I couldn't decide whether to update the original post or make a new one, but as the intention of these posts is to get people reading the gateway manual, it feels like the best way to do this is separate posts. If for any reason this doesn't suit the community just let me know in a comment.
*******introduction to gateway tapes is HERE*******
Wave I Exercises Discovery #1–Orientation
Energy Conversion Box becomes your mental container to hold concerns, distractions, or interferences for the duration of the exercise. See it, feel it, hear it, think it, or simply imagine it. Your container may be simple or ornate, high-tech or antique, a wood en chest, a sphere of light, a vacuum cleaner ora nuclear particle collector.
Imagine concrete symbols to place in the box, such as a wallet for financial worries, a photo or doll representing someone who is on your mind. You can place limiting words like "can't," shouldn't," or "must" in your container; brick walls to symbolize your defenses; a desk or computer to symbolize work. Experiment. It'sa tool for your use. Allow it to change and return to it whenever you wish during an exercise to place inside any new distraction.
Affirmation focuses your intention and attention. You may use the words as spoken in the exercise, modify them to maximize per sonal relevance and significance, or substitute your own version. Experiment. Make it yours.
Resonant Tuning accelerates the gathering of your vibrational energy while reducing internal dialogue. It helps vitalize and charge your entire system and loosens blockages in natural ener gy channels. Notice any physical manifestations as you vocalize aloud. The sounds on the exercise are only a guide. Set your own rhythm and pace, move up and down the scale, experiment with diferent vowel sounds.
Breathe only slightly deeper than you normally would and, as you inhale, imagine pulling sparkling, vibrant energy into all parts of your body. Allow it to move gently around in your head as you hold your breath. Try releasing tired, stale energy through the soles of your feet with each exhalation.
The opening and closing of your eyes may at first feel awkward, but try doing it anyway. It's a valuable first step in your learning that you are able to control autonomic processes and habitual behavior.
You can return at any time to full waking consciousness by simnply breathing normally, opening your eyes, or moving the fingers of your right hand.
Focus 3 is the first signpost along your journey, a Hemi-Syne® state where your brain and mind are more coherent, synchronized and balanced.
Return to Full Waking Consciousness (C-1) at the end of this and every exercise is facilitated by a strong audio signal. Despite the temptation to take off your headphones early, listen to this sig nal until it is withdrawn. The more completely you come "back" from each exercise, the further you can go into the next.

CENTRAL Mnemonic Record Subject: Alvim, Minority Stakeholder of the Royal Embassy Hotel, Local Historian, Conspiracy Theorist
Location: Royal Embassy Hotel, Lastlight
Mission clock: Insertion +8
Despite the exhaustion of last paw’s travel, the shock of the impending arrival of our home’s new owner had us scrambling to get the hotel in some manner of presentability. We both barely slept, instead I kept myself awake with all the Sprunk we had while I desperately tried to clean areas that hadn’t seen a soul that wasn’t us in months at least. Virtrix, for her part, had hopped herself up on an inadvisable amount of ener-juice and was haring about the place collecting dust covers and arranging what furniture we had left to make the place look less of a derelict.
There wasn’t much we could do with just the two of us, but even then there was no question of calling the kids over to help. In fact the sole concession to our guardianship duties was calling our not-quite-adopted daughter Kesta and telling her that Arven and Vyzrix were staying with her for the time being and to get the spare bedrolls out for us. Just in case our shadowy landlord decided that they were better off without us crowding up the place.
I thanked the stars we even had the option. In most cases when the majority shareholder came in and decided to ‘renovate’ their new purchase it was a calculated operation to force the minority owners to sell up. Being able to stay at Kesta’s apartment, as small and basic as care-leaver’s accommodations were, would make that much less feasible. But then again, these Shadow Agents had thrown three hundred thousand credits at a speedbump of an issue without hesitation. How much more would they, could they, spend to get what they wanted. That was, of course, if they didn’t decide to offer us plasma instead. It was these thoughts that swirled in my head as Virtrix and I fell asleep against each other on the sole remaining lobby couch.
+[Oneiric Record Irrelevant/Incomplete/Redacted: Time Advance Approx (6) Hours]+
I awoke to Virtrix snuggling deeper into my neck ruff and the far less pleasant ringing of my pad’s alarm.
“Mmmh, how long have we been asleep?”
I looked at the now silent pad for the time. “About a claw and a half.”
“That long? What time is our mystery ven due?”
“The agent said a paw, but we’ve been cleaning for so long…” I calculated for a few seconds before realisation hit. “Oh speh, Trix they’re due any second!”
Virtrix sat bolt upright, eyes wide in an instant. “Xric!” Immediately she started fussing with our fur and tails, trying to get us both looking like we hadn’t just rolled out of bed. We each did our best, but there was a certain amount of dishevelment that no amount of paw grooming would get out. We’d just have to hope our new landlord didn’t notice or didn’t care. Fortunately my assessment of time hadn’t been quite right. Two black groundcars of classic make pulled up in front of the entrance roughly a quarter claw after we woke up.
“They certainly aren’t afraid to play to type, are they?” I muttered under my breath, the sound of crunching snow and the rumbling of the vehicles’ antique ICEs nearly enough to drown me out. Nearly, if you didn’t have Sivkit ears.
“Here come the Ven in Black.” Virtrix sang back softly. My heart swelled and I hugged her to me tighter.
“Whatever happens, Virtrix, I want you to know I love you. More than words can say.”
“I know, you silly ven.” Virtrix squeezed her tail around mine reassuringly. “And don’t worry, we’ll be okay. We always are.”
The car doors opened and out stepped Black from the paw before. Along with him was White and… four more Whites. They were not close enough to be carbon-copies, but their near identical looks and snowcloaks was enough to be unnerving. The way they exited the second car in lockstep and took up positions as if they were guarding the governor herself only tightened the knot in my guts.
Black and who I assumed was the original White had been in the lead car, White hanging back with ears perked and slowly scanning the area, Black waving his tail in a friendly greeting like this was the most normal thing in the world.
“Good pa-, oh, good waking Mr Alvim, Ms Virtrix.” Greeted Black. His bouncy accent was still there, but it had noticeably softened since yesterday. You’d almost think he was an actual Venlil and not some clone grown in a government lab.
“Good paw Mr…” I trailed off in expectation of a name, since he’d never given me one. The black Venlil’s eyes turned glassy and his ears went berserk again before suddenly resuming normal function.
“Ah, my apologies Mr Alvim. I am Alphek. You have met my partner Bravim.” The black -furred Shadow Agent said with a friendly tail wave, indicating the white one we’d met last paw who was now regarding a herd of Venlil across the street like they were a distant pack of shadestalkers. Yeah, no. Those were not names. Those were designations and bad ones at that.
“Um, Mr Alphek?” Virtrix piped up. “Where is our new business partner?”
“Director Lavinny is waiting in the car, though I must first warn you. They are human.”
A human? A human!? How the hells did a human have enough pull to come with their own stars-damned Shadow Agent escort? The revelations that the Shadow Agents would even work with humans in the first place was enough to nearly distract me from the predatory form exiting the lead car. Almost. And even if it had Virtrix’s tail turned into a tourniquet about my own. The human was tall, dressed in a long brown coat pulled tight and collar turned against the permanent chill of Night. It was also wearing a mask, but where the standard UN-approved mask was a smooth, mirrored bowl, Director Lavinny’s entire head was encased in a mirror-ball mosaic of a helmet. Instead of seeing myself reflected back in a single fish-bowl image a score of little ‘me’s peered out from the angular mirrors that made up the mask.
It also had eyes. Or eyespots at least and contours reminiscent of a human face, the suggestion of a nose and the lines of chin and cheekbones. The director was thoroughly unnerving to look at. I glanced down to see how Virtrix was doing. The pounding of my own heart was irrelevant next to her well-being. Virtrix was pale enough to blend into the snow without fur, but still conscious. The human stepped towards us.
“Howard Lavinny, Secure Shelter Project.” It said in a strange, bleating accent, revealing itself to be male and extending a hand. I paused, standing there like an idiot wondering what to do.
“It’s a handshake, kid. Introduce yourself, grip firm but not hard, and shake twice.” Lavinny said, waving his hand up and down slightly to demonstrate the motion.
“Oh, yeah, yeah, right.” I muttered to myself, an embarrassed bloom starting to warm my ears. I took a breath and grasped the preda-, no, human’s hand as firmly as I dared and pumped twice. “Alvim. I, well, I own the place. Partly.”
‘Smooth Alvim, smooth.’ I kicked myself mentally. Now was not the time to get into a pissing match with a predator that could easily evict us both.
“Virtrix. Local historian.” Virtrix wiped an icy forepaw on her leg and daintily placed it in the Director’s massive mitt. Lavinny closed his hand and shook it equally gently.
“Good to meet you two.” There was a pause then, with nothing but the sound of falling snow and the street filling the silence. “Shall we take this inside?”
“Oh, oh yes! So sorry, Director Lavinny!” Virtrix sputtered, not realising she hadn’t asked the Director to follow before haring off into the hotel. He and his herd of Shadow Agents looked at Trix’s retreating form with mild curiosity before turning their attention to me.
“We’ll take you through to the lobby bar. It’s warm and your, um, Ven can have a drink while we talk.” I managed, though internally their combined attentions probably took a rotation or two off my life. The Director jerked his head towards the doors and I took that as my cue to start moving. Lavinny and Alphek fell in either side of me and the quartet of nameless whites followed in their wake. Bravim stayed behind, the snow-white Shadow Agent sliding into the luxurious driver’s seat of the lead groundcar.
“Thanks for the offer, but we’re still on duty.” Lavinny said as we crunched the snow off our feet in the entryway. We’d moved a decent selection of drinks and some bar snacks to the smaller lobby bar. Hadn’t had a reason to use it in years, but important people rarely liked having to walk to get a drink. Landlords looking for an eviction especially.
“We have soft drinks too, there’s Sprunk, Funto, got Bebis somewhere if you want it, and Vyzrix lives on kharat juice if you’d like something healthier.” I replied as we made our way to a table by the bar. Now I was looking at it properly the spots and smears Trix and I had missed mockingly revealed themselves. All I could do was pray that the Director either didn’t notice or didn’t care. The Director sat, but his bodyguards spread out and either leaned against pillars or posted up behind the check-in desk and planters.
“We’re afraid we’re new planetside, what’s most popular?” Lavinny asked, leaning back and causing the chair to creak distressingly.
Virtrix popped up from behind the bar. Her usual peppy, cheerful demeanour returning now that she was in the more familiar situation of serving guests. “That’ll be Sprunk, sir.”
“Sir? Ms Virtrix we ain’t your superior. Youse don’t have to call us ‘sir’, don’t even have to call us director either. Call me Howard, ‘Mr Lavinny’ if you want to be formal.” Trix’s nervousness returned in a heartbeat at being directly addressed by the human. Her tail and ear movements turned strained but polite and she quickly dropped back down to ‘look for drinks’.
The director then turned his head slightly in an incredibly Venlil-like fashion and asked his Shadow Agent bodyguards if Sprunk was okay for them. Instead of the usual ear signals the herd of gene-stitched bio-cyborgs each bobbled their heads repeatedly. Howa- no, Director Lavinny still. Director Lavinny must have seen the confusion on our faces and explained the not-Venlil’s reactions.
“The guys’ll have Sprunk too.”
“Oh, sure.” My voice was hollow and my ears pinned back. If my tail hadn’t curled around the back of my own chair it would have been cutting off the circulation to my legs.
“You okay Mr Alvim? Look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“I- Oh, erm, I-It’s just that we’ve never seen that gesture before.” I stammered like the terrified idiot I was. I needed to be strong now, if I couldn’t hold myself together then how was Virtrix supposed to cope?
“You don’t nod here? Fair’s fair, suppose youse guys have something different. Up-and-down for ‘yes’ and side-to-side for ‘no’.” Lavinny replied like nothing was even the slightest bit strange.
“I suppose that makes sense if you haven’t got ears to signal with.” I said with a steadying breath. “This is what yes and no look like for Venlil.”
I flicked my ears ‘yes’ and ‘no’ and immediately the Shadow Agents fixed me with a binocular stare. Their ears went berserk again, then cycled through the motions in unison. The Director didn’t seem to notice and Trix had remained hunkered down behind the bar.
I shuddered, the nagging instinct to flee groaning louder in my soul, but I stayed seated. The list of Venlil who ran and left others to their fates is long and growing ever longer. I would not be on it. If that meant I ended up in the shadestalker’s jaws then so be it. I excused myself and went to the bar to check on Virtrix. Her paws were shaking as she slowly removed each can of Sprunk from the ancient bar fridge and placed it on a Sivkit-adapted serving tray.
>You okay?< I signalled, fairly confident the Shadow Agents had no clue what I was doing.
>No< Virtrix twitched her tail. “But I’ll make it through.” She whispered “What choice do we have?”
I picked up another tray and took half the cans off Virtrix. Wasn’t going to let her face those things for any longer than she had to. A quick swap to a can of Sprunk Export for the Director, I’d heard humans were hilarious lightweights so hopefully a mere 8% wouldn’t register much, and we split off to distribute them to the invenlil guards dotted about our lobby. Each gave us a polite thank you in a unique and disturbing voice. The last to be served thanked me in a tone that sounded like a base boosted Dossur played back at quarter speed and I scurried back over to the Director’s table with the drinks for us.
I came from behind to try and put a can and glass in front of him, which he took without turning his head. It was just as disconcerting as the behaviour of the Shadow Agents. I pushed down another wave of unease. Modifications to the mask to give a wider field of view, I told myself, just a business tactic to ingratiate himself or ease fears that had gone Krakotl-diving into the uncanny valley. It had happened before throughout the Federation, especially if it was between species that rarely interacted in person.
“Thanks.” The Director cracked his can and poured a glass. “So, we bet you gotta lotta questions right ‘bout now.”
“Yes.”
“We have.”
“Well unfortunately what questions we can answer and to what length is kinda limited to how extensive the NDA youse are willin’ to sign up to.”
A non-disclosure agreement. Of course they would. Any secret organisation worth its salt licks would have us bound to absolute secrecy. But why they’d make it official with a paper trail I would never understand. Any such agency worth a salt lick would also have us buried before the first word left our mouths.
“What do you mean by ‘how extensive’?”
“Well how deeply do you guys wanna get involved? We know you two ain’t exactly comfortable with us bein’ here and there’s gonna be humans runnin’ around once we start. We, and by ‘we’ we mean us personally, the Secure Shelter Project, and our parent organisation, that we are not at liberty to discuss, will not by any means try to remove you from this property.” The Director leaned in over his Sprunk and caused the table to creak alarmingly. I was just waiting for the inevitable ‘but’. “However…” Ah, there it was. The conditions. The caveats. “We, and that’s the collective ‘us’ by the way, also understand that living with a buncha ‘predators’ for the foreseeable future may not be all that pleasant for you or your family.”
Lavinny spat out the word ‘predator’ like it was unseasoned icemoss, swimming in scorn and sarcasm. It was so fast it could be barely said to have happened at all, and from how Virtrix replied I don’t think she noticed it, but for a half-instant the shattered facets of the Director’s mask seemed to shift and shadow around the ‘eyes’
“What do you mean by family?” Trix asked innocently. Like we’d be able to keep the kids secret or hiding in Kesta’s studio indefinitely.
Director Lavinny looked at her with obvious confusion. “We were told the two’a youse had Venlings… Venlets?” We just looked at the human blankly. The Director stayed silent for a few moments looking between the two of us before venturing “Sivkittens?”
Realisation dawned on me just as Virtrix snort-squeaked in laughter, and despite myself I started to whistle too.
“Well I suppose laughter is better than terror.” The Director said after we’d both calmed down. Trix and I looked at each other sheepishly.
“Well, Mr Lavinny, I think we both needed a laugh. An immature Venlil or Sivkit is called a ‘pup’.” Trix explained. “We’re guardians for our younger siblings. My little sister Vyzrix and Alvim’s younger brother, Arven.”
“They in the building?”
The moment of levity passed, Trix’s words started to turn more formal though not as worried as before. “No. They’re at Kesta’s. We told them to stay over until we knew what was going on here.”
“Kesta?”
“Our adoptive daughter. At least she would be, if social services wasn’t dragging their paws every chance they get.” I muttered that last part under my breath.
“So no chance they’re in the building? This stuff is hard enough without kids gettin’ nosey.”
I straightened my back and did my best to look the Director in the eye. “None. Kesta lives on the other side of town.”
“Good.” The Director pulled a quartet of old-school contract slates from inside his coat and spread them on the table. “These are your initial baseline contracts and entry-level NDAs. As it stands you get your money from your shares of the hotel, but a refugee center isn’t the most profitable thing in the world. This contract will grant you a stipend each month until the Project closes up and sells our share back to you two.”
What. I felt my jaw slacken as I read the first slate. It was all there, in plain venscript. At a reasonable font size too. A stipend that had to have been calculated from what senior hospitality managers in the capital could expect. A guarantee that the Royal Embassy would be ours to keep for a pittance, though there were worrying mentions of ‘modifications’. It was, in all, the best contract Virtrix and I were ever likely to see outside of a fever dream. I had an impulse to find a Nevok and show it to them, just to see if they’d melt into a puddle at the sheer lack of skulduggery.
Ever the business-minded half of our partnership, Virtrix had forged ahead into the much more substantial NDAs while I was busy gawping at the big shiny numbers.
“These are pretty thorough, but they’re certainly not standard. What gives?”
“Legal duct tape and baling wire. The Project wanted to give you time to discuss whether you wanted to stay and join as management staff or leave on your stipend. But we can’t give you security clearance unless you join and you guys can’t make an informed decision flying blind.” The Director shrugged.
I skimmed through the meaningless blurb of legal text, may as well have been Fissian to me, that somehow my business maestro of a mate could read, understand, and act on like it was a pup’s book. I wanted to ask ‘why bother?’. Legality had never stopped any sort of clandestine organisation from doing whatever they wanted before. But despite what others may say about me I’m not that stupid.
So instead I kept my thoughts to myself and let Virtrix do what she did best. The moment documents had come out Trix had found a measure of calm in the familiarity of it all. Her ears and tail were alert, but no longer taut with suppressed fear. Unlike myself; the entire time I was fighting to keep my ears and tail still. The, heh, ‘Venlets’ thing had helped, and the stipend was a nice distraction but Director Lavinny was still a +[6ft 8in]+ predator surrounded by Shadow Agents and my instincts were screaming.
Not to run or hide or anything in particular, mind you, just screaming.
“What will we be doing if we choose to stay?” Virtrix asked without looking up from the slate she was scrolling through.
“Management and administration. Pretty much what you did before.” The Director tilted his masked head and shrugged, Sprunk in hand.
“Could you be more specific?” Virtrix twitched her ears skeptically.
“Sure, sign the NDA and I’ll tell you.” Lavinny gestured to the slate in her paws and barely managed to avoid spilling his untouched drink.
Virtrix was not convinced. Neither was I.
“If we do sign what’s our guarantee you haven’t tricked us? No offence, but a business doesn't last long taking everything at face value when there’re Nevoks about.” Virtrix put the pad down and looked at the Director directly with ears and tail set resolutely.
“If we wanted to screw youse over we’d’ve done it already.”
The way the Director said those words chilled us to the bone. It wasn’t a threat or a boast. It was a statement of fact. If this ‘Secure Shelter’ project had wanted to they’d have crushed us. It would have been that easy.
“Not the most reassuring answer.” I whistled nervously.
“That’s the truth of it kid. It’s what a Venlil would have done. It was what you two were expecting.” The Director sighed and raised his Sprunk to his still-masked face.
The glass was half-empty when he lowered it.
Trix tried to speak but was cut off by the Director snapping round to look at the door, his Shadow Agents doing the same with ears alert and paws reaching into snowcloaks.
“Alphek, stay and protect our new herd.” Lavinny ordered, draining the remainder of his Sprunk to Stars-know-where. “Rest’a youse, with me. Company’s arrived early.”
“Company?” I called after the herd, but not daring to follow.
“Some chowderhead in an exterminator cruiser got lost looking for the dick-swinging contest. Stay here, we’ll deal with ‘em.”
The Shadow Herd trotted off and out the doors in a loose formation. Out of sight of out new human landlord Trix and I dived over to the camera screens in the lobby desk. Alphek said nothing but wandered along behind us, always keeping himself between us and the door.
Sheriff Taln was easily visible on our security cameras, his ranger truck proudly displaying the symbol of partnership between the Ice Ranger Corps and the Exterminator Guilds, driving obliviously towards the parked groundcars.
Oh Speh.
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Hi,
I came to share a theory I've been working on for some time now, and wanted to post it a few weeks ago but every chapter recently published made me consider new angles an rewrite multiple parts of it. So it ended up way longer than I actually wanted it to because it's an intricate subject that is yet to be clarified by Oda, but I really wanted to share all my thoughts about this.
I've been lurking this subreddit a lot without posting and always see people talking about Luffy being or not being the reincarnation of Joy Boy, how it is or it is not fate... Looks like everyone has their opinion on the subject, and both side has some good and not that good points. That's very interesting to read and I really wanted to bring my contribution : I believe that this is meant to be ambiguous.
I did not search up that theory on the net, I don't know if it has been already talked before and I know some small parts have already been discussed, and I apologise if this theory is nothing new to you. I also apologise for not using images but this is a theory aimed at storytelling, and there is not much pictures I can use, because I will be using common One Piece knowledge. And finally, I apologise for making it this long, and I'm pretty sure to get no answer because no one is going to read all that but whatever.
Before getting into the subject, I have to clarify a few things that a lot of you might already be aware of, but that's important to understand if you haven't already.

1. What people in One Piece believe

Since the very beginning, we've been given false information from characters that believe they know how things work, but actually don't. Remember when Devil Fruits were juste legends to the East Blue people? Or how Jabra was afraid of being near another devil fruit? How people laughed at Luffy for believing in Skypiea? There are many more examples but you get it.
I know some of these may just be Oda messing up (especially the "Devil fruits are legendary in East Blue"), but we also know that civilians and even highers up are misinformed. We know there are various reasons for that, and these reasons are not so important here, I'm just saying that some OP readers tend to take everything characters say as facts. That's a mistake. People in the OPverse believe in fate, even though a diametrically opposed notion is extremely important :

1. The force of will

Haki is the main source of power in the OPverse, and while we call it Haki, the Japanese name translates to Force of Will, which is very different from what people (in the manga but also among readers) tend to think. If you consider it as the force of will, then it means its power increases with the strength of one's will. That's especially interesting considering that CoC is said to be inherited, but it is actually in direct contradiction with it's own name. Actually, they have no clue on how having the CoC is determined, or if it's decided from birth, since there is no way to check if someone has it before its awakening. While it may be true that 1 in a million human can use it, as far as we know, it may very well mean that 1 in a million human has an ambition and a willpower so strong that they may unlock CoC.
I won't elaborate further 'cause most of you probably understand what I'm saying here, or already realized it (Especially since the whole Zoro thing, because if we're talking about willpower, I think everyone here will agree with me to say Zoro is among the most strong willed characters in the series).
Will has another great signification in One Piece, and that's the Will of D. We do not have many knowledge on this, but what we know (and what is important here) is the fact that Will of D, and Haki, and by extension will as a whole, is one of the most important concepts in One Piece, it goes directly against the Fate thing, and people (in OP and IRL) often misinterpret one for the other. This is primarily due to Oda saying people inherited someone's will.

1. Oda knows

A lot of shonen have been relying on the reincarnation-destiny shenanigans even when they tried to say the opposite (Yes Naruto, I'm talking about you there), and Oda loves to trick us, as he did with G5 when he basically said "I know some of you expected some edgy shit for gear 5 but I thought this was funnier so, yeah, that's it".
Oda knows what we're expecting, Oda knows we've been reading other manga, and Oda is potentially hinting at will and fate at the same time to trick us (That may also be unintentional, but I will explain it in the conclusion because it's not that important).
Oda have been referring to both fate and will consistently during the whole series, especially with the CoC, as we've already said, and the Will of D and the inheritance of that D in the name. He's probably also doing it with the whole Nika-Joy Boy thing. But you can find it with the themes used, such as Ace being hunted pefore his birth for being the son of Roger, the whole Celestial Dragon concept, nobility (Especially regarding Sabo)...
There are more examples, but enumerating all of them would be pointless. The most important thing is that he knows, and what I will try to explain here, is more "Why does he do that?" than "How"
Now that it's said, let's get into the actual subject.
I - What the hell, Shanks?
There is one thing that bugged me for a while, it's the fact that Shanks stayed at Goa for a whole year with the Hito Nika for no apparent reason, at a time when he was not an emperor yet, but still a very famous and strong pirate.
We still don't know if Shanks knew what the devil fruit actually was, but he at least knew it was a very powerful and/or important one since it was escorted by the CP9. Jinbe seems to know something about Nika and his link with the Sun Pirates, so all knowledge about it is not lost. Shanks knows at least partially about the true History because of Roger, so there's actually a chance Shanks knew about the df.
Shanks left Goa soon after Luffy ate the fruit, meaning his presence on the island may be related to that fruit.
This looks a lot like fate bullshit to me, right? Something like "Roger gave him the hat, and told him about the fruit so he could find the next Joy Boy and give it to them 'cause they are the reincarnation of Joy Boy". But...
II - The Hero with two faces
The nekketsu genre was created by Osamu Tezuka who used Joseph Campbell and his Hero with a Thousand faces as an inspiration. This book explains that every story out there is a variation of a single simple story about a hero going through a specific list of steps. And that includes every story told from the Odyssey to Star Wars, Naruto or.. One Piece, even including the Bible. (That's a very long and intricate book I won't ask you to read if you didn't already because that's way too boring for most people even if it has some really interesting thoughts and it has not stolen its reputation.)
Oda knows very well about this book and nodded at it more than once, by setting up some of these steps literally in One Piece (you'll get what I mean later). I won't elaborate very much about each of these steps, because that'd be way too long and this theory is gonna be massive, but when you read the book with a good One Piece knowledge in mind, a lot of things sound very very clear. That is pretty obvious for a Nekketsu, but it really makes you understand that Oda read that book too, and decided to use it, which is not uncommon, but gives us a new thing to investigate.
The most important part that needs to be discussed here is the first part of the Hero's journey, which is divided in 5 steps :
1- The call to adventure : This is quite literal in One Piece, Roger starts the new era of piracy with his famous speech which is literally the call to adventure
3- The Supernatural Aid : This one is either the devil fruit or Shanks and his CoC, I'd say more the latter than the former since even for One Piece characters all across the sea, CoC is pretty supernatural and unique.
4- The crossing of the first Threshold : That would be either the Logue Town events and Luffy smiling on the scaffold or the first bounty, not so much to say about it.
5- The Belly of the Whale : That's the moment Oda wanted us to realize he did it on purpose, since that's obviously Laboon and the beginning of the Alabasta saga. Campbell describes it as "The point of no return", and yes, it is, since they are now trapped in Grand Line, there is seemingly no way to get out of it without getting crushed by the sea kings of Calm Belt.
FYI, the other steps strongly referred to in OP are :
6- "The road of trials", that's pretty much the description of Grand Line, in the first French version, it was also renamed "La route de tous les périls" which means "The road of all dangers". While it is not actually relevant, I found it to be a pretty funny coincidence.
7- "The meeting with the goddess", that's Ener. Especially interesting considering that Campbell talks about a kind and helping goddess, and Oda chose a selfish autoproclaimed god, which will become a recurring thing later in the manga. By the way, making this theory made me realise that there are massive connections between Skypiea/Enel and Dressrosa/Doflamingo. Way more than I thought at first.
8- "Woman as temptress" is Hancock. The woman definitely failed, but the end of that part should give you some hints at why.
11- "The ultimate boon". For this one, I might be wrong since I'm not a native English speaker, but I believe boon has a godsent/blessing vibe to it, and what would fit it better than becoming the avatar of a god through awakening?
Guessing what the 12th to 15th steps will look like is hard since we didn't get there yet, but the last two, 16 and 17 are "Master of two worlds" which I guess would be Paradise and New World (Hence the name "New World"), and "Freedom to live" which is pretty much Luffy's understanding of the King of Pirates title.
But I'm getting too far here, so let's get back to the initiation.
If you paid attention, I skipped the step 2, because it's the Refusal. Luffy never refused an adventure, he's wanted to be the king of pirates since the very beginning and there is no doubt about it. But that would be a problem only if Luffy was actually the chosen one. In the middle of the Manga, we learn more about Luffy's brothers and especially about Ace.
Ace is cool, uses fire, has the mandatory MC orange that was very often used back then (Goku, Naruto, Ichigo...), and is the son of the King of Pirates. I also believe his name has some meaning besides being Roger's sword's, something like "He's the Ace card of One Piece, the one true MC", but even to me that sounds a bit stretched. Though, Whitebeard was betting on him and thought he could be the next Joy Boy. I mean Nika the sun god is supposed to free the world from the darkness of the world government, and what did Ace use to battle against Black Beard's darkness? A sun.
While Shanks was in Fuschia and Goa, we know Ace was roaming the jungle and the city to steal shit with Sabo and make money. Even Dadan couldn't say where he was and when he'll get home, and Garp gave Ace to Dadan because he knew they were hard to find. Moreover, if young Ace heard about a pirate trying to find him, I'm pretty sure he'd hide until said pirate left the island without even trying to know what they wanted. And if he knew why Shanks was there, nothing would have changed since he'd refuse Shanks' gifts.
Ace refused the call to adventure, he refused to follow his father's footsteps and that's why the only 2 steps that aren't in One Piece are the 2nd, refusal, and the 9th, the Atonement with the father. Even though Campbell does not mean literally the MC's father but more of a father-God figure, it would actually have a deep meaning with Ace as the MC since he holds a grudge against his father who's often considered as some mythic all powerful figure in piracy. Or maybe actually he got his atonement since Whitebeard came to settle things between them at Marine Ford right before they both died, telling him he blames himself for what happened with Black Beard and all.
With Luffy, the God-father figure would be Rayleigh, I guess, but there is no atonement needed. Rayleigh holds that role perfectly for the 10th step, though, since he teaches haki to Luffy. Dragon has nothing to do with Luffy's dream, nor Luffy needs an atonement with any other father figure. To me, Ace fits definitely much more than Luffy on those 2nd and 9th step. And that would mean that in the grand scheme of things, Ace was Joy Boy. Everything is pointing at him. The first step was set way before Luffy's birth, but soon after Ace's. Then Ace refused the adventure, and Luffy took his place to get to the 3rd step.
Why would Shanks keep the Hito Nika fruit with him for a year on a random island of East Blue of all places if not for his captain's son who happen to live on that specific island? Why would he leave the island as soon as Luffy ate the fruit if he was staying because of his interest for Luffy? Why would he give Roger's hat to Luffy instead of giving it to Ace as his father's legacy? Did Luffy mess up the prophecy-thing Roger and Shanks schemed together? Could it be possible that Ace was supposed to be the MC but ended up refusing because of his hatred for his father?
You may be tempted to say that his fate was to dismiss his father's will, and Luffy's fate was to take his place, but then, why would he get the Mera Mera no Mi, the only known df that allows him to make an actual sun? It sounds like remaining shards of his shattered fate, the last thing that connects him to Nika.
III - Can one be fated to eat the Hito Hito no Mi Model Nika?
I think you got it by now, but I believe that One Piece is about the clash between Will and Fate. There are more than 2 characters that actually got out their way to do whatever they wanted.
Sabo fled his parents' house because he didn't want to live as they wanted him to, as a noble. Black Beard killed Thatch so he could create his own path. Shanks chose to bet on Luffy even if he was just a random kid he met while looking for the son of his captain and even gave up his own arm for him (even if I think that it wasn't necessary at all and that he did it to teach Luffy dedication and sacrifice, but that's another debate). All those characters are either emperors, or at the top of the Revolutionary army.
There's also Ace, that refused the call to adventure, and tried to make Whitebeard the KoP while Whitebeard tried to make him the KoP, which led both of them to their death. And the last weirdo is Baggy, whose fate was completely turned upside down from the very moment he met Luffy. And he's also an emperor today. I will stop with that last one because you got the point, but that's the same for Koby and probably others but those 6 are especially interesting...
These 6 characters are bound by one thing : They chose to dismiss their fate for the sake of freedom, following their dreams, with Baggy being the last one to admit it.
Luffy is different from them. He did not acknowledge his fate to dismiss it, he just ignored it from the very beginning, he never wondered if he was doing the right thing, he just did it. He ate the fruit by mistake, went on a journey in a barrel, and chose his crewmates because they seemed nice to him, nothing else. With Nika being a symbol of freedom, maybe only someone who don't even know or care about fate can awaken that fruit. This would correlate (if that's not characters telling bullshit again) with the Gorosei saying zoans have their own will. The only one that fits this criteria is Luffy. Shanks and Roger wanted to give it to Ace, but he was not capable of making good use of it, since he had no chance to one day awaken it. Luffy, on the other hand, had that chance.
If the fruit chose Luffy, that's for that very reason, that's because he's not bound by any fate, he could do whatever he wanted, and that's precisely what he did. Luffy's main trait has always been his unpredictability, and that's pretty much why the GM never got a hand on him until Wano.
In a way, Luffy achieved one of his goals as he's already the freest man on the sea, the only one that can ignore fate. He's not Joy Boy's reincarnation, he carries the will of Roger, and shares his dream, someone who travels by the desires of his heart. Remember how they almost never actually followed the log pose? You got it.
IV - Then, what about the will of D?
Recently, we learnt A LOT of things about the lore, and a few things about the void century. One thing that was not discussed the way I thought it would is the fact that Nefertari Lili was a D. This is huge, and I think Oda miscalculated something by revealing that, because it says a lot more than it seems. If Lili is a D, and was one of the 20 kings, then she lived at the same time than Joy Boy. And that means that the D probably existed before Joy Boy.
We always thought the D was related to Joy Boy, because we were thinking through the shonen mythology prism, with fate and prophecies. But what if the D had nothing to do with Joy Boy? We don't even know if Joy Boy was a D.
Rayleigh, Whitebeard, Kaido, Akainu, Sengoku, Fisher Tiger, Oden, Big Mom... None of them has the D in their name, but yet they did incredible things that shook the entire world. Fisher Tiger is the main example of this, since he freed all the slaves and dealt massive damage to the Celestial Dragons by doing so.
If I had to guess, the Will of Joy Boy is probably much closer to the dream Luffy and Roger share than to a revolution that would free the whole world from the WG. In fact, the will of D seems to be vindictive, and I think we will all agree to say it doesn't fit Luffy very well. But it does fit someone, Dragon.
I believe Dragon truly carries the will of D, with an army of powerful soldiers using change-oriented powers (Betty changes the mind, Morley changes the ground, Lindbergh changes trash into contraptions, Karasu can create things using the ashes left by the flames of war, and Sabo is the Sun, and the flames of war).
I don't think Luffy won't defeat Imu or whatever final boss there among the WG, but I think he got the D only because he's Dragon's son. He does carry Roger's will, which may be Joy Boy's since Zunesha recognized the drums of liberation, linking Joy Boy and Nika, but I think Luffy will free the world and play along Dragon's plan without trying nor knowing, just because it's one thing he must achieve to achieve his own dream. Meaning that Dragon is the true heir of the Will of D.
And now you'll think "OK so the end of the WG is only decided by a father and his son. Still sounds like fate bullshit to me".
V - Ohana means Family
What people tend to overlook the most, or at least under appreciate, in One Piece is the Blood vs Heart theme. Fate, reincarnation and blood lineage are strongly related in fiction, especially in shonen, and the most important yet often forgotten theme of One Piece, is the family.
As you may have understood already, found families are a very important notion in One Piece and there are A LOT of examples in the series, much more than you could imagine at first. The most obvious are the Strawhats, or Luffy/Sabo/Ace/Dadan and the other mountain bandits, Whitebeard's crew, Nami/Nojiko/Belmer, Sanji/Zeff...
But there are also famous examples of Blood related families, such as the Monkey family, the Charlotte family, the Vinsmoke family... And they aren't depicted the same way at all.
When Luffy loses Ace, Jinbe tells him he's still got something, and he's talking about the SHs, not Garp nor Dragon. When people ask Oda about Luffy's actual mother, he says she's not relevant and he won't be talking about her. When Garp tells Luffy about his father, Luffy doesn't even care about who he is.
In fact, whenever there is a blood relationship between characters, Oda sets up or bring back a non-blood relationship to counter it immediately. The Vinsmoke family vs Strawhats/Zeff for Sanji, Roger vs WB/Luffy for Ace... These are pretty obvious, but it actually goes WAY deeper. The Charlotte Family vs Bege's crew for Chiffon, Charlotte family vs Sun Pirates for Praline, the Don Quijote family vs the Doflamily (every important member has been betrayed by their relatives and looked for another family before meeting Doflamingo so it also counts for at least Baby 5, Dellinger, Señor Pink, Pica...), Doflamingo vs Sengoku and Law for Corazón, the reindeers vs Hiluluk and Kureha for Chopper...
Oda tries to tell us that bloodline means nothing, and that's pretty much why Zoro's bloodline was revealed in a SBS. Saying Dragon and Luffy are father and son here doesn't hold much importance regarding fate. The only thing Dragon gave to Luffy is his name, and Oda really wants us to understand this.
To conclude this part, I would like to add that I also believe that fate exists in One Piece, we are witnessing the journey of a bunch of pirates trying to break that fate to achieve true freedom, and among them, Luffy, the only one who actually managed to do it without even trying. That is the true meaning that hides behind the title of "King of pirates".
VI - The question that will never be answered
This part will be very long, and I'm sorry for that, but it's an important point.
The last question you probably have in mind is "Do you actually think Oda planned ALL this all the way through?", and that's a very good question. It is used as a counter-argument to most of the theories because we know a part of One Piece wasn't planned from the beginning. The fact that the supernovae, who are among the most important characters in the manga, were not planned from the beginning changed everything in our way to theorize.
But are they THAT important to the story? We're at the beginning of the last saga, and where are they? Hawkins is (supposedly) dead, Kidd is left for dead, Law is badly injured, Bonney is living in another manga, Drake is a Sword member, and pretty much all the others are irrelevant.
Yes, Law had a strong impact in the Four Emperors saga, he was there all along and took part in most of the battles, being replaced by Bege for WCI. But Law is currently more of a part of the Kaido narrative, not One Piece as a whole.
He was only used to guide Luffy through this saga and finally decided to go for the One Piece even if he always claimed he was only interessed in taking down Doflamingo and then Kaido. He was fulfilling a function in the details of a Saga, just like Vivi did in the Alabasta one. The main difference is Law doesn't hold much place in the WG's minds. I was personally convinced Oda would kill him at the end of Wano because he had no purpose left in the story. It seems Oda still has some plans for him, probably more linked to his fruit that must not become available, or his powers which could be needed in some way, than to Law directly. It doesn't mean he will have a great impact on the last saga, though.
The Bonney case is also very interesting, because her crew was seen 5 times at best and suddenly vanished post ts. She has no purpose as a pirate and is not even trying to reach the One Piece. In fact she definitely looks like a character that was poorly merged with another to flesh them out a bit more. Kuma's child was merged with Bonney, a character Oda came up with a few weeks before her reveal because he had no plan for her.
I can pretty much say the same about Drake, explaining why he randomly joined Kaido's crew and was later revealed as a sword member. I think Sword was planned before ts, and maybe having a Sword member among Kaido's crew too. When Oda created the supernovae, he probably decided to make Drake the ex-Marine guy to introduce him as a Captain before being into Kaido's crew to increase the impact of the character in Wano. The fact that he is coincidentally an Ancient Zoan user just like the other Tobiroppo is easily explained by this, just a small mistake Oda chose to go with because he found the twist more interesting.
While some Supernovae look like important characters, they are not important because of the fact they are Supernovae. If Law/Drake/Bonney was an unknown character until Punk Hazard/Wano/Egghead, I'm pretty sure the story would have been almost the same, these characters would just have been a bit less hyped.
This adaptation ability is a more impressive writing skill than foreshadowing to me, but Law definitely benefited way more than Drake and Bonney from that. In the end, planned of not, the result is the same : Wapol is currently a more important character for the last saga than any supernova that isn't Bonney.
So yes, Oda did not plan the Supernovae, but it doesn't mean some of their roles did not exist in early drafts of One Piece. And Oda doesn't need to plan all the details about a character, a location, or a concept. He just needs the general idea. This same logic can apply to a lot of other things.
Let's get back to our subject. Yes, I do think Oda planned the "Ace was the chosen one" issue from the beginning, but not entirely. He didn't need to. In fact, planning such a twist requires to plan :
1/ The "Shanks staying at Fuschia for a long time and Ace living on the island" situation.
Ace was introduced pretty early in the series, as Luffy's adoptive brother, so it is safe to assume their childhood was already planned by that time, at least the most important points (Especially the temporality) .
2/ The "Gomu Gomu is actually a mythical Zoan of the Sun God" twist.
This is where it becomes harder. The Sun is an important part of this theory since Ace's power connected him to Nika in a way, and you can't actually believe this theory if you don't think Oda planned that twist since at least Drum island (The first time we hear about Zoans and Ace's powers even if it's just hinted). Actually, I don't really think Oda planned all of the twist from the beginning, but only some key points : "Luffy is a zoan" and "The sun is linked to freedom". If I can explain how the sun is linked to freedom since early arcs, Luffy is indirectly connected to the sun because of a shared connection to freedom.
2.1/Luffy's fruit is actually a Zoan.
I know this is a highly debatable and debated point in the community, especially here, but I do think Luffy was supposed to be a zoan a very long time ago. Even before Zoans were introduced. I know you can't check this statement because I only talked about it with friends, but I'm convinced of this because I actually understood that Luffy's fruit could not be a paramecia during Dressrosa, and that it was a Zoan during the beginning of Wano. There are a few hints, I will not list them all, just the most specific ones that helped me understand that. The first time Luffy does something he shouldn't be able to is at Arlong Park. Arlong throws Luffy in the water, and Genzo and Nojiko stretch Luffy's neck out of the water to let him breathe. Paramecia powers shouldn't be usable in water. Even for Logia users, turning into their element requires some amount of energy, even when used unconsciously. Every devil fruit power needs some energy to be used, and that energy is not available when under water. That's the main rule of devil fruits. The only explanation there is for Luffy to be able to stretch his neck under water is to be a Zoan. His power is not "Having a rubber body" but "Turning into a rubber man", meaning that if he's already in hybrid/animal mode by the moment he's thrown under water, he will be locked in that state, not being able to turn into a regular human back, but still being in rubber.
Yes, the Nika fruit seems special, and we don't know if Luffy has those 3 forms. But what I am sure of, is that Zoan fruits give the ability to turn into something.
When he's under water in Arlong park, the first thing he says is "I can't feel my limbs", which means he probably doesn't have enough strength to stretch his arms himself as he usually does, that's why we never realised that. The only times he claimed he couldn't use his powers in this kind of situation is when he was in contact with seastone. He was conscious, and I think that since Luffy himself believes he's a Paramecia and can't use his powers while in contact with seastone, he won't do it. It explains why it worked when he was not conscious, and doesn't work when he is. But it doesn't mean he can't. Remember, it's only limit is his imagination.
During time skip, he had no idea that coating himself in haki should nullify his powers as a paramecia, so he couldn't know that gear fourth was actually incoherent. Doflamingo did know it, and when he kicked Luffy's gear 4th, he stated that it should not be possible. The only way coating himself in haki wouldn't nullify his powers is the Gomu Gomu no Mi actually being a zoan since zoan users can coat themselves in haki while being transformed. Again, they don't have "The power to be an animal" but "The power to turn into an animal", making the abilities gained into one of their forms their own ability, and not their df's.
Bonus : We know zoan awakening uses a lot of energy to be maintained, that's the main difference with other zoan powers, and that can be used to explain something. When Chopper in monster point is underwater, he is unable to maintain his monster point, and comes back to hybrid form, which needs no energy to maintain. Awakened zoan and df in general still hold lots of mysteries, and this not a proof of anything, but that's an argument.
The Zoan theory was the only way to fully explain Luffy's abilities since Arlong Park.
And again, I am not saying Oda planned the Nika thing from Arlong park, I only mean Luffy was planned to be a rubber-man zoan since then.
2.2/ "The sun is linked to freedom"
Since the Gorosei were introduced as the Five Elder Planets (Even if we didn't understand it like that at first) in the Jaya arc, after Alabasta which stated that the Ancient Weapons are named after planets, it's safe to assume the symbolic link between a few characters in the manga with the solar system was planned very early.
The sun god was teased a long time ago. The first time we hear about the sun god is in Skypiea, a few arcs after Arlong Park. Skypiea does not take place on the blue sea, and mainly has lore-related purposes, so its lore shouldn't be ignored. While there is no way to prove the Sun God was linked to freedom by that time, we can safely assume the sun god was supposed to hold some relevance to the story later. And I don't mean anything more than that, I believe Oda's notes stated something like "Sun god = important" and that's pretty much all there is to the Skypiea arc regarding that point.
BUT this is actually not the first connection the manga has with the sun, since the first book's name is "Romance Dawn", Oda specifically asked for it to be "Romance Dawn" in every language, meaning that title is important to him. Well, that's the name of the pilot, yes, but the term Dawn is very important in One Piece and I don't think that would be too crazy to assume he planned to use that term for the revolution thing he planned for the end of the series. Again, I'm not saying he planned everything from the start, he just wrote "Dawn = Revolution" on a notepad, and that's all. That could be enough for Oda to plan to make a connection between the sun and freedom later in the manga.
THere is one more thing about that, and it was first seen... In Arlong Park. Hachi has a Sun tattooed on the forehead and we all know what it means. I know Jinbe wasn't supposed to be a cool guy from the beginning and was planned to be way closer to Arlong and Hody than one of Luffy's crewmates, but that doesn't mean Fishmen lore wasn't planned by that time.
Arlong Park's main theme is racism, so is Fishmen island's and so is Fishmen's in general. They are obviously strongly related. Hachi acts very friendly towards Zoro before knowing who he was, and that can easily be understood as a hint at the fact that he's actually a nice guy and may be an ally later in the manga. His cover story even proves Oda planned something more for him a long time before he came back to the story. Hachi was made to be a relevant character outside of his first arc, and placing a tattoo on the forehead of a character is not something that should be taken lightly in terms of charadesign.
It is pretty safe to assume that the sun tattoo was planned to be something at least vaguely related to slavery and freedom, that would also mean Oda already linked the sun and the freedom thing back in Arlong Park. Again, I am being very vague about what he has planned because there is a good chance all he planned was very vague by that time.
People tend to believe the Nika part of the twist was made up during the Wano arc and never planned before, and I kinda agree with this. I would say it was made up somewhere between the end of Dressrosa and the moment it was revealed. The way Oda introduced Nika was really bad, but it doesn't mean it wasn't planned at all. It can also mean he either forgot to introduce it before or never found the right moment to do so.
My guess is Oda planned "Sun = Freedom" by the very beginning of the Manga, set up a few things in the first arcs (Arlong Park and Skypiea, because they are linked to the sun theme) and decided to bring it back around the end of Dressrosa (When Doflamingo stated gear 4th made no sense). The events of the Zou arc were too bloated with Roger-related lore to connect it to Nika, and WCI had no reason to talk about such legends. Wano has been cut from the rest of the world for a long time and Wano people couldn't have that kind of information. The last option left to Oda was a member of Kaido's crew, which could have had information from the WG. He then made up some bullshit about Who's Who hearing about the Warrior of Liberation and that's it. The part about Who's Who being being a CP9 member involved in the df's protection sounds the most credible part of that terrible scene, it may have been planned before. Oda probably wanted to introduce Nika before, but trapped himself in his own story.
And that is why I think that even if Oda made up a part of the Nika twist between Dressrosa and Onigashima, Luffy being a Zoan related to both the sun and freedom was planned at least since Arlong Park. And don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Oda is a genius. In fact, if we're here talking about it now, that's precisely because he is not a genius, and that he messed up that part of the lore.
Though, he is still a strong-willed dedicated author, and when you write a story, you write the beginning and the end's major points at the same time. Oda didn't need details from the last saga, he just needed to plan some major points. And the true nature of Luffy's power looks big enough to me to be part of those major points that needed a little planning. He's been working on One Piece for a very long time, even before One Piece even started, and the quest for freedom has always been one of the most important themes in the manga. We all understood very soon, way before Luffy said it himself, that being the King of Pirates meant being the freest man of the world to him. That's just how is Luffy.
One Piece cannot be dissociated with the Freedom theme, and thinking Luffy being the Warrior of Liberation was planned from the beginning of the story does not seem too far fetched to me.
Bonus - The power to free people
This one is a fully speculative point that I do not fully believe myself because I didn't find enough satisfying hints and evidence in my opinion, but I think it is still worth mentionning. The last chapters with Wapol made me wonder one thing. Is it possible that the power to gather people around him that Mihawk says Luffy has is actually linked to all I explained before? All major antagonist since Little Garden will visibly play a role in the end. And most people Luffy spent time with too. Baggy and Wapol are the best examples of what I'm trying to say. I feel like they got totally out of their initial way. I think Luffy may disturb the fate of everyone he interacts with, and those he interacts the most with happen to become much more like him, free of any fate. It's not that he has the power to gather people, but to free them from their fate. The true warrior of liberation. If you think about it, cartoonisation may also be a sign of this. The more "manga-like" parts are fate-related whereas the "cartoon-like" parts are free, explaining why Oda chose such an effect for Gear 5.
Conclusion
I am still not 100% sure about this theory, but Ace may have been the chosen One, Shanks and Roger believed he could be the next Joy Boy, but Luffy ate the fruit before Ace, taking his place as the MC.
There are misunderstandings around the Will of D, Joy Boy and Nika, and I'm pretty sure Oda did it on purpose. If not, it means he actually messed up his plans and is struggling to seperate Luffy from the fate thing.
Trying to follow carefully every step described by Joseph Campbell while trying to not make it a story shaped by fate is very risky. Even if it's well-made, everyone is influenced by all these myths and stories that Campbell used to elaborate his theory, and all the stories that were written after using Campbell's book as inspiration, especially among shonen. There are literally hundreds of tropes linked to that kind of storytelling, and they also are used in One Piece. That said, I still believe in Oda, and hope that, if I'm right, he will manage to finish his manga as he wanted.
Thank you for reading if you did.

TLDR; Read the warning below, then install trezorctl, then download the script.

• https://trezor.io/learn/a/trezorctl-on-windows
• https://github.com/brianddk/reddit/blob/mastepython/mk_secret.py

Trezor Secret Maker

This mk_secret.py utility is a simple python script to help users as Trezor Password Manager enters deprecation. This utility will take a ascii key and generate 128 bit to 256 bit password with it. This can be used as a very simple password manager until something more permanent comes around.

Single Password Storage

Here's a simple example for single passwords on the Windows console. Very similar to the linux pass utility.
python mk_secret.py -k "reddit.com / brianddk" clip
This produces a 128bit password and drops it into the Windows clipboard. The KEY used is the string "reddit.com / brianddk" which will help the user remember that this password is for reddit, and the username on reddit this is for is u/brianddk. The process is deterministic, so anytime you enter the same key, you will get the same secret. Hopefully we all know that my reddit password isn't 828a...1f7a. I've been using hunter2 for years now.

Password Manager Launcher

Another use of this would be to allow you to launch your password manager from the console using a secret generated from your Trezor. Since we may not like storing passwords on the clipboard, some password managers allow you to use console redirection create and unlock the database. The following will create a new KeepassXC database with a generated password then launch the empty database for password entry. Obviously the db-create command only needs to be run once to set the initial password. The following assumes the Windows Console has KeepassXC installed and in the path:
python mk_secret.py -d -k "KeepassXC Database" keepassxc-cli.exe db-create -p TrezorKeepass.kdbx 2> NUL python mk_secret.py -k "KeepassXC Database" keepassxc.exe --pw-stdin TrezorKeepass.kdbx

Session Management

If you use a complex passphrase on your Trezor, you may wish to enable session management so you only need to enter the passphrase once, then use the session token thereafter. Of course, tokens expire when the device is unplugged. For example the following windows console commands would save off a session-id, then use it to place a password on the clipboard and launch the keepass database.
for /f %p in ('trezorctl get-session') do set session=%p python mk_secret.py -s %session% -k "reddit.com / brianddk" clip python mk_secret.py -s %session% -k "KeepassXC Database" keepassxc.exe --pw-stdin TrezorKeepass.kdbx

Under The Hood

The utility will try to avoid showing secrets on the console unless verbosity (-v) is requested. If EXTREME verbosity (-e) is requested you will see all the encodings I could think of. This includes making BIP39 seeds and passwords of various forms. Since some sites require symbols and numbers so encodings like base85 might be preferred. The utility defaults to hex encoding. The process of making a secret uses the Trezor encrypt_keyvalue command. This is the same API as is used by trezorctl crypto encrypt-keyvalue -n m/10016h/0 KEY VALUE. As you noticed, there is both a KEY and a VALUE mentioned in the arguments. For simplicity, I simply use a padded version of the KEY for the VALUE. The following two commands, one from trezorctl and the other with mk_secret.py will both produce the same secret.
trezorctl -s %session% crypto encrypt-keyvalue -n m/10016h/0 "test key" "test key " python mk_secret.py -v -s %session% -k "test key"
NOTE: The extreme verbosity display will show a field called fp, this is the fingerprint of your current Trezor mnemonic+passphrase. So long as you have the same fingerprint, you are guaranteed that a given input will produce the same secret. Here's an example of the extreme verbosity display compared with the get-public-node. Note that the fp and node.fingerprint fields match.
``` $ trezorctl -s "%session%" btc get-public-node -n "m/0" Please confirm action on your Trezor device. node.depth: 1 node.fingerprint: 5c44dd62 node.child_num: 0 node.chain_code: 5ffd052182dce6e2658544ccda9e1aac86bc39545837064eaac5a469bc929f56 node.public_key: 02c7af2fbcb7f6cb5c4d2befc69c71584cf9c83f62ab069136d0be87d282afb433 xpub: xpub68ZqGuoewpDF8TPKMYes2rT2ek7PiCAP6Z5guk8mQWXX4eQ57yCKQFHVrHwyr3Nc4CKbzxWVDLo1qrSD475xYqbep75A74GR9kEGJhFB4dw
$ python mk_secret.py -s "%session% -e -k "test key" Please confirm action on your Trezor device. input: [fp: 5c44dd62, path: "10016h/0", key: "test key", padded_value: "test key "] encoded_b85: "4LpjOdgpPKS2StLwU5=" encoded_b64: "DTyKmXrncZVXNGnKt3nIpQ==" encoded_b58: "2doTDKguKQXv7XkmBtzFXA" encoded_hex: "0d3c8a997ae77195573469cab779c8a5" encoded_4ch: "ArtwTonePlayVoluJackSkirFresMinoSkirRookImpuEnerStabEarnGrasFrieImmePrimSnacSqueProbRudeCardRebe" encoded_b39: "artwork tone play volume jacket skirt fresh minor skirt rookie impulse energy stable earn grass friend immense primary snack squeeze problem rude card rebel" ```

Requirements

To run this utility you need to have python 3 installed as well as the trezorctl utility. The trezorctl install (pip install trezor) will install both the trezorctl utility as well as the trezorlib python libraries this utility relies on. Assuming python 3 is already installed, doing the rest could be as simple as the following commands. Do see the warnings below about running python from a stranger.
curl -o https://github.com/brianddk/reddit/blob/mastepython/mk_secret.py pip install trezor python mk_secret.py -v -k "test key"

Reproducibility

All these commands and outputs can be reproduced using the SLIP-14 seed-mnemonic and a passphrase of mk_secret. Nothing up my sleeves.
slip-14-mnemonic: all all all all all all all all all all all all passphrase: mk_secret

Usage

``` usage: mk_secret.py [-h] [-s S] [-k K] [-c C] [-t] [-d] [-v] [-e] [-hex] [-58] [-64] [-85] [-12] [-18] [-24] [-4]
Trezor Secret Maker
optional arguments: -h, --help show this help message and exit -s S session (hex) to use -k K use key / secret from args (default is stdin) -c C clip the the encoding down to NUM characters -t trim linefeeds for keyfile use -d two lines on stream for verify prompts -v verbose will show the generated secret on stdout -e extreme verbosity will show the key as well and ALL encodings -hex (default) generate base16 (hex) encoding -58 generate base58 encoding -64 generate base64 encoding -85 generate base85 encoding -12 generate BIP39 12 word mnemonics -18 generate BIP39 18 word mnemonics -24 generate BIP39 24 word (default) mnemonics -4 4-character encoding of BIP39 mnemonic ```

References

• https://trezor.io/learn/a/trezor-password-manager
• https://trezor.io/learn/a/trezorctl-on-windows
• https://docs.trezor.io/trezor-firmware/python/trezorlib.html
• https://github.com/satoshilabs/slips/blob/masteslip-0014.md
• https://github.com/satoshilabs/slips/blob/masteslip-0016.md
• https://github.com/brianddk/reddit/blob/mastepython/mk_secret.py

BUGS

When I originally created this I had hoped to use the bash process substitution feature to let trezor work as a keyfile. This would look something like:
keepassxc-cli db-create --set-key-file <(mk_secret.py -t -s %session% -k "Keepass Keyfile") example.kdbx
But unfortunately the filestream reader currently in use with keepassxc-cli doesn't support this type of FIFO reads. There is already an issue logged with KeepassXC. I had added the TRIM (-t) argument to the utility in anticipation of this. Rational was to remove OS dependencies on EOL processing by stripping EOL characters from the stream. I can verify that the trim feature works, but I can't verify it with KeepassXC till they fix KeepassXC.

WARNINGS

If you don't read python then DONT download or run any of this code. Python scripts can have fairly complete access to your filesystem. It can't read secrets from the Trezor, but file system access is still a lot. As a general rule of thumb, you should never trust internet strangers. I may work on getting something like this added to one of the official repositories in the future, but for the most part, that is something up to the maintainers and not entirely within my control. Hopefully this utility is simple enough to fully understand.

I've been moving everything to KeePass since TPM is end-of-life. The github thread about it seemed to indicate Trezor will be focusing on Trezor-R and Coinjoins for the near future so there are no plans to migrate TPM into Suite.
So it's trivial to integrate Trezor into KeePass, and will ask the KeePass team to consider it. In the meantime I'm writing a Trezor Keypass Launcher that uses the official Trezor Python API.
Would anyone be interested in random python code from an internet stranger talking to your Trezor to secure your KeePass data?

UPDATE

TLDR; Read the warning below, then install trezorctl, then download the script.

• https://trezor.io/learn/a/trezorctl-on-windows
• https://github.com/brianddk/reddit/blob/mastepython/mk_secret.py

Trezor Secret Maker

This mk_secret.py utility is a simple python script to help users as Trezor Password Manager enters deprecation. This utility will take a ascii key and generate 128 bit to 256 bit password with it. This can be used as a very simple password manager until something more permanent comes around.

Single Password Storage

Here's a simple example for single passwords on the Windows console. Very similar to the linux pass utility.
python mk_secret.py -k "reddit.com / brianddk" clip
This produces a 128bit password and drops it into the Windows clipboard. The KEY used is the string "reddit.com / brianddk" which will help the user remember that this password is for reddit, and the username on reddit this is for is u/brianddk. The process is deterministic, so anytime you enter the same key, you will get the same secret. Hopefully we all know that my reddit password isn't 828a...1f7a. I've been using hunter2 for years now.

Password Manager Launcher

Another use of this would be to allow you to launch your password manager from the console using a secret generated from your Trezor. Since we may not like storing passwords on the clipboard, some password managers allow you to use console redirection create and unlock the database. The following will create a new KeepassXC database with a generated password then launch the empty database for password entry. Obviously the db-create command only needs to be run once to set the initial password. The following assumes the Windows Console has KeepassXC installed and in the path:
python mk_secret.py -d -k "KeepassXC Database" keepassxc-cli.exe db-create -p TrezorKeepass.kdbx 2> NUL python mk_secret.py -k "KeepassXC Database" keepassxc.exe --pw-stdin TrezorKeepass.kdbx

Session Management

If you use a complex passphrase on your Trezor, you may wish to enable session management so you only need to enter the passphrase once, then use the session token thereafter. Of course, tokens expire when the device is unplugged. For example the following windows console commands would save off a session-id, then use it to place a password on the clipboard and launch the keepass database.
for /f %p in ('trezorctl get-session') do set session=%p python mk_secret.py -s %session% -k "reddit.com / brianddk" clip python mk_secret.py -s %session% -k "KeepassXC Database" keepassxc.exe --pw-stdin TrezorKeepass.kdbx

Under The Hood

The utility will try to avoid showing secrets on the console unless verbosity (-v) is requested. If EXTREME verbosity (-e) is requested you will see all the encodings I could think of. This includes making BIP39 seeds and passwords of various forms. Since some sites require symbols and numbers so encodings like base85 might be preferred. The utility defaults to hex encoding. The process of making a secret uses the Trezor encrypt_keyvalue command. This is the same API as is used by trezorctl crypto encrypt-keyvalue -n m/10016h/0 KEY VALUE. As you noticed, there is both a KEY and a VALUE mentioned in the arguments. For simplicity, I simply use a padded version of the KEY for the VALUE. The following two commands, one from trezorctl and the other with mk_secret.py will both produce the same secret.
trezorctl -s %session% crypto encrypt-keyvalue -n m/10016h/0 "test key" "test key " python mk_secret.py -v -s %session% -k "test key"
NOTE: The extreme verbosity display will show a field called fp, this is the fingerprint of your current Trezor mnemonic+passphrase. So long as you have the same fingerprint, you are guaranteed that a given input will produce the same secret. Here's an example of the extreme verbosity display compared with the get-public-node. Note that the fp and node.fingerprint fields match.
``` $ trezorctl -s "%session%" btc get-public-node -n "m/0" Please confirm action on your Trezor device. node.depth: 1 node.fingerprint: 5c44dd62 node.child_num: 0 node.chain_code: 5ffd052182dce6e2658544ccda9e1aac86bc39545837064eaac5a469bc929f56 node.public_key: 02c7af2fbcb7f6cb5c4d2befc69c71584cf9c83f62ab069136d0be87d282afb433 xpub: xpub68ZqGuoewpDF8TPKMYes2rT2ek7PiCAP6Z5guk8mQWXX4eQ57yCKQFHVrHwyr3Nc4CKbzxWVDLo1qrSD475xYqbep75A74GR9kEGJhFB4dw
$ python mk_secret.py -s "%session% -e -k "test key" Please confirm action on your Trezor device. input: [fp: 5c44dd62, path: "10016h/0", key: "test key", padded_value: "test key "] encoded_b85: "4LpjOdgpPKS2StLwU5=" encoded_b64: "DTyKmXrncZVXNGnKt3nIpQ==" encoded_b58: "2doTDKguKQXv7XkmBtzFXA" encoded_hex: "0d3c8a997ae77195573469cab779c8a5" encoded_4ch: "ArtwTonePlayVoluJackSkirFresMinoSkirRookImpuEnerStabEarnGrasFrieImmePrimSnacSqueProbRudeCardRebe" encoded_b39: "artwork tone play volume jacket skirt fresh minor skirt rookie impulse energy stable earn grass friend immense primary snack squeeze problem rude card rebel" ```

Requirements

To run this utility you need to have python 3 installed as well as the trezorctl utility. The trezorctl install (pip install trezor) will install both the trezorctl utility as well as the trezorlib python libraries this utility relies on. Assuming python 3 is already installed, doing the rest could be as simple as the following commands. Do see the warnings below about running python from a stranger.
curl -o https://github.com/brianddk/reddit/blob/mastepython/mk_secret.py pip install trezor python mk_secret.py -v -k "test key"

Reproducibility

All these commands and outputs can be reproduced using the SLIP-14 seed-mnemonic and a passphrase of mk_secret. Nothing up my sleeves.
slip-14-mnemonic: all all all all all all all all all all all all passphrase: mk_secret

Usage

``` usage: mk_secret.py [-h] [-s S] [-k K] [-c C] [-t] [-d] [-v] [-e] [-hex] [-58] [-64] [-85] [-12] [-18] [-24] [-4]
Trezor Secret Maker
optional arguments: -h, --help show this help message and exit -s S session (hex) to use -k K use key / secret from args (default is stdin) -c C clip the the encoding down to NUM characters -t trim linefeeds for keyfile use -d two lines on stream for verify prompts -v verbose will show the generated secret on stdout -e extreme verbosity will show the key as well and ALL encodings -hex (default) generate base16 (hex) encoding -58 generate base58 encoding -64 generate base64 encoding -85 generate base85 encoding -12 generate BIP39 12 word mnemonics -18 generate BIP39 18 word mnemonics -24 generate BIP39 24 word (default) mnemonics -4 4-character encoding of BIP39 mnemonic ```

References

• https://trezor.io/learn/a/trezor-password-manager
• https://trezor.io/learn/a/trezorctl-on-windows
• https://docs.trezor.io/trezor-firmware/python/trezorlib.html
• https://github.com/satoshilabs/slips/blob/masteslip-0014.md
• https://github.com/satoshilabs/slips/blob/masteslip-0016.md
• https://github.com/brianddk/reddit/blob/mastepython/mk_secret.py
• https://github.com/brianddk/reddit/blob/mastemarkdown/mk_secret.md

BUGS

When I originally created this I had hoped to use the bash process substitution feature to let trezor work as a keyfile. This would look something like:
keepassxc-cli db-create --set-key-file <(mk_secret.py -t -s %session% -k "Keepass Keyfile") example.kdbx
But unfortunately the filestream reader currently in use with keepassxc-cli doesn't support this type of FIFO reads. There is already an issue logged with KeepassXC. I had added the TRIM (-t) argument to the utility in anticipation of this. Rational was to remove OS dependencies on EOL processing by stripping EOL characters from the stream. I can verify that the trim feature works, but I can't verify it with KeepassXC till they fix KeepassXC.

WARNINGS

If you don't read python then DONT download or run any of this code. Python scripts can have fairly complete access to your filesystem. It can't read secrets from the Trezor, but file system access is still a lot. As a general rule of thumb, you should never trust internet strangers. I may work on getting something like this added to one of the official repositories in the future, but for the most part, that is something up to the maintainers and not entirely within my control. Hopefully this utility is simple enough to fully understand.