Luffy did not understand why acting mysterious and all-knowing worked better than just telling the truth about being a time traveller, but that was nothing new for him. He frequently didn't understand why some things were the way they were. Instead of agonizing over it, he decided to roll with it. Or roll over it if he disliked it enough.
"Who are you?" A terrified Coby asked.
Luffy stared at him straight in the eye as he responded. "I am Monkey D. Luffy, future Pirate King. I know all! I know you hate Alvida, I know she's forcing you to be her crew's cabin boy and I know you want to be a marine."
Cobby froze in fear. "B-but h-h-how?"
"No questions!"
XXXXX
Luffy already knew that approaching Nami on Alvida's ship and introducing himself as a pirate didn't work, so he didn't try it. Instead, he pulled the same all-knowing routine first on Zoro, then in Orange Town after saving her, then on Usopp and Sanji and so on.
In the process, he discovered that it was actually kind of fun being the smart one for a change. Still not his preferred kind of fun, but fun all the same.
Case in point…
"Who the hell do you think you are, human?!" A furious Arlong demanded, unable to land a single hit on the rubber man.
"I am the all-knowing Monkey D. Luffy, future Pirate King." Luffy responded, casually weaving in between the fishman's punches. He'd already had an advantage over him before, but after so many resets, Arlong was so predictable he could beat him in his sleep. "I know that you came to the East Blue because Jinbe couldn't stand you anymore and because you were too weak to make it on the Grand Line by yourself. I know that you bribed Captain Nezumi because you couldn't fight off the Marines. I know that you'll never amount to anything."
It was meaner than normal for him, but Arlong pissed him off. Every time these loops reset, that horrible room that he kept Nami locked in and forced her to make maps for him was intact again. Arlong had turned her dream into a nightmare, and that was something that Luffy would never forgive.
Arlong roared in fury at the words, but all his efforts were useless. Luffy pummeled him into the ground with ease.
Then Captain Nezumi showed up, but was intercepted before he could let out so much as a single word.
"I am Monkey D. Luffy, the all-knowing future Pirate King!" Luffy declared to him. "You won't be confiscating Nami's treasure. Get out of here and tell Marine Headquarters who kicked your ass!"
XXXXX
"I came across some interesting pirates recently." Mihawk said, unrolling a bounty poster for Shanks to see.
As soon as he saw it, the fearsome Emperor spat out his drink in shock. The picture was bad enough, showing a non-smiling Luffy with a penetrating stare, but the actual words on the poster were even worse. "Monkey D. Luffy, the All-Knowing? Fifty million?"
The rest of his crew was no better. All of them choked on something, even if it was thin air. The very idea of Luffy being all-knowing was ludicrous. Heck, even the idea of Luffy being normally-knowing was ludicrous!
"WHAT THE HELL?!"
"Oh, what has you so surprised?" Mihawk asked mildly.
"Mihawk, listen." Shanks said, deadly serious. "You didn't know Luffy before, but there's no way this is right. He is, without a doubt, a moron."
"Admittedly, he didn't strike me as very intelligent." The swordsman conceded. "Still, he knew many things that he should have no way of knowing and he defeated all of the East Blue's big bounties without any effort."
"Luffy… what have you been up to?" Shanks was still happy that his young friend had taken to the sea as he had promised, but he was very confused!
XXXXX
A similar scene was unfolding on the Moby Dick. Ace had been just about to set out after Teach when the news coo had come with his little brother's bounty.
"I thought you said he was an idiot yoi?" Marco asked, amused.
"He is!" Ace insisted, still freaking out. "I have no idea what the hell he's been doing to get the Marines to call him all-knowing."
"Must have been pretty impressive to get him a bounty that big to start with." Another crewmate pointed out. "I don't think I've ever heard of anyone starting off at fifty million."
Ace grumbled at that. It was bigger than his own starting bounty by a considerable margin, which was something he knew Luffy would rub in his face.
XXXXX
Smoker was angrily huffing on his cigars, staring at the rookie pirate that was making a fool of him. At least part of the anger was aimed at himself.
When he'd been told that there was a new rookie with a fifty million beli bounty coming to Loguetown, he had snorted dismissively and figured that HQ was panicking over nothing. He'd been so certain that the bounty was inflated that he hadn't even looked at the poster.
That had come back to bite him, as he'd passed right by Monkey D. Luffy, the supposedly All-Knowing, while the rookie pirate was on his way to the execution platform.
Where he had announced that he would be the Pirate King with such utter surety that it left everyone speechless. That had been followed by a wild chase across the town, with the pirates seeming to get the better of them at every turn.
"You're not getting past me, pirate!" Smoker snarled.
"Shishishi, you've defeated yourself, Smokey." Luffy said mysteriously, laughing.
Smoker was done playing games and rushed at the pirate with a stream of smoke. Rookies were always surprised by his Devil Fruit and quickly caught.
But not Luffy. He managed to evade Smoker's incorporeal grasp and snatched the jitte right off his back. In the instant before the seastone tip touched him and neutralized his powers, Smoker realized what the pirate had mean.
How did he know?!
"I'm borrowing this, alright, Smokey?" Luffy said, poking the jitte at him again. "I need it to beat up a sand croc."
As his strength returned, Smoker could only glare furiously at the pirate's back. The only sand croc he could think of was the Warlord Crocodile, but why was the rookie pirate already planning to pick a fight with him?
XXXXX
"I am Monkey D. Luffy, the All-Knowing." Luffy declared to Whiskey Peak, grinning widely. "And you are going to throw us a party."
"Erm…. Yes. Yes, we are!" The disguised Igaram agreed hurriedly. He didn't like the way this was going, but surely these pirates could be overwhelmed by a sufficient amount of food and drink?
XXXXX
"I wonder, are you really all-knowing?" Robin mused, looking at the beaten up members of Baroque Works and the unconscious Unluckies. Monkey D. Luffy certainly did seem to be on top of things.
"I know things." He confirmed.
"Did you know that I would kill Igaram?" She pressed with a relaxed smile, resting her chin on her palm.
Vivi made an angry noise, looking between them.
"You didn't kill him." Luffy said with utter surety.
"I didn't." Robin admitted easily. "And you knew that I wouldn't?"
"You're a good person, Robin."
She froze for just a moment before regaining her composure. "So it seems that you do somewhat live up to your moniker. Tell me, do you know what Crocodile wants in Alabasta as well?"
"Some stupid Ancient Weapon." He replied. "You just want to know the true history, but you won't find it in Alabasta."
The knowledge confirmed her fears and broke Robin's heart, but she hid the pain it caused. "Oh? Where will I find it, then?" At this point she was quite convinced that he really did have some strange source of information, even if he wasn't all-knowing.
"At the end of the Grand Line, with us." Luffy said seriously, staring into her eyes.
"Is that an invitation to join your crew, Captain-san?" Robin asked. "Trying to poach me away from Crocodile?"
"You were never his nakama."
"Luffy, are you sure about this?" Vivi asked, deeply skeptical.
"Robin is a good person, Vivi. She just needs a chance."
"Well, how can I do anything but agree when you show so much faith in me?" Robin said. "Permission to come aboard, Captain?"
Luffy was not one to hide his emotions, so he rather damaged his all-knowing persona by staring at the archaeologist in shock. This was hardly the first time he had invited her to join the crew right here, and certainly not the first time he had told her about the poneglyph in Alabasta or where the true history could be found. But never before had Robin actually joined right away.
Did acting mysterious and all-knowing really have that much effect on people?!
XXXXX
"But there's no reason to go to Little Garden." Vivi insisted. "We don't have time to waste on detours."
"It's important to Usopp." Luffy said. "Then we need to go to Drum Kingdom to pick up our crew's doctor."
Both Vivi and the newly recruited Robin, both familiar with the Grand Line frowned in confusion.
"But… Drum is between Water 7 and the Sabaody Archipelago." Vivi said slowly. "It would add several weeks to the voyage just to get there, never mind coming back. Luffy-san, I am willing to trust that you know what you're doing when you insist on going to Little Garden, but I won't accept that kind of delay."
Luffy's jaw dropped in shocked confusion. "No, that's not right. Drum Kingdom is right after Little Garden."
"Captain-san, where did you get that idea?" Robin asked. Her tone was amused, but her eyes were sharp.
"It was always like that before!" An increasingly panicked Luffy insisted.
"Before?" Robin pressed. "Captain-san, what exactly is the source of your information?"
The rest of the crew leaned in further, just as curious. Luffy had always brushed their questions aside before and never seemed surprised by anything, so this was very new to them.
Seeing that the jig was up, Luffy abandoned his all-knowing act and shrugged. "I'm stuck in a time loop. This is the first time that something is different."
"YOU EXPECT US TO BELIEVE THAT?!" Nami, Usopp, Zoro and Sanji all shouted at him.
"IT'S THE TRUTH!" Luffy shouted back. "WHY DO YOU THINK I KNOW EVERYTHING?! DO I LOOK SMART TO YOU?!"
"Ufufufuf, so that's how it is." Robin chuckled, more relaxed now that she had the situation figured out. As a Grand Line veteran, she knew not to dismiss anything as impossible. Luffy had never struck her as either a liar or the type of individual concerned with gathering knowledge, so brute force repetition was a good explanation. "You've already lived through these events. That's how you knew what Crocodile is planning and what my true goals were. How many times have you looped?"
"I wasn't counting." Luffy shrugged again. "Anyway, this is the first time I managed to convince you to join my crew this early. PLEASE HELP ME GET OUT OF THIS STUPID LOOP, ROBIN!"
"Oh, what makes you think I can help you?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Because you're super smart, the smartest on the crew." He replied immediately.
"Hmm, alright. I will do my best. Tell me how this got started."
Everyone paid close attention as Luffy once more explained the situation in Marineford, interrupted by the usual exclamations when he dropped some shocking bit of info about his family.
"Hmm, Devil Fruits often have strange and esoteric powers that you wouldn't expect." Robin mused. "Could it be that you unknowingly used your Gomu Gomu no Mi to stretch time itself, causing it to spring back like a rubber band? That would be my best guess, given that the loop seems to reset every time you lose someone close to you."
"So I just have to keep all my nakama alive?" Luffy asked. "That's what I was going to do anyway!"
"Wait." Nami interjected in a tone of someone just realizing something. "If you're constantly looping through time and your goal is to keep us all alive and together, then why the hell have you been acting like you know everything instead of just telling us?"
"You told me to." He said blandly.
"LIKE HELL I DID!" She yelled, bashing him over the head.
"But you diiiid!" He whined. "I was bored of doing the same thing over and over again and you told me to have some fun."
"That is actually good advice." Robin mused aloud. "The constant failure, death and repetition would have disastrous effects on anyone's mind if they didn't find any way of refreshing themselves. If the time loops go on long enough, Captain-san could go horribly insane."
"That's too scary, Robin!" Usopp protested, tears leaking form his eyes.
"Alright, so Luffy is looping through time." Zoro spoke up, his tone catching everyone's attention. "How does that explain him thinking that Drum Kingdom would be right after Little Garden while you say it's further on?"
"Good question." Robin nodded, giving it some thought. "The only way I can explain that is if Captain-san isn't actually going back into his own timeline, but into alternative timelines. Which means that every time he fails, the timeline doesn't end but goes on as he left it, with him or us dead. He might even be destroying those timelines entirely to power his ability to go back."
"Robin, I asked you nicely to stop being so scary!" Usopp protested again.
"Timelines? More than one?" Luffy muttered, face scrunched in abject confusion.
"Don't hurt yourself thinking too hard." Sanji sighed.
"You're right, it's a mystery." The rubber man nodded, relieved.
"So that means that we are going to Alabasta after Little Garden, right?" Vivi asked persistently.
"If Drum isn't here, then we'll just have to get Chopper after Franky." Luffy nodded.
"Who's Franky?" Nami and Usopp asked.
"Our shipwright, he's a cool cyborg pervert."
"What."
XXXXX
With Robin's guidance, they were able to avoid all attention from Baroque Works agents. Luffy paid close attention to who she talked to and how, doing his best to memorize it all for the future.
Of course, the effort was entirely wasted when Luffy ran into Ace and Smoker. With his previously flagging enthusiasm and hero act, it had been a good few repeats since the Marine captain had chased him into the Grand Line, so he'd almost forgotten how persistent the man could be. Now that he'd beaten him so decisively and stolen his weapon, Smoker was on the warpath.
Of course, that didn't help him win, certainly not against both Luffy and Ace, but he did make enough of a commotion to draw the notice of Baroque Works, who then reported to Crocodile.
XXXXX
"You know, it says a lot about you that your story about time travel is more plausible than you being smart, Luffy." Ace said with an amused scowl.
He still remembered almost choking to death on thin air when he first saw that bounty poster.
"I can't believe I ever thought he was smart." Nami muttered, hanging her head in shame.
"I never said I was smart, I just said I know things." Luffy pointed out blandly.
"I KNOW!" Nami yelled, clobbering him over the head for stress relief. "Stop rubbing it in!"
"Alright, so, what was Smoker so mad about back there?" Ace brought things back on track. "He seemed to really have it out for you."
"Oh, I stole his jitte so that I could beat up Crocodile." Luffy explained, waving around the weapon in question. "It's got a seastone tip for beating up Logias with. I tried making him hard with water, but it didn't work as well as the first time."
"PHRASING!" Several people yelled. Vivi in particular was blushing furiously, innocent soul that she was.
"Eh? Phrasing?" Luffy cocked his head in confusion.
"I guess you didn't figure out Haki before you started looping?" Ace guessed, ignoring the short byplay. He was a veteran of Luffy's denseness and certainly wasn't going to try explaining sex to his little brother.
"Haki?" Luffy echoed, scrunching his face up in concentration. "Blackbeard mentioned it when I punched him in Impel Down."
Ace muttered some nasty imprecations about Blackbeard under his breath, still finding it hard to believe that he'd lost to the traitorous bastard. Then again, Pops had asked him not to chase after him because he had a bad feeling.
"Right. Normally I would let you figure this out in your own time." Partially because Ace himself was rather bad at it and preferred to rely on his Devil Fruit. "But you might need it if you're ever going to break this loop. Listen up, because I don't want to keep explaining this over and over…"
XXXXX
"Monkey D. Luffy, the All-Knowing." Crocodile puffed angrily on his cigar. "Did you think I wasn't informed of your arrival?"
"Doesn't matter." Luffy stated, brandishing Smoker's jitte. "I'm going to kick your ass."
XXXXX
Luffy woke up back on his dinghy as he had so many times before, staring contemplatively up at the sky. The jitte hadn't helped as much as he had hoped. When he wasn't forced to fight inside a confined space, Crocodile was actually really dangerous.
The mere thought of trying to maneuver the fight into such a confined space made his head ache. Although no stranger to using the environment to his advantage, he just didn't have the skill or patience to manipulate where the fight would start.
Now that his biggest obstacle was a stronger enemy instead of a convoluted mess of circumstances, Luffy at least knew what to do.
Get stronger. Simple.