Details about this story: The story takes place after Wano. The logpose for all three crews point to the same island: Kuruzu. They agree to sail there together before splitting up.

Ch. 1: Arrival and departure

A beautiful sunrise at sea and an island in the distance that was approaching ever closer.

The three ships cruised side by side, which may have appeared magnificent to onlookers, but to the three ships' inhabitants, it felt more like a gigantic playing field. The ships were connected to each other by ropes - necessary as half of the respective crews were spread out on one of the other ships. Some because they were partying, others because they needed medical treatment and the rest to chat, play cards, meditate, train or whatever else they could think of.

Some crew members appeared to be disgruntled about the approaching island, which would separate the three ships. Even though the captains were carousing, bickering, and quarrelling, the celebrations that took place whenever they were near the Straw Hats had formed bonds among the crews. As a result, throughout the three days that the crews spent travelling from Wano to the island of Kuruzu, a spirit of friendship and interchange emerged.

Sanji, for example, began offering cooking lessons out of compassion for the Kid pirates. However, these turned out to be far more popular among the Heart Pirates. Chopper was mainly on the premises of the Polar Tang, where he had the various devices and examination methods demonstrated to him. Robin, who had already thoroughly examined the submarine's library on their trip to Wano, had opted to read through the Victoria Punk's library for the three days of their travel, which is why she was nowhere to be found. Penguin and Shashi were often found fighting over who got to bring her snacks and food, which Robin acknowledged with friendly smiles but little attention. Trafalgar Law, captain of the Heart Pirates, was also on the Victoria Punk for much of the period, but he was there because he felt it was his duty to assist Killer, the victim of a Smile fruit that had arrived in Wano, and hence to Killer, via Doflamingo. He was helped by Ikkaku, who was recognised among her crew for her ability to offer antidotes. However, the only effective treatment they had found thus far was a simple facial massage, which helped to diminish Killer's characteristic, excessive smile.

The organised competitions proved extremely popular. There had already been a shooting competition, in which they were extremely impressed by Shashi's abilities. Of course, the swordsmen had competed, but only with wooden swords to keep the ships navigable. Nonetheless, the fights were so intense that Zoro had to be excluded from the competitions for the sake of those in present. In martial arts it was Luffy who had to be banned from competing after Jimbei had to collect him out of the water during his first fight. The most amazing match then occurred between Jimbei and Sanji. There was also a knowledge quiz, but after a short while, the questions proved to be too easy for Robin and Law but too difficult for everyone else, including those who should have been ahead of the two based only on their age. The quiz concluded with Robin sharing entertaining anecdotes and stories, occasionally supplemented by Jimbei, as everyone listened closely and ate Sanji's freshly baked biscuits. There had also been an eating contest, but so much food had been devoured by the captains of the Straw Hats and the Kid Pirates - both the hands-down winners, by the way - that Sanji had forbidden any more such competitions.

All in all, the trip from Wano to Kuruzu had gone smoothly and they were now preparing for their imminent arrival on the island. As Wano was cut off from the rest of the world - and would remain so - all the crews had long shopping lists with them, full of goods that were not available on Wano. And so the first glimpse of the island had summoned all members of the three crews to the decks.

Kinemon had informed the navigators of the three crews that the log pose would not take long to point out new directions, so that a stay of one to two hours should be sufficient to head for new destinations. Kuruzu itself was a small but beautiful island, a popular excursion destination, which meant that the locals were well versed in tourism and didn't take too much notice of the ships' flags. As long as someone wanted to buy something, they were welcome.

So the three captains decided to let the ships drop anchor in the harbour for two hours. After that, they would continue sailing together - they didn't want to stay in the harbour too long - before deciding on the open sea which crew would continue in which direction. After all, the joint departure from Kuruzu was also to be the allies' last voyage before the alliance was dissolved and the crews went their separate ways.

Despite the early hour, the arrival of the three ships had drawn a crowd to the harbour. Some of them were merchants looking for a good deal, but many of the locals had come to see the pirates who, it was said, had brought down Emperors Kaido and Big Mom. The mayor of the town was at the forefront of the crowd. She wanted to greet the newcomers and ensure they weren't up to any mischief.

So it came to be that a silent crowd watched as the two imposing Captains Kid and Trafalgar Law and the somewhat less imposing-looking but all the more important Monkey D. Luffy disembarked.

When all the captains were standing on the pier, the mayor stepped forward.

"We hope you have come with peaceful intentions. If this is the case: Welcome to Kuruzu," she said, addressing the three captains.

In order to make a harmless impression in the easiest possible way, Kid and Law had decided to simply send Strawhat Luffy ahead.

"Ah, thank you very much! Hahaha. Do you have a good food stall with meat? I'm starving already!"

As the two other captains had predicted, these few words, which none of them would ever utter, were enough to convince the whole island of their "goodwill", so that just two minutes after docking, a horde of about 15 pirates, led by Monkey D. Luffy, followed the mayor to a restaurant that would open three hours before normal opening hours just for them.

"Barbecue at this hour!" Nami shook her head indignantly as she walked ashore at Usopp's side.

"Robin, you are probably going to the bookshop, right?" she asked, turning to her rear.

" Yes, I want to get some books that I saw on the Polar Tang. And Chopper gave me a list too," Robin replied.

"Ok, we just want to browse through the shops. We can accompany you to the bookshop," suggested Nami.

And so the three of them left the ship.

In the end, only Zoro, Killer, Uni and Clione remained to guard the vessels, with Uni and Clione soon returning to the interior of the submarine to readjust some equipment.

Zoro, on the other hand, made himself comfortable on deck with the aim of having two hours of peace and quiet. He was soon disappointed, as there quickly developed a relatively busy back and forth on the ships. Some found it a bit chilly and picked up another jumper, while others wanted to put down their newly acquired weights before setting off to do some more shopping. Zoro, who was an expert at ignoring such hustle and bustle, found that he had to make an unusual effort in order to exclude a total of three crews. But Zoro had sworn to himself that he would never lose another fight, and of course that also applied to such a challenge.

And so it came to pass that he skilfully ignored Killer when he tried to tell him something. With half an eye he saw Trafalgar Law come back with some books, but he didn't care. With half an ear he heard Clione say that Robin was probably back in the Polar Tang library, but he managed to switch off the rest of the sentence. After an hour, however, more and more of them came back from their purchases and he realised that the deck was no longer the best place for his siesta. But since he didn't have to guard the ship, he retired to the lookout and continued his nap there.

Meanwhile, Usopp and Nami had said goodbye to Robin at the bookshop and had taken a leisurely stroll through the town until they had had enough of walking and sat down at a table in a cosy café. The view of the sea was marvellous, the ice cream was delicious and the waiter, who seemed genuinely bored at this early hour, only left their table to collect their orders. The rest of the time he stood next to them and chatted with them.

The conversation was very interesting, he told them about the islands in the area, some of which were visited by the cruise ships that often stopped here. He told them about the supposed treasure on the northern island (Nami's eyes lit up, she knew which destination they were heading for), about the delicacies that the sea had to offer here and about the blood-sucking mosquitoes that kept anyone who didn't have window screens awake at night (Usopp knew that he wanted to leave the island before dusk).

Time flew by and the two hours were almost up when the waiter mentioned the absence of pirate customers. And so they also learnt that pirates had been visiting less frequently recently, presumably because the marines had decided to visit and patrol the island more often. That was clearly bad for business!

He also expressed his surprise that the three crews had ventured onto the island today, when it was known that Vice-Admiral Garp would be arriving in the course of the afternoon or evening. Wasn't he related to the captain of the Strawhats?

No one answered his question, as Usopp and Nami's jaws had dropped at his penultimate sentence and shortly afterwards they had jumped up from their chairs.

"Today?! That's a joke!" Nami shouted in horror.

"No, they've been announced for today," the waiter replied, a little confused by their reaction.

Usopp and Nami only had to exchange a glance before some money fell onto the table and they ran off, through the entire city back to the ships. They shouted to each of the three crew member they came across on the way to join them immediately and so - half an hour after the agreed meeting time - another 17 unpunctual pirates came running into the harbour.

"Luffyyyyyy! Cast off the lines! Your grandfather is coming!" Usopp shouted through the entire harbour, running to the ship himself. The state of frozen shock of those present didn't last long and immediately a huge commotion broke out.

"Franky, set sail!" shouted Luffy.

"Jimbei, to the helm! Nami, is the log pose ready?"

Nami looked at it and answered in the affirmative.

However, Sanji shouted through the crowd: "Robin's not here!" Everyone stopped for a moment and looked around until Zoro, who had just landed on the deck, gave them the all-clear. "She's on the Polar Tang. We can pick her up from there later."

On the Polar Tang, where Kid was running through the corridors to get to his ship and get it ready to go, talk also turned to missing pirates. The captain was back, they said, and Zoro had complained about that earlier. He was probably on the Victoria Punk again with Ikkaku and Killer to try out their latest findings.

Thus, the three ships that had entered the harbour so impressively three hours earlier now set off in a huge mess, full of fear of getting too close to the grandfather of the strongest captain.