Disclaimer: One Piece is owned by Oda, not me.

Luffy entered the classroom with a smile. Vivi walked up to him to say hello and Sanji was staring at him for some reason. Zoro was asleep on his desk like every morning and Nami was being quiet, adjusting her long sleeve shirt as best as she could almost nervously. It could have struck Luffy as unusual if he had known the girl better, but then again, they hadn't talked much before yesterday. Girls usually didn't wear the long sleeve uniform at this time of the year, and boys usually rolled theirs. Well except for Luffy, but it wasn't important.

He sat on his chair in front of Zoro's desk and was about to start waking him up when Kuina asked him if they could talk. Luffy excused himself to the washroom and followed the blue-haired spirit in the corridor.

"What is it?" Luffy asked rather coldly to the girl.

"I can't just want to have a friendly chat?" Luffy shook his head.

"No, you seem on edge, something is bothering you and you need my help or you wouldn't bother talking to me." Kuina's eyes twitched in slight annoyance.

"You are sharper than you look."

"I get that often, now what is it?" Luffy didn't feel really patient. He didn't like being asked for help by a ghost at school, it would only attract unwanted attention. Little did he know, he did have someone eavesdropping his conversation with air at the washroom's door.

"Zoro... He is bothered a lot by his family problems. Could you just... keep an eye on him?" Luffy frowned.

"Doesn't he have you to watch over him? And Sanji? They are best friends, aren't they? Besides, what kind of family problems?" Kuina looked nervous.

"His parents are in debts, he doesn't really look like he will talk about it to anyone. His father is a drunk and he and his wife fight a lot. He doesn't get much sleep with all the shouting. I can't help him with this." Luffy nodded.

"I'll try to get him to talk to me or Sanji about it at least. But it will probably take a while, I started talking to Zoro only yesterday. Please don't talk to me in public. Not if it isn't absolutely necessary." Luffy said as he exited the washroom. Sanji had returned to the class a few moments prior already.

"So guys, what do you want to do after school today?" Luffy said as he happily skipped back to the group again.

Zoro decided to wake up at that moment with a yawn. "Don't know." Zoro huffed. Nami smirked.

"Maybe trying to stay awake?" They all chuckled, except Luffy, who only looked down.

"We could go to the park," Nami suggested. The others seemed on board with the idea. The bell rang and they all went to their seats. Sanji gave Luffy one last intrigued look before sitting down. Zoro frowned as he sat up straight. Sanji would always praise Nami or Vivi all morning for small matters and would keep his gaze fixed on them, even if he was half-asleep when it happened, the green-haired man knew his best friend. they had become very close over the years even if they argued a lot.

But he already had so much to worry about at home, couldn't school life just be a break from all the drama? Of course not.

During the whole day, Luffy listened carefully to his teachers. He didn't have yesterday's constant rambling to worry about since today, Sabo had decided to follow Ace around at his work. The whole day was normal, until after school, when they went to the park.

They were just hanging out, messing around, talk about different subjects, but then, Nojiko, Nami's older sister, ran by in a hurry. She didn't really explicitly say why, but Nami followed a bit horrified in the face. Without too many words, Luffy came up with a way to ask Kuina to go check it out without the others noticing. They continued enjoying their time when Kuina came back.

"Everything is tense, the atmosphere is strange." Luffy froze. He didn't turn to look at the dark blue haired girl and stopped paying attention to his current conversation immediately.

"What do you mean?" His friends thought he was speaking to them and continued their conversation, but he was listening to Kuina who was standing right behind him.

"Apparently, her mother disappeared after being called on duty two weeks ago and the rest of her task force at the police station are still looking for her. Nami looks like she really needs support right now." Luffy looked down in shame. He didn't know what to do about it. Helping out, he had done that in the past, but never he had done it to help someone still alive really. It was simple, but not necessarily easy, to help a spirit cross to the other side. You needed to learn what was their unfinished business, learn what still tied them to the world of the living and do something about it, depending on the situation. Still, he didn't know how to make the 'watching over' type of ghost cross to the other side, he had tried with Sabo, but the blond just didn't want to leave and, in a way, he was happy for it.

But the problems Nami are facing are real. She is alive. Helping her will be far different than helping any spirit to move on, will it be?

Luffy glanced up at his friends with a distressed look on his face. The others frowned and were about to ask him what was wrong when he sighed and put on a fake smile, reassuring Zoro and Vivi, but only adding a new event to Sanji's list of Luffy's weird moments. He had clearly seen it, the fear and helplessness on the raven-haired boy's face, he had seen that face more than once. Mostly when he looked in a mirror. It wasn't a small matter that bothered Luffy, it was something important, and god knew what it was.

"Hey what's the thing you have around your neck?" Sanji was pulled out of his thoughts at Vivi's words. It was true, Luffy had some sort of necklace, but he kept it under his shirt, never wearing it over. Luffy stepped back a bit, but Vivi was faster than him and pulled the necklace over his shirt. It was an antique silver locket. The design was simple but refined, showing what looked like a cross in the middle. When Vivi tried to open it, Luffy snatched it from her hands emotionlessly and put it back under his shirt.

It was a clear message. Don't look at things you aren't supposed to bother with.

They dropped it, but it only made the three more curious about what was inside the locket. Luffy tried to chang the subject. "Nami left hurriedly, do you think something bad happened to her family?" The others seemed to agree.

"Yeah... She told me they still don't have any clues on her mother... I'll call her, we should pay a little visit, make sure she is okay." Vivi said as she took her phone.

"Her mother?" Luffy faked his cluelessness as he listened to Zoro and Sanji explain the situation. When Vivi finished her call, they started making their way to Nami's house. Her step-father had agreed for her to have friends over for a little while, but only if they left before dinner.

When they entered the house, everything was clean and strictly well ordered. Nojiko seemed to be doing her homework at the dinner table while Nami invited them in and their step-father, as they guessed he was since he was the only man present in the house, was reading a book with his glasses on his flat, large and pointy nose. He looked up from it with a severe expression before continuing his reading, completely ignoring the young guests. A dread feeling passed through The raven and the ghost who was following the group as they looked into his eyes.

"Did you have any new information on what could have happened to her?" Zoro asked. He wasn't one to pry into other people's private lives, but the situation involved one of his friends.

"No, unfortunately." Luffy stepped forward.

"What does she look like?" Nami told him to follow her upstairs. Passing in front of another room, the boy thought he heard someone crying, but dismissed it. He entered Nami's room as she showed her a photo of a strong-looking woman with long fuschia who cut them in a unique hairstyle he had seen on no one else before.

"She works in the police like M. Arlong downstairs. I am starting to think she left us... But she wouldn't do that! She is always kind, why would she leave like that?" Nami started sobbing and Luffy pulled her in a hug. She was surprised at first but started crying openly in Luffy's shoulder. They stayed like that for a few minutes, Luffy trying to replicate the soothing gestures his big brother used to do when he was sad with his eyes closed.

"I am right here... Can't you see me?" Luffy's eyes snapped open and he was met with the sight of a woman in the doorway. Not any woman, Nami's mother. She didn't look as pretty as in her pictures. Her face was a bit puffy and bluish around the eyes. She had a big bruise on the left side of her head as if it had smashed it into a concrete wall. Her arms and legs had a few bruises too, but nothing as terrifying as the state of her face.

Luffy's breath hitched at the sight. The woman looked at him in the eyes and Luffy continued comforting Nami as he looked at the spirit.

"You... Can you...?" Luffy nodded carefully as he tried to steady his breathing.

"Don't worry Nami, we will find out what happened." He said as the girl pushed away from his embrace and wiped her tears away. They came out in the hallway and Nami went to go downstairs, but Luffy told her he needed to check on something and to wait for him downstairs with the rest of the gang.

"So... You can actually see me?" Luffy turned around.

"Yes. But the others can't."

"Do you know why?" Luffy looked at the woman with a hard but compassionate gaze.

"You already know, I am sure." The woman clenched her fists as she did everything to keep herself from breaking into tears. She had known, all along. She couldn't deny it to herself anymore, but she couldn't let go, not yet. Her two daughters still needed her.

"What can I do? I can't leave yet." Luffy stepped closer with a smile.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of it. Your not the only one who has unfinished business. I will help you move on." Maybe helping Nami wouldn't be as different from helping spirits after all...

"Thank you... Wait, how can you see-"

"Luffy! What's taking you so long!" He heard Zoro's voice from downstairs. In a flash, the boy quickly waved at the beaten up woman and went back downstairs.

"Coming!" He entered the living room where his friends were chatting. Zoro seemed really tired, Nami looked nervous and worried, Vivi looked concerned but still in a good mood and Sanji, well, he looked at him with a curious glare, like he was studying him. "Hey, what were you guys doing?"

"Well, Vivi thought it would be a good idea to have missing posters, the police is already searching, but they can't find her. Maybe someone saw her and they would call." Nami said as she showed the boy an image of the first missing poster they had made. "Sanji said he would go make more copies later since our photocopy machine is out of ink." Luffy nodded and looked up at the woman, Bellemere if he read the name on the poster, sitting on the stairs. She looked still proud and confident somehow that everything would be alright.

"Is there something I could do?" Nami looked thoughtful at this question. There wasn't a lot any of them could do except wait for some answers. She shook her head. The raven was about to suggest if they should leave, but Bellemere stood up suddenly.

"Don't leave yet!" Luffy stopped and sat back. "Every extra minute you stay here is a minute less Nami and Nojiko have to suffer!" Luffy narrowed his eyes, he had stopped listening to his friend's conversation, thinking the spirit had probably something more important to say. He still needed to understand what Nami's mother had said.

"I didn't know before, but Arlong is very abusive! He hits them and yells a lot at them!" Luffy's eyes flashed for a second. Of course, what the woman had said was unnerving, made him feel mad at the disgusting obnoxious and rotten man reading a book in the next room.

"Luffy?" Someone was trying to talk to him, but he didn't listen. Sanji inspected him, as always.

"Luffy!" He snapped his head to his friends. "What?"

"We asked you if you would like to come with us tomorrow on Friday to the cinema after school.

The young medium shook his head sheepishly. "There is something I have to do tomorrow." Kaya had been waiting for a long time and Usopp came back to town tomorrow. He wouldn't make her wait any longer, She had to move on.

"Oh... Okay then." Luffy's phone rang. He stood and excluded himself from the group a little with an apologetic smile and answered.

"Hey, Ace!" Luffy chirped happily.

"Hey, Lu! I am coming back to work and I need to talk to you at home, can you come back now? I know you are with your friends, but there is something I want to know." Ace said in a delicate manner like he was dealing with someone really sensible.

"Okay... I got it. I will be there in around 15 minutes max. See ya!" Ace said goodbye too and they hang up.

Luffy looked back at his group of friends. "Sorry, my brother called... He says it's important..."

They shrugged it off. "We get it. See you tomorrow!"

"Bye!" Luffy exited the house, giving M. Arlong and Bellemere one last glance before going back to his house.

Ace had just finished his only lesson for the day at college. He didn't have any lessons in the afternoon, so he drove directly to his work at the Whitebeard company. He was a bit young to have a job there apparently, but he knew the boss and his son and they knew he worked well, so he was given the job earlier that year, on the condition he didn't drop from college.

Ace walked in, followed by Sabo, and stormed to Marco's office. Marco and Ace had been friends for a while, but right now he was pissed at the pineapple-head. He snapped the door open and closed it with the same amount of force before he started shouting.

"Why didn't you tell me I had a spirit haunting me 24/7?!" Ace said loudly.

"How many times do I have to say it that's offensive- Ah never mind..." Sabo said as he sat on a chair with a sigh.

Marco didn't look up from his work. He was pretty used to his friend's temper and wasn't fazed by his loud arrival. "The spirit latched onto you didn't want me to say it." He said in a bored tone. Marco was a medium, but not like Luffy, He could sense the spirits and hear them talk without to much need for concentration and was also able to detect other mediums and psychics. Tell apart their abilities.

"Why didn't he want me to know?!"

"Well, your spirit friend isn't an idiot. He knew if you had known he refused to cross to the other side and decided to stay here to watch over you, you would get mad and that is exactly what happened." Ace sighed and calmed down.

"I guess you're right..." He froze. "But... that means you knew about Luffy." Marco looked up from his work and looked at Ace directly in the eyes.

"I may have known about his ability to see ghosts and his psychic capabilities, but this was his secret to tell."

Ace's eyes widened. "He's a Psychic too? On top of all that?"

Marco's eyes narrowed in contemplation. "Well, all mediums who can actually see the ghosts have some sort of Psychic abilities. Some even have more than one. If you don't know about it, he probably doesn't know himself."

"So you say those who sense don't have any other 'powers' but those who see are always psychics too?" Marco nodded.

"I am still not sure how or why, but yes. Basically, that's it." Ace exited the room with a thoughtful expression. He walked to where he would work and did what he usually did with only half of his usual attention. He was simply absorbed by his thoughts, but more specifically, he was wondering what kind of ability Luffy had. The whole afternoon he wondered until his wonder turned into worry. Like always.

What if Luffy had an ability that could hurt him? What if he already knew what it was and didn't want to tell him? In the meantime, while Ace was freaking out, Sabo was bored out of his mind. Following Ace to his work wasn't really entertaining. Yes, it was funny to see Ace make a big fuss out of everything, but it got old pretty fast. At least, with Luffy at his school, he could talk to Kuina or any other spirit they encountered. There wasn't any at the Whitebeard company. Marco had probably helped every one of them cross since he seemed like the kind of guy who would. Also, Marco had tried helping him cross before, but he had refused, just like when he did with Luffy.

When Ace was done with his work, Ace called Luffy. He needed to know.

So, how did you like this chapter?