[REWRITE] One Piece x Reader || Unfamiliar

preface + prologue

Another little preface and prologue, and again I promise later chapters will be longer. And better. Lol, I usually say the first chapter should be the best since it's the first impression, but I dunno. I felt weird starting out. Okay, let's get to that lil preface.

This. Is. Different. From. The. Original. Okay, seriously though, there won't be that many changes, just little tweaks here and there. The most notable is that (Y/N) already knows Perona. But obviously, there will be other little adjustments. I don't think I'll ever remove the original, so you can always go read that! Hopefully it doesn't get too confusing.

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Magic was a peculiar thing. It thrived off life, yes, but death even moreso. And at the end of the day, it wasn't all too magical in every sense of the word. It required payment and had limits, not to mention magic couldn't exist without humans. In that sense, it's as natural as humans are. But it still eludes comprehensible reasons for existing. Why and how does it exist? What even is it? Then again, no questions that aren't unsolved about life.

So maybe magic is tethered to life. That's what the majority had settled on and what was taught.

You were never a huge fan of the idea, considering how much that depended on the idea of fate. It meant people only got familiars matching the strength and abilities they were destined to have. Which really didn't make sense considering most people got celestial and advanced familiars if their lineage had traces of them. You weren't an expert or anything, but you could figure it definitely wasn't completely set to fate.

Well, either way, magic didn't make up the world. A bunch of old movies saw the future as a world completely overrun by magic, usually 'extracted magic' in sci-fi works. The same works that had flying cars and streaks of light emitting from people's hands that did damage. Some apocalyptic portrayals of the future had magic separating from humans and turning evil. It hadn't (at least not yet), but it had become more and more accepted to hone magic and turn it into power. Not quite extracted, but not too far off from the superhero/supervillain future some people expected. The social advances resulted in places like the Grand Line, a place truly magical, in its own twisted, violent way.

Some extremely religious folk still marked it as the devil's work, seeing the atrocities of the Grand Line, while some saw it as God's blessing from the good it brought. But it was rare anyone would run into people like that. They made up a fraction of a percentage of the population, and there were probably more lunatics that worshipped magic as a god. And for better or worse, those people were the types of people you ended up spending the most time with. Your family and most of the high class families funnelled into that stereotype, so focused on power.

But most simply saw it as a tool to help with everyday life or achieve dreams. You didn't buy into that either. You'd always felt close with your familiar, and using him just for your own desires felt twisted. The little blue jay chirped happily as he found a place on your shoulder in a small cave of hair. He blinked and nudged his head forwards, finding interest in your messages screen.

"Hey Amyr," you murmured, lifting your finger to pet him. He pressed his head into it for a moment before pulling back. You stared, waiting for a message that would surely come any moment that would let you know who was picking you up from the exam site. You'd messaged a few of your siblings and parents several times between the different subject tests, but you still hadn't gotten an answer.

"How do you think you did?" you asked, looking up from your phone at Perona.

"Fine, I guess. Really wish I could've used Pik to cheat on math, though. Stupid locks," she murmured, rubbing her hand as the faint image of a red panda glided out from her recently unlocked seal. She peeked over your free shoulder to look at your messages screen, finding the entire conversation from your side. Pik slinked around her pink hair to see what was happening, only to grow bored and rest lazily over her shoulder. "Any replies?"

"I'm sure I can find public transportation," came your brief reply, followed by a small sigh.

Perona frowned. "It's getting kind of late, I don't want you going on public transportation alone. There are some real creeps out there, you know. Plus, you live far away. Bunk at mine for the night, who cares?"

You glanced at your phone, biting your lip before nodding. "I guess so... I'll let them know real quick then we can go." You sent a few messages before tucking your phone in your pocket and walking with Perona to her ride---a soft white car that looked like something between a cheap bug and a small Volkswagen, the price definitely leaning towards the former. It was pretty old, but she took good care of it. It was 'vintage,' as she insisted.

Pik lounged on the centre console and Amyr perched on his head.

"What're you thinking for dinner?" she asked, pulling out of the massive parking lot. "McDonalds? Burger King?"

"Let's not go to a fastfood place. You eat way too much."

"I---to be fair, I don't eat fast food all the time. Sometimes I make stuff at home. Like... ramen. And pizza. Scratch that, I guess I usually just get takeout or have pizza be delivered."

You let a soft huff of amusement pass through your lips. "That's much better, you're right."

"Yeah, yeah. What do you want to get? I don't really have food to cook at home." She glanced at the street signs and took a right.

"What're you up for?"

She subconsciously pouted her lip ever so slightly, shifting her jaw just a little as she thought. "I'm not really sure, we can kind of look around and figure out what we want."

"Sounds fine with me," you agreed. "Let's also get you regular human food while we're at it."

She crinkled her nose as her red lips threatened to tip up at the corners. "Shush, you."

You didn't hide your own smile as you shook your head lightly.

The two of you ended up at a Walmart picking out a couple sushi packages. It wasn't the most ideal dinner, but it wasn't the worst either. For finally finishing written exams over the course of nearly 9 hours, not including breaks, you and Perona agreed on just relaxing for the rest of the night. Sushi, Netflix, and enough popcorn to drown out the stresses of not knowing whether or not you passed. So the idea of health was scrapped pretty fast.

Of course, you did still add plenty of good foods to the cart alongside the unplanned boxes of popcorn, tubs of ice cream, and cans of energy drinks. Items which earned a glare followed soon after by a reluctant and drawn out "Fine," under the condition it wouldn't all be consumed in a 12 hour timespan.

It was 10am when you and Perona got your results, and it was an oddly happy, hazy experience, not having slept the previous night to cram, and staying up all night watching comedy shows and movies all night, eating sushi, ice cream, and popcorn. You both passed with high scores, and you were given the venue for the next tests. Which was both a relief and a huge stress inducer from the idea of the next tests.