Disclaimer: One Piece does not belong to me.

10 years later…

Luffy was bored. Like, insanely bored. Bored nearly to death. In fact, he could almost see the darkness closing in around his eyes, the tiny pinprick of light at the end of the dark tunnel, and a little annoying voice in the back of his disinterested mind insisting, "Don't go towards the light, Luffy… Don't go towards the light…"

"Luffy."

He started, his head lifting off the table, the jerk of surprise almost making him slide off his seat. "Wha… I mean, I'm awake! I'm awake!"

Robin fixed him with a reprimanding gaze, her icy blue eyes stern. "You won't learn anything if you sleep through all of my lessons, Luffy-san."

The twelve year old rubbed at his obsidian eyes with the palms of his hands, his mouth twisting into a petulant pout. "But this is so boring, Robin!" he whined. "Why do I need to know this kind of stuff, anyways?"

Her lips twitched upwards. This was a commonly asked question, which Luffy really knew the answer to, but she answered it with just as much patience as always. "If you learn these skills, then you can do whatever you want in your later life."

"Booo," he protested childishly and casting a disappointed glare at the woman seated across the table from him. Robin was a tall woman, with smooth, pale skin and straight, shoulder length black hair, bangs cut flat just above her naturally arched eyebrows. The revealingly low cut shirts and tight pants that she commonly wore showed off a strong, curvy body, although Luffy, despite being a boy in the early stages of puberty, took no notice.

Robin had been hired by Rouge to tutor Luffy in academics. It had quickly become apparent to her that Luffy had no interest in learning facts and formulas. He did, however, enjoy Robin's many stories of lost civilizations and heroes of old, his eyes sparkling as his mind conjured images of shining swords, mysterious rocks, and glaring monsters. So throughout their years of working together, Robin found herself doing much more storytelling than teaching.

However, in the latest months, both Robin and Rouge had begun to feel the time pressing in on them. Robin had begun to teach Luffy in earnest, knowing that she did not have much longer to work with him like this.

Luffy was not particularly pleased by the new direction of his lessons. If he thought about it, he could understand Robin's reasoning. But then, Luffy was not well known for "thinking about it". And although he loved and respected Robin very much, he was bored.

Robin let out a little chuckle at Luffy's sulking expression. "It is only a week until your thirteenth birthday, Luffy-san. We have to get as much done as we can before then, yes?"

He flopped in his chair, letting his arms swing limply at his sides and his head loll back. "But that's seven days," he complained, drawing each word out into high pitched moans of impatience. "I want to stop right now. None of this is going to matter by next week anyways, right?"

The blue eyed woman's face darkened a fraction. "Luffy. You have to be prepared for your life beyond the next year. I doubt you want to learn all of this later, do you?"

"But I don't want to learn it now…"

"Now's the time to learn," she insisted, her voice firm. "I have an hour left with you, and we will make the most of it."

Luffy groaned, but there was really no arguing with Robin.

Luffy loved Robin very much. She was, without a doubt, one of his three favorite people in the world. But although her stories were awesome, her lessons were no fun at all. Which was why his favorite part of the day was usually not the time he spent with her, but the time after she had left.

He bounced a little in his seat as she gathered her things to leave, feeling the suppressed energy bubbling inside of him. She was bidding him a polite goodbye when a knock sounded at the front door of the house.

A few seconds later a man appeared in the hall, presumably let in by Rouge. He was ridiculously tall, so that the top of his huge black afro brushed the ceiling. His pale skin, stretched over a lanky body, was covered by a stiff black suit and matching pants. His long face was adorned with a large smile and sunglasses which effectively shaded his eyes from view. His skeletal fingers held the handle of a violin case, and in his other hand, a simple, curved cane.

Robin smiled at him as he entered the room. "Ah, Brook-san."

Brook turned his face to her, looking slightly surprise. "Robin-san! I didn't expect to see you still here. Am I early?"

"No, I ran a bit late," she explained smoothly. "I'm just leaving. Have a nice day, Brook-san."

"Good day to you as well!" he called as her back disappeared down the hall. He paused, looking thoughtful. "Ah! Robin-san! May I see your-"

The front door shut with a decisive slam.

Luffy laughed, clapping his hands at his tutors' antics. "Neh, Brook!" he said excitedly, ejecting himself from his chair to stand in front of the tall man. "Can we spar today? Please please please?"

"Yohohohohoho," Brook chuckled his signature laugh. "That sounds like a wonderful idea, Luffy-san." He set his violin case down, beginning to unlatch it. "But first, let's go out back and warm up, shall we?"

The boy groaned, but quickly dashed to the back door and out into the large, fenced off yard behind the house. Brook followed more slowly, violin in hand, laughing quietly the boy's enthusiasm.

Warm-ups consisted of a series of stretches and exercises, all done in sequence to a tune played on Brook's violin. This segment of Brook's time with Luffy displayed one of Luffy's main downfalls: he was far too impatient to keep with the rhythm of the music. He was constantly forgetting some of the smaller exercises, despite having been doing them since he was five years old. Brook often found himself stopping his music to remind the boy what he should be doing.

After finally getting through the warm ups, which took far longer than it should have due to all of the stopping and redoing, Brook stood, stowing his treasured violin back in its case and retrieving his cane. He ran his fingers up and down it, then twirled it around a few times before lightly grabbing a hold of the curve at the top, his other hand firmly grasping the long, straight length. Slowly, dramatically, he pulled his hands away from each other, and cane pulled apart too, revealing a previously almost invisible crack a little ways below the curve. As the crack widen, a silvery glint appeared under it: the well sharpened blade of a sword.

Luffy's face split into his signature grin, and he crouched, readying himself for attack. This was the part of the day that he looked forward to. The thrill of the coming fight was enough to send shivers of excitement down his spine. A break in the everyday monotony.

To Brook, fighting was a dance. This might have to do with his style and his weapon; his chosen sword allowed for sweeping, deadly grace, quick, intricate steps, the musical clash of metal. Every motion was smooth and complete, flowing into the next without hesitation.

But as he once again clashed with Luffy in sparring, he was struck by how different the boy was from him. While his strikes were well practiced and thought out, Luffy's were unpredictable and blunt. He fought with his fists rather than a weapon, and threw punches at random. Coupled with his strength, speed, and confident grin, it was enough to catch most enemies off guard. But despite how effective it was, it was still very… different. It made the idea of "training" very difficult for Brook, since all he could really do was spar with him and help his student get stronger, rather than give him advice as he would if he were more familiar with the style.

Luffy didn't mind the informal type of training at all. He much preferred throwing his fist as hard as he could to practicing stances and techniques. True, Brook looked cool while going through all of his moves, but when it came down to it, they were boring to actually do.

Both were breathing hard when they finally called the spar off, the slowly warming air of mid spring tangible against their sweaty skin. Despite this, Luffy's eyes were still bright and energetic, although Brook stumbled to sit on a nearby lawn chair, sheathing his sword and wiping perspiration from his forehead. "I'm getting too old for this, Luffy-san…" he gasped out humorously.

The boy laughed, bouncing over to him and grabbing a water bottle from the small table beside the chair, downing half of it in one gulp. "You're pretty good for an old man," he joked, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. Brook let out a breathy version of his signature chuckle, retrieving his own water bottle from the table.

As soon as Luffy's bottle was drained, all of his liveliness seemed to evaporate, his shoulder slumping and his eyes closing to tired slits. He stumbled dramatically, looking as though he were about to collapse. "Eeeeh, hungry," he whined in a loud but wavering voice.

Brook looked unconcerned by Luffy's actions, merely smiling and saying, "Let's go in and see what Rouge has made up for snack, hm?"

Luffy immediately perked up, the smile back on his face as though it had never left. "Food!" he cheered, and rushed inside before Brook had even risen off the chair.

Brook laughed to himself. It was the same thing every day with Luffy, and he wouldn't have it any other way. The never ending enthusiasm, the bottomless stomach, and the laugh that rang out even in the most serious of situations were all part of his beloved charm.

But as he got up, stretching his fatigued muscles a bit before following the boy inside, his smile faded a little. After all, by the end of the week, that all would change.

He could only pray that he would see Luffy again after that.

The day before Luffy's thirteenth birthday, Rouge woke up early. She slid quietly from her bedroom and padded down the stairs, being careful not to wake her sleeping adopted son. Of course, it was debatable whether she could wake him if she tried: the boy seemed to be capable of sleeping through the end of the world.

Unless he could smell food. Then he was awake in an instant.

She began her usual morning routine by opening the front door, looking down at the bundle of flowers on her doorstep. This was a constant: these days, the King would always send a messenger to place flowers in front of her house, probably before the sun had even begun to rise. She sighed, scooping them up and glancing at the attached note.

To my beautiful Rouge: If I could rearrange the alphabet, I'd put the letters "U" and "I" together.

Rouge smiled a little as she crumpled the parchment into a ball and tossed it out the door. If the King thought that he could win her favor with horribly unoriginal pickup lines that she suspected were written by another's hand, he was sorely mistaken. She wished that he might walk by some day and discover the accumulation of discarded notes, but since he never actually bothered to exit the castle, that was unlikely.

Despite her scorn for the person who had gifted her, she lifted the flowers to her nose and sniffed. The smell flooded her nose, pleasure registering in her brain as she exhaled the sweetly scented air. Closing the front door, she made her way into the kitchen, flowers grasped her hand. On the table sat a glass vase, the flowers currently filling it beginning to wilt. Pulling the old plants from the container, she replaced them with the new ones, smiling. She wasn't about to let pretty flowers go to waste, even if she detested the sender.

After disposing of the old flowers, she set about making breakfast. She knew that Luffy would have to leave extra early the following morning, so she had decided that she would serve him his birthday breakfast the day before. The meal consisted of syrup drenched pancakes and, perhaps more importantly, plates heaped with sausages and bacon.

The scent of cooking meat was enough to rouse Luffy from his sleep. He soon appeared at the kitchen table, all bright smiles and loud laughter, shoveling food into his mouth and mumbling his gratitude around half chewed mush. His good mood was contagious, and Rouge couldn't help but giggle along with him, teasing and defending her own, substantially smaller plate of food, which Luffy was already eyeing hungrily.

But as soon as she turned away to begin cleaning the dishes that they'd used, dread returned to her with such force that she almost stumbled. Despite Luffy knowing what was coming the following day, he seemed confident and optimistic, or at least had no intention of dwelling on it. Rouge, on the other hand, was neither as naive nor as strong as he was. She couldn't see any silver lining on this cloud. Luffy would die, and she will have lost everything.

"Rouge." She started at the sound of Luffy's voice, tone abnormally sober. Turning, she saw him studying her speculatively, his eyes slightly narrowed.

She fixed a reassuring smile on her face. "Yes, Luffy?"

He stared at her for a second longer, then his lips once again formed a grin - but it was softer than the ones he usually used. Comforting. "This isn't the last day. I can beat this, and I will. There's no way I can lose."

Rouge stood frozen for a moment, her smile wobbling. When she couldn't hold them back anymore, tears began to stream down her face, and she bit her lip to keep from sobbing aloud. Luffy didn't react to the crying - instead, he just continued to sit, his eyes warm and his smile soothing. "I won't lose," he reiterated. "Don't worry about me."

It took another minute for Rouge to get the tears under control. She scrubbed at her eyes, wetness soaking her long sleeves, then finally managed a smile, albeit a watery one. "Of course, Luffy," she told her adopted son, her voice quavering but still firm. "I believe in you."

His grin grew, and he laughed, once again carefree and lighthearted. "Yeah, don't worry about the small stuff, Rouge! Let's have fun today." He stood. "Are Robin and Brook coming over?"

Rouge nodded. "Yes. But they said you don't have to work if you don't want to."

"Great!" he cheered, then raced upstairs. Rouge watched him go, her eyes stinging once again. However, she shook her head, blinking the tears away resolutely.

Pessimistic as she may be, there was a chance that Luffy could survive. And if he did, then everything would be worth it. She had to believe in him.

On his fourteenth birthday, Luffy didn't protest or complain when Rouge shook him awake before the sun had risen. He was uncharacteristically serious - even he could sense the foreboding, melancholic atmosphere.

Robin and Brook had come to see him off. As much as he wished that they weren't so worried about him, he was glad he got to see them again. He was confident that he wouldn't be dying anytime in the next year, but he'd still be going for quite a while without seeing his old friends and teachers.

They exchanged goodbyes before exiting the house. Robin hugged him, running a hand through his black hair and whispering "Good luck" into his ear. When she pulled away, her face was somber and melancholic, although her eyes were thankfully only a little moist.

Brook, on the other hand, didn't bother suppressing his tears. He launched himself at Luffy, wrapping his thin arms around the boy's slender body and bawling out encouragements and farewells. Luffy couldn't help but smile a little, gently patting Brook's shoulder and reassuring him that there was no way he was going to lose.

Rouge was last. Without any hesitation, Luffy hugged her, muttering into her shoulder, "Thanks for everything." She didn't speak, just nodded and smiled and let the tears stream down her face as she returned his embrace.

When he pulled away, he gave them all a huge grin. "I'll be back before you know it!" he told them assuredly.

He walked out the door alone, leaving them to watch from the house. His lifted a hand in a wave, but that was the last acknowledgement he gave them. He did not turn back.

Waiting for him on the street was a bulky contraption, purring and rumbling as it belched steam from silvery pipes. Luffy had never seen a steam car before - the only reason he was aware of them at all was because of what Robin had told him, and even then he had forgotten most of what she had said. Although the vehicles were quite popular on some countries and islands, no one except the king owned any in Luffy's kingdom.

He approached it hesitantly, gawking at the unfamiliar technology. With a creak, a door opened on the vehicle's side, and a person climbed out. "Portgas Luffy?" he asked gruffly.

Luffy paused in his admiration of the steam car, glancing at the man. "Yeah, that's me."

With a curt nod, the man unlatched another door, swinging it open. "Please step inside here."

"You're going to be taking me to the Coliseum?" Luffy asked conversationally, following the man's order and practically flinging himself inside the car. Once seated, he immediately began poking at the plush chairs and hard walls of the contraption. "Awesome..."

"Yes," the man answered, also slipping back inside the car. His seat was in front of Luffy's, so his back shielded what he was doing from Luffy's view, but suddenly the car coughed and jolted, then lurched into a smooth, steady forward motion.

The technology kept Luffy occupied for a couple of minutes, but when it became apparent that the car did little more than move and turn at the driver's command, his attention drifted quickly. He leaned forward, poking the driver's shoulder. "Hey, what's the Coliseum like?"

The man made no visible sign that he had heard Luffy, but as the boy continued to pester, prodding and calling to him, he eventually relented. "I have not been in the Coliseum. It is only my job to bring people to the front."

"Oh." Luffy sounded disappointed. "So you can't tell me anything?"

"Only that you'll be very lucky if you survive."

"Yeah, but anyone could tell me that," he pouted.

"Hmm." The man shrugged slightly, eyes fixed indifferently on the road. Luffy didn't bothering pressing more, laying his head against the side of the steam car and sulking in silence.

By the time the car rumbled to a stop, Luffy was already fast asleep, snoring loudly. The man frowned, getting out of the car and opening Luffy's door, shaking the boy awake.

When Luffy clamored out of the car, rubbing at his eyes and yawning, he froze when he caught sight of the structure in front of him. The Coliseum was huge, perhaps an even larger building than the kingdom's castles. It was built in a traditional circle, its cement wall rising from the ground and looming high over the teenager. Small shapes of light scattered across the sides marked windows.

Many would have quailed beneath the intimidating form of the infamous Coliseum. Its monstrous size seemed to remind everyone of the reputation it held- less than a third of the people who entered that structure came out alive.

Luffy's eyes were huge as he studied the Coliseum's form. His heart beat a little faster, and his fingers twitched. The driver watched the boy warily - more often than not, children tried to bolt at the sight of the Coliseum.

But instead, Luffy grinned, laughing excitedly. "This looks awesome!"

The driver paused in surprise. It wasn't impossible for a kid to be excited by the prospect of the Coliseum, but incredibly rare. Enough to stun him into silence until the child asked, "Is that the door?"

He was pointing to a pair of large, metal doors, heavily bolted shut. Four guards stood at attention in front, their hands gripping weapons.

"Ah, yes," the driver confirmed, giving the boy a quick nod. "Shall I escort you to the doors?"

"Nah. Thanks for the ride, old man!" Luffy giggled, and then he was off like a bullet, sprinting towards the door. The driver jolted, his reflexes kicking in as the child began to run, but he relaxed when he fully registered Luffy wasn't trying to escape. He watched as the black haired boy darted up to the guards, bouncing a little as he asked them something. They looked dumbfounded, but stepped away from the doors, which began to open.

As Luffy walked confidently inside, the driver shook his head, sighing. "Kids these days," he murmured to himself, sliding back into his steam car and letting the door click shut, echoed by the resounding boom of the Coliseum gates locking back into place.

Let me guess: this chapter didn't answer any of the questions from Chapter One, and only proceeded to raise questions of its own, right? XD

Thank you to everyone who read the previous chapter, and a super special thanks to everyone who favorited, followed, and reviewed! The reviews were all really, really great, including questions that the reviewers had and information on what the reviewers liked so far. That is all incredibly valuable information! Obviously, I couldn't answer many (if any) of the questions that they asked about the story. But knowing the questions readers have about my story informs me about what they're most interested in, what I still need to clarify, and things that I might have forgotten. So basically... ask away!

To my lovely Guest reviewer: I'm glad you like my writing style! I know I tend to write things with a slow build, with a lot of mystery and probably confusion at the beginning. I'm glad it sounds alright despite all of that :3 thank you for reading, and I hope the story will continue you entertain you as it unfolds!

I bet you all already know this, but if you've got anything you wanna say to me - how this chapter was, what you're confused about, what you look forward to, what type of shoes you're wearing, are you wearing shoes? Because I'm not right now... Then leave me a review!

Until next time!

~Whisperwing~