Out for Karma: One Piece

“It has been a long time Rick”

In a vast white void a young man was sitting on the floor. Shaking his head around in panic trying to see the owner of the voice that spoke to him.

“H-hello? Is anyone here?”

Suddenly a golden mist  appeared before him. By watching carefully the young man could observe the minute change in the mist form, going from a small cloud to an humanoid form.

“I almost forgot.” 

The sound of fingers snapping echoed through the never ending white space.

The young man then grabbed his head with his hands tightly as if he was trying to hold every part of it together. A pain as he never felt before made him think that his brain would blast out of his skull.

Though the pain was there for a few seconds for the young man, it was a few seconds too many. The pain left him breathless and after a couple of minutes panting, he finally calmed down.

If one would have looked in his eyes before the snap sound and now, they would have seen two different men.

Gone was the confused and panic stricken man; replaced by a man with assurance, experience. 

A man who knows.

A man who knows the what, where and how of his actual situation and has a good idea of the why, as for the when… only the golden mist knows that answer.

“ Goddess, long time no see.”

“ It wasn’t that…”

“ long for you an immortal Goddess who lived eons and will live for eons, but for a mortal man like me who has a 85 years life expectancy on average, it is.

Now that that’s out the way… : What the bloody bell! It hurt! Was it really necessary?”

”I’m sorry Rick but yes it was, unlocking memories sealed by a divine being hurts a lot, because all memories return at once. All types of them, pure memory to feelings, to physical memory. Everything that your experience in any way becomes a memory for your soul.”

“And an omnipotent Goddess such as yourself can’t find a way for.. I don’t know, unlocking them bit by bit ?”

“The results of what you’re speaking of were disastrous.”

“Wonderful.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Anyway, why am I here again? I thought you said that by living my life I will restore the karmic balance. After everything I did, I would have thought that it was done, that I was not in the red again but in something like green?”

“Well, about that… your good actions did give you enough karma for a dozen lives at most, the problem is, you accumulated  negative karma worth a thousand lives and then some…

So 999 more to go ? Good luck bye!”

“Nu-hu, you stay right here! I still have questions!”

The goddess sighed, or at least Rick, by watching the golden mist move though she sighed.

“Go ahead”.

“Ok, first thing first: what about my wife?”

“She lived 5 more centuries, raised your children, and grandchildren etc.. until the 5th generation. Then she had enough and missed you too much so she went for one last journey, she was very happy.”

“Thank you.

Second: What’s my next world? Can I keep my powers? What new powers will I get?”

“ In order: One piece, no, not gonna tell until you’re there”.

“One piece ? That’s sweet.”

“Well it is your favorite manga after all, that’s why I chose it, better chances for you to earn lot of Karma”

“Aww, you do care for this little mortal.”

“Of course I do, would not have made you my champion otherwise”

“You didn’t choose me. You had just me and no one else.”

“Maybe, but I do care, now hurry up through the portal.”

“ Fine, but before that… Going through the portal will sealed my previous lives memories? This place includes, right?”

“Yes.”

“And when I get back I’ll go through the all snapping fingers and unholy amount of pain, right?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, here’s an idea, why don’t you, instead of sealing my memories, just stranger them away to something else.”

“... Like transferring files from a hard drive to an usb stick?”

“Yes, you keep the memories stashed somewhere and when I get back you transfer them back to me. Make a file per life and sub-files for each type of memory. That way when I’m back, it’s a transfer of file after file and not everything at once, no more pain for me, and bonus for you, when you’re bored you can watch those memories.”

“That’s… actually pretty clever. Okay let's do this”.

Another snap was heard and some kind of altar rose from the floor .From its center, lines began to be drawn along the white surface of this space and went to the direction of the portal. Once connected to it, the lines lighten up in a gold color.

“Aaaaand done. Now every time you pass the portal your unnecessary memories from your previous lives will be transferred and stored. To have them back, you’ll just have to touch the altar.”

“ Good, Now, if you’ll excuse me, I got to go.”

“Wait, I have a question before you leave: what is the bell?”

“What is the bell, what now?”

“Earlier you said “ What the bloody bell “ “

“Ahh that? Well my wife didn’t like me swearing, so with time I learned to swap some words or letters when I swear. Well since she's not with me anymore, I hope I lost this bad habit because I miss swearing a lot.

Now for real this time, if you excuse me…

One Piece: HERE I COME ! “