I do not own either One Piece or Bleach.
-0-0-0-
Beta read by the wonderful lincoln time, mellra, KyonSmith13, and MasterQwertster. Could not have done it without you!
-0-0-0-
Seas of Souls
-0-0-0-
Straw Hat Encyclopedia
-0-0-0-
Chapter 1: Introduction
-0-0-0-
The Straw Hats Usopp and Lilynette Gingerbuck were standing in front of a large TV screen mounted on a blue wall in a large room.
"Hello and welcome!" proclaimed Usopp.
"To the first ever Straw Hat Encyclopedia!" continued Lilynette.
"We've put this together," said Usopp, "to make it easier for people to follow along with the cast and our abilities. Saving you from having to skip through the story to find details, or us having to break into unrealistic exposition dumps in-universe."
"Because we're nice guys," grinned Lilynette.
"The first thing you've got to understand," began an also smiling Usopp, "is the Straw Hats are much different from Arrancar under Aizen."
"Or what those of us in canon would've been like," Lilynette said, puffing out her chest.
"Because there are already a lot of changes being hinted at," winked Usopp.
"Darn right!" she snapped. "Me, Starrk, Halibel, and her hanger-ons have got a lot more going for us now. Aizen treats his subordinates like disposable lackeys, and is frankly a bit messed up in the head. Telling the Espada they were as strong as the Gotei 13, when in reality they weren't. Which really sucks, because honestly, we could've been if the lot of them hadn't walked in half-cocked, too busy strutting to take it all seriously. Or were just being lazy. You hear me Starrk!?"
"He isn't here," Usopp interjected sotto voice, gesturing with placating hands to calm her.
Ignoring him, she continued her rant. "Seriously though, the guy was messed up in the head something fierce. On the one hand, Aizen wanted us to beat the Gotei 13 so he wouldn't have to waste his time, except honestly he could've done it on his own, so it was, what, boredom that made him spend so much time creating an army? Some faint hope one of us would emerge strong enough to equal him without any help besides becoming an Arrancar? Whatever! Dude was cray-cray, and I'm not being paid to figure out his specific flavour of cray-cray! Heck, I'm not even being paid to do this! I'm doing it out of the generosity of my technically non-existent heart!
"Point is, Aizen spent zilch time actually training anybody to fight Shinigami, including telling us what the abilities of the different Taichou were. And you know he knew most of them beforehand. So all the Arrancar treated it like the usual fights between Hollows, 'cept they really weren't. Nobody did any training against each other to get stronger either, because either too much disparity in power or because nobody trusted each other. If two Espada fought, it was to the death, not explain how to cover up each other's weaknesses! Otherwise, somebody might've told Starrk he shouldn't keep trying new techniques when the previous ones were already working nice, or going sword to sword with a guy who'd been practicing with them for centuries, compared to Starrk's . . . I think that was the first time he actually chose to use a sword, really."
"Why'd he do that!?" gasped Usopp. "That's crazy!"
"'That's stupid,' is what you mean! Anyways, what we're trying to get at is this means that some members from the original Bleach cast are actually stronger here than they originally were. They're experienced in using their bodies, have had their weaknesses pointed out, and have discussed things with others on how they can improve, or new techniques to try out. You've seen a bit of that already with Zoro sparring with Starrk."
"I kinda feel bad for Starrk with that," admitted Usopp.
"Don't be. He needs the exercise."
"Uhm . . ."
"Moving on! So this also applies to the Usopp and the non-Bleach cast. They've got a lot more experience fighting as Arrancar than Aizen's lackeys, and have worked hard helping each other improve. The other thing to bear in mind is the original Straw Hats don't have the same abilities they had when they were alive."
"With mixed results really," admitted Usopp. "Some things just didn't fit into the Bleach-verse."
Ignoring him, Lilynette continued. "Haki doesn't work here, because it's literally a different universe, with different laws on how things work. Reiatsu pretty much substitutes for Conqueror's Haki and Armament Haki though, and as we have seen already with Luffy, you can use stuff like Pesquisa to replace Observation Haki pretty handily."
"Which is great for those of us who never had Conqueror's Haki before!"
"Quiet. In fact, the strengths and weaknesses of individual Devil Fruits don't translate over as well either, so some members will be having different bodies and abilities. As you can guess already from stuff like how Brook is not a skeleton. Or Luffy's not showing any signs of having a rubbery body in his sealed state."
Eyes hardening a bit, Usopp added, "We're also a lot more . . . ruthless than when we were alive. Part of being reborn as Soul eating apex predators, and spending who knows how long fighting our way through Hueco Mundo. Up to you to decide if that's a good thing or not."
Smacking him again, Lilynette scolded, "Stop trying to seem all serious."
"Right, right. Sorry." Coughing into his fist, Usopp then gave a reassuring grin, "But don't worry if you're finding this all confusing, because that's what the next few chapters are here to clear up."
"Alright, let's get it started!" said Usopp, holding up a remote with a sole, big red button on it. "Oh," he added as something occurred to him, "and before you ask, no, we did not kidnap Morgan Freeman to narrate this," assured Usopp. "I just made a speaker that would copy his golden voice."
"That was pretty sweet," conceded Lilynette. "Well, let's get started!"
—Seas of Souls—
Author Notes:
I and some other authors have been having difficulty getting PMs through email as usual. If you leave a comment on this fic and want to see my reply, check your PM folder on this site instead of email.
-0-
Please Review, and I will get back to you!