Marines: Aokiji, Coby, Garp, Sengoku, Smoker

Pirates: Bartolomeo, Carrot, Crocodile, Hancock, Katakuri, Law, Marco, Shanks, Yasopp

Revolutionaries: Dragon, Ivankov, Sabo

Animals: Carue, Dugong

Royalties: Rebecca, Shirahoshi, Vivi

Important tag: Canon is not worshipped in this fic.

Be Careful About Who Sees What Where

Td03

"So we've seen Luffy recruiting his swordsman and navigator," Sabo spoke.

Bartolomeo nodded. "Yes, and the next person Luffy-senpai recruited should be Usopp-senpai."

"I just have one question," Sabo deadpanned.

"Vat is it?" Ivankov asked, sitting on the ocean's surface with her legs dipped, crossed.

His hand met his stomach. "I should be hungry by now."

I should be too, Katakuri agreed.

"But I don't feel hungry at all. Or have any urge to go. It's been more than hours since we started seeing this, and we've been fighting for days to reach Raftel in the first place."

The words 'we've been fighting' sent a chill down Dragon's spine. That's right. They were fighting to exterminate. But for a while now, revolutionaries and marines – marines and pirates! – are being… to say "friendly" was misleading by a mile, but they certainly were a bit chummy.

Dragon was standing – not right beside, but – quiet close to his father. Ivankov was as brazen as ever, strutting proudly between the sand Shichibukai and ice newly-reinstated Admiral. Sabo could easily dish out an attack to the marine Coby, but they were clearly bonding over his son.

His son who was the subject of ire for the navigator.

The water was still. They were in warmer waters. There was only a light breeze. The only cannon they had on Nami's ship was secured, and so were all the loose items on both boats. One delicate hand on the mainsail prepared to unfurl it because Nami predicted they were going to have a storm soon. "You're going great!" Zoro called out.

"I'M DOING EVERYTHING, YOU WANKERS!" Nami exploded at Zoro who was wasted on deck and Luffy who was probably still lying asleep inside.

Three days have passed, and Nami quickly found out Luffy's true nature. The young captain doesn't put up a wall around his emotions. Actually, he has neither any semblance of propriety nor any understanding of the concept of personal space. For God's sake, he was confirming her suspicions that he has the IQ of a kumquat.

"He can't be a decent leader with the way he acts like a child. He can't sleep on his own – plus he talks in his sleep – he always has to hug one of us. He doesn't understand the concept of rationing food. His navigating skill is limited to 'We'll follow where the wind goes!'" Nami mimicked Luffy's boyish voice. "And worse! He can't even read a map!"

"When I see this witch, I'll—" Hancock was the sole person who attempted to defend Luffy from the rapid-fire insults. Everyone else's shoulders went a little slack in their complete agreement to a majority of Nami's problems with her new captain.

A majority? Why, it's not like most of them ever slept beside the rubber man to confirm whether he's the cuddly and sleep talking type. And it was very ludicrous to know that the Pirate King was unable to read a map, but ultimately a funny footnote for few.

"He pretty much said the same thing when we set off here, didn't he?" Carrot turned to Bartolomeo.

The man nodded enthusiastically. "'We shall follow the stars!'" Bartolomeo quoted happily. Ah, Law had observed the Thousand Sunny when Lu-ya shouted that. The straw-hatted teen also tried to throw away the map into the ocean before he himself was dunked into the ocean by his navigator. Apparently, it was a regular response because Zoro-ya didn't dive in, and Luffy had had his feet looped around and tied himself onto a fence.

The ocean underneath them blurred a little; Nami, Zoro, Luffy were suddenly sitting out in the open. They all figured that this was another sort of "flashback" since the sun popped over to a different "location".

Zoro was sleeping while Luffy idly let his arms swing over the edge to touch the ocean water, apparently playing with several small dolphins. His hat was absent on his head and was instead in Nami's hands. She held it close to her face, and for a moment it looked like she was giving it a kiss, but it turns out she was breaking the piece of string she had used to stitch it. "I fixed your hat, Luffy."

Sabo found it was as if they were viewing a frame by frame re-telling. Looking over, he found that from the corner of his vision everything was a bit blurry. Come to think of it, when seeing Zoro's memory about his late friend, their surroundings were a bit blurry too. But this time, there was no motion. Nami didn't even move her mouth, but her voice carried over aloud anyway.

Luffy was instantly beside her, admiring the hat after shouting a quick thank you.

"Sure. Just be more careful next time. Wearing a straw hat is just distracting in a fight. It's been falling off your head over and over—"

Then Luffy's cheerful face morphed into panic; Luffy had apparently poked the straw hat a little too hard and his finger burst through the part Nami had just fixed.

"Anchor!" Shanks whined.

"IDIOT!" Nami's voice rang loudly while her position instantly changed from being relaxed to kneeling over and viciously poking Luffy's eyelid with her sewing needle. "Since punching you would be useless," the tiny thing between her fingers looked menacingly sharp. "This will work! Give me your hat!"

Then the ocean beneath Shirahoshi gave way to a beach, with Luffy and Nami's boats already pulled over to the sand. The two were walking toward the jungle and abandoning Zoro who stayed asleep. In the jungle Nami mostly let Luffy getting under her skin with the way he points to all sorts of strange animals and calls them out with their more subtle secondary natures rather than their obvious, more dominant species.

"Hey look! A rabbit!"

"I know it's weird, but I'm pretty sure that's a mutant snake! Don't grab it like that!"

"Wow! A lion!"

"That… that's a pig, isn't it? A weird mutant pig."

"Oooooh! A deer!"

"That's more of a bear!"

There were small roars and quacks and mewls and generally, Carue could tell, the animals were torn between being insulted and being flattered by the gushing.

Dugong noticed some animals were wise enough to tell that beneath the praises of fascination, Luffy-shishou wished to eat them.

Carrot giggled, noticing the same.

Then it continued. Like sliding pictures generated by Visual Den Den Mushi they figured that Nami and Luffy had made a friend out of an odd afro-haired man called Gaimon who was stuck in a chest obsessed with getting several other similar chests on top of a cliff he had apparently spent years trying to climb up on. The man in the chest shared depression with Nami when Luffy confirmed they were all actually empty, though the man and the boy eventually laughed together over their complete inability to read an actual map. The man declined Luffy's invitation to join his crew, and the two went back to find that Zoro was still napping and somehow a monkey with a skunk's tail sneaked onto Nami's boat. Offended by Luffy not understanding how to read a map, Nami tried to teach it to Luffy – the monkey joined in. Monkey D. Luffy got bored quickly and went off to the boat's edge to take a nap, entirely unconcerned that he could fall into the ocean, while the actual monkey had somehow acquired a prim hat, glasses, and a bow tie and diligently listened to Nami explaining how to read charts in-between insulting Luffy by openly comparing his intelligence with the animal's. Lunchtime came, and the monkey escaped, swimming to a nearby island their boats passed because Luffy declared he wanted to eat it.

Crocodile, bored at the show and had favoured himself by watching the sky, saw the sun popping back to its original place five minutes ago.

Zoro looked at her with one eye open. "Don't complain about his sleeping habit when you're fine with it." He closed his eyes again and shrugged, somehow managing to do so while he was crossing his arms behind his head and leaning against the dinghy. "He's actually a nice teddy bear."

"W-Well—" Pirates! Out of the pot and into the frying pan; she ends up teaming up with pirates way too often, why can't she find a team who were not murderers? Even marines were! "I don't see you denying the rest! Weren't you a pirate hunter? Was that a lie? Why do you even follow this guy?" Nami pointedly asked Zoro.

"I was about to be executed, but he blackmailed me and saved my life."

"Oh, so he recruited a pirate hunter to be a pirate?" Nami deadpanned, huffing as she furled the mainsail. After shortening the jib, she went inside the boat's cabin.

Zoro came inside one minute later, wet and soaked from the storm that Nami didn't inform him about when she went in. Nami smirked at his miserable state while Luffy laughed at him. "Oi, Luffy, how did you meet this woman?"

"Oh, she set me up to die by some pirates who were chasing her."

Nami laughed weakly.

"That's probably the best throwing someone off the plank," Marco chuckled.

"I-I'm sorry," she said uncertainly.

"He could have died," Zoro drawled.

"But he didn't."

"If I were a normal guy I would have died! Shishishi!" Luffy added cheerfully. Nami wanted to ask if Luffy was trying to get her killed by the increasingly annoyed dangerous ex-pirate hunter. Anything else was going to have to wait because the boat they were in suddenly screeched to a halt. Nami stood up, and after confirming that the storm had passed, she went outside – light drizzle – and frantically checked their other boat. She sighed in relief when she confirmed that it was still attached. Then she gaped at the strange, strange lagoon they seemed to have entered.

She knew this was a small island with a lagoon filled with big water lilies, but she didn't know they were this gigantic.

"Whoa!" Luffy, the only one who ate a Devil Fruit, recklessly jumped onto a lily pad. It was strong enough to hold the weight he put on it. "So cool!"

"It looks fun too!" Carrot followed Luffy's example, but while she landed on a lily pad, it didn't make any splash. Her feet felt like she just touched concrete and not the ocean. "Poo."

Shirahoshi wanted to poke a water lily, but her finger just passed through it. "Aww."

Smoker sweatdropped. "Does he do that often?"

"Jumping into the ocean despite being a Devil Fruit user?" Law couldn't even make any answer sound delicate. "Wait until you see Chopper's 'Jumping Point'."

"Let's make some lunch here!"

Though he was enthusiastic, Luffy didn't contribute a single thing at making lunch.

In the middle of their lunch a tiger strolled in for the cooked food and not the living breathing meat bags called humans, so Nami and Zoro let it be (after a one-time screaming fest). "This tiger is so cool!" Luffy gushed, throwing his body to its side and crossing his arms behind his head. The tiger preened and even encircled Luffy's waifish waist with its black-striped tail.

Its fur was inviting him for a nap. Zoro yawned and followed suit. "You like tigers, Captain?"

"They make great pelt."

Katakuri snickered at the friendly tiger's panicked expression.

"I fought bigger tigers! A few days ago, I hunted for the biggest tiger I could find and skinned it." Luffy patted the tail around his waist, to the docile tiger's fear of the sweet, but apparently violent human. "He should be back by now."

"Who?" Nami asked.

The tiny lagoon filled with giant lily pads gave way to a giant marine ship with a dog figure, championed by a buff old man laughing wildly.

"It's Garp-san!" Coby exclaimed.

"You look exactly the same," Sengoku observed.

"I look exactly the same!" Garp exclaimed. "I'm so old!"

"Everyone knows Garp the Fist is old!" Shanks butted in. "You're ancient already! Leave the seas already!"

"What was that, Red-Hair?!"

"Hurry up, you bastards! I want to see my little tyke soon!" Garp yelled at the men on board. He pointed at the huge tiger pelt decorating the mast. "Look at how tough my grandson is now! I'm already late one day to celebrate his 17th birthday for trying to find the best present for him!"

A man with a grey suit under his marine coat and grey fedora spoke, "You were the one who wanted to scour New World seas to find it."

"Ah, shut it, Bogard. It's their fault for manoeuvring the special Sea King so slow!"

"AH! I REMEMBER THIS!" Garp shouted.

"You brought a New World Sea King to East Blue?!" Sengoku berated him. He drove a knuckle to the man's rock hard head. "You idiot!"

"I didn't bring it to breed in East Blue, Sen, it was lunch!"

The moment his marine ship docked Dawn Island, Garp inhaled loudly, and exhaled even louder. A huge smile fit for a predator etched onto his facial features, "LUFFY! GRANPA'S HOME!"

He was greeted by the sight of the villagers chuckling at him. "WHAT?"

"Luffy's not here," a green-haired woman laughed. "He remembered you almost catching Ace when you came to his seventeenth birthday! So he left straight after sending you your birthday gift."

Garp exploded.

"So that's why you came back with a half-destroyed ship," Sengoku deadpanned.

Garp was fuming as he saw his grandson cackling far away from Dawn Island. Yasopp recognized that they were heading to Syrup Island, and practically vibrated from where he was standing.

Their surroundings changed. The wreckage Garp left behind morphed to the shore of a small East Blue Island.

Luffy, Zoro, and Nami went to a part of Syrup Island where there was a lot of bamboo trees blocking their way. Zoro leisurely cut them down to make way. A very fat panda followed their trail, munching on the bamboos Zoro cut down. Then several projectiles shot at Luffy's feet out of nowhere, and many pirate flags rose from bushes up above the seashore cliff, but instead of rising his hackles, Luffy cheered when an unknown figure made themselves visible and laughed at them.

"That's my son!" Yasopp sniffed. "I remember how skinny he was."

"I forgot how pathetic God was," Shanks snickered.

"Who named him God in the registry?" Smoker crossed his arms.

"I am the leader of the great nation of pirates who have conquered this village," the figure—teenager—boasted, aiming a slingshot at them. "The Great Captain Usopp! Surrender or face my eighty-million minions! Captain Usopp says so!"

"You're going to shoot us or what?" Luffy asked.

Usopp opened his mouth, but his voice left him when he felt the intimidating aura Zoro put forward when he slowly unsheathed his second sword.

The bushes rattled, and three kids jumped out screaming in fear.

Yasopp's eyes watered. "So cute!"

Nami drawled, "Eighty-million minions, hmm?"

"Alright, I lied about all that. But, you still can't come here. You've witnessed my skill with the slingshot is greater than that of a pistol! My honour won't allow you to pass! That's why people call me Usopp the Proud!" As if to contradict his words, Usopp's entire body was trembling with fear. His aim remained steady, however.

Now the eyes are incredibly shiny. "So precious!"

Shanks stepped back, creeping away from his sniper.

Luffy grinned. He liked him. "Risk your life." Luffy said, drawing confusion from his crew and Usopp. "With that shot, you will risk your life,"

Luffy smiled. It… wasn't a really nice smile. "That shot's not for threats, y'know, it's for action."

Shanks elbowed Yasopp in the ribs unkindly.

Marco stepped back, creeping away from the disturbingly smug expression.

The moment Usopp's eyes made contact with Luffy's, his nerves were lost, and he dropped the pachinko from his slingshot, which tumbled off near Nami's feet. "Just as I thought," Usopp spoke steadily, "a true pirate's speech is much more intimidating. That's so cool."

"It is, isn't it?! I got it from the best pirate there is, Shanks!"

Usopp staggered. "Shanks?! As in Red-haired Pirate?!"

"You're Yasopp's kid! I can recognize your nose from how many times your dad shoved pictures of you in front of our faces!"

"You know my dad!" In an instant, Usopp was in his face. "Tell me everything."

Nami slung an arm around him, "Give us room and food then we'll tell you everything."

The four teenagers went to town and ate at a small restaurant. The place was too small to house all of them, not that it was a serious issue. Sabo, Garp, Shanks, Hancock, Bartolomeo, and Yasopp were obviously invested to trail after Luffy and Usopp. Coby, Carrot, Rebecca, Shirahoshi, and Vivi were also eager to see every part of the Straw Hats' journey that they themselves never got to be part of before. While they reclined on whatever areas they can, intangible and invisible as they are to the people in the memory, The pirates Law, Crocodile, Katakuri, and the marines Smoker, Sengoku, Aokiji held next to no interest in listening in on pointless conversations in the past. They let themselves get dragged by the mysterious force of Raftel Island, silently frustrated with their inability to parse useful information to end this 'memory-traveling-journey'. Dragon's face left no hints of his contemplation, while Ivankov and Marco entertained the excitable Carue and Dugong.

The three of them were enjoying their meals while Luffy regaled tales about the one of the Four Emperors of the Seas. Usopp's eyes (and head) was filled with nothing but wonder, although Nami was practically interrogating Luffy for details in her disbelief of 'friendly, awesome pirates' that Luffy insisted as a descriptor.

As more and more stories were heaped upon the budding sharpshooter, Garp shot a curious look to Shanks and Yasopp. "Exactly how did you stay in my hometown?"

"That year was a lot of fun!" Luffy exclaimed, conveniently answering Garp's question.

"It sounds like your dad spends more time with Luffy than his own son," Zoro emptied his drink. "Weird."

"Distance matters little!" Usopp said with burning determination.

"Yasopp definitely loves Usopp! Like I know my Grandpa loves me too!"

Luffy's grin got a twin echo by Garp.

"What about your parents, Luffy?"

Zoro tched. "We're not kids. If you two are still clinging to your mothers, go ahead."

Nami's smile was razor-sharp. "I love my mother and I would destroy at least seven economies for her."

Nearly all the marines present shivered quietly. The damages their treasuries have taken…

"W-well, I'm proud of my old man for choosing to live a life of real adventure, and I'm going to sail the seas too!"

Nami's face screamed jackpot. "So you got must have a decent, big ship then."

Usopp deflated. "No. This is a quiet village. I don't think anybody here knows how to sail."

"Does that include people in that huge mansion by the cliff?"

"Stay away from there!"

Usopp's sudden aggression surprised everyone.

Usopp realized his blunder and quickly tried to excuse himself. "You shouldn't disturb that place. A-anyway, I just remembered I have to go. Wow! We were talking for so long, Luffy! I'll see you guys later, but as thanks, just stay and eat as much as you want! Captain Usopp, says so and everyone knows me!"

Big mistake! Everyone thought. That's such a terrible mistake.

Nami and Zoro watched Usopp ran out of the restaurant, ignoring Luffy who was ignoring everything in favour of the menu. Nami sent Zoro a questioning look, and he jerked his chin towards the window, directing their sight to a grand white mansion that stood out too much in the village.

All ten items on the menu were set on the group's table, and Luffy voraciously transported them into his stomach. Suddenly, the restaurant's door burst open to reveal three children. "The Usopp Pirates have arrived! We know you're here!" They scrambled to the only table occupied in the restaurant, brandishing their wooden daggers at Zoro, Nami, and Luffy. "You're the pirates who came to our beloved island this morning! Tell us what have you done to our Captain Usopp!"

Luffy patted his fat stomach. "The meat was so good."

Colour drained from the kids' faces.

Zoro gave them a smile, and it was definitely not friendly. "We ate him."

"C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-CANNIBALS!" They collectively turned to look at Nami.

Who wasn't pleased with the accusation. "What?!"

The kids fainted.

Rebecca and Carrot burst into laughter first, although Coby beat them by falling onto the floor, clutching his stomach.

When the kids woke up, Nami had Zoro blocked their way with his sword.

They jumped. "We're gonna die!"

"No one's gonna die! We're not cannibals and don't you spread stupid rumours like that about me! Feel free to spread it for this meathead!"

"We don't lie!" The kid with dark green hair shaped like an apple claimed.

"We're not going to lie!" The kid with light purple hair affirmed.

"We will never lie," the kid with light brown hair said.

"Ninjin, Tamanegi, Piman," the restaurant's waitress harrumphed. "You keep playing with that Usopp boy, and you will be liars!"

Vivi bristled, offended on Usopp's behalf. "That's way too mean!"

"He probably has a reason," Hancock glanced outside the window.

Luffy perked up, "Hey, I hear yelling outside."

The waitress approached a window and opened it, letting everyone inside to see that it was Usopp who was shouting outside. The teenager looked exhausted as he ran about the streets.

"HELP! PIRATES! THERE ARE PIRATES! THEY'RE GOING TO KILL US! EVERYBODY LISTEN!"

"Does he mean Luffy?" Coby asked, confused.

"Do the opposite: don't listen to him. Everyone knows that boy is a liar," the waitress sighed. "Every couple of weeks he'd shout pirates are coming to invade us. As if Syrup Village has anything of value for pirates!"

"Hah, but we are pirates, so he's not lying!" Luffy giggled.

The waitress glared. "At least don't mock him. The boy's already so disturbed since his mother's death."

"Well, if he's not lying, we can steal the other pirates' ship?" Zoro suggested.

"Why are we sitting on our asses here then? Let's—"

"To eat—"

"—go!" Nami raced out.

"But meat!" Luffy sniffed as Zoro dragged him by his collar.

"Wha—You three, pay for your food!" The waitress raged. "Captain Usopp says so, my ass!"

The rest of them joined the others who were already outside. "Ivankov, anything interesting?" Sabo asked.

"Ozer zan Usopp-boy's warnings being ignored, nay."

"Oi, Usopp!" Nami yelled out.

"NAMI! ZORO! LUFFY!" Usopp cried out. "THERE ARE PIRATES WHO ARE GOING TO DESTROY THE VILLAGE!"

"Usopp! Don't drag other people into this! When are you going to stop lying?" An old man approached them and crossed his arms.

"I'M NOT LYING THIS TIME!"

"Quite! It's afternoon. You're disturbing people's naps! Why do you always lie?"

Usopp just looked more stricken, and he glanced towards the large white mansion.

Yasopp, who had been so focused and upset for his son, startled when the clear sky suddenly gave way to a dark bedroom. The quietness was too abrupt, but then quickly broken by weak, sickly coughs coming from a young girl who was lying on the bedroom. The only source of light was a single window across her bed "Ah, why are we seeing some girl's bedroom?"

"I see Usopp!" Princess Shirahoshi's voiced outside. By looking down, she was the only one to see a young Usopp cleverly hidden in the tree leaves, safe from the view of people on the ground.

"Kaya. Kaya." Usopp knocked on the girl's window. The blonde coughed once more and got herself up, passing through their bodies obliviously, opened her window and smiled. "Usopp, you came back!"

"Kaya, I have so much to tell you! I had the best adventure yet! You shouldn't go to the south coast, because it stinks with the body of a monster I just defeated!"

As Usopp went on and on, it became clear that the boy was heaping lies on the girl. She clearly didn't believe his tales of gallantry, but as her eyes continue to brighten and her happiness drove off the exhaustion on her shoulders, it was pretty clear that she was the reason for Usopp's habit of lying. Yasopp smiled too. "My son's childhood, huh!"

The memory continued at a rapid pace. Usopp and Kaya growing up, continuously meeting by the window where Usopp tells her stories of his adventures, getting funnier and funnier consistently.

Until she laughed a bit too loud and the two were interrupted by a butler.

Kaya faded out, but Usopp and the butler stayed in their sights, the latter visibly intimidating the former. Apparently, the butler was actually a pirate who had faked his death from the marines, Kuro.

"He's a hypnotist!" Usopp said, the memory returning back to the 'present' time. "He's going to hypnotise Kaya to leave a will leaving all her fortune to him, and he's going to destroy the village to make it look like pirates killed her! Please help me! You have to believe me!"

It was night time. Usopp failed to convince the villagers and was sat on a rock, disheartened and upset in front of them. Usopp felt tears prickle seeing even Luffy's face as blank as Zoro and Nami's. "If only I hadn't been such a liar."

Yasopp's heart went out for his son.

Nami sighed. "Crying isn't going to help. What are you going to do?"

"I WILL DEFEAT THEM!" Usopp suddenly shouted. "I'll fight them off! They'll never touch Syrup Village, my home! I'll make sure Kuro and his pirates never comes near the village and make his plan a lie!" His eyes were burning with fire. "That's the only thing a liar like me can do!"

"THAT'S MY SON!" Yasopp cheered right into Shanks ears.

They blinked, then smiled. "You're actually nice," Zoro said.

"We'll fight too!" Luffy said.

"I call dibs on the treasure," Nami said.As if that was ever in doubt.

Yasopp was shocked. "Y-you're going to risk your lives for me? You don-I don't need you to! I'M A BRAVE WARRIOR OF THE SEA! Just like my-" Usopp cut himself off when he noticed his legs were badly shaking. He grit his teeth and punched his legs to stop quivering. "I don't need your sympathy!"

"Moron, we're not helping because we're nice," Zoro grunted. "It's because you're honourable."

Luffy rolled his eyes. "As if we'd risk our lives for pity."

" We're doing this for our selves," Nami said.

Usopp's legs stopped shaking, and he looked hopeful. "W-what can you guys do?"

" Cut."

"Stretch."

"Steal."

The hope was dashed. "I can hide."

" YOU'LL FIGHT TOO, IDIOT!"

Shanks chortled. The upcoming fight is undoubtedly going to be boring to watch. It was one thing to see Luffy's first encounter with marines and coming up against Buggy, but this Klahadore/Kuro is so far below the food chain and Shanks could already see others like Crocodile resigned to be bored to death. But, Shanks had a feeling that Luffy would prove otherwise, even this early in his journey.

The night sky lightened. The blue sky above was peaceful while the ground below was in chaos. They saw how Usopp valiently tried to delay the pirates, even though he was a boy with next to no fighting experience, barely saving his head from being smashed thanks to Zoro's swing. They, Shirahoshi more than the others, saw how Kaya fought against her sickness and exhaustion, carrying a gun to confront Kuro and barely avoiding her head detaching thanks to Luffy's interruption. They saw how Kuro nearly slaughtered the little kids playing as Usopp Pirates, barely escaping thanks to Nami's interference. They saw how Usopp snapped the civilians out of their stupor by "bestowing" the children with the mission to protect Kaya.

Luffy's stretched fist slammed right onto the side of the impostor butler, Kuro, who failed to completely dodge Luffy's long-ranged attack. For all intents and purposes, Luffy seems to be having his own fun fighting a very fast, if not particularly strong, opponent on his own while batting Kuro's crew away because they were persistent in getting in between their Captain and Luffy's fists. In the midst of the fight, Zoro and Usopp ran off to chase after Jango while Nami used Luffy's chaotic fighting with basically every Kuro Pirate to sneak onto Kuro's ship to loot the treasure. Luffy was only playing around though, and the fight clearly reflected his mood because Kuro kept dissing Luffy as a stupid child, especially when Luffy started forgoing accurately throwing his fists to randomly throwing pebbles and then tree trunks.

The playful mood was gone when Kuro used a technique he called 'Cat out of the Bag'. The name belied its viciousness, because Kuro began to move three times faster, blindly doling out slashes onto every possible angle. The pirate captain basically murdered his own men, not even focusing his ire at Luffy.

Law eyed the battlefield in distaste, disgusted to see such a uselessly reckless and practically sociopathic attack. To thoughtlessly kill his own crewmates who were pleading for their captain to spare them… Law looked over to see Lu-ya's reaction and froze.

The underlying tone of red on Luffy's black eyes, just a little bit, looked viciously bright.

Kuro finally delivered a solid slash across Luffy's chest, but the boy merely caught the swinging arm and stretched to circle Kuro's neck.

Looking at Luffy's satisfied expression, Kuro snarled. "Don't underestimate me, boy! I've merely been toying with you!"

Luffy grinned wickedly. "Hey, hey, you've been planning Kaya's death for three years? You're so lame!"

Almost like lightning, another memory replaced the scene for a very brief moment. They caught a glimpse of a dining hall, lavishly white and frighteningly clean, and what looked like a family of three cowering on a corner, and then the memory was gone.

Eyeing the desperately struggling man who was failing in breaking Luffy's fingers to free his neck, Luffy hummed. "Since you like plans so much," he trailed off, voice trailing giddily. Luffy stretched his neck, upwards and upwards until his head passed the height of Kuro's flag. "Gomu Gomu no Kane!" His neck snapped strung, and his head rocketed downwards in a vicious speed, knocking right onto Kuro's forehead and shattering his glasses into pieces.

Luffy let go of Kuro's neck and spat out the shards that got stuck on his face.

Law pinched his nose, wondering when he will get the opportunity to find out if Luffy's internal organs were permanently rubber as well.

"H-H-He beat, Captain Kuro!"

Luffy swept his eyes derisively at the rest of Kuro's crew who were staring at him in fear. "You're not even mad at your Captain?"

When they didn't answer Luffy scratched his head. "You're all sheep, aren't you?"

"Luffy!"

Luffy perked up when he heard Nami—ankles wet from the water, shoulders supporting a bag filled with coins. "Why'd you bringing treasure? I thought we're taking the ship!"

Nami shrugged, shooting a brief glance at Kuro's head bleeding the sand.

Similar to before, another memory quickly came and went. This time, it was Nami, presumably on Kuro's ship, waving goodbye to a group of crassly-dressed ladies who were taking over the wheel, standing by with freshly-loaded guns, aiding Nami to get down the ladder with the heavy bag of gold.

Nami smiled smugly at the enemy pirates. "Those ladies you kidnapped? You better surrender and beg for escort off this island because they're gonna leave in two minutes."

They gaped.

Luffy laughed at the change of plans. "Run! Captain Monkey D. Luffy says so!"

The Kuro pirates left, hauling their captain off the shore. They weren't too far off the sea so Nami could see that each of them faced a rifle as they climbed up the ship that was no longer theirs. Nami looked fearfully at the rest of the dead bodies left on the shore, noting the slash marks that caused their deaths. "Those wounds… that pirate Kuro killed his own crew?"

"He wasn't a pirate," Luffy stated. "Pirates don't kill their own crewmates."

Nami snorted. "I wonder who the hell made you think pirates are great. This is a standard example of pirates."

"Yes, Red-hair, what lies did you put in my grandson's head?"

"Hey, do you not want me to downgrade the blood and gore when I told him stories?" Shanks pouted. "Besides, Luffy's right."

"Where's Zoro and Usopp?" Nami asked.

"They went after Bingo," Luffy cocked his head. "I don't hear Usopp screaming. They probably already saved his friend. I'm hungry. Let's go back to that restaurant!" Luffy's hand stretched and grabbed a bunch of coins from Nami's bag of loot. "We can pay with this."

"That's my money, you asshole!"

"I contributed this time! I distracted the pirates for you!"

"NOOOOO!" Usopp's voice echoed from the forest.

Nami used the distraction to snatch Luffy's hand and make him drop her money into her bag. "So, you were saying?" She hefted the bag on her shoulder. "Let's catch up to them!"