Okay, y'all. So, I know I shouldn't be doing this because I have a lot of catching up to do in my other two stories, but... I couldn't wait anymore! I have had this story in my head for TWO FRIGGIN' YEARS! I write because it's how I get my feelings out! This story was eating me alive!

Was that weird? Yeah, that was weird. So I'm really excited to be making this. Oh! And by the way, the title, Animus, is Latin for 'The Mind'. I'm not gonna rub it in or anything, but... I know Latin. Heh, heh, heh...

DISCLAIMER! This wonderful story belongs to the genius we all call our leader, master, and god. Oda-sensei!

DISCLAIMER! The amazing artwork on the front cover is made by someone else. I don't know who, but I guess I'll thank for it. I won't post the actual link to the page because I closed the tab and it took a really long time to get to it. But yeah, there are some really awesome fanart pictures on there, not only of One Piece, too! Y'all should totally check it out!

Sabo and Koala are also in here because I'm a major Sabo fangirl. Please forgive me if it's like 5 years from 2014 and it turns out their attitudes aren't anything like I guessed, and they never follow the Strawhats on a few adventures. I'm guessing.

Well, without further ado, here's my long awaited chapter!


On a little, innocent island in the New World, it seemed like another ordinary day. But it wasn't. Like always, because this is a story about the Strawhats, isn't is? And as we all know, 'ordinary' and 'Strawhat' don't exist in the same book. And since we're using 'Strawhat' let's delete 'ordinary'.

On a little, innocent island in the New World, it seemed like another crazy day. "STOP! STRAWHAT!" Four men ran down the street. One man laughed, while his companions screamed and yelled at him about how stupid he was.

"You can never keep your mouth shut, can you!" A tan skinned, green-haired man snapped.

"Dunno! Never tried!" The captain replied as he continued to run, which made a blonde-haired man chuckle.

"Stop laughing you two!" A dark-skinned, long-nosed young man screeched.

"Oh lighten up, Usopp! It's a beautiful day!" The captain said.

"It would be if we weren't being chased by Marines, baka!" The sniper snapped.

"STRAWHAT!" The Marines called again.

The captain gasped. "That's me!"

"SHUT UP!" The sniper screeched again. The four men stopped when they had gotten to their ship.

An orange-haired woman ran to the railing, followed by two other women. "Luffy!" The captain looked at her with a smile. "Stop smiling, you idiot! It's been two years! Grow up!"

"How rude!" Luffy exclaimed.

"I was trying to be!" The navigator snapped, which made the blonde-haired man mouth, 'Wow', then they all looked back at the Marines.

"Monkey D. Luffy!" The captain of the Marines announced.

"Hello!" Luffy waved, which made the Marine narrow his eyes.

"How annoying..." The Marine Captain muttered. "I must ask you to surrender. If you refuse to do so, we must take you down by fo-"

The Marine captain was interrupted by a rubbery fist being slammed into his face. "I choose the second option, please." Luffy smirked.

"How uncivilized." The Marine-dude sounded from underneath the fist. He pulled away from Luffy's hand and announced, "Men! Attack that man!"

"Ugh, he can never keep himself out of trouble, can he?" The cook said with an annoyed tone.

"We figured that out every since we met him, Sanji." Nami breathed as Sanji threw himself into the combat below, followed by her two companions, and... everyone else. The fight continued for quite some time until all the Marines were lying on the ground. Well, except for the formal Captain, that is.

"Give up, Strawhats!" The Marine ordered.

"This is the worst time to repeat that, you know." Zoro said.

"You may think I'm outnumbered, but I don't need subordinates to beat lowlifes like you!" The Marine Captain snapped.

"Oh yeah? Because you seem pretty weak to me," Luffy scoffed, feeling pretty confident in his strength and number.

"Why you...!" The Captain growled.

"With your formal talk and your slicked back hair." Luffy continued.

"Oi, Luffy." His brother, Sabo, whispered. He could see that it wasn't a good idea to just keep taunting the Marine, neither would do much good.

"Oh, relax, Government-man ain't gonna do anything! He hasn't done anything yet, either." Luffy pushed on.

"What did you say?" The short-tempered, growling, Government-man steamed.

"Woah, Government-man, you look a little red. Do you need some tea? It has a great calming effect." Luffy offered, it was actually quite nice of him too. But this made Government-man scream in rage (I swear, there was steam coming out of his ears!).

"THAT'S IT! FIRST YOU TOOK DOWN MY MEN, THEN YOU INSULTED ME! I'LL SHOW YOU HOW STRONG I AM! I'LL SHOW YOU WHAT REAL TERROR AND PAIN FEELS LIKE!" Government-man screeched as a dark cloud erupted from his ears and flowed into any opening on Luffy's body it could find. It stuffed itself into his ears, his nostrils, and his screaming mouth.

"LUFFY!" The Strawhats and the two Revolutionaries screamed in terror as the cloud disappeared into Luffy's head. When it was gone, he let out a groan and fell to the ground.

Sabo rushed to his brother's limp body and turned him over. Luffy was completely limp and the only thing that moved was his eyes that darted around helplessly. "Oh my Oda!" Sabo was terrified (who wouldn't? What! You wouldn't? Liar!), his beloved little brother looked almost dead. With his previous tan skin now ghostly white and his mouth open like he had been screaming his head off... After Ace died, he had promised himself he would never let another brother die. Sabo's eyes of fear and horror slowly became angry and infuriated. He looked up at Government-man, who was crazy enough to be still standing there. "What have you done!" Sabo demanded.

"I put a cloud of pain inside his head." Government-man smirked.

"What in the hell does that mean!" Sabo snapped.

"Well, his brain is focusing now on the cloud inside his head and nothing else in the body. So that's why he is completely paralyzed, well except for his eyes. His eyes still work... and his ears, because they are so close to the brain, that's it's extremely easy to get to them and still focus on the cloud." Government-man explained.

"Is that all!" Sabo demanded.

"No, because the brain is trying so very hard to get rid of the strange newcomer, it will soon try to kill it. But how does a body kill something? With white blood cells~! Yay~!"

"You're insane." Sabo whispered in an annoyed tone.

"But! I put the cloud inside the brain. Where are the white blood cells going? To the brain." Government-man continued in a blunt voice.

"What're you saying?" Sabo asked.

Chopper gasped. "No!"

"Chopper?" Nami asked.

"Are you saying," Chopper stepped forward. "That while the white blood cells try to kill off the cloud it will..." Chopper couldn't get himself to say it.

"Kill the brain." Government-man finished his statement with a smirk. The Strawhats stared at him in horror.

"You bastard!" Sabo yelled.

"How do we fix this!" Zoro demanded.

"Why would I tell you?" Government-man pointed out.

Suddenly, Government-man felt himself being pushed to the ground with a pipe on his neck. "Because if you don't," Sabo threatened. "I'm going to kill you."

"Ah! Okay, okay! There is an old witch on the other side of the island! She has been said to be able to fix any spell! I don't know if she can, but she might be able to fix your captain." Government-man the Coward answered.

Sabo rose while Sanji said, "Heh, that was easy."

"What if he's lying?" Nami mentioned.

"It's our only option." Zoro said.

"You're right," Sabo said as he looked down at his limp brother, who was staring at them.

"Do you agree, Luffy?" Zoro asked. Luffy didn't respond, of course he didn't, but he didn't even look at his first-mate. "Luffy?" Luffy continued to look up at the sky. "Luffy! Can you hear me!" Then Luffy looked at him, eyes full of determination. He moaned a slurred agreement and his friends all smiled down at him.


The Strawhats walked down a narrow path in the middle of the forest. Each of the Strawhats walked one after another. Robin led the way, for she was the one who asked the villagers where this 'witch' lived. Sabo carried Luffy on his back and talked gently to him the entire trip. After what seemed liked hours, they finally got to a small hut in a small clearing. It was truly what you would think a witch would live in.

The Strawhats gathered around the hut. Zoro walked up to the door and was about to knock on the door, but before he could, the door swung open and he felt a sharp thump on his head.

"Hey! Don't touch that!" Screeched an old woman covered in warts and wrinkles. No wonder they called her a witch.

"Why not! It's a door! Aren't you supposed to touch it!" Zoro snapped, earning him another sharp thump on the head.

"How dare you raise your voice to me, young man! Or I won't help your friend over there!" The witch screeched again.

"Wait, how did you know that?" Nami asked.

"Don't you read books, girlie? I'm a witch! That's what I do! Now, come, come!" The witch said as she beckoned them into her home and made them sit down. She propped Luffy up in front of her as she checked him out in odd ways- like pulling out his tongue and hitting it with a walnut, then groaning with disapproval. "He's been cursed." She finally confirmed.

"We know that!" The Strawhats snapped in unison.

"Oh well, so-rry, smartie pants! I was just confirming it... to myself!" She stated.

"Why do you sound so unsure, then!" Usopp snapped.

"So? Can you help him?" Nami asked.

"Well, of course I can! It's pretty easy on my part, too!" The witch said. The Strawhats smiled and laughed quietly with joy until they were interrupted by the witch again. "But it ain't gonna be easy for you youngsters!"

"What? What do mean?" Usopp asked.

"Well, six people have to participate in the spell."

"And what do those six people have to do?" Usopp asked again.

"Hmm..." The witch looked like she was trying to decide whether or not to tell them. "I must make six people go into the victim's mind and destroy the cloud themselves." She explained bluntly.

The Strawhats just stared at her as if they were trying to decide whether or not to believe her, the Sabo said, "I'm cool with that. Let's do it."

"What! That easy!" Usopp exclaimed.

"Alright, pick your six people, please." The witch said.

"Okay, I'm definitely going. Luffy's my brother, I'm not gonna let another one die." Sabo stated.

"I'm going too. Luffy saved my life a bunch of times, and I've gotta repay him." Zoro said.

"Even though Marimo's going, I'm going to... And sadly enough, for the same reason." Sanji said.

"This is rather interesting. And I have to agree with Zoro and Sanji, Luffy saved my life, and I have to save his." Robin said.

"I don't completely understand what we're doing, but if it means saving Luffy, I'm in. He's my nakama, I can't let him die." Nami stated.

"I-I guess I'm going too. Luffy's my best friend. I don't know if I could forgive myself if he died." Usopp stuttered.

"Wait, no! I wanna go! Luffy's my friend, too!" Chopper said.

"Chopper, I think it would be better if you stay here." Nami explained gently. "You're the doctor, and we all need you if something goes wrong."

"Okay..." Chopper pouted.

The witch smirked and said, "Alright, ya brats. If you say so!" She shuffled through some vials and potions, until she pulled out a vial with blue liquid inside. She poured a drop into Luffy's mouth, then gave it Sabo. "Drink one sip and pass it on. This will transport your thoughts into his. Everything that is not supposed to be there, destroy. But first, you must find your brother's souls. Once you do this, he will guide you the rest of the way." Sabo nodded, drank one sip, then passed it to Zoro.

"Good luck, you guys!" Franky yelled.

"Save Luffy-san, please!" Brook called as he waved a handkerchief and tears streamed down his bony face.

"Good luck, Sabo! Make sure to bring your brother back safe and sound!" Koala said.

The world slowly began to fade away. Everything was shifting and turning. Suddenly, the witch exclaimed, "Oh! And one more thing! If you die in your captain's mind, you die for real! Sorry I didn't mention that before!"Sabo didn't have much time to process that statement as he slowly drifted after into another world.

The world of Animus...


*sigh* Finally! Isn't this exciting? I don't feel like doing a full review of this chapter, but... There ya go! Did y'all like it? I did! Man, does that feel good to let it out! I can't wait to make the next chapter, y'all! But for now, see y'all later!

VALETE!