Chapter Text
"Are you alright, captain?" Zoro murmured, grabbing his hand as they rejoined the group. "You guys were gone for a while."
Luffy's jaw tightened as he glanced over at Law, Bepo, Ikkaku and the other straggling remnants of his crew being introduced to Mingo.
"Traffy's crew had a big fight," he explained, fingers tightening around Zoro's. "I didn't like it."
He didn't have to explain to Zoro how much it reminded him of the fight he'd had with Usopp. He knew that his swordsman would just know. The way he walked closer, the nod of his head confirmed it.
"I notice Shachi and Penguin aren't with the group."
"They didn't want to sail for Doflamingo. … Bepo says maybe they'll be back." Luffy wanted to think that they'd be back, but he didn't know if he believed it.
He watched as Zoro glanced over at the others. "Well, captain, I guess I wouldn't be thrilled if you decided you wanted us to sail under another man's flag."
"Would you leave?"
Luffy was gripped with a sudden terrible panic that Zoro's soft look and little shake of his head immediately assuaged.
"Never."
Two years ago, in the first few months when they had met, Luffy knew that the answer would have been 'yes'.
He let go of Zoro's hand and twined his arms around his arm in a curling spiral instead, walking as close to him as possible. They were quiet together for a moment, bathed in the last warm rays of twilight and the soft chatter of the rest of the Straw Hats, and the former Heart Pirates and Doflamingo– all of them surrounded by the greater, distant noise of the crowd and Uta's song.
When Luffy had been little, talking with Ace and Sabo about how they'd all be pirate captains, he didn't really understand what that meant, or why it meant that the three of them couldn't sail together.
It had been Zoro who taught Luffy what being a captain meant. He still wasn't sure that he understood it. Or maybe it was more that there was a part of him that didn't quite like the answer.
Pride. Pride and rank.
It made him think of the marines.
And he hated it.
He knew that captains had to make decisions. He knew that someone had to make the final decisions on things. And that was fine, even if sometimes he'd rather they make decisions as a crew. As friends. As equals.
Luffy loved Zoro, and he knew that Zoro loved him. Sometimes he was worried about how much Zoro loved him. Sometimes he was worried that Zoro loved him, not as an equal, but as something like a master.
And Luffy didn't want to be anybody's master.
Luffy wanted to be a captain— wanted to be the King of the Pirates— not to order people around, but to be free.
But why couldn't everyone be free?
Law called Doflamingo a 'pushover'. He had him wrapped around his finger. That was one reason Luffy felt okay with all this. Because Law wasn't going to let Mingo make him do things that he didn't want to do. But Mingo was his captain now. Would Zoro think that Law should blindly obey him?
Zoro didn't seem to mind the way Luffy acted with Nami, who would probably also call him a pushover, and say that Luffy was wrapped around her finger.
Luffy looked up at Zoro. At his rough, handsome face, and the soft fluff of his sea-green hair, and the pale scar over his eye. Luffy loved him so much, and he knew Zoro loved him, knew it like breathing, and he thought maybe it had changed both of them a little bit.
Zoro smiled at him quietly, and Luffy felt a warm flutter.
Two years was a long time. Two years ago Zoro would not have said that he'd never leave him, even if he sailed under another flag.
Maybe Zoro had been wrong about captains.
Maybe everyone was wrong about kings.
If Yamato was going to be honest, he'd say 'this was all a bit overwhelming'. Not—like, in a bad way. He wasn't that weak. He wasn't weak at all, He wasn't stressed out by the absolute deluge of new sights, sounds, and stimuli—including magic acts on stage previously thought impossible without some kind of jutsu …sorry, 'devil fruit'.
He was just standing there, catching up with Komu—Saki. Just Saki now, watching the show with wide eyes as the Donquixotes meandered about and Jinbei, Chopper and the kabuki actor—Caesar, spent time nearby.
There was some kind of eating contest with his Captain and the Uta girl, that was—well. The screens had appeared out of thin air to broadcast it to the entire island, so that was kind of crazy.
Luffy had lost, but Yamato expected there was some kind of breach of etiquette there—which is fitting for pirates, right? So she really kicked his ass.
He'd cheered his captain on anyway, and nudged Komurasaki as it ended to point to her own Captain lurking in the background.
That had been over an hour ago now, and Yamato could tell that the other crew was getting bored, despite still being nervous over their apparently ill member. There was more smoking. Alcohol had been broken out. Yamato had overheard murmurings about various opinions on 'making peace with Straw Hat'.
Jinbei, who'd long been in deep discussion with the Donquixotes' fish-man member finally drifted over to the room– with the shorty in tow.
"Yamato," he greeted– quietly, but with enough volume to be heard over the background chatter at least.
Yamato glanced up suddenly with more eagerness than he'd hoped.
"Jinbei!" He murmured quietly back.
The short fishman leaned around from behind Jinbei to grin at him "hiiii~~~"
It seemed at least that one was happy about the idea of peace.
Jinbei smiled his wide, toothy smile. "I thought I'd come check up on you, given the circumstances. Are you holding up?"
"Doin' alright. Me and Saki are catchin' up…you know—we've both been through a lot since Wano."
He felt the phantom sensation of twitching ears. "This whole thing's a lot more than what I'm used to. But it's kinda fun? And the Donquixotes seem like good folks."
"Awwww," the little fishman giggled "I'll letcha keep believing that!"
Jinbei chuckled slightly. "Good can be relative, I suppose, I—"
Whatever he was going to say was cut off suddenly as the door of the guard house swung open, and a silhouette appeared in it.
"So this is where you've all fucking been!" Yamato had never seen the man in the doorway before, with his slicked back hair, his cigar, and his enormous hook.
"Hey, hey, we were wondering when we'd see you, Sir Crocodile!" The Donquixote leader in the big fur coat– Yamato was pretty sure that his name was Trebol– peeled away from the group he'd been chatting with to greet the new arrival.
Yamato's smile had gone rictus. He had no idea what the hell a Sir Crocodile was—but hey, you roll with the punches right? He was obviously a friend! Obviously. Even if he'd stomped in like a demon straight out of an old scroll and growled at everyone.
This was fine. Yamato was doing great.
Uta felt the exhaustion settle heavy over her shoulders, and hang as nausea in the pit of her stomach as she stepped off stage and into her dressing room for the final time the first night. The enthusiasm of the crowd was like a drug that flowed through her the entire time that she was on stage, but it ebbed away like bloodloss as soon as she was no longer singing.
She collapsed more heavily than she meant to into her little chair, draping her legs over it bonelessly. She was wrung out, and her throat ached.
What if I just stopped now? She thought to herself. What if I just snuck out the back door and went and found Luffy and let the concert stop, and sailed away with him like he asked me to? Surely a whole day-long concert is enough…
She had promised she would save them all. Promised she would save everyone. But could she really do that? Did she have to give what it would take?
Luffy's face appeared in her mind. How had he gotten so handsome? His sharp angles and muscular form softened by his curly hair and his big, warm eyes, and bigger, warmer smile. Uta felt herself flush at the memory of him, and the memory of the warmth of his arms around her.
I could just leave.
It seemed to spread that memory of warmth through her body with each heavy beat of her heart, as she held tight to that feeling. Even that scar—a mark of a tragedy—stood as a clear sign that Luffy had changed, yet stayed the same. Did he find her as beautiful as she found him handsome? Had she changed for the better?
He wants me to be his musician, just like when we were kids. Sure, I always argued that I should be captain but we both knew how much I loved to sing. I was ready to let him captain our dumb little ship if I got to be its musician.
She was taken back to her memories by the sea, when she'd reach out and place her hand against his after exhausting themselves with constant contests—watching the waves as her young heart whispered about grand dreams and feelings that always seemed to include him. She'd always held his hand tightly in those days.
She'd written her favorite of her songs about that memory, hadn't she? Penning the feeling she only later understood was a melancholy pining. When he'd grabbed her, held her close in his arms, she'd actually faltered in her new dream for the first time since she was a girl.
Uta knew the cost of saving everyone from the cold and unforgiving world, didn't she? It was a grand, beautiful dream—but one that didn't leave any room for a dream of her own. She was an instrument—an idol.
But Luffy didn't see her as an instrument.
There was a sharp knock on her dressing room door. A familiar knock. It was Gordon. Suddenly Uta's reveries tumbled all over themselves.
Uta quickly whipped around to look at herself in the mirror, trying to pat the flush from her face as she called out a stilted 'come in'.
She had to get herself together—she'd have to talk to him about this—the message was sent, her fans were happy. Maybe it really was time to call it off.
Gordon shuffled in with a broad smile on his face. He was wearing a hat from one of the merchandise booths that had her name on it in large letters, and he was carrying a bouquet in his arms that was almost as big as he was.
"Congratulations, my dear!"
"Thanks, Gordon!" Uta chirped with more confidence than she felt. "The show's going great, isn't it? The crowd seems so, so happy!"
The memory of the crowd came back to mind with a faint thrum of that drug-like thrill, but Uta licked her lips nervously and folded her arms behind her back to put it out of mind. "The concert's been greater than I'd even hoped."
"And this is only day one!" Gordon reminded her, beaming brilliantly as he pressed the huge bouquet into her arms. Uta saw that the stems of the roses had been tied with paper ribbons, each with the prayers of the others on the island for her.
Thank you for bringing us salvation, Uta.
Your holy voice will save us all.
Uta's fingers curled against the bouquet, bringing it to her chest as she managed a smile "and this is only day one."
Her heart had picked up the pace again, bringing with it the subtle thrill of their praise.
My holy voice, a part of her echoed, as she took a deep breath and spoke up. "Gordon, I've been thinking—I...ah..."
They were counting on her, weren't they? The people of Elegia, her fans, they were praying for her to save them all and bring them into a salvation that so many of them didn't even realize they needed. The world was cruel—the world was unfair, the world—
"I've been thinking—thinking about the concert."
He raised his chin curiously, still smiling at her from under the big, silly hat. "I can't imagine you'd be thinking about anything else, dear! But what's on your mind?"
"About if maybe we should keep it like this, Gordon." Uta squeezed the bouquet to her chest as she peeked out from around it through the curtain of her white hair. "I'm wondering if we should end it early and let the people have the rest of today and then—"
And then I can run off with Luffy—I can be part of his crew. If anyone's going to be the sort of pirate I believed in, it's him.
The thought warred against a sudden spike of apprehension—of guilt.
"And then what, my dear?" Gordon's voice was soft, careful. Probing. If he assumed what she was going to say, then he didn't say it. But he reached out his hand, and put it on her shoulder, as he often did when he was trying to bring her comfort in distress.
She looked up at him as she lowered the bouquet. "...you saw my brother on stage, didn't you? Luffy—He wants me to join him, Gordon. We used to dream together about sailing the seas."
"Ah, your brother." A number of emotions briefly flicked across Gordon's face. "He's a very famous pirate. When I saw that you had him on stage with you, I thought that you'd convince him to join us my dear."
"I didn't know," Uta glanced down. "I didn't know he was famous—or had actually managed to become a pirate. When he told me it kind of hurt, Gordon. I tried to convince him to join us, but he's got a dream. He wants to be the King of the Pirates."
And when he'd held her, he'd all but pleaded with her not to give up on her own dreams. "We used to talk about doing that together—argued, playfully, about who'd be the real captain but still together."
He stroked his fingers up her shoulder, over her neck to tuck them under her chin and bring her gaze up. "All he needs is a little time, Uta. He'll see your vision, and he'll be glad to be here with us when your voice brings everyone to paradise."
Uta looked up at him with a gentle furrow of her brow over her unsure smile. "I mean, I'm sure I could convince him, Gordon, but—"
But did she even want to? Her voice would bring everyone to paradise—her voice was the answer to the people's prayers, but—that answer meant the end of Luffy's dream didn't it?
"But he introduced me to the crew—the crew he wants me to join," she could see herself among them easily on some high-seas adventure, the smell of salt in her nose as she looped her arms around Luffy and goaded them all into a shanty.
"They seem like good people, and they seem to like me."
"I'm sure they seem that way, Uta," he said, kneeling down in front of her. "But it's only because they want something from you. Haven't you seen by now what pirates are like? They're liars, thieves, murderers. How could you consider giving up our dream for something like that?"
The subtle tingle of the crowd's enthusiasm rolled through her again, more so as her eyes caught the fluttering tags on the roses.
Thank you for bringing us to salvation.
It concentrated in her shoulders, against her ear—it felt like hands and the soft whisper of the part of herself that knew what Gordon said was true. Pirates take, and take, and take—they were liars, thieves, murderers. Why would Luffy be any different?
Uta felt tears stinging her eyes as she grit her teeth. Why would Luffy be any different? Because he cared about her, right? Loved her, like a sister—or like a—a…it didn't matter, what mattered was he cared. The way he held her spoke to that, right? And the crew—they didn't seem like murderers or monsters.
It wasn't impossible that there were some decent pirates in the world, was it?
"Because I miss him, Gordon! He—he's so happy to see me. He wouldn't use me like Shanks did!"
"Then why not show him your new world? Would you really forsake everyone– the dream of a paradise for all of us– to run off with some pirate?"
I'd forsake the world to run off with Luffy clashed directly against I could never forsake everyone because of a damned pirate!
The two warring thoughts left her shaking for a moment, as the whisper against her ear droned on.
They need me, the people are suffering, they love me—the only who who can bring about a new era is me.
"I…I don't know if he'd like my new world. He said he's not interested in Eras, new or old…" Uta murmured.
Gordon clasped his hands, looking above her. "What's he interested in then, Uta? Gold? Blood?"
"Fre—Freedom? Dreams?" Uta felt smothered, wrapped in a great cloak of doubt and glory as her hand moved of its own volition to pull one of the roses from the bouquet and hold it up to her eyes, dangling its message before like a cue on a sheet of lyrics.
Praise unto Uta, the voice of the new genesis.
The tingling adoration, the drug-like praise, crawled up her body like a living thing—for a moment the thought flashed through her mind, 'Can Gordon see it?'.
She didn't find the strength to look up and see for herself as her own thoughts answered her "But what does he know about dreams? He's just following in the footsteps of cruel and violent men towards a cruel and violent end."
It surprised her when she saw Gordon react—had she said that out loud?
"I understand," Gordon murmured. He knelt down in front of her. "But our salvation is nearly at hand. Surely now I can hear your voice, my god."
Something inside Uta— pulled.
The smile that spread across her lips grew sharp and bright as the waning moon, her vision focused through the remnants of tears she'd foolishly started to shed.
Her doubts blew away like mist in sunlight, and Uta stood tall before the kneeling supplicant before her.
The feeling pooled around her wasn't a smothering cloak, it was a pair of wings to use to lift the world out of the mire it'd sunken into.
"My voice is unclouded, Gordon. It was a moment of weakness, but it's passed."
He bowed his head. "My faith in you will never waver. Your voice will bring us a new era. Everything will be covered by your glory. Long have we worked to bring about your symphony, my god."
Uta reached up to tuck the flower over her ear, laughing musically in her dressing room "and with the symphony—we'll all, pirate and marine and faithful, walk into the everlasting dream of our New Genesis!"
Her fingers shook, by her ear—snapping the stem of the rose tucked over it as she outwardly smiled.
Somewhere inside her, buried deep within the glowing heart of warmth and praise—an echo of Uta felt like something important was slipping through her fingers. The warmth of a young man's hand in hers, and the scent of the sea…
Life had really gone to hell in a handbasket since Wano. Like, an extra-large handbasket full of absolute bullshit and miserable coincidence.
So the Kid Pirates had rolled up on Wano thinking they were hot shit (and they were). Quincy, the band's manager and sometimes-navigator, had been cheering on her captain all the way—until they'd lost at the hands of the Emperor Kaidou and his band of freak-ass dragon men.
After that, things got hazy. A lot of wandering the woods in her full Zoan form—a lot of fighting in the vain effort to get where she could to try and help her captain—and a lot of watching the finishing blow on Big Mom followed by the unending sea of fire.
Then she woke up on a ship that smelt like fucking cake, surrounded by a bunch of newspaper comic candy people and dragged around for interrogation. She'd been wrung out (literally), threatened with candy (scarier than it sounded), given a fucking bowl of fried pork cutlet and rice and told that confessing would make her mother happy (it wouldn't, her mother was as dead as her respect for her), and eventually—after telling them the whole sordid tale—let go and given free reign of the ship.
The Charlottes, who up till then were very much their enemy by proximity to Straw Hat Luffy, had turned out to be pretty accommodating and downright friendly once they were done shaking her down. A change of clothes out of the Wano rags she'd been wearing , a dozen great meals and some shockingly good company later and they'd landed on fucking Elegia.
Quincy knew Elegia—the birthplace of the best musicians the Grand Line had to offer—and the current site of famous idol, Uta's big and admittedly alarming music festival.
It wasn't the Kid Pirates sort of music festival, admittedly, even with the apparent invitation for musical acts to take the stage while Uta was on breaks.But… even if she'd thought they'd be well received, who knew what had happened to the rest of the crew.
They'd been scattered to the four fucking winds—she kept hoping maybe some of them had developed a taste for poppy music—if for nothing else than to run into them here. And—honestly it wasn't a bad concert?
Not exactly her usual style of music, but she found herself bopping along to the girl's harder stuff as she meandered through the crowd with the Candyland Brigade, dwarfed by their tendency towards the gigantic.
It'd have been a great time if the bizarre guards hadn't shown up—a bunch of weirdos wearing grinning masks decked out like music notes and carrying lances and spears as they moved with surprising speed through the surprised concert-goers.
It was even more surprising when they announced an order to 'seize the pirates'. It had been a whole day! There had been famous pirates up on Uta's screens during her performance– actually, it was a little weird that Straw Hat and Doflamingo were there?-- but Quincy had figured that meant they were good to go.
Unfortunately, that didn't seem to be the case.
Worse, Uta's concert security was not fucking around.
She'd expected to mop the floor with a bunch of random nobodies in fancy armor—but she found herself backed against a fucking wall and having to shift into her half-zoan form just to survive.
The salamander, mythical lizard imbued with the power of flame, burned her way through guard after guard—but they always seemed to bounce right the hell back. Even when the Charlottes slashed, crushed, and smothered them!
It only took a few dozen of them for the whole crew to realize they had to book it. So they'd taken off—stumbling out of the concert grounds and into the small and seemingly abandoned village.
"What even is this damned island?" Perospero hissed. His hat and headdress had been knocked off during the fighting, leaving surprisingly long natural hair fluttering behind him as they slowed down, pressing into one of the narrow alleys of the village.
Smoothie had taken up the rear, covering their entrance into the alley as her smaller siblings made their way through. Her sharp and glaring eye snapped to Pero as he hissed. "It's unnatural. I wrung one of those guards enough to kill him—and yet he got back up."
"And I cleaved the head off another, yet he still chases us," Amande mused around her cigarette. Her own hat had been lost, her long neck craned to look over her shoulder.
Quincy leaned on the wall to catch her breath. "Fucccckkkk me. You think they're constructs?" \
"Tch, likely, yes." Perospero sneered. "Alright, we need to find cover and regroup. Let's investigate these buildings."
Quincy grimaced as she banged her head lightly against the wall of the alleyway. She was really, really starting to wish her captain was here. If for no other reason than he'd be bitching BIG TIME about the pop concert's shitty music guards.
And she could really use some of her captain's bitching to lighten her mood.
Nami still tasted the cigarette Diamante had given her on her tongue when she and the Straw Hat crew had reconvened. It wasn't exactly a surprise to hear that Law and Doflamingo had a complicated history—Nami was no stranger to the fact that sometimes these things weren't exactly cut and dry.
So at least it worked out as best it could, I.e: without things going to hell and her captain getting upset. Plus—she'd gotten to meet Uta! She was just as lovely in person as she was in her promo images, that was for damn sure—Nami couldn't help but like her, especially with the promise that she'd probably join the crew at the end of the concert.
While she was riding the high of THAT, she'd had to sit through the world's most awkward reunion with the Heart Pirates, listening as they fought back and forth about whether or not Law had betrayed them by siding with Doflamingo. Most of them had left, leaving just that Ikkaku girl with some sense in her head and back in Law's—whatever, army? Yeah.
The only problem was how quiet Luffy was being since the whole thing. She knew what it looked like when he started to stew.
That's why, as they were finally getting back to the guard house where the rest of their crew were waiting for them, she was happy when he spoke up in her ear.
At least until she heard what he was asking.
"Nami, is that Croco or am I confused?"
Standing outside the little guard house, smoking like a chimney and in the company of Jinbei and Yamato as well as a few of the top Donquixotes– was Sir Crocodile.
And Mihawk.
And Smoker.
Nami quietly prayed to whatever horrible god that was listening (not the one inside of Luffy, she really wanted to avoid that one) that this wasn't going to turn into a huge, clownish fight.
Smoker was a surprise. The kind of surprise that usually led to a punch up.
Yamato was in the middle of attempting to regale Sir Crocodile with some animated story, waving his club around with a doggish grin—but MIhawk noticed them almost instantly, leaning over to whisper to his captain.
Unfortunately that drew the attention of the shockingly non-aggro'd Smoker towards their captain.
"Uh…I hope not?" she murmured to Luffy.