Chapter Text
The wind howled through the night as the Thousand Sunny drifted on the turbulent sea. The ship rocked violently and the dim lights barely cut through the darkness.
On the deck, luffy lay unconscious, his breathing shallow, blood staining his shirt. His body was a mess of bruises and cuts it showed the aftermath of a battle they had barely survived.
Zoro stood at the bow, tightly gripping the hilt
of his sword, ready to protect the crew, if
blackbeard finds them in this fog.
His head also bloodied with a makeshift bandage but still better than Luffy’s, he feels worthless for not protecting his captain better. The rest of the crew was in a similar state - Nami and Usopp were tending to chopper, who was doing his best to stabilise Luffy, but the situation was dire.
It had all started when Blackbeard’s crew had
ambushed them just before they reached the Florian triangle.
Luffy had fought with all his might but it was clear the odds were not in their favour.
Blackheard's power was overwhelming. His devil
fruit was terrifying, Luffy immediately lost his
ability, chopper was also unable to shift his forms.
Zoro and Sanji were able to land hits, but they
were occupied by Burgess. luffy was able to
fight pretty well even without his devil fruit
but he was a reckless fighter and was overwhelmed
by his injuries, which were pretty bad without being
protected from blunt hits.
“We can't keep running, they will find us. Franky
is trying to fix Sunny but we will have to
drop the anchor soon,” Zoro muttered glaring
out into the night. "We need to get Luffy help.
Fast.”
Name wiped the sweat from her forehead as she
looked over at chopper, who was working
tirelessly on luffy. "How is he, chopper?”
“I….I don't know” chopper said shaking his
head. "His condition is worsening. I am not
sure, if I am treating him correctly. He got his injuries without his rubber powers but now his
body is rubber again so his injuries are not healing. I don't know, what to do.”
Usopp slumped beside Nami, his face pale with
exhaustion. “What do we do? We can’t just leave
him like this.”
Zoro's mind raced. They could not afford to stop,
not with Blackbeard’s crew likely still on their
tail. He thought about returning to water 7 but
they might encounter Blackbeard again and in
their current condition they will not survive.
Sanji came out with some drinks and snacks for
everyone, he was also pretty beaten up but they
needed to stay alert and will need energy for
the same.
“I think I found something,” Robin had luffy’s
strawhat in one hand and a small paper in the
other. Zoro immediately remembered it as the
paper Ace had given to luffy.
“This has a denden number on it, who gave
this to luffy?"Robin asked
“Luffy's brother, Ace gave it to him in Alabasta. Luffy was not sure why Ace gave this paper to him but it’s precious because his brother asked him to keep this safe.” Sanji answered.
“Fire fist Ace is Luffy’s brother" - Robin was
shocked. “Why is this important right now?
We need to figure out something to help
Luffy cried Name.
"We should call this number, if it belongs to
Ace he might be able to help us. Whitebeard
has a lot of connections.” said Robin.
“Oi Nami,” Zoro called, walking over and grabbing
the paper from Robin. "call this number.”
Nami, her face streaked with tears, looked at him
with vacant eyes. The den den mushi number
was faint, but it was there. She quickly grabbed
it from his hand, trembling.
Here goes nothing, she muttered, her finger
hovering over the den den. She dialled the number
praying that it would connect. They needed
help. They needed Ace.
The denden mushi clicked and crackled to life. A voice answered, rough and tired but calm.
“Who is this? And how did you get this number?”