There are four very, very good reasons why I've taken so long to update. The first was the fact I've just spent all of July touring Europe. Let us all take a moment of silence to honor Dwight D. Eisenhower for founding the People to People Program. Seriously, it was life changing. I got to learn about new cultures, see the stuff of postcards in real-life, eat honest-to-goodness Italian pizza… all of which sounds really cheesy, I know, but it was flippin' awesome, dammit!

The second reason was that I've just gotten back from the one and only NYC. My parents decided to kill two birds with one stone and have our family vacation in a place where we can also do some decent college hunting. So far, Columbia, NYU, and Iona are all on my list. I also saw Wicked. I have only four words, and they are: Wicked. Awesome. Pun. Intended.

The third reason was that I'd devoted some time to writing an actual novel, but that didn't work out so well. Not only is it much harder to make an idea from scratch instead of twisting an existing one like with fanfiction, but it's kinda slow going when you have to write it on the communal computer. I am getting my own laptop by Christmas, by thunder!

And the fourth and final reason is the fact that I've just gone through Hell Week in Marching Band. For all these reasons, please cut me some slack.

Now that my spiel is done, welcome my longest chapter yet!


Luffy wandered the streets of Loguetown. He didn't see any of it though. His mind was lost in the past, even as his body moved through the present into the future. Thrasher's departure had stirred something in Luffy's memory. After all, this wasn't the first time he had lost a dear friend…

In Luffy's mind, he was back on Dawn Island. Ace was sitting next to him, his expression severe and far too jaded for a child his age. Across from his was a small boy, though he was already three years older than Luffy himself. The boy wore a jacket, trousers with a leather belt, and an ascot. The attire wouldn't have looked out of place on a young noble, and that was exactly who the boy was. The image was offset, however, by a top hat that was ten years too big for the boy. Goggles hung around the brim of the hat, which would be able to reflect the light in a very distracting way if the boy tilted his head just so. The boy's face was gaunt, but there was something in his eyes, some element of his smile with its missing tooth. That something lit up the boy's face, giving him an air of purpose and energy. Like a fine crystal flute, they clearly displayed the Great Spirit held within.

Sabo was leaning forward, interest making his face shine like the sun. "So, tell me again Luffy! What was it that you did today with those bruisers?" Sabo was referring to the incident earlier that day. While hanging around Grey Terminal, some of the transients had gotten overprotective of their personal piles of trash, which the trio of boys had apparently been stepping in. Luffy had, without even thinking about it, yelled at the top of his lungs. Haki had imbued his voice for the first time, and the few homeless that hadn't fainted outright had fled for the hills.

"I told you Sabo, I don't know! It… it was like I was trying to yell, but I wasn't using my voice. It's like I threw Haki out my throat or something! Pretty cool, huh?" Young Luffy wore the vest and shorts that would become his signature outfit, though they were tailored to his size. Hat, on the other hand, was almost laughably too big for his 7-year-old head.

Ace snorted. It was something he was good at. "How is that cool? You're weird rubber body makes you awkward, unable to fight effectively. As such, you have to use that freaky mind trick." These words set off Luffy's temper, and the tiny boy lunged for Ace. Sabo patiently let the two of them wrestle, knowing that it was the only way for them to work out their differences. It wasn't anything serious, or Luffy would be using Haki.

"Alright, that's enough!" Sabo yelled. Though he despised his Noble heritage, order was still in Sabo's blood. His two 'brothers' ceased at once. The two slowly disentangled themselves.

"Ace, don't knock Luffy like that. That 'Haki' thing is pretty useful, and we don't even know all he can do with it." With childlike naivety, Sabo and Ace had failed to grasp the idea that Luffy could teach them how to use Haki. The gods had silently manipulated them into thinking that it was something only Luffy could do. After all, the Line of D and teaching add up to disaster.

Luffy's face broke into his famous grin. "Sabo's right! So let's train to find out more!" The two instantly nodded. The thrill of training overwhelming their young minds. As one, the three rushed into the forest to engage in their adventures.

Luffy grinned to himself, the memories of the warmth of brotherhood filling him. Slowly though, like the ocean's tide, the faded away. They were replaced by the bitter memory of Sabo's loss. Luffy closed his eyes, refusing to cry as he replayed that dreadful day…

Luffy looked at Ace, refusing to believe his ears. Dadan watched them with her rare worry, as Ace chokingly read Sabo's last words. Luffy felt empty inside. It couldn't be true. It just couldn't. Sabo couldn't… there was no way… Sabo was not

"You fool!" Ace yelled, throwing the will away. Falling to his knees, Ace screamed at the sky. "WHY DID YOU HAVE TO DIE!" For the first time, tears fell from Ace's face. His brother, the very first person to not only accept him, but care for him, take him… he was gone. He was never coming back. Ace would never get to see him again.

"Why? Why, dammit! Haven't I lost enough?" Ace began to pound the ground with his fists. Little did he realize the growing danger right behind him.

Luffy stared blankly forward, feeling numb and empty. This was worse than losing his temper with Ace. It was a hundred times' worse. At least Ace had lived. At least he was warm and whole. At least he was alive. And Sabo… wasn't.

Something planted itself in Luffy's stomach. Something burning cold and desperately hungry. Something that ate away at Luffy, growing larger and larger, feeding off of all his tumultuous emotions until it filled him to the brim. It was a terrible feeling. It was like someone had stabbed his heart and let everything bright and worth anything in his life just bleed out.

Luffy fell to all fours, as the feeling kept gnawing at him. Dear God, it hurt. It hurt with such a bone-deep, chilling agony that even in the midst of it Luffy could tell that he wasn't getting out of this unscathed. Anything this ravaging, anything remotely like this nauseating loss was not capable of touching something without changing it. Luffy felt the death of a loved one, and knew he would never be the same again.

Power rose in Luffy. Power born from hurt and loss and despair and everything else that makes up the darkest reaches of the human soul gathered. Something inside Luffy died, and crushing darkness rushed to fill in the gap. Luffy didn't even notice as the ground began to shake and a piercing wind blew through the air.

Dadan's worry grew into a full-blown panic. She knew what was coming, knew it on such a deep level that it could only be survival instinct, warning her of the coming danger. Scooping up her fellow bandits and Ace in one sweep of her arms, Dadan rushed behind the house and into the forest. Anything to get away from ground zero.

Luffy's wounded soul cried in mourning, and the keening grew until Luffy felt he would pop like a balloon. There was so much pain! There was no way to keep it all inside. The world deserved this pain. A world that was cruel enough to kill Sabo, Sabo, deserved to have this horrible force unleashed onto it. Luffy felt like screaming, or pounding the ground, or tearing furrows in stone. He simply had to do something, if only to ease the pain the tiniest bit.

The sky darkened and the sun dimmed as Luffy threw his head back. The boy drew in a breath, and the king screamed out in pain, in loss, in anger and rage at having that which was his taken away.

"SAAABBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOO!"

The world felt the king's pain, and was forced to bear it. Everything, from the trees to the house to the rocks in the ground: everything around Luffy was obliterated in a rushing wave as Luffy let the world know his hurt. The sky shook to the point of breaking as everyone and everything on the island cowered under the despair of a king.

Luffy stopped walking and closed his eyes. When Dadan had found him, he'd been in a crater so deep that even the noon-day sun could not reach the bottom. The ground was filled, the trees replanted, the house rebuilt. Luffy and Ace oh so slowly recovered from Sabo's death.

But Luffy had died that day. In his place was a shadow, a burnt-husk of a once-bright sun, with a devil's fire burning away in the core. Over the next ten years, Luffy grew. He worked to master his Gomu Gomu powers, and even harder to master his Haki. Overtime that sun sparked once more. Luffy began to shine bright once more, becoming a beacon of radiant happiness and pure life again. But as the sun healed, the fire grew, until today it was a sun in its own right, eclipsed by the galaxy around it.

Luffy shook his head. Thinking about that day always made him sad. But it also reminded him of something. Luffy had sworn, in the aftermath of his untamed loss, to never feel that ever again. On the blood of his dead brother, Luffy had made a vow to grow strong, strong enough to never let his friends die, no matter what came at them.

Luffy laid a hand on Hat, feeling the comforting touch of his old friend. 'Thrasher will be fine. I guided him as best I could; now I've got to let him go. It's time for him to live his own life.'

With that, Luffy focused once again on the world around him. He was surprised to find himself at the docks. "How did I end up here? The execution platform isn't anywhere near here!"

Looking around for someone to ask for directions, Luffy spotted a large man. More specifically, he spotted a grey-haired man in the late prime of his life, smoking a cigar, wearing a white, fur-lined jacket chockfull of more cigars over a bare chest, rippling with layers of well-cared for muscle. An odd, pronged weapon hung from his back as he looked down at the crew of pirates he had beaten and captured. Not that Luffy saw that; he'd stopped looking at the man's face and started walking over.

"Hey there!" Luffy yelled, getting the large man's attention. Luffy walked right up to the man, feeling absolutely no fear at talking to a tough, obviously dangerous man in the middle of a large city. Dear God Almighty, Luffy was an idiot most-times.

The man turned a dark eye at Luffy, the look on his face practically screaming "beat it before I kick your ass." The man looked right into Luffy's eyes, as if shining a searchlight through to his brain, before letting his eye unfocus. "What?" the man asked, his voice gruff from annoyance and a lifetime of smoking.

Luffy looked out towards the horizon, as if expecting a giant neon sign to pop up proclaiming the location of the execution platform. "I'm looking for the execution platform, but I've gotten lost. I've never been in a city so big! I was hoping you could give me some directions."

The man lifted on eyebrow with a kind of tectonic deliberation. Luffy got the faint impression that this man could witness a war in his front yard and be no more fazed than he was by a stranger asking him for directions. "Why is that, if I may ask?"

Luffy smirked as he looked right into the man's eyes. Haki wasn't always needed to let your spirit show. Luffy let fire color his eyes as he answered. "The place the Pirate King died… I want to see it."

The man raised the other eyebrow, and there was a faint note of interest in those stone-cold eyes. Deciding that he wasn't getting anything from his guy, Luffy turned away to walk in the other direction. "Oh, well, I'll look for myself."

"Wait," the man said, his rumbling basso carrying through the air like an earthquake's vibrations. Luffy paused and looked back. The man had made no move since Luffy had turned away. "Follow the smoke," the man said, still not moving a muscle. Luffy quirked his head, before noticing that the smoke from the man's cigar was heading down another street.

"Whoa, thanks mister!" With that, Luffy ran with his usual enthusiasm down the street. The man watched him go, feeling curiosity for the first time in a good few years. Behind him, a harried Marine walked up and saluted. "Captain Smoker, congratulations on detaining those pirates!"

Smoker looked over at the Marine, his gaze something that could turn Medusa herself into stone. "These pieces of trash? They were nothing. There's no way this was Straw-Hat's crew." Looking back towards Luffy, Smoker spoke under his breath, almost as if to the wind. "That boy… there's something about him."


Zoro was muttering to himself. A few months prior he would have questioned his sanity, but that was a moot issue at this point; sanity, you see, was a worthless commodity when you're a Straw Hat. But that was beside the point.

"Damn that witch. I swear, she could get the devil into her debt. This is going to come back and haunt me, I just know it." Zoro was broken from his musings by a commotion down the street.

Interested, Zoro approached the growing crowd. Zoro expected that he'd have to shove his way to the front, but something odd happened. The people in front of him seemed to move out of his way before he reached them. What's more, everyone seemed to become uncomfortable, as if they had a cold sweat running down their back.

Zoro paused, and tasted the air, so to speak. He couldn't feel anything with his 'danger' sense, so to speak. The only thing there was a hint of Haki from his—Zoro froze.

Once more, Zoro focused on the atmosphere. As before, he found a faint undercurrent of his own Haki. On the Going Merry, it wouldn't even have been noticed; it would have been background noise, not even registered on the conscious level. However, for vanilla mortals, it would be an odd premonition, a chill at the base of your spine.

Zoro was puzzled. 'I'm not even trying to use Haki, so why is it there?' Since no answer presented itself, Zoro focused instead on calming his emotions. The 'vibe' of Haki vanished as Zoro got a leash on his emotions, and everyone in the crowd seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

Shaking his head in confusion, and making a mental note to ask Luffy, Zoro turned his attention to the cause of the commotion. He was a tad surprised but what he saw. A women, her back to him, was facing two men, both large, scarred, and quite obviously pirates.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Smoker's little bitch? What are you doing here, all alone? Aren't you on a leash or something?" The man who spoke this was leering quite obviously at the woman. Zoro noted a slight tensing in her shoulders, clearly visible beneath her cropped, dark blue hair.

The other man spoke, his hand resting on his knife with a brash arrogance. "That guy put our captain in the hoosegow, and now we're out of a job. So, we'll have to take it out on you. You see how it goes?"

The woman brought up a hand, maybe to straighten a pair of glasses. Zoro took a moment to survey her. She wore a floral green shirt, short-sleeved and with a collar. She wore tight blue pants beneath, and a pair of shiny brown boots. She was holding a standard katana in her hands, with the kind of surety that suggested both talent and skill. Zoro noticed her arms were corded with smooth muscle, and the way she held herself suggested that she was about to slip into a stance.

"I see," she said, her voice a pleasant soprano. "You two are pirates, and you wish to attack me. Therefore, I must beat you." There was no fear in her voice, no confident bluster; she was stating the facts. The two men grew angry at her lack of fear and lunged. Zoro laid a hand on Kuina's blade, and tensed to dash forward if need be. He needn't have bothered.

In a fluid, seamless movement, the women drew her sword and slashed twice. The two pirates fell to the ground, already unconscious from her precise strikes. Zoro was reasonably impressed. It was always a thrill to see a masterful display of swordsmanship. Zoro's long-dead libido tried to sit up, but was knocked unconscious by his obsession with defeating Mihawk. Eternal glory and legendary skill, then flirting.

The woman sheathed her sword, before suddenly collapsing. Zoro rushed forward, hearing one of the crowd remark "She's damn good, but she can't handle her own strength."

The woman was blindly patting the ground around her. Channeling a brainiac teenager that had read too many mysteries, she muttered "My glasses, my glasses." Zoro found the pieces of eyewear at his feet. Kneeling down, Zoro picked them up and offered them out to her.

"Here, are these you—" Zoro choked on his own words. The woman was looking up at him, a smile lighting up her face. "Thank you," she said, unaware of the phantoms running across Zoro's vision. Her face was heart-shaped, here eyes soft orbs, her nose and lips balancing the aquiline and the feminine. In short, she looked exactly like the long-dead girl who had inspired Zoro in the first place.

'Kuina?' Zoro though helplessly, unconsciously tensing at the sight of his long-dead rival. A sharp cracking and flashing burn in his hand brought him back to reality. Both he and the woman looked down at the same time. Her glasses had been crushed in Zoro's grip.

Zoro and she met each others eyes, and he had one fleeting thought. 'Well, this is an excellent first impression.'


Nami was doing what she did best: shopping. With her haggling ability, there wasn't an article of clothing out there she couldn't swipe at a cut-rate deal. After modeling an increasingly opulent set of gowns at one store, before leaving without buying a thing, Nami now was wandering the streets of Loguetown.

Nami was thinking of Luffy, or rather what she felt for Luffy. It was very complicated to work out, since she was unfamiliar with half the emotions that rushed through her whenever she though about his face, or remembered his voice, or recalled the gentle strength of his arms as he held her close and they danced into the night, where no eyes would pry into anything they might…

Nami shook her head. Okay, she could probably label that emotion as 'lust.' Having used it as a weapon so long, she felt a tad betrayed that she had fallen victim to it. Though it wasn't only physical attraction that she felt for Luffy. Though who could really blame her, she'd seen him take his vest off once on a hot day, by God how could he have so much muscle on that skinny frame, man those abs looks so smooth and hard maybe she should have a little nibble to see how they taste…

Nami shook her head. 'Figures. My hormones focus on my chest all this time, and now they decide to notice guys.' Thinking chaste thoughts, Nami focused on what else she felt for Luffy, buying a new cheap yet stylish wardrobe almost absently at a new store. There was affection, definitely. Luffy just oozed innocence and boyish charm, and his single-minded dedication to his nakama was about the sweetest thing Nami had ever seen.

There was admiration too; after all, the man had defeated Arlong single-handedly. That kind of power just had to be respected. Not to mention the knowledge of the raw destructive power Luffy had on tap whenever he wished. Nami was awed at the self-restrain Luffy exercised every day. In the shadow of that awe, there was fear. Luffy was dangerous, with a capital D. Of course, the danger added an odd thrill to the cocktail of feelings as well. Nami was becoming increasingly sure that the cocktail would explode sometime in the foreseeable future if she didn't sort out some of the baggage.

Nami was just counting her change when one of the teller's comments breached the jumble of her thoughts. "I'm sorry, could you repeat that?" Nami asked, suddenly focusing all her attention on the woman currently packing her purchases.

"I said, dear, that this town has been almost pirate-free every since Captain Smoker showed up. He's from the Marine HQ, in the Grand Line you know. He has one of those odd powers, you know, from the Devil's Fruit. If a pirate sets foot in Loguetown, then Smoker will smoke 'em out. Would you like me to carry these to the door for you?"

Nami hid the shiver that ran up her spine and declined the woman's offer. Exiting the store, a bag in each hand, Nami pondered this piece of information. If the Marine Captain had a special power, things could get complicated. Nami knew from Luffy that Haki had some odd effects on Devil's Fruit users. Where he'd gotten the information, none of them knew, but that wasn't important.

Nami realized that they were on shaky ground, if it came to a direct confrontation. Not only would they not know if Haki had any significant effect on Smoker, but they couldn't cut loose here. Even Sanji now had enough of a psychic punch to make the average man faint. The entire Straw Hat crew in tandem would be the equivalent of a mental nuclear assault, should they fight within the town. And that was without factoring in Luffy.

Nami bit her lip as she realized the handicap. If attacked, the Straw Hat crew would be forced to hold back, while the Marines would have no such limitations. It could make things quite difficult. Nami had seen the mindless, lost looks of Luffy's victims in the past: her conscience would not allow her to have the Loguetown citizens wind up the same way.

Shaking her head at the quagmire, Nami looked up, only to choke in surprise. "Usopp?"


Zoro closed the door to the shop behind him the way a prison escapee slams the door to their hideout. Breathing a sigh of relief at his successful retreat from the Marine Base, Zoro began to examine the swords in the shop.

Everything had gone downhill since he had met Ensign Tashigi. In the midst of a tirade about how expensive those glasses were, which he had endured due to his shock at her resemblance to Kuina, she had apparently taken offense at his way of life. Having immediately profiled him as an unemployed wife-beater skipping out on his kids, the spirited swordswoman had dragged him to the Marine Base to get him a job as a janitor. She'd even had the nerve to look pleased, as if she'd done some public service or act of charity.

Naturally, it hadn't worked out so well. After the Base received its very first Santouryu-based cleaning, Zoro had knocked out the officer on watch and had left. Now, he had returned to the enterprise which he had set out to do in the first place, ergo buying two more swords.

The man at the counter was all smiles. "Hello, good sir! How may I help you on this fine day?"

Zoro laid all 100,000 Beli on the table and said "I need two good swords."

The smile vanished in a flash. In its place, the store owner gave Zoro a look that could have wilted a small garden on contact. "You're joking, right? That much would barely buy one decent blade!" The man would likely have continued haranguing Zoro about his lack of money and the insult given, had he not noticed the sword at Zoro's hip.

"OH MY! Dear Sir, would you let me look at that for a second?" Zoro quirked an eyebrow at the man's mood swings, but unbelted Kuina's blade. He focused very hard on keeping his annoyance (and Haki) in check; after all, it's very hard to conduct business with someone who's unconscious.

The shop owner drew the blade from its sheath the way Scrooge might open up a treasure chest. His eyes widened until Zoro felt that they might pop out of their sockets. The shock was swiftly replaced by a kind of desperate calculation. "Well, this blade isn't much, but it's pretty all the same. Definitely not worth some amateur like you." Zoro, quite graciously, allowed that comment to slide. "Tell you what, I'll buy it for 200,000! Then you'll have 300,000! That's enough for three decent 100,000 blades!"

Zoro could not suppress the 'blink' as this random merchant tried to buy off the one memento he had of Kuina. The man froze like a deer in headlights, and a cold sweat started to sluice down from his receding hairline. Zoro's tone was casual, but in the aftermath of a psychic blast, it came off as the most menacing thing the poor shopkeeper had heard in his life. "I'm only going to say this once. I will never sell that sword."

The man tried very hard to regain his composure. His seller's sense immediately informed him of the loophole. "P-Perhaps sell is too cheap a deal. How about a trade? I'll give you three, count them, three high-quality blades if you allow me to have this one."

"I'm not going to repeat myself," Zoro said, his annoyance now running free of its previous boundaries. The man reacted to the lower yet constant flow of Haki as if Zoro had pointed a loaded gun at his head. Zoro was paying so much attention to the man's attempts to control his bowels that he didn't hear the door open behind him.

"My, what an uncomfortable atmosphere. Should I come back for Shigure some other time? Oh, there you are!" The Haki and tension evaporated instantly with the arrival of Tashigi.

Before Zoro could open his mouth to respond (or perhaps turn around to run for the hills), Tashigi noticed the blade in the shopkeeper's hand. "Oh my lord! Could it be?" Rushing forward at a speed only the deeply obsessed and mildly addicted could manage, Tashigi snatched Kuina's blade right out of the man's hands.

Pulling out some kind of catalog on swords, Tashigi expertly flipped through the pages until she found the exact same blade in the book. She needed only a glance to confirm the two were one and the same. "How incredible! This is the Wado Ichimonji, one of the 21 Great Blades! This is one of the 83 Named Blades on the planet, from the 12 Superior Blades to the 50 Good Blades! This could easily sell for 20 million Beli!"

The sword merchant saw his escape as if it had been spray-painted highlighter-yellow. "Indeed it is, and that is why I must decline your offer to sell it!" The man hastily snatched the blade out of Tashigi's hands, giving it back to Zoro with only a touch of hysteria. With the other hand, he grabbed a katana with a flower-shaped hilt from beneath the counter. "Your blade's been sharpened, so here it is. As for you, young man, the 50,000 beli swords are in those bins in the corner."

Shaking his head at the man's odd behavior, Zoro belted Wado back on to his hip, going over to check the barrels full of low-quality blades. Tashigi followed him like a fly on orange soda. Her nonstop chatter filled the air with an annoying hum.

"So, you dodged out of the job I gave you, huh? I should have known you were the type. What's worse, you tried to sell such a beautiful sword! You have no idea how to treat a blade, do you? Though it is interesting how you want three. It reminds me of this bounty hunter I heard about. Roronoa Zoro, the Pirate Hunter, said to wield three swords with expert skill."

"Roronoa Zoro, huh? I hear the name a lot," Zoro said noncommittally, mentally counting the reasons why he shouldn't just use his Haki to shut this woman up. Her physical resemblance to his childhood friend was all but eclipsed by her compulsive need to talk.

"It's such a shame, isn't it? How all the best blades belong to pirates and bounty hunters these days. They're not just weapons, they're works of art! And yet they are used by dirty men for the sake of money!" Tashigi clutched Shigure to her chest as if it were a small child. "The swords are crying, I can feel it. One day, I will see to it that no sword is used for petty violence. I shall sail the world and free the swords!"

Zoro felt a tiny flicker float across his consciousness, like a small bit of dust settling on his eyelash. The woman was spirited about this. Whatever flaws Zoro saw in her, he could not deny that this woman had iron in her spine. She immediately got a few more points in Zoro's books. "So, you want to take all the Named Blades, huh? Will you fight me for this one?" Zoro smirked and used his thumb to slide Wado out just a bit.

Tashigi paled, and instantly flung her arms around in the universal sign of 'no way, back up.' "No, no, no, you misunderstand me! I don't want to own the blades! I just want them out of the hands of troublemakers!"

Zoro would have nodded, had his hand not just touched a cursed blade. Zoro's hand clenched automatically, and he looked down. He was holding onto a katana that was obviously of higher grade than the cheap ones around it. Its sheath full of slashing, vague purple, the blade itself looked dark. It was the will behind it that had alerted Zoro.

This blade had a spirit. It wasn't alive really, but Zoro could intensely feel a writing intent all but oozing off the sword. It was a wild thrill, a raging bloodlust, a force that existed only to cause pain and bathe gleefully in the ruins of its victims. And it instantly tried to take hold of him and sink its claws into his being, to find a new wielder to offer it blood before eventually killing him off as well out of sheer spite.

Zoro brought the blade up into the light, staring at the blade with a kind of wary respect. The blade had power, there was no denying that. However, there would be palm trees on Drum Island the day Zoro allowed anyone or anything to use him or control him. He brought his Haki to bear, the cool, calm weight of his spirit like loud music through a thick wall, buzzing and alive beneath his skin. It washed into the blade with a patient defiance, as slow, powerful, and unquenchable as the tide of the sea. Zoro tested his will against the blade, and he refused to back down even an inch until the sword acknowledged his mastery over it.

The internal conflict took place in seconds. Tashigi had only just noticed the sword. "My word! Is it even possible?" Once again, she consulted the catalog. "It actually is! That's the Sandai Kitetsu, one of the Good Blades! Forged by the legendary Kitetsu, alongside the Shodai and Nidai blades! The price is 13 million, so how did it wind up in this bin?"

The shopkeeper, who if you must know is named Ippon-Matsu, let out a kind of squeal when he saw the sword in Zoro's hands. "Drop that right now! I won't sell that thing to you!"

Tashigi assumed a patronizing air. "I knew it! Trying to sell that level of sword for 50,000. What kind of scam are you running here?"

The man shook his head wildly. "That's not what I meant! I can't possibly let him have that sword! It's…"

"It's cursed," Zoro finished for him, not taking his attention off Sandai for an instant. The sword was weakening. It had dealt with a few mental battering rams from its previous owners, as they tried to defy it in increasingly feeble struggles. Zoro wasn't like that. He washed away at the sword's will, gradually sapping away at its resistance to his control. This was a battle of attrition, and it was only a matter of time.

The man nodded, unaware of the battle happening right in front of him. "The three blades forged by Kitetsu are legendary for their cutting ability. However, every swordsman to ever hold one has died under mysterious circumstances. It's said that each blade contains a demon! That is what gives the blades their power, but the curse comes with it as well!"

Tashigi had the decency to look abashed. She bowed to the man, saying most respectfully "My apologies! I should have known there was a good reason behind it."

As she spoke, the struggle ended. Zoro's Haki flowed through Sandai without obstacle, as natural as if it were an extension of his arm. The blade had surrendered itself to Zoro's will. Grinning like a shark that has spotted a school of its favorite fish, Zoro faced the owner. No Haki was needed to make the man shiver. "I'll take it."

The owner gaped in shock. "Sir, I'm sorry, but I just can't! If I sold you that sword, and you died, wouldn't that be like I killed you?" The man's protest was cut off by the sudden appearance of his wife, who gave him a concussion for denying a sale. Tashigi also was staring at Zoro. She was either concerned for him or questioning his sanity, one of the two.

Zoro grinned even wider. It was time to put his dominance to the test. Unsheathing the sword, Zoro proceeded to throw it into the air. It spun counterclockwise through the air, as Zoro held out his arm right into the path the sword would go once gravity reclaimed it. "Let's see which is stronger: my good luck, or this dumb curse."

Tashigi and the owner yelled out in shock, while Zoro merely closed his eyes. He could feel his connection to the sword, different than the one he felt to Wado. Instead of the warm bond of an old friend, it was more akin to a leash binding a hound to his master. Zoro felt the sword consider treachery. It just as soon gave up, as Zoro gave it a little nudge through the link, a 'gentle' reminder of who was the boss.

The blade fell through the air, its edge enough to rend steal in two. It came within a hairsbreadth of Zoro's arm… only to fall right around it, as if unwilling to cut it. The blade sunk to the hilt in the wood floor as it finally landed. Once more, Zoro looked the shopkeep in the eye and said "I'll take it."

Tashigi fell to the ground, her knees suddenly weak. She'd never experienced such a nerve-wracking moment in her life! As Zoro was belting Sandai to his hip next to Wado, the owner fled into the back of the shop. When he came back, he was carrying a katana that was practically royal. It had an elegant, airy sheath alongside a precise, geometric hilt.

"Great stranger, though I've only just met you, I want you to have this. It is Yubashiri, one of the 50 Good Blades. It is a family heirloom, but I want you to have it. Free of charge; consider it a gift."

Zoro arched an eyebrow at the man's behavior, but picked up the sword all the same. It didn't have a sentience like Sandai, but Zoro could still detect a kind of presence to the sword, like a personality. The same could be said of Wado, so Zoro guessed it was a quirk of Named Blades. Yubashiri was like a haughty prince. It was willing to work with him, but certainly not for him.

Zoro could live with that. Belting the third and final sword, and feeling a sense of completeness in having three swords at his hip, Zoro nodded his thanks and left the shop.


Luffy looked up… and up… and up, until he could vaguely make out the top of the execution platform. 'How the hell do they get people up there?' An honest question, but like so many it went unanswered.

Apart from a stop at an interesting little bar, Luffy had made his way to the central plaza without incident. Hearing tales of Gold Roger's greatness had lit a fire in Luffy's belly, to be sure, and he felt ready to take on the world. Or a 100-foot platform.

"Now, how to climb this? Do I rocket to the top, or take the old-fashioned way?" Tilting his head in mild concentration, Luffy decided to take the scenic route. So, with that, Luffy began the task of climbing to the top by hand.

Luffy didn't eat whole villages' worth of food just because he could. Nor was it just because his stomach was rubber and required a hell of a lot more than the average Joe's worth of food to reach maximum capacity. It was because Luffy had enough energy to reduce a mountain to rubble within a day, and a metabolism to match. He all but flew up the platform.

About halfway up, a voice stopped him. Not literally, of course, but you get the idea. "You. Is it true that you're Straw-Hat, the highest bounty in East Blue?" Luffy paused, looking back at the ground. Smoker looked up at him, his bearing radiating controlled violence. The guy had come for Luffy, and if a fight was needed, then he'd throw down gladly.

"Oh, it's you again. Thanks for the directions, by the way. My name's Monkey D. Luffy," Luffy said in total calm. It wasn't a moronic calm, though. Luffy could tell that this guy was an actual threat; it was written all over him, a series of tiny markers and cues that pointed directly at one indisputable fact: Smoker was dangerous.

Luffy regarded Smoker with a warrior's relaxed wariness, neither asking for trouble nor unprepared to deal with it. Smoker did the same in turn. "I must say, you don't strike me as the kind who can ruthlessly cut down all those famous pirates." Smoker was nonchalant, but the secret message was clear. "Are you strong, or are you just a fake?"

"Well, they were in my way. Plus, those guys were just plain annoying." Luffy still hadn't moved from his spot on the platform. He decided to change that. With a casual leap, Luffy flung himself from the platform. He landed like a cat just a few meters in front of Smoker.

Smoker cracked his knuckles, a not-so-subtle sign that the banter was coming to an end. "Well, as Marine Captain, it is my duty to detain you until you can be publicly executed for the threat you represent. I don't suppose you could come quietly."

Luffy cocked his fist. "Nope. I've still got things to do. I can't die yet." Aware of the growing crowd, Luffy kept a reign on his Haki. He could get away with some strength augmentation, but that was about it. Hopefully Smoker wouldn't prove too much a challenge.

Smoker smirked around his cigar. "Sorry about that, then." And with that, he charged. Luffy reacted smoothly and confidently, sending his fist out across the distance to hit Smoker.

Well, that's what should have happened. Instead, Smoker all but disappeared with a sudden burst of speed. Luffy's eyes widened as Smoker appeared behind him. "You're very slow," the Marine remarked, before bringing his fist down to impact with Luffy's skull.

Luffy's hand gripped the fountain, and he allowed physics to take its course. His body launched forward at incredible speeds, leaving Smoker's fist to hit air. Keeping his grip on the fountain, Luffy went forward about 20 meters down the main street, shocking the people watching. A challenging grin on his face, Luffy once again waited for his rubber body to work its magic. As Newton said, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. As Luffy's forward momentum ended, his arm recoiled, sending him back at Smoker even faster than he'd gone flying. "I'll give you slow!" Luffy roared, his blood already singing with the thrill of battle.

Smoker began to fade into what Luffy could have sworn was smoke, but it wasn't fast enough. Both of Luffy's legs came flying at the Marine's chest like a torpedo. Much to Smoker's surprise, instead of fading through his body, the blow made solid impact. Had someone taken a picture at that very moment, they would have had the best blackmail on Smoker they'd ever have a chance to get. The look of pure shock and pain on the 'untouchable' Marine's face was utterly priceless.

Smoker flew at supersonic speeds at the city hall right behind the platform. It was here that his powers finally kicked in, having him dissolve into nothing but smoky air upon contact. Luffy landed on his feet, his eyes on the lookout. 'So, he's Logia. My Haki let's me hit him, but he only when he had enough mass for me to hit.' Luffy silently thanked Dadan for lending him that book on Devil's Fruit in their entirety, one of the few times he had been bored enough to actually read.

Luffy and Not-Luffy were in perfect sync right now. Luffy maintained dominance, giving him control over how to fight. Not-Luffy worked alongside him, sharpening his senses and digging up Luffy's oft-neglected intellect. It was simple, really. Not-Luffy worked to inform Luffy of what was going on, maybe offering some tactics, and Luffy laid out the whoop-ass. However, a lapse in control or severe emotional distress would lead to Not-Luffy taking the reigns. This would result in an infinitely deadlier fighter taking Luffy's place, at the small, small cost of any conscience or empathy. Not-Luffy would bring the entire plaza to rubble with raw power and not even care about the lives destroyed, as long as the 'threat', Smoker, was eliminated.

That's why Luffy kept a close watch on which personality was in charge.

The top-half of Smoker coalesced right in front of Luffy, already swinging the odd jutte at Luffy's head. The pirate ducked, before bringing an uppercut at Smoker's chin. Once again, the Marine flew through the air until fading into smoke. 'Looks like he's still adjusting to the fact I can hit him,' Luffy thought, Not-Luffy already planning how to capitalize on the advantage.

Smoke came from all sides around Luffy, obviously intending to trap him. In response, Luffy once again reached out to grab the fountain. Just as he began flying, however, Smoker formed out of the spiral and, with a yell of rage, caught Luffy with the jutte right on his swiftly-fleeing ankle.

Luffy grunted at the blow to the tender bones. He suddenly didn't have the energy to do even that. A wave of weakness and exhaustion spread from his ankle, robbing him of his strength and focus. It was as if Smoker had dunked his ankle in sea water. Luffy's concentration slipped, and the fountain slipped out of his hold as his hand loosened in weariness.

The sensation ended just in time for Luffy to scream in surprise as he flew across the sky. As he made an impact on the other side of town, Smoker slowly drew himself together. He took a deep pull on his cigar, and let it out just as slowly. 'I heard the reports on his Haki, but I didn't expect it to have any affect on me. I underestimated him. I'll have to be careful when I try to apprehend him again.'

Smoker made his way out of the plaza, heading right for the Officer who had followed him from the docks. Smoker snapped off order without hesitance. "Run to the Base. Tell them to have all our men ready for immediate assignment by the time I get there." The man saluted, cried "Yes sir!" and took off at a sprint. Smoker surveyed the plaza before making his way back to base. 'Something's going to happen here later, something big. I can feel it.'


Nami was understandably surprised. In the midst of analyzing her tangled emotions, she had somehow come to a cemetery at the highest point of the town. Not only that, but there was a substantial crowd there as well. The object of the crowd's attention was Usopp, knees trembling slightly, and a massive man that Nami recognized from the paper: Big Daddy, the best bounty hunter in East Blue, surpassing even Zoro before the latter's change in career.

With ease, Nami broke through to the front of the crowd. "Usopp, what the hell is going on? And why does it look like you're challenging Big Daddy to a duel?"

Usopp turned to face her, and Nami was honestly shocked at the look on Usopp's face. His expression was equal parts panic and irritation. He wasn't only afraid of the situation; it annoyed him as well. That in itself was something; who in their right mind is annoyed to be in a duel to the death. Confidence was one thing, but who gets frustrated risking their life? Nami could have sworn that, for just a second, something moved inside Usopp's eyes.

"I'll tell you what happened!" Usopp yelled, turning to face Big Daddy, who kept his back to Usopp, and the little princess-wannabe that Nami just noticed by his feet. "I was trying to buy some new goggles when this brat takes them right out of my hand and buys them instead. I followed her to get them back, and all of a sudden she's hugging this guy's leg, crying how I threatened her and asking that he kill me to make it up to her! I know I was a coward not too long ago, but come on! This is just plain ridiculous!"

Nami was not the only one shocked by Usopp's tirade. The girl in question had her mouth open in a perfect 'O'. Nami guessed that no one had ever called her a brat; unsurprising considering who her father was, as the relationship between man and girl was obvious. Big Daddy himself turned to face Usopp, the look in his eye promising murder.

That didn't stop Usopp. The words seem to spill right out of his mouth. "I am sick and tired of folding like wet cardboard to every tough guy that comes along! I am a pirate, a brave warrior of the sea! And yet I'm forced into a duel because one little girl got greedy? I don't think so! I'll tell you right now, Big Daddy that I won't have anything to do with this duel! For I am Usopp, finest sharpshooter in East Blue! Why, you could say I'm king of the snipers! That's it! From now on, I will be known as Sogeking!"

A little confused? You shouldn't be. It was kinda obvious this would happen. Just as Haki had let to the creation on Not-Luffy, so too had Usopp's darker urges gained sentience. Ever since joining the Straw-Hat crew, Usopp had grown strong, strong enough to take on most guys who cared to spit his way. This confidence and power had warred with Usopp's cowardice, too deeply entrenched over the years to simply disappear. Instead of his soul grating against itself, Haki had fixed the problem. Now, there were two melodies playing within Usopp's spirit. One was the coward we all love and pity. The other was the embodiment of all Usopp's talent, the skill and power he had made manifest, free from the constraints of his cowardly urges. There was Usopp, and there was Sogeking.

Big Daddy turned to face Usopp, his expression speculative. Nami, with her skill at reading people, noticed the tension that indicated he was surprised by something. The man spoke, his voice as deep as the pits he dropped his dead victims into. "Your words mean nothing, boy. You accepted the challenge, regardless of the motive. This can only be resolved by proving one of us is more skilled than the other. Show me action, or your dead body will be the price of your honor."

Without a word, Sogeking tossed the gun Big Daddy had given him to the ground. By chance or design, it discharged and blew the glass out of one of the bystander's glasses without hitting the skin. That served to make the crowd disperse, except for a very confused Nami.

Taking out his trusty slingshot, Sogeking turned to face the city. Drawing back the string and taking aim, he merely said "Watch that weather vane." With that, the pirate released a Haki-soaked pachinko at a small weather vane almost half a mile away.

No telescope was needed. The weather vane was torn from its roof as the innocuous metal ball made contact. Everyone's eyes widened, including Usopp's. Yes, Usopp. The instant the shot was made, Sogeking retreated back into Usopp's subconscious. This left the lying coward stuck between pride and panic, as he realized that he had made the shot and had insulted one of the deadliest men this side of the world to his face simultaneously.

Big Daddy turned to face Usopp, apparently unaware of the nervous breakdown the young pirate was going through. "It's as I suspected. You truly are the son of Yasopp." That snapped Usopp back to his senses.

"You knew my father?" Usopp asked curiously, decided to worry about his newfound split personality later. Nami moved over to her nakama's side, curious as to how Big Daddy would know an infamous pirate.

Big Daddy's eyes became distant, as the little girl clung to his leg. "It was many years ago. I had heard of your father's skills. I was arrogant back then, determined to prove I was the best. It was a shock, as you could imagine, when your father defeated me rather easily. I waited for him to kill me, as that is how duels must end. He refused me. He told me that he had left behind his own son for what he believed in, and that he didn't want anyone to repeat his mistakes. On that day, a pirate taught me the value of family. I retired from the Marines shortly afterward, determined to provide a good life for my daughter."

The father patted his daughter's hair, who took it with a kind of feline satisfaction. "Our duel is settled. I hope you find what you're looking for." With that, the father led his daughter away, leaving behind a smiling thief and a newly inspired marksman.


Gin lounged on the deck. There really wasn't that much to do. The docks were generally deserted, given the time of day. That left Gin nothing but staring at the sea. Well, other than contemplating his true goal in life, but that really isn't really a quantifiable activity.

Gin honestly had no idea what he had to strive for. Every member of the crew had a clear, definable dream, one that they would give everything for. And Gin just… didn't. He worked for others, ever since that day he'd met Kreig. It was simply the way he worked. Every time Gin tried to come up with some goal, all that came up was a vague variation of the same core idea: make others dreams come true.

It was ingrained into him. He devoted himself fully to the dreams of others, making them his own. Never had he felt any particular urge of his own. He was a sycophant. He wasn't ashamed to admit it. He was a fanatic, a loyal dog. He had always been content with helping others achieve greatness, never searching for it himself.

Gin gazed out at the horizon, his thoughts bleak as he tried and failed to come up with a dream. He was caught in a paradox. In order to serve his captain, he had to develop and harness the power of Haki. But it was that very subservience that prevented him from so much as touching Haki. He was trapped in a circle, going round and round, never finding a way out.

'A circle, just like the world. There's no edge, no end. It just keeps turning round and round, never going anywhere.'

Gin paused. The end of the world. Now that was something.

Everyone knew about Raftel. In this day and age, how could you not? The very last island in the impassable Grand Line. Only one man and his crew had ever reached it, the Pirate of legend, Gold Roger. If ever there was an end to the world, it would be the eastern shore of Raftel. At that one point, where the earth met sea and sky, the single most untouchable spot on the planet… surely that was the edge of the world.

How would it look from there? Would a man see nothing but surf, or would there be something? Some tiny, unexplainable detail that separated that one place from all other places? How would it feel, Gin wondered, to stand at the edge of the world?

He found himself enraptured by the idea. He couldn't get it out of his head. All of a sudden, nothing mattered but finding that one spot and standing there. To gaze out at the edge of the world. A passion he had never felt sprung up in his chest as the concept seemed to sink into his mind, growing roots and refusing to leave until fulfilled.

Gin blinked. 'Was it really that easy?' He found it hard to believe. There was just no way that finding a life goal had been that simple. Except he could still feel a fire in his belly, an anticipation in his thoughts, an unquenchable urge to go out and achieve the unachievable.

Gin pinched himself. The pain barely registered through the jumble of his thoughts, but it was there. "Okay, random moment of destiny. Let's go with that. Don't think too hard, or you might go crazy."

Snapped out of his confusion by that reassurance, or perhaps the unsettling realization he had begun talking to himself, Gin got up to rove around the deck to stretch his legs, idly noting the sky had grown cloudy, when he heard a voice right by the ship.

Gin got up and looked over to the railing. He quirked an eyebrow at the sight he beheld. The singularly strangest man he'd ever seen was crouching at the edge of the dock. He looked a bit like some mutant bred at a circus, wearing baggy blue pants not unlike some clowns, while his hair (or at least Gin hoped it was hair and not fur) was arranged in a mane around his head with two small ears on the top of his head.

Right next to the man, easily twice his size, was a lion. Only the lion's skin was an odd shade of grayish-green and its mane was purple. Also, it seemed to be standing on two legs. Both it and the man were paying close attention to a box of matches.

Gin blinked. Either he had knocked himself out and this was all a very vibrant coma dream, or this was the worst arson attempt he'd ever seen in his life. "Don't tell me you're actually here to burn the ship," he said, startling the man and lion.

The man looked up at Gin, and the view of his head from the front was almost as strange as the one from behind. "Eh! Who are you? Straw-Hat's ship is supposed to be unguarded!"

Gin sighed as he leapt from the ship to the ground, already twirling his tonfa. "You know, I haven't met my quota for beating insane idiots this month. Maybe you could help me out."


Nami ran through the streets, Sanji and Usopp behind her. Sanji had bought some giant elephant tuna or something and the massive fish weighed her companions down. Sanji, of course, didn't realize the severity of the situation. "Oi, Nami-swan, why are you in such a hurry?"

Nami rolled her eyes. "I told you! A storms coming! A very big one! The pressure's practically sky-diving! We need to get the ship ready or it will be torn apart!"

Usopp spoke up. "Nami, I have as much faith in your mystic weather-predicting powers as the next guy, but don't you think you're overreacting? The sky just barely got cloudy!"

Nami yelled over her shoulder, unaware of how people jerked out of her way as her annoyance spiked. "That's my point, baka! It was sunny and clear and now all of a sudden a massive bank of clouds is coming over! This storm is scary, okay! I doubt if there's been one like it for a century!"

Nami abruptly ran into someone. Whipping her head around to yell at the guilty bystander, she came face to face with Zoro. "Zoro, what are you doing here?"

Zoro shook his head, and Nami noted the two extra swords at his hip and the twitching in his eyes. "That doesn't matter right now? Have you seen Luffy? I was just with him when that hat of his blew off. When I tried to follow him, I ran into this guy in a cloak. He asked where Luffy was, and I swear to God I heard him use the word 'flashy'!"

Nami paled. This was bad. Sanji spoke up. "Oi, Marimo, what are you talking about? What's the big deal about this guy? And apologize for running into Nami-swan!" Usopp was of a similar confusion.

Nami spoke up. "It's Buggy the Clown! He must want revenge on Luffy. But that doesn't change the fact that a giant storm is heading this way!"

Ignoring Usopp's panic attack upon hearing the name, Zoro decided to use his authority as First Mate. "Okay, Nami, you and Usopp get back to the ship. Make it ready. Me and Ero-Cook will go to the plaza and get Luffy. If Buggy's there, we'll deal with him." Nami didn't have to check to know that he'd clutched his swords when he said 'deal'.

Nodding, and leaving Usopp floundering as he held the fish by himself, the crew split up, racing against the wheels of fate.

Unnoticed by them, a hidden stranger smiled and moved deeper into the shadows of the alley from which he'd been listening. There was a flash of a skull necklace, and he was gone.


Luffy was stuck. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. He was stuck with no way of getting out. Luffy briefly went over the past few moments, wondering how on earth he had wound up in this situation. He was a danger-magnet, sure, but this was pushing it.

Okay, made his way back to the plaza after recovering Hat from the evil wind. Deciding to just take the shortcut this time and rocketing up to the top. Check. Gazing out at the rather magnificent view, idly noting that those clouds looked a bit serious. Check. Been called out by some kind of non-Marine, before said authority figure was crushed under a massive mace belonging to easily the prettiest girl he'd ever seen.

There was not a single aspect of her appearance that couldn't qualify as stunning in its own right. Her skin was smooth, creamy, and flawless. Her hair was glossy and fell down her back in a tumbling cascade. Her lips were full and rose-red, and her figure alone would have sent Sanji to the hospital for severe blood loss. However, Luffy didn't really feel anything. If you stared at only one feature it was distracting, but taken as a whole it just seemed overdone, like trying to cram three different paintings onto one canvas.

The woman proceeded to make a long string of vague remarks that implied that she'd met Luffy before and he had been the first man to ever hit her. By that point everyone within a hundred meters had fallen under her spell and immediately cursed Luffy out. Luffy had honestly yelled back how he had no idea who she was. She seemed hurt by that, holding her hand over her heart, which only served to fell even more spectators.

However, just as a squad of those non-Marines tried and failed to arrest her, the fountain exploded. The strange part was that the rubble seemed to just slide off the woman's skin, almost as if she'd been covered in butter or some other slippery substance. Stepping forward from the ruins came none other than Buggy the Clown, once again with all his parts.

The man was odd, capital O. He wore an orange pirate had with blue tassels that Luffy would have sworn were made of his own hair. His face was tattooed, differently than when Luffy confronted him, and its most dominating feature was his giant, spherical red nose. The rest of his outfit wasn't that remarkable, except for the knives hidden every three inches or so.

Luffy blinked in surprised, right before a force from behind knocked him to the floor of the platform. Looking up, Luffy discovered that he was held down by half of a prison stock, Cabaji the Acrobat standing over him.

Buggy had proceeded to, in his usual melodramatic way, reveal the woman as Alvida, post Devil's Fruit, and hold the whole plaza hostage to witness 'the most flashy execution in history!' And that pretty much left us where we are now.

Luffy looked over to Buggy, who had climbed up the platform. "So, when's the execution? I've never been to one, so it should be exciting!"

Buggy glared at him. "Are you really that thick? This is your execution!"

Luffy blinked. "NANI! What? No, you can't! I can't die yet! I still have things to do!"

Buggy snorted, the sound proportional to his bulbous nose. "Don't care brat. You humiliated me in front of my crew! Take you flashy punishment and die!"

Luffy saw red. How dare this joke of a pirate hold him down and presume to kill him, Not-Luffy roared from within. Luffy, for once, agreed whole-heartedly with his alter ego. Confident in his control to avoid backlash, Luffy threw the mother of all psychic sucker punches at Buggy.

Nothing happened.

Nothing.

Luffy stared in shock.

Buggy grinned maniacally as he started laughing hysterically. "HAHAHAHAHAHA! You don't think I developed ways to counter Haki with Shanks as my rival? Bet you didn't know that Haki can't get past Adam's wood, huh! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Luffy hung his head. He had no idea what Adam's wood was, but it was obvious that Haki wasn't working. The stock was heavy too, and Luffy didn't have the leverage to move it. Luffy was stuck.

Buggy turned out to face the crowd, unaware that hidden in the buildings all around the plaza were Marines. Smoker himself with his aide Tashigi watched the situation through binoculars. Smoker was interested with the situation. Pirates killed each other off, it was practically a rule, but none had ever had this big of an audience. "Let's wait until this is over. We can catch the survivor off guard." The Marines around him nodded in assent to his orders.

Buggy's half-insane voice washed over the plaza. "Ladies and germs, we are gathered here today to witness my vengeance. This boy had the nerve to beat and humiliate, and the time has come for him to pay! Right here, on the very sight the Pirate King was killed, Monkey D. Luffy will have the honor of meeting his super flashy execution!" Buggy's pirates roared in approval. Buggy took out his sword and pointed it at Luffy's head. "Have you any last words?"

Luffy's eyes remained shaded. Not-Luffy was panicking, but Luffy was calm. Gathering every ounce of will and heart he had, the very foundation of his Haki in the first place, he turned to the crowd and screamed for the world to hear. "I WILL BECOME THE PIRATE KING!"

The crowd froze, dumbstruck that anyone would say such blasphemous words in this time. Buggy started laughing maniacally, as per usual. Smoker's eyes widened, but he showed no other sign of his surprise. And hiding back in the crowd, the hooded stranger smiled wide. "Yes, I think you'll do," he said, before once more fading into the darkness.

Buggy raised his sword up for the fatal strike, before two voices charged through the air. "Luffy!" Sanji and Zoro screamed, facing the platform from the main road. Tashigi gasped as he saw Zoro. Luffy perked up. "Sanji, Zoro! There you are! Where are the others?"

Zoro shook his head. "They went to get the ship ready. It's about to rain, in case you hadn't noticed." Luffy blinked, before he realized it. The entire sky was blanketed by dark grey clouds, almost purple in some places. Sure signs of a major storm.

Zoro and Sanji then proceeded to plow through the crowd. Haki was too much of a risk, and Sanji was spotty with it at best, but that didn't alter the fact that both were fearsome fighters on their own. Buggy's forces fell like wheat before a scythe.

Buggy was foaming at the mouth in anger, and he decided to skip the theatrics and get right to the meat of the matter. "DIE, YOU STRAW-HAT!" With that, Buggy brought his blade high, leaving Zoro and Sanji nothing but to watch in horror as their captain met his death. Luffy yelled out suddenly as the blade descended.

"Zoro, Sanji, Nami, Usopp, Gin… sorry." Luffy looked up for one last look at the world, a sad yet broad smile on his face, causing Smoker to freeze in shock. 'Ah, death… the greatest adventure of all.' The moment before the sword hit his neck, he whispered his last words to his crew, carrying a weight that somehow let them be heard at the farthest edges of the plaza. "I'm dead."

Lightning struck down from the heavens, setting the execution platform ablaze with a blue-white fire. Everyone stood stock-still in surprise at this random act of nature. The platform slowly fell over, hitting the ground with a giant rumble. Hat, blasted into the air, slowly made its way to the ground. Just before it touched the ground, it was grasped by a familiar hand. Luffy looked up as he put his treasure on his head. "Well, wasn't that lucky!" the boy proclaimed, his smile blinding.

Sanji's one eye twitched. 'This guy… I'll never get used to this.' Zoro chuckled under his breath. 'Captain… you personify dumb luck, don't you. Just happening to find all these perfect crew members, having access to the greatest power on earth, being saved at the last instant… oi vey.' "Do you believe in a God?" Zoro asked Sanji, negligently cutting down the clown in front of him.

Sanji shook his head, lighting another cig despite the light drizzle that heralded a much heavier rain very soon. "I think that fate has a sense of humor," With that, the chef grabbed Luffy by the collar. "Come on, rubber-idiot, we got to get back to the ship before Nami-swan takes off."

Before they could make their escape, a magnified voice shook the air. "ATTENTION, PIRATES! YOU ARE UNDER ARREST BY THE ORDER OF CAPTAIN SMOKER! LAY DOWN YOUR ARMS AND SURRENDER!" As this announcement was made, the hidden forces sprung up around the plaza, presenting a wall of guns preventing exit.

"Ah, what fun! Quick, let's run away!" With that, Luffy barreled through the crowd with the speed of a chipmunk on Red Bull. As his nakama followed him through the wake of his passage, Smoker mused aloud. "Oi, you ever seen a man smile as he was executed?" the giant asked the Marine next to him, Tashigi having already left to intercept the pirates.

The Marine shook his head. "No, sir. No matter how unrepentant or untruthful a criminal was, once on the platform they became little more than frightened babies."

Smoker blew out smoke. "I saw a man smile as he died once. It was twenty-two years ago. The Pirate King knelt on that platform, and just as he died and sparked off this age of Pirates, he smiled." Smoker's eyes tracked Luffy as he burst through the wall of Marines. 'Could he have known he'd be saved? No, impossible. A man who smiled at his own death… you are interesting, Straw-Hat.'

Smoker turned to leave the hideout. "Inform our men to destroy their ship. They aren't leaving this island." Smoker paused when he saw his aide's nervousness. "What is it?" the man asked, causing the Marine to break out in a cold sweat.

"W-Well, sir, you see, the rain was so sudden that our men couldn't cover their gunpowder properly, so they were forced to return to HQ to be resupplied. Also, the winds are went up right after Straw-Hat broke through the line, so our forces are having trouble following them."

Smoker took a deep pull of his cigar as thoughts raced through his head. 'It's as if Heaven itself wants him to leave… like Hell.' "Get me my bike, I'll catch him myself." With that, Smoker went out into the wind and rain to track down his greatest target.


Gin swore to himself. The man and lion had been chumps, but then these Marines popped up like cockroaches. Every time he knocked on down, two more seemed to pop up. It was getting very annoying. Then, Nami and Usopp showed up, and he had to distract the Marines even more so they could get on board. One Marine foolishly charged right at Gin, and the pirate cracked.

"I have not had a good day!" he yelled, before freezing in shock. The Marine reacted a tad more violently, fainting like a knocked feather. The rest of the Marines seemed hunched over, as if frightened like rabbits. "Humph. At last," Gin murmured to himself, before charging forward at full speed. He knocked all the Marines down mercilessly, just in time for another squad to show up.

Before Gin could tear his hair out in frustration, all of the Marines were knocked down by Sanji. Nami popped up on deck, and immediately screamed out at her nakama while simultaneously ignoring Sanji's proclamations of love and wishes for praise. Really, the man faded into the background after a while.

"Gin, Sanji-kun, we have to leave. The Marines will eventually cause some damage, and if they don't the waves will." She paused. "Wait a minute. Sanji, where are Luffy and Zoro?"

Sanji shook his head. "The marimo got called out by this Marine girl who screamed how he lied to her and demanded a duel. We left the idiot behind, then Luffy got called out by the Marine Captain. I have no clue if those idiots managed to survive."

Nami bit her lip, before shaking her head. "Forget about them. With Luffy's powers, they can catch up with us. But we've got to get away from here now!" Under her command, her nakama got ready for departure as Nami faced the town. 'Luffy, be careful.'


Luffy faced off against Smoker, ready for anything. Smoker in turn regarded the boy with caution; his invulnerability didn't work so well with this kid. "I'm afraid I can't let you pass. It's my duty." Luffy nodded, silently letting Not-Luffy have a little leeway. The sky continued to pour buckets down on the two fighters.

In a blink, the two charged at each other. A flurry of punches, kicks, and dirty tricks were exchanged between the two Devil's Fruit users. Smoker had settled into a guerilla-style of fighting, fading into smoke to reappear behind Luffy, hit him with his jutte or fists, before fading again. Luffy in turn was constantly on guard, blocking or dodging Smoker's hits, sometimes failing, but also managing a few decent hits in return. Let it never be said that Luffy can't throw a punch, and Smoker was feeling the ache as he continued to take the Herculean blows from the youth. Luffy in turn was tiring fast. The jutte sapped his strength whenever it touched, and Smoker's hits weren't anything to scoff at either. Smoker was faster, but Luffy was stronger, and this would inevitably turn into a battle of attrition.

Smoker materialized behind Luffy and, with great effort, through his jutte right at Luffy's back. Luffy couldn't manage to dodge, and the weapon made solid, brutal contact with his back. Smoker faded, only to appear charging at Luffy's open chest with his arm cocked. "This is the end!" the Marine Captain yelled, unaware of the grin on the Pirate Captain's face.

Just as Smoker reached Luffy, the young man's head shot forward, ironically assisted by the blow from the jutte. Smoker's eyes could only widen as Luffy's iron skull made solid with his in the mother of all head-butts.

Smoker's eyes fluttered, his head unaccustomed to such trauma. Unconsciousness took him as he slumped to the ground, his jutte bouncing off the ground before landing. Luffy blew out a giant breath. The fight had been brief, but had easily been the hardest he'd ever had. Luffy's head snapped back, before jerking to the side as applause ran out.

"Good, good. You show promise, as expected." The voice came from a stranger, standing right behind Luffy. The boy whirled around, arm already cocked for a punch, ready for a threat. The stranger was a man, wearing a green cloak. His hair was as black as his eyes, and shaggy in a manner not unlike Luffy's. A strange tattoo dominated his left cheek.

"Who are you?" Luffy asked, Not-Luffy muttering nervously in his head. This man had power. It hung around him like a cloak, an aura of command and danger that had Luffy fighting the urge to just give up and submit to the man's orders.

The man grinned, before laying a hand on Luffy shoulder. There was a tenderness in the gesture, incongruous with his appearance. Luffy blinked at the hand, before looking the man in the eye. The depths in those eyes were truly humbling, bespeaking of long years facing the darkness in the world. "I am a man who is trying to answer the world's problems. Grow strong, Luffy. You'll need it."

Before Luffy couldn't puzzle that out, it came. A massive wind, as sudden and powerful if the gods had blown out on purpose. Luffy was swept into the air like a leaf, screaming his head off.


Zoro grumbled as he raced down the road. His fight with Tashigi had not gone well. After completely dominating the fight, she'd begun to spout exactly the kind of words Kuina would say. Needless to say it freaked Zoro out and brought up even more painful memories. Luckily, in a way, he'd been saved by a freak wind.

Now Zoro charged towards the docks, hoping Nami hadn't left yet. Unfortunately, his fears were realized. The Going Merry was nearly out of sight, a faint shape on the horizon.

"Damn it," Zoro hissed, before he felt an arm wrap around his waist. Before he could panic, or cut off the hand, one of the two, a terrifyingly familiar arm shot out towards the Going Merry. Zoro slowly turned his head to see Luffy's smiling face. "Get ready, Zoro!" the boy cheerfully yelled, unaware of his impending death.

Right before Luffy's hand caught the mast and Zoro went flying through the air, a demon appeared behind him as he made a solemn vow. 'One of these days… I will kill you!' And then physics took over.

The two went flying through the air at just over the speed of life. Less than three seconds after Zoro's oath, the First Mate and his Captain had landed on the Going Merry. Well, landed didn't seem to cover it… let's upgrade the verb to crash. They crashed onto the Going Merry.

The crew instantly flocked around the crashed pair. Zoro was already grumbling in a homicidal manner, while Luffy was laughing his head off. Not long after, Nami spoke up. "There, it's the guide light! It's pointing the way towards the Grand Line!" Indeed, a lighthouse was pointing due southwest, right toward Reverse Mountain.

Sanji pulled out a barrel, laying it on the deck. "I say we should commemorate our voyage." With that, the cook laid his leg on the lid. "To find All Blue," he said, stating the reason why he had left his home to brave the Grand Line.

Luffy grinned, laying his leg on the cask beside his nakama. "To become the Pirate King."

Zoro brought his leg to bear. "To become the world's Greatest Swordsman."

Nami grinned. "To draw a map of the world."

Gin smirked as he cocked his leg. He looked his captain right in the eye as he said "To stand at the edge of the world."

Usopp hesitated a second, before placing his leg in position. "T-To become a brave warrior of the sea."

Just as the crew of nakama, friends, brought together by trial and danger and about to embark on the journey of their lives broke the barrel in a proud metaphor of breaking their past bonds for the future… they were interrupted.

Another leg joined them. "To revive the culture of the Void Century," proclaimed a strong tenor, sending everyone into a state of shock. They all slowly followed the leg to the person in belonged to. A young man stood there, clad in black robes not unlike a priest's, with a cowl that now was pulled down. His face was unnaturally pale, his eyes red and his hair white as snow: an albino. Hanging around his neck, lying with pride on his chest was an amulet. It was a human skull carved of ivory, its eyes gleaming onyx, looking just like the one on their flag, minus the crossbones.

The man chuckled to himself, and brought his hand up in a half-hearted wave. "Um. Hi?"

The Straw Hat Crew hat a stow-away.


See that coming? I highly doubt it, but congrats if you did. Enjoy this, as today is likely your last day of freedom if you live in New England. Labor Day, how cruel you are. Ah, well, enjoy. Don't expect an increase in wait time; I take so long as is I doubt any of you will notice a difference. Enjoy, and adieu!

P.S. Just to clear up any questions, the crew are the Straw Hats, but Luffy is Straw-Hat. Keep an eye on the hyphen. Ja ne!