"Dead? Everyone? What happened?"

Yamato's question held an air of unease. Not only was this wrong but it made a certain question linger in her mind. Just how much can Chaos change? Did the being even have a limit? It unsettled her as much as it seemed to unsettle Luffy who currently wore an expression much the same as her own.

"I'm sorry ma'am but this is a private marine investigation. I'm not at liberty to discuss the finer details with you."

Yamato's vein bulged upon her forehead. She should have expected such a dismissal from the marine captain but it irritated her regardless. She moved her hand to her mace and made the intent to attack but before she could she felt her hair stand up on the back of her neck. Luffy let loose a controlled blast of Conqueror's Haki and targeted everyone on the island. As the bodies of marines fell like dominos one after the other the marine captain only fell to his knees in a thick sweat accompanied by a heavy breathing fit. Luffy stared down at the man with a shadowed expression.

"Conqueror's Haki?!…but–"

"Tell me everything."

Luffy spoke sternly as he leaned back against Yamato and crossed his arms. The sunlight radiating from behind the pair made them appear as only silhouettes to the marine captain. The aura they gave off was not that of two rookies. If he survived this encounter he would make it his life mission to make sure Navy Headquarters knew of these two's existence. The man realized he had spent too much time thinking and quickly spoke up to not anger this straw-hatted man any further.

"We're unsure as to what sparked the sudden outburst but about a week ago the commanding officer of this base, former Captain Morgan, turned on his soldiers and began a bloody massacre that engulfed the base in chaos. He eventually turned the artillery atop the base on the entirety of Shells Town and reduced it to the blackened scar you see before you. It's known that after the bombardment concluded Morgan returned to the base and ignited the armory stockpile thus engulfing the base in a deadly explosion. The details are hazy but the information has been confirmed by the only found survivor, Morgan's son Helmeppo."

Luffy wore a look of concern and turned to look up at Yamato. She too looked disturbed but both siblings knew only one thing could be behind this. Chaos was afoot. Luffy stood up and crouched down in front of the marine.

"Did Helmeppo say anything else regarding his father? Did he have erratic behavior? Blood-orange eyes? Sickening laughter?"

The captain let a surprised look stretch across his face at Luffy's questions.

"Yes, on all accounts. How can you possibly know that"

Luffy stood up and pulled off his straw hat and ran a hand through his raven locks. He looked around at the damage and put his hat over his chest gently. The captain had a puzzled look and wondered what the gesture was for. Yamato knew what the act meant and closed her eyes silently. Luffy was apologizing to the people who lost their lives here. He knew it was Chaos' doing and he vowed to hunt them down and take care of them once and for all.

Luffy put his hat back on and looked to the captain.

"I know you're going to report this event to Headquarters so when you do remember these names. I'm Monkey D. Luffy, and I'm going to be King of the Pirates."

Luffy turned his back as his cloak caught the wind. He looked at Yamato as he walked by and continued past her to the boat. Yamato stepped forward and grinned wickedly at the marine.

"I'm Oni Queen Yamato. The day of the Straw Hat Pirates has just begun."

The marine man then suddenly hunched over with blank eyes. Yamato turned and quickly joined Luffy in the boat and the two cast off to continue onward on their journey.

Luffy sat against the back of the boat looking at the brilliant blue sky above him. Not a cloud in sight. He wanted to jump up and goof around with Yamato while they sailed for the next island but he couldn't shake this feeling of guilt in his stomach. He hated it. Yamato eventually took notice of her brother's brooding and decided it was best to talk to him. She had a feeling she knew what it was that was bothering him so she spoke up to confirm.

"You're feeling guilty aren't you, Lu?"

Luffy huffed to himself as he twirled his straw hat in his hands.

"You caught me. You know my emotions frighteningly well."

Yamato chuckled and began scooting closer to her brother and offered her ear.

"You can always talk to me. Whenever you're ready, my ear is yours."

Luffy smiled gently and stopped fidgeting with his straw hat.

"Thanks, sis"– he let out a sigh and sat up to face Yamato–"I can't shake this feeling in my gut. I feel responsible for Chaos in a way because he used us to get back here in time. Now he's causing so much damage that I feel like I should have been able to prevent it."

Yamato held a look of melancholy as she rubbed her thumbs together.

"You can't let that weight sit on you like that Luffy. I know you're the Captain but that doesn't mean you have to shoulder this alone. You said it yourself, he used us to get back here. Let me share this burden with you. I know the crew would agree with me."

Luffy nodded gently and lifted his head. He smacked his cheeks and rolled his shoulders.

"You're right. No matter what has happened, no matter how horrible things may seem as a result, we will stop Chaos and we will set things right. However, we can't do it just the two of us. We need our full strength. No more guilt. Let's full speed it to our friends!"

Yamato happily agreed as she pulled out the map and the two began discussing the next stop.

"Sir? Excuse me, sir? You have an incoming call from Commodore Ulysses."

The marine captain blinked himself awake as his senses came back to him in a haze. He could barely make out what his subordinate was saying but he heard a mention of a call. He reached his hand out and felt a ringing snail get placed into his hand. He unhooked the receiver and answered it.

"Hello? This is Captain Theo."

A gruff voice could be heard coming from the snail as it began barking at the marine captain, known to be named Theo.

"Captain Theo! What in the blue blazes are you doing? You were due to report 6 hours ago!"

Captain Theo rubbed his eyes as he spoke.

"Wha–"

He suddenly remembered what had transpired earlier that day and quickly woke up and yelled into the snail.

"I'm so sorry sir but we were halted by an unknown man who was pestering us for information regarding the 153rd branch. Sir, this was not an ordinary man. I have no idea who he was but he did not seem like a rookie. He knocked us all out with Conqueror's Haki! Up until then, I had thought it was a myth! He also knew about the event that he should not have. Sir, it's–"

"Calm the hell down Captain!"

Theo stopped short and realized he was freaking out. He took a breath and cleared his throat.

"Better?"

"Yes sir."

"Good. Now tell me everything you can about this man."

"Hm. I remember my initial arrival being way more exciting than this."

Luffy pouted to himself as he stepped foot onto the dock of Orange Town.

Yamato finished tying off the boat and approached Luffy. She ruffled his hair and smiled.

"That's only because you came crashing out of the sky courtesy of a bird."

"I was shot at by uggy."

"Uggy?"

"Yeah, the mime."

"Do you mean Buggy the Clown?"

Luffy's face grimaced unpleasantly upon hearing the name.

"Ugh, yeah."

Yamato rubbed the bridge of her nose and sighed with exhaustion.

"Mimes aren't even remotely related to clowns Luffy."

Luffy simply shrugged and began walking into the heart of the town. He noticed the wreckage of destroyed town blocks from Buggy's modified cannonballs. Luffy stopped walking when he spotted the townsfolk fixing what looked to be a living area. He knew for a fact that the population should not be there except the mayor of Orange Town, Boodle. He also knew Chouchou was around here as well. He slowly approached the group of civilians and watched as they bantered happily and worked vigorously to repair this building. The people eventually took notice of Luffy and began turning his way but a good handful of them backed up fearfully upon seeing Yamato walking up behind him. As was the usual reaction. Luffy smiled big and put a hand up in greeting the people.

"Yo! Sorry to startle any of you. I'm Luffy, and this is my sister Yamato."

Yamato waved happily at the group and luckily the fearful ones seemed to calm down upon seeing she was no threat.

"We heard a rumor that Buggy the Clown was holed up here causing some noise. This his handy work?"

A large burly worker stepped forward along with a smaller white-haired man wearing rimmed glasses. Luffy recognized him easily. The white-haired man stepped up to the pair and explained the situation.

"He was here for a time. A bounty-hunting duo came through about five days ago and got him though. They took him in for his bounty but were kind enough to leave us the pirate's treasury."

Luffy nodded as he put his hands behind his head and turned away from them.

"Alrighty. Thanks for the information! We'll get out of your hair."

Boodle stepped up and quickly called out.

"You are Straw Hat Luffy, aren't you?"

Luffy stopped on a dime and turned his head slightly to the side and eyed the man.

"Who's asking?"

Boodle suddenly broke out into a cold sweat. The boy had such a powerful aura to him at that moment that he almost didn't want to finish giving him the message but he did anyway.

"Roronoa Zoro. He was the one who apprehended Buggy and took him in. He told me that if a man wearing a straw hat showed up looking for Buggy then I should tell you about him."

Luffy at this point had fully turned around and had a wild grin plastered onto his face. He looked at Yamato who shared in his enthusiasm and the two embraced each other happily and danced around for a moment.

The sudden outburst caught everyone off guard and eventually the two settled down and separated.

"I can't believe it! He's not only out and about but he has to remember! He wouldn't leave me a message otherwise!"

Luffy smiled happily as he jumped up onto a boulder and sat carefree for what felt like the first time. Yamato grinned gleefully and stood near the base of the boulder and turned to thank the man.

"Thank you! We were really worried about him, he's a dear friend of ours."

Boodle nodded slowly and cleared his throat before speaking again.

"There is more. He told us that we were to give this to your navigator. A red-headed girl, is she with you?"

Luffy quickly looked down at Boodle and noticed a piece of parchment in his hands. He quickly leaped off the boulder and landed right in front of the poor old man nearly scaring him to death. He snatched up the item and opened it to reveal a map of the grand line.

'Zoro must have figured Nami would end up here whether she had her memories or not. He was still looking out for her.'

He smiled warmly and gently handed the map to Yamato who very carefully stashed it into her bag.

"She's not with us yet. Got sidetracked I'm sure. Thank you though, we'll be sure to get it to her."

"Very good. The last thing Roronoa told me was that he'd be waiting for you at the sea restaurant draining their booze to annoy curly brow. Not sure who that is but I figured you would."

Luffy laughed boisterously and took a moment to compose himself but he eventually did.

"Oh man, love it! Thanks, old man, we'll go meet up with him right now!"

Luffy turned and began to quickly take off back to the boat. He was very eager to continue and meet up with Zoro but first, they had to go get Usopp. Yamato turned to follow suit but hesitated and turned back to Boodle. She has a curious look on her face.

"Old man, you said a bounty-hunting duo, didn't you? Who was with Zoro?"

Luffy caught the question and stopped jogging. He completely spaced that but his interest was piqued as he turned to face Boodle.

"She didn't offer a name but she had shoulder-length dark blue hair and stormy gray eyes. She was quite built for a woman and she carried a single white sheathed blade on her hip. Oh! She also had a single gold earring to match Roronoa's three gold earrings. Not someone you know?"

Yamato shook her head.

"Not that I'm aware of."

She turned to Luffy who shook his head much the same as her.

"Thank you anyway. Bye now!"

With that Yamato finally turned to catch up with her brother and the two disappeared off toward the port.

Luffy and Yamato took to the sea very quickly and Yamato had their course adjusted and set for the Gecko Islands, Syrup Village. Yamato took notice of Luffy's elevated mood and smiled gently before speaking.

"You seem to be in good spirits. I take it that the information about Zoro cheered you up?"

Luffy nodded speedily as she rested his head back on his crossed hands.

"Oh, it did! It is such a relief that he remembers and is waiting for us at Baratie! I hope Usopp is where he should be and also remembers!"

Yamato grinned and moved to lay back as well but Luffy suddenly screamed bloody murder.

"OOOOHH!!"

Yamato panicked and looked at Luffy wildly.

"WHAT?! What is it?!"

Luffy looked at Yamato with a deer-in-headlights expression.

"We get to see the Going Merry again!"

Yamato fell flat on the boat and backhanded Luffy's head.

"Oooowww, what the hell Yamato! I thought we agreed on no Hits of Love!"

Luffy rubbed the back of his wounded head and poured to himself.

"Then in the future don't fucking scare me like that! You can express yourself without scaring the living shit out of me!"

Yamato huffed gruffly and crossed her arms across her chest.

"Soooorrryyy!"

Yamato eventually laughed and sat back against the boat. Luffy hopped up onto the bow of the boat and held his fist up into the air.

"Usopp! We're coming for you!"

A dark-skinned muscular figure slowly moved up and down on his hands in a handstand pose. He was covered in sweat and his big bushy black hair was tied back into a large bun.

"98, 99, 100!"

The man tucked his legs in and rolled down to his knees. He took a moment to let his body rest before he stood up and wiped his face off with a cloth. He dried all his sweat off as he grabbed his goggles and put them on and let them rest on his elongated nose. He looked to the ocean and took in its scent as he smiled big. His vision darkened all around and though it was quite far away he could see two auras in a small boat. He recognized them instantly and laughed out loud.

"Luffy. It's almost time, isn't it? Man, I can't wait to see you again."