"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" Buggy said, grinning sadistically. "I'm glad to see you've caught that burglar. Without that map, we'd be in a pretty bad position, once we finally headed into the Grand Line." He said to the three crew mates who captured Nami.

"Look, there's no need to bring violence into this!" Nami said, from where she sat in the small cage. "The truth is..."

"Hmm?" Buggy leaned in close, putting his hand to his ear.

"The truth is, I stole that map because I wanted to go to the Grand Line myself." She said, subdued. "I wasn't stealing it to sell it. I was going to take it and use it."

"Why should I care what you were going to do with it?! You stole it from me all the same!"

"No, I'm a navigator. One of the best in the entire East Blue. The Grand Line's weather is supposed to be quite treacherous, right? You'll need the best navigators you can get your hands on!"

Buggy grinned. "Girl, you don't know the half of it. I've been to the Grand Line before. The weather's not just treacherous, it's impossible." He boasted. "Lightning rains down like, well, rain. Ocean currents that shoot miles into the sky before they crash back down again, cities built on clouds, massive monsters, sudden storms, weather that shifts between extremes and seasons as easily and as quickly as someone can take a step. Miles-high waves, hills of water, suddenly-boiling patches of sea, candy rain!"

Nami stared at him in shock. "That... no! None of that can be possible!"

"I've seen it. Don't underestimate the Grand Line. What you need to survive isn't someone who's good at reading a map, or reading the weather, because both are useless in that sea. What you need is a hardy group of bastards that can react to every work of the devil the ocean throws at us!" His crew began cheering, "And we are that hardy group of bastards!"

"But..."

"No buts. Now tell, me, girl. Do you have anything else to offer? I mean, you are a thief. Right now your two options are death by explosion or death by stabbing. Give me another one, if you're so valuable."

"I..." the treasure couldn't help anyone if she was dead, after all. "I have money. A lot of it. I've been stealing from pirates for years now."

"How much are we talking about?"

"Almost one hundred million beli."

"You're lying."

"I'm not!" She said, tears beginning to form in her eyes. "I've been saving it up to buy something precious to me, and I've been robbing nearly every pirate in the East Blue! I almost got away, despite you sending all your monsters after me. You know I'm a good thief."

"Hmm..." Buggy looked into her eyes, grinning. "Well! All's well that ends well, right men?" He shouted to the rest of the crew. "What? Why aren't you celebrating? Didn't you hear? We're getting some walking around money, all of us! Especially the three who brought in our little benefactor!" Grabbing the cage, Buggy began dragging it through the bar. "I'm taking miss thief back to the ship. We're leaving at dawn, if there's anything else from the village you want, go get it now, before we leave!"

"Yes sir Captain Buggy!"

Nami sighed, curling in on herself. She wouldn't stand for this. All she had to do was wait until the time was right to escape. It would happen long before they reached the Conomi islands. And besides, if they did get near them, Arlong would probably wipe out the whole lot of them...

An evil smile spread across her face.

"Hm." the older Luffy frowned, looking down at Nami's Vivre Card. "It's moving."

"What does that mean?" the younger asked.

"It means we're heading in the wrong direction!" The older Luffy said, sighing. "Darn it! She must have sailed to a different island already!"

"Crap." Zoro said simply. "We'll have to get on another boat when we reach land."

"Tracking people like this was so much easier when we had Nami!" older Luffy mourned. "But how can we find Nami if only Nami can find Nami!?"

Zoro and the younger blinked. "We live in a complicated world." Zoro said quietly. "Okay, so what do we know about where she could be heading then?"

"Well, after leaving the town Buggy attacked, we sailed toward Gecko island. That's where Usopp is." Luffy flipped through the book, stopping at Usopp's card.

The younger Luffy frowned. "That's not the same direction as Nami is."

"Maybe she's taking a roundabout way?"

"Maybe."

"...Maybe we should head for Gecko island anyway, pick up this 'Usopp', the ship, and then wait for her. And if she doesn't show up, at least we'll have our own boat to go looking for her in." Zoro offered.

"Ehh, that's true..." the older Luffy looked a little dissatisfied, but he shrugged. "Well, it seems like a plan! Let's do it!"

"Yosh!" the younger Luffy said excitedly. He got up from where they were sitting, leaving his fishing pole behind. Running over to the captain's quarters of the small vessel, he stopped to talk to the man. "Hey, would you mind heading over to Gecko Island?"

"Wha- no! I have a scheduled stop in the Organ Islands! I'm not heading off to a little spot of nowhere because a non-paying passenger asked!" he said, a little angry at the implausibility of the demand.

"Come on~"

"No."

The other Luffy followed him, and behind him Zoro. "Do you know who I am?" Zoro asked.

"R-Roronoa Zoro." The captain said hesitantly. "I know who you are, in fact, the only reason I let you on my ship was because I though you'd be able to fend off anything that tried to mess with us. I'm not changing course if you threaten me!"

"Oh yeah?" he asked. He stood up to his full height, looking down slightly into the captain's eyes. "Listen, take us to Gecko Island, you're slightly inconvenienced. Don't take us to Gecko Island, you're incredibly inconvenienced."

"I... am the captain of this ship!" He said bravely. "And there's nothing you can say or do that can change my mind-" the older Luffy sucked in a burst of air, growing in size. He waited, as all activity on the ship stopped to stare at the sudden presence of Luffy's gum-gum balloon. He then let out all the air at once, roaring all the while. The sudden force of the air coming out pushed him down, and the ship underneath him. The entire vessel creaked as the back of the sailing ship dipped into the water and the front stuck high up into the air.

The entire crew was tense for a few seconds as the ship more-or-less righted itself. Nothing had fallen off, and no one was hurt, but all the same, besides Zoro and the younger Luffy, all were terrified.

"I'd like for you to take us to the Gecko islands, please." the older Luffy said with a friendly smile. "Or I'll 'breathe deeply' again, and the ship might sink."

"..."

"..."

"Alright then. Change in course men, we're making a stop at Gecko Island!"

"Shishishi~"

"Usopp's not here?!" the older Luffy asked, surprised. "He was waiting at the cliff for us last time!"

"Well... we got here a few days earlier than you did when you did it the first time, right?" Zoro mentioned.

"Yeah! He's probably hanging around somewhere else!" the younger said cheerfully. "I'm glad that we'll get to meet Yasopp's kid! Is he as good a sniper?"

"Better!" the older said proudly. "Just you wait, he'll pull some amazing stuff!"

"So, what's the plan, Captains?"

"Well, we have two goals!" The younger Luffy said proudly. "The first, is to get our precious future Sniper! The second, is to get our previous future ship!"

"Should we split up?" the Zoro asked.

"It could go quicker, and there's another thing I want to do on this island." the older said, looking out over the horizon of the island.

"What's that?" Zoro asked.

"There's a bastard here." Luffy said darkly. "That I'm going to kick the ass of a second time."

"Oh?" Zoro said, grinning. "He'd be small fry to you, now wouldn't he? Why don't you leave him to me and Little Lu here?"

"L-Little Lu?!" The younger said, shocked.

"Well, I can't go around calling you both Luffy all the time. It'd get confusing!"

"Little Lu?!" the older asked, surprised, before he started laughing. "That's great! And am I 'Big Fee'?!"

"Nah, you're just Luffy."

"Why does he get to be Luffy?!" Lu asked, outraged. "As the captain I demand a name change!"

"It's just a nickname. Don't worry about it." Luffy said, waving it off.

"Besides, he's the elder. Shouldn't he get a bit more respect?"

"Only by four years!"

"Shishishi~" He slapped the back of his two crew mates. "I like it! Little Lu and Big Luffy! Hmm, well, there's a mansion on the hill over on that side of the island." He said, pointing into the distance. It was the wrong direction, but none of the three were very good at finding their way around places. "There's a sick girl there, and she owns the ship! Her butler is an asshole named Klahadore or Kuro or something, I kinda forgot. But he's a former pirate, and in two days... or... well, we have a bit longer, this time, he tries to get his old crew to attack the island so he can steal the girl's mansion! He also tried to kill Usopp!"

"Ah, and so that's the guy we need to beat up?" Lu asked. "Anyone who tries to hurt Usopp is going to get it!"

"We haven't even met the guy yet." Zoro said, but he was smirking. "But then again, we could say it's a recruitment effort for our sniper."

"Yosh! Lu said triumphantly. "So, me and Zoro'll take out this Kurohadore, and you go look for Usopp?"

"Hm..." Luffy frowned. "It'd probably be easier to convince the girl to give us the ship if we have Usopp there, she's his friend, after all. So I'm going to go look for Usopp! Kuro is a tall guy, with short hair and big round glasses. He has poop shapes on his jacket, and in a fight, he's really, really, fast. He also uses ten swords at once."

"Wha- TEN!?"

"He puts one on each finger, he wears special gloves."

"What a weirdo." Lu commented. "Alright! Let's go find him, then."

"Yes Captain." Zoro said, turning off with Lu and heading in almost the same direction Luffy pointed out.

"Yosh, alright! Time to see Usopp again!" Luffy cried, rushing out into the village, looking for his long-nosed sniper.

"So... any idea where the mansion is?"

"Are we heading for the mansion, I thought that was where the boat was."

"Agh! This is getting frustrating! We should just ask someone." Lu said, looking out over the countryside. "There's a little village over there. Someone probably knows where we could find Kuro there!"

"Yeah, probably." Zoro said. The two began making their way down the hills, before finding their way to the town center. "Hey," Zoro began pointing out the tavern. "Want to stop for a drink? I haven't had any alcohol since we left Shells Town."

"Sure! I could eat. Older me has all the food we brought with anyway."

Zoro quietly wondered how much of it would be left by the time they met up again. The two entered the tavern, sitting down at the bar. They both ordered some drinks and food, and sat down to wait for it to be ready.

"That damn Usopp." One of the other patrons muttered. "Waking us all up again, every day. Somebody should do something."

"Well, he's about as reliable as a rooster." said another.

"A rooster isn't so damn annoying." said the first. "Every day, that voice of his, ringing out."

"Hrrm."

Lu got up from where he was sitting, "Wait, you know Usopp?"

"Everyone in this town knows Usopp! What, you new here?"

"Yeah!"

"Then... how do you know about him?"

"I want to get him to join my pirate crew!"

"Hah! Even more people sucked into his pirate talk. Sure, he and his own gang of ruffians live up the hill."

"He has his own gang?" Zoro asked.

The two patrons shared a glance, before smirking. "Yeah, the guy's feared around these parts. He runs a group of bandits, call themselves the Usopp Pirate Crew. They raid the village every day, right at the same time."

"We've been fortunate thus far, but soon we'll run out of tribute to appease his wrath!" the second patron said over-dramatically. "Then we'll really have to be afraid of what Usopp will do to us!"

"Whoah, so I guess this guy must be pretty tough! I guess the son of Yasopp would be!" Lu said, stars in his eyes. "Cool! Maybe we can go get him, before we beat up that Kuro guy?"

"Wasn't the older you going to do that?"

"But if we find him first, that's just how it is, right?" Lu said cheerfully.

"I suppose. Alright, why not? Let's go find him. He'll probably be able to tell us where Kuro is, anyway."

"Ah! The mansion!" Luffy said, surprised when he spotted it in the distance. He was aiming for where he thought the town was, but he supposed it didn't matter, now that he knew where to go. He could just find the Going Merry, and say hello, before he went off to look for Usopp.

Launching himself a great way of the distance, he stopped before the mansion, circling around it and heading towards the nearby sea shore, where the Going Merry was kept before she was gifted to their crew. He jumped up the hill, and looked down, and saw her waiting there for him.

"MERRY!" Luffy shouted, leaping off the cliff, grabbing onto the mast and twirling down it to land on the deck.

It was definitely different than he remembered. Nami's Mikans were nowhere in sight, the metal plates and off-color patches from Usopp's amateur carpentry was nowhere in sight. The paint was fresh, the wood free of splinters, sanded and oiled. The sails were free from wear and tear, as well as free from his own symbol.

He dropped to the deck, rubbing his face on the wood. "MERRRY~ I missed you you dumb ship! Why'd you have to go and die on us the first time! I'm sorry! We'll take better care of you this time! I promise!"

He sat there and cried for a while, eventually getting up and running to all the different rooms on the ship, peeking inside of cabins and feeling his heart warm with each familiar sight. The boy's room, the girl's room. The bathroom, the kitchen and dining room, the hold, the cannons, the still-new rigging and everything else. He could have spent hours simply reliving the days he spent on their first ship, their hard-working caravel.

He would have spent hours, if he had not been interrupted by one of the things he set out to do. "Hey you! This is private property, remove yourself, or I'll call one of the bodyguards to have you thrown out!" Klahadore shouted from where he stood at the top of the hill.

"Captain Kuro." Luffy growled. Looking up at him, suddenly serious.

"Wha-" the persona broke for only a moment as Kuro backed away in shock. He regained composure, and pushed up his glasses. "What are you talking about? My name is Klahadore, I'm a butler."

"No, you're Captain Kuro. You're a bastard who tricked that girl into thinking you loved her, and who turned the town against Usopp! You were going to try and kill her!"

"What are you... fine. You know, who else does?" the persona of the faithful servant fell away completely, leaving behind a man with a cold, calculating, malicious expression.

"Just me and my two crew mates." Luffy said simply. "In fact, one of the things I came here to do on this island was kick your ass."

"Are they foreigners as well?" Kuro grinned slightly. "And friends of Usopp, apparently. Or connected to him at the very least. Heh, fine then. They can say whatever they want, none of the people here would believe the accomplices of a liar."

"Whatever. Are you going to try and kill me, or do you need your cat-claws first?" Luffy asked, clenching his fist.

"...How did you find out about me? Interrogated one of my former crew, perhaps?"

"I came back in time from the future. I saw you attack the island."

"...What?"

"I came back in time."

"What the hell are you mumbling about?" Kuro asked, looking genuinely confused.

"Look, you know about Devil Fruit, right?"

"I've heard rumors. Didn't think there was much to them." Luffy shot his arm out, stretching it all the way to the hillside where Kuro was standing. He launched from the Going Merry, landing in front of the former captain. "Ah..."

"I ate the Gum-Gum fruit." Luffy explained. "I'm a Rubber Human. On my travels, I met an old man who had eaten the Kiro-Kiro fruit. A Return Human. I asked him to send me four years back in time, so he did. But one of the things I did four years ago, was meet you. I kicked your ass then, and I'll do it again now."

"This whole story is ridiculous!" Kuro said, "But I am aware of the strangeness of the Grand Line... Meh, I suppose it doesn't matter. Fine, I'll indulge you, I can kill you without my claws just fine." Kuro shot forward, tapping the ground so quickly he shot across the grass faster than most people could see. Reaching out with a small knife he had kept in his pocket, he aimed for Luffy's neck.

He then screamed as Luffy caught his arm and wrenched it to the side, combined with the forward momentum Kuro already had, the action broke the arm he had held the knife with. "OH GOD MY F#&KING ARM."

"I'm a little faster than you. You really should have gone back and gotten your Cat Claws." Luffy said, grabbing the man by his suit and holding him over the hill. "So, what are we going to do now?"

"... Is there any particular reason you need me dead, or was this just vendetta for me presumably murdering Miss Kaya in the future?"

"Nah, you didn't kill anyone but your own men when you got pissed at them." Luffy said off-handedly. "Honestly, I expected a bit more fight from you. I thought in our fight I would have ended it by killing you or knocking you out, I'm not really sure how to go from this point."

"Then... can you let me go?"

"Why should I? You'd just try and kill Kaya again!"

"Look, the entire reason I plotted this assassination was that I wanted to live a quiet vegatative life away from bounty hunters and marines. I wanted to live in this sleepy little hamlet peacefully for the rest of my days. Kaya's wealth was simply for added comfort. If... If that security is threatened by trying to kill her, then there's no reason for me to try it. It would be working against myself."

"...What?" Luffy asked, confused by the roundabout words.

"... You're an idiot aren't you?"

"An idiot who broke your arm and can break another one. Oh, and also tell everyone how you were going to try and get pirates to attack the village."

"Fine, fine. Look, if trying to kill Kaya means I can't live peacefully in the village, then I won't do it. Before, I could have killed her, and gotten away with it. I can't now, so I won't bother trying. I promise."

"Why should I trust you?" Luffy asked, threateningly making a tossing motion over the cliff.

"Look, I'm a rational man. You've got the upper hand. What do you want?"

"Hmm... I think I want to kick your ass."

"Shit wait don't no-"

Luffy tossed him up in the air, before drop-kicking him out over the sea. The impact launched him almost out of sight, but Luffy still caught sight of the splash.

"Ahh! That was satisfying. Now, time to tell Kaya and Usopp the good news! ...After I find them!"

"Hey! Usopp!" Lu shouted, walking through the woods with Zoro.

"Come on out, we're pirates, and we'd like to make you an offer!" Zoro shouted as well.

"I'm going to be the Pirate King! And for that, I need you on my crew! I heard you're the best Sniper in the world!"

"Come on already!"

"Join my crew!"

Usopp watched them some distance away. He knew the island like the back of his hand. He had also been chased almost everywhere by the people of Syrup Village. Avoiding two idiots who were walking in circles was easy enough. He couldn't really figure them out, though. The two weren't from the village, or even the island. Gecko island wasn't a big place. Not everyone knew everyone else's name, but everyone could at least recognize each other. So the two were obviously foreigners or visitors to the island. His first thought was that maybe someone on the island was actually pissed off enough to hire a bounty hunter to do him in.

But then again, the two of them seemed to earnest for that. The black-haired one in the straw hat in particular. "Hey!" He called out, hidden in a tree. "You have trespassed in the territory of the dread pirate Usopp! Surrender now, or me an my eight-thousand soldiers will tear you limb from limb!" He called in his best scary voice.

"You're not a pirate! You're a bandit!"

"Whah- I am too a pirate! I'm the captain of the Usopp Pirate Crew!" He protested, switching accidently to his normal voice.

"Nah, I was raised by mountain bandits! You're a bandit. You can't be a pirate because you don't have a ship! You're stuck on this one island!"

"Shut up!" Usopp said. "Look, I might not have a ship now, but I'm thinking of the future, you know?"

Zoro grinned. "I mean, I get it. You must have a pretty cushy spot where you are now, no way for the town to defend itself from your... eight thousand strong crew."

"Uh, yeah!"

"So, where are they? We've been traipsing all over these woods, and I haven't seen a single pirate. Besides us, at least."

"Well, they're uh, they don't exist. Look, why are you looking for me?" Usopp asked, deciding that the two of them were unlikely to make trouble.

Lu grinned. "I'm planning on becoming King of the Pirates! My name is Monkey D. Luffy!" He pointed at his hat. "A pirate named Shanks is the one who inspired that dream in me! One of his crew mates was an amazing sniper, named Yasopp!"

"Wha- you mean, you met my dad?!" He asked, amazed. He came down from his tree, to go and see them. "Really?!"

"Yeah! He'd joined a really great crew! Yasopp was amazing! He once shot an apple straight through the center from a really long way aways. He could do anything with a gun!"

"Sounds... amazing. So, you want me from your crew because of that?"

"Kind of." Lu said, "You see, in a way I want you to join because apparently, you already did join me once!"

"...What?"

Zoro frowned. "It's a long story. Basically, this guy set out to become Pirate King, and recruited a bunch of people along the way. But near the end, he lost. So he found a guy that had the power to send things back in time. So now, there are two of him running around. You were one of the people the older version of this guy recruited."

"...Okay, I'm a professional liar, and even I know that story's too far-fetched to be believable."

"It's true! The Grand Line is filled with fantastic and mysterious things!" Lu said, mystified. "You'll believe it once you meet the older me!"

"Um..." well, it wasn't like he had anything else planned today. "Okay, I'll go with you to see him, but that doesn't mean I'm joining your crew, alright? Unless, of course, I get to be the Captain!"

"We've got one captain too many already!" Lu complained, snapping at him.

Zoro smiled. "Well, come on then. Oh yeah, would you happen to know someone named Klahadore?"

Usopp frowned. "Yeah, he's Kaya's butler. The guy doesn't like me much."

"Apparently the future Luffy has a grudge with him. He wants to kick the guy's ass before we leave the island."

Usopp didn't seem to like the sound of that. "I mean, the guy's a jerk, and pretty overprotective of Kaya, but he's not a bad person. Besides, it'd just upset Kaya."

Zoro shrugged. "The Captain seems to think that he was going to try and kill you and the girl, and bring pirates to attack the other villagers."

"What? That's ridiculous! Old mild-mannered Klahadore?" Usopp said.

"Well, we can talk about it with older me! He's the one who actually saw it."

"...I suppose."

Notes! I've decided to go with adorkableseyton's suggestion of having the younger Luffy go by "Little Lu". As for their bounty names, I've decided that the younger Luffy will keep the title of "Straw Hat Luffy", but I'm currently torn between older Luffy's title being "King Luffy" (as *also* suggested by adorkableseyton) or the title of "Cannonball Luffy", based on the Marines seeing Luffy's "Elephant Gun" attack, as it looks like his fist is turning into a giant black cannonball.

Any other suggestions for pirate titles for the older Luffy? I'm thinking I'll stave off on choosing an offical bounty name for him until the Loguetown arc.