Heyy guys!

After a long time of thinking about it, I finally decided to write a fanfiction myself. So it's my first fanfic here on this site, therefore please don't be too harsh on me. Also, I'm not a native English speaker, so there might be some mistakes. I would appreciate if you could point out my mistakes, so that I can improve.

I hope you like the story and I would be very happy to get feedback of any kind.

️Warnings: Mentions of Blood and description of Vomiting. If you are sensitive to this content I would advise you to stop reading at this point.

And for those, who have no problem with it, have fun!

A gentle wind blew across the quiet deck of the Thousand Sunny, shaking the leaves of the mikan trees. The small swing on the grass deck also began to sway slightly, causing a small crunching sound to echo through the ship. It was already night and the members of the Straw Hat Pirates lay already fast asleep in their bunks.

Well, everyone except for one particular person.

In the middle of the silence, a noise that sounded like an agonizing cough suddenly rang out, followed by a gasp. The raven haired captain of the crew staggered on trembling legs and still half asleep on the deck toward the railing, trying to support himself with shaky hands. Another wet sounding cough and a gasp escaped the lips of the 19-year old young boy, before he bent over the railing with a jerky movement. Suddenly a gush of a deep red liquid fell overboard and mixed with the deep dark blue sea underneath.

A few drops brushed past the side of the ship as they fell, sullying it. Coughing slightly and struggling to breathe, he tried to get his breathing under control, failing miserably as another fit overtook him. More of the red substance fell over the railing and caused him to cough even more as some of it clogged his airways. Just when the young captain thought, that the seizure was subsiding, a violent tremor shook his body. Barely holding himself up, he remained in this position for several seconds, minutes, until his legs, already feeling like jelly-o, gave way and he slumped with an almost inaudible small cry to the ground.

With great effort, the black haired tried to sit upright and lean against the railing. After a while which felt endless, because his limbs just didn't want to obey him anymore, he managed it.

Completely helpless he sat there slumped like a wet sack. With his pathetic look which he just gave off, no one would believe, that he was Luffy, the great captain of the Straw Hat Pirates, from whom everyone always thinks he is invincible. On his long voyage Luffy has already encountered the most dangerous situations which no normal person would have survived and came out alive, even if most of the time just barely. But now he was plagued by a disease, that even he did not know how to defeat.

Still gasping and slightly out of breath, Luffy turned his head towards the sky. Despite feeling pretty dizzy, he still could make out the many stars in the starry sky that night and their lights were reflected in his tired and almost half closed, dull eyes, which did not shine as usual. How good this sight usually made him feel, but all he could feel at that moment, however, was a pain that felt almost excruciating as it spread throughout his entire body.

What was wrong with him? Why did he feel so awful? He had eaten enough meat, right? So, why couldn't his body recover?

For some unexplainable reason, he felt this way ever since they had encountered some enemies on an island they had visited a few days prior. At first it was fatigue, which was normal after some fighting. During the fight, he also had to take a few punches and scratches, however, this was nothing that Luffy could not usually overcome.

~Flashback~

"Luffy, I'll leave the rest to you. We'll go to the Sunny and get her ready to go. So you better hurry up!" Zoro shouted in a hurry, turning to his captain once more and putting his swords back in place. A quick nod from Luffy, as a sign that he had understood, was enough as the green haired swordsman disappeared the next moment along with Sanji and Nami.

"Let's speed up a little guys, the marines are about to reach our ship!" Nami yelled in panic and she grabbed the bags full of supplies harder, in order not to drop them as she started to run faster. From afar the next danger, after the bandits, could be already seen lurking, gradually approaching the island they were on. A large ship and a seagull as a sign on the sail. It was indeed the marines.

The damn navy always had to show up when it was most inconvenient.

"Leave it to me guys, I can handle them easily!" Luffy said more to himself, since his friends were almost out of sight. After the young captain made sure all his crew members were safely on their way to the Sunny, he turned his attention directly to the pile of enemies in front of him. He smirked at them as they came at him with roars and weapons drawn, determined to collect the large bounty, that had been placed on his head. They were only simple bandits, very notorious on this island and known for always causing trouble. Most of them were small fry, that Luffy could easily handle. Only their boss posed a bigger problem. He was a devil fruit user. It seemed like some type of a zoan bull power.

Nevertheless that shouldn't be a problem at all for the young pirate. Luffy suffered only a few minimal scratches here and there while fighting the more tougher ones and also one or two blows to his stomach. Nothing too serious. He could easily get up from that again. Now he needed to quickly wrap up this unnecessarily fight as soon as possible. There was absolutely no time for him to play around carelessly, his friends were waiting for him.

Luffy took the next step and went into his Gear Second in an instant and could take out the rest of the bandits with ease. The boss got even more angry, seeing his mates getting hurt and defeated in what felt like a second.

"You will regret this, Mugiwara! No one must even dare to touch my men!" The bandit boss angrily bawled, with a few veins of rage clearly visible on his face.

After that, without even thinking twice, Luffy took a special fighting stance and to end it quickly and easily, he bit into his thumb.

"Gear forth, Boundman!"

Before the boss, who had meanwhile changed into his bull form, could attack, Luffy took a proper swing with his Kong Gun and a victorious grin spread across his face."I don't think so!" The black haired spat back, now ready to fully launch his attack.

"Gomu Gomu no Kong Gun!"

Luffy's gigantic haki fist collided with a straight punch to his opponent's face, knocking him off his feet and sending him flying into the deep forest behind him. Luffy huffed as he watched him fly far away, a satisfied smile formed on his lips. Slowly he shifted from Boundman to his normal form.

Completely exhausted from this short fight, which was obviously unusual for him, the young man fell powerlessly to his knees, supporting himself with both arms on the ground. Suddenly his arms and legs felt like liquid rubber. Completely taken by surprise, he fell face forward to the ground as the strength in his arms left him.

"Ouch…" He muttered and painfully contorted his face.

What was going on with his body? Why did this happen again? He should not have felt as weak as he did at that moment for a long time, after the use of his gears. He felt so pathetically weak, that he even couldn't move a single finger. Hell, even keeping his eyes open was a difficult task for him. It was exactly like when he had fought Doflamingo in Dressrosa. People had to risk their lives just to protect him until he could continue fighting after 10 minutes.

Fear spread through his stomach as he realized what was happening. But no, this can't be real, right? He had been perfecting his gears for a long time. His body should still be in top shape. So why couldn't he move a single inch?

Luffy lay motionless on the floor, his breathing laboured. Great, now his vision gave up on him as well and blurred from time to time. And additionally to that, all he could hear and feel was the irregular beating in his chest. It almost felt like his heart was contracting painfully in his ribcage, which at the same time tied up his breath. Struggling hard to draw some needed oxygen into his lungs, he desperately tried to calm himself down in the hope, that this would help him somehow. He just needed to wait 10 minutes, but his thoughts were with his friends, who probably already had to worry terribly about him.

Slowly but surely, Luffy moved his head to the side to take a glimpse at their ship. He could see it, even if somewhat distorted. It was so close and yet so far away. The raven haired stretched his hand in the direction with great effort as if he wanted to catapult himself across with a Gomu Gomu no Rocket. If only he had the strength to do so…

He angrily clenched his fist and rammed it on the floor. "Haah…Shit…!" He cursed under his breath. He was still not strong enough.

After a while, his strength slowly began to return to his limbs and he gradually tried to pull himself in the direction of the Sunny. When the 19-year old was finally able to support himself on his arms, he carefully lifted himself up onto his wobbling and aching legs.

"Finally…hahh…hahh…I gotta go...hahh" He heaved.

Panting uncontrollably from the effort it took him to stand on his feet again, Luffy hurried as fast as his current condition allowed him to reach the Thousand Sunny, his friends.

~Meanwhile on the Sunny~

"Where the hell is he? He should've been here long ago!" Shouted Nami seemingly upset, but the worry in her voice was clearly audible. Her gaze was fixed on the direction from which her scatterbrained captain was supposed to come at any moment. Seconds and minutes passed but no one appeared and slowly, an uneasy feeling started to spread through her.

"I'm sure that he's already on his way. He will surely be here soon. We have to hold on a little longer." Zoro reassured the navigator, while fending off the cannonballs, that the navy had begun firing at their ship. The other boys helped him with this task.

"I hope so…" Nami responded, biting her lip. "Don't wor-" Usopp began but was suddenly cut of by the orange haired girl's loud shouting.

"Finally, there he is! He's coming!" Nami gasped in relief and a bright smile appeared on her face.

"Luuuffyyy!" Everyone shouted.

"Sorry, I'm late again guys, shishishi!" Luffy apologized and grinned broadly as always, as if nothing had happened.

"Gomu gomu no Rocket!"

The next moment, the rubber boy landed on the deck of the Thousand Sunny, still out of breath and with beads of sweat on his forehead, which he immediately wiped away with his sleeve, without anyone noticing.

"What took you so long? We were really worried about you!" Nami scolded him and promptly hit him on his rubber head.

"I said I was sorry!" Luffy pouted, rubbing the new forming bump on his head. Before anyone else could complain, a loud crash interrupted the mood and rocked the ship violently. The already exhausted Luffy did not take the shaking very well, because simultaneously he was overcome by a strong wave of lightheadedness. He had no time to hold on to something near him as he lost his balance and landed rather hard with his butt on the grass deck.

"Uff…" He hissed in pain and closed his eyes for a few seconds, in hopes that the dizzy spell would subside as quickly as it came.

"Come on guys, set the sails! We need to get out of here fast!" Nami commanded, taking a nervous look at the Log Pose on her wrist.

"Aye, aye!"

As they moved quickly away from the island and thus also the navy, Robin's attention fell on the young captain, who still had not moved a single muscle on the ground and with his eyelids still pressed together. This behavior was not known from him at all, so she decided to ask him with some concern in her voice.

"Are you alright, Luffy?"

This question attracted the attention of the other crew members, who now also turned to Luffy's anguished looking form. Their faces fell at once at the concerning sight of their captain. The rubber boy immediately opened his eyes and forced himself with stiff movements to get back on his feet. The last thing he wanted was to worry his crew.

"What...uh sure…I'm fine!" He replied, totally nervous all of a sudden and more sweat drops broke out on his forehead, this time because he was lying or at least trying to.

The raven haired promptly put on a forced smile, which did not reach his eyes as usual. Just when he realized, that the others didn't buy his lie, his loudly growling stomach saved the situation for him and at the same time lightened the mood among the Straw Hats. Some of them couldn't help it and even started to laugh at their silly captain.

"Sanjiii, I'm sooo hungry! Meeaaat" Cried Luffy, while rubbing his growling, empty stomach, ignoring the fact that it was aching mere minutes ago. At this point, he absolutely didn't understand his body anymore.

"Alright, alright, just shut up. I'll prepare something for all of us." Sighed the blond cook and disappeared into the galley.

"Luffy, you're such an idiot!" Said Nami with crossed arms in front of her chest and shook her head in disbelief. But not even she could resist to smile a little, still relieved that he was alright and seemed like his usual self again. Luffy just gave her another silent grin and went to his favorite place to wait for dinner.

No matter what was bothering him at the moment, with a little nap and something to eat, the strange feeling inside him would go away. At least that's what he thought...

~End of Flashback~

Ohh, how wrong he was…

The second sign that something was seriously wrong with him, was the start of his coughing. It started only yesterday, just two days after the events on the island. But what at first started little became stronger and more forceful as time passed. Luckily, no one noticed any of his ailings, as he tried to hide it, surprisingly with success. He didn't think of anything this time either. Maybe something got stuck in his windpipe? It certainly had to be it, right? Because there is no way that he could've become a little sick. He has never been sick in his entire life, not even once, so why should he get ill now?

And still no matter what, the raven haired captain refused to go to Chopper and decided to hide any signs from his crew. Whatever this "strange feeling" was, it would go away by itself. There was no need to worry his crew unnecessarily.

Again, so wrong…

Only now he began to realize it.

That something was seriously wrong with him.

Luffy gasped softly as he felt a sudden shortly stabbing pain in his arms and stomach area. For a brief moment, he felt unbelievably nauseous together with some familiar burning rising in the back of his throat. Slightly panicked, he tried to swallow, whatever it was, that was trying to come back up, down. He tried to calm himself and took a few shallow breaths. Unfortunately, the whole process triggered another coughing fit.

The sounds he made were still too loud, which is why he decided to muffle the noise weakly with his right hand this time. He pressed his hand as hard as he could against his mouth, in the hope that nobody will be woken up by his painful wheezing sounds. This was the worst thing, that could happen right now. He couldn't even imagine the scenario of him getting exposed by any of his crewmates, while being in this sickly condition.

The raven haired used his other hand to hold onto his terribly aching stomach, desperately trying to soothe it.

It hurts, it hurts so much…

That was the only thing, that went through his mind at that moment. He squeezed his eyes shut and silently prayed that this pain would finally stop. Small tears escaped the corner of his closed eyes, probably from the unbearable pain he was experiencing.

Finally the coughing came to a stop and he took his shaking hand away from his mouth, just to see that his hand was completely covered in his blood. Some of it even started to drop onto his pair of blue shorts. Without a second thought, he quickly rubbed it off on his same colored red longsleeved shirt he was wearing. He also wiped away any remaining blood on his lips with his sleeve.

This can't be good.

No matter what this was, even someone clueless like Luffy would know, that spitting up that much blood can't be a good sign.

The raven haired took a few gasping breaths and leaned his head back against the railing, closing his tired eyes. But even before he got a moment to catch his breath, bile began to rise in the back of his throat again. Instantly, his eyes shot open and this time he didn't have a chance nor the power to swallow it back down.

With a sudden newfound strength, he made it up onto his feet again, while getting a hold of the railing. The sickly captain made it just in time, before the contents of his stomach burst out of his mouth and into the sea. He tried to catch his almost nonexistent breath during his violent heaving and again, what a surprise, failed heavily. Just as he started to dry-heave and felt nothing more in his stomach to throw up, a different feeling overtook him.

The dizziness returned as strong as ever and at the same time his vision started to blur. The 19-year old tried frantically to grasp the railing, but his legs buckled underneath him and with that he collapsed to the grassy ground.

The last thing he saw, as his eyelids slowly slipped close, was the peaceful starry night sky above him.

TBC

Soo that's it for the first chapter! How'd you like it? Any tips or suggestions?