Tear-streaked, Luffy bends and kneels, holding his burned and battered hat to his chest in the same way he had at Marineford more than 3 years before now, for Ace. It's a solemn gesture in a ocean of solemn gestures – the Yonko Shanks had so many friends, not unlike the young man standing before his grave. So many have sailed here, to this quiet, airy island, that the seas around it are packed with ships, intruding on the island's peace like the flock of bone-white, ink-black, loudly crying seagulls wheeling overhead.

The main service has already been given. The Red Hair pirates' newly elected captain, Benn Beckman, had given a speech, and lead the crowd in a solemn goodbye song. Now sounds of grief occasionally cut the deep silence but it gradually fades until all Luffy can hear is Usopp, kneeling next to him. His slingshot rests in the uncut grass, wrapped in cloth because it's bad form to bare weapons at a funeral, and between bouts of sniffling, strained as if his sniper is holding back a far bigger flood.

Luffy holds his hat to his chest, and bows his head, and listens.

"I know why you couldn't stay with me and mum," Usopp says, quietly. "You lived the life of a pirate, and you had your crew to think about. Just like the others... you left your family to pursue your dreams, and I could never begrudge you that."

Luffy's noticed, in the days since the battle, that Usopp hasn't cried, not once. Even now he's dry eyed, and it's worrying all of them.

"I hardly knew you, s-so why..." Usopp continues, "...why do I miss you so much?" He sniffs, and leans closer to the grave, hands fisted in the soft grass in front of him, speaking quieter still. Luffy feels bad for listening, but Usopp's words hang heavy in the still air, and it's hard to ignore them.

"I think it's because... I just wanted to see you one last time. And I wanted to show you what I've learned, and tell you all the things I've done. I wanted to say so much."

He leans back again, and places a hand on his slingshot, curling his fingers around the handle. "I think that's all, Dad. I hope you heard it, somewhere out there."

Luffy doesn't move as Usopp rises, until his friend stumbles, and Luffy's hand on his elbow is the only thing that keeps him from falling. Usopp stands still for a moment, then leaves.

"Hey, Shanks," Luffy says, under his breath. "I don't know if Usopp's dad heard all that, but if not... if you see him... make sure he knows, okay? And tell him I wanted to meet him again, too." He sighs, and clutches the strawhat closer. "I think he'd have been proud, don't you?"

Luffy says no more. He'd said most of what he wanted before the battle, and the rest... Shanks knows. He's sure of it.

–

The suns sinks and the rising moon finds Luffy still kneeling. His legs have gone numb and his neck and shoulders ache, but he doesn't care. A beautiful day has turned into a balmy night and by now the mass mourning has long stopped. Only a handful of pirates remain, standing vigil by the two newly-crafted graves. Shanks' crew, depleted in numbers, is among the small crowd. Benn Beckman and Lucky Roo sit drinking sake and discussing who-knows-what at the edge of the large, grassy clearing. The others are gathered nearby, talking among themselves, whispers drifting towards Luffy with the breeze.

Nami walks on bare feet to the graves. She's carrying a cup too, and she's wearing a ruffled black skirt and a black blouse. Earlier that day Luffy had walked past the girls' bedroom on the Sunny and seen Nami half in a state of undress, rifling one-handed through the mountain of clothes piled on her bed. Her hair was tied in a messy bun, and her right hand clutched the tattoo on her upper left arm, and even though her back was to him Luffy has sensed her worry. He'd formed her name on his lips, let it drop away with a whispered sigh, and walked on without a word.

They'd made their way to the island in the wake of dozens of others, constantly catching sight of silhouettes of masts and sails and hulking bodies on the horizon, as they'd sailed towards the rising sun.

All over the ship Luffy had seen signs of pity and secondhand grief. Chopper's examination of his battle wounds was thourough and gentle, and the doctor offered a sleeping aid to dull the black bruise-like bags under Luffy's eyes. Luffy turned him down, and sat crosslegged by the railing between Nami and Usopp on the lawn deck, watching the seagulls wheeling and crying as they followed the ship to land. The others sat in quiet companionship – Robin reading next to Franky, who chatted quietly with Zoro and Brook, Chopper sleeping with his head in Robin's lap while she rubbed soft circles in the fur on his forehead – while Sanji kept up a steady stream of breakfast food, fullfilling requests as they came. Though Luffy couldn't stomach any solids, Sanji pressed a mug of hot chocolate into Luffy's hands and the piping hot liquid warmed and settled his uneasy stomach to the chill morning air.

Now Nami brushes her hair behind her ears and sits cross-legged beside him on the ground. For a few minutes she pulls up the grass in clumps with trembling fingers, making two small piles near her bruised knees. Luffy is just wondering whether she came here with the intention of doing anything at all when she wipes the grass stains off on her skirt, and raises her right hand to the back of Luffy's bowed neck, where it rests warm, somehow conveying all of her feeling and understanding through this one simple action. Luffy untenses at her touch as she massages the aching muscles at the base of his neck. He realises why she came; to comfort him – and that's why he hates having to say what's on his mind.

He says, quietly, "Nami?"

Her answer is a pause, and he continues. "Did you... did you see it?"

"Oh, Luffy..."

"Please."

Nami looks at him with damp eyes. "I did," she says, choked up, "I'm sorry."

She's crying because she knows what's coming next. Luffy doesn't want to ask this of her because it will hurt her to tell him, and because there's probably someone else he could ask – Benn, perhaps, or Rockstar – but Nami didn't know Shanks like they did.

He looks right at her, and her hand drops away. The absense of contact makes the night feel cooler. A light breeze brushes over the sweat on his skin and he shivers.

She's gone back to ripping up the grass, with more ferocity now. Teardrops fall on her clenched hands. It's as if Nami – and everything – is getting further and further away, and Luffy reaches out to her, to show himself that she's really there. In that moment she's an anchor, keeping him grounded. But then that's always been Nami – always a source of comfort, a voice of reason. When he touches her hand and she curls her fingers intinctively around his he finds the strength to ask her what he's been wondering since he'd woken on the Sunny just over a day before now.

"Nami... tell me how it happened."

Her breath hitches as she inhales and she wipes her eyes with the backs of her hands, stretching Luffy's arm as she moves. "I know you need to hear it, Luffy, and I wont say no, but I want you to think about what it'll mean."

"Tell me," he says.

"You'll be angry," she replies, "and you'll want revenge, I know, but you have to think about where we are and what state we're in. Think of Zoro... and Sanji... Luffy, please don't make us go just yet. We need time."

He waits. She inhales, breath hitching, and says, "Blackbeard, he... he was laughing when he did it," Her words are laced with pain, and she winces as Luffy strengthens his hold on her hand. "After Burgess knocked you out... it was a slaughter. It's amazing that we escaped with our lives. If Kizaru and Aokiji hadn't been there, and Issho, I... don't know what might have happened. I haven't been that scared in a long time."

She takes another deep breath, and picks at one of the little piles of grass, scattering it around her.

"It wasn't a fair fight. There were so many of them, and they were all so strong. Each one as strong as an admiral. And Blackbeard has more than just the two fruits in him now. He's powerful beyond belief, Luffy. But I think there's also something deeply wrong with him, on the inside. And I mean more than the murder, more than the violence. It's something we might be able to use to defeat him."

"We will," Luffy says. "Whatever it is, I'll find a way."

"There's another thing..." Nami says. "I think Blackbeard had his sights set on Shanks from the beginning. Everyone else who fell just got in the way."

Luffy is trembling when he says, "I've never seen Shanks fight properly before. I heard he's amazing..."

"He was," she says quickly. "He held his own against those two fruits almost like it was nothing. But in the end it was too much, and he was overwhelmed."

"I know how that feels." He looks at her. "We all do." He reckons she knows what he's thinking. It could be any of us, in any given fight. We're been lucky,to all still be standing today.

Nami's only answer is to squeeze his hand harder. The warmth is comforting and he focusses on that, instead of on the slowly dropping air temperature or the loud voices coming from the direction of the docks beyond the dense thicket of trees to their right. Especially not on the hollow pit in the bottom of his stomach.

He hears Robin approach and, as she nears, say, "Vice Admiral Garp's ship just anchored off the northern shore," and Luffy turns where he sits to look at her. She's walking softly over the grass with Franky in tow. "Coby and Helmeppo are with him, and I'm sure that the ship following theirs belongs to the Kuja Pirates."

Nami frowns and says, "So many powerful people are already here... Jinbe, Issho, Aokiji, Rayleigh, and now..."

"Hancock's here?" Luffy says. "And Grandpa?"

Robin and Nami exchange a glance, and behind Robin Franky's gaze is dark. "You know what this means," Robin says, looking at Nami.

"They're gathering here for more than just a funeral," Nami replies. "They're preparing for war."

At Luffy's right, though he hadn't noticed his arrival, Brook is standing, watching their captain as an aura of apprehension rolls in waves from his tired, healing bones.

"There's going to be another super battle," Franky says, sounding resigned to their fate.

Luffy clenches his fists and thinks, Bring it on.

–

Among the visitors to the island are hundreds of pirates and civilians, and even a few dozen marines. Over the course of three days they crowd the large docking area that makes the northern tip of the breezy summer island and many square kilometres of the sea around it. Ships bob like apples in a barrel, some massive battleships, as the Whitebeard Pirates' Moby Dick had been, some caravels no bigger than the late Going Merry. The smallest by far is Dracule Mihawk's one-man rowboat, still sporting a black sail and two spooky green candles. When night falls the lights of those candles are visible through the mist, and it's on the night of the second day that he arrives, weaving silently between the bulks of the larger ships, ghostly and noiseless. Zoro, his one eye half-lidded by Urouge's best ale, watches him make his way down the path to the clearing.

The next morning he's gone, and Zoro's head is clear, but he can't be sure that the World's Greatest Swordsman had ever stepped foot on the island at all, since no one else seems to have seen him. It's only when night falls once again that he sees those green lights winking, bobbing up and down the waves.

Luffy sits on the dock as the sun rises on the third day and chews thoughtfully on a hunk of beef, eating for the first time in two full days and feeling faint with it, feet dangling over the green-blue water as it rushes in and out with the tide. The boards creak and Luffy turns to see Usopp walking towards him, carrying a bowl of hearty chicken and vegetable soup.

As the snipers sits he says, "Nami said we'll be leaving in a week, if that's alright with you."

"Yeah," Luffy replies, absentmindedly. He knows it's a much wanted break. They need time to heal, time to prepare, and he and Usopp need time to mourn.

"Oi, Luffy..." Usopp says, kicking his feet into the wooden pole supporting this corner of the dock.

"With all these people coming to the island, do you think... they'll come too?"

For a moment Luffy can't think who Usopp means, but then he realises that of all the major groups of people he'd come to know, only one hasn't sent a representative. For the Shichibukai, present and former, they have Jinbe, Hancock and, unexpectedly, Kuma, who'd appeared without notice, warning or explanation two days ago. For the marines they have a large number of dissatisfied, anxious and angry men and women, including, of course, Garp and his crew, as well as ex-Admirals Issho and Kuzan and surprise visitors Jango and Fullbody. Thousands of pirates, too, were accounted for, including several supernovas. Torao and Kid had arrived on the heels of Basil Hawkins, and he'd assured Luffy that Bonney would be here just as soon as she and crew were done drinking and eating their way through their favourite restaurants along the way.

Even the Tontatta had come, but for the revolutionaries... nobody. Not even Iva had made an appearance, and Luffy had been waiting for them for two days. He'd sat on this dock at dawn three days in a row, the first and second days waiting for funeral preparations to finish as much as he waited for Iva and co., and today, simply waiting.

"It'd be cool if your dad showed up, huh..." Usopp says. "I really want to meet him."

"Yeah," Luffy says, nodding. "It's been a long time since Dressrosa. Almost a year..."

"Maybe they're just getting ready," Usopp says, contemplating his spoon. "They'll show up in full force with all their ships and thousands of tough revolutionary soldiers, and you'll be able to see Sabo and your dad and they'll help us win the war. Maybe we'll even finally get the full story on what Robin was doing while we were separated!"

"Good luck with that,"Nami says, sitting down next to Usopp. "She wont even tell me."

"Think Franky knows?" Usopp says, giving Nami a sly look.

"Oh, yeah," she laughs, "but he'd never betray his super wife like that. If she asked him not to tell then his lips are sealed." She and Usopp giggle for a few moments, but Luffy doesn't join in. The tide is rising, beginning to lap at the soles of his bare feet, hovering as if standing over the greeny-blue water. His eyes are on Garp's ship. As he watches the old man emerges from inside and waves at his grandson, and Luffy waves back. "That's my cue," he says, and stands.

He makes his way down the long wooden dock, passing ship after ship, swinging a right and then a left until he reaches the gangway, and walks aboard without hesisation, though this is not his world, and marine ships always make him so uneasy.

Already Garp's underlings are cleaning and performing maintenance, scraping barnacles from the hull and scrubbing the deck until it shines. Most of them spare Luffy a glance, and from the upper deck Coby and Helmeppo wave briefly before going about their duties, but Luffy follows Garp to the bow without acknowledging them much. When they reach the railing Garp crosses his big arms over his chest and stares out to sea, view decorated on all sides by masts and sails and pirate flags. Though there are two dozen or so flags that Luffy recognises, there are also hundreds that he doesn't, as well as some flying no flag at all, and a few bravely baring the white and blue sigil of the marines.

Gruffly, Garp says, "I know he was more of a father to you than anyone. He might have poisoned your mind with ideas of piracy, but I will not deny that some of the influence he had on you was good."

"Hey, I wanted to be a pirate before I met him -"

"His presence certainly didn't help!" is Garp's reply, punchline delivered with a swift blow to the top of Luffy's head.

Luffy yells, "Tch, it hurts!" He rubs his head and says slyly, "But you're holding back, right? You didn't hit as hard as you usually do."

"Hmph," Garp grumps, not looking at him. The sky has turned from gold and pink to a shining blue in just a few minutes, and all around them the masses of pirates and marines and civilians are waking to a still and clear morning.

"We're on your side, for now,"Garp says suddenly. "After Blackbeard and his crew have been taken down we wont give you and your friends a free pass. Maybe a day's headstart, but nothing more."

"Yeah, I know."

"You understand, don't you?" Garp sounds almost pained, but Luffy has learned not to read into it too much. The old man will always be this way – a concerned family member some of the time, and a marine all of the time.

"Yeah," he says.

Garp says, gruffly, "Good," and leaves Luffy standing alone at the bow, saying something about coffee and breakfast as he goes.

–

Luffy, Nami and Usopp stand side by side at the graves. The ground around them is piled high with flowers, and atop Shanks' headstone the Red Hair pirates' flag flies. The wind's picked up since last night and it tugs on the flag's fabric and the clothes and hair of the pirates standing before it with chilly fingers. They've been there for only a few minutes before Usopp breaks the silence.

"What's going to happen now?"

Luffy's first thought is I don't know which quickly gives way to danger, fighting, more death but what Nami answers with, before he can collect his thoughts, is, "What we've been moving towards all this time." Her brow is furrowed when Luffy looks to her, but her hands are steady and her eyes are focussed on the horizon and the glittering blue sea beneath it.

Sanji, supported by Chopper in heavy point, and Zoro, walking on his own but sporting layers of white bandages on his arms, face and chest, soon appear behind them. They've come to the graves for the first time since their arrival on this island, no doubt with Chopper's reluctant permission.

Nami turns and says, "How are you feeling?"

"Ready to go," Zoro says, sounding determined.

"Pissed off," says Sanji. Nami allows him a small smile and he instantly straightens against Chopper's side, wincing slightly but looking pleased. When he and the doctor reach the graves and stand next to Luffy, and Zoro takes his place next to Usopp, silence falls again for a moment. A far off breeze bends the line of the trees to the left, and the distant crashing of the waves tugs at Luffy's heart. Over the trees the top of Sunny's mast is visible, bobbing up and down against a pure blue sky.

"Oi, Zoro! Stop that!" Chopper yells suddenly. Of course, Zoro's hands have crept to his bandages and begun to unravel them, and Chopper the watchful doctor has realised this and begun a tug-of-war with the swordsman. On the parts of skin that Zoro has managed to bare is a patchwork of bruises, scratches, and cuts bound by expertly sewn stitches, but Zoro is insisting that he's fine.

"Don't expose your wounds to the air, Zoro!" Chopper says. His side of the struggle is awkwardly balanced, since he's still supporting Sanji with his right arm. One slightly too strong tug by Zoro and Chopper is toppling, bringing Sanji down with him. Sanji and Chopper's yells alert Robin, and only her quick reflexes save them.

"Nice one, Robin!" Franky says, grinning. Chopper wastes no time in passing Sanji onto Franky as he pursues Zoro back to the docks, shouting at the obstinate swordsman as he goes.

Luffy watches all of this with only a small smile, before his gaze is pulled back to the tombstone and the curve is pulled from his lips.

He turns and looks to his left and sees Usopp, staring at his father's grave and crying. His head is bowed and tears are running like small streams into his lap, and each breath sounds like it hurts. Luffy remembers how it felt to touch Nami's hand the evening before and be pulled back to earth, how touch can be an anchor, so he reaches out and gently takes Usopp's wrist.

Luffy hears his friend sniffle and say, voice thick as he drags one brown forearm over his wet eyes and cheeks, "We'll be back when it's over, wont we?"

"Yeah," Luffy says. "We will."

He looks to the graves again, eyes tracing the simple dedications etched into the stones for the thousandth time.

"I'll return this when I've become Pirate King... Shanks."

For the first time in three days the name falls without breaking at the back of his throat, and Luffy places the hat softly at the white stone base, knowing with a deep, unwavering certainty that they will be coming back here quite soon.