The air was heavy with the scent of blood and dust. Rubble and bodies littered the ground and the light of the setting sun caught on the metal of broken swords and pistols. Smoke still wafted around the recently damaged buildings that, only a few hours ago, were still standing tall and proud.

Luffy sat at the edge of the ruined battlefield, his back to the carnage and his eyes watching the horizon. The sight of the sun setting over the ocean was a familiar one, one that had accompanied him from the moment he set out to sea at seventeen and throughout his adventures in the Grand Line ever since. He'd seen it from the figurehead of the Thousand Sunny when there were only miles of vast ocean around them, not an island in sight.

He could practically hear Zoro's loud snores as he slept on the deck some ways behind him, Brook's guitar as he messed around with a new tune, Franky's suuuper!s from his workshop and Robin's small chuckles that would follow, the clacking of Chopper's hooves hitting the floor as he ran around the deck with Usopp, Jinbei watching them and laughing heartily. Nami would yell at him to come down since it was getting dark and that if he fell over no one would get him, and Luffy would respond with a shishishi but wouldn't actually move until Sanji called them all into the kitchen for dinner.

His smile was small and tired now, not that usual wide grin that he'd get whenever he was excited and about to fight some big baddie. The sky was getting darker now and Luffy turned his head to look behind him. He half expected to see the rest of the scene from his short daydream; the deck of the Sunny and the calm that filled him every time he looked at it—that feeling he'd get that told him "yes, this is home."

What was behind him didn't give him that feeling. It shattered it—made it feel painful, like shards of glass digging into his skin (or maybe his heart, because it hurt more there).

The matted grass was stained red, not as red as the center of the battlefield but red enough for someone to know someone had probably died there. The bodies of his nakama were lined up beside each other, laid in the positions he'd left them in when he dragged them over. They were stiff and still like any other dead body he'd seen, but these were different. These were the bodies of his nakama, and they weren't any other dead body he'd seen. These were the empty husks of his friends who'd been through thick and thin with him and were alive and standing behind him just hours ago. He couldn't fool himself into thinking they were just sleeping. They were all cut down in front of him after all, and that wasn't exactly something he could work his mind around. There was too much blood and too many wounds. And even then they looked more alive when they were sleeping than they were at that moment. Because they were dead-

Luffy's eyes looked them over, somewhat dazed and maybe not fully there. They looked calm, their faces relaxed and the lines of stress gone from their skin. He'd heard once how death lifted the burdens of life. Freed one from living hell. He didn't really understand then—life had never been a burden to him. Life was full of adventure and fun and friends and his nakama and his goal to be the Pirate King. He never wanted to die and never thought about what would happen after he did. Now though, he could understand it just a bit, looking at the lifeless bodies of his nakama.

Luffy didn't want to die. Neither did his friends.

He didn't know what he wanted now.

When his eyes landed on Law he grimaced because god, he'd practically dragged the other captain with him, hadn't he? The man only went because he forced him to, prodding and whining and complaining and begging, not giving him a say in any of it. And Law just went with it, resigning himself to his fate, because that's what he always did when it came to Luffy, right? Luffy, who he knew wouldn't listen and could only ride the wave out with.

Luffy's stubbornness had killed him.

The others he didn't feel as bad about - no, wait, he felt horrible about it still, but he hadn't been hit in the gut with guilt like he had with Law. Because his crew came because they wanted to. They fought and stayed by his side and supported him because they wanted to. He hadn't forced them to come like he had with the Heart captain. It didn't make him feel better, though. He felt empty and wanted to cry but didn't have the energy to.

"I won," Luffy whispered into the breeze as the final rays of light settled behind the horizon, "but it doesn't feel like I did."

Luffy had lost before, but this time he lost too much.

He couldn't protect them. All that training he'd done had gone to waste. He couldn't help thinking that he should have trained longer, harder, maybe they should have had three years instead of two. Maybe they should've waited before going straight to Raftel, gotten more experience to prepare themselves.

But what happened happened and there was nothing he could change now. The fact was that they lost, their past victories had gone to their heads and came back to bite them in the ass. They were all dead and it was Luffy's failure as a captain. He'd sworn to never let such a thing happen in front of him ever again, especially when he was just within reach. He'd broken that promise.

Nine voices echoed the same words.

"I won't die."

When he asked the other when they were alone, he'd said the same thing.

A lump formed in his throat.

They all broke their promises, too.

The stars in the sky were another familiar sight. On the quieter nights on the Sunny, those rare moments when he wanted to be alone, he'd crawl his way up to the roof of the crow's nest and watch the twinkling lights in the murky darkness. He'd absently wonder how far away they were and if anyone back at Foosha village could see them, too. Maybe Sabo was looking up at the stars or the bright moon that always accompanied them. Luffy prefered the stars to the moon. The moon was pretty, especially when it was reflected in the ocean's waves, but Luffy always thought it looked prettier with the smaller but still bright stars that surrounded it, filling the darkness it couldn't reach.

Ah, he blinked. Sabo. He'd almost forgotten. That wasn't fair. Now he was leaving him, too? That wasn't fair at all...

Luffy moved to lay on his back, his uneven breaths becoming shallow. He smiled up at the night sky, a silent apology escaping his lips, heard by no one but hoping it would reach them all anyway. An apology that held so many more things than just a simple I'm sorry.

He closed his eyes and sank into the darkness.

.

.

.

.

.

.

...is this what dying feels like? I've never died before so...

For one thing, it was cold. Like, goosebump invoking cold. Not ice cold, but just chilly. He always thought hell would be, well, y'know, hot and fiery. But there wasn't any light as far as Luffy could tell and it was, in fact, cold and not hot.

He opened his mouth, about to shout and call to see if any one else was there, and sucked in a breath. However, instead of taking in any air, a stream of water slid down his throat and into his lungs. Luffy's eyes shot open and- wow, look at that, there actually was light and he just had to open his eyes to see it. He was underwater and watched as bubbles floated to the surface as he flailed around because-

Shit! I'm underwater! Luffy thought, suddenly flailing harder. I'm drowning, I'm drowning! I can't swim! Gah, help me, someone help-

His head broke through the surface and he erupted into a massive coughing fit, getting the water out of his lungs. When he was finished, he sucked in generous amounts of clean air and panted heavily.

"Aah, that scared me," he said between breaths, feeling his heart thundering in his chest. "Why was I underwater anyway?"

Luffy looked around, seeing tall trees looming over him and the sunlight that broke through the gaps in the leaves. There was a lot of green and pretty flowers and Luffy thought, Is this hell? I'm dead, right? I didn't think hell would be such a pretty place. It looks familiar too.

And then he looked down and realized he was in the middle of a pond, which explained why he was drowning, but not how he got there and-

"Hah?! Wait, I'm in water-" and suddenly he was drowning again, going back under the surface of the pond and flailing around wildly. What the hell was going on-

Luffy stopped flailing and blinked. His cheeks were puffed out and he looked around, noticing how the pond's floor was still a ways below him and he wasn't sinking and he wasn't losing his energy either. Was he swimming? How could he swim? He hasn't been able to swim since he was six years old. And even then he wasn't that great of a swimmer, earning the nickname 'Anchor' from Shanks before he even ate his Devil Fruit.

Luffy kicked his legs experimentally and marveled at the way it pushed him up a bit. He was swimming! It had been years since he last swam and he forgot how it felt but it felt amazing! It was kinda like flying but underwater and not in the sky (and he'd flown before, so he would know).

When he realized that, yes, he still needed air, he kicked up to the surface and swam over to the shore, laughing loudly and happily. That was really fun, but he was really tired now. He sat at the edge where the water and land met and let out a happy sigh.

This is too fun to be hell—everyone always said hell was a scary place, Luffy thought, kicking his sandal-clad feet in the rippling water. Maybe it's heaven? Can pirates go to heaven?

His thoughts were jumbled and confused and he wasn't the type to think too hard about stuff so he dropped it, quickly dubbing the situation a mystery and standing up.

"So... where am I?" He said aloud, asking no one in particular. He could hear the sound of birds in the trees and the rustling of grass and leaves in the breeze. Luffy extended his Observation Haki and, huh, that was weird. His range was shorter than usual. He could only sense a few animals around him, no people. Maybe everyone was somewhere else?

Luffy looked back at the pond and saw his reflection staring back at him. His reflection's eyes went wide and Luffy waved a little to make sure that was him he was looking at because why was he so short? It was like he shrunk to just below his waist. Did he overuse Gear Third or something and shrunk again? No, that didn't make sense because he stopped doing that years ago.

And then some sort of thought started to form in his mind, because really, what was going on? He was pretty sure he was dead, but now he was here in some weird forest. A weirdly familiar forest too, but he didn't know why. Just earlier, too, he was swimming and that shouldn't have been possible because he was a Devil Fruit user and Devil Fruit users couldn't swim. Did he even have his powers?

Luffy's already wide eyes seemed to widen further. Did he even have his powers?

He ran to the nearest tree and stood a few meters from it, winding up his arm. "Gomu Gomu no..." He threw his fist at the trunk. "Pistol!"

He expected to see his arm stretch and break in half but the only thing he saw was his short arm held awkwardly midair. Luffy tried again, using his other arm for another Gomu Gomu no Pistol and got the same results. He puffed out his cheeks frustratedly and kept trying, alternating arms, again and again and again and again.

After 10 minutes of doing the same thing, Luffy accidentally stepped too close to the tree and hit the trunk with his bare fist. He yelped out in pain as his skin slid over the rough bark, cutting into and scraping his flesh. Tears gathered at the edges of his eyes as the wound gave a particularly painful sting.

"Ow, ow, ow!" He groaned, sucking on the wound. "That hurt..."

Luffy wasn't stretching and the punch to the tree had hurt him. Normally, even without stretching, a punch to a tree would crush the bark under his fist and do no damage to him at all. If he wasn't trying to break the tree he would just bounce off it. Without a doubt, Luffy didn't have his Devil Fruit power anymore. On top of that, he was small and tiny and in a strange forest that wasn't familiar—until suddenly it was.

Luffy gasped, the pain in his hand suddenly the last thing on his mind, and his eyes sparkled. There was only one explanation for this.

"Mystery time travel?!"

This forest was exactly like one of the odd areas Luffy remembered his Gramps throwing him into back when he was just a kid. "For training" he was told. He didn't really remember where exactly he was but it was pretty dangerous for a kid his age and he had no idea how he survived last time. There were big animals everywhere and the terrain was rough and hard to navigate through. He was left alone for a week and when Gramps came back to get him he was covered in mud and scrapes and bruises and still smiling brightly.

Luffy had no doubt that he traveled back in time, but that meant that he had the strength of his younger self. Luffy groaned loudly. That was years of training gone down the drain.

But then he perked up almost immediately afterwards because he was never the type to stay in a stump for too long. If he lost his strength then he'd just have to train hard to get it back.

Determined, Luffy nodded and pumped a fist—his injured fist, because he was an idiot.

Right, he should probably wrap that up or something.

———

After finding some long blades of grass to wrap around his hand, Luffy set to work on figuring out his current strength.

His physical strength was obviously lacking, so he'd have to do something about that. And like he noticed earlier, the range of his Observation Haki was severely reduced and weakened. The range wasn't even half of what it used to be and the presences were dull and not as clear as he should've been able to feel. His Armament Haki was also weakened, the armor being much easier to break through and it being harder to keep up for long.

When Luffy went to check his Conqueror's Haki, he was startled by the amount of it he accidentally released. Through his Observation Haki he found that he'd knocked out all of the animals within fifteen meters of himself and probably well beyond that, too. So his Conqueror's Haki was just as powerful as ever, but it was even harder to control than before-

Luffy pouted, rubbing his head and tousling his hair. He'd done too much thinking. Even after all these years his brain would still shut down when using his brain too much. All the thinking had been done by smarter people like Nami or Robin or Torao. He sighed.

He had a lot to do, it seemed.

Until Gramps came to get him, Luffy would dedicate his time in the forest to training.

———

Luffy had been there for three days now and Gramps had yet to fetch him. He had progress in his training though and Luffy was proud of the results.

His physical strength improved a bit and his stamina had gotten better. He even swam in the pond daily because one, it was fun, and two, it was good muscle training. Running around and hunting animals for food, along with fighting them whenever they popped up out of nowhere, was one of the reasons his stamina and strength had improved so much in the last few days (and Luffy ate a lot so he did a lot of running). He even used a big stick he found as a pole to help him—a pole was, after all, what he mainly used to fight before he had gotten used to his rubber body.

Observation and Armament Haki were harder to train (it took him a year and a half to learn the basics, after all) but there was a bit of improvement in it now, too. While nothing really changed about the range, the presence of different animals were becoming clearer. He could tell which animals were which, like random boars roaming in the underbrush or hawks passing overhead. He couldn't sense and smaller animals like mice or bugs since the presences they gave off were harder to sense. Armament was getting stronger, too. He could crush small rocks now and could hold it up for a few seconds longer than before. For now though, he could only focus the power in his hand and not anywhere else.

Training his Conqueror's Haki was definitely challenging. It had been hard before but now, in the body of a child, it was practically uncontrollable. The massive will of an adult man wasn't exactly something that could be contained in such a small body. Luffy tried training to control it when he was out hunting or fighting wild animals, focusing on single or selected targets to direct it to, but he'd keep making every animal in the area faint whenever he tried.

It gave him more food, though, so he wasn't exactly complaining.

Luffy fell asleep that night with a full stomach (he was very upset when he found out his normal human body couldn't hold the amount of food he usually ate without making him feel like throwing up. Stupid fleshy-not-rubber body.) and fell asleep straight after his meal.

In the three days he had been back, Luffy's nights had been dreamless. He went to sleep exhausted but determined from training and woke up restless and hungry but ready for the day. Sleep happened in the blink of an eye and he thought nothing of those dreamless nights.

So the sudden dream that night was unexpected.

He was relaxing on his favorite spot on the Sunny again, back pressed against painted wood and arms propped behind his head. He was grinning, wondering what the next island would be like.

Franky called out to the deck if anyone wanted to see his newest creation and Luffy hopped off the figurehead, racing to the workshop with Chopper and Usopp on his heels. When they were all there, Franky started boasting loudly and quickly explained his odd gadget with terms only Usopp could understand before giving a grin and a thumbs up and pressing a red button. The machine rattled for a few seconds and the sound of something breaking was the only warning they had before it blew up and filled the room with smoke. Everyone started coughing and Franky gave a distressed "Aww, man!" as Jinbei ran over with Zoro, the fishman asking if everyone was alright and Zoro saying in a very Zoro-like way,

"Oi, no one died, right?"

Stepping out from the library, Nami yelled at him, annoyed. "You could sound more concerned, idiot. Who even asks that?"

Zoro glared at her. "They woke me up. And I was concerned—I asked, didn't I?"

Sanji kicked open the door to the kitchen and snarled at the swordsman. "Shitty Mosshead! Don't argue with Nami-san like that! Nami-san's always right, dumbass!"

Zoro turned his heated glare towards Sanji, baring his teeth into a scowl similar to the blonde's. "Hah?! What'd you call me, Shitty Cook?!"

"A dumbass, dumbass! What, your hearing as bad as your swordsmanship?"

"Stupid Curly Brow!"

"Stupid Marimo!"

In the background, Brook yohohoed. "They're at it again! Should we stop them before they wreck the ship again?"

Robin gave a smile as she flipped a page of her book. "They'll stop soon, I'm sure."

As if hearing her, Sanji clicked his tongue distastefully and put out his cigarette before flinging it at Zoro. He dodged.

"Whatever. You guys, clean yourselves up before you step into the kitchen. I will not have soot anywhere near my kitchen. Dinner will be ready in ten minutes." He sent a final glare at Zoro before stepping back into the dinning area. Zoro spat after him.

Luffy laughed, waving away the smoke as he sprinted onto the deck. "Shishi, you guys hear that? Dinner'll be ready soon! Come on, come on, let's change quick-"

He stopped in his tracks as he reached the deck and saw no one there. He turned around and suddenly he wasn't on the Thousand Sunny anymore. Red filled his vision and the air filled with the scent of iron. His feet were planted on dirt and matted grass and he could see the horizon in the distance, the blinding sun setting over the ocean. The earth was red, the sky was red, the clouds were red, the seas were red, the sun was red.

He looked down at his hands and they were red too.

He looked behind him and saw ten bodies lined up on the ground.

Then he woke up.

.

He didn't sleep that night.

.

Or the next.

———

When Gramps came back on the sixth day, Luffy sensed him coming from as soon as he stepped into the forest. When he entered the clearing, Luffy tackled him (or more like tried to and stopped short because the damned old man didn't budge and a little kid like him wouldn't have made him stumble anyway). He clung to his shirt and hugged him as best as he could with his short baby not-rubber arms. He hadn't seen his Gramps in years! He looked so young with less gray hairs and wrinkles and Luffy wondered if part of that had been his and Ace's fault.

Gramps grabbed him by the back of his shirt and pried him off him, holding Luffy in front of his face with a teasing grin.

"What, you missed me, you brat?"

Luffy pouted, folding his arms and swinging his feet in the awkward position. "So what if I did, dumb geezer?"

Gramps looked momentarily stunned because he probably hadn't been expecting that and grinned afterwards.

"You finally admitting you love me, eh, Luffy?" He laughed and raised his free hand. "Fist of Love!"

If you asked, Luffy would tell you that no, he didn't scream and that you were hearing things. That weren't his screams. Just to be clear. It was a manly yelp that in no way was a scream that came from his mouth. What he would tell you was that Gramps' punches hurt just as much as he remembered and he hadn't even been using haki.

"Gyeh, that hurt old man!" Luffy shouted, reaching up to nurse his aching bump.

"That was the power of my love! How'd you like that?" Gramps kept grinning, looking too damn proud of himself. Luffy stuck out his tongue.

He was suddenly dropped from the air and landed on wobbly feet, somehow managing to stay upright. Gramps looked him up and down and Luffy watched him quizzically before the vice admiral nodded.

"You got stronger. Finally taking training to become a marine seriously?"

Luffy scrunched his nose. "Not a marine, a pirate!"

(He'd never become a marine. Not after what they did to his nakama.)

Gramps scowled and gave him another punch to the head. "I told you to drop the pirate thing already!"

"No!" Luffy retorted childishly (technically he was a child, so it wasn't out of place or anything). "I'm gonna be the Pirate King!"

Gramps made a noise. "Pirate King? When did that happen?" He asked incredulously.

"Since forever ago! I'm gonna be the Pirate King and you can't stop me!" He pulled at the skin under his eye and stuck out his tongue. That earned him another Fist of Love to the head. (Stupid weak Observation Haki—he could've dodged that.)

"You brat! You're gonna be a fine marine and if more training will finally get that drilled into you then so be it! Expect more training trips and monkey spars, you dumb grandson!"

Luffy was lifted by the back of his shirt again and wiggled around for a while before stopping and hanging uselessly in the air. He folded his arms again as the old (but not really old) man trekked through the forest. They made their way through the underbrush in a relative silence until Luffy remembered something he had been meaning to ask.

"Oi, Gramps, how old am I?"

He got a raised brow in response as Gramps said, "What, did I really hit you that hard or something? Sorry I guess."

Luffy pouted. "Just answer the question."

Gramps still looked confused and slightly concerned but answered anyway. "You're five. Just turned last month. Sure you're okay, brat?"

Luffy gave a noncommittal hum, occupying himself with his thoughts. If all the other signs hadn't been obvious enough, this took the cake. He really did time travel and that meant he had another chance to get stronger and fix everything. He'd make sure what happened didn't happen again, vowed they'd be more prepared and that he'd absolutely, 100% protect them this time. He wasn't planning on breaking that promise a second time.

On another note, Luffy was somewhat upset. He was six when Shanks' crew brought in the Gomu Gomu no Mi from a raid. He'd have to wait a whole year until he got his Devil Fruit powers back and Luffy wasn't exactly the most patient guy.

But there wasn't anything he could do about that so he would focus on his physical and haki training. He'd get stronger earlier and train his Gomu Gomu powers when he got them back.

Luffy nodded, proud of his plan, and glanced at his gramps. He'd thought about it before, not much because it was complicated and Luffy didn't like complicated, but he decided it was the best way to do things.

He wouldn't tell Gramps he was from the future. He wouldn't tell him he became a pirate anyway. He wouldn't tell him he was close to reaching Raftel and finding One Piece.

He wouldn't tell him he died.

Gramps had been through a lot—worried a lot—for his and Ace's sakes. They drew too much attention to themselves as pirates and put a ton of pressure on him, even if he was the type to laugh it off. His grandsons, some of the most notorious criminals of the world. Him, a marine vice admiral and the Hero of the Marines.

Luffy didn't regret what he'd done. He never would. He would still become a pirate, still make a crew, still go to the Grand Line, and still find One Piece. That was never going to change.

But the least he could do was make it easier for his gramps. He'd be more careful and think before he took action (no matter how hard that'd be).

He wouldn't let him regret having a grandson like him.

Sorry if this chapter seemed kinda stiff or rushed, this is my first fanfic for the fandom and I'm not even done with the anime yet

*insert facedesk*

Hopefully my writing becomes smoother and better the more I write this fic. I also wanna try to throw some crack in but I'm not the funniest person so we'll see how that goes,,, Please give me the motivation and support to keep writing!! Hope you stick around for the journey!