Thoughts of My "They Can't be My Parents" Fic
So I was thinking about how different my fic would be if I let Maria, verses Ryuji, be with the Straw Hats and it got me thinking: She is her Grandfather's Grandchild. Like she's cool and graceful and very very smart, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have the ability to be head empty like Luffy, but I think of her in more of the terms I think of Crocodile and that was before I made the connection that I was doing that. Which kinda lead me to restructuring her whole crew, because I realized Maria's goal of Redistributing the Devil Fruit would probably need a whole organization like Baroque Works, because she'll need eyes and ears everywhere in order to track down which people have which fruit and if that fruit is active or still a fruit. Like the amount of money and logistics she would need is crazy all for her dream of properly cataloging every devil fruit Which I already know is impossible, but hey she's Monkey D. Luffy's child and she wouldn't let something as little as maybe a million or so different Devil Fruit stop her from properly know each and every fruit and power. Which kinda led me to Luffy's Fruit.
While I know the World Government has intentionally mislabeled Nika's Fruit, I think Nika would like to keep it that way. This is going to get into a theory/headcannon I have for One Piece which is that Luffy is a reincarnation of Joy Boy, who was the reincarnated Nika, and that in One Piece, Nika and his Crew always are reincarnated when the world needs them the most. I think that the Devil Fruits are always seeking the next incarnation of the people who first made them. I think when Nika realized he couldn't beat Imu the first time he made the Hito Hito no Mi: Model Nika so he could get his powers back to fight Imu, which is why Joy Boy had them and gave Imu all that trouble in the Void Century, which brings me back to Nika and Maria. I think because of Nika's will being in the Fruit he would ask Maria to keep his Fruit as the Gomu Gomu no Mi to keep it safe in case he was ever needed again. It would grind Maria's gears because she would want nothing more than to show the world everything about all the Devil Fruits and what they are.
I feel like she wouldn't understand why Nika didn't want people to know what his Fruit was until she sees it for herself. She wouldn't understand why he wouldn't want to be known until she sees how Robin suffers, how Sabo, and Vivi suffer, how the world suffers, because Maria is from a time after Luffy has Liberated the world, to her, being a pirate is about adventure and tall tales. To Her, her parent's stories and adventures are just for bed time. To Her , Luffy and Nika are just her mom. While I take Ryuji taking in Luffy's stories aren't just stories, they are the scars and laugh lines on his mother's face. So I wonder how would I write Maria experiencing what Ryuji is? Because she would absolutely be fighting Luffy on every choice she makes
