Chapter the Second- Can't Bring You Back-

He is dying.

Three days and nights, long cold hours sitting on the midnight shore looking out towards the cursed sea. And remembering. There is a point where he is not quite sure what is memory and what is wishful thinking, so he gives up thinking all together and just cries.

Sooner than later, he lacks the fluid necessary to create sorrow from his eyes, so he gives in to instinct and begins to search for water. He stumbles, willing footstep after painful footstep towards the mountain at the center of the island where the pink sky seems to circulate around, not knowing what he is doing, where is water will come from or how many ragged breaths he has left in his chest.

A puddle of stank water lying in an eroded rock is not enough to satisfy his appetite and leaves the strangest burning sensation in his stomach, but his mouth is numb and he cannot taste anything. Likewise, a couple of wild onions and carrots torn from the ground, seasoned with roots and dirt and mud. Disgusting but satiating.

Though it was nowhere near enough to satisfy his hunger, his small meal brought him to the surface. Tears begin to roll down his cheeks again as he curses his consciousness for the millionth time.

I...
I just want it back

They were alive. They had to be. Somewhere, somewhere out there his nakama are searching for him, and it is only a matter of time before they find him.

They weren't dead.
He has no memory of them dying.

Memory…
His shaking hand finds its way up to what should be the rough-but-soft texture of plaited straw to fit his head. As if it is still there, as always. The part of him that never, ever got lost.
His hair is knotted and filthy underneath the flat of his palm, and for the thousandth time he turns towards the sea with nothing to say.

I'm sorry
I promised
I would give it back

Shanks

You promised me you'd be there at the end

"YOU PROMISED ME!"


I am the flower
You are the rain
Stay there without me
And I am in pain

Caves were interesting places. The coolness of rock to his fingertips, the smell of damp earth. The roots hanging down from the ceiling above him, which he pauses and laments: they were nature's ultimate sorrow; representing foliage that cried out for water and never received it.

Where
Where am I

Thinking logically is not his biggest skill, but even he can put two and two together given some time.The last island he was at…?
Arabastra?
No.
Skypiea?
Nada.
Juvarra?
Probably.

…Wait.

"That's Juvarra, the last island before Raftel."

His tired feet, scraped and bleeding from the rough stony floor have carried him further than he thought into stank air and darkness.
A glimmer brighter than a thousand suns floods his vision.



Raftel?

It makes so little sense and so much sense at the same time.

He is here.
This is it.

He is pretty much the Pirate King.

Yeah right-

The late Pirate King must have had a weighty battalion with all he had left before going to whatever Marine-induced death was waiting for him. The cave before him is not a cave; it is a dome—maybe two hundred feet around, fifty feet high and not a speck of the color of earth is visible.

It's all treasure. Takara. However you want to say it, it's all the same. The glint of gold blinds him for a moment as he enters this…dome from a small and rather dark cave path. So much, mountains of coinsanddaggersandjewels, and all of it worthless.

It is so unbelievably hard not to think of his navigator, and his mind betrays him. Such a vivid image of her screaming with joy forces his cook to enter uninvited into his mind, followed by the swordsman shouting and the liar lying and the reindeer laughing, in fact all of them laughing and sitting around a warm meal on a cold day and doing whatever nakama do when…
No.Stop.
He pounds his fist into his skull, a fruitless attempt to knock the memories out of his head. No luck.

So much treasure.
No One Piece.

The One Piece isn't there. Shouldn't he be looking for it? Shouldn't he be the Pirate King by now?
And then what?
What can he do with a treasure but no ship or nakama? He can't leave the island, can't sail away and sure as hell can't swim away.
What an idiot.
All this time he'd been set straight for the One Piece, so sure that as soon as it was in his hands he's be the Pirate King. And yet, here he is. Treasure and nothing else, no One Piece, no nakama.

His stomach hurts from hunger.

Without much warning, his nose becomes sensitive to the scent of his surroundings, the tang of chrome and gold and who-knows-what-else. His mind wanders and plays him a moving picture of fragrance: The kitchen brings him the erotic and flirtatious blend of smoke and spice with the slightest hint of aftershave. He wanders into the galley; exotic perfumes laced with ink and yellowed paper. The open air of the deck cannot drown the heavy scent of lies and animal fur enjoying time together. And when the moon shines high, the familiar perfume of sake and sweat and blood as the arms that took down the Hawk in flight pull him in close and drive his nightmares away.

It is impossible to stop thinking about his nakama. He was so stupid.
At least with his nakama he could be a pirate. The One Piece is right in front of him somewhere and there is nothing he could do.
Shit.
Really messed up this time.

It is so unfair.
How could he have missed the fact that his nakama made him more of a Pirate King than a stupid piece of treasure ever would?
Always together, fighting and winning.
Inseparable.
Family.
One piece of something bigger-

One Piece?

He ignores the gashes on his face that scream from the agony of salt and angry tears running into them as a floodgate of mixed emotion opens up and his lungs scream to whatever gods have forsaken him.

My nakama

were my One Piece-


/ kanthia writes-
you probably noticed by now how out of character I've portrayed Luffy. If you may, think back to happier times. Every time Luffy's nakama are endangered he switches faces to some sort of 'real' captain, anger spewing from the depths of his heart. If you think how serious he was then, it's almost hard to imagine the kind of effect it would have on him if suddenly all his nakama perished.../