"I was neither dreaming nor awake... I was somewhere between the pages and reality, where the reader becomes the author."
In one of the classrooms, 18-year-old Louay was flipping through the pages of One Piece on his smartphone. Under the dim glow of the screen, he sat silently. His long, silky black hair fell softly on both sides of his face down to the nape of his neck, occasionally stirred by a gentle breeze. His dark eyes were fixed on the final lines of the last chapter as he sat by the window, habitually shielding himself behind a friend's back to avoid the teacher's gaze.
Suddenly, Louay lifted his head to find the teacher standing beside him, waving a blue eraser while striking the desk. She was slender, dressed in a white apron reaching her knees, with black hair falling to her chest.
"Will you never learn?" the teacher scolded sharply.
"Learn what?" Louay replied coldly, as if just waking up.
He glanced at her, then back down at the phone in his hands. His eyes widened, and quickly he hid the device beneath the desk.
His classmates burst into laughter, some mocking him with pointed fingers.
"Alright... Get out. Go home now," the teacher sighed, placing her hand on her forehead.
"Fine," Louay answered cheerfully. He grabbed his bag, slung it over his right shoulder, and left.
Outside, as he walked down a public street, droplets of water fell on his hand while holding his phone.
"It's rain," Louay thought to himself. "Lucky me, I get some beautiful moments in the rain."
The rain quickly intensified, and people started running to avoid getting soaked. But Louay continued strolling slowly, arms raised toward the sky, laughing softly.
"You're crazy! Hey, what are you doing? Go home before you catch a cold."
"A cold? I don't care. And don't remind me of this miserable human body," Louay said with a mocking look on his face.
Ignoring them, he kept staring at the sky, the raindrops falling over his face as if he were crying.
Soon, the rain ceased, and Louay headed home. As usual, he rang the doorbell three times.
The door opened to reveal a small girl with brown eyes and black hair, holding a piece of candy.
"Mom, Louay is back," she said softly, her voice innocent and childlike. It was his little sister, Kayra.
Louay entered the house, his clothes dripping wet, leaving a trail of water with every step.
His mother, Selene, stopped him. She had brown eyes much like Kayra's, and black hair draped over her shoulders.
"Oh no... Don't tell me you got kicked out again, acting like a madman on the street?"
Louay looked at her without saying a word.
She sighed and placed her hand on her face.
"Go wash up, then come to the kitchen. Dinner is ready."
He nodded and headed to his room, which was adorned with posters of the Straw Hat crew. Underneath each poster was written "Dead or Alive" along with the bounty for each character. A desk with a computer sat beside the bed, which was beneath a window.
Louay took off his wet clothes and entered the bathroom. He poured water over himself, applied liquid soap to his hair, rubbing it thoroughly with both hands, then rinsed all the foam away. Coming out of the bathroom wearing a blue towel, he entered his room, opened his wardrobe, and pulled out a white shirt, black pants, and underwear. He dried himself and put them on, then draped a white towel over his head to dry his hair and went to the kitchen, phone in his right hand.
He sat on his usual chair in the kitchen and leaned his head against the wall behind him.
"Still lost in your fantasies, huh?" his mother said as she placed food on his plate.
"Haha, maybe," Louay sighed and answered with a trace of sarcasm.
"Ah, Louay... when will you stop running away? It's fine to love your fantasy stories, but your studies won't wait," his mother muttered seriously.
"Alright," Louay responded sadly.
He took some bread, dipped it in the warm soup, and ate, following it with a sip of strawberry juice to savor the flavor.
After dinner, he returned to his room and collapsed onto his bed. Removing the towel from his head, his hair was almost dry. He stared at the ceiling, pondering.
"Why isn't there a power system in this world? All we have are martial arts that look like dancing to me. Isn't this a nightmare?"
He unlocked his smartphone with his right hand and browsed through it, opening One Piece to check for new chapters. Only old chapters appeared.
Louay sighed, disappointment washing over his face. He threw the phone aside and closed his eyes, falling into a deep sleep.
---
In the morning, Louay woke up to the loud noise of cars seeping through his window. His hair was messy. He sat at his usual spot in the kitchen.
"Good morning, dreamer. Did you sleep well?" his mother asked softly, carrying a plate of eggs and butter, and a glass of milk.
"Yes," he replied quietly, flashing a slight smile.
Louay took a piece of toasted bread, spread butter and eggs on it, and put it in his mouth, taking a sip of milk to ease chewing.
At the same time, his mother stood behind him, brushing his long black hair that reached the nape of his neck.
"I don't forbid you from reading your fantasy stories, but don't neglect your studies," she said.
"Ah... yes, certainly," Louay answered, food in his mouth.
He put on his school uniform with mechanical precision, grabbed his black bag, and stepped out with heavy footsteps toward a city that resembled more a graveyard than a place of life.
He saw the world as it was, not as they wanted him to see it.
While walking down the street, he raised his right hand to chest level, staring at it, then clenched it.
"Ah... if only I could use it," Louay sighed in regret.
He recalled his mother's words and lowered his hand as he headed to school.
Louay entered the classroom late and went straight to his usual seat without saying a word.
The classroom buzzed with his classmates' noise—laughter and whispers intersecting at every corner, chairs scraping carelessly, some arguing loudly, others wandering as if the lesson hadn't begun.
An open window let in sunlight, but it did little to clear the chaos. Scattered notebooks, tapping pens on desks, and side conversations about everything but the lesson.
"Pass your entry card," the teacher said, adjusting his slipping glasses with his finger, his bald head reflecting the sunlight streaming through the window above.
Louay left his bag in its usual place and went to the administration office to fetch his entry card.
On his way back, a group of classmates blocked him.
"Here he is, the novel freak. Still alive, huh?" they sneered.
Louay ignored them and slowly returned to the classroom.
Amid the noise, he sat as if isolated from everything around him, staring forward without engaging, as if the chaos passed through him without touching.
During the lesson, Louay felt dizzy watching the teacher explain math—his worst nightmare.
"The numbers... endless, as if they've conspired against me since childhood," he murmured.
---
The bell rang, signaling the end of the two-hour class, but to Louay, it felt like two years.
His eyes looked as if he hadn't slept for days.
He went to the bathroom, washed his face, and stared into the mirror.
His expression was rigid, his eyes half-closed as if he had lost everything.
He turned off the tap and returned to the empty classroom.
Sitting down, he placed his head in his hands on the desk.
Louay whispered angry words, as if his voice tried to break through the suffocating wall of boredom.
---
"It wasn't the ending that upset me... but my certainty that I only read it to tear it apart."
"In a world written in ink and fate, I wanted to be a mistake that wasn't accounted for."
"Everyone waited for the end of One Piece, but I... I waited for a beginning that should never exist."
"As the story neared its end, I felt no satisfaction... only suffocation, as if something inside me screamed: This is not justice."
"All those I regretted losing returned to me... but not as friends, rather as pieces of a fate I tried to break."
"The final chapter was just a beautiful lie, and I wanted to be the black ink that rewrites it."
"Maybe I was just a teenager who read too much... or perhaps the first seed of a coming rebellion."
"At the moment the pen slipped from the author's hand, I wanted to catch it."
Suddenly, his vision blurred, the pressure clinging to his eyes.
He lifted his head, fighting off sleep, but it felt heavy on his neck until he collapsed onto the desk.
"What if... I freed myself from this fate?" Louay muttered, then sighed quietly, as if his soul prepared to vanish.
He closed his eyes; his hand slipped from the desk's edge, and the phone fell with a soft ring.
The world around him began to dissolve... words tangled, light swallowed the walls, and a strange heaviness engulfed his head.
Before losing consciousness, a terrifying voice whispered inside him:
"What if you were the pen?"
On the screen of the fallen phone, one word flashed:
"The Beginning."
---
Crash... Caw... The sound of waves.
The first thing Louay heard was the repeated roar of the sea, rising and falling gently, lapping against the shore.
Between each wave, the cries of seagulls circled overhead, their sharp calls blending with the salty scent of the ocean.
He slowly opened his eyes.
The sunlight flooded his vision, and he quickly shut them again, groaning softly before trying once more.
This time, he saw the sky—blue and vast.
"Hmm..." he sighed.
His body was exhausted. He felt a strange heaviness in his limbs, as if dragged across the sand for hours.
Some of his clothes were partially wet, and a thin layer of sand coated one side of his face.
He touched the ground beneath him with his right hand. Warm, soft sand.
He lifted his head slightly, propping himself on his elbow, surveying his surroundings.
Nothing but the sea behind him and a forest of tall trees ahead.
Birds chirped nearby, some pecking branches, others fluttering over the shore.
His eyes widened, his heart pounding.
"Where am I? Wasn't I just in class?" he murmured, sweating.
He sat up slowly, feeling his head—no wounds, just a light dizziness.
He looked at his hands to confirm he was still himself.
Then he stood, wobbling, and looked around again.
No signs, no roads, no cars or people.
Only nature.
"Is this... a dream?" he wondered aloud, but only his own voice answered him.
A light sea breeze brushed past, stirring his long hair and sending a shiver down his spine.
No, this is not a dream.
"Hey! This isn't a joke! Where the hell am I?" Louay exclaimed, startled and scared.
He scanned the place until his eyes caught the silhouette of an old man walking alone along the shore.
"Ah, there's someone... I thought I was stuck here all alone!" Louay breathed a sigh of relief and hurried over.
"Uh... hello, old man. How's the fishing today?" Louay asked cautiously, trying to sound normal so as not to reveal his mysterious condition.
"Nothing new, but who are you? I haven't seen you here before," the old man replied, eyeing Louay curiously, which made Louay feel uneasy.
"Uh... I lost my way back to the city. Could you guide me, or at least tell me how to get back?" Louay tried to play with words, avoiding revealing too much.
"Hmm. Well, go from here and follow the path along the cliff, then turn right. You'll find a road; follow it and you'll return," the old man said after staring at Louay for ten seconds.
"Thanks. I'll go now. Have a good day," Louay said, leaving immediately.
As Louay followed the old man's directions toward the village, the man's expression remained unreadable, devoid of any emotion.
Louay continued until he saw a small village. He quickened his pace and entered.
He saw a guard patrolling outside.
Louay's eyes widened in astonishment.
The guard wore white and blue clothes, with the navy emblem on his back, holding a rifle—just like a Marine soldier from the manga he had read.
"Is this real...?" Louay laughed sarcastically.
Ahead, he saw a full group of them.
"Heh, I must be dreaming now... no doubt about it."
Louay watched from afar, analyzing the place.
He then saw the Marines firing at someone.
It turned out to be a man wielding a sword, riding a unicycle bike, dodging or deflecting bullets with his sword with impressive skill until all the soldiers fell to the ground.
Louay's suspicions confirmed, he started sweating from shock.
Suddenly, the swordsman grabbed the rifles of the unconscious Marines and stole their belongings and money.
As the swordsman left, Louay trailed him unnoticed until they reached a large, heavily guarded tent.
The swordsman entered, ignoring the guards.
Louay waited until the guards went inside, then crept closer to peek.
Inside, a man floated in the air, holding his neck and waving his legs, while a clown missing an arm stood nearby.
The scene was strangely familiar, causing Louay to laugh bitterly.
"It's the clown, Buggy."
Stunned, Louay left and found an empty spot to sit and gather his thoughts.