DISCLAIMER: ONE PIECE IS OWNED BY EIICHIRO ODA I OWN THIS STORY

Luffy stayed looking at the mangled piece of flesh(?) that was his chest with a blank expression. Nami and Usopp were green in the face, and Zoro was slightly pale, while Kuro seemed more confused than anything.

His chest was ripped open, and blood was gushing out at an accelerated rate. Through the haze of blood, if you looked closer, you could probably see his heart pumping, and well, wasn't that a sight?

"Why would you do that?" Kuro questioned.

Luffy turned his attention to Kuro, who for all his life, seemed that he couldn't find the answer to the simplest question possible.

"What do you mean?" Luffy asked in response.

Kuro hesitated, "You… used a fighting style that was no doubt made for people who could withstand the backlash. You can't. And even though I don't know you, I know that you have enough combat instinct to know when, when not, and how to fight your battles, so why?"

Luffy stayed silent for a moment, before throwing his head back and laughing. Just the mere sound of it gave chills down everyone's spine, and when Zoro sneaked a look at Kuro, he was floored by the glint of fear in his eyes.

That was a pirate captain who had no doubt seen death and destruction, and had no doubt caused even more during his time alive, so why was he fearing Luffy? Then Zoro remembered; He doesn't know Luffy the way I do.

But then again, Zoro frowned, Do I even know him at all?

Not for the first time, he wondered who his captain was. Someone with that strength, he figured, should not be in East Blue, but already be far, far into the Grand Line.

A niggling feeling in the back of his head told him otherwise, but he ignored it.

"Kuro!" Luffy wheezed in amusement, his eyes gleaming with killing intent, "You don't know me at all,"

For a moment, Kuro was silent. He would've liked to think that he was silent because he was figuring out his next move, but no, he, Captain Kuro 'of a Thousand plans', was frozen in fear.

All of a sudden, he was catapulted back into a cliff. When he felt his back make contact with the rocky cliff wall, his mind blanked out for a few seconds, and he coughed out blood.

Then, slowly, his surroundings hazed back in. And once they did, he wished they didn't. Luffy was standing there perfectly, despite his chest being torn open, and his guts practically spilling out. His eyes were narrowed, and his lips were pulled back into a snarl, and his fist was clenched. For a split second, his arm flickered black, and for Kuro, who didn't know any better, he thought Luffy was the very picture of death itself coming for him.

He wasn't that far off, either, though.

Luffy lunged back, and put his weight on his back leg, before pushing off in a cloud of dust. Luffy cocked his fist back and let it fly towards wherever he felt Kuro was.

In the split second that his punch landed, Kuro dodged, just barely. His eyes were wide, and his glasses fell off. Luffy may have not hit Kuro, but he hit his glasses.

"You have… a devil fruit?" Kuro's voice was quiet, almost as if he couldn't believe what was going on.

Luffy let his fist return back to his arm, "Yeah," he replied, short and succinct, "I have a devil fruit,".

Unlike in his original timeline, Kuro didn't seem to be looking down on him anymore. Instead, he seemed to be going into an even more guarded pose, almost as if he was ready to go on the defensive?

Luffy frowned, Why is he hunkering down? He fights offensively, so why is he becoming defensive? Luffy eyed Kuro's form with skepticism, It's like he's a tiger, who's trying to fight an elephant like an elephant. (AN: That's a quote from Dangal) It's dumb.

Luffy grunted and cocked his fist back, Best not to think about it.

With nearly inhuman speed, he shot out his fist fast, and again, almost hit Kuro. Luffy grit his teeth, and retracted his fist from the cliff. Forget being like a tiger, he's a freakin' snake!

After another miss, Luffy's expression was so dark, Akainu would be running for the hills at the sight of it. Kuro was shaking in his knees just by looking at it, and he was pretty surprised he was even standing.

Who is he?

All of a sudden, Luffy relaxed. His expression went from dark, apoplectic rage, to a calm, blank expression.

Then, he bit his thumb.

For a split second, Kuro felt indignance and confusion well up inside him, despite the fact that there was such a huge power gap in between them, that he knew he couldn't beat, so he had no choice but to just go with it. Then, he saw the rubber man's arm grow. And grow. And grow again.

Kuro was fairly sure that he pissed his pants.

"GOMU GOMU NO…" Those words have never been more terrifying in his entire life, "GIGANT PISTOL!"

Then, Kuro knew no more. All that was left of him was a bloody smear on the ground, and broken glasses. But Luffy's fist didn't stop there, it just kept going, and going, razing through the entire forest, spooking birds out of trees, and etcetera.

"Hey, Luffy, stop!" Nami grabbed his free arm, and tried pulling him backwards, oblivious to the intensely concentrated expression on Luffy's face.

"Nami, wait," he hissed quietly.

"Why?! I'm not going to question how your fist grew all of a sudden, but it's heading towards the village! Stop!" Nami shouted.

At this point, Luffy was tired, irritated, and on an extremely short fuse from his fight with Kuro. It was really a miracle, that he somehow retained enough self-control to talk to her evenly without doing anything he would regret immediately.

"Nami. If I could control this power, don't you think I would've used it when fighting Buggy?" he questioned impatiently. Without waiting for an answer, he forged on, "It would be an insult, to use an uncontrolled power on a respectable opponent. However, now that I know what level I'm at, the fist will wear off before it hits the village, so don't worry,"

Nami sighed in relief before it hit her, "What do you mean wear off?"

Before Luffy could answer, his fist returned to him with a snap, before he abruptly deflated into a cloud of steam.

"This is what I mean by 'wear off,'" Luffy sighed, and Nami choked on her spit.

Gone was her (not yet) captain's tenor-alto voice and instead the high-pitched voice of a child that breathed helium every day. Then when the smoke cleared, she crumpled down into peals of laughter.

Because there was Luffy, the cryptic, powerful pirate captain, who seemed to know everything, in the body of an irritated child.

At the sight of Nami's little fit, Luffy scrunched his nose up, "Ha, ha, laugh it up, will you?" Luffy said dryly, but the effect of it was belied by his child-voice.

Then Usopp came to remind them, "You both do realize…" he said quietly, "We're still in the middle of a fight?"

Luffy stared at Usopp's cowardly face, and then stared into his conviction-filled eyes, before leaning backwards and saying, "Nah, I think my part's done, you can finish off the rest, and by the way, Zoro?"

Zoro grunted, swiping away another 3 or 4 cocky pirates that wanted to get near him, "What?"

"There are two opponents on the ship. They're strong—" Luffy didn't get the chance to finish his sentence when Zoro all but jumped up in excitement and anticipation.

"I can fight them?" Zoro's eyes were gleaming.

Luffy paused for a while, before nodding, "Go right ahead,"

He heard a small, 'yes' come from him before Zoro zoomed off to the ship.

"Nami?"

Nami gazed at him through the corner of her eye, "Yeah?"

"Go rob 'em blind,"

"Yes, captain!" Nami squealed and ran towards the ship, occasionally attacking the kneecaps of the pirates that tried to make a grab at her.

"Usopp?"

"Yessss?"

"Stop sounding so unsure of yourself," Luffy said firmly.

"Yessir!" Usopp screamed, miming a marine salute.

"Now get on the field and start attacking the weird guy. He's your opponent now," Luffy instructed.

Usopp paled, and his knees began shaking, "I-I-I—"

By now, Luffy was already done. He wanted nothing more than to go back onto the open sea, nothing more than to leave Syrup Village with his sniper in tow, because every moment he spent here, he risked going back into one of his more… dark… flashbacks.

"Do it," Luffy commanded, his tone brooking no room for defiance or argument.

Usopp sagged, and grabbed his slingshot in such a familiar way, it sent chills down Luffy's spine, "Got it, Luffy,"

When Usopp first started in the East Blue, he chose a slingshot to be his 'pistol' because it was literally all he had, and soon, he got accustomed to it. He found ways to use the 'pistol' to his complete advantage, although he had quite the limitation on ammo.

Despite doing everything he could with his 'pistol' in the first timeline, he never found the need to improve. Once he entered the Grand Line with Luffy, however, improving was no longer a choice.

When in the Grand Line, he created a fast-drawing way of pulling out his slingshot and setting it into motion, very similar to Zoro's sheathe-and-re-sheathe technique. In East Blue, he drew his slingshot up and then set it up and aimed.

In the Grand Line, he set his ammo into his slingshot while he was bringing it up, and calculated the aim before he started the entire action. The entire process took around 1 second in Paradise, and .25 seconds in the New World.

The Usopp from now was clumsy, and unrefined, but… Luffy could still see a few pieces of that quick-draw technique that Usopp had invented during his time.

What… Luffy's eyes widened, but he immediately wiped his surprise off and put on a mask. Not his general blank mask, but a mask of the expression he was wearing when he told Usopp to do the deed.

Sitting back, he distantly noted that he popped back up into his fully-sized form not too long ago. He watched as Usopp fought Jango from a distance, as Zoro smiled as he fought Siam and Buchi, and as Nami stole everything on the ship that wasn't tied down, and a few of the things that were.

Satisfied that things were going in the right direction, he closed his eyes and slept.

0~o~0

Luffy awoke in a dark room. For a few moments, he stayed still. Then, he heard the clickety-clack of footsteps rise up behind him Instead of whipping around, and settling into a fighting stance, which was probably what he would've done if he were a lesser man, he simply smiled, and turned around.

"Norzi," he greeted simply, gesturing with a hand to a chair he created in the dreamscape.

Norzi smiled tiredly and nodded, before settling down, "Luffy," she replied.

For a moment, all was silent.

"What's wrong?" Luffy asked, concern etching itself onto his features.

Norzi hesitated for a moment before answering, "I… may or may not have sent your crew back in time as well,"

Luffy's smile froze on his face, and his fingers twitched, "What?" he whispered in growing horror.

If they remembered everything, then they'd have to suffer. He went through all of that… pain to make sure they didn't suffer! He didn't want them to suffer! WHY ARE THEY SUFFER—

"LUFFY CALM DOWN!" Norzira shrieked, and a cold bucket of water splashed on him. His pendant glowed fiercely, before dimming.

Once Norzi was sure that Luffy wasn't going to explode, she elaborated, "They don't remember all the regressions, only the first, and, even then, it's not like they actually have their memories. You can call it more of a… gut feeling, if you will. They will get the general feeling of what to do, where to go, but they won't remember it, if you get what I mean,"

Luffy nodded slowly, "So… my crew will be there?"

Norzira nodded, before pausing, then shaking her head.

"So, my crew will be there, but they won't be there," Luffy corrected.

This time, Norzi just nodded in response, "Sorry," Norzi fidgeted, "It's just that, you are by far my favorite character because of both your simplicity and your complexity, so I wanted to make sure that you're not quite… you know… alone in this world. I recently got my power back, and now I have to manage the whole Multiverse again. We won't be able to talk as often, Luffy," she said remorsefully,

"I'm sorry,"

Luffy was silent throughout the whole explanation, but once Norzi finished, he rapped her on the head with his knuckle and replied, "Don't be. You did all you could, and I thank you for that,".

Norzira smiled again, before wincing.

"Yeah, one more thing, Luffy," she added, "I'm strengthening your pendant. By the time you wake up, you won't be able to regress anymore,"

Norzi's eyes began glowing, and the black dreamscape started fading to white.

"The loop is broken,"

0~o~0

Luffy woke with a start, and felt tears pooling in his eyes. Instinctively, he looked down at his pendant, and froze at the sight of it. Instead of a light, shimmering, ocean-blue, it was now the same color as Norzi's skin, maybe slightly darker, with lines of white crystal running through it.

Even the feel of it was different. Now it was warmer, and it burned with more hope than ever before, which only served to remind him that the thrice-damned time loop was gone. 'Hidden hope' indeed, Luffy mused, before bursting into tears.

"Oi, Luffy?!" Usopp cried, "What's wrong?" Usopp shook his shoulders.

Oh. When did they finish their battles? Luffy sniffled a bit, and then took a good look at Usopp. After what Norzi told him in the dreamscape, he could no longer regard Usopp as a blank slate. Usopp was not just Usopp this time, it was his Usopp. The one that he made Nakama with since the beginning. Knowing this, Luffy just burst into tears again.

"USOPP!" he wailed, and latched onto the long-nosed sniper, crying his heart out, blubbering random words that only made sense to him and him alone.

"Yeah, there… there?" Usopp patted his back unsurely, and his aura twisted in confusion.

Once Luffy calmed down enough to talk without bursting into tears at the sight of every small things, he croaked out, "Nothing is wrong," he looked out at the hill of beaten and bloody pirates, "I just feel a lot more… lighthearted, if you get what I'm saying,"

Nami smiled uneasily, "Sure… I get it,".

Zoro frowned, but said nothing, and for a few moments, all was silent, and Luffy reveled in it, stewing in his thoughts, before deciding on something.

"Hey Usopp!" he exclaimed cheerily.

Usopp, whose most recent vision of Luffy included the rubbery teen turning Kuro into a bloody smear on the ground, reacted negatively… somewhat.

"Usopp?! I don't know any Usopp? DO YOU?!" the self-proclaimed not-Usopp laughed deeply, and began running around in circles for no apparent reason.

Luffy felt an exasperated bead of sweat roll down his chin at the display, and he was quite sure he wasn't the only one. Behind him, he could hear Nami's palm slap her forehead, and Zoro mutter something unintelligible under his breath.

Choosing to ignore it, Luffy forged on, "Join my crew!"

For a few seconds, everything was silent, save for the sound of breathing, and Luffy's light chuckles that carried over the wind.

Then came the thunder—

"""WHAT?!"""

"Ouch, you didn't have to be that loud, you guys," Luffy grumbled, sticking a finger in to his ear and pouting like a child.

"How… How can you be so bipolar?!" Nami seethed, "One moment you are like God on human ground," Luffy was getting split-second flashbacks at that sentence, "And the next you're…" Nami gestured wildly, to Luffy's idiotically smiling face, "THIS!"

"Okay, do not ever say 'god on human ground,' ever, number one. Number two—There are worse people on the Grand Line. And that's where my goal is," Luffy corrected.

Nami raised an eyebrow, "Why can't I say 'God on human ground,'? I can say that if I want to, you know," but she stopped, seemingly waiting for Luffy's explanation.

Luffy sent a grateful look at her, "Tell me what you know of the Celestial Dragons, and then we'll talk,"

Zoro stepped forward, "Celestial Dragons, who are they?" he questioned, mild curiosity in his tone.

Luffy's breath hitched, and he waited for the inevitable flashback that would come from hearing those words. When nothing came, he peeked open his eyes (when did he close them?) to see his completely befuddled crew.

Out of curiosity, he stared at his pendant, which was sitting on his chest, the white crystalline lines on it, glowing innocently, before dimming. Huh. She did make it stronger, Luffy supposed.

"Okay, setting aside the fact that your pendant looks different, glows different, and feels different, mind telling us about the Celestial Dragons first?" Usopp said slowly at first, but then sped up as the sentence went along, the undeniable tinge of excitement and anticipation in his voice.

"That completely defeats the purpose of you learning it for yourself, though," Luffy pointed out, still stubbornly refusing to tell them anything.

"Yeah, but why should we figure it out ourselves, when we literally have a human dictionary right here?" Nami countered swiftly, grinning like a loon.

Luffy grinned, "Doesn't matter, my answer's still no!"

Zoro frowned, "I don't care whether you tell us or not, I just want to know…" Zoro hesitated, "Why did you kill him? I know he was evil, but… did you really have to turn him into a bloody smear on the ground?"

Luffy then became distinctly aware of the discomfort that was almost stifling in the air.

"I…" Luffy's mouth flopped open like a fish trying to breathe air, "I have my own reasons,".

At Luffy's denial of an explanation, Zoro's lips formed a thin line, and he nodded stiffly, almost robotically, "Aye then, cap'n,"

I don't think… Things will be the same between us now that they saw the darker side of me… Luffy thought blankly, Even after so many years… After so many loops… Why do I feel like I've gotten worse?

"Hey, Usopp?" Luffy asked quietly, "What do you think you'll do now?"

Usopp turned to Luffy with a mildly confused look in his eye, "What do you mean?"

Luffy grimaced, "Kuro's now a bloody smear on the ground, and no one knows why," Luffy heard Usopp's breath hitch, "What are you going to do?"

Usopp looked at the ground and clenched his fists, "I don't know… I… I want to explain to Kaya, but I'm… afraid," he admitted, "I'm afraid that our entire relationship will be ruined because Klaha—Kuro died,"

Luffy frowned, It's my fault. I have to take responsibility, "I'll tell her myself," Luffy said firmly, "I did the deed, so I'll have to take responsibility."

Usopp's head snapped up, and he stared at Luffy with wide eyes, "You… you'd really do that?"

Luffy hid a befallen expression behind a D-centric smile, "Yeah!" What have I become?

Zoro gave a small smile, and rest his hand on the hilt of one of his training katanas, "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" And then he promptly began walking in the opposite direction of the of the village altogether.

"Zoro," Luffy giggled, "The village is just beyond the forest," he wisely chose not to comment on his lack of directional skills. Not like he was any better, though.

The blood rushed to Zoro's face, and the tips of his ears turned a bright red, "Shut up! I knew that…" he muttered the last part, before pivoting on his heel and grumpily stalking away. Not like Luffy was any better, though.

MEANWHILE—

Kaya was unsettled. Kuro wasn't seen since morning, and Merry was found, bleeding out on the ground, babbling ridiculous phrases of how 'Kuro is a pirate!' and 'He's going to kill you, Kaya-ojou!'.

Meri was currently recovering from the blood loss, and was asleep, although, he still had an unsettled expression on his face, and that terrified Kaya more than ever. That, coupled with the bad feeling she had since she woke up that day, didn't make her all the more confident on Kuro's whereabouts.

Which is why she was currently wrapped in a shawl, and outside her mansion, trekking to the Northern Shore. Her feet were silent against the soil and grass, and the air was fresh against her skin, and then she heard it—the telltale sounds of a battle, not like she's actually ever seen any in her lifetime.

She hid behind a tree trunk, and watched the battle unfold. She watched as Usopp—Usopp—was fighting with ease, as if he'd done it his whole life.

Kaya never actually believed Usopp when he told her tales of supersized Goldfish and an island of Giants. She believed they were all just lies, no more, no less. But when she saw him fight… she couldn't help but feel… that maybe it was something else? That maybe, by some crazy twist of fate… that all those stories were true?

Then the fight ended as soon as it began. The huge ship's masts were destroyed, and two people—one fat, one thin- dressed in terrible cat costumes tumbled out with bruises and cuts all over their bodies. The weird one that fought with chakrams was on the ground, spent and broken, seemingly having gone through severe trauma, if the haunted mutterings he was speaking was anything to go by.

She came too late to see the battle between Kuro and Luffy, so she didn't—couldn't—witness the intense beatdown that had occurred. She could, however, see the kid with the straw hat lounging around on a rock sleeping as if there wasn't a battle raging around him.

Then she saw him wake up, and hug Usopp like they were childhood buddies. At the sight of it, she felt a small twinge of jealousy in her heart that she stamped down with a vengeance. She saw them have a conversation, seemingly fun banter, but she was too far to make out what it was. So, with great apprehension, she moved forward to get a better range.

"…are you going to do now?" the straw hatted one asked in Usopp's direction.

Usopp froze, "I don't know… there's nothing I can do… I hope Kaya doesn't hate me… Klaha-Kuro's dead, a bloody smear on the ground—"

Kaya's brain shorted out, Klahadore's dead? All at once, the memories of their fun times came to her mind, and she felt a tear roll down her face. Stifling a sob, she moved a bit closer to listen better.

"It's my fault, so I'll take responsibility for it," the straw hatted teen said.

Then her ears muted out, that straw-hat kid killed Klahadore? Why? H-how?! And Usopp… she watched him laugh before an unfamiliar hatred welled up in her stomach, How… How can he still laugh?! Kaya never felt her vision tunnel, and skew up.

By that point, she had enough. She turned around, snuggled deeper into her shawl and silently walked away, feeling the rage inside her simmer down and then freeze over. I'll make him regret lying to me, this time, she resolved.

TIMESKIP—

Zoro, Nami, Luffy, and Usopp were patting each other's backs and throwing friendly banter at each other as if they had known each other for a thousand years. And really, in Luffy's case? It was kind of true. Not like any of them knew that, though.

The four of them leisurely walked up to Kaya's mansion, gracefully oblivious to the hostile stares the villagers were giving them. Luffy walked up to the mansion door, and raised his fist to knock, but before he could so much as get within an inch of the wood, it swung open to reveal Kaya.

A very puffy-eyed mad Kaya.

If Luffy were a lesser man, he would've taken a step back, and maybe flinched and fidgeted under her hard gaze. But he wasn't.

"I turned Captain Kuro of the Kuroneko Pirates, formerly Klahadore, into a bloody smear on the ground," he said bluntly, before pausing, "I would apologize, but that would be a lie,"

Kaya's lips pressed together into a thin line, and if it was possible, Usopp was sure that her eyes became even harder after that sentence.

"I know," her voice was frigid, "I saw everything,"

For a moment, the world froze around them, and Usopp's heart accelerated in fear, "You saw… everything?" he whimpered, "Are you…"

"Am I mad?" Kaya interrupted, her eyes flashing with untold irritation and rage, "Yes, yes I am,"

She took a step forward, and Usopp could see Luffy tense imperceptibly, and his pendant glow an ominous dark purple-blue.

"How dare you lie to me," she whispered, raising her hand above her head, "HOW DARE YOU?!" she screeched, and she swung down. Usopp flinched from her hand, and put his hands up into a reflexive block, but instead of the slap he was expecting, he was pulled into an embrace.

"How dare you…" she sobbed into his shoulder, "You… you lied to me, Usopp, you said you were happy here, content with telling me stories every day, Usopp, you lied to me."

Just like that, all the fight drained out of Luffy as he watched Kaya cry into her friend's shoulder, muttering that one phrase like a mantra over and over again.

So that's the presence I was feeling back there. For someone in the Blues, she's scarily good at hiding her presence, Luffy mused.

Once Kaya calmed down, she reluctantly lifted her head from Usopp's shoulder and smiled brightly despite the tears leaking down her eyes, "If you want to be a pirate, Usopp, I won't stop you, you're my friend. Just, please, be happy."

Usopp's mouth flopped open like a fish on land, but his eyes said words that his mouth couldn't say, 'Thank you,' they seemed to say, 'Thank you so much.'

Kaya grabbed him by the forearm, and pulled him inside her mansion, but before she could close the door, she turned around, and beckoned the rest of the crew inside as well.

Once they were all inside, Kaya led them through a series of passages underneath her mansion until she led them to a cavern that connected to the ocean. And inside that cavern, a ship was held.

She wasn't much. Definitely not fit for the Grand Line. She was a caravel, after all. But by Oda and Norzira and any other holy gods out there, would she try.

She was the Going Merry, after all. And she was going to sail with the Pirate King the entire way. Whether the world wanted her to, or not.

That was her dream, after all.

AN: So... I'm alive? Sorry this update is waaaaay overdue. Because of all the online stuff I was doing, I was suffering from first stage of carpal tunnel, and I kinda had a bit of a cold over the weekend? Doesn't matter, it's nearly gone now! I wanted to wrap up Syrup Village in this chapter and move on, because, honestly? There's not much I could do with it. My ability to write fight scenes, though... I need some advice. Tell me how I can be better! Thanks for being patient, really. Thank you. I promise to try and update more often. I just needed a bit of a break.

~~Oracle Norzi