Warm Memories and Brotherly Bonds

Chapter 43: Dream a Little Dream

IMPORTANT! MUST READ THIS PART FIRST IF YOU WANT TO UNDERSTAND WHAT'S GOING ON!

(I bet that you were all looking forward to Amazon Lily right? WRONG! That's next chapter. And this is me laughing at the stunned looks on your faces... XD!)

"I gotta tell you," Franky said, his head low as they stared ahead of them at the pressing darkness. "That was really hard to watch."

None of them could ever forget that day. In a blink of an eye, they were all so easily defeated and separated to who knows where. Even though they all knew now that it was thanks to Kuma's mercy that they were all still alive, it didn't make it any easier to see. After all that they had seen and gone through together up to that point, it was all rendered next to nothing in the span of just one day...

It was hard on them all, but for Luffy it was probably the worst since he was the one who had to witness it all. Forced to watch each one of them go without doing anything to stop it.

"So... that was what happened after I left," Zoro whispered. He had constantly wondered what had happened to everyone after he was sent flying. He had guesses... but to have it confirmed was worse than anything else. He almost wished that he didn't find out.

They all looked grimly at each other.

"We were all just so... helpless..." Sanji hissed to himself. He completely lost his head back there and went charging in like that... how stupid was he?

"We just didn't stand a chance," Nami added in a whisper, looking away, still feeling the tears in her eyes at what happened as she raised her face after hiding it in Robin's shirt.

"But at least we're all alive and back together again," Brook pointed out, determined to have something that they could be grateful for. "And we're stronger than ever so we don't ever have to worry about that happening again. That's what we put those two years of training for right?"

"To stay together..." Chopper nodded, rubbing his eyes furiously. "So does this mean that we'll be seeing everything that happened... after that?"

"If you mean the war and everything else, then we should," Sanji sighed, lighting up another cigarette, and had a feeling that he would be smoking a lot more than usual for a while.

"Looks like we're finally gonna be getting some answers as to what happened while we were all... occupied," Robin sighed, patting Nami's shoulders and waited until she was able to dry her eyes and look up before she smiled encouragingly at her.

"So the island where Luffy-san was sent to?" Brook asked, "That's what we're going to be seeing next?"

"Most likely," Robin confirmed.

"The island...?" Usopp said, thinking back to when they all were leaving Sabaody when they reunited. He suddenly remembered Luffy telling them where he'd had been. "I think he said something about Maiden Island?"

"The legendary female-only island?" Brook asked in surprise and Sanji froze at that.

"Women only?" he repeated to himself and when he turned to look at them all, fire was burning in his eyes and his face took on something like a devil. "YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT RUBBER-HEADED IDIOT WAS IN PARADISE ALL THAT TIME AND I... I WAS... I WAS IN HELL?!"

"Well, if you had been sent there, you'd have spent all your time serving the women and I doubt that you would've gotten any training done," Robin offered.

But Sanji was too far away in his own sorrows to notice what she had said. "I need to see it!" he declared. "I need to see with my own eyes if it's the truth! And then I will kill Luffy!"