Chapter 3: We're doomed

The next morning dawned a bright and early day and Zolo yawned as the sun crept across his face. For once he wasn't grumpy when he woke up and he attributed that to having gone to bed so early last night. He looked up at the couch and noticed something odd. Instead of there being a long, thin arm hanging off the side of the couch, there was a small, tiny one. Zolo sat up and came face to face with a tiny face that looked like Luffy, but, couldn't possibly be Luffy! Zolo got up and hurried over to Trace and shook him. The older man opened his eyes and then raised an eyebrow in question.

"Hey, look over at Luffy." he said. Trace yawned and then sat up so he could see his little brother. And, when I say little, I mean little as in childlike. But, Zolo supposed it was probably a good thing that Luffy's clothes had shrunk with him, he wondered how but he wasn't one to doubt small miracles. Trace's eyes widened and he jumped off the hammock and hurried over to his little brother.

"That's Luffy when he was 9. What the hell happened, or am I still in some sort of twisted dream?" Trace asked. Zolo shrugged.

"Wapol must have done something after all." Zolo muttered and then Trace's face became stricken as little Luffy began waking up.

"You know how much trouble Luffy usually is?" Trace asked. Zolo nodded, not really understanding where this was going.

"He can't get any worse, surely."

"Oh, that's where you're wrong." Trace said and locked the door out of the men's quarters. Zolo suddenly found himself becoming very apprehensive as Luffy yawned and got up. He looked up at the two men, and they looked down at him and then his face split into a giant smile.

"Hi!" he said brightly. Trace looked at Zolo. "Who are you?" Luffy asked. Zolo halted a moment. He doesn't remember? He thought. Trace kneeled down in front of Luffy.

"Hey, you sure you don't know me?" Trace asked. Luffy peered at him and then smiled.

"Nope, but you kinda look like my brother. He's cool." Luffy said with a gigantic grin. Luffy then saw his straw hat and picked it up and placed it on his head.

"Hat." Luffy said fondly and patted the hat on his head like it was a good dog. Zolo smiled, maybe this wouldn't be as hard as Trace had thought.

"Um, I'm Roronoa Zolo." Zolo said a little uneasily. Luffy smiled at him.

"I'm Luffy, Monkey D Luffy!" he squealed and then scrambled off the couch. "You have swords! Cooooool! How do you fight with them when you only have two hands?" Luffy asked and then rambled on.

"He doesn't seem so bad." Zolo muttered to Trace who put his hands on his hips.

"Oh yeah? Watch this." he said and then smiled at Luffy.

"Hey Luffy, sit down." he asked nicely. Luffy pouted.

"No." he refused. Uh- oh.

"Come here." Trace asked and Luffy ran to the other side of the room.

"Please tell me that's his only problem." Zolo pleaded placing a hand on his cheek. Trace shook his head.

"Oh no. He also had a big fascination with trying to swim, although he couldn't because of the cursed fruit, and he had the ever present mischievous streak, although it was probably worst at this age." Trace said and then let himself smile. Zolo was about ready to faint. This couldn't end well.

"Oh lord. I hope this wears off very soon." he said as Luffy proceeded to stretch his toes and tie them to his fingers. He giggled and rocked back onto his back, realising then that he couldn't move. He struggled but couldn't get loose.

"Uh oh, spaghettio's." Luffy said.

"Ya think we could just leave him like that?" Zolo asked with a wry smile.

"I'd love to, but, I tried it once and it cuts off his circulation. We need to untie him." Trace said and walked over to the little boy.

"No, I want the Zolo dude to untie me!" Luffy chirped. Trace started and then looked back at Zolo, who shrugged and resignedly walked forward. He kneeled down and proceeded to untie the young boy who thought this was all marvellous fun.

"I'm glad you think it's so funny." Zolo muttered as he undid Luffy's admittedly well tied knots. Luffy giggled. It was then Zolo noticed that Trace was a little quiet.

"There." Zolo said as he undid the last one. "Do that again and I'll smack you." he threatened. Luffy's face went from laughing to serious and he nodded solemnly.

"Breakfast!" Sanji's voice cried from above.

"Food!" Luffy cried and then ran straight into the door. He fell back, rubbed his head and then looked angrily at the door. "It's locked, how do you unlock it!" Luffy cried. He wasn't demanding them, he was just trying to figure it out. Zolo sighed.

"We're gonna have to show the rest of the crew sometime, we can't just keep him down here, people will get suspicious." Zolo said. Trace nodded. He walked over and picked the mini Luffy up and set him on his shoulders.

"Weeee!" Luffy cried and threw his hands into the air to emphasize his point. Trace smiled and ducked through the door that Zolo had just exited through. Luffy giggled and Trace thought to himself how cute his little brother actually was when he was a kid. Trace stopped when Zolo put a hand on his chest.

"Listen, I'll go in and tell them what happened and then I'll come back out and get you, how about that?" he asked. Trace nodded and then Zolo went into the galley.

Sanji, Nami, Chopper and Usopp all looked up at Zolo walked in.

"Where the hell have you been?" Nami demanded. Zolo scratched the back of his head.

"Uh, guys, we kinda have a problem." he said and then laughed a little nervously.

"Where's Luffy?" Chopper asked.

"That's the problem. He ate some meat that the King Wapol dude gave him. He said there was nothing wrong, but, well, now there is." Zolo replied.

"What happened?" Nami asked quietly.

"Well, he's been turned into a nine year old."

Dum, dum, dum. heh. Little Luffy will be fun.