Chapter Text
Two Years Before the Beginning
…
Zoro wandered through the city thinking. Waking up on a strange island wasn’t new. Not being able to find his nakama and hearing that he was several days from a port city… that was unusual. Finding his scars gone and eye returned, that was very new. It didn’t take long to figure out what happened. Time had moved.
He should have suspected this kind of thing was possible when he heard about samurai traveling forward in time. He knew that streets sometimes moved around and that sometimes north and south would switch places. It never occurred to him that time could move around like that. It was tricky.
It took him a while to find a newspaper with the date. Zoro swallowed hard. At this time he still had years to go before he’d meet his Captain. That was unacceptable. He would have to go and collect his crew sooner than that. He needed to keep them safe. Something about that was nagging him. Who was unsafe? Luffy would be on his island. The cook safe in his floating restaurant. Chopper was learning to be a doctor. Brook was … shadowless and alone but not in any physical danger. Franky had his own street gang at his back. Jimbe was still a warlord and Robin was probably working for Crocodile. Nami... Alarm bells began ringing. Nami was working for Arlong. Nami was threatened and hurt by Arlong.
Zoro felt his rage build as he fingered the swords at his side. These blades were not his usual weapons, but they would do. He would get to Nami and gut that fishman. Zoro suspected his captain would have the same idea. Assuming his captain was his captain. No one hurts their nakama.
With his goal in mind he began to plan. He had a few stops to make but with any luck he could have Nami safe within a month. He just had to figure out where that damn dock disappeared to.
XXX
Luffy woke inside a strangely familiar hut. It wasn’t the Sunny though he was certain he’d gone to sleep in his hammock bed. He blinked at the ceiling as he let his haki Observe the area for threats, reaching out and checking the intent of the lifeforms nearby. There was a group of people and plenty of wild predators but no one of any real power near. He sat up looking around in curiosity. It didn’t take long to identify his childhood “country”. Luffy peeked out and spotted the bandit hut.
“Ahh. A dream.”
With that he climbed to his feet to go hunting. He always found the best foods hunting in dreams. Looking at his smaller hands he decided to hunt the old way and grabbed the pipe by the doorway. It wasn’t the first time he’d dreamed of his childhood home. Usually in these dreams Ace and Sabo were here though. A quick search revealed no brothers. Disappointed he wandered towards the river. He hadn’t eaten crocodile in a while, and he was hungry.
XXX
Sanji woke at the usual hour and rolled out of his hammock to make breakfast. He almost immediately tripped over a pair of boots. The fall was shorter and more painful than he expected. In the dark he couldn’t see his own hands, but they didn’t feel right. Trying to shake off the odd sensation of not fitting in his own skin, Sanji stood up and almost fell over again. He wasn’t on the Sunny. This looked like- it couldn’t be the Baratie. The chorus of snoring chefs told him otherwise. It was familiar and nostalgic. He hadn’t missed the noise, but he could never mistake it. He tugged at his hair as he tried to wrap his mind around the situation. He shuffled to the bathroom.
His appearance in the mirror was both shocking and unsurprising at once. He was his younger self. He hadn’t realized how much muscle he’d gained in his upper body over the last years- years? – with the Straw-hats. Sanji was well aware of how far he’d come in the strength and speed of his kicks. How much he’d lost in this strange regression. He thought about handstand kicks and platters of meat he now juggled with ease and could see how he must have built himself up without noticing. It was a strange realization to have. Sanji stood there, taking it in, until a banging on the door reminded him the other chefs would be preparing for breakfast as well.
“I’ll be out in a damn minute!”
Uncertain if this was some kind of time travel or just a mind trick, he decided to just pretend it was a normal day. He spent the morning in a haze. He moved through the kitchen absently. He was well used to the movements and motions of the restaurant. Even years at sea couldn’t make him forget a decade of experience. Sanji shuffled around the kitchen trying to muster his usual enthusiasm. He took plates to tables as directed and managed polite smiles. He ducked a kick absently and moved to wash the dishes he’d bussed.
~
Zeff was worried. Sanji wasn’t acting like himself. The brat was unfocused and distracted. He’d been ignoring or just not noticing the insults tossed his way instead of returning the verbal assault. Zeff watched as Sanji casually spiced the butternut soup with a combination he could have sworn the brat hadn’t figured out yet much less perfected. Even more concerning was the way his boy would just stop and tug at his hair. It was a habit Zeff hadn’t seen since Sanji was a boy. Many of the cooks that had been with them from the beginning had already approached to express concern. Zeff didn’t know what to tell them. As far as he knew nothing was different. There had been no incident or trigger. He hadn't even heard of a nightmare from any of the men in the brat's bunk.
It was a slow day in the restaurant. Zeff watched as Sanji approached a table of only female pirates. The brat greeted and took orders and didn’t once flail or flirt or proposition a single one of them. Zeff watched with growing concern as Sanji returned with drinks and moved on to the next table without any lingering or hesitation. He looked over at the half dozen cooks watching from various outlooks. This was very wrong.
~
Sanji made it two days. Two days of evading questions and trying to remember how he could have ended up back in time. Two days of pretending not to notice Zeff’s worried looks or pointed comments. Two days of taking on random tasks and finding things to clean or organize so he was never ‘free to talk’ when the other cooks hovered. It was two days before Zeff put a hand on his shoulder and gave him the look. Sanji crumpled like an overbaked soufflé. He let Zeff guide him out of the kitchen and up to the head chef’s room.
“Sanji… are you okay Eggplant?”
“Zeff” his voice was off, like he was about to cry or something stupid. Sanji cleared his throat and made the mistake of looking up at his father figure. Instead of talking he collapsed forward and let the old man wrap him in a hug. “Damn shitty old geezer. What are you even worrying about me for?”
“You’re making the food sour with all your moping around.” Zeff lied running his fingers through blond hair. “You burned the soup too.”
“I never!!” Sanji snarled. If he tightened his grip on the old man it was because he was planning to strangle him slowly, that’s all.
“Ha! You think I have no taste at all? Are you calling me a liar? Impudent brat.” Zeff pulled him a few more steps so the old man could drop into a chair.
Sanji moved with him, sinking to the ground with his head in the geezer’s lap. He let himself flop there taking in the smell of spices and fish and sweat, so familiar. He’d missed the old man. Sanji never had a reason to regret his decision but he missed the restaurant some days. He took a deep breath.
“So, I think I time traveled.”
“What?” Zeff sounded flat in a way that told Sanji he was repressing whatever emotion he was feeling.
Sanji tensed and started to pull away but Zeff laid one big hand on his back. Sanji let himself sigh and settle against the man’s good knee.
“I don’t remember how or why, but a three days ago I was traveling on a pirate ship in the New World and two days ago I woke up to find myself here, five years earlier.”
“The New World?” Zeff sounded neutral but when he looked up the old man had his eyebrows raised and his mouth open. “On a pirate ship.”
Sanji grinned brightly.
“Oh Zeff! I found the most amazing nakama! Captain Luffy is going to be King of the Pirates someday. I- uh” he looked harder at the older chef. “You believe me?”
“Tell me more about your nakama, Eggplant, but start at the beginning.”
“The beginning. Three years ago, or two years from now, this kid accidently bounces a cannonball through the Restaurant and while he’s working off the repairs decides he wants me to be his cook. He would not give up.” Sanji laughed.
Kneeling at Zeff’s feet he tried to explain the whole mess with Luffy, the Don Krieg pirates, Hawk Eyes and Zoro, and deciding to go find the All Blue. He described the beautiful navigator Nami who was mapping the world and could read the weather the way Zeff could read a kitchen. He sighed over the mysterious Robin who was an archeologist with a dark sense of humor and a brilliant mind. He gestured wildly as he spoke of their fantastic doctor Chopper who was also a reindeer and who had unlocked his Zoan devil fruit power to have nine forms instead of the usual three.
“And he’s not even the oddest one in the bunch. Luffy has an eye for finding the best at everything but almost all of us are freaks or monsters. We have an actual living skeleton for our musician. Brook’s devil fruit let him come back to life but” he grinned launching into the tale of lost souls and missing shadows.
He leaned forward in excitement as he shared tales of living with an actual cyborg as a shipwright and waved dismissively about the moss head swordsman who would probably be the world’s best someday but would always be a lazy idiot with no sense of direction. He explained about their sniper Usopp who was a liar and a coward but lied most often to himself because everyone could see how brave he was to face his fears over and over for his nakama. He explained how they recently recruited a helmsman who used to be one of the Warlords and working for an Emperor but Luffy convinced him to join the crew. How Jimbe was an honorable man and powerful but also had a wicked sense of humor that he enjoyed surprising people with.
“It… it wasn’t all good things of course.” He picked at Zeff’s pant leg. “Our enemies got more powerful and we got our asses kicked. Often. But we got up and kept going. Over and over. We came out on top over impossible odds we felt invincible. Until we weren’t. Until we were forced apart and, well so much happened, I couldn’t even begin to explain that whole damn mess. People died. We were really lucky it was none of our crew. Friends though, we lost those. Luffy’s brother. We lost allies.” Pekoms and Pedro both dying to rescue him. “I have scars- had scars- from so many fights and close calls. No regrets. My crew- I would die for them no question. Our captain hates when we say things like that though. He’d insist that we live for them instead. Ch.” He grinned through watery eyes – someone must be massacring onions downstairs- and looked up at the old man. “He would not hesitate to ask us to put our lives on the line, but he would never let anyone give their life cheaply.”
“Tell me about your captain.”
“Luffy? He’s an idiot. And the absolute best. He can see right to the heart of things. He is selfish and spoiled and will ask for everything you have to give. And in return he will give you the world. He makes miracles happen and then acts like it was nothing. He would burn the world down, challenge the World Government or punch a Celestial Dragon for a friend. Luffy once infiltrated Impel Down and walked back out with over 200 escapees at his back. He just does the impossible. He says he will be King of the Pirates because that man will be the freest man alive and I believe him. He’ll truly do it one day. Our crew shouldn’t fit together. We’re a bunch of misfits with different dreams and dark histories. We should have nothing tying us together. But we are nakama. We would drop anything to help each other and we have gone to ridiculous extremes doing so. Somehow we became a family and Luffy was never surprised about any of that.”
There was so much to tell. He wanted to share stories of cloud islands and mermaids, of Enes Lobby and Okama Hell, of walking on the sky and kicks so powerful he was literally on fire. Instead he blinked in the darkness of the room as both their stomachs growled.
“Sorry. I”
“Sanji.” Zeff combed back his hair to look him in the eyes.
“You believe me, right?” his voice cracked embarrassingly.
“Of course I do. There is no way you dreamed that all up. Did you forget I traveled the Grand Line? A bit of time travel- well it was bound to happen to somebody.” The old man clicked his tongue. “We should eat. Then you can tell me more stories. No sense in going hungry.”
“Yes Owner Zeff.” He smiled and stood, shaking the stiffness from his limbs. “Maybe we shouldn’t tell everybody about this though. I am still not sure I should have said anything at all.”
“Pah. You should have come to me first thing brat. Saved everyone a lot of moping and worrying.” He stomped to the door, peg leg tapping heavily. “We can keep this private though, just us.”
“Thanks.”
Sanji could feel a tension drop when Zeff entered the dining room with him and snapped that everything was fine. Cooks offered relieved smiles and questioning looks. He hadn’t noticed how everyone was tiptoeing around him. He gave apologetic glances and let Zeff take the lead as he gathered plates and moved to the staff dining hall.
XXXxxx
Usopp wasn’t sure how he traveled through time to be back at Syrup, but he hated it. It wasn’t the village itself. Honestly, it was wonderful to see some of those familiar places and people. It was just that he’d made it so far following his dream. He was a New World pirate, not quite a Brave Warrior of the Sea, but getting there. He was God Usopp with a terrifyingly high bounty. He was Sogeking the sniper. He was a Straw-hat.
He spent two painstaking years on an island that wanted to eat him and come out confident and competent. He worked hard to get physically fit so he could keep up with his monster crewmates. He’d collected seeds, dials, and inventions. Now he was back to square one.
His own body felt foreign to him. He’d nearly fallen thrice this morning overreaching for things just a bit too high or too far from him. Usopp could not believe how weak he was. His routine of pushups and sit-ups was cut pathetically short and he couldn’t even manage a plank. He was hopeful his running would be better. From the start he’d been a quick runner. He was one of the most agile of his crew, good at climbing trees and jumping rocks.
Usopp sighed. He knew he’d have to leave the house soon. He just didn’t know how to behave. Did he keep pretending to be kid!Usopp? Run through the village screaming about pirates again while waiting for someone on the crew to come for him? Did he dare train publicly or try to hide it? His small crew were expecting their Captain. Kaya was expecting her storyteller. Usopp didn’t know how much to give away. They were his friends - but not his nakama.
At the very least he had to figure out this weird, young body. His coordination was all off. It was unacceptable for a sniper. He couldn’t work like this. He couldn’t protect anyone.