Chapter Text
Chapter one – Keep running.
It felt like yesterday when he was laughing on his father's lap, and stuffed his mouth with all the food he could find. He remembered how they had celebrated his 7th birthday and he received a huge strawhat as a gift. He was bummed out about the old hat, but remembered it was his mother's most prized possession – one which she was ALWAYS careful about. It was now HIS only treasure.
A few weeks ago, their small, cozy home was attacked by men in masks, knives, and guns - BIG ones, too.
He remembered clearly how his father tried defending his mother and him, and mother's arm shook as she held him close, pushing the strawhat on his face. The next moment, Luffy felt someone give him a gentle push out of the short window which Luffy always jumped out of. He looked up confused.
His mother was crying. Why was she crying? Dad would fight the bad guys! He looked towards the window, pushing the strawhat back. He saw his mother's tear-stained face smiling down at him as she yelled, "LUFFY! I love you! You are our most precious treasure, BUT KEEP RUNNING AND DON'T STOP!"
He ran. As far as his legs could carry him. He couldn't understand anything that happened, but he obeyed his mother's command without any doubts. He didn't know how long he could run before they found him.
He felt like he had been running forever, and it was way past his bedtime. Dad would have scolded him for being up so late on a usual day, with his mother smiling and tucking him in. He pouted as tears threatened to come out. He was not about to cry! He had to follow his mom's command and keep running!
In the dark of the streets, he found an abandoned house, which he hadn't seen before. Luffy ALWAYS used to explore their street whenever he went out for short walks with his mother. But he didn't recognise this place.
Did he run that far? He felt proud. He was finally exploring even further. He found his way in the old building, which he felt was scary and weird. He could also smell something funny. Yet he was tired and decided to just nap in the building. Why not?
He awoke the next morning and began fumbling for his hat. Putting it on, he jumped up when he felt dust all around him. OH. He remembered the events of the previous night. He had run away.
He wondered where his parents were. Could they escape? Tears stung his eyes as he felt he would never see them again. He looked around with blurry eyes as he registered his bearings. It was an old, dusty warehouse.
It had one floor above, where he noticed just one room. Deciding to explore, he stood up and shook the dust off as he tried the handle of the door. It opened smoothly and noiselessly, and Luffy walked in.
He noticed a blue haired man with a funny nose dozing off. He ran up to him, excited at the presence of another human, though a little funny.
He did the only thing he could think off, squeezing the big round nose, hard. The man jolted awake, with wide eyes. "WHO DARES-!"
Luffy started laughing at the funny clown man. "You are so funny old man!" he exclaimed.
"Who are you, you brat?" he yelled, startling Luffy.
"I'm Luffy. Who are you?" He asked innocently.
"This is my house. How dare you walk in? Where are your parents?" The clown man demanded.
"I don't know where they are" he replied.
"OH? Is that so?" the clown man replied, smirking.
The next thing he knew, Luffy was being taken away by weird people to someplace they called a "Foster home".
He was thrown in another dusty warehouse, much like the first one, after just a few minutes. Was there another place like that warehouse this close?
Here he found a big man with many bottles around him, sleeping heavily. Luffy decided to wake him up, promptly after which he found himself being slapped across his cheek. His strawhat flew and so did he.
"WHO ARE YOU?" The man yelled.
The man paused. "Oh. That fucker Buggy. Didn't even let me know!"
He strode up to Luffy, and lifted him up with his arm as he dangled. Luffy did NOT like this man. He wasn't like his parents, or even his aunt - Makino. They all felt very warm and safe.
"You must be new here, kid. I'm going to be your 'dad' from now. And you must ALWAYS listen to what your dad says, alright?"
"NO! I WILL NEVER CALL YOU DAD!" Luffy yelled.
"You little-" Luffy saw his world spin as he landed on another heap of wood. He just stood up as he saw his arms were bleeding and wiped it off.
The big man stared at him for a long moment. He looked closely at the kid who didn't even flinch as he wiped the blood off from his arms. What did that mean? He observed him under a sharp gaze. Luffy felt uncomfortable now.
Who was this man? Why did he have to call another man his dad? He did not understand and did NOT like any of this. He just wanted to run back to his parents and Makino. He also wanted to meet Shanks, the nice man who always gave Luffy his favourite juice and candies too.
These 4 people were the only ones Luffy had around him - with Shanks and his father going away for several days but mom always stayed with him. Makino visited on occasions like birthdays. He missed them all.
He was brought back the present as he noticed a presence looming over him. The big man now was smiling widely - which surprised Luffy. He knew this man was not going to like Luffy and Luffy felt the same way. What did he want?
"You couldn't feel that could you?" He asked. Feel what?
As if the man read Luffy's thoughts, he pulled out a knife from behind his jacket. Luffy felt truly afraid now. It reminded him of the people from his home - who attacked his family. The big man forcefully grabbed Luffy's face and attempted to stab Luffy's squirming face. Luffy was concerned about his hat which was still lying where he fell when he had been slapped. Suddenly he felt something cold against his face, under his eye – the knife. Luffy slowly opened his eyes to see the man smiling - in a crazed state. "OH YES! YOU COULD NOT FEEL THAT!" He yelled as Luffy felt that part of his face feel colder as something dripped across his cheeks.
Blood.
Luffy wiped it all off. Why was he making a big deal out of nothing? What did Luffy have to feel? He remembered how his mom told him that he was special and couldn't feel physical pain at all - not like others did. Oh.
The man meant that.
"Y-Yes, I couldn't feel that." Luffy said, afraid that the man will yell again.
"That's GREAT. Finally, that clown sent me something worth playing with."
The next few days were a blur. Luffy just remembered the man introducing himself as porcu- no, porchime? no, porchemy. Yes, that was it. Porchemy. He was forced to call him dad, but Luffy never did and he knew he was being beaten up, but wondered the point when he just fell asleep at the end. Did the man mean to hurt Luffy? He was tired of this cycle now.
Every day the man would give him one piece of bread and force him to call him dad and just beat him (was that what beating up meant?) till Luffy eventually fell asleep. The only comfort Luffy found was his precious treasure – the strawhat. He woke up to the same dusty roof every morning and the first thing he looked for was his hat. It was his only treasure. Something his mother always protected – now was his job to protect.
The days blurred together.
Bread.
Beatings.
Sleep.
Wake up.
The warehouse was completely empty apart from a couch at the centre, a big bat with which he beat Luffy, and a television - where this man just watched random things Luffy couldn't understand.
Luffy felt sadder as the days passed. He remembered how his mom told him one day is when the sun rises and sets both, so according to that Luffy thought he had been here for about 10 days? He wasn't sure.
Luffy eventually completely stopped talking or even looking at this porchemy guy as he just yelled and beat Luffy up all day, and gave him bread at the end of it. Luffy just pushed his hat to cover his eyes and looked down all the time.
On another such day, Porchemy received a call in the middle of the 'beating' session- when he jolted up and stood to receive it. A bloody and groggy Luffy finally looked up at him.
"OH, boss Bluejam! What an honour! It's been so long! Should I bring some booze for you?"
"Oh, a job? I will gladly do it!"
"Yes, right now. Thank y-" Luffy heard the click of the call ending.
Instantly Porchemy's smiling face contorted into a nasty expression as he spat. "WHO DOES THAT FUCKER THINK HE IS? I WAS JUST IN THE MIDDLE OF PLAYING WITH MY TOY TOO!" He glanced at Luffy.
"Ugh, what do I do with him now? I have to go."
Luffy was too tired to pay attention as he heard footsteps approach him and that man pulled his face closer to his and said "Stay here my son. Dad will be back soon. If I come here and find you missing, you know what will happen don't you?"
Luffy nodded shakily.
Satisfied, Porchemy left. Luffy felt his body slump against the same dusty floor where he had been for a long time. He didn't notice multiple footsteps approaching and suddenly could smell something around him.
He woke up to find people at the door with huge cans and asked "Are you sure this was the place, Laffitte?"
"Yes."
The men left as the entire place was engulfed in flames. Luffy jolted awake as he looked all around him. Fire. Oh, Porchemy WAS about to be angry.
Luffy scrambled towards the door, when a big piece of wood fell right in front of him. Luffy was startled and began to cough as his vision blurred. No. No! He HAD to get out of there.
He didn't know what to do.
It felt hotter and hotter and he knew it was hot but couldn't feel it and as time passed, somehow, he knew nobody was coming... It must have been a few minutes but Luffy felt it was hours. Nowhere left to go and being surrounded with flames,
Luffy remembered his mother's command to KEEP RUNNING.
He finally got up, and jumped over multiple bunches of flames and raced to the door, holding his dear hat close.
Nearly there-
And a sudden wave of smoke startled him, bringing him to his knees. He was SO close!
His vision blurred again, and he was aware of multiple voices again - Porchemy? Oh no. He hoped it wasn't him.
The last thing he remembered was his mom's shaky voice saying "Keep running!"
And everything went black.