Unclear Justice

Munday Meme

18. Are there any AUs you'd like to explore but haven't had the chance to yet?

You betcha. There are currently 2 main AUs kicking around in my head that I wanna explore:

The one I want to hash out the most is my default non-Marine AU, where he's a drifter on the Grand Line trying to reach Laugh Tale for the sake of it. Known only as "Lightbrand" Borsalino, he's similar to the man he would've been, but there are certain key differences; for example, he couldn't give less of a shit about justice, no matter how clear or unclear it may be. He'd also have developed his powers in (somewhat of) a different direction, considering there's training marines go through that he wouldn't have had the benefit of here. I'm still trying to get all the details ironed out, but honestly, I just need an AU where Borsalino can interact with pirates outside of fight threads, since most people in the OP rpc are pirate mains.

The other main AU I wanna try out is one where he never ate the Glint Glint fruit but still became an admiral, essentially being a cross between Sanji's kicks and Ussop's snipes in terms of skillset to make up for not being able to move at lightspeed. He'd also have a touch of swordsmanship, but it's not his preferred style. I dunno, it just seems like it'd be interesting to explore a Borsalino that took a more Garp approach to advancement.

19. Do you listen to music whilst writing? If so, what kind of music?

Sometimes. I'm sorry for the non-commital answer, but it really does depend on how I feel on a given day. Sometimes music is just distracting noise that prevents me from thinking, sometimes it is God's own gift to me to provide the inspiration I seek, and sometimes the only things I can think about while listening to music are awesome AMVs and Animatics for my muses that I don't have the ability to make.

Past and Secret Drabbles

When Borsalino first joined the marines, he couldn't have cared less about justice. It's not that it didn't matter, per se, it was just the sort of thing that other people worried about, not him. Sakazuki could go on and on about how pirates are monsters and how justice needed to be absolute in order to deal with them, but what did that really matter? Whether you locked them in a cell forever or melted them in magma, they were still definitively dealt with either way. Besides, the seas were simply too big; you could kill every pirate you ever met, but there'd always be more to fill whatever gaps you managed to make.

That all changed one day when Zephyr-sensei took him aside. It was near the end of their training; not many had made it all the way through, but those who had would go on to be the backbone of the next generation of the marines. Zephyr-sensei had said to him "Borsalino, I know you've never cared about justice. There's something you want out of the marines, and you support Sakazuki, but justice has never been a priority to you. And that...that's because you never heard of a justice you agreed with, have you?

Listen, Borsalino: justice is something created by humans. Everyone's justice is different, but they all share one thing in common: that justice of theirs is born from the values that they care about the most. Justice isn't something that can be given to you; your justice can only be born from what you believe in. So what do you believe in, Borsalino? Because those who don't believe in justice don't deserve to wear the uniform."

Borsalino didn't have an answer back then. Zephyr had been right; Borsalino never cared about anything like that, so he'd never formed anything that he could consider to be a sense of justice. His words sparked something in Borsalino, forced a self-reflection that the young man wouldn't have been able to do on his own. He hadn't been able to answer at the time, but it wouldn't be long before the seed Zephyr planted began to sprout.

It wasn't something extreme enough to be considered "Absolute."

It wasn't something kind enough to be considered "Moral."

It was something that was so very...unclear to everyone around him.

Past and Secret Drabbles

The fruit had just been sitting on the table, all yellow and shiny, with fun and goofy swirls all over it. What was a poor, innocent child like Borsalino to do if not eat something so interesting? But oh boy, was Zephyr-sensei mad! When he found out that terribly-tasting delicacy was no longer among the uneaten, he'd lined up all the students and and interrogated all of them at the top of his lungs.

Nobody spilled, of course, because nobody knew. Nobody but Borsalino, and Borsalino had always had a knack for letting Zephyr-sensei's harsh chastisements just roll right off of him. So he'd forced them to run ten laps around the entire base. That'd been so rough.~ But Borsalino didn't regret it; he'd learned a long time ago how important it was to get whatever scraps he could.

It wasn't long after that that Borsalino was caught anyway. He'd been passing by the firing range on his way to one of the drill yards when one of the would-be sharpshooters tripped. That man's rifle impacted with the floor in just the wrong way, setting the gun off. The bullet ricocheted off of a metal support beam and went straight through Borsalino's head. The fact that he was not only not dead, but also totally fine, was simply impossible to explain any other way.

What Borsalino remembers most about that incident, however, is not the moment where he realized he had been shot. It was a moment that came later, when he realized what had happened to him. In that instant of recognition, a wave of basic knowledge concerning what he now was and what he could do entered his thoughts. It was like an epiphany that someone else had shoved into his head.

Getting to the rank of admiral wasn’t easy.  Even if one managed the get their hands on an extremely powerful devil fruit, it was no guarantee that one would reach the admiralty, or even vice-admiralty.  It certainly helped, of course, but in the New World (where most of the creatures requiring an admirals attention dwelled), it was haki that reigned supreme.  Roger and Garp had proven that.  And the road to mastering haki was a very long one, even if one did have the aptitude for that particular gift.

This was no less true for Borsalino than it had been for anyone else.  It had taken him years to climb to his current position, and in that time, he had served on all sorts of ships surrounded by all sorts of people.  Some had been like Sakazuki, who’d burn the world to the ground if that was what it took to get rid of the filth.  Others had been like Kuzan, who’d rather only target the ones that had gone out of their way to hurt the innocent or threaten the world in some way.  A couple had even been like himself, those whose values didn’t quite fit with either extreme.

In the time that they had served together on the Valiant Thorn back in Kizaru’s Vice-Admiral days, Summers Warren had definitely come across more as someone who leaned more on the Sakazuki side of things.  He’d been pretty adamant in those ideals of his, of that “Perfect Justice” he sought.  Still, they’d gotten along reasonably well, at least on Borsalino’s end.  They never got in each other’s way, and they lent a hand to each other when needed, which was more than the Admiral could say for some of the shipmates he’d had in his career.

So when Warren had come to him asking if he’d spare a moment to meet the man’s daughter, well, how could Kizaru refuse?  Sure, it would’ve been absolutely absurd for a vice-admiral to waste an admiral’s time with something like that normally, but it was different for old shipmates, you know?~  When you survived the Grand Line on the same boat as someone else, it formed a...well, bond might be pushing it, but a connection, certainly.  It was the sort of thing where, even if you didn’t particularly like your crewmates, you’d still help ‘em out and do ‘em a favor here or there.  It wasn’t the sort of thing you really thought about; it was just what you did.

Thefted From: @mcmcntomorii