Violent shaking and rumbling were all that consumed Makino's morning at the bar. She was tending to the stock and cleaning dishes when a thunderous shaking caused her entire top shelf of alcohol to fall and cause an obscene amount of glass and booze to permeate the floor behind the bar. She sighed gently and braced herself against the bar counter and shook her head disapprovingly.
"Oh goodness. They're at it again. I had hoped they'd make an exception today of all days."
The shaking momentarily subsided and Makino took a brief pause to walk out of the bar to see how things were going this time. Makino stood on the main road alongside a handful of other people that were looking at the forest. They saw a small dot suddenly expand and grow into a massive fist and turn a shiny black. It quickly moved downward with impressive force and sent trees, dust, and birds alike sprawling out in all directions. The sheer force shook the village once again and everyone braved themselves so they wouldn't lose their footing. Makino smiled gently as the mayor crankily approached her, mumbling about brats and too much noise. She giggled at him and spoke up.
"Hello, Mayor sir. Today is as lively as always. Do you think there will be a winner today?"
Woop Slap scoffed crudely and stamped his cane into the dirt.
"Unlikely! They haven't had a winner in the three years they've been fighting each other. I'll be shocked if they have one today."
"Well Mayor, today is a special day so who knows what it may hold?"
Makino looked at the forest affectionately and began thinking about the past few years. Luffy and Yamato had been training against one another since the day Ace left. Three years of fighting and training between these two titans was bound to make anyone a monster. In all these years though neither brother nor sister had managed to win a fight. Always a draw. Perhaps today would be different. Today is the day.
Luffy recoiled his arm with incredible haste as his steaming skin tightened and braced. He quickly snapped his legs with speed and power as he pushed off of thin air and propelled his body toward his opponent, his arm remained in its previous place as it stretched greatly and snapped forward with a crackling boom and connected with a round studded mace. The opponent holding the mace was forced to slide back under the raw power of Luffy's hit and slammed into a deep-rooted tree behind her. Yamato, being the opponent, growled as she morphed her body into its hybrid state and let loose a bellowing howl as she dashed forward. Luffy sent a hail of fists at his sister but she took full advantage of her hybrid mobility and her surroundings to quickly dance around against the tree trunks and close the distance between the two of them. Yamato raised her mace to her side as she hovered briefly in front of Luffy, her massive form dwarfing the rubber man. She brought the mace forward toward Luffy's face with godlike speed and just before impact the mace sparked with deep purple lightning. Yamato's golden eyes flared to life as she roared out the name of her attack.
"THUNDER BAGUA!!"
Luffy grit his teeth in pain as blood trickled down from his head. He couldn't stand the force of the impact and was sent careening backward through several trees until he came crashing to a halt. He took a second to breathe and growled with annoyance.
Yamato slid to a halt after her attack finished and she fell to one knee. She took a few deep breaths and wiped her forehead dry of any sweat. She wanted just a moment longer to regain her full stamina but her Observation Haki flared up and screamed of danger fast approaching. She quickly turned her head and spotted Luffy fast approaching her. His entire arm coated itself in a familiar crimson-tinted Armament Haki as his fist retracted inward into his arm and cocked back, building up tension. It looked as though he was about to hit Yamato with a mini Kong Gun. Luffy lifted his face to reveal dark black Haki tattoos coating his entire face in a traditional kabuki paint style design. Yamato attempted to dodge the incoming blow but her body gave out from the strain of using her Conqueror's Haki infusion during her Thunder Bagua attack. She cursed as she grit her teeth and braced her face. Luffy came in with a high-raised punch but quickly shifted his body and brought his fist low as he bellowed aloud.
"Gomu Gomu No!!!"
Luffy slammed his foot into the ground and planted himself firmly at Yamato's feet and brought his fist upward through her guard and aimed for her chin. He stopped short and time seemed to halt briefly. He screamed out the rest of his attack before unleashing its devastating force.
"BLUNDERBUSS!!"
His entire frame suddenly sunk deep into the dirt as the wound-up tension exploded outward and sent him downward and his fist upward into Yamato's chin. Upon impact, his fist let out blackened red lightning with a thunderous boom echoing out across the entirety of the island as Yamato was sent skyward and remained there for a comically long amount of time before she came crashing down into the ground and lay sprawled out in a crater. Luffy let out a large continuous breath of steam and shrunk down in size. It wasn't nearly as noticeable as his Boundman form but normally he stands just below Yamato's waist. In this new form, he was closer to her shoulder. His Haki tattoos faded and he fell to the ground in sheer exhaustion as made evident by the flowing sweat running down his face. He took deep greedy breaths of the air and fell backward onto the ground and let his body finally relax. He looked over to his side toward his sister who was still laying in the crater from her impact. He let out a sigh of relief once she started to stir from her spot and slowly let out an aching whine.
"Uuuuuuuuuuggggghhhh, this is so lame. I can't believe you used that attack against me, Luffy."
Yamato pulled herself out of the crater and flopped onto her belly and glared at her brother. The brother in question simply gave her a cheeky grin accompanied by his signature laugh.
"Shishishishishi, don't be sour Yamato! You know as well as I do that attack takes a huge toll on my stamina. Be proud that you forced me to use it to finally secure a win!"
He pumped his fist upward in a victorious motion and let it flop back down to his side.
"Oh please, you didn't win anything."
Luffy raised his head quickly and gave Yamato a very matter-of-fact tone.
"You lost consciousness, therefore, I win."
Yamato wanted to protest but knew that Luffy was right in his statement. She let it go and rose to her feet with a wobble and reached down to help Luffy. Luffy happily took her hand and jumped to his feet as he brushed himself off.
"Alrighty, I'd say that's a damn good way to start our adventure. Let's change into those new clothes and head to the port. We got a ship to catch."
Yamato smiled gleefully at the thought of new clothing. She had spent some time with Makino in the city to pick out outfits for Luffy and herself. She snatched her brother up like a doll and held him under her arm as she took off toward Foosha village to get themselves ready.
Luffy stood in front of a mirror with a perplexed expression. He normally didn't care about his clothing so when Yamato had told him she was picking outfits out for the two of them he had no input other than no pants. He looked himself up and down and couldn't decide if he liked his outfit or not. He had on a button-up red shirt that had the sleeves rolled up to his forearms and the top 3 buttons undone showing off his pectoral muscles. Along with his new shirt, he wore a simple pair of proper black shirts just the way he liked it. He noticed that he wasn't as stringy as he had been the first time around and took notice of his newly built physique. He hit some poses and laughed to himself as he grabbed his black cloak and threw it onto his back. It was reminiscent of the one he wore in Wano. He straightened up and stared at himself in the mirror as he pulled his straw hat onto his head.
"Time to go get my friends."
He turned away from the mirror and made his way to the door and walked out into the hall to wait for Yamato.
Yamato had trouble initially trying to figure out what she wanted to buy when she was looking for clothing but luckily Makino came through. After much deliberation, Yamato had finally settled on an outfit.
She stood in front of the huge body mirror and stared at her own body for quite some time. She was proud to have her muscular physique back after all these years and wondered briefly if she was bigger than she had been. She found her fingers wandering upward to her head. She played with her hair that she had cut a few months back. It felt weird to have such short hair after having it long for years but she admitted that it looked good on her sbd and made her look younger. She shook her head and began to dress. She put on a tight black sports bra top that fit her wonderfully and allowed for great mobility. She moved on to her pants and pulled them on, they were a deep black and fell to her ankle. It had been a chore to find them seeing as she was so tall but it was a happy day once they had. She pulled on a small white tsuna belt with a red fabric hanging from the front and used it to wrap around her waist and hold up her pants. She then reached to her side and pulled up a tall pair of black boots that had been sitting in the corner. They ran up to her knee and put a couple more inches on her height as if she needed it. Finally, she grabbed a long metal chain with wide chain links and strapped it to her tsuna belt. She smiled at her reflection in the mirror and grabbed her tall metal mace and her knapsack. She felt good about this.
"Time to head off!"
With her spirits high she turned to exit and meet up with her brother.
Luffy and Yamato sat together in a fairly good-sized boat that happened to be bigger than the one Luffy left home with originally. The boat had nothing in it but oars and a large crate with food and knowing the two gluttons, it was unlikely the food would last long. Yamato stood near the back end of the boat and due to her sheer size, the poor vessel looked like it wanted to capsize right there in the port. Luffy was on the other end of the boat waving at everyone that had gathered to see them off.
"Luffy, good luck on your journey! Yamato, please keep an eye on him and have fun as well!"
Makino yelled out with tears in her eyes as she waved back at the two as they pushed off and set sail. The duo made it just a few dozen feet out of the port before the Lord of the coast emerged to greet them. Luffy let a smile grace his lips as his straw hat covered his eyes. Yamato smirked as she sat back and got ready to watch. She knew that look all too well.
Luffy jumped off of the boat and kicked into the air to make his way in front of the sea king. He threw his fist back as far as he could and let it coat in Armament Haki and yelled out.
"Gomu Gomu No…"
His arm began to shake as flames erupted from it and roared to life like a small sun. He retracted his arm with impressive speed and threw his fiery fist into the sea king's face as it crumpled like tinfoil under the pure power of the hit. He triumphantly yelled out.
"Red Hawk!"
As if the hit itself wasn't bad enough, the flames shot straight through the beast and cooked its insides, and killed it in one swoop. The sea king sank back down into the water and promptly floated on the top. Yamato threw a rope with a metal hook on the end at the carcass and secured it to the boat. Luffy unfurled their small sail and it quickly caught the wind and began pulling them along speedily. Luffy cracked open the crate and grabbed some fruit and threw a piece to Yamato as the two sat down near each other with serious looks. It was time to discuss their heading.
"So, you met Koby and Nami on the cruise ship that's attacked by Alvida. You then make your way to Naval Base Island and find Zoro imprisoned. You drop Koby off and kick ass while Nami disappears. You grab Zoro and head off to the next place and the next and the next and so on. Sounds about right, yeah?"
Yamato lays it out for Luffy very consistently and it stuns Luffy to an extent.
"Uh yeah. How the hell do you know all of that? You weren't there right?"
"No my dear little brother but I took the liberty of reading the entire ship's log and memorizing it because I never wanted to forget. It was quite detailed which was a surprise to me. It'll be a good source of information to fall back on as guidance or to help us keep track of changes!"
Yamato gave Luffy a thumbs-up and smiled. She then took out a map and a compass and began searching for familiar locations. Luffy moved his body so he was sitting cross-legged and turned to the map.
"How are we supposed to find that cruise ship?"
Yamato sat up straight from hunching over the map. She fiddled with her earring as she pondered the question.
"How did you find it before?"
Luffy smiled nostalgically as he remembered back to the first time he set out.
"I got sucked into a whirlpool and had to hide in a barrel in hopes of not drowning. Two of Alvida's henchmen fished me up thinking my barrel was full of booze. Instead, they got me."
Yamato deadpanned at her brother fondly remembering what most would consider traumatizing.
"I don't think you should be so carefree about that Luffy."
"Huh? Why not?"
"Never mind."
She waved her hand to swat away the conversation and moved on.
"Okay so, we can't just sail blindly in hopes of finding said whirlpool. We need to decide if we should even bother with the cruise ship. I know your friend Koby is there but—"
Luffy interrupts Yamato by slamming his fist into the bottom of the boat.
"That is not an option. We will go help him."
Yamato sighs but lets a smile spread across her lips. Luffy would always help a friend. She puts her hands up in defeat and leans back.
"Okay okay, we'll find Koby. First things first, we need to get to him.."
Her words died off as she noticed Luffy looking at something behind her. He had a look of excitement. She slowly turned around to see what it was that caught his attention but upon seeing it she cursed the universe.
"What the HELL?!"
A whirlpool had formed in front of their ship and they were slowly being dragged into it. Luffy started to laugh maniacally as if he did not have a care in the world. Yamato groaned and quickly grabbed Luffy like an oversized plush and opened the crate with their food inside. She dumped it overboard much to Luffy's sorrow. Yamato hopped into the crate and pulled Luffy in with her. She then sealed the top with the lid and groaned aloud. The crate was considerably bigger than the barrel Luffy had used originally but even then it was still a tight fit for someone of her height and build. It was also mildly painful since she had her mace crammed in with them. She held Luffy close to her body as she closed her eyes and braced for the plunge.
Luffy and Yamato could feel the waves sloshing back and forth just outside the crate. The two were surprised that they remained afloat but didn't say anything about it aloud for fear of jinxing a hopeful situation. They began to feel as though an eternity had passed and just as they were beginning to lose their patience they suddenly saw a metal hook break through the crate's top. Two more hooks followed suit and before they knew it they were being hoisted upward and thrown onto a deck. They could hear the people outside.
"Oh, man! This probably has a bunch of food rations in it, I'm starved after that boarding. Let's crack it open!"
Yamato and Luffy looked at one another and both had devilish grins spread across their faces. Yamato flexed her muscles and quickly stood up and shattered the crate from the inside and quickly took her fighting stance with her mace at the ready. Luffy hopped out as well and planted firmly at Yamato's side ready for anything. Looking at the sibling duo one could deduce that they had fought together a great number of times.
The two individuals that were talking before had flopped back against the wall. Faces could finally be put to the voices and it was easy to see these were pirates. They wore the Jolly Roger of "Iron Mace" Alvida.
"W-w-Woah!! What the fuck!? Who are you two?!"
Luffy smiled widely as he puffed out his chest and put a thumb to it.
"I'm Monkey D. Luffy and this wonderful giant is my First Mate Yamato! We're here on business."
The two pirates looked fearfully at the duo and decided it was best not to mess with these guys. Yamato reached into her bag and pulled out a deep crimson red Menpō that had the design of an Oni and put it over her mouth. Her eye pupils dilated like those of a beast and the whites of her eyes slowly became a darkened black. She moved her mace to her shoulder and looked at Luffy. He returned the look and gave her an authoritative nod. Without any words uttered she quickly took off and disappeared. A few seconds went by before a resounding crash could be heard and Luffy felt the ship lurch in one direction.
"She's gonna have some fun."
He chuckled to himself and closed his eyes and began to reach out with his Observation Haki. He furrowed his brow after some time and eventually opened his eyes.
'I don't feel Nami here stealing anything and I don't feel Koby. Something isn't right.'
Luffy looked to the two pirates who up until this point had just been sitting against the wall like dumbasses. Luffy squat down in front of them and asked them a simple question.
"Where is Koby?"
The two men looked at one another and exchanged puzzled looks.
"How do y—"
"Where. Is. Koby?"
Luffy laced his question with a hint of Conqueror's Haki and the two men went cold. They began sweating bullets and looked as though they were struggling to speak. After much effort, one man finally yelled out clear as day.
"HE'S DEAD!"
The heat in the air was sucked out and a cool chill suddenly ran over the room. The ambiance of fighting in the background fell silent. Luffy stood up fully and hid his eyes from the two terrified men before him. They scurried forward and bowed at Luffy's feet feeling as though they had just upset a god. Luffy suddenly lurched forward and startled the man as he took hold of his shirt. Luffy's face came into view and it held a look of calm anger.
"What do you mean dead?"
The shivering Pirate quickly launched himself into a recount of what had happened roughly two years prior.
"We had just picked the kid up, I mean he was seriously new. Only a couple of weeks he was with us and one day everything went wild. Captain Alvida was her usual when suddenly she hunched over and started heaving heavily. We thought she was kicking the bucket but she suddenly looked up at us and she had these sickly blood-orange eyes and she was laughing like a maniac with really high-pitched kid-like laughter. We had no idea what was up but Koby came up from below deck and Alvida jumped at the poor bastard with her mace raised.."
The man hesitated for a moment as guilt flashed through his eyes.
"She crushed him. Flattened him like a bug. The mess..the smell..by the gods it was awful. She then turned back to herself with no memory of the event and we just moved on. Acted like it never happened. That laughter though, I'll never forget that laugh."
Luffy fell deathly silent as he processed what was told to him. He knew that description all too well and he felt that familiar anger begin to build up deep inside his body. The high-pitched childlike laughter echoed in his ears and through the darkness of his mind, he could see those familiar blood-orange eyes peering deep into his soul. Luffy suddenly threw his head back as his fury roared to life and his Conqueror's Haki began to flare.
"CHAOS!!"
The crackling of pure Haki took out every pirate on board and anyone else unfortunate enough to be caught up in it. Normally Luffy is quite good at keeping his cool even under strenuous situations but ever since he was sent back his emotions had been harder to control and his haki was a detriment if he lost his cool. The sizzling pop of lightning bounced outward onto the deck of the ship and it eventually hit Yamato. She quickly looked toward the direction of this outburst and ran back to her brother.
'Luffy..'
By the time Yamato approached Luffy's position his haki had subsided and he seemed to calm down. Yamato entered the room and saw the two pirate men out cold foaming at the mouth against the wall. The poor bastards had received that blast at point-blank range. Yamato spotted Luffy sitting atop a crate of apples near the far left-hand side of the room. She approached him slowly and took notice of the apple he was twirling back and forth, he eyed it with an air of nostalgia that was not lost on her almost as if he was recalling a distant memory.
Do you suppose I can do it, too? If I'm prepared to die for it?
Do what?
Do you think…even I could join the Navy?
Navy?
Yes! Catching bad guys is my dream!
It's been my dream ever since I was little! Do you think I can do it?!
How should I know?
No! I'll do it! If I'm going to be a chore boy for the rest of my life, then I'll break out of here and catch Alvida-sama– no, Alvida!
Luffy was pulled out of his recollection by his sister crouching down onto her knees on the floor just in front of him. She spoke softly and with concern.
"Lu, are you okay?"
Luffy took notice of his sister's concerned voice and looked at her. Her face held a look of worry but she tried her best to hide it from him. At some point after not answering Yamato took his hand gently and patted the back of it. This brought Luffy some comfort and he squeezed her hand gently. He took in a breath of air and let out a sigh of ache.
"Chaos has intervened in events. I think they possessed Alvida and through her they killed Koby."
Yamato didn't know what to say. She had heard of Koby but didn't know him personally. She knew that Luffy regarded him as a friend and it was he who set Koby on his path to his dream. It was understandable that he was upset. Regardless, Yamato straightened her back and did her best to console her brother.
"I'm so sorry Luffy. I know he was a friend."
Luffy eventually put the apply next to him on the crate and moved his now free hand to rest on Yamato's.
"Thanks. It hurts to think about but we know who is to blame. We need to track down Chaos and put an end to them and see if we can go back home. To the way, things should be."
He gave Yamato a gentle smile. He was alright for now but Yamato could tell that this was affecting him. Even if they could go back to their original timeline where Koby was alive, this was still real. For now.
Together Luffy and Yamato made their way to the upper deck of the cruise ship and spotted Alvida's ship off the starboard side. Luffy and Yamato made their way over to the ship and began looking around. Eventually, Alvida was spotted and although Luffy wanted to hate her and send her flying despite being unconscious from his earlier haki blast, he knew deep down that she was not to blame. Instead, they stole a spare lifeboat and helped themselves to their food and treasury stock. Yamato worked the navigation and they eventually began making their way to Naval Base Island.
The trip wasn't a long one, roughly a day or so. Luffy and Yamato occupied themselves by telling stories or discussing their training and fighting forms and other such things. It was Luffy that spotted the shape of an island and he called it out. The duo was pretty excited but upon getting closer they noticed that something was wrong. The naval base was not where it should have been and the village and surrounding land were scarred black. The closer they got the more they noticed. A handful of marines soldiers stood along the coast and blocked off the port. An entire warship was floating in the nearby waters and lurking silently. Luffy felt his stomach drop as they finally got close enough to the port to attempt docking. A marine soldier quickly caught them and rushed over to the pair.
"Excuse me, sir! You really shouldn't dock here. Navy Headquarters has sealed off this island while it's under investigation."
Luffy finished tying the boat off and jumped up onto the walkway and stared directly at the soldier. Yamato followed suit and slowly stood up and towered over the soldier. The marine man felt his blood run cold as he looked up at this giant and backed away. Luffy stepped forward when another marine stepped forward. This marine was a higher rank as made evident by his coat adorning his shoulders as well as his attire underneath. Luffy could tell this man was a captain. The marine captain nodded at the soldier and the lower rank took the hint to step back and let him handle it.
"Hello, sir. What might be your business here today?"
Luffy looked back at Yamato and she gave a small shrug of her shoulders. Luffy turned back to the captain and spoke.
"I came here to visit a friend. I was unaware of what had happened here. Where is everyone?"
The marine captain looked back to his subordinate and back to Luffy and spoke apathetically.
"Everyone on this island is dead."