Start Date: March 30, 2024
Windwillow
One Piece: The Yin and Yang of the Straw Hat Pirates
Chapter One: The Choice to Change
Prologue
Reality is a multifaceted thing, fragile in some ways yet indomitable in others. The number of universes, the countless possibilities, go on into infinity - there will always be a new world to explore, a chance to change the future of an entire planet. There was once a Wisdom Keeper who scanned the worlds, seeking out new life and nurturing civilizations... while destroying others to maintain the balance of Yin and Yang. All powerful and yet mortal, when the Wisdom Keeper died he entrusted his job to two apprentices: Sol, the incarnation of Yang; and Luna, the incarnation of Yin.
The two new Keepers were, unfortunately, not as mature as their predecessor was and were... less than fair in who received the baptism of light or the oblivion of darkness. As opposing forces they indeed sought to maintain balance in the universe, though with far less mercy than their previous master. Upon finding and researching a world they would study its inhabitants, carefully gauge the balance of light and darkness... and play Rock-Paper-Scissors to determine who would win. They always went to best of three, yet somehow always balanced their judgments - an equal number saved, an equal number destroyed.
Such an existence, tiring as it was, sometimes led to... alternative methods of entertainment.
Opening Scene
Bold and bright, his build was just right and he resembled an idealized human as if he were almost a Pharaoh. His messy red hair was contained in a circular orange cap and stretched down from the back of his neck to almost past his shoulders. He was dressed in a yellow tunic with red gloves and brown boots, and around his waist his attire was tied together with a thick orange sash. Sol, keeper of the Sun, always had his knightly long sword on his back and was a wild, brash and optimistic individual.
The very incarnation of Yang stretched his limbs tightly, having just awakened from a nap. It had been either a few hours or a century or two since he'd fallen asleep, either/or. In their realm time was a caricature, something that they'd used to measure their actions only sparingly. Most of the time they simply drifted in and out of consciousness, sometimes going millennia without judgment, though when they did awaken it meant the destruction of worlds and similarly the salvation of others, a cycle that they endured for countless millennia - and it was damned tiring.
Sol scratched the back of his head and looked around their activity chamber, where they determined the fate of worlds, and watched as his counterpart sat at a view screen scanning some sort of video feed. He groaned, knowing that now was the time for them to do their stupid job, but when he approached the other figure he was shocked to find that she had fallen asleep and angrily smacked her over the head to wake her.
"What the heck are you doing, you dumb ass?!" Sol roared. "We have a job to do!"
To liken her to a shape it would be a crescent, curved and thin. The white-haired woman, looking approximately twenty years old, was slender and wore a blue leotard with emerald gloves and brown boots. Her face was gentle, smooth and clean, and two bright green stars shone from behind the purple cap that she wore. Luna, keeper of the Moon, wielded a thin silver rapier stashed on her right hip and carried herself with the air of a member of the nobility.
"This is too boring!" moaned Luna, taking her arms and stretching them high over her head to drag some sort of consciousness back to her body. For the last ten hours she'd been binge watching a single world and it was starting to grate on her nerves. She turned to the view screen, the one where they looked for worlds to judge, and grumpily huffed out a curse. "Why do we have to do the whole good and evil crap?! I'm tired of Roshambo'ing the fates of entire worlds..." she whimpered. "I want to have some fun for once..."
"And that means...?" mumbled Sol, putting a hand to his hip.
Luna yawned and tapped a button, a button that activated the view screen and slowly an image fizzled onto the monitor. It was a monstrous battle, two powerful warriors clashing with all the power they possessed - a titanic, flaming dragon hurling its blazing fangs against a most unusual enemy... Its enemy was a young man dressed all in white, with a cartoonishly large fist coated in a black sheen that the warrior used to fight with the dragon. When the battle finally ended and the dragon was propelled deep into the earth, Luna switched off the screen and scratched the back of her head lazily.
"These guys do a lot of good... but evil certainly seems to have a problem with them," Luna muttered. "The balance is upset. Meaning that we ought to pass judgment... however," she said with a wicked smirk, "I'd rather play a little game for once, just to have some fun."
"Game...?" Sol grumbled. "What kind of stupid game did you come up with this time?"
The incarnation of Yin swiveled in her seat and crossed her arms. "I propose a challenge, light vs. dark. These guys are an incredibly strong force of light, and the darkness aspect is a little more... questionable," chuckled Luna. "I say we tempt 'em: show these guys what could have been and see how many decide to throw away what they have... We can make a bet on how many change and how many stick with it."
"Ha! I'll take that challenge!" chortled Sol. He slid into a seat parallel to Luna and flicked a switch, which caused the entirety of the Straw Hats' adventures to cross the screen in the blink of an eye, and a wicked smile crossed his face. "We'll choose the players, but I can say for certainty that none of them will change," he sneered. "You can make whatever guess you like, but I'm sure that they won't take the bait."
"God, what an idiot..." Luna groaned. "A full ten out of ten? Seriously? You must like these guys."
"I'll take the captain, the navigator, the cook, and the shipwright," Sol said proudly, "and then you can have the other four."
"You dimwit. Your math is horrible. There are ten of them, not eight," growled Luna.
"I have a solution, though!" chided Sol. "It's..." Sol pulled Luna in close, whispering in her ear a plan that he found would be most amusing. The more she heard, indeed, Luna came to agree, and she smilingly stretched out her hand. Sol grabbed a hold of it, tightened his grip, and smiled widely with a sinister sneer. "The game is on," he said coolly, "and I intend to win!"
"All I need is one, you idiot!" snapped Luna.
"Oh? I'll show you who the idiot is!" Sol spat back.
"How did I ever end up with a dimwit like you as a partner...?" Luna groaned. Disengaging from her counterpart, the incarnation of Yin put her hands behind her head and stretched her arms tautly, still exhausted from being awoken by Sol. At least now, however, she had something to look forward to. "Bet's on. Let's go see if they want to play."
Scene One
The Ninja-Mink-Pirate-Samurai Alliance had successfully liberated the Land of Wano. During their departure Luffy nearly killed everyone and was beaten senseless by Nami, then the crew received their new bounties with everything from pride to horror, depending on who got the bounty and what amount. After everything had calmed down the crew went about its typical business, allowing the rocking waves to ease their journey across the seas.
The Straw Hats were in their usual positions: Zoro was in the crow's nest training, Sanji was cooking, Nami was bathing, Usopp and Franky were tinkering with their toys, and Brook was developing a new song. Jimbei as usual guided the Thousand Sunny across the New World and Robin tended to her garden on the top level of the ship, while Luffy as he typically did took a loud nap inside the men's quarters.
While Luffy slumbered he had no way to notice that there was a strange gap in the air around him, a gap that collapsed into a singularity and drew in the rubbery captain from his sleep but failed to wake him. From the singularity a single person, Sol, emerged, and stepped foot on the Thousand Sunny for the first time. He strode towards the men's hammocks, stared down at the sleeping captain, and quietly prodded him with his foot, which startled Luffy back into consciousness and brought him into a defensive stance as he stared down the divine being.
"What do you want?!" rasped Luffy.
"I'm here to settle a wager with a friend," Sol said plainly.
"Wager? Huh... What kind of wager?" Luffy wondered.
"I've come to show you all the futures that you could have had... the dreams you could have dreamed and the seas you could have sailed..." began Sol ominously. With a loud and boisterous laugh he put a hand to his hip and smiled widely at the captain. "That's the boring way to put it. I'm here to test whether you have it in you to become King of the Pirates... or wither away in ignominy," he said cheerfully. "Either/or."
"What's an ignominy...? Fine, whatever. I never back down from a challenge," chuckled Luffy as he cracked his knuckles and pounded his fist into his palm. As Luffy stretched his neck Sol's smile widened and he lifted his hand palm up high into the air as it began to condense into a singularity.
Robin would also receive a visitor in the form of Luna, who slowly faded into existence as Robin watered and pruned her flowers. As Luna began to take shape Robin dropped her garden hose, pivoted on her heel, and assumed her classic battle position: arms crossed and hands raised, the full power of the Hana Hana Fruit prepared to be unleashed. Though Robin glared at her fiercely, Luna seemed to be more amused than anything else. She knew she was in no danger and had no desire to complicate matters.
"I'm not here to fight, so relax!" chided Luna. She slowly began to lean against the mast and a smile crossed her face. "I'm here to propose a challenge," she said coolly.
"And you're giving Luffy the same challenge?" Robin asked warily. When Luna nodded Robin immediately growled, "That's exactly what I was afraid of. He's too stupid not to accept. We're under attack!" called out Robin, hoping to alert the others. To her shock, however, Robin watched as a seagull flew into her field of vision, and suddenly stopped in mid flight. It didn't move, didn't breathe, and Robin quickly realized that she'd totally lost control of the situation. Time, apparently literally, wasn't on their side. "Well, this isn't good..." she murmured.
"The challenge: choose to live in eternal strife, or find peace and see the end of your suffering. I've come to show you what could have been, and what might have been a better future," Luna said cheerfully.
"And the challenge isn't optional, right...?" grumbled Robin.
"Quite right!" chirped Luna as she raised her hand just as Sol had. "The game will begin now."
From two points in space, one from Sol and one from Luna, the Thousand Sunny was slowly encompassed in a great, hulking darkness. It was an oddly calming sensation, one that none of the crew recognized was happening. The air began to intensify and became heavy, the sea itself churning madly as the entire ship shook and, finally, collapsed inside a large singularity that totally swallowed the Thousand Sunny and everyone inside it without their knowledge, consent, or desire.
The darkness waxed and waned, a dull hissing accompanying the absence of consciousness, until finally Jimbei and Brook opened their eyes and found themselves inside the chamber where Sol and Luna had agreed to their "game." They were situated in two very comfortable lounging chairs, and both had a glass of liquor in their hand. To their shock the two pirates found that they were being tended to by faceless... dolls, for lack of a better word, servicing them with snack cakes and offering glasses of lemonade as Sol and Luna looked on from the far side of the room in amusement.
Though it took a moment for him to compute what was going on Jimbei quickly tossed aside the wine glass and rose to his feet with a wild look in his eyes. He flexed his webbed fingers, pulsing the power of a fishman through them, and when they tightened into a fist his entire hand became coated in the black sheen of Haki. "What the devil is going on?!" roared Jimbei as he vaulted towards Sol and Luna.
Sol merely flicked his fingers and Jimbei was immediately thrown back into his seat where he found, to his horror, that his arms and legs were now restrained by thick black shackles. Brook was equally shocked and horrified when he realized that his Soul Solid was now just outside of his reach and the skeleton frantically turned to the two deities for some sort of answer. "W-What the heck is..." he choked. "Where are we...?!"
"Welcome to a world between worlds, the nexus of Yin and Yang! Our humble home!" Sol said as he bowed theatrically to the two pirates. "Here, as guardians of Light and Darkness we balance out good with evil, right with wrong, front with back, and give order to the universe. Our task is to see that the positive and negatives of existence balance out equally," he said smilingly. "In other words... We're basically gods. But we prefer not to toot our own horns."
"You're kidnappers, that's what you are!" Jimbei hissed. "You came and stole our friends, put them in danger, and now-"
"Yep, we stole 'em. Yep, we put 'em in danger... so what?" chuckled Sol, putting his arms behind his head and casually yawning. "What are you going to do about it, eh?"
"Moron! At least try to show some tact, you blowhard!" Luna snapped.
"I'll do as I please, you punk!" retorted Sol. "You've got no right to talk to me that way!"
Luna deftly drew her rapier and lunged at her counterpart, who similarly lifted his long sword and swung it at her. When they connected with each other the after shocks were incredible, one single blow sending shock waves through the room that immediately blasted the faceless dolls to bits and blew Jimbei and Brook back in a flash of light as the entire chamber seemed to collapse in on itself. With a loud swoosh of wind, however, Jimbei and Brook found that they'd been returned to their shackles, the servants were offering more snack cakes, and the two deities stood parallel to one another with their blades raised.
"Hmph. Look at what you've done," Luna grumbled.
"Oh, stuff it," growled Sol. "I do as I please, like I said."
"What in the hell-" gasped Jimbei.
"I am Yang," Sol said boldly.
"And I am Yin," declared Luna.
"We are the two forces that balance all of creation, manifested into two living beings!" remarked Sol. "Yin is darkness, Yang is light... down is up, up is down, yes is no and no is yes!" he cackled. "We are the total, polar opposites of one another!"
"W-What the hell is going on, is what I'm asking!" Jimbei choked. "You come in, seize our friends, and then try to kill each other! Why?!"
"We're playing a game," Luna said briskly. "You ten have been invited."
Sol lifted his hand and manifested a green apple, then took a large bite out of it and began to chew. "The rules are simple: The ten of your crew, minus yourselves, will be tested by eight of our champions. Each is a representation of an element of the Eight Trigrams," he explained brusquely. "They each represent a facet of Light or Darkness, and they'll be testing your friends in a simple trial..."
"We're giving your friends a chance to change their past and find a new future. The game," Luna said wickedly, "is to see how many of you choose to stick with what you have. We have a bet: Even one of them changes, I win the pot," she smirked.
"What... happens if they choose not to change...?" Brook asked timidly.
"They'll be tested in mortal combat, of course," Sol said plainly. "To survive they have to win the battle and if they fail, then Luna gets the win. I hate when that happens."
"You have no right to do anything of the sort!" roared Jimbei.
With a snap of her fingers Luna shut Jimbei's mouth tightly and strengthened his bonds, tightening painfully around his limbs. "We have as much dominion over reality as we choose, buddy," she sneered. "You have an alternative: We play Rock-Paper-Scissors to decide whether your planet lives or dies. You're free to choose the latter."
"Why aren't we included in this game...?" asked Brook, who took a snack cake and munched on it as Jimbei frantically struggled to free himself. "Not that I'd fancy fighting an immortal monster, mind you."
"Your Yin and Yang are... slightly different from the others," muttered Sol. "The two of you could never affect your own pasts alone. The skeleton would stay floating in his little lifeboat forever, and the one with gills could never unite his species with humans... without an outside source," he said with a grin.
"Luffy!" Jimbei snarled. "You're saying that we're powerless?!"
"More or less," shrugged Luna. "Consider it a test to see if that monkey guy can make it as a king. If he fails, he never had a chance in the first place."
Sol took another deep bite of his apple and chewed it, then spat out the core into a garbage can that manifested out of nowhere and quickly vanished again. "We're giving them a chance to alter their pasts. If they accept, they get that new future. If they fight, however, they'll have their physical and mental fortitude tested by one of the elemental representations of the Eight Trigrams," he said with a sinister smirk. "If they all fight and win, you get to go about your business, I win, and Luna gets to wash the toilet for the next decade. Oh... and none of you will even know any of this ever happened," Sol chuckled. "No harm, no foul, no argument from you."
"That isn't fair!" protested Jimbei.
"You're completely correct: It isn't fair," Sol smirked. "Not that it's your decision anymore." With a snap of his fingers eight view screens materialized around the chamber, each with the image of one of the Straw Hats laying prone inside a completely white void. None of them seemed to be harmed, but that clearly wouldn't last very long. "We'll let you two observe. They win, great! They lose, Luna wins, that little witch..."
"There has to be a god that can stop this madness..." growled Jimbei.
"You're probably right," Luna shrugged. "Too bad he isn't watching. Let's begin with the archaeologist... I picked her personally."
Author's Notes
I guess I'll let you guys think it over a bit before I get to the meat of the matter. There are two chapters left, each dealing with four of the eight remaining Straw Hats peering into their pasts and potential futures. Hopefully I'm doing this right... This is just a little side project while I'm working on my FFV and FFIX projects. You shouldn't expect anything mind blowing, but it will hopefully do something for you guys. This is a bit more ambitious than Navigator's Day Off, I admit, but not by much. Please enjoy the next two chapters, which should come in the next few days. This shouldn't take long.
