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Luffy knew that being dared to jump off another waterfall by Gizao was not gonna end well for his physical well-being especially since this waterfall was twice as big as the one in Wano and Nami had gotten several extra years in which she had been able to hone her punching - and how had Nami even managed to recreate Gramps' fists of love was a mystery the newly minted Pirate King still had no answer for, but somehow his navigator had made them hurt worse - but a challenge was a challenge and Luffy was not going to ignore it, not when he saw the same glint in Torao's eyes, already calling for the Hearts' new submarine, the Coral, to steer hard towards the waterfall, at their farthest left Gizao cackling with the same type of manic energy the other two captains felt.

It was a challenge. It was the thrum of adventure that still burned in their veins even now, years after they had started their journeys, with their goals reached and the entire world aware of their feats. It was a callback to Wano, to the time they had truly fought together, before they had had to separate just to come together again, battered and bruised and daring the world at large to try keep them down.

Nami sighed, resigned, already grasping the railing even as Jinbei steered towards the waterfall with a chuckle, his helmsman no longer surprised by the feats of insanity the Strawhat pirates achieved. Zoro and Sanji were shaking their head and snorting, Usopp already wailing, not in fear but for old times’ sake, and Luffy laughed and laughed and laughed, even as the Sunny tipped forward towards the racing waters, as the wind rushed through his hair, knocking his hat off - still there, still dear,  Shanks grinning proud as Luffy tried to hand it back to him after he had become Pirate King, the older captain saying the hat had long been with its rightful owner - as seawater sprayed in their faces and they started falling.

What Luffy did not expect was for the drop to go on and on and on, almost never ending, cutting through clouds and fog that had not been there before, nor for their fall to be not in the sea, but rather in the middle of a frozen landscape he still remembered all too well. A frozen landscape burned on his retina that his haunted him after all those years.

"Lu-ya" the growl coming from the Coral was a mix of annoyance, dismay and a hint of I'm gonna shamble your organs in the ocean which Luffy took offense to - it had not been his fault for plans going awry this time, after all if someone had to be blamed it was Gizao's idea to jump off the waterfall. He tried to ignore for the moment the war that had been unfolding which stopped, caught in stasis at the sight of their arrival, everyone frozen in shock, even Ace on his scaffold no longer desperately calling for his new family to leave, but rather trying to make sense of their arrival in confusion - and Ace was here, Ace was alive, still trapped but now he could save him, he was strong enough, fast enough and by the Seas Luffy would not let his older brother - or was it younger now, after all Ace had been 20 back then, the Strawhat pirate giggled to himself imagining telling his brother he was the youngest now - stay trapped for a minute longer than necessary. Seagull man was gaping at them in shock, a furious shout of "GARP YOUR DAMN FAMILY" echoing all over Marinefort, Gramps looking between his younger self and his present self as if trying to decide which of them he should yell at, Smokey groaning somewhere in the sea of marines that there was two of them now.

"What the fuck Mugiwara?" Gizao groaned from the deck of the second Victoria Punk – at least he was predictable enough with the name, seas knew the red haired pirated had no inspiration whatsoever when it came to baptizing his second ship.

"Hey, it's not my fault this time." Luffy yelled. Really, that had to be stated. Firmly. He didn’t understand why everyone kept pointing the finger at him. Even Nami was looking between the battlefield and her captain with a look in her eyes that promised pain.

***

Law could not help the manic grin that was spreading on his feature, the absolute glee that he felt being in this place once more. Years ago, he had rushed to Marinefort, based on a whim and a desperate hope that by putting Lu-ya in his debt the younger captain would later help him fight Doflamingo. He hadn’t expected the outcome of that choice, couldn’t have ever imagined the way Luffy became an integral part of his soul, defeating Doflamingo and allowing Law to breathe safely again, to feel like he had achieved retribution for Cora-san’s death, to realize that phantom strings were no longer haunting him at the corner of his eyes, taunting him in a poison laced tone with all his insecurities and failures.

Here, now, after he had survived so much more, after he had been defeated again just to crawl back fuelled by spite alone stronger than he had ever bean, after he had fought the likes of Blackbeard’s crew to get his friends back, Law cannot help but laugh at how miniscule, how insignificant the War of the Best appears in light of everything they had later had to survive. Not easy to win, because no war is ever easy, but less daunting than the mind numbing disaster zone that had made his hands tremble as spirited Lu-ya in his submarine and escaped.

“How the fuck did we even get here?” the red haired captain groused from the deck of the Victoria Punk 2.0.

"Well, you did say you would have done so much better than us at Marinefort, haven't you Eustass-ya?" Law drawled, remembering all the times the red haired captain would put his foot in his mouth to explain how he would have been better suited than Law to come to Luffy's help at Marinefort and Lu-ya would get that faraway look in his eyes that meant he was remembering how he had failed - in his opinion at least because Lu-ya was an idiot who didn't understand what feats he had actually managed to do at Marinefort and Law promised himself if he ever got a hold of Hiken-ya in the afterlife he'd shake him for his idiotic stint of falling for a yo momma insult - well yo dadda but the feeling still stands. It seemed like the universe granted Law the chance to do it in real life and that would be so much more satisfying. "Here's your chance to actually prove yourself."

"Hah? I'm gonna show you proving myself Trafalgar!"

"Trafalgar Law! Eustass Kidd!  This is not your war." Sengoku yelled in his den-den from the platform and Law snorted, seeing the obvious confusion on his sort of grandfather's name - honestly Cora-san, tying him in bond of family with the fleet admiral of all people.

"You imbeciles are bothering with the wrong person," Law called back. "This idiot here already became pirate king." The dumbfolded look on several of the marines he had come to know more personally throughout the years was definitely worth dropping that bombshell. Especially the look on Smoker’s face that seemed more resigned than surprised.

"Oi!" Lu-ya called at the same time as his younger self finally managed to put one and one together, arrived to two and yelled back in dismay "DON'T TELL ME I DON'T WANT TO KNOW!"

Law simply laughed, ignoring the spluttering coming from Lu-ya or the threats and curses coming from Eustass-ya. A feral grin stretched on his face, eyes glinting in malice and mischief as he honed his gaze on the three admirals that were getting more and more restless. Yes, Hiken-ya would not die here a second time and Law would be damned if he didn’t do as much damage as he could to Marinefort.

Perhaps that would mean putting their younger selves in more danger than before, setting a target on their backs now that the World Government knew how far they would actually go. But he was not particularly concerned about that; he knew what they could do, what they would end up doing.

Shaking the world order was just the beginning.

***

Sengoku could feel a migraine flaring at his temples because nothing in this execution was going according to plan. Sure it had gone great for a bit until a ship fell out of the fucking sky, Strawhat Luffy and what seemed to  be half of Impel Down (several revolutionaries to boot) and Buggy the Clown dropping in the middle to the battlefield - and why was Buggy who was supposed to have an antagonistic relationship with Strawhat protecting him with such ferocity Sengoku did not know. Then as if Garp's family was not enough of a headache, Crocodile decided to disturb the rushed execution just on a whim, Strawhat showed he had Conqueror’s haki strong enough to bowl over half of the weak willed marines - the fleet admiral was not surprised about that one in particular he'd seen Garp at his worst wielding his haki like a boulder - and then when everything seemed to be finally settling down in the war this farce of an execution was supposed to be, two more ships and a submarine fell from the sky. If that was not enough, his pseudo-grandson who was not supposed to be anywhere near this place was there in a submarine that looked much bigger than the one he had previously been spotted in, together with a Eustass Kidd that looked several years older and another definitely older Strawhat Luffy - because the young one was still racing towards his brother, trying to set him free when everyone else was busy with the new arrivals – were causing a racket, distracting everyone on the battlefield, including Sengoku himself. And that was without the little bomb Trafalgar dropped about Strawhat being the new pirate king.

"What do you mean with that, Trafalgar?"

Really he didn’t want to know, the day had already been shaping to be the worst of his life and that wasn’t only because he had been ordered to kill his best friend’s oldest grandson. He was only asking to show the footage to the five elders when they would inevitably start grilling him about why the war failed, because there was no way they had any chance to execute Firefist now. Not when an actual living and breathing Pirate King had somehow dragged his allies through space and time to save his older brother. Even if the young man looked one step away from kneeling over due to an aneurysm at the shock of everything happening around him. Sengoku knew how he felt truly.

"I mean that your men will keep fucking up for six more years to come, Lu-ya will become pirate king, I'll become Emperor and poor Eustass-ya here will be one shot by Emperor Shanks, but then again we can't all win, can we?" Trafalgar’s smug voice seemed to set off Eustass Kidd again, because the red haired captain started screaming at his – what even were they anyway? Rivals? Allies? Sengoku was unsure if he wanted to know

"Hey asshole, I'm an Emperor too."

"On a technicality because Clown-ya stepped down and wanted to go back to the East Blue."

Buggy the Clown? An Emperor? Sengoku could begrudgingly see why and how Trafalgar would become one. Between the Ope Ope no Mi and the young man’s rising notoriety, it was not hard to assume he would one day topple one of the remnants of the old era. The fleet admiral could even see Strawhat becoming Pirate King considering his family. But Buggy the clown as an Emperor??? That was as much of a fever dream as everything happening before his eyes.

***

Ace could not say exactly what he had been expecting from his execution - apart from a more or less swift death, more emotional trauma from knowing his Gramps would bust him out if he asked for help but not wanting the old geezer to ruin his career - and his newfound family being dumb enough to come and try to save someone like him. What he did not expect was his baby brother dropping from the sky like a shrieking bird, putting his life in danger to try and save him. Ace was the older brother damn it, he was supposed to be the one who takes care of Luffy, he had promised Sabo. Instead, he had somehow managed to drag their cry baby little sibling in the biggest war the world had seen in decades.

Even so, Lu’ dropping from the sky had been surprising, but not fully impossible to imagine - after all his dumb brother had broken into Impel Down for him. What was out of the realm of reality and straight into hallucination field was his baby brother now several years older, together with two Supernovas that were as infamous as the Strawhats, albeit for different reasons, also dropping out of the fucking sky like some particularly deranged bats from hell – Gramps’ insanity was catching it seemed - and loudly, very loudly crashing his execution, acting more like a bickering married couple than allies or rivals - and if he found out either of the two older pirates had laid a finger on his baby brother he was going to roast them like pigeons. If he survived that was. Which chances were getting incredibly higher.

He did not enjoy seeing the smug smile on Trafalagar and Kidd’s faces, nor the way the older Luffy – and wasn’t that mind-boggling, his baby brother being older than him – would grin at them from the bottom of his heart, his body angling towards them to sync movements in a way that spoke of deep rooted familiarity. They were too old for Luffy damn it, and as soon as he was out of the blasted shackles he found himself in, he’d beat that notion into their heads.

Honestly, considering the insane pace the day was moving at, the next thing he’d find out was that Sabo was somehow alive.

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Buggy does not expect the havoc that his little nephew made out of the execution. Well to be honest to himself he didn't expect that he'd stick around more than five minutes before making himself scarce, but there were too many marines with too many weapons ganging up on the crazy ass kid - really Shanks couldn't you have drilled some self-preservation skills into him? - and he has a rather vested interest in the kid not dying and Shanks not stringing him up by his toes for letting his kid die. So he sticks around, knives at ready - really it is disheartening how little the marines thought of him, now he knew he had drilled a certain persona in their empty heads but really letting him come behind their backs and stab them? What was Sengoku teaching them nowadays? - even fighting against Mihawk, the sacrifices he makes, Seas know the Warlord did try to chop him up and would have continued doing so if three fucking ships - no, that was a submarine - two ships and a submarine didn't appear out of the flashy damned sky.

Hearing that his little nephew became pirate king is less surreal than seeing him six years older, with two other supernovas flanking him - and what the flashy fuck was Trafalgar saying? Him? An Emperor? Flashy no thank you - and the hat still on his head - wasn't he supposed to give it back to Shanks? Luffy looks well, assured in himself in a way his younger self still has to grow into, a black cape draped over his shoulders and a red shirt open showing an old X shaped scar across his chest - who had done it, when? - grinning with conviction - knowing he is able to bust his brother out of what has to be one of the worst wars since Roger had died.

It would have been hilarious to stop and see the marines gawk and sputter - Garp's soul seems to have left his body completely and Sengoku is close to an aneurysm - but Buggy figures that since everyone is busy he may as well use the subterfuge skills he has learned from his ma', get close to Ace and see a way to get him out of those damn cuffs. If his luck holds maybe the admirals will not notice he exists please and thank you, he does not want a magma fist through his chest. Although considering how Akainu is getting redder and redder by the moment, he figures he is safe. It has to be one hell of a way to find out you failed your life's mission so spectacularly.

“Oi, Galdino!” The former Baroque Works member does not seem to excited to be singled out in the middle of a battlefield he is doing his best to scurry out of, but bad fucking luck, nor is Buggy happy to be here in the first place. So without explaining anything, the clown captain’s hand detaches, catching the wax paramecia by his collar and dragging him along towards the scaffold. If nothing else, the man should be able to create a copy of the key to Ace’s cuffs. He would also make for a good shield Buggy can throw at any marines he has a hard time dealing with.

***

Honestly Eustass Kid cannot say he is surprised to find himself six years in the past at the site of his ally?'s- whatever the fuck Mugiwara is to him - biggest regret.

He can honestly say that ever since he had the (mis)fortune of getting entangled with Mugiwara his life did not follow any of the fucking plans he had ever made (or rather Killer made seas knew he had no patience for that). Perhaps, in hindsight, getting defeated - he was not one shot, thank you very much Trafalgar - by Shanks was fairly predictable because Killer had thought it was a bad idea to engage and if Killer thinks something is a bad idea, well usually it is - see any alliance he had tried to make prior to the one with Mugiwara.

What was less predictable was finding himself in the med bay of the Sunny after that entire debacle, him and his crew picked up like bedraggled kittens from the sea by the slightly battered and bruised Strawhats that had apparently fought the fucking elders. He doesn't even remember those first days well - there was a lot of screaming on his part, Luffy watching him with a weight in his gaze, but otherwise being still and silent, so unlike him until Kidd had snapped and asked why the fuck he had even saved them, the alliance was done, they were enemies, Mugiwara should have just finished the job Akagami started to which Luffy just punched him.

"Gizao is an idiot." Kidd doesn't think he ever heard someone so disappointed in him and that included Victoria. Honestly, the cold shoulder he received afterwards was more hurtful than the punch and it probably would have lasted longer if the Strawhat's navigator hadn't suddenly changed course just for the crew to fish an equally beat up Trafalgar and part of his crew from the water - apparently the idiot had almost died at Blackbeard’s hands according to his navigator and still went back to try and rescue part of his crew, which led to him almost dying again and Luffy having a new target for his ire.

How they got from screaming at each other to fucking each other was still a mystery Kid hadn't really untangled - it probably had something to do with Nami, Killer and surprisingly Bepo of all people getting done with their shouting matches and locking them up in the Captain's quarters - but that was that and at the end of a month Luffy had got in his head he was going to help Trafalgar build a new sub and kick Blackbeard's ass. The more surprising event was that he had also called his - father apparently Kidd is to this day bamboozled that Akagami is Mugiwara's adopted father - and telling him that Kidd is his now and no more trying to kill him. Maiming was allowed just no murder. Kidd would have been truly offended if the strangled chicken noises Akagami made upon hearing his kid was no longer innocent weren't music to his ears. Which led them to several years forward and the idiot actually managing to becoming Pirate King and now several years backward because despite everything Trafalgar and Mugiwara were still predictable as fuck.

At least the marines looked cowed enough. Apart from Akainu who looked close to rupturing something.

"Oi Ice-man are you working for my dad already or does still need to happen? Are we allowed to beat you up here?" Just when he thought things couldn't get better. Kuzan suddenly couldn't look at either Sengoku or the offended look on Garp's face, Akainu was pouring magma like a wet behind the ears logia using his power for the first time and Firefist had gone from being being dismayed to chortling like a dying cat on the scaffold. Well, if anything Kuzan was lucky Mugiwara hadn’t revealed his little stint as an undercover pirate in Blackbeard’s crew.

"Lu-ya stop revealing future secrets!"

"Well Torao did too!"

"That one was obvious!"

Begrudgingly Kidd has to admit that Luffy being Pirate King was kind of obvious considering the haki their whatever – he refused to say either partner or boyfriend okay, what they had was purely beneficial to everyone and that’s that, Trafalgar and Mugiwara could be mushy all they wanted to each other - has been leaking from the very moment he set eyes on the site of Marinefort.

***

Law knows better than anyone the dangers of hubris; after all it was what had allowed them to take down Doflamingo and Kaido, what had led to Luffy slamming Akainu in the ground, all bones in the fleet admiral's body broken, what had let to Eustass-ya being fished from the sea like a wet kitten – no, he will never stop lording that over his partner, he at least managed to put up a fight to Blackbeard. But it is hard, so very hard not to rile up the marines in front of them, to see Akainu’s rage bubble more and more, to make fun of their utter incompetence because even if once this was the sight of a tragedy, it will not be one again, not when Luffy has something to say about it, not when Law himself and his crew are so much more powerful, Kidd and his likewise, seasoned veterans of the New World, not the kids not knowing what the hell they were getting into the first time.

It's even more entertaining to see the players of before acting differently, to see Buggy scurrying around, Galdino in tow trying to free Ace, Kuzan attempting to make his exit from the stage, his cover blown and all eyes on him apart from the remaining to admirals who completely forsake their previous targets and decide to attack the new threats that had fucked up their plans. A light beam comes his way, Borsalino apparently having chosen to silence up at least one of them, before seastone collides with him, knocking him off course, making the light logia crash in one of the walls of Marinefort, shoulder bleeding and glasses askew.

“Maaaan, I wanted to catch him from the first shot. Dad would have managed to,” Usopp complained from the deck of the Sunny, Kabuto in hand and trained on the dazzled admiral.

“Quite a shock to see the kid you were chasing a few days ago make you crash land in the ground, isn’t it admiral-ya,” Law can't help but quip, before he shambles himself and Luffy in the middle of the battlefield, the other captain already turning Gear 5 on and laughing.

"Oh, by the way Robin-ya, you might want to call Baltigo," Law adds as an afterthought, before shambling the younger Luffy away from the battlefield, on the relative safety of the Sunny.

“Oi, what’s the big deal!”

“Stay put, Mugiwara-ya, I’d rather not have to rearrange your intestines a second time. Even if it was to day the most challenging surgery of my life.”

“STOP TELLING ME THINGS I DON’T WANT TO KNOW. Wait what?”

“Torao, stop bullying little me. Let’s have fun shishisi,” Luffy laughed, his fist catching the charging Akainu straight in the face and launching him in the crowd. “Now, this is going to be just as fun the second time as it was the first time.”

“Have your fun, Lu-ya! Shambles.”

***

Sengoku is unsure when exactly the execution derailed quite this bad. Was it when the time travellers revealed Kuzan had been working as a Revolutionary behind his back? When the kid that was part of the Strawhats that the fleet admiral was half-sure was somehow linked to the Red haired pirates’ Yasopp managed to shoot Kizaru mid-flight? When Garp’s fucking grandson revealed he had an awakened devil fruit and now his superiors were yelling in the den-den that Mugiwara was now the priority and to kill him at all cost? He doesn’t even bother conveying that message considering he’s two admirals short and the third is already hell bent on following the order he doesn’t even know about, although he’s failing miserably. If anything, Mugiwara is toying with him, a feral grin on his face and that haunting shishishi ringing across the entire battlefield, making even Garp flinch in worry.

Perhaps that is why he does not blink when Buggy the clown is dropped on the scaffold out of thin air - Trafalgar's move no doubt - together with another Impel Down escapee, Garp pretending not to notice them, the executioners in a dead fait after a wave of Conquerors’ haki – this time from the time travelling Monkey D. and not the one screeching on the deck of his ship he wants to fight too, while being smothered by who is most likely - because they too have grown and gained the confidence they had been lacking in present time – Cat Burglar Nami and Devil Child Nico Robin who are cooing over how young their captain used to be and what even is his life now?

A click later and Portgas D. Ace is free, grabbed by his beads by a screeching Buggy who seems to not have any patience for the young man’s desire to fight and booking it away before either Sengoku or Garp change their mind about chasing them. Another flicker of blue light later and they are gone together with wax paramecia, moved somewhere Sengoku has a hard time following them.

“The Marines are never going to regain their reputation after this.”

“Neah, probably not,” and why the fuck is Garp even grinning? “But it’s good to see those kids became so strong. Even if they’re no good lawless bastards that deserve several fists of love for putting their grampa through this. Crackers, Senny?”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN SABO IS STILL ALIVE?” Echoes across the battlefield and ah, it seems Firefist got in the clutches of his younger-older brother, if the screaming is anything to go by. Honestly, did he have to infuse Haki in that scream? Several of the marines that were still standing, fainted in a heap.

May as well take some of those crackers at the rate his day was going.

Perhaps he should have signed those resignation papers a long time ago.

Chapter Text

In what would end up being known as the biggest cluster fuck the marines had ever been involved in, Sengoku had decided retreat really was the better part of valour and called his men back, allowing the pirate ships to leave Marinefort - largely unscathed and with an overwhelming victory - without much fanfare. In the wake of the battle he was down two admirals, Kuzan having made himself scarce - a fact that wildly reminded him of both elder Monkey D's when faced with paperwork and in hindsight maybe the fleet admiral should have guessed there was SOMETHING off about the ice admiral - and Sakazuki punted in the sea by a laughing Monkey D Luffy, his recovery still pending - Sengoku wished him luck he had landed on an island somewhere but was more sure the magma admiral had become Seaking food. The only one remaining standing - in a manner of speech - had been Kizaru who once down stayed down with a dazed expression on his face.

To say the insanity stopped there would be a lie. As soon as the pirates started putting distance from Marinefort with a screaming Firefist Ace still somehow making his confusion known to all and sundry - how Sengoku could still hear him, he did not know, he just assumed he had inherited Garp's outdoor voice because seas knew the man did not have an indoor voice - the squabble aboard the three vessels fallen from the sky continued making the fleet admiral flee to his office where he was going to sign those damn retirement papers.

He did not want to hear what Trafalgar, Kidd and Mugiwara had to say when questioned about their actual relationship thank you very much. From the beeline Garp made behind him, he assumed his oldest friend was of a similar mindset, although his grumbles were far louder.

"Damn brat couldn't have found some good law-abiding marines for himself, no it has to be those scoundrels."

***

Buggy didn't know how he wound up on his not quite so little anymore nephew's ship, next to Luffy's orange haired navigator that looked at him like the cat that ate the canary and Buggy knew enough about Nami to understand this spelled a big loss of money in the clown pirate's future and what the flashy fuck did he get extorted into he wondered. 

He tried not to think too much about it and instead focused on the debacle happening on deck where Ace was currently yelling in a den den, the person on the other side blubbering sorries and excuses - something about memory loss? - before in turn yelling back at the fire logia for getting himself almost executed - ‘What the fuck Ace, we told you your life matters, seas damn it’ was shouted particularly loud that the poor snail looked a bit dazed afterwards -, the younger Luffy at his side swaying on his feet - and honestly shouldn't a doctor check that kid there was like an abundance of them here, one of them supposedly his future something something - and crying messily with snot and tears running down his cheeks, while the time traveling captain trio was looking at the entire spectacle with reluctant in some cases and fond in others, amusement.

"I'm imagining things didn't go quite this well in your past," Buggy finally bit the bullet and asked, noticing immediately the change in expression on Nami's face, a mix of guilt and regret tampered by the years that passed.

"Much worse," he really didn't need to hear more to figure out what happened, especially considering the hawk-like look on all of the Strawhats’ faces whenever they glanced in Ace’s direction, as if wanting to make sure he was still there and alive. Before he could press for details - and did he even want to know more details - a shout startled him, rubbery limbs wrapping around him and dragging him over as a shield, Luffy - the younger one - whining at his back and oh the Red Force was showing up at the horizon, that was probably what had the kid all freaked out.

"Hide me, I can't meet mamãe yet. It doesn't count if he did it" the petulant frown thrown at his older self was hilarious enough that Buggy almost wished he had a cameko to immortalize it. 

"Kid, your flashy mom is probably in hysterics considering the insanity you've gotten into ever since Ennies Lobby."

"Tio can tell him I'm fine," the kid said stubbornly - and honestly why was he even surprised, Shanks was just as bad - before launching himself in a barrel and hiding there. He loved his nephew dearly, but how did the brat manage to snag the two most infamous supernovas with these types of antics Buggy didn't know. The confusion must have shown on his face, because both Trafalgar and Eustass shrugged and said at the same time.

"He grows on you kinda like fungus."

"OI!" The outrage came from the time-traveling brat, unsurprisingly.

A moment later a blue dome appeared over the barrel and Luffy got shambled somewhere else, an amused thank you coming from his older self who merely snickered at Trafalgar’s side.

***

Buggy would have liked to be able to say he was surprised by Shanks’ reaction to meeting his now older - and Pirate King to boot - kid. But that would be a lie; his brother had a flair for the dramatics just as big as Buggy did, therefore when he finally boarded the Sunny, after a long period of just staring dumbfounded at the ship, he started wailing.

“Beck, Beck I’m hallucinating.”

“If you are, I’m pretty sure all of us are, Boss.”

“Beeeeeck!”

“ Shishishi, mamãe is being silly. You’re not hallucinating. Torao and Gizao and me jumped down a waterfall after we left Laughtale and fell down here. So we got Ace back and everything, make sure the old man didn't die this time.”

“My baby is all grown up and became Pirate King. I’m so proud of you, Anchor.”

Yep, the sobbing was also expected. Buggy accepted ten berry from each of the people around him who didn't believe him that the Emperor would start sobbing and hugging the life out of his kid. Which ended up being only Ace and Galdino as the Strawhat pirates had already been privy to one reunion between Shanks and Luffy. Good thing the kid was made of rubber.

“Just wait here a bit and let Beck have his share of hugs. I need to have a talk with Trafalgar and Kidd.”

The shing Gryphon made when it was taken out of its scabbard had the two other pirate captains scampering back to their ships - and even submerging the submarine in Trafalgar's case -, while Ace cheered Shanks on with an approving glint in his eyes. Buggy sighed to high heavens and rolled his eyes - yes, that too was predictable as flashy hell.