Despite his desire to absolutely kick Blackbeard's ass, Luffy's bullheadedness had been somewhat cooled by the constant repeats. If he could fight the man over and over without the weeks it took to get to Alabasta, he would have gone for it without thinking. As it was, he was just not willing to go through that much lead up every time.
And so he decided to take a more subtle approach. Instead of showing off at every opportunity, he held back and only used as much strength as necessary, letting his crew do most of the work. It seemed to pay off as his bounty was once more set at thirty million, something that caused him to sulk for a day despite it being the goal.
He told his crew about the time travel as well and trained them hard so that they would be prepared for anything. When they made it to Whiskey Peak, he held back on recruiting Robin despite his own desires and managed to somehow convince Vivi that a detour to Little Garden and Drum Kingdom was important.
Luffy didn't realize it, but the dozens of repeats had increased his instinctive grasp of people. He no longer made the mistake of mixing up what he knew of them from the first run and what they were like now. On top of that, this trial had further honed his spirit, allowing him to get Vivi to fully trust him much faster than before.
Alas for his plans, they were dashed when they actually reached Drum Kingdom.
XXXXX
Luffy's first encounter with Wapol had already not been very memorable, aside from the fat asshole biting a chunk out of his ship. After looping a great many times, he had long since lost any interest in it and tended to kick the guy into oblivion before he could open his big mouth. As such, he thought nothing of it when they didn't encounter Wapol on the way to Drum. It wasn't the first time that happened – the seas were vast and sometimes they just missed each other.
After all, they still hadn't run into Bon-chan, despite Luffy clearly remembering that it had happened just before they got to Alabasta.
Unbeknownst to Luffy, that was partially because Bon Clay wasn't always sent out to eliminate Mr. 3 and partially because the odds of them fishing at exactly the right spot at exactly the right time were quite low.
They did eventually run into Wapol, however. With the disgusting ointment they bought in Loguetown, nobody had been bitten by any insects carrying exotic prehistoric diseases, so they didn't desperately need a doctor. That allowed them to make their way up to Drum castle in a less insane way, a way that the deposed king himself was also intent on using.
Luffy kicked him before he could even start talking, but not hard enough to knock him out. It would do Chopper some good to face his old enemy.
That was when things stopped making sense.
"Kabayarou! How dare you attack my brother, oi?!" A new, unfamiliar voice asked.
"Eh? Brother?" Luffy stopped in place as he tried to parse that information. Since when did Wapol have a brother?
His contemplation was ended when an extremely fast human missile flew at his face, even faster than most of the CP9 guys had ever been, except for maybe the pigeon guy. Caught off guard in two different ways, Luffy tanked a hit right to the face.
It didn't hurt, being a blunt attack, but it did send him flying into a snow drift.
"Luffy!" Nami cried out in concern, while the rest of the crew prepared to fight.
"You think you can kick my brother and get away with it, oi?" The guy who hit him demanded.
He was a weirdo with an ugly magenta bowlcut that made him look kind of like a mushroom, a black mustache and beard, a mask over his eyes, a flashy red cape, orange pants and a fancy blue tunic.
"Who're you?" Luffy demanded, confused more than anything.
"Mushushushushu. I'm Musshuru, rightful king of Drum Kingdom." The weirdo said, laughing. "Your little pirate crew will be a good warm up for retaking it."
Vivi gasped. "Wapol's older brother! I heard that he'd been exiled."
That just made Luffy more confused. This had to be another one of those mystery timeline changes Robin mentioned. Either way, not important right now. This guy was way too strong for any of his crew as they were. That was actually a little exciting, because it was new.
"I'll kick your ass right here." He said, bringing up his fists.
"Is that right, mushushushu?" Musshuru laughed, not taking him seriously.
That was fine. Luffy was used to not being taken seriously and he never cared. He launched himself into the attack with strength and speed.
But unlike Wapol, Musshuru was actually a fighter. He saw the attack coming and easily evaded it and countered, slamming his fist into Luffy's chin. Then the fight was on, the two fighters exchanging blows.
Luffy was confident he could win. He was always confident he could win, to be fair, but this time he could feel that Musshuru was weaker than him. He took some hits from certain surprise tactics, like the clones and the drill fist, but other than that he was solidly in the lead.
His body wasn't quite strong enough to keep up, but his practice with the Life Return technique had since let him activate Gear Second without even having to use his legs to pump blood faster. He was having fun and definitely winning… until Musshuru pulled a dirty trick.
Luffy didn't know what kind of Devil Fruit the guy had, but he wasn't going to let his friends get hit by the wave of purple being blasted towards them. It was a mist of some kind and its eerie purple color reminded him of Magellan and his Venon Venom Fruit. Seeing no alternative, he started sucking in air and the purple mist with it.
"Eh?!" Musshuru squawked in shock. "Kabayarou, did you just inhale all of my poison spores?!" Then he started laughing. "What an idiot!"
Luffy was already feeling the poison work, so he quickly blew it all out right back at Musshuru. Predictably, the man was immune to his own fruit and Luffy' condition continued to rapidly get worse. He could barely breathe.
I screwed up.
That was one of the last thoughts he had before losing consciousness. The absolute last one being that he wished to fight this bastard again so he could beat him.
XXXXX
Annoyed, Luffy nonetheless repeated his low profile run. And when they encounter Vivi at Twin Capes, he asked her a very important question.
"Does Wapol have a brother?"
Vivi was startled by the seemingly random question. "Wapol? The king of Drum? Yes, he has an older brother named Musshuru, though I heard that he had been exiled for some reason."
This made Luffy very happy.
XXXXX
Luffy was significantly less happy a few days later.
"Drum Island?" Vivi said, baffled. "Is that why you were asking about Wapol and his brother back at Twin Capes?"
"Yeah." Luffy nodded firmly, prepared to do his usual line of arguments that would convince Vivi that they needed to detour there.
"But Luffy, Drum Kingdom is further down the Grand Line, between Water 7 and the Sabaody Archipelago." The princess explained.
The rubber captain's jaw dropped in shock.
It moved again?!
XXXXX
With no chance of facing the poison mushroom bastard again, the crew continued on to Alabasta. Luffy continued to maintain a low profile and made sure that no Baroque Works agents could report to Crocodile.
But he was, in the end, still Monkey D. Luffy, quite possibly the most reckless man alive.
XXXXX
Crocodile angrily chewed and puffed on his cigar as he received the news. Some no-name rookie pirate had just come out of nowhere and returned Nefertari Vivi to the kingdom. That by itself wouldn't be a big deal, but the princess went straight to her father and told him everything, including details about Mr. 2's powers that she shouldn't have.
"Miss All Sunday." He said coldly, speaking to his prime suspect. "How exactly did the princess learn about Mr. 2?"
The okama weirdo was his secret ace in the hole, the means by which he could always stir up more chaos at need. As long as he had that option, it mattered very little what anyone tried to do to stop him. A few orders under the guise of either King Cobra or Koza would have undone it all.
Nico Robin looked as unruffled as ever. "I'm afraid I have no idea. As far as I know, she never came into contact with Mr. 2 or anyone who knows about his Devil Fruit."
Considering that he and Nico Robin were the only ones who knew about the Clone Clone Fruit, that narrowed the list of suspects considerably.
"Nobody except you." Crocodile growled, slowly raising his golden hook.
Nico Robin was the only one that could read the Poneglyph. Much of his plans had hinged on that fact, but not all of them. The Ancient Weapon had to be somewhere in or near Alabasta. If he couldn't trust his 'partner' to not leak information to his enemies, then he couldn't trust her to tell him the truth about what was written on the Poneglyph, which made her useless.
XXXXX
Luffy blinked in confusion as he awoke back at the start of his adventure. He had no idea what had gone wrong this time.
XXXXX
"Does Wapol have a brother?"
Vivi was startled by the seemingly random question. "Wapol? The king of Drum? Yes, he has an older brother named Musshuru, though I heard that he had been exiled for some reason."
Luffy grinned for a moment in victory before asking his next question. "Okay, but where is Drum?"
"Between Alabasta and Little Garden." Vivi replied even more confused. "Why are you asking all these questions about Drum, Luffy?"
"Because we're going there." He replied, now grinning freely. Finally, things were the way he wanted them!
"What?! Why?!" Vivi spluttered, somewhere between indignation and alarm. "My people need me! We can't afford to stop on every island on the way!"
"We need to stop there if we want to save your country." Luffy asserted. Usopp wouldn't find his true motivation if he didn't see Dorry and Broggy's duel of honor, and Chopper was Chopper.
XXXXX
Once again, Luffy was thankful to be able to get up to Drum Castle without having to climb those steep rocky cliffs. The memory of having to do that the first time around was still quite prominent and, even if he didn't regret it for a moment, was not an experience he wanted to repeat.
Knowing what was coming and not being burdened by a sick crewmate, the Straw Hats made their way leisurely up to the castle and worked on convincing Chopper to join their crew. The little reindeer obviously wanted to do it already and Luffy was always up to horsing around with a friend.
Eventually, Wapol and Musshuru made it to the castle and started their usual posturing and demands to take down Doctor Hiluluk's pirate flag and surrender to be executed for their crimes.
Luffy kicked the big mouth in the face, as he always did these days.
"Kabayarou! How dare you attack my brother, oi?!" Musshuru showed up almost immediately.
"He's annoying." Luffy answered honestly.
That brought the spore man up short. "He is, but he's still my brother and I'm going to kill you for kicking him. Only I get to kick him."
"I'll kick you, too." The rubber man promised.
"Mushushu." Musshuru laughed. "You will, will you? Then come and try it."
Luffy could hardly refuse such an invitation and flashed forward. Entering Gear Second with Life Return and then using Soru to further increase his speed, he was in Musshuru's face before the other man ciuld react, having not expected such a fast opponent. As promised, he lashed out with a kick, nailing the spore man right in the chest and sending him flying.
"You're strong." Musshuru groaned, picking himself up. He had never met anyone who was stronger than him and was honestly not enjoying the feeling.
"Yep." Luffy nodded, thinking it was a compliment. This time knowing what he had to watch out for, he rushed forward again and kicked him further away.
"Take care of his crew!" He yelled to his friends. "I've got this guy."
"I've just about had enough of you." Musshuru muttered darkly and went on the offensive.
Unlike the first time, there was no adjustment period as Luffy got the hang of his movements. This time, he already knew, and thus had a serious advantage. The spore techniques were not surprises either and he there was nobody to get caught in the poison spore wave.
"You're not as strong as I thought." Luffy said in disappointment after a couple of minutes of kicking the guy around. Yeah, he was faster and stronger than most people this early into the Grand Line, but he wasn't that great of a fighter. It was obvious to see that he'd never been truly challenged in his life.
"I'll show you…" Musshuru slurred, obviously a bit concussed.
He tried to throw out and overwhelming wave of toxic spores, but Luffy saw it coming and jumped high in the air. Then he inhaled a huge amount of air to turn himself into a balloon and blew it out to disperse the spores. Once he was back to normal, he finished Musshuru off with a Rankyaku.
"I never want to deal with this guy again." He shook his head, hoping that whatever mystery power was messing with the time travel would just stay on track.
XXXXX
With Drum Kingdom behind them, it was time to once more tackle Alabasta. Luffy still had no idea how to do that.
No matter what he tried, it seemed that Crocodile had something he could counter with. If it was a fight, Luffy could rely on his instinct to see him through, but this was a battle of the mind and he knew that he was too dumb to win.
So he did what he always did when it was time to do some thinking, he offloaded it onto his crew.
"Alright, so you beat him the first time because he wasn't taking you seriously enough and you were fighting underground." Usopp said seriously.
Luffy nodded with an equally serious grunt. "If he's out in the desert, I just can't touch him."
He had stopped trying to use Smoker's jitte against the sand croc. It worked worse than water or blood.
"They do say that the Sand Sand Fruit is invincible in the desert." Vivi gnawed at her lip worriedly. She had been in such a rush to return to her kingdom, but now that they were here she also had no idea how to deal with Crocodile.
"This is why we shouldn't be picking fights with veteran pirates who have decades of experience." Nami complained, but didn't actually suggest abandoning Vivi and Alabasta to their fate.
"The sand croc isn't that tough." Luffy insisted, which was only partially bluster.
He was confident that he could win, as long as Crocodile couldn't just disperse into sand and run away, or turn the very ground against him. Veteran pirate he might be, but he was incredibly rusty and his will had weakened from decades of nothing but easy victories.
The only real problem was pinning him down.
"What about that dance powder stuff?" Usopp suggested. "If we could make it rain, then he wouldn't be able to run away or use most of his powers."
Vivi immediately shook her head. "Dance powder was how this whole rebellion against my father started. Using it would probably provoke the rebels into attacking."
"We need to take out his underlings." Zoro said calmly, keeping his eyes closed. "If he can't perceive our moves, then he can't react to them."
"I haven't tried that before." Luffy agreed.
"Alright, where are they?" Sanji asked, onboard with the plan.
Luffy lifted his finger and opened his mouth to reveal this information, only to realize that he didn't have it. "I don't know."
That set off a bout of screaming as the more intellectually inclined members of the crew berated him for not paying attention to important details. Such was life on the Going Merry.
XXXXX
Luffy had at this point been forcibly cooled down enough that he would not disagree to the idea of spending a few loops gathering information and then using it to get past Alabasta. As long as it worked, he was willing to try nearly anything at this point.
His crew, however, was not looping and were not as sanguine about resetting. From their point of view that was the same as death. So, knowing Crocodile's plans, where they had to be executed and his most important underlings, they decided that they would simply talk to Koza and King Cobra, then wait for him to come to them. Thanks to knowledge from past loops, they knew that he was based in the oasis of Katorea, instead of in Yuba as Vivi's outdated knowledge said.
With Vivi's connection to the impetuous leader of the rebellion and the information she had, convincing him wasn't hard, especially as the man harbored some doubts at the rebellion he had started. Hothead though he was, Koza had had a very high opinion of King Cobra before the dance powder scandal and his father's support of the king was unshakable.
Being told that it was all a frame job by Crocodile was something that he wanted to hear. After getting assurances of safe passage from Vivi, he agreed to go to Alubarna with them and talk to the king.
Severely annoyed at having all his hard scheming work undone, Crocodile decided to detonate the bomb he'd been saving as a just-in-case measure and destroyed all of Alubarna. Meanwhile, Mr. 2 was sent to the rebel camp and staged a coup under the guise of one of Koza's lieutenants.
It was messy, but this way Crocodile could come in after the fact and 'punish' the rebels for their horrible crime, leaving him as the obvious candidate to take over rule of the country.
Or so it would have happened if the loop didn't reset.
XXXXX
Luffy smacked a fist into his skull, producing a hollow 'thunk' sound despite his rubber physiology.
"I forgot about the bomb!"
There was just so much to keep track of. He needed to consult an expert on keeping track of details.
XXXXX
"We're the people Jaguar D. Saul told you about."
Robin's composure shattered before those words. "H-how do you know about Saul and what he told me?!"
"Time loop." Luffy said again, patiently. By now he had looped too many times to even be annoyed. "I know you didn't believe me before, but the you in the future told me to say those words if I need to convince you."
All of his nakama told him what to say to their past selves, making these time loops easier to deal with.
"I see." Robin said shakily, sitting down on a chair that Sanji rushed to provide. "I suppose that makes you my captain?"
"That's right!" He grinned widely. "Now help us kick Crocodile's ass so we can go on more adventures."
Smiling bemusedly at his enthusiasm, she agreed easily. "Alright then, tell me what you have tried so far?"
So he did, and in the process learned why that inexplicable reset two loops ago happened. Luffy was quite upset to learn that he had gotten Robin killed without even knowing it, but the archaeologist waved it off.
With her scheming mind and multiple past failures to guide them, the Straw Hats put together a much better plan to defeat Crocodile.
XXXXX
Crocodile was angry, but more than that, he was uneasy.
After learning that Baroque Works had been infiltrated by Alabasta's princess and his identity discovered, he had sent the Mr. 5 pair to Whiskey Peak to silence her and anyone else who might know the secret.
They had vanished, along with the Unluckies and the bounty hunters on Whiskey Peak. Knowing that Miss All Sunday was in the area, he had called her to demand a report, but she had not answered either. A subsequent low ranking agent sent to investigate found the island completely devoid of life, with the only evidence being signs of a short battle.
This would have already been quite worrisome by itself, but it didn't end there.
His spies had reported the presence of Firefist Ace in Nanohana, only for the man to suddenly vanish. There had been a brief scuffle with Captain Smoker of the Marines, but nothing much had come of it.
Then his higher ranked agents started vanishing. The Mr. 4, Mr. 3 and Mr. 1 pairs were attacked and defeated by what was later identified as the Straw Hat pirate crew. Even Mr. 2 mysteriously disappeared.
A pirate crew with a measly thirty million bounty, who absolutely should not have been that strong. He had received a report on them just before all this trouble started and dismissed them as irrelevant. That might have been a serious mistake.
By that point, he had realized that Nico Robin had betrayed him. She was the only one that could have fed the rookies all that information and so thoroughly countered his plans. Her death would be slow for that betrayal, but first he had to salvage his plans.
The bomb, which he had told nobody about, not even his 'partner' would put things approximately back on track.
Only, it didn't happen that way because the bomb was also taken care of already.
Nearly apoplectic with fury, he caught sight of Nico Robin walking down the secret entrance to the catacombs, throwing him a superior smirk as she disappeared into the depths.
The bitch had played him! Used his plans to further her own, then sabotaged everything. She would get away with knowledge of the ancient weapon, while all he would be left with was the blame!
Enraged beyond reason, he charged down after her, determined to make sure she didn't get away with it… only to realize that there was yet one more layer to Nico Robin's betrayal.
Monkey D. Luffy, the thirty million beli rookie, stood waiting for him in the catacombs, cracking his knuckles.
"Now you've got nowhere to run, sand croc." The little brat said threateningly, far more threateningly than someone his age and inexperience should be capable of.
Crocodile scowled in thought, trying to figure out why the kid was talking as if they'd fought before.
XXXXX
With Robin at the wheel and having enough information to finally make a plan that didn't result in a backfire, the situation in Alabasta was handled remarkably quietly. The Marines didn't even know what had happened until King Cobra gave a speech and explained things, with Koza at his side.
Mr. 2 had been intercepted along with his fellow agents. The okama had instantly believed Luffy when he explained the time travel, though he had still insisted on fighting for his current comrades. After getting beaten up by Sanji, however, he and the rubber man had themselves a long crying session as they reminisced over their adventure in Impel Down.
Only Luffy was doing any actual reminiscing, but Bentham was so moved by the story and Luffy's emotions that he simply rolled with it.
This time, the okama didn't have to sacrifice himself to assure the Straw Hats' escaped since the Marines didn't scramble fast enough to catch them.
Finally having broken through the wall holding him back, Luffy was giddy with excitement. He knew that they didn't have to go to Sky Island again, but he did recall that Enel intended to destroy it after he flew to the moon on his flying ship.
Also, he may have mentioned the gold to Nami, after which his navigator refused to hear any word about not going. Luffy didn't really mind. It would mean getting to save the friends he'd made up there and beat up the lightning idiot again, which he expected to do easily.
Alas for those plans, he had forgotten about the encounter with Blackbeard in Jaya and immediately lost his temper upon seeing the man.
XXXXX
Waking up back in his dinghy, Luffy glared up at the sky.
He had no idea if he was capable of not fighting Blackbeard as soon as he saw him.
XXXXX
OMAKE (kinda)
"Is it always like this?" A bewildered Will Turner asked his temporary ally/captain.
"This is a bit worse than normal, I admit." Jack Sparrow conceded.
"FOOOOOOOOD!" The bellowed command echoed throughout the pirate port of Tortuga.
The young man who had issued it was sitting at the bar, devouring everything that came within reach. Sometimes, he even paused to spit out the plates after he was done shoveling their contents into his gullet.
He did not restrict himself to his own food either. No scrap of food within reach was safe, and considering that he could seemingly stretch, that reach was quite considerable.
Pirates, being an ornery lot, didn't take well to have the food stolen from their plates or even their hands, but the stretchy young man in the straw hat didn't even stop eating as he fended them off.
Grinning, Jack sauntered over to the very interesting man and sat down next to him.
"Greetings!" He said. "I'm Captain Jack Sparrow."
"Monkey D. Luffy." He said, pausing just long enough to swallow before talking. "I'm going to be the Pirate King."
Jack's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "That's quite the lofty ambition. How do you plan to get the Pirate Lords to vote for you?"
Being one of the Pirate Lords himself (although the title was rather fluid), he was genuinely curious to know.
"Vote?" Monkey… or perhaps Luffy, asked back, looking at him as if he was stupid. "I'll become the Pirate King when I sail to the ends of the Grand Line and find the One Piece, the greatest treasure in the world."
Jack exchanged a baffled look with Will, having never heard of any of this. Still, best not challenge a madman's delusions. "Aye, that's quite a dream, but you'll need a crew to do that, won't you?"
Mad or not, this strange fellow was obviously quite strong and not very smart. He could be useful in getting back the Black Pearl.
"I have a crew." Luffy stated, though he looked grumpy and upset. "I just don't know where they are right now. Stupid mystery time travel put me somewhere weird. How am I supposed to have a fun adventure without my crew?"
"A terrible thing, to be sure." Jack said sympathetically. "But if it's adventure you seek, why not sail with me and Will here? We are on the hunt for the Black Pearl, a cursed ghost ship. Who knows, we might even find your crew on the way."
"A ghost ship?!" Luffy's eyes sparkled. "That's sooo cooool! Is the Black Pearl anything like Thriller Bark? That's where I found my musician, Brook. He's a skeleton."
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Will muttered to his ear.
"Of course it is." Jack asserted, lying through his teeth. A good idea, much like a bad idea, was only good (or bad) in hindsight.
XXXXX
"Still think this is a good idea, First Mate Jack Sparrow?" Will turner asked mockingly.
Jack had been demoted, on account of Luffy refusing to be anything other than the captain. The scrawny-looking man had the strength of a hundred men and was impervious to gunfire. It made it hard to argue with him.
"Sometimes, Mr. Turner, you have to roll with the punches." Jack lectured sagely. "Yes, being made an underling is a tad humiliating, but our esteemed captain has made it clear that he does not consider us to be his real crew, so he will eventually leave. Even better, he isn't the type to kill us when he does so. Mark my words, by the end of this I'll have my ship, you'll have your lass and Barbossa will have a bullet in his heart."
"If we don't starve to death before getting that far." Will said flatly, staring at Luffy, who was currently devouring their entire stock of food.
Jack nervously twirled his beard. "Yes… that is admittedly a concern."
XXXXX
With this chapter, the story goes on hiatus, most likely to return around winter.