Luffy cried. He wished with every fiber of his being he could blame somebody else and make them pay for it. He wished he could take it out on someone. But this was all on him. He did this. He caused this.
"Luffy." Robin said, making Luffy grimace.
"Leave me alone, Robin."
"But Luffy —"
"No! Leave me alone!"
A hand rested on Luffy's shoulder. It was large and gruff. Definitely not Robin.
"Luffy."
"Go away, Zoro." Luffy choked out.
"Look at me, Captain." Zoro said softly.
"I gotta find it. Or else, she... she's."
"Luffy, look at me!"
Luffy started rifling through the debris again, ignoring Zoro, who grunted in frustration. He had to find something. He kept thinking about how close he was to snatching her hand. How close he was to stopping all of this from happening. He felt so lost. So terrified. So hurt. So weak.
He reached out and smashed the bookshelf, which crumbled to pieces. It wasn't enough. He wanted to throw things. He wanted to break things. He wanted to —
"—Here!" Zoro said, leaning over Luffy. Pinched between his fingers was a small white piece of paper. It was crumpled and damp at the edges, showing something was wrong. But it was there. It was Misaki's vivre card.
Luffy reached up, his hand shaking as he took the piece of paper. He let it move in his hand, indicating what direction she was in before closing his hand over it. He looked at Zoro, and sighed out the old air that he had been hoarding in his lungs. Breathe. She's alive. Misaki is alive.
______________________
I rolled over and coughed. Water spewed out of my nose and mouth as I hacked, splashing into the sand beneath me and drenching it. God, my lungs hurt. I kept coughing until all the water was purged from my lungs. This part is almost as bad as the drowning part.
I tried to remember how I got here. The last I remembered, I was struggling between becoming a victim of the sea and fish food. I rolled onto my back and breathed. Air never felt so good to breathe than right this instance.
I was covered in sand, from head to toe. I sat up and winced as the sand ground into my stitches in my arm. I was so glad the stitches in my leg were finally healed, or else I would have to worry about two infections instead of just one.
I pulled up my shirt, wondering why my stomach hurt so much. My entire torso was black and blue, making me wince. Must have been that sea beast slamming into me.
I sighed and stood up, wading back into the water to rinse off. The sea water made my arm burn, as well as the tips of my fingers, but luckily, it seemed like I had no other wounds. I walked back out onto the shore and looked inland, wondering where I might be.
The beach was littered with plenty of coconut trees, far too tall for me to scale — which is, you know, unfortunate. And the entire island beyond the beach was shrouded in the thickest fog I had ever seen. I couldn't even tell if it was wooded or not. I gulped, wondering if I should just stay on the shoreline.
Just then, my stomach growled loudly. It felt like someone was clawing at my stomach, it was so empty. I sighed and went to grab the hilt of my sword, only to grasp at air. Shit. I must have lost it in the storm.
I looked back to the ocean, hoping to see the Sunny on the horizon, chasing after me. But, much to my dismay, all I saw was open sea. There was no telling just how far away I was at this point. I wasn't even sure how I was alive, after all. I grumbled and walked over to a coconut tree. I tried shaking it, grimacing as the action pulled on my stitches. The tree wouldn't budge, so I grabbed a rock and threw it at the coconut. I kept throwing the rock until I hit it but even when I did, it simply wiggled a little before settling back down.
I sighed, looking back up at the swirling fog before me. Where am I?