C7: Years Of Time Skip |Part 2|

• (Near Cozia, in East Blue) {Year: 11.4} •

"Damn it! Why do you keep bringing me to trouble!" A 11-years old boy shouted at the air while in his dinghy. He just had left the Cozia after saving Sanji and his sister from an ambush and then took Sanji to a cruise ship called 'Orbit' while his sister went back.

"He's definitely different now, though I hope he still joins his crew..."

[No worries, Sanji will still join Luffy's crew, only a bit different personality.]

"What's changed?" He worriedly asked.

[He doesn't love women excessively anymore, but still likes them.]

"..." Ryu wonders if he should go back and beat it into him he should fall in excessively love with the every ladies to fix it...

•(Shaku's Bar in Sabaody Archipelago) {Year: 11.10} •

*WOOSH*

Ryu appeared in front of Rayleigh and Shakuyaku. Due to him suddenly appearing, Rayleigh quickly attacked him on the basis of being scared. Kicking out his right leg, he brought it upon the kid's face.

*SWOOSH* Leg comin' at you!

Dodging his kick, Ryu moved backwards a bit and then clenched his fist. He quickly punched him away.

*POW*

*SW~ISH* Bye-bye twirly Ray boi~!

(AN: A moment of silence for the abused Ray boi.)

"Hey." Ryu greeted Shaku, after he went flying somewhere.

Shaku greeted him too. Then she asked, "did you come here to ask how the girls are?"

"Not really," he told her, declining it. "Came for Rayleigh for information."

"I see. Well, the girls are doing okay, especially that Hancock girl," she told him. "She seems to be crushing on you, o' savior."

Twitching the corners of his mouth, he replied, "it's just a short-term crush on her savior. Anyways, a drink while we wait for Rayleigh to come back."

"Yes, yes~," walking to grab a drink, she nonchalantly told him, "it doesn't seem to be short-term."

Interrupting at the conversation, a fish- no, a octopus-man came in where they were at.

"H-hey, I found Rayleigh outside while coming here," he told them, showing unconscious Rayleigh on his back with his six-arms carrying him. It seemed that Ryu overdid it, even though he didn't activate his Armament Haki, leaving only passive...

"Ah, put him on the bench over there," Shaku told the octopus-man, while pointing to the bench nearby. "He'll be awake in a bit. Now, why were you coming here, Hatchan?"

"Oh, I wanted to see you two for the last time before I go with Arlong out the sea..." He soon stopped after seeing who the 11-years-old boy was. The boy was handsome, with light tanned skin, unruly black hair, sword-like brows, and most importantly, he had green eyes. 'Holy f**k! Is that Ryu?! Why is he here?!'

"What is it?" Ryu coldly asked when Hatchan kept staring at him.

"I-I, y-you're Ryu!" He shouted suddenly.

"I know my name, what of it?" He played along, bringing out a bit of his pressure on him. He then menacingly asked, "Is there something wrong?"

Shaku interrupted at that moment, "now, now, Ryu, stop playing with him."

"Hmph, you're boring!" Ryu stopped suddenly, changing from menacing to childish. He muttered, "Would've been fun to watch him squirt out his black ink..."

Sweating profusely, Hatchan, 'if you just asked me to do it, I would've! Heck, if you told me to roll my ass away, I would have done it too!'

• (Somewhere in the Grand Line) {Year: 12} •

"So she still became the Empress, huh," Ryu said while reading the newspaper given from news coo.

{Boa Hancock becomes one of the Shichibukai, the Pirate Empress of the Kuja Tribe. For the sake of her island, she decided to accept the Marine's offer to protect her island.}

Throwing the newspaper at a red-haired man, he asks him, "so, you enjoying your travels?"

"Yeah. I had a lot of fun, going islands to islands." Shanks said, while the crew around him was still partying. Drinking a sake, "I also found a interesting brat."

Knowing who it is, he still continues, "oh? A interesting brat other than me?"

"Dahahahaha! Yeah! Someone other than you, his name's Monkey D. Luffy. He had the same eyes as my former captain..." He told him. "I have a feeling he'll become someone like him. So I gave him the straw hat."

"Mmn." Ryu only made a sound of acknowledgement. "Well, I'm going. Have fun."

"What? Stay here and party with us!" He yelled at the brat, raising his left arm towards him. He didn't lose his left arm to the mere sea king at Foosha Village because of his time with Ryu in New World.

• (Foolshout Island, in the Paradise of the Grand Line) {Year: 12.4} •

A young boy, looking to be 12, walked around the Foolshout Island. He wore a hooded cloth covering him fully, except his green eyes. He came here without remembering that Fisher Tiger died here after bringing Koala at first. Now that he remembered, he's asking himself questions.

'Should I save him? But if I do, Arlong wouldn't be at Cocoyasu Village to build up Nami and to die...' Having a difficult time on what to do, he didn't expect to bump into a skinny tomboy girl, having a unkempt brown hair and large round eyes, about at 7-years-old.

"Ow..." She muttered. "Hey, you ok?"

"Y-yeah. Sorry, I was thinking." Ryu replied surprised, not expecting it to be Koala. 'Was I too late?'

"Oh, what were you thinking about?" Patting off the dust off her clothes, she asked him with an forced smile. "Wanna talk about it?"

"..." Ryu started to feel weird. 'Ugh! I'm starting to feel depressed now.'

"My name's Koala, what's yours?" Not having seen his bounty paper, she asked the green eyes in front of her.

"It's Ryu." He told her his name, and then he coldly asked her, "hey, can you wipe out that forced smile off your face?"

For a good while, her face cracked. Bringing out tears at her rim of eyes, she started to cry quietly.

*Hic*

"You look like you need someone to talk to," Ryu stated, not wanting to deal with a crying child.

"I-I do." She stuttered quietly.

"So talk. I'm here, and I won't tell anyone else about this conversation as long as you don't tell anyone I came here." He coldly told her.

Even with his cold attitude, she still decided to talk to him. "I-I think I got my s-savior killed when they rescued me..."

Looking up, she saw that he was listening. Deciding to tell everything, "I was taken away by the Celestial Dragons and then enslaved. Until my savior came and freed countless slaves, one of them being me. Later, I found them when I was on a island with no way back home, so they took me and I joined their crew."

"Sun Pirates, right?" He suddenly interrupted, "I saw them freeing the slaves of those damned Nobles."

"Y-yes," she was surprised that he saw them, wouldn't that mean he was younger? Then- "w-were you also one of the slaves?"

"No." He quickly shot that down, "I was involved in rescuing three of them... Anyways, back to you."

"Oh, um," stuttering because he quickly changed the topic, "then I finally came back to home, here, I met my mother again. She was glad I was safe... but.. she didn't look like she was happy that my savior were fish-men, especially when I told her he was Fisher Tiger."

"They reported them to the Marines, didn't they?" He told her when she started to look down and stopped. "And you were kept away from that information, so you didn't see them being killed."

Looking up to him, she saw that he had took off his hood. He looked cute and handsome, but his green eyes were cold, like they were looking through her soul. "Yes."

"Mmn." He only made a sound. And then, "is that all?"

"Huh?" What does he mean by that, she questioningly looked at him.

"Look, you didn't expect that they would report your saviors to the Marines, and how would you have stopped them? They were afraid of being involved of Nobles' anger. That's survival, they will only think of themselves to survive." Ryu spoke to her. "But, not everyone is like that, they would've learned from that. There are other people that would think of others who they care about. So, what about you? Are you one of them who thinks of others or yourself?"

The 12-years-old Koala didn't fully understand it, but she understood the point. 'Don't blame them, they were only thinking of their survival, just like me in the past.'

"I want to be the one that would think of others that I care about." She resolutely decided. Wanting to thank the boy who helped her, she looked up and didn't see him. He had already left. 'I'll thank him the next time we meet then.'

• (Somewhere in Paradise of the Grand Line) {Year: 12.4} •

[That was a lame preaching, you loner.]

'Shut up! I only said what I was thinking at the time!' Ryu shouted at his system. Back in the dinghy, he decided to go to a place.

"Set sail for the Sky Island, Skypiea!" He shouted, standing on his small dinghy and pointing his finger to no one in particular.

[Embarrassing.] The system emotionlessly stated.

'F**k you too!'

• (Under Skypiea) {Year: 12.8} •

"Why?! Why won't it come out?!" Ryu cried to the air. "Please let me experience the Knock-Up Stream at least once~!"

[Just suck it up, and let me teleport you to the sky island already. It's been 4 months since you've arrived here, waiting for it.]

He had been waiting for the Knock-Up Stream since he arrived at the spot where it should've came. Yet, it didn't come at all ever since then. He even found two devil fruits while traveling around the nearby islands.

"System! I demand you to summon the Knock-Up Stream now!" He shouted back.

[No. Give me another 4 months and I'll do it. Or we could just teleport.]

"F**k! Why 4 months?!"

[I just felt like it.]

• (Finally on sky sea, near Skypiea){Year: 13} •

"That was amazing." Ryu announced after having finally experienced the Knock-Up Stream.

[Y-yes... *snickers*]

"Shut it! I thought I was going to fall off!" He indignantly yelled.

• <Flashback to Knock-Up Stream Experience> •

"Woo-hoo~!" A young boy yelled to the world while riding the Knock-Up Stream, waving his arms to the air.

All of sudden, the dinghy felt like it was about to fall off the stream. "O-oh f**k! No no no, you ain't dropping me!"

Holding the dinghy in place, he commanded to his dinghy as he felt like he was falling to the below, "Stay on the stream! N-noooo~!"

*WHOOSH* *Plop*

Dinghy, 'we on sea clouds, dumb Ryu.'

Still having his eyes closed and holding onto the dinghy, he didn't know he had the dinghy upside down. He had gone to the sky sea while facing the wrong direction.

• <Back to Present> •

"Alright! Let's go-" He suddenly stopped at the sight in front of him.

*RUMBLE*

*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*

Blue neon thunders suddenly came down upon the Skypiea. And then a loud voice came after, "HAHA! GAN FALL! I AM NOW THE GOD OF SKYPIEA! MEN, KNEEL BEFORE ME!"

Ryu, "..."

Dinghy, *stops in middle of the sea clouds and then turns around*.

System, [*whistles*].

"Damn you system~!" Ryu yelled at his system. "That was why you didn't summon the Knock-Up Stream!"

[What do you mean, my dear handsome host? I don't understand.] It innocently stated.

"Don't lie!" He retorted. "You knew I would leave the moment Enel would take over the Skypiea just to ensure the character building for Luffy's crew!"

[Y-y-you're slandering me, host!] The system suddenly brought out its imaginary trembling finger, pointing at Ryu and stated that without shame and emotion.

"*Sigh* Now we have go back down..." the young boy slowly said while ignoring the system.

...

"AHHHHHHHHHH~!" A crying young boy on a bronze dinghy can be seen yelling while falling out of the sky, "I WAS ON SEA CLOUDS FOR A FEW MINUTES!!!"

*WHOOSH* *Plop*

Dinghy, 'we on ground sea now, boi.'