Amari Nox was his name and he had been a simple tattoo artist. He had gotten his first tattoo at 18 and since then had just fallen down the rabbit hole. Fire, dragons, lightning, doves, swords, all tattoos that he got as he grew older, now that he was 32 and a professional tattoo artist, his arms, chest and neck were all full of tattoos. Some had deeper meanings, others he got just because they looked cool. He regretted none of them. All he cared about was continuing his craft. Tattoos weren't his only passion, he also did martial arts and watched a lot of anime. One piece was one of his favorites, he had a tattoo of the Wado Ichimonji on his right arm in black and white. He wasn't caught up however, he just didn't have much time in his day, he had just gotten to Wano, ready to dig in. He had managed to avoid most spoilers but in the end, did it really matter? For this was the day he would die.
Nox was finishing up the last tattoo of the day. The man he was tattooing was a delinquent. He wouldn't be surprised if he was in the Yakuza but he didn't judge, it was a job like any other. When the final needle stroke was done, he explained the after care to his newest customer.
"Thanks boss", he bowed before Nox and left the shop. Nox was busy counting his earnings from today when the bell chimed. He didn't look up, "I'm closing up for today, come back tomorrow or get an appointment. I'm pretty busy this time of the year"
"Oh, you will find that I don't need an appointment", the man spoke just like the boy whom he had just finished up, a delinquents accent. He looked up, just in time to see the bullet heading for his head.
It didn't hurt as much as he had expected. There was a sharp pain at first but it subsided just as quickly as it came. He could see from the floor how the delinquent took the cash and ran.
He closed his eyes, so this is the way he would die? Before he could finish with one piece? He would love to see that story play out in it's entirety.
"Oh- that I can do", an elderly voice called out and he opened his eyes. He was no longer laying down in a pool of his own blood but standing in a white room, with an elderly man in robes, leaning on a cartoonish looking scythe.
"Are you-?"
"Yes, I am a shinigami, and a bored one at that. You want to see the story of one piece to an end? Fine, I can arrange that"
"Like… rebirth?"
"Exactly!" The elderly shinigami stroked his beard, "and I have some boons to go with it! After all, throwing you in that world without any powers would mean collecting you again too soon, so, I will give you three boons, I have already selected them. 1st a monstrous body, not quite like big mom or kaido but stronger than the common folk. You will start with a body similar to Luffy at the beginning of the story and have the ability to advance through hard work and dedication. 2nd, you will get the power to manifest you tattoos into reality and all subsequent tattoos you get. There is a limit to how real it can become. You can't create endless amounts of devil fruits but you can get some pretty strong stuff. It is however always visibly not real. If your creation is destroyed -or dies if it is a living creature- the tattoo vanishes. And 3rd, I don't want you to be alone in this life as you had been in your previous life. Your favorite waifu was Boa Hancock, right? Well, I'll make you immune to her ability. You will have to seduce her yourself though ;)", he winked, making Nox's face blush. Hancock was indeed a beauty amongst beauties.
"What about haki?"
"You'll have to train that yourself, no worries, you'll be in the east blue, so your lack of haki won't mean certain death", the shinigami chuckled, "ready? I don't care, let's do this before Izanami tries to send you back to earth!"
"Wait- I have more questiiiiooooonsssss!" he was sucked into the ground. He fell for a minute, a damned long minute, screaming his voice off, when he finally landed. There was a loud *Boom* and he laid on the ground again. The hot summer's sun beat down on him and he could hear the crashing of waves.
"Is he- dead?" he heard a voice, unmistakably Nami's, he'd recognise that voice anywhere, just as he recognised the other voice, "Woah, look at all those tattoos! Suge! I have to ask him if he will join the crew", Luffy said, care free and full of energy.
"How will a corpse join the crew, I mean, look at how much he fell! No way he is still alive!"
"No, no, he is breathing, see?"
Nox opened his eyes, people were standing around him as he sat up, swiping his chestnut brown hair away from his face, "Where the fuck am I?"
"Better question", Nami said, "how are you alive? You fell probably a hundred meters, how did you even get that far up into the sky?"
"I- don't remember, everything is fuzzy", he lied, "I remember training in my father's dojo and suddenly I'm here…"
"You are a swordsman? Let's have a duel" Zoro said nonchalantly.
"He has amnesia and the first thing you can think of is fighting him? Really? That is so-"
"I accept", Nox pushed himself upright. He wanted to test this new body which the shinigami had given him… monstrous physique, eh? He had been trained in swordsmanship in his past life, this should be fun.
"Do you want to borrow one of my swords?"
"Oh no, I have a sword of my own", let's see if this actually works, he concentrated on the wado ichimonji tattooed on his arm. It was barely three centimeters long, yet with a flicker, the blade, devoid of any color, appeared in his hands. It had proper weight, it was sharp, all which was different was how it looked.
"Suge! You can summon a sword? Did you eat a devil fruit too?"
"I can manifest my tattoos, always have been able to, now time for our duel", he grinned at Zoro, who grinned back and they bowed before one another, Zoro using three swords whilst Nox carried the tattoo blade. He rushed at his enemy, a downwards slash being parried by the three sword style user's mouth blade. The other two swords came crashing through with terrifying speed but Nox ducked under the blades, swiping at his feet with his leg. Zoro jumped back, "You are good… let's see if you can handle this… Oni Giri!"
Despite his shinigami given strength and his years of training in the dojo, he couldn't deflect or dodge fast enough and a shallow cross of blood was left on his body. Zoro had been holding back and still defeated him in two moves. That was the difference between the training of someone on earth and someone on the blues, much less the grand line. He had the raw might but not the fine tuning.
"Not bad but I am better", Zoro laughed.
"Teach me", Nox's eyes glittered with possibility.
"I'm not staying on Comoni island for all too much longer, my captain will be the next king of the pirates, I have to sail with him"
"Then take me with you", Nox's eyes wandered to captain Luffy, "Can I?"
"That ability of yours is so cool! Sure, you can tag along! What's your name?"
"Amari Nox, a humble tattoo artist"
"You are a tattoo artist?" asked Nami, pointing at her arlong brand, "Can you cover this up?"
"Sure thing!"