Chapter 1 — The Book That Shouldn't Exist
The sea was silent.
Moonlight shimmered across the calm waters of the East Blue as waves gently crashed against the shore of an unnamed island.
A young man slowly opened his eyes.
“...Where am I?”
His head pounded as fragments of memories rushed through his mind.
A busy street.
Bright headlights.
A deafening crash.
Then...
Nothing.
He forced himself to sit up and stared at the unfamiliar coastline.
“This... isn’t Earth.”
Before he could think further, a newspaper drifted onto the beach.
The front page carried a headline that made his heart stop.
MARINE HERO VICE ADMIRAL GARP RETURNS FROM THE NEW WORLD
His breathing became shallow.
“No...”
He grabbed the paper with trembling hands.
Marine.
East Blue.
Grand Line.
Pirates.
“This is... One Piece.”
He laughed nervously, convinced he had finally lost his mind.
Then he noticed something lying a few meters away.
A black notebook.
Unlike anything he had ever seen.
Its cover looked ancient, almost alive.
Across the front, two silver words were engraved.
DEATH NOTE
“...Impossible.”
The air suddenly became cold.
Against every instinct telling him to leave it alone, he picked it up.
The moment his fingers touched the cover...
A violent pulse shot through his body.
Thousands of unfamiliar symbols flashed before his eyes before disappearing.
The notebook opened by itself.
The first page contained only a few lines.
“The human whose name is written in this notebook shall die.”
His expression froze.
“No way...”
He turned another page.
More rules.
More impossible instructions.
Heart attacks.
Conditions.
Time limits.
Requirements.
He closed the notebook immediately.
“This has to be some kind of joke.”
A loud scream echoed through the forest.
“HELP!”
Without thinking, he ran.
Breaking through the trees, he found three armed bandits surrounding an old fisherman.
The old man had already fallen to his knees.
“Please... Take the money...”
One bandit laughed.
“We’re taking your life too.”
The protagonist hid behind a tree, gripping the notebook tightly.
His heartbeat thundered in his ears.
“If this thing is fake...”
He looked at the leader’s face.
One of the other bandits shouted,
“Captain Doran! Finish him already!”
Captain Doran.
He had heard the name.
He had seen the face.
Slowly...
He opened the notebook.
His hand shook as he wrote.
Doran
Nothing happened.
He let out a nervous laugh.
“I knew it...”
Then Captain Doran suddenly grabbed his chest.
His sword slipped from his fingers.
His eyes widened in terror.
He collapsed into the dirt.
Dead.
Silence.
The remaining bandits stumbled backward.
“C-Captain?!”
“What happened?!”
They fled into the forest without looking back.
The old fisherman stared at the body in complete disbelief.
Hidden behind the trees, the protagonist’s hands trembled uncontrollably.
“It...”
“It actually worked.”
A slow clap echoed from above.
Clap.
Clap.
Clap.
He looked up.
Sitting casually on the branch of a giant tree was a creature unlike anything he had ever seen.
Towering.
Pale blue skin.
Wild black wings folded behind its back.
Glowing golden eyes.
A grin stretched across its face.
“Interesting,” the creature said with a laugh.
“It has been centuries since a human in this world picked up one of those.”
The notebook suddenly felt much heavier in his hands.
“What...”
“What are you?”
The creature’s smile widened.
“My name...”
“...is Ryuk.”
The protagonist’s blood ran cold.
The game had begun.
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