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It was a beautiful sunny day on the Oro Jackson when suddenly the clouds grew dark in the span of a millisecond and there was booming thunder - too drastic a change to be natural even this far out on the grandline - before there were three consecutive crashes somewhere on the ship.
Rayleigh sighed and bid any thoughts of a peaceful day farewell as he jumped to action. He had a feeling this was going to be an eventful one instead.
The freak storm that appeared out of nowhere left just as fast as it came and by the time he reached the place where the crash was heard from, the weather was as sunny as it had been beforehand, no hint of the violent weather left behind except…was that a person who had crashed against the deck. As other crew members came carrying other bodies he realised that it was in fact not one but three people who had crashed into the ship.
He made his way to Roger’s side who was peering down at the three - two boys and a woman. “That storm didn’t seem to be natural?”
“I didn’t think so either. No usual pattern for the grandline. But I felt something for a second when the thunder struck. It was…it felt like a crash of two powers rather than a natural phenomenon.” And wasn’t that a concerning thought?
Maybe, the people who had crashed in their ship could give them some answers. They seemed to be waking up anyway. Rayleigh took the opportunity to observe them. One of the boys had black hair and many freckles on his face - for some reason, he reminded him of Roger himself - and he had a horrifying burn scar on his chest; how did he ever survive that? The other boy was blond and half his face had a burn scar but it seemed old enough to be healed. The woman was also black haired and she had a scar underneath her eyes. She also had a terrible burn on her chest and strangely Rayleigh felt this scar and the one from the first boy were matching ones.
The first one who awoke was the black haired boy. He came to with a jolt, his hand flying to his chest and gasping, like he could finally breathe again after drowning. But even as he was in the middle of what seemed to be a panic attack, he became aware of the people surrounding him rather quickly and scrambled backwards.
But then he seemed to catch sight of the two people lying next to him and lurched forward to position himself in a defensive posture.
“Hey there.” Roger stepped forward and before the boy even reacted, Rayleigh could tell that that was the absolute last thing they should have done. Thankfully, he was able to pull Roger back just in time for a wall of flames to erupt between the three and the rest of the crew.
“Maybe we should wait for all three of them to wake up first.” He suggested wryly and his Captain nodded sheepishly.
A devil fruit user then and a logia at that, interesting. He hadn’t heard of anyone having that fruit and generally anyone with this dangerous a power would either become a pirate or be enlisted into the marines. Maybe he had just gotten the fruit.
The blonde seemed to stir awake next. He woke up with a groan, his entire body trembling but his eyes snapping open at once and then moving back and forth categorising everything. Ah, so he was like a strategist then. His eyes stopped at the other boy and something like a sob came out of his mouth, “ Ace !”
The other boy, Ace apparently, seemed to have gotten his breathing under control in the meantime and looked at the other like he had seen a ghost. “ Sabo… is that really you?”
The blond nodded frantically and pulled the other in a hug. “Wha…how? You-you.”
So this one was Sabo then. It was definitely intriguing how the boy didn’t seem to expect each other to be there. Not even in a they-were-seperated manner but in a didn’t-expect-to-see-you-at-all manner.
And that was the moment, the last of the three decided to wake up as well. When the woman opened her eyes, it was like a wave swept over him. It felt like haki but not quite because Rayleigh had never known haki to not be a battle of wills. This felt…warm for lack of a better term.
But it seemed like he was not the only one to sense it as two boys immediately turned their attention to the woman too. “Luffy!” Ah so that was the last one’s name.
Unlike the other two people’s reaction, the woman took a look at them and raised a hand to cover her eyes. “I’m seeing things again.”
The two boys exchanged glances. They seemed more hesitant than before but they seemed to have an inkling of what she was talking about. At the same time, they grabbed her cheeks and pulled. “Is that a way to greet your older brothers?” Her cheeks stretched unnaturally wide. Another devil fruit user maybe?
Her eyes snapped open again. “You’re real?” The thought seemed to take root in her head after a few seconds and her face stretched into a wide smile, reminiscent of another man he knew. “Ace! Sabo! You’re here!” And then he was pulling them both in a hug, arms growing longer to be able to wrap around them both several times.
They were definitely an interesting trio. They seemed to be an unlikely one too, judging by how the blon-Sabo was dressed in what seemed to be a noble’s outfit, Ace seemed to be prickly and hotheaded (literally going by his devil fruit) while the woman was giving off a feeling of joy and carelessness.
Things were going to be interesting for while, Rayleigh thought, and boy he did not know how right he was.
After a round of hugs the boys seemed to remember that they were on an unknown ship and they pulled back, taking a defensive posture again, shielding the woman behind them. Meanwhile Luffy followed their gaze and it seemed to be the first time she realised they were here.
She peered at them curiously and Rayleigh felt like she was staring through his soul. Going by how the people beside him relaxed or even sighed when she moved her gaze away, he was not the only one to feel that way.
“Who are you?” The boy - Ace growled. “How did we get here?”
Roger stepped forward again. “We should be the ones asking you that question boy. You’re the ones who crashed into our ship.”
“Clearly they don’t know how they got here either.” Rouge spoke, reminding Rayleigh of her presence. The bounty hunter had been staying on the crew for a few days, decidedly not flirting with their Captain, no of course not.
“Where were you before you got here?” Rayleigh finally piped in.
“Why should we tell-” The black-haired boy spoke again but he was cut off by his blond friend.
“It’s highly unlikely that we are the reason we were sent here.” Sabo was looking at them in half-recognition and half-suspicion. “Might we ask what you were up to before?”
“Tough luck there kid, we were just sailing normally. Must have been something you did.”
He darted a look at Ace, a bit like he still didn’t believe he was there. “That’s not possible-” but then the woman interrupted them.
“Pretty sure it was me actually.” The two boys turned to look at the woman in unison, she still had tears streaming down her face even as she spoke. “Lu?”
“I was fighting an annoying fucker.” She grimaced. “I wouldn’t put it past that bastard to play mind games like this.”
And now that Rayleigh looked, she did seem like she came out of a bad fight. Her knuckles were bruised and her clothes were a bit torn up. In fact, the other two also looked like they had just been fighting. But most importantly…”Why do you think this is a mind game?”
Luffy looked somber and she decidedly did not meet the gaze of the two boys looking at her instead staring straight at him. “Because my two brothers have been dead for years already.”
The deck had already been silent but somehow it became even more so after her words. The two boys looked stricken but the way they were not denying her words was telling.
Luffy huffed. “I thought I might have been seeing things again but I can feel their presence in the same way I feel yours so they’re not dead anymore.” Rayleigh focused and yeah he could feel the two brats too.
“What kind of enemy were you facing? I don’t know anything that can bring people back from the dead like this.” Roger spoke and if he, the one who saw the truth of the World at Raftel didn’t have a clue, then there wasn’t much they could do.
The woman giggled, a loud shishishishi that sounded like the crashing of waves and suited her far more than the somber mood she had been in just before. “You wouldn’t know old man, they’re hiding right now. And she didn’t bring them back from the dead, she sent us all back to the past.”
“How are you so sure that you are in the past?” Rayleigh managed to make himself ask after that insane declaration.
The woman laughed again and the mischievous glint that appeared in her eyes was a bit too much like Roger that Rayleigh almost regretted asking the question. “Because your hair isn’t white yet Jiji-Ray and Shanks is so tiny and he still has my hat and hey Booger too!”
“My name is Buggy.” Came an outraged shriek.
“Yes, yes Buffoon.” Buggy shrieked again and the woman laughed in a way that told him that she was antagonising their cabin boy on purpose. He had a feeling that she still annoyed him the same way in the future and he had to hide a smile of his own.
“Anyways, we’re stuck here until either my crew comes get me, whatever that asshole did wears off or the fucker comes here to fight me.” She placed a hand on each of her brother’s heads and pushed it forwards, making them bow while she inclined her own head, more like a greeting than a bow. “So please take care of us until then.”
Roger laughed and Rayleigh sighed, already knowing what was coming. “The future eh? Sounds interesting. You’re welcome to stay with the Roger Pirates until you have to go then.”
Ace snapped his head up at his words. “You’re Roger? I have a bone to pick with you.” And then he jumped to attack.
Some of the crew members shouted in alarm but the blonde only sighed, burying his face in his hands while the woman laughed again; no one jumped in to intervene in the fight that was currently picking up. “He won’t hurt him so can you just let him blow off some steam.”
Rayleigh looked at the fight where Roger was obviously toying with the kid and shrugged. Not like Roger couldn’t take care of himself. He had more important things to think about. Had the woman called him Jiji?
“So you’re my grand-daughter?”
“Yeeeah but not really. You’re Shanks’ dad and Shanks is my sorta dad and you trained me on how to use haki for two years. I call you Jiji because it pisses Gramps off and your face gets really really red every time.” The large grin on her face told Rayleigh everything about what kind of rascal she was.
But then Shanks was rushing forward. The tension that had settled over them all from the abrupt arrival of their three guests seemed to have settled down, half of the crew was looking at the mock fight between Ace and Roger, which involved more swearing from the boy than any actual hits whereas the other half was peering at the other two siblings.
“What do you mean sorta dad? How can someone just be sort-of-a dad? They’re either a dad or they’re not?” Shanks demanded.
“Well I have a dad even though I never see him. Then we met when I was a kid and I kind of…adopted you? And then you gave me my hat when I told you my dream.” She reached back and put on a hat, dangling on her neck that he somehow had not noticed before. It was in fact the same hat that the red-head was currently wearing and it felt oddly right to see it on the woman, more than it did Roger or Shanks. “See, we’re twinning!”
“It is the same hat!” The cabin boy’s eyes were basically sparkling. “How am I in the future? Am I Captain of my own crew? Do I have a huge bounty?”
It was at this moment that Sabo interrupted. “Lu, maybe we shouldn’t tell them stuff from the future. If they know what’s gonna happen and then they act differently than they should then it might not happen. Just us being here could change important things.”
“Ooooh.” The straw-hatted woman seemed to think about it for a whole two seconds. “Hmph, who cares? Either things will change or they won’t, we’re already here!”
“That-well you’re not wrong. It’s not bad if some things change anyways.” His eyes moved to their third brother who was still throwing himself at Roger with increasing anger and Rayleigh wondered… “Oh fine you can tell them.”
“Yayyyy!” She turned her attention back to the kids and picked up Shanks. The boy started flailing around but she just hugged him. “Shanks is really cool in the future. He’s a Yonko.”
Buggy also rushed over, the lure of knowing about the future greater than the need to sulk over his name being butchered. “What about me? Am I also a Yonko?”
Luffy took a look at him and started laughing so hard she dropped Shanks. Buggy drooped like a withered flower, his face turning increasingly red.
“Guess you don’t amount to anything pipsqueak.” Crocus said and Rayleigh was ready to shout at the man. Luffy was a stranger but why did he think it was a good idea to mock the child.
But before he could say anything, the blond interrupted. “She’s not laughing at him. Buggy just did the most unhinged ballsy move in the history of piracy Luffy found it hilarious.”
Their blue-haired cabin boy froze, looking up at them with wide eyes and the woman seemed to have calmed down enough to speak. “Yeah! You gave out bounties to the marines and it pissed them off so much. You run the largest information network in the grandline and you have two former warlords working with you. Damn right you’re a Yonko!”
“Really? Buggy jumped at her and in no time at all, both his cabin boys had been won over by Luffy as she continued to indulge them and tease them in between.
Rayleigh’s haki pinged and he moved just in time to avoid a fireball to the face. When he turned to look, Ace looked completely furious and his attacks seemed to have devolved to actual killing intent.
“Damn, I guess we should stop them before someone loses a limb.” Sabo said.
“Yeah, Ace seems pretty mad.” Their sister agreed but then she immediately turned to Rouge who had remained by his side. “Hey pretty lady, is your name Rouge?”
The bounty hunter looked amused but she nodded her head. Having received confirmation, the ravenette immediately exclaimed in a very loud voice, “SEAS! YOU’RE PORTGAS D. ROUGE?”
At her words, Ace immediately went still and Roger, who had been aiming a punch at him had nowhere to hit and the momentum unbalanced him and made him fall down. The freckled boy did not even seem to notice and instead bounded back to his siblings’ side and stared at Rouge with a complicated look on his face.
“You’re Portgas D. Rouge?” His voice was a bit disbelieving and both his siblings looked at him with soft eyes. He stammered a few times, seemingly trying to find the fight words before finally settling on something. “...You’re more beautiful than I imagined.”
Before he could say anything else Roger piped in and honestly Rayleigh didn’t quite know what was going on here but he could tell it was terrible timing. “Hey kid, don’t even think about flirting with my womanfriend.”
The boy immediately looked annoyed and prepared to jump into a fight again. “She could do way better than you. You don’t deserve her!.”
“What did you say?” Roger screeched and there they went, fighting again. Rayleigh felt a headache forming.
Meanwhile Rouge seemed to have noticed something amiss and moved closer to Sabo. “What’s all this about?”
Sabo and Luffy exchanged a long glance.
“It’s ‘cause you’re Ace’s mom.”
“He didn’t get to meet you.” Sabo continued in a more subdued tone. “When you were pregnant, there was a hunt for him. You extended your pregnancy until it was safe enough but uh…it took its toll on you.” He didn’t specify but they could all tell what he meant by those words. “Ace grew up in Roger’s shadow his whole life in a world that hated him. He’s always resented Roger for that.”
And ah, it made sense now why Rayleigh had felt Ace to be familiar. He looked so much like Roger, especially his eyes while his face shape and his freckles were all Rouge.
“He really loves you though.” Luffy piped up, breaking the somber mood. “I heard that once he set sail, he tracked down everyone who knew you to ask stories about how badass you are. You should give him a hug, he’ll go soooo red. Hey, maybe smoke will come out of his ears too now that he’s fire.”
Rouge laughed and Ace appeared again and hit the back of Luffy’s head. “I dunno what you said but I felt you talking shit about me.”
Sabo and Rouge exchanged a grin and Rouge stepped forward to pull him in a hug and Ace comically froze and slowly started turning red until smoke indeed came out of his ears. Sabo and Luffy started laughing hysterically.
When Rouge let him go, he immediately jumped on his siblings and started wrestling with them. “Is that a way to treat your older brother?”
“Ace is an idiot! I’m the oldest now.” Luffy stuck out her tongue.
“Ha! Since when?” Ace caught her in a headlock and aggressively ruffled her hair while sitting on Sabo’s chest. And yeah, Rayleigh could see it now, these three were definitely siblings.
“Ace is 20, Sabo is 22 and I’m 23! So I’m the oldest shishishishi!”
“Ah.” The words seemed to register in the two boys and they both turned to look at their sister.
She seemed to understand and she looked at them softly. “You died and you stopped aging. I continued to grow up without you. I’m the oldest now.”
All three of them looked at each other like they were grieving and Rayleigh felt like he was interrupting a private moment but before he could do anything like usher the rest of them away, Sabo spoke. “Guess you are older now. Ace, did you ever think that the kid we had to regularly save from being eaten was gonna live this long?”
Luffy squawked and Ace grinned. “Yeah, how ever did you survive so long without us?”
“Hey! I’m stronger than both of you now!”
“You always say that your punches are like pistols but then you punched yourself in the face.”
Luffy bit his brother and when Ace loosened his hold on her, she jumped up. “That was a long time ago! I’m the strongest now, I’ll prove it to you!”
“Yeah how?” Sabo and Ace grinned at her, fully intent on teasing their younger sister.
Luffy looked around in frustration before she visibly brightened up. “You couldn’t even hit Roger but I’m gonna punch him.”
“Oh yeah?” His Captain said, his trademark smile on his face while cracking his knuckles. “Bring it on!’
Rayleigh was prepared for this fight going the same way Ace’s had but as soon as his Captain spoke, the woman moved faster than even Rayleigh could track and the next thing he knew, there was the distinct sound of something being hit and Roger went flying.
And then Luffy was next to his brothers again, jumping up and down in front of them. “See! See! See! See! Told you I’m the strongest.”
There was a moment of silence as everyone tried to process what had happened. Rayleigh especially reevaluated his first impressions of the woman. He had known she was special but she hadn’t exactly registered as a threat but now that he looked again, it was not that her haki wasn’t big, it was just controlled and that spoke of even more danger.
Then, Ace barked out a laugh and pulled his sister in a hug. “I love you so much Sunshine. You’re my favourite.” Clearly, he found a lot of amusement from Roger being punched and Rayleigh couldn’t even blame him because his Captain’s dazed face was admittedly pretty funny. And oh look, his nose was bleeding - she got him pretty good huh. Rayleigh couldn’t remember the last time someone had been able to hurt his Captain.
“Who are you?” Shanks, finally, was the one to voice the question that everyone wanted to ask.
“Guess I didn’t introduce myself, huh?” Luffy grinned what was definitely a D smile. “I’m Monkey D. Luffy and I’m King of the Pirates!”
Once again, the deck went completely silent as her words sent a wave of haki washing over them and they took in her words. Whatever Rayleigh was expecting today, meeting Roger’s successor definitely wasn’t it.
The spell was broken when the first Pirate King gave out a booming laughter and then the two boys were all over their sister, rambling at the same time. “Really? Really Lu? You really did it?”
Luffy laughed and her brothers seemed to find this to be an answer in itself and they pulled her in a hug. “You really made it…I’m so proud of you.”
The three seemed to be in their own little bubble, the boys pelting their sister with questions.
Rayleigh thought back to what he had seen of her all this time. She was unassuming but not carelessly, he realised, it’s simply that she had the power to handle anything they threw at her. The way her surprise to the new situation didn’t last long also spoke lengths to the knowledge she held. In fact, maybe she knew more than them. Roger had said that they were decades early…then, was she the right person the world was waiting for?
“-know you can handle yourself now so I’m entrusting a message to you. Tell your dad that there is someone sitting on the empty throne in Mary Geoise.” Those words from Sabo dragged Rayleigh’s attention back.
So it was true? They had guessed it based on the clue from Raftel so every sane one of them had prayed that the prophecy was wrong. How could there be someone powerful enough to have the world nobles in their hands and influence the fate of the world so easily?
Luffy laughed like Sabo had said the funniest thing ever. “Saboooo, you died there. They killed you there. ” Even as her voice was playful, the look in her eyes was steel sharp and her words chilling. “So do you really think Mary Geoise is still standing?”
What was with this woman and dropping major bombs like that casually? She was worse than Roger.
“Th-that-I-” Sabo choked on his words.
Luffy took the opportunity to speak again, looking at both her brothers. “I broke into Impel Down and stormed Marineford for Ace. Blackbeard and Akainu, the people responsible, both died at my hands. You know this. Did you not think I would do the same for you?”
Sabo gulped. “I hoped there would be no need for that.”
Luffy looked at Ace who looked shell-shocked and then at Sabo who was solemn and sighed. “My brothers are both idiots. Is that why you thought it was a good idea to attack Mary Geoise alone stupid?”
“Hey! I was only there to infiltrate. I wasn’t planning to fight but they were about to wipe out an entire country off the map!”
Luffy huffed, obviously not convinced but Sabo continued on self-righteously. “AND given she had that much power at her fingertips, I’m really not convinced that she died as easily as the other world nobles. Whatever that way, it was ancient, I don’t think it would be easy to kill it.“
“Well yeah it was a long and hard fight and he still refused to go down. When he was about to die, Imu fucking split himself and stored bit of himself all over and each one needs to be handled individually but there are trapped everywhere. “
“Imu?” “How did you know that?”
Luffy gave them an annoyed look. “Who do you think I was fighting before? Imu’s the only one powerful enough to send me back in time and drag you along with me.”
“...you fought the fallen God?” Roger was the one to ask. “How?”
The second Pirate King shrugged. “How do you fight? I just did.” Then, she tilted her face to the sky. “I guess you’ll get to see it soon. Imu’s approaching here.”
It wasn’t only one person who flinched at her words. Rayleigh found himself trying using observation haki to look for any nearing presence but he couldn’t find anything until…MALICERAGEFEARPOWER. It was still quite a distance away but the presence was stark. He couldn’t help the shudder that went through him.
“Well get ready.” Luffy said. “If anyone wants to say something else, now’s the time, Imu will be here soon.”
Ace turned to his brother. “Where were you all this time because I get the impression that you were alive all this time.”
“The explosion..I had amnesia.” Sabo closed his eyes in pain. “I didn’t remember until I saw your death in the news. I was too late.”
Ace pulled him in a hug. “Oh Sabo, there’s nothing you could have done.”
“I’m Chief of Staff of the Revolutionary Army, there’s plenty I could have done.” The blond refuted, his voice coming out muffled from where his face was still smushed in his brother’s shoulder.
Ace opened his mouth to argue but Luffy cut him off. “What happened has happened. You’re both dead in our time but you’re alive here. I wouldn’t have been able to bring you back from the dead but Imu did the hard job, I can sustain you even after I’m gone.”
Sabo and Ace looked at each other and a look seemed to be enough for them to have made up their minds. “Nah, we’ve lived our lives and died on our own terms. We’ve lived with no regrets so there’s no need. We’ll just have some fun in the underworld until you come join us.”
Luffy laughed like she had expected the answer and didn’t say anything else. She just pulled them in for a long hug. “You don’t have to worry about me either. I have my crew watching my back.”
As she stepped back, the malevolent haki from earlier pressed down on all of them, making it hard for even Rayleigh to keep standing. It lasted for only a few seconds before another wave of haki surrounded them. This one screamed SUNJOYFREEDOMLAUGHTER and though he had never felt it before, he could guess who it came from. Dum doot ta ta, drums seemed to be echoing in his ears.
When he turned to look at Luffy, her hair had gone white and everything about her screamed… divine.
His Captain seemed to agree by the way he breathed out a name that really suited her. “ Nika.”
Luffy flashed them a D. grin and then she jumped up to hit with the dark blob that was now present. Their clash split the sea, darkened the skies and caused a deafening sound. Ah so the sound earlier hadn’t been thunder…Rayleigh could barely follow their battle with his eyes. The only way to know what was happening was to look at the mess they had left behind and the deafening booms all around them.
Then, as suddenly as it had come, the presence was gone, Luffy was gone and when Rayleigh turned around, Ace and Sabo were also gone.
He had heard the phrase D will bring a storm many times before but this was the first time he had met someone who actually was a force of nature. He couldn’t deny that it had been interesting though.
There had been too many revelations today and Rayleigh’s mind was drowsy. He looked up and the sky was clear. It was a perfect day to be lazy, they were in the middle of the ocean anyways. Ah why was he up on the deck anyways? There was nothing to do today, he was going to take a nap.