Chapter 1

I feel dizzy. My head throbbed too hard that made me groan. My heart beats much faster than usual. I coughed madly as my throat itches and it was burning. I groaned feeling uncomfortable as my body just felt pain. I squirmed in my bed feeling the discomfort.

I fluttered my eyes open but I did it slowly. The surroundings was bright. Too bright for my liking. Seems like I was still in my room. I blinked my eyes idly trying to adjust about how bright my room was.

"You're finally awake, huh?"

I jolted myself up and looked at the source of the voice. Now, I remembered what happened earlier before I passed out. As unbelievable as it was, there was a man who just magically appeared before me. I thought hysteria has gotten the best of me because of my fever but no. Right now, the guy was really right there. He was sitting comfortably in the chair of my drafting table. His legs were crossed. Even if his hat was in the way, I can still see his eyes. His eyes show a lot of emotions that was dwelling. The stare he was giving me made me flinched.

"You have a fever." He said.

"I..." There was no voice escaping from my mouth so I cleared my throat.

"I've scanned the room earlier. Can you explain what's this?"

He interrupted me before I could even speak something. He get my sketch pad that was lying in my drafting table. He showed me the unfinished drawing that I was sketching earlier. He was demanding for answers as he looked at me straight in the eye. I just gulped.

"Is this me...?"

Portgas D. Ace, the person who was in my drawing, asked. His eyes were twitching as if he was not believing what he see. His eyebrows were closed to each other. He was frowning. His mouth was slightly ajar. Truth to be told, that kind of expression in his face does not actually suits him very much.

"A-Ace...?" I managed to said at last.

The eyes of Ace narrowed. He inquired something with a voice of authority. "How'd you know me? Who are you?"

I did not answer right away. I was still in the shock mode. It was not everyday your favorite character from your favorite anime appeared before you and now speaking to you.

"Just call me Tala..."

"Tala, huh? Can I ask where am I?"

"In my room."

"Don't I know that?" He said like a mater-of-fact.

"Uh, apparently... You're not in the Grand Line. No- You're not even in your own world..."

"What?" Ace said aghast. "You're not making any sense."

His eyes landed on the posters of my room. He then eyed a one poster that he should not have seen. I quickly stood up and get my One Piece poster, not the wanted one, away from him. I tried hiding it but it was already late.

"Is that... Luffy?"

I groaned. I am already doing a bad job at this. "Listen... I know this will sound strange..."

"I don't think there's more stranger thing than this." He deadpanned. "I was with my brother, protecting him from a Marine Admiral. And then suddenly, I see a light that sucked me. And then, I was here. The strangest room I've ever seen. I find a sick girl, a drawing of me, a poster of Luffy and his crew and a toy of me...? What the hell's going on here!?"

Goddamn, seems like he had seen my one and only action figure. And it was him. Well, it did just lie there in plain sight. I sighed wistfully. I have a lot of explaining to do.

"In this world, you are a... Fictional character..."

A pregnant silent ensured. I cannot believe that I was doing this.

"Are you alright, kid? You're fever's high after all." Ace said with tone of concern.

"I-I'm fine!" I said, voice squeaking.

"Sane people never muttered those kind of things, kid."

"Tch," I humped. "Here in this world, your life has been serialized in a manga... No, no. You don't know what's a manga... A manga is like a book used for entertainment. You're not supposed to be real!"

"What are you talking about?" Ace exclaimed. I probably sounded like an idiot to him.

"Your life's a story to us use for entertainment..." I scratched my head violently. The hardest thing that I would ever done in my life. Convincing a fictional character that he was not real and now he was transported in our world.

"That's stupid..." He muttered.

Seems like I did not convinced him at all.

"You said that you're protecting your brother from a Marine Admiral..."

He seemed hesitant at first but he answered. "...Yeah."

"That brother of yours is Luffy, correct?"

"Yes?" Suspiciousness was in his voice.

"Were you guys at Marineford?"

"...." He did not answer but his face said it all.

Oh, now I pinpoint where was he before he got here. I tried not to talk much because I might reveal something that he has yet to know. If he was at Marineford with Luffy and running away, then, it was the Paramount War arc. The War of the Best. The war between the Marines and the Whitebeard Pirates to save Ace.

Ace said that before he got sucked by a light, he was protecting Luffy from the son of a bitch Admiral Akainu. Does that mean that he already got punched by a magma fist right in the chest protecting Luffy?

"The Admiral you mentioned was Akainu?"

"...Yes."

I began explaining.

"You're Portgas D. 'Fire Fist' Ace. Has a bounty of 550 million beri. Former captain of Spade Pirates but now you're the Second Division Commander of Whitebeard Pirates. Does that prove anything?"

"I'm quite famous. People tend to know that." He retorted.

Well, I just revealed basic information about him. Need to go deeper.

"Your birthday is on January 1. You're raised by Dadan, a mountain bandit from Mt. Columbo. When you're five, you've met a runaway noble named Sabo, you two became famous thieves in Gray Terminal."

He flinched when I mentioned the name of Sabo but I still continued.

"When you're ten, the hero Garp who you considered as your grandfather, brought a seven years old Luffy. You hated him at first but he grew on you. Together with Sabo, you three became brothers by drinking sake. Do most people know about that kind of information?"

"How do you..."

"I told you." I interrupted him.

"Okay... You said that I was in another world, right?"

"As stupid as it sounds, yes." I nodded.

"Any proof?"

"Actually, there might be..." I stood up and went to get my cellphone in the table.

I opened my cellphone up and went to the camera. Ace were looking at me curiously. His eyes were wide as he stared at the back of my phone.

"Is that Luffy and his crew?"

Truth to be told, my phone case was One Piece. I tried finding a phone case with Ace on it. Too bad, I did not managed to find any so I just put him as my wallpaper.

"Yeah."

At that moment, I managed to snap a picture of him. I went to gallery and show the photo of him.

"A camera?" He said, not really surprise. They do have a camera in their world after all.

"Well, this is not just a camera. You can say that it's a den den mushi with a camera...?"

"Really?"

"Yeah. You can also play games on this. You can make a call, can take pictures, and other entertaining things... We do have this on our world but not in yours..."

Ace led his hands so I gave him my cellphone. He eyed the phone with sheer interest and curiosity. I cannot blame him. When I first got a phone, that was my reaction.

"Interesting..."

He tip tapped my phone and then ended up in the gallery and oh God. I snatched the phone from him. Because damn, there was a lot of pictures of ASL on it. He might see a grown up Sabo not knowing that his sworn brother is freaking alive.

"Hey! I'm—"

"Sorry," I apologized. "It's private."

Silence ensured again. I allowed him to sunk the words the words I have said. He was taking this far more better than I expect. Knowing Ace, he has a huge case of trust issues. For a stranger he met claiming that he is fictional, he was dealing it better. For me, this was really uncomfortable. My day was just doing great and fine as it can be. And then fate has other plans, my favorite character appeared and then now I need to explain that he was a character from an anime series.

"You believe me now...?" I asked after a while.

"I guess so." Ace shrugged. "Ya know, if someone else told me that kind of story, I've already burned them."

I gulped in nervousness. I tried backing away from him but my legs turned numb in fear. His eyes were just scary at that moment. I forgot about his fire powers. The Mera-Mera no mi. I wonder if he got that power even here in Earth.

"But your story's pretty wild to be just purely imagination. " Ace stated casually. "And you know a lot... About me."

"Thank God..." I muttered under my breath.

"So, you said that my life has been turned into a... Story?"

"Yes." I nodded. "But not yours. I mean, they've shown your past but... The main character is Luffy and his road to become the Pirate King."

"Luffy, eh?"

"Yup."

"If that was the case, what's the title of the story?" Ace asked.

"One Piece."

He blinked unruly and echoed. "One Piece? The treasure?"

"Yup. The treasure the Pirate King, Gol D. Roger, left."

I quickly regretted my words. This should be expected especially I had tackled a taboo topic. The eyes of Ace narrowed. A deep frown was shown on his face. His jaw tightened and his fist clenched quite angrily.

Ace has father issues.

The King of the Pirates, Gol D. Roger is the father of Ace. As shown in the series, he always hated it when thatman was mentioned. He even doubted his own birth just because who his father is. But being the son of Roger really did got him into bigger mess.

Ace was not executed because of his crimes. He was executed for living. Just because his father is the Pirate King. And the most scariest fact about it, most people agreed with it

"I-I'm sorry."

"So you know..." Ace whispered.

"They kinda revealed it in the series."

"It's fine, kid. Sorry if I scared you." Ace sighed.

I did not mind his apologizing, instead the kid part got me pouting. "Don't call me 'kid'."

"How old are you?" Ace asked.

"...14."

"I'm 20. You're a kid."

I rolled my eyes at that. "Whatever, it's just six years. You can be my older brother, you know."

Before Ace could reply, we heard a shout.

"I'm home!"

My mouth went ajar. Bloody hell, I did not noticed the time. Of course, it as already four in the afternoon. His classes finished an hour ago. He would be home by now.

"Stay here!" I pleaded Ace.

Ace seemed hesitant before nodding.

I went downstairs quickly. My body still aches as I still have a fever. The reason why I have not had managed to attend school. He was standing there in the front door. His knapsack was on his shoulder. He grinned at me.

It was my eleven years old younger brother, Justin.

How the hell should I explain to him the 'Ace transported in our world' thing?

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~Star_Crystals ☆