Hello fellow One Piece nerds! I AM working on other fanfiction stories! I haven't given up on them whatsoever! I'm even working on a requested story for empressakua655. So this new story doesn't mean I've stopped at all. (^ v ^) At the same time, I have exams coming. This means that over the next ten weeks, I will probably be spending more time on incredibly dark one-shots rather than working on my more light pieces so anything written in THIS section will be dedicated to that period of time. Enjoy! This work is also just going to stay as a one-shot by the way, regardless of what people ask or say. This is purely self-indulgent as I accept "death by test".

Note on Sharlia/Shalria: so apparently her name translates to both of these. When selecting the names of characters involved, it didn't say "Shalria" so I was confused but now I know why!

WARNINGS: Dark; brutal. Don't touch this if you can't take it but don't feel bad at all! I respect people like that. On another note, I'm just that horrible and hope that everyone else enjoys this piece. I'm not even going to specify what makes this piece so dark. I would have preferred to include more gore I guess but maybe I'll just save that for a work in the near future.

Lu growled behind the bars as the pair of "pet trainers" stepped through the hallway, holding themselves highly and above all the other animals in the room and pretending to be any more human, and continued chewing on the remains of the arm of that last contestant he had been put up against and hugging it close to his naked and scarred chest with a clear message of possessiveness. This meat was his. The air surrounding the hall reeked of the dead and decaying. Blood smears painted walls and between bars, occasionally dripping in places where the trainer or another mad slave got a little carried away. It was so easy to fall to that madness though and Lu knew it perfectly. He had tried for so long. So so long to stay human but it wasn't to last. His face turned blank as the Straight-Standers marched onward rather than turning his way. It wasn't safe yet. Not until they were out. Perhaps they were here for someone else though and nothing would happen to him for a while. Trying to avoid the hope of being completely ignored, the raven-haired mess of a creature continued to gnaw at the thing that was now nothing more than several bones. This was fortunate, actually. Last time he had this opportunity he screwed it up by swallowing the entire thing and then he went and got sick, completely wasting his hard-earned meal! But it was okay; he was an idiot then and it wasn't as though his thoughts were much higher than the simple "survive no matter the cost". But he was at least a little bit smarter and took the opportunity to play Stack with all the bones. He even had a place to keep water now, too! It was simple really. All there was to it was to balance all the bones on top of each other! It hadn't been easy the first time though... that long annoying bone he just wanted to tear apart with his teeth alongside the two slightly smaller ones were really difficult to put on top of each other! The bones were just so round and too smooth. Plus they had a sort of bend to their shapes that made them incredibly easy to fall off each other. But Lu was less experienced then and now he was better. There was a slight flicker in the back of his mind of various colours and faceless people that maybe he knew once but it seemed a few too many brainwashings and tortures had gotten in the way of all that. In the end it was better to just not try anyway. Carefully, the slave began to balance all the little bones on top of the bigger bones he never knew the names of. Did they even have names? There was... one he had called Ace many many sleeps ago and for some reason he had been very caring for that bone in particular. But then, like all good things, it had been taken away and for the first time in... a long while... Lu had just kept crying.

Lu suddenly heard one of the Straight-Standers' boots stop and his little pile of bones fell to a heap. No curse would be strong enough to convey the heart-crushing fear he was now experiencing. The only sounds were another man's shoes, the tap-tap-tapping of another soul gone mad and a very distant screaming that none in the room put any thought to. None of the slaves dared to take or release breath. Not even Lu.

"Yer ch'sn someone?" the deep voice, uncaring on the surface with an underlying hint of excitement, echoed across the rock and seastone walls.

A single pair of boots continued to march through, painfully slowly, and Lu wanted to back into his special corner. But if he moved, he would be taken for certain. If he released his breath, he would be chosen. The only hope was for another slave to do it first. He didn't want to be killed. Too many primal instincts to do that. His home had always been hell – he thought? – but it was his. Instead, his eyes darted side to side knowing that for now, it was all he could do until they came close enough to see his face. Speaking of which-

Lu's eyes abruptly held firm in a single position that was towards the side and not in the eyes of the trainers – the Straight-Standers – knowing that it would not even make a fraction of a difference at this point. His pile of dirtied toys was now in scatters and the echoing had silenced. The screaming muffled by layers and layers of walls was all that played for the background music to the deep breaths of the man before him, hunched lower to get a better look at the thing behind the bars.

Testing. Testing. He was testing. But what this time? This always happened. A long repeat of not knowing what to do, getting hurt, rarely being told why he was getting hurt but not a real explanation of how he could avoid getting hurt, start getting an idea of what it might have been, try to do the right thing, find out it wasn't the right thing, get hurt, more hurt and begin wondering why keep going in the first place. In those darkest moments Lu would get a hazy image of bright yellow and red with weird muffled words coming from nowhere. That was all Lu had to go by but there was a little feeling in there that was... not bad bad. A good bad maybe? Was there a good bad? Chewing scraps and finding bones was a sort of good-bad wasn't it? But that feeling was different still... Surely it could not have been a good-good. Right?

Brought back to the image in front of him, Lu's eyes flickered and met the man's in front of him and Lu's entire body stiffened and tensed worse than before. The man grinned.

"Yeah," he called to his partner, "I chosen."

line break

Lu roared in rage and fear as the single bullets in both of his legs prevented him from running and his body was held in place at the wrists and head by the first Straight-Stander and the other just walked casually behind, occasionally making a move to grab hold of the malnourished teen's weak ankles that would try to kick and flail. The first man glared at the slave he was keeping in control but wouldn't move to hit it but rather twisted an arm around its throat and using the other to push the slave against the bars of another creature's cage by its shoulders to prevent it from using its arms. Thank goodness they had starved it for so damn long or this would have been one bigger hell of a nightmare. Maintaining a firm grip, he used his second hand to pull a long dagger from the side of his belt and swiftly turned to point the thing at the slave in front of him. Holding the sharp edge against the side of its neck and tilting it closer to the front of the throat hard enough that even gulping would be enough to cause pain. It didn't twitch a muscle after that and the man almost sighed in relief at the hard work he had done to get the thing to listen.

"Saint Shalria-"

He felt the filthy brat flinch under his arms and his own grin broadened in self-satisfaction.

"-wants one of her beloved pets for her party."

The slave trainer smirked as said pet went limp from the sound of those words. He didn't care even a beri about those World Nobles but his job paid excellently and he was good at what he did. The proof of his praiseworthy talent was seen daily and it felt glorious. Turning to the other he made a pointed gesture to his own mouth, gesturing for the other guy to go and get the muzzle they would need to strap onto it.

Lu stopped processing everything in his sight at that moment and could barely feel the straps going around his face or the pain of being dragged by the two Straight-Standers. He was being moved. Again. To that room of all places. Maybe if he begged they would take him back. He didn't care what he had to do at this point so long as he could be out and even back in his cage. Back to his little bones and playing Stack and back to where he could hear the comforting noises of other people's screams rather than his own. His water was back there too and no one had found it yet. He had made that container so carefully as well! For a short moment Lu felt a tingle of guilt in the depths of this unfed belly as a question came, asking if Lu had actually cared for another person more than he did now. Before Lu could really think about it much longer his vision cleared up from the haze that had washed through his mind and he realised he was in that room now.

White walls decorated with paintings of those Celestial Dragons and their weird pulled up hair, framed in gold and other useless things. Lu stopped looking at that the second he saw it, bringing his attention to all the annoying lights above him and this stupid feeling churned his stomach painfully that there was indeed an absence of... something or other... before remembering the rules and snapped his head back downwards to the floor. How could he ever forget?

"Mmm..." the high humming of the familiar woman from behind caused Lu to curl in on himself, knowing his place in this and the result of what would happen were he to meet her gaze.

"You taught him well-su," she smirked coming around Lu's front, standing a good distance back to avoid getting his filth on her. Lu's eyes narrowed and he repressed another animalistic growl.

The two Straight-Standers continued to grip firmly on him and now Lu recognised the irritating tight straps around his face and the metal dome-thingy covering his mouth with the three little tiny holes at the front. He should have torn their hands off when he had the chance...

"Na~, where is your place-su?" the question sounded so deceivingly sweet but Lu wouldn't fall for that now.

"Slave," the word came loudly alongside a strike to the temple with the back of a gun. "Speak!"

Lu's world tilted as he crashed into the ground, the special muzzle clanking with the tiled floor. What had he done this time? He looked at all the right places, he didn't even see her at all! He didn't speak, didn't growl, didn't-

Didn't speak. He had been told, hadn't he? What had she asked again?

"I-I," he almost coughed into the gross muzzle but managed to get a hold on it.

Another blow came to his throat this time.

"You do NOT speak unless I say-nasu!"

Lu could feel her hard and angered gaze staring down at his hunched broken form.

"Now... where is your place-nasu?"

Lu didn't respond, fully understanding this trick.

"Speak-su."

"H-here," he choked out through the muzzle and he vainly hoped that the hits would be all that would happen.

Saint Shalria smirked at the slave's obedience. It had taken a long time but once they had taken away that hat, among other things, it had been a quick process. She hadn't even needed those pathetic trainers either! She had to do everything herself these days and internally huffed.

"Stand up-su," she demanded and the slave staggered onto its feet.

Even the bullets wouldn't prevent it from following an order. The Celestial Dragon's grin broadened.

"Mmm.." she tutted through her teeth, not having expected to be brought this one.

From the looks of it, it was already rather broken. Starved, shot, bleeding with dried blood in places and long shoulder-length matted hair. Incredibly thin. Practically useless but this one was special to the point that even her brother had seen potential in entertainment. Occasionally they would trade slaves for a few days if they were bored and this one in particular made quite the spectacle in the arena.

"I think the memory room-amasu. I want it for my party!" she decided.

Lu wanted to squirm and thrash but he didn't. Whatever he was going to be put through would only be worse if he went against it. What was the memory room anyway? Hands of the trainers grabbed at him and that was all Lu needed for his mental rule to be completely abandoned. Lu thrashed around painfully in their hands. The explosive collar was tight around his neck and the muzzle shook in place as he tried to escape their hold. He didn't know where he was going this time but he didn't need to search very deep in his gut to feel a foreboding sense of dread and pain. He wouldn't go! He refused! Not that place! The- place with- hurt- and bad. That horrible bad. Even if he couldn't remember. Lu growled openly at everyone in the room. All those trainers and Dragons that stood straight without any fear because they had nothing to fear were all disgusting and horrible while Lu was all bent up and disgusting from all those things they all did. Infected by their being.

The Dragon woman reached to her gun by her side again, likely to beat him into further submission but she didn't. She paused and hummed thoughtfully, leaving the gun in its holster. Lu almost took a deep breath.

"The room will be enough-nasu," Saint Shalria decided.

And it would be. The room worked every time but this time would be a notch worse. Shalria walked with care through the long white halls with shelves of luxurious items from all over the world. Expensive toys, goblets, jewels, golden figures costing millions upon millions of beri each. It was perfect and somehow never enough. Her own father carried a fine collection of slaves and for his upcoming birthday he would be given anything he could dream of. She would make sure her gift would be far more special than Charlos's. An easily breakable rubber toy; strong in the arms – she had seen it in the arena – and had a confused broken up mind. This would likely be the slave's last session in the memory room and she would make it count. Shalria suddenly turned to the right and now faced a durable intricately carved wooden door that contrasted rather deceptively with the rest of the mansion and especially with the place inside. Normally she wouldn't go inside such horrid places herself but she would make her present count and perhaps in the future she would be a step closer to receiving her father's inheritance!

"Get the door," she ordered one of her trainers.

The two common men holding onto her pet glanced at each other before one of them – the taller one – stretched his sleeve over his disgusting hand and used it to turn the handle of the door. Stepping inside, she left the two men behind at the door as she glared at the short thin woman inside that was busy doing something she didn't care about.

"Another one is here for you to work with," Saint Shalria's voice came out harshly as it always did to anyone that wasn't on her divine level.

The curly-haired brunette didn't turn upwards to meet her eyes but continued wiping the vertical metal panel on the side wall with a cloth.

"Understood. I just finished cleaning up from the last... slave," she replied, shifting her glasses upwards slightly.
"Good," the Saint smiled with a dark edge to it. "Bring it in!" she called to the two still standing outside with the prize in hand.

The two men stepped in with sweat building up on their skin, likely out of nervousness and not knowing what would happen if they touched even the walls.

The other woman glanced up, now seeing the slave in hand and almost gagged. Hadn't they done enough? This boy... he had been in so many times, never remembering the terrible ordeal until he entered the room all over again. This was awful and she wanted no part in the constant harming of these people! But if she didn't she would be killed and her own family was in direct business with the Celestial Dragons; it was literally her place to do this line of work, especially after being given that cursed devil fruit..

The second Lu saw that wall and its several straps it was as though a person had turned the tap on to his emotions and had plugged up the sink, leaving it to flood. Fear and terror and horror and pain and guilt and all the other bad feelings. No pictures came to mind, no reason at all why he could imagine he would feel this way but this situation didn't seem like the typical lashings of whips or stabs or needles. Again, he began to struggle in the Straight-Standers' arms frantically. All he could think of was "Get. Out".

The woman with the glasses knew what to do in this situation and turned her body onto automatic, seizing the needle on her little moveable tray table. She needed to get the teen to calm down before he got out of control. Before she could bring the needle any closer Saint Shalria moved her arm in front of her, preventing her to get to the frantic kid.

"Wha-" but she clamped her mouth shut. The monster of a woman would do whatever in the world she liked and if that was to refrain her from calming her slave down then that was what she would do.

"Stay here to do your part and I will stay to do mine," Shalria ordered.

The Saint was staying? In here? She would never do that!

"O-okay," she replied.

Saint Shalria turned to the other trainers and scowled.

"You two will leave now," she stated.
The two men didn't even say a thing before rushing out the door in a flurry, still trying to not seem too eager to leave the master's presence.

'Now...' Saint Shalria thought to herself, 'let's have some fun...'

The next several minutes were spent observing the glasses woman strapping the pet into place on the wall. One thick leather strap lined in seastone was over its forehead but not touching. On the back of it, thin and sharp seastone needles. The same were with every other strap. The one over its shoulders, its chest, its knees, its calves and its little ankles. It had to stand perfectly straight and if it didn't then the needles would impale it. How tragic that would be. Of course, after previous tests they had found that covering the backs of the straps entirely in needles wouldn't be that harmful as the pressure would simply distribute, not actually piercing the body as they held balance. Now however, things were different and adjustments had been made. Not too many needles close together, make them of various lengths perfectly to make for certain that someone couldn't simply rest. By now, the system was perfect for stimulating stress and pain without relief. Must be difficult with those bullets still in its legs too. How... entertaining.

"Na~, Glasses, play your little trick," she smiled to herself in satisfaction. The hard work of ordering others was often worth it.

The younger woman paid no mind to the fact that the Saint Shalria had yet to bother with learning her name and instead, stuck to a much more simple term. Such was the way of the Dragons. Now she was stuck in the act of obeying an order though and if she didn't, well, she would rather be a guilty giver than a damaged receiver... Not bothering to fix the slipping glasses over her nose, she pointed her finger to the subject in front and stood back, checking to make sure that the other was at her distance in order to avoid taking the blame for anything that could go wrong. After checking, she approached the strapped up slave and her thoughts quickly turned panicked.

'It's not real. It's not real. All I gotta do is touch. It's okay. Papa, when we're free from these connections... if ever... I wanna use these powers for something good. I wanna be free. We could be so much more Papa, Mother, if we get out. If we get out if we get out if we get-"

Her finger touched the forehead of the boy in front of her and she wanted to cry. Curse all those useless attempts to harden herself like all those other no-good trainers. The boy, in turn, went absolutely rigid at the touch even as she removed her finger. Even after a few years of experience this always seemed to be just as difficult.

Lu was cautious about the hand approaching him and he could feel this air of fear and helplessness around the lady in front of him. She looked so kind and was timidly reaching towards him. Mixed messaged between flee, stay and fight were too much for him to act quickly. The needles threatening to impale his body made the decision for him, though, as the finger descended on his forehead. Instantly everything froze. His eyes darted side to side, not knowing what to do with them or where to look, as years' worth of memories came flooding back. It was as though someone had removed some sort of barrier on an ever-running tap and the water had all come rushing out at once, filling the basin in less than a second and spilling uselessly onto the tiled floor. There was just so much to process; it hurt. There were so many names so many people so many... colours. And smells and textures and feelings. Image after image entered and he was slowly going mad.

'ShanksHatPirateFreeHomeBrotherGreenMakinoForestDreamHopeAceSaboAceShanksGarpGrampsFistLove?MarinesShipsWaterOceanSkySoilFireBanditsGrassFreeFree'

He couldn't make sense of it. The memories were all jumbled and scattered and it wasn't even an orderly tap flooding in his head anymore but had been shattered under the sheer pressure of the water. He didn't want to make sense of it all; it would just hurt! It would have been better to have never seen such things in the first place. But a small part of him wanted to make sense of the horrifying mess and clung on to tiny fractures.

"Ne, Luffy, haven't you heard of pirates?"

"Geeze Anchor, you're too little to set out to see yet!"

"A pistol...?" the man with red hair and a strawhat, three conspicuous scars cutting diagonally across the left eye, sounded unimpressed though fond as he teased, "...really."

"OI! What's that supposed to mean?" a little kid with a small arced scar underneath his eye yelled out in response to the man.

"Luffy-"

"Lu-"

"MONKEY. D. LUFFY, YOU GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW!"

"Luf-"

Too many sounds. Too many noises. So many were so friendly and happy. A nice happy. Not like the terrifying happy that he had experienced so much. His head utterly ached by this point and he wasn't sure how long it had been. A woman's voice called through.
"S-Saint Shalria, he's just rejecting it! I can't-"

Lu processed the sounds of a hit. That was familiar. If he just focused on that.

"Who are you to order me?! Make him take it-su!"

Images, sounds, blurred and mucked up chunks of words and movements flitted in and out of his mind, looping on a cycle too difficult to make sense of. It was pull it apart or fall apart, he realised.

He had to make it make sense or it wouldn't. It would hurt him for all his life and he would never know a thing about what it was. Everything felt vaguely familiar yet it passed too quickly to know for certain and it would leave just as quickly as it came, leaving the slightly more filled state to be emptied and left in an even greater mess. Slowly... slowly things started to make a little sense. He could reach out within himself, take one of the broken pieces and have a look, ignoring everything else until it was over.

"This will be our promise then. This hat is very precious to me."

A little boy – him – had tears pouring in streaks down his rounded cheeks. Cheers from villagers and friends echoed behind him as his precious friends left the island's port.

'I will Shanks,' he thought, 'I promise.'

Suddenly he was even younger, being educated by a much older man in black hair and a slight beard about the terrors pirates commit and how the wonderful power of the Marines would prevent them from doing any harm.

"No Gramps! I don't wanna sit around and follow dumb orders! I wanna play!"

"Bwahahahahah! That's okay, you don't get it now but one day you'll be an excellent Marine!"

"Dammit Gramps, no!" his small fist attempted to make a punch. He would show that old man just how good his punches were! But his grandfather just stood there still as his short arm didn't even reach the distance! But it was okay; Gramps had just gotten lucky that time.

Now he was older, even more than the first proper scene and there was a little more distance between his eyes and the ground.

"Brat! How many times have I told you! You are not becoming some criminal!" the old man yelled at him and dragged him through the mountain's forest.

"This is Luffy, he's my grandson," he told this woman – Dadan – standing guardedly at the front door.

"G-G-G-GRANDSON?"

"Oi, Luffy! That's Ace! He's your new older brother!" he added to the conversation cheerfully, filling it with more laughter before finishing up his chatter with the bandits and saying goodbyes.

Two boys sat by his side in a small ring around three small decorated red cups. One of the boys, Ace, spoke up with a broad grin plastered to his face and not once threatening to fall.

"Did you know... that when people share sake, they become brothers?"

He and the blond boy, Sabo, cheered happily at the statement. Their smiles became bigger and their eyes absolutely brightened.

Did happiness to such a degree exist? Slowly, more pieces came together. Memories of happier, more beautiful days were no longer so clattered and instead started to make sense. And now he knew. His name, his full name, his... age?... how he got here, and he knew that there was more to life and he suddenly remembered every other time he had been made to come into this room. Every time the lady with glasses would look at him with pain and regret as she made him remember and forget like she was told. He had a dream though! Friends, family, an actual home! Promises that needed to be fulfilled and an Ace, bandits and bartender to say sorry to for disappearing like that. For being taken. An entire year before Ace was going to leave as well!

But he wasn't all there either... It was never completely happy or completely painful and that's what made the new memories hurt the most. What he had been going through since he was taken up until now hadn't been completely normal when he had thought it was. He had killed, become a wild intolerable animal that not even the most loving person in the world could accept. He ate people too when he could and an awful sickness churned through his stomach. The little games he had always called fun were nothing more than sadistic and disturbing. And that material for his makeshift water container... That was something he could never forgive of himself even if he had been so utterly desperate. No one's skin deserved to be used for that. His family would never want him back now after everything he had done and he began to wonder why in the world Shanks had given up his arm for in the first place. And suddenly his sense of hate was so much stronger as well. How dare they take what was so precious from him! Not just his hat – and he wanted to make sure it was still safe – but all those memories and dreams that had been turned to dust for who-knows-how-long! And now he also knew what could so easily be taken away from him again... Fear ate at his essence as these thoughts darkened.

Saint Shalria smiled at the success. So it could think again, how lovely! That trainer in the room was probably wondering if she could get away with leaving if she could. With the order to stop for now, the other sighed with a faint sense of relief as she stepped to the opposite side of the room where now she would have full access to the slave.

Stepping up to the spiteful slave, Shalria smirked at its open display of emotion. She would have preferred it as it was moments ago when it was all grateful for the food it was blessed in receiving or would obey at the slightest sound or threat. But this was always fun as well and the best part with this slave in particular was that it didn't matter how many times this same process was repeated, it would always come back with determination, hope and a will to be crushed out again. It wasn't boring at all! Normally she wouldn't give such items the privilege to be graced with her direct presence but it was her father's upcoming birthday celebration and such times were prone to having to make sacrifice... Again, she wanted to huff.

An invisible tension filled the room with pressure as Luffy glared directly at the Celestial Dragon with every layer of hate that was inside him. All of it. The room's temperature dropped and he could see the two remaining in the room begin to sweat and falter. All he could imagine was his rage, his hate, his yearning for the freedom he wouldn't be able to find just yet.

Saint Shalria could feel a heavy pressure against her on some occasions with this slave and she took it as a sign that she had done well in angering it. She smirked slightly as sweat built up on her forehead behind the glass dome donned over her head. The pressure increased and her body began to shake as incredible amounts of fear pierced her mind. Her very core was wracked with tension and she was filled with the urge to beg for mercy. Shalria's eyes widened with fear; this hadn't happened to such a degree until now! She would... she would need to remind it of its place.

"You..." she turned sharply to the Glasses woman curled up in fear on the ground.
The woman said nothing.

"Trainer-su!" she yelled, finally grabbing the other's attention. After a few pants she straightened herself, refusing to bend down in the presence of mere servants. "Make it hurt-nasu," she ordered.

"Make it hurt-nasu," the trainer heard the other order her.
"H-how? I-" her frame shook as she remained curled up against the cold floor. She wanted no part in this and already she felt like a cornered mouse, ready to be swallowed up by something so much larger. She didn't want to hurt the boy but... she was so terrified and it was cornered prey's nature to kick wildly against whatever the source of fear was; even if it was a small boy. She wanted that pressure gone and to feel safer again...! She didn't want to be trapped. No cages, no pain, no fear. Just. Free.

"O-okay..." she whispered loud enough to be heard by the others.
Slowly and shakily she stood up from the floor, using her arms to support her, and stumbled over to in front of the slave strapped painfully against the wall.
'It's not my fault,' she thought, holding her hands close to her heart and trying to separate herself off from the rest of the world. 'He's just- no. It's just a slave. Not a person. That's right, it's not a person. It's a toy. It doesn't feel. No feelings, don't-'

She tried to separate her natural emotions from her actions. She couldn't afford to inflict this sort of damage onto another perso-

'No, not a person. Slave. Slave. Slave. Toy- without feelings. Slave.'
As she tapped her finger against it's forehead for a second time and felt the intense shaking beneath it... she had to hold back her cry of apology.

Luffy's vision went black the second that finger touched his head but returned in even less time and it was as though nothing had changed at all. Only... the door that he had been brought through earlier creaked as it once again opened and his eyes widened. His body shook terribly at the sight of his older brother, Ace, standing there at the door. He shouldn't be here. He was in danger and he had to get out now! Ace's eyes were dark and shadowed beneath his typical orange hat as he stepped forward closer to his little brother.
"A-A," Luffy tried to call out and warn his older brother but the word died in his throat before it escaped.

His older brother continued forward. In his head, Luffy was screaming all sorts.
'Get out, you idiot!'
'Ace, I'm so so sorry.'

'Don't get hurt!'

'Why aren't you at home or sailing or-?'

"Oh, Luffy..." Ace said in a voice of ice as he stepped closer and Luffy grew frightened. That voice never meant anything positive. But Ace was his older brother and his older brother protected him!
"You're such a disappointment, you know that...?" Ace was standing directly over him now, tall enough to glare hatefully at the younger and Luffy's eyes widened with fear. No, this wasn't Ace. This couldn't be Ace. He began to thrash, completely forgetting where he was and the two others in the room. He could only see himself and Ace in the same room. Blood poured from where seastone needles pierced skin.

Ace and Luffy were in their own world now.
"Ace! Please, what'd I do?!" he screamed out, desperate for his brother to show a sign of the previous affection.
"Isn't it obvious, slave?' he spat with vehement hostility. Luffy's blood froze. "You were born," he finished.
This couldn't be his brother. He would never say such a thing!
"No?" Ace scoffed. "Clearly you don't remember how we met."
What about when they met?
"I tried to kill you, ne? Again, again, again, but you kept following me. Just like the tiny pathetic needy trash you are," he glared with the same hate he had shown towards Luffy the day they met; Ace had spat on him then. Th-these weren't Ace's words though. Ace would swear at him and tell him how dumb he was with a small fist to the head but it would be done with some sense of brotherly warmth and love.
"Heh, if you think that's love, you should just give up. Maybe it wasn't clear enough just how much me and Sabo wanted you gone."
A-Ace wouldn't bring Sabo into this.
"We both hated you, you know. But you must've been too dumb to realise I guess. I didn't think it was possible to make such overestimations."
No! Ace and Sabo cared about him! Didn't they...? They had saved him from Bluejam!
"Sabo felt sorry for you. If it were up to me..." Ace lowered himself to meet Luffy's fearful eyes perfectly, "I would have left you to that sword."
Ace traced his fingers down the side of Luffy's face in a caressing arc and the almost loving gesture made Luffy's previous worries blur as he tried to capture his brother's brilliant warmth. The fingers traced down to his chin with care and down the side of his neck, rubbing over his throat before digging his sharp nails savagely into the younger's skin and Luffy screamed out in surprise and pain.

More steps echoed through the hallway outside – ghostly – as another figure approached. The fingers impaling Luffy's throat tore away and his raven-haired brother glared before turning around to meet the eyes of a much smaller blond with a missing tooth.
"I keep trying to sort things out between you two," Sabo tutted as he held the rim of his top hat.

"Honestly, you two argue so much," he sighed, "but Ace is right, Luffy."
What...?
"I was feeling pretty bad... Ace was being a good friend and simply agreed with me. I only realised my mistake a while after you were completely safe and by that point, well, it was too late to simply get rid of you," he laughed lightly as though it were the funniest little mistake in the world.
"It was a hilarious mistake. You thought we wanted you?" he walked up, looking up to meet Luffy's eyes just like Ace had but Sabo was still just as small as he had been the day he disappeared. "We would have wanted you. Oh if only you had been someone else and not you things could have been perfect!" he chuckled.
Luffy was so torn by the words he was hearing and was no longer that thirteen-year-old(?) with family and friends he grew up into but was back to that self-conscious little seven-year-old boy that feared rejection.
"Oi, Luffy," Sabo added, wrapping both hands harshly around the aching arms of the trapped teen and Luffy just realised he couldn't move. "Do you know why I left?"
Luffy knew why his blond brother had left all those years ago though as the words had been written in that letter. Sabo just wanted to be free! Free from his family and from the expectations that came with being a noble. Away from the downright evil upper-class and-
"Wrong," the brother interrupted his thoughts. "I just wanted to escape you. Getting away from that forest with you in it just wasn't enough. I could have lived longer if you had let me."
If Luffy was scared before, he was utterly horrified now. Not just the way his brothers had their hands around him but their eyes filled with hate and rage all directed towards the youngest of the brothers and the words spoken that could be true. Their brothers had said those words after all; how could they not be?

Hateful eyes caused Luffy's starved body to squirm underneath as it sought some form of haven – even within itself. He had simply been staring blankly at the white wall in the distance, tears beginning to form streams down his cheeks, as his brothers' nails tore into his skin. The tears marked deeper, ripping skin and muscle together, blood pooling under his body at the brutality, teeth beginning to savagely tear away the shell of skin and not even his willpower was enough to withhold the bloodcurdling screams exerted from his throat. All he could think was a grief-filled apology to the ones he had loved so much as his mind was quickly lost.

Saint Shalria watched the writhing with utmost euphoria as that tension from moments ago was lost; this was so much better than she could have ever expected! The slave was clearly going mad by now as it screamed and shook, body constantly colliding with the sharp seastone needles and causing its own its own downfall. With much amusement she briefly wondered if the image she was seeing was anything as bad as whatever her toy was experiencing right now.

'It will be a shame to give this one away to Father...' she sighed.

Please review! It means a lot to me since I'm still starting out. Any criticism regarding grammatical/plot mistakes is appreciated however, if it is within a character's speech such as "me and (this person)" rather than "(this person) and I" then that's just because that is how I have interpreted my character's speech.

Second note: I can proudly say that the first torture idea is purely original as well as that game of Stacks (to a degree since I actually used to play that with proper sticks when I was little) using the bones. The second torture was probably inspired by various fanfiction works to a degree although, I like to think I was more savage about it.