1. Roughly based off a quote I read once: My older sister has amnesia. She forgets about everything that has happened about the day before, every time she wakes up in the morning. Her boyfriend of 3 years gives her a kiss every morning so she would never forget her "first kiss". His never-forgotten love gives me hope.
2. A Copper is a person on a ship that makes barrel or the like.
Most people would have thrown in the towel, given up when it looked like she would never recover.
Most people would have lost their patience with her when she took too long to answer a simple question or forgot how to do the simplest of things.
Most people would have looked upon her with pity and treated her like a child, babied her and sheltered her from the world she could no longer function in.
Most people were not Luffy.
I had watched him ever since my sister's accident. Each day I thought would be the day he gave up, the day he finally abandoned her and left her at the next town they docked at. Each day I was certain would be the day he finally lost his patience and threw in the towel. And each day he continued to amaze me.
"C'mon Kiei!" my captain laughed loudly, drawing my attention across the deck. He was sitting beside my confused sister teaching her the proper way to hold her fork. From the looks of it, she was having a hard time grasping the concept of when to use which utensil. "You have to use your fork when you eat things that aren't liquids or else it's harder!" He offered her a kind smile as he showed her once more how to hold the fork.
Ever since the accident left Kiei with amnesia the crew had taken it upon themselves to take extra care of their Copper. When they discovered that she could no longer remember the events from the day before their captain saw it as his personal duty to re-teach her everything and answer any of her questions.
While everyone else knew it was nothing but a lost cause, the determined boy would not give up on her. Each day it was like a routine, he would wake her up at the crack of dawn and sit out on the deck with her and answer all of her questions – sometimes even give her demonstrations when she did not seem to understand – well into the afternoon or evenings. There were times that he had even forgotten to eat, a sight that the crew could hardly believe! And as the stars began to shine in the sky, he would call an end to their lessons and help her to her feet.
With each lesson done he would offer her a smile and kiss her softly upon her lips. Her face would burn hotly from the action – it was her first kiss after all – and shyly retreat below deck for rest. When she would close her eyes and drift off to sleep her memories of the day would be erased and the next day she would have to start anew.
"Why do you do that?" I had asked my captain one night after my sister had left. "She does not remember it or you in the morning, so why put yourself through that pain?"
My captain only offered me a lopsided grin.
"If she never remembers anything at all, I want her to go to bed remembering her first kiss."
My captain's words cast a new light upon Kiei's accident. Maybe, just maybe, with Luffy's never-forgotten love, she would one day remember the day before, and the day after that, and the day after that.
I went to sleep soon after with a smile on my face and hope in my heart.