Valentine's Personal Log, Day 5:
I've run out of memorized literary material to spout at Pierce's unconscious form and Law doesn't have anything Pierce would find interesting. I've been reciting facts about vipers to him for half a day. Every now and then another poem or story will come to mind. Is it bad that half of them are the government secrets Kuma told me? Good times. Law and his crew walk by every now and then and look shocked at half of what I've been saying. I guess most of this stuff isn't common knowledge. I figured the stuff from when I was a kid would have come out by now, but it doesn't seem like it has.
Sometimes I tap dance, masking the sound with my Haki. Some of the crew is fascinated by my abilities and sit around trying to figure out how I do it. After my audience grows to three people I fade completely and move to a different room. The crew can't hear it, but Kudra and the other rays outside can feel it in the water. I talk to them like this, tapping out Morse code and letting them know that I'm ok. That was the agreement. If I don't check in within a half-day time window one sea-king sized tail smashes the sub. At this point I don't think we have anything to worry about. Law's too good of a doctor to throw out a paying patient before he even opens his eyes. After, I'm not so sure. Law's almost as private as I am. I think he's tired of me scrubbing his sub. All the cleaning products are slowly being hidden. I can hardly find a rag to mop the sweat off Pierce's brow anymore.
I keep playing with his hair. It's longer than mine. Is it a sign of stress that his hair grew faster over these two years? Or is that rapid hair loss? Either or, he's got some serious locks. Laid out it goes down to his waist whereas mine only goes to my mid-back when I have it down. I know the curls shorten mine by several inches, but his hair was shorter than mine when I left. I want to trim it for him, but I think I'll wait until he can tell me how he wants it. He deserves a little freedom of expression after what he's been through. Instead I combed it into a ponytail at the base of his neck like he always used to wear it. This way I can mess with it without it really bothering his sleep, not that he's even stirred. His improvements are visible, but it's hard not to get impatient. It's been two years since we've actually spoken. Now that his hair is out of his face I've noticed more about the scars around his eyes. They look like starbursts, flaring out angrily in all directions. The ones around his left eye cut twice into his eyebrow. I don't think he'll ever be able to grow hair in those areas again. They're mostly healed, leaving the skin a purplish pink color. His lids sink now that the swelling has gone down. With barely being fed while in the basement he lost a lot of weight, so the features of his skeletal structure are prominent in his eyes and cheeks. His sallow face reminds me of Brook in a way, if he had skin. The musician would make a joke about that, wherever he is.
For the most part I've been monitoring Pierce's vitals. His blood is thicker than a normal human's. Something about having a high hemoglobin level. I don't understand half of the medical terminology Law spouted at me. I guess he requires more protein and oxygen than normal. All I know is that if I Synchronize with the pace of his blood I could run the length of this sub in about three seconds. This could be handy in battle, but right now it's keeping my mind racing a mile a minute. I fall asleep trying to distinguish individual beats of his heart. Who knew someone who has barely fluttered an eyelash can help me train my Haki?
Recover for as long as you need, Pierce. I'll be here when you wake up.
"You should shower soon," Law says, toweling off his own hair. "You've been sitting there for three days."
Karmen lifts her head from the stationary bed Pierce had been moved to. The mattress holds the impression of her cheek where she'd laid it for most of the three days while holding Pierce's hand and waiting for him to recover. She hates seeing him strapped down after what she'd taken him from. Worse still, they hadn't surfaced at all this entire time. Pierce would want to feel the breeze on his skin and see the shimmer of the ocean. Oh… He'd… He'd be able to hear it and feel it, but not see it.
"I'm a selfish hellion," she realizes. "There was all this stuff I wanted to do and experience now that we've been reunited, but most of them require sight." She strokes his hand again. "I can't believe that I was feeling sorry for myself because I can't show him things." She lays her head back down. "You deserve better friends, Pierce."
"Just so long as you realize that before you go dragging him places," Law comments, leaning against the doorframe. Karmen chunks her spare pillow at him and it bounces off his head.
"This is why you're single, Doctor Spots," she mutters.
"Don't call me that!" He gives a huff and a clean towel collides with her head. "Take a shower already. His sense of smell will be stronger since he doesn't have eyes anymore. If you stink like an old hospital he'll worry."
Karmen knows he's right. She hadn't wanted to leave Pierce's side, but she was beginning to get a little ripe. She pulls the towel from her head and moves down the hallway. She has to put up a sign on the door since Law doesn't have many female members in his crew. "Peek and be poisoned. This is your only warning." The warm water feels good against her skin. She sits on the floor and lets the panic and renewed grief take her for fifteen minutes and then regains her control before finishing her wash. Pierce had been looking pinker, healthier. His breathing had begun to even out and his frantic heartbeat had begun to slow, though it still hums like a bee. She'd found herself constantly touching the black horns protruding from his head. They were different from Antwan Geraldo's, which stood straight out like his spiky blond hair. His curved over his head like they had been slicked back, or like they had grown straight up when Pierce had constantly had his chin tucked. What had Ikaika done to him? She knows too many horrors to linger on the thought for long.
Feeling only slightly better, Karmen turns off the water and dries herself. Law had provided a loose pair of pants and an old t-shirt to change into. She's pretty sure she'll have to keep the remaining torso of her dress hidden to prevent it from being disposed of. Despite it's obvious loss of function, she wants to keep it for sentimental reasons. She uses her canister belt to hold up the pants and pins her hair up, feeling a bit of nostalgia as she remembers spending time with Nami and Robin. With a sigh, she goes back into the hallway. She spies Bepo leaning against the wall and looks up at him with large, cub eyes. Law comes down the hallway a few minutes later and finds Karmen sitting on Bepo's shoulders curled around his fuzzy head. He raises an eyebrow at them. "If you're going to let her treat you like a stuffed bear you could at least try kicking her a few times first," he says.
"It's too hot in the sub for martial arts," Bepo sighs.
Karmen strokes his ears absentmindedly. Law knows that the Mink bear isn't actually against the attention and cuddling a woman, even if he isn't into humans. "We're about to have lunch. If you don't come down to the galley you'll have to fend for yourself." Both Karmen and Bepo flinch and Bepo hurries after Law, Karmen sliding down to hang from his back so she doesn't hit her head in the doorways. When they arrive at the table and are handed portions of food she notices that some of the crew isn't there. The ones that are look at her incredulously as she dumps generous amounts of poisons onto her food that sits on a plate between the bear's ears. She eats vacantly and goes back to laying her cheek on Bepo's head while he finishes his meal and the plate taken to be washed.
"Why are you up there?" one of the crew asks.
"It's called Minktimacy. Leave her alone!" Bepo snaps, cheeks flushing slightly. "She's been really stressed lately!"
Karmen cuddles his head more vigorously by wrapping her arms around his forehead. Bepo isn't Kuma, but she's overly fond of him anyway. With the spots Law tended to wear and the bear's ears, she felt she could pretend a little. Whenever she was worried as a child and Kuma had been present, he'd let her curl up in his hat or in his lap or the crook of his arm. She'd wanted to curl up next to Pierce, but he still looked so fragile and she was afraid to touch his torso and face. So instead, Bepo gets the brunt of her urges. Despite the fact that he is a martial artist bear he doesn't seem to be able to refuse her, no matter how hot the sub gets.
After the meal, Karmen dismounts and finds the rest of the crew on her way back to the hospital wing. Bepo trails behind her because it's something to do. She'd forgotten to take the sign off the bathroom door and there are four men standing around it adamantly discussing which one of them will open the hatch. Well, there was a warning, she thinks. She holds her finger to her lips and shushes Bepo as she draws a quill. As one of the men turns the knob carefully and pushes the door open quietly, she fades and sneaks up behind them, melding with the lingering steam that floods from the room. Before she can stab them with something, a blue circle appears around them and Law is suddenly behind them. He bashes their heads together reproachfully and walks away without a word. "What did he go and do that for?" one of them asks, rubbing his swollen temple.
"He just saved you, that's what." The men jump as Karmen unfades, wiggling her quill in their direction. She flips the sign on the door. "You're lucky I let your captain see me. Lesser men haven't gotten away so unscathed." She walks past the shivering crew members and makes her way to Pierce's bedside. Law is waiting there with a bowl of food. They'd developed a method of feeding him. Law used his powers to painlessly cut into Pierce's stomach and pour in a puree of whatever they'd eaten themselves. He cleaned out the after effects later when Karmen isn't in the room. It was amazing how seamlessly the body parts fit back together. If Law ever gave up revenge and pirating he could put together a pretty entertaining show.
Karmen settles into her bedside position when he's done and helps him change the bandages. After the wounds have been cleaned she carefully spreads an antibacterial ointment. It's much easier to see what all had been done to him now, visually, anyway. Deep gouges had been cut and scorn from his flesh. She touches each one with feather-light fingers as she works. She never says anything during this process and she always remains quiet afterwards. Every now and then Law will glance sideways as he followed her with new bandages. She finishes by treating his eyes with a mix of ointment and fungicide.
They'd put their heads together and mixed medicines and toxins to try to stamp out the fuzzy substance which seemed intent to grow back rapidly. She'd also taken over some of his lab equipment to work on some of her poisons. When she wasn't sleeping hunched over Pierce's bed she tended to pour through Law's medical library. Since she restrained herself to only a few rooms in the entire sub Law tended to give her free reign so long as she cleaned up after herself. The cleaning equipment she needed would mysteriously reappear when she was ready for them. On occasion they would discuss how toxic plants could be used as medicine and the best ways to immobilize an enemy. Now as they wrap clean bandages around Pierce's eyes he allows her silence and her emotionless expression. He'd gotten used to it and had come to expect it. For this reason he nearly jumps when she speaks.
"What was it like? Being under the influence of the Calm-Calm devil fruit?" she asks.
His eyes narrow. "You know about Corazon?"
"Doflamingo let it slip about his brother one night when someone didn't cut him off," she admits, making a hand motion to indicate drinking. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."
"How much time did you spend with him?" he asks, not masking the annoyance.
"Would it make you feel better if I told you half the time he was using me as a puppet? Then again, so was Ikaika, figuratively." She wishes she'd had time to question Kuma. She doesn't think Law is going to answer.
"It was the best night's sleep I ever had," he said finally. Karmen smiles a little. "Are you considering looking for it?" He asks the question calmly but there's an added edge to the movements of his hands.
"Someone's probably got it by now," she says. "It was what, nearly twenty years ago?" She shakes her head. "No. I like being underwater too much to ever eat a devil fruit. And besides, with my reverse Haki I can be as quiet as I want. I was just thinking… maybe when he woke up he'd feel cheated out of his chance of ever having the choice to decide if he'd wanted to or not. I was wondering if he'd appreciate a calm little bubble where no one could hear him process it all. I wouldn't blame him if he wanted a soundless place to scream. I used to." Her fingers stop on the long healed bullet wound just below his left collarbone. "And with what I'm going to be doing I think the power would come in handy."
Law doesn't speak for a moment as he needlessly adjusts the torso bandages before re-wrapping the immobilizing straps around his patient. "Cora saved my life when I wanted to die and take anyone and everyone down with me," he says. "If anyone has his fruit and is squandering it I'll kill them myself." He looks down at Pierce. "If he went through this to save you then he probably won't regret having powers so long as he can use them to defend what's important to him."
Any further conversation is cut off by a moan and a flicker of movement in Pierce's linen covered eye sockets. Karmen wipes her hands on her pants quickly.
"He's waking up! Law, you're a miracle worker." She reaches out to touch him but hesitates. She wonders how she looks, then decides it doesn't really matter.
Pierce breathes rapidly, damp spots appearing on his eye wrappings. "I dreamed I was free, but this is sea prism. I'm just hallucinating the smell of the ocean. And flowers," he says weakly in a voice barely audible as if he thinks he's talking only to himself. "I'm still stuck in this basement. Saaresto, is this some new kind of torture he's planned up?" he says a little louder.
Regret flood's Karmen's face. "Law, he spent two years chained to a wall. There has to be something we can do that doesn't restrain him."
The surgeon tilts his head slightly. "I've got something, but you may not like it."
"I'll do anything."
"Mistress?" Pierce mumbles. Some of the agony in his voice dissipates.
"I'm going to put you into his body. If you move or start sprouting things his spleen will tear open and he'll die."
"Do it."
He makes an operating circle and pokes their souls from their chest. "Shambles."
Karmen feels herself rocketed from vertical to horizontal and everything goes black. There's a sickening feeling washing though her that makes her feel weak and dizzy. She can see nothing but black and feels the comfort of soft cotton over her eyes. "Oh gosh. Sea prism sucks. I want to puke. Take it off. Take it off right now." The voice she speaks in is deep and reverberating. She can the feel soft mattress against her inflamed back. It feels nice. She focuses on that.
"Karmen, calm down. Remember the spleen. Do. Not. Shift." Law picks up something metal, probably tongs. The feather is removed from her arm, sliding out from under the rubber band. The nausea disappears and she feels strength seeping back into her. She focuses her observation Haki to analyze Pierce's altered anatomy. She mentally identifies the transformation trigger and pushes it into a stable box using a meditation exercise that Godwin had taught her.
"This is really strange," she hears herself say. "Ok. I obviously haven't died and possessed someone. I'm talking. Or you are. This makes my head hurt. Who's he?"
"Pierce, meet Trafalgar Law, captain of the Heart Pirates and the doctor who saved your life."
"That's yet to be decided," Law says. "Stay still."
She wants to shift her head at the slightest sound. Every footstep and whisper are as loud as the ship's engines. She can smell everything from the raging infection under her nose to the bear in the other room. "Your senses are all messed up and your heart is about to beat out of my chest," she says, taking a few deep breaths. "Not being able to see is scary. Pierce, hold my hand please."
"This is weird," Pierce says again . "God I look awful." A soft hand slides into Pierce's. She can feel her own calloused fingers gripping his. "I guess that's you in there, Mistress."
"Is that what I sound like to other people? I sound hot," she jokes in his deep voice. "And Pierce, you look pretty great to me. Though, you could use a haircut. Once you can sit up I'll take care of it for you."
"Geez. Look at my face." The hand in hers squeezes. "I'm sorry, Mistress. I kept glaring at him so he cut out my eyes. It took him a couple tries."
"You idiot. Do you really think I care about you not having eyes?" she growls at him. "I'll take a partial, alive you over a corpse any day."
She hears him shift, looking around their environment. "It's so weird being able to see again. Is there a mirror? I want to see… you."
"Over here," she hears Law say. The hand in hers disappears.
Fading footsteps. "Mistress, you look amazing. How'd you get all this lean muscle? Last time I saw you, you were squishy."
"Cleaning houses for two years is great for upper body strength," she says. "You should see how far I can throw a pen… sorry."
"Why is your stomach sore?" She hears fabric rustle. "You've been shot." His voice goes soft with shock. Footsteps. The hand is suddenly grasping hers again. "Mistress, I'm sorry I wasn't there to protect you."
"Pierce, if I could move right now I'd smack me. Look at yourself and tell me who didn't protect who. You were shot and tortured. That's a fish riding scar compared to this."
"Did you finally get a fish riding scar?" Fabric rustles. "Holy crap you have a life bond."
"Do not. Lift. My shirt. Again." She hears Law sigh. "I have a scar on my right thigh from a bounty hunter's tranquilizer dart in Alabasta, and one on my ankle from fighting a lightning Kami on an island in the sky. There's a small scar above my right ear from the snipers two years ago when I escaped. The bullet wound, which you've seen, is from a government agent in Enies Lobby. We destroyed it to get back a member of our crew. I'm a pirate, Pierce. Law here is a rival captain. This is the best life in the world. We can be free now."
"It sounds like you've had an adventure. I'd love to hear all about it when I'm feeling better." He strokes her forehead. "What about everyone else? What happened to them?"
"Remember Parvati? She gave me the bond marks on my shoulders."
"The stingray that won you the gold a few years back?"
"She went to the Calm Belt and had babies. Lots and lots of beautifully patterned babies. Kuma sent me to her and we carried all the Valcour slaves to the Sun Pirates."
"The fishmen? Wouldn't they kill you on sight?"
"They didn't see a Gallowcomb. They saw a pirate secretary." She squeezes her own hand. "Are you upset that I took so long? I tried to get back to you right away, but it was so hard to find a ship and traveling takes money and when I did get off the island they left me on the ship was headed West, so it took even longer and apparently Doflamingo's men have been stalking me and-"
"Mistress. The fact that you were thinking of me in your absence is more than enough. I don't mind being blind so long as I can remain by your side. You've been through a lot too, haven't you?"
"I have so much to tell you." She smiles. "But for now, Law, up his pain medicine. This sucks."
"You don't seem to be in that much pain," Law comments. She can hear him moving around the bed in white flashes of sound.
"Mistress is used to situations like this," Pierce says. "Well, not body switching, but she's always trying to suffer in someone else's place. She's in the most pain when her face goes blank."
"That face actually upsets our First Mate. He flicks me in the head every time I start to make it," she says, smiling at the memory.
"Well at least someone was taking care of you in my stead," Pierce says. "I still can't believe you came back for me."
"I could never leave you with that man," Karmen responds, thinking about all the nights that thought had kept her awake. "I promised I'd come back for you."
Pierce squeezes her hand tighter. "That means the world to me, Mistress. Thank you. I promise to recover quickly so I can serve you once more."
Karmen squeezes his hand gently. "In my bag you'll find a few documents in a plastic bag. The yellow one is yours to do with as you wish."
Pierce disappears briefly, but not completely. Karmen can hear him taking her light footsteps across the room and the rustle of material as her bag is opened and the crinkling paper is taken out. "This is…"
"Your ownership papers." She hears him unfold them and read them over. "They saved your life. Now I'm giving it back to you."
The paper rips several times. Her fluttering heart leaps with each one. "This is the life I've chosen." Her hand is held once again. "Let me remain by your side. Not as your servant, but as your friend."
"You don't owe me a thing and your debt to Kuma has been well paid," she says. She hears Law's heartbeat shift at the mention of the Warlord's name. He'd probably put two and two together now. Oh well. She'd been waiting two years to have this conversation. "Do not feel obliged to stay. You're free now. You can do anything you wish."
She feels her own forehead lay gently on her borrowed shoulder. It is one of the few places that doesn't hurt. "It is my wish to continue to protect you, Mistress. I only ask that you do not cast me from your side."
Karmen can only move enough to squeeze his hand. "If you still feel that way when you're recovered, then I will gladly accept. I like knowing that he can't harm you anymore."
The medicine begins to kick in and Law switches them back so Pierce can rest, securing the sea prism feather back to his wrist. Karmen sits on the chair she'd pulled over and watches him sleep. "You look like you've made up your mind," Law comments.
Karmen gives a set nod. "Gallowcomb is going down."
