Chapter Text
Suddenly, Luffy snapped his eyes open and he immediately jolted into a sitting position. Confused, he looked around the dark room.
‘Where am I? This doesn’t look like a room on the Sunny.’
Luffy jumped to his feet, so he could explore the room. He reached behind his back to grab his hat, but he grasped at air. Feeling a surge of panic grip his heart, he looked around for his hat, but it was to no avail.
‘Damn, did I misplace it again? Come on, think. Where did I leave it? The last thing I remember is sleeping in the infirmary, after Chopper practically turned me into a mummy. Not like I can do much else when I’m bound in bandages.’
His head started to turn red from thinking so much, and it hurt his brain. He decided to give up for now and just figure out what kind of mess he’d gotten himself into this time.
‘Oh man, Nami is gonna be so mad when she finds out that I’m gone. She’ll probably throw a fit and scream at me for being a trouble magnet.’
Luffy shivered, feeling a phantom pain on his head from all the times Nami bashed his skull.
“Mugi”
‘Huh, what was that?’
“...chan”
‘What’s going on?’
Distant shouting could be heard from beyond the walls of the room, and with a start, Luffy realized that he could sense multiple presences not too far away.
“Hang...”
...there”
‘That voice, why does it sound so familiar?’
Feeling even more confused, Luffy followed the sound of multiple voices screaming something he couldn’t even start to comprehend, and it led him directly to a huge wooden door.
“HANG IN THERE”
Now this close to the door, he could clearly hear what was being said, but it didn’t help his confused mind much.
‘Are they.... are they talking to me?’
...
‘I guess there is only one way to find out.’
“Gomu Gomu no .... pistol“
Rearing back his arm, Luffy punched the door, making it fly of its hinges, and from the sound of it, crash against someone.
“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?”
“Ivankov-sama!!!”
“Are you alright?”
“OF COURSE I’M NOT ALRIGHT, A FUCKING DOOR JUST HIT ME.”
A second ago, Luffy thought that he couldn’t get anymore confused, but he resigned to his fate that his day was probably only gonna get weirder from here on.
“Mugi-chan, you’re alive?”
Turning to the direction of the voice, Luffys eyes practically turned into saucers.
“Bon-chan? What? I THOUGHT YOU DIED!” Luffy exclaimed and rushed up to Mr.2, to engulf him in a hug.
Now both of them were sobbing into each others arms and babbling incoherent words like, “I thought you died/were gonna die.”
“Mugiwara-boy!”
Reluctantly letting go of Bon-Clay, Luffy turned around to face the one who called him.
Ivankov was standing tall and proud.... with a big red mark on his face.
At this point, he didn’t even question why the Okama Queen was here; he was only interested in who hurt one of his precious people.
“Waaah, Iva what happened to your face?”
“You happened, you insolent boy, how dare you throw a door at me?” Iva questioned, with a furious face.
“Sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to do that. Shishsishi” Luffy couldn’t help himself from letting out a few chuckles. Red really fit the Okama’s face pretty good.
“Tch, I’ve never seen such disrespect directed at me. ME! Do you know who I am? I’m one of the Commanders of the Revolutionary Army. I work directly with none other than Dragon himself, the Leader of the Revolutionary Army.” He said pridefully and expecting shock and surprise from the young boy.
Luffy only stared at him, like he’d lost his mind, “Silly, I know about that already, after all he’s my father. Even though I only met him like once in person and didn’t even end up talking to him.”
“EHHHH”
Ivankov flew from the shock and crashed against the wall, causing it to crumble beneath him.
“You... you’re Dragons son, but then that would mean that Ace is also his son. I can’t let Dragon’s son get executed! Everyone get ready, we’re breaking out today and taking Ace with us!”
Not only was Luffy stumped, but so was everyone else.
“But that’s too sudden, we are not ready to break out yet.” exclaimed an Okama, with the majority loudly agreeing in the background.
“Hold up! What do you mean Ivan-chan? Ace is already dead!” Luffy spoke with an angry face, pissed off that Ivankov would bring up his dead brother, knowing how much pain his memory brought him.
“Dead? Of course he isn’t dead! I have to admit you did spend around 18 hours recovering from that poison, which is way earlier than I would ever anticipate, but we still have time to save Ace. The guards might take him from his prison cell earlier than planned, because of all the commotion you’ve caused, but I haven’t heard of any prisoner being escorted out yet, so he should still be in his cell.”
A heavy silence settled around the room, until Inazuma broke it by shoving a bundle into Luffy’s arms.
“Here are your clothes, put them on so we can leave and rescue your brother.... unless you’ve changed your mind.” Inazuma said with an unreadable expressions on his face and just sipping his wine, looking like he couldn’t care less what Luffy would do.
Luffy looked into his arms, where a yellow vest was and a straw hat was laying innocently on top of it. Slowly he put his hand inside the red band, grasping for a piece of paper he knew wasn’t gonna be there, but he hoped that somehow, someway, it would be.
Things were slowly but surely adding up in his mind. He remembered this, even if he shoved the memories so far back in his mind, just so he wouldn’t recall them. Now though, he was searching for them, pulling them back together, like pieces of a missing puzzle.
Long forgotten memories resurfaced and he realized why this all seemed familiar. His mind hadn’t caught up as quick like his body and instincts did, till now. Now he knew for sure that this was Impel Down, that he had just lost 10 years of his life to Magelan’s poison and in the same day, he would be losing his brother too.
After all, the proof of it was laying innocently on his palm.
A piece of paper with only a three-letter word written on it, whose edges were slightly burning.
ACE