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As it turns out, having two emperors of the sea wanting you dead kind of gets in the way of a welcoming celebration for a new crew member, as Jinbe has learned. It is not to say he wasn’t met with happiness and relief, but with everything that’s happened with Big Mom and then Kaido and then Kaido and Big Mom together, there has been no time for the reality of it all to sink in.
Now, though, Jinbe can almost see the crew, still mostly wrapped in bandages and held together by stitches, vibrating with excitement as they pull him towards their ship; Luffy’s hand firmly clasped to one of Jibe’s own, while Nami takes hold of the other, glaring at Chopper and Usopp when they booed her for getting to him first.
“Come on, come on .” Luffy pulls him forward, laughter in his voice. Freedom in his steps.
Jinbei laughs, swinging both his arms back and forth as these kids – because whatever feats they might’ve accomplished, whatever power they hold, they are still just kids – cling to him as if this is a normal occurrence. As if he’s been a part of them for years now and not a matter of only a couple of chaos filled weeks. Their welcoming warmth and easy acceptance tugs at his heartstrings with the same intensity Luffy tugs at his hand; excitement bleeding through every cell of his body to show Jinbei just what it means to sail with the Strawhat crew.
The sun is just dipping below the horizon, casting everything in a soft orange glow. Fireflies buzz awake around them, shining a path of ever moving stars, dancing to the rhythm of the crew’s contagious happiness. We won , Usopp had shouted earlier for the world to hear, we’re together. What more could we want?
Up ahead, Brook keeps on an overly animated rendition of Binks’ Sake that everyone knows at least a few words to, singing through mouthfuls of laughter and breathless joy, not caring at all about being offkey. It’s been a long time since Jinbei’s heard this song, but he does his best to accompany them in their singing either way.
“We have a surprise for you!” Luffy says, ducking when Usopp goes for his head.
“It’s not a surprise if you tell him we have a surprise!” Usopp shrieks, failing at hitting Luffy over the head a second time.
“‘course it is! I didn’t say what the surprise is.”
“Still!” Nami joins Usopp, exasperated.
“Come on,” Sanji laughs, blowing a curtain of smoke up in the air, “we should be counting our blessings that he held back from saying anything this long.”
Jinbei watches them bicker with a fondness so deep it seems impossible for someone to feel this much. He debates asking, but before can so much as comment, they round a canopy of trees and just as he’s about to take in the sight of their ship – the Sunny , they say to him with reverence – the sky behind it breaks apart with sound and a kaleidoscope of color as a multitude of fireworks engulfs the setting sun.
“Welcome home, Jinbei!” They all shout, Luffy loudest of all.
I’m home , Jinbei thinks and doesn’t try to hide the tears that coat his face with liquid happiness.
ººº
She is as grand as she is beautiful The Thousand Sunny. Fitting, Jinbei thinks, looking over the crew that calls her home.
And now so do I.
Jinbei places a hesitant hand upon her side and silently asks for passage, for her to welcome him as her children already have. Come on in, she seems to say, it is time for rest now. Let me hold you safe.
Jinbei has seen his fair share of ships in his lifetime, but none quite like the Sunny. A soft grass deck with trees growing by the corners to provide shade and the perfect size to hold swings in their branches. Everywhere he looks, warm colors wave back at him, creating a perfect sense of safety and stability. This is a place the darkness of the world holds no power over. This is a place for light. For love and comfort.
Here, everything is going to be alright. Here, in the expanse of what makes this crew of misfits what they are, nothing can touch them. Here, they are forever together. Jinbei, gingerly walking over the deck, taking it all in, doesn’t quite know what to make of the enormity that it is to belong .
You are mine now , Sunny tells him when he rounds the mast. I am not in the habit of letting go , the dents and scratches and still smooth edges whispers in his ears.
All around him, the crew tries to command his attention, steal him away for a favorite spot, a room designed to fit whatever needs they might have. Boasting with pride over them all is Luffy. He praises Franky’s work; the shipwright with the loose ends who won’t stop crying, and Jinbei has yet to understand how pervert can be a compliment, but, as it happens often when Luffy is involved, he finds the less he asks, the easier things are.
Nico Robin – a quiet laugh; deft fingers placed on his arm, and you’re family now. Just Robin is fine . – seems to be taking too much enjoyment out of Franky’s predicament to actually be offering the comfort she appears to be: one hand patting his shoulder, but the other carefully hiding an amused smile.
Jinbei, who’s barely managed a single string of words since the fireworks, tries to take it all in. For as much as the crew push and pull and try to grab his attention, they respect his pace. They allow him to walk around slowly, to drag his bare feet over the grass and wood and soak it all into his skin, engraving it deep into his bones and heart and soul. Jinbei loves them all the more for this.
When was the last time he had more than just a place to rest his head at night? When was the last time he went out onto land and left part of his heart behind, waiting for him to come back and place it neatly in his chest where it belongs as he falls whole once more? Has he ever even felt this way?
His time with Brother Tiger is the closest he can think of, but even that time is tainted with rage and hatred and blood too dark to connect. The air then had tasted of revenge and retribution. The sea had felt murky with regret.
Now, the Strawhats set sail not because they are in any hurry, but Nami says the experience isn’t complete if Jinbei doesn’t feel the Sunny break the waves and sway beneath his feet as it follows its natural course, without an enemy in pursuit. He rather thinks she’s right.
“I say we follow the bylaws and choose who’s going to be Jinbei’s guide the same way we choose who’s overseeing Luffy at any new island.” Brook suggests to a collective mixture of groans and reluctant approval. Luffy just laughs, certain of his place in the tour team.
“What is he talking about?” Jinbei asks, genuinely confused.
Nami sighs, shaking her head in the way Jinbei is slowly starting to categorize as her I can’t believe I’m stuck with these idiots mood. It seems to be the most frequent form of head shake to appear so far. “You’ll see soon enough.”
And just right as she says it, Jinbei catches a glimpse of Usopp ripping a piece of paper to strips. “You’re not serious,” he says, very serious.
Yohohoho . “Welcome aboard, Mister Jinbei.”
ººº
There is cheering and screaming and overexaggerated wailing and someone is going on about cheating, but none of that matters because the strips have spoken and Robin is the Chosen One. Something about her smile makes Jinbei wonder if there might’ve been some form of cheating after all.
Jinbei already knows better than to question her.
On one hand, though, he can’t help but feel mesmerized by every little antic he learns. Even Zoro who had previously been watching them from a safe distance, his single eye trailing Luffy wherever the captain decided to pop up, had left his place by the railing to come and pull at a stripe of paper, seeming genuinely disappointed that his wasn’t the right pick.
Jinbei half wonders, as he watches them bicker, constantly pushing and pulling at each other, if this is a rare moment they have to fully be the children most of them still are. If here, within the dome of protection the Sunny provides them, they can take back a little bit of what the world stole from their arms and hearts. Jinbei doesn’t need to know their stories to see in their eyes they all share the fact that they were forced to grow up too fast, too abruptly.
Perhaps the Sunny gives back an innocence they never really had in the first place.
“Come,” Robin says walking ahead of him, “there is much to see.”
There doesn’t seem to be a specific order to where she takes him and it doesn’t take long for Jinbei’s mind to connect this road they’re walking to Luffy’s incessant chatter. Jinbei doesn't know how Robin does it, but, when he starts noticing, he finds them situated exactly where Luffy’s commentary takes them.
Trying to find sense and order to Luffy’s stories is like trying to catch the wind. He’ll be halfway through telling him about one of Franky’s new weapons when the fact that he accidentally blew up Franky’s desk will lead to another story of how he was certain he would win against Usopp on a target practice that one time even if he’s lost every other time they played with the canons in the past, which, in turn, has him rubbing his head because Nami and Sanji always admonish them for playing with the canons.
And with each word, each memory spun in gold for Jinbei to imagine and remember as if he’s been with them all along, Robin will open a door or take him down a flight of stairs and he’s there . He’s touching the wood marked by Luffy’s recklessness, he’s sitting on the chair Nami uses for grounding the boys, he’s feeling the vibrations tickle down his back as Franky presses a button and in front of him there’s a small boat and a submarine and something called a waver and Jinbei could live in these echoes of a time long passed forever.
In the kitchen, Sanji has tea and biscuits ready for them, Robin's carefully decorated with pink lotuses. Jinbei sits by the island and allows Sanji his own little interrogation in the form of questions related to what Jinbei likes or dislikes in his food and what his favorite dishes are. Everyone starts to poke in with their own anecdote of trying new recipes as they come and go, grabbing a snack, asking how the tour is going and why ask, Sanji? Why bother when it's impossible not to like something if Sanji’s the one cooking it.
Jinbei knows how to cook in the way he knows how to fight, but perhaps here he'll find eating isn't just about surviving. He takes a sip of his tea, casts his gaze down onto the biscuits that melt in his mouth, and hopes there’ll come a time when he’ll know just what smile to give their chef when tears fill Sanji’s eyes at the compliments he receives.
Standing in front of the aquarium, Jinbei learns Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper aren’t allowed to put any new fish in without consulting the others – more specifically Nami and Sanji – first. He laughs when Robin tells him of sharks and piranhas and fish that were too colorful to be anything but poisonous.
Chopper proudly tells Jinbei about his favorite medical books and shows around his infirmary, getting so into it, Robin swiftly whisks Jinbei away before Chopper can start his mandatory checkup right then and there. At the back of his mind, Jinbei wonders what Luffy's file looks like; if anyone in the crew has any idea of what happened two years ago that fundamentally changed their captain for life.
Jinbei doesn’t want to be the one to break the news to them; sometimes he likes to pretend Ivankov had lied or exaggerated. He’s just been accepted into their group, he doesn’t want to be the one to put a crack into their foundation, but he sees the way they look at Luffy. Jinbei himself has been pulled into Luffy’s gravitational field already and he knows, deep as he knows of his own faith, that the longer they go without knowing, the harder it’ll be the fall will be when the truth comes to light.
“You’re taking too long, Robin.” Jinbei looks over his shoulder at Luffy who’s sitting atop one of Zoro’s bigger weights. Zoro wakes up just enough to say Jinbei’s welcome to his training equipment if he ever wants to, and although Jinbei had properly thanked him, that wasn’t what caught Jinbei’s attention in the room, neither it was something he’d go back to, his own form of training not requiring Zoro’s preferred tools. No, what truly captivated Jinbei was the beauty that the immense windows provided with a full view of the ocean.
Jinbei had been looking over the front window, transfixed by the sparkles on the sea from the many lanterns placed on the deck for the party feast Sanji promised for dinner. Now he stares as Luffy frowns at Robin over something that seems to be obvious to her even though Jinbei feels a bit lost.
“I apologize, captain,” Robin says, her smile growing impossibly softer and Jinbei wonders if this is her Luffy exclusive smile. “I thought perhaps you wanted to save the best for last.”
“Well, yeah,” Luffy agrees, jumping from his place on the weight and nearly stepping on Zoro’s sleeping form, “but now it’s been too long.”
“Very well," Robin nods, extending a hand for Luffy to take. He gladly allows her to interlace their fingers, reaching out with his other hand for Jinbei to join them and he does, even if it’ll be impossible to go down the ladder the way they are; even if he’ll have to let go in just a moment. For now though, Luffy has offered his hand, and there is no world in which Jinbei doesn’t take it.
The ‘best place’ as Robin and Luffy had him understand, is none other than the library. Jinbei looks around in equal measures confused and mesmerized by the floor to ceiling bookshelves. It is beautiful in its completion; books filling every possible space and it should feel like too much, but it doesn’t. It’s just enough to fit and be easily maneuvered.
At the center of the room there is an absolutely gorgeous desk. Its wood glistening in the light despite the many ink stains that could come from unexpected waves as much as they could be from raucous boys bursting inside at the wrong time.
This is, in fact, the best place for Jinbei who’s always loved stories and has a deep respect for knowledge despite never knowing how to use it. He gets where Robin, a scholar, comes from in her love for this room and assumes, from the maps and orange doodles, that Nami spends just as much time here.
What Jinbei doesn’t get is why Luffy would call this place the best. At least not until Luffy has him turning around to look at the wall adjacent to the door they just came in. That’s when he sees it. That’s then the air leaves his lungs in one amazed gasp.
The entire wall, on both sides of the door, serves as a huge blackboard. In it, there are dozens, if not hundreds of anecdotes in various handwritings, some accompanied by small doodles or even full drawings. Jinbei steps closer to take a better look, fully aware of Luffy nearly vibrating at his side.
Jibei lets his eyes trail, catching bits and pieces of things they lived through, told in exclamations and complaints and dear God, I write to you this prayer in hopes that you exist and KILL THAT GODDAMN MARIMO .
Delicately, in a way Jinbei already understands only she knows how to be, Robin steals Luffy’s attention away so Jinbei will have the time and space to see it all on his own. He can’t help the grin that pulls at the corner of his mouth at some of the things he reads like:
Hundredth time Zoro dives in after Luffy since entering the grandline (yes, we counted);
We went to the sky!
Fiftieth time the boys use Chopper as bait and get him eaten by a shark or a sea king;
The day Sanji discovered pole dancing and nearly died (from Nami hitting him over the head);
On and on they go and Jinbei can’t read fast enough. It feels like watching them interact on deck, a little window into their day to day life and what it’s like to sail these seas with each unique personality on board; some as explosive as the canons below.
The day I saw the sun! The words are messy, as if the person who wrote them isn’t used to writing, but next to it is quite an intricate drawing of a boy lying atop an open piano. Usopp’s handywork, Jinbei is sure.
The strawhat crew is formed! There is no date on this one, but there is a little green doodle of a straw hat and three katanas. Warmth fills every empty space inside of Jinbei because, although he hasn’t seen this particular art style before, he has seen Luffy’s . And he knows this isn’t his.
Not so tough, huh , Jinbei thinks, laughing to himself.
Some of them, like the counts of how many times something happened, have dates written beside them. Others stand alone; their content enough of a context to convey exactly what transpired that day.
He smiles at Shirahoshi's drawing and the promise they made together and laughs at the kraken holding Sunny on top of his head. Further away from the door, he finds a date surrounded by cherry blossoms; another day underlined in red with ‘she’s not a villain ’ right next to it. He aches to run his fingers over the board, to not only read about, absorb those memories, but he dares not. Jinbei could never risk damaging even a single letter.
“It was Franky’s biggest surprise for us,” comes a deep voice from his side. Jinbei turns, taking in Zoro’s face, fully awake this time, showing no signs of a smile, but soft all the same. “He had us all waiting by the door, leaving this one room for the end, just like these two did with you today.”
“The most difficult thing was convincing Nami to lend me their log book without telling her why,” Franky himself says, coming inside with the rest of the crew in tow. “I’m pretty sure I’m in debt with her for the rest of my life.”
“How could I know what you were going to do with it,” Nami says defensively. She has her arms crossed over her chest in defiance, but her cheeks are dusted with pink. “And I reduced the amount you owe me after seeing the surprise, didn’t I?”
“You super did, sis.” Franky laughs, not at all bothered by any of it.
“You have all of this in your log?” Jinbei asks, impressed. Not many logs are this detailed from what he knows.
“Most of it, yes,” Nami tells him, coming up beside him to look over the words and art works herself, “but we filled up a lot of it after as stuff kept happening and some of the things Franky didn’t know.”
“Yeah,” Usopp agrees, “like that day when Luffy came barreling into Sanji on accident while playing tag with me and Chopper and Sanji nearly fell over the railing with their lunch.” Usopp points to an entry that says the day we all thought Sanji would for sure kill Luffy “Well,” he continues, “Sanji did fall over the railing, but Luffy and Robin managed to save the food.”
Jinbei sees an ‘X’ followed by just the word ‘friendship’ and remembers Luffy telling him about tattoos and their meanings in his life when everyone who ever bore his particular mark had been too far away to touch.
Jinbei feels drunk on emotions and excitement, the day slowly catching up to him and he’s about to suggest they go back to the deck where Sanji’s already spread all the food he’s just cooked, when he catches it with the corner of his eye.
It’s bright in color. The red and blue and orange are a stark contrast against the dark board. It’s a perfect replica of the real one and Jinbei knows, deep in his bones, this was added after and whoever did it, took all the care in the world to immortalize that one memory.
The day we found out Luffy has a big brother!
Although he knows Ace had met this small crew Jinbei is fortunate to now call family, he hadn't expected to see it here, openly placed in the midst of their memories. A day that they held close to their hearts like one does an important treasure.
Jinbei can't seem to look away. He thinks back on all the stories Ace told him, bringing in his own sun down into that hellish pit. He thinks of Ace saying he could rest easy knowing his brother was taken care of.
He thinks of a smile so bright it could never be dimmed by mere shackles as he described a grumpy swordsman who followed his brother as if the captain was his personal compass; of a navigator who threw out punches and screams with the same ease she'd cradle her companions' hearts close to her own, always making sure they walked the best possible path; a coward and liar who spoke of a ship as one does the world; a cook who'd burn with a barely contained anger, but fell soft at the smallest compliments and a little reindeer who looked on every little thing his brother did as the acts of a god, a savior and a friend and he couldn't believe he got so lucky to be allowed to bask in that light.
Jinbei is brought back to pain and hope and absolute despair. He can still hear Ace’s voice. He’s grown so much, Jinbei .
There was pride and a love rooted so deep nothing in the world could ever come close to severing it. He’s going to become pirate king, you know?
I do, Ace, Jinbei thinks. I do know now .
The use of present tense in the sentence breaks something inside of Jinbei that took him two years to poorly repair. He stares at it, somehow unable to look away as pain overcomes him and it’s all he can do not to cry. Not to grab Luffy and tuck against his chest and please, please, please, forgive me .
He stares at it and wishes he had looked away before he saw what’s written just below. There is no date attached, but he doesn’t think they’ll ever need it to remember.
He’s gone now .
“Hm, that’s wrong.” Jinbei nearly jumps out of his skin, startled by the voice so close to him. Luffy is standing next to him, finally done with Robin’s stories.
Jinbei holds his breath. He wants to ask, but he doesn’t think he can safely open his mouth without crying.
“What do you mean, Lu?” Usopp asks, nervously wringing his hands.
Luffy tilts his head to the side, none of the pain in his eyes Jinbei is sure every single one of them is expecting to find. Instead, there is a contemplative look to him, as if he’s trying to consider something he can’t fully grasp.
Like why that particular phrase is written on their board.
“Rayleigh said that just because Ace is dead, doesn’t mean he’s gone.”
The silence is so strong Jinbei is certain they can hear his heart racing in his chest. He opens his mouth to say something, even though he has no idea what to say, but Zoro beats him to it.
“Damn right.” The swordsman says. The first. Devotion incarnate. The one person who, after Ace, knows Luffy the best. He walks over to the board, purpose in his steps, steel in his eye, and erases the sentence with his bare hand.
There is no room for argument in the set of his shoulders. No place for discordance in the tight grip of his fingers on the chalk as he writes the day Ace died .
Nami sucks in a breath. Sanji exhales a cloud of smoke. Chopper whimpers and someone behind him bumps against the desk. The only sound that follows is the pen hitting the floor with a deafening thud.
But Zoro is not done. He grabs a bright yellow piece of chalk and writes down a date that means nothing to Jinbei right now, but he knows it is about to become the axis in which his world shifts.
The day we found out Luffy has two big brothers . Present tense. Bold letters.
Broken out of the spell that held them all, Nami surges forward, grabbing a piece of blue chalk on her way. The day we found out just why Luffy is so goddamn spoiled .
Soon enough they all have something to add about the other brother. Sabo , Jinbei’s mind provides. He hasn’t met the boy, but he comes alive in the crew’s comments.
“I might not personally have met him,” Nami says, aggressively encasing the word ‘spoiled’ in circles, “but I’ve heard enough.”
Super polite. Honestly, where did it all go wrong with Luffy?
The mera mera got passed on and Luffy has no hope of winning that fight. “Hey! I could beat Sabo.”
Franky looks back at Luffy, then turns back to the board. The day Luffy became delusional .
And just like that they are all laughing.
Luffy got a fan club.
Scratch that. Luffy got a fleet.
Luffy got a WHAT!?
“Oh yeah,” Luffy laughs, “we forgot to tell you guys about that.”
Robin jumps in to explain what happened before Nami has an aneurysm while Usopp draws the finishing touches on a pipe encircled with fire. Chopper is on Zoro’s shoulder who’s working on a to-do list that consists of two items: become greatest swordsman; kill the cook , and Sanji is being properly distracted by an amused Brook.
The pain is subsiding in Jinbei’s heart; the pit in his stomach slowly filling up with affection and contentment. Yes, they lost Ace. Jinbei lost Ace. But just as Luffy gained his other brother back, Jinbei also gained so much more than he once had.
He doesn’t yet know how; for so long he’s been faking at finding peace with his losses that he can’t see acceptance for what it truly is. But as he looks at Luffy, surrounded by the people he loves and who loves him, Jinbei thinks that maybe he can get there.
Take care of him for me . Jinbei will honor that promise he never got to make. And he’ll have this crew right along with him.
“Wait,” Luffy says when Sanji starts to urge everyone outside to eat and it is a testament to how important whatever he says is going to be if he’s making them all wait on food. “We can’t leave yet! Jinbei still hasn’t done it.”
“Done what?” Jinbei asks, all the more confused when realization dawns in each of their faces.
“Our little tradition.” Nami says. She grabs the pot with all the chalk inside and offers it to Jinbei. He looks at her, knowing what she wants, but not letting himself believe it quite yet. “You have to add something.”
“It’s in the bylaws.” Brook provides.
Jinbei stares at them as they all look back at him expectantly. With a shaky hand, he picks up a baby blue chalk and walks over to the board; choosing the empty space right beside Ace’s hat.
The day I came home .