Under the dim streetlights, a young boy was running wildly through the rain. As he ran, Hera muttered to himself:
"How unlucky. I shouldn't have waited until after 8 PM to buy discounted fruit at the supermarket just to save some money. This damn weather—it started raining the moment I stepped outside."
As he neared the entrance of his residential complex, Hera's gaze was suddenly drawn to a young girl on the road.
The girl was wearing a Gothic-style dress. Her black and red skirt emitted a blood-red glow even in the dark night. She stood in the middle of the road, holding an umbrella with decorations as ornate as a clock face.
It wasn't just the girl that caught Hera's eye, but also the Truck-kun charging toward her from across the road.
Seeing the girl standing still as the Truck-kun approached, Hera instinctively rushed forward and pushed her away. The girl was shoved aside, but Hera himself couldn't dodge in time and was sent flying by the impact.
In his fading consciousness, he seemed to hear the girl's voice echoing in his mind: "Since you saved me, I will give you a compensation. If there is a next life, where would you like to go?"
Instinctively, the Pirate King he had just watched that afternoon came to Hera's mind.
The girl seemed to sense Hera's thoughts: "I see. That's a dangerous world. In that case, I'll give you another gift, though I don't know if you'll be able to handle the price."
Soon, intense pain swallowed Hera's last bit of consciousness, leaving only a golden watch face in his mind.
"You old hag, don't steal my meat!"
Where is this? Didn't I just get hit by Truck-kun? Hera woke up dizzily from a stupor and sat up abruptly, only to find that his field of vision was much lower and his hands looked smaller.
Feeling empty down there, Hera instinctively looked between his legs: "Where's my little brother? Why didn't he come with me?"
Looking around, he saw a group of people gathered around a bonfire roasting meat. Hera asked in confusion, "Where am I?"
A burly-looking woman nearby saw Hera wake up and said to her, "Now that you're awake, come over and eat. Garp brought two brats anyway, one more won't make a difference."
A circle of Bandits surrounded the woman. When they saw Hera wake up, they all flashed kind smiles. Among the Bandits, two children were eating pieces of roasted meat that looked almost as big as their own bodies.
Startled by the circle of people with strange smiles, Hera instinctively crossed her arms over her chest in a defensive posture.
Dadan explained, "Garp said he found you on the way while bringing Luffy and Ace here, so he brought you to me as well."
"I don't know what that old man was thinking. Never mind Luffy and Ace, but sending a girl like you to my Bandits' den... doesn't the Marine have a place to look after children?"
Seeing that Hera was a bit frightened, Dadan dispersed the group of Bandits: "What are you lot doing crowding around here? You're scaring the little girl."
Then she patted Hera's head and comforted her, "But don't worry. Even though this is a Bandits' den, since I promised Garp I'd take care of you, I, Dadan, will not break my word."
Seeing Hera staring blankly, as if she wasn't very bright, Dadan asked, "Do you know what your name is?"
Snapping back to reality, Hera quickly replied, "Hera. My name is Hera."
Hearing her answer, Dadan said, "I see. Do you remember your parents?"
Hera shook her head. In her previous life, her parents died shortly after she was born, and she had survived until now on the help of relatives and the savings they left behind.
Now that she had become a little girl and arrived here inexplicably, she knew even less about who her parents were.
"I see. Well, knowing your name is enough. It seems your brain wasn't frozen through. I don't know why your parents were so heartless,"
"to dump a cute girl like you in The Grey Terminal. If Garp had found you any later, you might have frozen to death there."
Looking at the abandoned Hera, Dadan's eyes showed pity. "In that case, you might as well take Garp's surname. From now on, your name will be Monkey D. Hera."
Luffy, Ace, Garp... As Hera sat up and her body gradually warmed, her mind cleared, and she recalled those familiar names.
Her realization gradually became clear.
He—no, it was she now—suddenly realized a fact: she seemed to have transmigrated into the world of the Pirate King, and she had even turned into a girl.