Enemies in the past life, Enemies in the new life.

Luffy is analyzing his newfound knowledge. He was so concentrated that he de-activated Gear Third and became Chibi.

Shanks, Quirk: Memories exchange, it allows the user to exchange its memories with another person, he has to receive the same amount of information that he transferred. The information is measured in words.

Shanks is fending off Sakazuki and both of them are on equal terms. Shanks is worried about Luffy.

'Why is it taking him so long to snap out of it? could it be that I exchanged too much?' Shanks.

Sakazuki noticed the opening and delivered a kick to Shank's waist, making him crash into the ground.

"Are you distracted, Shanks?! How about I kill that kid for you?!" Sakazuki.

Sakazuki created a magma sphere and aimed it at Luffy but Shanks pierced it with a powerful thrust, destroying the sphere.

"I won't allow you to hurt these children any longer!" Shanks.

(Luffy's mindscape)

Luffy is currently watching all the information that Shanks just gave him, but also saw his older version performing new techniques.

"Why is my older-self doing those techniques? And how? This is something that man just showed me." Luffy.

He began to meditate and tried to understand the whole ordeal to his newfound powers. He also saw some techniques called Rokushiki.

"So, I've got to concentrate my willpower into my fist, and punch? Ok, that doesn't make any sense, but neither does the powers many of my friends have so…" Luffy.

Luffy suddenly gets chunked out of his mindscape and is being carried by Shanks.

(Outside his mindscape)

"Are you okay, kid?" Shanks.

"Um? Ah! yes, I'm fine now!" Luffy.

Luffy looks behind and sees a gigantic flow of magma following both him and Shanks.

"What are we doing back inside?!" Luffy.

"The piece of land got carbonized by that guy and you weren't waking up so, I carried you inside here, he then began to overflow the whole facility with magma. He must really want us dead." Shanks.

Luffy shakes off of Shanks and begins to run on his own.

"We have to draw him into water, or else, we'll drown in magma." Luffy.

"Problem is that the base is going to explode in just a couple more minutes. We are not in a position to be picky about how to beat him." Shanks.

"How about I use that Haki of yours?" Luffy.

"That's an option, there's a problem though, in which part of all that magma is his real body?" Shanks.

"Then, we make sure that the magma can't follow us!" Luffy.

Luffy activates his Gear Third and envelopes it with a little of Haki, he smashes the floor and makes a giant hole in the middle of the hallway.

The magma begins to flow down the hole and Shanks carries Luffy, who became small again.

"How did you do that? I only gave you some hints about Haki for you to defend yourself, not attack." Shanks.

"I don't know, it feels…familiar." Luffy.

'Familiar? Maybe he's some sort of genius?' Shanks.

Both Shanks and Luffy lose trace of Sakazuki, who is climbing out of the hole that Luffy made.

"I will kill you, Dragon's son!" Sakazuki.

Luffy and Shanks are in a room and Shanks is looking at the injury on his left arm.

"Are you okay?" Luffy.

"Yeah, nothing some patches wont fix." Shanks

Luffy begins to shake a little once he realizes how deep the situation is. He's in a base about to blow up, his friends are gone but safe, and a madman made out of magma is trying to kill him. He really doesn't know how to cope with it.

"Are you scared?" Shanks asked Luffy, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"What? No! I-I'm n-never s-scared!" Luffy.

Shanks looks at the kid and remembers his past.

Shanks was just like Luffy, a scared kid trying his best to survive, if he hadn't met that person, he wouldn't be here now. He remembers how that person gave him his hat and he's going to do the same.

Shanks takes off his straw hat, which magically has never gotten burned, and lays it on top of Luffy's head.

"This hat is my treasure. You are a pirate, right? So, you know what a treasure means." Shanks.

"How…?" Luffy.

"When I gave you that information, I exchanged some memories with you. But that aside, whenever you are scared, use that hat, it'll give you courage whenever you don't have any." Shanks.

Luffy takes the hat off and looks at it, he looks at Shanks and some tears escape his eyes. He puts the hat on and smiles at Shanks.

*BOOOOOOM*

The moment was interrupted by Sakazuki, who blasted the whole room with magma.

"I'VE FOUND YOU!!! DRAGON'S SON!!!" Sakazuki tried to grab Luffy with his magma arm but Shanks took Luffy and slashed the ceiling over and over until they reached the roof of the building.

Shanks look at Luffy who has a scared expression.

"Luffy, its ok, see there…" Shanks points at the horizon, where a ship is visible.

"…those are my friends; they'll take you out of here safely." Shanks.

But Luffy was more concerned about another thing.

"S-Shanks, y-your a-arm." Luffy points at Shank's left arm.

Shanks sees his carbonized arm; he knows that it's fatal and he'll never be able to use it again.

"It's okay. It doesn't hurt. It would've hurt a lot more if it was you the one who resulted injured." Shanks.

Sakazuki begins to flood the entire facility with magma, aiming to reach the roof.

'I might die from overexerting my quirk but…I'll kill both of them even if it's the last thing I'll do!' Sakazuki.

Sakazuki, quirk: Magma, he can transmute his body into magma, create magma and control it. However, the biggest drawback is that he feels the heat from his magma, making him dizzy and even sick. He can even lose the ability to use his quirk for entire months.

Shanks looks at the hole in the roof and prepares a stance for battle.

"Luffy, I want you to get out of here." Shanks.

"But…" Luffy.

"You're a liability in here! I can't fight him and protect you at the same time!" Shanks.

Luffy's eyes widen. Liability? He's never been one to anyone! Protect?! He protects others, not the other way around. He felt helpless, useless and angry. He hated this feeling, the feeling of others suffering because of you, the feeling of not being able to do nothing about it!

But he understood, he wasn't able to do nothing, the only option he had was to…escape.

Luffy runs to the edge of the roof but stops after seeing everything being covered in magma, even some parts of the ocean had magma in them.

Shanks goes towards Luffy and is also baffled about the situation.

"Surprised, are you?!" Sakazuki spoke as he came out of the hole.

"Yeah, you truly are an obsessed bastard!" Shanks drew his sword.

"You are by far, the biggest thorn in our side, first you and then that so-called #1 hero." Sakazuki.

"Drop the act, you can barely create magma, can you?" Shanks gives Sakazuki a smug look.

"At least I still have all my limbs." Sakazuki.

Shanks and Sakazuki dash at each other, they are putting everything of themselves to kill the other one.

Sakazuki transforms his fist into magma and tries to punch Shanks, the red-haired man dodges and slashes through his side, it was a wound, not deep enough but it'll chip some of his stamina.

'He stopped those big blasts; it seems that the only magma he can use is enough to cover his whole body.' Shanks.

Sanks keeps the slashes incoming and Sakazuki changes his body to dodge them, Sakazuki transforms his hand into magma and grabs Shanks' sword, he began to melt it but shanks delivered a powerful kick to his abdomen, making him step back.

'Shanks has always been left-handed, his movements have become dull and he's swordsmanship has declined, this is the best moment to kill him. Even his sword has been reduced to half, meaning that he'll rely on even closer combat.' Sakazuki.

Both of them are tired and know that they're at their final stand.

Sakazuki dashes at Shanks and he remains still.

'We only have one shot, Gryphon.' Shanks.

As Sakazuki was getting closer, Shanks focused all his Haki in what's left of his sword and waited.

Sakazuki was getting closer and closer and then, in the last second…Shanks slashed.

[DIVINE DEPARTURE!!!]

Shanks created an air slash covered with Haki and it impacted on Sakazuki. Sakazuki was pushed back and fell from the roof.

Shanks was relieved, relieved that his attack worked and plumed.

"SHANKS!" Luffy.

"I'm okay, let's just leave this place." Shanks.

*BRRRRBRBRBRRBBR*

The whole building was beginning to fall down, the magma was consuming all of it and made the structure unstable.

Luffy and Shanks began to fall and reached the bottom of the building, it was hot from all the magma that was surrounding it, Sakazuki generated himself from the magma, now with a scar in his neck and torso, and looked at both of them.

"Even…if I don't…kill you! The…. island will…do it anyway!!!" Sakazuki.

"You plan to die with us?!" Shanks.

"So what?! As long as…my life can…help him, it doesn't…matter what happens…to me!!" Sakazuki.

"You're sick." Shanks.

"Still…I'll kill him…even if…it's the last thing I'll do!" Sakazuki began to move towards Luffy.

Luffy was still paralyzed by fear and couldn't move, he couldn't escape either and Shanks was weak from all the fighting.

'What should I do? What CAN I do?! Guys, I'm sorry, I couldn't keep my promise!' Luffy thought as he gave into his fate.

(With the kids)

The pod landed on the ocean and shortly after, a fire blast opened the door. Many of the kids came of it and grasped for air.

"You almost kill us, Ace!" Nami.

"What? I thought we all agreed that temperature was the only option to open the door!" Ace.

"Yeah, but you almost air-fried us inside!" Sanji.

"How far are we?" Yamato.

"Not too far, look!" Usopp pointed at "The Creek" which was now flooded with magma.

The kids had mixed emotions about it, they were happy that the place that caused them so much pain was getting destroyed but, it also worried them the fact that Luffy was still inside there.

"We have to help Luffy!" Vivi.

"Negative, we must keep going!" Katakuri.

"How can you say that?! After everything he went through!" Nami.

"That's exactly why we must get away from here! Who know how many strong guys may come, we can't do squat against them! Besides, do you want to throw away the chance that our captain gave us?!" Katakuri.

Everyone was silent, Katakuri's words were indeed correct, but they couldn't help but to feel that they were backstabbing their friend.

Zoro got on the edge of the pod and began to scream.

"LUFFY!!! YOU MUST SURVIVE!!! YOU MADE A PROMISE TO US!!!" Zoro.

One after another, everyone began to scream their thoughts to Luffy.

"YOU HAVE TO COME BACK!!!"

"WE'LL WAIT FOR YOU!!!"

"YOU'LL ALWAYS BE OUR FRIEND!!!"

"YOU ARE OUR CAPTAIN!!!"

"YOU CAN DO IT, LUFFY!!!"

"I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!" (No one heard that due to the intense screaming.)

(Back with Luffy)

Luffy began to hear the screams of his friends, he couldn't really "hear" them, but rather feel them, he was scared, but he then had a thought; "Is he going to hunt them down after killing me?".

Luffy tries to get up but his fear is keeping it from it.

*DUM DUM DUM*

His own heartbeat is getting faster and he can't think straight.

*DUM DUM DUM*

Sakazuki is getting closer and closer at the downed Luffy and Shanks can't do anything about it.

*DUM DUM DUM DUM DUM DUM DUM DUM DUM DUM DUM*

"Sut up, heartbeat!!!" Luffy gets irritated by the different stress he's feeling and punches his heart out of frustration.

He felt the world get slower; the fast-paced heartbeats began to change into a rhythmic beat.

*DOOM DUM DAT DAN DOOM DUM DAT DAN DOOM DUM DAT DAN*

'What's this?! I feel, so…happy?' Luffy thought as his hair began to turn white.

Luffy gets up but feels an immense pain from his chest.

'As expected, he can't use that power at that age.' Thought the white man inside Luffy's mindscape.

Luffy looks at Sakazuki with a pained expression, Sakazuki gathered all his remaining energy in his fist and made it magma.

"DIE DRAGON'S SON!!!" Sakazuki lunges at Luffy.

Luffy stretch his arm back and turn into a metallic red with black.

'Just like him, like the me in my dreams!'

[Gomu-Gomu No…!] Luffy began his techniques as small lightings envelop his arm.

[HELLHOUND] Sakazuki transforms his arm into a dog made out of magma and launches it at Luffy.

[Bajrang…Pistol!!!]

Luffy "shoots" his arm towards Sakazuki and a clash begins.

"Luffy!" Shanks.

Shanks tries to intervene but he can't, he's too injured and gets pushed out of the facility, and to worsen the situation…

[SELF-DESTRUC SEQUENCE INITIATED!!!]

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

A large explosion destroyed the facility. Shanks managed to somehow land on the water that didn't had magma on it, there was no sign of neither Luffy nor Sakazuki. With regret in his face of nor knowing the fate of Luffy, Shanks blacked out, only to be saved by one of his crewmates.

"Such a powerful Haki, I wanted to meet this young kid." Rayleigh spoke as he took Shank's to their ship.