Chapter 9: The Rumor.

AN: Hey Everyone! I'm back with another chapter. It concludes the Kuro Arc, who was quite long, and it will probably give you headaches, because in this chapter we'll travel through space and time ! And I know it's gonna be confusing, so this whole time thing won't last long. I swear.

So, to be a bit more clear:

-The present time = After timeskip

-The Straw Hats time = Before timeskip

And we begin the chapter in the Straw hats time.

Enjoy :D

In Grand line, every myth, every legend, every rumor could reveal itself to be true, or to find an explanation that surpasses even the myth behind it. This man knew it very well, having dwelled on these seas for years and witnessing countless incredible phenomenons. He also knew that nothing was impossible in this World, and everything happened for a reason. So, yes, any ordinary pirate would just laugh at whoever told him this rumor and continue his petty little life, but this man wasn't any ordinary pirate. This rumor sparked his interest, his longing for power. Even if it was one of the faintest hints of a rumor that could exist, this man sensed that there was more to it than imaginary tales of a boozer. Something as strong as the gravitational energy pushed this man to go there and check the veracity of this rumor simply because he was attracted to power like people were attracted to Earth.

But for now, Luffy was still far away from this sea, and completely oblivious of what was actually going on in Grand Line, no matter which side or which timeline one would look at. Monkey D. Luffy was on the Coast of Gecko Island, staring at his travelling companion with nostalgia.

"I'm happy to present you the Going Merry, in perfect state." Merry announced to Luffy and his crew.

The reactions didn't wait. "Merry!" Luffy exclaimed with joy, and sadness, and guilt. "I'm so happy to see you again!" He grinned. "And I'm so sad too." Then one second later he cried. "It's my fault, we didn't take care of you, we were reckless, I even threw you to an iceberg…"

Usopp sniffed, doing his best not to cry. He already saw the Merry once, after all.

After the tearful where Zoro was scolded for not shedding tears, and everyone telling a ship how they were sorry that they were happy to see it again, Luffy climbed on the Merry and sat on the ship figurehead.

"You missed me, my favorite seat!" Luffy declared with a huge grin.

Nami and Zoro were already on the Merry, inspecting the ship once again. The Going Merry was the same as in their memories; they shared many adventures with this ship and would share many once again.

Usopp was the only one remaining ashore.

"Well…" He began, staring at Kaya, then at Piiman, Tamanegi and Ninjin. "I guess it's time for the Usopp Pirates to disband."

The three kids sniffed, doing their best to hold their tears. "Alright!" Tamanegi shouted. "You're going to become a true warrior of the seas!"

Usopp then stared at Kaya. "Next time I come to this village…" He said with a huge grin on his face. "I'm going to tell you even more unbelievable stories."

Kaya smiled. "Thank you. I look forward to it."

"Hurry up and get on board already." Zoro scolded to Usopp.

He grinned, remembering when he joined Luffy's crew for the first time, and then got on board.

They casted off, and the caravel along with the four straw hats left the island, heading to their next destination. After they drank in honor of the going Merry's comeback, Usopp made the straw-hat Pirate flag again and painted the same Jolly Roger on the sail.

"Alright!" Luffy exclaimed. "With this, our Going Merry is again ready for action!"

"And now that we have the Merry back, I think it's time to speak about what we're going to do next." Nami declared.

Luffy scratched his head. "Uhh? That's obvious? We go pick up Sanji, then we kick Arlong's ass, and then…"

"Yes, I know." Nami interrupted him in exasperation. "I know it sounds normal for you but for us normal people it isn't."

Usopp blinked. "Luffy makes sense. In fact it's not like we have the choice anyway. We'll take the same route as before so we can reach the others."

She pinched the bridge of her nose. "I think you haven't understood. We have reached most of our destinations purely by chance."

Luffy pouted. "We can worry about it later."

"And, I don't have a map of Grand Line this time." Nami added.

Zoro opened his remaining eye. "You can just steal one." He said between two naps.

She blinked, realizing that Zoro made a point. "But where?"

Zoro shrugged. "I don't know. At a marine base probably."

Nami raised an eyebrow. "Logue Town? Yeah, that's not a bad idea." She admitted. "Okay, next topic. We're in the past; I think everyone agrees with that."

Luffy, Usopp and Zoro nodded.

"We have knowledge of the future." Nami said with a serious tone, raising a finger. "But we shouldn't tell anyone we don't trust. And even then, they might take us for fools."

Usopp stared at Luffy. "It's already the case." He said jokingly.

Luffy raised an eyebrow, imaginary question marks appearing above his face.

"There's something else." Nami continued. "If we are back in the past, then it's possible someone else, or another crew may have knowledge of the future as well."

Luffy grinned. "There's no problem if they're good guys!"

Zoro smirked. "And if they're not, we'll slice them, so there's no problem at all."

Nami rolled her eyes. "Whatever. So, like I said, we have knowledge of the future. It means.." Her expression suddenly changed. "We can use it to get more money!"

Usopp, Luffy and Zoro sweat-dropped.

"We're going to be rich!" Nami said joyfully. "I'm sure some of you have written all of the lottery numbers during these past two years, right?"

Usopp stared at her with a straight face. "Nope."

Zoro closed his eye again. "Hadn't the time for this nonsense."

Luffy cocked his head. "What's a Lottery?"

Surprisingly, at the exact location where this tiny ship was, the weather, once very calm, turned into a deadly storm.

In the present time, somewhere in the seas of the New World:

Issho, also known as Marine Admiral Fujitora, held a piece of paper in his hand, and wondered why it didn't move anymore. After the events in Dressrosa, the Admiral had escorted the former Schichibukai, Donquixote Doflamingo, to Impel Down. Even if, in the way, they had been attacked by Jack the Drought, one of Yonkou Kaidou's lieutenant, and lost two marine warships. Hopefully, Fujitora managed to both keep the prisoner and repel the assaulter, despite having suffered human and material losses. In the end, Jack was presumably dead, and Fujitora managed to accomplish this mission and Doflamingo was now in the gaol of Impel Down. After the escort mission was completed, Admiral Issho decided to hunt down Trafalgar Law and Monkey D. Luffy in order to bring their heads to the Marine HQ, as ordered by Fleet Admiral Sakazuki. Law never encountered with Fujitora's fleet, but Luffy did. Ten days before there was a naval battle where the Marines fought against the straw hats. Unfortunately, the Pirates managed to fly away, literally, by using the advanced technology of their ship. But during the battle, Fujitora, thanks to his devil fruit powers, managed to place one of his own Vivre Cards on the Thousand Sunny in order to trace them. The two Vivre cards were attracted to each other and one could find the location of the other, should he have one piece of this paper. The fleet had followed the Vivre Card's direction and followed Luffy's track.

Until now.

Because now, the Vivre Card had completely stopped moving, as if this piece of paper was nothing but a mere piece of paper.

But Fujitora was too occupied to worry about that for now. He had sensed a strong aura right in front of his fleet. He took one of the snail phones that were linked to speakers.

"I am Admiral Issho of the Marine Headquarters!" He announced. "Disclose your identity and show yourself, or we will use force!"

Inside of the mist, a certain man was sleeping on a small embarkation. He opened an eye, then another.

He rubbed his eyes, and then stretched his arms. "What's happening today? It's the second time I'm being disturbed…" The man mumbled. "Even the sea kings are more polite than humans."

In the warship of Admiral Fujitora, the marines were confused.

"Are you sure there's someone, Admiral?" An officer asked. "Even I don't see anything."

"Certain." Fujitora replied.

And then, a voice resonated inside the misty zone.

"Marines?" Someone shouted. The voice was very loud. "Don't you have better to do than disturbing my nap? I don't know, catching Pirates for example. I'm not a Pirate, but if you don't leave me alone then I'll send you flying!"

Vice-Admiral Maynard twitched in annoyance. "How impudent!" Then he turned to his superior. "We should capture him, he is threatening us and refuse to cooperate."

Issho frowned. "It's understandable, Maynard. We are far away from the headquarters, and don't have much authority in this area. It's natural that civilians here don't like us, since we've abandoned them to monsters such as Kaidou."

Maynard flinched.

"However." Fujitora continued. "It is true that he threatened us. It is our duty to respond."

The Admiral drew his shikomizue by a few centimeters, and then sheathed it with a snap. Then he grabbed the snail phone.

"Very well!" Fujitora said. "You chose to oppose us resistance, therefore we will act accordingly to your level of threat!"

The unknown man that was sleeping on his boat ignored the warnings of the so-called admiral. Instead he checked his fishrod, and sighed in disappointment when he realized that no fish took the bait.

He groaned. "Oh, I'll have to buy food again, what a bummer."

Then he sensed something wrong, and raised his eyes. Then dropped his jaw. The sky darkened. Above him there was a giant, red ball falling to his direction with an amazing speed. There was approximately 500 meters separating the meteor from the sea.

"A FREAKING METEOR!" He shouted, and this time his voice wasn't amplified. "ARE YOU NUTS?"

300 meters before impact.

"Was that necessary?" Vice-Admiral Maynard asked to his superior, staring at the meteor, veiled by the mist and that was about to crash.

150 meters before impact.

But the Admiral didn't respond. He was too shocked upon sensing what his mysterious opponent would do in a few seconds. This time, Fujitora's jaw dropped.

"Dissapeared?" He muttered.

And then, one second later, when the meteor was supposed to hit the ocean, nothing happened. As expected by Fujitora the meteor disappeared. There was no shock, no tidal waves, and no rubble. There was just this voice, resonating everywhere.

"You're truly a bunch of retards!" The voice boomed. "Throwing a meteor for such a petty reason! At least this thing won't make any victims now…. I think."

27 years before, in the seas of the New World.

An impressive armada was surrounding the Oro Jackson, the ship of the Pirate Gol D. Roger. The leader of this armada, Kinjishi no Shiki, was having a discussion with the captain of the Roger Pirates.

"How many times have we had this talk, Roger?" Shiki said with a smug grin, a cigar on his mouth. "We had our problems when we were young, but that is all water under the bridge now! You know the location of the weapon that can destroy the World, and I've got this manpower! Plus I've got the perfect plan that I've spent years working on! We'll be able to take over the World in no time! Be my right-hand man, Roger!"

However, Gol D. Roger a.k.a the freest man in the World couldn't possibly accept Shiki's proposition. "I have no desire to rule, Shiki!" He retorted with panache.

His crew was right behind him, full of pride, ready to fight. Well, except for that guy with a funny nose…

"We're going to die, we're going to die, we're going to die!" Buggy squeaked desperately.

"What good is a Pirate if he can't do what he wants?" Roger asked rhethorically. "You can pressure me all you want…"

"We're going to die, we're going to…"

And then, poof, a meteor appeared just above Shiki's ship. It didn't fell from the sky, no, it just popped up, out of nowhere.

And the meteor fell on Shiki's ship.

And the meteor destroyed Shiki's ship, among others that were nearby.

And that day, Kinjishi no Shiki died because of a meteor that pooped up out of nowhere, just above his ship.

Roger sweat-dropped.

Rayleigh sweat-dropped.

Shanks sweat-dropped.

Buggy blinked dumbly. "Oh, okay."

The now legendary battle of Ed War had finished before she even started. The members of Shiki's fleet, thinking that Roger was the one who summoned that meteor, spread the Rumor that a Pirate crew was, without a doubt, invincible and the legend of Gold Roger began sooner than expected.

In The Staw Hat's Time:

A small embarkation was approaching a winter island in Paradise.

This man was craving for power. After all, who didn't? A man needed the power to realize his dreams, his goals, his ambitions… and for now, this man, this pirate, was looking for something specific, something that would surely give him power. A few weeks before, he had heard an interesting rumor concerning the island where he headed to. Apparently, a sort of monster had wiped out an entire village one night, a couple of years before. This monster was unknown and had never been seen before, even less after this incident. There were thousands of rumors like these in this sea, and verifying them all would take more than an entire life, but this pirate and its crew were nearby, and some details of the story perked his interest. He had spoken with someone who had seen the beast, and, normally, someone who'd lie wouldn't say such things like "the giant yeti wore a purple hat" if he wanted his tale to be taken seriously. This detail was important, and Marshall D. Teach deducted that this "beast" was in fact a human, a Zoan devil fruit user who might have lost control of his power when he once tried the "Awakening".

The raft finally accosted at the winter island, next to a small village.

"So that's Drum Island." A pale thin male named Laffite said. He was wearing a black top hat and was holding a red wooden cane in his hand.

"The kingdom was once famous for its doctors." Doc Q said. His horse set foot on the snowy terrain, and then fell.

The big, imposing muscular guy jumped out the raft and landed on the ground. "But we ain't here for them, WIIIIAHAHAH!"

"Today we might have a new nakamas." Laffite mused. "But at the condition this monster will come visit us. We don't even know if he really exists."

"Everything has already been written." The sniper of the crew said solemnly, before setting foot on the island. "Fate is the only decider."

Then, finally, Blackbeard set a foot on Drum Island. "You're right, Augur." Marshall D. Teach said. "We'll see if this rumor's true, but for now, how about' we 'kill' time a bit? Right guys? ZEHAHAHAHAHA!"

AN: Yes. Chopper versus Blackbeard.

Yes. I do believe that's a possibility Blackbeard was looking for Chopper's power in the first place.

Yes. Sometimes people die in my story.

Anyway, this chapter left many, many, many interrogations (EDIT: questions!). All of them - most of them - will be answered in the next chapter.

Enjoyed it? I hope so. Please leave a review if you did, until next time :D