Countdown to Moby Dick's Defection

After being worked to the bone with overtime for nearly thirty years by that pineapple-headed boss, I woke up one day to find that the world had changed.

The pirate crew I was in had been handed a glittering, tragic BE script that would wipe us all out.

Look left, and my overtime buddy is holding the script for a "living gravestone."

Look right, and the bread-headed cook is headed down the "sacrificial play" route.

Look up, and Dad is practically wearing the CG for "dying on his feet."

Look down, and my adorable youngest brother is waving the flag of an "early-death white moonlight."

I stood at the center of fate and looked around. All I could see was a mass grave where glory had turned to tears of blood.

Me: I thought the world was going to play a joke on me, but instead it dumped a huge mess in my lap.

After a moment's hesitation, I decided:

"Great. I'll kill the mastermind and defect!"

And so I broke free from the shackles of fate and sliced through the black fog covering my eyes,

Broke through the scorching yet icy blue and red flames, and crossed through flashes of blades and the cracks of gunfire...

--Charging toward the HE ending this white whale deserves.

[Other Keywords]

Mainly the Whitebeard and Red Hair crews, friendship and romance, multiple love interests

Main cast:

Marco, Thatch, Ace, Shanks, Hongo... (to be decided as the story unfolds)

(Update 11/15: I originally planned to write a fixed-cast poly relationship, but now I can't stop making it all-pairings... Great, then let's have everyone from the Whitebeard and Red Hair crews join in (nods).)

Please leave lots and lots of comments (pleading).

[--Blurb for my other upcoming story--] Outline complete, full manuscript in progress

I opened my eyes and found I had become an amnesiac with nothing left in my head except "I have to find my younger brother." There was also a chatty System in my head telling me I was already dead. I'd signed a contract with it and had to save story characters who'd gone off track before I could come back to life and find my brother.

I opened the System's list and nearly blacked out.

Good news: I could tackle them one at a time across separate runs.

Bad news: There were way too many runs.

I looked at the list and scrolled down, but couldn't find the end (sorrow).

If the list had no end, then my good days were over.

The Red-Haired Shanks, who should have become an Emperor, was never picked up by a certain Pirate King and became a Celestial Dragon with a bubble helmet.

His future right-hand man never joined his crew either, and for some reason had completely given up, spending every day smoking and staring out at the sea.

And that immortal phoenix, the fearsome right-hand man of the Emperor from next door, had washed up on a deserted island and turned into a real bird that could only cluck?!

And on top of that, there were:

The blond ship's doctor, who lost his sense of smell and became a peerlessly dark and twisted poison doctor;

The sunglass-wearing fighter, who cast aside his emotions and became a genuine cool guy;

The depressed head chef, who gave up cooking because of childhood trauma;

The future Flower Sword, who didn't love flowers or swords...

And several other heavyweight guests.

After several rounds of running around and putting in the work, I finally cleared every run as their older brother.

Even though my real body died in the end... never mind that. Just tell me, did their deviation rate reach 0% or not?

I decisively cleared my memories and was reborn in this world, only for the System to screw me over completely again (clenching my fist in outrage).

It was my memories that got erased. They still remembered everything.

Place your bets:

Will I, who faked my death, lost my memories, and was reborn, find my real younger brother while being surrounded by all these other younger brothers?

Oh, and somewhere along the way, I may have accidentally kidnapped someone else's kid...

Amnesiac me: Wait, who are you all, and why are you calling me Big Brother...? How did I get so many younger brothers?!

Younger brothers (smiling): Nii-san, I'm your otouto.

One very real younger brother: ...?

#Why are so many forty-year-old dudes clinging to my twenty-year-old brother and calling him Nii-san?

#If you call him Big Brother, then what does that make me?

#Big Brother, let's go home.

Coded 2025-01-02

Theme: For family and a happy tomorrow