Alright, everybody!

New One Piece fic! Woooo! I'm assuming you've read the description and know that this fic will be about the Straw Hats watching Luffy's memories. If not, NOW YOU KNOW.

To be honest, I've kinda been wanting to do a fic like this for a while. Well, I've finally gotten around to it. This fic follows canon takes place sometime after Fishman Island, so there will be potential for spoilers up to that point. I will be including things from both the manga and the anime, as well as adding my own little stories for Luffy's memories.

This chapter is just the prologue, so yes, it will be short.

Disclaimer: Nope.

ONWARD!


Prologue

The Seedling


Luffy had been gone for hours. Not that anyone was worried. Luffy disappeared on a regular basis when they docked at a new island, deserted or otherwise. And while he almost always got into trouble, the rubber captain was perfectly capable of taking care of himself. So no one felt the need to be worried. Besides, when Luffy was in trouble it was, more often than not, very loud and very obvious trouble. And his crew had no problem finding him.

So the Straw Hat crew was perfectly justified in not feeling the slightest bit of worry when Luffy wondered off to explore that morning. As well as when everyone else – including Zoro – made it back to the ship by mid-afternoon. Luffy was fine. He would be back when he got hungry enough; he thought with his stomach after all.

And sure enough, when Sanji was a half-way through cooking dinner, Luffy climbed aboard the Thousand Sunny.

He was dirty, as expected for someone who had spent a good portion of the day running through a forest, and he was grinning widely as always. But there was a haziness to his eyes and a sluggishness to his movements, like he was tired. Now, if Luffy was a normal person, the fact that he was showing signs of being tired after a day of exploring was not surprising. However, Luffy was not a normal person. Far from it. So the fact that he was tired was odd. Very odd.

"Oi, Luffy!" Usopp called, "Where have you been? You missed lunch!"

Luffy tilted his head to the side, a confused expression on his face. "Huh? No I didn't! I ate a wild boar!" he said, patting his stomach, "Shishishi! It was delicious!"

"Of course it was," Usopp deadpanned.

Robin chuckled from her seat on the lawn. "Did you have fun exploring the island, Luffy?" she asked without looking up from her book.

"Yeah!" Luffy exclaimed, grinning, "There's so much stuff, Robin! I saw this waterfall – it was soooooo tall! Oh, oh! And there was this biiiiiiiig fish that was trying to swim up it! And, and –"

In the midst of all his flailing, Usopp's sharp eyes caught sight of something on Luffy's wrist. "Nah, Luffy, what's that thing on your wrist?" he asked, effectively cutting the rubber teen off.

Luffy stopped and blinked before glancing at his wrist. There was indeed something stuck to his wrist. It looked like a flower bud of some kind. But at second glance, it wasn't just stuck to the young captain's wrist, it was embedded in it. Small tendrils branched out from under the small bud, taking root in Luffy's skin. Luffy just stared at it for a moment before smiling. "Oh yeah," he said, "A tree bit me."

Usopp facepalmed. "Luffy, let me see," he said, taking his friend's wrist and looking at the strange plant that seemed to be growing from it. "Oi, Robin? I think you need to come take a look at this."

The archeologist looked up from her book, brow furrowing when she saw what Usopp was pointing to. She got up and walked over, taking a closer look. "Hmmm, perhaps it's best to have Chopper take a look at this. I'll see if I can find anything in the library."

Usopp nodded and dragged Luffy off to the infirmary.


"I told you," Luffy said, "It doesn't hurt. Not even a little!"

Chopper frowned as he prodded the bud. "Are you sure, Luffy?"

Luffy nodded.

Usopp sighed. "How did this even happen?"

Luffy cocked his head to the side. "Well…there was this tree I found in the forest. It was really pretty and covered in vines and flowers. But when I went to touch it, it bit me!"

"Trees don't bite people, Luffy," Usopp said dryly.

"Fine. It poked me."

"With what?" Chopper asked.

"I dunno," Luffy answered, "It was sharp and it made me feel really dizzy." Luffy paused, brow scrunched up in confusion. "I think I fell asleep, which is weird, cause I wasn't tired at all, but I was on the ground and I didn't remember getting there. And this plant thing was in my wrist."

Chopper frowned. "Dizzy? I'm going to take a blood test, Luffy. It sounds like something was injected into your bloodstream; I need to make sure it isn't harmful."

"Huh? But poison doesn't work on me," Luffy said, arms crossed over his chest.

"We don't know that it was poison, Luffy," Chopper said reasonably, "I could have been something else, some other kind of drug, and if it was, we need to know what kind."

Luffy tilted his head to the side. "Hmmm…alright. If you say so, Chopper."

Chopper smiled at his captain and turned around to gather what he needed. While he was doing this, Robin entered the infirmary with a thick book in hand.

"Oh, Robin, did you find anything?" Usopp asked.

"I think so," she said, turning the book around to show them a picture of a vine-covered, flowering tree, "Is this what the tree looked like, Luffy?"

Luffy nodded. "Yeah! It looked just like that!"

"Is it dangerous?" Chopper asked as he stuck a needle into Luffy's arm to draw some blood.

"Not by itself, no," Robin answered, "It's called the 'Arbor Somniatis' which means the 'Tree of the Dreamer'. It's an incredibly rare plant that's able use it's sap to render potential predators unconscious."

"So the sap doesn't actually do any harm?" Chopper asked.

"No. It simply puts the victim to sleep for a week or two. Thus why it's called the 'Tree of the Dreamer'. The dangerous part comes from the fact that, during this time, the victim is completely helpless. Nothing will be able to wake them from their slumber until the sap wears off and leaves their system," Robin explained.

Luffy frowned. "So I'm going to sleep for two weeks?"

"More or less," Robin answered.

"But that means I'll miss seventy meals!" the young captain exclaimed in panic.

"How the hell did you calculate that so quickly?!" Usopp yelled.


"I think it would be best if we remained here for the duration of Luffy's slumber," Robin said after she and Chopper had explained the situation to the crew during dinner.

Dinner was oddly quiet that night. Luffy's energy was obviously draining fast; his movements were sluggish and his eyes were half closed. It was clear he was trying to eat, but he wasn't having much success, he could barely chew, and he was in no condition to be stealing food from everyone else's plates.

Nami sighed, running her fingers through her hair. "Well, according to my books, the log will take about five days to set anyway," she said.

"And now those days will be unnaturally silent," Zoro commented dryly.

"We could use a break for a while," Sanji said.

"You think you can deal with this for two weeks, love-cook?" Zoro asked, gesturing to the room as a whole.

"Well it will definitely be quiet without you, Luffy-bro!" Franky said, cutting in before an argument could break out between the first mate and the cook.

Luffy blinked slowly and dragged his eyes up to Franky's. When he finally managed it, he smiled sleepily.

Nami sighed. "Honestly, Luffy, can't you stay out of trouble for one day?"

The rubber teen chuckled softly. "Sor-ry, Na-mi," he said slowly, voice soft, before suddenly slumping forward and collapsing on the table.

"And, he's out," stated Usopp, prodding the young captain's shoulder and getting no response.

"Yohohoho! That was so sudden! My heart stopped!" Brook cried, "Except I don't have a heart."

Robin chuckled. "Perhaps we should move Luffy to bed?" she suggested.

"I'll do it," Chopper volunteered, shifting into Heavy Point and scooping up the slumbering pirate and carrying him out of the room.

"I suppose it'll be an early night then," Nami said, "Luffy's the one who keeps us up half the time anyway."

"That's because without Luffy around, we actually get everything done that we need to," Usopp replied.

"And then have nothing to do afterward," added Franky.

"Indeed," Brook said, "Luffy-san makes life much more interesting! Yohoho!"

Nami rolled her eyes, but her lips were twitching slightly, like she was fighting a smile. "I'm going to work on my maps and then head to bed," she said, getting up from the table and heading toward the door, "Good night."

Robin smiled. "This will be an interesting two weeks," she said.

The others had to agree.


So there it is. Just trying to set the stage pretty much. I wanted to have a kinda legit reason for why all of this would be happening instead of just thrusting the crew into Luffy's memories. Thoughts?

Until next time,

~Elri