Mirioria: I'm glad you stuck with it! Can you tell me what I could change that might make the synopsis sound more intriguing? I'm not the best at the summaries. :)
SarahPrincess: I'm glad you like it! I hope you stick with it, though the angst comes like a flood!
Smiley-Nami: I'm glad you find it interesting for those reasons. I hope you stick with it!
Pour on the angst! There's Ace bashing in this, but he was an ass in the anime/manga so it's not too surprising. The bandits are also really mean. Enjoy~
Luffy looked around a padded room, full of pillows, and piles upon piles of food. Mostly meat. He looked to the side to see himself lying on the bed, smiling. He was clearly having a good dream. Though, he was wearing clothes Luffy had never seen or worn. That wasn't him.
That was probably the other Luffy. "Meat…" he mumbled with a grin, before the scene faded and Luffy opened his eyes.
The blankets were still over Luffy's face. He was scared to pull them down. But the suspense was killing him. He pulled them down, his eyes closed. He had gathered the courage to open his eyes. And tears started to pour down his face.
Yesterday hadn't been a vivid dream. Luffy was trapped here until someone came to get him and bring him back home, or he found a portal to go back. Then, he'd never go near that stupid lake ever again.
The boy slowly got off the bed and opened the dressers, looking for clothes. He'd worn pajamas all day yesterday. He put on a shirt with a monkey face on it, which he wasn't sure what it was, and some blue shorts, with the only shoes in the house, which were straw sandals. They werent very comfortable, but that was all there was.
He was almost out of food, so all he had was slices of bread. He ate the whole loaf quickly. When he opened the front door, Shanks and his friend was passed out under a tent that had been made that covered them from the sky, but not the cold.
The slap sounds of the sandals woke them up. Luffy pretended to be extremely sleepy and yawned, rubbing his eyes. "Shanks? What are you doing here?" he asked in a confused voice. The man woke up immediately.
"Hey, Luffy. How're you feeling?" he asked slowly. Luffy knew he was trying to not freak out Luffy in case he was still crazy like yesterday.
Luffy frowned, furrowing his brows. "I don't remember what happened yesterday. I- I can't remember a lot of things!" Luffy shouted in panic. "I don't remember his name," he said and pointed towards Beckman, the other man. He hadnt seen what happened to Luffy yesterday. "What happened to me yesterday?"
Shanks smiled, relieved at thinking Luffy was back to normal. "A lot of things happened yesterday. You didn't recognize anything or anyone, and were talking about strange things. But you're all better now," the man said.
"Grandpa said he's coming to beat me up to make me sane again. Was I crazy?" Luffy asked with wide eyes. Shanks scowled and swore at the old man. What kind of treatment is beating someone who needs help like this?!
"Well, maybe you just had a vivid dream, or ate something that made you hallucinate. Though, the glass flying of the bar counter was a bit unsettling," Shanks added. "Oh, and his name is Beckman. The first mate."
Luffy didn't ask what a first mate was, as he was clearly supposed to know that. "I… I still can't remember a lot of things. Am I still crazy?"
"Well, we'll just have to see what happens today. What is your full name? You had trouble with this yesterday," Shanks said kindly. He really was a nice man, and Luffy liked him a lot.
"Monkey D. Luffy," the boy recited, remembering from yesterday.
"Good! Let's go to the Party Bar and let Makino know you're feeling better today. You remember her right?" Luffy nodded slowly. He walked through the little streets in the simple village and to the tavern he'd been to the day before.
All of Shanks's crew were in there, and grew silent when Luffy entered. The boy looked uncomfortable under all of the strangers' gazes.
"How you feeling, Luffy?" a fat man with a piece of meat on a dagger asked. Luffy shrugged and turned his back to everyone. They frowned and looked to their captain.
"He's feeling better, but seems to have lost some of his memory. Don't know why, but I'm sure we'll figure it out," Shanks said reassuringly, and sat one bar stool away from Luffy, asking for a glass of water. He didn't want to get drunk while Luffy was like this.
Luffy was given orange juice, and thanked Makino. "I'm sorry for however I acted yesterday," he apologized. Makino gave him a soft smile.
"Everyone has bad days," she said nicely, in a motherly voice. He'd only heard that kind of voice from mom back home. She was a nice beast that looked over everyone and especially Luffy. She was the one to raise him, before his friends came along to help in different ways.
Luffy nodded and finished his juice. "I'm gonna go outside," he mumbled, not liking that this lady reminded him of mom. She told him to be careful and not get into trouble. He almost laughed. Could he have gotten into any worse trouble than he already was with this whole nightmare?
He didn't know Shanks was watching from the window, having moved from the counter to the table closest. Luffy looked depressed as he walked away. He headed to the furthest dock and sat down, his legs dangling over the side. His feet didn't touch the water, and he was leaning backwards instead of forwards. So, he was less likely to fall in like this, though Shanks would still supervise.
The bar erupted into questions about Luffy health today, and Shanks told all of them what had happened so far, and how he acted. Everyone became angry when they heard Garp said he'd beat Luffy back to normal. He was a horrible grandfather, and didn't care about Luffy's seemingly wavering mental health at the moment.
"Zoro… I'm sorry," he said quietly. Right after Luffy said his name, Zoro's blurry and transparent green shadow moved next to him, and swirled around him briefly, before sitting down.
"It seems I can only come here for a few minutes before I'm ejected. Same with Sanji and even Usopp tried. We'll figure out how to get you home. Until then, mom requested that you not let on that you're any different. Not like yesterday," Zoro explained in the echoing voice. Luffy nodded his head, and Zoro faded into nothing.
Luffy balled his fists and set them in his lap. Silent tears rolled down his cheeks. He couldn't be himself here at all. He had to pretend to be someone he'd never met. At least, if that dream was real, the other Luffy whose body he'd snatched was comfortable. That Luffy seemed to be in a lot less stress than the one in the body now.
Luffy spent most of the day sitting somewhere and staring at the ocean. It looked like the one at home, so he imagined he was on the beach at home. The waves were lazy as they splashed against the wooden base keeping the docks up.
Shanks came out a few times to talk to him, but Luffy wasn't much fun talking to. He mostly said "uh huh" or "mmhmm". When he was asked questions, he often didn't answer cause he didn't know what the answer was.
"Will you tell me what I've forgotten," Luffy asked quietly when Shanks came to bring him some food made by Makino, who was concerned, but didn't approach Luffy while he was like this. Shanks was handling him well by himself, and she didn't want to jeopardize Luffy's calmness today.
"What do you think you've forgotten?" Shanks asked, not looking at Luffy as the boy ate his grilled cheese sandwich.
"All about the world," Luffy replied.
"About things like the government? Like marines and pirates?" Luffy nodded.
"Well, the marines are a force that is supposed to protect civillaians and enforce 'justice'. But marines are not the good guys over all. They stop criminals, but they also support slavery and murder. They also torture who they see as criminals, brutally. Pirates sail the seas for adventures, or bad ones pillage and fight. You never want to come across bad pirates.
"I'm a pirate, and everyone in the bar are my crew. But we like to think of ourselves as 'good' pirates. If there is such a thing," he chuckled. "We are the kinds of pirates that travel for fun, not for riches. Though riches are nice to have, we value the fun and enjoyable aspects.
"You always say you want to be a pirate. Do you remember that?" the man asked in an even voice. Luffy shook his head.
"Why did I want to be a pirate?"
"You wanted to be the freest person in the world. And go on adventures with friends, like we do. I think it's a wonderful dream. Of course, that might be because that was my dream, too!" Shanks exclaimed and started laughing. Luffy gave a sad smile.
"Do I have any friends?" the boy asked. He had many friends back home, but he only had blurs of Zoro here. He missed them. Shanks sighed.
"Not really. There aren't any boys your age here, and you don't get along with the older ones. But, you have Makino, and us for now. We'll be staying for awhile," Shanks replied. The crew was planning to depart this month, but not with Luffy like this. They'd push it back by at least a month.
"Thanks for being nice to me," Luffy mumbled, looking at the water below him.
"That's what friends are for, right?"
Luffy spent a lot of time with Shanks, who he started to see as a father figure, though he never said it. He learned a lot about this world, but not about his life. He had no memories of the first Luffy in this body. He knew how all the technology worked, since Usopp and his underlings were in charge of going into other worlds and picking up sophisticated equipment.
But, it was three weeks after Luffy arrival that Garp came. Luffy was playing soccer with Shanks's crew in the grassy field behind some of the houses and between the farmers' fields, when the big man approached the group.
"Red Hair! What are you doing here?" Garp called, though with a grin. But, it didn't seem like a kind grin. He was very big, and Luffy ran behind Shanks. This man was the one who said he'd beat Luffy up to make him sane again.
"We're here for a vacation. And spending time with Luffy. He's not well enough for your type of training, Garp," Shanks said in a firm voice. Luffy still wasn't back to normal. He seemed to have fallen into depression, and rarely smiled anymore. The crew did their best to cheer him up, but it was hard when Luffy never told them what made him depressed. He always dodged the question.
"Nonsense! He's strong enough to endure it; he's my grandson after all!" Garp exclaimed with a booming laugh. Luffy cowered behind Shanks's legs. The pirate put his hand on Luffy's head.
"Garp. You can't beat him right now. You shouldn't in the first place, but he's not ready. Don't you care about him?" Shanks asked. To him, it seemed Garp didn't care about Luffy's mental wellbeing, only his physical.
"Don't you sass me boy. I care about my grandchild. That's why I train him. To be a strong marine!" Luffy gulped. Weren't marines the bad guys? Why would other Luffy's grandpa want Luffy to become someone like that?
Then he looked at the ship. It had the seagull on it, the sign of the marines that Shanks had showed him. So, Garp was a bad guy. And he wanted to beat Luffy into being how he used to be. Luffy didn't know how to be the way their Luffy used to be. He had been told he was a very happy child, who angered easily. But this Luffy was quiet, and sad all of the time in this world.
He forgot how to be happy.
Garp came up to Luffy and picked him up and carried him under his arm. Luffy thrashed around, but wasn't let go. "Shanks! Help me!" he cried. Shanks followed Garp and grabbed his arm, giving him a cold look.
"I've told you enough time that you should listen to me. Luffy is not well!" he said in anger. Garp then threatened to do his duty as a marine and bring them in and put in prison. Shanks had to back off from that, but frowned heavily and frustratedly when he watched Garp take Luffy into the forest.
"Ready boy?" Garp asked with a wicked grin. Before Luffy could flee, he was punched in the head, painfully. He cried out and grabbed his head. He was supposed to be immune to punches wasn't he? "No running away! You're weak if you run away!"
But Luffy tried again, only to be hit harder, and then drop kicked. Luffy didn't fight back, as he couldn't control his rubber powers and was uncoordinated. He had never been in a fight before; he was seven! He had lived in a sheltered and safe place for his whole life. How was he supposed to fight back?
Garp got angry at him when Luffy started crying. "You've grown too soft, Luffy! It's that Red Hair's influence! He's weakened you! Well, that won't do."
Luffy was dragged back to the village, bruised and bloodied from his nose and teeth scraping his lip. He cried the whole way. Then, when Garp was back at Luffy's house that night, after Luffy ran to Shanks for comfort after his one sided beat down, the old man announced that Luffy would be leaving Foosha village. The next day.
Luffy had run up to his room and buried himself under the covers. The only thing keeping him sane was Shanks and sometimes Makino. He had cried in his bed. He didn't know where he'd be taken now, and he couldn't fight back.
So, he stood at the edge of the forest, saying goodbye to Shanks and his crew. He didn't let Garp see his face from behind, for he'd probably hit him painfully for it, but his face was splotchy red and tears were in his eyes, lips pressed together tightly so he didn't whimper.
Shanks smiled at him sadly, and gave him a hug. Luffy probably wouldn't be getting physical affection wherever Garp was taking him. "I'll see you again Luffy. In the future. Until then, I want you to wear my treasure. But make sure to bring it back some day."
Luffy wanted to push it away. He wasn't Shanks's Luffy, and what if the hat disappears when Luffy finally goes home? And he sincerely hoped he'd never see Shanks in the future. He wanted to go home. But, he took the straw hat with a single, quiet sniffle and set it on his head. It was much too big for him, but it stayed on. All he did was nod in goodbye.
The walk through the forest was quiet as Luffy walked behind Garp, his face a blank mask. He just looked tired. So tired. His feet dragged slightly, even though he'd slept last night. He wanted to go back to the Party Bar and be with Shanks and Makino. Where was he going? He didn't ask, though, and Garp hadn't told him.
After a while of walking, they reached a clearing with a run down hut in the middle. It had a lookout tower on top. It was plain looking, but at least it had a lot of yard space. If he ever got happy again, he could play there.
The front door was banged on and a large woman opened it, yelling at Garp until she had the same reaction Luffy did: fear. But, instead of running away, she didn't move and listened to Garp speak, though her eyes were wide.
Two other men came beside her, and Luffy frowned deeply when he heard that those people would be taking care of him now. They didn't look like the nicest people, but at least they weren't Garp.
He looked around and saw something move in the treeline. But he didn't care much. Not really about anything, especially after leaving Foosha village. He looked back to the door, and was called over by Garp.
"Say hello," he said. Luffy mumbled, "Hi…" and was looking down. Then he was punched on the head and told to cheer up. "Hello," Luffy said with what he could best come up with as a smile. More like a grimace. The woman frowned at him, but not in anger or hostility.
Luffy then wandered away and to look around the yard. Then something wet hit his face. Water? He wiped it off, not giving much of a reaction, but he looked in the direction it came from, and saw a boy sitting on a huge animal carcass.
"Did you spit on me?" Luffy asked in confusion. Why would he spit on him? Luffy didn't even do anything, didn't even notice he was there. The boy, who was older than him probably by a couple years, just glared at Luffy intensely and didn't answer.
Luffy looked down. Great, just great. Someone hates him now and he hadn't even meet him. Luffy said nothing else and walked away from the boy. But then, "Oh Ace!" was called by Garp. The younger boy flinched from his loud voice. He heard Ace scoff, and his face turned red in embarrassment. He was so weak.
"Luffy, be nice with him," Garp commanded. If Luffy was himself, he would have told Garp it should be the other way around, but he said nothing and nodded.
Ace scowled at him some more. Weakling, huh? Garp just grinned at Ace, and called to the bandits in the doorway that he'd come visit in a couple months. He didn't even say goodbye to Luffy, not that he wanted to interact with the man.
Once Garp was out of view, and Ace was still glaring at him while the bandits grumbled about not wanting to take care of Luffy, he wandered into the forest. Wanting to get away from these mean people. Once Garp left, maybe Luffy could sneak back into Foosha. The house hadn't been sold, since Garp sometimes returned and stayed there. It would just get dusty without anyone in it.
No one tried to stop him from entering the jungle, not even warning him about all of the giant animals. No one really cared. Ace didn't follow and walked off in a different direction Luffy had.
The forest was full of sounds, loud enough to not have Luffy's open sobs be heard from anyone at the hut. He saw lots of animals. There were deer, big birds, squirrels, bugs flying around. Most of the creatures looked slightly familiar, but a bit different than those at his real home.
"Zoro?" Luffy asked the air. It seemed like Zoro and Sanji could hear him when he called, and they'd come visit with him for a couple minutes while they could, even though they werent solid. But, they could briefly touch things, like when Zoro's tail threw that bottle off of Makino's bar counter.
"Hey, Luffy. Another bad day?" Zoro asked sympathetically. Every time Luffy asked for him and he could come, Luffy was always upset. He called Zoro to try and make him feel better. Luffy nodded.
"I had to leave Foosha because Garp said it made me weak. Now I'm stuck with a bunch of people who clearly don't want or like me," and he burst into tears again. "Are you guys still looking for me?"
"Yes. But we haven't found anything. We've tried over fifty portals, and you know there are endless amounts. We don't know how long it will take, but we will take you home. Promise. If you ever need help, call me or Sanji. Somehow, we can connect to you in our world, but again, only for a few minutes. It's only me, Sanji, Nami and Usopp. Usopp doesn't come much and you don't call Nami often. But we can all get through for a moment.
"We're still looking for you, and we won't forget you. Pro-" and he faded. Luffy rubbed his red eyes, picking up a stick and tapping it against the huge trees he walked past. He suddenly noticed everything had grown quiet. The birds had left and werent making noise anymore.
Then he saw what caused it. A MASSIVE beast, a tiger. No one told him this thing was in the forest. He backed away, while the tiger stared at him with narrowed eyes, before it bowed its head. Luffy was breathing quickly.
Why wasn't it attacking? He saw the teeth briefly, and it was huge compared to seven year old Luffy. But, it raised its head, and then walked away, not harming the boy. He was still hyperventilating before he closed his eyes to relax. He was alive, and the tiger had left. He walked further in the direction he'd been heading towards.
He looked behind him often before he finally accepted that the tiger hadn't hurt him and had left. He came across a few chubby black and white animals, much smaller than the tiger but still bigger than him. They were chewing on leaves off of a branch, and bowed their heads slightly to him before going back to happily eat the leaves off of their sticks. Why were the animals doing this? Birds and the tree climbing critters didn't acknowledge him at all.
The walk lasted about three hours before he walked back to the hut, in the exact opposite direction he'd walked towards. He met no more beasts, but he did catch a glimpse of Ace, hauling a boar. But he didn't see him long before Ace was gone. Luffy was walking slowly on short legs after all, and Ace was running, despite having the boar on his shoulders.
When he walked back into the clearing, the front door was open and Luffy hesitantly walked through the doorway. Ace was there, and the boar was being cut up to be cooked. It was disgusting. But the whole room went silent as they looked at Luffy in shock.
"YOU'RE ALIVE?!" they all shouted, and even Ace looked surprised.
"Yeah… Why didn't anyone tell me there were big animals?" he asked quietly. Sure, they'd left him alone, but these people didn't know they would.
"Forgot," one bandit said.
"Didn't really care," another said.
"We don't want to raise you! You'll be trouble," the only woman in the room said. Luffy swallowed down tears, and just walked right back out of the house. Back into the forest. He'd find his own dinner. Surely there was produce somewhere. And he did know how to make a fire, though he didn't have any weapons to kill an animal anyways.
He walked for around an hour before he came across some bananas on a tree above him. Sanji had gotten bananas before, but not from this world, since no one but him could enter. He climbed the tree, barefoot, since the sandals were terrible, and pulled down bunch after bunch of bananas.
When he was done, he had a pile bigger than his own body, and scarfed down the peeled bananas. He walked around some more after sticking bananas in his waistline of his shorts to look for some water, since he was thirsty. He found a stream and drank the cool water from it.
It was already dark out, and he was tired. Hoping he'd get to sleep in a bed in his own room, alone, he headed back to the hut. He'd marked arrows in the dirt with a stick when he had walked away from the path, so he could follow them back to the safer house. Not that he thought the animals would harm him based on a pack of wolves at the stream that had just looked at him. They didn't bow, but didn't attack him or even growl. They just ran off and back into the jungle.
It was night time, and he could see the stars clearly form the yard. The light from inside shone through the glassless windows. It must get cold inside. He opened the door and blinked the dots from the light out of his vision. Again, everyone was shocked. Even more so since he'd gone in at night.
"Where do I sleep?" Luffy asked flatly. Dogra, a smaller bandit with a turban shakily pointed to a door that lead into a little room. It had a single mat and some blankets. It didn't look like the most comfortable mat, but he laid on it. It was better than the floor, after all. He fell asleep easily, deciding as he lost consciousness that he'd explore the forest more tomorrow. The animals didn't hurt him, so it was probably safe for him if he stayed away from any water to drown in.
He was awoken in the middle of the night when he was harshly kicked off the mat and rolled to hit the wall. He sat up in confusion, to see Ace laying down on the mat. It made Luffy angry. "Hey! I was sleeping on that!" Luffy said angrily.
"Shut up. No one wants you here. Just act like you aren't. This room is mine and you're lucky you get to be in it at all."
Luffy bit his bottom lip before he snatched up the blanket from the floor and walked out of the room, slamming both the bedroom and front door loudly. Even the grass was better than the hard wooden floor. So, he walked a bit away from the back of the hut and laid down on the grass. It was just as cold out here than inside, and he got to look at the stars.
He fell asleep again, wrapped up in the thin blanket.
In the morning, he woke to someone stepping on his leg. It was clearly on purpose, as he was in the back of the yard, and it was a big clearing, so there were infinite areas around Luffy to go through. He looked up sleepily to see Ace through the bushes, brandishing a stone pole of some sort.
He sat up and yawned, realizing he had brought nothing with him. He had no change of clothes. Well, he would just go to Foosha and pack some things for himself. Things that were the other Luffy's but were his temporarily.
Luffy walked away and down the trail he and Garp had walked, ignoring the bandits calling for him to come back and work. He yawned as he walked down the dirt path. It really didn't take too long going more downhill than it had going with Garp. of course, he hated the man, so of course it felt like it took longer in his company.
He hoped Garp wasn't in town. Crap, he shouldn't go right now. Garp must be there. But, he came to the opening out to the fields and peeked around one of the huge trees to see the marine ship was still there. Damnit. He had to wear the same clothes again. He was going to stink soon.
Back home, he bathed every other day in the big bath with the bubbles that came out of it. It was always nice and quiet inside the bathroom. He missed that. He missed his big bed even more now that he had no bed or mat since Ace claimed that one as his, even though Luffy was there first.
He didn't walk back on the trail, but entered the forest again, climbing over foliage and roots. He saw some monkeys on the tree above him, and wondered if these ones wouldn't hurt him, too. They did not come near him, but didn't bow either. Just swung off and away from him. There were a lot of them. A family, probably.
He missed his family. They were so far apart from each other. He wanted to see them as soon as possible.
Without knowing it, Luffy was going in the same direction Ace was. Though it was the opposite way Ace had left through. Maybe he only went that way so he could step on the younger boy. Jerk. Why was he so mean? Luffy hadn't even done or said anything to him before he spit on him. For no reason!
He grumbled as he searched for food. He did find some, but they were hanging over a swamp, with creatures that he saw had big mouths with sharp teeth. He couldn't be knocked into the water, but those mangos looked yummy. Maybe these beasts wouldn't hurt him either.
"Please don't kill me," he said quietly as he stepped on the nearest crocodile. It made no move, though the other crocodiles' eyes followed him. Luffy stepped on the next nearest one, and walked along them like they were stepping stones. "I'm gonna get these fruits, and then come back down," he said to the crocodile he was on at the moment that was just above the pond.
He reached his hands up as far as he could, but couldn't reach. So, he tried using the devil fruit and flung his hands up above him, pulling down mango after mango and stuffing them into his pockets and shirt. The crocodile made no reaction, and the others let him walk across him to the other side of the pond.
"Thank you!" he called back as he stuffed mangos into his stretchable cheeks so he could use both hands to climb up a rock wall. He didn't look behind him to see Ace, with his jaw dropped open in shock and confusion. When he walked towards the reptiles, they snapped their jaws at him before he even got near the pond's surface.
Something was weird about that wimpy crybaby.
Review please! Sorry that the chapters are so long, unless that's a good thing!