Everyone, my mother is in the hospital with a large ulcer. Please pray for her at this time. Thank You.
It was a day or two before they hit Alabasta when they pulled up something very unusual while fishing.
Luffy took one look at the man they rescued before her face filled with sympathy...even as she had the weirdest feeling she knew him from before. The same way she had recognized Lambo, Takeshi, Dino and Xanxus.
Then it hit her why...perhaps he was someone she had known in her past life with a new face?
"The closest rest room with a mirror is down the hall and to the left," said Luffy promptly once he was on the deck. "You can fix your make-up there."
"Many thanks," said the man with open relief.
He hated having runny make-up...it was annoying enough getting replacements for his clothes. It took him ten minutes, but he came out looking... well, slightly less horrifying than he had before. He was obviously a cross-dresser who had no shame in his preferences.
"Would you rather us address you as a male or female?" asked Luffy.
"Male is fine," he replied easily. "You're taking my appearance rather well."
Luffy tilted her head.
"Why should I care if a guy prefers girl clothing or being addressed as a female?" she asked baffled. "Besides, this is the Grand Line. If I were to have trouble with something as minor as that, then I wouldn't be able handle even half the weird shit that's out here."
The man stared at her, before he let out a laugh. She had a point there.
It wasn't until he showed off his Devil Fruit powers that Luffy had a sudden insight who the man was before.
She wasn't the only one, because the second she saw that familiar head of green hair and red sunglasses, three voices cried out in surprised delight.
"Sorella!"
That got the man to suddenly drop the transformation in shock.
"What did you just call me?" he asked, gaping.
Luffy was smiling so widely it almost hurt. She wasn't the only one, because Takeshi was too.
"I knew you felt familiar! I should have guessed you would still be an okama Sorella," said Luffy.
"Yeah, it makes total sense that you would get that sort of ability this time. I almost can't wait to see what Squalo looks like now!" laughed Takeshi.
"Makes me wonder who else we'll find," said Lambo grinning.
It took Sorella...or Bon Clay as he was known now...a few moments to get over his shock. He looked at Takeshi and Lambo first, before recognition finally hit. He had thought they seemed familiar but had dismissed it as coincidence.
"Takeshi and Lambo?"
They nodded.
"If it makes you feel any better, Xanxus is here too, and I know for a fact he's found the Ripper Prince and a certain Frog who drove him crazy," said Luffy grinning.
Bon Clay looked at Luffy carefully, before he snorted.
"You haven't changed a bit darling~!"
This wasn't Bon Clay anymore...this was Lussuria, the Varia's Sun Officer. If anyone could find their missing friends and family, it was Tsunami Sawada, the Tenth Vongola Donna.
"...Is anyone else confused?" asked Vivi.
Everyone save for the quartet raised their hand without hesitation.
"Shishishi... It's like none of you have ever heard of reincarnation before," said Luffy.
Nami suddenly got a pole-axed look.
"You have got to be kidding me."
Sanji and Chopper, however, were looking between Takeshi, Lambo and Luffy.
"You know that explains a hell of a lot," muttered Sanji. Chopper nodded.
"So you guys knew each other in a past life, and that's how you recognized each other in this one?" asked Chopper.
It explained everything, like why Lambo was so adamant about joining the crew despite the fact he wouldn't be anything more than a cabin boy for at least two years. And why he behaved like Luffy was his older sister, despite the fact she was from the East Blue and had only spent a couple of months as an infant in the Grand Line.
Luffy nodded.
"Takeshi and Lambo were part of my faction, but Sorella was part of my brother's group, which was a subsidary of the clan we were part of. Sabo was the head of an allied clan," said Luffy.
"I have a headache."
"That explains far too much," said Nojiko muttering to herself.
"What was your name before?" asked Zoro.
"And how much do you remember?" asked Usopp.
"Pretty much everything, and my name last time was Tsunami. I'm just glad that it didn't follow me to this life," said Luffy. "From what I can tell anyone who's had regular contact with me or my nakama last time seems to have kept most, if not all of their memories. It's such a pain retraining our old skills though..."
Bon Clay nodded in full agreement to that. It had been a nightmare relearning how to fight using Muy Thai.
"So you know where the Boss is?"
"His name is Fire Fist Ace, and he's part of the Whitebeard pirates. Belphegor and Fran are with him at the moment and they're going to be in Alabasta for a bit."
Bon Clay really wanted to meet up with Ace, but he knew Crocodile would take that as him turning traitor and kill him. Plus there was his dream in this life he wanted to complete before he became Ace's Sun again. Him and most of his men...they would have trouble understanding his loyalty to someone he barely knew, much less the fact he would likely fall into old patterns of behavior around the Boss.
Luffy seemed to sense Bon Clay's dilemma.
"Once we deal with Crocodile we'll share cups of sake as allied crews. I'm sure once the situation is explained to Whitebeard he would do the same so you at least have an excuse to help out Ace when he needs his favorite Okama by his side. Besides, I bet it would be a nice surprise for Xanxus if he ever got in over his head and his Elements managed to gather as one to have his back like before," said Luffy.
Bon Clay perked up at that.
"You have a deal!" he declared. "Besides, if you're anything like you were before, that drab fool won't stand a chance."
Luffy snorted.
"Last time the jackass interfered with my natural abilities until he showed up. This time I not only had the training I needed, but actual support and reinforcement. Crocodile is screwed once he pisses me off enough."
"Bon Clay-sama!" shouted a ship that was approaching fast.
Vivi went pale when she heard that name, but she was still confused beyond belief.
Bon Clay disappeared with his crew off into the distance, and her brain finally kickstarted into working again.
"What just happened?"
"I subverted one of Crocodile's most effective infiltrator into discreetly acting on our side," said Luffy. "Bon Clay is more loyal to my brother Ace than he ever was to Crocodile, and as long as he's sure that Crocodile or anyone who is actually loyal to the bastard isn't watching, he's more likely to simply put on an act and just rough us up without damaging our ability to take the Warlord out. Besides, I'd rather have Sorella as an ally than an enemy."
Takeshi and Lambo nodded in total agreement to that.
"...I have to ask this, even though my head is already having trouble with the idea of a past life being a real thing...but are there any others that you think might show up?" asked Nami.
"Well Hayato is a bit of a toss-up, and I really don't see Ryohei following us. Takeshi wasn't that surprising and I knew Lambo would follow if he was here... Mukuro and Chrome maybe? Those two are tied to the hip in a weird sort of way, and if Kyouya thought the next life would prove more interesting I could easily see him showing up at some point..." said Luffy after a moment. "Considering your own behavior I wouldn't be the least bit shocked if Viper donated at least half your genetics Nami."
"Yeah, it's kinda weird seeing you act like Mammon with ginger hair, except you aren't nearly as tight-fisted with your money," agreed Takeshi. Lambo nodded in absolute agreement to that one.
"As for the Varia, the only one we haven't run into at this point is Squalo who was my brother's Right Hand and swordsman. You'd like him Zoro... his nickname was the Sword Emperor and he was so determined to prove his skills he literally cut off his dominant hand, which was his left and lived with a prosthetic that he occasionally attached a long sword to. He was also really loud and used the word 'Voi' a lot, and made a point to sharpen his skills by challenging every half-decent master swordsman he could find," said Luffy. "I've been expecting to run into him at some point ever since I realized Xanxus had been reborn into this world too. His dedication to my brother was so strong he swore to never cut his hair until he took a certain position...which never happened because of ridiculous reasons, so his hair got really long."
"Squalo was a lot of fun to play with!" laughed Takeshi with full agreement.
Zoro had a grin on his face that said volumes of how much he anticipated meeting this "Squalo". Takeshi raised a fist, which Zoro promptly bumped with his own with a silent show of understanding between men.
"Is there anyone from this past life of yours that you don't want to meet?" joked Vivi, not really believing the whole past life thing.
Luffy's face had such a strange expression on it...one that oddly enough was mimicked by Lambo and Takeshi...that the crew paused to hear the answer.
"Iemitsu, my father," said Luffy. "If that asshole was reborn then I won't even think twice about killing him in the most painful method I can devise simply so I don't have to deal with him ever again. Oddly enough when Sabo-nii asked that question once while we were waiting out a storm, his name was the first one that came to mind then as well."
"You would kill your own father?" said Vivi in horrified disbelief.
"Iemitsu wasn't much of a father. He treated my mother and I like were were dolls he could use to play the 'devoted family man' and then put upon a shelf to be forgotten about for years at a time on a whim. He was such a narcissitic braying jackass that he thought nothing of sending a five year old up against a trained elite assassin who had little in the way of empathy towards children and wouldn't hesitate to murder the child over something ridiculous. Hell, he even beat his own daughter up over a competition where he wouldn't earn a damn thing simply to prove he was stronger than me! I nearly died because my appendix burst from the sheer beating he gave me, if Dino hadn't realized something was wrong and put me in emergency surgery to have it removed! Then he acted like he had done nothing wrong, that I should just accept the way he treated me and 'take the punches like a man' even though he was told repeatedly that they had been life-threatening by people who knew what they were talking about!" ranted Luffy with such fury and utter disgust and hatred it was clear that her loathing of this Iemitsu ran very deep.
Lambo shivered at the reminder. He had been so young he had no idea what Iemitsu was planning to use him as a sacrifice for the Lightning battle and that it was quite frankly a miracle he had survived that with relatively minor injuries considering what Levi-a-Than could have done to him.
Takeshi's eyes were flat.
"You know we often thought the only reason you didn't just kill him outright when you took over rather than deal with him was because the underworld frowned upon Patricide, no matter how justified," said Takeshi.
Luffy snorted coldly.
"More like because I knew damn well Reborn wouldn't let me kill the jackass. After all, I wasn't having a hard enough time holding up the reputation of the Family and having something like patricide to my list of crimes would have created a chink that he never would have accepted...even if he hated the bastard too."
If he was here, she would not be shocked at all if he joined the Marines and became a bigger thorn in her side than last time.
She was torn between hoping he had...so she could finally vent a literal lifetime's worth of pent up hatred, disgust and rage towards him and murder him in the way he so deserved...and hoping he hadn't, because it meant she would never have to deal with him again.
The crew wisely did not bring up the name Iemitsu again. It was clear there was a lot of unfinished business there, and well justified rage that never got expressed because of certain factors.
No one wanted to see what Luffy would do in a proper rage, much less directed at them.
Chopper however moved over to Lambo, who still looked a little pale at the reminder of the disasterous Lightning Battle.
"Sorry Chopper, it just brought up a few really bad memories when she said that name."
"...You were the five year old she mentioned," guessed Chopper.
"I was a total brat who's family was too busy to even remotely pay attention to me. Nee-san was the first person to really see a scared kid trying to act brave and give me a home, no matter how bratty or spoiled I acted. She was the rock that I needed, even when she was struggling to find her own way in an ocean full of sharks she had been thrown into with no way of getting out," said Lambo quietly. "The fact she accepted me as a full member of the crew, even though that life is behind us means the world to me. At least this time I can act as an equal member of the group from the start, rather than ease my way into it."
He didn't mind being a cabin boy. It was just a title...the crew considered him their little brother, but didn't try to coddle him or 'protect' him any more than they would the others. They trusted him to have their backs.
Chopper understood a little, the extent of Lambo's devotion and love towards their captain. He felt something similar around her, because she didn't hesitate to treat him like a little brother.
Sanji and Zoro decided to talk to Takeshi a bit to get a better feel for why he eagerly followed Luffy without a second thought.
Zoro had his own reasons, though they were altered slightly from why he joined originally after seeing Luffy in that dress, but he wanted to know more about why the swordsman cared so much about Luffy that he followed her even in another life.
"I used to be a really popular guy for ridiculous reasons drowning under the expectations of others that didn't mean anything in the long run. Luffy and I were schoolmates, but I never really saw her. Not really. Then I broke my arm and it felt like the world caved out from under me and I began to sink into depression. She's the one who stopped me from ending it all and gave me a reason to actually live. She never cared about my popularity before, or after...she just saw Takeshi," he said with a gentle, if tired smile on his face. "Thanks to her I went from a sword lying on a battlefield to one that had direction and purpose."
Zoro could fully understand the analogy. A sword wouldn't care what it cut. It was a weapon that needed a master to properly give it a reason to exist.
He had always sensed there was a slight difference between him and Takeshi. Now he knew what it was.
While Zoro was a swordsman capable of making his own way in the world alone, Takeshi was a sword who needed someone to weild him before he fully flourished.