𝔸 ℂ𝕠𝕝𝕕 ℝ𝕖𝕒𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟

chapter 12

His throat was raw, after hours and hours of what seemed like endless screaming, watching himself be cut open and stretched in various ways that in turn ended up aggravating scabbed over wounds, but he was awake through all of it. He was drenched with his own blood but somehow his eyes remained open through some form of pure will. even Vegapunk seemed surprised at that, he expressed that only through a slight raising of his eyebrow as he witnessed eyelids flickering as Luffy forced them to stay open. Luffy's teeth were clenched to the point that his gums bled. "I can see that it was a good idea to leave him in your care Vegapunk" Methias seethed from his spot by the door.

Methias sauntered up to the trolley of various utensils, most of which were covered in Luffy's blood. he picked up a scalpel, which was among the cleaner tools, and came to stand at Luffy's side. Vegapunk watched from afar as he wiped excess blood from his hands with a towel. "you know" Methias pondered aloud as he pressed the sharp edge of the scalpel to his fingertip, lightly enough as to not draw blood.

"It's been dreadfully boring since I gave you to Vegapunk, but I can see he's been taking much better care of you than I was," he complimented as he looked at Luffy struggling to keep his eyes open. "how much longer could you keep him alive in this state?" Methias asked Vegapunk with a joyful grin on his face.

"three days at best," he spat, obviously sick of Methias encroaching on his space, Methias could sense that and even he wasnt brave enough to hang around and see what kind of pain he could extract from him. So wordlessly he raised the scalpel in the air above Luffy and slammed it down, lodging it deep in his thigh, to the point that he felt as it scraped against his femur. Blood pooled at the edges of the wound, and Luffy roared in pain, his voice broken and dry as it lurched from deep inside him.

"Enjoy the rest of your life!" Methias chirped merrily  "or should I say the next three days." Luffy gathered every semblance of sanity he could muster and croaked with the best of his ability.

"I will kill you, no matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide, I will find you and tear you apart so thoroughly that even the old man won't be able to piece you together." Methias just smiled at that and stalked out of the room, obviously not taking the threat seriously. Vegapunk stared down blankly at the wound in Luffy's thigh, only to quickly wrench out the scalpel, causing a groggy groan to surface from Luffy. Luffy was unconscious as Vegapunk muttered joylessly

"make that two days."

___

Nami felt sick as she visualised over and over of the face of her captain as his flesh rotted before her eyes. As the shark submerge shot through the water, she felt as that sick feeling settled in her stomach, to make it's home for the rest of this operation. Robin saw Nami practically turn green and began rubbing her back soothingly, she'd become used to this, to calming Nami when breakdown seemed imminent. Nami gave Robin a grateful smile, and focused herself as she physically shook her head to rid herself of the image.

Soon she would see for herself that all that worrying had been a waste. That her captain was fine, and he'd been waiting for them. She imagined him like that, smiling and waving at her, happy and healthy like she'd last seen him. It made her heart squeeze with joy, but also with doubt as the sour thoughts remained in her mind, thoughts that brought her to a dangerous place. A place where he wasn't fine like she'd hoped, where he was hurt and it was her fault, where he howled in pain, begging for mercy.

Those thoughts nearly broke her, and even though she knew she didn't deserve it, knew that it had been her fault that he was even in danger at all. She still wished for it. The warmth of him, the tight squeeze of his arms wrapped around her, his boyish chuckle that seemed to spark from nowhere, the sparkle in his eyes as he gazed down at her. More than anything she wished to see herself reflected in those dark orbs, orbs that could be as calm and turbulent as the deepest parts of the sea or as wild and uncontrollable as a hurricane.