Hey everybody,
so we've almost made it, we have reached the end, so I hope you will enjoy it and I wish you all some pleasent easter days ;-)
See you next week for some few final words...
Sharry
Chapter 23 - Living
"They're here," Law growled, ripping the door open, "tell your boss already."
Nana, the employee whose job it had been to care for Law and Rosinante the past few days, on the other side of the door nodded and rushed away.
Law offered Rosinante his hand, and together they went to the conference room where their fate would be decided.
"I love you," Law whispered without looking at him.
"I know," he bent down and kissed the other, "I love you, too, little one."
Then they stepped in. He didn't know if it would surprise him or not, but of course the boss was already present. She hadn't shown her face once during the past few days, but he didn't mind. He didn't like her – no wonder, after all, she was the reason he feared for Law – and yet he caught himself feeling compassion for her.
She did not sit on her throne-like chair but stood at one of the windows with her arms folded, looking out at the sea. For the first time, she did not seem like this unapproachable businesswoman, but almost like a normal person.
Then she noticed her guests and whatever vulnerability she had shown disappeared within a heartbeat as she put on her usual smile.
"It's time," she said clearly, walking over to the conference table and taking a deep sip from her wine glass, "and for your good I hope your friends have been successful."
"For our good?" Rosinante replied unimpressed, even though his heart beat far too fast and Law held his hand tight. "You don't care about us, it's much more about your own chance, isn't it?"
"Oh, how mean," she laughed. "I've told you before, I like you, sweety, unlike your acquaintance, you're note quite bad at negotiating, at the same time you're far too honest and open-hearted to deceive someone, even if you wanted to. I would like to have you as a business partner."
"No interest," he replied simply, too tense for polite conversation.
"I know," she waved it off, "you look like a person who has once denied his principles and has since then regretted it, that would be too much of a conscience for me."
"Can't we wait in silence," Law grumbled.
"Oh, he's talking. You weren't particularly sociable during our last conversation."
"If you want eternal life, you should stop getting on my nerves again, bitch."
"Law, please watch your language!"
But the boss laughed at Rosinante's horror.
"Well, as if the emotional outbursts of a brat would shock me. But, little one, you shouldn't threaten me. After all, I am not the one who suffers if you... Oh, I understand." She looked back and forth between Rosinante and Law. "What a dramatic twist. Now I would almost wish they would fail just to see this end."
"You have an eccentric taste," Rosinante remarked dryly, stopping Law from saying something outrageous with a squeezing of his hand.
"Oh, sweety, reach my age, then you start to see things a little bit differently."
Before any of them could say anything, they were interrupted by incomprehensible yelling. Seconds later, the door burst open and the straw hat's swordsman came in, a wildly swearing man tied to a chair on his back, which he simply threw into the middle of the room.
"Well," he growled, his voice showing that he was incredibly annoyed, "that's him. We're leaving now."
Behind him, contrary to his words, came most of his crew, not that Rosinante cared.
He found it hard to breathe. Could it be that...?
He could feel Law pressing his hand a little tighter, but he didn't dare to look at him, not yet.
"No!" The man in chains shouted. "You don't know what you're doing! Please! Please, listen to me! You..."
"Stop this fuss," the chef grumbled, lighting a cigarette. "I told you she just wants to talk to you."
"Oh yes, as far as that is concerned..." The boss put down her wine glass and walked towards the prisoner, who did not stop pleading for help. "... that was a lie."
Suddenly, she pulled out a gun and pointed it at the prisoner.
"What?" The Straw Hat shouted alert and rushed towards her. "But you have...!"
"Silence!" With her hand raised, she interrupted him, letting him crash against one of her invisible walls. "I know you all live in your colorful dream world, where friendship always wins and the good ones survive in the end. You think that if you are willing to give everything, then in the end the happy ending will be awaiting you, and even if that may be true for you, that is not reality for most of us."
The man before the barrel of her weapon continued to plead for his life while the other attendees looked at the boss stunned.
"Is it really necessary to kill him?" Rosinante asked earnestly. Remembered his brother's actions and those very situations. It had not been uncommon for him to hold the weapon himself. "What did he do that he deserves...?"
"None of your business," she said calmly. "This has nothing to do with you."
She turned to the straw hats.
"You wanted to save your friends and the price was the same for you. Did you really think I would give up eternal life to exchange one or two nice words? Tze, then you are even more naive than the world says." Then she pointed her free hand at the Straw Hat. "You have fulfilled your part of the treaty and I hereby cede the claim to eternal life through Trafalgar's devil powers. Your lives have been spared. So now you can all go home and continue your fairy tale lives."
"And what if we don't go?" The Straw Hat contradicted, his voice surprisingly serious, and went into combat position, as did his crew members and – to Rosinante's surprise – Law by his side, who stood half a step in front of him.
The boss rolled her eyes while the man in front of her was quietly sobbing.
"I have no interest in fighting you, but I will if push comes to shove. But nothing you will do now will prevent Keiyaku Ihan's death. So, stay here and see him die or go, that's the same for me."
"No," replied the Straw Hat, "I will not allow that. You said you would..."
"I lied, Monkey D. Luffy. People lie to get what they want, you may be too simplistic for it, but believe me, every single one of the people around you has lied before, lied to you, so don't preach me a sermon. But if it calms you down, he deserves it."
"No one deserves death."
"Nobody? Not even Donquixote Doflamingo or Marshall D. Teach? What is with Kaido or Sakazuki? None of these four died or, rather, was killed by one of those present in this room here?" She wasn't smiling as she stared at the Straw Hat and the swordsman standing next to him. "Do you want to tell me that this is something else? That the blood on your hands is different? Or the blood on the hands of Nico Robin, Donquixote Rosinante, Trafalgar D. Water Law, Vinsmoke Sanji?"
She didn't take her gun down for a second.
"You are not the good guys of this story, even if you like to say so, even if you certainly had good reasons for your actions, even if you long for your Happy End. But this is not your story, in this story you are just marginal figures, just means to an end, and there is no happy ending."
A shot fell and suddenly it was quiet. The tied-up man's head tipped to the side, a hole in his forehead.
"You wanted your happy ending, and this was the price. So go now and stop crying. The world is not fair, and I have important appointments, so stop wasting my time."
She turned on the heel and walked to the door in an adjacent room.
"Momo, accompany our guests outside and then clean up this mess."
It was supposed to be a success and yet no one thought it was a victory. One man had died, not the one who had been supposed to, and yet a life less.
Perhaps it would be easier for some of them if they would know who this man had been, if the boss had a damn good reason to kill him, that he had brought this end upon himself by his own terrible deeds.
But they didn't know and they never would.
Some of them probably had the idea of challenging the boss and maybe they would win a fight against her, or at least find out why she had done what she had done.
But there was this feeling between them all that none of them had the right to judge.
Rosinante squatted on the lawn of the Thousand Sunny, the ship of the straw hats, leaning against Law's knees, who sat on the round bench around the main mast. Until a few seconds ago, the crew members, standing, sitting, running around, had talked loudly and quietly, only a few had remained silent.
No one seemed satisfied with the situation. Although they had saved Law, they were responsible for the death of another, and no one seemed able to shake off that feeling.
After a while the chef had passed tea around, but then suddenly the captain of the crew had gotten up and simply left, his face hidden under the shadow of his straw hat.
The swordsman had followed him to the stern of the ship, and every now and then the loud voices of the two were carried over to them by the wind. It was obvious that they were arguing, but none of the others seemed to want to intervene. This crew had its own dynamics and Rosinante did not want to interfere.
He had already sincerely thanked them – and even persuaded Law to a swift bow, what a cheeky brat – and apologized for what had happened.
Through the conversations of the others, he had realized that they had all been through worse and that they had also learned to deal with it, and yet none of them looked as if they would quickly put aside what had happened.
Law behind him spoke to the others much more directly than Rosinante had expected. It was obvious that they had gone through a lot together and trusted each other blindly. The navigator had actually slapped him for his solo trip and the... racoon had repeatedly wanted to check that neither Law nor Rosinante were injured.
Now they were waiting to reach Natsu and Rosinante didn't know what to do. He was exhausted, unspeakably exhausted. For days he had to live with the fear of losing Law, had to live with almost losing him and now that was over, but the stale taste took away his feeling of happiness.
He would have to talk to Law about the present and the future, but that too scared him. Law hadn't thought any further than to this day, and Rosinante didn't know any further either.
He heard Law talk casually to the others, his cool and harsh manner disapproved from no one, and they talked about this and that. He heard the others scold Law for his sudden disappearance and for how stupid he had been to act on his own.
Whenever one of the straw hats turned to Rosinante, he smiled kindly and answered, listening to the stories being told to him and saying his opinion when asked.
But mostly he held back. He had noticed how kind they treated him, none of them seemed to waste any thought that it had been his brother, who had done so many terrible things, they had fought against, and who had taken the lives of some of their friends.
Eventually, the loud voices from the rear became quieter and Natsu came into view. The swordsman reappeared and scolded Law like an unnerved big brother until the chef stopped him by telling him that they already had told Law all those things.
When they reached Natsu, they said goodbye and the straw hats mentioned that they would be on Kaikkien Maiden for a few days and would be happy to see them again.
In silence, they waited until the small ship was swallowed by the sunset, before walking along the harbor, holding the other's hand in silence.
"Cora-san," Law finally said, as they took the side path around the village, "please talk to me. I don't like it when you're so quiet."
He stopped.
"Cora-san?" Law turned to him.
Slowly, he felt the tears making their way. He wanted to pull himself together, wanted it to stop, but he couldn't. Like a broken dam, the tears broke out of him, and he stood there, in the midst of the forest, weeping like a little child.
"Cora-san," Law whispered.
He tried to calm down, but he couldn't, tried to speak, but his voice broke with sobs, and when Law reached out for him, he sank into his arms. His knees gave way and they slid to the ground, where he cried into Law's sweater, while Law just held him and stroked his hair.
"It's okay, Cora-san," he whispered warm and lovingly, how he only spoke to Rosinante, "it's okay."
He tried to nod, but not even for that his body wanted to obey him.
"The last few days have been bad, haven't they, Cora-san? I'm sorry you had to go through all this on your own, had to go to Sengoku and your brother on your own, thought you'd lost me. I'm sorry."
He couldn't stop crying.
"It's okay, Cora-san. Come on, look at me."
Trembling, he raised his head. Law framed his face with both hands and rubbed his cheeks with both thumbs.
"I will never leave again, Cora-san. I will never leave you alone again."
And then Law smiled.