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—
methyl nitrate pineapples
hypothesis #23
home is where the heart is
—
"I'll take care of the main boss and the marines on the deck," Law instructed, gathering his crew in a huddle. "Find out where they keep the provisions below."
"We saw some marines helping themselves to the golden bricks on Machinastein's temples," Shachi told Sophie, grinning wickedly. "It's only fair we get to have it, since we defended the city and all."
Ah… this was truly her first step into a pirate's life… yo-ho, yo-ho…
Tumultuous waves battered both ships as they neared each other and, according to Manta, made aiming the torpedoes too difficult. In the control room, Anko steered the submarine. Kamasu stayed below in the engine room to keep an eye on the machinery as they weathered the storm. Though it was midday, the sky was a storming, roiling grey, flashes of hot sun peeking out through the clouds like light filtering through silk.
"Hai Xing, take care of the lockpicking. Manta, Valross, bring back any treasure you find. Penguin, Shachi, create havoc. Bepo, watch my back. This won't be a war of attrition. Both sides have been damaged by the earlier fight, so the ensuing battle will be quick and brutal." Law rubbed his chin. "We'll also have to properly destroy the ship so it can't follow us."
"Ah, um." Sophie raised her hand. "Please let me handle that. I've been on these types of Government warships before, so I know where the gunpowder magazine is located."
"Good. You need to take the backpack with you?"
Sophie adjusted the straps on her shoulders. It was much lighter now that she only kept her G-13 research inside. "It won't be a bother, promise."
"ARE WE READY TO PARTY, ASSFUCKS?" Anko's voice shouted from the speaking tubes.
It had been a long day. There was no asking if they could or couldn't get past CP5 and Teresa. They would. There was no other option. The Hearts were hopping on their feet, grinning, sure of their victory or at least doing a bang-up job convincing Sophie they were.
She took out the gas mask. It was a fifty million bounty, and her gut twisted at the thought of wearing it in front of the marines. Now she understood why the Hearts wore their Jolly Rogers on all their clothes. They were telling the world, here I am.
As Law brought forth a Room, Sophie pulled the gas mask over her face. She had burned all her bridges, and now they were lighting the way for her.
In a flash of blue, her boots hit the deck of CP5's warship.
—
This was not the same CP5 chief who arrived to Machinastein that morning in an ironed suit, a clean pinstripe coat, and shined leather shoes. This CP5 chief looked awful. Her jacket was ripped on the sleeves, a black eye, and her movements were noticeably slower than earlier. A parting gift from President Ursa.
Now, to get rid of the crowd…
Flash grenade! Law signed at Sophie, who looked back at him, befuddled. Teresa, on the other hand, knew exactly what he said.
"Cover your eyes!" She threw her own hands over her face and the marines on the deck followed suit.
Law sent a brief thank you to Cora-san for teaching him all those years ago. "Shambles."
Bodies snapped apart, rearranged themselves, stuck together again in a writhing, macabre nightmare. A torso with six arms scuttled around in a panic. Marines screamed as their heads were transmogrified together by their necks. Hands conjoined to faces, eyes attached to feet.
"Thanks for the help, Teresa-ya," Law called. "Now that that's out of the way…"
Surrounded by the disassembled bodies of her crew, Teresa gripped her axe and fixed her gaze on Law. If looks could kill, he'd be a pile of bloody, censored, X-rated mush.
"Go!" he ordered his crew, who made for the stairs that led below deck. Teresa lunged.
The metal of their blades clashed together and he realized that this wasn't going to be that easy. The huge, broad-shouldered woman was right in his face, strands of black hair coming undone from her high ponytail, her black eyes narrowed in hate. "Your bounty poster says you're from North Blue. Is that right?"
"It is." With a flick of his wrist, Kikoku tore the axe from her grasp. Teresa hissed, clutching her arms. Law's attention snapped to it—she had been injured there, he could exploit that—
"Chief!"
Two swords came flying from the marines on the quarterdeck. Without blinking she caught them out of the air and attacked Law again with vicious strength. Fuck, did this woman not feel pain?
Her next swing felt like colliding headfirst with a boulder. Law stumbled, and the raindrops hitting his face slowed.
He could feel every speck of water. One drop, two drops… Time itself was unwinding before him, like he was watching reality slow from another plane of existence. The wood beneath his feet creaked slowly, drawn-out. The crest of a wave that was about to batter the ship was almost frozen in place.
Three… four…
He became hyper-aware of Teresa's breathing. The slightest tremor in her hands where she held her swords. The shift of her weight onto her left foot as she braced herself to charge.
Five… six…
He saw her tilting her swords in just the right angle to neatly cut Law from shoulder to hip. He could feel her triumph rushing through his veins.
Now.
He sprung off his feet, ducking beneath the swing, and sliced Kikoku across her left thigh. The force was strong enough to slash her leg off, but all she did was stagger back, her Armament Haki shielding her from his blade and leaving her unharmed.
Law, however, was back to feeling like his head was about to explode. The awareness of everyone on the ship blazed through his mind. Everyone. It was like sinking into a well of pure, overwhelming emotion and suffocating in it, unable to move or breathe or even think. His nerves were stretched into a million different directions.
He took a deep, excruciating breath, and remembered what Ursa told him—focus on your own presence. His adrenaline, his resolve. Let everything else go. Close the treasure chest and keep the boy inside.
…Come on, focus!
Teresa kicked him into the mast, grabbing her axe along the way. His bones seared, yet Law barely felt it underneath the echoes of immense pain that didn't belong to him. The world was turning to ash. He gasped, his hand scrabbling in front of him, sure that he was going to see it disintegrate into white lead as he crawled through the mountain of twitching bodies, the quiet whispers, the smell of rot, the eyes watching him, the fingernails dragging along his flesh, their agony and despair he felt like saltwater rushing into his lungs as he sank to the very bottom of the ocean—
"Captain!" Bepo yelled, and the clarity of it sliced through everything.
Time returned to normal, a thousand raindrops hitting him at once, and Law barely rolled out of the way as the blade whistled by his ear.
—
Marines on the Grand Line fought in grueling conditions every day, and their mantra was win fast and safely. Subdue, restrain, onto the next pirate. There was no flash, no style, only aggression and practicality. They weren't machines born just to die on the front lines; they had to fight for themselves and their families back home.
Sophie had the highest respect for the style of fighting they taught her. She also knew the best ways to repel them.
The boiler suit was comfortable and easy to move in, and the cloth was made out of durable material. Which she had the perfect opportunity to test as she found herself face-to-face with a marine. He reached for her to grab her arms and break them quickly. Sophie sidestepped and grabbed his chin before he could stop his momentum forward, and used his own weight to flip him to the ground head-first.
It wasn't as hard as she expected to fight marines. Granted, they were out to maim her, and her survival outweighed the very deep part of her that shuddered whenever she saw someone in a white shirt and seagull-embellished hat go down. It helped, also, to think about how they were out to kill the Heart Pirates, and it's not like marines had a monopoly on ethical violence no matter what they said about Absolute Justice.
Penguin and Shachi charged into the agents on standby. Hai Xing was twirling a ring of keys around his finger, and the marine he'd pilfered it from was asking himself, "Wait, what happened to my—" before Manta cracked a shotgun over his head.
"Where's the booty!?" Valross hollered, sticking his knives into anything that moved. "Gimme the booty!"
"We'll clear the path, little lady!" Manta shouted, whacking away marines with his shotgun. His laughter boomed across the inner hallways.
As the other pirates drew the marines' attention, Sophie snuck/fast-walked behind them. Don't look suspicious, don't look suspicious, I'm just whistling casually and blending into the wall, nothing to see here…
The gunpowder magazine had to be in the deepest part of the ship. But first, she needed to get to the artillery room to find some linstock and flint. Wouldn't do to light all the gunpowder without some safety precautions!
A bullet nicked the corner of her gas mask. Sophie flinched.
The pale, skeletal bookkeeper strode out of whatever spot he'd been hiding in.
"Go! Every pirate we don't catch costs us money!" he shouted, urging more marines toward the deck where Law and Teresa were fighting. He focused in on Sophie. "I'll take care of this one."
…Mangos.
She crashed through a door in the hull to evade the bullets flying past her. They were in the deepest part of the ship, and there was very little light. She caught a whiff of something underneath the briny sea-smell. Sulfur. The gunpowder magazine was near.
Sophie flicked open her lighter. Nope, still dead. And she wasn't carrying any matches on her, either. There was no way of lighting all the gunpowder. She needed to get to the artillery room, but the bookkeeper was blocking her way.
She ducked behind a block of crates and cleared her throat, deepening her voice. "Uh, have we met before? If you're looking for Strangways Sophie, she ran the other way."
"Oh?" the bookkeeper said, sounding surprised. "Guess I'll leave then."
She peeked around the corner and bullets fired at her face.
"That's d-dirty!" she shrieked, sprinting in the opposite direction behind another line of crates.
Think, Sophie, think! She'd gotten herself out of messes before, all in situations with the odds weighed heavily against her. Footsteps echoed behind her. Making sure not to be seen, Sophie crept to a heavy door that reeked of sulfur and nudged it open. There it was, gleaming in the darkness. Barrels and barrels of unlit gunpowder.
"Don't you ever get ashamed?" she asked loudly, sneaking away from the door.
"I serve justice. It's not my fault that the World Government is the one that gets to define what justice means."
"Yeah, we've really corrupted that word. Nowadays, justice means forcing an island into an alliance so you could squeeze money out of them. It means letting countries die rather than research a cure. People auctions. Selling weapons to war zones to make a profit off of death."
"I believe you are also guilty of that, Strangways Sophie. You'll never be able to run away from that. You were born into this life. You will always be a part of the World Government."
Fury boiled in her chest as she systematically ran through a dozen different scenarios of killing the bookkeeper. But before she could attempt any of them, she took a breath to control herself. Even if the World Government was within her, would always be within her, she could live with it. It stays, and you live.
A suitable distance away, Sophie walked into the open, raising her hands to show she was unarmed and had given up.
He spun towards her, flintlock raised. "Surrendering? It's about time you realized you can't win."
Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise that everyone who ever met her so easily believed that she was an idiot. Of course, it helped that she had the honest sort of face that screamed 'punch me, I'm deeply insecure!'
"How about w-we make a deal?" With a quick swing of her arm, Sophie took off her backpack and showed it to the bookkeeper. "Here. All the p-projects I've made for G-13."
She threw it past the open door, into the dark room that was the gunpowder magazine. The bookkeeper edged into it, pointing his gun at her, and when Sophie shrugged, still with her hands up to show that she wasn't going to move, he jumped in. With his free hand, he rummaged through her backpack. She could practically see beli signs pop up over the man's head as he calculated how much he could sell it for. It was exactly how he looked at Law as he had called the pirate a toy.
"Worth fifty million. Will you take it a-and leave me and the Heart Pirates alone?"
"I don't think so. Not when you've so kindly allowed yourself to be caught. If I keep you alive, sell you at a good price to a Dragon, pass you around for a few years, sell you again, then…" the bookkeeper muttered, counting on his fingers.
Ah, such pleasant talk. "Here's something else, for the record. World Nobles aren't gods. Gods can't die."
"…How dare you speak such profanity—"
"Your masters are humans who've swindled the whole world into worshipping them. They're con artists and they're worse than pirates, because at least pirates are honest about who they are."
The pale eyes in the dark spasmed. "Don't make me—"
"Did you know that when World Nobles die, they bleed red and piss themselves like any common—"
He pulled the trigger. A spark.
The gunpowder magazine exploded, blowing Sophie into a wall of crates. Oh, she'd feel that tomorrow. Now, all she had to do was get to tomorrow and unenthusiastically receive the sore, aching complaints of her still-alive body.
The bookkeeper was a melting husk, and her science was burning up into ash. Well, she still kept pristine copies of them in her head. But her notes, the physical reminders of the years she dedicated to G-13… She hoped her babies appreciated this Viking send-off. Now they could return to carbon and rejoin the eternal cycle of nature's molecules.
Sophie limped out of the fire's immediate reach. She paused for a moment and fumbled inside her pocket for something, then lit a cigarette on one of the burning crates. When she got into the hallway, she yanked off the gas mask, sagged against the wall, and exhaled cigarette smoke with her eyes closed.
The perfect image of relaxation, as though the backdrop of a roaring fire behind her was a peacefully crackling fireplace. Nice.
—
A great boom exploded across the ship. From the portholes below, marines jumped overboard. The cheerfully smoldering chemist bumped into Hai Xing, Manta, and Valross, all carrying chests and winking gold jaguar statues. The treasure chests were stolen from pirate ships and they, as Valross put it, were just stealing it back. For the good of all piracy, of course.
They met Penguin and Shachi on the way back, who were fending off the CP5 agents. They staggered onto the deck with a massive crash, pirate and agent alike falling over each other. There was a loud, chaotic scrambling as waves knocked the ship back and forth. Flames licked up the wooden sides.
"Back to the sub, Captain's orders!" Bepo shouted from across the deck. The submarine was positioned unsteadily next to the battleship.
Valross and Manta grabbed onto the rope rigging of CP5's ship, cut through it, and used it to fly across the perilous gap between the two ships. Penguin and Shachi yelled for them to hurry as they dodged the agent's bullets by swinging away.
Law was catching his breath, clutching a rather nasty-looking cut across his chest as he braced himself against Kikoku. Teresa stared at the fire, general bedlam, and pirates scarpering away with CP5's loot—and her gaze landed on Sophie. Her eye twitched.
Sophie backed up, trying to hide behind Hai Xing or another conveniently-placed object of some sort. "W-would now be too late to start c-calling you Auntie?" She slipped backwards on the wet deck and hit the ground at the very moment the axe passed bare centimeters over her head. "Ow! I bih mah tungh…"
Hai Xing sprung between them and clapped his hands together, catching the blade between his palms. Sophie gasped. What a badass!
The cook, however, did not seem to relish this situation as the axe neared the tip of his nose. His newsboy hat slipped off and his arms visibly shook as Teresa towered over him. Her strength forced him—him! A half-fishman!—to step back.
"I know you," she muttered. "From Kunlun. You were a poor fighter then, too."
A dark green spine ripped through the bottom of Hai Xing's boot and he slammed it into her leg.
Teresa inhaled, but otherwise didn't even flinch. Blood oozed down her leg. She glanced at Hai Xing's birthmark across his forehead. "…Fishman?"
"Starfish toxin is strong enough to slow her down, right?" Sophie squeaked.
"For ten seconds, maybe," Hai Xing gritted out. "I'm not a blue-ringed octopus." He paused. "A blue-ringed octopus is—"
"I know what it is! Please focus on saving our lives!"
"Aye-aye-aye!" Bepo leaped into the fray with a well-placed kick at Teresa's side, sending her hurtling into the quarterdeck. "Have a taste of my mighty and powerful—"
"HAARGH," Teresa roared, bursting from the wreckage.
"UUWAHHH," Bepo cried, backpedaling.
Kikoku crashed against Teresa's axe. "Your fight's with me," Law snarled, and shouted over his shoulder, "Go! I'll catch up!"
"Let's go," Hai Xing crammed his hat back over his head and held onto three pieces of rope, "the sub is almost out of reach—" Bepo's butt clapped Hai Xing in the back, and he went off swinging with a rather anticlimactic, "Ahhhhhhh…"
A massive wave surged between the two ships, knocking them further apart.
"Nooo! We're too far away!" Bepo's eyes became two dizzying whirls of panic. "What do we do now!?"
"C-calm down!" Sophie shrieked, ripping bits of hair from her scalp. "Do you know what this part is!? This is when where we discover our inner powers! Our backs are pressed to the wall! We're c-cornered! We have no choice! Haki, appear!"
She squeezed her eyes shut and focused so hard her face turned red and she gained the appearance of a constipated lobster. She could feel something burning within her! Unbridled power! Her buttcheeks were clenched! Several blood vessels were being popped! Bepo was edging away from her! She was vibrating so intensely she was now a demonic blur! Yes! This… this feeling… must be Haki!
Ah… a light flatulence upon the breeze… a gentle passing of gas… a small toot, if you will…
"WHERE ARE YOU? MY HAKI?" Sophie wailed to the heavens above. O, ye cruel gods of the Grand Line!
"Go! I can handle this!" Law yelled at them, and was cut off as a bullet arced past his face. He stopped, looking up.
Sophie followed his gaze to an agent reloading her rifle from the crow's nest. It was the sniper with the gold tooth—the one that shot her. With a twist of his hand, the sniper appeared before him on the deck, blinking at her changed surroundings. There was a witch light in Law's eyes.
It was Teresa's turn to block Kikoku. "Don't touch my crew," she snarled, defending the agent.
"I'm just getting even," Law retorted icily.
Before the sniper could aim again, Bepo kicked her in the head.
"Sophie!" Bepo tossed the rifle to her before going after his captain. She checked the ammo and lifted it to her shoulder.
Teresa, Law, and Bepo were moving too quickly for her to follow. Any shot she tried to make could very well hit the pirates. There was also no guarantee Teresa's Haki wouldn't just stop the bullets. They were running out of time. If Law depleted his stamina, he couldn't use his Devil Fruit powers to Room them away. They'd be stuck on a flaming, sinking ship with a bunch of marines.
What could someone like her, with no Haki, no superhuman strength, and no particularly cool weapon (like a grenade launcher, mangos, she really needed a grenade launcher) do? Think, Sophie, think!
…Haki wasn't an automatic reflex. That's right, Hai Xing had broken through Teresa's Armament while she was distracted. It wasn't like breathing, an act that usually required no concentration—Haki needed focus. That was it. What had Hippo told her about Teresa? What could she use…?
Bepo and Law flew into the ship's wheel and it shattered beneath them. Teresa blinked after she threw them into her ship's steering device and snapped, "Do you know how much warships cost nowadays!?"
Sophie shot the CP5 chief twice in the back to get her attention. The bullets pinged harmlessly onto the ground.
"Stay back," Law rasped, glaring at Sophie while struggling to raise himself onto his elbows. Bepo panted, lying flat on his belly.
The gunshot wound on her stomach ached. Sophie was in no condition to put up a fight, yes, but it'd be a mark on her pride as a traitor soldier if she couldn't take a few more punches. She pulled off her gas mask, letting it hang around her neck.
"Sensei told me everything about when you were stationed in North Blue," she shouted over the wind, and Teresa went alarmingly rigid. "A marine died because of a mistake you made."
"…What?"
"That's w-why you kill all those pirates," Sophie accused, and without looking at Law, stomped her foot three times on the ground. "It's to compensate for the f-fact that you're a fraud—"
She slammed against the wet deck and Teresa lowered her fist. Agony. She dry-heaved, something dribbling out of her mouth. So this was what Armament Haki felt like: a broken rib or two. Or three. She banged her palm against the ground twice as she staggered to her feet. Please remember, she willed. Remember what you noticed on Kunlun. G-13's tap code. It was fine if Law didn't understand it, but all she had to do was let him know there was a plan… to hold on and wait a few more seconds.
"All the power you have, and you use it to raid islands like a common pirate." It was agonizing to talk, even breathe. "You f-failed again. Your crew is in pieces and Machinastein survives—"
Another punch. To the face, this time.
"Pineapples!" Sophie screeched, holding her bloody nose. "Ow! Mother of—god, that hurts!"
"Shut up. Shut the fuck up." Teresa's long, narrow brown face was contorted in anger. "I stayed with the World Government for decades. Decades. You're just some selfish, spoiled brat who can't tough it out. You get beat a few times and you run away? No. You're supposed to stay and keep taking the punches. That's what it means to be a woman in the Marines."
An old memory tugged at the threads of Sophie's mind. She had met Teresa a few times when she was very young; five or six. There used to be an affectionate lightness to the intelligence officer—she hadn't been in CP5 yet, back then—that she used to tease Hippo and ruffle Sophie's hair with. But then Teresa went off for a mission in North Blue and came back to the Grand Line three years later. Sophie vaguely remembered that day; she had stopped on the stairs outside Hippo's office, hearing voices inside. She peered through a crack in the door as a tall shadow sank on the floor beside Hippo and Lettidore's feet, her black hair cut short to her scalp back then, and Teresa had said something like, Been court-martialed. Blaming me for his death. All because of some stupid kid he was trying to save. Sophie wasn't sure if her memory was exactly right, but ever since then, the great pasta maker called Life had grinded Teresa into the workaholic juggernaut she was now. The next time they met, Teresa had shoved a far-too-heavy gun into Sophie's hands and ordered her to get stronger, or else she'd be an embarrassment to the World Government.
"You dishonor every woman who fought beside you in Vira. You were raised to be a leader in G-13 and now you're a lackey for a pirate," Teresa waved her hand in disgust at Law, "for some man."
Suddenly, gender politics!? Well, Sophie could play that game, too! "Don't talk like the World Government isn't completely run by men," she retorted in a nasally voice, pinching her nose. "Like all your superiors aren't also men, who have never chosen a woman Admiral or Fleet Admiral in e-eight hundred years. Who work for Dragons who snatch up people like objects, b-because slavery is illegal except when it's not, right?"
Teresa's face was ashen. "That's—you don't know anyth—"
"Do you a-actually think you'll get promoted? Think about it. Would they ever choose you, who couldn't even k-keep one marine safe?"
"Stop it—"
"Go ahead, u-use Haki," Sophie goaded, cackling, her eyes electric-bright and teeth bared. "After all, you need it to kill someone as weak as me."
"Like hell!"
"You couldn't even kill me right on Kunlun, you failure."
Teresa raised her axe in both hands, her scream loud enough to ripple the ocean.
Law shot to his feet, plunging his fist through her chest—
"Mes."
It was too late for her to throw up Armament Haki, and too late to stop what had happened. Teresa doubled over, her hands reaching to stem the blood on her—but there was no blood, only an empty square in her chest where her heart should've been. Sophie could peer out the clean, unbleeding hole in her torso straight to the other side.
Law drew back his hand, holding something stark-red within a transparent cube. A beating heart.
—
His first movement was towards Sophie, holding her upright as she swayed on her feet. "Can you stand? Hey, look at me." Law gripped her chin, tilting her badly-wounded face as rain pelted them both. "That was reckless. I didn't even know what the message was."
"But you knew there was a message," she said with a weary, lopsided smile. He wrapped an arm around her waist, telling himself this was only to make sure she didn't fall over. "What did you call that? Mes?"
"Like a scalpel."
"I would've called it Heart Attack."
"Is it too late to change the name?" Bepo brought Kikoku over to Law.
"It's definitely too late." Law let Sophie rest against Bepo as he picked up his nodachi. Kikoku was singing again, and he knew he was only one on the ship who could hear it. The cursed blade was excited, sensing he was about to soak it in fresh blood. Had this always been a part of his Haki as well?
Teresa clutched the empty hole in her chest, stunned. Sophie pulled her gas mask on and raised the rifle. Bepo took a martial arts stance. It was over.
Law gripped Kikoku in one hand, her heart in another. "Are you prepared?"
She didn't look up. Her mouth moved, and her whisper distorted through the air, shaking him down to his thirteen-year-old self's amber bones.
Sign language. North Blue. A marine she couldn't save.
—
"Dying at the hands of a North Blue pirate…
Rosinante,
your ocean haunts me until the end."
—
Sophie could barely make out Teresa's voice beneath the wind and crashing waves, but Law went motionless. Wind whipped his blood-stained shirt across his chest, his disheveled hair across his forehead.
…Who the mangos was Rosie Nonty?
"Let me die on my feet, Trafalgar," Teresa commanded. There was no trace of regret on her face, even as she struggled to stay standing.
He didn't move.
"Law-san?" Sophie murmured, breathing shallowly to not cause more pain to her ribs. She tapped her rifle.
"Captain, hurry!" Bepo glanced at the formerly dismembered marines who had almost finished puzzling out whose legs belonged to who. The warship was sinking and water was flooding the deck from below and from the sides.
The hand that gripped Teresa's heart was trembling. She had never seen that look on Law's face before.
"Captain—"
"Trafalgar!"
No hesitation. Sophie pointed the rifle at Teresa's heart and pulled the trigger.
When another wave crashed into the ship, she realized three things. One, a gunshot rang out, but the bullet landed nowhere near Teresa's heart. Two, Sophie's arm that was holding the gun was lifted to the sky. And three, this happened because Law had thrown Kikoku to the ground and grabbed the rifle in his bare fist, which was now steaming, and forced it upwards.
He had stopped her. He was… letting the enemy live.
Law tossed the heart back to its speechless owner. "Remember this," he said, picking up his nodachi and sheathing it. He called forth a Room from his palm.
…What just happened? Had she made some sort of a mistake? What did—
Light flashed in the corner of Sophie's eye from a Cameko Mushi, but before she was able to discern who had taken her photo, a great creaking sound echoed. Sophie, Law, and Bepo looked down blankly. The deck beneath their feet dropped, and the ocean rose up to enfold them.
Overwhelmed by damage, the warship snapped apart. And then all she felt was cold.
And pain.
And she couldn't breathe.
Sophie was yanked through the ferocious current, unable to tell up from down. Something brushed her hand—Law? Bepo? Her fingers tightened around it, felt like fabric, a shirt, a body, maybe—and then it was gone, torn from her grasp, and she couldn't even scream—Sophie kicked hard, but it was useless, she was spinning out of control, the ocean flinging her deeper and deeper underwater—her body was so heavy, and her eyes were closing, and—
—
On the submarine, the pirates watched the deafening shudder as the warship collapsed on itself. For a split-second, nobody moved.
Nobody except Hai Xing, who sprung over the railing and leaped overboard.
"Hey!" Penguin lunged after him and was prepared to jump into the storming waves when he was grabbed around the stomach. "Anko, what the hell—"
As soon as he had seen the explosion, Anko had slammed out of the control room. He jumped onto the deck for the express purpose of keeping all his crewmates from following after their cook.
"We have to go after them!" Shachi, too, was snatched away from an untimely drowning by the helmsman. "Damn it, get off! What the fuck is wrong with you? Do you want Hai Xing to die!?"
Anko tried to wrestle the two mechanics to the ground. "Wait a goddamn second!"
"Someone tie the end of this around the mast!" Manta shouted, binding a rope around his middle and ripping off his boots. "Valross, get into the control room and turn the sub around!"
Valross nodded and sprung off his feet. Before he took two steps, he was walloped in the chest by the helmsman.
"Please," Anko said, barely audible. "Please. Just watch."
—
Deep below the surface, something took hold of Sophie.
Water rushed past her face, roaring in her ears. Before she knew it, she broke the surface and ripped off her gas mask, inhaling frantically, teeth chattering. A hand was grabbing her boiler suit, and that hand was attached to the most majestic, beautiful sight in the world: the Heart Pirates' chef, who was grimacing as his captain hacked up water all over his shoulder.
Hai Xing's powerful kicks in the water allowed him stay afloat in the storming waves. He had Sophie in one hand, Law on his shoulder, and Bepo in his other hand. Polar bears, it seemed, weren't great swimmers in storms.
"The sub!" Bepo burbled as another wave crashed over them.
Pain shot through Sophie's chest as she was jostled by the roiling ocean. She squinted through the fog; the entire world was grey and rain and wind. Wait—was that a painfully yellow paint job not meant for human eyes? "There! Do you see that?"
Hai Xing adjusted his grip on his three crewmates. "It's too far. I'm calling for help."
An unearthly noise reverberated from Hai Xing's throat, so eerie and loud that she had to cover her ears. It was the same noise Sophie had heard from him at the chocolatier café—something primordial, from the deep ocean.
A large, colorful fish flicked by. And then another. And another. They swam in a tornado-like circle around Hai Xing, tighter and tighter, until she felt herself being lifted up. They rose on a massive school of Dorado fish that carried them over the ocean. Marlins and bull sharks leaped alongside them. It was like riding on a smooth, wet carpet. The fish glittered, their eyes comically large and shining, and they seemed to be… smiling?
"They're laughing at my accent," Hai Xing mumbled. "I'm not great at talking fish."
"N-no, well," Sophie said, staring, "to know how to speak f-fish at all is an achievement by any standard…"
They passed CP5's smoking wreck of a battleship and Sophie thought she saw Teresa watching them from the bow of her ship. She knew, somehow, that Teresa wasn't going to give chase anymore, and the battleship disappeared into the cloudy haze.
A sharp groan alerted them to the man sitting up with a wince.
"Hai Xing…?" Law's eyes widened at the fish they were hitching a ride on. Something passed between them—a quiet, understanding look that held many stories that Sophie didn't know—and he grasped the other man's hand. "I'm proud of you."
Bepo gave a little huhuhu behind his paw, grinning.
"Your praise won't stop the world's eventual, inevitable demise," Hai Xing's dark brown eyes softened minutely, "…but it's still appreciated."
Well, gosh, that was adorable.
A touch alighted on her dripping curls. Sophie jumped slightly.
"Your hair," Law rasped.
Her ponytail had fallen out, and she realized the ends of her hair were yellow again. The rain had washed away the last of the black dye that she had gotten so long ago on Crawfish Island.
Though she wouldn't know this, the flash of light earlier had been from a Cameko Mushi by a CP5 agent with an astute eye. The resulting blurry photograph of her in the gas mask had little color except for the bright hue of her hair, and in the coming days, it would be shown to the marines who had been searching for Strangways Sophie. Or, 'a loud arsonist with curly black hair, who could turn water into ice in an instant and make sugardust explode', as they knew her by. They would murmur that she could even turn her hair gold, like a sorcerer from an old wives' tale, and from that point onwards, the World Government would assign her the epithet of Alchemist.
But presently, all Sophie was concerned about was tumbling over the submarine railing in her soggy boiler suit and trying to not look like a total idiot. Mission failed.
They had cleared the storm. Rays of sunlight gleamed from the clouds as it parted above them. Hai Xing helped her to her feet and Bepo shook off his wet fur. The enormous array of fish leaped in the air a few more times before swimming away, and the Heart Pirates, dripping wet thanks to Bepo, watched in stunned silence.
They all faced the cook, who gave his shoulders a little roll as the crown-of-thorns spines vanished under his skin.
Hai Xing pointed at the ocean, remarking monotonously, "Wow, did you guys see that. Where did all those fish come from… I have no idea…"
Law lowered his cook's arm. "It's been long enough, don't you think."
Hai Xing sighed. He rubbed the back of his neck. "What, a guy grows starfish spines once and you don't even recognize his flesh prison anymore?"
The Hearts' mouths dropped in perfect coordination. Manta's curled mustachio went straight as a plank out of shock.
There was a collective, deafening yell.
"Hold on," Penguin said, gaping. "The chocolatiers on the train—they said—that was real?"
Shachi looked equally stunned. "How—what—you're a—where did—I mean, how did—"
"Captain, I will cook for these men, but I refuse to explain the process of how babies are made."
"How long have we known each other, huh?" Valross shouted. "How can you keep something like this from us?"
"Is it really that important?" Hai Xing retorted.
The Hearts stared at their cook, then at each other. "Isn't it!? It seems like something that might be very important!?"
"Look, boys, I've been through this," Anko drawled, throwing his arm around Hai Xing's shoulders, who tried to go limp and ooze away. "You're emotionally conflicted, this shorty shouldn't be allowed to be so cool, your pride is a little bit wounded, you're thinkin' about things, things ya never thought of before, and you can't believe this shrimp is actually part shrimp."
Hai Xing jabbed Anko in the stomach. "Half-starfish."
All the Hearts rounded on Hai Xing. "ANKO KNEW?" Sophie cleared her throat, raising her hand. "…AND THE HITCHHIKER?"
"Cap, you, too?" Penguin demanded. Law grinned and gave a vague sort of shrug that obviously meant 'obviously'.
"Clearly, we must work on our friendship from sun up 'till sun down!" Shachi announced. This was punctuated by fervent nods by the rest of the crew.
"I'm not different," Hai Xing said, and he stepped forward with such a sour look his crewmates all stepped back and listened. "I haven't changed. Don't look at me like I'm someone new. I'm still the same person I've always been."
"We aren't treating you differently, though," Shachi said, tilting his head. "Haven't we always tried to know you more?"
"There are many things we don't know about each other, it's true," Manta voiced. "And we're not entitled to any of our past histories. But I still can't help wishing you found us close enough to share something special with."
"It's not…" Hai Xing muttered under his breath, "not like…"
It was Law's turn to throw his arm around Hai Xing's unprepared shoulders. "We can save the rest for tomorrow," he declared. "And look, isn't this about right for a pirate crew on the Grand Line? A half-fishman and a mink?"
"A mink?" Sophie gasped. "Who—"
Everyone pointed at Bepo, who waved.
"Was that," Law said, "not obvious."
"A m-m-mink!?" Sophie winced. She yelled so hard it felt like she busted another rib. "You're a part of the great, mythical Mink Tribe?" she hissed. "Whose powers are legendary and shrouded in mystery? You're n-not just a talking polar bear?"
"…This whole time, did you think I was a polar bear that one day magically learned how to speak words?"
"I—I couldn't have b-been the only one, right? Right?"
"Oi!" A wrench banged against the deck's door. Kamasu had trudged out of the engine room, and the perpetually irate-looking man was now watching the spectacle from under his dark, messy hair. "Didn't we fucking win, or something?"
The pirates looked at each other. That was right. They had survived CP5—they'd won. Their roars and cheers were so loud that it shook the deck.
…Ah, wait, perhaps that was Sophie's knees doing the shaking. She stumbled against Law and opened her mouth to apologize, but then her vision spun. Floor, be gentle with me. In the split-second between wake and unconsciousness, she halfheartedly made peace with the nasty bumps her head was going to sustain.
Instead, there were arms to catch her.
—
"Is there anything we can bring back to HQ?" her sniper asked.
A fish flopped over Teresa's rain-drenched shoes. The universe was a dead-eyed, stone-cold bitch.
(Much like her, in fact.)
"Bring all the injured here!" Teresa directed. "Disregard all the inventory we lost in the battle! Only saving lives are important now!"
The warship was bits and pieces of flotsam. The marines who had jumped overboard had found the bookkeeper's burned corpse and dragged him to the part of the deck that was still floating. Teresa examined the stinking pile of wet, blackened flesh, tapped it experimentally with the tip of her shoe, and gave it a firm kick. The head broke off with a snap and rolled into the ocean. The Government had a thousand bookkeepers. He would simply be replaced.
Spandine, of course, wanted to update her with his thoughts on her current situation.
"YOU ABSOLUTE DUMBASS! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO? YOU FAILED TO CAPTURE ONE ROOKIE PIRATE? AND NOW BIG MOM IS ALLIED WITH—"
"Spandine," Teresa said calmly, "blow me." She hung up.
Her sniper rested her hand on Teresa's shoulder. "Not gunning for that promotion anymore, chief?"
"I was never going to get it. I finally realized that. The good news is that it only took me eleven years," Teresa joked, and neither smiled.
Making up her mind, she dialed another number. Across the Grand Line, a Den Den Mushi in Marineford was answered.
"I thought you wouldn't call, child," came an aged voice. "Having fun out there?"
She had the whole thing planned out. It's been a while, Tsuru-san. Thought I'd catch you up. Things are going superbly, as expected of your star pupil.
What she said was, "It should get easier at some point, right? I thought it would all work out if I just became as strong as these men who lead the World Government."
"Hm," Tsuru said, considering. "You can't be as strong as men. You must be stronger, because this is the world you were born into."
Teresa had pointed her axe at Hippo. Hippo, her best friend, her brother. Him and Lettidore, the only sense of family she ever had. She tried to bring an entire country to heel. She murdered. She fought. She bled. She survived. She bled some more. She gave everything, and when her own life and future weren't enough, she sacrificed others.
"I've done something I will never be forgiven for." Teresa's gaze lifted to the sky. If there was some true form of justice, she willed it to judge her and strike her down now if she had wronged the world. She waited for a bolt of thunder, a crash of lightning. Across the horizon, the ruins of Machinastein steamed under the desert sun.
"What you've done, you've done in the name of the Government, and the Government is never wrong."
The sky was blue and vastly empty. "How long can I keep telling myself that?"
Tsuru's reply was both gentle and terrible: "Longer than you think. Now, pick yourself up and come home. Did you remember to bring me some of that famous Machinastein cacao?"
"I barely have a working rudder, Tsuru-san."
"Pity."
—
An IV drip blurred into view as Sophie's eyes peeled open, adjusting to the light in the sickbay.
She took a deep, pained breath, inhaling the recycled submarine air that wasn't quite fresh but wasn't exactly stale, either. What time was it? The submarine was quiet and dim cerulean light shone in from the portholes—which likely meant it was early in the morning. She had slept almost a full day, yet she still felt like moldy pineapples blended into a moldy fruit smoothie. What even was a decent night's sleep anymore?
She worked her limbs, testing out the soreness. Her face felt swollen and her mouth felt full of cotton balls. A stiff bandage was wrapped on her nose and she touched the tender flesh, wincing. Someone had changed her into a fresh boiler suit. Her ribs protested angrily when she reached for a cup of water on the empty chair next to her and downed it in one gulp.
When she lowered the cup, she froze.
Hai Xing was sleeping on the cot next to her, and Anko dozed on the floor between them on a puddle of blankets that also held Shachi and Penguin. Valross, Manta, and Kamasu each took a bed as well. It was a sickbay filled with relatively uninjured, snoring pirates, like they were only there to keep watch on her.
Well, that was just…
Sophie would've been perfectly inclined to flop back on the bed and bask in this strange, foreign feeling that bloomed across her aching ribs like a flower. But she was so hungry her head was swimming. She carefully removed the IV needle and found a band-aid in one of the cabinets to slap over the crook of her elbow. She tied the sleeves of her suit around her waist like she had seen the other pirates do, leaving her top half in Shachi's old shirt that he had let her borrow yesterday and clean bandages on her torso, from chest to stomach.
She tugged the blanket over her shoulders and padded outside. Sophie almost bonked into a furry white mass coming back from the bathroom.
"You're up!" Bepo greeted, catching her before she dropped butt-first on the floor (Wow, a mink! A real mink was holding her! No, Sophie, be cool, be cool. Bepo's just Bepo. Nothing's changed.) "Food's in the mess. And Captain." He patted the top of her head, lightly pawing at her messy curls. "You should let him know you're okay."
"Ah—th-thanks. How are his injuries?"
"He says it's nothing major, but I've heard that a thousand times," Bepo said with an aura not unlike a Disappointed Dad. "Hey, he was cool in that fight, huh? There were so many times I just wanted to shout, 'That's our Captain!'"
Bepo's eyes glittered. Sophie squinted, feeling like a wrinkled old worm staring into the dazzling sun. Such… purity… "That's our—uh, yep. Right. Geez. I guess I should, um, try to get used to saying that."
"Heh heh heh," Bepo laughed.
"Heh heh heh," Sophie laughed back, blushing.
"There were things said in that fight that might be better if you forgot them."
"…Eh?"
Bepo's expression was curiously blank as he studied her. "It'd be alright if you didn't think about it much." Then he stretched and yawned, as though what he just said wasn't entirely befuddling. "It's too early," he lamented. "I'll sneak in a few more hours of sleep… Penguin and Shachi made me promise I'd be their pillow…"
Bepo moseyed back into the sickbay, leaving Sophie wondering how many more secrets were hidden in the walls of this submarine.
In the mess, Law was looking deep in thought as he considered a pot of simmering coffee. She hobbled in, blinking at the ocean light that covered the room in a soft morning glow. The blanket trailed on the floor behind her.
He looked startled as she entered. "You shouldn't be up yet."
"I live to astound. Also would like to fed, please."
"I'll heat up some leftovers, but you're going back to bed right after you finish."
"Thanks," Sophie groaned, sitting down at the table and bundled up in the blanket. She noticed Law glancing at her. "What."
He cranked on the stove. "You look like shit."
Glaring, she raked her fingers through her wild bedhead curls. "Pot, meet kettle."
Covered in bandages and cuts himself, the lanky pirate sat across from her. He was watching her with that intense, laser-eyed doctor vision, like he was scanning her injuries.
"Is the rest of the crew okay?" she asked.
"Their wounds were mostly superficial. You must've seen them. They insisted on sleeping in the sickbay after you were out of surgery."
"Surgery?" Sophie's hand went to her chest, touching the bandages.
"Four of your ribs were broken in the fight, you broke your nose, and suffered a concussion. Not to mention your gunshot wound reopened. My powers are able to fix you up better than a normal doctor, but…" Law's gaze wandered over to the side, "it was still pretty bad."
The shadows under his eyes were darker than normal. "You must've stayed up late to fix me," she said in a tiny voice. "I made you overwork yourself."
"You're in no condition to be worrying about other people," he said, sounding appalled. "Do you recognize how serious your situation was? Is?"
"Getting hurt is an occupational hazard. And the other guys have suffered injuries as severe as mine before. I'm alive. I'll get over it." Maybe.
"Don't talk like that after what you did."
"What did I do?"
He glared at her.
A burst of angry anxiety twisted up her spine. "Hey. I'd feel pretty weird if you're showing me concern that's different from the concern you show the others. The other men. We're all treated the same, right? You don't secretly see me as weak?"
He did a double take. "That's not what I—"
"Then why are you so upset?"
"Because you took one hell of a beating to secure our victory," Law said harshly, "and I should've been in your place."
His eyes were wide, golden flecks flashing-bright before he remembered himself. He leaned back, his expression neutral.
"But you were—also hurt pretty bad." They listened to the pot on the stove bubble. "…You know, I needed your help with Red Sky. It's… okay to need me, too. No one ever said captains have to carry everything on their own. After all, Gold Roger arrived on Laugh Tale with his crew."
Law contemplated her. It looked like he was about to say something, reconsidered it, and simply said, "Making pirate references already. I knew this life would suit you."
Sophie's ears reddened, but luckily, she avoided having to come up with an intelligent response as he got up to fetch her a bowl of soup.
She arrived at another conundrum once she received her sustenance. Her arms shook with the effort to raise the spoon, pain lacing through her chest every time they moved. It was the third time that she dropped the utensil that Law exhaled, unable to stand the sight of her sorry existence anymore.
He moved from the other side of the table to sit next to her. Sophie recoiled.
"Give it," Law said.
"I r-refuse! Do you know how much dignity I've already lost around you?"
"Do you want to eat or not?"
She glanced furtively over her shoulder and checked to make sure no one was hiding in the corners. Like they were in a drug transaction and she was waiting for a signal this was a trap, she nodded a tiny fraction. Law raised the spoon to her mouth. The soup was warm and wonderful. Something chicken-y. A Hai Xing special. He lightly pushed aside the mess of curls on her shoulder and adjusted the blanket, pulling it tighter around her. The great machinery of the submarine hummed in the background. She was in no rush, there was no grand objective she needed to accomplish or die trying. She had woken up surrounded by people who were now her crew.
For perhaps the first time in Sophie's life, the world felt gentle.
His fingers brushed away an escaped tear. "You hate Hai Xing's food that much, huh?"
She kicked him. At least her feet were still working. His calloused hands came up to her face, wiping away the saltwater.
"Ow," Sophie winced, laughing weakly. "Why is this making my nose hurt?"
"You're trying to sniff." He used the blanket to dab at her runny nose, careful to avoid the bandage.
Geez, how embarrassing. But if she had to be around anyone looking this pathetic, she was glad it was this person in front of her.
"Thank you for pushing me to Vira," Sophie murmured, her eyes closed. His thumb ran along her wet lashes. "If Hippo-sensei hadn't offered to go in my place, I would've gone. You were right. It would've haunted me if I didn't. I don't… make the best decisions, when I'm afraid. You believed I could go to Vira despite that fear. I had to hear that. That I'd still be alright on my own."
He lowered his head, stirring the soup. It seemed more like a way to avoid meeting her eyes. "Yeah, look. Don't get all—you know."
"But now I'm here," she said quickly, feeling quite self-conscious herself. "For the long haul."
He didn't reply as he helped her sip another spoonful of soup, but Sophie got the tiniest sense that he appreciated her saying that.
"I watched you in the fight," she said, fidgeting. "You didn't seem to use Haki. Is it still hard to control?"
"It's… hard to switch off. I only tried it on Teresa-ya once. It was too dangerous to keep testing, especially when I can't… use it well yet." Law exhaled. "Just when I thought I got my hands on a great skill…"
"Haki manifests differently for everyone, right? That's what President Ursa said. You'll have to find your own way, I guess."
"Right. It's just—when I use it, I go back to…" He paused like he was trying to figure out how to word his thoughts. "My Observation Haki can't seem to stop reliving the past."
"Flevance?" Sophie asked softly.
Law smiled wryly. "If Haki is a reflection of ourselves, is it saying that I'm living on my memories?"
She didn't know how to respond to that.
A shadow crossed his face. He smirked a little bit, shrugging. "Never mind. It doesn't matter."
But of course it did. All she could think about, abruptly, was Bepo. It'd be alright if you didn't think about it much. "…Can I ask you something?" She bit the inside of her cheek when he nodded. "…Who is Rosie Nonty?"
For a long moment, she was sure Law wasn't going to respond.
When he did, it wasn't anything close to an answer. "If you can do this one thing for me… just this one thing, please pretend like you never heard that name. Please. It's not time yet."
Sophie considered for a moment. Whatever his secret was, she trusted that Law had a good reason for guarding it, with the best intentions for his crew. But. But if he didn't, if his end goal was something awful and selfish and harmful, then… they would cross that bridge when they came to it.
"Okay." She nodded. "I can wait. Time is something I have a lot of now."
The tense line of his shoulders relaxed. "Do you know what happened in Teresa-ya's past? In North Blue?"
"No, just the little bit that Sensei told me. And all the awful things I said to her—I made that up, too. I was winging it, really," she admitted, and he snorted. "I never thought she'd… I don't know, have a vulnerable side. Like a normal person." Sophie was quiet for a moment, then blinked. "And um, I'm sorry for—when I tried to shoot Teresa's heart, I should've waited for you to…"
"You made a split-second judgement call," Law refuted. "I froze, and you didn't hesitate to kill our enemy."
"I didn't do it because… I didn't want to be the one to kill her. I'm not…"
"You were decisive," he said, looking at her fully. "I may have struck the final blow, but you won that fight. Keep pushing me forward. I need someone like you, who doesn't falter."
Heat radiated off her cheeks, but Sophie also felt something uneasy. Something troubling.
"What if," she said slowly, "I push you to a place where no one else can follow?"
He merely raised a brow.
"You fought like you already had one foot in the grave. You said it yourself, you had to win or there was no point." Something clicked. "It's like you have a death wish."
"That sounds impractical, don't you think?" he replied calmly.
Sophie bit back a sigh at the vague, not-really-an-answer answer. Don't ever again live on the fumes of someone else's dream. She could live by her own principles without any more guilt. She could make choices and argue and voice her own opinions. And if, somewhere down the line, the pirate life stopped suiting her, she could find another path and continue walking on the winding, detour-filled road that was her life. She could be free.
And then, she understood her place.
"I won't follow your orders blindly. Not like how I did with G-13. I'm sure whatever goal you have is important to you, but you staying alive is important to me. If you're okay with my hand at your back, you better get comfortable with the idea that it won't be pushing you forward as much as it'll be dragging you away from the edge." She took a breath, steeled herself, and finished, "Captain."
There were a great many embarrassing things that had come out of her mouth during her lifetime; without a doubt, this was number one. She was ready for the mocking smirk and an obnoxious drawl, and prepared herself to throw hot soup at his shoes and shriek I SAID NOTHING! NOTHING! I'LL DROWN MYSELF IN APPLESAUCE BEFORE YOU MAKE ME ADMIT IT! YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE!
But when she forced herself to look up, he was smiling. It was small and hesitant, and for a moment she forgot about her debilitating mortification.
Footsteps came down the hall. Voices, greeting each other. Hai Xing in his room in the pantry, drawers opening and closing.
"Sophie," Law said, right before the doors opened.
"Yeah?"
"Welcome home."
to be continued
trivia
sign language: law and teresa both learned sign language from rosinante. :)
'an iv drip blurred into view': i used this exact phrase in chapter 1! bookends, am i right?