"Luffy! Stay close, I swear if I have to say it again…"
"Sorry! I'm sorry!" Luffy bounces along, trying to pull his arm free of Nami's grip. Problem is it's a tight hold and she doesn't relent at all, not even when he whines and tells her it hurts. Which it doesn't, but that's okay, she doesn't have to know.
The market is loud and crowded, but Luffy doesn't really mind, no one's been mean, and Nami said she'd buy him something; it makes him excited.
After confessing to Chopper and just snuggling for a bit he'd felt much better.(Not much less upset, but less self-accusation was a good start. That's what Chopper said, whatever that meant.) They'd decided that an outing was in order, and since the plan was to get a snack and maybe a few toys to cheer them both up (Chopper is sensitive and Luffy's emotions tend to be contagious) Nami had been the one to gather up a few belli she felt they could spare and take the two out onto the island.
Luffy has strayed away over ten times, drawn by stands in the bazar advertising food, clothing, carved obsidian sculptures, and other odd wares that a seven year old just can't resist. He is starting to wonder if he'll have bruises, despite his rubber powers, Nami is really good at holding on…
Without meaning to he moves a little to the left, wandering closer to a stand and the man there holding out a wooden sphere painted to look like a devil fruit.
"Luffy!" Nami pulls at his arm viciously and it isn't until he's snapped back to her side that he realizes his arm had stretched and Nami is looking warily from side to side. "I told you, no stretching, it's very important!"
"Listen to Nami," Chopper says sternly from behind him "She's smart."
Luffy mumbles an apology and Nami frowns at him before she pulls him forward again and the trio is once again forging through the crowd
Nami keeps her grip cemented onto his wrist as he trails behind them, looking at everything with amazed wonderment. It's silly, really, how easily impressed he is, they've been to much better bazaars.
The evening wears on, past two, and they've eaten now, it was good, chicken and vegetables in tangy sauce that made her lips feel tingly with the spice. Luffy's still licking his lips.
Chopper is asking a local about the volcano, which has been getting steadily more active as the day wears on, it makes Nami nervous. Chopper talks for a moment before plodding back over and sharing what he'd learned.
"It's a regular thing, bi-monthly, apparently." He explains "It's a really active volcano, which means it explodes a lot, but it's never a big deal, not too big anyway. This time the explosion is going to be decent sized, but it's not a danger, people even go watch it erupt from near the top of the cone, you can tell where to stand because everywhere else is covered in lava rocks…"
"We don't have time to go sightseeing Chopper." Nami interrupts "Nor do we really want to give Trouble any more opportunities than he already makes." Chopper nods and wanders closer to Luffy, who is only an arm's length away, but far enough that he hadn't been listening.
Nami glances around, still on guard, she has to be, because Chopper keeps forgetting. But there are marines all over the place, and who knows? So far the marines haven't caused any problems, the ones stationed to keep the peace throughout the bar, but one can't be too careful, or at least Nami can't.
It's a good thing she is on guard, very good, because it's less than eye contact, less than a spare glance. Maybe a brushing of gazes, maybe just an instinctual tickle on the back of her neck, but something about the marine by the corner urges Nami into a duck, pulling Luffy back away from the stall counter where his chubby fingers are reaching for some do-dad that has caught his interest, and in the few split seconds after he'd been jerking away a gunshot rips through the air and a bullet slides peacefully through the air where Luffy's head had been.
The market place dissolves into chaos, but Nami catches sight of the white uniform huddled behind a brown barrel, a thin trail of smoke drifting from the mouth. The shooter, a marine. She curses vehemently and scoops up Luffy, using her other hand to snag one of Chopper's antlers and pull him along. He sputters and protests but runs to catch up while Luffy sits quietly in her arms, seemingly a little shellshocked.
"Was he shooting at me?" He asks suddenly, hands tightening their grip on Nami's hand, "Nami was he trying to shoot me?"
Nami doesn't answer, just pulls them into a turn as she hurtles around the nearest corner and darts through a broiling crowd of panicky pedestrians. A few more shots ring out, she ducks instinctively, but they're behind her, it's good that she turned.
Screams aren't rare in a market place, not on some of the islands in the New World, the occasional slave, a frantic mother who's lost a child in the mob of shoppers, people nearest when an exotic animal on display breaks loose and begins to terrorize the crowd in it's fear and fury. Now the screams become all the more commonplace, normal folk who are caught, or scared of being caught, in the crossfire of the chase between marines and pirates.
Nami feels bad for them, she does, or did. She feels bad to ruin their evening, or their shopping trip, or whatever these normal people were doing with their normal lives, but the sympathy drains away when she listens for shouts of chasing marines and catches snippets of encouragement - for the marines.
"Chase them out!" "My wares!" "My children!" "Get rid of them!"
Nami scowls, turns again, runs into someone, trips. Chopper shrieks beside her as he runs into someone else, from here on the place is packed, and it's already overflowing, the crowd frothing with movement as people shift and panic, trying to escape the increasing flow of people who have begun to swamp in. It's a miracle that no one's noticed them yet, other than that marine and his squadron, apparently. "Chopper, Chopper!" She locates the little reindeer, huddled as someone's foot impends, and snatches him out of the way, spitting insults at the frazzled woman who had almost trampled their doctor. "Chopper, we've got to get Luffy out of here, back to the Sunny- Oh my God Luffy."
It's not something he's done, rather something he hasn't done, that is, anything. He's gone, disappeared into a crowd who's begun to shout his name in anger and trepidation.
~4~
Luffy gasps as he stumbles over the treeline, ducking quickly behind the nearest tree and upon regaining his breath shimmying up the trunk to hide in its branches. He leans over a branch so that the bark digs into his stomach as his shirt rides up, it's the best position to watch through the leaves as people scurry about below. He doesn't see Nami or Chopper, which makes him worried because Nami is going to hurt him when she finds him and blame him for wandering off and besides, they scared him a little earlier…
He doesn't really understand the whole thing, something about everyone knowing he was trouble so no one wanted him around, so he had to stay quiet or people would find him and take him away. Luffy shudders at the thought, the pirate crew he's suddenly become a part of isn't his brothers, but he likes them and he trusts them and he just knows that away isn't a good place to be. He'll be alone all over again, and he only just got these people.
A gunshot rings out and he throws his hands over his mouth to quell the yelp he feels leaping into his throat.
"That was close…" He whispers to himself as he edges back down the tree limb, settling into a diverging point of a few branches. He sits still for a moment, then starts kicking his feet, then starts humming. He watches the ground below him for people so he can go quiet again but he doesn't see any people.
He sees a butterfly.
He gasps as it flutters into view, it's orange and that makes him think Ace and Nami. It's gone as quick as it came though, and he fumbles for a moment before dropping out of the tree and making chase, pinwheeling his arms for balance as he dances over a few roots and then sets out in pursuit, following the glimmer of orange as it glints out in the shadows of the dense canopy.
It was pretty easy to forget that any of the last hour had happened once he couldn't hear the people anymore, it felt like he was back on Goa, tramping through the forest like he owned it because aside from Ace, Sabo and himself, no one is ever in the forest, so it was fine to feel that way, it was justified.
Things intensified quickly, from a light hearted chase to a light hearted hunt, though hunts in general weren't lighthearted, they meant that Luffy had a prey to catch. And he was going to catch it.
Unfortunately, neither of his brothers were around to catch him when his rubber powers worked against him and he set out on his bouncy quest.
~4~
"There are marines on the island and you lost him?" Usopp paces back and forth as Nami rests her head on the table, Chopper is holding back tears, seated on Robin's lap as she pulls random candies out of her pocket and offers them to him.
"The marines that are on the island are the reason I lost him," Nami huffs, though the anger is not directed at Usopp. "Darn, what was I thinking, I should have brought a leash…"
"We're dead, we're doomed!" Usopp yells dramatically until Sanji kicks over his chair and sets a tropical drink in front of Nami.
"You can hardly be blamed, Nami-san, Luffy's a devil, he was bound to get away, he got away from me and Franky."
"But you got him back," Nami points out
"And we'll do it again," He says confidently.
Nami takes a mournful sip of her drink, gaze wandering over the others in the galley, she'd been reluctant to leave the bazar without both her charges but she and Chopper had had to split when the place began to resemble a war zone. Luffy, knowing him, had either gotten himself holed up in some small unreachable place and would be brought back to them by a kindly village girl within the next day, or he'd gotten captured by marines and would show up in the papers by the day after tomorrow with a long article detailing the date and time of his public execution.
Most of them are leaning towards the latter.
Zoro stands up with a long sigh and trundles toward the door, scratching his head with his other hand laid over his swords. The tenseness of his back and the grip of his hand betray his unease.
"Let's go find him."
~4~
There it was, right THERE.
Luffy peers over the root he's hiding behind (it was really dirty and smelled like worms) and grins.
His plan clear in his mind, he shuffles his feet, ready to spring on the unsuspecting insect.
"On three." He whispers "One... Two... Three!"
Going for intimidation he decides to give his best battle cry while he runs towards the tree on which his prey is perched elegantly.
The butterfly is sufficiently intimidated, fluttering off the tree and into the shrubbery while Luffy runs full tilt into the tree.
KAFUMP
Leaves shower down from the canopy and Luffy shakes his head to try and jar his vision into the right angle.
"Ah, wait!" He scrambles to find his footing, half crawling to his feet and then tearing through the bush at a haphazard jog.
What remains of the tranquility of the forest is shattered as the child stampedes through the shrubbery in hot pursuit of the orange butterfly, yelling all the way.
"Don't fly away!" He jumps to catch the edge of a tall tree root and pulls himself over the top of it. "I really like your wings!" Jumping down he sinks several inches into a puddle of murky brown water, mud splattering onto his arms and face. "Euch!" He sticks out his tongue but catches sight of the bug flitting further away. "Wait!" He scrambles out of the puddle and stumbles over the uneven ground, trying to catch up.
"You can't get away!" He declares, running as fast as he can, slowly gaining... Slowly coming closer... Jumpjumpjumpjumpjump!
He jumps, right onto a low hanging tree branch, it catches him in the gut and he yelps as his momentum shifts in a new direction altogether.
He skids into the ground, rolls a few times and then bumps into another tree where he finally settles.
"That was mean!" He yells. Not sure where the butterfly is, but absolutely certain that the whole thing is entirely its fault.
He lifts his head and looks for the butterfly, ready to chase that thing all the way off the island if that's where it flew, it deserves nothing short of long term capture! He'll bring it back to Nami and make her forgive him for running off, kind of sort of. She'll like it because its wings are orange, just like her hair.
Instead, he catches a glimpse of tan and blue, and he hears the gentle rise and fall of the ocean.
His interest immediately captured, Luffy moves forward, pushing bushes out of his way and stepping onto a beach.
A REAL beach.
He'd never been to a real beach, he suddenly realizes. On Dawn Island, he'd gone to the beach a thousand times, to look at tide pools and the ocean and climb on the rocks.
This beach is nothing but sand.
He looks down at his feet, at the golden grains of sand that are sliding into his shoes (not that that's hard, he's in sandals) he wiggles his toes and more spills in between them. He giggles, crouching down in the sand to let it shift through his fingers. This sand is soft he's never felt soft sand. At his beaches it was grainy and wet and hard; here the wind inches forward in a breeze and the grains are sent into a fluttering golden cloud.
And it's warm. As though each speck of sand is a tiny ember, except they don't burn.
It's just so... Nice.
He lurches forward and buries his hands in the sand, the heat seeping beneath his skin and settling in around his bones. (He bets Brook would like it here).
He can't help but sigh, and then he giggles; he should bring the crew here, he bets they'd throw a party, and it'd last all nighommph!
A hand claps over his mouth and an arm curls around his torso, clamping his arms to his sides. He yells and sticks his tongue out to lick the hand, but the grip doesn't loosen. It tastes bad too.
He can't see their face, can only feel their calloused palms against his face and arms, the hairs on the back of his neck prickle with unease.
He's promptly wrapped in ropes, his wrists are tied behind his back and his arms are tied to his side, a cloth replaces the hand and he bites it vehemently, eager to take out his frustration. He twists around, glaring, hoping to spark fear into the heart of his attacker, only to have fear struck into his own.
His captor is tall and beefy, a full beard of grimy frizz and a dirty uniform that might have once been white.
A marine uniform.
He sneers down at Luffy, who feels his eyes welling in anger and frustration and fear. The man leers, reaches down and picks up the small boy so that they are nose to nose, Luffy sneezes purposely.
"Hah! How the great have fallen! Ehh, Straw Hat?" Luffy growls at the snub to his hat "Who would have thought that Straw Hat Luffy would be taken in like this! Let's hope it's permanent, I'd like to see you die in this humiliating form." Though confused, Luffy snarls as best he can and curses the man through the gag, wriggling his wrists to try and stretch them through the ropes.
"Uh uh uhh." He pulls a pair of handcuffs out of his back pocket. "Let's not have that. You just need to... Settle down." The moment the first cuff locks around his wrist Luffy feels the effect, he grows listless. It has to be the cuff, he only feels like this when he's hungry and it's never quite this bad. Stupid hunger cuff. His head droops on a noodle neck and his arms bend at an unnatural angle, and it hurts.
Confusion mingles with exhaustion in his mind and thoughts begin to roll ever so slowly through his head, he can't muster the strength to pay attention to the stream of consciousness.
"Lucky you're weak enough it doesn't matter the cuffs don't fit quite right... Seastone is a wonderful thing, don't ya think?" Luffy growls weakly as the tone registers as antagonizing but he honestly doesn't understand a word that's being spoken. He's scared, he wants Ace, he wants Sabo.
Panic strikes for a moment, Sabo gave himself up to protect him, now he's getting caught! He can't, he can't throw it all away like that-
The crew. Hope seizes up in his heart and he suddenly knows that the other pirates will come pick him up. They will, he's certain.
He rolls his head away from the man, looks back out at the ocean, where the ship will come from, sailing proudly with the jolly roger hoisted high and the bright figurehead (which was better to sit on than even Shanks', he'd checked) that looks like a lion! They'd come get him, faith swells hopefully to fill his chest, but before he knows it something dark is in his way and his eyes are closing and he is asleep.
~4~
"Luffy!" Usopp yells quietly "Come on! Let's go back to the ship! I'll protect you from all the monsters that lurk in these dark woods!"
"He won't hear you if you yell like that." Zoro strolls past where Usopp is crouching behind a bush with a hefty stick in hand. "Be louder. Like Brook."
"~LUFFY-SAN~" Brook's voice rings out on cue, "It's getting quite dark out! Let us go back to the Sunny! Where I can play you a lullaby!"
"You adjusted to his age way too quickly," Usopp grumbles after the skeleton but he straightens and starts yelling louder.
The woods is full of their cries, and Robin's eyes, all looking for the small Straw Hat captain.
He doesn't feel it until she speaks and Usopp jumps as Robin's voice comes from a mouth grown on the side of his neck.
"I've found something, due West, Nami. Toward the shore." A few calls of confirmation ring out around as they all begin to move toward Robin. When Franky emerges onto the dark shore Robin is kneeling, shining a lantern on muddy footprints and a lone sandal, Sanji is grinding his cigarette between his teeth and Usopp is banging his head against a tree.
"We're dead, we're doomed! We're dead and doomed!" Sanji knocks him over as Robin leans close to the footprints and an abandoned scrap of cloth.
"I'll ask Chopper to confirm but I'm fairly certain that this is chloroform." She holds up the cloth between two fingers, holding it away from her face.
"And that's Luffy-bro's sandal." Franky nods at the abandoned footwear and Robin nods grimly. Brook, Zoro and Nami emerge from the dark tree line and take one look at the evidence before reality settles in, Robin confirms.
"Luffy has been captured."
~4~
Mornings are always the worst after a fight, so that's what he pins it on as his stomach begins to roil and the darkness behind his eyelids slides away to show him a thick metal wall. He moans and whines for a few minutes but Ace doesn't kick him or even make any noise, so he assumes he's on his own.
Which sucks.
Something is holding his wrists at a weird angle and when he tries to twist them into a more comfortable shape thick metal digs into his skin and rubs against something which flakes off and leaves air burning his skin. He yowls and struggles to his feet, fighting for the strength to pull himself up into even a sitting position, his head feels fuzzy, his limbs feel heavy.
He manages, props himself up against the wall and stares at the metal bars in front of him, and then down at himself, and then twists a little to look at his hands.
Weird.
He'd been assuming he'd had a fight in the Gray Terminal and had spent the night hiding beneath a slab of metal.
But that doesn't explain a lot of things. Like his lack of wounds, and the handcuffs and the prison bars, oh and he's bigger than usual.
Luffy yawns and hears his jaw crack, he's got an itch in the small of his back, but he can't reach it because his arms aren't stretching right now, which makes it weirder because he has to be able to stretch or else he wouldn't be this tall.
He looks like he's fourteen or something.
The thought makes him giggle, he could beat Ace now, he must be stronger than Ace because now he looked older! Ace is always saying he'd always be the littler brother, but maybe he should look now!
"I wouldn't be laughing if I were you."
Luffy jerks his head around to meet the speaker, who is leaning against the far wall, watching him through the bars. He doesn't realize that he is a she until she steps closer and leans into the light, with the long coat and the short haircut that her blond hair has been styled into he still thinks she looks more like a guy.
"I only mean that I wouldn't feel like laughing, given the circumstances." She explains, pulling a brown colored bottle from her pocket, she fingers the cork, watching him. "You're welcome to, if you like, I suppose. It doesn't hurt anything, per se. But after being restrained and thrown in the most secure cell on this ship, I can't see much of a positive light to laugh at. You must tell me the joke. Thirsty?" She holds the bottle through the bars and Luffy chuckles again, then tilts his head and frowns at it.
"Yeah, but I can't reach it, I've never been handcuffed before, just tied up."
"Interesting, in that case, I'll bring it in." She pulls a thick key out of another pocket and fits it into the lock, the whole thing squeals as the door swings inward, just shy of scraping across Luffy's forehead. She pulls out the cork and hands it down, speaking as Luffy tries to work with his body to move in the right directions. Between the unusual proportions of his body and the buzzing, fuzzy feeling in his head he has to reach a few times to get ahold of it.
"I was laughing cause I was thinking about my brother," He says conversationally, fumbling with the bottle to bring it to his mouth.
"Ah, Fire Fist?" She nods and he stops, looking up at her, confused.
"No, Ace. Who's Fire Fist?"
"Oh, my." She puts a hand to her lip and taps her finger there for a moment, watching him. "You don't know about Fire Fist Ace? Or rather, the pirate, Fire Fist Ace?"
"Ace is a pirate already?" He gasps, straining forward and dropping the bottle, which clatters on the ground but doesn't break. "How can he be a pirate? Without telling me? But he doesn't have a ship? He's always with me!" He gabbles and feels the remnants of emotion from Sabo's departure gathering. If Ace left then he'd really have no one! Unless Sabo came back but Ace said Sabo would be happier with the nobles so...
But Ace wouldn't do that. Ace wasn't gonna be a pirate till he was seventeen, they'd decided that. The lady is lying, she's gotta be.
Luffy narrows his eyes at her and she sniffs, rubbing her fingers together as though there was something on them.
"Fire Fist was a Whitebeard pirate, so, no, he didn't have his own ship. And I highly doubt he's with you all the time; after all he's dead."
Dead. The word rings loudly in Luffy's head, through the echoey haze and putting acute awareness and understanding in his mind as things shift into what he suddenly is sure of as the correct perspective. The woman in front of him is different, red haired and a face accentuated by heavy applications of gaudy makeup, a long oval hoop in one ear and a loopy scowl that he somehow knows is omnipresent. Oh that's right, he knows her!
"I suppose the other brat is dead, hm? Small wonder it took so long!" The woman snorts and elbows a few of her fellow gang members. Rosemeare, the new Bluejam of the Gray Terminal.
Just as hated by Luffy and his brother.
"Ace isn't dead," He snarls, "He's left! He's a pirate now, any day now we'll get his bounty poster and it'll be really high!"
"Oh! Really now!" She sneers and leans closer to the teen that her crew had pulled off the trail from Low town to Gray terminal. She reached to her side and picked up a black cloak, waving it near Luffy's face. "Since when have you two been for caution, eh? Don't you just jump the wall, no need for a disguise!"
The boy pulls a long pout, sighing forlornly and grumbling quietly but exasperatedly.
"Ace made me promise to, he says he worries about me. But that's stupid, cause I'm strong, and I'm fine on my own!" The quirky grin is propped back in place, shining with confidence but Rosemeare scoffs, tossing the cloak aside and gesturing for one of her crewmembers to hand her a beer. She yanks a chair over and sits in it backwards, guzzling a long gulp.
"Are we now? Hm? So you're strong enough not to get caught, hm? Amiright?" Luffy nods firmly and she taps the bottle against the chair, listening to the hollow sound of glass against wood. "So tell me… What're ya doin here, mhm?"
Luffy's mouth opens with a confident reply, closes, and then opens again, this time his jaw has dropped.
"Thas right!" She crows and taps the bottle against his chin, watching his slack jawed shock with amusement and hooting as his expression turns pained.
"Let me go!" He pulls at his restraints, wiggling pathetically in his attempts. Rosemeare laughs and takes another swig, patting her knee in amusement.
"What would the great Fire Fist say if he saw you now?" Her voice suddenly changes and the rope coiled around his torso and wrists is absent, replaced by cold metal that bites painfully at his skin.
"Shut up! Ace believes in me! I'm fine!" He curses at her, leaping forward against the chain that hooks him to the wall, the handcuffs digging into his skin all the tighter. His body pulses for a moment as his head spins and a wave of weakness pulls him to his knees, where he still juts forward to try and land a bite on the woman's ankle.
She steps away hastily as he begins to spit curses at her.
"Ace is an awesome big brother, he left to be a pirate and he'll be a great pirate! I can make it just FINE on my own! I'm not lonely! I've got Dadan and Makino and I can do whatever I want and I like it." He tells her vehemently, snorting angrily at the end of his rant as he stares up at her, until after a moment passes confusion finds it's way onto his features. "Who are you?" She laughs arily, bending down to look at him curiously.
"I'm a marine, a strategist if you will, and you Straw Hat Luffy, seem to have worked yourself into a most complex puzzle, good luck getting out of it." She laughs again and sweeps the bottle off the floor, walking towards the door and handing it to a young marine guard who opens it for her. "Drug him again, I'm not taking chances. Lock the door tight."
The man shakes when Luffy narrows his eyes at him but he takes the bottle anyway, nodding and snapping a wavering salute at his superior as she wanders off down the hall. He closes the door and turns to face Luffy, pulling a folded piece of cloth out of his pocket and holding it to the mouth of the bottle as he shakes it a few times. He turns to Luffy and takes a step forward, Luffy strains against the handcuffs again and the metal cuts a new slice into his skin.
~4~
"It's gotta be marines," Nami paces across the deck, Sanji's arranging the sails and Franky is prepping for a Coup de Burst, as soon as Robin finds the ship they're blasting off to intercept. "I saw one earlier, just before the whole market went chaotic, and they have the best motive."
"If they know," Zoro hops down from the observation deck, landing heavily on the grassy deck.
"If they know,"Nami concedes and Zoro nods, straightening.
"I can sense a few marine ships, but that's it, fuzzy presences, we're not close enough that I can pick out Luffy's voice on any of them."
"Great job, moss head, now we just have to storm all of them!" Sanji yells and Zoro tightens his grip on Kietsu, which hasn't left his grip since they started looking for their missing captain.
"Maybe you should try then, curly-cook!" He snaps and the two are head to head as Sanji jumps down to meet him, Nami sighs and continues her pacing.
"He's more likely to be on the ship on the southern side of the island," Robin theorizes, uncrossing her arms as she disperses the phantom body parts she'd sprung up who knows where to gather her information. "The other two ships seem to be moving toward it, though it could just be a rallying point."
"It's our best bet, I say we sail to meet it and if he's not there then we can search the other ships as they meet at the rendezvous, hopefully he'll be on the first one but if not the other two will be coming to us."
"So, no Coup de Burst right now?" Franky clarifies with a yell from below deck, pausing in his loading of a cola barrel into the engine.
"No!" Nami yells back, "We'll save it till we get Luffy back!"
"You got it!" There is a heavy clang and a thud as Franky begins to dismantle the preparations for the Coup de Burst and Nami turns to direct Sanji as he straightens the sails.
~4~
"Sir! A ship flying the colors of the straw hat pirates is approaching off the starboard side!" The cadet snaps a firm salute to his superior and the man nods in recognition, turning to regard the colorful brig sloop as it ambles around the corner of the island, apparently catching a tailwind as it speeds up.
"Duly noted, thank you," He says and taps a number into the den den on his desk, placing a call. A few rings later and the snail composes itself into a mischievous, collected appearance.
"What can I do for you, Sir?" The person on the other end answers smoothly, there's the sound of a heavy door being closed.
"I asked for confirmation of our prisoner, I need it now."
"Identity confirmed," The other end replies "Straw Hat Luffy is in our custody, though he's undergone some strange physical changes. I'm not entirely sure what's caused them. I assure you, he's in no condition to rebel against us."
"Hm, thank you." He hangs up and regards the ship again, bemused. "What a strange group of pirates, chasing after their captain when they must know he's unable to fight with them. I wonder what they hope to accomplish, saving an incapable captain."
~4~
"He's there, I can hear him!" Sanji whoops, one arm wrapped around a knot of rigging, the other shading the sun from his eyes as he peers out toward the marine vessel.
"Really Sanji?" Chopper calls up, hopeful and he cheers when the blond man grins and shoots him a thumbs up.
"Good, we'll have him back in no time!" Nami states, checking the heading once more before turning to the crew.
"I can hear him too," Zoro nods, "He's somewhere below deck."
"Getting below deck will be tricky, they're all gathering on the upper decks." Robin observes, "It seems they're willing to put up a fight."
"Well so are we!" Usopp pumps his fist, determined, and Chopper shouts his agreement, shifting into heavy point and punching the air.
The ship slices through the waves and with Nami navigating they pull in next to the marine ship, a gap of almost ten feet filled with frothing water is jumped first by Zoro and Sanji, then Franky and Robin, and then Chopper and Usopp. Nami stays for another minute more to make sure the ship is stable and Brook is watching everything accordingly before reasserting her grip on her climatact and leaping over the water, conking out a marine with her entry swing.
~4~
He listens, he can't hear a whole lot, but what he can hear is disheartening, gunshots, yelling, people calling attacks. Luffy isn't sure who's fighting but it's interesting to listen to. He thinks they're winning, the ones yelling louder. He winces as there's an explosion, frantic screams, fearful not aggressive. A couple shouts of triumph. A thunder of footsteps stampede above him, echoing through the metal ceiling, he rubs his head against the metal wall, it hurts, but his hands can't reach it to rub way the pain.
Gunshots ricochet again, loud through the wood and when Luffy closes his eyes, feeling dizzy, there's something on the inside of his eyelids.
The guns are cocked, aimed, Luffy can so easily hear the shots being fired, hear the bullets piercing first air and then flesh. It's ridiculous, he knows it's ridiculous, to be this pessimistic, worried, suddenly wrought with anger and fear and sadness.
He had thought he worried about Ace, being off on his own without anyone there that he really knew. But apparently not as much as he would be worrying for his crew.
The firing squad is facing down Zoro and Coby, they're trapped, nothing between them and the bullets that are going to fly in just a few seconds.
So he decides to put something between them; himself.
He stretches his arms back, the swords he'd found hastily tied to his back but they don't matter much if there's no swordsman to give them to. He lets loose, catapulting into the air like he's done so many times, he always feels like the fastest thing within miles when he rockets, but now it feels all too slow…
The abrupt stop has his head spinning; he tries to lurch to his feet, but something is holding him back. Something wrapped tightly around his wrists, he can't feel his arms actually, his legs are jelly, wha…?
He yells, throws himself forward again, he can only see a spinning darkness, feels cold metal beneath his feet, hard metal rings around his wrists. Are they, could they be, hand cuffs? He's never been cuffed before, it's a lot worse than he'd thought it'd be, it makes him feel weak, and these cuffs are really small, they bite into his wrists and he's pretty sure they're bleeding. The bone grinds against the metal through the skin.
He yells and throws himself forward again, light floods, a door is open, footsteps, yelling in response to his. He stops, he knows the voice.
"Luffy? Luffy stop that!" A quickly passing pause "Are you alright? You look a lot better…"
"Zoro? Zoro!" Relief floods into his system and suddenly the cuffs don't seem quite as tight. "Where's Coby? The marines, the jerk captain that was gonna get you killed! There were bullets and I'm bulletproof so I just, I just- what happened? Zoro, Zoro?" The light has stopped being blinding, Luffy's glad, he can see his first nakama, but something is weird, something is really super weird. Zoro doesn't look like… Zoro.
"Oh… I get it." The guy who sounds like Zoro rubs the back of his head with one of his hands, it has a sword in it, it's not one of the ones that Luffy has tied to his back, wait the swords.
"Ah! Your swords!" He spins around but his wrists jerk again and he growls, his knees are suddenly jelly again, he can't hold himself upright and he dips.
"Hey, stop that Luffy!" The man who sounds like Zoro shouts and Luffy swings his head around to glare.
"Shut up! You're not Zoro, Zoro is tied up in a marine yard and he's my first nakama and I have to go protect him!" He breathes for a moment as they stare at one another and then Luffy scuffles a little, turning around and holding his hands out to the guy who looks like Zoro. "Could you get me out?"
"Jeez!" The man who looks like Zoro rubs his face with his hand and then breathes out a sigh. "Okay, okay…" The man who looks like Zoro looks behind him for a second and then brandishes his sword, Luffy notices that there are two more sheathes at his hip. "I'm gonna get you out of here and then I have some explaining to do…"
~4~
"So we made it to the Grand Line! Cool!" Luffy spins around the next corner before Zoro does and on instinct buries a fist in the gut of the marine who was coming the other direction, "Oops, sorry!" The man only grunts and staggers back a half step.
"That's not exactly what I wanted you to take from that, but yeah, that's true." Zoro grits his teeth and steps in front of Luffy, bringing his sword across the marine's chest before the man could sound the alarm.
"Hey, Zoro, I had that guy!" He adjusts his hat and pouts sourly at the man on the ground, a thin sheen of blood seeping into his white uniform.
"Luffy, this is what I meant," Zoro exclaims, pushing the marine to the side with his foot and glancing around to try and gather his bearings. "You have no idea what kind of level we're at, just stick close and I'll get Robin to explain it to you, she has some theories."
"Robin… You said she's on my crew?" Luffy follows half a step behind as Zoro goes charging down one of the out branching hallways.
"Yeah, you have eight other people on your crew other than yourself." He twists a new direction and barrels down that one.
"This is so great…" He murmurs to himself then seems to realize something. "What about Coby?"
"He's a marine, your Grandfather trained him."
"What!? Ji-chan? Poor Coby…"
The two run around a corner and Zoro skids to a stop, a large metal door in front of them.
"Hey," Luffy steps forward, goes to open the door. "Isn't this where we started?" He pulls the door open and peeks inside, indeed his cell is still there, the bars sliced clean through and a mangled set of keys on the floor next to his handcuffs. Zoro pulls him back and starts running the other way.
"Darn, we need to get back to the deck…"
"We're below deck, right?"
"Yeah." Zoro knows that when Luffy asks a question in that tone of voice it's probably a good idea to not answer, but he does it anyway, a mix of dread and eagerness pooling in his stomach.
"I'll get us there!" Luffy wrenches his hand free and throws his arm behind him. "Gum Gum…" He swings upward, his fist plunging into the ceiling with a crunch and a resounding crack as it travels further upward. "Pistol!"
~4~
"Wah!" Usopp misses a step as the deck shakes for a moment, and his shot of platanus shuriken hurtles into the sea of marines just a little to the left of where he'd intended. A similarly stray bullet whizzes past his head and he ducks to the deck to avoid other projectiles that had been fired since he had had a chance to look out for them (or those that he'd been knocked into the path of). Below him is the offending object which had tripped him.
A hand?
He sneaks a quick glance at the people fighting nearby him, all occupied with either arms or a rapid pair of dress shoe clad feet. He hesitates for a moment then drops down to look closer at the hand; the gunpowder in the air is starting to make him a little woozy anyway, this sort of thing warrants investigation. The problem is not so much that there is a hand in the deck, but that he recognizes the hand. The skin that would have been pale but is heavily tanned from years in the sun, a portrait of scars on the knuckles, calluses lining them from every angle,but he knew that they aren't scratchy like some calluses, rather they are worn smooth. Usopp runs his fingers over the knuckles just to see if it's real, the appendage twitches and twists at an unnatural angle to grip his wrist.
He grins and grips back, Luffy's hand, unmistakeably.
The deck beside him bursts into a shower of wood and blades, one of which ends up against his throat. He dares to gulp and grips the hand harder.
"Oh. Usopp." Zoro's voice sounds like music to his ears and he indulges himself in a moment of relief before snarling and pushing away the sword.
"What the heck, Zoro!"
"Yeah yeah yeah," He rolls his eyes, sheathed one sword "You could have died. Just be happy it wasn't Kietsu. Move over would ya?"
"Uh, sure," Usopp shuffles to the side, not even noticing as the wrist stretches a little to keep it's hold on him.
"That idiot," Zoro grumbles and works his own hand around Luffy's. "Let go Usopp." He does and Zoro pries Luffy's fingers forcefully off his wrist, then, without any warning heaving upwards so that the deck shatters again.
"Whoo! Zoro!" Luffy springs from the wreckage and wraps a carefree arm around Zoro's waist to keep himself from falling back down into the hole, which, Usopp realizes, peering down through it, goes down at least five levels (why do marine ships have so much space on them?).
Just as Usopp had predicted when he'd seen the hand, Luffy is now grown up, his normal size, clearly familiar with Zoro and cheerful as ever, no memory lane trips here, thank goodness. His relief must be a little more extreme than he'd thought because Usopp surges forward no more than an instant later and wraps his arms around Luffy, yelling a greeting.
"Oh this is great! Now you can beat up all the marines and we can get out of here before the volcano explodes or something." They hug tightly for a moment and Usopp relishes it, but he notices quickly that something is wrong with Luffy's usual reciprocation of a hug and lets go after a few seconds, nervously scratching his head and surveying the closest marines. Luffy looks gleeful but puzzled. "I guess you don't know who I am?"
"Nope!" Luffy chirps "But you seem real nice, you on my crew?"
"Uh, yeah," Usopp catches Zoro's questioning glance "I figured you didn't know me when you didn't wrap your arms around us a bunch of times, you're way too fond of doing that," he explains crossly.
"Shishishi, sorry, I guess."
"No problem, when you from?"
"He just met me for the first time about an hour ago," Zoro cut in. "Let's settle this later, can you get him back on the Sunny, no way can he handle this horde."
"Hey!" Luffy objects but Usopp bulldozes his exclamation with his own sentence.
"Sure, sure, leave the Luffy corralling to me, thanks a lot Zoro!" Usopp complains. Taking Luffy across this deck is asking to get them both killed. Between Luffy's bounty head and his lack of knowledge about how to keep said head attached to his neck the only person truly suited to the job is Zoro, but he'd probably get lost anyhow...
"You want me to leave you here? Without someone to escort you?" Zoro cuts him a sharp edged glare and his singular eye glints in the red light reflected off his wet sword. Usopp gulps and pastes on a smile.
"Right this way Luffy-sama!"
Luffy laughed and told him not to call him that even as he hooks onto his arm and pulls them both into the turmoil, leaving Zoro behind to forge a path back to the Sunny, which is sailing along the port side of the marine vessel.
"Zoro!" Nami darts in next to him and he pulls his sword across the two marines just steps behind her. "Thanks, where were you?"
"Looking for Luffy." He answers, defending her careless behind until she rams her fist into his head.
"Like heck, you just got lost!" She yells and he whips back around to face her.
"No! I found him too!"
"No, really?" She gasps, swinging her clima tact around to clock a line of marines on their heads. "He's okay right?"
"Yeah, older too."
"How old?"
"Seventeen."
"No way!" She shrieks, whipping around as though she is expecting him to be there, Zoro cuts into a few marines trying to take it as an opening. "So he knows us?"
"He knows me. Has for about an hour."
"Aw, so close," She growls, turning back around. "When he starts recognizing us things are going to get a lot easier."
"Yeah." He grunts again, striking out at a marine who's striking at Nami's back, jerk. He's not entirely sure it's true though, about it getting easier once he recognizes them. They'll understand things better, but by the way had Luffy looked at him when he cut open the cell door, panicked and harried and determined, that isn't necessarily a good thing. No need to say as much, they'll figure it out. They will.
~4~