Hello fellow nerds! Thank you to those who left reviews! I find them fun to read and useful to reflect on. For those unaware, I do reply to reviews but they're all via Private Messaging. (^v^) Well, here's the next chapter! Hope you enjoy and I look forward to getting further into the story.
In all the confusion and pain that continued to wrack his mind, Luffy had eventually gone to the one place in his hometown where he knew he could find comfort.
So here he was, at the clearing by the cliff, sitting on a stump. The same one he and Ace had gone to together so many times.
The waves sang her own wise song as the wind stayed silent.
He didn't cry. Didn't speak. Just listened.
But the wind had been crying only earlier and he was in his head somewhere. Or at least he thought he was. He reminded himself very briefly that he had to keep himself open minded.
That man, earlier, the one who wore Akainu's face, people called him Sakazuki. And now Luffy realised why that name sounded familiar even though he hadn't personally heard people call him that whenever the two crossed paths.
It had been hard to see that face, no matter how different it looked. A big part of him wanted to flee and shout and get everyone else the hell out but he couldn't. Not even in his head. And then the rest of him wanted to just charge, attack and go for the kill. But then that man had given his forearm up to rescue to boy. Supposedly.
And now here he was, the size of a seven-year-old child, listening as the wind blew gently in confusion. Luffy could feel the confusion, as though she knew something didn't fit.
"OIII!" he yelled out in lost frustration. "Where the hell am I?!"
He missed home…
His nakama and family.
The Thousand Sunny and simply… that wonderful sense of belonging. Coming from that to… this… it felt like a piece of him belonged here. An old piece. And it only made him feel more lost.
Then the wind spoke.
'Where are you from?'
The question came more as a feeling, just like it usually did, and he felt somewhat pleased.
"I… I should be with my crew! I shouldn't even be alive… Please! Tell me where I am!" he didn't want to be lost in this terrible semi-familiar world.
And the wind spoke again but this time in feelings that simply couldn't be turned into a sentence. It came as something old, just as the wind was, and knowing. Sensations of familiarity and comfort only to find one small tiny insignificant thing that absolutely did not belong in any way. She was expressing a glimpse of her life up until now – she knew so much about the world and he came and turned a little bit of it upside down.
And that's when he understood that this place was real. He was somewhere that was… in a way, his house. But it wasn't his home.
"I feel the same…" he said simply before drifting off into a dreamless sleep.
OPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOP
A new presence alerted Luffy from his slumber and his eyes flew open automatically.
He was tall, fairly young with dark blond hair that was tied back into a short ponytail, completely absent of any marine hat. What was the guy's name…?
Corvin went to sit beside Luffy at the cliff's edge as the sun began to set. It had taken a fairly long time to find the kid, considering he never actually went into the forest on his own, but in the end he was glad he had decided to. Luffy had been out of sorts since being taken into the mountains by the bandits to the point where he seemed to be heading into a panic attack. Then he had calmed, and something in him had changed. The kid's eyes had kept roaming continuously as though he were looking for something specifically or perhaps simply searching.
Sakazuki had been worried for Luffy and though Corvin wasn't as close to the kid as was the marine captain, he knew his best friend more than any manual that he had been made to memorise.
"Hey Luffy!"
Luffy had been staring at him since his arrival and Corvin would be lying if he had said he wasn't unnerved. Luffy was a bright kid, constantly smiling ever so brightly. It was weird to see that in anyone, even children. He was also known for his short temper, which was partially the reason why the whole incident involving the bandits had occurred in the first place. He wasn't angry though. From what he had heard, the kid had fought for their name. Not that a name really mattered to any of them, but it still took a level of guts (and idiocy).
So after seeing a brightly smiling, confident to the highest degree, talkative kid every time they returned from a "clean-up trip" in the East Blue to… well, someone who constantly shifted his gaze as if searching, nervous and jittery, and scared, whom looked as though he had seen a little too much of what life had to offer was… unsettling…
Luffy didn't know what to reply with. From his… (timeline? World..?) place… a man like him would have been considered weak but now all Luffy had were his shortened childlike arms with no muscle but Observation Haki that told him this man could very easily overpower him. He didn't like that thought…
So he said nothing as the blond-haired man sat by his side and tried to meet his gaze.
"Sakazuki's worried for you, ya know," Corvin said casually.
His voice was friendly and light but Luffy had heard people like him before and knew that in the face of danger he would be as serious as needed. A fair bit like himself.
'And look where that got us?' he thought bitterly.
"Makino too. Everything okay?"
What was Luffy meant to say? He had… died only a short while ago along with his crew and didn't know where they were and he was in this strange world that didn't make sense so of course he clearly wasn't going to be oka-
"Oi, Luffy man, just calm down."
Oh, he had been panicking…
With deep careful breaths Luffy managed to steady his mind carefully. Or at least as much as he could.
"It's gonna be okay. What happened with Sakazuki wasn't your fault, okay? I mean, sure, we were all worried! Heck, a part of me's still worried for the captain. But he isn't gonna keep his mind on it. And I have to get over it and so do you, okay?
'Huh?' Oh, right. Sakazuki said something about "not blaming Luffy" and, well, he had overheard worried murmurs about a certain 'missing arm'. Considering Luffy had expected Shanks to be around, and that the doctor had been there when he woke up, it hadn't been… too hard to put together.
Realising the this Sakazuki-person was his apparent friend in this place wasn't exactly one of the easiest things to deal with… So he would just put up with this for as long as he needed until the guys would leave.
"I… I guess…" Luffy managed to draw out slowly with his speech.
His own voice was still so unfamiliar…
"Well, we should be gettin' back I think. Wouldn't want to worry the others any more, right?"
And with that the elder blond stood up, holding his hand out for the younger to grab. Blinking without expression, Luffy reached out and allowed himself to be pulled up to an easy stand and the two began to walk back to the village.
"Um…" Luffy started, "I'm gonna head home for the night but I will be able to come and see you guys tomorrow."
The words came out stiff and anyone listening wouldn't be able to pass the caution and anxiety that laced them. Thankfully for whatever reason, the much taller man had let it go.
"Sure! But hey, Luffy?"
"Yeah?"
"We'll be having our last 'trip' soon. Me and Sakazuki and the guys are expecting a call soon from Headquarters at some point over the next week calling us in."
Luffy paused mid-step.
"You guys are leaving…?"
"Yeah… you gonna be okay without us kid?"
Luffy didn't know what to think. He had been there barely a day and knew nothing about – well – anything! Who he was, where he was, how to get back, if he should get back… This marine – man – wanted to help with whatever he needed but not even he knew.
So he settled on a simple "yeah" before saying goodbye and parting ways.
'Now… where was 'home'…?'
OPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOP
He had found the place he had stayed before Dadan and his nights with Shanks and his crew. It was a small cottage-like house that was just a little way into the forest, fairly distant from Windmill Village but not too far to walk.
It had been a strange path to remember as it wasn't one he had taken in years but even his memory had kept the odd semi-important things like that.
He lay on the futon at the edge of his bedroom. The air was stale and empty; like something important should be there but wasn't. It had never been a good home… a good house, yes, it had been. No person but himself to live in it unless his Gramps had come to "say hi".
Now that he wasn't busy listening to people or surrounded by people who could ask him how he was or look for him… it was a perfect time for his thoughts to run wild.
He had to sort himself out.
The thick scent of blood filled the room. His eyes closed and every time there were flashes and bangs of the seastone bullets and canons mixed with a terrible dizzying sensation of trying to run over water with injuries that weakened him so much.
With a groan he held his hands over his head in a stupid attempt of self-preservation. Shouts of laughter and cheery success from enemies echoed and the world was too damn noisy.
"Please, just go away…" he pleaded to his own head.
The blood of his first mate dripped onto his shoulder and his back and he just wanted to wipe it away. Flashes of guilty faces of the dying played on repeat and-
It hurt. He couldn't protect them. Tears filled the corners of his eyes at the onslaught of memories and fresh pain.
His own cries rung for Jimbei to carry what he couldn't, slowing him down as bullets rained on the large man's back. Jimbei could have made it if he hadn't carried anyone else – if Luffy had taken the others. But he couldn't have! He was- he wasn't enough. Not to get them to the next island.
Unshed tears turned to floods as the memories just kept playing through and a quiet scream escaped his throat.
'I couldn't protect them. Not my own crew. Not my nakama. Not anyone.'
"…Thank you for loving me!"
"It's been good, Strawhat."
"STRAWHAT! Make sure you don't visit any time soon! If you do… well, then… I'll REALLY KILL YOU…!"
'I COULDN'T PROTECT ANYONE'
His own words played.
"When you guys are in trouble, call us! We'll come help you no matter what!"
As if that had worked out…
"Just run!"
"Luffy-senpai! Keep going! I'll meet you at the end!"
"Ng…!" All that could escape was a painful groan as tragic failures continued.
The last memory to play was one of Sabo. It started at their forced farewells from when they were kids, to the letter to the day they met again. It all ended on that damned bloody battlefield with Teach and his blood-rotten allies from before.
If only he had gotten there earlier…
It was too much to think about. Too much to hold in his head. Too heavy to worry. A puddle formed beside his head as tears had finished pouring into the futon he lay on as everything turned into a hazy blur and he fell into an exhausted sleep.
'Until tomorrow…'