The new bounties sent ripples through the whole world. That high of a bounty for such a young crew was ridiculous, but they could also understand why they did that. What they did in Marineford was beyond what anybody could imagine.

Kicking away Admirals and even kidnapping Sengoku while able to save Ace. Whitebeard's death was the only huge stain in the huge war for the pirates and that too came with a silver lining. The pirates had started to creep up now, and the sea had never been so chaotic before.

Garp, after looking at the bounties, just laughed out and said he was proud. Doctorine from Drum Island had a huge smile on her face and encouraged Chopper to move forward in his dreams. Makino and the people from Luffy and Ken's village had a huge celebration, and even Dadan came down the mountain to have a good time among the people around.

Zeff, at the moment, was a shop owner on a random island in East Blue and he hardly showed his face to anyone. This included some of his past cooks of the restaurant. They had been hiding well since Ken had asked them for help.

The time for hiding would be up soon, so they were just waiting for the signal from Ken.

"Sanji has grown so much, Owner," one of the past cooks of Baratie said.

"Now he can fly and use fire. We can hardly recognize the Sanji we know," Zeff said, his chest swelling with pride. He was proud of his adopted son.

Zoro's dojo was now full of students using two or three swords and taking inspiration from their predecessor. The dojo master had a headache looking at the students who were trying to copy Zoro but also happy that Zoro had found his calling.

Nami's home was also having a blast. They had seen how beautiful she was when she faced the Marines and controlled water and earth. They didn't know how Nami got those abilities, and they didn't need to know as long as Nami was happy. Dragon, after seeing the bounties of the Straw Hats, had a huge smile on his face.

The Straw Hats had helped him in ways that even he couldn't begin to imagine. Speaking about the ruler of their world, the spy of Vegapunk, and other information Ken had passed on to Sabo. In addition to giving new abilities to Sabo. He didn't know how Ken was doing this, but he didn't care as long as the Army was powerful. He trusted Sabo a lot. So having someone who was just 'magical' helped them a lot.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Different reactions came from different parts of the world; some rejoiced and some despaired. While people were busy finding out more about the Straw Hats, the main fighting force of the crew was beaten down hard by an old man.

Even Ken was feeling the pain in his body. Rayleigh was teaching them about advanced Armament Haki and it was not working well for the crew as they finally realized how far they had to go. It was only because they had been naive and fast enough to surprise the Marines that they were able to inflict pain.

This was real training.

----------------------------------------

Two years later, Sabaody Archipelago.

The Merry was high up in the air as usual and the whole crew was sitting at the Shakki bar. Two years had passed since the war in Marineford and now the whole crew looked entirely different from how they looked two years ago.

Zoro had an eye patch now on his left eye. His eye was gone, just like in the original story, and it wasn't some hidden power of his. It was Ken who was responsible for that. He and Zoro had a swordfight and Zoro ended up with a scar on his eye.

Of course, Ken apologized many times for this and Zoro didn't seem to mind at all. He just looked happy to have someone with whom he could learn swordsmanship. Even Rayleigh applauded their swordsmanship.

Sanji and others had also progressed a lot, and many people had developed new characteristics by now, since two years was a long time and many of them had completed their character arcs.

"Rayleigh-san, thank you for the coating," Nami and Franky both thanked Rayleigh while others just freeloaded at the bar. Ken had to admit that something was wrong with this world. How could these thin women have curves that defied any forms of biological explanation?

Seeing the huge busts and derrières of these women, Ken felt like it was a waste of his life. Maybe he could have just found himself a beautiful woman and led the life of a degenerate. And the way his life was going at the moment, he didn't think he would find love.

There wasn't any particular chemistry between himself and Vivi or Nami or Robin. He cursed Oda for that because that guy was adamant about not including any romance among the crew. Now that curse was weighing down on him for sure. While Ken was daydreaming, the others were having fun.

"There is this poster recruiting for the Straw Hats pirates in Sabaody," Shakki came forward with a big poster and offered it to them.

"What?"

"Are we recruiting new people?" Luffy asked, a bit confused.

"Baka. It's a fake. Someone is impersonating us," Usopp shouted.

"Nani? Then we need to beat them," Luffy declared angrily.

"What's the point of this? We can just leave. Ace and Jimbei are already waiting for us in Fishman Island," Nami said.

"No, they can't use our name," Luffy said, looking particularly angry. Everyone just sighed and then looked at Ken for making his brother think twice.

"There is one interesting guy among the so-called recruits who I want to meet," Ken said, which made everyone raise their eyebrows except for Luffy who was eating.

"Who? A marine?" Robin asked, intrigued by who could interest Ken.

"No, he is just a small-time pirate, but he does have a Devil fruit that is quite interesting."