Happy (late) birthday, Luffy :D And happy (late) child's day (at least in Japan as far as I know :3 ). Sorry Luffy, this story is kinda dark, but there's a happy ending. It came to my mind yesterday and I wanted to give it a try :) It's gonna have three to four chapters, we'll see.

Anyone who finds grammar mistakes can keep them :)

Characters: Strawhat crew

Rating: T

Warning: Cursing, violence

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece and don't make any profit with it.

YXYXYXYX

Saving a life

Chapter 1 – Hell's place

"Luffy! Get your ass back here, NOW!" Nami shrieked, but Luffy continued to run towards the smell of meat. The whole crew was chasing him around the town, spent and only wanting get back to the ship and sleep, but Luffy wasn't anywhere near tired yet.

He was only stopping when he tripped and smashed into a stand in front of a shop. The others groaned and went to pick up their troublesome captain.

"Ooops!" Luffy scratched his head as the owner of the shop stepped out. "Sorry!"

The old woman blinked at the sudden mess and grumbled something under her breath. Nami stalked over and whacked Luffy upside the head.

"You idiot! How can you be so clumsy all the time?"

Sanji shook his head. "Honestly, Luffy, at least watch where you going! Now look at what you've done!"

"Damn, Luffy-bro, how can you always be so active?" Franky joined in. Zoro just grumbled something under his breath, not too happy about the situation either.

"Really, you're too reckless and irresponsible. We've been chasing you for quite some time now and I don't want to be the one to drag your sorry but out of trouble again!" Nami complained.

"Yeah, you're quite skilled at attracting bad people and getting into some crazy trouble." Usopp agreed, huffing from all the running.

"I'm really sorry, we didn't mean to-", Nami began politely, but the old woman just shook her hand.

"3000." She answered. Nami's eye twitched.

"What?" Chopper blinked.

"That makes 3000 beri." she repeated calmly. Nami growled.

"Uh-oh...," Luffy gulped.

"LUUUFFY! You stupid freak!" Nami screamed and gave him a bump on the head for wasting her precious money.

Robin only giggled at the scene. Really, this was nothing new. She found it quite amusing how her captain always managed to cause so much hassle but still laugh and smile like he didn't give a care in the world. Which he probably didn't.

Suddenly, the granny blinked. "Wait, aren't you the Strawhats? Your faces are all over the newspapers."

Usopp gulped. "Damn, this is bad! She recognized us!"

Franky watched the woman carefully, but she didn't seem scared of them. Quite the reverse. He didn't like how calm and self-assured she was.

"So, this is Monkey D. Luffy? Your captain?" She asked further and pointed at the boy who still sat in a pile of what used to be a stand.

Zoro was instantly alerted and gazed strongly at her. "So what if he is?"

She smiled again, but it was a cold smile that made them shudder. "So, you kick him around and scold him a lot, huh?"

"What?" Sanji cocked his head.

"Don't play dumb with me. I can see the way you treat him, you don't pay him any respect. He is your captain, but nevertheless you shout at him and hit him. Normally, you would be killed for such a crime."

"Luffy-san would never do that." Brook laughed, but no one found it funny. "Granny-san, who are you?"

"Me? Oh, just some old stupid woman. But I used to be the captain of a pirate ship." She introduced herself. The others gasped.

"Oooh, really? That's amazing, granny!" Luffy laughed.

Her expression darkened and everyone had to gulp at that. "That is, until my crew committed a heavy crime. They pulled a mutiny on me."

"Oh." Luffy only said. "That sucks."

"And what has that to do with us? Look, we're sorry about your stand and we are gonna pay for it, but don't dig into our business!" Zoro spoke up. This woman was beginning to get onto his nerves.

"I can see how much you value your captain."

"What are you talking about? My nakama are the best!" Luffy shot back, his smile vanished completely.

"Are you fucking with us? What would you know?! We are his crew!" Sanji growled. Woman or not, this granny had a few screws loose that Sanji would gladly offer to fix.

"Really? Are you really worth of being that man's comrades?" She asked in a challenging tone.

"Shut up!" Luffy growled.

Nami's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Why is that your business? We know what we're worth."

"Yeah! Who the hell do you think you are?" Franky asked, lifting his sunglasses to take a good look at that old woman. She only grinned devilish, showing her missing teeth. Her eyes glowed dangerously. Usopp and Chopper jumped back with a cry of surprise.

"Aah! Old hag!" Usopp shouted, throwing up his arms.

"Old hag?!" Chopper echoed, hiding behind Brook. "P-please protect me!"

"Of course, Chopper-san. Count on me!"

"You are lying. I will test you and send you into the future. Let's see if you are really that man's friends!" She laughed and rose her arms. Everyone was ready to attack, fists tight and swords in the hands, but everything happened so fast no one could react.

Suddenly, Luffy collapsed. His crew cried out for him, but found they were unable to move.

"What the heck? What kind of shit is that?" Zoro cursed.

"Don't worry, I just put him to sleep. He will stay with me while you're gone." The granny told them, laughing.

"G-gone?!" Usopp cried. "What are you doing to us?!"

"You'll see. You have one week to fix the mess, otherwise you'll have to live with the knowledge of your captain's future misery!"

Before any of them could retort to that strange statement, a huge whirlwind closed itself around them and just swallowed them in one go. They were thrown into the air, tossed around and couldn't see anything at all.

"Aaaah!" Brook shouted, trying to hold on to Sanji. "Save me, Sanji-san!"

"Get the hell away from me, I'm only saving the ladies! Nami-san, Robin-chwan, don't fear!"

"Uuugh!" Chopper groaned, clinging on to Zoro's leg for dear life. Nami just shrieked with closed eyes.

"What's going oooon?!"

"I-I think I'm gonna puke." Usopp informed them, turning green. And then, the Strawhats new nothing anymore.

YXYXYXYXYXY

"What the hell?!" Zoro groaned as he got up, looking around. They somehow landed in some kind of building with strangely dressed people. The rest of the crew began to get up one after another and each of them looked around in a mix of confusion and wonder.

"Where did that stupid which send us?" Nami muttered. She suddenly blinked, realizing they were the center of attention. There were at least fifteen people surrounding them in a circle, looking at them as if they had popped up out of nowhere.

Oh, Nami realized, they kinda did pop out of nowhere a few seconds ago.

"H-hey, shouldn't we get away from here?" Usopp whispered nervously, hating how everyone was staring at them wide-eyed. Not that he could blame them, though.

"Did you see that?!" One of them said, pointing at the crew. "They just appeared!"

"Oh my god! Is that a skeleton?!"

"AAH! AH PERVERT!" Franky smirked while posing proudly.

"Ya got that right!"

"This school's turning crazier each day," another one commented. Chopper, Franky and Brook were being pointed at the most, Zoro's not-so-ordinary hair color aside.

"Don't tell me that old granny really sent us into the future." Sanji said deadpanned. "I mean, seriously?!"

Chopper shivered, "If that's true, then what time is this?", which triggered a roar of surprises from the crowd.

"No way! It spoke!"

"What kind of animal is that, anyway?"

"What kind of circus did they run away from?!"

"WOULD YOU ALL JUST SHUT UP!" Nami bellowed, eyes flaring with anger. The people jumped back in surprise and immediately calmed down.

"It seems we landed in some kind of modern school." Robin casually guessed while analyzing the pupils. The others looked at her.

"No way, school?" Usopp asked.

"How un-super...," Franky muttered, arms crossed tightly. "Though, I have to admit I like this kind of attention."

"Yohohoho!"

"Not helpful, Brook!" Usopp slapped his bony arm.

Chopper blinked, not daring to give up his hiding place behind Sanji's long legs. "So, what year is this, then?" He asked again.

Robin frowned, looking deep in thought. "I'm not sure. Hey, can you tell me the date, please?" She asked one of the pupils politely.

The young man flinched upon being addressed, but still answered. "Uh, it's the 04th May today I think."

"Year?"

He looked at her as if she'd jumped out of a really bad time-travel movie. "2014 of course."

The Strawhat crews' eyes' widened at that. They got catapulted into the year 2014? So they really underestimated that old granny. Could this day get any worse?

Zoro groaned. "This witch got some nerves... If I ever get my hands on her again, I swear she'll regret messing with us."

Usopp grabbed his face in shock. "Oh gosh, what are we gonna do now? Do you even realize what this means, guys? How the hell are we gonna get back?"

"Who are those weird people?" Some girl looked at them in disgust. "Did they flee from some kind of freak-show?"

Another round of glares from the navigator sent most of the curious pupils away. Nami sighed, glad to finally have some peace. "Alright. Now that we're here, we should go and find Luffy. There must be a purpose for the witch to sent us here, so I guess our Luffy is an ordinary schoolboy in modern times."

The sudden ring of a bell made most of the Strawhats flinch. Suddenly, all doors opened and a lots of pupils stormed out of the classrooms. The corridor turned into an ant road, everyone seemingly busy and most of them simply ignoring the confused Strawhats.

"Huh? What's going on?" Chopper asked in surprise, not liking how everyone shoved them around.

"Perhaps this is break-time?" Robin suggested. "Maybe we should follow them." Usopp blinked before it dawned upon him.

"Ooh, nice thinking, Robin! We'll find Luffy where they offer something to eat."

"Right! Let's go! As soon as we manage to find him, we'll be back home." Franky said.

Sanji frowned. "I'm not sure about that. That old woman was talking a lot of shit, but I think she said something along the lines of 'fixing the future', whatever the hell that means."

The others didn't have any idea what to reply to that, but they knew Sanji was right. It probably won't be as easy as it sounded.

"We'll see about that when we find Luffy." Zoro signaled the end of the conversation for now, and no one argued.

Most of the pupils didn't really look at them as they passed them in a hurry, but those who did blanched quite a bit. Maybe they should get a long coat for Brook and Franky. Not that a reindeer was any less weird.

Not too soon after that they reached the canteen. To say it was crowded was the understatement of the century. How could so many people fit in such a small room? The modern times surely were a real thrill. How all those kids managed to hold up was a real mystery to the pirates.

"Sooo... Where is he?" Usopp looked around, standing on his toes to gain a better view. The Strawhats gulped. This was going to be a hell a lot harder than they thought.

"Well, well...", Franky murmured, just as lost as the others.

"Great," Nami groaned, "Just great! How on earth do we find Luffy now?" The moment the words left her mouth, one particular voice between all those sounds made them perk up their ears. They'd know his voice anywhere, even if it did sound somewhat high-pitched and uncharacteristically angry. Immediately, they searched for its speaker and where in for a big surprise.

"There! I can see him!" Usopp shouted, pointing at a figure with messy black hair. It stood with its back to them, and the crew at once knew it was Luffy.

"No way." Franky rubbed his eyes, but nothing changed.

Zoro's eye widened. "You have got to be kidding me...!"

Even if this Luffy was actually a girl.

The rest of the crew reacted similar, jaws meeting the floor, eyes nearly popping out in sheer surprise. If Luffy had been a math teacher, fine, they could have dealed with it somehow. But the possibility of Luffy being a female never crossed their minds, so the shock was huge.

Chopper gaped at the sight in front of him. "Is that really Luffy?"

"Ooh, he's got quite the curves!" Sanji praised, grinning like a love-struck idiot. Everyone sweat-dropped.

"That sounded so wrong." Usopp muttered.

"Tell me about it." Zoro agreed.

"Fate sure has a funny humor." Robin giggled.

Nami, who still couldn't believe her eyes, began to approach their captain. "Let's go near him, he's talking to someone." The rest followed quickly. Luffy was Luffy, female or not. Or was he?

"Cram it." She snapped in a voice that startled the Strawhats.

"L-look, I know you don't want to be with everyone else and that's fine with me, but I really think you should at least talk to someone. We're classmates after all." A girl with long blue hair said, sounding truly concerned. "You can come over and eat with us anytime you want."

Nami's eyes widened. "Vivi! She's here, too?" She whispered. Sanji immediately went into his heart mode, but Robin stopped him quickly.

"This is probably a future version of the princess, and not the Vivi we knew. She wouldn't recognize us."

"I know you must be lonely." Vivi's concerned voice brought the Strawhats back and they listened intently.

This only annoyed Luffy further. She turned around and grabbed Vivi at the front of her shirt. "I. Said. Cram! It! I don't fucking care about your stupid coffee party!"

Vivi bit her lip, but didn't retort anything. She just stared at Luffy in desperation. She somehow had the feeling the girl was being bothered by something, but couldn't quite put her finger on it. If only she would let Vivi help her. If only Luffy talked to her. But that was something she didn't expect from Luffy. The black-haired girl was far too stubborn for that.

Still, Vivi only wanted to help. There had to be something for her to do!

Luffy glared at her in a way the others had only seen Luffy glare at an enemy like Crocodile, or Lucci. It gave them the chills. Luffy huffed before she finally released Vivi and stomped away in anger. Vivi only watched her leave, looking like a lost child.

"Damn." She cursed and slowly went back to her friends who gazed at her in a funny way.

"Why are you even bothering with that stupid girl? She's aggressive. Leave her be."

Vivi looked at the floor. She knew her friends had no understanding of what she was doing. "I don't know. But I have a bad feeling."

The others smiled. "C'mon, Viv, you must be hungry. Let's go grab a bite before nothing's left."

With that, the small group of girls left. The Strawhats stood there, looking dumbfounded at where Luffy vanished around a corner.

"What the fuck was that?" Zoro asked no one in particular. Brook scratched his head.

"I don't know, either. It was really weird! Did you see the dark look on Luffy-san's face?"

"Yeah. Creeped the hell outta me."

"I know, right? That's something really unfitting on Luffy's face. And the way she acted was just plain out of character." Nami agreed, just as shocked as the rest.

"And she really IS a girl!" Sanji pointed out the obvious, a sly smile on his lips.

"Wipe that thing out of your face!" Nami scolded him.

"This keeps getting weirder and weirder." Franky commented, feeling really tired all of sudden.

Robin sighed. "So, I guess that's what the old woman meant. This Luffy's not only a girl, but she has a different character from our Luffy. And she seems to hide something."

"Something we have to fix, perhaps." Chopper said. "But what could it be?"

"That's something we have to find out." Robin answered.

YXYXYYXYX

For the rest of the day, the Strawhats tried to follow Luffy as discretely as possible, somehow managing not to cause much of an uproar with their out-of-place appearance. Most of the time, they hid somewhere around school and made use of Robin's Hana powers. What she saw only deepened her concerns.

So far, she found out that modern-Luffy had absolutely nothing in common with their old captain, save for the scar under her left eye and the dark, messy hair. There was no light in her eyes, only cold anger, and she hardly spoke to anyone. She snapped at everyone who wanted to talk to her, even the teachers, showed no interest during the lessons and just stared out of the window with a hollow expression.

Robin didn't like the way it was leading. All those details supported the theory Robin had formed not too long ago, and that couldn't mean a good thing. She didn't share all her thoughts with the others since she wasn't 100% sure about it and didn't want to worry anyone unnecessarily.

But the others weren't blind nor stupid and had already dealt with a lot of shit before. They began to put the pieces together by themselves, each coming to the same conclusion: Luffy must be a victim of abuse.

That thought alone was enough to drive them up a wall with a fury they didn't know they had in them. The whole scene screamed wrong at them, because it was Luffy they were talking about, and Luffy didn't let anyone abuse him. It was a picture that didn't fit at all. He was strong and could beat the crap out of a lot of people, he saved countries and kingdoms, and he was always laughing and he couldn't be this abrasive, glooming girl.

This Luffy was a shadow of what he used to be. How they wished for their Luffy to be there with them now. The real Luffy, because this girl couldn't be the real one. She was a horrible copy of their captain.

Briefly, they wondered what Luffy would say if he saw his louring future self.

"If I ever get my finger on the source of Luffy's distress...!" Sanji spoke calmly, but his hands were shaking as he re-lit his cigarette.

"Same here." Franky said. They all felt pissed to no end. Robin had told them about the purple and yellow bruises Luffy desperately tried to hide during P.E, but the archaeologist could see through a lot of disguises. Even through one of thuggish behavior.

"Why did she sent us here?! Why is she showing it to us?" Usopp wanted to know, desperately looking at his crew mates. Tears pricked at his eyes and he blinked them away madly. "Or is this all just some sort of sick illusion she created?"

"Don't talk rubbish, Usopp." Zoro scolded him lightly. "We should be thankful for that witch. We can do something. Because now we have the chance to save our captain's future."

Everyone smiled in determination. Zoro was right. They would make sure this Luffy could laugh as brightly and freely as theirs. Someone was gonna pay for taking away their captain's precious smile.

"School should be over, soon. So, ready to go and kick some loser's ass?" Zoro asked.

"OUH!"

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So, the first chapter! Please tell me what you think about it! :D Stay tuned for the next chapter ;)

-Neko11