'I finally made it,' Luffy said as he sat down on the high grass. He took off his straw hat and placed it in front of his chest.

'It's good to be near you again.'

The Captain of the Straw Hats lifted up his head and closed his eyes to protect them from the sun's brightness. Somehow, the breeze that stroke his face felt refreshing; it even took away some of the lingering sadness he felt.

'Do you remember?' He asked as he gazed in front of him. 'All the fun adventures we had? All the times we laughed together?'

The only reaction Luffy received was produced by the wind as it made contact with the grass around him.

'You don't remember? Geez, you are as careless as always, aren't you?'

A –previously- tucked away sad smile appeared on his face as he tried his hardest to fight a few upcoming tears.

The tough rubber-man hardly ever cried, but ever since this tragedy had befallen him, he had trouble thinking back about the worst day of his life; the day he lost the only brother he had left.

'I'm glad I came alone,' he said, still staring at the two stones that were in front of him. 'If the others would have been here, I probably wouldn't have been able to have a peaceful conversation with you.'

He chuckled.

'I'm glad you got to meet them, Ace. My nakama mean everything to me and I got to share the happiness I feel when I'm around them with you, back in Alabasta. You liked them, didn't you? They liked you too and they even suggested coming with me, but I wanted to talk to you peacefully, like this. That would have been kind of difficult if Zoro and Sanji had been arguing or if Chopper and Franky had been running around. But they did send their kind regards, so please accept their gesture.'

Luffy sighed and once again thought back about his childhood. Just the memories of the adventures of three aspiring pirates lightened up his heart and his battle against his own tears commenced once more.

'I'm sure you remember that day,' he whispered. 'You know, the day we became brothers. You told us that if we drank sake together, we would forever be bound together by the ties of brotherhood. Have I ever told you how happy that made me?'

Luffy sighed.

'You were the first one to ever say such kind words to me, words that I will never forget. For the first time in my life I felt part of a crew, or at least a group. You accepted me for who I was and I will never forget that.'

The tears started to flow one by one as they slowly blurred the Captain's vision.

'Without you, I probably would have never found such great nakama; it's all because I learned from you, Ace. You and Sabo were-'

He abruptly stopped speaking as his thoughts drifted towards the other brother he had lost. It was hard to believe he was the only one left and for a brief moment, Luffy felt lonelier than he ever had.

'Are you guys being good up there?' He whispered as he stared at the sky once more. After he had said the words, he chuckled slightly and faced the ground.

'What am I saying? You were most likely instantly refused at Heaven's Gate; I bet you're somewhere down there, indulging yourselves in the flames of hell. Either way, I hope you're together, waiting for the day that I'll join you. Just remember that if we are to start a crew in hell, that I will be the one and only captain. After all, I will be the Pirate King when I die!'

While laughing at his own joke, Luffy grabbed a bento Sanji had given him earlier and started to eat as soon as he had opened it.

'If you'd been sitting next to me right now, you would have gone straight for the meat, wouldn't you?'

While he was still eating, the Captain got up and walked towards the two graves in front of him. He stood in front of the smaller one and carefully placed two pieces of meat on top of the gray stone as he quickly hogged the rest of the bento and put the box away.

He stared at the orange hat that could only belong to one man and let his fingers slide over its fabric.

'I already told you I miss you, didn't I? You'll always be my big brother, whether your heart is beating or not.'

As he wiped away the tears that were wetting his cheek, Luffy picked up on something familiar.

'This scent,' he whispered. 'Ace, I know this scent, but what is it exactly?'

He took a step backwards and gazed at all that was lying in front of the grave, unable to detect what it was that produced the sweet scent. All of a sudden, when he thought back about his life with the Mountain Bandits, it hit him.

'The flowers!' he yelled. 'Those are the same flowers that grow near Dadan's house! Tell me, Ace; has Dadan come to visit you?'

He paused for a second. Dadan was tough, but was she strong enough to make it to the New World? After thinking about that question for a little while, Luffy had to conclude that she probably wasn't. But then who had put those flowers there? Shanks? Gramps? There weren't that many people who knew about Ace's past and even fewer people would remember these flowers.

'Do you know who put those flowers there?'

Luffy waited a few seconds as he wished for Ace to appear next to him, but of course, that did not happen.

Then, as if Ace's soul had listened to his little brother's question, a sudden blast of wind clashed with the flowers and pushed them aside. A tinkling sound made itself known and when Luffy looked at what had happened, his eyes shot wider than they ever had. Before his eyes, in front of the grave, three cups had fallen on the grass.

'What the-'

Luffy couldn't finish his sentence, for he was struck by surprise and great disbelief. He crouched in front of the grave and put the cups back where they stood. They looked exactly like the cups the tree young boys had drunk sake out of. And there, next to the cups, stood an actual bottle of sake.

'It couldn't have been you,' Luffy whispered. 'Sabo, are you still somewhere in this world?'

As the wind blew again, it knocked over the bottle and with it, a folded up piece of paper that was apparently beneath it. Luffy caught the piece and as soon as he looked at what was on it, he bid the one who had died protecting him goodbye and rushed back to the Sunny-Go.

'You understand, don't you, Ace?' he said as he firmly held on to the piece. 'I bet you would have done the same thing.'

The Captain kept on running until he could finally see his ship. He climbed on board, ignoring Nami who asked him if everything was alright, and rushed towards Robin as soon as he saw her.

'Could you read this for me?'

The archaeologist smiled at her Captain and took the paper out of his hands.

'This is a vivre-card,' she said.

Luffy nodded exuberantly and looked over Robin's shoulder as she read the sentence that would determine their next adventure.

'"Do you remember where I set sail?" That's what it says.'

Robin chuckled as she saw her Captain running around the deck, ordering everyone to raise the sails.

'Oi, Luffy,' Sanji said. 'What's with the good mood? Where are we going?' All the Captain did was smile as he gave the vivre-card to Nami and took place on his favorite seat.

'We're going on a new adventure,' he laughed.

'New adventure?' Sanji replied. 'Where to?'

As the Sunny-Go started to move, Luffy had to fight his tears one more time. A crew shouldn't see their Captain cry, should they?

'We're going to visit a courageous old friend, set sail to Goa Kingdom!'

~The End