Ace wakes up.

His head hurts, he doesn't recognise his surroundings nor does he remember what it is he's supposed to be doing right now, but he gets the feeling there's something he's forgetting.

Something important.

It's only when the throbbing in his head begins to subside, that he realises.

He woke up.

Something, he was pretty sure would never happen again.

His body doesn't feel like it's in pain, nor does his organs feel melted.

But he also doesn't feel the lick of fire in his veins that he's gotten so used to.

Is this the afterlife?

He wonders, getting up from wherever it is he'd been sleeping. There's beds and snores all around him, but he doesn't bother checking them and instead focuses on the room.

It's dark, walls barren of decor and only a few potted plants here and there, plants that look vaguely familiar, but not enough that it sparks any recognition.

While he's standing up, he recognises the pressure in his low abdomen, and realises he needs to pee.

Are there even bathrooms in the afterlife? I mean, if I'm dead and here, then surely there would be? Right?

So mind made up, Ace leaves the room in search of a bathroom.

His vision doesn't take long to adjust to the dark halls, walls also barren and slightly discolored here and there in patches. It helps that all doors around him are open and only displaying empty rooms. At the end of the hallway, he turns left and comes across a dark closed door.

He tries the handle, but it doesn't budge.

He's about to give up and move on with his search when the door slides open.

The room inside is also dark, but Ace has to admit that his focus wasn't exactly on the interior of it.

Giving that a skeleton. An actual skeleton - with an afro ? - opened the door.

He doesn't really think before blurting out.

"Are you here to drag to hell?"

He asks the skeleton, who he's sure is watching him. Somehow.

Noticing his voice sounds a bit off, he puts it into the back of his mind to deal with when he's not distracted by the being in front of him.

To his immense horror, the skeleton giggles ( Giggles?!) at him instead.

"Very funny - I was merely making use of the restroom. I'll be heading back to bed now. Goodnight"

Ace quickly sidesteps the man (?) to let him through.

He doesn't let himself really relax until the skeleton's disappeared from his sight.

Is everyone in the afterlife like this? Do we all just slowly turn into talking skeletons like that?

Quickly taking care of his business in the bathroom, he notices there's no mirror hanging above the sink, and there's no bath either.

Drying his hands, Ace leaves the room and starts heading back from where he came from.

Or, at least, that was what he had intended.

It's not his fault it all looks the same.

The walls shift from bare greys to a dull brown with a few pictures with writings he can't read ( yet, they still look blaringly familiar,) when the hallway ends suddenly and leads off into a larger room with a low long brown table right in the middle. Off to the site, is a large kitchen.

I never imagined the afterlife would be this cozy. I wonder if there's any set of rules, and if it's possible to find people.

If so, then he'd like to meet his mother. And be reunited with his other brother, Sabo.

"I wonder how Luffy's doing.."

A pang of guilt hits him as he thinks back to how he left the boy.

But Luffy's strong, the strongest person he knows.

He's sure that his brother's going to be fine without him.

And, when one day he'll join him, Luffy can beat him up if he wants.

He decides to look through the cupboards in the kitchen to see if there's any tea.

Finding a cup, teapot and a regular pot, he turns on the stovetop to heat the water.

While preparing the tea in the pot, he thinks back to all the times he's watched Thatch make him or someone else on the crew tea.

I wonder where Thatch is. I hope I get to meet him again.

Taking the boiled water, he pours it into the pot, bringing the teapot with him to the table.

As he drinks the tea, he doesn't register the sleepiness starting to drag him under.

He's asleep before finished the cup.

Nami rubbed her eyes as she walked down the hallway.

She and her crew had split up in the last few days so that Franky, Zoro and Brook could work on repairing the Sunny.

Or, so Franky could work on it and so that Zoro could train.

Brook came and went as he pleased.

Robin was likely exploring the country looking for libraries or architecture that'd interest her now that they didn't need to focus on a battle.

And so, they'd been staying at the mansion that Momo now owned, the child, as well as the samurai, had all exclaimed it was the least they could do.

Walking into the kitchen, she pauses at the unusual quiet.

When she notices Luffy, seemingly asleep on the table with a blanket thrown over him, she realises why.

Usopp and Chopper are both sitting close to him with fond expressions on their faces at their captains quiet snoring.

Yamato and Otama are also present, but Otama's also asleep. She's laying with her head in Yamato's lap, who doesn't seem bothered, smiling down at the child.

She carefully sits down across from them, Yamato nods his head in greeting but doesn't say anything, likely so he doesn't wake Otama more than Luffy.

Nami and Robin share a room, so while she doesn't sleep with the boys, she knows that their captain suffers from night terrors pretty often.

Sanji puts down breakfast for them to eat. He doesn't put a plate near Luffy, but Nami has no doubts that there's extra for him on the counter.

"It's not often we get to see him this peaceful, only directly after a battle usually"

Sanji says, voice barely a whisper, but everyone present hears him anyway.

Chopper nods, looking at their captain with a slight worried frown.

"His terrors have gotten better recently, but they came back full force after entering wano"

Nami doesn't need to look at her crewmates to see the same guilt on their faces that she harbours within her.

They all know the causes of Luffy's nightmares.

And they all feel slightly responsible for it - because they weren't there when it happened.

But Luffy never blamed them or brought it up, none of them see any accusing eyes pointed at them, only when looking in the mirror.

Luffy starts to stir, before he sits up and rubs his eyes.

This close, she can see the way the table caused creases in his skin, and weirdly enough gives the illusion of freckles.

He blinks a couple of times, before looking around the table.

His brow furrows in what Nami can only describe as a confused gaze.

They look at her, Usopp, Sanji and Chopper in silent contemplation, searching for something but it's like he doesn't know what that something is.

When they land on Yamato (She doubts Otama is visible from that angle) and his eyes widen with a certain sadness to them.

"Yamato?" He asks in surprise, blinking his eyes a couple of times as if to make sure the man's actually there.

Yamato blinks a bit awkwardly before nodding.

"How'd you find me? How did- how. I. I'm sorry"

At this point everyone's stopped eating, too caught up in watching the scene.

Luffy's eyes look full of remorse, toppled with guilt.

None of them can figure out why.

More than that, Luffy doesn't… Doesn't sound like Luffy.

Yamato doesn't look like he understands either, he's looking at Luffy with confusion, and slight worry, on full display. Sparing a few glances to Nami and her crew for help.

"Did you have a nightmare?" Chopper asks him. Luffy turns to look at their doctor. He doesn't answer him though, instead he just stares.

"I… I'm sorry, but have we met?"

Chopper's ears lower in barely concealed hurt, looking shocked at Luffy's question.

"Oi Luffy even for a joke that's not-"

"Luffy's here?"

Luffy (?) directs the question at Usopp, who'd spoken, shutting him up effectively.

His tone is tense, it feels more like he just asked if the world was ending and not.. If he was present.

To him, it feels like time stopped.

Ever since waking up, meeting the skeleton, there'd been a single thought nagging at him in the back of his mind.

The questions - why were there bathrooms, why did he have a body, why did the afterlife have tea and a kitchen to prepare it in?

His voice sounded weird, but he'd filed it away.

These people, except for Yamato, all look familiar.

But he just can't place it .

He hopes, for the first time since waking up, that this is a weird dream thing and that it's Not the afterlife.

Because he doesn't want to believe he failed.

He doesn't want to know if his little brother, his Luffy , died.

He can't stomach that thought.

Small grunts shake him from his stupor, and he watches as Otama (!?) sits up groggily from where she must've been asleep.

She rubs her eyes before looking at him, smiling. She looks older than the last time he saw her.

"Ah, mornin' Aniki!" She grins at him, and Ace melts - she reminds him a little of Luffy when he was a kid, but even more than that of Sabo. Sabo, if he'd had Luffy's sunshine selflessness and happy exterior.

He misses them, but he's not gonna let that get in the way of their reunion.

She meets his eyes, before frowning.

She looks him over, stumbling back into Yamato who's watching him warily.

He doesn't understand why she'd react like that, or why he's looking at him like that.

"Tama?"

"Who're you?" She asks him. It hits him again, that something about his voice sounds off.

Immediately after she says it, everyone else at the table glares at him and regards him with poorly hidden hostility.

"You're not Luffy" The orange haired woman states.

Ace thinks she must be joking.

Surely she really doesn't think that, right?

He knows they look similar enough to appear as blood, but Ace's body is a lot bigger than his brother.

The long nosed man holds up a finger, pointing at him. His other hand raised to cover his mouth.

"G-guys… He's… He's not wearing his straw hat"

Ace turns to look behind him to make sure there's no one there. Luffy certainly isn't.

Thus… Since they're all looking at him…

He looks down at himself.

He's wearing clothes, first thing he notes as off.

Clad in dark blue shorts and no shirt, Ace looks at his chest.

It looks like there's a mark on it, but from this angle he can't be sure, so he brings up a hand, also scarred, and touches it.

Tracing marred skin, he doesn't notice the blanket that'd been tossed across his shoulders fall to the ground.

Going further upwards on his skin, he traces his face. It's rounder than what he remembers, eyes are wider, and… Beneath his left eye, he feels a very familiar scar.

But… This is impossible. It must be, right?

There's no way..

"Oh. Right. This.. This is hell, isn't it?"

He says to no one in particular. It makes sense.

He loves Luffy, more than anything, so being forced to entertain the thought of him contaminating his brother like this, living in a fake world as him for the rest of eternity.

His guilt would eat him up.

But, wait a minute. The Luffy I remember didn't have a large scar on his torso like this-

His imagination's never been that good.

And again, if this were hell or the afterlife, why specifically bring these people whom he doesn't know, and bring Yamato and Otama, whom Luffy doesn't know?

Then.. Does.. No.. No way.

He hits his arm slightly, before realising Luffy's made out of rubber.

He pinches his skin, but still, no pain. Just the sensation of pulling skin.

Please let me be wrong. Please let this be hell.

Searching the table, he quickly reaches out for the first object closest to him.

Everyone present goes into a defensive position, ready to disarm him should he attack, but none of them anticipated what he was doing.

In the next moment, he brings the fork down as hard as possible, and promptly stabs his hand.

It hits the table with a dull thud, and the pain barely registers, but it's there.

That, and the warm pooling sensation of blood gathering beneath his palm.

"This is real" He speaks out loud, in Luffy's voice - because he's in Luffy's body -

"Oh, god. Oh fuck. What the fuck."

If Usopp had had any doubts that the so called captain in front of him wasn't in fact his captain, the guys reaction to all of this completely decimated that.

Luffy Rarely swears like that, not to mention his speech patterns and the general air around him was just. Different. Wrong.

Too calm. He didn't even ask or try to steal their food. Looked at all of them (except Yamato and Otama ?) like they were strangers.

Acted like he didn't know Chopper.

Usopps a coward, he's well aware, yet somehow out of all the things he's faced, this? Is the most horrifying one yet.

The guy looks completely worked up over this, his unhurt hand clutching his hair and breathing completely out of control.

Chopper, who's medical instinct snaps him out of his shocked stupor, all but leaps into action.

"Get back! Nami, get my back, now!" The reindeer directs, as they all distance themselves from the poor guy.

"Got it!" Nami runs out of the room, presumably heading towards the guys room, as Chopper slowly approaches the Not-Luffy.

The Not-Luffy is whimpering(?) or mumbling, hugging his chest (and getting blood all over it in the process, the fork is Still sitting in his hand, too) and now as he looks at the guy, he can't help but feel slightly bad for their reaction.

Sure, the guy was impersonating Luffy, though from the sounds of it, he hadn't actually been aware.

Chopper finally manages to get his attention, pausing the man's constant stream of apologies.

Getting his breathing under control after that is easier, but he still looks shaken up from the event.

Nami comes running right in that moment with Chopper's blue backpack with her. He accepts it with practiced finesse, thanking her all the while. She, Usopp, Otama and Yamato all sit back down at the table.

"You… You're all on Luffy's crew?" The Not-Luffy asks them, looking at Chopper.

Okay Usopp definitely feels bad now. There's just something about him that makes it very obvious that this is in fact not a 'stranger', not really.

Or well, he is, but not a stranger to Luffy, this man (person?) obviously knows him.

Still, hearing Luffy talk in such a calm And polite voice throws him on a bit of a trip.

They know that Luffy can, in fact, talk politely (a trait they all guessed was because of Ace's influence) but he just rarely does it. He's pretty sure the last time he'd heard him talk somewhat politely was on Drum.

"Well, we are, yes. Those two aren't" Nami answers, while Chopper carefully pries the man's arms open and takes the wounded hand.

The so obvious guilt overflowing in his eyes and open expression is what makes Usopp ask.

"You.. You know Luffy? Right? Like you're no stranger?"

The man looks over and meets his eyes, his gaze checks him over before smiling lightly. However, the pure sorrow doesn't fade.

He nods, before looking back down to watch Chopper work silently.

"You didn't know you.. Looked like Luffy?" He asks.

The man is about to answer, but Chopper beats him to it.

"This is Luffy's body. He has his devil fruit. Even if someone else used their powers on him to make him look like this, he wouldn't be able to copy his fruit."

"That makes sense," Usopp agrees.

"Hold on, why do you sound so sure that this person is a guy? We don't know who they are?" Nami asks.

"Just a hunch" Usopp and Chopper tell her at the same time.

"Well are you?"

The guy nods.

"Right. Uh, so. As Usopp was saying, did you know you were in.. Luffy's body?"

"He probably didn't, he seemed more shocked than we were"

"Well, this isn't our first rodeo"

"That's true"

"So." Nami meets the eyes of the man.

"Do you have any idea what could have caused this? Even more importantly, who are you?"

"I-"

"You think Law's playing a prank on us or something?" Chopper cuts her off. She smacks him on the head before looking back at the guy, who's… Who just looks fondly at them.

"No. I. I. I was going to ask if Luffy… If he'd done this somehow?"

"Where are we?" He asks instead, not waiting on any of them to reply.

"Haven't you realised yet?" Yamato asks and meets his eyes, Usopp blinks in realisation.

"Oh yeah that's right, you recognized Yamato and Otama? Does this mean you're from Wano-kuni?"

"I highly doubt that Usopp or he probably wouldn't have asked in the first place."

"Well he could have meant like, which building we're in"

"Besides, he'd probably have recognised us as something else than ''Luffy's crew''. Actually, that's a good question, how'd you figure that out if you don't know where we are?"

Nami levels him a curious gaze. The man blinks.

"It took me a while to realise I guess, since you all look… So different. I didn't recognise you. We've met before"

Usopp can see the gears turning in Nami's and Chopper's heads.

He himself is trying to figure it out.

It's someone who met them, but long ago and hasn't seen their newest wanted posters.

And it's someone who's been to Wano before where he met both Yamato and Otama.

All of this, while also being close to Luffy - or, at least close enough to warrant an emotional reaction.

He feels like the answer is glaringly obvious, yet somehow, he can't pinpoint anyone right now.

The man stands up on shaky legs, ignoring Chopper's shouts of distraught as he bows to them.

"Thank you for-"

And then it hits him.

The speech, the familiarity.

But.

But that's. That's not possible.

'Thank you for taking care of my little brother'

"Don't even joke about that!" Nami's voice calls out. She's gone white as a sheet, and A-Not Luffy looks at her in question.

"WAAAAAH GHOST POSSESSION" Chopper wails, startling the man.

Nami smacks him again.

"Cut that out! He's Not Ace!"

The man looks awkward, and slightly guilty.

"But.. What if it is?" Otama speaks up.

Nami's eyes soften slightly as she meets her eyes, but she shakes her head.

"I know you want it to be, but it's.. It's not possible. Ace.. Ace is dead, remember?"

The man flinches, Usopp isn't sure if it's because of the sadness on the child's face, or because of the reminder.

"You have a living skeleton on your crew" Yamato says as he puts a consoling hand on Otama's shoulder.

"Wait that wasn't a hallucination?" The man asks, brows furrowed.

Sanji, who's been quiet the whole time, lights up a cigarette before looking at the other man.

"You've run into Brook?"

"Yeah… I… I thought he was here to drag me down to hell"

Usopp tries very hard to control his laughter at the picture of 'May I see your panties' Brook carrying some poor soul into hell.

"...Right." Nami just says in a deadpan voice.

Taking a deep inhale of his cigarette, Sanji levels the man with a warning in his eyes, one everyone on the crew recognises as 'tread lightly'. It's a protective stance.

"So, let's say that this Is Ace," Another inhale, " Then that begs the question. If Ace, who's been dead nearly three years now," Not-Luffy flinches and his jaw goes slack in surprise.

"Is here. Then where's Luffy?"

Everyone present pales at the thought, except for the man who doesn't meet their eyes, and now Usopp realises the string of apologies from earlier weren't only directed at Luffy, but at them, too.

"How do we know if it Is Ace, then?" Yamato asks.

"Well usually you would like, ask him something only he and we would know, but we didn't know him for long."

"Where did you meet?" Yamato asks, but he directs the question at Ace.

"In Alabasta. I met Luffy after stopping a marine captain. When Luffy'd gotten away, I went to his ship where I met his crew. We were heading the same way, so we travelled together for a while. We got separated in the dessert I think. Then we met a bounty hunter that wanted to capture me or something? Then I-"

"Alright that's.. That's enough" Nami cuts him off. Not-L.. Ace stops talking, before guiltily looking away again.

"Has.. Has it really been three years?" He asks them.

"Almost, yeah. " Sanji answers him. He's no longer glaring at the man, but he's still a little unsettled.

But honestly who could blame them? They just found out that their captain's dead brother's somehow in their captain's body?

"Right.. Well, uh. Let's. Let's finish breakfast, then we'll.. We'll figure something out"
Sanji says, getting up and heading towards the kitchen. Ace doesn't say anything to it, but the guilt doesn't disappear.

Usopp tries to focus during the remaining breakfast.

Or, 'tries' is a bit of a strong word here.

He's worried.

Because Sanji's right, if Ace is here, then where is Luffy? Is Luffy dead? How'd this even happen?

Nami shoots him a look across from him where she's sitting.

Right. We'll tackle it later.