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Ch 4: parallel
There's an old legend in the New World about a disappearing island.
Perhaps as mysterious as Sky Island is legendary, the island located at the edge of the Calm Belt and within the New World's tempestuous seas is one that few have explored.
Pirates who have come upon it have sworn it not to be a trick of the light, or a drunk hallucination. The island is there, it's luscious greens and inviting beaches tempting those looking for an adventure. But by the time they are close enough to see the numerous fruits growing in the canopies of the trees, the whole island disappears in front of their eyes.
Many who have heard of the tale claim it as a simple case of Mirage Syndrome, a common disease in pirates who couldn't find fresh food or water at sea. Others called it a fantasy, made up by pirates who were just as insane as the ones who believed in islands in the sky.
An island that oh-so-happened to disappear when anyone got too close? Only fools would believe it.
Imaginaria Island, sailors called it mockingly.
The name, though lacking in such imagination, stuck.
And on a day when the currents were particularly rough, a battered inconspicuous skiff made its way to that very same imaginary island.
To those who had been watching from the island's trees, the frail piece of wood posed no danger to the inhabitants of the island and thus an alert had not been necessary.
The skiff would travel past the invisible barrier before a wave crashed onto what little was left of it, it's unseen load left clinging haphazardly on a piece of wood.
The island flashed, and like a mirage, disappeared, the person disappearing with it.
"Hey, can you hear us?"
Kai roughly shakes the girl's shoulder. There's no response.
"What should we do?" The curly-haired boy turns to his sister but she's frozen, wide blue eyes fixed on the whiter than paper skin of the foreigner's face. She's never seen a corpse before but she can imagine that this person looks very similar to one.
"Is she…"
Mina can't say it. The words are stuck on her throat and she swallows dryly.
Were they too late?
And suddenly, the villagers are there with them, surrounding the three.
A man named Haku kneels beside them, panting - "check for a pulse" - while another villager covers the unconscious stranger's torso with a green towel.
Mina snaps out of her strange trance. Small fingers tilt the woman's head back and feels for a pulse below her jawline. She nods to Haku. "It's there, but very faint."
"Gio's gone to get the Doctor," he says, confirming what the young girl had suspected earlier.
His rough hands turn the stranger to her side, the towel slipping off, and without warning, he gives the woman a hard whack on the back.
"I don't think that helps," a dark-skinned villager by the name of Francesca says cautiously. "We need to-"
A cough silences her. Everyone seems to hold their breath.
Seawater slowly comes trickling out of the woman's nose.
Then another dry cough, followed by a choked gargle. The young woman jerks until she is shakily up on all fours, vomiting clear seawater.
"That's it!" Kai says encouragingly, fists clenched.
Mina takes to gathering up and holding back the young woman's damp hair back as the latter continues to hack up air, gasping and trembling violently. Haku stands and moves away.
When she's finished gagging, Mina lets her hair go and scoots back on the sand a bit, giving her space. Kai follows her lead.
Breaths ragged, chest heaving, the young woman slowly sits up, her whole form trembling. The towel is at her side but she doesn't move to pick it up. She doesn't look up at any of them.
"Um," Kai says unsurely. "You okay?"
She doesn't respond, still gasping.
"Who are you?" Haku asks, his brusque tone causing Mina to look up. His emerald eyes have darkened to a forest green, hard and judging. "Where did you come from?"
Kai looks up at him too, and the two realize how uneasy the air is around the small group.
That's right, Mina thinks, looking back at the young woman, who's breathing is still labored. She's not one of us. She's from the outside world.
But even while she thinks this, Mina does not quite understand what it has to do with helping the stranger. It's obvious that she isn't in any state of mind to be interrogated - who knows how long she's been at sea, hanging on to a piece of wood for dear life, waiting for a rescue? This woman needed prompt medical attention. Questions about her whereabouts can wait until later.
Mina gulps, fisting her hands on her skirt to steel herself before speaking. "Haku-sama... I think-"
"Who-?" a hoarse voice interrupts, and Mina barely holds in her gasp when she realizes it comes from the foreigner. "W-Where…?"
With what looks to be with tremendous effort, the young woman slowly raises her head. Wet bangs are plastered to her forehead as the rest of her damp curly hair tumble around her pale face and shoulders like a veil. Hazy, half-lidded orbs look up towards Haku, who's at the center of the group, but Mina can tell she's not looking at him - her eyes are dim, her gaze far away.
"Who…?" she croaks again, her eyebrows scrunching into a confused frown.
Haku stares down at her, his own eyebrows lowering into a slight scowl. "Yes. Who are you? Why are you here? What do you-"
"Haku," Francesca says quietly, raising a hand.
They watch, apprehensive, as the foreigner's eyes flutter open and shut. She weakly lifts a hand to her forehead.
"Who… am I?" she rasps. She seems to give up trying to keep her eyes open. "Gomen… I don't- I don't know."
Then she collapses, completely unconscious. Kai manages to catch her right before her head hits the sand.
"Heavy," he grunts, before placing a hand on the woman's forehead. "I think she has a fever."
Francesca steps forward and places the towel back on the shivering form of the stranger, her words directed at the leader. "No more questions."
There's a sigh, then-
"Let's meet the Doc halfway then," Haku offers, already kneeling back down to take the stranger out of Kai's hold.
It's a small reaction, but Kai leans back slightly, away from his reach, tightening his grip on the woman's shoulder.
Haku surprisingly chuckles, the warmth that is back in his eyes lowering their guards. "I won't do anything, promise. It'll just be faster to bring her to the village then wait for the Doc to come to us."
With a nod, Kai loosens his grip and Haku effortlessly lifts the pale young woman up into his arms, wrapping the towel around her back as well before cradling her to his chest.
"You guys did well in finding her," their leader says, smiling warmly at the siblings. An embarrassed blush spreads across Mina's face as she nods while Kai narrows his eyes.
Haku looks down at the stranger, her breaths still shallow even while unconscious, then addresses the rest of the villagers. "All of you...thanks for coming along. You all can go back to your posts - the day's work isn't finished yet. I can take it from here."
They're hesitant at first but one by one they start walking back to the docks, reminded of the day's quota remaining incomplete, the sun still high up in the sky but knowing that it won't be for long.
Haku blinks, genuinely puzzled when two certain villagers stay behind, staring back at him. "You guys can head off, too. Don't worry, I'll make sure she gets to the Doc."
"No way!" Kai blurts out childishly.
Haku scowls.
"I-I mean," Kai backpedals. "I-I think since Mina and I found her and all, and we ran all this way, we should be the ones to go with her and, uh, y'know, make sure she's alright and stuff." He's pouting and kicking at the sand by the end of his babble.
"What Kai is trying to say," Mina amends, "- is that we feel partially responsible for taking care of her since we were the first to find her. It would make us feel better if we saw her being treated right away. We'd like to accompany you back to the village if you'd let us, Haku-sama."
She ends her spiel with a low bow, glaring at Kai to follow.
He bows with haste, curly hair flying. "What she said."
They look back up to see an amused smile on their leader's face. He adjusts the foreigner in his arms before beckoning the two to follow him.
Their mischievous grins fall when the girl begins to cough again.
"We don't have much time," Haku states, walking briskly towards an area covered in brush and wild plants, opposite of the docks.
"Wait, where are we going?" Kai asks, Mina just as confused as they both trot behind Haku, trying to keep up with his pace while intermittently looking back at the path across the docks that they knew led to the village, then back again at the woodsy forest that Haku is walking towards. "The village is the other way!"
"We're taking a shortcut," Haku says simply.
Their feet move from sand to dirt and long brown grass, leaves and straw crunching with each of their steps. When they get to the edge of the forest, with one hand gripped beneath the girl as her head rests on his shoulder, Haku uses his other hand to swipe at a particular curtain of foliage hanging on low tree branches.
And there, right in front of their eyes, is a path - not as well-traveled as the one the siblings are used to but traveled enough for a thin dirt trail to appear, winding down through the tall trees of the forest, almost concealed by the fallen rusty brown leaves and growing vegetation. The forest is alive with the sound animals scurrying through the bushes and birds chirping up in the trees.
"Cool," Kai whispers, Mina silently agreeing with him.
"Come on, now," Haku says, going in first, carefully adjusting his load once more until he's carrying the woman like he would a bride.
Then they - Haku, Mina, Kai, and the strange young woman from the outside world - disappear into the forest, the curtain of leaves falling back in place like it had never been disrupted.
Maybe it's because he's been at the Pirate King's side the longest, First mate and whatnot, but Zoro can just feel when something is off.
At first, he dismisses it.
After all, despite everyone's attempts to bring back a sense of normalcy on the ship, everything is different with Nami gone. Her loss is impounded with every second they spend aimlessly drifting across the New World's seas on a ship with no navigator.
Their captain, despite being rubber, can't be expected to bounce back as quickly as before.
So Zoro doesn't bat an eyelash when Luffy makes a temporary stay in the thriving orange grove, lying still among the tall trunks day and night, under rain and shine, occasionally reaching up to grab one of the delectable round fruits before ultimately letting it go unpicked.
(Zoro imagines it represents her, smells like her, and if it's Luffy's way of coping with her lost presence, then so be it.)
He doesn't meet the eyes of the Ero-Cook when Luffy declines dinner for the fifth time this week (they're all counting) and nonchalantly asks instead for some sake before going off to his captain's seat on Sunny's head, bottle in hand.
(Zoro figures he's eaten breakfast and lunch so he must not be as hungry. The Cook's made too much food again anyway - there's one less person to feed now.)
He waves off the crew's concerned looks when they miraculously manage to reach an island after a long, tiring week, and as they get ready to set off in groups to look for supplies, their captain announces he's staying behind, a smile on his face that no one believes as he babbles on about guarding the Sunny for once.
(Zoro stays behind too, muttering some lame excuse that 'the island looks uninhabited anyway so where's the fun in that?' before standing stiffly by his captain as the rest of the crew makes their way down the Sunny.)
The First Mate takes in all of Luffy's behaviors and accepts them as a consequence of their having failed to protect their nakama, as a punishment for breaking a promise.
It is naive to expect everything to go back to normal after only 15 days.
And it is just as unfair to think their captain would go back to his happy-go-lucky, adventurous, charismatic self and lead them out of the dark cloud that's been over the Sunny after a loss this big.
But Zoro still can't shake the uneasy feeling away.
There had been something in Luffy's gaze as he stared up at the mikan cupped in his hand before letting it go, in the slump of his shoulders as he sat on Sunny's head, and in the lopsided grin on his face as he now waves excitedly to the rest of the crew across the water, that just didn't sit right with Zoro.
It hits him as he watches the grin drop off his captain's face the second the crew disappears into the woods of the island.
(And his mind blurs back to that rainy evening, when they had to leave her buried six feet under, when he had felt something change almost imperceptibly as he watched the Pirate King's lone back slowly disappearing through the haze, fading into black.)
It's not that there was something there, but rather something that was missing. Something vital.
Looking at him now, Zoro can see how the light has faded from his eyes, how the confidence that lined his shoulders is gone, and how his smile is now strained and forced.
And Zoro knows.
He doesn't say it out loud - can't say it because then that would make it true, that would make it real despite it being impossible - but he knows. He feels slightly ashamed he didn't notice earlier, wrapped up in denial over everything.
Losing Nami meant more than just losing a nakama. Luffy staying on the ship when he would never in a million years do so even if everyone begged him to was a blaring testament to his spiraling change.
Zoro keeps the revelation to himself - there's no use having the crew panic when all he has to go on is a feeling, especially when they were all still highly stressed.
And the captain, as well as Zoro knows him, is still unpredictable. There's no knowing what Luffy might actually do.
So Zoro decides to wait. He watches as Luffy turns and strolls back to lie under the shade the mikan grove provides and hopes against hope the Pirate King proves him wrong.
The fateful day comes on a warm, sunny afternoon.
They had just finished lunch and were all gathered on the grassy deck after Luffy, having finished his lunch early, told them to meet him down there to discuss their next steps before the Kuja and their Empress arrived.
The Pirate King delivers his message to them bluntly. Zoro is almost angry at how the words leave his mouth so easily.
There's a stunned silence on the deck as Luffy finishes.
A light breeze nudges the grass below their feet and pushes the swing behind them to a lazy rhythm.
The cook is the first to say anything.
"Bull."
His words serve as a catalyst for the confused clamor that comes next, each of the Straw Hats raising their voices in objection to their captain's statement, the shock of it all written deeply in their features.
"Wait, Luffy-kun! A declaration like that-"
"Aow! Senchou! You can't possibly be thinking of-?!"
"Isn't this a bit sudden, Luffy-san?"
"H-hey, i-if this is a joke, it's not funny at all!"
"This is quite a big decision, Luffy!"
"Luffy…!"
Zoro grits his teeth but doesn't say a word. To say he'd known exactly what Luffy was going to say would be a lie. The Pirate King is indeed unpredictable. But he isn't surprised. This is the conflict he had sensed brewing within his captain, and knew it would have to be addressed sooner than later.
(And the thought Zoro suppressed that day returns now with a vengeance, unrelenting, clawing its way to the forefront of his brain, the ghosts of its hands already searching for his heart-)
(And he knows-)
(And for once, there is absolutely nothing he can do.)
Their captain doesn't say a word to his nakama's outbursts, the blank expression on his face almost unnerving.
The crew grows quiet. The breeze no longer, nothing moves on Sunny.
The idea is given time to creep into their minds, settle into their hearts, the severity of their Pirate King's words still echoing through their minds…
And the Straw Hats crack.
"Luffy." Robin's voice is trembling, desperate. Her almond eyes wide are wide with fear, her normally cool composure gone. "A decision like this… shouldn't it have been discussed beforehand?"
"L-luffy…?" Chopper whispers, frustrated tears building in his big round reindeer eyes.
A small unsure chuckle escapes Usopp's lips. "Luffy...y-you're joking, right?"
Franky crosses his robotic arms, sunglasses glinting in the sun. He answers the sharpshooter's question, his face grave with worry. "I don't think so."
"Luffy-kun…" Jinbe says, at a loss for words.
"B-but why Luffy-san?" Brook says, his bony hands gesturing helplessly. "We don't understand..."
Silence reigns once again on the Sunny-Go. Then, the member who's only uttered a word since his captain's declaration, who, like the First Mate, watched and waited for a reaction - any reaction from his captain - but found none, spoke.
"Because he's selfish, that's why." Sanji's snarled words are sharp as knives, deliberately chosen to hurt.
It works, and Luffy's eyebrows twitch slightly into a scowl and his lips purse into a thin hard line.
But the cook isn't done. His foot grinds on the fallen cigarette butt on the ground as he stalks towards his unmoving captain. Every word is meant to stab into the rubber man. "He thinks he's the only one here who's hurting the most. He thinks he's the only one here who's guilt eats him alive every. single. shitty day. He thinks he's the only one who's thought about the future of this crew."
He stops inches away from Luffy, shaking, flames of anger coursing through his veins, his blood pounding in his ears. He meets the captain's dark eyes and feels like he's going to throw up.
"What are you thinking in that damn empty head of yours, shitty captain?" he whispers.
"Oi, Cook." It's a warning.
"Back off, Marimo," Sanji all but growls. His tone is unapologetic, accusing. "I don't need to hear it from you. You probably knew about this all along."
His burning eyes stay fixed on Luffy's, searching. Challenging. "'Who cares about what happens to everyone else? Who cares about their dreams? I've already accomplished mine.' Is that what you're thinking? Huh, shitty captain?!"
"Sanji…!"
"Sanji-san…"
The shock in his nakama's voices tell him he's gone too far, but Sanji doesn't care. He doesn't care.
He doesn't even blink when a look of hurt flashes across Luffy's eyes.
His mind flashes to his captain's words just a minute earlier. At how infuriatingly blank his expression remained when he delivered the words that stomped on and shit on and destroyed all their dreams.
No. Luffy has hurt them a lot more.
It takes all his strength not to kick his captain all the way up to Skypeia. Shaking with fury, he grabs Luffy by the collar and slams him against the mast. He knows Luffy is letting him and somehow that fuels his anger.
"SAY IT AGAIN YOU SHITTY CAPTAIN!" he challenges, rage engulfing his senses. " I DARE YOU TO SAY IT AGAIN!"
Sanji doesn't even flinch at the cold metal suddenly pressing at his throat.
Zoro's voice is cold. "Put 'im down."
Sanji thinks about not listening. Thinks about cursing at the swordsman and telling him to stay out of it before engaging in a duel that would break the crew even more than the death of their nakama already had. But just as his grip tightens on Luffy's shirt, his mind suddenly goes to how long it's been since he's argued with Luffy. If he were to ignore the event that led up to this fight, Sanji could almost swear that this felt normal. And any second now, a fist was going to be flying down on each and every one of their heads-
And as fast as his anger had flared, it receded. A wave of exhaustion washes over him and he deflates, his strength gone. All he suddenly wants to do now is sleep.
His grip loosens and Luffy slumps down on the bench, long bangs obscuring his face.
"Tch."
Ignoring the sword still at his throat, the cook slides one hand into the pocket of his pants to pull out a pack of cigarettes, lighting one up and taking a deep inhale of the tobacco stick. He breathes out a plume of smoke just as Zoro lowers his sword.
Sanji doesn't bother to look at Luffy again, turning away instead to look over at the open sea, at how it glittered underneath the sunlight, wide. Infinite.
"I miss her, too, shitty captain."
Luffy makes a sound behind him and Sanji moves. Past the shitty swordsman. Past the solemn faces of his nakama. He makes his way upstairs to the galley, uncaring of the lump that gathers in his throat. He had lunch to make.
As the cook leaves, Zoro sighs.
How dramatic.
He hates the air that's left on this ship.
He misses the good old days when he could take a nap and only be disturbed when a stupidly daring Navy ship had the guts to attack them. He misses when the only arguing they did was on which island to go to next, or of who ate the last slice of Shepherd's pie or of how much money was going into buying meat and booze.
Zoro sheaths his sword. It was simple back then but...
Things change.
(And people die.)
(And there is absolutely nothing he can do.)
His eyes inadvertently glance up at the small orange fruits, growing strongly from their branches, ripe for the picking. They shined under the rays of the sun, colors bright like... like...
(And Zoro remembers.)
His eyes are now on Luffy, still slumped on the bench, and Zoro wonders if anything he says will even reach him.
His captain seems so distant now, his words from before said decidedly, and with terrifying resolution.
Zoro clenches the hilt of one of his swords, steeling himself. Luffy had been serious, so he had to be too.
He chooses his words carefully, aware of the crew only a few feet away, Chopper sniffling quietly.
"Luffy... are you sure?"
A long, tense minute passes.
Luffy stirs. He lifts his hat a bit to look Zoro in the eye. He still has that blank look.
Zoro tries again.
"I'm only going to ask this one more time, captain." His voice is hard. He needs Luffy to get this. This is his only chance.
"Are you sure?"
His blank eyes stare at Zoro before they slowly, almost imperceptibly, widen. And his eyes are no longer the misty gray they've been since Nami's death, like the dark clouds of that rainy evening - they're a darker than black onyx, like coals of a burning fire.
(Finally. Finally.)
But he's not looking at Zoro. His eyes are far away. Her voice fills his head.
"Luffy… are you sure?" Nami. Short orange hair in a pretty half-bun.
"Hm? Ah...about Ace's paper? It's fine, don't worry!"
"We don't mind taking a detour!"
"Yeah!"
"Luffy-san, I don't mind taking an alternate route…"
"Uwoooh~~! Let's go meet that huge whale!"
"Nah, it's really fine… even if he was in a pinch, he wouldn't want me worrying about him… and if we went to help him, he'd just get pissed off! Shishishi!"
"Apparently Vivre cards not only shrink when you're in danger, but also grows when you're better."
"Yeah, I wanna meet him at full strength!"
Luffy groans, squeezing his eyes shut, hands flying up to hold his head as the repressed memories come back full force, pummeling through to the front his mind.
"Ace…"
"Luffy the one thing i regret, is not getting to see your dream fulfilled…"
"AAAAAACCCCEEEE!"
"Gaugh!" he cries out, tears of frustration building behind his tightly shut eyes.
"Come on, senchou," Zoro urges.
The other Strawhats look on with uncertainty, wondering what the First Mate and Captain were discussing, dark despair still clinging to their hearts.
"Don't think about what you've lost. Think about what you have left…!" Jimbei. His voice rough, pleading at the time.
"Gughh...!"
His eyes shoot open, tears subsequently falling to the grass.
"...MY NAKAMA!"
And Luffy remembers.
I don't know what it is about drama but I always have such a great time writing tense scenes haha. I always feel bad after though - poor Luffy. Anyone have a clue as to what he said and what Zoro figured out? Yall probs already know but do tell in a review! Your words feed my story :)
Special thanks to mako-clb, Awsme Girl, bigail, PazzyBepo, Kaoru, Aewina-chan, Majestade and the many, many other reviewers (including you, Guests!) who I can't remember right now off the top of my head but will definitely mention soon and make the next chapters dedicated to you guys - you know who you are. You all made me realize my stories were still being read and appreciated. Hope you enjoyed reading this one!
Ja ne,
- forgottensonhs