### Chapter 1: The Waking Void
The first sensation was a profound, echoing silence. It wasn't the absence of noise, but a presence in itself—a cold, vast emptiness that seemed to press in from all sides. Then came the feeling of being adrift, a weightlessness that was both liberating and terrifying.
My eyes fluttered open, but there was nothing to see. Just an endless, star-dusted black. Panic, cold and sharp, tried to grip me, but my body felt strangely sluggish, my mind wrapped in a thick fog. Where was I? The last thing I remembered was... a truck. A classic, I know. One moment I was crossing the street, lost in a daydream about sailing the Grand Line, and the next, a blaring horn and a flash of white.
"So, this is the afterlife?" I mumbled, my voice sounding thin and distant. "A bit more... spacey than I expected."
As if in response to my voice, a soft, feminine chime echoed in the void. A holographic screen flickered to life before me, displaying a single, glowing question:
**[Welcome, soul. A unique anomaly has occurred. You have been granted a second chance in a new reality. To aid your survival, you may choose one boon from a world of your memory. What will it be?]**
My mind reeled. A second chance? A boon? This was straight out of a light novel. My thoughts, still groggy, latched onto the last thing I was obsessed with: *One Piece*. The freedom, the adventure, the sheer, unadulterated joy of it. And at the center of it all, that ridiculous, indomitable power.
"I want the Gomu Gomu no Mi," I said, the words leaving my lips before I could second-guess them. "The Gum-Gum Fruit."
The screen pulsed with a warm light.
**[Boon selected: Gomu Gomu no Mi (Type: Paramecia). Power integrated with soul. Physical body reconstruction commencing. Destination: Herta Space Station. Good luck, Astral Traveler.]**
The world dissolved into a blinding torrent of light. A strange, tingling sensation spread through me, as if my entire being was being unraveled and re-woven, thread by thread. It wasn't painful, but it was deeply, fundamentally wrong. I felt my limbs stretch and contort in impossible ways, my skin taking on a bizarre, rubbery quality. The power wasn't just a tool; it was becoming a part of me, fused to my very essence.
Then, as suddenly as it began, it stopped.
I was lying on something cold and metallic. The air smelled of ozone and sterilized metal. A gentle, humming sound vibrated through the floor. I pushed myself up, my body feeling both familiar and alien. I looked at my hands. They looked normal. I tentatively pinched my cheek, then pulled.
My skin stretched. And stretched. And *stretched*.
I let go, and it snapped back with a faint *thwip*. A giddy, disbelieving laugh escaped my lips. "No way. It actually worked."
Before I could experiment further, a new sound cut through the hum: alarms. Red lights began flashing, casting long, dancing shadows across the room. It was a laboratory of some kind, filled with strange devices and floating monitors. In the center of the room was a large, transparent container, now shattered. It looked like I had just broken out of it.
"Intruder detected in the specimen containment unit! All security personnel to Sector C!" a robotic voice blared from an intercom.
"Specimen? Intruder? That's me," I realized. I wasn't in a good situation.
Suddenly, the doors at the far end of the lab slid open with a hiss. Strange creatures, monstrous beings made of twisted metal and crackling with purple energy, stormed in. They looked like something out of a sci-fi horror game. The Antimatter Legion, I'd later learn they were called.
One of them, a bipedal monster with blade-like arms, lunged at me. Instinct, raw and primal, took over. My mind screamed a single, iconic phrase.
"Gomu Gomu no... Pistol!"
My arm shot forward, stretching across the room in a blur of motion. My fist, propelled by the elastic tension, slammed into the creature's chest with a deafening *CRACK*. The monster was sent flying backward, crashing into its comrades and exploding in a shower of purple sparks.
I stared at my arm as it snapped back into place. The recoil was exhilarating. The power was real.
Just as I was processing my first victory, two figures appeared in the doorway. One was a young woman with pink hair and an air of detached curiosity, holding a massive hammer. The other was a man with long, black hair, his expression calm and collected despite the chaos.
"Oh? The specimen is fighting back. How interesting," the pink-haired girl said, her voice laced with an almost scientific amusement.
The man simply drew a long, elegant blade. "It doesn't matter. We need to clear a path. Let's move."
They didn't seem to see me as a friend. To them, I was just another part of the chaos. Fine by me. I had my own problems. More Legion creatures were pouring in.
"Guess I'll have to make my own way out," I muttered, a wide, reckless grin spreading across my face. It was a grin that promised adventure.
With a running start, I leaped into the air. "Gomu Gomu no... Rocket!"
My arms shot out, grabbing onto a high ceiling beam. With a mighty pull, I launched myself over the heads of the Legion and the two newcomers, soaring down the hallway like a human slingshot. The wind rushed past my ears, carrying the sounds of battle and the pink-haired girl's surprised "Hey!"
I landed clumsily at the far end of the corridor, tumbling into a roll before bouncing back onto my feet, my rubbery body absorbing the impact perfectly. I didn't look back.
My name, my past life... it felt like a distant dream. Here and now, I was someone new. Someone with a strange, rubbery body in a universe of star-faring trains and cosmic gods. My journey had just begun, and I was going to explore every inch of it.