Izuku watched the members of Baroque Works as they approached Whiskey Peaks. They hurriedly cleared away crates and brought out kegs of beer, setting up a spread for the approaching pirates.

Izuku snorted. "Can't imagine how many people would fall for a trap like this."

"You'd be surprised," Zoro murmured. "Plenty of the bounties I've brought in would've gone straight for the booze."

Igaram greeted them with a smile as the Going Merry docked. His eyes flitted to Vivi, who gave a quick hand-sign. Igaram's eyes widened before he settled back into a jovial expression. "Welcome, brave adventurers! Drink and be merry! We'll have a feast prepared while you're enjoying the festivities!"

"A feast?" Sanji asked. "Aren't you guys short on food?"

Igaram's face froze. "Ah, you must've heard a false rumor. Come, come! Right this way."

Izuku frowned. That Mr. Nine Vivi had thrown overboard was supposed to swim back and tell them their backstory for coming here. He looked around but saw no sign of them.

"I think Mr. Nine went back to Laboon," Izuku whispered.

Zoro put a hand on his sword. "Should we start the party now?"

Izuku thought it through. His first impulse was to rush to the doctor's side, but he'd seen him come through his fair share of scraps. "Crocus can handle him. We'll play it Vivi's way."

Zoro huffed and relaxed his shoulders. "Right, then. Bring on the booze!"

Izuku didn't exactly enjoy parties, but being a part of the Roger pirates meant he had plenty of experience with them. The party Baroque Works threw for them felt forced, as though the Straw Hats were at the center of their universe. The people on the fringes frowned until they saw you directly looking at them, and the only people drinking were those hovering around Zoro and Nami, matching them mug for mug.

Hatsume and Usopp had their own table, lost in tinkering with parts from Loguetown. The Baroque Works agents tried beguiling them into eating and drinking, only to give up when neither acknowledged the plates and mugs thrust at them.

For his part, Izuku made a show of eating and drinking, letting most of the alcohol slosh onto the floor. Even with women hanging over each shoulder, Sanji's eyebrow twitched at the sight of wasted food.

"I'm feeling beat," Izuku said. "Think I'll take a leak, then head off to bed. Think we'll get another party in the morning?"

"I'm sure we will." Sanji's nonchalant tone had just a twinge of anticipation underneath it.

Izuku wobbled to his feet, mimicking the drunken stagger he'd seen on other pirates. He had genuinely needed to piss, and once he had finished, he went back towards the party. Two agents staggered towards him, with the same exaggerated drunkenness Izuku used.

"Hey, bruddah… 'hic'... You're my best friend, you know that?"

Izuku rolled his eyes and stepped aside, but the drunken man careened towards him. Almost too late, Izuku saw the glimmer of Sea Prism hidden beneath his coat sleeves. His hand snaked out, catching the man's wrist with the sparkling handcuffs dangling an inch away from his chest.

"Careful there," Izuku said, pointedly ignoring the Sea Prism. They couldn't afford to spring the ambush, not when Vivi hadn't had a chance to explain everything to Igaram yet. "You better get to bed before you hurt yourself."

Izuku felt a tingling sensation coming from his stomach. He looked down and saw the point of a sword sticking out of him. Stupefied, Izuku turned around, with the sword carving its way through his torso. A Baroque Agent gaped at him, hand shaking as Izuku faced him.

Izuku looked down at the sword. Then back at the man. The agent dropped the sword and ran away. Cursing himself, Izuku reached out for the man and instead hurled a lightning bolt down the hallway. The man hit the ground with a taut scream as sparks crackled across his skin.

Izuku felt his strength ebb away when the cuffs clicked across his wrist. The agent that tried to stumble into him grinned and shouted, "Got you! Not so tough now, huh?"

Izuku headbutted him. As the man staggered back, Izuku grabbed him by the collar and rammed his forehead into his nose. Again, and again. Cartilage crunched, and blood spewed all over both of them. Once the man stopped struggling, Izuku dropped him to the floor. He fished around his coats and pants pockets until he found the key to his cuffs.

With two agents down, Izuku pondered his choices. If he returned to the others, the Baroque Works agents would know the ambush failed and attacked. He trusted everyone to handle themselves, but he didn't want Mei in any potential danger, and it wouldn't give them time to get Igaram's help.

But if he stayed missing and made sure Baroque Works thought him captured, then he could take some of them out while the rest were distracted with the party. And to make sure the deception worked, he needed Igaram.

Izuku prodded the two bodies on the floor. The one he headbutted was out like a light, but the one he zapped groaned and rolled over. Izuku picked him up by the shirt and rammed him into a wall.

"Where is Mr. Eight?" Izuku asked.

The man spat in his face. The spit flew straight through Izuku and hit the floor. Izuku gave the man an unimpressed stare and slammed him again. "I asked you a question."

"I'm not telling you anything."

Izuku paused. He hadn't thought this through. He had assumed that the agent would spill his guts the moment Izuku asked. For a moment, Izuku considered simply letting the man go, but he needed to find Igaram. He couldn't wander through the place hoping to run into him by chance. He needed directions. And he needed this guy to give it to him, whatever it took. But what could he do?

He knew what Kacchan would do. So, he tried that.

Izuku's hand crackled ominously. The man's eyes widened as Izuku clamped down on the man's shoulder.

"What did you just say to me?"

The man jerked in his grasp. Muffled screams rasped in the man's throat with his jaw clenched tight. After a few seconds, Izuku lifted his hand, and the man gave a tearful, shuddering gasp.

"Room… behind kitchen…"

After getting more detailed instructions out of him, Izuku clocked him in the face and dragged the two agents into the bathroom. Izuku draped a coat over the both of them and hoped no one would notice them.

The journey towards Igaram went frustratingly slow for Izuku, between having to dodge the occasional Baroque Works patrol and getting turned around by the labyrinthine construction of the place, with hallways and rooms littered haphazardly across the building. When he finally reached the kitchen, he faced a final obstacle, a bustling kitchen with a dozen cooks scrambling to prepare heaping piles of food.

Pondering how to make it through unseen, Izuku noticed a latch on the smokestacks leading out of the ovens. Gambling on everyone's attentions being elsewhere, Izuku aimed at the latch holding it in place. His aim proved a lot less discriminate than he had hoped, and the entire section of metal pipe exploded. A cloud of sooty smoke billowed out across the room, and the cooks all coughed and dropped to their knees. Holding his breath, Izuku dashed through and darted into the back room.

Vivi had two swords drawn, while Igaram looked ready to sound an alarm with a saxophone of all things.

"Is it starting already?" Vivi asked.

"They tried to get me when I split off from everyone else. I knocked them out and hid them."

Igaram grinned. "You want me to spread the word you were caught?"

"And point me towards whatever needs doing most."

Vivi gave Igaram a sharp look. "What we need is the Eternal Pose to Alabasta."

"And the perfect person to get it just fell in our lap."

Vivi blinked, not expecting that answer. Igaram cleared his throat, as if tuning his own voice, and said, "The only ones trusted with that Eternal Pose are the top five pairs. As it happens, Mr. Five had just arrived to inspect our operation here."

"How strong are they?"

"Strong enough that I'd only send you or Luffy after them. Preferably both."

"If I fight them, they'll raise the alarm," Izuku pointed out.

"Unless you're able to steal it off their person, I'm afraid you'll have no other option."

Izuku considered it. "Isn't this on the route to Alabasta? I remember visiting it from here."

"It is, but most pirates skip the next stop. Littlegarden, aside from being a dangerous island, mainly stops pirates because it takes a hundred years to reset the Log Pose there."

Izuku's stomach flipped. He hadn't known about that wrinkle, and they didn't have Eternal Poses to reset their route. "So we need one to Alabasta."

"Are you up to it?"

Izuku took a deep breath. He felt woefully out of his depth, in an enemy stronghold alone with hundreds of bounty hunters out to get him, but he remembered how easily he had dealt with the two ambushers. They couldn't even touch him without Sea Prism, and even with it, he could throw them around like ragdolls.

"What's the best way to get to them?"

The best way, it turned out, meant clambering into an air vent in the ceiling, which doubled as a convenient bolt-hole to the cellar. A passage from there led to a secluded spot by the docks. Forewarned of all the agents on lookout in the unlit houses, waiting for the full ambush to begin, Izuku skirted his way across the shore until he reached the mayor's lodgings. Igaram had lived there, until the higher-ranked members booted him out, and as a result, he had a spare key for the back. Izuku unlocked it, crept in, and followed the sounds of a man talking.

"I don't see why we need to wait," Miss Valentine snapped. "We should just kill them both and be done with it."

"We could do that," Mr. Five agreed, "Or we could let them deal with the Straw Hats for us, then kill them and take the credit."

"And what if they team up with the Straw Hats?"

"Then we kill them all. Simple. It won't matter how strong they are if we bomb the entire island."

Izuku's blood froze. He ran over to the door and peered through the crack. Mr. Five leaned against the back wall, while Miss Valentine sprawled out on a big, fluffy mattress.

Miss Valentine made a retching noise and said, "Please don't make me carry your snot again. It's disgusting!"

"More disgusting than other bodily fluids?"

"What about your hair? Couldn't we use that?"

Mr. Five protectively covered his dreadlocks. "Absolutely not! It has style!"

"It has fleas."

"Do you want those fleas on your umbrella?"

"Ugh, fine. But we only do that if they team up, got it?"

Izuku searched the room for any sign of the Eternal Pose. The only personal items they had lying around were a striped parasol and an unloaded pistol. Izuku facepalmed, now realizing that they probably carried it on themselves. He berated himself for not thinking to bring Nami along for a heist.

As he watched Mr. Five idly grabbed the pistol and blew into it. "Something tells me they already have."

He raised the pistol towards the door. Even as he told himself it was unloaded, Izuku leapt aside. It proved the correct decision when the entire door blew apart.

"Mr. Five, what the hell? I liked that door!"

"The building's got rats. I think that one's still scurrying around."

Cover blown, Izuku darted in, using Soru to dart back and forth before punching at Mr. Five. The man's skin exploded from the contact, and both of them flew away from each other. While Izuku shook himself off, Miss Valentine leapt feet-first towards him.

"Kyahahaha! Eat this, idiot!"

Miss Valentine passed straight through him. She also passed straight through the floor, shattering the floorboards in the process. Izuku went tumbling with the rest of the wreckage and got buried under a pile of broken timber.

Mr. Three leapt down and dusted himself off. "You couldn't have gotten him without bringing down the place?"

"I didn't get him."

Izuku took that as his cue to get up. He shrugged off a wooden beam and rolled his neck. "Explosion and mass manipulation? Can you manipulate any mass, or is it only your own? And what kind of compound causes your explosions? Can you change them?"

Miss Valentine glared at him. "Are you seriously expecting us to tell you how our powers work?"

"Not really, but it couldn't hurt to ask."

"Well, if you want to know what they can do so badly, then hold still!" Miss Valentine leapt up, while Mr. Five threw snot-bombs at Izuku. Miss Valentine rode the updraft of the explosions with her parasol. After floating well over the island, Miss Valentine came crashing down with the force of a missile, aiming where the blasts cast shadows on the smoke cloud.

Izuku reached up and caught both her feet. He sank into the ground, and his arms strained under the sheer weight pressing down on him. Turning nimbly, Izuku grabbed her ankles and flung her bodily into the ground. Her weight shrunk at the last second, and she bounced off only slightly worse for wear.

"I get it," Izuku said. "Force is mass times acceleration. You reduced the force on your body by reducing your mass as well. But if I do this…"

As though doing a hammer throw, Izuku flung Miss Valentine high into the air. Her low mass sent her flying extremely fast, but her parasol snapping open kept her from flying into the ocean.

With her out of the fight, Izuku rushed Mr. Five. More prepared for the explosions, Izuku used Tekkai and punched through each blast.

"It's not nitroglycerin," Izuku said. "The color's wrong, and it doesn't have that burnt sugar smell."

Mr. Five, struggling against the barrage of crackling punches, spat on the ground, kicking up an enormous dust cloud. He gave a loud, sharp whistle. The houses around him flew open, armed members of Baroque Works pouring out like angry wasps.

Coughing and waving a hand around, Izuku looked up and found himself surrounded. A broadside of pistols pointed towards him, while swords cut off his retreat. Still others brandished buckets of glittering gray sand.

"You might be a Logia," Mr. Five snarled, "But you're nothing if you get a bit of Sea Prism on you."

Izuku grinned. "You'll have to hit me first."

Sand leapt at him from all sides. Izuku crouched and Soru'd underneath it all, appearing in a flash right before the pistoleers. In a panic, they all fired, riddling the ground with bullets that ricocheted into their own ranks. Izuku swept a leg up, kicking three back and knocking a fourth shot aside.

Izuku saw three more with buckets running towards him. Izuku grabbed a man and hurled him into the group, scattering sand across the ground. Two swords slashed from behind. He grabbed one wrist and pulled the man in for a vicious headbutt, then flung him into the second swordsman.

More buckets of sand flung at him, this time aiming high and low in an inescapable cloud. Izuku leapt into the air, soaring over the sand with Geppo. Miss Valentine joined him in the air, and she swung her parasol at him. The impact caught Izuku in the shoulder and smacked him back to earth like a giant flyswatter.

"Kyahaha! I sprinkled Sea Prism all over my parasol! Take that, you idiot!"

Izuku grunted and pulled himself out of his impact crater. His shirt had glittering dust all over it that sapped his strength. He rubbed his shoulder and said, "That was a nice hit! You didn't change your umbrella's mass, though, did you?"

The grunts all pulled back, intimidated by how easily Izuku shrugged off the hit, but Mr. Five shouted at them, "You idiots, he got Sea Prism on him. Now's our chance!"

Mr. Five threw a snot-bomb at him. A handful of agents fired a few hasty shots into the smoke, while the grunts carrying swords and clubs waited for a clear view.

When the smoke cleared, Izuku's tattered shirt floated to the ground.

Mr. Five smirked. "See, boys? Logias go down easy once you get them wet."

From above, Miss Valentine shouted, "He's behind you!"

Mr. Five turned around and took a blast of lightning to the chest. As he lay twitching on the ground, Izuku walked up to him, shirtless, ignoring the other agents around him. "I wasn't sure that would work so well, but a quick Soru got me clean instantly."

"You bastard!" Miss Valentine shouted. "Take this!"

She made it halfway to the ground before Izuku threw lightning at her. The metal umbrella carried the electrical current up the handle and through her arm. Visibly charred, she fell like a scorched moth.

Izuku smiled as he let electricity flicker between his fingers, admiring the color, the feel, the sharp odor of ozone that hovered around him. And more than that, he took in the awe and fear of the men watching him. He had felt strong, fighting alongside Roger's crew. But here? For the first time in his life, Izuku felt powerful.

He finally knew what it felt like to be Bakugo.

"Alright, scumbags," Izuku said, grinning menacingly as he dialed up the electricity. "Who's next?"

The Baroque Works agents all collectively decided that they weren't next. Izuku leapt after the closest one, drew back a fist, and shouted, "Die!"

The man's spine bent backwards as the punch sent him flying through the group in front of him, and they all toppled like bowling pins. Izuku stared at the unconscious men strewn about and burst out laughing.

"This feels amazing! I could beat anyone I wanted with power like this. I could even beat Bakugo!"

Izuku looked around and saw that all the Baroque Works agents had fled. With a sigh, he leapt into the air and hovered with Geppo. One group ran for the docks. Izuku clenched his hand. Electricity snapped between his fingertips, straightening into a lance of crackling light. He threw, and a thunderbolt hurtled upon the nearest ship. Timber went flying, and the agents scurried away.

Izuku readied another thunderbolt. A second group ran for a warehouse. The thunderbolt crashed straight through the roof, and a deafening explosion blasted the entire building apart. Bullets and cannonballs shot through the air, some mowing down nearby agents. A cannonball flew straight through Izuku's head. He turned to watch it disappear on the horizon and smirked.

"Hah! I really am invincible!"

Izuku fell back to the ground and admired, the limp, smoldering bodies around him. His eyes fell on a glimmer of glass poking out from Miss Valentine's jacket. He plucked the Eternal Pose from the unconscious woman's pocket and held it up to the sun.

"Perfect. I just need to get back to the others and-"

A gunshot rang out. Mr. Five, propped himself up on one elbow. Blood trickled out of his nose and the corners of his mouth. He drew a rasping breath and said, "End of the line for you, you monster. You'll never make it to Mr. Zero now."

Izuku tipped his hand. Shards of glass tumbled to the ground. He stalked over, coldly glaring down Mr. Five. The agent gulped and went pale. He tried crawling away, but Izuku planted his boot firmly on his back.

"Now why did you have to do something as stupid as that?" Izuku asked, voice dripping with scorn. "I would've just left you alone, but instead, you had to get in my way. Do you have any idea who I am? Who I'm going to be? I'm Izuku Midoriya, and I'm going to be the greatest hero that ever lived. I'll crush every villain I find. You got that?"

"Go to hell."

Izuku pressed harder. Mr. Five screamed as a rib snapped.

"Come to think of it, you're a villain, aren't you? Guess I'll start my hero career by crushing you."

Another bone crunched. Mr. Five clawed and scraped at the ground, but no matter how he struggled, Izuku's foot remained firmly planted on his back. Izuku squeezed harder, and a third rib shattered.

"Hey Izuku, did you get-"

Izuku lashed out with a fist. To his shock, someone grabbed his arm. When he turned around, a rubbery fist smacked him on the face.

Izuku wiped blood off his face. He looked at Luffy and asked, "What was that for?"

"You almost punched Mei."

The words bounced around Izuku's head, their meaning not even registering to him. His eyes flitted from Luffy, to Mei standing behind him, eyes wide, face pale, looking at him as though he were a terrifying stranger. When he finally grasped what Luffy had said, Izuku looked down at his bloodstained hands. Strength left his legs, and he sank to his knees.

"I didn't mean to," he whispered hoarsely. "What have I done?"

Igaram strode forward, idly twirling his saxophone in one hand. "Young man, how recently did you eat your Devil Fruit?"

Izuku looked up. "Just yesterday. Why?"

"Well, I haven't had the experience myself, but I've seen it happen to others. The power goes right to their head. Why, I remember when Pell first got his fruit. Leapt off the castle on a dare and crash-landed in the plaza. He could've broken his neck if he hadn't changed last-second." Clearing his throat melodically, Igaram said, "It's especially bad for Logias, I hear. Some even get god complexes."

Even now, Izuku felt his heart racing. Electricity hummed underneath his skin, demanding to lash out at everyone around him. Gritting his teeth, Izuku said, "Cuffs. Please."

Luffy dug the glittering cuffs out of his pouch. Once the Sea Prism tightened around his wrists, the manic energy drifted away, leaving Izuku feeling hollow. He wobbled to his feet, and Mei rushed forward to catch him.

"Thanks. I'm sorry."

"Eh, it's only fair, with the number of blasts I caught you with."

Clearing his throat again, Igaram said, "So, about that Log Pose…"

"He shot it." Izuku pointed at Mr. Five and winced, remembering those broken bones.

"Unfortunate. Well, there's nothing for it, but to try our luck at Littlegarden. There might be an old Log Pose that's been sitting long enough to realign."

Once Izuku patched up as many people as he could and buried the seven that had died, the Straw Hats looted everything on the island and departed, never realizing they had two extra passengers.

Mr. Nine went perfectly still when he felt half a dozen hands grab him by his neck and limbs. Nico Robin strode out of the shadows.

"And here I thought I'd be the only stray on board. What are you doing here, Mr. Nine? Shouldn't you have been with the others?"

When Robin freed Mr. Nine's mouth, he said, "I heard everything Miss We- no, Vivi told them. I know what Crocodile's planning, and I'm going to help her stop him, because that's what partners do! And I'll stop you too, no matter what it takes!"

"Really? You're turning your back on Baroque Works? After how far you've climbed up the ranks?"

Mr. Nine glared defiantly at her. Robin smiled, and let him go.

"Then it seems we have a common cause."

Mr. Nine's eyes widened. "Wait, you mean… then let's go up and tell them!"

"I won't show myself yet. Not until I know for certain they are who they seem to be."

Over in Alabasta, in his private quarters at Rainbase, Crocodile received his report from the Unluckies. Two single-digit agents incapacitated, two more defecting and a fifth missing, Whiskey Peaks in ruins with all hands lost. The only silver lining was the destruction of the Eternal Pose entrusted to Mr. Five.

After mulling the situation over with a shot of whiskey, Crocodile picked up a transponder snail and said, "Change of plans. I want all of you at Littlegarden. Make sure the Straw Hats don't leave that island alive."

A/N: this almost got delayed another week, but at the last minute, I knuckled down and got this churned out. Took up exercising again, so everything's sore right now, and I also made buttermilk biscuits. I'll find out tomorrow how they turned out.

Shadowpillow: "Closed-loop time stories are cool. Especially when they don't involve a lot of death and trying to futilely prevent death. This is not that. This is cool. Rad. This is... the box of mystery."

Bardothren: the premise is complicated enough without running multiple time loops. I thought it more fun to keep it simple and watch the chaos unfold from making a few changes.

Mernom: "The chapter was a bit confusing to follow though tts, since the scene breaks don't get read out."

Bardothren: part of that was intentional. I wanted to evoke the feeling of confusion Izuku felt waking up and hearing all those disparate accounts. It also felt like a fun way to give each Straw Hat a moment to showcase their character. As for not really leading into it, I felt like trying to ease the transition so many times would screw with the pacing. So, I left it to line breaks and trusted you guys to follow along. Might not have been smart to suddenly throw that in one chapter, but I think it worked.

TheGreatBubbaJ: "Sure didn't take long for their true identity to come out eh?"

Bardothren: considering all the trouble the Marines went through to make sure the Tom the shipwright got taken out and the fact Rayleigh's bounty is still active and well-known, I would expect they'd be extra attentive of any bounties at large from Roger's crew. How Buggy slipped through the cracks, I'll never know.

ProjectIceMan: "Very interesting. So people that they've met in the past won't even remember until they meet again. As if the timeline is trying to fix itself."

Bardothren: this is an annoying continuity fix for me. I would have all the characters actively in the know. Shanks and Rayleigh knowing wouldn't change anything, and Garp could be excused as being forgetful and he only met them once or twice, but Buggy was around Luffy for way too long to brush him off. Buggy remembering Luffy would destroy the initial arc with meeting Nami. So, I'm resorting to hand-wavey BttF time-fading mechanics.

That's all I got. Tired. Going to bed now. Here's hoping I can get another chapter done in two weeks.