Our MC had just finished reading the latest chapter of One Piece — the final one, where both Imu and Blackbeard were dethroned by Luffy and his allies.
"Man, this manga was so peak! Thirty-six years, and every day of waiting was worth it — well, most of them, anyway. I wish Oda-sensei had made a few changes here and there, but I guess nothing can be done now that it's over," he muttered.
These were the thoughts of our protagonist, Ryushin, as he walked through the quiet streets of Tokyo around midnight. As he passed by one of the dark alleys, he suddenly heard a faint humming sound coming from behind him. He turned around to see a green-colored door floating in midair.
"The fuck? Am I dreaming? I think I stayed up too late this time," Ryushin muttered as he approached the door.
{A/N: Pro tip — when faced with such situations... RUN.}
As Ryushin approached the door, something clicked. He realized that it was a spitting image of the doors created by Blueno, the Door-Door Fruit user from One Piece. Puzzled, he stepped through the portal. The moment he entered, everything went pitch black...
{A/N: I decided to add the door door fruit instead of the typical MC dying or fainting at the start.}
As Ryushin woke up, he realized he was in a smaller body, lying in a small wooden room. He could hear a lot of commotion — three children messing around while someone shouted at them. Turning to his right, he saw four figures: one clearly larger than the other three, chasing them as the kids laughed uncontrollably.
The moment Ryushin saw the face of the adult who was shouting, he froze. He knew exactly where he was...
He was in the mountain bandits' house in Foosha Village — the very place where Luffy, Sabo, and Ace grew up.
{A/N: At this time Ryushin was 2 years smaller then luffy and 5 years smaller then ace and sabo}
Four Years Later
Sabo, Ryujin and Ace were training hard, while Luffy was near the port where a pirate crew known as the Red-Haired Pirates had anchored. Luffy was cautious around the pirates at first, but over time, they became like family to him.
One day, while the Red-Haired Pirates were in the bar, Luffy spotted a strange purple fruit in a treasure chest. Being hungry, he ate the whole thing without a second thought. Little did he know, he had just eaten the Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Nika—though he believed it to be the Gum-Gum Fruit. Shanks tried to make him spit it out, but it was too late. Luffy's body had become rubber, and he had lost the ability to swim.
As this happened, the mountain bandit Higuma and his gang entered the bar. When they discovered all the sake was gone because of the Red-Haired Pirates, Shanks offered Higuma the last bottle, but Higuma smashed it against Shanks' head and humiliated him before leaving.
One day, while Luffy was alone in the bar, Higuma showed up again. Angry over how Higuma had embarrassed Shanks, Luffy picked a fight with him. But at his age, he was no match for the bandit. Before Higuma could kill Luffy, the Red-Haired Pirates arrived. Lucky Roux shot one of the bandits who threatened them, while Benn Beckman single-handedly defeated the rest of Higuma's men. However, Higuma threw a smoke bomb and escaped to sea with Luffy.
Out at sea, Higuma kicked Luffy overboard, where a Sea King known as the Lord of the Coast appeared and devoured Higuma before turning toward Luffy. Just then, Shanks arrived and saved him, scaring the Sea King away—but at the cost of his left arm. Luffy was heartbroken by the loss.
Later, as the Red-Haired Pirates prepared to depart Foosha Village for good, Luffy decided he would one day set sail on his own. Shanks teased him for being too weak, but Luffy declared that he would become the Pirate King and form a crew stronger than Shanks'. In response, Shanks gave Luffy his straw hat, telling him to return it once he had become a great pirate.
After the Red-Haired Pirates left, Luffy, Ace, Sabo, and Ryushin focused on their training. During this time, Ryushin explained the three types of Haki:
"There are three types of Haki: Armament Haki, Observation Haki, and finally, Conqueror's Haki. The first two can be learned by anyone, even the weakest, but Conqueror's Haki can only be awakened by those with powerful wills."
Ryushin knew that all three of them had the potential to awaken Conqueror's Haki, but he chose not to tell them—he didn't want to make them overconfident. He also didn't reveal the true nature of Luffy's Devil Fruit, knowing that the World Government would come after Luffy much sooner if they found out.
Ryushin had already decided that he would one day eat the Quake-Quake Fruit during the Summit War. For that reason, he resolved not to stop Ace from leaving in the future, since he knew Ace would have to fight Blackbeard and be captured in order for Ryushin to obtain the fruit.
Four Years Later
All four kids trained every day. By now, Ace and Sabo were 10, Luffy was 8, and Ryushin was 6. Ace, Sabo, and Luffy had already mastered basic Armament Haki and had awakened Observation Haki, while Ryushin had only learned Armament Haki so far.
During this time, Sabo was taken back to his family to be groomed as a scholar for the upcoming visit of the Celestial Dragons. Wanting to escape that life, Sabo tried to set sail, but Ryushin stopped him.
"Why are you leaving?" Ryushin asked, even though he already knew the answer.
Sabo explained that his parents wanted him to live a scholar's life, while he wanted to become a pirate and sail the seas.
"That doesn't mean you have to set sail right now," Ryushin said. "You can just hide with us until the Celestial Dragons leave."
Sabo thought about it for a while, then agreed.
Seven Years Later
Ace had already left to start his own crew, while Luffy and Ryushin convinced Sabo to stay and join Luffy's crew. The three of them—Luffy as captain, Sabo as vice-captain and navigator, and Ryushin as Luffy's Left-hand man—were finally ready to set sail. By this point, all three had mastered both Observation and Armament Haki, and Luffy had gained more experience with his Devil Fruit.
(A/N: I decided to make Luffy the captain since he'd never settle for anything else, and both Sabo and Ryushin weren't interested in leading. I'm also trying to follow the original timeline as closely as possible.)
Sabo originally wanted to wait until Luffy turned 18 to set sail, but given their current power levels, he knew that no one in the East Blue could challenge them. So, they set sail early.
'Hmm… We won't end up in a barrel like Luffy did at the start of the story since Sabo is our navigator,' Ryushin thought while sailing. 'I'll have to come up with some excuse for us to stop at Shells Town.'
"Luffy Sabo lets head to Shells Town we need some more food and sake for the journey" said Ryushin
"Hmm we are running low on meat, ok lets go to Shells town then!" Luffy replied
While they were heading toward Shells Town, Ryushin spotted a familiar pirate ship — it was Alvida's. Ryushin knew this was the perfect time to free Koby, as he would play a big role in the future. After informing Luffy and Sabo about the treasure Alvida might have, he convinced them to fight the Alvida Pirates.
Together, they defeated Alvida's crew and freed Koby, who temporarily joined them aboard their ship.
As they docked at Shells Town's port, they heard someone shouting about the execution of a pirate hunter. Sabo didn't show much interest — after all, he was a pirate himself.
But since Luffy and Ryushin seemed intrigued, Sabo and Koby had no choice but to go along. The four of them headed toward the Marine fortress, where the swordsman was about to be executed.
On their way, they saw a little girl sneaking some rice balls to the captive swordsman — but she was caught by Helmeppo.
Helmeppo snatched the rice balls from her hands and threw them to the ground, then ordered the Marines to execute the girl. The Marines hesitated, clearly uncomfortable, but began to obey. Just as they were about to harm her, Luffy, Sabo, and Ryushin stepped in and stopped them.
Seeing the little girl's kindness towards the sowrdsman, Luffy realized the man wasn't a bad person. He immediately offered the swordsman a place on his crew.
The swordsman — Roronoa Zoro — agreed, seeing that he had no other choice if he wanted to survive. He asked Luffy to retrieve his swords from inside the Marine fortress.
Luffy and Ryushin broke into the fortress, taking Helmeppo as hostage along the way, while Sabo fought off the Marine soldiers outside. The commotion was so loud that Axe-Hand Morgan stormed out of his office just as Luffy and Ryushin were freeing Zoro and handing him his swords.
Furious, Morgan ordered all his men to attack the five of them.
"Oh no! If I get mixed up with these pirates, my dream of becoming a Marine officer will be over!" Koby thought as he ran to hide from the chaos.
Zoro joined the fight, cutting down Marines along side Sabo, while Luffy and Ryushin teamed up to defeat Axe-Hand Morgan without any difficulty.
After their victory, Luffy and Ryushin introduced Zoro to Sabo, proudly announcing that he would be their newest crewmate.
Later, the five of them sat together in a local bar to relax. However, a squad of Marines raided the place, searching for the pirates who had caused the uproar in town.
Seeing an opportunity to help Koby achieve his dream, Luffy suddenly punched Koby in the face, making it look as though they were enemies. Quickly realizing what Luffy was trying to do, Koby punched back, playing along.
"Thank you, Luffy," Koby thought to himself as he took another hit.
The Marines quickly believed that Koby was an innocent bystander rather than an accomplice.
With Koby's dream of joining the Marines secured, Luffy, Zoro, Sabo, and Ryushin left Shells Town, not wanting to cause any more trouble.