DISCLAIMER: EIICHIRO ODA OWNS ONE PIECE, I OWN THISPLOT!

Zoro woke up after a good night's sleep and yawned wholesomely.

"So, captain, where to…?" his jaw dropped and his blood froze the second he saw his captain, "Captain?" he bit his lip, "Luffy?"

Nami woke up a few moments after and looked over the edge of her dinghy into theirs, "What's going on—oh my god," she covered her mouth with a hand to stifle a scream.

Luffy's face was twisted in pure agony, his tears were cascading down his face in small streams, his neck was bared to the world and his head was turned upwards to the heavens in a silent prayer.

Zoro cautiously reached out a hand, and touched his captain's shoulder, before he felt a pressure settle itself on his wrist. Oh wait, that's a hand, Zoro thought numbly, trying to pull his hand back, but spectacularly failing.

Once again, Zoro found himself thinking, Who is this kid?!

After all, it couldn't just be anyone who could stop his hand cold with a grip so strong he couldn't even budge.

"Luffy?" he asked cautiously, "You there?"

His captain snapped a caustic glare at him, before asking in an equally acidic voice, "Who are you?"

Zoro's eyes blew open wide and he tried to calm his racing pulse, "My name is Roronoa Zoro,"

Luffy's eyes opened up wide, and Zoro and Nami could finally get a good look at them. They were wide, glassy and unseeing, probably in a flashback, Nami guessed.

"Lies, my friend is dead!" Luffy cried pitifully, keeping his head in his arms, and marginally tightening his grip on Zoro's wrist just enough to threaten bone breakage.

Zoro filed that little piece of knowledge for later, "Luffy, it's me, Roronoa Zoro," he said firmly, successfully calming his racing pulse, "I'm alive," in a bout of strange courage, he reached for Luffy's pendant and carefully showed the bead to Luffy, taking extra care not to take the pendant itself off.

Almost instantly, as if a switch had been flipped, Luffy calmed down. The grip on Zoro's hand had loosened, leaving to show a rapidly darkening bruise, but no broken or dislocated wrist.

For a moment, everything settled in an awkward silence, "Sorry," Luffy fidgeted.

"What do you mean?" Zoro questioned, while Nami looked positively lost during this whole ordeal.

"Sorry, I… I hurt you," Luffy bowed his head shamefully, "I won't do it again,"

Zoro snorted and clutched his katana a bit firmer before playfully punching his captain's shoulder, "Chill, captain, I chose to follow you, so I get the repercussions," Zoro smiled an honest-to-god smile, and laid down on the dinghy.

Luffy let a small smile of his own worm its way onto his face, before grabbing his pendant and using his thumb to rub against the surface of the bead.

How long will it last?

Luffy hid a grimace, and looked out at the sea. Her waves rolled against the hull of the dinghy quietly and peacefully. He closed his eyes and thought back to one of the more peaceful worlds he had been in.

0~o~0

Luffy had recently started over in a new world. It was somewhere around his 57th. He had just barely gotten used to the rush of freedom (even though it was chained) flowing through his veins as he regressed into another world.

He had regressed somewhere around the time he first recruited Nami at Orange Town. After re-recruiting her again, they set sail for Syrup Village where they would get Usopp.

Luffy sighed, and dipped his fingertips into the cool water of the ocean. The water curled around his fingers, and tried to gently tug him down, but Luffy was having none of that.

Somewhere around the 20th or so regression, he realized that to other Devil Fruit users, the sea was an oppressive force, and the second they put one finger in, the sea would eat away at their will, and drag them down to a watery grave.

That never happened to him before. The sea would always try to coax him down into her depths instead of dragging him down by force. He never really cared why, though.

Luffy let a small smile slip into place on his face. It was days like this that he missed on the Sunny. His Sunny. Those peaceful days that were few and far between. Those days, where he would look back on his adventures and just… smile.

"Something wrong, Captain?" Zoro questioned stoically.

"Nothing Zoro, nothing," Luffy replied, relishing those moments, for the feeling that he wouldn't have them anymore, was eating at his conscience.

He was right.

Whitebeard was much less merciful in this world. And although he wanted Ace as his son, he couldn't stand the assassination attempts. Ace didn't die, no, he did not.

He was given a worse fate.

0~o~0

Luffy hated the old man in that particular world. Really, the second he made it to Sabaody Archipelago and saw his brother in chains being dragged around by a World Noble, he was absolutely livid.

Ace didn't have the energy to fight back, but his eyes still held defiance, although weak. But Luffy could see. Luffy could see how he was slowly breaking inside, slowly questioning, what exactly or who exactly he had to fight for.

In that world, the second he made it to the bottleneck of the New World, he crushed the bead in his fist, and regressed.

"Land ho!" Nami's voice derailed his train of thought, and he sent a small, grateful, thank-you gaze towards her, even if she didn't see it. It was dangerous for him follow that kind of train of thought. He couldn't afford messing up.

Luffy got up, and looked out the front of the dinghy, shading his eyes with his straw hat. He grinned so wide, his cheeks hurt, and giggled quietly.

"Syrup Village, here we come," he cheered melodically.

Zoro looked oddly at his captain for a second before letting out an exasperated huff and shaking his head.

0-o-0

Zoom to Usopp for a second—

He had just finished his daily run with the village at the crack of dawn. Well, it wasn't so much a run with the village, as it was a run from the village.

Usopp rested his hands on his knees and panted, sweat rolling off of him in buckets. "Whew!" he reached up and flicked some sweat off his brow. Granted, he kind of deserved being chased by the village, considering he's the boy who cried 'pirate' Oda knows how many times.

Well, he internally shrugged, It's worth it.

For a moment, he paused and looked out at the calm waters of East Blue. There was a feeling sitting deep in his gut. He wanted to get out on the sea, stir the waters up a little, because as much as he loved the safety of East Blue, it wasn't enough.

He wanted to be like his father. He wanted to be a brave warrior of the sea like him. That dream has always laid inside him. But this was… deeper. He wanted to go straight to the Grand Line and make a name for himself. And the strangest part?

He didn't even want to be Captain.

Usopp stared at the clear blue waters that reflected the sky and closed his eyes, I wonder why this feeling is coming up now.

Ever since he was young, it wasn't something he could ignore. It was this biting feeling in his gut that slowly overtook his senses. It was only through sheer willpower that he didn't even know he possessed that he was able to push it down.

Although now, it was more biting than ever. It seemed almost… excited? Eager? He couldn't describe it. All that was there in Usopp's heart was a strange feeling of anticipation, and he couldn't wait for the next day.

After all, he was always the most observant than anyone in the village. Maybe even in all of East Blue! (He didn't know how true that was)

He puffed up his chest, and flipped on his heel, shrieking when he almost ran over Onion, Carrot, and Pepper.

"WHAT ARE YOU THREE DOING HERE?!" he shouted half-playfully, half-relieved.

The three looked at each other and then at their captain, fidgeting uncomfortably under Usopp's observant gaze, before Carrot pushed Onion forward.

They sent a series of looks at each other through some telepathic language that only they knew, and Onion sighed.

"Captain…" he fidgeted, "There are Buggy Pirates here,"

Usopp's blood ran cold, "Where?"

Onion wordlessly pointed North. Usopp swore under his breath and ran to the North shore, but not before laying out a plan for the three kids on his crew.

He refused to question or pay attention to the elation swirling in his gut. Nope. Not going to question that. At all.

"Time to psyche out the enemy, guys," Usopp smirked.

0-o-0

When they docked at the shore, Zoro immediately felt something was off, and clutched his sword, pointedly ignoring the nagging feeling that it was perfectly fine.

Then, a teenager, who couldn't be more than his captain's age, with shaking legs and nothing but false bravado, shouted, "Leave, pirates, this island is under the protection of all 8 million of the Usopp Pirates!"

On cue, a bunch of flags popped up across the shoreline, by pattern of six. Nami felt fond exasperation pooling in her gut, but paid it no mind.

"8 million? You're lying," It wasn't a question, it was a statement. A fact. So then why did she feel like laughing?

"What?! Okay, maybe I don't have 8 million—"

"See, you just admitted it!"

"Aaargh! Okay, whatever! That doesn't change the fact that I have an army ready to fight you!" he said frustratedly.

"You mean the army of 3 right there?" Zoro said offhandedly, looking in the direction of the 6 moving flags.

3 children immediately shrieked in surprise and ran away, "They found us, captain!" they shouted, "Abandon! Abandon!"

Usopp dumbly looked at their retreating backs before making a strangled noise with his throat, "Okay, fine, then," he loaded his slingshot with a metal bullet, and aimed right at the person with the straw-hat's head. If I'm going to fight a pirate crew, go for their leader first, he recited from nowhere. He blinked, Where did that come from?

More importantly, he took another look at the kid with the straw hat, When did I get the idea that he's the captain?

Whatever, "Don't even move an inch, else I'll shoot," he threatened, trying to make eye contact with the scarred teen, but failing because of the straw hat covering his eyes.

When he did make eye contact, equal parts elation and dread pooled in his stomach. He wavered just slightly before steeling his resolve and pulling back.

"If you call that your gun," the straw-hatted teen spoke, his voice loud and tone commanding, "Put your life on the line, because that—" he paused, seeming to contemplate something, "That is not a toy," he finished, seemingly satisfied.

Zoro smirked and sauntered up to his captain's side, flicking Wado Ichimonji just an inch out the sheath, letting the sunlight glint off the edge of the blade, "Better choose your words wisely," he showed off some teeth in a bloodthirsty manner, "That's a real pirate," he snapped Wado back into its sheath.

Usopp's knees began shaking even more, and his aim wavered just a tad, before he dropped his slingshot, "As expected of real pirates," he muttered, "They even sound cooler,".

All of a sudden, the straw-hat let out a breathy laugh and shot him a thumbs-up, "Actually, I stole that line from a guy I respect!"

"What?" Usopp said dumbly.

"What?" Nami parroted.

"Say, Usopp," Luffy continued, completely ignoring both of their questions, and indignant squawks, "Your father's Yasopp, isn't he?"

Usopp gasped, and tumbled down from his perch, landing nose-first into the sand right in front of Luffy's sandals, "You know my father?" Was the muffled question, before the future sniper of the straw-hats got up and gasped for air.

"Yeah, I knew your father, the crew he was a part of visited my home island for some time, and he just wouldn't stop blabbering about you," Luffy grimaced.

"Really?" Usopp seemed to take pride in that, "Wait," his eyes narrowed, "How did you even know my name?"

Nami stealthily stole a glance at her temporary captain to see his reaction. To her surprise, the face was entirely blank. The longer she looked at it, the more unnerved she felt, before she couldn't do anything but peel her eyes away from the sight.

It's funny, she morbidly thought, Even though I find that face scary, I can't help but to watch in anticipation of what he's going to do next. Why?

"Your father would take pride in announcing your existence to the world," Luffy began, startling Nami out of her musings, "I've at least heard your name 500 times from that man alone in the span of 1 day," Luffy chuckled at Usopp's rapidly reddening face.

"W-What?!" Usopp sputtered anxiously rubbing the back of his neck and darting his eyes from left to right. Luffy noticed this as a knee-jerk reaction for him—come up with a lie, fast.

"ANYWAYS!" Usopp screeched, effectively transferring their attention onto whatever he was going to say next, "Why don't you come into the Village? Just for a while until you get your bearings enough," he offered.

Luffy smiled and nodded his head, "Yeah, sure!"

Zoro looked at his captain for a moment with a blank expression before contemplatively nodding along with him, "Why not?"

Nami grunted and pointed a thumb at her dinghy, "Whatever, let me just secure my treasure, first,"

For a moment, all was well, as Usopp and Luffy were chatting animatedly, with their hand gestures, and laughing as if they weren't on opposite sides less than 10 minutes ago. Usopp noticed every single time Luffy reflexively looked next to him, as if he were going to talk to someone smaller, before freezing up, and adopting that same blank expression on his face, he saw 5 minutes prior. He filed those observations away for later.

Zoro was cleaning his katana, and ever so often carefully looking at Luffy before sighing and going back to cleaning his katana, just, twice more vigorous than before. A lot of things had been eating at him over the span of the last 5 or so days. When he first met the kid, he brushed off a lot, but now that he looked back on it, how did that kid beat an entire Marine Base without making a single sound? How did he do it without causing so much destruction? Without even getting one wound?

Then there was what Buggy had said to him, about trusting his captain. He never wanted to serve the kid, and back then, he sure as hell never would've, but… He paused scrubbing at his katana for a while, to stare into the blade. Why am I having second thoughts now? He went back to scrubbing his katana.

What's different? What changed? He scrubbed more furiously at his katana, until it was gleaming so bright, he was almost certain he could burn a hole through a tree trunk with it, Why do I actually want to stay with him? His scrubbing screeched to a halt, and for a split second, his face morphed into a horrified expression, before he schooled it into aloof indifference.

No. I will become the World's Greatest on my own. I don't need him to help. He sheathed his katana—Wado—and began breathing at a sedate pace.

He never felt the solemn feeling pooling in his gut.

Luffy and Usopp quieted down after a random burst of laughter, and sighed contentedly. Luffy smiled and closed his eyes. This reminded him so much of the Sunny. For a second, all was silent, until Nami's furious screech carried over the beach sand.

"LUFFYYYYYY!"

Luffy abruptly paled before running to hide behind the meditating Zoro.

Nami stomped over to where Luffy was and made a grab for him. Luffy dodged out of the way just in time, but ended up causing Nami to accidentally slap Zoro instead. Nami looked at her hand in abject horror and turned to where Zoro was, waiting for his response.

Zoro opened his eyes and stared at her with a grey, unblinking stare, before his eyes narrowed, and he got up. "You have three seconds to run," he stated simply.

Nami paled into a stark white, before turning on her heel and running at top speed to anywhere-but-there.

Within 10 seconds, Zoro caught up to her, and gave her a concussion that would be reminiscent of the ones he would get from her fists in the future. Luffy couldn't help but snort at the irony.

Nami crawled over to Luffy deliriously, and comically cried into his shoulder, "Why… Why would you leave 5 million beri at that village? WHY?!" Nami began shaking him back and forth like a ragdoll while laughing maniacally.

She muttered something unintelligible under her breath, and left him to stalk off towards her treasure.

0-o-0

Okay, should I have told her first? Luffy felt a pang of sympathy at the memory of Nami's crying face, Actually, I'm more surprised she didn't find out until now, to be honest.

Luffy sighed and resolved to tell her why he did what he did, and slowly let himself hover to the back of the group, where Nami was grumpily stomping with them through the forest.

Once he was right next to her, he whispered conspiratorially so that no one else would hear, "You know, I left 5 million Beri so that they could rebuild their village," he paused, "I'm sure you would understand, wouldn't you?" he purposefully singled her out in attempts to get her to reveal her connection with Arlong earlier.

As expected, Nami froze, her eyes wide, and her body shivering as if cold wind just hit it. It was times like these, Luffy wished he had that telepathic Devil Fruit so he could just feel what they were thinking. It made understanding his crewmates infinitely easier, even if it aroused some… painful memories. "What's your point?" she asked coldly.

"What's my point?" he repeated, "What is my point?" Luffy grinned.

Nami gave a puzzled frown, "Stop bending around my question, and answer it for once," she groused.

Luffy frowned and leaned into her personal space. For a second there, Nami's heart beat faster, and sweat collected on her brow with the indication of fear and underlying question of What is he going to do? And If he touches me, I will kill him.

Luffy smirked, and Nami's breath hitched. "Is that an Atlas Beetle?!"

Aaaand—Nami's view of her captain completely shattered again.

"Seriously, Atlas Beetle?" she muttered, before picking up the pace to match the rest of the group.

"Come on, Nami! Look! It's an Atlas Beetle!" Luffy cheered excitedly.

"Yeah, you see this face?" she turned around and gestured to her unimpressed expression, "This is my 'Uninterested' face," she deadpanned.

Before the conversation could continue, Usopp's excited voice signaled their arrival.

"We're here!" Usopp smiled, "Now, there's a restaurant, just down a ways there, I have quite a bit of influence, so the food'll be for free there, just mention my name!" he stated pridefully.

Zoro perked up one skeptic eyebrow, but said nothing.

They sauntered into the restaurant, and began ordering food. While they were sitting at the table waiting for said food, the pirate crew devolved into small-talk and chatter. Soon enough, they reached the topic of pirate ships.

"So…" Usopp twirled a drink absently, "Why do you have a dinghy? I mean, aren't you pirates? Shouldn't you have a pirate ship?"

Luffy stepped up to answer the question, "No!"

Zoro facepalmed and groaned, "What he means to say," he shot a slight glare at his captain, "Is that we don't have a pirate ship yet. We're still looking for one," he gulped down some sake.

"Speaking of ships," Nami picked up, batting her eyelashes at him, "I don't suppose that you know where we could get one, right? Maybe from… that mansion on the hill? Maybe they could lend us a ship," Nami tapped the table absently.

"NO!" Usopp slammed his hands on the table, his drink sloshed around in the glass, threatening to spill over.

"Whoa, man, why are you so defensive?" Zoro gave a surprised grunt.

"DO NOT GO TO THE MANSION ON THE HILL! ARGH! JUST—DON'T FOLLOW ME, IT'S BAD FOR YOU!" Usopp ran out of the building—

Only to come back a split second later and steal his drink from the table while regarding the three people across him suspiciously.

About 30 seconds after Usopp ran off, Zoro got up, "Well, to the mansion it is, eh, Luffy?" he froze, When did I begin calling him by name?

Before he could entertain the thought, and before Luffy could reply, three kids burst in through the door, rapidly scanning across the room, and landing their eyes on Luffy patting his bulging stomach.

"Ah!" he sighed contentedly, "That meat tasted good!" he cracked open one eye and gave Zoro a look that simultaneously managed to convey two messages:

(1) Continue the joke

(2) We're going to the mansion.

Zoro sighed and shook his head exasperatedly before directing his attention towards the quivering children.

"Hey brats," he called.

Their heads snapped towards him.

"You lookin' for your captain?" Zoro fingered the hilt of his katana absently before bursting into a bloodthirsty grin at their frantic nods. "We ate him,"

The three kids shrieked and pointed at Nami, "ONIBABA!"

"WHY THE HELL ARE YOU CALLING ME THAT?!" she screamed.

"Actually, it's pretty accurate," Zoro muttered.

"What was that?" Nami threatened.

Zoro defiantly looked into Nami's eyes and said, "I said, 'it was pretty accurate'"

10 seconds later, Zoro was on the ground nursing three lumps on his skull and muttering about witches and orange hair, and Buggy pirates, and how right they were.

Nami cleared things up with the children, and questioned where Usopp went.

She pensively came back to Luffy, "Usopp's at the mansion. Kids said that he goes there to… lie?" she still didn't seem too sure about that.

"Well, then, let's go!" Luffy cheered.

0-o-0

"And then there was that goldfish the size of an island! It was so big; I saw its poop before I saw the actual thing!" Usopp graced her with tales of bravado, before turning to the side a little just in time to see his crew and the three people he left at the restaurant crash-land into Kaya's front yard.

"W-What are you guys doing here?" he screeched.

Luffy smiled and ignored him, opting to glance upwards at Kaya, "Hey, nice-lady, you think you can give us a ship?"

"Oh, what for?" Kaya asked, intrigued.

"Oh, we're—"

"Pirates," a dark voice snarled.

Luffy's eyes lost all traces of mirth and a smile as he turned around to see one of the few men that absolutely disgusted him to no end.

Kuro. Captain Kuro.

Usopp seemed to have similar sentiments, what with how he snarled at Kuro's approaching form.

"What do you want, Klahadore?" Usopp snarled, just barely keeping from baring his teeth.

Luffy blinked, Oh right, he thought dumbly, He's not Kuro yet.

"I want you ruffians to get out and stop bothering Miss Kaya," he sneered, "After all, Miss Kaya need not be associating herself with scum such as yourself, or in this case," Kuro smiled, "The son of such scum,"

Usopp snapped his gaze up, not registering Kaya's calls for them both to stop, and the burning rage sitting deep in his gut. He almost stepped forward to punch the man, when one word stopped the both of them cold.

"Kuroneko," Luffy said simply.

Kuro's head inclined just barely to take notice of the straw-hatted teen, and he narrowed his eyes, "What was that?" he asked politely, trying to hide his rising hysteria.

Luffy looked him in the eye and plainly said, "Kuroneko,"

What, no, how is this possible? Possibilities raced through Kuro's mind before he seemed to settle on one thing, I must kill him.

Even without that telepathic devil fruit, Luffy almost snorted at what he was sure Kuro was bound to be thinking.

Kuro became dimly aware that everyone was silent, whether it was in anticipation, or confusion. He scoffed, knowing he had to save face, and fast.

"Kuroneko? I don't know what you're talking about, Miss Kaya, I'm taking these scum out now!" Kuro commanded.

Ignoring her protests, he glared at the straw-hatted teen, who simply looked at him with that infuriatingly blank expression of his.

"Get out, you delusional ruffians," he put emphasis on 'delusional', "Get out," he whispered, more to assure himself than to actually tell them.

Luffy turned around and signaled Zoro and Nami to do so as well. Getting the message, Usopp turned with them. Kuro gazed at their retreating backs, stifling a sigh, before his breath hitched once more when the straw-hatted teen turned around.

"Very well then, Kuro," as if the teenager didn't just drop a bombshell on Kuro he walked away nonchalantly, with the rest of his crew questioning him as he went.

At this point, hysteria was threatening to break out on Kuro's face, he stifled a laugh, and tried to dim the crazed look in his eyes, because one thing was clear. Only one.

He must die.

AN: Well, good news, I'm still alive, I have four projects pending for school, and I finished two of them today. Sorry I couldn't update sooner, I had school to deal with, and I am currently under the stress of getting a good grade so I don't epically fail both Science and Math.

-OracleNorzi