Sanji was turning things over in his mind as he checked his timetable before pulling out the books required.

'I called him a stupid swordsman.'

He thought,

'That was completely random and weird, but what's even weirder is that he took in the insult as though it was a normal thing to say.'

He slipped in his Literature folder into his bag, reminding himself to complete the essay due on Tuesday, and slammed his locker shut. Walking down the stairs, he continued his train of thought.

'I don't think the green-haired twerp gets it, but we're linked somehow. I don't really know how, but we definitely knew each other some time...'

As he walked out of the learning complex of the university, stepping onto the soft soil as he headed towards the dormitory building, he thought,

'Say we know each other because we were once abducted on the same alien mothership? And we were brainwashed after or something?"

He let out a snort of laughter at the idea. As he walked on, Sanji noticed several people were crowded around the pavement before the front entrance of GrandLine. Curious, Sanji changed his course and joined the ring of people. He blinked at what the people were watching interestedly.

A young man, perhaps a year or two younger than Sanji, was swerving in circles in the center with another guy of similar age on skateboards they had obviously crafted covers for themselves. One of two skateboarders caught Sanji's eye in particular. He had a black vest that he had unbuttoned halfway down his chest, his trousers baggy and his hair was black and slightly ruffled. There was something about him that made Sanji stare at him curiously.

The young model soon found out why people were watching them so intently; the guy Sanji had been staring at bent his knees low, dragging his speed down and shifting his foot position. The spectators seemed to be in a hush of expectation.

Suddenly, he jammed his sneaker against the tail-end of the skateboard and lifted his foot off it. The end snapped against the concrete, raising the board up as he dragged his other foot the other direction. He deftly kicked the other end of the board with his heel before completely departing from the suspended board. It flipped round in midair completely before being slapped back onto the ground with his foot, quickly followed by the other. A short, awed silence followed before his partner broke it by laughing and calling out,

"You haven't done a heel flip in ages, have you? That was crusty!"

"It was not!!"

The guy yelled back in protest. The crowd laughed, letting out cheers and whistles. Sanji wondered what on earth the guy's friend meant by 'crusty' - the guy had kept perfect balance throughout the whole trick, letting the board flip right underneath him while he was still in the air, and when he had landed, he had been able to continue to skating around as though he had never performed the trick at all. He looked at him, amazed by the talent.

As Sanji watched the skateboarder grin goofily as his friend performed a kickflip, drawing whoops and more cheers from the admiring crowd, he realised the guy looked familiar. It was the same sort of feeling he got whenever he argued with Zoro - a sense of having gone through it before. His eyes widened at the realisation, when he heard another familiar voice shout behind him, although it was a completely different sense of recognition.

"Get out! Stop disturbing the campus!!"

The crowd spun around to face their dean, who looked greatly displeased at the skateboarders.

"Aww. Later,"

The skateboarders performed quick 360 spins on their skateboards before waving and skating away.

Sanji quite suddenly felt very disappointed - like had just missed a great opportunity. It was not a feeling he was comfortable with. Deciding it was because the skateboarder had been chased away, he glared at the dean. Sanji noticed with mild surprise that he wasn't the only one.

Then he remembered - the previous evening, the dean had mysteriously disappeared while everyone else had been in total chaos. And it had taken quite a while for the police to arrive because the dean hadn't been the one to contact them. In fact, it looked as though Mr. Harrison had cowardly hidden himself, letting his students and other staff members to deal with the assault.

The dean's face turned red as the students brushed past him roughly. None of them gave him their usual greetings or smiles, and instead of their usual friendly chatter amongst themselves, they passed in stony silence. He opened his mouth, as though he wanted to say something, but he continued to open and shut his mouth like a fish.

Sanji set himself off towards his dormitory, ignoring the pleading glance Mr. Harrison threw at him, and as he neared the building, he found himself thinking about the paleness of Nami's face last night.

'I hope Nami's okay.'

He thought, but something told him that visiting her now was not the best thing to do. Perhaps it was just the fact that he wasn't in the mood to.

Instead, Sanji headed to his room to get a start on his Literature essay, deciding to visit his concern later on.




"Uhh... this sounds really far-fetched, but..."

Usopp looked down at his hands nervously,

"Maybe... we belong to an alternative reality?"

He squeezed his eyes shut, expecting Nami to burst out laughing and Zoro to yawn, but to his surprise, there was no response for a moment. Then,

"Alternative reality?"

He opened his eyes, surprised that the two looked like they were seriously considering his idea.

"Uhm... I was thinking about it, and... well, it looks like we all know each other, but not from our own direct histories. But we have... memories of each other in a different background. So... maybe we know each other in an alternative reality? As in, another life?"

"That's really twisted,"

Zoro commented. Usopp turned red, and opened his mouth to hurriedly remove his idea, when Zoro continued,

"But I think that could be what's going on."

"I mean, what else could be going on?"

Nami agreed. Usopp was so surprised they were accepting his thoughts he was dumbfounded momentarily. Then, realising he was should explain what else deepened the theory, he said,

"It's not just us, though... I-- I met that blonde girl from the mansion. I met her on Wednesday."

Zoro and Nami both spluttered in the middle of drinking their sodas.

"You met--?!"

"I mean, I saw her, but we couldn't talk."

He began explaining hurriedly,

"She was going out of a studio or something, so there was this big crowd--"

"Studio?!"

"Yeah, I was on the way home after meeting you, Nami, but I ended up seeing someone so familiar I pushed through the mob, and--"

"Mob?!"

"Of reporters and stuff, since Kaya's an actress and everything--"

"KAYA?!! Hang on, you mean the girl from your dreams is--?!"

"Just listen!! I shoved through and saw her for a few seconds face to face, and the moment she looked at me, she knew my name."

Nami looked stunned, headache forgotten.

"You mean... Kaya, the girl who stars in 'Amber Signs', is the girl you told stories to in your dreams?"

Usopp nodded, sweatdropping at the fact that he had no idea what 'Amber Signs' was and had only found out she was an actress the day before.

"She knew your name, huh?"

Zoro murmured, poking at the ice in his soda with his straw.

"Yeah... I think she's part of this as well."

"Is that what you meant by 'I think I saw someone I know!'?"

Usopp blinked, and remembered what had made him run up the front steps of the GrandLine University earlier on.

"No, I think I saw someone else. Someone also part of this..."

Nami snorted.

"What is 'this' anyways?"

"This-- this weird conspiracy thing where we know each other,"

Usopp said, making a face at the terms he was forced to use in the lack of better words to phrase the situation,

"I mean-- I think this guy is somewhat connected to this. It's not just us, I'm sure of it. There are others, too, like Kaya, who are part of-- of 'this'. This alternative reality thing. I saw this guy that also looked familiar..."

"Did he know your name?"

Usopp sweatdropped, recalling the extremely brief encounter.

"Er, no. In fact, I doubt he even recognised me."

"That's weird. Didn't we kind of know each other on the spot?."

Zoro said with a slight frown. Usopp sighed.

"I know... but I was staring after for quite a while - he looked so familiar, seriously."

"Maybe he doesn't know yet?"

She suggested.

"But none of us really 'knew' either - we were all on sub-concious terms of recognition. I'm so sure that guy I saw is part of this."

Usopp said, a hint of frustration edging his voice. Zoro leaned back in his seat, his eyes looking at the ceiling as he thought. There was something tickling the back of his brain...

"Don't you-- don't you feel like-- like-- we've met somewhere before?!"

'That's right,'

Zoro realised as he remembered,

'There is something weird with me and Sanji. He said that to me...'

He remembered that the 'weird' things were non-existant recollections from both him and Sanji.

'And he called me a stupid swordsman, just like the time I called him a stupid cook.'

He mused to himself. He turned his gaze to Usopp.

"You know, I think I also know someone else part of the 'conspiracy',"

Zoro said thoughtfully. Nami and Usopp turned to him in surprise.

"Really?"

"My room-mate... there's something weird about him too. Similarly disturbing things, like memories that never happened..."

He looked at Nami, and asked,

"You know Sanji?"

Nami's eyes seemed to blank out for a few seconds before she returned, her eyes widening.

"Sanji-kun?! I mean-- Sanji is Sandy White's real name?!"

Zoro looked surprised.

"Oh yeah... Sandy White, was it? Yeah, that's Sanji. Guess you know him since he's a model and everything, huh."

Nami slumped in her seat, shocked.

That means... I knew his real name when we were dancing? But how? ...Does this mean there's a reason for everything? Everytime I see him, a reason for that-- that pain? I-- I KNOW HIM?

"What's wrong, Na-chan?"

Usopp asked worriedly. Nami immediately snapped back to normal. Usopp never used that nickname for her unless he was either extremely nostalgic at the moment or extremely concerned.

"Nothing! I-It's just that... I don't r-really..."

Nami shook her head, waving her hands in front of her to emphasise herself.

"Forget it."

Usopp knew better than to chase the subject, and so started to summarise thoughtfully.

"There's definitely something going on... We all know each other but not through this lifetime. Through - maybe - an alternative reality, right?"

"You mean, you think we're shifting realities back and forth?"

Zoro asked. Usopp blinked.

"Uhh... you mean, those occasional visions we get?"

He asked without thinking. Nami and Zoro both exclaimed out at once,

"Yes!!"

They shrank back into their seats when they realised they had been a little too loud, causing others to stare at them.

"You mean... you get visions too, right?"

Usopp said interestedly.

"I think so. I just got one now, with the 'we ate him' joke,"

Nami said. Then she paused before hesitantly starting again,

"Actually, rather than shifting realities... that felt more like..."

"A memory?"

Zoro supplied, thinking of the recallings of 'memories that never happened' between him and Sanji. Nami nodded slowly.

"But... then again... don't you ever get those moments where you feel like you've missed something? Like... you have remnants of something deep inside your mind... but when you start to draw it out, they disappear, and you feel like you were thinking of something you can't remember?"

She flushed, feeling incredibly stupid, and she hastily started to say,

"Ignore me, I'm speaking crap--"

"I get what you mean,"

Zoro intervened, his eyes slightly unfocused as he frowned in concentration. Nami blinked in surprise.

"It happened to me several times during the dinner-dance..."

"Same here!"

Nami cried. Usopp sweatdropped.

"I... just get them occasionally. Moments where I'm sure something happened, but..."

"You can't remember what. That's what I mean."

There was a silence as the three tried to figure what all this meant. Usopp noted that where his plate was half-finished, Zoro had finished his food already, and Nami hadn't even touched her food.

After a while, however, Zoro let out a laugh.

"This is just plain weird."

He concluded, grinning. Nami blinked as Usopp let out a snort, a grin tugging at his mouth.

"Actually, this is kind of stupid, since we might not even get an answer."

Nami's eyes twinkled as she suggested with a hint of amusement in her voice,

"You mean like figuring out the meaning of life?"

The three burst out laughing, this time ignoring the stares from people surrounding them.

If only they knew.





A/N: ^^* I'm so happy you people acknowledged you're still reading! ^^* Thanks - it means a lot to know. The chapters are shorter, I know - the things that happen do require less description, and there's a lot more discussion, meaning loads of breaks in dialogue. I don't measure in words - I measure in length of text, which is probably why the chapters seem shorter. ~.~;; Gomen ne... but I'll be churning out about a chapter a week, if possible... because I've gotten around two chapters in advance. This way I can fix any errors I didn't think of before and edit them to better standard, but I don't know... thanks for your reading and reviews, and for bearing with me uptil now. ^^* Luffy! Luffy! Luffy! I cannot wait until I can write about Luffy-sama in detail. ~.^