"A Davy Back fight?" Benn asked curiously. "I've heard of those. I've never personally been in one, though. What's it like?"

Chopper shuddered.

"You've never ever participated in one of those things?" Sanji asked curiously. "How did you sail the seas for twenty plus years and not ever end up doing one?"

Shanks shrugged apologetically. "Well, I did use to be on Gol D. Roger's crew, and after that I became a Yonko pretty fast. Who in their right mind would want to face those odds?"

Luffy started to raise his hand. Nami quickly smacked it down. "He said, 'right mind', Luffy."

He rubbed his hand and pouted. "Not fair."

"To answer your question," Chopper said. "It's like being a prize in a rigged raffle."

Benn raised an eyebrow. "I can't say I've heard that analogy before. Do you care to elaborate, little doctor?"

Chopper shivered even harder. "We ended up having a fight against Foxy the Silver Fox and his crew. They were horrible! He gave us fake referees and cheated."

"Really?" Yasopp asked. "I thought that it was strictly against the rules to cheat in a Davy Back fight."

Roux elbowed him. "We're pirates, remember?"

Yasopp flushed. "Of course I remember! I'm just saying that it's usually very against the rules to cheat."

Nami sniffed. "They just gave us refs that pretended not to see them cheating."

"Well," Chopper continued. "They won me and put me on their crew. I was so scared!" He suddenly looked around and blushed, remembering that he was talking to a bunch of very brave, old pirates. To his surprise, they seemed to sympathize with him.

"That's rough, buddy." Roux said.

"Yeah," Yasopp said. "I'd hate for that to happen to me."

Even Benn nodded. "I'm sorry. I'd never want to be put on another team."

Chopper was shocked. They really understood and felt sorry for him?

"See, Zoro!" He said shrilly. "They understand!"

Zoro winced. "Hey, you were being a wimp. What was I supposed to say?"

"I don't know, maybe: 'It's alright, Chopper, we'll get you back next round'." He breathed in deeply. "That really would've helped!"

"What did you say to him?" Yasopp asked, amused.

"Something along the lines of 'Suck it up and be a man."

All of Shanks' crew glared at him.

"What? He was crying."

Yasopp looked away and muttered angrily. He grabbed Chopper and clutched him to his chest. "I'm so sorry, little reindeer."

Chopper pulled himself away. "Uh, it's alright. Really."

Shanks leaned back. "I'm just going to go out on a limb and say that you beat this Foxy guy, right? Right. Now, what happened next?"

Robin sighed. "I believe that's when we met Aokiji for the first time."

"Aokiji?" Roux gasped. "The marine Admiral? As rookies?"

Luffy picked his nose. "Yeah. That was the first time we met him. Well, it was the first time I met him. Robin met him before, thought!"

Robin sighed when all of Shanks' crew looked at her suspiciously. "Captain, can't you phrase these things better?"


"No," Robin said patiently. "I'm not a marine. I'm not friends will Aokiji. That would be strange, don't you think?"

Roux shook his head. "I dunno, you look a little suspicious to me."

"Nah, she's fine," Shanks waved it off. "If Luffy likes her, then I like her."

"But Aokiji!" Yasopp gasped. "She knows Aokiji!"

"He was part of the marines that came to destroy my home island when I was eight years old," Robin explained helpfully.

Benn grimaced. "Tell us that first, for goodness sake."

Yasopp and Roux faintly blushed. "Sorry about that."

Robin laughed and shrugged her shoulders. "Think nothing of it."

Shanks rubbed his jaw. "That's right, you're the Ohara girl."

Luffy huffed. "Ohara girl? It's Robin!"

Shanks smiled apologetically. "Sorry, Robin."

"No, that's fine. I'm used to it." She said gently.

Shanks nodded. "So, what happened with Aokiji? What was he doing at the same island you were?"

"Beats me," Luffy said. "But we tried to fight him off, and it didn't work so well."

Roux facepalmed. "Of course it wouldn't, Luffy. You were a seventeen year-old rookie. The chances of you beating on Admiral then were practically nothing!"

Zoro laughed. "You should've told him that. He probably wouldn't have listened, though."

Yasopp sighed glumly. "How did you make it out alive?"

Luffy pouted. "That's not nice!"

"No, it isn't," Shanks agreed, "But it's truthful!"

While their captain scowled on the ground, the rest of the Straw Hat Pirates explained the situation.

"We were on the island," Sanji said, "And we found a guy sleeping on the ground."

Nami continued. "And right away we could tell that Robin recognized him, because she got pale."

Luffy broke in, still sulking. "And then he saved some of the people on the island we were on, but then I had to fight him."

"Had to fight him? Really? You had to fight the guy hundreds of times more powerful than you?"

"Yes."

Benn sighed. "There's no reasoning with you. So, what did you do after he froze you?"

Luffy stared at him in awe. "How did you know he froze me?"

"He has ice powers, genius."

"Oh." Luffy thought for a minute. "But how did you know that I lost?"

Benn slammed his head against the main mast. "Good grief."

"I forgot about the giant frog."

Luffy said this almost casually; it was hard to tell that he wasn't simply stating the weather.

Shanks sputtered. "The what?"

"The giant frog doing the front crawl."

"The what?"

"The giant frog doing the front crawl across the train tracks in the middle of the sea."

"The w-"

Before Shanks could go on, Yasopp hastily slapped a hand over his mouth. "Don't say that again," he hissed. "Luffy answers with something weirder every single time. Ask again and it will get worse."

"The giant frog doing the front crawl getting hit by the train going across the train tracks in the middle of the sea."

Yasopp threw his hands up in the air. "That's it! I'm not even going to try anymore, Luffy!"

"And then there was the drunken old lady and the rabbit that was a cat."

"Who?" Yasopp asked.

"Kokoro the drunken mer-hag, her granddaughter Chimney, and the rabbit-cat Gonbe."

"Who?"

Shanks smacked Yasopp over the head. "If I can't ask, you can't ask."

Luffy frowned. "What's wrong?'

Roux groaned. "Nothing, Luffy. They're just being idiots. Why don't you tell us where you went next?"

Franky laughed, a loud, booming sound. "That's were I come in! SUPER!"

"Great," Benn muttered.

"No, I mean, what island?" Roux tried to clarify.

Franky stared at him deviously. "Have you ever heard of Water 7?"

"Water 7?" Shanks asked excitedly. "That's were Captain Roger got his ship built!"

Franky puffed up with pride. "Of course! Remember, my mentor Tom built it out of Adam wood."

Shanks sighed wistfully. "Yeah, those were good memories."

"Aren't you going to ask about the giant frog?" Luffy broke in impatiently.

Yasopp elbowed him in the ribs.

"What?"

"Shhh. You're ruining the moment."


uffy elbowed Benn. "Is Shanks done staring into the distance yet?"

Benn checked the sun's position. "Uh… yeah. It's been long enough. Go ahead and wake him up."

Luffy launched himself from Benn to Shanks, landing on his head and covering his eyes. "Shanks! Hello!"

Shanks screeched and leaned sideways. "Woah! Luffy! What was that for?!"

"You were zoning out, so I decided to wake you up."

"Why did you choose that particular method?"

"Benn said I could."

Before Benn could protest his innocence, Shanks shot him a dirty look.

"Water 7?" Benn asked, trying to change the subject whilst ignoring Yasopp and Roux's snide snickers.

"Water 7!" Luffy cheered. "I told you about the drunken old lady and the frog already, but I didn't tell you about the city!"

"Actually," Shanks interjected. "You didn't tell us much about the drunken old lady and the frog."

Luffy shrugged carelessly. "Later, then!"

"Sure, Luffy." Shanks grumbled. "Why don't you just tell us about who you fought this time."

"Sure. We fought CP9."

Yasopp's eyeballs nearly popped out of his skull. "What? The CP9? I heard that those guys were some of the most dangerous people within the Water 7 area. You fought them as rookies too?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess? They were really hard to beat, though. I fought the most powerful, Lucci. That was when I started using my techniques Gear Second and Third!"

Shanks rubbed his jaw. "The fast one and the big one? I read about those in a newspaper once. You'll have to show me sometime."

Luffy beamed widely. "Of course!"

"Can I hear more about your ship?" Yasopp asked, thinking about all the thinks he'd put together.

Luffy nodded. "Yeah, you can, but you have to hear about what happened before that first or else it won't make sense."

Roux rolled his eyes. "Now you decide to follow the rules."

Luffy ignored him. "When we got to Water 7, we were looking for someone to fix the Going Merry, since she was in bad shape after the situation with Skypeia and flying and stuff. Instead, we found out we had to leave the Merry, we lost Robin, and we met a lot of weird people."

Yasopp winced. "You had to trash the old ship. Ouch."

Benn raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, 'lost Robin'. Did you forget about her someplace?"

"No!" Luffy laughed. "She was kidnapped by CP9."

Robin looked sharply at Luffy. "Captain…"

Luffy shrugged. "It's true, you know."

Shanks was watching this exchange with all-seeing eyes. "I am going to bet that this had something about the Ohara incident, am I right?"

Slowly, Robin nodded.

"And you went with CP9 to turn yourself in so your friends wouldn't get hurt?"

Robin nodded once more.

Shanks' face broke out into a weathered smile. "Good job! I'm happy to know that the idiot is protected by people like you. I would be concerned else ways."

Robin was stunned. She quickly stepped back over to the railing.

"Really!" Shanks protested enthusiastically. "Good job! I don't know what Luffy would do without you!"

Benn shook his head. "I think that was a little fast, Shanks. You've scared the poor girl. Stop reading the situation so well."

Shanks looked affronted. "I thought that was a beneficial trait."

"In some situations, yes," Benn intoned. "Other times it's just freaky."

Shanks turned to Chopper. "I'm not freaky, am I?"

Chopper nodded rapidly, thought about was he was doing, and stopped abruptly.

Alas, it was too late. Shanks had already started deflating. "And here I thought I was always doing something good," he moaned. "I was really doing something bad."

Robin walked back up to him and shook her head, laughing softly. "It's fine, Yonko-san. I just wasn't expecting that. Would you like to hear the rest of the story?"

"Yeah," Nami snapped. "Are you going to listen to the rest of the story or what?"

Shanks jumped away from the angry tone. "Sure, I'm ready for it. When do we start?"


Franky winced. "We can talk about Water 7 as long as you don't tell me about what got me on your crew."

"What?" Yasopp asked curiously. "What happened to get you on the crew?"

Franky leaned over and whispered something inaudible into Yasopp's ear.

Yasopp slowly turned green.

"What did he say?" Roux asked boredly. "It can't be that bad. I don't see Luffy doing anything that extreme."

Yasopp leaned over and whispered the same thing in his ear.

Sure enough, Roux immediately gagged and put his hand over his- mouth.

"What?" Benn asked, now confused. He hadn't thought that it was that bad, but now he wasn't so sure. "Tell me what happened."

Roux leaned over and whispered the same thing once again into Benn's ear.

Benn paled. "Oh, that is bad." He muttered, rubbing his head in sympathy.

"What?" Shanks asked. He really thought that they were all exaggerating, but perhaps it was really that bad. He'd have to find out himself. "Tell me."

His three crewmates shook their heads. "No, no, Shanks." Yasopp said. "We're not even going to tell you."

"Why not?" Shanks exclaimed.

Benn nodded in rare agreement with Yasopp. "He's right, Captain," he said sagely. "I don't think that it would be a good idea for you to hear this. I'm regretting asking already."

"Really?" Shanks raised an eyebrow. "That bad, huh?"

Roux nodded frantically. "You have no idea."

Shanks shrugged. "I guess I'll pass, then." He started again. "But you're going to have to tell me before I die."

Franky and Luffy both looked disappointed. Robin looked relieved, for some reason, Shanks noticed.

"I know that we've been getting distracted with this 'event' and all," Nami said, "But don't you think we should actually talk about what happened earlier?"

"Of course, Navigator." Shanks said smoothly. "What did happen next?"

Nami grinned. "We had to cash in all of the gold we got from Skypeia!"

"Gold?" Benn asked. "They let you take some gold from the city in the sky?"

"Let not being the best choice of words!" Nami said happily.

"Oh, yes it was." Robin said calmly. "They would've let us go with much more if we'd asked."

Nami's eye started twitching. "Why didn't you tell us when we were up there, then?" she asked.

Robin shrugged. "You looked like you were in a hurry."

Nami fumed. She had to be escorted to a chair by Sanji, who received a smack for his reward.

"Well," Usopp said quietly. "This is when The Merry started breaking down."

"Is it?" Yasopp asked sorrowfully. "That was too short of a time for your ship."

"I agree," Franky said, "But if the guys at Galley La say it can't be fixed, it can't be fixed."

"Galley La?" Shanks whistled. "Those are some pretty important guys. Were you one of them?" he asked Franky curiously.

Franky flushed. "Not exactly. I was the head of the Franky Family. We mainly deconstructed things."

"A pupil of Tom's?" Shanks said in surprise. "This must've been after Tom's death."

Franky nodded. "It was after I made myself a cyborg, too." He said.

"A cyborg!" Yasopp muttered wonderingly. "I was wondering how and why you did that. Did you just decide you needed a stronger body?"

Franky laughed boomingly. "I suppose I did need a stronger body after getting hit with the Sea Train."

All of the pirates in attendance winced backwards. "Ouch!" Roux yelped. "That must've packed a punch!"

Franky nodded solemnly. "It was a train."

Yasopp nodded back. "Trains hurt."

Benn looked on in disgust. "I don't get you."

"So, more about Galley Law?" Shanks pressed.

"Oh, yeah," Luffy said. "We met Usopp's evil twin and pigeon dude."

"Usopp has an evil twin?!" Yasopp sputtered. "Why wasn't I aware?"

"Not a literal twin," Nami snapped. "He just had a very similar nose."

Benn flinched. "Another person with that nose? How unfortunate."

Yasopp dramatically rolled up his sleeves. "I'll have you know that I like that nose, thank you very much-"

"Yeah," Benn enunciated. "You'd have to love it to f- have a child with it."

"Excuse me?!"


Ten minutes later, Yasopp was still fuming at Benn.

"Please!" Roux begged to Benn. He only turned around and crossed his arms.

"I refuse," he sniffed. "I'm not going to apologize for saying the truth."

Shanks sighed. "This happens every day, guys. Can't we stop doing it yet?"

Roux immediately stopped begging Benn and flashed a grin at Shanks. "Does it still bother you? I'm just doing it out of habit."

Shanks raised an eyebrow. "Really?" he asked incredulously.

"Well, yeah. I thought you were just doing that too."

"No!" he snorted. He paused. "Do you mean that I've been undergoing severe mental and emotional stress because of these guys' fighting and it isn't even real anymore?"

"Uhh…"

Benn and Yasopp stared at each other in horror. "No!" Yasopp wailed. "Where did the spark go?"

"It used to be so natural and vibrant!" Benn sighed. "And now it's just run-of-the-mill fighting. Where did we go wrong?"

"I don't know you anymore!" they both said.

Nami groaned loudly. "This is getting ridiculous! Would you get on with it already?"

"My pleasure, dear," Shanks grumbled, smacking all three of his available crew members on the head.

"Ow!" Roux whined. "That hurt! Why did you hit me for?"

"You didn't tell me it was a joke for twenty years!"

"Well, to be far, it wasn't really that much of a joke and it's been completely real for most of the twenty years-"

Shanks cut him off with a glare. "Or that's just what you want me to think!"

Roux shrugged.

Nami all but snarled at them. "I thought you were going to let us continue!"

"Why?" Benn asked, now recovered, "He doesn't seem to mind."

Sure enough, there was Luffy, sitting on the edge of the ship and swinging his stretchy legs out so that they brushed the soft waves.

Nami frowned. "He doesn't count."

"But he's your- Oh, whatever. I have an idea."

She raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"How about, since we don't seem to be listening for now, you listen to one story from us?"

I few of the crew members make grunts of agreement, so he decided to go with it.

"Okay, there was this one time, and here's how it went:"

-Many years earlier, in an unexplored patch of open water in the New World-

"Benn!" Yasopp screeched. "Where is my gun?"

"I don't know!" Benn called back. "Where did you leave it?"

"I don't know either! I was actually about to go check up your-"

All of a sudden, the ship made an abrupt turn to the starboard side. Crewmembers and crates went flying every which direction. Benn and Yasopp caught the edge of a stray piece of rope and held on.

Both of them men sputtered, coughing out misplaced seawater. They straight away looked for the disturbance that had so rudely caused the ship to tilt sideways.

Their jaws dropped.

In front of them was humongous white whale, at least 200 meters long and, flapping it's way out of the water with comparatively small flippers and a large, blunt head.

"Yasopp?" Benn asked disbelievingly. "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

"A large whale? I know it's odd, but this is the Grand Line. We were bound to come across a whale like that sometime."

"No." Benn shook his head. "That was a special whale. Did you see what color it was?"

"Uh, white?'

"Yes! Don't you know of any other famous white whales?"

Yasopp paused. "No way. The chances of that happening are-"

"Very slim, I know."

They continued staring at the large watery mammal.

"Do you think it's going to come down soon?" Yasopp asked quietly.

Benn shrugged. "Depending of how fast it was going when it broke the surface- OH MY GOD!"

Yasopp flailed around. "What?! What?!"

Benn shakily pointed up into the sky, around the whale.

On top of the whale's head was a faint blob, vaguely human shaped, but with a misshaped leg. It's tiny arm waved once, twice, three times before the whale crashed back down into the sea. A large tsunami wave followed the impact, coming closer and closer to hitting the ship.

All the two pirates could do was stare in shock at the space the man and whale had been. They watched the wave almost get close enough to hit the ship before two strong hands pulled them off the rail, across the deck, and into the cabins. A few seconds after the door was shut, a loud boom shook the area, shock waves traveling through sailing vessel.

"What were you thinking?!" Shanks scolded. "Why were you still out there? It'd be a horrible way to go, you know, hit by one stupid tsunami wave. By the way, did you see what caused it? I was too dazed by the shock to see clearly."

Both of the men were still shaking, clearly not believing what they'd just saw.

Shanks stared at them. "I'm going to go get a doctor. Don't kill each other."

As soon as he was gone, they grabbed one another's shoulders. "What should we do? Should we tell him?" Yasopp asked frantically.

"I don't know!" Benn replied, just as frantic, "But I don't think he'd believe us."

"True." Yasopp said. "We don't even know if we saw it right anyway."

"Yeah," Benn nodded. "I couldn't have been."

All of a sudden, a large crashing sound came from the ceiling. A dark shape quickly descended and landed with a loud thud at their feet.

"Oh!" Yasopp said excitedly. "There's my gun!"


Nami clapped slowly. "That was wonderful and all, but do you think we could get this over with? We won't get very far if you idiots keep interrupting."

Shanks frowned. "Well, if you insist…"

Yasopp protested loudly. "Hey, that was rude! Why can't we just tell what we want to tell? It's not fair if only you get to do it!"

Nami shot him a piercing glare. "Life isn't fair."

"Wow," Benn groaned. "We're all officially our parents."

A hiss startled him from his self-loathing reverie. He looked frantically around for the source of the noise. "Do you have a creepy lizard or something on your ship?"

Franky smiled apologetically. "Sorry, that was me." He was quietly tightening a valve on his upper arm. "It happens sometimes."

"Oh, sorry." Benn looked away, embarrassed.

Luffy played with his fingers, stretching them out and tying them together. As the Red-Haired pirates watching in apprehensive fascination, his two fingers stretched the farthest snapped back, causing a jumbled mess of phalanges. The pirates hissed in sympathetic pain, even when knowing it didn't hurt him.

After tugging on his tangled digits for a few minutes, he lifted his hands up to the nearest crew member, Robin, with an apologetic smile and an ashamed expression.

"Robin… Could you please-?"

She sighed. "Of course. Again, Luffy? I thought you would've learned by now." Still, a slight smile played on her lips.

Roux leaned back, shocked. "Again? He's done this before?"

"Why are you surprised?" Zoro asked dully. "I can swear we've been over this at least a few dozen times in the last few days."

Roux flushed. "It's still surprising!"

"Can we please get on with the story?" Nami screeched. "I'm getting tired of this!"

Zoro flinched. "Sea witch."

He was interrupted with a foot aimed at his head, which was blocked by the flat side of the Wado Ichimonji.

"Again?" Benn sighed. "Why do you two always fight?"

Zoro and Sanji both glared at him.

"You shouldn't be talking!" Zoro snapped.

Sanji nodded. "I'm going to agree with the moss head for this one."

"What did I do?" Yasopp asked, seeing all the looks aimed at him.

Luffy, having had his fingers untangled, started talking. "Well, Usopp's twin and pigeon dude were CP9 guys, so we had to fight. I fought pigeon dude and Zoro fought evil!Usopp." He rubbed his chin. "I'm not sure about the rest, but I think that I also beat Blueno."

Sanji lazily raised his hand. "I beat Jabra."

"Kalifa." Nami said.

"Kumadori the poetry guy!" Chopper squeaked.

Franky laughed. "Uh, Fukuro, but I suppose I beat Nero, too."

Usopp snorted. "Well, Robin, you, and I beat Spandam! He was the leader."

"He was weaker than an average marine." Nami said flatly. "It really doesn't count."

"But he had the elephant sword!"

"Elephant sword?" Shanks questioned. "Was it a devil fruit?"

"Yep!" Luffy said excitedly. "It was a sword that swallowed the elephant-elephant fruit!"

"Uh, Luffy? I think that you might have that back-"

"Nope!" Franky said. "He's actually right for that one."

Shanks paused and frowned. "But how-"

Franky shrugged. "We don't know. I don't try to think about it." He patted Shanks on the shoulder. "You'll get used to it eventually."

"And after that, what happened?" Roux asked, diligently trying to change the subject. "Wait, why did they even steal Robin anyway?"

"Oh," Luffy waved his hands. "They were just upset they lost an eight year-old girl."

Robin sighed. "That's one way of explaining it, Luffy. I'll go with it."

"So?" Benn prompted. "You beat up all the guys and got Robin back, right? It wasn't too hard?"

"Nope!" Luffy said proudly. "Not even when they had a Buster Call."

Yasopp shrieked like a small child on a roller coaster. "What? I didn't think that the idiot on Enies Lobby was you!"

Benn nudged him. "Yes, we did. Remember, Shanks nearly had a heart attack?"

They both glanced fleetingly at their Captain to make sure that he was not, in fact, having another fit.

Shanks glared at them. "Stop. It wasn't that bad."

"Yes it was!" Yasopp whispered.

He glowered at him one last time. "Stop. Now."

"Let's not talk about the buster call, okay?" Benn asked nervously.

Luffy pouted. "But it was so cool! The Franky family and the Galley Law guys helped us get our friends back!"

"Why did the Franky family help?" Benn asked. "I thought that they worked for Franky."

Franky nodded. "Yeah, they wanted me back, too."

Shanks frowned. "Why did they have you?"

"Oh, I had the plans for Pluton."

"What?" Shanks said, surprised. "You had them? Where are they now?"

"I destroyed them."

Shanks sighed. "Good."

Yasopp frowned, rubbing his chin. "If I could've just gotten a glimpse of those blueprints…"

Franky nodded in agreement. "I know, right? I saw them and they were amazing."

Shanks rubbed his temples. "Can we stop talking about it? I don't like the subject."

The cyborg seemed to understand. "Sure, as long as you don't want to hear about how I joined the crew."

Shanks' other crewmembers flinched. "No, he doesn't!" Yasopp said.

Shanks shrugged. "I'm good. Judging by my crew, I think that I'll just remain in the dark for now."

Roux nodded. "Good choice."


Shanks was busy eating an absolutely delightful crème Brûlée made by the interesting blond chef when Brook decided that it was his turn to tell the rest of his story.

"Yohohoho!" he laughed. "I believe that we've made our way up to me now, correct?"

This question wasn't really directed towards a particular person. Brook knew well enough by now that he came next. What did happen next, however, surprised some of the Red-Haired pirates.

"Nope!" Usopp said solemnly, crossing his arms and sitting down. "We haven't said anything about the Merry yet."

"Ooh!" Yasopp said. "I forgot about her. How did that turn out?"

Usopp sighed. "She died, eventually. But not before she sailed herself over to Enies Lobby and saved us all."

Roux paused mid word. "She sailed herself? Are we talking metaphorically, figuratively…?"

"Nope!" Luffy said happily. "Literally!" He giggled to himself, clearly happy with the memory.

Shanks smiled. "It sounds like you really did have a good ship, Luffy. I'm happy to know that even your ship found a way to keep you safe. We all know that you won't do it yourself."

Luffy pouted. "That's not fair, Shanks."

"It's true, though."

"Well, maybe, but still!"

Brook sighed. "I guess that it isn't quite time for me yet."

Shanks waved his hand vaguely in the musician's direction. "No, you go right ahead."

"Finally! All that waiting made me think me skin was peeling off! Except-"

"-You don't have skin." Benn finished. He made a face. "How does that even make sense?"

Brook seemed to deflate for a second, but quickly bounced right back up. "That wasn't very nice, Benn-san!"

Yasopp inconspicuously kicked his crewmate.

Benn glared at him. "What was that for?"

"Let the guy have his fun." Yasopp said.

Benn rolled his eyes, but said nothing.

Brook continued happily. "I already told you that my crew was dead earlier, right? Well, I drifted in the Floridian triangle for fifty years."

Roux chocked. "Fifty years? That's older than I am!"

He nodded. "Of course. The Rumbar pirates were from many generations ago."

"And then Luffy met you how?" Shanks pressed. He was really interested in this one. How did one acquire a skeleton for your crew?

Luffy shrugged. "We went exploring an old ship and saw a creepy skeleton guy. He was cool, so I invited him to join the crew!"

Yasopp's eyes nearly popped out of his head. "Right then?"

"Right then," groaned both Sanji and Nami. "Right there."

Zoro snorted. "I forgot about that. Why did we let you two go again?"

Nami glared at him. "It's not as if I wanted to! How was I supposed to know Luffy would invite a skeleton to be part of the crew?"

The crew simultaneously turned to look at her, each raising an eyebrow. Nami fluttered her hands up and down in frustration, trying to get her point across.

"Of course I would've known he would invite a skeleton he just met! It's just- How was I supposed to know that there would be a skeleton there in the first place?"

Zoro shrugged. "Fair point."

Brook was looking somewhat discouraged. "Hello? Is anyone still listening?"

Roux patted him on his bony shoulder. "It's alright. They do this to me sometimes, too."

"Really?" Brook asked.

"Yeah, I've been telling myself it's because they love me for over twenty years."

"That's the only possible answer, Roux-san!"

"That's right!"

Benn watched them skeptically. "You're both fooling yourselves."

Roux gasped dramatically. "Do you mean to see that you don't love me, Benn? I'm crushed!"

Benn gave him an exasperated glare. "What do you think?"

"Captain!" Roux called. Benn frantically tried to shush him. Too late. Shanks was already on his way over.

Shanks smacked Benn on the back of his head. "Apologize to your crewmate!"

"What?! No!"

Shanks stared him down. "Benn. Apologize."

Benn groaned. He slowly turned over to Roux, who was standing by Brook smugly, waiting for his apology.

"Sorry."

Roux smirked happily. "Thought so."

Shanks sighed. His crewmembers were all a bunch a children for being some of the most powerful pirates on the seas.


Shanks waved his one arm in Brook's direction. "So, you joined Luffy's crew right away?"

Brook shook his head. His jawbone rattled against his skull. "No, I had someone to take care of first."

Benn nodded. "I heard about this from someone. Thriller Bark, right? I knew a guy whose shadow was taken."

"Bingo!" Brook said happily. "I had my shadow stolen, so I went to get it back first. I didn't want to endanger my new friends, but they followed me anyway."

Nami groaned. "I would've been more surprised if Luffy didn't follow you."

Luffy scrunched up his nose. "It was an adventure! And we had to help Brook!"

"You had known him for ten minutes," Zoro said flatly. "And then he ditched."

"He had to go get his shadow back!"

Robin giggled. "Luffy. Don't you remember Cerberus?"

Luffy paused for a second. Then, comprehension flooded his face. "Cerberus! He was the coolest dog ever!"

Yasopp smiled at Luffy, obviously thinking that he had seen an adorable critter and gotten attached to it. "Was he? What did he look like?"

"He was a zombie and he had three heads!"

Yasopp recoiled. "Wow. You would think that he was cool." He paused. "Wait, enlighten me. Why was he a zombie with three heads?"

"Gekko Moriah. Don't you read the news at all?" Benn said flatly, rolling his eyes.

Yasopp reddened. "Well, we don't all have spare time like you. Some of us have important jobs!"

"I do. I just get done with mine faster."

"So, Gekko Moriah!" Shanks interjected, glaring at his crewmates. "Wasn't he a Shichibukai a while ago?"

Franky nodded. "Yeah, he was kicked out after we beat him."

"Franky!" Luffy wailed. "You told him! That's not cool! I was going to tell him!" He crossed his arms around himself and sat down on the deck in a huff.

Shanks sighed. "It's okay, Luffy. I already knew that you won."

Luffy didn't look up.

"Luffy. It wasn't in the papers, but Benn already told me. I already knew. I'm really proud of you!"

With a sigh, Luffy stood up. "Yeah! I beat the leek guy, but I had to fight Oars. He had my shadow."

"Even you got your shadow stolen, Luffy? How did you win?" Roux asked curiously.

"Oh, somebody put a hundred shadows in me."

Shanks choked on his breath. "A hundred shadows? Luffy, that's supposed to be fatal!"

Benn snorted. "I think you've said that at least a dozen times in the last few days. But, yes, Luffy. That was supposed to fatal. I'm not even going to think about how you survived."

Luffy smiled guiltily. "I almost didn't. I was going to die, but I'll get to that later! Chopper knew about the crazy doctor guy!"

Several pairs of eyes turned to look at Chopper. He fidgeted around with his fingers, but began telling them about what he remembered.

"The doctor that Luffy mentioned was Doctor Hogback."

"Doctor Hogback?!" Benn asked. "He disappeared years ago!"

Chopper nodded solemnly. "He was working with Moriah to raise an army of the undead."

Yasopp grimaced. "That's disgusting. Wasn't he a really famous surgeon? He helped lots of people."

"Unfortunately," Chopper said sadly. "He did a lot of harm to many others."

Benn patted the young doctor on the head. "I'm sorry, little reindeer. You must've looked up to him, being a doctor and all."

Chopper nodded. "I did, but there's nothing I can do about him. It was his choice."

Yasopp huffed. "It was a bad one."

Chopper giggled. "I'll say! I'm not sure if I liked him or Caesar Clown less."

"Caesar..?" Benn frowned, tapping his chin.

Luffy jumped in front of Chopper and put his hand in front of his mouth. "Shhhh! We're not there yet!"

Benn sighed. "At this rate, we won't get there for months."


"Oars Oars Oars!" Luffy chanted happily. "He was so cool!"

Benn scowled, covering his ears. "We heard you the first time, Luffy. You told us everything about him already."

"Nuh uh! I didn't tell you about the time he saw Sanji's wanted poster-"

Sanji kicked him in the back. "Don't finish that sentence."

Yasopp giggled. "I saw that poster! I was wondering when Luffy recruited a mutant lobster for his crew!"

Sanji glared at him.

Shanks leaned over to whisper in Yasopp's ear. "Haven't you learned your lesson yet? You never, ever, piss off the cook."

Yasopp paled and hastily made apologies. "I- uh, didn't recognize you at all at first!"

He sighed when Sanji seemed to relax. "Thank God."

"So, Luffy?" Shanks asked. "You wanted to tell us what happened after the battle, right?"

Luffy bounce happily. "Of course! Well, I don't remember much of what happened afterwards, I was so tired! I passed out, and when I woke up, everyone was there." He looked puzzled for a moment. "Except for Zoro." His face suddenly cleared. "Oh, that's because Kuma came!"

Roux squeaked. "Kuma? Bartholomew Kuma? Really? Luffy, stop attracting the scary people!"

Luffy just shrugged.

"What happened when Kuma showed up?" Benn asked curiously. "What did he do?"

Luffy shrugged again. "I don't know, I was unconscious. Ask Sanji or someone."

Many pairs of eyes turned to rest on the blond cook. He stubbed out his cigarette and tucked it into his pocket. "If you must know…" he sighed. "Kuma showed up after the fight to kill Luffy, or at least take him into custody. I, however, think it was the former. He demanded that we hand him over. When we didn't, he said that if we did, we would be allowed to live."

"What did you choose?" Yasopp asked anxiously.

Benn smacked him over the head. "What do you think, genius? Luffy's still here, isn't he?"

Yasopp rubbed his head guiltily. "Yeah, I forgot about that."

"As I was saying," Sanji continued. "When we wouldn't, Kuma made a bomb with his devil fruit powers and threw it at us."

Shanks winced. "I hate it when they do that."

"Yeah, so do I. When I woke up, I saw one of the crew standing next to Kuma. He had managed to cut Kuma's shoulder, but it only served to make him angrier. Kuma said that he had to take Luffy and was about to kill him." Sanji snorted. "That stupid idiot offered his life for Luffy's."

Shanks raised an eyebrow, tried to cross his arms and remembered that he only had one.

"Yeah, well, I see the idiot trying to kill himself, so I went up there and said that I would."

Sanji was silent for a few moments.

"Aaaand…?" Yasopp prompted.

"And the idiot knocked me out." Sanji huffed, successfully crossing his arms. "When I woke up, Luffy was perfectly fine, jumping around and being Luffy. Everyone was there but the stupid one, so I went to look for him. I found him standing straight up in a circle of his own blood."

Benn made a face, but still listened.

"I asked him what was going on, and he said that nothing happened." Sanji took out another cigarette. "Of course he wasn't. He had taken all of Luffy's pain and needed immediate medical attention."

Zoro grumbled under his breath.

Sanji snorted. "Yeah, yeah, stupid marimo, you were fine, sure. I'm pretty sure all of your internal organs were ruptured."

Benn stared at Zoro. "No offense," he said disbelievingly, "But you really don't seem the type."

Zoro shrugged. "I suppose not."

It was so silent that Zoro looked up, curious to what was happening. What he saw was Shanks' grinning face, six inches away.

"Arggggh!" Zoro shouted, scrambling back. "What the- what are you doing?"

Shanks continued beaming. "I like you! Luffy, you sure are a good judge of character!"

He gave Zoro a giant one-armed hug. Zoro looked like someone had used the Wado Ichimonji as a steak knife.

"Hey- ouch! You can let me down now, you know!" When he received no reply, he physically peeled himself out of Shanks' embrace.

He dusted himself off, groaning. He scowled at Shanks.

"Yeah, yeah, anyone of the crew would do it."

Roux laughed. "That's not what I find funny?"

"Oh?" Robin asked, interested.

"Well, for as long as we've been on this ship, the cook and the swordsman have done nothing but bicker. We just learned that not only did the swordsman try and give his life for Luffy, he also protected the cook he claims to hate."

Everyone slowly turned to look at Zoro. He and Sanji were standing a few yards apart, not looking in the other's direction. Hilarious to the crews, both of their cheeks were rapidly reddening.


-Approximately six years ago, somewhere on the Grand Line-

"Hey, Shanks!" Yasopp shouted. "What did you think of that Ace kid?"

Shanks shrugged. "He's a really nice boy for being Luffy's brother."

"That's it?"

"What else do you want me to say?"

"I dunno, you just like kids. I thought you'd get more attached to him or something."

Shanks winced. "Please don't say that I 'like kids' ever again. And yes, I did like him. I've just known him for all of one day; give me some time to get used to the fact that Luffy has a brother."

Yasopp grinned. "Weren't you calling Luffy your long-lost son after an hour of talking to him?"

"That's not true."

"Fine, two hours."

"You're making me sound cheap, Yasopp. And I told you, I'm just surprised that Luffy has a brother."

Benn nodded thoughtfully. "I agree, that was odd. I would've assumed little Anchor would've told us all about his wonderful big brother within minutes of knowing us. That kid isn't able to keep anything to himself."

Roux snorted. "Except when he ate that devil fruit, remember?"

Shanks covered his ears. "Stop talking about that."

"Come on, Shanks. He would've found one to eat eventually. At least he got one that suits his personality!"

"True. I, however, feel that I am responsible for Luffy's permanent inability to swim. Also, Garp is eventually going to skin me and use my pelt as a coat."

"Isn't that going a little far, Captain?"

"Did you really just say that, Roux? Weren't you there the time that he-"

"Okay! I get it!" Roux waved his hands at him. "Now that we know that Garp has two grandkids, maybe he'll be a little more lenient."

Shanks raised a skeptically eyebrow. "Garp? Lenient? That'll happen when Sengoku resigns of his own free will."

Benn shushed them. "Be quiet, I'm trying to think. So, Garp has a son, Dragon. He's what, about your age, Shanks?"

Shanks nodded. "That sounds about right."

"So he has fifteen and eighteen year old sons, that's logical. We don't know who the mother or mothers are, that doesn't help." He paused.

"Shanks? How many times has Garp mentioned Luffy when we have cannonball-throwing contests?"

"Too many. And?"

"How many times has he mentioned Ace?"

"None that I know of."

"So…?" Benn was clearly trying to lead them all to a conclusion they all escaped. The three of them simultaneously shrugged.

Benn made a noise of disgust. "Goodness sakes. You should be smarter than this."

Yasopp sighed. "Do you think that Ace was lying, or what?"

Shanks shook his head violently. "No, there is no way he was faking. I could almost literally feel the waves of pure love coming off him when he talked about Luffy. That can't be faked."

Benn nodded. "I also reached that conclusion. Now, the only reason I can think of is that Garp didn't want us to know about Ace. Why is that? I also have reason to believe that Ace and Luffy aren't blood brothers and must've been introduced after we met him, as Luffy didn't blather on about him for eternity."

He when he received more blank stares he continued. "So, Garp has an adopted grandson approximately eighteen years old, a surname of Portgas, a D, and that he doesn't want anyone to know about!"

When no one answered he groaned. "How are you not seeing it?!"

A few seconds of silence went by and Shanks suddenly squeaked.

The other three turned to look at him, two with confused faces and one with a smug expression.

"No!" Shanks said breathlessly, horrified. "Garp, you didn't!"

"What?" Yasopp asked curiously, echoed by Roux. "What did he do?"

Shanks groaned. "Oh, that poor child."

He rubbed his eyes, trying to relieve the rapidly building headache. "No wonder they couldn't find him! Garp took him. He probably thought, 'Wow, a baby! Not any baby, his baby!' and then he thought, 'I could make him into a fine marine!' Garp, you crazy bastard, that's not how it works! You can't just kidnap babies and try to corrupt them with justice! I understand Luffy, he's your flesh and blood, but Ace? Really? It wasn't going to work! Do you think Sengoku even knows?"

Benn shook his head. "He probably suspects, but doesn't want to look in. You know how Sengoku is about Garp."

Shanks made an unidentified noise of frustration and collapsed against a chair. "I need a drink."

"What's going on?" The other two pirates were still confused.

"I'll explain later." He took a generous swig out of the rum bottle pressed into his hand. A smile came to his lips. "You know what?"

"What?"

He laughed. "You know, I'm not sure if Garp even only has two grandsons. The guy seems like the type to sporadically adopt. It just makes me happy to know of the irony that both of the guy's grandsons decided to become pirates." He grinned even wider. "I wonder what Garp looked like when he found out."