Welcome one and all to day two of Blitz Week!

Thank you one and all to my followers, favoriters, and reviewers! Let's go over the reviews...

SnowshoeBombay, he's definitely gonna before long. And that was kind of my thought as I wrote it, too!

To a guest, I'm afraid it only gets shorter, except for perhaps the weekly update. That's the downside of having an update every day. But I'm glad you're liking it!

Hiezen, I don't really have a name for the Marine Smoker's reporting to. Just...someone, I guess.

lmao, thanks for pointing out my mistake! I'm glad you like the humor!

Lunapok, xXxWolvesInTheNightxXx, thanks!

Thorn D. Cinni, I'm glad you like my plot device! I'll add your pity to the rest of the 'Smoker Sympathy' pile.

Stelra Etnae, thank you very much! Enjoy this update and welcome to my...uh...is this a fan club? Well, the story's fan club.

XxFire-PhoenixxX, good point. Ahhhh well, it's far too late to fix that now, I just cleared out my old docs. Doc manager was getting crowded. And don't worry, we'll see the Whitebeards by the end of the week!

And now, to our second chapter of the week, where we rejoin one of our main heroes of this story!

...Briefly, at least.


Koala found that travelling with Luffy wasn't nearly as bad as she'd thought it would be. All you had to do was make sure he didn't do anything stupid and keep him entertained. As long as you could do that, he was almost fun to be around.

It helped that Sabo normally tended to do stupid things, and Hack was long used to wrangling him out of it. Koala, on the other hand, was more likely to be helping Sabo do the stupid thing or have suggested it in the first place (provided they weren't on a mission), so Hack had to get her out of it, too.

However, Koala counted this as a mission, and she and Hack together were barely enough to keep Sabo's hyperactive brother out of trouble. Fortunately, Koala had managed to stumble across a simple solution that kept Luffy both entertained and (mostly) out of trouble; getting him to talk about his nakama and their adventures.

He was babbling on about Sky Islands now, with wide, expansive gestures and a huge grin on his face. Hack was nodding along with an expression of deep interest, while Koala was only half-listening, occasionally glancing over to check the Log Pose and the currents and making sure their ship was going where it was supposed to go. She was trying not to focus too closely on Luffy, trying not to be disturbed that another person was using Sabo's face. The way his grin sat on his face was almost familiar, and yet so…not Sabo.

Koala let her thoughts drift back to part of her conversation with Sabo. Dragon had gone to stand off to the side, pretending he wasn't listening to Sabo and Koala's conversation as it moved into more personal matters. Or maybe he really hadn't been listening. Koala had never been able to tell.

"Sabo? You…you recognized Straw Hat, didn't you?"

"Luffy," Sabo had said, a smile in his voice as he lingered over the name. Koala felt a stab in her heart. He'd only ever used that tone with her before, only ever used it to call her sister, and she knew in that moment Straw Hat had told the truth about his family. "He's my little brother," Sabo had continued in that same warm tone.

"And Fire Fist?" Koala had asked, trying to keep a tremble out of her voice. She should be happy for Sabo, happy he'd regained his memories. She knew she should be, but she wasn't. She was scared he would leave her, and she didn't want him to go- she didn't want to be left again, not again, not again-

"Yeah, Ace is my brother, too," Sabo said, "We never did quite figure out who's older…" Sabo's voice (Fire Fist Ace's voice, but Koala knew could imagine every word in his real voice) wavered, surprising Koala. She might have been worried about his memories, but why would he be? "Koala…they thought I was dead."

Ah. That would be why.

"Ten years, and I never…I just left them!" His voice twisted with pain.

Koala shoved aside her own fears. "You'd lost your memory," she said, trying to comfort him, "You didn't know…"

"I should have!" Sabo's voice broke. Koala thought she might cry. For all that she'd yelled at him when he'd first called back, it had been out of relief that he was okay. Koala hated to see him sad, hated that she didn't know how to make him feel better, and hated that the only way she could think to respond was with a question about her own selfish worries.

"Sabo…?" Koala's voice trembled. "Are you…going to quit the Army?"

"What? No!" He sounded startled that she would even ask. "I miss my brothers, of course, I should have been there, but the Army's been my life for the past ten years! I wouldn't abandon them, any more than I would have abandoned Ace or Luffy…" Sabo's voice started wobbling again. "Shit, I did do that, didn't I…?"

"Sabo," Koala said, more firmly, "I don't know what the situation was, but you would not have left any sibling of yours unless the situation was dire. Right?"

There was only a heartbeat's hesitation. "Right," Sabo said firmly, "You're right." Then, more quietly, "Thank you, Koala."

Koala smiled, relieved. "No thanks needed."

"What's that?!"

Koala was jerked violently out of her reminiscing. Luffy was practically falling out of the boat, pushing Sabo's ratty old top hat with the goggles back to get a better look at something in the distance.

Back to work.

"A Neptunian, I think," Hack said, shading his eyes to look.

"SO COOL!" Luffy swung around to look at Koala and Hack. Were those- was he making Sabo sparkle? "Can we eat it?!"

"Not now," Koala answered, "We don't have the right equipment with us. Besides, we couldn't eat it all."

"Bet I could catch 'n eat it all in my body." Luffy pouted, which still looked immensely weird on Sabo's face. Not that Sabo didn't pout- it just looked different.

"I'm sure you could," Koala said, rolling her eyes.

"So, hey, where're we going again?" Luffy asked brightly.

"Didn't I already tell you?"

"Uhhh…"

"We're going to meet a contact of ours at G-5," Hack offered, "Who will give us an Eternal Pose to Amira, which is the location your ship was headed for in the first place, and also where Sabo-san is going now."

"Oh, right!" Luffy beamed and nodded. Koala silently thanked her lucky stars that she had Hack with her. She'd been worried about how Luffy would get along with him, given that he'd beat up Arlong (alright, Arlong was a jerk, but Koala didn't know what Luffy's stance on Fishmen was), but Luffy had found Hack 'super cool' and became fast friends with him.

Actually, Koala thought Hack had handled the whole situation quite well. Better than she had, at least. He'd simply blinked, muttered something about 'strange things happen on the Grand Line' and 'I wonder if he's any good at fighting,' and gone to pack his things.

Speaking of things, Koala had brought along the lamp she and Sabo had taken. She didn't know if it would be useful, but she'd figured she might as well. It was the only unusual thing that had happened, anyways.

"So when are we gonna get to Ace and Sabo?" Luffy asked for what felt like the hundredth time since Koala had first told him they were going to meet up with his brothers.

Koala blew out a breath. "Soon." Quickly, before he could demand how soon, she added, "Tell me how you saved a kingdom again?" He'd mentioned that in passing once, and Koala was actually pretty curious.

Luffy's face lit up. "So, actually, I just wanted to kick Crocodile's ass, the saving-Alabasta thing just kinda happened-"

Koala internally sighed in relief. 'That should distract him for a while.'


See you all tomorrow! Don't forget to leave a review!