Thank for all the comments to the last chapter, updates are going to be slowing down (if I manage to stop myself hopefully) so that I'm only posting once a day, we're getting very close to the climax and I want to take my time to make it as epic as possible.

Thank you to Lulumo, Blue Thief, 12 Slytherin, Le055Li0n, PoulPellotte, and SupI'mHere for their continued support, you guys are the best.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: A review has made me realize it's probably important to mention that I'm not up-to-date with One Piece, I'm at the beginning fo the Wano Arch right now which might -inardvently- make some decisions OCC. I'll get to editing this once I'm done, though and the more I think about it, the more appealing the Sabaondy Sequel seems hehe Please don't spoil hehe

Enjoy!


Admiral Akainu doesn't consider himself a sentimental man, but seeing the brat bloodied and bruised, pinned against the wall like an insect makes something in him twitch. Luffy has committed high-treason, no doubt about that; but Akainu has locked plenty of marines behind bars without sentencing them to the lowest levels of Hell or sentencing them to execution. His eyes land on the collar, almost hidden from view due to Luffy's lowered head. Things with Luffy had always been different.

"Brat." He greets, cutting an imposing figure in the middle of the secret prison level, none of the inmates dare yell slurs at him. Silence greets him. "Oi, Brat." Silence, the younger man doesn't even move. The admiral's vein pops in annoyance. "Luffy." Suddenly, his cellmate spins a kick in the other man's directions and Akainu catches the familiar snot bubble bursting, Luffy raises his head in startlement. Sleeping, the admiral realizes, controlling the urge to face palm. Finally, Luffy's eyes land on him and immediately go wide.

"S-s-s-sensei?!" His cellmate, Warlord Jinbei Akainu acknowleges in his mind, seems equally surprised.

"Sensei?!" The busy-bodies echo.

"Vice-admiral." At this Luffy pouts, and stares at him taunting.

"Oh, haven't you heard the news? I'm not a marine anymore. I was dis-honerably discharged." He sticks his tongue out.

"Dishonorably." Akainu corrects immediately.

"Same thing." ...AH, it's still like arguing with a pre-schooler. Here is Luffy, a man that just lost his status, his prestige, his career, his freedom... and he looks at Akainu like he's the silly one.

"Is this what you wanted? Is this your Justice? Your freedom?"

"Life has consequences, doesn't it?" Luffy retaliates, throwing Akainu's own words back at him. Akainu can already picture him picking at his nose in boredom, though the chains prevent him from such an action. He and Garp were really cut from the same clothe.

"Here I thought you didn't listen to me."

"I don't!" Luffy exclaims, brows furrowed but still unable to hold back a pout. Akainu almost has the urge to smile. He settles for a fond:

"Brat."

Akainu catches Jinbei staring at him and his frown is back in full force. Regardless of Luffy's antiques, Akainu isn't here to catch up with his wayward student. His orders for today are particularly grim, maybe that's why he's been so indulgent.

"The execution is today." Jinbei mutters, and Akainu wants to believe the warlord didn't read it off his face ,but he knows better. He knows Kizaru should've been the one to come pick up Luffy, but maybe Akainu is perhaps slightly, slighly more sentimentally driven that he thought.

"I will be escorting your transport to the Execution Platform." The Admiral's eyes are hard and Luffy's do not waver. He smiles.

"Shishishi, so it's time then?"

"Indeed." As the admiral readies Luffy for transport, concious to put on the gloves needed to handle the sea stone Luffy pauses at the entrance of the cell.

"Thank you, Jinbei. Be sure to take Shirahoshi to the park for me. Otherwise the scaredy-cat won't go, shishishi!" Jinbei's face is unusually somber.

"I'm sorry I will not be able to fight for you." He tells Luffy, but he's staring right at Akainu. His frown deepends, the nerve of that scum... Luffy's face softens impossibly, but his smile is still brighter than Akainu's ever seen it.

"I'm just glad you'll be safe, Jinbei."


Bringing Luffy out of Impel Down reminds Akainu about all the times his pupil accompanied him on the same journey. There was a time when Luffy was almost like his shadow, the only subordinate with enough backbone to stay near Akainu around the clock. Now, as Magellan escorts them up the elevator the memories are bittersweet. Akainu brought Luffy to Impel Down to show him what reckless living would get him, that a criminal's life was not free but borrowed time... His message didn't sink through as effectively as he'd hoped.

He doesn't miss the heavy nod and the parting words of "Vice-Admiral" offered by Magellan at the gates of the world's most secured prison. Luffy's laughter and "take care!" shouldn't have left such a bitterness in Akainu's mouth. The admiral is angry, furious with his formar charge. Luffy had thrown everything away, for a pirate! How can he be so content? So genuinely happy?

...Or is this just the Will of D in the face of death?

Either way, Akainu sees Luffy walk in front of him, his shoulders looking tiny now without the Justice coat; steps slow and careful, wary due to the sea stone. Putting one foot in front of the other without hesitation as he walks to his death and Akainu sees so much wasted potential. Luffy is still barely 20 and he's been used as catalyst for a war. In the face of his unshakeable sense of Justice and infatuation with freedom, Akainu remembers Aokiji's words on their last meeting.

Do you ever think the world would be simpler... if we'd just let that child roam free?

There would never be simple where that stubborn brat is involved.


Akainu leaves Luffy before the stairs of the scaffold with a final stare. If he is disappointed, frustrated or angry he definitely does not show it. There is definitely a ripple of something behind dark brown eyes when Luffy swallows his pride and speaks. He'll probably be dead in a couple hours, so might as well.

"Thank you." He tells the admiral, trying to look him in the eyes. His body is sagging, barely able to keep his posture straight from exhaustion, but his voice is as honest as he can make it. He doesn't agree with his teacher in many things, but there is no denying Luffy wouldn't have made it half as far without him.

The answering "brat" as Akainu walks away from him is so low that Luffy barely catches it but he smiles all the same. Then, two guards are pushing him towards the stars and Luffy's dragging his body. He finds Sengoku at the top.

"Seagull guy!" He greets and if a well-known tick of a twitching eye forms, it's not really Luffy's fault he's been sentenced to execution -well, maybe it is his fault, but certainly not his decision.

"Monkey D. Luffy."

"Is my grandfather here?" Luffy asks, a part of is a little put off that the old man hadn't visited him in prison, he'd been planning on visiting Ace, and Luffy expected the same treatmen, seeing as he is certainly the less criminal of his grandsons.

"Figures you don't know." Sengoku says, and he sounds almost a little surprise, as if a part of him forgot that Luffy's been six-feet under for days. "He quit. Refused to accept your arrest."

It hits Luffy like a blow over the head. His grandpa? Marine hero Garp? No way. His grandpa loved his job and his students and his colleagues. He thinks the World Government is stupid, but he also believes in changing it from within... Luffy would've never thought his grandfather would quit his job. To do for Luffy...

"That old man..." Luffy knows his granfather is a violent, tactless and downright emotionally stunted man, but he's never doubted that he loves him. It has just never hit home how much.

"He..." Sengoku looks very uncomfortable. "He really loves you, Luffy, and you've made him very proud." The Fleet Admiral is looking everywhere but at Luffy, and the former marine cannot believe that this man is trying to comfort him, to offer him some last kind words before the end. "I wish things could be different."

It's nowhere near an apology, but Luffy is reminded about what Coby's always saying, that marines and pirates are really not that different when you see clearly. He hasn't forgiven Sengoku for breaking their deal, but he appreciates the sentiment all the same.


IMPORTANT NOTICE: A review has made me realize it's probably important to mention that I'm not up-to-date with One Piece, I'm at the beginning fo the Wano Arch right now which might -inardvently- make some decisions OCC. I'll get to editing this once I'm done, though and the more I think about it, the more appealing the Sbaondy Sequel seems hehe Please don't spoil !