Chiaki Hamano: thanks! Next chapter is the last and it gets super intense!

mostafaelsokkary1: Thank you! It won't be dropped, we're near the end. I've written multiple Luffy in the Charlotte family fics but most of them are fluffy with Katakuri being Luffy's papa. This one is a lot different than my other ones.

We are very near the end everybody. The next chapter is pretty intense and a bit violent. I look forward to posting it next week. Enjoy~

When Luffy walked out of the mirror he'd come from perfectly fine, it was a big deal to Katakuri, who had been worried about him. "How'd it go?" was what he asked in a calm voice.

"Urouge is dead, his ship is destroyed and I found a new power," Luffy explained, changing a piece of paper into a sheet of taffy to eat. "That guy, he punched me, but when he did I got stronger with my fruits. I don't have any lethal ones, which I want to, so all that got strengthened was the flower-flower and stick-stick ones."

Katakuri looked interested. "Looks like going on missions would be good for you," he commented. Luffy looked at him strangely.

"I thought you wanted to be the one to help me train everything?" Luffy accused slowly. Katakuri knew he'd been caught, sometimes hating that this version of Luffy was so smart and observant. "Oh, I get it. Big Mom told you that," he said in a monotone voice. He openly thought Katakuri was stupid for only taking her orders without ever protesting, and wasn't impressed that someone so strong was her lapdog.

Neither knew where this view came from, as he hadn't seen any different. Maybe it was because Luffy liked being more independent, so seeing someone he was supposed to respect bowing to someone else put him off.

"Yes, she did, and she was right. You enhanced a new power by being on assignment."

Luffy looked skeptical still. "You want to get rid of me?" he said slowly. Katakuri shook his head. Since Luffy had expressed his true feelings about the family and his relationship with them, Katakuri did his best not to give off any feeling that he didn't like or wanted Luffy gone. Because that wasn't the case.

"No, I want you to get stronger. I know you like being independent and doing whatever the hell you do when you leave into your Mirror World. Aren't you happy about this?" Katakuri asked.

"Okay," said Luffy, shutting down his side of the conversation. The man sighed.

"Let's go write up your report so you can go to bed." Luffy followed him and they both sat in his office, Luffy sitting on the huge desk and telling Katakuri about the mission, omitting some facts easily. The lies werent detected at all.

-x-

Big Mom was surprisingly happy about how the mission went. The family's little puppet was reliable and stronger. So, it wasn't a surprise that Luffy was sent on more and more missions. Sometimes back-to-back, which Katakuri didn't like and Luffy was quickly becoming tired of. He just wanted a week to practice in his room, or spend time with Katakuri training him or just being around. He was alone constantly as no one wanted to put out more work to sail him places instead of him going off on his own.

The only good thing about these missions were that he purposely took longer sometimes to get back so he could practice on separate uninhabited islands. The original island was no longer stable and was just a pile of dead plants and rocks.

But, sometimes he became overwhelmed with the missions and training. After reporting for a mission once that was complicated so he had to go with Katakuri to give a verbal report, he noticed that the other children, who were older than him, never had missions. His brothers and sisters got to stay at home, or play, or just do whatever they wanted while Luffy went on mission after mission with little breaks to even get a good night's sleep.

He started to resent his family even more, using his powers to do their bidding and not even getting any acknowledgement from anyone but Big Mom or Katakuri. A real reward for his work would be finally teaching him to read. He wanted the damn book already. But it was the only thing keeping him "loyal". That he didn't know many of his powers without someone else's permission.

The voice in his head was getting annoying again. Luffy was sick of the voice talking about Ace and Sabo and grampa. He didn't know these people, and it annoyed him very much. No one else knew about the voice in his head, and Luffy wasn't going to tell anyone.

When Luffy turned seven, thirty three missions later, he didn't even get anything for it. It was surprisingly the day he remembered he woke up that was his birthday. No one celebrated it, and even though Big Mom loved to throw tea parties, no one had a party for his birthday. Katakuri had wished him happy birthday but that was it. Then they had gone back outside for training, leaving Luffy to make his own special food. Just because he could.

-x-

It was late one night that the voice in Luffy's head wouldn't let him sleep, and it was annoying him. He had a mission in the morning, surprise surprise, and he wanted some sleep, but the voice wouldn't let him.

"Pleeease can we see Ace and Sabo?"

Luffy didn't reply, just turned on his side and shoved the second pillow over his head, even if that did nothing to quiet the incessant voice and its whining. "Please, let me sleep," Luffy muttered.

"After you look at Ace and Sabo," the childish voice insisted.

"Ace and Sabo aren't real. Stop talking about them!" Luffy hissed angrily.

"They are real! Just look for them!"

"Fine!" Luffy shouted, before covering his mouth and closing his eyes to see if Katakuri had woken from it. He didn't. Luffy kept his eyes closed and didn't know where to start. His vision was 3700 kilometers in each distance from where he was. It would take forever to look for someone who might not even be in range.

Luffy searched the oceans around, but it was dark and he just found a few straggling marine ships and small pirate ships. "I looked, okay? And I didn't find them. Now let me sleep," Luffy commanded. He could tell the voice was disappointed, but it didn't say anything again.

In the morning, Luffy was at the usual entrance mirror into his pocket dimension, not looking forward to this mission. Or any mission anymore. This time, Katakuri wasn't even there to see him off as Big Mom had scheduled the tea party on the day of his mission. And he wasn't invited, like usual of late. Before he turned six, he went to the tea parties, even if he wasn't included in anything or spoken to. But, after he apparently proved himself, he wasn't necessary to come anymore. So he was left out.

He left Totto Land, feeling blanker than he had for awhile. The voice in his head pestered him to look for Ace and Sabo in the mirrors, but Luffy didn't respond to it, just looking for the mirror to a protected island that had some idiot pirates attack it.

When he searched for the island's name, Brocoli Island, all mirrors there were except for a few shards that only showed low burning fires or smoke and ash. The island was gone. Luffy didn't think any of the Charlottes would care since it didn't produce any sort of sweet for the yonko.

With tons of time to kill, Luffy finally listened to the voice in his head and asked for any mirrors to go to Ace or Sabo. It was much too vague, and none of the mirrors called out. "I told you they don't exist," Luffy said.

"They do!"

"Then where are they, huh? My Mirror World reaches all mirrors! You think some would have seen people named Ace and Sabo before!" Luffy shouted. "Stop telling me about people who don't exist! You're just a voice in my head that won't leave me alone!"

"I am real! I'm Luffy!" the child's voice cried. "I wanna go home! I wanna see grampa!"

Luffy scoffed. "Well heads up, neither of us have a home. So shut up and stop bothering me!" Luffy roared. The voice in his head started crying, and Luffy almost felt something for it. But it wasn't real, just a voice in his head that visited him when he was most alone. Luffy stomped back down the Mirror World and looked for the way out.

"We used to be nice! Ace and Sabo said they loved us!" It was the first time Luffy had heard the voice call them "us" or "we". However, Luffy had just grouped them together. Neither of them had a home. Luffy struck his head against the wall.

"Just stop. I'm not in the mood. I'll probably get in trouble for not fulfilling the mission, even though I physically can't." The voice finally stopped talking, leaving Luffy alone with his thoughts. He slowly walked back to the enter mirror, and went back to ihs house and straight to bed.

The tea party would probably last all day and into the night, with no one checking on him. With Katakuri sending him on mission after mission, it made Luffy doubt that he even cared or wanted him anymore. He put his face in the pillow, shutting down the negative emotions and becoming empty, eventually falling to sleep.

He was woken up late that night with Katakuri having felt his presence. "Luffy, what are you doing here?" he asked in confusion.

"All the mirrors were broken or in fire," Luffy replied. "I couldn't fit through any of them even if I tried," he explained. "I know Big Mom will be disappointed, but there was nothing I could do." Luffy had never once called her Mama. "Please, just let me sleep."

It surprised Katakuri, since Luffy never said please for anything. He looked miserable. "I've been given a new mission," he said suddenly.

"Cool," Luffy replied in a monotone voice, wishing Katakuri would leave but also stay.

"It's to teach you to read," the man said slowly. Luffy's eyes widened. It had been three years and he hadn't been taught a word. Then, he ruined it. "Mama wants you to be able to train yourself and show your strength and intelligence." Luffy melted back into bed. Of course it was because "Mama said to".

"Okay. Do I have any more missions, then?" Katakuri shook his head. "Then leave. I'm tired and I want to sleep," the boy said and rolled over, showing his back to Katakuri and the door. The man left without a word, leaving Luffy feeling more hollow instead of blank.

-x-

Reading was by far the hardest thing Luffy had ever learned. There were so many letters and rules that he had to remember for anything to make sense. But, at least he got time off from his missions, and Katakuri was around more, even if it was a mission on his part and not him actually wanting Luffy to learn to read.

The only bad thing about it was that it was incredibly boring, and whenever he wasn't training with his powers, he was being taught to read and write. Mostly read. While the encyclopedia of devil fruits that he wanted most was unreachable yet due to the complicated wording, he felt he was doing something productive. Even if it was for someone else's wants, and not his own.

Katakuri was nice about it, though. He encouraged Luffy and didn't get mad when he had trouble with it. Luffy had to wonder if this was all acting, and he was told to be nice and supportive. He of course, didn't say any of this, keeping his feelings to himself and locked down whenever he was around someone else. Well, around Katakuri. No one else went to see Luffy.

A couple months into learning how to read, he could read basic words, and write basic sentences, even if the handwriting was very bad itself and almost illegible. But, Luffy had never felt more miserable. Even if he wasn't being given missions all the time, he had no idea whether Katakuri was doing anything because he cared about Luffy, or if it was just Mama's orders.

The voice in his head hadn't come up much, which was both a blessing but also a curse. Now Luffy was completely alone, and he wasn't sure that was what he wanted in the long run. Maybe the voice was gone since they never found Ace and Sabo.

-x-

When Luffy turned eight, he was finally able to read longer sentences of the devil fruit book that helped him greatly. He finally could see what types of fruits he would someday be able to use. But, then Katakuri disappeared again, and Luffy was seen as old enough to not need a caregiver all the time. He still lived at Katakuri's house, but he stopped interacting with Luffy. Leaving him to practice alone, only there to sometimes check up on the boy's progress.

Katakuri was cold to him, and Luffy truly thought the man's mission had been accomplished, and Luffy no longer needed him. He was so good at faking that the man didn't see his pain. How he was supposed to be valuable but actually felt completely worthless. He had almost asked Katakuri once if everything was a lie and a job and now that Luffy didn't need him all the time, if he was even considered slightly important. But he didn't.

Whenever Katakuri wasn't home and Luffy wasn't on a mission of his own, he practiced his powers, now with the aid of the book. Luffy got to pick and choose which powers he wanted to learn next. He had always wanted that, but now it felt… bad.

It slowed his progress, being so miserable.

"Are you real, voice inside my head?" Luffy asked once during his training on an uninhabited island while attempting the most painful attacks. No answer. Luffy continued to burn himself, or hurt his arms and bruise them. Or light his clothes on fire. He would just replace the clothes with garb-garb fruit, and heal himself with the heal-heal fruit. But, it didn't mean he didn't feel the pain of being burned.

The two bomb fruits were the most painful. The paw-paw fruit bruised him and the bomb-bomb fruit left him with burns. He had destroyed most of the island with both powers. It took months to finally realize he couldn't use either of the powers in close combat. Throwing them was also impossible. But one day, another lonely one, he managed to create a bigger pressure bomb from the paw-paw fruit and left it on a boulder, before running from it and hiding behind a rock. It blew up, and didn't injure the boy.

Now that he'd figured out how to do that, and got used to pain, he was ready to practice the most destructive one. He didn't really care about hurting anyone with a tsunami somewhere. It wasn't his problem. But, this one was even more painful than the others. The quake-quake fruit, broke bones.

"Are you gone for good?" he asked the voice in his head again a week later. No response. That night Luffy stayed on the island all night, and then peeked on Katakuri with his glare-glare fruit, which had extended reach now.

He saw Katakuri at home, reading on the couch and looking bored. He didn't even care that Luffy hadn't come home. That was when Luffy burst into tears about everything, alone and worthless.

"Please come back, voice in my head," he whispered. "I'll try and find your Ace and Sabo. Please, I don't want to be alone anymore…" There was no reply, and for the first time, Luffy wished he didn't have the revive-revive fruit.

When he returned the next day, Luffy had dark circles under his eyes, and was hungry but had no appetite. He walked up to Katakuri at the breakfast table. "I've mastered some of the powers," he said, angry about last night, but hoping Katakuri would do something nice. Have a celebration for him. Something.

"That's good." Luffy felt hope. "You should go on some missions so we can see how well they work." Luffy's hope crumbled. He sat at the breakfast table and picked at his food.

"Can I get some bad people? I want to practice on them," Luffy said flatly.

"Bad people?" Katakuri asked. Luffy had never expressed good people versus bad people. He nodded his head.

"I've already finished most of the powers I want. I don't feel like learning some of them yet. The jacket-jacket, spin-spin, wheel-wheel and wash-wash, or swim-swim fruits are the ones I don't feel like learning," Luffy explained.

"What ones have you mastered?"

"All of them except the hobby-hobby, clone-clone, string-string, horm-horm, memo-memo, soul-soul and I'm still having trouble with the chop-chop," Luffy replied. Katakuri looked shocked. And slightly worried.

He composed himself and said, "You've come quite a long way in seven months." Luffy didn't get any pleasure out of being praised. "I won't help you with the clone-clone or soul-soul." Luffy didn't ask why. It was probably because Big Mom said so. Like it always was. "But, I will help you with the others."

"Okay."

-x-

Finally adept at reading, Luffy could now read about things happening in Totto Land or around the world, giving him more context in his new missions, which had raised in difficulty. Now, many relied solely on the quake-quake fruit. Luckily, Luffy had learned how to use it without hurting himself.

He had made his own move that combined the paw-paw and quake-quake. He'd place a quake-quake ball and enclose it in one of the detonating bombs from the paw-paw fruit. When that fruit exploded, the quake exploded as well and destroyed whole islands. Detonating earthquakes.

On a break day once, He found some wanted posters in the newspaper that Katakuri hadn't read yet due to being at a tea party. When one of them came into view, the voice that had been absent for many months shouted, "ACE!"

Luffy jumped, shocked by the sudden shout, but he smiled, finally not completely alone. He looked closer at the poster, and read Fire-Fist Ace. A rookie pirate on the seas who had apparently joined the Whitebeard Pirates. Luffy felt consumed with confusion. He had never met this person before, how did the voice in his head know them?

And he knew the Whitebeard crew was their direct enemy. Well, enemy of the family. Luffy wasn't part of the family, which was clear as day, so he didn't see Whitebeard as a personal enemy of his own.

"How do you know this person?" Luffy asked aloud.

"He's my big brother! I miss him! And Sabo, too."

Luffy frowned. "Brothers suck. Why would you miss him?" he spat. The voice countered him, saying that his brothers were nice and to not talk mean about them.

"... Voice, where did you come from?"

"I don't know."

Luffy sighed. "Well, the tea party still has to be going on, so if you stay, I'll try and find Ace's mirror. Please, just don't leave again… okay?"

"I promise!" Luffy closed his eyes and looked at Whole Cake Chateau, trying to see and hear if the tea party was still in full swing so he could venture into the Mirror World without risk of Katakuri being suspicious. Because for once he would be being suspicious. Following a mission from someone other than Big Mom or Katakuri. The voice in his head.

He zoomed in on Big Mom talking with Katakuri, Cracker, and Smoothie. "Luffy is becoming too powerful, Mama," Smoothie said. Luffy didn't look away, but his face went white. "We have to do something about it, he is a liability."

"Nonsense! He's our little lapdog, I'm not going to have us do anything to keep his powers from being used for the family. Do you know how much more powerful we have become to the world because of him? Even the other yonkos are afraid of us!" Mama bragged.

"You could always have his memory wiped again, and just leave the knowledge of how to use his powers and try again," Cracker suggested to Katakuri. Luffy's heart broke when Katakuri spoke next.

"Last time I had that done, he lost his personality and became quite rude and defiant. Remember, I tried it twice and the second one still had some negative side effects," the man who Luffy thought cared for him said in a flat voice.

"Well, we can't kill him," Big Mom said. "Katakuri, is there any way you could still manipulate him into caring for us?" The top sweet commander shook his head.

"It's much too late for that. We weren't loving enough, he doesn't care about us at all," Katakuri replied. Tears trailed down Luffy's cheeks.

"Well, it's not like he's one of ours. Why would we try and be loving?" Smoothie asked, and Luffy finally looked away, breaking down into sobs. Angry and hurt sobs.

"Voice, we're going to get to the bottom of this," he said after a couple hours of moping and crying.

"Okay, and then we find Ace and Sabo."

"Deal."