Chapter Text
In hindsight, making Monkey D. Luffy captain was not the best decision. A seventeen-year-old boy, fresh out of the ever-peaceful East Blue, without any knack in navigating, and had only gone by through floating aimlessly in barrels and dinghies. Pulled by various ocean currents, directions dictated by luck or god-forbid, fate, he was a boy that lacked the skill set to cross the vast blue of the seas and yet he found himself a good crew, with a strong ship, and a legacy.
(To have come across a strung-up bounty hunter all too exasperated and starved to continue denying the rubber-man’s insistence of joining his pirate crew. A cat-burglar that seemed to have played them only to get emotionally invested and asked them to help her. A village liar that sought to find courage in sailing the vast blues. A sous chef too chivalrous but principally consistent. A proud reindeer of a doctor, that meant and gave nothing but well wishes and good health. A double agent all too knowing but pained by her past. An eccentric cyborg that cared for his family and inventions. A skeleton that was all too lonely to make good on his promise and afraid to step into the light. And a Fishman, dedicated to actualizing the wishes of his friends and former captain, that of which was peace. Nine individuals with vastly different backgrounds, personalities, and dreams – all brought together by a human elastic band.)
He was too stubborn – too charged to listen to sound logic and reasoning and operated mostly by his whims and musings. He thought not with his head but with his heart, worn upon his sleeve for anyone to take and yet no one really did; more often than not, the hearts of others were swayed by his own, for the sheer raw sincerity and honesty melted even the cold and wry, and lit flames upon the weary and forlorn. He was too genuine and expressive to be called a liar and far too gullible to know deceit and manipulation. He held no particular talents outside the realm of violence, a fighting genius he may be, but he was far beyond to be called a scholarly intellectual. He barely read, too self-absorbed with his own objectives to care about the happenings beyond his ship’s four walls. He knew none about self-preservation and rather focused on the safety of his crew despite the imminent peril he constantly seemed to attract.
And yet.
But yet.
They called him captain.
Monkey D. Luffy was their captain and they believed in every fiber of his being despite the world’s logic screaming that it was unwise. That it was not worth their time or effort to be strung along with this boy that hailed from East Blue, who acted upon his gut instincts more than anything, and who had the self-preservation skills of a fish. Their minds supplied that the man, though hilarious and easy-going, was someone dangerous to be associated with, not because of his flaws but in spite of it; the way the world screamed to them that following him was betraying common sense, a betrayal to the life they owned, and a risk too great to make.
And yet their hearts sang, bleeding through the world’s screams and growing fond of the enigma in which they called captain. Far too gone to appease their fears and doubts, and all too willing to be caught in the man’s pace to give a damn. Together, they had continued to defy logic, having left miracles left and right, before and after they came and left as a crew. Their captain had brought heaven and hell with him in every wake and step, and for each taken, they followed.
Because he is captain and they are his crew.
Because he was captain and they were his crew.
His family.
His nakama.
When the Straw-Hats landed in Laugh Tale, they hadn’t known what to expect. A deserted island that was full of traps and treasures, a village with ancient histories and far too familiar to the horrors of the new world, or maybe something that would enunciate their victory and voyage to the island that was shrouded in legend and mystery.
But yet they had found something else entirely and couldn’t help but laugh. The elusive island, true to its name, surely held nothing back for the crew. Be it treasure troves, fights, merry, or drama, all of which happened on Laugh Tale was a hilarity to be spoken of in fond vagueness rather than specifics. For the island’s wonder had been dependent on all those that landed on it.
Their captain was far too ensnared by all which the island had offered and stayed true to the land’s interpretive and subjective nature. Maybe it was because he enjoyed the time he had spent with his crew, the merry-making feasts they’ve conducted on the Thousand Sunny’s deck for days to come or the small treasure he had stumbled upon that ended up being One Piece.
***
Luffy does not speak of what One Piece was and he had told his crew about his finding only days after they departed from Laugh Tale. He keeps his lips sealed as to what the treasure is and answers his crew’s questions with a shi shi shi shi, and a bright sunny smile that beamed happiness and contentment. He does, however, appease his furious navigator by telling her that the particular treasure he found was neither gold, berry, or jewels, and only then was his collar let go by the redhead.
(Despite the mountain of treasure, they had coveted from Laugh Tale, Nami was still very much hell-bent on scrapping every piece of gold; to find out that One Piece was not something she could covet as riches, was something that she may or may not have been disappointed about.)
Robin tries to pry the information off him later in the night when the crew had settled with the feasts and opted back into their normal routines. Despite her prodding, Luffy does not slip but he comforts her that it does not concern the lost history she tries to uncover. She argues saying that there is evidence that One Piece had contained a portion of Joy Boy’s treasure, but the rubber man insists that the treasure was not something of a concern, and its identity is to be left unknown to those that did not see it firsthand.
Robin may have thought that Luffy was being unfair, considering that he told no one about his finding the moment he had stumbled upon the world-renowned sought-out treasure. She does not huff in frustration but sighs in defeat, rationalizing her captain’s actions with reasons that are unlikely but comforting to her at least. She does note, however, that Luffy’s insistence of secrecy was something bold and deliberate as if there was a grander reason that she had yet to grasp and cannot see. A reason where context and circumstance did not matter but something rather personal to her captain.
In her last attempt at questioning the rubber man, she foregoes all pretenses and bluntly asks if he had a personal stake in preserving the One Piece’s identity; at that moment she had seen the fastidious change of facial expression, from cheery to somber. Luffy does not answer her immediately and brings his straw-hat down instead, casting a shadow on his eyes, depleting their visibility.
“Maybe.” The captain muses with a quiet voice but loud enough for Robin to hear. A beat passes and the pensive air dispels as soon as Luffy chuckles and stares up to the night sky. Robin follows his line of sight and though mostly bare, she, along with her captain, admires the lone star in the sky that seemed to be smiling on them by the deck.
Alone it might have been, the small bright star had seemed to overwhelm even the darkest clouds of the night, its light outshining all which had hindered it.
(And somehow, in that moment, she knew; whatever One Piece was, it didn’t matter.
Not until it hadn’t.
Not until they lost him.)
Unlike the rest of the world, the Straw-Hat Crew had the foresight in following their captain, Monkey D. Luffy, for he was officially crowned and recognized as the second-generation Pirate King the moment he had left Laugh Tale and circled back to re-enter Paradise.
(This was not the end of their voyage for the crew still had to look for the true final island that they had found out was beyond Laugh Tale. The other members still had their dreams to hold on to and fulfill, and though their captain had fulfilled his personal dream, he made no announcements for the end of their adventure and had no qualms about his crewmates’ dreams.
He never will and he never would. For without them he knew that he couldn’t have fulfilled his dream of being the Pirate King.)
They stopped by Dawn Island, under the pretense of a supply run but of course, the crew knew better. For everything their captain was, Monkey D. Luffy was still a nineteen-year-old boy that hailed from Foosha Village, which was not so coincidentally before Paradise, in East Blue, and specifically on Dawn Island. To the crew’s surprise, however, they had garnered a warm welcome from the coastal village inhabitants. It was as if they weren’t notorious pirates that had just conquered the Grand Line or that the captain of their ship was officially hailed as the new Pirate King. They held nothing back though and basked under the hospitality shown and attention that had been given to them by the villagers. They got along well with the locals, Luffy practically introducing the crew to anyone and everyone he had grew up with and known. Be it the unassuming villagers, the mountain bandits that had come down from their hideout bawling their eyes out at the sight of Luffy, the pretty barmaid who was all too kind and just as sincere as their captain, or the greying mayor who seemed all too eager to nag and scold the Pirate King.
To say that the crowd that Luffy had introduced them to was diverse and all but conventional was an understatement. But then again, this was their captain.
When had anything been conventional with him?
(Even his bloodline was special, not that Luffy himself particularly minded. The crew however still took it in account as they familiarize themselves in Luffy’s hometown, noting the various nooks and spots villagers had pointed to and reminisced fondly about their captain. They gave accounts of the numerous antics the rubber-man had committed during his life here in Foosha and many had given thanks to them for taking care of the foolish boy that they had remembered to be a big dreamer; they had appreciated the fact that Luffy had done good with his dream and expressed their initial doubts and are ultimately glad for their homeboy to have found such an amazing crew as themselves.)
By twilight, they began to feast and merry in Partys bar; cooking had been a typical affair, Makino originally wanting to make it herself but Sanji and his ever-present chivalry, offered to help, unable to take no for an answer. Zoro had drowned himself in all the alcohol he could, along with some of the few willing villagers that had opted to try and drink him under the table, Nami joining in and calling bets to see who’d be the last (wo)man standing. Usopp had been telling tales of their adventures to the village children who had been permitted to stop by the establishment, Franky and Jimbei conversed with village elders and the fishermen, Brook had been playing music, pausing every now and then to drink the small carton of milk that Makino had served him; Robin was enjoying Brook’s performance and listened to stories about the village and their captain from the locals, while Chopper and Luffy had busied themselves entertaining a dark-green haired baby they found to be Makino’s son. The latter two had cooed and played with the baby, laughing and surging with pride and amusement every time the child had gestured, babbled, or giggled.
Despite the small space of Partys Bar, they had managed to fit anyone and everyone that had wanted to welcome the Straw-Hat pirates. Even when the doors had burst opened in the middle of festivities, an ex-marine, too old to be an operative, interrupting the crew’s merry, did not stop them. Albeit, the old dog had pulled the attention of their captain and gave him a bear hug so tight it was unbelievable. Touching as it was, the moment was brief for the older man had ended up smacking their captain with a ‘fist of love’.
If Luffy’s commanders noticed the man’s fist to be infused with haki, they don’t speak of it. Despite their captain’s whines and protests they see the clear happiness in his eyes, all too loving and all too forgiving towards the man he called ‘grandpa’.
(No one mentions Marineford or the dearly missed freckled boy who went by the epithet ‘Fire-Fist’. If Garp had mentioned it when he dragged Luffy outside for some ‘training’, the crew didn’t know. But when Luffy and Garp came back, no one called them out on their red puffy eyes or their snot dripping noses.)
As the Pirate King, Luffy had free reign of the seas. But at this moment, along with his crew, he felt no power or control, but a certain type of happiness that can only be described as bright and content.
***
A loving memory between a captain and his crew.
In loving memory for a captain by his crew.
A loving memory for their captain.
In loving memory of their captain.
***
They sing and sing in merry and relief. Their tired bones only seemed to amplify their willingness to go all out in partying, as if it were their last. Not that it was.
But it’d be the last few before they sober. Before they’ve set out to finalize the rest of their dreams and make good on their promises. But they didn’t know that just yet.
They didn’t know and that was fine.
It was the captain’s burden after all.