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And so they are back, two years later the infamous Straw Hat Pirates were forcefully separated, they regroup, setting sail to the underwater island of Fishman Island where mermaids and every other kind of fishmen exist.
Luffy grins widely, it’s been a while but he’s glad they all haven’t changed too much.
(Zoro’s eye is gone and he seems more laid back, Nami’s hair is longer and she seems more confident, Usopp is musclier and wayyy more confident, his arsenal has grown too – literally. Sanji has a left eye… and seems to be bleeding over every woman he sees… although, his cooking has improved so much more. Chopper is still as naïve but he is stronger and his knowledge has expanded a lot. Robin became paler… her attacks are more refined as well, she seems happier. Franky is so much more cooler! He is more cyborg than ever! And Brook seems happier, his new attacks and the ‘soul solid’ is much stronger than his old stuff too).
But they haven’t really changed.
Zoro and Sanji still fight all of the time over everything.
Zoro still drinks as much – maybe more and trains and takes naps and still manages to get lost whenever they reach a new island.
Nami still beats him up a lot when he annoys her with Usopp and Chopper. She still accepts Sanji’s drinks and always has contests with Zoro when it comes to alcohol.
Usopp still tells tall tales to a captive audience. He still fools his enemies and he still plays with Chopper and Luffy when he wants too.
Sanji still fawns over every woman he notices, his cooking is still amazing. And he still kicks him out of the kitchen when he wants food.
Chopper still denies his happiness to anyone that compliments him. He still makes them all sit down for check-ups and threatens to take Zoro’s liquor away if he takes his bandages off. He still is nervous.
Robin still creeps them all out with her grotesque thoughts. She still is over-cautious when they reach a new place and still is over-protective of historical artefacts.
Franky is still super! perverted. He still only wears speedos and Hawaiian shirts. He still messes around in his workshop and loves to show Usopp, Chopper and he his new weaponry.
Brook still likes to wake them all up in the morning with his vibrant music. He still ‘yohohoho’s all the time and plays Bink’s Sake all the time.
Luffy loves them to the moon and to infinity.
And he knows that despite how much they have all changed and how much stays the same, they love him.
The Fishman Island is beautiful and Luffy wishes that they could’ve had an adventure without having to fight.
But it is amazing to see how much stronger they all got.
He steps forward and willpower pours out of his small frame. The New Fishman Pirates fall wave, after wave and he thinks, oops, probably shoulda left some for Zoro and Sanji.
Oh well, it was only 50, 000 he knocked out.
That’s still plenty of soldiers to fight.
It’s not until much later that they finally are able to sit down and talk.
“Where I was, food grew everywhere, and I’m not just talking about normal apples and other fruits, hamburgers, rivers of cola!” Usopp says proudly.
“Really?” Chopper asks and Luffy falls back because that sounds like heaven.
“Yeah, and Heracles-sensei taught me all about these pop-greens.” Usopp says, showing his pop-greens in his hand to his captive audience.
“That sounds so cool!” Chopper cries in amazement, thinking of all the cotton candy that would be there. “I was in a society that had been in conflict between birds and the natives, they had so many libraries.”
“Yoho, that sounds nice Chopper-san.” Brook comments, twirling around before coming to a sit in their trio.
“And you were touring Brook? That sounds awesome! I betcha went and saw lots of different place!” Luffy says excitedly.
“Yes! I did, plenty of touring and many different places to see!” Brook says, equally excitedly. “My manager always ensured that we visited a new place when we performed.”
“So, were you in the Grand Line?” Usopp asks.
“Primarily yes, and the other blue seas, apart from the North Blue, apparently there has been a lot of activity up there from the Germa 66 troops…” He trails off.
(Nobody notices Sanji flinch as he gives Nami and Robin her drink)
“So, tell us more!” Luffy says eagerly, bouncing where he sits.
“Of course, Luffy-san.” Brook says. “We started off as a small business, simply singing in the rain and bringing smiles to children’s faces.
“But gradually, we began to gain more fame until we finally released our first album then I elected Soul King as my name. Our first concert was on an island close to Sabaody and was packed to the brim with bright faces! Yohoho, it was truly a sight to behold, all those faces looking up at me! Ahh, I do miss that feeling, but, I would not trade this for anything in the entire world, yohoho!”
“Shishishi.” Luffy laughs.
“What about you, Nami?” Usopp asks.
“Hmm?” Nami looks up from her magazine and smiles. “There’s these meteorologists in the sky, and they willingly gave me their technology.”
“Willingly?” Usopp arches an unimpressed eyebrow.
“Shut up.” Nami says half-heartedly swatting him. “Their station was on petrified clouds, much like Skypiea.”
“Sooo, they were basically wizards?” Luffy asks grin bared wide.
Nami sighs, “Sure, they were little old wizards that liked to harvest the clouds while remaining on a petrified cloud.”
“They sound weird.” Luffy grins.
“They are.” Nami admits. “What about you, Sanji?”
At the mention of his name from Nami, Sanji preens but backs down when he realises what she asked, “W-where I was?”
“Fufu, Iva mentioned that they had you on their island.” Robin laughs at the mental image.
“Wait, Iva?” Luffy asks, one hand on his chin in thought.
“Mhm, Ivankov Emporio.” Robin says.
“Ah! The weird one with nets on their legs.” Luffy says with a grin.
“Mm, he’s a part of the Revolutionary army.” Robin replies. “I was on campaign with them for the two-year gap.”
“Oh, you were with Dragon then.”
“Not necessarily, I usually trained with the other Revolutionaries, they taught me a lot about haki and new techniques for my devil fruit.”
“I can’t believe you got to be with the sane revolutionaries.” Sanji whines. “I can’t believe you both know that monster… the hell I went through on their island…” A tear gathers in the corner of his eye.
“Shishishi, you’re still funny Sanji!” Luffy laughs. “Iva was really nice! They were kind of weird about Dragon being my Dad, but aside from that, they helped me out a lot!”
Movement seems to all but freeze around Sunny, they’ve all missed Luffy a lot, but nobody wants to ask where he was for the two-year gap in fear for the answer. “Jinbe too! Man, I can’t wait to see him again.”
“The Knight of the Sea, huh?” Brook says, tapping his bony chin.
“Yeah, he’s super strong! I’m gonna get him to join the crew!” Luffy smiles.
Nami and Usopp groan in unison, “Did you ask him out of the blue?”
“Of course not!” Luffy has the gall to look offended, as if he didn’t do almost the same thing to all of them. “I only just asked him.”
“Oh, I see, at least we got the chance to meet him I guess…” Chopper murmurs.
“Sheesh, you guys worry too much. He said he has to deal with something first and then he’ll join us. Franky, where were you?” Luffy asks, rolling over to the cyborg.
“In one of Vegepunk’s old labs.” Franky grins. “It’s where I found all this high-tech stuff for my body.”
“That’s so cool!!” Luffy exclaims, stars in his eyes.
“It was! Super~!” Franky cries, slamming his massive arms into his signature pose. "What about you, Zoro-bro, you've been really quiet."
"Ehh?" Zoro grumbles and opens his good eye. "I was on an island with Mihawk."
"Wait what?!" The crew cry in unison.
"Why would he train some-one looking to overtake him?" Usopp asks.
Zoro shrugs, "Beats me, I'm certainly glad that he did train me though..."
"I can't believe he'd train a shit-head like you..." Sanji murmurs.
"Oi, you wanna say something bastard?"
The crew laughs along with their captain at Franky’s new hair-styles and together, exchange new techniques they learnt from their respective teachers. Zoro and Sanji duking it out in the middle of Sunny.
And just like that, even after two-years of separation, after just fighting the next person to try and get in the way of their captain, they click to form the tight-knit crew they’d been before everything had happened.