March 31, 801 WG
Law watched as his sister ran ahead with Ann chasing after. The island was mainly ruins with grass and vines growing from every crevice and depression in the crumbling architecture. It hardly seemed real that he was here, the island so many pirates had dreamed of finding since the day Gold Roger had set the world on fire with his dying words, Raftel. As he gazed drifted up the bleached stones of ancient parapets and townhouses, he heard the whispers of the ancients once more. He closed his eyes and let their voices enfold him, he could hear no distinct words but he knew they were welcoming their kinsman home. He sighed.
Then the whispers grew excited and shifted their attention, Law knew at once what had caught their eye. Luffy was running up the path and chattering in child-like fascination at he tried to look at everything at once. Law could sense the gathering whispers swirling in ever growing numbers around the Straw Hat captain, but Luffy remained oblivious to the otherworldly attention. Despite visiting the afterlife his "hearing" hadn't improved in the slightest.
Law had thought Luffy had the same ability to hear the voices that he had. He had heard Zhou when it began crying out at Jack's attack as Law had. (Momonosuke had as well but since he was the reborn Dragon King, Uranus, it wasn't surprising.) Yet he took no notice of the voices that swarmed him. Law believed Luffy heard them on the subconscious level. It explained his good instincts in battle and it made his over-the-top outbursts of joy right now understandable; he was being overwhelmed by the voices' joy and expressing it.
There was something utterly ridiculous about Luffy's kid-like attitude but, at the same time, enviable. Despite everything, Luffy had largely enjoyed the journey to get here. For Law, the journey had been something to suffer through. That reaching Raftel was just the first step to his goal. He couldn't enjoy it. Even when he was smiling, he was not having fun. Watching Luffy, he realized what a waste that was.
"Onii-chan! Onii-chan!" cried Lami from the ruins. Law turned his attention to his little sister and smiled. She was holding up a pink and gold flower. "I've never seen a flower like this before. Do you know what it is? It smells like mother's perfume!"
Law climbed the path to where Lami and Ann were standing among a small alcove filled with the sunrise-colored flowers. "Let me smell," he said. "I haven't actually seen a flower like this before, either."
Lami smiled as her brother knelt down and took the flower from her. The flowers weren't particularly pungent, he had to hold the blossom up to his nose before he could smell anything but ocean, however, when he did…
He was a child of ten again looking at medical books with his father. His mother patting him on the shoulder and his sister telling him he was cool. His mother had been a doctor, too. She had never been one for heavy perfumes, but the light scent of more modest aromas were something she liked. He could only ever tell she wore any when he hugged her or she kissed his forehead in that embarrassing but wonderful way.
This flower indeed smelled just like her perfume. He had forgotten her scent until now. Homesickness, sorrow, grief, emotions he had been forced to lock away in order to survive, came flooding out of him. Even when Lami had been returned to him he had not felt these particular emotions. He had forgotten them all. Now he was remembering because of his mother's perfume, this flower's scent.
"Onii-chan?" Lami was gazing at him in concern. Only then did he realize he was crying. To smell his mother's scent again here of all places… He then realized what the flower was.
"Is there something wrong Tra-o?" Luffy was now behind him, all worry for his friend. The whispers were equally worried.
Law rubbed his eyes even as he wondered at this small miracle. "It's nothing. I just remembered what kind of flowers these are. Lami said they smelled like our mother's perfume and they do."
"Really?" Luffy dropped down and stuck his whole face into the flowers and breathed deep. He sat up and smiled stupidly. "They really do smell nice," he said in a dopey manner before falling backwards as if drunk.
Lami laughed as Ann declared, "Ji-kun silly!
Law bit back a laugh. He needed that. He didn't like staying in the past, it hurt. He continued once he was sure his amusement was under control. "I didn't think I had seen flowers like these before but I do know these flowers after all."
"You do, Onii-chan?"
Law nodded. "They're Starlight Poppies."
Lami stared at him in puzzlement. "Aren't Starlight Poppies white?"
"Everything in our country was white because of the Amber Lead. It turned all the plants white. Starlight Poppies were no exception. I guess this is what they were supposed to look like."
Lami looked at the flower in her hand. "I think I like how they are supposed to look way better than how they were at home. It's like they're supposed to be Sunrise Poppies or maybe Dawn Poppies."
"I think so, too." Dawn, huh? Wasn't there something said about a dawn? Law wondered then shrugged. He glanced over at Luffy still laying on the ground and hopelessly dizzy from taking in too much of the flower's scent. His gaze shifted toward Ann, who had wondered over to regard her uncle. "So, Ann, what should we do about your uncle?"
She looked at him then at her uncle then back at him while sucking her thumb and cuddling her stuffed Bepo. Law found it amusing she still had the thing. Bepo had not been amused when Law had fashioned it for her, but it had gotten Ann to stop clinging to the bear Mink. So the Mink couldn't complain too much.
Ann took her thumb out of her mouth, adjusted her hold on her bear, stepped back three paces, then ran forward and jumped onto Luffy's stomach.
"Ooph!" Luffy came awake and curled on himself around Ann who had just belly-flopped onto his belly. He was now over his dizzy spell, impressive recovery.
"Ann," Luffy groaned as he poked his niece as he sat up and she rolled into his lap. "How many times have I told you not to do that?" Ann giggled, tucked her thumb into her mouth and beamed him with her dazzling emerald eyes. Luffy's annoyed expression collapsed and he sighed. Three months and she already had the Straw Hat captain wrapped around her little finger. It was probably why he was so reluctant to leave her on Mendora despite it being the best place for her.
Law let a laugh escape and Luffy immediately focused his attention on him. "What's so funny?"
"I concede," Law said and placed a hand on top of Luffy's head, knocking the straw hat down over his eyes.
Luffy shoved his hat back up and knocked Law's hand off. "Concede what?"
"Only one of us can become Pirate King. So I concede. I won't challenge you for the throne."
Luffy stared at Law in shock then babbled, "What are you saying? You wanted to become Pirate King too! How can you give up like that now that we're here? It's your dream!"
Law regarded Luffy for a moment then asked, "So how do you propose we settle this? A battle to the death?" Lami gasped. Ann just held her bear and sucked her thumb as she stared wide-eyed at Law.
"No! I mean, we already did that once and it wasn't any fun for either of us and definitely not now since we're friends. That would be stupid but maybe some other way. Rolling dice, rock-paper-scissors, cards… uh… Why are you laughing?"
Law had thrown back his head and was guffawing long and loud. He hadn't let loose with an honest laugh like that in far too long. In fact he couldn't remember the last time he had laughed so hard. He had always been a serious kid. Judging by Lami's concerned look, he might not have ever laughed like that.
"You are truly something else, Luffy-ya," said Law once his breathing was back under control. "I feel like I might actually have been saved this time."
"Huh?" Luffy tilted his head in confusion.
"Ever since my homeland was destroyed, I've been heading down a path of destruction and rage. I didn't have long to live and I wanted to make as many people suffer for what it had done to me and everyone I loved while I could. Cora-san, stopped my head-long rampage down that path of darkness by saving my life, but losing him just gave me something to focus my wrath on. Then I happen across you and rescue you from certain death on instinct alone. Two years later, it seemed my investment was worthwhile and I offered an alliance so that I could use you to get revenge on Doflamingo. I had been fully prepared to die to avenge Cora-san, yet you saved me. Then we did the impossible and defeated Kaido. Even after betraying you, you still came to me as a friend wanting to make all my problem go away." Law paused a moment to hug his little sister. "Then you bring me here, when you should have just said your good-byes. I really believe that you have saved me this time. Not just in body; my soul has been saved. I can actually believe in the future again and that was something I had given up on a very long time ago."
Luffy still looked confused. Trust him to do meaningful things without having the faintest inkling what he was doing. That was probably how he worked his miracles. If the Straw Hat captain actually thought about what he was doing he would shy away from them like everyone else did. He never thought through his actions. He just did what he did because that was what he wanted to do and let the chips fall where they may.
"Onii-chan? Why did you want to become Pirate King? The last Pirate King was executed, so why would you want that to happen to you?"
Law sighed. "There was something I wanted to accomplish that required me to become Pirate King, or more accurately, to find the One Piece. I don't know if I want to go through with that anymore or even if it is necessary for me to become Pirate King to accomplish it."
"What did you want to do?" This time it was Luffy who asked.
Law looked at the Straw Hat captain then replied, "I wanted to turn the world topsy-turvy. I wanted to shake the World Government to the core and bring those overinflated egos in Mary Geoise down to earth. Supposedly finding the One Piece would let you do it, but Roger, for some reason didn't. I think whoever becomes Pirate King now will end up doing just that. I just wonder if Roger had done it first if Flevance could have been saved."
There was silence for a moment, then Luffy said in a soft voice, "Roger was dying."
"Huh?" Law stared at the younger man in shock.
"Rayleigh told me two years ago that Roger went on this journey because he discovered he was ill. There was no cure for it. He wanted to do something big before leaving this world. Also, he wasn't captured by the Marines. He turned himself in a year after the Roger Pirates were disbanded. They didn't catch anyone, it was all a lie to make themselves look good."
Law stared at the ruins before him as he let Luffy's information sink in. "He accomplished all this while dying of an incurable disease? Then he turned himself in. It sounds like he was choosing his death since he was doomed to die soon. If not for the whole tragedy surrounding Ace and his mother, I could admire the man."
"Why is that?"
Law looked at Luffy, incredulous, then decided that the Straw Hat captain must have put the blame for Ace and his mother squarely on the shoulders of the World Government. Not a bad place to put it actually. "When the Government was looking for Ace, they searched every child and detained every pregnant woman on Baterilla, even those that were married. Some were so stressed from the intense Marine attention that they miscarried. Ace's own mother died from doing the impossible, which she had to do if she was going to save her child. Why didn't Roger find some way to get her to safety before he turned himself in? I get that it is within a pirate's nature to be selfish but I think he might have been a little too selfish."
"You think so, huh?" said Luffy in a soft voice as he gave his niece a hug.
Law flinched. It may have been a bit harsh to bring up Luffy's dead brother. He remembered how Luffy had reacted to waking up in a world without Ace. It had taken his shipwright quite a while to make the Polar Tang sea worthy again afterwards. The emergency repairs they had done to get them off Amazon Lily had barely lasted to the next island. Law understood those feelings, though, having felt them himself at two different times in his life.
"Look, Luffy-ya, I made a few goals when I thought I didn't have a future and now that's not true. I just don't know what to do with myself right now. Suddenly there is all this time that I never accounted for. That's why you should be Pirate King. I'll just join in with the rest of your fleet. So if you topsy-turvy the world I can help. I think I can accept it if you were making that decision."
"No way! If you hadn't offered that alliance in the first place I would never have discovered Zhou and the Road Poneglyphs. I could never have found Raftel!"
"You would have, because it's you. It just might have taken longer." Besides the voices of the ancestors have probably been guiding you this whole time. Whispering to the very instincts you have always heeded. That's why you always find the people you need and are where you need to be when you need to be there.
"Besides, you saved me at Marineford!" Now Luffy was being stubborn and Law was getting irritated. "None of this would have been possible if I had died back then."
There was no point in continuing the argument if Luffy was just going to dig in his heels. "Do you want to become Pirate King or not, Luffy-ya?" snapped Law.
"I do!"
"Then shut up and accept my concession! Only you would protest getting what you want just because you don't like the method."
"I don't like you becoming subordinate to me! You had no reason to save me accept a feeling back then. You risked everything! No way, can I accept you becoming a subordinate! I didn't even accept them!"
"Yet they did it anyway!"
"I refuse!"
Law sighed and was quiet as he thought about this dilemma. Luffy was stubborn. Law could strong-arm the younger man but that wasn't what he wanted. He was tired of the schemes and the plots. He was tired of having nothing but ghosts to believe in. "I don't want to be your rival anymore, Luffy-ya. I want to be your ally."
"Then be an ally."
"What we had before was too flimsy. Pirate Alliances aren't things that last forever and often end when one betrays the other." He looked down on the flowers that reminded him of a home he could visit only when he closed his eyes. The sun was beginning to drift toward the horizon and his shadow was extending before him, covering the flowers. Law blinked. He smiled and said, "I just thought of something."
"What?"
"A king may sit upon his throne alone but there is always something with him that shares the space equally, though, most don't notice it."
"Yeah, what is it?"
"His shadow."
Luffy tilted his head in confusion again.
"You swore an oath of brotherhood with Ace-ya and Sabo-ya so that you would always remain equals." That was just a guess. He had no idea why the three had become brothers. It was a simple enough reason and Luffy was simple.
"I think that was the reason. We didn't think we would be on the same ship since we all wanted to be captains." And he didn't fail Law's expectations.
"Then why don't you and I share an oath of brotherhood. You will be the king and I will be your shadow. We can decide together then how to topsy-turvy the world." It seemed like a silly idea. A shadow may sit on the throne but it never did anything but observe the king in his glory. Which was what Law wanted.
Luffy regarded him in stunned silence then he broke out into the biggest grin Law had ever seen. And he had seen Luffy produce quite a few. He never realized anyone could look that happy. "All right! I really like that idea. I'll go get the sake and we can toast as the moon rises." The younger man got up, placed Ann on his shoulders, then ran at top speed down the hill to the beach where their ships were anchored. Ann squealing in glee the whole way.
Law, suddenly having second thoughts, wondered what he had just proposed, but there was no taking it back now. The whispers were chattering in glee. He wondered if they hadn't been nudging his thoughts right then.
"I think that's great!" said Lami. Law looked down at her smiling face then she leaned forward and embraced him. "You've been alone for so long. I'm glad you found such a great friend."
Law hesitated. He hadn't been alone; he had had his crew but he understood what she was really saying. He smiled and hugged her back then said, "Yeah, me too."
As the waning gibbous rose into the sky. Law and Luffy sat atop the wall separating the castle courtyard from the residential area. They looked over the white city as it was bathed in silver light and raised their glasses, hooked their elbows and drank from the small sake cups to seal their bond.