This story was written for the opscifyandfantasy project.

The story takes place in an alternate universe with a mythology theme. I wasn't able to finish all of it yet, when I post this, but I will write as fast as possible and upload at least one chapter every day.

Some warnings before reading this: there will be graphic violence and character deaths.

The cover image was made by flaggermousseart.

Thanks Aerle for betaing!

Enjoy!

Chapter 1

Once upon a time, long before your ancestor's ancestors were born, there was only one god. This god, who was known by the name of Edward Newgate, soon became lonely, and yearned for a family. So he shook the earth, creating a part of the landscape and a child to accompany him, and help him rule over this still raw draft of the planet. The first son he created was Marco, he would become the god of the skies and all that could fly. His second son was Ace, god of fire. The third was Jozu, who would become the god of wealth.

Newgate, or Whitebeard, as he was later known, shook the earth a total of sixteen times, forming the planet and creating a child with every quake. He ended with Izou, the god of beauty and love, after which he had made a child for every aspect of the earth and human life. By then, the earth was crawling with life of all kinds, and amongst the humans there were ones who had become villains and ones who had become heroes to fight them.

The gods had formed a diverse family, with all kinds of men, but there was no woman amongst the gods. All sixteen brothers and their father were very close, and had a lot of fun in the heavens. If you didn't know any better, you would think they were a bunch of pirates or bandits, though kind and just ones. Because even though they liked to party a lot, they did take pride in guiding the world as good as possible.

Unfortunately, even the gods weren't perfect, and couldn't help everyone.

Hina ran back from the battlefield. They were on the winning hand, finally, and she had to check up on her daughter. When the enemy clan had had attacked, all the warriors had immediately grabbed their arms to defend the village. Seeing as Hina and her husband were both warriors, they had to leave their young teenage daughter on her own. Hina was sure she could handle herself, but couldn't help but worry. She was still a mother, after all, warrior or not.

"Tash!" Hina called out. When she didn't get a reply, she called again, while pushing the door to their home open. "Tashigi!"

"I'm here, mom," a small voice came from the corner of the house.

Hina hurried towards it and smiled when she found her daughter in perfect health and taking care of a few other warrior's children. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Tashigi answered. "We're all fine. Where's dad?"

"He's leading the others to victory." Hina smiled. "The Blackbeard clan was as good as defeated when I left. It seems Curiel, god of war, is on our side today."

Tashigi smiled. "That's good to hear."

It took about half an hour for all the warriors to come back, carrying the wounded and possibly dead towards the doctor's post. Behind all the others, Smoker entered the village. He saw to it that everyone got the care they needed, before he went home. He himself only had a few superficial cuts, nothing to bother the doctors with.

He was surprised to find a small crowd around his house, consisting mainly of warriors and their kids.

One of the warriors placed a hand on his shoulder. "Another victory because of you."

Smoker shook his head. "You fought just as hard as me and everyone else. If you want to give anyone the credit, give it toCuriel. We should offer a lamb to thank him this evening." Even though Smoker was the leader of their village and was seen as a war hero, he refused to give himself any more credit than the average warrior. There just needed to be a leader, but that didn't make him any better than anyone else. "But why is everyone gathering around my house?"

"Your daughter took it upon herself to take care of the other kids," one of the mothers explained.

"She did?" Smoker smiled as he got Tashigi into view, standing next to two of the children who hadn't been picked up by their parents yet. She was becoming such a good young woman already. And that while only thirteen.

"You okay?" Hina asked him as she let her hand touch the skin near a cut on his arm.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Nothing to worry about, just some small cuts, clean them up and I'm as good as new." He gave her a kiss on her head. "Those Blackbeard idiots didn't stand a chance."

"Hina knows, Hina was there too," his wife replied.

Smoker chuckled. "Yeah, you fought very bravely as well."

Hina snorted. "Hina knows."

"Hina knows a lot, it seems," Smoker joked.

Izou was lying on a cloud, watching the earth to see if things were still going alright, when his brother, Thatch, the god of wine and pleasure, let himself fall down next to him. "Hey, how're things going?"

Izou smiled at him. "I'm not sure yet, you tell me. Last night, the people of Shells Town had a great party, wine flowing freely. There was a lot of love going on, I can tell you that!" He winked at Thatch, who chuckled.

"Sounds pretty good, right?"

"Well, yeah, except for that it all changed this morning," Izou said.

Thatch laughed loudly. "A hangover is part of the deal, I can't help that!"

"That's not what I mean," Izou said, hitting Thatch on the head for not taking him seriously. "Take a look." Thatch followed his brother's gaze, and Izou continued to explain. "The love has turned into jealousy and hatred. Not like the normal guilt or anything one might feel when they shared their love with more than one person, but it's like love has completely left their hearts."

"Hmm," Thatch looked down for a while. "I don't know, man, it just looks like a terrible hangover to me."

Izou rolled his eyes. "You only think in terms of parties and what comes after them, don't you? Look better!" He pointed down. "They don't even seem to care for their children anymore!"

"Well, children can be a pain in the ass when you've got a huge headache." Thatch shrugged. "Hell, even sometimes when you're feeling just fine!"

"Oh, so that's why you're so annoying." Izou hit himself softly on the head as if to punish himself for a stupid thought. "Silly me, I thought you were an adult!"

"Hey, watch your tongue," Thatch said, and gave Izou a playful push, just powerful enough to throw him off the cloud. Thatch didn't worry, though. Since Izou was a god, he would be able to get back there within a second.

Thatch waited. And waited some more. After a while, he started to look around nervously. Why wasn't Izou coming back?

"Are you sure it's a good idea to leave the village with what happened with the Blackbeards a few days ago?" Hina asked him.

Smoker nodded. "They've learned their lesson, I'm sure. They wouldn't dare to attack again with the many casualties they had the last time." He gave her a kiss on her lips. "Besides, it would be downright stupid. You can handle them perfectly fine without me."

"Still, wouldn't it be better to postpone your travel a week or two? Just for the confidence of the townspeople," Hina tried to convince him.

"I can't afford to reschedule the meeting with the leader of Shells Town again. Especially in these times, we can't afford to lose a strong ally." He packed the bags of his horse. "I'll be back in three days, I'm sure you can manage that long without me."

Hina snorted. "Of course we will."

Smoker rolled his eyes, not understanding the sudden switch in attitude of his wife, but glad she didn't push any further. He said goodbye to Hina and Tashigi, and got on his horse, ready for his journey.

Izou looked around. There were dark clouds above the city, but it wasn't raining. And it wouldn't start raining any time soon either, Izou knew. But the thick clouds did block the light of the sun that had risen about an hour ago. Well, the darkness did seem to fit the atmosphere that hung in Shells Town.

"You said whenever I had it just yesterday!" one man yelled at another.

"Well, yeah, that was yesterday. Today I need my money back, so pay up," his friend said.

A few houses next to them, a mother hit her child, who couldn't be older than six. "Can't you do anything right?!"

Izou frowned. The child only seemed to have knocked over a bucket of water. When he saw another man being chased out of his own home by his wife, Izou knew for sure; there was something incredibly wrong here.

"So here you are," Thatch's voice appeared behind him. "Don't worry me like that again, suddenly disappearing and all…"

Izou snorted. "You were the one who pushed me off that cloud. I thought I might just as well take a look around here."

"You're such a meanie sometimes. You shouldn't worry your big brother on purpose!"

"You're hardly a big brother. Rather a big child." Izou smirked as he ran his hand through Thatch hair, messing up his hairdo. He knew that would piss him off. "I still love you, though."

"You dick," Thatch said growling, trying to fix his hair.

"But seriously, something is wrong here," Izou continued in all seriousness.

A woman walked past, looking moody, but when she saw he two of them, she stared shamelessly at them with interest and awe.

Thatch was still voicing his annoyance with Izou when he pushed a grey cloak into his brother's arms. "At least try to hide yourself. You're too damn pretty. People will notice who you are within no time."

Izou smiled, but put the cloak on anyway, pushing the hood of it over his head as far as possible. "Jealous?"

"Nah, I'm content with second best looking god."

Izou snorted, but didn't say anything, so he wouldn't ruin Thatch's dream.

"But you're right, something does seem to be wrong in this city," Thatch said after he'd put on his own cloak.

They walked around for a bit, seeing just how wrong things were. Everyone was angry or just indifferent. One man was completely ignoring his son, while a woman almost broke her broomstick while furiously chasing a mouse.

"I was right before," Izou voiced his thoughts. "When I said there's no love in their hearts anymore."

"Oh, don't judge too quickly," Thatch warned him, while poking Izou in the ribs. He nodded towards a side alley, where a man had pushed a woman against the wall, and was intimately touching her.

Izou frowned. "That's not love, Thatch. That's lust." His point was confirmedby the fact that the woman forced her knee into the man's crotch with a lot of power and gave him a few more kicks, even though he already didn't seem to be able to stand anymore. Thatch and Izou looked at the scene with a face of pain.

Suddenly, Izou's attention was drawn towards another man, walking beside his horse, who had just walked into the city square. He had two cigars in his mouth and his hair was greyish white, but despite that, he didn't look older than forty. And he was handsome too.

But his physical features weren't what caught Izou's attention at first. It was his aura, which was much lighter than everyone else's. The man spotted Izou too, and the two of them locked eyes. Their eye-contact only seemed to last a few seconds, but when Thatch coughed awkwardly, Izou realized it must have lasted a little too long.

The man cleared his throat. "Do you know what's going on here?"

So he'd noticed something too.

"That's what we'd like to know too," Thatch said.

"You're not from around here," Izou noticed. He wasn't sure what it was, but this man fascinated him. "Are you?"

"No, I just arrived here." He held out his hand. "My name is Smoker, leader of Logue Town."

Izou shook the hand. "Izou," he said, still a bit in trance because of Smoker's appearance. He barely noticed Thatch planting his elbow in his side.

Smoker raised his eyebrows. "As in, the god, Izou?"

Izou blinked, fighting away the haze his was in. "Uhm, yes, I was named after him."

"I can see why," Smoker said.

"And I'm Ronald, nice to meet you," Thatch said, and Izou had to suppress a snort. "So you just arrived, right?"

"Yeah, I've got a meeting with Mayor Morgan, this morning," Smoker explained. "But the city looks a lot different from the last time I was here."

"We agree," Thatch said. "Too bad you only arrived this morning though, you missed a hell of a party."

"Ronald, why don't you go check if there's still some wine left? Didn't you want to have some more?"

"Wha- Okay," Thatch shrugged and walked off. He was so easy to convince when it came to wine.

Izou petted the horse's nose, while observing Smoker from the corner of his eye. Smoker was watching him too, Izou noticed, and the god smiled. "Everyone seems to have lost their ability to love in this city, but not you," Izou spoke.

Smoker chuckled. "How can you tell?"

Izou shrugged. "Just… the look in your eyes, I guess." He now looked directly at Smoker. "Your wife is a very lucky woman to have you as her husband, I'm sure."

"I… guess so." Smoker didn't seem to look him straight in the eyes, but instead looked a spot slightly next to Izou. "But the same can be said about you."

Izou laughed shortly. "I don't have a wife."

Now Smoker looked genuinely surprised. "You don't?"

"Nope, I'm not bound to anyone." Izou wanted to say something along the lines of that he was in love with love, but that would sound too weird if he didn't want to give his divine identity away.

"But…" Smoker frowned and then shook his head. "Anyway, I should get going again. No matter how weird the town is behaving, I still have to meet up with the mayor."

"Yeah, sure, go," Izou said, even if he enjoyed Smoker's presence. "I hope his mood is better than the rest of the town."

"Yeah, I hope so too." Smoker nodded at him and then walked away, his horse by his side.

Izou suppressed the urge to whistle as the man distanced himself from the god. Those tight riding pants definitely didn't look bad on Smoker.

As Thatch wasn't back yet, when Smoker had walked out of his view – his brother had probably found the wine – Izou decided to take another stroll through town. He did have an idea in what direction they'd have to search to find the source of the problem, but he wasn't sure yet. He decided to take one of the townspeople aside. "Good sir, would you lend me your assistance please?"

Before the man he'd spoken to could get angry at him, Izou had placed his hand over the man's heart and closed his eyes. It only took a few seconds before he opened them again. The man's heart had been coated in darkness, but was now back to normal. The heart had been poisoned, but fortunately, Izou was an antidote to every poison that could reach the heart.

The man looked at him, confused, but slightly happier than before. "What did you do? Who are you?"

Izou leaned in a bit. "My name is Izou." He brought his finger to his lips to show it had to stay a secret. "Don't tell anyone." The man's eyes widened as realization settled in and Izou quickly continued. "Now could you tell me what's going on here?"

The man chuckled nervously. "I'd thought you would know that," he mumbled. But then he cleared his throat and said, "I don't know… we had a great party yesterday, and everybody was happy, but then this morning, I didn't care for anyone else than myself anymore. It felt as I was living in a world of darkness." The man looked distressed when he thought back at it. Then his eyes widened. "Oh my go-" His eyes shifted to Izou, before he continued, "what did I do to my children?!"

Izou placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "It's alright, it wasn't your fault. You can make it up to them now." He smiled. "Do your children suffer from this curse too?"

"I… don't think so. Maybe the oldest, but he's at a difficult age, so it's hard to tell."

Izou asked the man to bring him to his children and immediately noticed that it was indeed as the man had said; the oldest son, who was about fourteen, had darkness covering his heart, the other three hadn't. Izou healed the boy and then left the house, since the wife had walked away angrily. He now did have a fair idea about the source of the poison in their hearts, though.

"How? How did you know?" Thatch said as he met up with his brother.

Izou smirked. "It was quite obvious, really. The wine had to be poisoned. The whole town has partied yesterday and they probably all drank from the wine. Besides, the children weren't effected, so what else could it have been?" Izou didn't mention he'd only come to that conclusion a few seconds ago, instead of when he had sent Thatch to check the wine. It was more fun when his brother thought he was a genius.

Thatch crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Well, I removed the poison from what was left of the wine, so that won't be a problem anymore, but what do we do about the city?"

"Let me," Izou said, and he walked towards the center of the city square again, where he crouched down. His right hand touched the ground, and he closed his eyes. He let his powers flow through his arm into the ground, and spread through the city, bringing back love to every adult in town. After that, Izou tried to sense anyone else that was still affected by the poison and cured them. When he was sure there wasn't anyone left, he let go of the ground and stood up.

"Oh man, I love you so much, Izou," Thatch said.

Izou snorted. "Woops, that might have affected you too." He moved his hand over Thatch's chest to remove the extra love he had gotten as a result of Izou's powers. "Better?"

Thatch scowled at him. "Forget I ever said that."

"Oh don't worry, it should only intensify the feelings you already had." Izou winked.

Thatch snorted. "I'll get you for this, later. Come on, let's go." He didn't wait for an answer and disappeared into the sky.

Izou cast a look at the town hall, hoping Smoker's meeting went well, before he followed his brother.

TBC~

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