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Law is… not quite sure how he got here. Here, being the highest point on a dangerous mountain, some place in the New World, separated from his crew, with only Kidd and Luffy for company.
Here, being crammed into a ridiculous tiny mine-cart and about to plummet down a rickety rail-road track, with Kidd pressed against his back and Luffy pressed against his front, linked all together by sea-stone cuffs, and, again, about to plummet down a mountain half as tall as the Red Line.
Luffy is screaming happily. Kidd is screaming angrily. Law is currently wishing he had his powers and no cuffs, so he could have no ears and not be able to listen to this. Law has… not known peace in years. Years.
How the fuck did he get here again?
Ah.
Yes.
The mother-fucking, goddamned challenge letter.
-
Several days earlier
The day had started off peaceful enough. Law had slept in, relaxed aa bit from the fun surgery he had the day before (fun for him, not for the marines, oh well) and enjoyed himself a bit with the coffee he stole from Vice Admiral Chaton’s office. It was surprisingly good, which honestly should have been a sign that everything was about to go wrong – Marine coffee was never good. It was like all their self-proclaimed justice had been burned in a kettle.
He was sitting out on the deck, Polar Tang surfaced and him drinking his coffee, when the package hits in him in the bag of the end.
“What the fuck,” Law yells, spitting out his coffee to the side.
“Captain!” Half his crew shouts in concern, even as he waves them off.
“What the hell was that?” He asks, wiping his mouth with his sleeve. “Some sort of brick?”
It is, in fact, a brick Law finds when Bepo holds the offending object out to him. Ikkaku makes some noise of disapproval at the eternal pose and letter tied to the top, and Penguin and Shachi both try to get it before Law, but Law is taller than both of them as is Bepo.
Law gets the letter first, and unrolls it to read it silently.
To the Captain of the Heart Pirates,
The Crew of Damasu Island cordially invites you and your crew to a no-holds-barred competition of bravery and fighting skill! It’s you versus the best of the current trail-blazing pirate generation in a winner-takes all event! Are you up to the challenge?
Already he wants to throw the letter overboard. It sounds like a marine trap - who cares?!
Against his better judgement, he keeps reading.
To make it worth your while, we have included a special prize – a Poneglyph from ages past, signed by the King of the Pirates himself!
Now that – that’s interesting. Because at the bottom of the paper is a printing of a single poneglyphic – a poneglyphic Law recognizes seeing Robin read aloud, a poneglyphic that means King.
Are you up to the challenge? The letter finishes, just before Penguin steals it from his hands and reads it aloud to the whole crew.
A poneglyph – an actual poneglyph. The island must have chosen the glyph at random, because Nico Robin and the Kozuki clan are the only ones able to read it, but to even make the glyph correctly they must actually have one. One that Gol D. Roger saw – and hell, Law might not care about kingship anymore –
No, he knows exactly who is going to be king, and it is one of the most infuriating men on the entire planet -
But he does care about what Roger knew. The Secret of the Will of D. The storm. The hidden history – all of it.
This poneglyph might have the answers if he can figure it out… Which means…
“Captain?” Bepo asks, once the deck has fallen silent save for the crashing of the waves. “Are we…?”
Law plucks the eternal pose out of Ikkaku’s hands and gives it to Bepo. “Set sail for Damasu!” He calls, turning his back to raucous cheers and heading into the submarine. “We have a competition to win!”
And Law will be damned if he doesn’t.
-
They reach Damasu in three days, sailing into the little cove in the early morning. Damasu is… not a small island, to say the least. It’s a summer island, tropical and warm, with towering jungle covered mountains and sandy white beaches. The water is crystalline blue around it, tropical and gorgeous, with fish visible in the waters. It looks like the perfect vacation spot, untouched and perfect.
Except, in the little cove, next to the small villages with white stone walls, is a dock. And next to that dock, anchored in the shallow waters, are two ships that Law hadn’t ever wanted to see again.
The Victoria Punk and the Thousand Sunny. Looking peacefully deserted, which means that their captains would be around here somewhere –
“Ah, Captain?” Shachi calls from where he is manning the spy glass. Instantly, Law feels a headache rise in his temples, and doesn’t resist the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. He deserves it.
“Don’t tell me,” He says, so tired already.
“It’s uh…” Shachi continues anyway. “Straw Hat. I think he noticed us. He’s uh, jumping up and down on the beach?”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake –”
“And I think Kidd is with him? He’s being chased by something metal I think and – yeah, that’s Kidd. Straw Hat’s still jumping by the way. And waving. And now he’s being thrown towards the water – and Kidd is being dragged with him, wow that’s a big splash – I think they’re drowning?”
“Let them,” Law snarls, contemplating the urge to lie down on the ground because it would be more dignified than anything else these coming days had for him. Of all the islands in the entire Grand Line, it just had to be this one?
Regretfully, Shachi reports that Zoro had jumped in after Luffy, and Wire had jumped in after Eustass. Law thinks it might be a bad sign that he knows all their crew by names. He doesn’t know Urouge’s crew like that, or Hawkins, because he didn’t see them at every seas forsaken island in the whole damned Grand Line now did he?
Eustass and Straw Hat are saved. The Polar Tang pulls up to the dock.
Law fixes his hat upon his head, grips his sword tighter, and begins to glare as hard as he can.
Maybe Straw Hat will have drowned by the time he gets out there, and the whole mess will be done for.
Oh, who is he kidding.
Straw Hat has too much luck for that to be the case, and Law has none at all.
This is the worst.
-
Straw Hat tries to hug him the second Law steps foot outside of the Tang. Law sidesteps, and Luffy goes flying off the dock and into the water with a splash, Zoro following him in like the ever faithful first mate.
Law ignores the splashing, and refocuses his attention on Eustass.
“Eustass,” He begins, flipping him off.
“Trafalgar,” Kidd says right back, flipping him off. The entire effect is diminished as Kidd’s hair is slick to his head from his dip in the water, and he looks overall like a drowned rat. Maybe a dog, if Law is feeling generous.
“TORAO!” Luffy screams, and this time Law doesn’t manage to avoid the limbs locking around him. “You got the letter too! Shishishi! Isn’t this great?”
“Yeah Torao,” Kidd mocks with a leer. “Ain’t it great? You all get to see me beat your assess at this fuckin’ game.”
“Ha!” Law barks, leaning in to match Kidd after detangling himself from Luffy, helped with a Room and Shambles. “You’ll find that I’ll be the one leaving this island with the prize, you bastard.”
Luffy pops up between them. “No – I’m going to be the man who becomes –“
“SHUT UP!” Kidd and Law echo in unison, but Luffy just finishes without care.
“KING OF THE PIRATES!”
Law doesn’t have the chance to shut Luffy down again, or yell at Kidd for yelling at the same time as him, because a new voice echoes from behind them, at the base of the docks. It’s not a voice Law has heard before, and it’s certainly not crew.
“Gentlemen, Gentlemen! No need to fight! You’ll have plenty of time for that in the Competition!”
At the end of the docks is a man, with knobby knees and a handle bar mustache of gray across his face. He’s twirling it, looking rather strange in his socked and sandaled feet and his absolutely hideous flower-print shirt of neon green and yellow. He even has a sun hat on in matching colors.
“Pear-man! Who are you?” Luffy asks, picking his nose.
Law blinks at the odd nickname, then back at the man. He does look like he’s pear, doesn’t he, with the way his body looks.
The old man blinks the same time as Law, looking at Luffy with a slightly agape look. “I – Mr. Straw Hat, I introduced myself to you earlier…? When you crashed into the dining hall…?”
“You met this guy Loof?” Zoro asks from behind them all, where he’s wringing water out from his shirt.
“Nope!” Luffy declares confidently, and continues to stare at the man.
Flustered, the old man pats down his shirt and tries to stand a little taller. Law is… unimpressed. “I am Nashi! Captain of the Damasu Game Crew, and Ring-Leader of the competition you will soon find yourselves competing in!”
Ah. So here is the reason Law is here.
“Welcome to our island, Mr. Trafalgar!” Oh, he’s addressing Law now. “The other crews have all already gotten settled until Straw Hat here uh… got upset with our all-you-can-eat Buffet.”
“You ran out of food and I was still hungry! That’s not all-you-can-eat!!”
“Yes, yes,” Nashi dismisses, and remains focused on Law. “Come! Let me show you to your lodgings, and then the game can begin!” He turns, clearly expecting Law to follow, and waddles away, off to the little village on the cove.
Great.
Law longs for the Polar Tang already.
-
The village is a quaint little thing, with chattering folk who also, somehow, inexplicably look like pears – Luffy calls them pear people, and Law can’t find it in himself to disagree. The streets wind back and forth, and the village trails up the mountain cliffside, deceptively larger than it had seemed at first glance. Still, it isn’t long before all three captains find themselves in the center of what looks to be a market place, with bright tropical trees and flowers scattered about the vivid stalls of various merchants.
The place is loud, with people chattering and hawking wares about. Law keeps his eyes focused, steadfastly ignoring the way Luffy and Zoro seem to magically appear with food or booze in their hands every few steps and the various shouts of outrage that follow him, or the no less than three shouting matches Kidd gets into, dragged away by Wire who has far too much patience. It’s for Law’s health, really, that he ignores all of this.
(And if the other Captains and his crew ignore the way Law glares at everyone in his path and seems apt to dramatically striding about and casually slinging Kikoku around – well that’s Law’s business. Really!)
“Here we are!” Nashi declares, hands on his hips again as he points to a cream colored, extravagant, and gold accented buildings, who’s pillars and rust-colored roof make the place seem airy and welcoming against the tropical humidity. “The Hotel Pyrus! The Home of the Challengers! I believe your crews should be inside, Mr. Straw Hat and Mr. Eustass. Mr. Trafalgar and crew, if you would follow me!”
“We’re good,” Law cuts him off, eyeing the building with suspicion. Perhaps after he sees what this challenge is all about, he can relax in a ‘hotel.’
Wait.
Straw Hat is here.
Forget that idea then.
Brushing off the ideas of relaxing under an umbrella with a nice book and far too much alcohol, Law continues. “Where’s the challenge going to be held?”
Nashi twirls his mustache again. “Ah, are you sure you don’t want to rest first? We can get started right away, of course, but ah –“
From inside the building, a large crash sounds, echoed by the sounds of screaming. “FRANKY HOW FUCKING DARE YOU, YOU IMBECILE!”
“YOW! CHILL OUT NAMI-SIS-“
“NAMI! FRANKY! BE CAREFUL WITH THAT- AH! THE GREAT USOPP WILL NOW RUN AWAY!”
Ah. The Straw Hats. Of course.
Luffy is grinning wildly besides Law, while Zoro tilts his head to the side. A mere seconds later, as Nashi looks increasingly alarmed, there is another crash and the left wall to the Hotel Pyrus cracks apart in an explosion of dust and stone, as a large, bright red vehicle with an elephant face on the front crashes through. In the interior of it is none other than Franky, looking in his element in a flower-patterned shirt, who is yelling at an irate Nami. Behind them Robin sits in aa large sunhat, reading her book as Usopp looks suitable scared.
There is a fire, somewhere in the background. Hotel staff, still all pear like, are peeking out from behind the crumbling wall. Heat and Killer, from Kidd’s crew, and a few other members of Kidd’s crew who Law thankfully cannot recall the names of, stare out as well.
There is a headache building in Law’s temples. Why the hell did he wish to see Luffy do some bat-shit crazy thing in Sabaody. Why.
“Shishishi!” Luffy laughs, bright, and slingshots his way over to Franky where an inane chatter builds up about Elephant Jeeps and Off-road Vehicles and Laser eyes. Occasionally shouts of So cool!! Erupt as well, and the entire crew seems to lose their ire as their captain bounds over.
Law looks to Nashi, who’s face is decidedly rather pale, gaping at the Straw Hats before him. They’ve been rather tame today, actually, so Law is unsure what the face is all about. But serves the man right for inviting Straw Hat anywhere.
“I don’t think we’ll find any ‘rest’ here,” Law drawls, leaning on Kikoku. “So, the challenge?”
“Ah. Yes.” Nashi gulps, pulling at his collar. “I believe it would be best to start it as soon as possible. “Ah, Straw Hats?”
At that moment, the right wall explodes with a well resounding kick, and ah, yes. There are the rest of the Straw Hats, Sanji in the lead with a foot raised to smash the wall, as Jinbe, Brook, and Chopper all stand beside him. “OI PEAR GUY! WHY THE HELL ALL YOUR PEARS SO CRAPPY?”
Nashi is trembling now. “Ah, Mr. Sanji, I – ”
“SANJI!” Luffy cries, “CHOPPER! JIMBE! BROOK! LOOK AT THE ELEPHANT JEEP! IT HAS LASERS!”
Brook and Chopper screech with awe, and Sanji is left behind with Jimbe as they run towards the jeep. Sanji is holding a pear in one hand, cigarette in the other, and an atrocious combination of neon yellow, blue, and green in floral print upon his body.
Law, regrettably, shares a look with Kidd. He looks like he’s suffering as much as Law is.
Nashi turns to them both, and just the two of them, because the rest of Law’s crew that came up the mountain with him is now gawking over Franky’s jeep – which seems to be made out of lawn chairs, umbrellas, and heavy-duty tires, which is honestly probably why Nami is so mad.
“Ah, gentlemen. Would you care to start the challenge now?”
“Yes,” Law states and ignoring the betrayal of his crew. Kidd nods beside him and that at least, seems to give Nashi enough courage against the face of the Straw Hat crew to ring a small gong in the center of the plaza, causing the market place to go silent.
“WELCOME ALL,” Nashi announces, voice. Surprisingly strong for a man who was so meek only moments ago, “TO THE CHALLENGE OF THE DAMASU CREW!!” Cheers erupt, and the sounds of drums and fireworks fill the air. Automatically, Law finds himself back to back with Kidd, facing off against whatever Nashi has planned.
He tries not to let the instinct to do so irritate him so much. It’s only natural that that happen after all this time, after all. Natural. It isn’t because Kidd isn’t as bad as he seems, or on Law’s level in any respect.
Straw Hat lights up, rocketing back to where Law and Kidd stand with stars in his eyes and seemingly totally uncaring of the sudden organized chaos around them, occurring only at the sound of a gong. “So cool!” He exclaims, and yeah, that tracks.
“WE HAVE THREE COMPETITORS HERE TODAY – YOU KNOW THEM, DAMASU PIRATES, THE ENTIRE WORLD KNOWS THEM! THE TOP THREE SUPERNOVAS, CONTENDERS FOR EMPERORS, FOR PIRATE KINGS THEMSELVES – THE KIDD PIRATES, THE HEART PIRATES, AND THE STRAW HAT PIRATES!” The market place, now full of people, erupts into applause and raucous shouting at the sound of Nashi’s voice. How is his voice projecting like that, the hell? Law has to wonder, as Nashi appears very much a commenter and very much not the dismayed man from moments ago.
Nashi does a little twirl and the area next to the gong that he just rang rises beneath his feet, putting him above the rest of them. The market place at once seems to clear out, vendors and merchants packing up in seconds and fleeing to flat, terraced rooftops in practiced moments, leaving the plaza bare. Kidd tenses beside Law, Law mirroring his moment. Before them, Luffy seems relaxed as always but only a fool would notice the way he suddenly seems to focus.
What is going on?
Is the entire island apart of this pirate crew? The hell is this place doing, rising up and clearing out?
Law doesn’t have any time to investigate his options, because Nashi is making his announcements again. “ARE YOU READY, DAMASU CREW?”
“YEAAAAAH!” The marketplace rings.
“ARE YOU READY, PIRATES?!”
“YEAH!!!!!!” The Straw Hats and even Law’s crew cheer, the idiots. Kidd doesn’t, and neither does Law, but Luffy isn’t as wary and screams along with them all.
“THEN LET THE FIRST EVENT BEGIN – BULL WRESTLING! LAST TEN STANDING WIN!”
Bull what, is all Law has time to think of before the sound of thundering hooves fill the air, and the market street is filled with giant, towering, green, yellowish bulls, each with bright red eyes and the scent of sweet pear filling the air.
They huff, bull rings seemingly made out of stems curling around their noses, and horns all too sharp for what looks to be bulls made out of pears, and then it is a second before they rush the gathered pirates.
They shouldn’t be hard enemies – but Zoro’s blades bounce off the hides of the bulls, and the lightning does nothing, and even as Law applies a Room and Shambles, the bulls just pull themselves back together. And there’s so many of them, enough for three emperor crews to face off with trouble abound.
It’s some sort of devil fruit power – it has to be, though Law will contend that he has seen weirder in the Grand Line, and most of that weirdness is not devil fruit related. So perhaps this isn’t.
But, Law glares, eyeing Nashi, perhaps it is.
There’s a revving filling the air, over the sound of many hooves, a screaming, and suddenly there are less bulls then there were a moment ago.
Law finally applies haki as he stops being pummeled from all sides, and down the beasts go, one after another, and really, he had to use haki on animals are you kidding? What the fuck kind of bulls are these?
As they fall, pear juices fly into the air. The marketplace goes quiet, before erupting into cheers. As Law looks up from his crouch, he notices that it’s just him, Luffy, and Kidd in the clearing now. Kidd has an arm full of random scrap from the vendors, pear juice making his hair go flat against his head as he stares off down an alley way where tire tracks and hoof-prints can be found. To his left is another alleyway – this with sword marks and burnt patches scattered about amongst hoof prints. It’s obvious that their crews separated, leading the bulls away – Law is sure they can handle themselves.
And before Law is Luffy, stuffing his face full of pear bulls and looking somewhat annoyed as it becomes increasingly clear that the bulls aren’t made of meat but rather fruit.
Odd. Law wonders if this is what Whole Cake Island was like, when Luffy ran about on it – eating everything, even if it shouldn’t have been edible like that in the first place.
Nashi stares down on them from up upon his platform, eyes like glinting daggers. “WHAT A PERFORMANCE, FOLKS!” He shouts, voice oddly loud again, and the surrounding pear-people cheer. Distantly, Law wonders if they are all like these bulls – pears, rather than flesh. It’s odd thought, but one that creeps up on him. “IT SEEMS THAT WE HAVE NOT TEN LEFT STANDING, BUT THREE!” Well that’s a fucking lie. Law’s crew is fine. They wouldn’t survive a battle with emperors if something like this could bring them down – same for Kidd and Luffy’s crew, who are quite frankly filled with more batshit characters than Law’s crew.
The crowd cheers again, and Law is very much growing sick of this. He hasn’t even confirmed the Poneglyph yet, and he needs to if coming here to be placed in Luffy and Kidd’s presence is to be worth it.
“I suppose,” Nashi continues, blithely before waving a hand in the air, “that means we can already proceed to the next challenge!” A pause rings out, Straw Hat not pausing in his pursuit to devour every single bull in sight to cheer at a new sort of game to experience. Law narrows his eyes. “A SCAVENGER HUNT!”
Again, the crowd screams and yells in joy from the roof tops, and something about it rings awfully false to Law. The screams of joy sound familiar. Repetitive, almost, like the crowd only knows one way to laugh. He risks a glance upward, trying to catch sight of the vendors, but all he sees are bleary pear shapes, blurry against the sun. What - ? Law squints again, observation haki detecting nothing wrong.
The hell?
“What’s the prize of this scavenger hunt?” Kidd snarls in Law’s momentary distraction. “I didn’t come here to play games - I came here to fight!”
“And fight you will, Mr. Kidd,” Nashi waves his hand, “Against the monsters of Damasu island! You must brave the wilds, forge ahead against adversaries, and track down a very special item,” Nashi pauses, grinning wide.
Something in Law goes cold, and he opens his hand to create a Room as something shudders beneath his feet, warning practically screaming through his observation haki. Kidd and Luffy feel it too, tensing as one and looking down.
The small breath of a warning does nothing to help them – in seconds, roots of pear-wood erupt from the ground, dragging the three captains together with slimy, near invincible roots, chaos in every action as they writhe around. Kikoku is unsheathed though, so Law readies his Room for a quick Shambles and –
Nothing.
The roots let go, letting him fall to the ground, powerless from the cold emitting from his wrist.
Law looks down, already knowing what he will see. It’s seastone, thick and uncuttable, wrapping around his wrist in a manacle and chain. He follows the chain to Luffy, with a seastone manacle around both of his wrists instead of just one, and follows the chain of Luffy’s other wrist to Kidd who – obviously – has only one seastone manacle.
Seastone, connecting him to Luffy and Kidd, leaving Law powerless.
Fury erupts in his veins, but not as quick as Kidd or Luffy.
“WHAT THE HELL, PEAR GUY?!” Luffy yells, standing up and tugging Law and Kidd forward already. “WHAT’D YOU DO THAT FOR?”
“WHAT THE FRESH FUCK!” Kidd yells beside him, metal that made up his other arm long gone and left behind as he trudges forward. Law can do nothing but follow, wielding Kikoku’s blade and trying not to think of the last time he was in these manacles – not that Kidd and Luffy’s last time was any better.
Nashi just laughs nervously. Before snapping his fingers. A root pops from the ground, throwing apart gravel and stone in its wake. Law’s eyes snap to it, because on the end, curled between soft wood, is a key. “The very special item,” Nashi grins, “Is the key to your cuffs!” And with a flick of the wrist, that key goes flying into the air, soaring above the village roofs and the crowd and the trees, soaring far, far out of sight. “Better go find it!”
And with another snap, the world begins to shake and rip apart beneath Law’s feet, crumbling and shuddering before there’s nothing left between Law and a deep, dark pit. He drops, dangling into the abyss, before his fingers catch on the walls – but even then, it’s not enough, because he’s connected by seastone chain to Luffy and Kidd, and he’s strong but not enough to bear their free-falling weight.
So it’s into the dark abyss he goes, falling until his head smacks against the dirt with a thunk, and all he knows is the darkness of unconsciousness.
--
He wakes to a tapping on his cheek, and the incessant repetition of his own name.
Or rather, the butchering of his own name.
(He’s gotten used to it though, so long as the Straw Hats are the only people who use it. He’ll never let them know that until pain of death, but there’s a reason he responds to it, this infuriating nickname from this infuriating crew.)
“Torao.”
Maybe, just maybe, if he pretends he’s unconscious he can just avoid this whole mess.
Another tap to the cheek. “Torao.”
Another tap.
Wait – the last time he was unable to move, Straw Hat carried under arm across an entire island.
“Toraoooo.”
“Give it up, Straw Hat. He isn’t waking up now. We should just use the sword and cut his arm off, save us the dead weight.”
“Oh! You would match then! But I don’t think Torao would like that, Jaggy.”
“It’s Kidd, Dumbass! And if he’s not attached to the arm, he can use his powers! He can reattach it himself!”
“Torao wouldn’t like that,” Luffy’s voice repeats, stern and final, and then his hand is again by Law’s face, smelling of sweat pear and rubber. “Toraooo,” he says again, and well –
Law doesn’t want to suffer the humiliation of being carried across an island by Luffy again. He also doesn’t want to lose his arm a second time – once was enough, thank you very much.
So he groans, and shoves Luffy away with one arm. His other arms follows the jerky path that Luffy makes, but Law doesn’t have time to focus on it because Luffy is shouting in his ear. “You’re up! You’re up! We were going to chop off your arm,” Luffy tells him.
Law blinks open his eyes to dim light, tracking Luffy by the sound of his voice rather than any light. Wherever they are, there’s hardly any light, natural or otherwise. Odd.
“We still can,” Kidd leers, before a weight is pushed against his arm and – ah, its Kikoku.
“You are not going to cut off my arm,” Law snarls. “Idiots. Where are we?” That’s the second most important bit at least – besides the stopping of amateur amputation hour, that is. Kidd and Luffy belong nowhere near any sort of operation like that. They have all the brain cells of a dead slug when it comes to that sort of thing.
“Some underground cave,” Kidd answers , voice seemingly echoing. “Woke up a few minutes ago, Straw Hat just before you. You’re the last one up.”
“Great,” Law drawls, pushing himself up to stand upon rocky ground. The light is dim, barely enough to see shadows, but that means it must be coming from somewhere. “Any idea where we should go?”
“This way!” Luffy and Kidd both say at once, tugging each other in opposite directions. It’s a moment before they both devolve into a rather loud shouting match.
“Oi, I said this way, Jaggy!”
“And I said this way, stupid! There’s a breeze!”
“And it’s lighter over here! Jeez, Jaggy, you don’t how caves work, do you?”
“I-why the hell would I know that?!”
“Caves always have gold in them!”
“They do not-I”
Law’s going to have a migraine by the end of this. “OI!” He yells, jerking on Luffy’s chain which catches Kidd’s attention in turn. “Rock paper scissors which way we go.”
There is no breeze or light, no matter what the two idiots like to claim. Worse comes to worse, they turn around the other way.
There’s a rustling in the dark as Kidd and Luffy turn to each other, shouting out “Rock Paper Scissors!” as they go. There’s a pause, then –
“Oi, Jaggy – did you do rock or paper. I can’t see.”
“I did scissors, dumbass!”
“No, that’s what I did!”
“Okay,” Law cuts in, “we’re heading this way.” And he turns, dragging Luffy and Kidd along with him, uncaring of the constant tugs on his wrist. He wants out of this cave, damn it.
And so – the long, long trek through the cave system begins.
-
It is, entirely regrettably and much to Law’s chagrin, not quiet as the trio ventures through the cave system.
It would be so wonderful to be able to curl up now, on the deck of the Polar Tang, sun in his face and the newest chapter of Sora, Warrior of the Sea, ready to be read but no.
He’s here.
In a cave.
In a cave system.
Listening to two idiots debate the merits of laser eyes versus fire breath.
“No, you listen here Straw Hat! Laser eyes have nothing on fire breath! Fie breath is punk, it’s hot, and it works everywhere! Laser eyes just flash and bam! You’re done!”
“But laser eyes are so cool – you’re like a robot! Nothing beats laser eyes in a fight!”
“Bet I could.”
“No you couldn’t!”
“Clearly,” Law cuts in, again tugging on the chain which seems to be his new favorite attention-grabbing device, “Frost beams have both of your beat.”
Oh, why the hell did he say that. It’s true, Law has made several arguments about Sora, Warrior of the Sea’s power too emphasis this but no, he will not drop to Kidd and Luffy’s level, except he just did, fuck –
“The hell you say, Trafalgar?” Kidd snarls, and well, it’s not like Law can back down now.
“I said, Frost beams could freeze your fire over and do twice the damage than measly lasers, duh.”
“But Explosions, Torao!” Luffy whines, “You need explosions!”
“And frost beams wouldn’t be helpful now – at least flame breath provides light.”
“Oh, shut up”
The continued argument lasts them the whole way of the tunnel, time hardly even passing as Law barters and banters and Luffy swears Franky is going to make a giant robot with laser beams that proves all of them wrong, and Kidd swears he’s going to show off what a good old blow torch can do.
Law just resolves to dump them both in the sea ad freeze it over somehow. He could do it, he bets.
Kidd is making a spectacularly stupid argument about the uses of fire breath in battles out on the sea, when light actually begins to seep into the cavern.
Their pace picks up, and with enough tugging on everyone’s ends they end up in a dead sprint through the brightening cavern, which Law can now see is almost too smooth – unnaturally smooth. It explains why they haven’t been tripping over anything in the dark at least.
“I see the exit!” Luffy shouts, and the brightening light gives way too –
A deep abyss, in the middle of a circular pit, with the sky and ground level hundreds of feet above their head, and a singular, unsteady, wooden bridge between them and the next tunnel.
“Shit,” Kidd swears, summing up Law’s feelings on the scenario quite nicely.
“Think we can jump?” Law asks, eyeing the top of the cavern where jungle trees and the dark blue sky of dusk can be seen, however faintly.
Kidd shakes his head as Luffy drags them all by the chain closer to the bridge. “Nah – maybe if I had my powers, or if I didn’t have sea stone on me….” He trails off as Luffy begins winding his arm up.
“I think I could throw you.” Luffy sates, staring up at the lip of the cavern.
If they weren’t in sea stone? Yes.
Now?
“Hell no,” Kidd growls, “I’m not trusting you to throw me up there!”
“Straw Hat you better not –” Law grits his teeth, not liking the gleam in Luffy’s eyes that’s just like the look he had when Law got dragged around Dressrossa like a sack of potatoes. His words are cut off by Luffy grabbing onto the chains that link them all together, and catapulting Law and Kidd upward, his own, smaller body being yanked behind them.
Law’s breath is snatched from his chest as he goes screaming through the air – to Luffy’s credit, they do go far.
But not far enough. The three of them arc up, hanging in the air for a precious few moments, before plummeting back down, now over the abyss and the rickety, wooden bridge.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, Law thinks as they fall, before he catches Kidd’s eye in the middle of their free fall. Kidd’s eyes flash towards Luffy and then to the rickety bridge, and Law’s body is in motion before he fully understands what’s going on.
(Is it because he trusts Kidd? No, absolutely not, banish the thought – he just knows Kidd also doesn’t want to die, that’s all.)
As one, he and Kidd grab the seastone chains connecting them to Luffy, the chill and coldness not even noticeable now, and wrench, hard as they are able to. Luffy slings back and then up, the trio forming a horseshoe shape in the air as they finally hit the rickety wooden bridge. Or rather, Luffy hits the bridge, face first and with a resounding smack! While Kidd and Luffy dangle off the sides, feet stretching towards the dark pit below.
They hang there, heaving for breath. Law makes eye contact with Kidd and gives him a low smirk, pleased with their survival. Kidd gives one back, albeit with far more bared teeth and a feral edge to it.
Above them, lying on the bridge, Luffy moans. “Ow…. Torao! Jaggy! That hurt!”
“You were about to kill us, bastard!” Kidd barks. “You deserve it!”
“I wasn’t trying too,” Luffy whines, and Law just knows even if his face is shoved into the planks he’s making his lying, almost guilty face. He wasn’t trying to kill them, Law knows, but he absolutely did not think it through.
“Just pull us up – without throwing us,” Law carefully directs, voice echoing in the abyss.
Luffy mumbles something but stands anyway, carefully keeping his balance on the swaying rope and plank bridge, just as easily as any Grand Line sailor I a storm. Kidd gets pulled up first, and Law takes the time to start attempting to haul himself up, aided by the use of two arms and momentum. But it doesn’t take long before Luffy turns to him, and they all collapse on the wooden bridge, swaying in the dimming light of the cavern.
“Never, ever do that again,” Law states, more of a command than anything else. Kidd hums his assent and Luffy looks like he’s swallowed a lime but he agrees anyway.
It’s a moment more before they all get up, rotating their pulled shoulders in a single file line as they cross the abyss.
They’re about half a ship’s length from the edge when a rumbling sound fills the air, shaking everything around them. The bridge, the walls, the trees above the cavern – everything. Law’s observation haki screams a warning to him, just as Luffy claps his hands over his ears, eyes going distant for just a moment. Law spares a glance to the side walls, and has to do a double take – pointed spires of rock are emerging, white and gleaming, from the edges, all converging on them.
“RUN!” Kidd shouts what they’re all thinking from the back of the line, and Law doesn’t hesitate to charge forward, tugging Luffy along when he simply stumbles on the ground instead of moving.
The walls curve in faster. The rumbling reaches a new pitch, one so loud that even Law wants to reach up and cover his ears.
They’re almost to the end of the bridge when it starts to give out from under their feet. A quick glance back shows that where its tied at the other head had come loose – and the bridge is quickly falling apart.
Law doesn’t have time to react before Luffy is pulling the same exact move that threw them into this situation, wrenching Kidd and Law forward into the air and just above solid ground.
This time, Kidd and Law are ready. They pull Luffy along with them in a seamless motion, and land on the other side, far away from the bridge, in perfect crouches.
Luffy, as soon as he’s in on the ground, clasps his hands over his ears again.
The rumbling again increases in pitch, thunderous and shaking Law down to his very bones. Then –
Law can only stare, as from the dark pit that they just crossed, something red erupts, plunging up into the air, encompassing the entire pit in the earth and scrapping along the protruding white rocks from the walls. It writhes in the sky, rocky and fluid all at once, before plummeting back down.
The three of them stare at the pit as the rumbling quiets to a low fervor, then down to nothing at all. Law’s bones still shake from the aftermath, an echo reverberating through them.
“The fuck was that?” Kidd growls, almost hushed as he inches ever close to the edge.
Law hums, staying far away from the edge even as the chain pulls. “I don’t know – but I don’t like it. This island is… odd.”
“That’s for sure – what kind of scavenger hunt is this?”
“One meant to kill us,” Law asserts, and then turns to Luffy who is… oddly quiet. Kidd follows his gaze, suspicion that might just be concern hidden away in his gaze. “Luffy-ya?”
Luffy cocks his head. “There was a Voice.”
He says Voice like it means something, like it’s important. Law stares, and Kidd follows his lead, waiting for Luffy to continue.
“It was… loud. Like on Zou. And it was hungry.” Luffy is frowning harshly and ah, Law remembers. Luffy and Momosuke had screamed on Zou when Zunesha reportedly had yelled into their minds during the attack. The Voice of All Things, someone had called it, a skill that Gol D. Roger once held.
Figures that Luffy would have it.
Kidd looks almost incredulous, but he doesn’t question it. He knows Luffy – knows that Straw Hat is bat shit but never a liar, and knows he wouldn’t just pause in the middle of a fight.
He’s defeated emperors, after all.
If Luffy says something is hungry, just by a voice only he can here… Well, Law will believe it.
“We should get moving then,” He announces to the group.
Kidd nods. “If that thing was from the pit, it might have ways to get into the tunnels too. We should try to get up to the surface.”
“We could climb,” Luffy says, peering out into the pit again, and eyeing the odd spires that protrude from the wall. “It looks easy.”
Law reaches out to the closest one, a protrusion that about as long as he is tall, and touches it with a finger. It comes away bloody, the spires sharp as swords.
“We’ll die if we fall. The tunnels are our best bet.”
“Aye,” Kidd agrees, and well – that’s that.
-
They walk for hours after that, into the dark again, hands feeling along the walls to guide them over suspiciously smooth tunnels. They get lucky two hours in when Kidd makes a spectacular trip over an old torch, that has both Luffy and Law laughing loud and spending the next ten minutes attempting to light it with pieces of flint they found near it, and some steel in Kidd’s pockets.
Surprisingly, Luffy is the one to light it, finally striking it after countless futile tries by Law. After an odd look from Law and Kidd, he shrugs. “Me and brothers always hunted our food,” he offers, tone quiet.
Law, again, has questions about Luffy’s childhood. It always seems that Luffy knows so much about him, from his revenge ridden quest in Dressrossa, but Law just… finds himself lacking when it comes to Luffy, who’s past only comes up in sudden moments.
(Law does not forget that none of Luffy’s crew knew who Sabo was until he showed up with a grin and rather timely help. The past does not matter with Luffy, but it still shapes so much.)
The tunnels stretch on, unnaturally smooth and the smell of pears filling the air. Eventually, their feet begin to drag, and as they come to a small divot in the wall, Law calls for them to stop.
It has to be night at this point, right?
“Let’s sleep here for the night,” He says, already settling down to lean against the wall.
Kidd and Luffy don’t even off a token protest, easily settling down against the wall, Luffy between him and Kidd according to their chains. They can’t go far, settling too close before the torch laid on the ground, but the night grows quiet.
It’s a moment before Luffy is rummaging through the pockets of his ever-present jean shorts and pulls out an entire leg of meat, surprisingly fresh and not entirely covered in pocket lint.
Suddenly, Law is reminded of the fact that he only had breakfast and a snack today. Casting his eye to Kidd, it seems he had the same reaction.
“Oi, Straw Hat.” Kidd starts, edging closer. “You got any more of that?”
Luffy eyes him. “Nope – Sanji was going to make pirate lunchboxes, but the pear-guy started the challenge really early.”
“So that’s all the food we have?” Law inquires, edging closer as well.
“You guys don’t pack snacks? What do you use your pockets for?” Luffy stares at them incredulously.
“Tools,” Kidd pulls out a wrench and a bottle of nail polish from his pocket.
“Scalpels. Paper.” Law pulls out a few of the tools he swiped from his own operation table and the vivre cards – for Luffy, and for Bepo.
(Both, thankfully, are not even the slightest bit burnt.)
“Huh,” Luffy says, then opens his rubbery mouth wide and ready to bite down on the only food they have.
In a second, Kidd snatches it from Luffy’s hands, leaving Luffy to bit down on seastone chain. In the next second, Law lunges forward snatching it before Kidd is about to bit down upon the meal.
It’s his, until Luffy snatches it back, and then everything is yelling and shoving and biting, to get to the one morsel of a meal.
“Oi! That’s mine!”
“Give it here, numbskulls!”
“Did you just bite me?!”
“Stop it! That’s my meat! Get your own!”
There’s a scraping sound across the ground, and suddenly Law is tripping onto Kidd over the seastone chain, with Luffy falling down on top of them. Luffy grabs the meat stick and in one, clean motion, devours everything – bone included.
Crushed by Luffy, and with Kidd and his fur cape between him and the ground, Law admits defeat – for now.
At the very least, they hadn’t put out the fire in their tousle.
“Wasn’t worth it,” Kidd mumbles, “Not with all your pocket over it.”
“It’s my meat!” Luffy tells him, thumping his hand down on Kidd’s good shoulder, before going boneless.
They’re in a dogpile now, and with exhaustion pulling at his limbs, Law can’t find it in him to shove them off.
The silence eases over them, soft mumbling the only disturbance and the smell of pear wafting through the air. The unnatural smoothness of the tunnel, illuminated more clearly by the torch, stirs something in Law.
Did that creature – that something, whatever it was, from the pit – did it do this?
Or something smaller?
Perhaps rushing water? How old is this island anyway? This crew?
Where the fuck is the poneglyph?
Law really should have gotten those answers before he ran off, but hell do Luffy and Kidd make him act foolish.
“So…” Kidd trails off, interrupting Law’s train of thought. “Why did you guys want to compete for hunks of seastone?”
Law blinks as Luffy angles his head to more clearly see Kidd. “What?”
“The prize? Figured I would use it for coating on my ship – but I can’t see why you would need it, Straw Hat. Can’t your ship fly?”
“Yeah!” Luffy cheers. “Sunny’s the best! But they never said we could have sea stone – we came here for adventure!” A beat. “And money. Nami really wanted the money.”
Something starts ticking away in Law’s brain. “And I came here for a poneglyph –“
“What!?”
“-Which I… now think doesn’t actually exist. They sent me the poneglyphic for king, which means they must know something, but why would they send different prizes for all of us?”
“A trap.” Kidd coldly surmises, voice a low growl. “Damn it! and our crews are out there, while we’re stuck in here –“
“Our crews are strong.” Luffy cuts in, confidence bleeding out of every note. “They’ll be fine.”
He shrugs then, and turns back to the ceiling in that odd, Luffy way of his – entirely confident in his crew, just as his crew is entirely confident in him. Unwavering faith, unwavering crew, never ever stopping –
Or at least, not since Sabaody.
Law hums, acquiescing to Luffy’s faith. It’s hard not to be assured, when faced with a man who’s survived and taken down almost every foe he’s faced.
“They’ll be fine,” Kidd echoes, and its hollow – and, well, Law can’t blame him.
In Wano, his crew had suffered.
(That, in truth, is why Law finds himself in almost–easy company with these two. They understand that crews are crews for strength or power, but because they are yours, no matter how they came to be so. You are responsible for them and their dreams, for their lives- everything.)
“They’ve survived emperors,” Law says. “This is just some…”
“Pear guy!” Luffy interjects, smiling wide as he burrows down into Law’s shoulder, his legs sprawling over Kid’s arm.
“Pear guy,” Law concedes, “It’s not Kaido or Big Mom or Red-Haired Shanks.”
He can’t resist the barb, and Kidd reacts just as Law suspected – reaching up a hand to slap at Law’s face. “Oi!”
Luffy’s reaction is not, however, expected.
“Wait, you fought Shanks?!” He turns away from Law’s shoulder and looks up at Kidd.
“Took my damn arm off,” Kidd snarls. “Why, you want to fight him?”
Luffy’s mouth makes a perfect ‘o’. “Oh… that’s how you lost your arm? Cool! And nah – I don’t want to fight Shanks! Well, maybe. After we party, and after I become Pirate King!”
“You think an emperor is going to party with you?” Law can’t help but ask.
Luffy cocks his head, eyes wide in the dim light. “Why wouldn’t he? He’s Shanks!”
Law blinks. Kidd blinks. “Do you… know him?” Kidd questions, hesitant.
“Shishishi! Yeah! Shanks stayed at my village when I was a kid, and saved me from bandits! And the Lord of the Coast! When he left, I made a promise with him to become a great pirate, and return his hat to him.”
The stray touch of straw that brushes against Law’s arm is suddenly too much. By the way Kidd stiffens beneath Law, he feels the same.
Luffy knows Shanks? Has known him, for over a decade now at least?
Marineford flashes in Law’s mind – newspapers talking about Red-Haired Shanks, emperor of the sea, the emperor who has no territory but roams the world and mysteriously lost an arm years ago. Who showed up to Marineford for Ace, but Ace was Luffy’s brother, Shanks who is terrifying, even more so than Kaido or Big Mom, just because no one knows him –
Except for Luffy, who says his name with awe and familiarity, who named his crew after the hat Shanks had bestowed on him.
Kidd breaths in and out in their dog pile, realizing something at the same time Law has.
They never stood a chance to be King, did they?
Not when Luffy was like this.
Law wonders how Kidd feels about that – Law’s made his peace with it; his true dream was never to be King anyway.
But Kidd?
Kidd always charged ahead, raging and bloody, the one with the highest bounty till Luffy decided to do something bat shit.
Now… Kidd doesn’t say anything besides a low “Huh,” quiet and close, shifting so that the stump of his arm is ever so slightly away from Luffy. There’s… something like respect, in Kidd’s voice, short as that sentence was.
Shanks, after all, is the only emperor left standing – the only emperor that none of them have come anywhere near successfully defeating.
And perhaps, never will if Luffy – who loves Shanks, that much is clear – is the only one Shanks will bow too.
Odd, the way Law’s world is realigning at this new aspect of Luffy’s passed, dropped like a bombshell without care from Luffy himself.
“So you won’t be Straw Hat forever, then?” Law asks, fingering his own hat.
“Shishishi, nope!” Luffy says, resettling down and how many times has he shifted around, fuck.
“Guess everyone will have to call you dumbass, then.” Kidd teases
“Oi!” Luffy snaps back, and the easy atmosphere settles back in with a new argument about nicknames and epithets and ‘You can’t say anything ‘Captain Kidd.’
It’s easy, and none of them move from the dog pile as they nod off, one by one,
-
Law wakes to Kidd’s entire chest on top of him, and Luffy wrapped around his and Kidd’s legs. The chain is uncomfortably wrapped around his shoulder and seas, this is why he naps with Bepo and Bepo alone – Bepo is soft, and fluffy, and doesn’t move. He doesn’t cling like a wet barnacle when Law tries to move to a slightly more comfortable position, and he doesn’t smell like fucking pears.
Law is sick of pears.
With enough kicking and prodding and yanking on the seastone chain, Luffy and Kidd rise and roll off of Law with all the grace of a drunken seal. Still, it means they’re up and Law can light their torch again, ignoring the hunger that gnaws at his belly.
Quietly, as Kidd and Luffy rub sleep from their eyes in the dim light, stretching aimlessly, Law surmises that it was a good thing that Luffy ate the morsel the last night – who knows how hungry he would be now if he hadn’t.
After their wake up, it’s a matter of time before they begin walking through the tunnels, Luffy singing an absolutely horrible song about islands and idiots, and Kidd trying to outdo him in turn. Law wonders if his voice is purposefully this bad this early in the morning because Luffy had certainly sang better at the numerous parties they attended.
It’s something to pass the time though – and Law takes special pleasure in yanking on the chain when Luffy or Kidd make a particularly awful note.
Conversation ebbs and flows – posturing stops as much as it can, though hidden barbs find their way into every conversation.
“You know…” Kidd trails, “I’ve always wondered why the hell you went to Marineford, Trafalgar. I mean – the rest of us managed to sneak through to the New World, so why didn’t you? You have a deal or something?”
Law almost misses a step before his brain catches up with what Kidd said. Besides him, Luffy’s swaying steps become a little less casual and a little more focused, his eyes turning to Law.
Yet –
Law shrugs. “I took a chance.” It’s really all the answer he has, even though now, loathe as he is to admit it, if the same thing happened he’d be charging to Luffy’s aid same as any of his friends and crew. “It paid off in the end.”
“Right… with Doflamingo?” Kidd pokes, with all the knowledge of someone hearing these exploits from News Coos and rumors.
“Mingo was a bastard – I would have hit him anyway!” Luffy cuts in, that odd intensity leaving him.
Law quietly realizes that he hasn’t actually ever told Luffy why he saved him – not even when leveraging Doflamingo in a plea for an alliance. Luffy had just… never asked. He just declared them as friends, giving all the devotion just as easy as he gave it to the rest of the crew, sheltering Law when he needed it and defeating his devils just as easy as the Straw Hats said he banished theirs.
Luffy didn’t do it in repayment. They were just… friends.
“Because you were allies,” Kidd furthers his questioning, tone taking a more serious and less curious tone.
Law already knows what Luffy’s answer is going to be before he says it – yet, Luffy’s impossibly gentle tone isn’t one he expected. Not at all.
“Because we are friends,” Luffy corrects, before even in the dark his smile shines impossibly wide. “Like we are!”
The chain that connects them twitches as Kidd stiffens. His lips draw into a thin line as Law looks back, and his eyes grow dark at once.
“Friends,” Kidd repeats, slow and careful.
Luffy nods.
“Huh,” is all Kidd is left saying, phrase echoing in the tunnel, tone introspective and hesitant.
Kidd… Kidd had allies before, Law knows, allies that betrayed him, leaving his crew to be tortured and his first mate to be hurt in a horrible fashion. It wasn’t like Kidd was a saint – no, he was almost as murderous as Law – but he never experienced what Law had, at Dressrossa. When he realized that Luffy was here to stay, and betrayal was a thought just as ridiculous as a Devil Fruit User becoming able to swim.
Kidd fought with them at Wano, but he wasn’t in whatever the ridiculous name Luffy came up with for their alliance. He was just full of rage.
But strangers don’t sleep collapsed in dog piles in dark, pear-smelling caverns, and they don’t slip seamlessly into a fight like they don’t spend miles apart across the seas for most of their lives.
Kidd doesn’t reject the word friends, not when it spills from Luffy’s mouth, and regardless of how many headaches and bouts of anger Luffy no doubt brings him. So Law doesn’t reject it either.
He doesn’t say it aloud of course, but by Luffy’s smile, he notices it all anyways.
Perceptive bastard.
-
“FUCK!” Kidd exhales after Luffy has begun to sing again and gone through all the songs in his repertoire and is now trying to remember some that Shanks taught him. “These tunnels go on way too long.”
“Agreed,” Law growls, his feet aching and nose burning from the smell. They’ve started slanting upward at some point, and now Luffy holds the torch in his mouth, muffling his singing, so they all can have two hands to scale the cave. Kikoku is stuff awkwardly down the back of his shirt, and perhaps he really should invest in a holster like Roronoa has. It’d make things like this easier at least. “Perhaps we should risk a cave in and try to bust our way out of here.”
“With what power?!” Kidd growls back, hissing when his hand snags in a particularly tight crevice, dragging them all down.
Law doesn’t have an answer to that, but thankfully – or rather, unfortunately – he doesn’t have to give one, because the world begins to shake.
It’s the rumbling from earlier, horrible and distorting. “Shit!” Law cries, as Kidd utters out his ow low curse, and Luffy doesn’t even pause before hauling himself upward across the steep plane.
“Come on!” Luffy shouts, sounding more like gibberish but clearly a command, yet not even the flash of ire Law gets at being ordered around stops him from following. The horrible rumbling grows louder and louder, reverberating in Law’s bones, though thankfully the walls don’t begin to protrude spikes like it did in the cavern.
The rocks dig into his hands nonetheless, his boots scrambling for purchase over the stone, the scalpels in his pockets providing a sort of temporary pick as he races upward.
He’s not fast enough. None of them are fast enough. Luffy’s torch drops from his mouth as the rumbling reaches its pique, and it skids down the steep slant, illuminating something red and rocky, surging up to meet them.
Law stares, for just a second, before the thing slams into him, carrying all three of them through the air. The pressure forces him flat against the surface – it’s rocky, with small bumps that dig into his back but that seem to move fluidly like any living being. His face hurts, and the darkness flashes around him before just as quickly growing lighter.
In seconds, the grey walls turn into open air and Law can see again. In seconds, the world keeps moving as the thing pushing him stops, and Law, Luffy, and Kidd are sent flinging into the air.
There is a moment that Law can take to appreciate the sight of luscious green jungles, the sandy white beaches, the beautiful cove where the yellow of the Polar Tang can be distantly spotted, and another moment where he realizes the thing that pushed him looks like – it looks like a tongue - before he is falling.
The air pushes at him, Kidd and Luffy’s connecting chains dragging him through the air, and Law quickly spots where they’re about to land – a clearing, atop the highest mountain on the island.
That’s all he gets, before he’s slamming into the rocky ground, bruising his entire body left and right. His head spins, ringing, and his eyes hurt against the bright midday sun.
At the very least, he’s not unconscious just to be woken up by Luffy poking his face. He can only go through that so many times before he wants to fight someone.
“Ugh,” He says aloud.
“Ugh,” Kidd echoes, voice just as pained. “You ain’t dead yet, Trafalgar?”
“Not before you, Eustass,” Law bites back before heaving himself upward. “Was that a tongue?”
Kidd is hauling himself upward as well, coming to stand beside Law, looking out across the wilderness. There’s another pit in the ground, presumably the one they just erupted out from. The tongue is gone, retreated back into the ground though a trace of pear and destruction can still be seen.
“A tongue?!” Kidd repeats incredulous before his face warps into something disgusted. “What kind of bullshit island is this?! Is it alive?”
“Zou was,” Law offers, “But this is no elephant.
At their feet, Luffy, face down in the ground in a spectacular crater, mumbles something.
“What was that Straw Hat?” Kidd nudges Luffy’s side, turning him over.
“I said that islands can be alive,” Luffy petulantly repeats, his face scratched up and slightly bruised. He does offer more than that, something bitter in his expression.
Law wonders if he should pry. Luffy’s face turns to the flowers dotting the edge of the clearing, his eyes going distant and aa little bit fierce.
It’s somewhat like how he looked after talking with Dark King Rayleigh at Amazon Lily. Like he didn’t want to be reminded of something but had no choice.
Law doesn’t like anything Straw Hat Luffy is willing to run from, so he doesn’t pry.
“A Devil Fruit?” He offers instead, too which Kidd responds with a grunt and Luffy nothing. “Odder things have eaten them.”
An island that ate a devil fruit – hell, could the New World get any weirder?
Bad question. Of course, it could.
Luffy turns his head to the bay, just visible around the treetops, and squints. “Are those Marines?”
That gets Law’s and Kidd’s attention, and they quickly turn to look at the cove in the distance. “Shit,” Law swears, because it is, a whole fleet of white sailed and blue bottomed ships, sailing into the cove. Just after he says that, he sees the greenery erupt, cannonballs shooting into the sky, and something that looks like Long Nose’s Pop Green wolves surging forward, big and noticeable even from this distance.
Except, these ones look like pears – just like the bulls that they fought earlier did.
“Shit!” Law repeats, because the greenery isn’t fighting the Marines – it’s fighting their crews, Luffy’s crews’ big attacks like thunderstorms and giant women and robots emerging, and figures scurrying all over the Polar Tangs deck, the Victoria Punk clearly readying her weapons.
“Why the hell are the Marines here?” Kidd growls.
“It’s a trap – fuck, it was the Nashi guy. That’s why the letters were sent out, he wanted to lure us in for the Marines!”
“How does the fucking living island play into that?”
“I don’t fucking know!” Law bites back to Kidd, looking down to where the battle is going on. “We need to get down there.”
Then – something tugs on his wrist, pulling him out of his argument with Eustass. It’s Luffy, who’s gotten up from his small sulk and is now hauling them all over to something on the ground.
As Law grows closer, his eyes widen. It’s… tracks?
Luffy keeps walking, keeps pulling him and Kidd with a single-minded determinedness too something rusted up on the corner of the small clearing.
It’s a minecart, ancient and rusted over but still moving when Luffy pushes it slightly. They all follow the track to where it goes over the edge of the clearing – and down, down over the mountain, over the small hills at the bottom and through the trees.
It’s in the direction of the shore where their crew are battling.
Luffy’s face goes into a grin. “ROLLERCOASTER!” He exclaims, before his arms are wrapping around Kidd and Law and dumping them into the mine cart, hopping in after, and smashing himself against Law’s chest. It’s a tight fit.
Kidd starts screaming and Luffy starts dragging them forward, closer to the edge and he’s yelling back at Kidd, and fuck, Law doesn’t want to be here, not at all.
It’s all the goddamn challenge letters fault. Fuck that letter. Fuck this trap. Fuck Nashi, and pears, and the entire island that has to be alive and how he got here and fuck!
That’s Law’s last thought as Luffy pushes them over the edge, and sends them all careening down the mountain, hollering with joy as Kidd and Law scream with bitterness.
The world rushes past them, wind raging in Law’s ears as the sights blur bye, rumbling starting up somewhere in between it all, making the wheels on the minecart wobble dangerously.
They make sharp turns, getting glimpses of the bay through the trees, hitting low laying branches with their faces, and almost getting mauled to death by strange pear-like animals that erupt from the forest. At one time they even make a leap over the ravine that they had crossed on a rickety bridge earlier, all of them screaming.
It looks like a mouth from above.
Hell, the island really was alive, wasn’t it?
They land with a spark to the tracks and they’re off again, soaring down the track at breakneck speeds as the path grows closer and closer to the bay.
Wait.
“How the hell do we stop?!” He calls out, voice snatched by the wind. Luffy just laughs, and Kidd continues his ragefully screaming.
Law would close his eyes if not for the wind pushing them back. So, they’re dying on this rickety rail track. Great. Just how he wanted to go out, killed by Monkey D. Luffy’s stupidity –
A ring of metal echoes through the air, and Law realizes oh, that’s them, stopping, and oh, that’s a cliff, and oh the cart stopped but the three of them didn’t and – wow, Law is getting sick of getting thrown through the air.
But it’s the bay before them, and the fight, ten times more chaotic now that they’re right before it. As they sail through the air, all combatants stop, gazing upward. There’s Bepo and Ikkaku, fighting back to back on the surface of the Polar Tang, Sanji and Zoro on the decks of the Marine Ships, Killer besides them, Usopp and Nami on the shore with the rest of crew’s scattered about, fighting Marines and Pear creatures alike, and all through the air are vines and pears being shot like cannonballs –
And on the beach, just before them, is Nashi, looking manic with his flowered shirt rumpled and his skin looking distinctly pear like. He looks furious as he spots them, then goes white with fear because –
Ah, yes, Law realizes, quickly brandishing his sword.
They’re plummeting right towards him.
He grins.
Even without his devil fruit – he can fight this.
Their trio lands in a spray of sand, Luffy punching Nashi right across the jaw as they do so. He goes down hard, but not permanently as vines come to pick him up like a puppet.
Law’s about to slice his arm off or at least try when Nami’s voice rings out.
“LAW! CATCH!”
He turns, observation haki guiding his hand up to catch something from the air, delight singing through his veins as he realizes what it is. The key!
He looks to where the Cat Burglar stands, unruffled as a homemade storm brews around her, and she winks. “It hit me and Usopp as we were running! Figured it went to something important!”
And she was right.
He nods in thanks as Nami rushes off, and quickly - before Luffy can jerk his arm away or before Kidd launches his own attack, he slots the key into his cuffs and turns it.
With a click, it falls into the white sand of the island, and all the exhaustion Law hadn’t known he felt dragging at his limbs slides off of his shoulders at once. His body feels a light again, his fingers twitching for the sing of a blade or scalpel, the operating room coldness clouding his mind again. A feral grin, all teeth and smirking lips, crosses his face and he grabs onto Kikoku, pulling her free of her sheath.
“Room,” He says, and oh, he forgot how good it felt to have everything at your mercy at the flick of the fingers. The blue ring envelopes them all and -“Shambles.”
The cuffs connecting Luffy and Kidd fall to the ground as they find themselves teleported right about Nashi’s head. They don’t even skip a beat as their power rushes back to them. Metal surges from the village path and the deck of the Victoria Punk and into a giant metal arm at Kidd’s side, just as Luffy puffs up impossibly wide, grin now wider thanks to his rubber powers and his hat shadowing his face in gold. Nashis face pales again as two gigantic fists punch into him, sending him flying once more. Law doesn’t hesitate to Shambles him closer, just in time for Luffy’s rubbery arm to snap back and hit his face.
Even in the midst of battle, the resounding smack is like music to Law’s ears.
He watches as Nashi dazedly drags himself off the ground, eyes furious and mustache twisted. “Mr. Straw Hat, Mr. Eustass, Mr. Trafalgar,” He says, still perfectly respectably like a simpering host, even with bruises up and down his face. “How dare you – you were supposed to die! Be swallowed up as a sacrifice for the beautiful Damasu! How dare you survive!”
“Oi! Why would we die, Pear Guy?” Luffy asks like Nashi is stupid. Which – yeah, he kind of is. They’ve gone against emperors.
This is nothing.
“BECAUSE YOU WERE BROUGHT HERE TO DIE!” Nashi screeches, a vine from the ground grabbing him and raising him up. “I lure the pirates, and then lure the Marines, and Damasu eats you whole! My beloved island, alive and carnivorous, a beautiful trap for morons like you!” Beast begin to pour from the forest, quickly destroyed by the surrounding crews as the captains face off against Nashi’s increasing ire.
“Damasu?” Luffy asks again, cocking his head to the side.
“DAMASU!” Nashi screeches again, “MY BELOVED ISLAND! I’ve raised her, ever since I fed her the Grow-Grow fruit!” Law was right, this island did eat a devil fruit! How the fuck did that happen? “I’ve raised her, her and her pears, her hunger, her people, ever since I was stranded here! YOU WILL RESPECT HER NAME, PIRATES! AND YOU WILL DIE – A SACRIFICE TO HER LOVELY SOUL!” And with that, Nashi releases a shriek and the world begins to rumble, the tongue – and it has to be a tongue because Nashi was going to feed them to the entire fucking island, erupts from the ground, striking with abandon at the ground, sending sand and marines flying through the air without a second thought.
It hits all of them back, pushing them away from Nashi and into the underbrush, the island erupting with vines and other pear-beasts – which must be from the fruit, what the hell is the Grow-Grow Fruit – ready to attack.
Law sends creatures shambling to the seas as Kidd wields metal projectiles at his back. Luffy has a range just as wide as the vines and is meeting them blow for blow, all of them managing only sparing hits at Nashi in the midst of it all.
The battle is dragging on – the island seemingly having no intents on giving up, do islands even have stamina? – until Law spots the opening.
He’s not alone. Kidd catches his eye, red lipstick framing his growl, and as one they lunge for Luffy’s rubbery arms that are snapping left and right at their backs. Luffy stretches easily as they pull back, catching on quick, his eyes going bright and determined.
Luffy pulls back. Kidd and Law pull back.
Then, in one, fluid motion, Kidd and Law let go and Luffy goes flying – under the vines and writhing tongue, over the battling marines and members of their crew – and straight into Nashi’s face with a single punch, sending Nashi flying out into the bay where he hits the water with a splash.
At once, the vines of the island screech towards the bay. The tongue stills, hovering above the splashing waves, but Nashi does not emerge. His flower shirt does, floating to the surface, and the smell of pear fills the air yet again, mixing with the sea breeze.
The battle with the island stops entirely then, even as the pirate crews send the marines packing, with Franky’s jeep revving and ghostly songs and thunderous noises.
“Did he just… dissolve?” Kidd kicks at the water.
“Perhaps he was a devil fruit user as well, to match his… island.” Law states, but even that doesn’t seem quite right. Law doesn’t dissolve when he touches water.
Before them, at the edge of the waves, Luffy is staring out at where Nashi disappeared into the waves. His hands rise to his ears, just like the first time the tongue approached them, when he was unused to all the noise.
“The island’s sad.” Luffy states, simply. “Pear-guy was with them for a really, really long time. He was her crew.”
And that, more than anything, explains the sad state of the island now, even as Luffy turns to face the jungle with a stern glare.
“HEY ISLAND!” He shouts, to the questioning looks of the Straw Hats and others crews who have finished their battles. “STOP EATING PEOPLE!”
The island shakes, and the vines mournfully... look at the water? It’s awfully hard to tell what they’re doing, but it’s something emotional.
Luffy kicks at the sand. “PEAR GUY WAS JUST YOU, YOU STUPID ISLAND! YOU CAN MAKE HIM AGAIN! JUST STOP EATING PEOPLE!”
The island shakes again, and slowly, as the floral shirt approaches the sand, Nashi begins to be shaped from pear-scented sand, shifting slowly off into the wilderness as if in a daze.
“What the fuck,” Kidd swears softly as the pear-man disappears from their sight. The wails and burning of the marines seem to quiet behind them, the last few sent packing, meeting their fate with the sea rather than in the maw of some island’s stomach.
Law has to agree with Kidd’s words.
It was… sad really. Nashi must have really been someone, if the island is able to ‘grow’ his memory so easily.
And they truly must have been close.
But – the island tried to eat them, and would have tried to eat their crews if they hadn’t demonstrated what they were willing to do to the island’s last remaining… love? Friend? Memory?
Whatever – Law is not particularly inclined to be sympathetic to the island at any rate. Fuck that.
“I MEAN IT!” Luffy shouts, again, arguing with the island that apparently only he can hear. “AND GIVE US MEAT!”
What.
To the right of Law, in scorched sand and destroyed jungle, there’s a cheer. When Law turns, the marines are running for their lives and the crews are cheering together. Fuck – they’ve become friends with the Straw Hats again.
And this time they’ve managed to rope Kidd’s crew into it.
(Did Law do the very same thing, just with the Captains?
Yes.
Is he still going to complain?
Also yes.
It’s the principle of the thing.)
The crews rush to embrace their captains, the Straw Hats all but tackling Luffy to the ground as Killer simply clasps hands with Kidd then draws him into an embrace. Law’s own crew attempts to hug him, but it’s not until Bepo gets his furry arms around him that they have any success.
“Captain!”
“We missed you! Where the hell were you?!”
“You missed it – we have to fight giant pears, actual pears!”
“They had swords and everything – Roronoa challenged all of them to a duel, and then Black Leg cooked them!”
“We have to get a jeep, captain, we have to! Or at least lasers – that’s how Franky destroyed an entire galleon –”
On and on the chatter goes, washing over Law’s head like a soothing balm. His crew is alright and no worse for wear, quelling the worry that had arisen in him ever since they were separated. They seemed to have fun – chattering on and on about challenges and racing pears and sleeping on giant turtle pears at the lake at the center of the island, their own adventures that Law will no doubt hear accounted at least three times more before the week is out.
It’s nice, and Law is just… so, so very glad his crew is safe.
So glad, he gives them an extra minute of crowding around him before he Shambles away –
Only to be snatched right into a hug by Luffy, who wraps his entire body around Law in an octopus like grip. “TORAO” Luffy cries happily, and oh, Kidd is right behind him. “WE’RE PARTYING! Beach Barbecue! No pears, only sea king!”
Luffy’s voice is loud, and he’s been stuck with him – literally – for the past day, same with Kidd, but …. Black Leg-ya is a good cook, and Law is sick of pear – why the hell is the Grow-Grow fruit design after a pear – so he could eat.
And his crew is already partying.
And he’s gotten used to partying after adventures, with Straw Hat and his crew filling the day and night with endless festivities.
“Good,” Law says, instead of voicing any of the thoughts rattling inside his head. “I hate pears.”
And challenge letters.
And this entire island.
But as the party begins and enters into the night, as Kidd draws Law into a drinking contest and goes head to head with him on any random issue, and as Luffy’s laughs brightens the space between all of them – Law finds that surrounded by joyous laughter….
He doesn’t quite hate Luffy and Kidd.
Not entirely at least.
(Not that he would ever tell them that of course – Law has principles to be maintained, damnnit!)