*Flashback*
Luffy was running laps around Grove 32. It was the last lap that he needed to finish before he would need to make his way to Grove 33 for his usual 'bounty-hunting'. As he was running, he came across the sound of marines shouting. Curious as ever, Luffy made his way calmly towards the source of the noise and found the select group of marines following a woman, chasing her around as she tried to escape. Soon enough, as she was cornered by the group of marines, she crossed her hands in front of her chest and stared at them defiantly. Luffy was wondering where he had seen her before when it clicked in his mind suddenly.
'That woman -' Luffy stared at the woman in amazement and watched her take down the group of marines before more started to appear and surround her.
"You won't be leaving this place!" One marine shouted and Luffy rolled his eyes. Letting out a small burst of Haki, he watched the marines fell one by one. The woman turned to look at him in shock as she pulled her hands down.
"I could have taken care of them. Why would you help me?" she questioned.
Luffy looked her in question before he asked, "Does one always needs a reason to help someone?" The woman looked down at that before she heard, "Shishishi. I'm Luffy," Luffy pulled his hand forward and smiled at her widely, "Monkey D. Luffy. A fellow demon. Nice to meet you." As the woman looked at her in shock and shook his hand slowly, not missing the point when he called himself a 'demon'. 'Does he know?' she wondered.
"Ne. I will set sail at 17, in four years. Will you be my nakama? You're strong!"
And for the first time in years, she felt warmth flooding her chest as she stared at the innocent-looking child, asking her to be a part of her crew. "I wouldn't want to burden someone like you. This whole world is my enemy," she whispered.
"The world is your enemy because you can do something that they don't want you to. You can expose it's deepest and darkest secrets. The world is my enemy because of who I am the child of. Well, not now, perhaps, but once the information is released, it will be my enemy. And even if it will not be, if you do end up joining my crew, I will look after you! Because that's what nakama do right? Friends are temporary. One might forget about them. But nakama is forever." And Luffy grinned wide at her while she looked at the boy with slightly teary eyes, nodding slowly.
*Flashback ends*
While Nami was lamenting about her misfortune, Igaram approached the small group dressed up as Vivi. That earned him quite a few strange glances from the four people. Igaram stood carrying three dummies and explained his plan to the lot and asked Vivi for an eternal pose. Nami looked at Luffy in question as she inquired what an eternal pose is.
"It's a permanent log pose, Nami. The regular one will guide us from one island to another, but an eternal one will always point to the same island." Nami nodded at that and Luffy finally stood up from his place, "Zoro. Get Usopp and Sanji to the ship. We will be leaving." Luffy ordered and watched Zoro grumble about why he had to be the one to get the ero-cook. None-the-less, he started to make his way towards the place the two were sleeping.
But as they stood on the shore and watched Igaram's ship moving farther and farther, the ship exploded at some distance. They all watched in shock and wondered how they could have caught on to it so early. As Vivi shed tears, Luffy activated his Haki and felt his presence and another very familiar presence. He smirked as turned towards Nami, "Nami! Is the log pose ready?" Luffy questioned.
Nami pulled her hand up as she stared at the log pose, "Don't worry. It's okay now."
"Good. Onto the ship, NOW!" Luffy watched them move before he turned towards Vivi and spoke in a low voice, "He's fine. I can feel him. The explosion was not directed to hit him,"
As Zoro dumped their two crewmates on the deck, Luffy jumped on the ship with Nami and Vivi following behind him. Vivi looked around and questioned, "Where's Carue?"
Zoro pointed to the duck standing on the ship and questioned, "You mean this duck? It's been here even before me"
Nami and Vivi gained a tic over their head and screamed, "So you are over there?!"
Luffy looked around and saw everyone was there and asked Zoro to pull up the anchor. Nami ordered Luffy and Zoro around to do the work.
"Be careful not to hit the rock."
"Huh? Thanks!" Nami answered and directed Zoro to man the rudder and avoid it.
Zoro, Nami and Vivi looked at each other with wide eyes and turned to look at the source of the voice in shock. "WHAT?!" They all exclaimed.
"This is a nice ship" A woman answered as she sat on the railings, "I just met Mr. 8 over there... Miss Wednesday" The woman smirked.
"Miss All Sunday!" Vivi exclaimed while Luffy looked on bored, "Why are you here?!" she questioned.
Nami looked at the dark-haired girl and questioned, "Who is she, Vivi? And who is her partner?" Vivi looked at her quietly before she answered, "Mr. 0" The straw-hats, minus Luffy, looked at her in shock and started to back away while Zoro rested his hand on his sword and Luffy yawned.
"Are you done scaring them?" Luffy questioned as he looked at her bored, "I do remember you telling me you will wait at Saboady. What are you doing in this organization, Robin?"
Robin smiled at the straw-hat wearing boy as she jumped down from her spot, "I got a request from someone I can't deny at all."
The others looked at the woman warily and questioned Luffy, "Do you know her, Luffy?"
Luffy nodded at the group and explained, "She will be a part of our crew. It was decided that she will wait for me at Saboady - end of the first half of the Grand Line - and then join us in our journey."
"How can you let someone like her in your crew, Luffy-san?!" Vivi questioned, "She had caused such suffering to the people of my nation!"
Luffy narrowed his eyes at her and spoke in a low, dangerous voice, "I may be helping you, princess, but under no circumstance think that you can dictate what goes around in my crew. I have known Robin for the past 4 years. And let me tell you. If she's working with Crocodile, it's probably because someone requested her to. Don't go around dissing my crew members. Because I won't be so welcoming then," Finally turning towards Robin he questioned, "Will you be joining the crew now?"
Robin looked at him with a bore expression and answered, "I swore to follow you four years back, Captain. When you were only thirteen years old. I told you that if you found me before you reach Saboady, I will follow you happily as ever. I would like to join the crew now," A small smile gracing her lips as she questioned, "Any problems, Cap?"
Luffy grinned as he jumped, "None!". Sanji who had woken up along with Usopp stared at the lady and started to swoon. Zoro finally pulled his hand up, deciding that he does not need to use his swords anymore.
"Captain?" Robin turned towards Luffy and questioned, "Do you know what's the next island?" Luffy looked at her in question and shook his head, he had not bothered to memorize each route because he craved for adventure, "It is Little Garden. Even though I know you are pretty capable of handling yourself... the log pose takes over a year to set over there. I do have an eternal log pose but..." She trailed off and Luffy completed her sentence, "There's probably an ambush waiting for us there. We will be going to Little Garden and see what we could do."
The crew soon left Whiskey Peak with three new additions. As they sailed, Robin, Vivi, and Carue bunked with Nami in her room while Luffy settled in his own cabin, sighing deeply as he turned to face the photo that's always by her bedside. It had been a long time since he had left his home back at Saboady and he was already itching to complete his journey along the first half of the Grand Line and meet his family back home. He missed how each day Rayleigh came to look over his progress. How he would flirt with Hancock, loving the blush that always graced her cheeks. He missed fighting with Ace. Their usual duels to determine who was stronger. Of course, he never beat him. He was just too strong. He missed Shakky who would be the one to take care of his injuries after a nasty brawl with the pirates. He missed the animals - friends - he made on Rusukaina as he stayed there for days, just training to get stronger and stronger. Letting out a sigh, he pulled himself up from his hammock and made his way out on the deck. Sanji was serving drinks to the crew members, Zoro was lifting weights to define his muscles, Robin had found a book and was reading it, Vivi was tense but Nami was consoling the blue-haired girl, telling her to relax, Usopp was working on some experiment on his, and Lucchi was swimming beside the ship slowly, sometimes diving in deep to soothe his stomach.
Sanji turned around, a drink in his hand as he stared at a little creature jumping out of the ocean, "Everyone look at the dolphin," Each member turned to stare at the dolphin in amazement, expressing their feelings as they each let out a 'Wow'. Nami stared at the lovely dolphin and spoke, "That's so cute,"
But as the dolphin jumped over their ship, they looked in horror as they exclaimed, "It's too big!" Luffy laughed out as he ordered, "Pull the ship out of the way!" and the others started to work around, Nami giving the orders as what to do. Finally, with the ship out of dolphin's way, she pulled her hand up to look at the Log Pose pointing to the island in front of them, "The next island is dead ahead of us, everyone!" she called out and they finally noticed the island and cheered for their successful journey till here. They took a river that leads them inside of the island and the crew looked around and wondered why the island is called 'Little Garden'.
Rabin explained it to them, "Because to the inhabitants of this island, it is a little garden. It's a pre-historic island"
"Pre-historic?" Nami questioned.
"It is home to dinosaurs and two giants."
Nami and Usopp screamed in terror at that. Luffy laughed out loud and extended his senses while closing his eyes. "At the current time, there are about 1000 creatures on this island, not counting the giants. While the Giants are strong, the creatures are not. Zoro, Sanji, Robin, and I can very well handle the creatures."
"You know this because of Haki, don't you, Luffy?" Zoro questioned while Luffy nodded at him.
"Don't worry, you will be able to do this once you have unlocked and trained your observation Haki. There is two more presence on this island. Hostile presence. So be on your guard." Luffy warned his crew.
"Aye, Aye, Captain," They answered. Sanji turned towards Zoro and spoke, "We did not stock up on the last island. So try to find as much meat as possible. Perhaps 2-3 dinosaurs whose meat we can cut up and store on the ship,"
The straw-hats soon separated. Luffy wanting to look around rocketed himself into the island, feeling childish to do so but he loved the feel of air hitting his face. Vivi, Robin, and Carue followed behind him, trying to keep up to him. Sanji and Zoro got into a little fight about who could hunt the bigger animal and the result being a hunting competition between the two. That left Nami and Usopp the only one on the ship with Lucchi deep in the water having his own snack.
*With Luffy and his group*
As Vivi and Robin walked side by side in the direction Luffy went off, one could feel the tension in the air. The blue-haired princess - despite Luffy's earlier words - was not much welcoming of the black-haired woman she had known as Ms. All-Sunday. Robin sighed as she thought to clear the things up and gave a deep apology, "I'm sorry for what I did when I was a spy in Baroque Works" Vivi turned a wary glance at the woman as Robin continued, "I was asked by someone I deeply respect to keep an eye on Crocodile. I can't refuse him, you know? And I had to keep up my part that I am on Crocodile's side. I'm really sorry for what I did back in the organization." Robin apologized.
Vivi sighed as she turned to face Robin and spoke, "You never participated in his plans"
Robin nodded at her and explained, "I love to read books. I wanted something in Alabasta that I had a lead on. But I had no intention to partake in a war. Crocodile needed someone to strategize. I helped and I now know what he plans to do in Alabasta. That is more of a boon, don't you think so, princess?" Robin questioned.
Vivi nodded at her and smiled softly, "You're not that bad," Carue quacked from the sidelines.
Robin and Vivi soon found Luffy who had let his inhibitions go and was enjoying the island. Robin chuckled behind her hand as she watched her captain swing around the island using his rubbery arms to grab onto different branches or dinosaurs' neck. Vivi looked in astonishment, contemplating if this was the same serious person from the ship. Luffy whooped as the head of the dinosaur he was sitting on was suddenly cut by a giant.
Luffy used Geppo to stay in the sky in front of the giant's head and asked, "What the hell are you doing?"
"Tiny human! Did I just nearly cut you? I'm sorry." the giant apologized.
Luffy huffed and accepted his apology. He went back down on the ground and reached Robin, Vivi, and Carue. The giant introduced himself as Dorry and invited the three to his camp. Luffy looked back at his companions and smiled wide, accepting the offer. While Vivi looked scared to go to a giant's camp, Robin was all too eager to follow her captain.
*With Nami and Usopp*
While the others had taken off on the island, Usopp had decided to work on the weapon he and Nami and agreed would be best for her. He was also looking for ideas to improve his own weapon. Nami, on the other hand, had decided to take out another journal from the trunk Luffy had agreed to rent to her. She was busy reading the entries, her eyebrows moving up and up as she read the content of the journal, picking out some of the well-known names from the journal. She wondered who Luffy's mum actually was - or is; she doesn't know. The woman sure did know a lot of well known pirates - considering the names popping up in the entries again and again and it made her wonder who Luffy actually is.
The peaceful silence was broken by the roar of a dinosaur and the two looked up only to screech at the size of the monstrosity in front of them. As they huddled back, trying to get away from the monster, they felt relief coming to them as the dinosaur was taken care of by a giant. They did scream out rather loud when they noticed their savior was a freaking giant.
"Ah, humans." The giant turned to look at the two and introduced himself, "I'm Broggy"
"Nami" the navigator stuttered.
"Usopp" The sniper spoke in a shaky voice, his legs trembling.
"Do you have any alcohol?" The giant questioned
"Just cooking alcohol," Nami answered.
As the two rolled out a barrel of cooking alcohol, Usopp suggested to Nami to play dead and thus the two dropped down on the ground, playing dead. Broggy, thinking they were asleep, carried the two with him wondering if they will like T-rex meat or not.
Later the giants explained to the two groups what they had been up to an about their duel. While the ladies looked on in shock, Luffy and Usopp understood the reason behind their still on-going duel. Usopp expressed his amazement, telling Broggy how he wanted to be just like him; a brave warrior of the sea. As time went by and the giants dueled, one by one, the straw-hats were abducted save for Luffy, Robin, Usopp, and Sanji.
As Usopp was walking around, he found Luffy on the ground with Robin by his side. He rushed towards his Captain and questioned, "What happened?"
Robin told Usopp how Dorry came back with a barrel of alcohol from Broggy. Dorry had moved to drink the whole barrel up in a go which had exploded inside of him. That had enraged the giant who had blamed Luffy for this. As the volcano erupted, Dorry started to move to fight. Even though Luffy tried to stop the giant, the giant had easily over-powered him and that led them to this situation.
As Luffy breathed heavily, regaining his strength, he extended his Observation Haki and his eyes widened. "Shit," he mumbled as he pushed himself up, his sword supporting his weight, his side still hurting from Dorry's blow, "It seems like the two other people on this island had managed to capture Nami, Zoro, and Vivi. Sanji is still far off from them."
Usopp let out a low growl, not liking the thought how the two people interrupted the sacred duel of the giants and how they now had their friends, "Let's get them Luffy," he suggested.
Luffy smiled at the long-nosed sniper. It was the first time since he met Usopp, that the boy had asked to fight, "Let's get them."
When the trio found their abducted crew-mates, they found them stuck to a wax structure with wax raining down on them. A man in glasses with a rather peculiar hair-style looked on and laughed, telling them there is no way they can save their crew-mates because there's no way for them to get rid of the wax.
"Are you done?" Luffy questioned bored. While the man - Mr. 3 - was busy going on and on about his ability, he had not noticed Usopp slipping away from the small group Luffy watched with a small smirk as his sniper took a rope and laid it down, pulling the other end, "Light it, Usopp" He ordered and watched in amusement as his sniper used his weapon to light up the rope and thus melting the wax structure.
"W-Wha-? Ho-? When-?" Mr. 3 stuttered as he watched the long-nosed man use fire to melt his wax away. He felt a shudder going down his spine as he turned to face the straw-hatted boy he was talking to before.
"Going around and turning my crew-mates into wax statues. You sure have been looking for a fight, eh? Then a fight is what you will get," Luffy smirked as he unsheathed his Raiu, coating it in Armament Haki, "Come on. You are not going to chicken out now, are you?" he questioned.
"Do not underestimate me!" Mr. 3 screeched and moved in a defensive position, understanding the graveness of the situation, "Candle Champion" he whispered and a structure of wax surrounded him - his best defense.
Luffy yawned as he looked on bore at the man and simply slashed his blade, easily cutting the wax structure along with the man who went down far too easily for him. He turned to look at the little girl and let out a small burst of Haki directed at her and watched in satisfaction as the girl went down. He smiled at his crew-mates who were finally free of the wax.
*With Sanji*
"Wonder what Nami-swan, Vivi-chan, and Robin-chwan are up to" he wondered out loud, his eyes turning into hearts as he swooned. He was currently sitting in the wax igloo he had found and was sipping some tea. "Ah! What am I doing here? I need to find some good dinosaur meat for us! Too bad I had to leave this place. It's rather comfortable," he commented as he looked around the small place. While he made his way to exit the place, the den-den-mushi started to ring.
Sanji looked at the snail and finally pulled the receiver up and answered, "Hello, this is the shitty restaurant. What do you want to order?"
A grumbling voice answered, "Stop playing around, you idiot. Why haven't you send me your report?" The voice questioned.
"Report?" Sanji wondered out loud, "Who is this?" he inquired.
"It's me," The voice answered in annoyance, "Mr. 0"
'Crocodile, huh?' Sanji smirked.
"It's already been quite some time since I sent you your orders, Mr. 3. What is your status?" Crocodile questioned.
'Damnit! I got so caught up in the hunting game. I hope they are all well,' Sanji thought.
Not getting any answer, Crocodile asked in anger, "What are you being silent for? I'm asking you a question. Have you eliminated Princess Vivi and the Straw Hat Pirates or not?!"
"Yes, I've completed your mission. All the people that know your secret are no more, so there is no need for any further action" Sanji replied with a small smirk.
"I see. Good work," Crocodile answered, "The Unluckies are heading your way and once they confirm your mission's success, they will hand you a package,"
"A package?" Sanji questioned.
"That's right. An Eternal Pose to Amabasta," Crocodile answered.
Sanji turned around and found two animals sitting on the window. As he questioned what they are, the animals pulled out weapons while Crocodile questioned what happened. Thinking fast, Sanji dealt with the two animals, taking the package from them.
"What was that?" Crocodile questioned.
Sanji looked back at the receiver and answered, "Don't worry, it was nothing. One of the Straw Hats turned out to be barely alive and attacked me. I finished him off."
"One was alive," Crocodile seethed, "Didn't you just say that you carried out the mission successfully?"
"I thought I had," Sanji grumbled, "but one of them proved to be more tenacious than I thought,"
"So you gave me a false report." Crocodile stated.
"I suppose that's true if you want to be technical," Sanji answered, "But I really did finish him off this time, so there will be no need for further pursuit"
"Fine, head straight for Alabasta," Crocodile breathed out, "This will be the last time I contact you by den-den-mushi. I can't have marines intercept my calls. From now all, all orders shall be delivered the traditional way, that is all,"
Sanji looked at the den-den-mushi as Crocodile hung up on him and he released a sigh of relief. He pulled the eternal pose out of the package and smirked.
*With Luffy's group*
"Gababababababababa" Broggy laughed as he hugged the now sitting Dorry, I can't believe you are alive," he breathed out.
"We've been battling for so long. Our weapons are blunt now," Dorry answered.
Even though the Giants were happy, the others were grumbling and were in a bad mood, considering they have to wait for one fucking year for the lof pose to set. As Sanji ran into the clearing, his eyes found the three ladies and breathed, that he was glad they were well.
"Now he shows up," Usopp muttered. Sanji looked at the giant in shock and questioned if he was Mr. 3. Nami questioned how Sanji knew about Mr. 3.
"A goddess!" Sanji swooned as he took in Nami's top-less form, "About Mr. 3. I was just talking to Crocodile," Sanji smirked and held up the eternal log pose, "I told him we all are dead. They won't be chasing us anymore."
Nami took the log pose from Sanji while Vivi hugged the blonde, expressing her delight. Sanji swooned.
While Sanji and Zoro fought over who won the hunting competition, Luffy ordered them to take their 'conquest' back to the ship and get ready to depart.
"I will definitely go to Elbaf one day!" Usopp yelled as he chased his crew back to the Going Merry.
*On the Going Merry*
Luffy ordered Zoro to cut up the meat and Sanji to store it well in the ship. A little time and the Going Merry was sailing the waterway in the Little Garden and out towards the sea. As they began to exit the island, they noticed Dorry and Broggy standing on each side of the exit with their weapons in their hands. They explained the reason why not many crews made out of this island. They asked them to continue to sail forward and Luffy screamed to keep the ship steady and keep moving forward. A large fish came up about ready to swallow to crew along with their ship. Lucchi was sailing beside and too looked at the fish with a wary glance. It was too big even for him. While Nami asked Luffy to change their path, he just smirked and asked the crew to hold on to the railings. The Going Merry sailed straight into the mouth of the giant goldfish as the two giants brought their weapons back. With a swing of their weapons, they let out a flying slash that cut through the goldfish and launched the Going Merry out to sea.
"Thank you!" Luffy shouted from the ship, waving his hand and finally turned back to his crew and smiled wide, "To ALABASTA!" And so they cheered, departing for another great journey.