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Luffy burst out of the tin can. Metal walls, the smell of antiseptics and artificial light. Yuck.
“Aaace!! Uwaaaaaa!!! Where is Aaaace?!!!”
He didn’t know where he was, but the burning sensation in his legs told him to move forward.
Just keep running, just keep running, just keep running running running. What do we do? We run.
There were voices, men in white clothes, a curtain, familiar woods.
Woods like the one he grew up in with Sabo and Ace… Just the thought of them made him cry. He must have chopped every tree and destroyed every boulder in his way. He was surprisingly out of breath. This wasn’t a new sensation in any way. It just meant he had to find his big brother as soon as possible and eat some meat with him.
The thought of meat made his stomach growl. The growl made him stop. The stopping made him look up.
Luffy asked himself where he was. Was it all just a horrible dream? Surely, Ace, his strong big brother, would come running after him any second now and scold him for being so reckless and destructive.
Surely, Ace would…
Before his inner eye, he saw him drop down on the hard stone of the battlefield. The Jolly Roger of his ‘Pops’ burned through, steaming.
His last words.
His apology.
His blood.
His smile.
These images. He wanted them to disappear. He wanted them to go away. He wanted them to have never happened.
The maliciously burning fist of that damn marine and the loving heat that surrounded Ace as he shielded Luffy from the attack.
He punched at the image. Until now, punching someone hard enough always made them disappear.
Punch, punch, punch.
The feeling of stone crumbling when it connected with his fist was oddly satisfying. But it wasn’t enough yet. He picked up a boulder. Something in his lower back told him to stop, he didn’t listen. He threw it as far away as he could.
Luffy’s strength, almost non-existent to begin with, gave out. His knees wobbled. When the enemy was his own head, his dream, it was so difficult to punch them into oblivion. Maybe if he smashed his head long and hard enough against stone, it would work.
No, stone wasn’t hard enough. His fist would be better.
Punch, punch, punch.
He was on all fours, huffing, tired, exhausted, bandaged, wounded in a way that bandages wouldn’t help.
And then there was Jimbei. Luffy couldn’t help himself but to glare at him.
“The war is over. Ace is-“
He could feel his mouth word his thoughts, interrupting his friend.
“It wasn’t a dream, was it? Ace! He is really dead?!!”
His face was torn. Tears obstructed his view, the heart in his chest aching like never before.
Jimbei said the words his heart already knew. Due to his tears he closed his eyes, seeing his brother smile at him, which only made him cry more.
He thought back to Mt Corbo. His first meeting with Ace, spitting at him, eating with him, following him to all kinds of adventures. Meeting Sabo… Desperately wanting to be as cool as them, longing to be their friend.
How he was kidnapped. How he was beaten. How he was rescued.
The vow they exchanged over the sake Ace had stolen from Dadan. The promise of being brothers was sweet, the alcohol went down bitter.
Sabo was dead and the world was burning.
Ace was burning and the world was dead.
Luffy felt so weak.
No, you’re not weak. Just a reckless idiot.
He argued with Jinbei until the fishman finally punched him. He had hoped that Jinbei would knock him unconscious, but one punch wasn’t enough. They fought until Jinbei had punched some sense into him.
Luffy missed his crew.
He met Tra-guy and his crew, Hammock and her following, Rayleigh. After downing mountains of meat, he could think clearly again. It was an eventful afternoon.
As night set and he realised how tired he actually was, his mind was still running through the woods at full speed. It was hard to calm down.
He was alone.
He had no brothers anymore.
For a moment he contemplated if he would rather have more siblings or none at all. But the concept of found family was still present.
He had exchanged sake with all of his crew members. It wasn’t a vow of brotherhood, but the next best thing. And boy, did he love them. Luffy missed his crew.
The tears he had kept at bay the whole afternoon resurfaced again.
Crybaby.
Luffy whipped his head around. No, he was still alone under the tree.
“Ace?” It was a hopeful question in a hopeless situation.
Shut up, men don’t cry, Luffy.
“Ace! I want to be stronger!”
He felt something stare at him.
“I want to be much, much, much stronger!”
That’s what you said back then and now look at you, still a crybaby.
“I told you not to die! You promised me that you would never die.”
There was something! More than a memory, but it also wasn’t exactly a ghost. Luffy had seen ghosts on Thriller Bark and Brook could be a ghost too, this was different. This was more an afterthought of Ace. It was kind of hard to make out with tears obscuring his sight, but there was the feeling of Ace’s presence there. He didn’t wear the orange hat, but the rest of him fit.
“Is it really you?”
Of course it is me, crybaby.
“How?”
This is limbo. I still had something to settle here.
His disembodied voice was on the one hand salt in a fresh wound and balm on the other.
“What?”
Limbo? You know, it’s weird. Somehow, I thought Sabo would be here, but he’s not. He must have crossed over. It’s been a long time anyway.
“No, what you had to settle.”
You. You risked so much, followed me to Impel Down and fought on the Marineford. I couldn’t ask for a better little brother; you became so strong. That damned Akainu got me good. He knew that comment about Pops would set me off.
The apparition reached for his head. The motion of adjusting his hat was all too familiar, only the hat was not there.
Anyway, I lived without regret and that’s what you should do too.
It was slowly fading into obscurity again.
“No, Ace, don’t go!”
You don’t want me to haunt you, do you?
There was something playful in the voice, but it grew more and more distant.
“I promise you, I will become even stronger.”
I’m so proud of you.