#pre-wano

[chenziee]

BIG NEWS

Here's first of the two fics I wrote for the amazing @zorofanzine!! Leftover sales open on May 10th so check it out! You don't want to miss out on all the top-notch Zoro content <3

[ Read on AO3 ]

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Big news! Big news!

The street killer and ronin named Zorojuro has disappeared! After he was apprehended and sentenced to seppuku, he has murdered the Flower Capital’s Magistrate and with him, every single policeman at the station at the time!

A most dangerous criminal! More dangerous than Kamazo the Manslayer! More wicked than Ushimitsu Kozo! And he has disappeared without a trace!

Everyone! Please be wary walking the streets—if you see him, do not engage and alert the authorities!

Watch out for a man with only one eye and three katanas at his waist! He is responsible for the deaths of more than thirty people!

You heard it here first, folks! 

Everyone!

Read all about Zorojuro’s crimes right here! Right on this broadsheet, read in detail about the destruction he had caused! The list of victims! His description!

Esteemed people of the Capital!

Come and get your own; you can’t miss this news! So hear! Zorojuro the Magistrate Killer has disappeared! Refer to the wanted signs—aaaaand! This flyer! You can grab yours right here!

—————

In the streets of the Flower Capital, a crowd has gathered. Listening eagerly to the news announcement, asking for the flyers and broadsheets and wanted posters. Talking all over each other, hoping for the newsboy to notice them and hand them the papers with information carefully written on them.

And among these people, stood a lonesome travelling monk with a tengai covering his head. A komuso was a rare sight in the capital but not rare enough to garner any attention—and that seemed to be exactly what the monk clad in a black and white yukata and brown haori with a flower pattern wanted. He stood amidst the crowd silently, a black nodachi with a white cross pattern resting against his shoulder, listening. His tattooed hand shook slightly as he clutched at the flyer with Zorojuro’s likeness on it.

His head turned slightly when the newsboy started shouting again.

—————

Aaaand! Another big news! Big news!

A ghost of a samurai has been appearing all across the Land of Wano! Flower Capital, Ringo, Kibi, Kuri, Udon, and Hakumai—all regions of the country report sightings of this mysterious spectre!

Is he a samurai who was murdered in a war hundreds of years ago? Or a victim of the vile Zorojuro? Is he in cahoots with the gashadokuro who’s been reported to haunt a remote graveyard in the snowy Ringo?

Only one thing is for sure; no one is safe!

We have asked the citizens who’ve met him and they all say the same thing: he is intimidating with a scary face, has green hair, and a scar across one of his eyes. He seems solid, like a real, living human… Except! This samurai’s ghost appears out of nowhere without warning and disappears the exact same way! There one moment, gone the next—only to appear at the other side of the country later the very same day!

We have also approached a few inhabitants of the Flower Capital for opinions and one of their answers stood out among the rest! This man, a toad oil vendor by the name of Usohachi, did not seem scared of the monster in the least! Instead, he had offered us a wild theory: maybe, the ghost is simply hopelessly lost! Wandering out of his grave in search of sake and losing his way so quickly and thoroughly that he is now doomed to wander the regions of our beautiful country with no means to return!

A daring theory that makes you almost pity this wile ghost!

But!

Where lies the truth? And where will this samurai appear next?!

Find the list of all his appearances right here! We have it all, including all the statements we’ve taken!

You don’t want to miss a word of it! So come and take your broadsheet and read all about it!

Now, who wants one?! We have enough to go around!

—————

The monk took a step forward, wordlessly taking one of the flyers before he slowly walked away from the crowds. He followed the main road for a while but then he stepped to the side, disappearing in the shadows of one of the countless narrow, dark alleys.

It was only a long while later, after taking several turns and finding himself in the most secluded place in the entire Flower Capital, that the monk finally stopped—and took off his tengai, revealing the face of a man who had no place in the isolated Land of Wano. A pirate from overseas, a member of the Worst Generation who was dreaded across the entire world.

And this very same man glared at the two flyers in his hands—at Zorojuro the Magistrate Killer and the ghost of the green-haired samurai—and his face twisted in anger. A vein pulsing on his forehead, Trafalgar Law gently leaned his nodachi against the wall next to him before he took a deep breath and gingerly, carefully placed the papers on top of each other, aligning them perfectly—

And ripped them both in half in one smooth movement.

He repeated the process again and again and again until the flyers were barely more than specks of dust.

“I’m going to kill this fucking idiot.”

[biscuitboba]

Roronoa "I need to match the color of my sash with the color of my captain's shirt" Zoro

[bumblesnail]

pre ts gang ✨

[isabeauwolf]

I wanna see Law happy dammit!

Wanna see his adventures with the Heart Pirates so damn bad. See him smiling and happy, not bloody and beaten 😭

See him party with his crew

Him gush and rambles about his coin collection, Sora comics, a medical journal he found at a bookstore or flea market; being the adorkable nerd and fanboy that we all know and love 😍❤️

[tinukis]

i hate that im scared to write and i hate that im so picky with fics bc i have very specific needs to be fulfilled and it is hard to meet those needs...

i soooo bad desire zolusan, post wano specifically bc in my head thats when all three get together. wci is when sanji realizes his feelings for luffy– or rather accepts that he is in love with him (two years of pining im so sorry sanji) that and also finding difficulty in accepting his feelings for zoro too so basically: sanji being a mess

but idk zolusan mutual pining but they're all idiots. sanji has his own struggles, but imagine zoro's feelings or luffy's feelings. zoro keeping them internalized because it's not that important and wouldn't change a thing, yet he yearns. luffy... the guy is unpredictable imo. and i think that focusing on his perspective would be a lot of fun. he's already happy with what he has but he wants to be selfish and ask for more. idkidk words are hard but these three live rent free in my brain and they do not want to leave send help

(ALSO. imagine discussing the death pact and luffy finding out about it... unrelated to what i said but im talking about zolusan can u blame me... like. God!!!!!!!!!!! theres this one fanart where zoro does go through with it and luffy finds out and. Sighs.)

[law-d-water-trafalgar]

800 hours on ACNH and I didnt even realize ALL I WANT IS THE GLOW STUFF! Anyone wanna be friends let me know!👌

[as-i-watch]

I will call out how dependable Zoro is bc i love that about him.

Like yes we see that often with the crew, but its not just with them. He will never walk away on someone that needs him!!

Here he only wanted to leave and it wasnt until this moment, until he realised they actually needed him that he decides to stay.

Its such a kind and noble trait of his and i want to give him more credit for that

[minniiaa]

Low key kinda miss Dressrosa Zoro when he looked like a shojo anime love interest

[moongothic]

Re reading the manga I have noticed that when the news of the 5th emperor happened Crocodile was drawn in a fancy castle with some guys that are armed (like his own guards?). I wonder where was him and what happened to those dudes? Clearly only Daz followed him to Cross Guild. Did Oda had an idea for Crocodile and then changed it and thought that making Cross Guild would been better?

Which i have another thought like Oda told us about the underworld and show us some characters from there in WCI, i wonder if he is gonna show us more about that place and is that where Crocodile was and how he gained his money, beacuse after going to prison he lost all his money so there must be a way where he got it on the first place to give it to Buggy and also explain what he was doing all these 2 years before wanting to form Cross Guild.

I hope we get some more information about this, Cross Guild going to the underworld would be cool, i personally wanna see what is in there and would give us some funny Buggy interactions there shsh he will probably recruit more ppl with his charm but idk if Oda has that planned.

I have discussed some of this in the past so I wasn't going to reply to this, but after like a month of sitting in my inbox... oh to hell with it, I repeat myself on this blog all the time anyways

One thing we do have to considder is that we don't know what Crocodile was doing during the timeskip. The two times we've seen him before the Final Saga were during Dressrosa (where we saw him at some docks reading the news about Doflamingo) and right after Whole Cake Island (the fancy building with goons), so we can tell has been in like, populated places in the New World post-timeskip, but during? We have no idea

To me, thinking about it, it is more than likely that after Summit War Crocodile and Daz have been on the run from the Marines. Like the WG went immidiately after Mihawk and co after they all lost their Shichibukai rights, so knowing what a threat Crocodile could be, surely he'd become a target for the WG to hunt. And as we've seen with Mihawk losing his Shichibukai status and joining Cross Guild (+the Marines being like "Crocodile's been spotted at Emptee Bluffs!" when he arrived on the island), famous criminals with high bounties don't want to stay stationary by themselves, it makes you an easy target for the Marines. Having equally powerful (if not more powerful) allies will bring safety in numbers (making you a less favorable target for the Marines to deal with, which is why the Yonkou were kind of allowed to do as they pleased (as long as they stayed on their own territories at least)).

All of which to say, to me it'd make sense if Crocodile kept a low profile during the timeskip, just to avoid the Marines coming after him. Now that could mean a number of things; he could've sought shelter from people he MAY have had dealings with in the past when running Baroque Works. He could've been travelling by himself and Daz from island to island, always on the move to avoid detection. He could've done what Luffy did and found some uninhabited island to hide in and have a little training arc with Daz until the time was right to leave for good (only occassionally going out to like get new clothes or whatever). Like we can kind of assume that the reason Crocodile chose to make his move now in the story was because all the pieces for his grand plan had finally lined up and/or it was his last chance to do so (collect the debt from Buggy before he vanished off the face of the earth + recruit Mihawk for safety reasons since he's on the run now too). But what he had been doing until now is unclear, as is when he might've started preparing for making his move. Like had he been hiding on Fuck Off Island for 2 years, went to get some groceries, heard the news from the Reverie and was like "whoops time to go, hurry up Daz"? Or had he been on Fuck Off Island for the past two years and decided to start making his move after the Strawhats' return made the news (for that Crocodad Propaganda)? This is all extremely unclear

Like personally, I would like to believe he and Daz had been hiding on some remote island, going through a training arc and only started hanging out in public again etc after Luffy returned to the spotlight. We know Croc has trust issues so personally I do find it unlikely he would've been hiding out with people from the underworld even if he had any past connections+fame to keep people from trying to mess with him, meaning the two times we've seen him post-timeskip are like outlier moments. But I could be absolutely wrong and maybe it was the opposite, that he had been hanging out with the mafia in some nice manors and just chilling. Who the fuck knows.

As for Crocodile's money... Yes, the underworld is again An Option, but also we just don't know how much dealings he might've had with the underworld beyond from the bounty collecting (which would've been with the Marines really) and obtaining Dance Powder. Like, it's possible he might not have had any dealings with the underworld at all beyond those things. So how else would he then have obtained money to lend to Buggy? I mean there's a few things.

Crocodile could've had like A Secret Stash hidden somewhere in case of emergencies (in Paradise or the New World, Paradise seems more likely to me, he just would've had to have gone and picked it up immidiately after Summit War, before heading to the New World. But hey that's plausible, he would've needed money to get a ship etc anyways if he didn't just steal one). Or, since Crocodile does seem to like gambling, who knows, maybe he hit some casinos in the New World and hit some jackpots. Or maybe he just robbed people. We know Crocodile made a lot of money as a Warlord not just from cashing in bounties but also from stealing the shit pirates had on them; looting other people's loot. Crocodile totally could've been just spawn camping at the entrance of the New World for a little while for newbie pirates, just to beat their asses and rob them blind. (Something he couldn't have continued doing for too long though due to G5 + shit happening on Fishman Island making it nearly impossible for pirates to pass through anyways, but hey all we need to do is assume Croc did the spawn camping for just long enough to have money to lend to Buggy before pissing off to hide somewhere, and yeah that could work)

Personally, I don't think the underworld is going to be a plot relevant thing in the story, not at this stage. Like to me it felt more like a side thing to add to OP's worldbuilding, but I don't really see what it could really contribute to the plot at this point. But I could be wrong, who knows, time will tell

[chenziee]

Freedom

Second piece for the @yamabrozine! This time full of Ace, fluff and ~pain~ 👹🔥

Shout out to my beta again, both for the help and for leaving wonderful live commentary of "don't make me ship them", "who would WANT to go there?!" and "oh fuck you". Love you <3

[ Read on AO3 | Yamato zine fics ]

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When he had woken up that morning, Yamato hadn't expected to make a friend. But then evening came and with it, pirates.

Angry pirates, too young and hot headed—literally—for their own good. It was lucky Kaido wasn’t there, if only because that made it possible for Yamato to fight their captain himself; to test his power, to see him free the captive children, to break the large dragon statue at the entrance to Onigashima, and with it, the chains Kaido had around his soul.

The moment he swung his kanabo at the statue which represented Kaido’s power, it was like something snapped. Something that had restrained him, kept him from spreading his wings and even dreaming of flying.

Now, he felt light, like the sky boats that the people of Wano set free during the Fire Festival; the ones that Yamato could only watch float into the sky from his confines of Onigashima. He knew they were sent as messages to the dead… but every time he saw them, he couldn’t help but think how much freedom those messages—and the dead who received them—had.

But now, with the statue destroyed, its broken off head lying at Yamato’s feet…

He knew he, too, would fly one day. Not today, maybe not even once the dawn finally came to Wano.

But one day… he was going to leave.

“Why are you suddenly looking so serious?”

Yamato jumped at Ace’s words. He stared at the man for a moment, trying to gather his lost thoughts. “You came here from the East Blue, right?” he asked, leaning forward.

“Yeah?” Ace blinked at Yamato in confusion.

“Have you seen the island in the sky?!” Yamato questioned eagerly.

“Which one?” Ace shot back, a smirk on his lips.

Yamato gasped; he could swear his heart skipped a beat too. “There’s more than one?!”

At that, Ace laughed, loud and full of amusement. It took him a while to calm down enough to reply, “Yes. Though I haven’t actually been yet. They’re a real bitch to get to.”

“That’s amazing!” Yamato cried, a giggle on his lips as he let himself fall back; he laid on the ground, arms spread out while he grinned at the stars above. 

It was real.

“And the island where lightning falls like rain?” Yamato mumbled, breathless.

“Deuce nearly murdered me when we arrived on that one! It was fun though.” Ace burst out in laughter all over again, no doubt at the memory of his serious first mate and navigator absolutely losing his shit over his captain’s reckless decisions.

And Yamato…

Laughed.

Twice tonight, a weight was lifted off his shoulders. First, his chains.

And now, his doubts about the crazy places that Oden had described—dismissed so easily. It wasn’t made up. It wasn’t exaggerated. Those places really existed, just waiting for Yamato to make his way there and experience them for himself.

Waiting for him to create his own adventures.

—————

A small smile played on Yamato’s lips as he thought back to that night almost two years ago. It felt like yesterday that he had interrogated Ace about every little thing in Oden’s journal, listened to his stories, sighed at Ace’s endless boasting about his brother.

Now, Yamato was alone again… but he wasn’t lonely anymore.

Letting go of the sky boat in his hands, Yamato watched as it rose up to the sky, floating up and up and up, away from Onigashima.

Free.

Yamato’s smile didn’t falter when a single tear slid down his cheek.

“Goodbye, Ace.”

[biscuitboba]

Something about wano and this very specific flavor of zolu?? (Post TS zoro at this point has gotten very used to holding on to luffy when he catapults himself somewhere, like now he just voluntarily clings on to his captain?)

[ms-all-sunday]

wano is so wild, because (spoilers for wano if you havent seen it yet)

wano is like the breaking point i think of everybodys tolerance with how much sanjis jokes had been flanderized at that point that the bathing scene is like the most singularly awful thing you could do to sanji fans after whole cake island, which has the strongest writing for him all of post timeskip. wci felt like an acknowledgement of everything wrong with sanji as a character, in general, for the entirety of one piece. and in theory, if oda had gone the route of other characters who similarly have internalized conflict like usopp or robin, then it would've been fixed for the entirety of one piece forever and sanji wouldve tried to adjust. this however didn't happen, for whatever reason.

Toei did the adaptational change of having sanji say "sexual harassment is never allowed" during a scene in the manga that was a pervert joke I think? although i have only read the manga for that bit and haven't seen a side by side comparison. and i think in general that people don't know that that was an adaptational change by toei, because in general toeis adaptational changes (besides the big ones) go pretty unnoticed. and in egghead none of his jokes have been bad to my memory, so uh. maybe toei bribed oda because they had enough or something. go toei!

i think what oda misunderstands post ts is that despite wanting his post timeskip time to be plot focused and not as character focused as before is that when you reduce characters down to jokes whether invalid or valid to the core of their character, it means that the time you do dedicate to that characterization needs to be more efficient and impactful. it wasn't inherently a choice that meant "less characterization = the characterization degrades". which is a commonality in how he treats all of the strawhats post ts, not just sanji.

for example zoro is another character ive seen the complaint of getting flanderized and while i wouldn't use that term for him the way i would for sanji because i do think the serious nature of his characterization post TS is the way he'd react to the given situation I also think that its a choice to make to have him not react any other way to other things. there is a part of his character that is missing, you're right.

but theres also another factor which i think oda doesnt misunderstand but hes kind of trapped himself between a rock and a hard place in regards to and that is so the group dynamic in OP is the most important thing characterization wise and oda has given himself so many characters that the group dynamic has become unmanageable on his own.

like theres fundamentally a reason wci while sporting the best sanji characterization also sported the best nami characterization and arguably the best luffy characterization, and also you get my point. wci was i think odas full on attempt to do what he did pre ts while also remaining in the "more actiony" genre of shonen he's found himself in recently and it's just. wci is a mess. but it does easily have the best characterization for every strawhat in it post ts but it also would've definitely been way stronger if it had every east blue member at least.

but it's also like- ugh. shonen is such a weird genre. i think pre ts was able to straddle the line in regards to one pieces insane relationship to the genre at large but post TS is fairing way less amicably because of the type of shonen it aims to be (fundamentally different than pre TS' shonen) and I don't know entirely why post TS has the issues it does, i enjoy post TS, but i admit that unless something drastically changes in how odas attitude towards characterization goes, post TS will forever be in pre TS' shadow in regards to characterization and also storytelling more broadly. oda continues to be a character focused storyteller, no matter how much he wants that not to be the case. post TS does have better action for the most part the action part of shonen has now blended in completely, but people don't watch one piece for action. i think the reason people like the post TS side characters as much as people do, is that oda allows himself to be fully character focused when dealing with them, despite that being at the sacrifice the mcs characterization.

[isabeauwolf]

Trafalgar Law Log Collections from One Piece

Which is your favorite? ;)

I can't choose! But, I love his Wano outfit best.

[wigglesdtuff]

🌸Sticker Release!🌸

To celebrate, use code UGHSTICKY to get FREE SHIPPING (this includes prints too!!) [24 Hours only]

🌸SHOP HERE🌸

[stupid-spooky]

im almost 1000 episodes in

[wizardelf]

pre timeskip robin was so fine