Survivors Guilt

Chapter 46

Luffy honestly couldn't remember how he ended up here. He did know that he blacked out somewhere between getting the snake to throw him up and meeting up with his crew at the bean stock thing. It wasn't a black out like the ones at the end of parties or a particularly bad fight, so he had no idea what caused it. He didn't feel that fuzzy feeling he did whenever he went into Gear Five, so that wasn't it. Regardless, he was now facing Enel on the guy's ship with Nami and a massive gold bell behind him. That doesn't matter, though. What matters now is kicking this guy's ass. He'll question his strange blackout later.

For the most part, he blocked out Enel's monologue. The first time around, he'd listened and responded to the guys he fought, but now he just found it stupid. Why give your enemy an opening by talking to them? Sure, sometimes having a conversation works, but that's solely dependent on the kind of person you're talking to. Enel attacks first and talks later, so Luffy was gonna match that energy.

The lightning bastard moved out of the way of his first few punches, retaliating by striking him with lightning. Despite Nami's cries, the lightning did nothing more than tingle a bit. Something about rubber conducting electricity? Either way, now he just had to get past Enel's Observation Haki, but that was a fairly easy task. Now, if he could stop being struck by lightning, that'd be great.

As Enel powered up another blast of lighting, talking while doing so, Luffy completely shut down his mind. Well, not completely but just enough so that his moves and thoughts couldn't be predicted. The rest of the fight was a blur until he snapped himself out of it. Not to be cocky, but it was an unsurprising win.

"Are you alright?!" Nami ran to him.

"Yeah, I'm fine." he smiled, "Are you alright?"

She smiled softly, "Yeah, I'm alright."

"That's good. Now, let's go find the others!"

"Do you know where they are?"

"Not in the slightest!"

***

Nami wasn't going to say anything. She didn't need Luffy to freak out at all right now. She didn't want him to freak out at all, but she was going to make sure he was safe when he ended up doing so.

The truth was, she's not alright. She knew that Luffy had somehow turned off his brain during his fight with Enel, so he didn't exactly know what happened aside from his winning.

At some point between Luffy getting around Enel's Haki and his win, Nami had been hit by a stray lightning bolt. It was a ricochet shot, so it wasn't nearly as powerful as it had or could've been, but it still hurt like a bitch. That wasn't the whole problem, though. With the pain of the electricity came memories. Memories that she didn't think were hers until they fully registered.

'Oh, my god,' she gasped quietly, 'I- We left him all alone!'

Nami had managed to calm herself down by the time Luffy knocked Enel out. Then, as if he flicked a switch, he turned to her with a bright smile. She made the first move by running to him. "Are you alright?!" She so badly wanted to hug him. She wanted to apologize for leaving him all alone.

"Yeah, I'm fine," This fight wasn't even close to one of the worse ones he's been in. She wasn't worried. "Are you alright?"

The real answer? Not in the slightest. What she told him? "Yeah, I'm alright."

"That's good," he cheered, "Now, let's go find the others!"

The others? Oh. She forgot about the others. She was going to have to face them, wasn't she? She was going to have to pretend to be someone she hasn't been for a long time. "Do you know where they are?"