"Wha - What happened?" Brook yelled. He was genuinely confused.

"Zoro!" Luffy rushed toward his swordsman's side, or rather to where he had vanished just seconds ago.

"Go-Goat-bea-," Usopp stuttered in shock. "Zo-Zoro got hit by a goat-beam!"

Only a pink cloud remained of their friend.

"It's my fault," Chopper wailed with teary eyes "He was covering me."

Between shock and fury, Luffy found his voice. "Where did you-, " but before he could finish, the sea goat used the momentary distraction to escape into the depths of the ocean.

"Zoro…" Luffy's hands tightened into fists.

"Legend claims that Pricus is able to manipulate time and alter reality. Whoever is cursed with his wrath is doomed to start over. It'll turn you back 13 years in time. Of course, this is just a myth and our swordsman could already be dead."

"Eeehhhhhh?" The little reindeer summarized.

"Robin! This is no place for jokes," Brook scolded her lightly while keeping a sharp eye on their captain. If he had eyes. Yohohohoho.

"And what's with that super dubious arbitrary number?" Usopp wondered. This smelled more than fishy.

"So, he is fine?" Luffy questioned wearily.

"Seems so," Sanji replied and picked an imaginable piece of lint from his sleeve.

The captain's shoulders relaxed, as he accepted their words as truth, and a path for curiosity was paved instead.

"Of course not, idiots! Weren't you paying any attention?" Nami was about to blow. On board, they needed every single man, and Zoro was barely a help in the first place, yet as a kid, he would be completely useless. But Luffy wasn't listening any longer. He switched between picking his nose and poking against the puffy collection of samurai-steam. It felt surprisingly dense.

"Oh no! what should we do? Someone call a doctor!"

Expertly overlooking the panicking ball of fur, Franky did the math, "So, six-ish."

Nami sighed. Zoro of all people… Just imagining a little green-haired boy made her shudder.

Great, not another obnoxiously loud, hot-headed brat to take care of, the navigator thought and glared at the kiddie trio. They had their fill of troublemakers already, though he would probably fit right in. Disaster was bound to strike. There was nothing she could do - beside loathing her fate.

"Stop touching that!" Nami yelled furious at Luffy. A desperate attempt to bring order into the mess. Why did she have to be surrounded by such morons?

Robin chuckled. This could be very entertaining.

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.

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"Huh? Who's that?"

AN:

Thank you so much for your reviews, Jack, Guest and The Sleeping Zombie! It means the world to me and I am glad you are enjoying the story! I put an AN in the first chapter, so the timeline is a little clearer. Thanks for the advice ;)