Start Date: June 4, 2024
Windwillow
One Piece: The Yin and Yang of the Straw Hat Pirates
Chapter Three: Resolution
Yin - Chopper
Though he began in the white void when Chopper opened his eyes he was far from an empty blank space. It was a place he remembered well: a small, almost primitive hovel filled with books and medical tools. He remembered it all, from the Bunsen burners to the bookshelves stocked with medical texts. Chopper immediately jumped up from his resting place and began to frantically search for the Doctor, but instead he found someone staring down at him from a nearby chair.
Built as a normal man, he was nevertheless distinguishable by both his hair and his outfit. His brown hair was set in spikes, almost as if he were wearing a porcupine on his head, and he wore a tan suit of leather-plated armor that stretched down both arms, both legs, and around his neck was a small pendant bearing the image of a mountain inscribed with the character for just that.
"W-What the heck...?!" Chopper gasped.
"I am Hayden, representative of the Mountain Trigram," the man said brusquely. "I've come to ask you a few important questions."
"Who the hell are you?!" choked Chopper.
"Let me ask you, Doctor Chopper: Are you happy as a human/reindeer hybrid?" Hayden asked forcefully. "You haven't seen your family in years, since before you were taken in by that quack Hiriluk."
"I-I... found a new family," Chopper said quickly.
Hayden snapped his fingers and caused Hiriluk's home to shatter to bits, which quickly coalesced into a wintry scene deep inside the icy woods of Drum Island. Chopper's eyes scanned the horizon and he found something that shook him deeply: His family, his reindeer family, everyone from his parents to his siblings. A little bit more examination shocked the doctor when he saw himself - before he had a name, before he ate the Devil Fruit.
"When you ate the Human Human Fruit, you sacrificed all of these loved ones," Hayden sighed. "What a shame."
"S-Stop!" rasped Chopper desperately. "You're mucking with my head!"
Again the representative of the Mountain Trigram snapped his fingers and this time the scene changed to a large dining room decked out with candles, napkins, and a feast of fine food. It was who Chopper saw that unnerved him the most, however. One of them was a monstrously fat man dressed in fishnet stockings, with a long hooked nose wearing surgeon's gloves. The other was a beautiful young woman, albeit covered in stitch marks that marred her youthful glory.
"You're a doctor... No matter how much you say otherwise, you respected Doctor Hogback," Hayden said coolly. "There was always a part of you that wanted to learn from the man. Instead, you dropped an oversized Ancient Giant on his noggin... which was quite rude."
"I would never involve myself with that ghoul!" insisted Chopper.
"Really? Take a look at the person next to the zombie," chuckled Hayden. Chopper's attention turned to a third individual, one he recognized as himself - except, he was dressed in surgeon's scrubs and his trademark hat had been replaced by a surgical cap. "By surrendering to Moria, Hogback could teach you everything he knows... making you the panacea that you always sought to be."
"I-I... I... I wouldn't want to muck with corpses and peoples' shadows!" Chopper spat back.
"Who says you had to? By learning from Hogback and leaving the Thriller Bark Pirates you could travel the world as a legendary surgeon, capable of healing any ailment and almost bringing the dead back to life!" Hayden snickered. "As a side effect, however, the others would be sentenced to a lifetime of darkness in the woods of Thriller Bark. Without the Straw Hats around to work miracles, the world would fall into chaos, however... Without your friend, Dressrosa would stay occupied by the Doflamingo Pirates and the two Emperors Kaido and Big Mom would eventually destroy the world," he sighed. "But that's a small price to pay for living your dream, right?"
"I... No! I would never abandon my friends!" roared Chopper. Another snap of Hayden's fingers brought him back to Drum Castle's outside courtyard, where his mentor had committed suicide. Time seemed to rewind until it reached the moment Chopper had given Hiriluk the Amiudake mushroom, and this time Hiriluk whacked the mushroom from the wounded Chopper's hand before hurriedly tending to his wounds.
"What would have happened if he'd never eaten the mushroom, which sealed his fate?" Hayden sneered.
"T-This is cruel...!" rasped Chopper, his throat dry with lack of moisture.
"Because Hiriluk never ate the Amiudake and sacrificed himself, he would teach you medicine... quack medicine. Despite his good heart the good doctor was more of a fraud than anything else. With no one to stop him, King Wapol would hunt down and assassinate your mentor Doctor Kureha, leaving Drum Island hopeless and without any doctors," Hayden said cruelly. "But, when the Straw Hats bring your friend Nami here they have no way to treat her, and so she dies. Without the Straw Hats as a deciding factor, Alabasta, Skypiea, and Fishman Island collapse into anarchy. By the time Kaido and Big Mom start mucking things up they have no one to fight back, and so... well... ha ha ha... But, you always wanted to live your life with Hiriluk, right?" he sneered.
"I would... never...!" Chopper choked. As the white void reformed, he stumbled backwards and dropped to his seat. "I would never let my friends die! What happens if I say no...?"
"I hope you don't, because I'd have to crush you!" Hayden cackled as he lifted his left arm. From the limb its form changed from flesh and bone to a large, hammer-like piston that when slammed against the ground caused a large shock wave to stagger Chopper. "I've 'eaten' the Hammer Hammer Fruit, so I can change my entire body into a concussive weapon," he snickered. "Don't you want to go back to Hiriluk now? Or just skip it all and remain a reindeer? And what about Hogback...?"
"I... even if I have to give up Doctor Hiriluk, the others need me! I won't give them up under any circumstances!" Chopper snarled.
When Hayden slung his piston arm at him the reindeer shifted into a squat humanoid that deftly spun out of the way of the attack, then moved to attack. Instead Hayden beat him in the face with a brutal strike that knocked him out of his transformed state and into his normal hybrid form. As the representative of the Mountain Trigram charged for another assault Chopper grabbed a small yellow ball from his belt and gnawed on it.
By chewing the Rumble Ball, Chopper's body swelled into a monstrous, yeti-like beast he called Monster Point. With Hayden approaching the reindeer drew back his right arm and then hurled it forward at the oncoming hammer. He met the blow with a heavier one, and though Chopper nearly staggered from the force of Hayden's blow he quickly forced his way through and obliterated the Mountain Trigram. As his time in Monster Point ended, however, Chopper drooped from an intimidating yeti into a tiny little baby geezer, who flopped flat on his back and heaved out an apology to the others.
"I fought bravely..." he hacked. "And I'm worth more than a thousand damned Berries!"
With his time as a Monster gone and his half hour as a Baby Geezer began, Chopper settled in comfortably to the spot where he'd landed. Even if he was exhausted, and even if he was in such a humiliating state, he'd stood up for his friends - and that was all that mattered. As a weak laugh left his lips the reindeer slowly shut his eyes tight in exhaustion. He'd used everything he had. In a sudden flash the doctor shattered into a series of pixels that swirled around and zipped high into the air.
Yang - Franky
When Franky awoke he was inside his old stomping grounds, the Franky House, where he was met by a certain individual. Although she was shorter than Franky stood as Armored Me, the woman was nevertheless much taller than any normal woman and her long sleeves hung limply running down her arms. She wore plain brown slacks with dark brown boots and gloves, but her upper torso was covered in large protrusions that almost resembled thunderbolts. On the left side of her back she carried a long, double-bladed axe.
Once he'd gained his bearings Franky immediately lifted his artillery arm and aimed it at the figure, but found that the individual had vanished. Before he could react the cyborg was brutally struck in the face and rocketed back into the wall, and when Franky emerged from his crater he was shocked to find that the woman had changed from a human to a hulking, bestial white creature whose arms now stretched far beyond her sleeves. Slowly the beast reverted to its human form and tapped her foot on the ground to catch Franky's attention.
"I am Gaeus Echidna, representative of the Thunder Trigram," the woman said coolly. "I'd advise that you pay close attention to my offer."
"I don't want to hear any of your babble!" Franky snarled.
Echidna snapped her fingers and the white void began to reform itself into a very familiar scene, which surrounded a massive shipyard covered with governmental agents in suits circled around a huge bestial fishman whose body was grossly out of proportion with his limbs. The fishman had slumped to his knees, riddled with tranquilizers and coated in the blood that he'd shed from the monstrous harpoon he'd just withdrawn from his chest. Franky immediately fell silent and swallowed the frog in his throat with great difficulty.
"But that comes later," Echidna said plainly. She snapped her fingers again and the scene changed to a large brigantine ship being constructed, which then shattered to reveal to Franky a scene of a large galleon sailing off into the distance with a disgruntled Franky staring as it went out to sea. "There was always the possibility that you'd keep to your promise never to build a ship again, so the Straw Hats would receive a first-class galleon free of charge from Galley-La," snickered Echidna.
"The Sunny's my baby!" growled Franky, his heart heating up. "And they need me!"
"So did your dismantlers," shrugged Echidna. "The only way to protect them would be to set sail as a pirate captain with the Franky Family as your crew."
"The thought never crossed my mind!" Franky snapped.
"You said that you'd never build a ship again, if you recall. By stealing a galleon from Galley-La and converting it into a warship, you could keep that promise and create a vessel to protect your loved ones," Echidna said smilingly. "Were you to do become such a fugitive, the Straw Hats would set sail and land on Thriller Bark... and without your mechanical expertise they would be defeated and sentenced to life in the shadows of the ghost island," she sneered. "But at least your precious family would be safe and sound with you as their captain."
Echidna snapped her fingers and the scenic waters of Water Seven shattered and reformed as a small chamber filled with machinery and bookshelves containing scientific treasures. Franky quickly recognized it as Vegapunk's laboratory, where he'd upgraded himself to Armored Me over two agonizing years. Franky quickly realized, however, that the blueprints on the desk weren't of weapons; they were of advanced technology that could be used for a different purpose.
"But I destroyed those!" gasped Franky. "The Nightmare of Baldimore!"
"If you'd so desired you could have remained at Vegapunk's laboratory and assumed control over his research," chuckled Echidna. "With your genius you could revitalize the island and elevate it to the level of Egghead - futuristic, sleek, and brilliant!"
"What the hell is an Egghead?!" Franky growled.
"Oh, right... That's in the future. My bad. But the point is that by accepting my offer you could join forces with the enigmatic Doctor Vegapunk and bring about a scientific revolution all around the planet! Were you to do that, however, Straw Hat could never draw on you as his shipwright..." Echidna said ominously. "Assuming they even made it to Wano, without your carpentry the Alliance's ships would stay ruined and the raid on Onigashima would fail. That leads to those two lunatic Emperors destroying the world... but you'd be creating a cultural revolution!"
"I would never abandon them!" insisted Franky. When Echidna snapped her fingers and the scene changed back to Water Seven, however, the precise moment that Tom had been sentenced to death, the cyborg immediately froze up. "W-What's your angle, asshole?!" he choked.
"If you'd never created your Battle Frankies, Tom would remain as the world's greatest shipwright and continue to mentor you. You would lead a happy life! There is the caveat that the seven shipbuilding companies never come together because of your friend Iceberg never uniting them into Galley-La, meaning that as Water Seven continued to decline when the Straw Hats arrived there, Tom could construct them a masterful ship!" sneered Echidna. "But without you as its shipwright the crew would fail miserably, and when the Paramount War rolled around it would mark the beginning of the end of the world... But, remember: You'd always have Tom."
"I... I...!" choked Franky, his resolve weakening. He really did dream of it happening that way, but...
"Would you really throw all of that away for a chance to become a wanted criminal? You have two choices," Echidna claimed as she snapped her fingers and they returned to the Franky House. "Save your mentor, or fight against unbeatable foes with a crew that could never make the cut anyway!" she snickered.
"You know what, lady?" Franky grumbled, lifting his arms in a boxing stance. "Go screw yourself."
"As I've 'eaten' the Human Human Fruit, Model: Yeti I'd strongly advise you reconsider," sneered Echidna as she assumed the same monstrous form that she had at the beginning of their encounter and lifted her gigantic axe over her shoulder. "I'll give you one last chance..."
Franky's response was to tap a button on his left shoulder, which sent out a barrage of missiles at the Yeti. Echidna shrugged and used her axe to cut them out of the sky in midair, then sent a powerful shock wave at Franky that rocketed him through the wall and left his body covered in a cloud of dust. As Echidna began to trudge towards her quarry with her axe lifted high, she was nevertheless shocked and horrified to find that Franky had survived the attack... and had put together his hands in an oval shape in front of him.
"Franky... Radical... BEAM!" Franky shouted triumphantly, firing off the laser that utterly obliterated the Yeti before he fell flat on his face, exhausted and wounded. "I'll never let the Sunny go without her shipwright, jackass!" he heaved just before he shattered into pixels.
Yin - Roronoa Zoro
Upon realizing that he'd gone unconscious Zoro's first thought was to find his swords and chop up whoever was responsible. When he came to inside the white void Zoro found, to his pleasure, that all three of his swords had been laid neatly in a row and he quickly returned them to his right hip. He suddenly realized that he wasn't alone and drew Enma at the offender, but he was parried and struck at with enough force that he was forced to retreat. As Zoro fell back he also drew Kitetsu III and moved into a defensive position across from his new nemesis.
The figure may have been short, but what she lacked in height she made up for in her intense aura. Standing just over five feet tall, the woman had sharp blue eyes narrowed almost as if they were a hawk's eyes, and her white hair was worn short with a set of bangs stretching down over her right eye. She wore a blue vest with several black straps all across her body and at her right side was a thin katana that befit her size - yet also befit her strong spirit.
"I am Whorl Azure, manifestation of the Water Trigram!" chirped the woman as she put a hand to her hip and gave Zoro a two-fingered salute. "I've come to see if you'd like to change your fate."
"I make my fate..." hissed Zoro.
"Man... I kind of figured that was going to be how it was, but... Still, dude; you're cold," Azure sighed. "I also expected that you'd be as strong as you are... like Kuina, if she'd survived."
"How do you know that name?!" Zoro snarled, lifting his swords and preparing to attack.
Instead Azure snapped her fingers and Zoro's world went white. By the time he opened his eye the swordsman found himself back at a very familiar location, watching a very familiar battle with a truly formidable opponent. He watched as his younger self, wielding two shinai, battered an older girl with blow after blow, each of which was neatly parried or blocked. It was when the girl swept her sword horizontally that Zoro's practice swords went flying and she deftly laid the 'blade' of her weapon at his throat to signal the end of the match.
"Not bad," Kuina shrugged. "Not very good, either."
"You...! I'll get you back for this, you witch!" the young Zoro snarled, who collected his swords and stormed out of the dojo, leaving Kuina to shoulder her shinai and beckon for another opponent.
"She was truly an amazing woman, well worth the title of 'Strongest,'" sighed Azure. "It's a shame things ended the way they did."
Now livid, Zoro attempted to draw his Enma but found that the space on his hip was absent. He quickly realized that the only sword he had left was Wado Ichimonji, which he lifted from its scabbard and directed at an emotionless Azure. "You're playing a very dangerous game," Zoro growled. "Taunting me hasn't traditionally ended well for the person on the opposite end of my sword."
"Quite right! It is stupid to poke this particular bear. However," Azure said smilingly as she put her fingers together, "What if I do this?" One snap of Azure's fingers changed Zoro's perspective to the inside of a neatly decorated home, where Kuina stood atop a stool reaching for her whetstone and he realized quickly that this was how she'd died. Zoro desperately reached out to catch her but when Kuina fell back he stopped suddenly as he watched his younger self catch her before she hit the ground. As the two shared a blushing smile, Azure appeared behind Zoro and, when he moved to strike her, parried him. "What if she'd never died? You never would have started the Three Sword Style," she said sadly.
Biting his lip to fight back his fury, Zoro watched as Azure again snapped her fingers and the scene changed to something that chilled his soul: A wedding ceremony, with himself dressed in traditional Japanese garments. He watched as Kuina, an older and even more beautiful Kuina, slowly walked towards him arm-in-arm with her father Koshiro, and when they came to a stop the two swordsmen shared a warm smile. Despite himself Zoro, gripping tightly onto Wado Ichimonji, lost control and dropped the sword to the ground.
"On the day you first defeated Kuina you proposed to her... and you were married. Happily married. You lived a long and happy life with one another, training constantly, though when Kuina died in much the same way as she did in reality it crushed you..." sighed Azure. "Instead of taking up Wado Ichimonji you laid it at her grave, and because you never trained for it the Three Sword Style was never developed."
"You... disgusting...!" Zoro snarled, snatching up his sword and laying it at Azure's throat. Instead she simply batted it away and left Zoro stewing in his own anger again.
"You never became a bounty hunter, and never became one of the Pirate King's two wings, so... when Luffy began to assemble his crew-" Azure began.
"My ambition would never die!" Zoro hissed.
"'Your' ambition? Was it really 'your' ambition, or was it rooted in a deep seated regret of losing Kuina? It was Kuina's death that prompted you to start the Three Sword Style," Azure said darkly. "Otherwise, you never would have sworn to become the strongest... for both of you."
While Zoro fumed Azure again snapped her fingers and shifted the scene to a very familiar moment in Zoro's life. Aboard the ocean-going restaurant Baratie, he faced off against a vampire-like warrior who wielded a sword just as big as he was. As Zoro drew his swords and clomped Wado Ichimonji in his mouth they clashed violently, evenly to Zoro's amazement. At the close of the battle the swordsmen exchanged a single attack that resulted in Mihawk's demise, and as he fell Zoro removed Wado Ichimonji from his mouth, lifted it high above his head, and let out a triumphant roar.
"If you'd miraculously won the fight, your dream would have been fulfilled... and you'd have no more reason to travel with Luffy..." sighed Azure. When he regained his composure Zoro slashed at Azure with his blade, but she easily sidestepped his cutting wave attack and laid her sword at his throat.
"I would have never abandoned Luffy!" Zoro roared.
"Relax... I'm only offering a possibility here. By receiving the title of 'Strongest,' you would have set sail alone as a one-man pirate crew, terrorizing the seas until you were made a Warlord like Mihawk. You would keep the title for several years..." Azure began warily, "before losing it to an aspiring swordsman along with your own life. Life would come full circle and you would become the man that Mihawk was."
"I would never become a killer again!" growled Zoro.
"You don't know how you'd be thinking if you defeated Mihawk, sadly. It's very possible that you would grow so confident and arrogant that you would become the next Mihawk... A skilled, confident swordsman peerless in his art... until you become the victim of your own successor," sighed Azure. "That's what you've always sought... the title of 'Strongest.' You could never understand your train of thought once you defeated Mihawk back at Baratie."
"You don't know a damned thing about me!" snarled Zoro, just before he realized that he'd recovered his other two swords.
"Yes... I want to see you become the Strongest," shrugged Azure, to Zoro's confusion. "I have such great admiration for you and your dream. Please, become the greatest of all, for yourself and for Kuina..." Her fingers slowly inched towards her blade and in a single flourish she drew it from her scabbard and slid into a ready position. "But I intend to make you fight for the title. Show me whether you deserve to be the strongest... and whether you want to become Luffy's right hand or not. It's either that, or die."
Although he hesitated for a moment Zoro quickly clapped Wado Ichimonji between his teeth and drew his other two blades, coating them with Haki as he readied for his own battle. Azure hardened her sword as well and the two swordsmen stared at each other before Zoro swept his sword at his nemesis. The incarnation of the Water Trigram met his attack with her own, and managed to turn it back on Zoro. The attack zoomed towards him, but Zoro quietly flicked his head and used Wado Ichimonji to slash it into mist, pivoted on his heel, and lunged at Azure again.
The two swordsmen clashed their hardened blades against one another, exchanging an equal number of blows that seemed to indicate that they were evenly matched. With the battle becoming seemingly endless Zoro tightened his grip on Enma and flexed the muscles of his left arm, allowing the sword to absorb his soul and drain it to manifest more power. With the Conqueror's Spirit imbued in all three swords Zoro slung his blades at Azure, who countered with her own Conqueror's Spirit and matched him blow for blow.
Zoro disengaged and slid back, switched Kitetsu III into a reverse grip, and placed the hilts of his swords together. While he began to swirl both Enma and Kitetsu III around Azure placed her sword horizontally and gathered her own power, the same position that Zoro and Mihawk had assumed at the Baratie two years earlier. In a flash Zoro's body zipped forward as did Azure's, and in a single instant four swords collided and only three stayed intact as Azure's sword was sliced and she dropped to her knees covered in blood from three massive slash wounds.
Azure weakly dropped her sword as blood spat from her face, having been overwhelmed by the Three Thousand Worlds that Roronoa Zoro wielded as his blades. With a feeble whimper she fell back but was caught by the waist and forcefully dragged to her feet by Zoro. Though she stumbled Zoro, who had sheathed Enma and Kitetsu III, quietly laid Wado Ichimonji at her neck and slowly drained the Haki from its edge, marking the end of the battle.
"You finally remembered it... the moment she overpowered you... and now that you've overcome that demon, you can see your dream through without doubts..." murmured Azure weakly. "Become the 'Strongest' for both of your sakes... and forget about me."
As Azure slowly dissipated into a cloud of mist Zoro dropped to one knee and grabbed onto the horrible wound that she'd inflicted on him, the same that Mihawk had done two years prior. Even having blocked it, he would have still taken the debilitating blow and would have gone down as well, having not trained for two long years to surpass his limits. He silently reached for his precious heirloom, the blade that had belonged to her, and as Zoro sheathed it he burst into an explosion of pixels that zipped towards the sky.
Yang - Monkey D. Luffy
The darkness overtook Luffy suddenly, though when he awakened inside the white void his mind as always slowly calculated the situation and he at first began to freak out. In a mixture of anger and fright the captain looked back and forth, searching for the one who had started the whole mess. When he slowly began to calm down Luffy quietly returned his Straw Hat to his head and narrowed in his eyes on the man in front of him, a giant of a man that he knew wasn't there to play games with him.
He was a giant of a man, standing nearly seven feet tall and with muscles that would make any bodybuilder green with envy. Dressed in a white pair of slacks and a thick blue overcoat with multiple straps and belts situated across his outfit, the man had an almost oppressive aura about him and even just looking at him sent your heart beating a hundred miles a minute from his dynamic stature. To Luffy's further displeasure the giant simply put a hand to his hip and smiled.
"Auburn Alpha, of the Heaven Trigram," the giant said brusquely. "I've come to give you a chance to save Shanks's arm."
"Really?!" Luffy gasped, a wide smile on his face.
"Don't get too excited... Everything comes at a cost," sighed Alpha as he put his fingers together. "I advise that you pay very close attention from here on out."
When Alpha snapped his fingers Luffy's world went dark. By the time he opened his eyes the rubber man saw clearly where he was: Windmill Village, his home town. To his surprise (and elation) he saw Shanks (with his arm intact) loading to prepare for his next journey. As the Emperor ascended the steps to his ship, Luffy noticed that his younger self was eagerly bidding the chief farewell. He quickly realized that something was missing and reached for his Straw Hat, but found it gone and he grit his teeth in anger as Alpha appeared in front of him.
"If Shanks kept his arm... He would have never seen fit to entrust that hat to you. He'd remain whole, but you would lose the very treasure that you hold most precious, your Straw Hat," Alpha said darkly. "Without the determination that your promise with Shanks provided you, you would never reach the heights that you've touched now. You'd set sail as a pirate, but without that Straw Hat you'd become nothing but a casualty to the hordes of pirates roaming the East Blue. You would, in other words, die in ignominy."
"What the hell is an ignominy?!" Luffy boomed angrily. His Straw Hat manifested back in his hand and he angrily plopped it back on his head. "Even without that hat, it's always been my dream to become a pirate!"
"It was your promise with Shanks that spurred you to master your Devil Fruit to the level that you have. If all you had to go one was naked ambition you wouldn't be anywhere near as strong as you should have been when you set sail," sighed Alpha. "Your time in the wilderness with Ace and Sabo would have been very different had you not been so devoted to becoming strong. You never swore to surpass Shanks, so by the time you set sail you wouldn't have mastered the Gum Gum Fruit... and you would be toast."
"You lousy... !"Luffy rasped.
With another snap of the manifestations fingers Luffy's vision of a peaceful Windmill Village shattered to become a war zone that seemed to be hell on earth. In the distance a large fortress stood ominously, while Luffy and Alpha now stood on a large sheet of ice that stretched far into the distance. Luffy watched as time unfolded as it should have and he'd escaped with Ace, though when Sakazuki reared back to kill Ace, Alpha appeared and ripped the Admiral in half and allowed Luffy and Ace to escape on a nearby battleship.
"Had he lived, you'd have had no reason to become stronger... You would enter the New World and die a horrific death along with your crew," shrugged Alpha.
"I would have always trained!" Luffy snarled.
"Would you? Think about yourself for a moment and guess whether you would or wouldn't run head long into the New World. It was, again, your promise to Ace that led to your two year training session... Assume you did train. With who? You'd have never reconnected with Rayleigh," Alpha said plainly. "You already know that you would go into the New World blind, admit it. Without learning Haki, you would be ripped apart like wild meat by the dangers of the New World."
Alpha again snapped his fingers and Luffy suddenly became swallowed up by water, though to his surprise he was both able to move and breathe. He watched, to his horror, as Hody Jones effortlessly ripped him to shreds, and when the scene changed to Dressrosa, Luffy again watched as Doflamingo beat the living hell out of him and kicked him into the sea. The scene changed again and Luffy realized that he was back in Big Mom's prison library, and found himself bound to the wall by a giant nail, but this time Nami wasn't with him.
"Even if you had, miraculously, survived the other battles, when you went to save Sanji you would be easily defeated and chained in Big Mom's prison for the rest of your life. If you somehow survived that," Alpha sneered, "then Kaido would kill you in the Land of Wano and everyone would die. I'll return to my first point: Had your saved Shanks's arm, you would have never met your crew."
"S-Stop it!" roared Luffy.
"Had you allowed him to keep his arm, however, he could better deal with Teach after he usurps Whitebeard after the Paramount War. With his arm intact he would balance the other Emperors and maintain an even keel in the New World," Alpha said with a smirk. "We all know that you could never defeat Teach. I suggest that you surrender for the betterment of all mankind. At least then, you could be proud of yourself."
"T-Then... the others..." Luffy rasped. "I would have never helped them... I would never abandon my crew!"
"Zoro would be executed at Shells Town and Nami would remain Arlong's slave. Sanji would fall prey to Big Mom and Crocodile would murder Nico Robin when he successfully overthrows the Alabasta royal family," grinned Alpha. "However, this is how the world was meant to unfold. If you want to resist me, then I suggest you give it everything you have... or I'll beat the tar out of you."
Luffy took a deep breath in and exhaled sharply, then lowered his fist to the ground and laid it flat on the earth below as he initiated his Gear Two and steam burst from all over his body. Alpha, meanwhile, turned his entire body jet black and assumed a defensive position. When Luffy disappeared and reappeared behind him Alpha pivoted on his heel and hurled his coated fist at his enemy's own. His own might, be it muscles or Haki, easily rocketed the rubber man far into the distance from a single exchange of attacks.
Rebounding quickly, Luffy skidded to a halt and jolted back his arm, stretching the limb far into the distance. A shining black sheen coated his fist and when Luffy threw his arm at Alpha he landed a hard punch at the manifestation's midsection. He watched in shock as a coating of Haki easily reflected the blow and, as Alpha reached out to him, the Heaven Trigram grabbed Luffy by the neck, lifted him over his knee, and slammed his back onto his kneecap. Luffy quickly recovered and skidded away, but was unable to hide his shock when he saw the very familiar black lightning crackle from around Alpha's entire body.
"Armament... Observation... and Conqueror's! I have all three as well!" Alpha sneered.
Alpha's fist became coated in a jet black sheen, crackling with black lightning, then he seemed to vanish from Luffy's sight. When Luffy hesitated for just a moment he was countered by Alpha, who appeared behind him, lifted both fists, and crushed Luffy into the ground with enough force to create a meter-long crater at the point of impact. Alpha triumphantly withdrew his arms and walked away, though Luffy weakly coated his left arm and began to blow into it, hoping to end the battle with Gear Four.
Now inflated like a balloon with two heavily hardened arms, Luffy burst up from the ground and nearly nailed Alpha with a punch. Luffy quickly moved into his next attack and, by compressing his massive arm into itself, launched a fully powered punch at Alpha that quickly ballooned into a massive fist. Alpha met the attack head on with his own coated punch and, though they struggled for several seconds, he finally pushed through and blasted Luffy backwards and out of Gear Four.
Luffy beat against the ground several times, literally battered to the floor from the force of multiple impacts, and landed flat on his back seemingly out of breath. Believing that he'd won Alpha softened all of his body save for his right fist, and when he infused both willpower and black lightning into it his arm burst open in a huge display of energy that shattered the sound barrier and pulsed his arm with muscular might.
As Alpha slowly approached and prepared to finish him off, Luffy began to breathe hard and finally stopped moving, laying his head flat on the ground. Though Alpha took this as a sign of surrender and continued on, Luffy suddenly burst out into laughter and his body exploded into a maelstrom of black lightning, which forced Alpha to halt his advance. Luffy stretched his head backwards, pressing down into what seemed to be a rubbery surface, and when he lifted his skull he rocketed his white-browed face straight into Alpha with such force that he created an indentation of his face in his chest.
While Alpha reeled, Luffy hopped back onto his feet, seemingly unharmed, and turned to the side before slapping himself on the ass in a clear expression of, "Kiss my ass." The taunt worked perfectly and Alpha surged into a fully powered Haki state, jumped forward, and hurled his coated black fist at the rubber man. Luffy slowly stretched back his right arm and threw it forward, and when the two attacks collided Luffy's fist exploded into the size of an ancient giant's arm and the full-force punch shattered Alpha into pixels. With his final transformation fading, Luffy quietly dropped to his back with a weak stutter and finally joined Alpha in an explosion of pixels.
Finale
The battles had ended. Jimbei and Brook stared down Sol and Luna with confidence as the eight other Straw Hats appeared in a circle around each other, badly battered and totally unconscious, having materialized from a storm of pixels from all eight of their viewing portals. Again Jimbei struggled against his bonds and this time he succeeded in shattering them, and he quickly dashed for his captain and cradled the emaciated rubber man in his arms as Brook moved to examine the others. As Jimbei laid his captain's head on his lap, Luffy quietly hacked up a weak bit of saliva and opened his eyes for just a moment before passing out.
"M-Meat..." whimpered Luffy, shortly before he totally passed out in Jimbei's arms.
"Ha! I won the bet!" cheered Sol as he patted a disconsolate Luna on the back and shoved her from her seat. The incarnation of Yin furiously returned with her middle finger but Sol smiled and laid a hand to her fuming head. "Right then," he said plainly. "You're all free to go. Bye bye." Before he could snap his fingers for the final time, however, Sol was shocked to find Brook and Jimbei slowly approaching them with determination in their eyes, and it gave him quite the laugh. "You two are nuts," Sol chuckled, "but I'll play along and beat the snot out of you all the same."
Luna slowly rose from her seat and dusted off her pants, then quickly drew her rapier and assumed a fencing stance across from Brook. While Brook drew his sword and Jimbei hardened his fists, Luna playfully stuck out her tongue and winked at them. "You have the right to move first," she chirped. "Not that it'll actually make any difference. Get ready for a royal thrashing."
Quickly approaching Sol, Jimbei coated his fist in a bubble of water and threw it at the deity, only for Sol to easily restrain his attack with a single finger. Jimbei quaked in rage but quickly launched into a series of blows that Sol neatly parried or evaded while Brook lunged at Luna with his cane sword. Despite his best efforts Brook failed to land a single attack and, after the two had become boring to the sun and moon, they easily shoved them away and into the far wall, where they landed in two massive craters and slowly slumped to the ground defeated.
Believing that the matter was settled, Sol again put his fingers together but before he could rap them he watched in amazement as the two pirates weakly stumbled to their feet, withdrawing themselves from their holes in the wall. Although they were drenched in sweat and nearly unconscious, both Brook and Jimbei quietly assumed an offensive stance and stared down Sol and Luna with a crazed resolve. They weren't going to let their friends suffer without dealing at least one hit on the two lunatics.
"You know what? I like you guys!" chortled Sol. "You have some serious spunk!" He rapped his fingers and the room exploded into pixels, then slowly reformed with the Straw Hats fully healed and, while unconscious, totally undamaged or unstressed from anything that they had gone through. Jimbei and Brook became totally healthy and Luffy even had a piece of meat in his hands that the unconscious rubber man began to tear into. "You amused us... so we'll let you keep upsetting the balance as much as you want!" Sol cackled. "Consider it a one-time reprieve for your world... Go give 'em hell, dudes."
"If I've seen the future correctly, the darkness doesn't have a chance!" Luna said with a wink. After a bit of thought a wicked smile crossed her face and she began to laugh. "Get ready for the most intense battles of your lives! When the Five Elders show up, though, they'll beat the living daylights out of you... which ought to be fun to watch!" Luna put her fingers together and rapped them, causing the Straw Hats to disappear in an explosion of pixels. As the dust settled and Sol began to laugh raucously, Luna angrily took her foot and slammed it into his gut, which winded him and knocked him far into the wall beyond. Satisfied, Luna returned her rapier to her side and muttered a foul word before slumping back in her chair. "Now I have bathroom duty for a century or two..." she moaned. "I never thought that idiot was going to win the bet. Bastard."
Without missing a beat, or even a single drop of water, Robin reappeared on the Thousand Sunny with her watering can tending to her garden as the Thousand Sunny emerged from the singularity it had been swallowed up into. For a moment her eye twitched in unconscious frustration, but she soon returned to her gardening duties while humming a tune. None of the Straw Hats realized that they'd literally sailed out of a singularity, and as it closed Robin heard a faint echo of Sol and Luna bickering between one another but she chalked it up to a rogue wave and went about her business.
Author's Notes
And that's it! Eight battles, eight characters staring down their potential fates, and two very boisterous deities that will continue to bicker over the game for the next several millennia. I hope you guys enjoyed this little diversion from my usual stories, and I'll be back soon with more work.
As a matter of fact I'm toying with a spin-off of the fic, with Sol and Luna mucking with the FFVII universe when they get bored again. I'll finally be bringing Sephiroth back into the mix. I figure, why not go for a fan service angle every once in a while? Things will need to go from rosy to mucked up if the world keeps getting more and more unbalanced. Why bother destroying the world when you can give a lunatic a good shot at destroying it for you?
