Chapter 38

"… The founder titan could only be Eren," Erwin said after hearing about Hange's entire conversation with Annie. "Eren's father has been missing since. We haven't seen a shadow of him anywhere nor there were traces about him after the first invasion. Knowing that one could become titan shifters after eating someone…"

Hange gasped. "Wait. I've only thought about this. The accident in Reiss's chapel shortly after the invasion that we heard from the Wallist. The chapel got destroyed while Rod Reiss's family, except for Rod himself, died."

"Grisha Jaeger must have transformed into a titan, ate the founder titan, and killed all who can possibly inherit the power," Erwin said. "His lifespan could have been at its last that's why he had Eren inherit this power…"

"But how could Eren's father transform into a titan?" Hange pondered.

"Two possibilities: Either he had close relations with Reiss Family, or," Erwin looked a bit grim. "He wasn't originally from these walls, like Leonhart, Brauna and Bodt."

"That's…"

The two of them knew which was more likely Grisha Jaeger was.

"Well, at the moment, all of these are speculations," Erwin said. But he had a feeling that these speculations were on point.

"Erwin…" after swallowing and processing these speculations, Hange suddenly found it hard to voice what she was going to say, but regardless, she had to, "… what about Law?"

Erwin's face was impassive. "We have talked about this before. We already know that something is off. I figured that it extended to Law as well, but I don't dare to bring it up before Levi without something actually happening before us. But Law isn't trying too hard to hide it and we all know how smart he is."

"Erwin…" She remembered the past conversation they had. But that time, they were only thinking about the oddities of Luffy. To think this man was already thinking this advance.

Erwin chuckled. "I only have thought about the possibility of Law having to do with Luffy's oddities shortly after we've had that conversation we had before. Have you noticed, Hange? This year, the Scout's death rate dawdled down after those kids officially joined."

"It's not a bad thing," Erwin added. "They're not harmful to humanity either… Like I said to Levi, I won't pursue the truth about them until we're done with the issues we have right now."

The change was subtle, yet Law, who had dealt with more dangerous and fickle people, was easily able to notice it. Hange was unconsciously guarded against him. Law blinked. Annie must have said something… or asked something that has caused the older woman to notice the loopholes.

'Oh well,' Law shrugged mentally. 'It's not like I, we, tried hard enough to cover it up.'

Law admitted that their actions weren't exactly low-key. How low-key was it to capture the Female Titan? Beat the Armor Titan?

'It's Grand Line standard of low-key,' Law thought. As long as you didn't beat up someone important, then it wouldn't alert the entire world.

The change in Hange didn't faze Law. Right now, if the Scouts moved against them, it wasn't like they couldn't take them on. In Survey Corps, only Levi and Mikasa were up to Grand Line standards. But even then, they barely were in the line of New World strength. They wouldn't be able to deal with him and Luffy, especially him and Luffy.

Speak of the devil…

"Law-ya, Isabel-ya, done with your mission?" he asked. He hadn't seen these guys for many days already.

"Yup, yup~" Isabel joyfully said. "… Though I didn't get to do much." She sighed at this.

"Don't worry, Isabel-ya," Law said. "We didn't do anything much these days either."

"It's different~!" she pouted.

"Where's Luffy?" Levi asked with a raised brow.

"With everyone," Law said. "Watching Hange-ya's experiments…"

"You aren't going to watch?"

Law shook his head. "There's hardly anything to watch. I'd rather chill like what I do right now. I don't know when things will get hectic again."

"… Chilling, huh," Levi said thoughtfully. "I'd like that too…" He doesn't remember when they had a relaxed day, free from future troubles. He and the others were always busy. It was either training or other else.

"You can kick or beat Erwin-ya into giving you vacation leave," Law joked.

"… That's actually a good idea."

"O-oi, Levi-bro, Law!"

Luffy pouted as he watched the experiment again. First few days, it was still interesting but now he was bored. No, he wasn't just bored. Luffy tried to ignore the ache in his chest. He missed them.

While he had more comrades now, he still felt lonely without his family- the nakama that went through all ups and downs with him, who didn't abandon him, who continued to be there for him regardless of how dangerous it was.

"I wonder how they are all doing now," Luffy mumbled.

Many years have already passed for him and Law in this cage-like place. His nakama could have grown far older than him and Law now. Were they searching for him?

"I wanna go on an adventure!" he suddenly exclaimed, causing those people nearby him to get startled.

Just as he accomplished his dream, he and Law got stuck in this predicament, all lost and have no knowledge of where they are or who turned them like this.

Luffy felt very upset. He and his crew were about to embark on another adventure, trying to find All Blue this time, after resting from that huge war in Raftel.

"Luffy, behave okay? Don't cause too much trouble to Torao," Nami said chidingly.

"Why can't I go together with you all?" Luffy pouted.

"You need to rest properly!" Nami poked his forehead. Her captain tired himself out big time in the war. "Knowing your luck and with your status right now, trouble will surely follow!"

"Butttt…" Luffy whined.

Robin, who was nearby, chuckled. "Don't worry, Luffy. Well buy you souvenirs and tons of meat!"

"What about Zoro then? Doesn't he cause trouble as much as I do?" Luffy asked.

"The moss-head will be the watchdog when we buy stuff," Sanji said.

"Who are you calling moss-head, ero-cook?!" exclaimed by the vice-captain in the background.

Law crossed his arms over his chess, looking unpleasant. Not that it bothered anyone since they were used to it. "… Why do I have to babysit this brat?" Law asked in dissatisfaction. "I'm not a babysitter!"

"Cause we're allies!" Every straw hat pirate replied.

"Being allies doesn't work like that!" Law found himself exclaim angrily.

"Mah, mah, captain," his own Heart pirates tried to pacify him. They too have to do their own supply restocking. They weren't too against leaving their own captain with another. After all, they were used to it now. Besides, their own captain needs to rest as well.

"You guys…" Law's face became so complicated. He doesn't know why he bothered arguing with these people when they don't listen to him even though he was a captain! "Go enjoy your shopping then."

Luffy sighed, his lips soon pursed together. "I want to see everyone…"

I posted in ko-fi page that I was gonna update on Tuesday haha... I didn't get to sleep yesterday (extended to today) since I had to finish an essay for college admission and have an interview today as well... The update notif ain't a lie. I updated yesterday but after I posted, I noticed something so I took it off. Should have read properly before posting... *sigh* Sorry for the bother guys. My bad...