A little glimpse into Luffy's past and power.


Chapter 3 ~ Fire Element

Another 2 days passed,

The food stock was running thin by now and Luffy really needed to go to town to buy some more food. Marco, on the other hand had been healing pretty well but was still unable to fly right, his sides still sore and the stab wounds weren't healed yet.

'Ugh I'm so used to healing instantly yoi, this is too slow,' he thought, frowning while preening himself. Marco swore he would never take his power for granted ever. He's been thinking about his family, wondering if Thatch was even alive. He had been trying to avoiding thinking about that… and Ace, he was sure that hot head would've rushed in rage to chase Teach which was under his division, he sighed. Was oyaji okay? Would he be drinking himself to sleep without him there nagging him, did they think he's dead? Are they searching for him? He sighed again.

"What are you thinking so hard about Marco?" Luffy said as they were sitting by the ocean again and he was reading a book. Marco laid his head on his lap and sighed again making him giggle slightly. He decided to lift Marco up and place him on his lap and started grooming him with one hand while the other held a book.

Marco protested by pecking his hand but it was skillfully ignored making him huff but he let it go at the end. It's useless, he realised this guy was stubborn when he wanted to be.

"Neh... do you have a family?" He asked again this time making eye contact.

Marco was surprised by the sudden question, 'he's so on point again yoi, can he read minds?' he wondered sceptically and cocked his head to the side slightly.

"Is that a yes or a no?" Luffy asked with a raised eyebrow. Marco sighed again and nodded slowly. 'This guy sighs too much,' Luffy thought , slightly amused.

"Owh... you must miss them then... don't worry, you'll find them again. I'm sure," he said with a kind smile. "I don't know if I have any family…," the bird tilted his head to the side at that and Luffy continued "I had partial memory loss and I kind of forgot most of my childhood, I had a grandpa but…" his face turned pained saying that.

'How'd you get amnesia yoi?' He wanted to ask so bad, he pointed to his head and cocked his head to the side.

That made Luffy chuckle, it was adorable. So he asked, "are you asking me how I got amnesia?"

Marco was surprised, 'he understood that, yoi?! But, YES!' so he nodded more vigorously than he usually would. Being a bird for so long, unable to communicate, was more frustrating than he thought it would be.

"Ahh, well since you knew I was a slave anyway…I was one of the battle slaves that they threw into rings for 'games'," he said, doing air quotes and spitting the word out venomously. He continued, "I was winning a lot of it, I was strong as a kid but they overestimated it one day...threw me into a fight with a giant."

Marco was not happy about that, though...'so he could fight yoi, I wonder how good he is,' he thought, making a conclusion.

Luffy resumed, "well anyway, no matter how good I was, I was just still an 11 year old child-"

'11 Years Old! WTF Yoi!' He squawked, surprising Luffy. But the raven just smiled at his outburst, petting his head gently and continued.

"-yeah, i was 10 when I was taken, it had been almost a year at this point though, anyways the fight went on but I got bashed on the head too hard, almost died. Surprisingly, they didn't let me die and healed me, but I lost most of my memories. I remembered what happened and why I was taken and enslaved. Apparently, I was too 'precious' to be left to death." he chuckled humorlessly, "I think the saddest part is that losing my memory made it easier for them to control me. For a while at least."

Marco was so pissed, what the hell, a 10 year old in fighting rings and with a giant no less. He really hated those damned celestial bastards, his whole family did. He didn't know how to comfort him as a bird so he jumped onto his shoulder and nuzzled his head.

"Shishishi, thanks birdie! It's alright though, it was a long time ago," Luffy said, looking at him with a smile.

Now that Marco looked closely, he seemed so tired, it made him worry. Why was he so attached again? He had no idea, but he wanted to just make sure Luffy would always have that beautiful smile that could rival the sun. These past 2 days, they've spent all their time together, they even bathed together which resulted in nosebleeds and a sweat-dropping Luffy.

Marco had gotten used to perching on his shoulder or just cradled like a cat because his protests were ignored. He would sometimes just watch and observe the raven. He noticed that the teen doesn't sleep much and tended to have short naps. He saw him jerk awake several times, sweating from a nightmare and didn't sleep again after that. Sometimes, Luffy would get a distant look as he sat quietly staring at nothing and Marco didn't like that, he looked broken and tired. But once he noticed Marco worrying, he would smile and go back to normal like it didn't happen.

Marco also found out he doesn't hunt the animals in the forest, "I can't eat my friends! I would be a vegetarian, but I love meat! so I bought them!" The raven explained, pouting slightly when Marco questioned it. He had told him they were running out of meat and Marco pointed to the forest which again, surprisingly, he easily understood. The last thing he concluded was that this guy was overall kind and gentle, stubborn and definitely not stupid. It made the pirate realise that he would be leaving one day and that left a pang in his heart. He wondered if he could get him to come with him and join his family, so he could watch over him, 'yes.. watch over him yoi.'


"I need to go to a town, we're running out of food," said Luffy, snapping Marco out of his thoughts.

'How're you going yoi?' He wondered for a while, he had only seen a small dinghy by the small dock this whole time. Unless the raven had a hidden ship somewhere, there's no way it's safe to travel in the New World on that!

"Do you want to come along or stay here? it won't take long and I'll be back on the same day," he asked. Marco thought for a moment, he didn't want people to find out about him in his weakened state and attack him or get caught and become a problem for the raven or he might… sell him… though, probably not. He was just thinking of all the possibilities. So he decided it was better to stay, he pointed to the cabin and the ground to act out the message.

"Alright, I'll go tomorrow morning and will probably be back by afternoon. I will prepare some food for you and you can read a book or something alright," he said distractedly, watching the fire with a soft smile. The light from the bonfire reflected in his black eyes.

It was getting dark and they were going back to the cabin when Luffy placed his palm out and opened it. The fire swirled, moving towards his palm from the bonfire, gathered and compressed into a tiny orb in his palms before disappearing completely when he closed his hand. Marco was stunned, he was right about what he'd seen that afternoon when he first woke up. It wasn't a trick of the light. He stared at the palm, eyes wide and unblinking, gaping slightly.

'Is that a devil fruit yoi? but he could swim…' he thought confusedly. This guy is really a puzzle.

Luffy noticed the bird staring and decided to tease him a bit so he opened his palms again. This time, fire tendrils grew and coiled around the bird making him squawk in surprise, freaking out until he realised it wasn't hurting him. The bird looked at him and squawked at him, annoyed, then pecked his hands hard but not hard enough to hurt him.

"Shishishishi, you should've seen your face when you freaked out…" he sniggered, catching his breath and Marco just glared at him. "It's a devil fruit, ah.. but I'm not telling you more," he stuck his tongue out childishly causing Marco to sweat drop and sigh.

The flames were reabsorbed and Marco couldn't help but stare at it, it was a mesmerising yellow almost white and it looked really hot yet it didn't burn him at all, it felt comfortable and cooling, almost like his own blue fire. It also didn't behave like normal fire with the tendrils.

'He has good control of his flames yoi, but I didn't know there were other fire based devil fruits out there yoi,' since Ace had the fire logia after all, he wondered if Luffy's a logia too.

As if reading his mind as usual, he said "Hmm, it's cooling isn't it? But it would burn what I want, to ashes," he said, emphasising 'burn' and smirking almost feral like, clenching his fist. Then smiled again, more kindly and said, "don't worry I would never use it against you."

Marco finally realised that this teen may not be as weak as he looked like and that just intrigued him even more. He had a strong desire to know more. He was a curious person by nature and could figure out most stuff by himself while trying not to pry into private matters, but this guy was an enigma and he surprised himself with how curious he was.


This chapter is shorter, I considered combining it with the next part but the next part is much longer.

Human Marco making an appearance in the next chapter!

(~!~) Edited.

(1675 words)