Fanfic / Second Wind

Second Wind is a One Piece Peggy Sue Fan Fiction written by The-Lost-Samurai.

The sole survivors of a gruesome and brutal battle at the end of the New World, Luffy and Zoro's minds return to their bodies in the past at their adventure's outset, giving them a chance to do it all again. Their resolve is unshakable, and they have every intention of protecting their crew and friends this time. Even so, suspicions eventually begin to stir among the crew about their captain and his first mate: for all of their absolute resolve, they're hiding something.

On October 18, 2020, on the cusp of the Marineford arc, it was placed on indefinite hiatus. On February 2, 2023, the author formally discontinued the story.

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Examples

• Accidental Misnaming:
  • Further proof that Luffy is still the Idiot Hero we all know and love: despite how many times he's corrected, he always refers to Whiskey Peak as Sake Summit. Much to Zoro's chagrin, he actually has to use the latter name to remind Luffy at one point.
  • In chapter 30, Luffy edits a classic idiom to his liking: "Everyone's gotta put meat on the table."
  • In chapter 67, Luffy refers to Chief Guard Sadi as "Maso-chan" when Zoro asks for her identity. She's ticked when Zoro then calls her that to her face.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: Chapter 29's title, "The Royals, the Rebels, and the Ruffians."
• A Dog Named "Dog": In Chapter 26, Luffy defeats the Kung Fu Dugongs and invites one of them with him as his disciple. He names him Seal.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Don Krieg gets this twice, and both times proves to be an Ungrateful Bastard immediately afterwards. First, the canon situation where he's starving to death, and begs for food. Sanji obliges, much to the protests of the other chefs, and is rewarded with a barely blocked lariat. The second time, Luffy has punched his armor so hard that it's dented, caving in on Krieg and cutting off his air supply. He begs for Luffy to remove it, and the rubber man complies, after snarking at Krieg. As soon as Krieg gets his breath back, he charges at Luffy only to get one-shotted.
• The Alliance: Upon reaching the Sabaody Archipelago, Luffy arranges one between himself, Bonney, and Law, the two captains he was closest to in his old timeline, for the express purpose of defeating Big Mom and Kaido and claiming their Road Poneglyphs. What do they get for their trouble? Have Robin translate those Poneglyphs, get the directions to Raftel, and have the race to the Pirate King's throne come down to just the three of them.
• Alternate Universe: A couple of minor examples in that Miss Goldenweek's powers come from a Devil Fruit in this story, and the Straw Hats allegedly found their way to Drum last time by stealing an Eternal Pose from Wapol. Later, however, as the author begins to introduce more twists, he implies that he already has the storyline planned out, and has consequently filled in many of the gaps left in canon with his own material. Of course, besides one revelation in Chapter 39, we're about as clueless as to what twists those are as we are towards whatever the heck Oda's going to throw at us next.
  • Also happened in Chapter 48 where in the past the Strawhats never landed in G-8 so Luffy and Zoro had no clue what was going on when they ended up this time.
• And I'm the Queen of Sheba: In Chapter 24, Ace has this reaction when Luffy and Zoro reveal their secret to him.
  Ace: Oh, sure, you’re from the future. Yea, and I’m a park ranger.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • Luffy's answer to Smoker's question of why Luffy never killed him after beating him.
    Luffy: "What have I ever done that makes you think I need a reason to not kill someone?"
  • How Zoro dissuades Usopp from swimming in the White Sea - a sea made of clouds in the sky.
    Usopp: I just wanted to see if I could touch the bottom. I can hold my breath really well, so it shouldn't be a...
    Zoro: Bottom?
• Armor-Piercing Response: Luffy's answer when Aokiji demands why Luffy would still allow Robin to be a part of his crew when he knows so little of her past and the actions Aokiji took in regards to her.
  Luffy: I know enough. That's why I invited her into the crew.
• Badass Boast:
  • After Luffy once again survives being executed by Buggy due to a lightning bolt, he shouts this to the entire watching audience in Loguetown:
  Luffy: I am the man who will become the pirate king!
  • In Chapter 30, Luffy vows to ensure that Vivi's wish to see the war resolved peacefully will be fulfilled, and that neither Crocodile nor the Marines nor death itself will stop him.
  • In Chapter 40's what-if omake, Luffy tells Robin and Crocodile that his crew will be out of the cage in 15 minutes at most. Robin checks the time when they're gone: 14 minutes and 32 seconds, including the amount of time between when the Straw Hats left and Robin and Crocodile got back.
  • In Chapter 58, Luffy gives one to Moriah by spelling out just how much he underestimated him and his generation of rookie pirates.
    Luffy: One day, you're going to fear the rookies that you so casually dismissed. But as for me... You shouldn't think of me as a rookie at all. I didn't get that shadow for free.
    Moriah: You... Who Are You?
    Luffy: I am he whose will shall bring forth another storm. And this peace you enjoy, Warlord? It's just the calm before it.
• Bad Liar: Luffy has always been one, and it's spelled out by Ace in Chapter 24 as the primary reason he believes that he and Zoro are from the future:
  Ace: Oh hell no. You did not just talk about a future event like it already happened. Luffy, I know you. You suck at lying. You have no talent for it. You can hide the truth, you can refuse to talk, hell, you can even keep quiet as a determined psychopath punches you in the face with spiked gauntlets, but you can't lie.
• Balance of Power: Which the Straw Hats have mucked up even more than they did in the original timeline. Luffy and Zoro's strength would be alarming enough in a Wild Card Paradise rookie crew — however, their decision to ally with Whitebeard has (unintentionally) shifted the balance towards the Four Emperors, as even in the New World, pirates that can defeat an admiral are very scarce. The Five Elder Stars are so desperate to maintain the balance that they outright order Sengoku himself to do whatever it takes to make sure the Straw Hat Pirates never enter the New World.
• Batman Gambit: Luffy's plan to use Aokiji's freezing of their ocean battlefield to strand the sea train in Water 7.
• Berserk Button:
  • Crocodile doesn't take mockery well at all, but the one thing that pushes him over the edge faster than anything else is bringing up his defeat at the hands of Whitebeard.
  • Sanji struggles against Mr. 1 up until the point where he injures Nami, who screams as a result. Then comes the Diable Jambe No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
  • Fullbody has a sore spot in regards to demotion. Not like he's enough of a threat for it to matter.
  • Nami's, of course, is money. When the White Berets arrive and state that as a punishment for invading Skypiea, they'll be stripped of their valuables, it doesn't take very long for them to find themselves on the receiving end of Nami's Thunderbolt Tempo.
  • As in canon, Blackbeard is this to Ace, especially if he's going after one of his friends.
  • Luffy and Zoro's is Akainu. When Whitebeard revealed that Akainu had been sent to Water 7 to take care of them, both were enraged, and Luffy outright stated to the old man that Akainu is the only person in the world that he could kill and feel absolutely no regret in doing so.
  • Sengoku's has been hit by Chapter 61, and by none other than the Five Elder Stars when they order him to launch an all-out assault on the Straw Hats to keep them from reaching the New World and joining up with the Whitebeard Pirates. Sengoku is absolutely horrified, because, regardless of whether or not they kill the Straw Hats, Whitebeard will still attack them.
    Sengoku: Let it be known that I am completely against this. Don't you know what you're asking of me?... You complete maniacs.
• Best Served Cold: When Birka was destroyed by Enel six years ago, there was only one survivor, an old woman, who'd lost a daughter, son-in-law, and two grandchildren in the genocide. When Enel is defeated by Zoro, wounded and unconscious, the gatekeeper Amazon senses his weakened state with her Mantra, takes out the seastone knife with his name on it, and avenges her family.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • In Chapter 58, Ace does this to rescue Bonney from Blackbeard.
  • On Sabaody Archipelago, the Straw Hats, Law and Bonney are besieged by both the Pacifistas and CP9, when Kid, Apoo and X Drake drop in to fight the World Government on principle.
  • Villainous example in Chapter 64: Issho drops in to save Kizaru just as Luffy, Zoro and Rayleigh have him on the ropes.
  • Another in Chapter 64: Sanji with his future memories restored, does this to save Nami from Kizaru.
• Blatant Lies: In Chapter 34, after Nami's "Happiness Punch", Igaram pulls a bit of Hypocritical Humor when he chastises it, and Luffy and Zoro both accuse him of hypocrisy.
  Igaram: (unconvincingly) Shut up you damn brats! I only went to stop you all!
• Bond One-Liner:
  • In Chapter 6, after Luffy and Zoro one-shot Sham and Buchi:
  Luffy: Oh well.
  Zoro: We did warn them.
  • In Chapter 35, after Usopp one-shots Jango:
  Usopp: That was from Kaya, dickhead!
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Chapter 44, after Nami and Usopp complain about being the ones drafted to fight Hotori and Kotori:
  Luffy: If you want to blame someone, blame the lost samurai.
  (Nami and Usopp turn to Zoro)
  Zoro: (sputtering) Not me!
  Robin: Oh dear, that wall just came crashing down.
  Chopper: What wall?
  Sanji: The fourth one.
  Chopper: (thinking) I still don't get it.
• Brick Joke: In Chapter 29, Luffy complains about not being able to find a walking stick on the journey to Alubarna, as it's part of a "man's romance," much to Seal's awe. In Chapter 44, when Luffy thinks back to how Vivi and Seal are doing, the scene cuts to Igaram asking Vivi why Seal was carrying a walking stick around the palace. In Chapter 56, Sunny reveals that he's started a stick collection.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Sanji does not even recognize Fullbody when he comes to attack in Chapter 35.
• Butterfly of Doom:
  • A minor example: in Little Garden, Vivi is bitten by the kestia rather than Nami.
  • A more major example: in Alabasta, after Luffy and Zoro tell Ace their secret, he proposes that they enter into an alliance with the Whitebeard Pirates. As a result of accepting this, Blackbeard and his crew are nowhere to be found when the Straw Hats reach Jaya.
    • Another side effect is the government sending three Vice-Admirals to kill the crew; when Luffy and Zoro easily defeat them, this sets up a chain of dominoes that result in Aokiji confronting them in Water 7 instead of Long Ring Long Island with official orders to kill them, completely turning the events of Enies Lobby on its head. And if that weren't enough, Luffy and Zoro's defeat of Aokiji eventually forces the World Government to send Sengoku himself to take care of them.
  • When the crew reaches Skypiea, they learn that a group of people from the Blue Sea have recently come through and caused a lot of trouble, including defeating Shura, so much so that the usually apathetic Enel has forbidden anyone else from the Blue Sea from entering Skypiea. As of Chapter 45, Luffy even worries that these Blue Sea Dwellers were Blackbeard's crew due to the damage they caused. His suspicions are confirmed by Enel in Chapter 46.
• Camp Gay: Bentham, a.k.a. Mr. 2 Bon Kurei. The Camp is canon, but in this fic, he confirms his preference to Zoro in the palace baths after his Heel–Face Turn. Zoro is understandably nervous.
• Can't Catch Up: Sanji fears this, as while he is the third strongest member of the crew, the gap between him and the other two members of the Monster Trio is so vast that he knows it will take years before he becomes a threat to them in a fight, let alone their equal. That is a problem, as Luffy and Zoro's strength means they will face much stronger enemies than that of a standard Paradise rookie crew — if anything were to happen to them, be they defeated, incapacitated and/or otherwise occupied, it would fall to Sanji to protect the rest of the crew. It is for this reason that out of all the Straw Hats, he takes his training the most seriously, and why Luffy and Zoro immediately singled him out for one-on-one training. This fear is eventually rendered null when he gains his future-self's memories during the climax of the Sabaody Archipelago arc, allowing him to save the crew and their allies from Kizaru.
• Catch and Return: Lucci's Six King Gun is caught in an Impact Dial and given back. Hard.
• Cliffhanger: Lost is growing very fond of these as of the end of the Alabasta arc.
  • Chapter 37 ends with a focus on some enigmatic figures in Mock Town, awaiting Luffy's arrival.
  • Chapter 38 ends with an Early Bird Cameo, mentioned below.
  • Chapter 40 ends with Ace coming face-to-face with Sabo.
  • Chapter 41 ends with Amazon denying the Straw Hats entry to the White White Sea.
  • Chapter 45 ends with the Straw Hats, the remaining Shandians, Gan Fall, Ohm and his steed, Enel, and Nola about to engage in a battle royale.
  • Chapter 47 ends with the Straw Hats landing in Navarone.
  • Chapter 51 ends with Aokiji confronting Luffy and Robin.
  • Chapter 57 ends with Luffy about to fight Moria, who has stolen his shadow.
  • Chapter 61 ends with a flashback to a few hours before the present, wherein the Five Elder Stars order Sengoku to take all the forces he can muster to Sabaody Archipelago with the express intent of killing the Straw Hat Pirates.
  • Chapter 64 ends with the Straw Hats victorious against the Marine's assault against them, only for Hachi to arrive saying that Keimi's been kidnapped.
• Comically Small Bribe: Luffy's offer to make Mr. 2 betray Crocodile? "I'll be your friend."
• Comically Missing the Point: In Chapter 40, after Usopp provokes Zoro:
  Zoro: (menacingly) One more word, and I'm going to cut off your defining appendage.
  Usopp: (shielding his face) No! Not the nose! Anything but That!!
• Continuity Nod: Much to Zoro's chagrin, Sanji's old nickname for him, "shitty marimo," catches on again shortly after the Baroque Works saga.
• Crazy Enough to Work: While fighting against Fukurou, with Usopp's ammo too slow to hit and Brook's sword too weak to penetrate, Usopp gets the idea for Brook to use him as a sword. The attempt is so laughable that Fukurou doesn't dodge... and gets one-shotted by the Reject Dial in Usopp's hands.
• Crazy-Prepared: Zoro contributes the idea of the bandages and X tattoos to defy Mr. 2's attempts to masquerade as one of them, just as he did in canon. Why does this fall under this trope? Because Luffy's going after Mr. 2 first.
• Cryptic Conversation: When speculating why the Marines made such a reckless move against them during the Sabaody Archipelago arc, Luffy quietly suggests that the order came not from the Five Elder Stars, but from above them. This suggestion confuses everyone except Zoro, Sanji, and Sabo, the latter of whom quickly realizes that the time travelers know the truth about the Empty Throne.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Luffy and Zoro have won most of their fights this way; the only opponents that they didn't defeat are Mihawk and Aokiji, and even then the latter ultimately surrendered the fight. Smoker, Crocodile, and the three Vice Admirals also put up much better fights than the rest of Luffy's foes, but even they didn't last all that long, and they couldn't leave a single scratch on him; the only one who came close was Kizaru, and only because he kept attacking their weaker crewmates, forcing them to keep intercepting the attacks.
  • Usopp's fight with the Kung Fu Dugongs, as in canon, was this, with him on the receiving end.
  • In Chapter 27, when Mr. 3 shows up to attempt to gain another chance from Mr. 0, he, Miss Goldenweek, Mr. 5, and Miss Valentine are on the receiving end of this from Mr. 1 and Miss Doublefinger.
  • As noted under the Took a Level in Badass trope below, Nami's fight with Miss Doublefinger was practically this.
  • In Chapter 35, Fullbody attempts to attack Sanji, and gets one-shotted… again. Then Jango tries to use his hypnosis. One-shotted by Usopp. Then there's Hina. Robin's powers prove to be far too much for her.
  • Chapter 39 has Luffy do a repeat performance to Bellamy before giving one to Bonney.
  • Chapter 46 has Zoro demonstrate to Enel a key axiom of the New World: "Complacent Logias have short life spans."
  • Chapter 56 has a Rear Admiral face the crew with a fleet of twenty ships. Franky picks that time to show off the Gaon Cannon for the first time.
  • Chapter 62 sees the Straw Hat Pirates absolutely destroy the Kid Pirates.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: Even with all of Zoro's future knowledge and skill, his younger untrained body is too weak for him to come close to beating Mihawk at the Baratie, but he's not too weak to leave a gash on Mihawk's cheek.
• Cutting the Knot: When Foxy and his group challenges the Straw-Hats to a Davy Back fight, Luffy just knocks them all out with Conqueror's Haki and leaves it at that.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Or future, depending on how you look at it, for both Luffy and Zoro.
• Deadpan Snarker: Time has made Luffy and Zoro more witty, and prone to sarcasm.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • Several people in the original timeline, including Jinbe, who was killed by Big Mom before he could join the Straw Hats (in canon, he successfully escapes and reunites with the crew at Wano).
  • Mr. 13 the otter and Miss Friday the vulture. Luffy knocks them out with his Haki in Whiskey Peak, and the next day they're the main course for the Straw Hats' lunch.
  • Enel, at the hands of Amazon.
  • The fight between Ace and Blackbeard goes differently than in canon. When Blackbeard is about to get killed, his crew steps in to save him. They succeed, and then they die fiery deaths.
  • Blackbeard and his future crew are all killed at Impel Down, with Blackbeard shot through the heart by Ace while Shiryu is bisected by Zoro.
• Death Glare: Luffy is extremely proficient with his Conqueror’s Haki, and many can attest to how scary he is as a result of it.
• Defeat Means Friendship:
  • In Chapter 26, as in canon, Luffy defeats the Kung-Fu Dugongs, who become his disciples. However, in this one, he only accepts one of them…and that one of them joins his crew for the rest of the saga, staying behind with Vivi when the rest of the crew leaves.
  • Invoked by Luffy in Chapter 30 to recruit Bentham (Mr. 2, Bon Kurei). He intercepts him, incapacitates the army, and then bluntly asks to be his friend. Bentham, of course, is moved by this, and when Luffy challenges him to a one-on-one fight with him falling to this trope if Luffy wins, he agrees. No prizes for guessing what happens.
• Defiant Captive: Sanji, who had been in the process of taunting the Impel Down jailers torturing him before Roger sent him back in time.
• Despair Event Horizon: Robin goes through two stages of this. The first is when Luffy defeats Crocodile, and she understands that she's completely at his mercy. Her hope comes back when Luffy offers to show her to the Poneglyph anyway, but when she reads the ancient words and she sees that all that's there is an engraving of Pluton's location, the second stage hits her hard. Hard enough that the emotionless façade she had had for 20 years shatters, and she breaks down crying.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • While stopped before he could try, Usopp wanted to swim to the bottom of the Sky sea.
  • The Marines' attack on the Straw Hats at Sabaody was literally the stupidest thing they could have done, which was brutally lampshaded by Sengoku before the attack had even taken place. So stupid, in fact, that Luffy speculates that the order didn't actually come from the Five Elder Stars (who should've known better), but from Im.
• The Dreaded: The infamy of the Straw Hats increases at even more accelerated rate than in canon, thanks to circumstances that either expose the exploits they committed in canon that were originally covered up, or allowed them to commit exploits that surpassed them. By the time they reach the end of the first half of the Grand Line, they are unquestionably the strongest rookies in all of Paradise and overall the strongest of their generation. And according to Luffy himself, his generation, the Worst Generation, will soon become one of the most feared of all time.
  • The two other Peggy Sue fics in the top 5 both have it so that Luffy defeating Crocodile results in him getting an invitation to replace him as a Warlord. In this one, the Government was prepared to send said invitation, but then the news came out that Luffy and his crew were stated to be allies of the Whitebeard Pirates. And for some reason, they decide that that makes it a good idea to try assaulting them.
  • Due to the fact that Alabasta's press got wind of the fact that Luffy defeated Crocodile before the World Government did, the latter failed to cover it up, so Luffy is known everywhere for toppling a Warlord. This feat even managed to silence the members of the Whitebeard Pirates who were skeptical of Paradise Rookies allying with them.
  • The Straw Hats immediately went to the top of the World Government's hit list after Luffy and Zoro managed to defeat Aokiji at Water 7. To the point that they sent Akainu to Water 7 to take care of them — Akainu was only drawn away after Ace assaulted Marineford.
  • During the Thriller Bark arc, Moria outright calls Luffy the "scourge of paradise" and freely admits that he would never deliberately antagonize him (even going as far as to call such an act "potentially suicidal"), as he knows he could never hope to beat Luffy in an even fight. And he's one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea (admittedly, though, the weakest one).
  • Sengoku openly states that sending Kuma against the Straw Hats would only cost them yet another Warlord.
  • In this timeline, Blackbeard deliberately avoids Luffy after the papers announced that the Straw Hats were allied with Whitebeard, most likely sensing the fact that this was not done on a whim. When he gets the paper detailing Luffy and Zoro's defeat of Aokiji, he pales and immediately starts thanking his lucky stars for his shrewd decision.
  • This is even reflected in the Straw Hats' bounties: before they even reach the New World, Luffy and Zoro's bounties have already surpassed their canon ones post Dressrosa (525 and 360 million vs 500 and 320 million).
  • As of Chapter 61, the Straw Hats' reputation has reached such heights that the Five Elder Stars have ordered Sengoku himself to engage them before they can enter the New World.
  • In Chapter 62, their arrival at Sabaody puts the entire archipelago on alert, up to and including their fellow Supernova crews, all of whom are apprehensive of them to some degree; Urouge started sweating when he heard Luffy was present and that Kid was going to challenge him, thinking that the latter had a death wish, while Law didn't even bother trying scope them out, knowing Luffy was completely out of all their leagues and would continue to be so for a very long time. Wherever they went, people gave them a wide berth; one bar even fell absolutely silent when Zoro entered it to confront Law and offer him a chance to meet with Luffy.
  • This also applies in the original timeline. It's implied that the Marines threw everything they had at the Straw Hats to prevent them from reaching Raftel, with Akainu all but stated to have gotten involved himself by killing most of the crew, personally. They wouldn't have done that unless Luffy and co. had become, quite literally, the strongest and most feared crew since the Roger Pirates. For further proof, Sanji warranted Level Six of Impel Down when he was captured, aka the level where criminals whose crimes against the World Government are so great that they would rather pretend those criminals never existed. This is notable because Sanji, for all his strength, is only the Straw Hats' cook.
• Dungeon Bypass:
  • When the crew encounters the Foxy Pirates, instead of going through the whole business with the Davy Back Fight, Luffy just knocks the whole crew out with Conqueror's Haki.
  • Thanks to the Straw Hats taking several levels in badass and Luffy knowing the right things to say to ease Robin's fears, they manage to defeat CP9 and prevent them from taking Robin away. To repeat: they bypassed the entire Enies Lobby arc.
  • When attacking Impel Down, Zoro reaches Level 6 by simply cutting through every floor between him and his destination.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Chapter 38 ends with the scene of Jewelry Bonney eating in a Mock Town restaurant.
• Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Sanji, Nami, and Mr. 1. Nami's lightning proves useless against the Chrome Champion, his steel body a conductor, but Sanji's Diable Jambe is exceptionally effective for the same reason.
• Exactly What I Aimed At: During Zoro's duel with Mihawk, Luffy notes that despite what he thought at the time, he didn't dodge Mihawk's attack at Marineford only for it to hit an iceberg. A swordsman of Mihawk's caliber never cuts something unintentionally, and Mihawk was actually trying to motivate Luffy to show him how far he had to go yet.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Aokiji has an example of this when fighting Luffy and Zoro in Chapter 53. He wonders exactly why the two of them are leading him on a chase to the island's coast, considering that he was at his strongest at the ocean. It takes until they get there for him to realize their plan: using Ice Age would freeze the Sea Train's only route to Enies Lobby, meaning that CP9 would be unable to take Robin away.
• Face Death with Dignity: After being beaten, Kizaru simply asks if Luffy's going to kill him now.
• Failure Is the Only Option: Sengoku feels this way about attacking the Straw Hats. If the Marines succeed, Whitebeard will attack them. If the Marines fail, the Straw Hats' reputation will skyrocket (again) and Whitebeard will still attack them. Even if the Marines succeed and fight off Whitebeard, they'll be too weak to actually police the seas.
• Famed In-Story: The Straw Hats are world famous as the strongest rookie pirate crew in the world, and by far and away the biggest fish in Paradise.
• Flash Step: In this fic, Luffy is capable of using the Soru (Shave) technique without having to resort to Gear Second.
• Flat "What":
  • Sanji gives one of these when Luffy refuses his refusal to join the crew.
  • Buggy gives one of these when Luffy proposes to do nothing while the former executes him.
  • Bellamy gives one of these when his henchman tells him that there's a giant turtle at the coast.
• Food as Bribe: Sanji coerced Bonney into meeting Luffy by offering to make her food.
• For Want Of A Nail:
  • After telling Ace of the truth, he offers for the Straw Hats to ally with the Whitebeard Pirates. This has the effect of having Vice-Admirals attack them as they leave Alabasta (to no avail) and steering Blackbeard clear of Jaya. This eventually leads to Aokiji attacking them at Water 7, and when that fails, the World Government sends Sengoku himself plus whatever forces he can muster against them at Sabaody to prevent them from joining Whitebeard in the New World.
    • After Enies Lobby, with the Straw Hats and Ace firmly out of Blackbeard's reach, he starts looking for a new target which is when Bonney confronts him. And when she and her crew are beaten, Ace comes to save her, and this time, he is prepared, retrained, pre-informed, and eventually triumphant.
  • After Zoro defeats Enel, Amazon takes the chance to kill him and avenge her Bilkan family's deaths, leaving the Goro Goro no Mi on Nami's trees. Luffy later gives it to Coby.
  • Events on Water 7 lead to Franky burning the Pluton blueprints in private rather than in public, leading to him being given a higher bounty due to the WG's paranoia that he still has them.
  • Due to Merry's old structure being built into the Sunny, Sunny develops a Klabautermann of her own, a reincarnation of their first ship.
  • Because Ace was never handed over to the Marines, Marineford only happens because the World Government jumped the gun and attacked the Straw Hats to stop them from entering the New World. And because of the different circumstances causing the situation, the Marines have no leverage to force Whitebeard to meet them on their terms. With no time table railroading them to make it to Marineford by a certain date, the Whitebeard Pirates are able to take out as many Marine Bases as possible while making their way to Paradise, with minimal to no casualties, severely hampering the amount of forces the Marines can amass when the pirates finally do attack. This results in Sengoku only managing to assemble fifty thousand marines for the upcoming confrontation, which is less then half the amount he managed in canon.
  • The aforementioned nail reaches its logical conclusion in Chapter 68. Because the Marines don't have Ace or any hostages for that matter, Whitebeard doesn't have to actually show up. He can just sink the island from a distance instead, which he proceeds to do at the end of the chapter.
• Foreshadowing: There is one major hint alluding to Sanji being the third time traveler: in the flashbacks depicting the Bad Future, he is the only Straw Hat besides Luffy and Zoro seen alive, and his last scene was holding off a marine fleet so the other two could make it to Raftel. Despite Luffy and Zoro's understandable assumptions, Sanji was never confirmed to have actually died during that confrontation. Indeed, when he finally receives his memories of the future, it's shown that Sanji had actually been captured and sent to Level Six of Impel Down.
• From Bad to Worse: After the Straw Hats and co. defeat Kizaru and his forces at Sabaody, things go completely downhill for the World Government. Whitebeard is now on a rampage as he and his armada make a beeline for Marineford, but not before taking their sweet time destroying every single Marine base in their path; Kaido's attempt to attack him and take advantage of the situation has caused him to clash with Shanks; and the Revolutionaries have taken advantage of the chaos on Sabaody to cripple the world's biggest slave trading hub by killing all the slavers and freeing all the slaves. To top it off, they can barely muster a fraction of the forces they had in canon to meet Whitebeard head-on. Kizaru is still in a coma due to his injuries he received during his fight with Luffy and co., Hancock and Kuma are both claiming injuries from their battles with Luffy and Zoro, Jinbe has been arrested and sent to Impel Down for protesting the upcoming war, and the current number of ground forces they've managed to amass thus far as of Chapter 66 is ten thousand. In canon, the Marines met Whitebeard with over a hundred thousand soldiers, plus one more admiral and two more Warlords than they currently have, and they barely managed to win the war (and it can be argued that they lost more than they won). If they were to meet Whitebeard right now, with the Straw Hats and the Revolutionaries backing them, they'd be annihilated.
• The Gadfly: Luffy has far too much fun taunting his opponents; there's not one that he's faced that he hasn't intentionally provoked somehow, but it shows most of all with Crocodile. If Chapter 36 is any indication, he also likes doing it with his crew.
• Giving Up on Logic:
  • In their brief time together, Coby does this with most of Luffy’s actions, including his conversations with Zoro.
  • When Luffy gorges himself in Shells Town, eating an impossible amount of food and then suddenly digesting it and reforming his proportions nicely, everyone who had been watching him chooses that point to give up trying to make sense of anything they see.
  • Lampshaded by Usopp in Chapter 20:
  Dalton: (after Luffy uses Moonwalk to start climbing towards the castle) He can fly? Is that a Devil Fruit?
  Usopp: To be honest I don't know how he does it. But Luffy defies logic a lot. You learn not to question it.
  • In Chapter 29, Nami has this reaction when they traverse Alabasta during the chilling nighttime, the only ones unaffected being Chopper, who's used to the cold; Seal, who's used to the climate; and Luffy, whose Life Return technique lets him regulate his body temperature.
  Nami: The only logic in all this is that they defy all logic.
  • Nami made the mistake of trying to use logic on Luffy again in Chapter 42, when Amazon denies them entry to Skypiea. Luffy says that they don't have to listen because they're pirates, and in response, Amazon states that she won't stop them and will let them in if they desire.
  Nami: I should have known not to argue logic with a guy that defies logic in a place that defies logic!
  • Even the Narrator gets in on this in Chapter 57 when he comments that, after summing up their adventures, the Straw Hats should not be afraid of a ghost ship. The group immediately proved him wrong.
  Narrator: No, reason did not stand.
• The Glomp: After Smoker returns unscathed from preventing the bomb from going off in Alabasta, having seemingly pulled a Heroic Sacrifice, Tashigi delivers one of these to him in sheer relief. Yes, you read that right: Tashigi glomped Smoker.
• Godzilla Threshold:
  • This seems to be the case for the Five Elder Stars regarding the Straw Hats. Even if it requires sending every member of the Marines' top brass to smack down one rookie crew, including Sengoku himself, even if it means gaining the ire of Whitebeard and completely not on their terms, they cannot allow such a high-powered crew with close ties to both Whitebeard and Dragon to enter the New World.
  • Kizaru resorts to trying to blow up Sabaody's lawless zone after Ace and Sabo join the Monster Trio in their fight against him. Unfortunately for him, a well-timed kick from Mavric breaks his concentration, allowing Ace to throw Genesis Edict at him with minimal resistance.
• Groin Attack: When Absalom is revealed to be groping Nami, Chopper punches him in the head, allowing Nami to do this to him.
• Heroic BSoD: In Chapter 53, it's mentioned that while waiting to board the sea train, Robin went into one of these at the sight of the sea being frozen over. No doubt she realized that it meant Aokiji was present, and most likely fighting Luffy and Zoro.
• Heroic Second Wind:
  • Luffy gets frozen solid by Aokiji only to break out using Conqueror's Haki.
  • Sanji collapses from strain after beating Rob Lucci at Sabaody Archipelago, but his appearance gives his crewmates a Heroic Second Wind, and he himself is revived by the return of his future self's memories, giving him the skill needed to halt Admiral Kizaru.
• Hope Spot: When blasted with Ace's Genesis Edict, Kizaru just barely manages to resist the heat with his Haki and warp out of the flames...only for Sabo to punch him back into them, this time in his human form. It took all his energy not to scream.
• Hyper-Awareness:
  • Nothing gets past Robin; one offhand comment by Zoro in Chapter 34 is all that she needs to confirm, despite what he says, that he's very familiar with the Grand Line.
  • With mastery of Observation Haki, it's equally difficult to get anything past Luffy or Zoro.
• Hyperspace Mallet: In Chapter 10 (which is fittingly called 'to hammer it home'), Usopp, Johnny, Yosaku, and Nojiko all use these to hit Zoro when he makes his intention to fight the fishmen clear. This time, Zoro is fully capable of taking these without flinching, and is not amused, especially when he remembers how he was captured last time; the Death Glare and Slasher Smile he gives them in response are terrifying. Later on, Chew lampshades it when Usopp is beating the crap out of him using a hammer.
  Chew: Where did he even get that hammer?
• Hypocritical Humor: In Chapter 34, after Nami's "Happiness Punch":
  Igaram: (clearing his throat and wiping away his Nosebleed) How unsightly.
  Luffy: Wow. Our Sanji may be a pervert, but at least he's not in the closet about it.
  Usopp: Hypocrisy at its finest.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: Luffy and Zoro activating Gear Fourth and Asura to deal with Aokiji. Their opponent can't believe they've been holding back this entire time.
• I Do Not Own: The author tries to come up with a different witty disclaimer for every chapter. In Chapter 18, he says he’s running out of material, he gets past it in Chapter 24, he starts struggling again in Chapter 31, and he gives up after that.
• Idiot Ball: Ace has one of these in Chapter 40, when his search leads him to a Marine Base…and consequently leads to him needing to fight off a large group of Marines. He even lampshades it.
  Ace: Go to the G2 branch I said. They could have intel on the revolutionaries I said. They might not even recognize me I said. Seriously, when did I start acting like Luffy?
• I Like Those Odds: When news comes out that Whitebeard has made the Straw Hats his allies, Robin notes that it was very strange that their bounties hadn't increased according to the level of the threat. Luffy and Zoro have this reaction when they realize the implication: the Marines don't think it necessary because of the force that they're sending to deal with them.
• Implausible Fencing Powers: Even by the usual standards, Zoro has this. He can cut seastone, which is as hard as diamond. As far as we know, not even Mihawk can do this, proving that if Zoro had been at full strength at the Baratie, he would've won their duel.
• Insane Troll Logic: In Chapter 3, Zoro mixes this with No Sense of Direction, thinking that left is the same as west, and wherever the compass is pointing is where they have to go^note which would be true — if the compass were a log pose and they were sailing on the Grand Line, instead of it being a normal compass to help navigate East Blue, a normal ocean. Luffy calls him out on it (after realizing the fallacious thinking himself) — and he still doesn't get it.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Despite everything else that Luffy and Zoro manage to do better, they're unable to save Merry. Still, her end is less of a Tear Jerker in this story, as rather than a Viking funeral, the Franky Family takes particular care in disassembling her, and Franky uses some of the wood to build the Mini Merry and the Thousand Sunny. Doing this allows Merry's spirit to reincarnate as Sunny's, allowing her to stay with the crew.
  • Ace still ends up confronting Blackbeard since the former has Jewelry Bonney's Vivre Card and saw that she was in danger, and when he went to help her, found the person he'd been searching for. Ultimately, however, Bonney saves him from the Marines while Teach is arrested.
  • Yubashiri is still broken, but this time by Ryuma, who specialises in sword-breaking techniques.
  • Just like in canon, right before the Straw Hats are due to enter the New World, the Marines are ordered to gather all available forces, including their top brass, for a major conflict. Except this time, it isn't the Whitebeard Pirates they're fighting, but the Straw Hats themselves.
  • And thanks to the above example, Marineford is still set to happen.
  • Despite failing the mission to bring Robin to Enies Lobby, Kaku is still rewarded with his canon Devil Fruit.
• Ironic Echo: In Chapter 16, when Robin as Miss All Sunday first meets the Straw Hats as they set out from Whiskey Peak, Luffy cuts her taunting short by revealing that he knows her identity:
  Luffy: You're on the losing side of this game, Robin.
  • Later, in Chapter 33, after Luffy has defeated Crocodile, he approaches Robin. She at first moves to defend herself, but quickly realizes the hopelessness of her situation:
  Robin: I'm on the losing side of this game. So it would appear.
  • In Chapter 40, Lost does a "what-if" omake that describes what would have happened if canon had progressed to the point where Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp, and Smoker got trapped in the cage. Robin responds to Luffy taking the situation so lightly:
  Robin: You know, I find it amusing how you go along with your antics as if the threat of death doesn't even concern you. Perhaps you're a little oblivious to the situation you're in? One could even say you're on the losing side of this game.
• It Amused Me:
  • Why Luffy decides to pick a fight with Zoro in Whiskey Peak, the way he did in canon.
  • Why Robin takes so long to intervene in the hunt with the South Bird; watching everyone else's trouble is just too funny.
  • Robin later plays Devil's Advocate in a debate about whether Skypiea is heaven because she finds the debate amusing.
• Jaw Drop: Frequent, of course, even excluding the ones in canon.
  • In Chapter 16, Vivi does this when Luffy casually identifies Crocodile as the head of Baroque Works.
  • In Chapter 17, Nami does this when Luffy warns them to take precautions against the elements when they disembark at Little Garden.
  • In Chapter 18, Mr. 3, Miss Goldenweek, and Miss Valentine do this when Luffy No Sells Miss Goldenweek's Colors Trap.
  • In Chapter 21, Chopper does this when Luffy casually dismisses all of his reservations about joining his crew.
  • In Chapter 22, Luffy does this when Gol D. Roger's ghost gives Luffy the option of going back in time to save his friends.
  • In Chapter 28,
    • Usopp does this when Chopper says that there's no such disease as "I-can't-walk-through-the-desert-anymore-or-I'll-die-itis."
    • Chopper does this when Luffy shows his Second Gear, not because of how awesome it is, but because of the dramatic increase in heart rate.
  • In Chapter 30, Bentham (Mr. 2 Bon Kurei) does this in response to Luffy's Mood Whiplash, and then again shortly afterwards as he states his reason for trusting that Bentham will keep his word if Luffy beats him.
  • In Chapter 34, Vivi does this when Luffy states that he's letting Nico Robin join his crew.
  • In Chapter 35, Bentham does this when Luffy invites him to join the crew.
  • In Chapter 36, Chopper does this at one point while Luffy is teasing him.
  • In Chapter 37, the Straw Hats do this when they see that Luffy has tamed the giant sea turtle.
  • In Chapter 38, the Buggy Pirates do this when Buggy, jumping to conclusions, punches Ace as hard as he can.
  • In Chapter 40, Cricket does this when Luffy points out the very sound theory that the city of gold is not under the sea, but in the sky due to the Knock-Up Stream.
  • In Chapter 42,
    • Chopper does this upon seeing Enel's Devil Fruit powers in action for the first time.
    • Gedatsu does this in response to his carelessness in not realizing that he had to open his mouth to speak.
    • McKinley, captain of the White Berets, does this when, in response to hearing his sentence for attacking the White Berets (that being going to Upper Yard and facing the priests), Luffy asks for them to lead them to it, stating he wanted to go there anyway.
• Jerkass Has a Point: When Crocodile condemns Vivi's way of thinking—not wanting anyone to get hurt in the war, wanting to end it without anyone dying—as the naïve view of one who had not experienced death, the true horrors of a war. He says that Luffy must agree with him on that. He's right. But that doesn't mean that Luffy's not going to see to it that her wish comes true.
• Know When to Fold 'Em:
  • In Chapter 35, when he sees that Onigumo and Doberman have both been defeated, Momonga is smart enough to stop fighting, grab them, and skedaddle.
  • With two of their number unconscious and both of them on the verge of collapse themselves, Lucci and Kaku have no choice but to retreat from the Straw Hats and Franky (minus their captain and first mate), their mission a failure.
• Laughing Mad:
  • Crocodile has a very brief moment of this in Chapter 27, when he realizes that the Straw Hats had been the ones responsible for delivering the false report that they were dead, posing as Mr. 3. At that point, he's very eager to murder them.
  • When Usopp fires up the Gaon Cannon for the first time, Sunny's klabautermann goes into this, complete with the following Invocation:
    Sunny: I am Sunny, hear me roar...
• Lifesaving Misfortune: As Luffy notes, what did in Krieg Pirates also has the potential to be this for Gin. The Grand Line may be perilous by East Blue standards, but running into Mihawk on your first week in Paradise is well outside even that sea's norm. After all, while his home might be located in Paradise, Mihawk himself usually stays in the New World, the only place he is guaranteed to get a semi-decent fight. That being said, this experience also stopped Gin from following a captain whose ego would eventually get all of them killed before they even reached the end of the first half.
• Logical Weakness:
  • As in canon, Robin's real body can be affected by things done to her duplicate parts, whether injuries that convey no more than pain, or Devil Fruit abilities that convey much more. Chapter 36 has Zoro demonstrating an ingenious usage of this by hardening the duplicate arms she blooms on his body with Armament Haki, which hardens her real arms as well, immobilizing them.
  • Despite how unstoppable they are, Pacifistas are still robots made of metal, meaning Kidd can throw them around all day with ease with his Devil Fruit powers.
• Logic Bomb: The author's disclaimer in chapter 16 is one of these:
  Lost: I don't own One Piece. The statement before this statement is true. The statement before this statement is false. So you tell me. Do I own One Piece?
• Long Runner: The longest as of October 2016, when it surpassed Once Again; no other Peggy Sue has made it as far in canon as Second Wind.
• Look Behind You: Happens in Chapter 56 when Sunny mentions that Luffy holds the most secrets when he wonders who holds the darkest secret.
  Luffy: Hey, look, a ghost ship. We should probably check that out and continue this conversation never.
• Made of Iron: Blackbeard, as in canon. Even after a retrained Ace with full knowledge of his abilities hits him with the strongest attack he's got and ultimately triumphs, it still doesn't kill the Darkness man. It's later noted by Shiryu that Blackbeard is covered in injuries that should be fatal.
• Manipulative Bastard: Deliberately averted; in Chapter 4, Luffy firmly dismisses the thought of using his knowledge of the future to make his True Companions join him, thinking that it would “make him feel like the scum of the earth.”
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": All of Marineford panics when they realize Whitebeard doesn't have to show up and can just keep bombarding them with his powers from a distance. Shortly after, Whitebeard starts tilting the entire island.
  • A pair of teenage East Blue rookies showing up with mastery over all three forms of Haki and enough skill to match the Warlords immediately catches the attention of everyone with even a hint of any real power in the world, as two random nobodies from the middle of nowhere showing up with that kind of power out of the blue is strange even for the Grand Line. And when those same rookies opt to ally their crew with Whitebeard, people immediately start panicking.
• Meaningful Echo: In canon, Zoro sternly encourages Luffy after his fight with Usopp, saying, "If you falter, who can we rely on?" At the end of Chapter 10, Luffy repeats the line, paraphrased, back to him, after they make another hard decision.
• Mental Time Travel:
  • Luffy and Zoro mentally went back in time — that means they know how to do their techniques and access their Haki, but their bodies are physically unable to handle the complete strain, necessitating training. It's the sole reason Zoro lost to Mihawk again. Yet, as Chapter 61 reveals and as the rest of the story demonstrated, they have an incredible growth rate, and it isn't long until they're capable of fighting off admirals if necessary.
  • Played with in regards to Sanji. While he went through Mental Time Travel as well, the poor state of his original body meant that he couldn't go back as far as Luffy and Zoro. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as his past body was toughened up enough by Luffy and Zoro's training to handle the strain of his techniques right off the bat, even while severely injured. This allowed him to save the crew during the climax of the Sabaody Archipelago arc from Kizaru.
• Mugging the Monster: Anyone who tried to fight Luffy and/or Zoro pre-Alabasta. An argument could be made that it was still this up until the Water 7 arc; after of which, it indisputably became Bullying a Dragon.
• Mundane Solution: How do you deal with a zombie horde with a weakness to salt? Fight by the shoreline and toss 'em into the sea.
• Mood Whiplash:
  • Probably Obfuscating Stupidity (or at least mostly), but in Chapter 30, Mr. 2 lampshades as Luffy goes "from intimidating, to mocking, to whiny in less than 30 seconds."
  • The end of chapter 42, as the crew heads to Upper Yard, knowing full well what's waiting for them there:
  Nami: So let me get this straight. God wants to kill us, and we're just going to march right into his home so he'll have an easier time?
  Luffy: City of gold.
  Nami: (fist pumping) Onward to Jaya!
• My God, You Are Serious!: Ace has this reaction when Luffy and Zoro tell him that they're from the future, believing it only because his brother is a terrible liar, as mentioned above.
• Mythology Gag: Usopp is used as a sword by Brook to deal with a returning Fukurou.
• Neutral No Longer: Garp is horrified to learn of Ace's death and his own indecisiveness, and swears to protect his family no matter what.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The Marines attack the Straw Hats at Sabaody Archipelago with the intent of wiping them out before they can enter the New World and join Whitebeard, shifting the Balance of Power into his favor. Not only does the attack fail, a significant portion of their forces that partook in the attack are now out of commission and will be unavailable for Whitebeard's inevitable retaliatory attack. This includes two Warlords and Admiral Kizaru, severely hampering the manpower they can muster.
• No Badass to His Valet:
  • Much like canon, Luffy and Zoro. They might be the most powerful pirates in Paradise, but they're still an idiot and a meathead (respectively) to their much beleaguered crew, even after they learn about the Time Travel.
  • Of the Supernovas, Bonney is the only one who is not apprehensive of the Straw Hats, thanks to her close friendship with Luffy's brother, Ace.
• No-Sell:
  • Due to the fact that Luffy's Conqueror's Haki is so powerful, his former weakness to hypnosis is now gone, shown when Miss Goldenweek's Colors Trap has no effect on him.
  • As stated under the above Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors entry, Nami's lightning is useless against Mr. 1's steel body.
  • Smoker and his Logia body is completely unaffected by Crocodile's city-busting bomb.
  • Wiper does this to Luffy's Conqueror's Haki. Considering what he and his people have gone through, it's not really surprising that he's that tough and that his will is that strong.
  • Usopp isn't the only one negative enough to be immune to Perona's ghosts; Robin's emotional baggage means that she qualifies too. In fact, when affected, she becomes so caustic she causes Perona to become negative.
• No Sense of Direction: The one thing that prevents Zoro from being a perfect badass Blood Knight in canon, but it’s hammered home just how hopeless he is in Chapter 3, when Luffy has to explain to him the fault in his logic. He still doesn't get it.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Subverted. Luffy and Zoro's strength at the beginning of the story would only be standard in the New World. By the time they reach Sabaody, however, they would be considered big-time players even in the New World.
• Not Quite Flight: In this fic, Luffy is capable of using the Geppo (Moonwalk) technique, which allows him to kick the air to float.
• Not So Stoic:
  • Crocodile has a very brief moment of this in Chapter 27; after giving his orders to Mr. 2, he tells him to leave immediately—only to discover that he had already left. This provokes the Warlord to Sweatdrop.
  • Amazon, the imperturbable gatekeeper of Skypiea, is impressed when Robin realizes that they can enter Skypiea despite being not allowed to, but they'll be criminals if they do. She also seems interested to see how the clash between them and Enel will proceed.
  • During the last leg of his fight with Luffy and Zoro, Aokiji's composure finally breaks and he's angrily screaming at them over his decisions regarding Robin.
• Obligatory Swearing: Used to a minor but noticeable extent.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Crocodile in Chapter 32, when he learns that Luffy knows about the bomb in the clock tower. The fact that Smoker and Tashigi were there as well for that little revelation did not help.
  • Luffy in Chapter 33, when he realizes that Crocodile's attack, though of little danger to him, has Robin in its wake. And Crocodile is too angry to think about that himself.
  • Aokiji has a major one in Chapter 53 when Luffy and Zoro activate Gear Fourth and Asura, respectively, meaning they, who have managed to force him to use his full strength without those forms, have been holding back the entire fight.
  • Luffy has a small one in Chapter 57 when facing Moriah: Turns out his previous timeline experiences have caused his soul to develop a second shadow, and not only can Moriah see it, he can steal it.
    • Then it's turned around again for Moriah, when he realises that the stolen shadow's will and Conqueror's Haki is so strong, it's actually resisting him. And especially when it manages to override his own will and cause him to freeze at the worst possible moment.
  • The Straw Hats get this at Sabaody, when they realise that an entire Marine fleet is bearing down on them.
  • Luffy, when he sees Vice-Admiral Issho, aka the future Admiral Fujitora arriving to aid Kizaru.
  • Kizaru after Sanji manages to deflect his kick, making him another "freakish prodigy" like Luffy and Zoro.
  • Kizaru gets another after escaping Ace's Genesis Edict, only to get punched right back into it.
• Oh, No... Not Again!:
  • Zoro gets this reaction in Chapter 3 when, after meeting Luffy in Shells Town, he discovers that his captain has no ship with which they can set sail. He reflects that some things never change in regards to his captain's tendencies as an Idiot Hero.
  • Mavric's very understandable reaction when he spots Kizaru's fleet heading for Sabaody.
    Mavric: "Again, huh? Well damn..."
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Whenever Luffy or Zoro makes an unusually smart comment (that is, something he knows about due to future knowledge), it draws suspicious looks from some of the others on the crew. But all of them, except Luffy and the recently joined Robin, are flabbergasted when, in Chapter 40, Zoro makes a comment along the lines of navigation.
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Absalom is so frustrated that Sanji's No-Holds-Barred Beatdown is purely because he had eaten the Devil Fruit he wanted, he starts ranting for Sanji to have a better reason, including the fact that he sexually assaulted Nami in the bath. And this is the first that Sanji's hearing about it. Well, he has a better reason now.
• Outside-Context Problem: The Straw Hat Pirates are essentially this for the Balance of Power. The Balance has been carefully maintained for years ever since the beginning of the Golden Age of Piracy, and then this random rookie crew from the weakest sea in the world shows up, takes down a Warlord and later an admiral within six months of their entry into the Grand Line. Their dramatic rise is so sudden and unexpected that the World Government immediately starts panicking after they elect to ally with Whitebeard (not helped by Luffy's own strong ties to Dragon), forcing them to take action with disastrous results.
• Original Character: Mavric, a Revolutionary that Luffy first meets on Jaya. His Scope-Scope Fruit powers allow him Super-Senses that make him exceptionally good at spying and collecting information to share with his contacts.
• Past Experience Nightmare: Luffy and Zoro keep reliving the old timeline in their nightmares; specifically, the final battle where they had to watch their crewmates die. They're only able to confide in each other prior to The Reveal.
• Papa Wolf: Whitebeard. Even though he has yet to even meet the Straw Hats in person, he is every bit as protective of them as he is with his other allies. Though Luffy isn't as deferential as the others, he is no less appreciative, judging by how he called the man 'Pops' when Whitebeard went out of his way to protect them from Akainu.
• Peggy Sue: Obviously.
• Persona Non Grata: The Blackbeard Pirates sailed through Skypiea before the Straw Hats arrived, and caused so much trouble, including defeating Shura, that the usually apathetic Enel decreed that nobody from the Blue Sea would be allowed entry into the White White Sea from then on.
• Post-Victory Collapse: After Sanji's triumph over Rob Lucci, he returns to deal with the rest of the enemy team, but collapses when his injuries catch up to him. However, the interruption is enough for the Straw Hats to regain the initiative.
• Power Copying: Moria. By absorbing Luffy's second shadow, he can duplicate his Haki.
• Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: In Chapter 43, after Satori gets what he supposes is a lethal hit on Sanji, Sanji decides to stop playing around:
  Sanji: Time to fry the dough.
• Promoted to Love Interest: There are hints that Lost has made Bonney this for Ace.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Implied to be the premise, and confirmed as such in Chapter 22: Luffy and Zoro make it to Raftel, but not before everyone else has been killed.
• Razor Wind: In addition to Zoro's flying blade attacks, Luffy is capable of using the Rankyaku (Tempest Kick) technique in this fic.
• Reasonable Authority Figure:
  • While Luffy holds a bit of resentment for Smoker not intervening with Arlong (who Smoker could have easily dealt with), he also recognizes that Smoker, for all his pride, is ultimately a good man, and refuses to needlessly kill him. As well, he trusts him to put aside their differences long enough to neutralize the very real threat of Crocodile.
  • Also, in Chapter 48, we have Vice Admiral Jonathan. He is able to instantly recognize Luffy and hold a civil conversation with him. He sums up the main reason why the World Government wants him captured: "simply because it's their unspoken policy to capture anyone with strength such as yours who isn't affiliated with them." After Luffy explains why exactly the Straw Hats arrive, he is amused but sadly notes that his duty is to capture them. In the end he has his Marines stand down and allow the Straw Hats to leave due to knowing (and explaining to Luffy that) a) He isn't nearly strong enough to fight them and, b) The G8 base is too far away for reinforcements to arrive.
  • In Chapter 61, Sengoku tries to convince the Five Elder Stars against sending himself and all available forces against the Straw Hats, citing that regardless of whether the Marines win or lose, Whitebeard will still retaliate for even trying in the first place, and the Marines will be left short on manpower and high on casualties.
    • In Chapter 65, Luffy believes that the Five Elder Stars were not keen on these orders either, and speculates that they directly came from Im instead.
• Red Herring: Chapter 38 ends with Jewelry Bonney making an appearance, suggesting that they might be the third time traveler. Chapter 39 quickly dissuades that notion.
• Relocating the Explosion: Instead of Pell, Smoker is the one to carry Crocodile's city-flattening bomb into the air, and being a Logia, he is completely unaffected by it.
• Rhetorical Question Blunder: When Ace demands to know why Luffy didn't tell his crew about him, Luffy counters by asking if any of Ace's crew know about Luffy. Unfortunately for Luffy, all of the Whitebeard Pirates and most of their allies know about Luffy.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge:
  • Whitebeard orders Ace and Marco to stage hit-and-run attacks on Marineford and Mariejois respectively after Luffy and Zoro beat Aokiji, not only to draw off more retaliation against them, but to show the world that badass rookies or no, the World's Strongest Man does not tolerate attacks on his children subordinate crews.
  • The main reason why Sengoku objected to the Five Elder Stars ordering the Marines to wipe out the Straw Hats. The very moment Whitebeard got wind of this, regardless of whether they succeeded or not, he would make the above look like a playground grudge. Sure enough, the moment Whitebeard finds out, he and his armada head directly to Marine Headquarters, but not before leaving a path of destruction in their wake by wrecking every single Marine Base they come across.
• Running Gag:
  • Luffy Dropping the Bombshell on his crew with almost nonchalant ease, most particularly about his absurd connections to the world's powers.
  • The game of rock-paper-scissors seems to be this.
  • The phrase "a Man's Romance".
• Sarcasm-Blind: Naïve little Chopper falls under this; the couple of times that he's been teased, he hasn't caught that it was teasing.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Lost's author's note at the end of Chapter 26, in regards to Seal:
  Lost: It may be spontaneous and random decision making, but I honestly couldn't resist. This is my story, and I say Seal is coming along for the ride. So take that, common sense! I scoff at your restrictions! *Scoffs*
• Secret-Keeper: The only ones who know that Luffy and Zoro are time-travelers are people that they consider family:
  • In Chapter 24, they tell Ace, who may later have informed Sabo offscreen.
  • In Chapter 26, Luffy and Zoro agree to let Ace inform Whitebeard of it.
  • In Chapter 54, Luffy tells Garp, who privately swears to take the knowledge to his grave.
  • In Chapter 62, Luffy informs Rayleigh and co., who then reveals the true history of the Roger Pirates to the crew in turn.
• Serial Escalation: As the Straw Hats become more infamous over the course of the story, the level of Marine opposition they face gradually increases with each arc. By the time they hit Water 7, Aokiji has been sent to kill them, a threat they just barely manage to overcome. By the time they reach the Sabaody Archipelago, however, Sengoku himself is forced to go after them by the Five Elder Stars.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Obviously.
• Set Swords to "Stun": Paraphrased for laughs (even though the results clearly say otherwise) after Usopp uses the Gaon Cannon to wipe out a Marine blockade.
  Usopp: Don't worry, I used the blunt side.
  Everyone else: (thinking) What fucking blunt side...?
• Shout-Out:
  • One given to Star Wars: A New Hope in Chapter 14.
  • One given to The Legend of Zelda in the disclaimer of Chapter 17.
  • One given to Naruto in Chapter 19.
  • One given to Batman (1966) in the author's notes at the end of Chapter 22.
  • One given to Dragon Ball Z Abridged in Chapter 24.
  • One given to Dr. Seuss in the disclaimer of Chapter 29.
  • One given to The Avengers in Chapter 30.
  • One given to Monty Python and the Holy Grail in the author's notes at the beginning of Chapter 42.
  • One given to Dragon Ball Z in Chapter 52.
• Slasher Smile: Many examples, good and bad.
  • Zoro has his fair share, such as the aforementioned Hyperspace Mallet entry; the part where he first addresses Mr. 8, Mr. 9, Miss Monday, and Vivi at Whiskey Peak, having seen through their masquerade; and pretty much any time that he engages someone in what will inevitably be a Curb-Stomp Battle.
  • Crocodile has a few of these as well. The most notable one is in Chapter 27, when he realizes that rather than Mr. 3 giving a false report of the Straw Hats being dead before fleeing, it was the Straw Hats that posed as Mr. 3 and gave the false report. His reaction is kind of like when Moria began his Last Villain Stand at Thriller Bark.
• Spanner in the Works: Sanji's return to his past body outright screws over the Marines' attempt to wipe out the Straw Hats at Sabaody Archipelago, as they weren't expecting another person of Luffy and Zoro's caliber in the crew.
• Stations of the Canon: Mostly relatively minor changes, but starting in the Alabasta arc, the canon plot line is gone.
  • The beginning of the end is in Chapter 24, where due to the information given to him by Luffy and Zoro, Ace decides not to confront Blackbeard (or, at least not until he is strong enough to take him on), more or less preventing the War of the Best as it would be in canon.
  • In the following chapter, Vivi succeeds in meeting with Kohza and telling him the truth about the rebellion and who was behind it all, changing the whole arc from then on.
  • In the chapter after that, Ace makes a proposition to Luffy that they ally with the Whitebeard Pirates, which sets in motion the Butterfly of Doom for the next two arcs. This eventually results in Aokiji being sent to take down the crew (more specifically, Luffy and Zoro), which eventually culminates in them bypassing the entire Enies Lobby arc.
• Stealth Insult: When Luffy reunites with Zoro and asks him how his day was, he replies that he woke up being taunted by "some dumbass kid who truly wasn't as stupid as he looked." When he said that, Luffy recognized that Zoro wasn't contradicting his claim that Helmeppo was stupid, but instead saying that his appearance was even more stupid.
• Super-Empowering: Coby eats Enel's reincarnated Goro Goro no Mi.
• Surrounded by Idiots: As in canon, Nami has to put up with this often. Notable instances include whenever "a man's romance" comes up in conversation.
• Talking Your Way Out: In Chapter 16, a few well-chosen words from the already scary Zoro results in Igaram (still acting as Mr. 8) reluctantly conceding to his demands to let them leave the island unharmed.
• Telepathy: A minor version of this occurs with great proficiency in Observation Haki, allowing someone focusing hard enough to read the emotions of others with extreme precision, to the point of understanding their thoughts. Luffy and Zoro, two who possess such a skill, have used it a few times to convey messages with sensitive content (that is, knowledge of the future) while in the presence of others.
• Tempting Fate:
  • In Chapter 42, after learning that Enel has Observation Haki and can hear them from a long distance away:
  Conis: If he already knows you're here, then there's no escape.
  Chopper: But how? What can he do if he's not even—
  (lightning strikes a group of island cloud nearby, obliterating it)
  Usopp: (in a false tone of serenity) Chopper. Please shut up.
  • In Chapter 48, Skeptical Marine B states that, "the chances of a pirate attack are slim to none." Optimistic Marine A immediately says, "You never know when pirates may drop in out of the sky!" RIGHT BEFORE THE GOING MERRY DOES EXACTLY THAT!
  New Recruit: Hey, uh, guys? What's that in the sky?
  Skeptical Marine B: ...That could be anything.
  New Recruit: It looks like a ship to me.
  Skeptical Marine B: ...It could be anyone.
  New Recruit: Isn't that a pirate's Jolly Roger?
  Skeptical Marine B: Shit.
  • In Chapter 57, Usopp does this by thinking that they could conquer Thriller Bark in record time. Nami calls him out on it, and then Zoro starts deliberately tempting fate, much to the horror of his companions. Of course, he believes that nothing on the island could be a threat against him. He may be right, but when he one-shots the zombie cerberus, he turns around to find that the worst possible outcome just happened: Usopp, Nami, and Chopper ran off in fear.
  Zoro: Oh, fuck you, Murphy.
• That's No Moon: Chapter 14.
  Sanji: Hey, there's a mountain in the way! I don't think that's supposed to be there!
  Luffy: That's no mountain. It's a whale.
  Nami: It's too big to be a whale!
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Luffy delivers one of these to Kuro in Chapter 6, saying that he can't even compare to Usopp in terms of willpower, and then proves it by blasting both of them with Conqueror's Haki. Both of them struggle to retain consciousness, but only Usopp succeeds.
• There Is Another: In Chapter 22, it’s heavily implied that, unbeknownst to Luffy and Zoro (or at least Zoro; Luffy heard but didn't understand), one other member of their crew survived to the point where the two of them returned to the past, and consequently, was sent back with them. However, the story progressed to the end of Paradise and ruled out the Straw Hats, Vivi, the Thousand Sunny, and Law. Finally, in the middle of the Sabaody arc, we find out who it is: Sanji, who couldn't be sent back as far into the past as Luffy and Zoro because of his weakened state after several days of torture in Impel Down. It's a bit of fridge brilliance when you realize that we knew all along that he was the only other Straw Hat alive at that point.
• The Reveal: After the bypass of the Enies Lobby arc in Chapter 54, Luffy and Zoro finally tell the truth to their crew (and Franky, who hadn't joined yet). After the Thriller Bark arc, they also inform Brook after he joins as well.
• Third Time's The Charm: The first time Sanji clashed with Rob Lucci, he was soundly defeated. The second time, he faced him alongside his crew (bar Luffy and Zoro) and successfully drove him and the rest of CP9 off. The third time, he faced him one-on-one (though he started with Bonney's assistance), and this time, indisputably triumphed with Armament Haki.
• This Cannot Be!: At the end of Chapter 4, Buggy has this thought during his last second of consciousness after Zoro cuts him successfully.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Absalom's last words have this air, when in his rant to Sanji about having a better reason to beat him up, he mentions sexually assaulting Nami.
  Absalom: ... You didn't know did you?
• Timey-Wimey Ball: Sanji's unexpected Time Travel has one drawback. While it allows him to join the battle against Kizaru at Sabaody, giving Luffy and Zoro some much-needed aid and directly saving the life of one of their crew, it also makes him another target that they have to cover for, as Sanji's present body is still severely injured from his fight against Rob Lucci.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • Luffy and Zoro:
    • Zoro has become a skilled enough swordsman to easily match Mihawk, even while stuck in a younger body (though he still lost), and can cut diamond-hard seastone, which is something not even Mihawk can do. He also uses Asura as a Super Mode in combat, opposed to just one-time techniques.
    • Luffy has managed to master Rokushiki (or at least half of it; it's yet to be seen if he can use Tekkai, Shigan, or Kami-e). He's also mastered the Life Return technique, giving him perfect control of his body's functions. While this is demonstrated as early as Chapter 3, it's not elaborated as to just how badass it makes him until Chapter 28. Their bounties are also much bigger: after the Arlong arc, Luffy's starting bounty comes out as 45 million berries, and Zoro gets his starting bounty at the same time, 28 million berries. Then after Alabasta, they rise to 175 million and 95 million.
    • In Chapters 51-53 Luffy and Zoro are able to force Aokiji to use his full strength. Then, to his utter shock and horror, they activate Gear Fourth and Asura, respectively — meaning they've been holding back the entire time.
    • This is also deconstructed, as all the big players in the world quickly recognize how strange their level of strength is, especially considering the fact that they're rookies from the weakest sea in the world. While analyzing Zoro's aura the first time they meet, Mihawk notes he is far too powerful a swordsman to be a complete unknown (especially to Mihawk, who keeps tabs on powerful swordsmen), while Shanks flat-out calls Luffy's growth rate completely unnatural. The Marines felt the same, which is why they dispatched Aokiji and later on, Kizaru to take them out.
  • The main duo also resolve to train their crew to be much stronger earlier than they are in canon. The results of this training show a lot in Alabasta: Usopp, Chopper, and Seal take down the Mr. 4 group with relative ease, and Nami defeats Miss Doublefinger without a scratch. Then, even if they don't win, they're able to get in several good knocks when they fought with CP9 in Water 7.
    • And when they come for round two with Lucci, who in canon was strong enough to beat all of the Straw Hats bar Luffy alone, they kick his ass, without the help of their future crewmates, and end up forcing him and his comrades to a draw.
  • It shows most of all with Sanji, however; from the moment the training began, he had one-on-one training with Zoro, in order to reach his full potential earlier. And oh, does it work: Sanji defeats both Kuroobi and Hachi by himself, defeats Mr. 1 by creating his Diable Jambe technique two sagas early, he gets a bounty of 55 million berries at the end of the Alabasta saga, and a few days after that, he awakens his Observation Haki.
    • Taken even further in Chapter 52 where he kicks Blueno into the ocean, and it's shown that he probably would have beaten Kaku in Water 7 if it wasn't for Lucci's interference. Even then, he was still able to give Lucci quite a bit of trouble and forced him to use his Devil Fruit to take him down.
    • In the Sabaody Archipelago, he comes for one last round with Lucci, and not only does he manage to tank his Six King Gun point-blank, but triumphs over him with his newly awakened Armament Haki.
    • And finally his badassery is fully restored when his future memories and skills are returned to his present body. The first thing he does? Deflect a lightspeed kick from Admiral Kizaru.
  • Thanks to the events of the Water 7 arc, all three members of the Monster Trio get higher bounties, above 100 million. More specifically, Sanji's rises to 155 million (making him one of the Supernovas in this timeline), Zoro's rises to 360 million, and Luffy's rises to 525 million. The latter two's bounties make them the top two Supernovas, with Luffy's easily being one of the highest in Paradise, if not the highest. In fact, his bounty is almost as much as Ace's, who had a three-year head start and is one of Whitebeard's Commanders.
  • Chapter 56 has Usopp begin practicing the Observation Haki he unlocked during the rematch with Lucci.
  • Even Ace is getting in on the act. After learning from Luffy about his loss to Blackbeard and the consequences of it, he resolves to delay his search in order to hone his Haki (which, aside from Conqueror's, is a skill he has never fully displayed in canon) for the inevitable confrontation. This proves to be a deciding factor in his fight with Blackbeard in this timeline — thanks to his increased skill, knowledge of Blackbeard's vitality and Devil Fruit (courtesy of Luffy and Zoro), and decision to take the fight seriously straight from the get-go, Ace manages to defeat Blackbeard and slaughter his crew for good measure. Luffy and Zoro actually discuss this when they realize they're about to meet up with him at Sabaody. Zoro has a hard time believing that Ace's skill has increased enough in such a short amount of time that he could defeat Blackbeard, but Luffy, who knows his brother better than anyone else, points out that Ace's rate of growth rivals the Monster Trio's, which is really saying something.
• Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: Moriah soon finds out the problems of absorbing a shadow that had unlocked Conqueror's Haki — that its strong will enables it to resist his control, interfere with his copied Haki, and even override Moriah's own.
• Training from Hell: Luffy and Zoro begin training the rest of the crew in Haki in Chapter 15, once they’ve entered the Grand Line. It’s not only strenuous, but somewhat demeaning.
• Tranquil Fury:
  • Nami has some of this in Chapter 42, when the White Berets inform the Straw Hats of their sentence, which involves having their valuables confiscated. She has a rather dangerously cheerful demeanor as she hits them with a Thunderbolt Tempo.
  • She has some more in Chapter 45, when the Straw Hats near the City of Gold...and find no gold along the way. Luffy barely manages to deflect her rage.
  • Sanji spends a few long moments staring at Absalom when the latter admits to molesting Nami in the bath.
• Underestimating Badassery: As per the course, except these instances are worse because Luffy and Zoro are New World-class pirates this time around. The number of people in Paradise that could hope to challenge them can be counted on one hand, and nobody realizes it until after the Water 7 arc.
  • Crocodile, when he realizes that the rebel army are victims of a fully awakened Conqueror. He at first dismisses the possibility it might be Luffy, only to become aware that he might be wrong when he witnesses Luffy uses Armament and Observation Haki. Justified by the fact that Luffy (in this timeline) is still a rookie from the weakest sea who just got to the Grand Line.
  • As per canon, Bellamy. He had heard the rumors about Luffy but when he heard about Luffy wanting to go to Sky Island, he dismissed them as fake and tried to take him out. After a thorough ass-kicking from Bonney, Luffy knocks him out with one punch again.
  • Downplayed with Aokiji. While he recognized the strength of Luffy and Zoro required someone as strong as him to take them out, he still had a hard time believing that Paradise rookies were capable of killing him. It's only after Luffy activates Gear Fourth and Zoro uses Asura in the last leg of the fight, revealing their full strength in the process, that Aokiji finally realizes what kind of fight he's in.
  • After the crew finally learns the truth, the gravitas doesn't really sink in for them until they watch their captain converse with Whitebeard and all but scolds him for his actions after Enies Lobby (specifically, ordering Ace and Marco to attack Marineford and Mariejois respectively). For all his childish behavior, Luffy is the Pirate King (even if the knowledge is restricted to a small group of people), and thus one of the few people in the world that Whitebeard will acknowledge as an equal, regardless of age. It's only then that they realize the true scope of Luffy and Zoro's power and influence.
  • Despite knowing Luffy's reputation and even outright admitting that he could never hope to beat Luffy in a straight out fight, Moria still manages to fall into this after he steals Luffy's second shadow, which blows up his confidence in the ensuing battle. He pays for it dearly.
• Unexpected Character: Jewelry Bonney appears in Mock Town, and for some reason she's been looking for Luffy. She's also an In-Universe example, as Luffy notes the only way she could've arrived at Mock Town is if she altered her entire course.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight:
  • In Chapter 17, Luffy, understandably since he’s already gone through it, and is so happy-go-lucky anyway, doesn’t react much to the prehistoric nature of Little Garden, nor to Dorry. Vivi is significantly less nonchalant.
  • In Chapter 35, absolutely nothing fazes Garp when Sengoku reports of what Luffy had done: defeating Crocodile, showing mastery of the Six Powers and three forms of Haki, becoming an ally of the Whitebeard Pirates, and defeating three Vice-Admirals. Garp just laughs it all off, saying it's to be expected of his badass grandson.
    • When Garp finally meets Luffy in person, though, he admits that it was just an act, and that he really is curious in how he got so strong.
• Villain Episode: Chapter 27 focuses on Baroque Works; none of the Straw Hats, not even Robin, appear in this chapter.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Chapter 64 has Vice-Admiral Issho use his gravity powers to ferry away his unconscious colleagues—Admiral Kizaru, five unconscious Vice-Admiral colleagues and Sentomaru—after their attempt to kill the Straw Hat Pirates on Sabaody Archipelago ends in utter failure.
• Villainous Breakdown: As per Luffy. The fight had barely even started before he had worked Crocodile into such a rage that he immediately unleashed his poison hook.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Luffy and Zoro, who never pass up an opportunity to snark at each other. It's also probably a response to the fact that Zoro can no longer have this relationship with Sanji, as the latter is too weak to keep up with him now.
• Wham Line:
  • For Ace, and anyone who isn't caught up with the anime and manga:
  Luffy: Sabo is alive.
• Wham Episode:
  • Chapter 47. Amazon kills a weakened Enel in revenge for her family, and the Goro Goro no Mi reincarnates on one of Nami's tangerine trees.
  • Chapter 55: Luffy lets Coby eat the Goro Goro no Mi, Marco and Ace stage hit-and-run attacks on Mariejois and Marineford, respectively, to keep the Admirals off the Straw-Hats' backs and to prove that no-one attacks a Whitebeard Pirate ally, and the crew's new bounties come out... with Sanji, Zoro and Luffy breaking the 100 million, 300 million, and 500 million beli mark respectively.
  • Chapter 61: The Five Elder Stars order Sengoku and all available Marine forces to eliminate the Straw Hats before they enter the New World, whatever it takes.
  • Chapter 64: Just as Kizaru is about to begin wiping out the weaker Straw Hats and their allies, the third time traveler, Sanji, finally returns to his past self's body and saves them, much to the astonishment of everyone — including Luffy and Zoro.
• Who Are You?: Moriah asks this of Luffy when he realizes that the rookie he's facing is anything but.
• The Worf Effect:
  • Downplayed. After eight straight chapters of Luffy and Zoro curb-stomping everything in their way, Zoro suffers this at the hands of Mihawk to show that they aren't at their full strength yet. It's downplayed because Zoro did manage to draw blood on Mihawk, which is something only a powerful New World-grade pirate could hope to manage.
  • Three of the Vice-Admirals get this treatment. Momonga, Onigumo and Doberman, in this fic, are titled the "Trio of Disciples", given that they were personally mentored by the three current Admirals, Aokiji, Kizaru and Akainu respectively. However, when they are tasked to take down the Straw Hats, the Paradise crew that just beat one of the Seven Warlords and whom Whitebeard just declared as his allies, they end up flattened.
  • The Kid Pirates, the second strongest crew among the Supernovas, suffer this in Chapter 62, to show how wide the gap is between the Straw Hats and the other Supernova crews. Luffy and co. absolutely crush them to showcase how far they've surpassed what their previous strength was at this point in the timeline, with Kid himself acknowledging that the blow that almost laid him out was a casual punch rather than anything serious.
• Worf Had the Flu:
  • Luffy and Zoro have gotten much stronger (enough to get to Raftel), but when they first returned to the past, their full strength was inhibited by their younger bodies, due to them being unconditioned to handle the full weight of their improved fighting styles. They trained constantly, but it's unclear how close to their peak they are; even then, however, according to Ace, they are still stronger than most New World Captains, putting them on par with the Seven Warlords of the Sea. Luffy even implies in his thoughts that the only reason Zoro lost to Mihawk (arguably the strongest member of the group) was that he was stuck in his younger, untrained body.
  • Luffy and Zoro put up a perfectly good fight against Aokiji two-on-one, but against Kizaru, they are stymied because he keeps aiming for their weaker crewmates and they have to keep intercepting attacks. Had it not been for Sanji's timely return to his past-self's body, Nami, at the very least, would've died.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • Mihawk considered Zoro this before due to his ambition and strength of heart. In this fic, when they duel at the Baratie, Mihawk still wins, but he doesn't bother using his kogatana and instead uses Yoru from the start. Additionally, Zoro puts up a much better fight, and even manages to scratch him. As a result, Mihawk considers Zoro this once again, not only for aforementioned reasons, but also for his immense talent. He is fully aware that Zoro is the man who will one day take his life.
  • Mr. 1, as in canon, acknowledges his foe as this. But the circumstances are quite different: Sanji fights him this time, and he gives this reaction when Sanji's kick breaks his nose.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!:
  • Zoro has this reaction in Chapter 16 when, at Whiskey Peak, Luffy decides to pick a fight with him just like he did in the previous timeline and subsequently uses Gear Second and Gear Third.
  • Buggy has this reaction in Chapter 38 when he sees Ace onboard his ship, and jumps to the conclusion that he's there to take revenge for him attacking Luffy.
  • Luffy's reaction in the Chapter 40 omake where the Straw Hats get captured in the exact same way as in canon.

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