Author Note: I had been considering putting all of the childhood scenes into this one chapter, but I'm splitting it up into this, and the next chapter. I had a few reviews asking who the woman was, honestly didn't know I was being that subtle. It's technically speaking his mother, but it doesn't really matter for the story purposes right now. Just now that it was someone Luffy considered himself really close too - It's part of the reason he was so broken up when he lost Sabo in his first life because the loses had piled onto each other. She's meant to be sort of a blank space so that I can slide the canon in should Oda-sensei ever grace us with the information.

Thank you for all the reviews! Follows, and favourites! I don't think I responded to many in PMs this chapter, I've been really busy with my family life. Sorry about that, it won't happen again, I promise! I really appreciate all of the thoughts and ideas you sent me and will take everything into consideration.

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To say that Law wanted to leave earlier than he'd originally planned would be an under-exaggeration. Once he made it back to the bandit's place and handed Luffy his recently stolen Den-Den Mushi, Law was ready to head out.

"Ehhh?! Torao already leaving, but it's not even dinner time yet!" Luffy exclaimed, pointing toward the large animal that he and Ace had dragged back after hunting. After their little emotional episode, Ace had stormed off to get some meat, and Luffy couldn't exactly protest that so he'd followed after.

"I'll survive off the rice bath I got from Freckles-ya temper tantrum," Law stated, shooting a smirk toward the hot-headed boy, who immediately bore his teeth and looked ready to lunge forward. Not that it got much reaction from Law, who just widened his grin, "Besides, I've got to go meet up with my crew."

Any protests that Luffy might have had immediately died down.

There was only one last thing that Law had to do before he left.

"When I went into town I went through an area where a fire was dying down," Law started explaining, and the two brothers in front of him tensed up, even Luffy-ya, something that Law didn't think he'd ever seen before, "There was a woman there who was asking after you, Mugiwara-ya. Once she knew you were okay, she died with a smile."

She died without regrets.

Luffy listened to the words blankly.

When Luffy realized that he wasn't back far enough to stop the fire, he'd felt horrible, but took what he was given the chance to save Ace. His first life, Luffy just assumed that woman died, and hadn't been able to know if she regretted coming to him, or if she blamed Luffy for what happened. Those thoughts had faded over the years, and yet... Luffy wasn't exactly the type of person to care about that sort of thing, but...

Knowing that she died without regrets was...

Luffy gave an equally as blank looking Torao a radiant smile, "Thank you, Torao."

That was the end of that, Law just gave a nod of acknowledgement and left without another glance backwards, his huge sword looking hilarious to anyone who knew that the teen wouldn't grow into it within a few years.

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Luffy found himself falling into place as a child easily. The only thing that really frustrated him was the fact that he couldn't get his rubber body to work properly. Ever since he came back, whenever he tried an attack, there would never be enough power behind it. He just wasn't as stretchy as he was in the future. It had Luffy pouting because he was better than this, and he really wanted to impress Ace and Gramps with his newfound abilities! Even if he was improving much faster than he originally did because of his knowledge of the way his attacks worked, it was NOT as easy as he wished it would be.

After practice, Luffy would usually pout.

Ace would come back with the hunt of the day and Luffy would immediately forget his frustrations.

It was a month and there still hadn't been a word from Torao, which Luffy didn't mind so much, he knew that his nakama could take care of himself, especially since said nakama was leaving to get his own crewmates.

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The unmistakable sight of Swallow Island was pulling past the horizon, and Law lets a smile pull to his lips. Not a smirk, but an honest to god smile. He missed his crew, he always did when they were separated, but Bepo especially had a place carved in Law's heart. Besides that, he was on that small boat for over a month, only getting to stretch his legs when he was practising with his sword. Even then, it was repetitive and boring to do the same thing in the same place every day.

The only place that he hadn't felt like that was the Polar Tang, and the Strawhats ship, Thousand Sunny.

Both had an atmosphere to them that stopped Law from sliding into mind-numbing boredom.

Making dock earned him the strange looks that he still needed to get used to. The consolation being; the looks would be filled with awe and fear within the next decade. A wide, confident smirk to the onlookers had them averting their gazes, and Law started to make his way inland. When he was on this island the first time around, Bepo was trying his best to find a boat that would take him to Zou, asking any of the ships on the island whether they would take him on. Of course, the best way to find a high volume of seafaring men was the bar.

Bepo hung around there, and because of how often he was there, eventually, two people started to take more and more offence to the Mink.

Law walked into the nearest bar to the coast, and his narrowed gaze quickly scanned the room.

There, in the corner, just as he was expecting.

Bepo was there, in the corner, nursing several blood matted wounds.

If it wasn't for the fact that Law knew who those wounds came from, they would find themselves dead. Instead, he'd find them, and force them to their knees asking for Bepo's forgiveness, even though Bepo would never ask for it. Law quickly made his way over, ignoring the way that Bepo quickly looked up at him with fear in his eyes, electricity sparking through his fur.

"A mink all the way out here, huh? Who could possibly beat you up like this?" Law asked, stopping right in front of the bear.

Bepo's eyes grew watery with hope, "You know of Mink? Bring me home?"

"I can't bring you home now, I'm not strong enough," Law admitted with a shrug, "I'm looking for strong people to join my crew, because I'm going to set sail for the Grand Line one day and achieve my dreams, and anyone who can take a beating like you did, I'd welcome their strength."

"Mink strong." Bepo stated with a nod, "Bepo."

"I'm Trafalgar D. Water Law, and if you agree, you're new Captain."

"Captain," Bepo agreed.

A smile worked its way to Law's mouth, the action repeated by the Mink in front of him. From a Mink, even a small smile looked dangerous, but not to Law, Law knew that his meekest crew member wouldn't hurt him, despite how fierce Bepo grew under all that apologizing.

"Good," Law stated, and the smile twisted back into a more comfortable smirk, "First things first, we've got to treat your wounds. I can't have you bleeding all over the town, that wouldn't reflect well on my abilities as a Captain."

"I'm sorry."

Law shook his head softly, showing Bepo that there was no need to be sorry, and gestured that the Mink follow him. The polar bear stood, and it was actually surprising when Law realized that he was taller than his 'new' recruit. There were very slim moments of time that Law was taller than Bepo, and he'd forgotten that their meeting had been one of those. Still, he didn't allow the surprise to stall him, and they made their way to a hotel.

"There is no way that we will let a mangy monster like that spend the night - "

The glare that Law gave her stopped her dead in her tracks, she took several steps backwards and just stared at the child in front of her, dumbstruck. At that moment, she expected the child to pull out his sword and cut her open.

"Bepo is staying with me," Law stated, and his voice was steel, he'd have no argument from the small-minded, weak woman in front of him.

Without another word, Law strode out of the entrance hall of this particular hotel, and into the hallways leading to the suite he'd just paid for. Bepo blinked, looking at the back of his Captain, and back to the woman. Bepo bowed low to the woman before scurrying after Law. The second that they entered the room, Law directed Bepo to wash thoroughly in the shower.

Bepo was pretty silent as he went about doing the given task, letting Law a minute to his thoughts. He had Bepo, and the Mink wasn't hurt overly much, but there was still the issue of finding his other wayward and idiotic crewmates on this island. Penguin and Shachi were the types who needed to be shown strength to gain their allegiance.

Bepo came out of the shower, and Law immediately set to work on the Mink.

Within the next half hour, the open wounds on Bepo were stitched closed, even with the lack of pain medication on hand, and the very rudimentary needle and thread set that Law had.

"Is there anyone else strong on this island that I might want on my crew?" Law asked Bepo as the Mink looked at his treated injuries in a nearby mirror.

Bepo gave his new Captain a watery look.

"The ones that hurt you, would you be okay if I asked them to join?" Law asked instead, his gaze carefully blank. He wasn't sure what he would do if Bepo said no, how do you weigh the importance of a future crewmate against one another? As a Captian, it was something he promised to never do, not after seeing how Doflamingo treated his crew. Even when they were considered his family, it came with tiers and a contract a mile long.

Law would never become that way, and even in this second life, he'd live in a way that Corazon could be proud of.

Bepo seemed to be thinking it over, his mouth falling open in thought, the start of a trait that would continue into adulthood, "Owe Captain, what you want?"

The lack of vocabulary was a sign of just how few people interacted with Bepo, and it gave Law a bubbling rise in rage, a want to break his promise to Cora-san and just slaughter the people who treated Bepo so inhumanely.

Instead, he held it in, "Let's meet the people in question before we come to a decision."

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Luffy's laugh echoed through the entire forest when, for the first time in over a month, he performed a damn near flawless Gomu Gomu no Pistol.

"You're getting better at that, maybe one day you'll get a single win against me," Ace noted, not joking or exaggerating, just speaking as though it was a simple fact that Luffy would be nearly lucky to get even one win out of fifty that they usually did sparred daily.

"Ace-nii isn't a time traveller like me, so I will catch up much easier." Luffy bluntly stated in return.

Ace just snorted disbelievingly, "Your 'Torao' isn't here to play time traveller with you Luffy, you can drop it."

"Shishishishishi~" Luffy snickered, giving Ace a wide grin.

He did miss Torao though, he hadn't called through the Den-Den Mushi still. Luffy knew that his ally could protect himself, just like he had a week ago, but that didn't make the way for Torao to check in more quickly go away.

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Bepo had led the two of them to the area that Shachi and Penguin hung out. It was... Quant, to put a word to it. Then again, the same could be said for the ship that Law currently had, so maybe the judgement wasn't deserved. The two were inside the handmade hut, sat on chairs that seemed to have been pulled out of other peoples trash.

"Shachi, the bear came back for a second beating, and he brought a friend!" Penguin sang out, sounding way to happy about the situation.

"I'm sorry..." Bepo muttered, looking downward, half hiding behind Law.

"Haahahaha! The freak is still so meek, he hasn't changed a bit!" Shachi exclaimed, and the moment both of them had risen to their feet, they rushed forward. The show that followed was a joke. Law had been through hell for most of his life, spent time on the crew of Doflamingo's, he could protect himself from people who were barely strong enough to be a rookie pirate from this sea.

Within seconds both Penguin and Shachi were floored, on their knees in front of Law.

Law just ignored them completely and turned to Bepo with a blank expression. He didn't want this own bias to affect the Mink's choice.

"Bepo?"

"Captain..." Bepo muttered, his large wide eyes taking in the sight of the two people who'd hurt him so badly, that nearly caused him to use Electro to protect himself for fear of losing his life, and he swallowed nervously, "Nakama?"

"Eh?" Shachi and Penguin both inquired, confused, and beyond worried for their life. They would have run away if they thought it would have helped at all.

"You sure, Bepo?" Law asked, but a smirk was starting to make an appearance out of the blank slate he'd moulding himself into.

"Yes." Bepo simply stated.

Law let the smirk grow to full size as he turned toward the two skittish figures, "It's your lucky day, Bepo is your new senior. If you want, you can join my pirate crew."

The two looked at one another.

After witnessing his strength first hand, seeing the way that Law acted, was there really any other answer?

"Yes, Captain."

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"Ehhh?! This is our ship, Captain?" Shachi asked incredulously, looking at what seemed to be a half broken floaty tied up at the dock.

Law didn't blame them, the ship hadn't taken traversing through the sea's very well at all. It barely made it the whole way to Swallow Island. They would need to get another ship before moving on, something that didn't endanger his crew to be aboard. Having said that, within the next few years there was another stop that they would need to make.

The Polar Tang was waiting for them, after all.

"We'll just have to take one then, we are a pirate crew," Law stated, ignoring the anxiety that worked up within the two human crewmates.

"Captain?" Bepo asked, tilting his head to the side.

Law gave a smirk in return and patted Bepo's shoulder, "Don't worry about it, Bepo."

"Okay..."

"SO EASILY?!"

"I'm sorry."

Law was glad that he had started to walk ahead because he didn't know how he possibly could have explained having a smile this wide.

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Over a year had passed on both Dawn and Swallow Island, and things were starting to pick up speed. Law considered himself strong enough to take on most threats in this particular blue rather easily now. His devil fruit, while nowhere near what it used to be, had been trained into the dirt. The increased diameter of use was now battle ready, and Law's body was starting to become toned as well. Puberty was in full swing, annoying as that was, but Law wasn't one to let biology rule him, and he quickly learned to calm his hormone-ridden body.

Usually, after training, Law would lean against Bepo and read a book, Shachi and Penguin nearby, likely gazing at girls, but if not that, training or eating was the most likely candidate.

Luffy had gained back most of his basic attacks. They still didn't go as far, but the more that he stretched himself, the better they were getting, and it was a slow but noticeable improvement, even for someone as impatient as Luffy.

Eventually, he even got that one win off of Ace, though Ace complained about it being a fluke.

Ace had started to learn manners as well, something that Luffy had quickly turned down once again. Manners never helped him, he traversed the Grand Line perfectly fine without them. If they were needed, then Luffy would just let Nami do the talking, that's part of the reason he had such skilled nakama. Hearing that logic straight from Luffy's mouth resulted in a few facepalms, which Luffy just thought was funny.

In fact, Luffy started to like doing that to people.

In his first life he hadn't taken advantage of it, but the shocked look that people had whenever you surprised them a lot was just so funny. The best ones came when Gramps told his crew about his father, or even when the crew found at that Luffy had brothers.

It was just too good to pass up.

He started to do it on purpose.

He used his rubber powers in front of random people, getting a kick out of the way their eyes would bulge in amazement, and Luffy would laugh at them whenever he remembered that moment for the rest of the day.

Ace was starting to catch onto his brother's new hobby, but there wasn't exactly anything that he could do about it.

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"This is Monkey D. Luffy, the man that will become King of the Pirates," Law heard the Den-Den Mushi proclaim the second Luffy picked up.

Law had told Shachi, Penguin, and Bepo to expect something like that, but they still looked taken back by the boldness of the claim, "Mugiwara-ya, this is Trafalgar Law. Bepo, Shachi, and Penguin are with me."

"The fighting bear?!" Luffy asked with excitement, the Den-Den Mushi's eyes widening in amazement.

Law bit back a sigh, "Yes, the fighting bear, Monkey-ya. Tell me, how is the training going?"

The Den-Den Mushi was a miracle worker in the way that it managed to actually copy the magnificent pout that Luffy was pulling off, "It's harder than I thought it would be. I don't stretch as far as I used too, but mostly I'm trained with all of my basic attacks. It took me years last time. I even managed to beat Ace-nii in a spar! Of course, Gramps is still beating me up. I told him that I made an alliance with another pirate, I even told him that you wanted to be a Yonko. He was pretty pissed! Shishishishishi~!"

Law could feel his eye twitch with annoyance.

"You didn't, by chance, tell that Gramps of yours my name, did you?"

"Sure did!"

"Next time I see you, Monkey-ya, I'm replacing your hands with your feet."

"COOOOOOOLLLL -"

Before Luffy could finish the exclamation, Law hung the Den-Den Mushi up and pinched the bridge of his nose. Dealing with Luffy-ya was going to send Law into an early grave, he could sense it.

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The Chapter has Ended!

Review Corner:

Thank you so much: Sdkop21, Guest, Nea-Nyx, Malavita, Me, Baloly92, Mekyaku, Layla Riddle, An Bouwer, OnTheRun246, Salinia, Stefi123, and Happy Reader!

I read every review, even though I don't remember which ones I personally responded too, and I don't want to send more than one response by accident... Gah, I shouldn't have waited too long to reply _ stupid family stuff getting in the way. Regardless, I would summarize that most people seem to want the meeting to happen in Lougetown for a variety of reasons, although there were some East Blue votes. I have an idea that I consider being a stroke of genius that I will be employing. I hope that you like it when we get there soon enough.

Question Time:

Are there any other ships that you would like to see in this story? (I'm open to pretty much everything, though no guarantees!)