Luffy laid upon the deck of the Going Merry, staring blankly up at the clouds moving across the sky. From his throat emanated a constant, low level groan. When he ran out of air, he took a deep breath and started again.

"Alright, what's the matter with you?!" Nami finally demanded after several hours of this went by.

"I'm so bored!" Luffy complained pitifully. "It's always the same thing over and over!"

"Well you just have to keep trying new things until something works, right?" Nami said, as if it was that easy.

"I've already tried everything!" Luffy whined.

"What about…"

"Tried it."

"Then how about…"

"Tried it."

"You don't even…!" Nami began to growl.

"I do."

"Have we had this conversation…"

"Yes."

"So are you just gonna lie there and groan at the sky?" A frustrated navigator demanded. "You've always been a bit of a killjoy but this is ridiculous!"

Luffy had not, in fact, always been a bit of a killjoy. Quite the opposite, even. However, this time loop nonsense was really causing him some serious psychic damage. The last few runs, he hadn't even been able to muster the enthusiasm to proclaim his dream of being the Pirate King in Loguetown. They got in and out without Smoker even noticing.

"We could just skip Little Garden." Nami suggested.

"We can't, it's important to Usopp." Luffy slumped even further. Usually, he only recognized important moments when they happened, but these loops had forced him to actually consider the consequences of avoiding things just because they were inconvenient. "And if nobody gets sick on Little Garden, then Vivi will insist on going to Alabasta right away and Chopper will get killed by the hippo bastard."

Luffy didn't really blame Vivi for being worried about her country, but he wished she would put more faith in them, like she had the first time. As it was right now, even if she believed him about the time travel, she wasn't really part of the crew in the way that mattered. She didn't trust them to put their lives on the line for her.

"Then… why not take a break?" Nami suggested, causing the rubber man to perk up. This was new!

"A break?"

"Yeah, a break." Nami nodded, gaining confidence. "You've been beating your head against the wall for a while, right? So why not take a few loops off and just do whatever you want for a while? Since time keeps resetting for you, there won't be any consequences no matter what you do."

If it was any other man, this would be the point where Nami would threaten him with castration if he did anything perverted to her, but Luffy had the sex drive of a rock. Probably for the best, really – she'd had a tiny crush on him after he saved her from Arlong that might have grown into something more if he had been at all interested.

She was still looking forward to watching the soap opera that Boa Hancock being in love with him promised to be.

"But I already do whatever I want." Luffy sighed despondently.

"Well then try doing something different!" Nami yelled in frustration. "I'm sure you haven't squeezed every drop of fun out of the world yet. Take a break, get some distance from the problem of Vivi and Little Garden so you can look at it with fresh eyes. Maybe it'll give you a new idea."

Luffy went back to staring at the sky, this time with a thoughtful look on his face. Maybe Nami was on to something?

Now… what kind of fun could he have? It was a question that he continued to ponder as their journey continued. Luffy was disappointed, but not surprised when half the crew came down with Kestia by the time they got off Little Garden.

XXXXX

Over the course of their adventure, Luffy had been accused of being a hero several times. He always denied this, because a hero had to share his meat, while a pirate could keep it all to himself. That being said, he did like heroes, he just didn't want to be one.

But with the time loop, the consequences of being a hero – that being the sharing of meat – did not matter. Even if they called his hogging of meat unheroic, it wouldn't matter when the loop reset.

Thus, Monkey D. Luffy set out to be a hero for a loop.

XXXXX

"Who are you?!" Coby yelled in fright.

"Monkey D. Luffy, Hero." The rubber man claimed. "Now I need you to help me find a cape."

XXXXX

"Who the heck are you two?!" Nami yelled in fright as he appeared in front of her on Alvida's ship, some nobleman's fancy cape that he took off the pleasure boat the pirates had been attacking tied around his shoulders.

"I'm Monkey D. Luffy, Hero, and this is my hero apprentice, Coby." Luffy explained. "He's not a proper hero yet, so he doesn't get to wear a cape."

"Hi." An extremely nervous Coby waved at her.

"Oh, a hero, are you?" Nami retorted cynically. With what her life had been like for the past eight years, her faith in heroes was at an all-time low.

"That's right!" Luffy took no notice of her tone. "I'll be going across the East Blue, kicking the butts of the bad guys and gathering a crew. Buggy, Krieg, Arlong and every other bad guy in our way will get beaten up. Then we're going to sail across Grand Line, find the One Piece and have a huge feast where I'll share my meat with the world!"

That was a lie. Luffy intended to eat all the meat himself, because he would reach the One Piece as a pirate.

Nami briefly wondered if that was some kind of sexual innuendo, but a suspicious look at the clear simpleton convinced her that no, he was actually being entirely literal.

"And what do you want with me?" She asked instead.

"You're the best navigator in the world, aren't you?" Luffy asked. "Come with me and chart the world!"

"Well yes I am the best!" Nami preened. "Wait, how did you know that I want to make a map of the world!? We've never met!"

"I'm a hero, I know things."

Luffy was still a shit liar when it counted, but he was surprisingly good at it when he was just playing around.

XXXXX

"Eh, you want me to join a crew of… heroes, and slice up bad guys?" Zoro asked incredulously, still tied up at the post. "And wear a cape?"

"That's right!" Luffy affirmed. "I know you made a promise to stay here for a month, but that guy with a butt chin lied and his father is a jerk, so I'm going to kick their asses, get your swords back and then we'll go."

"Don't just decide for me! And how did you know all that anyway?!"

"I'm a hero, I know things."

XXXXX

"You rubber bastard…" Buggy ground out painfully from where he lay beaten on the ground. "A hero, huh? Are you related to Monkey D. Garp?"

"Yeah, he's my gramps." Luffy stuck a finger up his nose. "He wanted me to be a marine, but I don't like being told what to do."

This made perfect sense to Buggy, because he knew that for all that he technically had people above him in the chain of command, Garp tended to only listen to them about half the time. If they were lucky.

"Your grandfather is Monkey D. Garp?!" Coby's eyes sparkled with admiration.

"Yep."

"That explains a few things." Nami and Zoro nodded, both wearing capes.

XXXXX

"How did you know about my plans?!" An outraged Kuro demanded.

"I'm a hero, I know things." Luffy fell back on the tried and true excuse. Then he turned to Usopp. "You fought well today, Usopp. Join my hero crew and become a great warrior of the sea!"

"Yes!" The pathological liar blubbered, inspired by what had happened.

XXXXX

"So I was thinking, as a hero I need more than a cape." Usopp pondered. "I need a mask and a superhero name."

Luffy stared at him in shock. "You're right! I've been doing this all wrong!"

"I'm not wearing a mask." Zoro grunted. "The cape is bad enough already."

"You could just tie your bandana around your face instead of your head." Usopp wheedled.

"No."

"Same here." Nami backed the swordsman up. "Besides, there's no rule about heroes having to hide their identities."

Frankly, Nami thought this whole crew was ridiculous and doomed to disaster, when they encountered Arlong if not sooner. Still, Luffy had already made it clear that he was going after Arlong for reason unrelated to her situation. She would try not to get attached while hoping that he would succeed in his craziness.

At the very least, he did know things that he shouldn't know. His refusal to explain that one was driving her up the wall.

"I should call myself Meat Man, the Meat Hero." Luffy decided.

"No, your hero name needs to be something to do with your powers or ideals." Usopp argued passionately.

"Meat is my ideal!"

"No, look. I'm a sniper, so my hero name will be…!" Usopp paused dramatically and put on a golden sun mask that he had somewhere that shall not be explained. "Sogeking, from Sniper Island!"

Luffy stared at him in absolute shock.

Usopp thought he was impressed and started singing the theme song he'd come up with ages ago when dreaming of this exact situation.

"Oh, the wind carries my name...

From Sniper Island far away...

When I take aim, it is straight and true...

Lu lu la la lu...

Whether you're a man or a mouse...

Lock on!

I will put your heart in my sights...

LOCK ON!

No one knows what secrets hide...

Behind this mask and my cape...

Lu lu lu lu lu la la!

There is no escape!

(Sniper King sniper pa pa)

Sniper King aims true!"

Luffy continued to stare at him, jaw hanging all the way to the ground.

Usopp was Sogeking the whole time?!

XXXXX

It took Luffy a while to recover from that earth-shattering revelation. By then they picked up Johnny and Yosaku, who were both very impressed that Zoro had become a hero.

Their next encounter was with Lieutenant Fullbody.

"Who are you?" The metal-knuckled marine demanded.

"We are the Straw Hat Hero Crew." Luffy proclaimed proudly, pointed at the sails of the Going Merry, which now sported the image of a man with a straw hat and a haunch of meat emblazoned on his chest.

"… hero crew?" Fullbody blinked owlishly, having never heard of such a thing. "You know what, never mind. I have more important matters to attend to."

Such as the woman he was taking on a date.

XXXXX

"Join my hero crew! We'll save princesses and find the All Blue!"

Zeff watched with thinly veiled amusement as the teenager in the straw hat pushed the stupid eggplant's buttons . Sanji clearly desperately wanted to accept, but was being held back by some fool notion of 'repaying' him by staying at the Baratie. Pah! As if that would repay anything.

Also, this Luffy character might have everyone else fooled, but Zeff could see that he was more of a pirate than a hero. Whatever his reasons for the charade, he wasn't going to spoil it for him.

Then Krieg showed up and begged for food. Sanji, as was proper, gave it to him despite the objections of the other cooks. Then Krieg predictably spat on their generosity and tried to take the Baratie for himself.

"Shut up!" The supposed hero captain yelled and kicked him in the face, knocking him out instantly.

"Usopp, Nami!" He continued in a tone of command. "Take the Going Merry and head to Nami's village. You need to save the windmill guy. We'll come to you after Zoro is done fighting Mihawk."

Zeff's eyes narrowed suspiciously. The rubber boy seemed like an idiot, but that was some awfully specific information he had. Information that he shouldn't have.

Interesting. He would definitely have to kick Sanji out of the Baratie so he could join them.

XXXXX

"Who are you?" Arlong asked with calm fury, sitting in the pile of rubble he'd been punched into.

"Monkey D. Luffy, Hero." The rubber man gave the usual reply for this run. "You made Nami cry and hurt these people, so I'm going to kick your ass!"

"You? A mere human?" Arlong sneered, preparing to show this fool his place in the food chain.

As it turned out, Luffy's place in the food chain was considerably higher than his.

Not long after Arlong's defeat, Captain Nezumi arrived and tried to confiscate what he could for himself.

"You're a bad guy, too." Luffy declared and punched him into the ground. "We'll be dragging you to Loguetown."

By now, he had realized that it was Nezumi that got them their bounty. As much as he liked having a big bounty, he wasn't a pirate on this run, so he couldn't have one. He'd make sure to try getting an extra big one next time to compensate.

XXXXX

A crisis!

"Come on, Luffy, share the ham melon." Usopp cajoled.

Luffy sweated profusely. He was supposed to be a hero, and thus share the meat… but he really didn't want to!

"Look, it's a giant!" He yelled, pointing behind Usopp.

"Where?!" The liar bought it and spun around to look, only to see nothing. By the time he turned around, both Luffy and the ham melon were long gone.

"AAAAGH, I hate being a hero!" The rubber man bemoaned, stuffing his face with the man melon.

As it happened, he'd run towards the cliff where Bell-mere was buried and didn't see that someone was already there.

"Why set out to be one, then?" Nami asked, bemused by the outburst.

"I just wanted to do something different, but I hate sharing my meat!" Luffy 'explained'.

Nami smiled and approached, sitting down next to him. "Don't worry, Luffy. After he saves the day, the hero can eat as much as he wants. That's why it's called the hero's portion."

"Really?" Luffy asked hopefully.

"Really." Nami assured and leaned in to give him a kiss on the cheek. "So eat up, hero."

Luffy stared after her as she ran away giggling, utterly confused. What was that about? Well, the important part was that he didn't have to feel bad about not sharing his meat!

XXXXX

"So, you're a hero and you brought me this corrupt Marine captain?" Smoker deadpanned, puffing away at his cigars.

"Nezumi was taking bribes from Arlong to keep what he was doing to the Conomi Islands hidden from the Marines." Nami said defiantly, staring at him.

"They're lying!" A beaten up Nezumi screeched.

Smoker didn't look impressed. "I always did think it was strange how quiet that corner of the East Blue was, and you wouldn't be the first corrupt Marine captain this crew has brought down."

"You can't possibly be taking their word over mine! I'm a marine!" Nezumi screeched again.

"I'll be calling the Conomi Islands to verify their story of course, but I'm already smelling a rat." Smoker glared at him. He had a particular hatred of dirty marines. The higher ups would want him to cover this mess up, maybe even declare the crew of 'heroes' as pirates, but they could go eat shit.

"Thanks, Smokey!" Luffy laughed.

"Don't call me Smokey!"

XXXXX

"Heroes, huh?" Monkey D. Dragon mused, slightly confused.

Everything he'd heard about his son said that he had his heart set on being a pirate, so where did this come from?

"How mysterious."

XXXXX

"Oi, Luffy, since we're heroes we should help this lovely lady." Sanji suggested after they had saved Laboon from Mr. 9 and Miss Wednesday."

"We will." The rubbery captain nodded. "She's a princess and heroes save princesses."

"How did you know?!" Vivi spluttered.

"I'm a hero, I know things."

XXXXX

With no bounty on his head, the Baroque Works agents in Whiskey Peak had no reason to try setting off their trap, but Luffy still coaxed them into a party. Then the Mr. 5 pair arrived and a short fight broke out. With the reveal Vivi's and Igaram's true identities, things got a bit messy, but a surprising number of the people there supported her.

As it turned out, loyalty between comrades was easier to foster than loyalty to some mysterious boss.

"But why can't we go directly to Alabasta?" Vivi complained about their heading. "You said you would help!"

"We will, but first we have to go to Little Garden." Luffy repeated, once again not explaining anything. He'd tried explaining before and it was boring and never worked.

"Oh my, and here I was, about to offer you an Eternal Pose to Alabasta." The unknown voice said lightly.

Well, unknown to everyone except Luffy.

"Thanks, Robin. You're the best." He said with a wide smile.

That derailed everyone, none more so than Robin herself.

"Luffy, that's Miss All Sunday! Mr. 0's partner!" Vivi exclaimed.

"I know." He nodded. "But she's also Robin, a good person."

"You seem awfully certain of yourself." Robin said, regaining her composure at least outwardly.

"I'm a hero, I know things."

"So I've heard." Now she was amused and tossed the Eternal Pose his way. "I look forward to finding out what exactly you know."

"See you in Alabasta, Robin!"

XXXXX

"Now can we go to Alabasta?" Vivi asked impatiently.

Little Garden had certainly been interesting and exciting, but she needed to get back to her people!

"Not yet. First, we need to get to Drum Kingdom." Luffy replied.

"We don't have time for that!" Vivi exclaimed, frustrated by all these delays.

"It's important. There's someone there that we need if we want to save your country." Luffy insisted. "Trust me, I'm a hero."

"Vivi, I know you're anxious, but please trust him." Nami said soothingly. "He hasn't led us astray so far."

"I… very well." The princess huffed. "But can we please hurry? And why do you look so shocked?"

Luffy's jaw snapped back into place like a rubber band and a huge grin replaced it. He hadn't been expecting that to work!

XXXXX

Being able to progress past Little Garden was exciting for Luffy. It wasn't new, but it was newer than constantly repeating everything up to that point.

Thanks to their preparations, nobody got sick, so they didn't need a doctor and to Luffy's surprise, they weren't greeted with guns either. He had been fully prepared to bow his head and ask politely to be allowed on the island, but they weren't flying a pirate flag and didn't get the same reception.

Luffy had been so excited that he'd forgotten that he wasn't a pirate this time! His first urge was to reset the loop so he could try to convince Vivi the same way as a pirate, but held back. After repeated failures, he was no longer convinced that he would be able to successfully complete his adventure on this run either. Might as well keep it going to gather information.

If his crew, his original crew that was, had been privy to his thoughts, they would have fallen over in shock. Luffy? Gather information?

"Heroes, huh?" Dalton said with a slightly bitter smile. "This country could have used some heroes before, when the Blackbeard Pirates were rampaging through it."

Luffy's blood went cold. Oh, I forgot that guy was here. Ace is chasing him.

His reaction didn't go unnoticed. Zoro, ever vigilant, narrowed his eyes at his captain. "You know him, Luffy?"

"Yeah, he's a real bad guy. Used to be on Old Man Whitebeard's crew before he murdered a crewmate and ran away." Luffy answered, dredging up what he knew about the bastard.

"Whitebeard?!" Came multiple exclamations.

"No wonder we couldn't do anything, against a pirate like that." Dalton muttered, shaking his head. "At least he drove off Wapol."

"Big Mouth?" Luffy tilted his head. "We ran to him on the way here. He'll be back soon."

This naturally alarmed Dalton. "What?! No, I won't allow it. He was a tyrant and abandoned this country at the first difficulty, I won't let him come back."

"Does he have any swordsmen with him?" Zoro asked with a glint in his eye.

"I don't think so?" Luffy answered, frowning in thought. "He's got a hippo and two weird guys that can fuse together. It's kinda cool…"

"Chess and Marimo." Dalton offered.

"Is that why we're here, Luffy? To prevent Wapol from oppressing this country?" Vivi asked. Impatient as she was, she didn't want to leave Drum to its fate either. Certainly not after having met Wapol years ago and seeing what kind of man he was.

"No, we're here to pick up a doctor for our crew." The rubber captain said.

"But the only doctor left on the island is Kureha and I don't think she's going to leave." Dalton pointed out.

"The old lady has an apprentice, Chopper. He's the one we want." Luffy countered.

"I didn't hear anything about an apprentice." Dalton frowned. "They say that she's a witch and rides across the sky in a sleigh pulled by a monster."

"That's Chopper, he's going to be our monster."

"Well, I won't stop you…" Dalton was clearly skeptical. "But I must warn you that Doctor Kureha acts almost like a pirate. She comes and goes as she pleases, heals people and then takes whatever she wants as payment."

XXXXX

With no one dying of Kestia, there was no need to climb the Drum Rockies. Luffy would have carried his whole crew on his back and climbed that sheer rock if he had to, but even he had to admit that it hadn't been fun doing it the first time.

Fortunately, he'd learned the proper way of getting up there during the first loop. They were met at the castle gates by an irate Kureha.

"Who are you? You don't look like you need a doctor." The old woman demanded irritably.

"We do need a doctor! We're a hero crew and we're here for Chopper!" Luffy announced, cape flapping in the wind.

"A hero crew?!" A shocker Chopper echoed, hiding behind the door the wrong way.

"That's right! We're going to sail the Grand Line all the way to the end and have lots of adventures. We need a doctor to come with us." The rubber man explained.

"Oi, Luffy." Sanji said calmly. "That's a raccoon dog."

"I'M A REINDEER!" Chopper roared, transforming into his Heavy Point.

"See, he's cool." Luffy pointed out the obvious.

Chopper shifted back to his normal Brain Point form and started wiggling in delight. "It doesn't make me happy to hear you say that, you asshole!"

"And what makes you think I'll let you take my apprentice?" Kureha broke in, brandishing a scalpel.

"Because he wants to go on an adventure and we'll kick Wapol's ass when he comes back." Luffy answered.

"Wapol is coming back?!" Chopper exclaimed.

XXXXX

The fight against Wapol was pretty anti-climactic. The fat former king just wasn't much of a threat, and with the Straw Hats not running around, he was also outnumbered. Convincing Chopper to come with them was harder, but all it really took was some persistent pestering because he actually wanted to go. And he was super impressed at the thought of a crew of heroes.

Then, they were finally off to Alabasta, much to Vivi's relief.

XXXXX

"ACEEEE!" The joyous shout shocked the Whitebeard 2nd division commander out of his meal. A moment later, a rubbery missile hit him and wrapped its hands around him.

"Luffy?!" Ace sputtered in shock. "How are you here?... and why are you wearing a cape?"

"Eh, why wouldn't I be here?" Luffy tilted his head sideways in confusion. "You know I was going to set sail when I turned seventeen."

"Yeah, but I figured you were still in the East Blue since you didn't get a bounty yet." Ace reasoned. "And again, what's with the cape?"

"Oh, I decided to become a hero instead of a pirate." Luffy explained.

The entire world stopped making sense for Ace. Luffy, not a pirate? It did not compute. His little brother never shut up about becoming the Pirate King.

"What." He blurted out, unable to say anything else.

Then Luffy suddenly stopped grinning and his expression sobered, instantly alarming Ace. "A lot of stuff happened. Come meet my crew and I'll explain."

"Damn right I will." Whatever had happened to Luffy, Ace wanted to hear it.

XXXXX

Introducing Ace to his crew presented some surprising and unexpected problems. Those who recognized him were extremely wary of the powerful pirate, but the most extreme reaction came from Nami.

"Your brother is a pirate?!" She spat angrily, confusing Luffy severely.

It took him several seconds to reason out that this Nami had never really gotten over her hatred for pirates. Since the Straw Hats weren't a pirate crew, she had no reason to ever consider that some pirates were worse than others.

"Don't worry, Nami. Ace is a good guy." He argued.

To his relief, she simmered down.

"Interesting crew you've got." Ace commented. "But why is everyone wearing a cape…?"

"Because we're heroes!" Chopper explained enthusiastically.

He decided not to touch that one. "Right. So, Luffy, you said you had something you need to tell me?"

XXXXX

Luffy had not intended to talk about the time travel thing again, at least not in this loop, but he also hadn't expected to get this far into it.

"So that's why you always seem to know what's going to happen!" Vivi exclaimed.

"It's sooooo boring." Luffy whined. "I even tried being a hero instead of a pirate just to make it more fun."

"You wanted to be a pirate?" Nami asked, stunned.

Luffy nodded with a grunt. "The Pirate King."

"I can't believe you!" The navigator shouted.

"It's not like the World Government would let us stay heroes after we recruited Robin anyway." Luffy picked his nose. "I'm surprised we made it this far without getting a bounty."

"Why do you want to recruit Miss All Sunday so badly?" This time it was Vivi scowling in distaste.

"She's already part of the crew, and a good person." Luffy explained.

"A good person that helped plunge my country into civil war." The princess said bitterly.

"That was the sand croc." He reminded her.

"Alright, hold it!" Ace interrupted, turning to his little brother. "So you're saying that I lose to Blackbeard and he uses me to start a war between the Marines and the Whitebeard Pirates?"

"Yeah, so don't run off to fight him!" Luffy demanded.

Ace could only roll his eyes at his brother's hypocrisy. As if the reckless rubber idiot had any room to talk about caution or restraint. "I'll be careful."

But he would still fight him. Now that he knew about Blackbeard's Devil Fruit, he wouldn't be caught by surprise.

"And you should be careful, too." He warned. "I know you said you beat him before, but Crocodile is a Grand Line veteran."

"Don't worry, Ace. I know his weakness." Luffy laughed.

XXXXX

The plan was simple. Instead of running around all over Alabasta, trying to stop the civil war, they would just go right for the source of all the problems. Luffy knew that Crocodile was in Rainbase and that the civil war can't be stopped as long as he was still around. He expected it to be easy, given that he was a lot stronger than he'd been the first time and knew what he was dealing with.

What actually happened was somewhat… different.

Crocodile might not be in his prime anymore and he might have gotten a bit rusty playing mastermind, but he was still a Grand Line veteran. He had been to the New World and survived that chaotic sea until he ran into Whitebeard.

In short, he was not a threat to be lightly dismissed. He was also quite good at assessing the level of his opponent, and he judged Luffy to be a serious threat, instead of dismissing him as he had the first time.

XXXXX

Luffy awoke back on his little dinghy with a gasp.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" He yelled in confusion. "SAND CROC WAS WAY STRONGER THAN BEFORE!"

This was false. Luffy had simply challenged a sand Logia in the open desert. As soon as Crocodile how dangerous the rubber man was in close quarters, he had refused to be drawn into a fistfight and instead used his Devil Fruit powers to assail him with an unrelenting sandstorm. Without Haki, there was very little that Luffy had been able to do about it.