Loop mechanics (general):
One person in a Loop, often the main character, is an Anchor. They are the person who first starts time looping. There is always at least one Anchor present in a given Time Loop snippet, though it may not be the local one. The standard pattern for a loop is that the Anchor (and whoever else is Looping there) come to awareness in a loop at a particular point in the story. From there, events will play out as influenced by the Loopers present, acting with the benefit of their foreknowledge, until either a predetermined end point is reached or all the Loopers have copped it. To be Awake is to be aware of the time loops (that is, to have gone back in time this time.) The Anchor is the only character guaranteed to be Awake. Even after others have started looping, it is mostly random as to whether they will be Awake this particular loop. Crossovers, fusions, and alternate pasts can also take place. It is perfectly possible, for example, to have the characters Awaken into a loop which conforms to a fanfic universe rather than reality. Loops do not have to be in chronological order, but it is strongly preferred that they not require a mutually contradictory order (where A must be before B and B must be before A.) Just about every Looper is very, very stir crazy.
1.1
Nami walked through the halls of the Alabastan palace, looking for the king. She had finally worked up the courage to do something she wished she had done many Loops ago. Soon enough, she found him.
"What can I help you with?" Cobra asked.
"It's about Vivi. She desperately wants to come with us, but feels that she can't leave the country. I'd like you to talk to her." The navigator replied.
"I will. I've noticed the same thing."
-
On the coast of Alabasta...
The straw hats sailed towards the predetermined meeting point, preparing for the inevitable departure.
"I'M READY TO GO!"
Shocked, the straw hats turned to see Vivi, packed and on Carue.
"Then hop on!" Luffy extended an arm to her.
-
At Water seven...
"So... Let me get this straight. Against all odds, Carue managed to take photos of all our fights? Vivi, you have one crazy duck."
"Let's not look yet." Everyone turned to see Luffy standing in the doorway. "Let's save the photos for Raftel."
-
At Raftel...
"Well, I guess it's time to look at mine." Vivi picked up the camera, seeing...
A photo of her fighting Blueno
A photo of her using AOE attacks to stop Absalom
A photo of her and Jimbei fighting back to back in the war
A photo of her beating Vander Decken
A photo of her facing down Dellinger
And a photo of her final bounty "Pirate Princess Nefeltari Vivi, 122 Million Beli"
-
The next Loop...
The Strawhats entered Laboon's belly, only to be surprised by Vivi tackle hugging Luffy. "Why are we back in time?"
1.2 (GioGio)
Ichigo wiped away the bile from his mouth and stared at the manga in his hands with horror written on his face. Shinji was still bent over the trash can throwing up the contents of his own stomach while Ranma seemed to be trying to push through the fifth page, but Ichigo could see that he was barely holding on.
"What the hell is this?" Ichigo shouted, pointing at the book while Naruto looked grimly to the floor. "I've seen a lot of crap in the Loops, but this takes the cake!"
"Apparently, it's Rohan's latest manga, if this thing can even be called that." Naruto responded with a shrug. "I just wanted to show it to you guys. I know I haven't thrown up in a while in absolute disgust."
"That thing with the Moore expy..." Ranma muttered, shakily setting the book down to catch his breath. "Why would Rohan even want to makesomething like this!? Isn't this the kind of stuff he usually hates?"
"Apparently, some critics pissed him off and Rohan made this to get back at them." Naruto replied. "Or at least that's what Josuke told me."
Shinji just looked at him with disbelief. "That's just petty!"
Naruto, Ichigo, and Ranma all gave him blank stares. "This is Rohan we're talking about."
"Writing this... this thing just because some critic gave him a bad review is petty even for him!" Shinji shot back before all three looked back at their copies of the manga.
"So... who wants to show this to Harry and see how long it takes for him to blow chunks?"
"I bet 10,000 yen he doesn't make it past page four."
Back In Baseline Regular Morioh:
Rohan drank another shot of whiskey before resting his head on the table of the cafe. "What have I done..."
"I told you it was a bad idea to make it." Josuke replied as he sipped his coffee with a smug grin.
"I can't believe I made such... such trash! Even if it was in a fit of righteous rage...!" Rohan groaned pathetically. "This has to be the lowest point in my career as a mangaka..."
"You have to admit, it's an accomplishment to see a manga get banned from the Rook Islands, and they regularly kill tigers over there."
"Shut up Higashikata..."
1.3 (Wandering_Dragon)
"...See, our loop can last for absurd amounts of time. Sometimes the sun dies before the loop ends. The first thing that happens is this guy Aizen, who wants to take over the world with a crazy complicated plan, first he sends this friend of mine to town and she ends up giving me her powers, then our afterlife, yeah we have a flimsy border of 'dead' here, gets on her case about that and hunts her down. This crazy guy who owns a candy shop put something in her soul that the bad guy wants so….
"...And then Aizen turned out to have a hollow army and then…"
"...And then this sorta-human guy called Tsukishima, watch out for his power, he can warp your memories so he becomes your best friend forever or something, yeah he has a group of other sorta-humans…."
"...And then it turns out the big-bad is the Quincies! They were faking being extinct and their king wants to destroy the world so then I…"
"...And that wraps up a standard loop."
Will looked to the other two who looped with her this time,
"Well, we're gonna have to think up ways to waste time…."
1.4 (Kalimaru)
Sitting in his bedroom, Ichigo took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He was running mostly baseline, save the odd shift or other, and it was time to see the fruits of his labor. Looking up, he watched as Hitsugaya flash-stepped into his room, followed by Matsumoto, Ikkaku, Renji, and Yumichika. After the typical banter and screaming, Ichigo turned to Hitsugaya and Matsumoto. "Can I talk to you two downstairs?"
Hitsugaya crossed his arms. "Why? Is there something wrong?"
Ichigo waved him off. "Nothing urgent, just asking if you two could follow me downstairs for a moment." Ichigo put on his 'serious business' face. "I just have some questions, Captain Hitsugaya. And I was hoping you and Matsumoto might be able to answer me."
Seeing that Ichigo was serious, Hitsugaya and Matsumoto followed him to the stairs. Matsumoto spoke first. "What did you want to know?"
"Not much." Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Ichigo led the into the living room. "Just wondering if you've met my dad." Seeing that said father was in the kitchen with his back towards the stairs, Ichigo tapped him on the shoulder. "Hey, Dad. I want you to meet some of my friends."
Caught unaware, Isshin turned to Ichigo. "Sure. Who are..." Having turned to look, Isshin locked eyes with Hitsugaya and Matsumoto. Quiet, all three stared at each other. Then Isshin made a dive for the window, only to have his way blocked by a wall of ice and ash. Turning with his hands up, Isshin sweat-dropped. "Uh, hello you two." The swords to his throat and the death stares that met him didn't relax him any.
Standing off to the side, Ichigo smiled. This was so worth the week of free labor he'd owe Urahara for the reiatsu blocking technique he'd used on his house.
1.5 (SpaceKGreen)
Ranma was getting weird vibes from this loop. Not bad vibes, but not good vibes either. Just plain weird.
He couldn't place the feeling, even after scouting out with some of his more advanced Looper abilities. This was very worrying.
Nabiki seemed to have some idea, but when he had asked her about it, she had given him a blank look for a moment, before erupting into a surprisingly evil cackle.
The most he could get out of her was something about a new student.
It was with some trepidation that he approached the school the next day. It only worsened that, when a surprise splash of cold water had its usual result in front of actual witnesses, none of them had batted an eye.
The usual crowd attacked him and Akane at the gates, and as usual, they were quickly rebuffed.
"Hey, you!" interrupted an unfamiliar voice.
As Ranma turned to the owner of the voice, a tall muscular man, wearing sunglasses, a blue shirt, and wielding a large blond afro, all his senses came together and told him one thing.
Hoo boy, this is going to be one of those Loops...
Beauty sighed as she waited at the Nerima train station. She was facing a tough decision.
On the one hand, she wanted to meet this Ranma person that the other Loopers had mentioned.
On the other hand, knowing what she knew, that was where HE would be, and she scrambled for every break she could get from him.
There was an explosion in the distance.
Well, it looked like an explosion. Most explosions didn't sound like a 30-story raven attempting to quack Ode to Joy.
The resulting rain of various blocks of tofu wearing one piece bikinis made her decision for her.
Unfortunately a particularly large piece had completely ruined the train tracks.
1.6 (SpaceKGreen)
Beauty sighed happily, despite her aching body. As far as she was concerned, this loop was pure bliss.
That nice Harvest Goddess (Apparently not Yggdrasil level, but pretty high for this Loop) and the local mayor (Beauty was sure she knew her from somewhere, but she couldn't place it) had helped her move into a local farm, and all they asked in return was that she run it well.
Waking up before the sunrise, tilling the fields, watering the crops, tending the animals, meeting the townsfolk...
Compared to her usual situation, this was paradise.
Sure, HE had shown up, but in an incredible stroke of luck, it was several towns away, and without any big threats, he seemed content enough to stay where he was.
Beauty idly dropped a bit of Mystrile ore into her subspace pocket. Surely some other Looper would like it, or help her make something of it.
Turning her mind back to HIM, she started musing.
Recently she had actually noticed a few familiar bits of wackiness from him.
At first Beauty was excited, hoping that she could finally figure out a pattern to the craziness.
She gave up soon afterwards, though, when she found it was more like that math pi thing. Sure, some digits repeated, but there was no pattern, no matter how far you went.
Hmm. Had any looper actually tried their hand (or whatever) at calculating pi?
A line from the TV interrupted her tagential thought.
"...And the winner is Chef B, whose beans tasted much better than Chef A's. Tell us, Chef B, what is your secret to making such delicious beans?"
"It's simple. These beans have spiderwebs in them."
As the show host and the taste testers started choking, Beauty changed the channel.
Was that natto? she wondered.
1.7 (Snakes_Shadow)
Allen was moving boxes from the old Headquarters to the ARK when suddenly-
He was in the old church, chasing that cat, with the old version of his Innocence. Again.
It had just started out with a feeling of Deja-vu... that never went away. Now he was back at the church.
Allen grinned. He'd save the policelady's partner this time.
1.8 (Indalecio)
His name was Farmer, and he was a farmer. Any humor that could've been milked from his name had long since worn thin. He'd been an ostriche farmer for most of his life, and hadn't done much else, so the offer from young lady across from him had been a mite puzzling. She wanted him to grow peaches on his land?
"Yes, from my research on soil conditions, this seems to be optimal place to grow them." the young lady said.
"Well, assuming thats true, Ms. Briefs, why would I divert land from my, highly profitable, I might add, ostriche operation, to grow peaches?"
"Well, I could think of at least one." said Bulma as she opened the briefcase she had next to her to reveal row after row of stacks of zenny.
-
On one of her loops she had found the spot where Raditz's ship had crashed down and had also observed what happened afterwards, which what lead her to her current project. It would be an incredible prank to see Raditz, brother of Goku and would-be world cleanser, beaten by the first person he ran across.
The peaches, or ensenji, would grant considerable power to those who ate them, at least enough to beat Raditz. She'd pay him for the rest, of course, so these wouldn't spread abroad. Though there was an idea. Maybe she could see if she could empower every man, woman and child on earth, but that would be another project, and another loop.
-
Raditz gently lowered himself to the ground in front of the...oddly calm human in front of him.
"So, the creatures on this planet are still alive. Kakkarot has failed us!" Raditz said, mostly to himself.
"Stranger, I do believe you're trespassing on private property. I'm going to have to ask you to go and take your ship with you."
"Is that so?" Raditz tapped his scouter. As the numbers shot up, Raditz's confidence went way down.
1.9 (Indalecio)
Goku hovered in the air. Majin Buu and Babidi hovered in front of him.
"You're going to love this. Trust me. What you're seeing now is my normal stage."
Goku transformed to Super Saiyan.
"This is a Super Saiyan." Goku continued after transforming once more. "And this is a Super Saiyan who has ascended past a Super Saiyan, or you could just call this a Super Saiyan 2."
"Hohum. What a useless transformation. You've changed your hair, so what?" commented Babidi derisely.
"Just wait!" said Goku with an air of mystery in his voice.
"And this...is Super Saiyan 2, Chef Mode!" a Chef's hat appeared on his head a sharp knife and spatula appeared in either hand.
Buu clapped his hands appreciatively.
"And this...is Super Saiyan 2, Groucho mode!" the Chef's hat and utensils disappeared and Groucho glasses appeared on Goku's face.
"He's just stalling for time, Buu! Destroy him!" cried Babidi
"No! Want to see funny man!" Buu turned around and blasted Babidi until there wasn't even a fine red mist of him.
-
Later.
Goku took a long balloon, and after bending and turning it every which of way, produced a pink balloon animal.
"Look Buu! Its a pony!"
"Yay!"
-
Somewhere, in the deepest bowels of HFIL, a very peeved Vegeta scowled and said.
"Kakkorot, you clown!"
1.10 (krspaceT)
When dealing with characters, one has to remember that characters may seem strong or weak only when compared to their category.
For example, a weak Jedi would still seem supernaturally terrifying if he or she was to find themselves in Danville causing Doctor D trouble. On the other hand, should a powerful Magical girl from Madoka's all but erased timeline, such as Mami, was to find herself in the Marvel Universe against the Abomination...Abomination wins faster than you can say 'Charlotte Second Form'
Raditz is a similar case; for Raditz was a comparatively weak Saiyan. Saiyans are, on a baseline, more powerful than most species. That means that a Raditz, looping or not, would actually be quite dangerous to most non loopers (And some rookie loopers).
Even the really scary non loopers.
...
They knew not who the strange tailed warrior from the stars was who came down from sky to protect them, but he was a revered and all loved figure to the people of Wall Maria.
He was their protector, their benevolent guardian who, without memory bar the ability to fight and his name, took care of any Titan who got within the border of their fair cities.
He was Raditz, the God of Protection, slayer of Titans, currently doing what he does best.
(Guess)
"Be gone foul monsters!" the long haired fighter shouted as he flew straight into the belly of a average sized titan (Tall), lifted it into the air, sent it flying with a spin, than blasting it in the core on its neck, obliterating it as he fired more energy blasts at hundreds of Titans, all ripe for the slaughter like some sort of plague of the undead.
Raditz may remember nothing but his name and his battle skills, but he had a great love for these battles. He would be content to do this for the rest of time, and for the food the humans would give him for his success in battle.
...
"I feel happy for him" Goku noted from a version of Kami's lookout in the DBZ/Attack fused loop while eating a obscenely sized sub sandwich as the three anchors of this reality glared at him. "You have no idea how rare it is in any loop for my brother to get respect. Sure, he's usually a psychopath, but I'm the exception to my race's rule about morality."
"You said you'd teach us how to fight Titans like that Radish guy, not watch you eat that sandwich!" Eren complained as Goku finished the sandwich that was more food than what was fed to the entire Training Cadet core in a month (Even with Potato Girl)
"Do you really expect me to teach you techniques capable of destroying mountains on an empty stomach?"