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The rain wasn’t stopping. Neither the one falling outside, hitting the roofs and the windows of Foosha’s small houses, nor the one falling from Makino’s eyes.
There was no need to keep polishing the bar or sorting the bottles of liquor, since all the patrons had already gone home for the night – and no one was going to step outside after midnight in this weather anyway – but she thought that maybe, if she kept herself occupied, she wouldn’t have to think.
About them.
Ace. Luffy. No matter how she tried, she couldn’t rid her mind of thoughts of the brothers. All of Foosha had been following the events of Marineford with great apprehension, and the death of Portgas D. Ace, right after he was revealed to be Gold Roger’s son, had been a shock to everyone. But to Makino, it was also personal.
Ace was someone she had seen grow up from a scrawny rebellious kid into a smiling seventeen-year-old who bid them all goodbye from the beach of Mt. Colubo, sailing to his adventure. Sometimes, while daydreaming, Makino had liked to picture him and Luffy on some grand adventure, and wonder what kind of troubles they had ended up into to earn those impressive bounties. And now his adventure is over. How cruel can this world be?
According to Garp, Luffy was safe, having escaped the battle on a submarine. But in what condition he was, she did not know. Dadan’s words from the previous day were still ringing in her ears: “No... The one who’s in the most pain… is Luffy!”
I almost can’t bear my own pain, Makino thought. How hard must it be for him?
She wiped her eyes with the cloth she was holding and tried to fight back the tears. She decided she had to try to be stronger for Luffy. In the few years he had lived with her, she had always tried to put up a smile in front of him. What if he comes back and finds me crying like this?
Dropped in Foosha by his grandfather, who only came to visit him once every few months when he wasn’t busy fighting pirates – and offered no explanation as to where the toddler came from – Luffy was left under the Mayor’s strict tutelage and to her care. He was a vivacious little kid, always getting into some kind of trouble, but she couldn’t help thinking that sometimes he must have felt lonely.
He was the only child in this remote fishing village, and Makino was often too busy with the tavern to be a proper babysitter. But whenever she was with Luffy, she would always try to cheer him up and invent new games to play with him; she would help him with the homework the mayor-turned-teacher assigned to him – his only pupil – and always made sure he was well fed. Of course, everything changed when a pirate ship arrived at the harbour one day, when Luffy was 7—
With Ace, however, she thought Luffy had finally found a real family, somewhere he was truly happy. And there was also Sabo, the third brother they had so tragically lost, and Dadan, and all the other bandits—
The one who’s in the most pain… is Luffy!
There, the tears were threatening to come back.
Makino decided it was time to close the tavern and go to bed. She hadn’t slept properly since the news of the battle arrived, two weeks before, and she doubted she would sleep tonight either, but she was exhausted.
She was about to put down the last bottle when— “Boom!” A thunder exploded in the sky, lightning flashing through the windows of the dimly lit tavern. At the same time the lamps flickered— and then the light was gone. The old generator had stopped working. The wind had also set the saloon doors swinging, and an eerie chill hung in the air. The tavern was now only lit by the faint light from the street lamps outside.
Makino let out a held breath and started moving towards the entrance, still clutching the bottle in her hand. Time to bolt those old doors. But she had not taken three steps from the bar when a figure appeared in the door frame across the room, one hand on the saloon door.
It was a tall, cloaked and hooded silhouette – a choice of apparel dictated by the stormy weather that, however, made her feel uneasy. That person was definitely not a patron, nor one of the villagers. I only have a bottle to defend myself. And Garp had to leave just this afternoon. She took one step backwards, while the hooded man – that wasn’t a woman’s silhouette, she was sure of it – walked into the tavern leaving the doors swinging.
“I— I’m sorry, we’re about to close,” she said, trying not to sound scared.
The stranger removed his hood and looked at her.
Makino didn’t recognise him by the red of his hair, strikingly bright even in the semi-darkness of the tavern; nor by the way his hair fell in strands on the sides of his face, or by the scars marring almost half of it. It was the eyes that really told her it was him.
He’d always had such ancient eyes, as though he had lived longer than his years, and could see things that no one else saw. As though he was carrying a burden only he knew the real weight of. A gaze that could be hard as the steel sword he carried around or warm as the sun, depending on his mood. Eyes that only a few people were allowed to see through— and she had been one of them, many years ago.
As recognition hit her, images started flashing into her mind: a book from West Blue with a castle on the cover; a black cape forgotten on a bar stool; a stolen kiss under a tree, followed by a promise; a ship with a dragon figurehead leaving the harbour, never to come back.
And then the News Coo, bringing accounts of bounties and battles, of places far away and that word she had kept asking Garp the meaning of.
Emperor.
“Captain.”
The bottle she kept in her hand fell on the floor, breaking into pieces, its content spreading on the wooden tiles and on her feet.
“Oh, shit. Don’t move.” In half a heartbeat he was kneeling in front of her, picking up the glass shards and moving them out of the way.
Then Shanks looked up at her, a faint smile on his lips. “Hello, Makino.”
All she could do was remain fixed on the spot, staring at him.
“Cleaning up your floor from glass and spilled sake. This surely brings back memories,” he commented, getting back on his feet.
This close, she could see him clearly, even in the semi-darkness. Under the mop of red hair, now wet from the rain, his face hadn’t changed much. If only, his jawline was now squarer, his neck more muscular, as were his shoulders; changes that she didn’t fail to appreciate, despite still being distraught by his appearance. Is he really the same man, though?
“What are you doing here?” That was the only question she was able to verbalise.
What was the man who had single-handedly stopped the war between the Marines and the Whitebeard Pirates doing here, in her little tavern?
Shanks searched her eyes, looking puzzled. Or worried— she couldn’t say. “I came to see you.”
Then he added, “You don’t look well, Makino. Why don’t we sit at the table?”.
She realised she must have looked like a ghost. Two weeks of tears and insomnia have that effect. He took off his dripping cape, folding it and tossing it onto a chair, and proceeded to sit at the nearest table. She joined him in the opposite chair.
“You came back. Why—? It’s been such a long time,” she said.
“You thought I had forgotten you? Forgotten about—”
“But you are… Now… They call you—”
He bowed his head, looking at his hand now closed in a fist on the table. Then he sighed. “I wish the news of the Grand Line hadn’t reached you. I wish you had been spared from all that.” He looked at her, a sad smile on his face. “You know, I was afraid to come back here. I didn’t know how you would react to seeing me again. But after the funeral I told myself I had to stop being an idiot and get off my ass.”
“The funeral,” she repeated. Makino didn’t have to ask whose funeral it was.
He nodded. “I was worried about you,” he continued. “I— I realised the news must have reached you and I didn’t know how you’d take it. I— wanted to be here for you. I know you don’t need me, I mean— you probably have someone else, after ten years— but I just wanted to tell you if you need someone to talk to, I’m here.”
What is he doing? Does he really think I’ve forgotten?
“Where did you bury him?” The question came out of her mouth on its own.
He seemed to expect it. “In the New World. A spring island. He will rest next to Whitebeard. You should have seen his tomb, they covered it in a thousand flowers.”
“That’s good.” She smiled faintly. “It sounds like a nice place. He liked spring.”
“I only met him once, you know. He came to an island where we were staying only to meet me and thank me for saving Luffy.”
Makino’s eyes grew bigger. “He really did that?”
“Yes,” Shanks chuckled lightly. “Imagine my surprise when he told me that it was you who taught him how to properly thank people. The crew went crazy after hearing your name.”
Ace. You really did that.
Makino’s eyes filled with tears once again.
“I’m sorry, Makino. I was too late. If it wasn’t for that bastard Kaido…”
Kaido, she thought. One of the Four Emperors. Like him.
She wanted to ask him if all those News Coo had told the truth. She wanted to know who the man in front of her really was. She didn’t know what to believe.
“Who are you, Captain?”
She watched his eyes narrow, then she continued. “I’ve heard so many things during these years. Some, I still can’t believe. But now I’m pretty sure it wasn’t just by sheer luck that you saved Luffy from the Lord of the Coast. You— You have some kind of power that I can’t even begin to comprehend.”
Shanks regarded her with seriousness. “I may have made a name for myself in the New World, Makino. But that doesn’t matter here. There are no Emperors in the East Blue, and no wars.” His expression got harsher, and he wasn’t looking at her anymore. “I won’t allow it.”
He got up, pacing the room for a moment, then turned towards her. His eyes softened again. “I’m still me, Makino. But you’ll be the judge of that. You know, I came here because I couldn’t live with myself had I not done that, but I never expected you to welcome me with open arms. If you don’t like my presence here, just say so and I’ll go immediately.”
Despite having tears running down her face, Makino couldn’t restrain a surprised chuckle. Emperor or not, he was still the same gallant Captain after all.
“You scared the hell out of me when you showed up, you know? And you really think I’ll send you away? I’ll make you pay for making me break one of my best bottles.”
His surprised reaction, followed by a guilty face, made her heart lighter. With him there, she was starting to feel like the same girl from ten years ago. The same girl who had been so foolish to fall in love with the first dashing redhead who ended up in her tavern.
In that moment, as if mirroring her own feelings, the light came back. The generator was still working, after all.
“I’ll buy booze for twice the price of that bottle, and even more,” Shanks said.
“It’s a deal, then.”
“Shanks?” She called his name while he was seated at the bar, inspecting his second mug of ale. She had been looking at him with the corner of her eye, and she was sure he had noticed. Somehow she couldn't take her eyes off him. He still has the same effect on me.
“Yes?”
She wanted to tell him how much she’d missed him, how many times she had looked at the sea wishing a ship bearing a Jolly Roger with a scarred skull would appear in the distance. But instead she just said, “I’m glad you’ve come. To talk to me about Ace.”
He looked up, and he seemed relieved. “We’re friends, aren’t we?”
Friends. “Yes, I suppose we are. Though no one would believe me if I told them I’m friends with one of the Four Emperors.”
He grinned. “Hey, I told you that’s not who I am, here. I’m trying to be incognito.”
“Oh, I’m sure that must be easy in Foosha, with that hair and that sword of yours and those… trousers.”
“What’s wrong with my trousers?” He exclaimed, looking at the atrocious floral motif that decorated them. His fashion sense had not changed one bit in ten years. And Makino loved it.
It came so easy to laugh with him. She was already feeling a little better, the heavy burden she had carried on her mind for days starting to dissolve. She still couldn’t believe Shanks had come all the way to the East Blue to see her. She wanted to ask him if he remembered— no, that was stupid. She could never ask him that.
“Hey, I don’t want to keep you,” he interrupted her thoughts. “It’s late. I’m sure you have someone waiting for you at home.”
Makino suddenly felt embarrassed. She didn’t have anyone waiting at home. Compared to his, her life hadn’t changed much since the day he left Foosha ten years before. She had kept running the tavern, day after day, making the occasional trip to visit Dadan or to Goa town centre; but her life had been a quiet, uneventful one, the only moments of excitement being when Garp came to visit bringing tales of the Grand Line, or when new ships arrived at the harbour.
She couldn’t tell Shanks that what had kept her in Foosha all those years wasn’t just her love for her job, but was also hope.
Hope that one day Luffy and Ace would come back and bring her the treasure they promised her, and she could hug them and ruffle their hair again; and hope that the man she loved would keep his promise and come back and marry her. A silly girl’s hope. Some things only belong in fairy tale books. Like the book with a castle on the cover he gave me that day.
“Don’t worry, Captain. I don’t have anyone waiting for me. Besides, I’m used to keeping this place open until dawn.”
She waited for his reaction, fearing that she would receive a pitying look. But he seemed actually surprised. “I thought… I thought someone like you would have been snatched away by now.”
“Someone like me?” She tilted her head and gave him an inquiring smile. “You mean an East Blue barmaid?”
“Believe me, I’ve been all over the world, and you’re still at the top of my list of favourite barmaids.”
Now he was just teasing. She decided to play along. “So, you really have a barmaid in every port, as the saying goes?”
He laughed, shaking his head. Then, looking at her from beneath strands of red hair, said, “Would you believe me if I told you there’s only ever been one girl?”
“I don’t think it would matter if I believed you, Captain. You’d have to ask her.”
“I’m asking her.”
His tone was suddenly serious. No trace of banter in his voice, those ancient eyes fixed on hers, unreadable.
Is he really saying—
Makino swallowed. Her heart started beating faster.
“I haven’t forgotten our promise, Makino,” he began. “I’m— I’m just an oaf who took ten years to finally find the courage to come back here, and was afraid you didn’t want me anymore. There, I’ve said it.”
It was as though her heart was threatening to jump out her ribcage. This idiot. Ten years, and he still makes me feel like this.
Makino walked out from behind the bar and moved closer to where he was seating on the bar stool. His old stool, she realized.
“You have no idea how much I’ve missed you,” she told him, making every word count. “You know, I think I’ve been waiting for you all these years like a fool. I don't know how you did it, but you managed to ruin every other prospect for me. And I swear, if you had made me wait another month I would have sailed to the Grand Line to find you and kick your butt.”
At the sight of his face, she was proud to realise she had managed to make one of the Four Emperors of the seas look intimidated.
Before giving him any time to open his mouth to reply, Makino was throwing her arms around his neck and was hugging him as if he’d disappeared again if she ever let go.
She felt Shanks putting his arm around her waist and whisper against her ear, “I’m sorry. Does this mean I still have a chance?”