Undying Flame: A One Piece What If Story

Part 3: Recovery and Declaration

As Luffy sat up in bed, both eyes still closed, he ripped meat off of several bones, then threw them to the ground into the already large pile. Usually, I'd be on pace with, or even beating Luffy, but after hearing Bepo tell Law "We gave him our entire ration store", I decided I wasn't that hungry.

At least, I wasn't until Law stood next to me as I sat on the couch, and tapped my shoulder with his elbow. Looking at him, he was holding a small metal box. "You need to eat. You prolly haven't since you were captured."

"I don't know if I can keep it down, and my brother would kill me if I wasted food by barfing." I said, but Trafalgar placed the box in my hand.

"Eat." he said, leaving the room as Luffy kept tearing through the pile of meat. I smiled and opened the humble sized box. It was densely packed with slices of meat, steamed vegetables, and rice. Along the edge were chopsticks, which I cracked and used to eat the meal. As I wrapped up the meal, not leaving a single grain of rice, Luffy burped, the pile of meat gone. Then, he gasped, his eyes shooting open.

"Woooo!" he called, rubbing his stomach, smiling with his eyes closed. Then, he opened them, and saw me. "Ace!" he screamed, extending his rubber arms to me, yanking me off the couch, the metal container landing with a 'ting'. He wrapped his arms around me, grinning. "I'm glad you're safe!" I smiled, then pulled away, Luffy letting me go. I sat on the edge of his bed, smiling as well.

"Nice to see you're full." I said, looking at him. "And thanks for saving me."

Luffy grinned his signature ear to ear grin and replied. "Of course I would! How else would you get to see me achieve my dream?"

"I think you mean 'How could I leave my idiot brother behind?', but okay." I said, smiling. Luffy puffed up his cheeks. "Jinbe swam to a nearby island to find Boa Hancock." I said, starting to fill him in on the most recent developments.

"Hancock!?" Luffy screamed.

"You know her?" I asked, looking at him.

"Yeah, when me and my crew were separated on Sabaody, I landed on her island." he said, tapping his chin while looking upwards, remembering the events. "Then, she helped get me into Impel Down, but you had already left. Then, she stopped the Bear-bot guy while we were trying to save you.

"You casually met a Warlord!?" I asked, my face showing my disbelief. "And she risked her position to save you, of all people!?"

"Yeah, I guess." he said, shrugging. "It's an island of women, so I was out of my element."

"S-So you were completely alone with all those women?" I asked, still awestruck.

"Yeah, and they were all pretty exposed." Luffy said, looking around, his eyes settling on his arm with needles in it. Huh!?!?!? How exposed!?! How many!?!? You gotta give me more, bro! Luffy grabbed the needles out and yanked them out, then dropped them. "That was itchy."

"There's more news, too." I continued, dropping the Hancock conversation. "Apparently, Admiral Sakazuki, the guy who tried to kill us, tried to kill a Marine soldier, but a certain Red Haired Captain showed up and stopped him." I smirked, Luffys eyes lighting up.

"Shanks!?" he asked, his mouth agape. "How long after we left?"

"Dunno." I said, exhaling. "Probably a little bit. It still sucks that you couldn't see him."

"Nah, it's fine." Luffy said, returning to his toothy grin. "I'd be breaking the promise I made to him when he gave me this..." He touched the top of his head, then the back of his neck, the two places his Strawhat would be. I smiled as I pointed over to the door, his hat sitting on a hook. He exhaled, relieved, then continued. "I said I'll give him it back when I've become a great pirate, and I'm not one yet."

"I dunno, Strawhat Luffy." I said, looking at my younger brother. "You're a pretty damn good pirate in my book."

Luffy let his eyes drift up, his smile fading. "Sure, good is good, but I'm not great. I'm still too weak to protect my crew. Unless I can get way stronger, guys like Kuma and Aokiji and Akainu will always beat me. I thought I had gotten stronger with my Gear Second and Third, but I'm still too weak."

"Then let's get stronger." I said, looking at his Strawhat. "If it's to protect your crew, there's no such thing as too much strength."

Luffy met my eyes, both of us having a burning in our eyes now. "Together!" We grabbed each others hands with a clap, gripping the others. "We'll train to get stronger"

I smiled, responding "No matter how hard you train, you'll never beat me."

"I'll have to be." Luffy said, grinning. "The King of the PIrates can't be second fiddle to his brother."

"We'll see then, Rubber Boy." I said, getting in his face. He did the same, our foreheads touching. After gritting our teeth at each other, we both fell backwards, laughing. "Let's do it."