[Author's note: Hello everyone, welcome to this adventure with me, you won't be disappointed. I'm writing this note to let you know that you don't need to be familiar with the world of teenagers to read this story, as all the background will be explained, recalled, and even experienced, so just enjoy...]
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The first thing I feel when I regain consciousness is a diffuse pain throughout my body, my heavy head weighing down on me.
"Hmmmm."
I open my eyes, but all I see is a blur.
"Fouhhh." I take a deep breath, and without realizing it, it's the first breath of my new life...
The fresh air filling my throat and lungs calms me and I feel ready to get up.
My vision clears more and more, revealing green blades of grass, a brown ground dotted with stones, and brown trees. Once standing, I realize that I am surrounded by greenery.
I look around me. I am indeed in a forest.
Confusion reigns on my face... 'A forest...?' I think to myself.
"What is this...?" Unconsciously, I try to take a step, but my mind is completely disoriented and, with my legs trembling, I fall back to the ground. Dirt, mud, and gravel cover my hands and scratch my palms.
Kneeling before the immensity of the sky and the madness of this situation, my confusion is now accompanied by fear, the same fear that comes when you face the unknown, when you are lost...
"Crazy..." I repeat exactly the same relaxation method, forcing myself to breathe calmly.
And little by little, as the minutes pass, I feel better: my mind and vision are no longer blurred.
I take a few more minutes, then get up a second time.
"Okay, where am I? What's going on?" I whisper to myself.
I look around at the trees and green grass strewn with stones.
I look up at the blue sky and its constant companion, the sun, and estimate that it is probably early morning.
In the distance, I see what appears to be a path and start walking.
"(This doesn't look like a rainforest. The air is humid, but not wild. There are probably other people not far from here.)"
"(There should even be a town nearby)," I finally conclude.
"(But what worries me is that I don't remember how I got here, and my memories of myself are blurry...)" I continue to venture into the forest, my mind meditating deeply on my situation.
"(Is this... memory loss, dissociative fugue...?)" My steps stop of their own accord, my heart leaps at the thought...
"No, no... I have to find out what's going on..." I close my eyes and dive into my mind and my memory, that consciousness common to all human beings, the only thing that differentiates us from animals, into which anyone can easily dive whenever they want...
But...
"AAARGHHH!!!" An explosion of pain spreads through my head, banging and bouncing off the walls of my skull...
And for the third time... I find myself on my knees on the floor, my hands clutching my skull as if to open it and let all the pain out.
"AAARgh... Huuumg," in this paralyzed state of suffering, the only thing I can do is barely hold back the scream rising in my throat.
Endless seconds pass, but with each passing minute, the pain fades.
"(Fuu...)"
I regain control of my breathing, feeling a wave of terror rising within me, but I hold it back firmly....
"(Panicking won't help me...)" I stay on the ground for a few more seconds, searching for strength.
And finally, I get back up, even though I'm not ready to face the reality of my situation, but what else can I do...
I start walking again, focusing my mind on the path I'm on and nothing else but the brown earth, the trees of different shapes, and the many grasses that line it.
After a few minutes of forcing my mind to be as blank as possible, I reach a clearing and sit down on a large flat rock. I close my eyes.
And despite my fear, I decide to go back for a second round...
"Okay, let's try again," I take a deep breath, preparing myself for the worst.
I relax my body.
"Slowly..." I imagine myself approaching my mind, probing it like a caress.
"But what do I do now...?" I take a few seconds to think about the next step.
I imagine arriving at a place where my memories, my identity, are stored.
A moment passes, and I remain focused on this idea.
And I feel myself gradually being transported, finding myself in a room filled with fog, chaotic and indistinct.
I wait, calmly watching the scene...
"Hmmm..." I stand there doing nothing, waiting for something, and something happens...
The landscape clears up on its own, the fog dissipates...
Revealing the room in front of me. It looks like a kind of house, entirely white, or rather a ruin, with broken furniture scattered around and pieces of broken glass on the floor covered with a layer of dust, the place looking abandoned.
I take a moment to observe the place, this bizarre vision before my eyes.
"(Is this my mind, my identity...?)" The place is in ruins, perhaps even damaged.
"(What does this mean...?)" My eyes scan the pathetic scene that seems to be my essence, my being...
"(What a mess...)" I realize that something unimaginable may have happened to me, a bereavement, a deep trauma...?
I silently look at what remains of myself... before getting to work, I do what seems wisest and start tidying up.
As I pick up the shards of glass, I instinctively know where the other pieces are, and simply by putting them together, the object is restored.
The same goes for the furniture: I gather all the pieces, put them together, and they... fuse together.
Once repaired, I instinctively know where to place the objects, making sure that each one is in its place.
I continue tidying up the room, and with each object repaired, each piece of furniture put back in its place, an image, a memory comes back to me.
"Hmm, I'm a 24-year-old man..."
I move on to the next object
"Who, after falling asleep one night, woke up here..."
And as I reconstruct the setting, my life comes back to me
"(and woke up in this new 17-year-old body...)."
I remember most of my previous life, but it seems that my personal memories, such as my name, my family, and others, are not there.
"(What does this mean...?)"
My personal life has been erased... all memories related to these things are simply empty.
All I have left now is this body, called Landon Kirby, an orphan.
And that's all the useful information I have, no other memories of the boy whose body I stole...
"(It seems... that I have been reincarnated in this place, in a new body... ??)"
Grimacing despite myself,
"(What is this situation?)" Erased, then thrown into another place, into the body of the first newcomer.
"(No, no... There must be something else, it's not possible, I'm not going to be the plaything of some strange existence or organization...)"
I look around the room, which is still white in my mind. The place is tidy, clean, now a kind of white house furnished with decorations. There is nothing to repair or fix, everything is complete.
But how empty it is, soulless, without memories, without even experiences or emotions...
Looking at this dull place, symbol of my new existence, I am surprised to notice something.
I notice a door...
I approach it and it is indeed a door. I look at it. It is made of wood, with several grooves, a bit like old doors, a kind of plank door, a completely ordinary door except for the pattern engraved on it.
It looks like some kind of egg made of feathers... no, it's more like a bird curled up with a symbol on its feathers, a crescent moon...
I stand there, frozen for a few seconds, not making a sound, just staring at the door.
I looked down and slowly reached out my hand toward the lock, and... I turned my wrist.
And surprisingly, I heard a small click, and the door opened in front of me. I didn't expect it to be so easy.
The door opened slowly, revealing a new landscape.
A clear blue sky with no clouds, and below, no ground, just an endless expanse of dark blue water.
And right in front of me, a plank about twenty meters long leading to a boat, a wooden boat.
Motionless, I widen my eyes.
"Okay," I think calmly.
I'm standing in the white house facing this scene, and it's as if two worlds coexist, separated by the open door.
A gentle cool breeze caresses me as I stare at this landscape of a new universe.
"What does this mean?"
Looking at this magnificent scene before me, I understood a simple truth. I knew instinctively that my new life was going to be strange and turbulent.
I looked down at the plank at my feet, following the path it traced toward the boat.
I took a step forward, strangely feeling that it would be impossible to fall into the water even if I had an accident or slipped on the narrow plank.
I didn't know where this certainty came from, perhaps from my subconscious, but I knew that I would reach the boat without any problem if that was what I wanted.
Step by step, suspended by a simple piece of wood above the sapphire blue ocean that seemed endless, I moved forward calmly...
I finally reached the boat, setting foot on this sailing vessel.
And feeling the boat rock with the waves, I felt a strange sensation.
A very light and familiar feeling of well-being, as if I felt at peace, at home.
I closed my eyes for a moment, immersing myself in this feeling, perhaps the only remnant of my identity that had now disappeared.
The sound of the waves followed by the movement of the boat as it remained afloat, the gentle cool breeze on my face.
I spend a minute quietly relaxed, then open my eyes and decide to explore the boat, which is a small sailboat about thirty meters long.
At the top of the mast was a flag with the same crescent moon symbol.
I looked around me. There was obviously no one else on board but me. I walked around, seeing empty barrels, tables with nothing on them, and cannonballs on the sides of the ship.
"There's nothing here..." I say to myself as I turn back toward the interior of the ship, where I find only one door, leading to the captain's cabin. The wooden walls are bare, with no decorations, no paint, no treasure, nothing.
"It looks like if there's anything, it's behind that door..."
I said to myself as I opened the door. The first thing I saw was a room brightly lit by a soft blue light with golden touches, illuminating the entire place with these magnificent colors.
A sound like a crackling flame made me look down, and I saw something on the floor.
A kind of jewel or sculpture that glowed with the same azure and golden light.
I looked at it and realized it wasn't an object.
It looked like a kind of magnificent fruit, blue and golden, with strange patterns...
And it wasn't shining with the same luminescence; it was the source, the light of the place emanating from this thing that looked like a treasure.
I approached it, reached out my hand, and examined it.
It was like a fairly large fruit, the size of a watermelon, but surprisingly light.
I felt a gentle warmth spread through my palm, like a warm flame.
I stared in wonder at what I had in my hands, and something lit up in my mind.
"That looks familiar..." I said to myself.
I search my memory and, after a few seconds, I remember colorful fruits with strange patterns that match the one I'm holding in my hands.
"A devil fruit, like in One Piece?" I'm surprised by this revelation.
Devil fruits were fruits that gave those who ate them powers, all kinds of powers, weak or powerful, destructive or useless, reasonable or very strange.
"(Hmm, if I'm not mistaken, those who are reincarnated often have a cheat or a system to help them. Could this be mine...?)"
I look at the strange fruit in my hand and decide to eat it.
"(Whatever happens, happens.)" I take a bite, and the taste is absolutely horrible.
The fruit catches fire in my hands and gradually becomes illusory, before finally disappearing.
I receive images, memories.
I have just eaten the Tori Tori no Mi: Phoenix Model, the fruit of a certain Marco of the Whitebeard Pirates in the world of One Piece.
A rare and excellent devil fruit, and what's more...
A flood of memories overwhelms me, and it seems that I have not only eaten Marco's fruit, but also received his memories, his experience, his knowledge.
"This is Marco's entire legacy..." I realize.
I leave this mental space and get up from the rock I was sitting on.
And the difference is immediate; I feel... good...
strong, faster, able to feel, see, and perceive things dozens of meters away.
"(My senses have become incredibly sharp)," I realize.
I extend my hand, and a blue-gold flame appears on my palm. With a single thought, the flame bursts into life and envelops my entire hand.
But thanks to the memories I have just received, I don't panic. In fact, I feel no pain, only a warm comfort.
And when the fire subsides, it is not a hand and an arm that reappear, but a wing made of blue and gold fire with claws like those of an eagle.
"It's beautiful..." The feathers are a clear azure blue speckled with bright yellow, and the flame is breathtaking, not only for its beauty, but also for what it represents: a flame that symbolizes life.
The fruit I ate is one of the rarest fruits in the pirate world, the fruit of a mythical beast, born of legends, a mythological creature, rooted in people's beliefs, mysteriously shaped by their imagination and their desire to be more than they are, and that this world is more than it seems...
And the hope that this legendary creature exists and will grant them their gift: immortality.
I think about all the powers I now have. The Devil Fruit has given me great strength, endurance, superhuman physical abilities, and heightened senses. Then there are the blue-gold flames, which are slightly warmer than normal flames, but their primary purpose is not to burn, hurt, or attack, but to heal, soothe, and restore not only myself, but others as well.
Then there are the forms of my Devil Fruit. There are only two: the hybrid form, which transforms me into a human phoenix, allowing me to fly by turning my arms into wings of flame, and which also transforms my hands and feet into talons.
I become the perfect hybrid between human and phoenix, my mouth even transforming into an eagle's beak.
I can also reduce the transformation to just a single wing or claws.
I have to admit that this form is beautiful. I look like a harpy, but with wings and a mane, both made of azure and gold flames, and a golden beak.
[Image here, this is the old cover image for the story]
And then there's the complete form, which transforms me into a full phoenix made of blue-gold flames, 3.5 meters long and 6 meters wide with wings spread. This form is the most powerful, but also the least practical due to its large size.
The phoenix's main power is its blue flame of regeneration, which allows the user to regenerate quickly, enabling them to heal even the most serious wounds almost instantly at the expense of their stamina. These same flames can also burn or heal others at the user's will, but in this case, the healing is much less effective than when the user heals themselves.
In addition, both forms multiply the user's strength, physical abilities, and endurance. The multiplication depends on the form and mastery of the Devil Fruit.
Marco had a tattoo on his chest, but it seems that I did not inherit it.
In addition to the powers of the Devil Fruit, I also possess the ultimate power of One Piece called Haki, a strange psychic energy derived from willpower.
It exists in two forms: observation and weaponization. Observation allows you to perceive everything within a certain radius around you. It is particularly useful for sensing muscle and nerve movements during combat, allowing you to predict your opponent's actions. It also allows you to read people's intentions, as well as their presence and aura.
There are also deviant forms, such as future vision, which allows you to see a short distance into the future, and heart and mind vision, which allows you to read people's thoughts and, if you touch them, their memories.
However, these two forms are extremely rare, and only the first can be acquired through training; the other is an innate gift.
Then there is the Armament form, which is simply like a black metal coating that you apply to your skin at will. It offers great defense and attack power. In the world of One Piece, it was also one of the few powers capable of countering the abilities of the Devil Fruits.
There is also a more advanced form that, when struck, can bypass the outer layer of the skin and attack the inside of the body, including the organs. This advanced form is called internal destruction and can be acquired through training.
There is another mysterious form that allows one to assert dominance over the humans around them and their environment, a dominance that is akin to rebellion against the world, but this extremely rare form belongs only to those with the soul of a conqueror...
However, none of these powers are easy to train.
"Hmm," an interesting idea suddenly pops into my head. I take a few seconds to look for a flat stone on the ground.
I find one, place it on my thumb, and throw it into the air like a coin. The stone flies through the air, spinning around. "(Fouuuu)," I take a deep breath, close my eyes, and focus on the stone. I can sense its presence with my heightened senses; my nose picks up the smell of gravel coming from the stone, and my ears easily pick up the sound it makes as it spins through the air.
But I want more than that. I focus intensely on the stone and after a few seconds, I manage to "see" it. It's strange, as if it were in black and white, but I can still perceive colors. I can even see inside the stone, the tiny cracks and imperfections that make it up.
And little by little... the stone slows down and I see it spinning more slowly, as if time itself were slowing down...
"No, it's my perception processing this information frame by frame," I realize.
The stone continues to slow down until it moves very slowly, and just by wanting to, I can speed up or slow down my perception. I analyze it with my Observation Haki and clearly distinguish its speed of rotation, the resistance of the air, the distance from the ground, and the speed at which it is falling. And I know exactly which side the flat stone will land on.
I open my eyes, release my Haki, and time resumes its normal course. After a few seconds, the stone is back on the ground.
"So that's Observation Haki..." I think with a smile.
However, I feel a slight discomfort in my head.
"I'm going to have to practice..." I say to myself.
Then I focus on my arm and try to project my will into it. I spend a few minutes imagining my arm covered in black skin, keeping that image firmly in my mind.
After a few minutes, just as I'm about to burst a vein in my forehead from concentrating so hard, I feel a slight shiver and briefly see a small part of my hand turn black for a second before disappearing as quickly as it appeared.
"Hmmm... Not surprising," I relax my arm and let go. Armament Haki is harder to perceive than Observation Haki.
"Phew, in any case, the future looks interesting..." I smile inwardly.
"(I still need to find out where I am...)" I look around me and, thanks to my new senses, I head towards the place that, based on the smells, noises, and a few clues, will take me back to civilization.
I resume walking in that direction. And as I walk, my thoughts return to my situation.
"It's a complicated scenario, isn't it? A man dies and finds himself in a new body with only an identity and a name, but by chance, he inherits the powers of a powerful figure from another world."
I'm baffled by the strangeness of the situation, before laughing it off and moving on.
Finally, I quickly reach a hill that offers a view of a city.
"It's a modern city," I remark immediately, dismissing the possibility of being in the world of One Piece.
I look at the city and, thanks to my new physical abilities, I run down the hill in record time, reaching the city entrance in less than a minute.
And I read the name on the sign: Beacon Hills.