Chapter Text
Evan D’Angelo was born on a clear summer night.
He doesn't scream or cry, in fact, besides breathing he doesn't move at all. To everyone else, he looks like he’s sleeping. Or dead.
From one set of hands to another, he is passed around until he is placed back into his fathers' arms. His father holds him in his arms and marvels at the baby, his son. His body was small and on top of his head was a small tuft of red hair that he inherited from his grandfather.
“His name will be Evan, after my grandfather.” He declares into the still night.
At that, the newly named Evan’s eyes fluttered open, and his father gasped. He looks down at the newborn, at his eyes. His left eye is a bright emerald green but his left is a deep purple. The newly named Evan pays no attention to his father nor the startled whispers that have started up in the room. His bright eyes started back, not at his father but up, up, up, at the full moon that shone through the open window.
-
Evan is born with the knowledge, the bone deep feeling, that he should be dead.
But he breathes.
But he’s alive.
But-
How?
-
Evan spends the first two years of his life grieving everything he had lost, his family, his friends, and his gender. She died young from a freak car crash on her way to the Tokyo Rapier Tournament because that’s how all isekai’s start. She was only 17, still in her last year of senior high. She hadn't even decided what to do with her life before that crash, only had the vague idea of becoming a history professor. And that definitely wasn't possible now, since she he was born on this isolated island in the middle of nowhere.
The only reason he stopped grieving in the first place was when he found out what world he was reborn into. And wasn't that a shock, watching his ‘new father’ open the newspaper only for bounty posters to slip out. There's no one specifically he recognizes but it doesn't matter because he knows where, or rather what world, the bounty posters are from. He spends about 20 minutes sitting in his high chair trying to process the fact that the One Piece world exists and that he is indeed in the One Piece world.
Being a teenager in Japan meant she couldn't really go anywhere without encountering some sort of merch or promotion, so eventually she caved and read the damn thing. No surprise, she loved it but she wasn't the type of person to reread a series more than twice. In fact, she never reread One Piece at all. She had read it once, from the start to the end of Whole Cake Island and then following the weekly updates, for about 5 years up until her death, the Egghead arc was winding down when she died. Even then, most of her knowledge of anything before Wano is extremely fuzzy. Which was of course, no help in finding out when or where he was.
Oh god, he better not be in the New World.
Evan reaches as far across the table as his chubby little arms can go and makes grabby hands for the newspaper. His father chuckles before obediently handing it over to him and leaving, presumably for work. Evan reaches and spreads out the newspaper, on top of which reads 'World Economic Journal' in English.
...What?
Quickly flipping through the newspaper, or as quickly as a two year old could, he confirms that the entire newspaper is written in English. Evan mentally thanks his previous self for learning the language as seriously as he did. And that he took up the way of the sword because holy shit he was in the One Piece world, what the actual fuck.
Flipping through the newspaper slower this time, he quickly scans the paper for anything of relevance. There's some news about the Revolutionary Army plastered on the front which is more propaganda than actual information. There are some articles about some marines and their accomplishments as well as some gossip about Big Mom’s movements. Other than that and the date, year 1505 which, what even, there's nothing else of use.
Evan didn't know what year One Piece took place in, he wasn't that much of a fan. So the only piece of information he managed to glean was that Big Mom was still expanding her main islands which means he’s most likely pre-canon.
That’s when his brain decided this was too much thinking for a one year old and decided to nope out. His mother finds him fast asleep on his high chair holding the newspaper in a vice grip.
-
Evan grows older and turns 3, then 4, and then 5 with little fanfare. He learns, over time, that he was born in the East Blue, that his last name is D’Angelo, that he does not get along with other children his age at all, that she isn't a she anymore. It’s definitely because of his mental age, but he can't help but see the other kids as annoying and loud. So very loud. He doesn't want to make friends, regardless of what his ‘this time’ mother wants, so he doesn't. He spends his days inside the library, reading any book he can get his hands on. He finds nothing on reincarnation.
The library is full of mostly marine propaganda which is annoying but he reads them anyway because they should have at least some useful information. The books are mostly written in, as they call it here, Eastern. It’s some kind of bastardized mix of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean which was hell to learn. It takes him half a year to learn the basics and two years to be fluent. After, he blitzes through the rest of the library at neck-breaking speeds. And then nothing.
He was reborn into a small village. Small enough that everyone knew everyone. There were maybe 20 families, a smattering of small businesses, a library, a communal building, and one small restaurant.
Spending the majority of his formative years in a library wasn't exactly great for his social life. Most of the children, in fact all of the children, had already formed their social groups. No one wanted to be friends with the quiet kid who had weird eyes and an accent that nobody could recognize.
Half of the island where his town was located is covered in dense forest. While it isn't necessarily dangerous it is easy to get lost or injured if not careful. And so, bored out of his mind with nothing else to entertain him, Evan turned to the forest.
He doesn't go without prep. Evan isn't an idiot nor does he have protagonist luck. He packs a small bag with water and some dried fruit. Sneaking into the shed in the backyard he picks up the only weapon he can see that his tiny five year old body could reasonably use, an extra hand axe, and stuffs it carefully into the bag. He walks back inside to say bye to his mother, who had deemed him fit to go out and explore at the age of 6. Then, finally, he sets out.
-
After stumbling over a root for the fifth time, Evan curses. While his bag was intact he couldn't say the same about his pants. How Luffy and his brothers managed to jump around the forest when they were god knows how young, he didn't know. Grumbling to himself, he raised his axe to cut away at the vines blocking his way. It's been about three hours of exploring based on the position of the sun and he was getting tired. One Piece stamina really is incredible.
Reaching a clearing he sat himself down against a tree. After drinking his water and eating some fruit, he laid down and decided to take a small break. Under the bright warm sun slipping through the leaves of the giant trees, he fell asleep between one breath and the next.
-
Evan is somewhere with someone. Multiple someone's. He doesn't know where he is, only that it's opulent and wide. He was standing in the shade of a little walkway, in front of him are two steps that lead into a garden. A courtyard stretches out as far as the eye can see. It's a wide open garden filled with various flowers and paths made of marble. Evan squints down at the floor.
Is that gold in the marble? Where was he?
His body walks forward, following a trail that feels almost familiar like he's been down this road a million times before. Looking down at his now adult body, his simple shorts and shirt have been turned into a luxurious-looking dark red and gold robe. On his feet were a pair of matching red heels.
Evan looked up to see that his body had taken him deeper into the garden where the rose bushes had started to line the paths, creating a short maze. Without his will, his hand reaches out and plucks off a deep red rose before continuing down the path. He passes through an arch made of what looks like gold, wrapped in flowers, carnations this time. On either side of the arch are statues of lions made of gold.
Whoever owns this garden must be really wealthy.
Evan turns a corner and is faced with a seating area. The table was made of black marble, surrounded by four chairs. While the whole area was stunning his attention was focused on the two figures sitting in the chairs. Before they or he could say anything, his body sat himself down on the opposite chair.
Now eye level with them, Evan could see that both of the stranger's faces were blurred. The man on the right was taller, built like a brick house, with a scar over his left eye and possibly multiple arms. Evan squints, yeah that was definitely multiple arms. There was a part of his brain that was screaming at him, that he knew this man but Evan has never seen anyone like this.
He turns his head to the man on the left. He was slimmer though also muscular. Evan couldn't make out anything else other than his white hair and his smile. It was a big smile, bright and blinding, like the sun, Evan thinks distantly.
His brain is screaming at him and he doesn't know why because- because…
Before Evan could think about anything else his arm moved and, with care, placed the rose behind the smaller man's ear. Somehow, his grin grows wider.
Evans's mouth opens and a voice, not his voice, flows out.
“Hello ****.”
What the fuck?
One how did he say **** out loud and two, he knew that voice. That was her own voice, from before, from his previous life.
Before Evan could spiral any further the man with the scar spoke up, “What no flowers for me?”
Evan, or whoever's body he's in, smiled while the white-haired man laughed. His laughter sounded warm, like the sun, like freedom. It was nice. It was….suspiciously familiar.
The smiling man leaned forward, the red red red rose a stark contrast to his white hair.
“Guess what?!”
Evan felt a wave of amusement and fondness wash over him as his body leaned forward to match him.
“What?”
“I found my ******! And ***** found him too! We're just waiting for you now!”
Evan feels himself smile, “I won't keep you two waiting then.”
-
Evan blearily blinks himself awake. He sits up feeling slightly off-center. He must have really exhausted himself if he passed out right in the open and had a dream about…something.
Evan shrugged, if it was important he'd remember it eventually. Then he frowned. He looked around, maybe he was imagining it but he could hear a whistling sound. It was getting louder and louder and Evan hesitated before looking up, just in time for something to smack into his face.
BONK!!
Evan doubled over in pain with his face in his hands.
Fuck!
He carefully rubs his nose while hissing in pain, thankfully nothing seemed broken but he knew it was going to bruise like a motherfucker.
Evan looked up and saw, sitting innocently in front of him, a blue oblong fruit in the shape of a mango. The only difference, other than the color, was the weird swirling patterns on it.
Between one blink and the next, he had grabbed the fruit and took a bite. Then, as if in a haze, he proceeded to devour the rest, regardless of the weird texture or the taste.
He blinks himself back into consciousness with fruit juice all over his hands and face, as well as a feeling of completion.
Like there was an empty space inside him that he didn't know existed until it was filled.