Chapter Text
Boredom. Unexpected boredom. That was the first warning sign Luffy noticed.
Not right away, of course. At first, everything was good — too good to question.
The table before him stretched almost halfway across the village. Meat was piled high along its entire length: roasted, smoked, glistening with fat, with thick bones made for grabbing in both hands. Whenever one plate was emptied, someone immediately replaced it with another.
Music played. People laughed, drank, shouted over one another, and every now and then began chanting his name.
“Straw Hat! Straw Hat! Straw Hat!”
Black flags bearing his Jolly Roger snapped above the square, and Luffy laughed along with everyone else. His straw hat sat on his head as usual. No crown, which pleased him most of all. Apparently, he could be King of the Pirates without having to wear something stupid.
He tore a bite from the enormous leg of some animal, chewed only as much as he needed to swallow, and immediately reached for another piece.
“More!”
Someone nearby burst out laughing. “Of course!”
A new dish appeared in front of him within seconds. Luffy kept eating until even he had to admit he’d had enough for now. Then he lay back on the table, folded his hands behind his head, and stared at the sky. It was blue and clear, without a single cloud. A warm breeze came from the sea, and somewhere close by, waves rolled lazily against the shore.
He was the King of the Pirates. Everyone knew it.
There was nothing left to prove, no one to catch up with, and no one to run from. The Marines weren’t chasing them. No one was trying to take his hat. None of his friends were wounded, captured, or dying. For the first time since the journey began, there was no problem waiting ahead.
Luffy lay there a little longer, then abruptly sat up. Something about all of this felt strange, but he couldn’t work out what.
“Hey.”
The music continued.
“Hey!”
The nearest man turned at once, a broad smile on his face. “Yes, King of the Pirates?”
Luffy frowned. “Where are the others?”
The man blinked, looking briefly surprised. “The others?”
“My crew.”
His smile widened. “They’re happy.”
“Where?”
“Each of them is where they always wanted to be.”
Luffy jumped down from the table. The crowd parted immediately, as though they had been waiting for him to move.
“Where’s Nami?”
“She finished her map of the entire world.”
“Usopp?”
“He became a great warrior of the sea.”
“Chopper?”
“The world’s greatest doctor.”
Luffy nodded. “Robin?”
“She learned the true history.”
“Franky?”
“His ship sailed around the world.”
“Brook?”
“He returned to Laboon.”
“Jinbe?”
“He saw a world where humans and fish-men live as equals.”
Luffy barely listened to the end of that answer.
“Zoro?”
“He became the world’s greatest swordsman.”
“Sanji?”
“He found the All Blue.”
It was all right. Those were the things they had always wanted.
Luffy turned toward the sea.
A ship stood at the harbor. It was huge and white, decorated with gold, its sails so clean that it looked as though it had never seen a storm or a fight. Luffy studied it for several seconds.
“Where’s the Sunny?”
The man blinked again. “Your journey is over, King of the Pirates.”
Luffy slowly turned his head. “I asked where the Sunny is.”
“You no longer need a ship.”
People were still laughing behind him. Glasses clinked, and the music continued to play, but Luffy could no longer hear any of it properly.
“Why?”
“Because you achieved your dream.”
Luffy waited for him to continue. When he didn’t, Luffy said, “So?”
This time, the man gave no answer. He simply kept smiling.
Luffy looked around the square. Faces surrounded him in every direction, all of them happy, all of them watching him with admiration. That was when he realized no one here was preparing to leave.
“Where are we sailing tomorrow?”
The music continued for several more seconds, then stopped. Someone in the crowd answered, though Luffy couldn’t tell who.
“Nowhere.”
He turned toward the voice.
“Your journey is complete.”
That was when Luffy finally understood.
For several seconds, he stood perfectly still. Then he snorted and began to laugh. It wasn’t the laughter he had shared with the crowd earlier. This one was real, brought on by the sheer stupidity of everything around him. He bent forward, holding his hat in place with one hand.
“What a stupid dream.”
No one laughed with him.
When Luffy straightened, the smiles around him were still there. Now he could see how alike they all were, as though they had been painted onto dolls.
“This is not a dream,” the man said.
“It is.”
“You have everything you wanted.”
“Yeah.”
Luffy returned to the table, picked up the nearest piece of meat, took a bite, and grimaced.
“That’s how I know.”
The wind vanished. It didn’t weaken; it simply stopped, as though someone had switched it off. The flags fell still, and the sound of the sea disappeared with it.
Luffy dropped the meat back onto the plate in disgust.
“Sanji would never use this much salt.”
The man who had answered him so pleasantly took a step back. Luffy gave him a broad smile. Things were finally beginning to make sense.
“And Nami would’ve hit me ages ago for lying on the table.”
The man took another step back.
“Usopp would spend three hours telling everyone how I only became King of the Pirates because of him.”
Someone in the crowd twitched. A faint ripple passed through the square, and the faces began to blur like reflections on water.
“And Chopper would tell me I’m not allowed to eat this much,” Luffy continued. “Then he’d believe me if I said meat was medicine.”
A dry crack sounded high above the square.
Luffy looked up.
A thin fracture had appeared across the flawless blue sky. It grew slowly, branching outward until it cut through the sun. There was no blue on the other side of it.
Only darkness.
Luffy narrowed his eyes. The wider the crack became, the wider he smiled.
“Found it.”
Then he struck.