I'll be back

The promise we made kept chasing me. For moments I almost jumped in the sea, completely sure that I would swim all the way back to them. Still no news about them...or anything, to be honest. Kuma had defeated them, that was something I could be sure of.

But what could've happened to them? What if he did take Luffy's head after all? That thought scared me more than anything in the world. I had to go back.

.

.

.

I was fighting some annoying human-monkeys that somehow were as skilled as me with the sword. My wounds hadn't healed, which was weird. Back when I traveled with my the others, all my wounds would be healed in just one day, no matter how big they were. (Or a few days, at most).

But before the fight could be decided, they all ran away with their tails between their legs. When I turned around, the ''greatest swordsman'' was standing right there, glaring at me.

I wanted to feel relieved, that meant the island wasn't completely apart from other living beings, but out of all the people that could've lived there, it had to be him.

He explained that along with the fact that he was just back from a war with the Marines, something I couldn't care less about until he mentioned my captain

His brother was killed in that war...

The sudden memory of when we met in Alabasta came to mind. Luffy's smile had always been big, but it seemed as twice as big when they met. I couldn't help but ask for more details, I didn't know what a Luffy without a smile looked like, but it sounded like the worst thing in the whole world, and his brother being killed gave me the feeling that Luffy wasn't smiling anymore.

Hawk told me what he saw. He said that they all fell from the sky, but even then, ''he already appeared in very bad shape. He looked desperate, his attacks were impulsive (yet strong somehow), his expression was a mix of desperation, sadness, and fear, and his body was already torn apart even before stepping on the battlefield.''

I listened, my heart ached with every word. That wasn't my captain, what had happened to him?

''He was with a group of weirdos, and eventually joined Whitebeard in battle, sadly his body gave up after just half of the fight, which made complete sense, after all, he kept on using what appeared to be his most powerful attacks, I was sure he wouldn't be able to move an inch for months, but he somehow stood back up after a little while. He refused to give up, I almost thought he had consumed something to keep going, you should have seen it, he managed to rescue his brother, and they even fought together in battle, but when they were about to escape, Akainu managed to take Luffy by surprise...''

I felt like a little kid, but listening to a horror story, everything sounded worse than my nightmares. (And, despite the scary aura this guy gives, his eyes sparkled as he told me the story, I would have laughed if it weren't for the fact that the story was about Luffy going through the worst nightmare I had ever heard about).

''For a second I thought it was the end for Straw Hat, but his brother managed to jump in front of him just in time, he saved the guy but...his body was burnt inside out, he had a literal hole in his stomach, I don't know what happened after because it seems listening to his last words was too much for him, he seemed to suffer a psychological shock, the mental breakdown was so bad Jinbe had to carry him away, the shock in his face stayed even after losing consciousness, I don't know what happened after that''.

'What. the. hell.' It was a nightmare... and he was alone? He didn't mention a single name I knew other than my captain's, who was that ''Jinbe''? what happened? That story lacked so many details...

''Don't ask. Whatever I didn't say was because I didn't see it, I don't have reasons to hide anything from you, everyone already knows what happened. You're probably the last one to know about it.''

That wasn't an acceptable answer. How did he expect me to not ask about the whereabouts of my captain and the rest of my crewmates?

''I was also fighting you know? Or did you think I spent all the hours everyone else was fighting just looking at that boy? I was able to watch with more detail the death of his brother because everyone else had stopped fighting just to watch, but I didn't follow them, why would I?''

I had to accept it. ''Fine...you have a point there...but...''.

If I was already desperate to be back, I was even more after listening to that. Now I knew they weren't together anymore, but we all still had a piece of that ''Vivre card''. (or they all should have it). I would find them. Even if I had to learn geography for that.