Sixth Chapter:
Ace is driving the car. The Chief sits next to him and Luffy, Makino and Sabo sit in the back. Makino tries to clean Luffy's face with a tissue. 'I'm fine Makino. ' says Luffy.
''C'mon, you look horrible Luffy.'' She's concentrating on Luffy's cheek and rubs some blood off.
''Make sure you don't rub his face off..' Sabo wants to laugh at Luffy for being pampered by Makino, but the Chief sees it. ''Why are you so sarcastic today Sabo?''
''It was a joke Chief. Seriously..Old people these days.'' He leans on his arm while looking out of the window.
''The older, the crazier right?'' Ace looks in the rearview mirror and smiles.
''You pay attention to the road damn it!''
They arrive at the hospital. Journalists with camera's are standing in front of the entrance. They're waiting for the latest news on Shanks' condition. The whole country already knows about the incident since it was live on the television. Nothing much was shown, because everything happened inside, but they already know what exactly happened and they're desperate to get more information. Shanks is a known businessman in the country after all.
'' Luffy, here is my sweater. Wear it or else they'll notice you. Ace, you should change too. You're shirt is also covered in blood.'' Sabo pulls off his sweater and gives it to Luffy.
''I'll close my jacket. Come on, we're going.'' Ace parks the car in front of the hospital and closes his jacket. They get out of the car and walk inside. A nurse approaches them and says: 'Excuse me, but it isn't a visitor hour.'
''Hello, we're Shanks' family.'' Makino smiles politely and the nurse immediately takes them to Shanks' room. He's lying in the back. He's unconscious and his left arm has been completely amputated. All that's left is his left shoulder and that's been covered in bandages. Luffy's stomach is turning upside down by seeing it and he feels so bad about all this. Ace rubs his hand through Luffy's hair and says: ''He'll be angry with you if you regret what you did.'' Makino sits in the chair next to Shanks' bed and holds his hand. She removes his red hair of his face with her other hand. ''It looks like he'll be fine. He looks so peaceful.''
''Let's hope for it. All we can do is pray for him to be alright.'' Woop Slap takes the seat on the other side of the bed.
A doctor walks in. He has several tattoos on his arms and looks really tired. ''Are you his family? My name is Trafalgar Law and I was in charge of emergency procedures for this man. He lost a lot of blood and we had to amputate the entire arm to prevent necrosis from spreading. The area was infected pretty badly, I was given permission to examine the weapon used in the incident. He is lucky to have survived but it will take him time to get used to the loss and besides the possibility of trauma, he should be fine. Would you like to go over the possibilities of prosthetic limbs before the patient wakes?''
Makino looks up. ''He probably doesn't want that, but thank you for the offer.''
Luffy walks to the doctor. '' Will he be fine?''
'' Yes. We'll monitor him for a week and run some tests in the meanwhile. He will probably need rehabilitation to adjust, but disregarding the loss of a limb, he'll live.'' While saying all this, Law didn't smile even once. He seemed really cold and yet he knew exactly what he was talking about, so the others didn't have to fear anything and they felt relieved. Luffy however, didn't get anything Law said up till now and asks: '' So.. He'll be fine right?''
Law looks startled for a bit, but he recovers himself immediately. '' Uh.. Yes...''
He leaves the room after Luffy thanks him and everyone stays quiet for a while. Sabo stands against the wall and looks outside the window. It's evening and people leave their houses to go out to bars or parties. Ace is sitting on the table that's placed next to the window. Luffy walks to Shanks' bed and sits on the foot end.
After ten minutes passed three people walk into the room. Sabo's eyes become big and he can't bring out a single word. Ace looks angry, but the three people didn't notice it. ''Sabo, we heard about the incident and we finally figured out where you lived these past years. Seriously, why are you with these people?'' Sabo is getting furious. ''How did you find out?'' He said it with a calm voice. The man gets closer to him and doesn't pay attention to the others. A younger boy steps forward to Sabo and says: ''It was pretty easy you know. All we had to do was call the university and ask for your data.'' He grins at Sabo, but Sabo looks disgusted.
''Stelly-kun, don't be like that ok? It wasn't that difficult to find him anyway.'' The man looks at the boy for a moment but draws his attention back to Sabo.
Sabo's father looks at him. His mother is there too, but all she does is look at each person for at least 1 minute and her face is getting uglier by the second. ''Why are you with these people Sabo? Why did you run away back then?'' She looks as if she was standing in the middle of a pile trash.
She looks with a played worried face at Sabo. Sabo can't believe it. After all that, they want him back? Why all of a sudden? Just what do they want from him?
Sabo turns his hands into fists. He's trying to stay calm because getting angry won't help with these people. His parents and adoptive brother are standing before him without any interest. It's like they're forcing themselves to bring him back. ''All you care about is your family business. I don't care about the family fortune. I don't care if we're some important family in this country and I definitely don't care about you.'' Sabo is breathing heavily. He can't stay calm after all. They make him furious. How could they show their faces here in front of everyone and act like nothing happened at all?
Sabo's father looks like he just experienced the end of the world. ''How dare you talk like that to your own parents!'' His face is getting flushed from rage.
'' Well sorry, Father, I didn't know you still see me as your son?'' Sabo raises an eyebrow. He stands with a straight back in front of his father and has a serious look on his face. Sabo suddenly looks like a high-class heir of an important family. Luffy has never seen Sabo acting like this before. He's always slacking off in everything except for school and his music. He's always laughing about everything and never seems troubled by anything. Ace is still looking angry and stays quiet.
''Father, do you really want him back? He'll just run away again.'' Sabo can't stand looking at him. Stelly always has a sarcastic look on his face and he probably doesn't even care about their parents at all. All he wants, is that fortune. Sabo was born into a wealthy family. Not just regular wealthy, but prestigeous as well. His family owns the largest bank in the country and it has been in the family for many generations. Sabo is supposed to be the next owner. His parents think he's studying Economics at the University, but that's not true. Sabo secretly signed up for History. But if they think he's studying Economics, then why do they bother trying to get him back? ''Don't tell me..'' He's starting to realize what's going on.
''Do you think I'm that stupid? When I asked for your data at your school, they gave me everything. Including what direction you took.'' His father is saying this with a mild, calm voice and his forehead has sweat on it. He takes out an elaborately embroidered handkerchief out of his breast pocket and wipes his forehead. ''How dare you, Sabo? How dare you oppose my will? Why did you take another direction? Why didn't you stick with Economics like you're supposed to? How are you going to inherit the bank if you don't have the qualifications to do so?'' Sabo's head is hurting. He doesn't want to listen to this crap anymore.
''You've got Stelly to take it! Let him steal it away from you, because I don't want it.''
''That's it. You're coming with us. We can talk about this later. You've disappointed me so badly Sabo!'' His mother starts crying, or rather, she's faking the tears to make it look more dramatically.
''Nothing about you is real. You all live in a dream world. All you care about is money and status.'' Sabo's hands are shaking. I wish they would just go away already.
''Sabo, I demand you to come back with us.'' The sweating man is losing his patience and wants to leave.
''He's twenty years old. So he's overage. You have no right to demand anything. Sabo doesn't have to follow your rules anymore.'' Ace didn't move an inch from that spot and he's still looking angry.
''Maybe we should leave them from a while. This doesn't concern us. Let's go get some tea Makino, Luffy and you too, Ace.'' He's getting ready to leave but Luffy doesn't want to go. ''Of course this includes us! Sabo is our brother!'' No matter how much Sabo loves and cares for Luffy, this was the wrong moment to say that they were sworn brothers. This would make the situation only worse.
''Brothers? You call THEM your brothers? Sabo! You have one brother and that's Stelly. Do not associate yourself with these peasants!'' Sabo's fears came out at that moment. His father's face is purple now and while screaming at Sabo, spit was flying everywhere. Disgusting is what crosses Sabo's mind.
Ace stands up and wants to approach Sabo's father but Sabo stops him and holds him off. ''What are you doing? Let me go, that guy is mad in his head!'' Ace can't believe these people. Coming here in a hospital as if they own the world!
''I know Ace.. Father, let's talk about this outside.'' Stelly and his mother want to leave the room but Sabo interrupts them: ''Alone.'' Sabo isn't sure yet why he decided this, but it seems to be the best option.
'' Sabo, why aren't you..''
''It will be fine Luffy.'' He smiles reassuringly at Luffy and walks outside the room. Luffy and Ace can't help but notice that Sabo had a sad look in his eyes.
Luffy looks at Stelly and Stelly raises his eyebrows and looks down on Luffy. It's pissing Luffy off, so he says: ''Sabo is my big brother, got that?'' He also raises an eyebrow and refuses to look at Stelly.