At first he was very calm, collected, and his body knew what to do. But now that he began to get acclimated within the timeline, his eyes began to well up. All of his friends were alive, but more importantly, Ace did not have a massive hole through his chest. His brother wasn't dead.
"Are you okay Luffy?" Shanks touched him on his shoulder attempting to calm the young man. Luffy shook off the thoughts from his mind, he had things he needed to handle, he needed a ride to Whole cake island.
"Yeah, don't worry about me. Anyway Shanks, by chance is Red Force coated in sea stone?" Shanks still had his overwhelming aura despite being 12 years younger. He was still a physical specimen though obviously now he would have both arms, his face did have the claw marks from Black Beard, unfortunately that still happened. How does he know all these information? Shanks never told him this? Was he granted some sort of all seeing knowledge?
"Hmmm. It is partly coated, Sea Stone is hard to come by, not to mention expensive. Why what do you have in mind?" The red haired pirate asked. Earlier he was more hesitant to even listen to the young man, but now he was intrigued at where this will go, the time traveling pirate.
In his travels with the Roger Pirates, he met Lady Toki and he learned of her Time Time fruit, although at the time, she could not really control her ability really well. She probably gained a better grasp of her ability in the future thus sending Luffy in the past. If what the young pirate says is true, then Luffy really is an important person for the end war. Whenever that would be. So instinctively, he was more inclined to help the young man, he just has a good feeling about it.
"I need to get to Totto Land, I have to get someone. You can just drop me off and I'll find a way out." The last time he entered Totto Land, he could barely make his way out. Though this time, he had a little bit more experience, and he was better prepared for Big Mom, especially her sweet commander. Can he do it himself? More than likely no, but his goal is quite simple. Go in, retrieve his strongest ally, get out. Will he join his cause? Again, maybe not. Will he still try? Hell yeah.
"That Charlotte Linlin's territory Luffy, do you know how dangerous this will be?" Shanks knew of her monstrous strength as she was a notable member of the Rocks Pirates, a rival pirate crew that almost reached Laugh Tale before the Roger Pirates.
"Yeah I know, but I need to get this person, and well, a handful of others, in order to make sure that I win this time around." The man he sought after in Totto Land was a strong individual who pushed him to his limits. A very powerful enemy though more importantly, a very strong ally when the time comes.
"Fine fine but we would need to pass through a couple of locations. We need to go through the Calm belt first and foremost. Then I would need to restock in Sabaody, get coated, then we need to pass through Fishman Island. Then once we pass through the Red Line, we would then need to exit through the Calm belt once more and enter the South Blue before finally reaching Totta Land through the Calm belt. Why should I help you? This seems more like a headache than a benefit to me." In that moment Luffy knew he would have to give the red haired pirate a little bit of future knowledge in order to gain passage through his ship.
"Fine. That will work, hopefully some people joins me along the way." Luffy pointed at his left arm which remained intact. "You would've lost your arm today as you wanted to inspire young me to become more than just a pirate, but a good man who is willing to sacrifice himself for others...and also you've met him already, but you will surely clash with him once more, he is the future wielder of the dark dark fruit...Be wary and do not underestimate him, he will…" before he could continue Shanks held up both arm signaling for him to stop. He had an idea of who Luffy was referring too, the man who never sleeps...
"Alright enough you freaky bastard. I get it, but I would not want to know what the future has in store for me…so I will bring you to Totto Land, but you're on your own after that." Shanks considered helping him escape as well, but if he really is the promised child as he believed him to be, then he won't die in Big Mom's land. If he dies then he was not the man he believed him to be.
"Sounds like a plan, when do we sail?" Luffy had his signature grin plastered across his face. This reminded Shanks of Gol D. Roger bringing a smile on his face as well. He dipped his head ever so slightly and grabbed the straw hat from his head.
"Two weeks, I have some business here, and also I was going to give you this hat before we set sail, but I have a feeling you already knew that." Shanks placed the hat on Luffy's head causing tears to flow from Luffy.
"Thank you. In two weeks it is." With that, Luffy took off, wiping the tears off of his face. Being a lot older, the significance of receiving the straw hat from Shanks made him tremble in excitement. 'I have two weeks to handle my business here then.'
In this time period, Luffy hasn't met Ace and Sabo yet so they will not know who he was. He had a plan on how they could meet he just had to wait a little bit.
He also wondered if his father and grandpa will show up sometime in the next two weeks. He knew that they are keeping a tab on him. They are bound to learn of his sudden growth.
Day 1
A young man wore a blue overcoat along with a white scarf. He was missing a tooth and he smiled at the person beside him. He had a top hat with hexagon shaped goggles and his weapon of choice was a metal pipe. Beside him was a young man the same age as him. He wore a yellow tank top and shorts. He had jet black hair along with freckles on his cheeks. These two young men were Sabo and Ace, in the process of stealing some money from rich aristocrats.
Luffy observed them in the distance as his heart was going to skip from his chest. His brother, Ace, was alive and kicking ass. A single tear escaped his right eye as the realization that his brother was still alive finally set in. This time, in the week that he has before going to Totto land, he will train the two young man as much as he could. They need to be ready for the future, and he was going to give them a head start.
An explosion rang in the air at the building in which the two young boys entered. Then a series of sirens echoed in the air as the boys began to run, jewelry flew from their hands. They were being chased by four adult males, just a couple of hired muscle, no big deal.
Luffy kept his distance, they were cornered at an alley, no way to escape. The four muscular men smirked to themselves at catching the duo.
"You little rats, give everything back and we won't beat you up!" Said one of the thugs. Luffy had enhanced his hearing through observation haki and managed to hone in on the conversation from the distance.
Ace and Sabo looked scared and yet they did not waver in their resolve. "Eat ass!" Ace tossed a hand full of sand at the four men, managing to temporarily blind 3 of them. Sabo took this opportunity to slide under of the men who was not blinded and used his metal pipe to slam the living daylight out of his nether region. "GAH!" The thug yelled in a gut wrenching pain. Even Luffy couldn't help but grasp his balls at the pain that the thug must be enduring.
Ace and Sabo took this little window of opportunity to slip past the four thugs though yet again they were stopped in their tracks. 16 other thugs surrounded the duo as the man they stole from was a very rich individual.
"Okay time for me to step in then." Luffy disappeared from the spot he was standing on, leaving only a whirlwind of leaves. Within a blink of the eye, Luffy appeared before the 20 total thugs surrounding his brothers. "Didn't your parents ever teach you not to pick on little kids?"
Punch first, ask questions later. Typical thugs as the biggest one of the men attempted to punch him in the face. He decided to take the punch to prove a point, he soaked his forehead in armament haki just to take things a step further. The group of thugs laughed as the biggest of the group was able to land a clean hit. Though their smile quickly disappeared as the giant thug now had a limped right hand. His hand connected with the solid black armor haki the covered the forehead of the Straw hat pirate.
"Shishi, big idiot." Ace and Sabo took a step back as the sudden arrival of the stranger marked the end of the twenty thugs chasing after them. The duo was frozen in place at the display of fighting prowess of the straw hat man.
Luffy decided to show off a little, not using anymore haki, or his devil fruit ability. That wouldn't be fair. The giant thug fell over grasping his broken right hand, signalling for the rest of the thugs to gang up on him. The closest to him received a foot to the face, effectively knocking him out. "Anymore takers?" The rest of the thugs took out knives, causing Luffy to chuckle. "I guess no one is backing down!" He already decided he was not going to use haki or his devil fruit so all he had was the good old fashioned natural fighting ability that he possessed. Two out of the twenty remaining thugs where out of the equation.
"We outnumber you punk kid, eighteen to one!" Exclaimed one of the thugs. Luffy smirked causing a chill to run down everyone's back.
"I like those odds." Then it began, what would go down as the demasculinization of the thug population went down that day. For all 20 of the thugs were manhandled by a teenager. A teenager with a straw hat.
Before any more trouble could arise, Luffy waved for the duo to follow him. In which they obliged, though with a questioning look on their face. Once they were deep in the mountain, Ace finally spoke up, pointing his wooden pole at the man who just defeated their captors.
"Are you some kind of pervert?" Was his first question causing Luffy to fall face first at such a ridiculous accusation.
"What the hell, you think I'm a pervert? Hell no!" Exclaimed Luffy.
"Yeah? Getting all defensive, definitely a pervert." Said Sabo as he joined Ace in pointing his metal pipe at the man with the Straw hat. Young Sabo and Young Ace were both trying to look menacing, but they were so little it made him chuckle.
"Alright you little shits, I am not a pervert!" He then continued to punched the head of both young men, causing them to develop a giant lump on their head. He began to laugh as Ace used to do the same thing to him back in his timeline.
"Then why did you help us!" Ace exclaimed as he rubbed the area where Luffy caused a giant lump to form.
"Well you see, I am actually a very strong person and I took an interest in your fighting spirit. So I decided to train you to be stronger." Luffy half assed his explanation. He really needed them to get stronger. So that they could survive the coming future. So that Ace won't…die.
"Yeah right you damn pervert!" Sabo exclaimed causing Luffy to punched him on the head once more.
"Alright you twerps, if you don't want to learn from me then fine! I'll go and train some other people who want to get stronger!" Luffy began to exclaim comically.
"We need to think about it first. For all we know you could be a serial killer." Replied Sabo.
"Yeah! A creepy perverted serial killer." Added Ace who crossed his arms.
"Fair point." Said Luffy as he caressed his chin. "Okay then do what you want to and remember I am here to help." He gave them a warm smile. And with that the duo made their way back to their sleeping quarters. Away from the strange man with the straw hat.
'Well atleast they're not as dumb as I remember. Good on them for not trusting a stranger.' With that, Luffy jumped on a tree branch and decided to rest for the day, he was going to wait for the duo's answer.
He closed his eyes and began to drift into sleep though something particular caught his ear, several miles away at a local pub, the sound of mindless chatter filled the room. He could tell it was a pub due to the content of the room and the white noises around it. There he found the familiar voices of several of the thugs he beat up earlier that day.
In the tavern
"Goddamn monster. I swear we had him."
"Embarrassing if you ask me, there were 20 of the strongest people in this island. That man is no human, he was a monster!" This particular statement caused a smile to form in the face of the time traveler, though his smile disappeared as he sensed a man approaching the group. "A monster you say...? Where is he." The man carried a powerful presence about him, despite the distance, Luffy could tell he was strong, very strong.
"Dra...dra…" the men began to tremble at the sight of the new arrival. Luffy could feel their fear, the name of the man, who is he?
"He...went up the mountain...the last time we...we sa..saw him." Said one of the thug, stuttering from fear.
Luffy suddenly shot up as the powerful presence begun heading in his general direction.. Then a troubling news reached his ears as those thugs finally revealed who the man was.
"That was Dracule Mihawk, the closest to being the world's strongest swordsman."
"What is he doing in the East Blue...just our luck meeting a bunch of monsters."
"Fuck!" Exclaimed Luffy in the air for Dracule Mihawk was heading towards him. What should he do? This man was so strong that he would duel with Shanks to a stand still! This man was possibly the strongest warlord of all time. This was probably the business Shank's spoke of yesterday. Though he was 12 years younger, which means less experience...'Wait...wait a minute, maybe just maybe…right?'
Though he would have his answer soon enough as before him, Mihawk held his arm up, pointing Yoru, his infamous giant black blade, at Monkey D. Luffy.
"Are you the monster they speak of?" Said the swordsman, though his hawk like gaze was observing every inch of his body.
'I've been here one day...one day and I caused this much trouble. Jeez!' Luffy began to think of a way to get out of this mess. Too bad he can't think of anything. "No….I am not the guy you are looking for...he went that way." Luffy pointed behind Mihawk, although this only caused a smirk to form from the man before him. Luffy had to suddenly bring his arm up to protect his face, his entire arm was covered in haki. Mihawk had charged him, closing the distance between the two.
"Yes, you are definitely the monster they speak of." With that, Mihawk jumped backwards, sizing up the straw hat man before him. "That hat belongs to a rival of mine, why do you possess it?"
"This?" Luffy pointed at his hat, smirking at the future world's greatest swordsman. "Shanks gave this to me."
"Is that so?" Another smirk escaped the swordsman. "Then you are a worthy opponent!" Mihawk once again charged at Luffy, though this time, he jumped up. 'Gomu Gomu no Jet Stamp!' With Mihawk being below him, Luffy used his stamp to flatten the swordsman on the ground, surprising him. Blood escaped the mouth of the swordsman as he quickly got up, Luffy did a backflip to create some distance between them. Mihawk wiped the blood from his mouth and continued to smile. Mihawk sliced his blade horizontally aiming at the man before him, energy formed from the tip of his blade, traveling towards him. Luffy decided that men like these will not listen to diplomacy so he would have to use his fist to drill some lessons toward the swordsman.
"Alright, you asked for it!" Luffy's body was covered in steam, turning a light shade of red. Then his movement began to escalate, in all his years of fighting, Mihawk has never seen this power before.
"Your name, warrior." Mihawk said as he began to swing his blade in Luffy's general direction.
"Psh. I am no warrior." Exclaimed Luffy, his childhood dream was still a motivating factor for him. "Listen well, my name is Monkey D. Luffy, I will be the Pirate King!" Yeah and he would've died in the future if it wasn't for outside interference. How strong is his resolve if he died.
"Right, and I will be the world's greatest swordsman!" Mihawk joined in what he thought was a jab at ridiculous claims.
"Alright I will be the Pirate King then because you can be." This caused Mihawk to stop slightly, giving Luffy just enough opening to throw in a left hook. This caught both fighters off guard as Luffy did not expect to connect while Mihawk did not expect to be hit.
"I apologize, Mugiwara. it's just nobody has believed in me before. Well I chose the isolation life and it was just strange to hear a...compliment?" The fierce fighter was taken aback by something he was unfamiliar with his whole life.
"Shut your face, Mihawk, you being sentimental is kinda creepy!" Exclaimed Luffy although he meant it more as a jest rather than to offend the man. This caused a smirk to form in the face of the swordsman.
"You are correct, therefore I must regain my dignity by ending your life today." Luffy shivered at the statement by the swordsman, although he had a slight smirk on his face. Mihawk was joking?
Throughout the rest of the night, Luffy and Mihawk dueled, not one gaining than edge over the other. Luffy had yet to use anything other than gear two and Mihawk was using the dull edge of Yoru. It was that evening that the two fighter gained mutual respect for one another.
Day 2
The sun rose on the horizon and two young men arrived at the scene. Sabo and Ace had their mouth open as they arrived at the battles finale. They were going to tell the straw hat man, 'no thanks' but that battle that they witnessed completely opened their eyes on the prospect of learning from the straw hat man.
"How about we call it a day, Mihawk. its dawn already and I got to train some squirts." Luffy was panting as he was pushed like never before in a spar. Note that this was just a spar, not life or death. If he counted those then Kaido would be on the very top in all time life or death battle.
"I suppose. Well Mugiwara. This was a good battle, I will go on my business and battle Red Hair in this remote island. Farewell then." Mihawk placed Yoru on his back, while Luffy finally had time to breathe. The two men approached each other and shook hands.
"Mihawk, I am traveling to the New World in order to get a strong ally. Will you join me in my journey?" Luffy had to throw a curveball, maybe the man will accept.
"Interesting proposition, though for now, I will have to decline. I don't do well with a team." Mihawk began walking away though stopped mid stride. "Although there may be a first for everything." With a wave of his hands Mihawk disappeared in the distance.
"Sooooo coool! Teach us!" Sabo and Ace had stars in their eyes as they were practically begging Luffy.
Luffy decided to have some fun with it. "Bah you kids took too long I found another to train."
"What? Nooooo!" Exclaimed Sabo. "Boss we'll train ten times harder than your new apprentice!" Said Ace as he flexed his tiny arm.
"Yeah! I will work a hundred times more than Ace boss!" Retorted Sabo who tried to one up Ace.
"Oh yeah?! Well I will work a thousand times more than you!" Then a fist fight ensued between the two friends causing Luffy to bawl out laughing. How he wished he could be a child again and join in on such childish squabbles.
"I don't know...you said some hurtful things about me..." Luffy let out some fake tears.
"No no boss we were just joking see! You are not a serial killer!" Exclaimed Ace.
"Yeah boss, here! A token of our intentions!" Sabo had pulled a golden beetle from his back pocket, the hardest bug to catch in all of the island.
"Alright fine I will train you both but there's a catch. I only have a week and if you slack off, you will die, got it?"
"Yeah boss!" Exclaimed the duo.
"Alright then first training exercise. Pick up that rock." Luffy pointed at a rock two times the size of the young me. Ace and Sabo did as he said and there little legs began to tremble.
"Easy, now what?" Said Ace in a shaky voice.
"Oh that's not it, run around this entire island until the sun sets."
"What the hell! That's not possible!" Complained Sabo although Ace was already on his way. "Ace wait for me!" Exclaimed the young lord.
"Shishi, now I can take a nap." With that Luffy closed his eyes napping for only a second, the boys going on their way to do as Luffy says.
Though despite his claims to take a nap, Luffy had been thinking of many things since his return. Sure he wants to go after strong people and recruit them, but he also wants to make life better for others. He contemplated going after the King of the Goa Kingdom, by cutting off the head of the snake, will life be better for others.
If he were to go after the King, who will fill the void? No sense of dwelling on that for now.
While the kids were hauling the rocks all around the island, Luffy decided to visit his former mother figure.
Mountain
"Freakin children! Clean up after yourself damn it!" Curly Dadan was a big woman, taller than most, but her heart was in the right place. She had been looking after Ace and Sabo in the time that they have been lost. She gave them a home when no one else would, and dare she say, care about them like her own children.
Suddenly, Dadan felt a strong presence outside of her home. She quickly picked up her axe and slowly made her way to the door.
"Hello, is Dadan home?" The voice called out from the other side. Though she was still cautious at this new arrival.
"What's it to you?" Asked Dadan, mere inches from the door, axe ready to strike.
"Just wanted to talk."
"Alright, so talk." She did not open the door yet.
"Can I see the person I'm talking to?" The voice called out from the otherside, Dadan felt that the person could come in at any time so decided to open the door. Who she saw was a young man, around his 20. He wore a familiar straw hat, one that belonged to the ruffian pirate named Shanks.
"So then, talk." Dadan flashed her axe threateningly.
"I wanted to meet the infamous mountain bandit, since you know, Higuma the bear was messing with me earlier."
"Old coworker, haven't worked with him since he was...well a bad person. Who are you anyway?"
"Monkey D. Luffy is the name, pleasure to finally meet the person who raise both Ace and Sabo. They kinda became my apprentices." Luffy laughed at the irony and Dadan became less tense at the stranger.
"Well come on in then. You Garp's child or something?" Of course Dadan knew the old fart.
"Grandson." To this Dadan smiled.
"Then you're pretty much family boy!" She gave an embrace to the young man, Luffy did not know how much he missed a loving embrace, specially from his mother figure. He let out a single tear before wiping it quickly when she separated from him.
"Well then, I just wanted to drop in and introduce myself since the boys will be under my tutelage for some time. Just so you're not worried where they are."
"Psh I could care less!" Dadan proclaimed, but Luffy knew otherwise.
"Hey, quick question, in all of Goa Kingdom, who would you trust in running this country?" Dadan had a morale compass of someone with a pure heart, no other person to ask than her.
"Good question kid, hmm if it were up to me...First got to get rid of that evil bastard of a father of Sabo running this place, and well I simply don't have the answer on who can replace him. But if you ask enough people and enough of them say one name, then that's probably the person that will best represent the country. Don't you think?" Dadan said, which gave him an idea.
"That's it...thank you Dadan." Voting for the person to rule the Goa Kingdom should be the way to go.
"Take care of yourself, Luffy."
"You too."
Docks - Red Force
Shanks had been mapping out their possible escape routes, in case the CP0 try anything. Shanks and his crew had forcefully taken the Gum Gum Fruit from a transport vessel before it could reach its destination.
Just as he was in deep thoughts, he wondered if having Luffy here at this time would stop the prophecy from happening, if being behind in time would cause everything to change for the worse. He needed to come up with a failsafe, he couldn't let anything happen to Luffy, the supposed saviour of the world. Crazy to think that he was just a squirt before the time travel shenanigans.
"Red Hair." Dracule Mihawk has found Shanks. "Care to spar."
"Seems like you had a spar already?" Shanks noticed a bit of scuff mark all over the swordsman.
"Yes, I met an interesting young man, who carried your precious hat."
"He is interesting. So then, ready to let off some steam?" Shanks pulled out his blade, Gryphon.
"Always." With Mihawk retrieving Yoru, the duo exchange swords, smiling as they seemingly danced. "An interesting thing happened while conversing with the boy..." Mihawk stated simply mid swing.
"Oh yeah? Let me guess, he asked you to join him, didn't he?" Shanks had an idea what Luffy wanted to do.
"Yes, what do you think of this? I've never worked well with others."
"I'd be offended since you never joined me when I invited you!" Shanks joked to which Mihawk returned with a powerful slice. "But in all seriousness, he is a good kid with big plans. Its really up to you."
It was then that Mihawk got a score by merely being inches from Shanks' neck. "One to Zero."
"You cheated!"
Goa Kingdom - Royal Palace
The King of Goa laid peacefully on his bed, a group of women surrounding him. They were there out of force, not because they wanted to be there.
He sat up, feeling a chilling feeling course through his back. Around him, the women began to scatter, running out of the room. There was a monster on his window, it wore a demon face and covered in all black attire.
It tilted its head, releasing a menacing aura about him.
"Guards...guards!" Yelled the King, and sure enough, a couple of well armored guards rushed the demon. Though none of the 15 guards could get close to the man, falling flat on their face before reaching it.
At this point, the King of Goa trembled in fear. All of his life, he lived comfortably in his lavish kingdom. Tossing the troubles of commoners to the side to feed his insatiable thirst for power.
"What...what do you want?" The King ask to which the demon jumped from the window, walking pass the unconscious guards until he stood over the mortified King.
"Step down from being a King, have the people decide who will lead them." His voice was deep, and deadly, to which the King nodded furiously. "If you try anything, I'll kill you." And just as the demon spirit was there, it was gone.
The King of Goa will not defy the spirit, choosing instead to step down from his power, sending out a formal retirement to the World Government and holding an open election to represent the Kingdom of Goa. The new King of Goa will hopefully be more progressive in helping the poor, the unlucky, and grow the country of Goa to more than just a backwater island of the East Blue.
The news of the King retiring from the Goa Kingdom spread like wildfire, and in Luffy's walk back to his spot, he found the Mayor of town, reading over the newspaper.
"You should run for King, Woopslap." A passing young man commented towards the Mayor of Foosha Village.
This caused Woopslap to think about the implication. "You know what Luffy, I think I will, about time someone smart and sensible leads this country." Woopslap mused not even noticing the sudden growth of the Strawhat Man.
Luffy headed back to his hammock, laying back down to take a quick nap before the two kids arrive. It had been a long day, a long day indeed.
