Some time alone with Luffy. Next chapter is the last one. I think people who like the romance part are going to like it.

Enjoy~

He walked alongside the fire for a while, down the street driving perpendicular to the street. There were only a few real entrances into the park because the sides were dense trees or stacks and walls of rocks. When he ran out of road to walk on, he hiked up the terrain next to the designated park, still perpendicular to the park.

It took over four hours to hike uphill on the rocks to get past the fire. It was like a different world above the fire. Once he climbed and jumped to the side and into the park, he had to climb up a cliff before he could see the whole park below him. Below was full of fire, and the smoke was blocking the view of the city. Behind him, the water was still clear and the plants green. He saw some deer far uphill from him watching the fire. He hoped they hadn't lost any of their family or friends to the flames.

Luffy stood there for a moment, watching the fire rage. He felt he was paying his respects to the dead plants and wildlife. His dead home.

He hadn't gone up this high in years, so he didn't know where the trails lead, but he climbed them up and up and up for hours. He knew no one would be up here, except maybe people who have gone extreme mountain climbing and lived. Some of the things he climbed were sheer drops down, so high you'd die if you fell from it.

Luffy found no more giant trees, not that he expected to. He would have seen them before if there were any more. He found a cave, bigger than his old one, but it wasn't behind a waterfall and the walls didn't glitter when Luffy was inside.

He came across some animals he hadn't seen in a very long time, like the mountain sheep and wolverines running through the underbrush. The area was abundant with wildlife, but they must all be over here to stay away from the fire. Maybe they were on the opposite side and ran away behind the fire.

He tried not to get overwhelmed by the sounds of helicopters desperately trying to put out the blaze. He tried to ignore it as best as he could.

There were so bears up here, but there was no rapids with fish coming through and feeding them. It seemed that the bears ate other animals because he could see one eating with its baby, chewing up a deer carcass.

Luffy wondered why he had never come up this far in the winter. There had to be a lot of snow. He wouldn't be able to play in it, but it would be pretty. How he wished he could interact with things. He hadn't held anything except Zoro's hand in all the time after his untimely death. He missed Zoro already, but he felt he made the right choice in staying. He hoped Zoro was okay and not trapped in a smelly warehouse with a bunch of strangers.

Luffy stayed walking and hiking up the ridges and mountains cropping up now for a couple more hours before it got dark out. He sat on a small rock ledge next to the creek and swung his legs, watching the fire for the rest of the night. It was beautiful, but terrifying at the same time. He was planning on going up higher tomorrow. He decided he wouldn't look back at the fire until he made it to the peak of the first mountain behind the park. Yes, the massive trees were the tallest things in the park but where he was now wasn't considered the park. Just the rest of the land no one visits because of the dangers accompanying the area.

Luffy continued to climb for the next day, and the next. It took so long because he'd not only go up, but explore around the area, the sides, the forest areas, climb trees, and do random things to stall for time and relieve him of boredom. He'd watch the animals. He wanted to take as long as he could to get to the top, so that maybe the fire would be out by the time he got to the top and looked back. He couldn't smell the smoke up here because the wind was still going, albeit not as forcefully. Thankfully for Luffy, but terrible for the city. The fire was still going downhill, not ruining what was left of the land Luffy loved. He felt selfish thinking like that. Living people and their homes were in danger, and here he was, thankful the fire was lower, closer to the people.

Luffy eventually found the small open lake that was on the flat land close to the peak, where most of the melted snow flows into. The water continuously flowed into the large body of water and out through a thin section of the stream. Luffy walked across the surface and watched as fish swam around in it. If Luffy could swim, he'd swim in this water. It was clear and calm. He could see everything below the surface as he stood on the calm water. It was beautiful. He really did like it up here, but it was a long ways from where the entrance was. And a long ways away from Zoro.

If he had to choose which part he liked more, it'd be the park part and not the mountainous area. But this place was all he had left. He left the lake and climbed higher. Once he reached the peak, he decided he might go down the other side. There were many mountains in the area, stretching over 60 miles. By the time he made it to the end and back, the fire would probably be out. He hoped so. Then he could go inspect the damage and mourne in his own way.

Some might not understand why Luffy was so upset that he'd mourne a piece of land. But this was his home and sanctuary. It was his friend in some way. It was important to him, and when it burned, a huge chunk of his heart broke. Only Zoro kept all of it from crumbling into nothing. Again, he wondered how Zoro was doing. Luffy knew what he was doing was probably much more interesting than whatever his lover was.

Luffy continued to climb until he reached the top on the night of the third day. He looked behind him, dreading what he might see. He sighed and his lower lip trembled as he saw the fire still burning, very small in the distance from where Luffy was standing. Maybe if I go all the way and come back, the fire will be out by then…

He climbed the single tree standing at the peak and looked over what he could see. He could see for miles and miles from that high. It was beautiful. So Luffy dropped from ledge to ledge to the dip between the mountains. He tumbled down near the bottom and landed silently on his butt. There weren't many animals up here. He could only see birds flying around.

It took half a day of climbing slowly and carefully now that his was on a narrow rim to get to the next mountain. If he fell he'd be falling a long time and it'd take forever to get back up here. He even ended up crawling on all fours across the thinnest ledge. Luffy was actually scared and felt great relief when he got to the second mountain. He wasn't looking forward to going back.

He took a long break on the second mountain, getting bored. There were no animals, and it was plain scary to be this high. Even if, when he went back, the fire was still going, he'd just hang out near the creek, watching the animals and waiting.

He decided he was done mountain climbing and wanted off the peaks as fast as possible, but he now had to climb back down a bit and go across the ledge once again.

He became terrified and screamed in fear as he slipped off the thin expanse of land connecting both mountains, holding on by one hand. He was able to pull himself back up, tears in his eyes. He thought he was going to fall. He almost did. He crawled even slower and more carefully now than he had previously. He sighed in great relief once he got off the damn ledge that scared the hell out of him.

Hiking back up wasn't difficult, but he slid down the other side, tumbling over and over until he landed on the lake's surface. He looked down at the park, which was absolutely tiny. There was no more orange glow coming from it, and the smoke was a different shade now. The fire had gone out.

The rest of the way, Luffy was dangerously reckless and would have hurt himself badly if he could. He jumped off of ledges and didn't care if he tumbled. But he was still high and could fall of the edge again. It didn't take as long to get down than it did to get up since he was jumping and running down as best as he could. He reached the park area in a little under half a day. He braced himself for the damage as he dropped down and onto the end of the road along the park. It was still smoky, but much much less than before since the wind was blowing the smoke away, to the poor residents of the city.

Luffy was able to get into the park easily since it was no longer burning and the trees were skinny after they burned. He squeezed between them, and walked onto a trail, the grass and leaves on the ground non-existent anymore. He sadly touched a tree, but was surprised when his glow stuck to the tree. He watched in shock and wonder as the tree expanded and grew its leaves back as the glow covered it. In under five minutes, the tree was healthy again. Luffy looked at his hand. It looked normal… what happened?

He touched another tree and watched it happen again. He smiled, and not really caring anymore about how it worked, touched every tree he came across. It looked truly magical. But he couldn't get the leaves and foliage back since they were intangible to him and were mostly gone. Luffy continued to bring the trees back to life, smiling as he did so. He was going to save what he could of his home. Bushes and grass would have to grow back on their own.

Helicopters flew over the park, showing the visible damage through the smoke. The cameraman turned the camera around, getting as wide a view of the destruction as he could. He then suddenly shouted in surprise.

"What the hell?!" he shouted, getting a stern look from the reporter. They were still airing. "Look!" he shouted at the woman. Her eyes widened and she began to report what they were seeing, not being able to explain the phenomenon but saying the trees were coming back to life.

They were quickly losing the view of the ground as green leaves bloomed, blocking the view of the magical-like miracle.

Zoro watched the TV playing the news at the shelter and smirked. Looks like you can do more than glow and walk through things… Luffy.

When Luffy finally got to the massive trees, he put both hands on the trunk as his glow encompassed the charred wood. He watched with tears of happiness in his eyes as his favorite trees were brought back from the dead. Even the branches that were burned into non-existence grew back to how they were before. He continued on the wave of rejuvenated trees as he ran down the trails. Though there was nothing he could do for the water that was probably really damaged. He hoped time and people trying to fix it could save the water. He'd miss his waterfall. But even if it took a couple years, he'd be around here for probably much longer than that.

After hours and hours and hours of fixing up the thousands of trees, he finally reached the entrance of the park. He looked behind him after fixing his tree out on the now brown lawn, reveling in the sight of the park looking almost exactly the same as it was before. You could see the empty ground with no leaves or foliage, but the park with still bathed in the green and brown of the living trees. After looking at what he had accomplished for a while, he ran through the park to his massive trees and climbed swiftly.

When he reached the top branch, he looked over what he had done and started to cry in relief. He had seen his cave, charred on the outside, and behind the gunky waterfall, but it was still there and once the water was cleaned, it'd be as good as new. He sat there for a long time, relaxing. It had actually been a bit tiring to fix up the trees.

The only solution to the mystery he could think of was that maybe his glow did more than just illuminate things around him. What if that was the reason he was still around. If it was keeping him still "living", then why would there be a reason it couldn't help other dead things? He now appreciated the glow immensely.