Sunshine Chapter 7, an one piece fanfic

As he raced through the labyrinth of corridors contained within the submarine, Zoro could hear the fight raging above him. Every knock against the shell of the vessel caused hollow bangs to echo throughout the hallways. The noise of the battle was helpful, guiding him back to the deck. The deadweight balanced upon his shoulder drove him to pick up his pace to a jog. Something was wrong with his captain. What the hell had that damned surgeon done to him? Luffy was motionless; it was only due to Zoro's training that he could detect the shallow, stuttering breaths that barely managed to move the kid's chest. Despite that, it was his behaviour back in the infirmary that propelled Zoro's run: the godawful screaming, the way that he reached for his captor, the fact that he called out for his brother. Everything about the situation was nonsensical. The sooner that they got away from the tin coffin, the sooner they could leave this entire mess behind them. Chopper would fix Luffy.

Zoro was overwhelmed with relief when he finally pushed through the main doors and escaped onto the deck. The burst of cool air against his skin helped to cleanse his eyes of the vile scene that he had witnessed. He couldn't take the time to enjoy it. The fight was still in full swing. Brook was closest to the door, chuckling as he fought one-handed against a lackey of the Heart Pirate crew. As Zoro exited the submarine, he whispered a message to Brook.

"I'm taking Captain back to the ship. Don't let any of these fuckers follow us. Try not to take too long to beat them."

It was irritating to have to avoid a fight. Some of these pirates looked like they could be good practice. However, as first mate, his job was to protect Luffy with his life. While this battle could be a hazard to the kid, it was far down the list of current threats. Something significantly worse than the fight had already sunk its fangs into the captain. The other members of his crew could avenge Luffy in this fight. He had more important obligations to fulfil.

As the deck was swarming with people, it wasn't hard for Zoro to escape the skirmish unnoticed. Sword fighting required delicate footwork. He danced between the bodies, blending into the background. His descent from the upper deck to the pier was hindered by carrying Luffy, but he managed to scramble down before he lost his grip entirely. Finally, once his feet touched solid ground, he set about hiking back to The Thousand Sunny. Traversing the groves was significantly harder when responsible for someone else's safety. The kid wasn't particularly heavy, but with every step he slid from Zoro's shoulder. There hadn't been enough time while escaping to tie him in place. Zoro wasn't only concentrating on not dropping his captain, or making sure that he didn't get lost; Luffy seemed sick.

Part of Zoro had expected that, once he rescued Luffy, his captain would begin to return to himself. The damned submarine was far behind them now, so that damn devil fruit's influence upon him should have ended. It was known that Luffy's body was rubber, pinging back into shape when stretched or strained. The belief among the crew was that his personality was similar. No matter how the kid's emotions were strained, he'd bounce back with ease. That didn't seem to be happening. After fifteen minutes or so of walking, Luffy was still silent and limp. Growing concerned, Zoro stopped on a secluded grove and propped the kid against a tree.

Hidden in the shade of the tree, Zoro took a chance to look his captain over. He was struck with a gut-wrenching panic. Seemingly, Luffy had clung to the blanket that he had been wrapped in back at the infirmary. It looked heavy, made of tightly knitted, white wool. With it wrapped around his shoulders, the captain seemed vulnerable. Luffy's gaze was cast towards the floor, but he didn't seem to be looking at anything in particular. Even when Zoro crouched in front of him, he refused to look up. Frustrated, the first mate lifted his captain's face. His hand trembled. Dark blood was smeared across the kid's lower lip and chin. It oozed from his mouth, dripping down into his lap. The blood seemed to be filling Luffy's mouth as it gurgled every time that he exhaled. When he forced the kid' mouth open, attempting to clear out the blood, he expected protestation. Luffy didn't say a thing. He didn't move.

"Luffy, you need to snap out of this. You're safe now."

The kid made no attempt to speak. He kept up his pattern of wheezing inhalations and gurgling exhalations.

"Come on Lu, let me know that you can hear me."

When Zoro let go of Luffy's chin, it immediately dropped against his chest. Worrying his lip, Zoro rearranged the blanket around Luffy, knotting it at his neck and hips so that it wouldn't fall off. He lifted the kid into his arms, cradling him against his chest. It would be easier to check on the little captain if he didn't have to twist over his own shoulder every time he wanted a glance. It definitely wasn't that he was feeling protective.

"You'll be okay… I'll keep you safe, don't worry… We'll get you back to Chopper and he'll fix you up. Hang in there. Once you get to him, you'll be all better. Just keep breathing."

Spurred on by the feeling of Luffy's blood soaking through his shirt, Zoro picked up his pace for the rest of the journey. It wasn't long before he began to jog. Every wheeze that wracked the kid's chest increased his sense of urgency. With every few steps, he glanced down to watch as Luffy gurgled and more blood splattered onto the blanket. It was becoming saturated. By the time that he reached the ship, Luffy's breathing was shallow and strained. Zoro thought that the kid might have fallen asleep, but his eyes were still open, trapped in a dead stare. Maybe he'd just acquired a new skill…

Finally, after almost an eternity of walking, The Thousand Sunny breached the horizon. It had been a long night, and Zoro was almost tired, but seeing his home motivated him to not slow down. As the bubble coat was almost complete, there was a slight shimmer to hull. The coating would have to remain unfinished for now. Unless Luffy snapped out of his stupor by sunrise, they wouldn't be able to set off for Fishman Island that day as they had planned.

In spite of the vigorous movement that followed from being hauled across the archipelago in Zoro's grasp, Luffy had failed to so much as twitch. He was as close to motionless as a living human could be. Zoro's theory that his unnatural stillness was caused by Trafalgar Law's devil fruit power had been unravelling with every step he took away from that damned submarine. Admittedly, the fact that it hadn't been alleviated when Law had fainted had damaged the credibility of the theory. It was apparent that this problem lay within Chopper's domain, so, ever the dutiful first mate, Zoro marched to the infirmary and dropped his captain, from a small height, onto the bed. Having done all that he could think to do for the kid, Zoro exited the infirmary and sat down beside the heavy door, leaning against it, waiting for Chopper to return.

He had fallen asleep by the time the rest of the crew returned. The first shocks of dawn were beginning to light up the sky and warm the air. It had taken several hours for the straw hats to get away from the submarine. Having heard about their captain's injury, the heart pirates had become enraged. Most of the straw hats had been left bruised and battered. Sanji had taken the worst of it due to having fought a freaking polar bear that was proficient in martial arts. He was limping a little and clutching at a gash that cut across his hip. Exhausted from walking back on an injured leg, Sanji slumped onto the deck besides Zoro. He glared at him for a second before lighting a cigarette and speaking up.

"How's Lu?"

Zoro sighed a little, considering his answer carefully.

"Not himself. Need Chopper to look at him."

"Not himself how?"

"Just, not himself. You'll see."

Driven by concern for his captain, Sanji forced himself to his feet and staggered into the infirmary. He glanced at Luffy's splayed form on the bed for a moment before he sunk into the chair beside him. Reaching over to the bed, he patted the kid on the back a few times.

"Lu, hey, Luffy. Wake up."

The kid didn't stir at the gentle approach so Sanji roughly shook him. Luffy was a pretty heavy sleeper after all. The shaking caused his head to loll backwards, hair fanning out across the mattress. The new angle caused his eyes to become locked with Sanji's. Sanji smiled at him at first, but as Luffy stared at him, unblinking, for longer and longer, it grew weird.

"Luffy, this is really important, okay? I need you to let me know that you can hear me."

When there was no response, he started to panic. The stream of bloody drool that dragged across the mattress, following the movement of Luffy's head, was also unnerving. He took a breath, trying to compose himself.

"Okay, don't panic. I'm going to go fetch Chopper. I'll be back before you know I'm gone."

In the span of a few seconds that contained a flurry of noise and banging doors, Sanji had returned, Chopper tucked under one of his arms. He hadn't been able to think of the words so had simply grabbed the little reindeer and hauled ass back to infirmary. Once the door was safely shut, he placed Chopper down and took up residence in the seat beside the cot.

"Fix him."

"Aye!"

Chopper babbled as he scurried around the infirmary, constantly firing questions at Luffy and telling him stories about the days they had spent apart. He wasn't phased by the lack of response, continuing to chat to the captain's dead eyes while he mopped the tracks of blood from his chin with a stained rag. Chopper shifted Luffy until he was lain flat on his back, his head tilted to the side to avoid the blood choking him. He neatly arranged his spindly limbs and pulled his stained blanket up to his chin. The blanket shifted a little with the shallow rise and fall of the captain's chest. Chopper fished a little torch from his desk and twisted it on.

"Luffy, look at the light and follow it when it moves, kay?"

Smiling widely, Chopper wiggled the lit torch in front of the captain's face. When Luffy failed to track the light, Chopper held it steady in front of his pupil. At the intense light, his pupils shrunk, and when it was removed they swallowed up his irises. Happy with the result, Chopper decided to double check it was right by grapping a pin from his desk. Moving to the end of the bed, he freed one of Luffy's feet from the blanket and jabbed the pin into the delicate flesh of his sole. His toes twitched, flinching upwards in response to the pain.

"Come on Luffy, I know you're awake. Stop messing around!"

Despite the clear lack of reason for his petulant stillness, Luffy refused to give in to Chopper's demands. For half an hour, Chopper jabbed at him with various items from his desk, trying to snap him out of his weird daze. When Chopper was trying the globally accredited whack-him-with-a-pillow technique, Sanji finally spoke up.

"Chopper, I don't think this is working. Go update the others, I'll keep an eye on Lu."

After Chopper had scurried out, Sanji sat on the edge of the cot. He spoke quiet, reassuring words as he carded his fingers through the captain's hair. While the morning drew in, Sanji planned out quick breakfasts for the crew in his head. Something Luffy would enjoy. He couldn't do fancy tests like Chopper could, but he could try help motivate his captain to move with the best damn breakfast that had ever graced Sunny's table.

A gust of wind swept across the ocean, picking up the sea spray and flinging it through the air. It caught the edge of a newspaper, dampening it and rustling the pages. The leaves of paper reached towards the sky, tugging at the hand that gripped them. Droplets of salt water had blurred the ink, making the words swarm together. Despite the seeping ink, the fluttering pages were held in place so that the front page was visible. Covering half of the page was a photo of Monkey D. Luffy. The picture was blurred, taken in a rush, but it clearly showed the young captain screaming, eyes unseeing, knees grazed. A shadow of a mast fell across the paper, darkening the image.

From behind the expanse of the newspaper, a pair of dark eyebrows furrowed. They sunk down to meet narrowed eyes, hidden by the shadow of a brimmed hat. The hands gripping the newspaper clenched into a fist, crumpling the paper before igniting it. At his last stopping place, the man had received a message that Monkey D. Luffy had been endangered; the paper merely confirmed his intel. As the sea wind carried away the ashy residue of the paper, he groaned to himself under his breath.

"How long are you going to keep crying, little brother?"