This is just a short in-between-story I came up with. I heard this quote somewhere and it became one of my favorites.
Fluff and sappyness FTW.
[[[_-_-_]]]
As swirling colors and muffled sounds made their way into Luffy's consciousness, as he bgan to be able to think again, his first thought was:
Ow.
His head hurt, and so did his arms, and legs, and his body, and his everything. A really sharp pain in his stomach made him wince, and wincing made his head hurt, which made him wince again.
The guys they fought hadn't been like the normal bounty hunters. Usually, the enemy would just charge head-first at them, swinging their swords or firing their guns like maniacs, and almost instantly flew back from the impact of Nami's swings, Usopp's pachinkos, Chopper's bashing, Sanji's kicks, Zoro's swords, or Luffy's pummels, or all of the above. But these guys were really smart. They'd planned a strategy, using one guy as a bait to distract them. Then they'd secluded the Straw Hat pirates, herding them so they lost track of each other, reduced to fighting alone. They hadn't gotten rest for days, their supplies were eaten by the island's domestic rodents. Having to search for food and shelter for four days, they were all weak from hunger and lack of sleep. The sum of bounty hunters used that fact, attacking them in their weakest spots. These guys, who would normally be small-fry for the crew of Monkey D. Luffy, were actually kicking their asses.
All of them had been preoccupied with their opponent, too busy to notice that the real victim of the attack was Luffy. As soon as he was separated from his friends, the bounty hunters stroke repeatedly from all directions. They attacked by shooting him with exploding bullets, then diving back into hiding as soon as they fired. Luffy was more used to dealing with guys who stood up and fought, not ones that lurked in the bushes and moved around so he couldn't deem where the attacks came from. Again and again, a bullet struck Luffy, leaving him burnt and bruised. Again and again, Luffy tried to counterattack, but the offender was always gone when Luffy sent his fist flying. Again and again and again, Luffy was hit, and he was becoming weary. He had been tired before, sometimes close to losing, but this time was different. These guys had no shame. They didn't want to stand tall and fight him, they wanted him on the ground, by all means possible. They had no honour, they had no dignity, they had no sympathy or will to win.
Luffy was so confused by the sudden attacks from all around that he didn't notice the most fatal one; coming from above. The bounty hunter group soaked him with seawater, making him powerless and weak. They then tied him with ropes made from special yarn, one that was woven along with threads of solidified and softened seastone. That had been Luffy's downfall. He tried to shake the Devil's curse off, but he couldn't walk anymore. Falling to his knees, he managed to crawl about a meter before collapsing altogether. The only thing he could move were his eyes, looking at the enemy with a dazed expression.
The precautious men sent a few more exploding bullets his way, just to be safe. And Luffy blacked out from this world.
Now, he was coming to again.
Ow.
He could move, which meant he wasn't weighed down with seastone ropes anymore, but his muscles refused to flex and obey his thoughts.
He also noticed that he was moving. He heard footsteps, heavy but quiet, rhythmic, soothing sounds of the sole of a boot against the rocky earth, threatening to lull him back to sleep.
The last thing he noticed, now that his thoughts were back in his head and his senses were clear, was that he was resting upon something firm yet soft. The firm, soft thing moved, twitching ever so slightly, protruding comforting warmth. Blinking to clear the blur from his eyes, he noticed familiar, golden earrings dangling in front of his nose.
"Finally awake, you ditz? About time, you slept like a rock."
It was Zoro. It was Zoro who was carrying him on his back, roaming the island, cursing at that rock and those trees and how they dared to all look the same as the next. It was Zoro who was somehow back with Luffy.
"Where're the bad guys? I wanted to kick their asses." Then Luffy remembered; he had tried to kick their asses, and failed miserably. He was the one who was defeated. He remembered the bullets exploding on impact and the frustration of not being able to locate whoever was shooting them. But if they ahd gotten him, why was he here, talking to his friend?
"I'm afraid I already took care of that. Turn out that once you got them up close, they were nothing but wimps. They got some damn dirty tricks up their sleeves, though. One even tried to gas me."
Oh, that makes sense. Luffy thought.
Luffy had been defeated, but still not. Because Luffy's biggest, most lethal yet the most underestimated weapon, the one that saved him from moments precisely like these, was the friendship and loyalty of his crew.
He snuggled further into the warmth of his first mate's back, letting the sleep take over him. He drifted in and out, sounds distancing, then approaching, then distancing again. A mumbled curse made it's way to Luffy's ears before he snored his way into the dreamland. "Where the hell did they move the ship?"
Luffy let his eyes close and blacked out of this world once again, but this time in a good sense.
"If you can't walk anymore, crawl. And if you can't crawl…
Find someone to carry you."
-End-