops hit my face as I did.

It was a rainy day.

As to why that kind of groan left my mouth?

Well, life can be a bit hectic when you're planning to fight a monstrous fishman capable of turning a house upside down with his bare hands while only being a normal human—and a kid at that.

For now, I have thought of some plans that might help me against him—even if not necessarily to beat him—but before any of those, I had other matters to address first.

Ever since my fight against Kuina, when I finally got to test the result of my training so far and triumphed over her, I've been focusing on the preparations for leaving the island once I stop her fate of being one-shot by stairs.

After all, I was still a kid. My list of resources was scarce at best, so I was going to need more strategizing than simply saying "I'm going to leave."

I needed transport, food for the journey, working knowledge of how not to die at sea, and most importantly—a destination.

Taking off to the sea was no small matter, despite how Luffy may have made it seem by traversing the fearsome ocean in a plain barrel.

It would be pretty lame if my journey to becoming a godly walking cheat ended because my ship flipped on one wrong turn and I fell in and got eaten by a giant fish.

Pretty sure the ROB guy would smite my ass for such a pathetic ending.

So, that meant I needed proper preparation.

And for that, I've been scouting the ships and boats stationed at the docks. More specifically, the ones belonging to island residents that never actually get used and sit there gathering dust—or sea water, technically.

Since everyone on this island knows each other and nobody has much reason to leave other than for business reasons, the rate of stolen ships in this island is basically 0%.

... Which means their security is pretty crap. I'm fairly sure that if I sneak quietly enough one night, I'll be able to take a ship and slip away without much trouble.

For now, though, I'm still in the process of picking which one. Something too big will be a nightmare to manage alone, and something too small might flip if the sea gets a little rough.

So for now, I'm using the time I spend on fishing trips with the crew to get a better look at what's available.

Speaking of fishing trips—I'm also using that time to learn navigation.

Whenever I'm done with my share of the work on the ship, I go and pick Senshi's—our navigator—brain a bit to learn the art of traversing the seas, and sometimes Old Shun's too, since he apparently knows his stuff about navigation but stopped bothering with it a long time ago once Senshi joined to take care of it.

And let me tell you, it's one pain of a subject to learn. Especially in a world where the common knowledge around it isn't exactly advanced. Most people out here rely on instinct and whatever hints the weather gives off, which is fine until you're the one trying to learn it from scratch.

Or at least that's how it is in this part of the sea—or in this crew in specific. Maybe elsewhere it's more structured and advanced.

Either way, that specific part was taking longer to grasp than I'd like.

There are parts to the skill with more clear reasoning to them, though, so I'm not completely lost. At my current level I'd probably manage to sail in calm weather—anything above that and my ship is going down though.

But I'm confident I'll fill in whatever I'm missing by the time I have to depart. With SpeedyGains, it's only a matter of time—and not much of it at that.

The hack applied both to training and to learning stuff, so it was crazy amazing for cramming all the knowledge in my head in the small amount of time I have left before leaving.

As for knowing where I plan on going once I leave—since the sea doesn't come with road signs, as you might expect—I've actually been trying to get Senshi to hand over some maps so I can figure out where Cocoyashi Village actually is.

Sadly, he's given me a few, but none of them have covered enough territory to locate it yet.

But I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually.

If there's a will, there's a way.

As I thought that, I let out a short laugh.

'It would have been really awkward if, after all this planning, it turned out that Cocoyashi wasn't even the name of the village I'm supposed to go and I've been remembering wrong all along... Haha, yeah... very funny.'

...

Alright, now I'm worried that it's actually not the name and I've been confusing it with something else.

What was Luffy's village called again? I'm not mixing them up, right?

"Oi, Dan, stop standing there like a plank and get over here—these nets aren't going to haul themselves in!"

Old Shun's voice snapped me out of my head.

"Right, sorry."

Maybe I shouldn't be getting lost in my thoughts while the ship is being tossed around by the waves.

I looked up to the darkened and ominous sky.

'This storm is quite heavy, isn't it?'

...

°

°

°

| Hours later... |

...

"Lower the anchor!"

-Clang!-

Once the anchor was down, they put out the plank, and we all walked down to the dock.

"Phew..."

As we finally hit solid ground, I couldn't help but let out a long groan, massaging my face and staring at the now-clear sky with a thoroughly worn look.

'I thought I was a goner. My criminal career almost ended on a random fishing trip before it could even begin...'

While I sat with the fragility and unpredictability of life, and my concerns about needing to actually know what I was doing before setting off to sea solidified very firmly—

—PAF!—

"Ack!"

—a palm suddenly struck my back, making me yelp and spin around to see who the bastard was.

He wasn't hiding, so it wasn't hard to figure out.

Sato. The guy who, for some reason, thought it was fun to mess with me. Also the guy who believed swordsmanship was a conspiracy.

You know him, he was there when I awakened my otherworldly memories months ago.

—and also there every day I go with the crew to fish.

But I didn't narrate for you during those times, imaginary listener, so you obviously wouldn't know about that.

Thus, don't worry if you can't remember his name. He isn't that important anyways.

"Hahaha, wasn't that a valuable experience, little Dan?" he said between laughs, barely able to breathe from them. "When you almost fell off the ship, I almost fell myself from laughing so hard!"

I clicked my tongue.

"That's because you left a bucket of fish in the middle of the deck! I almost tripped and couldn't grab onto anything in time because of it!"

He smirked. "Well, doesn't your sensei teach you to maintain your balance at all times? He must be doing something wrong if you tripped over a measly fish bucket."

"..."

Following that, I kicked him in the calf.

—Whack!—

"AAAARGH!"

He went down pretty quickly after that, clutching the spot I'd hit. It was a pitiful sight, considering I was still only ten years old and the guy in front of me was at least in his twenties—he had a bushy beard, so it was hard to tell.

But the state I left him in was to be expected, honestly. I may train with a sword, but that didn't mean I was going to depend solely on it. It'd be stupid to rely on just a piece of metal against Arlong.

As much as I'd like to believe a sword could damage him, there was also the chance he'd just tank the hit and break the blade with his bare hands right after.

So alongside swordsmanship, I needed to make sure my body itself was as conditioned as possible too.

At least that way, if he landed a punch, I wouldn't have my chest caved in.

—Or at least not die from it instantly.

'Hopefully the show exaggerated his feats...' I thought as I sighed, not exactly looking forward to that particular meeting.

But I wasn't going to say no to kickstarting my criminal career.

It may be dangerous, but with my hacks by my side, it was doable. Otherwise, I wouldn't even be considering it.

'That fish is going to be eating dirt, that's for sure.'

With such thoughts, I turned and walked away, ignoring the pained wails behind me.

Minutes later, after helping the crew unload today's haul and cleaning myself off with a wet rag, I headed home.

Old Shun stayed behind to deal with the merchants who'd been waiting on our arrival to buy the fish as fresh as possible, so I walked back alone.

Before long, I was home sweet home.

Only home wasn't looking as sweet as usual.

"Why the hell are you here?" I asked, staring flatly at who was sitting there.

Sitting on old Shun's log by the fireplace, was Kuina.

... For some reason.

'Did she come here to silence me so that the result of our duel doesn't get out?'

While such thoughts ran through my head, she turned and stood up, facing me.

"I waited here for hours. Where were you?"

I looked at her flatly.

Why was she making this sound like I'd done something wrong?

"I was fishing. See?"

I grabbed a fish from the basket I'd been carrying—I'd planned to grill a couple for dinner—and waved it in her direction.

She stepped back before it could reach her, eyeing it with apprehension.

At that, I sneered, then passed by her and sat down at the log, setting the basket down beside me.

I was hungry, so I was going to eat regardless of my uninvited guest.

I grabbed two flint stones and started striking them together close to the leftover leaves from an old fire in the fireplace.

As I worked on getting a spark, I glanced toward her briefly. "So? Why are you here?"

She looked back at me with a dissatisfied expression. "Can't I be?"

My eyebrow twitched. "That doesn't answer my question."

She huffed, then sighed.

"You mentioned that Yonko—Big Mom, was it?"

I nodded without looking up, still working on the fire.

"Well, you sounded like you knew a lot about the world out there. So I got curious."

I stopped and gave her an incredulous look.

'That's why she's here?'

I told her that months ago.

I thought she'd forgotten about it by now. Guess not.

"I see," I gave a nod and went back to working on the fire. "But why now? That was like five months ago."

A spark finally caught the leaves. I leaned in quickly and blew until the fire took properly.

"Well, uh..." Meanwhile, Kuina seemed to be struggling to find an answer.

In the end, she let out a sigh, like she was resigning to something. "I've been curious since then, but we weren't exactly on good terms at the time, so..."

'And we are now?'

I turned to her with a raised eyebrow.

But seeing her looking all sheepish, I had to assume so.

'Guess my reassuring from last time did a bit too much.'

I groaned inwardly.

'I'm not that good at detaching, am I? Curse this weakness of mine.'

I pulled a couple of fish out and ran skewers through them, then set them over the fire.

If I wanted to detach, I was going to have to try a little harder. And I supposed the first step was not getting too friendly with her.

So, with that in mind, I turned to her, ready to shoo her away.

"Besides, you tricked me into taking on your cleaning duty last time. I think you owe me a little."

Hmm...

She does make a fair point.

Sighing, I made space on the log and pulled out another fish to skewer.

Just looking at her expression, this was going to be a lengthy conversation.

Curse this weakness of mine.

"Alright, what do you want to know?" I asked, defeated.

Hearing that, she smiled victoriously and sat down beside me.

'Well, whatever,' I shrugged my annoyance off.

Regardless of my attempts at detaching, it was just a secondary objective.

I don't think it'd make much of a difference if I humor her here.

And even if it did, my objective would remain the same no matter what.

To show this world the meaning of hax.

…

| Current Duel, 1973th. 27 duels remaining |

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-To Be Continued...-

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(A/N: The deadline is approaching, and Dan is roasting—fish.

I wanted to make a rhyme there, sorry.)

 

[The Synonym]

────────────────────────
[End of The Road]
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| Two weeks later, dueling day |

...

Dan sat in his spot, watching with his usual bored expression as the duel between two of his classmates finished.

'This has turned from an intimidating day into one that feels like it drags on forever.'

He sighed inwardly.

When he was still a novice, dueling day would strike nervousness in him like crazy. It was the day he'd get to know how much he had progressed, and feel himself rise through the hierarchy clearly.

Also the day he'd get beaten up.

Nowadays it was just routine, and a day where nothing interesting happened.

He could already beat everyone here—save for Koushirou. He wasn't quite sure about how strong he was, but judging from his status as sensei and as father of Kuina, he probably stood a bit above him.

But how that'd turn out if he used Tireless? Dan didn't have an answer.

Not that it would happen. He didn't have a reason to.

Sighing, his gaze turned to the window, watching the sunlight seep in.

As he observed the daylight, his mind quickly went to how his plans had progressed during this time.

'Pretty well.'

That summed it up.

He could consider navigation learned, for the most part. He wasn't a master of the craft, but he could now get from one point to another without dying... In theory.

He had yet to find out whether all the knowledge he'd built up would actually hold once it was time to test it himself.

He had also locked in on a suitable boat to "borrow" once he was done with his matters here, and the plan for stealing it was mostly laid out too.

He had bought plenty of resources for the trip, gotten a general sense of the direction he needed to follow after checking a rather vague but useful enough map of the East Blue, and worked out roughly how long it should take to reach his destination.

He was, in every sense of the word, mostly prepared.

All that remained was saving Kuina from some stairs.

'Why does it sound so stupid?'

Dan massaged his temple at the thought.

As for that matter...

"Next, Kuina vs Zoro!" Koushirou's voice rang out.

"It's happening?"

"Yeah, it's finally happening."

"Their 2,000th duel... god, they've come a long way."

"Will Zoro finally escape his loser status?"

"Nah."

The chatter of the rest of the students made things very clear.

Today was the day... allegedly.

After this duel, at night, the two would engage in one final duel using real swords. Then Kuina would win, and they'd make their promise to become the best swordsmen. Only for Kuina to die by morning.

At least, that's how it was supposed to go.

He, of course, wasn't going to let it happen—but whether things would even play out remotely similarly with or without his influence, Dan was curious to see.

Plenty of things had changed, not only in terms of timing and places, but also in the people involved themselves.

Kuina was a bit more confident... or so he liked to assume.

Also, many of Zoro's and Kuina's duels had probably been postponed, or outright skipped due to Kuina's erratic behavior, which meant the duel in the show would likely have already happened by now.

Fate was runnning late.

And of course, there was the matter of his own presence, which may have affected things in ways he couldn't account for.

All in all, plenty of factors that would make it hard for everything to play out the same.

But you never knew with fate.

Which was why he had plenty of contingencies prepared to make sure Kuina wouldn't be meeting heaven today—Or hell, you never know.

His own vigilance on standby would serve as the last line of defense.

If even that didn't work... then today would leave a very bad taste in his mouth, he supposed.

"Winner, Kuina!"

As he finished that thought, the victor was already decided.

His eyes went to the mat, seeing Kuina smirking over Zoro, who looked dizzy on the floor.

"Two thousand fights, and Zoro still lost?"

"Sensei, are you giving her some kind of secret training?!"

"Just because she's your daughter you shouldn't give her special treatment!"

"That's unfair!"

Outrage surged from the students as they watched their underdog fail to pull off a miraculous comeback.

Kuina didn't even look bothered. She simply walked back to her seat and sat down, calm and satisfied.

Koushirou, meanwhile, could only smile wryly.

"Everyone, I wouldn't do that. The truth is, while Zoro has become stronger, so has Kuina. She continues to push forward, even until today."

"Hngh..."

Zoro let out a soft groan as he pushed himself back to his feet. The rest of the students watched him with worry.

He looked impassive, though. Instead of breaking down like they'd expected, he shook his head briefly and walked toward the dojo's door.

"I'm going to clean my face." That was all he said before he walked out and closed the door behind him.

As he left, everyone looked at a loss.

But soon, all eyes shifted to someone else.

"Oi, Dan, avenge Zoro!"

"You've grown a lot stronger, haven't you?"

"Yeah, come on. You're the only one who can face her right now."

Dan gave them a lazy look.

"Nah."

They looked taken aback by his blunt refusal. But Dan shrugged their betrayed gazes off.

He had no intention of wasting energy on a duel against Kuina today. He had some busy hours ahead.

As he sat there, however, he felt two particular gazes settle on him.

One was Kuina's.

The other was Koushirou's.

Kuina's he could already guess. So he sent her an "even if you demand a duel, I won't accept" look and ignored her from there.

Koushirou's gaze, however, was stranger.

Dan couldn't quite put his finger on why. There was a trace of satisfaction in it.

'Well, who cares.'

He was leaving soon. So he wasn't feeling particularly thoughtful about the opinion of the people from this island or his ties to them today.

They could think badly of him, or judge him. He didn't care.

His journey was about to begin, and they had no place in it.

...

°

°

°

| Hours later, night time... |

...

Dan sat by a cliff, watching with squinted eyes as, in the distance, Zoro ran across the rice field in the direction of the village, carrying two real swords by his side.

"Finally. The wait was killing me," Dan muttered, sounding genuinely relieved.

And it was no wonder he felt like that, he'd been waiting for hours by now.

So, huffing, he stood up and walked away, heading down the cliff.

He traversed the forest that circled the village, moving at an unhurried but steady pace. Before long, he had circled the entire village and arrived at the stretch of forest right next to the dojo.

There, he searched briefly and quickly located the storage shed.

As he did, however, he caught sight of Kuina hurrying inside.

He slipped calmly behind a tree and watched.

A few seconds later she came back out holding a sword of her own, then circled around to the back of the dojo where Zoro was waiting. He gave her a nod, and the two disappeared into the forest to find a secluded spot for their final duel.

They passed close enough to the tree he was using to hide that Dan held his breath for a second.

Once they were gone, he stepped out and let out a quiet huff of relief.

Then his gaze shifted to the storage shed, hardening slightly.

"The moment of truth… Ten months of preparation finally end today."

After uttering those words, he pulled out the sunglasses of anonymity and flicked them on.

'Let's do this.'

Ready and determined, he left his hiding spot and made his way to the shed.

-Creaaaak-

As he entered, he pulled the door shut behind him, sinking the entire place into deep darkness.

Thus, Dan equipped his night vision hack into the passive slot, making the until then pitch black room clear up for him.

With his vision recovered, he smiled faintly and looked around. "Now, where's that cursed sharpening stone?"

He hummed as he scanned the room. Before long, something caught his eye.

Not the sharpening stone—but equally guilty.

"So this is the strongest swordsman in the world. Down D. Stairs."

The renowned stairs, leading to the second floor of the shed.

He sneered at the joke, grabbed the railing, and gave it a slight shake, finding it perfectly functional and not quite murderous.

"Appearances can be deceiving, I guess."

Shaking the humor off, he climbed up.

The second floor didn't take long to search. A large stone sat in plain sight, clearly well-used for sharpening. He picked it up without much thought—heavy, but not for the current him—gave it a brief look, and turned back toward the stairs.

At the top of them, he paused, a bead of sweat rolling down his temple.

"I'm not going to take the fall for Kuina, am I?"

Fate might be feeling funny today.

After enough seconds of hesitation, he shook the worry off and began climbing down carefully. Just in case.

Luckily, fate didn't try anything. He reached the first floor without incident and let out a relieved sigh.

Then, without further business, he stepped outside the shed, turned back, and set the sharpening stone right at the entrance of the shed, blocking the doors.

Why not take it away entirely, you ask?

Because even if he took it, Kuina would still go up the stairs to look for it. Leaving it at the entrance removed the need to go upstairs at all.

Of course, he had thought through a few scenarios in which she might go up anyway—so for those, he'd stay on standby.

—Or at least that was the plan.

"Well, this is an unexpected visit."

Dan visibly flinched as a voice came from behind.

He turned slowly, and felt a bead of sweat roll down his cheek as he saw the worst possible person to find there at that moment.

Koushirou.

The only one on this island who might actually be able to kick his ass.

"Sunglassed Bandit. Given your lack of appearances over the past few months, I thought you'd have left by now. But from what I can see, I was wrong."

"..."

Dan didn't answer. He simply stared back at the slit-eyed Koushirou.

"So, why did you come here? Were you planning on stealing something from my shed?"

Koushirou tilted his head slightly to the side, his gaze catching the sharpening stone now sitting in front of the door.

"My sharpening stone? That's a strange thing to steal."

"There's no need for useless chatter." Dan cut him off.

He could try to explain—he was, after all, here to save his daughter. But given his criminal record and the sheer unbelievability of claiming to know the future, he knew it wouldn't really land.

That was simply one of the costs that came with taking this path to criminality.

He had made his peace with it a long time ago, when he decided what his goal would be.

With that settled in his mind, Dan drew his saber and took his stance. Brows furrowing threateningly at Koushirou.

"We both know how this goes, so let's get to it."

Koushirou smiled faintly. "I was just trying to lighten the mood… But very well."

—Kashiiiin—

He drew his sword too, the blade catching the moonlight as it cleared the scabbard.

'Quite fitting,' Dan thought, his mouth curling ever so slightly.

On the last day he was staying here, on the last act he had to carry out in this place, just before the moment of truth—the final boss had arrived to make the last wall to clear before moving on to the next stage.

'The ROB must be having an orgasm from the storytelling going on here.'

His slight smile turned into a smirk.

'Alright. If it's entertainment you want, entertainment you shall receive!'

It was time to fight the last wall in his way.

Time to put all his efforts to the test.

...

────────────────────────

-To Be Continued...-

────────────────────────

(A/N: The last test for Dan. Will he be able to beat Koushirou at such a tender age, or will he be beaten, captured, and executed before all the village?

Hopefully the first one.)

 

[The Synonym]

────────────────────────
[Playing Dirty is What I Do]
────────────────────────

...

Kuina was walking home with a slight smile, letting out a satisfied huff through her nose as she moved through the woods.

At last, the 2,001st duel was over.

Zoro lost—and barely managed to put up a fight, even with real swords.

He may have been more of a challenge in the past, but after the Sunglassed Bandit outran her, and her subsequent defeat at Dan's hands, she had pushed her own training up a notch, which only widened the gap Zoro had already been struggling to close.

He was chasing from close, yes. But that gap had grown, and the duel—their last duel, according to Zoro's own words—had made it clear.

Though even with the loss plain on his face, and the tears that came with it, he hadn't looked completely down.

Despite Kuina's now cemented unbeaten status, he didn't wallow much on it, and rather revealed the next and only goal he'd be striving from now on.

To become the greatest swordsman. Just as she was aiming to.

Thus, seeing their aligning goals, they made a promise—that when both of them had reached the very peak, they would duel one final time and determine who was truly the greatest swordsman.

But until then, their duels were over.

And with that, the night was concluded. Kuina walked home with her sword in hand, watching its shine catch the moonlight with an excited look.

Once again, someone had recognized her worth.

Right now, the path she had doubted so many times felt the clearest it ever had.

If her conversations with Dan were true, the world was truly more vast and incredible than she could have known from this small island. The people stronger than she could have ever believed. And the goal to becoming the strongest swordsman way horrifyingly longer than it had seemed until now.

... But in contrast, nothing of the new things she learned showed her what she feared.

That her goal might be impossible for her.

If anything, it just settled greater heights in her sight. That was all.

The road might be harsh, and rocky... but that didn't mean impossible, did it?

She could do it. She could truly become the best swordsman in the world.

And all she had to do was to continue down this path, no matter what obstacle appeared.

—Though, ironically to this metaphorical path, the actual path ahead was pretty dark. More than a few times she had bumped into surfacing tree roots that hid in the shadows.

'I should have brought a lantern.' She groaned.

Despite it, however, her mood didn't dwindle.

It might be dark right now, but the darkness did little to suppress her growing determination.

Just like Zoro using this defeat as a new starting point, she was doing something similar.

From now on, she would continue climbing with a single objective, no matter what her father said to her.

And one day, she'd be standing at the peak.

"...?"

But as she approached her home, her smile faded. Something was reaching her ears.

-Clang!-

-Kashiiin!-

-Clink!-

The sound of metal meeting metal.

The sound of real swords clashing.

And it was coming from her house.

Her eyes widened, and she broke into a run, pushing past leaves and branches, nearly stumbling more than once on the dark, uneven forest floor.

Eventually she reached the clearing and finally got to see what was happening, her brows lifting at the scene.

"That's...!"

Her father was fighting someone. For a moment, in the darkness, she couldn't make out who.

Then the moonlight caught a familiar gleam over the other person's eyes, and she knew.

"That bastard!"

The Sunglassed Bandit.

Her grip on her sword tightened and she moved to step in—only for her body to flinch to a halt.

Normally, she would have jumped in without a second thought.

But the sight in front of her...

-Clang!-

-Kashiiin!-

-Clink!-

It was a majestic fight.

"Damn it." She took a step back, grip tightening, and could only watch as the two figures rushed at each other repeatedly, exchanging slashes and blocks in rapid succession.

If there was something more shameful for a swordsman than wounds on the back, or losing their sword in combat, it was receiving outside help mid-duel. This wasn't a formal duel with rules, and jumping in against the bandit would be common sense for most people.

But this wasn't about rules or common sense.

This was about what she was seeing—a clash between two experienced swordsmen that she had no right to interrupt. Especially not her father's fight. Not for his dignity as a swordsman, and not with her watching as his daughter.

So, all she could do was hide behind a tree and watch, eyes locked on the collision between her mentor and the criminal who had once slipped through her grasp.

—Screeeeeech!—

A grating sound split the air as both swords gnawed against each other, the two fighters locking gazes through the crossed blades.

Koushirou's brows furrowed as the contest of strength held. "For a criminal my daughter nearly beat months ago... you must have grown incredibly strong in such a short time to be able to fight like this. I'm not sure even Kuina could beat you now."

—Crckrckrkcr!—

Dan smirked, teeth grinding under the pressure. "Maybe so. But to be honest, it still feels too slow for me. For my goal to become real, this is barely a snail's pace."

"Impatience is the undoing of many."

"So is conformism."

A barely perceptible snort left Koushirou's nose.

Then the two shifted their weight and the clash broke. Their swords separated, and in the same breath they were swinging at each other again.

—CLANG!—

Metal rang out and sparks flew as their swords collided, followed by two separating once more, only to rush back at each other immediately.

To any outside eye, they looked evenly matched.

But Kuina, watching from the shadows, knew better.

'Father is going to win.'

Her face was not the slightest bit surprised.

There was a reason he was not only the sensei of this dojo, but the most respected sword instructor in the surrounding islands. He had reached a step further from the average swordsman. Something that no other swordsman was capable of.

She wasn't sure what. She was only aware of it because of the meetings her father had with other instructors, and what she had overheard from them.

But that didn't take away the fact that would decide this duel.

The bandit was good, but he wasn't exceptional… and that was enough to decide everything.

The only reason the fight was still going, she guessed, was that her father was gauging his opponent—measuring his strength, giving him the honor of showing his best before ending it. But once he'd seen enough, once the bandit neared his limit, it would be over in an instant.

"Still..." Kuina's brows furrowed as she kept watching. "When did he become so good?"

She remembered their encounter in the forest. His swordsmanship had been mediocre at best back then. If he hadn't run, she would have cut him down without much trouble.

But now he was actually holding his own against her father. If he were the same as he'd been months ago, this would have ended before she even arrived.

She couldn't make sense of it. How could someone's strength jump that much in just a few months? She had never seen anything like it...

—or actually, she had.

Her eyes widened slightly as the memory surfaced. Someone who, curiously, had shown roughly the same rate of progress in just as short a time.

But she shook her head a moment later.

"He looks too different."

The glasses in particular made the contrast stark. It just didn't add up.

—CLANG!—

While Kuina was lost in her own thoughts, after several more exchanges—deflecting, countering, closing and separating—both fighters pulled back for a brief respite.

Koushirou's breathing was audibly a little more hurried.

Dan, on the other hand, showed not the slightest sign of fatigue. His expression was as composed as at the start.

Koushirou noticed.

"You're a strange one. When Kuina told me she'd been outrun, I put it down to her age, or a gap in physical conditioning... but it seems I'm being outrun in my own way now." He relaxed his posture slightly. "I don't know how it's possible—your constitution and your technique don't seem to account for it… But it doesn't matter."

"..."

Then his posture shifted. It barely looked different from the relaxed stance he had seconds ago, but it wasn't the same. There was no stiffness, but no weakness either.

And in his otherwise serene face, a sharp focus made itself felt.

"I'm going to finish this now, before you can turn this into a battle of attrition."

"...!"

The instant those words left him, Koushirou's figure blurred—swift and sharp.

Dan barely had time to react.

But it was enough.

'I can see it.'

All the training he had put himself through hadn't been for nothing. As if in slow motion, his eyes traced the arc of Koushirou's blade—faster than his body could properly answer, but he moved regardless. Just as the sword came down, he lifted his own and blocked.

Shiiiiiiin!—

He succeeded. The blade never reached him.

-Shick-

But his relief didn't last. As he held Koushirou's gaze, something at the edge of his vision fell and clattered against the ground.

-Cling!-

He looked down.

The upper part of a blade.

"...?" He blinked in disbelief.

Then, he inspected what was still in his hand.

It was the lower half, together with the hilt.

His blade had been cut clean through.

"Dayum," Dan muttered, his mouth twitching in disbelief.

He had expected Koushirou to be strong. But expecting it and watching his steel sword split cleanly in two were different things entirely.

Especially because it had been steel.

'And that can only mean...'

A bead of sweat rolled down his forehead, his eyes settling on Koushirou with a new assessment.

He might have bitten off a bit more than he could chew.

Koushirou's smile widened slightly as he watched his opponent realize he might have made a mistake in fighting him.

"This is the next step for a swordsman—a technique beyond strength or speed. A state in which the swordsman and the sword become one. What he doesn't wish to cut, the sword won't cut. What he wills to cut, the sword will split apart, even steel."

"Yeah... I can see that." Dan muttered, staring at what remained of his blade with gloominess—the one he'd been saving for Arlong, now halved and useless.

Koushirou looked at him with something close to warmth. "I don't know how long someone like you has practiced swordsmanship, but your ability is undeniable. Your style is also incredibly similar to my own, even though I don't remember ever teaching you. Regardless of its origin though, through it I can see a dedication to your goal that is nothing short of admirable. The entire village might hate you, and while that's justified, you have yet to commit something truly irredeemable. Which is why I showed you the path that lies ahead of your swordsmanship—even though I have yet to completely master it myself."

Dan pulled his gaze from the broken blade and looked back at him. "So... you're letting me go?"

Koushirou let out a quiet, amused breath and shook his head. "Unfortunately, no. As the sensei of this village and one of its protectors, I'll do what I must—I'll apprehend you. The reason I showed you this is because you've shown me a character worth changing. Once you've served your sentence, I hope you'll put this knowledge to use and lead your sword toward a better path."

Dan stared at him in disbelief, and Kuina, from the shadows, did too.

"That sounds a bit idealistic, don't you think?" he asked.

"Perhaps. But whether you attain this or not depends entirely on you. I only gave you knowledge of its existence."

"I see..." Dan nodded.

But then his grip on his half-sword tightened.

"Sadly, that won't do. I need to be somewhere else right now. So I'm not getting thrown in a cell."

"Unfortunately, I don't think you have a choice. You're bested."

"Am I?"

Dan smirked.

Then—

—Clang!—

"...?!"

He threw his half sword at Koushirou, who blocked it with a startled look. Understandably—tossing one's own weapon like a rock wasn't a conventional move, even with the blade reduced to a stub.

But that wasn't the end. Koushirou's eyebrows lifted as, after blocking, the other half came flying at him—kicked off from the ground by Dan.

—Clang!—

He blocked that too, but blocking both halves had cost him his focus on Dan himself, who had already slipped into the darkness of the night and become hard to track for that split of an instant.

By the time Koushirou picked him up again—the moonlight catching the gleam of his sunglasses—Dan was already right in front of him, a pistol leveled at his face.

Koushirou reacted on instinct, lifting his sword to knock it aside.

And in doing so, he didn't see the knee coming for his side.

-Thud!-

The blow landed harder than expected. Despite the size difference, Dan's strength was considerable, and even Koushirou couldn't stop himself from taking a few steps back, a sharp breath escaping him as the pain registered.

"That was a bit dirty, wasn't it?" he said, steadying himself with a frown.

"I never said I was a swordsman, did I?"

Koushirou's brows lifted.

Indeed, he hadn't.

The chivalrous code, the unspoken agreement to fight with swords only, the expectation of honor—Koushirou had assumed all of it. And that had been his mistake. This had never been a duel, even when it looked like one.

The only difference now was that one of them had stopped pretending.

Koushirou let out a quiet chuckle. "I see. I made a mistake, then."

He readied his sword.

"I'll apprehend you now."

"Will you?"

Koushirou lunged without answering.

And noticed immediately that something had changed.

Dan simply dashed back, opening distance. Koushirou gave chase, and Dan retreated again. They repeated this at least five times, Dan staying just out of reach each time, until Koushirou finally stopped, his breathing beginning to even out.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

Dan shrugged with a smirk. "Didn't I say I wasn't a swordsman? I don't need to clash with you like it's a duel anymore. I'll just let you wear yourself out chasing me."

"..."

The man in front of him was more troublesome than he'd seemed.

Koushirou let out a wry, faintly annoyed smile. "Then I won't give chase."

Dan looked satisfied by that. "Then I'll just walk away."

"..." Koushirou's eyebrow twitched.

Right—he was here to apprehend him. Which meant he had no choice but to give chase. He couldn't simply let him leave.

"..."

"..."

The two stared at each other in silence.

Then—

"Is that so? Then I don't need to hold back either!" A voice came from just behind Dan, barely a meter away.

A blur of blue shot forward, followed by the gleam of a sword.

Kuina.

But just as her sword was falling down on him—

"Ah?!"

—Dan sidestepped at the last instant, slipped behind her, put her in a lock with one of his arms while batting her grip over the Wado Ichimonji away, and—

-Click-

—press the pistol to her head.

"Kuina?!" Koushirou's eyes shot wide.

"F-father!"

Kuina fought to break free, but Dan's strength held her easily.

He smirked at their reaction.

Her surprise attack would have worked on most people—but Dan had been running his night vision from the start and had seen her creeping up well in advance. He'd been perfectly ready when she moved.

"Let her go," Koushirou's expression had hardened.

"Not until you put down your sword."

"Don't listen to him, father—his gun was empty the last time!"

Dan laughed. "That was months ago. I've got ammunition now. Just not much of it, so I'd rather not waste any."

He didn't really.

"So? Drop the sword." He bluffed, gesturing toward Koushirou with a nod.

Conflict passed across Koushirou's otherwise composed face.

But his hesitation didn't last long.

-Clang-

His sword hit the ground, landing on the soft bed of grass.

Dan nodded. "Now kick it over. Since you cut the one I had, I'll need a replacement."

Koushirou did as he was told without a word. The sword slid across the grass and came to a stop near Dan's feet.

Kuina moved to break free and grab it.

Sadly, Dan didn't budge. With Tireless running, his grip and energy weren't going anywhere.

"That's it."

With the sword in reach, he gave a short nod—and released Kuina. But not the way they'd been expecting.

—Whack!—

He brought the pommel of the gun down on the back of her head before she could process she had been freed.

-Thud!-

So, down she went.

"Kuina!" Koushirou's face contorted.

Dan scoffed, crouching to pick up the sword. "Don't worry. I hit her just hard enough. She'll be out for a while, that's all."

Silence stretched as Koushirou stared between him and Kuina.

Dan's eyes drifted to her too, his expression briefly less certain than he'd like.

'She'll be fine, right? I didn't just become fate's replacement for her stairs, did I?'

-Groan-

A small sound escaped her, so Dan let out a quiet sigh of relief.

He looked back at Koushirou, who wore an expression Dan had never seen from him—genuinely angry, the usual calculative look behind those slit eyes replaced with something harder.

"Final order, and she stays safe."

"What is it now?"

"Turn around and drop to your knees."

"...!"

Koushirou's frown deepened. "You're going to kill me?"

"Just do it, or—"

He pointed the gun at Kuina. That was enough.

After a moment's hesitation, Koushirou complied, turning and lowering himself to his knees. His back to Dan. His neck exposed. Without his sword at hand, he wasn't a threat at this distance.

So Dan approached and set the blade against Koushirou's neck.

"I still have the gun on her, so don't try anything."

"..." Koushirou nodded slowly. "Just... spare her life. After you're done with me."

"Hah." A short laugh. "That won't be up for me to decide."

Koushirou didn't follow that, but he didn't have time to.

The sword left his neck.

His face tightened, bracing for what came next.

But what came instead—

-Tack-

—was a small bump on his head. Painful, but not much more.

"...?" Koushirou blinked.

"Checkmate." Dan's voice followed. "A bit dirty—but that's part of what I am, so I don't see the issue."

Koushirou tilted his head to look at him, seeing the smirk.

"I'm not going to kill you," Dan said, and Koushirou went still.

He looked at himself—kneeling, back turned, neck exposed. It was the picture of an execution.

"Then what was this?"

Dan let out a short snort. "Me establishing an absolute victory. At this moment, your life was in my hands. The fact that you'll continue living was my decision."

Koushirou sat with that for a few seconds, turning it over.

What was this man after? Recognition? Self-assurance? Some kind of sadistic streak?

"... Why?" Koushirou asked, unable to piece it together.

The answer was simpler than he'd expected.

"Because the words of the absolute victor carry more weight than those of a loser."

"...?"

"I'm in a bit of a hurry, so I'll keep it short." A note of impatience crept into his tone. "Call it prophetic dreams, or whatever you like. The only reason I came to your house tonight—the sharpening stone, all of it..."

He pointed the sword toward Kuina, still on the ground. Koushirou's eyes followed it.

"...Was to prevent her death."

"...?"

Koushirou was speechless.

Dan continued regardless.

"A while ago, I saw it in a dream. Her death." He pointed at the sword beside Kuina, the Wado Ichimonji. "The morning after her and Zoro's duel with real swords, she decided to give her blade maintenance, went up to the second floor of your shed to fetch the stone, and fell. That's what my dream showed me."

"..."

"Believe it or don't—it's not a credible source, I know. But the point of telling you is so you can at least take some precautions."

"What do you mean?"

"The reason I left the stone at the entrance of the shed is so that she wouldn't need to go upstairs today. But that doesn't solve it for good. Whether her death is something fated, or just a coincidence that was solved with just what I did, it's unknown—and thus, the chance that it could still happen remains. That's where you enter."

"... How?"

"It's simple. Move the sword-maintenance equipment to the first floor. Keep it there. No stairs, no fall. Simple enough, even if I can't tell you how effective it'll actually be. There are countless stories where the path one takes to avoid fate is the one that leads back to it, but it's the only thing that I can think of that can be done that'll assure somewhat that a tragic fall from a second floor won't happen."

"You are speaking as if this is truly a certain future."

"Hey, it's your daughter that is in possible mortal danger, not mine. If you want to just treat this as me having schizophrenia and risk it really happening, be my guest. But I'm just asking you to move stuff down a floor, and watch out for it."

"..." Koushirou didn't have an answer for that.

With that, Dan stepped back, giving him space.

Koushirou rose to his feet, and turned to look at him, his expression difficult to read.

He didn't give chase, didn't move to apprehend him.

He just stared.

After a few moments of silence, he spoke up. "...Why do this? From what I know, you've been tormenting this village constantly, as if you drew pleasure in it. So, forgive me for doubting you, but it seems a bit contrasting."

Dan smiled wryly, and sheathed his new sword—the scabbard left it a little lose, since it was from a saber while Koushirou's sword was a katana, but it'd have to do until he could get a new one.

"You can see that torment I made you guys go through as my payment for doing this good deed—or call this good deed the payment for all that torment. Either way, it doesn't matter to me. You won't be hearing of me after this anyway… or you will, but not from this island."

He turned and walked away. Koushirou didn't follow.

With what he had learned, his lack of a sword, the other party's freaky unending stamina, and his daughter lying on the cold ground, there was no point in chasing after him.

So he only stared as his back slowly disappeared into the foliage.

However, just before he could truly disappear, the figure turned and gave Koushirou a look.

A grateful one.

"Thank you for your lessons until now. I'll be sure to put them to good use."

"...?"

Dan turned around without acknowledging Koushirou's confused expression, starting to walk away, but not before tossing one last line over his shoulder.

"The next time you hear of me, it'll be on a bounty poster."

And with those words, he truly left. Leaving a silent and pensive Koushirou behind.

...

────────────────────────

-To Be Continued...-

────────────────────────

(A/N: And so, he won. A bit cheaply, but Dan was still not quite strong enough to take him one on one in an actual duel. Fortunately, Kuina arrived and came in clutch at the last second to decide the result of the duel for good.

Also, I decided for Koushirou to not have completely mastered the steel cutting thingy/haki, since it feels to me that he spent most if not all his life in the village, and thus, his knowledge about the boundaries of swordsmanship comes mostly from his father and whoever else came from Wano, plus whatever he discovered himself. He is beginning to understand it, given the teachings he gave Zoro in the canon, but hasn't achieved the whole thing nor does he has the need to as he lives in a peaceful place.

So in power scaling, he'd be pre-Arabasta Zoro—minus the super strength of course.)

 

[The Synonym]

────────────────────────
[Departure]
────────────────────────

...

Dan walked home with a slight hurry, his new sword clattering slightly against its unfitting scabbard.

As he walked, he lifted his head to stare at the moon, now at its peak, visible through the many leaves of the trees around.

"I'm still quite weak, aren't I?" he suddenly muttered, smiling wryly.

Despite all his training—almost a year of it—Koushirou still ended up being stronger. Which led him to resort to playing dirty to win.

He didn't mind it that much. He was, after all, a literal cheater. Playing dirty should be his second nature.

But the fact that he'd had to play dirty to beat someone like Koushirou still bothered him somewhat.

Not to say the man wasn't strong—he actually wasn't sure where Koushirou stood in the grand hierarchy, but Dan was sure of one thing.

He couldn't be above Arlong.

And yet, he still hadn't been able to beat him with raw skill.

'It's kinda assholy I'm comparing probably years of his life spent in training to less than a year for me.'

Dan's smile twitched wryly as he gave himself a second look.

But as bad as he looked, the fact that he'd been given an otherworldly power and was still struggling against someone like Koushirou bothered him.

Even more so because his clash with Arlong was coming soon.

Thanks to all the time he'd had to plan this out, he'd already laid out a plan on how to deal with the fish-man when the time came—but it all remained theoretical in the end.

Considering the gap in strength there was, anything could go wrong.

And it wasn't just Arlong that was the problem.

He was still pitifully weak compared to the rest of the world, and his growth speed, while considered good by the people here, was nothing special on a wider scale.

He wanted to become a criminal great enough to shake this world to its core—and, of course, break reality apart with his hacks. But so far, he hadn't even left the starting line.

He needed to grow stronger.

He needed to do so faster.

His own system was still ripe with power waiting to be taken.

And the opportunities lay bare for the taking.

—just, outside of this island.

Which was why it was time to leave, now that his business here was over.

Steeling his gaze, he sped up his pace.

After walking through the forest for a while, he reached the coast, where he found the cave he used to hide his sword and pistol.

He had stored his supplies there as well—a pair of barrels, not too big, filled with food and water to last him a few days.

If they ran out for some unforeseen reason—like an unplanned extension of his time at sea—he'd have to dip into his small NP reserve to buy supplies once he reached land again.

Hopefully not, because he was short on that shit. There was a reason he hadn't gotten a new hack in a while.

Grumbling in annoyance, he walked up to the barrels and hefted them onto his shoulders.

He was already carrying his sword and gun, so with the barrels added, he was fully ready to leave.

After a brief inspection to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything, he made his way out, heading toward the docks where his ship would be waiting.

A few minutes later, he was nearing it.

On the way, he passed by his home, set up on a hill right next to the docks. He set the barrels down and went inside.

There wasn't much to collect. His life hadn't been really luxurious as the original Dan since he never had money for anything as an orphan, nor as the new one with otherworldly memories since most of what he earned went toward food to pull himself out of his malnourished state, and toward newspapers to learn whatever the series hadn't filled him in on about the world.

So overall, he hadn't truly owned much.

Except for one thing.

Dan walked to his bed and pulled out a notebook hidden beneath the straw that made up his mattress.

An expensive purchase, bought back when his memories of the series had started to fade. In it, he'd recorded enough to make sure the important parts wouldn't slip away entirely.

As for the risk of someone finding it—he'd written everything in barely legible scribbles and half-recognizable sketches.

Anyone who looked inside would just be confused by it, and probably question his sanity, either for the contents or for wasting good paper on something so senseless.

Dan tucked it under his shirt—no pockets, so that was the only option—and walked out of the house, ready to grab his rations and head to the boat for good.

But as he closed the door behind him, a figure was waiting outside.

"Didn't have much in there, huh?"

Dan stopped, staring at the person sitting on the log by the fireplace.

Old Shun.

'Did he see me sneak up here?' Dan wondered, staring at him oddly.

He was still wearing his sunglasses, so there was no way old Shun knew who he was.

Dan looked around, squinting for any sign of an ambush, thinking that maybe Koushirou might have alerted the villagers after their fight.

But weirdly, there was no one.

So Dan looked back at Shun, a bit thrown by the fact that the old man had apparently just been sitting there, waiting to talk.

"It was a bit empty," He answered, playing the part of a thief disappointed by the haul.

Shun let out a scoff. "A kid lives there. Lost his parents in the pirate raid we had years ago. Whatever you took from him, do you really need it?"

Dan gave the shed one last look. "... Yeah. What I took, I'm sure he won't be needing it."

"Really shameless. No wonder the entire island wants to hang you." Shun said before turning slowly toward the barrels with Dan's supplies. "Though, I suppose they won't get the chance anymore. You're leaving, aren't you?"

Dan didn't nod, didn't say anything. But his silence seemed to be answer enough for the old man.

"If you're leaving, what could the kid possibly have that you need more than him? I'll give you some fish from our last haul. Should keep you fed for however long you've got planned."

"..." Dan tilted his head, looking at him oddly. "Why are you so worried about what I took from him?"

"That kid's been through enough. He's a good kid. Even after losing his parents, he kept trying his best to survive. Tenacious to the bone, even when he was completely alone. He's doing better for himself nowadays, but I wouldn't want to see something else happen to him. So please, whatever you took..."

"I took something of no importance. He won't care." Dan said, cutting him off.

And it really was nothing important. To the kid old Shun was talking about, the notes would have meant nothing.

And even if they had, that kid had been gone a long while.

Even the older Dan from his other memories was gone too—eroded away by the new memories he'd made as someone new, the inevitable result of two people becoming one.

Both people might have lingered for a while after the fusion. But by now, neither of them was here.

Only he was.

Ignoring the old man's worried face, Dan walked past him, hefted the barrels back onto his shoulders, and started toward the port.

But just as he was about to disappear for good, he stopped.

Right ahead, leaning against a wooden fence, was his fishing rod. He'd left it there to dry after a stormy outing the other day and hadn't picked it up since.

His mouth twisted in displeasure. But despite that—

"Hngh."

He set down one barrel, slung the fishing rod over his shoulder instead, then picked the barrel back up.

Old Shun's eyes widened. "W-wait, that's the kid's—"

"He won't need it anymore." Dan cut him off, turning forward again. "He won't be coming back after today."

"W-what did you do to him?!"

Dan gave him a wry look. "I didn't do anything to him. He's just left this place. Same as I plan to."

The old man went still for a second.

"W-where could he have possibly gone?"

Dan paused for a moment, unpleasant silence stretching.

Until he smiled slightly.

"Who knows?"

And with that, he walked away for good, ignoring the old man's shouts behind him.

Eventually, he reached the docks. A few villagers standing guard rushed at him the moment he came into view.

But after setting down one of the barrels, it took him all of five seconds to deal with them—knocking them out before picking the barrel back up and carrying everything toward the ship he'd chosen. A small vessel, built for one or two people, tied to the dock by a single rope.

A few minutes later, he had fully boarded it.

The moment he set foot on it, unloading his stuff onto it, Dan took a long breath and gazed at the night horizon, letting the cold sea breeze hit his face.

Finally, here he was.

The start of his journey.

As he let that fact sink in, a small smile crept up his face.

Then, without hesitation, he brought his new sword down on the rope tying his ship to the island.

-Swhack!-

It snapped instantly.

Almost immediately, the ship began drifting away from the dock.

Quickly, Dan hoisted the sail and adjusted the rudder, catching the night wind. Soon after, the ship picked up speed, sailing off in the opposite direction of the island.

As he glanced back, he saw several lights rush into the docks at a frantic pace. Several villagers had made their entrance, holding torches and swords—a good old angry mob.

A tad too late, sadly. With how far he was already into the sea, they could only watch as his ship drifted away.

'I suppose I'll have to get used to that kind of sight. There will be plenty of angry mobs in my future.'

Dan snorted at the thought.

Before long, he stood amid the endless ocean, dark under the night sky, lit only by the full moon above, watching the island and the lights of the angry villagers shrink behind him.

The place he had lived most of his life. Where he had grown up and learned. Where his parents had been, and where they died. Where he had become stronger.

Also, strangely, an unfamiliar place these days. After the memories of his older self had settled in, the familiarity he'd always felt toward it had twisted into something he couldn't quite name.

He felt at home, but not completely. He knew the place better than anyone, yet it felt like unfamiliar ground. He knew the people, yet felt like a stranger among them.

Maybe the fusion of both perspectives had come with side effects like that.

But it didn't erase the fondness he held for it—his birthplace, after all.

'And these days, I suppose it was becoming a more enjoyable place too.'

He thought, smiling faintly, as the faces of Old Shun, the fishing crew, Kuina, Koushirou, Zoro, and the rest of the students surfaced in his mind.

His eyes opened again, drifting to the fishing rod now leaning against the mast.

Fondness or not, it was time to leave.

Huffing, he turned and walked to the front of the ship, staring out at what lay ahead as the wind ruffled his hair.

Now, to embark on a new adventure.

...

────────────────────────

-To Be Continued...-

────────────────────────

(A/N: And so, the somewhat training arc is over. Why somewhat? Because the next arc should also be somewhat of training and becoming stronger, though this time with certainly more stakes than before, and thus greater growth. Also, from now on Dan will truly begin fiddling with his system functions so he can overcome the unjustly high wall that Arlong is right now. So look forward to that.)

 

[The Synonym]

────────────────────────
[Arrival]
────────────────────────

...

The sun was unusually hot that day.

"I'm going crazy."

Dan lay on his back, shirtless, staring at the blue sky above with a dead look.

Two entire days had passed. Two entire days alone, sunbathing, and surrounded by kilometers and kilometers of water with only a few meters of wood to walk on.

From time to time, he had seen ships sailing in the distance. Sadly, not near enough to go and terrorize them to farm some NP and have some fun while at it.

All he had been able to do was stare at the endless expanse of the ocean, adjust the sails, check the compass, and eat something whenever his stomach demanded fuel.

And that occupied two hours out of twenty-four at most.

They really didn't address this in almost any media.

"It's no wonder crews are made. Besides the bigger manpower required for larger ships, having company would make the monotony of this a lot smoother..."

Sadly, he didn't have any—save for some seagulls who flew overhead from time to time, or fish that'd swim near the boat.

Luckily, it wasn't all bad. Surprisingly, the utterly useless AutoExist script he was given when his system arrived had actually been worth something this time, letting him skip over portions of the endless days by doing quite literally what its name said, auto existing.

Unfortunately, someone had to keep an eye on the ship's direction constantly, so the skips could never be too long.

But it was something at least, and without AutoExist, he'd have skipped a lot less of the boring time.

"I'm never calling it fucking utterly useless—just a bit useless."

Smirking at that, he let out a sigh and slowly pushed himself up.

Time to check the compass and the wind direction again.

But as he was making his way to the front of the ship, he blinked in surprise. In the distance—very far in the distance—he spotted a dot.

"Another ship?" he muttered, squinting and raising a hand against the sun.

At that distance, it was hard to tell. The sea fog also didn't make it any easier.

Huffing, he shrugged and went back to his business.

Minutes later, he was done with the check. Seeing his only entertainment for the day over, he let out a yawn and wondered whether to run the script again and jump one hour into the future.

Only to snap his head toward the front of the ship as he caught sight of the dot—now noticeably bigger.

It wasn't a dot anymore.

It was an island.

His dead expression lifted in an instant, face breaking into a beam.

"Ahoooy, land ahea—alright, that's too much."

Despite shutting down his own lame attempt at sounding like a sailor, he was still smiling.

At last, his journey was over—or at least, he'd be getting a break from it in case this wasn't the island and he had to go back to the ocean eventually.

Which one it was? He'd find out in a few hours, when the ship finally hit land.

...

°

°

°

| Three hours later... |

...

"Sweet earth."

Dan dropped to his knees and hugged the ground as his ship docked on the sand at the coast of the island—or rather, islands. Turns out, the closer he got, the more islands became visible.

Regardless, that wasn't in Dan's mind at all at the moment.

"At last, the floor doesn't move…"

Solid, firm, unmoving ground had never felt so good.

He didn't even care that his shirt was getting dirty.

—Or maybe he did care.

"Alright, enough." He stood back up quickly and patted the sand off his shirt.

As his appreciation for land quieted down, he gave his surroundings a curious look.

He was at a beach, so there wasn't much to see—other than a coconut tree he might try his hand at climbing and eating from.

The jerky he'd been eating for the past few days had gotten old a while ago.

"Now then, the real question is... am I at the right place, or not?"

Since this was an Archipelago, as seen from the considerable number of islands on his way to this one, there was a chance he was in the correct place.

Cocoyashi Village was supposed to be at an Archipelago called the Conami Islands.

And given he hadn't had major detours during his way here, or that there weren't supposed to be other Archipelagos on the direct route from Shimotsuki Village to the Conami Islands, it was safe to say he had actually arrived at his destination.

Unless he actually sucked as a navigator, and somehow got himself to somewhere completely random that coincidentally had an archipelago.

There was no shortage of archipelagos in this sea, after all. If he truly had been incompetent at using the compass and adjusting the sail, there was a chance that happened.

'My weeks of learning weren't for nothing, were they?'

Hopefully he was in the right place. He didn't want to go back to sea that quickly—not before getting a proper break from the monotony, and finding for himself something that might alleviate the long hours of travel with nothing to do.

Fishing helped a little, but not enough.

Having nothing to occupy his mind for hours at a stretch was the real killer.

Something he planned to fix before the next trip.

Maybe he could buy an instrument, or anything else that might keep his mind busy long enough.

'That or I can just practice with my sword—the swaying from the sea might make for a nice challenge… or a good way to expel my lunches.'

While he smirked at his own thoughts, he pushed his vessel into the sand, grabbed a rope, tied it to a nearby tree, and without further ado, dove into the forest that covered the beach and hid whatever lay behind it.

Two minutes into the foliage, cutting his way through leaves and bushes, Dan grumbled in annoyance as he slapped the fifth mosquito to try its luck in that short stretch.

"Ugh, will I ever get a mosquito-repellent hack?"

It'd be funny if he did.

Also pretty useful.

"Ugh, finally." He exhaled as the light increased and the foliage thinned out.

He reached a clearing, and a bit further ahead, several buildings sat surrounded by a fence—not too big, but numerous enough to call itself a village.

With a satisfied look, he made his way toward it, already planning to find somewhere to eat and rest the moment he was inside.

Minutes later, he entered the village. There were a few villagers at the entrance who called out to him when they saw him coming. But given that he was a kid—even if one carrying a sword—they let him through after a brief round of questions.

It wasn't exactly common for a child to appear out of nowhere, but it wasn't extremely outrageous either. Orphans weren't rare in this world, and kids who wandered and found work where they could were a familiar enough sight. So, after getting a brief backstory out of him, they let him go without any fuss.

At most, they assumed he was part of some passing merchant crew—learning the sword to serve as protection, however flimsy.

With free passage, Dan made straight for the nearest inn.

The moment he was inside, he asked the clerk for a bowl of soup with extra meat, paid, then went to sit down.

The chairs were good. As soon as he settled into one, he let his entire body relax, finally letting the fact that he was on steady land sink in properly into his body.

At last, he wouldn't have to sleep in short stretches just to stay on top of the ship's direction and the wind.

At last, he wouldn't have to lie on cold wooden planks for hours.

At last, he'd see something other than water.

'Phew, I hated it more than I expected., didn't I?... well, now I know what to account for the next time I set off.' He mused, planning not to make the same mistake twice.

'Maybe instead of an instrument, books might do the job. They can deepen my base knowledge, and will be pretty much the closest thing to the internet in this world… Although the constant swaying will be a pain in the ass when trying to read.'

While Dan sat with those thoughts, footsteps approached.

He turned to find a granny making her way over with a large bowl of the soup he'd ordered, a small loaf of bread tucked under her arm.

"Here you go, kiddo." She set both down in front of him, smirking at his barely-contained expression.

"Ahem, yes, thank you."

And without waiting for anything else she might have to say, Dan started eating. He broke off a piece of the fresh bread, dunked it into the soup, and after devouring it in one swoop, took a long sip of the steamy liquid.

It was a pleasure he hadn't known he could get from something as simple as soup.

As he ate, the granny still hadn't left—and spoke up.

"By the way, what's a kid as young as you doing out alone? What are you, twelve?"

"Ten," Dan answered between bites.

"Pretty young, then. So how come you're out here on your own, carrying a sword at that?" she asked, eyes drifting to the sword resting across his lap.

Dan stopped for a second, giving her a mildly annoyed look for the prying. "I'm an orphan. I travel alone and find whatever work I can. I know a bit of swordsmanship, so it helps."

"Swordsmanship?" She gave him a look. "Kid, just swinging a sword around ain't swordsmanship. You gotta know how to swing it, and actually have the muscles for it."

"So?"

"So? Your arms look like noodles."

Dan paused and lifted one arm, flexing slightly.

—They did look a bit like noodles.

But thick noodles now, compared to back when he was malnourished and they'd been more like spaghetti.

Huffing, he turned back to her. "My muscles are just compact. I have more than enough strength to swing this sword."

She looked at him through narrowed, wrinkled eyes. Awkward silence settling in.

In the end, though, she waved him off. "Sure, sure, whatever you say. Anyway, what brings such a busy little man to this Archipelago? I'm pretty sure we don't have much to offer other than fruit and rice."

"I'm looking for Cocoyashi Village."

"Cocoyashi Village?" Her face shifted into a briefly puzzled look before her eyebrows shot up. "Oh, that little village. It's to the south-west of the Archipelago. Pretty plain place, though—I don't know what kind of business you'd find there, kiddo."

"Lots," Dan declared, and went back to his food.

The woman looked at him strangely, then shrugged. "Well, enjoy your food, kiddo. And good luck."

Dan lifted his face just long enough to mutter a "Thanks" before diving back in.

'This soup is amazing. When I become a major criminal, I'm making this inn my territory.'

...

°

°

°

| An hour later... |

...

Dan walked calmly through the rice fields, looking around with a bored expression.

"...Well, given that no one looks like they're going through hell or that tragedy has struck, I think it's safe to say Arlong hasn't gotten here yet."

Otherwise, the air in that village—and the few others he'd passed through on the way here—would have felt a lot more miserable.

There was such air around a few guys who'd been slumped against the walls of what looked like a bar with a casino front, but judging by the state they were in, those were exceptional cases.

Regardless, despite Arlong's non-arrival being good news, that information didn't bring him comfort.

If Arlong had already been here when he arrived, he could have felt a lot less guilty about the consequences—he wouldn't have been able to do anything to stop it, so he couldn't really be blamed.

But now that he was here before him, if he failed to stop anything, or ended up having to let the ugly part play out first due to a lack of resources and strength... he'd feel very bad.

Which he wasn't supposed to care about, given his plans to become a criminal and yada yada, you already know it.

Sadly, he still hadn't mastered the art of not giving a damn—so for now, he could only hope a storm caught the fish and delayed him by a few months.

Or years, if the world was feeling generous.

Otherwise, this was going to be quite the character-developing arc for the ROB's little story.

'I refuse to have character development,' Dan cursed inwardly, frowning.

—At least, the tragedy kind.

He had come here to make the world his and cheat his way shamelessly through it. He wasn't about to get tragedy in the middle of his chaotic power fantasy.

-Sigh-

At least, that's what he hoped.

Minutes later, he stood before the entrance to the village—an opening in the fence with a sign hung above it bearing the name.

"Welcome to Cocoyashi Village... well, couldn't have been more specific."

He was finally here.

Now came the rough part.

But of course, it was also time for powering up.

And farming NP.

So, with those plans settled in his head, he stepped forward, crossing the entrance.

…

────────────────────────

-To Be Continued...-

────────────────────────

(A/N: And so it begins.)

 

[The Synonym]

────────────────────────
[A Job]
────────────────────────

…

After admiring the simple entrance for a moment, Dan didn't beat around the bush and walked straight into the village, looking around with a curious look as he once again reached another important location in the show.

Of course, that novelty only lasted about five or six steps before he realized it was just a boring and small village like any other, with barely anything interesting to it besides its tragic future.

Was he really going to spend his next days here until Arlong came?

He was going to die of boredom, that was for sure.

'At least it's not the ocean.'

He shrugged, realizing it might not be that bad.

As he walked in, glancing around to check what might be worth his time—like the library, or a small inn where he could relish some new food—a figure suddenly made its way toward him, soon projecting its shadow over him and making him stop his sightseeing.

"Are you lost, kid?"

Dan turned and saw a man with a mustache and a brown uniform, staring down at him with a frown.

There was a brief moment of confusion about his identity, but after a second or so he spent squinting at him, his eyes widened as he realized who this was.

He was... well, he didn't remember his name. But he was kind of the sheriff of this village.

He stood up to Arlong when the fishman tried to take Nami away to join his crew, but ended up with scars all over his body as a result.

To think he'd be the first one Dan met upon arriving here.

—Although, on second thought, he was an unknown kid wandering into the village like it was the most common thing in the world. Since the guy was kind of the sheriff, he was obligated to check what was going on.

Dan looked around, arms crossed. "I don't think so. This is Cocoyashi Village, ain't it?"

The man looked a bit startled by the answer.

"So you really aren't lost?" He gave Dan a look over, brow raising at the sight of his pistol and sword. "Brat, don't tell me you came here to cause trouble?"

Dan sneaked a glance at his things before shaking his head. "I'm just here to find work. The sword and gun are things I picked up on my travels for protection. Look, my gun isn't even loaded."

He showed the gun to the man, who gave it a brief inspection.

After checking the chamber, and noticing the long wear of time since it had been used, he gave Dan a simple nod.

"I suppose it's not... So, work? A kid like you?"

Dan shrugged.

"Food isn't free, y'know?"

The man raised a brow. "What about your parents?"

Dan pointed a finger upward. "Up there."

The man followed the direction of the finger, glanced at the sky, and deadpanned.

Still, he didn't seem entirely convinced.

"Still, why here? Seeing where you came from, you must have passed at least three villages on your way here."

'This old guy sure likes to ask questions, doesn't he?'

Dan was silent for a bit.

"I, uh... I already did jobs there. I am something like a nomad, so I go from place to place doing temporary stuff for money, then I move somewhere else to continue my travels."

As he said that, the man looked at him with an unimpressed gaze.

Dan met his gaze with an equally flat one.

The contest of bored looks lasted about five seconds before the man let out a defeated sigh.

"Alright. If you say so, kid."

And so, he handed the gun back.

"Anyway, the name's Genzo, sheriff of this village. If you're having any kind of trouble, don't hesitate to call. Equally, if you're causing any kind of trouble, don't think I won't show up."

"I'll keep it in mind."

And like that, he was just about to turn around to go on his way when—

"So, what can you do, kid?" Genzo suddenly continued the conversation he thought had ended.

Dan paused. "What do you mean?"

Genzo's brows furrowed. "You're looking for work, aren't you? I know everybody here, so I can tell you where you might find what you're searching for."

"Right, right..." Dan laughed wryly.

In hindsight, it might be a good idea to turn this lie he'd made up just now into reality.

While he performed his daily "activities" here, it would be good to have an income and an excuse for staying indefinitely until Arlong got here.

That way, he could also keep a tight watch on the place constantly.

"So what can you do?" Genzo prodded again.

"I... know how to fish, and I'm quite good at it." Dan said, patting himself down to show off his fishing rod before realizing he'd left it at his boat. So, instead, he gestured to his sword next. "And I also know some swordsmanship..."

Genzo gave him a weird look.

"I... don't think there are many jobs you can do here with those skills, kid. There's no fishing crew in this village since all the fish we get is from other villages, and as for your 'swordsmanship' abilities, we're rather peaceful, so I doubt there's any money to be made through those. Not looking for an intern, either. Anything else you know how to do?"

Dan scratched his head, troubled. "Well, I'm not sure this counts as an ability exactly, but I'm also pretty strong and have a lot of stamina."

Genzo looked him up and down, not a single hint of belief running through his eyes.

"Whatever you say, kid."

Dan's eyebrow twitched.

But before he could complain, Genzo spoke.

"Let me be honest, kid. We're doing pretty well as of now. I don't think anyone has the need for an employee... Although..." He tapped a finger against his mouth, eyes narrowing, as if suddenly remembering something.

"Although?"

"There's a family at the outskirts of the village. They own a tangerine farm. Considering it's only one person who manages it every day, they might need extra hands for all the labor it takes to maintain that much land. The owner has two kids about your age, but I'm not sure how much help they can actually be at the farm. If you're as strong and untiring as you say, you might be of help—although I'm not sure if they can pay you much."

"I see..." Dan said, pretending to think about it.

In reality, he was pretty gobsmacked by the offer.

He didn't need to hear more details to know who Genzo was talking about.

It was pretty obvious this farm family were Bell-mère, Nojiko, and Nami.

'For real...?'

... Yeah, he'd said he wanted to keep a tight watch on the place, but he wasn't sure about doing so from that close.

Although, on second thought, there wasn't really any problem with doing it from that point. He was just reluctant to get involved firsthand, instead of just watching from the sidelines like he would prefer.

In fact, it would allow him to respond faster in case Arlong's fish-ass got here.

'Yeah, I guess it makes sense.'

Thus, with logic not supporting his whining, he ultimately shrugged his personal preferences aside and decided to go along with it.

Working there wouldn't change his original plan all that much anyways.

'The question is whether they'll have anything to pay me with.' Dan thought, recalling how Bell-mère had struggled with money a lot in the show.

Even if he asked, there was a high chance she'd just shake him off, unable to afford to pay him.

Though, there wasn't any reason not to ask, was there?

With a nod, he gave his thanks to Genzo, before making his way in the supposed farm's direction.

Along the way, he made sure to take note of any other point of interest he might have missed prior to being interrupted, like a carpentry that was somewhere further into the village, where he could ask them to improve his ship or ask for instruments so he could have something to distract himself during his travels.

He also asked around for a blacksmith, since he was going to need some bullets for his empty gun, and a scabbard that fit his new sword and didn't have it swinging up and down constantly.

It was getting on his nerves.

In the end, though, it turned out there was one, but he was quite a distance away, so that'd probably take a whole day of his in the future.

'I'll see when I have time.'

After a while, he arrived at the farm. It was quite big indeed for what was only a single mother and two little girls who were probably younger than him.

It'd take a lot of effort day after day to tend to it properly.

Not to mention selling—carrying all the fruits to the other villages would be a certified pain in the ass.

'Is that why Bell-mère wasn't doing well monetarily in the show?'

With such questions running through his mind, he eventually arrived before the door of the house.

-Knock, knock!-

He waited.

There was a bit of noise from inside for a moment, before the door opened with a creak.

From behind it, a girl with bright orange hair stepped out, looking at him in confusion—someone he recognized almost immediately.

'She sure looks innocent for the money greedy woman she becomes later on.'

Unaware of his thoughts, the girl in front of him stared him down with suspicion. "Who are you?"

"Is your mother here?" he asked, keeping his poker face firm.

"Depends on who's asking. If she owes you money, she isn't here—Aaah!"

She was soon pushed aside by an older woman, a redhead with a horrendous haircut in his opinion, a light-blue shirt, and a cigarette in her mouth.

"I said I had it, didn't I? She gave the orange-haired girl behind her an annoyed look, before turning to him. "Yeah, here I am. Who is—wait, a kid?"

Her head snapped again at the orange-haired girl.

"Oi, Nami, you hit another kid, didn't you?!"

"I didn't, I have never seen him in my entire life!"

Nami ran away immediately.

"Why that kid...!" She clicked her tongue, before turning to Dan with a wry smile. "Whatever my daughter did to you, I'm sorry, kid."

"I have actually never seen her in my life."

That was technically not a lie.

"Oh, you haven't?" She blinked, confused for a moment.

Then, slowly, her head turned to someone not visible from the door.

"Nojiko...?"

"I didn't do anything!" Some exclaimed from inside.

There was a flicker of suspicion in her gaze, before she turned to Dan again.

"She didn't, did she?"

"No."

She scratched the side of her head with her finger, utterly confused. "Well, that's weird... why are you here, then?"

"I came to look for a job."

"..."

"..."

Both stared at each other with poker faces for quite a few seconds.

Then, her face fell.

"A job?" She asked, incredulous. "Here?"

"Yeah," Dan said, putting on his most confident look.

"Doing what?" she asked again.

"Helping at the farm," Dan answered just as fast, jabbing a thumb at the farm right next to the house.

She let out a wry laugh. "No offense, kid, but you don't look like you'll be of much help. A farm is a lot of work, y'know? A lot of land to cover, and lots of heavy fruits to pick and carry under the strong sun. I'm afraid you won't make much of a difference."

"You don't know that, do you?" Dan said calmly, arms crossed.

She raised an eyebrow. She had expected him to get angry and complain at the dismissal, but he seemed calm instead.

An odd sight coming from a kid.

—Though, in the first place, why was a kid at her door asking for a job?

"Where are your parents, kid?" she asked, realizing she hadn't been asking the right questions.

"Dead."

"..."

She fell silent, wincing slightly at the truth—although she had expected it to an extent.

Otherwise, there was no reason a kid as young as him would be wandering here with that kind of request.

And whatever happened to his parents, it must have been recent, judging from the fact that he seemed well-fed.

Suddenly, she began reconsidering the idea of hiring him.

—But as much as it pained her to deny him a way to support himself, the fact remained that she could barely handle Nojiko and Nami as it was.

She didn't know if she could afford to pay the kid a salary just out of the kindness of her heart, when she was struggling with just two kids already.

But as she seemed to contemplate it in genuine agony, Dan spoke up.

"I'm not asking you to do this out of pity," he said, looking annoyed, before jabbing a thumb at himself. "I may not seem so, but I'm pretty strong and practically… tireless. Whatever you can pay me, I'll be worth it."

Despite his confidence, Bell-mère remained unconvinced, her expression hesitant.

Seeing that, Dan snorted. "If you're doubting me, I can show you."

"Show me? How are you going to do that, kid?"

Dan pulled his sleeve up, showing his massive nonexistent muscles with a grin.

"Let's arm wrestle."

...

°

°

°

| Minutes later... |

...

"... Hey, Nojiko, what is happening?"

"Why are you asking me? I'm just as confused as you are."

"Who is he?"

"How should I know?"

Both Nami and Nojiko stood by their table, staring as Dan and Bell-mère took their seats, her pulling up her sleeves just like Dan.

"I have to warn ya, kid, I used to be a marine. And working at the farm every single day hasn't exactly made me weaker." Bell-mère taunted, putting her elbow across the table and offering her hand.

Dan did too, grasping her hand. "If I want to prove I can work here too, I should at least be capable of handling something on that level, shouldn't I?"

She smirked. "You sure are confident for having noodle arms."

"Thick noodles."

"Whatever, kid. No complaints later, okay?"

Soon, the two were in position. So Bell-mère began the countdown.

Nojiko and Nami watched, speechless, as the whole thing unfolded. How come Bell-mère had suddenly entered a wrestling match with a kid their age?

They didn't get an answer.

"Three, two, one—" Bell-mère counted, taking in a deep breath.

Then, both tensed.

"Start!" Bell-mère shouted.

And at the same time, pushed against Dan.

For a moment, she believed she would slam Dan's hand against the table, ending the kid's overconfidence.

—But the next second, her eyes twitched as she felt all her force get opposed in equal measure.

She was startled for a second, then pushed harder.

Yet, her arm only pushed a bit further, before it retreated back to its original position, pushed back in equal measure.

'This kid...?!'

She gritted her teeth, eyes finally lifting from the clash of hands to see what her opponent looked like.

Teeth gritted, a deep frown now replacing the until-then calm look on the kid's face.

He was struggling, yes. But a kid shouldn't be able to even struggle.

She had been a goddamned marine, for god's sake. She wasn't a burly macho, but her strength wasn't supposed to be small either. Heck, she was sure she'd beat plenty of the guys at the village in strength.

Though, most of them were old men, so maybe that was a bad example.

But it didn't take away that she shouldn't be getting pushed around by a kid at least a third her age.

Had she grown weaker over the peaceful years she'd spent here, even though the physical toll of farm work wasn't so different from her training as a soldier?

However, she quickly dismissed that thought.

The kid was simply too strong. That was all.

'So he was speaking the truth, then?'

She felt the need to laugh at that.

To think something so unbelievable would actually turn out to be true. A kid with the strength of an adult.

Just what kind of freaky spawn had made its way to her door?

That didn't mean she was giving up, though!

With her teeth gritted and a vein bulging at her neck, she put down as much weight as she could on her side for one last attempt at throwing him off.

For a moment, Dan seemed to be overwhelmed, his arm slowly losing ground, his face wincing in helplessness.

But then, at the last possible second, just a centimeter from having the back of his hand touch the table, Dan suddenly released one last burst of strength, just like her.

With his arm actually bulging a little this time, he began pushing.

And pushing, and pushing.

Until, in the end—

-Tap-

Bell-mère's hand hit the table.

Both instantly released the hold, retreating from the table's center.

"Damn, kid. You were actually telling the truth."

"... Of course I was." Dan said, somewhat exhausted, but smiling proudly.

In the end, he didn't even need Tireless!

He was getting places, that was for sure.

At his answer, she laughed.

"I guess you would really be of help at the farm."

Dan grinned. "When do I begin, then?"

"I never said I was hiring you if you beat me, though?"

Dan, who'd been slumping tiredly in his chair, paused and gave her an outraged look.

She laughed harder.

"I'm joking, kid. With your help, it really should be easier to manage this whole place... though, I'm not sure I'll be able to pay you much. Tangerines are abundant in this archipelago, so for an unestablished vendor like me, let's just say business isn't as abundant."

Dan gave it a quick thought, before shrugging. "It's fine. I can get my own food and place to sleep, so I don't mind if it's little. I'm just looking to save up."

"Alright, then you start tomorrow... do show up, will you?"

"Sure."

While the two talked things out, Nami and Nojiko could only stare, baffled, as things unfolded beyond their understanding.

Eventually, they decided they didn't care, and walked out of the house.

Thus, leaving the two to their antics.

…

────────────────────────

-To Be Continued...-

────────────────────────

Time to reveal my real intentions all this long.

Money.

Jokes aside, you can go to my Patreon to get access to more chapters, and you'll be helping me make ends meet while doing so.

Though, just as an advice, there's too few advanced chapters for now, so hold on until I can stack up more if you want the 5 dollars of the subscription to be worth it.

pḁtreon.com/TheSynonym (Change the a)

──────

(A/N: Sorry for the wait, I had to go visit my grandma yesterday, and the visit lasted the whole day, so I couldn't upload.

 

[The Synonym]

────────────────────────
[A Job 2]
────────────────────────

| The next day, at 7:00 AM... |

...

Dan arrived early the next morning, dark circles under his eyes.

Bell-mère stared at him speechless, a cigar lit at her mouth. "What's with you, kid? Didn't sleep well?"

Dan groaned, scratching his side while blinking slowly, as if trying to catch a few seconds of shut-eye in the process.

"I, uh... underestimated the prices for inns. They were cheaper at my home island, so what I had on me wasn't enough."

"What? Where did you sleep then?" She looked at him baffled.

"I had to stay in my boat's food compartment for the night, since it's closed off and shields the cold air pretty nicely—though it was a bit cramped and quite a few mosquitoes snuck in during the night, so I couldn't sleep well. They didn't appear at sea, so I forgot that wouldn't be the case once I was on land."

"... Seriously?" Her mouth twitched.

This kid... was he really fine living alone like this?

"Well, don't mind it. I can still work." Dan reassured her, patting his very flat bicep.

"... If you say so, kid." She shook her head, then folded her arms. "First things first then—we're entering harvesting time, so I'll be inspecting which tangerines are ripe for the picking right now and which aren't. You go bring the baskets and crates from our storage. Got it? We'll need them for sorting everything out, and to go sell what we can tomorrow... if there's enough product, that is."

Dan nodded, and without much more pep talk from Bell-mère, made his way to the house while she watched him go with a funny look.

Before long, he stepped inside, and the first thing that came into view was a sleepy-looking Nojiko drinking what appeared to be a warm cup of milk.

The moment he entered, she shot him a frown.

"It's you again... what are you doing inside our house?"

Dan didn't slow down. "Bell-mère asked me to fetch the baskets and crates... where's your storage?"

The layout of the house wasn't big, but he'd prefer to avoid walking into a room that wasn't it.

Nojiko's face scrunched even more. "Why would Bell-mère ask you that?"

Dan looked at her speechlessly. "... I got hired yesterday? I'm going to help around the farm from now on."

"Eh?! Hired?"

"Didn't you hear our conversation? You were right there." Dan pointed at the other side of the table, just a few meters away. That's where they had been.

"I just saw you come in all of a sudden, and then start arm wrestling Bell-mère out of nowhere." She muttered, then glanced at him with a dissatisfied look. "Besides, why did she hire you? We already help her at the farm!"

Suddenly, a door opened, and an even sleepier-looking Nami walked into the living room, yawning.

"Why are you so noisy in the morning, Nojiko...?"

The two went quiet as Nami's gaze slowly shifted to Dan.

"Ah, why are you here?" She pointed at him, baffled.

'Neither paid any attention at all...?' Dan's gaze turned flat.

"I forgot—kid, the storage is right next to the kitchen!" Bell-mère's voice suddenly came from outside.

Dan's gaze shifted from the two girls to the door exactly where it was described.

"Well, that's that."

And thus, not entertaining them any longer, he made his way inside under their intense glares.

Before long, he came out carrying several crates on his shoulders.

Ignoring the continued glares, he went back outside.

"Leave them there."

Bell-mère immediately pointed at the side of the house—a small empty spot where plants were barely growing compared to just a meter beside it.

The crates' spot, most likely.

Once he had set everything down neatly, he went back to the storage and took out the baskets.

He carried them over to Bell-mère, who gave him a small smile.

"Pretty quick, kid. Alright, since you're done there, come help me check which tangerines are ready for picking. You know how to tell them apart?"

"Nope." Dan answered without beating around the bush.

She snorted. "Expected as much. Come, I'll teach you."

Dan nodded, following calmly as they approached the first row of tangerines.

Normally, he'd be worried about making mistakes or not learning fast enough.

Luckily...

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

Current Infamy Tier: Starter

▸[Current Bounty: 0 / 500K]

▸[NP: 56]

Equipped Passive Hacks [1/1]

▸ SpeedyGains

Equipped Active Hacks [0/1]

▸ Tireless

Equipped Script

▸ None

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

His SpeedyGains hack was on standby, ready to let him learn at lightning speed.

He might be terrible at this at first, but soon he'd be the fastest tangerine picker in all the archipelago.

Maybe in all the world.

'Heh. I guess I'll become the tangerine king.'

...

°

°

°

| Several hours later, by the afternoon... |

...

'Well, this sucks.' Dan thought, sitting down on the porch and running a wet rag over his face.

He now had a newfound respect for the redhead with the awful hairstyle. Doing this kind of thing every single day, while taking care of two little kids, and barely scraping by.

She sure was mentally resilient.

It wasn't just the physical labor. He could handle that well enough.

The problem was the sun, the mosquitoes that were present even here, the hours spent inspecting every single tree while counting the tangerines that could be picked with a focus that all of the above kept eroding, and the thirst.

Aside from his back—which ached a bit from all the leaning down to inspect trees, and the subsequent picking and hauling back and forth to the crates—he wasn't all that tired physically, but his brain was thoroughly done for the day.

Luckily, it seemed Bell-mère wasn't much different.

"That should be all for today, kid." She said, puffing her cigarette. "You did pretty good for a first day."

She was seated on the small chair at the table on the other side of the porch, looking at him with a grin.

"Well, if we don't count the few unripe tangerines you put in the basket that I had to take back out."

Dan's mouth twitched.

"Sorry."

"Don't worry, kid. It was to be expected. Besides, you only slipped up at the start—you picked up the pace pretty quickly after that."

Dan nodded with a wry look. Still, he wasn't completely satisfied.

"Is there anywhere I can check for more details about this kind of thing?"

"You mean a book?" She raised an eyebrow. Then she glanced back at the house, jabbing a thumb in that direction. "Yeah, I've got the one I used when I was starting up this whole farm. The paper's a bit worn, but it should be legible. I think it was called Principles of Horticulture—should be in one of the drawers, under Nami's navigation books."

"I see." Dan nodded. "Mind if I borrow it?"

"Nah, I already learned what I needed from it. Now it's just gathering dust. Take it if you want."

"Then, excuse me." Nodding, Dan turned and walked into the house.

As he disappeared behind the door, Bell-mère watched after him with an odd look. "He sure is diligent for his age. I didn't hear him complain a single time all day, and now he's even up to reading that boring book."

She turned back to her cigarette, taking a long drag.

"I can only hope I'll be able to pay him."

Meanwhile, on Dan's side, the moment he stepped inside, he was met with the same hostile gazes he'd been feeling all day.

He honestly had enough.

"What now?" He asked, his brow creasing slightly as he stared back at the two girls boring holes through him from the couch.

"..."

"..."

They didn't say anything.

A migraine began popping up on Dan's head.

He could just ignore them. But considering he was going to be here for who knew how long, having the two constantly looking at him like he was their worst enemy on top of an already exhausting job wasn't something he was willing to put up with.

"If you have a problem, say so already. I can't read minds!"

"We were the ones helping Bell-mère at the farm!" Nojiko complained. "And now you're taking our place!"

"And you're even taking money, you—opportunist!" Nami was next.

He huffed, eyeing them with a flat look.

"So that's what it is. You're just jealous."

""We're not!"" Both shouted at the same time.

"Uh-huh." Dan answered, not believing them even a little.

'Well, since it's just jealousy, I don't need to bother. It's her mom's job to deal with that.'

Scoffing, he decided to put them out of his mind and made his way toward the only drawer in the living room.

He was opening it, lifting the navigation books on top to look for what he was after, when—

"Hey, what are you doing?! Those are mine!"

Nami hurried over, lunging and trying to drag him away.

"Hngh...!"

"..."

Of course, Dan didn't have much trouble ignoring her feeble attempts. Her strength was far too low to make him budge if he put his mind to it. So he just let it go, even smiling slightly.

—At least until she started pulling at his mouth and hair.

"Argh, stop it!" He shook her off.

"You can't take those books, they're mine!" Forced back a few steps, Nami glared at him.

"I don't care about your books!" Dan shot back.

"Then why do you have one in your hand right now?!"

Dan's gaze slid to his hand, going a little flat.

Huffing, he placed it back on top of the drawer.

"I already know how to navigate," he said smugly. "I'm looking for Bell-mère's book."

"...!" Nami's face froze, as if she'd been struck by lightning.

Meanwhile, he glanced back into the drawer, quickly spotting his objective beneath another book.

Pushing it aside, he grabbed what he'd come for and pulled it out, holding it up for the two girls to see.

Then he placed the other books back inside neatly, before fixing them both with one last look.

"She let me borrow it," he added.

And then he walked away, not minding them any longer.

The two didn't follow, simply staring at his departing back with mean looks.

Nojiko didn't look pleased.

Nami either.

However, beneath the suspicion in her gaze, there was a hint of curiosity in her gaze.

None of the other kids had shown even the slightest interest in navigation. They all said it was boring.

But now, in front of her, was one who apparently actually knew how to do it.

She wanted to ask more—since it was a topic she was completely obsessed with—but he closed the door behind him and disappeared before she had the chance.

So she swallowed her questions and turned to Nojiko instead.

"You think he really knows how to navigate?"

"Him? He's our age, no way."

"Hmm." Nami nodded. He was probably lying.

But if he wasn't?

Meanwhile, on the other side of the wall, Dan let out a sigh as he fixed his hair.

'I'm the one with grown up memories. I'm supposed to be more mature… hold it together.'

The hair pull had hurt him quite a lot. He almost threw her out of the window in reflex.

But he supposed he could be the bigger person this time.

While he calmed himself down, Bell-mère gave him a funny look.

"I heard some shouting inside—those girls gave you trouble, kid?"

Dan stared at her with a deadpan, his eyes clearly asking why she hadn't come help him.

Ultimately, however, he decided not to ask that and let it go.

"A bit, but it's fine now. Anyway, I'm leaving."

"Wait."

Dan turned, looking confused.

"You never told me your name, kid." Bell-mère said, tapping her cigarette on an ashtray.

"I didn't?" Dan scratched his cheek, a bit thrown off.

But thinking back on it, he indeed hadn't. After their armwrestle match, they'd talked about schedule, pay, and tasks—that was all. She hadn't pried much into his personal life, and that included his name.

So he'd forgotten to introduce himself.

"I'm Dan." He said plainly. He didn't have a surname, so that was it.

"I see." Bell-mère said, seeming to turn it over for a second before looking at him with something close to pity. "By the way, do you have somewhere to sleep tonight, kid?"

'Back to calling me kid already.'

Dan's mouth twitched at the dismissal of his name, but in the end, he let it go.

"I'll... figure something out. Worst case I go back to my boat. It shouldn't be hard to sleep if no mosquitos sneak in this time."

She laughed through her nose.

"If you truly have nowhere else to sleep, you can come crash on our couch. It isn't the most comfortable thing, but at least there won't be mosquitoes."

Dan turned it over with visible reluctance, not quite liking the idea of staying here—since it was the house of three people whose tragic future he'd prefer to keep some distance from until he had to deal with the main problem.

The no-mosquitoes part was pretty tempting, though.

"I'll... give it some thought." In the end, he answered vaguely. "I have some business to attend to right now, so excuse me."

After a quick nod, he began walking away.

He caught a quiet "What business would a kid have?" trailing behind him as he put distance between them.

Before long, he left the farm completely.

But instead of heading toward the village, he made his way toward the nearby coast.

Minutes later, he stepped onto the beach, his soles crunching against the sand.

He glanced around for a second, then caught sight of what he was looking for.

His boat, tied to a tree.

He had moved it from the spot where he'd landed yesterday to here—much closer to the farm.

He'd left his sword and pistol inside it.

Sure, someone could steal them if they came across them.

But honestly, he was kind of hoping for that.

That'd give him a reason to stir up trouble.

Not that he needed one.

'Nighttime is coming,'

He thought, glaring at the darkening sky.

That could only mean one thing.

-Clack-

His sword clattered against its oversized scabbard as he strapped on the belt.

Next, he put on a cape. One he'd bought yesterday—and also the reason he'd ended up sleeping on the boat.

He had thought he had enough money left for the inn, so he bought it without accounting for the prices being different from Shimotsuki Village.

Which, as you know, ended with him sleeping badly on his boat instead.

But never mind that. He had a cape now. A short, light one—bought mostly because he was tired of getting the full brunt of the sea wind through a cheap tank top.

The sea was pretty cold, after all.

"Alright, let's do this." He adjusted it, smiled, and shoved his hand into his pocket.

Out came a pair of sunglasses. He flicked them open and—

"It's criminal time."

—put them on, turning toward the village.

...

────────────────────────

-To Be Continued...-

────────────────────────

Join my Patreon to get access to more chapters, and you'll help me make ends meet while doing so.

pḁtreon.com/TheSynonym (Change the a)

─────────────

(A/N: In recent news, university keeps banging hard. Fork found in a kitchen.)

 

[The Synonym]

────────────────────────

[The Sunglassed Bandit Strikes Again]

────────────────────────

...

Dan stood over a high hill, a good distance away from Cocoyashi Village, looking down on the now darkness-wrapped settlement, his sunglasses reflecting the light from the few torches lit across the place.

"It's been so long, I'm a bit nervous again." He muttered, smiling faintly.

The next second, his system screen popped up beside him.

═══════•°• ⚠ •°•═══════

Current Infamy Tier: Starter

▸[Current Bounty: 0 / 500K]

▸[NP: 56]

Equipped Passive Hacks [1/1]

▸ SpeedyGains → FullBright

Equipped Active Hacks [1/1]

▸ Tireless

Equipped Script

▸ None

═══════•°• ⚠ •°•═══════

With a look, he swapped SpeedyGains for FullBright, while keeping Tireless on standby in case he needed to make a run for it.

With that done, he glanced at his NP count, squinting faintly at the sight of it.

"That day sure gave me quite the boost from how stale my account had been, huh?" He muttered.

The day he was referring to was the same day he'd beaten Koushirou, picked up his things, and sailed off.

He had been sitting at about 15 NP at the start of that day. When he checked his system the next day—bored out of his mind while adjusting the sails mid-ocean—he noticed his NP had jumped by forty-something points.

The only thing that came to mind that might have caused such a reaction was his fight with Koushirou—which may have elevated his status among the villagers from a mere sneaky thief to a genuine threat—and his last words with old Shun, which may have led the man to believe he'd done something to Dan, meaning himself.

If word of those events spread around, it was no wonder his NP had taken such a big jump all of a sudden.

It wasn't planned, but he wasn't going to complain about it.

Regardless, the past was the past. Now, it was time to further his riches.

"Let's see..." He squinted, analyzing the layout of the village. "A village this small... what would be the best move?"

Of course, he could just barge in and terrorize everyone. He was plenty strong, and Genzo probably wouldn't be able to do much against him.

But he wasn't that heartless.

—Also, he was currently surrounded by several other villages and nearby islands. Pouring all the terror on this one particular village was unnecessary.

Especially if he didn't want them to raise their guard all at once the way Shimotsuki had, and thus lose himself what could be a somewhat steady source of NP.

Though, on the other hand, he was operating on an unknown schedule. Rushing to collect all the NP he could at once might be the smarter move, since he had no way of knowing when Arlong would arrive.

Plus, his current plan depended on saving up quite a lot of NP.

Groaning, Dan opened his system's shop, focusing specifically on the hacks and items he'd already selected for carrying out his plan when the day came.

═══════•°• ⚠ •°•═══════

≡[Active Hack: Sugar Rush] [200 NP]

▸ Like in cartoons, you enter a time-limited gremlin-like state of high intensity and hyperactivity as if you had just consumed industrial quantities of sugar. Your reflexes, creative thinking, body control, and energy all spike enormously, as you also begin seeing the world in a slight slow motion.

The effect lasts 10 minutes, and has a cooldown of 6 hours after usage.

Warning: Note that the state might look a bit goofy from outside, like a hummingbird inhaling three bags of cocaine and entering a psychotic rage.

Side Warning: Does not cause Diabetes.

═══════•°• ⚠ •°•═══════

≡[Hacked Item: Bugged Smoke Pellet] [30 NP]

▸ A bugged pellet that when thrown will release a cloud of smoke that cannot be blown away or interacted with in any way for the next 5 minutes, upon which it will finally disperse.

Great for blocking visibility.

▸ Can be bought multiple times.

═══════•°• ⚠ •°•═══════

≡[Hacked Item: Bottle of Hyper Glue] [50 NP]

▸ A bottle of adhesive liquid that can hold two surfaces together and cannot be unstuck by any means. The adhesive effect lasts one hour, then dissolves.

▸ Can be bought multiple times.

═══════•°• ⚠ •°•═══════

≡[Hacked Item: Gravity Cuffs] [65 NP]

▸ Wearable cuffs that affect perceived gravity to an adjustable degree.

═══════•°• ⚠ •°•═══════

≡[Hacked Item: Intelligent Dumbbells] [80 NP]

▸ Perfect for always surpassing your limits! The Intelligent Dumbbells 2.0 will always weigh just barely the limit of what you can lift. No matter how strong you are or become.

═══════•°• ⚠ •°•═══════

≡[Hacked Item: Haki Knot (Weak Level)] [300 NP]

▸ A Haki Knot sourced directly from the storage of Shanks, the biggest haki knot hoarder in history.

This one is one of his lesser possessions, a haki knot passed down by a novice at releasing Conqueror's Haki, and who probably isn't all that strong in the overall hierarchy of the world.

It might be useful for sweeping hordes of cannon fodder, though, or briefly startling slightly more powerful enemies.

═══════•°• ⚠ •°•═══════

…

"... The road ahead is quite long, isn't it?" He muttered, scratching his hair with a troubled look.

All of those items and the hack together brought the total to 725 Notoriety Points he had to save up—and that was without counting that he'd probably buy more than one of the smoke pellets given his plans for it. So the more appropriate number likely closed in on 800 NP.

And that was also without counting the fix-all tape also available in the shop. It wasn't a priority item, but recently he'd been having some ideas about how it could factor into his future fight as well.

Regardless, the first list came first.

As you can see, there wasn't any passive hack listed. Most of what he could buy right now wasn't really combat-oriented, and no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't come up with any unexpected application for them either.

So he discarded them entirely. He couldn't afford to waste precious NP on something that wouldn't help him deal with Arlong—or at least keep his head on his shoulders in the process.

That was also why Sugar Rush was there, to make sure he'd be able to do exactly that.

There wasn't much point in being Tireless if all Arlong needed was one kick to send his head flying.

He preferred to spike his chances of survival as much as possible. Plus, his plan for dealing with Arlong required him to weave through the fishman's attacks and get close enough, and Sugar Rush was the key for that.

All the rest of the items were part of what followed once he managed that. In short, he'd be using all of them to level the playing field in the fight.

The Haki Knot would be a last resort—in case he overstepped his limits, it'd serve as a quick escape button he could use to startle Arlong and his goons for a brief second before making his way out and trying again another day.

But, as said, all of the plan depended on whether he could accumulate enough NP.

And for that, he had to do his part.

"Let's see, let's see..." Dan muttered, continuing to muse over his next steps.

His first thought was startling everyone on the village now that night had fallen—shrieking or banging on doors the way he had at Shimotsuki.

But as convenient as it would be for his current skill set, and for his conscience, he needed something more. Something that caused a bigger impact.

So, what could it be?

'Impact, I need impact...'

He thought, eyes squinting, then slowly drifting to the NP count.

'How can I...?'

At that instant, he recalled the burst of NP that had occurred recently.

It had come either because he was believed to have killed a kid, or because he'd beaten Koushirou—the strongest swordsman in the village.

Or both.

Regardless of the answer, as he thought about it, the realization that he could actually replicate a part of that incident right here struck him like thunder.

His eyes drifted to a certain house, a bead of sweat rolling down his temple.

The house in question was Genzo's—the sheriff, the representative, whatever title the man held.

The point was that he was an important figure. Probably the most combat-capable person in the village as well.

If he beat him tonight—basically proving the village was defenseless against him—wouldn't that yield a solid fetch of NP?

'And not only that...'

Dan thought with a smile, eyes glinting, recalling his earlier meeting with the man—and the two pistols he had on him.

Right now, he didn't have a single bullet for his pistol. But that man should have some in his house.

He could take some with him. Maybe even one of his pistols, in case he felt like going dual-wielding against Arlong.

His smile grew.

"And it's not only him..."

His gaze lifted from the village, scanning the horizon.

There were dozens of other villages around, some closer, others far away.

But all of them should have someone of similar importance.

And ammunition or useful supplies he could take for himself.

They were also people who should be somewhat prepared for a bit of violence, so he wouldn't feel so bad about going after them—unlike if he went after the common villagers.

"Hah." He let out a soft laugh, feeling his motivation rise.

It seemed his plan was set then.

-Swiiiish...!-

His katana let out a faint shriek as he drew it from its sheath.

"It's criminaling time."

...

°

°

°

| Minutes later, Genzo's house... |

...

"Haaah..." Genzo breathed into his palms, his breath coming out misty as he tried to warm his hands.

Night had fallen, and with it, so had the temperature.

His uniform was rather skimpy as well, leaving his forearms and legs below the knee bare to the cold. But it was his uniform, so he wore it with pride, even if his teeth were gnashing against each other right now.

He was currently sitting on a chair by the porch of his house, overlooking the street that ran through most of the village, watching as the last of the villagers made their way home for the night.

He was the village's security, after all. Of course, so far that title only ever amounted to resolving conflicts between neighbors, helping drunkards find their way home, or lending a hand to the older residents with their things.

In such a peaceful village, there was never any real danger to deal with.

Which he was satisfied with. His old yearnings for adventure and action from his teenage years had calmed down a long time ago. Now he knew to appreciate this peaceful village for what it was.

A place untouched by the tragedies going on across the world.

He hoped it could stay that way forever.

'Well, there's dozens of other villages around. How unlucky would we be if we were the first to be raided by pirates or anything of the sort?' He mused, scoffing at the thought.

-Crash!-

"...?!"

Just then, the loud sound of a window being smashed inside his house cut his thoughts short, his head snapping around in an instant.

He stood up in a hurry, drawing his sword and making his way to the door.

-Creeeaaaak...-

The old door opened with its usual ominous creaking as he stepped inside, scanning the darkness with squinted eyes.

Soon, he found the window in question. The curtains were flapping gently from the air seeping in, shards of glass spread across the floor.

Something had clearly come through.

Eyes alert, he swept the rest of the house. It was dark, so he took extra care to analyze everything from the entrance.

Table and the leftovers of his lunch—untouched.

Kitchen, nothing out of the ordinary. Everything where he'd left it.

None of the other rooms had their doors open, so either nothing was in them or whatever had come through was hiding inside before he could check.

Bookshelf—untouched. No books missing.

Couch with a person in sunglasses sitting on it.

Door to his storage, still locke—hold on!

His eyes snapped back to the couch.

"Who are you?!"

The person sitting on the couch smiled faintly, then stood up slowly and calmly.

Next, the gaze hidden beneath those sunglasses locked directly onto Genzo's, like a sword piercing into his very soul.

And thus, the person opened his mouth to speak.

"..."

—Only to freeze mid-motion, mouth still hanging open.

"...?" Confusion struck Genzo.

On the other side, the person closed his mouth again and stood there in silence for a moment, seemingly thinking something through, a small bead of sweat rolling down his forehead.

It was only when Genzo was about to ask again that the unknown person finally spoke.

"I'm uh... a bandit."

He then slowly drew a sword from within his cloak, pointing it at him.

"And I've come to rob you."

"What...?" Genzo's worried expression turned flat.

What kind of introduction was that?

—Unfortunately, he didn't have time to dwell on it. Or rather, he wasn't allowed to—

"...?!"

—CLANG!—

—As the person broke out of his hesitation and suddenly lunged, sword swinging in a wide arc.

Genzo barely managed to block with his own sword, though he winced heavily as both blades met—the weight behind the other sword nearly making his arms buckle.

For someone so short... he was strong!

In an attempt to escape, he caught his breath for a moment before throwing all of his weight back into his own push, knocking the "bandit" back several steps.

Yet just as he was beginning to catch his breath—the figure in front of him blurred.

-Thud!-

A heavy kick landed square on his chest.

Genzo's body was sent flying backward, hitting the door and crashing through it, rolling out across the porch.

By the time he caught himself, a sword was already swinging down on him.

-Clang!-

"Ah—!"

He swung his own in an attempt to meet it—but all it did was send his sword flying from his grip from the force of the impact.

Luckily, even without his sword, the collision had altered the bandit's swing just barely enough to avoid getting cut down by a hair's breadth.

Though the relief of not being cut down didn't change the fact that he was now defenseless at the bandit's feet.

-Swish-

With a smooth motion, the bandit leveled the sword at his face, the tip stopping just a hair's breadth from his nose.

Just like that, he had been defeated. In three moves, it was over.

Genzo could only stare at the sword before him with shock written all over his face.

And as he did, several doors began opening all around.

"Who is it—do they know what time it is?"

"What's all that noise...?"

"What's happening—Genzo-san?!"

Several villagers stepped out of their homes, glancing around before they all noticed the shocking sight of Genzo lying on his back with a sword pointed at him by a stranger standing over him.

"W-who are you?!"

"What are you doing to Genzo-san?!"

Some tried stepping forward to help, but the bandit simply pressed the sword closer, making Genzo grunt.

They all stopped in their tracks, teeth gritted as they understood the gesture.

With them still, the figure smiled, then leaned down and snatched one of Genzo's pistols before the man could react.

"W-what are you planning to do?!" Genzo demanded, worried he was about to turn it on one of the villagers.

The bandit paused and looked at him with a puzzled expression before a smirk spread across his face.

"Calm down—I just needed one. Now that I have it—"

He sheathed his sword, then moved quickly and grabbed Genzo by the hem of his clothes, swinging him toward the crowd.

The sheriff's figure crossed the air for a moment before several people rushed in to catch him.

And in the split second of confusion that followed—

"He's running away!"

One of the villagers spotted the bandit already making his escape.

Many of them immediately moved to give chase.

"Stop!" Genzo called out, bringing most of them to a halt.

"Genzo-san?"

"He's highly skilled with a sword—pursuing him is dangerous." He sighed, wincing at the bruises from the brief but rough fight while slowly standing back on his own. His gaze then lifted once more, settling on the already-disappearing back of the bandit. "—Especially now that he has a gun. If you pursue, there's the chance someone will die… just let him leave, he didn't take much anyway."

"Who was that person, Genzo-san?" A man standing beside him asked.

Genzo went quiet for a moment or two, seeming to turn over how to answer.

Then he spoke, a frown settling on his face.

"A bandit... a sunglassed bandit."

...

°

°

°

| Near the village, through the forest |

...

Dan ran through the vegetation with a wide smile across his face.

He had forgotten this feeling. The thrill of doing something bad. Of escaping unscathed despite it.

═══════•°• ⚠ •°•═══════

Current Infamy Tier: Starter

▸[Current Bounty: 0 / 500K]

▸[NP: 56→71]

═══════•°• ⚠ •°•═══════

And of being rewarded on top of that.

He had missed it more than he'd expected.

Chuckling to himself, he slipped a hand under his cloak and pulled out his new gun.

The chamber was full. He finally had more than just a sword and an empty pistol. He had actual means to fight back against that fish!

Given the gap between Arlong and himself, a gun was something Dan needed desperately—it might be the only thing capable of helping him level that gap even slightly.

Although, he had vague memories of one of the fishmen blocking bullets, so maybe it wouldn't do much.

But on the other hand, he doubted Arlong was entirely invulnerable.

The eye, the throat, the stomach—there had to be somewhere he could fill the fishman with lead.

All he'd need would be to find it.

"Ah!" Dan's smile froze all of a sudden.

He checked himself over and frowned deeply, his mouth twitching.

"Did I seriously forget to steal more bullets?"

It seemed all these months without farming NP had left him sloppier than he'd realized.

Earlier, when he came face to face with Genzo, he'd even forgotten the lines he had prepared.

So he ended up saying something as dumb as "I'm a bandit, and I've come to rob you."

He ran a hand down his face as he kept running, his expression dark.

Ultimately, however, he shook his head, shrugging the embarrassment off and pulling his composure back together.

"Whatever, it's fine." He looked up at the rising moon, a mischievous glint crossing his eyes. "The night is still young, and there's plenty of villages out there laid bare for the taking!"

Today was going to be a plentiful harvest, that was for sure.

A loud laugh filled the forest at that.

...

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-To Be Continued...-

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(A/N: How was the fight? Not that it was much of a fight, actually. Still, it comes to show just where Dan stands right now.

As to why Genzo didn't draw his pistols right away—I just didn't think that would be in character. He seems like the rather gentle uncle.

First I think he'd need to make sure that going for the kill is the right path, and only then draw his pistols—which he clearly wasn't able to do in the brief moment he and Dan met.

Next time he might not be so hesitant though.)