Fic post: Absence, chapter 7, part two
Jun. 25th, 2010 01:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rainsometimesTitle: Absence, chapter 7. Part two
Disclaimer, warning and more info: See Chapter 7, part one. (Beware of spoiler for Marineford arc behind the cut in that entry).
He was somewhere that wasn’t hot, and it wasn’t cold. It wasn’t dark, but also not like real daylight. Everything was just a thick, even gray all around, and there was nothing else to see at all.
It didn’t even feel like a ‘somewhere’ – it felt like something that was in-between being a real place and not existing at all. Until now, he hadn’t known there could be anything like that. But then again, the world would always showed him new things he’d had no idea about before, so he wasn’t that surprised, even so.
It wasn’t all quiet. There was a kind of low buzz or hum in the air that didn’t come from any one direction; it was the same all over. The air was thick and still like on a stuffy, hot summer day, although it wasn’t hot.
He didn’t mind being here, lying on ground that wasn’t ground, listening to a sound that wasn’t a sound. It felt restful. Like being off to the side of everything that was real, not being noticed for a while.
New sounds intruded, though. Spoken words floated by, nibbling at him, and when he tried to shoo them away and ignore them, they dodged and returned. They were annoying him and weren’t restful at all.
The mumbled words seemed to say something about getting stronger and not needing help all the time – needed not to be helped, sometimes. He knew it must be a memory but didn’t know who had said it; couldn’t make it fit the voices he knew. It wasn’t Ace. It wasn’t Zoro or Nami or Sanji, either – wasn’t anyone in the crew. And it wasn’t Coby or Bon-chan or anyone else he could think of.
That meant it had to be him then. Didn’t it? Yeah, he decided, sitting up and pulling his knees up. Must be. He was the only one left – and it did sound like something he might have said some time, maybe to Ace when they were younger. Though he wasn’t altogether sure – there had been something off about the way the voice had sounded… but maybe that was just the way memories sounded in this place-that-wasn’t-a-place? Like the way your voice got recorded on a tone dial didn’t sound quite like yourself...
He blinked. For some reason his chest was hurting again. Why? At the thought of a tone dial? That seemed silly. Brook had one in his head and that was a kind of sad story, but it would all get much better when Laboon finally heard it: it was a good thing Brook had that dial. But there seemed to be something about tone dials he didn’t want to think about, something that hurt. He squeezed his eyes shut and buried his face in his knees, listening only to the faint ever-present humming.
*
And then the in-between gray half-place was gone. There was warm sunlight and a clear blue sky; cobbles of stone underneath him and wooden buildings around him. Luffy blinked, putting a hand up to shield himself from the sudden flood of light. He was standing up by now, and he’d already forgotten he was crouching a moment ago. Now he was back in the real world, where it smelled of early summer and adventure. All thoughts of rest were swept away.
He looked around. So! He was back in Fuusha village again, and just like last time, there were more houses around than he was used to. Right in front of him was that other inn, the one that wasn’t Makino’s. Luffy raised his head and saw the big white house he’d noticed before on the hill overlooking the village. Maybe it didn’t use to be there, or maybe he just had a bad memory. But like the other houses, it still felt entirely in its place, being there. So that was all right, all of it.
He closed his eyes with a smile and breathed in the air deeply. The wind was blowing from the sea, bringing in dreams and scents and wild wishes from elsewhere. The whole world was out there, waiting for him.
It was the same sunny morning as it had been the last time he was here. (He didn’t wonder how this could be possible in the first place, or how he could know it with such certainty. It was just a fact.) And wasn’t there a ship coming in to harbour soon? He had some vague notion of getting afraid it wouldn’t be the right kind of ship, but that seemed distant and silly to him right now. Of course it would be okay! He’d make it so it was the right ship! Besides, how could things go wrong on a great day like this?
Grinning from ear to ear, he ambled down towards the small harbour once more, rounded a corner and was soon standing on the stone jetty. There the ship was, still a fair bit away but steadily coming closer.
He reached up to make sure his hat was on his head – yup, sure was! – and adjusted it, then tugged on the strap of his bag. Everything was in its place.
His eyes widened as the sails billowed in the wind, showing a Jolly Roger which had a skull on two crossed swords, marked with three scars. The mark of the Red Hair Pirates.
Luffy shuffled his feet where he stood, scratching the back of his head thoughtfully. Last time he was here, he’d thought Shanks showing up here wouldn’t be right, but that was then. He’d changed his mind about that, now.
He couldn’t start sailing with Shanks, of course: he had his own crew (somewhere out there, only lost right now; their shapes and faces flashed through his mind, then retreated into a safe distance). He couldn’t give Shanks his hat back yet, either. But just saying hi should be okay,shouldn’t it? Or else he’d have to run and hide again, and then he might never stop running.
He found himself looking down. Scuffling his feet, he stared at the stone blocks of the jetty, trying to figure out what felt right.
“Hi there, Anchor!”
Luffy’s head shot up. “Shanks!! Ben!” he cried out joyfully, everything bright and shining again as he saw those two, Captain and First Mate, leaning with their elbows on the railing… right above him? Wow, that ship was fast! “You’re here already! I didn’t even hear you!” Luffy commented, beaming brightly.
“’Lo, Luffy,” said Ben Beckman. Behind them, he thought he could see other familiar shapes – that big round guy just had to be Lucky Luh, for instance – but the others seemed to hang back for now, their faces hard to make out. It was only the captain and first mate who were in clear sight where Luffy was standing.
Luffy felt full of bubbling joy, too much for him to speak. Yet at the back of his head, there was a mumbling feeling that maybe this wasn’t quite right after all. But he squished that down and tossed it away.
“You look like you’re doing pretty good,” said Shanks with a wide, easy grin. “Ah, don’t worry about the hat business right now,” he added, waving lazily. “That can wait till later, some more proper time. It’s not like we planned to end up here. We were hit by… what were all of those again, Ben?”
“A tornado, a cyclone, a hurricane, a twister, a giant turtle, a surprise Marine sneak attack, a volcano, four of the Shichibukai…” Ben listed matter-of-factly.
“Yep, that’s pretty much it.” Shanks turned back to Luffy. “So you see, we were blown all the way over here. Anyway! I understand you got separated from your crew. So, why don’t you come aboard and we’ll bring you over to them? They might get lost on the way here otherwise, you know.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll keep this old fool in check,” added Ben. “He won’t tease you as much as he used to. You’re both brother captains now, after all. We all know that.” There might even have been a glimmer of pride in his eyes, as he looked down at Luffy. Shanks only smiled.
“You guys are so great!” Luffy burst out, bouncing with appreciation. He did need to get away from here, out onto the sea. And he needed to find his crew, too. But at the same time… He frowned again. His gaze fell again. “I’m not sure if…” he mumbled.
Ben and Shanks said nothing, just waiting for him to go on.
“...Not sure if I should,” said Luffy, looking off towards the horizon.
“Really?” said Shanks, his eyebrows shooting up. “Why on earth not?”
“Because there is someone in this village that I don’t wanna leave,” Luffy heard himself say.
He blinked. Where had that come from? The words felt... true, they tasted like truth, but he didn’t understand them. Someone in this village...? But wouldn’t everyone be okay and wish him well and wave him off when he went? Even if the Mayor would still mutter about pirates.
He opened his mouth to say that he didn’t know why he’d just said that, that he was taking it back, that he really wasn’t giving up on adventure and Shanks shouldn’t look at him with surprise and disappointment like that – but he didn’t get a chance to say any of those things.
“Oh, but there isn’t anyone here in this village,” said a voice from the ship; a sly, smooth and assured voice. It put Luffy to mind of a snake wrapped in velvet. “Not any more, that is,” it continued.
Moving into view now, there was a man Luffy didn’t know was standing right next to Shanks and Ben. He was thin and fairly tall, with pale skin, shiny black hair and glasses. He smiled down at Luffy politely.
Luffy froze.
He had no idea who this person was or how he’d met him. For half a moment, the word ‘butler’ turned up in his head, but it didn’t connect to anything and vanished again leaving no tracks behind. But there was something cold and hard and angry and shivery inside him now. And there were two things he was sure about, although he couldn’t say why: 1) he did not like this guy at all; and 2) this was someone who couldn’t be trusted.
Luffy wanted to shout, to ask Shanks why the hell he would let someone like that on his ship, someone who’d only betray them… but he found himself unable to speak, as if his lips had been glued together. He could only stand there in silence, trembling, sweating, glaring. Of course if he had been able to say all that he still couldn’t have explained how he knew it. He only knew this person was WRONG WRONG WRONG and shouldn’t be anywhere near Shank’s ship or the village.
Shanks and Ben had moved off into the shadows now, maybe even gone inside – Luffy wasn’t sure. The man with the shiny glasses laughed softly and said smugly, “Now, don’t think I killed them or anything like that. No, no.” He pushed up his glasses with the base of his palm; he wore black gloves on both hands. “It’s just that they already left,” he went on in an easy tone. “Your family, the innkeeper, the Mayor, and everyone else… they’ve had enough of this place. They’ve grown tired of this island.
“They’ve also grown quite weary of you. You’re just too tiresome to handle, it seems. So they all stole away in the night while you slept. They will never come back again.” His voice took on a teasing, sing-song rhythm, “Never, ever, ever, e-ver.”
“LIAR!” Luffy was able to scream, all of a sudden. “You’re lying! They’re not – they didn’t – it was you! You did something to them!” He balled his hands into fists, feeling so angry he couldn’t see properly. “You – you captured them or something! Give ‘em back!”
“Oh, you want to play?” said the man with the glasses, still smirking. Then he dropped the smile as he looked over his shoulder and said, “Men. Step in,” in a cold tone of command. A crowd of dark shapes came out of nowhere, surrounding him.
“GIVE ‘EM BACK!” Luffy drew his arm back, revving up for a Gum Gum Pistol. He couldn’t recognise any of those men, who all wore black hats with cat ears. That was good, at least – that meant the man with the glasses hadn’t tricked Shanks’ men into fighting for him.
He let his hand fly, but the smirking man instantly flowed back, deftly avoiding the attack. Only his men were bowled over or flew high, even though Luffy hadn’t been aiming for them.
His arm snapped back. Backing up the jetty, he narrowed his eyes while looking at the ship, seeking out the best place to grab onto. He wasn’t thinking about calling out to Shanks anymore. He could explain later, when he’d beaten up this bastard.
“Tsk, tsk,” said the bastard now, but not to Luffy. He was turned to the other guys – his own crew or whatever they were. “You lot are really just as hopeless as ever.” And with a sudden shing!!, something that flashed like metal grew from his gloved hands, like a claw – then he spun around and stabbed one of the cat-eared guys through the chest. The victim only gave a little sad sigh, then sank down on the ground, and the man with the glasses pulled his claw out.
Luffy only stared. He couldn’t find any words to say at all.
But now the man with the glasses kicked the one he’d stabbed. “Get up.” His voice was all cold now, not the smug, fake polite tone he used with Luffy.
And the stabbed man slowly got up, looking downcast but not hurting. There was no blood in the open slash in his chest.
Only now did Luffy notice the stitches and the grey hue on all the men with cat ears, and how sad they all looked. “They’re zombies?”
The man with the glasses glanced down at him, looking amused again. “I made a deal with that Moria fellow. This works out well.” He pushed his glasses up. “I told you, once. A crew lives and dies by their captain’s will. They should be pleased to die at my whim. That’s what being a pirate captain means. And now, they can serve me even after death.”
Luffy abandoned caution and grabbed hold of the yardarm to the foremast and swung himself over, bouncing from the mast to launch himself straight at the man in glasses. “Stop that,” he growled.
But again, he missed – and this time, the man swept past him and struck out with his long metal claws, almost managing to cut Luffy on the cheek.
“What are you so upset about?” he purred.
“DON’T TREAT YOUR OWN MEN THAT WAY!” screamed Luffy, ducking down and spinning around as he kicked out, again trying to hit the other man real hard, again missing. “AND GIVE EVERYONE BACK, YOU BASTARD!” He kept hitting the cat-eared guys instead, since the man with the glasses hid among them all the time, even holding them up as a shield.
The man sniggered. “You really are much too amusing. I told you already, I had nothing to do with it. The people of this village are just gone, pure and simple. Nothing to be done about, now.”
“No! You’re lying.” Luffy was panting now, trying time and again to hit the man with the glasses and not the grey zombies. “That’s not – I’ll make it so they’ll be back!” he cried. “I’ll make it so them not being here is the lie!” Ducking and weaving through the cat-eared guys, jumping back to avoid a five-fingered slash from his enemy, he suddenly thought, This guy shouldn’t be this fast. I think he’s really slower than this.
But slow or fast, the smoothly-moving man finally made a mistake in his soft footing, tripping over something small and unforeseen on deck. It was only for an instant, but that was enough for Luffy to finally reach him with one outstretched arm, pinning him sideways against the main mast. The man swore and tried to cut Luffy on the arm, but he could only use one of his hands and rather awkwardly at that, so Luffy wasn’t bothered as he drew his other arm way back.
And yet the man with the glasses was still smiling, even chuckling lightly. “Don’t be silly. That was never your talent. You’re no liar, boy.” One claw dug deep into Luffy’s arm.
“Shut up!” hissed Luffy. He let his fist fly, punching hard. The man in glasses grimaced and hunched over in pain... but then he raised his head and was still laughing, his glasses still glinting. Luffy hit him again. “Give them back!” And again. Give them back!” And again... “GIVE – ”
He stopped his fist in mid-air. For half a second, in his mind he’d seen the image of a small ship, bobbing up and down on big, sunlit waves: a pirate ship, with a ramshead in the prow. The next moment it was gone, vanished.
“...give it back...” he whispered.
But then the man with the glasses turned gray and flat and small, and so did the ship itself and the cat-ears, until everything crumbled up and disappeared – which would have meant big trouble for Luffy if the sea hadn’t disappeared as well.
Everything went away.
The next thing he knew, he was sitting on the ground in the wooded hill above the village, the morning sun still shining bright in a clear blue sky above him.
“...A dream. It was all a dream,” he said out loud after a while, once he’d caught his breath. He pulled up his legs and hugged his knees. There was no smirking man with glasses, no cat-eared sad-faced zombie crew; Shanks wasn’t here at all. There was no ship coming into harbour, either. It had all been just a dream.
That meant he could stay right here. He could stay.
He sniffed cautiously. He thought he could sense the smell of freshly baked bread in the air. If he was right, that meant there really were people here, not gone at all – just sleepyheads, like he’d thought in the first place. Good! He grinned briefly. So much for the stupid man in the glasses and his lies. Either people had never been gone in the first place, or Luffy had made them come back after all.
But he wasn’t completely sure about the smell. And now he was afraid of getting up and going down to the village to check. It would feel so bad to find out he was wrong. Better to stay right here.
He didn’t want to think about what he’d told Shanks. But maybe there were too many things in his head he didn’t want to think about, because the words shoved themselves forward anyway, even though he didn’t understand them.
“‘Someone in this village...’” he mumbled, digging with his finger in the dark forest earth. He clenched his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut, feeling the warmth of the sun as it shone down on him through gaps in the leaves overhead.
*
The next morning, they found Luffy still asleep, his face turned towards the wall and his blanket pulled very high, almost covering his head. But he was no longer in his own bed. At some time during the night, he must have gotten up – whether awake or sleepwalking – and climbed into the extra bed, the one nobody slept in any more.
He stayed there through the rest of the long morning, in deep sleep whenever they checked on him, and didn’t show up for breakfast at all.
Or even lunch.
-- Continues in Chapter 8, part one
Disclaimer, warning and more info: See Chapter 7, part one. (Beware of spoiler for Marineford arc behind the cut in that entry).
He was somewhere that wasn’t hot, and it wasn’t cold. It wasn’t dark, but also not like real daylight. Everything was just a thick, even gray all around, and there was nothing else to see at all.
It didn’t even feel like a ‘somewhere’ – it felt like something that was in-between being a real place and not existing at all. Until now, he hadn’t known there could be anything like that. But then again, the world would always showed him new things he’d had no idea about before, so he wasn’t that surprised, even so.
It wasn’t all quiet. There was a kind of low buzz or hum in the air that didn’t come from any one direction; it was the same all over. The air was thick and still like on a stuffy, hot summer day, although it wasn’t hot.
He didn’t mind being here, lying on ground that wasn’t ground, listening to a sound that wasn’t a sound. It felt restful. Like being off to the side of everything that was real, not being noticed for a while.
New sounds intruded, though. Spoken words floated by, nibbling at him, and when he tried to shoo them away and ignore them, they dodged and returned. They were annoying him and weren’t restful at all.
The mumbled words seemed to say something about getting stronger and not needing help all the time – needed not to be helped, sometimes. He knew it must be a memory but didn’t know who had said it; couldn’t make it fit the voices he knew. It wasn’t Ace. It wasn’t Zoro or Nami or Sanji, either – wasn’t anyone in the crew. And it wasn’t Coby or Bon-chan or anyone else he could think of.
That meant it had to be him then. Didn’t it? Yeah, he decided, sitting up and pulling his knees up. Must be. He was the only one left – and it did sound like something he might have said some time, maybe to Ace when they were younger. Though he wasn’t altogether sure – there had been something off about the way the voice had sounded… but maybe that was just the way memories sounded in this place-that-wasn’t-a-place? Like the way your voice got recorded on a tone dial didn’t sound quite like yourself...
He blinked. For some reason his chest was hurting again. Why? At the thought of a tone dial? That seemed silly. Brook had one in his head and that was a kind of sad story, but it would all get much better when Laboon finally heard it: it was a good thing Brook had that dial. But there seemed to be something about tone dials he didn’t want to think about, something that hurt. He squeezed his eyes shut and buried his face in his knees, listening only to the faint ever-present humming.
*
And then the in-between gray half-place was gone. There was warm sunlight and a clear blue sky; cobbles of stone underneath him and wooden buildings around him. Luffy blinked, putting a hand up to shield himself from the sudden flood of light. He was standing up by now, and he’d already forgotten he was crouching a moment ago. Now he was back in the real world, where it smelled of early summer and adventure. All thoughts of rest were swept away.
He looked around. So! He was back in Fuusha village again, and just like last time, there were more houses around than he was used to. Right in front of him was that other inn, the one that wasn’t Makino’s. Luffy raised his head and saw the big white house he’d noticed before on the hill overlooking the village. Maybe it didn’t use to be there, or maybe he just had a bad memory. But like the other houses, it still felt entirely in its place, being there. So that was all right, all of it.
He closed his eyes with a smile and breathed in the air deeply. The wind was blowing from the sea, bringing in dreams and scents and wild wishes from elsewhere. The whole world was out there, waiting for him.
It was the same sunny morning as it had been the last time he was here. (He didn’t wonder how this could be possible in the first place, or how he could know it with such certainty. It was just a fact.) And wasn’t there a ship coming in to harbour soon? He had some vague notion of getting afraid it wouldn’t be the right kind of ship, but that seemed distant and silly to him right now. Of course it would be okay! He’d make it so it was the right ship! Besides, how could things go wrong on a great day like this?
Grinning from ear to ear, he ambled down towards the small harbour once more, rounded a corner and was soon standing on the stone jetty. There the ship was, still a fair bit away but steadily coming closer.
He reached up to make sure his hat was on his head – yup, sure was! – and adjusted it, then tugged on the strap of his bag. Everything was in its place.
His eyes widened as the sails billowed in the wind, showing a Jolly Roger which had a skull on two crossed swords, marked with three scars. The mark of the Red Hair Pirates.
Luffy shuffled his feet where he stood, scratching the back of his head thoughtfully. Last time he was here, he’d thought Shanks showing up here wouldn’t be right, but that was then. He’d changed his mind about that, now.
He couldn’t start sailing with Shanks, of course: he had his own crew (somewhere out there, only lost right now; their shapes and faces flashed through his mind, then retreated into a safe distance). He couldn’t give Shanks his hat back yet, either. But just saying hi should be okay,shouldn’t it? Or else he’d have to run and hide again, and then he might never stop running.
He found himself looking down. Scuffling his feet, he stared at the stone blocks of the jetty, trying to figure out what felt right.
“Hi there, Anchor!”
Luffy’s head shot up. “Shanks!! Ben!” he cried out joyfully, everything bright and shining again as he saw those two, Captain and First Mate, leaning with their elbows on the railing… right above him? Wow, that ship was fast! “You’re here already! I didn’t even hear you!” Luffy commented, beaming brightly.
“’Lo, Luffy,” said Ben Beckman. Behind them, he thought he could see other familiar shapes – that big round guy just had to be Lucky Luh, for instance – but the others seemed to hang back for now, their faces hard to make out. It was only the captain and first mate who were in clear sight where Luffy was standing.
Luffy felt full of bubbling joy, too much for him to speak. Yet at the back of his head, there was a mumbling feeling that maybe this wasn’t quite right after all. But he squished that down and tossed it away.
“You look like you’re doing pretty good,” said Shanks with a wide, easy grin. “Ah, don’t worry about the hat business right now,” he added, waving lazily. “That can wait till later, some more proper time. It’s not like we planned to end up here. We were hit by… what were all of those again, Ben?”
“A tornado, a cyclone, a hurricane, a twister, a giant turtle, a surprise Marine sneak attack, a volcano, four of the Shichibukai…” Ben listed matter-of-factly.
“Yep, that’s pretty much it.” Shanks turned back to Luffy. “So you see, we were blown all the way over here. Anyway! I understand you got separated from your crew. So, why don’t you come aboard and we’ll bring you over to them? They might get lost on the way here otherwise, you know.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll keep this old fool in check,” added Ben. “He won’t tease you as much as he used to. You’re both brother captains now, after all. We all know that.” There might even have been a glimmer of pride in his eyes, as he looked down at Luffy. Shanks only smiled.
“You guys are so great!” Luffy burst out, bouncing with appreciation. He did need to get away from here, out onto the sea. And he needed to find his crew, too. But at the same time… He frowned again. His gaze fell again. “I’m not sure if…” he mumbled.
Ben and Shanks said nothing, just waiting for him to go on.
“...Not sure if I should,” said Luffy, looking off towards the horizon.
“Really?” said Shanks, his eyebrows shooting up. “Why on earth not?”
“Because there is someone in this village that I don’t wanna leave,” Luffy heard himself say.
He blinked. Where had that come from? The words felt... true, they tasted like truth, but he didn’t understand them. Someone in this village...? But wouldn’t everyone be okay and wish him well and wave him off when he went? Even if the Mayor would still mutter about pirates.
He opened his mouth to say that he didn’t know why he’d just said that, that he was taking it back, that he really wasn’t giving up on adventure and Shanks shouldn’t look at him with surprise and disappointment like that – but he didn’t get a chance to say any of those things.
“Oh, but there isn’t anyone here in this village,” said a voice from the ship; a sly, smooth and assured voice. It put Luffy to mind of a snake wrapped in velvet. “Not any more, that is,” it continued.
Moving into view now, there was a man Luffy didn’t know was standing right next to Shanks and Ben. He was thin and fairly tall, with pale skin, shiny black hair and glasses. He smiled down at Luffy politely.
Luffy froze.
He had no idea who this person was or how he’d met him. For half a moment, the word ‘butler’ turned up in his head, but it didn’t connect to anything and vanished again leaving no tracks behind. But there was something cold and hard and angry and shivery inside him now. And there were two things he was sure about, although he couldn’t say why: 1) he did not like this guy at all; and 2) this was someone who couldn’t be trusted.
Luffy wanted to shout, to ask Shanks why the hell he would let someone like that on his ship, someone who’d only betray them… but he found himself unable to speak, as if his lips had been glued together. He could only stand there in silence, trembling, sweating, glaring. Of course if he had been able to say all that he still couldn’t have explained how he knew it. He only knew this person was WRONG WRONG WRONG and shouldn’t be anywhere near Shank’s ship or the village.
Shanks and Ben had moved off into the shadows now, maybe even gone inside – Luffy wasn’t sure. The man with the shiny glasses laughed softly and said smugly, “Now, don’t think I killed them or anything like that. No, no.” He pushed up his glasses with the base of his palm; he wore black gloves on both hands. “It’s just that they already left,” he went on in an easy tone. “Your family, the innkeeper, the Mayor, and everyone else… they’ve had enough of this place. They’ve grown tired of this island.
“They’ve also grown quite weary of you. You’re just too tiresome to handle, it seems. So they all stole away in the night while you slept. They will never come back again.” His voice took on a teasing, sing-song rhythm, “Never, ever, ever, e-ver.”
“LIAR!” Luffy was able to scream, all of a sudden. “You’re lying! They’re not – they didn’t – it was you! You did something to them!” He balled his hands into fists, feeling so angry he couldn’t see properly. “You – you captured them or something! Give ‘em back!”
“Oh, you want to play?” said the man with the glasses, still smirking. Then he dropped the smile as he looked over his shoulder and said, “Men. Step in,” in a cold tone of command. A crowd of dark shapes came out of nowhere, surrounding him.
“GIVE ‘EM BACK!” Luffy drew his arm back, revving up for a Gum Gum Pistol. He couldn’t recognise any of those men, who all wore black hats with cat ears. That was good, at least – that meant the man with the glasses hadn’t tricked Shanks’ men into fighting for him.
He let his hand fly, but the smirking man instantly flowed back, deftly avoiding the attack. Only his men were bowled over or flew high, even though Luffy hadn’t been aiming for them.
His arm snapped back. Backing up the jetty, he narrowed his eyes while looking at the ship, seeking out the best place to grab onto. He wasn’t thinking about calling out to Shanks anymore. He could explain later, when he’d beaten up this bastard.
“Tsk, tsk,” said the bastard now, but not to Luffy. He was turned to the other guys – his own crew or whatever they were. “You lot are really just as hopeless as ever.” And with a sudden shing!!, something that flashed like metal grew from his gloved hands, like a claw – then he spun around and stabbed one of the cat-eared guys through the chest. The victim only gave a little sad sigh, then sank down on the ground, and the man with the glasses pulled his claw out.
Luffy only stared. He couldn’t find any words to say at all.
But now the man with the glasses kicked the one he’d stabbed. “Get up.” His voice was all cold now, not the smug, fake polite tone he used with Luffy.
And the stabbed man slowly got up, looking downcast but not hurting. There was no blood in the open slash in his chest.
Only now did Luffy notice the stitches and the grey hue on all the men with cat ears, and how sad they all looked. “They’re zombies?”
The man with the glasses glanced down at him, looking amused again. “I made a deal with that Moria fellow. This works out well.” He pushed his glasses up. “I told you, once. A crew lives and dies by their captain’s will. They should be pleased to die at my whim. That’s what being a pirate captain means. And now, they can serve me even after death.”
Luffy abandoned caution and grabbed hold of the yardarm to the foremast and swung himself over, bouncing from the mast to launch himself straight at the man in glasses. “Stop that,” he growled.
But again, he missed – and this time, the man swept past him and struck out with his long metal claws, almost managing to cut Luffy on the cheek.
“What are you so upset about?” he purred.
“DON’T TREAT YOUR OWN MEN THAT WAY!” screamed Luffy, ducking down and spinning around as he kicked out, again trying to hit the other man real hard, again missing. “AND GIVE EVERYONE BACK, YOU BASTARD!” He kept hitting the cat-eared guys instead, since the man with the glasses hid among them all the time, even holding them up as a shield.
The man sniggered. “You really are much too amusing. I told you already, I had nothing to do with it. The people of this village are just gone, pure and simple. Nothing to be done about, now.”
“No! You’re lying.” Luffy was panting now, trying time and again to hit the man with the glasses and not the grey zombies. “That’s not – I’ll make it so they’ll be back!” he cried. “I’ll make it so them not being here is the lie!” Ducking and weaving through the cat-eared guys, jumping back to avoid a five-fingered slash from his enemy, he suddenly thought, This guy shouldn’t be this fast. I think he’s really slower than this.
But slow or fast, the smoothly-moving man finally made a mistake in his soft footing, tripping over something small and unforeseen on deck. It was only for an instant, but that was enough for Luffy to finally reach him with one outstretched arm, pinning him sideways against the main mast. The man swore and tried to cut Luffy on the arm, but he could only use one of his hands and rather awkwardly at that, so Luffy wasn’t bothered as he drew his other arm way back.
And yet the man with the glasses was still smiling, even chuckling lightly. “Don’t be silly. That was never your talent. You’re no liar, boy.” One claw dug deep into Luffy’s arm.
“Shut up!” hissed Luffy. He let his fist fly, punching hard. The man in glasses grimaced and hunched over in pain... but then he raised his head and was still laughing, his glasses still glinting. Luffy hit him again. “Give them back!” And again. Give them back!” And again... “GIVE – ”
He stopped his fist in mid-air. For half a second, in his mind he’d seen the image of a small ship, bobbing up and down on big, sunlit waves: a pirate ship, with a ramshead in the prow. The next moment it was gone, vanished.
“...give it back...” he whispered.
But then the man with the glasses turned gray and flat and small, and so did the ship itself and the cat-ears, until everything crumbled up and disappeared – which would have meant big trouble for Luffy if the sea hadn’t disappeared as well.
Everything went away.
The next thing he knew, he was sitting on the ground in the wooded hill above the village, the morning sun still shining bright in a clear blue sky above him.
“...A dream. It was all a dream,” he said out loud after a while, once he’d caught his breath. He pulled up his legs and hugged his knees. There was no smirking man with glasses, no cat-eared sad-faced zombie crew; Shanks wasn’t here at all. There was no ship coming into harbour, either. It had all been just a dream.
That meant he could stay right here. He could stay.
He sniffed cautiously. He thought he could sense the smell of freshly baked bread in the air. If he was right, that meant there really were people here, not gone at all – just sleepyheads, like he’d thought in the first place. Good! He grinned briefly. So much for the stupid man in the glasses and his lies. Either people had never been gone in the first place, or Luffy had made them come back after all.
But he wasn’t completely sure about the smell. And now he was afraid of getting up and going down to the village to check. It would feel so bad to find out he was wrong. Better to stay right here.
He didn’t want to think about what he’d told Shanks. But maybe there were too many things in his head he didn’t want to think about, because the words shoved themselves forward anyway, even though he didn’t understand them.
“‘Someone in this village...’” he mumbled, digging with his finger in the dark forest earth. He clenched his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut, feeling the warmth of the sun as it shone down on him through gaps in the leaves overhead.
*
The next morning, they found Luffy still asleep, his face turned towards the wall and his blanket pulled very high, almost covering his head. But he was no longer in his own bed. At some time during the night, he must have gotten up – whether awake or sleepwalking – and climbed into the extra bed, the one nobody slept in any more.
He stayed there through the rest of the long morning, in deep sleep whenever they checked on him, and didn’t show up for breakfast at all.
Or even lunch.
-- Continues in Chapter 8, part one