"Hoo! Hoo!"
The rhythmic chant echoed across the shoreline like a war cry, each repetition punctuated by the whistle of wind and the crash of waves.
"Ten thousand thirty thousand two hundred and twenty-one!"
"Ten thousand thirty thousand two hundred and twenty-two!"
Charlotte's voice grew hoarser with each count, but his determination never wavered. Sweat cascaded down his angular frame, carving rivulets through the salt and grime coating his sun-bronzed skin. The metallic taste of exhaustion filled his mouth as he hefted the massive dumbbell—a crude iron weight ten times his own size—high above his head once more.
The seventeen-year-old's muscles screamed in protest, tendons stretching like bowstrings ready to snap. His calloused hands, raw from hours of gripping the unforgiving metal, trembled with the effort. Yet he persevered, driven by an obsession that bordered on madness.
Every swing of the colossal weight sent gusts of air rippling outward, stirring the sandy beach and bending the sparse grass that clung to the coastal rocks. The sound was like thunder rolling across the water—a deep, resonant boom that seemed to challenge the very heavens.
Charlotte had been at this grueling routine since dawn, and now the sun hung mercilessly overhead, its rays turning his makeshift training ground into a furnace. The scent of brine and heated stone filled his nostrils, while seabirds circled overhead, their cries mixing with his own labored breathing.
Despite his impressive height of nearly two meters and his powerfully built frame, it was hard to believe this young man harbored such an extraordinary secret. The locals who occasionally glimpsed him during his training had grown accustomed to the spectacle, though whispers still followed in his wake.
•~•
Two days earlier, Charlotte had been a broken man.
He had awakened in his modest thatched cottage, every bone in his body screaming with agony. The memories came flooding back—the rescue from the churning sea, the cracked ribs, the dislocated shoulders, the way his rescuers had looked at him with a mixture of pity and amazement when they pulled his battered form from the waves.
Time travel, he had thought, staring at the unfamiliar wooden beams above his bed. It's impossible. It has to be.
The very notion defied logic, yet here he was, somehow transported into the world of One Piece—a realm where the impossible became mundane, where dreams and willpower could reshape reality itself.
But even in a world of miracles, Charlotte's recovery had been nothing short of supernatural. What should have taken weeks of bed rest had required mere days. After consuming several hearty meals of meat—rich, protein-laden flesh that seemed to melt into his very bones—his injuries had mended with startling speed.
The meat itself held the answer to his rapid healing, though the revelation had shaken him to his core. It belonged to a Sea King, one of the colossal marine beasts that ruled the ocean depths. Specifically, it was flesh from the very creature that had torn away Shanks' arm in the early chapters of the legendary tale he now found himself living.
This discovery had sparked a dangerous idea in Charlotte's mind. If consuming Sea King meat could accelerate his healing so dramatically, what else might it do? Could it enhance his strength? His endurance? His very potential?
Thus began his relentless training regimen—a desperate bid to forge himself into something worthy of this chaotic, beautiful, terrifying world he now called home.
•~•
Count by count, rep by rep, Charlotte was building something more than just physical strength. He was constructing a foundation—not just for survival, but for the grand adventure that awaited him on the endless blue horizon.
The sea called to him with its siren song, promising freedom, danger, and the chance to carve his own legend into the annals of pirate history. But first, he needed to become strong enough to answer that call.
The dumbbell rose and fell, rose and fell, each movement a declaration of intent, each drop of sweat a promise to himself and to the world that would soon know the name Rockefeller Charlotte.