Author Note: I've now 'pseudo adopted' this fic from OhhPlease, but I do plan to change things from the very start of the chapter to better fit the characters, and make the cannon change even more than their version. This was one of my first favourite stories, and we talked a lot before I took this story. I do have their outline for it, though I probably won't end up following it to the letter.
Biggest difference between us? I like to use Torao, OhhPlease liked Traffy, please forgive me, senpai but I must change it!
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Kaido was dead, however, both captains knew that they were heading towards the same fate.
Luffy was grinning horribly wide because he didn't have any regrets. To him, this was a great death, reached when attempting to achieve his dream.
Even Law found himself giving a smaller version of that same expression; he was at peace with this. After having gotten his revenge, dying an interesting death, achieving something others would consider impossible... Well, it was certainly worth it. Who else could say that they'd killed after defeating one of the Yonko?
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Luffy's eyes snapped open and he waved his head around. How did he survive? Did Chopper somehow get him and heal him? Where was Torao? Was he okay? However, instead of being met with the face of his fuzzy-faced doctor he found himself looking at a face he'd hoped he'd never see again, at least, not until after he finished his adventure and came back to Goa to pay off his debt to Makino.
Dadan.
That, of course, didn't make any sense, even Luffy knew that.
"What's going on?" He asked, his expression dazed. Maybe he was mistaking this monster of a woman in front of him with the face of his reindeer's transformed state?
"… You don't remember?" The figure asked hesitantly.
"Nope." Came Luffy's blunt answer.
"Luffy… You collapsed yesterday after crying for a few hours when you received the news that… Sabo is dead."
The answer came in hesitant pauses, and upon hearing that Luffy went into a state of shock and disbelief. Sabo died? That was years ago, and sure, he never forgot and would kick any Celestial Dragon's ass that ended up in front of him, nonetheless, this didn't change the fact Luffy knew it happened YEARS ago.
So what was going on here?
Damn he wished he had Torao or Robin, they were smart, they could help him figure this mystery out.
Luffy cocked his head to the side. "… That was years ago. Who are you exactly?" Luffy asked slowly.
"That was just last night Luffy. Maybe you need to go to the hospital… I'm Dadan remember? I can't have Garp finding out I damaged you in a severe way." The orange haired woman replied, hoping that Luffy wasn't mentally damaged. Garp would kill her, for sure.
Luffy was an idiot, but even he knew that this wasn't possible. It just wasn't POSSIBLE.
This begged the question of just how the FUCK it was possible.
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Across an ocean or two, another person snapped awake and frantically looked around. Trafalgar D. Water Law didn't really understand the situation, but he was paranoid enough that even completely discombobulated, he still wanted to gain a full understanding as soon as possible.
What he came across was something that was inconceivable, but there were very few explanations for why he looked so different upon glancing toward the mirror. A child was shown in the reflection, perhaps the age of thirteen if he could remember corrected - mostly based on his lack of tattoos. Getting up, completely and utterly ignoring any sense of vertigo that he could be feeling, he looked around for the date.
Because surely not.
Yet it was true, he had somehow ended up moving backwards in time.
Law considered himself a logical individual. Therefore he didn't exactly believe he could die and somehow end up in a past body of himself. However on the Grand Line one should prepare for anything, right?
This left him with the question of what exactly he should do if this was more than just a fucked up dream. The safest thing he could do would be to not change anything, but Law knew that just returning back to the past would affect the way he acted even if only by a tiny bit, so that wasn't exactly possible to change nothing. So if he couldn't stop changes from happening, it was best to try and understand how it happened in the first place.
Most likely some devil fruit power, which left him with more possibilities than he thought. If it was a devil fruit, then there was someone next to him when it had been used.
It was unlikely one person came back in time, but two?
But if anyone was going to defy the possible it would be Monkey D. Luffy.
Law needed to know, because even though he didn't like to admit it, Luffy-ya had become someone he'd cared about just as much as he cared for his own crew. Luffy was different though because unlike the rest of his crew who weren't overly strong by Grand Line standards, Luffy could take care of himself without the need for Law to step in. These factors lead him to an inability to NOT get attached.
That line of thought could be saved for later. First thing was first was finding out if his theory was correct. For such an outlandish thing there was only one possibility, he'd need to go there himself. He didn't know any other way to get in touch with the man other than going to the island himself. From what he remembered, Luffy had lived on Dawn Island – Surprisingly the other man had been nearly as sparse in explaining his past as Law was, and that was saying something.
Either way, with his plan settled, he'd make his way there as fast as humanly possible.
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Seeing Ace for the first time was a punch to the stomach that Luffy hadn't been expecting. He'd gone years with the knowledge that he no longer had brothers, then, standing in front of him, one appeared. He was alive, breathing, and just standing there with that bratty look on his face that Ace always had before learning manners from Makino.
So when Luffy managed to pull off his first Gomu Gomu no Rocket right into Ace's arms, wrapping them several times around his brothers tiny, so fucking tiny, frame, it should have been forgiven.
Instead, a fist bonked the top of his head, "Shut up you little crybaby! Let go you leach!"
Ace was struggling out of the embrace, but no matter what Luffy wouldn't be letting go.
"I'm just... so glad... that Ace-nii... is alive!" Luffy sobbed out, and he didn't let go of Ace for the rest of the day, no matter how hard Ace tried to pry his brother off.
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"I'm looking for Monkey D. Luffy," Law announced, balancing an unnaturally large sword against his shoulder, he didn't have Bepo around to hold it for him yet, so as ridiculous as it might have looked, there was nothing he could do about it.
To say that he was getting suspicious and dark looks from the townspeople would be understating it.
Though they didn't dare to scowl at Law after he returned the look.
'How Luffy-ya came from a town of such cowards I'm unable to comprehend,' Law thought silently to himself, feeling annoyed at all the looks, but forcing himself to walk through the town, asking after his ally. People gave ranged responses, but mostly it just boiled down to the fact they haven't seen the 'Brat' or 'Garp's Brat' for months.
"Are you a friend of Luffy-kun?" A green haired woman finally spoke up, actually engaging beyond a simple dismissive line.
Law blinked up at the woman, she just smiled at him softly and waited for her question to be answered. She was wearing a dress, had deep, dark eyes, and green hair. Beyond that though, the woman looked frail, like a gust of wind would blow her over.
"I guess it's something like that," Law admitted reluctantly, not really wanting to explain the way he viewed his relationship toward his fellow D, though Luffy likely thought the relationship was that simple. Even if he were to say that the two of them were allies, the woman would just see it as some sort of pretend game between children, rather then a statement of fact.
"Garp-san took him into the woods and up to the bandits for training and I haven't seen him since. I've been worried... But Luffy-kun can take care of himself. You probably shouldn't go in there alone, there are a lot of dangerous predators there. Maybe when Garp-san comes back, he can take you up to see your friend." The woman suggested with a smile, "My name is Makino, and who are you?"
Law could feel his eye twitch slightly, reminding himself that he looked like a child, and she wasn't technically ordering him, just giving him a suggestion.
"Trafalgar D. Water Law, thank you for the information, Makino-ya, but I'll be fine," Law stated, walking out of the bar and toward the woods, waving his thanks to the woman as he left.
The forest on the island would have been intimidating for someone who hadn't seen the Grand Line before. The trees were huge, and within the first few minutes of entering, Law could tell that the animals in the forest were the same. There were signs of large paw prints in the mud, and also abnormally large piles of faecal matter were scattered around. It was starting to get annoying, the lengths with which he was going through to get in contact with Mugiwara-ya, hopefully, the trip turned out to be worth it, because otherwise, Law would not be overly happy with going through all this trouble, and me might have to decapitate the young rubber-boy in retaliation.
Eventually, Law gave in, and with a despondent sigh, he started to call out, "Mugiwara-ya! MUUUGGIIIIWAAARRAAAA-YAAA!"
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"MUUUGGIIIIWAAARRAAAA-YAAA!"
It echoed around the forest, even going as far as to enter the bandit's grove. Ace looked annoyed, wondering just who was yelling that loudly. Luffy, on the hand, slowly sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He'd been having an afternoon nap when the loud noise broke through his sleep-deprived mind.
'I was dreaming of Torao yelling at me about one of his boring plans – '
"MUUUGGIIIIWAAARRAAAA-YAAA!"
Luffy blinked a few times before his mouth spread into a wide grin. That wasn't a dream, that was, without a doubt, the screaming voice of a surgeon who was annoyed. Placing his hat back onto his head, Luffy took off out of the hut and toward the noise, leaving behind a worried Ace. After all, Luffy hadn't stopped being a clingy crybaby for over a week, and then suddenly he snapped out of it because of some screeching idiot? Whatever it was, Ace wouldn't forgive them if his brother got hurt.
With that thought, Ace gathered up his pipe and went to follow after his weakling brother.
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"MUUUGGIIIIW—" Law was cut off by an impact hitting his middle at speeds which were practically inhuman, a face had embedded itself into Law's stomach, speaking barely intelligible because of the way it was grumbled into the skin.
Law could feel a headache coming on.
Still, he was glad that Luffy-ya seemed to have his memories, even if less than impressed with the amount of physical contact he was being forced to participate in.
"Room," Law intoned, switching Luffy out for a nearby rock, and glaring at the man, no, boy, when he looked about ready to rocket himself back into the surgeon's personal space.
Luffy pouted at it but knew that unlike Ace, Torao might actually cut him up if he wasn't careful. Torao was mean sometimes like that, the pout was lost a moment later and replaced with a grin, "Torao came back too! I thought it was only me! I didn't really get it at first, but I think we came back in time which is really awesome, must have happened because of some mystery Grand Line thing."
"I didn't miss your inability to shut up," Law stated, but his eyes were dropping a little bit in exhaustion. That room had barely been five feet in diameter, but he was already exhausted.
It was beyond frustrating that he would need to train all of his skills back up to par.
"Shishishishi, Torao is still funny. Did I tell you that Ace is alive again! I'll have to be stronger than last time, really really strong, so that I can protect him and my crew better and become the Pirate King and go on tons of adventures..." Luffy just yapped on and on, far too excited about seeing his nakama here. It had been so long since he'd seen anyone other than his beloved brother, and he loved Ace, but he found himself missing his nakama rather quickly.
The two of them were inwardly relieved as all hell that they weren't alone in this time travel bullshit.
"Luffy! YOU IDIOT YOU CAN'T JUST RUN OFF!" Ace screamed, finally breaking through the bushes, only to see his brother standing in front of an older kid with a huge sword, "OI! LUFFY GET AWAY FROM THAT GUY!"
"ACE! This is Torao, he's my nakama!" Luffy announced to the world.
Uncaring of the fact that Law was not only tired but far too tired to deal with Luffy's shit.
So tired, in fact, that he fell asleep against the tree he had, at some point, started to lean on during Luffy's none stop tirade.
"Eh, he fell asleep," Luffy stated nonchalantly, poking Torao's check. The fact that the action wasn't met with Luffy's neck meeting the tip of a sword spoke for itself, "Let's bring him back to Dadan's so he can sleep better!"
"DON'T INVITE STRANGERS HOME!"
"Torao isn't a stranger, he's Torao!"
Luffy picked up Torao and slung him over his back, "Ace! Bring Kikoku with us!"