𝔸 ℂ𝕠𝕝𝕕 ℝ𝕖𝕒𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟

Chapter 9

A Cacophony of sounds could be heard but none of them could be tied to a person or object with Luffy's eyes closed as they were. The grogginess from the purple gas sat like a weight on his eyelids. Two people held him up by his arms, they dragged him so that the top of his feet were skinned by the ground and he lost a sandal. His head rocked around for a long time before it stopped and he heard it clear as day, Methias' voice through the grogginess "I have brought him as you requested Saint Charlos."

"Yes well done, it brings me great joy to know that he can finally be punished for showing such savagery to one as distinguished as myself" saint Charlos droned.

"I'm happy that you are happy Saint Charlos" Luffy couldn't help but find humour in the situation as Methias so obviously attempted to gain the snotty celestial dragons favour. Charlos chortled

"I quite like your thinking, come with me, guards take that thing to his cage" the orders were said pointedly at Luffy.

They dragged him for over 10 minutes the skin on his feet either being scraped off or becoming red raw. Before he was thrown ,barefoot, onto rough concrete. He stayed laying face down on the ground, unable to build the motivation to even look at his surroundings through the thick haze the gas had put him under.

He managed to roll himself over after 15 minutes of effort and laid on his back, he discovered that his cell was outside and surrounded on all sides by tall buildings with balconies all the way round. He stared up through the bars and from this point of view it looked as if it was not him caged by bars, but that it was the sky that was trapped and that very thought reminded him of his crew, that they would come for him and this was not permanent.

Luffy laughed as he thought that they would probably have better luck trying to keeping the sky in chains than stopping his crew.
———

"You guys do know that, seeing as it's the home of the celestial dragons, there is probably not a place in the whole grand line with better security" Usopp offered already shivering with the coming of a new case of I-don't-wanna-die-itis. With the knowledge of Luffy now being the 'property' of Saint Charlos being passed around the grand line, it had narrowed their search to Mariejois as well as making their mission a whole lot more dangerous.

"Yes, we know. But it happened on our watch if anyone, it should have been one of us, letting our captain get kidnapped right in front of us is a great loss of dignity if we asked for help after losing him we'd be the laughing stock of this pirate era" Zoro said in a manner that not only chastised himself, but everyone on the crew.

"Zoro is right," Nami cut in "if it weren't for me Luffy would still be here, if we asked for help now it would basically be screaming that we're not even strong enough to protect our captain. A good crew protects their leader and we have failed at that task we need to make up for it on our own." Everyone was silent in their agreement though Usopp hung his head already succumbing to his terrible disease. "It will be fine. We all know the plan, first we have to get through the navy base below Mariejois while avoiding patrol's"

"Which is already an impossible feat in it's own right" Usopp added, earning a silencing glare from the rest of the crew  "ahem- right so after that we go up the red line. Once we're in Mariejois we have to do some reconnaissance to try to find where Luffy is being kept."

"What if they find us before then?" Robin suggested

"In that case we'll split up into two teams, the Luffy extraction team and the distraction team. The Luffy extraction team can consist of me, Robin, Chopper and Brook and the rest of you are on distraction." Nami paused as she thought it over and began again "Distraction team in the case that we're discovered before we can find Luffy, you have to make the biggest mess you can muster, really give em hell to bring as many of the guards to you as possible while you guys keep their attention, we'll find Luffy." Nami looked around at everyone, determination clear on their faces.