It had already been a couple of months since our 2 year reunion and it seemed that our crew had returned to normal. But, something was different. We could all feel it. Luffy had changed.

If I had to pinpoint the exact day when this feeling came to us, it would probably be when we met with a mysterious girl. After we had left Merman Island and landed on a nearby island, we had been confronted by a strange child carrying a small oval mirror.

She had been clothed in purple from head to toe and a white mask covered all of her face except her eyes. Upon our meeting, she had taken one look at our laughing idiotic captain and said almost in a whisper, "Why do you hide your true emotions?"

Of course everyone looked at her strangely and mistook her words as a sign of advertisement for fortune telling. Luffy's face on the other hand had hardened. Although it had been just for a second, we could swear we saw his face change from his carefree smile to an inexplicable twisted emotion.

This young girl didn't stop walking, and continued to head in the opposite direction from us while we made our way towards the village. We dropped the subject and quickly moved onto our adventures of the two years before our reunion. Luffy returned to his normal self again and no one mentioned anything after that, but that didn't mean we had forgotten about it.

It was Nami who had suggested the meeting. Everyone excluding Luffy had gathered in the middle of the night at the mast that night to discuss the strange girl as well as our captain. Each and every one of us cherished Luffy because he was the one who had saved us and taken us as his "nakama". That's why we were worried. We didn't want to lose him.

"I don't see anything wrong with him," Zoro stated first when Nami had brought up the subject. Then he picked up his swords and went back to the cabins to get another wink of sleep. Everyone stared at the back of his green head until it disappeared between the doors.

"That s-," Sanji started but Nami interrupted him.

"It's okay Sanji. Out of all of us, Zoro is probably the one who's most concerned about Luffy right now. After all he is the first mate… He shares the deepest bond with him."

Then an awkward silence followed. We really didn't know what to discuss because we didn't have any information about Luffy during the two years except that he had befriended quite a couple of famous (and infamous) celebrities.

The meeting ended quite shortly after that. With no clues or leads to continue the discussion, we abandoned the midnight talk and went back to sleep. And as if by fate, our second encounter with the mysterious girl took place a few days later.

It was a sunny morning when Luffy had decided to try out the famous meat restaurant in the village. Everyone refused to go with him because it was still morning but because Chopper had planned to visit the herb store beside the restaurant, they had decided to go there together.

"Hee hee hee hee! Here I come!" Luffy energetically cried out to the open space before he stretched his arms and blasted off into the sky. The cute reindeer quickly ran after him.

"Don't get lost Luffy! Chopper!" Nami cried out after them.

"Hohohoho they sure are a handful," Brook imitated the action of wiping sweat off his forehead and when he realized he didn't have any sweat glands, he started laughing hysterically.

Nami was about to shut Brook up with a slight punch of her fist, when we all noticed a spot of purple in the corner of our eyes. The purple disappeared quickly but we knew at once what it was without having to chase after it. "The girl…" Nami whispered but it was loud enough for everyone to hear. "It's the girl…"

Without any words, we all made way to the empty field where the girl had been last seen. Zoro, too, followed without any complaints but he looked uninterested. We finally arrived at the place when I saw Usopp pointing to a strange looking house nearby.

"I think she went in that house," he scratched his head, "but that's one heck of a house."

Everyone agreed with Usopp. The house was in the shape of a box and was painted entirely purple. There were no windows, no chimney, and no nothing. A single door, painted purple no doubt, centered on one side of the brick walls. To put it simply it wasn't a house, it was a gigantic purple box with a door.

"She must have no sense of aesthetic," Sanji commented and breathed deeply on his cigarette. Everyone nodded.

"Well then, shall we go in?" I asked but before anyone could answer, a voice whispered from the back.

"Go in my house?"

Startled by the strange voice we all turned back and saw the white mask staring at us, a couple of centimeters away. The purple girl had somehow walked right behind us without making her presence known and that thought made us shiver in fright. "I can kill you whenever I want…" she seemed to be saying.

"W-what do you want with Luffy?" Nami was the first one to break the silence. Her fierce eyes tried to hide her shaking hands but the girl saw through her immediately.

"Luffy… so that's the name of that person. That Fake." Unlike the first time we had met her, she wasn't whispering any more.

Her commanding voice must have triggered some kind of emotion inside Zoro because at that moment he drew his sword and placed the blade on the neck of the girl. His eyes were blazing like fire and his voice was sharp enough to cut the living soul out of a normal pirate.

"Say whatever you like but some might cost you your life," Zoro growled.

The girl ignored the blood that was starting to form on her neck and smirked. "Tell me pirates, how much do you know about pain?"

"What are you implying…" Sanji spit out his cigarette and grinded it with his polished black shoes.

"Oh no, I don't mean it like that." She smiled and held out a finger to the cut. The liquid immediately trickled down along the hand. "I was just curious whether you have experienced pain in the past."

Franky was the first to speak up. "Hey, I don't know what your intentions are but even pirates feel pain! And the person who saved me was Luffy so I don't want to hear you talking bad about him."

We all stared at Franky's bold statement and one by one, we all nodded. All of us really did experience a lot of pain in the past that we didn't have to communicate through words. Hidden traumas and nightmares, some of us were still haunted by them, but Luffy had saved all of us. In our deepest, most darkest moments he came with a smile and grabbed our hands. "We're nakama aren't we?"

The girl's smile faded. "Then shouldn't it be your turn to save him?"

With that last statement she disappeared immediately. The only traces of her were the blood dripping from Zoro's sword. Everyone stared at the open space in bewilderment but didn't think too much about it. After all, there were too many mysteries to explain all of them.

Later that night when Chopper and Luffy came back, we were all crouching on the deck with quite an expression that Luffy froze when he saw us. "Did something happen?"

Nami glared at him. "You're late…"

Noticing the danger in her eyes, Luffy took a step back but it was too late. Everyone jumped on top of Luffy (confident that he wouldn't get hurt as a consequence) and started "attacking" him. There was laughing and crying as the poor rubber-boy tried to escape the cruel fate of being squashed by his nakama.

"Luffy. We're here for you… remember that." Zoro said and tapped his captain on the shoulder.

Luffy smiled. Then when he noticed that I was the only one not joining the sandwich game, he waved. "Robin! You should join too!"

Covering the smile with my hands, I nodded and made way to the jumble of madness.

We all knew that Luffy wasn't always that happy idiot that we thought of him to be but one thing was sure: He was our captain and we were his nakama – and that would never change.

A/N: I apologize if this story seems all jumbled up and doesn't make sense. I wanted to write about Luffy's trauma of Ace's death but I changed the objective mid-way so that's why some parts don't really fit in. I'll try my best in the future.