20Monkey D. Luffy. Most would call him a monster. Some would call him insane. And few would call him a lovable idiot. And even fewer would call him Captain.
It's been 12 years since he set out to become the king of the pirates, 10 since Marineford and Ace's death. Luffy became the Pirate King 7 years ago, and since then watched his nakama fulfill their dreams.
The Strawhats had defeated Blackbeard and his crew for the title of Pirate King, the Strawhats won – obviously. He attained the great One Piece, the legendary treasure that the previous Pirate King – Gol D. Roger – left at the end of the Grand Line, Raftel.
Since then Luffy joined up with the Shanks, Law, Kidd, and Marco, who took Blackbeard's place as yonko, and the revolutionaries to take out the world government. And, while they didn't quite get what they wanted, they made sure that the World government was no longer corrupted. The system of the Celestial Dragons was abolished and slaves were set free.
Akainu was dead; Marco and Luffy had become quite the tag team – each taking turns exacting revenge on the marine, and Coby was now Fleet Admiral. Which, lets be honest, Luffy was all too excited about. They battled after everything was settled, not going to kill, but just because they promised to all those years ago in Water 7.
The Strawhats went back to the beginning of the Grand Line again to see Laboon and traveling to the Blues. The went to see each of their homes, going to see the people they loved, before heading back to the conquered sea.
It's been 5 years since then and Luffy has decided that it's time to return.
"Hey, Nami!" Luffy shouted, gaining his navigator's attention. "Set a course for East Blue!"
Nami seemed to hesitate for a moment before shrugging and getting the crew into action. That day had been a lazy and hot one, so most of the crew were relaxing outside and jumped at the chance to do something.
The course was set; the wind was in their favor, propelling them towards their destination. Luffy was still sitting on Sunny's head, but hopped of to go talk to his crew. This wasn't going to be easy… but he had to tell them at some point.
Zoro was the first to notice that something was wrong, next was Sanji. They both opened their mouthed to say something when Luffy shot them a look that told the he was going to explain.
Jinbe was the first to question Luffy on his change of course. Luffy grinned, "I want to…" Luffy's grin slipped off, "uh, I need to talk to you guys." He started playing with the fabric of his shirt. He was nervous; on one hand, he didn't want his crew to worry, on the other he didn't want them to be blindsided by what was to come.
He grinned at his crew again, "I just want to go see Makino and Dadan!" He lied, "Well, I'm going to go call Coby to tell him that we're leaving the Grand Line for a bit! Bye!" He rushed down into his captain's quarters leaving behind a stunned crew.
Zoro and Sanji exchanged a look, not liking what they just saw. Jinbe had his eyes narrowed at the door that Luffy just disappeared behind. The rest of the crew just looked confused.
"What was that about?" Usopp asked Zoro. Out of all the Strawhats, he was the best at knowing what Luffy was thinking. But even he was shut out from time to time.
Zoro shrugged, "I have no idea." While Sanji reared on him.
"Are you out of your mind?!" He hissed, "There's obviously something wrong, he said he would explain, but…!"
Jinbe interrupted Sanji, "I've only seen him that uncomfortable once." The rest of the crew looked up at that, never having seen him act that way. "It was just after the war, on Amazon Lily. It was right after he found out that Ace-san had died."
Mentioning Ace was almost an unspoken taboo on the crew, so Jinbe must have thought it to be very relevant if he brought him up. They never really pried into what happened to each other during their two-year separation. They knew bits of information, but no one ever went into detail. The only one that this didn't hold true for was Jinbe, he had been there when Luffy went through all that he did. He knew pretty much everything that went on.
They were concerned about what Luffy needed to tell them. After all, how bad does it have to be to get the Pirate King nervous to tell his crew?
Luffy slammed the door shut behind him. Telling them what's going on is going to be harder than he thought. He decided to do what he came down here to do. He went over to the desk that stretched to cover the wall opposite his bed. Not that he really ever used this room, just for making private calls really.
He picked up the receiver and dialed the number he has long since memorized, Nami made him memorize several more on top of this one. After what seemed like forever, it picked up.
"Hello?" A voice asked.
"Hey, Coby!" Luffy replied glad to be talking to his friend.
Though he was a marine, he was still nakama. Since over throwing – killing – Akainu, Coby has worked hard to make sure that the marines are actually following their "path to justice". Which meant that he was fine with pirates, as long as they weren't breaking any major rules, for example: no harming or killing of civilians. Which also pretty much meant that Luffy as well as the Yonko; Shanks, Marco, Law, and Kidd – after a talking to from the other yonko and Luffy, the man reluctantly agreed not to cause trouble. So since then, said pirates and marines have been working together to take out any pirate crews or slave traders etc. who were directly going against civilians.
It was a good partnership, but it was going to have to end soon… at least for him.
"Luffy-san?" Coby asked, "What's wrong?"
Luffy sighed, "Coby…" goddamnit it was just as hard as telling his crew was going to be! "I'm leaving the Grand Line."
There was a hesitation, "Why does it sound like you aren't coming back?"
Here goes nothing, "Because I'm not… Listen Coby; my crew may return if they choose to. But, I'm out of time."
"Wh-what?" He stammered, obviously not believing what he heard. "No, no, no! That's not true! It can't be true!"
"Coby, even though you're a marine… you have always been nakama." And he meant it. Like Roger and Garp, they would always have a rivalry, but they would always have each other's backs. "I won't be seeing you again. Take care."
He hung up, he couldn't take hearing his reply.
He picked up the receiver and dialed another number.
"Hello?" A voice answered… but it wasn't the one he wanted to hear.
"It's Luffy." And that was all it took for the man who answered to run out the door in search of his captain.
He didn't wait long, "Luffy'oi," Marco sounded out of breath. "What's the deal?"
"Huh?"
There was the sound of some people leaving the room, "You only ever call if there's someone attacking." He sighed, "Anyway, what's up?" Luffy paused, not knowing if he should ask if there are other people in the room.
"Goddamnit,"Luffy muttered, his lungs were constricting. Like they have been for the last few months, he was wheezing and Marco could tell something was wrong. What surprised Luffy was that he coughed, he pulled his hand away only to see blood. "Shit."
"Luffy'oi!" the slight panic was clear in Marco's voice. Luffy never got sick, he was as stubborn as his brother. "Hey! You alright'yoi?"
"Yeah," Luffy paused to catch his breath. "Actually, that's what I called to talk to you about… I'm leaving the Grand Line. I'm out of time. I don't know if my crew will return, but I'm leaving Zoro in charge if they do… help them out, okay?"
Marco was stunned; he never thought he'd be getting a call like this from Luffy. But he had no choice but to accept his request, Luffy wouldn't joke about something as important as this. "Alright." He didn't know what else to say, they had gotten close over the years, but he was just to shocked to say anything else.
"Goodbye." Luffy hung up.
One last call, and he knew this one was going to be the hardest.
"Hey, Anchor!" Lucky Roo's voice echoed in the silent room.
"Hey, can you get everyone in there with you?" Luffy's request was met with silence.
"Hey, you okay?" Luffy just barely managed to tell him to get them. And a few minutes later Shanks, Benn, Yasopp, And Lucky Roo were in the room.
"Hey, Anchor!" Shanks greeted as cheery as he usually was.
"Hey, Shank's?" A hum of acknowledgement came from the other end of the line, "You know I view you as a father right?"
"What?" Shanks asked, startled by the statement. "And I view you as a son… Why are you bringing this up?"
"And the rest of you I view as uncles!" Luffy was trying his hardest how to completely break down, he was a strong person, no doubt about that. But telling the people you love that this is going to be the last time you ever talk to them? That's hard for anyone, especially when you haven't seen part of your family in so long?
"Luffy…" Ben started.
Yasopp whispered in a soft and caring voice, that few knew existed, "It's okay, you can tell us anything."
"I'm…" The tears and a sob finally escaped his throat. It was quiet, but sounded like a cannon on the other line. And quite honestly, it shocked the four of them. "I'm… dying." The silence that followed was deafening, "I don't have anymore time. We're leaving for East Blue; I'm going home. Help my crew if they decide to return."
The four on the other line were silent. They barely heard the soft goodbye before the line clicked off.