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Halfway Broken (Chapters 82 & 83)
🕑 Added 2025-09-16 04:16:17 +0000 UTCAlright folks, this one is a bit shorter than it should have been. Why? Because for some reason the whole thing fought me like an angry hippopotamus that devoured it's body weight from a poacher's cocaine stash. I'm seriously not sure I've ever had one of my story arcs fight me as much as this one did, to the point that I entirely scrapped some of my original plans for it. The Shiki fight, in particular, I ended up skipping a lot of. To compensate, I decided to give short snapshots of others who we don't see fighting as often, which showcases their current growth levels just a bit. People like Usopp and Sanji, for example. I think it ended up turning out okay, but it's one of the very rare times I'm a good 1,000-1,500 words short of the usual goal for the month.
On the flip side, I got so frustrated with it that I had to set it down and work on something else, and I might post a snippet of that random other story concept as compensation in a few days. Assuming I have time to clean it up :-p. It's nothing that's going to become a major story, since it violates my rule against writing two fics in the same universe at the same time. Well, unless it proves popular enough for me to replace Eridium Dreams with it, since it's a Mass Effect concept. Eh, enough about that though, you came for Halfway Broken!
Despite how much it fought me, I am reasonably pleased with the end result, so enjoy the rest of the Merville Arc! As usual, the new stuff is attached here in various formats, and I'll be posting new Master Files in the Pinned Post. I'll also put author's notes in the comments below when I have time. Enjoy the release!
*Note: Art is Shiki's official Anime appearance. It doesn't quite match the story description, since I blended his anime and manga versions together. But it's close enough.
Comments
Novus Peregrine
Glad you got a kick out of Dis's moment :-p. I admit, I laughed hard enough when someone on Questionable Questing suggested the attack name that I went out of my way to include it at least the once ;-). Thanks for the edits, I've got these and the ones from the other Halfway Broken release you marked corrected for the new Master File that I'm about to release :-).
The Foreign Traveler
I LAUGHED SO hard when Dis said that just before Shiki went bye-bye! Edit 1: …assumption that Shiki “new Haki… …assumption that Shiki “knew” Haki… Edit 2: “…as Snanji’s” jealousy… “…at Sanji’s” jealousy…
Novus Peregrine
Yeah, no. That's not going to happen. I've stated repeatedly that I'm going to actually cover the training arc, with them visiting both some familiar islands and some originals. That NEEDS to happen, since the condensed timeframe of the rest of One Piece means that isn't a lot of time for crew interaction and interpersonal developments. A lot of that will be covered during the 'time skip,' which won't be all training by any means. That said, I will ALSO be covering other perspectives, as I have all along, showing snippets of how the world is changing. Garp's perspective will be particularly important, as he'll have a few of the entire world stage that no one else short of the Elders do.
Mike
When we begin the training arc can we gloss it over and show other POV instead. Want to see how the divergences are creating new setups. Fallout from Doflamingo death, Elder death. Kaidou learning where Yamato went(Fallout). Boa Hancock role going forward. Sanji’s family plans.
Novus Peregrine
Well, I'm not sure you can murder an island? Though it would likely be Shiki's fault either way, since he's the one that floated the islands, basically making them deadman's switches.
Novus Peregrine
I'm honestly not sure what's going to happen with that. The fact she just ignored that it was Jinbe who enabled Arlong in canon has always confused me.
BPellet
Huh Nami's fishman hate has me worried for when Jinbe eventually joins the crew, hopefully she works out more of it on acceptable targets and her love of pyromania. Can't wait for the groups training arc too since it seems the crew is just waiting on that last step to be New World ready. Thank you for the chapter!
Anren
So now we can officially congratulate our team on destroying an entire island (group of islands?) or does the murder count against Discovery, like the one who killed Shiki?)
