Orange Town (Day)

Zoro stared blankly at Kuina, no thoughts present in his mind. After a few moments of processing what he was seeing, he finally found his voice.

"WHAT THE HELL!?" he shouted.

"I don't know why you're surprised." Russo said. "I did tell you we were meeting up with a mutual friend."

"I didn't think you were talking about her!" Zoro yelled at the blonde. "How is she even alive!? I saw her cremation!"

"Alive is a bit of a subjective term here." Kuina said, smiling as she watched her old sparring partner try to figure out if he was dreaming or not.

"So, you're the Pirate Hunter." Buggy said. "If you're here to take my head, you're in for one flashy fight!"

"Nah, I'm not a bounty hunter anymore. I'm here for Luffy." Zoro said. He turned to Russo. "We'll talk later."

"Hmm. I'm interested." Buggy said, grinning as he brought out two knives. "Even if you've given up on bounty hunting, killing you will bolster my own reputation."

"Before you kill him, you'll have to go through me." Russo said, raising his flaming sword to the clown.

"Suit yourself, you brat!" Buggy shouted, lunging at the blonde. "Die flashily!"

With a single slash, Buggy was split in two by Russo's weapon. "Well, that was underwhelming." the boy said, walking away from the mutilated body of his opponent. "Wait a second, why didn't my blade struggle at all when it cut him? I should've felt at least a little resistance."

"Haha! Way to go, Captain Buggy!" a group of the pirate's underlings cheered. "Show him what you can do!"

"Oh, shit!" Russo said, turning around just in time for Buggy's disembodied arm to stab him in the stomach. The knives plunged into his flesh, but the boy toughed out the pain and jumped back before anything critical was hit. "Heh. I've heard rumors about you having Devil Fruit powers. Guess that was a demonstration."

"Yeah." Buggy said as his split-up body parts reassembled. "The Chop-Chop Fruit. No matter how many pieces you cut me into, I'll always put myself back together."

"That's kinda annoying for a swordsman." Russo said with a grin. "Kuina, get ready." The girl braced herself, much to the confusion of everyone else. Raising his blade, Russo plunged the tip into the ground. A red light brightly flashed before an explosion rang out, shrouding the area in smoke.

"Gah! What the hell!?" Buggy yelled, covering his mouth with his arm while he looked around for his opponents. When the smoke finally cleared, the group was gone. Even the cage that held Luffy was brought with them.

Orange Town (Day)

"Ugh, that never gets easier." Russo said, sitting down in exhaustion. Turning away from the others, he lifted his shirt. 'He might only be an East Blue pirate, but a simple attack like that did way more damage than it should.' He pulled his shirt back down and went back to the group. "So, I'm guessing you have a few questions. Right, Zoro?"

"You got that right!" the swordsman yelled. "How the hell is Kuina here? You have a lot of explaining to do!"

"Well, it happened a few months ago." the blonde said, thinking back. "I visited your home village to learn what the dojo master had to say about my sword. During my stay, I heard the story of a diligent student who died before she had a chance to become a real swordswoman. The details of it are fuzzy, but I remember waking up an empty house, with her laying across from me."

"You're saying you brought her back from the dead!?" Nami and Zoro screamed.

"Eh, maybe." Russo said. "Like I said, there's a lot about that day I don't fully remember. Truthfully, I have no idea how this whole thing happened. But when I offered for Kuina to join my crew, she agreed on the condition that we tried to find tall, dark, and grumpy."

"His first mate brought me here, and we've been waiting for you." Kuina explained. "Although, he ran off somewhere. He could be anywhere on the island by now."

"Of course." Russo grumbled.

"Shishishi! This dog's funny!" Luffy said with a laugh. They had set his cage down in front of a pet food store. Sitting in front of the building was a small dog with white fur. When Luffy went to pet the dog, however, it bit his head.

"Yararara!" Russo laughed. "You're right Luffy. This dog is funny!"

"HELP ME!" the straw-hat boy yelled. Sighing, Russo walked over and pried the dog from Luffy's cranium. It was difficult, but he eventually managed it.

"That's one crazy mutt." Zoro said, surprised.

"That's Shushu." an elderly man said, walking up to the group with a dog food bowl. "He's guarding this shop, so he gets very aggressive when anyone gets too close."

"Hmm. Good guard dog, then." Russo said. "Where's his owner?"

"Unfortunately, Shushu's owner died some time ago." the man said, morose. "Even still, he guards this store. He views it as the last remnant of his owner's legacy."

A loud thumping noise alerted everyone to something approaching them. Turning around, they saw a gigantic lion walking down the road in their direction, with a man standing atop its head. "There you are!" the man yelled. "Captain Buggy's absolutely furious after what you did!"

"So, he's a Buggy Pirate." Russo said, getting into a fighting stance. His wound surged with pain, forcing him back to the ground. 'Those knives did a number on me. I don't think I can fight like this.'

"Now, Ritchie! Tear them to pieces!" the man yelled, prompting the lion to leap forward.

"Thunder Bagua!" a new voice shouted. A blur of white and red shot into view and struck the lion, sending it flying into the distance. After the attack finished, a figure landed on the ground, wearing clothes unlike anything most of the group had seen before. This person had long white hair, yellow eyes, and most noticeably, bright red horns coming out of their head. Furthermore, they were 8 feet tall. "Heya, Captain! How've you been?"

"Where were you!?" Kuina yelled.

"Uh, well. I saw this interesting tree and I wanted to take a closer look." the person said, bashful.

"Of course you did." Kuina said, exhausted.

"Is this that crewmember you were talking about?" Nami asked, wary of the new pirate.

"Yep. Meet my first mate and official writer of our logbook." Russo said, proud. "This is Yamato."

"Nice to meetcha!" Yamato greeted, smiling.

AN: What series of events could've led to Yamato being Russo's first mate? I'd love to see your theories!