Chapter Text
“He comes from the heavens to rain his wondrous blessings upon his chosen. The laughing trickster who shines in the sun. We see you, O savior. We know you will come to cleanse this world, and sweep us into your loving embrace. But love requires sacrifice, and we are willing to make whatever sacrifice is necessary. Can I get an amen?”
As the people in purple robes murmured their ‘amens’, Luffy found himself wondering once again how he’d ended up here. He’d been on his way home when someone stopped him, supposedly to ask for directions. When he’d tried to explain that he couldn’t help, he’d been struck from behind and knocked unconscious. Next thing he knew, he was waking up in what he could only assume was an abandoned warehouse turned cult hideout (if the symbols drawn everywhere were anything to go by), tightly bound to a pole over some kind of altar. He’d tried to get free, but the bindings were too tight.
“The time of sacrifice is at hand, brothers and sisters!”
Jolted from his thoughts by the cult leader’s declaration, Luffy tried struggling against the bindings again, but it was no use.
“At last, we shall be blessed by his power, with which we can purge this world of the unworthy filth, and create the paradise we have dreamed of for so long!”
What am I gonna do? Luffy thought, fighting down panic.
“Let us begin. The ritual must be completed.”
As the cultists started to chant, Luffy made one last attempt to free himself, but they were too tight. Finally realizing he wasn’t getting out by himself, he closed his eyes and allowed himself a grin—if this was the end for him, he would face death with courage, just as his dad, his grandpa, and Shanks had all taught him.
“Hear us, Sun God Nika! Descend from the heavens and claim this offering! Free us! We summon you, O savior! Show your face and take this body as your own!”
There was a bright flash, forcing him to open his eyes, and he found himself within a vast space full of sunlight. A silhouetted figure appeared—human in shape, albeit with limbs like a rubberhose cartoon character and hair resembling flames. As the figure got closer, it turned from a silhouette to a near-doppelganger of Luffy, the only differences being that his hair was white and shaped like fire, his limbs were noodly and had no joints, and his attire consisted of purple and white pants, wooden sandals, and a golden sun pendant around his neck.
“You…are you Nika?”
The lookalike chuckled. “I should have known they’d end up offering you as a host body. All the versions of you that I’ve seen, in so many universes…more often than not, you and I are linked.”
Blinking in confusion, Luffy tilted his head. “So…are you gonna possess me? ‘Cause I kinda like being in control of my own body.”
Nika laughed. “I’m not the type to take away freedom. And if these guys think I’m going to help them remake the world in their image, or whatever it is they’re after, they’re in for quite a surprise.” He gave another chuckle. “You want to help?”
Before Luffy could answer, Nika lunged forward, arms stretching and wrapping themselves around the young man like a pair of rubbery snakes. Luffy was too startled to react, let alone question what Nika was doing, and his surprise only grew as he felt a strange sensation on his skin, like static electricity without any of the pain. What’s more, he also felt as if his body was loosening, like he’d been sitting in a car for hours and was finally getting the chance to stretch, only multiplied by a thousand.
And then…
And then…!
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The sound of drums—or was that his heartbeat? It was hard to tell—filled his ears. He felt virtually weightless, and extremely limber. On top of that, there was a sensation that he could only describe as pure sunlight coursing through his veins, leaving him energized and practically bursting with raw power.
It all felt really, really good.
The fear melted away, replaced by sheer unending joy. He started to laugh, not knowing—or caring—if he’d be able to stop. The bindings had been destroyed by Nika’s manifestation, but even if they hadn’t, there wouldn’t really have been anything stopping him—or rather, Nika, who was just as much in control—from showing off his new cartoonish elasticity, letting his limbs stretch and curl as he bounced up and down, chortling all the while. He didn’t care that he wasn’t entirely in control of his body, or that it was behaving in ways it shouldn’t be able to. Not when he felt so free, like he could literally do absolutely anything.
“Lord Nika? Have you heard our desires?”
At the sound of the cult leader’s voice, he turned to see the man and his followers looking at him expectantly. Nika laughed as he shook his head before stretching Luffy’s neck so that he could look the cult leader in the eye.
“What made you think I’d do as you wished?” he asked with Luffy’s voice. “Did you really think I’d give you any of my power when you seek to enslave others? It’s not for those like you. Only those who desire freedom for both themselves and others are worthy.”
Hearing this, Luffy couldn’t help but agree with the trickster sun god. The wonderful feeling of absolute freedom he was experiencing made him realize that the human spirit wasn’t meant to be chained down. Freedom was life’s great truth—people were made to be free. And these guys wanted to take it away. That just wasn’t right.
Now do you see? he heard Nika say in his mind. Now do you understand?
I DO!
Then let’s have some fun together, shall we?
Cackling with unrestrained delight, Luffy surrendered to Nika’s power, allowing their minds to become as one. He leapt from the altar, landing on his feet. Three of the cultists tried to grab him, but he dodged their attempts before backflipping out of their reach. He stretched out his arms, one grabbing one of the cultists while the other reached up to the rafters. Carrying himself and the purple-robed man up to the ceiling, he started swinging him back and forth.
“If you’d done your research, you’d know the legends speak of how I freed slaves from their tyrannical masters, spreading joy all the while,” he said. “Obviously, you didn’t bother. Then again, how you even learned about me is a mystery, seeing as how this isn’t the world I come from.”
Shrugging, he dropped the hapless cultist, making the floor bouncy like a trampoline so he wouldn’t be harmed—much as he and Luffy both wanted to teach the morons a lesson, that didn’t mean they should die.
Alright, Luffy. It’s your turn to play.
Laughing, Luffy did just that. Taking inspiration from his experience with cartoons, he went completely wild on the cultists—while I won’t be forthcoming with details, I will say that the idiots got the humiliation they deserved. And all the while, he was having a complete blast.
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“What the hell happened in here?”
Stepping over a small heap of rubble, Shanks asked himself the same question as he looked around the warehouse. “I’m getting flashbacks to the last time I watched The Mask.”
A nod from Smoker. “Never saw that movie myself, but that sounds about right.”
“Hey, over here!”
The two men turned, and Shanks’ eyes went wide as he caught sight of an unconscious Luffy—now back to his normal appearance—in the arms of Tashigi. “Oh my God, is he okay?”
“Just out cold,” Tashigi reassured him. “Whatever did this to these guys left him unharmed, it looks like.” She held him out. “Do you mind? I need to let them know to call off the Amber Alert now that we’ve found him.”
Shanks took Luffy from her, a look of relief on his face as he saw that the boy was still breathing, and carefully sat down, positioning Luffy so that his head rested in the older man’s lap. He had been worried sick when Luffy didn’t come home, and it had only worsened when Garp had called and told him that someone had reported seeing a couple of guys abduct him. Naturally, when a call had come in saying the kidnappers’ hideout had been located, he’d insisted on coming along.
“Close call, huh, Lu?”
“I have the feeling…we’ll meet again…won’t we, Nika?”
Blinking in confusion, Shanks looked down at Luffy, who was slowly coming to. “Hey, buddy.”
“Shanks?” Luffy looked up at the man he thought of as a second father. “What are you doing here?”
“I made Garp bring me along,” Shanks replied. “I was worried.”
Luffy grinned. “Shishishishishi! Well, I’m OK now!”
“Yeah, I see that. So you should be able to stand up on your own, right?”
“Just a sec.”
As the two stood up again, Shanks noticed Luffy’s skin felt unusually smooth, and not in the way that would garner compliments. It sort of reminded Shanks of an inflated balloon’s texture. Before he could really think about it, however, Garp approached with Smoker and Tashigi not far behind.
“We’re still not entirely clear about what happened,” Smoker said. “Most of what they were saying didn’t make any sense—something about ‘their Lord forsaking them’ and things like that. It looks like these maniacs are part of some sick cult.”
“Makes sense, with what I found,” Tashigi added, holding up a folder full of papers and a large book with a picture of Nika’s silhouette leaping before the sun on the front cover.
“Anyway, I think our part is done here. The other officers can take over. Might have to send a couple of these lunatics to the hospital to get those things removed, but otherwise…”
“Yeah,” Shanks nodded. “It’s over now. Let’s get out of here.”
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But Shanks was wrong. It wasn’t over.
Not by a long shot.
Barely a week after Luffy’s encounter with Nika, he came home to find Garp in front of a whiteboard covered in papers detailing rumors of people displaying strange abilities, along with pictures of said people. Some he recognized, like Alvida, who lived in the same apartment building as his friend Koby and had somehow lost a ton of weight while becoming super slippery, and Kaku, a delivery guy who he’d seen doing parkour around his neighborhood, and evidently could now turn into a human-giraffe hybrid. Others were less familiar, like the scary clown-looking guy who’d escaped a police raid by turning into a living gas cloud or the woman who’d used a sticky substance similar to butter in order to bind drug dealers before stealing their stashes.
Then, of course, there was Ace. Not long after the rumors started, he came home from college with a letter saying he wouldn’t be allowed to live on campus anymore, due to him getting in one fight too many. During the resulting argument with Shanks, Ace suddenly ignited into flames, only noticing when Shanks pointed it out. The next day, Shanks flameproofed everything important while Ace practiced with his new powers.
As for Luffy himself, even though he wasn’t following cartoon physics anymore, he had quickly found that he could still stretch, bend, twist, bounce, and expand his body in practically any way he wanted. While it wasn’t the same as when Nika had been possessing him, he had absolutely zero issues with being a rubber man, especially since he somehow knew that it was permanent. Even though he knew he and the trickster would meet again, his new powers and the freedom that came with them would have been more than enough either way.
Nika had indeed blessed his chosen, and said chosen couldn’t wait to see what lay ahead.