Luffy felt something was missing. No, he knows something was missing.
As Luffy weaves his way through the crowds of people, he feels, not for the first time, emptiness in his chest.
The street is bustling with excitement and anticipation, but from what, Luffy can't say. Perhaps it was just the fresh air or happiness that seemed to revolve the small town. He himself doesn't feel any excitement or anticipation. He doesn't have a depressed nature, in fact he was most always cheerful. It isn't that he has a dark past behind him. Nor that he doesn't appreciate everything he has.
He has family he can rely on, and friends that are there when he needs them. He has a rather good paying part time job, and despite his mischievous behavior, he has won a scholarship. At the age of 19, Luffy has what most might call a bright future.
But, he feels it, always. A black hole in him. Telling him to find what is missing. Urging him.
But another day would end, without him ever figuring out what it is. He would once again close his eyes, welcoming the land of dreams. Then wake up, only to feel the ache getting stronger each passing day.
Luffy first felt it at the age of 10. He and his brothers Ace and Sabo had visited the boating dock at the edge of the town.
Ace ran off to buy ice cream, yelling at Luffy to stay put, while Sabo left to grab fishing supplies. So Luffy turns and stares at the boats at the dock. The other kids around him are grinning and pointing at the biggest boats, chattering in amazement. But Luffy's attention is elsewhere. An ancient ship far off the side of the harbor, radiating sadness. It beckons Luffy, drawing him in, until Luffy stands before it.
And suddenly, for the first time, a heavy dull ache resounds throughout his body.
Why does this ship seem so familiar to him? Why does he want cry, yet laugh at the same time? He lifts his hand and tentatively reaches out towards the boat.
"You have a keen eye, kid."
Luffy flinchs, and whirls around. A tall man with red hair sticking out under a worn out straw hat grins at him.
"Most kids these days only have eyes for the big, new boats out there, but I see that you're different," he says. "My name's Shanks, and this ship's
name is Thousand Sunny."'
"Thousand Sunny," Luffy repeats fondly. The ache grew stronger.
"Sunny is a ship from long ago, a pirate ship," say Shanks with a voice filled with pride. "She's my greatest ship."
Luffy stares in awe, "A pirate ship?" He asks.
"Yeah," he says, "In fact, it belonged to the Pirate King."
The ache grows even stronger.
"The man with the most freedom in the whole ocean."
It takes Luffy a moment to realize those words came from his own mouth.
Shanks stares at him, surprise etched in his face. After a thoughtful moment, his expression smooths out, and he chuckles fondly. "Now where have I heard those words?" He gently takes off his straw hat, and places it on top of Luffy's head.
Before Luffy can say a word, Shanks says, "I want you to keep this hat. It's my treasure. Any perhaps one day, you can return it to me."
He then takes a step back. "Luffy!" Shouts a familiar voice. Luffy turns to see Ace running towards them with two cones in his hand. But when Luffy turns back to Shanks, he has vanished. Leaving Luffy with Sunny, a straw hat, and a black hole.
Luffy reaches up to touch his new hat, and then to Sunny he says, "I'll be back." Slowly he begins to draw away from the ship, and trudges towards Ace.
Luffy closes his book, reaches out for another titled 'Blackbeard's Ship'.
His pile of books are mostly about Pirates and adventures. He always feels the ache in him slowly vanish only after escaping into another world through a portal known as stories.
But as usual they would return, regardless of what he does.
Luffy hops out of bed, and decides to go for a walk. With a yell to Ace and Sabo, informing them that he would be gone, he leaves shutting the door behind him.
He wanders around for a while. The sun had begins to set, as he finds himself at the beach near the harbor. He plops himself down in the sand, his legs crossing each other. The water extends out, reaching the tips of his toes, then recedes, leaving behind wet sand. A subtle breeze blows by, and Luffy smiles toothily at the sky. He sits there for sometime, fiddling with the sand, letting it fall through his fingers.
Suddenly his lungs fills with ice, his heart feels like it's going to tear open and bleed. Luffy clutches his shirt in the exact spot where emptiness has gathered. The dull ache swiftly grows to pain.
He dreams of oranges, and storybooks, and a glint of a blade.
He dreams of depthless oceans, and mountains that spew fire, and countries made of ice.
He dreams of the Thousand Sunny, radiating sadness, loneliness and longing.
He dreams of smiles of figures he no longer remembers.
He dreams of freedom.
Zoro?
Just hearing the name makes Luffy want to scream. And one by one, names fall from his lips. Swirls of emotions erupting with them. He doesn't know who these names belong to, nor what they mean to him. But he knows they are special.
They are his treasure.
Nami.
Usopp.
Sanji.
Chopper.
Robin.
Franky.
Brook.
Over all the pain, ache and longing he feels, he can hear a violin, a long forgotten song drifting by the waves. The song slowly becomes a lullaby. It was a nostalgic song, as though he can almost remember the words.
Something wet falls from Luffy's eyes.
Tears.
And they fall and fall, a never-ending sea of water in his eyes. A wall he kept up so long, crashing down. And he lets go. He lets go of the wall, lets it crash down, and the dull ache is stronger than ever before. And he doesn't know why he feels the way he does, but he accepts it.
And soon the tears stop, and his emotions in a whirlwind begin to slow to a stop. He clutches his hat, holds it to his chest, with gentle fingers. The water had now reached his ankles.
He wipes away what's left of his tears. Softly, in a slightly cracked voice, he begins to hum the nostalgic melody. It soothes him, and the emptiness vanishes. The sun has also vanished, and in it's wake is a full moon.
Luffy slowly stands up, places his hat on his head, and with a heavy burden gone, he heads home.
Luffy opens his eyes, and he realizes as he trudges downstairs for breakfast, that the ache has returned. It's more subtle than before, but still there.
Ace is lounging on the coach with the tv on. "Good morning," he says. Luffy replies with a good morning of his own and sits on a stool nearby.
He grabs a plate, and Sabo swiftly flips a pancake, landing it perfectly on Luffy's plate. Even after seeing him do that time after time, Luffy still ends up amazed at Sabo's pancake-flipping skills.
He quickly gobbles up the pancake, and has about five more before Sabo tells him that anymore pancakes is going to cause diarrhea. Ace snickers, and Sabo tells him that he doesn't have room to talk either. Sabo sits next to Luffy muttering something about stupid idiots that haven't become obese yet.
Luffy grins brightly at him, and happiness radiates the small house, in a busy little town.
Luffy stretches, and lays on the Thousand Sunny deck.
He grins at the sky.
After a few moments of silence, he realizes that for the first time in nine years, he had smiled, without shadows in his eyes, or pain to the edge of his smile.
He knows that the emptiness is still there, that a black hole is still consuming him. But for the first time in nine years, he doesn't care. He accepts it, and he knows that the hole will finally be filled when he's found what's missing, and until then, this black hole will be there to remind him.
Remind him about them. Them.
His smile lingers, and words fall out of his mouth in a whisper.
"I'll wait, through as many lifetimes as it takes, eternity even. Let the years fly, but I will never forget. I will wait, for the day that I can meet everyone again."