Ten years had passed since Monkey D Luffy had last used Uta's body to satisfy his desires.
In that time, his life had been a chaotic mess of events. He'd been forced into grueling, unreasonable training by his grandfather, Garp. He'd become sworn brothers with Sabo and Ace—the latter being a complete stranger at the time—only for Sabo to die shortly after. And finally, Ace had set sail to pursue his own ambition of becoming a pirate.
"Are you really sure about this, Luffy? In that boat?"
"Ah, it's fine. It's not like I'm heading straight for the Grand Line. It just needs to hold together until I get there."
And now, today was the day Luffy departed from Foosha Village.
He set sail in a small skiff once used for fishing, given to him by the fishmonger, Gyoru. A sturdier vessel would have been preferable, but no ship from this backwater village could hope to survive the Grand Line's treacherous currents.
Since Luffy planned to ditch it for a better one soon enough, this tiny boat was perfect.
"Still... I never imagined you, of all people, as an adventurer, Luffy."
"The old man was against it until the very end. Probably thought I was gonna be a pirate."
Garp had relentlessly pushed him toward the Marines, demanding he become a sailor under the government's flag. But Luffy's objective was unchanging: to use his unique abilities to ravish women across the world and build his own personal harem. The military's rules, duties, and protocol were a fucking joke he had no interest in.
Therefore, he told the villagers he was setting out as an Adventurer to see the world.
Back in his original world, uncharted lands were few and far between, but here, the Grand Line's magnetic fields made compasses useless and mapping impossible. Half-assed travelogues were published and sold as adventure. There was no shortage of men who set sail to verify those tales or to see the world with their own eyes; the village even had a small collection of such books.
"Shanks and his crew were good people, but I've got no desire to be a wanted man for fun."
It should be noted that Luffy had never been thrown into the sea by the mountain bandit Higuma. He knew the original story: a headstrong challenge leading to capture and the incident that cost Shanks his arm.
So Luffy had subtly manipulated the information tags regarding Higuma's route, ensuring that scum never set foot in Foosha Village again.
Consequently, Shanks still had both arms, and Luffy had never received that straw hat.
In other words, the possibility of "Straw Hat Luffy" ever existing was completely and utterly erased. Since he had no plans to become a pirate to begin with, the Straw Hat Pirates would likely never be born in this world either.
"Alright, I'm heading out while the waves are calm."
"Oooh!"
"Be careful out there!"
"Take care of yourself!"
The villagers waved farewell as Luffy pushed off from the dock. They had absolutely no idea they were currently waving goodbye to a predator. Unfortunately, his special ability was useless when applied to a ship floating on the sea; it would just spasm uselessly. He was forced to row manually.
"So, Luffy," a voice asked beside him. "What's the plan first?"
"A proper sailing ship, at the very least. I need one of those. And a navigator. Those two are non-negotiable."
The question came from Makino.
In the original narrative, Makino was a character whose screen time was limited to the first story. Yet here she was, sitting on his boat. The explanation was simple: she was already one of the women in Luffy's harem.
Her character design had always appealed to him—so much so that if Makino had been a member of the original Straw Hat crew, he might have actually read the manga more thoroughly. It was a shame she had so little presence in the source material, but this world didn't give a shit about the original manga.
Here, Luffy could do whatever the hell he pleased.
"A navigator's crucial, but what about other crew members?" Makino asked.
"I'm not a pirate. I can handle any fighting myself," Luffy grunted, pulling on the oars. "But I guess... a shipwright, a doctor... and if the crew gets bigger, a real cook. You can't handle all that on your own, Makino. That'd be a burden."
Luffy had long since overwritten Makino's recognition tags within the village. To them, it seemed perfectly natural that Makino was accompanying him on his voyage as his ship's cook. It was a fitting role, given her experience running the village bar and her skill in the kitchen.
"A burden? You don't need to worry about that..." she started.
"I'm not about to fuck you so hard you can't stand up to cook. I'd be sorry if we had to skip meals," Luffy interrupted, a lewd grin spreading across his face. "And you hate being left hanging, don't you, Makino? When I edge you for hours?"
"...That's... well... yes..." she murmured, her cheeks flushing crimson.
Luffy's own cooking skills were absolutely catastrophic. Food was non-negotiable for morale and stamina management aboard a ship. He understood that. But he also understood that if Makino had to listen to him plowing other women into the deck, moaning and screaming in ecstasy, while she was stuck alone in the galley, it would drive her insane with frustrated lust.
The fact that she couldn't deny it, her face reddening as she nodded meekly, only made him want to bend her over the gunwale right then.
"Ah! L-Luffy, look! A huge whirlpool up ahead!"
Seemingly embarrassed by her own perverted nature—she was quite the closet freak—Makino hastily pointed toward the sea ahead to change the subject. A massive vortex swirled menacingly in their path. He briefly considered teasing her about how the sea spray had made her thin skirt cling to her thighs, but the whirlpool was too large to ignore. He adjusted their course.
'Come to think of it, didn't the original story involve getting sucked into a whirlpool and washing up somewhere?'
Luffy couldn't recall the exact details. But with Makino already on board, he figured he was so far off-script that it didn't matter anymore. He stopped thinking about it and focused on finding an island.
In truth, because Luffy never washed up on Alvida's base, he never met Koby. And because he never went to Shells Town, a catastrophic derailment of the original plot had already occurred, a fact Luffy remained blissfully unaware of.
"Hm? Hey, Luffy. What's that over there?"
"A ship."
Navigating by a compass he'd gotten in Foosha and a chart bought from a traveling merchant, he spotted a vessel adrift on the water. It wasn't a pirate ship; the sail bore no Jolly Roger.
What caught his attention, however, was the figure slumped listlessly on the deck.
"Crew member...? Is she sick?"
"Let's get closer."
He could just sail past and leave her, but connections were a strange, twisting thing in this world. There was no need to make enemies through negligence, and helping someone rarely created new ones.
"Excuse me! Are you alright?!" Makino called out as they pulled alongside.
"...Ah, I-I'm fine! Totally fine!" the figure shouted back, jolting upright.
As they drew near enough to see her face clearly, Luffy's eyes narrowed. The girl was sweating profusely, her face pale with nausea, but her features were unmistakable.
'That's... Nami, wasn't it? The woman who was supposed to be my navigator.'