I do not own One Piece by Eiichiro Oda or any other references to other works I may use in this story.

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"People talking"
'People thinking'
Actions
*sound effect*

*Line Break*

Chapter 2: False start on Dawn Island

The first thing Luffy noticed upon waking up was a feeling of falling accompanied by the sound of the sea. As he opened his eyes he had a glimpse of something made of wood before he hit the water with a deafening splash.

The next few minutes were a blur of splashes, gasping, roars, and crunches as Luffy desperately tried to keep his head out of the water. The cacophony of confusion ended as something wrapped around him followed by a stomach dropping crunch.

Looking up in confusion, he found a person holding. A red haired person. With Luffy's mind still whirling he barely croaked out the first thing that came to his mind, "Shanks?" And then the rest fell into place. The position, the water, and exactly how Shanks was holding him. "Oh God,.. Shanks … your arm…" was all he could get out before tears overwhelmed him.

Looking down at the small child wracked with sobs Shanks tried to comfort Luffy, "Just an arm is a small price to pay. I'm glad you're ok." From the look on Luffy's face the words didn't seem to help much but he seemed to be calming down. 'Though that may also be due to the fact I am treading water with a devil fruit user in the middle of the harbour.' Shanks shook his head at that though as he began the task of kicking his way back to shore, hoping someone was coming to meet him halfway.

After more practice no-arm swimming than he ever wanted. Shanks managed to hand an unconscious Luffy to someone on the docks soon followed by a pair of hands helping get himself out of the water. Another panic concerning his impromptu amputation ensues and with quite the tongue lashing from both Ben and the ship's doctor as they try to mitigate the damage.

After finishing getting cleaned up from his ordeal, Shanks heads back to Makino's bar to check on the other unfortunate victim of today. 'And to get some booze to help with the blood loss.' Easing his way through the front door, he heads over to the silent bundle of blankets being comforted by Makino. Sitting next to Luffy, Shank waves to Maino, "Could you get us a couple drinks please?" With a silent nod Makino moves in to the task, now that Luffy won't be left alone.

Waiting for the drinks, Shanks takes a closer look at Luffy to see how bad it was. Luffy's face said it was pretty bad. He was just staring at the bar in front of him. He barely reacted when Makino placed a steaming mug of what smelled like cider in front of him. After she placed a larger mug in front of Shanks, she gently pushed the mug into Luffy's hands.

"Are you doing okay Luffy?" Shanks asked, trying to get the ball rolling. He knew Luffy wasn't fine but he had to have something before he could start to help.

"Why?" Luffy's response was hardly above a whisper. Shanks was about to reassure Luffy that Luffy's life was more important than his arm when the question was asked in full. "Why does everyone give up so much for me?"

The 'everyone' gave Shanks a drink from his mug, he shot a questioning look to Makino for a clue but she looked just as confused, 'maybe a dream?' Setting the drink down Shanks gave the only response he could, "What do you mean Luffy?"

That seemed to crack the shell as Luffy's hands tightened around his mug, "You, my brothers, my friends. You all have given up so much to save me. To keep me alive (alt:let me survive)." Tears began to run down Luffy's cheeks.

Now thoroughly confused and with no other options Shanks did the one thing he could do, "How about you tell me about them." He gave Luffy an outlet, 'maybe if he talks about this nightmare he can get over it.'

"It started when you lost your arm saving me from the lord of the coast…" and the entire story just spilled out from there. His promise to Shanks, meeting and becoming Brothers with Ace and Sabo. Training, tragedy, and getting stronger. Setting out to sea in one of the more reckless ways Shanks had personally heard of, 'But not The Worst; crazy New World Pirates.'

Shanks was thankful that when Makino refilled his mug that she slipped something stronger into his drink. Seriously, Luffy's nightmare hadn't even made it off the island before nearly dying several times if he was listening correctly though it looked like Makino hadn't picked up on that fact while she was cleaning up the rest of the bar as they talked. 'That may mean I want to kill Bluejam on my way out though. Heard of him and I never liked that kind of man.'

Luffy's tale of East Blue adventures was fairly standard, could almost be taken from a marine propaganda story with the roles rearranged. Though Luffy's recruitments were another story entirely, 'Who in the world blackmails a well known bounty hunter into joining their crew?' But he had a sinking feeling this wasn't just a dream as Luffy introduced Hawkeye; complete with a matching boat, sword, and how he would handle a lesser swordsman. He nearly missed Arlong trying to remember if he had ever spoken about his old sparring partner while drinking.

As Luffy spoke he seemed to get more animated and he began to smile, though smaller than Shanks had ever seen. Talking about it was doing him good. Then Shank's hope that this was just a dream to get over died at Reverse Mountain and the awe at the memory of it going into the Grand Line. Few could fake the impact seeing it brough, and Luffy was not one of them. And every Island stop along the way drove that home. Heck Shanks had been to a few of these islands and he couldn't make most of what Luffy said up!

Luffy's mood rose and fell throughout the telling. Mostly rising but it audibly crashed when Luffy stated how his brother died to save his life. Thankfully he seemed to recover as he moved on from Paradise. And the New World adventures got even wilder.

But the description of Bullet as everything started to go down hill told Shanks what he needed to know. And as the tale drew to a close with a lonely survivor on Loadstar Island Shanks felt he understood what this young pirate was asking.

Luffy finally looked Shanks in the eye, "So why does everyone give up so much for me?"

Shanks was silent for a minute finishing what was left in his mug. Setting the mug down on the bar, he gave the only answer he could come up with, "Do you think they regretted doing it?"

Luffy could only respond with a confused, "What?"

"Do you think anyone has ever regretted saving you?" Shanks repeated with a little more detail.

"But, they died. You lost your arm."

"And I will tell you Luffy, I do not and will never regret losing my arm to save your life," Shanks assured his young friend. "If any of them had hesitated saving you then we wouldn't be having this conversation. That kind of resolve tells me that losing you was far worse than dying. That they couldn't be where you are now. But this leaves the question, what are you going to do?"

"I don't know. Do I just stay here? Will that keep them safe? Do I ask you to help them?" Shanks frowns not sure how he would answer such a request. "But you have your own path to travel. Can I ask you to give that up? Do I ask you to fight a warlord to save Brook from the darkness? Ask you to hold back to save a kingdom, a village? How can I have you give up your freedom to help me?" Tears began to drip onto the bar.

"You're right about that Luffy, I can't and won't give up my freedom for theirs. But that doesn't mean you should give up yours. What do you want to do, Luffy?"

With a sniff Luffy replied, "I want to see them again. I want to sail with my nakama and see all of our dreams."

"Then you have your answer."

"But what if I mess up, what if they end up dying again? What if I can't save them?"

"That is when all of you will have to be ready to prevent that from happening. You have a second chance at this Luffy, your friends are alive and waiting for you. But I've told you before that a pirate's life is full of danger and you need to be prepared for that. It's getting late, why don't you sleep on it." With those final words Shanks passed off a heavily drooping Luffy off to Makino to bundle off to bed.

"Do you think he will be ok?" she asked worriedly.

"I think so, but keep an eye on him," Shanks responded.

*Line Break*

The next few days passed by quietly. Shanks and Luffy shared a few more conversations together as they both healed in their own ways. But all things must move forward and the day soon came where the Red Hair Pirates had to move on from Foosha Village.

As Luffy stood on the dock to say goodbye, Shanks felt he had to ask, "So you're not going to try to come along?"

Shaking his head Luffy smiles, "No, I have my own crew to build and I can't do that with you. And I have promises I need to keep, even if the others don't remember them. One day they will be stronger than your crew and we will see all of our dreams and the world's greatest treasures."

Shanks lets out a fond chuckle, "Stronger than us, and you're going to fulfill all of your promises? You have quite the road ahead of you." Luffy was getting ready to argue when a familiar image covered his eyes. "Well, then I can't keep you from fulfilling a promise now can I? Here, when you see me again, when you've become a great pirate, return my hat to me."

As Shanks boarded his ship Luffy snapped out of his stunned stupor, the hint of tears forming in his eyes. He shouts, "Shanks! We will do it. We'll see everything this world has to offer. And I'm gonna be King of the Pirates!"

Ben laughed as he looked over to Shanks, "One day, that boy is gonna be big."

Shaking his head, Shanks merrily replied, "Oh, you have no idea."

*10 years later*

The time had come. Time to put his training and preparations to the test. It was time for Luffy to set sail. He is wearing his straw hat, a red cardigan with flared sleeves that reach his elbows and half-buttoned closed, wide-legged shorts capped with fur, and durable straw sandals (New World design). A pipe was strapped behind his back, and a knife rested at his waist. His boat was supplied and ready, he was ready to go.

After departing from the harbour and maneuvering around a newly concussed lord of the coast, Luffy raises the sail of his boat. Glancing up at the weather he excitedly smiles, "It's a good day to set off to sea. Set sail to adventure!" He pointed over the horizon in his excitement to set the course.

"Aye captain," came the stereo reply of his fledgling crew.

Author's Note:

Ok I am covering a few story points before I get bombarded with questions. First while Luffy is going back from post timeskip he does not have active haki. Luffy has emotionally taken a massive hit and this is one of the results. This is a plot point later and Luffy with haki is broken. Heck cannon Luffy is broken for East Blue only possibly losing to Smoker (invincible logia) or a visiting Garp. No one else even required him to get 'serious.'

Second, this is mental time travel. Luffy did not take back his muscles, poison immunity, physical scars, tools, etc. He has the exact same body as when Shanks saved him but mentally has the experience of a New World pirate. He may know how to move better with his Devil Fruit but it does not give him the strength of his 19 year old self.