Chapter 6:

"Remember what 3 said?" Luffy asked excitedly and the members of his crew walking to lunch with him cocked their heads to the side, having not paid much attention to the man. "All of the Yonkou are here. That means Shanks is here!" He had the same grin a kid has when they're told they were getting ice cream.

"He's the guy who gave you your hat right?" Franky asked while gazing up at the straw hat on his captain's head.

"Yeah I can't wait to see him!" Luffy walked into the cafeteria and unlike the morning, this time he looked around the huge room. Now that he had someone to look for, he spun his head around looking for him. His stomach grumbled and he put a hand on it, "Food first, then Shanks."

The Straw Hat Pirates got themselves some food and went over to an empty table. As Luffy ate, he spun around in search of the red haired Yonkou.

The others decided to help him and looked around the room as well. They stopped turning when they hit a table of a few pirates and stared with nervous eyes. Big Mom was gulping down dish after dish of candy. She was surrounded by pirates, but there were only three sitting around her table. Two of them Sanji recognized from Fishman Island, but the third looked insane. While the chef was looking towards them, the third member's head started snapping inch by inch in their direction. He stopped once his head was pointed straight at Sanji and the blonde man felt chills down his spine as he stared into the cold, crazy eyes of the small man.

Zoro was looking the other direction and stopped scanning when he felt eyes focused on him. He turned his head towards Blackbeard's main table where the large man was laughing obnoxiously loud. He looked past the core members he recognized from Jaya, and looked at the man staring straight at him.

Who is he? Zoro smirked as he saw the white and red sword sheath on the man's side. He found his opponent for when the crews finally meet. The two of them locked eyes, judging each other based solely off the look in the others' eyes. Shiliew turned away first with a cocky smirk that pissed the Straw Hat swordsman off.

Chopper and Usopp were staring at a group of people all wearing green and black hoods. They'd seen Robin walk over to them earlier in the day and thought maybe they were friends.

Chopper smiled at them and saw three figures turn his direction. He couldn't see their faces under the hoods, but the men just stared at him until he turned around shaking.

Usopp kept looking over there as a small figure stood up and started walking towards their table. The person was a foot smaller than him and he tilted his head to the side, sweating a little as she walked over.

"Hi," she whispered when she was walking past his chair. His eyes opened wide as he recognized the voice, "God Usopp, hehe," the girl's voice giggled and he spun to look at her.

"Koa..." she put a hand on his mouth and held up a finger to her lips. He could see under the hood and the cute girl's face looked back at him. She smiled at him and looked about to say something, but someone caught her eye. The girl he met back in Dressrosa was looking across the table at a different member of the crew. Most of the Straw Hats were focused on enemies or their own food, so they didn't see the girl staring at Jimbei.

Usopp followed her gaze and wondered why she was staring at their fishman friend. "Do you two know each other?" The sniper asked and her reaction made him feel like he'd just hit her with a truck. Guilt washed over the girl's face and she took a step back from the table.

"Uh, n-no," she whispered and turned around. Usopp was going to ask what was wrong, but he felt a light touch on his shoulder and looked at the older woman next to him. Robin watched the girl jog back to her table and the figure next to her rubbed her shoulder before casting a glance over at the Straw Hats' table.

"What was that all about?" Usopp mumbled, confused at what just happened. Chopper had looked up at one point and stared at the unknown girl who looked nicer than the rest of her table. He was just as put-off by her reaction to seeing Jimbei as Usopp was.

Robin sighed and looked back towards the whale shark man at their table. "I'm sure you'll find out soon enough."

Meanwhile, Nami was staring off at the corner of the room where three fishmen were eating together. Arlong, Chew, and Kuroobi- who had recovered from being knocked out by Luffy's Haki.

They didn't see her staring and shaking in anger. Her eyes were focused on Arlong, her mind filling with horrible memories of her childhood. She felt a hand on her left shoulder and turned to see Luffy's arm extended around the two people between them. His hand felt warm and she smiled, his touch exactly what she needed to calm down.

"Thanks Luffy," she mouthed over to him and he smiled wide at her and chuckled.

"Found them," Jimbei said between bites of food. He was trying hard not to charge across the room and punch Arlong for the things he'd done in East Blue, so he was trying to help his new captain and find Shanks.

The whale shark fishman pointed towards a portion of the room where three long rectangle tables were lined up on the wall. Sitting on either side of the tables on benches were smiling, laughing pirates.

Luffy turned that direction and the smile on his face grew larger. "Ben, Lucky," he saw the first mate and the fat man in green arm wrestling on the table while the crew bet on it. "Yasopp," he couldn't get any happier as he saw the man say something and cause all the members around him to burst out laughing. Finally he saw the man he was looking for.

Red Hair Shanks sat back laughing at Yasopp's joke like any other member of the crew. He looked different from the last time Luffy saw him. His build was larger, he'd definitely bulked up. There were new scars on his face and he was wearing a long black cloak draped over his back.

"Shanks," Luffy whispered, sounding a lot like a little kid again. His crew turned to him and were stunned to see Luffy actually looked nervous. He pulled his shirt a little to straighten it out and then stood up. "Come on guys, I want to introduce you to Shanks."

A few members stood up right away while others froze in their spots. Nami and Chopper both had anxious looks as their captain suggested walking over to an Emperor's table. They slowly got up and took a step towards him but Luffy stopped.

"Hey Vivi," he turned and called to the woman sitting next to Igaram at their table. The blue haired woman was staring down at her food and looked up at the rubber man with wide eyes. "Come on," he smiled at her. The girl looked around at the rest of the crew and they were all smiling at her as well.

"Go on," Igaram gave her a nudge and she stumbled out of her seat.

"But I-"

"You're our nakama right?" Zoro asked while looking the other way. The princess moved her hand over to the spot on her arm where the mark saying she was a Straw Hat had long since been washed off.

She looked around and saw everyone felt the same way. With tears held back in the bottom of her eyes she nodded her head with a smile. "Yep," she wiped her face with her arm and followed as Luffy started walking across the room.

A few crews and enemy groups turned as the Straw Hats walked past them. Many of the enemies they had made over the years were still angry with them and held grudges for their defeats. They were still a couple tables away when Shanks saw them and shot out of his seat. He was mid-chew and started choking on his food. The whole Yonko's crew laughed as their captain punched himself in the chest over and over until a chunk of meat flew out of his mouth.

"Ew," Nami whispered, not wanting to offend the strong pirate by saying it any louder. She could see where Luffy got his table manners from.

"Lu-ffy!" Shanks coughed and finally made out what he wanted to say. The pirate captain's crew stopped laughing and spun around. Lucky got distracted and Ben Beckman slammed his arm through the table before turning as well.

"LUFFY!" About half of the Yonko's crew shouted. The newer members all had smiles on their faces as they'd heard a lot about the kid from their captain.

"Shanks!" Luffy called out and ran over. It was a happy moment for both crews as the two captains embraced. Nami resisted the urge to say, 'Awww.'

"Man you've grown," Shanks laughed and looked at the still shorter kid in front of him. "Come on, sit down with us. Let's have a party!"

"We don't have a lot of time before the lunch break is over," Robin reminded her captain from behind.

Shanks slapped his hand to his forehead and looked flustered. "Crap!" He looked ahead at the beautiful woman who told him this and then looked back at the boy wearing his old Straw Hat. "Go on Luffy, who are these people you have gathered behind you."

Luffy was too busy smiling at Shanks and thinking back on past memories and forgot about introducing his crew. "Oh yeah," he said snapping his fingers. Both crews laughed and Luffy started pointing at each one of his friends. "They're my nakama. That's Brook, he's a skeleton who can talk and a musician."

"How do you do?" Brook bowed and Shanks laughed. The skeleton started leaning on a table at thirty degrees and the Red Hair Pirates started cracking up. Most of the Straw Hats sweat-dropped at his antics but both captains were laughing along.

"Then there's Franky, he's our shipwright and built our awesome ship. Also he's a cyborg," the man behind him started walking forwards slowly with his eyes pointed straight forward.

Franky clicked his body multiple times towards Shanks before mechanically lowering his arm. "Beep. Boop." Shanks and his entire crew went wide-eyed at the robot and Franky couldn't have enjoyed the attention more. He stopped pretending to be all robotic and shot up into his signature pose, "YOW it's great to meet you!" Little hands sprung out of his big hands and the stars in Shanks's eyes got larger.

Luffy continued, "Then there's Jimbei," Shanks looked confused as the large fishman took a step towards him.

"Hello Red Hair," the whale shark nodded respectfully.

"Jimbei?" Ben Beckman asked, getting out of his seat. "You're joining up with Luffy?"

"Yes," he responded and the Yonko's crew seemed shocked except for Shanks who just started laughing. "Luffy-kun earned my respect and I'm joining his crew once this tournament is over."

"Hey," a man with spiky red hair called out from the other side of the table, "doesn't that mean you have seven members entered on your team?!"

Lucky Roo was chewing on a drumstick and laughed at Rockstar who seemed all flustered. "Don't worry about it, it's not like they're going to win."

"Hmm?" Zoro said, lifting his gaze towards the sitting man.

The crews stared at each other for a few tense seconds until the captains and all of Shanks crew started laughing at the same time. The mood instantly lightened and Zoro decided not to worry about what the man said. He took it as a challenge and was just going to show him once the matches started back up.

"Go on Luffy, you've got some more faces back here. Who are these beautiful women behind you?" Shanks asked and the girls (except for Robin) blushed.

"Oh, well, Nami's our navigator," he pointed to the orange haired thief. "Robin's an archaeologist. And Vivi's a princess," Shanks was still looking at Robin with a thoughtful gaze until he heard the last part.

"Vivi?" he looked over at the blue haired girl. "Nefertari Vivi? You're a pirate?"

"Shh," Vivi scolded the Yonko and held up a finger to her mouth.

"She's my nakama," Luffy explained, "but she stayed behind to be a princess."

"It's very nice to meet you," the princess bowed a little to the man who went red in the face and moved in front of her.

"I'm in front of royalty, you shouldn't be the one bowing," he bowed deeper and Vivi blushed hard as she stood and got a playful elbow in the side from Nami.

"Haha," Luffy laughed at the girl's reaction and then pointed at the blonde man, "he's Sanji. He's our chef and he kicks stuff."

"The chef huh? You should talk to Lucky, he's really good at cooking. Almost as good as he is at eating!" Shanks hollered over and the man chewing on his chicken leg threw it at the back of his captain's head. "Oi!"

"They look like a rowdy bunch," Robin whispered to Nami. They both chuckled thinking about how similar their own crew acted sometimes.

"Umm, oh yeah," Luffy turned towards his other members. "There's Zoro and Chopper. Zoro likes to cut things and Chopper is a shape-shifting reindeer!" He was excited to show off Chopper but the reindeer puffed out and bonked Luffy on the head in Heavy Point.

"I'm a doctor too!" he shouted and then shrank again, realizing that everyone was staring at him.

"Oh?" Shanks asked. "A reindeer doctor? You have a very interesting crew Luffy."

"Wait there's one more," he said excitedly and the other red hair pirates waited for it. "Usopp come... wait, where's Usopp?" he looked around his crew and they turned their heads back and forth looking for the long-nosed sniper.

"What did you just say?" Someone asked from behind Shanks. The Straw Hats looked ahead as a broad shouldered man with dirty-blonde hair stepped forward. "Did you say Usopp?"

"Yeah," Luffy smiled and a few of the other crew members were waiting for this. Some had no idea what was going on, but the more they looked at the man, the more they saw the resemblance. "Usopp's your son, right Yasopp?" Jimbei and Brook both had similar reactions as they'd never heard this before.

"Your Usopp-san's father?" Brook asked in surprise. They did look alike, but Yasopp didn't have a long nose. Must have been from his mom. The skeleton thought.

"Where did he go?" Nami asked. She definitely saw him a minute ago, but he was nowhere to be found now. "I thought he would have wanted to meet you guys as much as Luffy?"

"I can't believe it," Yasopp said, his mouth twisting into a smile. He didn't doubt Luffy for a second though and was looking around for his son just like everyone else. "To think he'd be on the same ship as you. I always knew he'd be a pirate when he got older."

The crews started eating together and Luffy and Shanks had a reunion as Luffy went on about how much stronger he was. Neither went into much detail about their adventures, instead they made jokes and talked about the fights so far.

"Who's the best you've seen so far?" Luffy asked Shanks and the man thought about it for a second.

He looked at the rubber kid sitting next to him with a small smile before answering, "Kyros. That man is truly a warrior." Luffy looked disappointed and a few of Shanks's crew laughed and turned away, knowing their captain had been cheering Luffy on when he first saw him in the room. "You can beat him though," Shanks continued, taking a swig of sake as he did, "just fight smart Luffy."

No one mentioned how there was a whole other round before Luffy and Kyros would be able to fight each other. They didn't expect Gladius or Suleiman to be able to stop them in the slightest.

"Attention," all the pirates still in the cafeteria looked up at the speakers around the room. "It is now twelve forty five, please return to the arena so we can start up the next fights."

Staff members flooded into the room and went around to the empty tables that were still covered in food. It looked like Big Mom and the Blackbeard Pirates hadn't worried about making a mess and their areas were covered in food and littered with trash.

"Let's go guys," Shanks called out while stepping out of his seat. He turned to Luffy who looked a little disappointed that their party didn't last longer. "Don't worry kid, we've got a long tournament in front of us. You better make it far." He gave him a thumbs up and then Shanks's crew walked up to the wall with their trays. The crew dumped their garbage into the bins and then put their trays on top where they were supposed to go.

Nami stared in shock at how the crew who was so loud and messy cleaned up their area spotlessly. Sanji growled and spun to the crew, "Why can't you guys clean up like that?!" His eyes widened as he saw empty seats where Brook, Zoro, Luffy, and Chopper were sitting. The four of them had snuck away when the other pirate crew were leaving and their food was all over the place. Except for Luffy, who didn't have any crumbs left in his area.

While the remaining members decided to help out the staff a little and clean up their spots, Vivi walked up to Nami and questioned, "Why didn't Usopp come over to see his dad?"

The orange haired woman dumped her tray in the garbage and rested it on top while taking a deep breath. "Usopp once told me, soon after Merry..." she realized something and looked at the princess with hurt eyes, "Oh yeah. The Going Merry, she's," the woman stopped and Vivi understood where this was going.

She felt hurt knowing that the ship that had taken her from the Twin Capes all the way to her homeland was destroyed, but she gulped and nodded, "Continue."

"Alright," the two of them started walking back up the stairs for the first floor and Nami spoke. "Usopp did a lot of stupid things, and he wound up leaving the crew. A lot of things happened: Merry died, he apologized, and he finally came back. He still felt really guilty about what happened and how everyone was acting like it didn't so he came to talk to me about it." She remembered that talk very well, he'd opened up to her completely. "Back when he was just a kid, his dad left with Shanks to go become a pirate. His mom died soon after," Vivi was shocked and dropped her jaw, never suspecting something like that happened to the carefree liar. She didn't say anything though and allowed Nami to continue as they walked down the hallway. "He always wanted to meet his dad, to see him again and prove that he'd become a great pirate, but there was always doubt in his mind."

The two of them walked out the door to the arena and saw all of Trebol's sticky stuff was gone. The lake was refilled, but there were still large cracks all over the stone area. It looked like the part that Inazuma snipped up was tossed to the side in a large pile. Craters lined every area, with very little on the snow section, and Rebecca's blood had been cleaned up from the snow as well. The circular wall around the entire arena had a few large indents in it and there was a large hole where Mihawk's attack sliced through the building. Neither of the girls mentioned any of this as they walked across the broken up stone section towards their seats.

"What was he doubting?" Vivi asked, confused by all of this.

"He doubted whether or not he'd be able to face his father without getting angry." The blue-haired girl thought he would have been excited, but now that she knew what happened... "He left Usopp and his wife, but she died. Usopp grew up alone because of him. I'm sure he still loves his dad, but it's going to be awkward when the two of them meet."

"I understand," Vivi said and decided not to press on the issue any longer.

High up in the stands Usopp sat in a comfy chair all the way against the wall. The arena seemed so far away and he watched as the different pirate crews walked in and over to their different sections. His eyes locked on to the one man he was searching for as he left the hallway. The sniper stared and felt himself getting to his feet, but forced himself back down and sighed.

"Usoland," the man heard a voice call from near him and turned his head to see King Riku walking over in his gladiator costume. "I noticed you walk in the room and you looked quite troubled."

"Hey Ricky," Usopp said with a small grin, remembering what they were supposed to call the old man here. "Shouldn't you be with Rebecca?"

"She woke up," the king of Dressrosa said with a small smile. "You have quite an amazing doctor on your ship. He said she's healing faster than he could have hoped and just needs rest. We're letting her rest in the stands so she can watch the rest of today's fights."

"Oh, that's good," Usopp sat back and thought about the man's original statement. "I'm okay, really." To convince the man, he stood up and stretched out. "Let's go sit with everyone." The King could still sense something was off, but he decided to respect one of his country's saviors and not press the subject any further.

"Let's get ready for the next match!" The announcer's voice called out and everyone rushed back to their seats. The tournament was starting back up. "Next round: Vista vs. Izo!"

Two members of the same crew jumped down from the stands and landed on the dirt section. A large crater separated the two smiling nakama and they stared at each other as the countdown began.

"Disappointing we had to fight each other," Vista said while drawing his swords.

"You're right, now only I can go to the next round," the man wearing lipstick and a kimono retorted.

"Hahaha," Vista twirled a finger in his mustache and got into a fighting stance as Izo drew his pistols.

The match started and both Whitebeard Pirates moved incredibly fast. The two of them predicted each other's movements perfectly. Vista swung his swords in an X and a flying attack soared at his comrade. Izo bent his back and went right under the cross of the lines. As he dropped he shot his weapon four times. Three of the bullets were deflected by Vista's swords and the fourth went right through his top hat.

"Close one," Vista said as he jumped back and landed a good distance away from Izo. The closer he got to the opponent, the harder it was for his friend to miss his shots. "Too bad you didn't finish me there. Rose Rondo," he jumped up in the air and red flower petals started spiraling down and surrounding the other commander.

"Shit," Izo started shooting around and hitting individual petals as they were flying at him, but there were too many. Slashes started appearing on his skin and his kimono was getting ripped as it happened.

"Ah!" Chopper yelped from his seat next to Rebecca. "Aren't they nakama? Why is he hurting him?!"

"If it was a fight between me and you," Zoro started without looking away from the master swordsman down below, "would you want me to go easy on you?"

The reindeer gulped and shook his head, "No, that wouldn't be fun." He still didn't like it as he saw more blood fly from the gunman down below.

"Alright," Izo called out and the petals dropped to the floor, stopping their rotation. "You got me, I give up." He lowered his pistols and put them back in his holsters with bloody hands. "Who would expect sixteen to beat number five anyway?" he laughed.

"The old man didn't rank us based off strength," Vista chuckled as they walked back to the stands.

"I know, I know," Izo stumbled a little and the swordsman grabbed him, tossing him up to Jozu in the stands. The large man caught him with his left arm and plopped him in a seat next to one of the many doctors on their crew. "Thanks."

As everyone was getting ready for the next match, Jimbei turned to Sanji, "That was an impressive match don't you think?" The chef was smoking a cigarette and as Jimbei asked, the announcer called out the winner of the match.

"Oh, I wasn't looking," Sanji replied and finally turned his head back. "That, man, lost. Fwew, thought I might have had to fight him later on." The thought of any cross-dressing individual sent shivers down Sanji's spine as he thought back on his two years in Hell. "Okama," he shook his head and bit down on his cigarette.

Jimbei was annoyed that the chef thought so little of a friend of his. He was friends with most of the commanders and was going to say something, but saw something in the chef's eyes. That's weird, he could see Sanji shivering and decided not to say anything, what happened to him?

"To finish off the first sixteen matches, we have Buggy vs. Cabaji." Most of the Straw Hats sighed, face-palming at the sound of the two idiots as they marched their way down to the arena.

"I have to go up against Captain Buggy in the first round?!" Cabaji shouted up at the sky in annoyance. He hadn't bothered to look at the bracket before, but now he was pissed that this was how they matched him up.

"Wow, it's like they're purposely putting people from the same crews against each other." Vivi commented.

"I doubt it," Robin countered, "I think it really was random, there's just been a lot of unlucky participants so far."

"Buggy," Jimbei said quietly with a mix of annoyance and grudging respect for the man. He hated to owe the loudmouth clown anything, but he did save them at the end of Marineford. They were being chased by the admirals, and Buggy took them the rest of the way to Law's submarine. The thought of thanking him hurts my pride, but it's the honorable thing to do.

"Go Buggy!" two distinct voices shouted from opposite sides of the room as where the Buggy pirates were all shouting.

The new Warlord was laughing and taking in all the praise until he heard the two voices. He spun around furiously and pointed both of his hands at Luffy and at Shanks, "Shut it! I don't want you two to cheer for me!" As he shouted, a sword sliced through his stomach and chopped him in half.

A lot of people in the room had never seen Buggy's power before, so they thought the crew member just killed his captain right there. Some screamed at him and others laughed out loud that the clown was killed it one strike. "CABAJI!" Buggy screamed and his upper half flew up and got in the face of the man on the unicycle.

The swordsman, or acrobat which fit his style better, called out, "Sorry captain. Your orders. You said to win all our matches!" He started swinging his sword around, but Buggy didn't even use his powers to get sliced up and reform, instead he just dodged all the attacks and pulled out two knives as his upper half connected with his dodging lower half.

"You're right," he laughed, "I did say that!" One of his hands flew forward and Cabaji jumped in the air. Now that the black haired man wearing a white scarf was up there though, he had nowhere to dodge and the other hand shot at him as the first changed direction. Both hit him at the same time and knives went through his chief of staff.

"Ugh," Cabaji fell to the ground and managed to land on his feet, but fell to one knee fast.

"Give up," Buggy commanded his crewmate. It sounded low to pull the captain card here and order your nakama to lose, but a few people in the room saw it differently. The clown laughed as his knives went into his crewmate, but he didn't want to hurt his friend just like any of them.

"Yes Captain Buggy," Cabaji said and then conceded. Some of Buggy's crew felt he had cheated his victory, but their doubts were cleared by Mohji who was awake now and explained what a few others in the room were thinking. This made Buggy's crew love him so much for his care for them and they started crying and shouting how much they loved him.

"We'd follow you to the end of the Earth!"

"I'd lay my life down for you!"

Buggy had a drop of sweat coming down his face but forgot about it as a voice shouted, "Winner: Buggy!"

"Hahahahaha!" he laughed and jumped back into the stands where he received much more praise than he deserved. A staff member came out and grabbed Cabaji before running off towards the infirmary and Buggy nodded to one of his original crew members who ran after them with a first-aid kid.

"You think Buggy's gotten any stronger?" Nami asked Zoro after watching the fight.

The man was fuming angrily and Sanji turned to the navigator, "He's just mad because he still wouldn't be able to beat him."

"Shut up!" Zoro shouted at the man who only laughed harder. The green haired swordsman was red in the face. I could beat Buggy. I could definitely beat Buggy. Even without my swords, I could slice him up with no-sword style... but that's still cutting, he'd reform. I could, punch him, the man frowned and Sanji saw he was trying to think of a strategy to beat Buggy which caused him to roll on the floor laughing.

A/N Lunch and some nakama v. nakama battles. Leave a review and tell me what you think. There are some intense matchups coming soon and I hope you enjoyed this chapter and the story so far. 'Till next time!

Son of Whitebeard

lots of money

Thanks for the review and yeah, I needed to have a good reason for all the powerful characters meeting up at the same time, so what better way to connect them than with MONEY!