"Luffy! Where are you, you bonehead?" Haruta swiped a pirate that was coming at her aggressively over the railing, calling out again. "It's almost dinner time, idiot!"
No Luffy. Now Haruta was getting worried. So what if the clanging of metal on metal was loud, voices over that even louder and cannons (or guns) drowning out even that? Such things didn't matter with Luffy and dinner (meat). Never had.
That Luffy wasn't at Haruta's side by now or that at least a 'MEAT!' sounded over the fighting did not say anything good. At all.
Haruta started really worrying. With only half a thought she smacked a group of pirates into the sea, the rest of her mind preoccupied with the terrible things Ace and Sabo would do to her if they ever found out she had lost their little brother out of her sight when it was her turn to watch him.
(Luffy was her brother too, but she did not have an overprotective brother-complex. That honour went to Ace and Sabo and a growing number of her other siblings, though they weren't as bad as those two by far.)
Haruta searched through the enemy ship (stupid captain; who attacked the Moby Dick nowadays?) and it was in the galley that Haruta found Luffy. The way was plastered with bodies carelessly smashed into a wall and Haruta smirked, imagining how Luffy had pushed any enemy out of his way in his determination to raid the kitchen. She fully expected Luffy to be stuffing his face.
But when she rounded the corner, she saw the boy fighting, not eating.
More than that.
Haruta's first instinct was, of course, to interfere now (before Ace or Sabo or worse, both, arrived to see this) and cut the bastard, who was currently beating the crap out of Luffy, up. Already equipping her weapon of choice (sword; very dangerous) with haki, (a whole split second after she arrived) a bit more sunk in, penetrating her head with the force of a sledgehammer.
Luffy didn't know haki yet. (No use in encouraging him to be even more reckless. Besides, they were protecting him; he didn't need it.)
Still, his lack of training didn't stop the air from being heavy with pressure or the almost solid feel it had. By this point, Haruta was already somewhat perplexed even before she noticed the look in Luffy's eyes. It was a look that had been mostly seen on Ace's face during the first couple days of his soon-to-be-brother status.
In other words during the time when he had been royally pissed and very, very dangerous.
Full of wild rage and dead set on ripping (a certain) someone to pieces.
The expression on Luffy's face right now was so eerily copied that Haruta had to double check it was really Luffy who was losing here. (At a closer look, the intensity wasn't quite the same yet, thank god.)
All that however, was definitely enough to stop Haruta dead in her tracks.
The bastard of an enemy (a logia; looked suspiciously mud-like) was absorbing punches like nothing, using daggers in both hands and cutting every piece of skin that came in reach. Which was a lot. As Haruta watched, Luffy gained a deep gash over his arm up to his shoulder and-
- it was enough!
She gripped her sword a bit harder (but not too hard; that was bad), letting haki dominate the blade and was about to slice the bastard to pieces when her way was suddenly blocked.
Following the hand, the arm connected to the body of Sabo and for a long moment Haruta didn't believe her eyes, staring disbelieving.
A stare that was completely ignored as Sabo's eyes were (predictably) nailed to his little brother.
"The hell-"
"Leave it," demanded Sabo.
Haruta was completely out of her depth now, her jaw dropping somewhere to the vicinity of the floor. "...What?!" Because this was Sabo. And Luffy was fighting for his life and not doing all that good and Sabo, the brother-complex, was telling her to stand by and watch?
Actually, Sabo was standing by and looking on.
After gaping blankly at the blond (too shocked to think about acting), Haruta eventually took note of Sabo's paleness and the white-knuckled grip he had on his weapon of choice. And his clenched jaw. Mustn't forget that.
It was, of course (of course!), very difficult for Sabo to let Luffy fight on his own, but-
But he did and that meant there had to be some (close to) world moving reason. Overprotective fool.
Haruta threw her hands in the air, exasperated, irritated and resigned at the same time. "Why the hell are we watching?"
Sabo's jaw didn't seem to want to work, so the words were hissed and difficult to understand, but Haruta had experience and made from unidentifiable noise the much more sense making 'look at him'. Or something along those lines.
So Haruta turned back to Luffy to see what made Sabo hold the lid on his brother-complex. (A feat Haruta had thought impossible before now.)
What she saw: Luffy bloody and struggling to his feet after having been crushed into the splintered (sharp) remains of some furniture, shaking on his feet and overbalancing and tumbling before throwing a bag of flour at his enemy and himself after it with an enraged yell.
His enemy: Middle aged man, a few bruises and flour on him (taking away the advantage of logia), weapons in hand, fighting with shaking hands, sweat on his brow and only ever taking steps back despite Luffy not pressuring him into it. The expression on his face was-
(Eyes all dark and murderous and harsh, glaring, stabbing into the other, hurting and cold and hard and-)
fear.
Luffy was overwhelming him. Not in the traditional sense, of course, as he was losing, but in the sense that mattered most; even as he was losing, Luffy was stomping his enemy's (foe, opponent were too nice words) spirit into the ground, she noted only a tad disbelieving. (And wasn't it just plain weird that at what she saw she was only a bit surprised?)
Brutally at that.
As the two watched, the teen took a hit to the face, his head snapping back, blood splattering from his lips and seeping out of his hair, making his weight shift and his punch only gaze his target. Then he snapped his head back, using it as a weapon even as he got a kick to the gut powerful enough to make him fly into some wreckage. Luffy was back on his feet long before the dust had finished exploding and launched his arms back for a bazooka. It was half-blocked, but the hit still made the man's eyes budge before he smashed Luffy into the planks.
And it continued.
Haruta definitely understood.
She had never seen Luffy like this before. He didn't have much of a temper (usually; a tricky thing, that was), but right now he still looked like Ace at his worst. (That wasn't even going into the fact that Haruta felt Luffy's glare even when she couldn't see it.)
She cursed, suddenly very happy with standing by. "What the hell did that bastard do?"
Sabo shrugged indifferently, coldly. "Don't know, don't care."
"I for my part must say I'm curious, yoi," a voice said behind them and Haruta jumped, shooting a quick glower over her shoulder. Marco stood there, casually in a slouch, eyes half lidded as always, but sharp for once. Next to him, stone faced, was Ace. Reflexively, Haruta swallowed. (That look of Ace's was usually followed by explosions and fire and violence and better not directed at crewmates.)
(It was also the very one that was very similar to Luffy's right now.)
So yeah, Sabo and Ace might have a reputation for being overprotective, but while there might be something to it, that wasn't all.
It spoke volumes that right here, right now they didn't interfere.
So far the fight went, it was even doubtful their little brother even felt any of the pain, being on a raging blood path as he was. Walls were smashed, furniture was smashed, fighting changed stages.
It was violent.
In spite of the loathing in the expression of Luffy's enemy, there was fear, panic growing in him.
Despite that it was him who had the upper hand.
There were times when Luffy turned into a real monster; now was one of those times. (The first time she had seen it was when they had kidnapped Ace for recruitment from them all those years ago during their first meeting...)
Haruta stepped back to Marco's side to give Ace her front row seat. She had to push him into moving, so fixated he was, making her trade a meaningful glance with Marco before getting her attention back to the fight.
Sabo forced himself to rip his eyes away from Luffy for a moment. To Ace.
Ace didn't look good and Sabo knew his brother well enough to know what was going on in his head inside out. If even he saw Ace in Luffy right now, there was no way Ace didn't draw the comparison either; it scared Ace like little things in this world could, being that he and Luffy were far too similar to Ace's liking already.
He put a hand on Ace's shoulder. While he saw why Ace feared every bit where Luffy might be getting more like him, Sabo didn't share his opinion at all. Ace was a great role model. He hoped Ace would see that one day.
No, instead of fear, Sabo was filled with another emotion that almost made him smirk as he looked on to the figure of his little brother.(Once he got past that gut quenching worry and the urge to beat the shit out of the bastard daring to lay a hand on Luffy, of course.)
Pride.
Sabo was getting prouder with every passing moment.
Luffy was getting stronger right before their eyes; he was still weak, but he was getting stronger and the most important was the spirit (the force of his will) in any case. Luffy's will alone was enough to scare a grown man, an experienced and strong pirate shitless. That was important. That meant power. That meant safety.
(If Luffy scared people away then they wouldn't dare try harm him. Ha!)
The ship rocked in the waves and far-away crashes resounded through the hull, the clinging of iron was getting fainter as the violence continued in front of Sabo's eyes.
As the fighting all over the ship was coming to an end, more spectators gathered.
Were he not so worried about Luffy right now, he would be bragging his head of.
This was a miniature flash who their little brother could become one day. A monster for sure, strong as hell, dominating; he could make the world kneel before him. Or destroy it. (If he wanted, that was.)
...Sabo was a Whitebeard Pirate. 'Whitebeard' Edward Newgate was a man he was willing to call his father. He was a man Ace was willing to call his father. He was a man Luffy was willing to follow (for now). Sabo would give his life for the man and he was a man Sabo wanted to make King (if Whitebeard had that kind of ambition).
But that did not mean he believed Whitebeard was going to be Pirate King.
No, that was Luffy. Luffy was going to conquer the Grand Line, was going to be come the king of the oceans.
No one else.
Sabo had faith in his little brother, he loved his little brother unconditional and maybe that blinded him a bit, but that wasn't all.
Right now everyone could feel it.
(Ace paled a bit more, knowing, recalling.) ("Wow! You are so amazing Ace! Shishishi!")
Sabo had seen his little brother grow and he had seen the potential. Right now everyone bothering to watch saw a shard of that potential.
The air was suffocatingly thick and it got only heavier with every passing moment, with every moment where Luffy was pushed further to to his limits.
Swaying on his feet, Luffy's fists were clenched hard and blood was dripping from him everywhere.
(Luffy was not going to get out of bed for at least a week after this.)
Still, he was suffocating his enemy with his mere presence (and a glare).
With a yell he threw himself at his enemy, single minded purpose pushing past his limits (extending, growing and pressing down on everyone near) and the bastard of an enemy fainted on the spot even before Luffy had crossed half the distance between them. (Was still sent flying with the bazooka Luffy had been gearing up. No one bothered to care. If he landed in the ocean or not.)
The second the battle was decided, Sabo rushed forward, the tense knot in his guts exploding into a flurry of energy and he slid to his knees as he caught Luffy's collapsing body. (Carefully, very carefully, was he alright?)
The pirates around them cheered, some even congratulating, while some were cursing (good-naturally), some were exchanging money and some were (thankfully) calling for nurses. Sabo turned Luffy on his back, but not letting go it him. (Never, if Sabo had a say in it.)
"Luffy, too," muttered Ace softly as he crouched down next to them, eyes to Luffy, looking shaken and pale. Even though it wasn't that much of a surprise.
Sabo was very, very proud and once Ace got over the shock, he was going to be as well. He was grinning (albeit weakly) already.
"I don't suppose we can justify keeping him away from haki any longer,"said Ace.
(They didn't; not that it mattered much.)
(By the way, the following weeks on the Moby Dick were a torture for everyone with ears. Sabo and Ace would not stop ranting about their adorable little brother.)
Another part of my Moby Dick's Tales series, though this one is lacking in humor compared to the others.
Please do leave a review on your way out.
(I had been thinking about writing something along this lines for a while, because while the Moby Dick's Tales series is mostly based around humor, it also serves as a kind-of prequel to Going Merry's Tales. So I have to set all ground points from which I want to build up the next.
Also, it occurred to me that while Luffy is still young and everyone is breaking a leg and a half to keep him as save as possible, it is the New World and Luffy after all. And as Luffy's siblings Sabo and Ace know better than to expect no incident in over two years and as they are very good elder brothers they also know better than to shelter him (too much). As it is the New World and Luffy couldn't possibly have gotten there without ever lifting a finger; that is to say being thrown into demanding situations. I imagine him awaking Haoushoku a bit earlier would be fitting.
On the other hand, haki is a mental ability. Luffy still in puberty and with his extreme case of ADHD... getting him so far that he'd be able to pull a lucky haki fist in a hundred punches would probably be a good result. xd)
PS: Why the hell is there no character selection for Haruta?