Explanation of the Plan and Memory

The feeling of something wrapped around his body aroused Law from his peaceful, dreamless slumber. Slowly, he blinked his eyes to wake up a little. He wasn't surprised to find that he was in his room on the Thousand Sunny. Law remembered all the events from the day and night before.

Turning over as much as he could with the object wrapped around him, Law almost screamed in surprise when he came face-to-face with a sleeping, loudly snoring Luffy. He was even drooling a little. All Law did was stare at him for what felt like hours before doing anything.

Law decided that he wanted to get up. As carefully as he could, he removed Luffy's arms and legs from around his body. It was a hassle, but he got it done, nonetheless. Luffy stirred a bit but didn't wake. He was thankful for that.

When he was free from him, Law quietly made his way out of the room. He didn't want to wake Luffy up. He had to ask the crew a few questions about how the experiment was going to work, where he was going to be hidden, and how long they intended for him to disappear.

He decided to see if all eight were in the kitchen. Starting the wall to the room, he started to think about the last encounter his crew had with Kid. It hadn't been a pleasant meeting and a few of his crew members had been rushed to the infirmary by the end of it. Not good at all. He had stayed out of sight.

Arriving at the room, he was thankful that all of them were in the room. All except for their Captain. "Law," Nami said as she motioned for him to come and sit at the table with them. He came and sat down beside her. "We were just about to come to wake you up."

"I don't think that would've been a good idea," he replied.

"Why?" Zoro asked. He was on the other side of the woman.

"Because Straw Hat-ya was in the bed with me."

"Good point," Usopp answered. The others agreed with nods. He understood that he didn't want the other up yet.

"So, are you ready to start our experiment?" Sanji asked as he blew out some smoke.

"Yeah. But I have some questions before we start it."

"We will answer them as best as we can," Robin said. It was nice to know that he could trust them.

"First question: how is this going to go? Can you explain it more to me?"

"Well, we want to hide you at random points during the day. Luffy has been acting exceedingly strange since we split ways a year ago," Chopper started. "He's been really depressed and not many things can make him happy or lift his spirits. He also picks fights with other Pirates for seemingly no reason." Law nodded in understanding. "Now that you're back, he's acting almost normal. We want to see if his depression and anger were because he was missing you."

"I see. That's why you want me to disappear." The blue-nosed reindeer nodded. "Okay. Second question: where will I be hiding from him? Are there certain areas or places that I'll be in that I can observe him as well?"

"That's easy," Franky said with a grin. "Without Luffy knowing, I've been modifying the ship. I built hidden areas all over the ship. There's a few in the kitchen, about two or three in the bathroom, four in the aquarium bar, ten or so on the deck, and a good bit more in other places all over the ship." He was astonished to know about them. "You will be able to see how he reacts. So, don't worry about that."

"Can you show me where they are?" Law asked.

"We will when it comes time for us to hide you," Brook answered.

"And my third question: how long will I be in hiding?" That made them look between each other. "Did you guys not think about that?"

"No. We did," Nami responded. "It's just...We can't decide on doing it for an hour or two hours."

"I can do it for two." He shrugged. "Better for it to go on for a longer time. The longer I'm 'missing', the more we can see how he reacts to it."

"That's a really good point," Usopp announced. Law was thankful that they agreed with him without any problems. "So, when he gets up, we'll start the experiment."

"Got it." Law's stomach growled. He was hungry.

"I'm going to make breakfast," Sanji told them. After that, they all dispersed to do whatever they wanted to do. Law decided to stay at the kitchen table.

"Black leg-ya?" He wanted to ask Sanji a few questions on how Luffy behaved the day before.

"Yeah?" The cook was gathering ingredients together to start cooking.

"Do you know why Straw Hat-ya has missed me? It's not like I was ever a part of the crew. I just stayed with you guys for a bit." Sanji stopped moving around to look at him. He sighed. Law wondered if it was because he didn't know how to tell him or some other reason.

"To be honest, we all missed you." That stupefied him. What? They all missed me?

"Why? I didn't do much while I was here. I just read a lot and did very few things with anyone." Law was trying to figure out why they would miss him. It confused him.

"You say that, but didn't you save us when we were at Dressrosa?" Law opened his mouth but Sanji cut him off. "You saved me when Doflamingo almost killed me, you told us to take Caesar and Momonosuke and leave for Zou, during that time, you kept Doflamingo off of us while we were able to escape, you protected Luffy when he was trying to regain his Haki, you helped the others take care of Zunesha when she got hurt, and you helped us with Kaido." Law's face went red at all of his praise. "You're a great friend of ours because you helped us. We helped you to return the favor."

"I...I understand." He looked away from the man, face still bright red. Law was a little uncomfortable about the conversation he just had with him.

"So, we missed seeing you." Sanji went back to cooking. "We haven't heard anything from you for about a year. Of course, it upset us because it was like you and your crew dropped off the face of the planet."

"I...I know." Law remembered why he dropped off the face of the earth. He hadn't even done anything he normally did other than treating people.

...

"Captain, are you going to be okay?" Bepo asked in an extremely worried voice. Law was coughing up blood as he laid in his bed.

"I'm...*cough*...I'll be f-f-fine," Law tried to reassure him. Almost all of his crew members were in his room. It was to the point that they were trying to shove each other out of the way to see him.

Law...didn't look so good. At all. He was covered in bloody bandages, coughing up blood, and couldn't move all that well if at all. It hurt all over. He was in agony. The bed was even painful to lay on. This was not looking good for him.

"We...We're...We're underw-water...r-right?" he asked. Law was even wheezing as he breathed through his mouth. It was excruciating every time he breathed in. His lungs felt like they were on fire.

"Yeah," Penguin answered. You could tell that he was on the verge of tears. All of them were. "C-Cap'in...can you tell us what the hell happened to you? You look..."

Law tried to laugh. It just turned to bouts of coughing fits and more blood coming out. "Don't do that," Bepo chastised him while wiping the blood away with a clean, white rag. Law tried to calm himself down enough to talk again.

"I l-look like...sh-shit," he replied. He tried to move his arm to a more comfortable position. Law flinched and had to grit his teeth together to keep in the scream that threatened to escape him. He decided to lay his broken, battered, and bandaged arm on his stomach.

"You didn't answer Penguin," Shachi spoke up. He sounded in near tears just like Penguin. "What happened to you? How did you get like this?" All twenty were waiting for him to answer them. It wasn't a good moment for him. He was worrying his friends and they didn't know how to help him.

He held up his better hand. After a second, he placed it on his face. It was battered but not as bad as the other one. Tears started to pour from his eyes as he covered his face so that they wouldn't see.

Bepo ushered the others out. Law knew that the other was trying to keep him from looking weak in front of the rest of them. Law only cried in front of his best friend and navigator. "Law..." He slowly removed his hand to look at him. "What happened? Please, tell me what happened to you. The bear pulled up a chair before grabbing his good hand to hold.

"E-Eu-Eustass-ya..." Law said the name with venom and terror mixed together. He turned his head away from Bepo. Law wanted to move his right leg but couldn't. For one, it was in a sling, and second, was because it was broken. He wouldn't be able to move it for a while.

"What happened between you two? Why did he do this to you?" Bepo asked the questions as he brought his hand to his face and started to rub his face on the back of it. Tears were already escaping his eyes as he continued to caress his hand with the side of his face.

"B-Be-Because..." Law remembered what had transpired just a few hours before. It made a shudder of fear run down his spine. "I re-rejected him," he confessed.

The guy had told him that he loved him and tried to make a move on him. Law had openly rejected him and told Kid that he didn't like him like that. The younger Captain got pissy and demanded why Law didn't like him like that and if there was someone else.

Law had been dumbfounded when Kid had asked him if he liked someone else. He denied it because it was the truth. Law didn't like anyone at that time. Before he knew it, Kid had roared at him as he rushed him. And thus, he beat him into the state he was in. The memories made his body hurt even more. The bad thing was that Kid had produced a sea stone necklace and forced it around his neck before he ever started. He had no way to fight back and couldn't even muster enough energy to call for help.

When the man had stopped his onslaught, Law could hardly breathe, couldn't move at all, and was going in and out of consciousness. Kid stood over him with anger that quickly turned to a ninja-like calm. Law would never forget the words that Kid spoke to him before leaving him for dead. That was why he feared him.

"I will be back for you. Your answer will be yes, or I will kidnap you and rape you until you submit to being mine." And with those words, Kid ripped the necklace off of him before he left the ship to go back to his.

He had started to cry as he stayed where he had been. Law couldn't move because the pain had been too much and he couldn't summon enough energy to call out for help. It took his crew a while to figure out that something wasn't right. They came out and found him.

That was how he found himself in the situation he was in. All bandaged up and broken. Bepo nodded in understanding. The bear stayed next to him as he cried even more about his situation.

...

"I had a small...accident...close to a year ago," Law conceded. "I left my crew after a bit before traveling on my own." Sanji nodded.

"What kind of accident?" Law stiffened. He didn't want to tell anyone else the truth. Only Bepo knew what had happened. He would be damned if he told another soul about it.

"N-Nothing too important. it's in the past." The man gave him a confused expression as he looked up from his work. "Don't worry about it. It's done and over with. Nothing really to worry about."

"Okay. If you say so." That was when Luffy burst into the room.

"Torao! How long have you been up?" Luffy asked as he came to sit next to him at the table. Law sighed as the other sat down.

"I've been up for a bit. I didn't want to wake you up because I didn't feel like it." Luffy nodded as he smiled at him.

"I'm glad to see that you're okay." Law raised an eyebrow. Why would he think that I might not be okay? Is there something going on with his mind?

"Good to see you're alright," Law replied. Luffy laughed. He knew that he would disappear at some point during the day. He would have to be ready for that time when it came. He didn't know if he would be ready if they don't tell him before they hide him.

Ta-da. Here you all go. I'm glad to see that so many people like it. Please, let me know what you think of this chapter. I am very happy that you all are enjoying it. Have a magnificant day. Tatty-bye!