Thank you's to these excellent blueberry pudding cups: Leynadoodles, LiLy Resh, Aloe Wera, Guest, Momochan77, Riley-Cooper123, renuo, NewCanvas, WastinTimeWatchinGrass, djufferss, Pinap, DreamsOfTheDamn, Xielle Sky, read a rainbow, bookdragonslayer, Lucy Jacob, GrenLilly, Nogly, and ClosetCase!
Shoutout to ClosetCase with "her...arrrrmmmmmmm...ament haki" because I wish I'd thought of that joke jeez. And djufferss with the ""Less femme fatale, more seedy motel trash" thanks for describing my exact taste in women lmao," wow, I fucking whee-heeezed.
—
methyl nitrate pineapples
hypothesis #27
okay, ophelia
—
Lisbeth wasn't a ghost, or an angel. Neither could punch this hard.
But that's on Sophie for gaping like an idiot and standing still.
She doubled over, all the wind knocked out of her. The shock of it was the worst, made it hurt ten times more. She sat down hard on the wet chunks of weird-looking, not-right Devil Fruit, which then got all over her butt. Meanwhile, the carnival outside was still in full swing.
"Stand up."
The musicians were playing the most joyful, upbeat music she'd ever heard.
"Do you hear me, Sophie?"
She'd spent so long imagining reuniting with Lisbeth—it always took place on a pier on some remote island, with dramatic harps playing in the background and a clichéd vow to forgive and forget—but when it was finally happening here, now, she got socked in the stomach and had no idea what to—
A wooden bow slammed into her face and Sophie crashed into the altar.
…Ow.
Her eyes drifted, came into focus again. She felt a sort of dreamy agony.
"What a fortunate day." Her voice was vindictive, like lemons or spit. "I was told he had some connection to the underworld. But running here on your own?"
Lisbeth was leaner than she remembered. Harder. The way she rolled her sinewy shoulders as she moved was like the movement from a prowling jaguar. Beneath her grey dress, her knees were long and pale down to her bare toes. The dusty light from the stained-glass windows flared over her face, coloring her topaz and emerald and sapphire.
Sophie kept her composure. She'd bumped into some of the biggest names on the ocean. Flying off the rails in a panic was getting old, frankly. The more easily she accepted inexplicable situations as it happened, the higher chance she had of surviving. "I thought you'd be living peacefully somewhere. After b-being…"
"Exiled by my own country."
"To start a new life. They d-didn't need a monarchy anymore, or a reminder of the old king."
"I was captured by slave traders. Ate wormy apple cores off the ground and the cages reeked of piss."
Sophie's mind blanked. Outside, cheerful bagpipes started playing.
"Alabasta. The war was too heavy. Too many refugees. Ripe for picking." Her words came out oddly warped to Sophie's ears, like being filtered through water. "This was after my father's crown was stolen and I sold my hair for money. They killed the guards you graciously allowed with me, then there was only me."
Tears welled up in Sophie's eyes. All that nonsense about not panicking earlier fled her mind. She had the emotional fortitude of a fruit fly. There was nothing she could say. Not even the tiny no that welled up in her throat.
"This is the third time our wanweird fates have crossed. The second was on a broken World Government ship, floating around Machinastein waters. You were half-dead. We were so close. I could have reached out my hand, but for the chains." Lisbeth lazily stretched her neck, her short, boyish copper hair catching the light so it turned into flames. "Oh, you look like crying."
"If I'd known," her voice cracked; hearing that they'd crossed paths without her knowing was another blow to the gut, they had just missed each other like two ships in the night, "I w-would've never let… I would've never…"
"This is not for pity," Lisbeth said.
Bloodlust hit Sophie like a wave. Her body moved on instinct and ducked.
Lisbeth's fist slammed into the statues of angels behind her. She shook off her hand, smoke whispering of her knuckles, tawny ears flicking.
A Zoan Devil Fruit. A lion. The irony of a Cat's Eye princess…
Sophie had a collection of bombs in her belt. She had a rifle. She'd never been afraid of wreaking havoc.
She took one look at the fury on Lisbeth's face, and booked it in the opposite direction.
Her feet took off running, automatically heading back to where her crew was without pausing to think if leading the force of ruthless destruction straight to them was the best idea, but Lisbeth caught up to her in an instant.
(This was not the same girl who cowered behind her on a stormy night in a castle.)
She grabbed Sophie by the shirt and flung—
Wall frescoes shot past her, tiny portals of light, stained glass—
In the bell tower, three dozen roosting white doves took flight as a pair of hands thumped onto a wooden rafter. Sophie glanced through her dangling legs and saw Lisbeth looking startled, as though she hadn't meant to throw her so far. Then she nocked an arrow on her bow.
A slew of arrows flew past Sophie as she kicked her leg up over the rafter and pulled herself up, Arsenic slapping against her back. More doves scattered in a flurry of white feathers. A lattice of wooden beams ran beneath the golden bells of the cathedral, connected by precarious scaffolds and rickety wooden stairs. It was so high up that one slip of the foot would cost her dearly.
Lisbeth appeared, landing gracefully on a beam. Sophie backpedaled, her attention divided on the narrow footing and the girl shooting arrows at her.
"You became a pirate. A Heart Pirate."
"Wait wait wait wait wait—"
"Trafalgar Law's own crew! One betrayal after another! Apostasy!"
"I SAID WAIT, YOU MANGO, I CANNOT TALK CALMLY LIKE THIS," Sophie bellowed, and jumped from a scaffold and into the air, arms grasping for the rope. An arrow caught her in the back of her calf and she winced, squeezing her eyes tight for a moment, and kept climbing.
Heavy golden bells clanged, the sound vibrating down the steeple. She leaped onto the ledge of the bell tower's arched openings.
In two seconds flat, Lisbeth slammed her against the stone of the belfry, holding her bow to Sophie's throat.
Harsh sunlight flared over her face, and the dead king of Cat's Eye Island was looking down at Sophie, a long way from Mariejois and the Saint burned out of his name. On this warm day, she felt chilly goosebumps as she remembered. Back then, it had also been in a tower. When she closed her eyes, a ghost of a lightningstorm flashed behind her eyelids.
Lisbeth had found Odin's dog tags hanging around Sophie's neck and closed her hand around it. "Thievery."
"I… I w-wanted to… keep it." She couldn't find the words to say, For you. When I saw you again.
"A spoil of war," Lisbeth spat.
"N-no! No, th-there was this…" Sophie breathed unevenly, her leg throbbing, "this sickness, and the cure w-was found in his lungs, and even though he's dead, he'll save so many lives—"
Lisbeth ripped the necklace off. In a snap of metal, the albatross around her neck was gone.
"Desecration! Your captain killed my friend, and you ransacked his body. Was being taken by the freak scientists of your home not enough? G-13. The experiments that turned him into a malformed half-giant." Lisbeth smiled bitterly at the look of blank shock on the chemist's face. "Blindsided? Would you like to know what else I have learned?"
"…You're bleeding," Sophie whispered, staring.
"I," Lisbeth said, and paused. She touched the stream of blood rolling down the corner of her mouth. Her expression grew vacant, and she staggered.
Sophie grabbed Lisbeth before she could tumble off the tower, and the other woman flinched at her touch.
For a split-second, the hard, cruel expression on Lisbeth's face softened.
Then it snapped back into place, and she grabbed her by the throat and slammed her back against the stone. Sophie made a noise like a choked toad. Arsenic rattled on her back, as though demanding to be used. Not her, she thought, and her eyes darted about, searching for an escape.
"You and Trafalgar Law took everything from me."
"Us?" Sophie wanted to laugh. She did laugh. "You h-have no idea what your father—" She bit down on her lip, restraining herself.
"Then tell me. Tell me that he was a World Noble."
That stopped her dead.
"A Celestial Dragon," Her Royal Broken Highness hissed, eyes acidly bright. They pierced Sophie right through her heart. "Slaver-kings. Poison and pestilence in my blood. But you—you killed him. He never left Cat's Eye like you said. He is dead."
The music from the festival below was oddly stifled, like polystyrene foam had been shoved in her ears. How did she know so much? Lisbeth tightened her grip viciously. Sophie would be all black and blue tomorrow. At least it'll match my eyes. "I to-took his kneecaps."
She smiled, full of teeth, delirious, halfway mad. "Good. Good." They were talking about the murder of her father and smiling about "After what he did to Cat's Eye, after his filthy ancestors enslaved the world—he deserved it."
"I'm… sorry," Sophie whispered haltingly, clutching the hand at her throat. "I was also… I u-understand. I… how sick-ckened you m-must feel, to have this… this rot as your family. I'm so sorry."
The spiteful glee disappeared from Lisbeth's face, transformed into a zombie. Her eyes were empty.
"You can hurt me. I deserve that. I… fail-failed you. You can stab me, break my arm, shoot me, whatever. But after that—it's o-over, we're even."
"No, my father's death does not balance the scale," Lisbeth breathed. "You traitored me, and Trafalgar killed my precious, greatest, my only friend—"
"He was already dying, Princess! Law-san may have cut his head off, but he was barely alive to begin with! The gigantification should've killed him a long time ago. With the way his body was built, every waking moment put him in miserable agony. He wouldn't have lived another week! And the ones who did that to him—the G-13 scientists and your idiot dad, who bought him off the World Government like livestock—they aren't here!"
With a manic laugh, Lisbeth pressed her forehead against Sophie's. There was nothing in those eyes, nothing but fever and hate. "So?"
Her head split open and a lioness roared.
—
Across San Faldo, two shadows were watching from the spires of a campanile. One was smoking a cigarette as she looked through her binoculars. The other laughed as he threw carnival popcorn in his mouth.
Through the maid's binoculars, their new comrade flung her arm back and struck the yellow-haired woman across the chest.
—
The force of it hurled Sophie onto the cathedral rooftop. Like a skipping pebble, she smashed three times before rolling to a stop.
Before she had time to pull herself up, Lisbeth brought her palm down onto Sophie's head. She dragged her face through the shingles as she ran along the length of the rooftop, and pinned her upright against another steeple, beneath the shadow of stone gargoyles.
That was going to hurt in the morning.
Sandy-yellow, whiskers, and the imperial eyes of an apex predator; Lisbeth's lion's head was grotesquely huge, connected to her slender, human body from the shoulders down. This wasn't the hybrid human-beast form of a normal Zoan. This was some kind of absurd-looking, conjoined-twin version. A chimera. Something that shouldn't exist.
Sophie couldn't think of a clear objective. Her chin and shirt were covered in the blood dripping down her face. She didn't want to fight. She didn't want to die. Behind her back, Arsenic dug into her spine like it was yelling at her. Her pant leg was wet with blood—oh, that's right.
She yanked the arrow out of her calf and raised it to Lisbeth's throat. She wasn't technically trying to attack her. This was just a very aggressive way of handing her back a lost arrow.
"You're not going to kill me, Princess," she said evenly, her eyes flinty as though she felt no pain at all. She rubbed the blood across her cheek so it smeared like a red wingtip. "I'm not going to hurt you, but I'm not dying, either."
"Your naivety makes this too easy," the lion laughed, a growl echoing behind every word.
Sophie was so offended she could've spat in her face. "If y-you were anyone else, I would've blown you to bits by now!" She had counted three hundred and twenty-six ways to incapacitate Lisbeth so far. She never had the strength for pacifism. She'd only ever been a rat, biting and clawing at the bottom of the barrel to survive. "But you're already hurting so much. I w-won't give you more scars."
"Your sins are too great for this pretense of honor."
"This isn't about honor. Nothing was ever your fault."
"False words, trickery, trying to confuse—"
"Why can't we talk?" Sophie shouted over her, because she knew Lisbeth's anger. She knew it came from betrayal and loneliness and helplessness and bled into her thoughts like rotten mildew. An infestation of self-disgust. Neither of them asked for the legacy they were given. "I want to listen to you! I want to know what you've been through! Just—just please let me friggin' help you carry your friggin' murder-revenge pain, because I know how it feels!"
Lisbeth jerked back, and Sophie's first thought was that her morbidly embarrassing declaration had struck a chord with her. But then she hunched over, coughing out flecks of blood, tissue and bone condensing back into her human head. She still had her ears and tail, as if they were now permanent additions.
Sophie hung back out of caution. "Are—are you… sick?"
"Preliminary, they said," Lisbeth muttered, inspecting her red hands. "Running a trial. A new type of Devil Fruit for a New Age."
A new… type? Sophie's eyes widened, then darted across the rooftops, scanning for the observers. "Who made you eat that thing?"
"I offered." She braced herself on her knees, panting. "I am going to bring Trafalgar to Joker. And he will kill him while I watch."
Sophie went cold at the mention of Law's name.
"And when I die, Joker will take me back to my kingdom and bury me." She lifted her head to the sun, serene. "A happy ending."
She had already made up her mind, accepted her chosen path without regret. There would be no turning back for her. Even though they were the villains in Lisbeth's story, and even though it was completely justified, Sophie wasn't going to let that happen. Joker, she thought, latching onto that name like a singular point. "I won't let that happen."
"And yet you refuse to return fire," Lisbeth said, and with a roll of her neck, a lion snarled, "You are weaker than I remembered."
The hairs on her arms stood up. Something was trying to break free from under her skin, breathing in time with her heartbeat like it knew she was plopping her feet down right on the edge of life and death. She couldn't be afraid now. She would look into that abyss, preferably with a crooked grin and a healthy flash of thigh.
Sophie braced herself, utterly certain she was really, really going to regret this.
The first hit bashed her into the stone with enough force to fracture her spine.
(pain)
The second hit smashed her straight through the tower.
(PAIN)
The third hit shot Sophie into the air, and she fell among chunks of stone debris and into the river below, bubbles of oxygen and blood snorting out her nose.
( P A I N )
—and the water went up her nose and into her lungs and out her eyeballs, she closed her eyes and sunk down into aquamarine depths in a tight ball, and the great water whispered, seaspun ocean child, the world no longer wants you. return to me. you will endure eternal in the great cycle.
meanwhile, the world would keep turning into ash. she would be another dead girl who never made it far enough, a tiny footnote in history.
she was a speck surrounded by the vast blue. the currents churned around her, as though guiding her onward. leaving behind her crew. law. hippo. nellie. everything she still had yet to do. everything she still wanted to do, from more lazy afternoons in the polar tang's galley to seeing the farthest reaches of the world. she still hadn't tasted enough sky yet, or wind, or sun. she was greedy and selfish and the most greedy selfish terrible girl in the world, so if no one else was going to save her life, she'd save it herself.
sophie opened her sea-green mouth and spoke in the language of water, not today, you pineapple.
the ocean bushed her, a mother caressing her child's cheeks. if you go back, you will suffer.
then i will suffer, sophie replied, the haki lying dormant beneath her skin blossoming. and i will live.
the color of armor snapped over her ankles and ribcage and shoulders. it felt familiar. it felt when she first formed her hand into a fist and smashed—bang—through the creaking eaves of a coffin, when she landed on kunlun from a thousand feet in the air and she should've broke apart but
it felt like the lightning that burst on a stolen g-13 battleship, stormy waves crashing over her head, it should've drowned her but
it felt like a bullet in her stomach on the temples of machinastein that should've killed her but
it felt like every time she swam in the big wide blue, endless water shimmering over her skin like a protective seashell. the ocean laughed as it brought her rushing back up to the surface, singing, oh nameless baby found in a shipwreck, have you finally remembered you were born in a storm?
—
Hai Xing was having an okay day.
He was knitting his scarf. Kamasu was eating lunch. The men would occasionally grunt something to each other, like 'that's a pretty scarf,' or, 'does my noodle soup need more salt,' but otherwise remained in their manly silence. Sitting between them and tied to a chair, Uni wondered what sort of torture this was supposed to be.
After a while, Hai Xing said, "They're late."
"Worried?" Kamasu grunted.
His knitted needles clicked against each other. "Not particularly."
—
"Flashier than expected. But it's not like we could've known the Heart Pirates were going to show up."
"You'll get used to the rush after a while. Take a breather nnnnnin!"
"SMILEs are still in the experimental stage," Baby 5 added. "so there's bound to be complications. We appreciate you being a cooperating test subject."
Lisbeth locked the metal clasp of Odin's dog tags around her neck. The rooftop they were standing gave a clear view of the harbor. She wiped her bloody mouth and observed, "It would seem Commodore Dormio has Trafalgar in his clutches."
"We received intel there's a Vice Admiral heading to the Spring Queen to clean up," said Buffalo. "We're not tangling with him nnnin!"
"But your middleman will be in trouble. And Trafalgar could get taken away from us."
"The Commodore's been acting a little too big for his britches lately. It's about time for a culling." Baby 5 raised a cigarette to her lips. "And Law won't fall here. Our boss raised him better than that."
Emotionless, Lisbeth digested this information. "Then I want a battleship. To meet the Hearts when they cross into the Red Line. I have little time to waste now."
Pledging she'd get whatever she needed, Baby 5 helped Lisbeth onto Buffalo's back. His propellers whirred and flew them into the sky, disappearing into the clouds.
—
Sophie burst through the surface of the water, gasping in air. Arsenic's strap was tangled around her wrist. Her heavy-lidded eyes shone dimly through the blood coating her face. The pain was somehow both immense and dull, everywhere but also sunken beneath the waves of her Armament Haki.
"Found a survivor!" came an unfamiliar voice. "Wait… I think she's a pirate—"
With two hits of a wrench, the marines tumbled into the river.
Sophie felt herself being lifted up from the water. She blearily registered the cathedral's destroyed tower smoking above her, then the chef carrying her in his arms.
"Hey," Hai Xing said, Kamasu looking out for more marines. "We got worried."
—
Law jerked awake with a rasping inhale. The air stank of salt-grime and old mildew. It was so dim he could barely see the outline of his crew in another cage, snoring away. Next to him were the two marines, tied together in chains and sleeping on a dirty bed of hay. His body ached, felt unbearably heavy. The seastone cuffs on his wrist were as cold as ice.
"I'm pleased our deal went through," came a muffled voice through a door. "That girl you sent… yes, yes, we kept that Devil Fruit for her, as you requested. But I'm afraid I wasn't able to see her off. There were… complications. Nothing serious. Just a few rats, is all. I'm dealing with it as we speak. Pleasure doing business with you, Joker."
There was the small click of a mushi dial being set down.
"I'm telling you it's a mistake to bring them back here," came another hissing voice. "You said you found marines sniffing around! They're catching onto your scent. You need to do something. And we still haven't heard back from Uni—"
"Stop worrying, Fiorenza. I'm too tired for more sailing. Getting fifteen hours of sleep a day is important. I'll torture those marines to find out who sent them, and whoever it is, I'll buy them off. Just like how it's always been."
"Get them out of my house. This puts my girls at risk."
"Our house. Make yourself useful and keep our patrons happy, hm? Tell them about our fresh shipment of gourmet Pucci meat."
The door creaked open, shining light onto what Law could now see was the brig of a Marine ship. He looked up, squinting into the light.
"Awake already? Not bad, Trafalgar. My Devil Fruit depends on the willpower of the person I use it on, and you seem to have quite the strong resolve." Commodore Dormio kicked over a barrel in front of the cage and sat on it, turning Kikoku over in his hands. "What an interesting sword. I think I'll keep it."
Law's skin prickled at the sight of his nodachi in another man's hands. Dormio didn't seem to be able to hear the sinister wail leeching from the cursed blade.
"I'm currently in a bit of a pickle. I could bring you to Impel Down like a proper marine, or I could sell you on the Sabaody Archipelago to a World Noble. Some of them like to collect pirates, like toys. You cost me a lot of money when you fucked up the merchandise. Decisions, decisions."
His movements felt sluggish, like he was floating in saltwater. "My crew has your personal guard as a hostage. That doesn't worry you?"
"Ahh. Uni said he found some inventory logbooks missing and went after the thief. But he got captured, hm? No wonder I haven't seen him around. I thought he must've passed out in an alley somewhere." Dormio itched his neck. "There are thousands more just like him. Rubbish on the street."
The pirate in the filthy cage said nothing, though his grey eyes flashed.
"What I don't understand is why you chose to attack me. I've worked closely with many pirates before. We have much in common. We'd even be good business partners. I could make you more gold than you'd ever dreamed of."
Law grinned through the dirt and blood caked on his face. "Eat shit," he suggested.
Dormio got up, resting Kikoku over his shoulders. "I change my mind. I'll let you watch as I sell off your crew, then I'll keep you as my new guard. It's always fun breaking pirates. You all talk big, but you snap like sticks."
Dusts of glitter fell from his hands, and Law bit the inside of his cheek so hard blood filled his mouth.
The pain was stronger than the lull of his Devil Fruit. He slumped over, mimicking sleep. As he heard the footsteps fading away and a door locking shut, he opened his eyes and spat out gobs of blood.
Law cursed himself. He had been too rash. Now his crew was paying the price, trapped like fucking animals.
Eyes adjusting back to the darkness, he looked around the brig for a way to escape. He sensed someone else breathing irregularly, and glanced at the side. "…Marine. Stop playing possum."
The pink-haired boy cracked open one eye. His hand was bloody where he'd bit it. He got up with some effort, as he also had to drag the snoring blond marine upright because they were tied together, and said to Law, "You put our whole operation in jeopardy."
"What operation?" Law replied humorlessly. "I just see two knuckleheads who got lost from the Marine's daycare center."
"We w-were going to bust Commodore Dormio after finding evidence of how he transports illegal goods. We would've, if you hadn't shown up. What were you doing, trying to stop him first?"
"I'm full of surprises."
The boy regarded Law suspiciously, as though wondering what the pirate had against the black market. He sniffed the salty air and looked up at the only porthole in the brig, which was eerily dark. "We must be in the secret shipyard. It's connected to the back of the Spring Queen, how suppliers get in and out without being seen."
Hai Xing and Kamasu were in the submarine, so they were safe. Law counted his crewmates in the sleeping pile—it was too fucking unnerving, how sleeping made them look a breath away from death—and realized it was missing one bomb-happy chemist.
—
Commodore Dormio was dozing on a couch, on cheek pressed against his knuckles, a black, sheathed nodachi in his lap. He was surrounded by beautiful women and the patrons of the Spring Queen. They were making a jovial game of cards as they passed tankards between them.
Small green lights, like fairies, bobbed throughout the lower level of the Spring Queen. Dice games stopped. People looked up in wonder. More lights floated on the street outside, like dancing will-o-wisps. It was a peculiar sight that brought confusion to even the hardiest sailor who thought they'd seen all the Grand Line's weather phenomena.
They rose up from their seats and began gathering outside, walking past a figure putting on a gas mask over her face.
As the brothel began clearing out, a shadow fell across Dormio. The end of the couch dipped with the presence of another person.
A young woman tucked her ankles together and politely rested her hands on her knees. Wearing a gas mask, her head was tilted in an unhinged impression of wide-eyed innocence. "Good afternoon. C-could I ask you to free my crewmates?"
"You're the World Government traitor," he said in interest. "Alchemist Sophie of the Heart Pirates. I would love to see what's behind that mask."
She waved her gloved hands. "My face is horribly burned. If you see how hideous I look, you'd start crying."
"What a shame." Dormio rubbed his chin. "You're here to pick up your crew, you said? I have a better idea. How about you join them?"
He was holding her captain's sword.
"Fascinating proposal." Sophie swung her rifle around her shoulder, pointing it at Dormio. "I have a better one," she said brightly.
Kamasu strode in through the doors, kicking over an empty chair for dramatic effect. He was dragging a wriggling man behind him, and shouted, "Bring our crew out, or we'll fucking kill this guy!"
He held a wrench to Uni's head, whose hands were tied behind his back as he looked up at his boss pleadingly.
—
The iron bars echoed every time the marine banged his shackles against it.
"You're going to tire yourself out," Law muttered. He was reclining against the back of the cage, looking completely relaxed.
"I can't—sit around here—doing nothing!" The marine struck the bars with every pause.
"Dormio has to open the door at some point. We'll bide our time, then attack him as one."
He gave the bars one last measly punch, before burying his head in his hands.
Law understood his dejection. Young recruits hardly expected to be trapped with a pirate by a corrupt marine. That really put a damper on the whole concept of justice.
He wasn't sure how long they'd been captured. There was no light to check the time of day. With the seastone cuffs around his wrist, the most he could do is imagine all the ways he'd kill Commodore Dormio when he broke free. Which Law did. With abandon.
"Most of us aren't like him. The Commodore, I mean. These corrupt marines aren't marines at all, but fakes."
Law leaned his head back, looking up at the darkness. "Calling bad marines fakes doesn't help. They're not fakes. They're real marines, through and through. When they get away with this shit for so long, it's because something allowed them to. Even if you arrest him, it'll be like putting tape over a broken pipe. It won't fix anything."
"That's… true. I thought this only happened in small islands, out in East Blue. But it's everywhere." He lifted his head with a determined glare. "I'll change how the Marines a-and the World Government operates until there's no more corruption."
"I've met a lot of dumb marines before, kid, and you are possibly the worst of them."
"Ha," the marine said quietly. "Well, I hope I'm not the first good one."
"…There are two good marines I've known." Law paused, then corrected, "One marine and one World Government scientist."
"Sophie the Alchemist."
"You've heard of her."
The marine gaped. "Of course I've heard of that traitor. She burned her Marine fortress down! They say she can turn her hair into gold and spin diamonds out of the air! And she spreads poison wherever she walks and one of her explosions can blast a whole island into the sky! When I get out of here, I'm a-arresting her personally."
Law thought to that morning, when he watched Sophie read a book so intensely she walked into a wall. "She'll be happy she has a fan."
"I'm not a fan."
"Shut up," he said sharply, and the marine gawked at him. His Observation Haki flickered at the edges. Something was coming.
A hand pressed against the porthole of the brig and silently tipped it up. A shadow peered inside, then slid down and rolled to his feet.
With a growing grin, Law watched his cook shake ocean water and seaweed off of himself.
"Oh, good, no one's dead," Hai Xing said in his monotone. "The fish told me where to find this ship. I hope you're hungry, because I made lunch and none of you had the decency to show up to eat it, you monsters."
—
"I can't believe that didn't work," Sophie said awkwardly.
Kamasu sighed. "I told you this was a stupid idea."
"I thought they were friends! Friends don't do that to each other! Pineapples, that's… so cruel."
"Just take my head, pirate!" Uni yelled. He seemed to be going through some emotional turbulence.
"Time for Plan B," Kamasu called up to Sophie.
"Okay, fine," she said, and inhaled, closing her eyes to focus on the ocean inside of her. Dormio's grin dropped. Harsh blue eyes flicked open and she pulled the trigger.
The courtesans fled, screaming. Half a dozen of Dormio's marines fired their pistols at her.
Armament Haki snapped over her body. She felt the bullets hit her with as much force as someone flicking a finger along her skin. Sophie lowered Arsenic, breathing heavily. She expected to see the bloodied skull of Commodore Dormio, shot through like a bulging, sticky fruit.
But he was also perfectly alright, though he was gaping at her in shock. Her rifle had jammed.
She shook Arsenic. "What!? I had him in the crosshairs! He's right in front of us, how could you have jammed!? Are you angry with me? Why, was it because of earlier? When I didn't use you? …You're a cranky old woman, aren't you? Ah, pineapples! No wonder Yasopp never used you; you gave him too much grief!"
As she shouted at the inanimate object, Commodore Dormio recovered.
"Sleep," he commanded, and Sophie blinked at him. "Sleep." They tilted their heads in confusion. He snapped his fingers, dust glittering off his hand. "Sleep?"
Her gas mask was protecting her. Lucky chance! Sophie shoved her knee into his gut.
In return, Dormio walloped her in the chest and sent her flying through the air and crashing through a door.
The room full of courtesans, who were at first peering out the door in curiosity, and now began shrieking. Underneath her gas mask and long black sleeves, Sophie's forehead, chest, and arms were wrapped in bandages. This was doing nothing to help the wounds she received from Lisbeth, and she willed her shaking muscles to hold on just a little bit longer.
She dodged Commodore Dormio when he attacked again. Fancy dresses and stockings flew into her face. Sophie hit a vanity table, elegant combs and lipstick scattering to the ground, as the girls scampered away like frilly hens. She grabbed a canister of hairspray and flicked open her lighter.
"'Scuse me, ladies," Sophie panted, and aimed the hairspray over her lighter flame.
The improvised flamethrower caught Dormio in the chest and he yelped, trying to smother the fire. He doesn't have Haki, she realized. He was nowhere near as strong as Teresa. Practically all of his strength centered on his Devil Fruit.
Marines rushed over to help their commodore. There were so many of them, not including the smugglers and other criminals placing bets as they watched the entertaining scene. Sophie reached for the secret weapon strapped on her ankle holster. This was gonna be a long fight.
The Spring Queen's doors blasted open.
A platoon of marines entered, raising pistols and swords.
"Commodore Dormio!" roared a man with a marine coat draped over his beige suit, a katana on his hip. "You are hereby arrested for criminal conspiracy, illegal smuggling, and the management of a bawdy and unruly house!"
The new marines pounced, arresting the patrons of the Spring Queen without further ado.
Sophie's mouth went slack. She grabbed her chin and clapped her jaw shut again, teeth clacking together, inhaling.
Dormio gasped, "There must be some kind of misunderstanding—"
The wall behind him cracked open. A hand reached through, then a grizzled face appeared, followed by wide shoulders. Grey hair, grey beard. A half-crescent scar of his left eye. Huge, broad, absorbing all the sun that entered from the hole in the ex-wall like he was a magnet for a spotlight.
Dormio's marines screamed. The harlots screamed. Sophie screamed. The ostensibly dead animals mounted on the walls screamed.
"Hello, Commodore," growled Garp the Hero. "I believe you have two boys of mine."
Dormio's face went white as a sheet, and was instantly decorated with a fist as Garp punched him into the floor.
Meanwhile, Sophie was recovering from a momentary heart attack. This was not her and Garp's first meeting. She had encountered that man a few times as she grew up. Despite always hiding behind Hippo with crippling shyness whenever Garp passed through G-13, she promised herself one day she'd be brave enough to hold a genuine conversation with the great Marine hero.
But on St. Poplar, as a pirate with a flourishing criminal career, caught in a shootout between marines? No, no. Today was not going to be that day. She tried to slither past, hiding behind her rifle, which was about as subtle as a water buffalo hiding behind a bouquet of flowers.
And Garp wasn't having any of it.
He snatched her up by her shirt, peering at her gas mask. "Strangways Sophie!"
Her own name came out of Garp the Hero's mouth. Sheer delight exploded in her, but that was quickly dashed by his next words.
"You bombed G-13 to pieces!" he boomed, shaking a finger at her. "I spent a month supervising the clean-up, after you made a thorough goddamn mess of things. I always wondered how a good kid like you ended up purposely destroying your home!"
Recalling the newspapers of the G-13 incident, how it said Vice Admiral Garp appointed as interim leader, Sophie squeaked, "Uuuwahhhuh?"
Garp leaned closer, squinting one eye at her.
"…Clearly, you weren't trained right!" He flipped her upside-down, holding her by the ankle. "You're coming with me! I'll look after you!"
"Wha—hey!" Sophie shrieked, all the blood rushing to her head, her arms dangling to the floor. Instead of killing her, he decided on training her? She envisioned being boiled alive or ripped apart by wild animals, and if she'd met three young boys living in the mountain in East Blue, she would've known she wasn't far off. "Let me go, you big old melon! This is not cool! AaaaAAAH—"
As Garp stepped over Dormio, the Commodore tossed up a fistful of sleeping dust, howling, "SLEEEEP!"
There's no way that was going to work on…
Garp's snoring rang out loud and clear. He was still standing upright with his fists clenched, peacefully dozing off. It turned out Dormio's Devil Fruit was especially powerful upon those who were prone to narcolepsy. Sophie swung like an upside-down screeching chimpanzee, trying to get Garp to let go of her leg, as the Commodore fled into the chaos with Kikoku.
Kamasu found Sophie trapped by the Vice Admiral's grip. He grabbed her hand, whacking Garp's arm with his wrench, and when Garp let go of Sophie to pick his nose in his sleep, tugged her free.
"Do you see this fuckery?" Kamasu shouted at her as they started running. "This is why I stay on the ship!"
"Where's the crew? Did Hai Xing-san find them yet?"
"We're on our way," Hai Xing's voice said from Kamasu's baby mushi. "What's the rendezvous point?"
"I don't fucking know, just find us!" was Kamasu's helpful suggestion.
Sophie spotted Dormio a safe distance away from the turmoil, behind a line of his marines as they faced off against Garp's squad. "Fiorenza!" he was shouting. "Prepare the ship! Take all the gold you can! We're leaving!"
His sister, a pinch-faced woman in a dress with too many ribbons, shook her head. Snapping that she wasn't putting her girls in danger, she hoisted her skirt up over her knees and ran down the stairs. Marines were pinning men down and handcuffing them, or rounding up the illegal goods being flagrantly displayed on the tables.
"I surrender!" Fiorenza announced. "Spare the girls, they did nothing wrong!"
Struggling to get the ropes on his hands unbound, Uni shouted, "Madam!"
"It's over, Uni!" she called up to him, holding her hands in front of her as the beige-suited marine snapped cuffs on her. "Don't waste your life on him!"
Uni wasn't paying attention to the fighting around him. As Sophie ran past, she braced Arsenic like it was a hockey puck and whipped it into Uni's ankle. He toppled over right as stray bullets flew over his head.
Fingers crossed that wouldn't bite her in the butt later.
Dormio vanished down a lavish corridor. Sophie went after him. She wanted some answers about Joker, and if it had to be in a sudden duel of marine versus marine. Having possibly no idea what was going on, Kamasu followed.
They ducked beneath a marine that crashed into another. "You have no right to call yourselves marines!" one shouted, while the other roared back, "I ain't living just to be turned into cannon fodder!"
"This is so fucking weird," Kamasu said, and Sophie was inclined to agree.
Dormio was leaving an easy trail. He scattered dust without regard, and people dropped like flies. Oil paintings hung in tatters. Flower vases and bowls of fruit were crushed into pieces on the floor.
They caught up to him, and Sophie was having enough of running. She whipped out her secret weapon and sprayed the back of Dormio's head with it. She was holding a plastic squirt gun purchased at the San Faldo festival. She hadn't known then that he had a Devil Fruit, but seeing as how he'd made off with ninety percent of the Hearts, it was only smart to assume so and be prepared.
Seawater dripped down his back. "You… you cheat!" he spluttered, falling to his knees.
"Taking advantage of an opponent's natural disadvantage isn't cheating! It's called natural selection!" Sophie slammed the butt of her rifle across his face. It was the opposite cheek that Garp punched earlier, and it left his swollen face satisfyingly symmetrical.
A sword, swinging.
Sophie brought up Arsenic to block the blow. It was a warning strike, meant to startle rather than hurt.
Uni pulled Dormio out of the way, the ropes on his wrist cut by the sword he took from some unconscious marine.
"Oh, come on," Sophie snapped. "You brainless goji berry! He was going to let you die. Don't protect him."
"Good job, Uni!" Dormio shouted in glee. "Let's go!"
"Yes, sir!" Uni said without hesitation.
"Hey, I really loved the part where you did nothing," Sophie said to Kamasu.
"Yeah, yeah," he grumbled as they chased after the fleeing marine.
Garp's marines were closing in, arresting all the clienteles of the Spring Queen. Dormio's career as a corrupt man of the government was going to end today, whether or not the Hearts had anything to do with it. Her first objective was to find her crew. Second was punching some answers about Joker out of Dormio. Third was hightailing it out of there.
On the floors below, the rest of the Heart Pirates were racing up a flight of stairs. Hai Xing had broken them out of their cages, though half their crew was still deep in dreamland. Bepo and Anko carried Manta, Valross, and Shachi while Penguin searched for the right key to unlock Law's seastone cuffs, to no avail. The two marines brought up the rear, because there was no way to escape other than following the pirates. The rest woke up once Sophie sprayed Dormio with seawater, and they bickered as they passed a heavy ring of keys amongst each other, trying to find the right key for their handcuffs.
This led to a tumultuous crash as they all met in the middle on the stairs leading to the hidden shipyard.
"Commodore Dormio!" the marines shouted. "You're under arre—"
"Kamasu! Sophie!" the pirates cried, with Anko pumping his fist and roaring, "Nice going, you sexy dogs!"
Sophie laughed as she saw them. They were dirty and stank to high heaven, but none of them looked terribly injured.
They had Commodore Dormio, Uni, and a band of renegade marines caught between them. Dormio wiped off the seawater on his white marine coat and threw it to the side, swearing loudly.
Her relieved smile faltered at the sight of Law. She hadn't forgotten their earlier argument. And neither did he, by the way he averted his gaze to Dormio the moment they locked eyes. Though perhaps Sophie was overestimating herself; the marine was holding Law's precious sword, after all. She took a backseat to a piece of sharp metal, according to the broody, unwashed grease-stain she was supposedly in love with. Disgusting.
"That g-gas mask," the familiar pink-haired boy stuttered. "Sophie the Alchemist!"
The lenses of her mask went comically round. "Grapefruit-kun?"
"Grapefru—wait…" He took in her curls and the tattoos on her wrists. "You… with the cards…!"
"Be careful, they're marines," Valross growled.
"A marine?" Sophie touched her chest as she processed this wound. "You lied to me, Grapefruit-kun? I thought we were pirate comrades."
"You're a traitor!" he shot back.
"Oh, that's hardly news," she retorted.
Hai Xing pointed at the Commodore, his voice cold, "That's the marine who sells people to World Nobles?"
Immediately, a switch was flipped. Smiles dropped. Weapons raised.
"Let's do this, Commodore Face Pubes," said Anko, flicking his wrist.
Dormio drew Kikoku with an angry snarl. Hai Xing ducked underneath the slash and swung his fist to punch venomous spines into Dormio. His knees buckled, eyes twitching shut as he inhaled sleeping dust. Anko jumped in and grabbed Hai Xing, throwing them both to the ground.
Kukri knives clashed against Uni's sword, giving time for Bepo to kick Uni in the sternum. The rest of the pirates went for Dormio's marines. For a moment, it seemed like the ultimate the-enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend team up, but then—
Pink blurred in the corner of Sophie's eye. Her hands moved on instinct, throwing up Arsenic to shield herself from his kick.
"Koby! Wrong enemy!"
"I know the Commodore's our first priority! But, Helmeppo—" The nervous, stammering boy from that night was now pinning a resolute glare on her. "I'm not letting the Alchemist get away!"
Sophie couldn't help but grin, both because she was pleased that this kid turned out to be a right, proper marine, and also because right as Koby finished his proclamation, Penguin lunged at him. Koby ducked, but was caught by Bepo. The mink wrapped his arms around him and sat right on top of the marine. Valross, Manta, and Kamasu backed Helmeppo into the wall as he held out his knives.
From beneath Bepo's butt, Koby looked up at her with a glare. The mature, four-years-older chemist stuck her tongue out. Bleeeh.
"Not the right one, nope, not this either, gahh why are there so many damn keys on this thing!?" Shachi demanded, shaking the ring.
This would've been an excellent time for Dormio to run, but the path was blocked by Law and Shachi, who was still trying to find the right key to unlock Law's cuffs. Above on the stairs, Sophie aimed Arsenic. They had him in a pincer.
He glanced between the pirates, mentally calculating their strength levels. He took one look at Law, who's glare could've cut glass, and stepped toward Sophie's direction.
"Are you sure?" she asked softly, her eyes darkening into blue steel. "When Trafalgar Law cuts off your head, you can reattach it later. Me? I'm not that nice."
"Woah, so cool," her crew gasped. Law rolled his eyes.
"Thanks," Sophie chirped. "I rehearsed it on the way here!"
"Don't kill him!" Koby shouted. "Commodore Dormio has to face a military tribunal for his crimes!"
"He's a marine," she spat, back to seriousness. "He won't ever see the inside of a prison. Giving him to a tribunal is like sending him off to some island with a cushy retirement fund."
"I'll see to it!" His voice carried a wall-shaking fervor that almost, almost made her believe. "You have my word!"
A sneer curled over her mouth as she glanced at his marine whites, his flower bandana and blue kerchief. "You're barely an ensign. You're only good for scrubbing decks when the chore boy's off. I do like your glasses, though. Very snazzy."
She turned back to Dormio. "The girl, Lisbeth," she said icily. "She ate some kind of weird Devil Fruit. Where did it come from?"
Dormio raised Kikoku in defense. "I was just ordered to keep it safe and pass it along to her."
"By Joker?" Sophie pressed, ignoring how her crew glanced at each other in confusion. "Who is he?"
If she had been looking at Law, she would've seen him go very, very still.
"Who knows?" Dormio said airily, and grinned.
"Sophie!"
She choked, an arm coming up from behind and wrapping around her throat. Uni kneed her leg right where Lisbeth shot an arrow at it, and the pain was briefly too much to fight back. Her boots scraped against the floor as Uni dragged her over to him and Dormio, holding his sword to her throat. He was using Sophie as a human shield, forcing her between them and the Hearts.
"Nobody move!" Uni ordered, and said to her in an undertone, "Looks like your strength is running out."
"Think again, butthole, I have the power of a giant lumberjack cannibal," Sophie wheezed, and attempted to bite his arm. She tried to summon whatever shreds of her Armament she had left. But the harder she tried to grasp it, the more it slipped through her fingers like water.
"Kill her, Uni," Dormio said from behind them. "I'll put the rest to sleep."
The Hearts immediately went on edge. Even Koby and Helmeppo momentarily forgot about their mission and readied themselves.
"I… I thought we could use her as a hostage," Uni said, his voice quiet behind his bandana.
"As if the pirates would care! Lackeys like her are expendable!"
"I… can't."
"What do you mean you—"
"She… saved my life earlier," Uni confessed. "How c-can I call myself a swordsman if I have no honor?"
Dormio's face went thunderous. Disgust and loathing melted across his face. "Fuck your honor."
He stabbed Kikoku through Uni's stomach, into Sophie.
Then several things happened at once. Uni fell over her; her world spun, and then it was in Penguin's arms as he caught them. Dormio lashed out with Kikoku at the other men, then flung his hands out at Law, who had murder in his eyes.
"Sleep!"
Law stopped. He tilted forward, then caught himself.
"Sleep!"
Blood seeped down his nose. Between his seastone cuffs, his hands clenched.
Dormio swung down Kikoku. "Sleep SLEEP SLEEP WHY WON'T YOU GODDAMN—"
Law slammed his cuffs over his own sword, forcing it to the side, and bashed his forehead against Commodore Dormio's. Law, a man of tortured deliberateness, the mastermind behind nefarious schemes, the infamous Surgeon of Death with a one hundred and fifty million bounty, went for a headbutt.
Dormio swayed sharply, and Hai Xing stuck his foot out. He tripped and fell backwards on the stairs, losing his grip on Kikoku. He landed on the bottom of the stairs, and the last thing he saw was the cursed sword spinning as it flew right at him.
Kikoku stabbed through his neck, slicing into the ground blade-up at a slight angle. Dripping wet blood coated the dark grey metal.
Dormio's glassy eyes looked up, dead.
"Oh, hell," Helmeppo said, lifting his black visor to stare.
"Got it!" Shachi unlocked Law's seastone cuffs.
He Roomed over Sophie and Uni, and Kikoku materialized in his hand. In an instant, Law shambled Koby and Helmeppo into pieces, stopping them from trying to arrest the pirates. Their mission to capture the rogue Commodore alive had ended in failure.
Law grabbed Sophie to check her wound.
"It's barely a scratch," she assured. Which was true, but she was also trying to hide the extent of the injuries Lisbeth left her with. "He moved me out of the way."
Law glanced at Uni. "Was that alright? He was your benefactor."
Uni braced his shoulder against the wall, clutching the red spot on his stomach. "It's only a decade of my life down the drain. I'll get over it."
The Hearts had no more reason to stay in the Spring Queen any longer. Bepo picked up Law's dropped hat. Law flicked the blood off of Kikoku and, with one faintly victorious look at the marines (Sophie wiggling her fingers at them), Roomed away with his crew.
Koby watched them disappear, and promised he would remember this.
Garp's marines finally succeeded in waking up their Vice Admiral, who was happily snoring despite no longer being affected by Dormio's Devil Fruit. The people of St. Poplar peered out of their windows to watch. They turned to each other, wondering how the island would survive now that their largest business was being shut down.
Fiorenza assured her sobbing girls that since the Spring Queen paid an enormous sum of Heavenly Tribute, she'd be back before long. As the battle drew to a close, she searched the captured criminals for Uni. When she couldn't find him, she looked out into the harbor with a hint of hope.
After they were found and put together again, Koby and Helmeppo aided their platoon in shutting down the brothel and rounding up Dormio's marines onto their ship. With a booming laugh, Garp patted his dejected mentees on their shoulders. He told them every marine knew the taste of failure, and this experience was something to learn from.
But that's not to say they should give up just yet.
—
The door to the Polar Tang's control room slammed open. Ropes tightened, securing the sail as they prepared to dive underwater.
"I was so worried, my underlings!" Bepo cried as he squeezed Sophie, Hai Xing, and Kamasu to his chest. Kamasu did not seem to appreciate this, nor when Manta and Valross slapped him on the ass.
On a whim, Law had brought Uni along with them. He made quick work of fixing up his stab wound, and asked, "What are you plans now?"
"I'm considering dentistry," Uni said. "Not sure if I'm suited for it, though. Never went to school."
"A bottle of anesthesia can make up for a complete lack of education. I never had any complaints from my dead patients."
"That's brutal." Uni scratched his chest. "You know any other jobs where I get paid for inflicting pain on a daily basis?"
Law hummed. "Funny you should mention it…"
Penguin and Shachi slung their arms around Uni and led him off to be properly introduced to the Hearts as a crewmate and not a hostage, which was always fun.
Sophie felt something clench in her gut as she watched them. The way Uni protected her had endeared him to the Hearts. But Lisbeth probably didn't have people like her crew. She probably doesn't have anyone, Sophie thought, and her hand went up to grip the dog tags around her neck. Then she remembered it was gone. She had promised herself she'd keep it safe for Lisbeth, and that was one promise fulfilled.
As certain as the sun would rise tomorrow, Sophie knew their paths would cross again.
She pulled off her gas mask and inhaled fresh hair, her eyes closing. One hand came up to pull off her ponytail, the tight hold on her skull relaxing in shoulder-length curls. She was exhausted. There'd been no time to relax when Kamasu had steered the Polar Tang as they followed Dormio's battleship back to St. Poplar. But now that her crew was safe, the pressure had lifted. A little bit. She'd gotten no answers about Joker, but—
"You're injured," came Law's voice, his hands pulling her around. "Shit—Sophie." Bandages were wrapped around her forehead, her left eye was swelling, and bloodied gauze was taped over her face.
—there was still one person who knew more than he was willing to say.
"I know, I'm so cute you can't stop staring," she said dismissively, and braced a hand against Law's abdomen purely to feel him up and not to steady herself because everything was swimming. "O-our conversation from earlier isn't over."
His hands gripped her shoulders. She wanted so badly to lean in. "You said Lisbeth. Back there."
"Yeah. Our pineapples are coming home to roost."
"That's not how the saying goes."
"You're laughing on the inside, you mean beanstalk." They would have to have a long talk later, because thinking about it now was still making her tear up. And she'd rather not dissolve into a blubbering puddle at the moment. "Oh, I forgot to tell you." A tiny, tired grin pulled at Sophie's mouth as she looked down at her hand. "I can finally—"
"We got company, dipshits!" Anko yelled from the control room. Law and Sophie whipped their heads port side.
A battleship was coming around St. Poplar. A figurehead of a dog with a bone in its mouth, with HQ-03 sewn on the sails.
And it was sailing closer, fast.
"Strangways Sophie!" Garp bellowed with a great grin. "I'll give you one last chance to take me up on my offer! This whole pirate business can be a phase! I'll raise you to be a great marine, like how you should've been!"
"What the fuck did you do now," Law uttered.
"I think there's something about my musk that magnetically attracts weird old men," she said, sniffing her armpits.
Law planted his hand on Sophie's head and bodily pushed her away from him. "Men, to your stations!" he roared. "A Vice Admiral is on our tail! Anko, flood the tanks! We're crash diving!"
"Incoming!" Anko yelled.
Law unsheathed Kikoku and cut the first cannonball in half. It split open in two parts and slammed into the ocean on either side of the Polar Tang, a massive geyser of water erupting.
Sophie chucked her Squishy-Squishy Bomb-Bomb at the side of the ship. A pillowy buffer fwumped into existence, and the second cannonball bounced harmlessly off it and back into the ocean.
"Sorry, Garp-san!" she cried, waving back at him. "I think you're cute, too, but I-I don't think it's gonna work out between us!"
"How rude!" Garp huffed, crossing his arms. "Rookies have no manners these days!"
"Vice Admiral, please stop playing around!" cried his marines, Koby, and Helmeppo. They had just seen him get rejected by his own grandson in Water 7 and knew firsthand was sort of trouble that caused.
Pressing her teeth against her bottom lip as she grinned, Sophie loaded a cartridge-elixir into Arsenic and shot it into the sky. The metal slug broke apart, releasing hundreds of fluttering red petals into the breeze. It was made out of materials she bought at Toa Sang Bay: sulfur from Kano Country, charcoal, and a tail ground-up from a fire salamander.
The wind carried her pyreflowers over Garp's battleship, alighting on the mast and sails, and setting fire to wherever they landed. Garp reached a hand out, and a red petal came down to rest on his finger. It curled like paper, burning with sparks of bright gold and leaving behind a curiously sweet scent.
In the control room, Anko flipped switches to shut off the induction pipes and open the ballast tanks. Next to him, Manta shouted, "Launching torpedoes!" and slammed a button.
Two underwater missiles hurtled through the waves and exploded against Garp's battleship. The ship began to sink slowly, and the sails were burning from the pyreflowers. Prevented from following after the pirates, Garp threw his head back and laughed.
"BWAHAHAHA! NOT BAD, BRATS!" He swung his arm back with a furious grin. "Now try this on for size!"
The next cannonball he threw was coated in Haki, and the full force of Garp the Hero's Genkotsu Meteor pummeled the Polar Tang.
—
His ship was in agony.
"We're taking in water!" Kamasu bellowed from the speaking tubes. An ear-splitting siren rang throughout the submarine. "The ballasts are broken! We can't dive!"
The siren slowly rose and fell. The ground lurched as thirty-foot waves crashed into the ship. Anko steered the best he could, with the ballast tanks broken and the navigation systems gone to shit. Law stumbled against the wall. He could hear it, in the back of his mind. A small voice crying for help. He pressed his fingers to his eyes, dizzy.
In the galley, Sophie was stuffing herself with a bowl of Hai Xing's cold noodles. As he rushed past, she grabbed the coffee pot and joined him.
Every Heart aside from Anko was sloshing around the engine room, helping the mechanics plug up cracks in the ballast tanks and the hull. Sweat poured down their foreheads. Panicked yells pierced the din.
A huge fire had broken out around the main engine. Someone had to get in there, open the ventilation valves before everyone fainted from smoke inhalation, and use the CO2 extinguishers to kill the fire. Sophie chugged the entire pot of coffee, cracked her knuckles, and tightened the sleeves of her boiler suit on her waist as she limped into the fire.
When they shouted her to get back, she just smiled and told them to watch.
She went down there alone. The girl they had spent every battle defending, snatching her out of harm's way, or tossing her between them because she wasn't able to fight on their level—she went into the fire alone.
Law watched his crew fight tooth and nail to save the Polar Tang. Every ounce of rationality told him to stand back, to not run into danger without a plan. Living was a top priority for him; he had old debts to repay. He took note of his survival instinct, then calmly replied, fuck that.
He sloshed through the saltwater in Kamasu's boiler suit, tucked into Penguin's spare boots. A pair of Shachi's heavy gloves were on his hands. So what if he burned into ash? He was going to save his ship, and even if he died in the process, he'd force his body to keep moving anyway.
In the fire, Sophie's figure was blazing. From the tips of her eyelashes to the ends of her wild, magnificent hair. She grabbed the wheel-shaped valve and spun it, the muscles in her arms straining with effort. She was so bright it hurt to look at her, but for some reason Law couldn't stop. He wanted to join her. He wanted to stand where she stood.
He leaped into the flames and came out of the other end unscathed, Armament Haki covering him.
Sophie looked over as he joined her, turning the valve next to her. Her eyes shone cerulean-gold as she nodded at him.
Working together, they would protect their home.
to be continued
End Notes: So. Ever since chapter one, I've been working on a trivia page that I was going to include as a finale addendum to MNP, but it's gotten WAY TOO LARGE. Heck, I had no idea MNP would be going on for so long. I went back and added a trivia section to the end of every single chapter, explaining chapter titles, names, things that might be a little harder to catch, etc.
trivia
okay, ophelia: named after the poem by jeannine hall gailey (and of course, the character from hamlet); 'you can be a threshing sledge, new and sharp with many teeth'
fiorenza: meaning spring; she was 'arrested' but she'll be back to running the spring queen before long.
dormio: meaning sleep in latin.
"recalling the newspapers of the G-13 incident…": see chapter 14
kikoku's curse: strikes again. if you pay attention to chapter 22, notice how everyone who touches kikoku gets hurt. sophie even gets shot (lmao).
sophie's elixirs: it's fantastical science time with actual shounen attack naming conventions (so far there's squishies and pyreflowers!)