– Bellamy –

"When did you read Kafka?"

Robin's question was posed so smoothly, that I almost didn't properly register what proverbial minefield I'd just stepped into. But when I did, my brain, which until now had been admiring her eyes and enjoying the warmth of her hand in mine, screeched to a halt and it was all I could do to limit how bad the following stutter was. That said, my trust in my ability to reply to her in an eloquent manner had been very rapidly eroded into nothingness, so I had to settle for a more simple compromise.

"P-pardon?"

"When did you read Kafka?" Robin repeated, but that slight window of time was enough for me to pull my wits slightly back together. As such, I managed to regain enough control over my voice to attempt an emergency parry.

"I read his books a long time ago." I answered honestly, hoping that this would be the end of it. It wasn't.

"Personally, I know about Kafka because growing up I had access to the Great Library of Ohara, a library which boasted the greatest collection of written works in the world." Robin continued. "And from what I gathered, you did not."

"Did Muret tell you?"

"We occasionally exchange book recommendations. Like you, she's pretty well read though her selection focuses more on medical literature and modern novels rather than the older classics." Robin replied. "Then again, she is a doctor from a long line of established doctors and would have been more than capable of affording a small library. Which makes it all the more baffling, that the literary knowledge of someone without a secondary education like you far outstrips that of a doctor like Muret."

"..."

"This is compounded by the claims of most of your crew, that they had never seen you pick up as much as a booklet, never mind a full length novel in the entire time they've known you." Robin told me, her pitch revealing nothing about her inner feelings other than a vague sense of curiosity. If you asked me, that last one was probably deliberate. "If you hadn't regularly read the newspaper, they would have thought you illiterate."

"How did you have time to convince my crew to reveal those tidbits?" I asked in bewilderment. "You've only spent like three weeks together."

"You do know that their favorite topic to gossip about is you, right?" Robin answered, as if she were pointing out the obvious and in a way, she was. "You're their hero, friend and role model all rolled into one. It's only natural that they'd be interested in you. I simply… joined in over tea and biscuits."

"Ugh…" I groaned, sitting down on a nearby rock and burying my face in my hands. "Right, remedial lessons in data security for everyone."

"Don't be too hard on them. Even without their accidental testimony, I would still have asked you the question." she told me, taking a seat on a log next to me. Out of the periphery of my vision, I could see a row of arms dissipate into flower petals, their purpose complete after having transported Robin's seating arrangements. "After all, it's rather odd that someone who obviously enjoys books as much as you do, barely has any in his bedroom."

That last part had honestly been an unfortunate accident of my transition. Whereas in my past life I could spend hours every day with a nice book in hand, that was a luxury I no longer could afford. For one, the duties of a ship's captain never seemed to end. There were always supply stores to check, riggings to inspect and crew members to talk to. What time I did have mostly went into training or into telephone (I was tired of saying den den mushi) meetings with Byron. Books…had kind of fallen to the wayside in the face of survival. Plus, while a lot of novels from my past world were present in my current one, not all of them were and the books which were new to me often contained obvious propaganda, which made for a rather boring or even unpleasant reading experience.

"I didn't have time to read a lot lately, not with Doflamingo coming for my head and all that." I tried, "And being a captain is a lot of work."

"So, if you didn't read books while growing up and you haven't read any since setting sail…again, when did you read Kafka?" Robin asked again, refusing to be diverted.

As most people would have guessed by now, this entire conversation wasn't about the precise date on which I had read a particular book by a long dead author. This was about Robin confronting me with the inconsistencies in my back story. In a way, this was a positive sign, for it signified that Robin was taking my date offer seriously enough to try and clear up any misunderstandings and doubts before moving forward. After all, if she weren't interested at all, she wouldn't have breached the topic. In other words, this confrontation was Robin giving me a chance to explain.

The issue that I was facing however, was that I had no acceptable way of explaining myself without revealing my status as a reincarnator. And that came with its own set of problems, not least amongst which was that any sane person would think me a liar or a madman, neither of which were positive impressions to leave if I wanted to date the person in question.

Having said her piece and hence, having thoroughly thrown me off-balance, Robin leaned back while still maintaining her grip on my hand.

Meanwhile, my mind was racing furiously to find a way out of this predicament. I mean, I could have straight up lied to her, but Robin had spent the last twenty years surviving amongst crooks and gangsters, many if not all of whom had betrayed her and sold her out at one point or another. Developing the ability to detect if someone was trying to deceive you would have been a necessity for survival. And more importantly, I liked Robin. A lie was no way to start a relationship. Plus, I'd already decided once before that I did have other things I valued more highly than safeguarding my secret, so it wasn't as if there weren't a precedent… even if nothing had come of that prior decision.

Thing was, if I told Robin, I had to tell the rest of my crew and it did not solely have to do with fairness. While the risk of a secret being revealed increased exponentially with every soul who was in the know, the sense of betrayal my crew would feel, when they eventually did find out by some other means, would be all the greater if I confided in Robin but not my own crew. No, that way lay disaster… not to mention that my entire crew was hiding behind a rocky outcropping and listening in at this very moment.

So, lie or deflect and accept that everyone's suspicions would be rekindled…or tell the truth and risk the World Government finding out and deciding to send agents after me in order to secure my person for research purposes.

In the end, it was never a choice.

"This might be a bit difficult to believe," I warned her, grabbing Robin's remaining hand and looking her straight in the eyes. "but I have memories of another life."

They were coming after me anyway.

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– Sarquiss –

"So let me get this straight." his darling began, walking back and forth with one hand supporting her forehead. "You are a scientist from another world with no combat or naval experience, who possessed our friend and captain."

"Well, not exactly?"

"And then you decided that taking a ship and a crew into the sky in your first month on the job was a good idea."

"It beat the alternative."

"And you have been bumbling along ever since while learning on the job."

"It's more like re-learning, but kinda true?"

"How does nobody else have a problem with this?" Lily exclaimed, letting her incredulous gaze wander across the gathered crew.

"Well, if it actually were possession I'd be more scared, but you heard what the captain said, didn't you?" Hewitt answered her with a shrug.

"Yeah, it's more like he gained another set of memories. People get visions all the time, or so my uncle Bob used to say. He certainly claimed he did often enough." Rivers added. "Apparently, everytime you get the feeling of deja vu, it's because your future self is sending you subliminal messages."

"Your uncle was a nutcase."

"Hey! He was a nutcase, but you can't call him that!" Rivers protested. "That's rude!"

"Look, Lily. You need to relax a little. Having your captain get drunk and have surprisingly accurate and vivid visions really isn't the weirdest thing we've seen on the Grand Line." Ross said, patting the girl on the back. "And even if some ghost had tried to possess Bellamy, don't you think that Bellamy would have kicked its ass instead?"

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Well…that's certainly true…"

"Either way, this does explain so much." Sarquiss mused. "Like Bellamy's suddenly expanded vocabulary."

"Or the fact that he apologizes to people now." Muret said, throwing in her two cents.

"And his improved sense of fashion." Mani finished. "Seriously, I'm so glad he no longer tries to wear that stupid pink feather coat."

"So, that's why you were fuzzy!"

"Guys, like seriously? How can you accept this so easily? It's our captain…our friend we are talking about here!" Lily demanded to know, shooting accusing glares at everyone, at least until Sarquiss slung an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into a sideways hug.

"Darling, I know what you're worried about but there's a rather simple solution to your concerns." Sarquiss said before turning to the captain. "We can just ask him. Are. You. Bellamy?"

The responses to his question diverged quite significantly.

"What?!?" Lily shouted in disbelief, while Bellamy laughed.

"Of course I am!"

"And he's not fuzzy anymore!" Aisa piped up.

"See, nothing to worry about." Sarquiss grinned triumphantly before doubling over when Lily punched him in the gut. "Oof!"

"That doesn't make any sense!" Lily shouted before Bellamy's question stopped her short.

"Then how should I prove it to you?"

To be fair, this was the kind of thing that made Sarquiss' head hurt. How did you prove that you were who you were? It reminded him too much of that conversation Bellamy and he'd had that one time about dreams and identity. Once had been more than enough, thank you very much.

"Uhm…"

"It's not like I can let you cut me open and show you my soul, is it?" Bellamy asked. "The only thing I can prove is that I have all the memories of the Bellamy you knew."

"How do we even know you have his memories anyway?" Lily questioned, latching onto the first opening she saw. And like in combat, such openings were usually traps in disguise.

"I suppose, I could tell everyone that story about the time we went to the pony park…"

"STOP!!!" Lily shrieked, leaping at Bellamy to forcibly gag him with her hands. "You promised to never mention that incident ever again!"

"You can't stop there! Now, I'm curious." Ross whined, before quickly clamping his mouth shut and looking away when Lily snarled at him like a wounded cat.

"Believe me now?" Bellamy smirked at the quartermaster, who jumped off his chest with a slight blush adorning her cheeks, which was quite the contrast to her ferocity mere moments prior. Then again, Sarquiss loved that dichotomy of hers as well.

"Fine…you may have Bellamy's memories." Lily acquiesced, coughing awkwardly. "But that still doesn't make you Bellamy!"

"Lily, if I have all of Bellamy's memories, all of Bellamy's dreams and know in my heart that I am Bellamy…wouldn't that make me, Bellamy?"

Sarquiss found himself nodding along to his best friend's argument, being unable to think of a better answer. If it looked like a duck and quacked like a duck, it was probably a duck…or an evil twin.

"He does have a point, darling. And it's not like you ever suspected that he wasn't who he said he was before, right? We just couldn't figure out where he'd learned all this new stuff."

"..."

"Plus, new experiences and hence new memories change people." Eddy said, taking up the metaphorical torch. "I mean, look at us. I, for one am a different man from the boy who first set sail."

Lily looked around the circle, seeking support but finding none, especially not from Laki.

"Don't look at me. This Bellamy is the only one I know." The dial mechanic rolled her eyes before elbowing Nero in the side who shrugged non-comittantly in agreement. That proved to be the last straw for his girlfriend.

"I'm surrounded by simpletons...ah, what the heck." Lily groused, throwing up her hands in surrender. "If you can't beat them, join them. I liked the new guy better anyway."

On that, they would probably all agree. They'd liked the old Bellamy, but they loved the new one. And besides, he was more fun.

"So, are we all good?" Bellamy asked Lily, who smiled sweetly in response. Everybody, except his brave captain, took a step back. His brave and foolish captain.

"Almost." And just like Sarquiss had known was going to happen, Bellamy got a first hand demonstration of Lily's progress when she drove her fist into his gut. "Now, we're good."

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– Bellamy –

That could have gone a lot worse or rather, it had gone surprisingly well. I meant, I had gone into this expecting a lot of them to begin questioning my mental sanity. I wonder what it said about them that none of them did. Even Robin had accepted my tale without much of a fuss, merely listening intently before summarizing her impression with a simple "That's interesting."

The one thing I hadn't told them was that One Piece had been a show in my other life. For me, there had been no point in doing so, not when I myself rejected the viewpoint that I was living inside a figment of someone's imagination. The world in which I found myself was real, the people I met were real and telling them that they were nothing but characters in a long running comic series would be an insult. That was one piece of information I would take to my grave. After all, it wasn't as if even family told each other everything either.

Still, I felt as if I had taken a giant leap forward by opening up to my crew and removing a potential ticking time bomb. Hopefully, my feeling that we'd strengthened our bonds wasn't just wishful thinking on my part. For now, life had gone back to normal and everyone was acting like nothing had changed with even my haki empowered empathy being unable to pick up any discrepancies.

So, I was understandably in a good mood for days afterwards and it was made even better by a phone call I received one afternoon.

Puru puru. Puru puru. Puru pu-click

"You have reached Bellamy's Buccaneering Bureau. How may I help you?"

"Springtrap-ya. We need to talk."

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Omake: At the Office

Truth. It was such a nebulous thing, seemingly so simple and yet so difficult to pin down. Slipping through one's fingers before one even knew they'd approached it in the first place. However, it had been precisely this trait which had drawn Ernie to his calling and after years of literally bone breaking effort, Ernie had managed to secure a position as the Marineford Daily's star reporter.

It granted him access to places the public didn't even know existed and let him take glimpses behind the curtain. Which, of course, made it all the more bitter when he saw his pride and joy be mutilated beyond all recognition.

"How could you? Have you no soul?"

"Oh, quit yammering." the chief editor groused at him as he painstakingly drew another line through Ernie's proposed draft with a big, fat, red marker. "Why do you insist on looking at me like I'm murdering your unborn child every single time?"

"You're a monster." Ernie stated, staring at him with dead, empty eyes.

"I'm a government employed servant of the people and gatekeeper of the truth." Another line. "Though admittedly, that's a fancy way of saying I'm your chief editor."

"She was only a few hours old. Freshly brought into this world with love."

Another line. The page which had once been black and white turned ever more scarlet as the crimson fluid soaked into the paper.

"Well, you can fix her. Just try not to include sensitive information this time?" the editor requested. "There's only so much I can do to cover for you if you refuse to be careful."

In the face of that earnest gaze, Ernie folded and looked away. It wasn't as if he didn't know that his colleague meant well and Ernie himself hadn't expected his first draft to go through. But it was precisely because he knew it wouldn't be accepted, that Ernie could pour his heart and soul into his writing before taking the rejected article and twisting her into a mockery of what she'd once been.

"I liked the phrase, it's the job of a lifetime, so you can probably leave that in."

Like he always did.

But if he was going to twist the truth, he was going to twist it right and proper. This he promised (well somebody) in the name of Honest "Ernie" Earnest.

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