so this originally came from tumblr, hence the super strange format. my bad guys.
just as sabo told koala all about his childhood, koala also told him about her life with the celestial dragons and then with fisher tiger, about the new mark that fisher tiger had engraved onto her
and sabo sees that mark and remembers when he meets luffy after those long twelve years of separation and he sees the mark that admiral akainu -no, it's fleet admiral sakazuki now isn't it?- and he wonders
he wonders if he should do the same with luffy that fisher tiger did with koala. to engrave a new mark onto luffy and to help change his memory of that moment. he wonders if it will help free luffy the way it did to his friend, the happiness in her voice as she explains exactly what it meant to her staying long in sabo's head after that discussion, and the emotions he felt then flare up brightly again as he sees the massive burn mark across his baby brother's chest
it would hurt luffy in the beginning, sabo knew that. he knew it from the tales ivankov told about the comatose luffy and the way he would sometimes wake up and scream-
but luffy would be okay this time because it had a different meaning then the one that sakazuki had given him. sakazuki meant failure and suffering and pain and sadness and when sabo met sakazuki he was going to grab his head and just squeeze until it began to crack and distort and red would run through the holes in his face
but if was sabo then luffy would be okay. sabo didnt do it to hurt him he would do it to help him forget. it wasnt fair for luffy to have to suffer the brunt of sakazuki's rage and to have ace's death forever engraved onto his skin that wasnt fair why would they do that to luffy luffy was innocent and caring and he didnt deserve that and sabo has to protect luffy no matter what
and even as the smell of burning rubber and skin began to fill his nose and luffy began to scream and thrash sabo held strong and kept his hand on luffy's chest because it was all for the best and it helped koala so why wouldnt it help luffy? and using ace's power to do this made sabo felt good. it meant that both of them could leave their mark on luffy forever and then luffy could have good memories and luffy would be happy even if he was starting to cry but luffy would get over it he always bounced back from everything that was thrown at him and look!
sabo had no doubt ace was smiling at him from heaven for helping luffy escape from the constant torment of that scar he just knows it and this way luffy can be happy and sabo can be happy
and they can all be
so very happy indeed