Chapter Text
Long threads stretch through space, tangling and interweaving. The spinners of fate weaving a tale, threads slipping between nimble fingers. These nimble fingers pull, and threads twist and turn together, fraying and tangled, now irreversibly tied together. Fates forever changed.
—
He still hasn’t woken up.
Luffy was laid down on the infirmary bed, eyes closed and breathing softly—peacefully. That much, at least, was good. Or maybe not. After all, being hit by an unknown Devil Fruit and falling unconscious was worrying, especially for Luffy who was rarely struck down, and if so only by the strongest of their enemies, not random wayward pirates trying their luck with the Strawhats. It might ease their minds if he looked pained in his sleep, to show that he was still fighting, rather than the stillness they were left with. Luffy was never silent even in his sleep. But now he lay still and silent and they would just have to hope for the best.
At the moment, Usopp took watch over him, finally giving Chopper a break after keeping watch for the whole previous night. They could all see how stressed he was, a situation like this being his Achilles’ Heel—having to just wait and watch, unable to take any action. He said that they could only know the extent of the damage when he was conscious, because physically he was fine. Talks of brain damage stressed the whole crew out, but it seemed more and more likely the longer he remained unnaturally still.
Usopp fiddled with some random invention, something he had previously been workshopping with Franky and couldn’t wait to finish, but now couldn’t care less for. His fingers worked absently, mind obviously occupied with other things. But it was a necessary distraction. Since coming in here, he had purposefully been avoiding looking at Luffy except when absolutely necessary to check his vitals each hour. There was something disturbing about seeing someone that was ordinarily so full of life and movement lying completely still like this. Usual snoring and muttered requests for meat now absent, leaving nothing in its place. And the image of a loved one lying in a hospital bed like this invoked no good memories—Nami with her fever and his mom on her deathbed being the last people he’d seen looking as dire as this. He tried to keep his mind off it, that’s why he pulled out his project in the first place, but clearly it wasn’t working.
He looked at the clock, seeing that it was approaching the top of the hour. Time to check on Luffy’s vitals. He sighed and drew his eyes away from the clock and towards the body splayed across the bed, ready to see the alien tranquility of his captain’s face.
Luffy was staring right at him.
Usopp couldn’t help but flinch. He looked back and forth around the room—searching for what, he didn’t know—before meeting Luffy’s eyes again. He seemed to be observing Usopp as much as Usopp was observing him. It was odd for sure, but, that aside, Usopp’s brain finally managed to get back with the program.
“Luffy!” He yelled standing up to approach the bed, “You’re awake!”
Luffy only stared at him silently, seeming taken aback by Usopp’s words, tilting his head to the side in curiosity. His eyes were wide and he had a pleasant almost-smile dancing across his lips. He…wasn’t acting right.
Typically, the first thing Luffy would do, no matter how beaten and bruised he was, was spring up, smiling, and start begging Sanji for meat. The moment he was awake, he would instantly soothe the crew’s worries by returning to normal and filling the previously somber silence with his laughter. Now, though he had woken up, eyes wide open and having sat up when Usopp approached him, he still felt as dead as he had all night. Maybe some odd behavior would have been forgiven in any other person who had suffered unknown injuries and been unconscious all night, but this was Luffy. Maybe Chopper’s fears of brain damage weren’t unfounded after all.
Usopp still tried to calm his nerves before jumping to conclusions though.
“...Are you feeling alright, Luffy?”
His head tilted in the other direction, dead silent, uncomprehending.
“Luffy?” He had straightened up and backed away from where he previously moved towards Luffy. He fiddled nervously with his hands, not knowing how to approach this new situation. “You’ve been unconscious since yesterday. We got in a fight with some pirates and they hit you with some kind of Devil Fruit ability. Do you…remember that?”
Luffy stopped looking at him and turned his attention to the rest of the room, observing the medical books and knick knacks with wonder.
“Um, okay. I’m going to go get Chopper. Just, uh, stay here, I guess. Okay? Okay. I’m gonna go now.” He said turning and rushing through the door, not really wanting to be the one dealing with this situation anymore.
As he ran through the halls of Sunny towards the deck, his mind ran through an endless amount of negative scenarios. There was clearly some kind of brain problem, maybe he couldn’t talk—would never talk again. Maybe he couldn’t even understand what Usopp had been saying. Maybe he had lost his memories and was trying to figure out who Usopp was.
Luffy’s eyes were usually very expressive, and though he hadn’t known how to read them when they first met—too intimidated by his inhuman strength and absurd behavior—he now considered himself fluent, proudly considering himself Luffy’s best friend. But those eyes in the infirmary, he didn’t know how he was supposed to read those.
As he burst through the doors finally leading out onto the deck, morning light temporarily blinding him, everyone on deck turned to stare at the commotion. Only Zoro, Brook, and Nami were on deck, all occupied with separate activities.
Nami was the first to break free of her surprise. “Usopp? What’s-”
“Where’s Chopper?” Usopp interrupted with urgency plaguing his words.
Nami instantly seemed to grasp the situation, and her confused frown deepened further with worry. All the while, the two remaining on deck straightened to attention, looking between Usopp and the direction of the infirmary, almost as if they could see through the walls to Luffy and identify the problem.
“He’s sleeping. In the men’s quarters.” She answered shortly. As soon as he heard, he ran in that direction, getting Chopper the only thing on his mind. As he did, Nami and the rest followed behind him, eager to learn the problem and ready to help in any way.
As he came into the men’s quarters he saw Chopper sleeping fitfully in his hammock. He felt momentarily regretful for waking him when he so obviously needed the rest, but that thought was fleeting among the many disaster scenarios his mind had conjured up.
As soon as he shook him awake, Chopper shot up and looked around in confusion, before settling on Usopp. “Usopp?”
“It’s Luffy. He’s awake and…I think something’s wrong.”
Chopper's expression instantly fell in concern, before settling into resolve. In the background he heard the gasps of both Nami and Brook, while Zoro—and Sanji, who had joined them at some point—only looked on in troubled silence. Chopper jumped out of the hammock and ran towards the infirmary, not even stopping to grab his hat.
When they reached the infirmary, after what felt like an eternity, Chopper turned around to face everyone following behind him and gestured for all of them to stand back. Then, he carefully pushed the door open—urgent, but still letting remnants of anxiety peak through his professional doctor persona.
As Usopp peered from the doorway along with the others, he saw that Luffy had yet to move from his place sitting on the bed. He had instantly turned his head at the sound of the door opening and stared at Chopper with even more curiosity than he had at Usopp. A smile broke out on his face, though to Usopp it still seemed different. But it seemed that Chopper didn’t take it the same way. As soon as he was met with Luffy’s “familiar” grin, his shoulders relaxed and he fully approached the side of the bed, pulling some tools from a nearby desk.
“Luffy! How are you feeling?” He said, seemingly just making conversation, but Usopp also knew that he was testing his cognitive awareness.
Luffy’s mouth dropped open in confusion, before his eyes drifted from the form of Chopper to the five of them crowding the doorway. It seemed like his condition hadn’t changed much then. Chopper seemed rightfully troubled by this behavior, following Luffy’s gaze before turning back to him. He clapped his hooves together to catch Luffy’s attention which worked as he turned towards the noise.
“Luffy, this is important, pay attention.” He said as sternly as possible, “What is the last thing you remember? Do you know where you are right now?”
Luffy’s expression didn’t change, but he did begin to lean forward and reach an arm out. Before he could react, Luffy’s hand landed on Chopper’s head and he began to pet him, smiling at the softness. Where Chopper might normally enjoy this, he now only looked at Luffy in confusion. Carefully he grabbed Luffy’s wrist and pulled his hand off his head, to the visual displeasure of Luffy, who was now frowning and still hadn’t dropped that look of confusion. It wasn’t uncommon for Luffy to be temporarily confused—none of them were following him for his intelligence after all—but he usually moved onto other things as soon as he realized he didn’t understand something. For him to look so lost…suffice to say, Chopper and the rest of the crew watching were starting to realize, not necessarily the severity of the situation, but the sense that something was terribly wrong.
“Can you understand what I’m saying, Luffy?” Chopper asked, the final question tinged with hope—or desperation—before he really started to dig for a serious problem.
But, of course, he was met with nothing.
Chopper sighed out a long breath, last remnants of hope leaving with it. His shoulders fell not with relief, but with disappointment.
At the very least, now that he was awake, Chopper could find out what the problem was. Hopefully.
After gathering himself for a moment, he turned to the crew gathered in the doorway, faces all adorned with matching grave expressions. “One of you should probably alert the others that Luffy is awake. And also that we still have major problems.”
They looked amongst each other for a second before Brook wordlessly decided to volunteer, speed walking away to gather the others. Before Chopper could get back to running tests on Luffy, he was interrupted by Zoro.
“Do you know what’s wrong with him, Chopper?” He asked, straight to the point as always.
“Well,” He began, “I’ll run some tests, but right now I’m thinking there may be damage to the Broca’s or Wernicke’s area, although there might be possible memory issues as well. Maybe a severe case of PTA?”
As he rambled off some more theories, he was met with blank stares from all of them.
“Basically, he may have damage to the parts of his brain that control speech and understanding language, not to mention possible amnesia and general confusion due to head trauma.” He amended, “Although it is possible that it’s something less…straightforward. Devil Fruit abilities are unpredictable after all.”
After receiving varying looks of understanding from all of them, he pondered on his theories a little longer. His mind hypothesized faster than he could share with the crowd. After a moment he turned back to his tools and began to run some simple tests on Luffy. His pupils responded normally—no sign of a concussion then—and then checked his mouth, his nose, his ears, his breathing. All of this he had already checked while he was unconscious, but he figured he would be thorough. Luffy, at the very least, seemed entertained. At first he was resistant, especially towards the light shone in his eye and down his throat. But eventually he seemed to realize that Chopper wasn’t trying to hurt him. After completing all the steps of a usual check-up, he decided to finish by testing the patellar reflex. He pulled the bed sheet away from where it had pooled in Luffy’s lap, revealing his legs. He wasn’t thinking too hard about it, until he heard the first sound out of Luffy in hours.
Luffy gasped and when Chopper looked up he saw that Luffy was staring in shock at his own legs. He looked between his legs and Chopper, apparently seeking an answer to a question Chopper didn’t know he was asking. He reached down and grabbed his own legs, feeling from the thighs down to his toes. Then he started wiggling his toes, fascinated by his own movements. All the while, Chopper observed him curiously.
“Why’s he doing that?” Nami asked.
“I-I don’t know.” He tapped his hooves together anxiously. He didn’t know what was causing this sudden fascination, but he was almost glad in a way to see Luffy moving with more life.
“Woah, woah!” Sanji called out, drawing Chopper’s attention back to Luffy who was pulling the waistband of his shorts up to look down at his own family jewels. He still just wore the same inquisitive expression.
“Quit that.” Chopper ordered slapping his hand away.
Luffy glared at him before sighing dramatically. He flopped back onto the bed, head softly hitting the pillow, and lifted his legs so he could continue to observe his feet. Then, he reached out and grabbed the mini hammer right out of Chopper’s hooves.
“Wha-Hey!”
Luffy grinned at him mischievously before starting to whack him on the head and on his antlers.
“Ow! Stop it!” He yelled, jumping away from Luffy’s range. In the background, the four of them laughed at him, accepting anything willing to break the tension that had infected the air since they arrived.
Chopper glared over at Luffy who was now using the hammer to—more gently—hit his own legs. “Sanji, could you go and cook something for Luffy? Preferably with a lot of meat, it might help him return to normal quicker. And it might keep him preoccupied so he stops hitting me with my hammer.”
“Right, of course.” Sanji nodded, before he, too, departed.
Nami and Zoro had creeped their way into the infirmary, getting tired of waiting in the doorway. Usopp excused himself, not wanting to stick around for too much longer and going to take a well-needed nap—not that he was likely to get much shut eye. Nami took a seat in one of the chairs, while Zoro leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. Luffy seemed especially interested in the swords that hung on Zoro’s hip.
For now, they would rest here and keep Luffy company while Chopper ran some more tests and researched.
—
The infirmary had settled into a peaceful silence, Chopper (who had since acquired his hat from his bedside) and Nami poring over books while Zoro kept a watchful eye under the guise of dozing off.
The rest of the crew had come in some time earlier to check on Luffy, see the damage for themselves, and had all left, either to occupy their minds or to get away from the sight of their captain in somewhat poor health. It was too small for that many people to crowd the room anyway.
The somewhat peaceful silence was broken by the sudden alertness of Luffy. He sat up straight and turned his head towards the door, seemingly sniffing something out. Probably the smell of Sanji’s meat cooking. Luffy always had the best nose for that, better even than Chopper, who had a sense of smell a thousand times better than that of a human. But Luffy always was one to break rules.
Moments later, everyone present began to go back to their activities, content with the fact that Luffy still reacted to meat like normal and would be fed soon. But just as they did, Luffy flung his legs off the bed, making as if to stand up. But as he began to stand, he just as quickly crumpled to the ground, his legs giving way like a newborn deer. Everyone in the room jumped at the commotion, Zoro the closest to catching him, but still missing by a couple of inches.
“Luffy! Are you okay!?” Nami cried, reaching out to help him up along with Zoro. Luffy only glared at his own legs before attempting to stand. He failed again and again though, not able to get up on his own.
Chopper observed the whole thing worriedly. Now that he thought about it, he wasn’t able to complete the reflex test earlier because Luffy’s fascination with his own legs had distracted him. He couldn’t help but worry that there was something wrong with his legs now—maybe that’s why he had been staring at them so intently—possibly some sort of partial paralysis. Luffy definitely hadn’t been down long enough for muscle atrophy to set in. The initial fall could have been attributed to weakness, maybe hunger, but the fact that he still couldn’t move his legs properly made him worry.
It seemed like he adjusted fast, however, because as he continued watching on Luffy finally managed to get his feet under him. With the help of a befuddled Nami and Zoro, he actually stood up, immediately making his way towards the door. The two crewmates seemed unsure of what to do, turning back to Chopper for guidance.
Chopper considered the situation dubiously. Generally, he would end this behavior immediately, making Luffy return to bed rest—not that he ever listened—but he was curious what Luffy would do. Now that he was unable or unwilling to talk, it was important to listen to his actions. Chopper communicated all this silently, and Nami and Zoro turned back to helping Luffy. But it seemed that he didn’t want the help as he started pushing them off him. They listened, but continued to hover behind him. Chopper followed even further back, observing.
As he walked on, his gait became more steady, although it was still nowhere near where it should be.
He seemed to navigate the halls by smell alone, still frequently getting lost. So he definitely had some sort of memory problems, as Chopper suspected. They finally made their way out onto the deck where Luffy, predictably, headed straight for the kitchen where they could all now smell the aroma of meat.
However, as he was about to begin ascending the stairs—something that would no doubt be challenging even with his quick progress—he turned towards the sight of the ocean. He seemed struck by the view, similar to how he was when he saw his legs in the infirmary. His slack jaw raised into a smile before he ran into a dead sprint towards the railing.
All three of them had been watching, but were still startled by the sudden movement, not expecting the previously stumbling Luffy to be so ready to burst into action.
Zoro ran after him first, not fully understanding what was happening, but having a bad feeling about the sight of his anchor of a captain in a full sprint towards the ocean—his main weakness.
As Luffy jumped onto the railing and began to dive straight into the water, Zoro missed the back of his shirt by mere centimeters, failing to grab him in time.
“Shit!” Zoro hissed out, seeing Luffy finally disappear into the water.
Quickly, he disarmed his swords from the side of his hip, gently tossing them to the side, before jumping up over the railing and following Luffy into the water.
Chopper and Nami had followed him to the railing, staring anxiously at the waves crashing against the side of the boat. They turned to each other in mutual shock, before returning their gaze back to the water.
The familiar sound of two plunges into the water had drawn the curious attention of the remaining crew members, Sanji arriving first from the kitchen, and the rest appearing from the depths of the ship.
“Was that…” Robin questioned first.
“Yeah, it was Luffy!” Chopper yelled, turning back from where he peered over the railing.
“He jumped off the side of the ship!” Nami finished, equally as distressed.
“Sorry?” Robin asked, clearly taken aback.
“He jumped!?” Sanji yelled, running down the stairs from the kitchen and joining them at the railing. The rest of the crew followed his lead, all anxiously awaiting Zoro and Luffy’s surfacing in a way they usually didn’t. Luffy falling into the water was an almost daily occurrence, nowadays it hardly ticked their radar. But Luffy purposefully jumping? That was another concern entirely.
Finally, after an age of waiting, Zoro resurfaced with a drowsy, disoriented Luffy in his arms. One of them scrambled to throw the ladder down, all of them gathered around impatiently waiting as Zoro climbed up.
Zoro heaved his way over the railing before dumping Luffy onto the ground where he heaved and spit up water, still feeling the effects of his sudden plunge. This was all a well-practiced routine, a familiar sight aboard the Thousand Sunny. But the way they all hovered was nothing but abnormal.
Upon seeing them all crowd around their slowly rousing captain, Chopper could recognize that that may do more harm than good.
“All of you back off for a second! He’s obviously disoriented, that must be why he jumped. We don’t need to crowd him on top of that.” Chopper called out as he approached Luffy. As Luffy came to, he seemed more confused than anything, not giving any indication as to what caused him to jump. This just confirmed his suspicion that it must have been due to a temporary bout of confusion and not anything more dire. When he first saw Luffy jump, he had more serious concerns, but thinking more clearly now, Luffy didn’t seem the type for sudden on-set suicidal tendencies. Making a quick action plan, he figured that as long as they kept a closer eye on Luffy and away from the railings, the problem would be dealt with.
This didn’t fix any long-term problems, but Chopper knew it would be more effective to deal with one problem at a time.
“You alright?” Zoro asked Luffy who was still lying down on the deck. At this point he knew it was probably pointless, unlikely to get a response, but it was mostly reflex to ask.
Of course, nothing had changed and Luffy ignored him, overlooking his own limbs with a sense of betrayal. It was possible, Chopper thought, that he may have forgotten the fact that he couldn’t swim. It was definitely concerning if he was forgetting that much, but it was extremely difficult to tell with his inability to talk or understand them.
Luffy seemed to realize that staring around confused wouldn’t help him turn up any answers, so he suddenly got up and started to stumble his way to the kitchen. The smell of meat still circled around the deck, and Luffy had returned to his original goal. The crew stared after him baffled by the behavior, especially those crewmates who had spent the least amount of time with him since he had woken up.
“It’s best to just let him go.” Chopper said, causing the whole crew to turn towards him, “As long as we make sure he doesn't pull a stunt like that again, it will only cause more confusion if we keep trying to stop him. We still don’t know what’s going through his mind, so we don’t need any added conflict.”
Everyone took a moment to process that information, some of them nodding along.
“Isn’t that similar to the treatment of dementia patients, Chopper?” Robin asked, morbid as ever. That immediately sent a wave of unease through the crew.
“Yes, it is. But that doesn’t mean that he has anything as serious as that. We don’t know enough to worry yet.”
They seemed slightly eased by that, however forced they had to make it. Meanwhile, Luffy had made his way into the kitchen while the rest of them followed, eager to observe, but careful not to crowd behind him. There was meat spread about the counter and some still left in the pan from where Sanji had abandoned it. Luffy went straight for it, eating with the same animalistic tendencies he usually did, meat juice dripping down his chin and arms. The rest of them started to take a seat, trying to distract themselves by digging into the meal Sanji had made. There was plenty of it, too, as Sanji was always one to cook to relieve his stress.
But weirdly enough, after taking a couple of bites, Luffy paused. He slowly finished chewing the meat that was still left in his mouth before bringing the cut of meat away from his face and inspecting it. He made a slightly disgusted face and set it down, to the amazement of the rest of the observing crew. They had seen a lot of weird stuff today, things that had made them worry beyond belief, but Luffy turning down meat was the final nail in the coffin that was their terrible concern. Sanji, especially, was not just baffled, but hurt. The one thing he could reliably do to help his captain at a time like this was now put in jeopardy. He clenched his fists at his sides and set his jaw, trying not to show too much of his hurt and concern. He watched from the counter distractedly as Luffy walked over to the fridge that was still unlocked from when Sanji had been cooking.
He sniffed through the fridge, pulling out a cut of raw meat. While Sanji was curiously waiting to see what Luffy was about to do, it seems some other members of the crew had caught on and got to their feet hurriedly to stop him.
“Luffy, bro, there’s meat on the counter you can eat!” Franky yelled out with rising urgency.
“Luffy!” Chopper yelled out, not wanting to deal with Luffy getting physically sick on top of a mental sickness.
Finally, Sanji caught on to what he was about to do, after staring confused at his crewmates for a moment. “Oh, shit, Luffy!”
But before any of them could stop him, Luffy once again got his way and bit right into a slab of raw meat. He devoured it with the same intensity he normally ate meat—usually cooked—finishing the whole piece in mere seconds.
“Should we stop him?” Zoro asked Chopper, unsure if this counted as “letting Luffy do what he wants”.
“Yes, stop him!” Chopper shrieked, running around the counter to go grab Luffy, “Humans can get all sorts of bacteria eating raw meat!”
As Chopper reached Luffy, he started trying to wrestle the meat out of Luffy’s hands, but that proved futile as Luffy used his superior strength to hold on and keep eating. He kept grabbing more from the fridge and devouring it in a mere moment.
Zoro trudged over and was finally able to wrench the meat out of his hands, grabbing him under the arms and dragging him away from the fridge like a misbehaving kitten. Luffy fought for a little while longer—surprisingly enough not using his Devil Fruit abilities. He actually hadn’t used them at all since waking up—before finally giving in with a roll of his eyes. He crossed his arms across his chest and pouted as Zoro continued to drag him away.
“What should I do with him?” Zoro asked Chopper, who had now become the primary authority while Luffy was still indisposed.
“Take him back to the infirmary. I thought he would be fine to wander around, but who knows what he’ll do next.”
“Alright.” Zoro agreed, dragging him through the door, all while having a one-sided argument trying to get Luffy to stand on his own two feet (he wasn’t successful).
With the captain and first mate gone, Robin acted as the voice of reason when she ordered the crew, “Everyone should go back to their activities. It won’t do to have the whole crew worrying, especially when it’s not at all helpful. Isn’t that right, Chopper?”
Chopper looked up at her with a grateful smile, glad to have someone take the lead for once. As the doctor, he was glad to have the knowledge to be able to help his crewmates, but times like these were the most stressful. When it wasn’t just a little bandaging and a prescription of a good night's rest that he had to take care of. He still wouldn’t change his position for the world, but he could always appreciate someone taking the weight off his shoulders.
“Yeah, that’s a good idea.” He replied before considering a new idea. “Actually, do you think you and Nami could join me in the infirmary? It might be helpful to have some extra eyes to help with the books and Luffy.”
“Yeah, of course.” Nami agreed readily, glad to be able to actively help in some way.
“That’s a good idea, Chopper. Let me stop by the library first to pick up some books that may be helpful.”
With that, everyone had a plan for how they were going to spend the next couple of hours, many just thinking of ways to distract themselves after being unable to do anything to directly help their Captain.
—
As the light of the sun dwindled in the sky, Chopper and the girls’ work continued at a steady pace. They all wanted to slow down from mental exhaustion, but the presence of Luffy in the room with them was a good motivator to continue their work.
His verbal silence did not make him peaceful like one might think, and it was adding another layer of stress to their work. After being confined to one room for most of the day now, he was getting obviously restless, flitting between parts of the room. One moment he would observe Chopper’s tools, the next he would be hovering behind their shoulders as they read and then would transition to perusing through the books on the shelves. For a moment, Chopper watched on, still mildly hopeful that Luffy was getting something out of reading, but when he saw that he was holding the book upside down, he sighed and turned back to his work.
At some point Sanji came in to deliver them all dinner, with Luffy’s plate stacked the highest with meat. Having taken a note from earlier, though, Sanji replaced Luffy’s preferred red meat with sashimi, hopefully finding a good balance between his sudden craving for raw meat while maintaining his health.
When Luffy saw this, he instantly perked up, joy crossing his face in a way it hadn’t since he first saw the ocean. He happily grabbed fistfuls of the raw fish, not even bothering to dip it in the soy sauce. He made noises of pleasure as he finally cleared his plate, Sanji watching on with a major sigh of relief. The three in the infirmary also sent him reassuring looks, grateful for the ingenuity and solution to the food problem from earlier.
In the meantime, Luffy finally took notice of the soy sauce and wasabi that was artfully arranged on the plate and previously ignored. He dipped a finger into the small bowl of soy sauce and popped it into his mouth. He seemed to enjoy it, as immediately afterwards he grabbed the whole bowl and downed it like a cup of sake. The rest watched on in disgust. To fully finish off his plate, and ignorant to the disgusted and curious gazes turned his way, he finally inspected the wasabi. After thoroughly enjoying the previous things on his plate, it seemed he decided to forgo his taste test and instead brought the whole plate up to his mouth to lick the wasabi off. Sanji let out a shocked laugh at this, knowing what was coming, while the girls tittered in laughter and Chopper watched, concerned.
As they all predicted, Luffy immediately recoiled in shock, realizing the effects a mouthful of wasabi had on a person. He started hacking immediately, eyes watering and face turning red, all to the backdrop of the residents of the infirmary laughing at him. He glared at them as best he could through the pain in his mouth, but that only encouraged them further.
Their laughter continued, long after the pain of the wasabi had settled for Luffy, and any observer would have looked at them like they were crazy (like Luffy was doing to them now). But they couldn’t hold it back, desperately chasing a small relief they had been kept from since yesterday when Luffy first dropped out cold. Their lack of sleep and mental exhaustion from reading and worrying also egged them on. Eventually, Luffy, too, joined in, obviously not understanding the joke, but wanting to join in on the shared joy.
Finally, when they all took a moment to calm down, Chopper was the first to suggest they turn in for the night. He couldn’t neglect the health of his other crewmates due to Luffy’s problem, after all. He could see how the anxiety and sleep deprivation was already beginning to wear on their mental states. They all hesitantly agreed, turning back to give Luffy a final good night as they left, even knowing that he wasn’t understanding them.
They eventually worked out a routine to watch Luffy for the night, separate from the usual crow’s nest duties. For tonight they decided to schedule Brook and then Franky for early morning.
As Chopper settled into bed for the second time today, body desperately begging for rest after such a long day, he allowed himself to deliriously hope for just a moment. He knew miracles didn’t just happen—doctors were the ones to make those miracles happen—but it was a nice thought to fall asleep to. That he would wake up in the morning and Luffy would be just fine. That maybe all he needed was more sleep, despite not working last time. He finally drifted off into sleep to images of him and Luffy having a water balloon fight under the scorching summer sun, smiles contagious across their faces.
—
The threads of fate are plucked away, twisted and turned—rearranged. As one thread fades away, a new one takes its place.