Author's Note: I finished the Marineford arc a couple of days ago, and I absolutely loved and enjoyed it so much~! I cried so hard when Ace's death approached because he's one of my favorite characters after Law and Luffy. WhiteBeard's death even struck to me because he's such a great geezer, I can't. It pained me. I decided to create something dark, and as traumatic of a experience this was for my precious baby boy Luffy, I had high muse to create this one-shot and based off of him~! It's similar to what happened in the anime, but yeah, enjoy.
After the huge uproar in marineford bay, Luffy was returned safely back to the land of the women, or said, Amazon Lily, where all women and females live. It's forbidden for men to dare step their footing into the land of the women, however Luffy by any means, was their only exception. Thanks to Boa Hancock allowing him to even enter their area, but that was because she instantly fell in love with Luffy's good-natured personality and proved to her what a trustworthy and caring person he is, which is why Hancock believes he's the only man in her life to become her husband.
Trafalgar Law simply assisted Luffy and even though they were merely enemies, Law thought it'd not be such a good idea to leave him to die as of now and so, he decided to aid Luffy along with Jinbei with their drastic injuries.
It was not so long 'till Luffy woke up from him slumber, or rather to put it bluntly — a nightmarish dream. He didn't pay attention to his injured body, and woke himself up, without receiving much, or less treatment, when he woke up, he walked out of the room where he was being rested at, and roamed around, simply calling out for one person. He'd turn a direction to face one of the Heart Pirates member, as his eyes seemed to bawl out like crazy, asking, "Where's Ace…?"
Right when Trafalgar Law and Jinbei were having a conversation about Luffy's well-being and Jinbei mentioning how his reaction would be like when he had woken up, they heard a rather loud and chaotic scream, followed by the Heart Pirates ascending into the sky screaming plus, being shot upwards in the sky. "Mugiwara no Luffy is getting out of control!" Bepo ran out of the door, calling out for their Captain, and in order to restrain him.
Soon afterwards, Luffy fell soaring through the skies, then fell downwards clashing with the ground, his hands tightly and forcibly grabbed the mud in agony and pain. Shattered by Ace's cause of death, it kept replaying in his head. Luffy didn't know how to control himself any longer, and ran around, going senile in that matter.
Bumping into huge trees, and rocks. The Heart Pirates all gathered up to force him down and restrain him, but alas, Luffy managed to push them off of him angrily, "LET ME GO, DAMMIT! I NEED TO FIND ACE, I NEED TO BE WHERE HE'S AT RIGHT NOW! TAKE ME TO ACE! WHERE'S ACE?!" Constantly running around the areas.
He continued to scream painfully and shouting out Ace's name weakly, growing weak. He just couldn't accept the fact that Ace had died. What's even more painful is that Ace's death occurred right in front of Luffy's eyes, where he could not focus on anything, but that very painful moment sinking into his pained heart.
It happened so quick, Luffy couldn't comprehend what was actually going on. At that moment it felt as if Akainu was dashing towards him, and out of nowhere, Ace cried out Luffy's name and everything became unreal in Luffy's eyes at that specific moment. 'No, Ace isn't dead.' He'd lie to himself, believing the impossible.
'It's just a dream, right? Yeah, it's only a dream…' Abruptly after trying to convince himself that Ace isn't dead, the scene struck into his head, that same disastrous scene constantly repeating clearly into Luffy's head. It felt as if Luffy was going to explode at that moment, not noticing his treated wounds that were wrapped around with bandages, Luffy still went on harming himself, crushing trees while picking up a huge boulder of rock and crashing it to another rock that stood still, but soon fell upon the boulder that crashed into it, causing it to fall unbalanced.
Jinbei made footsteps, worriedly walking in to check on Luffy's mental and physical state. To his concern, it's better to assume that the straw hat boy, who seemed so carefree and playful at most times can become so wild, hurt in pain, no hope in his eyes left, and a state of giving up on life, and everything.
At this point Jinbei realized, Luffy's not thinking about the future and anything forward, causing him to become blind. Luffy rose from the ground only by little, and shot a despairing look towards Jinbei. Jinbei thought of Ace's last wish, and request, and that was to watch over Luffy if he were to die. "The war has ended. Ace-kun is no longer —" Luffy cut him off not wanting to hear another word about it, he wasn't going to accept Ace's death, and as painful as it was for him, he couldn't endure the pain no longer. It gave him a heart break.
His heart shattered into pieces just by pondering over that damned incident back at marineford bay. It haunted him ever since he had woken up. "Don't say another word! I've already pinched my cheeks so hard that it began to bleed, if this were to be a dream, then I would have woken up by now…" His breath slowed down in the process as he spoke bitterly, but more than that, listening to himself considering this isn't a dream, but in fact a reality, ached his heart. It was unpleasant. He shed tears afterwards, while facing the blue fishman and asking, "Ace died, didn't he? He's no longer alive, is he..?" As difficult it was for him to accept it, there was no need for Jinbei to act so kindly telling him a lie, but instead he bluntly spoke up commenting, "Yes, Ace-kun is dead!"
When Jinbei responded to Luffy in a straightforward manner, he noticed Luffy's tears dropping, flooding tears, cascading his innocent face. The poor boy cried out heartbroken. It was then when Luffy felt that he was a wretched existence, calling himself not worthy of becoming a Pirate King when he couldn't even protect a single person. He needed to become stronger and Ace was the person he followed as a kid, wanting to surpass him, however that was not possible anymore. Jinbei realized how hurt and painful he was, he was weak and feeling terrible. When Jinbei decided to move in closer to Luffy to speak, Luffy cried out, "Stay away! Don't get any closer to me!" He sighed in defeat. He noticed how terribly the straw hat boy began to injure himself, and thought there must be a stop to this situation so he spoke, "If you want to take it out on me then fight me. Beat me up. There's no need for you to hurt yourself no more, Luffy-kun."
"It's my body, I can do whatever the hell I want with it. To hell if I got hurt, this shouldn't concern you." Luffy stated in an anguished state. Jinbei responded back strictly, but truthfully, "Just like Ace-kun's body belongs to him, he does whatever he wants with it." It was at that moment Luffy bolted from the ground to attack Jinbei not wanting to listen to another word about Ace's death, Jinbei replied with a heavy sigh, "You can attack me, however I won't get damaged since I'm in a good state." With that, Luffy's throat was choked and caught with brute force by Jinbei's strong grasp and pinned him against the rock throwing him down then releasing him. "Luffy-kun, as of now you're not clearly seeing things correctly and everything in your head is becoming blank," Jinbei proceeded with speaking, Luffy's head slowly turned unresponsive and stony, dark hazy thoughts, everything became blurry to him, "Think about it!" Jinbei continued as Luffy's thoughts were clouded and unvisioned, "What is it that you still have left with you?! What do you 'still' have left?"
Finally when Luffy calmed down, he stared down at his bandaged hands counting down what he still has left with him, and soon his thoughts became a little clearer when he thought about his nakama, and in the process, his head became less blurry and filled with memories of his comrades, Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper, Robin, Franky and Brook. He teared up, thinking about them happily and cried out their names, "Zoro, Nami, Usopp. Sanji, Chopper, Robin! Franky. Brook!" As long as he still had them with him, he's not all alone. "I want to see them again.." His teary eyes spoke so innocently, relieved that he still had his nakama with him even though they might still be elsewhere, and probably waiting for him.
~ 2 years later ~
The Captain of the Straw Hats advanced towards a tree, in order to grab his hat, snow descended from within the skies, it was white and freezing cold, Luffy was then called by a friend of his he had befriended in the Island of the Women, and in response Luffy spoke, "I'll be right there," Picking up his straw hat, he replied in a calm and relaxing tone, "It's been 2 years already, huh?"
Author's Note: I skipped straight to the time skip thing afterwards, I mean this is just a one-shot. I was planning to make it longer by adding in the flashback when Ace, Sabo, and Luffy were adorkable babies, but I just didn't. WELP. SORRY ABOUT THAT. BUT ANYWAY, HOPE YOU ENJOYED IT~!