In Little Ways
Chapter 1
Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece and I'm not making a profit from this.
Someone was calling my name, but I was... very distant. At first I felt dizzy, and it felt like I had cotton in between my ears. It felt like I had been asleep for a long time, yet not at all. I felt extremely tired in a way that wasn't physical, it felt like mental exhaustion instead.
I thought, maybe, I should go back to sleep. I felt safe for some inexplicable reason. I felt- I was... at peace.
But the voice, it was very insistent. It kept calling my name. In an all too familiar voice, but I couldn't recognize or place it for some reason. The voice.. it called to me. It called to my very being.
And I knew then that I needed to answer back.
My eyes opened, which I found to be very strange. Because I had been standing. Had I been sleeping standing up? Right now, however, I was in a white room. No it went beyond that. This place, it did nothing but scream otherworldly.
"My child." The voice startled me. I was so absorbed in my surroundings that I had almost forgotten, someone had been calling me.
I looked up and saw a man with bare feet, dressed in rags. His smile reassured me, for no reason. I hated that fact about myself, seeing people smile makes me want to smile. I wanted to be suspicious of him, but then I realized that I just couldn't.
Other than that I could see that he had long, unruly brown hair, I couldn't see his eyes. And when I tried, my sight would slide either above or underneath - preventing me to sight.
Is-
"The answer to all of your questions you're thinking right now- All of the questions that you've been waiting all your life just to ask me."
God? All I could do was gape, dumbly.
"The answer is yes. Everything is true. Except for your last question. The answer to that one is no."
The last question? Was God predicting my thoughts even before I had them?
"Never mind that. What's important now, is the question. Do you want to live?"
My mind ground to a halt. I can- I can ask for that? I had been suspecting my death ever since I ended up in a place with no end. But I wasn't expecting this to be a near death experience.
"Do you want to go back?"
"I- I-" I choked on my own words, and my eyes watered. I had never been eloquent, but this was just sad.
"Yes, you can. You always have the choice."
A choice? To go back? Would I even want to?
"I-"
"But first let's talk about what you'll give me in return."
"What." What does he mean by that?
"And no I am still not the Devil. But you already know that. Don't you? After all I told you this earlier." He raised his arms, indicating everything around them. "Uncle Lucien can't even hear us when we're in here."
"Everything has a price. Nothing can be obtained without compensation. You can think of it like economics. You desire success? You give up the time that you work hard. You seek failure? You give up the time for the regrets. You want eternal life? You give up your soul."
"Whether it's to God or the Devil... Or me. Or not. Well. At least that still matters to some."
My mind was entirely blank. What are you supposed to do in this sort situation? How do you even answer?
The raggedy man sighed, and said my name.
"If you don't care about yourself... Why expect someone else to care about you?"
"You know what," He snapped his fingers. "I'm just going to do this already."
What appeared before my very eyes was... me.
Stuck on a loop of rotation, I was turning like I was an avatar in some futuristic and twisted game. There was a moment of disorientation and dissociation of the self, because it didn't just feel like I was on display. Frankly I was on display.
Is this what selling your soul feels like?
"Congratulations," He slow clapped. "You've actually made me.. drop interest?"
"Isn't hardship- Isn't desolation supposed to make a person change for the better? But, no. Not you. Some of your ideas may have been novel in life, but. All you do is wallow in misery."
"But don't worry, I'm giving you another chance. I am a merciful god, after all."
"Where I'm sending you is another one of my domains, so make sure you don't muck it up too much."
A snap of fingers, and a mirror materialized out of the ground.
I didn't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't this. I... I wasn't me anymore, yes, but that wasn't all.
I still had the black hair and dark eyes, but that was it for the similarities. Short hair was something I was unused to seeing on myself. Coupled with my now tanned skin, and a good six inches to my height, at least - I had essentially became a stranger. Seeking comfort I hugged myself, rubbing my arms for warmth. Finding none I noted that they were now hairless, and I hated that. It simply wasn't me.
But the clothes, they were impossible. I was wearing a red vest and jean shorts, and a straw hat.
I was Monkey D. Luffy.
I was an anime character. This was so crazy. It had to be a dream.
"Nope, not a dream. You're really dead. And you really just wasted your second chance at life. You could have went back. With a new determination from a recent NDE, you could have changed your life around, even."
Was it even possible to regret.. If your entire life was nothing but regrets?
A beat, then.
"I'll even invoke Rule 63," another finger snap. "Oh, but it's not for your comfort or anything. Heck! Let's mix it up, just for fun. Make some things almost unrecognizable, even. To mess with your head, to mess with people's head. Think you have some advantage? You'd be wrong again. I've changed everything up just for you."
The reflection of Luffy, of me, barely changed though.
"Why the long face? If you think about it - I'm granting a lot of wishes here. Be grateful for what you have, be careful of what you wish for, because there are people out there who have it worst."
I could feel my scalp start to tingle, my stomach plummet. It was God that was scolding me.
"You're Luffy now.. remember that."
"Goodbye." He said my name, but all that I heard was gibberish.
God placed his hand on my head and pushed down, hard.
AN: This was based on a crazy half dreamt idea I had the other day.