PAGE TWO: It's okay, you guys can request again!
ONE PIECE FAN-FOR-ALL
Or, free-for-all-fic, or fic free-for-all, or fic-for-all, whatever phrasing floats your boat.
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Filled | Unfilled (BOTH posts updated to about half of page three, updated Sept 21, 11-something pm, GMT -5 ( Read more... )
Luffy wakes face down with his arms twisted underneath him and Wadou a painful bar digging into his wrists and chest. His face is damp, and it isn't just because the cut on his cheek has reopened to seep blood into the bedclothes.
He sheds tears for Zoro and his lost dreams -- the ones he can't follow for his friend, because though they shared the journey, they never shared the goal. Sobbing harshly into the pillow he presses against his face to muffle the sounds, he's finally able to let loose his grief. Further tears, he sheds for the freedom and dreams he has back; the power to take everyone forward again, even if it is without Zoro.
It was never meant for him.
He should have known Zoro wouldn't do that. Zoro is dead and at peace. It's someone else's dreams -- a someone who never had the chance to even start to realise them -- that cling on now.
Luffy sits up, drags the back of his hand across his face, scattering moisture though the tears still flow. He doesn't pay them much heed, blinking as he draws, once again and for the final time, the sword Wadou Ichimonji. Gazes into the shimmering surface of the blade and almost sees the ghost of wide eyes too youthful and innocent to be Zoro's. But the sword doesn't speak to him, and he knows it never will again.
He drives it back into its sheath and hides the blade from his eyes for good.
***
He takes Kitetsu and Shuusui from their storage in the hold; leaves the ship in the off-light of pre-dawn and treads back up the steep grassy slope of the hill, dew dampening his sandaled feet as he walks, the ground slippery underfoot.
At the top of the hill waits Old Fat Sensei, seated on his stool outside the shack. Maybe he doesn't ever sleep?
"Arrogant boy," he greets with a grunt, then looks away. "Too early."
Luffy walks up to him and without hesitation drops the swords at the old man's feet. Picks up Wadou and holds it out. "Help me find the right person to give the sword to."
Old Fat Sensei scowls, and shifts, then looks up at him again with eyes more clear of animosity than he's ever seen them. "So you admit it, at last."
"No. The girl in the sword told me. I don't have to be a swordsman now."
The old man kicks his legs out from under him. "And that lack of real desire is why you never would have been one, fool boy."
Luffy gets up. Now that he doesn't need the old man, it doesn't matter. "You can have Shuusui and Kitetsu for trying to teach me. Zoro's gone now, so he won't care. But Kitetsu's cursed, so you gotta be careful. Tell me where I need to go to find someone to give Wadou."
Old Fat Sensei sits back and lights a pipe, smokes and looks contemplative. Looks at Luffy, who stares back and wonders if they're both seeing something entirely different from what they've been seeing all these past months. The old man jerks his head toward the wooden steps of his little shack. Luffy hesitates only briefly before sitting down.
He explains what it is that he thinks he's looking for. The old man chuckles at and confirms or corrects his guesses, then tells him what he needs to know. He also makes him some tea, and tells him his name, although Luffy forgets the name again even before he's left.
"You've delayed here a long time," Sensei says, when it's already way past dawn. "Best go catch the morning tide."
And that's that.
***
He thinks that's that, till he's thirty feet away and the old man hails him back. He raises his hand just in time to catch the spinning object headed his way.
"A meitou's payment enough for wasting my time, and I don't need a cursed sword, boy. If it's been quiet enough for you these past months, it's certain to be kinder to you in the future than that other."
Kitetsu.
Luffy doesn't understand, but still waves his thanks to Old Fat Sensei before he turns and walks away.
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