SPOILER WARNINGS: For Water 7 arc up to and including manga chapter 334. Takes place right before and at the start of that chapter (before Nami shows up with news).
FOREWORD: Luffy's thoughts are often hard to get down properly, especially I think when it comes to this. Suggestions for improvements would be very welcome – as well as other comments, of course.
DISCLAIMER: The characters of One Piece were created and are owned by Eiichiro Oda. They are used here without permission. This fic is not to be used for profit.
Carry That Weight
A One Piece fanfic by Elin B
He wasn't going to think about it anymore. What was the use? It was over now. It couldn't be undone. He couldn't go back in time and make sure the money wasn't lost or Usopp wasn't beat up or Merry wasn't wrecked or…he didn't even know what, didn't know what he could have said or done to make it end differently. But in any case he couldn't change things now, just like he had never been able to make the sea monster spit out Shanks' arm and sew it back on.
He'd failed back then but he'd only been a little kid then. He wasn't supposed to fail now, not when it came to things like this. Now he had to shape up and be stronger, just like Zoro had said. He had to protect everyone he had left. They had to find Robin soon.
There was no use in thinking about it. Those images didn't do any good in his head, they should just go away. But why had Usopp looked almost like he'd wanted to get hurt? That was just crazy…unless it was really clever, because maybe that was what struck the hardest… No! Stop that! It was too late. He'd been so terribly angry but it was over now. You couldn't sew the arm back on.
He was never going to fail like that again. Ever. It hurt too much to be so angry. If he couldn't keep his comrades with him then what was the use of becoming Pirate King?
'…you're just trying to get rid of your useless crewmembers one after the other, aren't you?!'
Shut up, shut up, shut up. Luffy shook his head several times, staring out at what he could see of Water 7 from his place on the small roof by the hotel. There seemed to be more houses visible now than a while ago. Oh. He supposed that meant dawn was coming.
When he didn't want to think about something then he didn't. Except sometimes in dreams or nightmares or in some very quiet moment maybe, but that didn't happen much at all. And even then it was never for long. There'd always be something new interesting happening, after all, and new dreams waiting around the corner.
It wasn't like this.
The morning sun rose from behind a high building and shone right into his eyes, but he didn't look away. Just wait, everyone. He hugged his knees. From now on, he was going to become the best captain ever. Better than Shanks, even! I'll take care of all of them so they'll know it won't matter if they're strong or not. What was important was that they wanted to stay with him. If they didn't then there was no use in anything, was there?
Well. They just had to find Robin soon, that was all. And they would. He was tired of worrying already – he wasn't any good at it anyway since he didn't have much practice. Stupid Robin.
He pulled the brim of his hat further down, letting his gaze wander across the rooftops again, wondering if somewhere out there there was an enemy for him to beat.