Luffy landed hard in yet another sunken chamber, boots sinking ankle-deep into warm golden grains. The sand here was different thicker, almost syrupy from Franky's earlier syrup bombs that had seeped through cracks in the temple floors. It clung to his sandals like wet sugar, slowing his bounce just enough to make him frown.
"Ugh, sticky… this place is no fun anymore!"
He punched a nearby dune experimentally. It didn't explode into a beast this time just oozed and reformed sluggishly. The voices tried again, promising endless meat, but the words tasted flat now, like stale bread.
Luffy sat down cross-legged right in the middle of it, arms folded behind his head. For once the grin faded a little. He stared up at the jagged hole in the ceiling where faint sunlight filtered through like distant stars.
"Yo-hohoho… Yo-ho-ho-ho…"
He started humming it low, the old song Brook used to play on his violin when the crew was tired or the sea was too quiet. The melody slipped out easy, like it had been waiting in his chest.
"Gather up all of the crew! It's time to ship out Binks' Sake! Sea breeze blows, to where, who knows? The waves will be our guide…"
His voice cracked once on "guide," but he kept going, softer now.
"O'er the depths of briny gold, The shimmering waves are gently rolled. Farewell to the harbor town, To the port we knew so well…"
He trailed off. The sand around him went still, as if even the temple was listening.
"Brook always lightened the mood with that song," Luffy said to no one. "Even when we were all beat up or hungry or lost. He'd just start playing and everyone'd start laughing or singing along. Even Zoro'd tap his foot sometimes when he thought no one was looking."
A small, real smile tugged at his mouth.
"I wish Brook was here right now. He'd probably say something dumb like 'Yo-ho-ho, even sand can't stop a good party!' and then start dancing on his bones."
The smile faded again. Luffy's eyes narrowed.
"But he's not. He went off alone to check some stupid rumor. Said he heard a 'tall, skeletal figure' or some mark from the Rumbar Pirates was spotted near an old execution platform on some backwater island. Even though his whole crew died fifty years ago… he still went. By himself. Just to see if maybe just maybe something was left."
Luffy's fists clenched in the sand. Grains stuck to his knuckles like glue.
"He's lonely. That's why he went. Even if it's a trap. Even if it hurts. Brook's like that. He keeps going because he promised them he'd keep living. Keep laughing."
The voices tried to creep back in promising meat, promising company, promising to fill the empty spot where Brook's violin should be.
Luffy stood up slowly. The sand clung to his legs, heavy and sweet. He shook it off with one violent stomp.
"I'm fed up with this place," he said, voice low and dangerous. "No more lies. No more fake meat. No more stupid whispers."
His eyes lit with that familiar fire wild, unstoppable.
The sand around him began to shift again, forming into a massive, multi-armed colossus of dunes and screaming faces. It towered over him, promising everything and nothing.
Luffy cracked his knuckles.
"Gomu Gomu no…"
Flames erupted along his arms Gear Second kicking in, steam pouring from his skin. He compressed the air in his fists, channeling the red-hot Haki mixing it with the raw speed and power of his rubber body.
"…Gatling Red Hawk Gun!"
Both arms blurred into a storm of rapid-fire punches each one igniting mid-strike with crimson flames and black Armament Haki coating the fists like molten iron. The barrage hit the sand colossus like a Gatling cannon made of fire and fury.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
Every impact exploded sand outward in blazing rings. Faces shattered. Arms crumbled. The colossus tried to reform, but Luffy was already leaping higher, twisting mid-air, pouring more Haki into the final volley.
The last punch landed square in the center mass a concentrated Red Hawk fist that detonated like a sun going nova. Flames and black lightning tore through the core. The entire construct collapsed inward, sucked into its own crater, voices silenced in one final, choked scream.
Luffy landed lightly in the smoking pit, breathing hard but grinning wide again.
"That's more like it!"
The floor beneath him cracked open wider revealing a steep, spiraling ramp downward, blue light pulsing stronger at the bottom. The heart of the temple. The place where everything waited.
Luffy cracked his neck.
"Alright. Time to find everyone. And then we're getting outta here. Brook's probably waiting for us with a new song anyway."
He started down the ramp, whistling the opening bars of Binks' Sake once more louder this time, defiant.
The temple trembled in answer.
Somewhere deeper, the fruit that bent sight pulsed once, as if sensing the captain's approach.
And somewhere in the shadows above, the monster wearing Sanji's face heard the song echo through the stone and felt the first real flicker of something that wasn't hunger.
Annoyance.
The rubber idiot was coming.
Good.
Stronger distractions made the taking easier.