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Chapter Text

Kaido was dead, however, both captains knew that they were heading towards the same fate.

Luffy was grinning horribly wide because he didn't have any regrets. To him, this was a great death, reached when attempting to achieve his dream.

Even Law found himself giving a smaller version of that same expression; he was at peace with this. After having gotten his revenge, dying an interesting death, achieving something others would consider impossible... Well, it was certainly worth it. Who else could say that they'd killed after defeating one of the Yonko?

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...

Luffy's eyes snapped open and he waved his head around. How did he survive? Did Chopper somehow get him and heal him? Where was Torao? Was he okay? However, instead of being met with the face of his fuzzy-faced doctor he found himself looking at a face he'd hoped he'd never see again, at least, not until after he finished his adventure and came back to Goa to pay off his debt to Makino.

Dadan.

That, of course, didn't make any sense, even Luffy knew that.

"What's going on?" He asked, his expression dazed. Maybe he was mistaking this monster of a woman in front of him with the face of his reindeer's transformed state?

"… You don't remember?" The figure asked hesitantly.

"Nope." Came Luffy's blunt answer.

"Luffy… You collapsed yesterday after crying for a few hours when you received the news that… Sabo is dead."

The answer came in hesitant pauses, and upon hearing that Luffy went into a state of shock and disbelief. Sabo died? That was years ago, and sure, he never forgot and would kick any Celestial Dragon's ass that ended up in front of him, nonetheless, this didn't change the fact Luffy knew it happened YEARS ago.

So what was going on here?

Damn he wished he had Torao or Robin, they were smart, they could help him figure this mystery out.

Luffy cocked his head to the side. "… That was years ago. Who are you exactly?" Luffy asked slowly.

"That was just last night Luffy. Maybe you need to go to the hospital… I'm Dadan remember? I can't have Garp finding out I damaged you in a severe way." The orange haired woman replied, hoping that Luffy wasn't mentally damaged. Garp would kill her, for sure.

Luffy was an idiot, but even he knew that this wasn't possible. It just wasn't POSSIBLE.

This begged the question of just how the FUCK it was possible.

...

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...

Across an ocean or two, another person snapped awake and frantically looked around. Trafalgar D. Water Law didn't really understand the situation, but he was paranoid enough that even completely discombobulated, he still wanted to gain a full understanding as soon as possible.

What he came across was something that was inconceivable, but there were very few explanations for why he looked so different upon glancing toward the mirror. A child was shown in the reflection, perhaps the age of thirteen if he could remember corrected - mostly based on his lack of tattoos. Getting up, completely and utterly ignoring any sense of vertigo that he could be feeling, he looked around for the date.

Because surely not.

Yet it was true, he had somehow ended up moving backwards in time.

Law considered himself a logical individual. Therefore he didn't exactly believe he could die and somehow end up in a past body of himself. However on the Grand Line one should prepare for anything, right?

This left him with the question of what exactly he should do if this was more than just a fucked up dream. The safest thing he could do would be to not change anything, but Law knew that just returning back to the past would affect the way he acted even if only by a tiny bit, so that wasn't exactly possible to change nothing. So if he couldn't stop changes from happening, it was best to try and understand how it happened in the first place.

Most likely some devil fruit power, which left him with more possibilities than he thought. If it was a devil fruit, then there was someone next to him when it had been used.

It was unlikely one person came back in time, but two?

But if anyone was going to defy the possible it would be Monkey D. Luffy.

Law needed to know, because even though he didn't like to admit it, Luffy-ya had become someone he'd cared about just as much as he cared for his own crew. Luffy was different though because unlike the rest of his crew who weren't overly strong by Grand Line standards, Luffy could take care of himself without the need for Law to step in. These factors lead him to an inability to NOT get attached.

That line of thought could be saved for later. First thing was first was finding out if his theory was correct. For such an outlandish thing there was only one possibility, he'd need to go there himself. He didn't know any other way to get in touch with the man other than going to the island himself. From what he remembered, Luffy had lived on Dawn Island – Surprisingly the other man had been nearly as sparse in explaining his past as Law was, and that was saying something.

Either way, with his plan settled, he'd make his way there as fast as humanly possible.

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Seeing Ace for the first time was a punch to the stomach that Luffy hadn't been expecting. He'd gone years with the knowledge that he no longer had brothers, then, standing in front of him, one appeared. He was alive, breathing, and just standing there with that bratty look on his face that Ace always had before learning manners from Makino.

So when Luffy managed to pull off his first Gomu Gomu no Rocket right into Ace's arms, wrapping them several times around his brothers tiny, so fucking tiny, frame, it should have been forgiven.

Instead, a fist bonked the top of his head, "Shut up you little crybaby! Let go you leach!"

Ace was struggling out of the embrace, but no matter what Luffy wouldn't be letting go.

"I'm just... so glad... that Ace-nii... is alive!" Luffy sobbed out, and he didn't let go of Ace for the rest of the day, no matter how hard Ace tried to pry his brother off.

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...

"I'm looking for Monkey D. Luffy," Law announced, balancing an unnaturally large sword against his shoulder, he didn't have Bepo around to hold it for him yet, so as ridiculous as it might have looked, there was nothing he could do about it.

To say that he was getting suspicious and dark looks from the townspeople would be understating it.

Though they didn't dare to scowl at Law after he returned the look.

'How Luffy-ya came from a town of such cowards I'm unable to comprehend,' Law thought silently to himself, feeling annoyed at all the looks, but forcing himself to walk through the town, asking after his ally. People gave ranged responses, but mostly it just boiled down to the fact they haven't seen the 'Brat' or 'Garp's Brat' for months.

"Are you a friend of Luffy-kun?" A green haired woman finally spoke up, actually engaging beyond a simple dismissive line.

Law blinked up at the woman, she just smiled at him softly and waited for her question to be answered. She was wearing a dress, had deep, dark eyes, and green hair. Beyond that though, the woman looked frail, like a gust of wind would blow her over.

"I guess it's something like that," Law admitted reluctantly, not really wanting to explain the way he viewed his relationship toward his fellow D, though Luffy likely thought the relationship was that simple. Even if he were to say that the two of them were allies, the woman would just see it as some sort of pretend game between children, rather then a statement of fact.

"Garp-san took him into the woods and up to the bandits for training and I haven't seen him since. I've been worried... But Luffy-kun can take care of himself. You probably shouldn't go in there alone, there are a lot of dangerous predators there. Maybe when Garp-san comes back, he can take you up to see your friend." The woman suggested with a smile, "My name is Makino, and who are you?"

Law could feel his eye twitch slightly, reminding himself that he looked like a child, and she wasn't technically ordering him, just giving him a suggestion.

"Trafalgar Law, thank you for the information, Makino-ya, but I'll be fine," Law stated, walking out of the bar and toward the woods, waving his thanks to the woman as he left.

The forest on the island would have been intimidating for someone who hadn't seen the Grand Line before. The trees were huge, and within the first few minutes of entering, Law could tell that the animals in the forest were the same. There were signs of large paw prints in the mud, and also abnormally large piles of faecal matter were scattered around. It was starting to get annoying, the lengths with which he was going through to get in contact with Mugiwara-ya, hopefully, the trip turned out to be worth it, because otherwise, Law would not be overly happy with going through all this trouble, and me might have to decapitate the young rubber-boy in retaliation.

Eventually, Law gave in, and with a despondent sigh, he started to call out, "Mugiwara-ya! MUUUGGIIIIWAAARRAAAA-YAAA!"

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...

...

"MUUUGGIIIIWAAARRAAAA-YAAA!"

It echoed around the forest, even going as far as to enter the bandit's grove. Ace looked annoyed, wondering just who was yelling that loudly. Luffy, on the hand, slowly sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He'd been having an afternoon nap when the loud noise broke through his sleep-deprived mind.

'I was dreaming of Torao yelling at me about one of his boring plans – '

"MUUUGGIIIIWAAARRAAAA-YAAA!"

Luffy blinked a few times before his mouth spread into a wide grin. That wasn't a dream, that was, without a doubt, the screaming voice of a surgeon who was annoyed. Placing his hat back onto his head, Luffy took off out of the hut and toward the noise, leaving behind a worried Ace. After all, Luffy hadn't stopped being a clingy crybaby for over a week, and then suddenly he snapped out of it because of some screeching idiot? Whatever it was, Ace wouldn't forgive them if his brother got hurt.

With that thought, Ace gathered up his pipe and went to follow after his weakling brother.

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...

"MUUUGGIIIIW—" Law was cut off by an impact hitting his middle at speeds which were practically inhuman, a face had embedded itself into Law's stomach, speaking barely intelligible because of the way it was grumbled into the skin.

Law could feel a headache coming on.

Still, he was glad that Luffy-ya seemed to have his memories, even if less than impressed with the amount of physical contact he was being forced to participate in.

"Room," Law intoned, switching Luffy out for a nearby rock, and glaring at the man, no, boy, when he looked about ready to rocket himself back into the surgeon's personal space.

Luffy pouted at it but knew that unlike Ace, Torao might actually cut him up if he wasn't careful. Torao was mean sometimes like that, the pout was lost a moment later and replaced with a grin, "Torao came back too! I thought it was only me! I didn't really get it at first, but I think we came back in time which is really awesome, must have happened because of some mystery Grand Line thing."

"I didn't miss your inability to shut up," Law stated, but his eyes were dropping a little bit in exhaustion. That room had barely been five feet in diameter, but he was already exhausted.

It was beyond frustrating that he would need to train all of his skills back up to par.

"Shishishishi, Torao is still funny. Did I tell you that Ace is alive again! I'll have to be stronger than last time, really really strong, so that I can protect him and my crew better and become the Pirate King and go on tons of adventures..." Luffy just yapped on and on, far too excited about seeing his nakama here. It had been so long since he'd seen anyone other than his beloved brother, and he loved Ace, but he found himself missing his nakama rather quickly.

The two of them were inwardly relieved as all hell that they weren't alone in this time travel bullshit.

"Luffy! YOU IDIOT YOU CAN'T JUST RUN OFF!" Ace screamed, finally breaking through the bushes, only to see his brother standing in front of an older kid with a huge sword, "OI! LUFFY GET AWAY FROM THAT GUY!"

"ACE! This is Torao, he's my nakama!" Luffy announced to the world.

Uncaring of the fact that Law was not only tired but far too tired to deal with Luffy's shit.

So tired, in fact, that he fell asleep against the tree he had, at some point, started to lean on during Luffy's none stop tirade.

"Eh, he fell asleep," Luffy stated nonchalantly, poking Torao's check. The fact that the action wasn't met with Luffy's neck meeting the tip of a sword spoke for itself, "Let's bring him back to Dadan's so he can sleep better!"

"DON'T INVITE STRANGERS HOME!"

"Torao isn't a stranger, he's Torao!"

Luffy picked up Torao and slung him over his back, "Ace! Bring Kikoku with us!"

Chapter Text

Trafalgar Law was a light sleeper, but when he was truly exhausted, particularly after using his devil fruit abilities, he fell into a much deeper sleep. The only time that it would lighten was if he subconsciously used his Observational Haki and didn't find anyone that he knew around him. It was both a good habit and a bad one. When he was with his crew it never turned out to be a problem, but the fonder he grew of the Strawhat Crew, the more dangerous this habit became. He trusted them when he slept, and therefore, fell into deeper slumber.

The sort of deeper slumber, which allowed for pranks to be played.

So he didn't immediately wake up when he felt something gliding across his face, instead, he just slept on.

It was the snickering that finally woke him up, especially combined with the smell of marker ink.

Law sat up and took inventory of the room. Right in front of him was a clearly amused Monkey D. Luffy and Portgas D. Ace, both trying almost desperately to keep laughter inside, placing a hand over there mouths as though it would stop the outburst. The two where clearly brothers, because the foolishness seemed to run in their family. Leaned up against the wall was Kikoku, which Law was grateful for. Not that he thought Luffy would leave the sword behind - The Rubberman knew the sort of attachment swordsman gave their swords and wouldn't make that mistake.

Finally, Law decided to just get it over with. Fashioning his stiff from slumber face into a calm expression he asked in a tone deepened with exhaustion, "What's so funny Monkey-ya, Freckles-ya?"

Both burst into laughter, not able to form words, but very clearly pointing toward his face.

Law stood up and walked over to Kikoku, Luffy immediately clammed up in his laughter, though Ace didn't so much as notice the fact their guest had gotten up.

He pulled the blade just slightly out of it's home and looked at his reflection.

Scribbled onto his chin and the side of his face was his facial hair, something which he currently couldn't grow in as puberty had only just started - and the reminder that he'd have to go through it again wasn't exactly pleasant - the mockery that was made of his facial hair was something that only could have been done with knowledge of the future. Mugiwara-ya proving once again that he wasn't trustworthy to sleep around. Not that Law could get that CLEAR fact to register in his traitorous unconscious mind.

Instead of replying though, Law just wiped it off and gave his fellow captain a smirk.

It had Luffy even more worried than before.

Law would have his revenge, and though it wouldn't be any time soon, it would be swift and effective.

"OI! I JUST NOTICED WHAT YOU CALLED ME, YOU BASTARD!" Ace suddenly exclaimed, falling out of his laughter and looking toward the new person in the house.

"There is nothing wrong with noticing your physical traits, Freckles-ya, now could you leave so that I can talk to Monkey-ya in private?" Law returned, dragging Kikoku with him as he sat in front of his fellow time traveller, resting the sword on his shoulder, and looking at Ace expectantly.

"No way am I leaving some suspicious person in here with my little brother!" Ace immediately exclaimed, and got to his feet quickly, grabbing his pipe, disbelieving of the fact he allowed himself to relax even for a moment in the presence of a potential enemy, "Remember what I said Lu, stay away from him! You have to stop trusting people you just met, we already lost Sab- "

Ace clammed up, and Luffy dipped his head so to hide his eyes beneath the rim of his hat. True, he could take happiness from the fact that Sabo was alive, even if he was far away and without memories.

Still.

Ace had only lost Sabo, even if only temporarily, and Luffy didn't want to make his brother feel worse about the whole thing.

The fact remained that Luffy had known several people in Grey Terminal, beyond Sabo, he met that woman there, who swore him to secrecy about her existence, as well as several friends that he made whenever they went into 'town'. All of those people were now gone. Ace hadn't known Luffy was close to them...

Ace would never forgive himself if he knew, and Ace already had enough trouble justifying his very existence.

So, instead of staying sad, instead of letting it affect him, Luffy smiled at Ace, "Ace-nii is being overprotective, I've known Torao for three years, it'll be fine!"

Luffy had never ACTUALLY blamed his brother after all. Any sour emotions toward Ace left the second they lost Sabo, and now that Luffy was back in time, he was far too grateful to have the chance to save Ace, Luffy wouldn't ruin that by acting anything other than appreciative for the chance.

"It's Trafalgar Law, not Torao," Law swiftly added, less to correct Luffy, as he quickly learned that nickname wouldn't be going anywhere when it came to his fellow captain, but so that Freckles-ya would know his actual name.

Ace sputtered, looking between the two of them, his face turning red in anger toward Law interrupting the discussion, and embarrassment for Luffy's words, "I'm not being overprotective Lu! Just shut up! I said you can't hang out with that guy so you can't!"

"I don't feel like listening to you though, shishishishishi~" Luffy laughed out, and plopped his fingers into his ears.

Ace immediately started to shake him for all that he was worth, ranting about bratty little brothers or something along that line.

"Freckles-ya, both Mugiwara-ya and I are time travellers." Law suddenly admitted, looking right at the ranting boy, who immediately stilled his actions and turned toward the other boy.

There was a moment of silence.

"THAT'S SO STUPID WHO WOULD BELIEVE THAT!" Ace roared, looking beyond put out, "FINE! WHATEVER! If you're the type that would play pretend with Lu than I guess you can't be that bad. If I feel anything suspicious though, I'm coming right back in here to beat your ass!"

With that, Ace stomped his way out of the room, and Law let a triumphant smirk curl to his lips.

"Torao is so smooth," Luffy commented with a laugh as he watched the door slam behind his brother.

"No one would believe such a thing, especially from people so young," Law commented, letting the lighter moment settle before allowing a more serious expression to settle onto his face, "Time travel, only around you Monkey-ya."

Luffy just grinned and crossed his arms over his head, rocking back a bit, "Awesome, right?"

That was one word for it... There was also baffling, worrying, and awe-inducing to give a few more.

"Perhaps that is one way to put it," Law admitted, "Before I say anything else, I have to ask, are we still allies?"

Law didn't think that Luffy-ya would have changed his mind about his ideal of them being nakama, but it was still important to make sure before Law revealed any of his thoughts or plans. If the two of them were going to be going back to nothing more than rivals, the surgeon wouldn't be giving his enemy a leg up. He wasn't that gracious, that was simply the pure fact of the matter.

"Nakama," Luffy bluntly corrected.

Law just waved the word away, neither agreeing or disagreeing, "Good, then we can start to make some rough plans. Rather, I can start to plan around your blunt and reckless actions and make things more doable, is there anything in particular that you really want to accomplish, Mugiwara-ya?"

"I WANNA SAVE ACE!" Luffy exclaimed, only to have Law slam a hand over his mouth with a glare.

"Quietly Mugiwara-ya!" Law scolded, though you could barely tell through the calm demeanour that swiftly fell back into place, "I think I could have figured that one out for myself, anything else?"

"Pirate King," Luffy stated, but this time he kept his voice down.

"I appreciate your predictability in the matter, Monkey-ya," Law drawled out dryly, an amused look coming to his eyes, "Currently I have to start getting my crew together. Bepo, Penguin, and Shachi joined me this year. I was thinking that I could come back here every so often so that we could hammer out a more detailed plan, but the barebones of it would be that we work more closely as allies far earlier than before. So whenever you're about to do some stupidly reckless thing, you call the Polar Tang, and we'll come to back you up, and display a truly united front."

"You're going to get your talking bear back soon! You should bring him with you!" Luffy enthused, pretty much deciding that Law could take care of the more complicated parts, and he could concentrate on the things that actually mattered with what his friend was saying.

"It will be very important that we get our crews up to par quickly though," Law warned, and something about the tone he was using got Luffy to actually pay attention to his fellow captain, "We'll need to be stronger than before, because we will look like much more of a threat to the government than we did before."

Luffy always took the threat to his crew's life with the utmost seriousness and took Law's words to heart.

Pfft, Heart, Luffy inwardly snorted in laughter, trying to keep it off his face.

The look Torao shot him clearly told Luffy that he failed.

It occurred to Luffy that he forgot something that might have come off as rude, "What are Torao's goals?"

The smirk that spread across Torao's face at those words had Luffy grinning back before the words even escaped his friend's mouth. It wasn't just the smirk though, that a sort of steal hard determination that had crossed his eyes, "I'll get my revenge on Joker, become a Yonko, and personally deliver my sword through the stomach of any Gorosei or Government figurehead that pissed me off."

Anyone who knew what happened at Flevance and fucking allowed it, Law clarified in his mind his fist clenching in anger at the reminder.

"I get to kick Mingo's ass again!" Luffy cheered, liking the sound of his allies goals all over again. Pretty similar to the ones that got them to ally together in the first place.

"You got to kick his ass last time Monkey-ya, it's my turn," Law claimed, almost daring Luffy to go against him in the matter.

He was beyond grateful that Luffy-ya had gotten revenge for Corazon, but this time, it would be Law that finally fulfilled his own need to unleash on Doflamingo.

To set Corazon back to rest again, as he deserved.

"Stingy..." Luffy muttered under his breath.

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...

"Do you anywhere that we can buy a few sets of Den-Den Mushi, Mugiwara-ya?" Law asked as he took a place at the table, completely ignoring the family of bandits that were throwing him looks, and Ace tossing him suspicious glares.

Luffy scrunched his face in thought, but he honestly didn't know. They weren't common in the village, so the most likely place to check would be High Town but... It wasn't a good idea to go there now, not after Grey Terminal had just been burned at there was likely still a Tenryubito in attendance.

The wound of losing the people of Grey Terminal was still too fresh on his mind - Luffy highly doubted he would be able to see the Tenryubito and not deck him across the town - something which wouldn't end well for anyone in the island that was already going through the loss of hundreds of lives. Then again, Torao could likely go there and see... Torao had way better control over his emotions after all, and he didn't seem to hate Tenryubito all that much, considering he was in the auction house without beating their asses.

"Probably in High Town, but I can't go there, and neither can Ace, not for a while anyway," Luffy explained, his hat shadowed his eyes. It wasn't a conscious move, but it hide his emotions rather efficiently.

"You aren't the type to allow others to tell you what to do..." Law trailed off, casting a questioning look to his fellow captain out of the corner of his eye.

"SHUT UP!" Ace suddenly exploded and threw a bowl of rice at Torao.

It hit the swordsman's face, the rice falling off grain by grain. Silence reigned.

"You should work on that temper of yours, Freckles-ya, it makes you seem pretty unimpressive." Law drawled out, his gaze laying heavy on Ace, but otherwise unaffected by the food that was on his face as he quickly cleaned himself off with his shirt, "One might even say it could get someone killed someday."

Like yourself, when you fall for someones petty words and nearly get yourself and your brother killed, landing that brother on my table and yourself in the obituaries, Law thought to himself, having seen the full recordings of what happened in the War of the Best, and it had left Law with two impressions. One, Fire Fist Ace was as hot-headed as his name, and two, Whitebeard was a badass, something admittable by anyone who had seen his actions, whether marine or rivel.

Ace's teeth gritted together so hard that Law thought he could hear them for a fantastical moment before the freckled kid stomped his way out of the room.

Luffy, despite his worry for his brother, didn't waste any time bursting out into laughter, "SHISHISHISHI~! Torao looked so funny with rice all over his face~!"

"Very funny, Mugiwara-ya," Law stated dryly, before standing up and balancing Kikoku on his shoulder, the imbalance with how large the sword was causing Luffy to fall deeper into laughter even as Law started to leave the room, "I'm going to go into Town and look for a Den-Den shop, I'll be back in a few hours or so."

At least this time there was directions because smog usually meant city, and there was very clearly some sort of smog coming from one direction in particular.

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...

Law stood in front of still smouldering remains of... something.

There was a sickeningly familiar scent of burning flesh among what he had first assumed to be smog.

There were whimpers erupting from somewhere around the shellshocked Law, he swallowed heavily and tried to get his head to move, to look, he should be over this it happened years ago, but nothing was getting him to move. He didn't know how long he just stood there, but eventually having pulled himself together, Law started toward the sound of pain that he'd heard before. He was met with eyes, huge eyes, filled with pain, surrounded by skin that had been practically melted off, there was an area around her legs where the bone was visible, muscles having been completely burned through.

It was a miracle that this person had survived even this long.

"L-Luffy..." The person finally managed out, nothing more than that word, just looking so very desperate for something, Law didn't know what, and even as used to blood and gore as Trafalgar D. Water Law was, this was beyond the pine with what he was prepared to deal with considering his own past.

Law could only hope to provide even a little bit of comfort before this person lost their life, something he wished his family had, "If you are referring to Monkey D. Luffy, he is okay, in the forest with his brother."

"T-Thank god..." The woman muttered, and she grinned, how did this woman grin when she barely even had lips left, "Then it's okay to go..."

Her eyes closed, and the woman died with a smile.

Law knew that sort of smile anywhere. Those people who were determined, who died with that hauntingly happy smile that drove people to new highs and goals, this woman had that.

He rose to his feet, not even sure when he had fallen to his knees, and tried to push his emotions back and do what he always did when faced with feelings that were difficult to traverse, he carried on. He walked into this 'High Town' going through several sections of city before he finally reached what his fellow captain was talking about, and there was a sickening feeling in his stomach at the way these people were going about their life like that woman didn't just die right out there, from a fire that couldn't have been fucking missed. The rot of the World Government drenched this place. Maybe Law should have been expecting that, he knew of Goa Kingdom before coming here, but since Luffy-ya also was from here, he didn't suspect the possibility...

"Room," Law announced, standing in front of a Den-Den shop that was owned by some stand owner, "Shambles."

The Den-Den where switched out for nearby rocks and Law picked them up and left as quickly as possible.

He didn't want to stay in this place any longer, and he sure as hell didn't want to pay that shop owner for the Den-Den and just perpetuate the class divide that was so prevalent in the area.

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...

While Law was getting the Den-Den Mushi, Luffy had followed after his brother.

"AAACCEEEEE! AAAAAACCCCCCCCCCEEEEEEEEE~! WHERE ARE YOU!" Luffy screamed out at the top of his lungs, and he could reach for his Haki, but even the idea of stretching out his unpracticed and raw Observation Haki wide enough to find his brother was not only tiring but also headache inducing.

"AAACCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCEEEEEEEEEE-"

"Shut up Luffy, I'm right here." Ace announced, and he was sitting up against a tree, most of his body hidden in the shade, he was hugging his knees to his chest resting his chin on his kneecaps.

Luffy didn't think he'd ever actually seen Ace looking that vulnerable before. Then again, technically speaking, he was the older brother now, and Ace always claimed that older brothers had some sort of superpower for that type of thing. The vulnerability faded away quickly, and Ace looked like he was about to stand up, to put on that same tough facade that Luffy had actually learned from Ace, but instead of letting that happen, Luffy wrapped his arms around his brother and didn't let go.

Ace wanted to cry for Sabo.

He wouldn't.

But Luffy? He was perfectly okay for crying both for Ace, and for himself. Whether it stayed that way or not, they had both lost a lot at this point in time.

If a few of those tears were made less of sadness and more of hope for the future, Ace wouldn't know the difference.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

"We're meeting with Monkey-ya soon," Law declared, walking out onto the deck of the ship that they had stolen last year. Thus far, they hadn't really done anything as far as pirating goes. In fact, they didn't even fly a Jolly Roger yet. When Shachi and Penguin had asked their Captain the reasoning behind it, the answer was simple. This wasn't their ship; it was just a stepping stone.

"Finally! We've wanted to meet this guy forever! You made us wait so long, Captain!" Shachi complained, but shared an enthusiastic grin with Penguin.

Law raised an eyebrow toward the two, "If you wanted to meet him, you should have mentioned it sooner."

The two fell into silence before Penguin whispered to Shachi, "I hate it when he makes good points like that..."

"I know right?" Shachi whispered back.

"Does that mean you've hated Captain the whole time then?" Bepo announced out of nowhere with innocent curiosity, his hearing better than humans, allowing him to hear what the two were saying.

"SHUT UP BEPO!" Penguin exclaimed frantically, waving his arms frantically and shooting his captain a worried look.

"I'm sorry..."

Law walked over to Bepo and stood next to the bear, an almost lazy smirk spreading across his lips in his amusement toward his crew's interaction. Bepo had swiftly forgiven the two over the years and they all became friends and trusted crewmates - They also happened to be far stronger than they were the last time around. Law having them sparring against one another all the time to make sure that they were more prepared for the Grand Line.

"Bepo set course for Dawn Island," Law ordered. Bepo bowed slightly, a look of excitement in his eyes.

"Yes, Captain!" Bepo enthused.

The Mink had been studying for years now to become the sort of navigator who could eventually find his way home, as well as lead his Captain anywhere he wanted to go. Law facilitated his studies, getting Bepo sea charts and compasses, texts and studies, anything that might help the mink farther his skill. Bepo was an even better navigator than he was the first time around.

His map drawing skills still absolutely sucked though.

They were off soon as Bepo reached the helm. Law leaned against the wall and thought over the mass of information he currently had available to him. Considering he was soon stealing the Polar Tang, he did have things that he needed to speak to his ally about in person, there was planning to be done.

He closed his eyes and felt the sun, relaxing, letting his thoughts run wild and plans start to form.

Law suddenly moved his head to the side slightly as a fist embedded itself into the wood behind him. His eyes slide open and a lazy smirk appeared on his face as he looked at Shachi. The crewmates were under order to try to surprise attack Law, as a way to help train his Observational Haki. For a second Shachi looked disappointed that his attack failed, but that didn't last long, "That's our Captain~ Always on guard!"

"Maybe it's not that I'm always on guard, but that you just aren't very good at sneak attacks," Law suggested, allowing his eyes to close once again.

"He's got you there, Shachi!" Penguin declared with a laugh.

"SHUT UP! I HAVEN'T SEEN YOU HIT HIM EITHER!" Shachi complained, waving his arms around wildly, "Besides, Captain doesn't have to be so mean about it!"

"Captain probably thinks it's the only way a lesson will get through that dumb-ass skull of yours!"

"URGHHHH GET OVER HERE PENGUIN, BACK YOUR WORDS UP!"

The two started to run around the small amount of room on the ship, Shachi having every intention of dragging his longtime friend into a battle of pride, to prove that he was the stronger man. Yet, whenever Shachi got close enough to Penguin, his fellow crewmate managed to slip away. It was beyond annoying, Shachi had no clue how the man was doing it. It was getting to the point where Shachi had to wonder if Penguin ate a devil fruit and hadn't told anyone!

Law continued to smirk, watching his crewmates with closed eyes, sensing them out with Observational Haki, and if he used his devil fruit ability to help Penguin sometimes, it was just for training, nothing else.

...

...

...

"WAAAAAA! Time goes by so fast!" Luffy exclaimed, stretching toward the sun as he woke up from a nap. It had already been three years since he came back in time, and already he was getting much stronger than he originally was.

He fought Ace daily as training, and he won half the time, only improving from there.

It also helped Ace improve faster, but Luffy's growth rate surpassed Ace's just by virtue of having knowledge Ace lacked.

"Don't be so loud, Lu, I was trying to take a nap." Ace complained, sitting up himself and running a hand down his face.

"Hmmm..." Luffy mused, thinking briefly before giving his brother a grin, "Not sure that your mystery sleep sickness can be considered taking a nap."

"It's called Narcolepsy, we've been over this." Ace reminded, but there was a gentle look in his eye as he looked at Luffy, a crooked smile coming to his lips. He had become much more patient with the Luffy-isms over the last few years. Makino's lessons really affected him - but that wasn't all. Just being around Luffy, someone who didn't care about Gol D. Roger, someone who accepted Ace so easily.

Someone with so much hope that they could believe Sabo was still alive...

It really started to rub off on you after awhile.

"What's got you in such a good mood, Lu?" Ace asked, though it wasn't easy to tell Luffy was happier than normal, there was even more glow to him than their normal.

"Torao is coming for a visit!" Luffy enthused.

Ace's crooked smile faded and he looked over to the side with a scowl, "That guy is coming back, huh..."

Luffy talked about him all the time. Whenever his Torao called him on the Den-Den Mushi, Luffy would drop everything to go and check to see what Torao was saying, what update the man had for him. He'd sit there for hours and talk about all the things he did in his day, but the worst part was that Torao would listen to it, even if only passively. Ace couldn't get angry about the happiness Luffy got from those moments but...

He was the big brother, he could do the same thing, and then Luffy wouldn't need this Torao character when he had his big brother.

"Mhmm~! He's probably gotten really strong too! He got his talking bear and two other crewmates! He's gonna be a Yonko one day!" Luffy continued to praise, unaware of Ace's darkening mood.

"His devil fruit is sooooo cool! He can take peoples legs off like FWWAAAAH and reattach them like PHSSSSSTCHH!"

As Luffy continued on, his gestured wildly, miming the sort of actions that Law did when using his fruit, grabbing a stick to use in place of Kikoku, "He goes 'Room!' and this huge bubble appears, and he can TELEPORT himself around inside of the bubble!"

Ace could feel his eye twitching, as Luffy just didn't stop. It was in that moment that he promised himself, he would definitely beat Trafalgar Law, he'd get an even cooler devil fruit than Trafalgar Law, and he would unmistakably become a Yonko before Trafalgar Law ever got the chance!

...

...

...

"We're nearly there, Mugiwara-ya," Law told Luffy the second the younger ally picked up the Den-Den Mushi but hung up before he could receive the loud response one would expect from Monkey D. Luffy.

"Hey Captain, what's this island like?" Penguin asked as the place crept farther into their vision.

Law thought back to his last time on the island and fought the urge to frown. There was a poison deep down in this place, although the small village on the outskirts didn't seem that bad, they were still filled with cowards and judgmental people for the most part. Makino-ya had been the only exception to that. They would be avoiding the mainland of Goa Kingdom - Because if even one of those people looked sideways at Bepo after what Law had seen here last time...

"The place we'll be staying is bland, but I'm sure Monkey-ya will add some excitement," Law eventually stated, his tone dry.

Within the next twenty minutes they were docked and tied, Law nodded his head off the ship and the crew debarked. Before leaving, Law handed Bepo his sword, which the Mink had taken to holding just as he had previously.

"TORAAAAOOOOOO!"

Luffy-ya came rocketing in at high speeds, nearly knocking Law into the water, if Bepo hadn't been behind him to brace his captain.

"Mugiwara-ya, please try not to kill us in the future," Law stated as calmly as he could but was progressively getting more annoyed as he noticed his rubber ally had somehow managed to wrap his arms around Law's torso multiple times, creating an uncomfortably snug sensation.

"Shishishishishi, Torao's crew wouldn't let Torao die!" Luffy proclaimed, looking at Law with a bright smile.

Law couldn't exactly refute that, knowing well that if he were to fall in, it was likely that all three would jump in the drink to fish him out. Besides, despite all three of them trying to hide it - to varying levels of success - they were all so clearly flattered their ally thought so well of them without even having met them.

"Caaappptttaaaaiiinnn~ Introduce us properly!" Penguin whined, bouncing on his heels.

"Once I have blood circulation again. Release, Mugiwara-ya," Law demanded of the rubber child.

"Shishishishi, sorry!" Yet, despite his words, Luffy-ya seemed shameless and without regret as he released his hold.

Once the blood flow had returned to Law's arms, he looked at Luffy and pointed a thumb back toward his crew with a small smirk, "This is my crew, Mugiwara-ya. Now let's go, we have a lot of planning to do."

"Alright!"

With that, the two left without a backward glance to the three Heart Pirates whose jaws were slightly gapped at the lame way their captain had just introduced them. Bepo quickly followed after the two, not wanting his Captain to be without his sword, but Shachi and Penguin stood shock still for another minute or so.

...

...

...

"Now that we're all here, I can talk about some of the ideas that I came up with," Law spoke, alluding to disapproval for how long it had taken Shachi and Penguin to catch up, though he knew some of the blame lay with himself for the teasing.

"Don't be like that, Captain! We were really put out by the lame way that you introduced us, plus we weren't expecting him to be such a little kid, you can't blame us for that!" Penguin defended, Shachi quickly nodded in agreement.

Luffy was eyeing Bepo with a disturbing amount of interest.

"He's not food, Monkey-ya."

"I know that!" Luffy pouted because he'd met minks before, but that didn't stop the ideal curiosity he had, "I just really want to know if he'd taste good or not!"

"Well, if you're starving on an island and you have to eat one of my crew members, you can eat Bepo first," Law stated, not really sure why he was bothering with that line of conversation - But being around Luffy-ya brought out that childishness from somewhere inside of him.

"Captain!" Bepo squeaked out, flinching away from the dark eyes of the ten-year-old that was still eyeing him up.

Law just casually waved his navigator off and changed the subject, "Anyway, as I was saying, I have the pretty solid idea, as long as you agree with it."

"I don't really care about this planning stuff," Luffy bluntly stated, his eyes blank in his oncoming boredom.

"It involves the plan to save Freckles-ya."

Luffy's eyes immediately sharpened and met with Law's strikingly intense and slightly sunken in orbs. Seeing his allies immediate attention, Law launched into an explanation, "I believe that we should let Freckles-ya get captured, that we should let the War of the Best occur, and save your brother at the execution stand."

There was a spark of what might have been anger building in Luffy's eyes at the idea, so Law quickly continued.

"It's perfect. If we were to win at the War of the Best, escape with Freckle-ya after facing some of the best the marines have to offer, they wouldn't dare to go after Whitebeard's precious son again. It would help us to build a reputation, but not only that, Doflamingo would be there, so as long as we pull this off correctly, we could both gain exponentially from doing it this way."

Luffy went silent, bowing his head slightly as he thought over what Torao had presented. He really wasn't good at planning things, this is one of those times that he wished Robin or Nami were with him, instead he'd have to make the decision himself. He trusted Torao though, and he knew for sure that his ally, his Nakama, wouldn't betray him, especially when it came to his brother's life.

"Alright, I trust Torao! But in return I want something too," Luffy demanded, his eyes far too hard and determined for someone who appeared his age.

Shachi and Penguin stiffened at the demanding tone that the young ally took up with their Captain. They didn't take offence, but they had seen the way their captain had treated people who dared to demand something of him before and depending on his mood, it fluctuated, but he even got ticked off at the crew if they tried to demand something. Something they quickly learned to avoid.

Instead of getting angry though, Law just felt amused, amused and curious. Luffy-ya wanted to bargain with him, wanted to make a deal with him, as if they were equals in that area.

"And what is it you want, Monkey-ya?" Law drawled out, his tone as amused as he felt.

If Luffy heard the amusement, it gave him no pause, "You have to make sure that Ace's father makes it out of the War of the Best alive."

Because Luffy knew his brother. If the War of the Best happened, and Whitebeard was to die and Ace was to live, Ace would never forgive himself for it. Luffy was the older brother now, so even if Ace didn't believe that. Luffy knew he had to watch out for Ace's heart that much more, just as Ace had watched out for Luffy's.

There was silence as the two held each other's gaze, maybe for too long, because Shachi shifted on his weight and whispered to Penguin, "You have any idea what either of them is on about?"

"SSSHHHHHHH!" Penguin hissed back.

Law tried to imagine just how that would fit into his plans. He had every intention of killing Doflamingo at the War of the Best, but could he afford to split his attention toward Whitebeard to make sure that he lived? Whitebeard was one of the main targets of the War, and the man had gotten far too many fatal wounds throughout that battle, something that Law remembered seeing through the recordings of the event. Whitebeard had been practically wanton to die there. Nevertheless, there were other upsides to Whitebeard living. If he lived, the less predictable Blackbeard wouldn't be able to push for Yonko status, the New World would remain stable, and the Whitebeards would come out of that war owing to the Strawhat Heart alliance a hell of a lot. With a little bit of preemptive action, the chances would increase exponentially.

As Law continued to entertain his thoughts, he bought time before he came to a decision, "Not going to make me swear to keep Freckles-ya alive as well?"

"No," Luffy bluntly stated and there was that failure in his eyes that Law had seen only twice. Once when he had treated Luffy-ya after Marineford, and once so many years ago... Looking at himself in the mirror after losing his sister, "It's my responsibility to save Ace."

To make up for the time that I failed - That I wasn't strong enough.

Law was still firmly of the opinion that FireFist dying had been his own fault, but doubted that Luffy would agree with that.

"Who knew you drove such a hard bargain, Monkey-ya," But the balance of positives outweighed the negatives by far, "Seems like we have a deal."

"Shishishishishi, I knew that Torao would see it my way!" Luffy cheered abruptly, breaking the serious atmosphere that had been created.

"It's under the caveat that you actually follow the plan I make, Mugiwara-ya, so you'll have to actually control yourself for once."

Luffy abruptly pouted, "Boring."

...

...

...

The rest of the time spent on the island was much more light-hearted. Law especially was having an amusing time keeping the meaning and plans that he made from his crewmates that were desperately trying to dig around for understanding. They would never actually get it, as they were missing the key piece, time travel, something they would never just guess themselves. The biggest bit of amusement came from them actually asking Luffy-ya for answers, and Luffy-ya actually purposely gave them an answer that sounded like absolute bullshit.

"Mugiwaaarraaaaa~ Tell us what Captain is planning!" Penguin begged, Shachi nodding along with him.

Bepo was stood next to Law, both of them just watching their livelier crew members act out.

"Eh? Planning?" Luffy questioned, pausing as though to think about it, "We're time travellers from the future who have come back in time. Torao and I are planning the downfall of the government, as well as myself becoming Pirate King, and Law becoming a Yonko. Our first step in world domination will be taking down several of the War Lords, after which we'll break into several government facilities including Enies Lobby and burn them to the ground. After we have damaged the World beyond repair we'll stand on the ashes and laugh."

Penguin and Shachi just stared dumb-founded by Luffy.

"Just kidding! Shishishishishi!~" Luffy gasped out between bouts of mad laughter, "You should see your faces! SHISHISHISHI!"

Law snorted in an attempt to keep his own laughter inside, though he was also shocked by Mugiwara's response. Last time they'd met, he was sure that the rubber-Captain wasn't the type to come up with a joke like that.

Though he was technically somewhere around twenty-two mentally now, so a maturing sense of humour was to be expected.

"Captain... Who is that?" Bepo suddenly asked, pointing his paw toward a fast approaching blur of dark hair.

Law's near laughter died off, but an amused smirk stayed on his lips, perhaps even widened when he saw a frantic Freckles-ya coming into view, "That's an 'older' brother."

Bepo looked at the boy who skidded to a stop right in front of Luffy, immediately searching his Captain's partner over, and had to admit that his Captain put it best. That's a big brother at its finest. Zepo was pretty similar whenever he was home...

Bepo sniffled at the reminder and started to nuzzle Law. It was something that Law had gotten used to after all these years, and it was an action typical for minks, so Law just gave a small sigh and let his crewmate take the comfort that he wanted.

"GROUP HUG!" Penguin declared, jumping onto the pile that was Bepo and Law.

"WAIT FOR ME CAAAPPPTAAAAIIINNN~" Shachi followed, attaching himself to Law's side.

The group hug lasted all of five seconds before the crying Bepo took hold of Shachi and Penguin and lifted them off the ground in his embrace, getting them wet with his tears.

"AAAHHHHH LET GO BEPO!"

Bepo placed them and straightened them out before bowing his head with shame painted across his features, "I'm sorry..."

"... AND HANGING AROUND WITH YOUR TORAO IS BAD ENOUGH BUT NOW HE'S GOT SOME MORE WEIRDOS AROUND HIM! I TOLD YOU TO LET ME COME WITH YOU WHEN YOU WERE GOING TO MEET UP WITH TORAO..."

Ace continued to rant toward Luffy, pointing toward the group of crewmembers interacting with a talking bear as if it were normal. Luffy just listened to his brother rant on and on with a beaming look on his face. Ace being worried about Luffy always brought a smile, because there was still an Ace around to be worried, and that's all that Luffy truly cared about.

...

...

...

Soon after Ace came around, Law decided that it was time to leave. Much as he would have loved to stay around and tease Freckles-ya, the Polar Tang was waiting for them, and if they didn't make their move soon, it would be near impossible to obtain the ship - as well as it's incredibly talented engineer. So, they set sail, Luffy waving them off with a smile.

"IT WAS NICE TO MEET YOU, TALKING BEAR!" Luffy exclaimed, before finally, they were out of earshot.

Penguin and Shachi were squirming on the ground with the force of the laughter, "MUGIWARA ONLY REMEMBERS YOU AS A BEAR AHAHAHAHA!"

Bepo looked down toward the deck, depression dripping over his shoulders, "... I'm sorry..."

"Monkey-ya is just bad with names, Bepo," Law clarified, thinking back to his own given nickname, "He probably didn't even bother coming up with a nickname for Shachi or Penguin, they weren't cool enough."

"Waaaa, Captain is so hurtful~!" Shachi whined, taking Bepo's place in depression, as the Mink perked up and took toward the helm.

...

...

...

"Are you sure that we have to do this?" Shachi whispered, their ship was hidden in the shadows as they overlooked the marine base that they were about to enter.

Law just had a calm smile on his face.

The level of this base was far below their current level. The first time that they had done this, they had gotten out without more than a few scratches. This time, Law had a better plan of action, and his crewmates were far stronger than they originally were. Besides, there was no changing Law's mind once his eyes slide toward that familiar shape docked on a marine shore, painted that ugly marine blue and white that was practically begging to be re-done with its destined yellow and black.

"Yes," Law declared, and for the first time in awhile, he was coolly walking around with his own sword, "Do you remember the plan?"

"Bepo, Shachi, and I go to the submarine and take it over; you'll meet up with us there within the next thirty minutes." Penguin recited, his words drawled out with boredom because it was nearly the third time he'd had to repeat the plan.

It meant that their captain was really concerned for them, but that didn't make it less annoying.

Nor did it stop them from being concerned for their Captain in return, which Shachi showed a moment later, "Are you sure that you want to go alone, you should at least bring one of us with you."

"No, I just have to grab something and get out. If I get into trouble I can just create a larger room and be out within seconds." Law reasoned out, casually waving the idea away.

The plan was simple, but that was why it was going to work better than the last one had. There was no reason for an intricate plan when this place really wasn't deserving of something like that. The more details just added more complications. This was undoubtedly better - Experience had taught Law that sometimes it was better to not over think the plan.

Despite his crewmate's reluctance, they were off to obey their orders within the next ten minutes, leaving Law to his own task.

Despite his spotted hat and jeans, his bright yellow hoodie, and a huge ass sword leaned against his shoulder, the marines completely ignored Law beyond a few weird looks.

East Blue marines, the most pathetic sort that there were.

Alarms started to blare only after Law was already well inside of the base, the halls were soon filled marines rushing to get toward the sub, toward Bepo, Shachi, and Penguin. Despite knowing that these weaklings couldn't touch his crew...

"Room."

At the order and outstretched hand, a bubble appeared around Law, and within seconds, the near fifty men that were headed toward the subs were without limbs, Law just stepped over them and placing Kikoku back into her home without a backward glance. He finally found it less than a minute later.

The workshop.

He entered swiftly, though he entertained himself with the thought of knocking. In the middle of the room, she was there, protective mask over her face as she welded metal together, Ikkaku, wearing a boiler suit, heavy leather gloves. Just how he remembered her too, the second that he entered the room, she cut her work off and pulled the mask off and spoke, "Listen, I don't give a shit what you're trying to pull, just leave my work alone. I get enough bull from those marine shit-heads."

"You're in luck then, I require your services," Law stated, an amused look coming to his face.

She just snorted, "Yeah, you and everyone else who ends up on this base."

"You see, I just came into the acquisition of a submarine that will need a mechanic of the highest skill. I wouldn't dare settle for second best."

Law just looked at her expectantly, and the woman gained a blossoming smile, "You don't mean to tell me you've liberated my baby from these morons...?"

Law didn't say anything, just tilted his head toward the door.

"So long as you don't stick your foot into my work like you know the first thing about it..." She asked, for the first time, she seemed almost cautious.

"I'm a doctor, not a mechanic. Just don't blow the crew up."

"Aye-aye, Captain~!" She simpered, and practically skipped toward where the ship was docked, completely ignoring the mess of limbs that littered the hallway as she went.

Law followed after her, glad that he had grown nearly to his old height because otherwise, he'd have to sprint at top speeds to keep up with her as she rushed over to see the fruits of her labour. The unabashed horror that flooded into her eyes at the sight of the sub was enough to have Law snort his amusement before he called over to his three other crewmates, "She's joined the crew."

"S-SHE?!" Both Penguin and Shachi exclaimed, looking ready to fall over the railing to see who could reach her first and introduce themselves.

Instead, she jumped up onto the ship with tears in her eyes, "OH MY LOVE! WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOU?!"

She frantically ran across the deck of the sub, moaning over the ugly paint job that they gave her baby, her true love, and with each word, both Shachi and Penguin started to deflate, "My best work and look at what they've done! Oh, baby, don't worry! I'll give you so much TLC you won't even remember the trauma."

As she spoke, she was actually rubbing affectionately against the wall of the sub, as if it could feel.

"Before we set sail, you should probably introduce yourself, Mechanic-ya."

She cooed at the ship a bit more before the words finally sunk in and she reluctantly turned toward her new crewmates. The same simper that she'd had before returned to her lips as she pointed a thumb toward her chest and declared, "I'm Ikkaku, mechanic, and unashamedly in love with my own creations."

"Welcome to the Heart Pirates, Ikkaku-ya, you'll fit in just fine." Law stated dryly, getting onto the ship himself with the rest of his crew and turning to her again, "You should probably submerge us so that we can lose the marines, once we get a safe distance, you can run wild with all the checks I'm sure you're dying to do."

Ikkaku looked about ready to talk back, but knowing that she would be able to do maintenance soon as they were safe, she dropped her arm and nodded to her new captain, going below deck, Law following afterwards.

"...Oi, what do you think he meant by the fact that she would fit right in?" Shachi asked Penguin, who promptly facepalmed and walked in after their Captain, ignoring his longtime friend's question, causing Shachi to turn to Bepo with a questioning look.

Bepo gained a look of deep sympathy, "I'm sorry..."

"OI! WHY DID THAT SEEM DIFFERENT FROM YOUR OTHER SORRIES?!" Shachi protested, but Bepo was already gone, leaving Shachi to follow and close the hatch up after himself, locking it into place.

...

...

...

Years passed and Law had quickly started to gain a reputation. His entering the Grand Line had his bounty breaking 120,000,000 beli, and he'd gained quite a few of his crewmates since they took the Polar Tang. So far, one of his crewmembers had also gained a bounty, Ikkaku the Mechanic with 58,000,000. It was earned through her betrayal of the marines, and when she'd read the reasoning, she gave a mocking laugh - As if she'd ever actually been on the marines side! She'd been forced to work for them, practically been a slave.

Luffy had gotten stronger as well, then again, who didn't after six years. Eventually, his body had enough physical conditioning that he could practice some of his more powerful attacks without damage to himself. Second Gear and Third Gear became available to him, and even Fourth Gear was within reach. Though Luffy didn't dare to touch the technique he'd used against Kaido yet, the majority of his skills were back at his fingertips. However, his haki was definitely still rusty and would need polishing again through battle.

He almost wished that Torao visited more often so that they could spar, but they hadn't met face to face since the last time six years ago, and wouldn't until they met up before Luffy set sail. Torao said that he'd be there to see Luffy off before he went to grab his first crew members.

Monkey D. Luffy was beyond excited to see Torao again. In the meantime, he went back to practising the only one of those stupid marine powers he'd ever actually managed to learn. Not that he remembered the name, but since he did base part of Gear Second on it, Luffy thought it would be pretty cool to learn outside of that.

...

...

...

They had been sailing the Grand line for a few years now, and they were seasoned compared to some of the other newly immerging members of the Worst Generation. Law honestly had no intention of moving into the New World without his ally by his side, and he wasn't exactly in a rush, all his plans were in place and would come to the forefront within the next year, but a part of that plan required that they momentarily navigate the treacherous waters of the New World.

Law needed to meet Whitebeard to lay the important groundwork.

"You've installed the latest updates, right, Ikkaku-ya?" Law spoke, looking at the woman who made the underbelly of the sub her personal playground.

"Hai hai, Senchō~ I already told you this five times," Ikkaku stated a subtle fond exasperation in her voice. Law heard it but just nodded, "My baby could have gone through the New World without the updates, and now she's perfect and stronger than ever. It's up to Bepo from this point."

Bepo, who would have to quickly learn to use the New Worlds version of the Log Pose via trial-by-fire, Still, Law knew that Bepo could handle it.

All he had to do was give his Mink navigator the heading. Law made his way through the sub, ignoring the loud members of his crew horsing around in the mess hall and slipping passed the infirmary as he finally made it to the control centre of the sub. Bepo had grown to be a practised hand at the controls, though they would still have to wait and meet up with Jean Bart before they officially gained their 'helmsman'.

"Are you sure that you're okay with this, Bepo?" Law asked, and it was almost hesitant, would have been coming from anyone other than Trafalgar D. Water Law.

"I'll bring Captain where he needs to go," Bepo stated with a certainty in his tone that he rarely showed, but had been growing throughout these past years. The biggest boost in confidence had come from teaching the lesser experienced members of the crew martial arts and bringing their skill level up.

"Next time we enter the New World, we'll be stopping at Zou," Law stated in absolute certainty.

If he wanted to gain his Yonko status, he'd have to shape a similar plan to face Kaido, after all. Perhaps not the same as last time, but something similar. It wasn't as though he would just leave the minks to face Jack on their own, especially after they had formed the alliance, even if those Mink don't know what they would be a part of. Something Law was sure that Luffy-ya felt similarly about.

Bepo smiled at his Captain, and his eyes told the tail of certain faith that he had in his Captain.

It was so touching that Law had to look away.

...

...

...

"You have to be kidding, right, RIGHT?! Bepo, tell me that he's kidding!" Shachi screeched out as Law explained where they were and what they would be doing.

Bepo just blinked and shrugged.

"Come on! Captain! Please, I know you like to do some crazy things sometimes, but isn't this just too much?" Shachi tried to reason.

Law just picked his sword up and looked at his crewmember, distinctively unimpressed, "Whitebeard-ya isn't the type to kill us. If anything, he would kidnap us until we agreed to join him."

"HOW IS THAT BETTER?!"

"It won't come to that, though. We're here as allies of Mugiwara-ya, who is Fire Fist Ace's little brother. Freckles-ya has too much of an unhealthy attachment to Monkey-ya to do something that might displease him. This will probably be one of the safer plans we've put into motion." Law explained, and he glanced around the room, all fifteen of his current crew members were staring at him with anxious eyes, worried for their Captain.

Law gave a crooked grin, the likes of which was rare for them to see unless he was doing something particularly dangerous, which really only made the crew worry even more. Last time he made that face, he was using his Devil Fruit to appear in front of the Fleet Admiral of the marines!

"Ikkaku-ya and Bepo, would you join me?" Law asked, and made certain that they knew it was a request and not a polite order.

"Sure thing, Captain~" She drawled out, tasting each word. Bepo just gave a nod, which caused Law to hand the sword over to his Mink as finally, the sub breached the sea.

Law reached out with his Observational Haki and winced slightly as he realized just how many strong people were on that ship, and though he was nearly eighty percent sure that he would escape this, it was still an uneasy feeling. Especially when taking into account that if you could feel someone with your Haki, they could probably feel you in return.

"Room." Law intoned, and the bubble bloomed outward with one last deep breath, Law twisted his hand.

They were on the deck of the Moby Dick within the second.

"- Seems another rookie is here for you, Pops, yoi." A blonde spoke, Marco the Phoenix, looking up toward a man, a legend, who was leaned back in something that could be described as a throne when you looked at the near arrogance he had about him as he lounged on it.

"GURARARARA, let the brat try!" Whitebeard's voice boomed.

The other pirates that were on the deck, the ones that weren't as seasoned, had tensed up and reached for their weapons, it made the division commanders really apparent, as they didn't so much as flinch.

Ikkaku was tensed, far more than Law had ever seen her, likely knowing how outclassed she was in this particular arena. Bepo however, seemed perfectly fine. It wasn't because he couldn't read the situation, but because he trusted that Law could get them out and protect them if needed. It made Law's lips tilt up as he observed his mink only briefly.

"I thought that someone as renowned as Marco the Phoenix would take pause before jumping to a conclusion," Law drawled out, keeping his tone calm and even.

Half-closed eyes drifted over to meet Law's sharp, dark grey ones, "Gonna prove us wrong, gaki?"

"I only came here to discuss something with Freckles-ya as of right now, so yes." Law careless decreed.

A man with one of the weirdest hairdos that Law had ever seen, sans Big Moms crew, saw fit to burst into laughter, "HAHAHAHAHA! FRECKLES! He's gotta be talking about our hot head, holy shit I can't wait to call him that to his face!"

Judging from the fact that Law didn't recognize him, but he was one of the members that remained calm, Law could extrapolate that this was the Division Commander that Blackbeard had murdered and that set everything into place. Thatch, if Law remembered correctly, had a laugh that immediately calmed down all the other members of the pirates.

"What's up with you guys?" Law heard the familiar voice of Ace speaking the second he pushed through some of the other members, "TORAO?!"

"It's Trafalgar D. Water Law," Law stated, wondering just how far that childish nickname would end up following him. Only because Law was looking for it, did he see the slightest of widening in Edward Newgate's eyes, "Part of an agreement I have with Monkey-ya involves coming to see you before he sets sail. Specifically, since he learned about his step-father and heard rumours that he was sick, he wanted me to come here and see if I could give him a check-up."

"Luffy did?!" Ace asked, and his eyes lit up at the mention of his brother.

Before Ace could inquire more, Marco placed an arm in front of the hot-headed commander, "Ace's little brother things that pops needs some upstart doctor, yoi? That's cute."

Law raised an eyebrow, and really, calling him an upstart doctor? As if Law was lacking the prodigious knowledge and powerful devil fruit to back that up? Calling him an upstart doctor would be like calling Whitebeard a pirate with a bounty of about 10,000,000 beli. The comparison was so off that it was hilarious, and if Law hadn't been expecting pushback like that, maybe even insulting.

"In practice, I'm the best doctor around, in theory, I would only get beaten out by Kureha and few others," Law informed, and it would have sounded arrogant if not for the one simple thing, it was a fact.

"You think highly of yourself, brat," The rumbling voice of Whitebeard spoke up, "One has to wonder if you have the skill to back your arrogance. Coming aboard a Yonko ship without an invite, dismissing our doctor's skills as beneath yours, and still holding your devil fruit ability over our heads as if we are stupid enough not to take notice!"

The words ended in a roar.

Law looked up at the man, an unimpressed look painted on his expression, "You mean you would respect the foolhardy actions of a man that boarded your ship without thought more than I, who keeps my room up just in case I need to keep my crew from harm?"

"Say your piece and leave, boy," Whitebeard commanded.

Law could feel his eyes narrow.

He did not take orders, not from anyone, but absolutely not from his future rival.

Not a whisper left Law's lips as he stared at the man.

"GURARARARA! Fine! I always can appreciate a gutsy brat! Should have expected one of you bastard D's to be so stubborn. You're welcome to say your piece, if not, get off my ship." Whitebeard spoke, giving an illusion of choice.

Law shot the man a look, not falling for it, but also constrained for time and this continued on anyway, "Rumor has it that Whitebeard-ya is feeling is age. I can't fix old age, but if the issue is anything else, or beyond that, there are symptoms I can smooth over using my devil fruit if you allow it. If not, I'll just tell Monkey-ya I tried and leave."

"You can't seriously expect pops to just -"

"What exactly would this entail?" Whitebeard asked, cutting off one of his sons.

Law shrugged, "I use my ability to scan your body, and depending on what I find, I can solve the issue or not. It's non-invasive, though I thought of safeguards that could be put into place as to make sure that we can ... Trust... One another."

Ace was the one that spoke out, "Pops you can't consider this. Torao is after a Yonko position, and -"

"I have no intention of ever facing against the Whitebeard Pirates. When I become a Yonko, I have every intention of taking Kaido's throne. It's a plan I've been making for years."

Moreover, Kaido had the throne most well suited for Law's skills. The whole SMILE thing was very unethical, but the science behind it, and the network involved was something that meshed with a T when he considered his own skill set. It might need a bit of an overhaul so that they weren't experimenting on children, but it was, without doubt, an experiment still worth doing.

"Kaido's the Beast, you Worst Generation brats sure think big," Whitebeard rumbled, amusement in his voice overwhelming the previous strength and suspicion, "What are these safety safeguards you spoke of?"

Law touched a hand to his chest, and as he pulled away, so followed his heart. Last time he had given his heart up for the sake of a mission it was overly dangerous - this time it came with far less risk involved. Whitebeard Pirates, for all their strength, were well known to be incredibly honourable for pirates.

"I will give my heart to your First Division Commander, and if I do anything which is beyond reasonable for my profession, he can crush my heart immediately."

"Captain!" Both of the Heart Pirates that came with his spoke in protest, breaking the silence that had fallen over them when they were met with the sheer atmosphere of a Yonko.

"It's fine!" Law snapped briefly, stopping their complaints, "It's worth it."

"A large chance for a simple favour to a future ally," Whitebeard mused, and Law didn't think Whitebeard completely believed him, but turned toward Marco, "What do you think?"

Marco had been watching the whole thing with eyes focused on the young pirate, studying, trying to pick apart possible modifications and yet, did they matter in the face of his father potentially being healed, maybe even gaining years more with the old man?

"Wouldn't hurt to try, yoi," Marco settles on, holding his hand out with an expectant look.

Law strode forward now; gaining confidence as everything continued to go as planned, and placed his heart in Marco's hands.

Without pause, the second Law wasn't looking, Marco squeezed around the heart in his hand.

Law let out a gasp of pain and his hand flew to his chest, pawing at himself as the feeling flowed into him, he whirled back to pin Marco with a glare.

The blonde was completely unrepentant and just gave the doctor a grin, "Had to be sure, didn't I?"

"You couldn't have simply poked it, Pineapple-ya?" Law asked, his breathing coming back under control before turning back toward Whitebeard. He held up his hands, touching his index finger to the thumb of the opposite side, forming a rectangle and intoned, "Scan."

Law started at Whitebeard's feet and moved upward, the rectangle showing an x-ray of Whitebeard's body. The man had several nicked bones, years of fighting and breaking clearly evident. After checking his bones, Law went for another pass, this time he separated his fingers lightly, zooming for lack of a better word, checking the veins. He did it again, checking the muscles, and again, checking the electrical pulses throughout his body, and again, just to confirm everything that he was seeing. This continued for something like half an hour, most of the people relaxed and was interacting with one another, though they did still throw some worried looks at their father. Marco watched the whole thing without a single lapse in concentration - Ace was much the same, and he was the only one that still seemed worried, from the way that he slightly shifted his weight every now and again. Somehow, Ikkaku had started to talk to Thatch, and Bepo was off with the Eighth Division Commander, the Fishman Namur.

Finally, Law dropped his scan with a pensive look on his face, turning toward Marco, "His medical files?"

"He's a Yonko, yoi." Marco simply stated.

"Tch," Law let out, feeling slight annoyance, but he understood. Having a written account of weaknesses wasn't exactly smart for someone of his position. It did mean that there was nothing to compare the current issues with. An inconvenience at most.

"From what I can tell there are a few issues, most of them pretty common for someone your age and having been fighting his whole life."

"GURARARARA, I'll still young enough to beat your ass, arrogant snot!" Whitebeard declared, Law just raised an unimpressed eyebrow.

What was with people, threatening their doctors? It seems that every time Law offered his services people got less and less appreciative of his work, "Be that as it may, I'll continue with the diagnosis now. A lot of the stress is concentrated around your lower torso and into your legs. This is especially prevalent when it comes to the veins in your legs becoming weaker - Your heart no longer as strong as it used to be and is starting to have issues pumping the blood all the way through your body because of just how large you are. Your lower spine faces a similar issue, the tissues between your plates have been worn down because of the access weight it's been forced to deal with for years. The fluids and vitamins that you seem to be on will help, surely, but not solve anything."

There was no fixing old age unless Law wanted to give his life, but that didn't mean he couldn't treat the symptoms.

"I can widen the veins and help restore regular blood flow and add some padding back to the spine, as well as fixing some of the bones that have stress fractures and brittle breaks from the years of fighting." Law finally ended, and those things were possible, but not for someone without his devil fruit. Especially when it came to the spinal work that could be done. No self-respecting doctor liked to touch that area without excessive research, and even then most refused because of how dangerous it was.

Law might have refused himself, even with his devil fruit, but he was a pirate, and all his plans had risks.

"You can really help Pops?" Ace asked, his words hesitant.

"Of course I can, Freckles-ya, I'm not a hack." Law drawled out, but gave the Second Division Commander an almost sadistic look, played up quite a bit, "Of course, it will be excruciatingly painful, stretching all the veins in his lower body at once several for at least a day, and anything to do with the spine needs no anesthesia to be sure it's safe, so that will be incredibly painful as well, one of the most interesting and intricate operations I've ever done, I'm sure."

Last time he had done an operation that he truly looked forward to was on Monkey D. Luffy all those years ago.

Ace's eye was twitching, and Law could see it building up in Freckles-ya. He might have grown from his brat kid self, he might have even learned some manners, but there was no changing your base hot-headed self.

"You're such a weirdo Torao," Ace gritted out.

What, did Freckles-ya think the nickname annoyed him? He'd gotten over that years ago, repeated use having desensitized him completely.

"Thank you, Freckles-ya," Law said, gratefully, as though being weird was a good thing.

Ace took a step forward, looking so much like he had when Law met him when he was 10 with the bandits, but Law just ignored it and turned back toward his potential patient, who seemed amused by the whole thing, "So, what do you want?"

Law really wanted Whitebeard to agree to the treatment, it could make helping him live through Marineford so much easier, which was the point behind this whole venture. If that didn't work out, it was still useful as he now knew the man's weaknesses and how to watch out for them on the battlefield when the time came. The Yonko held Law's gaze, to which Law just kept himself as blank as possible.

"You had better not be up to something, gaki," Whitebeard eventually stated, but gave a nod.

It was easy to see why when you looked around at the ship.

Ikkaku and Bepo were quickly becoming friends with the other members of the Whitebeard crew, to the point where it seemed there was little to no distrust within them anymore. Those Whitebeard members heard the words Law had said to their father, the potential for him to be healed, and had looked up to their father with hopeful eyes - Truly the sight of a child begging their father for something. Hundreds of those gazes would break anyone down.

Law allowed a smirk to twist to his mouth once again, "I'm glad you agreed. This will be an interesting operation."

...

...

...

It had been a good choice, Ikkaku and Bepo. Those two had a charisma to them that was unassuming. Bepo especially had an innocent, childlike quality to him that Law doubted people knew he played up most of the time. Ikkaku and her confidence had a drawing component to it that would have men and woman falling at her feet, if not for the fact that her true love was the Polar Tang. Law admitted that this might have gone much differently if he hadn't brought them to break the ice between the crews. Law wasn't that way; he didn't easily get along with people.

The surgeries themselves had been every bit as interesting as he'd thought they would be.

Having said that, they were also much more tiring than he'd been expecting.

A clean room was needed for such intricate work around the central nervous system, but despite the fact the sub had one, Whitebeard didn't exactly fit in there. Instead, Law had to continuously keep a barrier with his devil fruit ability to stop particles from moving around in the air, to stop dust from flying into the joints as they were repaired. It was tiring, something that required far more concentration than Law wanted to admit, and by the time that he was done working on Whitebeard, Law had fallen over himself, tired from the continued use of his ability.

The entire time he'd kept the room around both the Polar Tang and the Moby Dick, and it showed.

When Law opened his eyes, it was immediately apparent that he was in some sort of infirmary, likely aboard the Moby Dick.

"Your pretty reckless, Torao, yoi."

Law moved his head to the side and his tired eyes observed the blonde in front of him.

"Trafalgar D. Water Law huh... I've met a lot of D's throughout the years," Marco mused, his deceptively lazy gaze studying Law, "I don't know what it means, but I do know that one D meets another D, they fall into a locked type of relationship with one another. Whether it is enemies, rivals, friends, allies, lovers, brothers, whatever it is, it's like destinies claws and sews them together. I wonder, what exactly is your relationship with our Ace, yoi."

Tired as he was, Law could feel his lips twitch into a smirk, "Pineapple-ya, are you jealous of some perceived relationship between me and your Second Division Commander? How interesting..."

"Oi..." Marco warned, his eyes narrowing.

"Freckles-ya isn't someone I'm interested in, he's too young for me," Law offhandedly mentioned, and did the Phoenix actually relax at those words? Interesting, "Not too young for you though, hmmm?"

Without another word, Marco stood up and dropped Law's heart right onto his chest, ignoring the gasp that escaped its owner as he walked out of the room. Law allowed himself a small snort of amusement. Honestly, Freckles-ya needed someone like that to balance his hot-headedness. Allowing those assumptions to leave his mind, Law pushed his heart back into his chest where it belonged, he wondered why the Phoenix gave it back early but decided it might just be that they didn't need the leverage against him to win if it came to that.

A thought that occurred to him before, now it was even more of a fact, as the Yonko would start come back into a normal state, as opposed to the weakened one that he'd been in for some time.

It would be fun, at least, to explain to Luffy-ya that a pineapple chicken was pining over his brother.

...

...

...

He practically had to pry Ikkaku and Bepo away from the members of the Whitebeard Pirates they had become friends with. That was one of the pulls of a Yonko, it would seem, because despite how loyal they were to him, despite knowing that they wouldn't leave, it was still clear as day that they could be happy there, accepted within those people.

"Thanks for having me, but I have to go before my crew decides to defect," Law stated as they were getting ready to depart.

Bepo hung his head, "I'm sorry..."

"Don't be like that, Captain~ You still have my baby, and I would never leave my baby behind!" Ikkaku declared hearts appearing in her eyes at the very thought of the Polar Tang.

"Yes, very reassuring, Ikkaku-ya," Law drawled out sarcastically before turning back to Whitebeard, "Sleep with your feet elevated, it will help with the circulation issues and help to stop the same issue from forming again."

With that last piece of advice, Law flexed his power, and where the three members of his crew once stood on the Moby Dick, three barrels of something had taken their place. Marco was the one that strode forward and peaked open one of the barrels as the Polar Tang sunk into the depths once again.

"Sake!" Marco declared, a lazy grin coming to his mouth, "That upstart has your number, pops!"

"GURARARARARA!"

The rest of the Whitebeard pirates fell into laughter along with their father, even Ace, who was reluctant to laugh at anything where Torao was involved couldn't help but join in on the jovial atmosphere his crew, his family was creating. If it gave Ace a few more years with his Pops, he'd have to be grateful toward Torao, even though he REALLY didn't want to feel that for him. Still, sometimes thanks needed to be shared, even if between rivals.

Chapter Text

It had been a long time coming, but Luffy was close to ready.

He'd trained himself up, was beyond the strength that he'd been at this point three times over. He was ready to take the World by storm. Most importantly, he was ready to get his crew back together. The only thing stopping him was the fact he had one more thing he had to do before leaving. It was important to him. The symbolism would be really funny, but the real reason why he wanted to do it was just because the thought of Torao's face when he saw it... It sent Luffy into devious snickers. So he walked into the tattoo parlour with a mischievous sparkle in his eyes.

He left with a bandage wrapped around his arm, happy with the result.

Luffy couldn't wait for Torao to see it for the first time. The Captain could only hope that it happened when he was in the same room so he could see the expression.

Now he was ready to leave. He even had his little dingy ready to go. Other than the transponder snail that he was bringing with him, Luffy was setting out with humble beginnings. As Luffy got into the boat, familiar faces showed up. Dadan and the whole family where there, along with Makino and Woop Slap. Makino was crying, and Dadan looked on the verge of the same. Luffy couldn't resist the urge to grin at them and wave as he stepped into the boat.

"THANKS FOR COMING TO SEE ME OFF EVERYONE!"

There was something a little bit different this time.

Because unlike last time, someone else came into the boat too. The Captain tilted his head and stared, he got a blank stare back. The other's tongue was sticking out as it always had. His white hair matted with the dust from the house he spent all his time. Behind the tongue, he hide teeth that were sharp. Developed from having to hunt for himself like all the other bandits. Other than the ruffled, unclean appearance, they gave nothing away. So why they were there? The situation had Luffy confused, and that was an understatement. Still, Luffy nodded down at the being.

"DADAN! POCHI'S COMING WITH ME!" He shouted back once more, before rowing off, not waiting for a reply.

BARK

...

...

...

Luffy had been drifting for a while, having already eaten half the stores of food. The bandage that was on his arm had unwound and became forgotten. The tattoo revealed itself in it's brilliance to the world. It's black ink heating Luffy's rubber skin, attracting the suns rays.

So far, the dog was trying to steal extra meat all the time, which earned it at least one Haki fueled glare. It wasn't the first time Pochi had gotten one of those, so he was used to it. That didn't mean Luffy wasn't starting to regret bringing him. Stupid dog, thinking it could eat the meat. It was the Captain's meat, not the dogs.

Pra Pra Pra Pra Pra

Blinking to attention Luffy reached over for the receiver of the Den Den Mushi. A bone from his latest meal still hanging from his mouth. He managed to mumble out from around it, "Monkey D. Luffy, future Pirate King!"

The Den Den Mushi smirked, leaving no other than one option for who was on the other side. How the snail managed to get the expression so apparent was amazing. How the Den Den Mushi worked, Luffy had no idea. It's filled in the section of his brain called Mystery and left at that.

"Mugiwara-ya, finally set out for your journey?"

"Yep! Even got my first crew member." Luffy stated, grinning down to Pochi.

Annoyed as Luffy was for the way Pochi was eyeballing the meat, he still did like having the company. Plus, he couldn't help but wonder how Zoro, Nami, and the others would react to seeing him. It was going to be so much fun.

"Thought I'd call and remind you my bounty is 250,000,000 already."

With that said, the signal went dead, not letting the Rubber Captain get a word in.

Back in the Grandline, Law smirked up a storm and kicked his feet back on his desk. They were on the way to Reverse mountain now. Planning on meeting up with the Strawhat pirates for an introduction in Loguetown. A meeting that was a long time in coming.

Self-satisfied with himself, Law knew that for once, he'd gotten one up over Luffy-ya. That ally of his liked to run wild and do whatever he wanted. Right now, as far as the world concerned itself, between them Law was the more dangerous, stronger, and likely to win the seat of Pirate King. Not that Law even wanted the position. It was all about perception though. The Doctor saw nothing wrong about teasing his ally, he wouldn't be able to for long after all. Luffy-ya even made it easy, as he liked bounties. Law remembered him getting excited about the increases he'd gotten. It did happen at least twice. Though his fellow Captain couldn't hear it anymore, Law still whispered, "Have fun catching up, Murgiwara-ya."

Luffy glared down at the snail, who started to sweat. Torao was being mean. They'd see how long that lasted.

Thoughts of revenge paused when Luffy sensed what he'd been searching for. He knew without his Haki, it'd be impossible to end up at certain places without his Navigator. So it was a good thing he'd polished the skill enough so that he could sense Coby within that ugly ship. It resembled the Big Mom's ship.

Big. Ugly. Pink.

Regardless, Luffy started to row over there. His aggravation at Torao faded into the back of his mind.

Not that Luffy had any particular plans going through his head when he stepped onto Alvida's ship, but the moment he did, he realized how lost he was. How exactly did he get what he wanted here? Once again the Captain missed the smarter members of his crew. Still, he placed his hands above his head and climbed onto the powering his way up the side. Once he pushed himself over the edge and onto the deck of the ship, he blinked in shock.

Pochi was already standing there as if he was waiting for Luffy.

"Shishishishishi! Pochi is a mystery dog!" Luffy proclaimed. Laughter spilt forth as he ignored everyone on the ship was glaring daggers at him.

"Show proper respect!"

"LADY ALVIDA IS GOING TO KILL YOU, BRAT!"

"His life is over."

Scratching the back of his neck, Luffy looked at all the people jeering toward him. Rude, what did he do exactly? Jeering stopped and faded into silence. Wood creaked and groaned under the patter of someone walking forward, out of the cabins and onto the deck of the ship. Wearing an ugly pink plaid shirt and uglier pompous jacket, the fat woman stepped forward. Fat jiggling with every step. Was Luffy imagining it, or did the boat shake with her every movement. Her eyes were sunken into her face as the blubber had filled out everywhere else. Still, the woman glared at the teenaged body in front of her, before barking, "Just who the fuck do you think you are!"

"Monkey D. Luffy, future King of the Pirates." The words were spoken as if talking about the weather.

Silence filled the air.

CHOMP

The woman turned bright red, and Luffy wondered for a moment if she could breathe. She opened her mouth, looking like she was about to tell Luffy off, but all that escaped was a scream, "OUUWWWWCHHH"

Face screwing up in confusion, Luffy wondered why she yelled that. The answer revealed itself to be Pochi. The dog walked out from behind her, coughing as if he'd tasted something horrible.

"No! Bad Pochi!" Luffy scolded, realizing what happened, "Dogs aren't meant to eat ham!"

If possible, the giant piece of jello turned a deeper red.

'Ham? Just who does this brat think he is. I'm anything but ham, I'm a slim beauty of the sea!' She seethed. Then again, why should she bother to convince the brat of that, when she was going to kill him moments later. With that decision in mind, she thundered over toward her, holding her mace aloft.

At first, Luffy didn't realize what was happening, was that a stampede of animals?! Thunder cracking?! What was that loud banging? He turned away from scolding Pochi and realized a second too late, the mace hit his head. Luffy would have been annoyed at the fact he hadn't sensed her coming, but the reality was, it was hard to sense people as weak as her. The strongest person on this boat was Coby at least other than Luffy himself. Coby was the only reason he could find the ship in the first place. That's how weak the others here were. Still, Luffy stayed completely still, letting a bored cross his face, hoping they didn't see the mischievous sparkle in his eyes. When she pulled the mace away, everyone expected to see pummeled flesh. After all, that was the only reasonable result. When there was only a bored-looking child, shock was the only fair reaction. If they didn't know any better, they would have assumed that the child hadn't even felt the attack at all!

The whole crew fell over in shock.

What kind of monster was this guy?!

Luffy watched all this and immediately started to bend over, laughing hysterically, "SHISHISHISHISHISHISHI!"

Alvida felt a bead of sweat drop down her face. The kid brushed off her most powerful attack as though it was nothing. Then he laughed at it, the madness of this monster displayed itself. Whether he was one of those damned fruit users or not, she was out of her league here. She stumbled back a few steps, gulped lightly, and spoke in a quivering tone, "What do you want..."

'Ehh? They're going to help me now? That isn't fun.'

Luffy pouted for a second before giving his response, "I want that Pink Haired kid to navigate me to the nearest Marine base. Oh! And I want you to fill my ship with meat!"

"After that, you'll get off my ship?" She tried to sound demanding but sounded more like the frightened whale she was.

The rubber man shrugged, "Sure."

"You! Get all the meat you can and put it on his boat! As for you Coby... Good luck." Alvida walked away after that. She wasn't hiding, she wasn't. She just didn't feel like being in the presence of that monster.

Coby watched everything happen with confused feelings. Alvida was put into her place! For a moment, Coby even debated escape under the shock Alvida's crew went through. That seemed like a pipe dream now. He was being handed off from one monster to an even bigger monster. Only this time, he didn't even understand why. Was this the end? His knees knocked together, so hard that the other occupants on the ship could hear them. He was even getting pitying looks from members of Alvida's crew. Members that had done nothing but bully him the whole time he'd been here! Never mind going with this monster named Luffy. Coby didn't even think he could get his legs to move without collapsing in on himself!

"Oi! Coby! I'm ready to get to the base now!" The monster called out.

Whether it was courageousness or pure want to live by not pissing him off, Coby entered the ship and started to row them away. Tears were dripping from his eyes.

"Those were some funny guys, huh? Shishishishi."

Coby stiffened as he was spoken too, did he dare to eve say anything back?

The Captain frowned at the lack of response. Coby was a coward before but, "Oi, are you feeling okay?"

A shudder went through the pinkette's frame, "Uh..uhm... Y-YES I'm f-feeling f-fine..."

"Hmmm..." Shrugging, Luffy went to get another piece of meat. It'd almost be sad to have Sanji back, then Luffy would have to wait for the meat. It'd be worth it though, the rubber man was salivating from the thought of his chiefs cooking. It'd been far too long, "Whatever, take me to the nearest marine base. I want to start working toward getting my crew together."

This time, Coby was sure that it was bravery that had him speaking, "C-C-Crew?"

"Mhm, my pirate crew. Right now it's only me and Pochi, but at the marine base I'm going to pick up Zoro." Luffy named confidently.

'Pirate Hunter Zoro'? Coby thought to himself with a gulp. What kind of crew was this man gathering, not only was he a monster, but he wanted others like that to join him! Dare Coby even ask what this made has planned for him, "W-What about me?"

"Eh, what do you mean?"

"W-What are you g-going to d-do with me when we get to the M-Marine base?" Coby studdered out.

"Nothing, you can do whatever you want."' Luffy declared, confused about why he was asking. Coby hadn't been this weird the first time around. Sure, he couldn't speak a sentence and he was a coward, but he wasn't this bad. Maybe Luffy was misremembering it. It had been a long time and even Luffy had to admit, he didn't have the best memory out there.

Hesitant, even more than Luffy remembered it, Coby managed to ask, "Do... Do you... C-Could I, W-Would you let me... J-Join the marines there?!"

Coby rushed it out at the end, yelling more than asking, ducking his head downward. He waited for the painful reply that he was sure was to come. Still, Coby needed to ask. It had been his dream for so long, he'd never live with himself if he hadn't said something. If worse came to worse, he could act like he was joking! That was believable, no one would think he meant it! After the show of strength from Luffy, no one would dare to ask after marines! Not to the man who proclaimed himself to be the future Pirate King! -

"I don't care what you do. Shishishishi~."

EHHHHH?!

No way was it that easy! Yet, search as he might, Coby couldn't find any sign Luffy was lying. Maybe Coby was just that low on his priorities, that weak, that he didn't care. Regardless, if the opportunity was there, Coby would take it, who cares who it came about! HE MIGHT BE FREE!

...

...

...

They had been sailing for a while. At some point, Coby had stopped being hesitant to talk to the other passenger. Luffy seemed like a much more likeable person then Coby had thought! In fact, Luffy talked to him almost as if they were friends. In fact, Luffy was easy going for a Pirate! If it wasn't for the way he'd intimidated one of the strongest people in the East Blue, Coby would have warned him off of his search for the One Piece. It was a perilous journey after all, and everyone knew that.

When they did reach the base, Luffy did exactly as he promised. He started to walk away.

Coby was free to make his own decisions for the first time in years.

Looking toward Luffy, Coby bowed deeply, "Thank you Luffy-san! I'll never forget this!"

Finally, he could follow his dream. There was no second guessing involved. Immediately, Coby made his way to the base. Nothing was stopping him! A determination was set on the pinkettes shoulders like steel. As he walked away, he couldn't have seen it, but Luffy gave a crooked grin after him.

Seems like Coby's going to be okay, Luffy thought to himself. Then the rubber man did an abrupt about-face. Turning back toward the direction of the courtyard that he could feel his swordsman's at. Zoro was a shining light of strength and willpower, compared to all the rest of these weaklings. God did it feel good to be within reach of one of his crew. Luffy wondered if this was how Torao had felt. Then tossed the thought aside. Of course this was how Torao felt! Luffy couldn't resist anymore and broke out toward his swordsman at a full sprint. Within moments the Captain was at the marines walls. With a small leap, Luffy was stood crouched on the side of the gate, looking at his First Mate. What a blast from the past it was. That didn't make Luffy any less pissed off when he saw the condition his future crewman was in. Tied up, starved, and on a cross in the middle of a marine base. Unfitting for a crewman of the future Pirate King to have his freedom taken away like this. That was regardless of the situation. Although helping the little girl was a good reason to allow it.

Unthinking, Luffy let his feet bring him toward Zoro.

He stood in front of him, heavy eyes meeting the hazy ones. Immediately Zoro's eyes sharped to attention, that spark of will coming back into them.

Good.

"My name is Monkey D. Luffy, future King of the Pirates. You're joining my crew."

...

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...

Miles away, Law walked from his office toward the navigator centre. Upon entering, he took in the sight of all his higher 'ranking' crewman, Shachi, Penguin, Bepo, and Ikkaku. Once Law entered the room as always, they stood at attention. Of course, it wasn't because they felt the need to do it, but because they knew it annoyed him. Law felt his eyebrow twitch, but he was in too good a mood right now. Having not yet come off his high from teasing Mugiwara-ya.

"I assume we're on track for our destination?" Law asked.

Ikkaku looked almost offended at the inquiry. Leaning back from her straightened position. She caressed the navigation console, feeling the cool metal against her hand. If she was shivering from the sensation, the rest of the crew ignored her normal antics. Simply waiting for her likely snappy response, "Captain~ I'm insulted on my loves behalf. You know she can perform anything I have her do."

Sachi actually rolled his eyes. Ikkaku was the only one who could sexualize words toward a machine so heavily.

"Honestly Captain I just don't understand why we have to go over Reverse Moutain, why don't we wait for them at the first island?" Penguin asked, the question having weighted on his mind for a while now.

"Shut up, moron! The Captain knows what he's doing, working my love down to the bone and finding out what she can really do! Traversing reverse mountain is the perfect test for the hydraulic weight redistribution ascension factor! Do you have any idea how much fun I had calculating that! Submarines aren't meant to go up mountains after all. Only my baby could do something like that, the beautiful thing that she is~!" Ikkaku hissed, but by the time she finished speaking, her eyes had hearts in them.

Law couldn't resist the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. Shachi and Penguin shared a look of exasperation. Years now they had been dealing with this metal obsessed gear head, and she still acted the same. Shachi had even walked in on her in the boiler room. the woman was doing something that he wouldn't dare to repeat when Bepo was still around! One time he'd brought it up when in her presence, all she did was raise an eyebrow, the woman was utterly shameless! Of course, whenever Shachi and Penguin complained about her, they realized why they were so upset.

Both of them fell over in a depressive cloud, 'Why did the one woman on the ship have to love MACHINERY!'

About to reply, Law was interrupted with something tingling at the edge of his sensor range.

At first, he froze, surely that wasn't what he thought it was -

Then a smirk spread wide across his lips and all four of his crew members who were in the room groaned. That expression only could mean one thing.

Their Captain was going to do something dangerous again.

"Bepo, surface. There's an interesting person going the same way as us."

With that said, Law walked out of the room. The door settled behind him, leaving the members looking at one another with a familiar expression. It was tense in the room for a moment, before all four of them put a hand toward one another. Or, in Bepo's case, a paw. They met in the middle with a resolute grimace before they shook them in a familiar fashion. Performing the only true way to come to a consensus on any important decision.

Rock

Paper

Scissors

"I'm sorry," Bepo said head bowed down as he lost once again. The three others sharing a conniving expression. Each of them may or may not have been taking advantage of the fact Bepo could only use rock. It was a running tradition, whenever their Captain made that expression. One of them needed to go with him, to make sure he didn't do anything too insane. But after that time with Fleet Admiral... none of them wanted that impossible responsibility. So yeah, they pushed it off onto Bepo.

Resigned, Bepo started to surface the ship. Leaving Ikkaku to finish the job, as he went out to meet with his Captain.

The second the door closed for a second time. Bepo's dejected expression faded, his Captain waiting there, sword laid against his shoulder.

"They still haven't figured out you don't care?"

Bepo raised a paw to rub the back of his head, his teeth spreading into a terrifying grin. But as he had when first seeing it, Law only felt the warmth of his First Mate and Navigator being happy enough to smile. Not, of course, that Law would admit to such sentiment. Then again, it wasn't as if it mattered, his crew always knew anyway.

"Captain?" Bepo voice as a moment passed.

It had been a long time since the Mink had first joined. Bepo had long since gained the vocabulary and education that he wanted. Still, Bepo used the simplest of ways when it came to asking his Captain something. Nothing more complicated required between them.

Law couldn't contain his grin when thinking of the opportunity that was now before them.

"This is a once in a lifetime sort of coincidence. I should have expected something like this would happen. It's in regards to Luffy-ya, after all. The gods of luck seem to bow before him." Law stated, shaking his head as if he couldn't believe it was happening again.

The Mink couldn't help but tease his Captain, "Luffy-ya."

Normally, the Doctor was never so familiar with someone. Especially if that someone wasn't on his own crew. There seemed to be very specific exceptions to this rule. One, Strawhat Luffy. Two, anyone that he didn't like and wanted to pretend that he did.

The Captain pressed his lips together. Yes, he had said that, hadn't he. Inwardly he'd referred to his ally as such before, but never out loud. Luffy-ya made him too reckless. Shaking his head of such thoughts he waited on the next fated meeting. Another meeting that could change the course of the past, or was it the future now.

...

...

...

"EH?!" Zoro exclaimed. Shock of such a demand coming from someone he didn't know filling him with new energy.

Luffy snickered at the expression that Zoro made, eyes budging out in surprise. That never got boring. It was such a great expression to have people make. Of course, once Zoro's shock faded into a glare, so faded the snickers.

"You can't demand that of someone you don't even know."

Zoro turned to the side, eyes closed, intending to ignore the strange teen from there on in. Clearly, he didn't know Luffy very well yet. If he did, then he'd know what was about to happen. Luffy didn't even say another word. Walked behind the swordsman, and leaned against the other side of the pillars the man was currently tied to. If his First Mate didn't want to talk, Luffy was fine with that. He knew Zoro well enough that he could tell that was the swordsman's current intention. That didn't mean Luffy wouldn't be just as stubborn. He had no intention of moving from this spot until Zoro agreed to be his first mate.

So they sat in silence.

"What do we have here, the pig found himself a friend." A voice sounded across the courtyard. The pompous sounding man walked into the yard, looking every bit the weakling, guards at his side. Really, all Luffy would need to do was glare at the man and he'd probably drop dead.

"Ehh, First, are these your friends?" Luffy asked.

Of course, Luffy knew the answer, but -

"Hell no!" Zoro barked out. Then, upon realizing that he'd responded to that scowled. The swordsman couldn't see Luffy, but hoped he could somehow feel the weight of it, "You devil."

"As if I'd ever have been friends with dirt such as him," The blonde spoke up. Then walking closer until he was only a few feet away from Zoro and his future Captain. "Now, I don't know who you are, but since you seem intent on sharing punishment with this green monstrosity of breeding, that's exactly what you'll get."

The man smirked wickedly, as though struck with a fit of brilliance, before turning to walk off. Ordering his men behind him with a wave of the hand, "Tie him up next to his new friend. Give them the bonding time they do seem to want."

It was possible for Luffy to overpower the two weaklings as they came up to him. Where had that rope even come from anyway? Luffy could have sworn he wasn't holding it before... Still, no matter how possible it was for him to do it, the Captain refrained. It would still be easy for him to escape whether tied or not. If anything, this gave him the perfect excuse to make sure he didn't leave Zoro's side. So they knotted him up beside Zoro and left. Neither Luffy nor Zoro said anything for another few moments.

Grrrrr

"How are you already hungry it's only been a few minutes." Zoro snapped.

"I'm not hungry, you're hungry!"

"I just heard your stomach growl!"

"Nope."

"HOW ARE YOU GOING TO DENY IT I HEARD IT WITH MY OWN EARS"

"I SAID NO SO IT WASN'T ME!" Luffy argued back.

Luffy adjusted himself within the confines of the rope. They really weren't joking around when tying the knots. If it weren't for the fact that Luffy was rubber, he might have actually been stuck. Of course, he was rubber, and he could slip himself out of the firm hold. It was nice, being away from the Grandline and being so safe when in prison. These morons didn't even use Sea-Stone!

GrrrrrGrrrrGRRRRRR

"Agree to be on my First Mate and I'll get us out of here and get you food really quickly." Luffy proposed blackmail had worked last time on Zoro.

It might have even worked if not for the fact -

"IT'S YOUR STOMACH YOU IDIOT!" Zoro took a deep breath, "Why the hell are you here?"

"I told you, Zoro is going to join my crew."

"YOU CAN'T DECIDE THAT, besides, that's not what I meant. I have a goal in front of me right now, so why are YOU here."

Zoro sounded serious, Luffy realized. This wasn't the type of thing he could answer haphazardly when it came to his future first mate. Not that he would have disappointed anyway. A small smile rose to his lips as Luffy answered to the first of tests from his First Mate, "I have my goal in front of me too. It's always there. I'll definitely reach it."

The swordsman felt something bubble within him, "What's that?"

"Pirate King."

But it meant so much more than that now. It meant crew, family, freedom, happiness. Even back when Luffy was younger he'd known what it meant. Still, something about being back at the start again made it more clear.

"That's a good goal." Zoro grinned out, unable to help himself.

Both Captain and First Mate stood in the middle of that field, captured. Yet, the Captain and First Mate were grinning up a storm as energy filled them, energy approaching the feeling of excitement. Zoro wasn't able to help himself but get caught in the pace of the man that was behind him. A man with such an impossible goal, looking to recruit someone else with an impossible goal... The devil on his shoulder, so tempting, "I have an impossible goal of my own."

"Oh?"

"I'm WILL to be the Worlds Strongest Swordsman." Zoro declared. The swordsman had gotten used to people looking at his dream and thinking it was impossible. It wouldn't be the first time that someone laughed at it. Their mocking always drove him farther. But he was surprised when this man laughed at it. He even jerked in surprise, maybe even a bit of disappointment when he heard it.

That feeling didn't last long.

"Shishishishi! Zoro is so funny, of course he's going to be the best! Zoro's going to be on the Pirate King's crew after all."

And so the two continued to grin at the air, thoughts of their goals, dreams, in mind. From the look of the two, you'd never have thought that they were captured. That was a sight that enraged a blonde watching from a window, high inside the safety of the Navy Base. Helmeppo was starting to get sick of this little game. That Swordsman was meant to break and beg for his life after the third day at most! Yet here he was, still smiling nearly two weeks in. Tomorrow would be the end of this facade, it just wasn't fun anymore.

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