written for snake screamer hope it's to your liking

Monkey D. Luffy has never ever wanted to be alone in his entire life.

And now…

If what the Baron is telling him is true then…

He wants to die.

It's as simple as that. He had never wanted to die more than ever in his life.

Well, he wasn't suicidal but he could appreciate the thoughts behind such a notion.

Being alone…

It hurt more than death!

And they were all dead because of him! What kind of a captain took his crew straight into the jaws of death.

And then…

It turns out that they're not dead, just being… digested?

Luffy growls because nobody should have been able to go this far.

So he follows the weird moustache guy into battle once more because you are not alone.

Luffy bursts out of the intricate layers of tunnels and from the smoke and the dust Baron Omatsuri sees him.

Luffy looks up and glares at the bastard.

He barely moves, avoiding the arrows that miss their intended target, disappearing into the dust.

The Baron gasps in surprise because there is that spirit.

Baron takes aim and Luffy quickly dodges the arrow that decimates the ground where he stood.

Luffy can see the flower on the Baron's shoulder, it seems to be chewing on something. Although, Luffy has a pretty good idea of what that 'something' is.

"You're only running away!" The Baron taunts, shooting again. "Got you!" He says triumphantly as the figure collapses in a pile of his severed limbs.

The moustache-ossan creeps up, holding the straw figure and smirks at the bastard that stole his freedom from him. "Mugiwara! Jump in the hole to your right! Then keep going and don't stop!"

"Well done mugiwara." Moustache-ossan says from behind his binoculars, quickly moving as the Baron takes aim.

"Have you still not learned your lesson?!" The Baron shouts at moustache-ossan, as he runs from the persisting arrows, and finally, one of them connects.

Luffy stops running and turns back to his friend. "Now stay in that hole!" The Baron shouts, laughing.

"Baron…" The voice is so low that Luffy has to strain his ears to hear the old man. "Don't mess with me. If you think you can take nakama from anyone you please, you're dead wrong!"

The Baron looks bemusedly at the sight of the old fool pushing up from the rubble and debris. "As of now… I'm one of his nakama!" Moustache-ossan cries, tears forming in his eyes, voice desperate.

Luffy turns and smiles, but he knows what happens next.

The Baron tilts his head back and laughs, deep and guttural, unnatural, fake. "Nakama?" The Baron asks, voice haunted. "How delightful! Mugiwara!"

He turns to the young pirate. "Listen well! The man who claims to be your nakama was once the captain of a pirate crew I annihilated!"

Luffy's chest twists, so moustache-ossan… he was alone… Luffy felt his heart swell in admiration that the man was still alive despite his nakama being killed. "A man who pleaded for mercy! A man who wretchedly shook in fear at the thought of being alone! Why would you let such a pathetic insect be your nakama?"

Luffy watches in increasing rage as moustache-ossan crawls towards another hatch in the ground, and Luffy makes a decision. The Baron pulls his arrow back on his bow, one arrow turning into ten and fires.

Luffy races back to moustache-ossan and places a slab of debris between them, catching the stray arrow and turns back to the man "M-mugiwara…"

He snaps the arrow in his hand in rage, how dare the Baron try and hurt more of his nakama? And his arm stretches back like it has countless other times and hurls it forward with the anger inside him and feels something snap in the Baron's face with satisfaction.

"I warned you." He says, low and dangerous. "I won't let you hurt my nakama!"

"Nakama?" He hears moustache-ossan choke behind him and turns around, face softer than it had been with Baron. "Moustache!"

A finger under the nose and moustache-ossan is crying. "Moustache!"

"Moustache!" The family behind them repeat, in a show of solidarity.

"Go help Mr. Reindeer and the others!" The little girl demands and Luffy turns back around, determined to finish this.

"Guys I'm coming!" He cries, running towards the unnatural 'lily'. "Hang on!"

He leaps with all of his might and stamps on the lily, it makes an unnatural metallic noise as it hits the ground. He leaps up again as it sets itself upright and punches it, twice – but yet it still stands upright.

And then…

It splits down the middle and collapses in an explosion of colours and light.

The light of the moon illuminates the split lily in a haze of orange, but it's not a lily anymore, no, it is an amalgamation of millions of arrows, all shivering in anticipation in the wind, and for the umpteenth time in his life, Luffy is terrified.

"Where are Zoro and the others?" He asks, voice shaking with barely supressed terror. "Where are they?!" He demands.

Luffy turns around slowly, to the sight of the flower on the Baron's shoulder deteriorating. "Right here."

The petals fall away and suddenly, from his shoulder the flower…

It has all of his nakama! They're inside of the bulging sack, like roots on a tree. Luffy wants to scream because what the fuck is that?

It almost looks like a sculpture if he didn't know better. The Baron is still chuckling in the face of Luffy's terror as the plant curls its' way around the man. "Die."

And then the millions and millions of arrows are flying at him and Luffy can't breathe.

They pierce him, straight through his back, his breaths come out in wheezes and he can't breathe can't breathe.

Is the Baron still talking? He can't tell, he can only hear the rushing of his blood in his ears and a faint ringing noise.

He feels closer to death than he ever has before but before he can stop himself, he's walking towards the Baron. Then, a voice cuts through the haze of his thoughts. "Don't lose! Mr. Reindeer and the others are calling for you!"

"Luffy you can do it! Luffy you can do it!" Luffy isn't sure whether the voices are in his head or whether he's just listening to the little girl.

"Luffy… sencho-san… luffy…" he can hear them, Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper, Robin, they're all calling for him!

"What?!" He relishes in the fear and surprise in the Baron's face as he gains speed despite the numerous arrows embedded in his body.

"My nakama… my nakama… give them back." His voice is barely over a whisper but it carries regardless. "My nakama… give them back!"

"Lily!" Baron shouts as the lily is shot by the pirate who was brave enough to fire, he seems quite desperate.

The arrows disappear as the Baron's tenuous control collapses and Luffy falls forward in relief.

The Baron is still picking up pieces of the lily in hope that he can salvage any part of it, "Unforgivable!"

Luffy steps into the puddle of bile and guts and finally finally punches Baron in the face in blind fury.

He lets out all of the rage, all of the sadness he felt and was satisfied to hear more bones crack in his face and finally collapses and falls into the oblivion of sleep.

His crew will never know the truth, he will make sure of it.

they cannot know the truth.

But it turn out he doesn't have to worry about it for apparently they have no recollection of what went down.