While I've been struggling with my Social Studies-tests and trying to pound information into my brain, I seem to have misplaced the idea that inspired me to write this fic... That might not excuse the strange turn this story has taken, but it's the only explanation I have to give...
Anyway, this fic is soon to be finished. Please bear with me until then, and try to ignore any words crammed together if you see any, they have been caused by the edit-tool, and new ones appear every time I try to fix them.

"Sanji. Tell me… where he is." Luffy's voice nearly faltered, but he forced himself to keep it steady.

Luffy swayed where he was standing, and he had to struggle to keep his eyes focused on those faint reflections beneath the shadows of the stranger's hood he was convinced were the man's eyes. He was starting to feel drained of his strength in that way only seawater could drain the life out of someone with the power of a Devil's fruit. But there was no water there, only compact darkness. So it had to be this white-clad man who was the cause of his sudden powerlessness.

The white-clad man seemed to regain control over himself by the mentioning of Sanji's name. He pulled back from Luffy, who could feel all those strong emotions emanating from the man fade into nothing again.

"He's over there," the man said, nodding lightly towards something behind Luffy. Now his voice had gone back to the hollow but yet oddly cheerful tone. "If you want to see him that bad, I'm not going to stop you."

Luffy reluctantly turned his head in the direction the other man pointed out for him. As soon as his eyes lost contact with the white, eerily glowing shape of the other man's cape, he was blinded by bright sunlight that seemed at first to be coming from nowhere.

Soon, his eyes adjusted to the new source of light, and he could see that he was standing on the roof of a boat which looked like a very strange fish. Looking down towards the front gate of the ship, he could see that the name Baratie was written on the side of the fish-boat in large letters (even if he saw the letters upside-down), and Luffy knew exactly where he was. This was the place he had found Sanji before they left to get Nami from Arlong, and the place where he had been forced to work for a whole week.

The sound of a gunshot pierced the silence that had been pressing against Luffy's ears. He hadn't even noticed the lack of sound around him until the silence was broken. Not even the waves seemed to make any sound as they slapped against the side of the restaurant.

Luffy looked up to see where the gunshot could have come from. He was hardly surprised to find an enormous battleship lie for anchor just in front of the restaurant he was standing on. Neither was he surprised to find that the ship in question was almost completely destroyed. How could it still be floating with those deep gashes in the hull, Luffy asked himself without bothering to think of an answer. There was something about that ship that sent chills down his spine, but he couldn't think of any reason for that to happen.

There was a loud (and yet a bit hesitating) cheering that steadily grew stronger, and a moment later, Luffy could see people running across the deck of the battleship towards the railing closest to the fish-shaped restaurant. In a matter of seconds, the pirates began boarding the fish-boat, armed with swords and guns. Luffy looked down towards the front gate, feeling as if he was waiting for something to happen.

Then, suddenly, he felt a gust of wind ruffling his hair and looked up. Just as he laid eyes on the battleship, it was as if a small, barely visible whirlwind rushed straight over the deck of it, and down along the hull towards the water, where it disappeared in a puff of sawdust. The next moment, the wood broke apart in the wake of the whirlwind, and the ship was parted in two sections that bobbed on the water for a moment, much like head-less fishes would still flap their tails all the way to the frying pan. Another roar was heard, but this time, it was a cry of pure fear as the two sections of the ship split up in smaller parts and began sinking rapidly.

A similar cry, but much shorter and more of surprise than fear, rose from the floor below Luffy. Placing his hands over his knees, Luffy peered down over the edge of the roof at the men dressed in white who had gathered by the front gate to dispose of the pirates who had dared to enter the restaurant. The cooks of the restaurant seemed to be just as bewildered as the pirates who now were clinging to the still floating pieces of their once grand battleship.

"Look!"

"It's him!"

"Do-- cough-- Don Krieg! It's him!"

"It's the man who sank our fleet!"

Luffy turned his eyes away from the cooks, a bit disappointed that he hadn't seen Sanji anywhere, and looked up. The pirates in the water below were all yelling at the same time, making it nearly impossible to make out a single word. But in the veils of smoke and dust that still were drifting along the surface of the water, Luffy could make out the silhouette of a small vessel slowly making its way towards the center of the action.

"It's him…"

Luffy heard the words pass over his lips, but he still wasn't sure that he had been the one who said them. He was certain that he knew who was traveling in that small craft, but no matter how hard he tried to remember, the person's name and face wouldn't rise to the surface of his mind. Then, all of a sudden, a flash light of the sun was reflected off something metallic in the midst of a circle of green flames, and the memories came flooding back to Luffy.

A man with eyes as sharp as the long black blade he carried on his back. A challenge made for one man to determine the other's fate. The cold sound of a tiny knife parrying a whirling inferno of three swords, blending with the terrified cries of all the spectators as they too realized what kind of fight they really were watching. Luffy's heart hammering in his chest as he gradually began to realize what the outcome of the battle would be. The final cut that brought the battle to an end, and the barriers of Luffy's mind finally breaking from the flood of withheld fury dammed up inside him by what he thought was the loss of his swordsman.

"Hawk-Eye…" Luffy muttered. "Hawk-Eyes Mihawk…"

About at the same time the smoke parted to reveal Juraquille Mihawk sitting calmly in his small craft, another man appeared on one of the larger pieces of what was left of the battleship. He was wearing a shiny gold-colored armor and a long, heavy-looking cape tossed over his shoulders. His men were still crying out their fear over the destruction of the enormous ship and the sudden appearance of the world's strongest swordsman, but the captain of the pirate clan didn't seem to have been fazed in the least. In fact, Don Krieg was laughing dryly as he leaned back against what remained of the shattered railing behind him.

"So, Hawk-Eyes," he said slowly, eyeing the well-known swordsmaster with mild interest. "Why have you followed us all the way here from the depths of the Grand Line?"

Mihawk's shoulders twitched in what looked like a very nonchalant shrug, and he tilted his head ever so lightly to the side as he fixated his gaze upon Krieg.

"I'm just passing some time," he said calmly, leaning back in his seat. The large black-bladed sword he carried on his back scraped lightly against the bottom of the boat as he moved.

"So you haven't come for my head then?" Krieg continued, still in the same mildly interested fashion. "The head of the man known as the King of East Blue?"

Mihawk shrugged once again, still not letting his piercing eyes leave the pirate in front of him. Luffy found himself nearly hypnotized by those eyes, and had to force himself to blink every once in a while. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to be seeing here. The mysterious man in the cloak had told him that Sanji was here, but Luffy hadn't seen even a glimpse of his cook anywhere yet.

"You speak your title with pride, I hear," Mihawk said, still not moving from his seat. "But your title means nothing in the world, even if you are feared in this ocean. Of all the seas of the world, this East Blue is the weakest, and no pirate from this sea will ever be known as a king.

"But now that you mention it…" Mihawk's lips curved upwards as he rose from his seat. "I have been a bit bored lately. Perhaps you will prove to be of some amusement to me?"

During the following moments, everything happened very fast. At the same time Mihawk placed one foot on the platform, pistols appeared from under Krieg's armor. Eight rounds of bullets were fired, but a swift flick of what appeared to be the swordsmaster's bare hand deflected them all and sent them whistling into the ocean.

The next moment, Krieg stumbled back, an expression of outmost shock on his lined face. His men gave up an equally shocked cry once their armor-clad captain sank down to his knees, one hand clasped around his own throat.

Luffy didn't bother to focus on Krieg, even as dark, sticky blood began trickling between the pirate's fingers. He didn't hear the terrified cries of the pirates down in the water or the subtle cheers of the cooks aboard the restaurant, and he didn't register the white-dressed man who pushed his way through the crowd outside the restaurant below Luffy.

No, his eyes were locked on the little flash of light cast off a tiny blade just as it was carefully slid into its sheath, concealing it within a seemingly harmless cross. The world's strongest swordsman cast one glance at the pirates, out of which only the one dressed in white dared to approach their seriously injured captain, and turned around to step down into his boat again.

"Well, that was anti-climactic… So that's him, huh? The greatest swordsman in the world."

Luffy squatted next to the edge of the roof and looked down towards the deck below, where a tall man dressed in black had appeared in the middle of the crowd of cooks by the lower railing. From his high lookout-spot, Luffy couldn't see his face behind the curtains of blond hair, but he could hear the calm, almost bored tone in his cook's voice, and it was a completely different voice than the voice he was used to hear.

Another voice was heard, and this time, it was the voice of an old man that was mixed with the tapping of what appeared to be a wooden leg against the floor.

"It's him, alright. It's rare to see one of the Shichibukai out here in East Blue. They usually don't leave the Grand Line. Now don't stand there gawking all day, you all have work to do. Tell the boys down in the machinery to move us out of here."

The tapping sound of the wooden leg moved inside the restaurant again, and Luffy watched as the cooks slowly began moving back into the boat again. Even Sanji turned away from the scene outside the boat, and flicked the still lit rest of a cigarette over the railing. He cast one last glance at Mihawk's small boat, which was slowly moving away from the shattered battleship and frowned.

"Che. So you face people like him in there… The Grand Line…"

Sanji stayed by the railing for a moment, not taking his eyes off the swordsmaster's boat. A soft scraping sound let Luffy know that the man behind him was moving, and he turned his head so that he could see the billowing white cloak in the corner of his eye. He didn't want any surprises.

"How great do you think the odds are that your cook ever gets to see the Grand Line?" he heard the man ask. When he didn't reply, the man continued:"When that oldman dies, so will all his ambitions in life. He'll stay on this boat for the rest of his life, that's my guess. He's too damn caught in his own guilt to see that he's working off a debt that can only be paid by following his dreams."

Luffy wasn't listening.While Sanji shrugged stiffly and slid his hands into his pockets before walking back into the resturant, Luffy sat down on top of the roof and let his legs dangle over the side. He didn't know what was going on, but even if everything seemed to be fine here, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

"Hey, have you ever heard about All Blue?"

"No, what's that?"

"What? You never heard of it?"

Luffy shook his head as the sound of Sanji's excited voice appeared in his mind, closely followed by his own. He could remember sitting on the railing outside this very restaurant, scratching at the itchy band-aids that were stuck to his arms and legs while listening to Sanji's story of an amazing ocean that was supposed to be somewhere out there in the Grand Line. That all seemed so distant now, almost as if it only had been a dream caused by his insatiable hunger.

"I think you're starting to get the picture now."

Luffy looked up but didn't turn around. He wasn't even surprised to see something white fluttering in the light breeze in the corner of his eye.

"Getting the picture?" Luffy curled up where he sat and reached down to adjust the straps of his sandals. He wished that he knew where his hat was, because he was starting to get worried about it.

"What have I been showing you so far?" asked the man in the white cloak with patience in his voice, as if he was perfectly used to Luffy's behavior.

"Lies." Luffy replied calmly, waving one foot in the air to check if his sandal was tied tightly enough. "I keep telling you that I don't buy any of this. Zoro and Usopp and Vivi and Chopper aren't dead. I know that. And Nami is not back with that damn fish-guy."

"And what about this scene you just saw?"

Luffy frowned and leaned back, supporting himself with his hands against the roof. He sat like that for a moment, going over what he just had seen in his mind.

"Zoro fought Mihawk," he said simply. "And I fought the guy with the armor… You didn't show me that, so this is just another lie."

He fell silent for a moment, watching the pirates now flocking around their fallen captain on the wooden remains of the once proud battleship that was slowly shrinking towards the horizon as the restaurant began moving away from it. His mind was beginning to wrap itself around what he had seen. Then, the nightmare from before came back to him, and he could once again hear the voices of his nakama in his head.

"I don't want to be your nakama."

"No, Luffy-san. Go away."

"Quaaaaaa…"

"Didn't you hear what they said? Go away."

"Like I said, we were just working together temporarily. Don't take it personal."

"No. No more lies, no more stories. No more adventures, Luffy."

"I'm not a pirate. I'm just a reindeer…"

"I don't want to follow a moron like you anymore. I'll find All Blue on my own."

"Get away from me. I wish I never met you."

"We never met…" Luffy muttered, straightening up a bit as he began clapping the soles of his feet together. "That's what this dream is about, isn't it?"

"Hmm…?" said the man in the cloak, who was watching him intently. "Try again, you're getting closer."

Luffy shook his head and curled up where he sat. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't grasp all of this. He wished that Nami or Vivi would be there so that they could explain stuff to him, or that Usopp or Chopper were there to be confused together with him. Or that Sanji would be there to kick him in the head for stealing that food earlier, or that Zoro would be there to tell him that this was all just a bad dream that could be ignored…

"They're not here with you, are they?" The voice that whispered in his ear sent uncomfortable chills down Luffy's spine. "That's because you really never met them. All you remember about them and your journey never happened."

"Wh-why?" Luffy felt his lips and tongue move to produce the word, but he wasn't really aware that he was speaking.

"You're dreaming, Luffy," came the soft reply. "You see, the truth is that you've been dreaming for a long time, and now… it's time for you to wake up, Pirate King."

All of Luffy's senses suddenly screamed at him to watch out, but he didn't get the time to react before he felt two bony hands against his back as he was pushed off the roof of the restaurant. Acting purely on instinct, he reached out his hand and grabbed hold of the first thing he spotted, namely the edge of the white cloak. But this did not stop his fall. Instead, as he pulled at the white cloth, it didn't stick to anything, but was dragged along with him.

Turning his eyes up towards the other man who was still standing on top of the restaurant, Luffy tried to focus his gaze on his newly revealed face as he fell towards the water as if in slow-motion. A pointed face with skin of a sicklydark shade that seemed to be the only part of his body that wasn't covered in rough, badly healed scars; deep set, almond-shaped eyes that glittered under the wild untidy hair that danced over his face in the faint breeze, and a grin so wide that it threatened to crack his face in two.

His first thought was: Shanks… But no, it wasn't Shanks. Shanks didn't have black hair. Luffy blinked twice, the image of the man's face clearing up a little. Ace? No, that wasn't right either. Why would his brother do something like this?

Then he saw it. The thin white line right under the man's left eye that stood out against the darkened skin almost like the crescent moon at night. A scar he knew too well after seeing it every time he looked in a mirror. A scar he had caused himself by stabbing himself in the face ten yearsearlier.

For a split second, he thought that hesaw a change inthe face ofthat other Luffy;an image ofan eyeless skull surrounded by blackmist flickering over what could have been a surrealreflection of himself.Now he knew that this had to be a dream… Or even worse…

---

One time, when Luffy hadn't turned seven yet, Shanks had let him and Ace stay aboard the pirate ship for one night. They had been having a lot of fun with the pirates, but in the middle of the night, Luffy had awakened from a bad dream. Still shaking and cold sweat glazing his neck, he had finally convinced himself to wake Shanks and thus taking the risk of being teased for being a kid as usual.

But Shanks hadn't teased Luffy. Instead, he had told him that nightmares are like bullies. They come when you're weak or tired, like when you have a fever or when you've partied all night, and they almost always bring friends. But, he said, there were tricks that could overpower the nightmares and make them scared of you.

First, you had to convince yourself that it was only a dream, because that would make the nightmare lose its power. Second, you should try to defeat the monster or whatever it was you dreamed of in the dream, and so turn the bad dream into a good dream.

However, Shanks had warned Luffy with a serious voice as he tucked him back into the large hammock next to his brother, if the nightmare gained power instead of losing it, there was one way to end the dream immediately before something bad happened, and that was to pinch yourself really, really hard and wake yourself up. Because if you lost control of the nightmare and the monster really caught you and killed you, you could die for real in your sleep. But that wasn't going to happen, Shanks had assured him with a smile, because if Luffy was going to be a pirate, he had to be able to fight off nightmare-monsters too.

Luffy had promised Shanks that he wouldn't let the nightmare-monsters win, and after a few minutes, he had been sound asleep again.

---

This had to be a bad dream. It just had to...And Luffy knew that he had lost control over it a long time ago. In what felt like an eternity, he managed to move his hand up to his lower arm, and pinched himself as hard as he could, just as his back made contact with the cold water.

The sting of pain was dull and distant, but as soon as the information reached his brain, he felt a jerk somewhere along his spine and everything went completely black.

Okay, it's 1:40 am and I have a test in Religions tomor... later today...
I hope this chapter didn't disappoint anyone who was hoping to see Sanji-kun die as well. Mihawk did state that he intended to take Krieg's head, but in the manga, he returned home after fighting Zoro and let Krieg off the hook... Anyway, good night everyone...

Digitaldreamer - Aw... then we'll have to try the old super glue... But I think we'll wait with that until the last chapter, ne? I don't think this chapter cleared up anything about the guy in the cloak, actually. I didn't want to write too much about him, as I feared that it would disrupt the flow of the chapter. Of course, I could be wrong...

em182 - But Chopper is so edible... Besides, Wapol would have eaten him if Luffy and Sanji hadn't used that combo attack on the king...
Ouch, falling over a table? x-x; Maybe there's a limit after all. I don't drink that much myself. I prefer to watch others being drunk instead.

Phoenix Flare - Yeah, I kind of lost him there for a moment. But I wanted to show that he's not just a cold bystander who enjoys killing off other people's nakama...

Shi Rurouni of the Aphrodesiac - Phew, I had to copy your pen name to be able to write it properly n-n; I'm not sure if it's really an older Luffy, or something else... We'll see as the story ends, ne?