An large eagle flew closer and landed on one of the tree branches, folding its wings as it perched. Its sharp eyes observed the scene below; through the gap in the window, it watched the two individuals who had become its targets.
"...."
"He has faintly begun to regain his memories."
The beastly eyes met directly with a pair of empty black irises of the human—was it accidental, or intentional? No one knew except the two of them.
A low snort escaped the wild creature. It spread its wings and leapt, returning to dance among the sweeping currents of the wind. A single feather, plucked loose, drifted down slowly and landed against the window.
Tok, tok, tok.
A knock echoed at the door, and Luffy shifted his gaze away from the feather. Lucas opened his eyes and stretched, slipping out of Luffy's embrace, earning a slight pout from him.
Makino's voice called from outside the room, asking, "Luffy, Lucas… are you two alright in there? I made your favorite food." She paused, waiting for their reply.
Luffy's eyes lit up the moment he heard his favorite word. "Food!" he shouted, instantly forgetting his annoyance at being interrupted while hugging his younger brother.
Lucas shook his head helplessly at Luffy and smiled faintly. "We'll be out in a moment. Thank you, Makino-san," he said, walking toward the locked door, with Luffy bouncing after him.
Lucas opened the door and was met with Makino's gentle expression, relief evident on her face as she saw that the two boys she cared for had made up. "I'm glad to see you two getting along again. Come on, I've prepared meat for Luffy and omurice for Lucas!"
Lucas nodded, his crimson irises glimmering slightly at the mention of omurice. The dish had become one of his favorites—its taste carrying a strange sense of nostalgia and comfort. At the very least, it could dull the emptiness that had haunted him all this time, if only for a moment.
Makino took both boys by the hand and led them downstairs. At that time, all the members of the Red-Haired Pirates had returned and were seated. The lively atmosphere fell silent the moment their gazes landed on Lucas, who avoided looking back at them, still irritated over the reason of the wound under Luffy's eye.
"H-Hey, Ruby…" Lucas walked past Shanks, ignoring his greeting as he headed toward a seat at the end of the table, giving the captain the silent treatment.
"…" Shanks fell silent, tilting his head to the side in resignation and letting out a sigh as he was ignored. Benn took a drag of his cigarette and exhaled slowly. Luffy cast a sympathetic glance at the red-haired man, though inwardly he felt relieved that Lucas was no longer ignoring him.
Like a well-behaved child, Luffy sat beside Lucas. His eyes drifted toward a box not far away, a fleeting familiar emotion passing through his eyes when looking into it before disappeared.
The silence was abruptly shattered by a loud crash as the door was kicked open. A group of people entered with arrogance in their stance, their intent to cause trouble is painfully obvious to those who saw.
"So, these are the pirates?"
A tall, dark-skinned man with black hair, a beard, and an X-shaped scar over his right eye stepped in arrogantly. He wore a long red coat over a white shirt, black trousers, and a gold necklace—it was clear he was their leader.
"They all look like idiots," he sneered arrogantly, stepping over the broken door as he approached the table with an ugly grin.
Shanks usually good at ignoring provocations, deemed them unimportant. though for some reason, this provocation he received felt more irritating than usual—perhaps it's because Lucas had ignored him and both boys decided to avoiding him; it made him want to sulk in the corner.
"Welcome," Makino greeted politely, trying to conceal the worry in her expression.
"We're mountain bandits. But we didn't come to destroy your bar or cause trouble. We just want ten barrels of sake." He stated his demand. Lucas glanced at the man from head to toe, silently judging him.
Unbothered by the commotion, Luffy had already reached into a box and grabbed a fruit to eat. On the other hand, Makino apologized upon hearing the request. "I'm sorry, but we've run out of sake."
"Hm? But those pirates were drinking something…" The bandit leader glanced around the room. "Don't tell me that's water?" he asked, frowning.
"It's not, but that was our last supply," Makino remained calm while continued trying to negotiate. Luffy chewed on his fruit, glance beside him and noticing Lucas's judgmental stare toward the bandits, then nearly choked on the fruit. It's always funny seeing Lucas have that stare in his eyes as if looking at a dirt instead of human.
"That's not good—it seems we're the ones who finished the sake!" Shanks chimed in, tilting his head back: trying to shift their attention to himself because his instincts told him that if he didn't step in, something might happen.
"Sorry, sorry—here, you can take this, it's still unopened!" Shanks added with his usual goofy grin, handing over a bottle of sake.
A bad feeling crept over Lucas as he watched their exchange. His eyes darted around, searching for a way to act—or to prevent something? He wasn't sure.
His gaze landed on a silver butterfly outside. As if hearing his call, it fluttered its wings and slipped in through the window. Lucas shifted his eyes slightly, and the butterfly flew before one of the bandits who wasn't wearing a bandana—then pierce one of his eyes.
"Aaahhh!" The man's scream made the bandit leader, who had been clenching his fist to smash the bottle, freeze mid-motion.
"What are you yelling about?!" Higuma barked irritably, turning along with his men to look. His expression quickly shifted to shock upon seeing the seemingly fragile silver butterfly stabbed his subordinate eye.
Not only them—even Shanks and his crew hadn't expected the situation to escalate so suddenly. Makino looked worried, Luffy's expression flickered between confusion and surprise, and Lucas clutched the edge of his clothes, trying to steady his breathing.
"Hurry up! Get rid of that butterfly—can't you even kill something that weak?!" Higuma snapped, annoyed at his subordinate for embarrassing himself. They were supposed to be the ones humiliating others—not the other way around.
The man grappled around trying to shoved the butterfly away from his eye with his hand, he finally managed to took it in his grasp and crushed it, now laying motionless.
"Tch!" Higuma clenched his fist and struck the bottle still in Shanks's hand, then drew his blade. Lucas quickly pulled Luffy down from his seat, dragging him behind his back.
Lucas's heart pounded erratically as a sideways slash tore through the table, splitting it halfway and shattering every stuff on top of it. He winced as flying debris manage to grazed his cheek, clicked his tongue under his breath.
"Let's go! See you around, you bunch of cowards!" Higuma sneered arrogantly as he dragged his men away—hiding his shame because getting driven off by nothing more than a silver butterfly.