Shenanigans

[mekachu04]

Shenanigans by Mekachu04
Additional Tags:

Post-Wano Arc Egghead Island Arc takes place in some non-existant time after Kidd lost to Shanks Victoria Punk has been destroyed Kidd Pirates live - but only the big 4 are mentioned

Age Regression/De-Aging Killer is the adult | Kira is the child Bonney stays 12 Smile Fruit there will be some allusions to past child abuse/endangerment

I'm not sure how all Bonney's power will play out (full disclosure - while i am mostly caught up with the anime, my official reading of the manga is still back in Wano. I've been reading fansubs but... you know how you mileage can vary on those. Ever since they changed Zoro's name in the manga I stopped buying them volume by volume and have only been buying the One Piece Omnibus which has been at Book 33 - [volume 99] since last december, because i feel better defacing the cheaper options when changing the names back. - tl;dr - i officially know jackshit about Bonney's backstory. It'll all fan-translations right now)

 

after some debate either way, I'm going to use two different names for Killer in this. He's got some head issues that he's going though and Bonney's helping but I'm playing with her fruit little on this too. Killer is our older murder!man that has been through it in the last arch or two (or three). Kira is his adorable 3 to 5 year old self (depending on Bonney's mood) who has become Bonney's playmate and has some vague recollections of the next 20 plus years and some change but overall is a child.

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Killer seemed to have become Bonney's favorite playmate these days.

She'd grown stronger after meeting Vegapunk, her power able to beguile the mind now when she'd toyed with people, to make it easier for them to believe the new age they found themselves in with fewer question; her new child cohorts fulling embracing being children again. But mostly, she just wanted to play. To be 12 again. And with the collected crews at her fingertips, she had a plethora of playmates to abet in her adventures. Incidentally, as of late she seemed to be picking the vice-captain of the Kidd Pirates for her shenanigans.

His own head injury after taking a blow from Shanks in his failed attempt to protect Kidd had started to rear up at odd times. But Bonney was able to take the edge off of his scattered thoughts and reveled in the opportunity to play big sister to the little boy she'd dubbed Kira. Killer- always the oldest or matured of his gangs- seemed to struggle with letting someone besides Kidd take charge, but fell into child espiègleries easy enough with her around.

To the Strawhat's shock, Kidd was pretty good wrangling the two. His crew offered no comments but for a rowdy group of delinquents, they were on their best behavior around Bonney. Language and roughhousing easily softening to more age appropriate horseplay and buffoonery for the young girl; a crew of grown-ass kids easily able to join in her play under the watchful eye of the man whose civilian casualty rate led him to once hold the highest bounty of the Worst Generation.

Bonney kept herself between 8 or 12 most days, her playmates just a few years younger. Killer was the exception; little 'Kira' any where from a toddler or a preschooler most days, chubby sticky hands clasped in Bonney's or Kidd's the whole while. The trio was often caught sprawled out across the Sunny's grass (the grass a strange lure for all the Kidd Pirates it seemed), playing or napping in the sun; Bonney usually tucked into Kidd's good arm, Kira tucked in with the prosthetic, or head pillowed on Kidd's stump.

"I never knew him this small," Kidd had said once as the group sat out in the sun once again, with Kira's sleeping against his side, Wire's hooded cloak wrapped around him as a blanket. Heat and Bonney colored away nearby with some crayons donated to them by Usopp. "I was maybe this age when we first met. He'd have been closer to Bonney at the time." Heat wouldn't meet Killer until he was an angry teen, and Wire not until Killer was an established gang boss of his own. They'd been rivals in a sense, but had come to terms with turf lines without having to come to blows.

Still, Kidd isn't sure this docile moppet that hid in his coat when too many people were around was a true reflection of the feral gremlin of a child that had practically raised him a world away, a lifetime ago. Kira is someone else, the soft little child none of them had the freedom of being, protected by the safety provided by the adults of two pirate crews and encouraged by the power manipulation of a 12 year old girl.

How could this timid little thing turn into the Killer of Kidd's memories in only a few short years? From a clinging, quiet little boy to the biting, swearing hellion that beat up Kidd's childhood bullies and murdered a man in cold blood in the middle of a crowded street? Kidd would defend this child with his life regardless - but he couldn't settle on which truth to hold to. That Kira was an amalgamation of Bonney's powers with the child Killer never got to be; or this was his oldest friend, and that he would loose all this sweetness, all this trust, at so young an age.

Bonney's power's didn't have so strong of a pull on anyone else, no personality change so deeply obvious when summoned to play with the little girl. And when Killer was up about as himself, he seemed no more different than usual, nine days out of ten.

Unfortunately, on the bad luck days, that one day, the head injury and the SMILE fruit would be too much and Killer would drift about in a daze. Or worse, a rage. No one was sure if it was pure dumb luck or is some part of the man was trying to show restraint, but when the disorientation and fear and rage built too much, Killer would lash out with whatever steel tool was closest. Usually flatwear - much to Sanji's mounting anger.

Zoro could block the worst of it in Kidd wasn't nearby, and when he was, a wordless gesture and a flick of power from his Captain sent Killer stumbling to him, weapon leading the way to Kidd's outstretched prosthetic hand. During those spells, Killer often could do no more than laugh as he wept, Kidd wrapping him up in his arm and leading them to Chopper's infirmary.

Chopper was always quick to meet up with them.

"Killer had a significant head injury," Chopper had explained after the man in question submitted to more thorough exam. "It already would jumble emotions around. Mood swings and disorientation. But because of the SMILE Fruit, all those feelings get rewritten as humorous. When he's well enough that his brain knows laughing is the wrong repose, it course corrects. Which just makes the SMILE worse and more intense."

Luffy and Kidd both remembered Killer in Udon. Out of his mind and panicking. Only able to laugh as he sobbed. Zoro remembers the wrongfooted frantic way they'd fought in the snow - the broken laugh and vitriolic words.

These spells where less with Bonney around, her ability unable to undo the faux-fruit, but able to sooth his mind back to a time that it mattered to him less. Robin has mussed to Kidd privately that she wondered if there might be another layer to it, one that might account for the clinginess that seemed so foreign to him. She theorized that Kira might be countering the urge of faux-fruit compulsion to laugh when he felt uneasy by seeking out Kidd; who's very presence overrode the fear the child felt in the first place.

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this has been sitting in my A03 drafts for a month, and it was either post it today or let it get deleted. I have more to this, i just couldn't figure out how to piece each part together. So i figure ... it's been a month - I'm still stuck, so just post what there is and worry how it fits later