"HUH?!"
Before Luffy could process what he had just seen, fragments of unfamiliar memories began flooding into his mind. Faces he had never known, places he had never set foot in, and all kinds of absurd knowledge came rushing in all at once, piling on top of one another without warning. Too much information forcing its way into his mind at the same time made his head feel like it was about to explode.
The world around him spun for a moment before everything went dark. His body collapsed to the ground, unconscious amid the ruins of the destroyed treehouse.
Meanwhile, at the Dadan Family's house, the atmosphere was far from calm.
Dadan paced back and forth in the main room, her face filled with wrinkles of worry that she desperately tried to hide. As the leader of the mountain bandits from the Dadan Family, whose base was located on Mount Colubo not far from Foosha Village, she had long since become the adoptive mother of three boys, Luffy, Ace, and Sabo, at the direct request of Garp, Luffy's own grandfather.
It was already eight o'clock at night, and Luffy had yet to show his face. Out there, the darkness of the forest was far more dangerous than it was during the day. The sounds of nocturnal animals began echoing from the distance, as though mocking the anxiety hanging in the air.
Dogra, one of her subordinates, tried to calm the atmosphere.
"Boss, just relax. Luffy must be fine."
"Who said I'm worried about that brat?!" Dadan snapped, her voice louder than necessary. She dropped herself onto the floor, trying to calm her own breathing.
However, less than a minute later, she was already standing again, ordering one of her subordinates to get the torches. They were going to look for that brat, right now.
'I'm not worried about that brat's safety at all,' Dadan thought, trying to convince herself as she stepped outside. 'I'm just afraid Garp will kill me if he finds out his grandson is missing.'
The group split into four teams, each consisting of five people, before spreading out in different directions throughout the forest. Thirty minutes passed before the team led by Magra finally found the person they were looking for, casually walking among the trees as if nothing had happened.
"What are you all doing here?" Luffy asked, one of his hands dragging the tail of a huge crocodile that he had managed to defeat along the way.
"Luffy! Where the hell have you been?! We've been looking for you!" Magra shouted, his voice a mixture of relief and irritation.
"Shishishi, sorry, sorry. I fell asleep earlier," Luffy replied with a wide grin, revealing his teeth. "But more importantly, let's go home! I got some huge prey today!" He raised the crocodile's tail high into the air, allowing the torchlight to illuminate its truly enormous size.
The group immediately hurried back, spreading the news to the other teams that Luffy had been found safe and sound.
"Really?!" Dadan shouted, unable to completely hide the relief in her voice.
"Yeah, Boss. He said he fell asleep earlier," replied one of the bandits who had brought the news.
Realizing that she looked far too worried, Dadan quickly corrected her attitude.
"Hmph, good. If that's the case, then he's fine." She turned toward her other subordinates. "Come on, let's go home."
Once they arrived back at the house, the crocodile Luffy had caught was immediately prepared and cooked. The entire group of mountain bandits had apparently not even had dinner yet, having been too busy worrying about the brat who had yet to return home.
Although Luffy had initially only been left in their care, the amount of time they had spent together was already enough to make them consider him a part of their own family. Luffy's always cheerful and straightforward personality had somehow made him easy to accept, even among rough bandits.
After finishing his meal, Luffy returned to his room to rest. The night had grown late, and the only remaining light was the moonlight slipping through the gaps in the wooden window.
After absorbing all the fragments of memories from the person who had attacked him earlier, he finally understood who that person truly was, and what the transparent blue object that had briefly floated before him actually meant.
That person's name was Kevin, a transmigrator from another world completely different from the world Luffy lived in now. In Kevin's original world, there were buildings towering high enough to pierce the sky, as well as flying vehicles made of iron. Perhaps this world also had things like that, but so far, Luffy had never seen them himself.
The blue object that had appeared before him was a kind of blessing, something Kevin had brought from his world. And now, that blessing completely belonged to him. He even already knew how to access it, as though that knowledge had been planted in his mind a long time ago.
"Open the status window," Luffy muttered quietly, trying to recall the method he had just come to understand.
[Host: Monkey D. Luffy]
[Status: Healthy]
[Devil Fruit: Gomu Gomu no Mi [Hito Hito no Mi: Model Nika] (Not Awakened)]
[Combat Skills:]
[Hand-to-Hand Combat]
[Haki:]
[Kenbunshoku Haki: Not Learned]
[Busoshoku Haki: Not Learned]
[Haoshoku Haki: Awakened]
Besides the status window, there were two other features that he had briefly seen, but the drowsiness that was beginning to overwhelm him made him decide to study them tomorrow instead. His body was far too exhausted after being forced to work hard all day, combined with the strange battle he had just experienced. Right now, all he needed was rest.
Although there were many things he needed to question, such as what the Hito Hito no Mi: Model Nika was and what Haki was, he could learn all of that after he had fully recovered.
His vision gradually blurred before turning completely black. Not long afterward, Luffy was already fast asleep, as though none of the strange events that had just shaken his life had ever happened.