Luffy was in a great mood all the way to the Gecko Islands, he kept grinning the entire way there. Not only did he finally get Nami to join the crew – though he knew that she wouldn't consider herself truly part of it until she was freed from the saw-nose bastard – but he was also moving forward.

Sure, he'd been to Usopp's island before, but it was better than constantly repeating the same two islands.

Luffy's grin only widened when they came ashore and he was able to immediately notice Usopp and the three kids he had in his 'crew'.

"There's someone here." Zoro said tensely, flicking one of his swords out of its scabbard.

"Eh? Where?" Nami, still a scaredy cat at this stage, cowered behind their boat.

"There." Luffy grinned, pointing right at Usopp.

The responding hail of slingshot bullets seemed incredibly slow and easy to dodge. Luffy remembered Usopp being a lot better than this.

Time travel makes you weaker. He reminded himself.

Usopp showed himself then, standing tall next to his pirate flag with a confident laugh. "Hahaha! I am Usopp, leader of the great pirates who reign over this village! People praise me – and then praise me more – as 'Captain' Usopp! If you're thinking of raiding this village, then forget it! My eighty million followers won't allow it!"

"Eighty million, huh?" Luffy said grimly, adjusting his straw hat. He knew it was a lie this time and wanted to play around with Usopp a bit. "I'll take you all on."

Zoro and Nami smirked, having also seen through the lie, not that it was hard. Eighty million was a good chunk of the world's population.

"O-oh." Usopp stammered, his knees shaking, but he aimed his slingshot nonetheless. "You dare face Captain Usopp and his mighty pirate armada?"

"I will be the Pirate King." Luffy declared, putting the full force of his will into his glare.

He remembered imitating Shanks the first time around and thought it would be fun to do it again. Not being much of a thinker, however, the rubber man had forgotten to account for some things.

The first time around, the only challenges he had faced were those of his childhood, along with Captain Morgan and Buggy. While that was still much more than most people, his will had not yet been tempered in repeated life or death struggle.

The man he was now had faced many difficult trials. He had faced warlords, admirals and monsters. He had overcome challenges of body and spirit and awoken his Haki, though he hadn't had time to train it. On top of that, Luffy's biggest problem in these time loops was, ironically, his knowledge of his crew. He normally had a downright supernatural instinct about people, but now his memories were interfering with that instinct, causing him to overestimate them.

The first time, Usopp had been intimidated and given up on the charade. Now, the force of Luffy's stare had him running away in panicked terror, certain that he was going to die.

Luffy blinked, confused by the reaction, but then shrugged and looked at his crew with a grin. "Let's get some food."

Zoro and Nami had cold sweat beading on their faces. While there had been no blast of Haoshoku Haki to press against their will, they had both sensed something, a primal sense of being in the presence of serious danger.

Zoro quickly shook it off and grinned back, excited by his captain's strength and what it would mean for his own growth as a swordsman. He was never one to be stopped by fear.

Nami was much more unnerved, but quickly hid it.

XXXXX

Neither Usopp nor his three crewmembers showed up at the food place. This left a little gap in the Chain of Causation.

"Why are we heading towards the mansion?" Nami asked, confused after Luffy had announced their intention.

"To get a ship." Luffy said.

"You're going to steal a ship?" Nami's opinion on pirates was validated.

"No, I'm going to ask nicely."

Nami's opinion on Luffy was once again thrown into confusion.

"And you think they'll just give it to us?" Even Zoro was skeptical.

"Yes."

The navigator and swordsman exchanged puzzled looks behind the rubber man's back. They had no idea where his confidence was coming from, but it was definitely there.

To Luffy's surprise, they found Usopp lying beaten up on the ground in front of Kaya's mansion. He had no idea what had happened, but he was happy to see his sniper all the same.

"Oi! Usopp!" Luffy yelled out in greeting, waving an arm as he sped up his walk.

Usopp awoke from his light unconsciousness, primal terror gripping his heart. He had rushed off to warn Kaya about the terrifying pirate crew that had come to the island and desperately tried to get her to come hide with him, then that bastard butler Klahadore had showed up and thrown him out after beating him up!

Usopp rose up, seeing the terrifying pirate in question coming at him, waving his arm and grinning. Menacingly.

He ran away screaming.

Luffy blinked in confusion at his fleeing sniper, having no idea what was going on.

"What is going on here?" A snooty voice demanded.

Luffy's expression turned into a scowl as he saw the cat bastard approaching.

"Oh… it's you."

He'd almost forgotten about this guy, but he did clearly remember what a shitty pirate he was. He knocked the guy out in a single blow before he could even react.

XXXXX

Luffy awoke back on his little dingy and pouted angrily.

Usopp had been too terrified to join his crew and Kaya had been angry at him for kicking her butler's ass, so they didn't get the Going Merry either. And now he had to do everything all over again!

XXXXX

"Hahaha! I am Usopp, leader of the great pirates who reign over this village! People praise me – and then praise me more – as 'Captain' Usopp! If you're thinking of raiding this village, then forget it! My eighty million followers won't allow it!"

"You have three followers." Luffy said blandly, restraining himself from playing along or doing anything fun.

"He saw right through it!" Usopp panicked, not noticing as said followers lost their nerve and ran away.

"Join my crew!" Luffy decided to get right to the point.

"EEEEH?!" Zoro, Nami and Usopp exclaimed.

"Do we really want this guy on the crew?" Zoro asked skeptically.

"We do." Luffy nodded decisively. "He's a great liar and sniper."

"Oi!" Usopp protested with a complicated expression. "Don't insult me and praise me at the same time, it's confusing."

"I can't lie or snipe, so I need you on my crew." Luffy explained.

That instantly got Usopp back to posturing with his chest stuck out like a peacock. "Haha, if it's like that then I accept… if you make me the captain!"

"I'm the captain, now let's go eat!" Luffy decreed with absolute authority.

XXXXX

The meal was much better now that Usopp was there and Luffy had loads of fun until the long-nosed sniper made an excuse and had to leave. His crew of kids came looking for him shortly afterwards and there was that misunderstanding about cannibalism, after which they learned about Kaya.

Luffy was determined not to screw it up this time.

"You're a pirate." He accused as soon as the man appeared.

Luffy knew, intellectually (for what that was worth with him), that the best way to do things would be to repeat the events of the first run, which had already proven to work. Unfortunately, he couldn't remember what exactly he'd done the first time, nor could he have precisely repeated those same actions even if his life depended on it.

"Excuse me?!" Klahadore sputtered.

"Oi, Luffy, what gives?" Usopp asked, bewildered. "I know he's a bastard, but I don't think he's a pirate."

"He is, the captain of those cat guys." Luffy stuck a finger up his nose. "I can't remember his name, but he's got those sword gloves. That's why he fixes his glasses like that."

As luck would have it, 'Klahadore' had been pushing up his glasses with the heel of his palm at exactly that moment and froze in place.

"Captain Kuro, of the Black Cat Pirates." Zoro said thoughtfully, staring at the man. "Said to have been caught and executed by the Marines three years ago. He does have the same smug face as I remember from the bounty poster."

"And 'Klahadore' showed up here three years ago." Usopp's tone had now turned to hostile suspicion.

"He was worth sixteen million beli." Nami contributed greedily, her money sense allowing her to instantly recall the information.

"You can forget about the money." Zoro snorted. "The Marines will never admit they were fooled."

"Klahadore, is it true?" Kaya asked, sounding hurt. "Are you a pirate?"

Kuro's face was mostly controlled, but sweat covered his forehead. He considered denying everything, but decided on another strategy. "I… yes, Miss Kaya. I was a pirate, but no longer! After being shipwrecked and saved by your parents, I have changed my ways. All I wish for now is to live in peace and serve you."

Kaya's face broke into a relieved smile, but Luffy spoke up again to dash her delusional hopes.

"He's lying. He wants to kill you and take your money." The rubber man declared.

Such was his absolute confidence and force of personality that none could dismiss him.

"You…!" Kuro seethed. "You've ruined everything!"

"Oi, Zoro." Luffy ignored the man and turned to his first mate. "You want to fight this guy? He's a shitty pirate, but he's kind of a swordsman."

Zoro was already tying his dark green bandana over his head, grinning fiercely.

XXXXX

They had allowed Kuro to go fetch his sword gloves, the implied insult of which only further infuriated the man.

"You may have ruined my original plan, but I still have a contingency." The former captain of the Black Cat Pirates said with calm murderousness. "I just have to kill you all."

"You're awfully confident for a coward." Zoro retorted, biting down on the hilt of the Wado Ichimonji and brandishing two nameless katana in his hands.

Kuro's face twitched in anger and he rushed forward without warning, trying to slice Zoro up with a surprise attack. Instead of carving through flesh, he received the jarring impact of steel on steel.

"That's some speed you have." Zoro said, grinning again.

Kuro quickly dodged away from the retaliatory slash, annoyed that he couldn't get a quick kill. He tried several more times, but did not manage to pierce Zoro's defenses. Even if he had ten blades, he could only attack from two directions and he wasn't fast enough to overwhelm the green-haired man.

"To think that some rookies would force me to use this." Kuro scowled and got into position to use his Stealth Foot technique.

Off to the side, Luffy titled his head sideways as he saw it used, noting the similarities to the Rokushiki's Soru. A vague notion of learning it entered his head. He'd never thought it worth the bother before since his Gear Second was better, but maybe it would help in Marineford when he eventually got there?

For the first time since getting trapped in the time loops, Luffy started thinking of how to exploit the situation, instead of trying to end it.

Back in the fight, Zoro was slightly surprised by Kuro's burst of speed and didn't react fast enough, receiving a set of shallow slashes across his arm. It only worked once, however, as he was quick to adjust and anticipate the next attack, giving Kuro a slash of his own.

"Damn you…!" Kuro growled in frustration. Not only were his plans not progressing as they should, but he was also being given this much trouble by rookie pirates, which was just insulting. "Let's see you deal with my Shakushi!"

Dropping into the zombie-like stagger required for his ultimate technique, Kuro vanished from the eyes of everyone present.

Except Luffy, who had fought enemies far faster than this regularly after reaching the Grand Line. To him, Kuro was just rushing around and swinging his sword gloves blindly, obviously unable to see what he was doing.

Zoro was looking around, doing his best to follow the flashes of movement and sounds of footsteps, but his senses had never been challenged like this before. Shallow slashes began to accumulate on his body as his speedy foe ran around him.

Luffy had intended to let Zoro handle the cat bastard, but he was reminded of the Shakushi's weaknesses as Kuro lost track of where he was and rushed towards their group of spectators.

Luffy interrupted a slash that would have raked across both Kaya and Nami with a punch right to the face. "You're fighting Zoro."

Kuro was too busy holding his broken nose to reply, but Zoro stared at him with a disappointed scowl.

"I see, you're not a swordsman at all." The green-haired man said. "You have no technique, no skill. You're just swinging blindly and hoping to hit something."

"How dare you look down on me…" Kuro's enraged voice was sounding a bit nasally. "I'll kill you all."

He went into the Shakushi again, but this time, Zoro had the measure of him. All the wasted movements and running around only served to betray him.

And he got punched by Luffy again when he accidentally veered towards the spectators.

XXXXX

The day was saved, Kuro was exposed, Usopp was recruited, Merry was gained. They even ran into Jango and kicked his ass, which reminded Luffy that the Black Cat Pirates were still lurking nearby on Kuro's orders.

And he did it on the second try! Luffy felt that he was finally getting the hang of this time travel thing.

It was an impression that continued to hold as they made it to the Baratie, encountering Johnny and Yosaku while playing around with the Merry's cannons. Recruiting Sanji was simply a matter of pestering him until he agreed, nothing complicated there. Krieg eventually showed up and started posturing, only to get his ship cut in half by Mihawk.

Zoro challenged him and lost, Luffy knowing better than to intervene and he already knew that his first mate would survive.

(He didn't notice the slightly narrow-eyed look Mihawk shot him for a moment. The World's Greatest Swordsman was a master of Kenbushoku Haki and could judge the strength of a man at a glance. He could tell that Luffy was unusually strong, but kept it to himself.)

The complications started when Nami stole the Merry as she had the first time. Luffy sent Johnny, Yosaku, Usopp and the wounded Zoro after her, just like the first time.

Everything had been going so well that it was an especially nasty shock to arrive at Cocoyasi Village only to see that it had become the site of a massacre. Usopp was nowhere to be found. Zoro, Johnny and Yosaku were dead, killed by Arlong. Nami was almost catatonic from guilt and grief and her village was dead to the last.

Luffy had not the slightest idea of what he'd done wrong, but for once he dearly hoped to find himself back on that little dinghy heading for a whirlpool when he next opened his eyes.