Law's POV
Everything was going wrong.
I'd say that things couldn't get any worse, but I was fairly certain that the universe would take it as a personal challenge to prove me wrong.
I stood on the deck of the Thousand Sunny under deceptively blue skies. Waves gently lapped against the side of the ship as the current pulled us along. Sunny, in response, creaked and groaned as if she were able to express her sorrow.
Sunny, as it would seem, had not been so sunny as of late. I had been accustomed to the bright ship that merrily carried her captain and crew across the terrors of the ocean. This hardly seemed to be the same ship. The lion who once proudly lead the way of adventure no longer looked able to sail to the ends of the earth. Her painted colors looked dull and boring in comparison to the past. The smile in her eyes was nowhere to be found.
This ship was just as much a part of the crew as any other Strawhat, and she was mourning the absence of her nakama.
Nami tore through the door of a small house atop a field of flowers.
Nami, who was supposed to be on Zou.
"Nami?"
Sunlight poured inside as she leaned heavily against the door frame, giving her hair the glow of fire. It fell over her shoulders in wild waves and hid her eyes as she desperately tried to catch her breath.
"Guys," she started, right before her legs gave out.
"Nami!" half the room cried out.
Miraculously, even with his injuries, Luffy managed to move across the entire room and catch Nami before she could crumple to the floor. Without a word, he carried her over to a nearby sofa and tenderly laid her down. The rest of her nakama was by her side in seconds, and being the only doctor present, so was I.
"She's fainted," I said, kneeling down beside Nami to take her pulse. "Get some water."
Usopp zipped off as I further assessed the situation. Her state of syncope was probably caused by dehydration and severe exhaustion. Judging from the dark circles beneath her eyes and the multiple poorly treated abrasions that decorated her flesh, she had been unable to rest for multiple days now.
"Is she your nakama?" Kyros questioned Luffy softly.
He nodded.
While elevating her feet with a pillow to help restore blood flow to her brain, Nami's eyes peeked open.
She blinked slowly, trying to cling to consciousness. Usopp arrived with the water, which she gladly accepted with shaky hands. Everyone gave the navigator some air, quietly watching on with concern.
"Nami," Luffy softly asked the question on everybody's mind. "What happened?"
Nami's eyes snapped open, successfully shattering the calm atmosphere.
She gripped her captain's wrist and spoke grimly. "Luffy, we need to go. We need to get out of here. Right now," Nami said, frantically trying to pull herself up.
She was panicking. Just from her voice, you could tell Nami was dead serious here.
Luffy wouldn't let her sit up, and gently pushed her back down.
"Nami, calm down. It's okay now, we've got you."
"No!" She continued struggling. "They took them! They have Chopper and Sanji and Brook!"
"They?" Robin inquired.
BOOM.
The wall to the left of us crumbled, and armed men flooded in. Their boots pounded against the wooden floorboards like thunder.
We were being ambushed.
And as much as I hated to admit it, our odds weren't looking so good.
Luffy had just toppled a warlord and saved a country from a decade of ugly lies and deception.
By no means was this planned, and by no means was this an easy task. Strawhatter came out of that fight a battered and bloody mess, and yet he did it anyway.
That wasn't even the end of our problems. Taking down Doflamingo was basically declaring war on Kaido the Beast, a fight only the insane would go looking for. (And if you haven't noticed, one of Luffy's most obvious attributes is insanity. See why I'm worried?) Including Big Mom and Blackbeard, that's a total of three emperors that he's made enemies of.
Luffy is unbelievably talented when it comes to attracting problems for reasons I could never hope to understand.
Long story short, you don't just get up and walk away after taking down a warlord. I barely knew how he was standing as it was.
However if there is one thing that I've learned, it's that you don't underestimate the Strawhat crew. I tried to keep that in mind as I eyed their exhausted and bandaged bodies.
We scrambled for our weapons.
"Men, we must collect the Strawhat Pirates at all costs!" A bold voice ordered from the swarm of soldiers.
As I reached for my nodachi, a streak of green whizzed past my head and impacted an oncoming enemy. I nodded to Usopp as he ran by to join the fight.
Sounds of battle meshed together as they filled the ruined home.
Shots being fired out the the barrels of the guns, exploding towards their intended targets. The piercing metallic ping as they bounced off of Franky's chest. Swords clashing as Zoro deflected with ease. Robin's arms blooming from the enemies' chests, followed by the deep echo of bones being snapped. Shouting. My sword, arcing through the air. Blood. Screaming. Luffy's fist, bashing someone's skull into the ground.
The tides began to turn from our favor when Zoro doubled over, his face twisted in a grimace of pain. Sweat dripped down his face as he tried to catch his breath. I warily eyed the blood seeping through the bandages wrapped around his midsection.
Then, like dominoes, we came toppling down.
Upon noticing Zoro, Usopp was tackled in the brief moment his guard was down.
Robin was clipped in the shoulder with a bullet in an attempt to protect Nami's unconscious form.
Franky was slammed into the wall behind me, tearing down the last of the support for the roof. As a result, the ceiling crashed down onto Luffy and I. A midst the rubble raining down, a particularly sharp stone caught me on the side of my head.
From there on out, it was hazy. I recall in great discomfort the feeling of an unbearable weight pinning my legs to the ground, various sharp edges digging into the skin of my chest. I recall with vague awareness the copious amount of blood trickling down the left side of my face.
I recall watching, my eyesight murky from the simply lovely combination of pain and blood loss, as Strawhat was dug out from beneath the destruction and dragged away.
Hours later, I had come to with a screaming headache.
Kyros and Rebecca rescued me from the remains of their home, eager to do anything they could to assist those who saved their country.
Other than feeling immense pain just about everywhere, I had escaped the ordeal relatively unscathed. The samurai however, hadn't been quite as lucky. Kanjuro and Kin'emon were in no condition for travel, and wouldn't be for a while.
That left me with one ship of the Sunny variety, one green-haired Strawhat fanboy, one captured crew, and one long and vexing mission ahead of me.
Fantastic.
And so here I was on the deck of the Thousand Sunny, following Luffy's vivre card across the ocean to who knows where.
Not that I'd ever admit it, but silence of the absent crew was unsettling.
I frowned down at the charring and crumbling edges of the vivre card in the palm of my hand.
Thunder rolled on the horizon.
Luffy's POV
I couldn't get my eyes to focus. My head was foggy, and my limbs were unnaturally heavy. I felt feverish to the point where I felt like I was going to puke or something.
In a word: exhausted.
It was actually pretty annoying, especially because I was being rolled on one of those medical table thingies through these super looooooooooooooong hallways that felt like they stretched on forever. I lazily watched the passing lights on the ceiling, just kinda waiting to fade out of consciousness.
I felt like I should be angry about something, like there was something really important I should've been doing. It was right on the tip of my tongue too, but I couldn't force those thoughts through the haze of my head to become actions.
Eventually, those guys rolled me through an important looking door, and began puttering around their medical tools. I was restrained to the table with what I could only assume to be seasone.
The door opened once more, and I lazily turned my head to look. In came that crazy doctor-looking guy with the blonde hair and the purple eyes.
He was wearing my hat.
What was his name? Dr. Upgrade? Dr. Dentures? Probably something along those lines. . .
He nodded and the medical guys. "Are we ready begin the operation?"
"Yes, sir."
He grinned as he meandered over my direction in a way that made me want to give him a black eye. Crazy-Dentures-or-whatever dude extended his arm and rested his palm on my forhead.
"Goodbye, Monkey D. Luffy."
And then there was pain.
Hey guys.
I'm just going to casually blame school, technological difficulties, and my utter lack of skill for writing fight scenes on the ridiculous wait. . . and yeah.
Thanks for stopping by.
