Warm Memories and Brotherly Bonds

Chapter 38: The Nightmare Ends and Song of Pirates

"N-Nightmare...?" Brook gasped as the memory faded. "That is terrifying! I've never seen Luffy-san like that before!"

"Well, that is one heck of a way to put it," Franky said, still disturb by what he saw. "What were they doing to him!?"

"And I thought he was scary enough seeing it all the first time," Usopp whispered to Nami, who nodded back. "But he was able to throw Oz around like a chew toy!"

"It only makes sense," Robin said, though she was frowning at the whole thing as well, "In addition to his strength, he was suddenly given the strength of a hundred more people. So he would be powerful."

"But we all saw the shape he was after that though didn't we?" Brook asked them at once, "I mean... he could barely stand up on his own after that."

They all stood around each other, each one having mixed feelings at everything they had seen just a second ago as Chopper fidgeted where he stood, telling them that he just didn't know the kind of damage that it did.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Usopp asked quickly, "How can you not know?"

"Well, he did a lot of damage to his body after that fight!" Chopper said, "And I was already starting to treat him... but before I could really do anything that was when Kuma showed up and...?"

"And I don't remember anything after that," Usopp nodded as he remembered the bomb and Luffy getting back up and acting like nothing happened. "How does that even happen?"

"No clue," Chopper frowned as he thought it all over, sounding slightly irritated with his lack of information. "I just can't figure it out."

"Ya gotta have some kind of theory, right?" Franky asked him curiously as Sanji suddenly coughed on his cigarette.

"You alright, Sanji?" Nami asked and he waved his hand away.

"I went without smoking too long and I just inhaled to fast," he answered, hoping he sounded convincing, but she seemed to buy that.

"What shocked me more than anything is that he was in better shape than we first arrived on Thriller Bark," Chopper said, having done a full exam on Luffy after he had taken care of Zoro since he was concerned that there was something still wrong. "But it's like all the damage he took from that night never happened at all!"

"So... what's the problem?" Brook asked, trying hard not to look over at Zoro, who hadn't said a word.

"Nothing," Chopper shrugged, "It's really good! And I'm glad that it turned out that way, but I just don't understand it. Not at all. And after seeing how he took all those shadows in like that? I can only image how painful that must've been."

"Yeah, I wonder too," Zoro said almost to himself as he remembered with painful clarity just how it must've felt.

Robin glanced at him out of the corners of her eyes as Chopper said, "Luffy should've been out cold like after his fight with Crocodile, for at least two or three days. It's just baffling."

"Maybe... the shadows that he took in did something to counteract that?" Robin offered, "It's impossible to say for sure. I think that we should all just be glad that we all came through that mess alive."

Zoro nodded along with the others, but he wasn't so sure that he wanted to see the memory of what happened when they found him, since he was sure that they were going to see something like that. If this kept up, it was only going to be a matter of time before they noticed it... in fact, he was surprised that they didn't figure it before now... how he was on the brink of death with his body such a wreak, while Luffy had suddenly recovered like nothing happened.