In the Eye of the Beholder

The universe of One Piece is wacky and beautiful, but also stupidly dangerous – emphasis on the stupid.

Hancock, born on Maiden Island with distant memories of the pitfalls into which the character whose place she usurped would have fallen, has absolutely zero interest in putting her life at risk.

She may hold the potential to become one of the most powerful women in this strange new world, but she intends to do her best to live a safe, cautious life, far away from the Straw Hat Pirates, from the Marines, from the Revolutionaries and Celestial Dragons.

Being born in a brutal Darwinian society where “strength is beauty” and violence is commonplace, however, means that the world must still take its pound of flesh, every now and then, and Hancock’s desire to take care of her adventurous younger sisters might prove rather more difficult than she’d hoped.

But maybe... maybe the Kuja have it backward. Maybe beauty is strength, rather than the other way around.

Either way, Hancock lacks neither.

♦♦♦

What to expect:

- Contrary to what the first line of the synopsis might suggest, this is very much not a comedy. This story views the world of One Piece through a rather serious lens.

- Story isn’t focused on the Straw Hat Pirates. They will appear, in time, but Luffy’s not even born when the first chapters take place.

- Canon is being dragged behind the woodshed to be double-tapped, but it’s struggling and digging its heels.

- MC doesn’t have an encyclopedic knowledge of One Piece, so she doesn’t have too many opportunities to game the world to her benefit.

- Rules on Devil Fruits (how they affect their wielders and the world around them) are a bit different than canon. Devil Fruits powers generally keep their overall canon theme, but they can sometimes be expressed differently.