Stolen // One Piece

chapter forty-four

Hours had passed since Nami's disappearance, and when the rest of the crew had returned to the ship, finding a pacing Luffy tearing his hands through his hair (and violently shaking, Ace had noted) the Captain had looked up at them with teary eyes.

"Is Nami with you?" he had asked, and the panic in his voice immediately set the others on high alert.

They searched the ship, and then the island, for their beloved navigator, finding zero trace of her or what had happened to her. With each passing moment, Luffy had become more and more inconsolable, until he had a complete meltdown and was practically tearing the small town apart looking for her. Ace and Sabo had restrained him, preventing him from causing any more damage to the city, and dragged him back to the ship, where an unnaturally pale Usopp had informed them that not only was Kaito missing as well, but also all of Usopp's design plans, blueprints, ammo and bombs.

They had been betrayed.

Luffy had been betrayed. By someone he had considered his brother.

Luffy had gone quiet, sitting in a chair, and was staring blankly at the wall while everyone had gathered in the dining hall, discussing their next course of action. Sabo had contacted Dragon, and was in the process of tracking down the Lost Maria.

"What are we gonna do?" Chopper exclaimed, tears spilling down his face. Robin had been stroking the fur on the top of his head, a taught expression on her face. Sanji lit another cigarette, while Zoro spoke.

"Hunt them down, kill Bluejam. Beat the shit out of an obnoxious, annoying teenager." Usopp pinched the bridge of his nose, and sniffed.

"I'm sorry, I thought teaching him how to build weapons would be a good protective measure. I feel responsible for this." Franky patted his shoulder.

"It wasn't your fault, bro. He's just a bad person," he replied. Ace, who was biting his nails out of stress, nodded at him.

"I should have known," Luffy said finally, still staring at the wall with a blank expression. "The way that he had found us when we were headed up the mountain, and the fact that he had completely trusted Kaito on his own and took all of the other crew members for us to escape. I should have known." His voice was cold and detached, as if he was unfeeling, while his eyes seemed dull and empty. No one quite knew how to respond, so Sanji had walked over and put a comforting hand on his back.

"We're going to find her, Luffy." He didn't reply, just closed his eyes.

~  ~  ~  •  ~  ~  ~

It was the middle of the night. They had spent the rest of the day planning what they would do when they found them. Dragon had found the Lost Maria, and the Straw-Hats were already on course, thanks to Ace and Sabo's combined knowledge of sailing the Grand Line.

Luffy hadn't uttered a single word for the remainder of the evening, instead choosing to sit on the Lion's Head in silence.

Bluejam used Kaito to get close to him. He knew that Luffy loved adding to his chosen family, and so a teenager that was seemingly completely alone with no family, that seemed to love adventure, would be a perfect addition to his crew. Kaito had likely been spying for Bluejam the entire time.

Luffy should have known. He should have recognized the red flags in the situation. He should have paid attention.

But he didn't, and now Nami was in immense danger. She was a beautiful young woman, on a ship with plenty of evil, horrible, moral-less men. She was also one of Luffy's closest friends, if not more, making her all the more valuable to the evil man. And because she didn't possess any Devil Fruit powers, and had left her Clima-Tact in the study, she was completely unarmed.

Gods only knew what sort of horrors she could have been enduring at that moment. Luffy, on the one hand, didn't want to imagine what Bluejam could be doing to her, as the images of what might be happening made him sick to the pit of his stomach. But on the other hand, imagining the trauma she could be going through was fueling his anger.

Luffy at least knew Bluejam would leave her alive long enough for the nineteen-year-old brunet to arrive on their ship; she was Luffy's bait. His weakness. He would do anything to save her.

He was going to kill Bluejam the second he saw him. Well, he would make it a slow death, torture him the way that he had tortured Luffy. The way that Porchemy had tortured seven-year-old Luffy. The way that Bluejam was most likely torturing Nami. Bluejam would scream for mercy at the hands of the Captain of the Straw-Hat crew. And Luffy would simply laugh at him, until he grew bored and finished him off.

Luffy didn't care that his body was practically falling apart. He didn't care that if he battled he would most likely be critically wounded, if not killed. He would save Nami, no matter what. He would also kill Bluejam, even if it was the very last thing he ever did.  Bluejam didn't deserve to live a second longer.

A smooth male voice behind him interrupted his murder-plot, but he needn't have turned to see who it belonged to.

"Luffy, you should rest," Sabo said, though he knew his stubborn younger brother would do no such thing until his beloved navigator was safe on board the Sunny. He leaned on the railing beside him when he didn't reply, and sighed. "You should at least stop kicking yourself in the ass for trusting Kaito. It wasn't your fault." Luffy scoffed.

"Yeah? It's not my fault for spilling all of my secrets to a stranger in an enemy ship? For bringing him aboard my ship? That's not my fault?" The older gave him a look he couldn't read. Luffy scrunched his face in anger. "Nami is going through hell right now Sabo! Bluejam is an evil man, with a captive woman on his ship! If he tortured me god only knows what he's doing to her!" Luffy threw his hands into the air. The anger that had wrapped itself around his heart squeezed, and tears had started slipping down his face. "She's probably so—so scared—," he broke off to sob, burying his face in his hands. "I've put her in so much danger..." he wrapped his arms around his torso to hold himself together while he broke down.

Sabo just stared at the ocean in front of them, tears escaping his eyes as well.