This is the last chapter of the War of the Best, as the title suggests, but that doesn't make it the last chapter. There is one more after this, which can be seen on my P atreon for doners. doners over there will also have the first signs of the redraft of this story which has longer chapters, more details, and is just generally better written overall. They will also be the first to see Part 2: New World New Choices when it is ready, so if you want new chapters of this rewrite and the sequel when it comes out a whole month (Well, precisely three weeks) earlier than everyone else, skedaddle on over that'a way! I have the same penname as here.
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Chapter 141:
Grand Finale
"Lu, I'm done for." The tears overflowed, both of the brothers weeping. "You all came here to save me and I go and do this... I'm the worst, but... but Luffy, I don't want to die. I don't want to leave you. Not like Sabo."
"Ace..."
"L-Luffy, find me again."
"What?" Luffy blinked, staring down at his dying brother. "But Ace-"
"Lu, find me," Ace begged. "If there's a way, I'll come back to you, so promise me. Promise me you'll find me again."
"I... I will, Ace," Luffy swore, choking down his tears. "I don't care how long it takes, but I will. Somehow. I'll find you."
Ace smiled a thin, pained smile. "You... always were... a crybaby... Lu..."
And Ace closed his eyes.
The battlefield was still as Ace breathed his last, proving the entire attack to have been in vain. Pirates wept. Marines cheered. Spirits rose and fell in equal measure. Luffy sat there, dumbfounded, his brother unmoving in his arms with that sad, small smile frozen on his lips.
Luffy couldn't hold back his tears anymore as the whole situation crashed down on him. His brother, the only brother he he had left, was dead. Ace was dead.
Coby wasn't much better than his captain, trapped in a state of shock. Something in his mind snapped with Ace's last breath, the sense of him disappearing hitting him like a battering ram. The way his light faded...
And then the Marines rallied, volleys of bullets and cannonballs falling on the disheartened pirates. Suddenly, more lights in Coby's senses started vanishing, one by one or in groups of two or three. And Coby understood what it felt like to sense Death itself.
"Isn't that just icing on the cake?" Akainu rumbled with a smile, lumbering toward where Luffy was still in a state of shock from the clearing smoke. Magma flowed from his arm and dripped onto the concrete, sizzling. "Now I can claim both of them, the children of the greatest criminals to ever live. With this, Justice will end their lines and free the world from more atrocities." He reared back, ready to reduce Luffy to nothing but ashes.
That's what broke Coby from his state. Something in the malicious intent and the word Justice stirred him, focusing his newfound understanding on the section of the world where Admiral Akainu was about to murder his captain.
"NOOOO!" Coby roared, his dinosauric vocal chords making the scream resonate. His body moved without thought, shifting into something between his Hybrid and Slasher forms as he closed the short distance between himself and his captain. Akainu didn't slow, his fist coming down to kill the unresponsive pirate captain.
The Zoan slammed into Luffy's side as fast as he could, pushing him out of the way. The Admiral's magma fist hit the ground a moment after the pirates moved, exploding in a horrible conflagration of heat and melted rock.
Coby screamed as his back took the brunt of the heat, pieces of molten rubble searing the skin between his shoulders and down his spine. His scales prevented the attack from piercing beyond the skin, but they and everything down to his nerve endings were burned away in an instant. The two Straw Hats hit the ground and rolled, Coby losing consciousness.
The impact, however, did the opposite for Luffy, bringing him back to awareness. Shaking the blurriness from his eyes, Luffy took stock of what there was.
"Scars on the back are the shame of a swordsman," Hawk-Eye's voice muttered from somewhere. "Such a pity."
Coby laid beside Luffy, his back nothing but raw, red skin, save for a few points where Luffy could've sworn he saw spinal bone. The burns that Impel Down had meant to be a reminder of shame were gone, only the very edges still there. Where the wings had once been was a jagged burn that would scar but never truly heal, tiny pieces of melted rock still smoking on the flesh.
Beyond him was Akainu standing over what remained of Ace's body. The eruption Coby had saved him from had not saved Ace. His brother's body was mangled and broken, the entire left side missing. The only positive, if one could even call it such a thing, was that the magma culturized the damage, so there was no more blood.
The image of the two, of Coby with that horrible wound and Ace just... broken. It burned itself into Luffy's psyche, promising to never leave. He shook, pure, unadulterated hatred flowing from him in palpable waves of Conqueror's Haki. It was enough to even make Akainu step back.
But at the same time, Luffy knew this was an opponent he couldn't fight. Every fiber of his being wanted to murder the marine before him, and he wanted nothing more than to give in and attack, but there was something else in him, a little nugget in the back of his mind telling him that he couldn't die here. That no matter what, he had to live.
He had to save Coby.
He had to find his crew.
He had to find Ace.
So while the marines were distracted from his Haki, Luffy grabbed Coby around the arms and fled. Akainu pursued him at a calm pace, not caring for the pirates that jumped in the way to defend Ace's brother. The captain reached Jinbei and Ivankov quickly, passing his unconscious crewmate to the fishman. Tears still leaked from his eyes as Luffy pushed the feelings of loss down for later.
"We need to leave."
"Ah, right," Ivankov swallowed. "Straw-boy, are you-"
"Not now, Iva" Luffy choked. "Not. Now."
"Come on," Jinbei urged, the trio, with an unconscious Coby, running for their exit. Jinbei glanced over his shoulder at the aftermath before turning his peripherals on Luffy.
"You will not escape me, son of Dragon!" Akainu yelled. "You won't-!" He froze, a looming presence behind him overloading his fight-or-flight response. Like a rusted machine, the Admiral turned to see the darkest, most malicious shadow looking over him.
"You killed my son," Whitebeard growled, eyes narrowing.
For all his bravado and words earlier, that was all Akainu could say they were. In the face of this legendary pirate, even old and weakened, his words were no more true than saying Devil Fruits didn't exist. He gulped. Quakes and eruptions exploded as the Yonko and Admiral began their fight, the latter on the defensive.
Akainu's look of horror and panic was captured for all the world to see on account of the unfrozen and reformed Buggy Pirates, who were in the process of filming the whole fight with their stolen Video Transponder Snail. The shocked escapee holding the snail didn't seem to even register the fleeing pirates beside him.
"Faster!" Marco ordered, flying over the fleeing pirates. A stray cannonball or overzealous marine came occasionally to try to attack, but the Phoenix had made it his job as the First Division Commander to protect the group from such threats. "Everyone, protect Straw Hat! Luffy is Ace's brother, and that makes him our brother, too! Ace's memory will live on through Luffy, and we will protect it!"
"But Marco! We have to help Pops!" a few voices called.
"We can't," the blond responded sadly, even as he kicked away a cannonball. "Pops has chosen his path. Moby Dick is our new captain. We can't deny Pops the warrior's death he wants."
"But...! But...!"
The group as a whole froze, even Marco in the air unable to move an inch. Their eyes darted, trying to find the source of their sudden powerlessness, but the attempts were in vain until the source chose to introduce itself.
"Fufufu," Doflamingo laughed, casually stepping through the group of famous pirates. "Fufufu! I can't say I've been this entertained for a long, long time! You all have fought so damn hard only to fail in your first goal. Hahaha! Ah, but you're the boy of the hour." The Warlord stopped before the immobile Luffy, the pirate's eyes wide as he tried to escape. "Oh, don't you worry, Straw Hat. I'm not going to kill you. You stir up far too much trouble and unrest for me to get rid of. You're just so entertaining! But, I think you can entertain me more soon."
Doflamingo flicked his fingers, an X cutting its form into Luffy's chest out of nowhere. Luffy tried to scream, but his mouth wouldn't open to let him. The pink-dressed man leaned over, inspecting his work with a tut.
"Not visible enough," he thought aloud, carving another lopsided X over the first. He repeated this auction until he was satisfied that the bleeding, overlapping cuts would scar visibly. "Yeah, that should do. Remember this, Straw Hat. You entertain me, so entertain me more. Seek me out in the New-"
"Perfume Femur!"
Doflamingo's smile dropped as he crossed his arms, the black sheen of Haki appearing to protect him from the heeled kick. The force sent him skidding back, the space he'd occupied filled with the form of Boa Hancock.
"I've said it before and I'll say it again, since you obviously didn't hear me the first time, you insufferable maggot," Hancock glared. "I plan on seducing this pirate and I cannot do that if he's dead!"
"...Fuuhahaha!" the male Warlord laughed, nearly doubling over.
"You think I am joking?"
"No, nothing like that," her male counterpart grinned, wiping a tear from his eye. "I'm laughing because this runt is tied into everything! The future looks so entertaining! I can't wait to fight him myself when he's stronger."
With a sick grin, Doflamingo reached up and pulled himself through the air away from the group of pirates. They were able to move a second later, Luffy screaming from the pain as he fell to his knees, consciously keeping himself from grabbing his bloodied chest.
"Straw-boy!"
"Luffy!"
Worried, Ivankov and Jinbei fussed over Luffy while Hancock watched. The young pirate waved them off, panting.
"Don't worry about me. Coby's worse than I am. We just need to get out of here. Hancock, thanks for the save."
The female Warlord didn't respond, something in her chest tightening. The way Luffy had spoken those words, softly and without the energy he'd had on Amazon Lily while denying her, tugged at her heart. For a fraction of a second, she considered giving up, considered that there might be one man out there worthy of her respect.
But the moment passed and Hancock reaffirmed her beliefs. She could not make any exceptions for Luffy or else more will appear. She had to prove that no man could resist her forever.
"Y-Yes, well," she stuttered as her mind fluttered, "go on. I'll keep the Pacifistas at bay to honor our deal. They can't attack me."
Luffy nodded and turned away, continuing his trek with the group toward an escape boat. Hancock watched him go, contemplative, before shaking her head and returning to the fight.
"What was that about, Straw-boy?" Ivankov asked, eyeing Luffy's bloodied chest. The wound wasn't so bad as to keep Luffy from moving or to threaten his life in the moment, but the blood loss was getting to a worrying level. Coby was the same or worse with how pale he was, but his wounds were sealed shut.
"Oh, I went to Impel Down from Amazon Lily," Luffy explained, trying to ignore the pain in his chest. "I made a deal with Hancock after surviving three days of constant fights."
"Well isn't that something," Jinbei commented. Before he could say more, however, an earthquake shook the island, drawing attention back to Whitebeard. The man was inside a bubble of his own Devil Fruit power, Admiral Akainu trapped mid-strike in an uppercut. With a yell of exertion, the Yonko finished his attack, blasting the magma-man up and over Navy headquarters. The ground below snapped, a massive fissure opening to divide the pirates from the navy. Again. With the two giant scars on the field and the widening cracks that even threatened to bring the building down, Whitebeard had effectively cut off any chance of Navy pursuit.
"Admiral Sakazuki!" marines yelled as the man vanished over the headquarters. The sight, however, attracted their attention to the creature seeming trying to hide behind the building and watching from the side.
"Oh," the lumbering creature muttered, raising a hand half the size of Oars' body to his lips as if embarrassed. "I guess they saw me."
"That's one of the worst criminals to ever live!" a marine cried. "A prisoner of Level 6! The 'Great Battleship' San Juan Wolf! How the Hell did he get here?"
"Zeeehahaha!" a deep voice laughed, redirecting the attentions of the viewers to a group of normal-sized people standing on the remains of the scaffold. "I guess that's the cue for our grand entrance! It's been a while, Pops. Zeeehahaha!"
"Teach," Whitebeard growled, his very voice shaking the area around him. "You've got some nerve showing yourself after what you did, you fat bastard."
"Oh, Pops, I'm hurt!" Blackbeard grinned, feigning shame. "To think you'd talk to your own son that way."
Whitebeard was silent for a moment, leveling his naginata at the small group.
"I took you in when you had nothing, Teach. I gave you a family and called you my son, and you broke the one rule I had, you killed a crewmate. For that, you'll find no mercy from me or mine. You are nothing to us."
"You're scary, Pops," Teach grinned.
"You have no right to call me Pops."
"I'll call you Whitebeard, then. But as you can see, I've built myself up from the drivel you call a crew." He spread his arms, indicating his companions including some of the worst criminals to ever exist whom he'd freed from Impel Down's Level 6. Such names included 'Crescent Moon Hunter' Caterina Devon, 'Heavy Drinker' Vasco Shot, 'Corrupt King' Avalo Pizarro, the aforementioned San Juan Wolf, and the jail's former warden Shiryuu of the Rain.
"Teach!" Sengoku yelled. Garp sat on the ground next to him, shell-shocked. "You betrayed us?! This is why you became a Warlord?!"
"Did you think I really cared about the government?" the fat pirate grinned, showing off his missing teeth. "You government assholes are as stupid as you are ugly. Everything I've ever done has been for power, and with it, I'll become the next King of the Pirates!"
"You're a fool, Teach," Whitebeard rumbled, drawing attention back to him. He grinned. "See, the next King has been chosen, and it's not you. I've got a lot of regrets from my life, but the only one here is that I won't be around to see your face when you fail."
"Whitebeard!" Teach spat, jumping from the ruined platform. Black mist rose from his form as he fell, swirling into a tangible miasma that grew from him. "I'm going to kill you!"
"I'd like to see you try."
No more words were exchanged as the two titans clashed, Tremor and Dark pounding against each other for the world to watch.
"This is crazy," a pirate next to Luffy whispered. "I don't think I've ever seen Pops go this hard before."
"He's giving us time to escape!" Moby Dick reminded everyone, having to yell over the battle only a little way away. "Don't let Pops fall for nothing! Let's go!"
With the Marines thoroughly distracted by the fight, the rest of the pirates took their exit quickly but quietly on multiple ships, frequently glancing back at the battle. Whitebeard was winning, getting Teach to whimper and beg like a coward despite his nullifying powers until the rest of Teach's crew interfered. By that point, the pirates were mostly loaded onto their surviving ships. They watched, cowled by Moby Dick and Marco, as the Blackbeard Pirates opened fire on their captain with everything they had.
From their angle, the Whitebeard Pirates couldn't see the smile on the Yonko's lips. They did, however, see Whitebeard wrap his arms around all the opponents he could before producing a quake from within himself connected to his heartbeat. The force caused Jesus Burgess and Vasco Shot to pass out from where the man had them in a pair a headlocks. The force pushed the rest of the pirates back, trembling.
"How the fuck are you still alive, you monster?" Blackbeard demanded. It was a valid question considering the amount of damage that marred the Emperor's front. "Why won't you die!?"
"Gurahaha," Whitebeard chuckled with a wince. He dropped the unconscious men in his grip, standing tall for all to see with the help of his legendary naginata. "I know you're scared, Sengoku. This new age isn't a place for the old guard like us. It's a time when the Will of D will return to destroy everything built against them. You know it's true, don't you?"
For one last time, Whitebeard flared his Haki, yelling.
"I, Edward Newgate, have one more thing to say! I know what it is! Roger was a friend, and he never lied! The One Piece... is real!"
His final piece said and all his regrets released, Whitebeard closed his eyes and smiled, dying on his feet the way only a legend of his caliber could. The battlefield was silent as his crew mourned his loss, pulling out even as they did. Only then did the Marines seem to realize Whitebeard's final moments had been both a message and a distraction.
"Stop them!" Sengoku ordered. "Sink the pirates and capture the Blackbeards!"
"GREAT ERUPTION!"
Magma rained from the roof of the ruined Marine HQ, a bloody and somewhat-broken Sakazuki doing everything he could as he limped forward.
"Phoenix Fire Shield!"
Magma exploded over the final Moby Dick replica, thankfully blocked or redirected by the efforts of the First Division Commander. The magma splashed off the shield, sizzling in the water on either side. Nearly every piece of the ship's rigging was working under the direction of Moby Dick himself, leaving the rest of the pirates free to defend themselves from the raining attacks.
"This is my chance," Blackbeard smirked as he approached Whitebeard's standing body, tarp in hand. His greedy grin in place, Teach prepared to take what he wanted.
That was when one of the magma comets hit the corpse with the force of a meteor, exploding. The hit was too accurate to have been chance, meaning Akainu had meant to get rid of Whitebeard forever, even if it was just his body.
"Goda, fuck!" the pirate screamed, jumping away as the heat set Whitebeard's remains on fire. Another comet hit the body, causing it to fall backwards. Pieces of magma fell on the unconscious Jesus and Vasco beside it. Vasco was dead drunk, his alcohol-soaked clothing catching fire just from proximity. Jesus Burgess reacted, jumping to his feet and scrambling away from what was quickly becoming nothing but a molten rock cremation. He was clutching his left arm, a good chunk of his forearm and hand missing from the magma that had fallen on him. "Fucking damn magma bastard! Everyone, there's no point in staying! Let's get the Hell out of here!"
"Where do you think you're going?" a voice asked from a golden glow behind him.
"Let's get the Hell out of here!" Ivankov unknowingly echoed, the ships of the Whitebeard Pirates and the rest of their allies pulling out of the bay. The ship sailed unnaturally fast between the klabautermann captain's control and Jinbei being able to command nearby seakings. Though Marineford quickly became little more than a spot in the distance as the pirates went their separate ways, massive attacks of rage aimed in their general direction, including magma, ice, and light, pushed them to leave faster than they were. "Leave the traitors to fight the Admirals!"
"How is he?" Luffy asked the doctor examining the unmoving but breathing form of Coby. He laid on the deck chest down, leaving the ugly remnants of his back open to see.
"It's not good," the doctor said. "This is way beyond my skills. You'd need one of the world's best doctors to have even a chance of recovering from this. As it is now, he'll be crippled if he lives."
"Who do we need and how soon?" Luffy demanded.
"Shit, probably a big name like Vegapunk or Law, and within ten minutes. It's impossible, Straw Hat."
"Then I guess it's lucky I'm here."
"...!"
All attention shifted to the newcomer who had silently climbed aboard. There stood the 'Surgeon of Death' Trafalgar Law in all his glory.
"You look like you could use some help, Straw Hat-ya."
"You're one of the doctor guys he mentioned, right?" Luffy pleaded, grabbing the front of Law's shirt and dragging him closer. "Heal Coby! Please! I'll do anything!"
"Don't touch me," the other Supernova said, pushing Luffy away. "Having you owe me will be enough. Leave Tri-Horn-ya to me. Room."
Within a second, the surroundings were filled with blue before Law and Coby vanished, replaced with a pair of bolts.
"What?" Luffy blinked. "Where did-?"
"Law's submarine pulled up beside us," Jinbei answered, having not gotten a chance beforehand. "It seems like he was on his way to Marineford."
"Oh, that's nice," Luffy nodded. "So Coby will be fine?"
"Law is said to be the best doctor in the world," Jinbei confirmed. "If anyone can save Tri-Horn, it's him."
"Oh... Good."
With that said, Luffy passed out.
"You sure about this, Captain?" Yasopp asked as he watched the loose fleet of pirate ships freeing from Marineford. "I know you wanted to help. Are you going to let him go without even saying hello?"
"He just lost his brother," Shanks sighed, the bottle of rum in his hand shattering in a sign of how frustrated he was. "We got here too late. Now isn't the time for a reunion."
"Don't even wanna check out the new captain?" Lucky Roux wondered. "If what we heard was true..."
"We'll meet Moby Dick some other time," Shanks responded. "For now, let's just make sure no marines get any bright ideas about pursuing them.
"Aye aye!"
"Fucking fuck!" Blackbeard cursed for the 27th time, Van Auger beside him taking potshots at the marines on the horizon. Doc Q was patching up Jesus Burgess and Vasco Shot a few steps away, both of them having suffered burns because of Akainu. Burgess didn't look any happier than his captain, his left hand and part of his forearm missing because of the magma. "That didn't go to plan at all!"
"We didn't expect anything like the klabautermann," Katarina noted. "We could have succeeded if not for him directing the pirates' escape."
"No, this is Whitebeard's fault," Teach scowled, darkness rising from his shoulders in a miasma. "I'm sure he figured out that I was up to something, so he made a plan to make a statement and destroy his body in one go, that old bastard."
"Sengoku and Garp didn't help matters," Shiryuu pointed out. He was nursing a dislocated shoulder and had blood running out from his hairline. "It took us everything we had just to get out of there, and Garp is still swimming after us."
"We're losing him," Van Auger offered, taking another shot.
"Yeah, well," Blackbeard breathed, calming himself through sheer force of will. "This is a major setback, but that's all it is. A setback. Fate has decided that I'll be the next King of the Pirates, so that's what we'll do, setbacks or no. Zeehahaha! ZEEEEHAHAHAHAHA!"
Luffy woke slowly with a pounding headache, the noises of a forest making his ears ring. The sudden sensory wasn't good for him, the teen twisting to the side and vomiting what meager contents his stomach had, the bile creating a disgusting pile beside his makeshift bed. The act did, however, make him feel better, so it was with an empty stomach that Luffy realized he was beside a forest on a table with some blankets. His torso was covered in bandages, pain in his chest lingering from the new scars there. His adjusting eyes settled on a mass of blue to his right.
"How are you feeling, Luffy?" the deep voice of Jinbei asked, his image clearing in Luffy's eyesight.
"Bad," Luffy muttered, laying back, his voice hoarse. His whole body was sore and achy, which wasn't exactly a new experience for him, but he'd never felt anything to this degree. What he'd just gone through was worse than anything he'd ever done before, and he hadn't been good enough.
His brother Ace was dead. Luffy was the last one left.
Be that as it may, the whole endeavor hadn't been a total failure, hopefully.
"How's Coby?" Luffy rasped, his mind zeroing in on the one person he'd managed to save, assuming the burns Coby got saving him hadn't claimed his crewmate while he slept.
"Weak but alive," Jinbei answered honestly, allowing Luffy to breathe easier. "Law had to do surgery on Coby's back, but he's not called the world's best doctor for nothing. He says Coby will recover in about a month and a half. Law's sub is docked on the coast since they aren't allowed on the island."
"That's... That's good." Luffy's eyes threatened to close, but something kept him awake. He didn't realize tears were running down the sides of his face until he sniffled. All the emotions he'd been forced to bottle up after Ace's death surged forward all at once, leaving the usually-happy-go-lucky pirate an emotional mess. He cried. He cried for his brothers. He cried for Coby, who was in this mess because of him. He cried for his Nakama lost to the winds. He cried.
"I can't say this is a pretty scene," the feminine voice of Hancock commented, the woman herself walking into the area with her sisters on either side. Luffy could see neither her nor the seaside clearing he was resting in through the tears, but he could follow her voice. "That was quite the spectacle you put on, Luffy-kun. How are you feeling?"
"You... I don't think you know, H-Hancock," Luffy sniffed, sitting up to face the woman. "It hurts. Ace... Ace was the only brother I had left."
"I... can imagine the pain," the Warlord responded truthfully.
"No you can't!" Luffy yelled, standing to stare at the female Warlord. "You still have your sisters! You still have your crew! You haven't been forced to watch as your siblings died! I have! Both of my brothers are gone! Sabo and Ace are dead now, and I couldn't do anything! What do I do now, huh? What the fu-?"
He stopped, his head twisted 90 degrees and the sound of the smack that put him there reverberating through the clearing. Hancock stood before him, arm outstretched.
"Get a hold of yourself," the queen ordered, dropping her arm. "You have proven yourself to be my greatest challenge yet, yet you stand before me blubbering and crying like a child. This is an insult to both yourself and me, and I will not have my pride sullied. You lost your brother. I understand, but you cannot let that stop you."
"...What do I do?" Luffy whispered, falling to his knees. "What do I do now?"
"Keep moving forward," Jinbei rumbled. "Ace asked me to help care for you in the event of his death, and he and Coby gave me a few options to help you. Luffy, if you can't move forward for yourself, then think of your crew. What are their names? How did you meet them?"
"Zoro joined first," Luffy sniffed. "Then Coby. We met Nami the day after. Then Usopp joined, and Kaya gave us Merry before she was alive. Zoro's friends led us to Sanji, and Gin came to us." His voice was getting stronger as he remembered, a piece of his purpose returning through the pain. "After that we picked up Amy and Grace on the dinosaur island, then we needed Chopper because Grace and Gin were sick. Then I saved Robin and she joined. After that, we saved Franky and Merry saved us, and Icepops gave Merry a new body. Then we met Brook and got his shadow back. That's when Nami and I got married, and then Billy helped us beat Shiki."
"Remember them, Luffy," Jinbei ordered. "They're out there, still, waiting for you."
"Yeah," Luffy said, wiping a tear away. "Yeah."
Hancock stepped forward, kneeling beside the teen and placing a hand on his shoulder. This was a key chance for her. "What did he say to you?"
"Huh?"
"Your brother. What did he say?"
"Hancock, d-do you know anyway for some... someone to come back?"
"From death? I suppose a Devil Fruit could do something like that, but..."
"N-No. Ace mentioned something. Rincan...?"
"Reincarnation," Jinbei offered. Luffy snagged the word, the one hope he could cling to in the situation. It was the single thread that held him back from another, more extensive meltdown.
"That. What is it?"
"It's a popular idea that a person's soul is... reused... after they die," Jinbei explained gently. "If Ace is reborn somewhere, you can't expect him to have any memories of the life he just lived with you. The idea suggests mannerisms and similarities, but that's about it."
Luffy nodded, using the action to pull himself together as well as could be expected. "So I gotta find someone who acts like Ace and feels like Ace," he muttered. "I can do that, but he could be anywhere in the world. I need to be stronger."
"You're welcome to stay here," Hancock offered, batting her eyelashes. "You'll have the full support of the Kuja, Luffy-kun."
"I can't do that to you," Luffy denied, shaking his head. "I need to find a way to get a message to my crew first. Then I'll find somewhere to stay."
"Rayleigh came by while you were asleep," Jinbei told him, Hancock huffing at the memory. There were currently three males on her island of Amazon Lily, the most in history, and she wasn't thrilled about it. "He had some ideas. Mainly, he wants to train you and Coby until your crew reunites."
Luffy felt a small smile tug at his lips at the irony. They went looking for the ship coater and the ship coater found them, apparently.
"I guess I have to meet him," Luffy muttered. "Any thoughts on getting a message out?"
"Well, Rayleigh had an idea for that, too..."
"Uuuuhhhhhh," Coby groaned as he came to. There was a steady BEEP... BEEP... off to his right and a horrible, constant pain in his back. He couldn't move, like a weight pushing down on his whole body that kept him from taking any deep breaths despite the air mask over his nose and mouth. "Fuuuuccckkkkk."
"You're lucky you're alive," a voice said, Coby barely turning to see the speaker. The pain in his back reached the nape of his neck, which make the motion all but agonizing. Leaning against the wall was Trafalgar Law, the 'Surgeon of Death' of the Supernovas. "There were pieces of rock stuck in parts of your lungs and if I'd gotten there a few minutes later, you would never have walked again from the spinal damage. Your Zoan Fruit saved you."
"And... Cap... Captain... Luffy?"
"Also alive, and in a better state than you. He just needed stitches."
"Where... is he?"
"Off making some sort of statement to the world. He asked me to stick around until you can live without machines. You'll be better in a month at the least."
"Thank... You..."
All his energy gone, Coby closed his eyes and slipped back into the painless void of sleep.
End of Chapter 141
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