Laughter

Law was no stranger to laughter. The act came in many forms, ranging from a quiet, barely-there, chuckle, to a full blown bellow from the stomach, and over the years Law had seen many people partake in the activity. He'd even done it himself, rarely, and usually on the subtler end of the spectrum. It wasn't as though he was always gloomy; even if enjoying his life meant remembering what had been lost so that he could have it, thereby hollowing out any joy he felt, he knew how to smile, knew how to laugh.

Mugiwara-ya's bounty poster showed a boy laughing. There was nothing pirate about it, except the ever-increasing number beneath the picture, leaping over his own and laughing merrily the entire time, so Law expected him to be one of those people that never stopped laughing. Odd for a pirate, maybe, but once a line of insanity was crossed, anything was possible.

He hadn't been laughing the first time they'd met. He'd been a man on a mission – no boy about him as he crashed into an auction hall to save an acquaintance then punched a tenryubito in the face despite knowing the consequences – and while Law's assessment of insanity was proven correct, if not for the signature hat and the odd scar beneath his eye he would never have recognised him as the same person on the poster.

He hadn't been laughing the second time they'd met, either. In fact, he hadn't been doing much of anything, except bleeding out and challenging Law, both the same and different to the challenge at Sabaody – "leave it to me! I can do it myself!"; are you good enough? – face stained with tears, snot and blood in a picture of defeat.

It wasn't until two years after their first meeting that the man finally, finally, showed Law the laugh his poster had been imitating all along. It was a strange laugh, a shishishi that sounded naïve and innocent, but Law already knew Mugiwara-ya was anything but. It was annoying, hearing that laughter and only seeing the façade for what it was because he'd already been there when Mugiwara-ya couldn't afford to keep it up. Law had known that the other captain was dangerous in some way because of his ever-rising bounty, but he now also knew that had they met under different circumstances he would have been sucked in by the façade, unable to see through to the complicated darkness hiding beneath the surface.

No, hiding was the wrong word. Mugiwara-ya didn't know the definition of the word, proved that he was incapable of subtlety when he threw himself out of a cage suspended in mid-air before Law could finish hashing out the plan with him. It was lurking, ready to show itself to the world when it was needed, but content to sit behind the shishishi the rest of the time.

Law didn't have a clue if Mugiwara-ya himself was aware of his two faces and the implications it held. He was a lot of things, and complex was one of them, but the man himself was simple, blunt and to the point in a ridiculous oxymoron. Law couldn't imagine there being any deliberation behind the two halves that made Mugiwara-ya who he was.

The shishishi clearly put the rest of the Straw Hats at ease, reassured by their captain's laid-back attitude and obviously just as aware as Law that it wasn't his only face. To Law, the shishishi was terrifying, if only because he had seen what it was sitting over the top of and concealing so completely that if he hadn't known it was there, he would never have suspected.

It was a mask, but at the same time it was painfully genuine, and Law had never before encountered a laugh anything like it.

Thanks for reading!
Tsari