His crew had gone shopping, ordering him to stay and protect the already well hidden ship. How the crew managed to blackmail Luffy, he was still wondering. Luffy finally remembered that his crew promised to be fast, since the island had a huge marine base, and Sanji threatened Luffy's portion at dinner to become smaller.
Staring out onto the island from the crow's nest, Luffy began to worry, they had been gone for two hours. Sure they had to be cautious in the city, though they had decided to take Brook and Franky, but for a quick trip two hours was an hour too long. Luffy made sure the ship was completely hidden before going to look for his wayward crew.
He walked around the town, using his observation haki, trying to find any sign of the crew. Then he noticed Sanji and Zoro's presence in the direction of the main marine base. He sighed and made his way to the base. Luffy decided to be able to get his whole crew out of the prison in one piece, he would need to disguise himself as a marine and break them out. Only this time was Luffy glad that his grandpa Garp had tried to make him into a marine.
He went through an open window to luckily find the room with extra marine uniforms and found his size. Then put on the uniform over his open-chested-long-sleeve red shirt and blue shorts. Placing a bandage over his self-obtained scar, gelling his hair back nice and neat, and then finally putting the precious straw hat under the marine coat. Looking in the mirror, Luffy shivered at sight of himself, this is what Garp had wanted for him.
After leaving the room and wandering for a while, Luffy met with a marine.
"Hey, are you a new recruit?" The marine asked
Luffy put a hand behind his head and gave a small embarrassed smile, "Yeah I am."
"Well, we have the Straw Hats in the prison below, go to the kitchen and retrieve your and their food okay?" The marine said giving Luffy the keys to the cell.
"Yes sir." Luffy said walking towards the kitchen. After leaving getting a far distance from the marine, Luffy sighed. It was really hard to lie, but he had to in order to get his crew free without a big show of it.
Carefully carrying the meals with a kitchen helper, Luffy finally made it to the cell. Putting the meals on the table, Luffy thanked the young cook, and locked the door after he left.
Looking over his crew Luffy's heart skipped a beat. They were all beat up, from the looks of it they were surrounded and had powerful opponents. Luffy went back to prepare the gruel for Sanji to make spectacular. Suddenly Robin cried out in her sleep, Luffy looked over to them finding Nami and Robin both having nightmares. Gently, Luffy placed his straw hat on Robin's lap, closing the marine coat, he went to wake Sanji.
Shaking Sanji, Luffy gruffly spoke "Yo, Straw hat cook. Wake your ass up." It hurt Luffy to speak like this, but his crew would all brighten and become happy if they found him out. That would make other marines very suspicious of him.
Groaning Sanji woke up rubbing his head. "whaddaya want?"
Luffy took off Sanji's cuffs, causing Sanji to look up in shock. "There is food on the table, you can use all of it to make something for your crew."
Sanji looked at the table, then gratefully nodded and went to make something for the crew. The rest of the crew had also woken up, still groggy, shocked by the kindness of the mystery marine.
"You don't have to do this." Zoro said, "Our captain will come and save us very quickly."
Luffy felt a surge of pride swell in him. His first mate's, and the crew's, undying faith in him made him very happy and a little guilty for putting up a disguise.
"You moron!" Nami shouted. "How many marines have you met that will try to help us?"
"Umm… Mr. Marine…." Chopper started
"Just call me Sabo." Luffy said with a smile, he had never told his crew about Sabo.
"Well, Sabo… can I look at my crew?" Chopper nervously asked, "I am the doctor…"
"I guess.." Luffy responded going to undo Chopper's sea stone cuffs, careful not to touch them. Luffy fondly watched as Chopper went around and looked over the wounds, lightly scolding Sanji and Zoro for overworking themselves again.
"The food is ready, madames." Sanji announced twirling towards the girls, Luffy had loosened everyone's cuffs so they had the ability to eat.
"What about us?" Usopp asked
"You get gruel." Sanji responded sarcastically
"That is not very SUPAH." Franky responded
"Shitty cook." Zoro muttered.
"My stomach is growling." Brook said "But I don't have a stomach! Yohoho!"
"Ah! When did this get here?" Robin asked, finally noticing the straw hat. Everyone looked at it in wonder.
Then they all looked at 'Sabo', "What? I don't know either. It was on her lap when I got here."
The Straw Hats looked worriedly at the hat as Robin put it on. Their spirit had diminished greatly.
"What's with the long faces? Your captain hasn't been spotted. This is the only prison cell, hence why you are all together." Luffy said over his shoulder, going to sit at the table.
The crew seemed relieved when they heard this information, and soon went back to eating.
-the next morning-
The Straw Hats woke up the next morning feeling a lot better. They saw 'Sabo' come in with the helper carrying the food. He had put their cuffs back on before he left. The food was on the table, and the helper left.
Luffy looked over to his crew "Sorry, there is a check up from a high ranking marine, I can't help you this morning. They are going to arrive sometime today. Just tell me when you are hungry." He then hid his plate behind a barrel, clearly for Sanji to put in their food later.
Later the cell door opened, Luffy got up from his sitting position and saluted.
"Good work soldier." Fleet Admiral Akainu said holding his hand out.
Luffy put on a fake smile and shook the hand "An honor sir."
Akainu nodded and looked at the crew, "Seems like your captain bailed on you, leaving his hat in your care in guilt, or he died. Either way your hopes of escaping are crushed."
"Luffy would never do something like that!" Nami yelled "He left his hat with Robin to prove that he is still alive and trying to free us!"
Luffy felt the pride for his crew's loyalty swell again, but it wasn't as strong as before since he had to act loyal to the person who killed Ace. He even shook that bastard's hand. It took all his might to keep his guise believable and not try to kick Akainu's ass.
Akainu smiled, "Whatever you wish, but you shall not escape. Make sure of this."
Luffy nodded, "Yes sir."
With that Akainu left and Luffy sighed. After a few minutes, he removed the crew's cuffs. "Make the meal fast. You have to move fast to be able to escape Akainu's death punishment."
Robin was assessing 'Sabo', she knew that the marine wasn't who he said he was. Luffy wasn't capable of gelling his unruly hair back let alone come up with such a plan right?
The Straw Hats nodded, helping Sanji however possible. In five minutes they had eaten and Luffy had retrieved their weapons. He looked over the crew. "I will be in the back, stronger ones in the front to make a path, do not engage in any serious battles. We need to knock enemies down and run. Those who don't have instant physical attacks towards the back. Go straight down the hall and go out the window, and at no point is Zoro allowed to lead the troop." the crew chuckled to themselves while Zoro looked annoyed. Robin, however, was suspicious of 'Sabo' since Zoro's lack of direction wasn't a well known fact. She had just figured out that 'Sabo' had to be none other than her beloved Captain when Luffy continued, "Now go, we need to hurry~!"
They left made their way out and were half way to the Sunny when they started having troubles. In the background they could vaguely hear Akainu screaming in rage. They broke their way through the enemies and finally everyone was on the Sunny except Luffy.
Then they clearly saw Akainu in the background, "DO NOT LET ANY OF THE STRAW HATS ESCAPE~!"
Chopper suddenly shouted "I can't find Luffy~~!"
"WHAT?" The Straw Hats, except Robin, yelled in unison. Luffy finally got onto his ship , he saw a cannon ball going to hit his clustered crew. He jumped in front of them and shot the cannon back. The fire got to his clothes but he wasn't worried. The crew was shocked, 'Sabo' had put himself in danger for them.
Zoro's eyes narrowed as he came to the same conclusion that Robin did earlier. The only person who would sacrifice himself for the Straw Hats was none other than Luffy.
During the smoke after the cannon ball, Luffy took his precious hat off Robin's head. As the smoke cleared they saw 'Sabo' take off his marine uniform to reveal Luffy's outfit, and saw the hat on top of his head. Dramatically, Luffy removed the bandage, ruffled his hair, turned around, and smiled.
"YOU SHITTY CAPTAIN!" Sanji yelled, as the others yelled "LUFFY?!"
"Franky, be prepared for a Coup de Burst. I brought all the things you guys bought onto the ship last night. So everything should be stocked." Luffy said
"This is gonna be SUPAH!" Franky said before going to prepare the ship
Luffy turned to a enraged Akainu. "HEY AKAINU! I'LL KICK YOUR BUTT LATER!"
The crew couldn't even laugh at Luffy, not after finally realizing that he had sacrificed his meals for the past two days so they could get better. They all felt guilty, they thought that he had gone to get food for himself.
Luffy turned around with his brilliant smile and a fist in the air, "FRANKY HIT IT~!"
With that the Straw Hats escaped Akainu and got a far away from any of the marine ships. When they were save everyone sighed, suddenly, out of hunger and exhastution, Luffy passed out.
"Oi Luffy!" Zoro yelled catching his captain. Chopper rushed over to check Luffy.
He sighed in relief, "He is exhausted and because of lack of sleep passed out." Never the less, Chopper took Luffy to the infirmary.
-the next day-
The crew still wondered how their stupid-happy-go-lucky captain managed to fool them all for so long. Before they could come up with a logical theory, Luffy ran out of the infirmary and skidded to a stop before his crew.
"Ne, Sanji?" With the idiotic smile of his, Luffy looked at Sanji. They realized that while in thought none of them had heard Luffy scream about is hunger.
"There is already a huge plate of meat ready for you, shitty captain." Sanji replied
"YOSH!" Luffy yelled before running into the kitchen. Smiling, the crew followed their captain into the kitchen. He had already managed to stuff his face full of food. After a few minutes, Luffy had eaten the huge mountain of meat and was satisfied. The rest of the crew had eaten snacks while waiting for him.
"Hey Luffy, where did you learn how to be a marine?" Usopp asked
Luffy frowned, "Well Gramps beat all the rules, regulations, and exceptions to the rules into my head when I was little."
"More importantly," Nami said "how did you come up with that plan?"
Everyone looked at Luffy expectantly, "I didn't really make a plan. It was more of an idea to try." Luffy said with a shrug
"WHAT?" Nami, Chopper, and Usopp responded. Luffy truly had luck of whatever god that was on his side.
"So, Luffy... How did you lie?" Sanji asked "You are terrible at lying."
Luffy laughed, "I AM terrible at lying. I only could because it was the only way I could think to help you guys." He thought for a moment. "At some points I pretended it was a game, but only in the beginning."
The crew was stunned. Their captain had done everything for them, it must have hurt actually using his head for once, and for two whole days.
"Who is Sabo?" Chopper asked, remembering the name Luffy had used.
Luffy frowned again, and tried to walk away from his crew. He didn't want to have a breakdown in front of them. Too bad for him they followed, and Robin used her powers to trip him.
"Luffy bro. Why don't you want to tell us?" Franky asked curious. The crew had never seen Luffy act like this. He was running away from something that didn't affect the whole crew.
"Erm….." Luffy bit his bottom lip. "Sabo is….. Well…" Luffy couldn't think of a way to explain without having a breakdown.
Everyone was worried about Luffy at this point. Was this Sabo really important? Was he related to Ace? Did he die?
"Come on Luffy," Nami said gently "We will be here if you need to cry afterwards."
"Yeah, even the greatest warriors need to cry once in a while." Usopp added.
"Okay…" Luffy said. He sat down on the grassy lawn and pushed his hat back. It was disrespectful to talk of the dead with a hat on. "Sabo was… is…. My other older brother. He and…. Ace were the same age. We decided to sail the seas together, then we drank sake together and became brothers. A few months later, a noble hired some thieves to get Sabo back. Sabo was the noble's son, so the noble refused to believe Sabo willingly hung around.." A small, sad, and regret filled smile appeared, " the local sea urchins or that he truly wanted to become a pirate because of me..."
Luffy paused looking at the sky trying not to break down. His shoulders shook briefly, the crew wished they had never pushed the issue.
Luffy took a shaky breath and continued, "Sabo had agreed to back to a noble's life on the agreement that me and Ace were unhurt. So we worked for the thugs a little after, a fire happened, and we were all safe. A few days after the fire…" Luffy vainly tried to control his shaking "after the fire, the Celestial Dragon came to visit. Sabo had decided to leave and free himself on that day. The Celestial Dragon shot Sabo's boat… and Sabo was buried at sea without ever being truly free, all to save us…"
Nami, Chopper, Usopp ended up in tears. Nami wrapped her arms around Luffy. "Luffy.. It's okay to cry…"
When the tears finally fell down the prideful face, the crew gathered around their captain in a comforting manner.
After Luffy finally had calmed down, he got up and went to bed. The crew looked at each other, how could one person endure so much pain? Both of Luffy's brothers had died in order to protect him, both had also died by the hands of the government. Both had known Luffy would die becoming the pirate king or being the pirate king. Was Luffy totally focused on becoming pirate king for him or now for his lost brothers?
The boat entered a gloomy state, they never noticed how Luffy's mood affected the mood of Sunny. They sat in the sad peace for a while before Luffy stumbled out the boy's room, unable to sleep due to nightmares. He had known they would come anyway since he had seen Akainu.
"Luffy-kun, you okay?" Brook asked
"Yeah fine." Luffy replied managing a smile.
"So who is on lookout?" Zoro asked
"Luffy is." Robin responded
Luffy began to pout. "FINE~~" He then jumped into the Crow's Nest. He wasn't going to get sleep anyway with all the nightmares. The least he could was protect his dearest crewmates, no his dearest nakama. His only family other than Garp still sailing the sea.
Edit: Because reviews are what I live off of, I have decide to go back and make this better. So eventually there will be a SUPER awesome one in the future. That day is just not today.
Hurray for random fanfiction I just found and dont even know if it is good!
Fanfiction is typing this really slowly. Why is it is hating on me?
Ugh, what is being in character?
Anyways read and possibly review
~Tora ^^