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Righto then! Off we go with more Halfway Broken! A solid 11,000 words this time, taking us to nearly 21,000 for the month! Now, onward! I have a bit more long-winded rambling about the chapters than usual to do!

First, I have determined that Eiichiro Oda is insane.

Whether that's 'insanely talented' or just plain old normal 'insane' is up for debate! As for why I'm starting off discussing how the chapters went with that statement...its because the whole Amazon Lily/Germa Rescue thing was my own little experiment in attempting to replicate the chaotic energy of something like Whole Cake Island or the Wano Arc. You know, with all the little fragments of a larger battle that you jump between?

I failed. Full stop and no contest.

Which doesn't make the chapters bad, they just didn't manage to replicate that sort of energy. I ended up simplifying, then simplifying a second time, to maintain my own sanity! Frankly, I probably ought to have known better than to try, given that fight sequences are the hardest thing for me to write in general.

On the up side, I think the Amazon Lily side showed everything I wanted, just in a little less detail than I'd intended. I ended up not showing as much of Luffy vs Akaniu as I'd planned, for example, simply because I realized Sakazaki is...actually a really terrible match for his Luffy. Terrible for the Admiral, that is. Lightning is much hotter than Lava, Luffy is faster by a considerable degree, and I don't think any of the Logia Admirals have ever shown of Conqueror's Haki (I checked, and the lava man hasn't, at least). Frankly, the fight was turning into a bit of a let down, so I cut it off without showing it in too much detail.

On the down side, we don't get to see as many pieces of the whole. In particular, I skipped out showing pretty much any detailed fights on the Germa Rescue side of things. Though there, I have to admit, my muse just flat out failed me. I'd wanted to show a confrontation between Sanji and his father/brothers, sort of like happened in the Whole Cake Island arc. The problem is that...I'm just not invested at all in Sanji as a character. I genuinely find him annoying in canon, which is why I smoothed out some of his more extreme traits with my version of him. With the larger crew, though, I just haven't gotten all that invested in my version either. Which made it extremely difficult to create the sort of emotional scene I'd wanted, and I ultimately ended up just leaving my attempts out.

Frankly, I don't think the result really suffers from the lack, as I still got some emotional Sanji angst in there anyway, combined with a twist at the end working out exactly the way I wanted it to. Which it wouldn't have, not as well at least, if I'd had to move it into next month's release. It was essentially the perfect way to end this release, providing a bit of mood whiplash I think went well :-p. I also think the pacing it set up is going to work out better for the next set of releases, whereas it might have started dragging a bit if I'd gone with my original plans.

Anyway! Enough of my rambling! As usual, the new stuff is attached here in various formats. Since this is the final Halfway Broken update for September, I will also be updating the Master Files in the pinned post shortly. Also as usual, I'll stick some author's notes in the comments when I get a few minutes to write them ;-). Now go enjoy more One Piece: Halfway Broken!

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Novus's Fanfiction Works

This comment is for author's notes! Beware spoilers! And if you want to comment on one of them, please do so in a separate comment NOT nested here, in order to keep these orderly!

Novus's Fanfiction Works

Chapter 137: A/N 1: That poor, poor Den Den Mushi, desperately wanting to be as beautiful as Hancock, but limited by the fact it's a snail... A/N 2: Yes, Luffy knows about Poseidon. No, no one else realizes he does, as it's past life knowledge. Hancock does, as does Vivi actually, because they have been mentoring Shirahoshi and she confided about her ability to speak with/command Sea Kings. Neither has shared the information, and Hancock passed off the sea-king that towed the Perfume Yuda has a particularly impressive example of someone taming one (as has been seen to be possible with lesser sea kings). Her crew remain unaware of Shirahoshi's ability, it making sense to them that the Neptunes would be really good at that sort of training if anyone was. I figured someone was going to ask these questions, so this AN is just a premptive answer to something that might never come up in-fic :-p. A/N 3: I wanted to take the chance to highlight that Alabasta isn't without strong fighters. For some reason, likely because I haven't shown them on screen, people persist in assuming that Alabasta is super vulnerable. It ISN'T. They took Luffy's gifts and the the various bits of training and ran with it. Pell, in particular, could easily match any of the remaining Vice Admiral's at this point. Though he'd struggle against any of the full Admirals if he was trying to fight them solo. Alabasta has also managed to train up a much larger chunk of Elites, as they had a far larger population of talent to draw the best-of-the-best from. A/N 4: I ended up reading the entire Wano arc in preparation for both Amazon Lily (late Wano Arc is where S-Hawk and S-Snake first appear, with a similar invasion of Amazon Lily) and to start outlining things better for once the crew his the New World. Yamato's idea of Stealth by knocking everyone that saw her out amused me enough I had to sneak it into events with the Germa Rescue team :-p.

Novus's Fanfiction Works

Chapter 138: A/N 1: Remember that Garp didn't REALLY care if this assaults succeeded. He gave it what he believed was enough fire power to succeed, but wasn't aware of the new coastal artillery and how devastating it would be, in particular. Pretty much nothing but their high level fighters even made it to land. A/N 2: I wanted to take the chance to highlight once again that THIS version of Nami is NOT one of the 'coward trio' like in canon. Fighting isn't her first choice, but she's legitimately strong enough to at least defend herself from high-level fighters, including the Seraphim units. She likely couldn't have put S-Hawk down, but she was certainly able to keep him busy. A/N 3: Which is, of course, where Kaya came in clutch again. Her bag of tricks gives a lot more options for disabling rather than killing, and her stealth abilities let her pull off those tricks. We know from a comment in canon that the Seraphim require 'charging,' so here I had her use Ofuda she specifically designed to fight Luffy's lightning to siphon their charge and force them offline.

Novus's Fanfiction Works

Chapter 139: A/N 1: Since Discovery ate the Wood-Wood fruit, obviously Admiral Woody got something different. Specifically, he ate the Amber-Amber fruit, and is a logia...or was, until Yamato broke him too badly to be of much use to anyone. Garp might send her a bottle of sake for getting rid of that headache for him... A/N 2: Yep, Sanji has a Raid Suit. One that has been modified a little and will get modified more. This is my answer to finally boosting him closer to where he should be, strength wise, compared to the other members of the crew. He needed the power up to really be consider one of their heavy weights like he is in canon. A/N 3: Surprise! Did everyone forget that Fishman Island was on the list the Celestial Dragons wanted targeted? Garp isn't making a SERIOUS push there, but with so much of their Elite fighting force away, stirring up a bit of trouble with a ready made loose canon like the New Fishman Pirates? An easy solution to appease the powers that be. Of course, poor Reiju got thrown into it from out of nowhere and her head is spinning as she tries to catch up...

xrunarx1

Great chapter. A bit faster than i thoght, as i had expected the indevidual battles to take 3 chapters each, but what we got was great. Hoping for a more detaled breakdown/after-action in the next chapter.(since i doubt you will give hody of all people/fish more screen time)

Derek Palm

Hell yea is Sanjis sister joining the Crew?

twilightwanderer

Thanks for the update. I do like the twist with Hody and Fishman Island at the end. Also, poor Reiju, you've entered the world of Straw Hat Chaos and nothing will ever make sense again ;P

Anareth

It was a good set of chapters, although I think you lost track of Kuma and Hancock during the fight. Hancock splits off from the fight against the ex-admiral and then drops off without showing up anywhere else. More importantly, nobody seems to fight the actual Kuma during the whole mess, and that's especially important given that he has the ability to yoink himself clear of the debacle using his powers. I'm not sure if the defenders captured him or killed him or what.

Daemonioros

Great chapter. Indeed a bit faster than expected. But I do expect some kind of debrief that might give us a bit more detail in what happened for each of the battles. Sounds like Aramaki got Killed by Yamato. Might be that Garp got exactly what he wanted out of this. A nominal succes in beating Genma. While not getting the research he wouldnt want anyway. While also getting rid of a lot of the more extreme elements within his organisation. Unless I am mistaken there is not a single Admiral or even Vice admiral left who adhere to Sakazukis absolute justice. He can also point towards the utter disaster that was Amazon Lily. Did they even get messages out? Or did that entire force just disappear and not come back from the marines perspective? I assume Jinbe dealt with Kuma himself? Or did that dude somehow get away?

Orchamus

Glad they didn't just kill S-Snake and Hawk, now Hancock gets to learn the joys of motherhood early!! 😁

Novus's Fanfiction Works

There absolutely will be a debrief, and more, that covers more of what happened. Though it won't be the immediate next chapter, since that will be dealing with the additional attack on Fishman Island, which wasn't nearly as ready for a fight. Yep. Garp came out almost entirely ahead, even more than he was expecting. He wanted a win, got one in taking down Germa, and he didn't exactly mind losing Aramaki or Sakzaki. Though he didn't intended to lose the entire fleet sent against Amazon Lily, so not everything worked out perfectly. As for the Absolute Justice people, there are still some, but most of the ones at the highest ranks are gone. I'd have to check on the Vice Admirals, I think there are one or two still that might be unaccounted for there from the Absolute Justice crowd... The Marine fleet didn't get messages out, but as is pretty usual for them, the WG had observers in place. So they'll have at least some idea what happened. Yes, Jinbe fought Kuma, though his fate I'll leave a mystery for now.

Novus's Fanfiction Works

I did not. Kuma was defending the Marine Fleet and ended up fighting Jinbe. Though I intentionally left out what happened to him. It will be covered later :-). Hancock had to split off to handle some of the Pacisista and higher ranks that were pressing her people too hard. That will be covered when they debrief later. Same was Jinbe vs Kuma results.

Novus's Fanfiction Works

Honestly, I thought it was going to take at least one additional chapter as well. But removing Sanji's confrontation with Judge and cutting down on Luffy's fight with the Admiral ended up slimming it down to two oversized chapters, rather than the 3+ I was expecting just for the battles.

Chris7A

I think the one of the admirals in the buster on Egghead was one of those absolute justice guys. He certainly had no problem killing children like the rabid dog.

Chris7A

Summary from my perspective. Hancock gets a daughter. Sanji gets a sister. Bonneys wayward father was aquiered. Zoro and Kuina find Mihawk son. Garp gets rid of his rabid forces. Poor zunesha turns around and goes form the warm south to the cold north, poor minks! Some doubts, I imagine one message at least got sent from the n forces at Amazon lily? Even if it’s just a panicked scream? Did fujitora let himself get hit to allow Reiju the chance to escape? Sounds like something he would do.

novakose

So the debrief is going to be interesting for this mess ^^. I dont know what you intend but I like the idea of Kuja!Reiju

BrianG

I love your work's Novus and looking forward to more. A suggestion thou, a few days ago I had this idea that if you find Hancock' relationship with luffy becoming to much of a hassle maybe have her get together with Reuju instead.

Camille

Thanks so much for the chapters! What a pay-off, I really enjoyed basically every aspect of this update. I know you said that writing combat scenes is your weakness and that you really struggled with it, but I find that what you did manage to give us was satisfying anyway. Even with Luffy’s fight against Akainu, the fact that you cut back to their fight at multiple points throughout the chapters made it seem longer and therefore more satisfying even if Luffy was never in real danger of losing. Having Sakazuki’s laser cybernetic arm be an annoyance to him and resulting in Luffy struggling to take him out quickly was a nice touch. I like that the Mihawk and Hancock Seraphim have been captured, and the emotional conflict it caused due to the fact they were fighting child soldiers was good. Other commenters have said that having Hancock take in mini-Hancock and Kuina + Zoro take in mini-Mihawk would be fun, which I agree with. However, for mini-Mihawk they really should try to contact Mihawk to inform him of mini-Mihawk’s existence. I think that Mihawk taking his care of his mini-clone would make more sense than Kuina and Zoro acquiring their end-game rival’s clone as an adoptive child, even if it would be funny. In canon we can see from mini-Hancock’s reaction to Luffy on Egghead that Seraphim can be influenced by factors outside of governmental orders, so they should be capable of rehabilitation eventually. I think that having Hancock and Mihawk take their respective clones in has the largest chance of success in rehabilitation and discovering their sense of self. Especially if they have the emotional capacity to adopt them as their child. As for the rest of the Seraphim, I would assume that the alliance will try to find out more information about them, but since information is so restricted, I’m unsure if they will succeed or how long it would take. It is probably more likely that they will bump into them on Egghead after Wano like in canon? Unless your plan for the New World changes things significantly which is cool too. Rescuing a potential Jinbe clone is likely to be a priority of the Alliance though. I love how you’ve handled Yamato’s awakening. I think it’s really fun and fits her very well. I find that Yamato’s canon personality fits the Gear 5 personality better than canon Luffy since in canon it rather abruptly erased Luffy’s more serious character traits, of which there were few to begin with. Since Yamato is not the captain, her being so carefree is a much of a problem, and is also a lot less jarring since her shift in personality when Awakened is a not as flagrant. I like that despite her being very carefree, there is still a hint of logical thought beneath her actions, when she humorously assumes that Garp will thank her for taking care of Greenbull. While funny, it still shows us that Yamato was able to get a sense of Greenbull’s personality when fighting him, and then make the assumption that Garp isn’t most likely not a fan of the guy. Also, her struggling to not use her awakening when she is having fun against a strong opponent (or even not realising she is using it) is a nice aspect to keep which is in line with canon depiction of the Nika fruit. Perhaps it can cause a complication in the future which leads Yamato to try and work on her control? Hody Jones and the New Fishman Pirates taking advantage of the chaos and drastically weakened Fishman Island makes a lot of sense, especially if Garp gave them an extra push to take advantage of such an opportunity. I am looking forward to the full debrief of the various battles once the mess of Fishman Island is taken care of. I like that Akainu has finally been killed. I love seeing the competence of the Alliance forces and their many improvements, especially the Alabasta army. I hope that none of the Elite from Alabasta were killed (the devil fruit users, and the most talented soldiers in Rokushiki and Haki), since that would be a troubling blow to a Kingdom that is still rushing to improve/consolidate their army. Despite Alabasta definitely not being easy prey anymore, they are definitely the most vulnerable faction of the Alliance due to their location in Paradise. I could see Imu deciding to deal a strong blow to the Alliance following the humiliating defeat on Amazon Lily, and perhaps sending his God’s Knights to decimate Alabasta in retaliation. Obviously it would not go as planned, but Alabasta continuing to get stronger is still important. I also enjoyed seeing Usopp in charge of the artillery forces of the Alliance, leading their most competent Kuja markswomen under his command. Nami’s strength in your AU is also satisfying to see, and her developed abilities are both creative and coherent. Kaya’s bullshit powers coming in clutch is also great, and it was nice to see Luffy take her feelings about violence into account when giving her task during the battle, as well as seeing Kaya’s appreciation of that fact. Hina struggling to direct the six crewmates under her command and wondering how Luffy is able to do so was funny, and having Yamato be especially difficult is a nice touch since she is the only conqueror ‘under her command’, so having her kind of do her own thing anyway was a very good choice. Showing her conflict in fighting marine forces that are from Garp’s faction was also an important addition. As another commenter speculated, I also think that Fujitora let Sanji and Reiju go after he realised that Reiju was probably the only decent person within the Germa 66 army. It is still possible that Sanji took Fujitora by surprise, but if Fujitora thought that letting Reiju live was unacceptable, I do think he would have made more of an effort to retaliate before they could escape despite Sanji’s invisibility and speed. Giving Sanji the raid suit is also a very good way of bringing his threat level up, and I’m looking forward to your plans with any future modifications. Concerning your struggle with Sanji and removing his interaction with Judge and his brothers, I think it might make it better in some ways actually. Their goal was to rescue Reiju and the civilians, and in a chaotic full-scale battle, it would have been a little strange for Sanji to use precious time arguing with his horrible family when he should be focusing on their goals instead, especially since it is already a very risky operation with high chances of failure. You could maybe have Sanji struggle a little with unresolved feelings towards Judge and his brothers due to this lack of closure in the next release if you want, but it wasn’t jarring not to see every single aspect of the Germa battle in detail when the Strawhats had one specific area to reach for the civilian rescue and only one active combatant to save. I also liked seeing Sanji struggle a little with understanding his feelings towards his sister, I think you did a good job making Sanji realistically grim and conflicted, without trying to force him to go through the entire emotional upheaval he had during WCI in canon. Since this was a completely different conflict, it makes sense that not everything about Sanji’s past as a Vinsmoke is resolved in a neat little bow as it was in canon. Also, saving Reiju in your AU gives you the opportunity for closure that can be even more satisfying than in canon through future discussions between the two siblings, even if it will take a little longer. Finally, as an other commenter also stated, I love the idea of having Reiju join the Kuja and even having Reiju and Hancock eventually in a romantic relationship. Hancock doesn’t even have to end her relationship as part of Luffy’s ‘harem’, but since she won’t be with them as often as the others due to not being part of Luffy’s crew, her being in another relationship on Amazon Lily with Reiju as a Kuja member could be nice. This doesn’t mean that Reiju would also join Luffy’s harem, they can stay separate and still work quite well I think. But yeah, having Reiju join the Kuja on Amazon Lily would be great, giving Hancock another truly top tier fighter to depend on that is part of her own faction, as well as a scientist/doctor potentially capable of improving Amazon Lily’s weapon defences further (maybe that’s unnecessary, but not using Reiju’s knowledge and expertise would be a bit of a waste, so maybe you can find another way in which she can be useful aside from pure combat strength) is a satisfying possibility. Anyway, sorry for the enormous comment, but I saw you mention that feedback was more than welcome in a previous post so I tried to give a thorough review of my thoughts on this chapter release. Thanks again for the chapters! I think this is your best work since the Sabaody arc. This doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy all of your timeskip content because I did, but this release was truly great from top to bottom. Looking forward to what you have planned next!

Novus's Fanfiction Works

Not sure it will be Hancock getting a daughter, so much as a little sibling :-p. 'S-Snake' is going to need some serious help that Hancock isn't the best suited to providing. It's far more likely that I'll put Shakky in the role of 'Parent,' with Hancock being an older sister figure. Particularly as Hancock is going to be...busy...for a while. With what will be revealed next month ;-). Yep. Garp's not going to be crazy about the total casualty count, but the higher-level idiots that died are not going to exactly make him sad. Better yet, he got the force mixes approved by Kong, since the WG were confident in the Seraphim and Pascifista, so they can't really blame him for the bigger loss. While the loss of Aramaki to Germa is honestly an acceptable exchange to them for taking down Germa entirely. The Marines didn't get anything out. As usual, though, the WG had other agents keeping an eye on things, and they managed to broadcast at least the basics of what happened, if not exact details of every fight. Yes, Fujitora let himself be hit. I'm glad that came across well enough for multiple people to mention it ;-). His personal form of Justice would have allowed him to kill Reiju as a necessary sacrifice, but he didn't really WANT to, with what she'd revealed. So a perfectly reasonable chance to let her go was find with him.

Novus's Fanfiction Works

That was, in fact, something I seriously considered. Until I realized I could use Reiju to solve one of my bigger, long-term problems in the New World, caused by butterfly effects of a specific previous death.

Novus's Fanfiction Works

Woah! First, I appreciate the detailed feedback :-)! That said, I'll try to hit the most relevant bits to respond to, rather than making my own wall of text ;-). I'm glad you felt the fight scenes were okay! Those are honestly always the most stressful for me! This one more than most because of the chaos and scale of it. Obviously, I agree that Yamato fits the Nika Fruit better than Luffy :-p. I've said as much before. Your breakdown of why is good, and you caught the subtleties I was going for with her accidently using the Fruit ;-). Nice to see someone catch the various bits of that segment so well. A lot of Yamato's issues with the Nika Fruit are, indeed, going to be NOT using the Awakened form, precisely because she clicks so well with it. Poor Hina doesn't realize that Luffy solve the herding cats issue purely by letting the cats do whatever they want, so long as they end up at the right general destination :-p. Aside from making sure a watch is kept, which he honestly lets Kuina keep on top of, he mostly just gives them a good, sound reason for their next destination...then lets them use Vivi Express to train or do their hobbies in whatever way best suits them, until its time to land on the next island. Fujitora did, in fact, let Reiju go. I'm glad multiple people caught that :-). While his version of justice would have allowed him to kill her as a 'necessary sacrifice,' he didn't really WANT to after she told him what she did. So he took the out provided by Sanji's interference to let her go. The fact he has a generally positive opinion of the Strawhats because THIS version of them are barely pirates, made it an easy choice for him. It might well never come up in-fact, but he privately labels them by their proper name as an official expedition of the Alabastian government. Which is not part of the WG any longer, but generally a force for good. In fact, Alabasta's building fleet and strength has virtually erased piracy in their little corner of Paradise. Which he approves of. That's a good point, that leaving Sanji with some unresolved conflicts could actually be better in the long run. Particularly as the issue with the Raid Suit awakening his latent genes is still on the horizon, which will cause him additional angst. But angst that Reiju specifically is well suited for helping him deal with, as she's the living example that the changes don't HAVE to turn him into a monster. I did seriously considered having Reiju join the Kuja, as she'd fit in well with them due to her strength. However, I ultimately decided against it, as I realized she represents a partial solution to a problem I caused via Butterfly effect in the New World segment of the story. I knew full well I was causing a hurricane with that particular butterfly, and have been doing bits in the background to set up the changes. But Reiju makes a very good patch for one of the unresolved problems I was still working on a solution for. It should come up in next month's releases :-).

Chris7A

Fujitora is the goat. He specializes in observation, no way he did not see the attack coming. Makes sense about Hancock, I assume you mean the relationship with luffy will happen during this month?Shakuyaku should then move to Amazon lily, keeping a S-snake in sabaody would be impossible, she is too distinctive. Speaking of, she needs a name now, I wonder which one you will choose for them. Cp0 was watching the fleet? Luffy should have found them, that’s a failing on his haki. He must have been very occupied with lavaprick.

Zai

Luffy is kinda feeling unimportant to the plot as a protagonist to me. He doesn't really have anything in talents, skills or motivations that sets him apart making him special other than the system which has less and less prominence.

Novus's Fanfiction Works

*shrug* He wasn't the focus on this set of chapters. I was trying to show everyone else's growth far more than his, since I've shown that before. That said, you're statement applies to canon Luffy and One Piece anyway. The Plot is generally what happens to him, rather than him actually driving it. He'd need to intentionally do something but run after the closest shiny object or source of meat to drive the plot.

Zai

I want to clarify I wasn't commenting about this set of chapters specifically but more broadly since I have just reread this fic until this point after stopping just after the marine for war when I last read. I actually don't know what I'm waffling about in the previous comment, sorry. Thinking about it more, he does feel like the protagonist, although I do want to see him in a solo battle with some more creative power use. I think I was just frustrated with how long its been since they progressed along the grand line, not that these last 50+ chapters haven't been entertaining, just they might just need to cross at this point. About this set of chapters, I did enjoy seeing the growth of other crew members and their changes in attitude towards battles from canon and just how different they fight but with a similar base as canon. The extra crew having their own fleshed out battle styles is great as well and makes them really interesting, although Perona is just not gelling well as a part of the crew so far imo. Her place feels kinda nebulous. I think the switching in between different scenes was actually done quite well. Oda in the manga made it so longwinded with luffy vs kaido or him even climbing up to kaido with how often he cut away.

Novus's Fanfiction Works

Ah. If that's the case, you'll probably actually be happy with here the story is headed in October, then. I actually agree with you and the entire point of the Amazon Lily/Germa Rescue arc was to create events that would push them into the New World early :-). I won't say more than that, for now, since it would be spoilers!

The Foreign Traveler

Looks like a murderous mutt has been PUT DOWN! Good fucking riddance... ...And an angry Kaya is a SCARY Kaya. Edit 1: Still, Kuina and Zoro were “just an” unquestionably his number three and four for pure combat power... Still, Kuina and Zoro were unquestionably his number three and four for pure combat power... Edit 2: ...legitimately made worthy of note even in a room of people as dangerous as those present. ...legitimately made “him” worthy of note even in a room of people as dangerous as those present. Edit 3: ...than Kozu... ...than Koda... Edit 4: ...which is “doing” to take a... ...which is “going” to take a... Edit 5: ...the Marines “had” brought enough... ...the Marines “hadn’t” brought enough...(?) Edit 6: ...“withing” spitting distance... ...“within” spitting distance... Edit 7: Better “than” the Marines be... Better “that” the Marines be... Edit 8: ...knew “his” Reiju’s logic... ...knew Reiju’s logic... Edit 9: Admiral Aramaki simply wasn’t up “the” snuff for this level of fight just yet... Admiral Aramaki simply wasn’t up “to” snuff for this level of fight just yet... Edit 10: You were a good “women”... You were a good “woman”...