Hey Guys. Beautiful Sunday today.

I'm really glad that everyone pretty much enjoyed the last chapter. This chapter's pretty similar, so hopefully this will go down equally well.

The cafeteria door swung open, revealing a grinning Luffy, Rebecca in tow. Sanji looked up. "Well that's solved the mystery of where he is. Although he's with that beautiful girl from before. Are you concerned?"

Nami shrugged. "Knowing Luffy, he probably hasn't even registered that she's a girl yet."

Sabo blinked. "Oh… are you Luffy's girlfriend?"

Nami smiled smugly. "Yep."

Sabo grinned. "Wow. I always thought Luffy put his stomach above girls."

"He does," Usopp truthfully replied. "Their relationship is kind of unique."

Nami glared at him. "Is not!"

Everyone bar Sabo and Koala gave Nami an 'are you serious?' look, causing the orange-haired girl to pout. "Whatever. Besides, even if Luffy is here, that doesn't explain where Zoro is!"

######

Zoro yawned loudly. He looked first to the left. Then to the right. Then backwards. Then finally forwards again. It was settled.

He had absolutely no idea where he was.

He figured that trying to find his way home on his own was probably a bad idea, but he still thought he should try. Why he thought that he didn't quite know, and it seemed like a pretty foolish decision now, seeing as he was currently standing out in public wearing nothing but a somewhat feminine apron over his top half, hopelessly lost.

Luckily for him, at that moment a car pulled up to next to him. The window rolled down to reveal a highly amused looking Ace. "Do I want to know the story behind this?"

"If you do, you should ask your dumbass little brother…" Zoro grumbled. Ace laughed.

"Oh, so this was Luffy? You know that was actually my first thought. I assume you're headed home, right? Although you're nowhere near your house. Literally."

Zoro blushed slightly. "I figured. Can you take me?"

Ace jerked his thumb backwards, gesturing towards the back seat. "Hop in! I'm having a pretty boring day anyway."

Zoro did so and Ace started driving. "So how was the first day of school? How far did you make it anyway?"

"The beginning of the first lesson." Zoro scowled. "There seem to be a few new kids around though. Luffy's acting weird too…"

"Wait, weirder than normal?"

"Yep. He was crying, babbling something about seeing someone again."

"Huh. I wonder who it is."

Zoro slumped down in his seat. "It better be someone pretty damn special considering what he did…. So how's work? This is your first day back, right?"

Ace shrugged. "Same old, same old. Lot of paperwork. I'm on lunch now. Fancy getting a bite to eat on the way back to school?"

"Sure, sounds good."

"Cool. We're nearly here."

Ace turned onto Zoro's street, stopping right next to Zoro's house. After waiting a few minutes for Zoro to get changed, the green haired teen re-entered the car. "What's the time?" he asked.

Ace waved his hand dismissively. "Half one. You still have ages till lessons start, don't worry."

"Jeez…" Zoro muttered as Ace started driving. "I can't believe I missed the whole morni- Wait a second…. That guy was Kyros!"

Ace nearly crashed his car. "Kyros! Where?!"

"At school, he was the one who gave me the… Oh shit, I have Kyros' apron!"

"Seriously? Damn, do you reckon he's still there? I'd love to get his autograph! He's the guy I've always tried to play like after all!"

"I have Kyros' apron…" Zoro repeated.

"I wonder how much that thing would be worth if you sold it?"

"Sell it? I'm gonna frame it."

With that, lunch was forgotten, the car instead speeding full speed towards the school, both Ace and Zoro desperate to catch Kyros.

######

"What the hell?" Cavendish muttered to himself, looking over to the right, in the direction of what was genuinely the loudest and busiest table. And in the middle of the table was the goofily grinning Luffy scoffing down his third lunch. Around him Nami and the rest of his friends were sitting, along with Sabo, Koala, Rebecca, Kid and Law. Luffy was the centre of attention though.

And that seriously pissed Cavendish off. What was so special about this Straw Hat kid? Why was everyone crowding around him? At his old school, that was him, and he had much better table manners than Luffy did.

Just then the door of the cafeteria swung open, revealing a beaming Bartolomeo. "LUFFY!" he cried, running towards the busy table. Luffy laughed.

"Hey Barto!"

Cavendish scowled. "So this is the guy that Bartolomeo jerk was talking about earlier. Does everyone look up to him then? Either way, I'm not gonna let this idiot steal my popularity…"

With that, the blonde stood up, kicking his chair under the able with a loud thud, expecting the cafeteria to go silent. That didn't happen though, everyone completely ignoring him. This only pissed Cavendish off more. "Hey, you! Straw Hat!"

Luffy stopped eating, at last looking up from his food. He was about to respond when Bartolomeo stood between them. "Oi Cabbage! Don't talk to Lu… to L… to LUFFY like that!"

"Shut up, I'll sort you out later! It's you, Straw Hat, who's been pissing me off more! Let's settle this now!"

Luffy blinked. "Huh?"

Cavendish cracked his knuckles over dramatically. "That's right! I'm gonna kick your ass!"

Luffy just stared at him before turning to Nami. "Who is this guy?"

Nami shrugged. "I… don't know."

Sanji nodded. "Neither do I."

"Ditto," Usopp agreed.

A vein popped on Cavendish's forehead. "No, you don't know me! I'm new here!"

"So what problem could you possibly have with Straw Hat-ya then?" Law asked.

"You should all be crowded around me. Not this guy!"

For a second everyone just stared blankly at Cavendish. Nami frowned. "Uh… And why is that exactly…?"

"Because I'm stronger, and cooler, and more handsome than he is! I'm better than him in every single way!"

Everyone stared blankly at Cavendish for a second before turning around and returning to what they were doing before Cavendish stood up, acting as if it had never happened. Cavendish glared at them. "Hey don't ignore me!"

Suddenly Luffy grinned. "Hey, if you want, you can come sit with us… uh… Cabbage, right?"

"Right," Bartolomeo nodded. Cavendish glared first at Luffy and then at him.

"No, not right! My name is Cavendish, not freaking Cabbage!"

"Look, do you wanna sit with us or not Cabbage?" Nami asked, beginning to lose patience with the seriously agitated Cavendish.

"It's Cavendish! And I'm not sitting with you until you get Straw Hat to beat it!"

Sanji shrugged. "Whatever. Suit yourself."

And so Luffy remained at the table and Cavendish stormed off in a huff. Looked like his attempt to assert his popularity had failed.

######

Violet looked quickly behind her, having to make absolutely sure that there was no one watching her. This was the reason she'd gotten this job at the school. To continue Joker's work.

What no one, not even principal Akainu, knew about the school was that the arrest of Caesar Clown last school year wasn't the end of the candy incident. Candy wasn't even the main product Caesar was hired to produce, that was just a side project of his. The reason why Doflamingo had gotten Caesar a job in the school in the first place was so that he could construct the SMILE factory.

A secret state of the art laboratory set up by Caesar Clown existed in what had been a cellar used as a bomb shelter many years ago under the school. With Doflamingo covering for him, Caesar had moved all the equipment there in the brief time he was a teacher in the school. Even after he'd been arrested, Doflamingo had been able to continue producing SMILE in the underground laboratory.

But what was SMILE? It was an illegal Performance enhancing drug, making athletes much stronger and quicker than humanly possible. Violet didn't know why exactly Doflamingo needed it, but she figured it would be worth a lot considering it's effectiveness. She thought it was probably the best performance enhancing drug in existence.

So Caesar had been producing SMILE in his secret factory for months until he'd been discovered by one of the students, Trafalgar Law. He knew Doflamingo was behind Caesar, but had no idea of the whereabouts of the SMILE factory, although he probably suspected that such a laboratory did exist. Violet knew she'd have to keep an eye out for him, but as long as she was careful, he would have no reason to suspect her, or that the SMILE factory was in fact inside the school itself.

Upon entering the underground Lab, Violet's first reaction was surprise at the size. She had expected it to be a small room, but it was in fact probably as big as two regular sized Science classrooms. For Violet, a trained chemist, it wasn't difficult for her to locate and prepare all the ingredients required for the synthesis of SMILE. Therefore she was in and out of the lab within around twenty minutes, still just over ten minutes of lunch break remaining.

######

The cafeteria door swung open, revealing a panting Ace and Zoro. "Is he here?"

A quick scan of the cafeteria by Zoro confirmed that Kyros was long gone. He sighed. "No. Sorry man."

But Ace was no longer interested in Kyros. His eyes were fixed on someone else. Zoro blinked, not understanding why Ace was staring wide-eyed at what looked like a new teacher. "Ace?"

"Sabo…"

Sabo smiled. 'It's been a while, huh? Long time no see… brother."

For a second Ace was motionless, not sure if this was even real or not. Suddenly, he gritted his teeth and stormed up to Sabo. He grabbed the trainee teacher by his collar. "Where the hell have you been?! Do you any idea how lonely Luffy and I were?! How could you just leave without saying goodbye to us?!"

Sabo smiled slightly, knowing Ace wasn't really angry at him. "I did say goodbye… at the mansion that day. And I know you and Luffy weren't lonely… because you have each other."

Ace gulped, feeling tears starting to well up in his eyes. He released Sabo, who put his hand on his shoulder. "Do you wanna go grab a coffee? I don't have any lessons this afternoon. And I'd love to catch up with you."

Ace sniffed. "You're paying. Jerk."

Sabo laughed. "Of course. I've really missed you. Both of you."

Luffy grinned as Sabo and Ace, who was trying desperately not to cry, walked out of the cafeteria, past a dumbfounded Zoro. He looked at Luffy and the others. Besides Luffy, Nami and Koala, the others looked equally confused. "What just happened?"

"Yeah, who was that guy Luffy?" Sanji asked.

Luffy grinned, leaning back in his chair. "He's my Big Brother!"

Sanji rolled his eyes. "No, not Ace. Who was the teacher guy?"

"Yeah, he's my other Big Brother!"

Everyone blinked, thoroughly confused. Nami sighed. "It's a long story. Now that Zoro's turned up at last, we can finally tell it. Where've you been anyway?"

Zoro blushed slightly, knowing that Nami and Sanji especially would find the story of how he spent the morning very amusing. "No… nowhere. So about this teacher guy?"

######

Robin's final lesson of the day was chemistry, although she was pretty sure she wouldn't be able to focus on anything at this point.

It had been a hell of a first day back, especially considering how action packed yesterday had been. Seeing Sabo and Koala again had been a huge shock, but that was nothing compared to then finding out that Sabo was Luffy's 'big brother'. While all this was going on, Robin had also noticed a lot of new students and teachers, which was honestly a little unsettling for her. It seemed childish, but thinking back to the memory of the final day last year, Robin had honestly hoped that things would just remain the same.

Nami nudged her. "Hey, you ok?"

Robin nodded unconvincingly. "Yes, I'm fine. Why?"

"You look like you're not really paying attention," Nami whispered, although the teacher hadn't noticed her talking. She was too preoccupied by someone else.

Violet had really been hoping that she wouldn't have to teach Trafalgar Law. He was the one student who she had to be careful about and sure enough he was in one of her classes. And not just any class, since this was her senior class, it was both the smallest class in terms of the number of pupils and the one she taught the most. Violet shook her head, knowing that as it stood he had no reason to suspect her and as long as she didn't screw up that would stay the same. "So… Can anyone tell me what functional group a Carboxylic Acid has? Trafalgar?"

Violet mentally slapped herself. Why did she do that? Didn't she just resolve to try to avoid Law as much as possible? Said boy blinked. "Uh… It's COOH, right?"

Violet nodded. "Right. Well done." "Keep calm…"

The new teacher glanced up at the clock. She still had twenty minutes before the end of the day. Teaching the most advanced Chemistry class was difficult, they finished all the work she had planned on giving them in half the time she had anticipated, so now she had literally nothing planned. Violet laughed nervously, deciding that maybe she should just be honest. "Well everyone… To be honest, I didn't realise you'd all be so good. We've done all the material I planned on covering today in record time. Unless there's something in particular you want to ask me about…."

Law perked up. For a second he contemplated whether it would be a good idea to ask, but when no one else put their hand up, he decided he may as well. "Miss?"

"Yes Trafalgar?"

"I don't suppose you've heard of a substance called 'SMILE', have you?"

Law had overheard Caesar mention SMILE once before. He didn't know what exactly it was, but he knew it was more important to him than Candy, which had been devastating enough on it's own. He dreaded to think what SMILE could be given that. Violet gulped slightly, although thankfully no one noticed. "Uh… I'm sorry… I don't believe I've ever heard that name before…"

Nami looked at Law. "Where did you hear it?"

Law shook his head dismissively. "I think I saw it in the news or something. I was just wondering."

Violet gritted her teeth. Just how much did Law know?

#######

Sabo glanced out of the window of the coffee shop Ace had taken him to, at last done talking. What followed was silence, Ace processing the huge load of information he'd just heard. He hadn't seen Sabo in twelve years after all, there was a lot to say.

Outside it was raining heavily now, a stark contrast to the bright promising morning. Sabo smiled slightly. "You know, I was actually really surprised by what I saw today…"

"Oh?"

Sabo nodded. "Back then, you and I were the two cool, super strong, awesome brothers. Luffy was a weak, goofy kid who could only trail after us. But now… I've only been here one day, but I can see that almost all of the students look up to and respect Luffy. You should have seen it Ace, everyone seems to just gravitate towards him."

Ace chuckled. "You know, I used to worry about Luffy. He could never find any friends his age, so he just followed me around for so long. I thought people might reject Luffy because he's so different from normal. But I was wrong."

Ace smiled, the image of Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper, Robin, Franky and Brook coming to mind. "He found himself a wonderful group of friends."

Sabo smiled too, leaning back in a satisfied manner. "I'm glad for him. So what about you?"

Ace blinked. "Huh?"

"Well you appear to be a cop from the looks of it. Not surprising, you always were the toughest guy I knew. But I wanna know more."

"Such as what exactly?"

Sabo smirked devilishly. "Tell me, is there a Mrs. Ace around yet? I mean, if Luffy has a girlfriend, you must have one too, right…"

"That's none of your business! What about you?"

Sabo shrugged. "Nah, I'm too busy with work generally, plus looking after Koala of course."

Ace rolled his eyes, him still kind of pissed off that Sabo had a new little sister. Suddenly, Ace frowned. "Wait. You're 22."

"Uh… yeah. We are the same age."

"You've only been an adult for four years. Who looked after you and Koala before that? And how do you have enough money to support both of you?"

"Uh… that's not important, is it? Anyway, we should probably get going, huh? Luffy'll be finishing school about now, so if we rush home, maybe we can go out together, the three of us. Garp can come along too if he wants, as can Luffy's girlfriend if she's free. I still can't believe he actually found a girl who can put up with him…"

Ace frowned, following Sabo in standing up. Sabo was obviously hiding something, but Ace decided against pressing him further. He trusted his brother, and he figured he had a good reason for withholding the information.

But that didn't stop him wondering what that reason was.

######

"Trafalgar."

Law turned around, smirking at the sight of Robin approaching. "Oh, hey. What's up?"

Chemistry had just finished, meaning it was the end of the day, and Robin, after quickly visiting her locker, had hurried to Law's locker. "What was that earlier? SMILE?"

Law shrugged dismissively. "I said, didn't I? Just something I heard on the news, nothing important."

"Trafalgar. Don't lie to me."

Law sighed. How is it that Robin could read him like a book? "Listen… I don't think you wanna know. Straw Hat-ya told me the news about your dad. It seems like you're finally safe from danger, so the last thing you need is to get involved in this."

Robin frowned. "Don't say that. If you're struggling with something, you should talk to other people. I want to help you. I can see you're troubled, and you've been that way for a long time now…"

Law turned around and began to walk off. "I know that in the end, nothing ever happened between us. But if things had been a little different, and there wasn't something so special between you and Roronoa, you and I would have ended up together. Because there was something between us. I really care about you, and I'm not gonna do anything to put you in danger, Robin. That's why you have to stay out of this…"

Robin watched silently as Law stepped out into the first rain of the autumn, wondering desperately what she could do to help him.

#######

"This boy is dangerous. He knows about SMILE. I think it would best if you… eliminated him."

Silence. Violet waited for a moment, before removing her phone from her ear, making sure that she hadn't accidentally hung up. She hadn't, Vergo was still there, purposefully saying nothing. "Hey!"

"Is that so…"

"Yes. It's only a matter of time before he starts investigating, and if he catches me…"

Vergo released a slow audible sigh. "Joker hasn't given me permission to deal with Trafalgar Law yet. He said to wait for when the time was right."

Violet glared at the phone, although Vergo obviously couldn't see this. "I don't care what that bastard has given you permission to do! Your job is help me do my job, and this boy is a serious threat to me! Vergo!"

There was no response, the sound of the dial tone meeting Violet's ears. Vergo had hung up. Violet groaned frustratedly before heading back into the school, remembering she'd left some work that needed marking in her classroom. She was so distracted that she hadn't noticed someone listening in on her…

Nami, who had been waiting for Luffy at his locker, had been more than a little alarmed when she heard someone say 'I think it would be best if you eliminated him'. I mean, there weren't many alternate meanings that phrase could have. The voice was been coming from outside, but Nami could hear it clearly since Luffy's locker was right next to the school's main entrance.

Nonetheless, Nami moved towards the main entrance, her curiosity getting the better of her. A quick glance through the transparent doors revealed that the voice belonged to her new Chemistry teacher. Luckily, her back was to Nami, so she couldn't see her. When Violet had eventually hung up, Nami had ducked into a bathroom nearby, Violet not seeing her.

"Vergo…" Nami muttered to herself. "Where have I heard that name before…?"

As always, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, it was quite a busy one. Thanks for reading, and please leave a review if you can.