I dont knowhow often I have read this sentence but it seems like every other Fic has some version of this line somewhere in it, but...Goddamn its been an age since I wrote and uplaoded anything. But this came to me last night, and I threw it together when I should have been doing work at home, I do love procrastination, it also looks like my room could use a good tidy, too. but anyway on with the words 'n' such.

It's a simple object, 8 or 9 inches long, a feather on one end for balance and a tip designed to hold and distribute ink across any surface it is dragged across. It has no mind or soul, incapable of making a move or sound on its own. But as he sat here cross legged on the hard stone floor, holding it in his hand, he could hear it, all the pain, all the anguish, the hate and resentment, the fear and loneliness, it emanated from the entire room, thick, heavy and overbearing, it seeped from the very walls that surrounded him, and it all seemed to be channelling through the blood soaked pen in his hand. This object, with no mind, will or means to do a single thing, seemed to be screaming. Screaming at him...the world...for someone to listen, who knows; the only thing that was clear, the only thing that made sense, that was as clear as a bell through all the suffering, was a longing for it to end.

Engrossed as he was with this seemingly insignificant object, he barely, consciously, noticed the large humanoid coming his way, so dutiful was he in committing this item-and everything his senses could pick up about it-to memory, he didn't register his opponent still talking, his entire conscious world was solely occupied by this pen, and in becoming so, a single utterance on the physical nature of his current world escaped his lips...

"This pen...it's got blood on it."

The blood clung to the pen like it was supposed to be there, as if this red viscous liquid had sullied it surface so many times that is had become the norm, saturated in crimson was it's true nature, regardless of how many times it was cleaned, this fluid permeated it from the exterior through to it's very core. The air around him shifted, causing information from his subconscious to flood his mind, HE was still here, standing not 8 feet away from him, arm outstretched, fingers clenched around the hilt of his sword, the jagged teeth of which were currently inches from his own neck. A small surge of adrenalin coursed through him, the confines of his 'world' immediately exploded outward, now encompassing the entire room and the Fishman in front of him, he held his gaze on the pen in his right hand, as a deep voice came into focus.

"How can you possibly use her better than I can?"

The screaming, now coming from the entire room and not just the conduit that lay lifelessly in his hand as all others would, stopped, everything clicked into place, the reason for the screaming, the feeling he got from the room, he could almost see everything that had happened in the confines of these four walls as if he had watched it himself and could only recall a half forgotten dream, he didn't know how he knew, he didn't care how he knew, all that mattered; is that he knew, and now he knew what to do about it. The pen now lay on the floor, a piercing silence moved through the room as he reached up to grip a single giant tooth of the blade threatening him. He could still hear the whispering echoes of that foul word in his mind, making his anger seethe and his grip tighten, "Use", he never knew he could hold such hatred for a word, every echo of it was punctuated by an image of the rooms past, whether somehow real or his imagination trying to work out what happened in this place...it was unimportant. The voice he could hear, uttering THAT word, sparked a memory of that very same voice saying a very different word, "Nakama"…"Use"…"Nakama"…"Use"… the words, to him, didn't fit together, hearing them (albeit, in his head) one after another left him with a bad taste in his mouth, these words could not be more different, they didn't even belong in the same mind. The levy broke, his rage maxed out, jaw clenched and fingers straining against the metal; the force holding him silent and in place, shattered, as it did, so did the blade he was gripping. His locked eyes with the vilest being he has ever come across, face contorted in anger.

"USE?!"

The pen now lay at his feet, he did not look at it, he didn't need to, because in a moment it would not exist, like the desk it had fallen off, the bookshelf to his right, the walls and stacks of paper: used and unused, around him, the floor below and ceiling above, the very building itself that held him; he would destroy it all, reduce it to nothingness, along with HIM. But the words still burned in his mind: "Nakama", "Use". How could ANYONE put these two words together, especially to talk about her? He couldn't let it go, he had to know, he had to understand.

"What do you take her for?"

The answer given was only cause to enforce the decision he had already come to, his mind was now set to purpose, the final use of the word "Nakama" and the way he had so easily interchanged it with the word "Tool" to describe HER of all people sent his rage to new heights, the bellowing laugh of this creature, because that was what he now was, faded in to the background. Life was given to his fury as his leg lashed out against the nearest thing in the room, a desk, and it was ejected through the structure and into a free fall. He knew from this height that it could not be more than half way to the ground when he reared back and sent a full bookshelf after it, a chair, the wooden door of the room…rubble fell along with them, the very room itself was falling. Enthralled by his goal, he failed to notice the shark-man grabbing him, angry words falling on deaf ears as the larger man forced his back into the floor, the only audible sounds were that of splintering wood and cracking debris coming from the ground outside. A guttural cry of anger tore from his throat as he threw his right arm out through the maps and against the wall, making it crumble beneath his wrath. The fluttering of paper now joined the sounds of wood and stone.

His rubbery skin gave way to the razor sharp teeth of his opponent, pain shot through his entire left side, ripping his mind out of focus and to his adversary, who was currently damning him for destroying several stacks of the maps in the room. Reaching behind his head he seized the saw like nose of the taller man, twisting and pulling as pain rattled through him causing his teeth to grind together as he struggled to get his word out. He owed this man nothing, not an explanation nor a reason behind his actions other than his previous statement when they had first laid eyes on one another. But he wanted him to know; he wanted this sorry excuse for a man to know WHAT he was doing, WHY he was doing it, despite, no, IN spite of his lack understanding of the full story. He knew how to help her. One last grimace, one last grasp, one last wrench and the oddly shaped nose gave way to force, snapping to the side. The pressure on the crook of his neck lifted, the pain abated as his opponent fell back, clutching at his long face.

Adrenalin coursed through his body, his heart pumping faster than ever before, pupils narrowed on his target, jaw set as he stood rigid. His face darkened in fury as he vocalized his intentions. He would let Arlong know what he was going to do, look him in the eye and know that there was nothing he could do to stop the inevitable, that he was as powerless as he perceived the humans, he lorded over, to be.

"It's this room. I can't let it exist. This room she doesn't want to be in. I'LL DESTROY IT ALL"

He raised his foot as high as it would go, through the ceiling and into the air above…this was it, and one last decisive blow was all it would take to free her, he watched as his limb extend to its limit. A sharp snap brought him back, once again, to his opponent who had forced his broken appendage back into place. He was open, in his haste to put an end to it all, he had compromised himself by rushing. The shark-man lined up his attack, and launched in a killing frenzied spiral. That moment is one of the only moments that Luffy had truly doubted himself, that he would not fail, his eyes widened in fear, teeth gritted in frustration toward himself. There was no point in trying to move, it was impossible to dodge this; so he steeled himself, ready for the attack. If he couldn't avoid it, he'd take the hit, and take the bastard with him, along with the entire place. Resolute in his objective, he finished crying out the name of his attack, as teeth rend into his flesh once more, twisting him forcing his foot down with even greater force, his enemy had inadvertently aided in his own downfall. The stamp struck hard and with tremendous force right onto the back of the Fishman, crushing him into the floor, as the one who delivered it shouted out in renewed rage. The floor under foot (and Fishman) cracked, a spider's web of fault lines in the stone grew outward, the entire building shook with the power of the blow dealt, as it forced its way down. The granite gave way, blood spluttered its way from Arlong's mouth as he cascaded through four floors, coming to rest in the fifth and final floor.

For one moment, before the sudden change in air pressure forced dust up and out of every window and door, he heard it again, that splintering of wood, the crumbling of rubble and the fluttering of paper. The dust settled quickly as his foot snapped back to him, and he spared a look down on his fallen foe, lying four levels below him, on a pile of ruined wood, stone and paper, unmoving and defeated. A shadow passed the hole in the front of the building on his level, he glimpsed a Jolly Roger baring the same symbol that had marred Nami's shoulder, tied to a stone shark figure head, it bounced off the tile of the roof outside with a thud, and fell out of sight before making another thud and crashing to the floor, shattering with a most satisfying sound. He was breathing heavily now having exerted too much energy in that last attack, it forced him to the floor, panting as he sat. He became aware of debris starting to fall around him, the building groaned and cracked around him, he had no energy to move, a few seconds longer was all he needed, but as the cracks gave out, the precious seconds occupied his descent both through and with the building, like a house of cards, Arlong park fell and he was buried under the top layer of rubble.

Tumbling through a collapsing building has a way of disorienting you, at least in this particular instance, Luffy lay under the rubble looking for a sign to show him the way out, he could hear the blood rushing through his head making him dizzy, he could barely tell up from down, but he could feel a breeze as air was pulled inward to take up the vacuum left by the pressure exuded via the falling building. Then he saw it, a small ray of light, coming down through a fissure in-between the stone and wood, he had regained strength enough for one last show of force, and once he had positioned himself he forced his way upward, out of the remains of the building, breathing heavily to aid his tired screaming muscles, his chest rising and falling deeply enough to move his entire torso and arms along with it as he stood facing the sun and the breeze. He forced his breathing to stop, halting his movement, drew in deeply and shouted to her, the one he had done this for, the one he had fought for, not for the town, not for the island, not for what was 'right', not for 'justice'; for HER.

"NAMI!"

His breaths now shallow, causing his to shake slightly, as he gathered his remaining strength to tell her that it was over, she was free, free to do anything she wanted, be anything she wanted, she had him and he would always back her up because no matter where they were, together or apart, in the same room or half a world away….

"...YOU ARE MY NAKAMA!"

So...how'd I do? Good? Bad? Wanna poke me in the eye for messing up a great scene in the Manga and Anime? Wanna kiss me for being awesome? Sorry I have a missus, and if that "Black eye for looking" taught me anything, it's that she won't share! In any case, RR: Read Review Recommend if you would be so kind.

Much love, peace out!